Tart Fish Soup Recipe

November 2012

Traditional Recipes from minga's Kitchen



Now that you have my favorite broth recipes I better share another soup. It’s really autumn now, the perfect time for soups…
 
Tart Fish Soup

All south east asian countries have a version of this soup & this is an easy one I have been playing with. It took me a while to find organic tamarind paste but it can be found in Portland @ wholefoods & new seasons. It’s a little costly, but you only need two tablespoons per pot of soup, so refrigerated it should last a long while. I also found LOCAL bean sprouts in the same places and it made me really excited. Sometimes its hard to know where the sprouts are coming from and then I am less likely to use them. My favorite fish sauce of all time and the only one I use now is Red Boat.  In all my years of eating fish sauce it is the only one I have found with no sugar in it! 


Fish broth (strained, with any meat returned to broth, but not blended) 
1 tbsp on fat (I use pork or duck fat)
1 small onion thinly sliced
2 tbsp tamarind paste
2 tbsp fish sauce
12 oz of rock fish/ pacific snapper cut into 1 inch pieces
1 large bok choy or 4 or 5 baby bok choy
2 cups or one bag of mung bean sprouts
2 or 3 tomatoes chopped into large pieces
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 cup of chopped cilantro
1/2 cup chopped green onion
1 inch of fresh ginger grated (more if you like it)
  sea salt to taste
 1~ heat the fat in a soup pot and fry onion until soft and fragrant, about 5 mins. Add tamarind, fish sauce & broth.
 2~ add fish and cook for 5 mins before adding the bok choy, cumin and tomatoes. Cook for a few minutes 2 or 3.
3~ put a handful (more if you love them like I do) into each bowl. Spoon hot soup on top and garnish with cilantro, green onions and ginger. The sprouts will wilt in the heat. Enjoy!

Enjoy!