For  #FridayFast and #NoMeatFriday, I prepared a seafood recipe that is familiar to the Filipino palate yet different. It’s familiar because it’s something like our Sinigang, it’s a sour soup. Different because the Thai ingredients gives this soup a different flavor profile.

Tom Yum is a soup from Thailand and the ingredients are notoriously hard to find. Once I tried to plant kaffir lime leaves which is a main ingredient but sadly, it died before giving me those precious leaves. Galangal is also not available in most market. Locally, this ginger is called Langkawas or luya luyahan and I’m not sure 100% but I think this is available in my home province. Galangal is a kin of ginger, and tastes a bit like lemon grass and I will switch to that in a heartbeat if galangal is not available.

No worries though! Tom Yum is surprisingly easy to make when you have a packet of Tom Yum ready. They’re available in most supermarkets now and using them is more affordable than eating in a Thai restaurant.

Seafood Tom Yum Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 packet of tom yum ingredients (available in supermarkets)
• button mushrooms, quartered
• 400g packet frozen mixed seafood
• 1/4 kl fresh shrimps
• 1 tbsp patis (fish sauce)
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 4 cups water
• 1 medium onion quartered

Instructions:

1. Bring water to a boil and add the add the onion.
2. Add the chilies, galangal, lemongrass and kaffir leaves to the water or as per the packet instruction. I usually add a siling labuyo or two because the dried chilis in the packet doesn’t seem to do much.
3. Add mushrooms.
4. Once boiling add your seafood and coconut milk. Season with patis sauce.
5. Allow to simmer till seafood is cooked. Do not over boil to avoid over cooking the seafood. Serve hot.

Notes:

If you find it to be not as sour as you’d like, you may squeeze in a few calamansi after turning off the fire.  Another good souring agent is tomatoes and they work great with seafood tom yum.