A storm was coming. A big one they say. It also happened to be my last day at Bluefly as a senior web designer. The relief was unsurmountable. Of course, I got to leave early to wade out Winter Storm Nemo. Did anyone catch those memes floating around?
At the store, many things were sold out but pineapples were abundant. It was on sale so I picked one up and decided to have a weekend of pineapples. First dish was going to be a hot steaming soup. I’ve had to modify this soup from its original because I was lacking several great ingredients that would have required a trek deep into Elmhurst for real Thai ingredients, sorely lacking in Rego Park. The good thing is without those ingredients, it was still good and useful for others to make.
Ingredients:
- 1 stalk of lemongrass
- 2 kaffir leaves
- 1 tsp of galangal
- 4 cups of water
- 2 cups of chicken broth
- 1 can of pineapple juice
- 2 tbsp of fish sauce
- 2 tbsp of tamarind soup base
- 10 medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 1 large tilapia filet, cut into chunks
- 10 grape tomatoes, halved
- 2 rings of pineapple sliced
- a handful of mint
- 2 scallion stalk, chopped
- 1 large stalk of cilantro, garnish
- handful of roasted garlic, garnish
Step 1: Prepare the broth by boiling water, chicken broth, pineapple juice, and lemongrass, kaffir leaves, and galangal. Because the galangal I had wasn’t fresh and froze, I ended up with these weird shape. I decided to put the choppy galangal and kaffir leaves into a tea strainer. This way, it wouldn’t be eaten accidentally since it would be incredibly bitter.
Step 2: Once it boils, add the fish sauce and tamarind soup base. Also add any chili pepper if you want it to be spicy.
Step 3: Once the taste is to your liking, add fish and shrimp to cook. Stir lightly so you don’t break the fish.
Step 4: Once the shrimp and tilapia is cooked, add veggies and fold carefully.
Step 5: Serve with roasted garlic and cilantro with a side of steamed jasmine rice. The smell is incredibly aromatic, sweet, flowery, and sour. Perfect for a cold stormy night.
