Out of the way

Joen thought it would probably kill me, since it had prawns in it. (The things that some people call shrimp. Where I bought them they were called reker). Eva thought it could be dangerous just because it was soup. Although I didn't put cucumber in it - the one thing that neither of them will eat (except in tzatziki. It seems people like cucumber in tzatziki).

Hot and sour prawn soup (the inspiration is a Thai dish called Tom Yum Goong or something like that - thais write it in thai and the rest of us deal with odd transliterations). And here is what passes for a recipe in my world.

You need:
A bag of frozen prawns.
Lemon juice
Chilli
Oil or butter
Some vegetables (I had little onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, capsicum, carrots, tinned chilis and some frozen diced things. Pineapple is good, too)
Some herbs and spices. I am not very scientific about them. I think I had basil, lemongrass, coriander (cilantro), chives, and salt and pepper and ginger.

Take the prawns out of the freezer (because you buy them by weight, frozen, in the supermarket here). Break off as much head and legs as you can be bothered with, so you have a pile of tail meat and a pile of crunchy bits.

Put the crunchy bits in a pot with oil or butter. Put in the herbs and spices too. And I chopped up an onion and put some in at this point. Let it all fry gently for a bit.

Then I put in some Mirin (white wine, beer, water would all work - I wanted to see if the sweetness would be cut back, and happpily it was by the end), and a steamer over the pot with the prawn tails and vegies in it (frozen ones first), and some lemon juice and chili, and let this simmer/steam for a goodly while.

Eventually there was a rich stock. I tipped everything in the steamer into another pot, and then strained the stock. Half of it went into the pot with the prawns and things, which I topped up with water. The other half went into the freezer for another day.

Put plenty more lemon juice in, and maybe chili. When it tastes about right, you are about there. Let it all cook together gently for ten minutes, and then it's done. Serve with beer if you have any. (I didn't Oh well).

And whatever it was that made me sick, that wasn't it. The leftovers sat out 24 hours and then I heated them up for early dinner last night, with no ill effects whatever. (But you really shouldn't do that - especially with something as bug-friendly as soup).