Recipe - Khao Tom Koong (Rice Soup With Shrimp)

2 cup Water
1 cup Cooked white rice
1 cup Thinly cut or sliced up Chinese celery
(including the leaves)
2 tablespoon Fish sauce
1 tablespoon Maggi seasoning
1 tablespoon Garlic; thinly cut or sliced up
1 teaspoon Black pepper; freshly ground
(or to taste)
4 lg (8 to the pound) shrimp;
or
One half pound Smaller ones; shelled,
deveined; and butterflied,
or
One half pound Other flavor ingredient

From: "Colonel I.F.K. Philpott" colonel@korat1.vukorat.ac.th

Date: Sun, 21 Jul 1996 16:19:05 0700
khao tom is a staple in Thailand, being widely eaten as a breakfast dish,
as well as an accompaniment to lunch and dinner.

It can be cooked plain (without the shrimp), or as here with shrimp. It can
also be made by simple substitution with chicken, pork, or any combination
of seafood that you have to hand.

It can be made with cooked left over chicken/shrimp etc, or as here with
fresh ingredients. It is however almost always made from precooked rice
(though not always leftovers: the cook will often simply ladle enough rice
from the electric rice pot to make the soup shortly before serving dinner.)

Made with chicken it is a popular meal for recovering patients who still
feel a little queasy.

I make no apolgies for also posting this to the chile heads mailing list:
it is one of the best cures I know for the fire of an over hot chili dish!

In Thailand the rice is almost always cooked until it starts to "fall" and
the liquor turns milky. When my wife worked as the chef at the Bangkok
Oriental Cuisine in Merrimack, New Hampshire, they found that the customers
preferred it with the rice less cooked. If you also want the rice to stay
"intact", then limit the heating before adding the shrimp to 2 or 3
minutes, which is enough to ensure that it is heated through ready to eat.

Maggi seasoning, also known as Maggi sauce, is a dark almost black
seasoning sauce, made by the Maggi company of Switzerland, and widely used
in Asian cooking. It should be available from asian supermarkets in case of
difficulty. If it can't be found at all, then mix a little Worcestershire
sauce with an equal volume of dark soy sauce. The taste isn't quite the
same, but it will do.

The celery used in Thailand is Chinese Celery (the plant of which celeriac
is the root ball). If this isn't available you can use "western" celery.

Cooks in Thailand make this in a wok but I'm not convinced that it is
entirely safe to balance this much fluid in a round bottom wok on a skimpy
western stovehob. So perhaps for safety you should use a large saucepan.

Method: In a very small amount of oil sautee the garlic until golden brown
and beginning to crisp up, then pour in the water, and bring to the boil,
next add the celery, Maggi sauce, and fish sauce and pepper, and stir until
it boils again. Now add the rice and return to the boil, continuing to
simmer, stirring occasionally, until the rice begins to "fall" and the
water turns a milky white (note comment above).

Now add the shrimp, and cook until they turn pink.

Transfer to a serving dish, and garnish with chopped coriander/cilantro
leaves.

CHILEHEADS DIGEST V3 #051

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