Sour tamarind soup with prawns- perfect choice for your meal

On cool days, a bowl of sour tamarind soup with prawns will surely be an attractive dish for you family!

This recipe requires to prepare tamarind pulp. It's good to use wet seedless tamarind typically sold in 14 oz blocks instead of juice or concentrates, although you certainly could if pressed for time.

Ingredients:

6 cups of water or fish stock
1/2 lb large prawns, cleaned
1 cup tamarind pulp puree
1/2 sweet pineapple, peeled, sliced into bite-sized pieces
2 tomatos, cut in wedges
2 tbs sugar, plus additional to taste
1 tbs koshar salt, plus additonal to taste
1 tbs fish sauce
1-2 elephant ear stems, peeled and sliced on diagonal 1/2in thick
1 cup okra, sliced diagonal
2 red chilli, sliced (optional)
1/2 cup of bean sprouts
10 springs of rice paddy herb, roughly chopped
fried garlic

How to cook.

Combine the tamarind pulp in equal amout (i.e 14 oz block, 14 fl oz water, roughly 1 cup) of hot water in a large bowl and soak for 15 minutes. Work the pulp with your hands until dissolved, squeezing out the puree and then tossing away the membranes. You're left with just the thick brown pulp puree. You can also strain the pulp through a fine sieve instead of using your hands.

In large pot bring water to boil and then add prawns, tamarind pulp puree, tomatoes, pineapple, okra, fish sauce, salt and sugar and bring back to boil.

When prawns are pink and tomatoes are just tender, add bean sprouts and elephant ear stems and season with additional salt or fish salt and sugar to taste. It should be sweet, sour, and savory.

Remove from heat and transfer to serving bowl. Finish with rice patty herb, fried garlic and optional chili.