How to Cook Gem Som Pla (Orange Fish Soup)
Serves: 2
Preparation time: 15 mins
Cooking time: 6 mins
Ingredients needed to make Gem Som Pla :
- 2-3 medium sole fillets, chopped into bite-sized chunks
- 1 small zucchini, peeled into matchsticks
- 2 cups bok choy, chopped
- 3-4 fresh orange slices, halved
- Handful of green beans, sliced into 2’’ pieces
- Handful of cherry tomatoes
- Freshly squeezed out juice of 2 oranges
- 3 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tbsp palm sugar
- 2 tsp tamarind paste
- 6 cups chicken stock
For the paste:
- ½ tsp shrimp paste
- 3-4 garlic cloves
- 2 fresh red chilies
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- One 2’’ piece galangal
- 1 shallot, peeled
- ¼ tsp ground white pepper
- Handful of fresh cilantro leaves, plus more for garnishing
Cooking instructions for Gem Som Pla :
- To make the paste, dump all its ingredients into a food processor and blitz them into smooth paste; set aside.
- Empty the cups of chicken broth into a stock pot and heat it over moderately high flame.
- Add a splash of orange juice and whisk it into the broth, along with fish sauce, tamarind paste and sugar until well combined.
- Bring the soup to a boil and reduce it to a simmer.
- Drop in the beans and cook for about 5 minutes or until the beans turn tender.
- Stir in rest of the vegetables, along with the fish chunks and cook further for another couple of minutes or until the fish is just cooked and turns opaque; don’t stir unnecessarily to prevent the fish from crumbling down.
- Adjust the seasonings and turn off the heat.
- Ladle it into soup bowls and top it up with few half-slices of oranges.
- Finish it off with a sprinkling if chopped cilantro and serve hot.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
