Tom Yum Goong

I bought some really fresh prawns yesterday and decided it was time to make some tom yum goong. The tom yum goong usually found in sydney (for me) is always too sweet and a tad bit too hot.

The last time I went to Kota Kinabalu I had really good tom yum noodles so I tried to replicate it. The Tom Yum is known in Kota Kinabalu as 'Hilltop Tom Yum' and the uncle who sells it , 'Fu So Loh', the bearded man.

Their goong was served with bee hoon and very flavoursome with a creamy touch. According to J, he frys his paste with 'hei bee' and pork floss and some secret sour ingredient and their creaminess comes from adding evaporated milk. I do not have any evaporated milk in my pantry so I will be adding cream to mine.

For my goong, I peeled the prawns, devined them and put them in the fridge. With the shells, I fried them off with a knob of ginger and kaffir lime leaves [lemon grass if you have any] until they were brown and caramelised. I deglazed with water and let it simmer for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, I strained the liquid, added some tom yum paste and boiled it for 15 more minutes to let the flavours meld and intensify. Before serving, add cream to taste. The cream mellows the goong and adds a lemak-ness to it which I prefer and enjoy.

To serve, place beehoon in bowl, add garnishes. For my garnish, I used the fresh prawns which I cooked it the soup and some finely sliced shitake mushroom. To top it off, some finely julienned kaffir lime leaves and lemon zest.

If I had some fresh herbs like coriander or mint, I would add that too.