Tom Yummmmmmmmmmmm!

58. Buy an item of food once a month for a year that I've never bought at the grocery store and use it (2/12)

After going to Talin Market in Albuquerque for just the second time, I'm realizing every time I go there I become inspired to make something new.  I think Talin will be my source of discovery for new cooking ideas.  On this last trip to Talin, I picked up some more of the curry paste I used in last month's new food, but I found another item of food I wanted to make.  Lee Brand

Tom Yum paste is what I found.  Now I've had Tom Yum before in restaurants, but this would be my first time making it.  This Thai version of Tom Yum is a soup that incorporates hot and sour flavors and is traditionally made with seafood and mushrooms.  Now, I wasn't planning on trying to make Tom Yum exactly how I've had it in restaurants, so I picked and chose what to put in it.

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I first decided that I would like mine to be noodle and shrimp based.  I picked out some noodles I already had and purchased a bag of frozen shrimp at the store.

I started by boiling the noodles as I normally would.  When the noodles were ready, I added the appropriate amount of Tom Yum paste per the amount of water I had in the pot.  Once the paste had a moment to mix into the water, I added all of my veggies, which included:

• Fresh red bell pepper
• Fresh green onions
• Fresh bean sprouts
• Fresh green chili pepper
• Fresh Broccoli

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• And some frozen veggies as filler
  

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I also added a few seasonings, then let the soup simmer for a while.  I was quite impressed with how spicy this turned out.  I knew the Tom Yum paste would be spicy, but of course I added the chili pepper as well.  I'm certainly glad I did.  The batch I made, which included about seven cups of water provided four total meals (dinner for my roommate and me, then dinner and lunch for me the next couple of days).  This was a very simple meal to make and I only used a portion of the Tom Yum paste in the jar.  I look forward to using it again with different variations of content.

I forgot to take a picture of the soup when I finished cooking it, but below is a picture of some of the leftovers.