Vegetable Sour Soup (Sayur Asem)- Indonesian Appetizer

I have a friend from Vietnam who really like this soup. Unfor­tunetely not all the ingre­di­ents were avail­able in Asian store near her house and some of them were out of sea­son in Vietnam. So,she made some changes in ingre­di­ents. She replaced fresh peanuts with bagged wal­nuts and frozen green bean with freash Ore­gon pea pods. It still taste fantastic.

So, for some of you that might not find some of the ingre­di­ents below, just make some changes and see what would it taste like?

Here is the recipe

• 1 tsp. tamarind
• 5 tbsp. warm water
• 1 shal­lot, sliced
• 3 cloves gar­lic, minced
• 1 inch-long piece fresh ginger,
• peeled and sliced
• 1 red chili pep­per, seeded and sliced*
• 3 tbsp. raw peanuts
• 1 tsp. shrimp paste
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 5 c. low-fat chicken or veg­etable broth
• 1/2 c. salted peanuts, coarsely chopped
• 2 tbsp. brown sugar
• 1 chay­ote, peeled, seeded, and
• sliced thin
• 1/2 c. fresh or frozen green beans,
• ends trimmed
• 1/3c. frozen corn kernels
• 1 green chili pep­per, sliced (optional)

Direc­tion to Cook

• Pre­pare tamarind by plac­ing it in a small bowl with warm water. Let soak for 15 minutes.
• To make spice paste, com­bine shal­lot, gar­lic, gin­ger, red chili pep­per, raw peanuts, shrimp paste, and salt in a large mor­tar and blend well with a pes­tle. Use a food proces­sor or blender if you don’t have a mor­tar and pestle.
• Trans­fer paste to a medium saucepan and add chicken or veg­etable broth, salted peanuts, and brown sugar. Stir to com­bine, and cook over medium heat for 15 minutes.
• Mean­while, use a strainer to sep­a­rate the tamarind seeds from the juice. Throw away the seeds and keep the juice.
• Add chay­ote, green beans, and corn to the soup, and cook over high heat for 5 minutes.
• Just before serv­ing, add tamarind juice and stir. Gar­nish with green chili pep­per slices if desired.