Thai Tom Yum Curry

Tom Yum Kung is traditionally a salty Thai soup made with seafood, however, Ive adapted it to give this delicious sour and salty curry. For best results you need to make the tom yum paste by pestle and mortar, however, seeing as some of the ingredients (anchovy extract for example) can be hard to come by, I use a tom yum paste from the supermarket which is not bad at all.

Serves 2

Pork Fillet (cut into strips)
Pak choi (cut into strips)
2 peppers (green/red) (cut into strips)
Bean sprouts
2 Garlic cloves (finely chopped)
ginger
Chilli (finely chopped without seeds)
Tom Yum paste
2 tbsp Fish sauce (to taste)
Lime
100ml Chicken stock
Bunch fresh Coriander
5 Spring onions
Noodles


Roll the pork around in the garlic, ginger and chilli. Be careful what chillis you use as the paste will also have a lot of heat. (Remember, the smaller the chilli the spicier it is so I normally use one large mild chilli for this recipe).
Heat some groundnut oil in a wok and then chuck in a few teaspoons of tom yum paste over a medium heat. Stir the paste quickly so as not to burn it.
As soon as the paste has become aromatic ( about 2-3 minutes of cooking) chuck in the pork and stir quickly for a few minutes till browned . At this point add the pepper and a ladle of chicken stock. Cook for a further few minutes. If the mixture becomes dry at any time chuck in just enough chicken stock to stop it sticking.
Throw in the pak choi and the beansprouts then add another ladel of chicken stock - just enough to make it a little watery and stop it sticking. Add the fish sauce and squeeze over a lime. Keep stirring for another few minutes until the pak choi and beansprouts are cooked but still crisp. If the mixture goes dry at any time add more stock/fish sauce/lime. You want a nice sweet and salty curry with a watery sauce.

Add the curry to a bowl on some egg noodles or steamed rice and garnish with coriander leaves, the strips of spring onion and a lime.