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The Noodle 100 · make it at home

Tom yum noodles with pork and prawns

40 min · 2 bowls

Bangkok's favorite noodle lunch: hot, sour, sweet and salty at once, with ground pork, prawns and crushed peanuts. Dry (haeng) or in soup; this is the soup.

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The real one

You need

• 750 ml (3 cups) pork or chicken stock
• 2 stalks lemongrass bruised, 4 slices galangal, 4 makrut lime leaves torn
• 150 g (5 oz) ground pork, 6 raw prawns, 4 fish balls (optional)
• To season: 2 tbsp fish sauce, 2 tbsp lime juice, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp roasted chili paste (nam prik pao), 1-2 tsp chili flakes, 2 tbsp evaporated milk (optional, for the creamy kind)
• 150 g (5 oz) thin rice noodles or egg noodles
• To top: 2 tbsp crushed roasted peanuts, bean sprouts, sliced scallions and cilantro, fried garlic

How to make it

1. Broth (10 min): Simmer the stock with the lemongrass, galangal and lime leaves 8 minutes.
2. Meat (5 min): Drop in the pork in small pinches, then the prawns and fish balls, and cook 3 minutes.
3. Season (2 min): Off the heat, stir in the fish sauce, lime, sugar, chili paste, chili flakes and evaporated milk. Taste: sour, then hot, then salt, then sweet; fix the balance.
4. Build (3 min): Blanch the noodles and sprouts, put in bowls, ladle over the soup with the meat, and top with peanuts, scallions, cilantro and fried garlic.

Tips

• Lime juice goes in off the heat; boiling makes it bitter.
• Jeh O's 'Mama' version: use 2 packs of instant noodles and add a soft egg.

Chef Amazing's own home version, in our words; not any shop's recipe.