Tom klong pla krob

Method

1. 1 Grill the dried fish over charcoal or in a dry pan for 5 minutes until it has a smoky aroma, then tear it into small pieces.
2. 2 Grill the dried chilies, red onions, lemongrass, and galangal over the stove until the outer skin is charred black.
3. 3 The key is to dry-roast all the ingredients before cooking; tom klong is a smoky-flavored soup.
4. 4 Grind dried chilies and roasted shallots into a coarse paste.
5. 5 Boil water with lemongrass and roasted galangal for 8 minutes, then pour in tamarind juice and season with fish sauce.
6. 6 Add the dried fish, straw mushrooms, and the pounded mixture and cook for 5 minutes, then sprinkle with lime leaves and sawtooth coriander.

With an appliance

• Oven 42 min

  Replace steps 1–2: arrange dried fish, chili peppers, onions, lemongrass, and galangal on the rack above the oven at 230 degrees for 8 minutes, rotating the tray at the 4th minute; this is about 3 minutes longer than pan-frying a batch, but the ingredients will be evenly browned without having to turn each piece, and the smoky flavor will be milder. The pounding and soup-making steps remain the same.