Tom Khem (Southern Thai Grandmother's Salty Soup)

Steps

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1. 1
   Prepare fresh coconut milk by filtering coconut water through fresh coconut shavings to extract the purest milk.
   ▶ ≈2:54
2. 2
   Prepare ingredients: crush shallots, roughly chop young coconut shoots, peel stink beans, and chop Thai baby corn.
   ▶ ≈2:03
3. 3
   Pour fresh coconut milk into a pot and bring to heat.
   ▶ ≈4:04
4. 4
   Add sun-dried shrimp and raw cashew nuts to infuse natural sweetness and begin thickening the broth.
   ▶ ≈4:17
5. 5
   Add shrimp paste for seasoning and taste, adjusting to preference. The shrimp paste provides the main salty and savoury depth.
   ▶ ≈4:52
6. 6
   Add all prepared vegetables including crushed shallots, corn, young coconut shoots, and stink beans.
   ▶ ≈5:14
7. 7
   Simmer for about 10 minutes until the vegetables release their water and soften completely. The soup's layers of flavour will gradually emerge.
   ▶ ≈5:34
8. 8
   Taste the finished soup. It should achieve a delicate balance of shrimp paste's salty depth, coconut milk's sweetness, cashew nuts' nutty character, and the fresh vegetables' natural flavours.
   ▶ ≈6:10