Hot and Sour Seafood Soup

The wet weather has been prompting cravings for hot soup to alleviate the chilliness I feel.

I have kiam chye boey, that sour spicy "leftovers" stew, on my mind but cooking that would take three hours at least! Surely too long a wait for this poor soul....and so came about the inspiration for a shortcut, using only some of the key ingredients from the traditional kiam chye boey dish and without the long stew.

Here's what came out of the pot at the end of it all - a clear sour and spicy soup with robust flavours that zapped my senses alert. This was so delicious that I had seconds...SECONDS! Just the perfect thing to have in this cold weather. BrrRrrr...no more!
    

Hot and Sour Seafood Soup

Hot and Sour Seafood Soup

Ingredients :
- 3 pcs asam keping (tamarind peel)
- 2 pcs sour plum (bottled) 
- 6 green bird's eye chili (seeded and halved)
- ½ large carrot (cut into medium cubes)
- 1 large tomato (quartered)
- 1 rib celery (chopped)
- 1 clove garlic (chopped)
- 1.5 L water
- 1 tsp cooking oil
- Fried fish cakes (2 varieties - the kind for soups)
   ~ 1 palm-sized flat square piece (cut into smaller squares)
   ~ 1 rectangular roll, about 3 inches long (sliced)
- 10 baby squids  
- Salt to taste

How-to:
1) Heat oil in electrical cooker (that's what I'm using). Add garlic and give it a quick stir-fry.

2) Add tomatoes, carrots, bird's eye chili, tamarind peel and sour plums. Mix well.

3) Add water and bring to a boil. 

4) Once it boils, add the ribbed stem parts of the celery into the pot (leave the leafy parts for last).

5) Cook covered until tomatoes and carrots are tender (which was between 30-45 minutes for me because I wanted more flavour in the soup). 

6) Then, add fish cakes and the remainder of the celery. Season with salt and stir well. Lastly, add the squid. You are done when that is cooked.