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Vietnamese sweet-sour shrimp soup (canh chua tom) with tomatoes, okra, and pineapple

Vietnamese Tamarind Shrimp Soup (Canh Chua Tom)

Canh chua tom — Vietnamese sweet-sour tamarind soup with shrimp, pineapple, and okra.
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Servings: 6
Course: Soup
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 12 oz (340 g) large shrimp (16/20 count), peeled and deveined
  • 6 cups (1.4 L) water
  • 1 tbsp tamarind paste, dissolved in a little hot water, plus more to taste (tamarind strength varies hugely by brand — start at 1 tbsp, taste, and add more)
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 3 tbsp fish sauce, plus more to taste
  • 1 cup fresh pineapple chunks (about 1/4 pineapple)
  • 1 cup okra, sliced diagonally (about 8 pods)
  • 1 large tomato, cut into wedges
  • 2 cups bean sprouts
  • 2 celery stalks, sliced diagonally (traditional bac ha, elephant ear stem, is hard to find outside Vietnamese markets)
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced, plus 1 tbsp neutral oil for the garlic oil
  • Cilantro and sliced scallions, chopped (rice paddy herb, ngo om, and sawtooth herb, ngo gai, are the classic finish when available)
  • 1 Thai chile, sliced (optional)

Method
 

  1. Make the garlic oil. Heat the oil in a small pan over medium heat, fry the minced garlic until just golden (about 2 minutes), and transfer to a heatproof bowl. Set aside — this gets drizzled over each bowl at the end.
  2. Build the broth. Bring the water to a simmer in a large pot. Stir in the tamarind (dissolved first in a ladle of hot water so it disperses evenly), the sugar, and the fish sauce. Taste now, before anything else goes in: it should be clearly sour with sweetness and salt behind it. Adjust tamarind and sugar in small increments — the safe approach is to start at 1 tbsp tamarind and taste up, since overshooting makes the soup harsh.
  3. Cook the firm vegetables. Add the pineapple and okra; simmer 2 minutes. Add the celery and tomato wedges; simmer 2 minutes more.
  4. Add the shrimp last. Bring the soup back to a boil, add the shrimp, and cook just until they turn pink and opaque — about 2 minutes. Do not walk away; shrimp go from perfect to rubbery in under a minute past done. The shrimp must be fully opaque all the way through (145°F / 63°C) — no translucent centers.
  5. Finish. Remove from heat immediately. Stir in half the herbs. Place a handful of raw bean sprouts in each serving bowl and ladle the hot soup over them — the residual heat wilts them just enough. That is the intended texture, not an oversight.
  6. Serve hot over or alongside steamed rice, topped with the remaining herbs and a drizzle of garlic oil.