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Hot and sour Thai prawn soup loud with lemongrass, galangal and lime. It goes from pot to bowl in twenty minutes and wakes you up completely.
Bruise the 2 lemongrass stalks with the back of a knife and cut them into 5 cm pieces. Simmer them in the 1.2 litres stock with the sliced galangal and the torn lime leaves for 10 minutes so the broth takes on their perfume.
Quarter the 200 g mushrooms and halve the cherry tomatoes, add them both and simmer for 3 minutes until the tomato skins start to split.
Stir in the 2 tablespoons nam prik pao, the 45 ml fish sauce, the sugar and the crushed chillies and taste. It should be sharply sour first, then salty, then hot.
Add the 400 g peeled prawns and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes only, until they turn pink and opaque right through. Longer than that makes them rubbery.
Take the pot off the heat and squeeze in the juice of the 2 limes. Adding lime away from the boil keeps the sourness fresh rather than bitter.
Ladle into bowls with the whole aromatics left in for looks and scatter the cilantro over the top.
