Ingredients
- 1 large onion, peeled and diced large
- 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 1 tablespoon chopped ginger
- 1 (2 to 3 pounds) pumpkin, peeled, seeded and cut into large cubes
- 1 cup white wine
- 2 quarts chicken stock
- 8 stalks lemongrass, white part only, chopped roughly (may substitute with zest of 2 lemons)
- 5 kaffir lime leaves, optional
- 5 Thai bird chiles (may substitute with 2 jalapenos)
- 1/2 cup fish sauce
- 1/2 cup fresh lime juice
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- Salt and pepper
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped chives
Directions
In a medium stockpot coat with 1 tablespoon oil, sweat the onion, garlic, and ginger until the onions are translucent. Add the pumpkin and wine and simmer until the wine is reduced by half. Add the chicken stock and bring to a simmer, continue cooking for about 20 minutes until the pumpkin is tender.
In a hot saute pan coated with 1 tablespoon oil, sear the lemon grass and Thai bird chiles until lightly browned, remove from heat.
When the pumpkin is tender, puree smooth using a hand blender or a blender and return to a simmer. Add the sauteed lemon grass, chilies, sugar, kaffir lime leaves (optional), lime juice, and fish sauce. Gently simmer for 20 minutes. Strain the soup through a medium strainer, discarding the solids, and season well with salt and pepper. The soup should be medium in body and may require additional chicken stock or water.
In a small bowl, mix the sour cream with the chives.
PLATING Serve the soup hot with a dollop of sour cream and chives in the center as garnish
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By dmrmsr
Bend, OR
on January 24, 2010
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My hubby and I love Southeast Asian flavors and pumpkin both so thought this was a nice twist on the Thai Tom Yum flavor profile in a pumpkin soup. We backed the fish sauce WAY down, used probably two tablespoons as opposed to half a cup as the recipe calls for. We like the influence of fish sauce and the unique Southeast Asian character it provides, but felt the amount called for was probably too much for our tastebuds. Good decision as it turns out. We highly recommend adding in the kaffir lime leaves, although the recipe calls them optional they really do add something unique, as does the lemongrass. You just will not get the same flavor profile by subbing lemon rind. Since we cut back on the fish sauce we added salt. Also we used palm sugar in place of white sugar as we felt that would be more in the character of Southeast Asian flavors and that also turned out to be a good decision - with a little more sugar than the recipe called for as well. Overall, we'd make this again so it is a "keeper". And the chives and sour cream are not necessary or even helpful in the recipe from our view...so we'd leave them out.
By knowway565_5446513
Lynnwood, WA
on October 21, 2006
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Ming has done it again!
This is a very healthy recipe and Ming deserves a medal for this special recipe.
We do not eat nearly enough pumpkin and unfortuantely, it seems that the only time we have this lovely squash available is for a mere 1 month. What a shame. We should be using more Pumpkin in our daily lives.
Thanks Ming, for designing this "precious pumpkin" recipe for all of us to love and enjoy.
By bhigbee@foodnet...
New York, NY
on January 03, 2005
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The fish sauce added a surprisingly pungent fish taste that caught my guests unexpectedly; however, we enjoyed the zing of the peppers and decided we'd pair the soup with a fish rather than meat dish in the future.
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