Name: Broken fish trap (tom” yam)
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Thai
Ingredients: 8 kaffir lime leaves; 4 cm piece fresh galangal or root ginger, peeled and thickly sliced; 2 sticks lemongrass, trimmed and smashed open; 1 small sea bream or other white fish, filleted, boned (keep the bones) and broken into pieces; 1 tbsp palm sugar or caster sugar; handful of basil, coriander or chopped garlic chives; 300 g raw shell-on prawns; 4 birdseye chillies, split; 3 tbsp fish sauce; juice of 2 limes

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Food and Travels

By Alastair Hendy

Published 2004

About

Think rockpool/shrimper’s net here - wayward bits of seafood. Chuck in stuff like clams, mussels, a prawn or crab claw, and nuggets of fish with the prawns, but cook for longer if necessary: gulf-inspired and fisherman’s-potlike, yet effortlessly elegant. Thais sometimes use smoked fish or mackerel to make a richer soup. One for dieters but equally fantastic for those who are not wasting time on such things.