Name: Cambodian Hot-Sour Pineapple soup
Yield: Serves 4–6
Cuisine: Cambodian
Ingredients: 6 fillets of salmon, mackerel, haddock or cod, skinned and cut into chunks; 1 tablespoon jaggery, muscovado sugar, or honey; 1 x quantity Rempah, omitting the macadamia nuts; 1 litre/1¾ pints fish or chicken stock; 1 tablespoon tamarind paste; 1 small pineapple, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces; 300 ml/10 fl oz white wine; 1–2 tablespoons coconut oil; 1–2 fresh red or green chillies, finely chopped; a big bunch of fresh coriander, finely chopped; sea salt and freshly ground black pepper; 1–2 limes, quartered; 1 onion, finely chopped; 2 x 400 g/14 oz tin of chopped tomatoes

Preparation info

Serves
4–6

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Spirit & Spice

By Ghillie Basan

Published 2019

About

A balance of hot, sweet and sour is characteristic of soups and noodle dishes in Southeast Asia and this Cambodian soup is a good example. Chillies provide the heat, tamarind the sour, and pineapple the sweet. If you are pairing with whisky, you can play with the balance of these three tastes to complement the flavours in the spirit. As the pineapple is the surprise element in this soup, I tend to go for a spirit with tropical fruit notes, something like Scapa or Chivas Ultis.