Hot and Sour Shrimp Soup - So Good!

Hot and Sour Shrimp Soup (Makes 4 – 1 cup servings)

(A modified version of a Martha Stewart Recipe)

1 ½ pounds medium shrimp (about 36) (I prefer to used cooked, peeled, deveined)
1 ½ Tablespoons Vegetable Oil
4 Cups Chicken Stock/Broth
3 stalks lemon grass, green parts and outer layers removed, halved lengthwise (optional). I subsitute lemon zest from ½ a lemon
10 cilantro stems (or more if you like cilantro)
zest from 1 lime
Red pepper flakes
¼ tsp sea salt, or more to taste
2 Tablespoons Asian Fish Sauce (aka nam pla) – Not Optional
1 – 15oz can straw mushrooms - OK to substitue any kind of mushrooms you have. I like the dried mushroom blend from Costco. Rehydrated and chopped up.
1 Tablespoon Roasted Chili Paste (found in the Asian Food section) less is ok if you want it less spicy.
3 Tablespoons fresh squeezed lime juice (not fresh ok too, I just add to taste)
¼ cup (or more-optional) coarsely chopped cilantro leaves
Cook in a large deep soup pot.

1. Pour frozen shrimp into a bowl and cover with water to thaw.
2. Add oil to soup pot and heat until hot. Add dried chilis and cook until they turn black. Remove with tongs or slotted spoon. (This gives the oil a spicy flavor, but it can also put a pepper smell in the air so sometimes I turn hood fan on.
3. Add chicken broth (IT WILL SPLATTER! Cover pot mostly with lid, wear and oven mitt and get broth in quickly. Cover until it stopped splattering.)
4. Add lemon grass (or zest), cilantro stems, and a shake or two of red pepper flakes (to taste) and lime zest. Simmer 10 to 15 minutes.
5. Meanwhile chop up cilantro and mushrooms
6. Remove lemon grass and cilantro stems with a slotted spoon or tongs. Add sea salt, mushrooms, fish sauce, chili paste. Bring to boil.
7. Add shrimp and coarse chopped cilantro.

We always double this recipe because it goes so fast!

Serve with a side of rice.