“Happiness is Homemade. Real cooking is more about following your heart than following recipes. Fresh is always better.” — Chamaine

Hello Everyone! Chamaine here taking over Amcarmen’s Kitchen tonight to bring you a Thai-inspired dish for the Flavours of Southeast Asia journey on this blog for this year’s Auguest theme. I am so grateful to be part of this series as, through this, I have learnt to explore other cuisines and dishes from countries outside of my home country and knowledge.

I believe that Happiness is Homemade. My favourite thing to do at home is COOK, and I season everything with LOVE. For me, cooking is an ART. I plate like an ARTIST and invent recipes like a SCIENTIST.

Thai cuisine has proven to be quite a challenge for me since I am not so familiar with it. Some ingredients are unusual to me, but since I am eager to learn something new, I accepted this challenge. Upon my research, I found this recipe for Sweet Potato Soup rather intriguing. All my life, I have known sweet potatoes to be used as a snack and finger food; I never thought that it could potentially be used to make a starter or appetizer in the form of a soup.

For this dish, I substituted some of the ingredients as I could not source some of them, but don’t worry, I have the best options in our pantry. If you do have these original ingredients readily available for you, then by all means stick to using them:

• Kaffir lime leaves to bay leaves
• Lime juice to calamansi juice
• Coriander seeds to oregano
• Red curry paste to red chillies

As a result, I can say this dish is absolutely appetizing. With its tangy, savoury, and creamy flavour, plus the slightly sour and sweet taste, everything complimented each other so well!

PREP TIME 10 MINS | COOKING TIME 25 MINS | SERVES 4

INGREDIENTS

• 3 medium-sized purple sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into small chunks
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp fresh ginger, finely chopped
• 1 red onion, finely chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 red chillies, roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp fish sauce*
• 1 vegetable stock cube
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 tbsp calamansi juice
• 1 stalk spring onion
  A pinch of oregano

*Replace with salt for a fully vegetarian/vegan alternative

METHOD

1. In a large frying pan over medium-high, heat the olive and sauté the ginger and onions until lightly golden and fragrant, about 30 seconds.
2. Add the sweet potatoes, bay leaf, red chillies, fish sauce and toss, cooking for a few minutes.
3. Pour in the coconut milk and water, and add a vegetable stock cube. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat to bring it down to a simmer. Continue to cook until the sweet potatoes are tender.
4. Once done, remove the bay leaf, and then transfer everything into a food processor and blend until smooth and creamy.
5. Add the calamansi juice and gently mix into the soup.
6. Transfer to individual serving dishes and garnish with more chopped chillies, spring onions, calamansi juice, and a sprinkle of oregano. Serve and enjoy!

Photo Courtesy & Recipe Copyright © 2021 | Chamaine (@chamaine_homemade)

BON APPÉTIT

– Chamaine