Canh Chua Tôm – Vietnamese Sour Soup with Prawn

Herbs are a tricky ingredient. They can make or break a dish. Too little and the dish is bland and boring. Too much and it's like your eating the entire contents of your granny's medicine cabinet. It is with this reason that I absolutely refuse to buy my herbs from supermarkets. They are more than likely incubated in hothouses and can be fed with a host of unsavoury pesticides. They are often bland and twice the size that they should be. I want my herbs to be burgeoning in the full blaze of the sun and their roots soaked with rainwater. Therefore I know that the flavour that graces my dishes are what they intended to be... natural.

Here in this refreshing soup from Vietnam, I made sure that the herbs used were grown in more natural conditions. It is important that the vibrant citrusy notes from the rice paddy herb and sawtooth coriander come shining through. On the bustling streets of Cabramatta you can find sweet little old ladies setting up makeshift stalls to sell homegrown fruit and vegetables. The very same produce that they use to make their meals for their families.