An Amuse-Bouche of Tom Yum Goong and Shichimi Onigiri

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Here is a look at a very popular amuse-bouche that I serve new clients. It’s a Thai-Japanese fusion dish. If you’ve been following me a while, you’ll see a pattern there! Thai this and Thai that!

We have a shot glass of Tom Yum Soup, a large prawn (shrimp) and a ball of rice called Onigiri in Japanese, coated in a spice mix. Sometimes, I serve just the Tom Yum Soup as you see it, without the rice. So after chomping nibbling on the prawn, one would just sip the soup. Folks unused to amuse-bouche are always a little, erm, amused at the whole exercise, but always in a good way! That’s kind of the idea, I guess!

This is, in fact, the second Thai-Japanese fusion recipe that I have, the first one I made years ago, is the Pad Thai Tamagoyaki (click for the recipe):

For our Amuse-Bouche of Tom Yum Goong and Shichimi Onigiri today, I don’t have a recipe as such for you. It’s a case of making up the Tom Yum Soup (click for homemade recipe) for the number of people you are cooking for and making the same number of onigiri (rice balls) using either homemade or shop bought Shichimi Togarashi, the Japanese 7 flavour spice mix (click for recipe and to read more):

How to get this Amuse-Bouche done seamlessly:

Cook the rice, which should take about 16 – 18 minutes.

Then cook the tom yum. This will take 17 minutes.

Get the plates, shot glasses and the mango slices ready and set aside, while the rice and soup are cooking.

As soon as the rice is cooked (you don’t need sushi rice here), tip it out onto a large plate to cool down so you can handle it easily.

As soon as the prawns are cooked, take them out to cool slightly and thread them.

Keep everything warm until ready to serve.

If the prawns have cooled down, which they probably will:

Set everything else up, that is, the rice and fruit slices.

Then, bring the tom yum soup to simmering point, pop the prawns in for 30 – 60 seconds, then plate up and serve. This really does want a quick hand, as we do not want to ruin the prawns by overcooking.

Make Ahead

This whole amuse-bouche can be prepared ahead, just re-heat the tom yum and prawns before serving. The onigiri are fine at room temperature.

I know fine dining plating isn’t for everyone. But I also know many of you who read this blog love to experiment with presentations like this. So, if you do give it a try, let me know how it goes. And I’m always happy to hear requests.

Now, shall we get our aprons on?

If you like the recipe, don’t forget to leave me a comment and that all important, 5-star rating! Thank you!

And if you make the recipe, share it on any platform and tag me @azlinbloor, and hashtag it #linsfood.

Lin xx