Notepad/Small Bite Soup

ต้มจิ๋วเนื้อ is simply three words combined together: ต้ม means clear soup, จิ๋ว means tiny, and เนื้อ is beef. It's the best to translate this dish to 'Small Bite Soup' in English for the sake of preserving its historical significance.

The dish dates back to the era of King Rama V, originated by Princess Yaovabha who is famous for her cookbook, ตำรับสายเยาวภา.

In Royal cooking, everything needs to be bite-sized, so the people who enjoy the food does not show any expressions of 'gluttony', thus the 'small bites' elements.

Modernised recipe courtesy of M.L. Kwantip Devakula / Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUCg1Zo09ik

Ingredients

Adjust portions accordingly:

• 1 kg protein, preferably beef tenderloin. Pork is a common substitution.
• 2.5l water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 kgs yam (substitutes: sweet potato)
• 1 cup shallot
• 1/2 cup fresh sweet basil leaves
• 1/2 cup fresh Krapao/Thai basil/holy basil leaves (substitutes: Italian basil)
• 10 bird chili (add/reduce to your preference, the soup should be mildly spicy)
• 6 tbsp fish sauce
• 1/4 cup tamarind paste (substitutions: none, sorry! It should be very easy to find bottled ones or concentrated pastes which you can dilute)
• 5 tbsp lime juice (substitutions: lemon juice)

Prep

• Dice the protein into 1x1 cubes
• Dice the jam in slightly smaller cubes
• Slice the shallots
• Deal with bird chili: do nothing, slight crush, or slice, to control the spiciness.

Cook

• Add salt to water, boil the beef until it's tender
• Add the jam, continue boiling for half and hour
• Add shallots and bird chili
• Add fish sauce and tamarind paste to taste
• Add sweet basil leaves and Krapao leaves
• When the added leaves is cooked halfway (should take only a few minutes), turn off the heat
• After cooled down to some extent, add lime juice