Method
Begin by boiling the water in a large pot. Prepare the shrimps. Trim the lemon grass and cut into long pieces. Bruise with the back of a knife to release the flavour. Drop the lemon grass into water. Boil for 5 minutes. Trim and slice the chillies. Add to half to the pot. Add the half fish sauce. Quarter a lime and add to the pot. Trim the stems from the kaffir lime leaves and add the leafs part to the pot. Clean and halve the mushrooms and add these to the pot. Add the shrimp and turn off the heat. Shrimps become tough quite quickly, and will cook even when just sitting in a hot liquid. Add the nam prik pow. Juice the remaining lime. Add a little juice to each of the bowls to be used for serving soup. Add also a dash of the remaining fish sauce an a pinch of fresh chillies. Scoop a good helping of soup into each bowl, being sure to include a good helping of shrimp and mushrooms. Sprinkle with cilantro. Serve. Season with fish sauce and lime juice if required.
Click here for more on Nam Prik Pow