I've had the Tom Yum paste in my fridge for months, waiting for mussels and veggies but only tonight have I gotten around to making my own version of Tess's amazing dish. Prepwork takes a bit of time (cleaning the Mussels can be laborious as they can be covered in barnacles and beards. I was also informed, to my horror, that they were alive upon purchase. Northwest seafood is fresh.) However, once the sauce gets going, it takes only 5 minutes for this dish to cook.
Here's what to do:
Stuff (Makes 2-3 Servings):
Garlic
Thom Yum Paste
Coconut milk (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/2 lb. Clams (look up basic instructions on cleaning and cooking clams and mussels if you need to!)
1/2 lb. Mussels
1/2 lb. Baby Bok Choi
Rice stick noodles, cooked up. They only take a few minutes, your package should have instructions.
Directions:
Saute the garlic in some oil at the bottom of a big pot. Add the thom yum paste just as it gets going and then pour on the coconut milk (mine was powdered so I wanted to add it right away because it was lumpy.) Bring this to a boil and add both the clams and mussels. Set your timer for 5 minutes and cover.
When your timer has about 1:30 left to go, add the cleaned and chopped Bok Choi and cover. Stir it a few times, but it only takes a few seconds for it to cook. Overcooking it makes it a little...slimy so resist the urge to add it at the same time as the shellfish.
At 5:00 your mussels and clams should have opened. Throw away any that haven't. That's all it takes.
Serve the rice noodles topped with your tasty shellfish stew!
Enjoy!
