Fried Rice Tom Yum

Does it look good? Nice presentation? This is not what I cooked, this is the HiThai one...

I've been hooked to eating tom yum seafood fried rice at my local Thai resto - HiThai at OnFour, Westpoint Blacktown.

You say 'tom yum is a Thai soup you idiot!' That was what I first thought and ordered it to satisfy my curiosity and hunger. And as they say, the rest is history and a start of a love affair with this rice dish - a complete meal in itself.

I promised myself to try to recreate this dish at home, and what better way to do it by scoring a tom yum paste in a bottle, some left over rice, fresh seafood [I tried using green New Zealand mussels, shrimps & calamari or squid], lemon grass & in the absence of galangal, I used sliced ginger. Remembering that most of the spices are already pre-mixed in that tom yum sauce, if only I could get it locally... [or maybe I didn't looked hard enough!].

Anyway, on a recent trip to Singapore - lo and behold, found tom yum paste [Kee's] and bought one [with several bottles of chicken rice/Hainan rice paste/sauce, etc.]. Proceeded to use the product at home but found it to be really hot, as in tom yum hot. So I've reduced the amount to a palatable taste...

I Googled tom yum fried rice, have a look at the recipe and winged it using the available ingredients I have:

On a really hot wok or pan/pots/paellera, etc.; heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, sauté the lemon grass, sliced ginger and the magic paste.

Sauté the seafood; which should have been washed & cleaned thoroughly. The wife did it for me, half shell mussels, shrimps or prawns [what's the difference?] de-veined and with only the 'tails' left for whatever reason [presentation? to hold onto? etc.] and the squid or calamari just cut into bite size pieces. Do not, under any circumstances, overcook the seafood!

Set aside... more olive oil, lemon grass & ginger. Sauté with the cooked rice [preferably cold & cooked beforehand, so it won't stick too much]. When the rice is heated & cooked, add the seafood back into the pan/pot/wok, cook for another five minutes & served with your favourite white sweet wine [which I find complements most chili Thai, Indo, Indian food].

If that doesn't work or not too good to your taste, hit to your local Thai resto and order the damn thing!