Vegetable Sour Soup

Peel and slice fresh ginger. Seed and slice red chili pepper. Peel, seed, and slice chayote thinly. Trim ends of the green beans. Set aside.

Soak tamarind in warm water in a small bowl for 15 minutes.

Prepare spice paste by placing shallot, garlic, ginger, red chili pepper, raw peanuts, shrimp paste, and salt in a mortar or a food processor. Blend thoroughly until well mixed or until a paste forms.

Place this paste in a saucepan over medium heat.

Stir in chicken or vegetable broth, salted peanuts, and brown sugar. Simmer for 15 minutes.

While paste mixture is cooking, separate the tamarind seeds from the juice with a strainer.

Discard the seeds and save the juice.

Add chayote, green beans, and corn to the soup.

Simmer soup over high heat for 5 minutes.

Remove from heat.

Immediately before serving, add tamarind juice and stir well.

Sprinkle with green chili pepper slices and serve in soup bowls.