My Mom's Asian Zucchini Soup

A few days ago when I logged in my sisters computer it was a nightmare trying to blog.  I forgot that Yahoo was getting to this secure thing. Let's not talk about Apple. Yeah, it's Apple. They are doing their job. Note to self: don't log to anyone else's computer.  Anyway, here I am! It wasn't about the nightmare I had with Apple but I'm having a wonderful time here with family to fully blog. I do more Instragram-ing, yeah. And the occasion of Facebook.

Let's get to the title of the post of my mom's Asian zucchini soup, shall we?

A typical Laotian family would have a garden anywhere they live. They would make it work in their super small apartment balcony. And the first plant will be chilis. Whenever I come and visit my side of the family in central California, you know we'll be eating Lao food everyday if we didn't have our white husbands. And we're so blessed to have our husbands to let us eat our stinky food and they can go to Long John Silvers ( a restaurant that serves 'fresh' seafood). They are so happy that it's still around.

I have totally forgot about this humbly delicious dish until my mom made it. Just an Asian zucchini (mak buap) soup with other herbs, beef and seasoned with padaek ( fermented whole fish with its juice). You can put in other kinds of meat like chicken. My mom made it spicy which was a surprised because I thought it round be more mild. Perfect when eaten with sticky rice but I didn't have any as I was still a bit full from lunch. It was still perfect eaten as it is.

Mak buap the Asian zucchini isn't as firm as the regular zucchini and has more water content. When making soup you don't need a lot of water. And I was told that stir frying is tasty too.

Big bunch of lemongrass leaves simmering in the water. Then add sliced shallots, pounded chili to taste and padaek., boiled a bit.

Add the sliced zucchini, beef and lemon basil in as the water boils. Smells divine! And makes you cough as the chili tickles your throat. Don't cook it up long or the beef gets tough and the zucchini gets soggy.

Eat, slurp laugh talk and repeat!