Heat a large sauce pan or soup pot, add a splash of oil and the prawn trimmings. They will quickly turn pink, add the vegetables and herbs

Stir in the tomato paste then add white wine and top up with water (about 1 Litre)

Add the Thai paste, now split the lemon grass in half lengthways, if the very centre of lemon grass is soft then you can separate this to add to the finished soup, or you can just chop it all up for the stock

So the lemon grass outer layers are in the stock and I finely chopped the soft centre to go in the finished broth. Next I peeled the outer skin off the ginger and this went into the stock, I finely sliced the ginger centre into little match sticks to go into the finished broth.

Finely slice the spring onions, the sugar snaps and combine with the ginger ready for the finished broth.

Now prepare the prawns, I like to butterfly mine but cut all the way through, I like the way they curl up when poached later. This also makes removing the tract (the gross stuff) easier.

When the stock has had around 1 hour simmering its time to stain it through the finest sieve that you have. I do mine once through a chinois then through a fine mess sieve, you can use muslin or cheese cloth for the best results. Now add the vegetables to the broth.

Add prawns and gently simmer until they turn pink 1 to 2 minutes should be long enough, season soup with salt pepper, sweet chilli and soy

Add sliced chilli and some chopped coriander or parsley, time to serve. I chose the wrong bowl as it made it difficult to eat from but select a bowl you like spoon in the prawns and veg then pour over the amazingly flavoursome broth.

Tuck in now, feel free to add fish sauce more chilli or whatever you fancy, the last image here shows how the prawns curl up, I like the way the look and its easier to east half a prawn and keep your dignity LOL. Link to video if you like? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoHYWejWiVA&t=363s