The other week, my cousin gave me a pretty nifty little Tom Yum soup
kit that she picked up in a Thai supermarket in London. The kit
contained lemongrass, galangal, lime leaves, chillis, and a lime. When
I cooked the various ingredients up into a soup with some coconut milk,
stock and vegetables, the flavour was amazing. I keep banging on about
it, but I continue to find it to be true: if you have the right
ingredients, making delicious, and really authentic (in this case) Thai
food is incredibly easy.
When I was last in Waitrose I noticed they
were selling galagal and kaffir lime leaves, and I picked up a bunch of
lemongrass in an Indian grocer for just £1.29 last week, proving that
increasingly, exotic ingredients can be both cheap and easy to source.
When
I made this soup, I threw in some rice noodles to make a proper meal
out of it, but it was so ridiculously filling with them, that I think
it would be fine without them. You can throw in pretty much whatever
vegetables you want, but I would heartily recommend including mushrooms
in your mix, because they really soak up all the flavours in the soup
and become a real treat to bite into.
Ingredients (serves 2)
1 400ml can of cocnut milk.
200mls of chicken or vegetable stock.
1 teaspoon of fish sauce
A 1 inch piece of galangal
2 small or one large stick of lemongrass
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1 lime
2 kaffir lime leaves
2 tomatoes, quartered
1 small handfull of mushrooms, quartered
A few florrets of broccoli
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
Directions
Heat
oil in a large saucepan and throw in the lemongrass, galangal, chilli,
lime leaves and the zest of the lime. Allow to infuse for a minute or
so and add the mushrooms.
Cook the mushrooms for 5mins until they
begin to brown then pour over the coconut milk, fish sauce and the
stock. Add the tomatoes and bring to the boil. Simmer gently for
10mins.
Add broccoli and simmer for a further 5mins.
Divide between two bowls, finish with a squeeze of lime juice in each, and serve.