Thai Noodle Soup With Fishballs

I haven't made any of the huge range of Thai soups since I almost killed myself with a huge spicy overdose of chili when making a Tom Yum soup.  Now I'm a fan of spicy foods, and have a pretty high tolerance for chili, but even I had a hard time eating that soup, due to a couple of rogue, extra hot chili peppers that made their way into my shopping basket.

However, I didn't have that problem with this recipe, which was suggested to me by another lovely Postcrossing pal, who is from Thailand and listed this as amongst her favourite soups.  A few of the recipes that I found for this soup had ingredients in that I couldn't find at my local supermarket (Chinese Celery, coriander root) so I've had to approximate with some of the ingredients, but I think what I ended up with was rather special - if you like your soups a bit more spicy, you could aways add some more chili somewhere in the mix, and I'm sure it will be just as good, but I decide to play safe this time...

Also, after stumbling across the website of a soup company somewhere in Scotland, I've been experimenting this week with a tip that they recommend for getting the best out of any soup - that is, making it the day before and leaving it in the fridge to mature overnight which increases the depth of the flavours, or so they claim.  Now obviously, with this soup, a lot of the ingredients (fish balls and noodles etc) need to be added just before serving, but I did prepare the base of the soup the day before, and blow me down, but it seemed to be a lot more flavoursome than I was expecting.  I may experiment further and report back my findings...

Ingredients
1.2l Chicken Stock
2tbsp Dark Soy Sauce
2tsp Grated Ginger
2tsp Light Brown Sugar
1tbsp Fish Sauce
2 Star Anise
2 Cloves of Garlic
1 Small Mooli
Juice and zest of 1 Lime
4tbsp Sweet Chili Sauce
3tbsp Smooth Peanut Butter
300g White Fish, Skinned and boneless
Handful of Fresh Coriander
Rice Noodles 

Method.
 1.  Heat the stock in a soup pan, then add the soy sauce, ginger, sugar, anise and fish sauce.  Simmer and then add the thinly sliced mooli.  Let the soup cook for 15 minutes and then remove from the heat.

2.  Prepare the fish balls.  In a food mixer, put the fish. coriander, garlic, zest of 1 lime and a little salt.  Blend the ingredients together and then make small balls with it, about 2cm round - there should be enough for about 12 fish balls

3.  In a bowl, mix the lime juice, sweet chili sauce and peanut butter into a smooth paste.

4.  Prepare the rice noodles as per the instructions on the packet.

5.  Reheat the soup, bringing to a simmer and then add the fish balls.  Cook gently for about 10 minutes, until everything is reheated properly and the fish is cooked.

6.  Place some noodles in each bowl, then pout over some of the lime and chili paste.  Place some fish balls on top of that, then pour the soup around.  Garnish with fresh coriander and thinly sliced spring onions.  Enjoy!

 

Dim Sum - Olympic Food Challenge : Hong Kong

Like many other entries in my trip around the culinary world, Hong Kong has such a mixed bag of influences that it has been difficult to pin down a dish and say 'this represents Hong Kong like Yorkshire Puddings represent Yorkshire'  Cantonese, western and other Asian styles mix together to form a melting pot of food, as you would expect from a region famous for its trading and port city. (ooh, I came over all 'rough guide' there, didn't I?)

To fully appreciate this meal, one has to picture themselves standing in a neon-lit, Blade Runner-esque street in the rain, eating Hong Kong street food from a vendor with a cart and a plastic umbrella, surrounded by sky-scrapers in a city perched between mountains and the sea. We did a mix of dim sum, sometimes referred to as Cantonese Tapas (As I'm not wikipediea, I refuse to cite any sources so you will just have to take my word for all of the above) as it is said that the best dim sum is served in Honk Kong, rather than mainland China.

A trip to the same supermarket that yielded Duck's tongue also provided us with wonton and dumpling wrappers, some straw mushrooms and char sui sauce.  I wanted to do steamed chicken's feet as well, but the store was fresh out (Much to Mrs Soup's joy, I suspect...)

At this year's Olympics, Hong Kong won a Bronze in the Women's Keirin, where she was beaten to the gold by the nation's sweetheart Victoria Pendleton

San Bei Ji (3 Cup Chicken) - Olympic Food Challenge : Taiwan

As if to illustrate how fraught this whole Olympics malarkey is, and how diplomatic one has to be when putting your words up on t'interweb where anyone can see them, my initian post about the Olympic Food Challenge (Back when it seemed like a good idea and before I started hallucinating flags and endless combinations of stews, soups and ingredients) someone got in touch to a) find out what dish I would be doing when I reached Chinese Taipei, and b) tell me that no matter what the Chinese or the IOC may think, there is no such place as Chinese Taipei, but Taiwan is doing just fine thank you.*

Well, who was I to argue, as said person (hello, if you're reading this btw) lived in Taiwan.  I only hope that they think I've done this dish justice, as it is said that "A restaurant that cannot cook Sanbeiji is not a true Taiwanese restaurant." Oh, I also tried making some little (and not strictly accurate) crisps from the skin of the chicken, but the less said about them, the better...

*If the Chinese Authorities are reading this, ummm, sorry...

Ojingeogul (Squid Soup) - Olympic Food Challange : South Korea

Blimey! Hasn't today been exciting for Team GB? Two golds and a bronze to add to the nation's mantelpiece!

Today on the Olympic Food challenge, we reach South Korea (And I'm really glad I didn't get North Korea, although Glorious Leader Kim Jong-Il did have a fondness for lobster, or so I'm told...)

South Korea have won plenty of medals in their time at the Olympics - 215 in fact - which a high percentage of those in the archery, which makes them the 17th most successful nation in the history of the games, but remember, it's not the winning, it's the taking part (In which case, why don't they just give everyone a gold medal and be done with it?)  This year they will be fielding 245 Olympians in 22 sports.  As always, you can follow their progress here

I love me some squid, as I think I've mentioned before - when purchasing some, the fishmonger once asked if we wanted the tentacles, to which both Mrs Soup and I let out a child-like giggle of glee.  Tentacles - brilliant...

Today's new ingredient was Mooli - the radish used in this soup, which I've eaten but never cooked with before, so this was another new chapter in my culinary education...