A taste of Asia

If you like me are wishing you were in sunny Thailand rather than cold Dublin right now well you have three options! Jump on a plane and head East; head down to your local food market and get some tasty eastern ingredients to fuse together. The third option of course is to get to a suitable Thai restaurant but them you miss out on all the cooking fun and the opportunity to experiment and create just the taste your looking for. I adore a good Tom Kha Gai soup with noodles and have travelled far and wide to acquire the best dish. Sadly many restaurants fail to deliver to standard. It is a relatively easy dish to produce but there are a few ingredients you need to ensure the best outcome. Here is my version of this famous soup using Japanese Udon noodles so that it becomes a main dish. 

Ingredients:

1 can coconut milk

3 kafir lime leaves

1 galanga

1 garlic 

500 g fresh prawns peeled (use the shells for stock)

1 fresh chili

150 g fresh button mushrooms

1 fresh lime

1 fresh lemon grass

Bunch of spring onions

1 Charlotte onion

1 red pepper

1 litre water

1 pack of udon noodles (Japanese noodles)

1 pack fresh coriander

Method

Peel the prawns removing the intestines and saving the shells. Chop up the galanga, lemon grass, lime leaves , garlic and Charlotte onion. Toss the peeled prawns with crushed garlic and fry quickly in a pan for one minute. Set aside in a bowl. In same pan, fry the shells with the chopped vegetables adding the chilli for five minutes. All the water. Let it boil for ten minutes. Strain the stock and reduce to taste. Add the coconut and season to taste with salt, pepper and lime juice. Boil up the udon noodles and heat two bowls. Add the non stock vegetables (spring onions, red pepper, mushrooms) to the soup. Strain the noodles once cooked. Place the noodles in the warm bowls, add the prawns and pour the soup over. Sprinkle with fresh coriander and serve immediately.