Читать книгу Lorraine Pascale’s Fast, Fresh and Easy Food - Lorraine Pascale - Страница 24

Thai chicken soup with coconut milk & ginger

A smoother-than-velvet Thai-style soup with an orchestra of flavours going on inside. If you can get your hands on fresh kaffir lime leaves that would be great; the dried ones can be found in the herbs and spices section in the supermarket, or use frozen.

Time from start to finish: 20 minutes

Serves: 4

Equipment: Large pan or wok

Vegetable oil

1 lemongrass stalk

2 garlic cloves

5cm piece of fresh ginger

Large handful of fresh coriander

3 kaffir lime leaves (fresh, frozen or dried)

2 × 400ml tins of coconut milk

300ml good-quality chicken stock (fresh is best to use here)

1 red chilli

3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

1 bunch of spring onions

2 limes

2–3 tbsp fish sauce

1–2 tsp caster sugar

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

+ Heat a drizzle of oil in a large pan or wok on a medium heat.

+ Trim the lemongrass stalk and discard any tough outer leaves before finely chopping the white bit (discard the green bit as it can be quite bitter). Peel and finely chop the garlic and then peel the ginger and cut it into thin slivers. Chop the stalks off the coriander (in one go) and then finely slice them (keeping the coriander leaves aside for later).

+ Carefully toss them all in the hot oil with the kaffir lime leaves and stir-fry for a couple of minutes, being careful that nothing catches and burns.

+ Next add the coconut milk and stock and leave to come to the boil.

+ Meanwhile, halve the chilli lengthways and then finely slice it, leaving the seeds in if you like it quite fiery. Chop the chicken into bite-sized pieces and add both ingredients to the now-boiled soup. Reduce the heat a little and leave it to bubble away for about 8 minutes until the chicken is cooked.

+ Finely slice the spring onions (both the green and the white bits), juice the limes and roughly chop half of the reserved coriander leaves. Add these once the chicken is cooked and then leave to simmer for a final minute. Finally, add enough fish sauce and sugar to taste and season with salt and pepper if necessary.

+ Ladle into four serving bowls, scatter the remaining coriander leaves over and serve.