Yummy! This was perfect yesterday for weekend brunch on a freezing, icy but sunny day.
So many good things in this one, and it IS simple, although it might look like a long list of ingredients.
Read it through to get a sense of the simplicity.
Quantities are kind of up to you and what you feel like, but for two I used this.
I made a paste with the pestle and mortar, gently pounding (CAN you 'gently' pound? Well, I can when I'm trying not to get the food on my white sweater ha!):
a piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
a clove of garlic, peeled and minced
a chopped red chilli
a couple of kaffir line leaves (stalks removed)
a stick of lemongrass (only the middle part, outer woody layers removed, minced)
1 scant tablespoon each of runny honey, light soy sauce, fish sauce, toasted sesame oil
Then 3/4 of this paste went into a pan of boiling water along with a Knorr chicken stock cube, and the other 1/4 into a bowl to marinade squid and prawns and mushrooms.
You could mix it up of course - try chicken instead, add scallops, have just all sorts of different mushrooms.
Cook the seafood on a hot griddle pan or in a non-stick frying pan - you could of course just add to the soup if you want to keep it really simple but I love this charred griddled seafood.
I added another squeeze of runny honey over the seafood in the last minute or so.
Add lots of diced vegetables to the broth along with a nest of rice noodles (thin ones or wider ones, both work!) for a couple of minutes.
Finish with a squeeze of lime and a dash more soy or fish sauce as needed - to taste.
Share the noodles into two bowls, ladle over the soup and vegetables, top with seafood, griddled mushrooms or meat.
This is one that once you've made it you can just play with, adapting to whatever you feel like and whatever you have in the fridge and cupboard.
It was perfect for a frosty morning here in London, lots of warming flavours with the chilli, garlic and ginger, and then the rousing citrus lemongrass and lime juice, alongside comforting broth and noodles.
