Tom Yum Gai with Noodles

Tom Yum Gai

So I weighed myself the other day, and there's no getting away from the fact that I'm now a bit of a bloater. To be honest, I've had a great couple of months cooking and eating some delicious, yet calorific, food, but it's a new year, blah de blah, new you, resolution bollocks and it's time to shift a bit of timber. It means parking the cakes for a bit, but I hope you stick with The Albion Tavern while we go through a bit of a refurb.

I adore hot and sour soup, so Tom Yum Gai (not to be confused with the Cream of Sum Yung Gai – gag courtesy of Wayne's World) is an ideal start to flush the fat. Once you get the base of the soup right, I normally chuck in whatever colourful veg I have to hand – in this case there's sliced carrots as well as red pepper. Use prawns instead of chicken and it's basically Tom Yum Goong; add coconut milk (calories, bad) and it's Tom Yum Nam Khon. Experiment and enjoy. Serves 2. 

Ingredients:
800ml chicken stock
1 stalk fresh lemongrass, chopped
1 large knob of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced into matchsticks
2-3 kaffir lime leaves (fresh or frozen)
2-3 chillies, finely chopped (use more if you want it hotter)
3 shallots, finely diced
1 tbsp garlic paste
2 carrots, julienne
2 boneless skinless chicken breast, cubed
1 tbsp fish sauce
2-3 ripe tomatoes, cut into quarter
1 tbsp lime juice
1 red pepper, sliced
6 shittake mushrooms, cut into quarter
rice noodles
coriander leaves, to garnish
3 spring onions, sliced, to garnish

Method:
1. Bring the stock to a boil. Add lemongrass, ginger, lime leaves, chillies, shallots, garlic paste and carrots and simmer gently for 15 minutes.
2. Add raw chicken, pepper, tomatoes, mushrooms, lime juice and fish sauce and simmer for a further 8 minutes until chicken is cooked.
3. Two minutes before end of cooking add noodles.
4. Ladle into large bowls and garnish with chopped spring onion and coriander.