Thai Tom Yum Soup (Veggie)

Over the years, despite growing into a very competent home cook, the one cuisine family that has always flummoxed me is the Pan Asian cuisine, and especially Thai. All of our peers seemed to rave about it and there are many thai restaurants in our area to meet the demands of mid life professionals reliving their gap year glory days. Having never been on a gap year, I always put that down as the reason I just 'didn't get Thai', and I have always loved the butter, cream and dairy laden European diet. I also blame the horror of nasty Anglicised green curry for my rejection of this beautiful cuisine too.

However, as I near my forties, my body and digestion is changing dramatically, and I've found myself drawn increasingly to lighter, more refreshing food packed with flavour, and so... my recent experimentation with Thai and Chinese food has really taken off, and that's been helped by our local restaurant Thai Charms doing a lunch time special £8.95 menu, allowing me to discover authentic thai dishes that are simply out of this world.

Last night I made a vegetarian version of the classic Tom Yum Soup and it was deliciously warming, perfect for the freezing temperatures. It was the first time that I had ever had tofu, too. The tetra packed silken tofu for reference and it was lovely. I definitely urge you to try this type if you've been put off by the other drier tofu.

LEVEL: EASY
BUDGET: LOW (approx £1.25 a serving) 
FEEDS 2-3 comfortably as a main dish
TIME: FAST
VEGETARIAN


Budget Notes: Having a general stock of thai ingredients regularly in the fridge reduces the cost of cooking thai as a little goes a long way and will make several dishes across the week. I always have a fresh ginger root, couple of red chilis and a bunch of lemon grass in the fridge and soy and fish sauce in the cupboard; so initially the cost may be a little bit of an outlay, but it stretches very economically.


INGREDIENTS
1 lemon grass stalk
2 cloves of garlic
1tsp of sea salt
1/2 red chili or dried chili flakes to personal level
2 x good stock gels (veggie or chicken)
6-7 Shitake mushrooms
2tbsp soy sauce
Splash of fish sauce (optional)
Pak choi or dark green cabbage
Corriander
Basil
1 bundle of dried egg noodles.
1/2 pack of tetra packed silken tofu (optional)


METHOD
1) In a large casserole pan / soup pan make the stock up into 1 1/2 pints of stock. Mince the lemon grass and garlic and ginger together in a pestle and mortar with salt to help break it down. Add to the stock mix and heat until well infused.

2) Add the 2thsp of soy sauce, splash of optional fish sauce, and a tbsp of brown sugar.

3) Add the noodles and cook for approx 5 until softened.

4) Add the chopped shitake mushrooms greens, basil and coriander and heat until greens are vivid.

5) Cube the tofu and place in the bottom of the bowl. Heap the noodles and solids on top to help heat it through and then pour over the broth.

TIP: Add more or less stock depending on your tastes, and adjust salt accordingly.

Salmon Miso Broth. Guest Post.

The Frugal Snob Club, over on Facebook (See join button on this page) encourages our members to share their dishes and favourite recipes, and it's always fun to share them here, too. 

As a thank you for her contribution, we'll be sending her a set of our homemade wax wraps. If you want to share your recipes, head on over and join the group, and if yours is selected to be featured, we'll send you a little gift. 

Today's recipe comes from club member Tara Whiteson, and as soon as she posted this on the club page, I knew it was a sharer. 

Tara, like many of us over at The Frugal Snob is attempting to enact small but significant changes for health and environmental reasons. 

I think you'll agree that this dish looks nutritious, filling and very appetising. 

In an ideal world, and if budget allows, you'll use wild salmon (available reasonably priced in the frozen section) We buy a side of wild salmon from the fishmongers, or when it's on promo / reduced at Waitrose, and then freeze it down, which makes it more economical. 

Ingredients:

• garlic, chilli, ginger (according to taste)
• Broccoli cut into small florets 
• Rice noodles
• Miso paste - a generous 2 teaspoons
• 2 salmon fillets cut into chunks, seasoned; squeeze juice of half a lime
• Several splashes of soy sauce (about half a soup ladle)
• Spring onions. 

Method: 

• Put all ingredients into a saucepan but keep the salmon back.
• Simmer for 3 mins and squeeze rest of lime in
• Add the fish and continue to simmer for another 3 mins
• For LUXURY miso add prawns in with the salmon. Other greens - spinach, peas or asparagus also work equally well.
• Season to taste
• Add in a splash of teriyaki.
• Add finely sliced spring onion.
• Eat, slurp and enjoy!

Cook Book Review: Yotam Ottolenghi JERUSALEM

Having watched Yotum Ottonlenghi's cookery program a little while ago, we purchased the cookery book on a wave of vegetable enthusiasm. Although not a Vegetarian book, many of the recipes have vegetables as their stars rather than meat.

As part of our frugal snob project, one of the tenants is to try new foods and to start cooking from the literally hundreds of cookery books we own. Having not touched 'Jerusalem' since we got it, I decided to try both a vegetarian and meat based recipes from the book - and I am so pleased I did; I feel that my cooking has been injected with a fresh and interesting new lease of life.

Pearl Barley Risotto with
marinated feta cheese.
An absolutely gorgeous dish
packed full of big flavours and
the ideal comfort food. 

The flavours are full and the dishes just different enough to make it feel like a real foodie experience. I like the little anecdotes and extra information that heads up the recipes, and the instructions are clearly laid out, if not a little unnecessarily complicated in places.

Chicken with Caramelised onion
and cardamon rice with barberries.
This made a huge portions is
great for a big crowd.  

I highly recommend this cook book for those who love food adventures and who want to embrace food that is both familiar and exotic all at the same time. If you love aromatics and spices, this book is for you. It's also great for big family or crowd cooking. 

I highly recommend this book and give it 5 STARS.