Tom Yum Chicken

Needs to be marinaded for a while (preferably overnight) but easy and tasty.

Tom Yum Chicken

4-6 chicken legs (thigh and drumstick)

Marinade: 

10 or so shallots
5 or so garlic cloves
3 or so tbsp Tom Yum paste
2 or 3 fresh chillis
1 tbsp pickled jalapenos (or equivalent something. Use something spicy)
3 or 4 lime leaves
2 tbsp honey
spices, salt and pepper to taste

Prepare the marinade by blending it all together with a hand-held blendy thing. Don't add any water, it's meant to be like this. Smear over the chicken (possibly scoring the chicken some to get the taste in) and then leave to marinade for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.

When ready, wrap each piece in tin foil, shove in the oven at 200 degrees and leave to cook for 45min. If not done, use your discretion and cook for longer.

Serve with lemon and coriander.

Tom Yum Soup aka Hangover Cure

This is the first soup I've ever made. It was nice. It was tasty. It packed a punch. And its name is not my invention, although I'm pretty sure it would live up to its reputation in the event of its being needed. I've cheated and used store-bought paste, although you can obviously make it from scratch. If anyone does, please let me know the recipe.

This is a Thai fish soup, flavoured to be hot and sour. With a bit of bread it is lovely. Even without the bread it's lovely. The recipe below is one I adapted, cutting it down to a serving for 2-3. Still very nice and tasty.

Ingredients (feeds 2-3):

2-3 diced shallots (or an onion)
about an inch of galangal or ginger, diced
3 or 4 diced garlic cloves
1 or 2 chillis (with or without seeds according to taste)
3 stalks of lemongrass, or 1 1/2 tbsp fresh lemongrass paste
1 1/2 tbsp tom yum paste, store-bought or homemade (sorry, find your own recipe for this one)
1 small (approx 140ml) tin of coconut milk, or a big can for creamer soup (your choice) - I used a little tin and it was fine
1 litre chicken or fish stock
zest of a lime (with lime juice if you fancy)
sliced mushrooms (or brinjals, peppers, or other vegetables of choice)
fish or seafood (I used 200g of salmon, but most recipes allow for prawns or other seafood. Go wild)
Fish sauce and Thai basil to taste
Coriander, asparagus to serve

In a sufficiently large pot, fry up the galangal, shallots, garlic, lemongrass and chilli for 1-2 min. Add the paste and fry for a few more minutes. Add the stock. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 3-5 minutes. Add coconut milk, bring to the boil again, add mushrooms or other vegetables and the fish or seafood. Cook until ready. Use fish sauce rather than salt to season. Serve immediately with coriander and asparagus.

Very good. Cannot recommend this enough.