Soup de Joy.
Inspired by Andrea Giang’s Chicken Noodle-less Soup I thought I’d try something similar with some left over chicken, but this time around, include the noodles.
I separated as much of the left over chicken as I could and put the remaining carcass in a pot with water to make a stock. While simmering, I added a little fish sauce and 4 large raw prawns and let cook for about 5 minutes. I removed the prawns and cooled them down under cold water, then shelled them and put the heads, tails and shells back into the stock. the prawn flesh was put aside with the shredded chicken to be added later.
I made up a spice mix of a half teaspoon each of powdered ginger , lemongrass, garlic, coriander, pepper and chili and a teaspoon of dried prawn shells. I think a small amount of shrimp paste would have been just as good as the dried prawn shells, but that will have to be tested another time. I also added a little shredded seaweed and some dried basil and parsley.
After removing the leaves from a coriander plant and setting them aside, I chopped up the coriander roots and stalks, sliced a half white onion and two large red chilies and put them aside.
After the stock had simmered for about an hour, I strained it and brought the strained stock back to a simmer and added the chopped coriander and the sliced onion and chilies. A little later I added the spice mix and a dash of fish sauce. I let all that simmer for about an half hour before adding the chicken and prawns.
After 5 minutes, I added some rice vermicelli and when they were soft, I turned off the heat and added the coriander leaves and about a tablespoon of oil and mixed them through. I would have liked to have used sesame oil but didn’t have any, so I settled for the olive oil from a jar of marinated olives. It turned out to be a good compromise.
I often forget the joy of a nice bowl of soup and am glad Andrea reminded me of this simple pleasure. The chicken noodle soup was delicious and the quantities used, made two large serves.
Im Ho 