Souper Dooper: Tom yum soup

It's actually a take on Tom yum soup. Without the coconut milk, and with a dash of fridge-bottom ness about it, making it slightly more frugal than either the name or this post would suggest.

I really have no appetite right now, my inclination is oddly, not towards traditional comfort foods, but to the clearing spice and cleanness of thai (or at the very least, thai influences). That said, this was a cobbled together lunch that made use of the last of my veg box, and a jar of tom yum paste left over from the Fusionfood challenges late last year.

1 glug oil
3 tablespoons tom yum paste (I used FusionFoods)
1 clove garlic crushed
3 pieces of galangal (I use Waitrose's dried galangal)
1/2 tsp lazy chilli
250g prawns (it's amazing what you find when you dig through your freezer)
Spring greens, leaves finely shredded
1 stick celery shredded
1 red pepper, chopped into matchsticks
Handful rice noodles
Boiling water

Heat the oil gently in a wok or frying pan and add the paste, cook until you can smell the aromatics
Add the garlic, chilli and galangal and continue to fry gently
Add the prawns and cook through until hot
Meanwhile, pour a kettle full of boiling water over the noodles and the shredded greens, and leave for about 4 minutes
Drain, the greens & noodles and add to the wok/ pan, stirring briefly
Add 150ml(ish) of boiling water into the wok/ pan and stir so that everything is combined
Serve in a bowl, and eat, alone and away from a mirror

The original recipe asked for coconut milk to be added at the end of cooking, and then coriander. I didn't add these as I didn't have them in and I didn't want the cooling sweetness of the coconut milk. That said this was particularly fiery and the sourness really came through, so it could probably do with the balance of the coconut milk. Something about it's clearing heat really appeals to me, with the lightly cooked vegetables and freshness of the broth says healing to me. And after all, that is what I'm after at the moment.

What appeals to me about this is that it could be prettied up into a lovely dinner, or if pushed for time and fresh food (like myself) a quick and easy lunch for one.

Meal Planning Monday: A truncated week take 2?

Well last week was, what I think is called in the industry, a complete and utter unmitigated disaster! Those of you who follow me on Twitter will be aware that on Tuesday night I came down with a migraine, and pretty much as soon as I took my sumatriptan had a seizure, and then another one whilst still post ictal. This meant an admission to hospital and poor Mark had to take the lead on cooking.

So we're going to try and do better this week at Pantry HQ, I have rested all weekend, and apart from baking and some pottering, done very very little in a bid to boost my energy and general wellbeing.  I don't know if it's going to work, but I'm exercising, eating healthily and resting - what else can I do?! Answers on a postcard please.

Right, where was I? Oh yes, meal planning

Monday: Chicken and spinach curry (still to be blogged)

Tuesday: Well, Tuesday is my slightly belated birthday present (my fault, I just couldn't get organised - there's irony in there somewhere) so we're off for Afternoon tea at the Ritz, I suspect we won't need or want dinner.

Wednesday & Thursday - I re-embrace the joy that is a Beefeater.

Friday: I think I'm going to do my Fusion Taste Team challenge of Tom Yum rice that was ousted by an Indian takeaway that I nearly fell asleep in this week.

Saturday: We're out with friends

Sunday: We're at my Mum's so I'm hoping for her roast beef

I'm sticking with lots of raw foods, so salads and fruit at lunchtime, and yoghurt, fruit, grape nuts and raw honey for breakfast.

Oh and lots of satsuma and cardamom drizzle cake, and Iced buns to eat too! Oops...

Meal Planning Monday: the Beefeater conundrum

It's that time of the week again, and normally I'm super excited to plan my menus and shop for Mark and I, using my veg box to ensure what we're eating is healthy, seasonal whilst enabling us to try different things. However, in contrast to my usual geeky 'what shall I cook this week?' excitement, this week and last I've been working away and owing to my inability to drive have been limited to the restaurant adjacent to the hotel. This has been my introduction to the wonderful world of the Beefeater. Now, whilst I like good food I've never thought of myself as a food snob. Until now. Which makes me sad.

I have to say that the breakfasts were great, fresh and dried fruit, yoghurt and granola were on offer as well as the more traditional cooked offerings. For me though, the former is the ideal start to the day, and pretty typical of what I have at home. Which was a promising start. If only it had been followed up on.

The menu for the Beefeater looks impressive, and the selection of grilled meat is varied. However, if you have a budget to stick to as I do, you are limited in your choices - for me, chicken seemed the best place to start. The waiter couldn't confirm if the chicken was free range, which is always a concern as I'm keen not to OK battery farmed meat by consuming it.

As I'm still dieting, I was hoping that salads or veggies would be on offer, but Beefeater it seems is all about the carbs; chips, baked potatoes, boiled potatoes. And everything was so salty. Really quite unpleasant.

Salad bowls were tiny, predominantly slightly sad lettuce and chopped onion, with a vinegary dressing and veggies just weren't on offer. The vegetarian options on the menu were predominantly cheese and pasta/ rice based and as part of my dieting I'm trying to keep carbs relatively low.  I'm hoping that this week will bring better things. Last week I tried to cram a week's veggies into Friday night dinner.  No, seriously. Fortunately I can snack on fruit during the day, but I am desperate for my usual regular intake of veggies.

It's such a shame as the idea of well cooked meat with vegetables would be terrific - ideal in fact. If they were to add in some halloumi and some more fish, and could verify the provenance of their meat I wouldn't resent paying the prices. As it is, it seems ridiculously high and underwhelms.

I won't be cooking again until Friday, this week I think I'll celebrate my weekend with roasted vegetables, couscous, feta and salad. A whole lot of salad.
Saturday M is out for the day, so I'm going to do some shopping and housework, and I think I'm going to have a bash at something along the lines of a Tom Yum soup, unless it's sweltering, then more salad will be the name of the game. Sunday I think I'm going to roast a chicken as I'm hoping to be around a bit more next week.
Hopefully everyone else's week's are more interesting than mine - don't forget to pop over to At home with Mrs M and see all the linkies.