tom yum soup

Ingredients

For the fishcakes

• 400g fish – I’ve used cod, prawns, whatever
• 3 spring onions, roughly chopped (green and white parts)
• Half a bunch of coriander, roughly chopped
• Small piece ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 red or green chilli, roughly chopped
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp red curry paste

For the soup

• 300ml good chicken stock
• 2tsp tom yum paste
• 5 spring onions, roughly chopped (green and white parts)
• Half a bunch of coriander, roughly chopped
• Small piece ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 red or green chilli, roughly chopped
• 1 stick lemongrass, trimmed and chopped
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tsp fish sauce
• whatever veggies you have stocked

Method

For the fishcakes:
Put all the ingredients in the food processor and process until finely chopped but not too paste like. Form into small cakes and refrigerate until you’re ready to cook them.

For the soup:

Chop all the vegetables and sort them according to the order in which they’ll cook. In a large pan, warm a little oil and add the chilli, ginger, garlic and the white part of the spring onions. Cook until the wonderful volatile oils make you cough, but nothing is browning. Then add your slower-cooking veg, the stock, tom yum paste and a cup of water. Simmer until the hardest of the veg – usually the carrots – are beginning to tenderise. Then add the softer vegetables and simmer.

Heat a pan with a little oil or non-stick cooking spray and cook the fishcakes for about five minutes a side, until brown, sticky and cooked through.

Add your final ingredients to the soup: the spinach and spring onion tops, tofu or raw prawns if you’re using them. Simmer briefly, then finish with fresh coriander.

Serve the fishcakes on the side and the soup in its pot. You can eat them separately or dunk the fishcakes in the lovely fragrant broth.