Thai Noodle Soup and Rice Cake

THAI NOODLE SOUP

Ingredients:
2 tsp sunflower or other vegetable oil
1 small garlic clove, chopped
2 lemongrass stalks
2 kaffir lime leaves - or strip of pared lime rind (I couldn't find the leaves, so I used rind.)
1.2 litres/2 pint veggie stock
75g/3oz dried medium egg noodles
1 lime, juice only (about 2 tsp)
½ medium-hot red chilli, seeded and finely chopped
2.5ml/½ tsp sugar
50g/2oz fresh spinach or pak choi, cut into 2.5cm/1in wide strips
a handful fresh coriander/cilantro leaves

Method:
1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan.
2. Add the garlic and fry gently over a medium heat for 1 minute.
3. Meanwhile, lightly crush the lemon grass stalks with a rolling pin or the blade of a large knife.
4. To make the soup add the lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves and stock to the pan, bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
5. To refine the soup, strain the stock through a fine sieve into a bowl, return to the pan and add lime juice, red chilli and sugar. Simmer for 3 minutes. (I just picked out the lemongrass and lime rind, because I am lazy.)
6. Meanwhile , drop the noodles into a pan of boiling water, remove from the heat and leave to soak for 4 minutes, before draining. (Or just toss the noodles in to the broth and cook them that way, which is what I did because I didn't feel like pulling out another pot and waiting for the water to boil.)
7. Add the egg noodles and spinach, or pak choi and simmer for a further 30 seconds.
8.Finally, ladle into bowls, dividing the noodles equally between them and scatter over the coriander leaves.


RICE CAKE

Ingredients:
150g/5¼oz cooked Thai fragrant rice (I used plain basmati, because I had no idea where to find this.)
1 free-range egg, beaten
2 spring onions, finely chopped
½ red pepper, finely chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper
drizzle soy sauce
1-2 tbsp olive oil

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7.
2. Place the cooked rice into a large bowl. Stir in the beaten egg along with the spring onions, pepper, salt and freshly ground black pepper and soy sauce.
3. Heat the oil in a small to medium non-stick frying pan. Spoon the rice mixture into the pan and press down. Fry for about two minutes. Transfer the pan to the oven and cook for a further 10-12 minutes.
4. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly. Turn the cake out and cut into wedges to serve.


NOTES
The soup could easily be made vegan by the substitution of regular noodles for egg noodles, and the rice cake if you felt like playing around with non-egg binders.

I believe the entire meal is gluten-free, although of course you'd want to double-check your broth and noodles.


VERDICT
The soup was fine. Not the most delicious thing I've ever tasted in my life, but it was good and had a nice balance of spice/savory/sour as Thai food should. I might make it again, although I think it would be better as an appetizer than part of the main course.

The rice cake was a little odd, just because it was rice and egg all baked together. Certainly edible, but probably not something I'd cook for myself again.

Quorn with Ginger, Chilli, and Leeks

(From Vegetarian and Vegetable Cooking by Christine Ingram--a really great vegetarian cook book I picked up when I lived in England. I definitely recommend it, if you can find it. It has a lot of great information about vegetarian ingredients, and the recipes all have multiple pictures showing different steps of the process.)

Ingredients
8 oz Quorn cubes (I used cutlets that I then cut in to cubes myself.)
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp dry sherry
2 tbsp clear honey
2/3 cup vegetable stock
2 tsp flour
1 leek (The recipe says '3 leeks', but I think they mean 3 leaves of leek, as this was PLENTY and more than it looked like in the photo.)
1 red chili - seeded and sliced (I used two small dried chilis)
1 inch piece fresh root ginger - shredded
salt and black pepper to taste
vegetable oil for frying

Method
1. Toss the Quorn in the soy sauce and sherry until well coated and leave to marinate for about 30 minutes. (What I did? Pulled the Quorn cutlets out of the freezer, laid them out in a glass baking dish, poured some extra soy sauce and sherry on them, microwaved them for a minute until they were thawed enough to cut, and cubed them. In the microwave, they sucked up most of the soy sauce and sherry.)
2. Strain the Quorn from the marinde and reserve the juices in a jug. Mix the marinade with the honey, stock, and flour. (Since my Quorn wasn't marinating, I just used new soy sauce and sherry.)
3. Heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan. When hot, stir-fry the Quorn until it is crisp on the outside. Remove Quorn from pan and set aside. (This is where that baking dish comes in handy again.)
4. Reheat the oil and stir-fry the leeks, chili, and ginger until they are just soft. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
5. Return Quorn to the pan, together with the marinade, and stir well until the liquid is thick and glossy. Serve hot with rice or noodles.

Notes
Took about half an hour to make from start to finish. The recipe says it serves 4, but as we were both really hungry, it was good for the two of us.

I served this over rice and with cabbage (lightly sauteed and seasoned with a little soy sauce and black pepper) on the side. It was really good, but I think broccoli might compliment it slightly better.

Additionally, if you've never tried Quorn, it's a fantastic vegetarian alternative to chicken in many dishes. (Although it is NOT vegan--it contains egg white.) It's made of mycoprotein instead of soy, and so has a completely different taste and texture that many find more palatable. Carrie, for example, is not a fan of tofu but buys Quorn products for herself.

If you made this dish with tofu instead of Quorn, it would be vegan.

Verdict
I will definitely be making this again. It was a little spicy (right at Carrie's threshhold and medium-high to my taste) but I did technically put in more chili than the recipe called for, and that's easily regulated if we want to try it a little more mild next time. And served with some sort of vegetable, it's a ridiculously filling and well-balanced meal.

Carrie Says:
I liked this alot. It was at the very upper limits of my spice-threshold, but I still ate two plates. I love Quorn, because it absorbs all the flavors. Seven made it with soy-sauce cabbage, which I love, but she was right--didn't quite compliment the dish as well as some brocolli would have. I would definitely make this one again and again.