recipe!

Or, rather, "ingredients" might be a better title-- "recipe" implies some sort of measuring, and I certainly can't give you that. But I just made up a delicious soup that I wanted to share.

It started out because I'm feeling rather ill today (just a cold, don't worry) and I wanted to make something that would be good for a stuffed-up head. I originally was going to make chicken and rice soup, with some cayenne pepper thrown in. As I brought the chicken stock to boil and started peering in cabinets, the idea began evolving, with a dash of this and a pinch of that, until I had a spicy Thai-inspired soup.

(All portions are just "to taste" unless otherwise noted.)

-The base is chicken stock with a dash of soy sauce.
-garlic and cayenne pepper. A clove of fresh minced garlic would probably be great, but you'd want it to be minced (or smushed) very small, and simmered for a while. All I have is garlic powder, so that's what I used.
-lemongrass. Again, fresh and chopped would be fine, but I used dried stuff. You will probably want to strain this out before adding anything else. Lemongrass is, after all, a grass, and has a texture not unlike that of hay. Flavorful hay, certainly, and it won't do you any harm to eat it-- it's just tough. (According to the wikipedia page, it's also called "barbed wire grass." Ouch!) Simmer for, dunno, five or ten minutes? before straining it out.
-shredded greens-- I used spinach, rocket (arugula), and coriander (cilantro). When dealing with lettuces, you always want to shred them by hand rather than chop them with a knife-- chopping bruises the leaves. Throw in the shredded greens and simmer for a couple minutes... but not too long, you don't want them to wilt into nothing.
-ginger. Fresh or ground, always add ginger near the end-- heating makes it lose flavor very quickly.
-egg. Beat an egg well and pour it in the boiling mix at the end, stirring as you do. This is like egg drop soup, not avgolemano-- you want the egg to curdle! One egg is probably good for a quart of soup... I used one egg with 500ml (about 2 cups) of stock, and it's almost taken over the soup. Which isn't a bad thing, but I was envisioning something thinner and more brothy.


I am eating this right now, and man is it delicious! Just the thing for a cold.

Also, I would like to express how pleased I am that I can throw together a spicy Thai-flavored soup from the odds and ends in my kitchen.

Now, let's hope I can get this cold cleared up before the weekend. I don't want to go spreading this damn SARS all over England!