I purchased a selection of mushrooms from the Kelvin Grove Markets on Saturday morning, 4 varieties in a little pack. The woodear Fungus is really quite crunchy and strong flavoured, the shitake mushrooms have an earthiness to them. Oyster Mushrooms are a little sweeter, and Enoki mushrooms are fun and stringy. Put all into the one dish, it’s a flavour and texture sensation!

I served this soup with little Mushroom and Wombok Potsticker Dumplings. You can either have them to the side as an entree, or plop them in the soup.

Ingredients

Broth
2 cups Chicken Stock
2 cups Water
Pepper
Small amount of chili
1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
2tsp Golden Syrup
1/2tsp Fish Sauce
1tbsp Malt Vinegar

Method

Simmer all ingredients together while you prepare the other ingredients

Soup ingredients

1 large Chicken Thigh
extra chicken stock and water, chili and ginger for poaching the chicken

3 Asparagus Spears, Cut in half lengthways
1 or 2 leaves of Wombok cabbage ribs, cut in 5cm strips
Handful Snow peas, julienned
1 Woodear fungus, cut into strips
1 clump Enoki Mushroom, stump removed, broken into smaller clumps
3 Shitake Mushroom, sliced thinly
5 Oyster mushroom, ripped in two
2 Bok Choy plants, Steamed (pop a steaming basket over the broth while it bubbles)
1 Green Shallot, Finely sliced

Method

1. Bring the chicken stock and flavours to a slow boil,  cut in the Chicken Thigh into strips and drop into the simmering poaching liquid. Simmer until just cooked through. (check by taking a piece out and cutting it. No pink in the middle)

2. Arrange the vegetables, mushrooms and chicken in a bowl and pour over the broth.

So I had a big shoes to fill on Saturday when I attempted my first Pad Sieu ever — and to top it all off, I was cooking with my new wok, freshly “seasoned” (or, my best efforts at least!).

The best thing about Thai cooking is that for the most part, it’s simple, quick, and unpretentious: gather together fresh ingredients, throw them all in together, and let the food speak for itself. You can easily whip up a delicious meal, full of flavours and textures in a matter of minutes.

This particular attempt at Pad Sieu was by and large, reasonably successful.  I managed to absolutely butcher my noodles – which I hope to avoid next time around by purchasing proper wok-sized cooking implements! The addition of a squeeze of lime right at the end was a real winner – it just freshens up the whole dish, and adds to the sweet/sour effect. The only other addition I will consider in future is to crack an egg over the top prior to adding the sauces, to sweeten things up – this idea is borrowed from Thai Wi Rat’s Pad Sieu recipe, and I’m very keen to see how it affects the flavours.

Finally, the real road to victory with this recipe lies in the quality of the noodles:  do endeavour to get yourself fresh flat rice noodles from an Asian grocer, rather than buying the dehydrated variety — the fresh’uns suck up the flavour so much better, are much easier to work with, and cost roughly the same anyway. Dig around the grocers wherever they keep their fresh produce.

Ingredients

1kg fresh wide rice noodles (the wider the better, I say!)

2 tsp sesame oil

2 cloves garlic, crushed

600g chicken thigh fillets, chopped coarsely

250 grams (1 or 2 small bunches) baby bok choy

4 green onions, sliced thinly

2 tablespoons kecap manis (pron: “ke-chap mannis”; sweet soy sauce)

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp grated palm sugar

1 lime

1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh coriander

1 tbsp friend onion

Method

1. Place noodles in large heatproof bowl; cover with boiling water, separate with a fork, and then drain – this process stops the noodles sticking together.
2. Heat oil in a large wok; stir-fry garlic and chill until fragrant.
   Add chicken and stir-fry until lightly browned. Add the bok choy and green onion, and stir-fry until green onion softens and chicken is cooked through.
3. Add the noodles, along with the kecap manis, sauces and sugar, and stir-fry, tossing gently to combine.  Avoid a heavy hand here – keep it gentle, and try not to break the noodles (as I learned, this takes practice!).
4. Squeeze over the juice of a lime (to taste). Remove from heat, and add coriander, tossing gently to combine.
   Serve sprinkled with friend onion and some fresh coriander on top.

Serves 4

Adapted from Women’s Weekly: Beginner’s Thai

Note:I halved the quantity of noodles and chicken when I cooked it up, but kept the other quantities the same.  I like a lot of sauce in my stir-frys, and I love that glossy look it gives the noodles at the end!

LEMONGRASS BROTH
500ml water
500ml chicken or vegetable stock
3 cloves garlic
1 thumb of Ginger
¼ onion
½ lemongrass shoot
1 tsp black pepper corns
1 tsp coriander seeds
½ fresh chilli
A few slices of dried shitake mushrooms

Chop all the ingredients roughly and put in a pot. Set to a slow simmer. Do this before all other steps and the flavours will have time to develop… check for seasoning.

WONTON
80g Pork Mince
A few slices of Ginger, finely diced
A small piece of onion, finely diced
Sprinkle of Garam Masala or Chinese Five Spice
6 Water Chestnuts, finely diced
Wonton Wrappers

1. Mix all ingredients together
2. Take small teaspoonfuls of mixture and fold into wonton wrappers.
3. Set aside until later

TO PREPARE
1. Prepare some noodles (Hokkien, Singapore or Soba) and divide them between two large soup bowls.
2. Finely chop lots of vegetables – REALLY thin! Use a mandolin if you have one (i wish i did!). The vegies i use are Fresh Mushroom, Carrot, Celery, Snow Peas, Pumpkin, onion, spring onion, capsicum, pak choy, asparagus etc etc
3. Place them around the edges of the bowls in groups (it looks fancy!)
4. Bring a pot of water to a simmer and put the wontons in for a few minutes. Take one out and cut it open to check to make sure the pork mince is cooked.
5. Place the wontons in the soup bowls
6. Strain the broth and ladle over the vegetables. The heat of the broth will cook the vegetables a little.
7. Serve with fresh herbs (parsley and coriander)
8. Have some Kecap Manis (sweet soy sauce) on the table so they can add as much as they like.