Curly Fries' Rescue Remedy Tom Yam

This week has been a catalogue of health disasters culminating in horrible side effects from antibiotics in addition to megalurgy, so last night I knew that Friday lunch was going to have to be a good head-clearing HOT one to see me through the day.

And so... last night I wandered down Camden High Street to the brilliant Thai food shop near Mornington Crescent (before a quick lemongrass pork with an old friend at Viet-anh) in order to stock up on all the necessaries for Tom Yam as learned on a day-long cooking course in lovely Chiang Mai last year.  It really is a ludicrously simple recipe once you've got hold of the ingredients - not too hard these days, thankfully - and it only takes about two minutes to make.  Perfect on a cold day with a cold head and a feeble body!  

For one bowl (and I sort of doubled it for two) of this deliciously fragrant and hot-as-you-like soup you will need:

3 slices of galangal, each the approximate thickness of a pound coin

3 inch-long slices of lemongrass

1 shallot, crushed and then sliced into four pieces

3-5 small green chillies, stem removed and crushed (I put 5 into two bowls: I loved it but it nearly took the German's head off)

1 or 2 kaffir lime leaves, stem removed

2 straw mushrooms (or the usual round white ones if you can't find the Asian ones) cut into four chunks each

1/4 tomato cut into chunks (or one cherry tomato)

1 cup of water - that's about 200ml

3 prawns - washed, peeled and deveined

1/4 cup chicken breast slices - that's pretty much just a third of a chicken breast

1 tbsp fish sauce

a squeeze of lime juice

1 clove of garlic - skin removed and crushed.

You won't quite believe this but all you do is bring the water to the boil in a pan on a high heat, throw in everything bar the chicken and prawns and cook it for one minute.  Then add the chicken, wait a couple of minutes (it will cook through very quickly) and at the last minute add your prawns.  When they are pink and curly pour the whole lot out into a nice big bowl: inhale, drink... and wait for your sinuses to clear.