This next recipe is a family favourite. It reminds me of home, my parents' home that is. The best place to get the ingredients is the market or ethnic/Asian stores (read: if you want cheap ingredients forget about fancy supermarkets and go to the market or Asian stores).
This is not one of the shortest recipes, but it's very easy and doesn't require a lot of cooking skills.
Ingredients:
- 2 big onions
- 2 garlic gloves
- 3 tomatoes
- 500 gr or a bit more of minced lamb (you can use beef if you prefer, but lamb meat is juicier)
- fresh coriander
- ginger root
- spring onion
- fried onion/shallot (available in ethnic/Asian shops. In the Netherlands available in most supermarkets ("gebakken uitjes"))
- friend garlic (also available in ethnic/Asian shops, come in a plastic jar)
- sweet soya sauce
- salty light soya sauce (do not use the dark soya sauce)
- salt and pepper
- rice noodles
- cucumber or bean sprout
- ground tumeric
- ground cumin
- chilli oil (comes ready made in a jar in Asian shops if you don't want to make it yourself)
- lemonjuice or lime juice
The fun part:
The stock:
Chop op the onion finely and 2 garlic gloves. Stir fry the onion and the garlic in oil on a medium fire in a big pot suitable for the soup. Add a tea spoon of cumin and tumeric and a table spoon of the minced meat. Add 1,5 liter of water and one chopped tomatoe. Then add 2 slices of ginger root and some salt and pepper. Please make sure you do not add too much salt. Lower the fire and put a lit on the pot so the soup can simmer away for at least an hour.
The meat:
While the soup simmers away, chop the onion and garlic glove. Stir fry this in a frying pan in a little bit of oil. Add the rest of the minced lamb and some salt and pepper. Then add the chopped up tomatoes. Make sure the fire is on medium. Stir fry the meat until it's cooked and until all the water has evaporated (the water comes from the tomatoe and meat, don't worry about this). Vegetarians that eat fish can replace the meat with shrimps. Vegetarians that do not eat fish either can skip this part and add fresh white tofu in the soup instead of a table spoon of minced meat.
The noodles:
Rice noodles do not need very long to cook. Boil some water and add the rice noodles. Follow the instructions on the package of rice noodles. In general it only takes 5 minutes to cook the rice noodles, but follow the instructions and check by tasting the noodles to ensure you don't overcook the rice noodles. Once the rice noodles is cooked take them out of the boiling water and immediately put them in cold water. Leave the noodles to the side until you're ready to serve the noodle soup.
Preparing the garnish:
Chop up the spring onion and coriander. Chop up the ginger root finely. Cut the lemon in slices.
Preparing the actual bowl of noodle soup:
When the soup has simmered for over an hour you can reheat the meat on a low fire. In the meantime rinse the noodles in hot water (quickly rinse the noodles so they don't actually cook again. You do not want the noodles to become too soft and pulpy).
Put the noodles in a bowl. Add the chopped up coriander, spring onion and ginger. Add a little bit of salty soya sauce and sweet soya sauce. Sprinkle some lemon juice over it and add the chilli oil, friend onion and garlic.
Add the soup and meat to the noodles with garnish and then top it up with finely sliced cucumber or bean sprouts. Mix it all together and add some lemon juice, salt or sweet and salty soya sauce according to your own taste.
I personally like my noodle soup hot, spicy and a bit acidy so I like to add a generous amount of chilli oil and lemon juice. The secret is to find the perfect balance of salty, sweet, hot and sour flavours.
Voila! Enjoy!!!
xxx
