Asian Summer

Just back from a few days in France – where we ate oysters for breakfast, lunch and dinner! We toured Brittany from north, across the middle to south and back up to north east again in one big circle.  The weather was beautiful and we swam in both the Atlantic Ocean and the English Channel, eating fish of some description every day.  So, keeping to the “fishy” theme, I thought to  give you a fish dish – and because Autumn now beckons, something still light enough for the warm sunny days, but, also with a bit of warmth for the chilly evenings.

Fish Noodle Broth (I’ve deliberately left some of the ingredients’ amounts a bit vague as only you know how hungry you are!)

• 1 vegetable stock cube crumbled into 300 ml of boiling water
• chopped ginger to taste
• 1 – 2 cloves of garlic chopped
•  some baby corn, cut lengthways
•  1 piece of thick cod fillet
•  prawns (either raw to be cooked or thrown in ready cooked near the end!)
•  pak choi, quartered lengthways
•  2-3 spring onions, shredded
•  rice noodles
•  coriander, soy sauce and lime to serve

Bring the water to the boil and add the vegetable cube with the ginger, garlic, baby corn and cod and bring back to simmer. Cook for 6 – 8 minutes uncovered, then gently stir in the pak choi and spring onions (and raw prawns, if using). Cook for another 2 – 3 minutes. Add the noodles to the pan and cook till soft (plus the prawns if using ready cooked). Pour out into a wide dish and serve with coriander, soy and lime wedges.

Spice it up! For those of you with a more adventurous palate, you can add chopped chilli/chopped lemongrass/some thai spices to the water as you bring it to the boil.

Experiment and have fun – that’s really what cooking should all be about!