Tom Kha Gai Soup

Begin by skinning and de-boning chicken and chopping into bite size pieces. Needless to say, do this in a separate area, and wash hands properly afterwards! Set chicken aside.

Dice shallots and garlic. Peel galangal and chop into thin slices about the width of a penny. Chop chilies and de-seed according to preference (I de-seeded one and left the other). Roughly chop lime leaves and lemongrass.

Make stock with hot water, or heat homemade stock. Once it is boiling, add coconut milk and all the spices you have just prepared. Also add the sugar and coriander seeds. Bring down off the boil and leave to simmer for approximately 15 minutes, allowing all the flavours to immerse.

Whilst the soup is boiling, chop the aubergines and mushrooms.

After 15 minutes the flavours should have immersed and you have a choice: either strain the soup into a new pot and chuck the spices, shallots etc. or you can do what I do and leave them all in! This will increase the final flavour ( a good thing!) but you will need to explain to any guests that they’ll need to avoid the inedibles.

Whichever you decide, you will be left with a hot broth in a pot. Add the chicken and the vegetables, and also the fish sauce and the lime juice. Leave to simmer until the chicken is cooked; for bite size pieces this should be about 10–12 minutes.

To serve, ladle into bowls.

Garnish with fresh coriander. I also like to add even more hot sauce. You can serve this with either steamed rice or noodles—as far as I’m aware both are pretty traditional. My mum had hers with soba noodles and thought it went very well!