Tom Yum Soup

This is a well popularised Thai soup. Coming from Malaysia, I do so enjoy a good Tom Yum soup. But eating out in Vancouver isn't always the most convenient or pocket friendly. Tom Yum refers to spicy fish or seafood soup. But it can also be chicken or other meats, too. It is generally hot and sour. A real hot Tom Yum should draw your sweat and tears.
4 cups water, 3 kaffir lime leaves, 1 lemon grass
1 cup shrimp, 5 mushrooms, 8 pieces okra
1-2 limes, 2 tablespoon fish sauce, 3 chili peppers
5 sprigs cilantro, 1 tablespoon Tom Yum paste

Start boiling the water in a 2 quart pot. Peel and devein the shrimp and set them aside. Cut lemon grass into pieces, 5-6 inches long. Use the back of your knife to pound the lemon grass, just to bruise it to release the flavor. If you want, you can tie the lemon grass into a knot to make it easier to manage. Drop the lemon grass in water and let boil for 5 minutes. Put the fish sauce and 1 lime's juice into the bottom of the bowls you will serve the soup in. Crush chili pepper and add to the bowl. Remove the stems from the kaffir lime leaves and add the leafy part to the pot. Add the tom yum paste. Clean and halve the mushrooms and okra and add them to the pot. Add the shrimp and turn off the heat. Shrimp gets too tough very quickly, and will cook even when it is just sitting in the warm broth. Scoop the shrimp and liquid into the serving bowls immediately. As soon as you add the liquid to the serving bowl, you will see that the broth becomes cloudy because of the lime juice. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve. Be very careful, the peppers can be hot. Take a small sip at a time. Add more fish sauce and/or lime juice if it tastes bland. It's right if it's good for your sinus.

Tips and substitutions: Unfortunately, for the true taste, it is difficult to substitute anything for the kaffir lime leaves. The richness of the sour taste comes from the complement of the different citrus flavored ingredients. I serve this soup directly into individual bowls for each person. If you don't like it hot, cut down on the chili peppers or do not cut them up, but leave them whole for decoration.

Chinese Style Fried Rice

I must be getting lazy. I make this when I have leftover rice in the refridgerator and am not in the mood to make anything fancy or creative. The most creative part of this meal was the simply carved flower tomato and the new plate this was served on. First thing I did was to dice up ...
1 cup of carrots which I sauteed in a large wok with
2 tbsp of canola oil and
2 cloves of minced garlic. Then I added in
1 cup of frozen peas (thawed and drained). For some spice or kick as Chocolate Girl would say, add
1-2 minced bird's eye chilies. Next add
2 cups of left over refridgerated rice (leftover plain white rice from Chinese take out works very well for this too). Stir out all the large clumps of rice. Next, scramble
3 eggs seasoned with a little salt and ground white pepper. Push rice to the sides of the wok and pour in eggs. Let it cook for a few minutes before turning the eggs and folding the rice into the eggs. Stir fry till eggs are cooked. Next add
10 medium prawns or diced ham in the middle of the wok and cook till half done before stirring in the rice. Next add
3 tbsp soya sauce
1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
2 tsp sesamee oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp powdered vegetable stock(optional). This would give the rice a little more flavour. Garnish with sliced tomatoes and cucumber or shredded lettuce. Of course there are many variations that you can make fried rice. This is just one of them. You can use diced chicken, rost pork, minced beef instead of prawns or ham. To change the flavour, try adding some sambal or some curry powder or even use some tom yum paste.