Justin's Cookbook

Tom Yam Goong

• A handful of green king prawns. Depending on your budget and how many people you're cooking for, you can have anywhere from half to three prawns per person.
• Lemon grass (2 or 3 nice fresh stalks)
• Fish sauce
• Small red chillis (6-ish ... It's definitely best with a *lot* of chilli and I tend to like it so hot that it's barely edible. Makes for a challenging and above all entertaining meal)
• Lemon or lime juice
• Mushrooms
• Fresh coriander
• Fresh shallots

• Peel and clean up the prawns, but hang onto all the grotty bits (heads, tails and shells) because we have some fun with them... Give the "grotty bits" a decent wash and drain them.
• Add a smidgen of oil to a fairly big saucepan or similar and add the grotty bits of the prawns. Trust me, this tastes much better than it sounds :-) Fry this up until it turns pink; about one minute should do it.
• Add in four cups of water, the lemon grass stalks (chopped up fairly roughly), two tablespoons of fish sauce and most of the chillis (leave one or two chillis aside for garnishing at the end).
• Hint: Wear rubber gloves when chopping up the chillis, or wash your hands for several days after handing them. This stuff is not fun in the eyes or other sensitive places..
• Boil all those goodies up for a few minutes then cover it over and let it simmer or just gently boil for about 15 minutes.
• Now, time to rid ourselves of those unsightly bits. Strain the "soup" and chuck out all the solid bits. Don't forget to retain the liquids :-)
• Return the liquid soup back to the boil. Now is the time to add in the yummy bits of the prawns, the lemon or lime juice, and the 'shrooms.
• Cook only until the prawns have turned pink. This takes something like three minutes.
• Serve in your best bowls (as befits such a delicious soup!) and top each bowl with decent proportions of freshly chopped coriander, shallots and (somewhat less) chilli.

Yummy beef lettuce cups

• Cut beef steak into strips
• Cook in frypan with some oil and butter until browned
• Add:
  • finely chopped chives
  • 1 finely chopped chilli (seeded)
  • 1 tsp American mustard
  • 1 tsp chopped ginger
  • 1 tsp crushed garlic
  • 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• Set up some fresh, chilled lettuce leaves on each plate and surround them with pasta (spirals?).
• Top it all with freshly chopped chives, shallots, parsley, basic and cucumber pieces. Add a little light salad dressing (e.g. French)
• Finally add the hot beef inside the lettuce cups, and top it all off with some freshly cracked black pepper.

Your feedback is welcome - enjoy!

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