My take on Thai Tom Kha Kai soup

So this is my version of the famous Thai soup spelled many various ways, I have gone for Tom Kha Kai. basically its all about the lemon grass, coconut milk and chicken.

As I don't live close to china town, I used the ingredients at hand at my local grocer. Sea beans being one of the more attractive and unusual.

Here you can really use lots a various veggie to fill the soup with. You can also add poached chicken or a white poached fish (poaching is done simply by cooking the protein in a bouillon bath on a very low simmer till cooked through).

I cheat when I cook thai, I have found these genius pre made (yepp, that's me using pre-made) thai pastes of various mixes that make up various curries etc. I love it because it gives the real vibrant authentic thai flavors and it's all E, additives and preservative free! For those of you living in Amsterdam or the Hague find at marqt.

Ingredients list feeds 2:
1/2 courgette
300 grams of sea beans
6-8 shiitake mushrooms
1/2 fresh chili
buck wheat or rice noodles
200ml coconut milk
2dl water
*Fresh coriander (optional)

1. Chop the courgette into half and into slices. 
2. Halve the shiitake mushrooms. 
3. Pour the water & coconut milk into a pan, adding the thai paste. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer. Stir to loosen the paste. 
4. Cook the noodles according to their packaging, BUT take off the heat and strain 1min before the advised as they will further cook in the soup. Pour cold water over the noodles, and de-tangle them. Sometimes a little olive oil or sesame oil in this case will keep them from sticking together. 
5. Add the veggies and allow to simmer for between 7-12min, depending on how much of a bite you want to them.
6. Add the noodles and allow to simmer for another 1min. 

Serve in a bowl and sprinkle some fresh chopped coriander ontop.