Prawn, ginger and coconut vermicelli soup - Thai inspiration

I quite knew it wouldn't be easy to conciliate children, dinosaurs, work, a passion an obsession for cooking and eating, a healthy and balanced dietary, and a cooking blog. Well I never claimed I would post fabulous recipes everyday, anyway. But what I did not expect was that No.2 would start teething and having poor poor or quasi non-existent nights, the same week I would finally start my blog!
Consequence: As usually, when I am under stress or tired, I compensate with food - Catch 22!
Tonight, I thus chose a rich and comforting, but so easy, Thai-inspired prawn vermicelli soup, a tiny bit spicy (or more just as you like!)

Ingredients (6 servings)

- 36 raw prawns, peeled (tail on)* 

- 300g rice vermicelli (dry)

- 350g of mixed veggies including: strips of red capsicum, broccoli, thin strips of carrots, chopped spinach, chopped green beans*

- 10g chinese black mushroom (dry, also found as dried fungus)

- 165 ml coconut cream

- 1.5 L chicken stock* 

- 40g fresh ginger, crushed

- 1 or 2 tsp red curry paste (to your taste)

- 3 tsp raw sugar

- 3 tsp lime juice

- 3 tbp light soy sauce

- 2 tbp fish sauce

- 1 tsp olive oil

- coriander leaves for garnish (optional)

Instructions (45 mins)

1. Bring 1 L of water to the boil and soak the vermicelli until soft (3-4 mins). Drain them and keep them in cold water to stop the cooking.

2. Soak the dried mushrooms in a bowl of water.

3. Heat the olive oil in a large pot (2 L min.).* Add the crushed ginger, the red curry paste and stir for 2-3 mins.

4. Add the veggies and stir. Cook for 5 mins.

5. Drain the mushrooms and add them to the veggies.

6. Add the chicken stock and cook for 12-15 mins.

7. Add the coconut cream, the raw sugar, the lime, the fish sauce and the soy sauce. Bring it to the boil.

8. Poach the prawns in the soup for 5 mins, no longer or they will be overcooked and hard.

9. Take the pot off the stove. 

10. Taste the seasoning - add more salt as needed.

11. Drain the vermicelli, serve into bowls and pour the soup over

12. Garnish with coriander leaves (optional)

Bon appétit!

Tips

* Either fresh or frozen prawns. If frozen, put them in a little bit of milk when you start the recipe and they'll defrost by the time you prepare the soup.

* Running out of time to meet my No.1 needs, I used a mix a frozen veggies (anti-oxidant mix). If you use fresh veggies, add 5 to 10 minutes to preparation time according to your knife skills.

* The best is to use your home-made chicken stock with 4-5 chicken drumsticks, one leek (only the green part, keep the white for something else like confit leeks), 2 carrots, 1 onion picked with 2 cloves, 1 bay leave, thyme, 2 pinches of coarse salt for 2 liters of water, bring to boil and then simmer for 1 hours or until the chicken is cooked through.

Alternatively, you can add 2 chicken stock cubes to 1.5 liter of salted water.

* I used a cast iron pot.