Hot and Sour Soup

Serves 4-6
Ingredients

1½ litres chicken stock
2 heaped tbsp tom yam paste
4 kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped
1 stick lemon grass, tender inner part only, roughly chopped
Juice of 1 lime
4 tbsp fish sauce
3 small fresh red or green chillies, finely chopped
1 tsp sugar
150g straw or button mushrooms, halved or quartered according to size
500g peeled raw prawns, thawed if frozen
5 small spring onions, cut into short lengths and then into strips
Small bunch coriander, chopped

1. Heat the stock and tom yam paste in a decent sized saucepan with the lime leaves, lemon grass, lime juice, fish sauce, chillies and sugar.

2. Bring to the boil, add the mushrooms and simmer for a couple of minutes, then add the prawns and spring onions and cook for a further 2-3 minutes, or until the prawns are cooked but still tender. Sprinkle with a little coriander and put more on the table for people to add themselves as they want.

Potato and Halloumi Bake

Serves 2-3

1 large sweet potato, the orange-fleshed American variety
1 large Desiree potato or other red/firm potato
1 red onion
1 yellow pepper
1 red pepper
Half a head of garlic
4 tablespoons olive oil
Black pepper
125g halloumi cheese, sliced as thinly as you can
Oven proof baking dish, 25 x 15cm

1.Preheat the oven to 200C/ gas mark 6.

2.Cut the sweet potato into rough 4 cm cubes and the Desiree slightly smaller (2.5cm) as the sweet potato will cook more quickly. Halve the red onion then cut the half into 4-6 segments, discarding any tough outer skin. De-seed the peppers and cut into 2.5 cm squares, and separate the cloves of garlic.

3.Put everything into a large roasting tin or whatever you want to use (it should be big, otherwise use two dishes) and, using your hands, give the vegetables a good coating of olive oil. Season with black pepper, but no salt as the cheese will make it salty (and anyway, the salt will make water leech out).

4.Cook for 45 minutes, by which time the vegetables should be cooked through and here and there tinged with brown.

5.You'll need to turn the oven up to maximum, or light the grill for the endgame: so place the thinly sliced cheese on top of the bake, and put it back in the very hot oven or under the grill until the cheese has melted and turned slightly brown on top, about 5-10 minutes. Serve straight out of the roasting tin.