Cooking is all about selective plagiarism. Someone else makes something, whether at a restaurant, a party, on cooking shows (except for that banshee and her “E.V.O.O” wail), and next thing you know inspiration has struck and that’s the next experiment taking place in the kitchen.
Sometimes experiments fail.
Horribly.
However, this post doesn’t start out with failure. It starts out with old friends of mine who opened up a coffee shop in Gananoque, Ontario called the Socialist Pig (Find them on Facebook). The owners, Shannon and Jay, are both foodies who put this humble acolyte to shame. I recall a nasi goreng which Shannon, made and brought to an Oscar party (which rapidly turned into a piss-up on the roof of the building) and it still makes my mouth water at the memory.
On the Facebook page they’re eternally taunting me with their daily soups (brainstormed by Shannon and executed by Jay). Always served with locally made artisan bread. I’ve begged them to FedEx me stuff in the past, but so far they just laugh. I’m starting to get serious about the matter, though.
Recently they were making a Thai sweet potato, squash, spinach and coconut milk soup, and since I happened to have everything but the spinach on hand, I decided I’d make a go of it.
Cut to me slicing, roasting, simmering, currying, pureeing, and generally feeling entirely too smug with myself: “Thai yellow curry soup?! Hell yeah! I’m AMAZING!!!”
It was ok.
Just…
kind of…
there.
My hubby ranted and raved about the store-bought roti, but barely dented the soup itself. Nuff said.
I was disappointed with my result (primarily blaming the lack of spinach), but far be it from me to admit complete failure (as I say, it was obviously the damned spinach’s fault!), I diligently poured the remaining soup into a bowl, and tucked it into the fridge, thinking “maybe it just needs time”. What does soup need time for?! It’s not like it was psyching itself into entering a long-term relationship, bungee-jumping, or getting a tattoo… or was it…?
And thus it sat, most likely destined for the compost bin or a long, fuzz-growing death in the fridge. That is, until the Socialist Pig announced they were making a Malaysian Laksa. My soup could find new life as the base for this! Or I could end up making another disappointing meal. Twice in one week. No pressure.
The ingredients for hopeful redemption were as follows:
· ½ package rice vermicelli noodles
· 3 cups (or less. Not really sure) veggie stock
· 3-4 stalks lemon grass
· 2 cups boring leftover soup (exciting soup not an option)
· 2 green onions, sliced into rounds or matchsticks
· Handful each of basil and cilantro, chopped
· Chili paste (to taste)
· Soy or fish sauce
· 2 eggs
· beansprouts
· sesame oil
· tofu puffs (no, they’re not vegan cheesies), sliced
· 1 and a bit handfuls of prawns (shelled and divined. Yes, “divined”, apparently)
I simmered a bit of veggie stock with a few bashed up stalks of lemon grass and some chili paste. Next I threw in a couple cups of my reserved soup. Let it all simmer for a while to let the flavours meld a bit. While this was splurping on the stove, I gave some rice vermicelli a quick 3-minute boil in a separate pot. Drained, rinsed with cool water, and set into a deep-sided serving bowl.
Next I brought the heat up and tossed in some prawns and let them cook. In the meanwhile, I took two eggs, beat them with a bit of sesame oil (just a quick, thin “tsssst” from the bottle), and seared them into a thin crepe, which I then sliced up, and again set aside.
When the prawns had done cooking, I re-seasoned (more chili paste and a bit of soy), then reduced the heat, added the beansprouts, sliced tofu puffs, and about half the basil and cilantro. A quick stir to heat through, and allow the herbs to give some flavour to the base, the tofu to suck up some of the flavours, and for the beansprouts to soften just slightly, but not so much that they lose their crunch.
Finally, I poured it all over the vermicelli, tossed on the egg, remaining herbs and green onion, et voilà!
So, the next time you find yourself with an unsatisfying Thai sweet potato and squash soup on hand you can thank me for helping you breathe new life into it.
Better yet, visit the Socialist Pig, because Jay has inevitably figured out how not to screw it up in the first place.
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