Smoked Fish Thai Red Curry Noodle "Slop"

Preparation Time: 1 hour

From the fridge:

• One smoked fish fillet
• Onion
• Mushrooms
• Ginger
• Lime
• Courgette/Zucchini (depending on if you say it right or wrong...says the Brit)
• Garlic
• Celery
• Tomatoes
• Mixed Lettuce

From the cupboard:

• Dry noodles
• Coconut milk
• Honey
• Red curry paste

The process:

Step 1: Cut up your main spread of vegetables.

Step 2: Put a cast iron pan (you want to use one that can cope on the hob and in the oven) on medium heat and add a generous splosh of oil.

Step 3: Add the veg in to have a good simmer. Add the onions and garlic last again, apparently it's important (but I'm not sure I agree).

Step 4: Meanwhile in a small sauce pan, get your noodles on to boil as specified on the package...although they will get stewed so let them be undercooked.

Step 5: When the veg is looking all tasty and brown, add the fish (de-skinned and cut into chunks). Be sure to take all the bones out, they're tricky little suckers.

Step 6: Add 3 spooned dollops of red curry paste.

Step 7: Pour in the coconut milk...it can get all gloopy and satisfyingly fun to pour out!

Step 8: Leave the concoction to bubble and simmer gently for a few minutes. While this is happening drain the noodles - it's best to do this over the sink I find. Then add the noodles to the concoction in your cauldron.

Step 9: Grate some fresh ginger directly into the mixture, just add to your preference - personally I like ginger so I'm happy to be pretty heavy handed here.  Also squidge in a generous amount of squeezy honey which adds sweetness and will really accent all the flavours.

Step 10: Give the whole gloopy slop a good stir then remove it from the hob and place into an oven preheated to 190C. Whack the lot in for at least 20 minutes to have a good stew, leave for 30 minutes if your grumbly stomach can bear the wait.  If you don't have a clever hob-to-oven dish, keep it all in a hob worthy container and simmer on low heat for the same length of time. 

Step 11: Serve with some salad-like items around bowls of the concoction and some nice juicy slices of lime.  Oh and chopsticks, as these things have to be done properly!

Flatmates Verdict: I was really nervous about this one due to the ingredients.  Smoked fish and ginger aren't my favourite flavours and thinking about them being added into a dish together had me put off just a bit. However, I am pleased to say that this dish was pleasantly surprising.  It had a lot of flavour, but none was too overpowering which is what I was afraid of.  This was a very tasty dish that was somewhat reminiscent of a Vietnamese dish I am quite fond of from a restaurant in New York City.  I still need to work on my chopstick skills though!