Asian-style salmon noodle soup

It's January - and what better to stave off the chilly gloomy weather than a bowl of spicy noodle soup with Chinese-spiced salmon? This is Jamie Oliver's Asian-style salmon, from his 30 Minute Meals book, which is excellent I have to say for meal ideas. It's probably the one cook book I tend to use the most, cooking for two people. And while it isn't a 30-minute wonder, it is pretty quick on the kitchen timer.
The slurpy nature of the broth and the saltiness of the soy sauce is gorgeous against the meatiness of the salmon and the crunchy veg, you just have to attack this bowl with a fork/chopsticks and prepare yourself to get it everywhere. Ideally eaten while watching Sherlock on the sofa (as long as you don't spill anything.) I tend to over-do the soy sauce, because I'm a flavour-addict but feel free to vary this depending on how much like!
Adapted for 2 people - lots of sauce to cook the salmon and big flavour for the broth. 


Asian-style salmon noodle soup

The salmon

• 2 pieces of salmon (or other fish)
• 2cm piece of ginger (peeled and chopped - use a teaspoon to peel ginger, way easier than anything else!)
• 2 cloves of garlic (peeled)
• 1 small red onion (roughly chopped)
• 1/2 red chilli (roughly chopped)
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 limes
• Chinese five-spice (at the herbs/spices section)

The broth

• 4 spring onions (chopped)
• 1 red chilli (diced)
• 1 cm piece of ginger (peeled and chopped)
• 1 tsp five spice
• 1 tbsp cornflour - normal flour will also do, but cornflour is an excellent thickener. 
• 1 clove garlic (peeled)
• 450ml (ish) vegetable stock
• 150g sugar snap peas or mange tout
• 100g egg noodles (one of those noodle nests would do well - use 200g if you're both ravenous)
• Soy sauce (to taste)

Salmon ready for the oven

First, you need to make the syrupy sauce that the salmon gets coated in, which is then baked in the oven. Preheat your oven to 200C, and then add into a food processer or blender the roughly chopped onion and ginger. Crush in the garlic, and the roughly chopped chilli, the juice of the two limes and the soy sauce. Whizz it all up till it looks pinky and gloopy.

Put the salmon on a chopping board and score it lightly, and rub in some Chinese five-spice with some salt and pepper, then put skin side up in a small oven-proof dish so they fit snugly. Pour over the gloopy sauce, and put in the oven for 20m.

You can start on the broth now - heat a little olive oil in a big saucepan, and add your chopped spring onion and red chilli, and crush your two cloves of garlic into the pan. Add the ginger, then fry lightly, stirring often and keeping an eye on your garlic to ensure it won't burn. Get your vegetable stock ready.

With your vegetable stock on hand, add one tsp of Chinese five-spice, and three tsp of cornflour. Stir, so it gets a little paste-y, then add your vegetable stock and stir so that it melts the blobs of flour. Then add your sugar-snap peas. Bring to a boil, taste, and then add a glug soy sauce - keep tasting, as you add. Add the noodles, then put the lid on and leave on a simmer for five minutes. Check the salmon - it should be cooked through and smelling delicious.

And you're done - divide the noodles and broth between bowls, and add a piece of salmon on top, spooning over that pink gloopy loveliness to finish. Enjoy!

Credit: Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals

Yum Cha Silk and Spice, Camden, NW1

Dim sum! God I love some dim sum. I must have gone past this place hundreds of times without a second thought on my way to the bars towards Chalk Farm, as it blends into the haggerdy background of discount shoes and £10-for-any-piercing shops that line Camden High Street. But luckily another review drew my attention to it and since then I've returned three times, and will be back again no doubt. Give it a chance. The main thing draw, apart from the delicious food, is the 50% off Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday evening slot. It is quite chaotic and rough-and-ready; we went on a Tuesday night and it was very full, and the waitresses were practically falling over rushing about and one almost tripped over our table.

It is a little badly organised if I'm honest; every time we've been, it's taken a very long time to get drinks. This visit, we had five servers asking us if we are ready to order food in as many minutes, even though we are still desperately waiting for our drinks before we wanted to consider the menu. Spotted a couple nearby dying of neck-crane to try to get someone's attention. So yeah, a bit of a blot.
But I love Yum Cha. It's brilliant really for last minute 'god, dim sum, right now, please' cravings, hungover lunches, and good for groups as well. En route to the Roundhouse for a gig, or going out in Camden generally, this is a great place for a stomach-liner as well. My one disclaimer here is that I should say I am quite new to dim sum, and I haven't widely sampled it, so I may be speaking more from the heart here but Yum Cha really hits the spot for me (and goes down much nicer than our standard gutbuster delivery orders from a Chinese takeaway in Holloway road).

Char sui pork buns

Steamed greens in Oyster sauce

So what did we have? Our old favourite, spicy salt and pepper tofu scattered with chilli and spring onion, which is so moreish that the last time I went, my friends went slightly mad ordered a second plate of it after the meal was done, even though we were literally unbuttoning our jeans we were so stuffed. And pork buns! The must-order of any dim sum experience, for £3.50, were most decent, arrived steaming hot, beautifully soft with the dough melting in the mouth like it should. Awesome.
We were given Chinese vinegar on the side with all the dishes, plus soy sauce and a lovely unsweet chilli dip which was spicy without being too hot. Salty Chinese greens in oyster sauce provided a nice counterpoint to the richness of the fried food. And as for dumplings, the prawn and chive dumplings had a lovely texture while the sieu long bao were juicy and delicious. We ordered nine dishes in total, and the only one that was really quite disappointing was the crispy duck roll which was tough and dry. There was so much more we wanted to try. The entire menu is online here, if you're interested.
And after 50% off? £33 for all that, and service, and three beers which were probably £10 on their own! I love it, and I'll be back soon. Do check it out. 

Yum Cha Silk and Spice, 27-28 Chalk Farm Road, Camden Town, NW1 8AG,020 7482 2228

View Larger Map