Babette's Lemon
grass, Ginger & Ras el Hanout Salmon Soup

Ingredients

• 2 sliced onions or 3 bananas shallots
• 4 or 5 celery branches
  
• 1 or 2 leeks, cut up small
  
• 2 tins of chopped tomatoes
  
• 3 Tbsp of Ras el Hanout
  
• 500ml of fish stock
  
• 1 Tbsp of shrimp paste
• 2 Tbsp of fish sauce
• 1 or 2 Salmon sides
• new/small potatoes
• 500ml double cream
• 300g of frozen peas

For the Paste

• 1 stalk of lemon grass
• 1 thumb like length of fresh ginger
• 3 garlic cloves

Method

• Take 1 or 2 Salmon side, skin it and cut up in 1” cubes.
  
• Crush the lemongrass, ginger and garlic with a little water until it forms a paste. (I use the Cuisinart Spice Grinder).
  
• In a large Saute pan, brown the onions or shallots, celery, and leeks. When it has started to colour, add the lemongrass paste, stir thoroughly. Add the chopped tomatoes, Ras el Hanout, fish stock, shrimp paste and fish sauce. Bring to a simmer, lid on, for 15-30 minutes. 
  
• 30 minutes before serving, steam some new potatoes 
• 10 minutes before eating, add the double cream, frozen peas and season to taste. 
• Add the salmon chunks 3-4 minutes before serving. 
• Serve in a bowl with a few potatoes.

Cook's Notes

• I use the Sainsbury's ones as they are from Scotland and not Norway, who uses antibiotics in their pens.