Meekong noodle soup

My brother Paul gave me a Thai cookbook for Christmas - 'Kham's sai mae nam' - by Kham Signavong.

I've been wanting to cook something from it for ages and tonight I made Meekong noodle soup.

To start the soup I made a chilli paste called 'nam prik khao soi' which included dried chillies, shallots, garlic, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, tumeric and coriander seeds. It really gave the soup a bit of a kick. There are lots of spice pastes at the back of the book and I'm looking forward to trying a few more.