Thai Cuisine Recipe

Stuffed Baby Cucumber Soup
(Gaeng Jued Taeng Kwa Yad Sai)

Gaeng Jued (literally "plain soup") is clear and mid, serving as a comtrast to accompanying dishes that are either oil or spicy.

Ingregients (serves 4)
3 baby or Japanese cucumbers, peeled and sliced into sections

8 oz (225 g) ground pork or chicken

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper

1 sprig fresh coriander leaves (cilantro), roughly chopped

4 cups (1 liter) Thai Chicken Stock Handful (2 oz/50 g) dried glass noodles (bean thead or cellophane), soaked in warm water for 5 minutes to soften (Opitional)

1 spring onion, cut into 1/2-in (1-cm) pieces

Preparation
1 Scoop out the center of the cucumber sections, taking care not to cut through the outer flesh. Set the cucumbers aside.

2 Mix the ground meat wiht the egg, fish sauce, salt, pepper and coriander leaves (cilantro). Reserve some leaves as garnish.

3 stuff the cucumbers with the meat mixture, then steam them in a bamboo or metal steamer over high heat for about 15 minutes.

4 Heat the chicken stock in a pot over medium heat. Add the steamed cucumber sections and cook until heated through. Then add the glass noodles, if disired. Garnish with the spring onion and the remainer of the coriander leaves, and serve hot.