winter melon with pickled lemon and chicken soup

Winter Lemon is a big green melon that has the 'Yang' or cold property in Chinese Yin-Yang therory. It tastes not so much but give us some soft and mild sweet flavour when make with soup. Pickled lime juice is difficult to find where I live and I am too lazy for make it so I use fresh lime juice instead and it sounds not so much different. This is an easy made and easy take chinese soup served with jasmin rice. You can have other side dishes to fulfil your typical meal.
Peel off the thick green cover of Winter melon and cut it into medium sized pieces.
Boiled water and add chicken stock or chicken cube e.g. Kanor and add water melon, chicken.
Until Winter Melon are soft and turn glassy appearance, switch off the heat and then add fresh lime juice! That's it. Easy as I told you. Some people like clear soup and don't prefer sour of lime juice, you can skip it.

The first dish: Tom Yum

The first dish to be recommended is Tom Yum.

Tom Yum is literally meaned boiled and spicy mix.

It is very well known and very easy Thai menu.

This is very suit for people who like hot and spicy soup.
Thai herbs make it is aromatic and lime adds sour taste to fresh your life.
Thai people usually have all the dishes at the same time altogether with boiled or steamed rice and Tom Yum is one of the most ordered dish to take as soup from home, street food van through high class restaurant.
The trick of making this dish varying is the kind of meat added to the soup that you can use any fish, king prawns, cuttlefish, fish and shrimp balls, chicken, and so on. Most common is fish (such as sseabass), prawns, chickens and seafood. And it is also made as vegetarian dish by using mushroom instead of meat.
If you want to make a very quick Tom Yum, you can buy ready to use Tom Yum paste or cube from the chinese or Thai supermarket that can be easily found in nearly everywhere in the world. But if you can find fresh ingredients, you will make a perfect taste and perfect look dish in less than 15 minutes!

What you need:
Medium pot
Fishsauce
Bird chillies
Lemongrass
Lime leaves
Limes
Thai Chilli paste
Milk
Coriander
Mushroom

Meats: chicken, fish or king prawns as you want

What to do

Prepare your meat or mushroom as pieces ready to have

Put water in the pot and boil.

Add chopped lemon grass and lime leaves.

Add meat or mushroom, stir very little to avoid bad smell.

Wait until the meat are done.

Turn off the stove. Add fishsauce and lime as you like! The taste should be more sour than salty.

Add chopped Bird chillies. Chillie paste and some milk to make it thick and creamy look.

Decorate with coriander leaves.

[You can easily done without mixing anything by using ready mixed cube or paste added to boiled water, add meat and wait until done. That's so easy but you might need to add lime and/or fish sauce to make it right!]
That's it. Yummy. :)