Winter is here! Warm up with Chef Pieter’s beautiful Thai Chicken Noodle soup with butternut and coriander. It works very well with our 2014 Culinaria Chenin Blanc, but our 2014 Classic Chardonnay with its well-integrated acidity is also a good companion.

Recipe:

Serves 8

Ingredients for cooking the chicken:

• 1 whole free range chicken
• 1 bay leaf
• ½ brown onion, chopped
• 1 tbsp pepper corns
• 10 Coriander stalks

Place the chicken in a deep heavy based pot. Cover with
water, add the bay leaf, onion, pepper corns and coriander stalks.

Bring the pot to the boil and skim off any excess foam from
the surface. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 1 hour or until the chicken is cooked
and tender.

Remove the chicken from the pot, reserve the cooking liquid
and strain into a clean bowl through a fine sieve.

Allow the chicken to cool slightly and take the meat off the
bones.

Discard the skins and bones and keep the warm meat.

Ingredients for soup:

• 1 brown onion, chopped fine
• 6 cloves garlic, fine
• 30 g fresh root ginger, fine
• 2 stalks lemon grass, fine
• 1 tbsp medium red curry paste
• 100 ml lemon juice
• 2 tins coconut milk
• 500 ml liquid from cooking the chicken earlier
• 500 ml full cream milk
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 small butternut, diced
• 100 g spaghetti, broken into 3 cm rods, and cooked
  separately.
• Flaked chicken meat.