Chicken and mushroom soup

• 3 cm piece fresh galangal or root ginger, peeled and finely sliced
• 2 x 300 ml cans coconut milk

Plop the galangal or ginger into the pan with the coconut milk. Thwack each stick of lemongrass hard with a rolling pin to smash it open - but leave it intact - then lob these into the pan, too. Chuck in the shallots, then the whole chillies and half the lime leaves - lightly scrumpled, so that they release their flavour - and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, slice the chicken about 5mm thick, then