Serves 6

What you need:
1.5 kg/3½lbs farmyard chicken
2 lemon grass sticks
1 piece of ginger
8 spring onions
4 ordinary onions
Juice of three limes
6 tomatoes
6 oyster mushrooms
3 bunches of coriander
3 lime leaves
2 litres/3½ pints of water
A little salt and freshly ground pepper
A little sugar

What you do:
Remove fat and lungs from chicken and discard. Remove breast and legs and chop them into pieces with carcass. Wash everything twice. Peel off outside skins of two lemon grass sticks and cut into 1" pieces sideways. Peel and chop 1 ginger piece finely. Remove root and outer skin of 8 spring onions and then wash and chop into 1 " pieces. Wash, deseed and chop 6 tomatoes into pieces. Destalk 6 oyster mushrooms & rinse quickly. Tear up roughly into pieces. Wash and remove leaves from coriander and discard stem. Boil the water and add ginger and lemon grass. Boil for 5 minutes. Add breast, leg and carcass pieces. Cook at a simmer for about 10 minutes. Add the tomato, onion and mushroom and cook for 10 minutes. Add spring onion near end. Add chilli, lime leaves and coriander leaves. Season with a little salt, pepper and a little sugar. Before serving add lime juice and discard carcass of chicken. Serve with rice.

Chef's note: Lemon grass and lime leaf can be bought in a chinese food shop. As a substitute use peelings of lemon and lime fruit (zest). The chilli can be added to taste depending on how hot you want the dish. The carcass is added to give flavour so discard it when dish is prepared. Farm reared chickens are recommended because of the flavour. They hold together better when cooking.

Supplied by William O' Callaghan, Longueville House, Mallow, Co. Cork, for the 1995 Happy Heart Eat Out campaign.