Meals, Day 11: Tom Kha Gai soup.

Had this at a party recently and it was soooooo delicious I had to try making it at home. I didn't realize, though, it had chicken in it, until today when I looked up recipes for it online! ... I don't think accidental ingestion of meat should count against me in my resolve. But now I know I like it, and I can vegetarianize it for my family pretty easily, too.

Here's the original recipe:

1 whole chicken breast
2 chicken thighs
1/2 pound of cleaned shrimp (optional)
4 stalks fresh lemongrass
4 1/2 cups coconut milk (NOT coconut cream)
1 1/2 cups basic chicken stock
20 quarter-sized slices fresh galanga (fresh ginger makes a fine substitute)
10 whole black peppercorns
12 fresh wild lime leaves (available at Asian markets; if unavailable, substitute the grated peel of 1 lime)
1 cup well-drained, whole canned straw mushrooms, halved lengthwise (sliced fresh button mushrooms work fine too)
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice


Here's the recipe "nosurf-ized" (made simple, no chicken, and less expensive)

1 1/2 cups veggie broth
1/2 tbs powdered fish broth
1 can coconut milk
1/2 onion, cut into long, thin strips and sauteed until soft
2 drops lemongrass essential oil (you're supposed to use real lemongrass stems, as you'll see in the recipe above... get those at an asian grocery or asian foods market)

I didn't have any of the other ingredients at hand and so I added some salt and soy sauce for a little bit of flavoring. If I had the option though, I think I'd use the lime juice and try to hunt down lime leaves during my weekly trip to the asian food market. I also would go ahead and put in the mushrooms, but I didn't have any fresh.

You serve it with white rice, adding a little bit to the soup when you serve yourself.

So, it turned out pretty good, mad crazy substitutions notwithstanding! Me: **** out of **** stars. Skywalker: still at church doing his calling, so the vote's still out on that one. Kids: *** and a half out of **** stars. :)

Seriously guys. It sounds weird but this soup is sooooo good.