Boy – my allergies have been just killing me lately. If you haven’t been following the goings-on in my personal life recently, I have recently moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to Chicago.
The weird thing is: In SF and Oakland, I *never* had allergy problems. In fact, a lot of people I know with terrible allergies (like mine) experience the same thing in the Bay Area. It has to do with the weird climate, I’m sure… HOWEVER: the midwest in the fall? Primo allergy place for me. The past two days I’ve just had the worst headache and runny nose and cough, I feel like warmed over poo.
That’s where a steaming bowl of Tom Ka Gai soup (my favorite soup next to white bean and ham soup) comes in… I ordered it last night (because I was sick and hungry) and it cleared my sinuses right out. It occured to me, though, that I have a great recipe for this Thai soup that I should share… Here ya go…
Ingredients:
Two quarts of homemade mushroom or chicken stock
Two large chicken breasts
One 12 oz can of coconut milk
1 lb of straw mushrooms (dry or canned is fine)
1/4 a cup of fresh squeezed lime juice
One whole white onion, sliced
Two large carrots, sliced
5-6 stalks of lemongrass
One small, red chili (dried is best)
Two large cloves of garlic
One large piece of ginger
One bay leaf
Salt and Pepper to taste
Jasmine rice, parboiled
- Place the stock into a large pot and heat over medium flame until it begins to boil.
- Tie the lemongrass together with a piece of cotton string. Place the lemongrass, ginger, garlic and bay leaf into the pot and reduce the heat to a simmer.
- Pound the chicken breasts flat under a piece of plastic wrap (use a rolling pin or meat mallet for this). Slice the raw chicken breast into thin strips.
- Place the chicken, coconut milk, half of the onion, all of the carrots and mushrooms* into the stock. Cover tightly and cook for one to two hours.
- Uncover and add the dried chili, salt, pepper, the lime juice and remainder of the onion. Cook for another 15-20 minutes or until the onions are translucent.
- Serve over par boiled jasmine rice, garnish with a slice of lemon or lime… YUMMERS!
*If you are using dried mushrooms, do not reconsitute them prior to putting them into the soup, simply add a cup to two cups of extra water to your stock to account for the liquid the mushrooms will suck up. You’ll lose all the flavor of the mushrooms if you discard the liquid they reconsitute in.
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Tags: Tom Ka Gai soup
