Monday, February 1, 2010

Thai-inspired Coconut Chicken Soup

OMG. This soup is sooooo good. It seemed ridiculous but every time I tasted to the soup to see what needed to be added or tweaked, I kept saying, "this is soooo good." But it is!



Thai-inspired Coconut Chicken Soup

Ingredients:
- 2 cans (800 mL) coconut milk (again, use what you like... I used a light version.)
- 2 cups (500 mL) chicken stock
- 8-10 slices of ginger
- 5 kaffir lime leaves or 1 tablespoon lime zest
- 2 chicken breasts, sliced thinly
- 5 tablespoons fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
- 2 bird's eye chili peppers
- 1/2 small sweet onion, chopped
-200g (1 cup) diced button mushrooms
- 125g (1/2 package) rice stick noodles (optional)
- cilantro
- lime wedges

In a large pot or wok, combine the coconut milk, ginger, lemongrass and lime (leaves or zest) together. Bring to a boil to infuse the coconut milk with those fantastic Thai flavours. Add two cups of chicken stock. Bring back to a boil. Add in the sugar, fish sauce and sliced chicken. Reduce the heat and simmer until the chicken is cooked through... about four or five minutes.

While the chicken is cooking, if you are opting for the starch, soak the rice stick noodles in a bowl of water until they are soft.

Once the chicken is cooked, add the onion, quartered mushrooms and rice noodles. Finely chop the chili peppers and add to the soup. Bring everything back up to a simmer. The mushrooms only take a few minutes to cook.

Dish into bowls and garnish with chopped cilantro and lime wedges. If the soup doesn't pack enough punch for you, you can add a dollop of Sriracha, mix in and enjoy!

** I forgot to mention, you could easily sub out the chicken and use shrimp. Same cooking principle applies. Just make sure the shrimp are shelled and deveined. I reserved some of the broth and cooked the shrimp. Very tasty!

***************************************************

I was thinking about how I could marry my favourite things in this blog... food and music. So... I'm going to include a song or link to an artist that I either listened to while cooking said dish or reminded me of what I was cooking. If nothing else, this is my own personal foodie soundtrack.

While cooking today's Thai-inspired Coconut Chicken Soup, I listened to A Fine Frenzy's Bomb in a Birdcage. She seems sweet but a bit sassy too... kinda like this soup. I particularly enjoy Blow Away... maybe you will too.

1 thought(s):

Jenn said...

Hey Maestro!

Here's what I did with our common ingredient of shrimp - a modified Pina Colada Shrimp


Ingredients:
1 lb. large shrimp, cleaned, tails removed
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 can crushed pineapple in juice
1/2 cup spiced rum
3/4 cup coconut milk powder + 2/3 cup warm water = coconut milk
400g brown rice vermicelli
2 1/2 cups boiling water
1/4 cup coconut, toasted
1 green onion, sliced

The fun times:
Cook and stir shrimp in hot oil in large skillet on medium-high heat 4 min. until almost cooked through. I found it helpful to not entirely pat the shrimp dry so it somewhat steamed.
Add pineapple in juice and spiced rum; bring to boil.
Stir in coconut milk let boil for a couple minutes.
Add vermicelli noodles and approximately 2 - 2.5 cups of boiling water, to cover the noodles about half way in liquid.
Remove from heat. Let stand 5 min. (If all liquid has not been absorbed, cook on low heat additional 2 min. or
until liquid is absorbed.)
Spoon into serving bowls; sprinkle with coconut and green onion.

Post a Comment

Related Posts with Thumbnails