Recipe: Tom Kha Gai (Thai Soup)

[coraa]

Made this today. I was surprised by how similar it was to the tom kha gai I get in Thai restaurants. Not exactly, but gratifyingly close! It's adapted from a Cook's Illustrated recipe.

This can be made with chicken, with shrimp, or, for vegetarians, with extra mushrooms or tofu.

Tom Kha Gai

Serves 2. Scales up very well.

• 1 tsp vegetable oil
  
• 2 stalks lemongrass, sliced (If you can't get fresh lemongrass, the kind in little jars or tubes will work in a pinch. Dry won't, though.)
  
• 1 small to medium onion, chopped
  
• 1 inch ginger, cut in thin slices
  
• two large handfuls cilantro, to taste
  
• 3 tbsp Thai fish sauce (for carnivores), or 3 tbsp soy sauce (for vegetarians)
  
• 2 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
  
• 1 can coconut milk
  
• 1/2 tbs sugar
  
• 1/4 lb mushrooms, sliced (crimini, button, shiitake, whatever you like -- but really fancy expensive mushrooms would be wasted here. or you can mix several mushroom types)
  
• Your 'main' ingredient, which can be 1/2 lb of any of the following:
  
  
  • chicken breast, thinly-sliced
    
  • shrimp meat
    
  • tofu, cubed
    
  • more sliced mushrooms (if you go this route, it's nice to get a mixture)
  
  
• 2 limes
  
• 2-3 tsp Thai red curry paste

In the bottom of a medium-sized saucepan, heat the vegetable oil. When it's warm but not hot, add the lemongrass, onion, ginger and half the cilantro, as well as half the fish sauce or soy sauce. You don't want them to sizzle or brown; you want the temperature to be warm enough to make them sweat and release their flavors, but if you hear hissing, it's too hot. Let them sweat for about three minutes.

Add the chicken broth and half the can of cocunut milk, as well as the second handful of cilantro. Bring to a simmer, and then simmer 10 minutes. Once it's simmered and infused for ten minutes, strain the solids out with a fine mesh strainer. (I actually use cheesecloth, so I can press all the liquid out of the aromatics.) Return the liquid to the pot.

Add the remaining coconut milk and the sugar, and bring back to a simmer. Simmer three more minutes. Add the sliced mushrooms and simmer about five minutes, until just tender. Add the protein and simmer until cooked through, three to five minutes.

Meanwhile, juice one of the limes and mix with the curry paste. (You can adjust the curry paste amount up or down, depending on the intensity you like.) Add to the soup when the protein is cooked, and bring back to the simmer.

Take off the heat. Add the juice of the second lime, and serve.

Comments

[fairnymph.livejournal.com]

I've made this recipe too! I think real galangal is sort of necessary, sadly, but it's the best recipe if you can't get it.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Yeah -- it is, definitely, better if one acquires the right peppers and kaffir limes and galangal. But when I'm too lazy to do more than pick up a bottle of red curry paste, it stands in fairly well.

[porfinn.livejournal.com]

Cook's Illustrated is so good about getting ethnic food right enough.

[ducttapeavenger.livejournal.com]

I like how there's a vegetarian option for the 3 tablespoons of fish sauce, but not for the 2 cups of chicken broth. Carnivores 4 life.

I'll be saving this one, thanks.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I goofed -- meant to just write 'broth,' brain on autopilot.

Thanks!