Hell's Kitchen: Tom Ka Gai
In case you missed yesterday's post, the blog is currently on a slight diversion whilst my kitchen is being decimated. Essentially all I have is a fridge (semi working), a freezer and a microwave at my disposal, and they are all currently crammed into my dining room. I don't even have a worktop or chopping board to do anything with. So, for the forseeable I will be documenting how I'm managing to feed myself and my various hangers on with tasty, mostly healthy food instead of running straight to HungryHouse.
Today's post is a Thai Tom Ka Gai soup. It's a long term favourite of Rich's and he really went to town on it in Thailand, so I thought I'd better learn how to make it as Thai cooking isn't instinctive to me like most other kinds. I wrote this up first for my microwave meals series for The Debrief - you can check it out here, the pictures are much nicer and it's a bit fancier too:
I made this one during my crazy cramming cooking session at the weekend, then popped it in the freezer in portion sizes. It's survived really well and can always be adjusted once you've microwaved it up with some freshly snipped spring onion / coriander / chilli (I used scissors to combat no chopping board situ).
You will need (serves 2)
1 can coconut milk – not the light variety 1/2 pint chicken stock
1 spring onion 1 lime 1 tomato Handful cooked chicken A few Kaffir lime leaves Some dried chilli Pinch of dried lemongrass Piece of galangal 1 tsp sugar Handful fresh coriander
I also picked up some dried shrimps from a Korean supermarket near me and they added a nice touch, but you really don't need them.
Put the coconut milk and stock in a pan and simmer away with the sugar, dried shrimps, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, chilli, and galangal to infuse for 10 minutes or so.
Chop the spring onion and tomato and roughly shred the chicken. Add it all to the soup and allow the flavours to merge. Taste and season using the lime and coriander.
Serve with more chilli, lime, sugar and some fish sauce if you have it – the Thais serve this way to allow you to continue adjusting the seasoning as you eat.