My hibernation and holiday recovery is complete! Time to get back into the kitchen and make something new. I turned to The Delicious Miss Dahl for inspiration with her Tom Kha Soup which is a Thai Coconut Soup.
The Inspiration
During the holidays I lost myself in a marathon of Sophie Dahl‘s cooking show on Gusto TV. I fell in love with her episode dedicated to melancholy and was so curious about this soup that she says is like a rainbow after a storm. Lovely storytelling and it looks so delicious.
The following recipe is tweaked a little and made my way. Go here for her original Tom Kha Soup recipe.
The Recipe
Had a close call with my food processor on Christmas, of all days! Thankfully I managed to get it working again, yay me, LOL.
Put into a food processor: 2″ piece of ginger (could not find galangal), 2 peeled garlic cloves, 1 stalk of bruised lemongrass, small bunch of coriander leaves, 2 peeled and quartered shallots, 1 medium roughly chopped green chilli with seeds removed, 3 fresh or 6 dried kaffir lime leaves (I only had dried and omitted processing, put it in the broth instead), zest of 2 limes.
Blend paste together until smooth.
You will also need olive oil, 2 cups of chicken broth, 1 14 oz can of coconut milk, 3 tbsp fish sauce, handful of enoki mushrooms, 4 chopped shiitake mushrooms, handful of sugar snap peas (I used chopped snow peas)…
100g/3 1/2 oz soba noodles, juice of 2 limes, salt, pepper, Thai basil leaves and I used chopped cooked chicken instead of prawns.
Heat olive oil in large sauce pan and then fry paste over medium heat for 2-3 minutes.
Stir in coconut and remember to shake it first, which I did not do! LOL.
Add chicken stock and fish sauce.
Add mushrooms and peas and cook for 2-3 minutes.
While that is cooking, boil soba noodles according to package directions and then drain.
To serve, add juice of limes and season with black and pepper. Add chopped chicken to heat through.
Add noodles to bowls. Top with soup and some hand-ripped Thai basil.
Foodie Results
This was delicious and reminded me of a soup version of my Easy Green Chicken Curry recipe.
As good as it was with chicken, I knew it would be even better with seafood.
I was out of shrimp but I had some imitation crab which I added at the end and OMG, DIVINE!!! Beyond delicious. Even Reg liked the chicken version which is saying a lot; he usually is not a fan.
This really did bring inspiration and joy back to my foodie life! With being held captive in the house thanks to this freak snowy and icy Vancouver weather, I was feeling so sad and depressed. I made this at just the right turning point and it got me all fired up again. I hope it does the same thing for you too!
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Looks yummy! Close the blinds, turn up the heat and pretend you’re in Thailand!
Exactly!!! That is the power of food, it really does transport you and it can change your mood too. I really was engulfed by the flavours of Thailand and it was so heart-warming and wonderful.
Exactly!!! That is the power of food, it really does transport you and it can change your mood too. I really was engulfed by the flavours of Thailand and it was so heart-warming and wonderful.