Thai Coconut Soup

Thai Cuisine is always very flavourful and one of my favourites with lots of spices and herbs. Thai coconut soup is a soothing soup generally with a mild taste and prepared with rich coconut milk. This version does not involve any of the authentic ingredients like galangal,lemon grass or Kaffir lime. And the reason was non-availability!! But do not worry, this is more Indianised way in bringing the Thai taste, similar to Kerala dishes in fact.

Method:

1. Soak one or two dry red chillies overnight- deseeded. Or at least for 3 hours to make it soft.
2. Blend it with very little water to a paste.
3. Clean and chop 1 cup of mushrooms,vegetables- I used 1 carrot, 1/4 broccoli.

Spice Stock:

1. Add 1.5 cups of water in a pan.
2. Add crushed ginger of at least 2 inches.Less the ginger, less the fragrance.
3. Add the lemon peel(lemon zest) from one lemon.
4. Add 1 tspn of red chilli paste blended above.
5. Let it boil for 5 minutes.
6. Filter the stock and keep aside the rest for future use.

Soup:

1. Heat a pan, add 1 tblspn of oil,preferably gingelly or sesame oil.
2. Crush 3-4 garlic pieces and stir for 1 minute.
3. Add the chopped vegetables and toss them for 1 minute.
4. Add the stock and 2 more cups of water.
5. Add needed salt.
6. Add some lemon zest and ginger which were used for stock to extract the balance flavour.
7. Let it boil for 15 minutes.
8. The amount of water starts to reduce to nearly half.
9. Add 1 tspn of soya sauce. Simmer the stove a bit.
10. Add lime juice from one lemon. You can use the same lemon from which the skin was peeled.
11. Leave for 5 more minutes.
12. Once the vegetables are softer, add 1.5 cups of very thick coconut milk and simmer completely.
13. If you allow it to boil, the milk will start curdling.
14. Add 1 -2 tspn of palm sugar for sweetness.
15. If you need the soup to be bit more hot and spicy, add 1 more tspn of red chilli paste.
16. Adjust the taste and water, add coriander leaves for garnish.
17. Switch off the stove after 5 minutes of adding coconut milk.

The soup is now ready .You can remove the ginger and lemon zest while serving. Serve hot.

This is called as Tom Kha Gai in Thai.