How do you say, oh shit I fucked this up in Thai?
I was trying to make Hot and Sour Shrimp Soup or Tom Yam Kung
I looked at the wrong tiny little picture I took of a recipe on my I phone a month ago and started making Tom Khaa Kai or Chicken, Coconut and Galagal Soup instead.
It was not until I had boiled the crap out of some galangal root and lemon grass that I realized I was making the wrong recipe entirely.
A month ago, I tried to go to the Asian market in the ghetto of San Bernardino and buy my Thai ingredients myself.
I couldn’t find a single ingredient.
Or a single English speaking person.
I even showed the man working the cash register a picture on my Iphone of the curry paste my Thai friend buys in this market every week.
I was merely shrugged at, and I wandered back to my car. I was beyond frustrated. On my list I had thin soy sauce, lemongrass, crazy ass curry paste, galangal (A root that is similar to ginger) and mushrooms. The only ingredient I could find were the mushrooms (They looked so delicious, I was tempted to eat those ‘shrooms there on the spot) I know what lemongrass looks like. I know it should be in the fresh produce department and yet I couldn’t find it. I couldn’t find the galangal root either and dammit how hard can it be to find a root in the very tiny produce department? This market was not big; it was the size of a A.M. P.M convenience store.
Suffice to say I failed at Thai grocery shopping.
The situation was frustrating and it was a cold winters day; I wanted to make Thai Soup so bad!
I actually went back to the Thai market two days later and tried again and once again accomplished nothing, but drowling over fancy Thai mushrooms.
Luckily my Thai friend Kathy is a huge sweetheart and picked up all the ingredients for me when she made her weekly visit to Asian Grocery Vons (It’s called something like that)
She bought me all the ingredients for the soup she always makes and I rave about every time.
Than I went out of town on a snowy mountain vacation to for a week and had no time for cooking tasty Thai Soup.
Until today that is.
So after I returned home from a afternoon snow shoeing near Big Bear Lake I thought a cold blustery evening would be a great Thai Soup making occasion.
Than I combined every Thai Soupy combination I could find, by accident and came up with this concoction.
It is actually really good, yea me.
I like to serve this Thai Soup over a brown rice medley (This makes me feel better about the can of coconut milk I added to the soup) I buy the frozen brown rice medley from Trader Joe’s. I also like to bake a potato in the microwave, mash it and add that on top of the brown rice and pour the soup on top. I did this the first time to combine leftovers and damn, is it good.
Thai Soup with Shrimp
1 cup shrimp
3 pieces lemongrass, white pieces only, bruised
4 small chunks of galangal root
8 cups water or chicken stock
2 scallions, chopped into pieces
4 kaffir lime leaves
2 tab fish sauce
2 tab thin soy sauce
3 tab curry paste
juice of 3-4 Thai limes
cherry tomatoes
mushrooms (Thai ones are best)
1 can coconut milk
birds eye chili’s, slice them if you want the soup to be hot so the chili’s escape
serve with a baked potato, mashed, brown rice and cilantro In a soup pan bring the water or stock to a boil, add the galangal and lemongrass. Let boil twenty minutes. Fish out the galangal and lemongrass, add the shrimp, cut into pieces. Let cook ten minutes. Add the chili’s, lime leaves, mushrooms, curry paste, scallions, soy sauce and fish sauce. Let cook fifteen more minutes, add the coconut milk and the lime juice. Add the tomatoes at the very end, than serve ten minutes later.
I was trying to make Hot and Sour Shrimp Soup or Tom Yam Kung
I looked at the wrong tiny little picture I took of a recipe on my I phone a month ago and started making Tom Khaa Kai or Chicken, Coconut and Galagal Soup instead.
It was not until I had boiled the crap out of some galangal root and lemon grass that I realized I was making the wrong recipe entirely.
A month ago, I tried to go to the Asian market in the ghetto of San Bernardino and buy my Thai ingredients myself.
I couldn’t find a single ingredient.
Or a single English speaking person.
I even showed the man working the cash register a picture on my Iphone of the curry paste my Thai friend buys in this market every week.
I was merely shrugged at, and I wandered back to my car. I was beyond frustrated. On my list I had thin soy sauce, lemongrass, crazy ass curry paste, galangal (A root that is similar to ginger) and mushrooms. The only ingredient I could find were the mushrooms (They looked so delicious, I was tempted to eat those ‘shrooms there on the spot) I know what lemongrass looks like. I know it should be in the fresh produce department and yet I couldn’t find it. I couldn’t find the galangal root either and dammit how hard can it be to find a root in the very tiny produce department? This market was not big; it was the size of a A.M. P.M convenience store.
Suffice to say I failed at Thai grocery shopping.
The situation was frustrating and it was a cold winters day; I wanted to make Thai Soup so bad!
I actually went back to the Thai market two days later and tried again and once again accomplished nothing, but drowling over fancy Thai mushrooms.
Luckily my Thai friend Kathy is a huge sweetheart and picked up all the ingredients for me when she made her weekly visit to Asian Grocery Vons (It’s called something like that)
She bought me all the ingredients for the soup she always makes and I rave about every time.
Than I went out of town on a snowy mountain vacation to for a week and had no time for cooking tasty Thai Soup.
Until today that is.
So after I returned home from a afternoon snow shoeing near Big Bear Lake I thought a cold blustery evening would be a great Thai Soup making occasion.
Than I combined every Thai Soupy combination I could find, by accident and came up with this concoction.
It is actually really good, yea me.
I like to serve this Thai Soup over a brown rice medley (This makes me feel better about the can of coconut milk I added to the soup) I buy the frozen brown rice medley from Trader Joe’s. I also like to bake a potato in the microwave, mash it and add that on top of the brown rice and pour the soup on top. I did this the first time to combine leftovers and damn, is it good.
Thai Soup with Shrimp
1 cup shrimp
3 pieces lemongrass, white pieces only, bruised
4 small chunks of galangal root
8 cups water or chicken stock
2 scallions, chopped into pieces
4 kaffir lime leaves
2 tab fish sauce
2 tab thin soy sauce
3 tab curry paste
juice of 3-4 Thai limes
cherry tomatoes
mushrooms (Thai ones are best)
1 can coconut milk
birds eye chili’s, slice them if you want the soup to be hot so the chili’s escape
serve with a baked potato, mashed, brown rice and cilantro In a soup pan bring the water or stock to a boil, add the galangal and lemongrass. Let boil twenty minutes. Fish out the galangal and lemongrass, add the shrimp, cut into pieces. Let cook ten minutes. Add the chili’s, lime leaves, mushrooms, curry paste, scallions, soy sauce and fish sauce. Let cook fifteen more minutes, add the coconut milk and the lime juice. Add the tomatoes at the very end, than serve ten minutes later.
