Back to the food - Tom Kha Gai. This was the first Thai dish I learned to make when I first moved to New York. It's extremely easy to prepare once you have all the ingredients. In some Thai restaurants, they call this dish white curry. But I don't think this is qualified as a curry. It doesn't have all the spices normally used in curry and it's not as thick. The soup is actually a little light and refreshing because of all the lime in it.
Ingredients
- 4 stalks of lemongrass
- 3-inch knob of galangal (called Kha in Thai - it's a root that looks like ginger but smells lemony.)
- 10 lime leaves or a tablespoon of lime zest
- 4 limes
- 3 pounds chicken breast
- 1/2 pound oyster mushrooms
- 3 cans coconut milk
- 2 cups water
- 15 fresh Thai chilies - cut in half lengthwise
- Fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
Directions
- Clean the lemongrass, discard a few outer barks. Trim about 2 inches of its green tip and chop of its root. Cut diagonally into 1 inch stalks.
- Peel galangal and slice to make thin discs.
- In a large stock pot, heat coconut milk with lemongrass and galangal on a medium heat. Take care not to let the coconut milk boil.
- Clean the chicken and cut into small cubes. Add to the soup. Roughly tear lime leaves over the pot and add to the soup. Add water as needed.
- When the chicken is cooked. Tear mushrooms out of its stalks and add. Season with lime juice, fish sauce and chilies. The soup should be dominantly sour followed by salty and a little spicy from fresh chilies. The coconut milk will give the soup a little sweetness.
- Right before serving, sprinkle chopped cilantro. Served with steam rice or rice noodle. This recipe was enough to serve 9 people after 2 appetizers.
