It's been a whirlwind of a year, and I rarely find time to blog. I, however, generally have time to cook, so I have LOTS of great new recipes. I've recently moved (yes, again!), but now I'm in heaven with my own kitchen and lots of quiet. I moved most of my potted plants from my garden inside our new house; they are thriving here. My african violet is loving life. Before she didn't have any flowers, and now she's filled with both flowers and hunter green foliage.
As the leaves began to yellow on my ginger plant, I decided to harvest the root. What I didn't realize was aside from the tubers, ginger has long tough roots. Silly me, I tried to harvest it in the kitchen. I quickly realized, we didn't have any gardening tools, so I used a spatula. My wonderful partner woke up and walked into the kitchen just in time to spot, me spatula in hand, attempting to dig up ginger roots, but instead plowing a huge clot of dirt from the pot onto my shirt, the floor, and into my mouth. At this point, I decided to move outside. After a little more struggling, this time with a spoon, alas mission accomplished.
I now have a HUGE bowl of ginger root. I'm giving some away to friends and family and replanting the remainder for next year's harvest. In the meantime, I've been on ginger overload. Thus, I bring you the BEST Tom Kha soup I have ever had! For those of you who have never heard of Tom Kha, it is a coconut milk soup with chili paste. It's sweet, and you can make it however spicy you want. This recipe originally came from myrecipe.com, but I have since altered it.
Ingredients
- 1 can (14 oz.) coconut milk
- 1 can (14 oz.) reduced-sodium chicken broth (to make this vegan, you can use faux chicken broth)
- 8-10 quarter-size slices fresh ginger (this really depends on how strong of a ginger taste you want in your soup. The original recipe calls for 6 quarter-size slices, but I put 8; otherwise it's bland).
- 1 stalk fresh lemongrass, cut in 1-in. pieces (this is optional, especially for those who cannot find it in the grocery store. Additionally, you can use lemongrass paste, which adds the same flavor. I leave this out if I can't find any at the store.)
- 1 pound shrimp (this is optional too, for a vegan/vegetarian version use tofu)
- 1 cup sliced shiitake mushrooms
- 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice (I don't usually measure this. I squeeze an entire lime into my soup.)
- 1 tablespoon Thai or Vietnamese fish sauce (nuoc mam or nam pla)
- 1 teaspoon sugar (plus a couple dashes. keep tasting the soup until it's flavorful)
- 2 teaspoon Thai chili paste (similar to the sugar, just keep adding it slowly to see when the flavor is right for you)
- 1/4 cup fresh basil leaves
- 1/4 cup chopped leeks
Preparation
In a medium saucepan, combine coconut milk, broth, ginger, and lemongrass and bring to boil over high heat. Add shrimp, mushrooms, lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, and chili paste. Reduce heat and simmer until chicken is firm and opaque, 5 to 10 minutes. Discard lemongrass. Garnish servings with basil and leeks.
On a side note, while I was cooking dinner last night, I was absolutely famished. I forgot my lunch at home, and was surviving on pretzels the entire day. But I recently discovered Amy's Organic Pita Pockets. These are ABSOLUTELY perfect for someone on the go. Some of them are vegan. I snacked on one while my soup simmered.
