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Thursday, November 03, 2005

First Things First - Food Courtesy of Angel (hugs)

Copied from Angel's blog.

Soup for You!
By request from Granny of RocRebelGranny, I present another recipe to keep you warm on a chilly night. We call it Tom Ka Gai, but the book calls it
Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Chicken Soup with Coconut Milk and LemongrassFrom the book Soup: A Way of Life by Barbara Kafka

1 stalk lemongrass (we use lemongrass paste found in the produce section)
1 tbs neutral-flavored oil (I think we still use olive oil)
1 medium onion, minced
1 garlic clove, minced (I know we use WAY more LOL) (Angel - doesn't everybody? No such thing as too much garlic. Ann)
2 tsp Thai red curry paste or curry powder
6 very thin slices ginger, not peeled (fresh or frozen)
3 lime leaves, dried or fresh (I believe we just use a tiny bit of lime juice)
4 cups chicken stock
3/4 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/4 lb shiitake mushrooms
13 oz can unsweetened coconut milk
Juice of 2 limes
2 tbs nam pla or nuoc mam (Asian fish sauce)
3 green onions, minced
1/4 cup cilantro (I think we usually leave that out)

Trim the lemongrass of its outer sheath and hard ends. Whack it in a few places with the back of a knife, then cut into 2 or 3 pieces.

In a medium saucepan, combine oil, onion, and garlic, and turn the heat on medium. Cook a minute, stirring, then add lemongrass, curry, ginger, and lime leaves.

Cook, stirring, for 3-4 mi., then add stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and cook at a moderate boil for about 15 minutes. (You can prepare the recipe to this point and refrigerate for 2 days).

While the broth cooks, cut the chicken breasts into bite size cubes. Chop the mushrooms (the recipe says to reserve the stems for future use, but we just use the whole thing).

Add coconut milk, chicken, and mushrooms to broth. Cook for 5 minutes or until the chicken is done.

Stir in lime juice and nam pla. Taste and adjust seasoning. You may remove the ginger, lemongrass and lime leaves before serving. Garnish with green onions.
Makes 4 large bowls

Note: I'd probably have to double this. Told Angel I might make it after T'giving as a way to use up leftover turkey. I always make turkey soup - this will be a different version. Notice Angel adapts recipes. So do I.

Hi, Mollie - by now you're probably sleeping. No doubt we'll be chatting later.

L. - I typed "sweet potatoes", realized as I was checking that I meant yams, deleted "sweet" but not "potatoes". Banged head against screen once or twice and went back and fixed it. yams potatoes? Strange.

Ray and I went out this morning and made another sizable dent in shopping. We stopped for lunch at my favorite cheap Chinese place, appropriately named Rice Bowl. The building is somewhat bowl shaped and owned by same family for years. Generations work there. Typical Cantonese, lots of breaded things, but clean and good. We like it a lot.

Anyhow, the daughter of the owner had her 2 year old (about) son with her today. He brought menus, served cans of Coke to another table, and then visited from table to table. I'm sure he was asking if everything was alright and if there was anything else we needed. More tea? Hot mustard? He was a circus and a beautiful child. We were talking about family friendly restaurants on BB a couple of weeks ago. This one certainly gives new meaning to the word. I told Ray that in 20 years or so, the child would be running the place (or possibly graduating from Stanford). They are good people.

Oh yeah, and he had shoes that squeaked (on purpose) when he walked. His mommy always knew right where he was. So did everyone else. It was one of my better lunch experiences.

Waiting to see if Elcie comes home on bus. I forgot Thursday is sign language class after school. They don't always have it so we'll wait until past time for bus and then leave to pick her up. They don't provide transportation for extra-curricular activities.

Others should be in soon as well. I have the bulk of my Thanksgiving meal purchased and stashed (especially the cranberry sauce and black olives - they're not safe from the girls). Maraschino cherries and marshmallows are hiding as well.

The menu for tonight will be chicken and broccoli. If someone wants divan, they can put their broccoli spear on top of their drumstick. I ran out of time as well as enthusiasm. Baked the chicken, steamed the broccoli, and will heat up some whole kernel and cream corn mixed. They always snack on fruit so I don't usually include it with dinner. No pasta - there's enough starch in the corn.

I'm sure tonight will be much better than last. Probably a letdown from all the festivities. We see a lot of it at Christmas too. Iknow that's never happened in your households (lol).

If I'm not nattering about homework, I'm fixated on food. Do I need some balance in my life?

Later - have to go lurk on a few blogs. I learned a new blog word - "lurker". I have graduated from blog kindergarten and am working through first grade.

(Come to think of it, I never lurk or not for long - I chime right in whether they are listening or not).

Take care everyone.

2 comments:

The Rainbow Zebra said...

Hugs back atcha Ann :)

Yes, we do customize alot of recipes, and I think we do double the recipe too. I wouldn't have thought about turkey, but good idea! Though usually we don't have leftovers (going to inlaw's for Thanksgiving). And our oven is too small for a "normal" turkey, so not many leftovers from a turkey breast LOL.

Granny said...

angel, I am the inlaw they come to for Thanksgiving.

Once my son was going to host but by the time he ran through the list of things that "only I" could make, it was simpler to just do it. He sometimes uses his oven for the ham though. It cuts down on oven time a lot. I have a standard 36" oven but even it won't do a big turkey and anything else at the same time unless I break the breastbone and that would spoil it for everyone. Also sage on turkey and cloves on ham mingling in oven would be too weird.