Tom kha gai soup, modded
Sep. 8th, 2010 04:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
petroniaTalking to Kara about making epic tom kha gai from this recipe, with the following modifications (both intentional and unintentional):
* Both garlic and onion in lieu of red shallot.
* No fresh chili XD;; would rather not when the flavour profile is so complex otherwise. Just a dash of chili garlic sauce.
* Didn't de-bone/de-skin the chicken thighs - why bother?
* Whole fresh oyster mushrooms in lieu of chopped.
* Thought I bought frozen galangal but it definitely wasn't. XD;;; I actually have no idea what I did buy, bawling - some kind of ginseng, I think. It had a very delicate flavour and turned the soup an attractive golden orange. Yes, I added the root of an unidentified plant to my soup. And some ginger chunks to compensate.
* Dried kaffir lime leaves in lieu of fresh.
* While getting ingredients at the local Filipino-Vietnamese grocer I saw that they were selling fried crab - fried crab! Drained and plastic-wrapped with a bit of ginger and shallot. So I bought a packet of three and ate them for lunch. Then I boiled all the shells and legs and bits with the bones of a chicken I'd bought for making stock. For like six hours. It was really, really epic stock. Don't do this if you can't live with your house smelling like boiled crab for a while. But any soup based on this stuff would have gone to a different level.
The recipe is very good, beautifully balanced - you're better off adding just the juice and not any of the zest, though, certainly don't drop the lime half in, or it'll get bitter.
* Both garlic and onion in lieu of red shallot.
* No fresh chili XD;; would rather not when the flavour profile is so complex otherwise. Just a dash of chili garlic sauce.
* Didn't de-bone/de-skin the chicken thighs - why bother?
* Whole fresh oyster mushrooms in lieu of chopped.
* Thought I bought frozen galangal but it definitely wasn't. XD;;; I actually have no idea what I did buy, bawling - some kind of ginseng, I think. It had a very delicate flavour and turned the soup an attractive golden orange. Yes, I added the root of an unidentified plant to my soup. And some ginger chunks to compensate.
* Dried kaffir lime leaves in lieu of fresh.
* While getting ingredients at the local Filipino-Vietnamese grocer I saw that they were selling fried crab - fried crab! Drained and plastic-wrapped with a bit of ginger and shallot. So I bought a packet of three and ate them for lunch. Then I boiled all the shells and legs and bits with the bones of a chicken I'd bought for making stock. For like six hours. It was really, really epic stock. Don't do this if you can't live with your house smelling like boiled crab for a while. But any soup based on this stuff would have gone to a different level.
The recipe is very good, beautifully balanced - you're better off adding just the juice and not any of the zest, though, certainly don't drop the lime half in, or it'll get bitter.
