Tom Kha Gai (Chicken and Coconut Soup)

Hi Guys,

I LOVE Thai food! I love eating out from time to time but to be honest toddlers just aren’t conducive to eating out… Come to think of it they aren’t really conducive to mummy eating a hot meal most of the time 🙂 We used to live right by a gold plate awarded Thai restaurant and were spoilt with amazing take-away. Since we have moved I have really craved the Tom Kah Gai chicken soup like we used to get. I have been thinking about this one for ages! Now I am by no means an asian expert but I gave it a try and I am pretty happy with the results! Hubby’s verdict was “If I gave the restaurant a 10 I would give you an 8” A 10 would have been nice but there is something to be said for honesty !

This was a super easy soup and served 4 big serves. You could easily spread this a little further if you had a dinner party out to 6 smaller sizes. You will need your Varoma to steam the chicken.

INGREDIENTS:

1 Chicken Breast

1 Red Chilli (optional)

1 Stalk of Lemon Grass

10g Galangal

10g Oil

400g Tin Coconut Cream

250g Water

6 Kafir Lime Leaves

1 teaspoon Raw Sugar

3 tablespoons Fish Sauce

2 1/2 tablespoons Lime Juice

1 Tablespoon Coriander

1 Can Bamboo Shoots (only require a small handful and optional)

1 Can Mushrooms Champignons Whole

6-8 mini tomatoes (Cut in half)

Spring Onion for Garnish

METHOD:

1.  Place the peeled Galangal, lemon grass (Cut in half) and Chilli into TM bowl and blitz on speed 9 for 10 seconds.
2. Add oil and sauté for 2 minutes 100 degrees speed 1.
3. Add water and coconut cream to the TM bowl. At the same time chop the chicken breast into small pieces and place into bottom layer of the Varoma. Add Varoma to the top of the TM bowl and cook for 10 minutes Varoma temp speed 3.
4. Separate chicken and place into TM bowl, add fish sauce, sugar, the Kaffir Leaves (Slightly crumpled to help release flavour) Lime Juice, a handful of bamboo shoots (add the amount your liking) drained can of Champignons and mini tomatoes halved. Cook for 6 minutes 100 degrees on reverse + speed soft.
5. Separate larger ingredients evenly into serving bowls and cover with broth. Garnish with chopped coriander and spring onions. (remove the lime leaves from the mix and discard.)

TIPS: 

• The galangal leaves the soup a little textured. If you would prefer a smoother soup I would add the larger ingredients to the bowl and strain the broth and serve it smooth.
• Galangal is similar to Ginger in look and the way that you cook it but it has a different flavour base. It is more of a peppery flavour.
• As with most Asian cooking there needs to be a balance in flavours so make sure you are tasting the broth, there might be a bit of adjusting needed with the lime / fish sauce / sugar balance.
• The chill is optional and I sliced it and removed the seeds for the chilli I used. The heat was just right it had a bit of bite but didn’t linger.
• You could add some red capsicum to the mix.
• This was really enjoyable and came in at a fraction of the cost of a restaurant. At a rough estimate I was able to make the 4 serves for the price of one at the restaurant.
• Serve with a nice Green Curry and you have yourself a Thai feast.