Chicken and Coconut Milk Soup(Gaeng Com Yam Gai)

* Exported from MasterCook *

Chicken and Coconut Milk Soup (Gaeng Com Yam Gai)

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 1 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Thai Soups
Ceideburg 2

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
5 cups "Thin" coconut milk
1 small Chicken -- sectioned and cut
bite-sized pieces -- (bone-in)
3 Stalks lemon grass -- bruised
cut into 1" lengths
2 teaspoons Laos powder (Ka)
3 Green onions -- finely chopped
2 tablespoons Coriander leaves -- chipped
4 To 6 fresh Serrano -- chillies, seeded and

Juice of 2 limes
3 tablespoons Fish sauce (Nam Pla)

Here's another classic "Tom Yam" type chicken soup. The
"Laos" powder is dried galangal, powdered. Unlike ginger, dried
galangal seems to retain most of it's character. If you use canned coconut
milk, the "Thin" milk is the more watery liquid in the can. The
thick condensed stuff is coconut "cream" (not to be confused with the
syrupy sweet coconut cream used for Pina Coladas). If you shake the can up and
combine the two, you have thick coconut milk.

A lovely lemony, creamy soup, Dom Yam Gai calls for chicken pieces cut
through the bone with a heavy cleaver, Chinese style. If you find gnawing on
chicken pieces and delicately trying to remove the bone, vainly searching for
a place to deposit it, inhibiting your dinner conversation, you may debone the
bird and substitute chicken pieces.
In either case, use both dark and light meats for color and nutrition.

[Although if you're talking at the table, ya got no reason to be eating a
dish this good! S.C. ;-} ]
In a saucepan, bring the "Thin" coconut milk to a boil. Add the
chicken pieces, lemon grass and Laos powder. Reduce heat and simmer until the
chicken is tender, about 15 minutes. Do not cover as this will tend to curdle
coconut milk. When the chicken is tender, add the green onions, coriander
leaves and chillies. Bring the heat up just below boiling. Remove the pan
from heat, stir in lime juice, fish sauce and serve.

NOTE: Beef cut into thin strips or firm white fish pieces may be substituted
for chicken.

From "The Original Thai Cookbook" by Jennifer Brennan, GD/Perigee,
published by Putnam. 1981.

Posted by Stephen Ceideburg; February 6 1991.

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