Tom Kha Gai is one of my all-time favorites. The spiciness and refreshing taste always makes me smile. Tom Kha Gai is a soup entree to be eaten with rice or pasta. You can use the base sauce for so many things. You can also add almost all your favorite proteins to it (Tofu, Seafood, or Chicken). Change your protein, add more noodles or rice for a main course. And the best is if you’re doing a bigger batch, you can freeze some for later.
Ingredients:
- 1 can coconut milk*
- 5 l water
- 5 l vegetable stock
- 100 g galangal root
- 81 stalks of lemongrass
- 50 g Mirin
- 30 g Rice Vinegar
- 1 big white onion
- 2 tomatoes
- 30 g kaffir lime leaves squeezed
- 300 g mushrooms, most likely Shimeji
- 3 Thai chilies
- 50 g lime juice
- small bunch of cilantro
* Depending on your preferences, you can reduce the amount of coconut milk and replace it with vegetable stock.
Instructions:
First up, cook your favorite pasta and protein with this dish.
Chop the galangal root into smaller pieces. Take off the outside skin layers from the lemongrass and smash the lemongrass with a pan or meat pounder.
Heat up the coconut milk, lemongrass, lime leaves, and galangal and let it simmer for an hour to transfer the flavour to the coconut milk.
Chop and sauté the mushrooms and onions until brown. Take the mushrooms out and keep on the side.
Add water and vegetable stock in the pan and reduce. Strain coconut milk into the pan. Add chili, tomato, mirin and rice vinegar. Reduce the liquid until it becomes a rich, creamy sauce. Season to your tastes with lime juice, salt, and pepper. Use fresh cilantro as a display across the ‘soup’ for finishing the dish.
Add sauteed mushrooms to your favourite rice or pasta served in a bowl, then ladle in the ‘soup’ and enjoy!
