Thai style Tom Kha Gai (galangal & chicken soup)..

Thai style Tom Kha Gai (galangal & chicken soup)..

A mate put me onto this recipe (Cheers Sir) & seeing as we had a lot of the herbs/spices needed growing in the patch it was worth a crack I thought.. Normally the only veggie/fungus added is mushrooms from what I have seen but I decided to add some other greens instead as they were ready to harvest..

Ingredients...

2 x 400ml tins coconut cream/milk (I like to use cream)
400ml water
15 thin slices of fresh galangal root (75mm/3" piece)
1 large or 2 small stalks of lemongrass, bruised & cut into 40mm/1½" pieces.
5 kaffir lime leaves, torn into thirds
4 chicken thighs, diced into 10mm/½" pieces
2 tbsp fish sauce
1½ tbsp lime juice
½ tbsp palm/rapadura/Panela sugar
2 Chillies, diced finely3/4 cup of raw jasmine rice, cooked..
My extra additions were,
1 small zucchini/courgette, sliced thinly
8 snake bean, cut into 25mm/1" lengths
Full handful of chopped greens per person..

- Place coconut cream/milk, water, lemongrass, galangal & kaffir leaves into saucepan & bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer for 15 min.
- Add chicken, simmer for another 15 min & start to cook rice.
- Remove soup from heat, add fish sauce, lime juice, sugar & chillies to soup, mix, then tweak as needed.
- The galangal, lemongrass & lime leaves can be removed now or left in to be eaten around as they are rather tough to eat.
- Add leafy greens to bowl then top with cooked rice.
- Add beans, zucchini then soup to bowl & serve...

Veggies came out nice & crunchy, just the way I like it.. This meal will definitely get a spin on the menu again as it was mild enough for the whole family to devour yet the chilli added at the end gave a nice little kick for Bianca & I..
Hope you like it if you try it...
Rob..

Beef Rendang...

Here is our version of a Rendang curry...
(Bits have been taken from a post I made on a Simple Savings Thread .. Some alterations have been made..)

Beef Rendang 
Paste...
5-6 cloves Garlic, chopped or 6 heaped tsp of minced garlic
2 x 10cm stalks Lemongrass, chopped (you could just add a very well bruised stalks straight into the curry but we found it became very tender when processed & wasn’t tough al all in the finished product)
1 Tbsp fresh Ginger, grated 
2 Tbsp fresh Turmeric or 1 heaped tsp of powder
2 Tbsp Fresh Galangal, grated
Chillies to taste… I will be using 1 large from the patch & adding paste if needed..
2 medium onions, chopped
About ½ cup water to help ingredients combine in processor…
3 tsp Coriander powder
3 tsp Cumin powder
10 Curry leaves

Add all above ingredients into processor & blend into a paste...
Other ingredients...
1kg of diced beef
2 x 400ml tins lite Coconut Cream
½ tsp Tamarind paste
1 tsp/cube palm sugar (If you have Tamarind sauce you can use 1 Tbsp of that instead of the paste & sugar)
All ingredients are then added to a pot & brought to a boil
Once boiled then reduce heat to a medium simmer for an hour… Don’t forget to stir about every 10 min & have a taste test or 6 as well…
Reduce to very low & simmer for about an hour or until the liquid has been absorbed stirring occasionally… Remove the Lemongrass now if you put it in whole then serve by itself or with your favourite rice...

Hope you enjoy it, We do regularly...
Have a great one...
: )»