Thai-Style Chicken Soup, p.14 first mag

Bill gave us daughters-in-law all the same cookbook for Christmas, actually the compilation of the 2007 Cooks Illustrated magazines, with the intention of us trying recipes and reviewing them here. Tonight I made Thai-Style Chicken Soup for us here in Flagstaff.

1 tsp. vegetable oil
3 lemon grass stalks, tough outer leaves removed, bottom 5 inches halved lengthwise and sliced thin crosswise.
3 large shallots, chopped
8 sprigs fresh cilantro, chopped coursely
3 T fish sauce
4 c low-sodium chicken broth
2 14-oz cans coconut milk, well shaken
1 T sugar
1/2 pd white mushrooms, cut into 1/4-inch slices
1 pd boneless, skinless chicken breast, sliced thinly
3 T juice from 2 to 3 limes
2 tsp Thai red curry paste

Garnish:
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
2 serrano chiles, sliced thin
2 scallions, "
1 lime, cut into wedges

1. Saute in oil the lemongrass, shallots, cilantro, and 1 T fishsauce until just softened, 2 to 5 min (should not brown). Stir in chicken broth and 1 can coconut milk; bring to simmer over high heat. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer until flavors have blended, 10 min. Pour broth through fine-mish strainer and discard solids in strainer. Rinse saucepan and return broth mixture to pan.

2. Return pan to medium heat. Stir remaining coconut milk and sugar into broth mixture and bring to simmer. Reduce heat to medium, add mushrooms, and cook until just tender, 2 t0 3 min. Add chicken and cook, stirring constantly, until no longer pink, 2 to 3 min. Remove soup from heat.

3. Combine lime juice, curry paste, and remaining 2 T fish sauce in small bowl; stir into soup. Ladle soup into bowls (over jasmine rice if you'd like) and garnish with cilantro, chiles, and scalles. Serve immediately with lime wedges.

Our thoughts: very good and very pretty, a creamy white broth with the white mushrooms and chicken. I would have liked it spicier (more red curry paste) but was making it for the kids too, so the serrano peppers on top added good kick. I didn't use the lemongrass stalks, but found everything else easily in the small local Bashas here. I didn't clean out pot, just used a sieve to fish out the solids as stated, used white onions instead of shallots, and half whole and half light coconut milk. We used rice at the bottom of the bowl but I thought it diluted the flavor - everyone else preferred the rice. I also doubled this and it'll feed us all for 2 dinners and a lunch.

Worth making again! The kids even liked it. Not hard or very time consuming.