Happy Trails For Us: My Reluctant Blog

Now to make soup:

Ingredients

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 small onion, minced
1 Tablespoon minced ginger
1 Tablespoon minced lemongrass (or pale green cilantro roots)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dark red chili paste, such as sambal, more for serving
3/4 pound boneless, skinlees chicken thigh or breast meat, thinly slices and cut into bite size pieces (or 1/2 pound of medium prawns, or a combination of both)
3 Tablesppons curry powder, preferably Malaysian, Thai or Vietamese (my tin said "Asian").
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 can (14 ounces) unsweetened coconut milk
1/2 cup half and half
4 cups chicken stock
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 Tablespoons fish sauce
1 Tablespoon sugar, more to taste (one was plenty)
About 12 Kaffire lime leaves or curry leaves, fresh or frozen (optional) - I sliced these thinly

8 ounces dried thin rice noodles (bun or vermicelli), or other Asian noodle such as udon or lai fun
Salt to taste

Toppings;
1 cup bean sprouts
3 Tablespoons chopped cilantro
2 scallions, cut into thin rings
2 shallots, thinly sliced and deep fried in vegetable oil until brown (optional)
Quartered limes for serving

1. Heat oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Add onion, ginger and lemon grass and cook, stirring, until softened, about 10 minutes. Do not brown, reduce heat if necessary.

Add garlic and chili paste and stir until fragrant. Raise heat, add chicken and stir-fry one minute.
Add curry powder and paprika and stir to coat.

Then add coconut milk, half-and-half, chicken stock, turmeric, fish sauce, sugar and lime or curry leaves. Bring to a boil, then reduce hear and simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 7 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, cook rice noodles in boiling water according to package directions. Rinse and drain. Prepare toppings.

and frying shallots:

To finish, taste broth and adjust seasonings with salt and sugar. Divide noodles into large soup bowls. Bring broth to a boil, then ladel over noodles. Top with bean sprouts, cilantro, scallions and fried shallots. Pass limes and sambal at the table (this table did not need any extra sambal).

Yield: 4 main-course servings.

We have enough broth left over for another meal, and enough broth so that I think I will buy some prawns and add them, plus boil the rest of the noodles. I used half of the one pound package, but we always use more than recipes call for. And with all of the new ingredients (Asian curry, sambal, fish sauce, extra lemongrass), I need to go hunt for some new recipes in which to use them. Maybe next week's hot and sour soup will help with this.

I am really glad to have had the opportunity to make this delicious soup.