hi there welcome back to hot Thai kitchen it's a cold wintry day in San Francisco today perfect for
what we're going to make we're going to make a nice soup called tom kha gai let's take a
little thai lesson okay tom means to boil now when it's a food name it means a light brothy soup kha
is galangal now galangal is a root that looks like this and I've used it before in my first episode
of hot Thai Kitchen the tom Yum Goong episode and it's a citrusy woody really unique smell and
that is going to give the predominant flavor of our soup that's what the soup is named after it
and then gai means chicken which is the meat most commonly used in the soup so let's get going we're
going to start with what I have here is two cups of coconut milk now if you've seen my green curry
episode you know that I use the kind that comes in the carton like this and the reason being this is
100% coconut milk no preservatives are added it has not been homogenized and it tastes and feels
the closest to fresh coconut milk all right so we're going to use that but if you can't find it
and if you want to use the canned ones that works as well and to that I'm going to add equal parts
water so it's going to be 2 cups of water now to thin this out if you're using the canned coconut
milk add another cup because it's usually a thicker consistency all right so that's our
base and to this we're going to add all of our herbs so first of course we're going to add our
cup are all gallon girl routes which is the main flavor so I've sliced it up into about
rounds then like this so you give a lot of surface area for the flavors to infuse okay about ten oh
they go in there next it's my favorite favorite herb of all time kaffir lime leaves kaffir lime
leaves look like this and it's got a really strong unique citrus smell and it's fantastic you can't
eat it it's really tough but if you really thinly shift and on it you can actually you can actually
eat it I like to put it in some of my curries and but if you're going to leave it whole make
sure you don't eat it okay so what we're going to do is we're just going to tear them and try
to tear them aggressively so that they Bruce at the same time because when you bruise it you help
it release all of its flavors so that's going in there last one that's going in there and I
have about five six leaves in there next our last herb is lemongrass now if you've seen my thumb Yum
Goong episode you know how to prep lemongrass and if you haven't here's a lesson first you're going
to cut off the end okay and then you're going to cut off this green woody part here all right and
now we're going to smash it we're going to smash it with the back of our knives same principle
Bruce the selves break up the flavors help it infuse into your soup all right so just go for it
okay that looks good enough now we're going to cut it into about an inch and a half chunks and
off they go as well all right and we're going to let put this on the stove and we're going
to let it cook after it's come to a boil you're going to let it cook for about ten to fifteen
minutes give it time now the good thing about having coconut milk in that broth is that a lot
some of the flavor molecules and herbs are water soluble and some are fat soluble and when you have
both fat from the coconut milk and water more of the of the flavor components of the flavor
compounds are able to dissolve into the soup so come right back to this in about 15 minutes
so it's been about 15 minutes and our suit is smelling really good my entire apartment sells
great so it's time for us to add some mushrooms and chicken now if you come back to the soup after
15 minutes and you feel like it's reduced a little too much and the soup has gotten too thick or you
got very little liquid left just add some more water to it to get back to that consistency of a
thin broth II coconut soup alright so I'm going to add first of all before I add the mushrooms
some Thai chilies umm this stuff is not an overly spicy soup it's it's gonna have a little bit of a
kick to it but it's not like boom Yum Goong where it's gonna really kick you off your seat so just
2 or 1 you don't even have to put any and if you don't want to this is a comfort food soup you want
to be comfortable with it now next we're going to add oyster mushrooms all right boys star mushrooms
they're going to add take about a couple minutes to cook so we're going to add them first after
the mushrooms have wilted a little bit look at all those herbs we're going to add about two breasts
of chicken that I've cut into bite-sized pieces and I marinated this it in some fish sauce for
a few hours we're going to add that to our soup so our chicken is done and our mushrooms is also
done and it is looking very good now is the time for seasoning you can come take a look at what our
soup is looking like right now now if you notice I have all the herbs still in there and that's very
traditional we leave all the herbs in there we're not supposed to eat them you will not be able to
chew and swallow them because they're really hard but for almost for garnish so you know the flavors
that are in there to visually represent the taste in your mouth alright so make sure your guests
know not to eat the herbs in there if you've got guests alright so for seasoning we're going to use
three tablespoons of fish sauce all right that's going to be our salty component and to that we're
going to add about a tablespoon and a half of lime juice and it goes and then about about a
half a tablespoon of palm sugar now palm sugar the one that I get comes in a little block like
this and this is going to take forever to dissolve so I just chop it up into little almost sand like
clay like not clay but sand like texture like that so about half a tablespoon you can just eyeball it
and then we're going to give it a taste now when it comes to seasoning this soup I'm giving you
a rough estimate of all my measurements but it really depends on one how much your liquid has
reduced if your liquid is reduce reduce more than my you're not going to need to you to use
as much and if you like its saltier if you like it more sour that's completely up to you I've
learned over the years of cooking for people that people salt palate can be anywhere from here to
here some people think given the same food some people think it's bland some you will think it's
overly salty so that's something that you've got to to learn to adjust to yourself so I'm going to
give this a taste that's pretty good but I think it's going to need a little more saltiness now
I'm not going to add fish sauce I'm going to add a little more salt reason this this matter what I
have a teaspoon the reason is this is a delicate flavored soup you know it doesn't it doesn't have
unlike the thumb Yum Goong soup it's got chili paste it's got lots of Chili's and trims it's
got strong flavors it can handle fish sauce a lot of fish sauce this soup is delicate and if you add
too much fish sauce becomes a little - fishy so after three tablespoons make up the rest of the
saltiness with salt so your soup doesn't get too too fishy and then I also think it needs a little
bit more line see what I mean about adjustment the last time I made this that's the measurements
that I need it but now you know the amount of liquid that has reduced in my pot is different
so I need to adjust my seasoning accordingly so about a little bit God by the way I took a
little poll on Facebook asking my friends what I should make on my next hot Thai kitchen and this
Boomkat guy was the number one winner so it's very popular all right so I'm going to taste it again
mmm perfect that is really good that's perfect it's a little bit of spiciness
sour salty sweet well-balanced smooth mouthfeel perfect now we're going to dish it up now we're
going to garnish that with a little bit of cilantro always a nice little color added
to that and there it is hot guy now you can do this with rice that's traditionally how we use
it my mom likes to put it and put the soup in the little bowl and put the rice in the
bowl and make it into a rice soup or I just like to pour it over my rice on the plate
and however you want you can just eat it as is without any rice if that's what you want
but here we go okaaaaay okaaaaay hm thank you for tuning in and see you next time