Thai Coconut Chicken Soup

I've been on a little bit of a Thai kick lately. I'm starting to feel like I may as well stock my pantry with cans of coconut milk, red curry paste, and curry powder. It feels like a good time of year for these curries and soups. They can be warm and comforting for Fall, but still reminiscent of summer with the coconut-y goodness and the bright, fresh lime flavors. 

My recipe this week involves a lot of mushrooms, which is another great Fall favorite in soups. And bonus! It's a quick one, especially if you buy the mushrooms pre-sliced. Next week's recipe will also be Thai but no mushrooms involved, for those of you who fear them. :) It's been so nice to get back to cooking after having been laid up for a while and eating mostly freezer foods. Though I will say, it was nice to have a break from my two year old crying at my feet while I prep dinner...

Enjoy!

Thai Coconut Soup

Adapted from America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

Ingredients:

• 1 T vegetable oil
• 2 T peeled, grated ginger (or 1tsp ginger powder)
• 6 tsp Thai red curry paste
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
• 6 c chicken broth
• 3 T fish sauce or soy sauce
• 1 T light brown sugar
• 2 (14oz) cans coconut milk (the kind you find in the Asian foods aisle. Not the coconut milk in the dairy section, and not canned coconut cream...that will get you SUPER sweet results that we're not looking for here)
• 1 lb chicken breast, sliced in 1 inch strips (or pre-cooked shredded chicken you have on hand)
• 1 lb white mushrooms, trimmed and sliced thin
• 3-4 T fresh lime juice (I usually more lime rather than less)
• 1/2 c whole cilantro leaves

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large stock pot over medium. While oil heats, stir in ginger and curry paste. Mix around a bit and when it starts to sizzle, cook for about 1 minute. Putting the ginger and curry paste in before the oil is completely hot avoids a lot of spattering and spitting of oil and curry paste. If using red pepper flakes, add them now and stir for 15 seconds. 
2. Add 1/2 c broth and stir until the curry paste is dissolved. Then stir in the rest of the broth, fish or soy sauce, and brown sugar. Bring to a simmer and cook for 15 min, partially covered. 
3. Stir in the coconut milk, chicken, and mushrooms. Cook on a simmer until the chicken is cooked through, about 5 minutes. If you use pre-cooked chicken, you will still allow a simmer for 5 minutes to give mushrooms time to become tender. 
4. Remove the pot from heat. Stir in lime juice to taste, and season with salt. Garnish bowls with cilantro. 

Cream of Broccoli Soup

I just bought a ton of broccoli and was tired of just roasting it in different ways, as delicious as that is. So I looked in the fridge and had some leftover goat cheese that needed to get eaten too. I planned soup for dinner and bread spread with goat cheese as a side. 

This soup isn't complicated to make, is packed with lots of broccoli goodness, and not overwhelmed with too much cream. Enjoy!

Cream of Broccoli Soup

from America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

Serves 6

Ingredients:

• 2 T unsalted butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• Salt
• 2 T flour
• 4 c chicken broth
• 1 1/2 lbs broccoli, finely chopped by hand or in food processor
• 1/2 c heavy cream
• Pepper
• Cayenne pepper
• Optional: sauteed crispy bacon pieces

Directions:

1. Melt butter in a large stock pot or dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion and 1/2 tsp. of salt and saute until onions are softened, about 5 minutes. 
2. Stir in flour and cook for about 1 minute. Slowly stir in broth and scrape up any brown bits from the bottom (those brown bits add tons of flavor!).  
3. Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes.
4. While broth cooks, chop broccoli in food processor. Add to the soup and simmer until the broccoli is tender, about 8-10 minutes. 

   

   I hand chopped these, but food processing pulses would be much faster

   
   
5. Set another empty medium pot on the stove. Puree the soup in batches until smooth in your food processor. ***take the "food pusher" out while blending hot foods to avoid pressure build up and spewing hot food. Also, only fill half way and pulse a few times before running the processor to avoid leaking hot foods from under the lid. 
6. Pour the first pureed batch of soup into the empty medium sized pot. Continue until all the soup is pureed. Stir in the cream.
   
   Bring to a simmer just for a few seconds, then remove from heat. Season with salt and pepper. Add some cayenne pepper if you want a little heat. 
7. I didn't have time for this when I made it, but finely chopped, sauteed bacon sprinkled on top of this soup would work really well. What's not better with a little bacon??

Beef Pho

Pho is my husband's favorite dish, which makes it super intimidating. Mostly because I love when he loves the food I make. And who wants to screw up the dish your husband grew up eating and you only tried for the first time in your twenties? So I've shied away from attempting to make it for a long time, plus some of my in-laws make awesome bowls of Pho themselves so I haven't needed to really step up to the plate.  

Then I saw a recipe for a slow-cooker Pho on a Lucky Peach blog post. Sold! Something in me just needed to make this. It didn't hurt that when I mentioned I would be making it to my 4 year old, he started jumping up and down. This kid loves him some Pho.

I took this recipe and tweaked it based on some things I've learned from my husband's family about the dish and just having been around the ingredients for the past ten years or so. Enjoy!

Pho Tai (Beef Noodle Soup)

adapted from Lucky Peach

Makes 4 Servings

Ingredients:

• 1 large yellow onion, sliced into ½” rounds
• 1 piece (2") fresh ginger, peeled and halved lengthwise
• 1 t vegetable oil
• 2 lbs chuck short ribs
• 1 lb sirloin, sliced very thin
• kosher salt for sprinkling
• 2 whole star anise
• 1 cinnamon stick (3")
• 4 whole cloves
• 8 C beef broth (low-sodium)
• 1-2 small pieces rock candy
• 1–2 T fish sauce
• flat rice noodles (banh pho noodles) I used rice vermicelli because I was in a bind and couldn't find the correct kind locally. Definitely not as good, but you do what you can.

Garnishes:

• mung bean sprouts
• white onion, sliced thin
• scallion, sliced thin, green part only
• thai basil
• cilantro
• thai chilis, sliced in thin rounds
• lime quarters
• sriracha and hoisin sauce   

Directions:

• Heat the broiler and place sliced onions and ginger on a foil lined baking sheet. Brush foil and onion and ginger with oil. Broil until slightly charred, about 8-10 minutes.
• Season the short ribs with some salt and add to the slow cooker. Add the cinnamon, star anise, cloves, onions, ginger, and beef broth on top. 
  
• Cover and cook on high for 4 hrs. Turn off slow cooker and let meat rest for about 10 minutes. Remove the ribs and take meat off the bone. Set aside. Pour broth through a strainer into a stock pot. Discard solids. Let broth sit and skim fat from the surface. 
• Return broth to a simmer and add fish sauce and rock candy slowly, tasting until there is a good balance of salty and a slight sweetness. 
• Prepare the rice noodles according to package directions. Drain and place in bowls. 
• Slice meat into bite-size pieces. Add rib meat to the bowls with noodles. You can also add raw sirloin on top. Ladle boiling broth over meat and noodles until sirloin in cooked through. Serve with garnishes. Don't forget the lime! You'll thank me later. :) The added acidity takes the broth to the next level.
  

*This pic is of my husband's bowl.  He doesn't opt to add all the "greens".