#tom ka

Foodie Friday!

This recipe is a little loose and free and everyone has different opinions about how to make it. I did things a little different, but not much. I stumbled my way through this as I'm not really used to using lemongrass or fresh ginger in my recipes (which really is a shame because I LOVE ginger)

Tom Ka Soup As taken from An Urban Cottage that you can find the regular recipe here and the vegan recipe here. I did a little of both. Also, the blog kinda doesn't line up ingredients so it made it harder to follow, hopefully this will help.

Broth

 1 quart chicken stock (32 ounces in a quart so you know, usually the little cartons will be this size. I used vegetable stock. Also, if you want to make it healthier with less sodium then make the stock yourself, it's super easy) 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, diced (most markets should have fresh ginger. Here's a video on how to cut it)

2 tablespoons lemongrass, chopped (Not going to lie, I had a hard time finding this. One employee saw me struggle to search for it in the produce section and told me he'd look in the back for it. I found it about a minute after he left then awkwardly stood around for 5 minutes waiting for him to come back. I included a picture of how I found it (above), but it could also come in its natural form. I included a video on how to cut it here because I had no idea)

1 14 oz. can coconut milk (I usually find it in the ethnic aisle, it's in little cans)

Juice of two limes

4 tablespoons of fish sauce (Once again I found it in the Ethnic aisle. It comes in a bottle like soy sauce, the vegan recipe shows you how to make this without the fish sauce)

2 Serrano peppers *Optional (If you like a little spice then you can add some peppers. Two peppers give it just a sharp bite, you can add more or less to your taste. This blog suggested Sriracha but I preferred keeping it fresh)

Brown Sugar (this is for if you think the broth is too tart. I added in a large pinch)

Ingredients

Really you can add any and as much vegetables as you'd like. Here's what I put in:

Carrots

pea pods

broccoli

baby corn

ginger

green beans

mushrooms

onions

cilantro

Now, the recipe gives weird measurements for the vegetables and it's not exactly clear on how much to use for the entire recipe because they seem to be doing a single bowl amount. The vegan recipe called for about 1/2 c of vegetables per bowl. I'm making this for my lunch so I'm just cutting the vegetables the night before and doing it that way.

The recipe also recommends blanching the harder vegetables (like carrots, green beans, broccoli) and it's super easy to do. Here is a video that shows you how. If you're too lazy to watch the video what you do is put water in a pan (enough to cover the vegetables but not too much) and get the water boiling. Then add the vegetables. Once the water is boiling again (it shouldn't take long) cover it and lower the temp and keep them covered for 2 minutes. Then drain the water and the vegetables should be soft enough to eat. Ta-da!

Bill & Tom Kaulitz for 'Interview.De' magazine.

Part 3.

Part 1 here, part 2 here,and part 4 here.