5 cup thin coconut milk
1 small chicken, sectioned and cut into bit, e-sized pieces (b
3 stalks lemon grass, bruised and cut, into 1 lengths
2 tsp laos powder (ka)
3 green onions, finely chopped
2 tbsp coriander leaves, chipped
4 to 6 fresh serrano chillies, seeded, and chopped
1 juice of 2 limes
3 tbsp fish sauce (nam pla)
Directions
Here's another classic "Tom Yam" type chicken soup. The "Laos" powder
is dried galangal, powdered. Unlike ginger, dried galangal seems to
retain most of it's character. If you use canned coconut milk, the
"Thin" milk is the more watery liquid in the can. The thick
condensed stuff is coconut "cream" (not to be confused with the
syrupy sweet coconut cream used for Pina Coladas). If you shake the
can up and combine the two, you have thick coconut milk.
A lovely lemony, creamy soup, Dom Yam Gai calls for chicken pieces cut
through the bone with a heavy cleaver, Chinese style. If you find
gnawing on chicken pieces and delicately trying to remove the bone,
vainly searching for a place to deposit it, inhibiting your dinner
conversation, you may debone the bird and substitute chicken pieces.
In either case, use both dark and light meats for color and nutrition.
[Although if you're talking at the table, ya got no reason to be
eating a dish this good! S.C. ;-} ]
In a saucepan, bring the "Thin" coconut milk to a boil. Add the
chicken pieces, lemon grass and Laos powder. Reduce heat and simmer
until the chicken is tender, about 15 minutes. Do not cover as this
will tend to curdle coconut milk. When the chicken is tender, add
the green onions, coriander leaves and chillies. Bring the heat up
just below boiling. Remove the pan from heat, stir in lime juice,
fish sauce and serve.
NOTE: Beef cut into thin strips or firm white fish pieces may be
substituted for chicken.
From "The Original Thai Cookbook" by Jennifer Brennan, GD/Perigee,
published by Putnam. 1981.
Posted by Stephen Ceideburg; February 6 1991.
Servings: 1 servings
Chicken & Coconut Milk Soup (Gaeng Com Yam Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Beverages; Chicken; Chicken Soup; Fruit; Poultry
The History of Recipes
We are able to follow the history of written recipes back into the distant past, at least as far as early Egypt, and possibly even further than that. In practice though, sadly, these early recipes were just simple pictorial, hieroglyphic or cunieform recipes for preparing food.
The truth of the matter is, the oldest recipe found, according to Professor Solomon Katz, are a few ancient tablets in the Sumerian language which describe the preparation of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as making anyone who tried it feel exhilarated and blissful. Later on, in The time of the roman empire around 25BC a man called Apicius assembled a number of scripts describing recipes enjoyed by the Romans. He tells us how the meals of wealthy Romans were divided into appetizers, entrees and afters, a very modern way of dining. Aspicius also describes how the cooks of his times used many aromatic flavors, including many that are still in use today such as bay, rue and parsley. As we move on, there are two interesting books which appeared in the 14th Century : one book published under the title `Forme of Cury`, and another called `Curye on Inglish`. The titles are a little misleading though, these two books are nothing to do with the spicy food that we all know today, but instead accounts of the types of meals prepared by the chefs of the rich and wealthy people of that time. Later, in the fifteenth century, the Crusaders brought back many foods and herbs from the Middle-East, such as basil and rosemary. These new culinary innovations created a surge in manuscripts on cookery, the majority of which are kept safe in private cookery archives. During the following few hundred years, the powerful families of Wesstern Europe competed with each other to serve the most extravagent meals, and as a result cooks and their collection of recipes were highly sought after. Notwithstanding that, it was during the 1800s that cooking and cookery books reached a high level of popularity. Mrs Isabella Beeton in the UK, and the equally famous Fannie Farmer in the US, dedicated their lives to collecting, trying out, and recording recipes for their fellow cooks to enjoy. By the time we get to the 1900s, recipe publications were in high demand, mostly as a result of increased literacy, people having more free time and being a little richer. |
We hope you enjoy this Chicken & Coconut Milk Soup (Gaeng Com Yam recipe.
