88. Ginger, Chicken and Coconut Soup

• April
• 14

2:09 am Bird of a kind, Home Cooking, One pot dinner, Quick n' Easy

I have been wanting to make some changes in the way and dishes that I cooked for awhile now. I am what I term as the comfort-zone cook. I cook whatever I am used to, trying not to deviate much since I know that both the husband and Pumpkin are not really an adventurous eater.

Having said that, I will admit that being unadventurous is so boring. After much lagging on my part, I decided to do something about it this week

I cook this dish. This was taken from a book that I had for more than a decade now, this The Around the World Cookbook. Bought it while I was in Tennessee, over at Barnes and Nobles at Poplar Ave, just like five minutes away from school.

Anyway, I had browsed through this tome like more times that I would care to remember. I also had always wanted to cook from recipes there, but I am not sure why I had not. Lots of the recipes were similar to Malay dishes, really, with some deviation here and there.

Ok, back to the point. I finally did something about this. This not-wanting-to-try-anything-new this. I started off with this Ginger, Chicken, and Coconut Soup recipe. It is so similar to our Masak Lemak, without the heat and the color. It is so mild, I think I would have to make some modifications when I cook it next time. Definitely.

This recipe is modification from the said book.

GINGER, CHICKEN AND COCONUT SOUP
Ingredients

2 chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces 300 ml thick coconut milk 400 ml water 1 chicken cube 3 lemongrass, bruised 1″ galangal, sliced 20 black peppercorns, crushed (should have used more) 10 kaffir lime leaves, torn 1 cup button mushroom 5 baby corns, cut into 1″ stick 4TB lime juice 3 TB fish sauce 2 red chillies, chopped for garnishing Chopped scallion and cilantro for garnishing

Method

Bring the coconut milk, water, and chicken cube to a boil. Add lemongrass, peppercorns and half of the torn lime leaves to the stock. Reduce the heat and simmer for a good 10 minutes. Strain the stock into another pot. Throw away the lemongrass, peppercorns and the lime leaves. Return the pot with the strained stock to heat, turn the heat up to simmering. When it started to bubble, then add the chicken, button mushrooms and baby corn. Simmer for about 5-8 minutes until the chicken is cooked. Stir in lime juice, fish sauce, and the rest of the torn lime leaves. Then take off heat. Serve, garnished with the chopped chillies, scallion and cilantro.