Mushroom Soup Gone Thai - inspired by The Pioneer Woman

It's no secret that The Pioneer Woman's recipes are in my RSS feeds.  I don't want to miss a recipe! Ree featured a Mushroom Soup that was spotted on her own Recipe Website called "Tasty Kitchen".  I had just stocked up on cremini mushrooms at Costco-- about 3 pounds of them, that were such a good  bargain. I figured I'd make something out of them!  The following day,  my sniffles turned into a full-blown cold that rendered my ability to taste and smell pretty into a dead zone.  Here it was, Super Bowl Sunday, and I was honking around the house with a tissue box nestled closed to me. I wanted-- no-- I needed soup!   But, I couldn't really taste much!   You won't find a single can of commercially made soup in my pantry; I just think that homemade soup is super easy to make.  Yes, I do buy boxed chicken, vegetable and beef stock, and buy low-sodium stocks, because I want to season soups my way.  When I can, I make my own chicken stock and freeze it-- which reminds me, it's time to "stock up" again. Sorry.

When making soup, I typically start with olive oil, onion (in this case, shallots), carrots and celery.  Since I was feeling lousy, I used the food processor to chop the veggies for me.  Of course, I needed mushrooms, which I washed and sliced-- about 2 pounds-- they'll reduce.  In a cast-iron skillet, I heated the oil and began to saute' the shallots.  I chose shallots for two reasons-- I had a lot of them, and I like their mild and sweet flavor that doesn't over power the flavor of the soup.  Then again, my sense of smell was seriously damaged. I wanted heat!  That's when I grabbed a jar of Thai Red Curry paste!

So, here is where the Pioneer Woman and I parted ways, and I ended up adapting the recipe to satisfy my sudden craving for Thai flavors. .  I'm very much in the beginner stages of learning how to cook Thai food, and I have learned to love it a lot. My favorite flavors of Thai food includes lemongrass (which I didn't use in this soup), red curry, lime juice, coconut and cilantro.  I added about 1 teaspoon of the red curry paste-- this stuff can be hot! Ree's recipe called for white wine. I used Dry Vermouth, because it's a fortified wine and it's perfect for cooking. I added a generous splash-- oh, about 1/4 cup. Leave it out, if you want. The alcohol does burn off.

Now, while the veggies and aromatics are coming together, I started sauteing the mushrooms with some olive oil...

I had used 1/2 can of coconut milk for a recipe that I haven't blogged yet (I'm totally posting out of sequence).  I decided to add this to the veggies, to flavor the soup with coconut-- I was totally experimenting at this point. 

I gave the coconut milk a stir.  P-Dub's soup had tomato juice in it. I deliberated, and decided to go ahead and add that. Then, I added the mushrooms to the soup.

 

Now that the cooked mushrooms are stirred in, I added chicken stock (you could use vegetable stock to make this truly a vegetarian soup). I added two bay leaves and let the soup simmer for about 20 minutes. Last, I added about 1/2 cup of Half & Half (you could use heavy cream...or milk).

I prefer my soups on the thicker side.  I keep a box of potato starch in my pantry.  About 2 Tablespoons of potato starch (you can use corn starch), mixed in with some of the liquid and whisked, prevents risks of lumpy soup. I never add the starch directly to the soup!  Off-heat, I added the juice of one lime.  Ree adds Parmesan cheese to her soup, which definitely made my mouth water. But, somehow, that didn't see to go with my Thai theme...

The finishing touch was to add fresh chopped cilantro.  If you don't like cilantro, then use flat-leaf parsley. Fortunately, cilantro is a favorite herb in my household-- and we even grow it!

Stuffy-nosed me took a first taste.  Whoa!  I could taste it!  The red curry paste gives this soup a real kick! I liked it a lot.  

TASTING NOTES: I asked my husband to help adjust the seasonings-- which would be salt. It needed a little more, he said.   It's a healthy soup, and I believe that spice really helps clear the sinuses.  You can cut back on the red curry paste, if you don't like to much heat.  I would use sherry, next time, rather than white wine. For some reason, sherry compliments mushroom soup.  When I make Golden Cream of Mushroom Soup, that's my choice for booze-- or, you can leave it out altogether.   If you'd rather stick with Ree's original soup recipe, the link is here.  In reading comments, though, I would have definitely added thyme to the soup. It's my favorite universal herb in soups.

 

I'm linking this soup to Souper Sundays, hosted by the lovely and very talented Deb at Kahakai Kitchen.  I might have missed today's deadline (I forgot about the time change in Hawaii) for her weekly roundup of soups, stews, salads and sandwiches.  It's a great place to find new recipes and to meet other bloggers.

You'll probably see this recipe on my Foodie Fans of the Pioneer Woman roundup, in another week. 

It's Valentine's Day, and I'm so thankful to have a wonderful husband to share it with. Wishing all of you a day of "Love".  I'm cooking up some "Love" for my husband tonight. You'll see it in a day or two!

With Love from my kitchen,

Thai-Style Chicken Soup

On one of my earlier dates with my husband, he took me to his favorite Thai Restaurant.  Other than Chicken Satay, I wasn't familiar with Thai food.  I also have an aversion to yellow curry, so I carefully scanned the menu for something I wasn't afraid to try.  I ordered Tom  Ka (coconut milk) soup and I fell in-love with that dish-- and my husband!  I also learned that there is more to curry than just yellow. I love red curry, and recently green curry!  I have, since, found a local restaurant that makes excellent Pad Thai, Green Curry dishes -- and I am now a huge fan of Thai Food.  I am fond of common ingredients in Thai food-- lemon grass, coconut milk, lime, basil, cilantro and peanuts. Yummy!

I found this particular recipe in Cook's Illustrated in 2007, and I have made this several times-- always with great results. What I like about this version is that you don't need to find an exotic market to find the ingredients.

Here's what Cook's Illustrated had to say about the development of this simple version of Thai Chicken Soup:

So, are you ready?

You need 3 stalks of lemongrass. If you've never worked with this, it's very easy to find in a grocery store nowadays.  It looks like scallions on steroids-- only they can be tricky to cut. You need a really sharp knife, or you might want to grab an ax (well, not really). I, once bought, lemongrass in a tube (located in the produce section).  It's just not the same-- please buy real lemongrass. I remove the outside leaves, wash them and then...

I cut them into chunks, with a very sharp and sturdy knife.. I also chopped three shallots. Shallots are always in my fridge. I love them, because they are milder than red onion so they don't overpower my sauces, or salad dressings. If you haven't used shallots, much, try them. You'll always want them on hand.

The rest of the ingredients are easy to find-- fresh cilantro, coconut milk (I use the Lite version), chicken broth, red curry paste and fish sauce.  Some of you might be crinkling your nose at the thought of fish sauce. I did, too.  However, give it a chance. Don't sniff it! It'll scare you. Honestly, the sauce is important and you cannot taste any fish. I wouldn't lie to you!

You want to slice boneless, skinless chicken breasts into really thin strips. The trick is to freeze the chicken for about 15 minutes-- this makes slicing it, on the bias (against the grain), so much easier. Don't cut chunks! You want it nice and thin...you'll see why in a few more steps.

You  begin by tenderizing the lemongrass and shallots in a little vegetable oil. Season with 1 Tbsp of fish sauce and the chopped cilantro (which I forgot to do...d'oh!)

Add the chicken broth...

...one can of coconut milk, bring to simmer and cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Once the flavors have infused (don't forget the cilantro, like I did), strain the soup and discard the veggies.

Add one more can of coconut milk, 1 Tablespoon of sugar and bring to a simmer. (This is where I added the cilantro I forgot to before, and it worked out fine.)

Add the sliced mushrooms and cook for 2-3 minutes. Now, add the thinly sliced chicken and cook until the pink is gone-- stirring often-- 2-3 minutes.  This is why you don't want big chunks of chicken!

Remove the chicken from the heat (as in turn off the stove!) and add 3 Tablespoons of fresh squeezed lime juice, the red curry paste.  and 2 Tablespoons of fish sauce.  You can serve the soup as an appetizer..

But I like to make rice....

...and to ladle soup over the rice, for a heartier meal. This soup comes really close to the authentic Tom Ga Ka Thai soup from my favorite restaurant.  We love it! It's very simple to make, and the red curry paste gives a nice little kick to the soup.

Yes, you can easily substitute shrimp instead of chicken.  I would even think you could use tofu as well, though I'm not sure if a vegetable stock would taste as authentic.  This is a pretty economical dish to make. The Thai ingredients aren't very costly and they last me for a while. I'm still working on perfecting a good Pad Thai dish. I really love that dish, too. If you're wondering what the differences in curries are, a friend of mine gave me this link:

Here's the recipe, below. If you're receiving my feeds on Feed Burner, you'll need to click on my blog link to view this. This one is one of our top favorite soups/dinners. We just love it!

 This soup is my week's contribution to Soup Sundays-- Deb at Kahaka Kitchen's weekly blog group where you can submit your posting for a soup, soup-like meal, salad and sandwiches.  For details, click here:

Thai Chicken Soup

This blog posting has been updated, and revamped. To view it, with step-by-step photos and a printable recipe, please click here:

Go to recipe with photos

Thai Peanut Chicken Recipe

I've been craving Thai food, lately. I found this recipe for "Thai Peanut Chicken" on the food blog "Blog Chef". Being highly visual, the photo jumped out at me and screamed "make me"! (This photo was taken from "Blog Chef's" blog. Pretty, isn't it?

I had all of the ingredients on hand, so I got busy chopping and prepping. As a kid, I grew up with German food. My mother never made Asian recipes (except for some sort of chop suey recipe, as I recall not liking). What I've learned about Asian recipes, is that most of the time in the kitchen is prep work. The actual cooking of the food happens really fast! With this recipe, I'd say that total cooking time was 7-8 minutes. It was delicious! The next time that I make this, I'll add more red pepper flakes (I used that instead of cayenne pepper). I used 1/4 tsp, but I could have definitely handle twice that. I also think that I'd season the chicken with some salt...just a little. I'm a huge fan of water chestnuts. I know that's not authentic "Thai", but I just love them and I think it'll add a nice crunch to this recipe. Last, I love cilantro, so I'd definitely add that as a garnish.

The peanut sauce is easy and very good. Yep, this recipe is definitely worthy of an encore.

Thai Peanut Chicken Recipe

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts (cut into 1” chunks)
3 Tbs fresh garlic (minced)
1 1/2 Tbs fresh ginger (minced)
oil (for cooking)
3/4 cup green onions (chopped)
1 red bell pepper (sliced)
1/3 cup dry roasted peanuts
Sauce-
3 Tbs soy sauce
2 Tbs creamy peanut butter
2 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper** (or more to your taste)
1/4 cup water
Garnish (optional):
Cilantro

1 Step 1: to make the peanut sauce – In a bowl mix soy sauce, peanut butter. Add white wine vinegar, sesame oil, brown sugar and cayenne pepper. Mix well and set aside.

2 Step 2: in large skillet heat oil. Add garlic, ginger and chicken. Cook until chicken is no longer pink inside (about 5 minutes). Remove from pan and set aside.

3 Step 3: Add a tiny bit more oil to the pan and stir fry red bell peppers and green onions for about 2 minutes or until they have reached desired tenderness. Remove from pan and set aside.
4 Step 4: Over medium heat add the peanut sauce mixture to the pan. Heat while stirring constantly. When sauce mixture starts to bubble add ¼ cup of water and mix well to thin it out a bit.

5 Step 5: In a large serving dish add chicken, green onions, red bell pepper, and roasted peanuts. Add sauce and mix well. Serve with white rice.

Servings: 4
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Ready in: 40 minutes

(Click here for printable recipe)

Curried Pumpkin Soup

I have recently learned to appreciate Thai food. Sure, I've had chicken satay. Only in recent years, have I ventured into buying fish sauce and red curry paste. As a kid, I had an aversion to curry. Yesterday, I made a beautiful turkey stock, from our leftover Diestel Turkey. My stock yielded 12 cups. I froze a few and I remembered a recipe I had saved from "A Taste of Thai".

This soup was so easy to make! I think it took about 10 minutes to put together, including cleanup. My son, who swears that he hates coconut, ate two bowls of it. I added an extra wedge of fresh lime and some fresh cilantro. So good! If you're a little whimpy on spice, I'd reduce the red curry paste by about 1/2.

This one's a keeper!

Curried Pumpkin Soup
Yield
5 1/2 cups

Time
20 minutes

Thai cooks use pumpkin in many sweet and savory dishes. We used the convenience of canned pumpkin to make this deliciously spicy soup in 20 minutes. It's full of goodness and easily doubled!

INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons oil
1 cup minced onions
1 tablespoon Red Curry Paste
1 tablespoon Fish Sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1-14 1/2 oz can chicken* broth
1-13 1/2 oz can Coconut Milk
1-15 oz can packed pumpkin
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
Optional: Chopped cilantro or roasted, shelled pumpkin seeds

*Chicken broth can be substituted with turkey broth.
DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oil in soup pot over medium-high heat. Add onions and stir-fry 2-3 minutes.
2. Add Curry Paste and Fish Sauce to onions. Stirring, cook until curry is dissolved. Add brown sugar and cook until onions are slightly caramelized. Pour 1/2 can of broth into pot and mix well.
3. Add remaining broth, Coconut Milk and pumpkin. Stirring, bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Mix in lime juice and serve. Garnish with chopped cilantro and/or pumpkin seeds if desired.