Gang kai : Spicey Chicken Bamboo Soup

This is a very authentic Thai recipe with a strong taste of old fish sauce. This can be off-putting to some people, old fish sauce is salted pickled fish kept for years. When it’s cooked it loses some of its aroma, but uncooked it can be overwhelming. You may prefer to substitute bottled fish sauce instead of the old fish sauce, which is a distilled filtered version of old fish and has a very mild smell.

Ingredients  for 2 People

• 200 gms Chicken Breast
• 150 gms Pickled Bamboo
• 300 ml Water
• 2 Tablespoons Old Fish Sauce
• 2 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
• 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
• 10 gms Galanga Root
• 10 gms Lemon Grass
• 2 Spring Onions
• 3 Fresh Chillies
• 3 Dry Chillies
• 1-2 Sprigs of Coriander Leaves
• 1 Tablespoon Oil
• 2 Kaffir Citrus Leaves

Preparation

1. Chop the chicken breast into small pieces and put into sauce pan.
2. Chop the lemon grass, galanga, into small pieces and pound the chilli and dry chilli in a Thai mortar and add to the pan.
3. Add the old fish sauce, fish sauce, salt, and oil.
4. Turn the heat on and simmer for 1 minutes.
5. Add the water into the pan and simmer for 5 minutes.
6. Add the bamboo and citrus leaves and cook for a further 10 minutes.
7. Turn off the heat
8. Chop the spring onions and coriander and add to the sauce.

Serve With
        Hot Sticky Rice
        You eat this by taking a lump of the rice with your fingers and a piece of the chicken from the sauce and dipping the rice in the sauce liquid

The soup is sour and spicy and provides the main flavours, the omelette adds the bulk to the meal. It’s not at all unusual to eat combination dishes like omelette in soup in Thailand, and if you’ve ever had a dry omelette this dish makes a pleasant change! This dish is normally served with rice as a shared side dish. Guests take some of the soup and omelette and spoon it onto their rice.

Ingredients  for 2 People

• 2 Eggs
• 3 Bird Chillies
• 10 gms Chopped Coriander Leaves
• 10 gms Chopped Spring Onion
• 1 Teaspoons Salt
• 1/2 Teaspoon Pepper
• 2-3 Tablespoons Sour Curry Paste
• 300 ml Water
• 50 ml Tamarind Water
• 2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
• 4 Sliced Chinese Radish
• 20 gms Shrimp
• 2 Tablespoons Fish Sauce

Preparation

1. Boil the water with the sour curry paste and tamarind water.
2. Clean the shrimp and add to the boiling soup water.
3. Add the sliced radish, the sugar and fish sauce into the soup and simmer for 5 minutes. This is the soup part.
4. Whip the eggs, add the onion, chopped coriander, salt and pepper until mixed together.
5. Fry this omelette mix over a medium heat until cooked.
6. Cut the omelette into 4cm squares. When you serve the soup place the squares into the center of the plate and pour the soup over them.

Serve With
       Hot Thai Fragrant Rice

 Tom Yum Kung soup combines all the exotic flavours of Thai Food bringing together herbs ingredients such as lemongrass, chillies, ginza and coriander.

 Spicy Soup with Prawn and Lemon Grass Ingredients

• 12 medium-size shrimps, deveined
• 10 mushrooms
• 1 stalk of lemon grass (lightly pounded and cut into 2″ long)
• 3 lime leaves
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 2 tablespoons of fishsauce
• 3 tablespoons of lime juice
• 6 hot peppers (pounded lightly)
• 4 cups of water
• 1/2 cup of roughly cut coriander leaves

Spicy Soup with Prawn and Lemon Grass Preparations

1. Remove the shrimp shell but leave the tails (for good appearance). Then cut open the back of each shrimp to remove the veins. Also clean the mushrooms with water and dry them well before wedging each into quarters.
2. Bring water to boil, then add lemon grass, lime leaves, and shrimps. When the shrimps turn pink, add mushrooms and salts.
3. Remove the pot from heat after boiling. Then season with fish sauce, lime juice, and hot peppers. Serve the soup while still hot and garnish on top with pieces of coriander leaves.