October | 2010 | Goodcookbecky's Blog

I was looking through the most recent issue of the Food Network Magazine (November 2010) and saw a recipe for Thai Chicken Soup that sounded good. They have the recipe on their website (link).

I made it tonight and it was very good. I would make a few changes next time though to increase the flavor – I would cook the chicken with the onions and curry sauce and then remove them from the soup and add the meat at the end for more flavor. I would also increase the green curry paste by at least 1 tablespoon. The addition of fresh ginger would also be good. (The recipe below reflects the changes I would make.)

Thai Chicken Soup

Serves 4-6

adapted from Food Network Magazine (Nov. 2010)

Ingredients

1 Tbps vegetable oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 Tbsp green curry paste
1 Tbsp fresh ginger grated
2-3 small skinless, boneless chicken breasts (about 1 pound), very thinly sliced crosswise
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 15-ounce can coconut milk
2 Tbsp fish sauce, plus more to taste
2 red bell peppers, thinly sliced
4 ounces thin rice noodles, broken into pieces
1 Tbsp fresh lime juice, plus more to taste
1 cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro

Directions
Heat the vegetable oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, occasionally stirring, until softened and lightly browned, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and curry paste, and ginger and cook, stirring, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the chicken breast slices and cook in the curry sauce, until cooked through about 3 minutes. Remove the chicken and set aside to add back into the soup just before serving. Add the chicken broth, coconut milk and fish sauce; cover and bring to a boil.

Add the bell peppers and noodles and simmer, uncovered, until the noodles are al dente, about 3 minutes. Add the seasoned chicken and heat through, about 1-2 more minutes. Stir in the lime juice and cilantro. Add more fish sauce and lime juice, if desired.

SERVES: 4

Recipe Notes
I made this October 2010 after seeing it in the Thanksgiving edition of the Food Network Magazine (Nov 2010) and we liked it a lot. Good soup. Break the rice noodles into smaller pieces so it is easier to serve (and eat). With the changes I made, I think it will be even more flavorful. I served this with some reheated crusty French Bread.

Printable Recipe

Where have I been? life has interrupted me several times in the past weeks and has made it difficult to blog – Plus, my husband and I are trying to lose weight and it’s been hard to make “naughty stuff” if you can’t eat it all!

As I mentioned before, I am on the food committee for our church’s Christmas Tea – Scones, served with Lemon Curd, Devonshire Cream the works! Thankfully I am not alone in the endeavor and help has been easy to find! So happy!

I volunteered to make the lemon curd for the tea, as I already had experience making it with my wonderful friend Robbin, who headed up the Christmas Tea Food Prep for years – but alas all good things must come to and end and my friend is moving to Washington State. Her touch will be dearly missed!

Lemon Curd is actually not hard to make, just expect that your arm is going to fall off stirring. I made one big batch today and have 8 more batches to follow. A large batch will yield 9 cups of lemon curd. That serves 72 (2 Tbsp size) servings. The end goal: Lemon Curd for 600! Lemon Curd is served with warm scones (Cranberry Scones – recipe coming soon). Living in Southern California has it’s benefits. One of them is fresh lemons. My friend KC has a wonderful lemon tree in her yard and last summer she invited me to pick lemons. Her lemons were large- some of them almost the size of grapefruit. I did research that you can freeze fresh lemon juice and lemon zest – so that is what I did. Thank you KC for your generous contribution.

Here is the recipe for a single recipe (not the batch- 3x the original recipe)

Lemon Curd

Yield 3 cups

24 (2 Tbsp) servings

Ingredients:

5 eggs
2/3 cup lemon juice (approximately 2-3 lemons)
1 cup granulated sugar
4 tsp lemon zest (approximately 1 lemon)
1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)

Preparation:

Place the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice in a sauce pan. (To zest, invest in a good micro-plane it makes the grating of the lemon easy – zest by the way is grated lemon peel, so wash your lemons first).

Use an immersion blender to combine the egg, sugar, lemon mixture (Immersion blenders cost around 30-50 dollars and are a great investment for a kitchen). The mixture will be foamy.

Place the pot over medium heat, stirring constantly with a whisk in a circle eight fashion. The bubbles will slowly subside and the mixture will thicken.

Continue stirring until it comes to a good boil.
Turn your burner off and remove the curd from the heat.

Cut the softened butter into smaller chunks and add a few at a time and mix them into the lemon curd with a whisk until the butter is completely dissolved. Finish with remaining butter. Whisk to combine.
Pour the lemon curd into a plastic container and allow to cool completely before covering with a lid and cooling in the refrigerator.

NOTES: Lemon Curd will keep for 1 week in the refrigerator or can be frozen for up to 3 months.

In case you were making a big batch (say you really love your friends and wanted to make them some for Christmas) Here are the ingredients you will need: