"Work with what you have" has ALWAYS my motto, both in the kitchen and in life. So for this week's @ecotrain medicinal-cooking challenge, it was TOUGH. The Thai markets are a riot of colour, and our garden is rain soaked and verdantly lush & bright green. The challenge called for white ingredients - the metal element - to enhance both lung and colon energy. White cooking is, frankly, all about the release of sadness. Luckily I also have that to release in spades-full. ;) Thankfully rain resembles tears and also brings mushrooms; the ubiquitous Thai coconut milk is white and, also thankfully, the influx of a gerzillion western tourists to Thailand has brought with it cauliflower, now available at our local village market, albeit more expensive than all the other ingredients in this dish put together.
What is Tom Kha? "Dtom" (Tom) is the Thai word for boiled. Kha is the Thai word for Galangal. Think a flavourful, spicy coconut soup flavoured with white galangal (brownie points?).
My choice was for cauliflower and the Thai straw mushrooms which grow on the rice, locally called "hed fang". My daughter, Ploi's, favourite. Since I was relying on her goodwill to be my hands to prepare and photograph (me still having a broken elbow) it seemed smart to get yet more brownie points.
So, in Thai, the dish would be called Tom Kha Galam Dok Hed or ต้มข่ากะหล่ำดอกกับเห็ด.
What do you need?
- Cauliflower
- Mushrooms
- Coconut milk
- Galangal root
- Lemongrass
- Kaffir Lime leaves
- Small hot chilies (in Thai we call 'prikii nuu')
- Coriander root
- Fish sauce or salt
- Chili-garlic paste (prik pbon nai nam man)
- Fresh lime juice
- Palm or coconut sugar
- Thai green onions
- Coriander leaves
Method:
Chop some galangal, small chilies, kaffir lime leaves, and lemongrass.
The lemongrass & kaffir lime come from our garden, picked 5 mins before we started. While we DO have kha (galangal) growing, it was far too monsoonally wet and muddy to dig and with my current one-armed "thing" that was never going to happen. We bought it at the market today.
Add the magic ingredient (the coriander root - NEVER throw those away! - magnificent flavour for broths!)
Cover with some water and boil gently for 3-5 mins to release the flavours.
In goes the cauliflower. Simmer for 5 mins. And then after 5 mins, add the mushrooms and simmer for 5 mins more.
Then in goes a very generous "splosh" of coconut milk. I used maybe 350ml today.
Then add the palm sugar, fish sauce (or salt), lime juice and a generous spoon of the chili paste. To balance the four Thai tastes. Stir.
While it's easy to buy the chili paste (prik pbon nai nam man) at the market, we make our own, since we don't use palm or soy oils and prefer our paste made with himalayan salt. Just fry a handful of garlic in the wok and then pound it in the mortar & pestle together with the cooking oil, dried chili (prik pbon) and a little himalayan salt.
Almost an indonesian sambal. :) Add a generous spoon to the pot and keep the rest in the fridge as a condiment.
Finally we add some Thai green onion and fresh chopped coriander, with a sprinkle for garnish.
How did I serve it? Unusually for us (we normally eat only black or dark red rice) I served it tonight with organic white jasmine rice from the Thai town of Pitsanulhok. And steamed Guang Thung (pak chong) which is as close to mustard greens as I could get.
Voila! Dinner is served.
And yes, our organic white rice DID HAVE BUGS.
We rinsed, Thai style. :) If you missed my steemit post about rice bugs and the pacifying illusion of rice being vegan, you can catch up on it here: @artemislives/rice-bugs-organic-and-sustainable-is-vegan-rice-just-an-idea-to-pacify-us
Amazingly, there IS some low level sadness and "stuff" that needs releasing in our world, so tonight's meal was perfect, as was the timing of this challenge. The dynamic-3-handed-duo-in-the-kitchen? Brilliant!! Much gratitude to my lovely girl, Ploi @nabithecat who assisted so admirably.
Grateful for the abundance in our Thai world and for being able to share it. Loads left over for school lunch tomorrow - mama is very happy!
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