Exploration 1: Thai Coconut Milk Soup*
As any of you know who follow me on Snapchat, you know that I was so excited about this dish that I actually broke my promise of not talking about food related to this blog on Snapchat. Not only that, but I walked everyone through it, step by step. Well, you didn't even have to be on Snapchat to know this, I've only ranted about it throughout the last two or three posts.
Well the time had come to actually whip up this most anticipated dish.
Slowly, I'm started to get into the habit of removing vegetables from the stove BEFORE they cook all the way, especially in circumstances like this where it tells you too because you'll reintroduce it later on. I don't know why I struggle with it, I mean it after all already edible. I'm not sure why my brain insists on making sure it's cooked all the way through. I suppose residue from cooking chicken.
The aromas of lime juice, garlic and cabbage all smell delightful at the start. When I pulled the cabbage and set it aside it was still mostly crisp, but in the end it only worked out fantastically as the soup had a beautiful texture to it. (If you don't like crunchy things, then by all means....cook to your heart's liking.)
I was proud of myself, I actually had lemon grass for this dish. I was unable to find actual lemon grass but I did find the paste, which I'll never know if it worked the same, better or worse, but I had it and that was good enough for me. (Along similar lines, I still haven't found tofu.) Then to further emphasis my kitchen development, I even had ginger.
Surprisingly, ginger isn't that hard to find. Perhaps because it's something of a fad right now. Even the small grocery store here in town carries it in abundance. I guess I just never noticed it before.
Although I've had ginger, I like ginger, I don't mind ginger (damn, suddenly I want a ginger beer) I have never actually cooked with it. So, new to the ginger cooking world I have no idea what the recipe meant when it called for two stocks cut into one inch.....oops, I just realized I made a mistake. LMAO
So apparently I read "two stocks" intended for lemon grass and applied it to ginger. So, I existentially put a shit ton of ginger into my soup. Hmmm.
Well now I'm further confused - so let's just get to the point. On the Tyson Nuggets Scale, I give it a 3.
I know, so disappointing. I was confident that this was an easy five, a shoe in! As I sat at the table, eating my dinner and really analyzing my palette and my thoughts I could feel myself trying to force a 5, maybe even a 4.5 (I actually thought about going to the 1/4 just to appease this urge.)
Knowing that my heart and my heart were in conflict, I postponed writing that night until, well, today. To my dismay, I have to report that it is a 3.
But things might be different with my goof. But maybe not.
The recipe suggests adding fish sauce. I went ahead and did it thinking it would be true to form. With the little I put in there, I over did it. The sweet smell of coconut, curry soup quickly was stifled by the pungent aroma of fish. (To be honest, I'm thinking I'm just not Asian enough for the fish sauce. I really thought I was. Back when I worked at a Vietnamese cafe in Oklahoma during my college days, I omitted the fish sauce from my noodle bowls. I can eat it, just feel my food is better served without it.)
I did something wrong with the curry. The recipe called for 1/2 teaspoon. I probably put the equivalent of 3 tablespoons in there. Remember back when the blog started and I cooked up the vegetable curry? I used 3 blocks. I still had 2 sitting in the cabinet. Unsure how long it would keep, in an attempt to utilize it, I tossed the remaining two blocks in the soup.
I liked the curry last time, what would it hurt this time? I thought.
It was like the coconut and the curry were fighting a little too much. Then the ginger, oddly enough for as much ginger as I did (accidentally) put in there, it was the only part I liked besides the cabbage itself.
In closing, I've determined there are two types of people in this world. There are those who like soupy-soup and those who like stewey-soup. I am definitely a person who likes stewy-soup. I mean, come on! Even my Ramen Noodles have the bare minimum water needed because when it gets too soupy, the noodles get all soft and gross and BLEH! I just can't do that.
My other sister, Riata, she likes it like that. Not me. Crunchy. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Happy heart. Happy stomach. YES!!!
Which by the way, I did by a packet of Shrimp Ramen. I tired it the other day, not bad. I can live with it. But, that is neither here or there. :-)
This soup, cabbage soup is a more accurate name for it is very soupy. By soupy I mean watery if you haven't caught on my now. It just wasn't for me.
Will I come back to this? Probably not. A part of me wants to try to, to redeem my mistakes with the hope of a more satisfied end result, but the larger part of me knows there are better dishes out there and there is no point in crying over split milk.
So I'll shelve this and focus on the next best thing...Black Bean Chili (Doran, don't let me down.) It's definitely coming up in the next post as I just got home from buying the rest of the ingredients that I needed for it. IT'S GOING DOWN TONIGHT!!
But if you want to give this dish a go and try for yourself (maybe do it right or do it better) feel free to do so and if it comes out a 4 or 5 for you, let me know what you did and maybe I'll try again.
That will be on Friday. As always, thanks for reading. :-)
Well the time had come to actually whip up this most anticipated dish.
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| If you aren't already following me, you're always welcome to! |
The aromas of lime juice, garlic and cabbage all smell delightful at the start. When I pulled the cabbage and set it aside it was still mostly crisp, but in the end it only worked out fantastically as the soup had a beautiful texture to it. (If you don't like crunchy things, then by all means....cook to your heart's liking.)
I was proud of myself, I actually had lemon grass for this dish. I was unable to find actual lemon grass but I did find the paste, which I'll never know if it worked the same, better or worse, but I had it and that was good enough for me. (Along similar lines, I still haven't found tofu.) Then to further emphasis my kitchen development, I even had ginger.
Surprisingly, ginger isn't that hard to find. Perhaps because it's something of a fad right now. Even the small grocery store here in town carries it in abundance. I guess I just never noticed it before.
Although I've had ginger, I like ginger, I don't mind ginger (damn, suddenly I want a ginger beer) I have never actually cooked with it. So, new to the ginger cooking world I have no idea what the recipe meant when it called for two stocks cut into one inch.....oops, I just realized I made a mistake. LMAO
So apparently I read "two stocks" intended for lemon grass and applied it to ginger. So, I existentially put a shit ton of ginger into my soup. Hmmm.
Well now I'm further confused - so let's just get to the point. On the Tyson Nuggets Scale, I give it a 3.
I know, so disappointing. I was confident that this was an easy five, a shoe in! As I sat at the table, eating my dinner and really analyzing my palette and my thoughts I could feel myself trying to force a 5, maybe even a 4.5 (I actually thought about going to the 1/4 just to appease this urge.)
Knowing that my heart and my heart were in conflict, I postponed writing that night until, well, today. To my dismay, I have to report that it is a 3.
The recipe suggests adding fish sauce. I went ahead and did it thinking it would be true to form. With the little I put in there, I over did it. The sweet smell of coconut, curry soup quickly was stifled by the pungent aroma of fish. (To be honest, I'm thinking I'm just not Asian enough for the fish sauce. I really thought I was. Back when I worked at a Vietnamese cafe in Oklahoma during my college days, I omitted the fish sauce from my noodle bowls. I can eat it, just feel my food is better served without it.)
I did something wrong with the curry. The recipe called for 1/2 teaspoon. I probably put the equivalent of 3 tablespoons in there. Remember back when the blog started and I cooked up the vegetable curry? I used 3 blocks. I still had 2 sitting in the cabinet. Unsure how long it would keep, in an attempt to utilize it, I tossed the remaining two blocks in the soup.
I liked the curry last time, what would it hurt this time? I thought.
It was like the coconut and the curry were fighting a little too much. Then the ginger, oddly enough for as much ginger as I did (accidentally) put in there, it was the only part I liked besides the cabbage itself.
In closing, I've determined there are two types of people in this world. There are those who like soupy-soup and those who like stewey-soup. I am definitely a person who likes stewy-soup. I mean, come on! Even my Ramen Noodles have the bare minimum water needed because when it gets too soupy, the noodles get all soft and gross and BLEH! I just can't do that.
My other sister, Riata, she likes it like that. Not me. Crunchy. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Happy heart. Happy stomach. YES!!!
Which by the way, I did by a packet of Shrimp Ramen. I tired it the other day, not bad. I can live with it. But, that is neither here or there. :-)
This soup, cabbage soup is a more accurate name for it is very soupy. By soupy I mean watery if you haven't caught on my now. It just wasn't for me.
Will I come back to this? Probably not. A part of me wants to try to, to redeem my mistakes with the hope of a more satisfied end result, but the larger part of me knows there are better dishes out there and there is no point in crying over split milk.
So I'll shelve this and focus on the next best thing...Black Bean Chili (Doran, don't let me down.) It's definitely coming up in the next post as I just got home from buying the rest of the ingredients that I needed for it. IT'S GOING DOWN TONIGHT!!
But if you want to give this dish a go and try for yourself (maybe do it right or do it better) feel free to do so and if it comes out a 4 or 5 for you, let me know what you did and maybe I'll try again.
That will be on Friday. As always, thanks for reading. :-)
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| It doesn't look as nearly as pretty as the online recipe photos, but the general look is there. A three! So sad. |
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