Thai Soups

[SobaAddict70]

Besides tom kha gai (chicken soup with coconut, lemongrass and galangal), there is tom yum koong (shrimp soup with shitaake mushrooms, celery and herbs) and tom yum puk (vegetable soup with lime leaves, lemongrass, chiles and tamarind),

What are your favorite Thai soups, how do you make them and what do you prefer to serve them with?

Vietnamese, Laotian and other southeast Asian soups/soup dishes are fair game as well. (Besides the ubiquitous pho and kai soi, there are also fabulous soups such as canh trung (tomato egg drop soup with mushrooms and lily buds), bun bo gio heo (beef and pork leg soup) and canh bap cai cuon thit (cabbage, leek and pork dumpling soup).

Discuss away...

Soba

[AzRaeL]

Tom Yum (the one with Mussels and Shrimp and Scallops and Squid) YUM

Eat it with plain white rice

[Suzanne F]

I cheat. I use Knorr Tom Yam bouillon cubes. Then I add whatever I have around that I think will work.

(FYI: I get then in NYC at the Thai grocery store on Mosco Street in chinatown.)

[Knicke]

Bumping up this thread 'cause I really wish people had shared more....

C'mon...at least point me to a cookbook and give me someplace to start!

[lala]

Knicke,

I've used Victor Sodsok's 'True Thai' (I'm pretty sure that's the name) for my Thai primer. The Tom Ka Gai in there is excellent (well, I do add a bit more lime), and works great with seafood, too.

[msphoebe]

Thai is my #1 favorite cuisine...I would eat it every day if I could!

I suggest you visit "Adventures in Thai Cooking & Travel," Kasma Loha-Unchit's website. It provides many excellent recipes and gives extensive information on Thai cooking technique and ingredients. She provides a list of her favorite brands as well, which I've found useful when shopping in the Asian markets.

The site is updated quarterly, and new recipes are added, so it's a great one to bookmark.

http://thaifoodandtravel.com/

(And by the way...I am in no way affiliated with the website. This is my first post to eGullet, but I've enjoyed reading for several months.)

[NickV]

The tom yum puk sounds good. Does anyone have a recipe for that? I'm always looking for more things to do with tamarinds as my family has a huge tamarind tree in their yard down in key west. So far I just eat them plain or use them when I make pad thai. Thanks.

[waldorf]

Bumping up this thread 'cause I really wish people had shared more....

C'mon...at least point me to a cookbook and give me someplace to start!

I suggest the following

Big Bowl Noodles and Rice: Fresh Asian Cooking from the Renowned Restaurant

by Bruce Cost, Zeva Oelbaum, Matt McMillin - an engaging book, easy to use, delicious recipes.

Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia

by Jeffrey Alford, Naomi Duguid. Good for the mind, soul and stomach!

Essentials of Asian Cuisine Corinne Trang. Authoritative and informative. Rich in detail and recipes.

[fifi]

Thai is my #1 favorite cuisine...I would eat it every day if I could!

I suggest you visit "Adventures in Thai Cooking & Travel," Kasma Loha-Unchit's website. It provides many excellent recipes and gives extensive information on Thai cooking technique and ingredients. She provides a list of her favorite brands as well, which I've found useful when shopping in the Asian markets.

The site is updated quarterly, and new recipes are added, so it's a great one to bookmark.

http://thaifoodandtravel.com/

(And by the way...I am in no way affiliated with the website. This is my first post to eGullet, but I've enjoyed reading for several months.)

And a hearty welcome to you, msphoebe.

That is a really cool site. It is now one of my favorites.

I do keep coming back to tom kha gai. It could be a nostalgic thing because it is the first soup I had when introduced to Thai food many years ago. Now that the ingredients are accessible, I make my own. When the galangal is particularly fresh at my big Asian market, I will make up a big batch. What I usually do is freeze the "base" and add the chicken chunks or whatever when I reheat it.

My go-to recipe is from Victor Sodsook's True Thai. That book is one of the early ones available here in the US and I cook from it often. The recipes are not as intimidating as some others.

However, when I am coming down with some vile cold or flu, I am not above ordering a quart from my closest source. Thai penicillin, anyone?

[CtznCane]

I like this Thai style tomato soup with shrimp and noodles which was from John Ash at a recent class:

2 two-ounce packets of cellophane or bean thread noodles.

7 cups rich chicken stock simmered with shrimp shells for 5-10 minutes.

2 T - asian fish sauce (or to taste)

1T - asian chile-garlic sauce (or to taste)

3 cups canned diced tomoatoes in juice

1 cup green onions, sliced diagonally and thinly

2 t hot pepper sesame oil (or to taste)

1 pound medium shrimp , shelled and deveined (31-36 count)

1/2 cup lossely packed cilantro leaves

3 T finely sliced garlic, crisply fried in veg oil.

soak noodles in a bowl and cover with warm water and soak utnil softened 20-025 minutes. drain the noodles and dump in a tangle on a cutting board and cut through crosswise and lengthwise to form roughly 4-inch lengths.

strain the shells from the stock and return to the pot and bring to a boil. Stir in the fish sauce, chile-carlic sauce, tomatoes ith their juice, green onions and hot sesame oil. Add the noodles and sand shrimp and simmer for a minute or two. (If serving at the table the the shrimp will actually cook by adding and just taking to the table, by the time served they will be done.)

Ladle into warm bowls and top with cilantro and fried garlic.

This, as I mentioned, is a John Ash recipe. Easy, quick and quite tasty I think.

[tryska]

definitely tom kha gai, but only if the chicken has actually been cooked int he soup. i'm really getting tired of bland precooked chicken being added to sauces, curries, and soups that call for it.

[Julia'sChild]

I suggest the following

Big Bowl Noodles and Rice: Fresh Asian Cooking from the Renowned Restaurant

by Bruce Cost, Zeva Oelbaum, Matt McMillin - an engaging book, easy to use, delicious recipes.

Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia

by Jeffrey Alford, Naomi Duguid. Good for the mind, soul and stomach!

Essentials of Asian Cuisine  Corinne Trang. Authoritative and informative. Rich in detail and recipes.

I would add Thai Food by David Thompson- on Ten Speed Press

Sort of the Bible on Thai

[msphoebe]

Thank you, fifi! I look forward to joining more conversations and learning more about international cuisine...I especially like Asian foods and anything with lots of diverse flavors -- hot peppers, garlic, ginger, cilantro, basil -- yum!

I even picked up a container of tamarind paste last week, the taste is awesome! I'll be looking for ways to use it in prepared dishes.

later...

[fifi]

definitely tom kha gai, but only if the chicken has actually been cooked int he soup. i'm really getting tired of bland precooked chicken being added to sauces, curries, and soups that call for it.

Definitely. I poach chicken chunks in the soup.

Peterson is certainly the definitive tome (and I do mean tome) on the subject. I have it and enjoy it. However, I am not sure I would recommend it to a beginner in the cuisine. It is pretty daunting. Come to think of it, I don't think I have cooked anything from it yet. I might recommend it for general reading, but start cooking from Sodsook. The recipes are much more approachable and there is even a section on "playing" with Thai elements in other recipes.

There is another book that comes highly recommended and I intend to get it if I can remember the name of it. Sweet, sour, hot and salty or something like that. Help me out here, guys.

[mamster]

However, when I am coming down with some vile cold or flu, I am not above ordering a quart from my closest source. Thai penicillin, anyone?

A year or two ago I was sitting in a wine bar in downtown Portland, OR, and the person next to me mentioned that she was coming down with a cold. The bartender's face lit up and she said, "Okay, here's the first thing you do. You NEED to get a big container of tom kha gai."

"What's that?" the patron asked.

"It's Thai chicken soup. Write this down. TOM KHA GAI."

So apparently word is getting around.