Two Chefs, A Little Lady and Liam Bruce: Coconut curry soup

I love a good party!

I love hosting a party; especially for someone the appreciates the “details”. Well it was my aunt Betty’s birthday last week and if anyone knows how to entertain; it’s her. So I was thrilled when my auntie Ann from Ontario, mom, sisters and I opted to stay in rather than going out. I offered to host. Now for the menu; it couldn’t be just ordinary. We decided to make Thai Coconut Soup along with a few other things. My sister Jan has raved about this recipe she got from her friend so I decided to give it a try.

Now with Asian inspired soups I find if I don’t follow a recipe precisely I end up putting peanut butter in it and it turns out tasting the same. So I really was determined to follow this recipe. The recipe was rather a guideline but no less I followed it!

This is what Jan sent me:

“Ok I usually put a can of soup in a large frying pan with about a heaping

tbsp of curry paste. Dissolve with a spatula. Add couple tbsp of soya

sauce and brown sugar. Add to chicken broth plus more coconut milk to

taste. Throw in cooked chicken, sautéed lightly veggies , cilantro green

onion, lime juice and lemon grass that has been bruised. Let simmer until

tastes good.”

Ingredients:

Chicken stock

Coconut milk

Red curry paste

Brown sugar

Soya sauce

Cilantro

Green onion

Lemongrass -optional

Red pepper

Mushrooms

Chicken

Lime-I like lots

I serve it over rice

Taking this advice I started cooking. Two days ago I cooked my chicken. I put the chicken on a parchment lined sheet pan and seasoning lightly with olive oil, salt and pepper. I baked this at 375 on convection just until the chicken was an internal temperature of 160F in the thickest part of the breast. I let this cool and then put it in the fridge in an airtight container.

Yesterday I had Jeff chopped all of the veggies for the soup into square chunks making everything similar sizes. We used onions, tri-colour peppers, mushrooms, and baby corn.

I lightly sautéed the veggies as the recipe states and set them aside until a half hour before serving; I didn’t want the veggies to be mush.

I wanted to make a lot so tried to figure out quantities of everything and basically quadruple it. I made a little error when doing this. When one is duplicating a recipe that calls for curry paste one should really add a little at a time; there is really NO going back once you’ve added too much RED curry paste! Originally I added 6 Litres of chicken stock and 4 cans of coconut milk. To this I added about ¼ cup of soya sauce, diced green onions, 4 tbsp of brown sugar, two stalks of bruised lemon grass and the juice from 8 limes.

Aubrey had a great time added the lime juice. She stood on that chair for the whole process; she really enjoyed stirring the pot and being mommy and daddy’s sous-chef.

The only thing she wasn’t a fan of was Jeff beating the lemongrass….”too loud dad!”

After a quick taste test I realized this may be a bit too spicy for the average dinner guest so luckily I checked my pantry and I had another box of chicken stock and coconut milk. Happily I was able to save my mistake; so in the end the ratio I used was 7 Litres of chicken stock and 5 cans of coconut broth to the 4 heaping spoonfuls of red curry paste. Needless to say; I had a truck load of soup!

I added the diced chicken into the broth to let it become infused with the flavours; but I opted to wait to add my sautéed vegetables until later.

The night before I had set my table using all of my fancy things! In my china cabinet I found a table cloth and cloth napkins I received from a friend as a wedding gift. This table cloth really deserves the right kind of party and aunt Betty’s is it! It was perfect; I was so happy I had found it….everyone agreed the table setting was sooooooooooo aunt betty!

I made a few garnish dishes up; lime wedges, saracha hot sauce, peanuts and soya sauce.

A cake pop bouquet.

I made little menus and name tags just to make it special.

The little touches can really go a long way to making a dinner party feel so warm and relaxed.

I decided to do vermicelli; I soaked and drained this just before serving. I allowed everyone to serve themselves. I thought this would be good for the noodle-to-garnish-to-broth ratio that everyone has different opinions on!

Finish product:

My mom even helped me can the leftover soup. We washed, sterilized and canned 6 EXTRA Litres of soup. This will be great for later; and I bet it will taste even better!