Coconut curry soup

Inspired by a friend who made a similar soup recently, as well as my desire for a hearty soup on a fall day, I made my own version of Laska the rich and spicy Malaysian soup that I first tried at the amazing little Hawker Bar on Ossington St. (where we also spotted Susur Lee and sons dining).


As a tangent review---everything there was done so well with great prices. I highly recommend.

My version, while a hawk of a lot less authentic, ups the veggies, takes out seafood flavour (because I didn't have fish sauce) and adds thick rice noodles. Next time I would use slightly thinner ones though. You can also mix it up a bit with veggies. Try adding eggplant, peppers and/or bean sprouts.

You will need:

1 medium onion, thinly sliced
4-5 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp. ginger,grated
2 stalks lemon grass, cut in half and top layer peeled
2 tsp canola oil
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground tumeric
1 spash soy sauce
1 carrot, grated
5 mushrooms,. sliced
1 bunch bok choy, chopped
2 Thai chilies
1 box chicken broth (about four cups)
4 tbsp yellow curry paste
2 chicken breasts, sliced
1 package rice noodles, cooked
1 can coconut milk

For garnish:
sliced green onions
cilantro
Thai basil
lime wedge


Directions:

In large saucepan, cook onion, ginger, garlic, chilies, turmeric and coriander in oil. After about 5 minutes add in lemongrass, carrots, mushroom, broth and splash of soy.  Let cook another 5 minutes then add curry paste and coconut milk. Let this simmer to cook all the flavours together.

In the meantime, in a separate saucepan boil noodles until cooked through, about 8 minutes. Remove noodles from water and add to soup. Add chicken to boiling water from noodles and let cook about 8-10 minutes.

Add chicken and bok choy to soup. Soup should have cooked for at least 30 minutes.

Serve hot and add garnishes.