Thai-riffic

I blame Andy Balthrop for making me think of that title, what with his incessant reference to me as T-riffic. I apologize profusely if (if???) you don't like nerd puns.

One night off, and I was back at it tonight in the kitchen. A friend of mine was in town on business. She made it to the housewarming party pretty late and has otherwise been living off bad DC restaurant food and (worse) hotel food. Shudder. Poor girl. So I thought I'd shoot her some food happiness.

It's rare that you'd think of the main course as a light soup, but the intense flavor of this hot and sour seafood soup I made definitely cemented its place as the main attraction tonight. I served it with a side of what I'll call Basil Chicken Risotto.

The hot and sour soup was inspired by the remarkable Nigella Lawson. She makes a Thai hot and sour soup with shrimp that provided a great place to start.

Unfortunately, Nigella assumes I have access to ingredients that just aren't that easy to find, unless I hit up an inconveniently located (at least compared to the Harris Teeter 7 minutes away) international super market: kaffir lime leaves, fish sauce (there is no excuse-NONE-for Harris Teeter not to carry fish sauce), a stalk of lemongrass, and tom yam hot and sour paste.

But I still wanted hot and sour soup, and I wanted shrimp and scallops. My version:

Chicken Stock
Red Curry Paste (instead of tom yam hot and sour paste)
Zest of lime (instead of kaffir lime leaves)
Lime juice
Soy Sauce (instead of fish sauce)
1 Jalapeno
Sugar
Sliced button mushrooms
Peeled shrimp, bay and sea scallops
Fresh cilantro

After bringing about 6 cups of chicken stock to a boil, I added the zest of a full lime, the juice of a full lime, a heaping tablespoon of red curry paste, about 4 tablespoons of soy sauce, a coarsely chopped jalapeno, about a tablespoon of sugar, and about 7 sliced mushrooms (of a variety of your choosing), and brought back to a boil. I love my seafood, so good pound of shrimp and a pound of sea scallops will kept it coming. After bringing back to a boil I immediately removed from heat (remember that thing about not overcooking your seafood? A few tablespoons of fresh chopped cilantro and I had all the dinner I needed.


Tell me that color isn't just fantastic.

The risotto was fun, too. Nothing crazy complex--I used medium grain rice cause I didn't feel like spending six bucks on arborio rice. Cooked the rice in water, chicken broth, lots of unsalted butter, diced onions, a bit of lemon zest, and about 1/3 cup of grated parmesan and 1/4 cup of grated romano. Similar to this recipe, if you want more specifics. I finished it by topping with chicken that had been diced and stir fried in lemon, pepper, and basil. Added a bit of minced cilantro to bring it all together, poured a glass of a fantastic Sauvignon Blanc, and got my food on.