Thai Style Chicken Soup

This soup is soooooooooo good. I've been on a soup kick, but our choices are somewhat limited since our blender is broken. Chicken is expensive in Canada, so we made it with pork. It's not a difficult recipe to make, but it does have just a few more steps than I usually like for a weeknight meal.
















It has everything I love in Thai food: coconut milk, cilantro, green onions, curry paste...Ok, so no peanut butter, but it was still delicious.

















It made enough for both of us to have generous portions, and we had enough to eat it again as dinner the next night.


















Thai Style Chicken Soup
from The Way the Cookie Crumbles

1 teaspoon vegetable oil
3 stalks lemon grass, tough outer leaves removed, bottom 5 inches halved lengthwise and sliced thin crosswise*
3 large shallots, chopped
8 sprigs fresh cilantro leaves, chopped coarse
3 tablespoons fish sauce
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 (14-ounce) cans coconut milk, well-shaken
1 tablespoon sugar
½ pound white mushrooms, cleaned, stems trimmed, cut into ¼-inch slices
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, halved lengthwise and sliced on bias into ⅛-inch-thick pieces
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice from 2 to 3 limes
2 teaspoons red curry paste (Thai)

Garnish:
½ cup fresh cilantro leaves
2 serrano chiles, sliced thin*
2 scallions, sliced thin on bias
1 lime, cut into wedges*

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat until just shimmering. Add the lemon grass, shallots, cilantro, and 1 tablespoon fish sauce; cook, stirring frequently, until the vegetables are just softened, 2 to 5 minutes (vegetables should not brown). Stir in the chicken broth and 1 can of the coconut milk; bring to a simmer over high heat. Cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer until the flavors have blended, 10 minutes. Pour the broth through a fine-mesh strainer and discard the solids in the strainer. Rinse the saucepan and return the broth mixture to the pan.

2. Return the pan to medium-high heat. Stir the remaining can of coconut milk and sugar into the broth mixture and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium, add mushrooms, and cook until just tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Add chicken and cook, stirring constantly, until no longer pink, 1 to 3 minutes. Remove soup from heat.

3. Combine lime juice, curry paste, and remaining 2 tablespoons fish sauce in small bowl; stir into soup. Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with cilantro, chiles, and scallions. Serve immediately with lime wedges.

*All asterisks are by ingredients that we omitted. John and I went to two grocery stores to find lemongrass and still couldn't find any - even though it was there the week before! We used the zest of a lemon instead.