2010 Cooking Club Week 4: Spicy Thai Chicken Noodle Soup

catho_monster

Ok
Went to tesco, reexamined the curry pastes and found Massaman Thai Curry Paste that has no garlic in it. Is that going to be a runner for this dish? I have no frame of reference and I don't want to ruin the nice corn-fed free-range chick I bought!!

Mr Magnolia

catho_monster wrote: »

Ok
Went to tesco, reexamined the curry pastes and found Massaman Thai Curry Paste that has no garlic in it. Is that going to be a runner for this dish? I have no frame of reference and I don't want to ruin the nice corn-fed free-range chick I bought!!

I had a look there and that paste should be fine. I'd be inclined to keep the free range corn fed and use a less expensive chicken, your choice though

catho_monster

Thanks Mr. M!
Looking forward to trying this now.
I try and not buy those "less expensive" chickens at all, tbh. Its either no chicken or nicely-treated chicken in this house

Malari

Got around to making this last night and loved it! Made up my own curry paste, so it actually turned out a pale green colour as opposed to the red of Mr. M's original. And also I safely used 1 tablespoon of the paste, as I had no real idea of how stong it was!

Definitely my favourite of the recipes so far!

TechnoPool

Made it today, threw in 4 chicken fillets, seemed just the right amount for 3 of us.

Was savage, no one left a drop.

catho_monster

Just finished tucking in to this AMAZINGLY GORGEOUS dish, thank you so much Mr. M.

Boiled the chicken with carrots, celery, bay leaf, peppercorns, onion...then after an hour took the chicken out and boiled the cooking liquid down (to 4 pints) to intensify flavour, used that instead of of the water/stock cubes. Doubled the quantities of liquid but still used one chicken. Used one portion of noodles per person to bulk it up.

TO DIE FOR.

Swampy

ellejay wrote: »

I thought I'd be adventurous and try to make the chicken stock myself.

I boiled a chicken in a pot of water, but there's a film of grease at the top of the pot.
Have you any suggestions on how to get rid of this or where did I go wrong?

Thanks and loving the cooking club!!
(completely inexperienced)

LJ

I heard a technique of throwing in some ice cubes in to the stock and the fat sticks to it.
Otherwise, leave it in the fridge overnight and it will solidify on top and its very easy to remove.

_blank_

Have this soup simmering on the cooker now as we speak. Looking forward to me lunch, it smells lovely.

Used the Blue Dragon Red Curry Paste, and no lemongrass, because I don't like it.

_blank_

Was delish

nice1franko

I used Sharwoods Hot Curry Paste ('ideal for madras' it says) but that was really all I could taste in the finished dish. Even the lemon grass was lost in it. So it pretty much tasted like a bowl of runny curry sauce.

I used two heaped tablespoons... maybe I should have used less; two leveled spoons maybe?

edit- On the plus side, I learned that curry paste + a tin of coconut cream makes a savage Chinese takeaway style curry sauce.

The Sweeper

Good to see a thai recipe in there!

I make something similar but without using a curry paste - it still has a lot of flavour but it's less spicy. I start with garlic and ginger paste (blitz a couple of cloves and a finger of ginger, to taste, with a little water in a blender) in oil, then add sliced onions and soften them. Just like this recipe, I usually pre-boil a whole chicken, allow to cool, use the stock for the soup and strip the meat from the bones. To the onions and pastes, I add turmeric and cumin for flavour, then I add the stock to the onions. I also add lemongrass, lime leaves and fish sauce, with salt to taste. Let the stock simmer until the 'raw' flavour has gone off the spices.

When the soup base is cooked, I'll add the noodles for about three or four minutes until soft (I use rice vermicelli), then add some scalded bean sprouts, some sliced bok choy, some sliced spring onions, the chicken, some sliced fresh chili (for heat, to taste). Heat the veg and chicken through, then decant into big bowls. I top it with herbs sometimes (a little mint and coriander) and serve wtih a big wedge of lime for squeezing over the soup. If I want it spicier I'll stir a chili condiment through my own bowl.

I don't use coconut milk so it's more of a spiced broth with noodles and veg and chicken.

Using just a little turmeric and cumin, I find I get a very drinkable soup stock base without that catch in your throat from too many spices, but the premise of the original recipe is the same.

Damn, want some now...!

Kenny_D

Love thai food so giving this a go tonight. Picked up some thai red curry paste and some lemongrass today. Already have the rest of the ingredients at home and roasted a chicken for it last night

TechnoPool

nice1franko wrote: »

I used Sharwoods Hot Curry Paste ('ideal for madras' it says) but that was really all I could taste in the finished dish. Even the lemon grass was lost in it. So it pretty much tasted like a bowl of runny curry sauce.

I used two heaped tablespoons... maybe I should have used less; two leveled spoons maybe?

edit- On the plus side, I learned that curry paste + a tin of coconut cream makes a savage Chinese takeaway style curry sauce.

its what i used and mine tasted fine. i only used once spoonful doh!

looperman1000

this is a great recipe, thanks. I boiled the noodles, is this what was meant to be done. Sorry im a newb, and havent really done noodles before, are they meant to be like spaghetti in consistency?

Kenny_D

Great Recipe. Made this tonight for myself and the parents and it went down a treat with everyone. Deff one for the books. Got my dad to nip up to the local indian and get some Garlic,Onion,Coriander Naan bread to go with it, hehe

I went with reduced fat coconut milk and thai red curry paste. Might try some variations of it.

Mr Magnolia

looperman1000 wrote: »

this is a great recipe, thanks. I boiled the noodles, is this what was meant to be done. Sorry im a newb, and havent really done noodles before, are they meant to be like spaghetti in consistency?

Yep. They normally take about 3 minutes.

mags16

Ì just made this.

I slow cooked a chicken for the whole day, took off the meat, strained the stock and made the soup just as Mr M instructed. I added some fresh coriander to the bowl before serving.

It was very hot (the curry paste came from an Asian supermarket), which is perfect for me, but I might tone it down if I am making it for more fragile palates. I also might break up the noodles a little more - your chin gets very messy while eating/drinking this soup!

This was right down my alley. Lovely recipe.

what2do

Another positive review here - yummy, and easy as can be!!!

Thanks a mill - this will be featuring in my cooking repertoire for the future :-)

The Black Oil

Made it earlier this evening and it was fantastic! My sister who is not a fan of hot/spicy stuff really liked it, though I wouldn't really call it hot myself. Will definitely be making it again.

BaZmO*

Finally got around to doing this on Friday, it was lovely. Very tasty and quite different from your usual soup.

Used Sharwoods Thai Red Curry Paste. Only used one and a half tablespoons coz I was afraid that it would be too hot, having not used it before, but I think I’ll use the full two tablespoons next time as it wasn’t too hot, well not for my tastes anyway.

Could only get the dried lemongrass in Tesco and wasn’t sure how much to use. It comes in little sticks (about 1½ - 2 inches long) so I used two. Not sure what the equivalent ratio between regular and dried is.

Certainly be trying this one again.

Little Alex

So, Mr Magnolia, thank you for the recipe. Had to improvise a bit: pork chops cut into strips and udon noodles. Oh yeah, and a green pepper somehow found it's way in, too...

Turned out lovely!

angeldelight

I made this last night and it was delicious!

I used a Thai Red Curry paste that I found in Dunnes (they only had that one and one for Korma) which wasn't very hot so next time I'd definitely try to get a hotter paste. I added a tsp of chili powder to it to add a little heat but it still wasn't noticeably hot - just warmed the back of the throat.

I boiled two chicken breasts with some garlic, onion and peppercorns then strained it and used that as the liquid to add to the soup. The only thing I'd do differently is try reduced fat coconut milk and see if it's still as nice, and maybe do 3 chicken breasts and some extra noodles but I will absolutely be making this again! Took pictures but USB port is playing up so will have to leave it for this time

applehunter

Got round to making this.

It was fine but I felt it was more like curry sauce than a soup.

F.A.

I'm happy to report that my boyfriend is currently cleaning the pot with his tongue!

Thanks for sharing.

unkel

Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. I've never felt as proud of cooking something that turned out to be this nice. Everybody loved it. Big thank you to Mr M



Cooked and reduced a chicken (minus two breasts and two drumsticks I used to do the cooking club Chorizo chicken again two days ago) for about 90 minutes. From then on I used the recipe pretty much to the letter, although I used a little bit less curry paste (red Thai) and I added pak choi. I used vermicelli (very thin noodles) instead of the normal noodles

Served with warm fresh home made brown bread. This one is very firm on the regular list from now on. I had two bowls and so did Mrs unkel (there's a first!), I impressed my next door neighbour and even my mother in law

Mr Magnolia

Great to hear you enjoyed it so much and credit to you for putting it together so well.

_blank_

Made this this evening (we do love this dish), and seeing as it's nice out, I decided to "summer it up" a bit by adding the grated rind, and juice, of a lime and some steamed broccoli. De-lish, as always.

John Mason

it really tasted like more

the lime juice gave it a summery taste

Edgedinblue

Made this couple weeks ago was so good! loved it! will defo make it again, thanks op!

matrim

Made this tonight. It was lovely even though I added too much noodles.

One question I didn't add lemongrass as I couldn't find any. Would it make a big difference to the taste or is there any good alternative if you can't get it?