Rich Coconut, Lemony Lime, Fragrant Shitake Mushrooms and Morsels of Chicken

This is the best Tom Ka Gai soup I've ever made. Its rich and creamy taste is so well complimented with the spicy lime, and using Shiitake mushrooms instead of button gives it an even more exotic taste and visual appeal than most other recipes.

Recipe:

My secret ingredient is the Shiitake mushrooms.  Seriously.  And this was all just plain luck because I didn't have any chicken stock.  Or vegetable stock, or any stock for that matter.  I only had mushrooms, and water.  Looking in the cupboard, thinking "what can I substitute for stock?"....  Thinking...hmmm...I have to soak the mushrooms anyway in water.  And I really really don't want to throw out all that brown mineral-rich water afterwards.  I always do when I make stir-fries, but ...thinking...thinking...  Why don't I use that for the stock?  See, what a brilliant idea!

So, this recipe actually starts the day before today.  The day before, you need to soak about 10 dried Shiitake mushrooms in about three cups of water. They really only take about 5 hours or less to soak, but I like them really soft so you can just bite right through them, without giving your teeth a workout.

Once they are nicely soaked, cut off the stems.  They never soften right and always taste very chewy.  SAVE the water.

Gai, means chicken.  Cut up about 2 nice size chicken breasts into bite size pieces, or half bite size, and fry them up in a frypan slightly until they are just barely cooked.  I fry them in coconut oil because it enhances the coconut flavour of the soup, plus it smells really nice when cooking.

Okay, now for the Tom Ka part.

2 Tbsp of Lemongrass.  I buy frozen, shredded lemongrass and then just cut pieces of it off when I cook.
1 inch of galangal.  I have galangal, but for some reason I used ginger for this one, and shredded it.
3 kaffir lime leaves.  What the heck, throw in a few more for good measure.
Some salt (to taste).
1 or 2 limes, squeezed
1 Tbsp of brown sugar
3 Tbsp of fish sauce
1 can coconut milk
2 Tbsp Tom Yum soup mixture

Put the water from the mushrooms in a pot.  Add in all of the ingredients from above.  Throw in the chicken. Let it simmer for awhile, longer is better as the flavours will really meld together.

Top the soup with freshly chopped cilentro.

Dig in. Spoonful by spoonful it will disappear fast.