Bliss-Inducing Thai Soup

I’ve been in hypersoup mode lately, probably driven by 1) a nice selection of recently made stocks, and 2) crappy, cold weather. Every few days brings something new, but this one stood far above the rest, so here it is. It’s one of those soups that are destined to become mainstays.

Did anyone watch that Rodriguez video on puerco pibil I pointed out a few days ago? In it he had a great idea: he made a menu that he keeps around his kitchen featuring about 10 of his favorite dishes he’s perfected over the years. Whenever someone comes over, he just shows them the menu, and they can “order” off it if he’s in the mood.  I think of Rodriguez because I would probably put this soup on my menu if I had one.

I started with some crab stock, made a few weeks ago with the remnants of a few Dungeness crabs we devoured and then frozen in ziplocks. It was pretty intensely crabby, so I wanted to tame that taste a bit. But with what? By chance I had just made a batch of ginger syrup (a post is forthcoming on this amazing condiment, I promise), the byproduct of which is a few cups of pureed sweetened fresh ginger. I put about half a cup into the broth, and voila! Instant mellowness and gingeryness, exactly what I had hoped it would do. So the broth was pretty set.

What to put in? What you have, of course! I sauteed a sliced onion, a sweet pepper, half a daikon, and a fennel bulb, all cut into strippy julienne. Into the broth. Cooked for a bit, needed some creaminess. Over here, Mr. Can of Coconut Milk. Thai flavors were rapidly developing, so I tossed in five or so kaffir lime leaves, which sealed the deal. Over-the-top deliciousness after a half-hour simmer. The pot still had some room in it, so I opened a package of tofu shirataki (tofu that’s been extruded, looks like skinny egg noodles) and stirred that in. Adjusted with kaffir lime salt, tossed in some cilantro and chopped up chicory, and had a little moment of satori, blessings and all.