Tom Kah shrimp

In my experience, thai food is the easiest thing to order gf, followed by mexican.. I also love tom kah gai, which helps.

I recently brought a care soup to a friend of mine. There was a request for shrimp so I made it with shrimp. Here is the approximate recipe.

*about 1.5 pounds of shrimp, uncooked. (you will need to remove the shell)
* 1 tb of thai chili paste
* 1/2 C of fish sauce (get the real thing. it should have more than just anchovies in there)
* some limes
* 5-6 garlic cloves- mashed
* an onion thinly sliced
* 2 stalk of lemon grass cut in pieces
*some galangal root (not edible)
* 4-5 lime (kaffir) leaves
* 2 qts chicken stock
* 2 cans of coconut milk
* some mushrooms ( I used both enoki and brown mushroom, the traditional is straw)
* some tomatoes quartered ( I think that is an americanism, but i like it that way).
* chili flakes (optional)
* 2 chilies (optional)
* cilantro, thinly cut.
* fresh squeezed lime juice

in a thick bottom soup pan put some oil, and add the garlic, onions, chili paste, lime leaves, galangal and lemon grass. (and chilies...)
Fry until the onions are somewhat translucent. You need to watch this because the paste will burn and become bitter..
Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil.
Add the fish sauce, coconut milk and mushroom. boil for a few minutes. The mushrooms should get tender but no mushy.
Add the shrimp and tomatoes and turn off the heat.

Shrimp in my opinion, are nasty when overcooked. If added to a boiling soup, they will cook almost instantly, so I turn off the heat and wait for a few minutes.
Finally add the cilantro as a garnish.
Serve with a bit of lime juice .

If you serve it with chicken, coat the bit size chicken pieces with corn starch. cook for a few minutes before turning the heat off. The chicken with be very tender.
enjoy