Thai Coconut Soup

I've been wanting to make this soup as soon as I saw it on My New Roots. The first time I had it was when we were in Iceland in a great Thai restaurant. It blew my mind! Nick and I were amazed at the complexity of the subtle flavors. It was perfect served over rice.
We pulled out the cilantro plants at the farm today and I was able to take all the roots home. They have a great delicate taste. The roots:

I wasn't able to track down the keffir lime leaves, sadly. I left them in the recipe just in case someone out there can track them down. There's actually an article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette about how you can't buy them in Pittsburgh, even at Lotus. Therefore, I'm investing in a lime tree!!! I was, however, lucky enough to get some gorgeous spring shallots. If you can't find them, just use the shallots themselves.

Ingredients:
2 cans coconut milk (full-fat!)
10 cilantro roots
7 stalks lemongrass
3 spring shallots with greens attached
3 whole thai chilies (I used fish peppers)
50g / 1.75oz ginger root
1/4 cup palm sugar
12 kaffir lime leaves
7-9 shittake mushrooms, sliced
4 cloves garlic
juice of 3 limes
3 Tbsp. fish sauce
1 pound shrimp, deveined
thai basil, to garnish

Prep:

-Wash the cilantro root well in a bowl full of water. Cut the stems off, leaving about a half inch attached to the root.
-Bruise the lemongrass by pounding it with the side of the knife and cut some slits in the stalks.
-Slice the shallots about 1/3 of their greens (use the other greens as you would a green onion).
-Peel and cut the ginger into chunks and pound it until it releases a little liquid.
-Peel and smash the garlic.
-Cut slits into the chilies.
-Slice the mushrooms.
-Cook the shrimp in about 3 cups boiling water for about 1 minute. Reserve the water.

Cooking Directions:

In a soup pot, place the coconut milk, cilantro roots, lemongrass, shallots, chili, ginger, sugar, lime leaves, and garlic. Bring to a very gentle simmer and cook for about 15 minutes, with a lid on.
 

Strain soup through a sieve into another saucepan. I kept the shallots and garlic in the soup to eat. Add the sliced mushrooms, lime juice, fish sauce, and 2 cups shrimp cooking water. Bring soup up to a light simmer again just to cook the mushrooms slightly. Do not boil. Season to taste and serve immediately with thai basil and shrimp. Serve over rice.

Update! Since I went home this weekend, I was able to stop at the asian market with my mom. They had all the ingredients I needed like galangal root and keffir lime leaves. We were also able to use lemongrass and thai chilies from my parents' garden. The coconut sugar was from a neighbor. It was definitely a group effort. We also got some shrimp with the shells on, which makes a much better shrimp broth. Overall, this soup was excellent with all the right ingredients. I also ordered a lime tree so we can make coconut soup whenever we want!

Strawberry Pretzel Jello

I made pretzel jello this weekend for reasons that are too evil to mention on the blog... but this dish is something I've had at every holiday since I was born. However, this was the first time I made it myself. For a first time try, it looks decent and tastes really good, but I am looking forward to the day when I make an aunt/grandma-worthy pretzel jello. I am open to suggestions.

Due to an uneven cream cheese/whipped cream layer, the Jello was too thin in some parts.

In other news, Twilly met the love of his life last weekend. He can't stop talking about her.

Strawberry Pretzel Jello

Adapted from Family Circle (I think)

3 cups roughly chopped or blended pretzels (or finely crushed if that’s how you like it)

½ cup sugar

¾ cup butter, melted

1 8-oz package cream cheese

1 cup sugar

1 8-oz container frozen whipped dessert topping, thawed

2 10-oz packages frozen strawberries, thawed

2 3-oz boxes of strawberry Jello

2 cups boiling water

Blueberry Cream Biscuits

My grandma had a garage sale this Saturday morning, so I made some biscuits for breakfast. The garage sale was not a huge success, but the biscuits were.

Twilly, inspecting our wares

Grandpa, perfecting his sales technique

Blueberry Cream Biscuits

From Better Homes & Gardens

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp sugar

½ tsp salt

¼ grated nutmeg

1 cup blueberries

1 ½ cups whipping/heavy cream

1 recipe Blueberry Sauce

Rhubarb Mini-Pies

My grandparents have a few rhubarb plants in their backyard, so I picked some when we went over for dinner the other night. My grandpa is a rhubarb aficionado, and he will definitely have to eat one of these mini-pies eventually because they are amazing. Nothing but rhubarb going on here.

I had my doubts when I was making this recipe – I was nervous that the rhubarb wouldn’t be sweet enough and there was a lot of dry mix in with the rhubarb. I ended up tossing/wasting a good half cup of dry mix (tapioca flour, sugar, etc), so I’m reducing it by at least half in this recipe. Even if I had made a normal, full-size pie, I wouldn’t have wanted all of that in there. It was extremely delicious without it, so might as well leave it out!

Rhubarb Mini-Galettes

Makes 6 mini-pies or 1 bigger one

Adapted from Real Simple

1 double pie crust recipe

1 lb rhubarb, cut into 1-2 inch pieces

½ cup sugar

1 tbsp cornstarch

1 tbsp instant tapioca (or tapioca flour)

½ tsp fine sea salt

1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated (I didn’t use any)

1 tbsp heavy cream