Thai Coconut Soup (Tom Kha)

I believe that we've mentioned about this 'shop-once-a month-for-groceries' challenge that we're on. Since the month's end is approaching, we feel pretty good about it. There is no flour/atta left, but we're scraping by :)

But at the same time, it is a TERRIBLE time to be following food blogs. That is because we don't have squat at home while all you folks keep churning out one amazing thing after another! So we can't try out most of the things!

But this particular event, to which this post is dedicated, was deemed too good to miss because we ourselves are trying to appreciate vegan cooking and eating lately. Personally, I just admire vegetarian/vegan daring bakers! Are you kidding me? How could you possibly make such artisan delicacies without using eggs?

Continuing along this vegan theme, this post goes to Priya of Akshayapaatram for ITVW-Thai, conceived by Vaishali of Holy Cow. Both the blogs are terrific.

As mentioned, due to a severe ingredient-crunch, we're sending this very simple Thai coconut soup called Tom Kha for the event. I don't think the name translates into 'coconut soup' but I guess that's what it is called!

Ingredients:

1 cup coconut milk
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup firm tofu, drained and cubed
1 tsp red chilli flakes
1 big chunk of ginger (about the size of a tsp)
2 tsp chopped Kaffir lime leaves
1 tsp chopped Thai basil leaves
salt to taste
water to adjust consistency (about 1/4-1/3 cup)

1. Shallow fry the tofu cubes in oil. Set aside.

2. In a deep saucepan, heat the water. When it starts to simmer, add the lime leaves, ginger and Thai basil. Make sure that the heat does not exceed medium-low. Cook for about 5 mins.

2. Slowly add the coconut milk in small batches. Add the chilli flakes and salt. Cook for another 5 mins.

3. Add the fried tofu cubes and cook for another 5 mins.

That is it! A simple creamy soup with a great hint of citrusy flavor. I loved biting into the tofu pieces that were steeped in coconut. The ginger gives a slight zing to it. Obviously, you could vary the amount of spices to suit your palate.

It may sound light but it fills you up pretty good ;) After having this as a starter, we had some Jolada Roti (Sorghum Flour flatbread) with some improvised peanut-tomato chutney. Trust me, I am not very proud of the way I made the chutney but it tasted alright ;)

And since N is hopping behind me because she forgot about CLICK this month, we dug into our picture folder and came up with this. N will possibly not even read this post, but well, I can't win everything at the same time ;)

The cosy, cheesy Oscar Party

A and I are tired of people for sometime now. Forgive us. But, we are tired of cooking and dining and hosting. Its all our fault, really. We never make it easy on ourselves. We love to entertain and make everything fancy-schmancy. Whether the guest appreciates it or not, we are very serious about it and hold a 2 member feedback session the next morning. Most of our entertaining is done on Fridays or during the weekend. And Saturday morning is spent lazily figuring out how we could have done better. Yes, we're mad. Judge us. Throw stones at us.

We wanted to throw an Oscar Party. Not. I wanted to go out and eat, while A wanted to cook as always. She took me out to lunch at Taqueria Del Sol one day and I had some heavenly cheese dip with my Tortilla chips. I've been dreaming about it ever since and couldn't take it out of my head. In fact, I looked for it everyday here, never finding it. So, while I threw tantrums asking to go out to eat, A bribed me with the idea of a private, cosy Oscar party. Just for the two of us. I'm dieting, and I knew it wasn't going to be a party in any sense for me. But he played just on that. He enticed me with 'one day only' junk food and promised he'd take care of the cooking and the cleaning while I ogled at Hugh Jackman. I fell into the carefully laid out trap. So, we had a grand party in Pajamas with a comforter thrown in for good measure and some really, really bad food. This is what we ate for over 3 hours.

Tortilla chips with a cheesy dip laced generously with jalapenos
Some fries. Okay, make that lot of fries. The only redeeming factor being that they were baked.
Guacamole
Hummus with some tortilla chips
Coke
Water (for me)
Chocolate pudding

Did I mention cheese dip? I didn't? We also had some cheese dip. With the Tortilla chips. No, it wasn't the other way round. In fact, I had it with Roti tonight too. Sigh. I ate well that night. After a strict carb-less, fat-less diet for 2 weeks, I alternated between cheese dip and Hugh Jackman effortlessly. Now, I have beautiful dreams of both my indulgences. *smacks lips*

Since we were making it anyway, I decided to take some pics. And I came up with this one. So, I thought I'd live my day dream. Let me explain or rather show.

You see, I'm a huge believer in miracles though it has never worked for me. I always day-dream of something so radical happening that changes my life in a positive way in an instant (without me working on it, btw) This was one such day dream. We are sending the above picture to CLICK- Cheese and Tofu, the monthly photography event hosted by the Jugalbandits.

We did not think we'd participate in CLICK this time or any time in the near future. We are 'almost' new to food blogging and our pics suck. They are far from good. If we *do* get good pics, it is out of sheer luck. However, I entertained the thought at the back of my mind constantly. You know the day-dream thingy? Just like the cheese dip I day-dreamed about and now I night-dream it too.

So, there you go. The cheese dip was delish. It was good. Really good. I should stop now.

P.S- I know we have some awards that we have to acknowledge, but I thought the cheese dip should take centerstage and we are running a little late for some stuff. So, the awards shall be duly acknowledged in the next post. I promise. Mebbe, the next post after this cheese dip post that described the cheese dip which was so yummy, so heavenly, so cheesy, so lick-worthy, so...okay, let me go finish that cheese after all. Dieting? Who am I kidding!