MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.01

     Title: Chicken and Coconut Milk Soup (Gaeng Com Yam Gai)
Categories: Thai, Soups, Ceideburg 2
     Yield: 1 servings

     5 c  "Thin" coconut milk
     1 sm Chicken, sectioned and cut
          -into bite-sized pieces
          -(bone-in)
     3    Stalks lemon grass, bruised
          -and cut into 1" lengths
     2 ts Laos powder (Ka)
     3    Green onions, finely chopped
     2 tb Coriander leaves, chipped
     4    To 6 fresh Serrano
          -chillies, seeded and
          -chopped
          Juice of 2 limes
     3 tb Fish sauce (Nam Pla)

 Here's another classic "Tom Yam" type chicken soup.  The "Laos"
 powder is dried galangal, powdered.  Unlike ginger, dried galangal
 seems to retain most of it's character.  If you use canned coconut
 milk, the "Thin" milk is the more watery liquid in the can.  The
 thick condensed stuff is coconut "cream" (not to be confused with the
 syrupy sweet coconut cream used for Pina Coladas).  If you shake the
 can up and combine the two, you have thick coconut milk.

 A lovely lemony, creamy soup, Dom Yam Gai calls for chicken pieces cut
 through the bone with a heavy cleaver, Chinese style.  If you find
 gnawing on chicken pieces and delicately trying to remove the bone,
 vainly searching for a place to deposit it, inhibiting your dinner
 conversation, you may debone the bird and substitute chicken pieces.
 In either case, use both dark and light meats for color and nutrition.

 [Although if you're talking at the table, ya got no reason to be
 eating a dish this good!  S.C.  ;-} ]

 In a saucepan, bring the "Thin" coconut milk to a boil.  Add the
 chicken pieces, lemon grass and Laos powder.  Reduce heat and simmer
 until the chicken is tender, about 15 minutes.  Do not cover as this
 will tend to curdle coconut milk.  When the chicken is tender, add
 the green onions, coriander leaves and chillies.  Bring the heat up
 just below boiling. Remove the pan from heat, stir in lime juice,
 fish sauce and serve.

 NOTE:  Beef cut into thin strips or firm white fish pieces may be
 substituted for chicken.

 From "The Original Thai Cookbook" by Jennifer Brennan, GD/Perigee,
 published by Putnam.  1981.

 Posted by Stephen Ceideburg; February 6 1991.

MMMMM