THE GRUB REPORT: Ingredient of the week: Lemongrass

I admit it. We're in a rut.

Despite our best intentions, we eat out way too often.

When you're crunched for time on a lunch or dinner break, it's tough to find the oomph it takes to make a meal at home.

Not to mention that our oven/microwave combo has been out of commission for weeks. (Between ordering parts and scheduling appointments, the repair process has taken way too long. But we're hoping to be back in the baking business next week.)

Even without an oven, though, there's one particular category of food that is usually fairly simple to make on a weekend, with enough leftovers to last a few hectic weekdays: soup.

I love soup. I crave soup. And it's just not the type of thing that most restaurants do well. So a couple weeks ago, a trip to a supermarket in a neighboring county inspired us to cook up our own take on a Thai classic, Tom Ka Gai.

There were plenty of exciting things in the produce section that day. Parsley root. (What would that add to a braise or stew?) Purple carrots. (So familiar, yet so strange. Do they taste different than the orange ones?) Green and orange and purple cauliflower. (Roasted? Pureed? Curried, even?) But it was the lemongrass that we decided to bring home that day.

I've had Tom Ka Gai in a few different Thai restaurants, and I have to admit that they've been a little too heavy on the lemongrass for my taste. The woody stalk's distinctive tang quite easily crosses the line into overpowering. So we weren't exactly going for authentic. We focused on the main flavors -- coconut and lemongrass -- and built from there.

You might find recipes for this type of soup that call for plenty of exotic ingredients. Kaffir lime leaves. Special chilies or chili paste. Galangal. If you're going for authentic, there are Asian markets in bigger cities where you could probably track down such things, not to mention online shops.

But we were going for Thai-inspired flavor in a simple weekend soup. So besides the lemongrass, and the few drops of fish sauce we added (which you could get by without), everything in this recipe is quite easily obtainable here at our local groceries. We decided to add wonderful, meaty shitake mushrooms for a little more substance (which, I learned from online research, is similar to a common Thai variation, Tom Ka Het).

And the result was delicious. It balanced just between light and heavy, refreshing and creamy, bracing and comforting. The lemongrass flavor was there, but not overpowering.

So the next time you see lemongrass -- and who knows, it might be sooner than you think, with a new grocery opening here in our city this spring -- consider trying your hand at this Thai-inspired dish. We steamed up some basmati rice to pair with it, and I loved the two combined into one bowl, too.

Coconut, Lemongrass and Shitake Soup

Ingredients
2 cups canned low-salt chicken broth
1 14-ounce can unsweetened coconut milk
1/2 cup 1/4-inch-thick slices fresh lemongrass (at least two stalks)
Several chicken tenders, pounded thinner with a mallet and cut into pieces
1 tablespoon lime juice or more to taste
Soy sauce and fish sauce to taste (or, alternately, salt to taste)
Half a jalapeno chili (or whole one, if you like), chopped
1 package shitake mushrooms, sliced
Finely chopped fresh cilantro

Directions
Bring first 3 ingredients to boil in heavy medium saucepan. (If desired, you can place the lemongrass slices into a tea ball or tie it in cheesecloth before adding it to the liquid. It's simply used to flavor the soup; you don’t want to eat it, and putting it in some sort of straining device like the options mentioned above makes it far more simple to fish it out of the liquid.)

Reduce heat, add chicken and simmer until cooked through.

Remove the chicken to a plate. (You can add it back in later or save it for a different dish, like we did.) You can also remove the lemongrass at this point, or you can leave it in a little longer to impart a more of its flavor to the soup. (Even if you leave it in longer, the flavor's pretty mild. The amount used in this recipe is less than is used in a more authentic preparation, I suspect.)

In a small bowl, mix together lime juice and soy sauce and fish sauce, if using. (If you don’t use either of these sauces, you'll need to add salt to taste.)

Add juice and sauces, along with jalapeno and shitakes to soup, and simmer until reduced, about 20 minutes.

Remove lemongrass, if you haven't already done so.

If desired, add chicken back to liquid to reheat.

Adjust seasoning, adding more salt or soy/fish sauce or more lime juice, if desired.

Ladle soup into bowls, and sprinkle each serving with fresh cilantro (or stir the cilantro into the pot just before serving.)

Serve with rice as a side, or ladle soup over it. Another good garnish is Sriracha chili sauce, if you want to kick up the heat. (Just don't forget, a little goes a long way!)

Originally posted to The Grub Report by By Patricia Gibson on Monday, March 30, 2009 11:06 PM EDT