This Week at the Farmers Market- Tom Yum Gai Soup

A bowl of Tom Yum Gai Soup

My Saturday mornings usually include a trip to the Tulsa Cherry Street Farmer's Market. I look forward to it all week. It has a great combination of locally grown produce and live plants.

This week I found some great tomato plants: Napa grape hybrid, chardonnay grape hybrid, and Victoria. I think I have a dozen tomato plants. Last year I planted too many pepper plants (more Steven's fault than mine). I guess this is the year of the tomato. I also have planted all kinds of herbs, shallots, leeks, beans, peas, peppers, eggplant, okra, corn, blueberries, raspberries, and even tomatillos (great for salsas). I also have a dwarf banana plant but it will not provide any fruit until next year. Below are pictures of my garden (which show that I need to get out and pick some weeds).
Tulsa is a great place, but until my garden starts to provide me with its harvest I only have access to fresh local produce once a week. It's amazing how much better fresh food tastes.

This week's fresh haul at the farmer's market was snow peas and green onions. I am in a soup mood (getting over a nasty cold) so I came up with a modified Tom Yum Gai soup. I love Thai food. I think the mingling of flavors is amazing. I grow lemon grass each year so I have access to one of the most important ingredients (at least in my opinion). Tom Yum Gai has an incredible balance between spicy and sour. I know it is not traditional, but I love coconut milk so I added it too. Here is what I did:

Tom Yum Gai Soup

Homemade chicken stock
2 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
Can of Baby Corn
Can of Straw Mushrooms
2-3 Limes
5 Cloves of Garlic, Chopped
3 Shallots, Chopped
3 Green Onions, Chopped
1 Habanero Chili, Cut Down the Middle
Snow Peas
3 Roma Tomatoes, Sliced
Green Onions
Lemongrass Stem, Cut in Pieces
Galangal Root, Sliced (I can only find this at an Asian market)
Chicken, Chopped

Put a total of 10 cups of chicken stock, water from baby corn, and water from straw mushrooms in pot. Add lime juice, kaffir leaves, lemon grass, garlic, shallots, and galangal (or ginger if you can't find any galangal). Bring to a boil then let simmer for 20 minutes. Next add baby corn, mushrooms, chili, tomatoes, snow peas, green onions, coconut milk and chicken. Simmer for approximately 10 minutes.

Taste the soup -- I ended adding a little brown sugar , red curry paste, and chili garlic sauce. (The lime juice was too overpowering and needed to be offset). Since this soup was our main course, I added rice noodles.