Topic: Some thoughts on Tom Yam Gai

[Peripatetic Phil]

Our Thai sous-chef at the hotel is capable of producing a first-class Tom Yam Gai with zero measurement, zero timing and infinite ease.  Oh, and with no prepared pastes, etc.  I, on the other hand, given the same ingredients, plus any pastes I elect to use, struggle to turn out something which I feel even approaches her perfection.  But two things have become obvious over the last few attempts on my part, and I thought that I should share them here.

• Adding fresh chicken to the basic Tom Yam stock will certainly result in Tom Yam Gai, but the chicken will be sadly lacking in flavour; leaving the chicken in the stock overnight, on the other hand, will produce well-flavoured chicken which adds significantly to the impact of the final dish. Of course, care must be taken that the chicken does not end up over-cooked.
• Adding sliced fresh chillies at the very last moment, along with torn coriander leaves, makes a marked improvement to the flavour; at my next attempt I will add no chillies other than at the final stage (previously I have added them at the outset, along with the galangal and lemon grass); I suspect that the torn lime leaves, being much tougher than coriander, should probably go in maybe five to ten minutes before serving

** Phil.

[Peripatetic Phil]

• Adding sliced fresh chillies at the very last moment, along with torn coriander leaves, makes a marked improvement to the flavour; at my next attempt I will add no chillies other than at the final stage (previously I have added them at the outset, along with the galangal and lemon grass); I suspect that the torn lime leaves, being much tougher than coriander, should probably go in maybe five to ten minutes before serving.

Further to this, I prepared another portion of TYG this evening, focussing on the importance of freshness.  What a difference it made !  I was fortunate in being able to buy some extremely fresh lemon grass and galangal in See Woo recently, and this required very little cooking in order to release the flavours (maybe 10 to 15 minutes at a very gentle simmer in a stock made with water, two Knorr chicken stockpots and three chicken thigh bones).  I then brought the stock up to  a moderate simmer and added the chicken, chillies, mushrooms and torn (and de-veined) lime leaves.  As soon as the chicken was ready, I removed the stock from the heat, added the fish sauce, garnished with torn coriander and served.  Absolutely delicious, no need for pastes of any kind, and the most wonderful sense of freshness.  I have clearly been over-cooking TYG in the past.

** Phil.