Thursday, January 29, 2009

Thai soup for your short attention span

Contains MSG: so you know it's legit!

Ok. So we here at Feast are not all about pre-made junk, processed foods, and particularly monosodium glutimate. But what the hell.

I eat all the time. Every day. Like at least seven times a day. So sometimes I eat kind of dubious stuff. Cheap, delicious, healthy. Choose two.

So at my aformentioned favorite Thai market, the Bangluck Market on the south side of Hollywood Blvd just west of Normandy, I found a jar of Tom Ka Kai soup paste. Thai food is really hard for me. I am always missing something, so doing it from scratch is just too much work 90% of the time. This stuff has MSG in it. But I thought about it and I'm thinkin- so does all that delicious Thai food I pay folding money for at Sanamalang.

So here's the bachellorette magic! In a small pot, cook up 6 Trader Joe's (I swear they aren't paying me) chicken postsickers in a puddle of water with a splash of black seseme oil. While they cook, rip up some spinach into a small soup bowl. This is a great time to use your beastly large spinach leaves. Chop green onion chives, cilantro, and aneheim peppers. When the dumplings are done, add extra water - like 1.5 cups. Stir in a spoon of soup paste. Toss in the veggies, except the spinach. Give it a minute, then pour the soup and potstickers into your bowl over the spinach. Eat with chopsticks or whatever.

It's magic.

The soup makes even formidable spinach plyable, and the intense flavors are well-balanced by the bland potstickers and bitter greens.

It's not the same as a delicious bowl of leftover Tom Ka Kai soup, and it's got enough salt that you don't want to do this more than three times a week (trust me!). But it's totally meal-shaped and will fill you with exotic-ish goodness on a tiny budget and a short attention span.

The breakdown:

TJ's potstickers
soup paste
green onion chives
cilantro
anehiem peppers
spinach (tough OK!)

Matches well with Kirin Ichiban, which Micron Liquor sells for 8.99/ 12 pack.

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