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. 198

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