Recipe: Tom Ka Kai (Tom-Kha-Gai) chicken coconut soup

One of our favorite places to eat at is called Pin Kao (we call it pink cow and so is everybody else in town). We love their curry and this soup! I have tryed to make it at home a couple of times with different vegetables, and this is my favorite way...
 You will need:
1. 1/2 zucchini
2. lemon grass
3. 8-10 shitaki mushrooms
4. 1 carrot
5. 1/2 lemon
6. a bit of fresh ginger
7. 1 can of coconut milk (not water or cream of coconut, but milk)
8. 3 tbs fish sauce
9. 1 1/2 tbsp Chili Garlic Sauce (or more if you like spicy)
10. 2 boneless skinless chiken breasts

How to make it:
Cut chicken breasts in thin slices and cook in boiling water for about 20 min.

Cut  ginger in thin but relatively large slices, it adds amazing taste and smell to the broth but is not good to chew on, so it is nice if it is easy to decipher, so no accidental consumption occurs. Set it aside.

Cut lemon grass while you'r at it, same thing, bigger slices, so it doesn't get eaten accidentally.

Put both lemon grass and ginger with the chicken and let it boil on medium gas for about 20 min.
Meanwhile cut the mushrooms. I like to cut everything big for this soup, because that is how they do it in our favorite restaurant. But it is up to everyone's' taste.

Cut the rest of the ingredients - carrots and squash.

After the chicken and ginger with lemon grass have been boiling for 20 minutes or so, pour a whole can of coconut milk in there, add fish sauce and chili garlic sauce along with salt to taste. Squeeze the juice of half a lemon. Then add the vegetables and mushrooms.

Cover with a lid and cook on low gas for about 5  min if you are not going to eat it right a way, or cook for about 10 if you want to eat it immediately.
That is it! Nice and easy. The ingredients can be found in an oriental store, or even Smiths sells coconut milk, and when I don't have time to go to an oriental market, I just use a little bit more lemon juice instead of lemon grass.
It can also be made without chicken and with other vegetables. We love it here and I like making it at home!
Here is how they served it in the restaurant, we unfortunately don't have that cool pan! But that doesn't prevent us from devouring it all in one sitting!

image was found google