I ended up doing two recipes from The Minimalist Cooks Dinner by Mark Bittman last night, both of which I’d cooked before. I really like this book and need to remember to get it out more often. The recipes are generally quite suitable for weeknight cooking, with a lot of fish and seafood recipes. Since I’m trying to eat more fish lately, this is a big help! Last night I made the Shrimp with Worcestershire Sauce and the Coconut Rice with Red Beans.

Then because I had two cans of coconut milk in the pantry, I decided to make some soup as well. I ended up trying the Chicken Coconut Soup from Simply Thai Cooking. It was much milder than I expected, but quite good. The kids were not impressed, but then they were too busy scarfing down the shrimp to notice I think. I didn’t have lemongrass but had recently bought a tube of it that I’d seen at the grocery store. I also didn’t have lime leaves so used lime juice, as suggested.

1 15 ounce can coconut milk
1 cup water
1 inch ginger, sliced
1 squirt lemongrass
1 boneless skinless chicken breast, sliced thinly
1 Tbs lime juice
2 Tbs lemon juice
1 Tbs fish sauce
1 Tbs sugar

Bring the coconut milk and water to just under a simmer with the ginger, lemongrass, and lime juice. Heat for a few minutes while you slice up the chicken breast. (It’s easiest to slice meat thinly when it’s partially frozen. I used a breast from the freezer last night so just thawed it partially.)

Add the chicken slices and cook until done, about 10 minutes. Add the lime juice, lemon juice, fish sauce, and sugar and heat through. Taste and adjust. (If I’d had lime leaves, they would have been added with the ginger and lemongrass at the beginning.)

Don’t eat the ginger slices!