Posted 13 February 2006 - 06:03 PM
This was far and away the most popular thing I made at this soup restaurant I used to have. I sold it 5 years ago and people still ask me for this recipe. I made it vegan there, and put chunks of tofu in it, but it's yummalicious with chicken stock and shredded roasted chicken too.
SPICY PEANUT SOUP
1 yellow onion, diced
3 lg. cloves garlic, minced
2Tbsp. oil
1 Tbsp green curry paste (I like Mae ploy brand)
OR
1 small jalapeno minced with about 1/2 inch ginger, grated
3 Tbsp curry powder (see below)
1 32 oz. can diced tomatos WITH JUICE
1 Q chicken or veg stock, or water
1 cup Peanut Butter (Jif, or any brand with molasses, is best... DO NOT use "all natural" peanut butter for this!)
1 can coconut milk (not "light"... Chaokoh is a good brand, or the one with the squid on it)
1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar (optional if it came out too spicy for you)
1. Saute the onion in the oil, add the garlic when the onions start to wilt and saute til onions are translucent.
2. Stir in the curry paste(or chili/ginger mix) and curry powder, stir for a minute to warm up the spices
3. add the tomatoes with their juice and the stock. Stir well. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.
4. You can simmer this for as little as 20 minutes, but with canned toms, the longer you simmer, the better, add more liquid as necessary.
5. When it's ready, process in a blender or preferably with a hand-held blender, slowly adding the peanut butter and coconut milk. Season with salt and pepper, and if it's too spicy, add a little vinegar or lemon juice (anything acidic) to cut down on the heat. Like all soup, this is much better made a day or two ahead and reheated.
Garnishes:
Fresh cilantro (lots!)
Rooster sauce or any sambal/ chili-garlic stuff
sliced scallions
squeeze of fresh lime or lemon juice
Good thick yogurt
The real trick to making this good is doing your own curry powder, this is mine and I swear by it...
2 Tbsp cumin seeds whole
2 Tbsp coriander seeds whole
1 Tbsp black peppercorns
1 Tbsp fenugreek
1 Tbsp fennel seeds whole
1 tsp brown mustard seed
a little cloves
toast all that in a saucepan over med high heat, stirring until the mustard seeds start popping and it smells all toasty. Let it cool completely and then grind it in the coffee grinder (you can get the curry smell out of the coffee grinder by running stale bread through it a couple times.)
Then stir in 2 tsp each of cinnamon and ground cardamom, a little turmeric and a pinch of nutmeg or mace.
I just make it in a big batch and store it in a tin.
