Tom Kha Salmon - Prime Minister Samak Prepares it with ImportFood.com

Tom Kha Salmon, Prepared by the Prime Minister of Thailand

This is an ImportFood.com online Thai recipe. Here you can conveniently purchase authentic, quality ingredients imported from Thailand. We hope you enjoy our website and it helps you enjoy cooking Thai food!

When Thais elected a celebrity chef as Prime Minister in 2008, we knew that an occupation in politics wouldn't stop Samak's dedication to the cooking show Chimpai Bonpai ("Tasting, Complaining"). For anyone visiting Thailand, see this show every Saturday on Channel 5 at 4:30 PM.

Now ImportFood.com takes you behind the scenes to meet the world's first celebrity chef / prime minister! We recently joined Samak in Bangkok for the filming of his show, sat down for lunch together, talked about Thai food and shared one of his favorite soups--Tom Kha made with salmon. Here is the recipe for the soup, and we'll have more of Samak's recipes next month.

The secret to making a delicious Thai soup, according to Samak, is pounding together Thai pepper powder, corriander seed and fresh garlic in a mortar & pestle. This paste he calls "Thai MSG" and you can add it to any soup for good results. See below for the correct proportions.

Ingredients

1 cube chicken buillion
1 lb salmon cut into bite-size chunks
1 teaspoon corriander seed
4 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon Thai pepper powder
1 cup sliced fresh galangal
1/4 cup sliced fresh lemongrass
1/4 cup kaffir lime leaves, sliced
1 cup fresh mushroom (more if desired)
2 13 oz cans coconut milk
7 tablespoons fish sauce

Method

Bring 6 cups water to a boil and add chicken buillion. In a mortar and pestle pound the corriander seed, garlic and Thai pepper powder into a paste. Add the paste to the boiling stock. Add salmon, galangal, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, and stir. Add mushrooms, followed by coconut milk. Season with fish sauce (more or less as you prefer). Bring to a boil, then remove from heat.

Ladle into a serving bowl and season with lime juice (quantity as you prefer), then sprinkle with mild fresh chiles such as jalapeno, red and yellow bell peppers, or any mild chile peppers in season.

Samak suggested that this be served with a special mix of steamed rice. Simply mix 80% uncooked jasmine rice with 20% uncooked sticky rice, rinse, and steam together in a rice cooker. We love this combination too! Ladle the soup over a bowl of the steamed rice, and enjoy this excellent Thai soup--from the Prime Minister to you.



Samak's special paste		Ingredients ready


Adding kaffir lime leaves		Tom Kha Salmon

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Pictures of Samak at the Tasting, Complaining tv studio (click to enlarge) plus video.

ImportFood.com with Samak

"Tasting, Complaining" Live

Tom Kha Salmon

"Tasting, Complaining" Staff

See The Video! Prime Minister Samak Prepares Tom Kha Salmon

September 6th, 2008 8:36 AM

Shaun said:

I finally tried the Tom Kha Salmon recipe using your recommendation of 3 tablespoons lime juice (if you recall, I had asked your recommendation), and that turned out to be perfect - it\'s an amazing recipe and was my first use of your mortar and pestle. Also added just a bit of extra fish sauce. Amazing recipe, and the new yellow curry recipe was great too! Thanks again for the great service and constant work to make your already great site even better!