Tom Kha Smoothie? Desperate...

zeppenwolf

Senior Member
Joined
4 May 2018
Local time
1:22 PM
Messages
10
Location
Hollywood, CA
My sibling brought back some Tom Kha as part of our dinner today-- it is the saddest tom kha I've ever had. It doesn't taste *bad* exactly, just really plain and I would be embarrassed to serve it as "soup" to anyone, but...

Anyhow, it's primarily coconut juice with lime (kaffir?) and ginger (galanga?) not much else.

Can you help me turn it into a nice smoothie? Speed appreciated, cuz we're having a party tomorrow, Sat, and I'm trying to make space in the fridge as well as eat some useless food instead of toss it. Thx,
 
I don't see it as good material for a smoothie - it would really just be cold soup if you did. You might as well improve it as a soup. Add a bunch of chopped cilantro, some fish sauce, maybe some chilli and perhaps eat with some noodles.
 
Thx, let's call that the backup plan, but I don't think I want to throw in the towel so quickly...? Should I have made it explicit, that U R allowed to add whatever you can think of: brown sugar, bananas...

I think it will be a bit tricky, being so coconutty and weirdish so far, but choosing the right stuff, especially what fruit / fruits to use as substrate... but given that, *surely* we can make something passably potable.

BTW, the best Tom Kha in the entire universe is in Los Angeles, at a place called "Luv 2 Eat" on Sunset Blvd. It's so good it really is beyond description how good it is.
 
Has it got chilli in it? If not then what about pineapple? That works with coconut and ginger. You might need something to sweeten it - honey?
 
No chilli in it, no nothing in it that I can tell except the coco juice, lime & ginger. Those last two not even so much-- no kick at all in this stuff, very plain but strong coconutty. Why I got a little angry-- the idea that this is "soup" is absurd; it's "broth" at the most.

The pineapple would be great-- we had two here, just finished one, and it was so good I made a mental sticky note to buy more p'apple from now on. Honey I've got up six ways from Sunday-- a *dark* one, I guess, would be better? Do you not think much of the bananas idea, just to dilute the coco taste a bit? I'm having a tough time imagining it in my tongue-brain... :)
 
SMASH!

WE DID IT!

Zeppenwolf's Tom Kha Smoothie, Adult Version

prep time: two minutes fussing, some ingredients two hours in the freezer before blending

1 1/2 pints of truly unremarkable Tom Kha soup from a lousy Thai restaurant. Not even soup, just broth.
1/3 ripe pineapple, chunked
3 over-ripe bananas, chunked
2 paws of honey, wide latitude on choice, I think
1 pirate of Rum
2 cups ice cubes

Take the banana and pineapple chunks and throw them in the freezer for long enough that they turn into ice cubes of their own.

Toss everything in the Smoothie-Maker / Blender and hit the button that says "On". ( I used a Cuisinart cuz that's all my mom had, and it works ok but not as good as my own Ninja at home )

Creates one standard sized Cuisinart filled to the brim, about seven Tom Collins glasses.

There were eight of us at dinner last night, six family members including yours Uncley, and two guests. One fm, my niece, is only eight yo and got dehydrated on the flight from Tokyo-- past couple days she had eaten nothing but water and a couple seaweed / rice balls. Not kidding. So that leaves six adults and my nephew, 15 yo.

At the end of the night, one guest left maybe a third of a glass. My nephew, the 15 yo, is half Japanese, looks like a stick, and eats like a hummingbird-- he left half a glass. But the fact that he even touched it means he must really have liked it. All other glasses were empty, after repeated claims that it was delicious.

And maybe it was delicious. It certainly wasn't the *most* delicious smoothie I've ever had, not even. But in this situation, anything "potable" was a complete win, and we went far beyond that. It was I who asked my brother to bring back some Tom Kha from the restaurant, so the onus was on me to pour that sorry stuff down the drain or find some other use for it... Thanks, MG, for pulling my coconuts out of the fire.
 
Back
Top Bottom