♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - We all love Thai takeout, but today on Milk Street, we're bringing the takeout home.

We start with a coconut and chicken soup full of Thai flavors.

It's really a cooking lesson in Thai food.

And then we do a hot and sour chicken and mushroom soup.

We have to figure out how to make good substitutions there for things like galangal and lime leaves.

Finally, we do some Thai salad rolls, which are easy and fresh.

And then we take a look at canned coconut products like coconut milk and coconut cream.

What are the differences and what should you buy?

So please stay tuned as we bring Thai takeout home.

- Funding for this series was provided by the following: - MOWI salmon comes ready to cook, ready to grill, ready to season, or pre-seasoned and ready to eat.

An assortment of flavors for an assortment of people.

MOWI Salmon.

- We pass down traditions here.

We create and connect.

We enjoy special moments.

Some simple, some grand.

The heart of your home is the kitchen.

The heart of your kitchen is The Galley.

♪ ♪ - My name is Nikki Suchada Phoisaat.

And we're at the floating market in Thailand.

Thai food is about putting a range of flavors together.

We have lots of spice, from fresh to dry.

We use a lot coconut milk.

You get very sweetened, you get a thickness, um, you get a very creamy.

In Thai dish, you add coconut more than you add the water.

(coconut squeaking) (people chatting indistinctly) (engine lightly humming) ♪ ♪ - (speaking Thai): ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - The Tom Kha Gai.

I think it, it refreshing.

Even though it look very watery, the more you cook the coconut milk, it thicker.

The more it thick, the more it tasty.

- You know, American chicken soup, you probably will agree with me, is the worst chicken soup in the world.

I'm sorry.

I love American, classic American cooking, but it's, it's Johnny One Note.

It has, tastes like chicken, or chicken broth.

So, as you go around the world, there are hundreds or thousands of chicken soup recipes-- this one is from Thailand with coconut.

And I think it's a great way of thinking, not only about the flavors of Southeast Asia, but also about how you think about cooking and using those flavors together.

- Yeah, well, it's really interesting because the difference in Thailand is the chicken actually takes a backseat to the star ingredient, in this case the coconut milk.

So we actually borrowed a lesson that we learned in Colombia, another coconut milk-loving country, and learned how to very easily, don't worry, make our own coconut milk using unsweetened shredded coconut.

So we've got about two and a half cups of that here.

- I was hoping someone would rush out of the kitchen and give you a coconut and a little one of those little hatchet things they use and just see, see if you lose a finger.

- I am not that brave.

So we put about three cups of warm water.

We're just gonna let that steep for about a minute, and then we're gonna puree it for a minute or two.

And what we're doing is we're extracting all that wonderful... - So this is unsweetened co... Obviously.

- Unsweetened.

The stuff you get in the baking aisle.

It's gonna make a delicious milk with almost, almost no effort.

Now, while that steeps, though, we have to get some lime zest.

So we want maybe ten strips, trying to get as little white pith as possible.

All right, so we're gonna throw this in our saucepan where our coconut milk is going to go.

So would you like to do the honors?

- Sure.

(blender whirring) (whirring stops) There.

- All right.

Now, we're gonna strain out the solids into our saucepan, which is going to form the base of our chicken soup.

And we just find that the flavor of this is so much fresher, lighter, brighter than the canned stuff, which tends to be dull and a little viscous.

- Well, it's heated.

- Yes.

- Often has other stuff in it.

- Yeah.

- And coconut milk, also canned coconut milk is not consistent from brand to brand.

There's a huge variation.

- True.

- Whereas coconut cream seems to be a little more consistent.

- All right, set that aside.

Throw in our coconut cream.

Then we're gonna triple down on the coconut.

We're gonna add some coconut water.

Now, the reason we like coconut water is it gives you kind of a light tropical freshness without adding heft.

So it's, again, giving you another note of coconut.

- You might want to smash the lemongrass.

- I got to smash the lemongrass.

So, you know, the problem with the lemongrass that we get here in the U.S. is it's not as fresh as what you get in Asia.

In Asia, they actually use this as a vegetable.

And so they'll just mince it up, throw it in and eat it; we infuse.

Then we're gonna throw in some sliced ginger, some shallots... - Now, we're just throwing in a halved shallot.

- Yeah, yeah.

We're not doing the French thing; we're not mincing it.

- No.

- Or slicing it.

- Nah, forget that.

Add turmeric, salt and a little white pepper.

And then we're gonna simmer that for about 20 minutes.

And that's gonna create such a rich, incredibly flavorful base for our soup.

- 20 minutes.

There it is.

- If you would fish out the solids, they've done their job.

We don't need them anymore.

I am going to juice our limes.

And then we have a choice of shiitakes or oyster mushrooms.

- Shiitakes, please.

Fish sauce, white pepper.

- By the way, never throw away your shiitake stems.

I like to use them for broth.

- This is one of those things people always say on food television, and then they throw them out when the cameras are off.

Really?

You do?

- I do, actually.

- All right.

- It's perfect for beef stew.

- This is a roasted Thai chili paste.

By the way, there are lots of different kinds of Thai roasted chili paste.

Some are incredibly hot, and some are, I think, more fruitier and have a more balanced flavor, which is what I like.

And then, finally, a little brown sugar.

- All right, would you like to pour our chicken in, please?

Now, we're gonna bring that to a simmer.

And we're only gonna cook it for as long as it takes the chicken to cook through, because all the flavor's already been developed by the steeping of all those other really potent ingredients in the coconut milk.

- So it's just been a few minutes.

The chicken is cooked.

- I'm gonna let you take it off the heat and give it a finishing squeeze of lime juice for that freshness.

And I'm going to slice up your favorite ingredient, spicy chilies, to stir in for just a little burst of heat.

- Wait, are you gonna put all three chilies in here or what?

- I'll go easy on you.

We'll do that much.

I think what a lot of people don't realize is that chili heat acts similar to salt.

You know, if you just put a little bit in, it heightens and brightens all the other flavors.

So a little bit goes a long way.

- Mmm.

The coconut milk is not overwhelming either.

- And that's the goal, you know.

We want that richness, but we don't want it to overwhelm, and we definitely don't want the dish to feel fatty or heavy.

- I'm trying to get every slice of chili into your bowl.

- For me?

Good, good.

Sprinkle of cilantro.

There we go.

Mmm.

This smells wonderful.

- Mmm.

- That is perfect.

- So one of the things I learned about cooking here is how you can use lots of different flavors.

You know, in Thai cooking, they have a lot of different flavors, and they all sort of go together, but you don't lose the individual flavor at the same time.

So Thai coconut and chicken soup.

It's another way of thinking about what, I guess, used to be an American classic, at least for me.

♪ ♪ - You just saw Chris and JM make Thai coconut and chicken soup, And in that, they made their own coconut milk.

So I thought what we'd do here is do a little coconut decoder so you know what product to reach for, depending on what you're trying to do in the kitchen.

Coconut water is made from green coconuts.

And you drain it out, and you get this really beautiful clear liquid that we drink now a lot as sort of a hydration.

But also you can use it to cook your rice or to flavor a stock or a soup.

It's a really nice pantry staple to have.

Next, you have coconut milk.

Coconut milk is an unstable emulsification.

So you just whisk it up again.

You can heat it a little.

And so we tend to like ones with few ingredients, and that when you re-emulsify them, have a nice thin texture, because that's more similar to what we created on our own.

All right, so then you get to coconut cream.

Coconut cream is fattier coconut milk.

It also has a much richer full fat flavor.

So if you use it plain, just know that your stews are gonna have much more body and be much richer.

Then you have cream of coconut.

You don't cook with this.

This has lots of sugar in it, has a little bit of coconut pulp.

It's awesome for your piña colada.

It doesn't belong in your curry.

So no matter what you're making, I hope this helped you decode the coconut in your pantry.

- Tom Yum Gai.

This is a delicious hot, sour, spicy, and tart soup taught to us by Rawadee Yenchujit in Bangkok.

And it's really very simple.

With the right ingredients, it comes together quickly with just water in a pan.

So to get started here, I'm gonna take some limes.

Just peel very lightly into the green parts of the lime.

And this, in addition to the ginger, is going to give us the same flavor as galangal and makrut lime leaves.

So I've got a pot of water here, about six cups, and just throw that lime zest right in there.

I like a Fresno chili in this.

It's a little bit sweeter, not quite so spicy.

I'm just gonna halve these and take most of those seeds out.

I drop those into the soup.

If you don't have galangal, use ginger.

Simply gonna slice it into coins and then use the knife to smash it.

You want to release those juices, and this will-- whoa, flying across the counter here.

This will release a lot of their juices into the broth.

We'll remove them later, along with all these other solids.

Of course, a little bit of garlic.

Same thing.

Give those a smash.

And then, finally, lemongrass.

So same thing here.

I'm just gonna smash them with the blade of a knife.

So we want that lemongrass flavor, that nice citrus brightness to perfume this broth.

Very classic ingredient in Thai cooking.

Now, some other ingredients to really boost the flavor and spiciness is red chili paste, has red chilies, garlic, and they're roasted first to give it a nice, really deep, rich flavor.

A little bit of white pepper, a little salt, and then finally some shallots.

And you can just roughly chop them or halve them.

Now, finally, our chicken.

I'm using bone-in chicken breasts here with the skin on.

We're going to poach these very low and slow so that the meat stays nice and tender.

But the bones that are on the chicken are also going to add a lot of flavor to the broth and are going to keep it from overcooking.

You could use boneless chicken breasts if you like.

They'll cook much quicker.

But this adds another dimension of flavor to the broth by using the bone-in breasts.

So we just drop those in.

I'm gonna put the lid on here and bring it to a gentle simmer, and that will cook at a very, very low simmer, low heat for 20 to 25 minutes until the chicken is about 165 degrees internal temperature and is cooked all the way through.

So while that's cooking, I'm not gonna waste these limes that I peeled those strips off.

I'm gonna juice them.

This is gonna be an addition at the end to bring another bright element to the soup.

So about 25 minutes is all we need for a really beautiful broth.

Chicken is cooked through.

So the first thing I'll do is remove the chicken breasts and just let them cool a bit.

And we're gonna shred the meat off the bones.

Now the rest of the solids in the soup I want to remove as well and add mushrooms.

So then we'll have a very pure, clean soup with just the texture of mushroom and shredded chicken with a few garnishes on top.

So those shallots, those smashed garlic cloves, the ginger.

So now to the soup, mushrooms.

I just have a plain white button mushroom quartered.

You could really use any type you like, any of your favorite.

Those go right into the broth.

We'll bring it back to a simmer, cover and cook it for about ten, 15 minutes until those mushrooms are just softened.

Meanwhile, I can shred the chicken.

So I'll just use a couple forks, pull that skin off and the meat off and shred it into bite-sized pieces.

And when you cook bone-in chicken very gently like this, it will stay tender and juicy.

You can dry out chicken in a bath full of liquid.

You wouldn't think so.

It's counterintuitive.

But if you cook really lean meats like chicken breast, and you cook it at a high temperature, the proteins will seize and that makes it tough.

So it can actually be dry while you're eating soup.

So I'll discard the bones and skin.

When the mushrooms are soft, we can finish the soup.

So now to finish up the soup, the chicken goes in.

The soup that Chris and J.M.

made was a little more rich and a little more comforting with all of that coconut in there.

This one is really bright and forward.

I love this soup.

Now to finish it up-- forgot my lime juice.

Hold, please.

Now to finish it up, that lime juice that I squeezed from those stripped limes, need about a third a cup of that.

Fish sauce.

The fish sauce adds a earthy, rich base, but also saltiness.

A little more white pepper.

It has a more floral spice.

It adds a really nice flavor that's not just pure black pepper spice.

Some more chilies, so you get a bright pop of spice and fruitiness.

And then finally, a little bit of chopped cilantro, which we'll use to garnish.

There we go.

Such a pretty soup.

So you don't need to call out to your Thai restaurant for this anymore.

You can make it yourself very easily and very inexpensive, by the way.

And then a little bit of fresh cilantro on the top.

Smells... (inhales) ...so good.

I smell the ginger.

I smell the lemongrass.

Mmm.

It's got a nice punch of heat from the fresh ginger and the Fresno chilies.

It's balanced beautifully with the citrusy lime that was in there and the lemongrass and the ginger.

This is a great, great soup to make at home.

No need to order it out again.

- About 50 miles away from the floating river markets of Bangkok, you'll find another market that's even more surprising.

(women speaking Thai) The Maeklong Railway market is located directly on the tracks of a working railway line.

Several times a day when trains come through, vendors pull their merchandise aside just as the engine arrives and then immediately reset as the last car passes.

As we continued riding the railroads, we stopped at a few more markets to meet vendors who specialize in fresh salad rolls.

At the Or Tor Kor Market, a mother-daughter duo gave us a lesson.

- (speaking Thai): ♪ ♪ (clears throat) ♪ ♪ - If you've ever had an egg roll, then you pretty much know an egg roll is an egg roll.

But when it comes to fillings wrapped in rice paper, there's a little bit of confusion about the names.

You might have spring roll; you might have summer roll; and you might have, as we discovered in Thailand, salad rolls.

In Bangkok, you just saw a little bit of a stand run by Bam and her mom.

Then a little bit outside of Bangkok, in a small town, J.M.

tasted another salad roll that also had a deeply savory pork filling.

But this roll also included lettuce, fresh basil and carrots.

So we decided to take our favorite elements from both of these vendors and bring you these salad rolls today.

We'll start with the dipping sauce.

We'll start with a half a cup of lime juice.

That's a lot of lime juice, but it really is the base of this sauce.

Then we have some fish sauce here.

We'll add the chopped green chilies; we use serranos.

A little bit of sugar.

Most Southeast Asian sauces will always include a little bit of sugar and a little bit of water to round it off.

We have one clove of garlic.

We'll grate it fresh right into the bowl.

Stir that in.

Now we'll start the shallots going.

This is for the filling.

We'll Add some oil to the pan.

Let that oil heat up a little bit, and then we will add the shallots.

These are just sliced whole shallots.

We'll add a little bit of salt to them.

All right, now that these have been stirred with the oil and a little bit of salt, these take about ten minutes to deeply brown.

We'll stir them occasionally.

And while these brown, we'll go ahead and start the pork filling.

We're using ground pork here.

And we have a little bit more of that yummy fish sauce.

And we have some soy sauce as well.

Soy sauce is from fermented soybeans.

Fish sauce is from fermented... fish.

They both bring something different to the table.

I'm mushing it in with my hands just because it's easier.

And you want to get the meat really nicely saturated with the soy sauce and the fish sauce.

Set this aside.

Wash my hands.

Be right back.

Okay, this is what you got.

Deeply golden shallots.

Smell is incredible.

Now we will add a little bit of garlic.

Turn this off and stir that in.

Once that's stirred really well, we'll transfer this to a large bowl.

Now we have some flavor left in this pan, which is perfect.

We'll put this back on the burner, add a little more oil, turn it back on, and we'll start sautéing the pork.

We're breaking the pork up into small pieces as it cooks.

They're going to be wrapped in the rice paper.

It's a filling, so we want very small pieces.

When you're cooking pork, you're usually going to have a little bit of liquid come out of the mixture, which is fine.

You can keep some of that because we'll be stirring cooked rice into this mixture, and that will absorb the extra liquid.

Okay, so the shallots are in this bowl that we did earlier.

We're going to add the cooked pork right to the bowl.

And we'll add the cooked rice.

Any rice you have around is good.

This was inspired by Bam and her mom at the stand in Bangkok.

We really love the flavors of these two together.

And the fact that the rice just kind of boosted this into more of a meal.

Okay, this needs to cool a little bit before we roll it in the rice paper.

So we'll set it aside and set up for the salad roll rolling.

(chuckles) Now that we're all set up, we'll add some fresh scallions to the pork and rice mixture.

We chopped both the white and the green of the scallions and mix that right in.

Then we'll add some pepper.

If you don't have white pepper, then use some freshly ground black pepper.

Now, assembly for these is not difficult, but you do want to have all your elements laid out at the same time because the rice paper, this needs to be hydrated.

Once it's hydrated, you need to work with it right away.

You only need a few seconds in the water, just long enough to lose that crackliness.

It's still very flexible.

So we're gonna lay it on the board here, and then we'll start adding our filling.

Carrot.

A nice lettuce leaf.

All right, quarter cup right in the middle.

Spread it out just a little bit.

And we'll add a few of these fresh basil leaves.

All right, pick up the end of the rice paper.

Pull the filling over so it's tight.

Once that rice paper is in place, it will stay because it's sticky.

Once you get one roll done so that it's completely enclosed, then you pull the sides in.

Now we'll put this aside on an oiled baking sheet so that it doesn't stick too much there.

You know, the first one or two you do, if you've never worked with rice paper before, is, it's gonna be awkward.

(chuckling): There's no two ways about it.

But the more you do it, probably by number three, you're gonna have it down pat.

There we go.

Our last little salad roll there.

These salad rolls are deeply rich.

They have a lot of umami in them from the caramelized shallots and the fish sauce and the soy sauce that went into the pork mixture.

These are fantastic on their own.

But this dipping sauce with this counterpoint of acid and fish sauce and a little bit of sugar just brings the whole thing to life.

I like to serve these whole.

Some people like to cut them in half first, and then you eat them from the middle out.

Either way you do it is fine.

Mmm.

Oh, man.

The lime juice and the fish sauce are just-- they knock my socks off every time.

The basil-y tones and the crunch of the carrots.

For a different taste of Thailand that you might not have experienced before, try these Thai salad rolls with a green chili dipping sauce.

You can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season of Milk Street at MilkStreetTV.com.

- Recipes and episodes from this season of Milk Street are available at MilkStreetTV.com, along with shopping lists, printer-ready recipes and step-by-step videos.

Access our content anytime to change the way you cook.

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From cacio e pepe and skillet spanakopita to Brazilian-style carrot cake and Thai coconut soup, the Milk Street Cookbook offers bolder, fresher, simpler recipes.

Order your copy of the Milk Street Cookbook for $27, 40% less than the cover price.

Call 855-MILK-177 or order online.

- Funding for this series was provided by the following: - MOWI salmon comes ready to cook, ready to grill, ready to season, or pre-seasoned and ready to eat.

An assortment of flavors for an assortment of people.

MOWI Salmon.

- We pass down traditions here.

We create and connect.

We enjoy special moments.

Some simple, some grand.

The heart of your home is the kitchen.

The heart of your kitchen is The Galley.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪