This is a recipe based on this month's Fine Cooking magazine. The result was very good, but I used too much lime juice, so it got the "We can serve this to people if you reduce the lime juice" accolade from Madame. The texture is very thick and creamy. It is best served cold - after being in the fridge overnight.
We had it for dinner one evening, and then I had it for lunch the next day - where I tweaked it to tne down the lime juice. The tweaks will be in the description at the end, not in the main recipe
Ingredients
2 Cans full fat coconut milk (equivalent amount of home made - i.e. 3 1/2 cups #1)
1 stalk of lemon grass, roughly chopped
1 Makrut leaf (Thai Lime) roughly chopped
3" knob of ginger, washed and sliced very finely. No need to peel as it will be discarde
Handful of basil leaves
1 Thai hot pepper
Juice of 4 small limes
4 Avocados - dual use
1 Peach, diced
Salt to taste
Croutons or other crispy things to garnish
Method
Place the coconut milk, lemon grass, makrut leaf, and ginger into a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Simmer for a couple of minutes, and turn the heat off. Add the basil and allow the mixture to cool (ideally at least an hour).
Strain out all of the solids and discard them. Slice the hot pepper and add to the liquid. Peel and deseed the avocados. Mash 3 1/2 of the avocados and add to the coconut liquid, along with the lime juice. Blend until smooth. Add salt to taste at this stage. Chill the soup in the fridge for at least an hour, preferably 2 or ovrnight.
Serve the soup garnished with the remaining avocad, diced and the diced peach and coroutons.
The Promised Tweaks
If, as ours was, your soup is too acidic tasting (i.e. too much lime in our case), then that can be mitigated with some mirin and (surprisingly) balsamic vinegar. Even though balsamic vinegar does add some extra acidity, it also adds sufficient sweetness to counterbalance the lime. Weird, I know.
