Coconut Curry Hot Pot

This morning after a fun 5K race (Beat the Street for Little Feet with Pete the Blue Cat), we went to Your Dekalb Farmers Market to get ingredients for tomorrow's Easter dinner and for the new recipe I tried tonight. YDFM is a huge (140,000 sq ft) international market where you can buy incredibly cheap herbs and produce and unusual ingredients that you wouldn't find in a grocery store. It is open everyday (minus Thanksgiving and Christmas) 9am - 9pm. Never, in 5 years of coming to the market, had I arrived slightly before 9am and stood with lines of people waiting to get in!

Tonight I made this Curry Hot Pot, a recipe from Oct 2010 Cooking Light, with a couple of additions.  I added shrimp, and replaced their wide rice noodles with thin rice noodles.  Because we had a lot of noodles, I doubled the recipe, and nearly filled my 5.5 Qt stock pot to the rim.

This recipe was "a keeper." I loved the flavors, but the green curry paste was too overwhelming for me.  Everytime I cook with curry paste I try to make a mental note that I need to use this sparingly, but I always forget.  Impressively though, as I was flushed and sweating trying to eat this soup, my fiance got out the sriracha to add more heat!

Coconut Curry Hot Pot 
(amounts are for doubled recipe)

4 cups chicken stock
1.5 cups peeled, chopped, fresh lemongrass
(unable to find: Kaffir lime leaves)
2" piece of fresh ginger, sliced


4 oz of rice noodles (dried, and soaked in water as directed on package)


3 Tbsp green curry paste
4 oz package of exotic mushroom blend (shiitake, cremini, oyster)
1 lb turkey (or chicken) cutlets, cut into bite-sized pieces
1/2 lb shrimp, peeled and each shrimp cut into 2 pieces

2 cans (13 oz each) of light coconut milk
2 Tbsp fish sauce
4 tsp light brown sugar
2/3 cup sliced green onions
fresh lime juice (about 1 lime)
chopped fresh cilantro


Bring broth to a boil in a saucepan.  Add the lemongrass, (lime leaves), and ginger.  Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and let stand for 30 minutes.  Strain through a sieve over a bowl; discard the solids.

Prepare the dried noodles according to package directions and set aside.

Return broth to pan, add curry paste, stirring with whisk.  Bring to a simmer. Add mushrooms and cook 2 minutes.  Add chicken and shrimp and cook 3 minutes or until not pink.

Add coconut milk, fish sauce, sugar, stir and remove from heat.  Stir in onions, juice, and cilantro.  Add cooked noodles.  Serve

 Chopped lemongrass

Broth with lemongrass and ginger

Exotic mushrooms!

The finished coconut soup, minus the noodles

The noodles!