Tom Kha with Cabbage Dumplings

In our kitchen, everything edible, even the unfamiliar and perplexing are granted the opportunity to shine! With a little research and creativity, new dishes emerge from old favorites. We've never cooked with savoy cabbage, so when Adam came home with one, we had a task before us: To make something with this cabbage outside the sleepy realm of, well, cabbage.

Boiled cabbage. Braised cabbage. Steamed cabbage. Yawn, yawn, yawn. Then I found a recipe with one of  our favorite words: dumpling. Well, hello, bright idea! Satisfying, yet light, Tom Kha (Thai coconut, lime, galangal, spicy soup) with ground chicken and shrimp cabbage-wrapped dumplings. The delicately flavored soup base lets the dumplings shine. Extremely nutritious and full of tasty goodness, this soup can also be entirely vegetarian if you use vegetable stock and tofu/mushroom instead of ground meat. See asterisks* for substitutions.




Serves 4

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 cans coconut milk
• 1 quart chicken stock (or vegetable stock*)
• 5 (1/4" thick) slices galangal root (if you can't find, use ginger)
• 3 stalks lemongrass, bottom third only. Bruise stalks with back of knife or heavy object
• 5 kaffir lime leaves (or use zest of 2 limes, peeled thickly for easy removal or wrapped in cheesecloth)
• 2 Tbsp+ red curry paste
• 1 can straw mushrooms
• 1 small can bamboo shoots
• juice of 2 limes
• handful cilantro leaves
• 1 green onion, thinly sliced
• red or green thai chilis (birds eye) thinly sliced (or small hot chilis)
• salt, to taste
• fish sauce, to taste (or use a dash of light soy sauce*)
• 1 head savoy cabbage, leaves removed
• 1/2 lb ground chicken
• 1/2 lb shrimp, minced 
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 shitakes, minced
• 1 bunch of green onions (dark green parts only), thinly sliced for dumpling ties

DIRECTIONS:

1. In large pot, combine broth, coconut milk, galangal (or ginger), lime leaves (or zest), lemongrass, and curry paste. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer.  Add fish sauce to taste (or soy sauce). Simmer 40 minutes.
2. Combine chicken, shrimp, garlic, and shitakes in bowl. Season with pepper.
3. Prepare cabbage leaves by cutting each leaf into two pieces, by removing the center rib.
4. Bring medium pot of water to boil. Blanch cabbage leaves 2-3 minutes until softened and bright green.
5. Remove from pot and allow to cool to touch.
6. Quickly blanch green onion strips in same hot water 30 seconds. Remove and cool.
7. Lay out one cabbage leaf, fill with a small spoonful of filling (about the size of your thumb-tip length).
8. Fold once lengthwise, tuck in ends, then fold over lengthwise again (like a burrito). Tie carefully with green onion strip and knot.
9. Repeat until all dumplings are completed.
10. Remove galangal root, lime zest and lemongrass from soup. Add mushrooms, bamboo shoots and salt, to taste. Gently bring back to a high simmer.
11. Add dumplings and cook about 5-6 minutes, check one to make sure meat is done.
12. Ladle soup and dumplings into bowls, garnish with chilis, cilantro and green onions.