Because I appreciate my wonderful husband, who is also a school counselor and teacher, I made him one of his faves – Lao curry noodle soup, or khao boun, since most of the time he is forced to eat horrible things like pizza, hamburgers, and spaghetti. Despite the pictures, this batch didn’t actually have any cooked pigs blood. I was all out of pigs blood for some reason. Oops. Anyway, happy teacher appreciation day!!!
Rice vermicelli, boiled, rinsed, and curled into little bundles in a colander.
Popular veggies for this soup are (clockwise, bottom left to bottom right) thinly sliced cabbage, mung bean sprouts, cilantro, lime, sliced scallions, bamboo shoots, and sliced banana blossom.
The broth is chicken based, and is infused with lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, and galangal. It gets its red color from red curry paste, tomatoes, and chili pepper. The creamy soup is made with coconut milk. This photo shows a batch that I purposely made without too much spice so my toddler could eat it. A better khao boun soup should have a bright red oily surface (for example) that will potentially kill you with spice by coating your tonsils with a clingy layer of pure chili fire. One of S-Man’s aunties once tried to murder me that way, I’m pretty sure.
As I mentioned earlier, I left out the chunks of cooked pigs’ blood this time around. It’s pretty good though, seriously. It’s sort of like tofu with extra iron.
Constance, what's cooking? 