Vietnamese Chicken Rice Soup with Lemon Grass (Shnor Chrook)

Tonight I tried a (gasp) recipe from a Vietnamese cookbook that Carey picked up the other day at Borders. I honestly know NOTHING about East Asian cuisine so I need all the help I can get. Dinner was definitely good but I would make a few adjustments next time I make this soup.

According to this book, Shnor Chrook is Cambodia's answer to the chicken noodle soup that is popular in the West. This dish definitely is reminiscent of the Western standard, but it is much more pungent due to the addition of a fermented fish sauce, lemongrass, and chillies, which take it to another dimension.

This is a two-fold process; the stock is made and strained then the rice is cooked in the flavorful broth with a few small additions. Here's the recipe:

• Put a whole chicken into a deep pan
• Add 1 onion (quartered), a few cloves of garlic (smashed), a good hunk of fresh ginger (sliced), 2 lemongrass stalks (halved lengthwise and bruised), 2 red chillies, a couple of tablespoons of nuoc mam (fermented fish sauce)
• Add just enough cold water to cover all the goodies in your pot
• Bring pot to a simmer and let cook for a couple of hours with the lid on

After the stock is done, pull the chicken out and remove the meat from the bones. Shred the chicken meat and set aside (this is going to be re-added to the soup at the last minute). Strain the stock through a wire mesh strainer and put the liquid back into the pot.

• Once you have your strained stock back in the original pot, bring it to a boil and add about 1/2 of a cup of short grain rice.
• Reduce to a simmer and cook the rice with a few more stocks of lemongrass (halved and bruised) and another good dash of fish sauce.
• When the rice is done, ladle that glory into a bowl with a good amount of the reserved shredded chicken and a good hand full of chopped cilantro.
• Serve with sliced chillies and a wedge of lime.

A couple things to point out about this soup... those Thai chillies are really freaking hot. I thought I was some kind of tough guy and added more sliced red chillies as a garnish and I'm still feeling it (2 hours later). Another thing you might notice is the pungent smell of the fish sauce; it did freak me out but the flavor was outstanding and the soup wouldn't be the same without it. Lastly, don't skimp on the cilantro and the lime at the end; those additions really brighten the whole thing and make it a very unique meal.

I'm really looking forward to diving further into this book - I think I'll have a lot of good things coming.