Thai Mai Shooz

Okay this is heavily borrowed from Mark Sisson's cookbook but I made a couple additions and omissions and also made note of what I would change on the next go around.  Sorry no pictures....

Ingredients:
1 can of coconut milk (14oz) - Use the full fat version... NEVER use low fat or no fat versions of anything!
3 cups of chicken stock - We used FreshDirect's brand of chicken stock but you could use any brand
1 pound fresh fish, skin removed, cut into 1 inch cubes - Mark suggest  a cold water, oily fish.  In the book, I think Salmon was pictured.  We used Cod, which didn't hold together much but was totally fine as well.
Juice of 1 Lemon or 2 Limes - If you can use one of those mesh nets so the seeds don't make it into the soup.  I didn't, learn from my mistake.
2 teaspoons of fresh Ginger, peeled and grated or minced - Didn't have any Ginger so this was left out.
1 - 2 carrorts, sliced into thin coins - I used 5 pre-peeled baby carrots, easier imo.
3 inch section of lemongrass - We were fresh out of lemongrass so this was left out.
1 head of cauliflower, seperated into florets and steamed - I'd use a big head since this is an important part of the dish... oh yea, we eat low carb, so that means small to no amounts of starch, sorry taters...  So I took the fresh head of cauliflower, quartered it, cut out the dense stalk and broke up the florets.  Then I put them in a bowl with a little water and microwaved them until soft.  You could steam them anyway you choose, bagged frozen cauliflower would work just as well.
4 basil leaves chopped - I used dry basil from the spice rack
Thai Red Curry Paste 1/2 teaspoon or more - I used more, start her and then go from there as per your
taste
Sea Salt, Pepper and Tabasco to taste, you can leave out the Tabasco if so desired
This was listed as optional BUT I feel it really helped to make the dish, so i would say if you can and want to add 1 pound of peeled uncooked shrimp.  FreshDirect delivered the shrimp peeled and cleaned which worked out perfect.

Instructions:

In a 2-4 Qt sauce pan, I used a stock pot, place the Coconut Milk, Fish, lemon or lime juice, ginger, carrots, lemongrass and cauliflower and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.  Reduce heat until gently simmering.

Stir in chopped basil leaves, red curry paste and sea salt to taste.  Taste it, make sure it has some flavour.

I added some Curry Power here as well, you don't need to but I had some so I put a few dashes in there.

Soup is ready when fish is cooked through, about 10-15 minutes.  DAMN THATS EASY!!!! :)

If you're going to add the shrimp, nudge nudge, do it... add the shrimp to the broth after simmering for 10 minutes and cook for additional 5-6 minutes.

Removed lemongrass and serve hot in a bowl with some basil as a garnish.

-----------------------------------
The 2nd and 3rd bowls were even better than the 1st.

Plans for next time.... Ashley asked me the next day if i could make it again, so it was a hit...  but how to make it better?  I think I would add some onion for one.  I am not sure if that's in line with this type of soup but some thinly diced yellow onion would add to the dish.  Also, I think subbing lobster for the fish would really be effin good too.  I've never cooked lobster so I would guess it would change the instructions around some but some properly cooked lobster meat would add some great texture to this already good soup.  Ashley also suggested some red bell peppers cut into thin stripes, I'll definitely add that next time.

The recipe comes mostly from this book, i am not the best cook in the world (did you think otherwise????) but I am top 99th percentile in following directions so I do well with cookbooks.  Anyway, this is a good one:

Enjoy and let me know how it goes.