Tom Ka Gai

or Thai chicken soup (with mac and cheese, which makes no sense, I know). In the spring I planted some Thai lemon grass on a whim, just to see what it would do. What it did was flourish, growing to about five feet tall. As I have watched it burgeon lo these many sick-to-my-stomach months, I had one thought: tom ka gai. Along with pad thai, this is my favorite thing about Thai food, and I have wanted to try it myself forever. And then, a while ago, Cook's Illustrated arrived with an article about it! The universe was obviously in favor of my making this soup, and last night, I did. Spec-tacular. Couldn't have been better. Lemon grass turns out to smell extraordinary--like fresh, cool lemons and ginger, and to be fun to harvest. Thai fish sauce, on the other hand, is something less of a joy. But together they make a soup for the ages. (If you are having trouble making out the photo, and if you care, you can double-click it to enlarge.)