Spring is my favorite time of year, and my favorite soup is perfect for the varying temperatures of the season. Tom kha gai is a Thai soup made from coconut milk, lemongrass, fresh ginger, juice of a lime, chile paste, basil and cilantro. It is hot and sweet and lemony and limey. Just right for spring in the Northeast, when it’s cold and rainy one day and climbing up to 80 the next. The mushrooms should be fresh and not canned, whatever kind you use, and thrown in at the last minute to preserve freshness. Grocery store white button mushrooms are just fine. If you want to get fancy and make sure your chicken is nice and tender, you can pound it flat between pieces of wax paper and then submit it to a process called “velveting.” The point of velveting is to keep the meat soft and juicy. The chicken breast is coated in a mixture of egg white and cornstarch, rice wine or dry sherry and salt, marinated for up to 30 minutes, and then cooked very briefly in hot oil until the color turns to white. It’s a process from Chinese cooking that prevents chicken breast from turning into dry, mealy chunks in the cooking liquid. If you use this process to cook the chicken, add it at the end with the mushrooms. Tom Kha Gai Adapted from myrecipes.com Ingredients 1 can (14 oz.) reduced fat coconut milk 1 can (14 oz.) reduced-sodium chicken broth 6 quarter-size slices fresh ginger 1 stalk fresh lemongrass, cut in 1-in. pieces 1 pound boned, skinned chicken breast, cut into 1-inch chunks 1 cup sliced mushrooms 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice 1 tablespoon Thai or Vietnamese fish sauce (nuoc mam or nam pla) 1 teaspoon sugar 1 teaspoon Thai...

I love potatoes in every form I have ever eaten them. I love potatoes so much it borders on becoming a codependent relationship.  I love potatoes so much that I actually enable potatoes to be less than their absolute best.  Which is to say that even though I truly appreciate good potatoes, I will and have eaten bad potatoes, such as starchy, old, cold, flavorless French fries. Do you see what I mean?  This is a problem, not just for me, but also for potatoes. Yes, okay, fine, sweet potatoes are good too, but they are a totally different form of tuber, and if you ask me, have about as much in common flavor-wise with a white potato as a rutabaga or a parsnip. Which is to say they are not the same at all. Somebody once served me mashed parsnips to eat years ago and I don’t even want to talk about it. How it is possible to overstate the importance of potato love, I don’t know. Potato love is a pure love. Butter and cream, these ingredients just gilt the lily that is the beauteous potato. To prove it, here is a recipe for potato soup that marries the sweetness of leeks and shallots to the creaminess of potatoes with very little added fat. Oh potatoes! How I love thee! Leek and Potato Soup From Lowfatcooking.com Ingredients: 2 tsp canola oil 2 medium shallots, minced 3 medium leeks, sliced (white and light green parts only) 1 pound Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1-inch pieces 1 cup fat-free, reduced sodium chicken broth (or vegetable broth) 1 2/3 cups fat free milk Freshly ground black pepper Preparation: Heat oil in a large pot or Dutch oven. Add shallots, leeks and potatoes, and cook on a low to...