I found it!!

Galangal and kaffir lime leaf.

Yesterday I was donating some things to a local charity (yes, the purging continues) and I decided to swing by a small store called Nak's Oriental Market.

I was casually browsing through the store when I passed by the refrigerator case when I spotted the magical unicorn duo of Thai cooking - galangal and kaffir lime leaf! To say I was excited would be an enormous understatement:-)

I will admit that I had the urge to buy out the whole supply but I couldn't bring myself to be that unkind to anyone else who could be on the same quest for these hard to find ingredients.

When I got home I tried recreating a tuna tartare dish I love at Straits restaurant. Their tuna tower dish has a great subtle flavor and one of the ingredients in the dish is the elusive kaffir lime leaf.

Tuna tartare with kaffir lime leaf.

I minced some sashimi grade tuna and mixed it with some finely minced kaffir lime leaf, sesame oil, finely chopped green onion, pickled ginger and some soy sauce.

And I enjoyed the tartare with some super crispy rice crackers.

The tartare ended up a bit on the salty side and the dish at Straights had more of a sweet tang that I really liked. I think next time I would add more of the kaffir lime leaf and sweet pickled ginger. 

Tomorrow Tom Kha Gai is definitely on the menu!

My pictures are still coming out fuzzy for some reason. I think I will spend some time cleaning my camera lens and see if that helps.

Happy Saturday!