The fish version of tom kha gai, Thai fish coconut milk soup, or tom kha pla, is similarly cooked and seasoned with lemongrass, galangal, chilies, kaffir lime leaves and fish sauce.

The broth was made from fish heads and bones, and whatever flesh I could salvage from them went into the soup.

Why, what happened to the rest of the fish flesh? The fillets were breaded and fried, tonkatsu-style, and we had them for lunch the other day along with this fish coconut milk soup.

If you want more fish in your soup, you don’t have to limit yourself from what you can get from the heads and bones. By all means, add all the flesh from the fish. But don’t make short cuts with the broth. Without good fish broth, the soup will simply taste flat. If you want the long version of making broth, click here.