Thai Bananas in Coconut Milk

 I love this Thai dessert. I have made it several times but it never made it to my blog! I would say most people would like it cause it is so soft and delicate. Amazingly I had all the ingredients at home, so I thought: it's the day.

INGREDIENTS:
-1 Can of coconut milk (400 ml).

-4 large bananas.

-2 tablespoons of super fine sugar (caster sugar).

-a pinch of salt.

-the juice of half an orange.

-about 6 or 7 leaves of mint chopped up.

-4 tablespoons of toasted nuts.

STEPS:

1. Slice up the bananas and place in a pot with coconut milk, sugar and the salt.

2. For 5 minutes heat up, stirring gently until it boils. Quickly remove from heat (or the bananas will get way too soggy).

3. Now add the orange juice and the mint leaves chopped up.

4. Decorate with the toasted nuts, that you have previously toasted for 3 minutes.

That's it. Very good and you can serve it cold or hot. It's a great natural dessert. I love the way Thai desserts are so natural.

            

Vietnamese Vegetable Rice Rolls with Peanut Sauce

 This is a great picnic dish, obviously it is a special one, but just a great way to eat vegetables and the sauce is really fantastic and original. This recipe is from Steamy Kitchen, and seriously I had been wanting to do this recipe since 2013! 

INGREDIENTS 

For the rolls:
-Rice paper wrappers, like 16 or 20.
-About 10 lettuce leaves, soft ones.

-1 cup of sliced carrots.

-2 cucumbers julienned.

-1 avocado in slices.

-1 red pepper in slices.

-1 cup of cilantro leaves.

-1 cup of mint leaves.

-1 cup of basil leaves.

-3 sunny side up fried eggs.

For the peanut sauce:

-1/4 cup of water.

-4 tablespoons of lime juice.

- 5 tablespoons of orange juice.

-1/2 cup of peanut butter.

-1/2 teaspoon of minced ginger.

-1 teaspoon of honey.

-1/2 teaspoon of chopped garlic.

-1/2 teaspoon of soy sauce.

-1 teaspoon of sesame seeds.

-3 drops of almond extract.

STEPS:

1. Julianne the vegetables and have them all ready in bowls. Obviously all ingredients are optional, you just want crunchy vegetables.

2. Prepare the rice paper wrappers, basically you need to dip them in hot water. Dip them and they soften enough, do not dip them in boiling water, it ruins them and you can't work with them.

3. Simply wrap up the vegetables putting a little bit of everything.

4. Create the sauce. Put all the ingredients in a bowl and use hand mixer to blend, it is real good this sauce, peanuty, garlicky, gingery and almondy. It goes amazing.

And just enjoy! This recipe is laborious but worth it. 

Gingered Carrot Soup

I did not know one could make carrot soup, I mean: carrot soup/food for babies, okay, but for adults???

Well it turns out you can and it is actually amazing. I found these recipes that are pretty simple and pretty mind blowing with very few ingredients.

INGREDIENTS:

-10 medium carrots.

-1/2 onion.

-2 cloves of garlic. 

-3 slices of 1 cm sliced ginger.

-1 tablespoon of brown sugar.

-1/2 chicken stock cube.

-one litre of water.

-olive oil, salt and pepper.

STEPS:

1. Peel the carrots, cut in half and place in foil paper and place in oven for an hour at 200 degrees top and bottom. Drizzle them with olive oil and salt. Include the garlic cloves in the oven.

2. Roast them until they are tender and brown or charred. The sugars come out and caramelize. 

3. Now prepare in a pot the onion and ginger. Dice onion and ginger and cook for 5-10 minutes until it is all soft.

4. Now add the carrots and garlic cloves, that are mushy at this point. Of course take the tops of the carrots off and the skin of garlic cloves.

5. Now add a litre of water and a cup and the chicken stock cube. I added half but I am sure you can do a whole one.

6. Bring it to a boil and puree. It is soooooo good. It is a great flavour of ginger, carrots, the charred ingredients, a little garlicky...you can add a tablespoon of sugar and also a tiny bit of cream.

So so good. I mean roasting carrots it's not the most simple method I understand, but it is worth the effort. The main actor of this soup is the ginger with the carrots, not the garlic, therefore you need to add more ginger than garlic!

Caribbean Fish in Coconut Sauce

 So this recipe comes no more or less than from the cans of coconut of Goya Coconut milk. So everytime I bought a can I would see it and say to myself: I gotta do this one day. But the other day I did and I can see why they advertise it, cause it is so delicious.

INGREDIENTS:
-6 fillets of cod, sole or grouper.
-2 cans of coconut milk.

-1 lime.

-5 cloves of garlic finely chopped. 

-1/2 white onion.

-1 stick of celery.

-3 tablespoons of tomate frito,tomato sauce.

-2 chicken stock cubes.

-2 bay leaves.

-1 red tomato cut up in thin slices.

STEPS:

1. First of all, squeeze half a lime on the fish all over them and let them sink in the juice for a little while you prepare the sauce.

2. In hot oil, sautee the celery, the onion and the garlic until it golden and soft for 10 minutes.

3. Now add the tomato sauce and cook for 2 minutes.

4. Now add the coconut milk, the 2 chicken stock and the bay leaves and let it come to a boil and then simmer for 10 until the sauce reduces a bit.

5. Now add the tomato sliced and then add the fish and let it cook for about 5 minutes until is all cooked.

6. Now let it all cook for another 5 minutes and that's it. Decorate with some dry green leaves like basil or coriander and that's it, serve with rice.

So good, a great combo this tomato sauce and coconut sauce and fish. You won't regret it.

A fantastic Idea for helping others with Meals

 Yesterday I got an email from my church with a great website that I wanted to post here. It is called: www.mealtrain.com. Basically it is a website in which you can organize a group of people for making meals for someone sick, or someone that has just had a baby or surgery etc.

They sent it in my church for someone sick with Covid who is a single mom. It was also super easy to register, nothing complex. How wonderful to be able to do things like this for others. I have loved this idea.