It’s Friday…Let the weekend begin and why not the sun is shining and all is quiet..I had a lovely head massage this morning and then my monthly trim…A lovely massage booked I think I am going to try the rice milk oil one when I come back from my jolly to sunny Phuket…I am so excited I will be seeing my daughter who is popping over from Australia it has been a couple of years so I am sure there will be a few tears…Happy tears…x

What has been cooking this week? Fahija filled tortilla wrap…Which got me thinking … Similar to a sandwich or burrito, a wrap uses a pliable flatbread or tortilla to roll ingredients into a portable, handheld meal.

If I am making a sandwich for hubby then butter is the first thing on the bread and then the filling…Tortilla wraps are slightly fewer calories about 30 calories, lower just a smidgen on the fibre, half the protein and fewer carbs than bread plus we have the butter which ups the anti…Which means a tortilla wrap eases slightly ahead and it does seem that we put more salad and veggies in our wraps than in a sandwich…I always tuck my ends in and the daughter in law ties a strip of the banana leaf around hers…

Fillings:

• Chicken Caesar Wrap: One half cup cold cooked chicken breast meat, lots of Romaine lettuce, a tablespoon or two of Caesar salad dressing, and a few shavings of Parmesan cheese.
• Garden Veggie Wrap: Your favourite garden salad blend, like sliced tomato, onions, shredded carrots, and cucumbers, mixed with raw spinach and a little Italian dressing.
• Scrambled Eggs and Feta Wrap: Two eggs, scrambled with chopped sun-dried tomatoes, and a light sprinkle of feta cheese. ( mine)

I couldn’t believe how popular beetroot is...Which is good and it is one of my favourites …Today I had a beetroot and orange juice…I don’t have it every day but probably 4 out of 7 days…I also picked up a lovely big bag of passionfruit which is my big favourite and some fried bananas as I was waiting for the bus…The lady was frying them and I just couldn’t resist however I did only have two very small pieces and handed them over to the menfolk…

Speaking of which however hot it gets and it is currently 44C…Hubby will still eat meat pie…I make individual ones and then he can have pie and I have my Thai food…

For fillings, I either make mince and onions, Steak and Mushroom or hubby’s favourite steak and kidney…

For the pastry

• 250g plain flour, plus extra for rolling
• 140g cold unsalted butter, roughly cubed
• 1 large egg  yolk
• 1 small egg  whisked with 1 tbsp milk, for the egg wash

For the filling…Steak & Kidney

• 1 ox kidney, about 400g/14oz, get it fresh from your butcher. Pig’s and lamb’s kidneys only need short cooking time so if used add 15 mins before the end of cooking.
• 1 kg trimmed braising or stewing beef
• 250g flat mushrooms, unpeeled but wiped with a damp cloth
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 100g unsalted butter
• 1 large onion,  peeled and thickly chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic crushed
• 50-85g plain flour, depending on how thick you like your gravy
• 600ml fresh stock or  water and 1 tbsp vegetable bouillon powder
• 1 large bay leaf
• salt and freshly ground pepper

Let’s Cook!

It’s important to cook the meat a day ahead so that you can discard any fat that has risen to the top, and so that the pastry doesn’t slump in the face of a too-warm filling, so up to 48 hours ahead -make the pastry. Whizz the flour and a pinch of fine sea salt together for a few seconds in a food processor, then add the butter and whizz until the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs. Whisk together the egg yolk and 3 tbsp water and whizz with the pastry until it collects in a ball. Wrap in cling film and leave it to rest in the fridge for at least one hour…

TO COOK THE MEAT.

Cut out the white central core of the kidney and  (discard). Cut the kidney into bite-sized pieces. Cut the beef into bite-sized cubes and cut the mushrooms into chunks.

Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a large, heavy frying pan over medium-high heat. Throw in the kidney and fry until lightly coloured. Tip into a colander to drain.

Wipe out the frying pan and return it to low-medium heat, adding 25g/1oz of the butter and 1 tbsp oil. Tip in the onion and fry for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft and slightly golden add the garlic for the final 2/3 minutes.

Transfer to a large casserole, using a slotted spoon.

Preheat the oven to 160C/gas 3/fan 140C. Tip the 85g/3oz flour into a large plastic bag, and season it generously. Throw in the beef and shake until lightly floured. Return the frying pan to medium high heat, adding a little more oil and butter if needed. Shake off any excess flour (reserving it) then fry the beef in batches until golden-brown. As each batch is done, transfer it to the casserole.

Adding more oil and butter to the frying pan if necessary, fry the mushrooms for about 2 minutes until starting to wilt, then add them to the casserole with the drained kidneys, stock or hot water, bouillon powder and bay leaf, plus the excess flour in the bag if you like a thick gravy.

Stir well, cover and cook in the oven for 75-90 minutes until the meat is tender and the sauce is thick. Cool thoroughly, then put in the fridge (preferably overnight) so any fat will solidify – it can then be skimmed off and discarded.

In the morning – return the pastry to cool room temperature, then roll it out thinly on a well-floured surface. Invert a 28-30x23cm, 6.5cm deep pie dish on to the pastry. Mentally add an extra 1cm all round, then use the dish as a guide to cut out the pastry lid. From the remnants, cut out enough 6cm-wide strips of pastry to go round the dish – they should cover the flat rim and about halfway down the insides.

Lightly butter the rim of the dish and line it with the strip(s) of pastry, sealing any joins with a little dab of water. Butter the shoulders of a pie raiser or an upturned egg cup and stand it in the middle. Spoon in the meat mixture to come level with the top of the dish.

Don’t overfill: reserve any excess gravy to serve hot with the pie.

Brush the pastry rim with a little water, then drape the pastry lid over it, pinching the edges to seal. Cover with cling film and keep in the fridge if not baking immediately.

Finally, an hour before serving – preheat the oven to 200C/gas 6/fan 180C. Make four slashes in the lid of the pie, then brush with the egg wash. Bake for 35-45 minutes until the pastry is golden brown, turning the heat down 10-20º after about 20 minutes. Remove the pie from the oven and leave it to rest for around 10 minutes before cutting into it.

These instructions are if you are making one large pie…If I am making individual pies I just cut a strip of pastry to go around the top of the dish fill the dish with the meat mixture and add a pastry top…This cuts the calories…But if like a large pie and want to cut nice slices then a pie bottom can be added.

Of course, the cooking time will also need to be adjusted…For an individual pie depending on your oven, it takes approx 25 mins.

Enjoy!

One of our favourite Thai meals is some grilled or BBQ fish ( Batu)…Lily loves this..With a spicy dip and fresh raw and/or steamed vegetables with sticky rice…As you can see we eat a lot of vegetables …This dip is made with roasted eggplant and pounded in the pestle and mortar with garlic and chillies…

Kombucha Update…

My scoby is growing nicely I reckon maybe a week to 10 days and I can start my Kombucha….I will then give you the recipe…

I need another fridge all these pickles I need a pickle fridge…All of my family love pickles they only walk paste the fridge and in they go and grab some pickles…The jalapenos are lovely a really nice bite to them…But I needed to pickle garlic again…

Pickled Garlic…

• 8-10 garlic bulbs
• 500 ml white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
• 90 gm sugar
• 1 tsp salt…I always use salt mined here locally or Himalayan salt.
• 1 tsp per jar of either mustard seed or fennel seeds (optional)

2 x 250-300 ml jars with good lids

Let’s get pickled!

Separate the bulbs of garlic into cloves and peel.

In a saucepan bring the vinegar, salt and sugar to the boil, stirring occasionally to make sure the salt and sugar are dissolved. Add the garlic cloves to the pickling liquid. Bring it back to the boil and simmer for five minutes.

Transfer the garlic cloves to sterilised jars. Add the mustard or fennel seeds if using. We actually couldn’t decide Fennel or mustard seeds so I normally do some of both they are equal in taste to us. Carefully fill the jars with the hot pickling liquid. Seal.

The garlic will be ready to use in about a week but improves over time. If you like pickled cucumber or jalapenos I add added the link here

New for me…Seaweed Caviar or as it is called here grape bunch seaweed…

Also, known as sea caviar it is quite rare and harvested by hand diving …It gives a lovely pop in your mouth and with the chilli sauce, it is nice…I actually only got 1 small piece as Lily and Aston both love it and disappeared with the pot of chilli and the dish and it was soon gone xxx Has anyone else tried this…I know my friend Thelma has she eats it with salt, vinegar, ginger root and chilli which sounds rather nice…Have you tried it???

I hope you have enjoyed this week in my kitchen if you have any recipe requests please let me know and I will be happy to find them and try them…x

About Carol Taylor:

Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them.

I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetable ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling.

Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients I use contain to improve our health and wellbeing.

The environment is also something I am passionate about and there will be more on this on my blog this year

Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…….Then, I will be happy!

More and more of my blogging friends have joined me on MeWe…A social media site which is fairly new and which promises much without the restrictions some other social media sites are choosing to impose on many of us…Join me if you will on  mewe.com/i/caroltaylor3 

Carol is a contributor to the Phuket Island Writers Anthology: https://www.amazon.com/Phuket-Island-Writers-Anthology-Stories-ebook/dp/B00RU5IYNS

Connect to Carol

Blog: https://carolcooks2.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheRealCarolT
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carol.taylor.1422

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/caroltaylor56/pins/

Thank you once again for reading this post I hope you all have had a creative week and enjoy the weekend xx