Welcome to Carol’s Kitchen and it just happens to also be Valentine’s Day…For those of you who are being taken out or having a meal cooked for them…Enjoy!
I don’t cook very many chocolate cakes apart from brownies and cupcakes are little Lily’s forte…
Lily’s Chocolate Cakes… Makes 12.
Preheat the oven to 177 C/Gas mark 4
- 3/4 cup of all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup of good cocoa powder
- 3/4 tsp Baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 large egg at room temperature
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup of brown sugar I used raw cane sugar
- 1/3 cup of coconut oil
- 1/2 cup of buttermilk
- 2 tsp real vanilla essence
Let’s Bake…
Add all the dry ingredients to a bowl except for the sugars and stir or whisk to combine.
In a separate bowl add the eggs and whisk with the sugar and vanilla essence.
Pour half of the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and combine, then half of the buttermilk and repeat stirring until combined the mixture will be quite thin and batter-like.
Pour the mix into 12 cake cases it will only come halfway but will rise… Cook for about 20 minutes…The recipe stated 20 mins but my (Thai) oven needed a further 7 mins…and I increased the heat to Gas 5…
When the cakes are cooled then the fun begins …The icing…
Lily is getting to be quite a little cake maker…
I love Tamarind and it is that time year when the young tamarind can be found on the market stalls …
They are very pretty looking and have a soft nutty texture with just a slight hint of that sweet-sour tamarind taste which I love…
This tamarind sauce is a lovely dipping sauce or you can drizzle it…
- 2cm peeled finely chopped ginger
- 2 cloves finely chopped garlic
- 1 1/2 tbsp palm sugar
- 2 tsp fish sauce
- 1 tbsp chilli/garlic sauce
- 1 tsp soy sauce
This recipe was just sort of made up ..we had a friend staying with us from England and decided to steam some fish the Thai way but it was too big for our steamer so instead, we baked it in the oven covered with foil and just removed the foil 5–10 minutes from the end of cooking and it was very nice.
Sea Bass with Lime, Ginger and Fennel
Ingredients:
- 2 Sea bass/ Bream or Carp – whole, scaled and gutted
- Bunch fennel fronds or you can use while fennel sliced we just stuffed the cavity with the fennel fronds.
- 3 Shallots – peeled and halved (for fish cavity)
- 1 Bulb Garlic – unpeeled, halved (for fish cavity)
- Thumb of Ginger – Sliced finely (for fish cavity)
- Lemon or Lime, (remove the skin because the skin makes it bitter)
This was a tip I picked up after we had made ours… from my Thai daughter in law…. Always something to learn about cooking…
For the Sauce:
- Dark & Light Soy Sauce
- Splash of coconut oil or a splash of Chilli Oil
- Sugar
- Lime
- Fresh Chilli
Garnish (optional)
- A few sprigs Coriander chopped
- Spring Onions – sliced longways
Let’s Cook!
Preheat the oven to 180 C
.
Place the fish on a baking tray.
Prepare the vegetables and stuff inside the fish and around the tray. Make some diagonal cuts across the fish and push in a slice of lime… Drizzle with some olive oil and cover with foil.
Bake for 40 mins, then remove the foil and turn up to 250 C for a further 5-10 mins till skin is golden brown and crispy.
Rest for 5 minutes.
Serve with steamed rice, some morning glory or Thai Papaya Salad…A lovely light meal…
Morning Glory…One of my favourite vegetable stir-fries…
Stir-fried Morning Glory or Pad Pak Boon Fai Daeng is also known as water spinach…It is a very popular vegetable dish in Thailand and one I have for breakfast/brunch quite often with rice.
This is a very quick dish to cook once you have all your ingredients prepared..5 mins at the most.
Ingredients:
- 1 bunch of Morning Glory
- 4-6 cloves of garlic
- 3 or more Thai Chillies
- 2 tbsp of Oyster Sauce
- 1 tbsp of Thai Fish Sauce
- 1 tbsp of fermented soybean paste or oil with soya beans (optional)
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/2 to 1 tbsp of oil
- 1/4 cup fresh veg or pork stock
Let’s Cook!
Wash and cut your morning-glory into 4-6 inch pieces.
Bash the chillies and garlic in a pestle and mortar
Heat the oil in a pan until very hot.
Add the garlic and chillies and stir-fry ( stirring) for 15-20 seconds be careful not to let the garlic burn.
Add morning-glory and all other ingredients except for the vegetable stock.
Stir-fry for 40 seconds and add vegetable stock and stir-fry for another 10 seconds.
Enjoy!
Have a great Valentines Day however you are celebrating or not as the case may be…xx
Thank you for reading I invite your comments as always xx
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.
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!
Thank you once again for reading this post I hope you all have a fabulous weekend xxx
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I tried out your recent brownie recipe, Carol. They are mighty tasty!
Don’t you find it interesting how much our tastes change over the years? When I was a kid, I avoided fish if I could help it. Now, when we got a restaurant, it is one of the regular things I order. (I thought of that because your fish dish looks appetizing.)
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Thank you for letting me know about the brownies, Pete… Yes I do believe our tastes change as we grow older… I also think you eat less.. I know I do…Enjoy your weekend 😊x
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Hi! I just wanted to let you know that I have nominated you for The Sunshine Blogger award here: http://everydaylillie.com/2020/02/14/sunshine-bloggers-award/ – I very much enjoy reading your blog!
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Thank you so much, Lillie that is very kind of you 💕
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Lovely recipes all, but little Lily with her cakes is the loveliest! Happy Valentine, dear Carol!
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Thank you, Dolly and you… Yes Lily loves baking and helping chop veggies she is such a happy little girl thank you for loving her cakes the best dear Dolly xxx
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My pleasure, dear Carol!
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Happy Valentine´s Day! All super recipes. I especially love LIly´s chocolate cakes. 💘
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Wow! I had never even heard of a tamarind!
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Have you not? I had heard of it when I lived in the Uk just not used it…If you like sweet sour flavours you will love it..It is used in Chinese food as well as Thai Food 🙂 x
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Well, then;v I’ve probably tasted it and not known!
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Haha.. guessing you have, Chelsea
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