Tag Archives: Recipe

CarolCooks2…In my kitchen…Coconut Biscuits/Cookies…

Coconut Biscuits

I don’t make biscuits very often…I love a homemade cookie/biscuit far more than my waistline does…over the last 18 months I have not walked as much and the pounds have crept on…as I am very close to my 70th birthday…yikes…the motivation to get those pounds off has increased.

I have started walking again however because my feet have gotten soft I gained a glorious blister the other day although I did push it and walked further than I should have… however as it was my first week back on the exercise circuit  I know it was stupid of me..

.I am on week 2 of Sally’s…Smorgasbord Magazine… 6 weeks glycemic plan… it’s going well and I am sticking to low glycemic foods plus staying within the boundaries of medium rated glycemic foods and have totally eliminated the high glycemic foods…maybe I will have one cookie as my treat…

It’s surprising how quickly the urge to eat everything sweet or salty (crisps) decreases…I feel less bloated and am sleeping better…

These cookies are my basic recipe and you can add whatever you like ..grate some lime or orange zest is quite a nice addition…Drizzle a lemon, lime or orange icing over the top…

I know biscuits/cookies can never be healthy...homemade ones don’t last as long not because you eat them all in one day but because they go soft…A manufacturer’s bottom line is profit and shelf life by making them at home we can substitute sugar for a stevia-based one or whatever our favoured sweetener is…we can choose the flour we use maybe wholemeal or spelt…we use better quality ingredients like real vanilla extract or vanilla beans…The bottom line is we try to make the best tasting cookies without the preservatives…

Eaten and enjoyed they are a nice treat…x

Ingredients:

  • 150gm rolled oats
  • 100gm plain flour
  • 100gm light brown sugar( I used raw sugar)
  • 100gm desiccated coconut
  • 100gm butter
  • 2 tbsp golden syrup
  • 1/2 tsp of bicarbonate of soda
  • 2 tbsp of boiling water.

Let’s Cook!

Set oven to heat at 175C, gas mark 4.

Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Combine the sugar, flour, coconut and oats mix to combine well.

In a small pan add the butter and golden syrup and melt the butter. meanwhile, bring the kettle to a boil and add two tbsps of boiling water to the bicarbonate of soda in a small cup. Add this to the melted butter/syrup mix. It will foam a little.

N.B if you leave it on the heat…like me…and turn back to line your tin…It will foam and it went all over my ceramic hob…the rest you can guess…sigh

Make a well in the centre of your dry mix and pour in the melted butter/syrup mix. Stir to thoroughly combine and it will form a slightly sticky dough.

Roll out balls and put on a baking tray leaving a space as they will spread on cooking ( the mix made 15 balls) Slightly flatten with your hand.

Put in the preheated oven and cook for 15-20 minutes, remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.

THE BISCUITS WILL BE SOFT TO THE TOUCH BUT WILL HARDEN ON COOLING.

Don’t make the mistake I made when I first made them and thought they weren’t cooked and gave them another 10 minutes. They were a tad harder than required when they cooled down…haha…I could build a wall with them…Opppps

Enjoy!

I hope you join me tomorrow for Tropical Friday…x

 

Just Fish…Or a chemical cocktail??

I love eating fish and prefer it to a meal containing meat I could quite easily eat fish instead of meat…But the fishing industry is in crisis worldwide.

Overfishing, fish farming using chemical and genetic manipulation, pollution of our oceans, bad management the fish flesh we eat now is more than likely a deadly chemical cocktail…

It just scares me that man has no care for our planet they just take and take until either we can’t eat it or are scared to feed our families with it or there is just no more the stock is depleted…

As a consumer and a worried one I feel we must start this protest at home…We are the shoppers, We choose what to buy, We choose what we feed our families …That is the bottom line folks…WE CHOOSE…AND WE MUST!

So what can we do? Well, only buy the fish we know is safe…WE/YOU need to get off our backsides and do some research find the companies that practise sustainable fishing, share that information among your friends and families…

Prove you care…Words are empty…Actions speak louder than words…

I will give you a starter for 10 here…I will tell you what I know and if you know more than me then pray please tell us all we would love to know …

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Alaska…Northwest of Canada, is the largest and most sparsely populated U.S. state. It’s known for its diverse terrain of open spaces, mountains and forests, with abundant wildlife.

It is fish country…Yes, they have many advantages over other fishing areas…They also have common sense and set the rules and the rules are not broken. Their fish management is second to none…

Effective state and federal institutions manage fisheries that are productive and sustainable, clean and healthy. Alaska is the only State in the nation whose Constitution explicitly mandates that all fish, including salmon, shall be utilized, developed, and maintained on the sustained yield principle.

Alaska is thousands of miles away from large sources of pollution that can contaminate the human food supply in other parts of the world.

The fish swim in clean, clear water…The fish are safe to eat…

But ok…We all know that you have to adjust and manage properly given your specific circumstances…Don’t we?

The WWF has been working tirelessly to put in place good practises and methods to provide sustainable fishing grounds…and some of the EU countries, although they agreed, have blatantly increased their fishing quotas. Probably due to demand but come on how short-sighted when there are no fish to be fished …What will Joe Public do then??? I’ll tell you …They will wonder why???

We can blame the fisherman, the manufacturers who pollute the waters, the scientists who work hard to find ways genetically to increase the fish yield, the fish farms…But we didn’t care when we were getting all the cheap fish we wanted…

Alaskan fish is safe to eat and yes it is a bit more expensive but you get what you pay for and what price do you put on your health and your families???

Make it a treat …I buy myself a piece Salmon once a month or look for deals and sometimes there are some to be had it freezes well …It is a lovely healthy treat…

Canned salmon labelled “Alaskan Salmon” is a less expensive alternative to salmon fillets.

Smaller fish with short life cycles, also tend to be better alternatives, such as sardines and anchovies, lower contamination risk and higher nutritional value. A general guideline is that the closer to the bottom of the food chain the fish is, the less contamination it will have accumulated.

Just make sure they’re not from the Baltic Sea…Why?? Because the Baltic sea has been grossly overfished, it is contaminated this report tells it all…

http://stateofthebalticsea.helcom.fi/pressures-and-their-status/hazardous-substances/

You only have to read it to see who is to blame…We all are from the perpetrators to the ones who did nothing… To say you didn’t know…Doesn’t cut it with me any more…I can’t believe that some don’t read or listen to the news and don’t want to know more when they do…Am I alone in wanting to know more?

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As I said I love fish but I have to be more selective …I look in the frozen fish section and read the label to see where the fish originated from. Canned fish just read the label if it says Alaskan Salmon then you are ok and I love a Salmon and cucumber sandwich made with lovely brown sourdough bread…

Browse your fish counter and look for bargains…the tail ends of the fish make a lovely fish pie just check the origins make it known to your fish monger what is the only fish you are going to buy…If we all did that and were more conscious consumers we could make a difference.

We are not going to change the world but we can change our own personal world and think what that can do if we spread the word…If you find a fish bargain tell all your friends so they can share in it …

Or grow your own if you are able… I have a little fish pond and when they spawn I tell all and sundry and they come and stock up their ponds and when I want a fresh fish I send hubby out to catch me one …They are happy fish not stressed and I know the origin but I still love a lovely piece of Alaskan Salmon as a treat.

My favourite Salmon Recipe.

salmon-steamed-Thai- coriander-chilli

Thai style steamed salmon with coriander and fish sauce, chilli and lime

Ingredients:

180 gm Trout or Salmon fillet. ( per person)

For Topping:

1 spring Onion finely chopped.

2/3 stems Coriander chopped finely…I use the stem as well.

1 red birds eye chilli finely chopped help promote the release of pleasure-boosting endorphins in the brain.

1 tbsp Fish Sauce.

A cheek of lime.

Mix ingredients together.

Put fish on foil and spoon topping on reserve some topping to add when serving. Seal foil and put in the oven on 180 for 10/15 mins until cooked.

Serve with steamed rice, boiled new potatoes or over noodles.

Enjoy!

I hope when you read this post that it has made you more aware and made you want to do your bit for the fishing industry…I also wanted to leave you with something nice after my rants… A Salmon Recipe x

Wishing you all a happy, healthy New Year.xxx

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!

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 a great weekend xx

 

 

Thai Pork Noodle Soup…Gaeng Jeud Woon Sen…

Pork-noodle-soup-authentic-recipe

Today I will show you how to make a Pork Stock for this lovely soup…Thai’s make beautiful stocks either chicken( last weeks) or Pork and they are the basis for many of their dishes.

Using the neck pork bones this is a very tasty stock…a basis for soups and stir-fries.

Ingredients:

  • 2 lb of Pork Bones
  • 4-5 cloves of garlic crushed
  • 1/2 tsp white peppercorns, crushed
  • 1 med onion chopped
  • The top part of the lemongrass…When I use lemongrass I keep the top and again freeze for stocks. It does not have such a strong lemongrass taste as the white part but you don’t want the stock to have a strong lemongrass taste
  • 2 coriander roots ( I remove the roots from coriander when I use it and keep a small bag of them in the freezer handy for stocks or anything which calls for coriander root.
  • 3 1/2 litres of cold water

Let’s cook!

Wash the pork bones and put in a pan and cover with the water bring slowly to a slow rolling boil any scum will rise to the top. Cook very slowly for an hour and them skim off any scum on top of the water.

Add the aromatics and simmer for about 1 hour.

Strain the stock and throw away the aromatics if the bones have any meat on them pick the bones when they have cooled down and add the meat to stir-fries or as I do give the bones to Saangchai, he loves them.

If not using the stock immediately then store in a portion in zip lock bags…Don’t fill too much and then you can store it flat…easier to thaw out.

Ingredients for Pork Soup.

The ingredients for the soup have no amounts apart from the stock and garlic the reason being that it is down to taste and the amount of soup you are making…Thai food is very much about taste and taste again.

  • 1 litre of Fresh Pork Stock
  • About 150 gm of minced pork.
  • Soy Sauce
  • Fish Sauce
  • 1 head of garlic, Chopped
  • Napa Cabbage break the leaves into pieces.
  • Glass Noodles soaked in water 10-15 mins and then cut into pieces.
  • White Pepper/Salt

Garnish:

  • Green Onions
  • Coriander
  • Fried garlic plus garlic Oil

Let’s Cook!

Firstly cook the chopped garlic in some oil until it is golden and crispy ..make sure you watch it as it very quickly goes from not quite brown enough to burnt…Once the garlic is cooked remove from the oil and set both the garlic and oil to one side as it is for the garnish.

Slowly bring the pork stock to a simmer and then add the ground pork seasoned with a little soy and white pepper…form into small balls and drop into the stock.

Cook for a couple of minutes and add the cabbage.

Thai-noodle-soup-pork

Cook for a few minutes until the cabbage has wilted and season with white pepper and salt if required. Taste and also add a little more soy sauce and a splash of fish sauce..just be careful as I overdid the soy last time…

Add the soaked noodles and check the seasoning… Put into individual bowls to serve and garnish with spring onions and garlic and if liked add a swirl of the garlic oil.

pork-noodle-soup Enjoy!

This is a lovely noodle soup the kids love it as it is mild in flavour..no chilli and can also be served with a spicy dish as a foil to the heat…For the adults or chilli lovers, you can add a touch of dried chilli…

If you missed the Chicken Noodle recipe then I have added the link here.

https://blondieaka.wordpress.com/2018/09/13/thai-chicken-noodle-soup/

Thank you for reading I hope you enjoy the soup …Or maybe you have already tried it…Do you love it?? Please let me know in comments xxx

Lotus Seeds…

Lotus - seeds- healthy-snacks

 

Travelling down the roads towards the Red Lotus Lake there were many stalls selling these green flower pod heads I noticed them and wondered what these were and assumed for eating as much of what I see locally which is unknown to me is in fact eaten in one way or another…

Once out on the boat on this beautiful wetlands and seeing lots of these flower pods the boatman told us after picking one for us and encouraging us to try the seed that they were eaten and used widely here and indeed locally the residents were allowed to pick them for free and use or sell..hence all the roadside stalls.

Lotus-seeds-pods-healthy-snacks

It is that time of year and I am now seeing them on almost every street corner and market to buy as the flower head pods or a bag ready seeded for you.

The seeds can are eaten roasted, fried or raw and grown all over S/E Asia the scientific name is Nelumbo Nucifera.

Low in sodium and high in magnesium they are an ideal snack for suffers from heart disease, High B.P or obesity.

Used in traditional medicine and administered as a soup  it is believed to be both nutritious and clear heat( lower temperature)

Crystallised seeds are a very popular snack, especially at New Year celebrations as are the very popular Chines Mooncakes which are sold everywhere across Asia.

Lotus seed paste-chinese -mooncakes

Note: Dried seeds must be soaked in water overnight before using in soups or congee.

 To eat the fresh seeds the pod head is broken and the seeds snapped out.

Lotus seeds are also made into Lotus seed paste and used extensively in Chinese pastries and Japanese desserts.

The lotus seed paste is very easy to make and is the filling for the Chinese Mooncakes. This video shows you step by step how easy it is to make.

I hope you have enjoyed this post on the lotus seeds and here is a link which gives the numerous great health benefits these seeds have.

https://www.naturalfoodseries.com/13-health-benefits-lotus-seeds/

Thank you for reading and enjoy  your weekend xx

 

 

 

 

Krapow( grapow) Moo Pork with Basil

 

ingredients for grapow Moo

Krapow Moo is my favourite Thai dish and one which we often have for brunch..we are a two meal a day family. It can be made with Chicken mince but I prefer pork mince. For maximum heat, I always grind my chillies and garlic together in my pestle.

Ingredients: This serves 3/4.

  • 200 gm Pork mince
  • 4 snake beans cut into 1/4 inch slices.If you can’t get the beans pictured then ordinary green beans will be fine.
  • 2-4 cloves of garlic
  • 1-5 Thai chillies
  • Krapow …A big bunch of Thai sweet basil  Leaves picked and as you can see from the photo I use quite a lot.
  • 2 tbsp Oyster sauce
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1/2 tsp black soy.
  • A splash of cooking oil…I use Coconut oil.
  • Good shake of seasoning..not sure if you would get the one I use here but if not just a little pork/chicken seasoning salt.

Peel garlic and cut chillies finely at this point I put in a pestle and mortar as it brings out the flavour. If you don’t eat your food very hot like us then just cut chillies and garlic finely.

Add a splash of oil to a hot wok and add chillies and garlic cook stirring for 1 minute being careful the garlic doesn’t burn.

Add the minced pork( chicken) and stir until cooked 3-4 mins.

Add all sauces and stir cooking for 1 minute. Add a little hot water if the sauce is too strong.

grapow moo cooking adding herbs
Then add the green beans and cook 1 min then add Grapow and stir until wilted.
Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.

grapow- krapow-egg-pork

Serve with rice and a fried egg which is traditionally how Thais eat this dish.

herb grapow

N.B.Holy Basil is available now in many Asian stores throughout the world.

Please note I have put for example 1-5 chillies it all depends on how hot you like your food and the same with garlic I love lots of garlic and herbs BUT as I always say start with a litle you can always add and most importantly TASTE AND TASTE again and again while you are cooking trust your palate…

Enjoy!

How to make Carol’s homemade Old Bay Seasoning Spice…

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I have made all my own spices ever since I have lived here as some I cannot get or I can only get sporadically it seems everywhere runs out at the same time and it could be months before new stock arrives.

Also as it is very humid here it means I don’t have spices hanging around for too long by making my own spice mixes and curry powders.

Once you know how most things are made most are pretty easy to make and taste much better. I have quite a good palate and many things I can taste and know what ingredients are used…I love to taste things have a guess and then look them up the same as measurements I am pretty spot on without scales…Comes with practice and age.

Carol’s Homemade Old Bay Seasoning Spice this can be used for seafood, meats and salad dressings.

Ingredients:

1 tsp Celery seeds

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp Mustard powder

1 tsp Black pepper

1 tsp Red pepper flakes

2 bay leaves

1/2 tsp whole cloves

1/2 tsp allspice berries

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp mace

1/4 tsp cardamon

1/4 tsp paprika

A good pinch of cinnamon

Let’s Cook!

Grind all the whole spices and the bay leaves then combine with the powdered spices. Store in an airtight container away from the light.

I normally make up a smallish amount to start and if it something we use frequently then I double or treble the ingredients.

That’s it I hope you have enjoyed your read if so please hit the share/reblog button or let me know in comments I love hearing from you.

Connect to Carol( Moi)

Blog: https://blondieaka.wordpress.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheRealCarolT

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carol.taylor.1422

Pinterest ( 1): https://www.pinterest.com/caroltaylor56/pins/

Enjoy your weekend xx