Welcome to week 4 in my kitchen…Where do the weeks go?? Did I tackle that big cupboard? Actually, no not yet… I have turned the kitchen around completely…My kitchen is sort of in two parts plus one…So part one holds my sink and ceramic hob and built-in cupboards separated by maybe it was supposed to be an open plan dining area?  The problem being there is nowhere to put an oven in part one so my lovely wooden table was against the wall to hold the tabletop oven… Confused yet…haha.

As I have a new oven it had to go that side so I have ( with) hubby’s help…Moved the table top oven into the second kitchen as I never know when I might need an additional oven… My lovely table is now in the middle  (where) it should have been in the first place…I now have my lovely big work surface to work on again instead of a small top and also more room as if someone is using the hob I am not in their way…More workspace plus my big cupboard is this side of the kitchen…Thais love cupboards at least when they are building European style houses…They also like to build two kitchens in case you were wondering…The second one to house the gas hob for their stir fries…

Which means generally the Thai wife is happy in her kitchen and husband happy in his one… Which means two cultures exist in harmony…

Let’s Cook!

A take on Tom Yum Soup… This is one of my favourite Thai soups and so easy to make from scratch. It also brings back memories of a certain lady…Keeleigh who when she visited us could not get enough of this fabulous soup…I am sure she would also love this version…

• 2 litres of water
• 4 stalks of lemon grass
• 1-inch chunk of galangal
• 10 kaffir lime leaves
• 10 Thai chillies
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 85 gm salmon per person
• 100 gm noodles of your choice per person
• 300 grams of oyster mushrooms
• 2 medium tomatoes cut into quarters.
• 5-6 shallots halved if really small if a little bigger quartered
• 1 and a half tsp of sugar
• 7 – 10 tbsp of fish sauce (depending on your taste)
• Juice of 5 -8 limes.
• A handful of cilantro ( Coriander)
• Half hardboiled egg per person…optional

N.B  I recommend using the lowest amount of limes and fish sauce and Taste! Adjust if necessary as everyone’s taste varies.

Let’s Cook!

The first thing to do is put about 2 litres of water in a large pot to boil.

Then I like to start by squeezing my limes. This is not the first step of the recipe, but it’s best to have your limes squeezed so when you need them later, you don’t need to rush to squeeze them all.

Take your stalks of lemongrass, and first tear off the outermost leaf and throw it out. Then, I like to use a rolling-pin or the handle end of a knife to lightly pound the lemongrass to release the flavours. Then just slice it diagonally into 1-inch strips or so.

Take about 1 thumb-sized chunk of the root part of galangal, and chop it into slices.

Coarsely break about 10 kaffir lime leaves – no need to cut them, just tear them – which is going to help release their flavour.

Peel about 5 cloves of garlic.

I used about 10 Thai birds eye chillies for this recipe, but you can use however many you’d like. First, take off the stem, and then you can either just slice them in two pieces, or give them a little pound on your cutting board like I did (just be careful of flying seeds). You can also remove the seeds if you still like the chilli flavour but not as much heat.

Throw the lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaves, garlic and chillies into the water.

You can put the lid on just so it starts to boil which releases the herb flavours quicker.

Boil your soup with all the herbs in it for about 10 minutes.

Then add your mushrooms, which you should pre-rinse beforehand.

Cook for 4-5 minutes.

.Add tomatoes and onions.

 

Cook for further 6-8 minutes.

Now add your noodles and after 2 mins add your salmon and cook for a further 5 mins until salmon is just poached…

Remove from heat and gently stir in fish sauce, lime juice, sugar and cilantro.

Taste and adjust if necessary.

This delicious soup is now ready to serve. Garnish with half a boiled egg and some coriander… Enjoy!

If you are doing an original Tom Yum with prawns only add your 500 gm of prepared prawns and cook for 2-3 mins max ( if overcooked the prawns will sink to the bottom of the pan. If you get any scum on the surface of soup it’s from the prawns then just skim off with a spoon. Then remove from heat and gently stir in fish sauce, lime juice, sugar and cilantro.

Taste and adjust if necessary.

Enjoy!

Pigs Trotters…Not on the menu this week maybe next week…

Today at long last I have started my sourdough starter…Something I have kept putting off but hubbies favourite baker and they are few and far between here…Upped and left…As cut bread doesn’t feature on either of our radars …This has to be done…

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Our chicken dish this week was Thai Green Curry… A curry which is a staple in this house and everyone likes it…To get the recipe

As a treat, this recipe also includes the recipes for 5 authentic made from scratch curry pastes…

As I have been trying to find some nice flavoursome meatless recipes I came across this one and as Larb is a favourite here I decided to give this version a go… The initial reaction from the meat eaters in this house was not one of joy…haha

Made using the shiitake mushroom which is great in stir-fries, soups and with pasta, it also apparently makes tasty veggie bacon.

12 oz shiitake mushrooms cut into 1/2 in pieces…Remove stalks and reserve for stir fry etc

3 spring onions chopped

1-inch piece of ginger, grated

1 clove of garlic finely diced

1 small shallot sliced thinly

1 tsp dried chilli or 1 fresh chilli finely sliced

1 tbsp fish sauce

A handful of mint leaves

Lime Juice plus wedges to serve

Few peanuts roughly chopped.

Oil to cook mushrooms.

Let’s Cook!

Add 2 tbsp oil to pan over a medium to high heat add mushrooms and cook for 3-4 mins, shake and cook for another 3-4 mins until mushrooms are crispy…Do not add salt or they won’t crisp.

Add ginger and garlic and remove from the heat.

Add spring onions, chilli, fish sauce and half the nuts stir to combine and add mint leaves.

Taste and add a squeeze of lime juice adjust seasoning if required…

 

Serve with wedges of white cabbage, lime and peanuts…

Larb is also traditionally eaten with sticky rice…

Our verdict…It was nice even hubby and he is a die-hard meat eater…I would definitely make it again.

Have a great weekend and please share with us anything you have made this week or even any kitchen disasters all your comments make my day 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/
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Thank you once again for reading this post I hope you all have a great weekend xx