Italian... Thai Style and Snacks.

So Happy

Same...

Still happy... 

And then here's the Italian.

Tricky one to work out, but it'a actually a revolutionary vegetarian Italian dish.

Consisting of; tomato and rosemary sauce on spaghetti with a sweet potato omelette on top.

Had it before??? 

I actually really liked this!! I obviously didn't order it but helped clean up the plate.

To recreate:

Tomato and rosemary sauce-

1 x white onion- finely cubed

1 x carrot finely cubed

3 x cloves of garlic finely sliced and crushed

1 x tin of plum tomatoes 

1 x large sprig of rosemary

1 tsp of sugar

1 x tbsp of tomato puree

1/2 pint of veggie stock

Cook the onion garlic and carrot in a pan with olive oil salt and pepper and add the rosemary so it goes slightly crispy- heat on a gentle heat until the carrot softens and the onions go transparent- for about 8-10mins

Then add tin tomatoes and veggie stock plus the sugar, tomato puree and cook for at least 30mins still on a medium heat so it simmers away.

Cook your spaghetti add a sprinkle of salt and use a load of water, give the spaghetti a big stir when adding it the the water to stop it sticking.

Once the spaghetti is cooked 20 mins or so- it should stick to your forehead when it's done- be careful when testing this!!!

When done hold back a tiny bit of the water you cooked it in as this stops it all sticking together- add all of the tomato sauce- mix it in thoroughly. 

-Don't forget to taste through cooking, it may need more sugar or seasoning. 

And for the sweet potato omelette-

Roast your sweet potato for 40 mins then mash it with butter and add salt and pepper-keep to one side ready to add to the omelette.

Crack 4 medium/large eggs in a bowl add a dash of milk, salt and pepper and heat your frying pan. 

Add a chunk of butter to the frying pan- let it melt-NOT burn, have it on a medium heat.

Then add your eggs so the eggs covers the bottom of the pan, then with your wooden spoon/spatula mix it all up then let it re settle across the bottom of the pan- this makes it cook quicker, give it a minute and when it looks like the eggs cooking through add your sweet potato to one half of the omelette and then fold over the other half on top of it. 

Give it another minute and when it looks like the egg's cooked enough- not too sloppy you can serve it on top of the pasta.

NOTE- This is well filling so maybe split the omelette.

Then hug a tiny 2 week old puppy for as long as you can...

If you're still hungry these are the local 24/7 shop delicacies-such a wide variety of hot sausages.. 

MMMmmmmmmmmmmmm

And then there's the pizza bolognese sandwich, they offer this heated, so in fact don't bother with cooking the above, you can just have this!!

Then there's the large variety of collagen based drinks...NO IDEA!!

 And some more paradise

 Plus a bit more

MAKE SURE YOU CHECK OUT THE BLOG EVERY THURSDAY & SUNDAY FOR ALL THE NEW STUFF. RESTAURANT REVIEWS COMING TOO...

Keep and eye out for my new BLOG SCHEDULE!!!

Dinner Party Dishes will go up every THURSDAY lunch time.

Weekend leftovers and quick dinner ideas for the week will go up every SUNDAY lunch time.

Sure there will be extras in there too along with restaurant reviews and cooking tips.

DETAILS ON THE NEXT POP-UP RESTAURANT AND COOKERY CLASSES & ARE COMING SOON!!!

Winter Mussels on the BBQ

Mussels in a spicy tomato and white wine sauce with lime and coriander

Butter/Oil

5 x Shallots finely chopped

Fresh Thyme

4 x Garlic - Chopped

2 Big Glugs/ sml glassses of White Wine

2 x Medium sized red chillis

2 x tin tomatoes

2 Bay leaves

Black Eyed Peas x 1 tin

1kilo of Mussels - feeds 4 as a main- make sure you've cleaned and scrapped/pulled all the hairy bits out- give them a tap and add back to cold water to close them up if any have opened pre cooking. if they still don't close don't cook them.

Whole onions stuffed with a garlic cloves and seasoned then wrapped in foil and cooked for 20 mins on the bbq.

Let the coals go white before using the bbq so you don't get the taste of the coals coming through, this needs another 10 mins before it's good to use.

B e prepared if you're cooking outside, take everything you need out so you can cook away with making a hundred trips back in mid cooking.

Love anything fresh, spicy and beany...a good way to skip the hardcore carbs.

5 more mins and a bit more grey and this is ready to go. Be patient as you don't want to get started too soon and for all your food to taste of chemicals from the coal.

Shallots garlic and chilli the basis to anything that tastes good :-)

Fresh Thyme and Coriander- BOTH great herbs-using them fresh makes such a huge difference, these both grown easilt in your garden- try them- Thyme more so than coriander but it can be done. Rosemary and mint are also super easy to grow outside.

See how grey the coals are.

YUM

BBQ Onions with a gloves of garlic in the middle- So good!!!
Cut a small cross in the top of the onion and put a peeled garlic clove in, season with salt and pepper and wrap in foil and place on the coals or close to them- good for 10/15mins - they go sweet and sticky.
Use tongs and oven gloves!!!

For the portobello mushrooms, season, drizzle with oil and place round the side of the pan on the grill to cook, turn them over so both sides are cooked through evenly. YUM

Serve it with a squeeze of lemon, extra chilli and extra coriander. If you're not into coriander, use parsley or oregano instead.

Loved this meal so much.

So extras we did on the bbq too.

Tom Yum Goong & Thai Red Curry Recipes Coming...

Bit More Thai Including Garlic Cashew Rice, Greens and Papaya Salad

Outside our hotel :-)

This is the amount of condiments I need in my life.

Chilli Powder/Soy Sauce/Fish Sauce/Chilli Sauce/ Chilli Oil/Sweet Chilli Sauce/Salt/White Pepper

:-)

I'm OBSESSED with this...Garlic Rice with Cashews

Cook up your rice separately then crush and finely slice 2 cloves of garlic and 2 big handfuls of cashews and gently fry them in oil with a dash of fish sauce and soy sauce- about 1 x tbsp of each- add a generous glug of oil and cook until golden. Mix this in with your cooked rice- save some cashews to sprinkle over the top when serving. It's SO GOOD!! It has a really great toasted/roasted flavour to it. 

TRY IT.

This is also super simply but tastes amazing and you can do it with any version of greens, pak choy, morning glory, asparagus..whatever you fancy. 

Crush and finely slice 2 x cloves of garlic then gently cook in oil- don't let them go golden so cook on a low heat in a small amount of oil, then add 3 generous glugs of oyster sauce and add the cleaned greens and cook on medium heat for 3/4 mins. Serve the veg so it's still crispy and not overcooked. 

This with rice is totally enough for me but...there's other options!

Like this...add your greens and cashew garlic rice to your tom yum soup...it take it to the next level. 

This is such a good dinner party meal too, people can help themselves this way.

I must have eaten this a million times when I was away...seafood every time :-)

Ratchaprapa Dam- beyond beautiful, we drove there, about 2hrs from Khoa Lak-

The long boats that take you out and around the dam.

We got to dive in off the boat, no one around but us :-) 

Make your own soup...into it :-)

Green Papaya can be bought fresh or shredded and frozen...either works for this as all the flavour is in the sauce.

Papaya Fresh/Or Frozen (defrost in tepid water)

White cabbage/ chinese Cabbage- to bulk out the salad 

Cucumber

Sauce-

3 Garlic Cloves

Pinch of Salt

1 lime

Cherry Tomatoes quartered x 6

1 Red Chilli (Or to Taste)

3/4 Tablespoons of shaved palm sugar (Normal sugar can work if desperate)

3 Tablespoons of fish sauce (to taste)

Muddle all of the above and double quantities if make larger portions or if you like extra sauce

Mix with veg....

Garnish with coriander and some finely sliced fresh mint.

I still need to learn how to do this!!

Probably a quatre of our evening feast.

Our beach waitress

Holiday Pics...PARADISE and some Thai food.

Non photoshopped pics...actually this gorgeous and what's great is it feels like it never happened.

Nham Whan (Nelly) 2.5yrs, strong on the pitch

Fresh caught Seabass

Which I chose to have deep fried...upps, just fancied it!! I'd been healthy up until that point!

I didn't eat these but they looked so good.

The most people ever on the beach at one time.

:-) A good 8 hours, practically a work day looking out at this :-)

Few drinks daily to get through the trauma of having to watch this go down.

Chilli pepper squid..really peppery, loads of fresh black and white pepper LOADS!

Perfect with a little beer at lunch. 

1 x clove of garlic crushed then finely sliced

Big glug of oil

1 x tbsp of fresh black pepper- big generous one

1/2 red chilli finely sliced-medium sized chilli=medium spice/sml chilli= hottttttt

2cm piece of ginger crushed and finely sliced then cubed.

Fry it all up and season with a dash of fish sauce and a dash of soy.

Add the sliced squid into the sauce once you've cooked it on a high heat for a few minutes and cook the squid for a further 2mins, it will curl up further once it's cooked through.

YUM (and NO carbs!!)

YUM

Freshly caught that day...

More YUM

Loved the chefs on hand to cook whichever fish you wanted and whichever way you wanted, steamed, fried, poached and bbq'd.

This beach every day x 11 days

Similan Islands..top 10 diving site world wide, sand so white, sea SO blue and loads of fish just like Nemo. Shame about the tourist speed boat with the mentalist tour guide Sean who'd stayed at the party a bit too long :-(