salad polamai : fruit salad

Salad Polamai: Fruit Salad

I like Fruit very much. I can’t stand a day without having fruit. I like to serve fruit before dinner time and like to force every one to eat fruit.

I love to take advantage of the fresh fruit in season. You can use any fruit that is on hand and as many as you want.

Find below a recipe

2 cups of Rock Melon
2 cups of Pomelo
2 cups of Avocado
2 tablespoons of sharlotte or Garlic, finely chopped (Optional)
1-2 tablespoons of Lemon Juice
1-2 tablespoons of Orange Juice
2-3 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Optional)
1 taespoon of Sea Salt (less or more depends on your liking)
1 teaspoon of Vanilla extract. (Optional)
Freshly ground Black Pepper
A dash of Brown Sugar
A handful of fresh Mint

Garnish (Optional)
Lemon Zest
Orange Zest

Preparation

In a small bowl, add chopped sharlottte, olive oil, lemon & orange juice, sea salt & brown sugar, whisk till well blended
In a large salad bowl, gently add pomelo, avocado & rock melon
Add the dressing in a salad bowl and toss lightly
Leave to set for 3 minutes (keep in the refrigerator if not being served right away.)
Remove into a serving plate
Sprinkle with black pepper & fresh mint
Serve cool at room temperature.

Serves: 3

tum kanoon : stir-fried jackfruit with pork cracking

Tum Kanoon: Fried Jackfruit with Pork Cracking

This is a real northern dish. My mother & my father were originally from North (Chiang Rai) and my mother re-located to Bangkok since she was 15 years old.

I remember that when I was young my grandmother & my mum used to cook this dish for me very often – therefore, it becomes my favourtie. Now that I don’t live with my mum anymore, I missed it from time to time. When I happened to get a chance to go to Chiang Mai or Chiang Rai – I always ordered this particular dish from local restaurants.

I, personally, like to call it "Phad Kanoon" instead of "Tum Kanoon" because to me it feels right to call it "Phad".

Find below my very own recipe of “Phad Kanoon”

5-6 Cups of young Jackfruit, peeled & boiled – cut into small bits
3 Cups of Pork Cracking

2 Cups of Tomato, halved & then quatred
3 Tablespoons of Olive Oil
3 Tablespoons of Fish Sauce

1 ½ Tablespoons of Palm Sugar
3-6 Red Charlotte, peeled & roasted (depends how big they are)

2 Cloves of Garlic, roasted
3 Dried Red Chillies, roasted
1Tablespoon of Galangal, roasted

2 Tablespoons of Corinder, finely chopped

2 Tablespoons of Kaffir lime Leaves, Finely sliced

1 Tablespoon of Shrimp Paste

For Garnish
3-4 Dried Red Chillie, fired

Pork Cracking
Basil leaves

Preparation

Pound roasted red charlotte, garlic, dried red chillies, & roasted galangal wiht a large mortar & pestle till almost fine.
Add bits of boiled jackfruit in, continue to pound till mixed well
Remove from a Mortar and set a side
Set a wok over medium heat
Add olive oil, wait till hot
Add pounded jackfruit paste in a wok, stir-fry till aromatic

Add tomatoes, stir to combine well
Add fish sauce & palm sugar, stir to mix well
Add half of pork cracking, stir-fry very quickly
Remove into a serving plate
Sprinkle with, chopped corainder, chopped kaffir lime leaves, & the rest of pork cracking
Serve with fried dried-chillies, basil leaves, steamed rice or sticky rice

(Note : the pictures are taken from Elle Decor.)

mun tod : fried sweet potato thai style

Fried Sweet Potato/Banana Thai Style : Mun Tod/Gluay Tod

This is a very popular street food recipe. Thai people really like “Gluay Tod” or in another name”Gluay Kaek”. The reason Thai called it "Gluay Kaek" is probably because a word "Kaek" means Indian and I guess its originally from India.

Generally, we (Thai) cook it two ways – with banana or with sweet potato.

I really liked it when I was very young as it’s always there in fornt of my school’s gate. While I was waiting for my Mum to pick me up, I bought at least 5 pieces to eat after school.

The main reason that it is popular, I assumed, that because banana is very cheap in Thailand and, if you ever notice, 70% of our desserts are mostly made from banana.

Anyway, I didn’t use banana this time as I happened to crave for sweet potato (Lately, I eat a lot of steamed Japanese Sweet Potato).

Feel free to use banana if you happen to cook it. It’s as good or, perhaps, even better.

Find below my very own recipe

Ingredients

7 of (medium) sweet potato or banana (small sugar bannana if possible), cut
lengthwise, into 2-4 long pieces (depens on how big the sweet potato or banana.)
50 g of rice flour
30 g of flour
20 g of tapioca flour
3 tablespoons of brown Sugar
A pinch of sea salt
¼ cup of white & black sesame
1 cup of water
½ cup of coconut milk (optional)
1 cup of coconut, grated
1+1/2 teaspoon of raising flour (or a half cup of hydrolised lime water)
2-3 cups of Cooking oil (coconut oil is recommended)

Preparation

Sieve together rice flour, flour & raising flour 2 times
Add salt, & brown sugar mix well
Add sesame, grated coconut, mix well
Add water, stir till mixed well
Dip cut sweet potato pieces into the batter
Set the wok over high heat, wait till becoming hot
Add cooking oil, wait till the oil becoming very hot
Deep-fly the coated sweet potato, till turns golden & crispy
Remove from the wok into a big paper towel to absorb excess oil, set aside
Serve cold with a hot cup of tea

mixed fresh fruit & low-fat yogurt

Mixed Fresh Fruit with Low-fat Yogurt

I always like Breakfast, despite the fact that I hate getting up early.
Oh well, I always like Brunch … it sounds better this way.

I like to serve something different for breakfast so that people wouldn’t get bored of having the same thing on the table every morning.

Find one of my most favourite breakies: Mixed Fresh Fruit with Low-fat Yogurt.

½ Cup of Mango, diced
½ Cup of Green Flesh – Mellon Honeydew, diced
½ Cup of Orange Flesh – Mellon Honeydew, diced
(Any kind of fresh fruit that’s on hand)

1-2 Cups of Low-fat Yogurt
Honey (good quality)

For Garnish
Mint Leaves

fresh banana with chocolate sauce

Fresh Banana with Chocolate Sauce

I happen to be having a "sweet tooth" who loves Desserts to bits... especially, those fancy desserts. I can eat desserts without having any proper meals at all in a day and still feeling super duper.
Realistically, we cant be able to eat too much of dessert as too much of sugar intake causes you diabetes.

So, I manage to come up with more reasonable and more compromised ideas like ; recipes of desserts that contain more of "fresh fruit" rather than loads of carbohydrates. They are still sweet, sugary and containing loads of calories but at least, you replace carbohydrates with vitamins.

Find below a very simple and delicious recipe "Fresh Banana with Chocolate Dip"

1-2 of Fresh Banana, cut into 1. ½ inch pieces
¼ Cup of Almond Flakes

Chocolate Dipping Sauce
150g/5oz dark chocolate (72% cocoa solids), broken into pieces
100ml/3½fl oz water
3 Tablespoons of whole Milk
3 Tablespoons of unsalted Butter


Preparation

• Make the chocolate sauce, place half of the water in a pan and bring to the boil
• Add a small amount of chocolate pieces to the boiling water.
• Stir until the chocolate melts.
• Add more water and chocolate bit by bit, until the sauce reaches the desired consistency.
• Add milk and butter, whisk constantly over a low heat.

• Place Banana bits in to a serving plate
• Sprinkle with Almonds Flakes
• Serve with a cup of Chocolate Sauce

homemade pancake with fresh fruit

Homemade Pancake with Fresh Strawberry and Banana

Kids love pancake and so do I. Cooking for kids can be fun as we get to please who we love. Kids are adorable… and they can be handful in the kitchen if you are patient enough. The most difficult thing when it comes to cooking for kids is to get them to eat something good & healthy.

Pancake is a good way of getting them to eat Fresh fruit.

Find below my homemade recipe of Pancake.

Flour 150g
Baking Powder 1 Teaspoon
Sugar 2 Tablespoons
Milk (low-fat/ whole depends on your preference) 150ml.
Unsalted Butter 15g
Egg 1
Vanilla Pod 1 (or Vanilla Extract ¼ Teaspoon)
Pinch of Salt
Oil

Fresh Strawberry
Fresh Banana
(Kiwi, Blueberry or Mango - anything on hand)
Icing Sugar



Preparation

• In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
• Make a well in the centre and pour the milk, egg and melted butter, mix till smooth
• Heat a frying pan over medium heat
• Pour the pancake mixture onto the frying pan, using about ¼ cup of each pancake
• Cook for 2-3 mins or till bubbles start to form on the pancake surface.
• Turn and cook for 2-3 mins
• Remove into s serving plate
• Sprinkle with Icing Sugar
• Serve with Fresh Strawberry and Banana and Honey

fresh strawberry and low-fat yogurt

Simple Breakie: Low-fat Yogurt and Fresh Strawberry

How you should start your day?
With a good breakie, of course.

At times, I love mine with a cup of Low-fat Yogurt and Fresh Fruit: Fresh Strawberry, 2 slices of toasts and a cup of "morning breakfast" tea.

I very much value good Breakfast. Maybe, because its the only meal that we always eat/share together at home everyday and everybody gets to be at ease sitting and talking to catch up with everything.

Breakfast is very important meal to start your day and as people trend to get bored easily.(Oh well, we do)
So, what you can do is to try to change your daily menu. It's important that you must have carbohydrate in your breakfast, especially with complex carbohydrate like "7 grains" or "whole wheat".

Complex Carbohydrate is necessary for women: it stimulates our metabolism system and it keeps us full for long hours till Lunch time.

"Complex carbohydrates or starch are simply sugars bonded together to form a chain. Digestive enzymes have to work much harder to access the bonds to break the chain into individual sugars for absorption through the intestines.

For this reason digestion of complex carbohydrates takes longer. The slow absorption of sugars provides us with a steady supply of energy and limits the amount of sugar converted into fat and stored!"


Anyway, I can show you how I arrange my daily breakfast in a week.

Monday

1 Slice of “7 Grain” Toast with Marmalade
1 Cup of Tea
1 Cup of Fresh Fruit with Low-fat Yogurt
1 small Glass of Orange Juice

Tuesday

1 Boiled Egg
2 Slices of “Whole Wheat” Toast
1 Cup of Hot Chocolate / or Coffee
1 small Glass of Orange Juice

Wednesday

1 Cup of Cereal with Fresh Fruit (Strawberry, Blueberry, Kiwi & Banana)with Milk
1 Cup of Tea/Coffee
1 small Glass of Orange Juice

Thursday

1 Cup of Muesli with Fresh Fruit (Strawberry, Blueberry, Kiwi & Banana)with Milk
1 Cup of Tea/Ceffee
1 small Glass of Orange Juice

Friday

1 Slice of "7 Grain" Toast
1 Fried Egg with 1 Fried Canadian Bacon
1 Cup of Coffee/ Tea
1 small Glass of Orange Juice

Saturday

1 Bowl of Pork Congee
1 Cup of Milk
1 Glass of Orange Juice
1 small Plate of fresh Papaya

Sunday

2 of Scrambled Eggs with Smoked Salmon. (my favourite Brunch ever!!)
1 Slice of “whole wheat” Toast
1 Cup of Coffee/Tea
1 small Glass of Orange Juice
½ of Grapefruit

fresh "date"

Fresh "Date"

My first time seeing fresh "dates", they are really cute!!

I always see dried "dates" and never ever once see them fresh and in Bangkok.

If you want to taste them fresh now you can find them at Food Hall at Central Chilom or at Top's Supermarket.

Anyway, I google about "Date" and find below some more details.



The fruit is a drupe known as a date. They are oval-cylindrical, 3–7 cm long, and 2–3 cm diameter, and when unripe, range from bright red to bright yellow in colour, depending on variety. Dates contain a single seed about 2–2.5 cm long and 6–8 mm thick. Three main Cultivar Groups of date exist; soft (e.g. 'Barhee', 'Halawy', 'Khadrawy', 'Medjool'), semi-dry (e.g. 'Dayri', 'Deglet Noor', 'Zahidi'), and dry (e.g. 'Thoory'). The type of fruit depends on the glucose, fructose and sucrose content.

The Date Palm is dioecious, having separate male and female plants. They can be easily grown from seed, but only 50% of seedlings will be female and hence fruit bearing, and dates from seedling plants are often smaller and of poorer quality. Most commercial plantations thus use cuttings of heavily cropping cultivars, mainly 'Medjool' as this cultivar produces particularly high yields of large, sweet fruit. Plants grown from cuttings will fruit 2–3 years earlier than seedling plants.

Read more about >>> Date

longong

It’s a Longong's Season.

Lately, it seems to me that everywhere I go there are "Longongs".
So, it does not seem right to have them left out not talking about at all.

Longongs are popularly grown and originally from Malayu Indonesia, Philippines and southern part of Thailand. Their season is during early July - late October.


Longongs are sticky sweet, juicy and fragrant.

They are full of Vitamin B (Vitamins B in Greens and Fruit help your body make protein and energy: breaking down, using and reforming the building blocks of proteins.) and Phosphorus (Phosphorus helps form healthy bones and teeth. It also helps the body make energy. It is part of every cell membrane, and every cell in the body needs phosphorus to function normally.)



Anyway, Greens & Fruit are always good for your body and your immune system. But if they are conveniently there to hands and in season, it does not necessarily mean that it’s always good to eat them every single day.

What I am saying is that you should not eat the same thing everyday, especially the same Veggies and the same Fruit. It’s not entirely safe and it’s not healthy to repeat eating the same thing for a long period of time. (Too much of Sugar and Pesticide intake)

Cooking different kind of Veggies and having different kind of fruit in your daily menu.

"Moderation" is the key word.

watermelon

Watermelon

: ) i like it very much.

what a very simple fruit that tastes so good.
reminds me of a phrase " simplicity is the best"

its a very common & inexpensive fruit in Thailand.
its very popular and always available... all year round.

besides, mangosteen, i think like watermelon and orange the 2nd best.

banana pancakes

Banana Pancakes : Riya's Style

: )

time to write this recipe.

thanks for leaving a comment telling me that my banana pancakes look like a jellyfish!

anyway, i believe that anyone who is interested in cooking knows how to cook pancakes.
so, am not going to write how to cook, only giving the recipe which i have got from "jamie oliver"'s cookbook.

serves 6

• 3 large free-range or organic eggs
• 115g plain flour
• 1 heaped teaspoon baking powder
• 140ml milk
• salt
• 2 knobs of butter
• 3 tablespoons caster sugar
• 4 bananas
• crème fraîche & honey

Tip : a couple of scoops of vanilla ice cream with your banana pancakes can make your day. : P

find below a link to Jamie's recipe

jamie's pancakes

mango with sticky rice in coconut cream

Mango with Sticky Rice in Coconut Cream
This Thai-Dessert is very common in Thailand.
You can always find it easily everywhere.

The best one I have come across is from.

"Mae Waree" @ Sukhumvit 55 (Soi Thonglor)
tel. 662 392 4804, 662 714 0419

banana in syrup : thai style

Banana in Syrup : Thai Style

1 liter of water to boil
2 cups of sugar into the boiled water
bananas into the boiled & reduced syrup

Coconut Cream

1 cup of coconut cream
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 tablespoon of corn flour
a dash of salt