My Carrot Sticks

Very often, a picture could be a good inspiration for a successful recipe. Sometimes, it is a measure of the success - or failure - of an amateur cook. 

In my case, I started by being mesmerized for a couple of seconds by this wonderful picture, and went as far as away as I dared to try my own variant. In my picture, the result doesn't look too tasty. Or even not tasty at all. But, believe me, at the end of the first 5 minutes of complaining about how unskillful cook I am, half of the products were eaten - and not by me, as a form of extreme punishment. At the end of the day, maybe I am only a bad photographer.

The ingredients, for 2 persons:
10 carrots peeled and boiled and thereafter sliced
2 cloves of garlic
100 ml. sesame oil
2 tablespoon of sesame seeds
1/2 teaspoon of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
All ingredients are fried at 250C for between 15 - 20 minutes.
Bon Appetit!

Vegetables in coconut milk

Let's return to our Thai atmosphere - and, in my case, memories.

My basic source of inspiration for this recipe is here, but also my brain and taste that remember very well the tasty food I had in Thailand not so long time ago.

The maximum time for preparing is of approximately 1h.30 - depending of the time of boiling the vegetables. This is a dish for three persons.

Beforehand, you need to shop the following vegetables:

carrots - 7, to be boiled and then sliced

potatoes - 15, medium seize, boiled and then sliced

scallion - 7 finely chopped

garden beans (see the previous post) - 10, finely chopped

tomatoes - 5, sliced

ginger - 2-3 finely sliced

dill - one bunch, finely chopped

After the carrots and potatoes are ready, add the whole group of ingredients in a pan - 150 C heated - , where you add some canola oil - 100 g.

After maximum 15 minutes, you add 1 l. of coconut milk, add some salt - if do you have with some herbs, even better - and mix over and over again. If you have some saffron too, even better, and you will obtain a wonderful light yellow colour. Just the right rainbow for making you even hungrier and learn you to love for ever the Thai food. As I do.
Bon appetit!

Moroccan carrot salad

From time to time, I simply fell in love with some recipes and/or ingredients. The taste effect is so strong that I can't live without. One of my long lasting relationship is with avocado: I use it all the time, as often as possible. Recently, I refreshed my reserves of avocado honey.

The latest entry is the Maroccan salad, I picked up the last week, from the same Cohen's book. Since, I did it again this Wednesday and again today. 

My adapted variant is:

4 - or more, up to the number of guests - carrots, finely gratted

1 bunch of fresh parsley

30 gr. sesame seeds

100 gr. canola oil

1 spoon of salt

1 spoon of sugar

1 spoon of lemon juice

The carrots, the oil, the salt, the sasame, the sugar and the lemon juice, are heated together for 10-15 minutes, carefully mixed. At the end, you add the parsley leaves and you can serve it!

For me, the gratted part of the story was the most demanding one, as I need, probably, more exercises at the gym!

Emergency pasta

a

 It was one of the days when I was overwhelmed by work - writing, of course - and under the terrible pressure to solve in a very quick time the pressing question of feeding the impatient kid. The kid being in a terrible hurry herself, with only two hours between the school program and her sport class. 

I had a short look around and it was a kind of disaster, one day of the usual weekly refuel shopping. 

Then I saw the big salvation:

- four fat bananas 

- five delicate carrots 

- some curry powder 

- the rests of some butter - 150 gr. 

and...ladies and gentlemen, the queen of my kitchen - a pack full of commoner fussili                            

Without saying a single word for not disturbing the laments of the kid complaining as usual about the difficult fate to be about 12 yo and with a mother always busy writing various untranslatable things, I put the water in the pot for boiling the fussili and the carrots, peeled the bananas and cut into medium-size pieces, prepared the butter. In maximum 30 minutes - the good amount of time to finish polishing some words -, the pots were boiling. Took out discretely the carrots, cut them into medium-size pieces, added the bananas and the butter, plus some 100 mgr. of olive oil, spread the curry, mixed all together and...when the pressure from the children room was increasing, shouted loudly: do you expect a special invitation, sweet squirrel? If I remember correctly, somebody was hurrying up...                                         Without giving me any credit, she entered reluctantly the kitchen and asked: What is this? Your lunch, baby, of course. Set the table quietly (the duty of those who don't make the food) and in the next 15 minutes, it was so quiet in the house...Simply delicious, I was congratulated when nothing was left in the pan. Everybody was happy, but I was the happiest, for passing, once again, the difficult test of motherhood.