Thai coconut soup

It has been quite a mission to find a supermarket in London that I feel comfortable buying products. There is a hierarchy based on social status when you go grocery shopping. Whole Foods Market, which is an American “natural” and “organic” market is considered to be luxurious. In fact, it is 3 times more expensive than in the U.S. It is also limited in the selection. But this is something I have noticed in all supermarkets. There is a lack of fresh produces. Everything is packed, pre-packed, precooked and ready to be eaten for the many city workers. Tesco, which is a popular supermarket is average nothing like a Publix. There is no equivalent of Publix, at least in the center of London. Watrose is a high hand grocery store and despite their lack of options they do carry quite some interesting fresh produces like lemon grass. Because I rarely can find lemon grass in the store in Tallahassee, FL, I decided to make a coconut thai soup.

 

Coconut Thai Soup

Lemon grass cut in small pieces

Cilantro chopped

fresh chili (one chopped)

Half fresh green/white cabbage

one can coconut milk

a hand full of fresh small tomatoes (cherry)

Fresh mushrooms

one teaspoon of curry

one teaspoon of cumin

some vegetable broth

(I think I am forgetting something)

Chopped all veggie, pour some olive oil and garlic minced in a pot and add all the veggie. Brown for few minutes and add the coconut milk and broth. Stir and let it cook until all veggies are soft. 

You can serve with rice, add pulled chicken or tofu. It takes only 30 minutes to make.

Enjoy!

Minestrone Gin

This is all I had in the fridge:

The only thing I could even imagine to cook was some sort of minestrone, stew, frantoiana. Frantoiana is the best soup you can ever eat. It’s a dense zuppa famous is #Lucca, #Tuscany. It’s made with cabbage, beans and roasted spicy bread. I decided to improvise and make some sort of #zuppa. Let me tell you, at first I was skeptical but it turned out to be delicious.

Minestrone a la Gin

one bag frozen peas and carrots

one bag frozen cauliflowers

half onion (diced)

4 cloves of garlic (chopped)

half lemon

some fennel

one shallot

one large patotoes

one can of tomatoes

one tablespoon of cumin

one tablespoon tandoori spices

one tablespoon oregano

salt and pepper

olive oil

one can organic pinto beans smashed

old bread to toast and make croutons (as well as a variety of dry herbs)

2 cups of water (half liter).

pecorino cheese

the butt of parmigiano reggiano cheese

fresh herbs (oregano, basil, cilantro, thyme, rosemary, etc)

I hope that’s all. I really put everything in here. I wanted to be tasty, so I experimented with a lot of different spices. I met not too long ago a PhD student from Iran and she told me how she use lemon with her stew. It was awesome.

The first thing you want to do is place all the chopped onions, garlic and shallot, fresh herbs in a large pot covered with generous layer of olive oil. Add the oregano, the cumin and the tandoori spices. Add the lemon and the fennel chopped finely as well. Let it cook until it is brown and gold.

Add the frozen veggies and the potato chopped. Salt and pepper and cook on medium/high. Cook at least for 10 minutes. Add a can of tomatoes and the water. Stir and let cook for 15 minutes.

In the meantime smash the beans (one can will be enough). Then prepare the croutons. Cut old bread in cubes. Place in a large bowl with dry herbs and olive oil. Mix well. Then place on a baking sheet and place in the over to toast. Delicious. Set aside.

Taste the soup now. If it tastes like nothing add spices/herbs to it. At this point it should not be as running as early. Add the bean paste. Stir. Cook on low heat for 5-15 minutes. I like mine when it gets a little bit burned on the bottom. It is very dense and not running.

Serve the bread on the bottom (or top). Pour the minestrone. Sprinkle with cheese and olive oil and serve hot.

Cod and Tilapia healthy cooking

I had a filet of cod and one of tilapia I had to cook. This recipe turned out to be delicious; very tasty and super healthy, low calories. It’s amazing how you can put some herbs together and get something so flavory. On a side note, I have been super busy with #FSU3DS, this event I helped organizing at FSU. It’s a 3 day workshop for students to start their own tech business. No joke!. It has been amazing and really motivated me to look into having my own business. But with business you need fuel for your brain so eat some fish!

I had some left over capper sauce which I used to marinate the fish. What you want to do get a cup of big or small cappers, add a cup of fresh parsley, add olive oil and one or two lemon juice. Mix everything with the hand mixer and place in a skillet with a spoon of olive oil and some toasted garlic. Add some water so the sauce does not stick and burn. At that point add the fish (you can use any type of fish). Cover the fish with oregano. Cover with 1/4 of orange juice. Cover with a lid and let cook for 20 minutes. Done.

This was truly a big surprise. The fish gets to be boiled in water and juice. It is tender and very light. Delicious.

Again, I have no time to take pictures so you get a tomato. Ahahahah

Asian curry stew

I made this crazy spicy soup/stew served with brown rice tonight out of left overs. Literally, I had nothing to cook except for a left over grilled tilapia fish, 3 chicken stripes, scallions, onions, a can of tomatoes, and 1/4 of coconut milk, oh and fresh cilantro. What could I make with these ingredients that it is actually eatable? I came up with an asian/italian stew/soup. Just to let you know if you keep cooking the sauce on low heat for a long time you will get a stew, kind of vindaloo dish. If you are in a rush you will get more a soup thing. Also this recipe is super spicy.

Asian Italian crazy soup with brown rice

3 strips of chicken cut long and thin

one left over grilled tilapia fish chopped

1/2 cup of fresh scallions chopped

1/4 chopped cilantro

1/4 cocunut milk

1 spoon yellow curry

one can tomatoes

one clove of garlic minced

1/4 chopped onion

one spoon (light) of soy bean sauce (bought at Asian market)

one spoon (light) peanut sauce (bought at Asian market)

one teaspoon chopped finely rosemary

one small bottle of clams or fish juice

Add water as needed

In a skillet heat olive oil with garlic and onion. Add chicken. Brown the chicken then add the coconut milk with the curry. Add tomato can and fresh cilantro and scallions. Stir all. Cook on medium-low heat. Add the peanut sauce, soy bean sauce and stir very well. Add the fish. (if you are vegetarian substitute meat with tofu). 

In the meantime cook brown rice according to package directions. It should be steamed. 

Note:  this is a version of a stew. It will taste better if you cook it on low heat over a long period of time. The flavors will merge together, but I made it in 30 minutes!!

Serve a ball of rice (you can use the measuring cups to shape it) in the middle of a bowl. Add the stew around it. Sprinkle with cashews. Serve if you like with fresh garnish cilantro. Now, this recipe has strong flavors. The curry is spicy as well as the soy bean sauce. The peanut sauce is very powerful and if you put too much it will overpower the entire recipe. Just a head up. This is very spicy. 

 

P.s. If you want a low carb version, omit the rice. That is what I did for me:0

 

Organic low fat roasted chicken

Today was awesome in terms of food, but my computer is still dead and it is not looking good. On top of my hard drive being dead, my DVD player is not working which prevents me from rebooting my computer with the new hard drive. Ah!
Let me focus on the positive.
breakfast
Awesome bowl of milk with granola that smells like peach
3 eggs, a spoon of hummus and a spoon of peanut butter
snack
A lot;) all kind of nuts and fresh grapes
dinner
Roasted lemon chicken
Buy a small organic chicken (13$)
One lemon, garlic and olive oil.
Rub the bird with oregano olive oil salt pepper garlic and lemon. Do the same for the inside of the bird and stick a lemon in it. Brown the chicken first on the stove with some olive oil until all sides are brown, then place it in the oven at 350 for as long as it takes. Add some broth. Add carrots 20 minutes before the end of cooking. Make sure to wet the bird through out the baking process. Cover bird with aluminum.

Tonight we are granting a carbs item even thought I was not really praising it. So my hubby picked mashed potatoes. He is making them from scratch. I still have to decide whether I will eat them or not.
On a different note, has anyone noticed that there are more obese or fat people around? I was running errands today and I was just amazed to see that 3/5 of people were fat especially young adults. This is scary. I was just reading that buses are expanding seats to accommodate the ever growing population. The same has been done in hospitals for equipment like beds. Now, how ironic is that? We are teaching people that it is ok to engage in a deadly diet because we make profit out of you with drugs, specialized equipment, doctors visits and food. This is wrong.