The famous Laura Thai Marinade

My thai marinade has become infamous with those who frequent our dinner table and also when we are invited to barbeques. I get asked for the recipe all the time, so finally folks, here is the secret to my Thai success!

This amount makes enough marinade to coat 6 chicken skewers, or 2 pieces of meat.

Combine the following in a bowl or measuring cup:

• 1 stalk lemon grass, end roughly chopped
• 2-3 Tbs olive or peanut oil (I use olive)
• 1 fresh red chilli, de-seeded if desired
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped coriander
• 1 tablespoon grated ginger
• 2 Tbs fish sauce
• 2 tsp brown sugar

Mix well, so the sugar dissolves. Pour over your favourite meat - I have done this with chicken, turkey and fish and all have turned out superbly. I think it would taste good on pork, but unsure about red meats.

The marinading can be done an hour before cooking the meat. I usually give it 4 hours.

The meat can then be grilled, barbequed or baked.

Thai marinade in action!

On Tuesday night I had 3 of my gorgeous girlfriends over for dinner and we were having so much fun and laughing without the need for alcohol!

Our dinner was detox friendly, pregnancy friendly and dairy free. 

Not only did we have Thai marinade chicken, but we also had sweet potato slices shallow fried in coconut oil, garlicky goodness snowpeas and a simple & delicious salad provided by Kate & Erin - toasted almonds, broccolini, avocado, tomato and lettuce mix in a balsamic dressing.

Easy Entertaining - Easy as Dips

 

At high school I did this horrible subject called Easy Entertaining. The idea on this cooking class was to show  you how easy it is to cook for people you are entertaining for. A roast dinner, complete with bread & butter pudding for dessert plus the kitchen cleaned up all within an hour was not Easy Entertaining! Saucepans on fire, silicon paper causing toxic smoke after someone put it in the microwave, shaking with fear when showing your cooking efforts to the teacher for inspection.... ahh, the memories. Needless to say this subject left a permanent scar on me as far as what "easy" cooking entailed and scared me away from cooking for years.

If I was in charge of the subject, first lesson - making dips! Dips are so ridiculously easy, even my high school self could make them and would come away smiling.

For a Melbourne Cup barbecue this year, I decdied to make 3 very simple but tasty dips in a flash!

As I am unsure of the exact amount of dip made, I will use the size of the dip bowl in the pictures to  try and explain.

Tzatziki

I like to make this dip first, as I like to put it back in the fridge for a while before serving.
Grate up half a lebanese cucumber. I chopped mine with a knife when grated, but to break up the pieces a bit smaller.
Combine in a bowl: 2 crushed garlic cloves, the cucumber and 360g of Greek style yoghurt, pepper to taste. Mix until the cucumber is evenly distributed in the bowl, then put in the fridge until serving. This also allows time for the cucumber and garlic flavours to infuse in the dip for longer.

This dip is the perfect partner for some freshly baked pita bread chips - brush some oil lightly over pita bread, add some spice mix (I like cumin and pepper), then bake in a 180C oven for 10 minutes, or until crispy. YUM.

Makes 5 bowls worth.

Hommus

Hommus, hummus, houmus... you get the idea. Its one of these. This was my first attempt at hommus after half watching a chef make it on tv. Surely I won't need a recipe!

Blend together in a food processor or good blender: 1 can of drained & washed chickpeas, 2 tablespoons of tahini, 2 garlic cloves, the juice of 1 lemon, 1/4 cup of water, 1 tsp cumin, a good dash of olive oil and salt, chilli powder and pepper to taste. Blend until smooth.
Drizzle some olive oil on top with some paprika before serving

The mixture will be quite dry and may clog up. I spent a lot of time declogging my blender, but it worked out in the end!

Makes 4 bowls worth.

Guacamole

This tasty one I left until last, as avocado can change colour if left out too long and I wanted the dip to look its best! It also takes a total of 2 minutes to make.

Buy 1 avocado, which is pretty ripe (when squeezing it, it should be fairly soft, but the outside should not crack when squeezing). Spoon out all the flesh from one avocado into a bowl. combine with a dash of extra virgin olive oil, the juice of 1/2 a lime, 1 tsp of freshly chopped coriander, plus pepper & chilli flakes / powder to taste. Mash up the avocado using the back of a spoon (the softer the avocado, the easier to mash) and mix with all the ingredients until you get a consistency which you like - some like smooth, some like chunky!

Makes 2 bowls worth.


Once you start making your own dips, store bought ones just won't taste as good and you will be a hit at your friends parties for putting in the extra effort.

Good luck with your next entertaining project!

Spicy garlicky cripsy goodness snow peas & salmon

Ok, I think the title gives you the idea on what this is all about.

Recipe inspired from myrecipes.com, snow peas fresh from my in-laws garden :)

Tonights meal - hoisin glazed salmon, with steamed vegies and spicy garlic snow peas!

Hoisin salmon: 2 tablespoons of hoisin sauce, 2 teaspoons of tamari (or soy sauce) and 1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil. Marinading only needed to be done 10 minutes prior to cooking. I cooked mine in a fry pan with a bit of coconut oil, but it can also be baked.

The snow peas were the star of this dish and I had to share how to make AMAZING snow peas in 5 minutes!

Heat 1 tsp of coconut oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add snow peas and 1/4 teaspoon salt; sauté for 2 minutes. Stir in 2 crushed garlic cloves and your choice of spices (I used Shichimi pepper mix); sauté for 1 minute. Stir in 1/4 teaspoon sugar; sauté 1 minute. Remove from heat; drizzle with 1/2 teaspoon dark sesame oil. Spicy, garlicky, sweet, crispy goodness.

And the steam vegies on the side, look to my steam vegies blog for more on those!

Superfood Soup - aka Naturopath Bingo Soup!

*vegan friendly *gluten free *dairy free *contains sesame seeds – avoid if allergic!

Why Naturopath Bingo?

Us naturopaths give great advice to patients on superfoods which are fantastic for health. And we all know the best foods so give prescriptions for the same foods. Thats why you could play naturopathic bingo with this soup. Its full of the amazing superfoods that naturopaths rave about which are full of nutrients and are so good for your health!

Superfood stars of this soup...

•   Kale – Kale is the number one choice for naturopaths when eating dark leafy greens. Dark leafys are one of the most concentrated sources of nutrients in foods, with them being rich in minerals (including calcium, iron, magnesium and potassium) and vitamins (C, E, K and Bs). They also contain phytonutrients which provide antioxidant properties and are excellent for protecting cells against eye damage and age-related problems. The darker the green, the more nutrients and kale is the darkest green of them all! I had a huge amount of kale delivered to me this week and so I found this soup online so I could utilise it before it went off.

Kale explosion!!

• Quinoa – Known as the mothergrain, quinoa is a complete protein, contains many nutrients and is also high in fibre. I’ve talked about why you should jump on the quinoa bandwagon in another blog, which you can find by clicking here!
• Tahini – Tahini is sesame seed paste and is a fantastic vegan alternative to butter. It is also a great source of protein, as well as omega-3 and 6 fats, calcium, fibre, iron, magnesium, B vitamins and vitamin A. Tahini tastes similar to peanut butter, but is less likely to be oxidised – sesame seed oil is very stable in room temperature.
• Garlic – Garlic is an pungent food which contains many medicinal properties. Raw garlic contains a constituent known as allicin, which is antimicrobial and fantastic to eat when you have a cold. This constituent is not heat stable and will lose its antimicrobial properties when cooked. Add it to the end of your cooking process to receive its full antimicrobial benefits. Garlic is also fantastic for cardiovascular health, lowers cholesterol and blood pressure, helps with liver detoxification and is anti-inflammatory.

I improvised a little as I had a bit more kale and wanted to add a bit more superfood love. Below is the original recipe and the parts in red are the parts I added.

Ingredients:

• 1 small bunch kale *I used a BIG bunch of kale!
• 4 tablespoons olive oil * I used coconut oil instead, as it was for heating.
• 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped *2 brown onions
• 1/2 cup quinoa *1 cup of quinoa, washed thoroughly first
• 1/2 cup green lentils * 400g lentils, washed
• 1 heaping teaspoon cumin 
• 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
• 5 cups water *2 litres of vegetable stock
• 1 vegetable bouillon cube * didn’t use this, as I used liquid stock
• 3 tablespoons tahini, plus more for garnish *4 tablespoons tahini
• 2-3 tablespoons tamari (or soy sauce) *4 tablespoons tamari (wheat-free soy sauce)
• * 4 cloves of smashed garlic

 Method:

1. Wash and de-stem kale (use kitchen shears to cut along the sides of the stems.) Tear the leaves into smallish pieces.
2. Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat, add onion and sauté for 3-4 minutes. 
3. Add quinoa and lentils with 2 cups of stock and cook for 2-3 minutes; add cumin, curry powder, tahini, garlic, tamari and kale. Mix well. Add rest of the stock and bring to a boil. Cover and turn down heat to low. Simmer for 35-40 minutes.



Simmer simmer!

4. Carefully blend the hot soup in a food processor or blender and return to pot. You can skip this step or blend only half of the soup if you want some texture, but I think it’s nicest smooth. Add more tahini and tamari to taste.
5. To garnish, mix 1-2 tablespoons of tahini with a small amount of water until it becomes smooth and bright. Drizzle on top of the soup and serve.

Soup is served!

The verdict...

This soup is delicious and gets better when left for a while. It tastes a little bit salty and I didn’t add any extra tamari at the end, but the aftertaste is amazing and it leaves you feeling satisfied, not full and very healthy!

Original recipe from: http://www.cookthink.com/recipe/11548/Kale_Soup

Apple Sauce

Happy apples... aka happles!

Apple sauce from a jar? Tastes boring! 

Also, do you know whats in jar apple sauce? I went onto the Coles online website to check out the ingredients of a couple...

• Apples: Makes sense. I mean, it IS apple sauce! But what do we know about the apples? Are they fresh? Are they rotten? Are they covered in pesticide sprays? Isn't it better to make it yourself and choose the apples?
• Sugar: The amount of sugar added is not mentioned, nor is the form of sugar.
• Food acid 330: Added as an acidity regulator and antioxidant. This is a citric acid, in which there is not problem in its naturally occurring form. However, with artificially produced 330 (depending where or how it is produced with using sulfuric acid), many believe the product may contain mould, and/or sulphites which were not filtered out of production. For most people, sulphites are safe, however some people are allergic and ingestion can cause asthma and allergic reactions. Most citric acid is produced from corn and manufacturers do not always take out the protein which can be hydrolysed and creates MSG (621) - which is known to cause allergic reactions in many people, so avoid if you are sensitive to MSG. 330 has also been known to damage tooth enamel
• Food acid / Antioxidant 331: Sodium citrates - used to regular acidity and as an antioxidant. It has not caused any known reactions.
• Antioxidant 300: Ascorbic acid - an antioxidant, colour and preservative. Essentially this is a form of Vitamin C.

Why not spend 5 minutes prep time (+ 10 minutes cooking) and make your own? 

Thats some mighty fresh ingredients in this saucepan...

Melt a tiny amount of butter in a saucepan, then add 2 diced apples, ½ chopped red onion, 2 smashed cloves of garlic, a sprig of rosemary, salt, pepper and a small amount of filtered water to make a really tasty savoury apple sauce! Once all our cooked, use a handblender or masher to combine and serve.  

There you have a fresh apple sauce with REAL antioxidants added and tastes amazing.  It really adds a wow to your meals with very little effort!

Blended up and ready to eat!