Hamburger: At what price

With the rising price of oil and life that is becoming expensive everyday can I afford to settle for an hamburger (or simply burger) this evenly sandwich that consists of a cooked patty of ground meat and served with various garnish or condiments like ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, onion, relish, pickles and cheese toppings, placed inside a sliced Hamburger bun, often baked specially for this purpose, or pieces of bread or toast?

Bye Bye Burger!

Thai Cooking: Cocunut Soup

Chicken/Shrimp Coconut Soup

A friend of ours visited us in Bangkok 2 weeks ago and we went to have lunch in a thai restaurant. She had this rich aromatic Thai soup that she asked me to find a recipe for her. I thought it would be nice to post it here for anyone to try.

Note: Try to use fresh lime leaves and if you tear them instead of cutting it is better.
Galangal can be substituted with fresh young ginger.


Shopping if you are in Italy all these products you will find them in the asian Mini markets especially in Forli there is a chinese minimarket that stores all thai products including fresh vegetables. If you are in other countries you just have to find out if there is an asian market near you. I hope there is.
Ingredients:

2 cups (16 fl oz/500 ml) coconut milk
6 thin slices young galangal
2 stalks lemon grass/citronella, use the lower 1/3 portion only, cut into 1-in (2.5-cm) length and crush.
5 fresh lime leave tear in half
8 oz (250 g) boned chicken breast or shrimps (I always like it with shrimps), sliced
5 tablespoons (2 1/2 fl oz/75 ml) fish sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup (4 fl oz/125 ml) lime juice
1 teaspoon black chili paste
1/4 cup cilantro/coriander (maybe can substitute with parsley if you do not like the strong coriander smell) I love it try you might like it)leaves, torn


Cooking steps:

1. Combine half the coconut milk with the galangal, lemon grass and lime leaves in a large saucepan and heat until it boils. Add the chicken or shrimps, fish sauce and sugar.

2. Simmer for about 4 minutes, or until the chicken/shrimps is cooked. Add the remaining coconut milk to the saucepan and heat just to boiling.

3. Place the lime juice and chili paste in a serving bowl then pour the soup into the serving bowl.

4. Garnish with the torn cilantro leaves, and serve.

I always accompany with rice it is yummy!
Serve

Italian cakes: Easter Cakes

Giving peace a chance. This Italian cake called Colomba signifies the dove and it is it a typical Italian cake for every family during Easter.

Easter is way gone but I had mine the other week!
Next time you visit Italy remember to bring 1 home.

Easy simple Italian recipes: Italian delicacies

Call it a snack or light dinner. This cheese is a called "formaggio di fossa"
Quote"Dicth's cheese is a typical local product obtained by the fermentation in the seasoning ditch of the local cheese produced in the area between the Rubicone and Marecchia valleys. The ditch is a subterranean environment dug in tufa with a flask shape. It is 4/7 metres deep with a diameter of 2 metres. Probably, it dates back to the Middle Ages.
The custom of "bury" the cheese has been handing down for centuries, extremly important for local agricultural traditions. The origin of this usage is unknown, perhaps it was used to hide cheese from enemies, or to preserve it in case of siege. But some documents of the XV century show that this usage was practised also when Sogliano was under the MALATESTA's rule (from1278 to 1640 ).
The ditch is open once a year, at the beginning of August. From the first to the fifteen of the month, farmers, traders or whoever wants, can bring their cheese to mature in the dicth and take a jump in past time.
The owners of the ditch make a receipt to certify the deposit. This receipt will be shown when people come back to take the cheese again. Cheese will be previously closed in small bags of cloth, better if they are white. On these small bags, the owners put an identification number related to every donor.
Some days before putting the cheese in the ditch, it occurs the rite of preparation of the dicth, when experts burns some straw inside of the ditch to eliminate humidity, and also to sterilize it from some germs that could damage the regular fermentation. Then, the walls of the ditch are covered with a coat of straw of 15 cm, to isolate tufa. The straw is substained by a scaffolding of vertical canes tied up orizontally by wooden circles; some wooden planks are put on the bottom of the ditch.
At this time, the ditch is ready to receive the cheese temporarily stored.

Then, the ditch is closed with wooden planks and sand to be reopened three months later (in November, in S.Caterina's day). When the miracle is happen the usual cheese, temporarily stored in August, has become DITCH'S CHEESE with an unique taste and fragrance, very different from the initial cheese, because of anaerobic fermentation and decreasing operation it could have a short weight.
Right now, sourrounded by acrid and pungent smells, people can take their small bags again by paying a fee for every kilogram of matured cheese. The ditch's cheese, ready to be eaten, has different shapes, without rind, with a firm or semi-firm texiture depending on the initial cheese. Its colour is straw-yellow, its taste is pungent on the bitterish side. It is right its pungent perfume that makes every dish unique and unforgettable! Among pleasures of "Malatesta's territories" you have to taste it combined with honey."

Fish: Fish recipes in a second

Bringing cooking ideas to the table everyday is not a joke. Sometimes we just run out of them and only we can do is the most traditional thing that comes to the head first.
This is what's happening to me lately, after going to the seaside and seeing lot's of sea food shops I come back with my head full of fish.
But since I have no imagination left for the day I just settle for this.

Oven grilled fish with potato and carrot puree.
Enjoy!
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Grilling on the boat

It's called a floating market, you will find all kind of food being prepared on the boat and while on another boat you can buy and be served all kind of food. This lady menu of the day included grilled fish and all seafood you can imagine you wanted to eat on your trip to the river.
Want to take home some vegetables too? No, Problem the lady on another boat will sell you just that.
Have a grilling boaty day woun't you?

Holiday with Advantage

Stay home mothers who love to cook and bring to the table the best to their families sometimes need to break off with the kitchen routine and relax on a holiday whether it is the beach or mountains,the question is would you rather drive all the way or rent a car on arrival?
choosing to rent a car can be both time saving and money saving. A company like Advantage car rental have very inviting discounts which you can benefit from immediately. With the current economic situation everywhere there is need to to take all opportunities that give us the possibility to save and at the same time enjoy ourselves.
Check Advantage car rental website for all info and more discounts.

Dessert: Improvise from what you have

We had dinner the other day with friends at an Italian restaurant here in Bangkok. The chef gave us a list of the dessert menu and we were like no'Tiramisu' please and the guy said let me see what I can come up with.

Just imagine the bigné cakes that you can get from any supermarket, transforming them into something like this?

Fill in with icecream of your choice, decorate with chocolate syrup if you have. Give it a hollywood touch with a rose or any other flower available yummmmmmyyyy.

Satays: meat skewers

on the same visit to the market I also got this. This lady is preparing Satays which is chicken, beef or pork skewers. Satays are marinated in curry and fish sauce.
To have the wooden skewers not burning them when you start grilling soak them in water. I usually soak them when I prepare the meat as it marinates the skewers are also soaked.
Have a nice skewers weekend

Vegetables I like the floating ones

Our recent visit to a floating market just outside Bangkok, it is amazing how you go shopping on a boat, buy your vegetables and fish from another boat, cook them on your boat and sell to the buyers from another boat.

Thailand famous floating markets. An experience of a lifetime.