Healthy ground turkey soup with a Thai influence

December is full of rich food high in calories and not so high in nutrition.  I think we should find a way for everyone to spread out the baking and the chocolate giving year round.  Think how nice it would be if you received a plate full of delicious home made baking in the middle of a dreary cold February.  Sadly now they just get piled up with all the other goodies and boxes of chocolates, which unfortunately I pick at when every I walk by.  So in between the picking and grazing I like to eat something that is healthy, but of course it has to be tasty too.

This recipe grew out of what I had on hand, and as I had a bag of young bok choy and steam fried noodles that both needed using up, asian food came to mind and I love Thai flavours so I went with that.

1 onion chopped
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 clove of garlic sliced
1 lb of ground turkey
3 carrots sliced
4 cups of chicken stock
Grated zest of one lime
1 tablespoon of chili pepper flakes
3 tablespoons of soy sauce (or more to taste)
2 tablespoons of fish sauce
1 bag of young bok choy (about 6) or any other asian green such as napa cabbage
2 cups of steam fried noodles or any asian style noodle you have on hand
Handful of cilantro chopped

Cook the onion in the olive oil until it is translucent add the garlic and stir, then add the ground turkey and cook stirring often to stop it from clumping.  When it is cooked through add the carrots and stir in and add the lime zest and chili.

Bob likes Thai food

Across the road from work a couple of months ago the small restaurant Go Fish closed, and shortly thereafter a new restaurant opened up.  I checked the menu and it was a Thai restaurant called Bob Likes Thai Food.  So on Thursday night when Nancy my husband and I were going to the theatre and needed somewhere in the area for dinner I suggested this place as I was getting a good vibe about it.

The first thing that stuck out on the menu was Bob's poutine, Nancy and I decided we had to try it, so we ordered a portion to share.

These were amazing, tarot chips with a light fragarent thai sauce, hot peppers and a little fried tofu to emulate the cheese curds.  There was just enough sauce to make them flavourful, but not soggy and the chips were light and crispy with no hint of grease.  To say I loved them would be an understatement.

We each then ordered a dish to share, I ordered rather boringly beef coconut curry.

Thai curry in an English pub

One of the things that I like about going for walks in England is that they inevitably end up at a pub. I remember many years ago going for a long walk on the fells in the lake district, and when we came down exhausted and rather damp there was a wonderful old pub waiting to greet us with a wood fire burning and a restoring glass of sherry.  Well the pubs have changed and really are more about the food now than the communal living room as they were in the past.  But they are still dotted conveniently around the landscape in most parts of the country, much like Starbucks here, and make a convenient stopping off point half way or at the end of your walk.

On my last full day in England we went for a walk through the countryside around where Jacky lives in Chipperfield.  It was one of the brighter warmer days of the week and we took full advantage of the break in the rain to get some exercise.  Howard led us through the right of way alongside some fields and through the woods.  These are legally protected ancient rights of way, that crisscross the countryside all over England and allow you to go for a walk anywhere regardless of privately owned property.

I said brighter I didn't say sunny

It was a beautiful walk through the gently rolling hills on the edge of the chilterns, along farmers fields and through a wooded area which was in the process of being replanted, as well as along some country lanes. There is nothing quite like an English hedgerow which are full of wild flowers and make beautiful border to the narrow lanes.

We were heading for The Green Dragon Flaunden where Howard assured me they served very good Thai food.  We arrived at what looked like a very traditional 17th  century English Pub and headed through to the gardens outside and claimed a table.  The menu had mostly Thai food with a couple of traditional English pub dishes, but obviously the speciality was Thai and so that was what we ordered.

The food came and it was delicious, Howard ordered a red curry with prawns, chicken and beef and it was as good as any Thai food I have had, spicy but not over the top.

I ordered the green curry and it was equally good, fragrant and full of flavour, I also ordered the mixed protein, being unable to make a choice. If I was to go again I would probably choose just prawns as they were large plump and fresh tasting. Each of the curries came with white rice and were about 7 pounds, and we all thought a very good value.

Jacky ordered another curry with out coconut milk but all prawns, which was also very good but hers was a little spicier. It was a very pleasant lunch sitting outside in the gardens enjoying a glass of good English cider and some unexpectedly good Thai food.

Replenished by our lunch we started on the half hour walk back and came across this sign in the village.

I am not sure what the story behind this is, but I loved it, and think cats should be given more consideration everywhere.  Sadly I did not have my camera with me on this walk so Jacky took the pictures with her IPhone, I think they came out remarkably well, thank you Jacky for being my blog photographer. 

Sweet potato fries with spicy lime salt

I saw this idea somewhere in the last week and I am afraid I cannot remember where, so I am unable to credit the originator.  But when I found I was having someone over who is unable to eat potatoes, but can eat sweet potatoes I decided to try this out.  The idea of lime and hot pepper in with the salt on with the sweetness of the yams really appealed to me.

For these I used the yellow sweet potatoes instead of the orange ones, which one is called yam?  I am not really sure but it seems to be interchangeable.

I cut the potato in to sticks simulating french fries and tossed in a little olive oil, then laid them out on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

satay with peanut sauce

I love satay with peanut sauce, but most sauce recipes call for using peanut butter, I am sure that they do not use peanut butter in Thailand.  Any way I searched on the Internet and combining several different recipes I came up with this, which though it was delicious, was really an accompaniment rather than a sauce.  But this could have been because I made it in my mini chopper which is not very powerful and therefore did not pulverise the peanuts in to a paste.

1/2 onion finely chopped
1 garlic clove sliced
1 inch of ginger grated
1 tablespoon of oil
1 red Thai chili pepper chopped
1 cup of roasted peanuts
juice of one lime
2 tablespoons of fish sauce
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
handful of cilantro
2 tablespoons of water.

Cook the onion garlic ginger and chili pepper in the oil until softened.

Add this along with the remaining ingredients into a food processor or mini chopper.

Thai Salad rolls

Thai was the theme for Sunday night poker last week, so I decided to take Thai style salad rolls. I avoided eating spring rolls for years as they just did not appeal to me for some reason. Any way I made some with a friend a couple of years ago and now I am a convert.

These are easy to make ahead and great for a take along pot luck or putting out at home for a get together.  I have made them in the past with seafood, but this was to be a Thai meal and when I researched on the Internet it appears that in Thailand they traditionally use chicken. You could also make them vegetarian replacing the chicken with tofu.

3 chicken breasts sliced into strips
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of fish sauce
Juice of one lime
1 red chili sliced or replace with hot sauce
1 package of large dried rice wrappers
1/2 package of thin dried rice noodles
1/2 cup of fresh basil roughly chopped
1/2 cup of fresh mint
1/2 cup of cilantro
1 red pepper sliced thinly
1 bunch of green onions sliced long ways
1 romaine lettuce sliced

Mix the brown sugar fish sauce and lime juice together and add the chicken and set aside. While you prepare the remaining ingredients.

Add the rice noodles to a pot of boiling water, then turn off the heat let the noodles cook in the hot water for a few minutes until they are soft and cooked through, then drain and rinse well in cold water to stop them from sticking.

This is what the noodles look like before cooking

Stir fry the marinaded chicken strips in a tablespoon of oil.

Fridge soup - Kinda thai

Sunday at Pender Harbour is eating out of the fridge day, it is tradition that all meals have to be made out of what can be found in the house, no food shopping.

Thai vegetable soup and a glass of wine for the first day of Spring

 So this Sunday I surveyed what was in the fridge. This is what I found  bit of cabbage, both red and white, some fennel tops 1/2 onion 3 carrots 3 hot peppers basil, a few sprigs of asparagus a few snow peas and a garlic bulb

Thai Chicken Soup

This is a recipe that I have come up with over the years using bits and pieces out of other recipes and is a favourite January girls weekend lunch, though of course it is never quite the same, as it depends on available ingredients.  Sunday Morning when I got up this is what it looked like out of my front window.

A winter wonderland in Port Moody

My thoughts turned to soup, chicken soup, fortunately the day before I had gone to TNT and bought some lime leaves, lemon grass and Thai basil so Thai chicken soup.