Raw colourful salad yum number1

Mash up an avocado with some feta cheese, lemon juice salt and pepper. make a vinaigrette. Chop up - small - the following : (obviously you can bung in any veg you have in the cupboard/fridge) a couple of sprigs of spring onion some french beans (don't steam, leave raw) a pepper - red or yellow grate a carrot maybe some home grown sprouted seeds Throw on a handful of mixed nuts, sunflower seeds - and a few raisins. Mix the vinaigrette in and put some dollops of the avocado cheese on top. and feel virtuous!

Thai snake head fish recipe

I'm not sure you'll find snake head fish here, so we'll have to try this with any white fleshy fish I reckon. It's the typically Thai flavours of the sauce that are so important and the crispy fried skin of the fish that gives the deliciously satisfying texture on the tongue. Ooh - and if you can find half a thing of bamboo you could use it as a plate! [caption id="attachment_664" align="alignleft" width="600" caption="Snake-head fish"]
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[/caption] Fry the fish - veg oil - or why not try coconut oil if you have some - much healthier. Or olive oil. Make sure the oil's really hot before putting the fish in and be careful to not let the skin stick to the pan. When it's fried, put it to one side. Now chop up: 1 tblespn of galangal and another tblespn of ginger, or 2 of ginger (grated) 1 tblespn of lemongrass 2 shallots, chopped finely 2 red chillis, small - sliced then crushed in a pestle & mortar 2 tblespns of coconut milk Then put a little more oil in a wok, and put in the mixture and fry until the wafting of lovely flavours begins. Then add 1 tblespn of soya sauce and a spoon of sugar. Then the Thais add monosodiumglutamate MSG) but we're not going to do that, we'll just add a bit of a crumbled stock cube instead. Not too much. Simmer all this for a bit then pour over the fish!

Khmer Chicken from Cambodia

Khmer Chicken with Bok Choi (serves 2, or 1 hungry man) Chop these thinly and keep separately in piles: 2 cloves garlic 1 shallot (Onion if you can’t be bothered to buy shallots, but only a very small amount (1/5 th of an onion) 3 small lemon grass stalks but exclude the outer skin first – chop these as finely as you can! 2 pieces of fresh turmeric (hard to get it fresh in the UK?) 1 and a half kaffir lime leaves – roll them up first then chop thinly Galangal 1 inch square, or ginger if no galangal
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Mix and smash these in a pestle and mortar (or cheat with a blender) But they must go into it in the following order.. lemon grass, kaffir, galangal/ginger : smash a LOT to a pulp THEN the rest except shallots; smash smash smash, and the shallots must go in last, more smashing.
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Now you're ready to spread this mixture onto the chicken - a large organic piece of deboned thigh preferably. On to the chicken, which you have slathered in this yummy bright yellow spicy mixture, add 2 tablespoons of coconut milk, half a teaspoon of chicken stock. Here you are supposed to add 3 tablespoons of oyster sauce, but I say either add 1 only or none at all - I am suspicious that this is the Cambodians over-doing it a bit, making it far too salty. Over this add a couple of tablespoons of crushed peanuts - you should seriously think about keeping a jar of these in your larder - crushed to the point where some are powdery and none are left whole. (beware of using salted, but roasted should be ok) Now, heat some oil in a pan - by the way, the healthiest oil to cook with is coconut oil - if not, then olive oil, but you do not need any other oil in your kitchen - and make sure the pan has a lid or at least something you can improvise as a lid. When the oil's hot, fry the chicky with all of its yellow mixture  but don't toss it around too much, you want it to go a bit crispy so leave it in place, turning it over once or twice. When it's gone much browner, possibly 10 minutes, it's ready!
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You can serve with steamed rice and bok choi. The bok choi can be literally steamed with a bit of water, lemon juice and oil in the bottom of a pan or wok. Remember the lid!! If you want to be more elaborate, you can toss over it a bit of crushed garlic, palm sugar, fish sauce, a ladle of vegetable stock and some black pepper. The Cambodians like to add cornflower mixed with water at this point too but I thing this makes it look gloopy, you want it fresh and green. Don't oversteam, you don't want it to lose colour.
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Day 1, Fast and Detox at Koh Samui

This is a much shortened amended version of an account of the fast I'm doing in Koh Samui Thailand. If you are only reading one post, read here. Day 1 Arrived 9am from Bangkok. Feeling coldy, ill and run down, cross that the receptionist wasn't particularly friendly and that the taxi driver charged 4 times more than usual. Had a chocolate muffin and my last cup of tea - with condensed milk, since they have no normal milk here - on the plane, so feeling a little guilty. Was advised to start with a liver flush drink, consisting of lots of olive oil and ginger and cayenne pepper - recipe here> The Liver Flush recipe:
  • Extra Virgin Olive Oil – anywhere from 2 Tbsp. to 1/3 cup, as you prefer
  • Freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice, 1/3 cup
  • Fresh garlic, 3-5 cloves
  • Fresh ginger, 1/2″
  • Cayenne Pepper, dash to taste
  • Freshly squeezed orange juice, 2 cups
Put all ingredients in a blender, blend and drink immediately. It's actually really yummy but I felt sick for the rest of the day. Sometimes that happens. Then I had a raw salad with dressing for lunch and a raw burger of nuts and seeds for dinner. Should say that that was pretty darn hard for me, knowing that there's all this (cooked) yummy Thai food to be had... Also not feeling great in the old tummy department since I'd been ill for a week with something. Watched a rather odd video with some American Hawaian-shirted colonics experts "sort-of" demonstrating how to give yourself a colonic, which just made me a bit more confused because I couldn't understand how you get the gut-gunk (henceforth my name for this stuff that comes out of you - yes you too - when you are doing this - more later) out of you - after all you don't want it coming back down the tiny hosepipe that delivers the water INto your bum. So far finding the people all a little odd. A loud trio of tattooed Englishmen - well one was a fake-breasted but very pretty tiny girl who turned out to be a tv presenter called Jessica, she presents Real Hustle I think it is, covered in tattoos they all were  - anyway they were 1 day ahead of me and the boys very loudly proclaiming how well their first colema had gone. Meanwhile the slightly teary tv presenter told me she hated it, had burst into tears and given up... I was filled with dread at having to do myself the next day. (you don't have to do it on your first day). Anyway over the week we had rather surreal discussions together about what was coming out of us and how to massage our stomachs to get more water up, and Jessica told me she lost about 9lbs in the first few days.. Bedtime: took the brown pills they gave me and tried to go to sleep in my rather lovely cabin, but resolving to ask to move rooms since next door woman was playing her tv at top volume. Hmmm, hope I settle in. Click here for Day 2