Sunday, December 30, 2012

Kluay Cherm กล้วยเชื่อม (plátano en syrup con leche de coco)




 
Receta de postre especial para el año nuevo! En Tailandia tenemos diferentes tradiciones para año nuevo y una de ellas es comenzar el año comiendo algo dulce, de esta forma el año que comienza vendrá lleno de cosas dulces para nuestras vidas. En tailandés, Plátano significa "fácil", así que todo lo que quieras lograr en ese año será fácil de conseguir.

Disfruta de este postre dulce con tu familia y seres queridos.

Ingredientes:

4                      Plátanos verdes

½ taza            Azúcar

½ taza            Agua

            1 taza             Leche de coco




Preparación:

1.    En el sartén, poner el azúcar y el agua, y calentar hasta que hierva. Asi obtendrás el Syrup.

2.    Pelar el plátano, cortarlo por la mitad y colocarlos en el syrup. Cocinar hasta que el plátano cambie a color de oro (10 min aprox). Retirar del fuego.

3.    Servir con leche de coco.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Yogurt de leche de almendras

Este yogurt es muy especial para aquellos que no pueden tomar leche normal. Está enriquecido con energía, vitaminas y sabor.





 
Ingredientes:

1 taza de almendras

1 plátano
1 taza de berries (tengo en mi freezer a partir del verano)
1/2 taza de pasas
1 1/2 taza de agua

Preparación:


- Remojar las almendras en 3 tazas de agua durante la noche.

- En la licuadora, coloque todos los ingredientes juntos y encender la máquina. Esperar hasta obtener una mezcla suave y espeso, si es demasiado gruesa agregar un poco más de agua .
- Listo para beber ..... el sabor como un yogurt real. Agregue un poco de sésamo o chía para obtener más beneficios!

Sopa de Fideo con Pescado

Esta sopa es muy ligero, sano y fácil de hacer. Además, le ayudará a mantener caliente su cuerpo y estimular el sistema inmunológico de la hierba que añadir.





















Friday, February 17, 2012

Natural Body Scrub: Spa at home


Pampering your skin at least once a week is incredible. However, to go to spa every week can break your wallet. So today I have body scrub recipe that we can do at home. Just imagine if you and family members take turn to treat each other´s body. It would be a great weekend relaxing at home with our love ones.


Source: www.goodlywomen.com

 
The ingredients of our body scrub are all around our home. 

 
For dry and sensitive skin (for oily skin add lemon juice) 

Ingredients: Honey and Salt




How to prepare: Mix honey and salt together, the quantity of salt to add in the scrub depending on your preference, the more salt is the more bead texture.

Honey help smoothen and add moisture to the skin. It also helps to treat the wound from acne. If you have oily skin, you can add lemon juice to this recipe and this scrub will help to prevent and treat acne on your oily skin. Another hit is lemon juice give benefit as your skin brightener



For dry, sensitive and normal skin (especially to reduce rough and dark color at the elbows and knees) 

Ingredients: Luffa, honey and milk





How to prepare: In small bowl, mix honey and milk together. Use small size luffa to soak inside the honey and milk mixture. Scrub our body with luffa that absorb the honey and milk.

This scrub will help to smoothen your skin especially the rough skin on elbows, knees and feet. 



         
          For all skin type 

Ingredients: Tamarind, milk and honey
Source: www.gourmetsleuth.com

 
How to prepare: Warm the milk and mix with honey. In bowl, add tamarind and the warm milk and honey mixture. Use your clean hand to squeeze the tamarind and mix with the liquid ingredient. Keep the tamarind in small size to have beading character. 

Tamarind is fantastic for body scrub as it enriches with vitamins and enzymes that helps to remove dead skin. 



For normal and dry skin 

         Ingredients: Baking soda, honey and fresh shredded coconut meat 

 
Shredded Coconut Meat

How to prepare: Mix all ingredient together (if you don´t have fresh coconut meat, use the dry one and soak in milk or water until soft before use)

This recipe will smoothen your skin by  baking soda and add moisture to the skin by honey. While coconut meat has magnificent oil to pamper your skin.



  Beauty Tips 

        -  Scrub your skin softy in circle, will help also to improve blood circulation
   
            -  Always use lotion after body scrub session. 

            -  After scrub your skin will be more sensitive to the sunlight, so you should plan your  
          day if you want to have bright and beautiful skin before go to the beach you can have 
          your body scrub session 3 days to 1 week before.  

            -  Your skin tends to be more sensitive also after receiving a lot of sunlight, for this you 
          should wait at least 2 days before start the body scrub session. 







Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Thai Style Chicken Soup

My friend who lives in Switzerland wants to learn how to prepare Thai style chicken soup as she used to taste in Thailand. She lived in Thailand for almost 2 years studying master degree at the same institute with me. And now (February) it is so cold in Switzerland, so she reminds the sweet, clear chicken soup in Thailand.






Let´s prepare the ingredients!

1. Chicken wings, or breast, or leg or any part of chicken with bone (the bone will give natural sweetness to the soup)



2. White Radish (the radish when boiled becomes natural sweetener in the soup)


3. Garlic
4. Black Pepper
5. Ginger
6. Coriander Stem 
7. Coriander leave
8. Spring onion
8. Salt
9. Water 2 liters

I did not give any measurement of the ingredients, it´s flexible depending on your taste.



Now ready to cook....

1. In pot, pour in the water and turn on high heat.
2. Give a good whack to break the garlic, black pepper, ginger, and coriander stem. Add all those whacked ingredients into the water.
3. Bring the water to boiled.
4. Add chicken and keep boiling in low heat, wait for 10 minutes until the chicken cooked.
5. While wait, peel off the skin of the white radish, and cut horizontally.
6. Add the radish into the soup.
7. Keep boiling for at least 45 minutes until the chicken is soft.
8. Season with salt and taste if you need to add more salt. 
9. Your soup is ready to serve!!! you can serve the soup separately from the chicken. Garnish the soup with coriander and spring onion. The chicken can be served with rice and soy sauce with lemon juice, chili, chopped garlic and ginger. Or just simply serve all together and eat with steamed rice.
 



Enjoy the soup Anjana!!!

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Where to learn meditation (for foreigner) in Thailand?

Meditation is a beautiful present in our life. I have practiced, learned and utilized in my daily life. Today, I had the meditation class and one of my student is interested in learning more meditation in Thailand. 

Photo by www.dhammatoday.com

Why in Thailand? Because the majority of Thai population is Buddhist. Thailand is such a heaven on earth, this is not only its natural beauty but also its culture that embedded with Buddhism believes and practices. Every town, cities and many corner in the country you can fine Buddhist temples and most of temple have meditation teaching. However, most of them are in Thai. 


Photo by Aldo Pfeiffer

 
For this reason, I have searched the temples and places that have international meditation course for those who want to go to Thailand to learn meditation. I hope that this information will help you guys!






1. Suan Mokkh
At Suan Mokkh, there is the Ten Day Retreats at the International Dharma Hermitage of Suan Mokkh

Where is Suan Mokkh : Surat Thani Province in the south of Thailand.


2.  The International Buddhist Meditation Centre (I.B.M.C.)

The Vipassana Meditation Centre, Wat Mahadhatu (Section 5) offers a meditation class for English - speaking people everyday. The class begins in the morning at 7-10 a.m. afternoon from 1-4 p.m. and evening from 6-8 p.m.

This centre is located in Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand


3.   Wat Pah Nanachat (The International Forest Monastery)

This monastery is situated in a small forest in the Northeast of Thailand about fifteen kilometres from the city of Ubon Ratchathani.

The attendants need some experience with meditation before coming to Wat Pah Nanachat, preferably a meditation retreat. 

A typical meditation retreat for beginners lasts about 10 days. Some good places to do a meditation retreat in Thailand are:
  • Wat Suan Mokkh (Chaiya, Surat Thani 84110). (Meditation retreats are every first 10 days of the month, please arrive early on the last day of the previous month. No need to reserve or write in advance.) The meditation teaching is in the style of Ajahn Buddhadasa. Retreats last 10 days. www.suanmokkh.org
  • Wat Khao Tham (Ko Pha-Ngan, Surat Thani 84280). Teachers: Steve and Rosemary Weismann. 10-day retreats for beginners. Retreats begin mid-month, usually around the 13th or 14th of each month. www.watkowtahm.org
  • Thailand Vipassana Centre (1. Dhamma Kamala: 200 Baan Nerrnpasuk, Tambon Dongkeelek, Ampher Meuang, Prachinburi 25000 Tel/fax: 037-403515; e-mail: sutthi@ksc.th.com ; 2. Dhamma Kuta : c/o Mrs Pornphen Leenutaphong, 929 Rama I Road, Pathumwan, Bangkok; tel/fax: 02 - 216 4772 fax: 02 - 215 3408). These two centers offer 10 day retreats using the meditation technique of S. N. Goenka.
  • Sorn-Thawee Meditation Centre (Bangkla, Chasoengsao 24110. Tel: 038-541405). The meditation teaching here is based on the technique of Mahasi Sayadaw. Visitors here are encouraged to do a 20-day retreat.
  • Wat Ram Poeng (Tambon Suthep, Ampher Meuang, Chiang Mai 5000. Tel: 053-278620 e-mail: watrampoeng.hi5.com; watrampoeng@hotmail.com). The meditation teaching here is based on the technique of Mahasi Sayadaw. Retreats can be anything from 10 to 26 days depending on how long one wishes to stay.
  • Wat Sanghathan (Bangphai, Muang, Nonthaburi 11000, Thailand, located just north of Bangkok). Tel: (02) 4471766 or 4470799; e-mail: vimokkha@hotmail.com; website: www.vimokkha.com. 7 day intensive Meditation Retreats are held at the "Khao Yai Saeng" Meditation Center, which is a branch of Wat Sanghathan in the "Khao Yai" National Park about 250 km northeast of Bangkok. Contact Wat Sanghathan for the address.

Also you can find the good teaching book, MP3 and video in the website of Wat Nong Pah Pong




Friday, February 3, 2012

Light and Delicious: Green Bean Vermicelli Salad with Seafood

Today I want to introduce the menu that everyone will fall in love with, especially the girls who are looking for the diet menu. It is Green Bean Vermicelli Salad with Seafood. 






Green Bean Vermicelli is a transparent noodle made of green bean. It contain low calories and taste good!!! If you have chance to travel to Thailand, you can find this salad everywhere, from the food venders along the street to luxury Thai restaurants. 






Let´s get started....it is so easy to cook, in less than 10 minutes it will be ready to serve ^_^

Ingredients ( for 2 people)
1. Green Bean Vermicelli  2 pack
2. Mix Seafood 400 grms
3. Onion 1/2
4. Chopped Chilli 1 tsp
5. Spring Onion 1
6. Coriander 1 branch
7. Lemon 1
8. Fish sauce 2 tbs
9. Sugar 1 tsp
10. Water 4 cups

Prepare

1. Soak the Green Bean Vermicelli in cold water for around 30 minutes or until soft.
2. In bowl mix the salad dressing (Chilli, Lemon, Fish Sauce, Sugar), stir and mix well. Set aside.
3. Cut onion, spring onion, and coriander in small slice. Set aside.
4. In pan on high heat, add water and bring to boil. 
5. Add seafood in the boiling water for 1 minutes or until cooked (but not over cooked otherwise they will be too hard) and then add the soft green bean vermicelli in the pan. Turn off heat immediately because the green bean vermicelli is cooked rapidly in boiling water.
6. Release water out of all cooked ingredients and put inside the salad dressing bowl mix well. Add the vegetables, mix well and ready to serve. 

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Happy New Year 2012 with Prosperity and Longevity Menu

Welcome the year of Dragon!!

And Happy New Year to everyone.

To begin the new year with love and care for yourself and family, I´d like to introduce you the menu for your prosperity and longevity life. The menu is “Stir Fired Egg Noodle with Green Bean Sprout, Mushroom, Tofu and Cashew Nuts”. The main ingredients of this menu has good meaning for our life;


Source: http://www.khaosod.co.th


Noodle—the long length of noodle has the meaning of long life.

Source: http://www.ufmfc.com

Green Bean Sprout—as it is in the state of ready to grow, so it has the meaning of prosperity and success.


Source: http://news.mthai.com

 
Tofu—the white color and enrich of nutrient of tofu give the meaning of brightness, shiny and happiness.

This menu has no meat. This is because we should begin our new year without any harm the others and for this it will help you to feel good deep inside your heart. I can say that this menu give balancing in your body and mind.

Let´s cook

Ingredients (for 2 persons)

-    Egg Noodle (buy from Chinese Store) 3 pieces
-    Green Bean Sprout (Diente de Dragon) 1 pack
-    Tofu 1 piece
-    Fresh Shiitake Mushroom
-    Cashew Nuts
-    Garlic
-    Soy Sauce 3 tbs
-    Oyster Sauce 2 tbs
-    Salt 1 tsp
-    Brown Sugar 1 tbs
-    Olive oil 3 tbs


Method

1.    Boil the noodle until soft and pour with cold water, keep in the sieve to     release water. Keep aside.
2.    Cut Tofu in small pieces (around 3x3x3 cm)
3.    In wok, put olive oil and keep in high heat.
4.    Chop garlic is very small pieces, put in the hot oil. Stir until golden brown color.
5.    Add tofu and stir gently until get golden color.
6.    Add noodle, soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt and sugar. Stir until all mix together, add mushroom and bean sprout and stir again.
7.    Turn off the heat and add cashew nuts.
8.    Serve in big plate with soy sauce, smash dry chili, and lemon or vinegar aside for additional seasoning according to the taste of each person.