• 1 tbs butter
• 3 large ripe plums
• 2-3 tbs brown sugar
• ½ cup rum
• 1 cinnamon stick

Slice the plums into half inch discs. Melt the butter in a frying pan and add the brown sugar and plums. Coat the plums with the butter and brown sugar mixture and let simmer on low heat until plum skin isn’t firm any more. Add the rum and drop a match stick into it. Let the fire burn out by itself and add the cinnamon stick. Let simmer in the remnants for about 5-10 minutes or until plums are soft.

Pro tip: Serve with vanilla ice cream, I didn’t have any – but any compote is good on ice cream ;)

Today I threw together a Brazilian fish stew, or at least somewhat inspired by Brazil. Very colourful and tasty, took some time to prep and cook though.

Here’s what we need:

• 28 oz can of tomatoes
• 1 lbs of salmon fillets
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 large onion
• 1 big yellow squash
• 1 big zucchini
• ½ cup fresh parsley
• 1/4 cup dried cilantro
• 1 tbs peperoncino
• 2 plantains
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 cup water
• 1/4-1/2 cup lime juice

Roughly chop up the onion. Pour the olive oil into a big pot and fry the onions on low heat for about 5 minutes. Add the crushed tomatoes and garlic, let boil under lid while cutting up the yellow squash into strips (like fries) and the zucchini into small cubes. Add to the mix and also add the cilantro, peperoncino. Cut up the parsley rough and add as well.

Put the salmon on top and squeeze a good amount of lime juice over them. Put on the lid and cut up the plantains. About 1 inch thick pieces (around 8 pieces per plantain) add to the mix and stir. Add water and let simmer on medium heat until the fish and plantain is cooked through. About 20 minutes. Stir forcefully to break up the salmon into small pieces.

Salt and pepper to taste and then it’s ready to serve!

Kicking off this theme weekend with plantains :)

For this simple recipe you’ll need:

• 1 plantain
• 1½ cup water
• 1 tbs salt
• 3 cloves of garlic
• vegetable oil

Peel and cut up the plantain into about half inch thick pieces. Fill up a frying pan with vegetable oil, it should cover up about half the slice of plantain, so this will vary depending on the size of your frying pan. I used a small 8 inch skillet and used about half a cup or so. Fry the plantains for about 2 minutes on each side on medium heat.

In a separate bowl: mix water, garlic and salt.

Take out the plantains from the frying pan and let them soak in the salty garlic water for about a minute or so. Heat up the oil again and refry them for  2-4 minutes (until tender).

WARNING: Use a splash screen when refrying the water soaked plantains in the oil. If you don’t have one, pour out the oil and refry them as if you were frying eggs. Good luck :)

For this seafood dish you’ll need:

• 2 lbs of mussels (I used Blue Maine mussels)
• handful of Thai basil
• 1 bottle of panang sauce (I got a pre-made one)
• 1 tsp red curry paste

Clean the mussels really well. Pull out any seaweed that they’re in the middle of eating (this was more than I expected!) Discard of ones that doesn’t close, or that give away an AWFUL odour. When they are all scrubbed and rinsed pour in the panang sauce into a big pan and bring to a boil, while heating up dip in the red curry paste. Pour over the mussels and simmer/steam for about five minutes and put on a lid. Chop up some Thai basil, turn off the heat and mix the basil into the mussels.

Here’s what you need:

• 1 lbs octopus (cleaned and rinsed)
• 1 lbs shrimp (peeled and deveined)
• 14 oz. can of coconut milk
• 3 tbs red curry paste
• ½ cup of water
• 2 tbs brown sugar
• 2 tbs fish sauce
• ½ lbs asparagus

Start out with the octopus. I cut off the legs and chopped them up in about 1-1½ inch pieces. Same with the head, cut it up into 1-1½ inch strips. When it’s all cut up heat up a big frying pan and pour in the coconut milk and then mix in one tablespoon of red curry paste, let it all mix and then add another tablespoon. Taste inbetween each time you add the red curry paste until you’ve reached desired degree of spicy. For me three tablespoons was just enough. While mixing the coconut milk and curry paste heat up a pot with water and when it’s boiling blanch the octopus for about 30 seconds then add to the coconut milk/curry mix.

Let simmer for about five minutes and then add fish sauce. Again taste the mix between additions of fish sauce. 1-2 tablespoons makes it really delicious. Also add two tablespoons of brown sugar. Mix it all together and let simmer for another five minutes.

Add about a cup (½ lbs) of any vegetables you’d like, I used asparagus and also some fresh Thai basil. Pour half a cup of water over the mix. Put a tight fitting lid on and let simmer for 10-20 minutes, until vegetables are tender.

Add the shrimp about five minutes before turning off the heat. Simmer with the lid on.

Serve with the coconut rice I made and garnish with Thai basil, delicious! :)

Note: I read about cooking the octopus for a long time, and it seems as if unless you slow cook it for a very long time it will have that chewy, fibrous texture. Good luck!

I mixed together some ingredients and added ginger to the mix and let me tell you, it was so much better than I thought it would be – definitely Kingly Foods worthy!

My mix:

• 1 head of red cabbage
• 1 inch cube of fresh ginger
• ½ cup red wine
• salt & pepper to taste
• dash of Tabasco

Cut up the red cabbage into strips, about 2 inches long. Add some olive oil to a frying pan and let it heat up. Pour in the cabbage and pour over the wine. Put the ginger in a garlic press (you will be surprised with what you can do with these!) and press over the cabbage. Add salt and pepper and let simmer until the wine is all absorbed/steamed away. Stir occasionally. Finally add the Tabasco and serve :)

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Here’s what we will need for the chocolate balls:

• 7 tbs butter (½ cup is 8 tbs)
• ½ cup sugar
• 3 tbs cocoa powder
• 3 tbs cold, strong coffee
• 1 1/3 cup oats
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• shredded coconut for garnish

Mix together butter, sugar, cocoa powder, oats and vanilla. Add the cold coffee. Sprinkle coconut shreds on a plate and roll out balls of the chocolate batter onto it. If the batter is too runny you can stick it in the fridge for a few minutes to let the butter harden again.

After you have rolled all the balls, let stand in the fridge for about an hour and serve :)

What we need:

• 1 can of coconut milk
• 1 can of water
• 1 can of jasmine rice
• 2,5 tbs unsweetened shredded coconut
• a pinch of salt

As you see I use the measurement “can” in this recipe. As simple as it sounds you just use the same can that the coconut milk came in. As a rule rice is cooked two parts liquid and one part rice. So it works out great.

In a pot pour in about a teaspoon of vegetable oil and grease up the bottom and sides. It just has to be a very thin layer. This will help the rice not stick. Pour in the coconut milk, water, rice, shredded coconut and salt and let boil up. Stir every now and then. When the mixture has come to a boil lower the heat to the almost lowest possible and let steam covered with a tight fitting lid for about 20 minutes. Check in on the rice around 15 minutes into steaming and see how much liquid is left, if already has been all absorbed then you can turn it off and let steam for another few minutes without heat.

The rice is ready to serve! It is rather sweet and my suggestion is to serve it with something spicy and slightly fruity. Mangoes and shrimp in Thai chilli sauce maybe?

Served with home made tomato based curry
chilli sauce. Shrimp and broccoli.

For the pasta recipe:

• 1 cup of penne pasta
• 1/3 cup kalamata olives (10-15 olives)
• 1/3 cup sun dried tomatoes
• 1 tsp salt

Bring water to a boil in a big pot, add pasta and salt. Let boil for about 9 minutes.

While pasta is boiling, pit the kalamata olives. See previous post for pitting tips. Cut up the sun dried tomatoes into little squares.

Drain the pasta and mix all the ingredients together. And if you have any, garnish with basil and feta cheese. It shall be delicious!

Notice that I didn’t have any feta cheese or
basil :(

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For the salad you will need:

• 1 red bell pepper
• about 1/3 cup kalamata olives (10-15 olives)
• about 1/3 cup sun dried tomatoes
• 3 garlic cloves

Pit the kalamata olives and cut them in half. To pit them I have two ways to go:

1. Cut of the top of the olive and squeeze out the pit.
2. Smash it with the back side of a knife (or any other big flat tool you have) then squeeze the pit out.

Cut up the sun-dried tomatoes into little squares.

In a small frying pan, melt some butter (or oil) and mince in one of the garlic cloves. Cut up the bell pepper into long inch thick strips and fry on high heat until slightly scorched.

Microwave the other two garlic cloves for about 15-20 seconds, this will make them soft and buttery and mild. Cut them up and mix all the ingredients together.

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