Breakfast, UFO and Laksa

During Ramadan, my family and I went to some buffets for Iftar and for Eid we went to more buffets.
The food on offer was a feast to say the least and it was impossible to resist the temptation to try everything in sight, even if only one mouthful of everything. I am talking about 20-30 starters and 10 main courses. Of course, this included dessert, and with the sweet tooth that I have, I was more than happy to reduce the main course to a mere morsel in order to be able to eat more desserts.
The buffets we went to included the Emirates Palace, the Shuja Yacht, the Park Rotana, Fanar at the Royal Meridien, the Hilton AD, Intercontinental Festival City and the Grand Millennium Dubai. It was way too difficult to hold back from the amazing food and desserts so I just didn't.
So now I have to face the consequences of the excesses. I decided to start a new eating plan and I've even given it a name; the UFO plan. Use Fresh Organic produce only. This means no more ready meals and no processed food. I am going to use only fresh fruits and vegetables to prepare food from scratch. While I'm at it, I'm going to use organic produce whenever possible.
My husband decided that he wanted to join in this and I am thrilled to have a food partner who's going to eat the same as me so I have to prepare only 2 meals instead of 3. One meal for the children and another for us two. He got really into the healthy eating and has been displaying some bizarre behaviour. He decided to switch from sugar to sweetener. He decided to start eating breakfast! This is a big deal because I have been trying to convince him that breakfast is the most important meal of the day for a decade. For him, breakfast is a cup of coffee with three sugars and a cigarette. He downloaded an app on his iPhone that gives healthy eating tips and since reading that breakfast is important he has been asking for a boiled egg, wholemeal bread and no butter. It's like a different person but I like! I am holding my tongue back from saying ''I told you so!'' but it's all good.
I've been back almost a week and I've finally got everything in order. All 6 suitcases have finally been unpacked and everything put away in its place. The fridge is full of colourful fruit and vegetables and R's uniform has been tried on and name labelled ready for her first day. I love pottering around the house and rearranging things to make it work better. The day before yesterday, I had a toy clear out to get rid of the toys R and K have outgrown and to make room for all the new toys that they got for their birthdays. Yesterday, I rearranged the contents of all 5 of my kitchen cupboards and pantry to dispose of expired food and to make prime space for my new Moulinex 3 in 1 food mixer, juicer and spice grinder.
I have a notebook that I use to jot down recipes that I see on television. I much prefer TV cooks to chefs because cooks make relatively simple things that can be replicated at home whilst chefs tend to be very extravagant with their methods, employ the most sophisticated applicances and use a vast number of pots, pans, cooking hobs and ovens. They are still fantastic to watch though. My favourite TV cooks are Rachel Allen, Nigel Slater, Delia Smith, Simon Hopkinson, Nigella Lawson, Lorraine Pascal, Rick Stein and Keith Floyd.
Yesterday, I jotted down a recipe for Thai Laksa and I couldn't wait to try it because it would involve me using my new kitchen gadget. I dashed to the supermarket at the earliest opportunity to buy the special ingredients it needs; nam pla, rice noodles, bean sprouts, limes and one of my favourite ingredients, coconut. In Abu Dhabi, I saw so many different forms of coconut as an ingredient such as coconut paste, coconut oil, grated coconut, coconut water and so on. This recipe uses coconut milk and I was excited to find tins of half fat coconut milk which I had never seen before. According to my new appliance instruction manual, the spice grinder is to be used for grinding and blending spices, and it can also be used as a coffee grinder. However, I have decided to use it as a chopper. I've used it for onions, garlic and even for chopping herbs and it's fantastic. With onions, they become pureed which is perfect because R hates onions and if she sees one sliver of onion in her plate, she will reject the whole dish and refuse to eat. With pureed onions she cannot detect it.

The ingredients for the Laksa are:

Fresh Ginger, about a handful when chopped
Garlic, about 6 cloves
Coriander, handful
Chilli (either paste or fresh deseeded red chilli)
Juice of 1 lime
Nam pla (aka Thai fish sauce)
500ml Vegetable or light chicken stock
500ml Coconut milk
Bean sprouts
Sugar snap peas (aka snowpeas)
Rice noodles

Method:

Chop the ginger, garlic, corainder, chilli and put into a food processor. Squeeze in the juice of 1 lime and add a tablespoon of the fish sauce. Blend in the processor until it becomes a smooth mixture.

Heat a wok or saucepan and add a little sesame oil. Cook the mixture for a couple of minutes. Add the vegetable stock and the coconut milk. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat to a low simmer for 10-15 minutes. Add the sugar snap peas and the beansprouts and simmer for a further 10 minutes until they are cooked but still have the crunch.

Soak the rice noodles in boiling water according to packet instructions, drain and rinse in cold water.

Ladle the soup over the noodles and garnish with fresh corainder. HEAVEN-LY!!!