Anne Willan's Home Canned Tomatoes and an Elegant, Easy Cream of Tomato Soup

This is one of the simplest methods for canning fresh tomatoes I have ever heard of. The method is the creation of Anne Willan, a respected chef who has written over a dozen internationally published cookbooks, and is the founder of one of the best cullinary schools in the world, La Varenne, in France. Once processed, the jars of fresh whole tomatoes will last for one year, and can be used for soups and sauces all winter long. Although you will probably use this method next summer at tomato harvesting time, I promised one of the blog followers to post the method over the weekend. (Sorry I am a day or two late.)

Directions:

Pack whole, well washed, unpeeled tomatoes with stems and any leaves removed, into quart/litre jars with a few sprigs of thyme, a couple of bay leaves, and an onion slice or two. Close the sealer lids and set the jars on a rack in a deep canning pot. Add enough water to cover generously. Weight the jars down (with a brick or other weight) so they don't float. This can be tricky. My suggestion is to weight the jars down before adding all the water. One other tip: If you do not have, and can not find, a round rack to fit in the bottom of the deep pot, use a clean kitchen towell or two in the bottom of the pot. This worked well for me after I scoured my town for a round rack.

Bring the water to a boil, and then simmer for an hour and a half until the tomatoes begin to lose their shape and collapse. Let the jars cool in the water so the lids form a tight seal. When done, each jar will look only half full of tomatoes. See the photo.

Elegant, Easy Cream of Tomato Soup

Open one of the jars of canned tomatoes and remove the bay leaves and sprigs of thyme. Put the remainder of the contents into a blender and puree until smooth.

Add the puree to a soup or sauce pan, and add approximately 1/4 to 1/2 cup of organic heavy cream (or a combination of cream and unsweetened almond milk) to taste. Bring the soup to temperature, add just a touch of salt, and enjoy one of the freshest tomato soups you have ever tasted.

Note: I used about two tablespoons of cream and approximately 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk. Suit yourself. You won't believe how wonderful the soup tastes.

Chicken or Steak with Balsamic Mustard Sauce

The cover of GOOD FOOD is a photograph of one of my favorite "go-to" quick and delicious meals - free range, organic chicken thighs with Balsamic Mustard Sauce. The sauce is tangy and delectable, requires no effort, and gets raves every time I serve it. The recipe below uses grass-fed beef steaks for those who love a good steak, although any grilled chicken variation would be my personal favorite. Either way, the sauce is the real star of the show. Hmmmm. I wonder how it would taste on left-over Turkey. . . .

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

4 grass-fed, organic beef strip steaks, 6 to 8 ounces each, (approximately 3/4 inch thick) seasoned to taste with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup Dijon mustard (No sugar – check the label)

Preparation:
1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Season steaks generously on both sides with salt and pepper; place in skillet. Cook, turning once, until browned, 3 to 4 minutes per side for medium‐rare.
2. Transfer to a plate; cover with foil.
3. Add vinegar to skillet; boil until syrupy, 1 to 2 minutes.
4. Remove from heat; whisk in mustard and any accumulated juices from steaks.
5. Serve sauce with steaks.
See our notes about cookware.

Notes:
Bar‐b‐que is a fair weather cooking option. If I were making the sauce only, I would begin with a dash of olive oil and one clove of minced garlic, and then work from step 3.

The organic grass-fed beef steaks recipe will serve 6 to 8 people. Most of us consume too much protein at one sitting. When the meat is from a grass fed animal, it is so nutrient dense that half of what we are accustomed to eating is quite filling.

Krayasart.

Krayasart which means food for the Sart Rite is prepared from rice, bean, sesame and sugar cooked into a sticky paste and then wrapped with a banana leaf. After making Krayasart people would take it to the temple to be offfered to the monks on Sart Day. At the temple, a raised-platform would be erected in a long line on the temple grounds and the monk’s alms-bowls would be placed on it. People would then put Krayasart in the alms-bowls till they were full of Krayasart. Then Krayasart would be transferred into a bamboo basket by the temple boys. At the same time, food and dessert would be separately offered to the monks at their lodging. At The end of the offering ceremony, people would perform a ceremony of pouring the water of dedication, in order to transfer merit to other beings, as people believe that if they did not offer Krayasart to monks, their dead relatives would have nothing to eat and thus they would be condemned as having no gratitude towards their benefactors.

Ingredients
4 April rice track
4 popped rice
4 roasted peanuts
4 roasted white sesame seeds
2 ½ sugar
1½ sugar-year tab
2 ½ splay SAT
¼ honey
2 coconut milk
Methods
1. Mixed sugar-year tab in coconut milk mix and filter in your pan, Heat.
2.Heat honey ,sugar, sugar-year tab and splay SAT (soft power and can not mix) 30-40 minute. Leave it to cool.
3.Add and mix April rice track, popped rice, roasted peanuts, roasted white sesame seeds in (2)

Boiled corn.(Kow poad wan tom)

Boiled corn.


Cut ends from ears of corn and remove all but 3 or 4 layers of the shuck. Stand the corn in the bottom of the can, large end down. During the last 30 minutes of cooking time, place 1 pound of shrimp in the can.In thai we add salt and some milk orScrew pine in water boiling.





On thai street,Kow poad wan tom are General you can buy 10 0r 20 baht:piece

Cinnamon Strawberry Flax Muffins

These muffins will keep for a week in the refrigerator (if they last that long), or 3 months in the freezer.
Enjoy.

Ingredients:
1 cup fresh or frozen strawberries
1 1/4 cup flax seed meal
1/2 cup “Spoonable” brand Stevia (or equivalent - I use 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon KAL brand concentrated Stevia powder)
1 teaspoon aluminum free baking powder
3 tablespoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs, beaten
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon pure vanilla (no sugar – check ingredients)
2 tablespoons grated orange peel (optional)
3/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional for topping)

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 F
Line muffin tins with paper or silicone liners.
1. Chop strawberries into a medium sized dice.
2. Mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients (minus the strawberries) separately, then, mix them together.
3. Let mixture stand for 10 minutes to thicken.
4. Fold in strawberries.
5. Fill each muffin cup about half way, and sprinkle with nuts.
6. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Variation: Substitute fresh or frozen blueberries for the strawberries.

Note: If you are going to freeze the muffins, I recommend beginning with fresh berries.

Millionaires shortbread recipe

How to make millionaires shortbread.

This millionaires shortbread recipe is truly indulgent yet simple to make.

When you bring a out a plate of these millionaires shortbread to family and friends you will impress them with your baking skills.

The shortbread is crispy and crumbles into your mouth, the caramel is perfect and not too sweet and the chocolate sets so wonderful - it is pure heaven to bite into.

Chef uses evaporated milk not condensed milk in this millionaires shortbread recipe. Using condensed milk will not produce the same caramel and it would taste far too sweet.

When cooking the caramel the trick is to constantly stir at all times, the process should take not much longer than 15 minutes to cook.

Leaving the shortbread to set in the fridge helps to set the chocolate and keeps the caramel chewy and shortbread crisp.

If you always wanted to know how to make your very own millionaires shortbread then this is the recipe for you.

Simply follow the step-by-step pictures and get cooking.

Ingredients for millionaires shortbread recipe

For the shortbread

6oz Plain flour
2oz Caster sugar
4oz Butter/margarine

For the caramel

225ml Evaporated milk
4oz Butter/margarine
8oz Caster sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla essence

Chocolate topping

3oz Milk chocolate
1 tsp Butter/margarine

Picture of millionaires shortbread.

Would you like to take a bite of pure indulgence?

How to make millionaires shortbread

Place the butter and sugar for the shortbread into a mixing bowl and cream together.

Stir the plain flour into the butter and sugar until it starts to clump together.

Grease and flour an 8inch square cake tin.

Press all of the shortbread dough into the bottom of the cake tin until even.

Use a spoon to straighten the edges of the shortbread.

Place into a hot oven at gas mark 4 for 20-30 minutes or until firm.

Leave the shortbread to cool in the tin.

Place the butter, evaporated milk, and sugar for the caramel into a heavy based pan.

Gently heat the pan until the sugar dissolves.

Once the sugar has dissolved bring the pan to the boil and keep at a steady heat for 15 minutes stirring constantly.

The caramel mixture will froth up but use a wooden spoon to keep stirring and the froth should sink back down into the pan a little.

Keep stirring for a whole 15 minutes.

For approximately 10 minutes the mixture in the pan will not resemble caramel, it is only in the last 5 minutes that the mixture will start to look like caramel.

The caramel in the pan will reduce and thicken.

It should take not much longer than 15 minutes to make the caramel.

Remember to stir constantly to prevent burning, do not walk away from the pan whilst making the caramel.

Once the caramel is cooked add the vanilla essence and stir quickly.

Pour on top of the shortbread. Leave to cool.

Place a bowl on top of a pan half full of hot water, place the chocolate and butter into the bowl and melt.

Pour the chocolate on top of the caramel, spread evenly.

Lightly slice the millionaires shortbread into squares.

Leave to set.

Leave at room temperature in a sealed container or for extra crispyness and chewy caramel place the millionaires shortbread into the fridge in a sealed container.

Enjoy Chefs millionaires shortbread recipe.