Pepita Salsa Fresca

Sasha:

As it turns out, all the ingredients I could need for a good salsa fresca are right here!  Since tortillas are hard to come by here, I served this with rice, chopped cabbage and lettuce, scrambled eggs, and a little bit of crumbled cheese for a tortillal-less burrito bowl. The pepitas (or pumpkin seeds) adds extra nutrients and are anti-parasitic!

Pepita Salsa Fresca
2Tbs roasted pumpkin seeds
6 small tomatoes
1-2 green onions
1/2 yellow onion
thai chili pepper
handful cilantro
7 small cloves garlic
Salt to taste
1 small lime

Grind the pumpkin seeds in the mortar and pestle, then add the garlic to crush with the seed paste.
Finely chop all of the veggies and herbs, and then mix all ingredients into the mortar and pestle.
Juice the lime into the salsa mixture.

Salt to taste

Thai Pumpkin Soup

Sasha:

I came up with this recipe on my own after cooking lots of thai soups, and a quite a few pumpkin soups behind me.

1Tbs oil

1 onion, finely chopped

1 carrot, finely chopped

4 1/4" slices galanga (leave the skin on)

4 1/4" slices ginger

2 kaffir lime leaves, crushed

4 1" slices  lemon grass

6 cloves garlic

6 cups water

3 cups  kambucha squash/ thai pumpkin, quartered 

1tsp soy sauce or Braggs

1 tsp sugar

Salt to taste

Curry powder to taste

1/4 cup coconut milk

1/2 lime 

Heat the oil in a stock pot, and quickly fry the onion, carrot, galanga, ginger, kaffir leaves, lemon grass and garlic just until the onion becomes clear.  

Pour in the water, and place the squash quarters into the soup stock mix, boil the pumpkin for 25 minutes or until it is tender.

Pull out the pumpkin quarters and set aside until cool, then scoop out the tender flesh and discard the skin.  Put the pumpkin into a mortar to turn it into puree. 

Add the salt, curry powder, soy sauce, and sugar to the stock.

Using a slotted spoon, scoop out the solids in the soup stock, putting the onion and carrot in with the pumpkin puree, and discarding the kaffir lime leaves, galanga, ginger, and lemon grass.  grind the carrots and onion in with the pumpkin, then mix back into the soup stock.

Check the seasoning, and let simmer for another 20 minutes.

Stir in the coconut milk then turn off the heat.  Squeeze the lemon half into the soup, stir, and serve.

One Day in Pai

Sasha:

We've settled into our house in Pai. We've been fortunate.  The weather is supposed to be obscenely hot- 40C/ 100F and filled with smoke from where people are burning brush, but instead we are getting rain and thunderstorms.  This keeps things cooler, cleans out the air, and makes things too wet to burn.  We are loving it.  

Our place is about 10km from town, on a garlic farm.  In the evenings the earthy garlicy smell will waft through our windows- in the best possible way.  We have a large wrap around porch, with orchids hanging form the rafters, and ferns giving us shade.  We look out over the valley on a few other charming, and at the mountains on the other side.  There are 4 rental houses on the same property.  One of them has good speakers and likes to play Mozart, Chopin, Billy Holiday, Tosca, and spanish guitar music, so that has been our soundtrack.

The deck has been a perfect place for me to practice yoga, and after getting out of the practice for a month, it has been easier for me to pick back up here.

We go into town to buy produce at the market, which we've been turning into homemade salsa fresca, mango salsa, and marinara sauce made from scratch. After making nothing but Thai food while we were in Chiang Mai, I was ready for some variety.

My dear friend Ranya asked me about what adventures we've had lately, and I was at a loss for words.  It feels like we are no longer in pursuit of adventures, but really connected to day to day living. My main excitement has been about food, recipes, and my yoga practice.  Ra and I have taken up a sudoku with a vengeance, partnering up to tackle stupidly hard puzzles.  We spend a lot of time reading, and I'm managed to redesign my website.  We are frequently entertained by the local geckos.  The sounds they make never fail to amuse us, and I'm pretty sure that by the time we leave, I'll be able to distinguish which gecko is calling by the number of calls, and the intonation of it.

We did have one adventure- going out to one of the nearby waterfalls where the rocks act like waterslides.  The local kids were taking full advantage of that.  I was struck by the simple beauty of the area.  The mountains, the trees, the arctitecture, the fields and rivers.  My friend Christophe started a yoga class by talking about going to connect with nature, and Pai has been a great opportunity for Ra and I to do just that.  As many moments as I can muster I try to drink in my surrounding, listen to the sounds of nature, and be grateful. 

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