The Thai New year, which is otherwise known as the Songkran festival, is celebrated from the 13th to the 15th April each year.
A centuries old tradition, Songkran is a time to visit & pay respect to elders, family, friends & neighbours, something other societies could do with adopting I think! A popular tradition during the festival is to throw water at each other in the streets which is why Songkran is sometime called the festival of water.
Now I’m pretty sure throwing water at bystanders is not something we would get away with (unharmed) in the UK, so Tilda invite you to try their new stirfry range and cook up a Thai storm instead! I have been dabbling with Thai cooking recently, having previously ignored it under the assumption that it would be “all coconut-y!”. Yes many Thai recipes do contain cocunut in some form or other but I am fast realising that the fantastic blends of other spices and ingredients make a unique flavour all of it’s own (and not all coconut-y!). Another thing that has put me off trying was the huge lists of ingredients you seemed to need for just one recipe! Tilda sent me two packs of the rices to try, (Stirfry Green Thai Rice & Stir Fry Red Thai Rice) along with some recipes, to try them out myself and see whether it’s too much effort!
Fragrant Prawn Parcels
You will need:
1 pack Tilda Thai Green Rice
250g King Prawns
1 pack ready rolled Filo Pastry
100g melted butter
1 beaten egg
Method:
– Prepare the Thai Green Stir Fry using 250g King Prawns following the pack instructions.
– Cut each sheet of filo pastry into 4 squares. Take one square and lightly
brush with melted butter, layer with a second pastry square, again lightly
brush with melted butter and layer with a third pastry square.
– Fill the centre of the prepared filo square with 1-2 tablespoons of the Thai Green Prawn Stir Fry, bring the sides together and twist the top to create a
parcel.
– Place the parcels onto a baking tray and brush with a little beaten egg.
– Bake at 180°C for 10 minutes. Serve immediately.
Serve:
Perfect drizzled with a sweet chilli dipping sauce.
Makes approx 18-20 parcels
This was ridiculously easy to make. I thought the parcels would be more fiddly to put together but they weren’t and turned pretty professional looking, even if I do say so myself! I wish I’d taken pics now as these looked fab on a platter with a small bowl of sauce in the middle and were mild enough for Kieran to enjoy too (we love different flavours etc but don’t find food that has you coughing and spluttering overly fun!).
Using the Red Thai rice, which is a blend of red chilli, sweet tomatoes, lemongrass and coconut (slightly “hotter” but still fine for family meals), I make my own concoction.
Nicki’s Red Thai Surprise.
Ingredients
1 x Red Thai Stirfry Rice
Spring Onions
Mushrooms
Beansprouts,
Loin pork steaks
Asparagus
Method
Using a good quality oil such as a stirfry oil which adds extra flavour, I gently cooked up the spring onions, sliced mushrooms (plenty of), and beansprouts.
The pork loin I cooked in the oven wrapped in foil.
The rice I popped in the microwaves as per instructions.
When all was cooked I added the rice to the beansprout mixture and cooked for a further 2 mins, served on a place with asparagus (grilled) to one side and placed the pork over the top. Quick, simple, cheap and blooming delicious!!
*The reason this is a surprise is that I threw together the meal at the end of the week, using bits and pieces I had “in”.
Both dishes were a big success, very easy to make (though looked harder so ideal for guests!) and cheap! These green & red Thai kids are available in larger Tesco stores for £1.89 and I will be looking out for the two other packs in this range to try also, Kung po Rice, and Peking Rice. For more information and recipes visit the Tilda website & to be kept up to date with offers and news find Tilda on Facebook and Twitter.
There is a longstanding joke in my family, that you must not talk to Mum before she has her first coffee on a morning. At least I think it’s a joke?? I don’t think anyone has ever tested it out. Anyhow, what this boils down to is that Mum is a coffee expert. She doesn’t work for an international coffee house, oh no… she has raised six children. You don’t do that and keep your sanity without some help, and for Mum that comes in the form of coffee.
