Homemade Coconut Cream

One should not confuse the craving for life with endorsement of it. – Elias Canetti

To gild this particular lily, top with a dollop of whipped cream
and some toasted shredded coconut.

Cravings. Sweet delicious cravings... Sometimes they’re just too strong to ignore.

That was the case the other day with coconut cream pie. I was out for lunch in the country with my spouse, mother-in-law and aunt-in-law. (Is that even a word?). Regardless, a great crew to be with.

We ate a bit too much (for noon) and couldn’t rationalize buying one item on the menu we all commented on: homemade coconut cream pie. It sounded too good to resist. But to avoid rolling in pain at being too full, resist we did.

But all that really accomplished was to shift the craving to dinnertime. Luckily the two of us were heading back to the city. It would be easy to find a bakery selling coconut cream pie, right? Not so fast...

This is the eggs, sugar, flour and cornstarch.

Interestingly, independent bakeries in the city are few and far between. Those that exist all seem to close on Saturday by 1 or 2pm. Certainly not a timeframe that answers the call for any non-planners, wishing to have something sweet on the table for a weekend feast.

Isn't that supposed to be "the thing" about city life? Everything is available to you at the drop of a hat?

We had to settle for a frozen pie from a large grocery chain. It looked better than the sad looking affair they sold as fresh in the bakery section. But even the (slightly) more attractive pie didn’t itch the spot we wanted scratched.

So the other night I decided to get to the heart of the matter and look up how to make coconut cream myself. It isn’t very difficult, and is quite quick to make.

This recipe is dual purpose. You essentially make a coconut pastry cream that is then either thinned a bit with cream for use in a pie, or folded together with whipped cream for a very, very satisfying pudding.

I was completely blown away with how easy – and fast – this was to make. I'll be doing it again.

Ready for the stovetop. Do not leave this alone. That's
the only thing you need to know.

Coconut Cream

Time: 10-12 min  |  Cool: 1 hour  |  Serves 4 to 6, or filling for one 9” pie

19 oz can unsweetened coconut milk

1/2 cup shredded coconut, toasted

2 eggs

1/3 cup sugar

2 tbsp flour

1 tbsp cornstarch

1 tbsp butter

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Options

for pie: 3 tbsp heavy cream (32%)

for pudding: 1 cup heavy cream, whipped stiff

for both: additional whipped cream and toasted coconut for on top

Toast the coconut in a 350°F oven, or in a dry frying pan, until slightly browned. Set aside.

Place the eggs in a medium-sized sauce pan and beat with a hand-held mixer until very frothy. Then add the sugar and beat until thickened and light in colour.

Add the flour, cornstarch and salt and beat in to the eggs. Then add the coconut milk, butter, vanilla, salt and toasted coconut.

Place the pot on the stove over medium high heat. Using a whisk, stir constantly until the mixture comes to a boil, taking care that it doesn't "catch" on the bottom of the pan. Once the mixture is boiling, continue to cook for a further minute, whisking vigorously. 

Remove from the heat. Let the mixture cool on the counter for 15 minutes.

Pie: If using the cream for pie, whisk in 3 tablespoons of un-whipped heavy cream and pour into a pre-baked pie shell. Cover the surface with plastic wrap, pressing it down onto the surface of the cream to avoid a skin from forming. Chill for 1 hour in the refrigerator. Once cool and set, whip more cream for on top,. Sprinkle with additional toasted coconut and serve.

Pudding: Whip 1 cup of heavy cream and fold together with the coconut cream. Pour into individual ramekins. Cover with plastic wrap to avoid a skin. Chill for 1 hour (or serve at room temperature). Top with a dollop of whipped cream and more toasted coconut.

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If you like this post retweet it using the link at top right, or share using any of the links below. Feel free to comment. I'll always try to respond. If you like this post, feel free to share it. All I ask is that you credit me and share a link back to the original.

Lemongrass Chilli Shrimp

I can make more generals, but horses cost money. – Abraham Lincoln

I took my last bag of shrimp from the freezer for this recipe. I imagine it will be some time until I have shrimp again.

It’s not because anything was wrong with them. It’s because it is getting increasingly difficult to rationalize buying them. They’re too expensive.

Shrimp used to go on sale at the grocery store, periodically. Now it seems far less often. One pound of frozen shrimp was between $8.99 and $9.99 normally, and when marked down would be about $5. Now they’re $9-10 on sale. A little too rich for my blood. I used to have 3-4 bags always in my freezer. Currently the count is zero.

So when using your last bag of “gold” you have to make something good, right? This recipe falls into that category.

As I have pontificated before, certain flavours make certain dishes “signature” to a specific cuisine.

Today my sights are trained on Thailand. That means some very specific ingredients: coconut milk, Thai red “bird’s eye” chillies, lemongrass, and fish sauce.

It’s easy to always have lemongrass and chillies on hand. Buy them and freeze them. That’s what I do, and have been for several years. They keep for a very long time.

Coconut milk should be a staple in any pantry. Canned, it just sits waiting to be used. Fish sauce keeps for a very, very long time, unrefrigerated. Truth be told I’ve had bottles well over a couple years old. I haven’t died.

Fish sauce can be an acquired taste. Butt it’s a staple flavour in many Southeast Asian cuisines, including Thai. It’s made from the fermentation of fish. Believe me, it tastes better than it sounds. It’s also something that, if it’s not there, you will miss.

You can look up about fish sauce if you want, but it’s not very appealing. Do so at your peril.

Remember me telling you a few days ago to buy unusual ingredients and find out how to use them later? Fish sauce is a prime example. Another is coconut oil. I bought a big container of 100% organic at Costco for cheap. It’s a solid at room temperature.

If you have them in your pantry your Asian food will never be the same.

I added my red pepper before reducing the sauce. If you would
like crispier pepper add it at the end as in the recipe.

Lemongrass Chilli Shrimp

Prep: 15 min  |  Cook: 12-15 min  |  Serves 4

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 lb shrimp, peeled

1 med onion, chopped large

3-4 garlic cloves, chopped

2 Thai red chillies, diced with seeds

1 stalk lemongrass, diced

1 can coconut milk

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp turbinado sugar (or light brown)

1 red pepper, seeded and sliced

1/3 lb snow peas, sliced in half

1 bunch green onions, sliced

salt and pepper, to taste

Prepare all the ingredients before-hand. Cook some white rice while you make the main dish. It will be cooked when the sauce is finished (20 min).

Heat the coconut oil in a wok. Add the onion, garlic, chillies and lemongrass. Sauté for 2-3 minutes.

Then add the coconut milk, fish sauce and sugar. Let cook until reduced to about half, 5 minutes. Then add the red pepper, snow peas, green onions and shrimp. Let cook until the shrimp are cooked through. This will take about 4 minutes.

Taste for salt and adjust. (Fish sauce is salty.) Add some pepper, stir and serve over rice.

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Tuscan Kale Stew

My philosophy of dating is to just fart right away. – Jenny McCarthy

I don’t eat enough cruciferous vegetables. Do you? Kale is a cruciferous vegetable, as are many other vegetables I don’t eat enough of – especially in winter.

The list of cruciferous vegetables is long. It includes some you would expect, like Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower. But it also includes some you might not think of, such as turnip, watercress, radish and wasabi. So what do they have in common to fit the name?

Cruciferous vegetables are all in the family Brassicaceae (also called Cruciferae). The family takes its name (it's Latin for "cross-bearing") from its four petal flowers, in the shape of a cross.

They also have one other thing in common: gas. To some people they can be extremely gas-inducing; others don’t suffer quite so much. This is caused by a type of sugar known as raffinose, that most people have difficulty digesting. Luckily there’s an up-side, unless you find farts funny. I know some who do...

After simmering for 2 hours. The pork becomes fork tender.

All cruciferous vegetables contain a multitude of vitamins and minerals, and fibre, although some have more than others.They also contain phytochemicals that may aid in detoxifying certain cancer-causing substances before they have a chance to cause harm in the body.

So all good. And gassy too.

This post also references something from my last post where I told you if you see something odd in the grocery store to buy it. I saw Tuscan kale. Gorgeous stuff.

Kale isn’t an odd ingredient to see, but "Tuscan kale" was, and sadly kale is too odd in our kitchens. It was its beauty that made me buy it. It called to be a star in a pot of something...

Tuscan Kale Stew

Prep: 10 min  |  Cook 2h 15 min | Serves 8

1 tbsp olive oil

600 g pork loin roast, 2” cubes

1 medium onion, quartered

4 garlic cloves, peeled and whole

300 g crimini mushrooms, quartered

28 fl. oz diced tomatoes

2 cups chicken stock

A full pot of deliciousness.

1 tsp whole fennel seed

2 tsp dried oregano (or 2 tbsp fresh)

2 tsp dried basil (or 2 tbsp fresh)

1 tsp dried sage (or 1 tbsp fresh)

350 g penne

19 fl oz cannellini (or black) beans

1 bunch Tuscan kale, chopped

salt and pepper, to taste

In a Dutch oven, brown the pork in the oil with the fennel seeds. Then add the onion, garlic and crimini mushrooms. Cook for 2-3 minutes.

Then add the tomatoes with their liquid, the chicken stock, oregano, basil and sage. Add some pepper and salt, but not too much salt. Adjust that at the end of cooking.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer and let cook, covered, for about 2 hours.

The add the pasta, bring back to a boil and let cook for the pasta’s recommended time minus 1 minute. Add the drained, washed black beans and chopped kale. Cover and let cook for 5 minutes.

Taste for salt and pepper, adjust and serve, with a lovely crusty country-style bread on the side.

This can be reheated easily. If doing so, add a little water as the pasta will absorb the liquid in the pot as it cools.

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If you like this post retweet it using the link at top right, or share using any of the links below. Feel free to comment. I'll always try to respond. If you like this post, feel free to share it. All I ask is that you credit me and share a link back to the original.

Pantry Surfing: Chinese Crab & Mushroom Soup

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. – Marcel Proust

It’s not that I don’t go grocery shopping anymore. I do. I swear.

But isn’t it nice when you can go into your pantry and pull out what you need to make something unusual and wonderful? This takes two things: a diverse pantry, and some basic knowledge.

We do this all the time with our “native” North American/Western European influenced cuisine. You go to the fridge and pantry, pull out some stuff and cook. If we didn’t have that basic understanding of what goes with what we would stand in our kitchen, frozen in fear and starve.

I’ve talked about this “knowledge” before. The more you cook diverse cuisines the more you understand what ingredients go into certain dishes. Also, the more you cook outside your normal cuisine the more likely it is that you have an international pantry that lets you cook more diverse food. It’s kind of a “Catch-22.”

Here’s your “TIL” for the day: Where does the term Catch-22 originate?

It’s from a novel set in World War II called Catch 22, written by Joseph Heller in 1961. In the novel, one of the characters describes a problem facing pilots who request a mental evaluation for insanity, hoping to escape flying dangerous missions. If you’re sane enough to want an evaluation, then you’re not insane; ergo, the insane won’t ask. Catch-22.

It’s not insane to have a well stocked pantry, although I have bought what some would categorize as “crazy” stuff. Some recipes do call for the unusual, or perhaps better phrased, not the ordinary for us.

My advice? If you spot something weird, buy it. Even if you don’t know how to use it. Find out how later.

This one really doesn’t have a lot of weird ingredients. The only one that stands out are the dried shiitake mushrooms. They’re cheap, and appear in thousands of recipes.

The only other ingredient that you may not have is siriacha sauce. But it’s now available everywhere in every grocery store. It’s now mainstream.

This is a quick recipe. The basis is another standard Chinese recipe in my kitchen, crab and corn soup. Unfortunately I had no corn. Dried shiitake, yes. Corn, no. Go figure. So that’s when the substitutions started.

This is very good. It would be a great soup course for a Chinese feast. You can get four decent bowls easily, or even 8 if you’re having a lot of dishes. For dinner this comfortably serves two.

But I’m a bit of a gourmand...

Crab & Mushroom Soup

Prep: 10 min  |  Cook: 5 min  |  Serves 2-4

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tbsp fresh ginger, minced

8 dried shiitake mushrooms

3 cups water

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tsp siriacha sauce (hot chilli sauce)

1 can (170 g) crab meat

3 green onions, sliced

2 eggs, beaten

salt and pepper, to taste

Place the dried shiitake mushrooms and water in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high for 4 minutes. Remove the mushrooms, reserving the water, and let cool for a minute or two before slicing. Set aside.

Chop the garlic and ginger and place into a soup pot. Add the shiitake, mushroom water, soy, sesame oil and siriacha. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 2 minutes.

Then stir in the crab meat and green onions. Once the pot has come back to a simmer, slowly pour the beaten eggs into the hot soup, stirring constantly to break them uo into thin strands.

Taste for salt and pepper and adjust. Serve immediately.

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If you like this post retweet it using the link at top right, or share using any of the links below. Feel free to comment. I'll always try to respond. If you like this post, feel free to share it. All I ask is that you credit me and share a link back to the original.

Phad Thai, the best recipe for it I know

I am easily satisfied with the very best. – Sir Winston Churchill

Photo: jay galvin, Flickr ccl

This is an old post of mine, stretching back to the early-ish days of 2011. I had only been blogging for a little over two months. It's even before I had a camera to take food shots! But it's so, so very good I had to repost. Because I currently have a craving for it. When you itch, I say scratch. So scratch we shall... with abandon.

Have you ever had a craving at home for Phad Thai, that amazing peanut-y pile of noodles that is such a staple of Thai restaurants? Well look no further for the solution. It’s extremely easy to make, and not too expensive if you have an “international” pantry. Like most Asian cooking, the devil is in the preparation. Prep for what seems like hours, and it’s ready in five minutes.

Tamarind. Photo: BBC World Service
Bangladesh Boat, Flickr ccl

You don’t actually chop for hours, just minutes. Finding the ingredients isn’t that difficult either. So what are you waiting for? I’m posting this recipe as much for me as for you. 

It’s an exceptional recipe for Phad Thai, and I always have trouble locating it because the basis is from a cookbook I don’t often use. In my opinion this recipe outshines most Phad that you get when you dine out, at least in Halifax…

The book in mention is “Hot Foods,” published in 2004 by Select Publications. It doesn’t refer to only spicy food, but any food brought steaming to the table. There’s many good recipes in it. 

I think I might have too many cookbooks. We used to run to Winners on weekends and buy marked-down cookbooks for about the same price as a food magazine. No ads, and far more informative and useful.

I have altered the basic recipe to more closely resemble one in a cookbook that I no longer have. It went away in a break-up, with many other things I valued. But they were only "things," not necessities. Apparently including the person who I told to leave...

My result is quite close to the one in my missing book, using the basics from “Hot Foods.” If you’re familiar with Phad Thai, and you look closely at this recipe you will see there are certain things that make Phad Thai, well, Phad Thai. 

This recipe has the balance “right.” An uncommon ingredient that brings it all together is tamarind. You can find it in blocks, or liquid form, in most grocery stores in the international section. So I tip my hat to the cookbook I do have that was the inspiration for this recipe.

Phad Thai

Prep: 20 min  | Cook: 15 min  | Serves 4

This picture is pretty close. Photo: Manuel W, Flickr ccl

250 g dried flat rice stick noodles

1 tbsp tamarind (either sauce or from a pressed block, finely diced)

1 2" thai red chilli, finely chopped with seeds

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1-1/2 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp fish sauce

2 tbsp lime juice

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

2 tbsp oil
2 eggs, beaten

150 g (1/3 lb) pork, diced

1/2 lb shrimp

100g (3 1/2 oz) fried tofu puffs, julienned (optional)

1 bunch spring onions, chopped in 1/2” pieces

1 cup bean sprouts

1/4 cup chopped peanuts

1/4 cup coriander, chopped

lime wedges, to serve

Soak the noodles in warm water for 20 minutes, or until they are al dente. Keep in cool water to avoid sticking.

Combine the tamarind, chilli, garlic, sugar, fish sauce and lime in a bowl. Set aside.

Heat a wok with 1 tbsp of oil and swirl to coat the sides. When hot, add the egg and swirl to coat in a thin layer. Let cook, undisturbed. Roll up in the wok, remove and slice into thin strips.

Hear the remaining oil in the wok. Add the Chilli mixture and fry for 1 minute. Add the pork and fry for 2 minutes. Then add the shrimp and cook until just done. Blend in the peanut butter.

Add in the noodles, egg, tofu, bean sprouts and green onions and toss together until heated through.

Serve immediately with the peanuts, coriander and lime wedges in bowls on the table.

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If you like this post retweet it using the link at top right, or share using any of the links below. Feel free to comment. I'll always try to respond. If you like this post, feel free to share it. All I ask is that you credit me and share a link back to the original.

Chicken in Garlic Basil Cream

A career is wonderful, but you can't curl up with it on a cold night. – Marilyn Monroe

So winter isn’t really done with us yet. It’s not as cold out as it could be, but it’s still cold. This morning found us sitting at -13°F. Brrrrr......

This month is shaping up to be a hectic one for me. So I’ll have to keep Marilyn’s words constantly in the forefront of my mind. All work and no fun makes our loved ones feel neglected. Not a good thing.

When there is a little down time to cook, and the weather outside is still frightful, there’s really not much that can compare to a garlic cream sauce. Couple that with basil and tender chicken, and all you’re really missing is a bottle of wine.

Oh, and someone to enjoy with with.

See, I almost forgot already. Not really... :-)

Chicken in Garlic Basil Cream

Time: about 20 minutes

6-8 chicken thighs, bone in and skin on

salt and pepper, to taste

4-6 garlic cloves, chopped

1/2 cup chopped fresh basil

1 cup 32% whipping cream

penne, for 3 or 4

If serving 3 people, cook 6 thighs; if serving 4, cook 8. Cook enough penne, cutting the suggested time down by 1 minute, for either 3 or 4 people. Keep it warm in water while you cook the chicken.

Place the chicken skin side up in a dry, hot pan with a lid. Season with salt and pepper. Let cook until the chicken releases from the surface. Fat will render out as it cooks.

Turn the chicken and repeat the process, skin side down. Once the chicken releases easily, remove to a plate.

Discard all the chicken fat in the pan except for about 1 tablespoon. Add the chopped garlic and sauté until fragrant. Then add the cream and return the chicken. Sprinkle with half of the chopped basil, cover and cook on medium for about 5 minutes.

Then add the penne, and let cook until the sauce reduces enough to start to coat the pasta and chicken.

Serve with more fresh basil, salt and pepper as desired, sprinkled on top.

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If you like this post retweet it using the link at top right, or share using any of the links below. Feel free to comment. I'll always try to respond. If you like this post, feel free to share it. All I ask is that you credit me and share a link back to the original.