Tag: Coconut

Halibut with Coconut-Red Curry

I am very vocal about my love of Cooking Light and myrecipes.com in general. I think it is a fantastic resource to find delicious recipes of all kinds and sort them easily and helpfully. I was recently sent a copy of myrecipes’ America’s Favorite Food: 200 Top-Rated Recipes from the Country’s Best Magazines which is a collection of recipes from All You, Coastal Living, Cooking Light, Health, Real Simple, Southern Living, and Sunset magazines.

What makes this cookbook different than any I’ve ever seen, is that it incorporates a Scan-It/Cook-It technology. Once you download the free Digimarc Discover app onto your smartphone, you are able to scan photos and info boxes in the cookbook which opens up how-to videos, shopping lists, and related recipes. Brilliant!

When I scanned the photo of the recipe I was making (Halibut with Coconut-Red Curry Sauce), it opened a how-to video to see how to prepare the dish, which is a wonderful tool for beginner cooks. The recipe also includes a side bar with substitutes and even tips on how to cook fish without smelling up the whole house.

This is the perfect cookbook for all levels of home cooks and I’m happy to be able to giveaway a copy of this cookbook! Check out the widget below to enter…

 

Ingredients:

  • 2 teaspoons canola oil, divided
  • 4 (6-ounce) halibut fillets
  • 1 cup chopped onion
  • 1/2 cup chopped green onions
  • 1 tablespoon grated peeled fresh ginger (or a punch of ground ginger)
  • 1 cup light coconut milk
  • 1 tablespoon sugar  (or 1 teaspoon stevia)
  • 1 tablespoon fish sauce
  • 3/4 teaspoon red curry paste
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
  • 2 teaspoons fresh lime juice  (about 1 lime)

Continue reading Halibut with Coconut-Red Curry

Curry Clay Pot Chicken

I was recently sent a clay pot from Romertopf to try out and review. Cooking in a clay pot is something I never really thought about, or even considered.  You just cook your meal in a clay pot which has been soaking in water. This releases steam while it cooks and keeps the food moist. Clay pots have been used for cooking dating back to Roman times and are still used around the world.  The clay pots are perfect for making roast chicken, paella, ratatouille, or even dessert!
I honestly had no idea how to go about finding a recipe to try out my new spiffy clay pot. So I just used a recipe from the Romertopf website as my first attempt.  The Curry Clay Pot Chicken sounded right up my alley. (https://www.romertopfonline.com/chicken-recipes.htm)
Ingredients:
  • 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken thighs
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon pepper
  • 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh ginger
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 6 small new red potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch slices (I forgot to cut mine! Make sure you do though!)
  • 6 baby carrots
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 2 teaspoons minced garlic
  • 1 medium onion, roughly chopped
  • 2 tablespoons curry powder
  • 1 medium tomato, cut into 1/2-inch wedges
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce (or coconut aminos to make gluten free)
  • 1 teaspoon sugar

Continue reading Curry Clay Pot Chicken

Slow-Roasted Salmon with Baby Bok Choy and Coconut Rice

Tuesday I received one of my most anticipated ingredients (aside from tomatoes, can’t wait!!) from my CSA share: Fuyo Shumi, or Baby Bok Choy.  I am absolutely in love with this vegetable. It’s just a mini version of bok choy which has a cabbage flavor and is very popular in Asian cooking. I personally am not a fan of cabbage (sorry to my Irish roots), but love the subtle taste and crunchy texture of these little guys.  I’m always looking for new methods to cook salmon so this recipe from Cooking Light was the perfect opportunity. This recipe slow cooks the salmon to keep it really moist. Keep in mind you’ll need a good 30-40 minutes to make this dish.
Ingredients:
Salmon:
8 (6-ounce) salmon fillets
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Cooking spray 
Rice:
2 cups uncooked basmati rice
1 1/2 cups light coconut milk
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 teaspoon salt
Bok choy:
2 teaspoons canola oil
16 cups bok choy, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces (about 4 pounds)
1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
1/2 cup sake (rice wine)
1/4 teaspoon salt
Sauce:
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons Thai fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon red curry paste (such as Thai Kitchen)

 

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Season the salmon with salt and pepper. Place the salmon on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray, skin side down.


Bake for 30 minutes or until the fish flakes easily. Cut off all the drippings.



While the salmon is cooking, rinse the rice in cold water and drain. Combine the rice, coconut milk, 1.5 cups water and ¼ teaspoon salt in a sauté pan. Bring to a boil over high heat and stir. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 20 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat and let stand for 10 minutes. 
Cut the baby bok choy pieces in half
 

While the rice is standing, heat the canola oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the bok choy and ginger and sauté for 1 minute. 
Add the sake and ¼ teaspoon salt, cover, and cook for 2 minutes until the bok choy wilts. Remove from heat and keep warm.

Add the lime juice, rice vinegar, cilantro, brown sugar, fish sauce, and red curry paste to a bowl. Whisk to combine.


Serve over the salmon, rice, and bok choy.
Um. Yum. What an awesome dinner! The flavors go so well together. The sauce has a little tanginess that I really liked with all of the parts of this dish, but especially the rice. The salmon, because it was cooked at a low temperature, came out really moist. And the baby bok choy was crunchy, wilty, and flavorful all at the same time.
This will definitely become a staple meal for me!

Coconut Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Muffins are the perfect Sunday baking activity to set yourself up for breakfasts throughout the week. I haven’t made a batch in so long so I’m happy I finally had time to do so! I was given the opportunity to try Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil and I thought the best way to try the oil out would be in baking. (I adapted this recipe for Coconut Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins from the 1 Mix, 100 Muffins cookbook.)

 

Coconut oil can be used like butter in its solid state and like oil in its liquid state. It does have a slight coconut flavor to it so it’s a great way to enhance the flavor of many dishes. These Coconut-Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins have just a hint of coconut that is really complementary to the Lemon flavor.

 

Tropical Traditions is also sponsoring a giveaway! One lucky reader will win their very own jar of coconut oil! Details below.

 

Ingredients (this recipe makes a dozen muffins):
2 cups all-purpose flour, leveled with a knife
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
6 tablespoons Coconut Oil, melted and allowed to cool slightly
the zest of 2 lemons
1/2 cup sugar, plus 1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons poppy seeds

Note: The method I will list below is the one I ended up using for this recipe. And the reason I used this method was because I completely forgot to add in the sugar and poppy seeds at the correct time! Anyways, the muffins turned out fine. Whew.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Line a cupcake/muffin pan with 12 paper liners. Add 6 tablespoons coconut oil to a small saute pan over medium heat until completely melted. Remove from heat and reserve.
Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt. (If you have a stand mixer, add the dough hook and turn it on low for a minute or two. It will break up all the chunks, just as good as sifting!)

 

In a separate bowl, lightly beat the eggs.

 

Add the milk, melted coconut oil, and lemon rind. And mix with a whisk to combine.

 

Make a well in the flour mixture and add the wet mixture to the bowl.

 

Stir until just combined (I used the lowest setting on my stand mixer. You can just use a spatula.)

 

Add the sugar and poppy seeds, stirring until just combined.

 

Add the batter to the muffin pan. To get equal sized muffins, use a small ladle or an ice cream scoop to portion out the batter.

 

Bake the muffins for 20-22 minutes; you want the muffins to have risen and be slightly golden brown on top, or when a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

 

Allow to cool for 5 minutes in the pan and then remove.

 

So everyone knows how delicious normal Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins are.  The coconut oil brings the muffins from good to great!

 

They are so fragrant. I was having trouble photographing them because I kept trying to eat them!

 

There is definitely a taste of coconut present without it being overwhelming; I find that coconut can really overtake a dish sometimes.

 

The lemon still shines through and is wonderfully sweet (due to all that sugar!)

 

Disclaimer: Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose.  Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.
So on to the giveaway!

Win 1 quart of  Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil!
Tropical Traditions is America’s source for coconut oil. Their Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil is hand crafted in small batches by family producers, and it is the highest quality coconut oil they offer. You can read more about how virgin coconut oil is different from other coconut oils on their website: What is Virgin Coconut Oil? You can also watch the video they produced about Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil:
Tropical Traditions also carries other varieties of affordable high quality coconut oil. Visit their website to check on current sales, to learn about the many uses of coconut oil, and to read about all the  advantages of buying coconut oil online. Since the FDA does not want us to discuss the health benefits of coconut oil on a page where it is being sold or given away, here is the best website to read about the health benefits of coconut oil.
To enter, use the widget below. You have 8 chances to win (Writing a comment is mandatory, the rest are optional)! Giveaway ends this Friday, May 11 at 11:59PM EST. Good luck!

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Bunny Carrot Cake

Every Easter, we have this adorable little bunny cake that shows up for dessert. I honestly don’t know what bakery we get it from, but it always makes me smile. So I thought I’d try to recreate it. Obviously, a bunny would be filled with carrots, so I decided to make a Bunny Carrot Cake with cream cheese frosting, covered in coconut.
I used a recipe from David Lebovitz for the cake and frosting, and used Betty Crocker‘s instructions on how to make it into a bunny.

Ingredients:

Carrot Cake:
  • ¾ cup butter, melted and browned
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon cloves
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 4 large eggs, at room temperature
  • ¼ cup vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 4 cups loosely packed grated carrots (about 5 carrots)
  • 1/2 cup golden raisins
Frosting:
  • 2 (8oz packages) cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Additional ingredients:

  • 1 bag of coconut flakes
  • green food dye
  • jelly beans

Tools needed (paid links):

Continue reading Bunny Carrot Cake

Rose Water Cardamom Lassi

I still had some plain yogurt leftover from making a batch of Mango Lassi over the weekend. I wanted to try to make my own combination and realized I still had rose water on hand. I love love rose water, which is a common ingredient in this sweet yogurt drink. I also picked up some ground cardamom when I was picking up all of the Indian spices. Cardamom is used to flavor a lot of desserts so I thought it would work great in the lassi as well. So I ended up with a Rose Water Cardamom Lassi!

 
Ingredients:
1 cup plain yogurt
1 teaspoon rose water
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
2 tablespoons sugar, or to taste
2 tablespoons coconut milk
Ice cubes
1 tablespoon pistachios, chopped

Add all ingredients except the ice cubes and pistachios to a blender. Puree until well combined.
Pour into a glass over ice. Top with chopped pistachios.
Um. Yum.
The rosewater is oh so nice in this drink.
The pistachios add a nice crunch to the drink which I really liked.
Lassi is supposed to be super sweet, but if you’re sensitive to sweetness, you can limit the amount of sugar, or you can substitute vanilla yogurt for the plain yogurt and omit the sugar entirely.
I love how easy these are to whip up!
Lassi is traditionally served with lunch, but I honestly love it as a dessert drink.

“Irish Potatoes”

I am Irish, on my father’s side. So, more appropriately, I’m Irish American (among other things). Even more specifically, I am Irish Philadelphian. (Yes, I may have made that phrase up. But there are a bunch of us so I think the phrase should exist.)

Now I’m sure you were very interested in what my heritage is, but there is a reason I’m telling you this. Philadelphia has this… candy? dessert? … we will go with “treat”… called an Irish Potato.

It’s cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and coconut rolled into a little ball and coated in cinnamon. So it ends up looking kind of like a potato, hence the name.

A super cute potato, that is

I’m under the impression this treat is essentially a Philadelphia-only thing. Friends from New York and D.C. both look at me like I’m crazy when I bring these up. But they are delicious and an integral part of every St. Patrick’s Day for me, so I needed to share them!

 

Ingredients:
  • 4 tablespoons butter, softened
  • 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 cups sweetened coconut, lightly packed
  • 1 teaspoon cocoa powder (optional)
  • 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Continue reading “Irish Potatoes”

Review of Routin 1883 Gourmet Syrups & Cocktails

One of my favorite parts of blogging is when I’m given the opportunity to sample products and give my honest review of them. I love the chance to try something new and to incorporate it into recipes. So when Routin 1883 contacted me to sample some of their gourmet syrups, I was excited to dust off my bartending kit and concoct some tasty beverages. The company produces gourmet flavors for use in cocktails, specialty coffees, Italian sodas, etc. The syrups, manufactured in the French Alps, have no preservatives, GMO’s, or high fructose corn syrup (they are even gluten free). Routin 1883 was kind enough to send me a bunch of different samples so I tried to highlight each of them to review.
 

To try the vanilla, I added the syrup to a traditional White Russian (I thought it sounded like it would be delicious, I was right!)
Ingredients:
2 ounces vodka
1 ounce Kahlua
1/2 ounce vanilla syrup
Top with cream
To make, add ice cubes to a glass. Pour vodka and Kahlua over the ice. Add the vanilla syrup and stir. Fill with light cream and serve.
The vanilla syrup held up nicely to the strong coffee flavor of Kahlua and was an awesome complement to this already delicious drink. After a sniff of the syrup I decided to go with a 1/2 ounce instead of an ounce because it seems to be quite strong.
The coconut syrup meant I could pretend it is summer. I added it to rum and pineapple juice for a taste of the islands.
Ingredients:
2 ounces light rum
1 ounce coconut syrup
fresh pineapple juice
Add ice cubes to a tall glass. Pour rum and syrup over the ice. Fill with pineapple juice and serve.
This is so refreshing. It’s a perfect escape from the winter weather and would also be perfect as a pitcher in the summer months. Coconut and pineapple just go so well together.
I decided to use the raspberry syrup to make a raspberry rickey: a gin rickey with raspberry flavoring.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 ounce gin
the juice of 1/2 a lime
club soda
1 ounce raspberry syrup
Add ice to a short glass. Add gin, lime juice , and raspberry syrup and top with club soda.
This was another really refreshing drink. The syrup wasn’t sugary so it didn’t take away from the bite you’d normally get in the original version of this drink. You could also serve it straight up (no ice) if you’d like. Just mix it in a shaker and pour into a glass.
For the caramel syrup, I thought it might be fun to try a flavored martini. I happened to have sour apple liqueur in my apartment (I have no idea why) so a Caramel Apple Martini immediately popped into my mind.
Ingredients:
2 ounces sour apple liqueur
1 ounce vodka
1 ounce caramel syrup
Add ice to a shaker. Pour in apple liqueur, vodka, and caramel syrup and shake. Strain into a martini glass rimmed with a cinnamon-sugar mixture.
This tasted exactly like a candied apple. The caramel’s sweetness really helped tone down the sour apple flavor of the liqueur.
Next up, a frozen strawberry-champagne daiquiri. I had some champagne left over from New Years Eve that I just put into an ice cube tray. I thought this would be a perfect use of those champagne ice cubes.
Ingredients:
2 ounces light rum
1/2 ounce triple sec
1 ounce strawberry syrup
6 strawberries
juice of one lime
1/2 teaspoon sugar
5 champagne ice cubes
5 normal ice cubes
You’ll need normal ice in there too because champagne doesn’t freeze entirely. Add all of the ingredients to a blender and blend until frothy. The champagne might bubble a bit. Pour into a glass and serve.
I think champagne should be the base of every strawberry daiquiri from now on. The strawberry syrup added a much bolder flavor to the daiquiri than strawberries alone would without adding a typically syrupy, sugary taste to it. It really enhanced the daiquiri!
Last but not least, I made what I’ve dubbed a Toasted Martini.
Ingredients:
2 ounces chocolate liqueur
1 ounce espresso (cooled)
1 ounce roasted hazelnut syrup
Add ice to a shaker. Add the chocolate liqueur, espresso, and syrup and shake. Strain into a martini glass rimmed with cocoa powder.
Do I even have to mention how amazing this was? I could drink this all day. It was like a grown up chocolate milk, definitely my favorite. The hazelnut flavor was amazing!
Overall I think I gravitated more to the syrups that would go nicely in coffees (which is next on my list to try): Roasted Hazelnut, Vanilla, Caramel, and Coconut. But the fruit flavors were really nice as well! They are actually flavored with real fruit juice which is very noticeable. They don’t have that normal “syrupy” taste at all. Routin 1883 has tons of different flavors on their site so be sure to check them all out. They also have plenty of recipes if you’re looking for inspiration!
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