Green Curry with Bok Choy

I wanted to cook something green but healthy for St Patrick’s Day. Again, I found another curry recipe in the Cooking Light magazine. This time the curry is inspired in a Thai version. The dish is beautiful and tasty, check the recipe here. Check their picture of the dish, it's super beautiful!

I used ½ onion instead of shallots, coconut oil in place of the sesame oil, and 2 teaspoons of sugar instead of 4. The broccoli and bok choy came from Door to Door Organics and they were as fresh they could possible be!  I served with brown rice but because the flavors of this dish are so delicate, I would serve it with steamed white rice next time. I also think that the recipe yields to more than 4 servings.

Vegetable Korma

This original, super easy and delicious recipe is from Cooking Light magazine: they had a bad time as a magazine for a while (about 2 years ago) but I think they have improved a lot and now they are a high quality magazine with wonderful recipes: I look forward to receiving my new issue in the mail because they always have a number of recipes that I want to try! Check the recipe here.

Fish with Coconut Milk and Avocado Lime Salsa

This is a variation of a very popular Brazilian dish called “Moqueca”. My friend Patricia’s dad who is from Recife, Northeast Brazil, makes the moqueca “come il faut” (the proper way), with dende oil, real coconut and a clay pot.

Since palm oil is required in the preparation of moqueca and it’s not easy to obtain the authentic “dende oil” in the US, I created a variation of the dish. It’s basically the moqueca recipe with no dende oil. To make it up for the lack of the oil, serve it with an avocado-lime salsa.

 Fish with Coconut Milk and Avocado Lime Salsa

6 servings

Ingredients:

1 lb white fish such as halibut or orange roughy

½ lime juice, sea salt, pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion, thinly chopped

½ large tomato, peeled, seeded, chopped

1 tablespoon tomato paste

¾ red pepper, julienned, skinned, if possible

1 cup coconut milk

4 tablespoon water

8 oz medium shrimp

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Salsa:

1 cup avocado, chopped in ¼ inch cubes

1 to 1 ½ lime juice

2 tablespoon chopped cilantro

1 tablespoon finely chopped onion

sea salt to taste

Directions: 

Season fish and shrimp with lime juice, salt and pepper. Fry onion in 1 tablespoon of oil in medium high heat until onion translucent, about 5 minutes. Add chopped tomato, tomato paste and bell pepper, cook in medium low heat about 10 minutes, until thick. Add 1 cup coconut milk and water and bring to a boil. Add the fish, bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 5 to 10 min, covered, until the fish is almost done. While the fish is cooking, prepare the salsa: : mix all salsa ingredients in a medium bowl and toss to combine. Add shrimp, and half of the cilantro, cover, cook about 5 min or until the shrimp is cooked. Adjust the salt. Add remaining cilantro. Remove from heat and serve with salsa and rice. And optionally, pepper sauce.

Mary Moh’s Butternut Squash and Coconut Cake

So you see I am venturing a little more into the dessert realm. I am trying to get used to working with the oven, flour, hand mix etc. Here is another recipe from Mary Moh: Butternut Squash and Coconut Cake. It is soooo delicious, it’s spectacular! The squash gives the cake a golden hue and the butter makes it fluffy and moist. I didn’t have butternut squash so I used the Burgess Buttercup pumpkin that grew in the alley behind our house. I also didn’t have cranberries so I used walnuts. Super. Thanks again, Mary!

Oh, by the way, yesterday we had dinner at Pho 95. Wow. I have to agree with my friend Hans, who took us there: it’s the best pho in Denver!

Double Coconut Cake

Ok, you might have noticed that I don’t make too many sweet dishes. I am always trying to cook reasonably healthy. But what the heck, I cook something decadent and sweet once in a blue moon! Today we have a blue moon.  Since this is my first time making a cake in more than 20 years, I will try this simple recipe from the Cooking Light cookbook. It asks for round baking pans. Who has a baking pan? I don’t! but I have a bundt cake pan. Let’s try there and see what happens. So in truth, this won’t be a double-coconut cake. It will be a bundt coconut cake.

After baking: it turned out really good! Yummm!!!! Light and fluffy!

Double-Coconut Cake

(from Cooking Light)

14 servings

Ingredients

Cooking spray

1  tablespoon  cake flour

2 1/4  cups  sifted cake flour

(if you don’t have cake flour, you can substitute ¾ plus 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour for 1 cup of cake flour)

2 1/4  teaspoons  baking powder

1/2  teaspoon  salt

1 2/3  cups  sugar

1/3  cup  butter, softened

2  large eggs

1  (14-ounce) can light coconut milk

1  tablespoon  vanilla extract

Fluffy Coconut Frosting

2/3  cup  flaked sweetened coconut, divided

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

Coat 2 (9-inch) round cake pans with cooking spray; dust with 1 tablespoon flour.

Combine 2 1/4 cups flour, baking powder, and salt, stirring with a whisk. Place sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (for about 5 minutes). Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Stir in vanilla.

Pour batter into prepared pans. Sharply tap the pans once on countertop to remove air bubbles. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes on wire racks, and remove from pans. Cool completely on wire racks.

Place 1 cake layer on a plate; spread with 1 cup Fluffy Coconut Frosting. Sprinkle with 1/3 cup coconut. Top with remaining cake layer; spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake. Sprinkle 1/3 cup coconut over top of cake. Store cake loosely covered in refrigerator.

Fluffy Coconut Frosting

Yield: about 4 cups (serving size: about 1/4 cup)

Ingredients

4  large egg whites

1/2  teaspoon  cream of tartar

Dash of salt

1  cup  sugar

1/4  cup  water

1/2  teaspoon  vanilla extract

1/4  teaspoon  coconut extract

Preparation

Place egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until stiff peaks form. Combine sugar and water in a saucepan; bring to a boil. Cook, without stirring, until candy thermometer registers 238°. Pour hot sugar syrup in a thin stream over egg whites, beating at high speed. Stir in extracts.

Garam Masala Yellow Split Pea Soup with Coconut Milk

I guess it's fall and it's time for soup! 

Don't get discouraged by the long list of ingredients for this recipe. Indian recipes are always long but most of the ingredients are spices, which I believe, one should always have handy.

Garam Masala Yellow Split Pea Soup with Coconut Milk

(Adapted from James Peterson’s, Splendid Soups)

8 Servings

Ingredients:

1 medium to large size onion, finely chopped

1 tablespoon coconut oil, ghee

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1 cup of yellow split peas soaked overnight

1 cup of brown rice

8 cups of water

1 14 ounce can of coconut milk

2 cups baby spinach

Sea Salt

Tadka

1 tablespoon coconut oil, ghee or butter

3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon cloves

1/4 freshly ground pepper

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions:

In a large pot over medium heat cook the onions and turmeric for about 5 minutes in the coconut oil, and then add the garlic. Cook for a total of about ten minutes, or until the onions are soft and turn translucent.

Add the water, peas and rice to the pot and bring to a simmer. Turn down low, and cook until the peas and rice are cooked and very soft (about 45 minutes).

Using your handy immersion blender, blend to desired consistency (we like it mostly pureed, but with some texture left). Or use your regular blender or food mill.

Make the tadka by melting the coconut oil in a small saucepan. Add the spices and stir until you can smell the spices drifting upwards to you. Don’t burn! Whisk into the soup.

Add the coconut milk and spinach, and bring back to a simmer, adding salt to taste, and serve.

Notes:

-       You can use chicken or vegetable broth instead of water

-       You can use butter instead of the coconut oil or ghee

-       Instead of the spice mix in the tadka, you can use 1.5 teaspoon of garam masala

-       You can use lentils instead of yellow split peas

-       You can use asparagus, broccoli, or any other green vegetable instead of spinach

-       You can use a pressure cooker, 25-30 minutes cooking time