Pork and Mango Coconut Curry

Sure, we all know it's a good idea to go into the grocery story with a list and a plan. It pays to be prepared. But have you ever just impulsively bought something without knowing what you were going to do with it? I have that problem. I do that a lot.

The last time this happened to me, it was a mango that I bought on the spur of the moment. Sure, they were on sale for a good price, and yes, the mangoes were looking really great. But I can't say for sure what drew me to them. I shrugged, plopped a mango into my cart, and decided to figure it out later.

Fast forward to dinner a couple nights ago. How's this for an idea: Pork and Mango Coconut Curry. I got it in my head that I wanted the mango to be featured in a savory main course dish, rather than used for dessert or even ice cream, as I have done before. I had some pork to use, as well as half an open container of coconut milk. It was fated. I was going to do a curry!

I've never made a curry exactly like this before. The mango, along with sauteed onion, bell pepper, garlic, and spices, comprise the curried sauce of the dish. After these ingredients have had time to simmer and meld together, you puree the whole mixture. Once it is a nice, yellow sauce, you add the meat pieces directly into the pot and allow the hot liquid to poach the pork. It cooks completely through in about 10 minutes, and then you add the coconut milk and just continue heating the whole thing long enough to make it hot again (since the coconut milk cools it down).



I served the fragrant curry on a bed of cooked brown rice, after garnishing it with some chopped scallions. I was hopeful that this preparation method would pay off, and I was not disappointed. The curry was so delicious! It had such a deep, complex flavor. There was sweetness from the mango, spiciness from the curry powder, and a bit of tartness from the cider vinegar. The coconut milk made everything slightly creamy, but it didn't feel heavy or too rich. The pork was cooked right, and wasn't too tough or chewy as I feared it might be. I savored every bite of this, and I am happy to report that even Mr. Picky Pants (a.k.a my oldest son) ate his whole bowl! Sure, he'll eat curry, but I still have to practically tie him down to get him to eat a plain old potato or even a boring chunk of corn on the cob! Sigh, baby steps.

Pork and Mango Coconut Curry
adapted from Eats Well With Others
makes 4-6 servings

Ingredients
1/2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
2 tsp. ground ginger
2 Tbsp. yellow curry powder (I used 1 Tbsp. hot curry powder and 1 Tbsp. of mild)
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 mango, peeled and diced
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup water
1 lb. boneless pork loin, trimmed of excess fat and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 cup light unsweetened coconut milk
3 scallions, sliced, for garnish
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
3 cups cooked brown rice

Directions
1. In a Dutch oven or soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and bell pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add the ground ginger, curry powder, and cumin and cook for another minutes, stirring the whole time to incorporate the spices fully.

2. Add the vinegar, water, and mango to the pot, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the pan from the heat. Use an immersion blender or a standing blender to puree the mixture; you can leave it slightly chunky if you prefer.

3. Add the pork cubes to the pan. Allow the pork to cook by poaching in the curry liquid, about 8-10 minutes on a medium-low heat. Remove a piece of pork and cut it in half to make sure the meat is cooked through.

4. Stir in the coconut milk, turn the heat down to low, and cook for an additional 3-4 minutes, until the coconut milk is warmed through. Try not to let it boil so that the coconut milk will remain smooth. Once the curry is hot, turn off the heat and add the scallions, plus salt and pepper to taste.

5. To serve, spoon 1/2 cup of the brown rice into a shallow bowl, then cover with a couple scoops of the coconut curry.

MSC: Father's Day Tee-Time Cupcakes

This month's Martha Stewart's Cupcakes Club pick was the Father's Day Tee-Time Cupcakes, chosen by Julie of Little Bit of Everything. I was eager to try my hand at something a bit different for this group: a project that focused on the cupcake's appearance, rather than the cupcake's taste or fun flavor. I knew my kids would be on board with this one, too!



For the cupcakes themselves, I tried a recipe that I've really been wanting to make for a long time. I found it a couple years ago in an issue of Cooking Light. It's a Coconut Cupcake with Lime Buttercream; yum! I just thought that sounded so summery and refreshing; plus, anything with lime automatically catches my eye. I tinted the lime buttercream frosting green, and decided to use that shade as my putting green surface, rather than covering the frosting in green sprinkles. I guess I figured my kids and I didn't really need a mouthful of sanding sugar in every bite!

My five year-old actually is frosting-averse, so he opted to decorate his with just some ground-up graham cracker crumbs (for the sand traps), some mini M&Ms (for the golf balls), and just a bit of green sanding sugar (to make some grass). I made my little flags by affixing some trimmed, bright orange Post-It notes to toothpicks; I thought it worked pretty well, although I did have to apply a bit of transparent tape to each to secure it.

This was a great way for me to spend an afternoon with my boys; they enjoyed the decorating, and eating the leftover decorations! As for the cupcakes themselves, it was a mixed bag. My husband and I thought they were delicious; I was so impressed with the texture of the cupcakes in particular. These are a lower fat version of a dessert, but they really don't taste like it. I think my substitution of coconut milk for skim milk in the recipe made the cakes a bit fluffier and lighter. Considering that some of the recipes from Martha's cupcake book have turned out denser and drier than I would have liked, this was a very nice surprise. If you like the lime/coconut flavor combination, I highly recommend these cupcakes. And I recommend the decorating idea if you need a tasty, fun way to spend an afternoon with kids! Thanks, Julie!

Coconut Cupcakes with Lime Buttercream Frosting
adapted from Cooking Light
makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
Cooking spray
4.5 oz. all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
3 Tbsp. potato starch (not potato flour)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1 large egg white
2/3 cup light, unsweetened coconut milk
2 Tbsp. sweetened, flaked coconut
1/2 tsp. coconut extract

For the frosting:
3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
1/2 tsp. fresh lime zest
1 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
1/2 tsp. light, unsweetened coconut milk
4.75 oz. confectioners' sugar, sifted (about 1 1/3 cups)


Directions
Make the cupcakes: 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 12 muffin cups with muffin liners, then spray the liners with nonstick cooking spray. Set tin aside. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine the flour and the next 3 ingredients (through salt) in a small bowl; stir with a whisk.

2. Combine the 2/3 sugar and the 2 Tbsp. butter in a large bowl; mix at medium speed until well-blended; mixture should be the consistency of damp sand. Add egg and egg white, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour mixture and the coconut milk in three batches, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Fold in coconut and coconut extract.

3. Spoon batter evenly into prepared muffin cups. Bake at 350 for 18 minutes, or until cupcakes spring back when lightly touched in the center. Cool in pan for 5 minutes; remove from tins onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the frosting: 1. Combine the 3 Tbsp. butter, the lime zest and juice, and the coconut milk in a medium bowl; mix until well-blended and smooth. Gradually add the confectioners' sugar, beating just until smooth. Frost each cupcake with about 2 1/2 tsp. frosting.

Baked Sunday Mornings: Carrot Coconut Scones

This weekend's Baked Sunday Mornings goodie was Carrot Coconut Scones with Citrus Glaze. What a perfect Sunday morning treat! I'm going to keep this post short today, as my husband is running the St. Louis half-marathon this morning and I need to go get the kids ready so we can all be downtown in time for him to finish. He's been working so hard; I'm really proud of him and I can't wait to see him cross the finish line!



But back to the scones. These are delicious. They're slightly crusty on the outside, but pillowy soft on the inside. The carrot flavor is there, but you don't get small bits or shreds of carrot when you bite down. That's because this recipe has you puree some orange juice with the carrots after cooking and softening them. Almost like baby food, the carrot puree is mixed into the dry ingredients and blends into the finished product beautifully.

I was running low on coconut when I made these, but since I was going to be feeding the scones to various people and didn't know who loved or hated coconut, I thought maybe a reduced amount was a good solution. So, in the end, my scones only contained 1/4 cup of coconut, rather than the full 1 cup called for. As it turns out, many thought this was the perfect amount. There were unanimous rave reviews for these; everybody loved them.

The glaze really enhanced the scones with its citrusy sweetness, but I tried a scone warm from the oven the day they were made, and didn't have any glaze at the time. In my opinion, they were still amazing even without it! But either way you choose to enjoy them, give them a try. Nothing like carrot cake, but still wonderful in their own right.



Be sure to check out how the other members of the group liked their scones by clicking over to the blogroll, which is here. Enjoy your Sunday!

Cocoa-Coconut Granola

I made this granola about a month ago, and for some reason I never got around to posting about it until now. It's not because I forgot all about the granola; in fact, I eat a bit of it every other day for breakfast. I stir it into a bowl of cereal, and it really gives the cereal some heft. Whole grains, sweet coconut, and a nutty crunch combine to provide energy to your morning and a great balance to your daily first meal. Add a serving of fruit and a cup of coffee to the cereal/granola combo, and you've got it made!

I love this twist on the traditional granola because it adds a kiss of cocoa flavor, warm spices (in the form of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom), and sticky-sweet agave nectar to the more tired formula. It creates a unique granola, one that I've become hooked on and have looked forward to every single time I've had it. And, this being my first time making granola, I've been very pleasantly surprised with 1) the sheer simplicity of making this myself, and 2) how well it keeps! I've had this stuff in an airtight container for the past month, and it's still perfect! It doesn't require refrigeration; all the ingredients, for the most part, are pantry staples. I couldn't have been happier to discover yet another grocery-store purchase item that I can now conveniently make in my own kitchen. I defy you to find a box in the cereal aisle of granola that tastes as good as this!

Cocoa-Coconut Granola
adapted from Everybody Likes Sandwiches
makes 3.5-4 cups granola (I cut the original recipe in half)

Ingredients
2 Tbsp. cocoa powder
2 1/4 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds, shelled and roasted
1/2 cup roughly chopped almonds
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
Large pinch each ground nutmeg and cardamom
6 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 1/2 Tbsp. agave nectar
2 Tbsp. honey
6 Tbsp. applesauce
1 Tbsp. olive oil

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients (from cocoa powder through brown sugar).

2. In a small saucepan, combine the agave nectar, honey, applesauce, and olive oil. Warm the ingredients just until the mixture is extra runny; pour over dry ingredients. Mix until everything is coated in the wet ingredients.

3. Pour the mixture into a large glass baking dish (or several cookie sheets that have sides) and spread evenly in a single layer. Bake for about 45 minutes to an hour, removing from the oven every 15 minutes to stir the mixture. Once the mixture has almost completely dried out, remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before storing in an airtight container. Mine has kept for about 4 weeks now, and it's still just as great now as it was the day I made it!

German Chocolate Cupcakes

Here's an easy, fun variation on a classic: German Chocolate Cupcakes, courtesy of Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book. Just like its layer cake counterpart, this cupcake is made by layering chocolate cake with a coconut pecan frosting. I had never made this type of cake before and finally had an excuse to try when my mother in-law's birthday came along.

I made the chocolate cupcakes the day before; they keep very well at room temperature. I followed Martha's recipe almost exactly, with the exception of using a slightly darker chocolate than what was called for. Instead of melted semisweet chocolate, I went for 60% cacao chocolate. I'm sure it is great with the semisweet, but I like the chocolate flavor to be a bit more pronounced, and we all loved it this way.

The coconut-pecan frosting is just as easy; you just have to babysit the stove for 10 minutes so that the ingredients don't burn while cooking. Egg yolks, evaporated milk, brown sugar, and butter are heated on the stovetop. Stirring constantly, you eventually are left with a thick, caramel-colored sort of custard. Finally, you strain out any remaining solids, add in vanilla, salt, and the coconut and toasted pecans, and stir it all together!

Mine thickened considerably upon cooling, and I found that the next day, it was even more solid. I realized that I could actually scoop out a bit of frosting and form it into a shape with my hands, and it would retain that shape. In the end that made it very simple to assemble the cupcakes. Nothing dripped or oozed out the sides as I feared would happen when I first found the recipe.

The cupcakes, when sliced straight across through their centers, were sturdy and did not crumble or fall apart from being cut in half. It was a great cake recipe for that reason; I could see it translating well into layer cake form and being very forgiving when leveled and frosted.

Most importantly, the birthday girl loved her cupcakes! They were delicious, they were attractive, and they were gone fast! What more could you want?

German Chocolate Cupcakes

from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

makes 24 cupcakes

For the cupcakes:

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for tins

2 cups cake flour, sifted, plus more for tins

1 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

1 1/3 cups sugar

3 large eggs, room temperature

1 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk

5 oz. semisweet chocolate (I used bittersweet 60% cacao chocolate), melted and cooled

For the frosting:

3 large egg yolks

1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk (I used fat-free)

1 1/4 cups packed light-brown sugar

3/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into small pieces, room temperature

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1/4 tsp. salt

1 package (7 ounces) sweetened flaked coconut

1 1/2 cups pecans (6 ounces), toasted and coarsely chopped

Directions

Make cupcakes: 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Brush standard muffin tins with butter; dust with cake flour, tapping out excess. Whisk together cake flour, baking soda, and salt.

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and beating until combined after each. Beat in chocolate until combined.

3. Divide batter evenly among prepared cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfways through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool 10 minutes. Run a small offset spatula or knife around the edges to loosen; turn out cupcakes onto racks and let cool completely. Cupcakes can be stored up to three days at room temperature in airtight containers.

Make frosting: 1. Heat egg yolks, evaporated milk, brown sugar, and butter in a saucepan over medium, stirring constantly, until thick, about 10 minutes (it should reach the consistency of sour cream). Strain through a fine sieve into a bowl.

2. Stir vanilla, salt, coconut, and pecans into frosting. Let cool completely, stirring occasionally. Frosting can be refrigerated up to 1 day in an airtight container. Before using, bring to room temperature and stir with a flexible spatula until smooth.

Assemble cupcakes: 1. To finish, use a serrated knife (and a gentle sawing motion) to split cupcakes in half horizontally. Spread a heaping tablespoon of frosting on top of each bottom half; replace top halves. Spread more frosting on top of each cupcake. Serve immediately.

A Week of Coconut: Fresh Coconut Cake

I saved the best coconut recipe for last. The most decadent, satisfying, yet challenging recipe for last. When I first received my April issue of Cooking Light, this is the one thing that jumped out at me immediately from its pages. I saw that this was a cake that they had taken, in all its full-fat, unhealthy glory, and made it over to be lighter and healthier. This was right up my alley; I love lightening up recipes, or figuring out ways to do so, and here the work was already done for me. The use of the fresh coconut was at once daunting and intriguing. If I could actually pull off using the coconut, I knew it would be a spectacular cake.

But first, I had to convince Andy to have a coconut cake for his birthday. He likes coconut just fine, but I know it's not his favorite, and normally people like something that they really crave for their birthday. Fortunately, he agreed to me making this right away; he liked the idea of making something so adventurous. The one caveat: I would alter the recipe just slightly, and make the frosting different from the one in the magazine. The lightened-up version calls for an Italian meringue frosting, which contains no fat. I decided to take this a step further and make an Italian meringue buttercream frosting, thus loading it down with lots and lots of yummy fat. It's a birthday cake; we needed to live a little!

I originally intended to take some pictures of the cake-baking process, and maybe some shots of the frosting in its various stages. In the end, I found that I was way too wrapped up in the actual baking and making to think about it. I need to get better at that! So anyway, instead we just have pictures of the cake as a finished product. It was pretty! This was my first layer cake made completely from scratch, and I was proud of myself, but I still have to beat up on my work a bit. If you look closely at the above picture, you can see that my layers are not even. There is a blank space in the top left half where the frosting did not quite meet the cake. This wouldn't have happened if I had taken the time to even out the layers. To be honest, I am still scared to level a cake. I've never done so, and I am almost positive I would mess it up if I did. I think when I finally do work up the nerve, it'll be because I've broken down and bought a special tool that leaves no room for error.

The cake layers came together just fine, although it really was a lot of work. To keep it lighter, you cut down on the use of butter and utilize egg whites instead of whole eggs. The wet ingredients were beaten in my stand mixer, and then in a separate bowl the 6 egg whites were whipped with a hand mixer to stiff peaks. After adding in the dry ingredients with the wet, and blending in coconut water (extracted from the fresh coconut!), you fold in the beaten egg whites gently to maintain volume.

Thanks to my kitchen scale, I was able to make each of the three cake layers the exact same volume, and then in the oven they went. I made the layers the night before, and then fretted about how I should store them overnight. After a long debate, Andy convinced me that it would be fine to leave them out on the counter on cooling racks. For the most part, that worked out okay, although the edges did seem a bit too stiff in the morning. I put them under my cake dome and they softened back up.

Now, it was time for the frosting! It was my first time making Italian meringue buttercream, and I was nervous. I watched a tutorial on YouTube by Warren Brown, whose recipe I intended to use for the frosting. I found it on Recipezaar (where else?) and then discovered that he had a video, which I was very excited about. I guess I'm a visual learner, because I definitely do better with something if I've seen it demonstrated for me first. I had never heard of Warren Brown before, but now I know he's the owner of a bakery called CakeLove, and that his recipe is awesome! He's got several locations, the newest one being in the mall we used to live by when we lived in Virginia. I was upset when I found this out; I would love to live right near this guy's bakery! Oh, well. I can still visit when we go back and see family in that area. Anyway, check out his website for more info on him.

Okay, I'm back on track now. Seriously, this frosting is unreal. You use an entire pound of butter, which of course I think goes against all laws of civilization. It is essential, I guess, to achieve the desired outcome, but it felt so wrong dumping all that butter into the mixer!

I'll back up just a bit here though. To achieve this buttercream, you cook a sugar/water mixture on the stove until a candy thermometer reads 240 degrees. While this is coming to temperature, you whip 5 egg whites in a stand mixer until they reach stiff peaks. Once the sugar is ready, you take it immediately from the heat and pour it in a slow, steady stream into the egg whites. Then, you whip it like crazy until the mixture is room temperature.

Now, it's time for all that butter! You dice the butter, making sure it is soft but still cool, and drop it in a bit at a time. Whip, whip, whip, and then you have buttercream! I added just a smidge (maybe 1/4 teaspoon) of coconut extract to the frosting, as well as about 1/2-3/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Even with the added flavorings, this buttercream is still very, well, buttery. I suppose it's right there in the title, huh? I should have anticipated it! It's the perfect frosting for those who do not like an overly sweet frosting, and the smooth texture just can't be beat. Honestly, I was just so giddy that I pulled it off without messing anything up, and on my first try!

After frosting the whole cake, the final touch is fresh shredded coconut, which has been toasted and cooled. That's it! It was an adventure, and it took me the better part of two days, but I am so happy that I accomplished the whole thing. The outcome was pretty awesome, we thought, and Andy was pleased with it, which was really the whole point. Success!

The recipe for the fresh coconut cake can be found here.

The recipe for Warren Brown's Italian meringue buttercream was found here.

A Week of Coconut: Chicken Kelaguen

This meal came about when I asked Andy what he would like for his birthday dinner this year. Now, he usually responds with something like, "I don't care; I'm not picky," or "whatever you think." So imagine my surprise when he actually came up with this great idea!

Andy was born on the island of Guam, but he didn't live there very long. He certainly did not live there long enough to remember any of it, let alone remember the cuisine of the island. But he thought, with it being his birthday and all, that it would be kinda neat to research the foods of Guam, the basic staples and common dishes and whatnot, and make some of them this year. I agreed; I thought it was brilliant! We're always open to trying new and different things and food combinations, and I couldn't wait to look it up and see what was out there.

I discovered that some of the common Guamanian staples were things we would really like. The first Google search I did produced the name of a dish: chicken kelaguen. Chicken? Count us in! I also discovered that they make a red rice, using the annatto seed to color the grains. Another side dish they make is marinated cucumbers. Finally, I discovered that one of their primary staples is....you guessed it, coconut! (This is a coconut-themed post, after all!) After a visit to my favorite recipe website in all the land, Recipezaar, I had acquired the appropriate recipes and was ready to start cooking!

Since there were going to be so many components to these dishes, we got to work on them the day before we were going to eat them. We started with a chicken. I had Andy grill a whole chicken. That's right, he actually grilled an entire chicken. He had to butcher it, too, since I had bought it intact. He was very critical of his work, saying he had done a terrible job, but I kept telling him to give himself a break. It was his first time taking apart a chicken, and no matter what, it was still going to taste good!



Once he had finished grilling the whole chicken, and allowing it to cool a bit, he set to work on shredding the meat. We stored it in the refrigerator overnight; it was pretty much ready to eat the next day. More on that in a little bit.

Next, I had to assemble the marinated cucumbers. They were going to need time to sit in the fridge and let all the flavors mingle; I was reading online that they were better the longer they sat. The marinade was pretty simple and fast, so I threw it together, sliced the cukes, tossed everything into a large Ziploc bag, and it was ready for the fridge.



So how does it all come together? I'm glad you asked! Picture, if you will, a nice, big pile of whole wheat pita breads and corn tortillas. Oh, wait, you don't have to picture it; I pictured it for you!



You pile your pita bread, or your corn tortilla, with the shredded chicken (which I had gently reheated in a low-ish oven, wrapped in foil). Top the chicken with finadene sauce, and then freshly grated coconut. First off, I have to say that I was surprised and intrigued by the addition of the fresh coconut. I wasn't sure what effect it would have on the overall flavor of the dish. I definitely thought it sounded too interesting not to try it, though. As for the finadene sauce, well, what a find this turned out to be! It is basically an extremely spicy soy sauce, but it is oh, so much more than that. There's 6 very hot peppers in this sauce (we used 3 habaneros and 3 small green thai chilies), chopped very fine, as well as some scallions and lemon juice. I love all these ingredients, but I have to admit that I was worried about this combination as a whole. I thought it may turn out to be an inedible, too-spicy, too-acidic mess. Boy, was I wrong!

Now, you can't go overboard on this sauce, mind you. It is very spicy. However, the way this stuff complements the rest of the ingredients of the pita is amazing. It flavors the chicken meat, and it balances out the mellowness of the coconut. Furthermore, it is superb on the red rice. I found the rice, on its own, to taste slightly bitter, but when you spoon some of the finadene on top, it changes the taste. The way it evened out was perfect. I did not take a picture of the red rice by itself, but it does make an appearance in the opening picture of this post. If I had to choose a least favorite part of the meal, the rice would probably be it, but I'm still glad we tried it; it made the whole thing that much more authentic. (The zucchini rolls from my last post appear on the finished plate picture, too, but obviously they were not really meant to be eaten with this Guamanian meal!)

All in all, we were very happy with our first foray into the food of Guam. I think we're going to be venturing even further into this cuisine in the future. I've already found more recipes to try! As for the fresh coconut, I was so psyched to buy my first real coconut to use for this dish. We had another use for the coconut, but you'll have to wait until my next post to find out what that other use was. It's a doozy, if I do say so myself!



The recipe for the marinated cucumbers can be found here.
The recipe for the finadene sauce can be found here.
For the Chamorro Red Rice, I used this recipe as a guide, but what I did was slightly different.

Chamorro Red Rice
adapted from Recipezaar
serves 4-6

Ingredients
2 cups short-grain rice
4 cups water
2-3 tsp. annatto seed, ground into a powder
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions
1. Combine water and annatto powder in a medium-sized saucepan and bring water to a boil. Add rice, salt, and pepper, stir briefly, and turn the heat down to a simmer. Cover the rice, and cook for 18-20 minutes, until water is absorbed and the rice has taken on an orange-reddish tint. Fluff with a fork, take the saucepan off the heat, and let stand with the lid on for about 5 minutes. Serve with chicken kelaguen.

Chicken Kelaguen

Ingredients
1 whole (3-4 lb.) chicken
3/4-1 cup freshly grated coconut (not the sweet shredded stuff you get in a bag in the baking aisle of the grocery store)
6-8 whole-wheat pita breads, slightly warmed
6-8 corn tortillas, slightly warmed
finadene sauce, to taste

Directions
1. Prepare the chicken by grilling (or poaching, or baking, or whatever method you find easiest) until cooked through. Shred all the meat and reserve.
2. Assembly: choose either a pita or a tortilla as your base. Sprinkle shredded chicken on your bread of choice, add some grated coconut, and top with finadene sauce. Serve with red rice on the side.

A Week of Coconut: Chicken Tikka Masala

My second coconut meal this week was a lovely chicken dish that I had been meaning to try for quite a while. It was very simple and relatively fast, other than the fact that there was a period of marinating for the chicken. The technique basically involves mixing together a spice blend and letting chicken cubes hang out in it for 2 hours up to 24 hours. After it's been properly married in the fridge, you saute some onion and red jalapeno on the stove and simmer these veggies in coconut milk briefly. While the veggies cook, broil the chicken quickly, add it to the pot of veggies and coconut milk, and allow all the flavors to come together over a low heat.

I couldn't believe how much bang for the buck you get with this meal. It packs so much flavor, for such little effort! The spice blend was extremely aromatic and flavorful, and the red jalapeno adds a decent amount of heat. The coconut milk adds a different dimension of rich, creamy smoothness. It's almost sweet, but because it is paired with so many savory elements, it takes on those new flavors and provides a yummy sauce that is perfectly soaked up by the rice you set it all on top of. This was our first time using coconut milk in a dish, but it certainly will not be the last. We loved it in this dish, and I'm already thinking up new ways to incorporate it into things. One thing: this recipe's instructions originally said not to use light coconut milk, but I decided not to heed the warning. I went ahead with the light coconut milk and I thought it was perfectly fine the way it was. I didn't miss the extra fat. The original recipe is here. I am posting my rendition, simply because I did a couple things differently.

Cheeky Chicken Tikka Masala
Adapted from Recipezaar
Serves 4

Ingredients
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed
2 tsp. ground ginger
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
½ tsp. ground cumin
½ tsp. ground coriander
½ tsp. cayenne pepper
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 Tbsp. dried cilantro
2 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
1 ½ Tbsp. olive oil, divided
1 onion, chopped
1 red jalapeno chile, finely chopped
1 14 oz. can light coconut milk
1 lemon, cut into wedges

Directions
1. Combine ginger, garlic, cumin, coriander, cayenne, salt, pepper, cilantro, lime juice, and 1 Tbsp. olive oil in a ziplock bag. Add chicken cubes, shake bag to coat thoroughly, and place in refrigerator for 2 hours or overnight.
2. Preheat broiler. Place chicken on a baking sheet, and broil for about 8-10 minutes, turning once halfway through. Remove from oven and set aside.
3. Meanwhile, heat the remaining ½ Tbsp. olive oil in a deep skillet or pot over medium heat. Add onion and jalapeno, and sauté for about 5 minutes, until vegetables are soft. Add coconut milk and bring to a simmer.
4. Turn heat down to low and cook for another 2-5 minutes. Add in the reserved chicken, stir to combine, and simmer another 5 minutes or so, until chicken is cooked through.
5. Serve chicken mixture over rice (we used brown basmati rice) with lemon wedges on the side. Enjoy!

A Week of Coconut: Samoas Bars

Recently, I have found myself on a coconut kick. It wasn't necessarily a conscious decision; I just started planning things to make, and then I realized that a lot of them involved coconut. I thought it would be fun to turn it into a theme week here on my blog! So most of the recipes I will feature in the coming week will include a coconut ingredient of some kind. I'm kicking off the week with these delectable Samoas Bars.

So Andy's favorite Girl Scout cookie is the Samoa. He could probably eat a whole box of them in one day. When I found out that there was a copycat recipe out there, I got very excited. When I found it, though, I realized just how labor intensive it would be. First, there's the cookie, which needs to be cut into a circle, with a smaller circle cut out in the center. Then there's the caramel/coconut layer on top of that. Then, you'd have to dip each cookie individually into chocolate, and finally drizzle more chocolate across the tops. Sure, they'd be pretty, but I really don't have time to do all that. But, all hope was not lost! Because lo and behold, there was a Samoas Bar cookie recipe as well! This would cut out the tedious step of individual cookies, since these cookies would be baked as a 9x13 sheet. These are time-consuming, as there are many different steps. However, none of the steps are difficult, and it comes together quickly enough.

The bottom layer is basically a big shortbread cookie. Simple, and very fast to throw together and bake off in the oven. One quick note about the shortbread layer, however: I found it to be extremely crumbly. I don't think I did anything wrong; I followed the directions carefully. When I got to the final step of dipping the bars into chocolate, I couldn't successfully do so because the cookie layer literally fell apart and disappeared into the bowl of chocolate. In the future, I may look for a different, sturdier cookie base recipe and use that instead.

While that cookie layer cools, you toast up 3 cups of coconut, then melt down some caramel. You fold the coconut into the melted caramel, and then drop it by spoonfuls onto the cooled cookie. It spreads fairly easily, but you have to work quickly while the caramel is still warm. You simply cover the entire cookie surface with the coconut/caramel,

then allow everything to firm up. After the bars are firm and cool, they can be cut into bars. At this point, they can be dipped in melted dark or semi-sweet chocolate (I used semi-sweet) and placed on wax paper to set. However, like I had said before, I had major problems when I got to this part. I resorted to spooning the melted chocolate onto the bar bottoms and spreading it to cover completely. I had to stick these in the fridge to firm the chocolate enough to peel the bars from the wax paper; otherwise, the chocolate and half the shortbread layer wanted to come right off. Oh, well. The drizzling part was a breeze; I waited until the bars were all chocolatey on the bottom, then I put what was left of the chocolate into a little piping/decorating bag. A quick squiggle across the tops, and they were ready for consumption!

These are delicious, all technical difficulties aside. They truly do remind you of a Samoa cookie, but without the $4.00 per box price tag. They are a good amount of work, so I'm sure I won't be making them that often, but it's a great recipe to keep in your back pocket, especially if you have a Samoa lover in the house!

The recipe can be found here.