Crazy for Coconut Cream Pies

I love coconut.  I've known coconut all my life.  I can remember summer days in Lawis and having my cousins and friends challenging each other  to see who can climb up the coconut tree the fastest, the winner cutting down a fresh coconut fruit to drink and snack on.  We would run around with coconuts drilled with straws for easier consumption, it was like our Sunny Delight or Kool Aid.  Coconut is definitely known for its sweet usage.  I found this coconut cream pie recipe that called for fried pie dough.  I decided to just bake it on a regular  store-bought  pie crust to save time. Enjoy!

This recipe is from Cuisine at Home: Issue No 70 August 2008

Total Time:  30 minutes + chilling time

Heat in a saucepan over medium heat until bubbles form around the edge.
1 cup of whole milk
1 cup of coconut milk
Remove pan from burner


Whisk together in a bowl:
1/2 cup of cream of coconut
1/4 cup of cornstarch
1/4 t. kosher salt





Add 2 eggs, whisk until smooth, then gradually whisk in 1/2 of the hot milk.

Pour the egg-milk mixture into the milk remaining in the pan and cook over medium heat until thick, whisking often.

Boiling filling for 1 minute to thicken and eliminate the starchy taste.

Off heat, stir in:
1 1/2 cups of shredded & toasted coconut
2 T. salted butter
1/2 t. vanilla extract


.
Transfer to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap, pressing it onto the surface to prevent a skim from forming; chill filling until cold.

Take store bought pie crust and cut into half.

Place 5 T. cold filling in the center of each dough pieces.

Dab water around the edge of the dough, then fold dough over the filling and press edges together to seal tightly.

Crimp edges of the pies with a fork to reinforce the seal, then trim off ragged edges with a pizza cutter.

Transfer pies to parchment-lined baking sheets and freeze until dough is firm, 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and arrange formed pies on parchment-lined baking sheets,

Brush them with an egg beaten with 1 T. milk, sprinkle with coarse sugar.
 
Bake until golden, about 20-25 minutes.


Drizzle pies with coconut and melted chocolate before serving.

For the melted chocolate, I melted 1 cup of milk chocolate chips with 1/2 cup of cream of coconut over medium-low heat in a small sauce pan.

Simple, Healthy & Delicious: Ancho Chili Chicken with Black Beans

As a single gal on my own, I find that I can save money and save my figure (since I like to eat my sweets and anything decadent) by buying lean chicken breasts in bulk.  I usually get a bulk pack and wrap each chicken breasts in saran wrapped to be frozen till its required usage on a one-off basis for my meals.   With that said, I looked in my freezer the other night and found two chicken breasts laying around so I decided to make something with them.  I decided on this recipe because, its tasty,  fast and a healthy alternative to pork/beef meals.  It also has black beans which is a great source for fiber and antioxidants.  Lean chicken is a good source of lean protein and B vitamins as well.  You can pair this meal with yellow rice.

This recipe is from Cuisine for Two: Simple, Healthy & Delicious.


Makes 2 servings
Total time: 30 minutes


Season; Saute in 1 T. Olive Oil:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (5 oz. each)
1 t. dried oregano
1/2 t. ground cumin
1/2 t. black pepper
Use a large saute pan and high heat until brown, about 2 minutes per side.  Transfer to plate


Toast in 1 T. Olive Oil; Stir In; Puree:
2 dried ancho chiles, stemmed, seeded and broken into pieces
1 1/2 cups of tomatoes, chopped
12 cup onion, cut into chunks
3 garlic cloves, smashed
1 corn tortilla (6")
1 cup chicken broth
Salt to taste
Two minutes to toasts the chiles over medium heat.  Then add tomatoes, 1/2 cup onion, garlic cloves, and tortilla; simmer for 3 minutes.  Stir in broth, bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, return chicken to pan.   Cover and cook until chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees, about 5 minutes.  Remove breasts; puree tomato mixture in food processor, then season with salt.

Saute in 2 teaspoons Olive Oil;
1/4 cup onion, minced
1 t. garlic, minced
1 can black beans, drained, rinsed (14 oz.)
Saute onion and garlic in a small sauce pan over medium-high. Stir in beans to heat through, then season with salt to taste.

Garnish with:
Cilantro sprigs
lime wedges
crumbled queso fresco








Please note:  I forgot the lime.  Oops.

For Queen B & Stony Kurtis: Seafood Linguine

People come and go in your life; some are temporary acquintances and others become lifelong friends.  I have known Bee and Craig (Stony Kurtis is his record label name) for a few years now.  It is refreshing to see that true love and true friendship still exists.  They are a bit of a drive for me but I try to find time to drop in from time to time to touch base.

It's been a couple months since I made my way to their home but I managed to pay them a visit last weekend.  Usually Bee cooks for me and I bring over flowers or plants.  This time I wanted to cook for them and decided it would be fun to be in the kitchen with Bee.  Craig is good old Italian boy and Bee is from the land of smiles, Thailand  I would say its a good match.   Most of the time, we have Bee's concoctions and I thought it would be a good change of pace if I helped cook a traditional Italian dish.  Bee and I decided on SEAFOOD LINGUINE, a tried and true yummy Italian pasta goodness.

This recipe is from Cuisine at Home Perfect Pasta. Issue.

Makes 4 servings
Total time:  about 45 minutes

SIMMER and REDUCE
Shells from 8 large shrimp
1 cup of water
20-30 minutes. Strained & reserved broth


COOK:
1/2 lb. dry linguine
Drain and set aside


SAUTE in 2 T. OLIVE OIL; ADD:
1 t. garlic, minced
1 t. red pepper flakes - medium high heat for 30 seconds then add
1 cup dry white wine
8 medium-sized fresh clams cleaned (cherrystones or littlenecks)
Shrimp broth
Cover and simmer until clam shells open, about 5 minutes


STIR IN; ADD
8 mussels, cleaned
8 large shrimp, peeled, deveined, until mussels open, about 2-3 minutes
Discard any clams or mussels that haven't opened at this point then add
Cooked linguine
1/4 lb. calamari rings
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley; toss with tongs for 2-3 minutes, or just until calamari is cooked
Salt to taste


FINISH WITH:
 Olive Oil

CLEANING CLAMS:  
No one likes to taste sand in their mouth, especially in food.  For hardshell clams, scrub the shells with a stiff brush, then rinse in cold water.  Softshell clams (razors & steamers) must be soaked for about 3 hours in heavily salted water until they purge out the sand.

For the Gotlieb Family: Curried Potatoes & Peas Samosas

Samosas date back to the 10th century as a popular snack in  South Asia,  Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Arabian peninsula, the Mediterrenean (Turkey), Southwest Asia, the Horn of Africa, North Africa and South Africa.  It is usually shaped like a perfect triangular-cone and either baked or fried.   

 One of the most influential persons in my life is my old boss from Barracuda Networks, Daniel Gotlieb.  An outstanding human being with a family that is vegetarian, he challenged me to put up a vegetarian recipe.  I decided to make this since I really like samosas (if you work with me, you'll see me munching on frozen samosas from Trader Joe's for breakfast sometimes.)  Enjoy!

This recipe is from Cuisine at Home Issue N0. 68 April 2008

Makes 4 samosas
Total time:  45 minutes

1/2 lb Yukon gold potatoes, diced
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup onion, diced
1 T garlic, minced
2 T. unsalted butter
2 T. curry powder  (recipe below courtesy of my coworker, Sumita)
1/2 cup frozen peas
Juice of 1/2 a lime
Salt to taste
1 pkg. purchased pie dough (15 oz)
Chutney (see previous post)

1)  Preheat oven to 450 degrees, line a baking sheet with parchment.

2)  Cook potatoes in salted water in a large sauce pan, covered, over medium heat until tender, 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain, set aside, and return to pan to burner.

3)  Saute onion and garlic in butter over medium heat until onion begins to soften, about 3 minutes.  Stir in curry powder and cook 30 seconds.

4)  Deglaze with broth. then add peas and reserved potatoes; bring to a boil.  Cook 1 minute, then add lime juice, season with salt; cool slightly.

5)  To assemble, unroll pie dough rounds and cut each into quarters.  Spoon 1/2 cup curry mixter in the center of 4 quarters; top each with remaining dough quarters.  Seal samosas with fingers, crimp with a fork, and carefully transfer to prepared baking sheet.  Bake until golden, 15 minutes.

6)  Serve with chutney.

CURRY POWDER mix courtesy of SUMITA, the only gal in the TAM team @ Post-Sales Qualys (which is super cool in my book):
Mix:  turmeric, red chilli, coriander powder, cumin powder, salt, garlic and ginger

Breaking in the Food Processor with Chutney

Chutney is term used for a mix of spices simmered to accompany Indian main dishes.  It also serves well as a spread on crackers and served with warm Brie.  You can find chutney in the world spices section in most grocery stores but the recipe is simple and quick so I decided to make it from scratch.  This is an American/European style chutney which are usually with fruits, vinegar and sugar, cooked down to a reduction. Flavorings are always added to the mix. These may include sugar, salt, tamarind, onion, or ginger.

This recipe is from Cuisine at Home Issue N0. 68 April 2008

Makes 1 cup 
Total time: 30 minutes

 2 cups grape tomatoes, halved
 1/4 cup red onion, minced
 3 T. golden raisins (I used the regular kind since I had some in the pantry - they might be sweeter I think)
2 T. sugar
2 T. apple cider (I had pear apple cider laying around so I used that)
1 T. fresh ginger, minced
1/2  t. red pepper flakes
1/8  t. ground coriander
1/8  t. ground allspice

1)  Simmer all ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat until tomatoes are broken down @ 15 minutes.  Stir occasionally.
2)  Off heat, puree half of the chutney in a food processor, then fold into remaining chutney.

Of course, I forgot to puree only half of the chutney with all the excitement of breaking in my food processor.  Pureeing only half of the chutney creates a thick sauce that still maintains texture. Oh well.... Trial & error in kitchen, as in life.

Chocolate Marshmallow Fingers

I love Ross, especially ever since I discovered their book section.  I found a great recipe book for brownies for $3.99 there and very excited to experiment.  

I chose this recipe since I had most of the ingredients again in the pantry.  I did have to jet over to Safeway for a late night run of graham crackers and mini marshmallows.  Though it is very simple, you do have to pay attention to not cool the chocolate for too long, otherwise it will not help bind the brownie together. See my pics to see how it looks when you let the chocolate cool for too long.  Oops.

Chocolate Marshmallow Fingers

Makes 18
12 oz. graham crackers
4 1/2 oz semi sweet chocolate, broken into pieces
8 oz butter
1/8 cup superfine sugar
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
2 tbsp honey
2/3 cup marshmallows
1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1)  Put the graham crackers in a polythene bag, and using a rolling pin, crush into small pieces.

2)  Put the chocolate, butter, sugar, cocoa, and honey in a pan and heat gently until melted

3)  Remove from heat and let cool, slightly.

4)  Stir the crushed crackers into the chocolate mixture until well mixed.
5)  Add the marshmallows, mix well.

6)  Then finally stir in the chocolate chips

7)  Turn the mixture into an 8 inch cake pan and lighty smooth the top.

8)  Put in the refrigerator and let chill for 2-3 hours, until set.

9)  Cut into fingers before serving.