Vegan Coconut Ice Cream and Vegan Banana and Nut Butter Ice Cream with Granola

I love eating ice cream any time of year, but during a particularly hot summer like the one we’re having, it becomes necessary as a food source. And, yes, I could enjoy a meal of just ice cream. I received a review copy of Jude's: A celebration of ice cream in 100 recipes just in time for the hottest part of summer and got to enjoy reading about frozen treats and tasting some of them. I loved learning how this ice cream company began. The current owners are brothers, and their father began the business in 2002 in their barn in Hampshire, England. The business is named after their mother. From the beginning, the focus was on achieving the best flavor by using the best ingredients including milk from a nearby farm. Soon, their ice creams were chosen by chefs for restaurant menus, and they were sold across the UK in supermarkets. There are classic and intriguing flavors, dairy-free options, and frozen desserts, toppings, and cocktails. Some flavors that caught my eye include the Honey Fig and Thyme Ice Cream, Matcha Ice Cream and Black Sesame Brittle, and the Beetroot and Ginger Ice Cream. When I first flipped through the pages, I was sure my first stop in the book would be the Summer Peach Sorbet, but then I read a suggestion about topping scoops with their granola and became fixated on that instead. For more elaborate desserts, there are two roulades. One is the Dark Chocolate and Vanilla Roulade, and the other is the Vanilla Arctic Roll with Apricot Creme Fraiche Ice Cream. You’ll also find tarts, cakes, and brownies to go with ice cream and even Mini Caramel and Guinness Floats. But, I kept thinking about that granola. It’s made with buckwheat kernals, sesame and pumpkin seeds, and coconut. I thought it would be a good, crunchy counterpoint to the Vegan Coconut Ice Cream. Then, I couldn’t resist making the Vegan Banana and Nut Butter Ice Cream too since it’s so easy. 

I started by making the granola, and the recipe is similar to my usual granola. This one is made with coconut oil and honey, and in addition to oats there are buckwheat kernals. Sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, and unsweetened coconut were also added along with salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. After baking until golden and crunchy and then cooling, dried cherries and raisins were to be added. I left them out to keep the mixture completely crunchy. And, I now intend to always add buckwheat kernals to any granola I make. For the Vegan Coconut Ice Cream, a little coconut milk was mixed with cornstarch to form a paste. Then, coconut milk was heated with coconut cream and maple syrup. The cornstarch paste and salt were added, and the mixture was stirred until thickened. It was then cooled and refrigerated overnight before being churned in an ice cream maker. I added a small splash of rum just before churning to prevent the ice cream from freezing too solidly. The Vegan Banana and Nut Butter Ice Cream was a quick puree of frozen bananas, peanut butter, almond milk, and confectioners’ sugar. The mixture was transferred to a container to freeze, and needs to be left at room temperature for 15 minutes or so to soften a bit before scooping. 

I served a scoop of each ice cream in a dish with dried banana chips on the banana ice cream, and granola on the coconut ice cream. Now that I’m writing about them, I’m craving them both again. I have my ice cream machine’s canister in the freezer as I type and am about to leave to gather ingredients. I can’t go much longer with no ice cream in the house. 

Vegan Coconut Ice Cream 
Recipe reprinted with publisher’s permission from Jude’s Ice Cream and Desserts. 

This vegan ice cream is so easy to create at home. It’s unexpectedly creamy, with a fresh coconut flavour that makes your mind instantly wander to tropical islands. We’ve used cornflour for extra smoothness and love serving it with toasted coconut flakes, which give nutty taste and texture, but if that’s not your thing, simply serve it straight up. 

SERVES 6 
MAKES 1 LITRE (1 3/4 PINTS) 

1 x 400g (14oz) can coconut milk 
1 tablespoon cornflour 
300ml (1/2 pint) coconut cream 
175g (6oz) agave syrup (or honey, for a non-vegan option) 
1/4 teaspoon fine salt  
Handful of coconut flakes, toasted, to serve (optional) 

Combine 1 tablespoon of the coconut milk with the cornflour to make a paste. Gradually add a further 2 tablespoons of the coconut milk, stirring constantly. Pour the remaining coconut milk into a saucepan over a low heat with the coconut cream and agave syrup. Bring slowly to a simmer, then stir in the cornflour paste and salt. Bring the mixture to the boil, stirring constantly until slightly thickened, then remove from the heat. Cover the pan, cool and chill in the refrigerator overnight, or if you don’t have time, for at least 2 hours. 

Pour into an ice-cream machine and churn to a soft set following the manufacturer’s instructions, or until the blade stops. Spoon the soft ice cream into an airtight, freezer-proof container and put in the freezer for at least 4 hours, or preferably overnight, until firm. Remove from the freezer and allow the ice cream to soften for 5–10 minutes before scooping. Serve with toasted coconut flakes, if using.

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Yellow Coconut Rice Cakes with Scallions and Black Sesame Seeds

I’m an admitted tree hugger and have been for ages. And, my interest in protecting the environment has a direct effect on my food choices. It all started on the campus of the University of Illinois during my first year. There was an Earth Day event at which I learned about how much land around the world was being used for cattle ranching for beef and how much water is used to raise cattle for beef and how negatively the environment is affected by the growing demand for beef. That was the day I made the choice to not eat red meat. Today, there are more food sourcing options. Local, pastured, grass-fed, humanely-raised animals for meat are a much better option than factory-farmed, standard, grocery store fare. Still, growing vegetables is far easier on the earth than raising animals. I continue to not eat red meat, but when I buy it to serve to others, I go with the local, pastured variety. Since I’ve been thinking this way for so long, I was delighted to see a new book about taking some simple steps to reduce our meat intake and improve our health and the planet at the same time. The Reducetarian Solution: How the Surprisingly Simple Act of Reducing the Amount of Meat in Your Diet Can Transform Your Health and the Planet, of which I received a review copy, takes a gentle approach. It doesn’t hit the reader over the head with demands for an end to meat eating. Instead, through a collection of several short essays, the idea of finding easy ways to cut back are presented. My favorite essay was by environmentalist and co-founder of 350.org, Bill McKibben, in which he writes: “reducing factory farming of animals would help a lot in the fight against global warming. The Reducetarian movement meets most people on our planet more or less at their level—they enjoy the taste of meat and yet also worry about our planet’s future.” He goes on to explain how reducing rather than eliminating meat could be very effective. Currently, about 0.5 percent of the American population is vegan. It would be very difficult to convince a significant percent of the population to convert to eating only plants. But, if a third or more Americans would cut their meat intake by a third or half, it would make an undeniable difference in the amount of meat being purchased and in many peoples’ quality of health. After reading the book, I’ve been cooking even more vegetarian meals than usual and cutting our dairy more often as well. This has been easy with books like In My Kitchen because I've already placed flags on several pages for meatless recipes to try.

One of the pages I marked was for the Yellow Coconut Rice with Scallions and Black Sesame Seeds recipe. Deborah Madison offered a couple of great suggestions for what to serve with this rice, and I couldn’t wait to try it with the braised sweet peppers. You have options with this rice. It can be served warm right from the saucepan, or it can be pressed into a pan, chilled, cut into shapes, and browned in oil. It’s also pointed out that long grain rice won’t form solid cakes after being pressed into a pan. Short or medium grain rice is needed. The rice was cooked in a mixture of coconut milk and water with saffron and turmeric. Once cooked, thinly sliced green onions were tossed with the rice. The rice was pressed into a small pan that I lined with parchment paper, and black sesame seeds were sprinkled on top. The pan was refrigerated until set. I went with the diamond shape suggested for the rice cakes and browned them in coconut oil. For the braised peppers, I had a few different varieties from local farms in addition to some hot chiles. They were cooked in coconut oil with minced onion, garlic, and ginger plus cumin and more turmeric. A little coconut milk was added after sauteeing. I topped the browned rice cakes with the braised peppers and garnished with a chiffonade of papalo leaves. 

This rice is so delicious and could be used in so many ways, I predict I’ll be making it repeatedly. Leftover rice cakes can be reheated in the oven, or they can be broken apart and heated in a skillet like fried rice. I enjoyed lunches of leftovers both ways. Choosing plants instead of meat a little more often isn’t difficult at all with great ideas this like for flavorful dishes with always changing seasonal vegetables.

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Shrimp Pan Roast

At first glance, you might not think that the American South has much in common with southern India. But, Asha Gomez finds several intersections in food traditions, hospitality, and more from both regions in her new book My Two Souths: Blending the Flavors of India into a Southern Kitchen, and I received a review copy. She grew up in Kerala where the climate was also hot and humid, where rice is also a local crop, where there’s also an active coast line, and where “a talent for creating bounty out of an often modest pantry” is also common. She then spent fourteen years living in New York before getting married and moving to Georgia. Hosting supper clubs serving Keralan cuisine out her home in Georgia evolved into a restaurant business. Today, she operates a culinary event venue and an Indian patisserie. She continues to bring together the “resourcefulness and soulfulness” of both home regions in her cooking. The book includes dishes for breakfast, lunch, tea time, dinner, and desserts and sweets. The recipe for Puffy Ginger Hoecakes combines flavors of uttapam rice pancakes in these cornmeal cakes, and they’re served with a spicy syrup made with cumin seeds, coriander seeds, and red pepper flakes mixed into maple syrup. She tells the story of how the dish Country Captain traveled from India to the American South via a British sea captain. She interprets it with more of its Indian roots with spices and coconut and serves it with Carolina gold rice. Her Three Spice Carrot Cake is made with ground black pepper, clove powder, and cardamom and is topped with cream cheese frosting flecked with more of those same spices. I was very interested in the Onion Lentil Dumplings in Savory Buttermilk in which the lentil dumplings are served on top of a warm bowl of spiced buttermilk soup. Then, the Shrimp Pan Roast or Chemmen got my full attention. 

In both of Gomez’s south's she’s able to bring home freshly caught shellfish. In Kerala, this would be made with fresh prawns, but here shrimp is more common. In addition to the fresh shrimp, dried shrimp is also used to amp up the flavor. In the past, a need to buy dried shrimp would send me across town on a food hunt. I’m delighted that now I can buy dried shrimp right in my neighborhood at a Korean grocery store. To begin this dish, the dried shrimp was combined with some freshly grated ginger and coconut milk in a blender and pureed into a smooth paste. Coconut oil was then heated in a large skillet. Minced shallots were added with fresh bay leaves. Once the shallots were browned, hot paprika and turmeric were added. Then, tomato paste, the dried shrimp paste, some salt, and a little water were added. The mixture was cooked for a few minutes. The fresh shrimp were then cooked gently in the sauce just until they began to curl. Because I always like to push the spiciness level a bit higher, I added a pinch or so of cayenne. 

If you’re worried at all about using dried shrimp, you shouldn’t be. They add great, umami flavor but aren’t overpowering at all. The spices all come together deliciously here, and the tomato paste adds more umami and a hint of sweetness. It’s fascinating to read how two areas that are worlds apart actually have a lot in common, and it’s even better to eat the results of a combination of those two places. Happy Holidays, everyone!

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Cambodian Red Curry Chicken Wings

Some changes are coming to Lisa is Cooking. Big changes, to me anyway. I’m moving out of the kitchen where I’ve been cooking for fourteen years. I’ll be leaving behind the spot on our back porch where I’ve shot most of the photos that have appeared on this blog. The gas range with the oven I’m completely used to will be a thing of the past. We’re packing up and moving over, not too far away, to a temporary residence while our house gets rebuilt. It should take less than a year but probably not much less. In the meantime, I’ll be cooking in a completely unfamiliar kitchen with even less countertop space than I have now. I haven’t even figured out yet where I’ll take food photos or where I'll knead bread or where to put the food processor. It’ll be an adventure, or that’s what I’m telling myself. I won’t be able to resist sharing updates about the house project along the way. When it’s done, I’ll be moving back into another different kitchen. This future kitchen will be a little less unfamiliar since I designed it and know where everything will go. I just haven’t stood in it yet. And, the appliances will be new and different, but they’ll be ones of my choosing. I can’t wait to get acquainted. So, I apologize in advance if it takes me a bit to get situated in my temporary kitchen and if my photos look weirder than ever for a year. What won’t be changing here at Lisa is Cooking is the cooking itself. I’ll still be trying all sorts of dishes from every different source I encounter. I’ll still be whipping up things like these Cambodian Red Curry Chicken Wings that I saw in the July issue of Food and Wine magazine. The recipe is from Edward Lee, and it was inspired by the food from the restaurant Senmonorom in Lowell, Massachusetts. I made a minor change to the cooking process, but that’s the kind of change that’s expected. 

You begin by cooking the wings in a saute pan on the stovetop. When they are browned on all sides, they should be transferred to a paper towel-lined plate and set aside. Then, the sauce was started with shallots, garlic, lemongrass, and ginger being added to the hot pan. After a few minutes, dried chiles like chiles de arbol, soy sauce, fish sauce, cumin, coriander, paprika, nutmeg, and turmeric were added and cooked until fragrant. Last, coconut milk was added, and the sauce mixture was poured into the blender to be pureed. The pureed sauce was returned to the saute pan. This is where I made a little change. Rather than adding the browned chicken wings to the sauce to simmer for a few minutes, I placed the wings on a baking sheet, basted them with the sauce, and placed them under the broiler. I had a vision of these wings being sticky and coated with the sauce while still having bits of crisp, browned skin. I opted for the high heat of the broiler instead of leaving the wings sitting in the sauce. After basting on both sides and allowing the sauce to achieve a lovely state of stickiness, I served the extra sauce drizzled over the top and as a dipping sauce on the side. 

As described in the magazine, the flavors are less spicy than Thai but deliciously layered. Served with limes for squeezing and some simple rice and vegetables, this was a fun meal. You have to accept that your fingers will be gooey with sauce, but some of the best meals start with that acceptance. Now, I’m off to pack up more of my kitchen things and get this adventure underway. 

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Thai Coconut Mussels

Needless to say, I’m picky about food. Over the years, I’ve become much more open-minded about trying new and different flavor combinations, but I seem to be getting choosier all the time about exactly where my food comes from and how it was raised/grown/caught/delivered. Kurt dreads the string of questions I ask about the menu when we try a new restaurant. I’m especially picky when it comes to seafood, but there are some handy clues for deciphering seafood dishes on restaurant menus. “Atlantic” salmon always means farmed, and therefore, I avoid it. If the menu also mentions bluefin tuna, Chilean sea bass, or orange roughy, I’ll probably just want to leave. The news about different types of fish is constantly changing, and overfishing is an ongoing concern. But, maybe it’s not too late to do something about it. When I heard about the new book, The Perfect Protein: The Fish Lover’s Guide to Saving the Oceans and Feeding the World, by Andy Sharpless, CEO of Oceana, I was very interested in learning what tips it offered. I received a review copy of the book, and I’m also one of the Perfect Protein bloggers. The book covers how we got to where we are with unsustainable fishing practices, how many people around the world rely on fish as a food source, what we could be doing differently, and how the fish in the sea could become abundant again one day. The book includes success stories of places where regulations have been put in place, and fish populations have improved significantly. The three steps outlined to bring about sustainability are: “set science-based fishing quotas, reduce bycatch, and protect habitats.” What consumers can do includes being informed about sustainable seafood options; choosing wild seafood, smaller fish like anchovies and sardines, and mollusks more often; and spreading the word about the issues. 

One of my favorite quotes regarding sustainable seafood is from chef Barton Seaver: “It’s our patriotic duty to eat as many farm-raised shellfish as we can.” While most fish farming is an environmental nightmare, farmed shellfish is a completely different story. Clams, oysters, and mussels are natural filters or “water scrubbers.” They feed on the lowest level of the aquatic food chain and improve the water quality where they’re grown. So, enjoy eating mollusks as often as you can. The Perfect Protein book includes recipes for some of the best, sustainable seafood options from several well-known chefs, and I wanted to highlight a dish with mussels. The Thai Coconut Mussels dish is from Sam Talbot of Season Two of Top Chef. I always start by soaking mussels in a big bowl of water with a few tablespoons of flour for about 30 minutes. This helps with eliminating sand and grit. Then, the mussels should be rinsed, and any beards still attached should be pulled off with the edge of a knife. To start the cooking, a few tablespoons of olive oil were heated in a large Dutch oven, and three tablespoons of grated ginger, four minced garlic cloves, one finely chopped shallot, and two tablespoons of finely chopped lemongrass were added. In a couple minutes when fragrant, two tablespoons of unsweetened, ground coconut was added followed by a pound and a half of cleaned mussels. The heat was turned up to medium-high, and then a tablespoon of soy sauce and one teaspoon of fish sauce were added. I also added some finely chopped, fresh chiles. After about one minute, three-quarters of a cup of coconut milk was added, the pan was covered, and the mussels were left to cook for about four minutes or until opened. Any mussels that don’t open should be discarded. The opened mussels were placed in serving bowls, and cilantro and mint leaves along with the juice and zest of two limes and some Thai basil and purple basil from my herb garden were added to the coconut milk. I also added some thinly sliced lime leaves from my tree. The coconut milk broth was poured over the mussels. 

The herby, spicy flavor of the coconut milk broth was a great match for the mussels, and some rice noodles were ideal for slurping with the extra broth left in the bowl. It’s not easy to always make perfect choices in the ever-changing world of sustainable seafood, but learning about the issues makes it possible to do better as often as we can. 

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Coconut Flans with Muscovado Sugar Sauce

Recipes from Alice Medrich are always precise and work like a charm, and now she's given us some really easy ones too. Her latest book is Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts, and I received a review copy. It's a guide to building great desserts from a well-stocked pantry. There are recipes for baked desserts, custards, and sauces, but there are also numerous tips for combining different kinds of fruit or store-bought ingredients like ice cream with other components or sauces. And, most recipes come with suggested variations. This book teaches you to be a dessert-MacGyver. The list of "Things to do with vanilla ice cream" alone could fill all of your dessert menus for the rest of the summer. Some of those suggestions include: serving ice cream on cinnamon toast with chocolate or caramel sauce, and Medrich provides three different chocolate sauce recipes and four caramel sauces from which to choose; drizzling the ice cream with extra virgin olive oil, sprinkling with flaky sea salt, and adding dessert croutons; and topping ice cream with Bourbon-Brown Sugar Pecans and peach slices. In the Starting with Fruit chapter, there's a Saucy Cranberry Maple Pudding Cake that I can't wait to try this fall, a Blueberry Cornmeal Cobbler that I'll try very soon, and a list of various fruit sauces both chunky and smooth to add to other desserts. The ideas continue with cakes, cookies, and other sweet bites, and they're all completely simple to do. 

As I read about the flans in the book, I was intrigued by the idea of placing a layer of muscovado sugar in the base of ramekins rather than making caramelized sugar for the sauce. The dark, brown sugar mixed with a little salt, melts easily and becomes a flavorful caramel sauce once the flans have been chilled. The molasses flavor of muscovado sugar sounded perfect for the Coconut Flans. A simple custard was made with coconut milk that had been warmed before being whisked into eggs, sugar, vanilla, rum, and salt. Of course, the recipe suggests using vanilla or rum, and of course I used both. Why choose? The flans were baked in a water bath until the custard was only slightly wobbly in the center. Mine took five minutes longer than the suggested baking time to set. So, pick up a ramekin with an oven mitt and wiggle it a bit to see how the custard is setting as it bakes, and remove from the oven when the wobble seems just right. After baking, the custards have to be chilled, and it's the chilling that makes the muscovado sugar dissolve. So, they need a minimum of four hours in the refrigerator. Then, the flans can be turned out onto dessert plates and topped with lime zest and cinnamon grated from a stick. 

These flans were cool and creamy with lovely tropical flavor. With all of the great ideas in this book, dinner party-worthy desserts for any season can be whipped up at a moment's notice. For that matter, there's no reason to wait for a dinner party. These recipes make it easy enough to have dessert every day of the week. 

Coconut Flans with Muscovado Sugar Sauce 

Excerpted from Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts by Alice Medrich (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2012.

Serves 8 

Dark muscovado sugar is a deep mahogany color and very flavorful. It easily takes the place of the traditional caramelized sugar in these flans; all you have to do is press it into the bottom of each cup, then ladle the flan mixture on top of it. The sugar dissolves into a sauce when the flans are chilled. These are extra good with a little grated lime zest and cinnamon stick added just before serving. For old-school flans with caramelized sugar, see the variation. 

Ingredients
For the sugar sauce 
2/3 cup (4.625 ounces) firmly packed dark muscovado sugar 
1/4 teaspoon salt 

For the flans 
5 large eggs 
3/4 cup (5.25 ounces) sugar 
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or 1 tablespoon rum 
1/8 teaspoon salt 
3 cups unsweetened coconut milk (from two 14- to 15-ounce cans) 
A cinnamon stick (optional) 
A lime or two, preferably unsprayed or organic (optional) 

Equipment 
Eight 6-ounce custard cups or ramekins Baking pan large enough to hold the custard cups with space between them 
Fine-mesh strainer 
Microplane zester (optional) 

Directions
Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 350˚F. Put a kettle of water on to boil. 

To line the cups with sugar: combine the muscovado sugar thoroughly with the salt, pinching or mashing the sugar to eliminate lumps. Divide the mixture among the custard cups or ramekins and press lightly on the sugar with another small cup to even it out and compact it. Set the cups in the baking pan. 

To make the flans: whisk the eggs, sugar, vanilla or rum, and salt together in a large bowl, without creating a lot of froth or bubbles. 

Heat the coconut milk in a saucepan over medium heat until steaming. Gradually whisk the coconut milk into the eggs, again trying not to raise a froth. Pour the mixture through the strainer into another bowl to eliminate any bits of egg. 

Ladle the flan mixture very gently into the custard cups or ramekins, disturbing the sugar as little as possible. Some of the sugar may float up, but it will eventually settle back down in the bottom. Put the baking pan in the oven, pull out the rack, and carefully pour enough boiling water into the pan to come halfway up the sides of the custard cups. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the custard is just a little wobbly in the center. 

Remove the pan from the oven and remove the cups with tongs. Cool on a rack for 15 minutes, then refrigerate, for at least 4 hours, or preferably for 12 to 24 hours. 

To serve, run a thin knife around the edges of each cup and invert the flan onto a rimmed plate or into a shallow bowl. Or, serve the flans in their cups—the sauce will be on the bottom. Either way, you can grate a little of the cinnamon stick and some lime zest over each flan before serving, if desired. 

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Curried Anything (in this case: Cauliflower and Sugar Snap Peas)

All cookbooks are intended to inspire the reader to cook, right? Yes, but this one presents itself as “A Passionate Plea for Home Cooking,” and it really does encourage everyday cooking no matter how busy you might be. The new book from John Besh, My Family Table, lays out exactly how to make home-cooked meals happen for every occasion including all those dinners for the middle of a hectic week. I received a review copy of this book and couldn’t put it down once I started reading. This isn’t a typical chef-cooking-at-home kind of book. Besh shows how meals from breakfast to dinner, every day of the week, can be easily prepared at home without relying on packaged, manufactured food. The first chapter sets the tone by showing how basic recipes for risotto, vegetable soup, pasta, fruit crumble, and curry can be made in any season with whatever fresh ingredients you might have at the time. With a well-stocked pantry, and he describes what might be included in one, a few vegetables, and possibly some leftover meat if you’d like, these dishes can be on the table quickly. From there, the book takes you through meals for Sunday Supper when you might have more time and can prepare some things in advance for the coming week. Then, there’s one pot cooking in Dinner from a Cast Iron Pot, followed by School Nights, and Breakfast with my Boys in which you learn how Besh’s busy family plans and prepares their meals. There are also some chapters for specific types of cooking and special occasions like How to Cook a Fish, Fried Chicken, Barbecue Wisdom, Jazz Brunch, Goose for the Holidays, and Drew Makes a Cake. Throughout, it’s encouraging, never intimidating, and emphasizes the value of shared meals at home.

The first recipe I tried from the book was the potato chip-crusted fish with sambal mayonnaise, and I’d like to suggest that you try crusting anything at all with crushed potato chips mixed with some flour. It’s a delicious coating for fish, and I imagine it would be stellar on chicken or tofu too. The mayonnaise was pureed with piquillo peppers, sambal chile paste, and lemon, and again, this would be a fine sauce with many, many things. Next, I flipped back to that first chapter in the book in which the recipes were guidelines for using what you like and what you have on hand. In the book the “curried anything” recipe is shown with chicken, eggplant, and summer squash, and that’s the version of the recipe included below. In the headnote, Besh explained how easy it is to alter a curry by using seafood, beef, or all vegetables. He noted a good meatless variation would be a curry of cauliflower and sugar snap peas, and that’s how I made it. With the basic technique and building blocks of flavor, you can make it any way you wish throughout the year.

Speaking of cauliflower, I look forward to trying the mac and cheese recipe made with leftover roasted cauliflower. There’s also a chicken and noodle pan fry made with an easy peanut sauce, and a Southern soup au pistou with ratatouille in it. And, with ideas like a self-serve smoothie bar, pickled shrimp, and crab-stuffed avocados, I want to throw a brunch party. Whether you need some ideas for meal planning for the week or dishes for weekend parties, this book will get you cooking and sharing more meals at home.

Curried Anything
re-printed from My Family Table with publisher's permission

Serves 8

Recipes for curries vary almost more than any other dish, which is great because you can hardly go wrong. Curries make delicious use of last night’s roast pork, chicken, beef, or seafood, and they are a wonderful way to serve just vegetables as a main course. Use 2 cups of cooked meat, as in our family staple here, Eggplant and Chicken Curry; it’s Brendan’s favorite. Or make a curry of cauliflower florets and sugar snap peas as a meatless variation. Either way, make it as spicy as you wish, tasting as you go, adding small amounts of curry powder and chili paste until the heat is just right for you.

Curry powder is a combination of spices whose potency varies with the manufacturer, some have more cumin and coriander, others more ginger and chili powder. Since this isn’t a book about the nuances of South Asian cooking, I’ll not insist you make your own, but I do hope you’ll sample a few curry powders to find your favorite. As for rice, use what you have, but I love basmati and jasmine rice. You can even use brown rice.

2 tablespoons butter
1 eggplant, unpeeled, diced
2 tablespoons peeled and minced ginger
2 green onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons Madras curry powder
1 summer squash, diced
1 potato, peeled and diced
1 13-ounce can coconut milk
11/2 cups chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon sambal chili paste
2 cups chopped cooked chicken
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
4 cups cooked rice

1. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over high heat, add the eggplant, and sauté until soft. Add the ginger, green onions, and garlic. Sprinkle the curry powder into the pan and toast for a moment. Add the squash and potatoes, stirring to coat them with the spices.

2. Continue to stir for a few minutes, then add the coconut milk, broth, and chili paste. Bring to a gentle boil, add the chicken, then reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and serve over rice.

—From My Family Table: A Passionate Plea for Home Cooking by John Besh/Andrews McMeel Publishing

Note: For the version shown here, I left out the eggplant, summer squash, and chicken and used florets from one head of cauliflower and two cups of sugar snap peas.

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Spicy Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup

Only on very rare occasions does Kurt make meal suggestions. I suppose I’m lucky that most of the time he’s happy to partake in whatever meal I’m planning to concoct. So, it’s a bit of a surprise when he does mention something particular he’d like to have. A few weeks ago, he started talking about how we hadn’t gone out for pho in a long time and then suggested I should try making it or something similar. Since I probably won’t hear another food request from him for the next year, I jumped at the opportunity to deliver on this one. I remembered a soup from Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table that she describes as a mix of two of her favorite Vietnamese soups: pho ga which is a clear broth soup with noodles and la sa ga which is a curried coconut milk soup. She orders both frequently at Kim Lien in Paris. The combined soup in the book brings together the chicken broth, shredded meat, and noodles with coconut milk and lots of great flavors from lime, chiles, ginger, and spices. It’s easy to prepare since the chicken poaches in the broth and coconut milk of the soup, and while it’s cooking, you can ready the noodles and garnishes.

The first step of this soup is to make a spice packet with cilantro stems, star anise, coriander seeds, and peppercorns in some cheesecloth tied with kitchen twine. I always have cilantro in my herb garden in the fall, so I picked enough stems to use and saved the leaves for a garnish. The spice packet was added to a soup pot with chicken broth, coconut milk, finely chopped onion, sliced garlic, minced ginger, and some dried chiles. The mix was seasoned with fish sauce, a little brown sugar, and a pinch of salt. It was brought to a boil, and then boneless, skinless chicken breasts were added. The heat was reduced so the soup would simmer while the chicken cooked for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, I cooked some rice vermicelli, grabbed some Thai basil leaves, also from my herb garden, cut some lime wedges, and opened the bottle of chile oil. Once the chicken was cooked through, it was removed from the soup, allowed to cool, and shredded. Just before serving, I tasted the soup and added lime juice and more fish sauce. To serve, I placed some noodles and chicken in each bowl, ladled the soup into the bowls, and added garnishes.

To store the leftover soup, it worked well to place the noodles, chicken, and soup in three separate containers. That way, the noodles didn’t absorb any more liquid from the soup, and the soup could be re-heated by itself. With the spices, aromatics, chiles, coconut milk, and all the great garnishes, this soup was big on flavor. It hit all the notes Kurt was looking for in a soup, and the noodles and chicken made it a substantial meal. Now, I wonder when he’ll have another special request and what it will be.

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Thai-Style Scallops and Asparagus

Scallops plus asparagus and Thai flavors was all I needed to know. I saw this dish in the food section on The New York Times site last week, and it immediately became a part of our weekend dining plans. With the current fling I’m having with asparagus and scallops’ unwavering appeal, this meal was sure to be a hit. That being said, I made some minor changes to the suggested preparations. First, Kurt and I both prefer for large scallops to be seared. While we agree on that point, Kurt also feels that sauce should never cover scallops once they’re seared because tampering with that seared bit of crust on the surface should be illegal. So, rather than cooking the scallops in the sauce as was recommended, I seared them separately and set them on top of the asparagus and sauce for serving. Another change I made was simply due to laziness. I didn’t feel the need to make fish stock for a mere one-third cup, so I used water and added a little fish sauce instead. Last, since I have a cute, little kaffir lime tree growing in a container on my front porch, I grabbed a few leaves from it to slice thinly for garnishing.

I made the curry paste mostly as directed by the recipe. Shallots, cores of lemon grass bulbs, ginger, garlic, anchovy paste, coriander, lime juice, and lime zest were mixed in a food processor. Oil was heated in a saute pan, and the curry paste was added. Asparagus, and I used more than suggested because I couldn’t help myself, was cut into small pieces and added to the curry paste. Then, I added water and fish sauce instead of fish stock, more coconut milk than suggested because I used more asparagus than suggested, and sriracha, and allowed the asparagus and sauce to simmer. Meanwhile, I seared the scallops in a separate pan, and all the while jasmine rice was steaming. The rice was served on the side, and the scallops were set on top of the asparagus and sauce making sure that nothing sauce-like came in contact with the top of the scallops.

The spiciness level can be determined by the amount of sriracha added, and I boosted it just a bit, but I didn’t want to overshadow the flavor of the scallops. The simple curry paste was a breeze to make, and I’m now certain I need a mortar and pestle. It was such a small amount to pulverize, it took longer to make the paste in a small food processor, with several stops to stir, than it would have by hand. Still, it made a flavorful sauce for this fresh, spring-like dish.

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Coconut Cookies

I mentioned my growing collection of different types of flour the other day, and now there’s one more variety in the bin. Coconut flour joined the party as soon as I saw these cookies in Good to the Grain. I bought Bob’s Red Mill coconut flour which is made from ground, organic coconuts, and it has the same sweet, warm smell of fresh coconut. I was thinking this flour would be good in pancakes, and as luck would have it, there’s a buttermilk coconut pancake recipe on the back of the flour package. But, about these cookies, they’re made with just coconut flour and barley flour with no all-purpose or wheat flour included. There’s also coconut milk in them, and each ball of dough was rolled in shredded, unsweetened coconut before being placed on a cookie sheet. Three sources of coconut was a sure sign that Kurt was going to be happy with these. They were tender, cakey cookies full of coconut flavor. Warm from the oven, they were melt-in-your-mouth good, but I also liked them after they’d been refrigerated overnight. I usually don’t go for cold cookies, but these were an exception to the rule. Once cold, they were a little firmer, and for whatever reason, I like shredded coconut when it’s cold.

Making this dough was just a little different from most other cookie recipes. The dry ingredients were sifted together, and those were barley flour, coconut flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Then, eggs were beaten in a stand mixer and then granulated and brown sugars were added and mixed with the eggs. Next, the dry ingredients were added and mixed until combined before room temperature butter was added. I felt a little uncomfortable adding the butter after the dry ingredients, but following the butter, coconut milk and vanilla were added. Last, some of the shredded unsweetened coconut was mixed into the dough which came together just fine. I used a scoop to make balls of dough which were rolled in more shredded coconut, and the cookies baked for about 20 minutes.

When I asked Kurt if he liked the cookies, his response was: of course, they’re made with coconut. So, if you like coconut, you’ll like these cookies. I liked these cookies for the true coconut flavor, for the just-right level of sweetness, and for the tender, cakey texture. Now, I’m off to attempt coconut pancakes and experiment with other ways to use this flour.

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Chocolate Coconut Sorbet

After growing up in Illinois where icy, cold wind can whip right across the flat, open land and chill you to the core, I can’t really complain about winter in Austin, Texas where I live now. That is, I can’t complain about the temperatures. What I can and do frequently complain about is winter allergy problems. January is ‘cedar fever’ time, thanks to the abundant pollen from mountain cedar, or ash juniper, trees. Coughing, sneezing, congestion, and lack of sleep become a way of life, and I’m willing to try any and every home remedy I can to combat those issues. One common allergy remedy is avoiding dairy. That seems simple enough except for the fact that I really enjoy eating cheese, and I bake quite a lot with things like butter, cream, and milk. However, when I’d suffered allergy symptoms to the point of almost losing my voice, I decided to put more serious effort into avoiding dairy until the worst part of the season passed. I remembered from reading In the Kitchen with A Good Appetite that author Melissa Clark’s husband doesn’t eat much dairy, and she had created a frozen treat for him using coconut milk. If I could still have something a lot like ice cream for dessert, while not having cream, I could do this dairy-free thing for a short while.

Not only is this an ice cream kind of dessert with no cream, it also has no eggs. It’s made with coconut milk which is naturally rich, but the end result is still a bit lighter than an average ice cream recipe. You begin by warming coconut milk and sugar in a saucepan until the sugar dissolves. Then, chopped bittersweet chocolate, cocoa powder, dark rum, and a little salt were added, and that was whisked until the chocolate was melted and the mixture was smooth. Once again, I used a mix of regular cocoa powder and some black onyx cocoa powder which gives the mixture a good, dark color. The coconut mixture was then transferred to a measuring pitcher and chilled before being refrigerated for a few hours. Once completely cold, it was churned in an ice cream maker.

The chocolate coconut sorbet was creamy and richly chocolate-flavored. There’s a suggestion in the recipe to serve it with shredded coconut and a chocolate sauce to make it reminiscent of a Mounds bar, but instead, I topped it with toasted, shredded coconut, chopped almonds, and pieces of candied orange peel. All those crunchy, chewy toppings made it an especially fun dessert, and the almonds took it in more of an Almond Joy direction in the end. And, you know, I didn’t miss the dairy one bit.

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Seared Salmon on Coconut Spinach

You know how food tastes better when you’re on vacation? I’ve had a lingering memory of a vacation meal for years now. It wasn’t even anything special or planned in advance or exotic. It was a meal at a restaurant we picked because it was the first place we found and we were hungry. I ordered a simple salmon dish served with spinach, and it was flavored with ginger, soy sauce, and sesame oil. That combination of ingredients is so meant to be that I still think about that meal and have hoped to experience it again. It was light but satisfying. Anytime I see salmon with spinach and ginger on a menu, I think, that’s it, but of course it’s not so simple. The sauce can’t be heavy and the salmon can’t be dry and the soy sauce can’t overpower the other flavors. With all of that in mind, when I saw this salmon and coconut spinach dish in Donna Hay’s Off the Shelf, I had a feeling it would be great. This is close to the meal I remember, but the coconut milk and red chiles are an added touch. All the other flavors are there, and as a bonus, this is really quick to prepare.

Wild salmon was marinated with grated ginger, sesame oil, and soy sauce, and then it was briefly seared on each side. Meanwhile, I cleaned some spinach I received from my CSA. Garlic, chopped red chiles, and chlli paste were cooked in a saucepan with a little oil. Coconut milk and lemon juice were added and simmered. Then, in went the spinach which cooked until it wilted. The end. Dinner was ready. This was possibly the fastest meal I’ve made in months.

I accept that being on vacation, being away from home, being in a place for the sole purpose of having fun does indeed make food taste great, and that’s why I remember that meal so fondly. It’s also true that some ingredients just go together really well, and salmon, spinach, and ginger fit that description. This version with coconut milk and red chiles built on that theme. I enjoyed it as much as I thought I might, and I like that it wasn’t an exact re-creation. Instead, it became that great salmon and spinach meal I made at home that reminded me of that vacation.

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