Coconut & Maple Macaroons

Macaroons are the hottest thing in high-end pastry and chocolate shops right now … but when you think “macaroon,” you’re probably thinking of something different. Although classic French macaroons consist of chocolate cream sandwiched between two disks of almond meringue, when the concept was translated to the American dessert lexicon, the recipe changed. Drastically.

Each kind of macaroon has its own charm, and both are irrefutably delightful. The French ganache-and-meringue version is crunchy and creamy at the same time; the American version is based on coconut and is charmingly chewy. Odds are that each will strike your fancy at a different time. When you want to make a quick and easy dessert, for example, you’ll probably have a hankering for the American macaroon. It requires zero heating of any kind and can be made in about two minutes. The French version is considerably more involved. While “project”-style desserts are ideal if you have some time on your hands and curiosity in your nature, sometimes a make-it-in-fewer-than-five-minutes dessert is exactly what you’re looking for.

Coconut & Maple Macaroons
Makes 12 macaroons. Recipe can easily be doubled or tripled.

1/2 cup + 1 T. unsweetened coconut flakes
3 T. unsweetened cocoa powder, plus extra for dusting
2 T. maple syrup
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Sprinkle some cocoa powder on a large plate and have another empty clean plate nearby. Combine all ingredients in a small bowl, mixing well. Use your fingertips to roughly pinch the mixture into 12 equal balls, then roll each ball into a smooth ball on the dry, clean palms of your hands. (Your fingertips will be sticky from having mixed everything together.) Place the macaroons on the clean plate as you go. Wash and dry your hands thoroughly — the idea is to ensure that the macaroons stick to themselves rather than your hands — and then roll each macaroon in the cocoa powder to finish. Alternatively, roll in almond flour or finely ground pistachios or any other finely ground nut.

Macaroons can be refrigerated for up to a week. They’ll dry out slightly and actually improve in texture upon standing. (Although I like them freshly made, too.)

Enjoy!

Orange Coconut Cake

It’s always fun to discover new ways of using an established ingredient, like toasting almonds before using them (they’ll have a much deeper, nuttier flavor) or running sucanat through a coffee grinder to get a more natural form of powdered sugar (which you can use in chiffon cakes and meringues and icings exactly the same way you’d use powdered sugar).  The more ways you figure out how to use the same ingredient, the less you’ll have to spend on redundant pantry items!  To get back to the first example, one package of raw sliced almonds can be eaten as is, can be toasted and then eaten, or can be ground into flour.  No need to buy three separate items when you can buy one!  Only having to buy one ingredient means you can buy a better-quality version of that ingredient and still save money.

My latest simple ingredient twist is freshly toasted unsweetened coconut flakes.  All you have to do is place enough flakes in the bottom of a nonstick pan to make a thin layer, then toast the flakes over medium-low heat for about 5 minutes, occasionally stirring, until the flakes are turning golden brown and are becoming lusciously fragrant.  Immediately tip them out onto a cool plate so that they’ll stop cooking.  (If you leave them in the hot pan, they could burn.)  You can then use your toasted coconut as a garnish for savory or sweet items or as a topping for yogurt or granola or whatever else would benefit from a rich, nutty-buttery flavor.  You can also stir the toasted coconut into everything from cakes to cookies to custards.  Or roll them into truffles for a truly unique tropical treat!

Orange Coconut Cake

1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup brown rice flour*
1/2 cup sorghum OR millet flour*
1/3 cup corn flour*
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1 stick softened unsalted butter, preferably from grass-fed cows (bonus point for butter from grass-fed cows: since their milk contains much less saturated fat than conventional milk does, butter from grass-fed cows will soften much more quickly at room temperature than conventional butter will)
1/2 cup + 2 T. powdered sucanat (just run it through a coffee grinder until you have a fine powder), divided
2 eggs, separated, preferably from pastured hens
3/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 tsp. vanilla
Dash of cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease an 8×8 glass baking pan and set aside.

Place coconut in a large nonstick skillet and toast over medium-low heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, until flakes are golden brown and fragrant. Slide flakes onto cool plate and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In another large bowl, cream the butter with 1/2 cup of the powdered sucanat. Beat in egg yolks one at a time, then beat in orange juice and vanilla. Beat in flour mixture and reserved toasted coconut. (Note: if you’re using wheat flour, stir in the flour to avoid overmixing it and making it tough. Gluten-free bakers don’t have to worry about that.)

Either put in a fresh set of beaters or wash the ones you just used. In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar at high speed until soft peaks form. Scatter the remaining 2 T. powdered sucanat onto the stiffened whites and beat for another minute.

Fold egg whites into batter and then pour/scoop the batter into the greased baking pan. Bake for 35 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. If you like, you can make a simple icing by powdering more sucanat, then stirring in small amounts of freshly squeezed orange juice until you have a spreadable icing.

Enjoy!

* This is a gluten-free recipe. If you’d rather make a wheat-based version, substitute 1 1/3 cups whole-wheat (or spelt or kamut) flour for the flours stipulated here.

Nut, Seed & Fruit Granola with Palm Sugar

I’m always on the prowl for new unrefined sweeteners — not only are they a healthier alternative to heavily processed white sugar, unrefined sweeteners like maple syrup and honey have flavor instead of just being super-sweet.  It’s fun to play with flavor pairings to see which sweetener you like with what.  (I think honey is a natural fit for cornbread and blueberry muffins; maple syrup is delicious with chocolate.  Date sugar is wonderful sprinkled onto fruit and cobblers.)  And since unrefined sweeteners retain more of their complex nutrients than refined sugar does, unrefined sweeteners contain fewer calories per teaspoon.  Once again, taking the quality approach addresses the quantity one.

My latest unrefined sweetener find is palm sugar.  It’s made from the sap of a palm tree in a process that’s much like making maple syrup: tap the tree, collect the sap, and boil it down to a thick liquid.  The difference is that the palm sugar is more of a gritty, thick paste than a pourable syrup.  Some palm sugars — including coconut sugar — are then poured into molds to dry and wind up being sold in blocks.  (Jaggery is an Indian sweetener typically made of palm sap or sugarcane juice and sold in hardened blocks or swirls.  Latin versions are made from sugarcane and are known by various names, including rapadura and piloncillo. They’re often sold as cones.)

Despite palm sugar having less than a quarter of the calories of white sugar (10 per tablespoon instead of 45), palm sugar is surprisingly sweet!  It also has a very faint caramel flavor.  So far, I’ve stirred it into hot chocolate and made a sweetened granola with it, and I’ve really enjoyed the results.  You could also use it in baked goods that work well with liquid sweeteners, like cakes and muffins and quick breads.  (Cookies would be too thin and would spread out too much if you used a liquid sweetener in them — I use sucanat and date sugar for my cookies.)  I found palm sugar at Whole Foods, but you can probably find it at other natural-foods-oriented groceries as well.  And since palm sugar is often used in Thai cookery and other southeastern Asian cuisines, Asian grocery stores tend to stock it.

Nut, Seed & Fruit Granola with Palm Sugar
You can use any combination of nuts, seeds, dried fruits, grains, or other trail-mix-friendly ingredients in your granola. If you use salted roasted nuts, you don’t need to add any sea salt to the recipe, but if you use unsalted nuts, you might want to sprinkle in some sea salt to taste.

2/3 cups roasted pistachios
1/3 cup roasted peanuts
3/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
2 cups unsweetened puffed brown rice OR puffed millet
1 1/4 cups rolled oats (make sure to get gluten-free oats if you’d like gluten-free granola)
2 T. roasted sesame seeds
1/4 cup cocoa nibs, optional
Pinch of sea salt, optional

3/4 cup palm sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix all ingredients except for the final three together in a large bowl. Gently heat the palm sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla in a small pot on the stove. It should only take a minute or two of stirring over the low heat to get the palm sugar to fully liquefy.

Drizzle palm sugar over the granola mix and stir well with a wooden spoon. Spread the mixture out on an ungreased baking sheet to dry, then store in an airtight container when cool. (If you’re going to keep it for more than three or four days, refrigerate it.) You can eat the granola as it is for a snack or for breakfast, or you can pour it into a bowl and add your choice of milk to make a traditional bowl of cereal.

Enjoy!

Peanut Butter, Coconut & Cocoa Truffles

Not that you ever need an excuse to enjoy some good-quality chocolate, but now that the holidays are here, what better time to make your own truffles?  And this version is much, much quicker to make than the traditional version, because instead of slowly heating cream and chocolate and then using molds to get a glossy-smooth finish, you can zip these ingredients through a food processor and then roll them by hand with a minimum of mess. (Major bonus point: using dates makes the mixture stick to itself more than it’ll stick to your hand.)

What you roll your truffles in will determine the final flavor combo, so choose whatever suits you best.  In addition to the options listed here, you could also use ground nuts or even mix a hint of spice — cinnamon would be wonderful! — into whatever accent you choose for your batch.

(I will say that the traditional cream-and-chocolate way is fun, too.  About a year ago, I posted a recipe for dark chocolate truffles with roasted corn.  Feel free to make those, too, and then compare them!)

No-Fuss Holiday Truffles

For the dates:
6 ounces dates, pitted
1/2 cup pecan halves
1/4 cup cocoa powder, preferably non-Dutched
1 tsp. vanilla

For the accents:
Peanut flour
Additional cocoa powder
Flaked coconut

To make the truffles, place the dates, pecans, cocoa powder, and vanilla in a food processor. Process in spurts until the mixture comes together in one large ball. You may need to add a teaspoonful or two of water to get the ball to form.  Having that ball is important, because that means the mixture will stick together enough to make little truffle-sized balls. Place the big truffle ball in a large bowl, cover tightly, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. (You can keep it in the refrigerator for a day or two at this point if you like.)

Roll the truffles into 1″ balls. Pour a little of each accent onto a clean plate and roll the truffles on the plates, only rolling each truffle in one flavor so as not to confuse your taste buds. (Peanut flour is great and so is flaked coconut, but I’m not sure about the combination…) I split my truffle pile into thirds and rolled each third in one flavor so that I would have a nice assortment at the end.

Store your truffles in an airtight container in the refrigerator…that is, if they last that long!

Enjoy!

Dark Chocolate Bark with Pistachios

Some things in life are just worth being picky about, no matter how much they cost (okay, within reason) or how far you have to go to seek them out (which, in the Internet Age, usually isn’t too far).   I’d say cheese, beer, and chocolate fall into that “picky is good” category.  You can usually find good examples of all three if you just do a little extra hunting and poking in your local stores.

But you know what?  I’ve been stumped when it comes to finding very dark percentage chocolate with neat stuff in it — you know, nuts, crispy bits, dried fruit, spices, etc.  It’s pretty difficult to find 85% chocolate that’s anything but sheer chocolate.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but sometimes it’d be fun to have some optional elements, and when it comes to chocolate, I’ve acquired such a not-so-sweet tooth that I can’t really get into the bars that list sugar as their first ingredient.  They just aren’t chocolatey enough to suit my taste.

Hence, I decided to take a plain bar of 85%, melt it gently, stir in whatever fancy extras I wanted, and let it reform into chocolate “bark,” which should really just be called a “refashioned bar.”  This, I discovered, is the ideal way to have exactly the percentage you want with exactly the custom ingredients you want.  And it is far, far less expensive to reform your own bars than pay top dollar for the high-end bars that actually do feature good chocolate and nice extras.

Dark Chocolate Bark with Pistachios (or anything else you want)

100 gram bar of 80% or 85% chocolate (3.5 ounces)
1/2 tsp. coconut oil
1/4 cup chopped pistachio nuts OR whatever else you’d like: any other nut, flaked coconut, chopped dried fruit, unsweetened plain puffed whole-grain cereal or broken-up brown rice cakes, etc.
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. extract, such as vanilla, orange, peppermint, hazelnut, whatever you like (optional)*
Pinch of spice, like cinnamon or cloves or cayenne pepper (optional)

Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper.

Snap the bar into pieces and place them in a small saucepan over low. (And I do mean the LOWEST setting! Burnt chocolate tastes terrible and can’t be fixed.) Add coconut oil. Let the chocolate melt, occasionally stirring with a metal whisk to help break it up. It’ll probably only take 2 or 3 minutes to be mostly melted. Remove it from the heat and whisk it to finish melting the pieces. (If you leave it on the heat until it’s completely melted, you might wind up scorching the chocolate.)

Stir in your extras, whether that be nuts or fruit or extract or flavors. I usually only put one or maybe two extras in — no sense in flooding out the individual flavors by heaping on too many.

Pour the chocolate onto the prepared baking pan, spreading it with a spatula if it doesn’t pour evenly. Place sheet in refrigerator for at least an hour, then snap bark into pieces. Store in airtight container in a cool place. If it’s a hot day, you might want to keep the chocolate in the fridge.

Enjoy your endless options!

* 1 tsp. espresso powder would probably work, too, if you’re into coffee-flavored chocolate. I’m not a huge coffee fan, so I haven’t tried that variety yet.

Banana-Macadamia Coconut Milk

As my regular readers know, when I discover a new ingredient or a new way to use a tried-and-true ingredient, I go on a [fill in the blank] kick.  This time, it’s macadamia nut butter.  I started out dipping 90% dark chocolate squares into it (UNbelievable!), then made salad dressings out of it, and now am making smoothies with it.  I’m sure there will be more macadamia nut butter variations to come…

Seeing as macadamia nuts are so smooth and creamy, they would work with any fruit and any kind of milk (dairy, nut, grain, etc.).  I just happened to have bananas and coconut milk on hand, so I went with that, but feel free to use whatever fruit and milk you have handy!

Banana-Macadamia Coconut Milk
Serves 1 big breakfast-sized serving or 2 small snack-sized ones.

1 banana
1 big spoonful of macadamia nut butter
1/2 cup whole coconut milk*
1/2 cup water
Pinch of ground cinnamon or ginger
2-3 organic strawberries** (optional, but they turn the smoothie a lovely pink)

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth, then serve immediately. A single strawberry perched on the edge of the glass would make a nice garnish.

* Note it makes more sense to buy whole coconut milk and then dilute it yourself: you’ll get a product that tastes much better, you’ll save money, and nutritionally speaking, you’ll get a far better product. The same logic applies to dairy milk.

** Since strawberries are one of the most heavily sprayed crops in the U.S. and since we eat their skins, it makes sense to buy the organic version.

Peach & Ginger Crepes

When I get on a kick, I get on a kick — I can happily eat the same thing for several days in a row if I like it.  It’s even better when the dish/ingredient being eaten is multipurpose-able.  After all, leftovers are the ultimate convenience food!

Crepes are my most recent food fixation: first the savory fish tacos, now sweet fruit rolls.  Seeing as the typical crepe recipe makes 10 to 12 normal-sized crepes (six inches across as opposed to the gargantuan twelve-inchers you find in Europe), I thought I’d make some non-tacos with the second half of the batch.  These fruit-laden crepes can be served as breakfast, dessert, or snacks, and as usual, you can customize them to fit your fancy.

Sweet Fruit Crepes

Chopped fruit of your choice +

Creamy ingredient of your choice (yogurt, cream cheese, whipped cream, coconut cream/whole coconut milk, etc.) +

Spice of your choice +

Sweetener of your choice +

Crepes (see “Mastering Crepes the Easy Way” for a basic crepe recipe)

Bonus ingredient: chopped, toasted nuts

The pictured crepe holds chopped peaches, coconut cream, ginger, and a drizzle of honey.

Line the center of a crepe with your chosen combination of ingredients, gently roll up crepe, and enjoy!  If you’re serving a crowd and would like to create a crepe buffet, set out a variety of cut-up fruits and spices and allow the guests to choose their own fillings.  How’s that for a creative party pleaser?

A Freshly-Cracked Coconut

Even if it’s a frigid mid-winter day and you’re hunkered down inside watching a blizzard blow by outside, opening a coconut will make you feel downright tropical.  Once it’s open, you can drain the water and then notch out chunks of fresh, sweet flesh to eat out of hand.  (They’re particularly good frozen.)  You can also cut those chunks into matchsticks and then use them in Asian stir-frys and soups, or mince them and sprinkle them over a dessert made with tropical fruits or ice cream.  Die-hard coconut fans will appreciate brownies or cupcakes made with strips of the just-cracked meat.

But getting a coconut open isn’t the easiest task in the world, although it’s a bit easier to crack a pre-scored coconut than one that has just fallen off the palm tree and thunked onto the sandy beach.

Choosing Your Coconut

Before you even purchase your coconut, however, make sure it sloshes easily when you shake it, and double-check the hairy surface for any signs of slime or mold. (Struggling to open a coconut and then having putrid water gush out when you finally do crack the sucker is quite a depressing experience!)

Cracking Your Coconut

Once you’re home and have access to your toolbox, rotate the coconut until you find the three softer spots at the end.  These are called the “eyes” and are a bit reminiscent of the finger hole pattern found on bowling balls.  Carefully pound a thick nail (or other pointy, long object) into each eye to make a hole, then upend the coconut over a clean bowl to let the water drain out.  (Rice simmered in coconut water is a nice treat; so are smoothies made with it.)

Once the coconut is empty, place it on a towel, arm yourself with a chisel and hammer, find the score-line — or notch in one to make things easier for yourself — and go to work.  Remember that coconuts are fairly hard, but not rock-hard!  On the plus side, since you’ve already drained it, at least it won’t make a tremendous mess if you have a heavy hammer hand and wind up splitting the coconut with more force than you’d intended.  Do not, however, try doing this with a simple kitchen knife!  Even butcher knives were not made to pierce a sturdy coconut husk.  (I recently told a friend that he might have to use his treasured Roto-Zip tool to open the coconut.  He thought I was kidding … until he started chiseling away.  Then he decided that coconut-cracking –which is simply inconceivable without an array of tools and a certain amount of violence — was the vegetarian version of hunting.)

Once you’ve cracked the coconut, though, you can do any or all of the things I mentioned earlier.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Chestnut Cupcake

I don’t know about you, but when I find an exciting new (to me) ingredient, I like to drop it into as many culinary settings as I can to see what happens.  Some ideas, like my “let’s make hot chocolate with red wine instead of milk!” notion, though, are rather ill-fated.  Random combinations are not always for the faint of fork.  But isn’t living on the edge fun sometimes?

My newest obsession — as evinced by the recent post on chestnut snickerdoodles — is chestnut flour.  (The next step is whole chestnuts.  I’ve already got my eye on the roasted and peeled ones on the shelf at Trader Joe’s.)  In that vein, I decided to make chocolate chestnut cupcakes.  With cinnamon and pine nuts.  What the heck — why not?

I’m happy to report that these came out a whole lot tastier than the red-wine-hot-chocolate debacle!

Chocolate Chestnut Cupcakes
(Both gluten-free and glutenized versions are provided here, though it would be a shame to scrap the lovely coconut in favor of the much-more-bland wheat. And remember — if you can’t find coconut flour, feel free to make your own by grinding unsweetened coconut flakes in a coffee grinder.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a standard 12-muffin muffin pan (or use paper cupcake liners) and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together:

1/4 cup cocoa powder, preferably un-Dutched (un-Dutched cocoa has a stronger flavor)
1/4 cup almond flour (you can grind sliced almonds in a coffee grinder to make your own flour)
1/2 cup chestnut flour
1/2 cup coconut flour (again, you can grind your own; see above recipe note)*
1 T. cinnamon
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 cup pine nuts (optional)

* You can substitute whole-wheat flour for the coconut flour.

In a smaller bowl, whisk together:

2/3 cup maple syrup, preferably Grade B
2 eggs, preferably from free-range hens
1/4 cup whole milk, preferably from grass-fed cows
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup melted butter, preferably from grass-fed cows

Pour liquid mixture into flour mixture and combine with a wooden spoon, scraping the bottom of the bowl to make sure you’re combining everything thoroughly. Promptly ladle/spoon the batter into the waiting muffin tin and pop it in the heated oven. (Speed is of the essence when you’re dealing with gluten-free baked goods.)

Bake for about 25 minutes, then do a toothpick test to see if the cupcakes are done. If not, return to oven and bake another 3 minutes before checking again.

Enjoy!

Homemade Hand Creams

If you’re in the kitchen a lot, you’re probably washing your hands a lot, and your hands  probably feel dry from time to time.  You could buy expensive hand creams to alleviate that, of course…or you can use the oils and minerals you already have to make your own products.

Not only is making your own far less expensive, you get a very high-quality product without a bunch of fragrances and preservatives.  (I began making lotions years ago, when I got frustrated with the scarcity and expense of unscented products.)  The only two caveats with homemade creams are that because they are made without preservatives, you cannot leave them in a hot place (they will melt) and you should make sure your hands are clean before poking a finger into your lotions so that you don’t contaminate them (they are not made with antibacterial chemicals the way commercial lotions are).

To make hand cream, you’ll need a large glass bowl, a small glass bowl (or a small glass measuring cup), a whisk, and a way to heat your oils and boil your water (I use my stovetop, but you could also use a microwave).  Have a clean container ready so that you can transfer your lotion to it once it’s emulsified.

These three lotions are: (top) Lanolin Cream, (middle) Cocoa Butter Cream, and (bottom) Coconut Cream.  The Cocoa Butter Cream is a mix of oils and waxes — it’s thick rather than fluffy — but the other two are water/oil emulsions and are consequently lighter in texture.  I’ll give you the recipe for making the Coconut Cream since it’s the easiest one to make and has the nicest texture.  Home-beauty author Janice Cox has written several books on how to make body, bath, and hair products at home, so if this lotion intrigues you, check out her Natural Beauty at Home!

Coconut Cream
Makes 8 ounces — you may wish to cut this in half depending on the size of your jar/container.

2 T. stearic acid powder*
1/4 cup coconut oil, preferably unrefined
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp. baking soda

Melt stearic acid and coconut oil at a low temperature on the stove (or in a water bath) inside of a glass container. Alternatively, you can put the mixture in a large glass bowl, put it in the microwave, and use short bursts of microwave power. The goal is to melt it slowly — do NOT make it so hot that it bubbles. Swirl/stir often to help the stearic acid flakes melt into the oil. The mixture will have to end up in a large glass bowl, so if you don’t heat it in that to begin with, know that you’ll have to pour the oil mixture into the glass bowl when it’s hot and still very pour-able — stearic acid goes solid at room temperature.

While you’re melting the oil, boil some water. Add 1/2 tsp. baking soda to a heatproof measuring cup (i.e., Pyrex glass) or a small glass bowl. When the water is boiling and the oil/stearic acid is melted, pour 1/2 cup of water into the container with the baking soda and slightly swirl to dissolve soda (it’s easiest to use a heatproof measuring cup so that you can measure it as you’re pouring it). Slooooowly trickle water mixture into oil mixture (oil mixture must be in large bowl at this point!) and whisk briskly. This is the fun part: the clear oil and the water will turn into a beautifully rich, fluffy white cream! It’ll look like whipped cream, actually.

Transfer lotion to final container (one with a screwtop) and let sit uncovered until the cream is completely cool. Wipe out large bowl with a paper towel before attempting to use soap to clean it — soap won’t remove the waxy stearic acid.

If you’ve used unrefined coconut oil, your lotion will have wonderful scent of fresh coconuts…heavenly. This is by far my favorite cream!

* Stearic acid is actually a fat (fats are technically known as fatty acids). Plants contain it, animals contain it, our bodies contain it, we eat it in whole foods all the time — it’s nothing weird or unnatural. You can find stearic acid at candle-making shops or online at shops like www.mountainroseherbs.com (which sells an astonishing array of herbs and raw ingredients for making personal-care products).

Enjoy!

Coconut & Pea Soup

Now that there’s actually snow on the ground (the horror!), I’m thinking about the Caribbean.  Hearty stews are a superlative winter dish, of course, and it’s always fun to haul out the fondue pot, but what I really want during the wintertime is to be warm, and what better way to do that than come up with a tropical culinary creation and dust it with a bit of cayenne?  If I just closed my eyes and stuck my toes into a bucket of sand, too, I’d probably be able to trick myself into thinking that I’m on a Jamaican beach.

With that goal in mind, I’ve thrown together the American equivalents of quintessential island ingredients — sweet potatoes, green peas, spinach, coconut, and shrimp — to create a warming winter dish a la Caribe.  How much cayenne you include is up to you, mon!

Coconut & Pea Soup

1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, sliced into rounds
1 T. unrefined coconut oil or unrefined peanut oil
4 cups chicken stock, preferably from free-range chickens
2 cups frozen sweet peas
1 sweet potato, diced
1/2 cup whole coconut milk
Several handfuls of fresh spinach (baby or curly)
1/2 lb. (or more) of peeled and cleaned shrimp, medium-sized (you can also use little rock shrimp or langoustines)

Sautée onion in oil over medium heat for about three minutes or until the onion begins to turn translucent. Turn down heat to medium-low and add garlic. Stir and cook for another 1-2 minutes or until the garlic is fragrant (but not brown). Slowly pour in stock, then stir in peas, sweet potato, and coconut milk. Simmer on low heat for about 15 minutes to give the flavors a chance to marry. (You may want to sprinkle in a bit of sea salt to taste.)

Add spinach and shrimp to the soup and continue to simmer for another 3 minutes if you’re using medium-sized shrimp or langoustines. (Rock shrimp might only take 2 minutes.) If you’re using jumbo shrimp, you might need another minute or two to cook them through — pull one out and see if it’s opaque and starting to curl. As soon as the shrimp are done, pull the pot off the heat! Shrimp will continue to cook even after you’ve removed the soup pot from the burner.

Serve with a dash of cayenne if desired. A dollop of coconut cream would also be a nice topping (and could tone down the heat if you’ve been a bit too liberal with the pepper).

Enjoy!

Bananas with Coconut Cream & Ginger

There are plenty of non-dairy creamers out there:  hazelnut, French vanilla, Irish creme, extra-rich…the list goes on and on.  (Literally.  Take a look at the ingredients sometime.)  All of those flavors do, however, have something in common  — they’re usually accompanied by hydrogenated oil and high-fructose corn syrup, two of the worst substances you can eat.

Here’s a better idea:  instead of a manufactured non-dairy cream, why not use a natural one? Left on its own, whole coconut milk naturally separates into a thick, creamy layer and a more-watery one.  You can either stir the two back together or scoop some cream off the top to use in soups, smoothies, puddings, drinks (hot chocolate with coconut, anyone?), ice creams, curries, mashed into potatoes, served atop desserts, etc.  You just can’t go wrong with coconut.  (Unsweetened natural coconut, by the way, does not taste anything like the horrifically sweet flakes I remember as a kid.  Natural coconut is smooth and rich and blends with anything I’ve tried blending it with.)  And you can have your cream and your milk, too — after you’ve finished stealing some cream, stir whatever remains back into the milk.  You’ll still have beautifully thick milk.

For this dessert — okay, I’ll admit that it was actually my breakfast — I topped a sliced banana with coconut cream and a sprinkling of ginger.  It tasted exotic and tropical and was ready in 30 seconds.  Since then, I’ve used more of that can of coconut milk in a pea-curry soup, in smoothies, and as a toppping for pumpkin-cranberry muffins.  Later today, I’ll probably make chai-coconut tea.  The possibilities are endless…

Enjoy!

Vegetable Coconut Curry with Chickpea Cakes

Creamy or spicy, simple or complex, powerful or understated … a meal’s sauce sets its tone.  Sauces also provide a sense of place and heritage:  take the same basic ingredients, for example, slap a different sauce on them, and all of a sudden you’ve gone from Mexican to Japanese.  (Steak + peppers + onions + cumin + oregano + lime = a basic fajita; steak + peppers + onions + soy sauce + ginger + rice vinegar = a basic teriyaki.)

One of my all-time favorite sauce bases is an Indian coconut curry — it works equally well for veggies, fish, beef, and chicken.  (I say Indian because of the Madras curry powder I use, but there are also plenty of delicious southeastern Asian curries.)  There’s just something  enchanting about the layering of warm spices — ginger, turmeric, cayenne, cumin, etc. — over the backdrop of creamy, rich whole coconut milk.  And nothing could be easier than adding a teaspoonful of curry powder and splash of coconut milk to whatever you’re sautéeing at the moment.

In this case, I happened to have a rainbow of peppers, corn, spinach, and tomatoes in my fridge, so the dish nearly made itself!

Vegetable Coconut Curry

1 T. coconut oil
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
The kernels of 1 ear of fresh corn OR 1 cup of frozen kernels
1 medium tomato, chopped
Handful of baby spinach
1/3 cup whole coconut milk
1 tsp. curry powder
1/2 tsp. sea salt

Sautée coconut oil, pepper, onion and corn over medium heat for about 10 minutes or until onion is translucent and you can poke through a kernel of corn with the tip of a sharp knife. Add remaining ingredients and carefully stir, then turn heat down to low and let simmer for another 2-3 minutes.

If you like, serve with a bread or grain on the side. A few chunks of pineapple would also be a nice compliment to the meal.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin-Coconut Muffins

Perhaps I’ve spent too many hours in the Caribbean sun, but I think pumpkins and coconuts should occupy a more prominent place on the American table.  They both have a smooth, silky flavor, are durable to ship and easy to grow, and are endlessly versatile in sweet and savory dishes.  There’s pumpkin bread, pumpkin-stuffed raviolis, pumpkin dip (especially terrific with apples and pears), and pumpkin soup…and equally-luscious coocnut smoothies, coconut fish curries, coconut macaroons, and coconut chicken.  (If you’re still not convinced, try to imagine the world without piña coladas.  Takes some of the fun out of it, doesn’t it?  And Thanksgiving would seem incomplete without pumpkin pie.)

Since I’m such a proponent of pumpkins and coconuts, I thought I’d create muffins with both.  (Coconut milk is also a great substitute for dairy milk, especially if you skip the “light” coconut milk and go straight for the much-better-tasting, much-more-nutritious whole milk.)  These muffins make a great breakfast or snack; you could also top them off with a scoop of high-quality ice cream and a splash of maple syrup for dessert.  And making the muffins is simple — all you need is two mixing bowls, a whisk, and a mixing spoon.

Pumpkin-Coconut Muffins*

*Note:  these are gluten-free muffins.  If you want to make them with standard wheat flour, use 2 cups of wheat flour in place of the brown rice and teff flours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Prepare muffin tins by either greasing them well or filling them with paper muffin cups.

In a large bowl, whisk together:

1 cup brown rice flour
1 cup teff flour
1 T. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. sea salt

In a smaller bowl, whisk together:

1 cup pumpkin, either canned or freshly-roasted, peeled, and mashed
1/3 cup maple syrup, preferably Grade B
1 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 tsp. vanilla

Stir wet ingredients into dry ones until just blended. If you like, add a handful of dried berries (cranberries or cherries work best) and/or chopped nuts (walnuts and pecans are tasty options).

Spoon into muffin tins and bake for 22 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Also note: in addition to being gluten-free, these muffins just happen to be dairy-free, egg-free, and sugar-free — if you know someone with lots of food sensitivities, these might just be the muffins for them!

Chocolate-Coconut Cupcakes (sans gluten)

Whether you’re gluten-intolerant or just want to try something new, you’ll love these very-dark chocolate cupcakes.  The coconut flour is the perfect backdrop to the chocolate — it provides just enough creaminess to accent cocoa’s rich tones without getting in its way.  And the teff and brown rice flours give the cakes a bit of toothsome texture.  Trust me, if you’re a chocolate lover (and who isn’t?), you’ll think these luxurious cupcakes are well worth the effort of using four mixing bowls.

Chocolate-Coconut Cupcakes (gluten-free)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a muffin tin by either greasing the cups or lining them with paper cups.

In a small bowl or pot, melt:

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped or broken into chunks to facilitate melting
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sucanat

Stir often to avoid burning the chocolate. The best way to melt chocolate smoothly (and safely) is in a double-boiler, but a microwave also works if you use it in short bursts and stir between each. I used my trusty toaster oven and kept pulling it out to stir. Whichever heating element you choose, be sure not to completely melt the chocolate — the final lumps should be stirred out (rather than melted out) so that you don’t scorch the mixture.

Stir in 1 egg yolk. Set chocolate mixture aside.

In another small bowl, combine and set aside:

1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup water
1 tsp. vanilla

In a medium bowl, whisk together and set aside:

1 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup teff flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. sea salt

In a large bowl, beat until creamy (less than a minute):

1 stick butter

Add and beat for another 5 minutes:

1/2 cup sucanat

Beat in one at a time:

2 egg yolks (save the whites in a separate bowl)

Add flour and milk mixtures to the butter mixture, alternating them. Stir in (or beat on low speed) chocolate mixture.

In a clean bowl, whip the 2 saved egg whites into a stiff, white foam. Carefully fold them into the chocolate batter. (Separating the eggs this way and whipping the whites gives the cupcakes extra lightness and height.) Spoon the mixture carefully into prepared muffin tins and bake for about 25 minutes.

Enjoy!