Green Pea Spread, sandwich rollups

Ingredients

Makes 20-25 

• 1 teaspoon cumin (jeera) seeds
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1.5 cups green peas (frozen)
• 2 teaspoons coriander powder
• 1 teaspoon dry mango powder (amchoor) or 1 teaspoon Chaat masala
• 1 teaspoon cumin powder
• 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
• 1/2 cup grated coconut (defrosted if using frozen)
• 1 cup finely chopped fresh coriander
• salt and pepper to taste

Method

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan and when it is hot add the cumin seeds. Once they start to sputter add the frozen peas carefully, add the remaining spices (coriander powder, mango powder, cumin powder, grated coconut, garam masala) and let it cook on medium heat until the peas are tender (about 10-15 minutes). Season with salt and pepper and add the chopped coriander and take it off the heat.

Once it is cool, use your food processor to grind it down to small bits. You are now ready to use it in your sandwiches.

To make the rolls in the picture, you use white or wheat bread. Cut the edges off the bread. Using a rolling pin, roll the bread flat pressing as you go. Put about a tablespoon of filling across the edge closest to you. Roll from the bread encapsulating the filling and creating the roll. Repeat until you have used all your filling.

Fry the bread rolls in a pan with a little oil with the seam side down. Fry until it browns. Brush the opposite side with a little oil and flip them over. Repeat on the two remaining sides. Serve with ketchup.

 

Coconut Cake with Passion Fruit Icing

 

I love birthdays especially since I get to bake something. Its not all about me, really. Its about finding out what the person likes and then coming up with something for them. Well Lorne loves anything coconut (which I incidentally love as well). So I looked through all my recipes and online to see what was there with coconut and then one other ingredient. I found it – ‘Passion fruit’.

Now that’s a whole other story. If you have been on my blog before you know I love Passion Fruit. Ever since I first had it in Hawaii, I went bonkers. When I returned from Hawaii, I even bought a couple of bottles of concentrate back. Well I found Passion Fruit pulp in the farmers market – and yes they even carry Passion Fruits ever so often. I use the frozen pulp which is a little tart and does not have the beautiful looking seeds that I think scream – Passion Fruit. I found a variety of passion fruit that grows down south, I nearly bought it till I found they are pretty aggressive so I depend only on what I get at the market.

The decision was to make a coconut cake and frost it with a passion fruit icing. The initial idea was to make a curd and split the cakes and fill it with passion fruit curd. Well time on Thursday got a little better of me (sorry Lorne) and I decided to take the easy way out. This recipe is based off a recipe in an Australian magazine ‘Taste’. The cake was super moist and the passion fruit icing was the perfect touch of sweetness and tartness.

I hope you make it and enjoy it as much as we all did.

Ingredients

for the cake

• 175g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/3 cups flour
• 2/3 cup sweetened shredded coconut
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup yoghurt

for the Icing

• 5 tablespoons passion fruit pulp
• 1 1/4 cup icing (powdered) sugar mixture, sifted
• 125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut toasted

Method

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line and grease and line a 9 inch cake pan. I have a silicone pan and do not grease it.

In a food processor blend all the ingredients except the shredded coconut until well mixed. Pour the mix into a large bowl and then add the shredded coconut and stir to combine. Pour this into your prepared pan. Bake for 40-43 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Set the pan on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Take the cake out of the pan and let it cool completely before icing.

For the icing

Cream the butter until smooth. Add the icing (powdered) sugar and passion fruit and continue to beat until it is smooth. Add the toasted coconut and stir.

Put the cake on your platter and pour the icing over and spread it.

 

 

Apricot Macroons

 

Apricot Macaroon

I love coconut – and growing up we did eat an abundance of it. Goa has an abundance of coconut sweets. Where does one start – Doce, Coconut Ice, Bibinca …. the list goes on and on. We use it in curries (vegetarian and non-vegetarian). In Goa we are not big on vegetables so we mainly had them two ways – veggies with freshly grated coconut or veggies with a green coconut gravy. I grew up disliking vegetables – (which can be pretty true of most kids except kids of vegetarians then I guess you do not have a choice 🙂 – Not like you were missing out on something that you never had).

So I was looking for recipes that had coconuts and came across this one. It looked like a breeze to make and I had a lot of dried apricots. Adding rum gives it just that little something.

I did take a few that were left to the office and they were gone really quickly.  I even got two requests for the recipe. So I am finally getting down to writing it. Hope you enjoy it just as much as they enjoyed it.

In addition, this is gluten free!!!

 

Ingredients

Total time : 1.5 hour

• 3 large egg whites
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tablespoon dark rum (optional)
• pinch of salt
• 14 oz sweetened flaked coconut
• 1/2 cup soft dried apricots, coarsely chopped (stirred with rum if using)

Method

Preheat oven to 325F. Use a silicone mat on your baking sheet or line it with parchment paper.  Whisk your egg whites and sugar until frothy and thick. Do not overwhip as it will dry out the whites. Stir in the coconut and apricots.

Using a cookie scoop (medium) shape mixture into rounds. Place on baking sheet half an inch apart. Bake for 30-35 minutes until lightly golden, rotating he sheet halfway through the baking. Place baking tray on a rack and let the macaroons cool.  Store in an airtight container.

It lasted all of 2 days (as I took a whole batch into work and they were gone).

 

 

Coconut Ice

Coconut Ice

Coconut is one of my favorite foods. In India we drink the water from the young/tender coconuts. We are also quite used to drinking them at their temperature. I was with a couple of friends from London recently who remarked that this would be so much better if it was chilled. The thought had never even crossed my mind. Mind you, I normally like room temperature water so its not like that  spark would ever had made it in my mind.

I was in Jamaica and we had just finished breakfast and were sitting down watching the ocean and the guard comes up to us and asks us if we would like to have a coconut. We all said yes really quickly. Well he proceeded to get a ladder that he then put up against the coconut tree. The ladder reached less than half way up the tree. He then removed his boots and climbed up this 12 step bamboo ladder. His implement to get at these coconuts was a really long pole with a blade attached at the end. He used this to attempt to saw the coconuts from the tree. We were a on pins and needles that something bad was going to happen. Luckily one of the kitchen lads came out and made him get down. The lad then shimmied (for lack of a better term) up the tree and proceeded to hack at the coconuts. These were some huge coconuts and we had fun drinking the juice and then eating the tender coconut flesh. The guard then challenged us to fling the coconuts as far as we could and bet that he could do better than any of us. Unfortunately for the guard, he did not know Brandon who did an amazing throw. (And no we did not bet with him).

This was one of my favorite sweets to eat at Christmas time. People would make them in all colors. We did make an amazing amount of sweets at Christmas and would take a plate of different sweets to everyone we went to visit. It was really a thrill to get sweets from people you knew were good sweet makers. Hope you enjoy this one and get a chance to eat a tender/young coconut at some point!

Ingredients

• 2 cups icing sugar, sifted
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 14oz (396gm) sweetened condensed milk
• 3.5 cups desiccated coconut
• food coloring (optional)

Method

Butter and line an 8 inch square pan.  I cut two rectangular strips that lay over each other and extend over the sides. This makes it easier to lift the coconut ice out of the pan.

Combine sugar and cream of tartar in a mixing bowl. Then add the condensed milk and desiccated coconut and stir till combined. Use a sturdy spoon as the mixture does become thick. There is also no issue with over stirring. Once you have everything mixed well you can do two things just leave the color as is or divide the mixture into two equal parts, coloring one part.

If you have not colored the  mixture just put it in your pan and level with the back of a spoon. If you did color half the mixture, put the first part into the pan, level it, then add the next portion making sure to level again.

Refrigerate until set about 2 hours. Remove from the refrigerator. Use a serrated (bread) knife to cut into squares. Wipe the knife clean between cuts to get neat cuts and prevent the knife from sticking.

Pineapple Coconut Bread

Pineapple Bread

Well I was in Pittsburgh last week visiting friends and had the most wonderful time there. We visited falling water (the house designed by Frank Wright). It was lovely, and the property was lovely as well. I got more than my fair share of butterfly pictures on the grounds. We did eat at a wonderful Caribbean place and I visited a chocolate shop that makes all their own chocolate they also sell a lot of cadbury’s chocolate but the did not have cadbury’s chocolate spread.

On to this weeks recipe which has nothing to do with my trip. I have not made bread in a while and thought I would make a few loaves. I decided on two different ones. Here is the first one. Its with Pineapple, haha – yes I love pineapple and coconut goes so well with it – that is what happens when you always have coconut flakes hanging around the house.

A little tip here – if you are like me and never have butter sitting at room temperature waiting to be whipped to become part of an exciting treat then this is what you can do. If you butter is in the refrigerator take it out, cut it into cubes. Place on a microwave plate and microwave in short bursts of 2-3 minutes. Test after every try to see if when you press down on a cube it gives fairly easily. It should not take you more than 3 tries to get it softened. You are now ready to use your softened butter.

Ingredients

• 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut plus some
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1.5 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 tbsp milk
• 1 cup heaped pineapple chunks

Method

Sift the flour, baking soda together into a bowl, drizzle in the salt and set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar in a stand mixer until light and fluffy. This takes me about 4-5 minutes on my stand mixer. Add the eggs one at a time. Beat them well into the batter. Each egg should be completely incorporated before you add the next egg. The batter will be quite runny after the last egg. If you stand mixer does not have the scraper attachment make sure you scrape down the bowl after each addition. Add the one tablespoon of milk and beat just a tad to incorporate.

Now add a third of the flour, beat the mixture till it incorporated then add half of the sour cream and beat until incorporated. Repeat this once and then end with the last third of the flour. Fold in the pineapple and the one cup of coconut flakes. Pour the batter into your loaf pan (Note: I use silicone pans so I do not butter or line the pans. If you are using metal pans, lightly butter them. You may also line them if you wish).   Smooth the top of the batter and drizzle the rest of the coconut flakes over the top. This will create a nice crunchy texture.
Bake at 350F  for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Let the loaf cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Then remove and transfer to a wire rack until completely cool. If you are not going to finish it the same day (who would not!) you can wrap it in parchment paper and then put it in a plastic bag into the refrigerator.