Experiments

There are a lot of really great blogs out there, with some incredible recipes.  I was inspired by Hunter Angler Gardener Cook to make a panna cotta and fruit compote for it.  I was also interested in trying to recreate a coconut milk based seafood stew I had in a restaurant, and found this recipe, which I altered slightly and came up with a really terrific dinner.  Here's what I did:

For the panna cotta, I made half the recipe since I only had four ramekins.  This set up in the fridge while I prepped for dinner.  [2 cups heavy cream, 1/4 cup sugar, heated in the microwave until very warm.  Add 1 tsp. vanilla.  Mix 1 packet unflavored gelatin with 3 T. cold water, pour the hot cream over it and stir.  Chill in oiled ramekins for at least 2 hours.]  The compote was blackberries and blueberries mixed with 4 T. lime juice, 1/3 cup of sugar, and simmered for 15 minutes (based on Hank Shaw's mulberry key lime compote).  Then I added the cornstarch and cooked it 5 minutes more and let it cool.

To make the stew, I started with the chowder recipe but changed the fish and added rice noodles.  Before I ran a few errands I chopped 1 red pepper, 1 green pepper, 3 carrots, 1 onion, and some garlic, and set it aside.  I had bought half a pound each of swordfish, scallops and squid and a pound of little necks.  I cut the scallops in half, chopped the squid and swordfish and cleaned the little necks and set everything aside.  To the sauteed vegetables and spices I added 1 pint of lobster stock, 1 pint of light cream, and 1 can of coconut milk.  I did not add the tomato paste because the lobster stock had been made with a tomato base.  Once I got everything simmering, I added all the seafood except the little necks and simmered for 5 minutes.  Then I added the little necks and a package of rice noodles and simmered for 12 minutes until the little necks opened.  It tasted amazing and, because the noodles absorbed a lot of liquid, became more of a stew than a chowder.  Garnished with parsley and cilantro, it was a very filling meal.

 Getting the panna cotta out of the ramekins was a little challenging but I finally got the hang of it.  A little compote spooned around it and some garnish, and voila!  Perfection.

Curried Squash Soup

It is the time of the year when the root vegetables arrive from the farm! In the house today I had 3 pounds of sweet potatoes, 4 squashes (2 butternut, 1 buttercup, and 1 delicata), and 2 bulbs of celeriac. I found an awesome recipe for soup which incorporated all 3 items. I was able to use up the celeriac, one of the butternuts, and 2 pounds of the sweet potatoes, plus an apple, some farm share garlic, and onion. Amazingly enough, I had all the ingredients on hand. Even the coconut milk! I did use chicken stock instead of vegetable, but otherwise I stayed true to the recipe. It made 6.5 pints so 6 pints are in the pressure canner (10 lbs pressure, 75 minutes).

It's creamy, sweet, curried, and just plain delicious. Here's the recipe:

• 2 1/2 pounds kabocha, butternut, red kuri, or other deep orange winter squash
• 2 pounds sweet potatoes (orange or yellow-fleshed)
• 1 1/4 pounds celeriac
• 1 tablespoon coconut or olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups onion, chopped
• 1 cup apples - peeled, cored and chopped
• 3 large cloves garlic, minced
• 2 1/2 teaspoons mild curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon whole coriander seeds
• 1/4 teaspoon whole fennel seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 1/2 tablespoons grated ginger
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 1 cup water
• 1 can (400 ml) coconut milk (regular, not light)
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Place squash, sweet potatoes, and celeriac on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 55-75 minutes, or until tender when pierced with a skewer or sharp knife. (Baking time will vary depending on the size of the vegetables. Smaller sweet potatoes and squash will be tender earlier, whereas larger ones and also the celeriac will take longer time to soften. Remove those that are tender earlier while the others continue to cook) Once tender, let cool enough to handle. While vegetables are cooking/cooling, prepare other ingredients.
3. In a large soup pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion, apple, garlic, curry powder, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, salt, and pepper. Cover and cook for 7-9 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onions have softened.
4. Once roasted vegetables are cool enough to handle, slice squash and discard seeds. Scoop the flesh away from the peel and add to your soup pot. Cut peel away from sweet potatoes and celeriac (celeriac peel is thicker, so trim away a little of the thick, coarse peel. If the celeriac still seems a touch firm, cut it in smaller chunks so it can simmer and more quickly soften in the soup pot.) Add fresh ginger (start with 1 tbsp), stock, and water, bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer covered for about 10 minutes, or until all the vegetables are quite tender.
5. After this time, use an immersion blender and puree the soup until smooth. Stir in the coconut milk and lemon juice and taste test. If you'd like additional ginger, stir in the remaining ½ tablespoon.
6. Season with additional salt and pepper if desired, and serve.
7. Note: You can change the proportions of squash, sweet potatoes, and celeriac as you choose. Simply keep a total weight of about 6-7 lbs, which will give you roughly 10 - 11 cups of roasted vegetable flesh (after removing skins and seeds). Note that some squash will have more flesh and less seeds (ex: butternut) than other squash that will have a larger seed cavity and less flesh (ex: red kuri squash), so measuring out the cups of roasted flesh is helpful to determine how much you are actually using.

Kaya

When we went to Singapore, in 2005, one of the things the travel book advised was to try the kaya toast. Kaya, it went on to say, is an egg-coconut custard, spread on toast. The difficulty arose in trying to find a place that served it, and we finally hunted down a place about a mile away from our hotel after asking the concierge and a few people on the street. It was worth it! One of my fondest memories of the trip is that of our then 4 year old testing out the kaya and deciding it was edible.

A week or so ago I was trying to find something to do with a few limes, and started googling for "lime," "coconut," "jam," and "preserves." I came across a few recipes for kaya. They were all basically the same: 10 eggs, 1 cup of sugar, and a can of coconut milk. However, none of the recipes are all that explicit as to what happens after you put it in the jars. Do you refrigerate it? Store it at room temperature? How long does it last? No clue. So for this one I'm winging it a little. Tonight I made the custard, put it in the jars (it made 3 half-pints and a little extra) and decided that I should process it at least a little. I put the jars in the hot water and brought it to a boil and processed for about 3 minutes. The jars have popped and hopefully it will have a decent shelf life.

Thing to remember: the coconut milk has little bits of coconut in it which should be filtered out.

The kids won't touch it but the grown-ups love it!