pandan macaroons.

There are not many recipes for the pandan version online, I guess I'm about to find out why (Editor's Note: I did not find out why, everything went fine). 

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pandan macaroons.

INGREDIENTS
2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup raw sugar
2 egg whites
1/4 tsp fine salt
1/4 tsp pandan extract

METHOD
Set oven to 180C. Wet your hands. Use a tablespoon to put one rounded spoonful of the mixture into your hands. Roll mixture into the ball, then pinch the top. Place macaroon on baking sheet. Repeat with remaining coconut mixture. Bake macaroons until just golden on top, about 15 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

VARIATIONS
-add 1 packed tbsp minced lime or lemon zest

jamaican curried chicken.

Above: homemade bread and small-batch hot sauces from Alexander Krone at Butcher's Tears.

Not much to say at the moment other than that the below curry is sounding better than anything else right now. Stolen from Saveur, adaptation forthcoming.



















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jamaican chicken coconut curry. 

1 kg chicken of some sort
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
2 tbsp good fresh curry powder
1/4 cup coconut oil
salt and pepper

1 tsp ground allspice
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 scallions, finely chopped
3 sprigs thyme
2 carrots, thinly sliced
1 sweet potato, coarsely diced
1 2-inch piece ginger, minced
1 cup coconut milk
1 Scotch bonnet or habanero chile, slit in half lengthwise

2 tbsp soy sauce
1 or 2 tbsp creme fraiche

Combine chicken, lime juice, and 1 tbsp curry powder in a large bowl, and toss to combine; refrigerate for at least 4 hours or up to overnight.

Melt oil or butter in a good stew pot or wok. Add remaining curry powder, the allspice, garlic, scallions, thyme, carrots, sweet potato, and ginger, and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly caramelized, about 6 minutes. Add chicken and any remaining marinade to pot along with coconut milk and chile, and stir to combine. Cook, stirring occasionally, until chicken is cooked through and sauce is thickened, about 40 minutes; add soy sauce and creme fraiche to taste. Serve over rice.

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ghost gift.

Someone brought us some really excellent exotic spice blends from the American southwest, just east of where I'll be in a few weeks. Three spice blends to be exact, but we will be waiting to talk about and cook with them until the fair mooperbird returneth.

Someone else finally gave in to their sugar craving yesterday, it had been a whole week, come on cut him some slack. He made something that he has now hidden very far away in the back of the refrigerator in hopes that he will forget about it for another week or so.

Actually, it's not so bad health-wise. I do wonder if you could eliminate the honey altogether or if that's what's giving it its viscosity. I say this because it's almost too sweet the way it is right now, and plus if you were just using coconut milk and coconut sugar then damn this would be the healthiest caramel of all time.

And lastly, it's not really "caramel", in terms of consistency, it's "caramel sauce". It won't harden into a non-pourable state. It would still probably be an excellent healthier sub for something like sticky toffee pudding. I got the idea here.

In other news, I am officially sick of butternut squash. I went from "man I love butternut squash" two weeks ago to "please make it stop" this morning. That was only two squashes. Or squash probably. Two squash.

Tonight back to fish, which reminds me that the ol' Cheap Dirk Fish is not really so so cheap any more. The "Wild Alaskan Salmon" that used to be €2.99 for 700g is now €3.99 for 500g. And they've done it so slowly and just so damn sneakily that if I bought it more often I might not have noticed. The bags are still the same physical size, there's just less in them. And Dirk's price markers are so, mmm, what's the word, haphazard that it really takes some moderate effort to figure out what things in the freezer cost.

Anyway, yes, white people problems. Hey how about you be a white person that makes some heathier caramel sauce while I be a white person that goes to the gym.*

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salted coconut caramel cream.

1 can coconut milk (400ml)
1/4 cup really good honey or pure maple syrup
1/4 cup (I used one 60g disk/tablet) palm sugar or coconut sugar, apparently not always the same thing, coconut sugar is better if you can find it
1 tsp good vanilla extract
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt

Put the first three ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a good simmer and then reduce it for a good amount of time, whisking often but not too often. The original recipe says to do this for 15 minutes, I did 45 in an attempt to achieve extra brownness. When maximum brownness has been achieved, turn off heat, add vanilla and salt. Let cool, put in the fridge, should last 3 weeks or so.

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* For the record I mean that as "white person" as in "white people problems", a distinction of class not color. Fight the power (?).

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