Thai Popcorn

I tried out this Appetizer dish for girls night.

And it was amazing, everyone really enjoyed it, so this is party friendly!  And not too much work.

Thai 'Popcorn'
Serves 8

Wraps
6-7 big leaves or 20 small green leaves (spinach, lettuce) cut into 2" by 2" pieces or 4x4

Filling
1 cup coconut shredded coconut toasted (heating them on a skillet with no oil, is enough to toast them)
1/2 cup peanuts toasted
1/4 cup soy sauce +2 tbsp (depending on how salty you like it)
1/4 cup sugar + 2tbsp (depending on how sweet you like it)
3/4 cup water

Toppings
1 lime thinly slice peel included
1/4 cup of ginger minced
1 hot pepper thinly sliced (optional)
1 cup cilantro chopped
1/2 cup peanuts roughly chopped (or food processed) and  toasted
1/2 cup shredded coconut toasted

Dry roast the peanuts and the coconut for the filling.  Once fragrant and lightly browned, add the soy sauce, sugar and water.  Add 1/4th of a cup to start out with and add more based on your taste preference. When I made this yesterday I used 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp for both sugar and soy sauce,  but I think next time I make it I will use less of both.

Add the water to the filling, once bubbling, let simmer for 5 minutes.  Take it off the burner.  Blend the ingredients-- it will become like a fluffy paste.

Place filling in a serving bowl.

For the toppings, prepare all ingredients separately.  On a large serving tray, the lettuce leaves can be arranged on the outside, with a bowl of the filling in the middle.  Each topping can be placed in a separate small serving dish-- apart from the peanuts and the coconut which can be mixed together.

To make a 'popcorn', take a piece of lettuce, put about 1/2 tsp - 1 tsp of filling, 1/4 tsp ginger, 1-2 pieces of lime, 3-4 pieces of chopped cilantro, 1 small piece of hot pepper (opt), 1/2 tsp of peanut/coconut mixture , and fold over the lettuce leaves and pop in the mouth!

Everyone loved these little treats!
Another option is to prepare each 'popcorn' yourself and toothpick them to hold them together and serve on a tray.

Lots of fun!

Birthday Party

We celebrated my nephews birthday, my sister-in-laws, mine and my niece's today and a little bit of my husbands lol.

It's because both me and my mom have been in school and haven't had a chance to get together to do something so we decided to combine it.

My mom made this amazing potato salad that I will have to get the recipe and post.

I made a coconut carrot curry soup

and a raw chocolate cake with blueberry lavender frosting, the recipe came from http://fragrantvanillacake.blogspot.com/2014/05/little-raw-chocolate-cake-with.html

I did make some adjustments to it, it was good but I think it could have been better.

I had a bit of issues with the soup.  It was inspired by a quinoa and lentil soup, however, when I realized that the soup would have been only good for 2-3 people, I tried to double it. The mistake I made was that I also doubled the veggie bouillon amount, which made it entirely way too salty.  Maybe for some that would have been okay, but I felt like I couldn't get the taste out of my mouth, This soup serves 10, and you may need to do a few adjustments, below I'm writing what I put into it, but I've put in the adjustment of using less veggie broth. Also, the canned coconut milk could be preferably swapped with the meat and water of a young thai coconut blended.

Coconut Carrot Curry Soup
1/2 onion chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 celery stalk chopped
1 garlic clove chopped
1/2 cup dry lentils
1/4 cup quinoa
1/2 tsp all purpose herb mix
1/2 tsp oregano
4 tomatoes chopped
1 tbsp curry
juice of 4 limes
1/4 tsp lime zest
1 can coconut milk or better -- juice and meat of one young coconut
5 cups water
2 cups veggie broth
1 cup cilantro
10 carrots

Fry the onion until translucent.  Add the celery, garlic, lentils, quinoa, 2 cups of veggie broth and herbs. Let boil, turn down to a simmer and cover for 20 minutes.  Or until lentils and quinoa are cooked.  If using a can of coconut milk, add to the mixture and let simmer for 1-2 minutes, turn off heat.

Blend carrots, cilantro, lime zest, and tomatoes with the rest of the water until pureed.  Add them to the soup along with the curry powder and lime juice.

If you prefer the carrots to be cooked it can be simmered for a couple of minutes.

Serve.


For the cake recipe, if I were to make it again I would make the following adjustments
1-I used coconut flour -- which was fine, but either I should have added more moisture to the cake -- or used some kind of fresh nut or seed flour maybe almond or sunflower seed instead of store bought coconut flour.
2-the lavender I couldn't taste in the frosting -- I put about 3-4 drops of essential oil but maybe it needed something like 5-6?  Not sure.
3- I think I forgot to put flax seed in it -- I mean it turned out fine and my family seemed to really like it, but I think having the flax seed in it perhaps would have made it less dry?

Raw Chocolate Cake with Blueberry Lavender Frosting Cake:
Makes 2 cakes, serves 10 or more if only serving 1 piece per person

1 1/2 cups carrot pulp + juice
1/2 cup dates, pitted (if not soft, soak them 20 minutes and drain)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp sea salt
3/4 cup ground flaxseed
1 1/4 cups raw coconut flour (home made is preferred)
1/2 cup raw cacao powder

Frosting:
1 1/2 cups fresh organic blueberries
4 soft dates, pitted (if not soft, soak them in water 20 minutes and drain)
a pinch sea salt
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
5-6 drops lavender essential oil (or another brand, but make sure it is food grade)
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp raw coconut butter (not oil), warmed to liquid

Edible flowers and raspberries for garnish

For the cake, combine the carrot juice plus pulp, dates, vanilla, and sea salt in a food processor and process until it is well combined.  Add the remaining ingredients and process until smooth and well combined.  On a cake pan, shape two cakes. Place in the fridge for about 30 minutes to chill.
Meanwhile, to make the frosting, combine the berries, dates, sea salt and vanilla in the food processor and process until smooth.  Add the coconut butter and process until smooth (if it is clumpy at all, it probably needs to warm up a little, so process until it is not lumpy).  You will be using the frosting right away before it starts to set up.

After frosting the cakes, arrange flowers and raspberries as you wish.  Pictures soon to come :)

Last but not least I made a strawberry rhubarb icecream which was amazing, and no adjustments need for it :)

Strawberry Rhubarb Ice-cream
2 quarts, recipe taken from the recipe book, Vice Cream
44 ounces of juiced rhubarb (I used about 7-8 stalks)
2 cups cashews
2 cups dates (soaked for 20 minutes and then drained)
2 cups strawberries

Juice the rhubarb.  Pour the juice into a blender and first blend with cashews (I have a vitamix and this whole recipe didn't quite fit into my juicer so I had to do a couple rounds of blending).  Then blend with the dates and strawberries.  Put mixture into the fridge to cool for 30 minutes before putting it into an icecream maker.  

'Paneer' Biryani and Coconut Curry Vegetables

Paneer Biryani/ Tofu Biryani
2 16oz packages (baked) extra firm tofu (I used sprouted)
1 cup unsweetened coconut yogurt (or other)
1/2 cup cilantro chopped
2 inches gingerroot minced
2 garlic cloves minced
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tbsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp sea salt
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 large onion chopped.
1 medium tomato chopped.
2 cups brown rice cooked with 4 cups of water (slightly al dente)

Cube the tofu, and bake for 15 minutes at 350 F, flip them, and bake for another 15 minutes at the same temperature.  This gives the tofu a more of a paneer texture.

Put 2 cups of rice on the stove with 4 cups of water, cook for 30-40 minutes until slightly al dente.

In a bowl combine the yogurt, cilantro, ginger, masala, coriander, turmeric and salt.

Once the tofu is baked, combine the tofu into the mixture.

Let marinate while the rest of the ingredients are prepared.

Heat oil in a pan, add cumin, cardamom and fennel seed.  Let sizzle for a couple seconds and add the onion.  Fry until the onion has browned or mostly become clear, add the tomato.  Let fry until tomato has mostly broken down.  Add this mixture to the slow cooker.  Then add the marinated tofu, then add the rice on top.

Cook on low for 3 hours.  Serve right out of the slow cooker.


Coconut Curry Vegetables
2 heads of broccoli chopped
2 carrots chopped
1 package of button mushrooms chopped
3 garlic cloves
1 tbsp of oil
2 tbsp of curry powder
1/2 tsp of salt
1 can of coconut milk
2 tbsp of tomato paste

Heat oil and garlic in a pan, add the broccoli, carrots and mushrooms.  Cook until the colors brighten and the vegetables slightly soften.  As soon as the pan seems to dry or it's starting to brown at the bottom, add some coconut milk, to keep some moisture.  Once the vegetables are at the desired consistency, add the rest of the ingredients.  I made this dish in the morning for an afternoon potluck, and since I don't like to cook my vegetables much before eating them, it worked out well, because the mushrooms even though they were hardly cooked they still became soft by lunchtime because they had that extra time to marinate, the dish was successful :)

Spicy Plantain Cocoa Curry

So, my tendency is to use a recipe for inspiration, but it when it comes to the actual ingredients and methods.. I have a tendency to make it up as I go.

I guess the normal thing to do would be to plan out a weekly meal plan and recipes, and buy the ingredients for that.

I do the opposite.  I search the fridge for ingredients and find recipes that moderately match, if nothing matches sometimes I will combine 2-3 recipes to make it fit.  Sometimes it works.. and sometimes there are some pretty bizarro land creations.

This specific recipe, I semi thought that it was doomed, until the final ingredient was added and it came to life!  That is what I often find, most recipes when 'bad', they are just missing 1 thing.  And it's that one thing that turns terrible to amazing.

In some cases that one thing may not necessarily be an ingredient but a very out of the box action to bring it back to life.  One particular thing that can't be fixed though, is burning.  Sorry, hahah can't reverse that one.

Apart from that even, after baking a cake -- there can be other uses for that cake.  I have even taken a cake and reblended it with sugar and other missing elements  to only put it back into the oven!!! And you wouldn't believe but it was saved!  This is a pretty extreme example but it's totally possible.  Lol maybe it stems from my utter desire to not waste any food.  Who knows.

Spicy Plantain Cocoa Curry

I think to make this recipe easier, one can just use coconut milk instead of the base that I made.  But since I had no coconut milk,  made do with a very interesting combination that came out okay!

Ingredients
2 plantains chopped
1 tbsp oil
2 cups of green beans chopped
2 carrots chopped
2 cups of water
1/8 asafedtida powder (1/2 tsp of garlic powder would also work)
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp salt

Sauce
1 tsp oil
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
1/2 tsp cumin powder
2 shakes black pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp cocoa butter
1 tbsp tahini (optional)
1 cup dried coconut (or fresh coconut if you have)
1 cup warm water
1 tsp agave
1 tbsp dried tamarind (or tamarind paste if you don't have a powerful blender)
1tsp paprika
1/2 tsp smoked paprika

Soak the coconut in the water for 1/2 hour to an 1 hour.
-- If you have a vitamix or blendtec, you can get away with not soaking the coconut,
or if the coconut is fresh.  It just makes the consistency a little less grainy

In a pan, heat the oil add mustard powder, asafetida, and curry powder until sizzly.  Add the plantains, green beans, carrots and 2 cups of water, mix.  Add turmeric, nutritional yeast, and salt.  Bring to boil, reduce heat, cover with a lid and cook for 30 minutes (until vegetables are tender).

Meanwhile, in a frying pan, heat oil for the sauce, add cumin powder, 1/4 tsp chilli flakes, and black pepper.  Roast for a few seconds.  In a small blender, add coconut and water, cocoa butter, tahini, roasted seasonings, water, agave and tamarind.  Blend until smooth.

Once plantains are tender, add the sauce.

Add paprika at the end for color!



If the taste is too much of cocoa, add more red chilli flakes until desired hotness is attained.  The spice of the dish is what makes it come alive!


Some great side accompaniments:  Roti's or tortillas and Indian pickle, yesterday I had it with roti's and lime pickle... it was amazing!!