Strong Women and Whiskey

not for the delicate palate

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Location: Oxford, Pennsylvania, United States

I've found that if you speak as if with authority on nearly any topic, most people will believe you. This frightens me.

Friday, March 03, 2006

coconut and chai spice and everything nice....


Earlier this week, as I was getting out the ingrdients to make fish chowder, I spied a can of coconut milk in the cupboard and became bound and determined to use it somehow in making dinner. Suddenly things just had to get a little exotic.

I had a sample packet of Lemongrass and of Ginger from Gourmet Garden which got slathered on the salmon fillet, with crushed coriander, a bit of lemon juice. While that marinated, I scanned Epicurious.com for recipes involving coconut milk and rice rather than just shuffling things together willy-nilly. I really couldn't find anything that a) I had all the ingredients on hand for or b) suited my needs. But I did find some inspiration.

Half the coconut milk I heated a bit with some hot madras curry powder, turmeric, and garlic then set it aside. I made a simple saffron rice for the meal and some sauteed until just limp onions and bell pepper. The fish was simply broiled until flaky. Overall it was pretty good, next time, I think I need to incorporate some fresh lime. I also think tuna steaks over the grill would be better.

Now dessert was another matter. The way I saw it was that I had rice, I had coconut milk, and bananas. I didn't think really I could go wrong. So on a whim I tossed a Celestial Seasonings India Chai Spice teabag into the rice water and let it steep until the water was boiling and I could add the rice. I let that cook, unsalted until it soaked up all of the tea (it smelled wonderfull, let me tell ya), then added 1 cup of coconut milk, 1 1/4 cups milk, 1/3 cup sugar and let it thicken to get all pudding-y. While that was thickening, I tossed a few tablespoons of butter into a med hot skillet, let that melt and added some fresh grated ginger and allspice and a chunk of dark brown sugar. When that had gotten melted and bubbly, I blended it into some slice bananas, tranferred the pudding into a bowl and spread the mixture over the top.

The results were quite tasty -- in the future I'd use more coconut milk, and use the tea bag in milk to boil the rice. However, the chai/rice was so fragrant and soothing while the fresh ginger in the brown sugar perked things up a bit.

4 Comments:

Blogger Mommyleek said...

It's certainly not the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, but it sounds amazing! Yum.

8:08 PM  
Blogger westcoastmama said...

Holy Moly!! You made me hungry reading this. You are an artist in every sense of the word!

1:02 PM  
Blogger Erin said...

Holy Moly Doug is getting fat isn't he? This HAD to be a hit with him, REAL food that included RICE!

I'm so not gourmet. I'd have never come up with this from those ingredients...

I swear someday I'll learn to "cook" rather than open boxes and stuff.

ML~
~E

2:06 AM  
Blogger Pille said...

Your banana-rice-tea dessert sounds really fascinating..

11:40 AM  

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