Coconut Custard Pie

I found this recipe on the Feast of Fun site, it appears to be from a drag queen named Aunt Bertha. Wherever it came from, this pie looks fantastic. I am leaving town today to spend this weekend in Chicago, but I will be making this pie next weekend.

• One 9-inch unbaked pie crust
• 4 large eggs
• ½ cup sugar
• 4 oz coconut milk
• 4 oz cream of coconut (like Coco Lopez)
• 3 Tbsp flour
• 6 oz sweetened flaked coconut
• 1 tsp vanilla

1. Pre heat oven to 350. Spread sweetened coconut on to a cookie sheet and bake for 8 minutes. Remove the now toasted coconut from the oven and place aside for later.

2. In a large bowl mix eggs, sugar, and vanilla until creamy and yellow. Add flour and mix until smooth.

3. Add coconut milk and Coco Lopez to the egg mixture. The batter will look a little lumpy and curdled- this is normal.

4. Spread half the toasted coconut onto the bottom of the unbaked pie crust. Add the batter to the pie crust. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes. Turn the pie, 180 degrees at the 20 minute mark. The pie is done when the crust is golden and the filling is wobbly but not sloshy or watery. Do not over bake.

5. Remove pie from oven and cool for 2 hours. Top with toasted coconut and chill. Serve with whipped cream and enjoy!

Food and Wine Pairings

This post is more for me than anyone. I just wanted to store it someplace I’d remember. I heard this on The Splendid Table.

If your food is _____, try _____

• Sweet (not dessert), try Reisling, Barbera, or Sangiovese
• Robust (lots of garlic or herbs), try Merlot or Syrah
• Savory or Earthy (tastes like brown), try Cabernet, red Zinfandel, Chianti, Bordeaux
• Delicate (not sweet), try Chardonnay
• Tart, try Sauvignon blanc or Cotes du Rhone
• Fruit (citrusy), try Pinot Gris or Sauvignon blanc
• Spicy (hot), try Pinot Gris or Syrah
• Chocolate, try dessert wines, port, etc.
• Eggs or caviar, try Champagne

Pinot Noir is the most versatile wine, it goes with almost anything.

Sweet Potato Vichyssoise

Talk about food porn, this is the one of the most beautiful photos I’ve seen in a while. Surely, one of my loyal blog followers would like to invite me over for dinner, and make this?

Sweet Potato Vichyssoise

Serves 4-6

Ingredients
• 3 leeks
• 5 cloves garlic
• 4 medium sweet potatoes
• 6 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup cooked white beans (cannellini, navy, butter…)
• knob of coconut oil, ghee (clarified butter), or butter
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• 2 tsp. turmeric (optional)
• cayenne to taste

Directions:

1. Prepare leeks by removing the very tip of the root, and the tough, dark green parts at the very top. Chop leeks, then swirl them around in a large bowl of water to remove any dirt (due to how they grow, leeks can have a little grit between their layers).
2. In a large stock pot, heat a knob of coconut oil or butter, add turmeric, cayenne and leeks with a teaspoon of sea salt. Stir to coat and let cook on medium heat for five minutes or so, until leeks have softened. Mince garlic and add to the pot.
3. Scrub the sweet potatoes, and chop them into rough cubes (leave the skin on!). Add them to the pot, stir and cook for a few minutes. Add broth and beans. Bring a boil, reduce to simmer and cook until sweet potatoes are soft, about 15 – 20 minutes.
4. Using a regular blender or stick blender puree the soup until totally creamy. Add olive oil and lemon juice, plus salt to taste if necessary, blend once more and serve with Ginger-Kissed Pumpkin Seeds.

Ginger-Kissed Pumpkin Seeds
Makes ½ cup

Ingredients:
• ½ cup pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
• ½ Tbsp. olive oil
• ½ Tbsp. maple syrup
• 1 Tbsp. ginger powder
• pinch sea salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300°F / 150°C.
2. Toss pumpkin seeds with other ingredients. Place on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for 10-15 minutes until toasty and fragrant. Remove and let cool. Store leftovers in an airtight container.

I Dream of Weenie

Just before leaving Nashville to come home on Sunday, we had brunch at this place.

By having “brunch” here, what I mean is that we walked up to a porch that was attached to a VW bus and ordered hot dogs through the back door’s window. Here is a photo of the restaurant that I took on our last trip to Nashville.

What I didn’t expect, however, is that this little hot dog stand would be delicious! You get your choice of a beef, turkey, or tofu hot dog served on the softest, most flavorful bun I’ve ever had in my life. During “brunch” hours, the wieners are topped with things like cheesy hash browns, or they are wrapped in French Toast and served with maple syrup. Trust me, I never would have expected either of these things to be good, but they were fantastic, and I hear that the eggs benedict hot dog is even better.

And to top off the great experience, Jay and I had brunch for $13.

I Dream of Weenie. Who doesn’t, really?

Food and Cinema

My friend Annette and I wanted to try a new place for lunch, so we ended up in this Vietnamese restaurant that had about 7 tables total.

The movie that was playing on the TV was beautiful (as lovely to watch as “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” or “Raise the Red Lantern.” Our main problem was that it was in Vietnamese and didn’t have subtitles.

Annette and I became captivated, sitting on the same side of the table so we could watch it. The best we could figure out was this:

The movie was a drama, about this young couple was in love but he was cheating on her with another girl. This caused an older man to beat up the young man, but the first girl nursed him back to health (through a series of about seven music videos — which turned into cartoons, in which the two of them stood under mushrooms on opposite cliffs while woodland animals built them a bridge to reunite them).

And then the movie returned to dramatic form, and the girl was sold into slavery and murdered.

The food was good.

Scott Recommends: Sandra Rice and Noodle

To be direct, aside from a few great friends, there just aren’t a lot of things in Indianapolis that I’m going to miss, or won’t be able to replace in Chicago. But here’s one, and although I’ve blogged about it before, I just can’t speak highly enough of Sandra Rice and Noodle.

For now, forget about the facts that the food is delicious, healthy, and unbelievably cheap. A few weeks ago I woke up feeling just wretched. I was dizzy, queasy, and in hindsight it may just have been a panic attack but if you asked me to describe what I was feeling, I’d have said it felt somewhere between an intense hangover and a stroke. I tried to think of what to do to pull myself out of it, and the only thing that sounded good was meeting Jay at Sandra Rice and Noodles for lunch.

We sat at the table and I looked at Ha, the sister of the brother-sister co-owners. She was waiting to take my order.

“I don’t feel well,” I said. “What do you think I should eat to get better?”

Ha put down her pen and looked at me. “You don’t feel good?” She ran around to my side of the table and hugged me. “Have some pho, it helps.”

When my lunch arrived, Ha placed it in front of me with a plate of raw bean sprouts and fresh cilantro leaves and a large jar of chili hot sauce. “Put all the cilantro in your pho, eat half of it and then add a lot of the hot sauce, as much as you can stand, and eat the rest.” After this, she hugged me again.

I did what she said, then went home and took a nap. When I woke up, I felt fine.

Yes, I will miss the delicious, healthy, and unbelievably cheap food they server here. I will also miss walking in the door and having both Ha and her brother Sang look up from what they are doing and saying, “Hi Scott.” And I will miss being invited to special events and private dinners. I will really miss deciding that I don’t want to open the menu and instead telling them to make me something that they know I’ll like. I’m sure there are places in Chicago, but . . .

Olive Oil Coffee Cake

This is for my benefit as well as yours, I have to attend a breakfast pitch-in/meeting on Friday and I am making this coffeecake for it tomorrow night, I needed someplace to put the recipe where I could find it easily. But I hope it sounds as good to you as it does to me.

The recipe is from Unique Eats on the new(ish) Cooking Channel, which is probably tuned in on Jay’s and my TV more than any other network right now. They’re showing old episodes of Julia Child, Two Fat Ladies and Nigella Express, and we’re enjoying a lot of their new shows (even Rachael Ray isn’t annoying in her new show). And Chuck from Chuck’s Day Off is kind of cute.

Anyway. . .

Streusel

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup (4 ounces) marcona almonds, roughly chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Salt
• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Cake

• 3 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus more for the pan
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 1/2 teaspoons whole milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

For the streusel:

Combine the flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, almonds, cinnamon, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in the bowl of an electric mixture fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix just to combine. Add the butter and mix just until the streusel comes together. Spread onto a baking sheet and chill in the refrigerator until firm, about 1 hour.

Crumble the streusel with your fingers and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator or freezer until ready to use.

For the cake:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line the bottom of an 8-inch cake pan with parchment paper. Butter the pan and the paper. Spread about 1 3/4 cups streusel around the bottom of the pan.

In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

Fill a medium saucepan with 2-inches water and bring to a simmer. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the eggs, granulated sugar, and lemon zest. Set the bowl over the saucepan of simmering water and whisk until the mixture is warm to the touch, about 2 minutes.

Transfer the bowl to an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat on medium speed until the mixture thickens, is a pale yellow, and forms ribbons when the whisk is lifted, 5 to 6 minutes.

Meanwhile, in another bowl, whisk together the oil, milk, and lemon juice. When the egg mixture has thickened, slowly drizzle in the oil mixture, with the machine running.

Reduce the speed to low, add the flour mixture, and mix just to combine. Drizzle in the butter and mix just to combine.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan over the streusel. Bake, rotating the pan once halfway through, until the top of the cake is golden, the center bounces back, and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 50 to 60 minutes. Unmold the cake from the pan so that the streusel is on top and serve or cool completely on a wire rack. Once cool, wrap in plastic wrap.

Four Links I Like

1. I take some offense at the way the writer describes Frances Bean Cobain and her art here. First, she’s a 15 year old girl, we all know the kind of thoughts they all have. And second, what do people expect from the child of Kurt Cobain and  Courtney Love? The shock would have been if she’d painted like Thomas Kinkaide.

Smells like teen spirit: Frances Bean Cobain puts on her first art show (and it’s creepy)

2. This political analyst says that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg may have just set the precedent that will eventually legalize same sex marriage.

Did Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Just Force the Supreme Court to Approve Gay Marriage?

3. Nigella’s recipes have never disappointed me, and she’s uses the English language better than perhaps anyone I could name. As my friend Jeff Ricker said, “I love any recipe in which the writer describes red onions as ‘glowingly puce.’”

Nigella Lawson’s Watermelon, Feta and Black Olive Salad

4. You probably already know that I get irritated when people take offense at any form of candid public photography. (News flash: if you’re in public, you’re fair game. Another news flash: You’re already being photographed by security cameras everywhere.). But finally, a photo blogger takes on the “homeland security” myth.

Taking Photos In Public Places Is Not A Crime: Analysis

The Truth About Trader Joe’s?

If you shop for groceries at Trader Joe’s as often as Jay and I do, you might be interested in reading this story from Utne magazine:

The Eco-Myth of Trader Joe’s

I’m not sure that it warrants NOT shopping at Trader Joe’s, but it certainly makes me want to look for quite a bit more information. I have to admit that I’ve had some of these questions in my own mind for a long time, as I’ve often wondered how Trader Joe’s can offer “organic” and “natural” foods for so much less money than their competition, like Whole Foods and Sunflower Market and Fresh Market.

And while you’re reading, click through to this article:

Do You Want Hexane With Your Veggie Burger?

On average, Jay and I eat veggie burgers probably twice a week. I’ll admit that I’ve not previously heard of hexane, nor have I done the research to find out exactly how toxic it is, but still, I’m thinking that’s just gross.