(no subject)

[which_chick]

It's time for a spot of food blogging.



Last night I had the first of the year's mojitos with cousin Sandra. The mint was very small, about two inches above the ground, but there was enough for mojitos, so mojitos we had. Next weekend there will be enough mint for mojitos with La, if she's home. I bought limes at the grocery on spec -- it's getting to be mint time.

I made an eggplant and black-eyed pea curry thing (out of cousin Heather's curry book) for supper last night. It's not spicy hot, but it's pretty edible. Not sure I'll make it again, but I don't regret having made it once. (I don't have room for everything to make it into the regular list of things I make. Lots of things are made-once items and that's okay.) I'm looking at something to do with pork loin and very pretty peppers sometime today. Possibly also it'll involve coconut milk (I have some in the cupboard) and limes.

I did more research on the cocolate covered coconut balls. Current state of clue? Actually quite a lot. My local grocery sells Ghirardelli chocolate bars (4 oz. of chocolate) for more than they sell the 11.5 oz bag of chips. A lot more. So, we buy the chips now. Yay chips! (Dumb-ass me didn't figure there would be any fucking difference in the price per pound between bar chocolate and chip chocolate. There is. I should read more lables, for realz.)

Regular readers will recall that I was experimenting with binder for the filling. I do not like that hat powdered sugar, so that's out. I've tried sweetened, condensed milk, which I did not like. I've tried coconut milk, which I did like but which was not sweet enough for other people and which has a very limited shelf life. This time I tried sugar and water in about a 2:1 ratio. I heated the sugar and water to get all the sugar to dissolve.

As for procedure, I used enough syrup to make the coconut hold together well. I formed the coconut stuff into balls (the cookie scoop I use makes balls that are actually slightly bigger than a comfortable bite size. I'm going to have to experiment with a good size for the damn things) and put them on a wax papered cookie sheet in the freezer to firm up. I got about twenty balls from one bag of coconut, which should give you some idea of how big the things are.

I melted the chocolate chips as per the tempering instructions over a double boiler. I dipped the frozen coconut balls. They set up quickly and beautifully with a nice finish on them. They did a lot better with being frozen and holding together. I think probably I need to stop chinching on the amount of chocolate I melt so's to be able to get full immersion of balls in chocolate without undue handling, but that's a personal issue of mine own. (Note to self: When red raspberries come in season this fall, you want to dip them in chocolate. You do. A lot. Fridge them first, put the chocolate at near-solid temperatures so that it won't hurt the fruit, and proceed.)

Project progress assessment: This is better than previous efforts. I am well pleased. Next on the agenda is making the lumps smaller (for better bite-size) and melting enough chocolate so that the lumps can be fully immersed without having to roll them around at all.

Monday night, I have to make pies for the election. Normally, we can get by with one fucking pie for election, but everybody wants a two-crust fruit pie except me. I want a coconut cream pie. See, I fucking hate store-bought coconut cream pies because store-bought meringue is like rubber and store-bought pastry cream (the bottom half of the pie) tastes rather a lot like Jell-O instant vanilla pudding. So, in the interests of compromise, there will be coconut cream pie AND cherry pie for the election. (I do not like cherry pie very much but I have ready-to-use cherries so the pie is easy and quick to make. Also, my dad likes cherry pie, will eat the leftovers.)

Comments

Ichisichisichisich

[aardvark99999.livejournal.com]

This song title (Ichisichisichisich) has to work its way into http://icanhascheezburger.com/ somehow. I have no idea what it means, but it just seems appropriate somehow.

[alycewilson.livejournal.com]

Since I know that you're adventurous with food, I was wondering if you had any suggestions of what to do with wheat germ. I bought some for a recipe, and we've got a whole jar of it left.

[which-chick.livejournal.com]

You can throw some wheat germ into most any wheat bread you are making. You can sprinkle it on top of hot cereal. (Oatmeal, wheatena, cream of wheat, etc.) You can hide it in cookies like chocolate chip or oatmeal. You can put it on yogurt (with your granola, for crunch).

I like to try new stuff, but I hate getting stuck with orphan ingredients (the jar of stuff left over when you just needed like two tablespoons of stuff for a recipe) when I do it.

[alycewilson.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the great ideas. I'm going to try it in my yogurt with granola. The cookie idea is a good one, too. I'm sort of afraid of bread (having never made it by myself), but I'm comfortable with making cookies. My Moosewood recipe book has lots of great baked goods that are a little more creative, a little healthier.

Orphan ingredients are especially a problem when you live in a small Philly rowhouse with a tiny kitchen!