I am not a big fan of lamb. Though I’ve tried it so many ways and have felt a little uncultured in not liking it, I don’t seem to have a taste for it. Now, I love gyros – but I guess since it’s mixed with beef and is supremely salty that doesn’t count. Or if it’s cooked in curry so spicy that it could just as well be goat, I like it; this may be because goat is one of my favourite meats.

On a recent visit to San Diego we ate in a fusion Japanese/Mediterranean restaurant in La Jolla, a seaside, ritzy suburb just north of town. San Diego is well known for sticking to its fusion style of cooking and possibly coming up with some combination you would have not expected. On the menu that night was minted spicy lamb. It was delicious, if not a little bit too oily. I liked the idea so I set about trying to determine the ingredients in the dish. The predominant flavours were mint, turmeric, and coriander. I love to cook quick dishes that pack a flavour punch like this one, so after arriving back in Houston I decided to recreate the dish. What I came up with was strikingly similar. So here’s my interpretation of the minty spicy lamb.

1 lb ground lamb
1 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 medium diced onions
2 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp red chili
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 bunch fresh mint leaves

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet for 30 seconds, then add then sweat the onions until translucent. Next add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes.

Add the turmeric, coriander, and chili powder. Cook for 1 minute. The coriander smell and taste will only develop if it’s heated before the meat is added.

Add the ground lamb and cook until almost completely browned. Sprinkle the salt and black pepper, stir, then turn the heat off. Add the mint leaves and stir in.

Serve this quick dish with rice or pita bread.

I love the taste of ube-macapuno, the Filipino sweet potato with young sweet green coconut. Problem is, it’s hard to find ube here. I became obsessed with ube and it purple colour right after trying a Goldilock’s ube cooler; a drink which is sort of a sweet smoothie but not as thick. Ube is purple yam (sweet potato for us Southerners), similar in texture to an orange sweet potato, more fibrous, but mellower;  It goes well with well with coconut – or at least coconut is not far behind when ube shows up. There’s a few places to get ube here in Houston, but I already had some purple sweet potatoes that I had picked up earlier in the day. The purple sweet potatoes that we use here are known as Okinawan sweet potatoes; they are actually from Hawaii (originally from Okinawa Japan). You can use the purple variety much in the same way that you use orange.  The purple’s taste is less like carrot and slightly tarter.

Okinawa Purple Sweet Yam

• Pre-heat the oven to 400F. Bake the yams for 45 minutes or until tender.
• Remove the yams from the oven, then allow to cool for about 15 minutes. While the yams are cooling off, bring the oven down to 350F.
• Remove the skins from the yam then add the filling to a bowl (I prefer to use a Kitchen-aid mixer).
• Add the coconut milk, sugar, and condensed milk. Combine ingredients on low speed for 1 minute.
• Add the mixture to the pie or tart shells. Bake for 15 minutes.
• Remove from the oven, let cool, then top with toasted non-sweet shredded coconut.

Bread Pudding

I cannot believe we missed our 9.00 am flight back to Houston on Christmas Eve. Still in the holiday mood, I figured our loss was someone else’s gain. The next 3 flights were oversold so we got confirmed on the 6.30 p.m. flight back to Houston. The past week in Orlando was great – 3 days in Disney world. We took a seat in the airport and thought about what we’d do with the rest of our day. After considering our food options in the airport and the fact it was Christmas Eve, we decided to rent a car and spend the better part of our day at either Downtown Disney or Universal Orlando. P.S. We had already returned our $45/day rental car to Alamo; 1 hour later they wanted $95 for the same car.I declined, then called the 1-800 number to National and got the same car for $60.

We had wanted to be back in Houston to do Nochebueno with some decadent food; we knew the food offerings at Downtown Disney would not be too exciting as well as being expensive, so we headed for Universal Orlando’s Citywalk which has some pretty good restaurants.

It took us less than 15 minutes to get to Universal Orlando, and a maybe 10 more minutes to get parked and walk to Citywalk. From a previous visit we had remembered eating good at NBA City and the Bob Marley Jamaican restaurant; so one of those would be just fine.  To our surprise when we entered Citywalk we saw a menu for Emeril’s at the Information Center. The menu looked great and we saw that they had a kid’s menu available – good news for us!

My wife opted for the set lunch, which a good deal at $18.50. It includes an appetizer, entree, and dessert. The gumbo appetizer was one of the better gumbos I’ve had in a restaurant. It was made using a rich dark seafood roux with ample amounts of andouille sausage inside and seafood stock. The short rib entree was tender, but lacking the pronounced beef flavour that is more common in Texas.

The chicken was nice – it was a french cut chicken with a crispy crust that held in the juicy meat below. The herbs were balanced, but in chicken was under salted. It could have been benefited from having been brined first. The dish comes with herbed mashed potatoes and Kurobuta bacon smothered green beans. I’ve been a fan of Kurobuta every since I had the world’s best pork chop at Brennan’s a few years back.  The use of pork seems to be pretty popular in many of the dishes at Emeril’s restaurant, so if you don’t eat pork you will have much fewer options. For dessert we shared her Almond Croissant Bread Pudding which was amazing. It wasn’t too sweet and the texture was velvety.

If you’ve been wanting to try a Emeril’s restaurant out, lunchtime in Orlando may be your best bet. You’re already on vacation.

6000 Universal Blvd. #702
Orlando, FL 32819
ph: 407 224 2424

We were looking for a fun and tasty Saturday baking adventure for our 3 year old. It had to be something quick since snack time was upon us. Muffins are easy and force you to be quick since once the dry ingredients are wet you need to get everything in the oven within 30 minutes. I am a fan of anything with coconut (as is the namesake of my site). I had recently done a coconut cake with chocolate ganache for my mothers birthday, so these flavors were on my mine already. Here is a recipe from The Ultimate Muffin book by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough that I think you will enjoy.

Equipment:
Nonstick spray or paper muffin tins
2 mixing bowls – medium and large
wooden spoon

Ingredients
1½ cups unsweetened coconut flakes.
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon packed brown sugar
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 cups all-purpose flour
^_2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
^_1/2 teaspoon baking soda
^_1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
^_1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
5 ^_1/2 ounces coconut milk. Full cream will make for a more tender muffin.
^_1/4 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon lemon zest

Steps
1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Line the muffin tins with paper liners. In a food processor grind 1 tablespoon brown sugar with 1/4 cup of the coconut flakes until coarsely ground. Add to a mixing bowl along with 4 tablespoons of the melted butter. Set Aside
2. Whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, chocolate chips and salt until well combined. Stir in the remaining coconut flakes. Set Aside.
3. In the large bowl, whisk the eggs until lightly beaten. Then add the coconut milk, whole milk, lemon zest, and the remaining melted butter. Stir in the prepared flour mixture with a wooden spoon.
4. Add a chocolate chip or 2 to the bottom and top of the mixture. Fill the muffin tins three-quarters full. Bake for 25 minutes. The let cool 10 minutes.
5. Store muffins at room temperature for 2 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

It really is true what they say – there are as many adobo recipes as there are people who make it. I decided I would write down my recipe which I consider to be a very good version of a Filipino adobo. I like my adobo chicken crispy but not with too much oil. My secret for this is baking, then basting the chicken with coconut oil, and finally placing the chicken under the broiler. The recipe is finished by reducing the adobo sauce to a nape. Try this version of a traditional Filipino adobo and let me know your thoughts. I have provided all the techniques here to ensure your meal is delicious.

• 1 whole cut up chicken. I prefer to use skinless chicken with a mixture of dark and white meat
• 12 cloves garlic (minced)
• 4 Turkish bay leaves or 6 California bay leaves
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1 1/3 cups cane vinegar. For sweeter adobo use coconut vinegar
• 2/3 cups light soy sauce. Do not use dark.
• 20 whole peppercorns
• 1 tsp. light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup coconut oil

I prefer to use a cast iron pot with a heavy lid so that my chicken will remain tender after it is cooked. The heavy lid helps to keep the moisture and pressure in the pot so the chicken cooks quicker and stays tender. Add 8 cloves of garlic, bay leaves, chicken stock, vinegar, soy sauce, peppercorns, brown sugar, and chicken to the pot. Bring the pot to a boil with the lid off, then place the lid on the pot and reduce the heat to simmer Cook for 40 minutes. 30 minutes through cooking pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Using a brush, apply a small amount of coconut onto a baking sheet. When the oven has reached temperature, remove all the chicken from the pot and place the chicken on a baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes. While the chicken is baking turn the heat up on the pot to high (Note: For a stainless steel pot use medium high. Continue to reduce the sauce in the pot to nape (where it coats the back of a spoon). Remove the sauce from heat and set aside.

Cut up the remaining 4 cloves of garlic then quickly fry in the remaining coconut oil until golden. After 15 minutes, remove the chicken from the oven and brush lighty with coconut oil. Then broil the chicken on a high rack in the oven for 5 minutes at 450 degrees.
Remove the chicken from the broil, and pour
reduced sauce over chicken. Then add fried garlic atop chicken.

Drat. The restaurant we were looking for in the guidebook was no longer in business. After making a 3rd turn around the corner we had to think quickly before our 3 year old would have had enough. We decided to head down Broadway, just south of the downtown where there is a diverse selection of restaurants. There the big yellow awning stood out to us – Banana Leaf. ” Banana Leaf ” is the most popular name for a Malaysian restaurant. Most are not affiliated with each other.

The Banana Leaf in Vancouver has 3 locations. We were at the 820 West Broadway location. The other locations serve mostly the same menu – with some variations, so if you are going there for a specialty, call first to inquire if it’s available that day. If you drive to the restaurant park around back; there are about 10 spaces. The restaurant is decorated in vibrant yellows and reds with cloth and paper accents on the wall and hanging from the ceiling. There are different souvenirs and posters from Malaysia as decoration. We started out with the usual roti canai, which is a flat Indian bread served with a small bowl of curry sauce for dipping. It was good. Still to date the best roti canai I’ve had has been at “Banana Leaf”  in Daly City (just south of San Francisco) California where it is prepared and stretched by hands when you order. The Daly City Banana Leaf is one of the few Malaysian restaurants in the States with Chicken Rendang.

Chicken Satay

The satay was done correctly – the first bite is crispy, then tender and juicy underneath. They were was seasoned well with turmeric, coriander, lemon grass. We decided to go with the lunch specials; each is served with rice and vegetables in a slightly sweet coconut curry. We chose beef rendang and curry chicken. We asked for each to be very spicy since we knew that a 10* spice level in Vancouver is about a 5*-6* back home. Neither came out spicy, however the rendang was still enjoyable.

Next time I will try the chili prawns or a crab dish, since fresh seafood is one of Vancouver’s greatest strengths. Note that if you are visiting during lunch time, it’s best to narrow your choices down to a few before calling your server over.

Beef Rendnag

Growing up, Sundays were reserved for homey meals – soul food, comfort food, family food. I like to the continue this tradition with my wife and kid. So every Sunday I try to make something a little extra special. Sundays are my day to use [uhmmm..] butter, oil or coconut milk. It’s my day not to count calories, but just to go for it. Curries are one of those foods. Good curries require oil and coconut milk. Low fat curries, while they can be excellent, always seem to lack that little something. While it helps tremendously, making a low-fat curry very spicy does not make up for the lack of fat.

This past Sunday, was our day to eat goat curry. Goat meat is regaining popularity in American especially Texas with its large Latino and Caribbean populations. I like to turn on a little reggae and make a hot pot of goat curry. I start preparing the goat early since the curry has to cook for 3 hours.

Recipe for Jamaican Goat Curry

Interestingly, curry goat was introduced to Jamaica by Indian immigrants to the island. If you hear “curry goat” it’s Caribbean. “Goat curry” would be Indian. You will need

2lbs. lean goat meat. Depending on where you live obtaining goat meat can be easy or not so. In Houston, many large supermarkets carry it as “goat meat” or “cabrito”. Checkout your local African, Middle Eastern, Indian, Pakistani, or Halal grocer. Or order some online http://www.goatmeats.com/

• 2 lbs cut up lean goat meat including bones divided into 4 batches. Trim fat away fat and any skin that has no meat on it
• 1 medium yellow onion (large dice)
• 3 cloves garlic (minced)
• 4 cups goat or beef broth. Goat broth can be made by boiling your goat trimmings and bones in 6 cups of water for 30 minutes
• 3 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 3/4 cup light coconut milk or 1/2 cup full cream coconut milk + 1/4 cup water
• 1 or 2 habaneros, depending on how spicy you like it. For the habanero taste without the spiciness, split the habanero and carefully remove  the seeds.
• 2 tbsp curry powder
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil, plus 1 tbsp for later.
• 2 tsp flour for later.

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a large pot on medium high for 1 minute, then fry onions and garlic for 2 minutes. Then braise the goat so that it will be remain tender when it cooked, but not fall part or get mushy. Add the goat to the pot, such that it is not not overcrowded. Cook each batch of the goat,1 at a time until lightly browned. Remove each batch, then add the next. After all batches are cooked return all the goat to the pot.

Add the broth to the pot and bring to a boil. Add thyme, black pepper, and curry powder. Stir in, then bring heat down to a simmer. Set timer to 3 hours and cover the pot. Go watch a movie.

After the timer goes off, drain off 1/2 cup of the curry liquid into a separate bowl and set aside. Heat 1 tbsp vegetable oil in saucepan on medium, add 2 tsp flour and stir in to make a roux (lightly browned flour). Add the curry liquid that was set aside, then stir in vigourously to prevent clumping. Then re-add the liquid to curry pot with the goat. Turn up heat to medium. Add coconut milk and stir in. Add habaneros. Then cook for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and serve with fresh steamed rice.

Another great curry idea using fish

This is my version of a beautiful brunch salad that we prepared in a cooking class. It’s hearty enough to be served as a meal. What I really like about it is that it gives you so many wonderful flavours and textures while still be  very well balanced salad. Sourness from the cherries, savoury peppery tastes from the arugula, creaminess from the cheese, and meatiness and sweetness from the walnuts. It’s possible to prep the walnuts and vinaigrette a day before so that you spend less time in the kitchen. This scaled recipe serves 4.

Pinot Grigio Vinaigrette

1 shallot minced
1/4 cup pinot grigio
1 cup olive oil. Use a high quality extra virgin.
10 strands of thyme
8 strands fresh oregano
2 tbsp. honey
1/8 tsp. kosher salt
dash of ground pepper

Directions
Finely chop the herbs and add to a bowl and set aside. Place shallots, honey, vinegar and run on medium speed of blender*, slowly add olive oil. (If you add the oil to fast it will not blend properly). Dressing should begin to emulsify.

Beginning around March of every year watermelon is sold in every grocery store in Texas. These days you can find watermelon year round, thanks to Mexico, however it’s at it’s most flavorful from May to August. Late season watermelons (September and October) are generally less red and less flavourful. During the summer I will eat watermelon 2-3 times a week. It’s great weight loss food and sometimes you’ll get one that just taste like candy. I am always surprised that how watermelons are not so common in Europe and in the northern parts of North America. Texas is the U.S. 3rd largest producer of watermelon; this is easily understandable with the large mount of land we have here and our very hot summer temperatures.

The oft heard question by those new to Texas is “how to pick a good watermelon?”

• First look at the end of the watermelon from which the vine was cut; it should be not be crusty dry or fresh green. This means the watermelon is old or under ripe, respectively.
• Lightly squeeze the melon near the one of the ends. The melon should give very slightly. However if you can make an indent it’s over ripe.
• There is some disagreement over the next step. The famous “thump test”. Some people say thump it. Some say pat it. I think either works depending on the size. Small watermelons, such as personal watermelons should be thumped. Larger ones should be patted. So, the sound just have a very clean resonance, slightly high pitched like tapping wood. If the sound is flat, it’s over ripe. If the sound has no resonance it’s under ripe.

Practice makes perfect, so get out there and practice. After 3-4 purchases, you will be a pro.

There’s not a person in the south who hasn’t had pecan pie. Pecan pie is an integral part of the culture of southern US and Texas . Pecan pies are made throughout in the south. They are especially made and served at Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Growing up, everyone knew my mother for her pecan pies, as well as for her cakes. They were deliciously sweet with a velvety texture inside. During the height of the pecan season, the pecans on top were sweet and juicy on their own. I had to be careful not to eat too many of them so that the pie would have enough to go on top.

It is possible that pecan pie originated with the Acadian settlers who were migrated from French Canada to south-west Louisiana . In French Canada, there is a very similar pie called “tarte de sucre” or sugar pie. It is like pecan pie made with maple syrup, rather than sugar and corn syrup, and without pecans on top.

Pecan pie remains one of those foods that in usually better if homemade. Being from Texas , I would never, ever eat a store bought pecan pie. One sure sign of a quality pecan pie is the pecans on top. Great pecan pies should have a mixture of of whole and cut up pecan pieces. Generally frozen commercial pies and mass produced ones have only whole pieces on top.

Recipe for Pecan Pie

This is for a 9″ deep dish pie

3 eggs
1 cup cane sugar
1 cup light Karo corn syrup. Use cane syrup if cannot find corn syrup.
2 tbsp butter melted and cooled.
1 tsp. quality vanilla extract
2 cups pecans (mixture of whole and cut up pieces.

Pre-heat oven to 350 F
Blend all ingredients, except for pecans.
After all ingredients , blend in pecans.

Place mixture into a uncooked 9″ deep dish pie shell.
Bake on flat sheet or cookie sheet for 50 to 55 minutes until a knife can
be stuck into the mix and come out clean.

Let cool before serving.

Enjoy!