Vietnamese Five-Spice Chicken and Coconut-Mango Rice

(adapted from Williams-Sonoma's San Francisco: Authentic Recipes Celebrating the Foods of the World, and Fred Thompson's Grill Master: The Ultimate Arsenal of Back-to-Basics Recipes for the Grill)

OK, so I'm not even going to tell you the first time I made this. I'm that behind. I can't even remember. BUT! I've made it three times since that first attempt, because it is so, SO good. I mean, crazy-delicious, finger-licking good. I made it around Thanksgiving for the fam, and it was a hit - even my one-year old nephew was smacking his lips. It might just be my favorite grilled chicken recipe. And I've always been a fan of coconut rice.

I hadn't really heard of five-spice till we moved to the Bay Area. You can make your own, or you can buy it from the grocery store (win!). To me, the ingredients are surprising - star anise, cinnamon, cloves - sweet stuff - but in this recipe, you add fish sauce, which combines to make this sweet, salty, savory, marinade. Mmm.

So, here's what you need (this should be enough marinade for a whole chicken, but I use the same amount for five-six drumsticks...):
6 cloves garlic, halved
1 large shallot, quartered
1 tbsp peeled ginger
4 tsp sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup fish sauce
1/2 tsp five spice powder
Freshly ground pepper
5-6 chicken pieces - thighs or drumsticks

And here's what you do:
Combine the garlic, shallot, ginger, and sugar in a small food processor, and process to form a paste. Transfer to a bowl and whisk in the soy sauce, fish sauce, five spice powder, and a few grinds of black pepper. This is your marinade.

Rinse the chicken pieces in cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Place in a shallow dish, and pour in all the marinade. Turn the pieces in the marinade to coat, cover, and refrigerate for as long as possible, up to 8 hours (2 hours work in a pinch). You'll want to turn the chicken a few times. Keep the marinade.

Set up your grill!

Remove the chicken from the marinade (don't throw it out), grill the chicken, and baste it with a marinade a few times. Turn the chicken, baste again, grill until juices run clear. Don't baste the chicken in the final 10 minutes.

Done!

And for the rice (from Grill Master):
1 tbsp canola oil
1 large shallot, minced
1 tsp peeled, grated fresh ginger
2 cups jasmine rice (brown rice works, too)
1 cup coconut milk
Salt
1 (or 2) mango, cubed

In a large saucepan over medium-high, warm the oil. Add the shallot and ginger and saute for about 30 seconds. Add the rice and stir to coat and mix. Add 2 cups water, the coconut milk, and salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, simmer for about 20 minutes - just like you'd normally cook rice.

When done cooking, stir/fluff with a fork, then add the mango and stir that in, too. 

(Green beans - blanched, with olive oil, salt, pepper.)

Thai Chicken Curry

(adapted from Williams-Sonoma's Food Made Fast: Weeknight)

This is a pretty neat cookbook. Joef got it for me a few years back for my birthday, and it's perfect for my style of cooking - fast, and not too many ingredients. If something takes more than 1/2 an hour to make, it had better be a special occasion, or something I can just leave on the stove for a couple hours while I go about my business.

Pasta is my favorite "fast" food (and favorite food in general, really...and pretty much my whole diet), but when it comes to weeknight cooking, I default to pasta, perhaps, too often. So I was excited to try this recipe, and it was really yummy, and fun to make.

The cookbook gave this a "30 Minutes Start to Finish" rating. I'm going to have to disagree. There was a lot of prep involved, which took about 20 minutes on its own, and then there was the actual cooking, another 20 minutes or so. Still, not bad for a meal that looks and tastes pretty fancy. I especially liked the crispiness of the green beans.

I'd make a few modifications next time (reflected in the instructions). It called for two limes. It was just too limey. And I couldn't find Thai red curry paste, so I used red curry powder, which was probably not an ideal substitute, although it worked. Finally, I got panicky at the end that it wouldn't be enough sauce, so I added the whole can of coconut milk (as opposed to 1 cup), and then doubled the broth, fish sauce, and curry paste. (Even with that doubling, it was still too limey.) Of course, then it was really brothy.

So, let's see if I can reproduce this:
1 lime
1 package (1-1.5 lbs) boneless, skinless chicken breasts or tenders
Salt and pepper
3 tbsp peanut oil (careful, the flash point on this stuff is intense - lots of bubbling and popping)
1/4 lb green beans, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces
1.5 tbsp Thai red curry paste (alt. if absolutely necessary, red curry powder)
1-2 cups unsweetened coconut milk
2/3 - 1 1/3 cups chicken broth
1-2 tbsp Asian fish sauce
6 green onions, including white and tender parts, sliced
1/4 cup fresh basil (Thai if you can get it, which I couldn't)
Steamed brown rice, for serving (1-2 cups)

Grate 1/4 - 1/2 tsp lime zest and squeeze 1/16 - 1/8 cup juice (like 1/2 a lime, maybe 1 whole lime, depending on what you want). Set aside. Cut the chicken into thin strips or cubes and season with salt and pepper. In a large frying pan or wok over medium-high heat, warm the oil. Add the chicken and cook, turning occasionally, until golden. Transfer to a plate with a slotted spoon. Add the green beans to the wok and cook, stirring frequently, until they start to get tender and a little golden/crispy. Transfer to the plate with the chicken.

Stir the curry paste into the pan over medium-high. Stir in the coconut milk, broth, and fish sauce. Bring to a simmer and stir, scraping up any browned bits on the pan. Stir in the lime juice and zest.

Add the chicken and green beans back to the pan and stir to coat with sauce. Simmer until the chicken is opaque throughout. Stir in the green onions and basil, then serve over rice.

Habanero Pina Coladas

Remember Joef's spicy birthday dinner over a month ago? Remember my mention of habanero pina coladas? Yeah, that's how behind I am on my posts. Well, there's nothing wrong with pina coladas in the middle of December, is there?

I know what you're thinking. Joef's penchant for spice has gone too far. There's no way this could be good. But let me tell you, this kid knows how to make a mixed drink, and he gets full credit for this one. And the citrus-y heat of the habanero is a great complement to pineapple and coconut.

It's a little deceptive at first - you expect sweet, and get heat. And believe me, it's hot. But it's also unique, creative, and really good.

The first step is to infuse rum with habaneros, which takes about two days. So plan ahead!

HABANERO RUM
750mL-1L Cachaca (type of Brazilian rum)
4 habaneros, tops cut off

Drop the habaneros into the bottle of rum. Let sit for 2 days. Remove the habaneros.

PINA COLADA
For one drink: in a cocktail shaker, mix two parts rum with 3 parts pineapple juice. Add about 2 tbsp cream of coconut, or to taste. Shake with ice and pour into a small glass. Enjoy!

Coconut Chicken Curry

Well, I said to stay tuned for coconut chicken curry, in the style of the St. Louis Vietnamese restaurant, Pho Grand. They make absolutely the best coconut chicken curry I've ever had, and it's totally different from any other coconut curry I've had, too. It's...coconuttier...um...well, it's creamier. I don't know, it's just delicious.

So when I made the Chile Chicken with Lime and Coconut Milk, I had, for the first time, at least an inkling of how to even go about making a curry like that. (Yeah, this is a pretty close replica of that recipe.) I'm not going to say I totally got there. Maybe I didn't even get close. But it was good, and it was a start.

If anyone has eaten at Pho Grand, and has better ideas on how to do this, I'm wide open! For now:

1.5 cups brown rice
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1/2 white onion, cut in half and sliced
2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp madras curry powder
1 can coconut milk
1 tsp salt, or to taste
2 stalks lemongrass, chopped
3-4 dried hot chile peppers, crushed
4 chicken thighs
Tomatoes slices for garnish
Cucumber slices for garnish

Combine all of the ingredients in a large pan, spooning the sauce over the chicken. Cook, covered, over medium heat for about 30 minutes, stirring now and then, until the chicken is cooked and tender. The sauce will thicken. Turn off the heat, remove the chicken thighs, and remove the meat from the bones. Return the chicken to the sauce in the pan, stir and heat again for a few minutes or until heated, over medium. Serve over brown rice, with tomatoes and cucumbers for garnish.

Coconut-Lime Semifreddo

Man, I am behind on everything lately. Well, behind on Cucina posts, and behind on my "52 Weeks of Pancake" series on Flickr (contrary to what you might expect, not food-related).

Back when it was blazing-hot and The Bachelorette was still on (yes, I know, for shame), our friend Jessica invited the gals over for, what else, The Bachelorette - and some delicious eats. She had sangria made with rose, peaches, pears, etc.; salad with tzatziki dressing (best idea ever); slices of french bread, baked with slices of brie and topped with a sweet onion chutney; and this, coconut-lime semifreddo. Pretty damn impressive menu, right? I wanted to make everything - and so far, I've made this!

It's kind of a fascinating dish to make. I mean, it's like ice cream, but it's not. And even on that super-hot day when she made it, it hardly got melty. So it's a nice alternative to ice cream, in that season.

Her semifreddo turned out better than mine, I admit - I had a few spots where I didn't mix the condensed milk in quite enough and those spots got a tad sweet. Overall, though, it was delicious - a really yummy, different, refreshing, and impressive-looking dessert.

By the way, this makes enough for entertaining - you eat it in thin slices, and the recipe makes a bread-sized loaf. It was pretty hilarious making it for just Joef and myself.

So, here is Jessica's recipe:

1 can unsweetened coconut milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 tablespoon finely-grated lime zest
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1 1/2 cups cold heavy cream
1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut, toasted
1/2 ripe mango (the riper, the better)

Line a 4 1/2-by-8 1/2-inch loaf pan with parchment paper (I used aluminum foil - it works, but it's less than optimal - your semifreddo will come out crinkly). Toast coconut flakes by putting them in a frying pan over medium heat and tossing occasionally until they just start to get golden brown. Prepare a large bowl of ice water.

In a medium saucepan, combine coconut and condensed milk and bring to a boil over high. Reduce heat and cook at a rapid simmer, stirring frequently, until thickened, 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in lime zest and salt. Place saucepan in bowl of ice water and stir until mixture is cool, 4 minutes.

In a large bowl, using a mixer, beat cream on high until stiff peaks form, 2 minutes. Gently fold whipped cream into the coconut milk mixture. Pour into loaf pan; evenly sprinkle coconut on top. freeze until firm, 6 hours (or covered up to 3 days). Let sit 20 minutes before serving (it's better this way, believe me). Invert onto serving platter. Layer mango on top. Enjoy!

Chile Chicken with Lime and Coconut Milk

(adapted from Dave DeWitt's 1,001 Best Hot and Spicy Recipes)

Man, I am not doing so well on this whole blogging thing lately, am I? Somehow I've been having trouble coordinating the new recipe lookup with grocery shopping...and now I feel like I'm repeating myself from a previous post...rut, anyone? Well, this one snapped me out of it a bit. The best part is that I think it gave me a hint as to how to prepare one of my favorite restaurant dishes - a coconut curry that I've only been able to find at a Vietnamese restaurant, Pho Grand, in St. Louis (stay tuned for that one).

This was really good and really simple. All the ingredients just get thrown into a pan and left for awhile, and then you eat! It was so good that I actually enjoyed eating it with brown rice. Now that's a testimonial.

I think next time I'd either leave out the limes, or I'd certainly remove them before serving. And if the grocery store hadn't been out of lemongrass, that would've been a great addition. Even with that, it was tasty, satisfying, and a nice change of pace - especially with how little effort it required.

So:
5 chicken drumsticks (or equivalent chicken parts of your choice)
2 cups coconut milk (about 1 can)
1/2 tsp turmeric
4 shallots, peeled and chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
1 tsp salt
1 stalk lemongrass (optional, but preferred)
1/4-1/2 lime, slice in rounds
2-4 dried hot chiles (DeWitt calls for Santaka; I used tien tsin), crushed

Combine all of the ingredients in a large pan, spooning the sauce over the chicken. Cook, covered, over medium heat for about 30 minutes, stirring now and then, until the chicken is cooked and tender. The sauce will thicken. Remove limes and serve over brown rice.

Coconut Cupcakes with White Chocolate Frosting

(from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes)

My oh my, it's been a bit of a food dry spell over here, hasn't it? Well, two posts today to make up for it. First, these cupcakes - white chocolate ganache frosting (adapted from Martha's regular recipe), with coconut flakes and coconut milk in the cupcake batter. I will say that they didn't taste that coconut-y, which was surprising. Maybe it's because I used low-fat coconut milk. Another thing I'd try next time would be to sprinkle shredded coconut on top.

Makes about 20 cupcakes.

CUPCAKES
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup packed sweetened shredded coconut (plus more for topping, if you choose)
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 large whole eggs, plus 2 egg whites
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk

Preheat the oven to 350. Place paper liners in cupcake/muffin tins. In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Grind the coconut in a food processor and add to flour mixture.

Mix butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium-high - allow to become pale and fluffy. Gradually beat in the whole eggs, whites, and vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add the flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two rounds of coconut milk. Beat until combined.

Pour the batter evenly into the cupcake tins, filling each 3/4 full. Bake, rotating once, until a piece of spaghetti inserted into the middle of one comes out clean - should take about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely, then top with frosting.

GANACHE
22 oz white chocolate chips
2 1/3 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup white corn syrup

Put chocolate chips in a large, heatproof bowl. Bring the cream and corn syrup just to a simmer over medium-high heat, then pour mixture over chocolate. Let it stand until the chocolate begins to melt. Then, beginning in the center, stir the chocolate into the cream until it's combined and smooth, being careful not to over-stir. Refrigerate, stirring every five minutes, until the frosting begins to hold its shape. I didn't let my frosting refrigerate long enough - and, as you can see, it was plenty messy. Still tasted good, but, you know. So - if you have the patience, refrigerate the frosting long enough for it to get more firm - 30-60 minutes, depending on how it comes out and your own preference.