Guest Post: Impossible Pie

Yay! We have another guest post from Megan. When she sent me this, it totally reminded me of something I would have had back home. If you're a fan of coconut pie, but don't like all the work, this is the perfect recipe for you! I gave it a try, too, to test my blender and couldn't believe how easy it was. Thanks for sharing this, Megan! She says, "It's so ridiculously easy and delicious (if you like coconut). I've tried making it dairy-free using coconut milk, and it tasted good but didn't look as pretty as the dairy version."

Quality late-night snacking!

Impossible Pie
4 eggs
2 cups milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup grated dried coconut

Put all ingredients in blender. Put on high speed and count to ten slowly. Pour into well greased pie plate. Bake at 40 minutes in a 170C/350F oven. After it is baked you have a definite crust, a custard filling, and a rich buttery coconut topping.

Megan also noted, "I found that I had to bake mine about 5-10 minutes longer for whatever reason." My oven runs pretty hot so the 40 minutes was sufficient, but just keep an eye that your golden brown doesn't become burned brown.

Notes: If your blender is not of great quality, you might want to grate cold butter into the blender before blending to keep the blob from just spinning and not mixing. You can find dried coconut powder in the spices section of grocery stores, but most small shops also sell whole dried coconuts if you like more texture. You just have to peel the skin off with a vegetable peeler and grate it. To make quick work of it, you could also use the peeler to make coconut shavings since they will get chopped up in the blender anyway. Because the coconut is not sweetened and dried, you might also consider 1/4 cup more sugar, but I found the sweetness to be fine for my taste.

I really liked this recipe, Megan! It was amazingly easy, and the payoff was tasty. That's my kind of dessert. You can find the original recipe and lots more kitchen-spiration here.

Hello Summer!

As I opened the window in my living room today to let in a little afternoon breeze, I began to feel that familiar warmth of summer. Our house seems to catch the summer heatwave a few weeks later than many other people so it's not yet hot indoors, but this feels like the time of year for barbecues, salads, and cool popsicles. Despite the fact that my glorious spring break will be over tomorrow morning, I will aim to share a summery recipe each week once I'm back at work. If you have a favorite you'd like to share, email me or leave a comment.

First, on the list? Popsicles. My kids think that they should have one every day that it's summer. I fondly remember my dad bringing home these banana "Banjo" pops from the town mini-mart on summer afternoons, and they were glorious. I think my mom hates them, but they were this deliciously creamy combination of fake banana and sweet cream. This comes from a person who otherwise has a general dislike for all fake banana confections. This recipe is my attempt to recreate those afternoon pops with an ingredient list I can pronounce.

Someone is already a fan of these pops.

Creamy Banana Popsicles
3-4 ripe bananas (small local ones or 1-2 big Chaquita style)
1/4 cup cream
1 cup milk
Scant 1/4 cup sugar/honey/maple syrup

Put it all in a blender and blend on high until smooth. Pour into popsicle molds or small cups and freeze until firm. If using cups, add popsicle sticks or spoons when the ice cream is partially frozen then freeze further. Makes enough for a 6-8 piece popsicle mold.

Notes: To save on cream, I strain the thick stuff off our boiled milk and refrigerate it. By the end of a week, I have more than enough for a small batch of popsicles and no waste. I promise it doesn't have any weird smell and has not gone bad in that amount of time. Also, if you plan on cutting back on sweetener, make sure you add enough for the mixture to taste sweeter than you'd like. The sweetener seems to magically reduce during the freezing.

Chinese Takeout: Beef with Broccoli

Chinese food is a cuisine we have found to be quite different here than at home. I am fully aware of the fact that most Chinese food in the West bears little resemblance of the real thing, but still some of those dishes are so darn tasty! Here they are usually some kind of interesting "gravy" with globs of cornstarchiness unless you can find a real "no English" kind of place.

A few months ago my husband wanted to make a vegetable side for an Asian dinner and discovered this recipe for stir-fried broccoli. Since that time we've adapted the recipe to make Beef with Broccoli, and it has become a family favorite. It comes together really quickly so you can make dinner in a flash--especially if you're quick at chopping! I think you can probably use this recipe with any combination of vegetables, too.

Beef with Broccoli

Beef with Broccoli

1 large head broccoli, chopped into 1" pieces

500g beef steaks, thinly sliced

1 Tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon sugar
Pinch of salt

1/2 cup chicken stock (OR 1/2 cup water+1/4 stock cube)
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup vegetable oil

In a small bowl, combine cornstarch, sugar, salt, stock, and soy sauce. Heat oil in a wok over medium high heat. Stir fry onions and garlic, stirring continuously, for about 2 minutes. Add beef and fry until cooked through (about 2 minutes). Put onion and beef mixture into a separate bowl. Add broccoli and a few tablespoons of water. Stir fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the beef mixture back to the wok and pour the sauce over. Cook over medium low heat for 2 minutes. Stir continuously until sauce becomes thick. Serve over rice. 

Note: To make slicing the beef easier, cut it when it is still just barely frozen. Also, I use a very salty soy sauce so this amount of soy sauce is enough for us, but depending on your soy sauce brand, you might want to check for seasoning right before serving.

Eggs, eggs, eggs!

One of our Easter traditions that we rarely miss is dying eggs. We even did them when the kids were babies who took naps during egg dying! We have been fortunate in recent years to receive egg decorating kits from America, but unfortunately, today's fancy kits tend to not work very well on brown eggs. In the U.S. you have to pay more to get brown eggs, and the white ones work really nicely with the metallic, pearlescent, and foily type kits. Our work-around is to still dye the eggs the old-fashioned way because brown eggs dye as beautiful jewel tones much brighter than the pastels you get with the white eggs.

Eggs dyed and pearlized

In case you're not sure how to do this, all you need is 1/2 cup hot water, 1/2 teaspoon white vinegar, and 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of the local food coloring (10-20 drops of American-style). Drop the boiled eggs down into the dye for about 5 minutes. Send your kids off to do something else during this process or give them a light colored crayon to doodle on the other eggs with. Pull them out, and let them dry. If you happen to have one of those fancy kits, this would be the time to use it as they will definitely show up now!

Kitchen Staple: Chickpeas

These may or may not be a staple in your kitchen, but after having chickpeas ready to go in the fridge this week, I realize they could really be a time saver... and consequently a staple for me. Since living overseas and getting to know the wonder of the pressure cooker, I have eaten more beans, but cooking them just right has been a challenge. Usually I under or overcook them, never really in between, but a colleague told a group of us how to cook them over lunch recently so I have more know how. I tested her instructions, and they worked.

Gorgeous chickpea photo from Lingo Lunch

To cook them to about the consistency of canned chickpeas, you need to soak them first, either overnight or for 2-3 hours after a 1 minute boil. After soaking and draining, add the beans to your pressure cooker and add a little more than double their volume of water. Snap on the lid and bring the cooker up to pressure over high heat. Once the first whistle blows, turn the heat down to low and cook for about 30 minutes. Allow the pressure to release naturally and then drain the cooked chickpeas. If you plan on releasing the pressure immediately after turning off the heat, cook for 40 minutes. I packaged mine in ziptop bags in 2 cup sizes. Then, you can pop them in the freezer, toss them in salads, or use them for other things over the course of a week.

Falafel

Sometimes cooking international food with imported ingredients can become quite pricey. I love finding meals that are nearly 100% from local ingredients. Granted, where I live there's not too much that is truly local as most of our "local" products actually come from neighboring countries. Anyway, enter the humble falafel, a recipe that could be completely local and cheap save for one non-traditional ingredient. Even with this additional flavor element, however, it's a super inexpensive vegetarian meal that's easy to prepare. If you make them in advance, you can reheat them in a traditional oven or even Miracle Oven.

Falafel on roti with tzatiki dressing

I found this recipe in my quest for more meatless meals last year and have been tweaking and tweaking the ingredients to get it just right. This week I think I hit the nail on the head. Again, this is my Americanized version so I make no claims of authenticity.

Falafel
1/2 medium onion, minced
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard (that's the one...)
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups cooked chickpeas/garbanzo beans
1 slice brown bread, torn into small pieces
2 eggs

If you have a food processor, place all the ingredients in it and blend until you have a relatively smooth paste. You can also accomplish this in a blender, but you might need a little more liquid (and later cracker crumbs to absorb it). Heat a few tablespoons oil in a pan over medium high heat. Drop batter in large spoonfuls into the pan to make small patties. Cook 3-4 minutes on each side until golden. I really did not time this at all, but the original recipe made the suggestion. Drain on a paper towel and serve warm. Serve with pita bread or thick roti, chopped tomatoes, lettuce, and a drizzle of tzatziki (see bottom of this post for recipe).

Note: If you happen to use a can of chickpeas instead of dried ones, reduce the salt added to only 1/8 teaspoon. 

Gyros

Okay. I promise I'm almost done today! I've had so many recipes backing up due to my busyness at work, but I have a holiday tomorrow so there isn't much planning going on at the moment. Gyros... deliciousness. I don't typically enjoy goat meat or lamb, but I can do it for a gyro. While these are not exactly the real thing, they are a pretty close approximation. I've tried a couple recipes from the simple to the complex, and I think this one from Alton Brown is a good balance between simple and flavorful.

Pita bread is fairly easy to make, but I find that if there is someone in my house who will make rotis for me I can absolutely settle for those.

My gyro, pre-tzatziki bath

Gyros
500g ground meat

1 small onion, finely chopped or grated
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons dried marjoram (can substitute thyme)

1 tablespoon dried rosemary

1 1/2 - 1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Once the onion is chopped, wring it out in a tea towel to remove any water. Pack the onion and the remaining ingredients together like a meatloaf. If you're having trouble with it holding together, you can add 1 beaten egg to give it some "glue." Pack the mixture into a loaf pan all the way to the sides. Preheat the over to 170C/350F. Place the pan in the oven and bake for 45 minutes to one hour. To keep the meat moist, place the pan in a container of water during the baking process. Drain the meat after cooking and place something heavy over it for 5-10 minutes (like a plate with a can on top or foil-wrapped brick). Slice thinly and serve on pita/roti with chopped onions, tomatoes, and tzatziki.

Tzatziki
500 mL plain yogurt, drained over a tea towel for 20-30 minutes
Juice of 1 lemon
1-2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon dried dill or mint OR 2 Tablespoons fresh dill or mint
Salt and Pepper, to taste

Mix the lemon, herbs, and garlic into the yogurt. Season to taste and allow to rest at least one hour before serving to bring out the best flavors.