Coconut Chicken

Slightly spicy with thick creamy sauce, yum! And quite easy to make too. Recipe adapted from Indian Food and Folklore.

Ingredients:

14.5 oz (400 ml) coconut milk
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teasoon turmeric
2 teaspoons cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
~ 200 g mushrooms
1 lb (450 g) chicken pieces, skinned
2 tablespoons oil

Directions:

Heat the oil in a pan and brown the chicken pieces.
Add mushrooms.
Add the coconut milk and all spices.
Bring to a simmer and cook uncovered for about 30 minutes or until chicken is tender.

Spicy Mushrooms in Coconut Sauce

A nice side dish that is easy to make and is an alternative to potatoes and rice. Recipe from here.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon oil
1 red bell pepper, cut in strips
1/4 onion, diced
1/2 lb (~200 g) mushrooms, sliced
1 1/2 cup coconut milk
1/4 teaspoon red pepper (or more, to taste)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

In a large saucepan heat the oil and sautee onion and bell pepper.
Add mushrooms and sautee.
Add coconut milk and red pepper.
Bring to a boil and let it simmer for 20 minutes or until coconut milk is reduced to half.
Take off heat and add salt and pepper to taste.
Sprinkle with cilantro leaves.

Sweet Chocolate Fruit Cake

I just invented this cake for the fun of it today, based on various other cakes, and it’s scrumptious – moist, sweet, chocolatey, fruity . . . oh, try it. It’s good.

This quantity makes a small cake in a loaf tin, but it’s easy to make it bigger.

Ingredients:

4 ounces (110g) margarine
4 ounces (110g) caster sugar
2 eggs
4 ounces (110g) self-raising flour
2 heaped tablespoons cocoa
2 tablespoons milk
½ cup (125mL) mixed dried fruit
Heaped ¼ cup (60mL+) desiccated coconut (shredded coconut)
Golden syrup

Instructions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 C (350 F) and grease a loaf tin (pan).

2. Cream margarine and sugar.

3. Add eggs to margarine and sugar, and mix until incorporated.

4. Sieve (sift) flour and cocoa and mix until incorporated.

5. Add milk, dried fruit and coconut and combine until mixture is even.

6. Place about half of the mixture in the loaf tin (pan) and spread it out evenly. Drizzle golden syrup (generously, but not completely covering the mixture) over the top of the mixture, then add the rest of the mixture, smooth out and repeat drizzling of golden syrup.

7. Bake in 180 C oven for half an hour.

8. After cooking, turn cake out onto cooling rack and immediately flip over so that the top of the cake is facing upwards. The top of the cake will be extremely soft and may stick and tear if allowed to cool onto the cooling rack.

9. The cake should be left to cool for a while as the hot fruit may burn the mouth, but it can be enjoyed warm once it has cooled a little – that’s what I did!

I have no plans to ice the cake but I’m sure it would be superb with a vanilla cream cheese icing or even just a drizzle of basic glacé icing.

Raffaello Cake

Recipe by natalyna. This is a light sponge cake with a deliciously rich icing that makes a nice alternative to chocolate or whipping cream icings.

Ingredients:

For the cake:
6 eggs
7/8 cup (180 g) sugar
1 1/4 cup (160 g) all-purpose/plain flour

For the icing:
14 oz (400 g) sweetened condensed milk
1 cup + 2 tablespoons (9 oz, 250 g) butter, softened
1 1/2 cup (100 g) shredded/flaked coconut

Edited to add: there is no chemical leavener (baking soda or baking powder) in sponge cake. My book says that all the raising is done by the denaturation of egg protein (thus the huge amount of eggs required) and the expansion of the air trapped in during the mixing. That is why it's very important to follow the mixing and baking instructions exactly, including sifting of the flour.

It does rise, but don't expect it to double in size.

Directions:

For the cake:
Preheat oven to 325 F (165 C).
Separate egg whites from yolks.
In a small bowl beat egg whites until peaks form.
In a large bowl beat yolks with sugar until they form a pale yellow foam.

* From this point on, mix with a wooden spoon only.

Little by little incorporate beaten whites into egg yolk mixture.
Sift flour (do sift it!) and add it little by little to egg mixture.
Butter and flour a 9-inch pie form/24 cm pie dish.
Pour batter in pie dish.
Place pie dish at the lowest part of the oven that you can.
Bake at 325 F (165 C) for 30 to 40 min or until it's golden in color and springs back to touch.
Avoid opening the oven door for the first 20 minutes of baking.
Cool on a wire rack.
Cut cooled cake into three layers.
I used a 12-inch pie dish instead of a 9-inch one, and the cake was wider and shorter, so I only cut it into two layers.

For the icing:
Beat softened butter and condensed milk until smooth.
Add coconut flakes and stir. You may add a bit more coconut if you feel that the icing is too runny.
Leave in fridge for about an hour to stiffen.

I find that cake, and sponge cakes in general, a bit dry but husband likes it as is. If it's too dry for your taste, you can drizzle the layers with milk or juice before icing them.

Glue layers with icing, ice top and sides.

A slice: