Cooking With Katch Part II: Dessert

   

     I love dessert. I eat dessert by pounds and handfuls and open-mouthed-mouthfuls. I love sweet things. It is not surprising that the dessert I made with Katch was completely gone by the day after she took these pictures. Only these memories stay behind. I will have to make these bars again soon. And this time, there won't be so many mistakes. But let me not get ahead of myself.

 

     Hi everyone! Welcome back to the Cooking with Katch feature, which I hope will become more regular. Please, feast your eyes on one day more of gorgeous pictures before we go back to me cooking at night and trying to take pictures while stirring things in pots. I'm trying to improve I promise, but I love how these pictures make the food look like it should look. I was actually really sad because I though that the food I was making would not be colorful enough for Katch to make it look pretty, but she managed to, of course.

     Wait, you ask, so what exactly is this food? It looks like lemon bars, why is there a jar of white flower petal looking things? Well, those are actually pieces of coconut. (I think they look like flower petals even if you don't...) And what I made is coconut lemon bars. The cookie dough-like crust which I am spreading out on the pan has coconut in it, which adds a delicious new flavor to a regular lemon bar.

Look it's Katch!

     The coconut lemon bars were actually quite a mess to make. I was all out of sorts because KK had just left after visiting for the weekend, and I had not organized what I was cooking. It's a good thing we went to H-Mart and I bought many lemons, because I am a miser and they were selling three huge lemons for 90 cents or something like that. KK also gave me half her jar of dried coconut, so, of course I had to cook with it right away. So what did I do? I googled coconut and lemon, and this is what I found. What could be better? Who doesn't like lemon bars? If you don't, I'm not sure if I trust you anymore...

   

     The other reason making these was a mess was entirely my fault. The recipe I was making the bars from used an 8 in square pan. Of course, I don't own any such thing. So, I decided to spread the dough on half of my baking sheet and use that apparatus of foil-and-loaf pan (that you can just catch a glimpse of on the right side of that picture) to make my baking sheet smaller. Of course it didn't work. Of course some of the filling dripped onto that other half of the pan. And, of course I had spread the dough further than 8 in square so the filling ended up being a lot more spread out and thin than it was supposed to be. But did it matter?

 

      Well, maybe in the beauty category. We worked hard to make these bars look good. Or, I tried my best to cut neat squares of them out of the pan and then Katch beautified them. But in the taste category? Even with the filling being thin, they were delicious. The coconut cookie crust underneath was not too sweet but it complimented the bright, tangy lemon beautifully. 

Do you see the filling?

     I strongly recommend making these at home (in a proper pan). They were all disappeared within 24 hours of their creation even with my mistakes. Next time, I plan on doubling the recipe and just making a baking-sheet-ful. Oh lemon bars, you are just too delicious.

Coconut Lemon Bars
Adapted from For the Love of Cooking

For the Crust: 

1 cup Flour
1/2 cup Confectioner's Sugar 
1/2 tsp Sugar 
1/8 tsp Salt 
1/2 cup Shredded Coconut (or large Coconut pieces like I had which you then have to chop up) 
8 tbsp Margarine (or 1 stick butter cut into small pieces) 
1/2 tsp Vanilla

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees and heavily butter an 8'' baking pan. In a large bowl, stir the cup of flour, both kinds of sugar, and salt together. Add the butter, vanilla, and coconut, mixing everything together with your hands until it is crumbly and dough-like. Press the dough into the bottom of the pan, making sure it is evenly spread. Bake it in the oven for 18-20 minutes until it is slightly golden. Then, set it aside.

Note: I added regular sugar to the dough because my coconut was not sweetened. If you buy sweetened coconut, nix that extra 1/2 tsp.

For the Filling: 

2 Large Eggs 
1 cup Granulated Sugar
2 tbsp Flour 
1/8 tsp Salt
Zest of 1 Lemon (about 2 tsp) 
1/3 cup Lemon Juice (juice of 2 lemons for me)

Make sure your oven is still heated to 350 degrees (in case you turned it off). In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar, flour, and salt together. Then, add the lemon zest and lemon juice. Mix everything until it is thoroughly combined. Pour the filling over the hot crust, and bake it for 15-18 minutes until the filling sets and looks more firm. Take it out of the oven and allow it to cool on a wire rack for 10 mins. Then, cut it into squares to serve. You can top it with shredded coconut for serving.

Cooking With Katch Part I: Dinner

    

     Katch came back to the kitchen on Sunday! For those who don't know, Katch is a free-lance photographer (who has her own blog: http://katchiree.com/blog/). She came to take pictures for my blog once before when I made the blood orange olive oil cake and the coconut chicken curry. On Sunday, we went with the same theme: one curry and one dessert. Life is so easy when one is consistent! And that way I get one guilty pleasure and one staple meal for the week, so everyone's happy.

     I love cooking with Katch because someone else is taking pictures! Which means I don't have to wash my hands every five minutes in order to use the camera (I wonder if I told you that last time too, well, it makes me Really happy so I'm just emphasizing). Also, then the pictures come out looking beautiful and amazing. Even when they are of such unbeauteous things as mushrooms. Though, I do love mushrooms.

     While KK was visiting this weekend, she also bought these mangosteens. These are a fruit I had never heard of before. They taste kind of like sweet tarts inside, and they are very hard and tough to open unless you have a knife (as we found out while trying to eat them on the train home from H-Mart - where we bought them). I'm not sure I like the taste, but they are very interesting to look at, so I saved some for Katch to photograph:

     And then we actually started cooking. We made the dessert (to be displayed tomorrow) first, but I am posting the curry today (obviously). It is a fancier curry than normal, which also seems to be a theme when Katch is around. Why is it fancy? Because it has cashews! And a couple of extra spices I don't normally use. The difference a few ingredients makes astounds me.

     Look at the picture below, doesn't this look more like a restaurant curry? Slightly thicker, a little creamier, and all because of a little change in ingredients and technique. So, when you are in the mood to try something a little more upscale than my homey cooking, try out this curry! The ingredient list only looks long because I used more than the regular number of spaces. More importantly, this curry tastes just as gorgeous as it looks. The chicken is ridiculously tender, hurrah for chicken thighs, the cashews add a little crunch but melt away in one's mouth, and the curry itself is spicy and thick and full of the subtle flavors of all the different spices. It makes me want to go home and eat more right now.  If only.

 

Cashew Chicken Curry

4 large Chicken Thighs, De-skinned and De-boned
2 tbsp Vegetable Oil
1 mid-sized Yellow Onion, Finely Chopped
1 Garlic Clove, Minced
1/2 tsp Turmeric
1 tsp Coriander
1 tsp Garam Masala
3 Green Cardamom Pods
6 Black Peppercorns 
2 1/2 tbsp Plain Yogurt
1 tbsp Tomato Paste
1/3 cup Cashews, Finely Chopped (or Processed in a Food Processor or Grinder)
1 cup Cremini Mushrooms, Sliced
1 cup Water 
1/2 tbsp Lemon Juice

Chicken Prep: Trim the chicken thighs and cut them into 1'' cubes. While chopping onion, garlic, cashews, soak the pieces of chicken in a large bowl of water with a tablepoon of salt and a tablespoon of sugar until they are needed.

For the Curry: 

First, heat the oil in a large saucepan at medium heat. Add the pieces of chicken (do in more than one batch if adding all the chicken will crowd the pan) and cook the chicken on both sides, so each piece is sealed. Take the pieces of chicken out and place them in a bowl, setting aside for later. Return the pan to the heat, add more oil if necessary, and add the chopped onions and garlic, sauteeing until the onions are translucent and the garlic is slightly browned. Then, add the turmeric, coriander, and garam masala. After stirring and frying for a minute, add the peppercorns and cardamom pods. After allowing them to fry for two minutes, add the yogurt and tomato paste. Fry up while stirring constantly, allowing all the ingredients to combine thoroughly. Add the cashews and continue stirring until they are coated in the spice mixture. Add the mushrooms, the chicken, the cup of water, and the lemon juice. Stir everything together and let it cook at medium heat for five minutes. Then, reduce the heat to medium-low and allow it to simmer for ten minutes. The chicken and mushrooms should be tender and the curry should be fairly thick. If this is not the case, lower the heat and continue simmering for another five minutes.

A Visitor in the Kitchen

     

     Today we will flash back to the past. Not too long in the past, just to this past Tuesday. Why was this Tuesday special, you might wonder. Well, I had a visitor in the kitchen. Her name is Katch, and she is my supervisor at work. But, more importantly, she is a free-lance photographer! And, after seeing my blog, she suggested taking photographs for it! IT WAS SO EXCITING!!!! Yes, this deserves capitals.

     So, I made some special foods. This will be a two part story because I made two dishes. The first, which I am posting today, was a Coconut Chicken Curry. Generally, I make everyday sorts of curries. They are tomato based or yogurt based, not heavy cream-based like restaurant curries, which is why they are not overwhelmingly thick and rich. This is a kind of compromise. The coconut milk makes it richer than most of my other curries and a great break from the ordinary. This also makes it great for parties!

     Even though creamy chicken is not the most beauteous of foods, Katch manages to make it look so amazing. Yay! Anyway, to get to the cooking. Before we even started, we did have some issues trying to open the can of coconut milk. I knew I had a reason to hate my can opener: it broke instead of opening the can. Luckily, I had other tools at hand. The front of the spoon failed actually, but the back of a spoon is the ultimate weapon!

     This curry might be slightly fancier than my ordinary style, but that does not mean it is any more complicated. I followed my usual pattern of creating a marinade, marinating the chicken, searing it, and then dumping the marinade on top to turn it all into a delicious curry. I told you Indian food was easy.

     So, thank you so so so much to Katch for taking all these gorgeous pictures. You will see more of her amazing work tomorrow! And make sure to visit her blog http://katchiree.com/blog/ to see more of her great work. Thank you to her so much! Also, in case I sound abrupt, it's time for the Oscars people!

     

Coconut Chicken Curry 

Very Loosely Adapted from The Best Ever Curry Cookbook

Makes 4 servings 

1 lb Boneless, Skinless Chicken Thighs (or de-bone and de-skin yourself, as I did)

1 can Coconut Milk (14 oz) 

1/2 cup Yogurt 

1 tsp Coriander 

1 tsp Garam Masala 

1/2 tsp Red Chili Powder 

1/4 tsp Ginger Powder 

1/4 tsp Salt

1 tbsp of Vegetable Oil 

Chicken Prep: 

Place chicken thighs in a medium bowl filled with water, 1 spoon of sugar, and 1 spoon of salt. Let it brine while gathering other ingredients. Then, trim the excess fat off the chicken thighs and cut it into bite sized (1 inch) cubes. 

Prepare Marinade: 

In a large bowl, mix the coconut milk, yogurt, coriander, garam masala, red chili powder, salt, and ginger powder. Then, add the cubes of chicken. Allow them to marinate for 15 minutes. Then, heat the oil in a large saucepan at medium heat. Shake the marinade off the chicken pieces as you lay them in the pan. Sear them on both sides to seal. Then, pour in the marinade, lower the heat, and simmer for about ten minutes or until the curry is the thickness you desire.