Double Coconut Shortbread

I made Smitten Kitchen's toasted coconut shortbread cookies last year, and I wondered whether coconut oil, another solid-at-room-temperature fat, could replace butter. I finally got around to trying it, and the result was delicious but delicate. The coconut oil gives them a really tender, melty mouthfeel and an incredibly deep coconut flavor.

Both the dough and the finished cookies were quite a bit more fragile than shortbread made with butter. I rolled the dough into a log before refrigerating rather than rolling out and cutting with cookie cutters as in SK's recipe. The dough was much more prone to shattering when I cut it off the log than regular shortbread is. I couldn't cut the cookies as thinly as I normally do for shortbread, which combined with the richness of coconut oil means you really just want one or two at a time, not seven. Whether that's a problem or a benefit is unclear.

After baking, the cookies were very liable to crumble completely, and I'm just eating them off of the cooling rack because they're too delicate to transfer. I'm guessing that there is some mixture of butter and coconut oil that will have the perfect combination of durability and tastiness. If you're in need of a vegan shortbread recipe, this is it. If not, you should try mixing butter and coconut oil for optimal durability.

Double coconut shortbread (adapted from here)

3/4 cup coconut oil, room temperature (or mixture of butter and coconut oil)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

generous pinch of salt

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup shredded coconut, toasted (the really small kind, about the size of breadcrumbs, not the big flakes)

In an electric mixer, mix together the coconut oil and sugar. Add the vanilla and salt and mix. Mix in the flour and then the coconut until it kind of forms a dough. I had to turn it out onto a cutting board and use my hands to get it to come together all the way. Roll into a log and refrigerate until hard.

Cut cookies onto a pizza stone or cookie sheet. Try to get them as thin as possible without the dough shattering, which for me was between 3/8 and 1/2 inch.

Bake at 325 F for 15-20 minutes or until they look like cookies instead of dough. They won't brown as much as cookies made with butter, in my limited experience, so the usual "golden" cookie instructions don't apply.

Creamy tropical green smoothie

This is my first green smoothie with coconut milk in it. I used all the tropical fruits I had, plus some kale, and it was pretty darn good. Not too much to say about it, really. This would probably be good with mint or cilantro, or maybe even Thai basil, but I didn't think of it until after I drank it. Maybe next time.

Creamy tropical green smoothie

1 banana
1/2 cup orange juice
3/4 cup frozen mango
1/2 cup frozen pineapple
1/4 cup coconut milk
2 kale leaves

Blend.

Mustard, cumin, and coconut

Somewhat coincidentally, our dinner on Monday ended up being two dishes flavored with mustard, cumin, and coconut. I found both recipes online, but I modified them fairly significantly, so I'm including the recipes.

I have made the coconut greens recipe from 101 cookbooks before, that time with spinach (see above photo), and Jon loved it, so when I was trying to decide what to do with some leftover chard in the fridge, that came to mind. I also used coconut oil this time to enhance the coconut flavor (and because I just bought it for the first time, and I've been trying it in everything). We used both the stems and leaves of the chard. I just threw the stems in with the onion. Chard is more substantial than spinach, and I think it held up really nicely. I don't know which version I liked better.

The dal came up when I was looking up moong dal recipes online. I noticed that it had cucumber cooked with the dal, which I had never tried before. I also happened to have a partially rotten cucumber in the fridge. I cut off the rotten parts (most of the skin) and used the rest in the dal. It was a good use for a no-good cucumber, but we couldn't really taste any cucumberiness. I think it's omit-able, unless you've got some yucky cucumber to use up. The original recipe suggests squash as an alternative, and I think the effect would be similar. The recipe would be good without it, but it wouldn't hurt anything. Once again, I used coconut oil because I had it and to enhance the flavor.

For our salad, Jon tossed together a slightly unusual one: lettuce, red pepper, tomato, avocado, clementine slices, cashews, and coconut flakes. He dressed it with lime juice, honey, and olive oil. It was nice and tropical, a fitting complement to the dishes I made.

Spiced coconut greens (adapted from 101 cookbooks)

1 tbsp coconut oil

1/4 tsp mustard seeds

1/4 tsp cumin seeds

1/4 tsp salt

Pinch chipotle

1/3 cup minced onion

4 Swiss chard stems, chopped (optional)

4 Swiss chard leaves, chopped, or about 6 oz spinach, chopped

Lemon juice

1 1/2 tbsp shredded coconut

Heat coconut oil in a large skillet on high. Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, salt, and chipotle, and cook until the mustard seeds start to pop. Immediately add onion and chard stems, if using, and cook until the onion is translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the chard or spinach and cook, stirring often, until it is wilted.

Moong dal with cucumber and coconut (adapted from edible garden)

1 cup moong dal

1/2 cup chopped cucumber (about 1/2-inch cubes)

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 cup chopped onion

Cover dal and cucumber with 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil, cover, and lower heat to a simmer. Cook until dal is your preferred texture.

Coconut pancakes

I have a TA session on Tuesday nights, so I spend the day until midafternoon or so at home. This morning I made myself these pancakes. The recipe is from the January 2011 issue of Bon Appetit. They're nice and coconutty without being very sweet. They also kept me full for a while, which is nice. As you can see, I topped mine with fresh blueberries, chopped hazelnuts, and a little agave nectar. I meant to plop some yogurt on it but forgot. Bon Appetit suggests a tropical fruit salad with mango, pineapple, and banana.

Have I ever mentioned that I used to think I didn't like coconut? I have never really liked coconut cake or coconut cream pie, and the sweetened shredded coconut that might accompany jelly beans at Easter is not exactly food. But like so many things in my life that I used to think I disliked (Mozart, I'm looking at you), there started to be exceptions. "I don't like coconut, but I like the curry at that restaurant." "I like the tom yum soup at that place." "I thought I wouldn't like the mung beans and greens in coconut milk, but it turned out delicious." I began to realize that the coconut dishes I liked were not the exception. I just don't really like sweetened shredded coconut. Now that I've realized I do like coconut, I've been making more coconut milk curries and soups and using shredded coconut in my granola. I haven't gotten around to it, but I'm also interested in experimenting with coconut milk ice cream and jus alpokat. I'm really glad that I was adventurous enough to try things I thought I wouldn't like because boy, coconut is good!

Coconut pancakes

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut (mine was kind of the texture of coarse bread crumbs-I don't know if that was the intended texture, but it worked well)

3/4 tsp allspice

3/4 tsp nutmeg

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 can (about 14 oz) coconut milk

1 1/4 cups warm water

1 tbsp vanilla extract (I used some homemade by my cousin and given to me for X-mas!)

2 tbsp agave nectar (recipe called for maple syrup, but I didn't have any)

Mix dry ingredients together. If your baking powder is super old like mine, try to break up the clumps. Biting into a chunk of baking powder is not very fun. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir/whisk until the batter is somewhat pourable. I accidentally forgot the water at first, and since I had already mixed it quite a bit when I poured the water in, it was a little lumpy. Even if you do it correctly the first time, these will probably be thicker than your standard pancakes.

Heat a nonstick skillet over medium. When skillet is hot, pour about 1/4 cup of batter on it and spread it with the back of a spoon until it's a normal pancake size. When the bottom is golden brown to brown and the top has little bubbles on it and has partially dried out, flip the pancake and cook the other side. Repeat.

Food in Singapore

Mango ice kacang

As I mentioned in my last post, I had the good fortune to spend three weeks in Singapore this summer for a math program. During that time, I also took a short jaunt to Melaka, Malaysia, about 5 hours away by bus. Here are some thoughts about eating while I was there. This is a long post, so bear with me. (Or not, if you don't want to.)

First, I should say that I did not eat strictly vegetarian while I was there. There are several reasons for that. After eight years of being a vegetarian, I wanted to see the other side again, and I've partially fallen away from my rather naive reasons for becoming a vegetarian, so it wasn't important to me to avoid meat. I also found myself in many social eating situations where I did not want to make my food choices a big issue. I'm sure many other people with different diets can sympathize with this. It gets tiring always to feel like your dietary choices cause a hassle or even just raised eyebrows to others, so I took the easy way out. My third reason is that when I travel, I like to try new and authentic local specialties, and those are often meaty. If I am with Jon, I can just try a few bites from his plate, but on my own, I just order it. After three weeks of not being vegetarian (in which I probably still ate vegetarian more than half the time), I was ready to go back. Meat just isn't my thing.

That said, Singapore is a pretty easy place to be a vegetarian. Most Hindus and many Buddhists practice full- or part-time vegetarianism, and most food courts have clearly labelled vegetarian stalls. One difference from the US, however, is that in Singapore a non-vegetarian stall or restaurant may have no vegetarian options at all, whereas here, most restaurants have at least something, BBQ and steak places possibly excepted.

The main food traditions in Singapore are Chinese, Malaysian, Indian, and Peranakan, which is a blend of Chinese and Malaysian very distinctive to Singapore and some parts of Malaysia. While there were lots of restaurants specializing in just one food tradition, there is also a lot of merging of them, and it can be particularly hard to separate Peranakan from Chinese and Malaysian. I must say that eating a few traditional Chinese meals has dispelled any pretension I had of being an adventurous eater. Especially as a vegetarian, a lot of the dishes were well outside my comfort zone. Indian and Peranakan food were more my speed, but they were almost always too spicy for me. Singapore was a British colony for quite a while, so English is one of the official languages. This made dining much easier because I always at least had some idea of what I was eating. Western food is also available, and there are a few very highly-rated French and Italian restaurants, but the only non-Asian meals I had were salads.

Food in Singapore is relatively cheap compared to the US, and in Malaysia it is even cheaper. Hawker centers/food courts/canteens are ubiquitous and cheap. They are areas where lots of different food merchants set up shop, so you can pick and choose whatever you want. Each one has rather limited offerings, but the variety is so great that it can be really tough to choose. They're like food courts in malls but with really good food at great prices. The university where the conference was held had several canteens, all of which had several different stalls and were ridiculously cheap. For my first lunch there, I was worried that the plate I had ordered for S$3 (about $2.25) wouldn't be enough, so I added a S$1 side dish and barely got through half of my meal. I think it's very hard to get a huge, filling meal at a college cafeteria in the US for $3. Food in the rest of Singapore was about 30% more expensive than on campus, but I was still eating well for about $5 a meal. In Malaysia, I had some great meals for RM6-12, which is about $2-4. On the other hand, alcohol was very expensive, so I only drank when someone else was paying for it.

This picture doesn't show you the vast scope of this hawker center, but it does show you that it had a stage on top of one of the dessert stalls.

The Indian food I had was fairly comparable to Indian food in the US. There were both North and South Indian restaurants, but a lot of restaurants served food from both areas. Many of the Indian restaurants were vegetarian, I think to a larger extent than in the US. The people eating Indian food were much more authentic in Singapore. Many people used their hands instead of utensils, although I was always given a fork and a knife. I tried a new beverage in one of the Indian places I visited: jal jeera, a bracing lime, cumin, and salt concoction. The idea was OK, but the end product was pretty intense. I ended up ordering a sweet lassi (yogurt drink) as well to counter the spice of the food. I might explore the idea of a similar beverage, but it will be much less strong. One very popular Singapore Indian dish that I never tried was fish-head curry. I did a lot of stepping outside my comfort zone, but I never got around to stepping out in that direction.

Peranakan food was really great. One of my favorite dishes in both Singapore and Malaysia was laksa. There are two types, curry laksa, which has a spicy coconut milk broth, and asam laksa, which has a sour (I think tamarind-based) broth. I loved curry laksa and had it a lot. I only tried asam laksa once, and I wasn't a fan. The curry laksas I had varied a lot, but they all had noodles and spicy coconut milk and seafood broth. The other toppings included fried tofu, bok choy, eggplant, fish balls, shrimp, mussels, octopus, bitter gourd, mushrooms, and seaweed. I liked everything but the mussels. I've had mussels a few times now, and they taste like sea mud to me. I am definitely going to try to make my own vegetarian laksa here.

A great Malaysian dish I only managed to try once was nasi lemak, which is rice cooked in coconut milk and served with fish, breaded chicken, peanuts, sprouts, and fiery sambal sauce. Once again, it can be adapted to whatever you have on hand, and I was just intoxicated by the coconut milk rice. It wasn't sweet at all but just had a rich, coconutty flavor and texture. I have only used coconut milk a few times in savory dishes, and clearly between laksa and nasi lemak, it's time to explore that more.

Soy and adzuki bean products are all over the place in Singapore, and what I loved about them is that they usually weren't trying to be something else. In the US, we buy vanilla soy milk and chocolate soy yogurt and fake bacon strips. I went to a Mr. Bean soy shop one time toward the end of my stay. Mr. Bean is all over the place and sells soy milk beverages, frozen soy desserts and the like. I got a drink with soy ice cream on top, and the ice cream tasted like sweet frozen beans in the most wonderful possible way. I had some tofu in a soup in Malaysia that tasted fresh and beany. I've never had tofu here that really tasted so much like itself. Usually before cooking it, it tastes like nothing, and afterwards, it tastes like whatever I cooked it in. I am really going to have to get myself down to Chinatown and see if they have any tofu as good as the stuff I had in that bus station in Malaysia. It was a revelation. The exception to the "not trying to be something else" clause is that the Chinese vegetarian restaurants and stalls are masters of disguise and use a lot of very realistic fake meat. But this soy posing is pretty much confined to Chinese vegetarian restaurants and can be kind of fun, although I tended to prefer the dishes with less fake meat.

Revelatory tofu soup from a Malaysian bus station

One of the best things about Singapore was the abundantly available fruit and fresh-squeezed juice. At home I don't drink much juice, and it's usually a little bit of grapefruit or orange juice with breakfast. In Singapore, I drank juice with almost every meal, in part because it was so tasty and in part to tame the spiciness of a lot of the food. Honeydew-pineapple was one of my favorites, and watermelon was not far behind. Sugarcane juice was widespread. It was a small amount of pressed sugarcane diluted with water and ice, so it wasn't as sickly sweet as I had expected. Indonesian alpokat juice, a smoothie of avocado, sugar, condensed milk, and chocolate syrup, changed my life. Oh my gosh, it was amazing. I will definitely try to recreate it here.

I also drank and ate my very first whole young coconut while I was there. And then had probably 10 more over the course of my stay. Coconut water is not very sweet and has a complex but very fresh flavor. The most satisfying coconut I had probably came at the end of the day I spent mountain biking around Pulau Ubin, a smaller, less developed island owned by Singapore. I think coconut water had just the electrolytes I was looking for.

A great Indian meal, including my first coconut

On the other hand, it is very hard to find raw vegetables in this part of the world. I talked to a Malaysian friend recently about this. He has lived in the US for about five years now and has finally gotten over his initial reaction to salad, which was disgust, and gotten used to the idea of eating a pile of raw veggies, although he doesn't do it left to his own devices. It is just a cultural difference, I guess. I did eat two meals at a salad restaurant in the downtown business district because I was really craving them.

A really great (and welcome) salad

Finally, something must be said about cendol and ice kacang. These two desserts have the same idea: shaved ice, syrup, red beans, corn, jellies (like the texture of jello or the tapioca balls in bubble tea), and either coconut (cendol) or sweetened condensed (ice kacang) milk. They look truly wacky and taste great but are way too big for just one person. The ice is very finely shaved, so it isn't long before it's melting and you're eating sweet, cold, brightly colored soup. There are lots of variants, and you can also get the shaved ice with almond milk or other fruits, but I never got around to that.

Cendol. The bright green things are not alien eggs. They're sweet jellies of some sort.

Ice kacang at a soupy stage

All in all, I think my time in Singapore has given me a lot of great ideas for my own cooking and eating. I haven't tried any yet because I've spent the last week eating non-Asian-type food because I was kind of tired of Asian food, but maybe next week I'll crack open some cans of coconut milk and make some magic.