Coconut love

What a difference a week makes. Last week it was cold, dark and raining almost every day and now the sun is shining, with the occasional rainstorms of course because this is the Netherlands after all, and it’s really hot. It’s proper summer around here and what’s better to have during days like these than a cold dessert in the form of round icy scoops of coconut deliciousness.

S and I have declared this the year of the ice cream. We have been indulging in homemade ice cream for more than a couple of months now, through rain or shine, warm or cold weather, and we have officially become addicted.

One of my latest obsessions is coconut and I’ve been using it in many of its forms in every type of dish. Coconut oil for pan-frying fish and steak, coconut flour and sugar for waffles and cakes, coconut milk for smoothies, desiccated coconut for ice creams.

I have tried several coconut ice cream versions with various results, yet I always return to this one. It’s a keeper. It is pure, authentic ice cream, with no nonsense ingredients but the stuff proper ice cream should be made off; eggs, milk, cream.

It’s rich, smooth and creamy and it coats your tongue with its velvety texture while the full flavor of exotic coconut lingers on. But you know me, I always need my chocolate fix, so I had to pair the ice cream with a chocolate sauce. Not just any chocolate sauce though, a chocolate sauce that once you pour it onto the cold ice cream, it hardens and becomes a beautiful shell that cracks with the touch of a spoon.

It’s like those shells that store-bought ice creams have and that you think you can never recreate at home. It turns out, you can, and it can also be healthy and ridiculously easy, with only two ingredients: dark chocolate and coconut oil. It takes five minutes to make and it is spectacular. Frankly, I wanted to pour it over everything but I restrained myself. Even if you don’t end up trying this heavenly ice cream, which you would be crazy not to, you should at least try this insanely delicious chocolate sauce.

PS 1 A little while ago, the site New Diaspora asked me for an interview (ooh that sounded fancy!). If you're interested in learning a few more things about me, then click here to read it.

PS 2 I changed the blog’s header, sidebar, social media buttons and text font and I’m so excited because I have wanted to do this for a while but never could find the time. I made all the changes myself, and being a total novice on matters of design, it makes me even more proud of the outcome. I felt my little space here needed to be rejuvenated and a picture of chocolate sorbet with berries for my header did the trick. By the way, you can see it on this post.

Hope you like it, tell me what you think!

Coconut Ice Cream
Slightly adapted from The prefect scoop

The coconut flavor in this ice cream comes from desiccated coconut that’s been toasted and then steeped into the milk. It gives the ice cream a robust flavor of coconut without being overwhelming.

Yield: about 1 liter

Ingredients
70 g desiccated coconut
150 g caster sugar
Pinch of sea salt
250 ml fresh, whole milk
500 cream, full-fat (35%)
5 large egg yolks
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Special equipment: fine sieve, ice cream maker (optional yet preferable)


Preparation
In a small skillet, add the desiccated coconut and place over medium-low heat. Toast, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula until the coconut starts releasing its aroma and begins to brown. As soon as you notice that it starts to change color and darken, turn heat down to low and be extra vigilant as the coconut can burn easily. Continue toasting and stirring non-stop until the coconut has taken on a golden to light-brown color. If at any point you smell that it’s burning, remove from the heat and stir well. The process of toasting will take about 4 minutes.
Empty the coconut in a bowl.

In a medium-sized, heavy bottomed saucepan, add the sugar, salt, milk and 250ml of the cream. Heat over medium heat until the mixture is warm but not hot; don’t bring to the boil. Remove from the heat, add the toasted coconut and stir well. Cover the pan with the lid and let steep for 1 hour at room temperature.

After the hour has passed, rewarm the mixture over medium heat. Again, be careful not to bring it to the boil. Set a fine sieve over a medium-sized bowl and pass the coconut-infused mixture through the sieve and into the bowl, pressing down on the coconut with a flexible rubber spatula to extract as much of the liquid and flavor as possible. Discard the coconut.

In another medium-sized bowl, add the remaining 250ml of cream and set over it the fine sieve.
In a third medium-sized bowl, add the egg yolks and using a wire whisk, whisk well. Very slowly, pour the warm coconut-infused mixture into the egg yolks, whisking quickly and continuously so the eggs don’t curdle. Pour mixture into the saucepan and heat over medium heat, stirring constantly with a heatproof spatula, making sure to keep scraping the bottom of the pan. Stir the mixture until it thickens and coats the spatula.

Pour the custard through the fine sieve and into the bowl containing the cream. Stir well with a spatula until well blended and add the vanilla extract. Stir well.

Fill a large bowl with ice cubes and a little water, and place the bowl with the ice cream mixture on top. Stir the mixture with a rubber spatula in order to cool it down. Once cool, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for about 1 hour.
Then whisk the mixture and pour it into your ice cream maker. Continue, following the manufacturer's instructions.

Alternatively, if you don't have an ice cream maker, empty the chilled ice cream mixture into a container suitable for the freezer. Put mixture in the freezer, take it out after 40 minutes and whisk it very well. You can also beat it with a spatula vigorously (or you can use a blender, or even a stick blender).
Continue doing the same thing every half hour, until it's too thick and frozen to beat or whisk. The whole process will take about two and a half hours.

Chocolate Sauce/Shell for ice cream
Adapted from Jeni’s splendid ice cream at home

I only use unrefined, extra virgin coconut oil because it’s healthy and has no chemical additives. It has the flavor and aroma of coconut, more or less prominent depending on the brand. In this sauce, you can certainly taste it along with the chocolate.
Perhaps some of you don’t enjoy the flavor of coconut but if you use flavorless/odorless coconut oil it will most probably be refined and thus unhealthy for you. Also, the flavor and texture of the sauce won’t be pleasant. It is in fact terrible; believe me I’ve tried it.

Coconut oil must be kept at room temperature and like butter, it has a high melting point, which means that it melts very easily and it hardens as soon as you chill it. At room temperature, in the summer it is liquid whereas in the winter it is hard.

Yield: about 280 ml

Ingredients
200 good quality dark chocolate (55-70%), chopped
100 g extra virgin coconut oil


Preparation
Place the chopped chocolate and coconut oil in a bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water (bain marie) and melt, stirring often. The bottom of the bowl must not come in contact with the simmering water. Stir gently with a rubber spatula and once the mixture is smooth and melted, remove bowl from the top of the pan and set aside to cool slightly.

Pour it over your cold ice cream, be a little patient and watch it harden after 30-50 seconds. Dig in with your spoon and crack it open.

You can use it immediately or keep it covered, at room temperature until you want to use it. If it hardens, melt it again using your microwave or in a bain-marie.

Greek braised rabbit with hilopites pasta

It’s been raining endlessly for the past couple of days which ruined our plans of going out and enjoying a Sunday morning thrift-shopping, coffee-drinking and strolling around the city. Instead we are stuck inside, watching the huge raindrops fall on the balcony creating little puddles where the wooden floor is uneven and hearing the distant thunder roar like a hurt lion.

We’re not complaining though; we have each other, Billie on the stereo, good food, a nice bottle of red wine waiting to be opened and a pan of yesterday’s braised rabbit with prunes to feast on.

I love how cravings change as soon as the weather turns. A few days ago I was longing for salads and greens but when a slight chill and the rain returned, albeit for a little while I’m sure, the craving for something heartier ensued.

We had this for dinner yesterday; kouneli kokkinisto (κουνέλι κοκκινιστό) or, in case you don’t speak Greek, braised rabbit in a rich tomato and red wine sauce with dried prunes and fresh herbs, served with hilopites (traditional Greek pasta).

In Greece we eat a lot of rabbit, with the most well-known dish being kouneli or lagos stifado, which is rabbit or hare cooked in a tomato sauce with lots of onions. This dish here however is a kokkinisto; the term kokkinisto refers to any type of meat dish that’s cooked in a tomato sauce. I had some dried prunes around and lots of herbs I had bought from the market, and along with some cinnamon, onions, garlic and a little Merlot, this beautiful dish was created.

Rabbit is wonderful, and if you have never tried it, it’s something you should put on your list. Its meat is lean, slightly sweet and faintly gamey and if cooked right, very tender and extremely flavorful. When you slow cook rabbit in the type of sauce I made here, then it remains juicy and tender. Actually, it was falling off the bone and it was as succulent as it could be.

It had a mellow flavor, with a sweetness running through it from the cinnamon and prunes, as well as freshness and woodiness from the sage, bay leaves and rosemary. The fruitiness of the wine came through, adding great depth of flavor and along with the pasta it made for the perfect rainy-day dinner.

Kouneli Kokkinisto me Hilopites (Greek Braised Rabbit with Hilopites Pasta)

Rabbits are usually sold whole, skinned, gutted, but should have still their kidneys and liver attached. You can joint it yourself or ask your butcher to do it. Don’t throw away the kidneys and liver but add them towards the end of cooking to the pan, or fry them up to make yourself a treat.
If you can find wild rabbit, do buy it as it tastes infinitely better than farmed rabbit.

Hilopites are a traditional type of Greek Pasta that resemble the Italian tagliatelle but are thinner. If you can’t find them, use tagliatelle.

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients
1½ kg whole fresh rabbit (liver and kidneys included), jointed (I cut it into 7 pieces)
120 ml olive oil
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 onions, grated
4 garlic cloves, minced
12 dried pitted prunes
1 can whole tomatoes (400 g), chopped
1 heaped Tbsp tomato paste
2 dried bay leaves
2 fresh rosemary sprigs
5 fresh sage leaves, chopped
1 cinnamon stick
300 ml dry, fruity red wine (I used Merlot)
130 ml hot water

700 g Greek hilopites pasta (or tagliatelle)
100 g butter

200 g hard Greek Mizithra, Kefalotyri cheese (or Parmesan), grated

Special equipment: grater, colander, large wide pan that can fit the rabbit pieces in one layer


Preparation
Pat well the rabbit pieces with paper towels and season them with salt and pepper. Leave the liver and kidneys in the fridge for the time being.
In a large and wide, heavy-bottomed pan (preferably a Dutch oven), heat the olive oil over medium heat and brown the rabbit pieces in batches until golden-brown. Don’t overcrowd the pan or the rabbit will not brown but stew.

Remove them from the pan and add the grated onions. Sauté them until they take on a golden color and add the garlic. Fry for 1 minute and then add the dried prunes, the tomato and tomato paste, bay leaves, rosemary, sage and cinnamon stick and stir well with a wooden spoon.

Add the rabbit pieces to the pan, pour over the wine and hot water and stir. Add some salt and pepper and bring to the boil. Put the lid on the pan, turn heat down to low and simmer for 1½-2 hours or until the rabbit is tender, turning the rabbit over every half hour or so.

In the meantime, take the liver and kidneys of the rabbit out of the fridge and clean them. The liver has several small parts that are connected with a central whitish nerve. Cut it off with a knife and separate the small parts of the liver. The kidneys, as long as the rabbit was healthy and well-fed, will have a fair amount of fat surrounding them. Remove the fat with your fingers.
Half an hour before the rabbit is done, add the liver parts and kidneys (cut in half) to the pan.

After 1½ hours check the doneness of the rabbit and also check the seasoning, adding more salt and pepper if needed.
In the end you should have rabbit meat that is tender and melt-in-the-mouth, and a rich and thick sauce.

Remove the pan from the heat and allow to stand for 10 minutes before serving with the pasta.

While the rabbit is cooking, prepare the pasta. Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil over high heat and add the hilopites (or tagliatelle). Cook until al dente (firm but not very hard) or cook to your liking. Keep in mind that if you use Greek hilopites, they will cook rather fast as they are thin.
Drain the pasta in a colander, discarding the water. Melt the butter in the pot over medium-high heat and when it starts to foam, return the pasta to the pot. Turn off the heat and quickly stir the pasta around so that it gets coated with the butter.

Serve immediately, dividing the pasta between dishes. Top with the rabbit, adding a generous amount of sauce. Sprinkle with lots of grated kefalotyri, myzithra or parmesan cheese.

Spelt salad with roasted asparagus and radishes

Hello friends, I didn’t mean to stay away for this long but since we last spoke, I have been doing some recuperating. And I also have been cheating on you and posting on instagram rather than here. Sorry, it was easier and quicker. But now I’m back!

So, I had another wisdom tooth removed a couple of weeks ago and this time was worse than the previous one. I’ll spare you the gory details and I’ll just say that my fear of dentists is gradually taking epic proportions. I’m thankful that I have a clean bill of teeth health now and I hope I don’t see a dental surgeon again in my life.

As you can imagine, eating has been difficult, but I have been hitting the ice cream quite hard, homemade of course to keep me busy. I’ve been eating lots of soups, pasta and when I got a bit better, I made gemista (Greek rice and minced veal-stuffed tomatoes and peppers) which somehow brought a summery feel to our table and we absolutely loved it.

The other day however I made a dish that was very seasonal, full of spring bounty and quite easy to make. I have been on an asparagus kick for the past month or so but I wanted to do something different than eating them simply roasted or grilled with olive oil and lemon. I wanted to incorporate them in a dish that was light yet filling.

I made a grain salad with spelt, roasted asparagus, shaved radishes, goat’s cheese and a honey, Dijon mustard, lemon and olive oil dressing. It was great.

Fulfilling and flavorful with nutty and sweet notes from the chewy and ever-so-slightly al dente spelt, earthy bitter notes from the roasted asparagus that had lightly caramelized in the oven and vibrant peppery notes from the crunchy radishes. The fresh, sweet and pungent Dijon mustard dressing coated the grains and vegetables, and along with the tangy goat’s cheese that melted among the ingredients becoming creamy and luscious, gave the salad a beautiful shine and a lovely flavor.

Hope you enjoy it. I’ll be back soon!

Spelt and Roasted Green Asparagus Salad with Radishes and Goat’s Cheese

Spelt (also known as Dinkel) is an ancient species of wheat that has gained popularity over the last few years. I love spelt flour and have been using it extensively for bread and other baked goods for a long time, but only the last year or so have I been using the whole grain. It’s high in protein, fiber, vitamin E and magnesium so apart from being delicious, it’s also good for you.

French Breakfast radishes are less peppery than the regular ones and very tasty. Feel free to substitute with the regular small, round radishes, especially if you enjoy their heat. Slice them using a mandoline or a very sharp knife.

This salad is substantial and can easily be served as a main meal.

Yield: 4-6 salad / 2-4 main-course servings

Ingredients
200 g whole spelt (spelt berries)
450 g fresh green asparagus spears, trimmed
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
7-8 French Breakfast radishes (or regular radishes)
100 g fresh, firm goat’s cheese or homemade chèvre, crumbled
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

for the dressing
4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1½ tsp Dijon mustard
1½ tsp runny honey (I used Greek pine tree honey)
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Fresh small purple shiso leaves, for garnishing

Special equipment: colander, large rimmed baking sheet, baking paper


Preparation
Soak the spelt in plenty of water for 3 hours (or according to your package instructions). Rinse it well under cold running water and add it to a medium-sized pan with plenty of water to cover it by 5cm. Place over high heat and bring to the boil. Put the lid on ajar and boil over medium-high heat for about 40 minutes or until the spelt is tender yet al dente. It will be somewhat chewy which shouldn’t surprise you as this is how spelt texture is. While boiling, skim off the scum that floats to the top with a metal spoon. Drain the spelt in a colander and leave to cool.

In the meantime, preheat your oven to 220°C.
Line a rimmed baking sheet with baking paper and add asparagus in one layer. Drizzle with 2 Tbsp olive oil and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper and toss with your hands to coat the asparagus well.
Place on the middle rack of the preheated oven and roast the asparagus for 8-10 minutes or until tender and charred, checking and turning them over halfway through the roasting time.
Remove the baking sheet from the oven and allow the asparagus to cool. Then, chop them on the diagonal.

Prepare the dressing by adding olive oil, lemon juice, mustard and honey in a small bowl and whisking well to combine. Add a little salt and pepper to taste and whisk again.

In a large bowl, add the cooled spelt and season with salt and pepper. Add the asparagus, radishes, goat’s cheese and drizzle the dressing on top. You may want to add half of it first and give the salad a taste before adding the rest. Toss the salad well and check the seasoning.
Plate the salad, adding a few shiso leaves on top.
Serve immediately.

The salad doesn’t keep well, it becomes watery if you leave it in the fridge, so keep that in mind when you make it. You can prepare the spelt and dressing beforehand and assemble the salad at the last minute before you serve it.