How To Make the Creamy, Toasted Coconut Milk of Your Dreams

Let me start by saying, if you already make your own nut milks at home, you have to try this. I mean – walk to your kitchen, turn the oven dial, and get some coconut in there. You have to trust me here. I started making homemade toasted coconut milk a few months ago, and it has become one of my favorite things. It’s creamy, rich, nutty, and intense. I enjoy it immensely on its own, and as an ingredient in other preparations as well. It’s a real flavor punch. Imagine all the ways you can use it to make some of your favorite preparations even better. It’s great in chai tea, in morning oatmeal, baked oatmeal(!). You can use it in a wild range of sweet preparations, but it’s also good as a way to add a little je ne sais quoi, to broths, soups, and weeknight curries.

You can see how it comes together in a video of the process here, and you can find the recipe down below, as well as a few notes. Let me know if you make it, and if you do, please let me know how you’re using it!

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A couple notes. If you want to totally geek out on this, play around with the toastiness of your coconut. If you toast coconut deeply, you’re going to have a different profile than a more lightly toasted coconut. I tend to ride the dark side of the spectrum, but it’s wild the difference between a milk made with lightly toasted versus dark. Both delicious, just different.

Also, like all pure coconut milk, it will separate. And it solidifies in the refrigerator. Use it as you would canned coconut milk, and expect it to behave similarly (i.e. you might need to warm it up a bit, and give it a good stir before using)…

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Spicy Tahini Noodles with Roasted Vegetables

This is my favorite kind of weeknight meal. Noodles tossed with a quick sauce, topped with an abundance of vegetables, and kissed with chile feistiness courtesy of the condiment shelf. Spicy tahini noodles. It’s in high-rotation around here at the moment, and I’ll mention some variations down below. The gist: make a simple, thinned-out tahini sauce, roast the vegetables while your pasta water is coming to a boil, toss and serve on one platter. If you like those old-school Chinese restaurant spicy peanut noodles, these are sort-of their tahini slathered distant cousins.

A couple things worth noting. I’ve made this with fresh udon noodles (delicious!), you see it pictured here made with whole wheat fettuccini (thumbs up), and I’m also convinced thick, wide rice noodles would be good. Feel free to experiment. I think the key is a substantial noodle – skip the angel hair, and soba for this round.

On the vegetable front, literally clean out your crisper, and play around with the different vegetables you use here. Just group them in neighborhoods. This way if some of the vegetables cook more quickly than others, you can just move them off the sheet pan.

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California Tom Yum Soup

This soup is a distant relative of the vibrant, brothy tom yum soup you likely know from many Thai restaurants. Part of its magic is the way (a good version) plays sweet off sour, balancing herbaceousness, feisty heat, and just the right amount of saltiness. There are infinite interpretations of it, but this is how I make it in my (California) kitchen. It has evolved over the years, and this version is vegetarian / vegan, made with a fresh tom yum paste, highlighting whatever seasonal produce is on hand. It evolves with with the seasons, and I like to use any leftover to the next day to add dimension to rice bowls, or as egg poaching liquid, or as the broth in a breakfast congee. Be sure to read the headnotes before you dive into this one. Enjoy! -h

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Favorites List (09.08.18)

Some links, recipes, and reading for the weekend. Enjoy!

– ‘A small-town couple left behind a stolen painting worth over $100 million — and a big mystery‘ (The Washington Post)

– This interview (Apiece Apart)

– How to Write a Condolence Note (Cup of Jo)

– Reading this.

– This video: Llama Cake

– How to Design Your Perfect Kitchen (Curbed)

– Rei Kawakubo Revealed (Sort Of) (NY Times)

– California’s surf wars: wave ‘warlords’ go to extreme lengths to defend their turf (The Guardian)

– KT Achaya’s pioneering scholarship on Indian food (Caravan)

– This for dinner.

– The Best 10 Rules to Live by When You Are Young and Ready to Travel. (Steve Sando – also, read his New Yorker profile if you missed it!) 

– Chengdu Cool: The Rise of Sichuan’s Homegrown Hip Hop (Guernica)

– Aretha Franklin’s American Soul (New Yorker)

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Slow Cooker Miso Corn Chowder

I love recipes like this, dead simple and adaptable. You’re looking at a creamy, delicious, slow cooker corn chowder. If you have a bag of frozen corn, an onion, and a few potatoes, you’re well on your way. Wait, don’t nod off! There are a few bright spots beyond the basics. In this recipe, you sauté the onions in ghee, but(!) clarified butter or olive oil will work nicely as well. And you season the chowder with miso, but(!) salt and pepper, or even soy sauce, ponzu, or a curry paste like this or this could take things in an entirely new direction. Try the miso version first, just because its so good. I guess all I’m saying is, don’t let it stop you from making the chowder if you don’t have one the miso or ghee on hand.

The recipe is an adaptation of the Miso-Ghee Corn Chowder from Slow Cook Modern by Liana Krissoff. I boosted my version with yellow split peas, for some extra diversity, and protein bump. Making it more of a one dish meal. She tops hers with a beautiful tomato-furikake salad, and uses fresh corn on the cob, perfect for summer when it comes. I’ve got mine topped with chunks of olives, and walnuts, and thin whispers of watermelon radish. And lots of chives.

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Pie Crust Design, These Pie Crust Masters Show you How it’s Done

There’s an art to creating a beautiful pie crust, and it doesn’t have to be intimidating. If you’re looking to move beyond a simple, basic crust this season, there are a host of next-level pie crust design techniques out there to inspire your creations. There’s really no reason you can’t master the basket weave, the leafy border, or the fluted edge! Have fun with these.

1. Pie Crusts Classics
Thomas Joseph shows us a nice range of pie crust design options – a leaf border, a braid border, a honeycomb top (a favorite!), a classic lattice top crust, and he makes it all look easy and doable. Listen up for some of his helpful little tips as well like, how to hide seams.

2. Harvest Leaf Pie Crusts
A really pretty video demonstrating a range of beautiful harvest leaf pie designs. There’s the a mega-leaf pie (cool & unusual!), and a couple of free-style approaches with medium leaves. They all bake up beautifully!

3. Twenty Pie Crimping Techniques
Watch this one for the corkscrew crust, and Caesar’s crown. Measuring spoon is brilliant as well, but I have to admit visibly flinching at the pearl crust ;)…

4. Cookie Cutter Crusts
There is so much that could be said about this video, so many questions I have! 😉 I like the way our Topless Baker friend uses little fondant/cookie cutter flowers to accent his pie, and he really goes for it. Double decker flowers and all! That part kicks in around the 5:15 minute mark – I’ll tee it up for you.

5. Hearts, Flowers, & Polka-dots
There’s a nice graphic sensibility to this collection of crusts. And, the lace technique is new to me. I really love how the ribbon-edged crust baked up – super inspiring! Trying to find the original source video for this one and will update the link when I do.

6. Nine Minutes of Pie Inspiration
There are some very strange pies in this one. But, perhaps there will be something in the mix here that will inspire your own creations in the coming months.

7. Savory Square Basketweave
I sort of love this square basket weave with the sesame sprinkle. For when your basketweave game is strong.

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Making Homemade Tortillas is Simple, plus Five Ways to Boost Them

We make tacos with fresh, homemade tortillas constantly. They’re a taco night game-changer, and so so so easy. You can make the dough in a heartbeat using masa harina, which is available tons of places. Once the dough is made (seriously, two minutes tops) you can keep it refrigerated for days and days. I’m including the basic recipe below, with a list of five favorite variations. A simple tortilla press makes quick/easy work (and is worth the small investment), but in a pinch I’ve also used a heavy cast iron skillet to press out the tortilla dough.

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Keeping tortillas hot: I like to make the tortillas shortly before serving, but you can make them ahead of time, store them stacked in the refrigerator, and reheat just before serving. Wrap hot tortillas in a clean cloth kitchen towel or keep in a tortilla basket at the table.

Types of masa harina: There is quite a selection out there. There are some who swear by the Maseca brand (labelled “Instant Yellow Corn Masa Flour”, which is powder fine, and lends a silky texture to your dough. But, on the organic front Bob’s Red Mill is good. I find it slightly more coarse, with a need for a bit less water. I’ve also like blue masa and yellow organic masa by Gold Mine Natural Food Co., it’s the coarsest of the bunch, needing even less water. Play around, and adjust the amount of water, bit by bit, until the dough is easy to handle, tender, and doesn’t stick to your hands.

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