Coconut Curry Shrimp

It was Saturday morning and I always wake up and watch the Food Network.  Claire Robinson of 5 Ingredient Fix was on and she made this amazing looking coconut curry shrimp.  All her recipes have 5 ingredients or less, besides salt and pepper.  It seemed so easy and fast that I actually went out and bought all the ingredients and invited a friend over for dinner that night.  I needed to have the meal right then and there, I couldn't even wait another day!!  That's how excited I was to make this dish.  It actually came out so delicious and literally took me about 20 minutes total to put it together and plate it!

Click here to see the original recipe from the Food Network, below is a slightly adapted version.

Coconut Curry Shrimp
(serves 4 people)
1(14-ounce can) coconut milk, unsweetened
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper or cayenne pepper (optional)
the juice of 1/2 a lime
1 teaspoon salt
pepper to taste
1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped (optional)

In a large pot whisk together the coconut milk, lime juice, curry powder, salt, pepper, red pepper or cayenne and ginger. Slowly bring to a low boil over low heat. Simmer until slightly reduced and thickened, 5-7 minutes. Add the shrimp and simmer until the shrimp are fully cooked, about 5-7 minutes. Transfer the curry to a serving bowl and serve with lime wedges and a side of coconut rice or quinoa. Sprinkle with some fresh chopped cilantro, serve with a lime wedge and enjoy!

Coconut Custard Tart

I made this tart for Thanksgiving and let me tell you I can't stop thinking about it!!  It was so delicious, light, and non-dairy!!  It's a multi-step process but it's not difficult!  You need to use a tart pan for this recipe.  I mixed up a few recipes and created a really great one, I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did!!

Coconut Custard Tart
(makes 1, 9-11 inch tart)
For the Tart Shell:
1 1/2 stick unsalted margarine, room temperature (I use Fleischmann's or Earth Balance Vegetable Shortening, the green box)
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste OR good vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease the tart pan with non-stick spray. Cream margarine and sugar in a bowl with a hand mixer until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg and vanilla to margarine mixture, mix until well combined.  Add flour slowly to mix, and mix just until combined.  Use hands to form dough into a ball. Use fingers to press dough into the greased tart pan making sure to have the dough along the sides of the pan as well.  Use a fork to poke holes into the dough and bake in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, until light golden brown around the edges.  Let tart shell cool completely.  Put aside.


For the Pastry Cream:
4 Large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar, divided
2 cups vanilla soymilk  or milk
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
3 tablespoons unsalted margarine/butter or vegetable shortening (Earth Balance)
1 cup shredded sweetened coconut


In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, 1/4 cup of sugar, all of the cornstarch, and the milk. In a saucepan, combine the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar, the vanilla, and the salt. Bring to a simmer. Whisking constantly, pour the hot milk into the egg mixture, gradually at first to temper it, and then more quickly. Set a strainer over the saucepan. Strain the custard mixture back into the saucepan and bring to a boil over medium meat, whisking constantly. Boil for 10 seconds, whisking. (Make sure the custard boils for 10 seconds in the center of the pan, not just around the sides.) The mixture should thicken to a pudding-like consistency.

Transfer the pastry cream to the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes, to cool slightly. With the mixer running, beat in the butter a little at a time, until incorporated. Beat in the coconut. Transfer to a bowl, press plastic wrap directly over the cream to prevent a crust from forming, and chill until firm, about 1 to 2 hours.  Once the pastry cream is chilled pour into cooled tart shell and prepare the coconut whipped cream, recipe follows.

For the whipped cream topping:
8 oz. of non-dairy whipping cream, very cold
1 teaspoon of coconut extract
2 tablespoons of confectioner's sugar

In a large bowl whip the cream until stiff peaks are just about to form. Add sugar and coconut extract and whip until stiff peaks form. Do not over-beat.  Pour whipped cream over the custard and spread around the tart.  You can also pipe the whipped cream if you'd like.  Sprinkle the tart with toasted or untoasted coconut and chill until ready to serve.

To toast the coconut: Place shredded coconut in a dry pan and place over medium heat.  The coconut will turn light brown when it is done.  Keep a very close eye on the pan or the coconut may burn. 

Passover Macaroons

Easy Chocolate Chip Macaroons

1 can (5oz) sweetened condensed fat free milk

1 bag shredded coconut (14oz)

1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together well. Grease baking sheet very generously, to prevent macaroons from sticking to the pan after baking. Using a ice cream scooper like the one pictured here, scoop the macaroon mixture onto the baking sheet. Place in the center of the oven and bake for about 15-20 minutes, until golden brown around top and edges.

I calculated that each macaroon has about 205 calories. This recipe made 19 macaroons, if you use the same size scoops that I used. If you make smaller macaroons, just take 3895 (that's the total calories for the macaroon mixture) and divide it by how many macaroons you actually made. This will give you the calorie count per macaroon.

If you are going to eat macaroons during Passover I would save them as an afternoon snack (eat only one) OR as part of your breakfast with a cup of coffee and a greek yogurt or some scrambled egg whites! Gotta get that morning protein in somewhere!

My familia gets together

The flank steak that was marinated in olive oil, salt, and pepper for over 24 hours. It was deeelisshh!

My bro cooking up some potatoes with garlic and parsley, par-boiled first and then roasted in the oven til crisp! Also delish.

My meal. The steak and potatoes were adapted recipes from David Tanis' cookbook, A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes.

The salad was simple, just some mixed greens and shredded carrots. The dressing was olive oil, lemon juice, a pinch of sugar, rice wine vinegar, and salt and pepper.

This is my brother's cat, Grizette. I'm allergic to her and she gave me hives. Not a pleasure at all during dinner, but being with the family was worth all the suffering. Thanks Grizette!

From left to right, dad, mom, other brother, and my cousin from Israel on my dad's side...can't you tell??

My gorgeous sister in law.

My mom and brother with the gorgeous coconut cake I made.

We ate half of it. When I got back to my apartment I served 2 slices to my doormen, they were both extremely impressed and very thankful. And the rest I'm bringing to school, in my cool cake carry case, for my colleagues.

7 minute frosting is not easy...

So I get home this afternoon from work and am really excited to get busy making my cocount layer cake for the anniversary/birthday party dinner tonight at my brothers apartment...well let me tell you, this stuff ain't easy. I do not recommend beginner bakers to attempt this recipe. WARNING: DIFFICULTY LEVEL is HIGH!

So as it was I decided to make my life a little simpler by using a store bought white cake mix, that went great, easy peasy! I did that last night. I followed the Everyday Baking recipe, linked above. I started by placing all the ingredients into a heatproof bowl over a simmering pan of water, like they told me. I started beating and timed 7 minutes, like they told me to do. So the egg whites were cooking and getting nice and white, which is supposed to happen. When the 7 minutes were up the peaks were still not stiff, UH OH! I continued to beat the mixture for another 10 minutes, still no peaks, not even soft one! WTF!?!?! I was really frustrated at this point. I figured, you know what, let's try it again, maybe I did it wrong. Ahhh, here goes trial #2...

So again, I put all the ingredients in the heatproof bowl and start blending away, after 7 minutes no freaking stiff peaks, let alone soft peaks. I take a deep breath and continue to beat. Meanwhile my kitchen looks like a dynamite hit it, there are white specks of icing all over my stovetop and surrounding walls. Of course I wasn't wearing an apron and my jeans were all speckled white too! Great! So now my kitchen and I are all dirty and I still have NO PEAKS!

So I quickly google how to make egg white frosting, just to see if there are any other recipes that are somewhat similar to what I was trying to make, and they all basically were the same. So now I had to really think. I started to think rrrrrrrreeeeeaaaaalllllllllllll hard. I looked in the fridge to see if I had more eggs, cause I just wasted 6 whole eggs in the process. Luckily I did have just enough for one more batch, trial #3. They say three times a charm, right? Well, at least no one can say I didn't try...here goes nothing...

I decided to omit the corn syrup completely and cut down the sugar to a cup (the other two batters were too sweet anyway and I was running out of sugar). I also cut down the amount of water from 1/3 to 1/4 of a cup. I put 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar instead of a 1/2 teaspoon, because I know that cream of tartar is supposed to make things thick, so I didn't think it could hurt this time around. Below is the recipe, adapted from Everyday Baking's recipe, that I used for trial #3, and you know what...IT ACTUALLY WORKED AND STILL TASTED DELICIOUS!

Seven-Minute Frosting, My Way

3 large egg whites

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1/4 cup cold water

1 cup sugar

1. In a medium saucepan, bring 2 inches of water to a simmer. 2. In a large heatproof mixing bowl, combine egg whites, cream of tartar, water, and sugar. 3. Place bowl over simmering water (it should not touch water); with a handheld mixer, beat on high speed until stiff peaks form, about 7-10 minutes. 4. Remove bowl from heat; beat 3 to 5 minutes more to cool. Use immediately

This is the cool cake carrier I got yesterday at Bed Bath & Beyond. No one is touching this cake until it's time for dessert.

Anniversary/Birthday Cake/Salad

So today is my dad's birthday, yesterday was my parents 36th wedding anniversary, and on Tuesday is my brother and his wife's 1st wedding anniversary. The family, sans my sister, who's in college, is getting together on Wednesday evening for some home cooked grub at their place.

I know for sure I am going to make a Coconut Layer Cake that I once sampled at a friend's bridal shower in Connecticut. The cake was bought from the Sono Baking Company. The guy who started the bakery, John Barricelli, used to work at Martha Stewart Living Productions in Westport, CT. Martha Stewart Productions produces the magazine Everyday Food and the show on PBS called Everyday Baking. The Sono Baking Company is going to be sold at bookstores March 9th!! I'm super excited to get a look at what else is inside!! After putting two and two together we got our hands on this recipe, see link above. I've never seen a group of ladies eat a whole cake at a bridal shower and actually enjoy it and leaving wanting more. I think I thought about that cake for several weeks after the shower, and I'll tell you this...I wasn't the only crazy one still salivating at the thought of this cake.

I'm also going to make this salad, I saw the recipe on another blog I follow called, Big Girls, Small Kitchen: A Guide to Quarter-Life Cooking. What I liked about it was the dressing, because really what's a salad with no dressing?? Not much! I love that the recipe calls for avocado and lots of vibrant flavored herbs such as basil and parsley. P.S. I SUGGEST NEVER USE CURLY PARSLEY. Not even sure why markets even bother selling it. Have you ever seen a recipe that specifically calls for curly parsley over the flat leaf kind?!!?!? I thought so.

Green Goddess Dressing

½ medium avocado 3 tbsp white wine vinegar 1 garlic clove 1/2 lemon, juiced 1 tbsp mayonnaise 2 tbsp parsley, chopped 2 tbsp basil, chopped 2-3 scallions, chopped ½ - ¾ cup olive oil ½ tsp salt and pepper (to taste)

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse to combine. Stream in the olive oil gradually and blend until the mixture becomes light and frothy. Taste for seasoning. Toss with your leaves of choice.

So as an edible gift to my parents, brother, and his wife I'd like to bake this cake. I will definitely photograph the meal and all the food that's served. And maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to capture a snapshot of my family, surely a shot not to be missed! Be sure to stay tuned, this could get interesting!