I had just made a double batch of coconut cake with seven minute frosting for my sister-in-law's birthday and had some egg yolks left over from making the frosting. I decided to make leche flan but when I checked the cupboard, I realized I didn't have any condensed milk. I had coconut milk though, so I decided to experiment. It came out ok, I just ended up cooking it longer than usual as I had put it in a small soufle' dish and it was deeper than usual; and I'm not sure if the proportions I used had too much liquids in it. Anyways, it took about two hours before it looked like it had set. Next time, I will probably use a shallower dish and reduce the cream to one cup. This time, here is the proportions I used. I also used egg yolks only this time around, but 6 whole eggs will also do if you don't want to waste the egg whites.

BTW, the coconut flavor was a nice change.

INGREDIENTS:
For the caramel:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp. lemon juice

For the custard:
1 can (13.5 oz) Coconut Milk
2 cups heavy cream
8 egg yolks (or 6 whole eggs)
1/2 cup sugar
1-1/2 tsp. Vanilla
Pinch of Salt

Place the coconut milk and cream in a pan and scald (heat without boiling). In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt until blended. Add about half a cup of the warmed cream mixture to temper the eggs, mix, then add the rest of the warm cream.

To make the caramel, place the sugar, water and juice in a pan and bring to a boil. Let it boil until it starts to thicken and the color turns amber. Pour the syrup into the soufle' dish or any pan you intend to use for cooking the flan, and swirl until the sides and bottom of the pan is coated with syrup which will soon harden.

Pour the custard mixture through a fine sieve (to remove any solids remaining) into the pan. Cover the dish loosely with foil and place in a larger pan with hot water (bain maire). Bake in a pre-heated 350-degree F oven for 2 hours or until the flan is set.

Here's another simple but delicious side dish for when the imagination is sluggish like mine has been lately.

Simply slice up zucchini (courgettes) and pan fry in olive oil until slightly browned on the edges. Then take some sweet vidalia onions, slice and saute in more olive oil until softened. Served with a sauce of lemon, low-sodium soy sauce, and red pepper flakes.

I am still not up to cooking much. We have just been cooking old standbys like soups...lots of soups. It has been wickedly cold, but I am not going to complain because I know plenty others who are having a much harsher winter than we are.

While going through my saved drafts, I realized that I haven't posted this one yet. Perhaps it was because it was such a simple recipe that I decided to hold off on it. I don't know. But when I saw the photos I just made me remember last summer when we had such an abundance of basil that I started putting it in everything until the kids had pesto coming out of their ears. Not really, that was just a figure of speech, but you get it.

Anyway, I was making so much pesto that we just had to use them up before it went bad. For the salmon, it is really simple. All I did is to take some of the pre-made basil pesto sauce that I had saved in the fridge, about a cups worth, and mixed it with about half a cup of mayonnaise then slathered it on the side of salmon. Bake it for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees, and you have dinner! Serve with salad, and in this case, pasta with, what else, pesto sauce.

This salad, I borrowed from Kalyns Kitchen. I also made this last Sunday for our appetizer/nosh day. I had a two pound bag of shrimps, from Costco of course, and decided to make half into shrimp cocktails and the other half into this salad. I modified it a bit to suit what I had on hand and to taste.

INGREDIENTS:
1 lb. cooked, frozen shrimps (thawed and drained)
1 cup diced celery
1 cup diced yellow bell pepper
2 avocados, diced
1 Tablespoon lemon juice, to toss with avocado
1/2 tsp. salt, to toss with avocado
1/2 cup sliced green onions
1/2 cup chopped cilantro

Dressing:
1/4 cup Mayonnaise
1/2 tsp. Ancho chili powder

Whisk the mayonnaise and chili powder together, then fold in the thawed and drained shrimps. Set aside in the refrigerator while you chop the other ingredients.

Dice the avocadoes toss with the lemon juice and salt until well coated. This will keep the avocadoes from turning dark. Add the rest of the salad ingredients and toss. Add the mixture to the shrimp and gently fold everything together. Chill (or not), and serve.

Kalyn gives great background on shrimp sizes and how to use raw shrimps if that is what you have on hand. She also says that this recipe is South Beach approved recipe, so if you're on a diet, what a great way to indulge! I had this for lunch the following day, and it was still delicious! I was afraid the avocadoes would have turned black and turned the whole thing into mush, but no, it was still as good if not better as the day we made it!

Everytime we go out to one of those chain restaurants, my girls always get either the chili con queso dip or this one, both usually served with tortilla chips. I looked at several recipes on the internet and came up with this one which is a combination of two or three recipes found. This time around, we served this with toasted baguettes for our Super Bowl Sunday party which the girls didn't want to label as such since we only watch the commercials and half-time show anyway.

INGREDIENTS:
4 cloves of garlic (pre-baked for 20 mins at 20-30 minutes)
1 package of frozen, chopped spinach, thawed and drained thoroughly
1 package of frozen artichoke hearts, cooked according to package directions, drained and chopped
1 jar of Alfredo sauce (store-bought)
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 pk (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

Combine all the ingredients in an oven safe dish and mix well. Cover and bake in the oven preheated to 350 degrees until it is warm and bubbly (about 40-50 mins). Serve warm, but also still good after it cooled off.

The clone actually had this for lunch today. What I did: spread about 2 tablespoons of the dip on a large flour tortilla, top with lettuce, chopped carrots, and cucumbers. Roll up, and you have one healthy veggie burrito for lunch!

To all Filipino bloggers and all bloggers interested in learning more about Filipino cuisine, the PinoyCook has revived the forum! Go register and join in the fun. Visit: http://www.pinoycook.org/index.php


Filipino Cookbooks

You can't go to the Philippines and not eat rice cakes. We had our share of just about every way rice can be made into cakes.


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