Coconut Rice

Coconut Rice

I don't make coconut rice often but when I do I really enjoy it. The coconut flavour is very subtle but seems to pop a bit more the next day. It complements curries, seafood, and chicken dishes. 

Lots of recipes will dilute the coconut milk with water but to be honest I just use straight coconut milk because I don't want to waste the can of coconut milk when I don't need a tonne of rice! The key is to watch the rice - the coconut milk will burn! As soon as the rice/milk starts to boil turn the heat down to minimum and then take it off the heat completely to rest.

I usually use jasmine rice but any type of white rice will work.

Ingredients

1.5 cups lite coconut milk
1 cup rice
2 tsp sugar
pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Place all ingredients in medium size sauce pan over medium high heat. 
2. Bring to a boil. 
3. Immediately reduce heat to minimum and cover for 12 minutes. 
4. Remove from heat but do not remove pot cover. 
5. Let sit for 15 minutes. 
6. Fluff with fork and serve.

Oat Bars

 

 

I love oats. I love coconut. I love butter. I love this recipe. It is adapted from a Best of Bridge recipe. This recipe results in a very buttery oat flavour with a subtle coconut flavour. Melted chocolate or bit of softened store bought icing can be drizzled over them for some added flare.

The oat bars around the edges are crispy but the ones cut from the middle are relatively soft. Also, when you spread the mixture onto your cookie sheet it will only take up half of the pan. While it bakes it will spread to fill the rest of it. I also think you could add a bit of cinnamon for added flavour too.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of unsalted butter
• 3-1/2 cups oats
• 2/3 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbsp corn syrup
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

What to do

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
• In large pot, melt butter and corn syrup.
• Add brown sugar and stir.
• Stir in oats, baking powder, salt, vanilla, and coconut until well combined.
• Place on large cookie sheet and flatten until mixture is about 1cm thick.
• Bake for 15-20 minutes.
• Cool 10 minutes and cut into squares or rectangles.
• If desired, drizzle with melted chocolate.

Lamington Curse #2 - Mt Lamington

I apologize now for the following incredibly bad story of how Super K saved Mt. Lamington from the big scary T-Rex in the Land of P.

To be honest, the blame is totally on the shoulders of Mr. P of Delicious, Delicious, Delicious. Please send  all complaint letters to him. This is the second year of his Lamington Challenge. You can read my entry from last year here.

This year my 4 year old wanted in on this challenge. We used our Christmas Tree Pop recipe to make this volcano but we added about 1/2 cup of unsweetened coconut to the cake (short version of recipe is: bake a cake and pulse it up in a food processor; add a tub of icing; mould it into desired shape; freeze it; cover it in candy). It was his idea to use the dinosaur and thankfully, an Aussie friend gave me Super K just yesterday to bring it all together.

The volcano is simply covered in melted chocolate candy buttons and sprinkles were added before it dried. We also melted red candy for the "lava" shooting out of Mt Lamington.

Finally, please note no dinosaurs or koalas were hurt in the making of this story. My 4 yr old, on the other hand, tripped over a phone wire and bruised his chin...poor little guy. Luckily, a big piece of Mt Lamington will make him all better.

Without further ado, the story of how Super K saved the day!