Granola (Meusli)

I tried this at Shay and Shawn's place while we were in the States last month.
I loved it, got the recipe and tried my hand at making it tonight. Sooooo yum !!

12 cups oats
2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut
4 cups coarsely chopped pecans & almonds & cashews
1 tsp salt

2/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup honey
2/3 cup oil, I used canola

preheat oven 300F/150C
put baking paper on baking sheet ... I actually used two deep baking pans b/c this makes heaps
mix first four ingredients

stir honey, brown sugar oil in saucepan over medium low heat until smooth. ( i just popped it into the microwave for a few minutes) pour over oat mixture, toss. spread on baking sheet

bake until golden, stirring every 10 minutes ... about 40 mins (mine took much longer ... it was in there over an hour)

stir. cool.

Chocolate Coconut Decadence

I'd never made brownies before trying these Gooey Chocolate Coconut Bars . OH MY WORD ! These are the best brownies I've ever made !! (and eaten, for that matter)

The base ...
3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
4 tablespoons butter, melted
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon almond extract

The topping:
4 ounces (1/2 block) cream cheese, at room temperature
4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1 egg
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup shredded coconut

Heat the oven to 180C/350F. Line an 8″x8″ square pan baking paper.

Combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. Add the butter, egg, vanilla, and almond extract and mix until the mixture forms a stiff dough. Press the dough evenly into the pan. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add egg and mix well, then add the cocoa powder and vanilla and mix until well blended. Slowly beat in the powdered sugar until smooth then fold in the coconut. I actually got excited and mis-read this part and threw it all in a bowl and mixed it at once ... except the coconut, I folded that in at the end. It didn't seem to make any difference ...

Spread the topping evenly over the base then bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the edges are just set and the center is a little wobbly. Cool for 40 minutes in the pan before lifting out and slicing. The center on mine was VERY wobbly ... but the edges were cooked so I let it be finished. It was gooey and maybe even runny the first night when we ate it and it was absolutely perfect the next day after it had sat over night !

We served it with a bit of freshly whipped cream ....

Fish with a groovy lime salsa

The other day I bought Notebook, one of my favorite magazines. It had a free bag of goodies and included in it was the December 2008/January 2009 issue of delicious. (another fave) I've made a couple of the recipes out of it that I want to share. The first is this delicious fish recipe ... I, of course, modified it, so here is that modified version ...

You will need :
Olive oil
Firm White Fish Fillets (two big ones served the four of us nicely)
1 lime
coconut (see note below)
1 avocado
fresh ginger, grated (to taste)
1 cup fresh coriander (cilantro)
splash fish sauce
1 tsp sugar

I like to try the recipe as close to the way it is the first time I try it. This recipe called for fresh coconut and since I live in a tropical paradise and can buy coconut fresh, I went for it. Don't think I'll do it again. I googled how to open a coconut, thought it look pretty easy, gave it a go but couldn't do it. Luckily Rory's got skillz and he got the coconut open ! The recipe said to grate 80g !! I never weighed it, I just grated til I could grate no more ! And I still had almost a whole coconut left ! ha ha. So yeah ... next time, I'm going to try using desicated coconut ! But ... you do what you like !!!

How you make it:

Segment and chop the lime. Try to catch the juice, or have another lime handy to use a bit of the juice (depending on how limey you want this). Mix with chopped avocado, corander leaves, ginger, fish sauce and sugar. Set aside. (this is quite a tart salsa ... mmmmmm !)

Heat a bit of olive oil in a large non-stick fry pan ( I used a grill pan ) over high heat. Season fish with salt and pepper. Cook til fish is cooked through. Should only take a few minutes each side.

Serve fish on steamed rice and with salsa on top ....

I also roasted cauliflower and asparagus with a whole heap of garlic and olive oil. Mmmmmm !

You may wonder if our kids eat all these meals I cook ?

They sure do.
For some things ( like the lime salsa ) that I think they won't be excited about,
I only give them a small helping.
I wrote about how we taught our kids to eat, if you're interested.

PS. we had leftovers of the salsa. i ate it the next night on mexican chicken. mmmmmm !!

Sandra's Coconut Patries

One of my favorite bloggers, Sandra, posted this recipe and I just have to repost it so the rest of you can enjoy it as well. It's super easy and delicious ... if you like coconut, that is. You can pop over to her site to see step by step (with photos) instructions !!

Coconut Pastries

1 package Puff Pastry
3 eggs
1 cup of milk
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of coconut
sprinkle of vanilla essence
Powdered sugar for garnish

Unroll the sheets of puff pastry and cut each one into 9 squares.

Place on a cookie sheet bake in a 400F / 200C oven until done. (They will puff up and be lovely and golden) Remove from oven and cool down completely.

In the meantime, in a pan, add the eggs, milk, sugar, coconut and a drop or two of vanilla essence. Cook over medium heat until it thickens, remove from heat and allow to cool down.

Open each pastry square and add a tablespoon of the filling or a little more.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar. And voila ... done !

These were super yummy warm. BUT, the were also good the next day. Not flaky and crispy (?) like the first day ... more soft and squishy but still yummmmmmmmmy !!