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Trivial Pursuits => Sports & Leisure => Topic started by: Ben-San on May 16, 2008, 10:32:02 pm
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I don't have any coconut milk but I do have "Coco Goya Cream Of Coconut". Would I be able to use that for the marinade in this recipe (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook:Coconut_chicken)?
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Ingredients of that Goya thing. (http://www.asiamex.com/proddetail.cfm?CFID=8294779&CFTOKEN=99640&ItemID=813&CategoryID=39&SubCatID=127)
The potential problem seems to me to be that this product has sugar in it, but I don't see how to tell how much. Although it is a little worrisome that sugar is ahead of water in the ingredient list, which means more sugar than water.
The thing is that even if you don't mind the sweetness, sugar tends to burn.
But I would probably dilute it a bit and give it a try, if it wasn't for company or something.
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Yeah, it's not for company, I just spotted the stuff in the pantry with nobody having any intention of ever using it and figured if I could make a dinner out of it that would be fine. I'll try the gradual-cutting-it thing.
(With my mom in the hospital I'm apparently on dinner-planning duty for the family. Tonight is oyako donburi, tomorrow is spiced meatballs plus vegetable stirfry, Sunday will be the coconut chicken attempt. Hooray for the Internet letting you find recipes based on what ingredients you know you have.)
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So upon opening the can, the cream of coconut turned out to have gone.. funny.
Fortunately we live in a neighborhood where there is a large Caribbean and African immigrant population so the corner store has all the coconut milk you could want to buy, and the chicken is now marinating.
The oyako donburi last night was a great success, and the meatballs tonight were a moderate success. I ended up with a lot of burnt flour building up in the oil and generating smoke - what can I do about that?
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How did meatballs involve flour?
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So upon opening the can, the cream of coconut turned out to have gone.. funny.
Fortunately we live in a neighborhood where there is a large Caribbean and African immigrant population so the corner store has all the coconut milk you could want to buy, and the chicken is now marinating.
The oyako donburi last night was a great success, and the meatballs tonight were a moderate success. I ended up with a lot of burnt flour building up in the oil and generating smoke - what can I do about that?
I would definitely use the coconut in a sauce - thai curries make awesome use of coconut - did you deep fry the meatballs? I don't know either the reason for using flour. I usually brown meatballs on the stove and then bake them the rest of the way on a pan that drains the grease. It tends to leave them less greasy. Another trick I learned is to take a slice or two of bread, run water over them, then squeeze out all the water. You'll have a kind-of-gross mass of sticky doughy stuff in your hand but it's great at holding together meatballs...just mix it into the meat with your seasonings. I say this because I wonder if the flour was being employed to bind the meatballs together.
The smoke is also a lot to do with the temperature you are frying at. I have deepfried battered items and even though you always have bits of batter that float in the oil for awhile, they rarely smoke. That could be the thing.
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Another trick I learned is to take a slice or two of bread, run water over them, then squeeze out all the water. You'll have a kind-of-gross mass of sticky doughy stuff in your hand but it's great at holding together meatballs...just mix it into the meat with your seasonings. I say this because I wonder if the flour was being employed to bind the meatballs together.
The bread thing was actually already in the recipe. The meatballs were rolled in flour before frying. This wasn't me engaging in meatball design; I was using a recipe from the Internet.
The smoke is also a lot to do with the temperature you are frying at. I have deepfried battered items and even though you always have bits of batter that float in the oil for awhile, they rarely smoke. That could be the thing.
That could very easily be it.
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I don't think there is any need to roll meatballs in flour before frying. That should solve your problem.
Also: An even better version of AD's bread suggestion is to soak the bread in buttermilk instead of water.
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Also: An even better version of AD's bread suggestion is to soak the bread in buttermilk instead of water.
Quite possibly but that's not happening in a kosher kitchen.
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I always use breadcrumbs in meatballs/meatloaf. Easier to do, same effect.
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The bread soaked in buttermilk tastes really different from breadcrumbs. But if you aren't allowed to put buttermilk in your meat like in Ben's case, bread doesn't seem worth the extra effort.
But wait - how about the coconut milk?
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The bread soaked in buttermilk tastes really different from breadcrumbs. But if you aren't allowed to put buttermilk in your meat like in Ben's case, bread doesn't seem worth the extra effort.
But wait - how about the coconut milk?
Well coconut milk isn't actually dairy. What with coming from a coconut and all.
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Yeah, coconut milk is just made from coconut. No actual milk involved.
Speaking of which, the coconut chicken was a great success. The side vegetables got steamed a little too long, but the main course went smashingly and is the kind of thing I would damn well serve to company. Hooray for recipes from the Internet!
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No, that's what I meant - you could do coconut milk meatballs instead. With some kind of nice exotic dipping sauce.
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No, that's what I meant - you could do coconut milk meatballs instead. With some kind of nice exotic dipping sauce.
Dragonfruit & durian chutney maybe?
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Dragonfruit & durian chutney maybe?
Dragonfruit, yay,
Durian, nay.
Excellent Suggestion, though, Chutney in general. Chutney is kind of like Asian Salsa; great fresh flavors, bold or spicy or both, nice mouth-feel and would give great flavor and texture variety to meatballs. That's an idea I'm going to file away for sure.
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Ooh, I can tell my durian story.
Some years ago, my then-roommate and I went to the Eden Supermarket in Falls Church, which is the biggest Vietnamese grocery in the area. Dried giraffe in boxes, sauces with no English on the label, barbecued animals in the fron window under heat lamps, all that. We're the only non-Asian people in there. I get all kind of sauces and noodles and stuff, and before we go up to check out Rob says "Let's get something to eat on the way home." We find their cookies and sweets section, and they have a lot of wafer-type cookies, mostly in standard flavors like chocolate and CUNT. But we want something crazy and Asian, so we get a package that says "durian" on it and has some weird fruit on the front.
So we're driving home and we break out the cookies. We each eat half of one and we're looking at each other like "What the hell?" It was like eating cookies with a layer of filthy paste inside. I threw the other half of mine out the window.
We stopped at another store on the way home, and when we got back in the car we found that the open package of cookies had stunk up the car. We pulled into a gas station to throw them away.
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Update: I made the meatballs with more soaked bread, no flour, and somewhat lower heat. No smoke and they turned out well.
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With the internets and all this may be redundant, but it's handy to keep plain, dry, shredded coconut on hand in the pantry (not toasted, not sweetened). You just need hot water, cheesecloth, and dry shredded coconut to make great coconut milk! You can also grate up fresh coconut--the page below details the process.
Dried/dessicated coconut instructions nabbed from: http://www.asianonlinerecipes.com/cooking_guide/coconut_milk.php They include labor-saving use of a blender (see below)!
Using desiccated coconut : Many cooks use desiccated coconut for making milk. It is much easier and quicker to prepare than grating fresh coconut, and in curries you cannot tell the difference. Put 2 cups desiccated coconut in a large bowl and pour over 2 1/2 cups hot water. Allow to cool to lukewarm, then knead firmly with the hand for a few minutes and strain through a fine strainer or a piece of muslin, squeezing out as much liquid as possible. This should produce approximately 1 1/2 cups thick coconut milk.
Repeat the process using the same coconut and 2 1/2 cups more hot water. This extract will yield approximately 2 cups of thin coconut milk.
Using a blender : With an electric blender you save time and a lot of hard work. Put 2 cups desiccated coconut and 2 1/2 cups of hot water in blender container, cover and blend for about 30 seconds. Strain through a fine sieve or piece of muslin, squeezing out all the moisture. Repeat the process using the same coconut and 2 1/2 cups more of hot water.
Sometimes a richer milk is required. For this, hot milk replaces the water and only the first extract is used. However, a second extract will yield a flavorful and reasonably rich grade of coconut milk that can be used in soups, curries or other dishes.
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And to think I was laughed at for trying that when we didn't have any coconut milk in!
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Why would you go through all that with desiccated coconut when canned coconut milk is ubiquitous? I can get it in Cleveland so I can't believe you can't get it anywhere..
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Yeah, but when you don't notice you've got none until thirty seconds before it's to go in the pan you don't exactly have chance to pop to the shops.
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Yeah, see, I tend to check the cupboards and decide what to cook based on what I have. Or I shop for ingredients for a specific dish if it's something that I don't make often. But I almost never get caught short.
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Ah, I generally do the same. But I'd just come by a fine new cookbook and misread the ingredients list in my excitement.
On the plus side, such occasional failings allow for invigorating attempts at rescue.
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Ah, I generally do the same. But I'd just come by a fine new cookbook and misread the ingredients list in my excitement.
On the plus side, such occasional failings allow for invigorating attempts at rescue.
QFT. And I always tell my daughter that no matter what happens in the kitchen, you gotta taste what you made because you never know - some mistakes/miscues/missteps/ugly attempts are awesome.