nutty for coconuts

A client wanted a super summery cupcakes for her function for tomorrow. She fell in love with my strawberry cupcakes with the cream cheese frosting. She wanted the same one, only problem is that she can't pick them up the day of, she needed to pick them up the day before and so I suggested something different because of how the strawberries are 2 days after. I suggested coconut cupcakes and raspberry frosting. We both agreed that both are very summer flavors. I wanted to put a bit of twist of Filipino flavors in it, and commonly, our desserts, when made with coconut, may include pandan. Pandan is an aromatic leaf, usually we boil it to get the scent out of it. Here in America, the leaves are a little hard to get a hold of, so the extract will do. I just put a hint of it, most of the flavor comes from the high quality vanilla and coconut milk. I toasted some coconuts too to add some contrast.

Citrus Roast Chicken

Yesterday was roast chicken for dinner. I just basically threw everything in the pot. I accidentally also bought salted butter the other day and finally found use for this sacrilegious culinary ingredient. I dunno what's been going on with my new sea salt, but it just doesn't seem to be salty enough. I doused this bird with melted salted butter. It was a really good idea coz the skin was crispy and just had enough saltiness and hint of lemon and orange. I took everything out later and made a thyme gravy. This is also because I accidentally opened that beef stock for the corn-pepper risotto the other day. Oh, with rice, just HEAVEN! Roast chicken really is one of those things that take love and patience. Very comforting right now too since the summer nights have been a bit cooler.

Strawberry cupcakes

I think I have just tasted the sweetest strawberries I've had in my whole life. This weekend, we went to the farmers' market at Clayton city. We were a bit late, about 10 minutes before they were gonna close late. The only thing I really wanted were strawberries because they were a request from Brian. I asked him what kind of cupcakes did he want for my new cupcake liners I just got in the mail and he said strawberry would be nice. I finally was able to make them today. I used my own recipe, I just don't know how much I like it. They turned out a bit more muffin like than cupcake, mostly because I was too lazy to wait for the butter to reach room temperature so I used vegetable oil instead. It tastes good, just not great. I think I should have followed my instinct of making a chocolate cupcake base rather than a vanilla cupcake base. The frosting is pretty good though, a bit rich, but it goes well with the strawberries. I did a cream cheese frosting for this one. I think this one goes to the trial bin, it's not my final recipe for this. I'll definitely try again. Maybe I will use buttermilk next time.

Chicken and Risotto

Tonight's dinner was Honey Balsamic Chicken w/ corn-pepper Risotto. I don't know what was up with the new tube of sea salt I got but it didn't seem like it was adding saltiness to my food, even with the parmigiano regiano, but i asked Brian if they were salty and he said both of them tasted they were just right on the salt side. I'm pretty sure I probably put A LOT! It just didn't seem like anything really got salted right away. It was a cook what's in the pantry type of deal today. I also stupidly grabbed a box of beef broth instead of chicken broth, so tomorrow, I have to figure out a way to use the beef broth I opened. I went to my mom's house yesterday and i remember that she just got corn and they've been very sweet lately. I've always eaten rice with corn, my mom used to make this soup with malunggay (horseradish leaves) and corn with a lot of garlic, and I used to eat that with rice and carabao milk. I kinda made a twist with that today in risotto form. I had a leftover red bell pepper so I threw that in as well. For the chicken, I got tarragon a few days ago but have been wondering what to do with it. It's a very mild herb, I don't use it too often but i wanted to veer off my common herbs I use, mostly coz i'm waiting for my herb pot to get lusher. Balsamic and tarragon seem to work really work together with the sweetness of the honey. I've officially used up my whole bottle so now I have to pick up another bottle at the market this weekend. Due to my salt issue today though, the chicken didn't seem to have enough salt. Inspired by my last trip to PPQ, I wanted a sweet and sour dip sauce for my chicken. So I pulled out the bottled sweet and sour sauce I had and mixed it with some honey, lemon and salt and it ended up making enough heat and tartness + sweetness for the chicken. The boys really liked it, and I got full from it real quick. This is comfort food so I think I'm going to keep this one in the arsenal.