23 August 2007

Gosh, Judith, you're so corny!

When I found this month's prompt for Sugar High Friday, I just knew I had to try it. I've been wanting to do a foodblog challenge or community event since I created this blog earlier in the summer, and the "local dessert" theme seemed easy enough. I thought about trying to recreate the ice cream bar I had at the state fair last week, but for me, the first thing I think of when I think of Iowa is always "corn." Furthermore, one of my favourite desserts from childhood was corn pudding. Growing up in Raleigh, North Carolina, my mother didn't make corn pudding, but some people's mothers certainly did, and this occasional treat sits at the back of my memory like so many long-lost tastes and smells, just begging to be drudged up again in the name of nostalgia. As it turns out, Iowans are also fond of corn pudding, so I decided to give it a go to combine my hometown and my new home in a local dessert challenge.

My original plan was to make a corn pudding using fresh Iowa corn, but when I went through the corn bin at Hy-Vee Monday, I was more than a little worried by the number of bugs and snails happily coexisting with the cobs. I realise that creepy crawlies are a fact of life when it comes to fresh corn, but in that regard I am very much a city girl, and so I stuck very much to the recipe I found on allrecipes.com, using canned corn instead of fresh. If you're braver, I would suggest substituting the can of whole kernel corn for a few ears fresh sweet corn, as it would bring out the flavour of the corn even more. Also, though the pudding is good hot, it's amazing the next day eaten right out of the refrigerator. This gives the pudding a chance to set, so it's less watery, tastes less "eggy," and the sugar really soaks in to bring out the flavour of the corn.

Homemade Corn Pudding

This recipe is delightfully easy, and it doesn't require too many ingredients, so it's pretty cheap, too. Start by lightly beating five eggs. I used four jumbo hen's eggs and one large, as that was what I had on hand. Then whisk in 1/3 cup melted butter (I know most people probably go traditional and melt butter on the stovetop, but I can't get away from my one minute in the microwave in a coffee cup method). Next, whisk in ¼ cup sugar, then ½ cup milk (I use skim, and also my butter is actually Country Crock spread, so it's a bit healthier). Whisk in 4 T cornstarch one at a time. As you can see, my cornstarch stayed rather lumpy when I used a balloon whisk, so I switched to a fork and sort of scraped against the sides of the bowl until most of the lumps were gone, which worked like a dream. Once you pour it into the pan, you can get any remaining lumps that float to the top out with your finger or a spoon.

Next, stir in two cans of cream-style corn and one can whole kernel corn. My cans were all fifteen or 15.25-ounce, though the recipe uses slightly different amounts. I don't think it really matters. Once your corn is incorporated, pour into a greased two-quart casserole dish. Mine is 2.5 quarts and it came pretty near to the top, but maybe we can blame that on the jumbo eggs. Now the best part. Bake for an hour at 400, and just walk away. In fact, I wouldn't recommend checking it even if you want to, because it does brown up pretty thoroughly, and while in the oven it might look browner than it is. After an hour, it should be a lovely golden colour with large medium-brown patches. I let it cool pretty thoroughly on a wire rack before tasting, and then threw it in the fridge overnight.

Thanks to The Passionate Cook for hosting this month's SHF. I can't wait to see what everyone's come up with!

A Chocolate Celebration

Tuesday night, I decided a celebration was in order. As I believe I've mentioned before, I started law school here in Iowa City in May, and I've been pretty bad about going out to eat with friends since then. I've found some great restaurants, and really enjoyed myself, but let's face it—food isn't free. Even cooking at home can be pretty expensive, so I needed a part-time job to help "pay myself back" for these outings. Well, folks, as of Tuesday, I have one! I'm working at Lucas On Campus, a before and after school program for kids. In honour of my hiring, and to use the martini shaker and cooking scale that arrived in the mail Tuesday morning, I decided to make a little celebratory dessert.

The recipe for cream cheese ricotta brownies has been making the blogging rounds as of late. I saw it on Tartelette, where it was borrowed from the amazing French dessert blog Chocolat & Caetera, who got it from one of my favourite French bloggers Loukoum at Beau à la Louche. This seemed like the perfect brownie recipe to keep passing on down the foodblogging chain, and boy, is it amazing! Fresh out of the oven, these brownies are warm and delicious, creamy and just a bit melty on top, with the amazing combination of chocolate and cream cheese. One of my law school friends came over and raved about the taste, and I've got a great big pan of them to refrigerate for later.

I paired the brownies up with a martini of my own creation. It's not very complicated, but I've always loved chocolate cherries. A chocolate covered cherry was a special treat whenever mom went into the gas station to pay for her gas—it only cost a quarter, and I loved sucking on the top until the chocolate collapsed and then drinking the liquid centre before biting into the cherry. It's been a long time since I sampled this old favourite, but the adult version makes an excellent cocktail, and I was able to use the leftover baking chocolate from my brownies as a garnish. Plus, I've been looking for an excuse to use these crazy martini glasses ever since I bought them at Target!

Chocolate Cream Cheese Ricotta Brownies

I pretty much followed the recipe as given by Tartlette, but I changed the order a wee bit to suit my needs and didn't bother with the foil in the pan. I found it relatively easy, and with a little advanced planning there aren't too many dishes to wash.

Start by melting 300 g chocolate with 200 g butter over low heat. I used Ghiradelli 60% cocoa bittersweet chocolate. I wouldn't recommend anything sweeter, as the recipe is plenty sweet as is. While that's melting, lightly beat 6 eggs, 200 g sugar, and a teaspoon vanilla until pale. Personally, I did the beating by hand and it wasn't that pale, but it didn't make a bit of difference. Let the chocolate cool slightly before stirring into the egg mixture, then add 150 g of flour and a pinch of salt, stirring in little by little to fully incorporate. Pour this batter into a greased 13 x 9 pan (I used a slightly larger Pyrex). Now, mix together 250 g ricotta, 150 g cream cheese at room temperature, ¼ cup sugar, 1 t vanilla, 2 eggs, 120 g sour cream, and 2 T flour. I forgot to warm my cream cheese before hand, so I did everything else first and mashed it up a bit with a fork before adding. The batter was a bit lumpy, but it didn't make much difference. Lumps of cream cheese, for me at least, are not a big problem. Incidentally, I also used the "healthy" versions for nearly everything in this recipe—Country Crock instead of real butter, part skim ricotta, fat free Philadelphia cream cheese, and fat free sour cream. It still tasted delightfully rich. I had a bit of trepidation about making brownies with eight eggs, but I guess it all balances out.

The final step is to spoon the white batter over the brownie batter in the pan and swirl the two together with the tip of a knife (or a toothpick). The recipe says to "dot" the cream cheese mixture, but mine came out more than enough for the area of the pan, so most of the brownie batter was covered with white. It still turned out lovely.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. I went with 25 to be safe. The top was still fairly gooey when it came out, but after cooling on a wire rack for about half an hour the bottom was plenty firm to cut with the top still nice and melted (more in the middle than around the sides). This makes a really large pan of brownies, so I threw it in the fridge once it had cooled completely, and it's still delicious and creamy on the top, more brownie-like on the bottom.

Chocolate Cherrytini

Before making this martini, put a bottle of Smirinoff black cherry vodka, your martini shaker, and a couple trays of ice in the freezer. I kept my chocolate liqueur at room temperature and it was fine, but you could also refrigerate that.

Pour two regular shot glasses of chocolate liqueur, one and a half regular shot glasses of the cherry vodka, and about ¾ a shaker of ice cubes in your cocktail shaker. Shake well, then strain into a glass. I grated a leftover square of my Ghiradelli bittersweet chocolate from the above brownie recipe on top, and if you're ambitious you can also press chocolate or cocoa powder around the rim and garnish with a cherry. I thought this martini had an ideal balance of strength and sweetness, and though it was rather simple and a bit thin (maybe next time I'd add just a touch of cream), it was quite a delicious accompaniment to my brownies. I was even in such a good mood that I didn't mind a bit spilling on the floor in the process of my very first martini shaking.

20 August 2007

Our state fair is a great state fair...




Saturday, I decided to go with some friends to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines to see what all the fuss is about. For those of you who aren't familiar with the tradition, Iowa has one of the biggest fairs in the country, and its fair is the one the musical State Fair is based on. One of the most famous things about the fair is the butter sculptures, which are made every year by a woman from the same family. The woman who does the sculptures now is the third generation, and I'm pretty impressed. Every year there is a butter cow, but there's also a theme and butter sculptures that relate to that theme are displayed, with the cow, in a cold glass case in the Agriculture Building. I first heard about this phenomenon on an episode of West Wing, where the characters were visiting Iowa during the campaign and raving about the butter Last Supper. This year, the theme was Harry Potter, and so here you see Harry and his owl Hedwig, the butter cow wearing Harry's glasses, Harry's trunk for Hogwarts, and the portrait of the Fat Lady (with the Golden Snitch half-visible in the upper right.)

Prizes are a big deal at the fair. Though maybe they're not quite like the dramatic scene from State Fair with the mincemeat and sour pickles competitions, we watched an auction where a prize goat went for $1300! Here is a first prize squash, which I thought was a pumpkin. The little girl standing next to it gives a good idea of the size by comparison. And I thought my mom's organic veggies were big!

I've always been a big fan of fair food. I remember when I was a little girl at the North Carolina State Fair, and every year I insisted on getting cotton candy and a candy apple. When I was older, I discovered the joys of funnel cake and fried oreos. I always thought my dad was kind of lame for always getting corn on the cob (who eats healthy food at the fair?) but this year I was sorry I couldn't find any, being in Iowa and all. Instead, I started with a Bloomin' Onion, a bit pricey at $7 but absolutely delicious. The batter was first rate, and though the dipping sauce was ranch rather than horseradish sauce, I managed to adapt pretty well. The other dipping choices were ketchup and nacho cheese, which may tell you something about Iowa.

Of course, a lot of the fair food options were meaty, and so my friends decided that lunch in the pork tent would be a good idea. I tagged along and sat with them, and on the way discovered this amusing sign. I also found out that when someone asks for pickles with their barbeque sandwich, they get a shitload of pickles (pictured). I highly approved of the people walking around the tent, refilling water cups. Though initially fairgoers could not bring their own water into the fair, due to the heat the fair officials decided to lift that ban, and also to make water in some places free. Good for them!

The next food stop was at the Bauder ice cream booth, where I tried this Peppermint Bar, listed as a State Fair favourite. The bar was made up of peppermint ice cream, chocolate syrup, and crushed Oreo cookies, and it was good if not spectacular. According to my friend Lindsay, and Des Moines native, Bauder Pharmacy is a local classic, and has the best ice cream in Des Moines. So far, I prefer Danes and Whitey's in Iowa City, but I'd have to try some more flavours to make up my mind.

My friends also tried out some snack foods, and you can see Lindsay here sampling the fried Snickers bar. A bit like the English fried Mars bar, this fair treat is made by swirling the candy bar, which is packaged already on a stick, in batter, and then frying it in a deep fat fryer designed specifically for the purpose. I tried a bite, and found it quite delicious. The batter is sweet and crispy on the outside, and the chocolate gets all melty underneath. Yum!

This photo is a perfect advertisement for vegetarianism, I think. Poor Fleming sampled a pickle dog (a pickle and cream cheese wrapped in pastrami) and she was not impressed. As you can see in the above photo, she had to wash it down with a cherry sno cone, which was much tastier. Fleming is of the opinion that "Red Dye 40 makes everything better!" and she's considering releasing her own line of red-only sno cones. We brainstormed some flavours—rhubarb, beet, tomato, cinnamon, and roasted red pepper were only a few suggestions. What do you think?



Though we didn't get to try all the food the fair had to offer, it was overall a success. I was especially amused by some of the signs for the food I didn't try, such as this Cajun Cheese on a Stick stand, and the particularly dubious "delicious" Mexican Food establishment. Another clever use of quotation marks was the stand selling "Philly" Cheesesteaks. The southern style tea booth made no disclaimer, but I did notice that the word "sweet" was not actually present in the name—very suspicious. As you can see, I do not approve of a stand on the midway selling "Freedom Fries." My friend Matt is a marine, so he's showing his support for the establishment, or something like that. We won't hold it against him.

I hope you've all enjoyed this culinary tour of the fair, and we'll see you next year, same bat time, same bat channel, for more treats and sweets!

17 August 2007

Something original

As I've said before, I'm a bit of a slave to recipes, but lately I've been trying to branch out and put my own spin on things at least a little bit. These two recipes are both "everything in the fridge" type concoctions, the first born out of a need to use the rest of the fresh corn remaining after my Corn Stuffed Red Peppers and the leftover coconut milk from my Coconut Curried Tofu, and the second coming from a disappointing experience with my usual devilled egg recipe (adapted from my mother's) that made me want to try something new.

Coconut Corn and Black Bean Salsa

This might be a bit wet to serve on chips, but it's very tasty just eaten cold with a fork straight out of the container you're refrigerating it in. The recipe is a simple one. I threw some chopped onions in a pan with a pat of butter and sautéed until they were fairly tender, then added about a cup of fresh corn kernels and the juice from a wedge of lime. Once the corn was nearly tender enough to eat, I added half a can of black beans and let the mixture simmer until almost all the liquid had cooked off. Then I added a splash of coconut milk and let it cook a little longer, again trying to cook off some of the liquid. I seasoned it with a little more lime juice and some grated coconut. The result was a slightly soupy, but thick salsa. I ate some hot, but most of it cold. I also tried adding some tart cherries, but that ended up being a bad plan. I think regular cherries, especially fresh black ones, would have been good, but tart cherries just aren't sweet enough for me.

Everything But the Kitchen Sink Devilled Eggs

For a long time, I've been using a variation on my mother's tried and true devilled egg recipe. We used to always have this tasty treat at Easter, and it was one of the first things to get eaten up. The recipe is simple—hard boil your eggs, then peel, slice in half, and mash the yolks with salt, pepper, onion powder, a healthy spoonful of mayo, about a teaspoon of good mustard, and a little bit of sugar and red wine vinegar. Spoon the mixture into the whites and sprinkle liberally with paprika.


A few weeks ago, I had five eggs I needed to use up, so I tried to follow this recipe, and something went wrong. I brought the eggs to a rolling boil and then immediately reduced the heat, cooking twelve minutes. I spun them on the counter, determined that they were still a little wobbly, and cooked a few minutes more. Then I put them in a bowl as I always do and ran cold water over them continually for a couple of minutes to avoid a green tinge when peeling (something that always kind of bugged me as a child).

I have a trick for peeling eggs, which is basically to rap them against a hard edge and then slip my thumb underneath, nail facing up, between the egg and the shell. This way I can break off large pieces, sometimes even half the shell at a time, and it's less time-consuming. This time, however, it didn't work at all! The white kept wanting to peel in layers, like an onion. If I got that thin outer skin, the actual egg would want to come with me as well. Sometimes one end of the white would just bread off entirely. Though I was able to salvage the eggs, I lost a few halves in the process and they weren't as pretty as I would have liked.


Wednesday, I decided to try devilled eggs again, but as my karma wasn't too great for the original recipe, I improvised instead. First I found some hard-boiling tips online, and used the suggestion of several websites to take the pot off the heat once the water reaches a boil, then let sit eighteen minutes with the lid on. Not having a lid, I used an upside-down cake pan, but that worked fine. I still had a bit of trouble with the peeling process, but I was much more careful this time and got some really nice looking eggs. I used a mix of large regular eggs and jumbo organic eggs (the brown ones). I noticed that the smaller eggs were easier to peel, so maybe the jumbo ones could have cooked longer. Anyway, once I sliced the eggs in half the yolks happily jumped free, some with a really nice, bright yellow colour, unlike my previous attempt wherein the whites tended to break when I removed the yolks and I had to use the devilled egg mixture as a paste to hold them together.

For the filling, I went a bit crazy. I decided to experiment with some various savoury flavours, so I used a little bit of salt and pepper and a big spoonful of mayo as usual but then added a teaspoon of grey poupon, a handful of finely diced sundried tomatoes (oil squeezed out), a few capers, a big splash of balsamic vinegar, and some crumbled Maytag blue cheese (local Iowa brand). Once it was all mixed up, I piped it into the whites using the 'ole ziplock with the corner cut off method.

The verdict? Immediately after preparing, it was pretty good. As you can see, the colour leaves something to be desired, and the piping really didn't make it look all that much better than spooning. But the flavours were nice, the cheese and the vinegar's tanginess balanced by the more gentle but still distinct flavour of the tomato and the mellowness of the mayo. The next day, though, once the flavours had blended together more overnight in the fridge, the cheese was overpowering and the combination with the vinegar was a bit much. I think next time I would use less vinegar and leave out the cheese altogether.

So there's a bit of a foray into original recipe-making! Next up, we explore some fresh ingredients from my local co-op and the combination of fresh bread and mint with two recipes borrowed from other food blogs. And perhaps tomorrow I will take some tasty food-related photos for you all at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines. Mm, funnel cake. I can hardly wait!

12 August 2007

Ratat-not really

It seems like every food blog I read a couple of weeks ago had a recent entry about the animated film Ratatouille. I was never a big cartoon person, though I do enjoy the ones really aimed at adults, such as Shrek and Happy Feet. I was rather intrigued when the trailer for Ratatouille came out, but I very rarely see a film in the cinema, and so I'll wait till it comes out on Netflix. As for the French dish from which the film takes its name, I do keep meaning to make one. I have an intriguing recipe for Polynesian Ratatouille that I hope to get to soon, but when I look at the ratatouilles my favourite food bloggers are trying, with their bright cartoon-like colours, the first thing I think is not ratatouille at all but gratins.

Gratins is one of my favourite casseroles, and it's extremely versatile and relatively easy to make. My mother got the basic recipe from my aunt when I was in high school, and it quickly made it to her standby list. Unlike me, mom isn't much of a recipe person, but once she finds something she likes she gets creative, cooking from memory and adjusting quite a bit as she goes along. Unfortunately, a lot of the things she makes involve meat, so that leaves a limited selection to choose from when I'm visiting. That's all right, though, because I will never get sick of gratins.

You can use any vegetable you want, pretty much, though some combinations are better than others. If anyone can think of a vegetable I haven't yet tried to include, I'll give it a go; I love new ideas. The most important parts are really the crumbly topping made with Ritz cracker crumbs, herbs, olive oil, and Feta cheese, and the onions on the bottom. The onions are not optional.

Vegetable Gratins

So you want to start with the onions. Mom and I cheat a little with this, and incidentally I've found our method for onion-cooking to be quite good when you don't really have anything else you need to sauté and don't want to dirty a pan. Thinly slice an onion and toss it with some olive oil and fresh chopped mint or thyme in a bowl and microwave until it's tender, up to four minutes. If the casserole dish you're using is small enough, you can even go ahead and put the onion slices in a layer on the bottom of the dish and drizzle with the oil and herbs, then microwave in the dish. Otherwise, spread the cooked onions at the bottom of your dish, and if there's not enough oil to get the dish a bit greasy, drizzle some more on top. Incidentally, you can use canola with this recipe but I really prefer olive, especially with the cracker crumbs.

Next step is the vegetables. I'll give you a list of those I've tried and what I like and don't like here, but whatever you use you want to wash, peel if necessary, and slice into rounds of moderate thickness. And if you're using eggplant, you have to pre-roast the slices for about twenty minutes at 425, sprinkled with salt.

It's all about balance here, with taste but especially with moisture. If you use too many "wet" vegetables like tomatoes, squash, or zucchini, the gratins will be very wet and it will seem to take forever to cook, while you nervously eye the quickly browning topping. I like to balance these wetter vegetables with potato, which tends to absorb liquid better.

There aren't many vegetables I've tried that I don't like in this recipe. I find potatoes to be a problem if they aren't precooked or are sliced too thick, but that can be overcome by boiling them a few minutes before slicing. Squash needs something a little stronger to balance its mild flavour, so I often do a combination with squash and tomatoes. I like to combine eggplant and tomato, and one of my all time favourites is squash and red and green tomatoes, which are something I really miss from home. One day I'll have a garden and it will have nothing but tomatoes, which I will always pick green. And possibly thyme and rosemary as well.

Anyway, you want to arrange the vegetables you choose in overlapping rows in your dish. Sprinkle some feta in between the layers, as well as a bit of topping if you like. That's optional, and it's a bit healthier not to, but I often do. I don't measure with the topping, so you'll have to eyeball it, but basically you want to crush a bunch of Ritz crackers up with herbs (I like rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper) and enough olive oil to make it sticky. If you don't put it in between the layers, at least drizzle some olive oil in there. Make sure there's plenty of oil for the topping or your crackers will burn. So stick that and more cheese on top, and then put in the oven, uncovered, for about seventy minutes at 375. I usually lower to 350 somewhere in there, because the topping tends to brown quickly and you don't want to take it out of the oven until the juices have stopped bubbling or at least have calmed down considerably. When you do take it out, let rest at least fifteen minutes before serving.

As for substitutions, I've used different cheeses when I didn't have Feta, including goat cheese and asiago, and they worked fine, but you want to make sure the cheese is well-covered by the crackers if you try this because cheeses that melt more easily will get a bit too brown or burn otherwise. We also had gratins for Easter this year, which happened to fall during Passover, so my mother made a version for me with matzo crackers. It wasn't quite Ritz, but still decent.

05 August 2007

Time for Thai



I'm in the middle of a move at the moment, so I'm pretty much eating frozen pizza and bagels every day. I figure that it's a good a time as any, then, to post some recipes I tried over the last couple of weeks that I haven't yet blogged about.

I've been in the mood for Thai a lot lately. I eat the Thai Kitchen peanut noodle packs a lot for lunch when I'm in class, because they're microwavable and easy and—added bonus—they come with a spoon. They're also not quite as high in fat and calories as some of the Thai food companies' products. Still, they are pretty obviously convenience food, and I've been wanting something a little more authentic and flavourful.

The other day I happened across a recipe for Thai coconut curry with green jasmine rice, and I happened to have most of the ingredients on hand, so I tried it out. The result was an amazing dish—the major cons are expense of ingredients and cleanup, so it's more of a special occasion meal, but I love the way the spiciness of the curry contrasts with the sweet, mild flavour of the rice. The recipe below is exactly what I made, which is altered in a few key places from the original recipe. I didn't have cilantro so I used basil instead, and I used sweetened coconut instead of unsweetened, for example. It was also a bit hot for me, so next time I will leave out the red pepper and maybe do a teaspoon less curry powder. That said, I am a complete wimp when it comes to spices, so most people will be happy with the recipe as is.

Oh, and while I'm on the Thai theme, one brief plug for a local restaurant—Thai Flavours. It's on Burlington Street in Iowa City, and it's very small and at least on a Saturday, rather empty, but their panang curry is amazing. Oh coconut milk how I love thee. I also got a Thai iced tea, which I am a huge fan of. The "Hawkeye Rolls" left something to be desired, however. Almost too healthy. I need to go back sometime during the week so I can try the vegetarian lunch buffet.

Coconut Curried Tofu with Green Jasmine Rice

Get your food processor set up with the normal chopping blade, and have a small bowl ready. This will save time and avoid speed chopping in the middle of the recipe. Now, start by chopping a cup or so of fresh basil (I just used a package, which was a bit less than a cup). Throw that in the food processor. Peel a small piece of fresh ginger and mince. Put a teaspoon in the food processor and three tablespoons in the bowl. Mince a couple of large garlic cloves and put one in each. Slice half a cup (a small bunch) of green onions and put in the bowl. Then drain a package of extra firm tofu and slice into half inch cubes. Leave the tofu on the cutting board and set aside. At this point, you can go ahead and fill a medium saucepan with 1-3/4 cups water and bring to a boil. Then add half a cup of light coconut milk and a tablespoon of fresh lime juice (about half a lime's worth) to the food processor. Set aside the rest of the can and the other half of the lime. Add 2 t curry powder, 1 t cumin, and 1/8 t crushed red pepper to the bowl.

Now put everything away (except what you were setting aside) and puree the mixture in the food processor. When the water starts boiling, add a cup of jasmine rice and return to the boil. Then reduce heat to low, cover, and set your timer for 18 minutes. The recipe says to stir ¼ cup unsweetened coconut over medium heat in a small skillet for about 5 minutes or until golden, but I consider this time consuming and a waste of a pan. You can either toast the coconut while you're doing other things, or use the large skillet you're about to use for the curry and then set the coconut aside.

Anyway, you'll want to heat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in your large skillet over high heat. When it starts sizzling merrily, add your tofu and stir-fry for six minutes or until golden. Add the contents of your bowl and stir-fry another minute, then remove from the heat and add a cup of whole cherry tomatoes (I used grape) and another ¼ cup coconut milk. Stir it around a bit to incorporate everything. By now your rice should be ready. Check it a little before the timer goes off—you want most the water to have evaporated. When that happens, give it a stir and then stir in the contents of your food processor bowl, as well as the coconut. Put a big scoop of that on the plate, then top with the curry, then sprinkle with more coconut and some chopped peanuts (I used dry roasted and didn't actually chop). Garnish with lime wedges.