I'm part of a Facebook group that occasionally sets food challenges, and last week's was to cook with a coconut product. Apparently coconut is a very healthy food. Clearly as you'll see below I decided to add unhealthy things to it... I just want to say that I dont cook like this every night...
BBQ Pork Belly with Rum, Lemongrass and Coconut
This recipe comes from Masterchef's Adam Liaw's cookbook "Two Asian Kitchens".
You'll need 1 kg pork belly. Score the pork diagonally on the underside. Slice into 3-4 cm strips, then cut off the rind.
Mix the following together.
150 g palm sugar, chopped
200 ml fish sauce
200 ml dark soy sauce
6 stalks lemongrass, white part only, thinly sliced
100 ml dark rum
6 french shallots, sliced thinly (I used 1/4 large brown onion)
6 garlic cloves, minced
60 ml sesame oil
1 tbsp ground white pepper
Bring the above marinade mix to the boil and simmer for 15-20 mins until reduced by half. Then add 125 ml coconut cream.
Marinate the pork in the mix for at least 2 hours.
Roast pork or cook on a BBQ (as I did). Meanwhile strain the marinade. Take 3 cups of marinade and simmer for 3 mins, then allow to reduce by half. Add 2 tsp cornflour mixed with water to thicken.
Serve pork with sauce and fresh coriander. I also served sweet potato slices, jasmine rice cooked with coconut milk, ginger slices, coriander roots, kaffir lime leaves and garlic cloves. And pork crackling, slivers of red chilli and zucchini on the rice...
Coconut Apple and Quince Crumble
This is a standard apple crumble with a few changes. I chopped fresh coconut in a food processor and then dried it in a hot frypan - stirring until it was about to brown. Some went into the cooked apple, which was then topped with some home made quince jam. Some went into the crumble topping which also included brown sugar, panko crumbs and some rolled oats (which are an essential part of any apple crumble topping!) On top is shaved fresh coconut, toasted in the oven. The combination of fresh coconut and quince made this a nice change from one our favourite desserts. And the individual serving thing looked good!