Justin and I will be married for 5 years in August this year. For the past 5 years, I’ve probably cooked a full meal twice (some Chinese meal, and Indian curry which turned out really well if I do say so myself! I should post the recipe sometime. Okay, I’d also made a sandwich and some scrambled eggs… but they don’t really count.) Now, I love food. Love trying new food. But I don’t really have the patience to cook. Plus I blame it on my college chemistry prac where you MUST follow the “ingredients” exactly, and follow each step exactly, to avoid explosions or some other scary things. So when it comes to cooking, I tend to measure everything exactly and follow the directions exactly which can be confusing since not every little details are listed sometimes! But you all know that cooking is both a science AND an art, and sometimes you just have to break the rules, or substitue, or be creative.
I love reading about food also, I’d read books like Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdai, Heat: An Amateur’s Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany by Bill Buford or A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table by Molly Wizenberg. I love watching Ramsey Gordn’s Kitchen Nightmare, or America’s Test Kitchen.
I also love reading food blogs, especially those with simple ingredients and delicious pictures (I AM a visual person after all!) So when I read that Coconut & Lime (which features 100% original recipes!) is having a 5 year anniversary competition (what a coincidence, that it’d be our 5 year wedding anniversary this year!), with the grand prize being a Vita-Mix blender, I got motivated to try cooking again (I blamed my sisters for making fun of me in the kitchen when we were younger :p). The 3rd time I’ll cook in our married 5 years. You see, Justin (who cooks!) had been longing for a Vita-Mix blender since we saw it on TV last year, but it’s out of our budget. So, wouldn’t this be the perfect anniversary gift?! Granted, the chance of winning is slim, but it’s the thoughts that counts right?
To enter, one can choose to do one of the following:
Make one of Coconut & Lime blog’s recipes, OR,
Create an original recipe using the ingredients coconut and lime.
Since I’m not that creative with food, I thought I’d better stick to one of the recipes – plus, all the food on the blog looked so good! The difficult part is to choose one! After browsing to see what the options are, and what fall within my comfort zone, I decided to make a meal for Justin instead of just making one dish. Who knows when the next time I’ll cook again? 
So here’s our dinner tonight:
So how did it go? Did Justin die from food posioning? Read on!
Winter White Cauliflower Soup
Ingredients:
1 medium onion, chopped
5 cups (about 2 heads worth) cauliflower florets
2 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon whole coriander
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon white pepper
Directions:
In a dry, hot pan, quickly roast the coriander seeds until fragrant. Grind into powder using a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder. Set aside. In a large pot, heat the olive oil. Add the onions and cook for about 5 minutes or until they are soft and translucent. Do not let them brown. Add the cauliflower, salt, pepper, coriander and broth. Bring broth to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce to a simmer and cook 20-30 minutes or until the cauliflower is tender and easily cut. Using a regular blender or immersion blender, blend until smooth. If you are using a regular blender, you will have to do this in steps, pour the blended soup in to another large pot as you go. If using an immersion blender, you can blend the soup right in the same pot. Once blended, add the milk. Return to heat and allow to simmer another 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Stir and serve.
Pics!
The ingredients. We didn’t have any home-made chicken broth so had to use the store-bought one (reduced sodium too!) Cutting the cauliflower reminded me of college days when I worked at a Chinese take-away shop in a food court. I mainly served, but sometimes had to help cut vegetables. Cutting cauliflowers can get messy, almost tempted to use frozen ones next time :p But probably won’t taste as good as fresh ones.
“During”. When all ingredients (except milk) are in the pan, before blending using the immersion blender (stupid me almost lost the thing in the soup because I didn’t lock it tight enough. “Justin! Is this thing supposed to keep falling apart?”)
Final product! We didn’t have any garlic chives to garnish (what Coconut & Lime did), so I used some dried basil instead – wow, me alternating the recipe!
My thoughts:
- Taste pretty good!
- Pretty easy to make. This is good since Justin doesn’t make soup often, and I love soup, so I can easily make it again
- We had grounded coriander instead of seeds, so I just toast them in the oven (broil) after I asked Justin what I should do since the recipe said to roast the seeds before grinding. What can I do without him
- We also don’t have white pepper, so I used black pepper instead. Didn’t ask Justin about that one. Actually, I did check with him if it’s okay as I don’t want the black pepper to overwhelm the dish. Well, at least I know what the potential substitute ingredient is
- Next time when we make it, may be nice to add some ham just to add another layer of taste
Justin’s thoughts:
- Tasted pretty good! Very hearty
- Nothing needs to change! (He’s a meat lover and thinks it’s okay without ham!)
Mojo Pork Chops
Ingredients:
marinade:
5 cloves garlic, grated
1 jalapeno pepper, seeds removed and minced
3/4 cup sour orange juice*
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon oregano
salt
pepper
3 or 4 thick cut, boneless pork chops
2 tablespoons olive oil
Directions:
Whisk all of the ingredients to the marinade together. Pour over pork chops and marinate for 2-6 hours. Heat oil in a large skillet. Drain pork and reserve marinade. Add pork to skillet and cook about 5 minutes on each side. Make sure they are completely cooked through. Remove the chops to a plate and cover. Add marinade to the skillet and bring to a boil until it reduces to a glaze, about 2 minutes. Drizzle over pork chops before serving.
*Available bottled at most well-stocked grocery stores. Substitute fresh sour orange juice or a 50/50 combo of orange and lime juice.
Pics!
Ingredients. Note – the spice bottle with the red top is cilantro instead of ground cumin. Justin passed that to me by mistake. I didn’t notice until I started mixing the ingredients together (see, science experiments paid off! always double check!) We didn’t have any fresh or dried jalapeno (we’re growing some though!) and so we used a canned one instead. I asked Justin how much we needed since I have no idea how many jalapeno there are in the can. He said to taste it, if it’s too hot, then use a little. I have a mid-low tolerant of heat, but this isn’t so bad. Can swallow it without water but still gives me a moment of “wow this is spicy!”. Also used a 50/50 combo of orange and key lime juice as I couldn’t find sour orange juice in the grocery store. We have key lime and not lime juice at home, but thought it’d be okay. We also already have some pork chops at home, but they are bone-in, and not so thick, but figured they are good enough substitutes (see, I am learning!). There are actually 8 chops there, so I just doubled all the ingredients, so we’ll have some left overs for tomorrow.
Marinating the chops. Should probably have minced the jalapeno a little bit more, since they look a bit too chunky (compared to the finished pic posted on Coconut & Lime). When I tasted the marinate (before adding the chops! Yes I know at least that much!) I thought it was a tad sour. Could be the key lime. But Justin thought it tasted good as is (yes he had to tell me to taste what I am making again, after I asked if I added enough salt and pepper since quantity wasn’t specified :p) So I thought I’d leave it as is, and add some sugar later if needed. I generally have a sweeter palette than Justin who likes sour things. I have a sweet tooth.
Even though the chops are relatively thin, they took quite a bit longer than 5 minutes per side though. Perhaps it’s our electric stove. Justin would love to have a gas stove someday. Yes I even used the thermometer to make sure it’s cooked though it’s a bit tricky to use that thing – it’s just a cheapie one we got from HyVee! Justin wants the one recommended by America’s Test Kitchen (we just borrowed the series from the Rochester Public Library - it’s in Season 8. We love the food tasting and equipment testing segments.) As you can see, the glaze is a bit chunky.
My thoughts:
- Not too difficult to make! Typically I am more interested in learning to cook soup, appetizers or desserts than entrees, but this is do-able
- Should have defrosted the chops (from freezer to fridge) last night but forgot (fell asleep at computer desk instead.) Very messy to do it in the microwave
- Since we have more chops, I turned the chops around about half way while they marinated since the marinade couldn’t cover all the chops evenly in the bowl
- I think it’s still a little too sour to my taste, so maybe when we cook the remaining 4 chops tomorrow I’ll add some honey
- The final products look a little dark but I like the chops a little charred!
Justin’s thoughts:
- Pretty good!
- Don’t need to change anything! (Please don’t add honey!)
Green Tea & Tangerine Tapioca Pudding
Ingredients:
2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup small pearl tapioca (not instant)
1 teaspoon matcha powder*
zest and juice from 1/2 tangerine
1 egg
Directions:
Set the slow cooker on low. Pour the milk, tapioca, matcha and sugar in, whisk until the sugar dissolves. Cook for 1 1/2 hours, or until the tapioca is soft and translucent. Stir in the egg, zests and juice. Cook an additional 1/2 hour. Serve warm.
*If you don’t have matcha powder, seep 2 green tea bags in the milk for 1/2 hour before cooking, discarding the bags.
Yield: about 4 servings
Note: for more traditional tapioca pudding made in the slow cooker, eliminate the green tea/matcha and juice/zest and sub about a tablespoon of vanilla.
Pics!
Ingredients. Yes, the white stuff in the big tin is sugar. Couldn’t find any tangerine in the grocery store. We have either canned mandarin, or I have orange juice left from the Mojo Pork Chops. I chose orange juice (used 1/3 cup for a double recipe) since it is a little more sour and tangy than the sweet canned mandarin. We also bought some black pearl tapioca previously for bubble tea, and I thought I’d use them up in this recipe for some added texture. The green packet in the front is the green tea powder for making green tea bubble tea (see the black pearl tapioca in the picture?) They aren’t rabbit poop as Justin called them. Justin loves tapioca pudding, and I am guessing each serving size is small, so when I asked if I should double the recipe, he said Please! After mixing all ingredients (minus milk and orange juice) in the crock pot, I tasted it and thought I couldn’t taste the green tea (could be the quality of the green tea powder we have), so I doubled it. And again. So I ended up using triple amount of green tea powder. I also thought it was a little sweet, but since orange juice and milk are not added yet, I thought I’d wait and see.
Don’t have any nice bowl so show it off so I put it in a glass instead! You can just see the big black pearl tapioca from the top.
My thoughts:
- I like it! A little sweet though so I’ll use less sugar next time. This is coming from someone with a sweet tooth!
- I really like having the black pearl tapioca in there – since I double the recipe, instead of doubling the amount of the small white tapioca (1/4 cup in original recipe), I added another 1/2 cup of the black pearl tapioca instead (since they aren’t as tightly packed as the small tapioca). The black tapioca are more chewy, so it adds an interesting texture. Using all black tapioca would be too much though
- Lesson learned – have to be coordinated when adding the egg and stirring it in! Or you end up with some egg white chunks… oops. At least it’s not toooooo bad
- To be honest, wasn’t sure if I wanted to add the orange juice in, since I don’t know if I’d like it with the green tea. I like sweet and sour/tangy, but for some reasons I just couldn’t quite put the two together. But hey, if I don’t like it, Justin would probably still eat it. More for him!
- We had some left over, so I put it in the fridge. Even though the recipe said “serve warm”, I thought I’d try it when it’s cold too (so I can take it to work tomorrow I actually like it cold better! The green tea is more pronounced! It’s also a little less sweet (but I’d still reduce the sugar regardless the next time we make it)
Justin’s thoughts:
- It’s good! Maybe a bit too sweet
- Had a big bowl! Good thing I did double the recipe
- Liked it cold better too – the orange juice is more pronounced! Funny how I tasted the green tea, and he tasted the orange juice instead. He always made fun of me wanting green tea in something because I find it “refreshing”
Final thoughts:
Cooking is a lot of work when you don’t know what you’re doing (or where everything is!) but at least everything was edible – well better than edible Justin thoroughly enjoyed the meal which is rewarding to me. Even though he loves to cook, he said it’s nice to have a break sometime and he was very patient with me when I had questions. I said maybe I can try to cook 1 day a week on the weekend… or we can cook together instead. We’ll see how that goes! There are at least a couple more recipes I want to try on Coconut & Lime – surprise surprise, both are desserts (and one with green tea, ha!):
If I end up making these recipes, I’ll try to take some pictures and show the results. Sometimes it’s a bit difficult to take pictures when my hands are all dirty! Maybe I need to train Justin to do the photography instead
For the food that we did try, I quite liked the sushi Coco-Nut Girl Scout Roll from 
