The Opposite of South Dakotan Food: Vegan Coconut Pancakes with Tropical Fruit Salsa

My sister, brave soul that she is, moved to South Dakota last summer and while I helped to drive her out there, I had to turn around and fly out the next day so never really got to experience her new home.  There was of course other road trip scenery to be experienced along the way, but I'm back for the long weekend to see everything Rapid City has to offer.  Bless her - I couldn't live somewhere that is an arctic tundra for 10 months out of the year.  Coming from upstate New York, she's rather used to it by now and luckily she has an amazing 3-bedroom house for which she pays far less than I do for my portion of a 3-bedroom New Jersey apartment with no laundry or parking.

2010 Sight-Seeing

We've certainly had our fair share of steak, potatoes, and cheese-covered things the past few days (indeed, more on that later), so this breakfast was both the opposite of everything else we've been eating in South Dakota as well as a nod to the 80 degree sunny weather we're missing on the east coast this weekend.  And it's also a special occasion for my sister to use up the fancy organic ingredients (coconut/coconut milk/coconut oil/agave) that she's been stock-piling from various trips to Las Vegas and Denver.  And I can't think of a better meal to have during a 50 degree thunderstorm.

These pancakes are much denser and less fluffy than your refined-flour IHOP variety to be sure, but have a fantastic spice and coconutty texture that you're not going to find in a Rooty Tooty Fresh N' Fruity (which is worth looking up on Urban Dictionary, but which I will not link to for my mother's sake).  You can swap up the fruit in the salsa for anything ripe and sweet, but do keep the banana since it adds a nice  creaminess that almost makes you forget that these are vegan.  As you can see, everyone was a fan.

Vegan Coconut Pancakes with Tropical Fruit Salsa
Adapted from Bon Appetit

Total time: 1 hour (All active time, but I'm sure it would be a lot less with a griddle instead of tiny pans)
Makes 20 pancakes (6-8 servings)

• 2 1/2 cups (300g) whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup (25g) flaxseed meal (optional)
• 1 cup (75g) unsweetened shredded coconut
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 3/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 14 oz can (400mL) light coconut milk
• 1 1/2 cup (350mL) warm water
• 2 tablespoons agave nectar (or maple syrup)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• vegetable (or coconut) oil
• handful of chopped and toasted cashews (optional garnish)

• 1 1/2 bananas
• 3 kiwifruit
• 1 mango
• 1 tablespoon agave nectar (or maple syrup)

For the fruit salsa:  Quarter bananas lengthwise, then chop into 1cm ish pieces.  Chop kiwi and mango into similarly sized chunks.  Add all fruit to a small bowl with agave and stir.  Can be made up to 2 hours ahead of time, refrigerated.

For the pancakes:  Preheat oven to 250F (120C).  Mix all dry ingredients (whole wheat flour through salt) in a large bowl.  Mix coconut milk, agave, vanilla, and warm water in a smaller bowl.  Add the liquid bowl to the dry bowl and mix until thick but pourable.  Add additional warm water if batter is too thick (we added another 1/4 cup or so).

Heat a griddle (or multiple frying pans) to medium heat and melt a small pat of coconut oil (or use a small amount of veg oil).  Add batter to the pan in 1/4 cup lumps and spread out with a spoon into a circle.  Cook 2-3 minutes until bubbles appear on the surface and the bottoms are golden-brown, reducing heat if browning too quickly.  Flip and cook until the opposite side is golden-brown (another 1-2 minutes).  Move pancakes to a baking sheet and place in the oven to keep warm.

Top pancakes with fruit salsa, chopped nuts, and additional agave/maple syrup to serve.

3 New Ways to Gussy Up Your Booze

This past week's weather was rainy and generally crap, so I got to daydreaming about sipping cocktails outside at 8pm while the sun was still up.  Soon enough,  I know!  But until then, I will enthusiastically drink indoors and at least try to make it more interesting.

What I have on hand:  cheap whiskey, nice gin, cheap red wine

is turned into: Easy Mint Juleps, Raw Ginger Gimlets, Poor Lady's Sangria

by making fridge staples for rapid cocktail preparation: Mint Simple Syrup, Raw Ginger-Lime Cordial, random bits of fruit

Mint Simple Syrup
Never make a drink that requires muddling?  Fear not, I hate it too and refuse to do any more work for a drink beyond opening and pouring (even corkscrews are a stretch).  Infusing the mint into the simple syrup gives it a great flavor without the mess of muddling or the green bits sticking in your teeth.

Makes 300mL, enough for 10 drinks
Total time: Overnight (Active time 5 minutes)

• 1 cup (225g) sugar
• 1 cup (240mL) water
• 3/4 bunch of fresh mint (reserve remainder for garnish)

Bring sugar and water to a boil in a small saucepan.  Rub the bunch of mint between your hands (bruising it) and add to the saucepan.  When the sugar has completely dissolved, remove from heat.  When completely cool, transfer to the fridge to sit overnight.  Strain out mint leaves before using.

Easy Mint Julep
This is the ratio I like, not too sweet or over-the-top bourbony, but feel free to tinker to taste here.  Most recipes don't include club soda, but I find it gives a much needed lift to a potentially syrupy drink.

Makes 1 drink

• 3 big ice cubes
• 1 oz (30mL) Mint Simple Syrup
• 2 oz (60mL) bourbon/whiskey
• 2-3 mint leaves
• club soda

Pour Mint Simple Syrup and bourbon over ice in a lowball glass (or, fine, a plastic tumbler, though it's not what Don Draper would do).  Bruise mint leaves between your hands to release flavor and add to the glass.  Swirl it all around and top with club soda.

Image via Nytimes Magazine

Raw Ginger Lime Cordial
I do everything the New York Times tells me to when it comes to drinks, for better or for worse.  This beats the pants off of Rose's - more tart and spicy, less sweet with a darker, less nuclear color.   You could also use this mix for an excellent margarita.

Adapted from The New York Times Magazine
Makes 250mL, enough for 6-8 drinks
Total time: 48 hours (Active time 20 minutes)

• 4 large limes
• 1/2 cup (115g) sugar
• 3.5 oz (30g) fresh ginger

Rinse the limes in warm water and dry.  Remove the zest using a microplane or vegetable peeler, leaving as much of the white pith as possible.  Juice the limes into a non-reactive container with a lid (I used a glass jar formerly containing peanut butter).  You should have between 3/4-1 cup of juice.  Grate the ginger using a microplane* and add to the jar along with the zest and sugar.

Cap the jar and give it a good shake.  Allow the mixture to sit for 24 hours in the fridge.  Strain the zest and ginger using a fine mesh strainer.  Let the cordial sit for another 24 hours to cure before using.

*To save yourself at least 15 minutes, blisters, and swearing, the original recipe recommends chunking the ginger and liquefying it in a food processor with some of the lime juice.

Raw Ginger Gimlet
Makes 1 drink

• 3 big ice cubes
• 1 oz (30mL) Raw Ginger Lime Cordial
• 2 oz (60mL) gin
• lime wedge

 Pour cordial and gin over ice, stir, and squeeze a big lime wedge to serve.

Sangria image via Epicurious (the real thing didn't last long enough for a photo)

Poor Lady's Sangria
This isn't a recipe so much as an impressive concoction I threw together to make a $5 awful bottle of wine taste sensational.  The underlying lesson is don't give up hope on your skunky Little Penguin - you just may have the right tools to fix it in the fridge.  If you don't have time to make the simple syrup, a few tablespoons of sugar/honey/maple syrup would also do the trick.

Makes 1-6 drinks

• 1 bottle of cheap red wine (do not pay more than $8) 
• 1/2 lime
• 1/2 orange
• a few chunks of cantelope
• 1 oz (30mL) Mint Simple Syrup (or to taste)

 Pour the bottle of wine into a large pitcher.  Add the juice of the lime and orange, then cut the fruit into thin slices and add to the pitcher along with the cantelope.  Start with 1 oz (30mL) of simple syrup, taste, and keep adding until it tastes like something from the local cantina.

White Chocolate Almond Biscotti

 95% of the time when I make a batch of cookies, I subtract at least two minutes from the suggested baking time.  Why?  Soft, chewy, gooey, and delicious cookies are almost always way better than the careful-don't-crack-your-teeth kind that I always associate with interminable meetings, eating them just because they're there.  I've also found that the crunching action and associated crumb clean-up helps you stay awake in the mid-afternoon slump.  But an enjoyable cookie eating experience it is not.

And until recently I thought that biscotti, crunchy by definition, also fell into this undesirable category.  What I didn't consider, however, is the hot-beverage-dunk/transformative-phase-change factor in which the biscotti become wonderfully soft, warm, and melt in your mouth after they are dunked in tea or coffee.  A similar hot-beverage-dunk/transformative-phase-change factor turned me onto plain donuts 20 years ago and I've never looked back (except for Boston cream of course).  Anyone remember when plain donuts used to be made with a bonus dunking handle?  Apparently this dates me.

Anyway, the genius of biscotti is two-fold: the oblong design ensures that the cookie exposed to moisture is limited to a bite size, and the double baking process ensures that it doesn't immediately suffer from the inedible mushiness that befalls your average vanilla wafer.

So I have a new appreciation for biscotti.  They probably won't surpass my favorites, but they certainly have a place at 3pm with a cuppa. This recipe is only lightly sweet so you don't feel like it's too much of an indulgence.  They're also gorgeous with a white chocolate drizzle, last for weeks in an airtight container, and make a great gift for all the moms in your life when paired with chai concentrate.  It's really giving the gift of an afternoon break and relaxation, which is basically the same as a spa gift certificate without the associated cost or anxiety.

White Chocolate Almond Biscotti
Adapted from Allrecipes.com

Makes 24-30 cookies
Total time: 2 hours (Active time 30 minutes)

•  1/4 cup (55g) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup (170g) sugar
• 2 tablespoons orange zest (from about 1 1/2 large oranges)
• 2 teaspoons (10mL) vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 egg white
• 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 oz (110g) white chocolate, chopped and divided (about 1/2 c of chips)
• 1/2 cup (80g) dried cranberries or raisins
• 1 1/4 cups (140g) slivered almonds, toasted

Beat together butter, sugar, orange zest, and vanilla extract until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and egg white one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt, then gradually add the dry to the wet mixture.  Stir in 3/4 of the white chocolate, dried cranberries/raisins, and slivered almonds.  Cover and chill in the fridge until the dough is solid enough to handle (30-60 minutes).

Pre-heat oven to 325F/165C and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Divide dough in two and form each half into a log roughly 3 x 12" (8 x 30cm) and arrange them on the parchment with at least one log's space between the two.  Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and cool on baking sheet for 10-15 minutes, or until cool enough to handle.

Cut the baked logs crosswise on a diagonal into roughly 1"/2cm slices (you should have about 12 per log) using with a serrated knife in a smooth downward motion to avoid crumbling.  Arrange slices evenly back on the baking sheet and bake for another 15 minutes until golden(er).  Transfer to wire racks and cool completely.

Optional (but looks really cool) white chocolate drizzle:  Melt the remaining 1oz of white chocolate in a double boiler (or microwave) until smooth.  Use a fork to quickly drizzle the chocolate back and forth over the biscotti until evenly covered.  Let stand at room temperature until cool.

The Kale Thing, and My Most Requested Recipe

One of the alternate blog names that I tossed around was Kale, Et cetera.  It was under serious consideration until the last minute when I decided that I would be too confused by the double "e" in the web address.

But Kale, Et cetera would have been more than appropriate since it is the one single produce item that I always buy and have on hand.  Love love kale.  It's incredibly tasty, high in fiber and vitamins, and I try to work it into every meal I can.  And unlike spinach and chard which have higher water contents, it stands up well to cooking AND works great raw in a salad.

Behold my go-to potluck dish.  Somehow, despite its lack of chocolate and bacon, I get more requests for this recipe than anything else.  Now, I prefer a potluck meal to a catered one any day of the week since I love seeing what people come up with as a reflection of their personality and background.  However, a disorganized free-for-all potluck lunch will, if unchecked, lead to 90% slow cooked meat dishes and extreme cakes.  Because of this, kale salad has become my go-to dish of choice to add a healthier alternative to the mix.  And in such situations it usually becomes a base for a fantastic trash salad featuring 5 of more different types of meat, if I'm lucky.

Augmented with ricotta, a chicken leg, and leftover moussaka.

You can use any type of kale you can find for this salad.  Tuscan/lacinato/dinosaur kale (the flat-leaf kind) has the nicest texture right off the bat, but it's often tough to find; the curly kind tastes just as good and softens right up if you let it sit dressed for 30 minutes so before serving.  The croutons are a personal touch since I'm always looking for ways to use up stale bread, and when is buttery crunchiness ever a bad thing?  Rounded out with dried fruit, this is delicious, easy, and hits all the bases.


Kale Salad
Adapted from Melissa Clark

Makes one big salad (which is anywhere from 2-8 servings depending how hungry I am)
Total time: 5-10 minutes (+15-20 for the croutons)

• 1 bunch of kale
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• zest and juice of one lemon (or two limes)
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 1/2 clove of garlic, grated or finely minced
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup (1oz/30g) freshly grated hard cheese (parmesean, pecorino, or whatever is on sale)
• big handful of dried cranberries, currants, or raisins (optional)
• big handful of homemade croutons (optional, recipe below)

Rinse and dry kale well.  Remove tough center ribs, slice leaves into very thin ribbons, and place in a large bowl.

Combine olive oil, lemon juice and zest, mustard, garlic, and salt and pepper in a small jar and shake well.  Toss salad with dressing and cheese (it will keep for a few days in the fridge like this).

Top with cranberries and croutons when ready to serve.

Homemade Croutons

Makes 5-6 cups (okay this is a lot, enough for 10-15 salads, but they keep well in an airtight container)
Total time: 15-20 minutes (Active time 5 minutes)

• 8oz (225g) stale bread (whatever kind you have, about 1/2 a baguette or 8ish slices)
• 3 tablespoons melted butter
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1-2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 clove garlic, grated
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup (1oz/30g) freshly grated hard cheese (parmesean, pecorino, or whatever is on sale) 

Preheat oven to 400F/200C.

Rip or slice bread into small cubes whatever size you like and place in a large bowl.  Mix butter, olive oil, mustard, garlic, and thyme in a small bowl and drizzle on the bread until evenly coated. 

Spread the mixture out in a single layer on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and sprinkle on salt, pepper, and grated cheese to taste, adding a drizzle of olive oil if it looks dry.  Bake for 10-15 minutes until brown and crispy.  Store in an airtight container when cool.

Lemon Blueberry and Ricotta Scones with Lemon Curd

This is in no way inspired by the royal wedding hooplah whatsoever.

It's totally normal to think about making scones for the first time in years on a random Thursday night so you'll have them for breakfast on a random Friday morning with or without a cup of tea or Pimms.

Right?  Right.  No matter, these are fantastic and look gorgeous.  And lemon curd?  Not nearly as hard as I would have thought.  Only five minutes of stove-tending creates a deliciously tart scone topping that would go great with some clotted cream if, for whatever reason, you do decide to go all out for a random Friday morning celebration.

Lemon, Blueberry, and Ricotta Scones
Adapted from my favorite on Allrecipes.com


Makes 16 small scones
Total time: 35-45 minutes (Active time 15-20 minutes)

• 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup (75g) sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• zest of one lemon (two teaspoons)
• 1/2 cup (115g) unsalted butter, frozen
• 1/2 cup (75g) fresh or frozen blueberries
• 2/3 cup (160g) fresh ricotta
• 1 egg

Preheat oven to 400F/200C.  Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest in a large bowl.  Grate butter on the large holes of a box grater and work in with your hands (or to make this step immensely easier, cut the frozen butter into chunks and combine with dry ingredients with a food processor).  Mix in blueberries.

In a small bowl, mix ricotta and egg until smooth and add to the rest of the ingredients in the large bowl.  Stir until large dough clumps form.  When most of the dough has clumped, turn it out on a floured surface and work into one large ball.  Pat into an evenish rectangle about 3/4" thick.  Cut into 8 smaller rectangles, then cut each on the diagonal to form 16 triangles and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon sugar.

Transfer triangles to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and place about 1" apart.  Bake 10-15 minutes until golden.

Lemon Curd
Adapted from Baking Bites


Makes ~1/2 cup
Total time: 10 minutes (Active time 5-6 minutes)

• juice of two lemons (about 1/3 cup/80mL)
• zest of one lemon (about 2 teaspoons)
• 1/3 cup (75g) sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter 

In a small sauce pan, combine sugar, lemon juice, and zest over medium heat.  Remove from heat once the sugar is dissolved.

Beat the egg in a medium bowl and add the lemon-sugar syrup in a slow drizzle (this should take at least a minute or two), whisking constantly until well combined.

Pour back in the saucepan and add the butter.  Cook over low heat until the curd is thick (about 5 minutes), stirring constantly.  Store in an airtight container in the fridge when cool.

Panama Via My Stomach

All's been quiet on the Trash Salad front for the past few weeks since I made a sneaky trip to Panama (the skinny country between North/South America, not the retirement community in the Florida pan handle or this).  Why Panama?  Well, I hadn't visited a new country in 15 months (a 7-year record), and Panama seemed like a cheap/upcoming/accessible place to go with little foreplanning.

And it was, for the most part.  I had a fantastic time and tried to see as much as possible, though of course all vacations are never long enough.  Beaches on two oceans, midnight hike up a volcano, snorkeling and hot springs and monkeys and water taxis and wandering around the city etc etc.  Beautiful country unfortunately suffering from awful air pollution (honestly, people still burn their garbage??).  And the infrastructure isn't quite caught up with the volume of tourism (online or pre-booking of anything ever? nope). 

Right, but how was the food?  With limited exceptions, very mediocre bordering on straight up bad.  I attribute this to the hundred year American occupation of the canal zone.  Along with the Noriega thing and Operation Just Cause only 20 years ago, Panamanians likely have more important things to worry about than street food healthfulness.

Almost everything is fried, and almost everything that's fried is bad.  The ubiquitous cheap street food is carne en palito (meat stick), which sounds delicious but in most places can be described as a spiral-cut dessicated hot dog.  Even the rice and beans paled in comparison to most I had in Costa Rica.

But the top three exceptions to this were really quite stellar and are worth a mention:

Seafood Sancocho - This I actually had in a Thai restaurant as the special of the day which was labeled "Panamanian Soup."  But it was basically a sancocho stew with plantains and barely-cooked white fish with rice on the side.  This was awesome, though in hindsight my impression may have been tampered since it was the first non-fried meal I ate in a week.

Ceviche - Raw fish is one of my favorite foods, and it can't be beat when brightened up with lime juice, salt, and herbs.  Ceviche is like bar food in Panama, and also spectacularly cheap.  Beats the pants off of buffalo wings as a beer pairing.

Ropa Vieja - Kind of a spicy, beefy, pulled pork.  Best enjoyed in sandwich form with hot plantain chips.

A special runner up:

Salchicha Guisada* - Panamanians love their hot dogs.  Especially braised in a sweet sauce with onions and peppers as a breakfast item.  Served with fried dough (Panamanian tortillas), naturally.  I actually loved this and it cost $2, but am 90% sure that it was the cause of debilitating stomach cramps for 24 hours.  Worth every agonizing second.


*A google image search for this will produce 50% sausage dog photos!

Repurposing Leftovers: Trash Fried Rice

I had a reader request recently (I know!) for a post on ideas for reusing leftovers.  Yes, there have been many times in my past where I was perfectly content to eat spaghetti bolognese or black bean quesadillas five nights a week, but I like to think that my palate has sophisticated to the point or requiring a bit more day-to-day variation.  Fortunately, this doesn't have to take any more time than reheating a meat sauce, and as an added bonus you don't have to scrape red sauce off of every surface in the microwave.

By boiling up a big pot of staple ingredients that take some time to cook (rice, pasta, beans, etc.), you can mix and match with different flavors throughout the week with just the time of a 10-minute stir fry.  Every time I make some meal with multiple components, I tend to keep them separate as leftovers for this very purpose.  Starches also tend to keep better when they are on their own without being left to soak up juices and get mushy.

So, it's in this vein that I present fried rice, the first of a lazy series of repurposing leftovers as I have them.  You really need leftover rice for this recipe (or better yet, rice that's sat in the pot/cooker overnight to dry out), and it is incredibly easy, filling, and delicious.  Also completely customizable to whatever you happen to have in the fridge.  Not authentic at all of course, but it uses one pot instead of the nonsense of cooking everything individually - perfect for a quick midweek meal.

And in the interest of full disclosure, this picture is of pearled barley and not rice, but the barley actually holds up to the frying pan a bit better than rice does.  Who knew?

Trash Fried Rice

Serves 2-4
Total time: <15 minutes

• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1/2 onion, cut in half and sliced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 small knob ginger, minced
• 1 teaspoon 5-spice powder (optional)
• 1 cup protein, diced (tofu, beef, chicken, pork, shrimp, anything that won't fall apart)
• 1 cup vegetables, chopped (anything goes here, fresh/frozen/canned: peppers, broccoli, peas, mushrooms, green beans, cabbage, greens, shredded carrots, celery)
• 2 cups dryish cooked rice (white, brown, jasmine, or pearled barley)*
• 2-3 tablespoons salty sauce (soy, fish, teriyaki, or oyster)
• 1-2 tablespoons wine (Chinese, white, or cooking sherry) or water
• 1 tablespoon Sriracha (optional)
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil (optional)
• chopped scallions, peanuts, and cilantro (optional garnishes)

Heat oil in a heavy pan over medium heat.  Cook sliced onion until softened (about 5 minutes) and add garlic, ginger, and 5-spice (if using).  Add protein and cook until lightly browned (another few minutes).

Add vegetables and cook for a few minutes until softened (if using fresh veg, just heat through if it is frozen or canned).  Stir in rice until well mixed, breaking up any clumps with a spoon.   Make a well in the center of the pan** and add the salty sauces, wine/water, and Sriracha (if using).  Quickly mix the sauces together with a spoon and then distribute throughout the rice mixture.  Cook for another few minutes until the liquid is evaporated or absorbed.

Remove pan from heat, drizzle with sesame oil, and add garnishes as desired.


* As a lighter variation with the same bulk, substitute half or 2/3 of the rice with shredded cabbage.

** You can also crack an egg in the well at this point, but scramble it in the space briefly before mixing in with the rice.