{"id":678,"date":"2019-06-27T11:32:09","date_gmt":"2019-06-27T17:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gourmetinthefield.com\/?p=678"},"modified":"2019-07-25T14:46:16","modified_gmt":"2019-07-25T20:46:16","slug":"cookbook-roulette-2-cracking-the-coconut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gourmetinthefield.com\/cookbook-roulette-2-cracking-the-coconut\/","title":{"rendered":"Cookbook Roulette #2 – Cracking the Coconut"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Did you know that the advised method for cracking a coconut involves safety glasses, a screwdriver, and a hammer? Neither did I, until I was browsing through the hilarious Basic Skills Challenge videos that Epicurious produces. It was one of their few challenges that had me paying attention to the very end, where they reveal the “answer” to the test. Then I showed the video to my housemate and next thing I knew, we had a coconut in a our fridge so that we could give it a try. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our first venture into coconut cracking was rather disappointing. The flesh looked nice and white, but the whole thing tasted more like dish soap than coconut. One coconut wasn’t statistically significant enough to dissuade us, though, so on our next trip to market, we acquired another. And fortunately for the sake of my cookbook roulette recipe this week, it was a winner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cookbook: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This week’s selection, The New American Cooking<\/strong>, is brought to you courtesy of a proper random number generator. I received it as a high school graduation gift, just before entering into the culinary field in earnest and it’s a book that I’ve had to grow into. When I first started consider the kitchen as a career, I wholeheartedly wanted to focus on pastry and baking and was only dissuaded from this approach by the fact that our local culinary program didn’t offer a separate Pastry Chef degree option. New American Cooking<\/strong> was just a smidgen too weird, a touch too focused on natural foods and unfamiliar techniques. Its subtitle, 280 Recipes full of Delectable New Flavors from Around the World as Well as Fresh Ways with Old Favorites<\/em>, is not misleading. Browsing through it is still odd, since the recipes range hugely across cuisines, meals, skill levels, and flavor profiles. But now that I have a bigger frame of reference for savory food types, it’s easier to flip through it and get excited about the recipes that I would have once dismissed as too strange. This is a cookbook that dabbles in a little bit of almost everything and this week I chose to cook something easy, if slightly exotic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Recipe:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coconut Rice

<\/em><\/strong>2 TBSP butter
2 TBSP vegetable oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced
2 small pinches saffron strands
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cumin
3 whole cloves
1\/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup grated unsweetened coconut
2 cups brown Basmati rice
4 cups chicken broth <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heat the butter and oil together in a large skillet, then add the onion and cook until lightly browned and soft. Mix in the spices, coconut, and rice, and stir together until the rice is toasted and the spices are aromatic. Pour in the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover well, and simmer for 15 minutes. The water should all be absorbed. Remove from the heat and let sit for 10 minutes before serving.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s probably not a shock to you at this point that the recipe of the week involves fresh coconut. We left the cracking until the last minute, then Shane washed off his marble slab, disinfected his tools, and got to work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n