The Bread is in the Baking

I just moved into the house I will be living in for the next year. Whew. I can start baking more often again and I can stop living out of my suitcases! All of my things are now unpacked and put away and the only thing I have left to do in my room is put my posters up!
So far only 2 out of the 3 of us have moved into the new house so we had a pre-house warming house dinner to celebrate! Mooney doesn't eat gluten so we actually made this recipe with gluten free flour and it worked out great!
This recipe was supposed to be for shrimp (thus calling this coconut seafood because any seafood will do) but when we went to Trader Joes they didn't have any uncooked shrimp! I was really disappointed. Mooney suggested we use cod instead so we grabbed some of that.
 We got frozen cod, which worked fine, we just thawed it out first by placing seafood in a water bath. If you are using fish, place the fish in a sealed plastic bag in the water bath. You should not use already cooked meat because when you deep fry it, the meat will be overcooked.

The recipe I found for the coconut shrimp was really fatty so I left a lot of ingredients out and it turned out just fine, nice and crunchy! This meal goes really well over rice, which you can start while you're waiting for the seafood to marinate.

Coconut Seafood
1/2 lbs of meat of your choice (cut into 1 inch pieces)
1/2 lbs of broccoli cut into bite size florets
About 2 cups of oil
1 lemon

Seafood marinade
2 tbs cooking wine
1 tbs salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Coating for seafood
About 2 cups of flour
2 cups of medium shredded coconut
2 eggs (well beaten)

Mix together the marinade and place the seafood in the marinade for about 15 minutes.  Prepare the coating for the seafood by whisking the eggs in a bowl and shaking out about 1/4 cup of flour and 1/4 cup of shredded coconut onto separate plates. As you coat the seafood add more flour and coconut to the plates, but not putting all the flour and coconut on the plates, less of it is gummed up by the egg when you toss the seafood in it.
After the seafood is done marinating, take 1 or 2 pieces at a time and dip them into the egg and then coat them in the flour and then the coconut. Place the now coated seafood on a plate or baking sheet and repeat until all the seafood has been coated.
Heat up the oil in a deep pan or a deep fryer. While the oil is heating up, place the broccoli in a double boiler to steam, while you are frying the seafood make sure to check the broccoli ever 4-5 minutes to make sure it hasn't been overcooked and cook to taste (I like my broccoli to be just a tiny bit crunchy, which takes about 10 minutes). After the broccoli is cooked place in a large bowl (you'll add the seafood soon)
After the oil has heated up, place about 5-10 pieces of now coated seafood in the pan/deep fryer. Leave the pieces in the oil for about a minute or until golden, flipping the seafood at least once. Use a slotted spoon to take the seafood out of the oil and place on a plate covered in paper towel to soak up the excess oil.

Toss the Broccoli and now fried seafood together and squeeze the lemon over the broccoli and seafood. If you want something more flavorful, you can also use any other sauce you like!

Total Time: About an hour

I got the idea for this recipe off Foodgawker, but I didn't really follow the recipe. I just scanned it and then did my own thing. Pretty much, you can take all of your left overs and stuff them into these small oval shaped tasty treats.


What is a croquette you might ask? A croquette or croquetas is a small ovular shaped fried or baked dumpling. They are usually made of mashed potatoes, and/or meat and vegetable, and bread crumbs, egg, onion, spices and herbs. These croquettes will be made out of all your left over Thanksgiving goodies!


Baked Thanksgiving Croquettes
Finely diced turkey
Mashed potatoes
Stuffing
Gravy
Sauted finely chopped onions and garlic
Pepper and salt to taste
Fine bread crumbs

Since you never know how much leftovers you're going to have the recipe is based in ratios. You want the amount of turkey to mashed potatoes (1:1) half the amount of stuffing to turkey/mashed potatoes (1/2:1) and enough gravy to hold the ingredients together in an oval shape.
Preheat the oven to 450° F.


Mix all the ingredients (except the bread crumbs) together in a bowl until evenly mixed. Then begin to form the ingredients into egg shapes and toss them in a bowl of bread crumbs. Place the now breaded croquettes on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake in the oven for 15 minutes and they're done!


Tastes great with cranberry sauce!


Total Time: About an hour

Stir fry is one of those things that once you figure out what flavors you like it's really easy to make. I made this lovely stir fry while I was in Australia. I'm a huge veggie fan (as my homestay parents can attest to) and this is by far one of my favorite stir fry's. You should use this recipe as a jumping off point, not the end all be all stir fry. Figure out what you like and what you don't and do what you want!

FIRST AND FOREMOST CUT ALL THE VEGGIES UP! This will make cooking a lot less hectic. You won't be all "ohmygod the asparagus isn't cut and the broccoli is burning!" I always forget to do this, or maybe I just think I'm some sort of superstar and I can do everything while other ingredients are cooking, but I can't. And most recipes don't tell you to do this first so I just jump right in.

Veggies and Tofu Stir Fry
1 large head of broccoli (chopped into bite-size florets)
1 bunch of asparagus (chopped into 1/2 inch pieces)
1 bag of spinach
1 block of tofu (cut up into about 18 pieces)
1/4 cup hoison sauce
2 tbs finely cut ginger
3/4 cup cashews (diced)
2 garlic cloves (diced)
2 tbs vegetable oil
1 tbs sesame seed oil

Heat the sesame seed oil in a large wok or frying pan and lightly fry the tofu until all the pieces are brown on all sides. Remove the tofu, making sure to leave as much of the oil as possible, and place them in a bowl covered in a paper towel to soak up the extra grease. Add 1 tbs of the veggie oil, the garlic and the broccoli into the pan and cover it with a lid for a couple minutes stirring every minute or so (this will steam the broccoli). Then add the asparagus and cover again for a minute or two. Pour the hoison sauce over the vegetables and stir till everything is completely covered by the sauce. Add the spinach and cook till all the spinach has wilted. Add in the tofu you set aside and the cashews.

Serve alone or over rice!

This should feed 3-5 people

Total Time: About 45 minutes