Coconut Macaroon and Avocado Pie

Ingredients:

For the crust:

1 1/2 c Graham cracker crumbs

1/3 c Refined sugar

6 tbsp Melted butter

1/2 tsp Cinnamon powder

For the avocado layer:

2 Ripe avocados

2 Egg yolks

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

1/2 tsp Lemon juice

1/2 c Condensed milk

For the coconut layer:

3 c Shredded coconuts

1 c Condensed milk

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

1/2 c Refined sugar

3 eggs

Recipe:

For the pie crust:

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.
2. Blitz the Graham cracker to fine crumbs, and mix all the other ingredients in a bowl until well blended.
3. Press the mixture on a pie dish and bake for 7min. After baking, let it cool and set aside.

For the pie layers:

1. Halve and pit the avocados, coarsely chop, and puree in a blender until smooth. Mix avocado puree with the rest of the ingredients until everything is incorporated. Set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the shredded coconuts, condensed milk, vanilla extract, sugar, and eggs, and mix well. [Though I beat the eggs first in a separate bowl, before adding it in.]
3. Pour and evenly spread the avocado mixture into your COOLED pie crust.
4. Next, spoon amounts of the coconut mixture and CAREFULLY lay the coconut on top of the avocado layer. Evenly cover the pie with the coconut mixture, then bake in a 180 degrees Celsius oven for 20-25min or until the top layer starts to brown.
5. After baking, let it cool down to room temp and chill in the refrigerator for a few hours. [I chilled it overnight, just to be sure.]
6. Serve with chocolate syrup and/or toasted coconut shreds.
7. Enjoy. ^_^

Avocado Coconut Cream Mousse

Ingredients:

2 Ripe avocados

1 cup Coconut cream

5 tbsp Refined sugar

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

1 tbsp Lemon juice

250ml [well chilled] All Purpose cream

For the coconut cream you can just buy from the super market the canned ones. But if you wanna save money, like I did; this is what I did:

1 1/2 cups Desiccated coconuts

1 3/4 cups Boiling water

A cheese cloth and a blender
*additional note*

For the garnish:

1/4 cup Desiccated coconuts [or fresh shredded coconut]

1 tbsp Chocolate Syrup [optional]

few sprigs of mint [optional]

Serves: 4

Recipe:

1. If you're going to use canned coconut cream, skip this part. :P If not, start by combining the shredded coconut and boiling water in a blender and let it sit for 5min. Stir with a spoon and a spatula occasionally. Then blend the mixture for 2min. Place the cheese cloth over a strainer and a container to catch the coconut extract. Pour the blended coconut shreds on to the cheese cloth and let it cool, until it's cool enough for you to squeeze the milk out of it. After you've squeezed the life out of it, let the extract sit, so that the coconut cream and the coconut milk could separate. The thick white layer on top is the coconut cream, while the bottom cloudy layer is the coconut milk.
2. Halve and pit the avocados. Give it a rough chop and put it in a blender with a quarter cup of water. Don't forget to clean the blender first! >_< Then puree the avocados.
3. By now the coconut cream and milk would have separated, and you can skim the coconut cream off with a spoon. Collect 1 cup of coconut cream and mix it with the avocado puree.
4. Mix the pureed avocados coconut cream mixture with the sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla extract. Mix thoroughly, before adding the cream. [I was afraid of the cream curdling, because of the acidity of the lemon.] :| Then let it chill while you're preparing the garnishes.
5. For the garnish, preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Place some baking paper on a baking sheet and spread the desiccated coconut evenly over the baking paper. Bake until the coconut just starts to brown. Don't leave it, because coconut is quite easy to burn. After that remove the baking paper and toasted coconuts from the baking pan because the residual heat from the pan will continue the cooking process and burn your coconuts. O_O
6. [Optional] Take a few glasses and rim them with chocolate syrup and dip it into your toasted coconuts, for a special touch. ;)
7. To serve, spoon in the chilled avocado coconut cream mousse into your prepared glasses and garnish it by sprinkle some more toasted coconut on top and a sprig of mint on top.
8. Enjoy. ^_^

Note: I found out that I could have just bought coconut cream at my local wet market. I just found out after I got my hands almost burnt from squeezing the cheese cloth filled with hot coconut. -__-  So yeah... Check that out first. And as for saving money, this is way way way cheaper than what I did, and a hell of a lot more cheaper than buying canned coconut cream.

Chicken, Shitake and Button Mushroom, and Blue Cheese Pasta...

Ingredients:

50g Dried shiitake mushrooms
Canned or fresh Button mushrooms
2pcs Chicken breast fillet
2tbsp Butter
1 tbsp Olive oil
1 cup white wine [optional]
250ml All Purpose Cream
80g Blue Cheese
250g Penne [or any pasta of your choice]
Boiling water
a handful of parsley
salt and pepper for seasoning
Parmesan cheese to serve

Serves: 3

Recipe:

1. Place the dried shiitake mushrooms in a deep bowl and add the boiling water until submerged. Stir a little and set aside for 20mins until the mushrooms have been rehydrated. After 20mins, strain and squeeze the rehydrated shiitake off any excess liquid, and reserve the rehydrating liquid, or the mushroom broth. Then slice the mushrooms into strips of any size you want. And set aside. As for the button mushrooms, if you have whole's, quarter it. If it's already sliced, do you really want to slice it any smaller? -__- Ahehe. Set aside.
2. Slice the breast fillets into bite sized strips or cubes [whatever you want. It's your chicken. ^_^] and season with a some salt and pepper. Saute the strips in a pan with the oil and butter, and set aside once all done.
3. On the same pan, saute the shiitake mushrooms and the button mushrooms until slightly browned. 
4. Add the chicken back to the pan. Then deglaze the pan with the wine [optional], and reduce. Once reduced, add the mushroom broth and avoid adding those little bits of dirt that sunk to the bottom of the bowl, and reduce.
5. Add the cream and bring to a boil. Then crumble the blue cheese and stir until the cheese melts and fully incorporated. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Turn off the heat, and fold in the parsley.
7. Serve, sprinkle parmesan and a sprig of parsley to garnish.
8. Enjoy. ^_^

note: The wine is optional. Just skip the step and deglaze the pan with the broth instead. :)