COCONUT

Finally, coconut week has come and gone. I was waiting a long time for this because most vegan options are made delicious with coconut milk. I'm not sure how I feel about eating so much coconut because it is nowhere close to local...but it made for a delicious week.

My first coconut reintroduction meal was Sri Lankan Green Bean and Potato Curry from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian (page 208). We added tofu for protein and ate this over brown rice. I love Madhur (and Cheryl Rathkopf, whose recipe this really is).

The second coconut reintroduction was coconut desserts to the max. I made coconut cookie pie, which really came out as more of a coconut egg custard. It was pretty addictive and very sugary. The recipe is here, but here is the recipe with all the substitutions:

2 duck eggs
1 1/2 c. unrefined sugar
1/2 c. barley flour
1/2 c. melted earth balance
1 1/2 c. coconut
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix all ingredients. Place in greased pan. No pie crust is needed. Bake at 300 degrees for 45 minutes.

We could really taste the duck eggs. It was sweet and delicious. I think since the coconut has such a strong flavor, you could put a little less sugar in. We ate this dessert with Cherry Amaretto Coconut Bliss ice cream. In Justin's words, "Julie, if you can eat this, you have nothing to complain about." And he's right. It was insanely good. 

After eating the coconut curry I felt fine. The night after the dessert binge, I felt a small headache. That night was also New Year's Eve, and I stayed out 80s dancing til 2 am, so obviously the headache wasn't debilitating.  I'm going to attribute the headache to the fact that although I introduced coconut, I really just ate a lot of sugar. So coconut is fine for me to eat from now on...did I just rationalize my way out of that?