Mac N Faux Cheezy

I made a mac 'n cheese that made VL say "I feel like I don't have any allergies." High praise.

For those who have "followed" this blog, you know I flirt with vegan recipes because they've come up with tasty dairy-free solutions, but in reality, we are much more paleoish because we eat meat and low to no grain. Anyways, my son--bless his lekkle heart-- is not allergic to dairy! So he can partake of that American childrearing staple of mac n'cheese. My daughter--bless her big heart-- is allergic to dairy--and no, it is not lactose intolerant people; there was projectile vomit involved and you think, I would have figured out the difference in the last 20 years, m'kay?--is always forlorn when she sees him partaking. And after almost 20 years of mostly dairy-free existence, I harbor a lot of dairy skepticism. So I resolved to come up with a solution. At Sprouts the other day, I picked up Ancient Roots shell pasta-corn & quinoa-that came in a small box; we don't normally eat a lot of corn because me and the girl do not digest it well, even "organic" corn, hard to say if it's because of GMO or lingering glyphosate or the lack of nixtamalization.

Anyways, I totally winged this one on the fly. I was inspired by reading this review of this taco stand in TJ that uses eggs to emulsify the salsa into a silky texture. It's basically a cashew faux "cheeze" + carbonara mashup. It is not vegan.

Mac N Faux Cheezy

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of soaked raw cashews (soaked for 2 hrs then drained & rinsed well, can be done the day before and stored refrigerated or frozen)
• Um then I filled the pyrex cup it was in with water (and nuts still in there) to about 1/2 c or more mark
• 2 generous tsp of nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp+ of garlic powder
• sprinkle+ onion powder
• sea salt
• Generous splashes of avocado oil (can also use olive oil/lard/bacon fat)
• 2 eggs

• GF pasta

Blend sauce ingredients until it is super duper smooth. I think I let it run for 2-3 min but not enough for it to warm in the vitamix. The eggs help with making the particulate mouth feel of the cashews be more silky and emulsified (i.e. won't separate). Taste it and season more as needed.

Cook pasta according to directions. Drain and reserve some of the starchy water. Throw the drained pasta back into the pot and turn it on low heat. Then pour the sauce in and let it thicken while stirring, but try not to scramble the eggs. Use the pasta water to thin if it's too thick. (If I was more prepared, I would have used the pasta water to make the sauce in the first place.)

I topped my serving with a whisper of ground ghost pepper. I'm going to be sad when that runs out.

This made just enough for 4 bowls of mac. Next time I am doubling bc we barely had enough for VL's lunch tomorrow.

Pasta Carbonara (GF/DF)

I improv'd this meal at 4 o'clock when faced with dinner time and no real plan and diminishing food stock in fridge.  I happened to have a half pound of Trader Joe's uncured, nitrate-free bacon ends & pieces from a while back that still smelled edible and a frozen brick of sustainably-raised ground beef as my base along with chopped kale that I had cooked for the morning's green smoothie.  I set the beef chub to defrost in a tub of water then pulled out my trusty America's Test Kitchen for the recipe instructions.  Pretty much only the ATK cookbooks (and the Asian ones) survived the GF/DF purge a few years back because they are hands down the best cookbooks ever.

I still had leftover raw macadamias in the pantry from when I made nut cheese for GF pizza and Faux Cheezy-cake. This recipe uses the faux cheese method that I discovered in The Dairy-Free & Gluten Free Kitchen.

Other ingredients that I sourced from TJ's besides the bacon: the pre-chopped organic kale, organic brown rice-quinoa pasta.  I abhor brown rice pasta, but the addition of quinoa makes it a lot more palatable.  TruRoots also makes a good brown rice-quinoa pasta that I've found at Costco.

Since the TJ's bacon is rather random pieces and a lot of fat, I added water as it was cooking to help render the fat without burning the bacon.  I started off with 1 cup of water, then as it evaporated added more water until the fat was more rendered into edible sized pieces, then I allowed it to brown on both sides.  This process left a lot to yummy bacon lard and a nice golden brown glaze on my All Clad skillet that I deglazed with balsamic vinegar since we didn't have any white wine on hand.

The timing on this matters.  The macadamia-egg mix should be tossed on to the hot pan (heat off) when you are ready to serve.  T & kid were on a walk visiting the neighboring mule & goats so I had to cover the pan at the third to last step and wait for them to get home.  I had the pan back on low heat with just the pasta, kale & beef, and when they got home, I tossed the macadamia nut mix on.

This is best served fresh.  This recipe serves 4-6.

Ingredients

• 1/2 lb+ of uncured bacon
• 1 lb of ground beef (anti-biotic free)
• balsamic vinegar (in lieu of white wine)
• grey sea salt (aka Celtic salt)
• fresh ground organic grains of paradise (or black pepper)
• 1/2 cup raw organic macadamias
• 3 organic eggs
• 1/2 tsp organic onion flakes or powder
• 1/2 tsp organic minced garlic powder
• 16 oz chopped cooked organic kale (steamed or boiled)
• 1/2 package organic brown rice & quinoa pasta
• optional organic chipotle powder

Soak the raw macadamias in enough water to cover.

Cook the kale by boiling or steaming it until cooked through for 10-15 minutes.

Make the pasta according to instructions.  Approx 8-10 minutes.  Drain and rinse with hot water.

Turn oven to 150 degrees and set your oven-proof serving bowl in the oven to warm.  Since I had a nice handmade Tunisian bowl that I was afraid of breaking, I left it at the lowest temperature setting and put the bowl in while the oven was still cold.  Once it heated to 150, I turned the oven off and led the door closed to retain heat.

Drain the macadamias of most of the water leaving around 1/4 cup of water.  Puree the macadamias with the eggs, garlic and onion and a spoonful of sea salt.

Fry the bacon in a skillet until browned.  Remove bacon and add ground beef, sea salt, pepper.  Brown it until cooked through.   Deglaze the pan with balsamic vinegar.  Cover with a lid and turn off the heat to retain the heat.

Add pasta and kale to the skillet.  Pour the macadamia mixture over and toss until well coated.  Cover with the lid.  

Using a towel or potholders, remove the bowl from the oven.  Pour the pasta into the bowl.  Top with crispy bacon and more pepper.  Toss and serve immediately.

Ăn Ngon Lành|Eat Delectably!

xôi gạo nếp lứt nảy mầm | sprouted sticky brown rice

Xôi (aka sweet rice, sticky rice, glutinous rice) is typically a dish for special occasions and breakfast.  It can be eaten sweet or savory or sometimes both.  There are many, many variations.  For this recipe I will be giving two variations Xôi | sweet-salty with coconut milk and Xôi Cúc | sweet-savory with mung beans.

I choose to sprout the grains & beans because doings so unlocks the anti-nutrients; grains & beans are after all seeds that contain all the genetic potential of the plant.  Seeds have inherent self-defense in the form of anti-nutrients such as physic acid.  Sprouting germinate the transformation from seed to plant and makes it more digestible.  Start sprouting two days prior to the day you plan to  cook.  Soaking the whole grain/legume in water helps to reconstitute the grain and reduces cooking time.
I discard any water used with the rice because of the issues with inorganic arsenic contamination.  I also use organic rice which has lower levels.

Using an unhulled or brown rice changes the texture of the xoi.  There is a slight crunchiness and integrity to the grain that one doesn't get with unhulled rice.  Xôi Cúc translates as chrysanthemum rice because if the bright yellow color of the hulled mung.  Leaving the hull on will change the color to a yellow-green.

Ingredients:

XÔI 

• 2 cups brown glutinous rice
• 1 cup coconut milk
• coconut palm sugar
• grey sea salt

XÔI CÚC

• 2 cups organic brown glutinous rice
• 2 cups unhulled organic mung beans
• 2 cups water
• 3 cloves garlic
• 4 shallots
• coconut oil or pasture-raised lard
• black pepper
• grey sea salt

Equipment:
Bowls for soaking/sprouting, immersion blender, skillet, steamer pot.

SPROUTING THE SEEDS 

TWO DAYS PRIOR
REGULAR XÔI 
Rinse the rice and then soak the rice in filtered water overnight in a dark place or covered with a dish towel.

XÔI CÚC
Rinse mung bean.  In a separate bowl, soak the mung beans in filtered water overnight in a dark place.

DAY BEFORE
REGULAR XÔI 
Drain the rice and discard the water.  Do not reuse the water .  Rinse and drain.  Leave in a dark place.

XÔI CÚC
Drain the mung beans (water can be composted).  Rinse and drain.  Leave in a dark place or covered with a  dish towel.  Once it sprouts a tail, move them into the fridge.

COOKING THE RICE & BEANS
REGULAR XÔI 
Put the rice in the steamer.  If your steamer has big holes, cover the pot with parchment paper or banana leaves with small holes poked into it to allow the steam to circulate.  Steam for 20 minutes then add coconut milk mixing well.  Steam for an additional 10 minutes until the brown rice grain has a slightly al dente texture with a soft interior.  Transfer to a serving bowl, add salt and sugar and mix well.

XÔI CÚC
Cook the mung beans and water in a regular pot for 5 min until just cooked. Drain them.

Fry the garlic and shallots in lard or oil for a few seconds until fragrant, then add the mung beans.  Add pepper and salt to taste.

Mix together the rice and mung beans and put them in the steamer.  If your steamer has big holes, cover the pot with parchment paper or banana leaves with small holes poked into it so the steam can circulate.  Steam for 30 minutes until until the brown rice grain has a slightly al dente texture with a soft interior.  

Faux Cheezy-cake (Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Sugar-Free, vegan, paleo, raw, full fat)

Go Shorty! It's my husband's birthday, and I'm making him his favorite dessert cuz it's his birthday—it's cheesecake.  (Yes, in my mind that everything preceding the em dash really did come out as a rap.)  Only, it's whole food, dairy-free, gluten-free, sugar-free, no bake, mostly raw, vegan, paleo, full fat, and all kinds of yummy.  

I'm calling it Faux Cheezy-cake! 

That's the anthem, Get your damn hands up!

Good times.

lilikoi & apple caramel faux cheezy-cupcakes

Everything looks better staged on our new table!
Industrial rustic chic.

This is another case of not being able to find the exact recipe I want/need to make my heart's desire.  So I mashed up three very different recipes from three disparate though intersecting nutri-diets—Weston Price + Paleo + Raw/Vegan ==> mine own Faux Cheezy-cake version.  (I do want to give the sour coconut cream one a go though.  Probiotics!)

This is also a case of lack of menu planning and some pantry raiding though I did run out to Whole Foods to get raw macadamias (forgetting anything else besides).  For the crust, I used 1 cup soaked & sprouted pesticide-free almonds (soaked overnight and allowed to dry then rinsed daily for 2 days), 1 cup lightly salted & roasted cashews because that is what I had on hand though I would have preferred walnuts or pecans.   Actually for this crust recipe, any nuts will do—May I return to the beginning, The light is dimming, and the dream is too, The world and I, we are still waiting, Still hesitating, Any dream nut will do—though the nutritional optimum would be soaked/sprouted, raw nuts to reduce the anti-nutrients and encourage sprouting.  Funnily enough, the crust is pretty much the same recipe as what we call "dookies" in our household which are a healtheir/less processed version of Lara bars (aka pemmican/biltong/iron rations) which we started eating when we cut processed foods, wheat, dairy, sugar from our diets then had to give up when they (Lara bars) got bought out and started adding sweeteners and junk (brown rice syrup triggers major blood sugar/intolerant reactions in me).

I've recently learned the difference between true or ceylon cinnamon and cassia (commonly called saigon cinnamon); here, I'm using fair trade, organic, true ceylon cinnamon and it is zingy as all get out!  (I'm finding Indian spices to be zingier than the cultivars from Southeast Asia—hey, that Spice Trade was for a reason, eh?).  You can substitute cassia/saigon cinnamon and I will still be your friend.


For the filling, soaked raw nuts are the best.  No roasted nuts, because you will get nut butter, not the creamy almost milky flavor ya need for faux cheese.  I like raw macadamias because they only need to be soaked a few hours.  Raw cashews can be substituted however they take 1-2 days of soaking.

If necessary, you can substitute 1 tbs of gelatin (which is made from animal collagen and therefore not vegan, if you care) for the agar (made from seaweed) or leave out.  The agar gelatinizes at around room temperature so it helps keep structure at temps where coconut oil would melt.  Gelatin requires a lower temperature (i.e. refrigeration) to set.  You can also omit agar/gelatin, but keep it refrigerated.  Coconut oil has a melting point of 78 degrees F so it'll be very soft at room temperature (cf. butter & cream cheese have a melting point of 82.4 F.)

And because I'm lazy to make a new topping, I used what I had on hand--cocoa hazelnut spread (aka nutella-the-good-parts-version, as you wish!  Recipe forthcoming), my special  lilikoi butter and apple juice caramel.  Any fruit preserves or fresh fruit will do. 

Just a note that going sugar free over a long period of time resets one's sweet tolerance.  This is a very low sweet dessert which is perfect for me & mine.  Not that my beloveds have a choice.

Faux Cheezy-cake

Makes 13 cupcakes or one 8-inch pie

CRUST

• 2 cups nuts (unsalted best)
• 1/2 cup organic unsulfured apricots
• 1 tbs organic extra virgin coconut oil
• Pinch of himalayan sea salt
• 1/2 t ceylon cinnamon

FILLING

Agar powder
Can call all you want but there's no one home
And you're not gonna reach my telephone
Out in the club and I'm sippin' that bub
And you're not gonna reach my telephone 

• 2 cups raw macadamia nuts, soaked 2-4 hours
• 3/4 cup melted organic extra virgin coconut oil
• 1/4 cup apricot syrup
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 6 tbsp lemon juice (~ 1 lemon)
• 1 tsp agar powder dissolved in 1/4 c very very hot water
• pinch himalayan salt

TOPPING OPTIONS

• Lilikoi butter
• Apple juice caramel
• Cocoa hazelnut spread (recipe TBA)
• apricot syrup
• Fresh fruit plus 1 tsp agar powder, 1/2 cup boiling hot water & sweetener of choice

If you are using any refrigerated toppings, take it out of the fridge to let it come to room temperature.

CRUST

Line a 8-inch springform pan with parchment paper OR use a cupcake pan lined with cupcake liners.

Pulverize all the ingredients in a food processor until a coarse meal is formed.  Press into the pan firmly until you have 1/4 inch depth cupcakes or 1/3-1/2 inch depth for springform.

Leftover crust mix can be shaped into balls or bars and stored in the fridge and eaten as you would eat granola bars/energy bars.  (Dookies!)

FILLING

Blend all the ingredients in a food processor or a blender.  

Use a 2 oz cookie scoop to scoop it into the cupcake liners while it's still warm.  

TOPPING

Use room temperature topping if you have something that is unmalleable at refrigerated temperatures.  Coat the Faux Cheezy-cake or Faux Cheezy-cupcakes. 

If you are using fresh fruit and want a glee to hold the fruit: mix 1-2 tsp agar powder in boiling hot water until dissolved.  Add any sweetener.  Layer the cake with the fruit then pour the agar syrup on top while it's still very warm.  

Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Ăn Ngon Lành|Eat Delectably!

Faux Cheezy-cake with apricot syrup

Happy birthday Trung (and Đàn Tâm too)!

Nước rau má | Yo Mama's pennywort juice (Gotu Kola)

Word to Yo Mutha

Uống nước nhớ nguồn

Drink water, remember the source

Ơn Nghĩa Sinh Thãnh by my favorite Viet singer Hoàng Lan

In honor of Mother's Day, I'm posting a recipe for a beverage that your mother approved.

Rau má | "mother's herb"*--alias Centella asiatica, pennywort, gotu kola/mandukaparni (Ayurvedic), 崩大碗 ("chipped big bowl" TCM) not Lei Gong Teng/雷公藤 (important correction below)**  is a powerful herbal cure-all that has been called the "elixir of life."  (The many other names of pennywort throughout Asia.)

Apart from wound healing, the herb is recommended for the treatment of various skin conditions such as leprosy, lupus, varicose ulcers, eczema, psoriasis, diarrhoea, fever, amenorrhea, diseases of the female genitourinary tract and also for relieving anxiety and improving cognition. [Source]

"yo mama's so wise that Yoda calls her for advice"

Centella asiatica (rau má , pennywort, lei gong teng, gotu kola)

Influenced by Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine, in Viet folk medicine--which is based on humoral theory--the body is governed by gió mát (âm)|cooling winds (yin) and gió nóng (duơng)|hot winds (yang) humors.  In this folk medicine belief and practices, food is medicinal and is governed by these properties.  If your body is suffering from too much yang-heat, you consume yin-cooling foods and drinks to balance yourself to homeostasis.

Nước rau má is a popular juice made from a wetland medicinal herb native to Asia and is widely used in Ayurvedic, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and South African/Madagascar healing modalities.  It is considered a cooling drink in thuốc Nam | Viet folk medicine (versus thuốc Bắc or Chinese medicine).  

Rich with chlorophyll, vitamins, and minerals, rau má is mild adaptogen, is mildly antibacterial, anti-viral, anti-inflammatory, anti-ulcerogenic, anxiolytic, a cerebral tonic, a circulatory stimulant, a diuretic, nervine and vulnerary.  It's being researched as a potent anti-cancer medicine.

Active ingredients are asiaticoside (a triterpene glycoside) (triterpenoid), brahmoside and brahminoside (both saponin glycosides), madecassoside (a glycoside with strong anti-inflammatory properties), madecassic acid, thiamine, riboflavin, pyridoxine, vitamin K, asparate, glutamate, serine, threonine, alanine, lysine, histidine, magnesium, calcium and sodium. ... high concentration of thiamine (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2) and pyridoxine (vitamin B6).  (Source)

Though I've drank it throughout my life, I first
 encountered its folk medicinal purpose when I was doing ethnographic fieldwork in Vietnam in 2000.  Between my daily cà-phê sữa đá, chronic dehydration, and the tropical heat, inevitably I started to experience a mild urinary tract infection considered nóng | hot-yang in the the Viet folk system. Though I had brought all purpose international travel antibiotics (this is back when antibiotics were given out like candy), I was reluctant to use them.  My aunty (a real aunty, not the fictive kin that white anthropologists love to claim adopted them, not understanding that in kin-relational languages lacking a 2nd person pronoun like "YOU", if one is not kin, one doesn't exist; and since one can't not exist, one is assigned a kinship pronoun, not adopted.  If one was really adopted, one would have family obligations like getting random phone calls every few weeks to fix this that and the other and to cook/buy/make/deliver this that and the other for such and such relation even when one lives 500 miles away.  Not that I mind because I adore my phamily.  Ahem)--So my aunty ran out to the market and returned with a bunch of rau má.  With one glass, the infection was gone.

"

Shaken, not shtirred.

The other week, as I was suffering from some "hot wind" (...) and the heat wave, my MIL picked up some rau má at Vietnamese market for me.  The leaf is astringent tasting and the juice is not pleasant in and of itself. Typically this is served with a grip of sugar to counter the astringency.  Since I am low to no sugar, my MIL suggested coconut water as complementary cooling liquid.

Lacking fancier juice extraction equipment I used my handy dandy Cuisinart immersion blender (bought on clearance from Sur le table) to pulverise it with some water and then used a nut bag to strain it.  This left a little fine debris so next time I would use a cheesecloth instead.  I tried some as a straight shot.  Regretted it.  Gave some to my husband as a straight shot because I like to share the joy.  Haha.  Wish I took a photo of his face the moment it hit his tongue.  Tried some with Stannard Farms organic grade B maple syrup.  Then I remembered I had some with some Trader Joe's coconut water which was a vast improvement.  (I also have some fresh coconuts that I froze in the deep freeze--note: do not freeze coconuts ever again--but didn't have the patience to partially defrost them and macguyver a filtering system so that the semi cracked coconut didn't melt everywhere.) Then for the remainder, I just poured it into my daily, organic herbal infusion of red raspberry leaves, stinging nettle and red clover with a teaspoon of himalayan sea salt.  It's really quite uh, special.  The things one gets used to...  After lingering for a week and a half despite cranberry juice, bearberry/cranberry/mannose extract supplements up the wazoo (I haven't done antibiotics in over 14 yrs), my "hot wind" cleared up with 2 days of drinking rau má.

I recommend using coconut water to blend the rau má, fresh if you can source the young coconuts or use your preferred brand of the bottled/boxed kind.  The more coconut water you add, the more you dilute the astringency.

We've become so accustomed in our (post-) modern, consumer-driven society to consuming our nutrients in pill form as concentrated, isolated elements.  This is not how our biological systems optimally function.  It is best to get our nutrients from whole foods.  Prepared correctly within its cultural context/foodways, medicinal herbs are an excellent way to obtain these nutrients.  

Before you run off and start adding this to your chia-goji-quinoa-dragon fruit-blue green algae-superfood smoothie, keep in mind: Like any medicinal plant, pennywort is best to drink in moderation and not on a ongoing, daily basis. There is conflicting info about using this herb during pregnancy and breastfeeding mostly because no one has officially studied its use in mothers (this is true of most herbal remedies even when folk medicinal practices do condone it during the childbearing year).  Use your own common sense.

Straight up now tell me do you want to love me forever?  Woah oh oh! Or are you just having fun?

Word to the Mutha!

Aaaaaaand... I couldn't resist Mr. T's rap about yo mama.

*I'm not clear on the etymological/ethnobotanical origins of Rau má which translates as "mother's herb".  Some Western herbalists purport that it aids in breastfeeding.  I haven't heard of any mother-specific uses in Viet folk medicine, but then I've never investigated it.

** I've been informed by a careful reader that Lei Gong Gen | Thunder God Vine is actually a different TCM plant Tripterygium wilfordii that is mistakenly attributed as Pennywort and is toxic if not consumed properly.  Thanks, Hai for catching that!

Vegan Lilikoi Butter (GF/DF/SF)

Our phamily matriarch Aunty Len goes back to Hilo every year or so to visit her in-laws.  She always comes back with the best treats--homemade pickled baby mangoes, chocolate macadamia nuts (macadamias are my favorite thing ever!), and lilikoi (passionfruit) for making butter.  My daughter VL loveloveloves aunty Len's lilikoi butter.  And then one day, I googled the recipe and realized it has dairy (1/2 lb of butter!) and refined sugar!  Sometimes ignorance is bliss.  Sigh.

So I am finally getting around to making a dairy-free, refined sugar-free lilikoi butter.  I used this vegan lilikoi butter recipe but have substituted healthier, real food choices like unrefined sweetener and coconut cream concentrate.  (I have a reaction to agave in all its forms likely do to chemical contamination in the production which means alas, tequila is no longer my friend.  And agave syrup is not without its criticisms besides.)

I just bought the Tropical Traditions Organic Coconut Cream Concentrate and I'm excited to give it a try.  Previously Artisana Organic Coconut Butter has been a staple in our house.  You can google all the benefits of coconut, but from my experience, having a spoonful (or more) of coconut butter a day helped to restore my brain function, stabilize my blood sugar, and boosted my immune system.  I've just given the TT CCC a taste and it's more viscous, smoother and lighter than the Artisana.  I'm presuming the difference is the production; TT is produced in the Philippines from perhaps fresh or fresher, whole coconut.  Artisana is produced in Oakland I presume from dried whole coconut as it is a little denser (not a bad thing per se).  Both are delicious!

We don't eat very much GF bread, but I will have to crank out some paleo bread for the occasion.  

Previously I've made DF/SF apple juice caramel (essentially apple butter with a sexier name) and I forgot how long it takes to reduce.  I'm inclined against the lemon called for in the original recipe.  Usually it is added to fruit preserves to retain the color against oxidation.  Passionfruit is already so tart though that it pushes it even tarter which requires more sweetener to balance and still the tart lingers on your palate afterwards.  I've taken it out of the recipe but in case you are concerned about the aesthetics, add 1-2 squeezes of lemon.

Generally, sugar is added to the reduction process to carmelize and ergo thicken the preserves.  If you are using raw honey, put it after the reduction to retain all the nutrients and keep it from being cooked.  Apricot syrup can be added to the reduction as can palm sugar.  We are fairly low sweet so you should taste and add more/less sweetener to your taste.

I'm very pleased with the way this came out, especially the texture of the TT CCC which is very creamy & silky.  It's almost custard-like in consistency.  In the future, I'm thinking this calls for a classic Hawaiian POG variation--passion fruit, orange and guava.

This recipe has also been posted on Tropical Traditions website.

Vegan Lilikoi Butter (GF/DF/SF)

makes 1.5 cups

Ingredients:

• 18 oz lilikoi pulp*
• 1 cup Tropical Traditions Coconut Cream Concentrate (or substitute coconut butter)
• 6+ tbsp raw honey, apricot syrup, or coconut/palm sugar*

Simmer the lilikoi and apricot syrup or coconut/palm sugar in a small saucepan at the lowest heat setting until it is reduced by one-third to one-half (about 60 minutes depending on how hot your burner is).  Turn off the burner.  (A low boil would speed things up but I prefer a slow cook method.  You could also use a slow cooker to achieve the same purpose, but mine is clay and absorbs flavors so its savory smelling).

Stir in the CoCo Cream until dissolved.  If the CCC is solidified, dip a metal 1/4 cup measure into hot water and then scoop.  If using raw honey, add and mix.

Pour into sterilized half-pint jars.  Refrigerate one jar to eat right away.  Can the rest for later using the water bath method or freeze it.

Best served at room temperature as the coconut cream will solidify in the fridge.

* I found this in the freezer section of Mi Pueblo; more likely to be found in Latino-Carribean markets or Japanese-Hawaiian markets.  Give the package a quick rinse before opening to remove any residue, dirt, etc.

Ăn Ngon Lành|Eat Delectably!