Lee White

I am going to a dinner party next Saturday evening in Madison. There may be 12 people. I may have met half of them. Most are flying in to see their daughter and son-in-law in their new house into which they moved just three weeks ago.

The last time I moved, it took me months to unpack boxes, never mind ready to host a dinner party in less than a month. And many of the invitees are flying in from Florida and Pennsylvania and will be staying for a few extra days in their house. I probably wouldn’t have been able to find the boxes of sheets and towels. 

In any case, as I am one of the locals who will be at the dinner party, I told Lisa I would make the dessert. Although the age range of the visitors run from 20 to 80, and assuming no one is lactose-intolerant or on a diet, this gorgeous and luscious dessert will feed 12 and still looks pretty a day or two. It is, in a way, a flan, but the chewy coconut does more than just feel like snowdrops on one’s tongue.

I will also make some little cookies, maybe shortbread, to those who don’t much care for flan.  

Caramelized Coconut Budino
Adapted from More Cooking in the Wine Country by Joanne Weir (Simon and Schuster, New York, 2001)

Yield: Serves 8

2 ½ cups very finely grated sweetened coconut
2 cups sugar, divided
8 eggs
3 cups whole milk
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Have ready an 8-inch round cake pan and a larger one in which to place the 8-inch cake pan. 

Place coconut on a baking sheet and bake in the oven until light golden, tossing occasionally, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool slightly. Place in food processor and pulse until finely ground. Reserve. Increase oven temperature to 375 degrees.

In a large, heavy stainless-steel frying pan, melt 1 cup of the sugar over medium heat. Do not stir with a spoon; instead, swirl the pan to melt the sugar uniformly. Cook until sugar starts to turn golden brown. Immediate remove the pan from the heat and pour mixture into the 8-inch round cake pan, turning the pan so the caramel coats the bottom and sides. Set it aside.

Whisk eggs together in a bowl. Add the remaining 1 cup of sugar, the milk, coconut and flour and stir together until well mixed.

Pour coconut mixture into the caramel-lined, pan, and place in a larger pan. Pour boiling water into the larger pan to a depth of 1 inch. Bake in the oven until set and a skewer goes into the center and comes out clean, 55 to 65 minutes.

Remove can pan from the larger pan and let it sit for 10 minutes. Then invert the coconut budino onto a serving plate and serve.

About the author: Lee White has been writing about restaurants and cooking since 1976 and has been extensively published in the Worcester (Mass.) Magazine, The Day, Norwich Bulletin, and Hartford Courant. She currently writes Nibbles and a cooking column called A La Carte for LymeLine.com and the Shore Publishing and the Times newspapers, both of which are owned by The Day. She was a resident of Old Lyme for many years but now lives in Groton, Conn. Contact Lee at leeawhite@aol.com.

Lee White

What do you do on a Sunday when there is nearly three feet of snow on your front door? Obviously, the meteorologists were right this time …

Is there enough food in my house to keep me a day or two from starvation?

Sure, there is.

But what would I be in the mood for?

Yes, my friends, I had stocked up on produce with what I wanted to cook: three different soups. I also made tiramisu on Sunday, just because I happened to have mascarpone in the refrigerator and, while milk chocolate was not in any supermarket, I have some Ghirardelli cocoa mix in the pantry, too.

Amid all the produce, I bought a sweet potato bigger than my shoe size, a seven. Tonight, I am making a soup to finish up the coconut milk I used yesterday. You may, as I did, forget the parsley relish, since I am out of fresh parsley.

Sweet Potato-Coconut Soup with Spice Relish

Adapted from a recipe by Bobby Flay in September 12, 2010 issue of Parade magazine
Yield: 4 to 6 portions

Spicy Relish
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
pinch of red-pepper flakes
½ small sweet potato, peeled and cut into a small dice
salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Sweet Potato-Coconut Soup
1 ½ tablespoons canola oil
1 small red onion, chopped
2-inch piece of fresh ginger, grated (ginger gums up your Microplane; cut in tiny dice instead)
pinch of red-pepper flakes
3 cups homemade chicken stock (out of my own, I used the store-bought, low-sodium broth)
½ cup water
1 ½ pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into large dice
1 ½ cups unsweetened coconut milk
1 tablespoon honey
large pinch of ground cinnamon

For relish, heat oil and butter over medium heat. Add red-pepper flakes; heat for 10 seconds. Add diced sweet potato, salt and pepper to taste. Cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until softened, 15 minutes. Uncover, increase heat to high and cook until diced potatoes are golden brown, 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and stir in parsley.

For soup, heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and ginger; cook until soft, 5 minutes. Add red-pepper flakes and cook for 30 seconds. Add stock and water, bring to a boil. Add sweet potatoes, bring to a simmer. Cook until potatoes are soft, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool for 20 to 25 minutes.

Transfer mixture to a blender and process until smooth. Return to saucepan; simmer over low heat. Whisk in coconut milk, honey and cinnamon. Cook until thickened and warmed through. Season with salt and pepper.

Ladle into bowls, top with a spoonful of a spicy relish.

About the author: Lee White has been writing about restaurants and cooking since 1976 and has been extensively published in the Worcester (Mass.) Magazine, The Day, Norwich Bulletin, and Hartford Courant. She currently writes Nibbles and a cooking column called A La Carte for LymeLine.com and the Shore Publishing and the Times newspapers, both of which are owned by The Day. She was a resident of Old Lyme for many years but now lives in Groton, Conn. Contact Lee at leeawhite@aol.com.

Lee White

I used to wonder about people who won’t go out if the weather is crappy, especially if it is snowing. I grew up where there is snow most days from mid-November until the end of March. I don’t remember having any snow days, but maybe we did.

In any case, I never saw a school bus and, to this day, I have never been on one. From kindergarten until junior high school (now called middle school), I walked to school, came back for lunch, then back to the school until it was time to go home. Walking.

My parents decided, after junior high school, that I would go to a different (but still public) high school. It was about seven miles from our house, so my father drove to school every morning. After school, I walked through RPI, down gazillion steps (called The Approach) into the city, then often took a town bus home.

And this was before 4-wheel, or all-wheel-drive, cars. I can still hear the sound of chains on the tires of cars and buses. Today I can’t imagine not having an all-wheel-drive car.

I also can’t imagine not going out if I want to make something for which I don’t have in my freezer, refrigerator or pantry. But when I went to bed last night, I thought I’d wake to snow or ice or heavy rain; I knew I had the shrimp, the rice and most everything except a bulb of fennel and the arugula.

Had I decided I wouldn’t go out in the crappy weather (I am one of those people, these days), I would use some fresh parsley and leave out the fennel. As it turned out, it was 47 degrees, had not snowed and there was not a chance of freezing rain.

A quick trip to the market and I had all the ingredients for this luscious entrée. And, by the way, it will be almost as good in the microwave the next day.  

Lemony Shrimp and Risotto
Adapted from Giada De Laurentiis

5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (divided)
2 teaspoon kosher salt (I use sea salt), divided
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
1 pound extra-large shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 small fennel bulb, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 small onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 large clove garlic, smashed and peeled and chopped
1 cup arborio rice (about 6 ½ ounces)
¼ cup dry white wine
3 cups low-sodium chicken broth, plus more if needed
¼ cup fresh lemon juice (from 1 large lemon)
Zest of 1 large lemon
3 cups arugula

Yield: 4 servings

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add shrimp and sprinkle with ½ teaspoons salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Cook until shrimp is just opaque in the center, about 3 minutes. Remove pan from the heat. Transfer shrimp and juices to a bowl to cool.

Add remaining 3 tablespoons oil to the pan. Add fennel and onions. Cook until tender, about 4 minutes. Add garlic and cook until aromatic, 30 seconds. Add wine.

Cook until wine is absorbed, stirring often, about 2 minutes. Add broth, lemon juice, zest and remaining salt and pepper. Increase heat and bring to a boil, stirring often.

Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer until rice is just tender, but still has some chew and the risotto is creamy, stirring often, 13 to 14 minutes.

Mix in arugula. Stir until arugula wilts, about 30 seconds. Add shrimp. Mix in additional broth, if needed, ¼ cup at a time, until risotto is creamy.

Spoon risotto into 4 shallow soup bowls.

About the author: Lee White has been writing about restaurants and cooking since 1976 and has been extensively published in the Worcester (Mass.) Magazine, The Day, Norwich Bulletin, and Hartford Courant. She currently writes Nibbles and a cooking column called A La Carte for LymeLine.com and the Shore Publishing and the Times newspapers, both of which are owned by The Day. She was a resident of Old Lyme for many years but now lives in Groton, Conn. Contact Lee at leeawhite@aol.com.