Spring Vegetable Macaroni and Cheese

Here in the northwest we have begun to see a warming trend and spring is here. Although it rains a lot in this area, there are so many wonderful things that spring brings to us and one of them is asparagus! 

Asparagus is one of my favorite spring vegetables. I love how versatile it is in many different dishes. This is a dish I created from an idea my sister in law had when we were both looking at a recent issue of Bon Appetit magazine. The original recipe was a spring vegetable and cheese dip, however my sister in law said it would make a great macaroni and cheese dish. I took this idea and turned it into a wonderful side dish for our Easter dinner. It can also be served as a main dish alongside a fresh salad. I adapted the recipe slightly to make it into a casserole. I hope you enjoy this fresh dish just as much as we all did!

Spring Vegetable Macaroni and Cheese:

Makes 10-12 servings.

Ingredients: 

1 pound package whole wheat penne pasta


1 cup of 3/4 inch pieces of asparagus

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup chopped leeks, white and pale green parts only

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups whole milk

1 cup grated mild white cheddar

kosher salt to taste

freshly ground black pepper to taste

14 ounce can of artichoke hearts in water, drained and chopped

1/4 cup peas

2 tablespoons each chopped: fresh chives, mint and flat leaf parsley

4 ounces crumbled fresh goat cheese, divided

1. Preheat oven to 450F. 

2.  Cook the penne pasta according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

3. Cook asparagus in a large pot of boiling salted water until crisp tender, about 2 minutes. Drain, let cool. 

4. Melt 2 tablespoons unsalted butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add 1 cup chopped leeks and cook, stirring often, until soft, about 10 minutes. 

5. Whisk in all purpose flour; gradually whisk in whole milk. Bring to a simmer, whisking constantly.  Cook, whisking occasionally until thickened; remove from heat. 

6. Add the mild white cheddar; whisk until cheese is melted and mixture is smooth. Season to taste with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Fold in asparagus (reserve tips for the top of the dish); chopped artichoke hearts, peas, fresh herbs and 2 ounces of the crumbled goat cheese. 

6. Mix the pasta with the cheese sauce mixture. Transfer this mixture into a 13x9 oven-safe casserole dish; arrange asparagus tips on top and dot with another 2 ounces of the crumbled goat cheese. 

7. Bake the casserole until golden brown and bubbling, 15-20 minutes. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving. 

Fresh Coconut Layer Cake

I made this four layer sky high fresh coconut cake for a special March birthday celebration for my husband Paul, my mom and my dear cousin. It was so much fun to make and even better to eat! I simply adore coconut! I cannot seem to get enough coconut and I am always after the best coconut recipes! I think I have finally found my ultimate coconut cake and I will search no further!

I had fun combining recipes and adding my ideas to how a coconut cake should be. I love that in this cake there is a lot of coconut in every element, not just in the topping or in the frosting.  I hope that you give this recipe a try for your next special party. 


This recipe took a village to create! I had the help of my brother, dad and mom to crack the coconuts, extract the coconut milk, extract the coconut meat and shred it. We found that you can use a Kitchen aide stand mixer fine shredder attachment to shred the coconut in place of a box grater which saves a lot of time. 

 

This recipe is made from 3 different recipes. The cake recipe comes from a Gourmet Magazine, the cooked coconut filling is adapted from an online recipe I found as well as the coconut buttercream icing. 

Fresh Coconut Layer Cake: 


Note: This cake can be made into three 9-inch layers or four 8-inch layers.

Ingredients: 

For the Coconut:

3 fresh coconuts, coconut meat finely shredded and coconut milk reserved

1/4 cup sugar

For the Cake:

3 1/3 cups sifted cake flour (sift before measuring)

1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon pure almond extract
2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar, divided
1 cup fresh coconut, shredded
7 large egg whites, at room temperature

**Preheat the oven to 350F.

1. Pierce the softest eye of each coconut with a small screwdriver and collect liquid in 2 separate bowls to sample. If either tastes rancid, discard that coconut and start over with another. Strain liquid from 2 coconuts through a dampened-paper-towel-lined sieve into a 1 cup measure and set coconuts aside. You should have about 3/4 cup liquid. If not, add water.

2. Make the coconut syrup. Bring the coconut milk to a simmer in a small saucepan along with the 1/4 cup sugar and a pinch of salt, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Cool and reserve.

3. Break open coconuts with a hammer. Extract the coconut meat and peel away the brown membrane with a vegetable peeler. Grate the coconut finely with a box grater or with a grater attachment on your stand mixer. With the three coconuts I had I ended up with over 5 cups of coconut. This is plenty to make the cake, the filling and have lots left over to decorate the cake with.

4. Make the cake layers. Butter the cake pans, then line the bottom of each pan with a round of parchment paper and butter the parchment. Flour pans, knocking out excess flour.

5. Sift together flour, baking powder, coconut and salt.

6. Sift together milk and extracts.

7. Beat butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. At low speed, add flour mixture in 3 batches alternately with milk mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture and mixing until each addition is just incorporated.

8. Beat egg whites in another large bowl with cleaned beaters at medium speed until they just hold soft peaks. Beat in the remaining 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, then beat just until whites hold stiff, glossy peaks. Stir one third of whites into batter, then fold in remaining whites gently but thoroughly.

9. Spread batter evenly in pans and rap pans on counter several times to eliminate air bubbles. Place half of the pans on the upper rack and half on the lower rack and bake 20 minutes. Switch positions of the pans and bake until golden and a wooden pick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean, 10 to 15 minutes more. Cool cakes in pans on racks for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edges of pans and invert cakes onto racks. Discard parchment and cool completely- about 1 hour. After my cake layers had cooled I wrapped them in plastic wrap and put them in the refrigerator until I was ready to assemble the cake.

For the Filling:

2-3 cups fresh coconut, shredded
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a medium saucepan.

2. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the mixture thickens.

3. Adjust the amount of coconut and milk to achieve the your desired thickness.

4. Let cool until you are ready to assemble the cake.

For the Buttercream Icing:

1 ¼ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
5 cups powdered sugar
8 Tbsp. coconut milk from the fresh coconuts
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon coconut extract

1. With an electric mixer, whip butter until smooth.

2. Gradually add the powdered sugar in small batches, alternating with coconut milk. Blend well between each addition.

3. Stir in the vanilla.

Assembling the Cake:

1. Place 1 cake layer on a cake stand or plate. With a pastry brush, brush the top and sides of the cake layer with the coconut milk syrup. Top the cake layer with a generous portion of the cooked coconut filling. Top the layer with another cake layer and repeat until you come to the top layer. Make sure to flip over the top cake layer so that the flat side of the cake is facing up. 

2. Spread a generous crumb coating of frosting on the top and sides of the cake. Smooth the frosting using a long metal spatula or a bench scraper. Once the cake is covered in a crumb coat of frosting, place it in the freezer for about 20-30 minutes to set. 

3. Once the crumb coat of frosting is set, take the cake out of the freezer. Frost the cake with a generous layer of frosting on the top and sides, using your spatula or bench scraper to smooth it out. Sprinkle the top and sides with the remaining fresh coconut. 

Enjoy your cake!

Cinnamon Infused Mexican Rice Pudding

I think that very often I feel compelled to cook! I always love to have a cooking or baking project in the works and I cannot stop thinking of new ideas or ways to change recipes to make them even better. This rice pudding is a prime example of that.

Last week as I knew I was going to make some Mexican food for dinner I decided to make some rice pudding to go with it. Looking at one of my favorite tried and true Mexican cookbooks has inspired me to try more of the recipes in this book and others and to add my own spin to them.

I changed this rice pudding by cutting down the recipe quite a bit to make a smaller amount of pudding and intensified the flavors by keeping the original amount of cinnamon in the recipe. I love how the pudding is infused with cinnamon flavor!


This recipe is adapted from my well worn copy of "The Taste of Mexico" by Patricia Quintana.

Yields: about 8 small servings- of about 1/4 to 1/2 cup each.

Ingredients:

1 quart + 2/3 cup water or 4 2/3 cups water, divided

3/4 cup unconverted long grain white rice

2 cups scalded milk

1 cup evaporated milk

1 cup sugar

2 sticks cinnamon, each about 3 inches long

1/4 cup raisins (optional)


1. Place half of the water in a small saucepan. Place the other half of the water in a larger saucepan.

2. Bring water to a boil in the small saucepan. Remove from heat and add rice. Let the mixture stand for 20 minutes. Rinse the rice well, and drain. Set aside.

3. Bring the remaining water to a boil in the larger saucepan, and add rice. Boil uncovered for a maximum of 30 minutes or until the rice is tender. Be careful not to overcook. Drain off excess water. Set aside the rice.

4. Mix scalded milk (to scald the milk you can heat it till it is warm to the touch in a saucepan or heat it for a minute or two in the microwave). with the evaporated milk, sugar and cinnamon sticks in a medium saucepan. Cook for about 45 minutes or until mixture thickens and begins to change color. Add the rice and raisins if using. Cook for another 40 minutes or so until the pudding thickens. I probably let my pudding cook down for 50 minutes or more. Remove from heat, and stir from time to time until the pudding cools thoroughly.

I love the creamy texture and the cinnamon flavor in this pudding! Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Oat Scones

Welcome to my very first post on The Tested Recipe. I am a collector of cookbooks, recipe cards, recipes cut out of magazines, online recipes and more! I love to try new recipes and also tweak them slightly to fit the type of result I am looking for. I hope to share with you my recipes and ideas for healthy and delicious living here!

I also have another blog that I share with my mom Serena called Soup to Nuts Almanac. In that blog we started sharing our gardening adventures as well as other pursuits. I realized that especially in the off season I was taking over the blog with my recipes! So, I have decided that I needed a separate blog to talk about my culinary pursuits. I will still post ocasionally on Soup to Nuts Almanac about gardening projects and family news.

This year I realized that I wanted to pursue my culinary career by starting a personal chef business focusing on using local produce and ingredients. In the next year or so I will be preparing for this adventure which I will share with you in this blog. For about four years I had a small baking business that I ran along with my mom and sister in law called "Farmer's Tea." Many of our pastries were seasonal and we featured local and in season ingredients in our scones, pies and cakes. I want to combine what I learned from this experience with my love of cooking and baking to create a chef service that brings joy and health to my community. In this blog I share a whole grain recipe that I created recently that will surely be featured in my future personal chef menus!

Scones are some of my favorite pastries! I love how soft and buttery and creamy they can be! The other day I decided to create a whole grain version of the cream scones that were very popular at the farmer's market stand that I used to run with my mom and sister in law. The whole wheat pastry flour makes these scones very soft and the butter melts as they bake which makes them very tasty!

These scones are great served with soup on a cold day or at breakfast with soft butter and jam.

Enjoy these scones hot from the oven today!

Yield: 12 small scones

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup old fashioned rolled oats + extra for sprinkling on top of the scones
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
11 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup whole milk + extra for brushing on top of the scones before baking

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with a sheet of parchment paper.

2. Blend whole wheat pastry flour, all purpose flour, oats, sugar and baking powder in a bowl using a wire whisk. Add butter and cut in using a fork or a pastry blender. The mixture will resemble a coarse meal.

3. Make a well in the center of the dry mixture and add the milk in the well. Mix with a wooden spoon or a spatula. Stir just until moist.

4. Transfer this very soft and sticky dough to a lightly floured surface and gently knead until smooth, about 8 turns.

5. Divide dough in half; pat each portion into a 3/4 inch thick round. Cut each round into 6 wedges and transfer them to the prepared baking sheet, spacing them 1 inch apart. Brush the tops of the rounds with some milk and top the rounds with a sprinkling of rolled oats.

6. Bake the scones until light brown, about 10-15 minutes- up to 20 minutes. Some of the butter will melt during baking but it makes the scones very moist.

Enjoy these and savor every moment!