carrot and coconut bars

 

sorry for the quiet blog, i’ve been in bed ill and not cooking, eating or doing very much at all as a result. however, despite feeling dreadful, these little lovelies caught my attention. or to be more precise, the smell of them cooking did – david knocked up a batch for his colleagues at work and the smell of buttery, cinnamony coconut made my mouth water whilst i lay in bed feeling sorry for myself!

i managed to snaffle one and they instantly went onto my list of new favourite things. there is so much to like about them - the crust is slightly chewy, the cinnamon, coconut and walnut combination works really well (i forget how much i like walnuts in a cake), and there is enough dried fruit and carrot that you can pretend it is a healthy snack.

discovering these is perfect timing as i’m getting a little bored of the multiseed peanut butter flapjacks that i make most weeks as a lunch-box treat. i also fancy tinkering with the recipe – the types of fruit and nuts are obviously easy to swap but i think grated pear or apple might also be worth a try. plus a bit of orange zest. and i really should find out more about using something like apple puree to reduce the fat and sugar content – who knows, maybe i will be able to justify these as a weekly treat!

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daring cooks: chickpea dosas with coconut curry sauce

 

i’m loving being part of the daring cooks! so far we have made spanish rice with allioli, fish with powders, crab potstickers and ricotta gnocchi which is, i think, an impressive range of dishes and techniques to try out.

this month’s challenge, courtesy of debyi from the healthy vegan kitchen, is vegan indian dosas, using a recipe adapted from the refresh cookbook by ruth tal.

debyi provided us with recipes for the dosas (an indian pancake), a curried chickpea filling and a coconut curry sauce. having eaten dosas at a number of restaurants i was keen to try making my own.

so, how did i get on?

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beef and tomato rendang

 

one of my new year’s resolutions was to cook a broader range of international dishes. curries were top of my mind a few weeks ago when i was sorting through the mound of recipes that i have cut out of newspapers and magazines, downloaded or scribbled on scraps of paper.

i pulled out several to try but it was a couple of recipes for rendang that jumped out at me. rendang is a curry that originated in indonesia but is also popular in malaysia and singapore. the combination of coconut milk with tamarind paste, the sour fruit pulp that adds an interesting layer of flavour, was too appealing to resist.

i made this curry a few days before we ate it and i’d suggest you do the same as this really allows the flavours to meld. the flavour is rich with the different spices but lightened by the acidic tang that the tamarind adds.

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