Went to Surfas in LA - what should I do with these?
I was down in LA last week and hit Surfas (https://www.surfasonline.com/index.cfm). I came home with a bag full of fun stuff, including a few items I grabbed just because they looked interesting.
So I need your help. What would you do with these?:
- dried epazote
- powdered coconut milk (beyond the obvious of reconstituting it to make coconut milk).
- a jar of palm sugar
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3 Comments:
The first thing that came to mind with the palm sugar is pad thai.
Cassaendra at 10:39AM on 06/08/08
I'd put the dried epazote into a pot of beans that are being cooked to accompany Mexican food. Epazote has an interesting (some say metallic) flavor that goes well with beans (and supposedly reduces the gas-inducing properties of the beans). You could also sprinkle some on the filling of a cheese quesadilla before you cook it. (epazote is pretty easy to grow in a container. Try as I might, I can't seem to kill mine.)
The palm sugar is best used in a place where you can really taste it, like the palm sugar coconut sauce at tutti foodie. You might find some other uses in the desserts section of a Malaysian, Thai or Indonesian cookbook. Alice Medrich's amazing "Pure Desserts" cookbook probably also has some recipes that highlight the flavor of the palm sugar.
Marc at 11:30AM on 06/08/08
The palm sugar, and maybe even the coconut, could be used in tapioca (pearl, not instant). I've made it with coconut milk in place of water -- top with tropical fruit.
kjgibson at 1:17PM on 06/08/08