Father's Day Dinner

For Father's Day yesterday, I wanted to make a special meal for my husband and family.  I selected new recipes that sounded interesting and a bit challenging.

I had read about Chicken Saltimbocca on a recent Weekend Cooking post.  I thought it would be perfect.  I searched around and found a version that sounded tasty.    I used the recipe from Canadian Living.

Smashed Potatoes were the perfect accompaniment.  I used a bag of small red potatoes, added oil to the pan, baked them in a 400F oven for 40 minutes.  Then smashed them kind of flat, and tossed them in additional oil.  I then baked them for another 20 minutes.  They could have used a bit longer to crisp up.

For dessert, a lovely Coconut Cream Pie. The recipe is by chef Lucy Waverman.  For many years I watched CityLine on tv and Lucy was a frequent guest.  Her recipes never really appealed to me as I found them to be far too rich and calorie laden.  I'm sure this one is no different.  But, I was making this with hubby's tastes in mind so I put on my blinders.

I can't find this recipe online, so will type it out for you.  Don't skip the toasted coconut on the top, as that's where most of the coconut taste comes from in my opinion.Recipe from the Early Summer 2011 issue of Food & Drink, a magazine from the LCBO

Coconut Cream Pie

Sweet Pastry Crust
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup icing sugar
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter
2 large egg yolks
2 tbsp cold water

Filling
2/3 cups sugar
2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp kosher salt
2 1/2 cups coconut milk
4 large eggs
3 tbsp unsalted butter,cut into small pieces
1/2 cut desiccated unsweetened coconut (I used sweetened)
1 cup coconut flakes, toasted
1 cup whipping cream

1. Combine flour, icing sugar and salt in a bowl.  stir to combine.  Add butter to flour mixture and cut in with pastry blender until butter is the size of small peas. 

2. Beat egg yolks and water together and add enough into flour mixture to bring dough together.  Gather dough into a ball, wrap in plastic and chill for 20 minutes or until firm.

3. Roll out pastry on a lightly floured surface to fit a 9 x 1 inch tall tart pan with a removable bottom.  Place tart shell in freezer and freeze for 30- minutes or until firm. (I used a 10 inch pan, and didn't bother chilling my dough first. I patted it into the pan instead of rolling.)

4. Preheat over to 400F.

5. Line tart shell with foil and fill with pie weights.  Bake for 15 minutes or until pastry edge is set.  Remove foil and weights.  Prick base of pastry with a fork and bake for 8 to 10 minutes longer or until pastry is cooked through.  Set aside to cool.

6. Whisk together sugar, flour, cornstarch and salt in a medium-size heavy pot.  Whisk in coconut milk and eggs until uniform.

7. Place pot over medium heat and cook stirring constantly for 5 to 8 minutes or until mixture comes to the boil.  Boil 1 minute and remove from heat.  If mixture looks like it has lumps just keep cooking and the lumps with release.

8.  Whisk in butter and pass custard mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl.  Stir in desiccated coconut.  Press plastic wrap down onto the top of the custard to prevent a skim from forming and let cool to room temperature. ( I found the custard appeared to be grainy, but it was a soft type of grain you couldn't feel with your tongue.  To me this custard didn't taste at all like coconut).

9. Add half of toasted coconut to pie base.  Spoon filling into prepared crust.  Press a sheet of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pie and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or until filling is firm.  Remove plastic wrap.  Whip cream until it forms firm peaks, and pipe lines of cream over pie.  Pipe rosettes, if desired. Garnish with remaining toasted coconut.  (I added a spoon of sugar and a 1/2 tsp of coconut essence to the cream before whipping).

My husband loved the pie.  I thought it didn't taste enough like coconut and I would have liked a smoother texture.  I did try and choose a lighter coconut milk, though I didn't get the lightest one available.  That might have affected the texture.  I did purchase a new pie pan to make this.  It is my first with a removable bottom.  What a terrific idea.  It was so easy to cut and serve, and it had a lovely ruffled  flutted edge to the pie shell.  Next I need to buy a new large pastry bag, mine is just too old and blew out the side seam.

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads.  Be sure to visit and check out all the foodie posts.