Asian-themed supper club - dessert?

My husband & I go to a supper club that meets at a different host's home every month. We've have been really lucky to meet so many great friends through the club. The host usually makes the main dish and the guests bring the rest. January's hosts chose an asian theme and made pad thai. The others brought lots of great food - gyozas, coconut chicken, spring rolls and lumpia. I could fill up on just the appetizers! Everything was delicious!

I thought that we might be missing dessert so I thought I'd make a dish that my husband always loved at a Thai restaurant in Hattiesburg, MS. I remember how excited we were to hear that Hattiesburg had gotten its first Thai place, Suwanna's. One night soon after, we ventured out to see if it would have all our favorite dishes. They had most of them and everything we ate was very good. My husband decided to try their dessert, coconut rice with mango. Since we moved, we've gone to lots of Thai places and he always looks for that dessert. He has never found THE ONE that matches Suwanna's.

I thought that this might be the perfect opportunity to try to recreate the recipe. I found one on the internet that sounds similar. Here are the results:



I made a few changes and I thought it matched the Suwanna's dessert pretty well, although not exactly. Maybe it always tastes better the first time.

1 1/4 cups raw sticky rice (sweet or glutinous rice). Use Thai sticky rice if possible. (I used sticky rice like that you'd use for sushi.)
3/4 cup very thick coconut milk for mixing with rice (do not shake the coconut milk can before opening. Spoon out only the thick part that's usually on top)
1/4 cup sugar

For topping:
3/4 cup very thick coconut milk for topping the rice (freeze the rest of the coconut milk for other use later)
1/8 tsp salt for the topping
2 Tbsp. sugar

1/2 tbsp salt for mixing with rice
6 medium mangoes -- peeled and sliced

Directions:

Wash and rinse the sticky rice well. Add enough water to the rice so until the water is about 1/4" above the rice surface. Cook rice in an automatic rice cooker or in a bowl in a steamer. Do not open the rice until fully cooked (about 20-25 mins).
Heat, on low, 3/4 cup of coconut milk in a small saucepan. Add sugar and 1/2 tbsp salt to the coconut milk and cook until dissolved. Remove from heat and pour into cooked rice. Stir to mix well and set aside to let stand for about 15 mins.

Sauce for topping
Heat the rest of coconut milk and add salt.
Stir until the salt is dissolved.
This makes the topping sauce.

To serve, place sliced mangoes on a side of a serving disk. Spoon some seasoned sticky rice on the other side. Top the rice with 1 or 2 tsp of coconut sauce and serve.
Makes about 6 servings.

I made three times as much for the club and I didn't find any problems in adapting the recipe to the group. I think most people liked it. I find it a heavy dessert that is best served with a lighter main dish.

Recipe Credit: Asiarecipe.com

Tapas

I have been wanting to try my hand at two things that I generally avoid in the kitchen: dough and the fryer. I have had too many instances where I tried to make pie crust, bread or really dough of any kind, which have resulted in disaster. I've resorted to buying pie crusts ready-made for fear of repeating past mistakes. The other is the deep fryer. I'm convinced that I will either burn myself, dinner or the entire house. So, when my neighbor told me that she'd found a fool-proof fryer, easy to use and clean and that I could borrow it if I wanted to see for myself, I decided to be brave and try it.

My friend was having a birthday party with a Spanish theme. Lots of small plates. She said that we were welcomed to bring a little something, if we were interested. I decided to try making empanadas. This would force me to face two of my fears in the kitchen and it wasn't so bad after all. In fact, it was fun and the results were really yummy!

I got the recipe from allrecipes.com. Here is the link. As far as I can tell, the recipe is Argentinian, but I'm not sure. I left out the hard-boiled eggs because I don't really like them..with beef. This recipe makes a lot. I think that I made 45 empanadas! You should definitely try it!

Tips:

Use a lot of flour on your rolling pin and surface so the dough doesn't stick.
Get a pair of metal tongs to use to flip your empanadas after 1-2 minutes in the fryer.
I don't think that the recipe mentions it but you may want to close your empanadas by pressing the edges with a fork.
My neighbor's deep fryer is a GE Deep Fryer Model # 169168. Very easy to use and clean!