The Cookbook Story
Raglan Coconut Yoghurt is the baby of Mr and Mrs Coconut and even though it’s not even two years old yet, it’s taken New Zealand by storm and everyone seems to love the white gold. Although, their current popularity belies the struggles they encountered in the early days.
‘The Bank’ was a swear word in the coconut household as they tried to get funding for a new kitchen which they desperately needed as demand for their yoghurt increased. But they were not to be put off. They put their creative heads together and looked for other ways to raise funds.
What transpired was a collaboration with some top kiwi chefs and foodies who came up with recipes – all (yep – you guessed it) celebrating their love for the coconut in it’s many different forms. And so The Coconut Cookbook was launched as an e-book in June last year.
The Chefs
It’s a great little collection of recipes from a really interesting group of chefs including Kelly Gibney from Bonnie Delicious and Eleanor Ozich from The Petite Kitchen. I was quite surprised (in a good way of course…) to find Mr Art Green in there too who is a lover of coconut in all its forms – he calls it ‘the nut of a thousand uses’…! I enjoyed reading about all the chefs – there is a little intro about each of them before their recipes. And the recipes themselves offer some great ideas for people wanting to expand their cooking repertoire to include coconut – and indeed for those who need to exclude certain things like dairy.
There is a range to suit everyone including 6 sweet and 5 savoury recipes. They all looked amazing but I chose to try a few of the savoury ones and a few more of the sweet ones…!!
The Recipes
The Raglan Coconut Yoghurt Dressing by Jimmy Boswell was a cinch to make, but unfortunately my normally abundant supply of chives had been overtaken with bugs…so I subbed in coriander. It worked a treat and was delicious with pulled pork and a beetroot and carrot salad. I think this would also make an excellent accompaniment for a spicy curry.
The Paleo Savoury Muffins by Kelly Gibney were….awesome! One of the favourites. I’d never cooked with coconut flour before – and indeed have never made paleo muffins, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect.
The muffins were really easy to make; once the carrots and cheese have been grated, it’s just a question of mixing everything together gently before spooning into muffin tins. I used carrots instead of sweet potato simply because that’s what I had (you see I use my culinary license a lot…) and they worked perfectly.
The texture of the muffins was light – more like a cake than a scone and they were super tasty with a nice spike from the cayenne pepper. The kids loved them too and they made great lunchbox treats. I will definitely be making these again!
The sweet recipes I tried were the Raspberry Coconut Frozen Yoghurt by Sunniva Holt, the Coconut Oil Shortbread with Lemon and Rosemary by Eleanor Ozrich and the Raspberry, Coconut and Pear Cake with a Raspberry Glaze by Jordan Rondel (aka The Caker).
The frozen yoghurt was yum. Creamy coconut yoghurt whipped up with frozen bananas topped with more creamy coconut yoghurt blended with frozen raspberries…….. what’s not to love..??!! My children do not know how lucky they are to be the chief samplers in our kitchen.
That Cake….
BUT the star of the show was…..That Cake. No coconut flour here, but spelt flour instead and a generous helping of RCY.
There is also quite a lot of fruit in this cake – 2 whole pears and a cup of raspberries (I used blackberries…..just because!). But I love all this fruit as it helps keep the cake moist and sweet without needing too much sugar.
The method is pretty traditional where the butter and sugar is creamed before adding the eggs gradually and then folding in the dry ingredients. The amount of cake mix you end up with looks small….but when all the fruit is added it bulks up. The recipe calls for a bundt tin but I don’t have one of those so I used a normal 21cm loose bottomed cake tin which worked fine. I just had to cook the cake for longer to make sure the middle was baked through.
A glaze goes onto the cake while it’s still warm and when it’s cooled…the best part – decorating! I followed the recipe here and used pistachio nuts, freeze dried raspberries and toasted coconut flakes to top the cake and I think it looks stunning. The whole family was really impressed…the children could hardly believe what the kitchen had produced…! This would make a great celebration cake as it looks so amazing, but is relatively simple to make – we’re onto a winner.
Get Your Copy
Now, as a fund raiser this project didn’t quite work out how Mr and Mrs Coconut had originally planned. However, what they’ve ended up with is a pretty cool little recipe book for admirers of the coconut everywhere. I had great fun reading it and trialing some of the recipes. I have not used coconut flour or coconut sugar before so it made a great intro to these ingredients for me.
Whether you are already in love with coconut or totally new to it, this book will give you some great ideas about how to use it in its many different forms and some insights into why modern kiwi chefs can’t live without it.
Get your own copy of The Coconut Cookbook from the Raglan Coconut Yoghurt website here.
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