Thursday, January 13, 2011

Tropical Tradition's Coconut Oil



 I got this beauty of a jar in the mail shortly before Christmas. A big thank you goes out to Tropical Traditions! I've been thinking about what I wanted to do first with my big hunka-hunka jar of good for the heart coconut oil...only because there are sooooOOOOOOO many things you can make with it.

I was literally on the computer for hours learning all of the different ways you can incorporate coconut oil into your diet. And who would have known that it's so food for you?!? Not I. My husband and I decided to make coconut rice based off of the recipe we found on the Tropical Traditions website.

The only reason we didn't follow it to the "T" was because we were lacking in a few items.
On the menu for the evening was:

Blackened Mahi Mahi
Coconut Rice
Zucchini and Broccoli Saute

Please enjoy the following walk through on how we prepared our OH-SO-Yummy meal.

Coconut Rice
1 1/2 cups wild rice
2 Tbspn Tropical Tradition's Coconut Oil
3 cups water
1/2 tspn salt and pepper
1/2 tspn garlic salt
The smell of coconut was in the air at this moment. Our kitchen smelled SO good!



You're looking to brown the rice just a bit. Be careful though...it WILL burn before you even realize it. So, keep stirring.
 Add 3 cups of water into your rice after it's browned. Add the seasonings and bring it to a slight boil then turn it to a medium heat. Let it cook there for 10-12 minutes. Then turn it to a simmer and cover it with the lid. It'll turn out perfectly.

Zucchini and Broccoli Saute
1/2 shallot chopped small
1 small zucchini julienned
2 heads of broccoli
1/2 tspn garlic salt
1 Tbspn Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil
1/2 tspn butter
1/2 tspn salt and pepper
After the shallots look tender, add the zucchini and cook til' it's soft. I forgot to snap pics of this.
Add your seasoning here and saute the broccoli until it's cooked to your liking. It's a pretty swift process.

Blackened Mahi Mahi
We did not use the oil in this portion of the meal.

For the fish, we coated it with a random blackening season. In my cast iron pan, I heated 3 Tbspn of butter and softly placed the filet's in the pan. I let it cook 4-5 minutes on the first side before flipping. After I flipped it, it cooked 2-3 minutes more. This was the last part of the meal to be cooked because it's super fast!

We were SO extremely pleased with our coconut oil inspired meal. The flavor of the rice was amazing and even the broccoli had a taste of the oil on it. I am so excited to use the oil in other recipes. The ideas are endless!

Things I liked about the Tropical Tradition's Coconut Oil:
1. The clarity of the oil. It had no awkward color. It was perfectly clear and free of floating radicals.
2. The smell was amazing! It was as if I had a coconut candle lit in the kitchen.
3. The flavor was subtle but powerful. It didnt' overwhelm the food.
4. Learning all of the benefits of the oil when integrated into my diet...big Plus!!!
5. My husband enjoyed it as much as I did.
6. It's even healthy for my babeis to have in their diet. That right there makes it easy to incororate into cooking since they're eating more of our food now.

Things I disliked about Tropical Tradition's Coconut Oil:
1. The intimidation of using a uncommon ingredient.
That's it!

1 comment:

  1. Cool! I've never even heard of that before, but I can see how it would be a great oil to cook with. Thanks for the tip!

    ReplyDelete

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