"coconut" news and stories

• Mark Bittman writes about the current woes of everything fishy, and how the consumer can deal with depleted stocks and troublesome farming practices without going nuts ... and then goes Minimalist with sustainable seafood recipes.
• And if that's not enough, experts weigh in on the seafood conundrum.
• Local fruit exchanges in California allow neighbors to share their bounty and let no lemon, plum or persimmon go to waste.

Got the late January blues? In my opinion, nothing chases away the shadows like a big, hot, tropical-flavored meal. That's why I'm making nasi lemak this Saturday night, as part of a Malaysian-themed dinner party (pineapple tarts will also be on the menu).

One of the staple dishes of Malaysian cuisine, nasi lemak is rice steamed with coconut milk and served (usually) with hard-boiled eggs, tiny anchovies, sambal (chili paste), sliced cucumbers and (occasionally) fried chicken. It's often served for breakfast at Malaysian street stalls, or sold cold and wrapped up in banana leaves as a quick on-the-go lunch. Nasi lemak is eaten with your fingers, as is traditional in Malaysia - most restaurants have a tea pot full of cold water and a bucket for pre- and post-meal washing.

The rice is soft and moist and rich with coconut milk, the sambal pungeant with chili and prawn paste. Cucumbers add coolness, peanuts and tiny anchovies (called ikan bilis) add crunch. Check out this recipe, at Rasa Malaysia.

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When I was a Junior Girl Scout, the other girls sold box after box of Thin Mints, Do-si-Dos, and even those boring Trefoils, and received backpacks and beach towels and stuffed animals for their efforts.

...I sold twenty boxes and got a lousy iron-on patch.

Okay, so I'll never be an entrepreneur. That's okay. Doesn't mean I can't still enjoy the cookies, like the Samoas in Susan's unbelievably decadent recipe on her Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy blog.

Susan made some adjustments to her Chocolate Mascarpone Cheese Pie and came up with what she calls her Thank Heaven For Little Girl (Scout)s Samoa Cheese Tart, which sounds absolutely divine.

Susan's so nice, she buys cookies from all of the Scouts, but you technically only need one box of the Samoas, plus a few other things...

What is it about Southerners and coconut cake? Maybe the thick drifts of ivory icing remind us of the snow we don't get. Maybe the lacy curls of coconut call to mind the frilled white gowns at the debutante balls we're (still, seriously) so fond of.

Though, in what's perhaps a sign of the changin' times in the New South, the best "classic Southern" coconut cake I've ever tasted was from a Thai restaurant near where I grew up in Durham, North Carolina.

I adore the looks of this Southern coconut cake from Big City, Little Kitchen, adapted from Gourmet Magazine. So light and soft. I'd like to make this on a Sunday afternoon and take a fat slice out to the veranda with a good book. If I had a veranda.

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At this point in the grand game we call "The Race to Finish Holiday Baking," we're looking at cookies and confections that are easy, fast, but still have that "ooooh"-inducing factor. Perhaps the easiest thing I've ever come across in this category is the coconut macaroon, with all of four ingredients and nothing but a stir-and-bake. I feel almost Sandra Lee because there's no measuring involved, really. All of the ingredients come straight from 14 oz packages or cans, and we're quite sure you can't really mess up on a teaspoon of vanilla.

Of course, the real "ooooh"-inducing factor isn't the coconut macaroon part, but the chocolate dipping - either regular or white. White chocolate just seems more "holiday," but if you use regular semi-sweet or milk chocolate, dip from the bottom, and the tiny macaroons will look like brown chocolate mountains with white coconut peaks.