10.12.2011

weekly pinspiration

all three of my tried pins this week were from my food board. shocker! i'll try to do better getting my other boards involved soon, but the recipes are just so tempting and RIGHTNOW.

first off was coconut chicken fingers with sweet chili sauce originally pinned from here.

our version (jesse had the oil a little too hot so they were darker than the pretty ones from the recipe)

two chicken breasts...TWO, made this mighty hillock of fingers. holy cow. but let's be frank, there were only 4 left over after all of us dukes (layla included) took our passes at the heap. they were really good.

i cant overstate the importance of the sweet chili sauce. dont try to do these without them! we got a big bottle from publix for like $2. it's not spicy at all, its sweet like pepper relish but with a thai taste. i am a big coconut-in-savory-things kind of girl so i was disappointed a TINY bit that there wasnt more coconut flavor in these, so if you dont love coconut (jesse doesnt) these wont offend you.

i also was miffed to not have read until the end of the recipe where she says to chop the shredded coconut in a blender before mixing it with the bread crumbs. so we didnt do this but it turned out to not have been a problem getting the chicken coated. we also used the coconut milk for the wet coating and even still the coconut flavor was really subtle.

the 4 leftover fingers even reheated well in the over the next night and i read that many people baked their fingers originally rather that pan frying them with oil for a healthier spin.

i give these a 9 out of 10. and i actually ate 9 or 10.

a few nights later i took a shot at these zucchini cakes:

this were another big hit for the fam. shredding an entire zucchini with my cheese grater was not fun and there is really a shocking amount of water in those suckers that i had to wring out, but after that the process was so simp.

my kids both PLOWED these down leaving me and jesse to scramble to get 2 each.

two notes: sprinkle sea salt over them or they can seem kind of bland and have a little bit of some kind of dipping sauce.

which brings me to the final one: comeback sauce that i made just for the zucchini cakes (with tons left over)

we didnt make ours in a mason jar, but rather one of layla's old big yogurt containers.

i am a sucker for any orange, creamy topping sauce (hello, zaxbys!) so i was all over this one. we had almost all of the ingredients already (just had to get the chili sauce from the store).

i made it just before serving it even though she suggests waiting overnight for the flavors to get a chance to mingle, so that may have been part of it (i havent tried it since...but will!), but i wasnt overly wowed by this one. it was tangy and creamy but didnt pack too much of any kind of punch. and though i followed the recipe just right, ours is much darker looking. that was unsettling for me.

i make a mean veggie/fish sauce that i thought this would be a lot like, so maybe my expectations skewed it. or maybe since i didnt wait 24 hours it didnt get a true chance to shine. either way, it did add a lot to the zucchini cakes (more than the suggested ranch dressing would have, i think), but i wasnt licking my plate at the end.

pin on, friends!

7 comments:

  1. Zucchini fritters with tzatziki are fantastic. Zucchini fritters with some parmesan mixed in the batter are also fantastic. You may have inspired me to actually DO something with the stuff I've pinned - thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I made zucchini cakes a couple weeks ago!
    I shredded mine with the grater plate of my food processor. I don't use the plate often, but I'm so happy I have it at moments like that!

    ReplyDelete
  3. rycrafty: YES, you genius! i had a DUH! and thought of that after i had grated 90% of the zucchini and 5% of my knuckles. so much smarter. next time for sure.

    ReplyDelete
  4. @joie, there is lots of fresh parm in these. and you can really taste it. yuuuuum

    ReplyDelete
  5. I can't wait to make them there fritters! Maybe try more tabasco in the comeback sauce? Jalapeno juices?

    ReplyDelete
  6. It sounds like that sauce recipe needs some horseradish (which I noticed is in your fish/veggie sauce recipe). That's what makes the Outback Bloomin' Onion sauce.

    ReplyDelete