This month I was paired with My Year on the Grill for Taste & Create. I recreated Raspberry Chipotle Sea Scallops, but since I didn’t have the same raspberry chipotle sauce used in the original recipe, I created my own version, which turned out to be pretty good. Also, I made my version with shrimp and scallops as well as a side of coconut basmati rice.

After I made the sauce, I opened a small can of undisturbed coconut milk and separated the fat from the water. I added the coconut water and a small scoop of fat to the water for my rice. When that came to a boil I cooked some basmati rice. Coconut rice is so good, and it seemed to be a perfect companion to the spicy raspberry chipotle sauce.

Meanwhile, I melted a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of coconut fat in a heavy skillet. When that was hot, I added the shrimp first, scallops second, and cooked until just done, moving them around a bit to coat with buttery coconut goodness.

For this month’s Taste and Create, I was paired with Padmajha from Seduce Your Tastebuds. She is a fantastic cook with recipes that go way beyond my perceived comfort zone in the kitchen. Luckily, living here in Boulder, CO, I was able to rely on my friends at Savory Spice Shop to buy some fresh, high quality Fenugreek Seeds, Fennel Seeds, Curry Leaves, and Asafetida. With excellent ingredients, this dish turned out to be quite easy and incredibly delicious.

Here is the link to Padmajha’s recipe.

Here is what I did-

Ingredients:

• 5 Yukon Gold Potatoes (I found some local organic potatoes at Whole Foods)
• 1 28 oz. can of whole tomatoes, separated from their juices (It is not the season for fresh tomatoes, so I will repeat this dish once Colorado’s growing season is in full bloom)
• 1 TB olive oil
• a pinch of asafetida
• 1 TB cumin seeds
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
• 4 dried thai chilies
• 1 TB grated ginger
• 6-8 curry leaves
• 1 cup water
• sea salt

This was my first month participating in Taste and Create, which pairs up fellow food bloggers to prepare someone else’s dish and blog about it. I was paired up with Love Big, Bake Often, and chose to re-create some pumpkin scones since it is indeed pumpkin season.

Here’s my adaptation of the recipe:

• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 cup evaporated cane juice
• 1 tsp baking powder (1.5 for everyone not living and baking at altitude)
• 1/8 tsp baking soda (1/4 for lower elevation)
• a pinch of sea salt
• 1/2 TB grated fresh ginger
• 2 TB chopped candied ginger
• 5 TB butter, cold, cubed
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 TB maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup pumpkin (from a real pie pumpkin that has been cut in half, seeded, boiled, and skinned. Trust me, it is worth the extra effort.)
• 1 TB heavy whipping cream
• raw sugar

Preheat oven to 400 and lightly butter a scone tray (if you have one- otherwise, a baking sheet will do just fine).

In a large bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, fresh ginger, and candied ginger. Mix this evenly with a wire whisk or fork. In another bowl, mix the buttermilk, maple syrup, vanilla, and cooked pumpkin.

Cut the cold butter cubes into the flour mixture with two knives or your hands. The idea is you don’t want to melt the butter by squeezing it between your fingers. You want the butter to stay relatively cold, so using two knives keeps the heat of your hands away. Regardless, mix this well until the texture becomes crumbly and there are no large chunks of butter. Then add the wet ingredients, mix together, and knead a few minutes to work the dough.

If you have a scone pan, divide the dough into the individual sections. If not, place on a lightly floured cutting board, slice it into even pieces, and place on your cookie sheet. Brush the tops with cream and sprinkle with raw sugar. Bake until a toothpick inserted in a scone comes out clean.

If you’d like to make them sweeter, I made a sweet, light glaze to drizzle over them from 1/4 cup un-sweetend rice milk (use real milk if you have it), 1/2 cup powdered sugar, and 1 TB maple syrup. These scones didn’t really need a glaze, but the original recipe had one, so I made a dessert-like topping that came in handy when we ate them for a late night snack.