Tomato Muffins... Are You Kidding?

Someone somewhere was saying that tomatoes are now in season. I hadn't realised they are seasonal in some regions because here, I see them all year round at the market! Well, you live and learn.

Tomatoes have always been to me a savoury ingredient, however at the same time, I was fascinated by its many uses including, quite rarely, in a dessert. I decided to tweak my existing muffin recipe to make sweet tomato muffins. I omitted the egg and butter and replaced those with silken tofu, raspberries and banana, which worked just as well to hold the batter together. Sitting surrepticiously on the shelves, I discovered these delightful dried, candied tomatoes and threw them in the mix for a bit of flavour and excitement. No discernable taste of tomato in there yet, but hey, there's always the frosting. Yes, tomato paste mixed into the buttercream - the sweet-savoury flavour totally worked!

Walnuts, silken tofu, sea salt, candied tomatoes

Of course, when you're serving these, refrain from telling your guests about the secret ingredient (tomato). Listen to them oohing and aahing about the muffins first and when they've finished the whole lot, drop the bombshell. I always enjoy watching people's reactions (surprised, disgusted, appalled, never happy they ate tomatoes as a dessert!). It just shows me how brainwashed we are sometimes about where food should and should not belong - also, it's great party entertainment. *grins*

Candied Tomato Muffins with Tomato Frosting
Makes: 30 standard-sized muffins

Ingredients:
1 cup (250g) silken tofu
1/3 cup Maple Syrup or Golden Syrup
¼ cup corn/vegetable oil
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 small, ripe banana
1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
2 cups plain flour
¼ cup wholewheat flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
¼ teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup candied tomatoes, chopped
1/3 cup roasted walnuts, chopped

Tomato Frosting:
2 ¼ cups icing sugar, sifted
½ cup butter, softened
1 tablespoon tomato paste

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line muffin cups with muffin paper.

2. Mix the flours, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder and sea salt in a bowl and set aside.

3. In a blender or food processor, pulse together the tofu, syrup, oil, vanilla, banana and raspberries until smooth.

4. Pour tofu mixture into the flour mixture and gently until combined. Gently fold in the tomatoes and walnuts. Fill each muffin cup with about 2/3 full with batter.

5. Bake for 15-20 minutes until a skewer inserted into the muffin comes out clean.

6. When completely cool, pipe tomato frosting on the cupcakes.

Tomato Frosting:
1. Beat the butter until creamy. Add the icing sugar gradually, beating first at low speed and then fast once all the sugar has been added, Beat frosting until stiff.
2. Add the tomato paste and beat until smooth and creamy. It is now ready to pipe.

Chocolate-Chilli Walnut Cookies

Some days, you just want to cry on somebody's shoulders, or into a pillow. You let it all out, howl away, then you feel much better. Don't you? Sometimes, eating good, comforting food works wonders for the tearful soul too, but I wouldn't recommend this all the time (unless you're a full time athlete with a fearfully healthy lifestyle!). Eating is certainly no way to cure anything, especially psychological hunger.

Hmm...Wrong kind of stuff to write in a blog about FOOD, right? Darn right (nearly)! Guess I was envisioning the comfort part and the pillow part when I wanted to introduce you to this next recipe of mine : Chocolate-Chilli Walnut Cookies. No worldly, sophisticated hostess or gift-giver should go without this delicacy in their cookbook arsenal. Chocolate and chilli? So what, it's a pairing that's been done for centuries, back from the time of the Mayans in South America. Walnuts? Nothing special there. But how about this.... placing a chocolate chunk in between two flat cookie dough pieces to form a "pillow" and watching it ooooze when you bite into a warm cookie? Now, that's hot! Hot and comforting, in many sense of the words.

For cookie fans under 10 years old, you might want to omit the chilli powder and sea salt, and they will love you for it. Adult cookie recipients may not need your shoulder to lean on so much once they've eaten this, just make sure you make it available at their doorstep during those tough times, you know!

Chocolate-Chilli Walnut Cookies

Ingredients:
125g butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ¾ cups plain flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon chilli powder
1 tsp baking soda
200g dark chocolate, cut into ½-inch chunks
1/3 cup walnuts, roasted and chopped
Sea salt, to sprinkle

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper.

2. Sift the flour, baking soda, cocoa and chilli powder in a bowl.

3. Beat the butter and sugar in another bowl until mixture is light and creamy (4-5 mins).

4. Add the egg, then add vanilla and beat until combined.

5. Fold the sifted dry ingredients into the creamed mixture, then gently stir in the walnuts.

6. Scoop out a tablespoon of the cookie dough and form into two balls. Flatten each ball with your palms. Place a piece of dark chocolate in the centre of one flattened dough and cover it up with the other piece of dough. Flatten one last time in between your palms to seal the cookie, sprinkle sea salt on top, then place on baking tray 2 inches apart.

7. Bake for 12 minutes, and cool for 5 minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.

Key comforters: Chocolate, chilli powder and walnuts

Peek-a-boo!

 

Till next time.

Kisses,

Tropical Quenchers: Dragonfruit & Pomelo Sensations

Aaaah... sometimes the heat outside and humidity gets to me! The sun decides to bless us with its golden rays for most of the day, then just before it disappears into the horizon, Mother Storm pays a visit and it starts to rain bloody murder... Gee, thanks. There goes my late afternoon run. The race is this weekend, and I'm starting to fret from this lack of, well, running.

When I'm in this mood (fretting, feeling caged in), I can't think creatively to make a meal I want to feed myself with, let alone others. So I go on a juice diet - juices are easy, there's not much thinking involved. Plus they are fun and delicious to consume - more importantly, they really quench that thirst on a HOT day. Luckily, I live where I live. Plenty of juicy, sweet, weird and wonderful fruits to turn into cocktails or coolers. You can go colourful (mango, watermelon, banana, jackfruit) or not (coconut, pomelo, lychees, longans).

Walked into the kitchen and found these two juicy queen of fruits - the regal red Dragonfruit, and the cool, collected Pomelo. Perfect, I'll make TWO contrasting drinks!

There are actually three varieties of dragonfruit: red-skinned with translucent white or red purply-red flesh, and yellow-skinned with white flesh. No surprise, I went with my favourite colour - red (flesh). If you've never had dragonfruit before, it's been described as tasting something like a cross between a kiwi fruit and a pear. In actual fact, it's much subtler than that. I would say that it tastes like a very watered-down version of a watermelon - quite bland. Which is an irony because visually, the dragonfruit is one of the most stunning-looking fruits I've ever come across. Unfortunately, The Big Kahuna created it to be this gorgeous bimbo of the fruit community, just to be fair to other fruits, I think. Haha, the thought.

That's the reason why I added raspberries to the quencher recipe below, to add a bit of sensuality (tastewise) to it. Let's face it, the raspberry could've had it all (red, curvy, sweet, tangy, delicious), but it too was created fairly. Why do you think it's so tiny? *grins*  

Dragonfruit~Raspberry Quencher

1 red dragonfruit, peeled and sliced

1/2 cup fresh or frozen raspberries 

2-3 cups water

sugar syrup, to taste (optional)

calamansi limes, to garnish

Blend the dragonfruit slices together with the raspberries, then add 2 cups water and some sugar syrup (optional) and stir. If the consistency is a bit thick for you, then add some more water. If you want it cooler, blend in some ice-cubes. Pour into a glass, slice some calamansi limes and place on top of the drink. Sip or stick a straw in the glass and enjoy! 

The next drink is pretty elegant and straightforward, no blending necessary. Just add ice, and carry around at a late afternoon pool party for that rock star factor!

Pomelo-Vanilla Green Tea Cooler

1/2 medium sized pomelo, skinned and sliced

2 teabags of vanilla green tea

4-6 cups water

sugar syrup, to taste (optional)

Steep the teabags in 2 cups of hot water for about 5 minutes, allow to cool, then add up to 4 cups of cold water and ice-cubes. Take the sliced pomelo, tear the flesh apart with your hands and add to the cold vanilla tea. Add sugar syrup if you wish, it will enhance the aromatic vanilla and balance the slightly bitter, grapefruitlike pomelo flavors. Serve to guests and be prepared to take a bow!

Battle Strategy: Cucumber-Mascarpone, Lemongrass Chicken and Potato-Capsicum Tower with Black Pepper-Lime Dressing

Vote for ME!

As soon as I found out last week that I was to compete in the next Foodie Fights battle, I went searching for my dusty Battle Cap, already long ago discarded to a distant corner of my memory. Preparing to go into battle, I was reminded of the heart of the message contained in Sun Tzu’s Art of War – “To thine own self be true”. Hell, I even own a ring bought from The Barber’s Daughter that depicts this phrase, so convinced was I that Shakespeare had penned this line just for me! Whatever. I shall be true to myself and push the envelope for this battle.

After having a rather restless night, I started strategizing about what dish I was going to push forward to the frontline. The two ingredients that are a must: Cucumber and Black Pepper. Cool and hot. The two extremes, so far so good.

Whipped out my notebook and began brainstorming up something I’ve never made before (and hopefully, have never been made by anybody else, although I would never really know. Even Google has its limitations!). This process is called “Learning how to make a meal without looking at a cookbook". LOL. 

After working the chemistry out in my head, I’d decided on a Smörgåsbord of flavors packaged into a deliciously comforting appetizer called (brace yourself!) : Cucumber-Mascarpone, Lemongrass Chicken and Potato-Capsicum Tower with Black Pepper-Lime Dressing. A mouthful certainly, but I really wanted to showcase the main ingredients in it!

  The star players.

Cucumber-Mascarpone, Lemongrass Chicken and Potato-Capsicum Tower with Black Pepper-Lime Dressing
Makes: 16 “Towers”

Ingredients:
Cucumber-Mascarpone Layer
1 cucumber
1 teaspoon salt
125g Mascarpone cheese
1 egg-white

Lemongrass-Chicken Layer
3 pieces boneless chicken breasts, sliced
2 sticks lemongrass, sliced
1 carrot, peeled and grated
3 cloves garlic, sliced
2 shallots, sliced
1 egg
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper

Potato-Capsicum Layer
1 red pepper
4 medium potatoes
100g butter

Black Pepper-Lime Dressing
4 limes
2 tablespoons peppercorns, cracked
5 tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon salt

Method:

This is a relatively easy and tasty appetizer to make and truthfully, it really helps if you’re organized and seasoned at the biz of multitasking. I say this not to put you off but the preparation process for the three layers are staggered and everything only comes together at the end for the baking part. This is the order of the baking process: Lemongrass chicken first, Potato layer second, then all three layers together. Hope you’re still with me! *grins*

First things first - preheat the oven to 200°C, then prepare the layers as follows:

Lemongrass-Chicken Layer

1. Place the chicken meat, carrots, lemongrass, garlic, shallots, egg and olive oil in a food processor and mix until it becomes a paste. Season with salt and pepper and process further. (Note: For the lemongrass, slice thinly towards the root end and discard the green leafy end).

2. Press a tablespoonful of the mixture into the bottom of a muffin cup and push down lightly to flatten. Cook the chicken patties in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.

3. Turn the patties out of the muffin tray, set aside and go cook the potato layer.

Lemongrass-Chicken patties, good enough to eat on their own. That lemongrass flavor is so seductive, the chicken has no choice but to feel (and taste) sexy around it!

Capsicum-Potato Layer

1. Roast the capsicum under a hot grill/broiler until the skin chars and splits. Let it cool slightly, then peel off skin and dice the capsicum.

2. Peel the potatoes, cut into chunks and boil until cooked. Drain the water and place the potatoes in a bowl.

3. Add the butter and diced capsicum to the potatoes and blend everything together with a potato-masher. There will still be chunky bits of capsicum in there, and that’s ok, it’s part of the masterplan.*winks*
4. Press a tablespoonful of the potato-capsicum layer into the bottom of a muffin cup and bake for 10 minutes.

5. Remove from the oven, place a chicken patty on top of the potato layer and set aside while you prepare the last stage which is the cucumber layer.

The act of mashing was good, cheap therapy. I thought of all the people who'd ever been rude to me and oh, how wonderful it would be to just squish them like so!

Cucumber-Mascarpone Layer
1. Peel the cucumber and slice into thin strips along its length, discard seedy core. My favourite way to produce these thin strips is to use a potato peeler. Add salt to the cucumber and leave in a bowl for 15 minutes to draw the moisture out. Squeeze cucumber, drain the water and set aside. (Do this part while the potatoes are boiling and the chicken patties are in the oven – Multitasking, see?).
2. Just before baking, beat the Mascarpone lightly to soften it. In another bowl, whisk the egg-white into stiff peaks and fold gently into the Mascarpone.
3. Take the muffin tray with the potato and chicken patty layer already in it and place a few strips of cucumber on top of the patty. Spoon the Mascarpone mixture on top of the cucumber julienne and bake for 20 minutes until golden brown and puffy. Leave in the tray to cool for 10 minutes before turning out carefully. Serve with black pepper-lime dressing to bring out the different flavours.

Black Pepper-Lime Dressing

1. Squeeze lime juice into a small bowl. Add olive oil and salt.

2. Crack black peppercorns in a grinder or using a pestle and mortar. Add this to the lime dressing and drizzle over the cooked "tower" just before serving.

Cracked black peppercorns in a tangy lime-olive oil dressing. Sizzle, Crackle and Zinggggg!

Oh, you're still here? Thought I'd lost you at the first layer! Anyway, you can serve and enjoy the dish like this but if you're a masochist like me, then you'll go on and make the phyllo "wings" to embrace this dish. It's easy, just take a sheet of phyllo pastry and rub olive oil on both sides. Cut into 1-inch wide strips and drape into the muffin cups (below). Bake at 200°C for about a minute, keep an eye as it burns fast!

Carefully insert a tower in between the wing, garnish with some more cucumber strips and finally drizzle some dressing on top.

PS. Hope you enjoyed the post, and apologies if it was starting to read like an epic. I wanted you to feel the pain. LOL! Don't forget to go to Foodie Fights and vote for me... Heart ya!