Muffin Monday - Carrot Spice Muffins

I am so busy doing nothing... that the idea of doing anything - which as you know, always leads to something - cuts into the nothing and then forces me to have to drop everything.

~ Jerry Seinfeld

I've always had a weakness for moist carrot cake, packed to the brim with grated carrots, nuts and dried fruits and topped with the most decadent cream cheese frosting. So you can imagine how much I was looking forward to making this week's Muffin Monday recipe, Carrot Spice Muffins. Our host, Anuradha of Baker Street blog specified that this was to be a healthy muffin, so I reluctantly tossed out the evil frosting idea and ended up with a healthier topping instead.

French Fridays with Dorie - Cinnamon Crunch Chicken

I'll get straight to the point - I liked this recipe. It had only 3 ingredients (three!) - chicken, crème fraiche and spéculoos.  Specu....what? 

Okay, I'll spare you the misery and tell you that these are spicy shortcrust cookies traditionally baked around Christmastime in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany. Spices used in spéculoos are, in different variations, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cardamom and white pepper. I know this because I used to eat tons of them when I lived in Europe. Safe to say, my tastebuds have very fond memories of that time. 

Ants Climbing a Tree (Sichuan Spicy Stir-Fried Vermicelli with Beef and Mushrooms)

Before I cooked this dish, I didn't have much of an inkling as to how to handle Sichuan or Szechuan cuisine in my kitchen. Previous experiences of eating delicious Sichuan in chinese restaurants, with their lavish presentations complete with intricate, edible carvings have spoiled me, I think. And made me break out in a sweat when I found out this month's International Incident Party theme was Sichuan. How on earth was I going to reproduce those masterpieces that I only knew how to eat (usually on corporate expense)?  

A few weeks and tons of research later, I found out that not all Sichuan dishes were spicy, nor were they all arduous to prepare. Like this stir-fried glass noodle dish, for example. Okay, it did say 'Spicy' in the title because the recipe contained chillies and ginger. When I cooked it though, it really wasn't too spicy at all, quite manageable by my (delicate) standards. It took me less than 30 minutes to prepare and fry up. That's a good thing when, if you're like me, you have a whole army of in-house relatives to feed! Not to mention parents and friends who like to drop by unannounced (ahem, this isn't a hint, by the way).

Spicy Thai Inspired Millet

I was recently gifted a copy of An Epiphany of the Senses, a beautifully-compiled cookbook by my friend and fellow blogger, Nancy of Spicie Foodie. Inside, it contains delicious recipes that are a mix of her heritage (Mexican), her country of residence (Czech Republic) and strangely enough, Asian. I can only assume that her interest in Asian culinary influences stems from the fact that food from this region uses a cornucopia of spices for flavoring. Of course, I may be wrong so if you're reading this, Nancy, please feel free to correct me.

FFWD - Mustard and the United Nations of Bâtons

'Allo, 'allo, what 'ave we 'ere? That's a whole lot of puff pastry bâtons for this week's French Fridays with Dorie's recipe cook-along. Actually, the recipe in the book called for just Mustard Bâtons, but then Dorie's bonne idée section led me astray. As in, waaay astray... My imagination got the better of me and everyone in the house ended up feasting on a bâton buffet.

Now, Dorie herself admits that she uses storebought puff pastry every time she makes these. I, on the other hand, have a bucket list of to dos that includes free-falling from the sky, swimming in the ocean with sharks and hmm, making puff pastry. The other two are doable, done even, but making my own puff pastry from scratch.... I had never been too sure if I could pull it off. It may have something to do with all the butter, the rubix-cube folds and the waiting time involved - I would simply go mad!

But I went ahead and did it, anyway. In the least painful way possible. As luck would have it, I found this link on how to make the 'quickest puff pastry' that took me all of 5 minutes to put together and roll (but still needed to chill it in the fridge for an hour before using). That sounded more like it. Lo-and-behold... I managed to produce these really cute, gnome-like bâtons below. It was my test run with puff pastry-making, and while it did rise and produce the layers, it hadn't risen as much as I had hoped. A quick text message to Diva D to "please pick up some puff pastry on your way home, mwaah!" later, and I was ready to play.

My 'junior' bâtons out of homemade puff pastry....more flaky than puffy.

I started off with the mustard bâtons recipe but soon graduated to making other savory combinations and finally, ventured into sweet bâtons. The recipe for mustard bâtons here isn't so much a recipe as it is a set of instructions. I am not at liberty to share it with you but you can find it in the book, Around My French Table or I found an official link here.

My United Nations of Bâtons

Alors, here are my versions! (Click on images to enlarge)

SAVORY BATONS

Mustard with Lavender Salt Bâtons

2 T mustard

1 T sea salt

1/4 t lavender flowers (dried)

Sprinkles: Nigella seeds (or blackseeds)

How to: Chop or blend the sea salt and lavender together until fine, stir into the mustard and spread. Brush eggwash on pastry and sprinkle Nigella seeds on top before baking.

Mustard with Shallot Bâtons
2 T mustard
1 T red shallots, chopped finely
Sprinkles: Shredded Nori (seaweed)
How to: Stir chopped shallots into the mustard, and spread. Take a small sheet of Nori and shred or cut into tiny ribbons with scissors. Brush eggwash on pastry and sprinkle Nori on top before baking.

Basil Pesto with Pumpkin Seeds Bâtons
Sprinkles: Pumpkin seeds
How to: Follow the pesto recipe in Dorie’s book (pg. 488) but substitute pumpkin seeds for the pine nuts. Brush eggwash on pastry and sprinkle more pumpkin seeds on top before baking.

Chilli and Garlic Bâtons
3 large, red chillies
3 cloves garlic
1 T sugar
1 T extra virgin olive oil
2 T grated cheddar cheese
Salt and pepper, to taste
Sprinkles: Cumin seeds
How to: Grind chillies, garlic and sugar together, then drizzle in the olive oil. Add cheddar cheese and blend until well distributed. Season with salt and pepper, then spread on pastry. Brush eggwash on pastry and sprinkle cumin on top before baking.

Hah! I forgot to take a picture of the sesame batons so here's the actual sesame spread (middle)...

Sesame Bâtons
4 T sesame powder or seeds

1 T chopped ginger
1 T olive oil
1 T black soy sauce
Sprinkles: Sesame seeds
How to: Grind sesame and ginger, then drizzle in the olive oil and soya sauce. Blend for a few more seconds, then spread on pastry. Brush eggwash on pastry and sprinkle sesame seeds on top before baking.

  SWEET BATONS

Nutella with Chilli Bâtons
2 T Nutella
1/4 t chilli or paprika powder
Sprinkles: Chilli powder
How to: Really? Is there a need? :-)

Nutella with Macadamia Bâtons
2 T Nutella
2 T macadamia nuts, chopped finely
Sprinkles: Chopped macadamia nuts

Banana and Palm Sugar Bâtons
1 ripe banana, mashed
2 T grated palm sugar
Sprinkles: Shredded coconut ribbons
How to: Spread the mashed banana onto the pastry and sprinkle palm sugar all over it. Brush eggwash on pastry and sprinkle coconut ribbons on top before baking.

Dragonfruit and Lemon Bâtons

2 T dragonfruit flesh, mashed

1 T lemon zest

Sprinkles: Cinnamon sugar

How to: Spread the mashed dragonfruit onto the pastry and sprinkle lemon zest all over it. Brush eggwash on pastry and sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top before baking.

Phew, that was a long one! I'm passing the baton on to you now. Check out what the other Doristas over at French Fridays with Dorie have under (or inside) their bâtons!

Tropical Valentine: Tuna Cakes with Banana Chutney and Green Curry Dip

Blue waters. Sunny, clear skies. Warm, breezy weather. Check.

Cold, tall thirst-quencher in hand. Check.

Valentine's Day. Check.

Spicy nibbles, condiments and dip. Double-check

Hot, sizzling date. Uncheck.

Okay, so today is Valentine's Day. Not a day that's normally commemorated in our household, but on this blog, nothing's truly normal. You know that saying, "Two's company, three's a crowd"? You'd think that would be an apt phrase for Valentine's when lovebirds (traditionally two people) have a good excuse to cozy up to each other. But not in this realm.

Today, three of us are paying tribute to a day reserved for love (not that everyday isn't) by each trying out a recipe from the Tropical Asian Cookbook compiled by Wendy Hutton. Our tasteful threesome is made up of Trix (Tasty Trix), Penny (Jeroxie.com) and myself, blogging out of three of the most happening spots on this planet (see below). Well, okay.... maybe two.

How did this come about? On the very last day of 2010, I held my first giveaway which was this beautiful cookbook, and the happy winner was Trix. Since we both have a copy of the same book, we thought why not cook something tropical-themed together out of it? And as we are of the "three's company, two's a bore" school-of-thought, we roped Penny in to join us! 

The book is a compilation of recipes from the prestigious Four Seasons Hotels all over Southeast Asia and South Asia. It features dishes from Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Maldives and India. My tuna cake with its simple homemade paratha-like pastry and chutney is reminiscent of a South Asian/Indian dish, while its green curry dip is distinctly Thai. I chose this tropical noon nibbles because I admit, it was the visual that first drew me in. The way the chef (and I presume, the food stylist) presented the dish in the book was stunning... my pictures here don't even come close.

Then I got to studying the recipe and went "Oh my gawd!". No, it wasn't too complex to make, it just seemed that the list of ingredients went on and on and on... On the bright side, everything listed there was easily accessible to me (and you too, I imagine). And so quickly running out of excuses, I decided to forge ahead and make this. Let me tell you, regret it I did not, for the flavors of the tuna cakes when combined with the kick-ass spiciness of the green curry and the sweet heat of the banana chutney were out of this world! Imagine a fireworks display taking place in your mouth, it's not the heat you're concentrating on but the beauty of the explosions.

Tuna cake ingredients

I shall not say too much more but leave you to lovingly stare at all the ingredients. My kitchen was turned upside down for an afternoon making these, but the thought of lovingly handfeeding these tuna cakes to some  (mythical, hot) loved one overrode all painful thoughts of cleaning up. In the end, it was my nephew who scoffed about six of these tuna cakes in one sitting. He declared them "really yummy",  so I guess I can officially elect him my Valentine this year.

Banana chutney ingredients, using curry leaves and bananas from my garden.

Green curry dip ingredients.
I somehow forgot to take a shot of the cilantro and mint - the two major green contributors!

Chilies galore!

Trix has made the spinach kofta with eggplant puree, a delight for vegetarians, while Penny made a lovely thirst-quencher, rose flavored lassi with pistachios to wash all the tropical flavors down. For a complete picture of our Valentine's Day meal inspired by the tropics, remember to head over to their blogs and check out their posts too!

Tuna Cakes with Banana Chutney and Green Curry Dip
Makes 8
Ingredients:
Pastry
1 cup flour
Pinch of salt
1/3 cup water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Tuna Filling
2/3 cup (100g) firmly packed drained canned tuna
2 tablespoons very finely chopped onion
2 tablespoons very finely chopped cilantro (coriander) leaves
2 tablespoons freshly grated or moistened desiccated coconut
2 teaspoons lime juice
Salt to taste

Banana Chutney
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoons mustard seeds (I used Nigella seeds)
10 curry leaves
2 dried red chilies, soaked in water 5 minutes, roughly chopped
2 medium ripe but firm bananas, roughly mashed
6 tablespoons fresh orange juice
1 teaspoon turmeric powder (optional)
Salt and black pepper to taste

Green Curry Dip
4 teaspoons finely chopped ginger
4 teaspoons finely chopped garlic
1 large green chili, chopped
1 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro (coriander) leaves and fine stems
1 cup coarsely chopped fresh mint leaves
2 tablespoons coconut or vegetable oil
1 teaspoon brown mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 large onion, chopped
10 curry leaves
1 large tomato, peeled and chopped
2 teaspoons curry powder
3/4 cup coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon salt

Method:

1. Prepare the tuna filling by combining all ingredients in a bowl, mixing well. Set aside.

2. Combine flour, salt and water in a bowl. Knead for 5 minutes to make a pliable dough. Divide into 8 balls, then flatten each with the palm of your hand. Press with the thumbs and fingers to make each ball into a circle about 3 1/4 in (8cm) in diameter. Fill each circle with one-eighth of the tuna, then lift up the sides, pleating and squeezing them to the centre to enclose the filling. Flatten gently into a cake about 2-in (5cm) in diameter , then heat 1 tablespoon oil on a large skillet and sear the tuna cakes until golden brown, about 1 ½ minutes on each side. Transfer tuna cakes to a baking tray and bake in an oven at 350F (180C) for 8 minutes.

3. To prepare the banana chutney, heat oil in a small pan and add mustard seeds, curry leaves, and dried chilies. Stir-fry until the seeds crackle, then add the banana and mix well with a wooden spoon, cooking for 1 minute. Stir in the orange juice and turmeric, and season with salt and pepper, then transfer to a bowl. Cool, then chill in the refrigerator.

4. For the green curry dip, process Ginger, garlic, chili, cilantro and mint leaves together to make a smooth paste. Heat the oil in a pan and add mustard and cumin seeds. Stir-fry over medium heat until they crackle, then add onion and curry leaves. Stir-fry until the onion softens, 3-4 minutes, then add tomato and cook 5 minutes.

5. Add the blended paste and cook, stirring frequently, 4-5 minutes. Pour in coconut milk, add salt and bring slowly to a boil, stirring. Simmer uncovered until the sauce thickens, about 8 minutes. Taste and add more salt if desired.

6. Serve the tuna cakes with banana chutney and green curry dip.

Coconut-Cheese Ice Cream with Thyme, Cranberry Sauce and Spiced Walnuts

Growing up in the tropics, cheese really didn't feature much in our everyday diet. We had durians and fermented shrimp paste (belacan), and that was enough odorous foods for one culture to have to endure. It's all very different the kids growing up in this more global world now, of course. 

Coconut milk, on the other hand, does feature a lot in our tropical cuisine, from breakfast snacks, main meals and desserts. Saying that, however, our use of it nowadays is in more measured amounts due to the high oil and sugar content (coconut cream especially).

Like chalk and cheese

I've been toying with the idea of mixing one of the most Eastern ingredient with one of the most Western and finally came up with this Coconut-Cheese ice cream recipe. My tastebuds know for a fact that thyme goes extremely well with cheese so that was thrown in for good measure. On its own, this creamy, distinctively Cheddary ice cream is already worthy of a gasp. But try eating a spoonful of it drizzled with warm, cinnamon-scented cranberry-orange sauce and topped with spicy, gingery walnuts, and you're bound to hear absolute silence as the world around you stops moving! Trust me when I say this, it is that good.

 Top: Cranberry-Orange sauce,  Bottom: Spicy walnuts

 

Out of the oven - spicy, sweet, crisp walnuts with ginger and cayenne pepper

Next time you have guests over for a party, be daring enough to serve this understatedly sexy, elegant and complex dessert all rolled into one. Oh, and remember to print out copies of the recipe as your guests will be asking for it!

If you're making this dessert for any adorable tiny tots, just substitute the coconut milk with regular milk and leave out the salt and spices.

Coconut-Cheese Ice Cream with Thyme, Cranberry Sauce and Spiced Walnuts

Ingredients:
Coconut-Cheese Ice Cream with Thyme
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 125g (4oz) cheddar cheese, grated
• 125g (4oz) cream cheese, diced
• 1/2 teaspoon ground thyme
• 3/4 cup honey
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Cranberry-Orange Sauce
• 1 cup dried cranberries (or 2 cups fresh berries)
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup brown sugar or honey
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon water

Spiced Walnuts
• 1 egg white
• 1 teaspoon water
• 2 cups walnuts
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper or chilli powder

Method:
Coconut-Cheese Ice Cream with Thyme

1. In a small heavy bottom sauce pot, bring the coconut milk and heavy cream to a boil.

2. Remove from heat and whisk in the cheddar cheese, cream cheese, honey, thyme and salt.

3. Blend this mixture in a blender until smooth. Transfer to a bowl, then cool completely before freezing mixture in ice-cream maker.

4. Transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden, at least 2 hours. Let ice-cream soften 5 minutes before serving.

Cranberry-Orange Sauce

1. Combine cranberries, orange juice, sugar/honey, vanilla and cinnamon stick in medium saucepan. Bring to boil over high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves; boil for 1 minute.

2. Strain into bowl. Reserve cranberries. Return juices and cinnamon stick to the same pan. Mix 1 tablespoon water and cornstarch in small bowl; stir into juices in pan. Stir over medium heat until juices boil and thicken, about 1 minute. Mix in reserved cranberries. Chill compote 2 hours.

Spiced Walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 120°C/250°F.

2. Whisk together egg white and water in a large bowl until frothy and stir in nuts. Stir together sugar, ground ginger and cayenne pepper/chilli powder and stir into nuts, coating well. Spread nuts on a lightly buttered pan and bake in middle of oven until dry, about 50 minutes. Cool and chop into bite-size chunks.

Assembly

To serve, scoop ice cream into sundae glasses, top with cranberry-orange sauce and chopped spiced walnuts.

Poetry Thursday #3 & The Softest Tri-Flavored Rolls

Poetry Thursday #3:

you were sprawled across centuries with chivalry alive in your lungs and burning on your tongue, gently braided in perfect harmony with the god's wishes. someday i'd like to ride on the whitecaps, thrown in tune with the rays of the sun and the blinking of your eyes, and just think to myself how damn lucky i am to be here on this earth in the same millennium as you.

encasing my bird's voice and your grizzly bear growls in sparkling amber, we were fossilized against the sands of time wearing away at our carelessly scattered thoughts. cherish the night, there are only seven hundred and sixty left.

tick, tock.

Extract from "simplicity at its best" by W r a v e n  (who’s only 13, btw. Isn't her wordpower breathtaking!?)

Ahhhh... Thursday. With poetry that beautiful, it almost feels like a TGIF day, when you can almost taste the weekend. Almost. Browsing through some old cookbooks, I came across a Pillow-Soft Dinner Rolls recipe that brought me to a pause. If the name itself wasn't already enough to win me over, then the simple baking method had me completely.

To be honest, I'd never made rolls that weren't a bit on the crusty side. That's probably because I like my rolls rustic rather than dining-parlorly genteel and sophisticated, or maybe I hadn't come across any enticing soft rolls recipe. Until today.

Of course, being the person I am, the thought of just rolling dough into plain round balls didn't exactly light my fire. But the idea of adding chocolate and ginger flavors to the rolls did! (The third flavor is plain - just in case). The flax seeds were only in there because I'd run out of eggs. They worked out well as an egg-substitute and even added a slightly nutty flavor to the bread.

Okay, now here comes the overkill. Since this was essentially a sweet bread, I thought it'd be fun to pipe some caramel fudge left over from another recipe into the centre of the bread. Well, that didn't work out too well as the filling then started to ooze out while the dough was into its second rising, and proceeded to dry up during baking. On hindsight, I should just spread the caramel fudge atop the hot rolls as they came out of the oven. Oh well, lesson learnt.

The rolls were as pillow-soft as their original title, even with no eggs. The texture was light, airy and the flavors worked well together, yes even with the (caramelized) caramel fudge. When would you eat this? With friends and family, over a cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate. Or alone, while typing up your blog post like I'm doing right now. Shoot, my keyboard's all greasy, but the pleasure... aaahhhh.

Thank goodness it's Thursday!

Yeastspotting, here I come!

Softest Tri-Flavored Rolls
Makes: 10-12 rolls
Ingredients:
• 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 3/4 cup to 1 cup warm milk
• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 tablespoon flax seeds, soaked in 3 tablespoons hot water (or 1 egg)
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 3/4 teaspoons salt
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ginger powder
• 2 tablespoons Dutch-processed cocoa powder

Method:

1. In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the butter, flax seeds, sugar, salt and flour. Add the milk gradually and knead with your hands or using a dough hook attachment to form a soft dough.

2. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes (until dough is no longer sticky). Divide dough into 3 equal portions, leave one portion plain. Take another portion and knead in the ginger powder. To the last portion, knead in the cocoa powder until fully incorporated.

3. Form dough into balls and place each in separate, greased bowls. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

4. Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide each portion into 10-12 pieces and shape into small balls. Position the 3-flavored balls into a greased, lightly floured muffin cup. Pipe filling into the middle of the roll. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Bake at 180C/350F for 20-25 minutes.

5. Brush tops of rolls with softened butter as soon as they come out of the oven. Turn out of pans and leave to cool on wire racks.

Caramel Fudge Filling
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Method:
1. Bring sugar and milk to a boil, stirring constantly; boil, covered 3 minutes. Then remove lid and boil uncovered, until a small amount forms a soft ball when dropped into cold water (234 - 236F), stirring occasionally.
2. Remove from heat and add butter, salt and vanilla.
3. When lukewarm, whisk until mixture is thick enough to pipe or spread.

Red Dragonfruit Granita

Post Update: This made the Top 9 on Foodbuzz today.

It's my first time, so is it too silly to be excited about this? (ahh, who cares... I'll just be excited anyway!)

After my earlier post on the dragonfruit quenchers, I still had several dragonfruits left over so I thought, "Wouldn't it be pretty if I turn this gorgeous pink-red fruit into a sorbet?" I'd seen many posts on white fleshed dragonfruit sorbets (always inevitably served in it's skin shell - helloooo.... what happened to originality?), but hardly ever red dragonfruit sorbets. That was what I'd started to do when I suddenly, deflatedly remembered that I didn't have an ice-cream maker and no way was I ever going to process this mixture fine enough by hand, even if I had set up camp by the freezer for half a day!

So the next best thing? Granita. It's great to have on a hot, hot day and for this particular recipe, I decided to accentuate the not-so-flavorful dragonfruit with lime zest, grapefruit zest and fresh ginger slices steeped in sugar syrup! The smell of the hot syrup was heavenly, and I was truly tempted to just add it to some cold water, slip in some lime slices and glug it down like a thirsty desert dweller. Thank goodness my willpower won and I managed to save the syrup for the granita. ;-)

My styling for the photography kind of sucks because I was trying to shoot this extra fast before it all turned into slush. At least, the color of the fuschia bourgainvillea from my garden complemented the granita very well and hmmm... not a dragonfruit skin receptacle in sight!

These babies bleed and stain! But they wash off quite easily, don't worry

  My flavored syrup, with lime, grapefruit zest & fresh ginger

Good enough to drink!

 So refreshingly pretty!

Red Dragonfruit Granita

Ingredients:
1 Dragonfruit
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 inch fresh ginger, sliced
1/2 lime zest
1/4 grapefruit zest

Method:

1. Boil the water with the sliced ginger, lime and grapefruit zests, then sir in sugar until dissolved. Remove from heat and let the syrup cool. Once cooled, strained the bits and use the sugar syrup to make the granita.

2. Cut the dragonfruit in half and scoop out the flesh. Place in a blender and add the sugar syrup, puree until smooth.

3. Pour into a deep dish or container and place in a freezer. After an hour, mash with a fork and repeat the process for the next 3-4 hours until it becomes ice "crystals", which is the granita.