Muffin Overload

True to form, it is 7:06pm EST on December 31, 2012 and I am furiously sprinting to finish all of my intended posts before 2013 begins... on the East coast of the continental USA, to be very specific.

Back in August 2012 I went on a muffin kick.  The culprit of this obsession was, no doubt, Pinterest.  I browse Pinterest when I am at work waiting for something to finish, or when I am sick of reading journal articles, or when I come back early from lunch and everyone else is still eating... Anyhow, I saw a few recipes for muffins and decided it was easy enough for me to try - my #1 criteria for recipes is that they have to be simple both in ingredients and directions. 

The first set was strawberry banana yogurt bread from fromthelittleyellowkitchen.  

Ingredients:

-2 cups flour

-1/4 cup sugar

-2 tsp baking powder

-1/2 tsp salt

-1 tsp cinnamon

-1/4 cup butter (I used 2 TBSP)

-3 extra-ripe bananas

-1egg

-1/2 cup greek yogurt

-2 tsp vanilla extract

-1 cup diced srawberries (tossed with a bit of flour to prevent sinking)

What to do:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Spray muffin pan

2. Combine wet ingredients separately, combine dry ingredients separately. Combine wet and dry ingredients together.

3. Fold in strawberries.

4. Bake for ~40 minutes until golden brown.

I also stumbled on another muffin recipe with Nutella, and I was all over that like a spider monkey on a banana tree.  The original website was chef-in-training.com.

Ingredients:
-1.5 cups flour
-1 cup sugar (I omitted this because Nutella is enough sweetness)
-1/2 tsp baking soda (what's the difference between this and baking powder??)
-3/4 cup shortening (I used ~2 TBSP melted butter)
-2 ripe bananas
-1 egg
-NUTELLA (as much as you want)

Once you figure out what to do for one muffin mix, it's pretty much the same for all muffins.  The only variation is in the ingredients.  For these Nutella muffins, though, take a butter knife and slice in the chocolatey goodness once you've poured the muffin mix into the pan.  This makes pretty swirls and keeps them from turning muddied, although they'd probably taste all the same in the end.

I also tried my hand at some savory muffins, but these didn't go over well, even H - the man who eats anything - declined them after one bite.  For these I cheated and used Bisquick mix, layered with some sausage egg and cheese.  It seemed foolproof, but these muffins were dry like the Sahara... perhaps I will rework them in the future.

Blueberry muffins straight from the oven

Butta my muffin!

"Banh xeo"

Banh xeo is a savory crepe dish that's probably a product of French occupation during the Indochine era.  (I should wikipedia this before posting, but seeing as how I'm currently sitting on the train without power... my speculations will have to do.)

To be perfectly honest, this is not my favorite dish.  I don't ever crave it actually - never ordered it when eating out; only eating it when my mom or my sister makes it for the family.  Nevertheless, I decided to make this at home because H has never had it.  Perhaps H still has never had it because my cooking is far - miles and legions away - from being authentic... What I told him is banh xeo (below) would probably be unrecognizable and utterly laughable to my mom...

Ingredients:

-Flour mix for the crepe (yep, that's me and my authenticity!)

-coconut milk

-Veggies of choice (I had chinese broccoli, radishes, green bell peppers, and basil)

-Meat of choice (I had Hormel pepperoni... o yes, I did)

Traditional banh xeo are usually made with shrimp, pork, scallions, and a heaping pile of bean sprouts. Obviously, the following is not a traditional banh xeo.  However, the concepts are still the same.   Good enough!

Ingredients

Because my veggies are not leafy, I sauteed them first so they wouldn't be raw to eat.

Meat goes in first to brown.  Ladle in the crepe mixture.  Pile in the veggies, cover & cook.

Fold over when golden brown on one side.  These probably could've cooked for a few minutes longer...

Overall, not my best attempt.  H, being the dear, still polished his plate and asked for seconds...

Hearts and rolls

H is my boyfriend, my best friend, my most trusted confidante.  I only need to look into his eyes and observe his actions to see the depths of his love and compassion.  He has shown me time and time again how love can be so simple yet so complex, that love can move mountains.  And I do believe that his love for me can move mountains.  Though the butterflies that used to flap incessantly in my stomach are now much more tamed and quiet, I am warmed from the depths of my heart to the tips of my toes when he kisses me goodnight.  It's a feeling of immeasurable comfort and familiarity that no butterflies can ever be big enough or numerous enough to replicate.

He often tells me love is simple: love is love. To that end, this post is for H and the simplicity of love.

One of H's favorite foods is also the food that is the simplest to make: Spring rolls  It requires little to no cooking on my part, and it is very simple in its ingredients.  

Spring roll ingredients:

-Tapioca/Rice sheets

-Lettuce*

-Vermincelli noodles

-Meat of choice, thin sliced 

-Fresh herbs*

-Whatever else on hand/needs to be eaten 

* = flexible according to what's fresh/on sale.  Truly the only necessary ingredient is the tapioca/rice sheet because everything else can be customized anyhow.  I used to buy rice paper sheets, but I found that tapioca sheets are tastier because they're more chewy and pliable.  My mom likes to use sliced pork in the rolls; most restaurants serve them with shrimp.  I prefer to use chinese or vietnamese sausage that's sliced and cooked to a crisp.  I've not had anything but the tapioca sheets and leftover asparagus, and it was still delicious.  

Peanut sauce ingredients:

-2 TBS Peanut butter

-4 TBS hot water 

-dash of vinegar

-1 tsp dijon mustard

-1 tsp hoisin sauce

-1 TSP sweet chili sauce

Regarding the peanut sauce... yeah... I don't really follow any rules.  I've looked it up online countless times and everyone seems to have their own version of how they make it.  I suppose the above is a compiled list of ingredients that I've found most people agree on, though they may not be in the same recipe.  To be honest, I've never made the same sauce twice because I eyeball it every time and change ingredients as they are available in my fridge/pantry.   Really the only crucial ingredient is peanut butter!

Spring roll spread

Sometimes the most satisfying things are the simplest things.

Stuffed zucchinis

As more proof to my extreme procrastination tendencies, I had taken the pictures below with the intention of writing about back in June!  

I bought the zucchinis  the Farmer's market by my university when they were in season.  These were small, round, and squat - and I had no idea how to cook them.  I was going to treat them like any other zucchinis - cut up and sauteed - but these were so cute that had to do something different.  I settled on stuffing them to keep their cuteness intact. 

Stuffing: barley, garlic, red bell peppers, cilantro sauteed in butter

These actually were cooked for a friend of mine who drove me through the rain to the Asian grocery store so I could buy groceries to surprise H with a birthday dinner.  I tasted only the stuffing and that was delicious; I only hope my friend liked them too - the entire thing.

Food Copycat: Lettuce wraps a la PF Chang

I tell my boyfriend (H) that one of the perks of taking me out to try new foods is that I might fancy to replicate a dish at home.  He's not one to need a lot of coaxing to eat out; in fact, I'm usually the one he has to convince to eat out.  It was a different story with PF Chang, however.  I had never eaten there, had only heard good things about it, albeit all coming from my American friends.  H had eaten there and vehemently trashed it for lack of authenticity and general overpriced muddying of the Chinese cuisine.  It was an exhausting struggle to get him to eat there with me.  I finally succeeded (after many, many failed attempts) at convincing him to go there on a hot summer day when half the city was out of power due to a hurricane.

I ordered the house entree: Chang's spicy chicken.  I figured if the dish is named after the restaurant, they must put special attention and lovin' into it.  I figured it would prove H wrong.  But of course he was right; the chicken was dry and the sauce was nothing more than the spicy chili sauce I could've gotten at the Asian grocery store.  I forget what H ordered, but he was also nonplussed at his meal.

The saving grace of the story, then, is the starter: the infamous PF Chang chicken lettuce wraps.  I knew I had to try it after hearing so many people talk it up.  And to my surprise it was actually delicious - the chicken was smoky and the sauce had the right zest in it; paired with crisp iceberg and it's genius.  Even H had to admit it was good.

It was good, and it was reproducible.  And tons of people on the internet have already claimed so.  With the help of Google and a few blogs, I got together the recipe to make my own lettuce wraps - granted it's not the exact replica of the dish from the restaurant, but it is delicious in it's own addicting ways.

Ingredients:
-Minced chicken or pork
-Garlic (the more the better in my opinion)
-Canned bamboo shoots, chopped
-Onion, chopped
-Red pepper, chopped (really any other veggies would work)
-Cilantro, chopped
-Iceberg lettuce (durh!)
-Rice wine (1/2 cup)
-Sweet soy sauce (2 TBS)
-Hoisin sauce (2 TBS)
-Chili sauce (1/2 cup)
-Vinegar (1 TBS)
-Fish sauce (2 tsp)

What to do:
1. Brown minced meat. Drain & put aside.
2. Sautee onion and garlic until translucent and fragrant.  Add in bamboo shoots and red pepper/other veggies.  Add in meat.  Cook on high heat for a few minutes to get it "smoky"
3. While the veggies cook, combine ingredients to make the sauce.  Add to hot pan.  Season to taste.
4. Sprinkle in cilantro.
5. Serve with crisp iceberg lettuce and a smirk to old PF Chang.

Savory filling in a crisp lettuce cup - Yum!

Tastes good AND good for you! (well, not bad for you)

 Note: Left overs taste even better, if that's even possible.  I guess the flavors get even more enhanced after marinating overnight... I brought this to lunch once with the filling in a small container and the lettuce in another container.  As I sat there savoring every bite, I could feel stares from other people nearby - perhaps I was sloppy with my lunch (it is hard to be a dainty lady when consuming these wraps) but I'm more inclined to believe they were stares of mad envy at my glorious lunch.

Chi-Chi-Chi-Cioppino!

 Procrastination is one of my specialties, especially now that I am a graduate student, with tests to study for and stacks of papers to keep up with.  So while "studying" for my Pathways & Signaling midterm, I "inadvertently" stumbled on Alizarine's blog for Cioppino. (pronouned: Chi-o-pino)

Cioppino is a soup/stew/stoup sort of dish characterized by 3 prominent ingredient categories: tomatoes, wine, and seafood. I've never even heard of cioppino let alone tasted it, but I was much intrigued - just the ingredients in it alone was enough to make me salivate.  So I set out to make my own cioppino, though my soup was a virgin as I did not use wine.  I probably can't legitimately call it cioppino without wine, but this blog isn't exactly concerned with legitimacy, so cioppino it is.

Ingredients:
-half an onion, finely diced
-1 red bell pepper, finely diced
-5 stalks of celery, finely diced
-5 cloves of garlic, minced
-pinch of red pepper flakes
-1 can tomato paste
-1 can diced tomatoes, no salt added, undrained
-1 bottle of clam juice (yes, there is such thing as "clam juice" though I've no idea how to juice a clam)
-1 can of baby clams, drained
-chicken stock, use however much you want to get the consistency & taste you want
-any seafood of choice (shrimp, scallops, fish, clams, etc.); I used mussels a la Costco
-2 bay leaves
-bunch of parsley, finely chopped
-salt, pepper, olive oil, sugar

So plump and happy these mussels look!

What to do:

1.  In a stock pot, heat oil & add in onions & garlic.  Cook until fragrant, then add in red pepper & celery; cook until tender.  Sprinkle in pepper flakes.  Add in tomato paste and cook until all ingredients are mushed together, but make it doesn't burn.
2.  Pour in chicken stock, clam juice, diced tomatoes, and drained clams.  Adjust the soup level to the consistency of choice with the chicken stock, watery or thick or somewhere in between.  Season with salt, pepper & sugar to taste.
3.  While the soup simmers on low-med heat, clean the mussels.  Make sure to de-beard them & brush the shells.  Throw away any that are cracked or don't close upon tapping. 
4.   Turn up the heat on the soup and drop in the mussels.  Cover & cook for ~5 minutes.  Stir to make sure everything is coated well and all the mussels are open.
5.  Serve hot with crusty bread.  Sit back and gloat in your cooking abilities. 

Served with crusty hunks of bread to mop up all that delicious soupy goodness.

Nutella & strawberry crepes

During my adventures abroad in 2008, I had a 4-day visit in Paris.  And of all the impressive sights in Paris, including Le Tour Eiffel, the one that I remember most clearly (even now) is of... le crepe.  To be more specific, I remember waiting in line in front of a small street vendor intoxicated by the smell of the crepe.  The vendor had a hot plates that he used to cook the crepes.  These plates were about the size of a large pizza, black and circular with no rims, and at least an inch thick.  As each order came in, he would pour a ladle-full of batter onto the plate.  He then used a thin stick to evenly spread the batter on the plate.  After a few minutes, he used another stick to get underneath the crepe and effortlessly lift it up and flip it over.  Then came a generous helping of Nutella, followed by whatever else toppings that the customer ordered.  The crepe was then folded in half, and half again, wrapped in parchment, and the customer would walk away crepe in hand, munching happily about town.  The whole routine probably lasted less than 2 minutes, from order in to order out.  But standing there that day, I was mesmerized at the effortlessness of it all. 

And then there was the moment when he handed me my Nutella crepe, mine.  "Bon appetit, mademoiselle" he said because I must have looked at the treat with some kind of incredible awe, kind of like a kid who's just seen the biggest cake in his life. 

I managed to indulge in a few more of these awesome treats during my short visit, but since I only had fond memories to satiate my cravings.  Somehow I thought that Nutella crepes were a French thing, that I could only get in France and no where else.  That was until I had a rare stroke of genius and decided to Google crepe recipes.  Imagine my surprise when none of the recipes called for anything French, like French air, or French water, or French eggs.  Imagine my astonishment at the realization that I could make this at home and actually satiate my cravings with this edible deliciousness.

The batter recipe was adapted The Yellow Table.  Original requirements (in parentheses) say for 20 crepes, which I thought was a lot for two people, so I halved everything thinking I would get 10 medium crepes.  I ended with only 6 crepes, which left us quite happy but wanting more.  Note to self: don't scale down next time.  Also, I had no milk or vanilla extract so I substituted with coconut milk.

1 egg (2 eggs)
1 tablespoon coconut milk (1 cup milk, 2 teaspoons vanilla)
1.5 cups water (1/4 cup water)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoons sugar (2 TBS sugar)
1 tablespoons melted butter (2 TBS butter)

I mixed everything together and stuck the batter in the fridge while I cut the strawberries.  The batter should be more on the runny side, but not completely watery. Then I heated a medium non-stick pan.  I took the pan off the heat while I ladled in the batter and swirled it around to evenly coat the pan.  Put it back on the heat for a minute or two.  Once the edges looked brown and crispy, I flipped it over and let it cook for another half a minute.  The crepe slides off the pan effortlessly.  I then spread a thin layer of Nutella on the crepe and topped it with strawberries, and rolled it up. 

Had I known it was so simple to make, I would've had many more Nutella crepes since my Paris trip.  It was so simple that I didn't waste even waste an obligatory burnt or otherwise messed up first crepe.  And rest assured, it tastes just as delicious (if not, more glorious) as the ones in Paris... crispy at the edges; warm, gooey, sweet, slightly tart near the middle.  So delicious I can't stop thinking about this all day long.  So delicious that I will make it again tomorrow.  So delicious that the boyfriend requests double servings tomorrow.  Oh so delicious.

Crepes folded up like napkins