Miles In Between

I’ve been inspired only recently again when it comes to food. I mean, who could not be inspired by donut cake? Seriously, after Hazel was born I spent about 3 months without much desire for food. I would be hungry, belly rumbling, and I could not name a single thing that sounded good to eat. I blamed hormones, and it put me in an interesting position as a foodie. It’s reason I stopped writing about food here; everything was sustenance, nothing exciting. Well, well, well, the tides have turned. I can’t get two pages into a magazine and I am cutting out recipes and affiixing post-it notes. My mouth is watering and I am meal planning weeks in advance. We’re back.

This recipe called to me on so many levels. There’s eggplant (that’s for you, Linda), pine nuts, and caramelized onions. But really it was the rice that made it one of my first post-partum culinary ventures. I remember going to middle eastern restaurants growing up and being fascinated by the succulent rice with tiny brown worms running through it. Turns out they are fried noodle pieces, and this recipe does it in butter. This was originally adapted by the author from her grandma’s recipe to be suitable for a vegetarian magazine. I went back and made grandma proud by making it with lamb, but you could sub TVP if you like. Be sure to salt at various stages throughout cooking, especially if your canned goods are low sodium.

Stuffed Eggplant & Butter-Saffron Rice (from Vegetarian Times)

• 3 large eggplants, cut into 3″ thick rounds
• 2 medium onions, sliced thinly
• 1/2 cup pine nuts
• 1 lb ground lamb, or beef
• 1 1/2 tsp all spice
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 6-oz can tomato paste
• 1 15-oz can diced tomatoes (NOT low-sodium)

• 4 Tbsp butter
• 3/4 cup broken angel hair pasta (1″ pieces)
• 2 cups long grain white rice
• 1/2 tsp saffron threads
• 1 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Salt eggplant on both sides and set on platter for 20 minutes. Rinse and dry, then drizzle with olive oil and arrange in a 9×13 baking pan. Bake 35-40 minutes, until tender.
2. Meanwhile, heat 2 Tbsp oil over med-low heat. Slowly cook onion, about 20 minutes, until nice and caramelized. Add pine nuts and cook about 5 minutes more until browned. Remove to plate.
3. Add lamb or beef to skillet and brown. Drain most of the fat and add the spices, cooking a minute longer. Add onion/pinenut mixture to skillet and off the heat. Adjust salt & pepper.
4. Go to your eggplant, making sure the wider surface is face up in the pan. Use a spoon to push the softened middles down to create a depression. Smear each with 1 Tbsp tomato paste, then pile on the lamb filling. Top each with a generous spoon of diced tomatoes. Pour about 1/2 cup water in the bottom of the dish. Cover with foil and bake about 30 minutes at 300F. Remove foil and bake 10 minutes longer. Take it out of the oven, allow to rest 10 minutes under foil.
5. For rice, heat butter in a large soup pot. Add noodles and fry until golden. Add rice until covered with butter. Add saffron, salt and 4 cups water or broth, bringing to a boil. Then reduce heat to low, cover and cook 15 minutes or until water is absorbed. Remove from the heat and let stand 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork before serving.
6. Place a mound of rice then top with a crown of eggplant. I see why the original author called this “royale”, it’s stunning.

Four months go by without any food posts from me and I come at you with donut cake. I wanted to make sure it was something you were all going to make to get you back on track for recipes on this blog. I couldn’t very well make my first post called “kale smoothies” or something, that would not do.

I miss donuts. I ate them often growing up and less and less frequently after leaving the Midwest until coming to Asia where I eat them almost never. Cider mill donuts are the best, the cinnamon sugar kind, fresh and warm. I gorged on them last year when we passed one (open! In July! – I was pregnant, ok?). Well guess what folks…here is a cake that brings you all that warm deliciousness with a sugar crunchy top any time of the year on any continent.

The cake here is a bit denser than your typical cake donut, and the moistness works to mimic that warm steam that emits from a fresh donut. The smell that fills your kitchen as you bake this is almost as good as the cake itself, pure cider mill stuff; I think it’s the nutmeg/vanilla combo. Do yourself a favor and eat this with hot coffee, masala tea or fresh cider, depending on what part of the world you are making this in.

Cider Mill Donut Cake (adapted from The Wednesday Chef)

• 8 Tbsp butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 2 Tbsp cornmeal
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup buttermilk*
• 1/4 cup cinnamon suga

1. Butter and flour an 8″ springform pan. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Beat in vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. With the mixer running, alternatively add flour mixture and buttermilk to the butter mixture in 3 additions each, scraping down the bowl and stopping when it is fully incorporated but not over mixed.
4. Pour into prepared pan and spread evenly. Coat the top of the batter with cinnamon sugar. Bake 35-45 minutes, or until tester inserted comes out clean and you are ready to pass out from the lovely aroma. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then transfer to a plate to eat soon. Or later. Enjoy.

*Asia: no donuts, no buttermilk. You can substitute drained whey from yogurt or milk with a squeeze of lemon juice. They both get the job done.

It would be impressive if my mini gingerbreads were thimble-sized houses, with icing icicles and candy cane arches all in miniature.  But, it’s the week before Christmas and even those of you that are not 39 weeks pregnant with a two year old on break from kindy are a little bit busy.  So, lucky for you, these are easy.  And delicious.  It’s bread, in a mini-muffin form.  And spiced, in a gingerbread way.  But moist, in a don’t-feel-bad-about-eating-a-dozen-they’re-mini-muffins way.

This is a recipe from my food blog friend Anna over at Tallgrass Kitchen.  Her Christmas setting is a little different from ours this year, being in rural Northern Wisconcin as opposed to a highrise on a tropical island, but it seems we enjoy this gingerbread equally this season.

Mini Gingerbreads (from Tallgrass Kitchen)

• 11 Tbsp butter
• 1 cup corn syrup
• 1/2 cup molassas
• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp fresh grated ginger root
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp baking soda, dissolved in 2 T warm water
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups flour

1. Preheat oven to 350F and grease your mini muffin tin (this recipe makes about 5 dozen mini muffins, I did it in 2 batches).
2. Melt butter, corn syrup, sugar and spices in a saucepan until melted and combined.  Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.  Stir in milk.  Add baking soda and beaten eggs, whisk to combine completely.
3. Sift flour into a bowl.  Slowly add the mixture from the saucepan, whisking away especially at the beginning to prevent lumps.
4. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full – these will rise considerably and then lava all over the place if you overfill (see the fourth picture above? Lava-inducing filling.  Note there is no finished product picture.).  Bake for 12-15 minutes, testing with a toothpick for doneness.  Do not overcook, they are best a bit sticky.
5. Cool 10 minutes in the tin, then remove to a plate.  Dust with powdered sugar if you need curb appeal, and enjoy alongside the husband’s homemade eggnog.  Yum.

I’m 16, and on a date.  FNL style, we’re at Applebee’s.  We share this (it’s still on the menu, 14 years later).  I think I’m in love.  With the blondie, that is.  I reminisce about this for years, eat bar cookies and brownies, but never quite reach that level.  Once when I was pregnant with Miles I was served something similar, but that man (the baker and father of a friend’s baby) was out of my life soon after as well, recipe never exchanged.  I tried to recreate it myself and failed, wasting time and butter and chocolate and precious, precious imported nuts.  And then I ran across this recipe.

It seemed too simple.  There was no rising agent.  Too little salt.  Too much sugar.  But guess what?  It is spot on.  Very easy as well, you can make the whole thing in one bowl in minutes, bake for about half an hour and be eating warm blondies in less than an hour.  If you want to get fancy, serve it on a sizzling cast iron plate with vanilla ice cream and “maple butter” (I don’t even want to try and guess what’s in that).  I ate them straight out of the pan, but here’s what I did to get fancy: the recipe calls for melted butter, but I went a step further and intentionally browned the butter.  This technique of heating the butter on the stove top until the solids cook to a deep golden brown is a pretty recent food trend, and something you can do to update a grandmother’s cookie recipe to make it relevant.  I find it makes the overall flavor caramelly, especially when paired with brown sugar, and even more modern when combined with sea salt.  I can’t name a single person who would complain about getting served these instead of a Christmas cookie, even without the maple butter.

Brown Butter Blondies (from Smitten Kitchen)

• 1 stick butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• pinch salt
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup toasted nuts
• 1/2 bar good dark chocolate, broken into chunks

Note: I doubled the recipe and made a 13×9 in pan.  Also, you can skip browning the butter if you’re in a hurry, but it really makes a difference.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and prepare a 8×8 square baking pan.
2. Place the butter in a sauce pan and melt over medium heat.  It will start to bubble.  As it starts to foam, lower the heat and watch as the foam turns from yellow to golden to tan and starting to become a bit rusty…remove from the heat and pour into a mixing bowl.  Allow to cool slightly.
3. Whisk sugar into the cooled butter.  Add egg and vanilla, and whisk to combine.  Add salt and flour, use a spatula to incorporate without overmixing.  Fold in nuts and chopped chocolate.
4. Pour into the pan (no need to butter/flour) and bake 25-30 minutes, or until just set in the center.  These are best a bit gooey.

After months on hiatus, I busted out my vintage Laurel’s Kitchen cookbook.  This is the book that taught me how to cook.  It is unfussy in the best of ways: there are no trendy ingredients, no tricky or unnecessary steps, the flavors are fresh and simple.  Between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, I felt I needed a bit of a butter-break (not for long, though) and a little less time barefoot, and very pregnant, in my kitchen.

I used to make this soup all the time in college, it was probably my intro to soup-making-at-home, something I used to think was very difficult, now that I think of it.  The fresh sweet flavor took me back to our massive, old, drafty house on White St in Champaign, where I remember eating this for breakfast before class.  This recipe needs to be filed under “delicious”, “easy” and “why don’t I make this every week?”, but have it for dinner, with salad and rolls.

Corn Chowder (adapted from Laurel’s Kitchen)

• 2 cups water or broth
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 2 medium potatoes, diced
• 3 stalks celery, diced
• kernels* from 2 cobs of corn (or use 1 cup frozen corn)
• 2 cups milk
• salt and pepper

1. Put water, onion, celery and potato in large soup pan and bring to a boil.  Simmer about 10 minutes, or until potatoes are relatively soft.  Add corn and simmer a few more minutes.
2. (Optional) Blend some, half or all of the soup in a blender.
3. Add milk and heat but do not boil.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

*Fresh corn is really good here, although it is out of season.  After you use your knife to remove the kernels, take the back of the knife and scrape the cob.  What comes out is tiny little nubs of corn and some sweet sweet corn milk.  Add this to your pot.  Delicious, and definitely a waste to throw away.

I never tried passionfruit until I moved to Australia when I was 20.  I liked it then, but didn’t develop true love for it until we moved here.  I buy a bag of them every week and eat one almost every day.  The layers to our breakfast go like this (from the bottom): assorted chopped tropical fruit, plain full fat yogurt, passionfruit, granola.  Miles has his deconstructed: fruit in one bowl, yogurt & now passionfruit in another.  He’s also on the passionfruit train, so now we typically go through 2 a day, although sometimes Tim just misses out.

Not last week.  I went to my standard fruit vendor and was disappointed in the small pile of withered fruit; they were almost collapsing in on themselves.  Somehow, he convinced me to buy the entire pile at a 50% discount (I have a real problem turning down a bargain).  Well, I got these 25 or so fruits home and found the best specimens we have had to date!  Juicy, sweet, fruity with that telltale tang I have come to savour.  I froze some into an ice cube tray, saved some for the week, and Miles and I ate some with a spoon.  Lesson: Do judge a passionfruit by its looks – the uglier and wrinklier it is, the more it has to offer.

Oh, in November you want recipes that give you an excuse to turn on the oven?  What do you think this was all about?  Sorry, this one is too good not to share, even if the season seems a little off.  And I know there are readers out there in Penang and Australia where it is very much NOT oven weather.  This is good in that it takes 5 minutes to make.  Good in that I recognize all the ingredients as wonderful for you stuff, and yet Miles slurps it down bowl after bowl.  Good as in keeps in the fridge for days, has a relatively adaptable ingredient list, is a delicious guilt-free snack, doubles as a sauce, need I go on?  Oh, it tastes GOOD.

I served this along side our mole enchiladas, and it provided just the right amount of cooling needed for a hearty dish.  If you absolutely must, turn on the oven and roast up a shoulder of lamb with a side of moroccan spiced sweet potatoes.  Serve this soup on the side, garnished with ruby red pomegranate seeds.  Now, how’s that for seasonally festive?

Green Gazpacho

• 1 large cucumber, seeded and chopped
• 1 yellow pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 avocado, pitted and chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and rough chopped
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1 bunch mint, picked from stems
• about 5 spring onions, rough chopped
• juice of one lemon
• salt and pepper

We live on a tropical island, and yet we crave winter.  The humidity hovers around 90%, blessing us with perpetually perfect skin, all rosy and glistening, and yet we crave the crackle of dry fallen leaves and the sharp burning of the lungs after a Colorado run.  Our island is half covered in tropical fruit farm and spice gardens, and yet we crave berries, stone fruit, and exotic dried chilis from Central America.  We live in a food paradise, can get a dimsum feast for less than $5 a person, eat spicy curries off a banana leaf for a $1 lunch, gobble the exotic flavors of Nyonya cooking for dinner, and yet we crave Fonda San Miguel weekend brunch.  OK, interior Mexican cravings totally justifiable, as for the rest of it, I think we’re a bit spoiled!

I have never considered making my own mole.  It’s the stuff of ancient Mexican grandmothers, with secrets generations deep, and certainly requires some exotic ingredients, not to mention a pestle-mortar, right?  Apparently not.  I whipped up this recipe out of a magazine’s “easy weeknight dinners” section with ingredients that are all easily found anywhere, with surprisingly excellent results.  As Tim noted, every mole is different (very true), so I am claiming this as my hand me down legacy secret recipe.  Note: I doubled the chicken and had this as plain chicken mole the first night, turning the leftovers into the enchiladas for the second go around.  Enjoy!

Mole Enchiladas (from Eating Well)

• 4 chicken thighs (or 8, to make it for two meals)
• salt and pepper
• canola oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp chili powder (for making chili soup, not straight chile)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1 8-oz can tomato puree
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1/4 cup dark chocolate, chopped
• 1 Tbsp peanut or almond butter
• 12 corn tortillas
• 2 oz cheddar cheese, grated
• toasted sesame seeds and sliced avocado, for serving

I am not a fruitcake hater.  I’ve loved the stuff since eating the dense loaves as a child.  I even converted Tim; well, my Aunt Helen did.  One year she sent a HUGE angel food cake pan sized fruitcake to us for Christmas.  It weighed easily over 20 lbs.  HUGE.  We nicked off a slice or two, and sat it on the bottom shelf of the fridge for a few weeks, all the while Tim cracking jokes about it.  Do you know what happens to fruitcake when it sits around?  It gets awesome.  Better and better with each month that goes by.  By February, we were hooked on it.  For weeks we would shave off wafer thin slices (you can’t eat much fruitcake at a sitting, trust me) and snack on them.  It was like an energy bar, soaked in booze.  A very good thing.  I think it lasted us until about June, even with constant eating.  I told you, it was massive.  We missed it when it was gone.

The following Christmas season, I started thinking of putting up my own fruitcakes.  Both to return the favor to Aunt Helen, and to have some high energy snacking available for when our little Miles came along.  Not being a huge fan of the glaceed fruits, I was looking for something more natural.  Lots of internet searches unearthed this recipe from a very old Gourmet magazine post (It’s not even on their epicurious site).  Fruitcake haters’ fruitcake.  And apparently fruitcake lovers’ as well.  I like this recipe because it is very natural and adaptable.  Use whatever dried fruits and nuts you have; take this opportunity to clean off your shelves for all the ingredients you need for closer-to-the-holidays baking.  I used a mix of apricots, dates, black raisins, golden raisins, and a sprinkle (just the ends of the bags, really) of figs, cherries and pineapple.  For nuts, I had pecans, walnuts and a handful of pistachios.  Instead of one mammoth cake, I made 10 mini-loaves, and plan to rest them in the fridge the next 8 weeks until perfect for snacking and gifting.  By all my fruitcake loving friends.

Note: this makes A LOT of fruitcake.  Pay attention where the measurements are in weights or measures.  Its worth it to make the whole batch.  It keeps literally forever, and as its a lot of work, you might as well get it out of the way and have extras.  The fruitcake lover in your life will thank you.

Fruitcake Haters’ Fruitcake (from Gourmet)

• 4 pounds dried fruit, cut into raisin-sized pieces
• 2 pounds nuts, not necessarily chopped
• 4 cups (500g) flour
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp all spice
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 4 sticks (1 pound) butter, softened at room temp
• 2 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup honey
• 10 eggs, at room temp
• 1 cup apricot nectar
• 1/2 cup cream
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 cup brandy
• 1/2 cup orange flavored liquor (like Triple Sec or Cointreau)

Here’s something orange for Halloween.  Tell you what I would do with it:  trick your kids into swapping you all their reese’s peanut butter cups and mini snickers treats for these much healthier alternatives!  There’s sugar on top, I’m sure you can pull it off.  No dress up, jack-o-lanterns or TorT here for us this year, maybe next year we’ll plan something.

Right, these muffins.  They are interesting.  It’s not a cakey type muffin; instead the sweet potato lends a chewy denseness that is quite pleasing.  The color remains pretty orange, even after baking.  I am convinced a sugar sprinkled top is the key to all delicious quick breads, especially when they are this healthy.  Miles gobbled these down.  Enjoy, and eat a PB cup for me!

Sweet Potato Muffins (adapted from Williams Sonoma)

• 2 sweet potatoes (about 1 lb total), the deep orange kind
• 1 cup white flour
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1/2 cup milk
• zest of one orange
• 3 Tbsp cinnamon-sugar