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Monday, December 26, 2016

Maque Choux Cornbread Muffins #MuffinMonday

Maque choux is a spicy Cajun corn dish that makes an appearance at every holiday meal at my house. I am quite happy to eat leftovers from a bowl with a spoon but maque choux cornbread muffins are another delightful choice.



Welcome to the final Muffin Monday for 2016! It's been a year of change and challenge for many of us, but coming together once a month to bake and share muffins is therapeutic, at least for me. I hope you all have enjoyed the variety of muffins as much as I do.

I created this little group because muffins are one of the easiest things to bake. I wanted to motivate readers who are intimidated by baking to give muffins a try. You don't need electric beaters for mixing, just two bowls and a spoon or spatula. All the wet ingredients in one bowl. All the dry ingredients in the other. Fold them together and bake in a greased muffin pan. What could be simpler?

Ingredients
1 cup or 200g fine cornmeal or polenta
1 cup or 125g flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup or 235g leftover maque choux from this recipe
1/2 cup or 113g butter, melted and cooled
1/3 cup or 80g thick sour cream
2 large eggs

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 12-cup muffin pan by lining it with paper muffin cups or greasing it.

In a large mixing bowl, combine your cornmeal and flour with the baking powder, baking soda and salt

In another mixing bowl, combine your maque choux, eggs, sour cream and melted butter.



Pour the wet ingredients into dry mixture and stir until well combined. Spoon the thick batter evenly into the muffin cups.



Bake for about 20 minutes in your preheated oven or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.



These make a great addition to any brunch or luncheon menu.



Enjoy!




Have any of our Muffin Monday posts motivated you to get in the kitchen and bake? I'd love to hear from you if they have.  After all, with recipes as delicious as the ones the Muffin Monday bakers share, you have a great selection of both savory and sweet recipes to try.

Check out this month's tasty links.



#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.


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Sunday, December 18, 2016

Tuna Salad Stuffed Deviled Eggs

Mix all the ingredients that make you love tuna salad with egg yolks and pile them in your egg whites to make tasty tuna salad deviled eggs. These are great for a party or a picnic.


For many of the years we lived in Malaysia I held multiple roles at the American Association of Malaysia or AAM. As publications director, I was a voting member of the board of governance for the organization and responsible for our three major publications, the A-Z Directory – a sort of Yellow Pages, the Selamat Datang – our resource book of cultural/educational information for newcomers, and our monthly magazine, the KL American. My other roles were editor of all three and webmaster for our website KLAmerican.com. Busy but productive times!

The board of directors met each month and since the meeting was often scheduled through lunchtime, we’d bring dishes to share. Once, early on, I brought some party sandwiches, the kind without crusts, cut into fancy triangles. The president of the board took her first bite, stopped short and said, “What did you put in your egg salad? Is that tuna?” My response was an incredulous look. “Egg salad? That’s tuna salad! Do you not put eggs in your tuna salad?”

Where I come from tuna salad always has chopped boiled eggs in it. But after an informal poll of the other board members, there seemed to be a cultural divide between northern and southern states. Up north, or so they told me, tuna salad does not have eggs. The funny thing is, they all loved my sandwiches and declared that from then on, they’d be adding eggs. Score one for the southern home team!

A couple of weeks ago I was home alone, busy working, and I decided to make some tuna salad for lunch. I put eggs on to boil. For once, they peeled beautifully. Much too beautifully to be chopped for tuna salad. That’s when the idea struck me. Tuna Salad Deviled Eggs! It’s tuna salad for the low carb crowd. And while those little triangle sandwiches are also great for parties, I have never returned from a potluck with even one deviled egg left on my plate. People love deviled eggs and that's a fact.

I am not a big believer in pickles or celery or other extraneous chopped things in my tuna salad, but if you are, feel free to make this your own by adding some. Sometimes I’ll put a little grated onion but that’s the limit for me. It’s a textural thing.

Ingredients
6 large eggs
1 can tuna chunks in water, drained (drained weight 4.25 oz or 120g)
6 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon yellow mustard
Hot sauce, to taste – optional (in other kitchens, not in ours)

To garnish:
Slices of onion
Sprinkle of cayenne pepper or paprika

Method
Hard boil and peel six large eggs. Cut them in half.
Scoop the yolks out and into a small mixing bowl. Dry the whites with a paper towel and arrange them on a decorative platter.
Mash the yolks together with the tuna, mayonnaise, mustard and hot sauce of your choice, if using. I make my own habanero sauce which must go in any tuna, chicken or egg salad. (By the way, my chicken salad also has eggs, as does my potato salad. Just so you know.)


Spoon the tuna mixture into the egg whites. Garnish with some onion and a sprinkle of cayenne or paprika, if desired.


Enjoy!

Whether you are hosting your own holiday party or just need recipes for dishes to take along to a potluck holiday dinner, Sunday Supper is here to help. Many thanks to our host this week, Caroline of Caroline's Cooking and our event manager, Cricket of Cricket's Confections.

Appetizers

Beverages

Finger Foods

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Thursday, December 15, 2016

Coconut Snowball Mini Bundts #BundtBakers

Coconut snowball mini Bundts are subtly coconutty inside and full-on coconutty outside. Best of all, they look like small snowballs, perfect little sweet gifts for your neighbors and friends. If you can bear to give them away.



This month our Bundt Bakers’ theme is Winter Wonderland so we’ve got lots of great cakes for you with holiday flavors. I wasn’t sure if coconut was necessarily a traditional choice but last weekend I was at a friend’s house and one of her current food magazines had a gorgeous photo of a three-layer coconut cake with the caption: The only Christmas cake you need to make. Or something like that.

We all agreed that it would never be the only Christmas cake one needs to make, because it’s clearly not actual Christmas cake as we know it. But it would be nice, if you like coconut. Which I most certainly do. With that in mind, I baked these little coconut Bundts, because they look like snowballs.

Ingredients
For the cake batter – fits one Nordic Ware Duet pan
1 1/2 cups or 190g flour
3/4 cup or 150g sugar
1/2 cup or 120ml coconut oil, at room temperature
1/2 cup or 120ml coconut cream
2 eggs
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons baking powder

For the frosting:
1/3 cup or unsalted butter or vegetable shortening, or a combination
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups or 312g powdered sugar
1 to 3 tablespoons coconut cream

For decoration:
2 cups, not tightly packed, or 195g sweetened shredded coconut

Method
Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C. Grease and flour your Bundt pan. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat all of the cake batter ingredients at low speed until well mixed, scraping down the sides of the bowl frequently with a rubber spatula.

Put it all in at once. Super easy.

Increase the beater speed to medium and beat for five minutes, stopping every couple of minutes to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.


Slowly pour the batter into your baking pan.  Smooth out the top with your rubber spatula. This is a Nordic Ware Duet pan.


Bake in your preheated oven for 32-38 minutes or until golden on top and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool for about 10 minutes. The tiny Bundts should begin pulling away from the sides of the pan.

To make the frosting: Beat the butter and/or shortening until fluffy. Beat in the salt and vanilla. Add a tablespoon of coconut cream.



Sift the powdered sugar into the mixing bowl and beat until smooth. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add the rest of coconut cream a little at a time till you get soft spreadable frosting.



Frost the mini Bundts liberally, then cover with coconut, gently pressing it into the frosting so it sticks. You can leave the hole empty so they still look like mini Bundts or fill the holes with coconut for more of a snowball effect.



Enjoy!


Many thanks to our host this month, Laura from Baking in Pyjamas. Check out all the other Winter Wonderland Bundts.

BundtBakers  

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on the BundtBakers home page.

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Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Cranberry Sweet Rolls #BreadBakers

Cranberries are the darling of this season, showing up in savory and sweet recipes. (For those of us who can't get Florida Strawberries!) They add both sweetness and a welcome tart bite to these cranberry sweet rolls. Perfect for Christmas morning. Or any morning, really.


If you’ve been reading this space for a while, you might remember that I started Bread Bakers with my friend and fellow blogger Renee at Magnolia Days in September of 2014. As a group, we've been baking bread and growing like a good sourdough starter ever since. Twelve bakers took part in that first group event. This month, more than two years on, we have 16 delicious sweet yeast breads to share with you. Some months we’ve had 29 or 30 but I’m happy with 20 in a busy month like December.

Part of our Bread Bakers blurb talks about members taking turns choosing the theme or main ingredient and hosting the event each month. Because everyone is so willing to step forward, I haven’t actually hosted for ages, just played a supporting role to whoever was in charge. This month I’m stepping in to host! Our theme was chosen by Laura of Baking in Pyjamas who unfortunately had to drop out this month. I am delighted to fill in.

My cranberry sweet rolls are a seasonal take on cinnamon rolls, but with a buttery enriched dough and homemade cranberry filling. Make sure to follow my instructions to set aside a little of the filling for topping as well. That bright red on top makes them even more festive. If you want to enjoy these freshly baked for breakfast, follow the alternative instructions for the second proofing.

Don't forget to scroll down and check out all the other sweet yeast breads we’ve baked for you this month, perfect for the holiday season.

Ingredients
For the enriched dough:
1/2 cup or 120ml warm water
2 tablespoons sugar
1 envelope fast-acting yeast (1/4 oz or 7g)
1 1/2 cups or 190g all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling out the dough
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup or 57g butter, very soft but not melted

For the filling:
3/4 cup or 150g sugar
1/4 cup or 60ml water
1/4 cup or 60ml fresh orange juice
Zest of 1/2 orange (save other half for decoration)
2 cups or 210g fresh or frozen cranberries

For the glaze:
3/4 cup or 95g powdered sugar, sifted
3-4 teaspoons milk

Method
Make the filling first so it has time to cool:
In a large saucepan, bring sugar, water, orange juice and cranberries to a boil. Cook, uncovered, until cranberries begin to pop, just a few minutes. Reduce heat; simmer 15 minutes longer or until thickened, stirring occasionally. Stir in orange zest; cover and set aside to cool.



Line the bottom of an 9 in or 23cm round baking pan with baking parchment.

To make the dough: Place the water, sugar, and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Let the mixture rest for a few minutes to activate the yeast.

Add in the flour and salt. Mix well until a soft dough forms. Keep your mixer on medium speed and add in the butter a tablespoon or so at a time, mixing until the butter is incorporated each time.



Cover the bowl with some cling film or a damp towel and set aside to rest for 15 minutes. With rapid rise yeast, this rest takes the place of the first full proofing. This quite a soft dough.


On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough to a rectangle about 12x15in or 31x38cm.



Spread all but about 1/4 cup or 75g of the filling on the dough rectangle, going all the way to the sides but leaving a bit empty at the end. Save the balance for decoration.



Roll the dough up as tightly as you can manage, jellyroll style, ending at the empty end so it can seal itself as you finish the roll. Cut the roll into six equal pieces.



Place the cut rolls into your prepared pan.

Cover with cling film and set in a warm place to rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until doubled in size. (Alternatively, if you want to bake fresh for breakfast in the morning, you can now put the sweet rolls in the refrigerator to rise more slowly overnight. Take them out in the next day and put them in a warm place while you preheat your oven.)



When the last rise time is almost up, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C.

Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until the tops are golden.



Remove from the oven and leave to cool before adding the glaze.

To make the glaze, add the milk by teaspoons to the powdered sugar, stirring well in between, until you reach a good drizzling consistency.

Drizzle the glaze over the cooled cranberry sweet rolls. Add dollops of the reserved cranberry filling in between. Sprinkle with the remaining orange zest.



Enjoy!

Check out all the great sweet yeast breads!

BreadBakers
#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

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Wednesday, December 7, 2016

The Back Forty Cocktail #FoodieExtravaganza

The Back Forty cocktail was the signature eponymous drink at Back Forty, Peter Hoffman's casual East Village restaurant and bar. It’s made with maple syrup, fresh lemon juice, whiskey and a few good shakes of orange bitters.


As I have confessed before, the pancake syrup of choice in our house is, and has been for more years than I can count, Aunt Jemima’s Butter Lite. I’ve hauled those plastic squeezy bottles from the United States to five other continents in my luggage. Even here in Dubai, one can find Aunt Jemima’s but not the Butter Lite. They don’t know what they are missing.

But this month my Foodie Extravaganza group is using maple syrup in our recipes so I felt obliged to buy the real stuff. A fairly small bottle is about $8 so a cocktail recipe that would make it last longer than, say, using the whole thing in cookies or cake seemed like a prudent plan.

Just a quick search on The Google led me to The Back Forty Cocktail recipe already published in many places but the most reliable seemed to be in this 2008 article, an interview with then Back Forty bar manager Michael Cecconi. Sadly, I will never taste the original because Back Forty closed this past July but if my homemade cocktail with Canadian maple syrup, Kentucky bourbon and Angostura orange bitters instead of Vermont syrup, Tennessee whiskey and Fee Brothers bitters (none of which are available to me here) is any indication, it was delicious.

Ingredients
2 oz or 60ml American whiskey or bourbon
1 oz or 30ml maple syrup
1 oz or 30ml fresh lemon juice
3-5 dashes orange bitters
Ice

Method
Add the lemon juice and maple syrup to a cocktail shaker and swirl it around to loosen the maple syrup and dissolve it in the lemon juice. Add in the bourbon and a cup or so of ice cubes.
Shake vigorously to combine and serve over more ice in a low ball glass.




Garnish with a lemon slice or lemon peel if desired but know that, as per Mr. Cecconi, the original has no garnish. Because it's perfect just as it is.



Many thanks to this month's Foodie Extravaganza host, Lauren from Sew You Think You Can Cook. Don't forget to check out all the other maple syrupy recipes we are sharing.

Foodie Extravaganza celebrates obscure food holidays or shares recipes with the same ingredient or theme every month.

Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook group Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you!

If you're a reader looking for delicious recipes, check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board! Looking for our previous parties? Check them out here.

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Sunday, December 4, 2016

Craig Claiborne's Eggnog Mousse

Eggnog is a simple drink, made with fresh eggs, cream or milk and sugar. Craig Claiborne’s Eggnog Mousse takes those key ingredients and puts them together to create a creamy, fluffy dessert.



This week my Sunday Supper group is sharing eggnog recipes, actual homemade eggnog in one case as well as recipes that use eggnog as an ingredient. While I was researching eggnog, I came upon a recipe from 1958 which appeared in The New York Times in an article written by Craig Claiborne.

Mr. Claiborne was a food critic for The Times as well as its food editor for 29 years.  As the author or editor of more than 20 books, he has been credited, along with Julia Child, with bringing French cuisine to the United States. A trailblazer in many ways, Mr. Claiborne was the first man to hold the food editor position in any major newspaper, a role that was considered a woman’s job when he took over back in the 1950s.

When this recipe was originally published, Mr. Claiborne didn’t call it eggnog mousse but simply eggnog. After reading through the method, I made that name up because this is clearly a mousse. A very adult mousse, with all that alcohol.

His penultimate instruction was to serve it in punch cups with spoons. But in his final instruction, he allowed that one could add 1 to 2 cups of milk to the yolk mixture for a thinner eggnog. An eggnog a person could drink, presumably.

This recipe makes about 4 1/4 cups or 1 liter of mousse. It is easily doubled or even quadrupled. Indeed, Mr. Claiborne's original recipe was for four times this amount. He must have been throwing some very big parties!

 Important: Raw unpasteurized eggs should never be served to children, older adults, pregnant women, and people with weakened immune systems (such as transplant patients and individuals with HIV/AIDS, cancer, and diabetes).

Ingredients
3 eggs, separated
1/3 cup or 66g granulated sugar
1/4 cup or 60ml bourbon
1/4 cup or 60ml Cognac
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups or 355ml heavy whipping cream
Pinch cream of tartar
Nutmeg or cinnamon, to serve

Method
Separate the egg yolks and whites carefully, putting the whites in the refrigerator for later.

Using electric beaters, whip the egg yolks and the sugar until they thicken and turn a pale yellow.



With the beaters on slow, gradually add the bourbon and Cognac, beating well in between additions, until all is incorporated.



Cover the boozy yolks with cling film and pop them in the refrigerator to chill.

Once the yolk mixture is chilled, beat the cream with the pinch of cream of tartar until stiff peaks form. Fold the whipped cream into the yolk mixture with a light hand.



Use a clean mixing bowl or wash the one you just used very well and beat the egg whites in it until they reach stiff peaks. Gently fold the egg whites into the yolk/cream mixture.





Spoon the resulting mousse into serving dishes and chill until ready to serve. My little cups hold just a little more than a 1/4 cup or 60ml, perfect if you are offering this eggnog mousse with other dessert options on a buffet table. Put out the demitasse spoons, if you have any.


Sprinkle on a little nutmeg or cinnamon before serving.


This week our Sunday Supper tastemakers are sharing their own special eggnog recipes in honor of National Eggnog Month. Many thanks to our host Christie of A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures and our event manager, Cricket of Cricket's Confections for all of their behind-the-scenes work!

Baked Goods

Beverages

Breakfast and Breakfast Pastries

Desserts


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