Honey Thyme Cornbread Muffins #MuffinMonday

These sweet honey thyme cornbread muffins are delicious as is, or slather them with butter and an extra drizzle of honey to serve. They make a great breakfast or snack.

I have been quietly grinching to myself that all the muffins for Muffin Monday have been sweet lately and we all know I don’t eat sweets very much. Not for dietary reasons, goodness knows, but because I prefer savory. I’ll take a greasy link of sausage over a piece of chocolate cake any old day. But with this week's recipe came the perfect opportunity to bend the muffin my way. A cornbread muffin! Which can totally become savory!

But my sister is here in Cairo visiting and when I said, “Yay! It’s a honey cornbread muffin so I can take out the honey and add cheese or something,” she responded, “But a HONEY muffin! Why can’t you just make it?” Because sweet is her thing.  So I made these honey thyme muffins for her. And she cut them open and drizzled them with EVEN MORE honey. And declared them good.

Honey Thyme Cornbread Muffins

This recipe is adapted from one by Down Home with the Neelys. I shared it as part of the original Muffin Monday group created by Anuradha from the blog Baker Street. Back then, we share a muffin every single Monday!

Ingredients
1 cup or 180g cornmeal (white or yellow)
1 cup or 125ml all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1 cup or 240ml whole yogurt (I used two small 110g pots of yogurt and topped up my cup with whole milk rather than opening a new container for a couple of tablespoons.)
2 medium eggs
1/2 cup or 115g butter, melted
1/4 cup or 60ml honey – plus more for drizzling, if you really have a sweet tooth

Method
Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C and grease your 12-cup muffin tin or line it with paper liners.

Mix your cornmeal, flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into a large bowl.   Add in your fresh thyme leaves and stir well.

In a small bowl, whisk together your yogurt, eggs, melted butter and honey.

As always, please allow your helper to clean out the yogurt pots.

Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.  Do not over mix.

Divide the batter evenly between your muffin cups.

Bake in your preheated oven for 20 minutes or until they are a nice golden brown.  Allow to cool briefly and then remove the muffins to a rack.

These are delicious warm, plain or slathered with extra butter and/or honey.

Enjoy!

Classic Chili con Carne

This Classic Chili con Carne is made with ground beef, smoked bacon and tomatoes, and flavored with onion, chili powder, cumin and chili peppers. It's a warming bowl of comfort. 

This is the chili con carne I cook to make Frito pies or to serve on chili dogs. It's easy but rich with the addition of the smoked bacon. 

Classic Chili con Carne

The dark chili powder I use is the McCormick brand and is a mix of spices, including salt. Read your label and adjust the salt if your brand doesn't include any.  

Ingredients
1lb or 450g ground beef
2-3 slices thick smoked bacon, chopped
1 medium onion, minced
4 tablespoon dark chili powder 
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 can (14 oz or 400g) finely chopped tomatoes plus half a can water
1 teaspoon sugar
1-3 red chili peppers
Salt to taste – depends on your chili powder (see note above)

Method
Brown your ground beef over a medium high heat. Add in the chopped bacon and fry until the bacon is a bit crispy.

Add in the minced onion and cook with the bacon and beef until it gets soft and translucent.

Spoon in the dark chili powder, along with the extra teaspoon of ground cumin.

Pour in the can of chopped tomatoes plus half a can of water and one teaspoon of sugar.

Add fresh red chili peppers to taste, removing the stems first.

Simmer the mixture, lid on, for at least half an hour or longer if you have the time. Salt to taste. Some chili powders are heavier on the salt content than others so, as mentioned previously, depending on your brand, you may not need much more. Or any!

This is great served over Fritos for a classic Frito pie or on top of Mexican Cornbread Waffles like these guys: 

Pin this Classic Chili con Carne! 

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Pan-fried Asian Fish with Noodles

This pan-fried Asian fish is full of flavor from the soy sauce, Shaoxing and sesame oil marinade. Once you've marinated the fish filets, it takes very little time to cook for a quick, tasty meal!

I am going back through my files and realizing that there are many dishes that I have neglected to post.  Truth is, I cook almost every day and the photos get edited and filed and sometimes the post even gets written but then I’ve moved onto other things that somehow seem more urgent to share.  This post was written back in 2011 when I had just visited the newly renovated Isetan food market in Kuala Lumpur, and, boy, howdy, was it a beautiful shop!   

Isetan is a Japanese chain and if there is one thing food-wise we can all learn from the Japanese, it is fresh fish.  Isetan always has a great selection and you know it is the freshest available because their Japanese customers would not stand for anything less.   I miss Isetan and thought it was about time I shared this recipe.  Just reading this and looking at the photos, I am hungry for this dish again!  And homesick.

~

There is something about shopping in the Isetan food market, especially the newly renovated one in KLCC, that makes me want to put a Japanese or Asian twist on things.  Could it be the lovely samples of foreign foodstuffs with names I can’t pronounce that they are always giving out or the aroma of soy and frying and sesame seed oil from the cooking of said samples?  Regardless, I buy some fresh fish filets there and I can’t help but want to marinate them with soy and sesame oil.

This quick meal requires a little forward planning but, once you have marinated the fish filets, it requires very little time to cook – 15-20 minutes tops.

Ingredients
2 filets of threadfish or any white flakey fish
2 packages of ramen noodles – any type or flavor because you won’t use the seasoning packets
1 medium tomato
6-7 cloves of garlic
5 tablespoons of soy sauce

1 tablespoon Chinese wine (Shaoxing)

1 tablespoon sesame oil plus extra for drizzling before serving
Olive oil

Method
Marinate the fish in a two tablespoons of of the soy sauce and one tablespoon of Chinese wine and one tablespoon of sesame oil - at least two or three hours, but they can be left overnight and cooked the next evening.  I find a Ziploc bag works best because you can squeeze the air out of it make sure the marinade is touching all parts of the fish.

Heat your non-stick pan quite hot and add a drizzle of olive oil.  Fry skin side up for 4-5 minutes.

Put some water on to boil for your noodles and dice the tomatoes and slice the garlic into thin pieces.

Turn over and fry another 4-5 minutes on the other side.  If the filets are thick enough, you can fry them another minute on each lateral side.

Add the tomato and garlic to the fish pan and then add the leftover marinade and the balance of the soy sauce (about three tablespoons.)  Give it a good stir then put the lid on the pot and turn the fire down a little.

Pop your ramen noodles into the boiling water and cook according to package instructions, but discard the seasoning packets or save them for another dish.

Check on your fish.  The tomatoes should have softened into a mush.  Remove the fish from the pan to allow room for mixing in the noodles.  If you are ready to eat, the fish can be put on the plates.  If not, just put them aside to return to the pan to keep warm.

Drain the ramen noodles and add them to the tomato/garlic pan.

Toss until the noodles are well-coated.

If you are not ready to serve, return the fish to the pan to keep warm.  If you are ready to serve, add half of the ramen to each plate with a filet of fish.  Drizzle lightly with olive or sesame oil.

Enjoy!