Food Lust People Love

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Lemon and Cilantro Crusted White Fish for #Random Recipe Challenge

This month’s Random Recipe Challenge has the same rules as always, it’s just gotten a little more high tech, with Dom over at +belleau kitchen creating a random number generator for us to use. I have seen these, as I am sure you have, on blogs that do giveaways but I had never used one myself.

Good fun and more probably more random than my usual method, which is to make someone give me a number. :) Since Eat Your Books has my cookbooks all organized, it was easy enough to find book number 33 in the category of “Wherever Home is Now.”

So, this recipe was adapted from one by Bill Granger in Bills Food, of which the cover, the endpaper and flyleaf have no apostrophe in Bills so I will cringingly omit it here. Upon further research, I discovered that his restaurants and blog are also missing the apostrophe. Why, Bill, why? Is there a punctuation shortage in Australia? Such a rich and wonderful country! I’d be happy to send you some. But I have to forgive Bill because this fish was delicious. And he is such a cutie pie.

Ingredients
1/2 cup or about 40g fresh breadcrumbs
1 clove garlic
1/2 cup or about 15g fresh cilantro or coriander leaves (or flat-leafed parsley if you are not a fan of cilantro)
1 small red chili (optional)
Zest of one lemon
1/2 teaspoon sea salt flakes
Few grinds of black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 thick white fish fillets (about 6 oz or 175g each)

Method
Preheat the oven to 400°F or 200°C.

Chop the garlic and cilantro roughly. Mince the red chili, if using.

Put the breadcrumbs, garlic, chili and sea salt in the food processor.

Pour in the olive oil and grind in some black pepper and grate in the zest of the lemon. Process until you have lovely green breadcrumbs.

I almost forgot the lemon zest. You should put all the stuff in together, as per the
instructions. But if you forget something, by all means, add it in.

Heap the mixture on top of your fish, trying to make sure it is all well covered.

Bake until cooked through. I cooked mine for about 10 minutes and then put the oven on broil (or grill) for a few minutes more to brown the top. If your fish is thicker or thinner you may have to adjust the time.

Bill says to serve this with garlic mashed potatoes and baby spinach, which I agree would be very lovely but I had some butternut squash that needed roasting so I did that and a small tomato salad instead.

All in all, a fabulous random recipe. I would definitely make this again.

Enjoy!

Monday, April 22, 2013

Cheesy Spinach Muffins #MuffinMonday

A cheesy muffin with cheddar and feta and spinach, topped with thinly sliced tomatoes. There's thyme in there too! These guys are perfect for breakfast, brunch, lunch or a snack.

There are a few staples I keep in my freezer, just in case. Frozen spinach is one of them. In a pinch, spinach can be thawed quickly and added into omelets or quiches or cheesy sauces for pasta. It adds color and nutritional value without an overly strong or objectionable flavor. It is also beautiful added into muffins. (See exhibit A, above.)

I've got to tell you that this is my all-time most-visited on this entire blog. I published it originally almost four years ago and have made these muffins countless times since then. It is almost my most-pinned recipe. It give me great joy to know that folks are pinning and saving and making these!

Ingredients - for 12 muffins
3 1/2 oz or 100g frozen spinach
2 2/3 oz or 75g feta
3 1/2 oz or 100g extra sharp cheddar
2 tomatoes
2 cups or 250g flour
Sea salt flakes
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
1/4 cup or 60ml olive oil
1 cup or 240ml milk
Several sprigs fresh thyme
Black pepper

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and grease your 12-cup muffin pan liberally with non-stick spray or butter.

Thaw your spinach with a few zaps in the microwave. Or allow to thaw naturally, if you have time. I never seem to. Allow to cool, if you zapped it too long.

Buy the spinach that is frozen in cubes. It's much easier then to thaw just what you need.

Grate your cheddar cheese and crumble the feta.

Slice the tomatoes fairly thinly and leave to drain on some folded paper towels. You need 12 slices so if you have any tomato left over, save it for a sandwich or share it with your helper.

Measure your flour, salt, baking powder, grated cheddar and some of the leaves off of your fresh thyme sprigs into a large mixing bowl and mix well.

Measure the milk and olive oil into a smaller bowl and whisk with the eggs and thawed spinach. Just two eggs, pay no attention to that double yolk behind the curtain. (Sorry, watched too much of The Wizard of Oz in my youth.)

Here’s something incredible, and I use that in the literal sense. Hard to believe. But true! In the last week, I have opened SEVEN eggs that had double yolks. I think I may have had one or two in the whole rest of my life! And they weren’t all from the same batch of eggs, although they were the same brand. Isn’t that something?! Have you ever found a double yolked egg?

Fold your wet ingredients into your dry ones until just mixed.

Fold in the crumbled feta.

Divide the batter between the prepared muffin cups.

Pat the tomato slices really dry with another paper towel and top each cup of batter with one.

Sprinkle the tomato slices with a little more fresh thyme, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until you can see that the sides are turning golden brown.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes. Remove from the pan, loosening gently with a knife if necessary, and cool further on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

For those who might need a gluten-free version, check out this post. The author/baker saw this link on Pinterest and modified it for her family's needs. Thank you, K!

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Brigadeiros

Chewy caramel insides are covered with chocolate sprinkles to make these sweets, essential at any Brazilian party. They are so easy to make too!

This week, #SundaySupper is celebrating celebrating. What I mean is, we are sharing recipes that are perfect for showers. Baby showers, bridal showers or whatever lovely gathering you are planning this month. Our host is Brandie from Home Cooking Memories, so I think she will appreciate that I reached back to one of my favorite times to share this party favorite.

Brigadeiros are an easy sweet treat that make an essential appearance at every celebration in Brazil. We lived there for almost six years when our daughters were little. In fact, both of them started school (a couple of years apart, of course) at the Omega School, which was a few blocks from our house, in the small neighborhood of Macaé called Vivendas da Lagoa. It was a tiny operation with fewer than 30 students ranging from the three-year-olds to one sixth grader, with most children falling on the younger end of the chart. Enrollment was so small most years that when one child celebrated a birthday, the whole crowd was invited. The best part was that they all played well together, regardless of age or grade level. We missed that interaction later, in bigger schools.

In those days, Macaé was a small oilfield town, short on amenities. (I’ve been told it has progressed greatly since then, although I haven’t been back.) Grocery shopping was limited and it was a challenge to do it all in one day, especially with at least one small child in tow. Chicken was only purchased at the chicken shop, beef, pork and sausages at the butcher. If you wanted fresh vegetables, the best place was Hortifruti, the covered market. Fresh milk was in limited supply so we bought UHT (ultra high temperature) milk that came in Tetrapaks.

For cheese, there were a couple of places you might get lucky, just don’t expect anything fancy. But one thing that every shop had, even the little corner store in our neighborhood, were cans of the sweet sticky paste used for making brigadeiros. When we left Brazil (and the supply I had brought in our shipment was exhausted) we had to learn how to make them without it. Because, as I am sure you will agree once you try one, life is too short to go without brigadeiros. Fortunately, it isn’t that hard since you start with sticky condensed milk, available everywhere.

Ingredients

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

1 tablespoon butter plus a little extra for buttering your hands when you are rolling the little balls

1 (14 ounce or 397g) can sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk)

10.5 oz or 298g packet chocolate rice or sprinkles (You may not use them all.)

60-70 tiny paper muffin liners

Method

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, pour in the condensed milk, then sift in the cocoa and add in the butter.

Cook over a medium heat, stirring gently to make sure it is well combined.

Keep stirring and cooking until it is quite thick, about 10-15 minutes.

Remove from the heat and let rest until cool enough to handle. It will stiffen up even more as it cools.

Put your chocolate sprinkles in a small bowl or other deep container.

Rub a little butter into both of your palms. Using a small spoon, scoop up a little of the sweet paste and roll it into small balls between your palms.

Use one spoon to scrape it off into your buttered palm.

Roll it between your buttered palms to get a smooth ball.

Drop it gently into the small bowl of chocolate sprinkles and roll it around until coated. Place each covered ball in a paper muffin liner. Place on a serving tray.