Cane Syrup Banana Muffins #MuffinMonday

These cane syrup banana muffins have no added sugar. The syrup and ripe bananas make them the perfect amount of sweetness for breakfast or snack time. 

Whenever I have extra of an ingredient that I used to make a specific recipe, it burns a hole in my pantry, rather like extra money in one’s pocket. 

After baking the (extremely popular) gateau sirop aka cane syrup Bundt cake, I decided to use some of the leftover syrup to make muffins. It was a good decision! These were very popular in my house as well. 

Cane Syrup Banana Muffins

If you don’t have cane syrup, you can substitute your favorite syrup or honey with the caveat that maple syrup or honey will add a bit of a different flavor. Both would be good though.

Ingredients

3 cups or 375g flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

3 medium sized very ripe bananas (peeled weight: 9 oz or 255g)

1/2 cup or 120ml canola or other light oil

3/4 cup or 180ml Steen's pure cane syrup

1 large egg

Method

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

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Put the bananas into another mixing bowl and mash them with a fork until there are no large lumps.

Add in the oil, cane syrup and egg and whisk until smooth.

Tip the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients bowl and fold until just combined. 

Divide the batter between the 12 muffin cups. 

Bake for 20-25 minutes in your preheated oven or until lightly browned and a wooden skewer comes out clean. 

Cool on a wire rack then enjoy! 

It’s the last Monday of the month and in these parts, that means it’s Muffin Monday! Check out all the great muffins my blogger friends are sharing today. 

• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Apple Zucchini Muffins
• Jolene's Recipe Journal: Buttermilk Oatmeal Muffins
• Food Lust People Love: Cane Syrup Banana Muffins
• Zesty South Indian Kitchen: Prickly Pear Muffins
• Palatable Pastime: Sage Stuffing Muffins
• Magical Ingredients: Whole Wheat Apple Butter and Apple Cider Tea Muffins
• Karen's Kitchen Stories: Whole Wheat Sunflower Seed Muffins

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

Pin these Cane Syrup Banana Muffins! 

 .

Baked Cod with Asparagus Pesto

Baked Cod with Asparagus Pesto is delicious and pretty enough for company but simple enough for a weeknight family meal. The pesto adds loads of flavor while also protecting the cod from drying out as it bakes. Win-win!

We love asparagus, usually roasted or pan-fried with a little butter and lemon juice tossed in right at the end but when I heard that the theme of this week’s Sunday FunDay was pesto, I knew just what I wanted to make. 

I had seen the asparagus pesto recipe in an email from the New York Times Cooking section and had bookmarked it for “someday.” My only regret now is that it took me this long to get around to it. The pesto is so flavorful and you will have no regrets that it makes more than what you need to cover your cod in a nice thick layer. 

Ideas for leftover pesto: Stir the balance of the asparagus pesto through some cooked pasta, boiled potatoes or spread it on toasted slices of baguette and bake for a twist on bruschetta. Hum a couple of spoons in a jar and add a little more lemon juice and a splash of olive oil and water to make a rich vinaigrette. Pan fry shrimp and toss them in the asparagus pesto. I'm not kidding when I say that this stuff is good with almost everything. You might want to double the recipe. 

Baked Cod with Asparagus Pesto

This recipe was adapted from one by Mark Bittman in New York Times Cooking. It makes about 1 1/2 cups of pesto and you'll use perhaps a little more than half. See note above for what to do with the divine leftovers. 

Ingredients

For cooking the asparagus:

1 lb or 450g asparagus, hard ends trimmed

2 tablespoons olive oil

Fine sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

For completing the pesto:

1/3 cup or 50g pine nuts

1 clove garlic, or more to taste

3/4 cup or 67g freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1 small red chili pepper

1/4 cup or 60ml olive oil

Freshly ground black pepper

1-2 tablespoons lemon juice, to taste

Water  

For the cod:

4 cod fillets (about 1.1 lbs or 500g)

Fine sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Olive oil for pan

Method

Put the asparagus in a large baking pan in a single layer. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle lightly with fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Broil (or grill) for 5-7 minutes on high. Set a timer, by all means, but do not leave the asparagus unattended or it can go quickly from roasting to burning. Remove the asparagus from the oven and set it aside while you prepare the rest of the dish. 

Toast the pine nuts in a dry non-stick skillet until golden brown, shaking the pan occasionally so they toast evenly. Remove from the pan and set aside a tablespoon or so for garnish. 

Chop the asparagus roughly. Put the pieces in your food processor and use a rubber spatula to scrape any olive oil or asparagus juice left behind in the pan to add in as well. 

Add in the bigger pile of pine nuts along with the garlic, chili pepper and the olive oil. Whiz until well combined. 

Add in the Parmesan and lemon juice and pulse again. If the pesto is too thick you can thin it with a little water or more lemon juice, according to your taste. 

Season with a little sea salt, if needed, and freshly ground black pepper and whiz again.

If you aren’t ready to bake your cod yet, spoon the pesto into an airtight container and then drizzle the top with a little more olive oil and store it in the refrigerator. 

When you are ready to cook the cod, preheat the oven to 400° F or 200°C.

Dry the cod with paper towels and place it in a lightly oiled baking dish. 

Coat the tops of the fillets evenly with a nice thick layer of the asparagus pesto. 

You will have pesto leftover. Store it in the refrigerator with a little olive oil on top, covered with cling film.

Bake the cod for 11-12 minutes in your preheated oven or until it is firm to the touch and pesto is starting to lightly brown. Put it under the broiler (grill) for 2-3 minutes to finish it off and add a little more color. 

Sprinkle the tops with the reserved pine nuts to serve. If I had been thinking, I’d have reserved four asparagus tips for garnish as well. Next time! I can assure you that I’ll be making this again. It was that good!

Enjoy! 

As I mentioned above, it’s Sunday FunDay and we are celebrating with pesto recipes! Check out all the links below. Many thanks to our host Sue of Palatable Pastime and Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm  for her behind the scenes help. 

• Avocado Pesto Sandwich by Mayuri’s Jikoni 
• Baked Cod with Asparagus Pesto by Food Lust People Love 
• Basil Pesto With Almonds & Walnuts by Sneha's Recipe 
• Carrot Greens Pesto-Topped Roasted Salmon by Culinary Adventures with Camilla 
• Pesto Cavatappi with Meatballs by Amy’s Cooking Adventures 
• Spinach Pesto Pasta by A Day in the Life on the Farm 
• Swiss Chard and White Bean Soup with Basil Pesto by Karen’s Kitchen Stories 
• Vegan Mint Pesto by Sizzling Tastebuds

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

Pin this Baked Cod with Asparagus Pesto!

 .

Baked Shrimp-Stuffed Sole Fillets

Baked Shrimp-Stuffed Sole Fillets take a rather bland fish to fabulous by stuffing it with shrimp, cream cheese, garlic and jalapeño, then baking it with a crunchy garlicky panko topping. 

Flounder aka lemon sole is one of our favorite fish to pan-fry or bake whole but here in the States whole fish on the bone doesn’t seem as common. We have to make do with fillets.

My local grocery store sells fillets of sole in groups of two or three, rolled together and displayed like little coils side by side in the seafood section. Like you might roll socks but then not fold the top over. That gave me an idea. Why not make some sort of stuffing to put inside and roll them up again? A simple Google search revealed that, once again, the world had beat me to it. No matter. It was a good idea and we enjoyed the dish thoroughly.

Baked Shrimp Stuffed Sole Fillets

This recipe is adapted from one on Epicurious. The original calls for 4-6 fillets yet says it serves only four. We found with side dishes, one sole roll each was plenty. This is a rich dish!

Ingredients

8 sole fillets  (approx. total weight = 1.28lb or 580g)

For the stuffing:

5.28 oz or 150g fresh shrimp - weight after peeled, deveined

1/2 cup or 120g cream cheese, softened

1 clove garlic

1 fresh jalapeño

1 generous cup or 35g cubed baguette

1/4 cup or 60ml milk

Fine sea salt 

Freshly ground black pepper

Bread crumb topping:

1 cup or 75g plain panko bread crumbs

1 garlic clove, smashed then minced 

2 sprigs fresh parsley leaves, minced

2 sprigs fresh thyme leaves, minced

1-2 tablespoon olive oil, plus extra for drizzling the topping

Method

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your baking pan by brushing the inside with a little olive oil.

 

Pour the milk over the bread cubes and push them down a bit so they are covered and they can soak it all up. Cut the shrimp into three or four pieces each. Crushed then mince the clove of garlic. Slice off the stem and mince the jalapeño.

In a large mixing bowl, mash the cream cheese with a fork. Add in the soaked bread and stir well. 

Add in the shrimp, garlic and jalapeño. Stir well to combine. 

Put 1/8 of the filling on the narrower end of each sole fillet. 

Roll up and place in the oiled baking pan. 

Continue the process until all stuffed sole rolls are in the pan. Sprinkle with a little fine sea salt and black pepper. 

To make the topping, combine all the ingredients except the olive oil with fork. This helps the herbs and garlic mix in more evenly dry.

Add olive oil. Mix again with a fork to distribute the oil evenly. Top the sole rolls with panko mix. Drizzle with a little more olive oil.

Bake in your preheated oven for 20 minutes. Brown a little more on the top with the broiler, if desired.

Remove from the oven and serve immediately. I highly recommend serving this with your favorite steamed vegetables or maybe some boiled baby new potatoes with mint and a lightly dressed green salad. 

Enjoy!

T.G.I.F. and yay for Fish Friday Foodies! Today we are sharing fish and seafood baked or roasted in the oven. Check out the great recipes below. Many thanks to our organizer and host, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm. 

• Sneha’s Recipe: Air Fryer Whole Mackerel Fish Roast 
• Culinary Adventures with Camilla: Crispy Salmon Bellies
• Food Lust People Love: Baked Shrimp-Stuffed Sole Fillets
• Palatable Pastime: Honey Pistachio Crusted Salmon 
• Goats and Greens: Roasted Almond-Breaded Tapenade-Stuffed Trout with Mushroom Sauce. 
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Roasted Chilean Sea Bass One Skillet Dinner 
• Karen's Kitchen Stories : Slow Roasted Salmon with Garlic Butter and Herbs

                                      

                                               

Would you like to join Fish Friday Foodies? We post and share new seafood/fish recipes on the third Friday of the month. To join our group please email Wendy at wendyklik1517 (at) gmail.com. Visit our Facebook page and Pinterest page for more wonderful fish and seafood recipe ideas.

Pin these Baked Shrimp-Stuffed Sole Fillets

 .