Archive for baking

Banana-walnut bread or muffins

June 22, 2008 at 7:17 pm · Filed under baking, cooking, food, fruits, health, nutrition, summer

Hi, my name is Maggan. Welcome to Maggan’s kitchen!

Oops! Don’t read if you’re blood type A or AB. Continue if you’re blood type O or B.

I made banana-walnut muffin the other day. I didn’t get enough and made banana-walnut loaf this morning for brunch. Aside from the difference in shape, the former is sweet bread and the latter is more like meal-bread.

This recipe is taken from Dr. P. J. d’Adamo’s Cook Right 4 Your Type. In terms of health benefits, it is categorized as neutral for blood types O and B and should be avoided by blood types A and AB. I’m and O. I hope H is neither A nor AB.

Ingredients for 10-12 muffins:

  • oil for pans (or paper muffin cups)
  • 2 cups white or sifted spelt flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda (Silly me! I didn’t read carefully and assumed the recipe said baking powder.)
  • 1 cup brown or raw sugar or Demerara sugar
  • For type O 2/3 cup or 157 millilitres canola oil (Ideally cold pressed but the usual canola oil is fine.) For type B, replace canola oil with butter
  • 2 large bananas, cut into chunks
  • 3 eggs, beaten
  • 1/2 cup or 125 millilitres chopped walnuts
  1. Pre-heat oven at 180 degrees Celsius.
  2. Oil the muffin pans. Or use paper muffin cups.
  3. In a bowl, mix all dry ingredients except walnuts.
  4. In another bowl, mix the wet ingredients.
  5. Pour the dry ingredients into the bowl of wet ingredients.
  6. Blend them together by folding. Don’t overdo it to get a smooth dough. (The charm of muffins is the rough texture and rustic look.)
  7. Add walnuts for last few turns with the spoon.
  8. Fill the muffin pans or cups 3/4 full.
  9. Bake 25-30 minutes or until your stick or small knife comes out clean when you poke a muffin.
  10. Let muffins cool on rack.

Now, wasn’t that easy? Well, the baking powder didn’t do any damage. The muffins turned out beautiful. The taste was delightful. I didn’t have baking soda but resolved to fill my kitchen supply for future use.

Jeez! I only had 3 paper muffin cups left. Before I could panic, I was able to improvise. I used up the remaining paper muffin cups and the rest of the batter went into my narrow rectangular mould. Wonderful! I’d have 3 banana-walnut muffins and a banana-walnut loaf. Moist and just-right sweet, perfect for tea or unsweetened soy milk.

This morning’s banana-walnut loaf was the unsweet version. Ideal to spread marmalade or honey on. I’ll bring some to work tomorrow for a good energy kick during our coffee break. A slice or two of banana-walnut bread should keep me feeling full for 4-5 hours.

According to the book Cook Right 4 Your Type, muffins offer many possibilities of combining different dried and fresh fruits, as well as nuts and seeds. I definitely agree. I think I’ll try apple. Then I’ll try cherry. Then blueberry. Maggan’s planning the future. The book further suggests to feel free to substitute other fruits, nuts and seeds according to your blood type.

Note: For wholegrain banana bread, replace 1 cup white or sifted spelt flour with 1 cup whole-spelt flour. This means, use 1 cup white or sifted spelt flour plus 1 cup whole-spelt flour.

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From Moroccan burgers to lamb sausages

June 12, 2008 at 5:11 pm · Filed under baking, cooking, food, meat, summer

Hi, my name is Maggan. Welcome to Maggan’s kitchen!

Tuesday, 10 June, around 3:45 PM. Breathe in 2-3-4-5-6-7-8. Breathe out 2-3-4-5-6-7-8. Breathe in 2-3-4… If it’s not obvious, I’m catching my breath. You see, I just came from HomeBuy for the second time to get the pots of herbs that I had bought and forgotten to pack in my earth-friendly Bliss bag. 5-6-7-8. Breath out 2-3-4-5-6-7-8.

Present. Two weeks ago, HomeBuy had a special on lamb mince. H and I didn’t pass up on that chance and bought 2 packs at a kilo each. The other day, I used the second pack to make Moroccan burgers—the very reason for the pots of cilantro, parsley and water cress. The water cress didn’t go into the lamb. We ate it with our salad.

I had been studying the Morrocan burger recipe the day before the day before I was going to make it. The recipe was published in ICA’s magazine several years ago and it had been yellowing in my kitchen files. Never done it. And so the longer I looked at the ingredients list, the stronger the urge to make and taste it.

Ingredients for 4 portions

  • 1 small yellow onion
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 cm fresh ginger
  • 2-3 tablespoon fresh coriander (also called cilantro) or parsley ( I used both. The more the merrier.)
  • 6-8 pieces dried apricots
  • 400 grams lamb mince or ground lamb meat (may be replaced by beef mince or ground beef) (I used 1 kilo of lamb mince, which means increased ingredient measurements by 2.5.)
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 teaspoon coriander (I thought I didn’t need this since I already had fresh coriander.)
  • half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • freshly ground black pepper for seasoning
  • 4 pieces pita bread
  • iceberg lettuce
  • tomato slices
  • cucumber slices

They taste good, don’t they? Mild spice, fresh herbs and fruit sweetness. It couldn’t get any better, I thought.

The morning I was going to make Moroccan burgers, I switched the plan. The recipe asks for a grill pan which I didn’t have. And no, it’s not the same as a regular flat frying pan. Another thing that bothered me was the frying. I didn’t want to fry, especially lamb mince since it already had 15% fat in it.

I felt a light bulb switch on top of my head. Then I knew what to do with the lamb mince. I’d bake my lamb burgers instead. However, In terms of form, I didn’t think baked patties would look good. And so I decided that instead of patties, I’d roll them into small sausages, like the good-looking fresh lamb sausages I had seen in New Zealand that I never had the chance to taste for many reasons. 

Procedure

  1. Pre-heat the oven at 175 degrees Celsius or higher, but not more than 200 degrees Celsius. You have a choice between moderate baking or slightly aggressive baking. The difference will be the baking time.
  2. Oil the baking dish  or form with olive oil or any cooking oil. Set aside.
  3. Peel and chop the onion, garlic and ginger.
  4. Put them in the food processor.
  5. Add in the coriander or parsley or both.
  6. Chop them finely using the food processor.
  7. Cut the  dried apricots into small pieces. (My machine is vintage and cute. I chopped the apricots manually. From hereon, I did everything manually.)
  8. Put them in the food processor.
  9. Add the de-frosted lamb mince, spices, salt and pepper.
  10. Blend all the ingredients using the food processor. (Again, vintage. I did this manually in a large bowl.)
  11. Shape the mince into 10 or 12 balls.
  12. With the palm of both hands, roll each ball into a long oval, like a sausage.
  13. Lay them in the oiled baking dish or form.
  14. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes.
  15. Take the dish out of the oven.
  16. Turn the sausages so the bottom ones get the chance to be on top.
  17. Bake for 10-15 minutes only as the top side is already half done.

Taking a cue from my Italian meatballs, I added .5 decilitres of water to my mixture of lamb mince. This makes the meatballs, or sausages in this case, juicy when done.

While from my experience in making meatloaf, I learned that working the meat too much will result in a compact meatloaf when done. Neither soft nor juicy. This is, of course, when blending the ingredients manually, which I always do. However, when blending the ingredients in the food processor, I have no idea if the machine can ”work the meat too much.” 

Well, H and I were very pleased with the result of the Moroccan burgers that had become lamb sausages. Tender, juicy and tasty. We stuffed our pita breads with these warm lamb sausages, salad, tomatoes, tzatziki.

Whatziki? That’s tzatziki. That was what became of the cucumber. Well, like hamburgers or any sandwich, our pita sandwich needed a mild-tasting vinegar-less dressing. So, mayonnaise, chili sauce and ketchup were out. Besides, these condiments would ruin the mildness of the recipe.

Tzatziki is basically made of unflavoured cooking yogurt with diced cucumber without the seeds. Spoon off and throw the seeds. Or try rubbing the seeds on your face like a natural facial wash to feed the skin as bonus  treat for the skin.  

Ingredients for tzatziki

  • 2.5 decilitres yogurt
  • 1 medium size cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
  • 1 clove garlic, crushed
  • dash of dried tarragon for seasoning
  • pinch of salt
  1. Pour the yogurt in a bowl.
  2. Add the seeded and diced cucumber.
  3. With a garlic crusher, crush the garlic and add into the bowl.
  4. Season with salt and tarragon.

Ensure you make the tzatziki at least 1 hour before serving time to ensure a more flavourful yogurt. Tastes better.

I just had 1 pita sandwich. I swear and cross my heart. My second helping was naked lamb sausages with all the trimmings—salad, tomatoes and tzatziki. Party! No, H and I didn’t eat the whole kilo of lamb mince (36 baked lamb sausages). 22 pieces are in the freezer for a meal (or 2 meals) next week.

Now, here’s a math challenge. How many lamb sausages did Maggan and H have?

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Mando Diao and Meatloaf

March 9, 2008 at 5:05 pm · Filed under baking, cooking, food, meat, spring

Hi, my name is Maggan. Welcome to Maggan’s kitchen!

H and I went to Mando Diao’s concert last week. The group is simply brilliant. GREAT. They’re artists whose songs are poems, really. Felt the same for the Cranberries when they appeared in the scene in the 90’s. To this day, I’m still humming Mando’s songs in my head.

By the way, the meatloaf in my title is not the singing Meatloaf of the 70’s. I wonder if he’s still around. Going back to food, H and I had talked about how easy it was to make meatloaf and how we had not eaten it in ages. Finally, I made one. I found a very basic recipe in www.recepten.se that was very easy to make.

Ingredients:

  • 400 grams ground beef
  • .75 decilitre bread crumbs
  • 2 decilitres milk
  • 1.25 teaspoon salt
  • a pinch or two of ground black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon yellow onion, grated or finely chopped
  • 1 egg
  • 25 grams butter
  1. Set the oven at 175 degrees Celsius. 
  2. Put the bread crumbs in a bowl. Pour in the milk. Leave to rise for 10 minutes.
  3. In a separate bowl, blend the ground meat and salt.
  4. Add in the pepper, onion, breadcrumb mixture and egg.
  5. Mix until all ingredients are well blended. Don’t overdo it as this will absorb the moisture and leave you with a dry meatloaf.
  6. Oil an oblong or rectangular baking dish.
  7. In the dish, form the ground meat into a loaf.
  8. Cut the butter into small pieces and lay them on top of the meat loaf.
  9. Bake in the oven at 175 degrees Celsius for 45-60 minutes.
  10. When done, leave it to cool for a few minutes before slicing.
  11. Serve with mashed potatoes and fresh greens. If lingonberry jam is available, spoon some on the plate as well.

If you’re a sauce person and prefer homemade sauces instead of the commercial ones that are loaded with artificial ingredients and conservatives, here’s a recipe for brown sauce to go with the meatloaf.

  • 2 tablespoons flour, or 1 teaspoon potato flour
  • 2 decilitres milk
  • 1 tablespoon Kikkoman soy sauce

Mix the above ingredients in a saucepan. Cook in medium heat while stirring constantly until the mixture thickens. Professional chefs use the fat drippings in their sauces for flavour. This is optional in my view. I guarantee that this brown sauce can do without fat drippings. Without it, I still felt like a pro.

Meatloaf is like a pair of jeans. An everyday wardrobe that you can dress up and party in. You can dress up a meatloaf in several ways. Put stuff in the middle, like carrots, hard-boiled eggs, cheese, tomatoes, etc. One word of advice: Don’t use these dress-up stuff all at the same time unless you’re sure that their combination will result in a harmonious taste.

Today H and I had dinner with Mando Diao’s music in the background. Can you guess what we had for dinner? What else but left-over meatloaf.

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I’m alive, spinach pie!

February 27, 2008 at 4:17 pm · Filed under baking, cooking, food, spring, vego

Hi! Remember me? My name is Maggan and you are in my kitchen. Do make yourself feel at home.

I’m alive! It’s spring and I’m alive like a newly awakened bear. The bright weather last Saturday so energized me that I cleaned our bathroom: scrubbed the water stains on the floor, scrubbed the toilet, dusted the shelves, and wiped off the toothpaste spots on the mirror.

About the mirror, I cannot decide whether or not to be pleased that it is serving its purpose again. True that I can now see my reflection clearly but there is no denying that the mirror looked like Jackson Pollack’s artwork. What do you think?

So last Saturday for me was a perfect day for plucking eyebrows and making spinach pie for dinner. Since I didn’t pluck my eyebrows in the kitchen, I won’t discuss it in this blog. (But I can give tips privately.)

This spinach pie recipe is taken from the latest edition of the magazine Mom. But Jaime also motivated me to finally try dinner pie. He made 3 kinds of pies a couple of weeks ago to show me that making pie crusts is not to be feared.

Spinach pie with feta cheese

Pie crust

  • 1 decilitre flour
  • 1 decilitre graham flour
  • .5 decilitre butter
  • .5 decilitre Kesella

Filling

  • 250 grams frozen spinach
  • half an onion, finely chopped
  • 1-2 tablespoons extra virgin oil
  • 12 pieces sun-dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
  • 1-2 decilitres fresh basil leaves, chopped
  • 100 grams feta cheese
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 decilitres milk
  • 1 decilitre cheese (any of the stronger kinds)
  • half a teaspoon salt
  • ground black pepper for seasoning
  1. Set the oven at 200 degrees Celsius. 
  2. Thaw the frozen spinach.
  3. Mix the ingredients for the crust.
  4. If you don’t have a food processor, blend them well with your fingers.
  5. Press the dough in the pie dish and let it rest and cool for an hour in the fridge.
  6. As an alternative to item 3 above, roll the dough lightly on a baking paper to flatten it evenly to the size of the pie dish. Then lay the flattened dough in the pie dish. Lightly press it onto the bottom and sides of the dish. Tear off the excess dough.
  7. Roughly chop the thawed spinach leaves.
  8. Finely chop the onion.
  9. Heat the oil in a pan in medium heat.
  10. Saute the onion until it caramelizes (soft, overdone).
  11. Add in the chopped spinach. Cook for about 7-10 minutes.
  12. Take out the chilled pie crust from the fridge.
  13. Put the spinach in the pie dish.
  14. Add in the sun-dried tomatoes and basil leaves.
  15. Break the feta cheese into crumbs over the spinach layer.
  16. In a bowl, whip the eggs.
  17. Pour the milk into the eggs.
  18. Add the grated cheese salt and pepper and whip them in.
  19. Pour the egg mixture into the pie dish.
  20. Bake in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes.
  21. Serve with salad leaves.

Tasty dish. Rock n’ roll as Jamie would say. It got an excellent rating from H. As a matter of fact, I’m making it again tonight minus the onion. I love onions but I don’t have it and I don’t want to go out again.

P.S. Some notes. Graham flour is whole-grain wheat flour with grain skins or shells in it. This makes it rough in texture. 

P.P.S. Kesella may not be easily available outside Sweden. You may substitute it with eggs. I haven’t tried it by Jamie uses eggs. Try one egg first. If you feel that the dough is not moist enough with one egg, add another one.

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Saffron bread for gratitude

January 1, 2008 at 3:06 pm · Filed under baking, christmas, dessert, food, winter

Hi, my name is Maggan. Welcome to Maggan’s kitchen!

2007 was a good year and fate provided me a good closure for it. Yesterday I went to the city to take advantage of the after-Christmas sale. I only had 2 items on my list and I found them in less than 4 hours. H was so surprised when I beat my shopping time record (coming home before the end of the day), and that I had actually bought something.

That shopping success inspired me to flutter into the kitchen and bake saffron rolls. It had been in the line-up of holiday goodies and there was no better day than yesterday to make them. Oh no! Oh well, nothing was going to dismay me. Not even the fact that I didn’t have enough saffron. I was willing to forego the recipe and was seriously considering plain cinnamon rolls instead when H readily volunteered to run to the nearest grocery and buy saffron. Well, ain’t that the nicest and the sweetest?

This saffron bread recipe, which was published in the magazine Food and Wine, is by Lotta Voltaire who writes cookbooks, owns a bakery, and runs a restaurant/pub. I wonder if there is something this girl doesn’t do. Like deliver mail?

Dough for the saffron bread

  • 50 grams yeast
  • 100 grams butter
  • 5 decilitres milk
  • 250 grams Arla kesella (cream cheese made of sour milk)
  • 1 gram saffron
  • 1.5 decilitres sugar
  • .5 teaspoon salt
  • 17 decilitres flour
  1. In a bowl, break the yeast into crumbs.
  2. Melt the butter in a small casserole in very low heat.
  3. Add the milk to the melted butter.
  4. Heat the milk until it becomes warm to the touch.
  5. Pour the butter and milk mixture into the yeast.
  6. Mix with a spoon to dissolve the yeast.
  7. Add in the kesella, sugar, salt, and flour.
  8. Work on the dough until it is supple.
  9. With a tea-towel, cover the bowl with the supple dough in it and leave for 40 minutes.

Saffron bread filling

  • 200 grams raisins, light or dark
  • 200 grams almond flakes
  • .5 decilitre brown raw sugar
  • 2 tablespoons cardamom
  • 50 grams butter
  • 1 whipped egg
  • pearl sugar
  1. Set the oven at 225 degrees Celsius. 
  2. Sprinkle some flour on the surface where the dough will be rolled.
  3. Take the risen dough from the bowl and lay it on the floured surface.
  4. With a rolling pin, roll the dough. This process will flatten and stretch it. Don’t roll it too thinly. Otherwise, it may be difficult to roll it. Also, ensure that the dough is rolled flat to the size that will allow you to roll it at least twice.
  5. Spread the butter over the whole dough.
  6. Sprinkle the raisins, almond flakes, raw sugar, and the cardamom.
  7. Roll the dough, as if rolling a yoga mat.
  8. With a pair of kitchen scissors, cut 20-30 pieces.
  9. Whip the egg and brush it over on each piece of saffron bread.
  10. Sprinkle pearl sugars on top.
  11. Bake in the oven at 225 degrees Celsius for 8 minutes.

Long recipe, huh? Seems complicated, huh? If you’re not ready to make bread, then you’re just not ready for it. A recipe that requires yeast and rolling can be overwhelming for a baker without professional training. Well, I was ready for bread, yeast, and some good rolling yesterday. Spirit and flesh were both willing.

I pulled a chair and sat before the oven to watch an event unfold. I was like a scientiest watching cell mutation or an obstetrician very closely monitoring a delicate pregnancy. H, who was prancing in and out of the kitchen, was obviously equally excited. Hmm, the kitchen smelled good.

The saffron rolls tasted as good as they looked. When I began with the saffron bread recipe, the yeast, which is a very sensitive agent, had me worried. But everything turned out fine in the end.  Either the stars yesterday were in a position that was most auspicious to me or I didn’t miss a word in the recipe instruction. Credit goes to H too for the saffron. 

To family and friends who read this blog, many thanks. To those who were led by tags to this blog, I’m grateful to you as well. Happy new year y’all!

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