life lately: kitchen therapy

In between moments of dissertation craziness, I've been de-stressing quite a bit in the kitchen.

Loving the fiery red-orange hues of blood oranges

 Isn't it amazing that in the darkest, grayest time of the year we are gifted with these amazing colors in citrus fruit?

Prepping for blood orange marmalade

I can't get over these jewel-like hues.

Sliced blood oranges go into a large bowl, to soak in water overnight

Our apartment smelled heavenly while the blood oranges were simmering down in sugar and water.

I'm not a cereal kind of gal when it comes to breakfast. Though I'd love to have cake for breakfast every morning, I really enjoy the simplicity of fresh bread, good butter (Kerrygold or Lurpak), and jam or preserves of some kind.

No-Knead (!!!) whole wheat bread recipe from King Arthur Flour. Darjeeling tea steeping in my new(ish) favorite mug.

That is all.

homemade no-bake protein bars

Now that I've been in Krav Maga training for the past 8 months, I sometimes just find myself... hungrier. If that's even possible.

Last Sunday I spent all day at the KM school. It was my first day back at training, having been away for 3 weeks. I went to my usual back-to-back classes in the morning (Krav Maga Level 1 and TRX). It so happened that they had 2 special classes in the afternoon: a 2-hour Ground Fighting (meaning, defending while you're on the ground) and a 1-hour Weapons Defense class. I had a half-hour break in between the morning and afternoon classes. It was quite ambitious for my first day back, and I have to say I was sore till Wednesday. As always, classes were excellent. The learning is worth every sore muscle.  

The place where I train is about a 40-minute drive (on a good day) from where I live, and on weekends when I do 2 classes back-to-back, I am just ravenous afterwards. I usually take along some plain almonds, or a mix of almonds, chocolate chips, and dried cranberries, or one of those commercially available snacks such as LÄRABAR or KIND bars, so that I can re-fuel (myself, not the car) on my drive back home. I was never into granola bars or protein bars, except for these two brands that I have in my rotation. I have to admit I'm picky about these things. They tend to be either too dry, too sweet, too hard, too bland, too this and that and the other. I liked LÄRABAR and KIND since they were whole-food based, with mostly dates, fruit, nuts, and seeds.

Available in a variety of flavors (see here)

But lately (a) plain almonds get tiring, and (b) I needed some more variety besides the usual LÄRABAR and KIND bars. Also, I've been finding the LÄRABAR to be a little to sweet. I used to love them, but I think something has happened to my sweet tooth. (I never thought it would be possible). I also don't like eating the same old thing again and again - I need variety.

On my all-day training last Sunday, the girl I partnered with for the drills had homemade protein bars. Her recipe had peanut butter, honey, oats, and protein powder. I didn't get the chance to ask her for her specific recipe, so I set out to make my own post-training snack.

I was never into protein powders before, as I was always leery of whatever ingredients they put in it. Last summer at our local grocery store, they were giving out samples of a smoothie with Garden of Life Raw Protein, which is based on grains and seeds. I was familiar with the brand as I've taken their vitamins before. The smoothie I tasted had blueberries, bananas, spinach, chocolate almond milk, and the Garden of Life powder. It was SO good. Not overly sweet, no grainy texture, no strange aftertaste. They happened to be offering a discount as well, so I bought one, and since then I've often made that same combination that I tasted. I did not use it everyday as I like to mix things up; on other days I add protein to my smoothie by using plain kefir, yogurt, or almond butter. I haven't used it the protein powder in a couple of months now as it's been too cold to make a smoothie. So homemade protein bars are a great way to use it, and it can help with muscle recovery.

(Did I just sound like a fitness buff??? I feel like an impostor saying that.)

Here's what I came up with:

Homemade Protein Bars

• 2/3 cup nut butter (almond, peanut, etc - I used Trader Joe's creamy almond butter)
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup oats - ground in a food processor (I ended up with about 2/3 cup after grinding; I did not grind it till perfectly fine, there were certainly some coarsely ground bits, which I felt was ok for texture)
• 1/3 cup almond meal (I use Trader Joe's)
• 1/3 cup protein powder (I use Garden of Life RAW Protein, in vanilla)
• 1/3 cup ground flaxseed
•  1 tbsp chia seeds (optional)
• ~3 tbsp water

*Just to simplify things, it is a fairly straightforward ratio of 2 parts nut butter, 1 part sweetener, 1 part protein powder, 1 part almond meal, 1 part ground flaxseed, and approx 2 parts of oat flour. I wouldn't sub all-purpose flour for the oat flour here as it is a no-bake recipe. The other additions (vanilla, salt, chia seeds) are just extras for flavor and texture.

1. Over low heat, I warm the nut butter and honey together - this step makes it easier to mix. To that I add the vanilla and salt.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients together. Combine with the nut butter and honey in a large bowl. Add enough water to make the mixture moist enough to stick together, but not too wet. 
3. Line a 9x5 loaf pan with parchment paper or grease the inside with a little oil (I used coconut oil), then spread the mixture evenly in the pan. Make sure to press it firmly into the pan to pack everything tightly. Dampen your hands with water to smooth the top, or use the flat bottom of a measuring cup.
4. Refrigerate for a few hours to set, then slice into bars. Wrap or pack them individually in containers for your lunch or gym bag.

You can also double the recipe and use 2 loaf pans or a square pan - these are just the proportions I started with because I didn't want to make too much and and end up not liking it. This recipe yielded 6 bars, which was enough for a week.   

I really loved these! They were not overly sweet, and the chia seeds added some nice texture. Just make sure that after you eat one of these, do a quick check in the mirror to be sure you don't have a chia seed stuck between your teeth. Trust me on this one.

You could certainly experiment with flavor combinations.  You could omit the flaxseed if you don't have it and just sub an equal part of protein powder for extra protein, or an equal part oats. If you're going gluten-free and can't use oats (gluten-free oats are a bit harder to find, as they tend to be milled in the same facilities that handle flour), sub more almond flour or almond meal. Maybe add some chopped dates, some slivered almonds, or unsweetened dried coconut flakes. Or even drizzle some melted chocolate on top if you're feeling indulgent.

I can't give you nutrition facts - in terms of how many grams of protein and fiber etc - for this recipe, but I'd say it has a nice balance of protein, fiber, carbohydrates, and healthy fat. Or I'd say it's just yummy. That's reason enough, right?   

the recipe that made me a pumpkin pie convert

Happy Thanksgiving weekend everyone!

I hope you all had a great time giving thanks with your family and loved ones over delicious, coma-inducing food.

I have to admit I was never a big fan of pumpkin pie. Or sweet potato pie. It may sound like a crime to those of you steeped in Thanksgiving tradition, but I only started celebrating this holiday when I moved to this country ten years ago. So I don't have a lot of memories attached to pumpkin pie. Apple pie, however, is a different story, but pumpkin pie just didn't appeal to me that much.

Until I tried this bourbon pumpkin pie from Harvest Moon Cafe , this delightful cafe and restaurant (with an attached garden herb shop) in Columbus. Since then, I've been determined to re-create it at home. A friend of mine joked, "maybe it's the bourbon?" Ha! Maybe it is. The funny thing is, I don't even like to drink (alcohol). My body just does not tolerate it well at all. I do like to use it in my cooking and baking though, as the heat allows the alcohol to evaporate, leaving behind some good flavor.

This recipe has been adapted from a couple of different recipes, including this one and this one. I use a deep pie dish for this as I like a thick crust, and also because the recipe makes a pretty good amount of filling.



This pie is insanely addictive. I even had it for breakfast. You've been warned. (Hey, pumpkin is a vegetable, right?)

breakfast of champions

Bourbon Pumpkin Pie with Gingersnap Crust and Pecan Streusel

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Crust:

• Crushed/ground gingersnap cookies (about 1 ¼ cup crumbs, ground in a food processor)
• 10-12 graham crackers (ground in a food processor) - you could also use more gingersnap cookies in place of the graham crackers, but I found that the cookies were already very sweet and I didn't want an overly sweet crust. I suggest you taste your ginger cookies first :) You'll want to end up with about 2 cups of crumbs total (gingersnaps and graham crackers combined)
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• ¼ teaspoon salt

Filling:

• 1 ¾ cup whole milk
• ¼ cup bourbon
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg (freshly grated makes a world of difference, trust me)
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• a dash of allspice
• ¼ cup packed dark brown sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 whole egg
• ¼ cup cornstarch
• ¼ cup granulated white sugar
• 1 ¼ cups pumpkin puree (from one 15-ounce can)
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature

Streusel:

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• ¼ cup packed dark brown sugar
• ½ cup flour
• ¾ cup chopped pecans

Topping:

• 1 cup heavy cream, whisked to medium peaks (make sure your cream is very cold when you start; I also like to keep the bowl and beaters in the fridge to keep them cold before I whip the cream)

1. Make the crust: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine gingersnaps, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir in melted butter. Press mixture into bottom and up sides of a 9-inch pie dish (use a deep pie dish). Refrigerate for 15 minutes, then bake until the crust is golden brown, about 15 minutes. Let cool.
2. In a medium bowl, combine 4 tablespoons of the butter and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar with the flour and pinch into moist crumbs. Stir in the pecans.
3. Make the filling: Bring milk, bourbon, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, and salt to a simmer in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Meanwhile, whisk egg yolks and whole egg with cornstarch and granulated white sugar in a medium bowl.
4. Gradually whisk about 1/2 cup milk mixture into the egg mixture. This process of adding a small amount of a hot mixture to eggs is called tempering - instead of mixing the egg mixture directly into the hot milk (which can result in the eggs getting scrambled in the hot liquid), we need to slowly bring up the temperature of the egg mixture. Slowly add a little more (about a quarter to a half cup) of the milk, stirring to blend. Gradually whisk in remaining milk mixture. Return entire mixture to saucepan. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until bubbly, about 3 – 5 minutes. Remove from heat. 
5. Immediately whisk in pumpkin, stirring until no longer lumpy. Then add 1 tablespoon of butter, for good measure. Julia Child would approve.
6. Pour the filling into the cooled gingersnap crust, smoothing the top. Sprinkle the pecan streusel evenly over top. Bake for 45 minutes, then let cool on a wire rack.
7. Refrigerate until set, at least 4 hours. Serve with whipped cream.   

Recipe adapted from Camille Styles and Food & Wine magazine

meyer lemon mini cakes

Before I went home to the Philippines last December, my childhood friend T. told me: "you HAVE to try the calamansi muffins in Real Coffee in Boracay!"

Calamansi is something I most definitely miss here. It's a citrus fruit that's smaller than a key lime and native to the Philippines. We use it in almost everything - squeezed to make lemonade (although that is a heck of a job to squeeze so many tiny fruits to get enough juice), as a marinade for seafood and meats, a flavor enhancer for grilled food, and so many more. In fact, many times a plate of food at a Filipino restaurant would include a calamansi, sliced in half, for you to squeeze the juice over top. We also make fruit shakes out of it. The taste is quite distinct - it's like a cross between a lime and a tangerine.

I'm shaking my head in disbelief now because I was going through my many photos from my trip and could not find a single photo of it. Perhaps because it's something I grew up with? Here is a photo from the Filipino food blog Burnt Lumpia. My good friend K, who came with us on this trip, took a photo of it - scroll about halfway down this post and you'll see it right beside a heap of noodles. Thank goodness one of us took a picture :)

So when T. told me about calamansi muffins, I was intrigued. This was not something I remembered from previous trips to Boracay island (and I do have a good food memory).

I imagined something like a lemon poppyseed muffin, like what you would get at many coffee shops nowadays... but so much better. Biased, I know.

The first time we attempted to go to Real Coffee and Tea, I was disappointed to see it was closed. I wasn't online much during this trip and didn't check the website for their hours. It was after dinner after all, and apparently it is only open during the day. We were leaving the next day, and I wondered whether we could still make it there. The day before, we got rained on all day so we missed out on being able to explore further.

Thank goodness the sun came out.

The day we were scheduled to leave, we booked morning massages for all four of us right on the beach. Let me tell you, there is absolutely nothing like it. And for the equivalent of... maybe $8 for an hour of massage, with the sound of the waves, the sea breeze, and the warm sunshine... oh what I would trade to have that right now...

A massage with a view.

And of course, after the massage, I had to maximize my time in the water, down to the last possible  minute. I found out that Real Coffee offers delivery, so it was the perfect solution. Tracking down this muffin was important business, right? I thought, "go big or go home", so I went ahead and requested a dozen muffins for delivery.

When the much-anticipated muffins arrived at our resort, I went ahead and sampled one immediately. It did not disappoint. (I don't have a picture of it either... it was so good). It had the perfect sweet-tart flavor of calamansi, and a moist crumb.

If I remember correctly, the four of us took turns schlepping this precious cargo box of muffins through multiple modes of transportation (hotel shuttle, bus, plane, and finally the car ride home from the airport).

So this is a long story to say that I have been craving these calamansi muffins. But I think Meyer lemons can stand in for calamansi for now, because that's all I have. And this might be my last hurrah with Meyer lemons until next winter. This isn't a recipe for muffins, but they're just as good, if not better.

Meyer Lemon Mini Cakes
(adapted from Cooking Light, August 2007, lemon buttermilk cake)

3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp Meyer lemon zest (zest of 4-5 meyer lemons)
1/4 cup butter (half a stick)
1 1/2 tbsp Meyer lemon juice
1 whole egg
1 egg white
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup buttermilk, shaken

Glaze (optional)
1/4-1/3 cup confectioners sugar
Meyer lemon juice

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Butter and lightly flour your pan. For this recipe, I used a 6-cup mini-cake pan which I scored on sale and absolutely love. It's no longer available, but here is a similar one. You could also use a muffin pan or perhaps even a loaf pan, though I haven't tried it in those.  
2. Add the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda to a bowl and whisk together.
3. In a large bowl, or in the bowl of a stand mixer, rub the sugar and lemon zest together. I like doing this step, just as I did with the grapefruit yogurt pound cake I wrote about a few months ago. This step helps perfume the sugar and also separates the clumps of zest so that they get thoroughly incorporated into the batter.  
4. Add the butter to the bowl and cream together the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy.
5. Add the lemon juice, followed by the whole egg and egg white, beating well after each addition.
6. Mix in the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the buttermilk in two parts (so you begin and end with the dry ingredients).
7. Mix together just until the wet and dry ingredients are combined. Do not overmix - excessive mixing activates the gluten in the flour, resulting in tough or rubbery cakes - which is a tragedy in my book.
   Spoon the batter into your prepared pan. Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until the tip of a knife inserted in the center of one of the cakes comes out clean (a few crumbs sticking to the cake are ok).
8. Place the cake pan on a wire rack to cool for ten minutes, then loosen the cakes from the pan and allow them to cool further on the wire rack.
9. While the cakes cool, make the glaze: add enough Meyer lemon juice to the confectioners sugar to make a thick liquid. Whisk together until smooth. When cakes have completely cooled, drizzle the glaze over the cakes. 

These cakes turned out so moist, thanks to the buttermilk. The Meyer lemons impart a sweet, almost floral and citrus flavor that is just so distinct from the tartness of regular lemons. Although not exactly the calamansi muffins from sunny Boracay, I'd say it's close enough, being on the opposite side of the world where the earth is just waking up from a long winter*.

As a final note - you'll be zesting more lemons than you'll need for juice for this recipe, so might as well go on a Meyer lemon-themed meal after making these cakes. I am craving a Meyer lemon vinaigrette over some roasted asparagus or blanched peas... sounds like the perfect winter-to-spring meal to me.

*I know it's nearly May, but Cleveland always gets the memo pretty late. We still had a brief moment of flurries last week!

wishing for green

As always, Cleveland has missed the memo that it's supposed to be spring already. On Monday morning, I woke up and it was flurrying! Cleveland's version of April Fool's.

That said, I am so happy to see more sunshine the past few days, compared to the monochromatic gray days we've had. I can't wait to see more green though - the thought of baby leaves makes me beyond excited in anticipation for spring.

It's not quite green outside yet, but I'm having my own dose of green at home. Enter my new obsession: matcha green tea smoothies!

Matcha is supposedly really good for you. It's the whole green tea leaves ground to a powder, and unlike regular green tea leaves that you steep, with matcha you actually consume the whole leaf (though in ground form), and so you get all its benefits.

Typically I get most, if not all of my teas from Essencha, this lovely specialty tearoom in Cincinnati - a favorite of mine when I used to live there (and I always make a trip every time I visit my old stomping grounds).

But recently, I couldn't wait for the shipping time if I had ordered it online, so I decided I would check our neighborhood grocery store to see if they carried it - and they did, so on my last grocery run I came home with a tin. I love our grocery store - it's within walking distance, and it's cozy and not too big like the big-box stores that are so common in suburbia. They also keep their shelves well-stocked with everyday staples as well as specialty items, but because it's a smaller store I don't get overwhelmed with too many options!

It's actually still too cold for smoothies (30-something degrees out), but usually when I'm working from home I eat alone, and I don't really have much of an appetite. So liquid lunches, in the form of smoothies, become my go-to meal.

my dose of green

Matcha Green Tea Smoothie

~ 1 cup vanilla almond milk
a squirt of honey (~ half a tablespoon or so?)
1 small frozen banana*, cut into pieces
1/2 - 1 tablespoon matcha green tea powder (start with the smaller quantity if you're unsure)

Just whizz everything in a blender, and you're good to go!

*I buy bananas but tend not to eat them as is - something about the texture bothers me. But I love them in smoothies and baked goods, so I let them ripen on the countertop. Then, once they're very ripe, I peel and cut them into chunks and store in a zip-lock freezer bag. Whenever I want a smoothie I just take out however much I need, and it makes the smoothies so creamy - no need for ice! I also thaw them out for banana bread or muffins. 

As a warning, I do think that you have to like green tea to begin with to like matcha. But as a lover of green tea anything - hot tea, iced tea, green tea ice cream, green tea scents.. this was right up my alley.

matcha green tea powder

The only downside is that the smoothie doesn't stay bright green for very long, as you can see above - likely because of the banana that has oxidized . If you're like me and very visual when it comes to food, I would try and drink it pretty quickly before the pretty color changes. You can also opt to leave the banana out and add ice instead, and that might keep it a brighter green. But it makes me wonder what's in that green tea frozen drink in that popular coffee shop that will remain unnamed... and how it is just so green - like a pastel shade of green that almost looks a bit too perfect to make me suspicious. I feel better off making it at home, also so I can control how much sugar goes into it.

Slurp.

grapefruit yogurt cake

Grapefruit must be one of my favorite things about winter.

And I'm not a winter person. But there's always something to appreciate every season. For me, winter = citrus. Perhaps there's a reason nature intended it to be this way - so that we get a healthy dose of vitamin C at the time of year when we're always cooped up indoors and susceptible to catching a cold or flu.

I just realized that there's been a grapefruit theme all over our home lately. I've been loving grapefruit hand soap, dish soap, dishwasher detergent (all from Method - and no, I'm not getting paid to write this), and most recently - a grapefruit scented candle.

Caldrea citron ginger (grapefruit, ginger and basil), purchased at clearance price. Target does it again...

But back to the real grapefruit.

There's something about the refreshing scent of the fruit as you slice it open...the beauty of the jewel-like pink segments with teardrop-shaped pulp that just burst with juice and flavor in your mouth.

Whether I eat it as a snack by itself, juice it for a "mocktail" (homemade grapefruit IZZE!), add segments to a shaved fennel salad - somehow it makes me feel all virtuous despite the chocolate/ice cream/Cape Cod salt + vinegar chips I had not long before.

The other way I enjoy it, is in cake.

I started stress-cooking last night; you'll see why here. Then I decided, after making 2 batches of soup -- split pea and pumpkin coconut curry (don't ask) -- that cake was in order. 

This cake is adapted from the Barefoot Contessa's (my imaginary BFF) lemon yogurt cake. It's one of the easiest cakes ever -  you don't even need an electric mixer. I've professed my love for olive oil-based cakes before, such as this tangerine olive oil pound cake. Citrus and olive oil together are just a match made in heaven. Those Mediterranean folks were definitely on to something.

Along with the olive oil, the yogurt adds moisture - as well as tang - to the cake. I actually had Greek yogurt on hand, but I only had 3/4 cup remaining, and the recipe calls for a full cup. But, since Greek yogurt is generally yogurt that is drained of whey, I decided to just add enough water to make it a full cup, and it worked out just fine. But whatever you do, please do not use nonfat yogurt. For that matter, let me go on a soapbox for a little bit: please don't use nonfat anything unless nature intended it to be nonfat. Consider this my public service announcement.

When zesting the grapefruit - or any citrus fruit for that matter, make sure you just use the outer layer, not all the way into the white bitter pith. I love the Microplane for this task - it makes really fine zest; it's so sharp that you only need a gentle hand, so there's less risk of going into the bitter pith.


Grapefruit Yogurt Cake

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 cup sugar
• zest of one grapefruit (a little over 2 teaspoons)
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup plain whole milk yogurt
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Grapefruit simple syrup

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup freshly squeezed grapefruit juice (I got about 1/2 cup from my grapefruit)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a loaf pan (I used 8x5x3) and line the bottom with parchment paper. I use a long narrow strip of parchment so that the paper goes up the sides of the pan for easy removal later. No one likes cake stuck to the pan, right? (Then again, I have eaten cake straight out of the pan before...) For good measure, grease and flour the pan.

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into one bowl. Whisk it together so that the baking powder and salt gets incorporated into the flour.

3. In another bowl, add 1 cup of the sugar and the zest. Mix them together with your fingers, rubbing the zest and the sugar together so that the oils from the zest perfume the sugar. The original recipe didn't call for this step, but I like doing it to make sure that a) the grapefruit flavor permeates throughout and b) there are no lumps of zest sticking together. I actually enjoy doing this - I tend to use a lot of citrus for cooking, and the zest is just great for flavoring a lot of things. I do the same with lemon zest and salt - rubbing them together to make a citrus salt, which you can then add to salads or other dishes that need an extra boost of flavor.

4. Crack the eggs into a large bowl and lightly beat them to break the yolk, then whisk in the yogurt and vanilla. Add the sugar and zest mixture and whisk everything together to make sure there are no lumps of sugar throughout. Every time I bake, I make sure that I mix the wet ingredients really well, so that once I add it to the dry ingredients, I don't overmix the batter.

5. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. With a rubber spatula, fold the olive oil into the batter until it's incorporated but not over-mixed. Pour the batter into the pan. Bake for about 50 minutes, or until a cake tester/toothpick/knife inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

6. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, on a cake rack.

7. Meanwhile, cook the 1/3 cup grapefruit juice and remaining 1/3 cup sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves. Set aside.

8. Place the cake rack over a sheet pan. Loosen the cake from the pan, and lift it out of the pan (the excess length of parchment paper up the sides of the pan helps with this!) and place it on the cake rack. While the cake is still warm, pour the grapefruit simple syrup over the cake and allow it to soak in.
 
You can use as little or as much of the syrup as you want, but I probably only used half of it as I didn't want the cake to be too sweet. I figured I can use the syrup for a mocktail later, with sparkling water and perhaps some fresh thyme or rosemary, either of which pairs very well with grapefruit.

I actually debated whether to add herbs to the syrup for the cake -but I decided against it for now, so I can just have one main flavor in the cake for this first try. I might give it a try the next time. If you do, let me know how it turns out!

Barefoot Contessa's cake also calls for a glaze, which is 2 tablespoons of lemon juice (or grapefruit, for this cake) and a cup of confectioner's sugar, mixed together and poured over the cake. I'm not a huge fan of glaze, and didn't feel like I had to add even more sugar to the cake - but if you like glaze, go for it!

And on that note, I am off to have a slice of cake. Grapefruit and yogurt - that counts as breakfast, right?

when the going gets tough...

...the tough eat cake.

Cake for breakfast, that is.

So this happened over the weekend:



To be honest I'm not even quite sure how it happened. It was just a sudden pain that I felt and I couldn't recall where it even came from. I was completely fine teaching yoga the day before. I don't remember falling (and I would remember that, wouldn't I?).

My only suspicion is that I might have lifted something heavy and maybe held it the wrong way. Though I've always thought I had pretty strong wrists (thanks to yoga and daily cooking with heavy cast iron cookware), this is certainly a reminder for me to slow down.

Thankfully I can still type, because my day job requires lots of work on the computer. I can flex my wrist but not extend it or use it to apply pressure on things. Which means my cookie-selling is on hiatus for the next few days as I can't work a rolling pin (sorry Misty for the delay in your cookie order!). I also feel pain when doing any rotational type of movement like turning on a faucet or opening a jar. For someone who does a lot of "manual labor" (in the kitchen, at least), this is really slowing me down. But I'm definitely still thankful, because it could have been much worse.

I'm pretty sure it's just a muscular injury as I am not seeing any swelling. Just pain. I've done a few different remedies like slathering on arnica, and A. suggested soaking it in warm salt water and wrapping it with an adhesive bandage for extra support. And of course, as luck would have it, it's my right wrist that is injured, and I'm right-handed.

The good news is, I was able to do at least some weekend baking before all this wrist pain. Dessert is always the bright side of life in my book. I love starting the weekend with a slow and relaxed morning of baking while still in my pj's.

Olive Oil Vanilla Fig Cake



This is a really easy recipe that I adapted from Food and Wine's buttermilk cake. It's a pretty foolproof recipe. I love the simplicity of it, which allows the fruit to shine. I've actually made this buttermilk cake a few different times this past summer with different fruits - once with blackberries, another time with plums. This time I had figs that were on the verge of becoming too soft, so I thought it would be perfect for this cake.

I also thought some fruity olive oil might go well with figs, so I subbed olive oil in place of butter - and I've seen (and tried) quite a few Italian or Mediterranean-inspired cake recipes that used olive oil rather than butter, such as this one. And well, my main reason too is that I was short on butter, because I also made a big pan of brownies recently and I was reserving the remaining butter for the said cookie order. But I've made this cake before following the original butter-based recipe, and it produced a wonderful, light, and moist crumb. The simplicity of the recipe was also the perfect canvas for adding other flavors like fresh lemon zest (perfect when using blueberries!) and experimenting with different types of fruits.

For this particular fig cake, I wanted to do a few other things like maybe soak the figs in Grand Marnier but it turns out I didn't have any orange-flavored liqueur. Note to self: I really should re-stock my liqueur stash - for baking, that is (I don't drink, but I eat - and I'm pretty unapologetic about my dessert enjoyment. We all have our poison of choice, right?). Some fresh orange zest might have been nice in here too, but I didn't have that either. So I just kept things simple this time around. 

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 
• 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or just use 1 cup all-purpose instead of my half-and-half combination)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt 
• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2/3 cup sugar  
• 1 large egg, at room temperature 
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 
• 1/2 (scant) cup buttermilk, at room temperature
• 12 fresh figs, chopped into small pieces

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease and flour a 9" cake pan, or line with parchment paper.

Then, it can't get any simpler:

Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in one bowl.
Mix all liquid ingredients in another bowl. Stir in the sugar.
Add the dry ingredients to the liquid ingredients.
Pour into the pan and spread it out evenly. It will look like a small amount of batter, but it will rise in the oven. Scatter the figs over top.
Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (some moist crumbs are ok).
Loosen the edges of the cake from the sides of the pan. Cool in the pan on a wire rack. Once cool enough to handle, turn it over onto a board or large plate, then place another serving plate on top and turn it over again. 

This is a really moist cake thanks to the olive oil and buttermilk. A dozen fresh figs went a long way in this cake - as you can see it is quite studded with lots of fig goodness. It was perfect with my morning tea.

I may or may not have eaten more cake after lunch. Or for lunch.

panzanella and warm marinated olives

We've been getting a lot of different tomatoes lately, including grape tomatoes, yellow pear tomatoes, and beautiful heirloom tomatoes. It truly is one of the best things about summer. If I were really smart about this, I would have turned all these wonderful tomatoes into a marinara sauce to freeze and save for the winter ahead, but lately I just can't help myself. I can't stop eating them! Whether sliced and doused with olive oil and basil...



Or in a sandwich, with a schmear of mayonnaise, coarse sea salt, and lots of cracked black pepper...



Or in panzanella, which is an Italian bread and tomato salad. All this salad needs day-old crusty bread, and gorgeous tomatoes and fresh basil, and just a simple vinaigrette dressing. I made mine a little differently based on what I had in the kitchen; you can always play around with the ingredients. Maybe swap feta for the fresh mozzarella (it may not be traditional, but it's good!). Maybe add some shallots. Do what you like!

Panzanella

For the bread:

• a little shy of half a loaf of day-old, crusty artisan bread
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Slice the bread into cubes (about half an inch or so). I would estimate that I had about 4 cups of cubed bread (maybe!). Spread onto a baking sheet pan, then drizzle olive oil on top - not a lot, just a little bit to help the bread brown nicely. Season with salt and pepper. Toss everything together with your hands to distribute the olive oil, then bake for about 10-12 minutes until they are crunchy and golden brown around the edges.

This may seem like an unnecessary step; you might be thinking, why toast it and let it get crunchy only to soak it in dressing later? But I think letting it toast in the oven lets it dry out even further so that it can soak up all that flavorful dressing more.

For the rest of the salad:

• lots of tomatoes - I used one very large heirloom tomato, one medium red tomato, and about 10 sun-dried tomatoes, rehydrated in hot water for 10 minutes, then chopped (sun-dried tomatoes aren't necessary here, but I like them)
• 1 large garlic clove
• 1 small onion (shallots would have been better, but I didn't have any), chopped small; about 1/4 cup
• about 1/2 cup of fresh mozzarella, in small cubes
• about 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• about 1/4 cup of your best extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper
• lots of fresh basil

While the bread is in the oven, make the dressing. In a large bowl, mix the red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper (you can season generously as this makes a large salad!) Mince the garlic clove with a little salt - whenever I use garlic for a raw preparation, I like to do it this way because the salt helps break down the garlic a little bit. Chop the onion (or shallot). I didn't want raw onions in here as they might overpower the tomatoes, so I decided to roast the onion slightly in the oven as well (the oven was already hot anyway!) to sweeten them a bit and make them less pungent - probably not even 10 minutes. If I had shallots, I probably wouldn't have roasted them as they are more mellow than regular onions. Add the roasted onions (or shallots) to the dressing.

Chop the tomatoes and add them (including any tomato juice that collects on your cutting board) to the bowl. Add the crunchy bread as well, and toss everything together so that the bread soaks up the dressing. Toss in the fresh mozzarella, and simply tear the fresh basil leaves over the bowl.

Check for seasoning, and adjust as necessary. Allow the salad to sit for about 10 minutes (it gets better!), if you can wait that long :)

The salad was a study of contrasting textures and flavors: croutons softened by a slightly tangy, fruity olive oil dressing, plump, juicy tomatoes at the peak of their sweetness, chewy sun-dried tomatoes, and mild, creamy mozzarella, and fresh, sweet basil. Yum. As I was eating it, I was already thinking about how much I would enjoy the leftovers for lunch the next day. I know. I think ahead like that. 

This was an easy weeknight dinner, along with some warm marinated olives - simply a mix of a variety of olives from Whole Foods' antipasto bar, which I packed into a glass jar (with the olive oil it comes in), and set into a small pot of simmering water for about 20-30 minutes. This was inspired by a visit to Flour (a nearby Italian restaurant) last weekend. Warm marinated olives are a part of their appetizer list; and interestingly, we never ordered them before, thinking, oh, it's just olives - I can have them at home anytime, why would I order it at a restaurant? But we decided to get them on our last visit and it was a revelation. We were in olive heaven (a little dramatic, I know).  I've always loved olives. Little did I know that enjoying them warm takes them to a whole other level. (I'm not the last one to learn about this, am I?) Letting them sit in a hot water bath allows the flavors to bloom, and it's just worlds better than the usual cold olives in typical antipasto platters. I guess it's a similar concept as letting cheeses sit at room temperature for a little bit - not serving it straight out of the fridge - before enjoying it on a cheese platter. Believe me. Give it a try. You'll never go back to cold olives.

Filipino mung bean stew (vegetarian version)

I have to (embarrassingly) admit that, for as much as I love to cook, I don't cook a whole lot of Filipino food. Many of the "classic" Filipino dishes are meat-based, like the popular adobo which is a stew of pork or chicken, slow-cooked in vinegar, soy sauce, lots of garlic, and black peppercorns. They say that there are as many versions of adobo as there are Filipino households, and I don't doubt that. But this is not a post on adobo; rather it's about the humble mung bean stew.

I know many of us might not want to say goodbye to summer and think of stews just yet. But I'm starting to feel a little chill in the air now during my after-dinner walks with A. Fall is in the air, folks. At least in the Cleveland air, that is. :)

Given my love for lentils, mung bean stew is frequently part of our rotation of legume dishes. It's cheap, protein- and fiber-packed, and so good for you.

I make a very different version from what you might encounter in non-vegetarian Filipino households. In the traditional version(s), you'll see bits of pork and maybe tiny shrimp, perhaps the flavor of shrimp paste and/or fish sauce. Some add a chile pepper for a little spice; some add a little greens. I think the traditional version also calls for fish sauce as a seasoning; although I have started to eat fish 1-2 times a week now, A. doesn't, so I use a low-sodium tamari instead (or any reduced-sodium soy sauce). Balsamic vinegar is not a traditional ingredient, but I find that it works in here. Lemon juice would work too, but I like the sweet-tart flavor of balsamic vinegar.

It does take a bit of advanced planning to soak the mung beans 24-30 hours, or at least four hours; although you can cook mung beans without soaking, soaking makes it so much faster to cook. I actually soak mine at least overnight to about 30 hours, at which point you'll start seeing the white insides of the mung beans begin to push out of the green covering. Soaking and sprouting makes them more digestible as well. For those of you who are not used to consuming large amounts of legumes or lentils, this is really helpful in reducing your chances of... you-know-what. You're welcome.

Of course, before doing that just make sure you sort the beans, picking out any pebbles or unwanted items - easiest to spread it out on a light colored dish or baking sheet pan. Then rinse a few times before soaking, and if you are doing a long soak, change the water a couple of times. After soaking the mung beans will have plumped up. Even if you just start out with a cup of dried mung beans, it will triple in volume at least after a long soak, so in the end this recipe can probably serve 4.

Filipino-Style Mung Bean Stew (vegetarian)

• olive oil - a healthy glug (I'm offically making that a technical culinary term now), enough to cover the bottom of the pot
• half a large onion, chopped
• half a head of garlic, chopped (I know... I'm pretty unapologetic about my use of garlic. Except before yoga class.)
• 1 medium tomato, chopped
• 1 cup mung beans, soaked 24-30 hours (or at least four hours), then drained and rinsed
• water or vegetable broth
• tamari or soy sauce - I think I used 3 or 4 tablespoons
• balsamic vinegar - about a tablespoon
• salt and pepper

In a heavy-bottomed pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Saute the onion, garlic, and tomatoes (the trio that makes up the traditional sofrito, or the basis of many Filipino dishes) with a little salt and pepper. Once the onions are soft and the tomatoes have broken down, add the mung beans, and pour in enough water or vegetable broth to cover the mung beans by about an inch.

Bring it to a boil, then cover and lower the heat to a simmer. Let it cook until the mung beans are soft. Season with tamari or soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, and pepper (be sure to taste for saltiness after adding the tamari or soy sauce). The stew should be somewhat thick; if it's too watery, continue simmering uncovered to reduce the liquid. I like mine pretty thick, as you can tell from the photos below; but you can just cook it until you get the consistency you want.

I'm not sure if this is traditional, but for extra nutrition I sometimes add some chopped leafy greens (spinach or kale) at the end, and cook through briefly till they wilt. 

And because I'm also unapologetic about my use of olive oil, serve the mung beans in bowls with a drizzle of good olive oil. I don't think that's traditional either, but I learned that from my late grandfather, who liked to drizzle olive oil over his bean stews. We Filipinos typically eat this with rice, but A. enjoys it with roti (Indian flatbread). It actually works out that way too. We are a Filipino-Indian household, after all.

A few notes...
~ The napkin in the upper right photo above is from betsygrace on Etsy. I splurged on this set of rustic linen embroidered napkins and asked for a custom set embroidered with "welcome" in different languages, but I asked for Filipino and Hindi as well to represent mine and my husband's language and culture. "Kain" actually literally translates to "eat" in Filipino. This is how we welcome people into our home; we don't say "welcome", we invite them to eat. :)

~ Here is a great book on Filipino food: Memories of Philippine Kitchens by Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan. Gorgeous photos and lovely stories about the history of Filipino food. 

~ Here is an informative and entertaining blog on Filipino food: Burnt Lumpia

~ My friend Dianne writes much more about Filipino food than I do, such as in this post.

Update on 11.12.12:
I made mung bean stew again tonight, and I added something to a whole other level: homemade garlic confit! It was SO.GOOD. I had some leftover garlic confit that I made last week, so at the last minute I decided to add some. While we were eating the stew, every now and then we would find these creamy, soft, sweet garlic cloves in our bowl, which we then mashed into the stew. Yum.

Here are a few recipe sources for garlic confit:
Epicurious - just garlic and olive oil
Food and Wine - garlic, olive oil, thyme, and chiles 

cashew and almond pâté

I usually make a lot of hummus and bean-based dips, like here and here. It's a quick and easy source of nutrition for snacking, workday lunches, picnics, or a crowd-pleasing appetizer for a party. Every now and then, I like to mix it up with a nut-based pâté.

Just a quick note, this is not meant to mimic liver pâté; it has distinct flavors in its own right. It's also quite filling due to the protein content of the nuts.

This recipe does require some advanced planning, as the nuts need to be soaked for a few hours or overnight. Soaking raw nuts makes the enzymes in them more active, thus making them more digestible.

Other than that, there's not much else to it - everything goes in a food processor or blender. What's not to love?

Cashew and Almond Pâté

1 cup raw cashews, soaked overnight then drained and rinsed
1/2 cup raw almonds, soaked overnight then drained and rinsed (you could also use just cashews, but almonds add a nice flavor)
1/3 cup chopped scallions/green onion, or 1/4 cup chopped yellow or sweet onions
1 clove of garlic, chopped with a little salt
2 tablespoons Bragg's liquid aminos (here is some good information on this product) 
6-8 sun-dried tomatoes, soaked in 1/4 cup very hot water
zest of 1 lemon
juice of half a lemon (more or less)
a generous handful of fresh basil leaves, or other fresh herbs of your choice
sea salt and pepper

Place the onions in a small bowl. I usually prefer green onions for an uncooked dish, but last weekend I didn't have any so I just used a small amount of regular yellow onion. If using regular onions, add the Bragg's liquid aminos to it to let it marinate for about 10 minutes. If you don't have Bragg's liquid aminos, just use regular sea salt and lemon juice. Marinating in salt and lemon juice will help make the onions less pungent. Add the chopped garlic to this as well.

Soak the sun-dried tomatoes in the hot water as well, until rehydrated and plump. Be sure to save the soaking water!

Add everything - including the soaking water of the sun-dried tomatoes, but excluding salt and pepper to the food processor or blender. Let it run until you have a creamy consistency, scraping down the sides with a spatula to make sure everything gets incorporated. You'll probably end up with some pieces of sun-dried tomato here and there, but I also like having a little texture. If you want it creamier, just let the processor run a bit longer.

Check for seasoning at the end and add salt and pepper to taste - note that Bragg's liquid aminos are a little salty so be sure to taste first before adding more salt.

This gets better after sitting in the refrigerator for a few hours to let the flavors marry.

You could also experiment and mix other flavors into this pate; I would imagine black olives would be good in here as well. Or you could sub some roasted red pepper instead of sun-dried tomatoes. Add some red pepper flakes if you like some heat. It's a versatile recipe! 

Serve with crudités, crostini, or pita chips.

(Personally, my favorite part is the remaining bits stuck to the food processor, which I scrape with a spatula. Yum. Just helping the dishwasher out. :))

no-cook, heat-wave-friendly dinner

Whew!

It is HOT today in Cleveland. And I say that with great tolerance, being a girl from the tropics. But it is quite unusual for these parts. I had a feeling this would happen after our unusually warm winter.

Regardless, I hope you are all finding ways to stay cool - whether you enjoy some popsicles, run among the sprinklers, whatever. Because summer goes by in a blink of an eye.

For tonight's dinner, I decided not to turn on the stove at all.

Massaged greens (mustard greens and kale), roasted beets (from last night), chickpeas (also cooked last night), avocado, and feta - everything except the chickpeas and avocado are from Fresh Fork Market

We all know dark leafy greens are good for us, and thankfully we get some generous bunches from our weekly produce pickup. The greens this week were mustard greens and kale. Typically I would do a quick saute in olive oil and garlic, but even that did not sound appealing to me today. I wanted a filling, no-cook meal, but raw kale and mustard greens sounded a bit too much even for a veggie-lover like me.

This friend told me about massaging raw greens for a salad, so I decided to give that a try. So after washing and drying the greens, and tearing them up into bite-size pieces, I sprinkled some sea salt, squeezed a little lemon juice and added a dash of olive oil, and actually got in there with my (clean) hands and massaged the greens until they were soft and wilted.

Afterwards, I wondered why I waited so long to try it. All that TLC (along with the salt and the acid from the lemon juice) made the raw greens more palatable, yet they were still flavorful. I wouldn't do it for more delicate greens like spinach and arugula, but for kale and mustard greens this is a great technique.

I added beets which I had roasted the night before (here is a tip for roasting beets - no need to peel beforehand!), as well as some chickpeas. We tend to eat a lot of chickpeas and other legumes in our household as our main source of protein, so every week or so I soak about 2 cups of dry chickpeas overnight and cook them in a pressure cooker the next day - four whistles and it's done. Then I store them in smaller containers (immersed in the cooking liquid - great for thickening stews and for improving the texture of hummus) - some in the freezer, and some in the refrigerator for more immediate use. Sometimes A. snacks on them as is (drained of the liquid of course), with nothing but salt and Indian red chile powder. 

This was a really satisfying salad with great contrasting flavors and textures. That's what salads are all about in my opinion. Peppery greens, sweet yet earthy beets, mild chickpeas, creamy avocado, salty feta, tangy lemon juice. It was so flavorful, it didn't even need more dressing - just a little more salt and pepper (though you could always add a dressing of your choice).

What required the most effort in this meal was trying to get all my salad elements in one forkful.

The second most effortful thing about tonight's meal would be keeping myself from eating the entire pint of Jeni's roasted strawberry buttermilk ice cream. It tempts me each time I open the freezer door. But that's another story...

beat the heat

...with cold, fuss-free summer meals.

As much as I love to cook and bake, there are days when even turning on the toaster seems to heat up the kitchen. I did very minimal cooking this weekend - one meal involved a couscous salad (boil water/broth, add couscous, stir, turn off the heat, cover, and let sit for 5 minutes, and it's done... add vegetables and herbs of your choice, some kind of dressing, maybe some feta cheese). This is another one of those "non-recipes" as I like to call it, as you can do whatever you want! Choose a different vegetable. A different grain/starch. A different flavor profile with other herbs. During the colder months I would use a heartier grain like barley or spelt berries, but in the summer couscous is just perfect. I chose these vegetables because these are what I got from last Friday's produce pickup.

The trick here, I think, is to flavor everything from the start - for instance, instead of cooking the couscous/pasta/grains in plain water, I cook it in vegetable broth. If I happen to not have broth and just have water, I add other aromatics (garlic, onion, herbs, whatever) and salt in the cooking water too. And, in either situation, some olive oil. A little olive oil never hurt anybody. (And actually, having a little fat, like olive oil, with vegetables helps our bodies absorb the fat-soluble nutrients in the vegetables. It's a good thing!)

whole wheat couscous, chickpeas, carrots, tomatoes, kale lightly sauteed in garlic and onions, parsley + basil from my balcony (Yes they are growing! There's hope for cactus-killing, non-green-thumbs like me!), and sheep's milk feta (from Lucky Penny Farm), dressed in extra virgin olive oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt and pepper

Other meals involved cold soups just using the blender.

Cold soup #1: Cucumber Soup

There is a reason cucumbers are harvested in the summer.

• 2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded, and chopped
• 1 cup plain yogurt (I extended the yummy Velvet View Farmstead yogurt by saving a bit to use as a starter for homemade yogurt!)
• 1-2 cloves garlic, depending on how garlicky you want it
• 2 tablespoons of chopped spring onions
• half a jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped (optional, but I wanted just a tiny bit of a kick)
• a cup or so of vegetable broth (cold!) -maybe more, maybe less... just enough to get the consistency you want
• salt and pepper
• fresh herbs of your choice (mint, dill, parsley are good choices... I had some parsley on my balcony so that's what I used)

The most work here (which really isn't a lot of work) is prepping the cucumbers and garlic. When a dish calls for raw garlic, I like mincing it with a little salt so that it becomes pasty. Sometimes, big garlic pieces somehow escape the blades of the blender, so mincing it into a paste avoids that. The salt seems to tame the flavor a bit too. (I do the same for raw onions, like for guacamole - though I don't mash them, just sprinkle salt over chopped onions and let it sit for a few minutes).

Whizz everything in a blender until smooth, and it's done.

You might chill it in the fridge some more, but since all my ingredients were cold to begin with, I didn't have to.

Cold soup #2: Sopa de Ajo Bianco (Almond and Garlic Soup)

This soup is not for those who are lukewarm toward garlic. Even A., who really likes garlic, said it was a little much. Two cloves of garlic (instead of 3) would be just fine here. Feel free to adjust to your liking.

• 1 cup of almond meal (available at Trader Joe's; some grocery stores also carry the Bob's Red Mill brand of almond meal)
• a cup or so (around 2 slices) of cubed day-old white country bread, crusts removed, and soaked in enough milk to cover
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced with salt until pasty
• a dash of sherry vinegar
• salt and pepper

Again - whizz everything in a blender until smooth. To make it extra smooth, pour it through a sieve into bowls. I did this, but ended up not wanting to waste the almond bits that collected in the sieve. So I slathered it on bread. It was already flavorful, so why not?
 
Technically, this recipe calls for blanched almonds so you probably wouldn't even have to run it through a sieve since you won't be dealing with the almond skins anymore. But I didn't have blanched almonds, so it had to be almond meal. I think it worked out.

This soup also calls for green grapes, as a garnish or served on the side - like in this recipe. Unfortunately I didn't have any, but I imagine that would be really good here as a contrast to the creamy and garlicky soup. Note to self for next time.

Chill in the refrigerator before serving.

Hope it cools off this week! 

chocolate zucchini muffins

Summer brings an abundance of zucchini. There were 2 zucchinis (thanks to Fresh Fork Market) in my refrigerator crisper drawer, staring at me. Having already made two loaves of zucchini bread, I decided to adapt my zucchini bread recipe and add chocolate. You can't go wrong with chocolate, right?

For me, most muffins call for chocolate chips or nuts. I like the contrasting textures of the moist crumb and the crunch of chocolate chips or nuts together. So, I searched my pantry high and low for chocolate chips... and unfortunately none turned up. And I already used up my last 2 bars of Green & Black dark chocolate for my fleur de sel chocolate chip cookies yesterday. Really??? No chocolate in this household???

And then I found a box of dark chocolate coated marzipan. It was a gift to us, but neither of us are actually huge fans of marzipan. So in my determined-to-have-chocolate state, I decided to cut up all these chocolate marzipan bars and use the chocolate coating. I initially felt bad about tossing the marzipan interior (I hate throwing food away - that's the Filipino in me), but...voila, I had chocolate "chips"! After this long process, I ended up with about 3/4 cup of chocolate pieces. And I had a little shy of half a cup of walnuts. Score! (But I suggest you just grab a bag of chocolate chips while you are at the store.)

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins (makes 23-24 muffins)

• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or all-purpose flour)
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 tablespoon instant coffee powder
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cups turbinado sugar (or regular brown sugar)
• 3/4 cup virgin coconut oil (or vegetable oil)
• 3 tablespoons ground flaxseed, mixed with 6 tablespoons water (or 3 eggs)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups grated zucchini (grated in a food processor)
• 1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips, nuts, or a combination

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with paper muffin liners, or grease and flour the muffin tins. I actually just used one muffin tin and just baked them in two batches (Technically I think that once the wet and dry ingredients are mixed together, the batter has to be baked without delay... but I figured this wasn't such a delicate recipe and the second batch can wait a half hour or so before going into the oven. Anyway...)
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa, salt, baking soda, instant coffee, allspice, and cinnamon. I now mix a little bit of coffee into almost any chocolate recipe. Not that you actually taste the coffee, but it just adds even more depth of flavor. Coffee makes chocolate taste better! (Thanks, Ina Garten)
3. Measure out about a half cup of the flour mixture and place in a bowl with the chocolate chips or nuts. Mix together to coat the chocolate chips/nuts. This process (I think the technical term is dredging) prevents the chocolate chips/nuts from sinking to the bottom of the muffins as they bake.
4. In a large bowl, mix the sugar, oil, ground flaxseed mixture (or eggs), vanilla, and grated zucchini. As a side note, for those of you who are wary of coconut oil... you actually don't detect the coconut flavor in here. And virgin, cold-pressed, unrefined coconut oil is actually good for you!
5. Mix the flour mixture into the wet ingredients, just until combined (do not overmix!). Fold in the chocolate chips/nuts and the remaining flour mixture.
6. Using an ice cream scoop or measuring cup, divide the batter into the muffin cups (fill about 2/3 of the way up in each muffin cup). Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a small knife/cake tester/toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out without any liquid batter sticking to it (moist/dry crumbs are ok).
7. Cool in the muffin pan for about 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Well, the cooling process didn't quite happen for me. I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into one of these.

See how incredibly moist and chocolate-y they are?

Not that zucchinis are a bad thing, but you can't even detect them in here. Surely a great way to use up zucchini. I think my next zucchini experiment will be to make them into latkes.



PS: As a side note, my wire rack (middle ground of photo) looks like it's glowing!