Early Winter Breakfasts: Spiced Butternut Muffins with Bittersweet Chocolate

At some point during the Thanksgiving grocery shopping bonanza, I sent my husband out for a butternut squash. He returned with the largest gourd known to man, which, he informed me very grouchily, cost $9. A $9 squash?! Adding insult to injury (no, really, I tore my rotator cuff during the Thanksgiving festivities and am sure lifting this sucker didn't help) I ran out of time to make butternut soup on Thanksgiving day.

We're determined that $9 is not going to go to waste, so we've since had squash in our chicken soup, squash cooked into quinoa polenta arepas, and now squash in these perfect. not-too-sweet breakfast muffins. 

This recipe seems a bit fussy, but it's only because I was using up other leftover holiday ingredients, like buttermilk and heavy cream. You don't need to follow my lead here, and could definitely substitute plain old milk. And if you're not gluten free? You can sub the brown rice flour for whole wheat and use a regular all-purpose flour. The almond meal would still be a nice touch, or just increase the amount of one of the other flours by 1/2 cup. 

Adapted slightly from this lovely recipe:

Spiced Butternut Muffins with Bittersweet Chocolate

Adapted a little from this lovely recipe at Making Thyme for Health

1 1/2 cups brown rice flour

1/2 cup gluten free all purpose flour (I use this mix)

1/2 cup almond meal

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1 cup roasted and mashed butternut squash** 

2 eggs

2/3 cup maple syrup

1/3 cup buttermilk

1/3 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons butter, melted

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3/4 cup chopped bittersweet chocolate

In a large bowl, sift together your dry ingredients. Set aside and preheat your oven to 350°F. Fill a 12-muffin pan with liners.

In a separate bowl, mix together all of your wet ingredients, including the squash. I did this by hand with no problem, and my squash was pretty dry. 

Slowly fold the contents of your wet bowl into the dry mix. Don't overdo it. Fold in the bittersweet chocolate last. 

Pour into muffin tins and bake at 350°F for 25 minutes. 

**You can either pre-roast your squash or puncture its skin and then microwave the heck out of it. You might get some more depth if you roast it, but for muffins I found the microwave a very acceptable cooking method.

Don't forget to roast and enjoy the seeds!

Food Allergies and Ethics
Gluten-free, vegetarian

Food from Turkey

Almost a year ago, my spouse and I took a vacation to Turkey.  The trip very much reminded me of how weakly educated I am in history before the past 100 years or so, something that I suppose is not a surprise, living as I do in the "New World," on a thoroughly colonized continent in a society that chooses to view its own history as beginning a bit over 200 years ago.  In Turkey, you can't avoid the physical signs of layers and layers and layers of history, society upon society, world upon world.  It's dizzying to the American mind, and very wonderful.

Anyway, this here is a food blog, and the reason I'm posting so belatedly about our trip is that I've been making some very tasty melon-black olive-bread skewers all summer, and as I thought about posting them here, I realized that the idea came from eating many Turkish breakfasts involved juicy, honey-sweet melons and mild, wrinkly black olives.  This made me nostalgic, I went back to my photos of the trip, and here are all the delicious things I found there:

White beans in rich broth in Cappadocia.

Melt-in-your mouth mezze at Seten.

A bulgur-and-chickpea soup with the most amazing flavor (which I've been meaning to try making), also at Seten.

Breakfast:  Olives, cheeses, fruits, tomatoes, raisins.  Heaven.

Eating a little wild apple from an abandoned orchard in the Rose Valley.

There were grapes, too!

Wonderful bread and haydari

Clay pot, cracked open (which took some effort) for eating on a chilly night

Cheese-filled flatbread on the river in the Ihlara River Valley

Honey and pistachios and flaky pastry

More mind-blowing mezze in Kalkan, at a place called Olive Garden

Lunch to go in Istanbul.

Beautiful pasta at a museum restaurant in Istanbul

Fancy manti at Mikla

Sweets and spices at the Spice Bazaar

Peppers and white beans from another lovely lunch counter

Husband with sesame bread

Cheers!

Cinnamon Ginger Sea Salt Energy Bars (Gluten-Free and No-Bake)

Most gluten-free energy bars rely on dried fruit and nuts, and in my experience tend to be overly sweet. These snack bars are made from a very flexible dried fruit and nut base, but the combination of cinnamon, sea salt, ginger, and dark chocolate makes them something special.

The recipe is extremely forgiving, so have fun with substitutions. These are a great way to ease back into the post-holiday working life. For those of you still in airports, I carried the bars on my flights yesterday. They held up very well.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups dried apricots
1/2 cup dried blueberries
1/2 cup almonds
1/4 cup macadamia nuts
Cinnamon (to taste, but I recommend using copious amounts!)
Ginger (I used powdered but dried or candied would be wonderful)
Sea Salt (to taste, but you really want the salt to cut through the sweetness of the dried fruit)
Handful of dark chocolate chips (about 2 oz. dark chocolate)

Optional: Agave, honey, or coconut oil (just a small drizzle of one for moisture purposes)

Assembly
Grind your dried fruit and nuts in a food processor until the mixture is fairly fine. Add cinnamon, ginger, and sea salt to taste. If you need a bit more moisture, drizzle in some agave, honey, or coconut oil.

Press the mixture into a loaf pan lined with parchment paper. Melt the dark chocolate and drizzle or spread over the loaf. Refrigerate until the mixture firms (30 minutes or so). Remove from loaf pan and cut into 12 squares. Store in a glass container or wrapped individually in foil or wax paper. I recommend keeping these refrigerated or enjoying them from the freezer, but they are sturdy even after a few hours of travel.

Food Allergies and Ethics: Gluten-free and vegan (so long as you check your dark chocolate).

Food from New Zealand Year Three and a Bit About Pavlova

For three summers in a row I've taught a study abroad program in New Zealand for undergraduate students from the U.S. I try to avoid romanticizing the country--it has extreme health disparities and environmental problems despite its squeaky clean image--but one thing I do love through and through is the food. Being a part of the Pacific Rim means that there is a lot of amazing Asian food available, and they also cater to food allergies so it's a delightful place to be gluten-free.

Poached eggs with potato cakes, spinach, and tomatoes

It is not that I've even had any extraordinary meals there. It's just that I love the day to day food. Lots of roasted veggies, amazing cheese and yogurt, asian flavors and spices, lentils and beans in every salad, kumara and squash aplenty, and fantastic chocolate. Yum. 

Unfortunately I spent a large portion of this trip with a very sick student in and out of hospitals, and that zapped my energy for taking photos and doing some of the things I would usually do while traveling. So, I didn't take as many food photos as the first year I went, but here are some shots of a beautiful dessert I had in Auckland, the country's largest city. The professor I taught with convinced me that we should spend our last afternoon grading in the city's space tower, where we had high tea. It was absolutely lovely. The photos are a bit blue, sorry!

Macaroons and other goodies

Kiwi fruit with chocolate and a mini Pavlova with preserved lemon

One new thing I learned this year is that Pavlova is a dessert that originated in New Zealand (or maybe Australia, I think this is contested). I am not a huge fan of meringue, but the owner of a country home that I stayed at may have changed that. She served us a Pavlova--which for those who don't know is basically meringue cake with a crisp outer shell and a soft, marshmallowy inside--that was absolutely delightful with homemade whipped cream and blueberries. In the photo above it was served with preserved lemon. I preferred the berries. 

Maureen, the lovely woman that I stayed with, has promised to send me the recipe. Until then, the best I can do is refer you to Shuna Lydon, who has a nice Pavlova recipe over at one of my favorite websites, Simply Recipes. 

See why I keep going back?

Costa Rican Casado and Guanabana Batidos

Last summer, I studied abroad in Peru and Costa Rica for nine weeks total, an adventure I miss on a daily basis.  This summer, I'm braving the heat (read: whining a lot and attempting to resist the temptation of blasting the air-conditioning) in Phoenix.  I recently had dinner with two of my roommates from Costa Rica, and we decided to attempt to recreate our favorite Costa Rican meal.

why we really miss costa rica and wanted to make a meal to help us remember

Typical Costa Rican fare is simple, but delicious. When one goes out to eat in Costa Rica, one goes to a soda, or small family-owned restaurant.  For breakfast, there's gallo pinto, or rice and beans mixed together.  For lunch, there's casado, or a plate that usually consists of rice, beans, a small piece of meat (or vegetables, for vegetarian), and either plantains or yucca.  The plantains can either be maduros, soft and simmered in cinnamon and sugar, or tostones, crispy and fried in oil and salt.  For a drink, they serve batidos, which are fruit juice blended to make it frothy.  Guanabana, or soursop juice, is a popular pairing for casado. Here's what casado looks like when actually in Costa Rica:

my mouth is watering at the memory

For our recreation, I google'd like crazy.  I was surprised at the lack of recipes, but pieced together my own recipe from a large number of others.  In reality, each soda has its own version of casado, so this recipe is for the version I would serve, if I were to own a soda.  I can't guarantee it tastes exactly spot on, but the concept holds true.

For the Rice: 

Simmer diced onions and peppers and some garlic in a little oil until the onions are translucent.  Add one cup rice, mix until it's been covered with oil.  Add one cup water and cook as normal. Basmati is best.

For the Beans: 

Simmer diced onions and some garlic until onions are translucent.  Add a can of black beans and simmer until finished.

For the Side Salad: 

In Costa Rica, this is often cabbage with maybe just shredded carrot.  If you want to get really fancy, look up a Heart of Palm salad.

For the Tostones:

Take a plantain.  Slice it shortways, into pieces about half an inch thick.  Fry each in oil, about 3-4 minutes per side.  Remove from oil, flatten with either a spatula or all at once by pressing down with a plate.  Dip each in cold water before returning it to the oil for about one minute per side, until crispy.

For the Chicken:

I simmered chicken in a saucepan with chicken broth and more onions and peppers.  Seasoned with salt and pepper.

For the Guanabana Batidos:

Buy guanabana nectar from a store like Food City.  The kind we got came in a can.  All I did was pour it in the blender with a tad bit of milk and some ice, then blended until it was nice and frothy. It should separate quickly into juice and froth, you can continually stir it up before you drink it or drink it just that way.

So there you have it.  We found that this healthy dose of casado, along with a long round of looking at pictures and sharing memories, was the best cure for Costa Rica longing we could cook up here in the States.

Food from Vietnam

.... is delicious and I wish I could eat it every day.

 

This is a good visual of the approximate quantity of fruits I ate.

 

This is a terrible picture of some banh (Hue-area specialty small dishes) - they were tiny dishes with a sticky glutinous rice base, topped with little pinches of what seemed to be seafood and egg, finely chopped and fried crispy?  Or something.  It was tasty even for a this-week-only seafood eater.

OK, the interwebs say it is banh beo, "Silver-dollar disks of rice flour. Topped with mung bean powder, ground shrimp, and oil-moistened green onions. Served with nuoc cham."  Thanks Banh Guide:  http://dina-n-brian.com/Alice/Banhguide.htm

 

Fried corn with shallots and tomato (and some nice fresh springrolls in background).

 

So. Many. Kinds. Of. Delicious. Leafy. Greens.  Usually served with garlic and inadequate English words to cover all of them.  Oh, and tiny crabs, but I certainly didn't eat any of those.

 

Fruit:  Not only delicious but decorative.  I miss the fruit.  Denver is not so fruitastic.

 

Some meat thing Chris ate that he said was tasty but I didn't pay attention to what it was b/c it's meat.  Pretty, no? 

 

Now THIS was a taco of earthly delights.  Crispy rice-flour taco filled with fresh veggies and shrimpies and herbs (and pork if you like), with a peanut-based sauce to pour in.  Single most delicious Thing of the trip.  It is called banh khoai and I will not die without eating it again.

 

One of many hotpots. So wonderful in pouring rain.  With fruit for dessert.

Chiky Cookie S'mores

I read the food blog of a dear friend, Melissa Harrington, at 519 Kitchen. She's living in Korea and often posts about the trials of cooking abroad. Awhile ago, she posted here about her makeshift s'mores in the absence of graham crackers.

Saturday night, my friends and I encountered the same thing in Monteverde, Costa Rica when the family that ran our hostel (a.k.a. hosted us in their home for the night) offered to light us a fire for s'mores. We couldn't find graham crackers and the chocolate bars were only in mini size and far too expensive.

In the midst of our disappointment, I suddenly remembered Melissa's stroke of inspiration in using Korean chocolate covered cookies in place of graham crackers and chocolate. I ran to the cookie aisle and found the Costa Rican version, Chiky cookies, which are chocolate chip cookies with chocolate covering.

We bought a pack and returned to our hostel and a ten foot blaze of a fire that the family insisted was perfectly fine. Most of us weren't brave enough to edge close enough to the fire for roasting, but the five year old boy present took care of that for us. The kids loved the galletas and marshmallows, and one of my friends said she thinks that how s'mores should always be made- essentially a gooey chocolatey marshmallow cookie sandwich.

The moral of the story is this: resourcefulness in cooking is always a win, and if you are ever in a foreign country with chocolate covered cookies (I can't think of any U.S. equivalent) make s'mores with them. ¡Que delicioso!

Food from Morocco

Fancy, traditional Moroccan courtyard restaurant in Marrakesh


Food stalls in the Djemaa al-Fna in Marrakesh


Food stall feast


Sorbet at an ice cream shoppe in the ritzy Ville Nouvelle


Rooftop cafe snack in Essaouira


Cozy French cafe lunch in Essaouira


Shopping for mint at the Essaouira spice market at the end of Ramadan

Cat with olives.

Food from New Zealand

When I first sat down to write this post, I was at the end of one month in New Zealand, where I was teaching 35 undergrads about health, environment, and justice. Yep, you can do that in just one month. Needless to say, I hadn't been cooking, but I certainly had been eating. New Zealand is full of gluten-free deliciousness. (As evidenced by the picture above, which is a peaches and cream muffin procured at a regular cafe for a non-elevated price.)




I'm now in Guatemala for four weeks, learning Spanish. Yep, you can do that in just one month, too (haha). I only had one week to recover between trips and didn't cook anything special, so instead of recipes I can only offer New Zealand food in all of its glory.