Friday, February 22, 2013

Passionfruit Cookies


Beautifully crunchy on the outside with sweet and tart chewy insides, these passionfruit cookies taste of Brazilian sunshine and samba.

Since I started this blogging thing, I have met some wonderful bloggers online and have learned a lot from those who have been at this a much longer time.  I would read about ingredients they had been offered by companies who wanted them to create a recipe and get-togethers with other bloggers at foodie events.  And, while I was happy for them, I was a little sad for me.  I didn’t know any other bloggers personally and no one had ever offered me free stuff.  Well, in Dubai, all that has changed!  I now belong to a great group of UAE bloggers and have even had the privilege of meeting a few of them face-to-face.  And then, some weeks ago, I received an email from a public relations person who wanted to send me some sugar.  Not some strange ingredient that I would have to work around, but sugar!  Of course, I said yes!  Hey, why not?  The company is called Aveem and they very kindly sent me not only white sugar, but some light brown sugar as well.  (And a few other goodies.  As I said, nice people!)


According to the initial email, the sugar is from Brazil so I decided that a recipe with one of our favorite flavors from Brazil, passionfruit or maracujá, would be most appropriate.  And delicious.

Ingredients
1/4 cup or 60ml fresh passionfruit pulp, as measured without seeds (Don’t panic!  I’ll show you how to do this.  Also, don’t discard the seeds.  We are going to put some back in for color.)
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup or 130g sugar
1/2 cup or 110g butter
2 eggs
1/2 - 1 cup light brown sugar for rolling dough in before baking

Method
Cut open your passionfruit and, using a spoon, scoop the pulp and seeds into a bowl.  Whisk vigorously to loosen the seeds from the pulp and juice.



Pour the whole bowl into a strainer over another clean bowl, and whisk again until all you are left with in the strainer is the seeds.  Measure out your juice and set aside 1/4 cup or 60ml for your cookies.  If you have any extra, you can sweeten it with a little sugar and serve it over ice and topped up with soda water for a very fresh and refreshing drink.




Add 2-3 teaspoons of the seeds back into the juice for color.  They are perfectly edible but too many will distract from the soft chewy cookie.


Preheat the oven to 375°F or 190°C and grease or spray your cookie sheet with non-stick spray.

Mix together your flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl.


Put your light brown sugar into another small bowl and set aside.

With electric beaters or in your stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar.  Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one.




Add in your passionfruit juice and beat again.  At this point your mixture might look like it’s curdling on you but do not despair.



Add a few tablespoons of the flour mixture to the mixing bowl and beat again.


Still mixing, continue adding in your flour mixture a couple of tablespoons at a time, until it is all incorporated.



You now have a soft dough and can proceed to the next step or, it might be easier to chill the dough for half an hour or so in the refrigerator before proceeding.  I plowed right ahead but next time, I will definitely chill the dough.

Using a small scoop or tablespoon, drop small amounts of your soft dough into the light brown sugar.


Swirl the bowl around until the ball of dough is covered in brown sugar.


Gently lift the little ball out and place it on the greased cookie sheet.  Leave room between the balls for the cookies to spread while baking.


Continue until your cookie sheet is full.  Bake in the preheated over for about 10-12 minutes or until the bottoms are golden brown.  Chill the dough in the refrigerator while the first batch bakes and continue the process until all the cookies are baked.


Remove the cookies with a metal spatula and cool on a wire rack.  Sometimes one slips into your mouth.  It's a risk all bakers take.


This recipe will yield almost four dozen beautifully crunchy outside, chewy inside passionfruit cookies.   Serve them in your blue and white Brazilian pottery and savor the sweet taste of sunshine and samba.


Enjoy!



Monday, February 18, 2013

Spicy Cashew and Feta Beer Muffins #MuffinMonday



Every week when Anuradha sends out the muffin recipe, I put on my thinking cap (Did you have a teacher in grade school who encouraged you to put on your thinking cap?  How do they come up with this stuff?!) and consider the pros and cons of the ingredients.  Which do I love?  Which could I do without?  What about substitution possibilities?  And then I make the muffin I would most like to eat.  It’s not a very scientific process but it works for me.  I hope that most weeks it works for some of you.

Today’s muffin was most definitely savory, calling for chives and black pepper and lemon, so I chose to continue in that mien.  I kept the lemon, substituted Szechuan peppercorns for black pepper, beer for milk and added feta along with spicy roasted cashews.  I’m telling you what, lovely people, these are some seriously good muffins.  The only change I would make is to use a mini muffin tin the next time, so others can't keep count of how many of these little babies you’ve eaten.  Which gets embarrassing with large muffins.  Also, because they would be great as a bite-sized cocktail snack.  Let's go with that reason.

Ingredients
2 cups or 250g all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon Szechuan peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 lemon for the zest
1/3 cup or 80ml canola or other light oil
1 egg
3/4 cup or 180ml beer
2 oz or 100g feta
3 oz or 80g roasted cashews, out of which reserve 12 whole nuts for topping

Method
Preheat your oven to 375°F or 190°C.  Grease your 12-cup muffin tin with non-stick spray or a little oil.

Measure your flour, baking powder, Szechuan peppercorns and salt into a large mixing bowl.  Grate your lemon zest into it.  Stir well.


In another smaller bowl, whisk your oil and egg thoroughly.


Add in the beer and give it a gentle stir.


Crumble your feta if it didn’t come already crumbled.  If you freeze it a little bit first, this is much easier.


Count out 12 whole spicy roasted cashews to add to the top of the batter before baking, then coarsely chop the remainder.


Pour your wet ingredients into your dry ones and mix just slightly.  There will probably still be some flour showing.



Fold in the chopped cashews and feta.



Divide the batter between the greased muffin cups.  Add one whole cashew to the top of each.



Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the muffins are browned a little and a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool briefly in the pan and then remove to a wire rack.


Serve these with a cold glass of beer or your favorite beverage.


Enjoy!







Sunday, February 17, 2013

Spicy Asian Chicken Noodle Soup

Spicy Asian Chicken Noodle Soup is light and flavorful with a kick of chili that clears your head and warms your body. Also, evidence may be merely anecdotal, I do believe that chicken soup is the best treatment for colds and coughs and general weariness of winter.

Food Lust People Love: Spicy Asian Chicken Noodle Soup is light and flavorful with a kick of chili that clears your head and warms your body.  Also, evidence may be merely anecdotal, I do believe that chicken soup is the best treatment for colds and coughs and general weariness of winter.

After last week’s indulgent recipes, #SundaySupper is focusing on healthy meals today!  Our host, the lovely Sunithi from Sue’s Nutrition Buzz is all about good food, made healthier.  I chose to make chicken noodle soup because it’s one of the comfort foods of my childhood.

Make sure you scroll on down to the bottom of this post to see what other wonderful healthy dishes my fellow bloggers have cooked up for you this week.  There are even some fabulous, guilt-free desserts!

Spicy Asian Chicken Noodle Soup


Ingredients to serve four
4 medium boneless, skinless chicken breasts – about 1 lb or 500g
Sea salt
Black pepper
8 cups or almost 2 lt chicken stock
One stalk lemon grass
6-7 stalks green onions
1-2 red chilies (depending on your heat tolerance)
Large thumb fresh ginger
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 medium carrot
5 1/4 oz or 150g (or more if you love them) snowpeas or mange-tout
200g fresh baby corn (about 12 little ears)
6 oz or 170g bean thread noodles

(Note: Feel free to substitute your preferred vegetables, sliced thinly.  Just about anything fresh would taste good in this soup.)

For serving:
Small bunch fresh cilantro or coriander leaves
1 lime

Method
Start by slicing your chicken breasts thinly, then sprinkle them with some flakey sea salt and a few good grinds of fresh black pepper.  Put them into a bowl and give them a good stir.  Cover with cling film and pop the bowl in the refrigerator.



Put your chicken stock in a large pot.  Bring it to the boil and then turn the heat down to simmer.

Cut the root ends off of the lemon grass and the green onions and slice the white parts very thinly.  For the lemon grass discard the hard green part of the stalk or have a read here of some ideas to use it.  Cut the green part of the onions into 1 inch or 2cm lengths and set them aside to use later for garnish.




Chop your red chilies.  Peel and mince your ginger. 



Add the white parts of the lemon grass and green onions, the ginger and the chilies to the gently simmering stock.  Add in the two tablespoons of fish sauce.



The longer you simmer, the better the soup will taste, but ideally this step should take a minimum of 20-25 minutes.

Meanwhile, pull the tough threads off of both sides of your snowpeas and cut your baby corn into short lengths.



Cut your carrot into little matchsticks using a sharp knife, or if you have a handy tool like mine, (a gift from a dear friend who knows me very well – purchased at Lakeland) use that. (Update: Since a few people asked, I found a Google Affiliate ad for a similar julienne peeler from SurLaTable and I've added it at the bottom.  I think I earn a few cents if you buy through the link.)



Some recipes call for the chicken to be added to the stock a few minutes before the vegetables but I find that makes for a cloudy soup.  So, pan-fry your sliced chicken with a little drizzle of olive oil over a high heat until it is just cooked, possibly still a little pink inside.  It will finish cooking as it sits in the pan.  (If cloudy chicken soup doesn’t bother you, feel free to add the chicken straight into the pot.)



Cover the bean thread noodles with very hot water in a heatproof bowl and allow to soften.  This takes just a few minutes.  Drain in a colander and then cut the noodles with a pair of sharp, clean scissors.  This will make them way less messy to eat.  Set aside until ready for serving.



When you are almost ready to serve, chop your cilantro and slice the lime into wedges.


About five to 10 minutes before you want to eat, depending on how crunchy you like your vegetables, add the carrot, snowpeas and baby corn to the pot.  Turn the fire up slightly and cook until the vegetables are your desired doneness.


To serve, add some of the noodles and chicken (if it’s not already in the stock) to the bowl.  Fill the bowl with hot broth and a share of the cooked vegetables.  Top with a little cilantro and green onion.  Each person should get a lime wedge for squeezing into the soup.  

Food Lust People Love: Spicy Asian Chicken Noodle Soup is light and flavorful with a kick of chili that clears your head and warms your body.  Also, evidence may be merely anecdotal, I do believe that chicken soup is the best treatment for colds and coughs and general weariness of winter.

Enjoy!


Finish up that box of Valentines’ Day chocolates.  Go ahead.  We’ll wait.  *drums fingers and whistles*  Okay, now follow these links to make something delicious and healthy for your next meal!


Sizzling Skinny Appetizers & Soups

Healthy Skinny Mains & Sides

Guilt Free Skinny Desserts & Snacks

Pin this Spicy Asian Chicken Noodle Soup! 


Food Lust People Love: Spicy Asian Chicken Noodle Soup is light and flavorful with a kick of chili that clears your head and warms your body.  Also, evidence may be merely anecdotal, I do believe that chicken soup is the best treatment for colds and coughs and general weariness of winter.