Apple Banana Carrot Muffins #MuffinMonday

As some of you may have read, I celebrated a milestone birthday last week.  Yep, fifty years old already.  Which surprises me somewhat, because I can still remember what 10 felt like.  And 24.  Can anyone relate?  And while I have gotten considerably wiser and certainly more knowledgeable about a lot of things, 10 and 24 just don’t seem that long ago.  When I was 24 years old, more than a quarter of a century ago, we lived in Abu Dhabi and being back here and reconnecting with yet another old friend has freshened those memories enormously!

Those days, we spent every weekend with David, eating curry suppers after a rousing game of Pass the Pigs and a few cold beers on a Thursday night, cooking full English breakfasts (often at four or five a.m.), attending marathon “company” lunches that lasted from lunchtime through to early evening, but most especially, we sailed all day Friday and sometimes Saturday as well.  We had a Prindle catamaran and David sailed a wooden single hull boat called a Drascombe Lugger.   Along with a few other friends, we would launch our crafts in the morning, sailing out to some of the sandy spits offshore Abu Dhabi, bringing along drinks and sausages to grill.  We had fabulous weekends!

So guess what we did for my birthday? We went to Abu Dhabi, of course!  First there was a fun champagne tasting and dinner at David’s on my actual birthday evening.  Then we sailed all the next day, sipping cold wine and eating hot sausages in buns.  And then Saturday night we enjoyed a wonderful dinner out that started with champagne and included a specially chosen wine with each delicious course.  All in all, a great birthday weekend adding to great memories with a dear friend.

One of the sandy spits, with a view of the shores of Abu Dhabi.  These are often almost covered at high tide
so you have to plan your lunch stop wisely.

Here are just a few of the things I know after 50 years:
1. Your real friends don’t change and it doesn’t matter how often you get to see them, you will still love them and enjoy their company. And they will love you.
2. Friendships have a collective memory.  What you don’t remember, someone else will and vice versa.  Which is really important as we age.
3. Having a good giggle about old times reinforces the collective memory of all so we should get together with old friends more often.
4. When people are hurting, you should cook for them.  Your time and concern nurture their souls and the food nurtures their bodies.
5. Sailing is one of the best ways to spend a day.
6. When you stay with people, you should bring them food, drink and/or flowers.
7. Love people like you’d like to be loved, because it’s the right thing to do.
8. Be loyal to your friends and they will be loyal in return.
9. The company of good friends makes good food and drink taste even better.

In keeping with number six, I brought these tasty muffins to share for breakfast.   Our recipe this week was for a maple apple muffin, but I thought I’d make them an even more complete breakfast by adding bananas and grated carrot and then topping them with some crunchy granola.  Perfect.

Ingredients
For the muffins:
1 1/4 cups or 160g all purpose flour
1/2 cup or 100g light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup or 60g butter, melted and cooled
1 large egg
1/2 cup ripe banana (about 3/4 of an 8-in or 20cm banana)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup or 60ml honey
1 medium carrot
1 small green apple

For the topping:
1/2 cup or about 60g granola or muesli of your choice
2 tablespoons butter
1/8 cup or 25g light brown sugar

Method
Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C.  Fill the muffin tin with liners or grease it really well with butter or non-stick spray.

Measure your flour, brown sugar, baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl and give them a good stir to mix.

Cut chunks off of your banana and mash them with a fork into in a measuring cup.  When the mashed banana hits 1/2 cup, eat what’s leftover, if any.

In another smaller bowl, mix the egg, mashed banana, vanilla, honey and butter.

Peel and grate your carrot and mix it into the liquids bowl.

Peel and core your apple and cut it into little pieces.  Add them to the liquids bowl as well and stir to coat.  This will keep your apple from turning brown.

Make your topping by crunching the granola into small pieces with the end of a thick wooden spoon.  Add in the butter and stir and mash until it is combined.  Add in the light brown sugar and mix well.  Set aside.

Complete the batter by pouring the liquid ingredients into the dry ones and fold until they are just combined.

Divide the batter evenly between the muffin cups.

Use your fingers to sprinkle the topping on the batter.

Bake in the preheated oven about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Allow to cool for a few minutes in the muffin tin and then remove to a rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

Eli's Sweet and Sour Chicken for #RandomRecipeChallenge

Easy, sweet and sour chicken, the Indonesian way, from the recipe book of one of my dearest friends. This is MJ and Jim approved!

Many years ago, and I mean MANY years ago, we lived in Balikpapan, Indonesia.  You may have heard me mention it before, at least once or twice.  I was blessed in that location by several good friends who made a tiny oilfield town with hardly anything to recommend it (We are talking 1989, folks.) one of our very favorite places to live.  I am thrilled beyond words that one of them is living in Dubai and we get together quite often.  It’s like we’ve never been apart.

When I read the instructions for this month’s Random Recipe Challenge where we are supposed to borrow a cookbook from someone else and make a random dish from it, I decided to ask MJ for her help.  She not only lent me her personal cookbook of handwritten recipes, but she chose the recipe for me.  It’s a dish she learned from her sweet maid while she lived in Balikpapan.

Eli made it by heart and, as you see by the evidentiary photos, there are no amounts and hardly any instructions, so MJ told me what to do and I did my best.  The amounts, I came up with on my own.  I don't think a recipe can get more random than that!

But I think I did all right because I brought a serving over to her house the next day for a critique and she and her husband both declared it delicious and well done!   I hope you enjoy it as much as we all did.

Ingredients
1 lb 6 oz or 625g boneless chicken breasts (more or less)
1 teaspoon sea salt
Black pepper
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic
2-inch piece fresh ginger
1 tablespoon butter
1 small red bell pepper
1 small green bell pepper
1 hot red chili pepper
5 oz or 140g pineapple (fresh or canned in juice, not syrup - about 4 slices, drained)
3/4 cup or 180ml ketchup – any brand
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup or 65g flour
Olive oil for pan frying

Method
Cut your chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces.  Season with the salt and a good couple of grinds of fresh black pepper.  Stir well and set aside.

Mince your garlic and ginger.  Cut the onion in half and then cut it into thick slices.

Chop your green and red bell peppers into bite-sized pieces.  Cut the pineapple into small chunks. Mince the red chili pepper.

Sauté the onion with the butter and a little drizzle of olive oil.

When the onion has browned slightly but is still crunchy, add in the garlic and ginger.  Sauté until they are all golden but be careful not to burn the garlic.

Remove the garlic, onion and ginger from the pan and set aside in a small bowl.

Heat the pan until quite hot and stir-fry the bellpeppers for just a few minutes, until they get some little charred bits on them.  Remove from the pan and set aside.

For the sauce, put the ketchup, chili, vinegar and the sugar in a small pot with about 1/4 cup or 60ml water.

Give it a good stir and then add in the pineapple pieces and the onion, ginger and garlic.

Simmer for about 15-20 minutes.  The recipe calls for some cornstarch to thicken it but MJ says she has never used it and I didn’t find it necessary either.

Add the flour to the chicken bowl and stir with a fork, gently prying the pieces of chicken apart with the tines to make sure that the flour has coated all sides of all the pieces.

Add a little olive oil to the pan and fry the coated chicken in two or three sets, keeping the chicken pieces in a single layer and removing them to a paper towel-lined plate with they are cooked through and are well browned on both sides.

Right before you are ready to serve, toss the peppers back into the pan with the chicken and warm through.

You can add the sauce and stir to coat.  Or simply pile your chicken and peppers on the white rice and top with the sauce to serve.

Either way, enjoy!

If you would like to join dapper Dom at Belleau Kitchen for this or future challenges, head on over to his website or his Facebook page and say howdy!

Challenge #24 - Another Country

Spicy Sticky Wings

The Super Bowl is coming up, as it does every year.  And we watch it with pleasure, sometimes taping it when that’s an option, but we have also been known to wake up at all hours and even head to a sports bar at 4 a.m. if that’s the only way to watch, since we’ve been living overseas.

But more important that the Super Bowl in our house, is the World Cup.  According to my husband, soccer is the real football (and he has a point since, save the goalie, players can’t touch the ball with their hands inside the boundary lines) and the World Cup, played only every four years, well, that’s the real championship.

For Cooked in Translation this month, our theme is Wildly Delicious Wings, so I am going to share with you a dish I created for the World Cup in 1998.  We were living in Brazil where everything stops when the home team is playing and, frankly, not much gets done when any game is on.  The weather was beautiful so we had all the doors and windows open and whenever a player scored, we could hear the cheers or jeers from all the neighboring houses and we just knew that every eye in town was fixed on a television, watching football.  For our part, throughout the Copa, as it’s called there, we took turns hosting, watching with a group of friends, all bringing snack foods and cold beverages and wearing our lucky shirts (or underwear or socks or whatever we were wearing when our country team won last.)  Superstitions abounded!  These were lucky wings and we have eaten them often since.

Next year the World Cup will actually be in Brazil and there is talk around our house of going.  If anyone invites us to stay, I promise to make all the snacks!  I’ll even buy the cold beer!

Still have my shirt so I'm ready!

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs or 1.125kg chicken wings (about 22 whole wings)

1 1/2 cups or 355ml kecap manis or sweet soy sauce

(or 1 cup normal soy sauce plus 1 cup packed dark brown sugar)

2 small red chilies or 1 teaspoon crushed red chilies

1/2 small head cabbage (optional for serving)

Method

Cut your wings into three pieces, discarding the tips or, better, boiling them up for chicken stock to be used in another dish.

Chop your chilies into little bitty pieces.

Put your drumettes and whatever that other part is called into a large pot that allows sufficient stirring room.  If you use a non-stick pot, you will be able to get the wings really, really sticky, but it’s not essential.

Pour in the kecap manis and the chilies.  Cook over a low to medium flame, gently stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, slice your cabbage very finely and spread it around on the serving plate.  I have to admit that we don’t usually eat this, except for the parts that end up having sticky kecap manis on them, but the cabbage stops the wings from sticking to your plate, and saves you the indignity of licking it to get all the good stuff off.

As you keep cooking them, the chicken wings will give off some liquid and the kecap manis will thin as it heats up.  Just keep stirring and cooking until the liquid starts to evaporate.

At this point, watch the wings carefully because they can be prone to burning because of the sugar in the kecap manis. (Turn the fire down to low if necessary.) Stir more often, still gently though, as you don’t want the meat to fall off the bones. Keep cooking and stirring until all the liquid is gone and the wings are nice and sticky. 

Place the wings on the cabbage to serve.  Sit in front of your television and watch your favorite ball game. (This past weekend, it was the Australian Open.)  Cold beer optional but highly recommended.

Enjoy!

Not Your Usual Recipe Post

Victoria here, barging into my mother's territory to bring her (and you, dear reader. I like you) the warmest of birthday-morning wishes. Mommy, you are the most beautiful person and I love you so, so much and I wish I could be with you today. Make yourself some coffee (just kidding, I know you will).

P.S. Bar's open.