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Cheddar Jalapeño Cornbread

November 9, 2014

There are so many cornbread recipes and most are generally quite good, but finding one that stands out from the rest is daunting. So you have to go with your gut feeling and test a few to find the texture and flavor that appeals to you most. Fluffy, extra sweet cornbread with a cake like crumb is not for me. My mom’s cornbread recipe is simple, full proof, and hearty. I continue to bake her cornbread but I was intrigued about this one from Lucinda Scala Quinn that included jalapeños. We have a cupboard full of pickled nacho rings we canned this summer.

Bob’s Red Mill products are superb. It’s good to know we have a wide selection at Mana Foods and Whole Foods on Maui. Cornmeal pancakes? I’ll try it!

Jalapeño cornbread often incorporates some type of cheese, such as extra sharp cheddar. Tillamook, found at most supermarkets, is my favorite extra sharp cheddar cheese. Though I am lactose intolerant, there are a handful of dairy products that don’t bother me. Natural aging breaks down lactose so many aged cheeses such as cheddar, contain zero grams of lactose. Thank goodness, one of them is extra sharp cheddar cheese. It’s so delicious.

Warm cornbread right out of the oven is divine. But my favorite way to eat cornbread is to split each piece and toast it in my toaster oven until all of the edges are browned and crispy. Delicious.

Cheddar Jalapeño Cornbread

Adapted from Leite’s Culinaria

Serves 6 – 8

Ingredients

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/4 cups stone-ground yellow cornmeal

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

Pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)

1 1/2 cups milk (I use lactose free milk)

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

3 tablespoons melted butter (I use Earth Balance Buttery Sticks)

2 cups grated cheddar cheese (not packed)

1/2 cup fresh corn kernels (I microwaved the corn cob for 1 minute then sliced off the kernels)

1 tablespoon finely chopped pickled jalapeños

Preparation

Preheat oven to 425°

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cayenne. Blend in the milk, eggs, and butter. Fold in the cheese, corn, and jalapeños.

Pour into a buttered 8-inch square baking pan and smooth over the top. Bake for 30 minutes, until the top is golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Oven temperatures vary, so test at 30 minutes. If it needs more time, set the timer for 2 minutes and test again.

Set pan on wire rack to cool for 15 minutes or so before cutting into squares. Cornbread freezes well.

*Our pickled jalapeños are hot! If yours are mild or if you want extra spicy cornbread, add another tablespoon.

Breakfast, Eggs, Recipes, Rice Dishes

Sorrel Rice with Poached Eggs

September 28, 2014

Most of us are aware that eggs have been described as the perfect food. Some years back, their reputation suffered a bit but they are now recognized as a healthy part of our diet. However one views the egg, we can all agree that eggs are perfectly delicious. There’s nothing better than sopping up runny egg yolks with toast, breakfast potatoes or rice. As I was thumbing through the June 2014 edition of Bon Appetit, this recipe immediately caught my attention: Sorrel Rice Bowls with Poached Eggs.

Sorrel is a delightful leafy green with a bright, lemony flavor. It grows well in warm climates like Kihei. I was excited to try this recipe since we have a beautiful sorrel plant in our garden.

Isn’t this sorrel sauce gorgeous? The sorrel leaves are blended with olive oil, a tablespoon of water, and seasoned with salt and pepper. That’s it. I couldn’t wait to add it to the rice.

When I first read through the recipe, I thought it was a tad wacky. After all, who would come up with sorrel rice with preserved lemons topped with poached eggs and served with pickled radishes on the side? Ingenious! It works.

Though I’ve often thought about making preserved lemons, it’s been on the back burner. The recipe calls for half of a preserved lemon, which I didn’t have. After a quick web search, I found an acceptable substitute and it worked out quite well. Fresh lemons are thinly sliced and warmed on low heat with olive oil, a bit of sugar and salt. The peel, which is what you aim to use in the recipe, becomes tender, and it’s flavor mellows while gently cooking.

This is the quintessential meal. Flavorful whole grain brown rice, fresh poached eggs with a sprinkling of feta, and crunchy radishes on the side. The recipe is meant to serve four, with one poached egg per serving, but I always regret not having two eggs. So if you’re like me, go ahead and double the eggs in the recipe below.

Sorrel Rice with Poached Eggs

Adapted from Sqirl Restaurant/Bon Appetit

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 cups short-grain brown rice

1 lemon, very thinly sliced

olive oil

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup lightly packed sorrel leaves

1/4 cup olive oil

2 red radishes, very thinly sliced

2 tablespoons lemon juice, divided

4 large or extra-large eggs (double the eggs if serving two per person)

1/4 cup white vinegar

3 teaspoons chopped fresh dill, divided

1 – 2 ounces crumbled feta, optional (I recommend Mt. Vikos goat/sheep milk feta, it’s delicious!)

Flaky sea salt for sprinkling over eggs (such as Maldon)

freshly ground pepper

Preparation

Cook the rice in your rice cooker for the specified time. If you don’t have a rice cooker, the recipe says to cook the rice in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender, about 45 – 50 minutes. Drain the rice, return to pot, cover, and let sit 10 minutes then spread out on a baking sheet and let cool completely.

Place sliced lemon in a small saucepan over medium low heat. Drizzle olive oil (1 – 2 tablespoons) and sprinkle sugar and kosher salt over the lemon. Cook until lemon is very tender, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oil and finely chop the lemon peel into small pieces, discarding flesh and seeds. You want to use the softened lemon peel for this recipe.

Puree the sorrel, 1/4 cup olive oil, and 1 tablespoon water with an immersion blender or small food processor. Season with kosher salt and pepper.

Toss radish with 1 tablespoon lemon juice in a small bowl; season with kosher salt.

Toss the rice, diced lemon peel (as much as you prefer), remaining 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and 1/4 cup sorrel purée in a medium bowl. Season with kosher salt and pepper mixing in more sorrel purée, if desired.

Meanwhile, heat 3″ water with 1/4 cup white vinegar in a 3 quart saucepan over high heat (for 4 eggs). Watch closely. When the water barely reaches a boil and you see small bubbles in the bottom of the pan, gently slide eggs into the water one by one and immediately turn the heat down to medium (crack eggs into small separate bowls). Set the timer for 4 minutes. The water should not be boiling and the eggs should simmer gently. Adjust the heat as needed. Remove eggs with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.

Reheat the rice in the microwave to warm briefly before serving. Stir in two teaspoons dill. Spoon rice into individual bowls or plates and place eggs on rice. Season eggs with flaky sea salt and pepper. Sprinkle feta (optional) and remaining 1 teaspoon dill over rice bowl.

Breakfast, Eggs, Lactose Free, Recipes, Sauces, Vegetarian

Eggs Benedict with Avocado Hollandaise

June 25, 2014

I came across this simple and surprisingly delicious recipe in the February issue of Food and Wine magazine where each month one ingredient is featured in their clever article “Green Market Math.” The four recipes are accompanied by photos of the finished dish along with a short paragraph on how to prepare it. This particular recipe caught my attention because “hollandaise” evokes creamy, luscious, saucy, goodness and this version is dairy free, perfect for those of us who are lactose intolerant. Yet for those of you who have no such restriction, you’ll love this sauce as well.

The avocado and olive oil combination gives this sauce a creamy, rich, flavor and texture. It’s so good, we had this for breakfast two consecutive weekends. Stay away from watery avocados and choose creamy types such as the Green Gold we used here. Hass avocados are a good choice and readily available at most markets.

Making this sauce is very simple. All the ingredients go into one container and are blended up in a minute or two. Though the original recipes calls for using a blender, I prefer to use my immersion blender. The recipe makes a small serving and the immersion blender cup is just the right size and clean up is quick.

Avocado Hollandaise

Food and Wine Magazine

2 – 4 servings (depending on the size of your avocado)

Ingredients

1/2 ripe avocado, chopped

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1/3 cup hot water

2 tablespoons mild flavored olive oil

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt and a few grinds of black pepper

Preparation

In a blender or immersion blender cup, purée the avocado with the lemon juice and hot water until smooth. With the machine on, drizzle in the olive oil until combined. Season with salt and pepper and serve over poached eggs.

Breakfast, Dinner, Lactose Free, Recipes, Sauces

Shakshuka Breakfast

April 9, 2014

I am obsessed with eggs, and I regularly search for new egg recipes that I can serve for breakfast. Shakshuka, a savory tomato sauce with hints of cumin, chile pepper and onions topped with eggs sounded perfect. Though I didn’t get around to making it right away, it never left my mind. So finally when I made it for breakfast one morning it was a revelation!

There are so many versions of Shakshuka, you can’t go wrong creating your own. I used fresh tomatoes to make the sauce however you can use good canned whole tomatoes. Most importantly are the spices that you add to the sauce that makes it so special. Cumin and paprika are essential as is garlic, onions and mild or spicy peppers. I sautéed the Anaheim pepper separately since I wanted them to be nicely browned before adding them to the tomato sauce.

Some recipes call for baking the eggs and others cook them on the stovetop. I tried both and found that there’s no need to heat up your oven since the eggs cook perfectly in a covered pan on the stovetop.

Crack fresh eggs into the sauce, cover the pan and wait patiently…

We sprinkled feta cheese over the sauce on one occasion. It was delicious and we sopped up the sauce and egg yolks with John’s country sourdough bread.

Shakshuka Breakfast

2 generous servings

Ingredients

2 1/4 pounds fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded, coarsely chopped

1 large anaheim pepper, finely chopped

1 cup finely diced onion

1 jalapeño, finely chopped

4 medium garlic cloves, minced

2 teaspoons paprika

1 1/4 teaspoons cumin

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

olive oil

4 large eggs

a few sprigs of cilantro or Italian parsley

crumbled feta (optional)

Preparation

Puree tomatoes in a food processor keeping the sauce slightly chunky. Set aside.

In a 10-inch cast iron skillet or other heavy skillet, sauté Anaheim peppers in a bit of olive oil over medium heat until they are nicely browned, about 10 minutes. Remove to a plate and set aside.

In the same skillet over medium heat, add a tablespoon of olive oil and sauté onions and jalapeño until slightly soft, about 8 minutes. Add sautéed Anaheim peppers, garlic, paprika and cumin and sauté another minute. Pour in tomatoes and stir in the salt. Let sauce simmer, stirring now and then until thickened slightly, about 15 minutes.

With the back of a large spoon, make four indentations in the sauce. Crack an egg into each indentation. Over medium-low heat, cover the pan and cook the eggs until the egg whites are set but the yolks are still runny, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle crumbled feta over the sauce if using and garnish with cilantro or Italian parsley. Don’t forget the bread. You’ll need it to sop up all of that delicious tomato sauce and runny eggs.

***You can easily add two more eggs to the sauce to serve three.

Breakfast, Dessert, Lactose Free, Recipes

Simply Sensational Cinnamon Rolls

February 6, 2014

Cook’s Illustrated magazine regularly rates kitchen tools and appliances. The January/February 2014 issue rated 9 x 13-inch baking pans. They put the pans through several tests to determine how well they performed and for durability. I was in the market for a new pan and was ready to switch out the less than mediocre pans I purchased from who knows where. They highly recommended the Williams-Sonoma Goldtouch pan and according to them, it produced the most evenly cooked, professional baked goods of all the pans they tested. I ordered one right away. I also bought a Goldtouch 8 x 8-inch pan, jelly roll pan, and two muffin pans. One thing leads to another…

Disclaimer: I couldn’t wait to taste one of these cinnamon rolls, hence the one missing from the introductory photo.

Besides using the pan for cakes and foggies, I was determined to finally try out a cinnamon roll recipe that I had been obsessed with for some time but had never tried. The recipe comes from the September/October 2012 issue of Cuisine at Home magazine.

Let the dough rise. Note to self: Use larger bowl next time around.

I was quite skeptical about the 1 cup of old-fashioned rolled oats in the recipe. You can see the oats in the dough pictured above. It just seemed a bit weird: oats in my cinnamon rolls! According to Cuisine at Home, the oats add an earthy, nutty flavor to the rolls. In the end, I was rewarded with the best cinnamon rolls imaginable and they included some healthy whole grain oats.

The dough is divided in half and a sugar, butter and cinnamon mixture is spread on the dough before rolling up.

The logs are trimmed and cut with dental floss. Ingenious! The floss cut through the soft dough flawlessly.

Rising time was about 1 hour. Into the oven they went and once baked out came 12 beautiful cinnamon rolls waiting to be frosted. The scent of cinnamon was intoxicating.

By the way my new Goldtouch pan is, like the cinnamon rolls, simply sensational.

Simply Sensational Cinnamon Rolls

Updated 12/06/15

Adapted from Cuisine at Home

Makes 12 rolls

Ingredients

Dough:

1 1/4 cups whole milk (I used lactose free whole milk)

1/2 cup vegetable shortening (preferably trans fat free)

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 pkg. active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)

1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

1/2 cup hot water

4 cups all-purpose flour

2 eggs

1 teaspoon salt

Filling:

1 1/2 sticks Earth Balance Buttery Sticks. softened (or unsalted butter)

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt (1/2 teaspoon if using unsalted butter)

Frosting:

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened (I used Earth Balance Buttery Sticks)

8 ounces powdered sugar (2 cups)

2 – 3 tablespoons whole milk (I used lactose free whole milk)

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1/8 teaspoon salt

Preparation

For the dough:

Heat 1 1/4 cups milk, shortening and 1/4 cup brown sugar in a small saucepan over medium-low until shortening is melted. Transfer to a bowl of a stand mixer. Let mixture cool to 100 – 110° (about 30 minutes, the Thermapen is my best friend) then whisk in yeast and proof until foamy, about 5 minutes.

Soak oats in hot water until all water is absorbed.

Add 2 cups flour and eggs to the yeast mixture and mix on low with a paddle attachment until combined. Switch to the dough hook and add remaining 2 cups flour, oats, and 1 teaspoon salt. Mix on low speed until incorporated, then increase speed to medium and mix until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl, about 7 minutes.

Transfer dough to a large bowl coated with nonstick spray, cover with plastic wrap, let rise in a warm place until dough doubles in size, about 2 hours. Lift edges of dough away from bowl and press air bubbles out with your hands.

For the filling:

Combine 1 1/2 sticks butter, 1 cup brown sugar, cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon salt.

Coat a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with butter. Transfer dough to a floured surface and gently press to remove air bubbles. Divide dough into two pieces (a kitchen scale comes in handy) and roll one piece into a 10 x 16-inch rectangle.

Spread half the filling over dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Starting at the short end, roll dough, jelly roll-style, into a log. Repeat filling and rolling with the second dough half. Place logs on aluminum foil, loosely cover with plastic wrap and place in freezer for 10 minutes to firm up.

Trim off the ends of the logs with dental floss and discard, then cut each log into six equal pieces with dental floss (place floss under the log, bring ends up and cross them to cut perfectly neat pieces). Arrange rolls in the prepared pan spacing them equally to allow for rising. Cover rolls with a kitchen towel and let rise until puffy, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375°.

For the frosting, beat 4 tablespoons butter, powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons milk, vanilla and salt with a hand mixer. If the frosting seems too firm, beat in a teaspoon of milk at a time.

Bake rolls until brown, about 30 minutes. Test for doneness at the 25 minute mark so there is no chance of over baking. Cool rolls in the pan before frosting.

Breakfast, Eggs, Recipes

Balsamic Fried Eggs

January 18, 2014

My favorite weekend breakfast is a poached or fried egg with a soft yolk served over toast or rice with a side of bacon and fresh fruit. When eating my egg on rice, I like a dash of soy sauce over the egg and rice. With toast, I sop up the yolk with the bread leaving nothing behind. I regularly visit the San Francisco Chronicle web site (SF Gate) in particular their food section. This terrific variation on a simple fried egg was described as a customer favorite brunch item at Foreign Cinema restaurant. I can certainly see why they are so popular. They are simply delicious!

The recipe calls for two eggs however I snuck in a third so John could have two eggs.

Picked from the garden and washed, peppery arugula goes well with the balsamic vinegar.

Balsamic Fried Eggs

Adapted from the San Francisco Chronicle

Serves 2

Ingredients

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 large or extra-large eggs

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 thick slices whole grain or sourdough bread, toasted and lightly buttered

1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 small handfuls of arugula

Preparation

Add olive oil to an 8 inch non-stick skillet over medium heat.

Once the oil is hot (not at the smoking point), crack open the eggs, one at a time, letting each egg set; cook for about 25 seconds, keeping the heat at medium.

As the eggs puff up, season with salt and pepper. Tilt the pan and baste the top of the yolks with the hot oil to help them cook. Cook to desired doneness.

Meanwhile place a piece of lightly buttered toast on each plate and top with a fried egg. Pour off and discard any excess oil. Wipe pan to remove any oily residue.

Put pan back over medium heat. Add the balsamic vinegar; let it sizzle for a moment or two, and drizzle over the eggs. Scatter arugula around the toast and serve immediately.

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Cheddar Jalapeño Cornbread

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Sorrel Rice with Poached Eggs

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Eggs Benedict with Avocado Hollandaise

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Shakshuka Breakfast

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Simply Sensational Cinnamon Rolls

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Balsamic Fried Eggs

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