Thankful for Pumpkin Muffins!

In honor of Thanksgiving, I thought I’d finally post about the pumpkin muffins I’ve made recently. I saw Chef James Tanner make them on iTV’s Lorraine show. They’re super easy and I even made them once with my 3-year old nieces. They’re also incredibly festive and go very well with a nice cup of tea!

Spiced Pumpkin Muffins

I’ve provided his recipe for you below but here’s the link as well.

INGREDIENTS

250g plain flour

2tsp baking powder

1tsp baking soda

1tsp ground ginger

2tsp all spice

Pinch of salt

160g soft brown sugar

60ml milk or buttermilk

200g of pumpkin puree

2 eggs

30g apple sauce

120g melted butter

Few drops of vanilla extract

Optional pumpkin seeds for garnish

** For the maple cream cheese frosting

100g icing sugar (may need more)

100g cream cheese

45g butter

1tbsp maple syrup

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 200C/400F.
2. Make the pumpkin puree. Start peeling a small pumpkin (2kg will do). Scrape out as much flesh as you can and chop the rest into cubes. Simmer with a bit of water in a pot until soft. It will take about 15-20 minutes. Drain and blitz into a puree. Weigh out 200g. You can freeze the leftovers for more muffins or use it for a soup. If you want to use the pumpkin seeds, toast them first in the oven and set aside. Take the cream cheese and butter for the frosting out at this point to bring to room temperature.
3. Sieve the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ginger and all spice into a bowl, add salt and sugar and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the milk or buttermilk, pumpkin puree, eggs, apple sauce, melted butter and vanilla extract. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet to create a smooth batter.
4. Line your muffin tin with baking cases. Fill each almost to the top of the case and pop them in the oven.
5. The recipe says to cook for 20-25 minutes but mine were much quicker than that. Check the muffins at 10 minutes and again 5 minutes later. Using a cocktail stick, check the center of the muffin. If it comes out clean then they’re done. Leave to cool on a wire baking rack. Serve plain for a savory muffin or top with the frosting for something sweet.
6. For the frosting, blend all the ingredients together. If you are mixing by hand, this will be much easier to do if the ingredients are soft and at room temperature. If you want your icing to be a bit more stiff, add more icing sugar as needed. Then serve!

Cook’s Notes

• The pumpkin seeds are pretty on top but if you’re going to have frosting they just get in the way and end up chewy.
• I got my pumpkin at Sainsbury’s.. it looked pretty small but it weighed about 2kg and it gave me enough pumpkin puree for just over two portions of this recipe.
• I used homemade apple sauce and added a bit extra for more moisture.
• Careful on the cooking time. Don’t go by color and be sure to check after 10 minutes. If the cocktail stick comes out with a bit of crumb on it, it’s done. What you don’t want to see is batter.

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NY TRIP (PART 4) : FOODIE HEAVEN

At last, my final post about my trip to New York last month. If you’ve read the other posts, you’ll know my dear friend Adi took me on a little culinary adventure. For two days we ate and walked our way around Park Slope, Chelsea, the West Village and SoHo. We re-visited some of my favorite places, went grocery shopping and checked out the new High Line Park.

But the highlight of my week-long stay in the city was not only a great experience, but was an exceptionally unique and intimate experience. The restaurant is Degustation in the East Village. The layout, itself, is a unique concept – a gourmet spinoff of a Japanese sushi bar. As you can see, it is a pretty small space that only seats 19 with all the cooking being done in the middle by four chefs. There was a grill/fry station, sauté station and plating area. It is categorized as a tapas bar due to its small-plate-style. While some flavors and ingredients are definitely Spanish, I would sway more towards American cuisine.

We had the pleasure of sitting in the far left corner of the bar next to the plating area. And we took full advantage of eyeing every single plate that was assembled. They even let us replace one of the dishes on the 5-course tasting menu. The chefs were really nice and accommodated all of our questions. Correction, he accommodated all of MY questions! But it was so much fun watching the intense concentration, the artistry, the flow. If one vegetable was plated facing the wrong direction, it would have to be thrown out and re-plated anew facing the right way.

For me, this is what made the experience foodie heaven. It was being so close to the action. It was seeing exactly why they call it Culinary ARTS. Each plate was the artist’s blank canvas. His mise en place (all the prepped items) was his paint palette. Even if the food had not turned out to be amazing, I would have enjoyed this experience. It’s one thing to watch sushi chefs but a whole other thing to watch a chef make such delicate, thoughtful food. (That’s not meant as an insult to sushi chefs, especially since my brother is currently training to be one!)

The entire restaurant, as Adi put so eloquently, was like a “finely choreographed song and dance”. Every plate was timed perfectly. The moment you finished your dish, it was removed in the most nonintrusive manner. And voila your new dish was placed in front of you.  The waitstaff was very friendly and knowledgeable, and (at least when I was there) all the patrons seemed to be really enjoying themselves.

But now to the food. As I mentioned, we ordered the 5-course tasting menu but we also couldn’t resist trying the ham and apple croquettes. Croquetas are a classic Spanish tapa. It’s a small, lightly fried fritter and is usually made with ham (the Spaniards do love their ham!). It’s a wonderfully delicate little morsel of crispiness and creaminess. Having both studied abroad in Spain, Adi and I have had our fair share of croquettes. And I have to say that I never ever tire of them. How can you say no to something fried? Something creamy? Something with ham? The best croquettes are the ones that are almost fluffy and don’t leave you feeling greasy (like fried mozzarella sticks do). And Degustation’s version were perfect. The crunch, the explosion of flavor and gooey-ness. I could have eaten 50 more if anyone let me.

Ham & Apple Croquetas (one order came with 4)

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Top 10 Food Trends Of The Decade

Hi Everyone ! Can you believe we’re almost a quarter of a year into the new decade? As I subscribe to MyRecipes.com I recently received an email with their list of the Top 10 Food Trends of the Decade. I thought this was a nice reflection of where food has taken us in recent years and also to have a little look at what it might bring to us in the future.

Top 10 Food Trends of the Decade (as per MyRecipes.com)

1. Sushi
2. Bacon
3. Cupcakes
4. Coffee
5. Gourmet Beef
6. Superfruits
7. Oils
8. Whole Grains
9. Artisan Foods
10. Sliders

Now that you have the list – a few comments from me on each.

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Exploring Arizona – Part 1

A beautiful Arizona desert sunset

Hi All – Hope everyone had a great weekend. This weekend I had the pleasure of hosting my sister’s good friend Kristen who was in town from Seattle with strict instructions to help her explore the area. After picking her up from the airport Saturday afternoon, the first place that came to mind (within my very limited knowledge of the area) was Sapporo in Scottsdale. I currently live far enough from Scottsdale and Tempe to not be able to go out and taxi-it home (sadly). However, Kristen was staying at a hotel so we went all out. We headed to Sapporo for happy hour. And despite being hungry we somehow got caught up doing sake bombs at the very very crowded bar instead. (It was the end of the Phoenix [golf] Open so the place was rammed). Although we mostly had a couple drinks at this place, I mention it because it’s a great sushi place (and I absolutely looove sushi), with a great happy hour, and a really good scene. So if you’re ever in town, I recommend it! Next time I’ll actually eat and take some pictures. 

I’ll skip through the rest of the night since it didn’t exactly involve a lot of food, but it was loads of fun and filled with dancing and lots of laughs. The next day, however, WAS filled with lots of food – food required to make me feel a whole lot better. We met up with a friend of Kristen’s – Tyler (a local) – who was so nice and gave us a few recommendations in town. 

We ate so much at the first place though, we only made it to one – LA GRANDE ORANGE in Arcadia (suburb of Scottsdale).  We were completely shocked when we walked into this place. First off, it was completely packed on a Sunday early afternoon which is always a great sign. It’s tucked into this really cute neighborhood and just had so much character. 

 I mean who sells little cactus plants at their grocery/restaurant/cafe? Of course this is Arizona… But seriously, this place is amazing. I wish it wasn’t so far away because I definitely would be there every day if I could. So this place looks like it took over two restaurants. The left half is filled with tables and an open area on the right wall where they make pizzas (so probably a former pizza joint). The right half is where you order food and buy mini cactus 🙂  Of course they, in fact, sell a variety of items from cook books, to clothes/aprons/etc with their logo, and loads of specialty grocery items. To be completely honest, I was starving and the amazing smells coming from the open kitchen and the long line prevented me from exploring. Before I get to the food, one last note on this place – the people/crowd were really really surprising to me because it was completely different from anything I’ve seen in my experience in Arizona thus far. There was actually an urban feel to it. Or maybe it was what I would expect at a place on Main Street in Venice? That blend of people from Malibu, Santa Monica and Venice? I saw very little bleach blonde, a lot of no-makeup-laid-back Sunday faces, no cowboy hats and even some dread locks! 

 

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An Ode to THE Cuban Bakery

Between 2007 and 2008, I worked in the Burbank area for that ‘well-paying’ finance job I’ve mentioned. One of the benefits of working in the team there was that long hours meant ordering food. And over the years, these guys had built up a list of great restaurants in the area. One of the best places that I was introduced to was Porto’s Bakery (http://www.portosbakery.com/).

Porto’s is one of those places that you go to once and the next time you’ll fly across the country just to go again. It’s a Cuban bakery that started out small and was forced to grow into larger facilities. When you walk into this place, the line is often to the door. But it moves fast because most people know what they want when they come in. The smell is just heavenly as you get a wiff of the freshly baked bread and pastries or the empanadas and croquettes.

Below are a few pictures for your enjoyment. And may I suggest that you make the trek up to Burbank the next time you’re in the LA area because you will not be disappointed. In fact, schedule your flight so you leave from Burbank airport!

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A view of the beautiful sweet treats that tease you as you wait in line. Thank goodness I do not have a sweet tooth (at least not a bad one), although I’m not sure that eating three croquettes is better than having a couple cupcakes!

 

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Southern Hospitality And A Whole Lot Of Seafood

Hello friends!

About a week ago, I was very fortunate to make an unexpected trip to New Orleans for the NFL Divisional Playoffs between the Cardinals and the Saints. Although I do like football, I love food more. So I jumped at the chance to visit the South for the first time.

When growing up, I would hear loads of stories from my parents about the amazing experiences they had in New Orleans. Of course in my family, those stories consisted mainly of crawfish, everything Cajun or Creole, shrimp and muffulettas. And naturally they loved the energy and hospitality that ‘Nawlins’ showed them every time. My experience was no different (despite the fact that I was rooting for the Cardinals). * I warn you that there is a whole lot of food that will be discussed in this post. That’s what happens when you unleash a foodie into New Orleans for a couple days!

But let’s just get straight down to business. Our first stop (immediately after checking into our hotel) was the Acme Oyster House (http://www.acmeoyster.com/). My parents and aunts and uncles had been here many times before, so my mom insisted we go here first. Now let me preface that I do love my shellfish but have only ever tried oysters once and wasn’t all that impressed. But now that I’m going to be going to culinary school, I’ve promised myself to at least try something no matter how scared or grossed out I might be. So first thing was first – raw oysters.

After a moment of hesitation, I swallowed my fear and then the oyster. It was slimy, kind of gooey and covered in hot sauce. Honestly, it didn’t taste like anything other than a delivery system for hot cocktail sauce. So I tried another with lemon juice and a little salt and pepper. Again, it didn’t taste like much. I really was expecting it to taste salty and kind of fishy, but that experience fell a little flat for me. So I moved on to the next thing.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the most beautiful picture because we started digging in immediately before I realized I wanted a picture. The first dish is a combo of beans and rice, gumbo and Cajun Jambalaya. The second dish is a wonderful assortment of fried goodness – fried shrimp, fried oysters, hush puppies and my all-time-new-favorite fried catfish. The gumbo and jambalaya weren’t particularly impressive compared to others I’ve had before. However, the catfish – oh the catfish – was exactly as I dreamed it always would be. From all the food shows and movies I’ve seen with fried catfish – my goodness it was ‘scrumptious’ as my good friend Anwar would say. It seriously melted in my mouth. You have to love fish that is so fresh it melts. The batter was cornmeal and was incredibly light and crunchy. The hush puppies were also fantastic although I honestly felt that if I had to feel guilty about eating fried food I’d prefer the catfish. The fried oysters and shrimp, sadly, just tasted fried – masking the actual flavor of the seafood.

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