Oatmeal-Chai Buttermilk pancakes

I ran into the March 2007 issue of Cooking light and found several gems, the first:

OATMEAL-CHAI BUTTERMILK PANCAKES

Ingredients

* 1 1/2 cups 1% low-fat milk
* 12 whole cloves
* 8 cardamom pods, crushed
* 1 (3-inch) cinnamon stick, broken
* 1 (1-inch) piece peeled fresh ginger, coarsely chopped
* 2 teaspoons black tea leaves (such as Darjeeling or Assam)
* 1 cup low-fat buttermilk
* 1 tablespoon butter, melted
* 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (about 2 1/4 ounces)
* 3 tablespoons brown sugar
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 2 cups regular oats


Preparation

Combine first 5 ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cover and cook 15 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in tea leaves, and steep 2 minutes. Strain mixture through a sieve into a large bowl; discard solids. Stir in buttermilk; cool to room temperature. Add butter, vanilla, and eggs; stir well with a whisk.

Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add flour mixture to milk mixture; stir until combined. Stir in oats. Cover and let stand 15 minutes. Pour about 1/4 cup batter per pancake onto a hot nonstick griddle or nonstick skillet. Cook 2 minutes or until tops are covered with bubbles and edges look cooked. Carefully turn pancakes over; cook 2 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned.
Nutritional Information

Calories:
249 (24% from fat)
Fat:
6.6g (sat 2.7g,mono 2g,poly 0.8g)
Protein:
10.6g
Carbohydrate:
37.8g
Fiber:
2.8g
Cholesterol:
80mg
Iron:
2.3mg
Sodium:
589mg
Calcium:
199mg

Bruchetta

It is now late summer and the peak of tomato season. Time for simple delicious food, straight from the garden:


(blogger is insistent this photo goes this direction, despite my attempts to rotate it)


Tomatoes (Roma, cherry)
Basil
Olive oil
pepper
salt
bread

1.Bake yourself up a batch of 5-min bread and put a slice in the toaster


2. Head out back and pick some of these:




and these:


and a couple leaves of basil:



Chop it up, top with a light drizzle of olive oil, and a touch of salt and pepper to taste.



Toast the bread, rub it with a clove of garlic and top with the tomato. Yum!

Asian zucchini salad

In our continuing quest to use up Zucchini and not turn on the oven, I've created this.

6 cup shredded zucchini (3 small, or one very large, or any combo yellow squash and zuchini)
3 Tbs red wine vinegar
1.5 Tbs brown sugar
2 Tbs sesame oil
3 Tbs soy sauce
1 tsp mustard
4 Tbs sesame seeds
salt
pepper

1. grate the zucchini. Salt it well and leave it in a colander to drain for about 30 min
2. whisk together vinegar, sugar, oil, soy sauce, mustard in a small bowl
3. toast the sesame seeds in a frying pan on medium heat (option, grease very lightly with butter first)
4. squeeze as much water as possible out of the zucchini , toss with the dressing and sesame seeds and enjoy!

Zucchini Banana bread

This is what happens when coop order has zucchini and bananas - a best of quick breads combination. This recipe is adapted from the America's test kitchen version of both recipes.

1 small-ish zucchini
2 bananas
2 eggs
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1 Tbs Lemon juice
6 Tbs butter
3/4 cup pecans
2 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder

1. A key principle here is to eliminate the extra juice from the zucchini and bananas so you can get more flavor. For the Zucchini- grate it and toss with 2Tbs sugar and place in a paper towel lined colander to drain. For the Bananas- place in a glass dish, cover with plastic wrap and microwave for 2 min to get the juice out - alternatively use frozen bananas which juice easily when defrosted. Put the bananas in the paper towel lined colander with the zucchini and leave it all to drip for about 30 min.

2. Toast the pecans over medium high heat for a few minutes (or in the oven) - chop to desired consistency and allow to cool.
2a. melt the butter in the microwave and let it cool.

3. Combine the flour,remaining sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt and toasted nuts in a large bowl

4. combine eggs, yogurt, lemon juice, vanilla and melted butter in a medium bowl and beat well.

5. squeeze and bananas and Zucchini in the paper towel to get out all the juice, then add them to the wet ingrediants and mix well.

6. add wet to dry and stir until just combined.

7. put in a buttered and floured loaf pan and bake at 350 for about 50-55min or until a toothpick comes out clean.

5 min bread

I am home sick from work so what better activity than making bread? A few minutes mixing, a few hours napping with a yummy ending. This recipie is from the book "Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day"

3 cups warm water
2 scant Tbs yeast
1 1/4 Tbs kosher salt
6 1/2 cups flour

1. Dissolove yeast and salt in water in a large container (skip dishes by mixing in whatever you want to keep it in in the fridge)
2. Add flour and mix until combined - Don't knead!
3. Loosely cover and let rise 2-5 hours until fallen or flat. Now would be nap time!
4. Refridgerate until you want it at least 3 hours and up to a week

when you're ready to bake:
1.take a grapefruit sized lump ( approx 1/4 of the dough ) and form a ball
2. Let rise 45 minutes
3. Preheat a pizza stone to 450
4. Bake untill crusty - yum!

Steve's Shrimp Salad

As originally conceived this was a Mexican salad, then when I smelled the basil in the garden it became a Thai Salad and now I am giving credit where credit is due, Steve from da van - yea for carpool brainstorms!

1 can yellow corn
1 can garbonzo beans (aka chickpeas)
8oz peeled, cooked, deveined frozen shrimp
1 lime
1 Tbs honey
1/2 tsp thai red chili powder
1/2 tsp lemongrass curry powder
dash of salt
3 large leaves, fresh basil
1/2 jalepano
2 small zuchini or summer squash (about 3 cups sliced)
1/4 of a red onion
avocado
lettuce

1. combine juice of lime, honey and spices in a small bowl (suggest chili powder and cayenne pepper if you don't have a collection of odd spices you've been waiting to use).
2.Thaw the shrimp (I soak 'em in hot water) and put them to marinate in the honey-lime mixture.
3. drain and rinse the corn and beans and put them in a large bowl. Dice the onion and jalepaneo very fine (to taste) and add them. Cut zuchini/squash into chunks and add to the vegtables.
4. add the shrimp and mix well.
5. chop basil finely and mix into salad
6. serve on a bed of lettuce topped with avacodo

Nutrition ( per serving without avacado or lettuce, above amounts makes aprox 4 servings, 2 cups each. )
Calories 210.3 Total Fat 3.1 g Saturated Fat 0.2 g Polyunsaturated Fat 0.5 g Monounsaturated Fat 0.3 g
Cholesterol 96.7 mg Sodium 398.6 mg Potassium 217.7 mg Total Carbohydrate 29.9 g Dietary Fiber 4.5 g Sugars 7.5 g
Protein 18.3 g

Rob's feast

For today a guest post by Rob, my husband, who is an amazing cook when he has time and a peanut-butter-a-holic when he doesn't.

Pan seared, and Grilled Ahi Tuna served on a salad bed, with a side of roast garlic stuffed mushrooms sauted in olive oil and white wine, and Pasta Romesco


Chez Piggy Romesco Sauce

1/2 Cup Olive Oil
2 Red Bell Peppers
1 tomato, halved
5 cloves of garlic
2 finger-hot chilies
1.5 cups blanched almonds, toasted
1 tsp. red-wine vinegar
Pinch coarse salt

Preheat oven to 350, Warm 1tsp oil in ovenproof pan. Place tomato in pan, coat with oil, roast 20 min.
Roast red peppers, and steam for 25 min, remove skin, stems, seeds.
Place all ingredients into food processor, blend to a paste.

I did two vine ripened tomatoes instead of one, both halved, with a bulb of garlic in the center of the pan, and poured olive oil over them all. The tomatoes were finished in 20 min, the garlic bulb took another 20 minutes to roast (I your blue iron pot - which worked amazingly - and cleaned up really well afterwords).

I added the juice of 1/2 a lime - although, I don't think it added much to the flavor.

The sauce is really good (if I do say so myself), but I think I'd add less almonds next time. The sauce by itself, without the almonds is rich and creamy, and I think if one were to put in the juice of a couple limes, and to not add almonds at all - one would have a basic roasted red bell pepper mole, or a mole rojo.




A basic salad of home-grown lettuce (various types including spinach), chopped tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. Pan seared and then grilled tuna steak with a zest of lemon (from the brand-new zester!)



The mushrooms were stuffed with roasted garlic and then refrigerated until dinner time. They were then sauted in the pan the tuna was seared in. The mushrooms were browned on both sides, and then white wine was added (Sauvignon Blanc). They were then cooked in the wine sauce, while covered for about another five minutes. If I had to do it over again, I would probably add the roasted garlic stuffing after the mushrooms were done - this seemed to cause the garlic to loose some flavor!
yummy- mushrooms.