Ginger Peach Muffins

Sometimes you know certain flavors go together well. Take peaches and ginger. They make a great match. There's ginger cookies served with fresh peaches, a little ginger in the whipped cream for peach shortcakes, and ginger and peach jam. It's a mix that works. But, every once a while, you come across a classic flavor combination done in a way that makes it even better than you knew it would be. The ginger and peach flavor mix in these muffins was a wow, like I'd never tasted it before. Freshly grated ginger is mixed into the batter along with chopped crystallized ginger, and fresh ginger is also added to a melted butter and honey syrup used to coat the peach slices that sit on top of each muffin. It could have been the one-two punch of fresh and crystallized ginger or maybe that peach season is winding down and I really wanted to savor these, but for simple muffins, these puppies caught me by surprise. They're from Good to the Grain which means they're also made with an interesting mix of flours in addition to the interesting flavor mix. Here, oat flour is combined with all-purpose and whole wheat flours for a very tender crumb and mild, nuttiness.

You start by grating lots of fresh ginger and letting that lovely fragrance start to fill your kitchen. A little of the grated ginger was added to a skillet along with butter and honey, and the rest was left in a mixing bowl. The butter and honey in the skillet was melted, and sliced peaches were added and coated with the syrup and then the pan was set aside. The dry ingredients were sifted together, and those included oat flour, all-purpose and whole wheat flours, sugar, dark brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, the wet ingredients were added to the remaining grated ginger including melted and cooled butter, whole milk, sour cream, an egg, and finely chopped crystallized ginger. Wet ingredients were mixed into the dry, and the batter was ready. In all the muffin recipes in this book, Kim Boyce recommends using only every other cup in a muffin pan. By leaving every other cup empty, the heat circulates well and the muffins rise better. I had learned of this trick from a different muffin recipe, and it really does work well. So, the batter was poured into every other muffin cup, each muffin was topped with two peach slices, and the syrup was spooned on top of the peaches before they went into the oven.

Of course they smelled amazing as they baked, and of course they looked pretty with the peach slices on top. There was no doubting that these were going to be good. I just had no idea how good. I thought I knew all about peaches with ginger, but it's nice to be taken by surprise like this.

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Soy-Wasabi Spread

I know it sometimes seems like I cook from a different book every time I prepare something, but most of my books actually get a lot of repeated use. Sometimes I grab a book for reference if I’m making something similar to one of the recipes in it and want to check quantities. And, other times, I can’t seem to stop cooking from the same book. I’ve mentioned several dishes from Power Foods, and I’ve cooked a couple of additional things that didn’t make their way into posts for no fault of their own. Today, I have one more item from that book to share. The day we hiked at Pedernales Falls State Park, I knew we wouldn’t survive on granola bars alone. I also packed a picnic lunch including sandwiches, soy-wasabi spread, and cut vegetables for dipping. It’s true that we’d worked up an appetite for that meal, but the bowl of spread I left at home in the refrigerator was just as good the next day.

Making the spread is an easy matter started by boiling some frozen, shelled edamame and then draining it and placing it in a food processor. Also to the food processor, add some drained silken tofu, lemon zest and juice, Chinese hot mustard, wasabi paste, and salt. Taste after pureeing to decide if you’d like more wasabi or lemon, and that’s it. Garnish with black sesame seeds.

This is a light and flavorful spread brightened by lemon and given a wasabi kick. We used it as a dip for vegetables and pretzels, but I think it would be great on a sandwich or in a wrap too. I’ll probably move on to a different book next, but I’m sure I’ll pick this one up again before long.

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Granola Bars

Clearly, I use hiking as an excuse to make homemade granola bars. Last year, I made fruit and nut energy bars which we took with us while hiking in Arizona, and just recently I tried the granola bars from the Flour book for a state park hike closer to home. It's hot here, and it's dry, and it doesn't seem like either of those conditions will be changing any time soon. So, we ignored all of that and went to Pedernales Falls State Park for a hike, a picnic, and some splashing through very little water. As you can see in the photo below, the riverbed was nearly dry in places courtesy of our ongoing drought. It made it easy to walk up and back from one side to the other in several places along the river, but it also made for disappointing splashing after our hike. At least we had plenty of water with us for drinking and plenty of snacks. This version of granola bar is a layered affair with a quickly-made jam between a crunchy bar and a seed-filled topping. Overall, they're a little more tender than other granola bars I've tried, and they taste more like an indulgent treat than a healthy snack.

About that jam, all that's involved is adding water and sugar to a mix of dried fruit, bringing it a boil, and then letting it sit for about an hour. Once the dried fruit softened, the mixture was pulsed in a food processor to make a chunky jam. Dried apples, cranberries, and apricots were suggested, but I didn't find dried apples at the grocery store, so I used dried mango instead. The jam can be made in advance and stored in the refrigerator. When the food processor was cleaned and ready to go again, the base of the bars was made in it with flour, oats, brown sugar, coconut, salt, cinnamon, and butter. After being pulsed together, two-thirds of that mixture was spread in a nine inch by thirteen inch baking pan, and it was baked for about 30 minutes. For a crisper base layer, you could go for a longer baking time. The baking pan was removed from the oven, and the bottom layer was topped with the jam. The remaining granola mixture was refrigerated while the base layer baked, then, when cool, it was broken into chunks and mixed with flaxseeds, sunflower seeds, and hemp seeds. There was supposed to have been millet, and I was sure I had some millet in one of my grain and flour bins at home, but since it wasn't actually there, I used hemp seeds instead. That crumb mixture was sprinkled on top of the jam, and the pan went back into the oven for an additional 50 minutes.

Even though these bars were full of healthy oats, seeds, and fruits, they tasted far more decadent than you would expect. The jam layer and crumb topping helped disguise the bars' granola-ness too. Our hike might have been in unrelenting heat next to a nearly dry river, but there were no complaints about the snacks that day.

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Bulgur Salad with Arugula, Zucchini, and Pine Nuts

Lately, whatever it is that Russ Parson writes about for the LA Times is what I want to cook. There was the story about eggs for dinner and then the one about comparing vegetable dishes from Plenty and A Year in My Kitchen. Most recently, it was a story about grain salads. I know, that might not sound terribly exciting, but he went about describing ways to put vegetables and grains together and how to cook different grains for salad use, and I was hooked. It helped that I already really liked grain salads, but the three specific recipes included in the story were all great for light, summer meals. I picked the bulgur salad because it was a chance to do something new and different with zucchini. Here, that new and different thing was actually leaving the zucchini raw. It was chopped, salted, allowed to drain, and then rinsed, dried, and added to the salad. Another new and different thing in this recipe was toasting the bulgur wheat. I usually use bulgur for tabbouleh, and I always just add boiling water and let it soak. Parsons suggested toasting the bulgur in a dry pan first and then pouring water into the hot pan and leaving the bulgur to soak. The flavor difference was big, and I’ll be toasting bulgur from now on.

So, toasting the bulgur only takes about five minutes and is probably easier than boiling water. The bulgur was placed in a dry saute pan over medium-high heat and was left for about five minutes. Cold water was added to the hot pan, the bulgur was stirred, and it was left to soften. It could take about an hour for the bulgur to soften, but mine was ready in about 35 minutes. Meanwhile, a couple of zucchini were chopped into big chunks and placed in a colander. The zucchini was liberally salted and left to drain. After 30 minutes, it was rinsed and dried. To make the salad, the bulgur was placed in a big mixing bowl with minced onion, the zucchini, lemon juice, olive oil, arugula leaves, and toasted pine nuts. Once combined, the salad was ready.

It’s a fresh and light salad, but the bulgur and pine nuts give it some heft. And, don’t think for a minute that this is just a boring, whole grain, healthy dish. The onion and lemon give it zing, the zucchini and pine nuts bring crunch, and toasting the bulgur added even nuttier flavor from the grain. The flesh of the salted and rinsed zucchini had become a little softer than when raw but it mostly retained its texture. I’m looking forward to getting creative with more toasted grain and fresh vegetable combinations or maybe whatever Russ Parsons writes about next.

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Fig Relish Panini

It doesn't get much better than having fresh, seasonal fruit paired with a really good cheese. There's apples and cheddar, pears and blue cheese, peach mango chutney with a locally made chevre, and today's combination is fig relish with Toma cheese. This is another creation from Plum Gorgeous, and every time I turn the pages of that book I'm inspired by another delicious idea. Our figs arrive at the farmers' markets a little earlier in the year here than they do in other places, and I grabbed some as soon as they appeared. They were cooked to a consistency of jam to make the relish for these panini. Toma, an Italian, semi-hard cheese, was a great match for the relish, but brie would have been another good option. Basil leaves and arugula were layered into the sandwiches, and if you're so inclined, as Kurt certainly was, prosciutto is a fitting ingredient here as well. The panini came out of the press nicely smooshed and melty inside and toasted crisp on the surface.

The only issue I had in making the fig relish was that mine didn't cook down as quickly as was mentioned in the recipe. The figs were stemmed and chopped and placed in a large pot with sugar, champagne vinegar, mustard seed, salt, and water. It was occasionally stirred as it simmered and thickened. The goal is for the mixture to achieve a jam-like consistency, and for mine, that took an hour rather than 20 minutes. You'll want to watch it as it cooks and remove it from the heat when you're happy with the texture. One other thing that I highly recommend is doubling or quadrupling the recipe. I only doubled it, and I'm already regretting not making more. The relish lasts for several months in the refrigerator, so you'll want enough that you can use it several times.

The acidity of the vinegar balanced the sweet figs, and the mustard seed added a nice hint of sharpness. More panini just like these will be in my future as will enjoying the relish with some pieces of cheese and a glass or two of wine. I definitely should have made more than double the recipe.

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Virginia Willis, What Are You Reading?

Virginia Willis’ book Bon Appetit, Y'all: Recipes and Stories from Three Generations of Southern Cooking appeared in 2008, and her new book Basic to Brilliant, Y'all: 150 Refined Southern Recipes and Ways to Dress Them Up for Company will be on shelves next month. A graduate of L'Academie de Cuisine and Ecole de Cuisine LaVarenne, Willis’ wide and varied food career started in Atlanta as an apprentice to Nathalie Dupree. She worked with Dupree on four PBS series and cookbooks, including the James Beard award-winning Comfortable Entertaining. She also spent several years as an editorial assistant with culinary authority Anne Willan on various projects including Cook It Right. Willis honed her attention to detail as the Kitchen Director for Martha Stewart Living Television where she supervised the food segments for the Emmy-award winning television show. As Executive Producer for Epicurious on The Discovery Channel, she traveled the world taping fantastic stories about food. You can find her product line My Southern Pantry on her site and follow her blog for great recipes and stories. She currently has a proposed TV series Starting from Scratch as well. I managed to steal a moment from her busy schedule to ask what are you reading?

Virginia:

1491 - about life before Columbus --I started reading this because my friend, Chef Deb Snow owner of the Blue Heron, told me about it. A lot of this book is not about food so far, but so much of it in terms of culture, politics, and anthropology does involve food. The most intriguing parts of the book are about corn and other vegetables from South America vs those from Europe. I've learned from this book that old world vs new world doesn't really work anymore. That kind of language is indicative of prejudice. The "new world" had been a world for at least as long as the "old world."

I've purchased, but not yet started Tomatoland (by Barry Estabrook).

Also on my bedside table:
Good Fish (by Becky Selengut) Beautiful, beautiful book about sustainable seafood of the Pacific. Sustainable seafood is a passion and a cause for me. I was designated a seafood ambassador with Seafood Watch this year. I am thrilled to be a small part of a greater cause for improving the situation and educating readers about why sustainable seafood is so important.

Ideas in Food (by Aki Kamozawa and H. Alexander Talbot) I mostly shy away from molecular gastronomy, but I am somewhat curious about it. And, for those folks completely dragging their heels, my question is would you prefer calves hooves instead of gelatin sheets? As cooks, as people, we should always strive to learn and grow.

Speaking of...
The Spirituality of Imperfection (by Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketcham) As I grow older I find it increasingly necessary to find more balance and focus. One practice I have returned to doing is saying a prayer of thanks before eating a meal. Even if someone has an issue with traditional religion, I think it is important to take a moment. To seriously, just take a moment in your day out of this busy, hectic world we occupy. In that moment I think it is important to give thanks for the food one is about to receive, the hands that put it in front of you, and the hands that grew or harvested the food. It takes a lot of work to get that food on your plate.

As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto I was fortunate enough to spend time with Julia Child when I lived and worked in France. It's a real pleasure to see behind the scenes of the making of one of the greatest culinary educators and culinary icons of our time.








Thank you for participating, Virginia. Check back to see who answers the question next time and what other books are recommended.

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Almond-Fennel Cocktail

Cold, refreshing beverages are an important part of my life right now and will be until the end of this hot, hot weather. So, I was thrilled to find some pages I cut from the April issue of Food and Wine that were full of cocktails and mocktails. This almond-fennel beverage was intended as a mocktail, but I couldn't resist adding some vodka. The flavors sounded intriguing, and since it's made with orgeat, I had to try it. Last year, I found myself in the middle of an orgeat search and learned that it's exactly the same as almond syrup. For the fennel flavor in this cocktail, a second syrup is made by steeping crushed fennel seeds in water and then dissolving sugar in it. The bubbles from club soda and the green, frilly fennel frond garnish gave it a cool, crisp look making it an inviting way to combat the heat.

You'll need to make the fennel syrup in advance since the seeds need to steep for about 20 minutes. A tablespoon of fennel seeds were crushed in a spice grinder and then added to a cup of water which was brought to a boil. It was removed from the heat, covered, and allowed to steep. Then, the seeds were strained as the water was poured through a sieve into a jar or measuring pitcher. One cup of sugar was added and stirred until it dissolved. The fennel syrup can be stored in the refrigerator for a month. To make the cocktail, combine orgeat, or almond syrup, fennel syrup, fresh lemon juice, and vodka if you'd like. Add ice, stir in club soda, and garnish with a fennel frond.

The mild anise of the fennel syrup blended nicely with the almond flavor. You should taste as you mix because I found I wanted a little more fennel syrup to be sure it didn't get lost behind the almond and lemon. It's true that I'm happy to see just about any beverage over ice these days, but the interesting flavors in this one made it particularly refreshing.

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