Muffin with bacon, mushrooms and parmesan

I’ve been nosedeep into (a photoshoot for) cocktails all week long so far, so I figured it was time for something savory here. Just to balance things out a bit, hence (is that even a word people use anymore??) you find here these pretty muffins. I have made some sweet muffins before, although not that much either, so making savory ones was a first. I had been trying out various recipes from Jamie Magazine for the entire week already. (The magazine was in the kitchen and I kept seeing quick and tasty week dishes and so far non of them have disappointed).

Muffins

Now you have to know that muffins and I have some sort of love-hate relationship. While my cupcakes always come out looking perfect – knock on wood – my muffins always come out looking mwah… I know that I need to work the batter totally differently. As little as possible in fact and it’s not that they’ve tasted bad, but I know I can do better. I see all those gorgeous muffins every Monday for Muffin Monday by Bakerstreet and they all look absolutely delicious and worth making. But then mine… They look ok-ish, taste ok-ish, but that’s not what we want from food, now is it? We want to have bold flavors and tastes to remember. There is enough ok-ish stuff in live. Not what I want in my muffins… ;(

Pretty flowers

And as much as I hate to admit it; these muffins – again – where ok but not spectaculair. I forgot to add the parmesan on top before putting them into the oven. O and I forgot to mix the pinenuts into the dough before putting it in the tin, so that was just plain annoying.

Maybe I have to be patient and not expect wonder for my very first savory muffins. And then again maybe muffins are not meant to be savory? I don’t know. Whatever the case, if you have any magic muffin tips; please let me know!

I’m thinking of making matcha muffins for the next time. Still got some matcha powder left and am addicted to that lovely green color and the flavor. Suggestions are welcome!

O and can I just say that I’m quite pleased with the light in my new photography spot on our kitchen table? It was previously somewhere else, but since the kitchen has changed, the light has changed as well. I think it works!

Bacon and mushrooms muffins

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Serves	12
Prep time	10 minutes
Cook time	15 minutes
Total time	25 minutes
Allergy	Egg
Meal type	Side Dish
From magazine	Jamie Magazine

Ingredients

• 200g flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 25g pinenuts (roasted)
• 50g parmesan (grated plus some extra)
• 2 eggs
• 250g yogurt
• 4 tablespoons olive oil (plus 1 tsp)
• 4 slices bacon (chopped finely)
• 200g mushrooms

Directions

Preheat the oven to 200 C and put 12 muffin papers into a muffin tin. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, parmesan, 1 tsp salt, some black peper and pinenuts into a large bowl. In another bowl mix the eggs, yogurt and 4 tbsp of olive oil; pour this into the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon roughly until just combined.

Bake the mushrooms and bacon lightly in the remainder of the oil and stir through the batter. Divide this over the muffin forms and sprinkle with grated parmesan. Bake the muffins for about 15 minutes or until they're cooked. You can check this by inserting a wooden skewer into one; it should come out clean,

Note

The funny thing is that I was worried that the moisture of the mushrooms would be making the muffins too wet, so I drained them a little bit after cooking as that releases their fluids. However; I actually found the muffins to be on the dry side, so maybe I should have left it in?

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We didn’t really plan it this way but this guestpost from Rosa  from Rosa’s Yummy Yums could not have come at a better time. We’re wrapped up in our kitchen renovations and the last thing I can do at this point is to actually bake or cook anything, so to keep you entertained Rosa has provided a gorgeous recipe here for Cornish Pasties, that I’m sure you’re gonna love.
I’ve followed Rosa for quite some time now and if you haven’t visited her blog yet then you really should. She is a gifted photographer and her images have that airy kind of quality about them. She’s also pretty good with words as you will be able to see for yourself below!
I’m really happy she agreed to do a guestpost here on Junglefrog Cooking so I’m giving it over to Rosa!

In life, there are some beings who enlighten your days, inspire you greatly and are refreshing. The same can be said about certain blogs or bloggers, and both Simone and her excellent site definitely belong to that category. Everytime I visit  Junglefrog, you can be sure that I’ll be delighted by her magazine-like pictures, marvelous sense of humor and lovely recipes. It is indubitably far from being mundane or soulless!

This zesty Dutch lady is a skilled professional photographer whose work never to fails to wow me. I really appreciate her very European way of immortalizing dishes and I wish I could have half of her talent with my Nikon. Yet not only is she an ace behind the camera, but she is also a masterful cook and baker who wizzes up amazing cakes, colorful salads, comforting casseroles, delectable appetizers, balanced main courses, luscious desserts, etc…

I discovered Junglefrog through The Daring Bakers and have been following her online journal regularly since at least three years, thus I have been lucky to witness its evolution and see how the pretty caterpillar turned into a beautiful butterfly over the years. So, the day Simone asked me if I would be interested in writing a guest post for her, I felt overwhelmed with joy and excitement and immediately said “yes” without needing to meditate over her generous proposition. It is an honor for me to have been given that opportunity and I am truly thankful that she thought of me!

When you die, if you get a choice between going to regular heaven or pie heaven, choose pie heaven. It might be a trick, but if it’s not, mmmmmmmm, boy.

- Jack Handy

As Simone is currently trying to focuse on healthy eating and as I love speaking about British grub, I thought that it would be wonderful if I shared my take on “Cornish Pasties” with her readers and spoke a bit about its origins.

I got the idea and urge to bake my own pasties while watching Saturday Kitchen on BBC1. On this program animated by celebrity chef James Martin I heard Rick Stein relate a sad event that happened in 1999 (read what the BBC has written on that subject) when a eminent New York Times journalist shamelessly declared that “Cornish Pasties” were bland, like doorstops and “generally God awful”. He also blantantly stated that Cornwall “probably offers more bad food per square mile than anywhere else in the civilised world”. Furthermore, according to him, a hamburger can be disguised with relish, but a with this pie, “you’ve got this five pound football-shape thing sitting in your hand and there’s nothing you can do with it”…

Pasties are not just something we eat, it’s something we love. Pasties are everything to us.

- Ann Muller, owner of the award-winning Lizard Pasty Shop

 Mr. Grimes‘ declaration stirred a lot of ill feelings in the peninsula and that is very understandable. Coming out of a magazine writer and restaurant critic’s mouth, such harsh words are quite disgraceful, irresponsible and intolerable, especially when they are not true, defamatory and are a direct attack to the Cornish folks as well as to their traditions.

I await for intelligent adults not to make stupid generalizations. In life, nothing is black and white; it’s all shades of grey. The judgements we carry out are strictly personal/subjective and depend on specific situations. For instance, in this gentleman’s case, I believe that he just simply didn’t taste the real stuff (made artisanally by someone who puts all is heart and soul into the fabrication of this product) and that this type of sustenance is not entirely to his liking or up to his American standards (in the US highly seasoned food is customary). 

Having eaten my share of that speciality and being a fervent defender of British cuisine (read my articles here and here), I cannot disagree more with his stigmatizing review of Cornwall’s most cherished delicacy. Of course, I am not saying that all “Cornish Pasties” are delicious or even eatable, but in no case does that mean that the majority of them are inedible, disgusting and nasty. I agree that too many bad “tiddy oggins” are sold all around the UK, but there are some very good ones out there too (this rule applies to any chow no matter where it comes from – horrid and fabulous eats exist in every country) and an experienced as well as serious reporter has the responsability of searching for an artisan butcher, old woman/granny or master baker who will prove him wrong. Maybe he should have investigated on the terrain in a more in-depth manner and let go of his restricting preconceptions.

 I dearly love a pasty, a ‘ot leaky one;
With mayt, turmit and taty, h’onyon and parsley in ‘un
The crus’ be made weth suet, shaped like ‘alf a moon;
Crinkly h’edges, freshly baked ‘e es alway gone too soon!
- Poem by Walter F. Gries of Marquette

The true Cornish way to eat a pasty is to hold it in the hand, and begin to bite it from the opposite end to the initial, so that should any of it

be uneaten it may be consumed later by its rightful owner.  And woe betide anyone who take’s another person’s “corner”!

- Cornish Recipes Ancient and Modern 23rd edition with supplement by the Cornwall  Federation of Women’s Institutes

 At least, in response to all the angry criticism he received, Williams Grimes wrote an article in which he tried to explain the reason for his rather tactless statements. I am glad he had the decency and honesty to declared that he is “willing to give it another try” and that he still nourishes hope. After all, it seems that the man is not a lost cause…

It must be pointed out that if assembled by a competent culinarian and if it encloses quality, fresh and seasonal ingredients, then that humble thick-crusted handpie hailing from South West England can only be excellent and incredibly toothsome. There is absolutely nothing wrong with them provided that they are baked by expert hands.

“Next Guivret opened a chest and took out two pasties.
My friend,’ said he, ‘Now try a little of these cold pastis …”
- Excerpt from “Erec and Enide” by Chrétien de Troyes

The earliest literary reference to “Cornish Pasties” appears in an Arthurian romance by a French poet called Chrétien de Troyes and dates back to the 12th century, but they became more established in the 16th and 17th centuries. In those times, these rolls were associated to the nobility. By the 18th century, it was a cheap collation which poor families could afford (beef was added later).

In more modern times, this hearty, easy to hold and portable lunchtime meal which is comparable to empanadas was prepared for school children, farm labourers and primarly for miners who did not have the possibility to sit down at a table and eat with a knife and fork. Thanks to its practical shape the pasty could be held without difficulty. No plate or cutlery were needed. Still, not all “oggies” were reasonably sized and certain of them were often too big to consume at one single one sitting, therefore, in order to avoid anyone eating the wrong leftover pie, housewives marked each of them with the initials of the intended recipient.

The pastry kept the contents warm and protected them from any possible contamination. Since the fingers of men who slaved down in the tunnels were dirty and covered in poisonous arsenic the crimpling could not be eaten, so it was a custom to leave the untouched and empty shell for the mischievous “knockers” or malevolent spirits who caused cave-ins or played tricks on the diggers. This offering was supposed to appease them.

Apparently, the original pasties were often packed with both sweet as well as savory fillings and were a complete meal in themselves. It was not rare to find meat at one end and sweet cooked apple or jam at the other. In hard times, the quantity of meat used was drastically reduced and they mostly contained vegetables and seasonings. Nowadays, the most popular variant of this treat consists of flank or chuck steak cut into small pieces, chopped onions, thinly sliced potatoes and shredded turnips. However, it is important to note that the Cornish will put almost anything into their pasty whether it be eggs, fish, veggies, meat, cheese or even fruits.

In the mid 1800s, the Cornish tin mining industry collapsed and as a consequence large numbers of miners, artisans and merchants were forced to seek work abroad. This led to the spreading of pasties overseas. Variations of this snack can be found throughout the UK and the world. It is then no surprise if it is particularly popular in parts of the United States, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Mexico (there it is celebrated, revered and eaten in great quantities), Argentina and Australia…

Alright, I guess that’s enough history for now. Let’s talk about my recipe!

As I said before, the “Sauerkraut, Potato & Cheddar Pasties” I am presenting today are not of the classic kind. They are a pure product of my imagination and not a 100% British. In fact they represent my Swiss and English heritage and show my deep appreciation of fusion food.

I adore being adventurous in the kitchen and breaking borders, hence I experiment a lot with diverse products and more particularly with sauerkraut. You see, I am not a fan of conventions and rarely stick to the obvious or follow established standards (for ex. by utilising sauerkraut in “Choucroute Garnie” only). The rebel that I am enjoys baking with it, serving it raw, incorporating it to omelets, pairing it with pasta, tossing it into stir-fries, etc…

 This unique ingredient is extremely versatile and gives an interesting twist to any fare. When combined with mature cheddar full of character, the earthiness of potatoes, the tanginess of onions and the pungent aroma of thyme, this consitutes the perfect stuffing for my flaky and divinely lardy pastry cases.

Nonetheless, it might occur to you that those “Sauerkraut, Potato & Cheddar Pasties” sound simple and boring as they aren’t ladden with condiments. Well, let me tell you that this is deliberate. I didn’t want to cover the savor of my vegetables and cheese with overpowering spices or herbs. My aim was to let their natural flavor take over and express themselves. This resulted in something exceptional.  As you can imagine, my pastry pockets were a blazing success and disappeared as fast as they arrived on the plate and were accompanied by “ahhs” and “mhhs”. A complete success!

Hopefully, you’ll find them as pleasurable as we did…

Sauerkraut, potato, cheddar and onion pasties

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Serves	5
Meal type	Main Dish, Snack
By author	Rosa May

Ingredients

Shortcrust pastry

• 200g all purpose flour
• 100g whole wheat flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 80g unsalted butter
• 70g lard

Filling

• 200g drained raw sauerkraut (chopped coarsely)
• 100g mature cheddar cheese (cut into small cubes)
• 1 medium potato (peeled and cut into thin pieces)
• 1 onion (finely chopped)
• 3/4 teaspoons dried thyme
• 1 pinch nutmet
• Freshly ground black pepper (to taste)
• Sea Salt (to taste)

Glaze

• 1 egg (beaten)

Directions

Shortcrust Pastry

1. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl/bassin. 2. Add butter, lard and rub between the fingers until the mixture is flaky. 3. Pour in water, gradually, while continuously cutting and stirring with a knife. Stop adding water when the dough binds together (it should not be sticky or wet). Gather up into a soft ball and place it in the fridge while you prepare the filling.

Filling

4. In a medium bowl, mix together all the ingredients for the filling. Set aside.

5. Heat the oven to 200° C (400° F). 6. Divide the dough into 5 equal pieces. 7. On a floured surface, roll out one of the pieces into a circle of about 18-19cm. 8. Firmly pack a fifth of the filling along the centre of each round, leaving a small gap at the edges. 9. Brush the pastry all the way round the edge with beaten egg. 10. Carefully draw up both sides so that they meet at the top, then pinch them together to seal and crimp the edges (see remarks). 11. Place on a baking tray covered with baking paper and brush each of the pasties with the remaining egg to glaze 12. Bake in the middle of the oven for abozt 35-40 minutes or until crisp and golden. 13. Serve warm.

Note

Remarks:

The pasties should always be firm, full and never wet or too juicy (the pastry would not be dry and crispy).

If you have a problem with the shaping of your pasties, video 1 and video 2 might come in handy.

 

Serving suggestions:

Serve for lunch or supper and accompany with a seasonal salad and a beer.

Pasties are also perfect for taking on a picnic or bringing to a potluck

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Onion quiche with cheese

Very slowly but surely there is some white fluff coming out of the sky. It’s not a lot but it’s cold enough for the white stuff to remain. The day has been grey and very overcast. Certainly not ideal for taking photos so that’s a bit of a nuisance really… Yes, ladies and gentlemen by the look of things, it appears we ARE finally getting something resembling a winter. If I’m totally honest I am ready for spring. I mean, I love winter, I really do, but then I like winter to appear when it is supposed to. For me that is around Christmas. And not at the beginning of February when all I can think of is spring! But if nature has proven anything lately then it is the fact that it cannot be controlled. So winter it is then. At least it is good for getting rid of some of the mosquito-eggs (I hope).

We have this thing here in Holland called De Elf Stedentocht. It’s a skating race across eleven cities (cities = steden) for a distance of around 200 km. It’s held on natural ice only, so that means that we have to wait for the weather gods to be with us, in order for the ice to be thick enough to hold masses of people at the same time. The last time it was held was in 1997! So you can see that it is rare for the ice to be of good enough quality. Every year, usually around this time, we do have some frost and as always there is this buzz going around for people that maybe this year we will be having the tour… Willem-Alexander, our crown prince even participated last time so you see, it’s a big deal here..

Ten yrs old.. getting skating lessons..

I’ve never been really good in skating… I found this picture of me at the age of 10 trying to do some skating..:) I’m the clumsy one on the left holding my friends hand and that’s my little brother behind her keeping an eye on things… I used to fall on my face quite a bit and I guess I never really learned it properly. See those skates by the way? Those are called Friese doorlopers and  you can tie them under your regular shoes. This particular water (slootje) we are skating on was behind my parents house, as we were overlooking farmland.

Onion quiche

Now when it’s cold and dark outside, you want something warm and comforting, right? This particular quiche is perfect for that. it’s incredibly easy as it uses ready made croissant dough. The onions are slowly cooked in some dark beer giving it a hint of sweetness. We loved it! I used port salut in the recipe as I know Tom hates stronger cheeses (he hates all cheese but as long as it’s melted on something and not too strong he’s ok with eating it) but I would recommend using something with a bit more flavor. Blue cheese combined with regular cheese would be fantastic too. Recipe from Delicious Magazine

Onion-cheese quiche

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Serves	4
Prep time	30 minutes
Cook time	35 minutes
Total time	1 hours, 5 minutes
Meal type	Lunch
Misc	Pre-preparable, Serve Cold, Serve Hot
From magazine	Delicious magazine

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 750g onions (in half rings)
• 100ml dark beer
• 1 can croissant dough (Here you can buy these in tins which have enough dough for 6 croissants. not sure how that would be in other countries)
• 100g ham
• 4 eggs
• 150ml double cream
• 3 tablespoons flat leaf parsley (plus a little extra for garnish if you want)
• 200g abbey cheese (for instance port salut or any other good cheese you want, rind removed)

Directions

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan. Add the onion rings and bake for about 8-10 minutes until they are nice and soft. Don't let them get too brown though! Pour the beer in and keep cooking until there is no moisture left in the pan. Preheat the oven to 200 C.

Roll the dough out and line a 10 x 30 cm tin with it or a round tin with a diameter of 24 cm. Make sure there are no holes in the dough. Line the bottom with the ham. Whisk the eggs, mix with cream, parsley and add pepper and salt to taste. Add the onions into the tin. Pour the egg-cream mixture over it and put the cheese on top in slices. Bake the quiche in the oven for about 30-35 minutes until golden brown and cooked. Sprinkle with a little extra parsley.

Note

While the recipe states that the qty's are for a tin of the size I have you I found there were far too many onions, so I actually made two out of the qty given. One of 10 x 30 cm and one round one. Which is fine but just thought I mention it!

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The ultimate cranberry sauce

I did promise you I would give you the recipe for the ultimate cranberry sauce right? Well, here it is… I’ve made cranberry sauce, cranberry compote and cranberry relish before but never before did I find THE cranberry sauce to go with everything. If you look at the small list of ingredients it is really nothing to fancy and it’s also nothing really special but I can assure you that the end result will never have you ask for another cranberry recipe, ever again. It is rich, it is sweet (but not too sweet) and it goes so well with both savory dishes and sweet desserts.

I made this sauce for the simple reason that I had bought too many cranberries so I just figured I might try a couple of different variations to see which one I liked best. We had this the first time with some pork and we were immediately sold. Then I used it to spice up the mascarpone raspberry trifle you saw earlier and that just confirmed the fact that this does go with just about anything.

Cranberry sauce on top of delicious trifle

Cranberry sauce

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Serves	4
Prep time	5 minutes
Cook time	10 minutes
Total time	15 minutes
Meal type	Condiment, Side Dish
Misc	Pre-preparable

Ingredients

• 250g cranberries
• 3 pieces star anise
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 1 cup sugar
• 1,5 cup fresh orange juice

Directions

Put all ingredients into a saucepan and brings to the boil. Once the sugar is all dissolved turn down the heat

Leave to boil softly until all craberries have popped open. Take of the fire and remove the cinnamon and star anise. Put in a blender and puree until smooth. Be careful when turning on the blender as it is hot which means it will spatter too.

Once pureed put through a sieve to remove all the skins.

Note

This recipe is perfect for both sweet and savory dishes. Sofar we have had it with dessert and we had it with pork but this will be equally good with turkey!

I am actually thinking of making large batches of this sauce so I can freeze it in and enjoy it for the rest of the year too. I still have quite a few dried cranberries left so I am wondering if I can use those to make cranberry sauce too. Something tells me that is not an option as there would be no popping. Does anyone have any experience with using dried cranberries for making a sauce? Would it work to re-hydrate them first and then cook? Let me know your thoughts! In the meantime I have another bag of cranberries in the fridge that is just waiting for me to make another batch…

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Creamy goatcheese with pomegranate and chives

Wow… if you are reading this, that actually means that it worked! You might have wondered where I went to the last couple of days but I have been very busy behind the scenes with changing over all my websites (and there are six in total) from one host to the next.

My friend and  Dutch blogger Kay from Kayotic Kitchen first alerted me to the fact that maybe I was paying just a bit too much on my hosting package and then when I went to Germany Meeta told me pretty much the same thing. Time for me to start looking at other options.

While I have been really happy with my hosting company the fact of the matter is that I am now going from something like 1200 euro per year to a total of 90 dollar a year… That is too big of a difference to dismiss!

I’ll spare you all the nerve wrecking details, but as I said; if you’re reading this.. it is working!!

What else is going on here; I had my second meatcourse which I will tell you all about later. I had a couple of really fun cupcake shoots and in the meantime I am starting to think about Christmas menu’s.

It’s been difficult getting my head into cooking mode with all that is going on. On top of that I am also worried what January 1^st is going to bring. With Tom still looking for a new job and the change over to the studio it’s quite a bit of changing around here lately but that’s ok. Change is what makes the world go round right?

So to give you a lovely and very tasty recipe I am bringing you this creamy goatcheese with pomegranate which is fabulous as a quick lunch spread but would also be ideal for any party. Try it you’ll love it!

Creamy goatcheese with pomegranate

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Recipe type: Sidedish

Author: BBC good food

Prep time: 10 mins

Total time: 10 mins

Serves: 6

Ofcourse goatcheese and honey is a classic combination but add the pomegranates and the chives and it is even yummier!

Ingredients

• 150g pack soft, rindless goat’s cheese
• 250g tub ricotta
• 50g pomegranates seeds, from a tub
• small bunch chives , snipped
• 1 tbsp clear honey
• 2 tsp red or white wine vinegar
• loaf of crusty bread , to serve

Instructions

1. Mash the goat’s cheese and ricotta together in a bowl, then use a spatula to roughly spread over a large plate. Scatter with the pomegranate seeds and chives and set aside until ready to serve.
2. Stir together the honey and vinegar, then as you’re about to serve, drizzle over the plate. Enjoy with crusty bread.

2.1.7

 

 

 

 

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