Let them eat muffins

About two years ago, my friend, Kara, gave me a recipe for Weight Watchers bran muffins that were, as her husband, Willy, stated, "guaranteed to make me go to the bathroom". Yum !
After eating one,I started thinking to myself..."maybe I can find a great low fat recipe that I will really enjoy" and I did! If you're a real novice in the kitchen, this is a perfect start, it only requires 3 mixing bowls & a microplane zester & a 12 cup muffin tin. I found this recipe online at Shape Magazine's www.shape.com.

These muffins make a great summer muffin when blueberries are fresh and a great winter muffin when the blueberries are frozen :) I got my blueberries at the Farmer's Market in Union Square and they were the juiciest ever.

I am taking the muffins to some of my favorite people tomorrow for our journey to Atlanta. Delta seems to forget that people get hungry on a 2.5 hr ride.

The healthy muffin is hard to find & this one is only 180 calories and 5 grams fat with 0.5 grams of saturated fat with 1 gram of fiber. They are full of antioxidants as well- ENJOY!

Very Berry Orange Oat Muffins (Shape Magazine)
Serves: 12, Prep: 15 min, Cook: 15 minutes

1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup low fat buttermilk
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1.2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 medium orange
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1 whole egg
1 cup blueberries
1/2 cup dried cranberries (I left them put this time !)
Nonstick cooking spray

Preheat oven to 400. Lightly coat muffin cups with Pam.
In the small bowl: Stir together oats and buttermilk and set aside for 5 minutes.
In the medium bowl: Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
In the large bowl: Grate orange rind (with your zester) and squeeze 1/2 cup oj in. Whisk in sugar, canola oil and egg until mixture is smooth. Blend in oatmeal mixture and then the flour mixture. Stir until ingredienrs are just combined and then gently fold in blueberries.
You don't want the batter to look like cookie monster, so don't overmix.

Spoon batter into muffin tin and bake 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center.

Note: You can buy rolled oats and whole wheat flour at Whole Foods, but I am sure they are readily available.

These make a great breakfast or snack on the go.

Suburban Beach & Urban Licks

It's Sunday morning a bit too early to wake up, but Lee woke me up. He is on his way downstairs to meet the trainer and I am his next victim...How I wish I could go back to bed and watch reruns of the Barefoot Contessa and all my other favorite shows on Tivo.
Yesterday, I went on an adventure to the Jersey Shore with my friend, Corryn, and her boyfriend, Paulo. It was great to leave the city for the day and relax on a beach without the sounds of honking, screaming and emergency vehicles!

On the way to the beach, we picked up some salads. We ordered some orzo with roasted veggies. It reminded me of a Barefoot Contessa classic that is perfect for summer lunches and would make a great side dish for the Asian Grilled Salmon.

Orzo with Roasted Veggies

1 small eggplant, peeled and 3/4-inch diced
1 red bell pepper, 1-inch diced
1 yellow bell pepper, 1-inch diced
1 red onion, peeled 1-inch diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup good olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 pound orzo or rice-shaped pasta

For the dressing:
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)
1/3 cup good olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

To assemble:
4 scallions, minced (white and green parts)
1/4 cup pignolis (pine nuts), toasted
3/4 pound good feta, 1/2-inch diced (not crumbled) - I do not use this :)
15 fresh basil leaves, cut into julienne

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Toss the eggplant, bell peppers, onion, and garlic with the olive oil, salt, and pepper on a large sheet pan. Roast for 40 minutes, until browned, turning once with a spatula. I would suggest doing this ahead of time, you can even do it the day before !

Meanwhile, cook the orzo in boiling salted water for 7 to 9 minutes, until tender. Drain and transfer to a large serving bowl. Add the roasted vegetables to the pasta, scraping all the liquid and seasonings from the roasting pan into the pasta bowl.

For the dressing, combine the lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper and pour on the pasta and vegetables.

Let cool to room temperature, then add the scallions, pignolis, feta, and basil. Check the seasonings, and serve at room temperature.

Enjoy! This tastes even better after a day or two, allowing the flavors to combine even more.

By the way, I have been MIA for over a week cause I have been lazy & traveling. While in Atlanta, I dined with my friend, Karen, at Two Urban Licks. I had seen the place in Conde Nast Traveler and on Rachael Ray's $40 a day. Even though Karen seemed to think the place was a bit too salty and too loud, she was accomodating to her guest in town and we went. 6.5/10 is my score. The salmon chips were weak...cooked salmon with capers & red onions on potato chips, it would have been better if it was salmon tartare with citrus juices! The crab stack with layers of avocado, crab and fried green tomato was super ! It did not look particularly attractive, but it tasted dynamite. It was my first time having a fried green tomato y'all ! For mains, we had mussels and a skirt steak with mashed potatoes. Mussels had zero flavor, leaving you wondering what the hell was in the broth anyway ? The skirt steak and mashed potatoes were tasty. For dessert, we had a pistachio ice cream bar sandwiched between 2 brownies. It was absolutely delicious, but secretly, I saw a peach cobbler and blueberry pot pie on the way out that would have enticed me more :)

I also got Lee to open himself up to Indian cuisine this week. He loved the chicken tikka masala from Tamarind (22nd Street & Park in NY's Gramercy Park)! Tamarind has awesome upscale Indian & is very geographically desirable for us. Last night, we ordered in from Bombay Talkie (9th Avenue in NY's Chelsea) , another great, but much more reasonable hip Indian restaurant. Who wouldn't love naan bread and cucumber raita ?

See you soon for more bites from Braude!

Organic Gems

In a recent bid to eat healthier, I finally gave in to my better (financial) judgement and decided to go organic (well, as organic as I can afford and is possible here, that is). My friend put me in touch with Elena from Red Gum Organics and now, every Thursday, a boxful of organic fruit and vegetables arrives at my door. Besides the known and obvious benefits of organic produce — no pesticides, no steriods, etc, etc, etc — going organic in this manner essentially forces one to find creative ways to cook whatever's at your door before they expire. Before you know it, you've also reached more than your usual daily quota of fruit and fibre.

Another upside to this arrangement is that Elena imports her produce from Australia, which means very often her list will include fruit and veg uncommon to Singapore, including jerusalem artichoke, passionfruit and rhubarb. These I buy up with glee, mostly because it forces me to rifle through my cookbooks and attempt recipes I normally wouldn't.



When it comes to finding recipes for rhubarb, one name on my bookshelf springs to mind. Nigella Lawson is the queen of bright and splashy produce. Stumped for ideas with clementines, pomegranate, peas or watermelon? The domestic goddess herself has them all in her books—if only, I suspect, so she can wax lyrical about their "gorgeous colours" and refer to them as "jewels" or "gems".



Anyway, with my stash of beautiful organic rhubarb, I made a Rhubarb Meringue Pie from Nigella's How To Eat. If you're going to attempt this in an 8-inch pan as Ms Lawson suggests, then I suggest you halve the quantity of the rhubarb and egg filling mix. The 650g of rhubarb was enough to fill two pies, which actually, was a good thing, because the recipe leaves out cooking temperatures for the filling and the meringue top. The only temperature instruction in that recipe appears when she calls for you to preheat the oven to 200 degrees for the pastry.

Essentially, you bake the pie shell blind and when it is cool, fill it with the rhubarb, egg and sugar mixture and bake till that is set. Then you whisk the egg whites with sugar and cream of tartare to make your meringue and bake that. Now, if you bake everything at a steady 200 degrees Celsius, what you'll get is pastry that is one minute from burnt and a bronze meringue that slices to a runny, watery inside that tastes of uncooked eggwhites. At least that's what I got even though I turned down the heat to 180 degrees when cooking the meringue and filling. Luckily there was still enough rhubard mix to fill another pie, so the next day, I tried again.

The pastry is dead easy to make — in fact, Nigella's recipe for pastry is quite foolproof. Measure out butter and flour in a bowl and freeze it for 20 minutes before blitzing in a food processor and binding with a bit of liquid. I got excellent, easy-to-handle flaky pastry every time. This time I baked the rhubarb mix at 180 degrees and the meringue top at 160 degrees. The results were far better. Even my cat, Flash, agrees.

Summer in the City

I've spent most of this week gorging myself with amazing gelato in Greenport, sangria @ Pipa, fruit tarts @ Bouchon Bakery and yummy spring rolls with a hint of mint at a local Thai place. As I write, I am watching the Iron Chef on a full stomach of pad thai, tom yum soup and spring rolls. The great thing about New York in the summer is all access eating- no waiting for restaurants and less worrying about reservations. I am actually more relaxed about where and when I am going to eat. One less thing to worry about as a a major Type A!

At our wedding, salmon tartare with avocado was served as an appetizer. Anyone who knows me knows that this is right up my alley. One of our cousins from Ottawa asked my mom for the recipe and she got it....

Here is my version with some inspiration from my wedding recipe and Mario Batali's recipe for salmon tartare in his "Simple Italian Food" cookbook.

The result is a very pretty and fresh salmon tartare that looks more like ceviche. Ceviche is near & dear to my heart because my husband, Lee, proposed to me after taking me to a "Ceviche & Mojitos" class at the Institute of Culinary Education in March of 2005. Not only did he involve cooking, but he also made sure that my parents and sister had flewn from Montreal to surprise me! I have taken three classes @ ICE on 23rd street in Manhattan (www.iceculinary.com) and I highly recommend the classes there.

Summer Salmon Tartare (serves 4 as an appetizer)

Ingredients

8 oz salmon filet- skin and bones removed
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp capers
1 lemon (juice and zest)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 avocado (finely diced)
1/2 red onion (finely diced)

Combine olive oil, capers, lemon juice & zest and dijon mustard in a blender.
Cut salmon filet into 1/4 inch pieces and combine with the lemon mixture.
Add in diced red onion and avocado.
Mix and season with S&P.

Make sure that you get the salmon from a great fish store. Enjoy these beautiful tartare martinis !!

Luxe Leftovers

I'm a real pushover at the wet market. In most other aspects of my life, mine is a take-no-prisoners attitude. Yet in the face of the wellington boot-clad fishmonger, I turn into a wuss and take whatever he throws at me (thank goodness it's always fresh). We had two friends over for dinner last week, during which I served an Italian zuppa de mare. All I needed were 10 prawns, two handfuls of mussels, and four crayfish, but because he sells seafood by the kilogram, the fishmonger decided that he would round my stash off to the nearest 500 grams. Moments later, I was walking back to my car with far more seafood than I needed, kicking myself for not being more assertive.

So what to do when faced with extra crayfish, prawns and crabmeat? I fried it up with some leftover mushrooms, a bit of cream, paprika, white wine and saffron and served it on a thick slice of garlic toast. What a wonderfully luxe yet simple dinner it turned out to be. 'Seems being a pushover every now and then has its merits after all!

I can still smell the basil

I want to make a correction about the meat sauce from my last post. It turns out that it's my bubby's recipe and she told me that she heard it's on my blog- how cute is it that my grandmother knows what a blog is ? SO HIP.

Last night, I found beautiful avocados, tomatoes and yummy basil. The result was a rainbow medley of summer tastes ! I made a salad full of fresh produce and basil. I am avocado obsessive, I love it, especially in guacamole and in tuna tartare. If a salad has no avocados, to me, it ain't no salad!

Sherri's Rainbow Medley

2 tomatoes
1 avocado
1/3 red onion
8-10 basil leaves, chiffonade (that's a fancy term for sliced small, but I always wanted to use it)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Kosher Salt
Cracked Fresh Pepper
Juice from 1.5 lemons

My sister, Cara, who you can check out at carabraude.com, made me the most amazing international shower that you can read about it in "bridal shower bliss". As part of the shower, she made me an international cookbook. The recipe that she submitted was very suitable for her, "the only marinade you'll ever need" from Greece. As anyone who has met my sister knows, she is very confident in her abilities, marinades included !! Last night, I made her marinade and grilled chicken paillards. It was, according to Lee, "out of sight" ! GO CARA !

"The Only Marinade You'll Ever Need"- a Cara Braude recipe

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
a few hot pepper flakes-less than an 1/8 tsp
1/2 tsp fresh cracked black pepper
1/2 tsp coarse salt (kosher or sea), I used kosher
4 strips of lemon zest (the microplane comes in handy)
3 cloves garlic (so does a garlic press)
1/4 cup coarsely chopped parsley
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil, cilantro, dill, oregano or a mix of all four (I just used basil)
1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil (I used less)

Combine lemon juice, hot pepper flakes, cracker pepper and salt in a glass or stainless bowl and whisk until salt crystal disappear. Add the lemon zest, garlic, parsley and basil. Whisk in olive oil. The virtue of this marinade is the freshness, use withing 1-2 hours of making. Stir again before using. Makes 1 cup (4 chicken breasts).

Leisa, from Lee's work, made my Asian Grilled Salmon, on Tuesday night, and called in sick to work on Wednesday. Leisa: Did my salmon make you sick ? :) (that is Lee's joke, not mine, and I don't find it FUNNY !!)

I will be on the North Fork of Long Island this weekend indulging in wine, seafood and beach with my parents. Report back on Monday!

Blueberry Cream Cheese Tarts with Graham Cracker Crust

When I first bought the book this was the one recipe that I knew I needed to try. Others had already raved about it and my good friend L even picked it out and said, "This looks damn good. You have to make it for me." It took me longer than I liked to finally get down to it simply because the whole wheat pastry flour that the recipe calls for isn't available in regular supermarkets here. I couldn't even find it in my baking supplies store (which doesn't say very much for it, come to think of it).

I finally found it in a humble little supermarket somewhere in Bangkok where I spent the weekend some time ago visiting a friend who was doing a baking course there. Of course when I came home and did a post about it, several lovely people left messages to tell me where I could find the pastry flour in Singapore (thanks guys!). Apparently I just hadn't looked hard enough.

Anyway, these are the results of my long-awaited tarts. They aren't the prettiest tarts in the world, but they sure were tasty. As the recipe suggested, I tried rolling the pastry to 1/8-inch thick, but it kept falling apart on me and refused to form a neat sheet that could be laid over my tart tin. I ended up pressing the pastry (like you would a biscuit crust on a cheesecake) into the tin and baked them blind. On a larger tart tin (I used 12cm-diameter ones), the pastry turned out thicker than I liked and the tart was a bit of a mess to eat—cream cheese custard oozing all over the plate and blueberries tumbling willy nilly. Indeed, not a disaster, but it could definitely be better. Plus as a dessert portion for one, a 12cm tart was kinda huge.

I then remembered these little boat-shape moulds that were part of a collection of baking tins my recently passed uncle left to me. These are quite wee (10cm long and 5cm at its widest), but they turned out tarts that could downed in just two bites. As you can see from the picture, I still haven't gotten the hang of the pastry, though it was easier to press in a thinner layer. But, as the saying goes, practice makes perfect. And since the tarts were fabulous taste-wise, there certainly is an impetus to try and try again.

Mama's Meat sauce: In Honor of Italia!

Growing up, I looked forward to the nights when my mom make spaghetti and meat sauce for dinner, it was the best! In honor of Italy's World Cup victory this evening, I decided to celebrate by making mama's meat sauce! When Lee took his first bite (with 7 more to follow over the stove in about 10 seconds), he said: "this meatsauce make ah mama proud !!" and that I could "proudly serve this to his friend, Tommy Cosenza"...that is a compliment!

This recipe has no exact measurements. I usually feel glued to my cookbook, following it to the tee! Creativity rewards itself with this dish. I don't even know where the recipe comes from, but it doesn't matter, it's MAMA's ! If you have a dutch oven, this is a perfect recipe to use it for.

Lisa Braude's Meat Sauce

2 lb minced meat
mushrooms, 2 yellow onions, 1 red pepper
1 can crushed tomatoes (14 oz can)
1 can tomato sauce (small tin of Hunt's)
1 small can tomato paste
2 cloves garlic
crushed peppers or cayenne (whatever you prefer, less than an 1/8 tsp)
paprika
s&p

1. Brown vegetables & garlic
2. Break up minced meat and add. Toss around until meat loses pink color.
3. Add paprika, salt and pepper and crushed peppers
4. Add tins of tomatoes, sauce and paste. Stir.
5. Cover pot & let simmer for an hour.

After watching Giada this week, I learned the way to boil noodles properly.
1. Bring water with some salt to a boil
2. Add pasta with a bit of olive oil (so noodles don't clump together)
3. Cook until al dente

*I use whole wheat linguini on a regular night. For entertaining, whip out the white pasta !!

Pics from our indoor 4th BBQ

Our 4th of July BBQ: Espresso rubbed ribeyes with roasted yams with cumin & cilantro & glistening roasted asparagus ! Here is the view from our apartment on 4th of July.

I won't be blogging tonight, I just picked up pizza from La Pizza Fresca !

4th of July BBQ on a cast iron pan in a 750 sq feet apartment

Lee and I enjoy watching Bobby Flays' "Boy Meets Grill" & I had printed a recipe called "Coffee Rubbed Rib-Eye" from one of his episodes back in November. Usually, I flip right over his recipes because they call for ingredients that are not always easy to find. As my mother would say, his recipes are a bit of a "patchke", which is yiddish for "a pain in the ass"! After a full day of doing nothing on 4th of July, I was feeling ambitious (and hungry!) and called Whole Foods Union Square to find out if 1) they were open and 2) they had the rare spices I was looking for....Off to a good start.

Coffee Rubbed Rib-eyes call for ancho chile powder (a staple in Flay's recipes), ground espresso, chili de arbol powder and spanish paprika....they were all at Whole Foods ! The rest of the spices were the common ones: ginger, oregano, coriander, salt, pepper...

Here is the link for the recipe on Food TV: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_32295,00.html
It takes a commitment to find the ingredients (or just Whole Foods on a lucky day).

We only got 1 inch thick ribeyes, the recipe calls for 2 inches, but what are we monsters?
We have physiques to maintain!

We smoked up the 700 sq ft apartment we call home real nice! I don't notice it anymore cause it's the "Beni Hana" effect...you go there, it's amazing and you realize it smells...the longer you stay, you don't notice the smell, then you go meet people who were not at dinner with you and they are like "UCH, you smell like a hibachi grill!".

With the coffee rubbed rib-eyes, I made roasted sweet potatoes with cumin and cilantro.
They were super easy & called for staple ingredients ! YUM....another hit from Williams-Sonoma's "Essentials of Healthful Cooking".

Roasted Sweet Potato Fries with Cumin and Cilantro

2 yams
2 Tbsp fresh minced cilantro
1 tsp cumin
olive oil
s & p

Preheat the oven to 400. Peel and wash the yams. Cut into strips and mix with cumin, olive oil, kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Place potatoes on baking sheet and bake for about 35-40 minutes, flipping them every 10 minutes.

Roasted Asparagus
We also roasted asparagus for 20 minutes at 425 with kosher salt, freshly ground pepper and a minced garlic clove.

You can make all 3 dishes together and keep the oven temperature consistent!

We had our first dinner of the season on the balcony. After dinner, I watched the Macy's fireworks. Lee doesn't do fireworks, he thinks they are just lights, "you see one, you see them all". Leave it to me, the lone Canadian, to watch the fireworks and show patriotism for my American husband! He did wave affectionately through the window from the couch!

Happy 4th! See pics on my next entry!

If you don't know the recipe, ask someone else !

My loyal readers, Willy &Kara Jegher from Montreal, just had a healthy, beautiful baby boy on June 21st at 11:13 pm! The recipe for baby Joshua is a simple one, if you need it, go get "Where do I come from ?". My blog doesn't cover the birds and the bees. How cute is this kid ? He's already a genius, pushing his way out of his mom (for 10 hours !!) right before 2 holiday weekends so he can enjoy his bday over the long weekends !

Simple Shellfish Risotto

C and I love risotto. It's hearty, warm, tasty and an elegant one-dish meal that soaks up all the yummy flavours of the stock used. Shellfish risotto is one of our favourite variations. Cooked in a rich shellfish stock—usually prawn or crab based—it goes with just about any shellfish, though we like the soft white and coral flesh of crayfish best. Alas, that day we decided to cook it last week, there was nary a crayfish to be found. So we settled on scallops, whose texture is equally tender, but with a slightly stronger taste of the sea. That's fine as long as the scallops are fresh and sweet. There are few things worse than less-than-fresh scallops to leave a stale, fishy taste in the mouth.

As a base for this winningly simple dish, I used chopped onions, garlic and bacon in a mix of butter and olive oil. Because I also added morels (C's new favourite mushroom), I added its stock to the shellfish stock to give it an extra, albeit, subtle taste dimension. To serve, a few drops of truffle oil for a touch of luxe.

Lemon Bars on the North Fork

It would appear that I stalk the Barefoot Contessa. Lately, it seems she is really my "go to" chef. When my friend from work, Sam, told me about his wife, Lisa's yummy lemon bars, I was intrigued. I'm not much of a lemon curd kind of girl, but I trust Sam's taste and it was a safe call since Ina has no bad recipes. I was so excited to whip out my new white Artisan KitchenAid mixer that my mom & dad bought me on E-Bay for my shower! I made these lemon bars to take out to Lee's CEO's house in Southold on the Eastern end of Long Island for his annual 4th of July party. We hung out all day on a beautiful patio overlooking the water and ate yummy hot dogs for lunch and 1 lb lobsters for dinner ! When I got to dessert, I found my lemon bars on the buffet, VICTORY ! Amongst all the chaos, my lemon bars found their spot among many berry cheese pies. Thanks to Lisa & Sam for a great recommendation !

Lemon Bars

For the crust
1/2 lb unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1/8 tsp kosher salt

For the filling
6 extra large eggs at room temperature
3 cups granulated sugar
2 tbsp lemon zest (4 to 6 lemons)
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup all purpose flour

For the crust, cream the butter and sugar until light in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (the white flat one). Combine the flour and salt, and, with the mixer on low, add the butter until just mixed. Dump the dough onto a well floured board and roll into a ball.
Flatten the dough with floured hands and press into a 9 x 13 x 2 inch deep baking sheet, building up a 1/2 inch edge on all sides. Chill. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Bake the crust for 15-20 minutes until lightly browned. Leave the oven on.

For the filling, whisk together eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice and flour. Pour over the crust and bake for 30-35 minutes, until the filling is set. Let cool to room temperature.

Cut into triangles (makes 40 triangles or 20 squares) and dust with sifted confectioners' sugar (this is icing sugar if you're Canadian).

My favorite tool for this recipe is the Microplane Zester, a $10 tool that is so easy to use.
It zests limes & lemons, minces ginger and garlic, etc....If you have a juicer, use it...I didn't, but I will use it next time.

The crust is so yummy.