Pumpkin Quick Bread

I struggled a bit to get back into the swing of things after getting home from New Zealand. Getting on top of the meal planning and cooking was especially hard. And figuring out what to make for breakfast, doubly so.

This pumpkin bread was something of a desperation option. But it did at least give us something tasty to eat for a few days. Not exactly the most substantial option. But a nice treat and something to tide us over while I worked out what the heck I was doing!

Pumpkin Bread

Slightly adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 390g all-purpose flour
• 1/2 Tbsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ground cloves
• 1 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 430g pumpkin purée
• 200g sugar
• 200g brown sugar¹
• 1/2 c. canola oil²
• 1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 c. pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease and flour two 20x10cm (8x4") loaf tins.
2. Sift the baking soda and baking powder into the flour.
3. Mix in the salt, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the pumpkin, sugars, oil, applesauce, eggs, and vanilla and mix well.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until just combined.
6. Divide the batter between the two prepared pans and top with pepitas.
7. Bake at 180°C (350°F) until done (50-60 minutes).
8. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pans for 10 minutes, then turn out into wire racks to finish cooling.

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¹ I reduced the overall sugar from 600g to 400g and replaced half of it with brown sugar. ^Back
2 I halved the amount of oil called for and replaced it with an equivalent amount of unsweetened applesauce. This gives it a nice bit of moisture, some extra fruit and fibre, and drastically reduces the amount of fat in each loaf. And they still tasted great! Absolutely no complaints. They definitely didn't need the extra oil (or sugar). ^Back

This is an unusual flavour pairing that I probably wouldn't have thought of on my own, but it did make for some tasty muffins. That said, I do feel like the flavours could use some re-balancing. The cheese in them was delicious, but I don't feel like the feijoa came through quite as strongly as I would have liked. And, since I was working with dried thyme rather than fresh, I cut it back to only half a teaspoon, but I think it could have done with a bit more in the end.

The original recipe called for a 3:1 ratio of plain flour to whole wheat. I decided to skew it more toward the whole wheat and do a 1:1 mix. But, having tasted the muffins, I think 100% whole wheat would have been even better!

If I were willing to take even more liberties with the recipe, I might try adding a bit of lemon zest to the batter along with the thyme. I think that would provide a nice complement to the other flavours and give a little sharpness to round everything out.

Feijoa Muffins with Blue Cheese and Thyme

Slightly adapted from NZ Woman's Weekly

Ingredients

• 100g butter, softened
• 100g brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 c. milk
• zest of 1/2 a lemon
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 250g whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. thyme (fresh or dried)
• 5-10 grinds each of salt and black pepper
• 300g feijoa pulp, mashed
• 6 small feijoas, halved and scooped
• 75-100g blue cheese, crumbled

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease a muffin tin.
2. Cream the butter with the sugar.
3. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
4. Stir the lemon zest and baking soda into the milk and add the milk mixture to the butter mixture. Mix well.
5. Sift the baking powder into the flour and add the thyme, salt, and pepper.
6. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir to combine.
7. Stir in the feijoa pulp.
8. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin(s).
9. Press a feijoa half into the top of each muffin and top with a sprinkle of blue cheese and a bit of extra pepper.
10. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 18-20 minutes.

Not the most appealing name, I know, but this fruit paste was amazing! It looks cool. It was very satisfying to make. It was time-consuming, but not particularly difficult. And it tastes delicious!

I love that it uses the feijoa peels as well as the flesh. I mean, you strain them out after boiling, so they don't get left in the final product. But at least you get to make use of them for their pectin content before you toss them. Very cool.

I also found that I was able to make this with significantly less sugar than the recipe called for. Now, of course, this means that it won't keep nearly as well. But, that's okay! I suspect we'll end up eating it pretty quickly anyway.

Feijoa Paste

Slightly adapted from Twisted Citrus

Ingredients

• 2-3 apples¹
• 500g feijoa pulp + skins
• 400g sugar

Directions

1. Chop the apples. No need to peel or core!
2. Trim the blossom ends off of the feijoas, then halve and scoop them. Measure out 500g of pulp and set it aside. Discard the trimmed ends, but reserve all of the peels.
3. Add the feijoa skins and chopped apples to a pot with just enough water to cover them.
4. Bring to a boil and cook until mushy.
5. Strain and reserve the liquid, pressing down on the solids to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard the solids.
6. Return the liquid to the pot and add the feijoa pulp.
7. Bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until tender.
8. Mash, stir in sugar, and reduce heat to low.
9. Cook, stirring every few minutes, until mixture thickens and darkens significantly (~2 hours).
10. Line a 20x20cm (8x8") square pan with baking paper and pour the paste into the prepared pan.
11. Set aside to cool and set.
12. Once set, cut the paste into squares and serve with cheese.

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¹ The original recipe calls for 3 apples. My apples were quite large, however, so I only ended up using two. ^Back

I forgot to take photos of these! They were so cute. And now they are all gone. Whoops!

Oh well... They just looked like a pretty standard, plain, flaky biscuit. I just wish I'd remembered to photograph them. They were nice. Fairly plain, but soft, buttery, and not too sweet, with just a hint of citrus from the lemon zest in them. Really lovely.

Lemon-Scented Biscuits

Slightly adapted from The Big Book of Breakfast by Maryana Vollstedt

Ingredients

• 250g soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt¹, ground (optional)
• 1/2 Tbsp. lemon zest²
• 70g butter
• 3/4 c. half-and-half (10% MF)³

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 230°C (450°F).
2. Sift the baking powder in to the flour.
3. Add the sugar, salt (if using), and lemon zest and mix well.
4. Cut butter into dry ingredients until blended.
5. Add half-and-half and stir until just mixed.
6. Turn out onto a well-floured surface and press into a round 2-3cm thick.
7. Fold in quarters and press flat again. Repeat 2-3 more times.
8. Use a biscuit cutter or drinking glass to cut into 5-6cm circles. (You should get about a dozen.)
9. Place on an ungreased baking sheet.
10. If desired, brush with a little milk and sprinkle with sugar.³
11. Bake until just starting to colour on top (~12 minutes).

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¹ If using salted butter, omit the salt here. If using unsalted butter, you may wish to add a small amount of salt. They don't need much, but a little pinch can be nice. ^Back
2 The original recipe only calls for 1 tsp. of lemon zest and that's what I used this time, but I think it would've been nice with a bit more, so I've upped it slightly here. ^Back
3 I usually mix my own half-and-half by combining whipping (35%) cream and milk. For this one, I decided to go a little light on the cream and heavy on the milk: more of a 1/3-to-2/3 than 1/2-and-1/2. ^Back
4 The original recipe didn't call for this step and I didn't do it this time around. But, having tasted them, I think they'd be quite nice with a little sprinkle of sugar on top. ^Back

I wanted to make some smoothie bowls for breakfast, but the recipe called for granola. I considered buying some ready-made granola, but home-made granola is always so tasty and it's not that hard to make, so I opted to go that route instead. There were even a bunch of granola recipes in the same book as I was using for the smoothie bowl recipe. Convenient!

Since the smoothie bowls called for both (chia) granola and toasted almonds, I opted to make this almond granola and just use a bit more of it rather than preparing toasted almonds separately. The recipe also calls for flax seeds (which is what I used this time around), but those could easily be swapped out for chia seeds if you wanted "chia granola" as the smoothie bowl recipe calls for. That said, I think I'd be inclinde to swap out the flax for sesame seeds next time. Sesame and apricots make a great combo!

Almond Granola with Apricots

Slightly adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 2 c. old-fashioned rolled oats
• 3/4 c. slivered almonds
• 2 Tbsp. flax or sesame seeds
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1/3 c. honey
• 1/4 c. coconut oil
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3/4 c. dried apricots, chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 150°C (300°F) and very lightly grease a rimmed baking sheet.
2. Combine the oats, almonds, flax/sesame seeds, cinnamon, and salt and mix well.
3. In a small pot, warm the brown sugar, honey, coconut oil, and vanilla and heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth (3-4 minutes).
4. Pour the sugar mixture over the oats and stir to combine.
5. Dump the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet and spread into an even layer.
6. Bake at 150°C (300°F) for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
8. Break granola into small pieces and mix in apricots.

This is the last of the Wholefully pumpkin seed recipes! Tasty, but I think it needed more dill.

Dill Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Wholefully

Ingredients

• ½ C pumpkin seeds, cleaned
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• 1 tsp dry dill, or 1 tsp dill seeds, ground
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp salt
• ⅛ tsp black pepper

Directions

1. Toss all ingredients together.
2. Bake at 300°F for 30 minutes or until golden brown and crispy, stirring every 10.

I've been continuing to work my way through various pumpkin recipes while they're in season here. So far I've made pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin muffins, a pumpkin-apple brown betty (which I haven't had a chance to do a write-up for yet), and two different kinds of pumpkin bread. I've also got a beef and pumpkin stew queued up. But for today, I decided to give this pumpkin granola recipe a try.

Now, first thing's first: I like this granola a lot. Especially the walnuts; they go very well with the spices and toast up really nicely as the granola cooks and come out with a beautiful warm, deep flavour. And, while the nut/seed butter in the wet ingredient mixture isn't front-and-centre in this recipe, it adds a lovely richness to the whole thing. So yes, I really enjoyed this granola.

That said... I probably would try changing a few things next time.

I only had peanut butter and tahini to choose from nut/seed butter-wise, so I went with tahini for this iteration. And it was great! But I'd love to try tripling down on the pumpkin next time and try using pumpkin seed butter instead.

And, while I'm at it, I'd also be inlined to up the pumpkin purée slightly. It was fine as is, but it seemed like it would probably take extra pumpkin well too. And, while the final granola was very tasty, it did not actually taste very pumpkin-y too me, so I'd like to try cramming even more pumpkin into it next time if possible.

Pumpkin Granola

Slightly adapted from Jessica in the Kitchen

Ingredients

• 3 c. old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 c. chopped walnuts
• 1/4 c. pumpkin seeds
• 2 tsp. mixed spice or pumpkin pie spice
• 1/4 c. pumpkin seed butter (or tahini or almond butter)
• 1/2 c. maple syrup
• 1/2 c. pumpkin purée
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 c. dried cranberries (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
2. Combine the oats, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, and spice blend and mix well.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the seed (or nut) butter, maple syrup, pumpkin, and sea salt and mix well.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix very thoroughly.
5. Spread the granola out on the prepared baking sheet and bake at 180°C (350°F) for 30-40 minutes, flipping halfway through.
6. Mix in the dried cranberries (if using).

You can get ready-made tostadas, but they're normally deep fried and have salt added. They are quite tasty. But if you're trying to be health-conscious, sometimes it's preferable to make your own.

Baked Tostadas

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country December/January 2018

Ingredients

• 6 corn tortillas (15cm size works well for this)
• olive oil spray

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 230°C (450°F).¹
2. Spritz each tortilla lightly with oil on both sides and brush to spread it over the whole surface.
3. Place the tortillas on a baking sheet in a single layer and place an inverted baking/cooling rack on top of them to help keep them flat and stop them from puffing up too much in the oven.
4. Bake at 230°C (450°F) for 8-10 minutes.
5. Remove from oven and top as desired.

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¹ I actually absent-mindedly used the convection setting on my oven, so I baked mine at 220°C (425°F) fan/convection instead. It seems to have worked out fine. It's basically equivalent to air-frying them. ^Back

I was super hungry this evening, so I made myself a quick salmon salad to top me up so I wouldn't go to bed hungry. I used frozen "spaghetti mix" as a shortcut to avoid needing to chop any veggies. It's a mixture of chopped onion, carrot, celery, and red and green bell pepper.

Quick Salmon Salad

Ingredients

• 200g canned salmon, drained
• 1/3-1/2 c. frozen "spaghetti mix"
• 2 dill pickles, chopped
• 2 Tbsp. 1/2-fat mayo
• 2 Tbsp. fat-free Greek yogurt
• 1/4 tsp. sweet or smoked paprika
• 1/8 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/8 tsp. grated lemon zest
• 1 tsp. chopped fresh dill, optional

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients and mix well.
2. Serve on cucumber slices or over chopped salad. For a slightly less healthy take, serve on bread or crackers.

I have a lot of soft cheeses right now. More, probably, than it's reasonable for any one household to have, but... so it goes.

I used up a bit of the giant pile of cream cheese that we had making bread and tasty spreads, but that still left me with a bunch of cream cheese and mascarpone that needed to be used up. And, in addition to that, I needed goat cheese for a recent salad. And, of course, the good goat cheese only came in a 600g package. So then I had a big pile of that to use up as well!

Fortuitously, I actually found an interesting cheesecake recipe that calls for all three of those cheeses! It even included a cranberry topping. Which allowed me to finally use up the bag of cranberries that I got by accident back in the fall. (It's been patiently waiting at the bottom of the freezer since October.) I don't think I could've found a recipe more tailor-made to the ingredients I had on hand. Very convenient!

Now, the cheesecake recipe came with its own instructions for making candied pistachios in the oven. And that seemed fine. But I knew that the last Cook's Country that we got contained a recipe for doing it on the stovetop. And that worked out better for me today, so I used that one. Same idea, slightly different process.

Skillet Candied Nuts

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country February/March 2021

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. raw nuts (chopped if large)
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. water
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground (optional)

Directions

1. Toast nuts over medium-low heat until fragrant (2-3 minutes).
2. Add sugar, water, and salt (if using) and stir to coat the nuts.
3. Cook, stirring frequently, until sugar caramelizes and nuts begin to clump (~3 minutes).
4. Transfer to plate and cool for at least 10 minutes.
6. Break into small clumps and serve or use as garnish.

Another one of the Wholefully pumpkin seed recipes, this is the simplest; just a bit of salt and pepper. Tasty, though, and very simple.

Salt & Pepper Pumpkin Seeds

Wholefully

Ingredients

• ½ C pumpkin seeds, cleaned
• 1 tsp olive oil
• ½ tsp salt, ground
• ½ tsp black pepper, ground

Directions

1. Toss pumpkin seeds with oil, salt, and pepper.
2. Bake at 300°F for 30 minutes, stirring every 10.

葱油饼 (Scallion Pancakes)

I really want to try making more Chinese baked goods. That said, I did just make a batch of milk bread, so I don't want to go too crazy with the baked goods until we've finished off the bread. I couldn't resist giving these scallion pancakes a try in the meantime though.

I found the dough for these pancakes to be quite stiff and dry. And I couldn't get the sesame seeds to adhere no matter how much I pressed or rolled them on. I'd be tempted to try adding a bit more water next time.

These pancakes are fairly plain on their own. The scallions are nice, but there's not much to them beyond that. Which, I guess, is why the recipe author recommends serving them with sauce. I had some leftover hotpot dipping sauce in the fridge, so I just used that. I think my sauce was pretty similar to the recommended soy-vinegar concoction though.

The sauce adds a nice bit of salt and umami to the pancakes, but I think what I relly wanted today was one of the flaky, high-fat pancakes. (I had been hoping to make one of those recipes today, but I was low on both scallions and energy.) If you want a nice, relatively lean, simple pancake though, this one fits the bill. And they freeze well too. So you can always roll them out and then freeze them to be cooked up later.

Hanzi/汉字: 葱油饼
Pinyin/拼音: cōngyóubǐng
English/英文: scallion pancakes

葱油饼

Slightly adapted from Woks of Life

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 c. (+1-2 Tbsp.?) very hot water
• 2 scallions, sliced
• salt, to taste
• canola (or other neutral) oil, for brushing
• sesame seeds

Directions

1. Mix the hot water into the flour to form a dough.
2. Turn out and knead for 5 minutes.
3. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.
4. Divide into three equal portions.
5. Working with one portion at a time, roll out into an 18-20cm (7-8") circle. Keep rotating the dough as you roll to keep it even and prevent it from sticking.
6. Brush the dough with a little bit of oil.
7. Sprinkle with salt and scallions.
8. Roll up the dough jelly-roll style.
9. Now curl the jelly roll/tube around into a spiral and tuck the end underneath.
10. Press the spiral flat and then roll it out into a 15cm (6") circle.
11. Sprinkle sesame seeds on the pancake and press firmly to adhere.
12. If not eating immediately, pancakes can be wrapped in waxed paper and frozen at this point. Frozen pancakes may be cooked direclty from frozen, but may need a little longer to brown and cook through.
13. Heat a cast iron (or similar) pan over medium-low heat and add a little oil to the pan.
14. Cook the pancakes ~3 minutes per side.
15. Serve with your favourite dipping sauce.

Mandu Gangjeong (Dumplings in Sweet Sauce)

Fried dumplings coating in a sweet and mildly spicy sauce. It's extra-good if you deep fry the dumplings, but pan-frying works well too. Aaron calls for 12 dumplings for this amount of sauce, but I felt like that was too much sauce for the amount of dumplings. (Maybe my dumplings are smaller.) I think this amount of sauce would probably be about right for 24 dumplings, but adjust according to your own tastes and the size of your dumplings.

Mandu Gangjeong

Slightly adapted from Aaron & Claire

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. oil
• 24 frozen dumplings
• 1 Tbsp. gochujang
• 1 Tbsp. gochugaru
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. oyster sauce
• 6 Tbsp. corn syrup
• 1 Tbsp. light (regular) soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. garlic paste (or minced fresh garlic)
• 5 Tbsp. ketchup
• 1 green onion, chopped
• 1 tsp. sesame seeds

Directions

1. Heat oil over medium-low heat.
2. Add dumplings in a single layer and cook (slowly) until browned and crispy on the bottom. As each side becomes crispy, turn them to cook another side until as much of the surface as possible has been crisped.
3. Meanwhile, combine gochujang, gochugaru, sugar, oyster sauce, corn syrup, soy sauce, garlic, and ketchup and mix well.
4. Once dumplings are crisped all over, pour in the sauce and stir to coat the dumplings all over.
5. Cook until sauce thickens and clings to the dumplings.
6. Sprinkle with green onions and sesame seeds and serve.

Korean-Style Beef Rice Balls (Jumeok-Bap)

I decided to try making these rice balls with short-grain brown rice rather than white. I've successfully made sushi with brown rice before, so I figured I might as well give rice balls a shot. It worked okay, but there were some issues with structural integrity. I found that it was easier to make larger balls than the smaller bite-sized ones. The rice also seemed to stick better once it had cooled down a bit. It still wasn't great though. Possibly having the beef mixed into the rice rather than as a filling interfered with cohesion. Or maybe I just didn't get the rice quite right. If you have concerns about getting everything to hold together, you can always just swap out the brown rice for white. As long as it's a sort- or medium-grain variety with a relatively high starch content it should work well.

Korean-Style Beef Rice Balls

Slightly adapted from the Aaron & Claire YouTube channel

Ingredients

Beef

• 300g-350g ground beef
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. sugar
• 3 Tbsp. light soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp. minced garlic
• 3 green onions, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1 carrot, minced
• 1 zucchini, minced
• 1 onion, minced

Rice

• 1 1/2 c. short-grain brown rice
• 1 1/2 c. water
• 2 tsp. seasoned rice vinegar
• 1/2 tsp. sesame oil
• 1 sheet nori, crumbled/shredded
• 1 tsp. sesame seeds (optional)

Directions

Beef

1. Season beef with sugar, soy sauce, garlic, and green onions.
2. Heat sesame oil over medium heat and add beef mixture.
3. Cook for a few minutes until the beef is almost cooked.
4. Add the pepper, carrot, zucchini, and onion and cook for another few minutes until veggies have softened.
5. Remove from heat and set aside.

Rice

1. Add rice and water to InstantPot, seal, and cook on high pressure for 20 minutes. Allow a 10-minute natural release. (Or cook rice by your own preferred method, using an amount of water appropriate to the method.)
2. Fluff rice and mix in rice vinegar, sesame oil, nori, and sesame seeds.
3. Stir in 1/2-2/3 of the beef mixture.
4. With wet hands, form rice mixture into balls.
5. Serve as-is or with your favourite sauce. Enjoy the extra beef on the side if you wish.

Korean-Style Tuna-Mayo Rice Balls (Jumeok-Bap)

I made beef rice balls for dinner last night (write-up coming soon). We still had a few left over for dinner tonight, but not enough for a meal. I decided, now that we actually have mayo again, I'd try my hand at these tuna-mayo rice balls. They were delicious!

You can't really get much filling in each one, but I solved that by serving some extra tuna salad on the side. And they weren't as difficult to make as I'd feared. I mean, to be sure, mine weren't perfectly shaped and a few of them did fall apart. But overall, I feel it went pretty well! Especially as a first attempt at it. And the oyster sauce "glaze" really added a nice extra touch. I would definitely make these again.

Korean-Style Tuna-Mayo Rice Balls

From the Aaron & Claire YouTube channel

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 c. short- or medium-grain white rice (like Calrose or anything labelled "sushi" rice)
• 1 1/2 c. water
• 1 1/2 tsp. seasoned rice vinegar
• 1/2 tsp. sesame oil
• 1 (170g) tin tuna, drained
• 1 tsp. dehydrated minced onion
• 15-20 grinds black pepper
• 1/4 c. mayo
• 1/2 tsp. prepared wasabi
• 1 tsp. light soy sauce¹
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. corn syrup
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. oyster sauce
• a bit (~1 Tbsp.) extra sesame oil (for frying)

Directions

1. Add rice and water to InstantPot, seal, and cook on high pressure for 4-5 minutes (depending on rice variety).
2. Allow a 10-minute natural release, then open the valve and release the remaining pressure.
3. Meanwhile, prepare the tuna: Combine tuna, onion, pepper, mayo, wasabi, and soy sauce and mix well. Set aside until rice is done.
4. Fluff rice and stir in seasoned rice vinegar and sesame oil.
5. Combine corn syrup and oyster sauce and mix well. Set aside.
6. Pour 1-2 tsp. of sesame oil into a pan and heat it over low heat.
7. With wet hands, grab a good-sized handfull of rice (~1/4 c.) and squeeze into a ball.
8. Press your thumb into the centre of the ball to make a large divot and create more of a bowl shape.
9. Place a small amount of tuna (no more than 1-1 1/2 tsp.) into the divot/bowl.
10. Gently work the sides of the bowl up and over the tuna to completely cover it and seal it in.
11. Squeeze the ball again to get everything sealed.
12. Carefully compress it vertically and, using your fingers and thunb as guides form it into a slightly flattened triangle.
13. Brush the top (flat triangular face) with the oyster sauce mixture.
14. Place sauced side down into the preheated pan. Brush the other side (which is now facing up) with more of the oyster sauce mixture. Let it cook while you form the next rice ball.
15. By the time the next rice ball is ready to go in the pan, the first one should be ready to flip. Flip it, add the other rice ball to the pan (make sure both top and bottom get brushed with sauce as before), and let them both cook while you make the next rice ball.
16. By the time the third rice ball is ready to go in the pan, the first one should be ready to come out and the second one should be ready to flip. Remove the first rice ball, flip the second one, and add the third one to the pan, brushing it with sauce on both sides as with the other two.
17. Repeat this procedure until all the rice has been used up. (You will have some tuna left over.)
18. Finish cooking the last couple of rice balls.
19. Serve as is or with condiments of your choosing.

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¹ We were all out of light soy sauce, so I used a 1:1 mix of dark soy sauce and fish sauce instead. This seemed to work reasonably well as a light soy substitute. ^Back

This is going to be a very brief post because I am very, very tired today. I just want to get this written up because it's been staring at me for days and I keep not quite getting to it.

These crackers were quick and easy to make. I think I would've preferred a thicker cracker with a hint of sweetness to it though. Still savoury, just a pinch of sugar to complement the wheat.

Sourdough Crackers

From Bon Appetit

Ingredients

• 150g hard (strong/bread/high grade) whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt + extra for sprinkling
• 1 tsp. sugar (optional)
• 250g (100% hydration) sourdough starter
• 1/4 c. olive oil + extra for brushing

Directions

1. Combine the flour, salt, and sugar (if using).
2. Add the starter and oil and mix well.
3. Knead for ~5 minutes.
4. Cover and allow to rest for 10 minutes¹.
5. Divide dough into two or three equal portions. Two portions for thicker crackers, three portions for thinner.
6. Working with one portion at a time, knead it for a few strokes. (Leave any remaining dough in a covered bowl until ready to use.)
7. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured piece of parchment paper or cut to fit your baking sheet. Try to get it to fill the sheet.
8. Score dough based on the size and shape you'd like your crackers to be.
9. Brush lightly with olive oil.
10. Sprinkle with salt.
11. Transfer parchment paper and dough to baking sheet.
12. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 15-20 minutes. (15 minutes for thinner crackers, closer to 20 for thicker.)
13. Repeat with remaining dough portions.

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Variations

Any number of variations are possible. Here are two that I've tried so far. Feel free to add whatever seasonings you want either to the dough or on top. Seasonings that include larger seeds or pieces benefit from either being worked into the dough or held on with an egg wash.

Za'atar Sourdough Crackers

Ingredients

• 150g hard (strong/bread/high grade) whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt + extra for sprinkling
• 1 tsp. sugar (optional)
• 250g (100% hydration) sourdough starter
• 1/4 c. olive oil
• 1 egg white
• 1 Tbsp. water
• 1-2 tsp. za'atar

Directions

1. Prepare crackers as above up to scoring.
2. Instead of brushing with olive oil, beat the egg white with the water and brush with egg mixture.
3. Sprinkle with salt and za'atar.
4. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 15-20 minute as directed above.

Garlic-Poppy Seed Sourdough Crackers

Ingredients

• 150g hard (strong/bread/high grade) whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp. zesty garlic seasoning blend² + extra for sprinkling
• 1 tsp. sugar (optional)
• 2 Tbsp. poppy seeds
• 250g (100% hydration) sourdough starter
• 1/4 c. olive oil + extra for brushing

Directions

1. Combine flour, garlic seasoning, sugar (if using), and poppy seeds.
2. Proceed with mixing and rolling as above.
3. Brush scored dough with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic seasoning.
4. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 15-20 minutes as above.

Ideas for Next Time

• Cinnamon and sugar
• Chili and garlic
• Fennel, garlic, and Italian seasoning
• Balti masala - replace some of the wheat flour with chickpea flour, replace oil with ghee?
• Cheddar and onion - reduce oil

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¹ The original recipe didn't include a resting step, but I found the dough much easier to work with after resting for a few minutes. ^Back
2 I have a "zesty garlic" blend that I picked up at the grocery store a few weeks ago. It includes garlic, onion, salt, bell pepper, and a few other odds and ends. Feel free to roll your own or pick up a similar commercial blend. ^Back

There was a recipe for Pumpkin Snack Cake in the most recent issue of Cook's Country. I wanted to try it out using a fresh pie pumpkin rather than canned purée. This, of course, meant pumpkin seeds. The Kidlet voted for pizza flavour this time, so we gave that one a try. I think it would've been nice with a bit of tomato powder as the author suggested, but they still came out nice even without it. The Parmesan did have a tendency to clump together though. I think maybe the recipe was written for what TF and I call "Parmesan sand" and not fresh grated Parmesan. It still came out tasty despite the clumping issue though, so I don't think it was a problem in the end.

Pizza Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Slightly adapted from Wholefully

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. pumpkin seeds
• 1 tsp. olive oil
• 1 (generous) Tbsp. grated Parmesan
• 1/2 tsp. lightly dried basil¹
• 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. tomato powder (optional)
• 1/8 tsp. garlic powder

Directions

1. Toss pumpkin seeds with olive oil.
2. Add remaining ingredients and mix to coat.
3. Spread coated seeds in a single layer on a baking sheet. (Line the baking sheet with parchment paper for easier clean-up.)
4. Bake at 150°C (300°F) for 30 minutes, checking seeds about halfway through baking to see if they need to be flipped or turned.

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Variations

Vegan

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. pumpkin seeds
• 1 tsp. olive oil
• 1 Tbsp. nutritional yeast
• 1/2 tsp. lightly dried basil¹
• 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. tomato powder (optional)
• 1/8 tsp. garlic powder

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¹ I don't generally recommend or keep fully dried basil on hand as it loses most of its flavour and pretty rapidly approaches the taste of hay instead. Dried would probably be fine here (as long as it hasn't been sitting around for too long), but I didn't want to go out and buy dried basil just for this. I had some "lightly dried" basil in the fridge, which tends to retain a lot more of the fresh basil flavour than its fully dried counterpart, and opted to use that instead. ^Back

This recipe cake out of Cook's Country. It's very easy to throw together and makes an amazingly tender, wonderfully moist cake. I made it more-or-less recipe as written this time around¹. And I'm definitely very happy with it. That said, I'm still gonna tweak it next time around!

The original recipe calls for white flour and granulated sugar. It also uses quite a bit of oil. My test with whole wheat flour today showed me that I can swap that in with no problems. I think next time I might try reducing the oil and adding a bit of applesauce. I'll also definitely be swapping the granulated sugar out for brown sugar and omitting the salt. And I think it might be worth attempting to scale back the sugar slightly too. Not too much -- the cake is quite tasty as it is -- just a little bit, to make it a little more snack-y and less dessert-y.

So, with all that in mind, here's what I'd do next time:

Pumpkin Snack Cake

Adapted from Cook's Country October/November 2019

Ingredients

• 1 pie pumpkin (or 1 c. canned pumpkin purée)
• 1 tsp. olive oil
• 1 c. whole wheat flour
• 1/2 Tbsp. mixed spice
• 1/2 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 3/4 c. brown sugar
• 1/4 c. unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 c. coconut oil, melted
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/3 c. mini semisweet chocolate chips (optional)

Directions

1. Cut the pumpkin in half and scoop out all the seeds. (Save the seeds for roasting if you wish.)
2. Brush the insides of the pumpkin with olive oil and place cut side down on a baking sheet.
3. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 45-60 minutes.
4. Remove from oven and set aside.
5. Combine flour, mixed spice, and cinnamon in a large bowl.
6. Sift in baking powder and baking soda and mix well.
7. Peel the pumpkin and place it in a separate bowl. Mash with a fork or a potato masher.
8. Add sugar, applesauce, coconut oil, eggs, and vanilla to pumpkin and whisk until well-mixed and homogeneous.
9. Pour pumpkin mixture into flour mixture and stir until just combined.
10. Stir in chocolate chips (if using).
11. Pour batter into a greased and floured 20cm (8") square pan.
12. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 30-35 minutes.
13. Let cool in pan for 20 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack.

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¹ I swapped out the white flour for whole wheat, omitted the chocolate chips, and used mixed spice in place of pumpkin pie spice. I also used a fresh, roasted pie pumpkin rather than tinned pumpkin purée. ^Back

Last year we made some sweet cinnamon roasted pumpkin seeds after turning the rest of the pumpkin into delicious pie. This year we hit up the same set of recipes and tried out the ranch recipe for a savoury twist. And, once again, I was very pleased with the results. Although I think I'd cut back on the salt a little next time. Other than that, they were great though.

Ranch Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Slightly adapted from Wholefully

Ingredients

• 1 c. raw pumpkin seeds
• 2 tsp. olive oil
• 1 tsp. fresh parsley, minced
• 1/2-1 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground (depending on how salty you like things)
• 1/2 tsp. onion powder
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. dill¹
• 1/4 tsp. mustard powder
• 1/4 tsp. celery seed, ground
• 1/4 tsp. paprika
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground

Directions

1. Rinse and dry your pumpkin seeds.
2. Add olive oil and toss to coat.
3. Combine remaining ingredients and mix well.
4. Sprinkle ranch mixture over oiled pumpkin seeds and toss to coat.
5. Spread seeds onto baking sheet and bake at 300°F (150°C) for 30 minutes, turning every 10 minutes.

I think it might be interesting to try adding just a touch of buttermilk powder to the mix as well. I'd probably start with 1/4 tsp. or so just to see how it goes.

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¹ I was all out of dill, so I ended up grinding up 1/2 tsp. of dill seeds and using that instead. The flavour isn't quite the same, but it was close enough for this application. ^Back

On the rare occasions when I actually make banana bread, I've always used my mom's recipe. It is an excellent and very flexible recipe that can accommodate anywhere from two to twelve bananas! (Although I think somewhere between four and ten generally works best.) I would still like to do a write-up for my mom's banana bread recipe at some point because I have many fond memories of both making and eating that bread. This time, though, I was feeling a bit lazy and couldn't remember quite where I'd written my mom's recipe down, so I decided to hit up Smitten Kitchen and see if Deb had a favourite banana bread recipe to share. And, sure enough, she did!

Her recipe is based on another that she tweaked and adapted to her own tastes. Similarly, I applied a few (very slight) tweaks of my own. It is still, essentially, the same recipe though. And a very good one too!

Banana Bread

Slightly adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients

• 4 or 5 over-ripe bananas
• 1/3 c. butter¹, melted
• 3/4 c. dark brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 Tbsp. rum or Frangelico
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp. ground cloves
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/2 c. flour²
• 1/2 c. chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

1. Peel and mash the bananas.
2. Stir in the melted butter, then add the brown sugar and mix.
3. Add the egg and mix well.
4. Stir in the vanilla and rum, then add the cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
5. Sprinkle the salt and baking soda over the mix and stir it in.
6. Add the flour and then toss in the nuts on top. Stir both in together.
7. Pour the batter into a greased and floured loaf pan.
8. Bake at 350F for 1 hour.

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Alternate Versions

Vegan Version

• 4 or 5 over-ripe bananas
• 1/3 c. margerine or vegan butter
• 3/4 c. raw sugar
• 1 flax egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 Tbsp. rum
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp. ground cloves
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/2 c. flour
• 1/2 c. chopped walnuts (optional)

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¹ I used unsalted butter because, as a general rule, I don't keep salted butter on hand. I didn't find I missed the extra salt, but I'm sure it would be fine with salted butter (as Deb uses) if that's what you have easily to hand.<sup>Back

2</sup> I used all-purpose flour, but I think that pastry/plain/soft flour would work just fine for this recipe.^Back