Microwave Mug Cake

This is a quick and easy way to make a single-serving chocolate cake with minimal ingredients. It won't win any awards, but it's tasty and a good way to make a quick dessert when you want cake but it's nearly midnight and you don't want to bake a whole one.

Ingredients

• ¼ C flour
• ¼ C sugar sugar
• 2 tbsp cocoa (or 1 tbsp dutched cocoa)
• 1 large egg
• 3 tbsp milk
• 3 tbsp oil
• a splash of vanilla
• chocolate chips, dried fruit, or other inclusions to taste

Procedure

1. Mix together dry ingredients in a coffee mug.
2. Add the wet ingredients and mix well.
3. Add the inclusions, if any.
4. Microwave on high for three minutes.

Rice with Chinese Sausage and Greens

This dish has been our go to on many nights when we didn't have the energy to cook anything remotely complicated. It's a true one-pot dish, and takes barely more time to make than a pot of plain rice.

It is very easy to experiment with; the "basic" version just uses the rice, sausages, greens, and soy sauce, and you can add different greens or other seasonings or the like as you see fit. The version recorded here is the most recent one we made.

Ingredients

• 350mL long grain white or brown rice
• 1 package chinese sausages
• 1 package bok choi or head of broccolli (or other greens as you see fit; spinach, mustard greens, or black kale would probably work alright too)
• 1 large onion
• dark soy sauce
• roasted garlic paste
• black pepper

Procedure

1. Put the rice and an appropriate amount of water in your rice cooker or pressure cooker.
2. Slice the sausages into rounds and toss those in.
3. Add the greens.
4. Chop the onion and add that, too.
5. Add a generous splash of soy sauce, a tablespoon or so of roasted garlic paste and some black pepper.
6. Cook using the same settings you'd use to cook plain rice.

Nehari (Braised Lamb Shanks in a Fennel-Cumin Broth)

This curry involves a lot of strong flavours. I loved it though! The broth was delicious and rich. The meat was tender. And it went very well over a nice warm bowl of white basmati rice.

Nehari

From 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. plain yogurt
• 2 Tbsp. ginger paste
• 2 Tbsp. garlic paste
• 1 tsp. cayenne
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
• 6 small lamb shanks (~1.4kg)
• 1/4 c. mustard oil
• 1 onion, sliced thin
• 2 tsp. fennel seeds
• 2 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1 tsp. black cumin seeds
• 2 whole star anise
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 2 Tbsp. rice flour
• 2 Tbsp. minced fresh mint
• 2 Tbsp. minced fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Combine yogurt, ginger paste, garlic paste, cayenne, salt, and turmeric to make a marinade.
2. Coat lamb shanks generously with marinade, cover, and chill overnight.
3. Heat oil over medium heat.
4. Add lamb shanks to hot oil along with all of the marinade.
5. Cook, turning occasionally, until the marinade evaporates and the shanks start to brown (~10 minutes).
6. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the oil starts to separate (~15 minutes).
7. Transfer lamb shanks to a plate.
8. Stir the onion into the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until it softens (~10 minutes).
9. Meanwhile, combine fennel seeds, cumin, black cumin, and star anise and grind fine.
10. Stir ginger into ground spices.
11. Once onion has softened, stir in the ground spice blend and let it cook for a minute or two.
12. Add 2 c. water and deglaze the pan.
13. Return the shanks to the broth and heat to a boil.
14. Spoon onion slices over meat and cover the pan.
15. Braise, basting occasionally, until lamb is falling off the bone (2-3 hours).
16. Transfer lamb to serving plate.
17. Sprinkle in the rice flour.1 Tbsp. at a time, whisking vigorously after each addition.
18. Bring sauce to a boil to thicken, then pour over the shanks.
19. Sprinkle with mint and cilantro and serve over rice.

I took inspiration from a couple different sources on this one. I'm satisfied with how it came out. I left out the cayenne and jalapeño because I was trying to make it extra mild since the Kidlet has now randomly decided that she doesn't do spicy (after having no problem with spicy for several years before this). Next time I'd put them in though. Especially since the Kidlet didn't like it anyway.

Guacamole

Adapted from here and here

Ingredients

• 1 avocado, peeled and seeded
• juice of 1 lime
• 1/2 tsp. cumin seeds, ground
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. chili powder (optional)
• 2 tsp. roasted garlic paste
• 1 tomato, chopped
• 1 very small red onion, minced
• 2 Tbsp. fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1 jalapeño, seeded and minced (optional)

Directions

1. Toss avocado with lime juice. Once avocado has been well-coated, you may drain off and reserve the excess lime juice if you wish. Personally, I didn't bother.
2. Add cumin, salt, chili powder (if using), and garlic paste and mash avocado.
3. If you drained off the extra lime juice in the first step, add 1 Tbsp. back into the mixture at this point.
4. Stir in tomato, onion, cilantro, and jalapeño.

I wanted to make some fruity muffins today, but we're all out of blueberries and cranberries which are my go-to berries for muffins. I contemplated flavours like carrot and morning glory, but they all seemed to have a tonne of oil and sugar in them. After raiding the freezer, I found some pineapple chunks that have been languishing in the back for months. I decided to look for a recipe that would let me use them up.

I like pineapple, coconut, and banana together. And, while the recipe still uses a fair amount of oil and sugar, it's definitely scaled back from what I was seeing in a lot of the other recipes. I actually cut the sugar back again and don't feel that the muffins were any the worse for it. Next time I'll try cutting back both the salt and oil a little as well. I also think it'd be nice to experiment with adding a bit of rum and using honey rather than sugar as the sweetener. Although, if I were to do that, I'd probably reduce the sweetener even further since honey is a bit sweeter than sugar (per unit volume). Gotta love supersaturated solutions!

Oh, and I almost forgot the other change I made! I replaced half the flour with whole wheat flour. I'm quite happy with the flavour and texture the muffins gained by having that bit of bran in there. I think the 50:50 mix worked out quite well.

Tropical Muffins

Adapted from Bare Feet in the Kitchen

Ingredients

• 3 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/4 c. coconut oil, melted
• 1/2 Tbsp. vanilla extract
• 1/3 c. honey (or 1/2 c. sugar)
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 Tbsp. rum (optional)
• 1/2 c. crushed pineapple¹
• 3/4 c. unsweetened shredded coconut
• 3/4 c. whole wheat flour
• 3/4 c. all-purpose flour²
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 Tbsp. cinnamon (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C) and line muffin tin with papers.
2. Combine bananas, coconut oil, vanilla, honey, egg, salt, rum (if using), pineapple, and coconut and mix well.
3. Combine flours and sift in baking soda and cinnamon (if using) and mix well.
4. Add dry ingredients to wet and stir until just combined.
5. Spoon batter into lined tin and bake at 350°F (180°C) for 20-30 minutes.

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Variations

Vegan

Ingredients

• 3 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/4 c. coconut oil, melted
• 1/2 Tbsp. vanilla extract
• 1/3 c. agave syrup
• 1 flax egg
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 Tbsp. rum (optional)
• 1/2 c. crushed pineapple¹
• 3/4 c. unsweetened shredded coconut
• 3/4 c. whole wheat flour
• 3/4 c. all-purpose flour²
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 Tbsp. cinnamon (optional)

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¹ I turned my frozen pineapple chunks into crushed pineapple by chopping it in the blender. ^Back
2 If all-purpose flour isn't available, feel free to substitute pastry/plain/soft/standard flour here. Muffins and quick breads don't need the extra gluten anyway. ^Back

Sugo di Cipolle (Onion Sauce)

I was planning on doing a broccoli and carrot curry for dinner last night. The Kidlet was feeling a little under the weather yesterday though, so we decided to go with pasta instead. This onion sauce is simple, with very few ingredients and pretty quick and easy to throw together. It's also delicious!

Penne al Sugo di Cipolle

Slightly adapted from the Classic Pasta Cookbook by Giuillano Hazan

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. olive oil
• 8 anchovy fillets
• 4 onions, chopped
• pepper, to taste
• 1/4 c. dry white wine
• 3 Tbsp. capers
• 2 Tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped
• Parmesan, to serve

Directions

1. Combine oil and anchovies over medium-low heat and break up as much as possible.
2. Add onions and season with pepper. Cook for 20-30 minutes.
3. Increase heat to medium-high and cook until onions darken.
4. Add wine and cook until liquid has mostly evaporated.
5. Add capers and parsley and cook for 2 more minutes.
6. Toss with cooked pasta of choice and top with Parmesan to serve.

I made up a rye sour a little while back for tasty sourdough goodness. I haven't been making much use of it lately though. I like a good sourdough bread, but it's nice to mix it up sometimes too. I've had enough other bread recipes to try that the sour has kind of gone begging.

I'm gonna be taking another crack at the whole wheat sourdough tomorrow. But, in the meantime, I decided to try out some sourdough crêpes. They worked out very well! They're really quick and easy to throw together and all they really need is starter and eggs. There are, of course, lots of other things you can do to use starter/sours but, for sheer simplicity, I think this may become my go-to.

Delicious served warm and filled with Cheddar!

Sourdough Crêpes

Slightly adapted from Cultures for Health

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 c. sourdough starter OR rye sour
• 1/4 c. whole wheat bread (hard/strong/high grade) flour (optional)

Directions

1. Beat eggs with salt.
2. Whisk in starter and whole wheat flour (if using).
3. Preheat over medium-high heat. If the pan isn't well-seasoned, oil it lightly before you begin cooking.
4. Pour ~1/4 c. of batter into the pan and spread it very thin (either by using the back of a spoon or tilting the pan).
5. Flip when top looks mostly dry and full of bubbles.
6. Cook for another minute or so before removing from heat.
7. Serve with Cheddar or whatever toppings you prefer. (Spinach goes nicely.)