Recipe for Armenian Nutmeg Cake-Daring Bakers

Oh boy.  This is an Armenian version of a coffee cake, but not quite as sweet.  It is however, wonderfully delicious!  The original recipe called for nutmeg, which I used, but I also added some cardamom which just gave it the most amazing flavor.  

The Daring Bakers’ April 2012 challenge, hosted by Jason at Daily Candor, were two Armenian standards: nazook and nutmeg cake. Nazook is a layered yeasted dough pastry with a sweet filling, and nutmeg cake is a fragrant, nutty coffee-style cake.  I chose to make the nutmeg cake for this month's challenge, but have the nazook recipe tucked away for later.

Yield: 16 servings

Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup 2% milk
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 cups cake flour (280 grams)
• 2 tsp single acting baking powder (aluminum free)
• 1 ½ cups light brown sugar (350 grams)
• 1 ¼ sticks unsalted butter(150 grams)
• ½ cup finely chopped walnuts
• 1 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground cardamom
• 1 egg white

 Method:

• Preheat oven to 350. 
• Mix baking soda in to the milk and set aside.
• Put flour, baking powder, brown sugar in food processor and pulse until mixed.
• Add in the butter and pulse until a tan crumb forms.
• Pour half the crumb into a spring form pan (Mine was 10 inches, 9 inches would make a thicker cake but all I have is 10”).  Press to form a crust on the bottom of the pan.
• Add the egg white, milk and baking soda mixture, and spices to food processor, and mix until a thin, slightly lumpy batter is formed.
• Pour batter over crust and gently sprinkle with walnuts.
• Bake for 30-40 minutes.
• Cool in pan, then remove and serve.

Some of my fellow participants reported problems with the batter not firming up or with the nuts migrating down in to the cake.  I made sure to use finely chopped nuts and gently sprinkled them on the top.  Not sure if the fact that I used a larger spring form pan (10 inches versus the 9 inches called for) made a difference, but my cake was cooked in the allotted time.

This was super easy to make and we really enjoyed it both as a breakfast treat and as dessert (Mr. ELEB had it with whipped cream, of course!).

See cakes from other Daring Bakers here.

Printable recipe


Other Daring Baker's Challenges I've participated in:

• Dutch Crunch
• Oatmeal Raisin Whole Wheat Quick Bread
• Simple Biscuits
• Sans Rival Cake

Recipe for Asian Salmon Patties over Sauteed Veggies

One of Mr. ELEB's favorite meals lately is my Sesame Salmon and Spinach which I usually serve over whole wheat pasta.  I wanted to do something similar but wasn't in the mood for pasta.  Hmmm.  I had book marked a recipe for salmon sliders a while back and used that as additional inspiration for this meal.


Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 3 servings


Ingredients:
Veggies

• 1 TBSP vegetable oil
• 1 TBSP Thai seasoning (I use Baron's Savoury Secrets Thai Curry Blend)
• 1/2 cup finely chopped carrot 
• 2 cups shredded cabbage 
• 1 cup finely chopped broccoli  
• 1 cup finely sliced onion  
• 1 cup finely sliced mushrooms
• 3 TBSP light coconut milk 
• 2 tsp toasted black and white sesame seeds, plus more for garnish

Salmon patties

• ¾ lb sockeye (or your favorite wild salmon), poached in water and 1 TBSP Thai curry seasoning, cooled then flaked
• 1 ½ tsp Thai curry seasoning (in addition to above)
• 1/4 cup finely chopped green onions, plus more for garnish
• 1/4 cup finely chopped carrots
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• ½ cup panko (may need slightly more or less depending on how patties are coming together)
• 1 tsp toasted black and white sesame seeds
• up to a ¼ cup egg whites
• 1 TBSP vegetable oil

Optional sauce:

• 1/2 cup non-fat Greek yogurt, plain
• 2-3 TBSP sweet chili sauce

Method:

• Heat vegetable oil over medium heat and add veggies and seasoning.
• Cook, stirring occasionally, until wilted and softened, about 15 minutes.
• Stir in coconut milk and sesame seeds.
• While veggies are cooking, heat frying pan over medium high (I used cast iron) with up to 1 TBSP vegetable oil.
• Combine remaining salmon ingredients and form into 3 patties.
• When oil is hot, cook patties until lightly browned on both sides (about 5 minutes per side); turning gently.
• Combine yogurt and chili sauce if using.
• Serve patties over veggies with a dollop of sauce.

I love having another salmon recipe in the files.  I don't think this will replace Sesame Salmon and Spinach for Mr. ELEB, but he enjoyed these patties a lot too!

Printable recipe

Recipe for Turkey and Veggie Casserole

This turned out to be a nice surprise...one of those things thrown together with not much thought that ended up being tasty and satisfying.  And got the hubby thumbs up, always a bonus!

Time: 40 minutes
Yield: 6 servings


Ingredients:

• 1.25 lb lean ground turkey
• 1 small head savoy cabbage, chopped, about 5 cups
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 cup thinly sliced onions
• 1 can black beans
• ½ cup low fat sour cream
• 1 cup salsa fresco, well drained
• 1 TBSP caraway seeds
• Salt and pepper
• ¾ cup shredded low fat mozzarella cheese
• Cooking spray

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Heat the olive oil over medium high heat.
• When oil is hot, add turkey and cook until no longer pink, about 5 minutes.
• Stir in salsa fresco and heat through, about 1-2 minutes.
• Remove turkey from pan and stir sour cream in with turkey.
• Add onion, cabbage, caraway seeds, and mushrooms to same pan, cover and turn heat to medium.
• Cook veggies, stirring occasionally, until wilted and softened, about 10 minutes (add a splash of water if necessary).
• While veggies are cooking, heat beans in a small pan.
• Combine cabbage mixture and black beans with 1/2 of cheese, salt and pepper.
• Spray small casserole dish with cooking spray and add cabbage/beans/cheese mixture.
• Layer turkey mixture over veggies.
• Top with remaining cheese.
• Bake for 15-20 minutes until well heated and cheese is browned.
• Optional: serve with more sour cream and/or salsa.

Have you thrown something together lately that turned out nicely?

Printable recipe

Recipe for Banana Bread in a Mug

I've seen, and mostly ignored, all the recipes on line for cakes cooked in a mug in the microwave.  We just don't eat dessert much (other than the requisite square of dark chocolate after dinner).  However, when I saw this recipe for banana bread done in a mug on Kita's blog, Pass the Sushi, I book marked it for the inevitable time when I had some sketchy looking (brown spotted) bananas on the counter.  

Well, that time came pretty soon after, so I whipped this up and was pleasantly surprised how good it was.  I changed things up from the original recipe (whole wheat flour, stevia, egg whites, cinnamon, walnuts)  but followed the general premise.  Both taste and texture were about as good as most banana bread I've had cooked conventionally.  Who knew?   


This would be a fun kitchen activity with kids (supervised of course).  The beauty in this is portion control.  This made a generous serving...Mr. ELEB and I ate some one day, both with some whipped cream as you see and also spread with butter (our favorite), and there was still some left for him to have the following day.  But then it was gone...no loaf of banana bread calling out "Susie, come have a bite".  Maybe I need to think of the whole "cake in a mug" idea with more of an open mind! Thanks for the inspiration, Kita.


Yield: about 3 servings
Time: 5 minutes


Ingredients:

• Cooking spray
• 3 TBSP whole wheat pastry flour
• 2 TBSP Stevia in the Raw
• pinch of salt (because of the Stevia use less than 1/8 tsp)
• 1/8 tsp baking powder (because of the Stevia, make it a generous 1/8 tsp)
• 1/8 tsp baking soday (because of the Stevia, make it a generous 1/8 tsp)
• 4 TBSP liquid egg whites
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 TBSP canola oil
• 1 TBSP low fat milk
• 1 (very) ripe banana, mashed
• 1/8 tsp cinnamon
• 1 TBSP finely chopped walnuts
• Optional: whipped cream or butter for serving

Method:

• Spray a microwave safe mug with cooking spray (make sure it is a large mug; double the size of ingredients before cooking).
• Add all ingredients to mug and whisk together.
• Cook on high in microwave for 3 minutes.
• Carefully remove from microwave and let cool for 5 minutes.
• Turn out on to a plate and serve with a sprinkle of cinnamon and nuts, with a dollop of whipped cream or butter as desired.

Have you tried any cake in a mug recipes?  What did you think?

Printable recipe

Recipe for Spiced Coffee Rubbed Pork with Cauliflower and Bean Puree-Daring Cooks

Once a month I join a group of adventurous cooks online in cooking up something new.  It might be preparing an unusual or unfamiliar recipe from around the world or trying out a specific cooking technique.


Our April 2012 Daring Cooks hosts were David & Karen from Twenty-Fingered Cooking. They presented us with a very daring and unique challenge of forming our own recipes by using a set list of ingredients!  The challenge was to cook using 1 ingredient from each list:


List 1: Parsnips, Eggplant (aubergine), Cauliflower
List 2: Balsamic Vinegar, Goat Cheese, Chipotle peppers
List 3: Maple Syrup, Instant Coffee, Bananas


This was a fun little exercise and many very creative meals were developed-check them out at the Daring Cooks website.


This meal is pretty simple.  I like mixing up rubs for pork and we love cauliflower mash, so I really didn't overextend myself here!


Time:  45 minutes
Yield: 4 servings


Ingredients:

• 4 center cut boneless pork chops (bone in would work too)
• 1 1/2 TBSP ground coffee beans, cinnamon flavor
• 1 TBSP ground cardamom
• 1 tsp ground chipotle chile powder
• 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 medium head cauliflower, chopped coarsely
• 1 cup cooked white beans
• 2-3 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed with back of knife
• 2 TBSP light coconut milk
• Salt and pepper

Method:

• Mix coffee, cardamom, chipotle, and kosher salt together.
• Very lightly sprinkle a drop or two of olive oil on both sides of pork chops, then generously rub the spice mixture all over both sides (save a small amount for garnish).  Let meat rest at room temperature.
• Bring water to a boil and add cauliflower and garlic.
• Cook cauliflower until very soft, about 30  minutes; throw beans in last 2 minutes to heat, then drain and add cauliflower, garlic and beans to food processor with coconut milk, salt and pepper.
• Process veggies until very smooth.
• About 15 minutes before veggies are finished cooking, preheat oven to 425 degrees and heat a heavy oven proof pan (I used my cast iron skillet) over medium-high on the stove top.
• When pan is hot, sear pork chops 1 minute each side then place pan carefully in to the oven.
• Cook for 5-8 additional minutes in the oven, depending on thickness of chops.  
• Finish cooking, drain, and prepare cauliflower while pork chops are in oven.
• Slice chops and serve over pureed cauliflower/bean mixture.  Garnish with a few sprinkles of the left over rub.

The hint of coconut in the puree complemented the chipotle and cardamom flavors of the pork.  The coffee was a background nuance.  I might actually add some additional cinnamon next time as that flavor didn't really come through (so if you don't have flavored coffee don't worry!).

Printable recipe

Other Daring Cook's Challenges I've participated in:
Indian flavored squash patties
Beef braised in Rooibos tea
Char sui bao
Braised scallops

Recipe for Scallops with Creamy Pesto Pasta-Secret Recipe Club

The blog I got to snoop around on this month for the Secret Recipe Club was Lisa's Cook Lisa Cook.  Lisa and her family (husband and daughter) live in the Atlanta area, near where I used to live and where I still have family.  She's a transplant from New England, her hubby from across the Atlantic, and their daughter all the way from China.  Lisa also writes another blog about their life as an adoptive family.  But on to this recipe-it comes together pretty quickly so best to be organized.  I used a commercial pesto sauce and it was fine but I do think this would be amazing with the fresh taste of homemade pesto-next time!  Lisa also used lemon pepper pasta which I could not find so I used my favorite multi-grain and added a generous squirt of lemon to the sauce.

Yield: 2 servings

Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

• 8 large scallops. dried very well
• 2 servings of your favorite pasta (I used whole grain linguine)
• Peanut oil
• Salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup minced shallot
• 1/2 cup minced sweet red bell pepper
• 1/2 cup basil pesto
• 1 1/2 cups fat free half and half
• Juice from 1 large lemon

Method:

• Cook pasta according to package directions.
• Generously season the scallops with salt and pepper.
• Heat a cast iron skillet over medium high heat, and add just enough oil to coat the bottom.  Heat until very hot.
• Heat enough oil over medium high heat to coat the bottom of another pan and add the shallots, cooking for a minute or two until softened.  Then add the red pepper and cook an additional 1-2 minutes.
• While the veggies are cooking, sear the scallops 2 minutes per side (don't overcook, they should be slightly translucent in the center).
• Stir the pesto and half and half in to the veggies and cook over medium until warmed through and gently bubbling.  Stir in the lemon juice.
• Combine the sauce and cooked pasta. 
• Serve the pasta topped with the scallops.

I think this would also be good with shrimp.  Thanks to Lisa for a creative recipe idea!


Check out all the recipes from this month's Secret Recipe Club reveal through the links below.

Printable recipe

Original recipe on Lisa's blog

Recipe for Thai Chicken Enchiladas

Like you probably do, I keep a folder of recipes to try.  Sometimes I get to them within the month, sometimes never, and sometimes like this recipe, I make it the next day!


I saw this recipe on one of the blogs I read, How Sweet It Is, which is not a blog full of dessert recipes (the name is in reference to the James Taylor song).  I thought "what a great idea!" and pinned in on Pinterest and added the ingredients to the grocery list for that afternoon.  The pin got repinned alot that day, which just confirmed to me that it was an interesting recipe.  Thanks Jessica!

Yield: 8 enchiladas (4-6 servings depending how hungry you are)
Time: 60 minutes


Ingredients:

• 8 flour tortillas
• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 3 tsp Thai curry seasoning (I used Baron's*)
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 cup sweet onion, chopped
• 1/3 cup finely chopped carrots
• 1/2 cup finely chopped cabbage
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 4 green onions, sliced
• 1/3 cup finely chopped peanuts and more for garnish
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro and more for garnish
• 2 1/2 cups light coconut milk
• 1/2 cup sweet chili sauce, divided (adjust up if you tolerate "heat" and like things more spicy)
• Cooking spray

 *contains sea salt, fenugreek, cardamom, coriander, cloves, cinnamon, mace, nutmeg, red pepper, cumin, turmeric, yeast and onion

Method:

• Poach chicken breasts in water and 2 tsp Thai curry seasoning for 20 minutes.
• When chicken is cooked and cooled, slice finely.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Heat oil over medium heat and add the cabbage, carrots, garlic, remainder of curry seasoning, salt and pepper.  Cook gently until softened, about 8-10 minutes.
• Add green onion, peanuts, chicken, 1/4 cup sweet chili sauce, and 1 cup of coconut milk.  Cook until bubbling, 1-2 minutes.
• Stir in cilantro.
• While mixture is heating, mix together remaining sweet chili sauce and coconut milk.
• Spray casserole dish with cooking spray and spread 1/4 cup of milk/chili sauce mixture over the bottom.
• Using about 3/4 of the chicken mixture, fill each tortilla and roll up.  Place in casserole dish, seam side down.
• Sprinkle remaining chicken mixture over the top of the rolled tortillas and then pour remaining milk/chili sauce mixture over the top.
• Bake for 20 minutes or until bubbling.
• Top with additional chopped peanuts and cilantro.

AMAZING!  Really delicious and different.  Got the hubby thumbs up too.

Are you cooking any dishes with Thai influenced flavors?

Printable recipe

Adapted slightly from How Sweet it Is

More Egg White Ideas or how to use up those left over veggies

Consistently, some of my top read posts are those related to breakfast.  This tells me that like me, many of you are looking for quick, easy, and healthy ways to start your day.  As I've mentioned, I have an egg white breakfast treat 4-5 times a week so I'm always looking for new variations.

In addition, I know many of us are trying to get all those servings of veggies in every day.  When I have left overs, I've taken to adding them in to my egg whites lately.


The top photo is egg whites with left over sauteed spinach (shallots, olive oil, garlic, ginger) mixed in with a tsp or so of low fat feta cheese and the one just above is leftover simply steamed asparagus, chopped and stirred in to the egg whites.  The spinach one took an extra 20 seconds or so in the microwave to fully set. Otherwise, these were made as described in my previous post.


These are really low calorie so I usually have a slice of whole wheat/whole grain toast to go along and a big cup of soy or almond milk.


I hope this will inspire you to get some veggies in at breakfast!