Baked Goods – Page 2 – Goboroot.com

Rhubarb Cream Cheese Cornmeal Muffins

It’s getting a bit difficult for me to create yet another rhubarb recipe after having already included several in my blog. Nonetheless, I came up with this cornmeal muffin idea in a delightfully whimsical manner.

I knew I wanted to cook some rhubarb from the garden so I started daydreaming and burrowing my face into the fur of one of my Labradors. If you are a dog owner, you know what I’m talking about! “Oh, you smell like cornmeal behind your ear…” Yes, the light bulb went off! Another strange coincidence was when I opened my food recipe journal and the first thing I saw was this old wrinkled handwritten recipe that read “Blueberry cornbread muffins.” I’m not kidding you here. It must be a 12 year-old-recipe because I used to hand copy recipes from food magazines just after I came to Canada for the sake of improving my English! I don’t remember ever having baked it though. Haha, it’s really funny… it appeared at just the right time to give me a clue as to what recipe I should share next.

mint_tea

Rhubarb Cream Cheese Cornmeal Muffins

Makes 12 small muffins

2 cups rhubarb, cut into ½ inch pieces

6 tablespoons cane sugar

½ package (250g) cream cheese, room temperature and cut into cubes

¼ cup sugar

1¾ cups cake flour (I used this instead of all-purpose because it ran out)

¾ cup cornmeal (fine textured)

2/3 cup cane sugar

½ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/3 cups 2% milk

1 large whole egg plus 2 egg whites

2 tablespoons canola oil

Place rhubarb and the sugar in a small saucepan over medium high heat, cook to dissolve sugar and continue until just before the rhubarb loses its shape. Strain the excess juice for another use (see below). Let cool.

In a bowl, beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth.

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda well in a bowl. In a separate mixing bowl, combine all remaining ingredients except cream cheese and whisk until smooth. Then, pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture. Mix just until all the ingredients are moist. Add the rhubarb and lightly mix with a spatula.

Pour the batter into a muffin cup-lined tin and spoon a big dollop of the cream cheese into each muffin cup. Bake until golden brown, for about 20 minutes. A cake tester inserted into the centre should come out clean. Let cool.

Serve warm or at room temperature. Store any leftovers in an airtight container and refrigerate.

Mint Tea

A bunch of mint leaves

Hot water

Wash the mint and cut into 1 inch pieces. Place the mint in a teapot (a jar in my case), pour hot water over top and steep for a few minutes. Strain into individual cups.

Rhubarb Refresher

Ice cubes

Extracted rhubarb juice (from above recipe)

Dash of lemon juice

Carbonated water or club soda and/or rum!

A sprig of mint leaves

Freestyle to accommodate whatever one’s heart desires.

Carrot 3 Ways

If you are like me you may tend to fall into a routine and continue for a long time without a clear purpose: in this case, I’m talking about the drinking coffee routine. When mindlessly following a routine, you may lose sight of the fact that what you’re doing isn’t at all healthy. Examples of this phenomena are shown in the movie “Food Matters,” which sends a strong message that what you eat is what you are. In the last few years since I started my garden, my partner and I have totally changed the way we live and eat, mostly for the better. However, if we are not paying attention, our best efforts to live more healthfully and consciously could be subverted.

For the longest time, I’ve woken up in the mornings and immediately begun looking forward to a cup of coffee. That is, until my friend suggested that I cut back on my morning intake to improve my health. For sure, I love coffee’s aroma and richly sweet taste, but mostly I love the idea of enjoying a cozy morning routine, which for so long has featured a cup of coffee.

After discussing “Food Matters” with yet another friend, we both decided to majorly cut back on coffee. We still haven’t finished watching the whole movie yet, but definitely got the message in the first 20 minutes. My routine shifted from a cup of coffee to a cup of matcha latte and then to freshly made raw juice, thanks to our friends’ influences. However, I still allow myself a cup of coffee now and then when I have the chance to visit BEAUCOUP BAKERY & CAFÉ, Le Marché St. George, or a few other neat places in Vancouver whose artistry and cozy atmospheres are just too hard to resist! So try this juice, slaw and if you need the coziness, I also baked for you a decadent cake made with another harvest from the spring cleanup.

carrot_cake

Carrot Juice

Serves 2

1cup carrot, washed, peeled and roughly chopped

1 small apple, peeled and cored

2 large oranges, peeled

¼ of whole pineapple, rind removed, cored and roughly chopped

2 ice cubes

Place all the ingredients in a blender (we adore our Vitamix for this), and blend until smooth. Add water to achieve your preferred consistency and serve.

Carrot Slaw

Serves 4

4 large carrots, peeled and julienned

2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

1 small knob ginger, chopped

A handful of chives, roughly chopped

¼ cup rice vinegar

½ teaspoon cane sugar

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

2 tablespoons white sesame seeds, roasted in a skillet

2 tablespoons tahini

Combine garlic, ginger, chives, vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil and tahini in the bowl of a food processor and proceed to blend well. If you don’t have a food processor, don’t worry, but just chop everything fine, place in a jar and shake well to blend.

In a large bowl, mix the carrots and the dressing well and chill. You can serve in a couple of hours. If you have leftovers, the dish is indeed very tasty the next day. I would sneak this slaw into a sandwich made with leftover cold pork tenderloin sliced along with lots of cilantro leaves or whatever is on hand (or in the fridge) the next day.

Carrot Lemon Cake

Makes 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan

1 cup butter plus extra for greasing, room temperature

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

3 large eggs, room temperature, beaten

1 cup grated carrot

2 tablespoons sour cream

Lemon zest from 1 lemon

1 tablespoon fresh orange juice

1 ½ cups cake flour plus extra for dusting

2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

Icing

2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice

¾ cup icing sugar

Combine the flour, baking powder and salt, mix well and set aside. Grease the pan with extra butter, dust flour removing the excess and keep refrigerated until the batter is ready. Preheat the oven to 350F.

Cream the butter with an electric beater in a large bowl until fluffy. While continuously beating, add the sugar in a few installments and beat until well combined. Add eggs gradually and beat to blend. Switch to a whisk, add the carrot, sour cream, ½ lemon zest and orange juice, and stir to combine. Proceed rhythmically by beating the batter each time you add an ingredient.

Add 1/3 of the flour mixture into the batter and incorporate. Switch to a spatula, add the rest of the flour mixture and gently combine until no flour is visible.

Bake until tested skewer comes out clean, for about 50 minutes. In the meantime, make icing. Place the sugar in a small bowl and add the lemon juice and the rest of the lemon zest a small amount at a time. Stir well, making a smooth consistency.

Let the cake stand for 10 minutes, and then remove from the pan to cool. Drizzle the icing over top. Slice and serve at room temperature.

Leek Barley Soup & Blueberry Cobbler

I enjoy the time when I lift remnants of the last year from the garden, in order to prepare the beds for a new cycle to come. Every year, I am reminded of some of the amazing and sometimes mysterious works of Mother Nature. Lots of hopes, failures, disappointments, frustrations, patience, joy, appreciation, peacefulness and simple happiness–I get these feelings through gardening. Yet all sensory experience really physically kicks chemicals in my brain when working with living plants. They are something so basic and organic yet fundamental in humans’ life in this ever changing world. It is indeed as if I am learning about life itself. This experience has become so much more than just gardening to me. And at the end of the day, I know that there is always a good meal to follow using what’s in season. In fact, it is most exciting to transform these bits and pieces into something hearty and tasty. I begin to feel a sense of triumphant satisfaction regardless of the type or amount of produce on hand, be it a huge bunch of leeks or a handful of cilantro leaves.

In this post, I’m excited to share this soup made with the leeks that just came from a few feet away as a result of my spring cleanup. It was such a reward to turn the last bits of the “onion family bed” into something easy, delicious and soothing. Plus, indoor cleanup created this cobbler dessert thanks to some of last year’s precious blueberries.

Leek Barley Soup

Serves 4

2 cups leek, sliced into ½ inch rounds

½ teaspoon ginger, finely minced

1 heaped tablespoon butter

4 cups chicken or vegetable stock

4 cups water

½ cup pot barley, washed and drained

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Chopped scallions for garnishing

Melt the butter in a large pot and sauté the leek and ginger until softened.

Add the chicken stock, water and barley and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium low and simmer until the barley is soft, for about 40 minutes. Skim as necessary.

Adjust with salt and pepper and serve hot with scallions.

Blueberry Cobbler

Serves 6 to 8

Filling

1 ½ lbs frozen blueberries, thawed

Lemon juice from ½ lemon

1 teaspoon lemon zest

3 tablespoons cane sugar

1 tablespoon flour

Crust

1 cup all purpose flour plus extra for dusting

½ cup rolled oats

¼ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

4 tablespoons cane sugar

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1/3 cup cold butter, chopped into pea sized cubes plus more for greasing

1/3 cup 10% fat plain yogurt

1 tablespoon milk for brushing

Sour cream (optional)

Mix the blueberries, lemon juice, zest, sugar and flour in a large bowl. Transfer the blueberry mixture to a greased 9 inch round baking dish or shallow dish similar in size.

Preheat the oven to 375F with a rack in the centre.

Thoroughly combine the flour, salt, baking powder, and 3 tablespoons cane sugar in a bowl. Combine the remaining 1 tablespoon cane sugar and lemon zest in a small bowl and set aside.

In a food processor, pulse the rolled oats until coarsely ground. Add the flour mixture and pulse a few times to blend. Add the butter and pulse until the dough becomes flaky. Then, add the yogurt and pulse until the dough comes off from the side of the bowl of the food processor and becomes a mass.

Dust the work surface with flour and knead the dough a few times, forming into a ball. Flatten the dough with a rolling pin into a 2/3 inch thick disk. Cut the dough into squares.

Place the squares on top of the blueberries. Brush the squares with milk and sprinkle with the lemon zest sugar mixture. Bake until cobbles become golden and juice becomes bubbly, for about 40 minutes.

Serve warm with a dollop of sour cream.