Savory Broccoli and Cheese Muffins

Confession: I actually made these muffins on Sunday, but... I've been too lazy to write up an accompanying blog post.

I have been finding it difficult to muster up any ounce of motivation at the moment. (I did finally sign up for my road test but uh yeah... I've been putting that off for three years.) What can I say. I am a master procrastinator.

In any case, Sunday night was the Confederations Cup final, and I really did stay at home, instead of going out with my parents to my favorite Chinese restaurant (well, the only good one in Ithaca), in order to watch Brazil beat Spain. I probably wouldn't have been too upset if Spain had won, since they're my second favourite national team, but the Green and Yellow are my number one.

I promise it was a coincidence that these muffins are also green and yellow, but we'll roll with it. (Accidentally on purpose!)

I heavily adapted this broccoli and cheddar muffins recipe, using larger florets to make a little broccoli tree in the center! I didn't trim my florets enough so some of them peeked out over the top of the muffins, but I mean, it's the taste that's the most important, and these are definitely some tasty muffins.

Anyway, since it's still very hot and humid right now, I think I'll just let the recipe and photos take it from here. (And let me tell you: I loved photographing these muffins. So photogenic!)

INGREDIENTS
- ½ cup broccoli florets, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 6 small broccoli florets
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup water
- 1 cup AP flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ or 1 tsp paprika
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
- ⅓ cup shredded cheese

NOTES: 
• This recipe yields 6 muffins.
• I used a ½ cup of bite-sized broccoli, but I think that if you wanted more, ¾ cup would still work.
• You could use buttermilk or milk instead of water, but I didn't have any on hand.
• Original recipe would call for ½ tsp mustard powder instead of paprika, but again, I didn't have any of that in the kitchen, and I think I would prefer paprika anyways.
• I used ½ tsp cayenne pepper because I wanted my muffins to be extra-spicy, but they're still spicy even with ¼ tsp.
• I used a mixture of Colby Jack cheese (I only had a little left in the bag, so might as well use it up!) and a Four Cheese blend.
• This recipe can easily be doubled if you're looking to serve more people and/or have more leftovers for breakfast, brunch, etc.
• I promise this recipe is not as difficult or lengthy as these notes and ingredient list are! :D

Preheat your oven to 350°F and either line a 6-cup muffin tin with paper liners sprayed with cooking spray OR simply spray each cup of the muffin tin, sans liners. (I tried both ways, and they work equally well.) Set aside.

Cut a handful of broccoli florets into bite-sized pieces, but leave 6 florets whole. (I ended up using just over half of a head of broccoli.) Then trim the 6 remaining florets down to size. (Mine were a little too large, so the batter didn't completely cover them in the muffin tin, but I'm okay with that.)

In a large bowl, mix together the oil, egg, and water.

In a large measuring cup or medium bowl, add together the flour, baking powder, salt, paprika, and ground cayenne pepper.

Add the dry ingredients into the wet, and mix until just combined.

Gently fold in the shredded cheese and bite-sized broccoli.

Pour out some the batter into the muffin cups until they are 3/4 full. Then place one of the broccoli florets in the center of each muffin cup. Top with remaining batter, filling the muffin cups. Try to spread the batter to cover the broccoli florets. Alternately, you could place the florets into the cups first, before pouring the batter around them. This way might make it easier to cover up the florets entirely. OPTIONAL: You could top with more shredded cheese.

Bake for approximately 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Voila! Tasty cheesy broccoli muffins.

These look so cute when cut in half, revealing the tiny broccoli tree!

I think these tasted best when still nice and toasty, about 30 minutes after coming out of the oven. However, they still taste good the next day. (and probably after that too, but they didn't last that long with me in the house!) You could even stick them briefly into the microwave or toaster oven to reheat them.

Yum. The broccoli is nice and soft, just like it would be in a cheddar broccoli soup, and the cayenne gives a nice kick to the tastebuds. (Ooh yes, I do love spicy food.)

(I immediately ate three. And I'm not remotely remorseful about that.)

Enjoy!

Cai Fan - 菜饭 (Bok Choy Rice with Chinese Sausage)

This, to me, is comfort food.

Cai Fan (Cài fàn: 菜饭, sometimes also transliterated as chai fan, literally meaning "vegetable rice") reminds me of home, because I asked my mom to make it so often when I was younger. Even though it's not her favorite thing to eat, she has always obliged. (She's always said that when it comes to food, and basically everything else besides gender and height, I'm most like my dad, who also loves this dish. It's true: we're both Red Sox fans, both tend to procrastinate, and are both socially awkward penguins. Me more than him.)

Although I call it comfort food, it's not comfort food in a Paula "more butter!" Deen kind of way. In fact, this dish is healthy while still being hearty, at least in my opinion. Of course, how healthy it is tends to depend on how much you eat... and I tend to err on the side of eating my entire body's weight worth if I can get away with it.

In addition, it's gluten free! (Be sure to check that all the ingredients are actually gluten free if you're very allergic though. I didn't use any soy sauce, so that shouldn't be a problem, but also check the sesame oil if you're using that for an extra drizzle of flavor.) [EDIT] A commenter has informed me that Chinese sausage often actually has gluten/wheat products in it, so you'll have to substitute some other kind of meat (like salt-cured pork, which is actually a very tasty alternative) for the dish to be gluten free.

We tend to make this in a big batch, because it tastes just as good (if not better) the next day for lunch, and can be stored in the fridge for about a week. I say "if not better," because when heated in the microwave, the greens get mushier and gain an almost creamy consistency, blending well with the rice.

(By the way: did you know that "bok choy" is the English transliteration of the Cantonese pronunciation of "白菜," since the first British and American encounters of Chinese-speaking people were in typically in Hong Kong? In most of mainland China, in which Mandarin Chinese now predominates, "白菜," is pronounced "bái cài." Bai cai means "white vegetable." The bok choy I used is baby bok choy aka Shanghai bok choy, which is also referred to in Chinese as "青菜" which means "green vegetable." I believe that what "白菜" is called in America is Napa cabbage. Yeah. I'm confused too. Let's just stick to using "bok choy.")

This is a stovetop method of making cai fan, which is my favorite way because it's slightly faster and it yields guo ba (锅巴: Guō bā) the bits of browned rice that has stuck to the bottom of the pot and gained a deliciously charred flavor.

You can also make this cai fan all in a rice-cooker, but it won't have the guo ba. (Add the rice and water, then the Chinese sausage after you cook it in oil until the fat has rendered out, and then the bok choy on top. Turn on the rice cooker, and tada! A simpler way to cook cai fan! Still, the guo ba is worth the extra effort, and the stovetop version works for people who don't have rice-cookers.)

INGREDIENTS
- bok choy (青菜: aka baby bok choy, pak choi, qīng cài)
- uncooked white rice
- Chinese sausage (also called 香肠, lap cheong) and/or salted meat
- vegetable oil
- salt and pepper
- (optional) sesame oil
- (optional) olive oil

NOTE: I haven't included any specific amounts, because it's really up to you how much and what ratio of ingredients you want. For me, it was approx. 1:2:2 with 3 rice-cups of rice, 5 Chinese sausages, & 6 bok choy bundles. But this is comfort food, not particle physics. Who am I to stop you if you want more sausage, or none at all?

Soak the rice in a rice-cooker bowl, or any large bowl if you don't have a rice-cooker, with water. Medium-grain rice works best. I used 3 rice-cups full (a rice-cup, which usually comes with a rice cooker, is approximately equal to 3/4 standard U.S. cup or 180 mL) of medium-grain rice and filled a rice-cooker bowl up to the 3-cup line with water, making it a 1:1 ratio. Let it sit while you're preparing the rest of the ingredients.

First, you need to wash the bok choy well. Break the bundles into individual leaves, although you can leave some of them on the stems. Cut off the tough ends of the stems. With the water running, place the bok choy leaves in a large bowl in the sink as you work to break down all the bunches into separate leaves, and let them soak in the water. A lot of sand and/or dirt will probably wash out, sinking to the bottom of the bowl.

Then, take each leaf out of the big bowl and wash them separately, to ensure that there is no grittiness left. I transferred the leaves to a large sieve. I then washed the big bowl that I used earlier, making sure to rinse out all the dirt collected at the bottom, and transferred the bok choy leaves back into the bowl, letting them wash and soak in some more water. This is probably the most time-consuming part of the whole process, but trust me, you don't want to ruin the vegetables with any dirt that might remain, because in my opinion, the veggies are the best part.

Then cut up the bok choy into smaller pieces. Line up similarly sized leaves for easier cutting. The leafy parts will shrink when cooked, so you don't have to cut them up very small, but the stem-pieces will stay pretty much the same size, so you can use your judgement for that (mine ended up being a couple of centimeters long, give or take - I didn't really measure them). Bite size pieces sounds equally inexact, but we'll go with that. As you cut them, move the bok choy pieces into a clean bowl (I just used the sieve from before) to set aside.

Now cut up the Chinese sausages. (Thanks to Dad for helping me with these shots, by the way!) Cut them on the diagonal, using one hand to make sure the sausages don't go rolling around the cutting board. Each pieces should be about a centimeter thick, I would say, but again, use your judgement. Whatever size you cut them will be whatever size they will be. Chinese sausages tend to be tougher than normal sausages (i.e. Italian or Polish sausages, hot dogs, etc.), so keep that in mind. I would compare Chinese sausages to something more like salami. You could also choose to use salted cured meat, something sort of like pancetta, I would suppose. My mom has made this before with both Chinese sausage and a salt-cured pork, and it's always delicious either way.

Throw the sausage pieces into a pot, with the stove on high heat. I used a cast-iron pot, but I'm sure any other sort of large pot would also work. (I should mention at this point that my mom took over the cooking so that I could watch and take photographs. But the steps that follow are simple enough that I'm pretty sure I can make this by myself next time!)

Anyways. Add some vegetable oil - maybe somewhere near a 1/2 Tbsp? Not really sure - again, use your judgement! It doesn't need to be too much. (Olive oil also works, but is more expensive and doesn't really affect the taste.)

Let the sausages simmer until the white (fatty) parts disappear. (Rendering the fat- see, I can be all fancy with culinary terms!)

Then add in your bok choy.

Add salt and pepper to taste. (These guidelines recommend 1/4 tsp of salt for every cup of rice, which sounds about right, but it is better to add less salt if you're not sure. You can always add more salt at the end if you need to do so, but there's no easy way to compensate for too much salt.) Let the leaves wilt, and stir it to let all the leaves get equally cooked.

Then you can add the rice, and the water in which it has been soaking, into the pot.

Stir it in with the bok choy and sausage, and allow to cook on high heat. Cover the pot with the lid and allow the dish to boil. When it starts to boil, turn the heat down to medium.

Stir once again. Taste the water to test the saltiness. Cover with lid, and cook for five minutes.

Turn the heat down to low, and let it cook for 10 to 15 more minutes, or until the rice is soft and the water has been completely absorbed. The bok choy will have become more yellow in color, and soft as well.

Add a drizzle of olive oil or spicy sesame oil for some more flavor, if you'd like!

Serve it up, and tuck in!

Mmm. Can't wait until I have the leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

Popovers for One (in a muffin tin!)

Sometimes it's easy to feel sorry for myself when all my friends are off travelling and hanging out together. But you know what? I'm going to take the positive side of things for once.

Alone time means baking time.

It's so much more enjoyable to throw something into the oven rather than throw a pity party. I suppose you could do both, but I find that carbs don't weigh on my conscience so much when I'm smiling.

I was perusing through food blogs yesterday when I stumbled across popovers, and thought, wow- those look amazing!

I read somewhere that the popover is the show-off cousin to the Yorkshire pudding, and found the epithet quite pleasingly accurate. On one side, the British one being self-deprecatory and typically a side note to a meaty Sunday roast, while the American popover steals the show. Both have their merits.

(But secretly I admire the chutzpah of the popover.)

So many of the recipes that I subsequently googled were meant to yield a dozen or even two dozen popovers, or required a popover pan. I suppose this is a good thing if you're preparing for a large picnic or dinner party, but I ain't got time fo' that! I wanted popovers just for myself.

But even I have my limits. I don't think I can eat 12 popovers without feeling like a lump of dough myself.

So here is my version of this popovers recipe, adapted to serve one person! This means: 3 popovers in regular-sized muffin tins. Plus, the recipe requires pretty basic ingredients, and you don't need any yeast for these fun bread roll-like popovers! It's like magic!

INGREDIENTS
- ⅓ cup milk
- ⅓ cup AP flour
- pinch of salt
- 1 large egg
- just under ½ Tbsp vegetable oil *
- ½ Tbsp butter, melted (or cooking spray) **
- (optional) shredded cheddar or Colby Jack cheese

*You can substitute ½ Tbsp melted butter, but I used up the butter for greasing the muffin tins and was so repulsed by the smell (my mom too-successfully weaned me off of butters and fats) that I decided to go with oil instead.
** Optional: see comments below.

Preheat your oven to 450°F. It will take awhile for it to heat up, so do this before anything else. When you've done this, generously grease 3 muffin tin cups with melted butter or cooking spray. You can even forgo this step if you want, but the popovers will stick to the tins - I tried one without buttering the tin, and it actually didn't stick too badly; it only needed a little coaxing with a knife, but if you're going for perfection, better to oil up!) Note: it only took 30 seconds for my ½ Tbsp butter to melt in the microwave, so start out with a small increment of time.

In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the milk, flour, and salt. Don't worry if it's a bit lumpy! Batters come in all shapes and sizes, and still taste good :D

Add the egg, and stir well to make sure the egg is incorporated well into the rest of the mixture. (Alternately, you could beat the egg before adding it in, but I was too lazy.) I cracked the egg into the bowl with which I had melted the butter, so as to pick up any remaining butter.

Then add the oil, and mix. The mixture will be quite runny.

If you'd like to add some shredded or grated cheese, please do! I only added a little bit because I was wary of altering the recipe too much, but I'd say that a good handful of cheese would work. You could also try some ground black pepper, or chopped chives, or whatever else happens to inspire you at the moment!

Hopefully your oven will be preheated to 450°F by now, but if it isn't, it should soon be ready. (Meanwhile, I watched one of my favorite movies...)

The Breakfast Club

When your oven is ready, heat the prepared muffin pan in the hot oven for 1 to 1½ minutes. This is what allows you to use a muffin tin instead of popover tins, which capture heat more readily than the standard muffin pan. If you're too impatient to wait for the oven to heat up completely or if it's taking an extraordinarily long time and you don't want the butter/oil to evaporate, slide the tin in but keep a close eye (and nose) on it.

(The butter is apparently supposed to sizzle, but I think a little bit of egg mixture got into the tins and instead it was starting to burn, setting off the smoke detector. Oops! I quickly removed the tin from the oven and fished out the offending piece of blackened egg.  Crisis averted! This should not cause any problems for you if you don't spill egg into the butter/cooking spray.)

Take out your muffin pan carefully from the oven, and spoon your batter into the three muffin wells/cups. They should each be about ¾ full. (You may want to put a paper towel under the tin while you're transferring the mixture, because it can get kinda messy if you get distracted like I did.)

Bake the popovers at 450°F for 15 minutes without opening the oven. (Resist the temptation! If you open the oven door, the popovers will deflate, and will no longer be 'popovers.' If you must take a peek, turn on the oven light if you have one.)

Then lower the temperature to 350°F and bake for 15 minutes more. If you're making larger-sized popovers, you may need to let them cook for 5 minutes more.

Turn the oven off, and take your muffin tin out using oven mitts. Carefully remove the popovers from the tins, and check that the bottoms have browned. The ones that I buttered already popped out on their own, while I needed to apply a butterknife to the sides of the unbuttered popover.

Use a toothpick or thin chopstick to poke a hole in the top of each popover. This will let out a little bit of the steam that worked so well to puff up the popovers. (You can see a little bit of steam from the rightmost popover in the photo!)

There may be some gooey spots left, so let them dry out in the oven for up to 10 minutes. You can either keep them in the muffin tin for this or transfer them to a baking sheet.

Eat these while they're still warm!

These go great with jam and also all kinds of leftovers. I had them with a bit of shredded chicken and enoki mushrooms with peanut sauce that my mom made last night. The little air pockets in the popovers are good for loading the chicken into! (Ooh, these would probably be amazing with chicken salad or sauteed mushrooms.) They're also tasty enough on their own! Oh- and they are perfect for breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, or even a snack!

Popovers are definitely something that I want to try again. I'm even smiling just looking at these photos. :) Hope you like them too!