Spinach corn muffins

When I tasted cornbread for the first time (I made it myself) I have to say that I was not particularly impressed – it was so bland! Now, I know that at that point, I considered all foods bland that were not chilli-hot. That’s an attitude endemic to (most of) us Indians because so much of our food contains chillies and/or strong spices and flavourings. If you’re used to loading vegetables with lots of masala, for instance, plain boiled green beans with just salt and pepper would definitely be termed as “bland”. It’s not just vegetarians, either – even non-veg Indians find it difficult to face plain roasted chicken (or other meat)… they usually like their meat cooked in a spicy sauce or maybe coated in a fiery masala.

I remember going with my friend Lakshmi (or KiwiGee fame, such as it is) to a restaurant in Mount Road that specialised in “western” food (I cant remember the restaurant name now, it was many years ago while I was working in the Indian Express). We had been there before and enjoyed the vegetable au gratin – or maybe it was the sheer novelty of it, vegetables in a cheesy white sauce - and decided it was time we educated another colleague and friend in the ways of international cuisine.

Poor chap, he had the most awful struggle to get it down. He was through-and-through a traditional South Indian - he wasn't even really into North Indian cuisine, and he had probably never wanted to try anything European at all. But he was a sweet uncomplaining pal, and he let himself be forced by us into having a go.


Two forkfuls into the gratin, and he turned green and said he couldn’t finish it. We, being cruel to be kind, perhaps – or maybe just determined to introduce him to “sophisticated” food - sat there, one on either side of him, insisting that he shouldn’t give up so easily. He sprinkled crushed red chillies, stirred in industrial quantities of chilli sauce, and in general did all he could to mask the blandness of the white sauce and the grilled cheese topping… but in the end, he just balked at eating any more of it. For quite a while after that I think he avoided any mention of “treats” from us…

What I didn’t realize then, I do now – that it takes a conscious effort to let your taste buds slow down and adjust to fewer spices, and enjoy the real flavour of whatever vegetable you’re eating... or even get used to the lack of chillies and the presence of unfamiliar spices and seasonings. Of course, in this I speak mostly for myself and my taste buds, which sadly did not grow up amidst authentic international cuisine and therefore were ignorant and inexperienced in many ways for the longest time.

So anyway, long story short, I did eventually learn to like vegetables that weren’t cooked to mush, steamed veg that had the most basic of seasonings - I may have mentioned this before, but fresh green beans cooked just so, eaten immediately with just a sprinkling of salt is probably one of my greatest pleasures now! - pasta that did not have crushed red chillies (at the very least) sprinkled all over it, cheese-on-toast without sliced green chillies on it… and so on. I tried to keep my mind and tastebuds open to new flavours and give new foods at least one good try before condemning them.

But this cornbread – plain cornbread without cheese or onions or anything else savoury... it literally WAS too bland and boring. It was just blah - and blah it remained despite my sternest lectures to myself to be open-minded. I didn’t bother with making cornbread again for ages, until I came across other recipes for it on the Net (this after I had started this food blog) and decided to give the whole thing another go.

Now of course I adore cornbread – as long as there’s no sweetness involved. I don’t understand or like the addition of honey or sugar. I do add onions, scallions, quick-cook vegetables like spinach, cheese (although not excessively) but, most important of all, green chillies. Yes, I'm aware that I lectured about chillies or the lack thereof, thanks - but there are SOME things which totally require heat. Cornbread, as far as I’m concerned, is one of those things. That’s how it has to be. It’s just one of those things.

These muffins make a nice snack by themselves or, more traditionally, you could serve them with chili con (or sin, in my case) carne. I didnt use fresh chillies this time - I just chopped up some super-hot-but-fruity sliced manzano chillies in vinegar that were lurking in my fridge, and used those.

Recipe for: Spinach corn muffins



Ingredients:

1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup plain flour
1 large egg
1 cup milk (I used semi-skim)
1/2 cup canned corn niblets
1/8 cup oil
1/2 cup spinach leaves, shredded
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp freshly milled black pepper
2 tsp finely chopped jalapeno peppers (I used manzano chillies)
salt to taste

Method:

1. In a medium mixing bowl, mix together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt.



2. In another, smaller bowl, whisk together the oil and egg.



3. Pour in the milk and stir it in.



4. Pour the egg-milk mixture into the bowl containing the flour



and stir till just combined. Do not beat.



5. Add the corn and spinach and stir them in gently.



6. Sprinkle the ground pepper



and add the jalapenos (if using), and stir them in.



7. Fill muffin pans with the batter about 3/4 of the way to the top and bake in a 180C/350F oven for about 15 minutes. Test to see if the muffins are done; if not, give them another 5 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, and serve warm.

Polenta currant cake

I made this cake for Christmas specially for my mother-in-law, as she couldnt eat the Christmas fruit cake because of her serious nut allergy. She has to be very careful what she eats - and by extension I have to be even more careful when she stays with us, making sure that everything I cook doesnt even have a hint of nuts. The recipe for this cake is from a book called "Cakes and Bakes" which I bought just before Christmas from a discount book store - man I LOVE those places! You can get such great bargains.

Anyway, the book has simple recipes with stunning photos... and this recipe caught my eye because it was different. It was called "Crunchy fruit cake", made with mixed exotic (read: dried pineapple, mango, etc) dried fruit and pine nuts. I fully intended to use the exotic mix because I had a bagful of it. (Had to leave out the pine nuts for obvious reasons.)

Just before I actually added the fruit to the cake mix, I glanced at the ingredient list and below that the allergy advice, not really expecting to see anything other than "dried mango, pineapple, papaya" and so on, and totally expecting it to only contain fruit. What else would you expect in a dried fruit mix, right?

I should have known better, though, because the pack said the contents were not suitable for nut allergy sufferers even though - get this - the recipe contained no nuts, the product was made in a nut-free area, but the contents could not be guaranteed nut-free as nuts might have been used elsewhere in the factory.

ARRRGH!

This is something that most food manufacturers seem to be stating nowadays as a way of covering their backside - just in case some nut allergy sufferer tries to sue them after a bad reaction to their product, I suppose. The thing is, no nut allergy sufferer can afford to take the risk of assuming that the manufacturers are only warning them off as a CYA (Cover Your Ass) procedure. So it makes it really difficult for people to buy ready-made food stuffs, even if it's only dried fruit for a cake!

I was really, really, REALLY glad that I happened to check the ingredients - perhaps there might not have been any nut traces in the dried fruit, but on the other hand, there might have been... and that could very well have been fatal for my mother-in-law. I have nightmares just thinking about what might have been, and I'm even more paranoid now about checking the labels on everything when she's with us, or if I make anything for her.

Anyway, because I couldnt use the exotic dried fruit, I checked to see if any of the regular sultanas or raisins could take their place. Nope. Same stupid warning on those packages as well. Luckily, there was a bag of dried currants which, amazingly, believe it or not, only contained dried currants! *gasp* Talk about Christmas miracles!



So that's why the fruit cake became a currant cake - and it was a lovely one. The amount of lemon juice used in the recipe gave a sharp flavour to the sweetness of the currants, adding zing to every bite. The currants sank to the bottom of the cake, but that didnt matter one whit, it made a lovely mouthful at the end! (It reminded me of a Famous Five adventure - cant remember which one - in which Dick says that he loves fruit cake where the fruit has all sunk to the bottom, making for a fruity last mouthful. For some reason that stuck in my head - sorry, I just HAD to mention it, irrelevant though it is!)

Pete's mother loved the cake, and so did I. So did Pete. Unfortunately for non-egg-eating folks, I'm afraid this required two eggs. The cake didnt rise much even with the two eggs and 1 tsp baking powder, so I doubt it would be possible to make it eggless. All I can say is, the cake was simple, and lovely! I'm almost tempted to give up Christmas fruitcakes, and I probably would too, but for Pete's howl of distress at the very thought. Did I mention he just lurrves fruitcake?

Recipe for: Polenta currant cake



Ingredients:

5 tbsp butter
1/3 cup + 1 tbsp caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
4 tbsp self-raising flour
1/2 cup polenta or cornmeal
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup currants
grated rind of one lemon
4 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp milk

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Grease a 7" round cake tin with Pam (or use butter) and line the base with baking parchment.

2. Put the butter and sugar in a bowl and whisk together till light and fluffy.



3. Then whisk in the beaten eggs, a little at a time, whisking thoroughly after each addition.



3. Gently fold the flour, baking powder and polenta into the mixture until thoroughly blended.

4. Stir in the currants, grated lemon rind, lemon juice and milk.



5. Spoon the mixture into the cake tin and level the surface.



6. Bake in a preheated oven until the cake is golden on top, and a fine metal skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.



7. Leave the cake to cool in the tin before cutting.