Barley Grilled Vegetable Salad with Avocado Dressing

Finally the long awaited house-warming/ Christmas party at Sandra and Nico's was here. It was aptly themed "Bring your own food". Clever hosts. I thought I would bring some dessert but Francois said he was bringing something sweet. Gate also mentioned raspberry crumble. What a bummer. What can I bring that I could prepare in advance, ok to be served not warm?

I thought about making a fruit salad with maple-spiced nuts. Then I remembered there was a pack of barley that I cooked and freeze in the freezer a while back. Maybe I should make a big bowl of something like the Barley Pilaf, which I did and made a few changes to make the preparation easier. I remembered a avocado dressing that I made before, which Adrian liked and decided to use that as a dressing for the grilled vegetables. I added hard-boiled eggs for that extra protein for the vegetarian Yogis and Yoginis. There's also the roasted cashew for the texture and goat cheese for the distinctive taste.

The dressing ingredients would most likely make more than what you need. We used the extra as nacho dipping; worked as guacamole. For some reason, besides Adrian, I knew Sandra would approve the dish. She did. I was pleasantly surprised that everyone else did too! I don't get to cook for many people all the time. Sometimes I think Adrian may be just acting out to keep me in the kitchen. It's good to know others enjoyed my cooking too.

Ingredients:

For the dressing:
(you may not need all of this)

• 2 avocados
• 2 cups coriander leaves
  
• 2 cloves garlic
• juice of 2 limes
• 1 cup yogurt
• 1 cup sour cream
• sea salt to taste

1. Blend all the ingredients together to a smooth consistency. Set aside in the refrigerator.
   

For the barley:

• 2 Cups cooked barley
• 1 onion, minced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced

1. Saute onion with a generous pinch of sea salt until translucent. Add garlic, fry until fragrant. Stir in cooked barley. Toss to coat. Set aside.

For the tomatoes:

• 10 Cherry tomatoes, halved
  
• 4 TB extra virgin olive oil
• 2 TB Balsamic Vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon each of cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper, chili flakes and ground coriander
• Natural cane sugar

1. Preheat oven at 200C.
2. Whisk together olive oil, vinegar and spices. Toss in tomatoes to coat.
3. Arrange tomatoes on baking pan with cut sides up. Sprinkle sugar over tomatoes.
4. Bake until tomatoes are shrunken, about 20 minutes.

For the vegetables:

• 2 red bell pepper, seeded, cut into wedges
• 2 yellow bell pepper, seeded, cut into wedges
• 2 zucchini, cut into 1" thick coins
  
• 1/2 Cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 Cup Balsamic vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sea salt

1. Whisk all ingredients together. Toss in vegetables. Bake in oven until tender.
2. Remove from oven. Cut zucchini coins into quarters. Cube vegetables.

To assemble:

• 4 hard-boiled eggs, sliced into coins
• 1 cup cashew nuts, roasted and chopped
• Goat cheese, crumbled
• coriander leaves to garnish
  

1. In a large serving bowl, toss barley with 1/4 of the avocado dressing.
2. Top with grilled vegetables, tomatoes, eggs, cashew nuts and goat cheese. Drizzle more dressing over. Garnish with coriander leaves if you wish.
   

Chocolate Zucchini Muffin with Peanut Butter Topping

I'm thinking of the one zucchini in the refrigerator. I know I will not be cooking for the next few days. For the little experience I have with zucchini, they decline pretty quickly. So what should I do with it? Do I watch and document its decomposing like what people do on Youtube for rabbit?

Luckily, I don't have to. If you just google "zucchini" you'll find thousands other (westerners) cooks who share one thing in common: getting rid of zucchini before the summer ends. And they all resort to baking - muffin, cake, cupcake, bread -, eventually. Speaking of confused identity: is it a dessert or savory?

I digress. It seems zucchini provides good moisture for the batter: rich, deep and dark with chocolate in this recipe. I love how the muffins come out with melty, oozy chocolate chips. the use of coconut oil gives it a hint of richness, moisture, and flavor that hits your nose before you take a bite, and permeates your house as these bake. Oh! How I love baking with coconut oil!

You don't even need food processor or blender for this - I did it with ease using my own hands. The ingredients below make 3 large muffins. You can double the portion to make 12 standard muffins or 6 large. Another tip I learned from the baker of Cocoa Island: refrigerate the batter overnight.

As I waited for the muffins to cool (after baking), I googled and found a Peanut Butter Topping from Recipezaar . I thought it would compliment the muffin, and helped to kill time. My impatience paid off: if I were a zucchini, this is the way I want to go. I love the Peanut Butter Topping so much I kept "tasting" it despite having consulted Adrian for approval, despite having brushed my teeth. I even decided to store the couple tablespoons extra in case I "need" it (for breakfast toast?).

Ingredients:
(3 large muffins)

For the Muffins

• 120mL brown sugar
  
• 30mL melted butter
• 60mL coconut oil
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
  
• 1/3 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 40mL buttermilk (1 tbs lemon juice + 1 cup milk; let sit 10 min)
• 1 cup zucchini, grated
• 1/3 cup unsweetened chocolate chip
• 2/3 unbleached flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• pinch of salt
• 2/3 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/3 teaspoon all-spice
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder

1. In a large bowl, mix together brown sugar, melted butter and coconut oil. Stir in egg. Add vanilla extract, buttermilk, grated zucchini and chocolate chips. Fold to combine.
2. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, salt, soda, all-spice and cinnamon. Make a hole in the middle and gently fold in zucchini mixture. Using a spatula, mix to just combined.

(either let it sit overnight or proceed as below)

3. Remove batter from the fridge and let sit in room temperature. Preheat oven to 175C. Lightly grease muffin pan.
4. Spoon batter over the muffin pan. Let baked in the center of the oven for 35 minutes.
5. Let the muffins cool and prepare the topping (optional)

For Peanut Butter Topping (optional)

• 1/2 cup butter (softened at room temperature)
• 1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoon buttermilk
• 1 teaspoons pure vanilla essence

1. Cream butter and sugar together
2. Add half the powdered sugar and blend well.
3. Pour in milk and vanilla.
4. Add the other half of sugar.
   
5. Blend until smooth.
   
6. Spread over muffin top to serve.
   

Roasted Ratatouille

Ratatouille originated as a vegetable stew from Provence and Nice in France. A "classical" ratatouille has tomato as the main ingredient, with zucchini, eggplant, bell peppers, onion, garlic, bay leave, thyme, basil, or mixed green herbs such as herbs de Provence. I opted out eggplant and used the leftover carrot, and red and yellow bell peppers instead.

Roasting really brings out the flavor of the vegetables. You can serve this as a side dish, or main with crusty bread, rice or noodles, or roasted potatoes.

I have adapted this dish based on a book called Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook by Robin Robertson.

Ingredients:
1/2 of each red bell pepper and yellow bell pepper, diced
1/2 large carrot, cut into coin slices
1 small zucchini, cut into coin slices
2 small tomatoes, chopped
1/4 large onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
salt and pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoon thyme
3 tablespoon basil pesto (homemade or store bought)
2 tablespoon parsley, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 200C. Lightly grease baking tray.
   
2. Toss together all the ingredients, except zucchini and tomatoes, together in a medium bowl.

3. Pour over baking tray. Cover and bake for 20 minutes.

4. Remove cover, add zucchini, tomatoes and thyme. Bake uncover for another 20 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.

5. Stir in basil pesto, sprinkle with chopped parsley. Serve warm.

Baked Stuffed Bell Peppers

What happens when you take everything that’s fresh and colorful and stuffed to the inside of a bell pepper? This is an amazingly light and flavorful dish – baked bell pepper stuffed with fresh corn, lentils, zucchini, carrots and cilantro. I also added a little coriander and cumin for flavor and some lemon juice to brighten it all up. Finally, this baked dish is complete with breadcrumbs and a dusting of Parmesan cheese. Not only is this a beautiful dish, the vegetables are just cooked; you can taste "fresh".

This recipe is adapted from here. I chose to use lentils instead of black beans for two reasons: 1. I can't find black beans. 2. there are two bags of lentils in my kitchen.

I was going to pair this with a chilled avocado soup. Unfortunately, I used up all the coriander I needed. So I chose to blend the avocado up with coconut milk and agave nectar, and froze it and later left it out in room temperature, for a ice-cream of sort. You can never go wrong with coconut milk - I had to make second servings to satisfy Adrian's needs for satiety.

Ingredients:

2 large bell peppers
1 sweet corn, shucked
1/2 cup cooked lentil
1 small zucchini, diced
1/4 of a red onion, diced

1/2 carrot, diced

juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. sea salt
1 cup chopped cilantro leaves
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
3/4 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan

1. Preheat the oven to 175°C and grease a baking dish. Slice the very top off of your bell peppers, then use a spoon to carefully hollow them out.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the corn, zucchini, lentils, onion, olive oil, lime juice, cilantro, salt and spices until evenly combined. Carefully, spoon them into the bell peppers until over-stuffed. If you have extra filling, place in the dish around the bell peppers.
3. Top each of the bell peppers with breadcrumbs and generous grating of Parmesan cheese. Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Serve with a side of crusty bread, pasta or rice.

The easiest food blog

Pee Wee recently turned me on to this amazing website called Taste Spotting. I fell in love with it the instant I saw the many tantalizing food pictures! What a great website; it's a collection of recipes from food blogs all over the world. How convenient!

One of the pictures that caught my eyes was this savory baked zucchini cupcake. It has a rather intriguing name - That Zucchini. It uses thick zucchini coins as cupcake base, mounded with spinach-raisin-almond mix. It took a while to take a liking of its complexity. It's an interesting dish that would do wonder for entertainment. The only thing I would change is to chop up the raisins. You got to really make sure there is raisin in every bite; it could be rather bland without the raisins. If you have time, read also the story the writer wrote on the history of the recipe and how the name That Zucchini came about.

If you knew me, you would have known that I am not a rice person. My lab partner in university used to comment that I was the most non-asian Asian person he knew. The first question (almost) everyone would ask is "what about bread/ noodle/ pasta?" Well, I love bread. Not a big fan of noodle nor pasta. Too starchy for my liking. "So it's the starch?" No. Because I love potatoes.

When Adrian came back from Prague, the very first thing I wanted to do was to cook. I knew he must have missed my cooking. And so I immediately put that into action the next morning with a Roasted Garlic Potatoes in Thyme and Butter. You will never go wrong with garlic. And with a hint of lemon juice, this herb roasted potatoes were a hit when paired with Smoked Salmon Frittata.

My father used to make this baked potato boat that I really liked. The picture of the Pesto Baked Potatoes reminded me of those days when my father would take out the convection oven and make a whole bunch of baked potato stuffed with luncheon meats (yeap, those were the carnivorous days). The potatoes didn't look anything like those in the recipe. But heck! They taste real good. I added some uncalled-for blue cheese to the stuffing as I remembered a double-cheese potato that I once made. My version of the Baked Pesto Double Cheese Potato got an instant YES from Adrian. He even remarked how I changed his taste for potatoes. Now, that's a real testimonial.

I also tried two of the sweet dishes: a French Toast and a Brownies. Although the French Toast was actually savory.
It's called the Savory Parmesan French Toast. Adrian had a hard time figuring the French Toast out - he kept waiting to taste "French Toast". If you know what I mean. He even added maple syrup to it. To be fair, it was good. I guess it would help not to get caught up with the name. What about changing it to something like.....Savory Parmesan Toast......not very creative, am I?


There also the brownies made of two of the best things in the world: Nutella and peanut butter. I gave some to my Korean friend, Sandra, who accompanied me to watch a German opera at the Thailand Cultural Center. She reported the next morning that the brownies were a success with her kids. Good! There was a pigeon stranded at our porch after a storm. Adrian fed it with some brownies and it wouldn't stop eating. Even birds can't resist the goodness of Nutella and Peanut Butter. The brownies were moist and soft. My only complaint is it didn't do justice to the hazelnut-ty taste of Nutella.

I'm flooding Facebook with food pictures, no more

Just this evening, I was experimenting self-concoct recipes with leftover from weeks ago. They turned out to be surprisingly good. As I was proudly chattering about my genius cooking skill to the man whom very existence is the reason I enjoy cooking, this same man whom also acts as my inspiration jabbered with his mouth full "you should keep a blog".

Moment of revelation - he's bored of listening to my kitchen story. Just kidding.

I was hesitant of having a food blog because I get my recipes from other bloggers. But then, they too get their recipes from other bloggers/ cookbooks. I guess it's no secret that most of us cooks are not original anyway.

Also, I have been flooding my Facebook account with food pictures; pity my friends who can only drool and subsequently dream of the foods at night. I shall spare them the pain and move my "food archive" to a proper food blog.

Now that I have set up Cook from Scratch, I'm rather eager to post something. Should I start with the dinner that result from leftovers? What about the many pretty food pictures from before? Do I cook them again so I can blog about it? Can I just post all the past recipes so my blog looks active? Hmmm..... One step at a time, Shiang Ying, one step at a time.....

So, here's what transpired from the leftovers I found in the refrigerator:

Fresh Tomatoes and Zucchini Gratin that I adapted from Pinch My Salt . The recipe calls for yellow squash and Tabasco green sauce, which I didn't have on hand. I used yellow and red bell peppers, and smoked Tabasco instead. The original recipe swears by the MUST of Tabasco green though. The "gratin" turned out just fine with a flavourful taste. Looking at this picture, I should definitely put more effort in presentation.


Ingredients:
1 zucchini, sliced into coins
Half a yellow bell peppers, sliced
Half a red bell pepper, sliced
1 large tomato, cut into wedges
1/2 Cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tablespoon of fresh basil, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
3 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. In a large bowl, combine the first 4 ingredients together.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together basil, garlic, salt and extra virgin olive oil.
4. Toss the olive oil dressing into the large bowl.
5. Pour the mixture into a baking dish and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
6. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until zucchinis are soft.


Baked Smoked Salmon Cream Cheese with Pesto Quinoa that I dreamt up in my head. I made quite a bit of basil pesto two weeks ago. Some of it went to a Stuffed Portobello Mushroom with Camembert and Cranberries, and some was made into a pesto quinoa crust for a Baked Smoked Salmon. This Pesto Quinoa was leftover from the latter. Also, I've been very into baking bagel lately. Among the bagel spreads that I made is smoked salmon cream cheese. Hence another leftover.


Ingredient:
2 Cup Pesto Quinoa (frozen)
1.5 Cup salmon cream cheese
1.5 Cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tablespoon parsley, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Press quinoa into the bottom of a baking dish to form a crust base.
3. Mix parsley and salmon cream cheese together. Pour over quinoa crust.
4. Sprinkle Parmesan over top.
5. Bake until browned.

I totally made this dish up. I willl post the recipes for pesto quinoa and salmon cream cheese from my previous cooking soon. Also, most of the steps I took tonight are spontaneous and not to scale. I shall be more precise in the future with proper measurement. (Note to self: Blogging takes a lot of works)

Last but not least, the true star of the night:

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Pudding
It's an open secret that I have a super-sweet tooth. I never feel bad indulging in sweets. I'm a strong advocate of moderate eating with a balance diet of everything good (for health) in life :) Besides, knowing the good quality ingredients I used in this no-no for Atkin's makes my sweet tooth tinkles with joy. This decadent dessert is so easy to make it would seem silly to buy from outside. Following is the original recipe, I've made a few changes to my own preference.

Peanut Butter Pudding:

1/2 cup sugar
5 teaspoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 cups whole milk
1/2 cup creamy (smooth) natural peanut butter (made with only peanuts and salt) (Note: I used crunchy peanut butter simply because I like it.)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (Note: I use only pure vanilla although it's more expensive but, you know....)

Dark Chocolate Pudding:
6 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons natural unsweetened cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
2 cups whole milk
4 ounces good-quality dark chocolate, chopped (Note: I always choose 85% Lindt when it come to baking)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping:
1 cup chilled heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon powdered sugar
chocolate shavings or curls, or cocoa (Note: I opted for ground cinnamon)

Directions
Make the peanut butter pudding:

Place the first 3 ingredients in a large saucepan and whisk them to blend. Whisk in the milk and bring it to a boil over medium heat. Boil until thick, whisking constantly, about 30 seconds. Whisk in the peanut butter, then boil until thick again, whisking constantly, about 1 minute longer. Turn off the heat and whisk in the vanilla, then divide among 6 glasses. Chill, uncovered, while you make the chocolate pudding.

Make the chocolate pudding:

Whisk the first 4 ingredients in heavy large saucepan. Gradually whisk in the milk, then whisk over medium heat until mixture comes to boil. Boil until thick, whisking constantly, about 30 seconds. Add the chopped chocolate and continue boiling until the chocolate melts and the pudding is thick again, whisking often, 1 to 2 minutes longer. Turn off the heat and whisk in the vanilla. Cool the pudding 5 minutes, then spoon it atop the peanut butter pudding in the glasses, dividing equally (about 1/3 cup each). Chill puddings uncovered until cold, at least 2 hours.

When you’re ready to serve, whip the cream with the powdered sugar into soft peaks. Spoon whipped cream on top of the puddings and garnish with shaved chocolate or cocoa.

Makes 6 servings.

Note: I never knew whipping cream takes THAT long to whip into peaks, even with blender. It helps to keep the cream REAL chilled before whisking. I had to stop and put it to freezer before I whisk it again, at high speed. I always have frozen raspberry in hand. It goes very well with the pudding. I'm also a big fan of ground cinnamon. I add it to almost everything sweet.