Orange, Dates and Spinach Salad with Lemon-Cardamon Dressing

I wasn't sure about this recipe at first. Two reasons: orange and cardamon dressing. Neither Adrian nor I like orange much - it's not one of those fruits that we normally go for. Why did I choose this recipe? It's because there was one extra orange from the Orange-Pan Glazed Tempeh recipe I did the other night.

Cardamon dressing? Haven't even heard of it. I don't even cook with cardamon that much except for the occasional ethnic foods such as this. Therefore my association with cardamon is either Indian or curry. Very shallow. But what do you know? It's always good to jump into unknown territory just to be taken by surprise. Good surprise.

I could tell Adrian was not fond of the orange from the way he picked them out. But overall he liked the salad. It's especially good with the dates. It's a recipe worth making and remaking.

Ingredients:
(serve 2 as a side)
For the dressing:

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/2 cup buttermilk (Lemon juice + whole milk)
  
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 4 teaspoons chopped fresh mint
• grated zest of 1 lemon
• Juice of 1 lemon
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For the Salad:

• 1 bunch spinach, rinsed, dried and chiffonade
  
• 1 large orange, sliced into halves and pull apart into sections, retain the shells
  
• 4 cherry tomatoes, halved
  
• 1/2 medium-sized red onion, thinly sliced
• 6 pitted dates, chopped
  
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint

1. In a small bowl, place the sliced onion and pour the reserved lemon juice over it. Set aside.
2. For the dressing, whisk all of the ingredients together in a small bowl.
3. For the salad, toss all of those ingredients together, including the lemon juice-soaked red onion.
   
4. Toss and coat the salad with the dressing. Scoop over reserved shells to serve.
   

Polenta Lemon Muffin with Lemon Curd Filling

I'm totally into polenta since the Polenta and Ricotta Cake. Well, maybe it's not the polenta but the divine fragrance of baked honey..... MmmHmm.... whatever. Got to make good use of the bag of polenta anyway.

The original recipe uses all-purpose flour and a lemon curd recipe that has more steps than necessary. I replaced the flour with 1 cup uncooked polenta + 1/2 C unbleached all-purpose flour and used the Lemon Curd Recipe in one of my earlier posts. Didn't make any changes except I'm using organic sugar instead of natural cane sugar. The color turns out in a pretty yellow instead of the less appetizing brownish hue I had before. The ingredients listed make for 1 cup of lemon curd. You can also double the amount and save the extra for other recipes such as Lemon Curd Bar or use lemon curd as dressing for savory such as Smoked Salmon Quinoa.

For the muffin, if you don't have sour cream (as usual, I make it by mixing 1 TB lemon juice + 1 C cream) you can also use yogurt or buttermilk (I make this with 1TB lemon juice + 1 C milk). Don't expect the muffins to rise as they normally would with flour. You can use reduce polenta and increase flour if you like your muffins to rise more.

Do visit the original recipe - it's food blog by a very artistic duo. They did some fun decoration to their Meyer Lemon Cupcake with stencils: ninja monkey, skull and cross-bones, etc. Me? Just look at my vague attempt at dressing them with ricotta cheese. I'm a gourmand, you know?

Ingredients:

For filling

• 2 small eggs
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced
• 1/4 C organic sugar
• 2 TB butter

(makes 1 Cup)

1. Either use a double boiler or place one saucepan over a pan of simmering water (as shown in picture). Whisk together eggs, sugar and lemon juice until thicken.

2. Remove from heat and strain through a mesh. Stir in butter to melt. Add lemon zest and let cool slightly. The curd will thicken. Immediately cover to prevent skin from forming. Refrigerate and move on to cupcake. You can refrigerate this for up to a week.

Lemon Muffins
(makes 6 large muffins)

• 1/2 C unsalted butter
• 1 C uncooked polenta
• 1/2 C unbleached all-purpose flour
  
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 C sour cream
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced
• 1 C natural cane sugar
  
• 2 large eggs
• Ricotta cheese (optional)
  

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Lightly grease muffin tray.
   
2. In medium bowl, whisk together polenta, all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate, smaller bowl, whisk sour cream, vanilla, lemon zest and juice.
   
3. In an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light in color. Add eggs one at a time, mixing in between. On low speed, add one third of the polenta mixture, one half of the sour cream mixture, one third of the polenta, the other half of the sour cream, and the rest of the polenta. Basically, alternate dry and wet - and don't overmix.
4. Divide batter evenly among muffin tray. Bake 35 minutes, until cake tester comes out clean. Cool completely on wire rack.
5. You may either use lemon curd as filling by spooning out the muffin center, or, swirl lemon curd on top as topping. Serve with cream or ricotta cheese.
   

Lemon Broccoli Soup

Ingredients:
(serves 2)

• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• 1 cloves garlic, crushed
• 200g broccolini, coarsely chopped
• 2 cups vegetable stock
• 50g spinach leaves
• 120mL heavy cream
• 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
• salt and ground black pepper
• sour cream to serve (1 tablespoon lemon juice + 1 Cup cream)

1. Sautee onion and garlic with a pinch of salt. Stirring, until the onion is tender. Add broccoli and stir to coat. Add the stock, bring to the boil and cook for 8-10 minutes or until the broccolin is tender. Add spinach and cook for a further 1-2 minutes.
   
2. Pour mixture into a blender to blend the soup until smooth. Stir in the cream, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
3. Ladle into bowl, top with about 1 tablespoon sour cream, sprinkle some freshly ground black pepper over and serve.

Berry Lemon Ricotta "Bear"

I bought a Teddy Bear mold that is just insanely cute I had to use it no matter what or how. And so instead of using muffin tray (which I don't have anyway), I quartered this Cherry Lemon Ricotta Muffin into a Berry Lemon Ricotta "Bear". This recipe is a real keeper. It's moist enough with the right touch of lemon zest. I wish I had made more than just one Bear.

Ingredients:

(makes 12 muffins)

1 cup ricotta
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk (1 tablespoon lemon juice+1 cup milk)
1 tbsp vanilla,
1 tbsp lemon juice
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled (I used coconut oil in 1/2 the volume of butter)
2 cups all-purpose flour (whole wheat for me)
¾ cup sugar (I used a mix of natural cane sugar and unbleached white sugar)
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 tbsp lemon zest
1 ½ cup blueberries, strawberries or cherries (I used frozen raspberries)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a muffin pan with paper cups or spray with oil.

In a medium bowl, whisk cheese, then add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add buttermilk, vanilla, lemon juice and butter and mix well. Set it aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients and lemon zest. Add ricotta mixture to flour mixture and gently stir until just combined. Fold in the berries.

Bake for 25 minute or until golden.