Tonight was also a benefit night for the Zion Project, a group with which I did some photography in Uganda. What the Zion Project does is work with 'sexually vulnerable women', which could mean anything from girls and women who have been abused (or are in situations where they easily could be) to sex workers to young woman-led households. They're working in the poorest part of the country, doing some really critical work, and I encourage you to learn about their work and support them in a way that fits your ability. And please don't be scared off by their religious bent. Religion motivates their work, but is not central to the services that they're providing.
Now on to the food. Of the dishes we made tonight, some were brand new, some brought back from the past, and one that we even had one week earlier, since we needed a dish with kaffir lime leaves. In any case, I'll talk about the five that I've not reviewed yet on this site:
Cornmeal Herb Muffins--we made a dairy and dairy-free version of these, and I thought that both were good in a rather sublime way. I think that the cooks loaded these up with oregano, tarragon, and rosemary, and the herb taste was perfect in terms of being enough and not too much. I think that I would have made the muffins much larger, and would have really enjoyed eating them hot with melted butter. Yum. I give it a score of 5 bucks.
Tomato, Onion, Cucumber Salad--this was a great summer treat with really juicy tomatoes and some lemon cucumbers fresh from a local farm. It also has mint in it, but I really couldn't taste the mint, and that was just fine. We didn't take out the tomato seeds, as the recipe suggested, so the salad was rather soupy (sort of like a gazpacho salad, without the spice). I give it a score of 5 bucks.
Honey Dijon Fingerling Potatoes--I think that this might have been my favorite dish of the evening. The fingerling potatoes, some of which I had pulled out of the ground just a day earlier, were perfectly roasted, the honey-mustard sauce was super tasty, and the fingerling potatoes also look really cool. I think it's a great side to many a meal, and would recommend this for anyone who can find fingerlings in their local market--or can grow some in your backyard. I give it a score of 7 bucks.
Thai Green Beans with Tofu--this was a recipe that I pulled out from three or four years ago, and I remember really loving it back then. I think that the tofu and the beans, along with the sauce and peanuts are a great combination. Only problem this time around was that the beans were not consistently tender (and some were downright tough and stringy) and the group working on these did not trim the beans before steaming them. The tofu also ended up pretty small and I'm not sure if that was because of the way that the group chose to cut it or because the tofu was not firm enough In any case, it wasn't perfect. So I didn't love it tonight (though I did love the flavoring), but I think that with proper beans, proper tofu, and proper preparation, it's a real winner. So while it's got the potential of a 7 buck dish, in terms of its performance tonight, I give it 4 bucks.
Mint Chocolate Cookies--I love mint and chocolate but these cookies were not what they could have been. They weren't bad, but they could have been so much more. They were on the dry side, perhaps because of overcooking, and I really think that they would have been vastly better with whole chocolate chips in them (all the chocolate is melted into the batter). Pretty cool that we used fresh mint instead of mint extract, and I liked the leafy element in the cookies. With a bit more moistness and chunks of chocolate, they could have really gone places, but that notwithstanding, I've got to give it 3 bucks.
Bonus Dishes--we once again made the Corn Ginger Kaffir Lime Soup from one week earlier. And it was again outstanding, though the flavor was a bit different this week. That's one solid soup that should not be missed (7 bucks). And we also made a fruit salad, with the juiciest of fruit, exploding with flavor. Apples, bananas, nectarines, cantaloupe, raspberries, strawberries, kiwi, grapes, all bathed in a lemon-lime juice. If you could enjoy fruit this fresh in such a salad regularly, it would score 8 bucks regularly, but I think that we really caught all of these fruits at their peak of ripeness, and the group tonight cut the fruit to the perfect size, the importance of which is not to be underestimated in the fruit salad business. So that's a total bonus dish score of 15 bucks.
Overall--So that's a total meal score of 39 bucks! Wow! I think just about everyone had a great time tonight and the food was well-received. And why not if you're paying $8 for a meal worth nearly five times that much.
Cornmeal Herb Muffins
Adapted from www.epicurious.com
Ingredients
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
2-3 tablespoons fresh herbs, minced, or 1 tablespoon dried herbs, ground
¼ cup chopped fresh chives
1 ½ cups plain yogurt
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons butter, melted, or cooking oil
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Spray 10 standard muffin cups (each about 1/3-cup capacity) with nonstick spray.
2. Whisk flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and herbs in medium bowl. Stir in chives. In another medium bowl whisk yogurt, eggs, and butter or oil. Add yogurt mixture to dry ingredients and stir just until blended.
3. Divide batter among prepared muffin cups, using about 1/3 cup batter for each muffin cup.
4. Bake until muffins are puffed and golden and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer pans to rack and let muffins cool in pans.
5. Remove from pans and serve.
Makes 10
Adapted from www.epicurious.com
Ingredients
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
2-3 tablespoons fresh herbs, minced, or 1 tablespoon dried herbs, ground
¼ cup chopped fresh chives
1 ½ cups plain yogurt
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons butter, melted, or cooking oil
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Spray 10 standard muffin cups (each about 1/3-cup capacity) with nonstick spray.
2. Whisk flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and herbs in medium bowl. Stir in chives. In another medium bowl whisk yogurt, eggs, and butter or oil. Add yogurt mixture to dry ingredients and stir just until blended.
3. Divide batter among prepared muffin cups, using about 1/3 cup batter for each muffin cup.
4. Bake until muffins are puffed and golden and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer pans to rack and let muffins cool in pans.
5. Remove from pans and serve.
Makes 10
Tomato, Cucumber and Red Onion Salad with Mint
Adapted from www.allrecipes.com
Ingredients
2 large cucumbers - halved lengthwise, seeded and sliced
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 large tomatoes, seeded and coarsely chopped
2/3 cup coarsely chopped red onion
½ cup chopped fresh mint leaves
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
1. In a large bowl, toss together the cucumbers, vinegar, sugar and salt. Let stand at room temperature for an hour, stirring occasionally.
2. Add tomatoes, onion, mint and oil to cucumbers and toss to blend. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
3. Serve at room temperature or chilled.
Serves 6
Adapted from www.allrecipes.com
Ingredients
2 large cucumbers - halved lengthwise, seeded and sliced
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 large tomatoes, seeded and coarsely chopped
2/3 cup coarsely chopped red onion
½ cup chopped fresh mint leaves
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
1. In a large bowl, toss together the cucumbers, vinegar, sugar and salt. Let stand at room temperature for an hour, stirring occasionally.
2. Add tomatoes, onion, mint and oil to cucumbers and toss to blend. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
3. Serve at room temperature or chilled.
Serves 6
Honey Dijon Fingerling Potatoes
Ingredients
2 lbs fingerling potatoes
2 T olive oil
1 T kosher salt
1 T ground black pepper
1 T Dijon mustard
1 T honey
1 T chives, fresh, chopped
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 425°. Wash fingerling potatoes in cool water, pat dry, and set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl toss together olive oil, salt, pepper, mustard and honey. Add fingerlings to mixture and coat each potato well. Transfer fingerlings to a 13 x 9 baking dish.
3. Place in oven and bake fingerling potatoes uncovered 25 minutes or until easily pierced with a fork.
4. Garnish with chopped chives and serve immediately.
Serves 6-8
Ingredients
2 lbs fingerling potatoes
2 T olive oil
1 T kosher salt
1 T ground black pepper
1 T Dijon mustard
1 T honey
1 T chives, fresh, chopped
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 425°. Wash fingerling potatoes in cool water, pat dry, and set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl toss together olive oil, salt, pepper, mustard and honey. Add fingerlings to mixture and coat each potato well. Transfer fingerlings to a 13 x 9 baking dish.
3. Place in oven and bake fingerling potatoes uncovered 25 minutes or until easily pierced with a fork.
4. Garnish with chopped chives and serve immediately.
Serves 6-8
Ingredients
4 T Sesame Oil
3 T Garlic
3 T Ginger
¼ C Natural Peanut Butter
¼ C Soy Sauce
¼ C Honey
3 T rice wine vinegar
Cayenne Pepper
1.5 lbs Green Beans
1 lb Tofu
Cooking oil
Peanuts—chopped and toasted
Instructions
1. Sauté sesame oil with 2T garlic and ginger. Add peanut butter, soy sauce, and honey, and rice wine vinegar. Mix well and add cayenne pepper to taste. Once smooth and combined, remove from heat.
2. Clean and steam green beans until al dente.
3. Meanwhile drain tofu and sauté in oil and remaining garlic. Once tofu is browned, add green beans and continue to sauté for 1-2 minutes.
4. Pour sauce over tofu-bean mixture and garnish with toasted peanuts.
Serves 6-8
Adapted from www.allrecipes.com
Ingredients
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 C packed mint leaves, minced to a pulp
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup butter, softened, margarine, or oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 C packed brown sugar
3 eggs
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Place the chocolate chips and the mint in the top part of a double boiler over medium heat. Stir occasionally until melted and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, beat the butter (or margarine or oil) until soft. Add vanilla and sugar and mix well. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Stir in the melted chocolate. Sift together the flour, cocoa, and baking soda. Add to mixture and stir until well blended.
4. Drop by tablespoon at least 2 inches apart on oiled cookie sheets.
5. Bake 15 to 18 minutes until lightly colored. Let cool on wire racks.
Makes 36 cookies
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