Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Irish Soda Bread Muffins | recipegirl.com


Like my family's beloved Italian coil cookies that we only make at Christmas time, the end of February marks the beginning of Irish Soda bread season in my house. I have no idea why we limit ourselves to only having these favorite foods at certain times of the year, but I guess the allure and tastiness would wear off if they were available, say in June!
Although we have not a teeny-weeny ounce of Irish blood in us, my mom always made Irish Soda bread during this time of the year (and my dad always requests the dreaded corn beef and cabbage on St. Patty's day too- ICK!).

Last year, I stumbled upon this recipe while on a baking spree while home on maternity leave. It is by far, the best ISB recipe I have tried- I think the trick is making Irish Soda muffins- they don't come too dry- they are DELICIOUS, and super easy too! Bella and I just whipped up a batch- the first of many until March 17th!
ENJOY!!




"IRISH SODA BREAD MUFFINS
http://www.recipegirl.com/

2 cups all-purpose flour
3 Tbs granulated sugar
1½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
¼ cup butter
1 cup buttermilk (I used nonfat and it was great!)
1 large egg, beaten
¾ cup raisins

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease small muffin tins or large muffin tins.
2. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With pastry cutter or two knives used scissors fashion, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. In a small bowl, stir together buttermilk and egg until blended. Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients and stir to combine. Stir in currants and caraway seeds (if using).
3. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. Bake 20 to 25 minutes (longer for the larger muffins), or until cake tester inserted in center of one muffin comes out clean.
4. Remove muffin tin or tins to wire rack. Cool 5 minutes before removing muffins from cups; finish cooling on rack. Serve warm or cool completely and store muffins in an airtight container at room temperature.
Yield: 9 regular- sized muffins or 5 large
Recipe Source: Mostly Muffins"

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Recipe numero dos

I was excited about tonight's dinner, because it was something different and out of my comfort zone, and frankly, whenever I see this dish on a menu at a restaurant, I think "Ew"- SOOO it was an odd choice to add to my weekly menu, but after seeing the recipe in a cookbook, it intrigued me and it turned out to be a hit! Well, a hit amongst Chris and I... Miss B took one look at the dinner table, turned her nose up and pronounced the whole meal, including the rice "disgusting." We stopped trusting her culinary opinion many moons ago, when she denounced sauce on her pizza and decided to go on a cheese, pasta and m&m diet).
Anyway, tonight's dinner was Fish Tacos (and I still kinda hate how that sounds!)- but they were easy and totally delicious. I'm not a big fish person, but we are trying our best to eat more of it, since it's healthier than the big piece of rare red meat we both rather eat instead.

Here's the deal:

Buy frozen, skinless salmon fillets (or you can use another type of fish- we are going to try flounder next time). Defrost and rub the fillets with a mixture of 1 tsp chili powder, 1 tsp sugar and 1/4 tsp salt. Grill the fish on a gas grill for about 6 minutes, or until flaky and cooked throughout. Due to the subzero temps, I wasn't about to use the bbq tonight, so I used the George Foreman grill and it turned out just fine.

While the fish is cooking, chop up 2 potatoes and boil them in salted water for about 15 minutes. Drain and cool.

Next, mix 1 cup chopped green onions (scallions), 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, 1 avocado chopped, 3 Tbs lime juice, 1 cup green salsa (I used the Goya tomatillo salsa- spicy and delish). You can add anything else that might strike your fancy- diced tomatoes, black beans, peppers, etc. Now add the cooked fish (cut up) and the potatoes and mix all together.

Serve in corn tortillas with some low-fat sour cream and shredded cheddar and VOILA- dinner is served! We also had spanish rice as a side dish (and the 1/2 bag of Tostitos that I ate while cooking too).

If you try this one, let me know how it turns out- can't wait to try a variation on it next time.

Thanks for reading! :)