Pumpkin and Feta Muffins

Whoa, this has been a foreign place to me lately! (And I didn't mean for it to be like that, really!)

Just need to cozy it up with a bit of sunshine in the form of...

Pumpkins. Feta. Spinach. Parmesan. Mustard seeds. Sunflower kernels. 

You still with me? I hope so.

So as we quickly approach the year end, life continues to (in short)...

* be busy and filled with decisions to make.

* teach me things like understanding and patience (and how to kill mosquitoes in the middle of the night).

* test me and my heart.

* display beauty in many shapes and forms (and also in the intangible!)

As much as I adore anything sweet (as this blog testifies), if I have a choice between a sweet or a savoury muffin, I'd pick the latter without a thought. 

And usually they (i.e. multiple savoury muffins) can completely replace a meal for me...but only if they are filled with loads of flavoursome ingredients like these Pumpkin and Feta muffins.

After I enjoyed a few of these colourful muffins (hmmmm sweet sweet pumpkins, salty feta, crunchy seeds warm from the oven...need I go on?), it suddenly occurred to me that apart from the bit of olive oil to roast the pumpkins in, I don't recall using a bit of butter or oil in the whole process at all. 

I panicked slightly. Either I read the recipe wrong. Or I have amnesia.

So I checked the recipe again. Phew - I can read and memory still a-ok!

Happy that I discovered these delicious oil-free muffins. 

And thank you for visiting today. Make some muffins, grab a cup of tea and share some of your life and heart with me, won't you?

Pumpkin and Feta Muffins
Adapted from 101 Cookbooks
Makes 12 muffins

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter (I omitted this as I used non stick muffin pan).
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cups / 9 oz / 255g cubed pumpkin or butternut squash, 1/2-inch cubes
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 large handful of baby spinach, chopped
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley or cilantro (I omitted this)
• 3 tablespoons sunflower seeds kernels
• 3/4 cup / 1 oz / 30g freshly grated Parmesan
• 100g / 3.5 oz / 1/2 cup cubed feta
• 2 teaspoons whole-grain mustard
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 3/4 cup / 180 ml milk (I used around 2 extra tbsp on top of this)
• 2 cups flour (I used 1 1/2 cup AP flour and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour)
• 4 teaspoons aluminum free baking powder
• 1 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt

1. Preheat oven to 405F / 200C, with rack in the top third. Use the butter to grease a 12-hole muffin pan and set aside.

2. Sprinkle the olive oil and some salt and pepper over the squash. Toss well and turn onto a baking sheet or roasting pan. Arrange in a single layer and bake for 15 - 25 minutes or until cooked through entirely. Set aside to cool.

3. Transfer two-thirds of the squash to a large mixing bowl along with the spinach, parsley, sunflower seeds, Parmesan, two-thirds of the feta, and all of the mustard. Gently fold together. In a separate bowl beat the eggs and milk together and add to the squash mix. Sift the flour and baking powder onto the squash mix, top with the salt and a generous dose of freshly ground black pepper and fold together just until the batter comes together, be careful not to over mix.

4. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan, filling each hole 3/4 full, top each muffin with a bit of the remaining squash and feta (see photo up above). Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the tops and sides of the muffins are golden, and the muffins have set up completely. Let cool for a couple minutes then turn out onto a cooling rack. I like these muffins cooled a bit, served just warmer than room temperature.

People cry out under a load of oppression; they plead for relief from the arm of the powerful. 

But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night, 

- Job 35:9-10

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Chocolate Banana Cake + Pumpkin Pudding with Cinnamon sauce

Life doesn't always turn out the way you plan (and I'm glad that is so!)

Because if that was the case, I'd be an airline stewardess now (perhaps en route to Paris right this moment?)

That was the plan at age five. You see, I met this stewardess on the plane and she was the nicest person in my young eyes.

No one had ever bent down to my height, looked me in the eyes and with sweetest smile said to me those 5 magic words...would you like some candies?

I thought she was an angel! (Obviously Mother never taught me about staying away from strangers with candies.)

Since then I've gone through many strange phases and never would I have ever imagined back then that I'd be doing what I am doing now. Never.

Anyways this amazing cake.... You are not meant to be seeing this chocolate banana cake on the screen right now. But it just happened.

This was meant to be a simple banana loaf...something that's very close to my heart. And something I had planned to bake to celebrate my new life in the new kitchen. The very first baked item chez moi in Melbourne.

But half way through the recipe 2 things happened:

#1 I realised I do not have a loaf pan. Only a cake tin.

#2 I couldn't stop thinking about the cocoa powder and dark chocolate chips from Koko Black I had purchased the previous day.

So this cake here happened as a result.

Even though this is a recipe for a loaf, but it worked out beautifully as a cake - moist, simple, and so satisfying at 11pm on a weeknight. I was worried about the chocolate over-powering the bananas but the flavours turned out quite balanced (even though the chocolate is still on a stronger side.)

Chocolate Banana Cake
Inspired by How to be a Domestic Goddess
Makes 8-10 slice

• 150g plain flour
• 25g cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 50g unsalted butter, melted
• 50ml grapeseed oil (or similar neutral cooking oil)
• 1/4 cup yoghurt (I used greek yoghurt)
• 150g sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 4 small, very ripe bananas (about 300g weighed without skin), mashed
• 100g dark chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 170ºC/gas mark 3 and get started on the rest.

2. Put the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarb and salt in a medium-sized bowl and, using your hands or a wooden spoon, combine well.

3. In a large bowl, mix the melted butter, grapeseed oil, yoghurt and sugar and beat until blended. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the mashed bananas.

4. Then, with your wooden spoon, stir in the chocolate chips and vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture, a third at a time, stirring well after each bit.

5. Scrape into the loaf tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 1-1 1/4 hours. When it's ready, an inserted toothpick or fine skewer should come out cleanish.

6. Leave in the tin on a rack to cool, and eat thickly or thinly sliced, as you prefer.

I should have been patient and bake this for another 15 minutes...you can see the bottom is still a bit on the gooey side.

Oh, and remember the pumpkin pudding recipe I promised a few posts back?

Sorry for the delay...but better late than never right? I hope you make this and enjoy it as much as I did. Puddings are great...I reckon the saying should be 'a pudding a day'. Not 'an apple a day'.

Pumpkin pudding with Cinnamon Sauce

• 300g Pumpkin
• 40g Sugar
• 1 cup Milk
• 1/2 cup Water
• 5g Gelatine powder

Sauce

• 1 stick cinnamon
• 2-3 tbsp brown sugar
• ~1 cup water

1. Soak the gelatine powder in 25mL of water until softened.

2. Remove the skin from the pumpkin and chop into bite-size.

3. In a pot over the stove, add water, milk, sugar and pumpkins. Cook until the pumpkins are soft.

4. Use a processor or blender, blend the pumpkin mixture until smooth.

5. Once the blended mixture is slightly cooled down, add the gelatine from step 1 above and combine until it is dissolved into the mixture.

6. Ladle the mixture into ramekins or pudding moulds and keep in fridge for at least 30 minutes until the pudding sets.

7. For the sauce, put the water, sugar and cinnamon stick in a small pot and bring to boil. Let it boil for a few minutes until the cinnamon flavour is infused into the liquid.

So tell me, what did you plan on becoming? I'm curious about how many people actually become what they had dreamed of.

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Your Place Or Mine? Book signing + Pumpkin Pudding with Cinnamon sauce

You know those movies which start at the peak of actions and have you at the edge of your seats...then all of a sudden they rewind back into the past where you discover all the incidents that lead to that present action-packed day?

Well here is mine:

So let's go back to last week and how it lead up to the above moment.

No no, let's go back to the day I was born and how I was born with good tastes in cups ;)

You see, I love collecting cups but every cup I've purchased and taken to work - it gets stolen.

Last week was no exception. I spent the weekend picking out a cup for my new job as I wanted something that I will be drinking out of to be pleasing to the eyes. Who doesn't?

Yesterday I naively took this new cup to work and I left it outside the bathroom for a brief 2 minutes and when I returned...it was gone! How can it be?

I walked around the office frantically looking for this new but lost friend.

I even sent out an e-mail to the entire office...something along the lines of:

...will the person who accidently borrowed my cup, please return it to me? I will buy (or make) you a cup of coffee if you return it safe (and preferably unused)...

No response with details of its mysterious disappearance.

There are times in a persons life where you just have to quickly accept the cold hard facts. They call it signs of a character...or something like that.

So today at lunch (I am getting somewhere with this story, truly!) I was on the way to buy a replacement cup. And I was intending on getting a realllly ugly one. You gotta learn your lessons right?

Walking past Target, there was a line of people each with this book: Your Place or Mine?

Book signing? I've never been to one before! Or maybe lately I've not liked a book enough to want to get it signed. All the authors I adore are no longer alive actually....

So I walked in and saw Gary and George! The MasterChef Australia judges! Pretty neat huh? They are exactly as how they're on TV - relaxed, down to earth and they joke around and interact with their fans with such ease!

I wasn't planning on getting the book initially, but when I flipped through it and saw recipes like 'Twice Baked Gruyere Souffle' and 'Carrot and Olive Caramel cake', I was sold. Plus I planned to get a cookbook anyways since I have none on my bookshelf since the move from Sydney. What perfect timing! Watch out for their recipes on this space in the near future!

When I was getting my book signed, I told Gary that I'm from Sydney and when George heard that, he gave me a disgusted look. He loves Sydney, that guy. I also told them that I'd like VIP treatments when I go visit their restaurants. I can't remember what they said in response. I think they said of course. We will see, won't we?

Anyways, it is an unfinished story with my cup. But what an serendipitous moment I had today! :)

I leave you with more pictures of my pumpkin pudding with cinnamon sauce in which I made recently.

It was so deliciously spicy and full of sugary pumpkin sweetness.

I will post up the recipe the next time.

For now, I need to go and make myself dinner...maybe something out of the book aye?

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