Corn Muffin & Corn Bread

Kimberly loves corn bread. She was working on a school project and needed a good corn bread recipe. (Her project was to design, typeset, and whatever one needed to do to publishing a family cookbook.)  I have a lot of recipes for lot of things but apparently not corn bread. I loved the Napa Valley Pantry's World Best Corn Bread mix. It made a moist and slightly sweet corn bread with bits of corn. Yummy! My mouth watered just thinking about it. However, the "worlds best corn bread mix" was no longer available. Come to think of it, I have not make cornbread much ever since I ran out of Napa Valley Pantry's corn bread mix. All other corn bread recipes I tried in the past was just ok. After all, how can you compete with the "worlds best"?

My assignment from Kim was to try new cornbread recipes, so I tried two vegan corn bread recipes. One is from The Kind Diet by Alicia Sliverstone and the other one is from The Little House of Veggies http://littlehouseofveggies.blogspot.com/. The Kind Diet corn bread was better than most of the recipes I've tried but it was too sweet and too crumbly. It had potential; so I modify the recipe and ended up making four batches of corn bread in one week. After a lot of eating and surveying, I think I really like the end product. The corn bread recipe from the Little House of Veggies is also very good. I have a hard time deciding which one I like better so I've included both recipes.

Anyway, after all the trouble I went through, Kim said that she got a good recipe from her best friend's mom. Oh well, I guess at least I've found one good corn bread recipe and one good corn muffin recipe.

Whole Grain Corn Bread - base on the corn bread recipe from The Little House of Veggies with minor modifications.

Dry Ingredient:
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup whole wheat flour (white wheat)
1 tablespoon baking powder1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon xantham gum (optional, helps the cornbread bind together better)

Wet Ingredients:
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 cup soymilk, almond milk, or milk of choice
1/3 cup canola oil

Preheat oven to 400F. Lightly grease a 8 inch square baking dish. Mix all of the dry ingredients together. Then add the wet to the dry. Pour into the baking dish and bake for 25 minutes.

Corn Bread or Muffin - loosely base on the corn bread recipe from The Kind Diet

Wet ingredients:
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 3/4 cup of rice milk
1/4 cup safflower oil

Dry ingredients:
1 1/4 cup cornmeal
3/4 cup whole wheat flour (or gluten free flour, see below)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon Real Salt
1/8 teaspoon of xanthan gum (it helps with binding)

Preheat the oven to 400F. Combine the wet ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Mix the dry ingredients together and add to the wet mixture. Mix till ingredients are well combined, do not over mix. The mixture is quite runny. For muffins, line the muffin tin with paper liner and evenly distribute the batter in the muffin tin; fill to about 2/3 full and bake in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until the center pass the toothpick test (a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread or cake comes out clean). Makes about 18 muffins. For corn bread, pour the mix into a lightly grease a 8 inch square baking dish and bake for 30-35 minutes.

I made a batch of this corn bread with the gluten free flour below, and it was yummy. Loved it!

Gluten free flour recipe from The Art of Gluten Free Baking:

1 1/4 C (170 g) brown rice flour
1 1/4 C (205 g) white rice flour
1 C (120 g) tapioca flour
1 C (165 g) sweet rice flour (also known as glutinous rice flour or under the brand name, Mochiko)
2 scant tsp. xanthan gum

Moroccan Couscous with Saffron

This is a dish from The Kind Diet that I wanted to try for a long time but never seemed to have winter squash on hand. When I finally had the winter squash, I was out of carrots or summer squash. It took me three months to get all of the ingredients together and make the recipe, the result was yummy. I love this dish: love the texture of the couscous, love the sweetness of the winter squash, and love the spices.

Vegetables:
2 cups peeled butternut or banana squash, cut into 1/2" cubes
2 cups yellow onion, diced
1 1/2 cups carrots, cut into 1/2" cubes
1 1/2 cups zucchini or yellow squash, cut into 1/2" cubes
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon Real salt
1 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 375F. Place the vegetables on a baking sheet and toss with the olive oil, salt, and pepper and roast for 30 minutes. Turn and mix the vegetables after it has roasted for 15 minutes.

1 1/2 cups vegetable broth (vegan) or chicken broth
2 tablespoons Earth Balance butter (vegan) or butter
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon saffron threads

1 1/2 cups whole wheat couscous
2 scallions, white and green parts, chopped

While the vegetables are roasting, bring the vegetable broth to boil in a saucepan. Remove from heat, add the butter, cumin, saffron, plus salt and pepper to taste. Cover the pan and let steep for at least 15 minutes. Reheat the broth to a boil when the vegetables are ready.

When the vegetables are done, place them in a large deep skillet pan and add the couscous and the scallions. Pour the hot broth over the couscous mixture in the deep skillet pan, mix gently, and bring it up to boil (this should happened very quickly) As soon as the broth starts to boil, turn off the heat, cover the couscous mixture, and let it sit on the stove top for 15 minutes. Fluff the couscous with a fork before serving.

Quinoa Pilaf

Harmon's had their quinoa pilaf for sample one day and I had a taste. I was surprised how much I liked it, so I make a copycat version.

1 cup of quinoa - I like to mix some red quinoa with the white; it makes the pilaf more colorful
Juice of one lemon
1 small red onion, finely diced and lightly sautéed
1/2 cup red pepper, finely diced
1 cup black bean (canned), drained
1 cup corn (canned or frozen), drained
Italian flat leaf parsley, chopped (optional)
olive oil
salt
freshly ground pepper
1/2 t Agave, optional

Placed 1 cup quinoa and 2 cups of water in a 1 1/2 quart saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer, covered, and cook until all water is absorbed (about 15 - 20 minutes). When done, the grain appears soft and translucent. The germ ring will be visible alone the outside of the grain.

Add all other ingredients to cooked quinoa and stir to mix well.

Summertime Succotach - lima beans and corn

This is a dish from the book The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone and I was pleasantly surprised the first time I tasted it. I must confess that I had not been big fan of lima beans for a long time. When we first moved to the states, my mother used lima beans in place of fresh soy beans in a recipe because they looked almost identical (back then fresh soy beans were impossible to find). My prejudice against lima bean was formed when I was expecting fresh soy beans and got a mouthful of lime beans instead. Never the less, I love the idea of lima beans because of the book A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon (see the end of the blog entry). I loved the story and the fun illustration and used to read it to my kids all the time.

1 tablespoon Earth Balance butter (I often skipped this ingredient and just use the olive oil because I'm too lazy to get it out of the fridge)
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 cup diced red inion
1 garlic clove, minced
1 (10 oz) package frozen baby lima beans, thawed
1 cup fresh or frozen corn
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon white or red balsamic vinegar (I definitely like the white balsamic better)

Heat the butter and oil together in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, and saute for 5 to 7 minutes or until the onion begins to brown. Add the garlic, and cook 1 minute longer. Stir in the lima beans, and saute for 5 minutes. Add the corn and tomatoes, and saute 1 minute longer or until just heated through. Remove from the hear, and stir in the parsley, basil, and vinegar. Serve warm or chilled.

There is a young girl in the book that likes lima beans...but she doesn't want her friends to know that she likes them...(she worries what others might think of her)...so she stops eating lima beans in order to be like everyone else...and she starts getting stripes and all sorts of patterns and colors all over her body...read it to find out what happens in the end...

Cassidy's favorite pasta - Pasta with Sun Dried Tomatoes

Cassidy has come a long way from her childhood favorite foods - white rice and pasta. Back in those days, we had a hard time getting her to eat anything but rice or pasta - plain rice or pasta with no sauce, not even butter or salt. I remember when we went to India restaurants, we didn't have to order anything for Cassidy. She was perfectly happy to have only rice for dinner. I still remember the first time she tasted Butter Chicken at a India restaurant and decided that it tasted good - she was seven years old. This recipe is from Amy & Cory Smith - I think Amy read it from a magazine and made it at Bear Lake a few years ago. It is also very easy to convert to a dairy free recipe without sacrificing any taste. I always toss together the pasta with tomatoes, olives, basils, and sun dried tomatoes and set some aside so I can add non-dairy cheese and vegan parmesan cheese topping. I bought some pepper jack styled non-dairy cheese from Sunflower Market the other day and it worked great for this dish.

3/4 lb pasta (spirals)
kosher salt
olive oil
1 lb ripe tomatoes, medium diced
1/4 cup good black olives, pitted and diced (such as Kalamata) - I use half kalamata and half regular black olives.
1 lb fresh mozzarella, medium sliced or diced
6 sun dried tomatoes in oil, drained and chopped

Dressing:
5 sun dried tomatoes in oil, drained
2 T red wine vinegar
6 T good olive oil
1 garlic clove
1 t caper, drained
2 t kosher salt, (use 1 t to start, add more if needed)
1/4 t freshly ground black pepper

Topping:
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup basil leaves, julienned

Cook pasta in water with salt and a splash of oil till done (do not overcook). Drain and cool. Place pasta in a bowl and add the tomatoes, olives, mozzarella and sun dried tomatoes. For the dressings, combined all ingredients in a food processor and blend until almost smooth. Pour the dressing over the pasta, sprinkle with the parmesan cheese and basil and toss well.