Granola Bars: Finally, a Winner!!

I have made what seems like endless granola bars, searching for the perfect combination of taste and texture...  usually the recipes are good in one department and not so much in the other.   This recipe, though, is a winner on both counts.  Chewy and crunchy (not too sticky or crumbly), sweet, salty and nutty.  Mmmm.  Thanks, Ina.

I made them last minute (hence the blurry airport cell phone pic) as a travel snack for our looooong one taxi-two flights-one car-two boats journey to Bunaken... good stuff.

Adventures in Challah Stuffing

One half batch of my favorite challah dough... two loaves of challah stuffed with various delicious ingredients... two explosions in my oven.

First:  almond stuffed challah.

I got the idea after impulsively buying a bag of almond meal (finely ground almonds).  I thought that maybe I could make a filling for the challah that was reminiscent of the sugary almond paste that they put in those buttery, delicious almond croissants.

I made the filling according to this recipe and wrapped it into my usual no-knead challah dough.  Apparently I didn't wrap it tight enough, though, because after a few minutes in the oven it looked like the explosion you see below:

Luckily, all of that sweet, toasted almond shrapnel was pretty tasty, and a good amount of the filling stayed in the bread, creating a subtle swirl of almondy goodness throughout:

Second: spiced apple stuffed challah.

This one was to use up some Malang apples I had sitting in the fridge... I wanted to follow this recipe from What Jew Wanna Eat because I found her blog title and premise to be really hilarious, but I worried that the raw apples wouldn't cook sufficiently inside the bread and I wanted to make sure the spice flavors came through... so instead I sauteed 2 large peeled and diced apples in a teeny bit of butter, a couple dashes of cinnamon, a sprinkle each of cardamom and nutmeg, and about a tablespoon of honey.  Then I wrapped them up in the remaining challah dough, braided it and stuck it in the oven, at which point, you probably guessed, it exploded.

This one didn't have as much leakage as the almond challah, but was still bursting (literally) with apple pieces.  Tasted pretty damn good, though.

The next day it was a little soggy from the moisture of the apples, but a quick warming in the oven took care of that.

Chili-Lime Roasted Squash Salad

Continuing our health kick, we (well, I) picked out some tasty looking salads for us to munch on in the new year, trying to avoid meat and processed carbs where possible.
 

Our first foray into the salad world was this chili roasted squash salad with a cilantro lime dressing.  I had seen it in the November Martha Stewart Everyday Food Magazine (RIP!) and then again on The Bitten Word, so I thought it was worth a try. Squash (we used the readily available (in Jakarta) kabocha squash, or Japanese pumpkin) roasted with chili powder, lime, cilantro and honey dressing, feta cheese, pepitas (we brought some home from Trader Joe's... I cannot explain to you how much I miss TJ's...), your lettuce of choice (we went with a mesclun mix). 

I thought this was a solid and really easy recipe, but nothing spectacular to write home about (and yet here I am, writing home about it).  I'm not sure what it was missing, but perhaps a little bit of spice?  The chili powder I have is a dark chili powder and it's not too spicy.  Maybe I should have jazzed it up with some cayenne powder...?

Salmon with Brown Sugar and Mustard Glaze

Mmm- good recipe find.

Super tender salmon with a sweet and mustard-y glaze based on this Bobby Flay recipe: rather than grill it, I put the salmon fillets skin-side-down on a tin foil covered cookie sheet, S&Ped them and then topped them with the glaze... baked them at about 450 F for 10 or 11 minutes until the glaze was slightly caramelized and the salmon slid right off the skin.

Served with a side of gingery/garlicky stir-fried baby bok choy, spiced up with a little bit of crushed red pepper.

Granola Bars, Take 2

After my success with granola bars last week, Tim requested that I make some more, but with peanut butter.  I made mine based on a different recipe, one that didn't involve cooking the bars after forming them.

 

The end result was quite tasty- I like the flavor of these much better than last week.  The consistency was much softer... more like Rice Krispie treats.  Thumbs up, except that they crumbled somewhat when handled.

I used the same technique as the recipe, but switched up the ingredients a bit:

1 cup oatmeal (mine wasn't instant, so I toasted in the oven for about 10 minutes)

1 cup Rice Krispies

1/2 cup slivered almonds (toasted along with the oatmeal)

1/4 cup toasted wheat germ

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup peanut butter

Heated the honey and brown sugar together until the sugar dissolved, then added peanut butter.  Tossed together all of the dry ingredients and poured the peanut butter sauce over the top.  Pressed it all into a lightly greased 9" x 9" pan.  Cooled, cut and ate!

Granola Bars

Granola bars are one of those funny things here in Jakarta.  You can get them, sure, but you will pay an arm and a leg.  And your brand and flavor options are limited, too.  I wouldn't call myself a granola bar connoisseur or anything, but I like to have them on hand for a quick breakfast or snack to take hiking or biking, so this situation is somewhat frustrating.

I wondered if I could make my own and whether they would taste as good as (or hopefully better than) the store bought ones.  I'm not quite sure that this recipe achieves any sort of economical success for me, as the ingredients for making the homemade version are not particularly cheap here, either, but the flavor is pretty nice! 

I made my version basically based on Alton Brown's recipe... I used whole almonds (which I then chopped), roasted and salted sunflower seeds, regular brown sugar, and raisins.  Also, I threw in some chocolate chips when stirring the dry and wet ingredients together... the chips melted throughout so the whole bar has a chocolate-y flavor.  Maybe next time I'll try adding some peanut butter?

Chinese-Style BBQ Ribs

Tim and I have had a rack of baby-back ribs in the freezer since Super Bowl... since we were running low on freezer space, we decided to bust them out for a slow-cooked Sunday dinner. 

(Sorry the photos are so bad... after smelling these things cooking for 3 hours, I was too impatient to set things up for a good photo.  Had to eat.)

We decided a Chinese-esque marinade sounded good, so I made a marinade that was an amalgamation of a Gourmet magazine recipe and a Rasa Malaysia recipe, with much success.  The resulting ribs were sweet, spicy, sticky and sliding off the bone.  Highly recommended.

Here's what I did:

- 1 rack of baby back pork ribs

- 1-2 tablespoons peeled, minced ginger

- 1-2 tablespoons peeled, minced garlic

- 1/4 cup soy sauce

- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

- 1/3 cup hoisin sauce

- 2 tablespoons honey

- 1 teaspoon Chinese 5-spice powder

-  a couple big squirts of Sriracha sauce (maybe 2 tablespoons?)

- Course ground black pepper

• I blitzed it all together with my stick-blender, reserved about 1/4-1/3 cup, and poured the rest over the rack of ribs.  
• I marinated the ribs in the fridge for about 7 hours.  
• I set the oven to somewhere between 325 and 350 F (our oven is in Celsius and is quite inaccurate to boot so I do a lot of estimating), wrapped the ribs in tin foil with the marinade (meaty side down) and cooked them for about 2.5 hours until they were tender and almost falling off the bone.  
• I opened up the foil, turned the ribs meaty side up, poured the reserved marinade over the top and broiled the ribs for about 7 or 8 minutes (until the marinade was bubbly and caramelized).
• Served with rice and sauteed veggies.

Ricotta- and Berry-Filled Crepes

O'Brien and Brewster came over this past rainy Sunday for brunch. The Real Martha had given me a gift basket she received that had crepe mix in it, so I decided to bust it out for the occasion. I know it's cheating to use a crepe mix, but I made up for it by making the ricotta with which the crepes were stuffed, right?

The ricotta-making went very well... the curds formed and hung together better than last time I made it. Perhaps my cheese-making skillz are improving?

For the crepe stuffing, I mixed the ricotta with some lemon and orange zest, a couple squirts of honey, some toasted almonds, and fresh blueberries and raspberries. Then I topped the stuffed crepes with a blueberry raspberry sauce (frozen blueberries and raspberries, a little sugar, a little water, a little lemon juice, simmer, puree). Pretty good! I think next time I would mix some sour cream or something creamy into the stuffing to give it some more moisture. That's probably my only complaint, though. The flavor was pretty good!

Grilled Flank Steak with Rosemary

This was a simple marinade for a grilled or broiled flank steak, but actually finding flank steak at the grocery store these days: not so easy.

Soy sauce, honey, rosemary, garlic, olive oil... the usual. Simple and tasty. Served with roasted broccoli and mushroom risotto on the side.

Honey Ginger Carrot and Potato Latkes

Remember when I made these honey ginger carrot and parsnip latkes? Well, I made them again, but substituted potatoes for the parsnips, and they were still excellent.

Served with sour cream and homemade applesauce.

Honey Goat Cheese Salad Dressing

This is a fun new (for us) salad dressing that's super tasty... basically, rather than sprinkling your salad with bits of goat cheese, this dressing has the goat cheese whizzed in. Really tasty and creamy.

This dressing is sweet because of the honey, but I bet you could make a savory version with tarragon and shallots.

We served it on Bibb lettuce, shredded apples and carrots, chopped walnuts and dried cranberries.

P.S.: Chuck made the salad and dressing. Good work!

Smoothie!

In-season, local strawberries from the CSA, a past-its-prime banana that had traveled from home to my office and back, plus some Greek yogurt and honey.

Rhubarb Ginger Compote on Greek Yogurt with Honey

Chuckie lent a hand and made this simple rhubarb ginger compote, which we served for dessert over a bit of Greek yogurt. The compote is not super sweet, so we squirted some honey on top, too. A nice combination! I bet nuts or granola would also be nice with this.