Chocolate Macadamia Muffins

Peanuts make my favorite butter and almonds and chestnuts make my favorite flours, but macadamias make my favorite nuts + chocolate combination. In this case, the final result was muffins. (Or — if you frost the muffins with melted chocolate and butter and pop them into the refrigerator for about 20 minutes to harden your two-ingredient frosting — cupcakes.)

Macadamias are also fabulous in trail mixes. Eat them with raisins, for example, and they’ll taste like a nut-and-fruit version of oatmeal cookies. And here’s a bit of trivia about macadamia nuts that you might not know: the #1 macadamia-growing region of the world isn’t Hawaii. It’s Australia, where the first commercial crop was planted in the late 1800s.

Chocolate-Macadamia Muffins/Cupcakes**

1/2 cup brown rice flour*
1/2 cup teff OR sorghum flour*
1/2 cup chestnut OR almond flour*
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably non-Dutched
1 T. baking powder
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 cup macadamia nuts, roughly chopped
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup whole milk, preferably from grass-fed cows (OR coconut milk)
2 eggs, preferably from pastured hens
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 375F. Line a muffin tray with 12 baking cups.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, and nuts. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients. Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ones and immediately pour into the muffin cups. Note that aluminum-free baking powder (which is what I use exclusively) reacts very quickly, so speed is of the essence here — no dallying! Get those muffins into the oven lickety-split. That way, you’ll have nicely raised, rounded tops. (Or, in the case of wheat-based muffins, peaked tops.)

Bake for 20 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let muffins cool for about 15 minutes in the tray, then remove from the tray and finish cooling to room temp. (If you leave them in the tray, accumulated condensation can make the bottoms soggy.) If you’re like me, you probably want to eat one of them fresh out of the oven and piping hot.

Let muffins cool completely before storing in an airtight container. Muffins can be refrigerated for a week (but will dry out slightly in the fridge) or left out for four days. Chances are your house is dry and rather chilly in January, so mold shouldn’t be a problem; if you make these or any other muffins during the summer, promptly store them in the fridge.

Enjoy!

* These are gluten-free flours. If you’d prefer to make a wheat-based version, use a total of 1 1/2 cups spelt, kamut, or whole-wheat flour instead.

** To make these muffins into cupcakes, make a simple frosting by melting dark chocolate (at least 75% dark) and unsalted butter (preferably from grass-fed cows) in a small saucepan over the lowest heat setting until chocolate is almost melted. The ratio should be about 2 chocolate squares to about 1 tablespoon of butter.

Remove from heat and stir to finish melting the chocolate — if you leave it on the heat until it’s completely melted, you risk burning the chocolate beyond repair — and get out a small spatula. Drip a dollop onto the center of each muffin top and use the spatula to spread the chocolate slightly out to the sides, giving the frosting a chance to run down slightly. Stash the muffins in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes to harden the frosting. Chances are you’ll only need about 4 squares to do 12 muffins.

Cream of Lobster Mushroom Soup

I’ve been thinking a lot about mushrooms lately.  I’ve also been reading a lot of books about foraging lately.  Come to think of it, the latter probably explains the former…

While I’m not ready to go out and collect my own mushrooms — there are far too many dangerous varieties for a neophyte to gather alone — I’ve been haunting the mushroom section of my favorite produce store a lot more.  Specifically, I’ve been curious about the many curiously shaped dried mushrooms tucked in next to the fresh ones.  I finally decided to give lobster mushrooms a shot.

Are they actually going to taste like lobster, or does the fresh version look kind of like a lobster? I wondered.  Trying to guess what the final texture and appearance of a dried mushroom will be after it’s been soaked in liquid and reconstituted is difficult, to say the least.  After having cooked with the lobster mushrooms, though, I can answer my two questions: yes and yes.  The reconstituted mushrooms are reddish and rather lobster-y looking, and their flavor is decidedly (and weirdly, but in a good way) lobster-y as well, less earthy than dried porcinis and morels and more light-tasting, rather like enokis and straw mushrooms.  The texture of a lobster mushroom clinches it: it has nearly the same mouthfeel as a lobster does.  I think I have a new favorite fungi!

Cream of Lobster Mushroom Soup
Serves 4, especially if you include a hearty side like whole-grain bread and cheese

1 oz. (or more) dried lobster mushrooms
Ghee or butter for cooking (you could also use extra-virgin olive oil, but the final flavor won’t be as rich)
16 oz. baby bella mushrooms OR standard button mushrooms, sliced
1 large onion, chopped
4 cups chicken OR vegetable broth (if you use chicken broth, try to get broth made from free-range chickens)
2 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 cup of cream OR half-and-half

Place the lobster mushrooms in a small mixing bowl and cover with hot water. (Tap water is fine.) Let stand for 30 minutes to soften mushrooms.

Put a pat of ghee or butter into a large stockpot and melt over medium-low heat. Add baby bella mushrooms and onion and cook for 15 minutes or until mushrooms and onions are very soft. Add broth and thyme and simmer for 10 minutes, then drain lobster mushrooms, rinse well, and add them to the pot. Simmer for another 15 minutes.*

Remove pot from heat and stir in cream, or wait until you’ve served individual portions to pour in a dash of cream for each diner. The cream will make decorative spiraling shapes in the bowl, so you might wish to go with that option to make a showier display.

Enjoy!

* If you’re really in a hurry, you could shorten some of these cooking times — cook the mushrooms and onions on medium heat for 8 minutes and do the final simmer for 10 — but using lower, slower heat enriches the flavor of the mushrooms and makes a smoother-tasting soup.

Salsa Soup

I’m a big believer in making your own sauces, dressings, and condiments — they’re usually easy to make, and it’s a lot quicker and cheaper to craft your own blend with ingredients you already have on hand than it is to go out and buy a big bottle/jar of something that’ll take you forever to use.  Then there’s the health aspect, too: commercial sauces, dressings, and condiments are likely to contain lots of sugars (just try finding HFCS-free ketchup!), thickeners, stabilizers, aluminum (pickles and mustards tend to have alum in their ingredient lists), you name it.  Your own blend is likely to contain better-quality ingredients.

There are a few foodstuffs, though, that are far easier and more economical to buy than make (like whole-grain pasta), and there are a few food producers/manufacturers who do such a good job that I don’t even try to beat them at their game — I’d rather buy the delectable fruits of their labor and enjoy them.  One of those is the fresh salsa made by Garden Fresh.  They’re the top-selling salsa in the country for a reason, and a recent article about the owners in Hour Detroit magazine revealed why: the husband-and-wife team are obsessed with creating the ultimate salsa, and they are involved in every aspect of their company, from day-to-day, on-the-floor activities to managing finances and concocting new recipes.  They also recently had the opportunity to sell out to big corporate interests — who probably would have moved production out of Metro Detroit — and they didn’t, instead choosing to walk away from a very lucrative offer to stick with a product they believe in and jobs they love.  Talk about a great local company to support!  What isn’t there to love about these guys?

So, with the exception of Bumper Tomato Season time (when I have tomatoes bulging all over my garden and I’m frantically coming up with tomato-based dishes to make with them), when I want salsa, I head for the nearest Garden Fresh stash.  Luckily for those of us living in Metro Detroit, Garden Fresh is in almost every store.  When I get my salsa home, I enjoy it every which way possible, from eating it plain to using it in lasagna.  Here are a few quick ideas for enjoying one of the tastiest things made in Detroit:

- Put some salsa in a bowl, top it with cubed avocado and perhaps a bit of plain Greek yogurt and shredded cheese, and enjoy it cold (think fresh summer gazpacho!)

- Heat some salsa and shredded cheese over the stove on low heat, then serve with chips as dip

- Instead of adding canned tomatoes to chili, add some salsa

- Use instead of marinara sauce: toss salsa with lasagna noodles, layer with queso fresco or Monterey Jack cheese, and enjoy a Mexican lasagna for dinner

- Blend with a shot of good-quality vodka to make the ultimate Bloody Mary

- Serve over fried or poached eggs as huevos rancheros (to be really authentic, serve eggs over a corn tortilla)

- Make Mexican breadsticks as appetizers: cut some corn tortillas into strips, brush them with extra-virgin olive oil and sprinkle them with chili powder, then bake them at 350F for 10 minutes and serve the crispy strips with a side of salsa

- Use salsa as a marinade for chicken or fish

Heck, I like Garden Fresh salsa so much, I’d even consider putting it on ice cream.  If you’ve already done that, let me know how it was!