Grapefruit Citrus Ginger Juice

Grapefruit is one of those fruits that can instantly wake you up with its brightness. Perfect for those hard-to-wake-up mornings. I squeezed a little lime and lemon in this juice combo to kick it up a bit. It ended up making the perfect morning juice blend. A little fresh ginger made it that much more.

I think next time I’ll scale back on the sugar and instead give this juice a big fresh squeeze of orange juice.




Ingredients – Recipe mostly adapted from Breakfast, Lunch, Tea: The Many Little Meals of Rose Bakery  cookbook
Juice from 2 grapefruits
Juice from 2 limes
Juice from 1/2 a lemon
2 tablespoons fresh ginger juice
4 tablespoons of sugar, or agave syrup
1 cup water


Directions – The best way I get the juice from fresh ginger is by grating it fine and squeezing the pulp, ringing out the juice.
In a sauce pan, bring water, sugar and ginger to a simmer for about 5 minutes, or until sugar has dissolved. Let it cool.
In a pitcher, combine ginger-sugar water with grapefruit, lemon and lime juice and mix until combined. Add more sugar for taste.

If You Can Make Pancakes, You Can Make Naan

What is Naan?

Naan is an Indian bread that is similar to pita, but so much better (don't even try to debate it with me)! It is traditionally made in a tandoor (a clay oven), but I made this naan recipe in a cast iron skillet.

 

 

 

 

The Recipe

• 3 1/2 C all-purpose flour
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 t instant yeast (It is VERY important that you use instant yeast. I used Fleischmann's Rapid Rise Yeast which according to this lengthy discussion on Chow is the same as instant yeast.)
• 1 1/2 C warm milk - not above 100F (I wanted to make sure that temperature didn't lead to problems so I used a meat thermometer and tested the milk temp before use. I made my milk 90 degrees.)
• 1 t sugar
• Butter to taste

1. Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the milk.
2. Let rest approximately 10 minutes.
3. In a large bowl, mix the flour with the yeast/milk mixture.
4. Mix in the salt.
5. Knead until soft and elastic.
6. Cover with a damp towel and leave in a dark place to rise until doubled, about two hours. (Am I the only one who can't tell when dough has doubled? It looked bigger so I went with it. Maybe I should measure next time?)
7. Remove the dough from the bowl, degas gently then divide into ten even balls.
8. Roll out into triangles, dusting lightly with flour as needed. I discovered that the thinner you roll it out the better. (Being the non-perfectionist that I am, I did not make triangles. I made whatever shape things happened to roll out into - mostly amoeba shaped blobs.)
9. Heat up a frying pan. (I used a cast iron skillet. I also liberally buttered the skillet.)
10. Generously brush one side of the dough with water and begin to cook with that side down on medium heat.
11. Brush the other side with water.
12. The dough should bubble a bit as it cooks. Leave it on the heat for a few minutes, then flip it to cook the other side for a shorter amount of time.
13. Move to a plate.
14. Generously butter. Enjoy.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yield: 30 small cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold
• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• whites from 1 1/2 hard-boiled eggs, broken into small pieces
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons whole milk
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat butter on high speed until you have a bowl full of little butter crumbles.
3. Mix in flour until completely combined with the butter. You'll now have slightly larger crumbles.
4. Mix in the salt and baking soda.
5. Mix in the sugar, brown sugar, and hard-boiled egg whites. Don't expect to see the egg whites disappear. You'll be able to see them until the cookies bake.
6. Mix in the vanilla extract and milk.
7. Fold in the chocolate chips.
8. Roll dough into small balls (or big ones if you like bigger cookies) and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or a Silpat.
9. Bake for 20 minutes or until the bottoms are slightly browned.

Bacon-wrapped Scallops

Everyone loves their morning bacon, but you can use bacon in many other recipes, for example, these bacon-wrapped scallops. The crispy and greasy bacon adds a buttery and smoky flavor to the scallops, and the end result is always heavenly, especially when they are grilled.

To make perfect grilled bacon-wrapped scallops, first you have to make sure that the scallops are tightly wrapped with the bacon. On the grill, remember to keep turning the skewers to get an even char on the bacon (you have to turn the skewers sideways so the bacon is in direct contact with the heat source to char nicely). Last but not least, do not overcook the scallops as they might lose all the natural sweetness and become rubbery.


Ingredients:
Makes 12 | Prep Time: 15 Minutes | Cook Time: 10 Minutes

10 oz scallops
12 pieces bacon
Cayenne pepper
Salt

Method:

1. Wrap the bacon around a scallop nicely and secure tightly with a metal skewer. You may thread two of them onto a skewer. Season both the surfaces of the scallop with some salt and cayenne pepper.
2. Heat up the grill and place the bacon-wrapped scallops on the grill.
3. Keep turning the scallops until the bacon becomes charred, brown and slightly crispy. Turn the skewers around so the bacon is grilled with direct heat.
5. Grill until the bacon becomes nicely charred all around. Serve immediately.

Thai Green Papaya Salad (Som Tam)

Adapted from She Simmers

Ingredients:

1 clove garlic
1 or 2 red Thai bird’s eye chilies
2 tablespoons dried shrimp
Thai palm sugar, to taste
1/4 cup roasted peanuts
6 oz green papaya strands
6 cherry tomatoes (I used grape tomatoes)
1/3 cup long green beans, cut into 1-inch lengths
Fresh lime juice to taste
Fish sauce, to taste

Method:

1. Pound the garlic and bird’s eye chilies until they form a smooth paste.
2. Add the dried shrimp and pound until the pieces are broken up, but not completely pulverized.
3. Add the palm sugar (cut into small pieces), maybe 2-3 teaspoons at first. More more to taste later.
4. Add the peanuts and lightly pound until they are broken into tiny pieces, but not to the point where they form a thick paste.
5. Add the green beans and crush them with the mortar until they’re splitting and lightly bruised.
6. Add the papaya and tomatoes and pound on them to bruise them. You want to crush the tomatoes so they release their juices and give their flavor and color.
7. Add a couple of teaspoons of fish sauce and a couple of teaspoons of lime juice to the mix.
8. Have in one hand a large spoon to help flip things over in and scrape down the sides of the mortar while your other hand pounds away with the pestle.
9. Keep pounding and flipping for a few seconds, add more fish sauce, lime juice, or palm sugar as needed.
10. Dish out and serve immediately.