Monthly Archives: April 2012

{Recipe Round-up} Some tips to get rid of feta cheese

Posted in Cupcakes & Muffins, Pies & Tarts, Recipe Round-Up by

Truth be told, I am not a cheese person. I don’t like cheese, but I don’t hate it either. However if I had a choice, I wouldn’t usually eat cheese. Or mayonnaise, but let’s save that for another time. It is really this indifference with cheese that has taken me this long to really discover feta. I mean sure, I’ve had it in salads, but never really in a conscious manner. I think I am at a point wherein my interest in food would encourage me to savour and appreciate in an objective way even the things I don’t usually eat or particularly like (ie. cheesy things), yet I actually kind of like feta. I like how tangy and just rightly salty it tastes, not as in your face salty as most kinds of cheddar cheese.

Spinach Feta Scrolls

Of all the feta-containing Mediterranean-style pastries I came across, I think this was one of my favourites. I am a sucker for filled pastries, and I am a sucker for the spinach-feta combination. So when I cam across this recipe on Souvlaki for the Soul, I immediately decided I needed to make this. (And really, with all his amazing photos on his blog, I constantly feel like making everything from there.)

The pastry was buttery fantastic-ness and super easy to work with. Paired with the winning combination of spinach and feta, I was expecting this to knock me off my feet. I would like to say I really loved it, but because I ended up putting a lot more walnuts than indicated in the recipe, the scrolls tasted more like walnuts with a salty kick rather than anything else. It was delicious fresh, still hot from the oven, and crunchy, with the cheese oozing and flavourful… But only if I picked out the chunks of walnuts first. I simply am not a fan of walnuts and could not get past how glaringly the scrolls tasted like them. To solve this problem, I dipped my scrolls in Sriracha sauce and it worked, like magic! So my advise to you (especially, if like me, you don’t care much for walnuts) is to stick with the measurements in the recipe. Do not go overboard with the walnuts, but the cheese and spinach might be a different matter. I feel like the scrolls could benefit from a bit more spinach flavour, but that’s just my veggie-loving side talking.

Feta Basil Muffins

It wasn’t until after I made these muffins that I found out they were actually adapted from one of my new cookbooks; one that I foresee will become another of my most-abused cookbooks. And because I really loved how this modified version turned out, I decided to feature them here. I’ve no doubt the original will make an appearance on the blog sometime soon, and by the sound of it -feta, roasted pepper and basil!- it will merit a full-on feature. But let us get back to the muffin on hand.

I came across this recipe on Teenie Cakes but I didn’t read the post as thoroughly as I did after baking (which is why I didn’t know that it was from the book). I was just too excited because I already had ideas about how amazing these were going to taste, and boy did it not disappoint! The Teenie Cakes version is made with thyme, which I did not have, so I decided to make it with dried basil, which I never seem to run out of.

These muffins were absolutely perfect! I loooove how fantastic they smelled as they baked. The taste of the muffins themselves is mild, and yet they have this magnificent, salty and herby flavour that makes eating piece after piece so effortless! It’s the sort of muffin you do not grow tired of. The dried basil leaves a very clear aftertaste, and the feta was there to add a salty dimension to the muffins. You can take this up a notch by spreading on some herbed butter. The muffins are easy enough to make that you can adapt as you please, using your favourite herb or a combination thereof.

Here are a couple of other yummy recipes featuring Feta Cheese to try:

  1. Layered Mediterranean Dip from Annie’s Eats
  2. Tomato Feta Scones from Savory Sweet Life
  3. Cucumber Feta Rolls from Good Life Eats
  4. Tomato, Zucchini and Feta Cheese Tarte Flambée from What’s For Lunch Honey?
  5. Feta Cheese Soufflé from The Delicious Life

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The Recipe Round-Up is a short write-up on recipes that almost made it but end up not getting featured on the blog for one reason or another. Most of the time the reasons will fall among these three: 1. my dissatisfaction over my photos; 2. I’ve done a similar recipe before and this is merely a variation; 3. the results of the recipe to me were almost there, but not quite. There will still be some commentaries on how I would’ve improved the process or the recipes, plus all my usual observations, but instead of providing my re-written version of the recipe, I will simply link you to where I found it.

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{Dearly Dreaming Dorie} Discovering the Dimply Plum Cake

Posted in Baking Recipes, Dearly Dreaming Dorie, From the books, Simple cakes by

People always look for the familiar, especially in the things that are foreign to them; but there will be times when the unfamiliar works its way into our lives and become something we grow to love. Such is my story with plum cakes. Or this particular one, in fact. I don’t believe I have ever eaten plums in any other way than au naturel, quartered into half-moons; or dried, in the form of prunes. When I saw this recipe for plum cakes, I was skeptical. Do plums really play well in a cake? They have such a unique flavour on their own already. I was a bit nervous if we would actually like the results.

Plums are one of my grandmother’s favourite fruits, so as a child, she would always share a few slices with me whenever she had some. I’m guessing this has played a large part in why plums are one of my favourite fruits now that I’m all grown up. As I tried to come to a decision whether or not I should make this cake, I thought, ‘If plums make up majority of the cake, then it would still technically taste like plums wouldn’t it?’ So I figured, if I didn’t like the cake, at least I could still eat the plums. But really, how bad can something named Dimply Plum Cake be?

Continue reading for the recipe

Of 10 hour road trips and empanada hangovers

Posted in Baking Recipes, Experiments & experiences, Pies & Tarts, Traveling by

One of the things I love the most about traveling is getting to sample the local food of wherever it is I end up going. But beyond being able to try it is loving it so much you try to replicate it even in the comfort of your own home. There’s something to be said about food that leaves this kind of effect on people. Now technically, an empanada isn’t particularly special, nor is it particularly rare to be of note. But for reasons I will share with you later on, I felt a very deep urge to make empanadas after paying a visit to the province of Ilocos in the Philippines.

Read about my travel and the recipe

Random days of salsa

Posted in Appetizers n' Dips, Cooking Recipes, Veggie dishes by


I’m going to keep this post short, because really, I’m not sure what else I can actually say about salsa– except perhaps that they have such a striking combination of colours that make them perfect for photographing. Thus the abundance of photos in this entry.

One of the best parts about making salsas and dips, in my opinion, is the instant gratification. Chopping things up is easy enough, and that’s really all that needs to be done here, and maybe a little bit of mashing too. Out of the most simple ingredients, you can quickly create something refreshing to share with everyone, giving you more time for equally refreshing conversations.

Continue reading for the recipes

{Cookbook Crazy} They’re here!!!

Posted in Cookbook Crazy, Experiments & experiences, From the books by

So I began saving up mid last year for the cookbooks on my wishlist, setting aside a little bit of money from my school allowances and salary in a tiny white envelope which I labeled, creatively, my “Cookbook Fund”. And then when I got into browsing Amazon for cookbook recommendations, another envelope was born, this time labeled “Amazon Fund”. I picked about a dozen books which I decided Amazon offered the best value for, and about 4 months later, I was able to gather enough money to buy my top 11 cookbooks plus an ice cream maker.

Upon clicking that little “Add to cart” button, I was filled with mixed emotions: anticipation, excitement, impatience, nervousness, just to name a few. Ever since I became interested in the world of food, baking and cooking have become more than a hobby for me. They have become one of those things I truly want to adopt into my life- a regular fixture, a habit. Sometimes I am afraid that all this cookbook buying will be for naught. What if I suddenly become disinterested in cookery, wouldn’t it be such a waste of money? What would I do with all these books? But the thing is, we all need to cook at some point in our lives. Because food is a basic need of every human being, why not be knowledgeable about something you will end up doing the rest of your life? And I’m not even talking about opening a restaurant or bakery. There is no rule about cooking restaurant-level meals in the comfort of your own home, is there? Luckily I’ve always been the type of person who aims to be good at the things I enjoy doing, and I just know that these cookbooks will only motivate me to get better at cookery.

Behold:

  

The hardest part was actually waiting. Amazon does not ship for free here in the Philippines, so I had to cook up some inexpensive way to get them to me. With the help of one of my Dad’s good friends in California, and a ginormous balikbayan shipping box, I was set. Little did I know that when you send your package via a budget route, it takes nearly forever. It took about 2 months for this package to get to me, but it was so worth the wait! Opening the box felt like I was about to open a magic door. I had my face of wonderment on; all that was missing were the rays of golden light, and possibly a unicorn jumping out from some magical place within.

You’ve no idea how warm and fuzzy I feel inside every time I see these photos, and even more so every time I see my books stacked on my shelf. Honestly, I am going to need a new book shelf. And also I need to stop myself from stepping into any more bookstores for the rest of the year, at the risk of buying more cookbooks. I can’t say I’ve caught the disease of uncontrollable cookbook buying, but it would seem I am on the way there. Must practice restraint!

I’m quite excited to write about my first impressions and thoughts on each of the books, but for now I must answer the difficult question of which one to read first!

Easier Chocolate Babkas to make in a pinch

Posted in Baking Recipes, Bread-making, Christmas & holidays, Living traditions, Yeasted breads by

Ever since I heard about Chocolate Babkas, they immediately wrote themselves into my to-bake list. I had no idea what a Babka was except that it involved chocolate. Surely anything with chocolate would be fantastic right? Later on I learn that it is actually a loaf of yeast bread with chocolate inside! The reason why I am not all that familiar with babkas is because, other than the fact that I’m fairly new to the foodie world, we don’t really have much of a designated food item for the Lenten Season. I guess you can call my efforts at making these Easter pastries an attempt to start some sort of tradition. Well people here at home are kind of picky, so it would have to be something marvelously tasty, this to-be tradition of ours.

Personally I would love for it to involve dark chocolate, which is why I knew I had to make babka the moment I saw it. And knowing me, I not only had to make it, I had to make the one.

For all my excitement, the days got pretty busy around here and so I found myself with very little time to hatch my plan of baking several different versions of this Easter classic. I wanted to find a favourite, as is my usual practice. Alas, not this year. I decided simple was the way to go this time. Babkas are traditionally rolled in a different way than regular swirl breads, and then sprinkled with streusel on top. As divine as that sounds, I chose to go with this particular recipe I found on the King Arthur Flour website, which looked to be simple enough to make in the limited amount of time I find myself in. So at least that’s one version down right?

Continue reading for the recipe