Once again I will praise Matcha green tea powder for being more than just a delicious beverage. Case in point: Matcha Chip Muffins. I modified a basic muffin recipe in a couple of ways. Firstly and most obviously, I added Matcha green tea powder to the batter. I didn't really measure...just added it until the batter was nice and green. Secondly, I skipped the milk and instead used fat free vanilla yogurt as the primary wet ingredient (there is just 1.5 tbsp of oil in these muffins and only 1/4 c sugar!). The yogurt makes the muffins soft, moist and pleasantly chewy. Sour cream may be substituted with similar results, though you will need a bit more sugar. In many baked goods, substituting sour cream or yogurt will yield richer and moister results. The chocolate chips were thrown in last on a whim. ^_^
If you ever happen to have some bell peppers hanging around that must be used soon (if they are going soft), then why not try stuffed peppers? I did some research on stuffed peppers and found that most North American versions contain rice or some other starch, as well as scramble fried beef and some veggies. My Japanese cookbooks had some very different ideas. They suggested making basically a meatball or hamburger mixture (using equal parks ground pork and beef) and stuffing this directly into the pepper without pre-cooking. They could then easily be pan fried and steamed (or roasted). I made up a meatball mixture using only ground pork as this is what I had on hand. I used a handful of Stove Top Stuffing instead of bread crumbs which yields fabulous flavour. I fried and steamed these stuffed peppers for about an hour. I served them with a sauce made of Campbells Tomato Soup and pan drippings. The dish was very filling and...somehow retro.
All in all, it was good eating. ^_^
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