me-li-le poom!

Okay, so there was the "mantra" Me-li-le-pi Om!

Now I introduce you to "Me-li-le Poom!"

Mexican Lime, Lemon, Poppy Olive Oil Muffins.

I found some blue poppy seeds at the gourmet supermarket (Seijo Ishii) and since I had some lemon in my refridge, I decided to "re-try" this muffin, this time remembering to add the lemon juice.

I loved the popping of the poppy seeds in my mouth and the citrusy-ness.

This was moist and perfect for afternoon tea and for breakfast.

Follow this recipe subtracting the pistachios, but adding the juice of 1 lemon and 15 grams (about 2 tablespoons) of poppy seeds.

me-li-le-pi om!

"Me-li-le-pi Om!" Is a Zen mantra...not!

The weather on Thursday was cold and rainy so I stayed indoors and tried to keep myself entertained by making some sunshine.

The "mantra" stands for Mexican Lime Lemon Pistachio Olive oil Muffins...I shortened it because, well, it was too long! (See what happens when I stay indoors all day long??...)

I've been intrigued with many posts about olive oil cakes/muffins. Looking at the many online recipes, it seems as though they use olive oil in place of butter, so using a muffin recipe that I always use, I subbed a Mexican Lime Olive Oil which I had received from my cousin way back when.

The oil was amazingly still good and very fragrant.

I had intended to also put some lemon juice into the batter (squeezed the lemon and everything) but totally forgot to, so the recipe only has the zest of a lemon in there (and I had a nice yet sour apertif while waiting for these to bake).

The muffins came out very moist, citrus flavors are strong with a little crunch from a handful of pistachios (should've added a little more!). (I received the pistachios from Rowena, thank you!)

Here is the recipe if you'd like to try it: makes 6
150 grams flour
6 grams baking powder
1 egg
80 grams sugar
50 grams Queen Creek Mexican Lime Olive Oil
70 mililiters milk
handful of pistachios
zest of 1 lemon, minced

Sift flour and baking powder, set aside.
Throw in zest and pistachios into flour mixture to coat

With a hand mixer, beat egg and sugar
Add in oil and milk, beat a little longer

Add the wet mixture to the dry and mix well with a rubber spatula

Bake at 180C (350F) for about 25 minutes.

NOTES: Actually, I was envisioning a lemon poppy olive oil muffin, but couldn't find black poppy seeds, only white. Then I got to thinking about the pistachios I received from Rowena and lemon. And then remembered I had the lime olive oil tucked away in my cupboard.

Anyway, this was very citrusy and moist. I would definitely make this again especially when I am too lazy to defrost some butter.

Even though the weather outside was miserable, I'd say there was a lot of sunshine in my kitchen.

sudachi

It is sudachi (similar to limes) season here. When I buy sudachi, they only come with two or three in a bag. But what would you do when you receive a bag of 15 or more? Here are the ways that I used them...

You can usually find them with grilled sanma (saury). I saw some sanma in the market the other day, but it was a bit too scary looking--it had the head on and everything still inside. I don't know how to grill it or clean them, so I went with what I know...salmon. I served it with daikon oroshi (grated long white radish) and a splash of shoyu.

I drizzled some onto my yakitori (chicken skewers)...very refreshing.

And then one day I was craving for Mexican food, which isn't readily available here. I looked in "Barbecue Bible" by Steven Raichlen. And found a great recipe for fajita rub. I cut the recipe down and "marinated" sasami (chicken breasts) for about 3 hours. Then in a pan with some oil, I pan fried them.

Fajita rub adapted from "Barbecue Bible"
1 tablespoon paprika
2.25 teaspoon coarse salt
1.5 teaspoon dried chipotle
12 grinds fresh pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon cumin
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

But what has fajitas got to do with sudachi? Well, awhile back, Tea, introduced me to chirmol. (Thank you!) She called it chimol, but the recipe I found, also in "Barbecue Bible" called it chirmol. Anyway, since the recipe called for limes, it was a perfect opportunity for me to try chirmol and to use some sudachi. I was a bit bummed because the jalapenos I had in my fridge had gone slimey and moldy...eww. And I didn't have much cilantro. Check out Tea's photo of chirmol, it looks way more appetizing.

Chirmol adapted from "Barbecue Bible"
12 cherry tomatoes, cut into fourths
1/4 onion, diced
handful of cilantro, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 tablespoon vinegar
2 sudachi (squeezed)
several shakes of salt
5 grinds of pepper

Still, on my chicken fajitas, the bursts of lime mixed with the bite from the onions, the heat from the chicken cooled by the ripe tomatoes really satisfied my craving for something Mexican.

And then I made ponzu. Ponzu is citrus flavored soy sauce condiment. The recipe that came with the sudachi mentioned soaking the sudachi with konbu (kelp), katsuo bushi (bonito flakes), shoyu (soy sauce), vinegar and mirin (sweet rice wine) for 2 weeks then straining everything and using the liquid. I found another recipe on the net in which you just boil everything and then strain it into jars and use right away. So, that is what I did. Instead of the 5 sudachi that the recipe called for, I used all 10 that were left. Talk about pucker your mouth sour! But I think it will be good on fish or tofu (soy bean curd) or on steak with daikon oroshi (grated white radish)--just a little ponzu will do.

Here's the recipe if you have some limes on hand and would like to try this. If your limes are big, you might want to put the juice of half a lime in first and add more. It should taste refreshing and not very salty.

250 cc koikuchi shoyu (dark shoyu) (about 1.5 cups)
250 cc usukuchi shoyu (light shoyu) (about 1.5 cups)
350 cc komesu rice vinegar (about 1.75 cups)
1 to 2 sheets of dashi konbu (thick pieces of kelp to make stock) each about 15 cm long.
1 small bag of katsuo bushi (bonito flakes)
5 sudachi (limes), juiced
100 cc mirin (sweet rice wine) (about .5 cups)

Bring everything to a boil and then turn off the heat. When cooled, strain and transfer to glass jars and store in refrig. Use on fish, chicken, meats, tofu (soy bean curd), actually anything that you would use regular shoyu (soy sauce) on. You can even mix it with some sesame oil or use it as is for a nice Asian dressing.

NOTE: I didn't have the two kinds of shoyu so I used what I had on hand, usukuchi shoyu. I also didn't use the sheets of konbu, I had the powdered version, so I used 1 stick of that.

Enjoy!