Food in Life

It’s the time of year (or perhaps the end of the time of year) when zucchini is so abundant that people leave it in bags on your porch, hoping you won’t know who to blame. This has not happened to me, I don’t have a porch, but the (over)abudance of zucchini is real. If you’re looking for an alternative to your average zucchini bread, zucchini latke, roasted, sauteed, blended or fried zucchini, try these muffins. They’re sweet but not too guiltily so, and quite richly chocolate, with a little kick to spice up your life.

Spicy Chocolate Zucchini Muffins – 12 muffins

Wet Ingredients:

• ½ cup raw zucchini (1 med/small)
• ¼ tsp salt
• 3/8 cup chocolate chips
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 T egg white
• 5/8 cup mashed bananas
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp orange zest

Dry Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup white sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp nutmeg
• ¼ tsp ginger
• ¼ tsp allspice
• 1/8 tsp cayenne
• 3 grinds pepper
• ¼ cup dried cranberries (or cherries)
• 2 T cocoa powder
• flake salt (for finishing, optional)

Instructions:

1.  Grate the zucchini and set in a colander with 1/4 tsp salt to drain and pre-heat oven to 350F.
2.  Measure out and mix all the dry ingredients.
3.  Melt chocolate chips with 2 T vegetable oil and stir until smooth.  Add the other 2 T vegetable oil, the egg and egg white, and mix until well incorporated.  Mash bananas and add to the chocolate mixture.  Add vanilla extract and orange zest, then mix.
4.  Squeeze moisture from the zucchini and add to chocolate mixture and blend lightly.
5.  Oil a muffin pan, mix the dries into the wets until just incorporated and spoon into the muffin pan.  Top with flake salt if available.  Bake for 20 minutes.

Across the country, farmers’ markets have their own individual and regional flair, personalities.  Some are more produce based, others have lots of value added goods and they all vary in their seasonality and product selection.  One of the major differences I’ve enjoyed between SF markets and those in NYC is citrus.  We had no citrus fruit at the NYC Greenmarkets, since it didn’t grown in our region.  Here, there is an incredible abundance of citrus: oranges, grapefruit, lemons, mandarins, limes, kumquats!  I’ve been stocking up regularly and enjoy keeping scurvy at bay.

In addition to my new access to this plethora of citrus fruit, I was the happy/lucky recipient of a cookbook titled “Citrus” for my birthday last month.  I’ve had a great time flipping through it, ogling the pretty pictures and trying a few recipes as they strike my fancy.  One of the first that I made (and which I’ve made three times now in the last month) was for curried orange soup.  It’s delicious and easy.  I’m calling it carrot orange soup here because the base is carrots and while it has a fantastic array of spices in it (a true Indian curry), it doesn’t use curry powder or have the particular taste associated with a store bought curry powder blend.  The addition of the orange juice also makes this an exciting departure from the typical curried carrot soup.

So, in celebration of spring and local citrus and vibrant colors and flavors, enjoy this with a slice of hearty bread!

Carrot Orange Soup – 6 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbs unsalted butter (could use olive oil if desired)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 lb carrots, chopped (you can peel them if they need it)
• 2 large garlic cloves, crushed
• 3 cups broth (veg or chicken)
• 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
• 4 whole cloves
• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• 12 black pepper corns
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 dried red pepper (or some chili powder if you don’t have dried peppers on hand)
• 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
• 1 3-inch cinnamon stick, broken in half
• 6 allspice berries
• 2 cardamom pods
• 4 slices fresh ginger, about 1/8-inch thick
• 2 cups freshly squeezed orange juice
• orange slices and mint for garnish, if desired

Instructions:

1. Melt the butter over medium heat in a 3-quart non-reactive pot.  Add the onion and saute until the edges are golden (about 10 minutes).
2. Meanwhile, chop the carrots and prepare the spices.  You can put them in a spice bag or I’ve used a paper loose-leaf tea bag or a piece of cheesecloth.  All of the whole spices (so everything else except the carrots, garlic, broth, turmeric and orange juice) go into the bag.  Tie it up so the spices stay separate.
3. Add the carrots, garlic, broth and turmeric to the onions.  Stir then add the spice bag and bring the pot to a boil.  Lower the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Remove the spice bag and puree the soup in a food processor or blender.  Be careful when pureeing hot ingredients, they can push off the lid.
5. Return the pureed soup to the pot, add the orange juice and heat through without boiling.  Serve hot with orange slices and/or mint.

If you’re efficient with chopping and juicing, the whole thing takes less than an hour to prepare.  Also, if you don’t have all the spices called for, don’t sweat too much, there’s plenty of flavor to go around.

I am now going to join the slew of other SF bloggers writing about the SF Chocolate Salon.  I don’t have pretty pics, or even anything terribly deep to say, but I want to share my best find of the show: Snake & Butterfly.  They make fair trade, organic, interesting chocolate (bean to truffle, all in house).  The woman at the table when I walked up was happy to chat, answer questions, tell me about their bean sourcing (one step removed from farmers, with plans to save up and go visit some of the farms soon) and was generally enthusiastic about chocolate.  It’s a small business, alive for less than two years, and they’re local to me (Campbell, CA – 50 miles away) and they sell at a couple farmers’ markets (though none in the City yet).

They were tasting a variety of things at their stand, several different single origin bars and their chocolate covered caramel figs.  Their Madagascar chocolate was bright and fruity, their Venezualan rich and earthy, the cherry chipotle was fascinating (a little too smoky for me at that moment, but very interesting).  I didn’t get to try their Thai truffles (coconut, lime, cayenne) but bought some anyway, because I love those flavors.  I enjoyed learning that this truffle was created at the request of the woman who talked to me.  She told the chocolatier (who I think is her father) that he had to make one because she loved Thai food so much.  I couldn’t agree more and can’t wait to try these.

Other stands of note: Socola (not fair trade, but good ingredients and intense, interesting flavors); Nicobella (fair trade, organic, vegan – if that’s important to you, the coconut milk ganache was lovely); Fentiman’s (natural sodas, a lovely refreshing respite amidst the sea of chocolate).

Worst of show goes to the Van Gogh Vodka chocolate martini.  So sweet I threw it out after one sip.  Nothing subtle or interesting about it.  In a hall full of sweets, the beverages should be there to provide refreshment, cut the sugar and prepare you to re-enter the onslaught.

That’s it for my chocolate filled brain.  Sweet dreams!