July 2005 - Fig, Pistachio & Ginger Muffins

I had so many things marked in issue #40 that I wanted to try and it was very hard to pick just one thing out. The Thai-style pumpkin soup on the cover looked really nice. However I make pumpkin soup regularly. I have also done a Thai inspired one after having it at a cafe a number of years ago. I normally fry off some red curry paste before adding stock. It is very nice.

Glenn Reid's Field mushroom tarte tatin with cress salad was the first recipe to catch my eye but I cannot get cress so decided to move on to one of the other options.

I have had Valli Little's bean trenchers marked to make ever since I got this issue. It is basically a baked bean mixture cooked on the stove served on toast. I have made my own baked beans before. No matter how hard I try I always end up with a massive pot of beans and get sick of eating it before I get through it all. This recipe sounds great but serves 6 and I am sure that even if I cut the recipe in half I would end up with more than 3 serves as I find that most recipes give more servings than they say they do.

Another marked recipe is Valli's chunky potato corn & bacon soup. I have made this one before and it is a wonderful hearty soup. Perfect in the winter time. However since I have already made it before I decided to go with one of the many other options.

When I made up my blog menu plan for the month I had opted for Nancy Duran's date, gorgonzola & prosciutto tart. It is an easy recipe and perfect for lunch. I was going to make one change, substituting goat's cheese for the gorgonzola. This was for two reasons, firstly I am not overly keen on blue cheese and it is hard to get a nice gorgonzola here and secondly, I had some goat's cheese left over from another recipe. I ended up not making this because I used the goat's cheese for some thing else and it was another recipe that had a cress topping to the tart. I may have to look into how to grow some cress. On the couple of occasions that I have been able to purchase it, I have quite enjoyed it so if it is easy to grow it would be a nice addition to the edible garden.

I ended up making fig, pistachio & ginger muffins. A recipe from Tanya Beard, it was included as part of an article on Toby Smith, owner of Toby's Estate coffee. These were fabulous muffins. I uses pecans instead of pistachios as that is what I had on hand. I am sure the pistachios would be terrific in there too. The reconstituted figs soft and almost caramelised. Even though I burnt my hand while removing the pan from the oven. I am not sure that they were worth it exactly but they are extremely good. So good I have already bought more figs to make them again. This time I am planning to use macadamia nuts, again because I have them on hand. They store and reheat well too. I think that they could also be very successfully frozen.

Fig, Pistachio & Ginger Muffins

Makes 12

Ingredients

• 350 g dried figs
• 3 1/3 c (500g) plain flour
• 2 tsp bicarb soda
  
• 1 c (220 g) caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 c (560g) thick natural yoghurt
• 150 g unsalted butter, melted, cooled slightly
• 3/4 cup shelled unsalted pistachios, chopped (I used pecans)
  
• 2 tsp finely grated fresh ginger
• 1/3 c (80 ml) milk

Method

• Preheat oven to 200 C. Grease 12-hole muffin pan.
  
• Soak figs in boiling water for 15 minutes then drain and chop.
  
• In a bowl combine all dry ingredients. In a separate bowl whisk eggs and then add yoghurt and butter and stir well to combine.
  
• Pour egg mix into flour mix and stir with a metal spoon until just combined.
• Add figs, ginger and nuts and gently stir to combine adding milk if the mixture is too dry.
  
• Spoon mixture into muffin pan until 2/3 - 3/4 full.
  
• Bake 25 - 30 minutes.