Orange Tarts

 Can I just say these were so good, that I made a second batch right after the first one and then my bird and I inhaled ate one and then followed that up with a second one, just to verify how good they tasted.  

Really, you need to try these.  They came together quickly and tasted amazing.  So amazing that I will be making them for the next Country Market, cause I'm in love with them. 

Orange Tarts

Yield: 12 tarts

Author: Sid's Sea Palm Cooking inspired by Portuguese Recipes

Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 14 MinTotal time: 24 Min

This is a great way to use up those last two oranges, languishing in the fridge, or use some lovely fresh oranges. Not too sweet, but a perfect little dessert, or to have with a nice cuppa.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup Self Rising Flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup orange juice (juice from approximately 2 oranges)
• 3/4 cup sugar
  
• 1/2 cup melted butter - can use unsalted, but will need to add 1/8 teaspoon salt - I prefer using salted butter, but that's my choice
• Zest from one orange - I grate the zest from both oranges, and then freeze the extra zest.
• 1 teaspoon Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur such as Triple Sec or Cointreau
• Turbinado Raw Sugar for topping - about 1/4 cup or so

Instructions

1. This recipe makes 12 tarts. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 12 count muffin tin.
2. Melt the butter and let cool to lukewarm. Zest the oranges and juice them. Set aside.
3. In a bowl combine the flour and orange zest, and salt if using it.
4. In a separate bowl, using a hand mixer, mix the sugar and eggs and mix until the mixture falls from the beaters in ribbons. (This is very sponge cake like) This usually takes around 3-4 minutes. Then stir in the melted butter, orange juice and Grand Marnier or Triple Sec.
5. Next, stir in the flour and orange zest mixture, and stir til well combined. I like to do this by hand.
6. Using a small pitcher if desired, pour the batter into each well on the muffin til, and fill to about 2/3 full.
7. Bake for about 15 minutes, checking at the 14 minute mark and take out when the edges have just turned brown.
8. Take out of oven, turn oven off, then sprinkle a little of the turbinado or raw sugar on top of each tart and place back in the oven for about 2 minutes.
9. Let the pan cool for a few minutes, then using a thin paring knife, run the knife around the edges of each tart and take out gently. Place on a rack to finish cooling. Serve at room temperature. The insides will be nice and custardy and they will have a lovely delicate orange flavour.

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Saucy Lasagna Rolls

 It's Sunday Funday and I'm finally participating again.   

The theme for today is Lasagna, our personal take on it.  Well, this is layered, sorta, but oh so delicious and fun to make and eat. 

I made it meat free as well.  You can use any kind of meat sauce here though, and it would be delicious as well.  

 To start with I used a technique I saw on America's Test Kitchen where they didn't actually cook the noodles but rather poured boiling water on them, and let them sit for 45 minutes or so until the noodles softened.    And it worked great.

Here's my how to. 

I made my own Marinara Sauce, with chunks of onions, cause I like onions. Basically I used a 15 oz. can of Tomato Sauce to which I added an onion cut into dice, along with a couple cloves of mashed garlic and some spinach.   (you can take the garlic cloves, place them between two sheet of either plastic wrap or parchment paper, use a meat mallet and smash them. Makes a great paste). I let that sauce simmer for about 30 minutes while I soaked the lasagna noodles in some boiling water.  These are your standard lasagna noodles, not the no cook kind. While the sauce was simmering, and the noodles softening, I made the filling for the lasagna and the lasagna Rolls. 

 

 

This has been my basic standard filling for years, and I still love it.  Here's the full recipe:

Saucy Lasagna Rolls
Yield: 2-4
Author: Sid's Sea Palm Cooking
This is a fun take on regular lasagna. While this version is vegetarian, it can also be made with a meat sauce.
Ingredients
• 6-8 Standard Lasagna Noodles - soaked in boiling water for 30 minutes
• 2 cups shredded Italian Cheese mixture
• 2 cups small curd cottage cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1 15oz. can Tomato Sauce
• 1 small onion, diced
• 3/4 cup chopped frozen spinach, divided into 1/4 and 1/2 cup measures
• 1-2 garlic mashed garlic cloves or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
Instructions
Sauce
1. Chop the onion into a fine dice and smash the garlic clove(s).
2. Open can of tomato sauce and pour into a shallow pan. Add the onion, garlic, 1/2 cup of spinach and sugar and simmer for at least 30 minutes.
3. While the sauce is simmering, place the lasagna noodles in a shallow 9 x 13 pan and pour some boiling water over them. Let stand.
Filling
1. In a bowl combine the 2 cups of shredded cheese, cottage cheese, eggs and 1/4 cup spinach until smooth. Set aside.
Assembly
1. Turn oven on to 350 degrees.
2. Grease a glass loaf pan with some non stick spray and set aside.
3. Take the lasagna noodles out of the pan they've been soaking in and pat them dry.
4. Spoon a half cup of sauce in the bottom of the loaf pan and spread out. Add a layer of lasagna noodles, and spread about 1/4 of the filling over the noodles, top with a layer of sauce, and then repeat with another layer of noodles, filling and sauce.
5. Cut the remaining noodles, there should be about 3 or 4 left, in half lengthwise. Spoon a good dollop of filling along the length of the noodle and roll up loosely keeping as much filling as possible inside the roll. Place each roll on top of the layers, with the curly side up. Continue until either all the filling is used up or you've run out of noodles. Carefully spoon the remaining sauce around each of the rolls, with a little on top.
6. Bake for around 45 minutes. If you kept out some cheese, add it to the top and bake an additional 15 minutes or so.
7. Take out of oven and let rest for 15 minutes before serving.
8. To serve, cut down through the layers and around each lasagna roll.
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Bran Muffins

 I love bran muffins, and in fact have made many different versions over the years trying to recreate some I used to bake at a restaurant I worked at back in the dark ages.  

OK, so I was a teenager, but I still loved those muffins.  We'd bake them fresh every morning, pouring the batter out of a big jug kept in the fridge.  And when we'd run out, we'd make more and it would keep beautifully in the fridge.  My memory of them is that they were light and tasty and perfect.  I used to know the recipe by heart, and even wrote it down once, but that recipe card has disappeared over the years. 

I've tried a lot of recipes over the years, some good and some, well, let me just say they could have done double duty as hockey pucks.  Maybe not quite that bad, but they were stodgy and dense and not that great to be honest, and most of the recipes also called for some kind of bran cereal as the base for the bran.  

I ran across this recipe doing a google search and then modified it a little and I finally got the light and delicious bran muffin my mouth wanted.   I did switch up a couple of ingredients, but it's all good.  

And this batch, while delicious, kinda flowed outside of the muffin cups a little.  My fault, I had added a touch more buttermilk and more molasses. I use one of my scoops to portion the batter into the tin.   This helps me to portion out the batter more evenly.

Bran Muffins

Yield: 12-18 Muffins

Author: Sid's Sea Palm Cooking adapted from Crosby Molasses recipe

Light, not too sweet bran muffins. Perfect breakfast or snack.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil - can use canola, grapeseed or your favorite oil
• 1/2 cup packed Dark Brown Sugar
• 3 lg. eggs, if using medium eggs, add an extra egg if desired
• 1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon Molasses
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk, whole or fat free
• 2 cups wheat bran
• 1 1/2 cups AP flour - or if desired, use 1 cup whole wheat + 1/2 cup AP flour
• 1 cup sultana raisins or 1 cup chopped dried dates (optional)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

1. Turn oven to 400 degrees and prepare the muffin pan, by spraying with some non stick spray. This recipe makes 12 large muffins but you can also make up to 18 from the recipe.
2. Whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, molasses and set aside
3. In an separate larger bowl, measure out the dry ingredients and whisk together to combine, add the raisins and mix together.
4. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Don't overmix.
5. Spoon them into the prepared muffin tins and bake for 15-18 minutes.  I use a measured scoop to do this.
   
6. Let cool in the tin for 5 minutes or so, and then remove. These keep well for upto a week in a covered container, if they last that long. You can also freeze them for a couple of months.

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