Garlic Onion Muffins - #MuffinMonday

I'm ditching the sweet stuff and diving into the land of savoury muffins. And it is wonderful! I ate three of these little muffins the first day that I made them and the only reason that I didn't eat 5 was that I was too lazy to go grab them from the kitchen. They are great warm and great at room temperature. They never stuck around long enough to make it to the fridge to get cold.

These muffins are actually the perfect breakfast muffin for me. I happily ate two with eggs and my plan is to make a large batch and see how well they freeze so that I can eat them throughout the week. They come together quickly so it wouldn't be too much trouble to make them for a weekend breakfast. The hardest part is dicing the onions and that can be done beforehand.

As always, scroll down to see the other muffins this month.

Garlic Onion Muffins

(adapted from: Food.com)

Yield: 12 muffins

Ingredients
240 grams flour
60 grams (~1/2 cup) finely diced onions
12 grams (~ 4 tablespoons) finely cut escallion tops)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup milk
1 egg
4 tablespoons oil
3 teaspoons (~8 cloves) crushed garlic

Direction
Preheat oven to 400 F. Grease a muffin pan
Whisk together flour, onions, escallion, baking powder, sugar, salt and cayenne. In a separate bowl, mix together milk, egg, oil, and crushed garlic.
Gently stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix only until just combined. Divide among the 12 muffin wells.
Bake 15 to 20 minutes until the muffins are lightly golden and a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.

Notes

• I used a garlic press to crush my garlic.
• 1 teaspoon of cayenne makes them pretty spicy!
• Brushing the hot muffins with garlic butter would be great!

• Apricot Pistachio Matcha Muffins by Farm Fresh Feasts
• Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Cherry Chocolate Muffins by Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Garlic Onion Muffins by Passion Kneaded
• Muffins Florentine by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Strawberry Yogurt Muffins by Food Lust People Love

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.

Chickpeas in Turmeric, Coconut and Banana Sauce

Ripe bananas and onions. Those are the winning ingredients for this month's Crazy Ingredient Challenge. Bananas and onions. What in the world does one do with ripe bananas and onions? I had to ask Google and some other friends.

Caramelizing onions seemed like a great way to go but that would mean spending 45 minutes babysitting onions. I just don't have the attention span for that. As I searched some more, I came across recipes for curried bananas. Curried bananas? How's that even a thing? And why was I itching to test it out?

I have been craving curried chickpeas for a while so I thought I'd add the bananas to my chickpeas. I could have just sliced the bananas and tossed them in but that didn't feel like I was fully committing to a savoury banana dish. I could just pick the bananas out. I decided to blend the bananas into the coconut milk. Coconut milk is slightly sweet so I figured the sweet banana wouldn't be too far off. It wasn't!  Surprisingly. Just don't add too mucch banana. I tried first with two small bananas and it was way too sweet. One is definitely better. It's subtle and hence not the dominant flavour. You can start with half a banana in the coconut milk and taste the mixture to make sure it's not too sweet for you.

Chickpeas in Turmeric, Coconut and Banana Sauce

Ingredients

1 cup coconut milk
1 small banana
1 tablespoon oil
1 small onion, finely diced
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
1  1/2 teaspoons turmeric
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 cup diced carrots
3 cups cooked chickpeas
salt & pepper, taste
escallion, for garnish

Directions

Blend the banana and coconut milk and set aside. 
Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the chopped onions and cook until softened and translucent. Stir occasionally. 
Add the garlic, turmeric, salt, and pepper. Cook while stirring for a minute then stir in the carrots and chickpeas. 
Pour in the coconut milk mixture. 
Cover and simmer until the sauce has thickened. Taste and adjust seasonings as necessary.

An InLinkz Link-up

Hotteok (Korean Stuffed Pancakes) - #BreadBakers

When I first heard the theme for this month's Bread Bakers (pancakes), I pictured yeast, an overnight rise and later some cinnamon invaded my pancake dreams. It was going to be great. And then I read the description from our host Mayuri. We had to go global. I almost took the easy way out. Pancakes aren't really a part of my cuisine. (My friend and I are still arguing about whether a particular Jamaican dish is our version of a pancake. The "no" side is currently winning.) This meant I really could just do a North American-style pancake and take the easy way out. Yeast isn't traditional. Plus, I can still count the number of times that I've ever made pancakes so it still felt like I was exploring? No? I couldn't convince myself either.

I was about to sit the event out because most of the pancakes that interested me included ingredients I can't get here. I also fell into a flatbread vs pancake rabbit hole. Lots of blurred lines there. I ended up choosing hotteok, a Korean stuffed pancake, that actually seems more flatbread-like to me. However, all the sites used the word "pancake" in the English name. While I was making it, I realised that I did fulfil my pancake dreams - there's yeast and cinnamon!

Hotteoks are a popular street dish during the winter and are served piping hot. Be careful though - that melted sugar can burn you. The sugar, cinnamon, and nuts filling is traditional. However, they can be filled with anything you desire. How about some cheese? A pizza filling? Nutella?

Picky Nephew came over right as I was finishing these up. I thought about offering him one. But why let him ruin hotteoks for me? I stuffed a hot hotteok into my mouth and then listened to him talk about whales. Look, I know I sound like a bad aunt there. I promise you, I am not that bad. A couple weekends ago, he requested pancakes. I made them. 
"Did you flip them in the air? I wanted to watch you flip them in the air!"
"Eat that one first and then I will show you that."
No, I cannot actually flip pancakes in the air.
"I don't want pancakes."
"What do you mean?! You asked me to make them for you!"
"I don't like pancakes."
*runs off to play*

I later learned that he has never tasted a pancake. I guess he just saw someone making them on TV and placed a request. We tried to get him to take a bite and that was just hell on earth. So, no, I was not offering him any of my hotteok.

Scroll down to see all the pancakes that the Bread Bakers made this month.

Hotteok (Korean Stuffed Pancakes)

Yield: 6 pancakes

Ingredients

Dough
156 grams flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon yeast
1/4 teaspoon salt
120 grams water
2 teaspoons oil
Filling
4 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons peanuts, crushed
1 teaspoon cinnamon

oil, for cooking and coating your hands

Directions

Whisk together flour, sugar, yeast, and salt.  Pour in the water and oil. Mix together for a few minutes then cover and let proof until doubled.
When the dough has doubled, flour your work surface and oil your hands. This is a sticky dough! Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces, shape into a ball and let rest for 10 minutes while you make the filling.
For the filling, make sure there are no large pieces of peanuts that may tear the dough.
Flatten each ball and fill with about 2 to 3 teaspoons of the filling. Seal the ball.
Heat a pan over medium heat with just enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan.
Place a ball in the pan and cook for 30 seconds. Flip the ball and flatten with a spatula.
Cook for 1 minute on this second side then flip the pancake again.
Turn the heat down to very low and cover the pan. Cook for  another minute so that the filling can completely melt then remove from the pan.
Repeat with the remaining balls.

Serve while still warm

Notes

• Don't worry if the balls look a bit messy. It will look just fine when cooked and still taste amazing.

Check out the Pancakes from different parts of the world that our fellow Bread Bakers have baked this month:

• Alagar Kovil Dosai from Sara’s Tasty Buds
• Blueberry Dutch Baby from Hostess At Heart
• Brown Rice Dosa (Indian Savory Crepes) from Spiceroots
• Buckwheat, Blackberry and Saffron Drop Scones from A Shaggy Dough Story
• Chinese Scallion Pancakes from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Corn Pancakes from Kids and Chic
• Crepes from A Baker’s House
• Dutch Baby from Herbivore Cucina
• Galettes de Sarrasin from The Bread She Bakes
• Greek Tiganites from Gayathri’s Cook Spot
• Hotteok (Korean Pancakes) from Cook’s Hideout
• Hotteok (Korean Stuffed Pancakes) from Passion Kneaded
• Kabalagala (Ugandan Pancakes) from Mayuri’s Jikoni
• Keralan Yeast Appam from Food Lust People Love
• Malpua (Sweet Indian Crepes) from SimplyVeggies
• Oven Baked Tropical Pancakes from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Pannukkau (Finish Pancakes) from Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
• Potato Latkes (Jewish Pancakes) from Sneha’s Recipes
• Savory Finnish Baked Pancakes(Pannukakku) with Smoked Salmon from The Wimpy Vegetarian
• Srilankan Hoppers from I camp in my Kitchen
• Strawberry Nutella Crepes from Spill the Spices
• Swedish Pancakes from Palatable Pastime
• Sweet Potato Pancakes with Brown Sugar and Pecan Sauce from A Salad For All Seasons
• Wholegrain Yeast Pancakes from Ambrosia

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely bread by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the #BreadBakers home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send Stacy an email with your blog URL to foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com.