The Pilgrim's Pots and Pans

Maki at I was just really hungry hosts this month’s IMBB with the theme My Little Cupcake (or muffin). As soon as I read the announcement, I had decided on something with tomatoes, whether sweet or savoury. Alas, when the deadline drew near, I was in another part of the country yet I didn’t forget.

And so there I was in Albay, the day before the deadline, on the way home on a bus (no more plane tickets available, everyone’s going home at this time) planning my entry for this month’s IMBB. Maundy Thursday cooking never was more different than it is this year. For one, I’m home and not in a silent retreat. And I have never baked muffins before. After the last SHF and the confections I was fed in Legaspi, I don’t think I’d like to work on anything pervasively sweet for a while. I wanted to bake some tomato and basil muffins but there is no basil in Santa Rita where it’s practically unheard of. Well, creativity never killed me, it just gets me into trouble now and then. Oh, I’m rambling. I should finish this entry before I’m no longer lucid.

This recipe still needs to be tweaked. What I did was just to put together the ingredients I like without much thought. The rich texture of the muffin tells me I did something right but something is also lacking. I’ll try this again with fresh herbs and will see if it tastes different. I can also work on its aesthetics such that it doesn’t look too flat.

Savoury Tomato Muffins

2 cups flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup yoghurt or milk
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon garlic, finely crushed and lightly fried (raw would also do)
1 cup tomatoes (peeled, deseeded, finely chopped and drained)
1 tbsp. dried basil
pinch of thyme, rosemary, sage and whatever herbs preferred
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cheese (I used Parmesan and left-over assorted cheeses)

Mix chopped tomatoes, garlic and herbs. In a separate container, beat eggs, salt, oil and yoghurt.

In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cheese then add the eggs and oil mixture until it forms a batter. Fold in the tomatoes and herbs and transfer into muffin pans.

Bake in a preheated oven (low fire) for around 30 minutes or until golden brown. Makes 12 regular muffins.

25 March update: the muffins tasted much better this morning, more than when they were fresh from the oven last night. It seems like having them stand overnight let the flavour of the herbs and garlic infuse throughout the muffins. How do they taste? Delicious, almost like pizza, according to one satisfied ‘customer’. However, I still want to experiment with the recipe, sometime soon. Tomatoes are PhP 10.00/kg now, a little less than US$ .20.

Some people want me to refine this recipe sooner than I expected, as in this afternoon. Let’s see what happens.

27 March update: in the picture immediately above were the original muffins. I sort of refined the recipe by lightly frying the garlic prior to blending it with the tomatoes and adding a bit more yoghurt, from 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup. The result is a more fragrant and tastier recipe. They also look better, aesthetically speaking (see main picture). This is good enough for now but I’ll keep on experimenting.