Wolfberry Cream Tea Scones

with Wolfberry-Lime Glaze

Okay, so I know that these look weird. I promise you, they are tasty, and not even a little bit moldy, even though they’re kind of grey-blue, which normally might mean something you wouldn’t want to eat. Am I selling it to you yet?

See, I happened across wolfberries (aka black goji berries), and I really wanted to include them in my Autumn Woods treat boxes somehow, so I thought I’d try baking them into scones. They’re superfoods, supposedly, so these are even scones that are somewhat good for you, but yeah – I think I’m going to have to include a note in the treat boxes explaining all this, or my patrons are going to be afraid to eat them.

Not sure I’d make them again – maybe for Halloween? But they really do taste quite nice – the wolfberries lend a lightly fruity flavor to the cream scones. Trust me.

3 c. flour
1 T baking powder
1 t. salt
1/4 c. granulated sugar
2 T wolfberry powder
1 t. vanilla extract
1 1/2 c. heavy cream
For (optional) glaze:
1 c. powdered sugar
2-3 T lime juice

1/2 t. wolfberry powder

1. Preheat oven to 425 F. Spray mini scone pan with Baker’s Joy (or butter and flour pan). (Alternately, you can plan to pat dough out in a circle on a greased baking sheet and cut into wedges.)

2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and 2 T of wolfberry powder.

3. Combine 1 1/2 c. cream with vanilla. Drizzle liquid mixture over the dry ingredients, stirring gently just to combine.

4. Turn out onto a lightly floured board and knead a few times. Cut into 16 equal pieces and press into the cavities of the pan.

5. Bake 14-15 minutes, until starting to brown and cooked all the way through; turn out onto a rack to cool. You can serve them warm as is (nice with butter and preserves), but I like boosting the flavor with a lime-wolfberry glaze.

6. Optional: Combine glaze ingredients in a small bowl, and drizzle with a fork over completely cooled scones.

This Morning, I Cooked a Little

Was trying to convince my father that steel-cut oatmeal was much better than regular oatmeal. Good for his heart health, etc., but also it can be really tasty. I made a big batch and then served it with a few options — I had mine with sautéed onions and green chili, with a fried egg on top — could’ve used a little cheese too, I think, but I didn’t think of it. Pretty good, though I cooked the egg a little too long, so it didn’t do the runny thing when I broke into it, so the overall effect was a little drier than ideal. Ah well — I was distracted chatting.

I also took half the sautéed onions and added chopped apples and sautéed a little longer, plus a tablespoon or two of coconut milk, and that was a great accompaniment both to the oatmeal and to pancakes (my dad wanted me to show our young Sri Lankan guests how to make pancakes, so I dutifully did, although they can make dosas, so I suspect American-style pancakes will hold no mysteries for them). The apples would also have been good with a little shredded cheddar… (Any leftover apples would be great with some roast pork for dinner or in a sandwich…)

There’s a lot of oatmeal left, which I told them could be heated and eaten later in the week, and I tried to convince them to pick up some cashew butter to enjoy with bananas and maybe some chocolate chips, but I don’t know if they’ll take me up on that recommendation. We’ll see!

Perico

I didn’t have a lot of time to cook for the refugees this weekend, so only one experimental new recipe — we’d signed up for breakfast, so I made Venezuelan scrambled eggs, known as perico, cooked with onion, pepper and tomato. Very similar to scrambled eggs I’d make for myself and the family.

It was interesting making it in such large quantities, though. I felt like I was cracking eggs for a ridiculously long time. 🙂

Before They Are Eaten

Enough raspberries harvested today that I *could* make a crisp, but there’s no way that’s going to happen before they all just get eaten — Ben has slathered some on top of the bagel that he’s eating right now.

Morning Glory Mini Muffins

Morning glory mini muffins, mostly using the King Arthur Flour recipe, simplified to take out the things my kids don’t like. I made a double batch and froze half of it. The hope is that having these around will mean that Kavi will actually grab something for breakfast before school. She had one while doing dishes tonight and liked it, so I’m hopeful.

The next question is how long a double-batch will last. I’m betting on two weeks.

Great Breakfast or Late-Night Snack

Stirring in two cups of leftover rice. 41 seconds.

It would be easier and faster doing this if I weren’t trying to record video with my other hand! Lesson learned!

(If you’re vegetarian rather than vegan, consider cracking an egg into about a quarter of this for the last minute of stirring. Makes a great breakfast or late-night snack!)

 

Something Celebratory for Diwali

I wanted to cook something celebratory for Diwali, but I’m also trying to eat more oatmeal, so I ended up with delicious oatmeal experiments:

• savory coconut milk oatmeal with green-chili chicken
• sweet coconut milk oatmeal with tropical fruits and jam

The nice thing about this is that you make the same oatmeal for both — it just tilts more savory or more sweet depending on what you serve it with. I did:

1/2 c. steel-cut oats

1 c. coconut milk

1 c. water

generous pinch of salt

Bring to a boil, turn to a simmer, cook 25-30 minutes to desired texture.

While that’s going, you can cook the chicken — sauté a diced onion, some diced garlic, a few green chilies in oil with mustard seed, cumin seed, and salt. When onions are golden, add about a pound of chicken in bite-size pieces — brown on high, then turn down to medium and sauté, stirring, until chicken is cooked through.

Chicken should be done after 10-15 minutes of cooking, so it’ll finish up right around the same time as the oatmeal. And then you can have more coconut milk oatmeal with some chopped fruit and a spoonful of jam for dessert. 🙂

 

Savory Oatmeal with Shallot, Green Chili, Cheddar, and Egg

The flavors are pretty Sri Lankan — I was remembering eating cheese toast (maybe made with cream cheese instead of cheddar?) with onion and green chili on the beach with Yudhanjaya Wijeratne and Suchetha Wijenayake and Navin Weeraratne and Mandy Jayatissa, late at night while Kavi fell asleep with her head on the table. I miss Sri Lanka. Worrying about them.

*****

Start steel cut oats cooking in water. Slice shallot and green chili (in retrospect, I wish I’d done two chilies, but one is probably plenty for most folks), sauté in butter or ghee or oil, seasoning with salt and pepper. (I actually made a double batch of the oats and the shallot-chili mixture; I’m going to save it in the fridge and try the other half of it with different toppings tomorrow.)

Shred 1/4 c. of good cheddar cheese. When oatmeal is almost cooked, fry an egg sunny-side up (or over-easy, or poached, etc…) with salt and pepper.

Stir cheese into cooked oatmeal, top with egg, enjoy! I thought this was pretty good, though it may take a little while for me to get used to savory oatmeal.

*****

See us all on the beach back in 2018: https://www.facebook.com/mary.a.mohanraj/posts/10159024822294616