Fridays with Beatrice: Basil-flavoured zucchini and Comté muffins

This time, it was my turn again. I have been waiting long to propose this recipe, but now there is zucchini season, it was just right. I love savoury muffins - long time ago I made pizza-style ones which were great, but after that I didn't find recipes that seemed healthy enough (containing just loads of cheese or bacon). This recipe is a gluten-free one, but as I had no amaranth flour, I hat to use wheat flour. For grating the zucchini I used my microplane grate which gave a great result. Unfortunately I couldn't find Comté, so I used Emmentaler.

 

 

My brother promised me some fresh zucchini from his garden - and I was given four huge 'things' (two yellow and two green zucchinis), each weighing about 800 to 1000 g. As I only need 300g for this recipe, I guess there will bei made a lot more batches of those muffins during the next days.
The muffins were really moist (as they are supposed to be) and had a nutty taste (thanks to the hazelnuts and the millet flour). As Lena states in her post, there is some salt missing - I used about a teaspoon but that wasn't enough. I think that is the reason the intensity of the basil and cheese flavour was low. Maybe a more aromatic (and saltier) ham like Pancetta could solve that problem - I will try that with the next batch. The nuts were a nice addition, but are not really necessary for my taste.
As the muffins came out of the oven, I was quite hungry. So I ate three of them before they were cooled. Afterwards I was stuffed - in a good way ;-)

 

Roundup: Savoury muffin with potential, especially for a regular brunch snack.

Fridays with Beatrice: Rice Pudding with Strawberries stewed in Lemongrass and Lime

This time, you are lucky. Lena chose her favourite recipe of the book and is sharing the recipe too. It's something sweet with fruits of the season - strawberries. They are cooked with lime and lemongrass and used as a topping for rice pudding (something I would translate to German as 'Milchreis' in this case). The rice pudding is flavoured with ginger and lemongrass, an idea I really like. Usually we serve rice pudding plain with cinnamon and sugar, which can be boring. 

 I have used the combination of lime and strawberries before - really good for jam or a cake . I was excited how some additional lemongrass would work. When cooking I had to think about a friend of mine who - after beeing pregnant - coulnd't stand ginger or lemongrass anymore. What a pity!

Making the rice pudding and the strawberry 'compote' was easy. I minced the lemongrass in my mortar and added some organic carob gum to the compote for a thicker consistency.

Beatrice says the dish is best when eaten lukewarm, but I had it at work cold from the fridge and it was delicious -especially with this hot and humid weather at the moment. The lime and lemongrass are enhancing the fresh flavour and I can imagine using it as a base for an ice cream.

Roundup:  Flavour explosion in your mouth. Perfect summer dish. Can be eaten as dessert or dinner.