Blueberry sour cream muffins

 

I tried this recipe because I wasn't sure of the viability of the milk supply in the house, so I googled sour cream blueberry muffins. Turns out I didn't have as much viable sour cream as I thought either. So I made this with ½ cup low-fat sour cream and 1 cup of plain yogurt and it turned out just dandy. I'll have to try it again with all sour cream to see if I think that's superior, but it's nice to have a recipe that's flexible and still holds up when your dairy supplies don't.

I had to laugh, though, when I saw that this was billed as the only blueberry muffin recipe you'll ever need. While that may be true, if you were around for the previous year's roundups, clearly I need ALL the recipes. OK, so maybe just 10 so far, but many of them are keepers.

Sour cream blueberry muffins
Adapted from the Seasoned Mom by Blair Longerman

Ingredients
4 tablespoons butter
3 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1½ cups sour cream or a mix of sour cream and plain yogurt
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup vegetable oil
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (don’t thaw)
Coarse sugar for topping (slightly more than 5 tablespoons)

Method
Preheat oven to 375. Line or grease 16 muffin cups.

Melt butter and let cool.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, soda and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine sour cream, eggs and vanilla. Gently mix into flour mixture until just combined. Stir in the butter and oil, avoiding overmixing. Fold in the blueberries.

Divide batter among prepared muffin cups. A ¼-cup measuring spoon filled the cups. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of coarse sugar on top of each muffin. Bake for about 20 minutes until the muffins pass the toothpick test. Remove from oven and let rest for at least 5 minutes before removing them from the pan.

Rating: These are quite nice. If you're the kind of person who just wants/needs one recipe that's your go-to for a particular thing, you could certainly do much worse than settling on this one. Lots of nice juicy market blueberries for flavor and the sugar topping gives it that sort of crunchy bit at the top. Plus, you don't have to worry about whether you've got milk on hand that's still any good.

Green goddess tuna salad sandwiches, green goddess dip(s)

 

It's interesting what passes under the umbrella of green goddess dressing. Lots of latitude in the recipes one finds online. Wikipedia cites its source as a San Francisco hotel in the 1920s. I remember being not super impressed by what came out of the standard bottle as a kid, but the bright flavors of a freshly made dressing has merit.

Thanks to adding more grow lights in the basement this winter, we had a fairly healthy tarragon plant to take outside this spring, and green goddess goodness seemed like a way to make some inroads into the supply.

Green goddess tuna salad sandwiches
Adapted from Bon Appetit, March 2018. Serves 2.

Ingredients
¼ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup sour cream
¼ cup fresh basil leaves
¼ cup fresh parsley
¼ cup fresh tarragon leaves
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus 1 teaspoon, divided
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of half a lemon, divided
1 (5-ounce) can tuna, drained
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 small shallot, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
½ cup mixed chopped herbs, such as parsley, basil, dill, and/or chervil
2 English muffins, toasted

Method
In a blender or food processor, combine mayonnaise, sour cream, basil, parsley, tarragon, 2 tablespoons olive oil, lemon zest, 2 tablespoons lemon juice and puree.

In a small bowl, mix tuna, celery, shallot, garlic and enough of the dressing to reach desired consistency, probably 2 to 3 tablespoons. Store remaining dressing for another use.

Toss mixed herbs with remaining lemon juice, 1 teaspoon olive oil and a pinch of sea salt.

Place tuna mixture on toasted English muffin half. Top with chopped herbs and remaining muffin half.

Rating: Providing you make the dressing in advance, this makes a pretty fast tasty weekday lunch. Other reviewers had said the dressing to tuna ratio was off. I agree, but instead of adding twice the amount of tuna, which seemed to be the standard fix, I just opted to have leftover dressing, since one can of tuna is plenty to pile onto two English muffins. Any more and it becomes logistically not viable.

Besides, that leftover dressing makes a killer dip for veggies or chips. 

Green goddess ricotta dip
Adapted from Abra’s Kitchen, by Abra Pappa. I upped the garlic from the original and was glad I did, since otherwise it would have been undetectable by our standards.

Ingredients
1½ cups ricotta
3 garlic cloves, minced
¼ cup mixed herbs (I used basil, tarragon, chives, parsley and dill)
2 tablespoons olive oil
¼ teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon sea salt

Method
Combine all ingredients in a food process or blender until smooth. 

Rating: Not bad. Fast to fix, easy to make ahead. But having recently used the leftover dressing from the sandwich recipe as a dip, this wasn't quite as tasty. Fine enough to  make if that's what you have on hand, though.

Green Goddess Feta Dip
Adapted from Gimme Some Oven, who in turn adapted it from Melissa Clark of the New York Times

Ingredients
5 ounces feta cheese, plus more for garnish
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large or two small avocados, peeled and pitted
1 lemon, juiced
½ cup fresh basil leaves
½ cup fresh dill
½ cup fresh chives
3 tablespoons lemon balm leaves*
1 tablespoon tarragon leaves
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
¼ cup olive oil

Method
Combine everything but olive oil in a food processor and puree briefly. With motor running, blend in olive oil. Season  to taste with salt and pepper.Garnish with more crumbled feta if desired.

*You could substitute mint for the lemon balm and/or tarragon if need be. Just don’t invite me.

Rating: Perfectly tasty, and tastier than the ricotta version, although they both have their uses. The only disadvantage to this one is that you've got to have a just-right avocado on hand, so it's less pantry/frig friendly than the ricotta version. 

Still saying the leftover dressing from the tuna sandwiches makes the best dip of the three. That one I'd definitely make again with or without the tuna sandwich treatment. 

And amazingly, the tarragon plant is still going strong.