Take a Break

Posted by Lisa on Thursday, August 30, 2007.
15 Comments

Picture: Cenil (Indonesian Traditional Snack)

To all readers, if you didn't find any update in my blog this last 4 months, its because now we are on vacation in Jakarta (Indonesia). Hopefully we will back again in 2 - 3 months :)
Enjoy your visit here. And we will visit yours as soon as we get enough change.

Fried Wonton

Posted by Lisa on Friday, June 15, 2007.
5 Comments


20 ready-made wonton sheets
oil for frying

filling:
150 grams minced chicken
100 grams minced prawn
1 tbsp green onion, finely chooped
2 garlic, grounded
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp white pepper powder
1 tsp salt

Sauce:
2 tbsp tomato sauce
3 tbsp chili sauce
2 tbsp pineapple paste
1 tbsp salty soy sauce
2 tbsp water
1/2 tsp ginger paste
1/2 tsp garlic paste


Steamed Brownies

Posted by Lisa on Wednesday, April 18, 2007. Filed under: ,
11 Comments

Have you tried streamed brownies? Or have you heard of it? If your answer is no, try this recipe. When I made it, it was a big hit here :-). This brownies is very rich and vary chocolate. Remember, when you decide to give it a shout, do not bother about your weight... hehehe. Just enjoy every bite of the brownies


Ingredients:
8 egg yolks
4 white eggs
225 grams granulated sugar
50 grams all purpose flour
50 grams cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
120 butter (margarine)
50 gram Dark Cooking Chocolate, chopped.
80 grams chocolate rice for layer (use grated Dark Cooking Chocolate instead)


1. Arrange a large steamer over boiling water. Make sure it is large enough to hold the baking pan and there is enough water to make a lot of steam
2. In a pan, heat some water. Put butter in a sauce pan (larger than the pan), then place it over the boiling water. When the butter start melting, add chopped cooking chocolate. Mix them until fully melted. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl beat together with an electric mixer : eggs, and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy.
4. Sift together into the batter: flour, cocoa powder and baking soda. Mix well.
5. Add the butter-chocolate mixture. Mix well
6. Pour half of the batter to a greased pan, Place the pan into the steamer. Cover the top of the steamer with a kitchen towel, and place the lid on top; the towel will absorb any steam that collects on top from dripping onto the cake. Steam for about 10 minute on medium flame. Then add chocolate rice (grated cooking chocolate) over the cake equally. Steam for 5 minutes.
7. Pour the remaining batter and then steam the whole cake for around 20 minutes.



Rainbow Layers Steamed Cake (Kue Lapis Kukus)

Posted by Lisa on Sunday, April 8, 2007. Filed under: ,
22 Comments

This is my Mom's style of Layers Steamed Cake. Layers Steamed Cake is one of many popular snacks in Indonesia. And I love it when my Mother make it. I never make this cake as perfect as she does. I always have a problem with the layer's. It never be flat and smooth.. hahaha.

For the colors, red, white and green are always be the favorite. But you can use any other color of course. Brown color of chocolate is often use to replace the red layer. Even if you don't wish to use food color, just leave it. It will not give any differences with the taste. But you will not get the beautiful appearence and good aroma of the cake, of course.

This steamed cake doesn't need any butter or margarine. To make it soft, we use coconut milk instead. And if you don't have cake emulsifier in your kitchen, don't worry. Just leave it. You still can make the cake even without it.



Ingredients:
6 eggs
250 grams sugar
1 tsp cake emulsifier (optional)
200 -250 grams all purpose flour (approx)
2 glasses of thick coconut milk.
2 pandan leaves
1/2 tsp salt
red & green food colors

1. Arrange a large steamer over boiling water. Make sure it is large enough to hold the baking pan and there is enough water to make a lot of steam.
2. In a large bowl beat together with an electric mixer : eggs, sugar and cake emulsifier on high speed until light and fluffy (the mixture has increased about three times in volume)
3. Add the flour and coconut milk alternately in batches. Mix-well with a spatulla.
4. Divide the batter into 3, add each part with avalable food color. Mix well.
5. Pour one color batter to a greased pan, Place the pan into the steamer. Cover the top of the steamer with a kitchen towel, and place the lid on top; the towel will absorb any steam that collects on top from dripping onto the cake. Steam for about 5 minute, then pour over the first layer the next colored batter, and steam for another 5 minutes.
6. Pour the last layer and then steam the whole cake for around 20 - 25 minutes.

Adai

Posted by Lisa on Wednesday, March 28, 2007. Filed under: ,
5 Comments

Yes, I make Adai for our breakfast at home ;-p. I don't want to say that this is the original Adai since I knew this food only after I moved to Cochin. Well actually, I never found Adai in Cochin home for breakfast. Don't know why. The most common daily breakfast here are puttu, idli, dosa and appam.

The first time I taste this was when I stayed a couple of days in my brother-in-law's house in Madras. His wife made this delicious breakfast one morning, and we (me and my husband) enjoy it very much. Guess what, Adai is even new for my husband..!!!

We called it simply as Dosa. After we had our breakfast, my sister-in-law show me how to make it. She showed me the 4 different dals she use to prepare it. And I found it very easy to make and it doesn't need a fermentation at all. It's a perfect dish for breakfast...!

So here it is... The original recipe of Adai (I found out that this is called Adai, after I browse on the internet ;-p) by my sister in law.

Ingredients:
1 glass of white rice
1/4 glass of Thuvara Parippu (Toor Dal / Red Gram)
1/4 glass of Uzhunnu Parippu (Urad Dal / Black Gram)
1/4 glass of Cheru Parippu (Moong Dal / Green Gram)
1/4 glass of Kadala Parippu (Chana Dal / Bengal Gram)
enough water to make a batter
salt
1/2 cup Muringakka leaves

Soak the grains and pulses for 4 hours or more. Later wash and grind them together by adding a little water. No need to ferment the batter. Add salt and Muringakka leaves. Mix well.

To make adai: heat a pan and pour little oil and then pour a ladle of the batter and with a spatula make it to a round shape. Cook only one side. Seve with coconut chutney.

American Style Fried Chicken

Posted by Lisa on Thursday, March 1, 2007. Filed under:
15 Comments

Right, another Fried Chicken :-). But this time in different style. American Style. I don't want to claim that this is how americans usually do their fried chicken. I never live in US, though... hahaha. I named this posting American style only because we, Indonesians, first knew about this style of Fried Chicken by the booming of this kind of fast-food restaurants, started with KFC maybe around almost 20 years back. Now we have so many similiar restaurants, including McDonald almost everywhere.

As usual, everytime there is a new popular dish in town, people start to try to make the home-made one. After a lot of experiments on so many recipes of KFC style Fried Chicken, finally I can say that this is the best recipe so far. When I posted it in my Indonesian version Blog, there are several friends tried it, and they also satisfied with the result. The recipe is taken from Seri Memasak FEMINA magazine.


INGREDIENTS
1 whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces
1 teaspoon lime juice
2 teaspoons cooking oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
5 eggs white, beaten

ground to form a paste:
3 cloves garlic
3 candlenuts, dry roast on a pan
1 teaspoon coriander, dry roast on a pan
1 cm ginger
3 teaspoons chilli powder
1 teaspoon ground pepper

Coating Mix:
200 grams all purpose flour
20 grams cornstarch
20 grams rice flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon powdered coriander
1/8 teaspoon powdered nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1 teaspoon chilli powder

DIRECTIONS
1. Marinate chicken pieces in lime juice for about 30 minutes.
2. In a pan, heat 1 - 2 tbsp cooking oil, saute ground seasonings paste until fragrance and well cooked. Add in salt and sugar, stir well.
3. Add in chicken pieces, stir well. Cover the pan and cook chicken on low heat until done and the spice are fully absorbed. Remove from the heat and let it cool.
4. In another bowl, mix together the flour, cornstarch, rice flour, baking soda, coriander, nutmeg, salt, chilli powder and pepper.
5. Dip each piece of chicken into eggs white; then roll chicken in flour mixture until covered. Repeat this process once more. Store in an air-tight container. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
6. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and fry until golden brown turning both sides as needed.


In Indonesia (an also in India) normally people will enjoy this fried chicken as a side dish for rice. Fast food resstaurants in Indonesia will serve it with Steamed white rice while here in Cochin, they will serve with ghee rice. Of course there will be always another offers like French Fries and bun if you're not wish to eat it with rice.

Ayam Goreng Kuning (Fried Chicken)

Posted by Lisa on Saturday, February 24, 2007. Filed under:
4 Comments

This is the traditional and the most common way of Indonesians preparing Fried Chicken. The main spices used in this style of fried chicken is garlic, ginger, candlenuts, coriander, pepper and of couse turmeric that will gives the yellow colour. You can go with only those spices I mentioned if you cannot find the other spices required in the real recipe.

There are two phrase of cooking the chicken. First is simmering the chicken along with the paste-spices and water. And the second one is the deep-frying. The simmering part make the chicken already cooked and tender. We just need a short deep frying to make it dry.

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces
1 piece of lemongrass, take only the white part, and crush it.
2 salam leaves (indonesian bay leaves)
salt
1 cup of water
oil for deep frying

Grounded spices:
6 garlics
1 tsp coriander seeds
2 inches fresh turmeric (1/2 tsp turmeric powder)
3 inches galangal
2 inches ginger
1 tsp white pepper

Marinate the chicken pieces in the pasted-spices for about 1 hour. In a pot, boil the chicken along with the spice paste with low heat. Add salt, lemon grass, salam leaves and water. Cook with a lid until all the water has gone in low heat.

Remove from stove and let it cool.

Heat enough cooking oil in a pan. Deep fried the cooked chicken pieces until golden yellow. Remove from oil, and drain it with kitchen towel.

The best way to enjoy this dish is with hot steamed white rice, accompanied with 'lalap' (fresh raw vegetables : cabbage, cucumber, kemangi leaves, and sliced tomato). And don't forget the hot red chilli Sambal (remember... Sambal not Sambar ;-p).

Cah Bok Choy (Bok Choy with Oyster Sauce)

Posted by Lisa on Friday, February 16, 2007. Filed under: ,
8 Comments

As I wrote in my previous post about Gobi Manchurian, there are some differences in taste between chinese dishes prepared in Indian hotels and the one that I knew in Indonesia. This in one of the most common taste of chinese dishes in Indonesia. You can find it everywhere from home-dinner table to the five stars hotel and restaurants.

Last week when I was shopping in one supermarket in Cochin, to my surprise I found Bok Choy on the vegetables racks. Yes, right. That was the first time for me to find it in Cochin for tha last 3 years I live in Cochin. Panicly, I bought all Bok Choy they had... I was so worry I could not find it next time (and it's true. I came to the same supermarket 3 times after that, and never find the same vegetables). So I guess that was my luck and make me able to post this entry.

Once I was told by my chinese friend about the main ingredients for making chinese dish you should have. First is of course Soy sauce. If you were in Indonesia, choose the Salty Soy Sauce, as we have another kind of Soy Sauce: Sweet Soy Sauce. The second one is Sesame Oil. This oil have a specific taste and aroma that will make the dish special.

Ingredients:
2 Bok Choy, clean and remove it's stalks
125 grams cleaned prawns (or squids, cut into small pieces)
1/2 Onion, finely minced
2 garlics, minced
1 cm ginger, crushed
2 tbsp Oyster Sauce
1 tbsp corn flour
salt
1/2 tsp black pepper, powdered
200 ml water
1 tsp sesame oil

In a pan, bring to boil some water and a pinch of salt. Add Bok Choy and cook for 1 minute. Remove from pan and drain it. Put the cooked Bok Choy in a plate, set aside.

In a frying pan, heat a little oil. Add minced garlic, Onion and ginger. Stir fry them until the aroma comes. Add prawns and fry until they slightly pink in color.

In a bowl, mix together: Oyster sauce, corn flour, salt, black pepper, sesame oil and water. Pour the mixture to the frying pan. Bring to boil and cook until the gravy thicken. remove from pan and pour the sauce over the cooked Bok Choy. Serve hot.

Upma

Posted by Lisa on Saturday, February 10, 2007.
2 Comments

Since I learned to preapre this Upma, it always save me when I'm confused what to prepare for breakfast. This is the common type of Upma.

1 cup Rava
1 Onion (medium), finely chopped
2 Green Chillies, slit lengthwise
1/2 inch long Ginger, minced
1 medium size carrot, diced into smal cubes
1/2 tsp Salt
A few of Curry leaves
1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
2 tspGhee
Coriander leaves

Dry roast the rava in a pan till it becomes light brown. Keep aside.
In another pan, heat ghee and fry the mustard seeds. Add curry leaves, chopped onions, chillies, minced ginger, carrot and coriander leaves to it and fry for 2 - 3 minutes.
Add 1 1/2 cups of water and salt. Let it boil. Last, add rava to the boiling water little by little, stirring the water properly. Cook until it is soft and lumpy.
Serve hot.


Simple Fried Rice

Posted by Lisa on Friday, February 2, 2007. Filed under:
21 Comments

Fried Rice is always be the favourite dish for most Indonesians. It's hardly to find someone who doesn't like it.

Since most of us make the dish in urgency hours or whenever we're lazy to cook a complete meal (well, not always like that but mostly.. ;-p), the simpler the method of preparation is the better.

Couple days ago I was chatting with my friend in Jakarta right after I had my breakfast. We had an intense conversation (funny, I don't even remember what was the topic ;-p) when finally I feel very hungry and I realize it's almost lunch time..!

So this is what she suggest me to get the instant but delicious lunch. The Fried Rice was a perfect one for me. It's simple and easy to make and the taste is excellent. You can add whatever you have in your refrigerator to the rice. Vegetables are always the best choice. But of course diced chicken, prawns or chooped meatballs will make the fried rice taste more delicious. Try this one.

Ingredients:
2 portion/plates of cooked white rice
2 garlic, smashed roughly
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 medium size carrot, dice into small cubes
1/2 cup frozen green peas
salt as you desire
white pepper powder
1 tbsp soy sauce ( you can use salty or sweet soy sauce, as you desire)

Heat a little oil in a pan, toss garlic until the aroma comes out. Add the beaten eggs and stir fast on high flame follow by vegetables and stir fry them for some times (if you like, no need to over-cooked the vegetables).

Add to the mixture salt and white pepper powder, mix well. Then pour in cooked rice, stir all and make sure there is no lumps of rice. Add soy sauce, mix well. Let it cook for few minutes without stirring. Remove from flame and serve hot.

If you wish to add diced chicken or prawn, and them after tossing garlic. Make sure they all cooked before you add the eggs. Enjoy...

Chicken Liver Masala

Posted by Lisa on Monday, January 29, 2007. Filed under: ,
6 Comments

I never prepare chicken liver dish in Indian way before. I just didn't know how, cause I found it very rare (never) in Kerala house. One day when I bought one package of chicken livers from nearest supermarket, I decided to give it a shot. So I just browsed around. And you know what, I found only one recipe from Pachakam.

The preparation a little bit 'confusing' if you follow the recipes though, hehehehe.... So, just use your feeling. That would be better. And I feel satisfied with the taste... For me, it's perfect with rice, but not with chapati as the recipe's owner suggested.

As only two of us in the house who will enjoy it, I adjust the ingredient according to our need and the ingredients available in our kitchen. My husband love it..

2 tbsp oil for stir frying
1 Onion, chopped
5 cm cinnamon stick, break into pieces
1 potato (big size), cut intu small cubes
salt as required
a little water

2 tbsp oil for frying
3 garlic (minced)
2 tomatoes, chopped
250 grams chicken liver, cut into pieces
1/2 cup frozen green peas
2 green chilies, slit lengthwise
1/4 tsp garam masala

For the paste:
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder

Heat 2 tbsp oil over medium heat. Fry the onions and cinnamon, until the onions are soft. Add the potatoes, salt and stir-fry the potatoes for about 2 minutes. Add some water, cover the pan and simmer until the potatoes are tender.

Heat the remaining oil over medium heat in a heavy bottomed wide pan. Add the garlic and stir-fry for 30 sec. Add the spice paste, lower the heat and stir fry for about 2 minutes. Add half of the tomatoes, along with some of the juice, stir and cook for further 2-3 minutes, breaking the tomatoes with the spoon. When the mixture is fairly dry, add the liver and adjust heat to medium high. Stir-fry the liver for 3-4 minutes. Add the remaining tomatoes and the juice, stir-fry for 5-6 minutes. Cover the pan and simmer for about 8 minutes.

Add the potatoes, green peas, green chillies and the remaining salt and cook for a minute or two. Adjust heat to medium and cook uncovered for further 5 minutes. Stir in the garam masala powder and remove from heat.

Original Recipe : Pachakam

Aloo Paratha

Posted by Lisa on Thursday, January 25, 2007. Filed under:
8 Comments

Actually, this is my first time to cook Aloo Paratha in my own kitchen. And I found out that the process is not that difficult as I thought. I think I will make aloo paratha more often than before...

For the Dough:
2 cups Whole wheat flour (atta)
3/4 warm water for kneading (approx)
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp ghee or butter.

For Stuffing:
3 large boiled potatoes
1 onion, finely chooped (small size)
2 tbsp minced cilantro
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/4 tsp red chili powder, or to taste

For the dough: Sieve the flour together with salt. Add warm water a little at a time, and knead to form a soft dough. Set aside

For the stuffing: Mash well the boiled potatoes. Add all the stuffing items to mashed potatoes and mix it properly.

Divide the dough into balls of equal portions and. Roll one ball to form of a small puri. Now put a small quantity of above mixture (potatoes) over it, close it from all sides. Apply some flour on both sides and roll it gently into a paratha. Heat a flat pan and cook paratha, by applying 1/2 - 1 tsp. oil on each side, until light brown and serve hot.

Bubur Sumsum

Posted by Lisa on Friday, January 19, 2007. Filed under: , ,
10 Comments

Finally, I got the mood to write down the recipe of Bubur Sumsum, one of all-times favorite appetizer of many Indonesians. Well, actually I'm not quite sure this bubur is an appetizer. We usually don't eat appetizer, just straight to the Main Dish... !

Bubur is a term we use for 'Porridge'. The most common ingredient for making porridge in Indonesia is rice. Bubur sumsum is porridge made from combination of white rice powder and coconut milk, served with jaggery sauce. It has a very soft texture. Most children love to have it for their breakfast. I like it too ;-p. But believe it or not, even though it is not hard to prepare this dish, I never made my own Bubur Sumsum before. Don't blame me. Why should I spent time in kitchen to make this while I can buy it easily... hehehehe. Yes, we have an old lady who will bring the bubur in her basket and sell it door to door every evening.


Making this bubur is not diffcult thing to do in Kerala. We have all the ingredient here. However, Indonesia and Kerala share commons of food together. Rice powder and coconut milk is the main ingredients for both Idonesia and Kerala. So I think the taste will not be that strange for Kerala people. Lets start with the recipes....


for the porridge:
100 grams white rice powder
750 cc coconut milk
1 tsp salt
2 sheets of pandan leaves

For Sauce:
250 gram jagerry
1 cup of water
2 sheets of Pandan leaves.

In a Pan, mix together white rice powder, salt and coconut milk to form a very smooth batter. Tear the Pandan leaves then add to the batter. Cook the batter along with coconut leaves in medium hot flame. Stir continousely until it became thick and cooked.

For the sauce: Mix all the ingredients in a pan then bring them to boil and let the jaggery dissolved. Strain it and the sauce is ready to serve.

Put 2 - 3 ladle of bubur in a bowl then pour the sauce over it. Serve it hot... Yummy...

Gobi Manchurian

Posted by Lisa on Monday, January 15, 2007. Filed under:
16 Comments

I enjoy the taste of Chinese Cuisines served by Indian restaurants... ;-p. Chili Chicken, Chilli Gobi.. and Gobi Manchurian are my favorite. For me they don't taste like the chinese food I've known before. I always joke to my husband whenever we visit chinese restaurant in Cochin... "aaaah.. you mean, Indian Chinese food.." hehehe. They actually really new taste for me. I mean, I rarely find this kind in Chinese restaurant in Indonesia.

But I like it anyway. Especially when it served dry, not with gravy. I think most of Restaurant in Cochin serve them with gravy because most of people still enjoy them as a side dish for chappati or porrota... Hmmm, Nice combination of chinese and Indian then.. :-)

For the cauliflower:
250 grams cauliflower (1 medium size), cut into small florets
1/3 cup corn flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour (maida)
1/3 cup water (approx)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp white pepper powder

Sauce:
1 medium size Onion, chopped
2 garlics, minced
1 inch ginger, minced
2 green chilies, chopped
1 tbsp soya sauce
4 tbsp hot and sweet sauce
1/2 tsp vinegar
1/4 tsp white pepper powder
salt as per taste
1 tbsp corn flour dissolve in 1/2 cup water
1/4 cup chopped green onion + green corriander

In a bowl mix maida, corn flour, salt and pepper by adding water to form a fine batter. Add the cauliflower into the batter and mix well. Heat oil in a pan, deep fry the cauliflower florets covered with batter until brown and cooked. Set aside.

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan, add chooped Onion, green chilies, minced garlic and ginger. Saute in high flame for 5 minutes until they turn slightly tender. Add soy sauce, hot & sweet sauce and vinegar. Saute again for 3 minutes. Add salt and pepper powder. Then add the corn flour mixture and cook until the sauce thicken. Add the fried cauliflower and mix them so all the florets is covered with the sauce. Remove from flame and garnish with chopped green onion and crriander leaves.

White Chocolate Muffins

Posted by Lisa on Friday, January 12, 2007. Filed under: , ,
5 Comments


What more can I say about this muffins...? You know I love muffins. This recipe is taken from "Le Cordon Bleu Home Edition, MUFFIN". One of my Indonesian food blogger friend posted it in her blog. Never skip the Lemon rind ingredient, otherwise you will miss the sensation of the good aroma...

375 g (12 oz) self-raising flour
125 g (4 oz) caster sugar
200 g (6 ½ oz) white chocolate, chopped
2 eggs
375 mil (12 fl oz) milk
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind
160 g (5 ¼ oz) unsalted butter, melted
45 g (1 ½ oz) flaked almonds

1. Preheat the oven to hot 210°C (415°F/Gas 6-7). Brush a 6-hole (250ml/8 fl oz capacity) muffin tin with melted butter or oil. Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl, stir in the sugar and chocolate and make a well in the centre
2. Whisk the eggs, milk and lemon rind together in a jug, and pour into the well in the dry ingredients. Add the butter, and stir with a metal spoon until the mixture is just combined. Do not over mix – the mixture should be lumpy.
3. Spoon the mixture into the muffin tin, filling each hole to about three-quarters full. Sprinkle flaked almonds on top of the mixture and gently press them on. Bake for 25 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre of a muffin. Leave the muffins in the tin for 5 minutes before lifting out onto a wire rack to cool

Chocolate-Nuts Muffin

Posted by Lisa Filed under: , ,
1 Comment

Yes. Another Muffins. I always love muffins. And I love chocolate too. The combination of both makes a perfect snack for tea time. Just like this Brownies-looked-like Muffins.

The original recipe is Chocolate-Cherry Muffins from William Sonoma's Kitchen. For the usual reason (difficult to get the ingredient mentioned), I used Cashew Nuts instead of Dried Cherries.

When adding the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mix them in quickly, just enough to form a rough, lumpy batter. If the batter is overbeaten, the muffins will be tough.


Ingredients:
3 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
3 Tbs. unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt1 egg
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 cup dried cherries

Preheat an oven to 325ºF. Grease a 6-well heart-shaped muffin baking pan.

In a small heatproof bowl, combine the chocolate and butter. Set the bowl over but not touching simmering water in a small saucepan and melt the chocolate and butter, stirring occasionally, until smooth and blended. Let cool slightly.

In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the egg, sugar and vanilla until light in color and doubled in volume. Whisk in the chocolate mixture and then the flour mixture just until combined. Stir in the dried cherries.

Divide the batter evenly among the wells of the prepared pan and smooth the tops. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, about 20 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Remove the muffins from the pan and set on the rack. Serve warm. Makes 6 muffins.