I wanted to make yeasted cardamom-raisin buns for breakfast this morning but discovered last night, after loading all the other ingredients in the bread machine, that I don't actually have any ground cardamom. Only pods. Mostly I'm happy to have cardamom pods, but in a bun — rather than in a curry — I thought that might be a bit crunchy.
(Of course, you can soak pods overnight in the liquid you're going to use to make the buns, scenting it, and that's probably preferable to ground cardamom anyway, but I couldn't do that and still get the pods back out, what with the bread machine and all).
The solution was not long in coming: Chai spices! (I still have quite a lot of this wonderful chai tin left).
Just a half teaspoon of chai spices, plus a standard yeast-bun recipe (with apple juice as both sweetener and liquid), plus half a cup of raisins, and we were in business. The resulting buns were tender and lightly scented. I drizzled them very lightly with the sort of icing you would put on cinnamon rolls. Very nice. Currants might have been even better.
You have to spice yeast buns lightly, because some spices — cinnamon is infamous for this, cloves too I think — suppress the yeast growth. Good to know if you've got a Candida infloration, not so good if you want spiced yeast buns for breakfast.
In other recipe news, while I was visiting friend and commenter Christy P in Utah, we had lunch with the little girls at a Thai restaurant, and were mutually inspired with a possibility for the autumn fruit salad problem I mentioned before.
So, I know this is no good if you have allergies, but what say you to a salad of lots of thinly sliced crisp apples and pears, grated carrots, and either seedless grapes or raisins, dressed with a non-garlicked and extra-citrusy version of a Thai peanut sauce? Maybe with coconut? I plan to try this later this week. (Maybe the peanut-phobic could try a sweet tahini-based sauce? Dunno.)
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