Spicy Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup for French Fridays with Dorie & Food Revolution Day

May 17, 2013 · 36 Comments

 

Today is my second day home from vacation and I’m running around while trying to get to the giant pile of laundry on top of my washing machine.  Today is also the cook’s recipe choice for  French Fridays with Dorie and Cook & Share Food Revolution Day.  I think Dorie’s spicy Vietnamese chicken noodle soup is just the kind of light but flavorful meal you want to enjoy at home after vacation.  It’s a recipe I’ve wanted to make since joining FFWD and a perfect bowl of wholesome spicy deliciousness that can be shared to celebrate Food Revolution Day.

My garden was quietly producing stalks of fresh Thai basil, mint and cilantro without any idea that a food revolution was brewing on it’s horizon.  As it turned out my herbs would be willing participants in an international movement for awareness of the importance of good wholesome food and essential cooking skills in our communities started by Jaime Oliver who has a passion for teaching cooking from scratch.  Yes, I pressed my fresh herbs into service for a global cooking day to try and raise awareness for the importance of making meals from scratch using fresh ingredients in our own kitchens, including using herbs from our own kitchen garden plots, just like our parents and grandparents.

I also loaded up my spicy Vietnamese chicken soup with loads of fresh bean sprouts, what can I say(?)- besides I love bean sprouts, graduated from high school in 1972 and can remember the Beatles song “talk about a revolution, when you talk about destruction/ don’t you know that you can count me out”…just like it was yesterday.

I also made a red chili oil to swirl on top of my soup using roasted chili paste mixed into toasted sesame oil.  The red chili oil, bean sprouts, chopped raw cashews and fresh herbs are garnishes on top of this soup that should not be missed- just think of your mouth experiencing it’s own taste bud revolution in honor of this important Food Revolution Day.

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Spicy Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup for French Fridays with Dorie & Food Revolution Day

Yield: 4 generous bowls of soup

Adapted from Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan.

Ingredients

  • Stems from 1 bunch cilantro
  • 2 points star anise
  • 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
  • 1 teaspoon white peppercorns
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
  • 1 1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled
  • 2 dried red chilies (I used crushed jalapeno pepper flakes to taste)
  • Lemongrass, peeled and chopped
  • 6 cup chicken broth
  • 1 can unsweetened coconut milk
  • 1/4 cup Asian fish sauce
  • 1 teaspoon brown sugar
  • Salt (amount varies depending on the sodium content of your chicken broth)
  • 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast
  • 5 ounces brown rice Pad Thai noodles
  • 4-6 tablespoons fresh lime juice
  • Cilantro, Thai basil and mint, torn fresh herbs to taste
  • Bean sprouts
  • Fresh lime wedges
  • Chili oil
  • Cashews, chopped

Instructions

  1. Put cilantro stems, star anise, lemongrass, ginger, dried chiles, garlic coriander seeds, and peppercorns in a square of cheesecloth and tie bundle together. Add to a stock pot or dutch oven. Add onion, then pour in chicken stock and coconut milk. Season with 2 tablespoons of fish sauce, brown sugar, and a generous pinch of salt and bring to boil.
  2. Lower to a simmer, slide in the chicken breast, cover the pot and poach the chicken gently for 15-20 minutes or until cooked. Transfer chicken to bowl to cool, turn off heat to soup and keep covered. Cook the noodles according to the package. Once the chicken is cool, shred it with your fingers (a fork can help with this). Bring the soup to a boil again, then lower to a simmer and stir in chicken and noodles. Add more fish sauce, lime juice and salt to taste. Serve in bowls with fresh herbs, bean sprouts, chili oil and cashews.
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Lemon Buttermilk Rhubarb Bundt Cakelets

May 6, 2013 · 35 Comments

Are you ever tempted to purchase a somewhat useful but mostly cute ‘novelty’ cake pan?

If my lemon buttermilk rhubarb bundt cakelets aren’t tempting enough to get you thinking mini cakes, consider these excerpts from the Williams-Sonoma site describing the Nordic Ware Mini Bundt Pans they offer for sale- “Bake up six perfectly sculpted little cakes with this cleverly designed pan; just pour in your favorite batter and bake” or this description of a mini mini Nordic Ware bundt pan that can be used “to create an irresistible assortment of 30 desserts, all at once”. After reading those descriptions I was feeling tempted and thinking that I just may need to add another cake pan to my collection.

I could go on with more really cute pans from Nordic Ware that I think I need but my husband just told me that I need to conserve, I’m not sure exactly what he meant but I think it means- no more cute fun baking pans.

Nordic Ware did celebrate it’s 65th anniversary a few years back by re-issuing a popular pan and I’m sure you guessed it was-”an adorable platinum anniversary bundtlette pan”-love that word-bundtlette, which sounds to me like some type of cozy blanket wrapped around a sweet newborn baby.  The Platinum Anniversary Bundtlette Pan is still available on their site for $50 plus shipping.  Nordic Ware makes other products, such as cookware and other types of kitchen accessories but it’s their bakeware that certain consumers (who shall remain nameless) have been known to create extra cabinet space in their basements or garages to store.

So, I thought I would just make a harmless perusal of the bakeware on the Nordic Ware site while still on a high from the  baking success of my Bundt pan cakelets, another word I like just as much or more than bundtlettes.  So, what pan did I find that I may have to sneak into my house or close to the inside of my house.  Well, how cute(?) is the Bundt Duet Pan, which bakes two mini bundt cakes, a kind of his and hers cake pan.  Or the Platinum Rose Bundt Pan, I’ve always been smitten with rose shaped bundt cakes.

As good as rhubarb is paired with strawberries, it’s also pretty good baked in a bundt cake flavored with buttermilk and lemon.  I found this cake recipe in a favorite baking book, Rustic Fruit Desserts- a collection of old-timey fruit desserts by Cory Schreiber and Julie Richardson.  My first attempt at this cake recipe I used a large 10″ bundt pan and we loved it.  I had planned to re-make it using berries next time instead of rhubarb.  But then time passed and rhubarb season rolled around again.   I remembered my stashed away mini bundt pans and how good this cake is made with rhubarb, so once again I went with the rhubarb.  The only change I made to this recipe was to add buttermilk to the lemony glaze which was inspired by Valerie, an an accomplished cake baker @une gamine dans la cuisine.

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Lemon Buttermilk Rhubarb Bundt Cakelets

Yield: 8 cakelets or 1 10-cup Bundt pan

Adapted from Rustic Fruit Desserts by Cory Schreiber and Julie Richardson. Buttermilk glaze adapted from une gamine dans la cuisine.

Ingredients

  • For the Cake
  • 2 & 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons(for rhubarb) all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter
  • 1 & 3/4 cups sugar
  • Zest of 1 lemon, I used a Meyer lemon
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/2 teaspoon lemon oil
  • 3/4 cup buttermilk
  • 1 lb rhubarb (3 cups), trimmed and thinly sliced
  • For the Lemon Buttermilk Glaze
  • 2 cups sifted powdered sugar, plus more as needed
  • 1 & 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoons buttermilk
  • 1 &1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
  2. Spray mini Bundt cakelet pans, I made 8 mini cakes or this recipe makes a 10-cup Bundt pan for one large cake.
  3. To make the Cakelets
  4. In a medium bowl sift together the flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.
  5. In the bowl of a standing mixer, using the paddle attachment, cream the butter, sugar and lemon zest together for about 4 minutes or until light and fluffy.
  6. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl as needed, stir in the lemon oil.
  7. Stir the flour mixture in three additions alternating with the buttermilk, starting and ending with the flour.
  8. The batter will be thick.
  9. Toss the rhubarb slices with the 2 tablespoons of flour and fold half the rhubarb into the batter.
  10. Scrape the batter into the cake pans and sprinkle the remaining rhubarb on top.
  11. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until golden brown on edges and the top springs back when pressed.
  12. Cool the cakes in the pan for about 10-15 minutes, remove from the molds and continue cooling on a metal rack, placed over a baking pan.
  13. To make the Lemon Buttermilk Glaze
  14. Whisk the powdered sugar, lemon juice, buttermilk and butter together in a medium bowl.
  15. The mixture should be thick, add additional powdered sugar if needed.
  16. Spread the glaze over the cakes as soon as you remove them from the pan.
  17. Covered cakes will last up to 4 days at room temperature.
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Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins with Rhubarb Conserve

April 29, 2013 · 28 Comments

Strawberries and rhubarb do make a great pie filling but they also pair wonderfully in these muffins, especially with the addition of your own homemade rhubarb conserve.  Rhubarb conserve is jammy sweet with a concentrated tangy rhubarb flavor to it.   When it’s in season I can’t get enough rhubarb and one of my favorite ways to enjoy it is in a conserve which can be added to the batter of baked goods like these muffins.  I also spread the rhubarb conserve on my strawberry rhubarb muffins when they are warm right out of the oven.  But, don’t stop there, spoon rhubarb conserve on toast, brioche, croissants, into tartlet shells or use as a sauce on vanilla ice cream with sliced strawberries.  I picked up more rhubarb over the weekend and I’m making another batch of conserve this afternoon while I can still find the rhubarb stalks in my market.

Strawberry season is just starting here in the Bay Area with most of the sweet ripe berries coming up from Southern California, like the berries from San Diego I bought last week at the farmer’s market.  Now is the time to combine strawberries and rhubarb in your baking while the strawberries can benefit from the sugar added to the rhubarb for sweetness.

Rhubarb season runs from January, for the hot house grown rhubarb, all the way into Summer months for the field grown rhubarb which we do grow in California.  However, most of our rhubarb comes from Washington and Oregon where this cool weather loving crop thrives.  The main reason we may not be able to find rhubarb in our markets is due to it’s dwindling popularity.  There just isn’t that much rhubarb grown compared to earlier years when it was more popular with consumers.  I read that San Leandro in Alameda County had a rhubarb belt that consisted of more than 1300 acres, but that was before 1940.

When I see the familiar red stocks of rhubarb in the market in early Spring, I think of rhubarb with strawberries and buy a big bag.  Then I hope that the next time I go the market I find rhubarb again and plan on buying another bag before it disappears and I have to wait until next Spring.

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Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins with Rhubarb Conserve

Yield: 24 muffins plus 2 cups Rhubarb Conserve

Recipe adapted from Cooking from the Garden- best recipes of Kitchen Gardener.

Ingredients

  • 3 & 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 4 & 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 & 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking spice, Penzeys brand
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
  • 2 large eggs
  • 3/4 cup canola oil
  • 1 & 1/4 cups whole milk
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
  • 1 cup Rhubarb Conserve (recipe follows)
  • 3 cups chopped strawberries
  • 1 tablespoon crystallized ginger chips
  • For the Rhubarb Conserve
  • 4 cups diced rhubarb
  • 1 & 1/4 cups sugar
  • 1/2 orange, juiced
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla paste (optional but very good)

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 375F.
  2. Line 2 -12 cup muffin tins with paper liners.
  3. Mix together all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
  4. In another bowl whisk together the eggs, oil, milk, vanilla and balsamic vinegar.
  5. Stir in the Rhubarb Conserve, chopped strawberries, ginger and wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, gently mixing until just combined.
  6. Scoop the batter evenly into the muffin tins using an ice cream scoop.
  7. Bake for about 22-25 minutes, until the middle springs back when gently pressed-rotate the pans half way through baking.
  8. Cool on metal racks.
  9. To Make the Rhubarb Conserve
  10. Place the rhubarb, sugar, orange juice and vanilla extract in a medium saucepan over a medium low heat.
  11. Cook, stirring occasionally until the mixture thickens, about 20 minutes.
  12. Remove the rhubarb mixture from the heat and stir in the vanilla paste, cool.
  13. The conserve can be kept in the refrigerator up to 2 weeks.
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Blueberry Ricotta Custard Cake

April 25, 2013 · 30 Comments

 

This pound cake made with creamy whole milk ricotta cheese not only tenderly embraces a basket of fresh blueberries in it’s rich flavored interior but also easily releases from the slightly cooled loaf pan.  A pound cake recipe made with whole milk ricotta that’s a keeper, for sure.  I will admit to being afraid to try it with raspberries, why stress myself out(?) when blueberries are so good.  I’m still thinking about my Isaphan raspberry cake disaster, it seems to have made a somewhat lasting impression on me.  Not to worry, when the time is right my goal will be to knock it out of the park with a raspberry filled cake, maybe when prices for raspberries come down.

It’s important to find the Italian style whole milk ricotta for this pound cake recipe and not use the skim milk kind, which I’ve used for years in my lasagna.  I used the Whole Foods brand whole milk ricotta in my cake and not having another brand to compare it with was very happy with my results, it’s also quite a bit less expensive than the other brands they carry.  Whole milk ricotta makes a rich pound cake with good flavor and a more custard like interior, much different than a traditional style pound cake that uses more butter.

I used fairly big fresh blueberries but smaller frozen blueberries also work, just be careful to gently stir the blueberries into your batter, so they don’t get smashed and turn your pound cake purple.  I think the color of the baked blueberries is kind of interesting, more purple, compared to the fresh ones.  A suggested name for this cake could be Turn Your Blueberries Purple Ricotta Custard Cake.

What happened to our sunshine this morning?  It looks like the fog rolled in last night and that today would make a good baking day.  Another opportunity to try that raspberry cake -I can always cover it with whipped cream and more fresh raspberries if things get dicey.  For now I’m going to stick with blueberries in my cake and whole milk ricotta in my batter.

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Blueberry Ricotta Custard Cake

Yield: 1 9\" loaf cake.

Adapted from Standard Baking Co. Pastries by Alison Pray and Tara Smith.

Ingredients

  • 1&1/2 cups cake flour, sifted
  • 2 &1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
  • 3/4 cup (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 & 1/4 cups sugar
  • 1 cup plus 3 tablespoons whole milk ricotta
  • 3 eggs, room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 & 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to350F.
  2. Coat a 9x5" loaf pan with baking spray.
  3. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.
  4. Put the softened butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer, cream with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy.
  5. Add the ricotta slowly on medium low speed, scraping down when needed.
  6. Blend until smooth.
  7. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping the bowl down between each addition.
  8. Beat in the vanilla.
  9. Add the dry ingredients on low speed, blending until just combined, scrape down the bowl and blend for 30 seconds on medium speed.
  10. Gently fold in the blueberries by hand using a spatula.
  11. Pour batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
  12. Bake for 30 minutes and gently rotate the pan.
  13. Reduce the oven temperature to 325F and bake for another 30-40 minutes or until tester inserted in cake comes out clean.
  14. Remove the cake from oven and cool in pan for 15-20 minutes.
  15. Turn the cake out and continue to cool before serving.
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Very Berry ~4 kinds of Berries~ Napa Cabbage Salad

April 19, 2013 · 28 Comments

I was in the mood for an easy fresh and fruity salad today.  The strawberries from San Diego at the farmer’s market this morning were calling out to me, saying both serve me with vanilla ice cream for dessert and toss me into a salad for dinner tonight.  Is this berry overload?  Impossible, the parade of fresh berries is just getting underway and I’m already planning for pies, tarts and berry covered cereal for breakfast over the coming months.

Originally I was thinking about using one kind of berry  in my salad but once I started adding the berries, I just kept going… thinking the more the merrier, welcome to my Spring berry party.

I served this salad to my ‘littles’ and they loved it, gobbling up all the berries but also eating a fair amount of the salad.  I would also serve this colorful berry filled Napa cabbage salad with grilled chicken for dinner or maybe with a slice of quiche for a Spring lunch with girlfriends.  I added a handful of almonds for crunch and a light citrus dressing made with Persian lime extra virgin olive oil to bring out all the berry flavors.

Next on my baking with berries to do list is either a cake or a pie, maybe strawberry rhubarb pie-doesn’t that sound good?

I’m looking forward to a quiet relaxing weekend with some beautiful warm weather here in the Bay Area and of course a quick trip to the farmer’s market in search of my rhubarb along with a few more baskets of sweet strawberries.

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Very Berry ~4 kinds of berries~ Napa Cabbage Salad

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

  • 1 small head Napa cabbage, washed, dried, sliced thin and chopped
  • 5 scallions, white and light green parts minced
  • 1/4 cup cilantro leaves, lightly chopped
  • 1/2 cup sliced almonds
  • 1 small basket raspberries
  • 1 small basket blueberries
  • 1 small basket blackberries
  • 1 small basket strawberries, trimmed and cut in half
  • for the dressing
  • 3 tablespoons extra virgin Persian Lime olive oil (Stonehouse California Olive Oil)
  • 1 lime, juiced
  • 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons honey
  • Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Place all the ingredients for the dressing in the bottom of a large salad bowl and whisk together until emulsified. Stir in the cabbage, scallions and cilantro, let rest to soften the cabbage.
  2. Gently stir in the berries and almonds before serving. Add extra cilantro, salt and pepper to taste, if necessary.
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Spicy Cherry Tomato Rice with a recipe for Tomato Masala from Rose of Magpie’s Recipes

April 15, 2013 · 23 Comments

My friend and next town over neighbor Rose from Magpie’s Recipes is leaving the Bay Area and moving back to India next week.  We met at a Bay Area food blogger’s lunch and soon made plans to meet at our local farmer’s market.  A few weeks later we spent the morning marketing (mostly tasting different kinds of plums!) and then cooked lunch together at my house last Summer making both this spicy cherry tomato rice and an easy small batch of spiced plum preserves.

I’ve been holding on to both the photos of Rose’s tomato rice and her recipe for months, at least since last year’s plum and end of tomato season.  Time passes too quickly for me and I can’t believe how long it’s taken me to share this wonderful plate of spicy cherry tomato rice with you.

Rose is originally from Kerala in South India but has traveled and lived all over the world.  Rose aka Magpie brings her love of spices with her on all her global adventures as well as actual spices from home which she generously shares with her friends.  Her grandparents and uncles are farmers and entrepreneurs in India who grow rice, coconut, cashew nuts, bananas, cardamom, nutmeg, rubber, pine apples, pepper, kokum and mangosteen.  Yes, I had to look up kokum…a small round fruit that tastes both sweet and salty.  Garcinia indica…a plant in the mangosteen family that bears fruit for culinary, pharmaceutical and industrial uses.

I don’t know if this is the right time to mention it, but I did grow the little cherry tomatoes and sprigs of Thai basil we used on the tomato rice!

The last time I met Rose was with Gina at the San Rafael farmer’s market, she gave me a bag of cardamom  and a lovely scarf that I will always cherish.  When I reach for those cardamom pods, which I do for baking, I will think about Rose and her sister as young girls being chased by geese at their family’s farm in Kerala, South India and how important it is to seize the moment especially making time with friends a priority…because you just never know..with very short notice.. they might move to the other side of the world!

I’m excited for Rose’s move back to India as she will be closer to her family.  But soon I will  be missing a friend who will be living on the other side of the world…and with my thoughts about Rose and her move next week.. I can’t think of a better time to share one of her delicious recipes with everyone.  Rose is such a fantastic cook and her blog is filled with so many beautiful pictures and unique delicious recipes-I can’t wait to see what she shares from her new home in India.

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Spicy Cherry Tomato Rice with a recipe for Tomato Masala from Rose of Magpie’s Recipes

Serving Size: 4 small servings

Recipe from Rose of Magpie's Recipes.

Ingredients

  • for tomato masala
  • 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
  • 1/4 teaspoon brown mustard seeds
  • 1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 yellow onion,chopped
  • 3 whole cloves
  • 1 teaspoon garam masala-we used Penzeys from my spices
  • 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
  • 2-3 large tomatoes, chopped fine
  • for spicy cherry tomato rice
  • 1 basket cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
  • Sprigs of Thai basil
  • 2-3 cups cooked basmati rice

Instructions

  1. Heat oil in skillet, add mustard and cumin seeds.
  2. When the mustard starts to pop and cumin seeds splutter and turn light brown, add the garlic and cloves.
  3. Stir occasionally and when the garlic starts to brown add the onion.
  4. Stir the onion until it turns translucent and starts to brown.
  5. Add the gram masala and chili powder, stir for a minute.
  6. Add the tomatoes and stir occasionally until the tomatoes turn mushy and have cooked down into a thick mass, this will take several minutes.
  7. This is a basic tomato masala recipe to which you can:
  8. Add the cherry tomatoes, sprigs of Thai basil and serve mixed with cooked rice.
  9. Options from Rose
  10. Add hard boiled eggs and simmer for 10 minutes to make egg curry.
  11. Add peas and small amount of water, simmer covered for a few minutes to make peas masala curry.
  12. Add pan roasted chicken and simmer to make chicken curry
  13. Add cooked lentils and simmer to make lentil curries.
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Berry Financiers for French Fridays with Dorie

April 11, 2013 · 40 Comments

 

After the disaster I had with the last berry filled pastry for French Fridays with Dorie I wasn’t sure I would attempt another one… I’m happy to report that my berry financiers were a total success and I was excited to use the financier molds that were a gift from a friend and have been stashed in my kitchen for several years.  Traditionally  financiers are made with brown butter and I think have a wonderful chewy texture from almond flour.  The mixed berries nestled on top are a kind of icing on the cake of  this beloved Parisian born sweet.

The cooking schedule of  the online cooking group French Fridays with Dorie features seasonal recipes selected from Around My French Table.  This week’s recipe with the option to use fresh berries is perfect for this time of year and I hope it inspires everyone to make it over to their local farmer’s market and load up on berries.

Instead of a chicken in every pot maybe we could have berries in every bowl.  Even though I haven’t been a regular participant with French Fridays with Dorie, I try to keep up with the cooking adventures of this wonderful group.  Please venture over to check out all the home baked financiers shared on the site this week.

I think we’re skipping over Spring here in the Bay Area with temperatures in the high eighties today.  Believe me I’m not complaining but I think the garden may wonder what’s going on with these temperatures.  Between the frogs, birds and a gazillion bugs that just hatched we are good to go for Summer!

I’ve made so many excellent keeper recipes out of Around My French Table..I guess I should give the Isaphan Loaf Cake another try…How about on a warm Summer day?  I will bake a beautiful loaf  (early in the day before it gets too hot!) and serve it with ice tea sweetened with my homemade rose syrup.  I’m feeling another  FFWD inspired blog post coming on…..Hopefully I won’t wait until July to share another recipe From Around My French Table.

Here is a link to Dorie Greenspan’s recipe for financiers with the addition of fresh berries nestled on top of the batter before baking.

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Crispy Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies

April 3, 2013 · 33 Comments

If you’re looking for large thin crisp caramel brown sugar flavored chocolate chip cookies- look no further -you found them right here!  I had to make these cookies twice in two days just to make sure they were as good as I thought they were after I baked the first batch.  They were.  I love the look of these eggless oatmeal chocolate chunk cookies and the spread you get from the flattened balls of cookie dough in the oven.  There is just nothing like a crisp ultra thin chocolate chip cookie.  I’m thrilled that I found this recipe in my copy of Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy melt in your mouth cookies by Alice Medrich.

There is something so rewarding about having a full cookie jar, especially with chocolate chip cookies.  Growing up if we didn’t have cookies in the cookie jar, we baked and put cookies in the jar.  For the most part I share or giveaway the cookies I bake so I find using a tupperware type container to be the best kind of storage for my cookies.  Although, I have to admit to missing a traditional cookie jar in my kitchen -there’s nothing like reaching in a cookie jar to grab out a few cookies.  Is the cookie jar filled to the top?  Or does your hand go deep into the container to come away with the last cookie or maybe just a few crumbs?  Not that cookie crumbs are bad but when you’re hankering for a cookie(s) a few crumbs may not hit the spot.  Might be time to bake up a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies.

I’m going to have to do some further exploration in my  Alice Medrich Cookie cookbook where there are recipes to explore for several cookie textures.  The gooey  warm rocky road brownies sound pretty good and once I work through my current obsession with cookies in the crisp section I may be convinced to explore gooey, chewy, crunchy, melt in your mouth and don’t forget flaky, another one of my personal favorites.  All in good time, this hefty cookbook filled with Alice Medrich’s cookie inventions is not going anywhere soon.

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Crispy Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Yield: 15 large thin cookies

Adapted from Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy melt in your mouth cookies by Alice Medrich.

Ingredients

  • 1&1/3 cups (6 ounces) all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1&1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • 1/2 cup (1.5 ounces) quick rolled oats
  • 1/2 cup (3.5 ounces) granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup (1.75 ounces) packed dark sugar
  • 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon (2 ounces) light corn syrup
  • 2 tablespoons whole milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 generous cup bittersweet chocolate chunks or large chips (7 ounces)

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 325F.
  2. Bake the cookies for 14 minutes.
  3. Stir together the flour and baking soda in a small bowl, set aside.
  4. In a large bowl whisk together the melted butter, oats, sugars, corn syrup, milk and salt.
  5. Stir in the flour mixture.
  6. Stir in the chocolate pieces.
  7. Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes.
  8. Divide the dough into 15 equal pieces.
  9. Line 3 baking sheets with aluminum foil, dull side up.
  10. Place 5 dough balls on each sheet, one in the center and one in each corner.
  11. Flatten the dough balls until they are about 3 inches around -remember they will spread.
  12. Bake 2 sheets at a time, rotating half way through until they are dark golden brown and very thin.
  13. Cool the cookies for a few minutes before sliding the foil off the baking sheets to continue cooling.
  14. Bake the third sheet, you can slide the third foil sheet with the flattened dough balls onto the warm cookie sheet as long as you pop it right into the hot oven.
  15. Cool the cookies on metal racks.
  16. Store in an airtight container for several days.
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Spinach Salad with Asparagus & Cara Cara Oranges

March 29, 2013 · 31 Comments

 

How could I resist picking up such a beautiful bunch of fresh spinach to use in my salad?  The obvious answer is that I couldn’t.  I almost gave it a little hug before I put it in my basket at the market.  Along with slender spears of Spring asparagus, French Breakfast Radishes, Cara Cara orange segments, scallions and toasted walnuts dressed with a light citrusy vinaigrette, my spinach salad is starting to look more like a meal than just a green salad.  I like spinach salad with a light dressing, plenty of veggies and with the addition of fresh sliced oranges, it’s even better.  I found the pinky orange  flesh colored Cara Cara oranges at the Farmer’s Market this week.  They are a special variety of juicy low acid (sweeter) seedless naval oranges that are grown in California and available from December through April.  This time of year when the market is bursting with citrus fruits, it’s a good time to look for and pick up Cara Cara oranges.  If you like oranges give them a try in your spinach salad, you might even want to give them a little hug.

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Spinach Salad with Asparagus & Cara Cara Oranges

Yield: 4-6 servings

Ingredients

  • 1 large bunch fresh spinach, washed, dried and leaves separated
  • 1 bunch fresh asparagus spears, washed, tough ends snapped off
  • 4 Cara Cara oranges, peeled, thickly sliced and separated into bite size pieces
  • 1/4 cup minced scallions, white and light green parts only
  • 1 small bunch French breakfast radishes, washed, trimmed and cut into slices
  • 2/3 cup walnut halves
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
  • For the Vinaigrette
  • 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
  • 2 tablespoons champagne vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon honey
  • 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons walnut oil
  • Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Place the spinach leaves in a large salad bowl and set aside.
  2. To Make the Vinaigrette
  3. In a small bowl whisk together the orange juice, vinegar, honey, oils, salt and pepper to taste, set aside.
  4. Blanch the asparagus spears in simmering water for 2-3 minutes, remove and plunge in a bowl of ice water, remove and drain when thoroughly chilled.
  5. Place the walnut halves in a hot non-stick skillet, gently stir to lightly brown.
  6. Sprinkle the sugar on to the hot walnuts with a generous pinch of sea salt and black pepper, stir to coat walnuts- continue stirring and cooking until dark brown and shiny spots form on edges on walnuts (turn on the exhaust fan-will be smoky) -remove from heat and cool.
  7. Add the asparagus spears, orange pieces, scallions, radishes and broken up walnut halves to the salad bowl with the spinach.
  8. Add the vinaigrette, gently toss to coat everything and serve.
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Vanilla Hazelnut Biscotti

March 25, 2013 · 29 Comments

Simple baking projects, like making homemade biscotti, are my favorites.  This week  I made two cakes that sounded good in print but didn’t turn out – maybe they contained too much fruit layered into the raw batter or were under baked (?) but they both had terrible sort of mushy textures.  The first cake was a banana rum raisin and the second one was a rose flavored raspberry filled loaf cake.  I guess the tip off should have been there were no photographs of either cake in the cookbooks I used and being slightly suspicious I do wonder why some recipes don’t have pictures!?

My tender biscotti filled with toasted hazelnuts and flavored with three kinds of vanilla are  all around good eating cookies that don’t need to be softened up by dunking.   I’m also sharing a few pictures-always a good sign of baking success.

They would also be good served with espresso but mainly I like to keep them in a container in my kitchen to help myself when the cravings for vanilla hazelnut biscotti hit which for me could be just about at any moment.

I gave these fairly thick sliced biscotti a good sprinkling of lavender vanilla sugar.  The best way to evenly slice biscotti  is to slice straight down through the cooled baked log with a serrated knife.  I like to toast one side and then flip to toast the other side until they are a light golden brown in color.  Make sure to lower the heat of the oven before toasting your biscotti.

It’s easy to get into biscotti baking and fun to collect favorite recipes.  They also make great gifts, especially for shipping around the holidays.  I shipped a box of my Nutella biscotti for Valentine’s Day to  Athens and they arrived weeks later still fresh.  I didn’t realize how long the package would take to arrive when I shipped them but thankfully I made and sent biscotti which are a very forgiving traveling cookie.  A good eating, dunking and traveling cookie- I like having biscotti in my cookie jar.

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Vanilla Hazelnut Biscotti

Yield: 30-35 biscotti

Adapted from King Arthurs Flour.

Ingredients

  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 & 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 cup Italian style flour, King Arthurs Flour
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup dry roasted hazelnuts, Oregon Lewis variety hazelnuts
  • 1 tablespoon lavender vanilla bean sugar, Savory Spice Shop, for sprinkling on top

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
  2. Line two baking sheets with parchment, one extra for toasting the biscotti.
  3. In a medium size bowl combine the flours, salt and baking powder, set aside.
  4. In the bowl of a standing mixer beat the butter and sugar together on medium speed until light and smooth.
  5. Beat in the vanilla and eggs, scrape down as needed.
  6. Turn speed to low and beat in the flour mixture until smooth, stir in the hazelnuts.
  7. The dough will be sticky.
  8. Using slightly wet hands shape the dough into a smooth log, slightly angled on the baking sheet.
  9. Sprinkle the top with the lavender vanilla bean sugar.
  10. Bake the log for about 30 minutes or until light golden brown, remove from the oven.
  11. Reduce the oven temperature to 325F.
  12. Wait until the log has cooled before slicing.
  13. Cut the log crosswise or angled into slices, depending on the size and shape biscotti you like.
  14. Place the biscotti slices on the baking sheets.
  15. Bake for about 12 minutes and flip sides and baking pans from top to bottom of oven, continuing to bake for 12 more minutes or until light golden brown on both sides.
  16. Remove biscotti from oven and cool on metal racks.
  17. Store in airtight container-they will keep for weeks.
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