Dark Chocolate, Pistachio, Smoked Sea Salt Cookies

When I was making the bacon chocolate chip cookies in my previous post, I decided to take advantage of the process and make these cookies as well. My friend Jenn sent me a link to Joythebaker's recipe, which served as inspiration. I'll giver her credit for the flavor combo, but I'll take credit for the cookie recipe :-)

These were my favorite of the two. They are deliciously sweet and savory!

2 1/8 cups of flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
12 Tablespoons of butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup of dark chocolate chunks
1 1/2 cups chopped pistachio (shelled of course)
2 tsp of smoked sea salt (mine was alder wood smoked, but any kind will work)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and place the rack in the center of the oven.

In a microwave safe bowl, melt the butter and set aside to cool slightly. In the bowl of a mixer, place both of the sugars and butter. Mix on medium high speed until slightly lighter in color and well incorporated. Add the eggs and vanilla and stir to incorporate. Add the remaining dry ingredients (except the chocolate chunks) and blend well to incorporate. Remove your bowl from the mixer and fold in the chocolate chunks. **I buy the large bars of dark chocolate from Trader Joes and cut my own chunks from the bar.

Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to scoop out the dough and place on an un greased cookie sheet. Sprinkle each cookie with a couple of pinches of the smoked salt and bake for 15-18 minutes.


******Please note that I have had reports of people making these regular chocolate chip cookies and having them go flat. Two things: Firstly, check your baking soda, it does go bad over time and can effect the rise of your cookie. Secondly, these cookies do best when you make them big. If you use less than a 1/4 cup of dough per cookie, you need to crank up the heat to 350 and start checking them for doneness at 10 minutes. The baking temperature and time noted above are designed for a larger cookie.

Bacon, Chocolate Chip Cookies...Yep you heard me.

In order to convince a couple of co-workers to get something fairly important taken care of, in a somewhat timely manner (meaning on my time line :-)), I bribed them with cookies. Of course in my desire to please, I asked what kind of cookie they would like. Since they are three men, one of them says "I don't care, something with bacon". Ah ha! A challenge? Yes please!

Everything's better with Bacon, even your owies!

I vacillated between a peanut butter/bacon cookie and this one, but eventually settled on the bacon chocolate chip. It received rave reviews (especially from the guys), and I have even adjusted my recipe below based on a few suggestions and my own opinions. Mine didn't have enough bacon :-)

2 1/8 cups of flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
12 Tablespoons of butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup of dark chocolate chunks

1 lb of bacon

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and place the rack in the center of the oven.

Chop the bacon into a semi small dice, and place in a frying pan over high heat. Fry until the bits are light golden brown (remember that once they are cooking in the dough, they will brown a bit more as well, so don't over do them). Remove from the pan and drain on a paper towel. Set aside until cool.

In a microwave safe bowl, melt the butter and set aside to cool slightly. In the bowl of a mixer, place both of the sugars and butter. Mix on medium high speed until slightly lighter in color and well incorporated. Add the eggs and vanilla and stir to incorporate. Add the remaining dry ingredients (except the chocolate chunks) and blend well to incorporate. Remove your bowl from the mixer and fold in the chocolate chunks. **I buy the large bars of dark chocolate from Trader Joes and cut my own chunks from the bar.

Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to scoop out the dough and place on an un greased cookie sheet. Bake for 15-18 minutes.

******Please note that I have had reports of people making these regular chocolate chip cookies and having them go flat. Two things: Firstly, check your baking soda, it does go bad over time and can effect the rise of your cookie. Secondly, these cookies do best when you make them big. If you use less than a 1/4 cup of dough per cookie, you need to crank up the heat to 350 and start checking them for doneness at 10 minutes. The baking temperature and time noted above are designed for a larger cookie.

Thai Pineapple Yellow Curry

I LOVE ASIAN FOOD!  If you've perused my other posts, or if you've ever eaten out with me more than once, you can't miss this fact.  It just feels like home to me.

I have several Thai restaurants that I love, each of them for different reasons (or actually dishes).  One of them makes a delicious yellow pineapple curry.  It's a little sweet, has plenty of heat (without burning off your taste buds) and make the most satisfying meal!

Here is my attempt at copying it.  I came really close and this is really easy to make.

2 Medium sized Chicken Breasts (sliced as thinly as you can)
One yellow onion (cut into 1 or 11/2 inch chunks)1 Cup of Bamboo shoots (or one can, I think they're all the same size)
Half of a yellow Bell Pepper (cut into 1 inch chunks)
Half of a red Bell Pepper (cut into 1 inch chunks

2 cans of coconut milk
2 Tbs Oil
2 Tbs Thai Yellow Curry Paste
1 Tbs. Soy Sauce
2 Tbs brown sugar (Palm if you have it, but who keeps that on hand?)
3-4 Kaffir Lime leaves (I know who keeps these either?  Go to your local Asian food store and ask for them.  They are usually kept in the freezer or refrigerator section)
1 tsp. of Lemon grass powder (also at the Asian food store)
Juice of two limes
1 Cup of pineapple chunks
1 Cup of frozen peas
8 large leaves of basil, chiffonade (or cut into ribbons)
Salt to taste

Start out this recipe by preparing all of your ingredients.  This dish goes pretty quickly, and it's important not to overcook the vegetables in this dish.  If you have all of your items washed, cut, measure and lined up, you will find that you are much more successful.

Start with your chicken:  I find it easier to get a really nice thin slice on the chicken meat if I cut it when it is slightly frozen still.  It's not so squirmy that way and tends to stay in one place easier and enables you to get a nice thin slice.  It's also important to get thin uniform slices, as your cooking time on the chicken is dependent on it.  One of the secrets to a good curry is to have tender moist chicken, and the technique I describe later is important to this dish.

Cut the remaining items and place in separate bowls for one by one addition to the pan.

In a large saute pan (or wok) over high heat, combine the oil, curry paste and Kaffir lime leaves.  Stir fry until the paste is starting to bubble and become fragrant.  It's ok if it doesn't actually bubble, you just want to make sure to toast all of the spices in the curry paste and open up their flavor a bit.  As soon as you can smell a pungent aroma of curry and lime, you are ready for the next step.

Stir in the onion and let cook for one minute.  Add the two cans of coconut milk and bring to a simmer.  Add your bell peppers, and all of the seasonings.  Stir well and bring back to a boil.  Stir in the chicken and the remaining ingredients (except the pineapple, peas and basil).  Cook until the chicken is cooked through.  This will not take long, as the chicken will cook fairly fast, depending on how thin you cut the meat.  Once the chicken is cooked, turn off the heat and stir in the pineapple, peas and basil.

Check the flavor your curry and adjust the seasonings.  If you like it a little sweeter, you might want to add more sugar.  If you like it saltier, add more soy or salt.  If it tastes dull and heavy, add more lime.

Serve over steamed white rice and enjoy!

There are a lot of ingredients you can put in this dish.  Just remember that the more ingredients you add, the more sauce you will need to make.  If you simply substitute ingredients (I.E. baby corn instead of bamboo shoots) you should be fine with the recipe as is.
Some good additions are: baby corn, potato chunks, snow peas.

P.S.  I'll add pics to this later.

Summer Halibut

I made a recipe this last week, of halibut, roasted with sweet onions, citrus and fresh herbs. It was so delicious and simple, that it felt slightly sinful to eat. Remember that fresh (truly fresh) fish will not have that unpleasant "fishy" flavor, so if yours has that, you may want to seek a more reputable fish monger. Alternately, you could visit a lake or stream near you.   After doing a little research, check out what I found out about the health benefits of halibut:

Just Two Servings of Omega-3-rich Fish a Week Can Lower Triglycerides
Protection against Fatal Heart Arrhythmia
Help Prevent and Control High Blood Pressure
Stroke Prevention
Eating Fish Daily Provides Substantially More Protection against Heart Attack
Fish, Fruit and Vegetables Protective against Deep Vein Thrombosis, Pulmonary Embolism
Promote Detoxification
Cancer Protection
Lower Your Risk of Leukemia, Multiple Myeloma, and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
Halibut and Other Fatty Fish Highly Protective against Kidney Cancer
Fish -- Food for Better Thought as We Age
Omega-3 Fat, DHA, Destroys Alzheimer's Plaques
Omega-3-Rich Diet Improves Mood, Reduces Depression

Who knew eating something so delicious would be so good for you?

I recommend serving this fresh steamed or sauteed green beans, and roasted potatoes or quinoa.

4 (approximately) 6oz pieces of fresh Halibut

1 Tbs. Olive Oil

One sweet onion (white or yellow)

1tsp. garlic powder

2 Tbs. butter

2 tsp. fresh thyme

1 Tbs. fresh chives 

2 lemons

Salt and Pepper

Preheat your oven to 400*

Slice the onion into thin rings and arrange them in the bottom of a 9x13 casserole dish.  Drizzle them with the Olive Oil and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper.  Place the pan in the oven to roast for 15 minutes.

In the mean time, season the fish with salt and pepper, garlic powder, half of the herbs, and the zest of one of the lemons and the juice of one lemon.  Lay each fillet in the pan on top of the onions and place in the oven to roast.  You should roast it for 10 minutes per inch of thickness on your halibut steaks.

While your fish is roasting, combine the remaining herbs and juice of the lemon along with the 2Tbs of butter.  Stir to combine.

Once your fish is done roasting, remove it from the oven.  Divide the herb butter in 4ths, and spread each portion over the fish fillets.

Plate, serve and EnJoy!

Fire roasted Artichokes

My friend Keri makes the most wonderful artichokes you’ve ever had. She’s a genius really. This is sort of her recipe, but I have a horrible memory, so I’m sure I’ve messed up something. Fortunately this recipe is pretty flexible and is good with just about anything, as long as you do the dipping sauce with the same herbs that you flavor your artichokes with during the boiling process. I love this recipe so much that I ate a whole one by itself today for lunch.  Ok, fine I admit, it was one and a half...but that was it, no chips, cookies or even a chicken breast.  Just a big old pile of artichoke....yummm.  And by the way, I am not prone to eating a singular item as a meal by itself…unless it’s a carbohydrate, then I have a problem….This is a VEGETABLE people and I am far from a vegetarian. Trust me these are game changing artichokes. I dare you to try them.

Three artichokes
4 large sprigs of basil, or about 20 leaves (fresh only please)
4 sprigs of thyme (fresh only please)
Three medium lemons
1 cup of mayonnaise
1/3 cup Olive Oil
2 tsps garlic powder
½ tsp onion powder
Dash of seasoned salt (or regular if you prefer)

Cut your artichoke(s) in half the long way. I recommend using a sharp knife, as this can be a bit hard to do without sacrificing one or two of your fingers. Ok, I exaggerate, just be careful is all I’m saying. Place your artichoke(s) in a pan (whatever size is appropriate for your quantity of artichokes you have chosen) Fill with water just to cover the artichokes. Place 2 sprigs of basil, all of the thyme and one lemon in the water with your artichoke (squeeze the lemon first, but go ahead and throw the whole thing in there as well. Bring this to a boil and simmer on medium heat until the stem and heart of the artichoke are tender when you insert a knife in them.

The purple part and the small white area
under it is the "choke".  It is not enjoyable to eat.

 

Meanwhile, combine the olive oil, garlic powder, onion powder, seasoned salt and set aside.

Now make your dipping sauce by chopping the remaining basil leaves (finely). Combine the basil, mayonnaise, juice from one lemon and stir to combine. Remember that you have another half a lemon to use if you desire, this part is all about personal preference. Taste the dipping sauce and see if it’s lemony enough for you. I prefer mine super tart, so I go all the way with my lemon, but you might prefer a little less.

Drain the artichoke(s) and place on a cookie sheet. Take each half and scrape out the choke (the weird hairy part in the center), leaving a little well in the middle. Be careful not to remove the heart, that would be tragic. Brush each half on both sides with the oil/garlic powder mixture and place on a hot grill or under the broiler for about 3 minutes per side. The goal is to get the edges slightly charred all the way around. Char equals flavor, so please feel free to be liberal with your broiling. Once you have a liberal amount of charrage ( I know it’s not a word), remove them from the heat and let cool slightly before serving.

Suggestion: You may want to double the dipping sauce. I know it seems like a lot, but people tend to be extra generous in their dipping on this one.

Italian Cream Cupcakes...These are not overrated. Yummm!

I have a strange relationship with baked goods  I learned to cook before I learned to bake, so my cooking skills have always been a step ahead of my baking ones.  Which at some point made me really angry.  Why can I cook a pretty okay four course meal but fail miserably at making a decent cookie?  Good baking contains some sort of magic ingredient, which arguably is different for every baker and every baked good.  Sometimes it's patience, sometimes it's extra cinnamon, who knows?  Here's the most important thing I learned along the way.  Great and inspired cooking requires flexibility and willingness to experiment with flavor and ingredients, but great baking is a precise science, you HAVE to learn the science before you can get creative with the "extras".  My recommendation:  Subscribe to America's test Kitchen online and really pay attention to the articles.  Then, start making their recipes and you'll start to understand what their lessons are really talking about.

On the other side of the coin, I don't really have a sweet tooth.  I will bake all day long in an attempt to make the prefect cookie, but I will only actually end up eating one or maybe two of them.  I typically give the rest away.  So if I can actually manage to bake something that I want to eat more than one of, I know it's a success.  My least favorite baked good is cake.  Which means cupcakes are in the same category.  They're just too much sweetness...Until I met this recipe.  It is adapted from a recipe out of Cuisine at Home magazine (not sure of the issue). 

Despite my non-favor of cake,  I'll eat at least two of these!

Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened ( 1 1/2 c)
6 eggs, separated
2 tablespoons hazelnut syrup
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
2 cups sweetened flaked coconut, toasted
1 cup hazelnuts, toasted, skinned, chopped
Cream Cheese Icing
16 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened ( 1 1/ c)
3 tablespoons hazelnut syrup
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 lb powdered sugar, sifted

Directions
Preheat oven to 325F
Line two 12 cup muffin pans with paper liners and coat with nonstick spray.
Separate the egg, placing the whites in a mixing bowl with wire whips.  Whip the egg whites in a mixing bowl until stiff peaks form.  Set aside for later use.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl; set aside.
Cream sugar and butter in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment on medium speed until white and fluffy; about 5 minutes. Add egg yolks, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition; mix in syrup and vanilla until incorporated. Mix 1/2 the dry ingredients into butter mixture, followed by the buttermilk, then remaining dry ingredients; blend until just incorporated.  Fold in the egg whites, coconut and hazelnuts.  Fill each muffin cup to the top and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Remove from the oven and let cool for 20 minutes  then remove from the pan and let cool the rest of the way.

For the icing:

Place butter and cream cheese and cream in a mixer and stir until well combined and slightly fluffy.  Add the remaining ingredients and stir until well combined and stiff enough to hold it's shape on your cupcakes.  Adding powdered sugar as necessary.

Top each cupcake with toasted coconut and sprinkle with hazelnuts.

Arancini Chapter Two

I hosted a Bridal Shower recently and one of the requests was for these (to die for) little Italian treats. I've posted about Arancini before, so I will spare you the story (go here to read my adventure).
Arancini is a delish little Italian treat (directly translated to mean "little orange").

This is simply one of the most perfect appetizers ever. There are endless combinations of what you can stir into these little bites. I got this recipe from Williams Sonoma but made it my own, as I really always try to do when cooking. I personally find deep reward in re-writing something to suit either my taste buds in the moment, or sometimes just to fit the ingredients I happen to have on hand.


2 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 cup medium-grain white rice such as Arborio
1 Tbs. unsalted butter
Pinch of sea salt
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1 whole egg
2 cups fine dried bread crumbs (preferably Panko)
2 oz. Salami
2 oz. fresh mozzarella cheese, chopped into 1/2-3/4 inch cubes
1/2 cup of fresh basil, roughly chopped
Olive or canola oil for deep-frying

Directions:
In a saucepan over high heat, bring the broth to a boil. Stir in the rice, butter and salt. Cover, reduce the heat to low and cook until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender, 18 to 20 minutes.

Transfer the rice to a bowl and stir in the Parmigiano-Reggiano and salami. Let cool slightly, then stir in the whole egg, and basil. Let cool completely. This is an important step. Don't cheat and try doing it while the rice is still warm. Disaster will ensue...

Spread the bread crumbs on a dinner plate.

Moisten your hands with water. Scoop up 1/4 cup of the rice mixture and place it in the cupped palm of one hand. Flatten out the mixture slightly and place 1 piece of the mozzarella in the center. Mold the rice over the cheese, adding a bit more rice if needed to cover it completely. Shape the rice into a ball. Roll the ball in the bread crumbs and place on a rack. Continue with the remaining ingredients to make 12 balls total. Rinse your hands frequently to prevent the rice from sticking to them. Let the balls dry on the rack for at least 15 minutes before frying, or refrigerate the balls for up to 24 hours.

Position a rack in the middle of an oven and preheat to 200°F. Line a large baking sheet with paper towels and set it next to the stove. Pour the olive oil to a depth of 3 inches into a deep, heavy fry pan and heat to 375°F on a deep-frying thermometer. The oil must cover the balls by at least 1 inch so they will cook evenly and not burst.

Using a slotted spoon or wire skimmer, gently lower a few of the rice balls into the hot oil, being careful not to crowd the pan. Fry until golden brown and crisp all over, about 2 minutes. Using the slotted spoon, transfer the arancini to the prepared baking sheet and place in the oven to keep warm. Fry the remaining arancini in the same way, allowing the oil to return to the original frying temperature before adding the next batch.

Arrange the arancini on a warmed platter and serve immediately, or hold in the warm oven for up to 1 hour before serving.