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White and Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

Published August 14, 2009 Dessert , Recipe , Weight Watchers Leave a Comment
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Maybe the dream described in my previous post had something to do with the party I’m going to tonight. I offered to make cookies for said party and I have just finished making them, 6 hours before the event is to take place. In real life, it seems, I’m on schedule!

I love making chocolate chip cookies because they are so easy to make and require very little preparation time. Mix dry ingredients, mix wet ingredients, mix wet and dry together, bake. They are also very delicious and comforting.

These cookies are no exception. Since this is a recipe I hadn’t tried before I had to sample one to make sure it was edible (haha). The cookie was nice and chewy and the contrast between the sweet white chocolate and unsweetened bitter dark chocolate made it so that it was perfectly sweet. The best part about this cookie is that it comes from a Weight Watchers dessert book and at 2 points per cookie it won’t feel like you’re eating away your points all at once. Yea, eventually I’ll get back on a diet but I have to ease my way in. Starting with cookies.

Recipe for 24 cookies

1/2 cup quick-cooking (not instant) oats

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 oz white chocolate, cut into 1/4 inch pieces, or chips

2 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, cut into 1/4 inch pieces, or chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Process the oats in a blender until finely ground. Mix the oats, flour, salt, and, baking soda in a small bowl. Beat the sugar, butter, egg, and, vanilla in a large bowl until well blended. Add the flour mixture to the egg  mixture and mix until blended. At this point, you have the option to combine 1 tbsp each of the white and bittersweet chocolates in a small bowl to be placed on top of the cookies before baking. I didn’t do this and instead I mixed all the chocolate with the batter. Drop the dough by level tablespoons onto a baking sheet and bake 9-11 minutes.

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Chef’s Nightmare

Published August 14, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment

I was tossing and turning last night as I slept and dreamt of a horrifying scenario. I had a dream that I had been asked by someone important to make cookies for a very special event. Because I had spent the day playing Lumines on the PS3 and generally wasting time doing other things, I never took the time to make the blasted cookies. I was fussing over what to wear for the event, trying on different dresses and tossing the unflattering ones over my head when I realized I only had fifteen minutes to bake four dozen cookies. Panic ensued. My sisters, who were also in the dream, told me not to worry about it but I just couldn’t forgive myself for not baking the cookies. I was crying and I was angry. I was half naked in the kitchen pulling out ingredients from the cupboard even though I knew there was no way I’d make the cookies in time. I woke up, thankfully, relieved that it was only a dream.

I wonder if this happens to most chefs out there.

Toast Soup

Published August 13, 2009 Dinner Leave a Comment
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Sometimes I wonder if maybe I am not following a recipe correctly. When I was younger most of my teachers’ concerns were that I didn’t pay attention and that I didn’t follow directions.

Or maybe the recipe is as quirky as Laura Calder. I’m not saying it was terrible because I did, after all, eat the portion I served for myself. It was interesting. It was like letting pieces of hard toast disintegrate in a bowl of milky chicken broth. I wasn’t sure if I should have eaten the “soup” with a slice of bread. I’m undecided as to whether or not I should make this Toast Soup again.

If you’re still curious about this soup here’s how you do it:

Fry 6 slices of smoky bacon until cooked but not crispy. Add 2 cups of chicken stock, bring to a boil, then turn off the heat, cover, and let it sit for an hour. Toast 8 cups of French bread. I cubed my bread before putting it in the oven. Once the toast is nice and brown, just before getting too dark, bring it out, and place it in a large saucepan. Strain the chicken stock over the bread, reserving the bacon. Add 2 cups of milk, 2 tsp of balsamic vinegar or sherry and 2 tsp of Dijon mustard. Puree with an immersion blender until smooth. Taste before seasoning. Cut the bacon into strips and re-fry it until crispy. I just re-fried it and cut it into bits. Reheat the soup and serve hot with the bacon bits on top for garnish. According to the book the recipe makes enough for 6 to 8 people. It’s pretty heavy so about one cup is enough for one person – at least it was for me.

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Leftovers and French dinner

Published August 13, 2009 Dinner , Lunch , Vegetarian Leave a Comment

There are times when I hate having leftovers for fear of not eating them and thus being forced to throw them in the trash when mold starts to grow. But, being blessed with occasional bouts of creativity, I was able to use the leftovers in a sandwich that satiated my ravenous hunger. I made a grilled cheese sandwich with leftover zucchini, mushrooms and onions from the previous night, along with swiss cheese, avocado and grilled orange bell pepper. I was only sad that I didn’t have more leftovers after I devoured the tasty sandwich.

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Later that day, I was to have a few friends over for dinner. I had promised French food (from my French Food At Home book by Laura Calder). I chose to make ratatouille and honey hen. Unfortunately I do not have pictures of the honey hen. It was too mouth-watering and delicious for any of us to wait so I was not able to take pictures of it. What I did, to make the chicken, was melt half a cup of honey with two tablespoons of Dijon mustard. I then covered a three pound chicken in the honey mustard sauce and I put it in the oven for about an hour at 400F, turning it and basting it every now and then. I need to make this chicken again.

The ratatouille was not as easy to prepare as the chicken. It was also, as Jay, said, “As good as cooked vegetables can be.” I will not be making ratatouille again.

Dad’s Birthday and Kitchen Demotion

Published August 12, 2009 Dinner , Vegetarian Leave a Comment
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As the title explains, last night was my Dad’s birthday. My sister, who lives in Ottawa, is in town and she decided to make our Dad a marbled hazelnut cake with peaches. However, the plan was to prepare the cake and the celebration food at my apartment. That is where the kitchen demotion came in. My sister took over my kitchen and demoted me to food prep. Oh the horror!

The original plan for the family was to go to Shakespeare in the Park at High Park to see The Tempest and to have a picnic (this did not happen due to the rain). We began by disagreeing on what to make for dinner and it took us nearly two hours to agree on making vegetarian croissant sandwiches while we glanced out the window hoping the rain would stop. Even as we were leaving my apartment to go buy the required ingredients we were still struggling over our decision for dinner. Thankfully we were able to come to an agreement to make the sandwiches and a veggie dip.

For the croissant sandwiches, we caramelized two onions, about a cup and half of sliced mushrooms and one sliced zucchini. Once the caramelized veggies were done we began to arrange the sandwiches; swiss cheese, avocado and tomato slices and the caramelized veggies. We made a very simple veggie dip of yogurt and cucumber. It’s almost like tzatziki sauce except we only used strained yogurt and grated cucumber and did not add anything else to it. It was so simple and delicious.

All throughout the cooking and prepping, my sister and I got in each other’s way and we bickered about who would stir the vegetables and whether or not my way of using a Kitchenaid mixer was better than her way of mixing by hand.

“It takes me two hours to make the cake batter because I am very thorough and there are never any lumps in my batter,” she said with a smirk after I learned it would take us three hours to make a cake I could make in half the time.

“It takes you two hours to make a cake if you are not experienced in the art of cooking,” I retorted.

But it was all in good fun and the end result was a fantastic, moist, rich cake.

Cake without the hazelnut icing.

Cake without the hazelnut sauce.

Finished cake with hazelnut sauce and peach slices.

Finished cake with hazelnut sauce and peach slices.

Delightful veggie sandwich

Delightful veggie sandwich.

Sea Salt Fish and Asparagus with Hollandaise Sauce

Published August 10, 2009 Dinner Leave a Comment
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I just waded through a blanket of smoke to get to my laptop so I could spread the word about tonight’s dinner. The smell of burnt sea salt is still lingering in the air. Sound appetizing? Well, let me tell you, it was!

I was a bit turned off by this Laura Calder recipe at first, simply because it involves cooking a fish over half an inch of coarse sea salt. In her book, French Food At Home, she advises to open a window. And how right she is. Unfortunately for me, and my nearby neighbours, I do not have a window in my tiny kitchen and the noxious odour and smoke coming from my apartment must have made them think I burnt dinner. As I watched the salt crackle and pop and burn, I prayed and hoped I was following the instructions correctly; lay the fish (I used rainbow trout), skin side down over half an inch of salt in a large pan over high heat for 15 to 20 minutes. After several minutes of watching over my sizzling fish, I stepped out into the living room and I was amazed the neighbours weren’t knocking on our door wondering if we were dying of smoke inhalation. I put aside my worries and focused on making the hollandaise sauce.

I remember making this sauce when I was younger, failing miserably and thus, afraid of trying again. I am excited and proud to announce that attempt number two was an amazing success thanks to Ms. Calder, who guided me through the emulsifying and whisking of butter and eggs. It’s a bit frightening that this sauce is made with two main ingredients; butter and egg yolks. When I put a cup and a half of butter into a sauce pan, Jay’s horrified reaction made me question whether or not this sauce was necessary for dinner. Adding four egg yolks made things seem slightly more disturbing. And let’s not forget the fact that the fish was resting on a bed of sea salt.

“Your doctor said your BMI is at a healthy level, right Jay?” I jokingly said as he glared at me.

Once the fish was cooked I peeled the skin off the fish as the book explains the skin is too salty to eat. I’m not even going to question that. I served the fish with steamed asparagus and plain basmati rice. I poured sauce over the asparagus and Jay and I sat down to eat. After giving our plates questionable stares, we dug in.

The fish was perfect. It was so soft and juicy and perfectly salty. The hollandaise sauce was very subtle, with hints of lemon among the buttery flavour (recipe for sauce here). Absolutely delicious.

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Breakfast and Dinner

Published August 10, 2009 Breakfast , Dinner , Must repeat , Recipe , Yum! Leave a Comment
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It used to be that most Saturday mornings I would wake up and fry two eggs and several strips of bacon. That tradition went on a little break when I began to eat only egg whites and no bacon. For the past month, however, I have not been dieting and so I decided to make two sunny side up eggs. Eggs are one of the simplest, yet most delicious, things to eat and I always enjoy admiring the bright yellow centres before I squish them with pieces of warm buttered bread. On Saturday morning I decided to not only add the usual salt and pepper but also a healthy dose of Frank’s Redhot sauce and some fresh cilantro. When I make fried eggs I like to cover the pan with a lid so the steam cooks the tops of the eggs faster. Jay hates this and prefers to let the eggs sit in the pan longer instead. But my way allows me to eat my eggs much, much sooner.

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On Friday night I had the pleasure of watching Julie and Julia with my friend. We are both huge fans of all things related to food and this movie was perfect for our addiction. It was no surprise that the next day I felt inspired to cook French food. I pulled out my French Food At Home book by Laura Calder and I quickly began to choose meals for my weekly menu. Most importantly, I needed a meal for that Saturday night and I chose Housewife Chicken. This dish involved cooking in batches and a small amount of tedious preparation such as; peeling and breaking a head of garlic, peeling and cutting the ends of 18 pearl onions, dicing four potatoes, chopping a third of a pound of mushrooms and dicing a quarter pound of bacon. I seasoned the three pound chicken with salt and pepper and after stuffing it with the broken garlic cloves, I had to truss the bird (which is something I had never done). I had to look up a video on chowhound.com.

The first truss!

My first truss!


A great thing about this meal was that it was cooked in one single casserole (except I don’t have a casserole so I used a large enough pot). Before I started on the chicken I had to cook all the other ingredients in batches. First I melted about a tablespoon of butter and I cooked the bacon and onions for about 15 minutes, until the bacon was crisp. Once that was done I set that aside in a large bowl. I then added the mushrooms to the pot for about 5 minutes and then those were added to the bowl with the onions and bacon. I added a bit of olive oil to the pot along with the diced potatoes and cooked those for 25 minutes. After adding the potatoes to the bowl of onions and mushrooms, I put another tablespoon of butter in the pot and so began the process of browning the chicken. I browned it for 5 minutes on each side before finally lowering the heat and covering the pot with a lid for about 45 minutes. Once the chicken was cooked, I put all the ingredients in the bowl back into the pot with the chicken for about 10 minutes to allow it all to heat nicely.

When all was finally cooked, I was almost too eager and impatient to start eating and I nearly lost my interest in taking pictures of the chicken. Somehow I managed to control myself. This is one chicken I will most definitely make again.

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Chili Verde

Published August 5, 2009 Dinner , Must repeat , Recipe , Spice , Yum! 1 Comment
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Last night I created something incredibly magnificent. I’ve devoured and enjoyed many fantastic dishes in the past. Dishes that have me tilting my head back as my eyes close in absolute pleasure. A morsel of buttery tender meat, covered in a perfect blend of tang, sweet and spice. The meat is so tender, chewing is almost optional only to further enjoy each bite. I am craving this dish as we speak and I cannot wait for the next time I make this. It would be a crime for me to not share this recipe from my Mexican cookbook.

Chili Verde

Serves 4

1 kg pork, cut into bite size chunks

1 onion, chopped

2 bay leaves

1 whole garlic bulb, cut in half (this confused me for a minute and in the end I peeled an entire bulb and cut each clove in half)

1 bouillon cube (I used chicken)

2 garlic cloves, chopped

450g fresh tomatillos, husks removed, cooked in a small amount of water until just tender, then chopped. Or canned which is what I used

2 large fresh mild green chilies, such as poblano, or a combination of 1 green bell pepper and 2 jalapeño chilies, seeded and chopped (I used green pepper and jalapeño)

3 tbsp vegetable oil

1 cup pork or chicken stock

1/2 tsp mild chili powder, such as ancho or New Mexico

1/2 tsp ground cumin

cilantro

Place the pork in a large pot with the onion, bay leaves and garlic bulb. Add water to cover and the bouillon cube and bring to a boil. Skim off the scum that rises to the surface. Reduce heat to very low and let it simmer gently for 1 1/2 hours or until meat is very tender.

Place the chopped garlic, tomatillos and chilies (and bell pepper if using)  in a food processor and puree. Heat the oil in a deep sauce pan and add the tomatillo mixture and cook over medium-high heat for 10 minutes or until thickened. Add the stock, chili powder and cumin.

When meat is tender, remove from pot and add to the sauce. Let it simmer gently for 20 minutes, or until flavours are combined. Garnish with cilantro and serve with flour tortillas and lime wedges.

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Bean Burger

Published August 2, 2009 Dinner , Must repeat , Recipe , Vegetarian Leave a Comment
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I was flipping through my vegetarian cookbook, waiting for something to grab my attention. My eyes were drawn to a bean burger recipe I knew I had to try. Not only was I attracted to the photo, but I was also happy to note the cooking and prep time were minimal.

Bean Burgers

Makes four patties (so the book says)

1 tbsp sunflower oil, plus extra for brushing

1 onion, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

4 oz white mushrooms, finely chopped

15 oz canned pinto or red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

2 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (I used cilantro)

salt and pepper

all-purpose flour, for dusting

hamburger buns

Preheat broiler to medium high. Heat the oil over medium heat and add the onion, stirring frequently for 5 minutes. Add the garlic, coriander and cumin and cook for another minute. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, until all the liquid has evaporated, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl. Mash the beans with a fork and then stir the beans into the mushroom mixture and add salt and pepper. Divide the mixture equally  into 4 portions, dust lightly with flour and shape into flat, round patties. Brush with oil and cook under broiler for 4-5 minutes on each side. I served the burgers with a side of McCain Xtra Crispy Superfries, which by the way are awesome.

Here’s what I did wrong:

1. When I tried to mash the beans with a fork I quickly realized it would take an hour to mash them that way so I brought out my magic bullet and put it to work. I may have pureed the beans a little too much though. They were too soft, like bean dip.

2. I made the patties too thick. I probably could have made 6 patties.

3. I forgot to grease the baking sheet.

What came out of the oven were a couple of very soft bean cakes. They looked nothing like the burger in the book; juicy and meat-like. However, they smelled incredible so I ignored the fact that they didn’t look amazing and I proceeded to scrape, slide and nudge the resistant patties onto burger buns. I dressed the burgers with cheese, tomato and pickled peppers. Essentially I was eating bean dip in a burger bun. Really, really amazing and delicious bean dip. Jay said they were more like Sloppy Joes. He has given me an idea for a future project to make these bean burgers again but they will be Sloppy Joes with pico de gallo. Mexican Sloppy Joes?

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Food for the sick

Published August 1, 2009 Dinner , Must repeat , Recipe , Yum! Leave a Comment
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I returned home almost a week ago from my vacation in Central America where I enjoyed beautiful scenery and amazing food. However, upon my return to Toronto, my body decided to get sick. Plagued with coughing, sneezing, wheezing and a very achy body, my one solution to freedom from illness was chicken soup. And, of course, cold medicine.

This deliciously aromatic, fresh and comforting soup is a variation of a recipe from my Mexican cookbook. The original recipe only contains shredded chicken, avocado, chili pepper strips, scallions and broth. I wanted something a little heartier. Here’s what I did:

Chicken, Avocado, Potato and Mushroom Soup

Alternately, you can omit the ingredients or see the note with a * beside them to obtain the original version from The Mexican Cookbook.

Makes about 3 servings

4 chicken thighs, cooked and shredded * (Chicken breast, cooked and shredded)

1 avocado, cubed and tossed in lime juice to prevent discolouration

4 oz white mushrooms, coarsely chopped *

6 mini potatoes, cooked and sliced *

1/2 an onion, thinly sliced * (3-5 scallions, sliced)

3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 pickled jalapeño pepper * (chipotle pepper, cut into thin strips)

2 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped

4 cups water * (4 cups chicken stock)

Directions:

Place water and chicken thighs in a pot and cook over medium heat until chicken is done. Remove the chicken onto a plate and continue heating the water. This is the broth. Add the garlic, potatoes, mushrooms, onion and jalapeño pepper to the broth and cook until mushrooms have been reduced slightly but don’t let the onions get too soft (unless, of course you prefer soft onions). While that is cooking, shred the chicken.  Once the broth is ready, arrange the chicken and avocado and cilantro in the base of  soup bowls and pour the broth and vegetables over. Squeeze some lime juice for more flavour and wonderful aroma.

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