When Annalena was growning up, and working the many odd jobs that she did work, to pay for school, her books, her clothes, etc, she observed, and learned, a very interesting phenomenon, or cultural "trope" as some would say, that she hasn't seen out of her old neighborhood. Essentially, we would never call anyone by their real name. So, for example, there was a man who ran a lunch truck (the "roach coach" if you will). His name was Joe Natale, but we called him "Joey Lunch." Or, Tony, who ran the butcher, was "Tony meat." Annalena's own boss, who ran a gas station, and who had a perfectly respectable name, was nonetheless "Carmine Swag," because he sold merchandise which "fell off the truck" at the gas station. That kind of merchandise is, of course, "Swag." Annalena had her own name "Baby Teek." That's because her stepfather the Nazi sold a product that had the word "Tech" in it, which everyone pronounced "teek." The Nazi was "Mr Teek," and Annalena was "Baby Teek."
I do hope you are enjoying this story, because it is painful to recall, in many ways. In any event "neecee" is used to refer... to Annalena's niece, rather than give her full name.
Yes, Annalena does have family. What is left is not large, but it is there. She has an aunt, a sister, several cousins, two nieces and a nephew. We do not see each other at all, to be honest. She knows of the cousins through facebook. And one day, someone left a comment on this blog, with a story that sounded very, VERY familar. TOO familiar. A little digging and, yes... it was Annalena's niece, with food stories and interests and, as it turns out a food blog of her own. There's another foodie in the clan!
It would be interesting to sit down and try to figure out how the foodie gene ran in the family. Annalena's training in genetics would probably allow her to map this, and trail the gene, and perhaps even do some close analysis on where it will turn up next. In any event, it is heartening to know it is there. And if any of you want to connect to Neecee's blog, which is of interest to many of you - I KNOW it is- then ask, and I will have her contact you.
So, why do you have all of this? Well, neecee posted a comment, asking for a cookie recipe. It is one of my favorites. One I have been making, every year, since 1996. I always say I am going to make it again during the year, but I never do. Maybe other things take over. It is an easy cookie, one you can make lots of very quickly, and it is SO good. In fact, it may be Annalena's favorite cookie. So here we go.
The cookie is based on a very simple butter cookie base, to which many things can be added. In the article, from the late, lamented "Gourmet," about six variants were given of the basic cookie dough recipe. This was one of them.
You are going to need some dried cranberries. A cup of them. (Did you know that cranberries were one of the few fruits indigenous to North America, when the settlers arrived? They were called crainberries, because crains ate them. And that is a hint to you folks who forage: if you are unsure if something is good to eat, watch. The animals have learned what is good and what is not. And you must be careful and watch, with things that are bright, like cranberries. As a general rule a BRIGHT color, especially red, in wild food, is a warning that the thing is toxic).
OK, enough science. You need a cup of the dried cranberries, and the zest of one large orange. Also, 3/4 cup of old fashioned oats. None of this instant oatmeal stuff here.
That doesn't sound very fancy , does it? And for the cookie dough, you need 2 sticks of unsalted butter, soft , 2/3 cup of granulated sugar, a pinch of salt, 2 large egg yolks, a teaspoon of vanilla, and a heaping 2 cups of flour.
Now that you have all the ingredients, let's talk about some options. You can soak the dried cranberries to make them softer, if you like. You will drain them, but they will retain some moisture, and this will result in a softer, paler cookie. Similarly, further on in this recipe, I will describe the option of some orange juice. Again, you can leave this out and get a crisper, browner cookie. If you add the orange juice, you get a stronger orange flavor, and a paler, softer cookie.
Start by combineing the sugar, butter, and salt in a mixer, and whip em until they're soft and fluffy. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, and then the vanilla. Now, lower the speed of your mixer, and add the flour.
When that's done, add the chopped cup of cranberries, whether you soaked them or not, the oats, the orange peel and combine them. IF you like, squeeze the juice of the orange into the dough, but you don't have to. Generally, I do not soften the cranberries, but I do add the orange juice.
You now have your cookie dough, except for one thing. Have some sugar available at your side. Preheat your oven to 350 and then form small balls of dough from the mass before you. 1/2-3/4 inch is about right. Lay them out on the baking sheet. You don't have to worry about spacing, because they will not spread too far. When you have a tray of unbaked balls, roll each one in the sugar, and then, take a glass, butter the bottom of it, dip it into sugar, and gently press the cookies just a bit. You're looking for something that is a little bigger than a quarter. Bake the cookies for about 12-15 minutes, again, going for a longer time, for browner, crispier cookies, and less for softer ones.
If you keep these cookies to the small size, you will get nearly 100 of them. IF they all get out of the kitchen, which is always a problem for Annalena.
The only thing you probably have to go and buy to make these, is the dried cranberries. And if you feel lazy, use raisins, or dried cherries, or whatever fruit you have around. If you went for things like blueberries, I would suggest changing the orange to lemon, or something like that. Raisins? Hmmmm. Maybe leave out the juice and put in a spoon of rum. (Another relative , should she see this, is probably saying "HELL YEAH!" to the rum idea). Frankly, if you were so inclined, you could put Grand Marnier instead of the orange juice, but then to be healthy, eat the orange.
I do hope you will make these cookies. They are really, REALLY good. And I'm glad that they're not everyone's favorite. MORE FOR ME!!!!
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Annalena and the cannon (again): caldo verde
Ragazzi, you have undoubtedly read of my forays into "national" dishes: cassoulet. Red sauce. Paella. And so on. Annalena has made very few forays into one of her favorite cuisines, however, which is Portuguese. Why? It is difficult to say. In thinking about it, it is perhaps because to moi, Portuguese food has just enough of the element of "foreign" about it that makes it a bit unapproachable (Please know that when Annalena speaks of Portuguese food here, she speaks of IBERIAN Portuguese food. It is a gross oversimplification to say "Portuguese" and forget the food of Northern and Central Africa, Brazil, Goa, and the other regions where the Portuguese flag once flew). Some recent events, however, pushed Annalena to trying this one.
One of her favorite restaurants, Alfama, has reopened. She and the Guyman made a trip, caught up with good friends Miguel and Tarcisio (who's name I may have FINALLY spelled correctly), and had a fabulous meal. Our paper of record, however, did not agree with us.
Remember the scene in the movie "Spartacus" when dozens of people stood saying "I am Spartacus?" That is how Annalena felt as she and others started writing ripostes. They continue. Well, one of the dishes criticized in the negative review, was caldo verde, which is arguably the national dish of Portugal. And it is one that , in all of our visits, the Guyman and I have never eaten. I suspect it is because our hosts feel it is too "common" for sophisticated foodies.
Well, "sophisticated" hardly describes us. We do like to eat well, but I do not think of our tastes as sophisticated. In any event, with all of this in mind, Annalena began researching the recipe.
I wish I could write "OH MY GOD" in Portuguese. In the space of 30 minutes, I believe I found twenty recipes. All used the same ingredients. And... all were different. Very interesting and very challenging, since the number of ingredients... is four. Ultimately, isn't this what many "cannonical" dishes are about? A few ingredients, usually inexpensive ones at that, where the cook can improvise. She (and it is almost always a "she" with these dishes), improvises, based on what she has available, and produces a dish which all love.
Anyway, here is mine. And I dedicate this to my Kaley friend, Jason Nunan. Jason, make it. You will love it.
Here are the four ingredients: onions, potatoes, kale, and chorizo sausage. So it is not a vegetarian soup. Annalena spent some time thinking about how you could make it such. I suppose you could leave out the sausage, or put in a chipotle pepper or some adobo sauce, but I would be reluctant to call it caldo verde at that point.
No stock, just water. And plenty of salt. And olive oil. So, ragazzi, let's get to work.
First ,the prep. Peel and chop two large onions. While surgical precision is not necessary, you are not going to puree this soup, so try to eliminate the big pieces. Three pounds of potatoes. I used yukon golds. You can use any potato that you would use for mashing. Idahos, russets, etc, they'd all work. For this one, please avoid the "pretty potatoes" that have the blue or red flesh. Peel them (bigger potatoes are easier to peel, gang), and cube them roughly. A pound of chorizo. Good chorizo comes in a casing that you should remove. Slice it thinly. Finally, two nice, big bunches of kale. Strip the leaves from the stems, unless you have very tender stems at the tip. Chop the kale into strips.
You've now done just about all of your work. Put about three tablespoons of olive oil into a big soup pot (I mean BIG for this one), and add the chorizo. Fry it at medium until it is beginning to color, but try not to brown it. Then remove it from the pot. It will have left some of its flavoring in the oil. Add the onions, and saute' them, turning every now and then, until they go translucent, and they actually begin to give off a bit of liquid. Now, in go your potatoes, and water to cover. Taste this NOW. Insipid, eh? Yup. Season well. A talespoon is probably right, but that's... how many teaspoons? Ah, good . All of you who said three, pat yourself on the back. Add it by tablespoons and keep tasting. Bring the water to a boil, and then reduce the heat, and cook the potatoes until they are softening. This will probably take a while, since there are so many of them - maybe 30-45 minutes. When you can crush a cube by pressing a spoon against it, it's time to add the sausage, and cook for about ten minutes more. At this point, the potatoes should be soft enough so that, if you stir the soup, you see the potatoes disintegrate. If you're there, add the kale and stir it in. Alternatively, you can steam the kale in some hot water until it gets beautifully green. Either way, stir the greens into the soup, taste for salt, and....
Caldo verde! Lots of it.
This is a perfect soup for the weather we are having now. It's satisfying, it's really very inexpensive, it makes tons so you can bring people over, open up some RED wine, and have a lovely meal.
And yes, if you have a variant on this you would like to share, please do so. And be passionate about it, because passion motivates these cannonical dishes, as it should all of your cooking.
One of her favorite restaurants, Alfama, has reopened. She and the Guyman made a trip, caught up with good friends Miguel and Tarcisio (who's name I may have FINALLY spelled correctly), and had a fabulous meal. Our paper of record, however, did not agree with us.
Remember the scene in the movie "Spartacus" when dozens of people stood saying "I am Spartacus?" That is how Annalena felt as she and others started writing ripostes. They continue. Well, one of the dishes criticized in the negative review, was caldo verde, which is arguably the national dish of Portugal. And it is one that , in all of our visits, the Guyman and I have never eaten. I suspect it is because our hosts feel it is too "common" for sophisticated foodies.
Well, "sophisticated" hardly describes us. We do like to eat well, but I do not think of our tastes as sophisticated. In any event, with all of this in mind, Annalena began researching the recipe.
I wish I could write "OH MY GOD" in Portuguese. In the space of 30 minutes, I believe I found twenty recipes. All used the same ingredients. And... all were different. Very interesting and very challenging, since the number of ingredients... is four. Ultimately, isn't this what many "cannonical" dishes are about? A few ingredients, usually inexpensive ones at that, where the cook can improvise. She (and it is almost always a "she" with these dishes), improvises, based on what she has available, and produces a dish which all love.
Anyway, here is mine. And I dedicate this to my Kaley friend, Jason Nunan. Jason, make it. You will love it.
Here are the four ingredients: onions, potatoes, kale, and chorizo sausage. So it is not a vegetarian soup. Annalena spent some time thinking about how you could make it such. I suppose you could leave out the sausage, or put in a chipotle pepper or some adobo sauce, but I would be reluctant to call it caldo verde at that point.
No stock, just water. And plenty of salt. And olive oil. So, ragazzi, let's get to work.
First ,the prep. Peel and chop two large onions. While surgical precision is not necessary, you are not going to puree this soup, so try to eliminate the big pieces. Three pounds of potatoes. I used yukon golds. You can use any potato that you would use for mashing. Idahos, russets, etc, they'd all work. For this one, please avoid the "pretty potatoes" that have the blue or red flesh. Peel them (bigger potatoes are easier to peel, gang), and cube them roughly. A pound of chorizo. Good chorizo comes in a casing that you should remove. Slice it thinly. Finally, two nice, big bunches of kale. Strip the leaves from the stems, unless you have very tender stems at the tip. Chop the kale into strips.
You've now done just about all of your work. Put about three tablespoons of olive oil into a big soup pot (I mean BIG for this one), and add the chorizo. Fry it at medium until it is beginning to color, but try not to brown it. Then remove it from the pot. It will have left some of its flavoring in the oil. Add the onions, and saute' them, turning every now and then, until they go translucent, and they actually begin to give off a bit of liquid. Now, in go your potatoes, and water to cover. Taste this NOW. Insipid, eh? Yup. Season well. A talespoon is probably right, but that's... how many teaspoons? Ah, good . All of you who said three, pat yourself on the back. Add it by tablespoons and keep tasting. Bring the water to a boil, and then reduce the heat, and cook the potatoes until they are softening. This will probably take a while, since there are so many of them - maybe 30-45 minutes. When you can crush a cube by pressing a spoon against it, it's time to add the sausage, and cook for about ten minutes more. At this point, the potatoes should be soft enough so that, if you stir the soup, you see the potatoes disintegrate. If you're there, add the kale and stir it in. Alternatively, you can steam the kale in some hot water until it gets beautifully green. Either way, stir the greens into the soup, taste for salt, and....
Caldo verde! Lots of it.
This is a perfect soup for the weather we are having now. It's satisfying, it's really very inexpensive, it makes tons so you can bring people over, open up some RED wine, and have a lovely meal.
And yes, if you have a variant on this you would like to share, please do so. And be passionate about it, because passion motivates these cannonical dishes, as it should all of your cooking.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Tis the season: pecan potato chip cookies
Every year, Annalena prepares a bounty of cookies to send to her amici everywhere. Indeed, her cookie tins have been to places where she has never been, and probably never will be. Some of those cookies are made from time to time, some are made once and never make an appearance again, and some are , as we would say "repeat offenders": they come back every year. Some do so, because people love them (like the toffee chocolate crunch, which I could make in ten pound lots, and not make enough), and some come back, because Annalena loves them herself (if no one else likes my cranberry orange coins, I do not care). There are others that come back because while they are never mentioned as anyone's favorite, when they are not there, someone notices, and also... they are easy.... or unusual... or both.
Ninety million years ago, when the food network actually had programs on which taught you to cook, one of Annalena's favorite shows was "Two Hot Tamales," with Susan Feniger, and Mary Sue Milligen. Ms. Feniger is much more in the forefront these days, and Annalena does indeed adore her. She also adores Ms. Milligen, however, who is more the "Guyman" in the pairing, in the way Annalena is the Ms. Feniger.
On one of the shows, Ms. Milligen demonstrated a potato chip cookie, which she said was one her mom always made. "Oh, is that not quaint?" the younger Annalena thought to herself. Well, in 2004, one of Annalena's cooking magazines published a recipe for a potato chip cookie. Never one to ignore something that uses fried chips, Annalena did use it. And it's a great cookie. It's easy too. I am going to give you a recipe that will make about 100 of them. You could very easily cut the recipe in half. In fact, half the recipe is what was originally published, and was said to make 30 cookies. Those must have been pretty large. These are still substantial. A couple with a cup of coffee is plenty. Ready? Ok, here we go.
Leave a pound of unsalted butter out, overnight, to get nice and soft. Then measure out a cup of granulated sugar, and have a half cup ready at your side. You will also need two teaspoons of good vanilla extract (no phony stuff, please), 4 cups of flower, a cup of pecans, that you either chop or run through the food processor, and....
A cup of crushed potato chips. Annalena does this in the food processor after she does the pecans. You can put them in a bag and bash them with a rolling pin, if you like. But please don't do them ahead of time (they stale badly), and please don't refrigerate them (they pick up water and get soggy).
Now, preheat your oven to 350 and start lining baking sheets with parchment paper.
You can do this by hand, but it's much easier to do it in a stand mixer. Cream the butter for about five minutes, at low medium, adding the sugar after two. The stuff will rise up in the bowl, and stop it every now and then to push it down (stop the timer when you do this). After you have combined the two, lower the speed on the mixer and add the vanilla, the flour, the nuts, and the chips and then combine them until you have an even mass.
Pick up small amounts and roll them into balls, no more than about 3/4 of an inch in diameter, and put them onto cookie sheets. These do not spread much, so you can probably get 20-25 on a sheet.
Here's the part Annalena likes the best. Take the paper from a stick of butter, and rub it over the bottom of a glass. Now dip that into the extra sugar, and press it down on each cookie. You will have to re-do the butter and sugar bit, but that's ok, it won't take you long.
When you've done two sheets (you will probably be doing four), get them itno the oven, and bake for 6 minutes. Then, protect your hand, and reverse the cookie sheets, top to bottom, and front to back. Bake for another six minutes or so. You may want or need another minute or two, to make them as dark and as firm as you like (this is not a crispy cookie. It is a flaky cookie).
And know what? You are DONE. You have 100 or so really wonderful, fun cookies, and yes, you CAN taste the crunch of the potato chip (although you will be hard pressed to say what it is if you don't know it).
Annalena shall be publishing at least a few of her holiday cookie recipes as we rush through what she calls the combined "sprint/marathon" of holiday cooking, and the season. Bear with it, ragazzi, it will all be over soon, and while you will need a month or so to recover, you will do it all again, because you love it. I know. Because I do, too.
Ninety million years ago, when the food network actually had programs on which taught you to cook, one of Annalena's favorite shows was "Two Hot Tamales," with Susan Feniger, and Mary Sue Milligen. Ms. Feniger is much more in the forefront these days, and Annalena does indeed adore her. She also adores Ms. Milligen, however, who is more the "Guyman" in the pairing, in the way Annalena is the Ms. Feniger.
On one of the shows, Ms. Milligen demonstrated a potato chip cookie, which she said was one her mom always made. "Oh, is that not quaint?" the younger Annalena thought to herself. Well, in 2004, one of Annalena's cooking magazines published a recipe for a potato chip cookie. Never one to ignore something that uses fried chips, Annalena did use it. And it's a great cookie. It's easy too. I am going to give you a recipe that will make about 100 of them. You could very easily cut the recipe in half. In fact, half the recipe is what was originally published, and was said to make 30 cookies. Those must have been pretty large. These are still substantial. A couple with a cup of coffee is plenty. Ready? Ok, here we go.
Leave a pound of unsalted butter out, overnight, to get nice and soft. Then measure out a cup of granulated sugar, and have a half cup ready at your side. You will also need two teaspoons of good vanilla extract (no phony stuff, please), 4 cups of flower, a cup of pecans, that you either chop or run through the food processor, and....
A cup of crushed potato chips. Annalena does this in the food processor after she does the pecans. You can put them in a bag and bash them with a rolling pin, if you like. But please don't do them ahead of time (they stale badly), and please don't refrigerate them (they pick up water and get soggy).
Now, preheat your oven to 350 and start lining baking sheets with parchment paper.
You can do this by hand, but it's much easier to do it in a stand mixer. Cream the butter for about five minutes, at low medium, adding the sugar after two. The stuff will rise up in the bowl, and stop it every now and then to push it down (stop the timer when you do this). After you have combined the two, lower the speed on the mixer and add the vanilla, the flour, the nuts, and the chips and then combine them until you have an even mass.
Pick up small amounts and roll them into balls, no more than about 3/4 of an inch in diameter, and put them onto cookie sheets. These do not spread much, so you can probably get 20-25 on a sheet.
Here's the part Annalena likes the best. Take the paper from a stick of butter, and rub it over the bottom of a glass. Now dip that into the extra sugar, and press it down on each cookie. You will have to re-do the butter and sugar bit, but that's ok, it won't take you long.
When you've done two sheets (you will probably be doing four), get them itno the oven, and bake for 6 minutes. Then, protect your hand, and reverse the cookie sheets, top to bottom, and front to back. Bake for another six minutes or so. You may want or need another minute or two, to make them as dark and as firm as you like (this is not a crispy cookie. It is a flaky cookie).
And know what? You are DONE. You have 100 or so really wonderful, fun cookies, and yes, you CAN taste the crunch of the potato chip (although you will be hard pressed to say what it is if you don't know it).
Annalena shall be publishing at least a few of her holiday cookie recipes as we rush through what she calls the combined "sprint/marathon" of holiday cooking, and the season. Bear with it, ragazzi, it will all be over soon, and while you will need a month or so to recover, you will do it all again, because you love it. I know. Because I do, too.
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