On a suggestion from his son, Michael Ruhlman, food writer and critic, figures out how to make a chocolate chip cookie ice cream bowl... and tells you how to do it too.


This dough will make about two dozen delicious chocolate chip cookies, but if you want to make bowls, you'll need two oven-proof dishes, one that fits inside another, for each chocolate chip cookie bowl.

The Chocolate Chip Cookie Bowl

Put the following into the bowl of a standing mixer.

- 8 ounces of butter
- 4 ounces each of brown sugar and white sugar
- an egg
- a teaspoon of vanilla extract

Beat using the paddle attachment until all ingredients are incorporated.

Remove the bowl from the stand, put it on a scale and pour in

- 8 ounces of flour (about a cup and a half)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- a teaspoon of baking powder

Return the bowl to the machine and paddle until the dough is formed. Add at least a cup of chocolate chips or roughly chopped chocolate and mix until the chocolate is evenly distributed.

Spray the inside of the larger bowl and the outside of the smaller bowl with vegetable oil (or butter them). Press about 1/3 of a cup of the dough into each large bowl. Press the smaller bowl on top of the dough firmly so that the dough begins to push up around its sides (see picture above, expansion will take care of the rest).

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes. Remove the bowls from the oven and carefully twist the small bowls to free them from the dough (I used sturdy tongs), then remove it, and continue to bake the cookie bowls for 5 minutes of so until the inner bottom of the cookie bowl finishes cooking.


When the bowls are cool enough to handle, cut off any dough that's over flowed the edge and, very carefully, run a pairing knife along the sides, gently lifting up to delicately free the bottom of the cookie bowl. Chill completely.


Fill with ice cream and serve to anyone who adores cookies and ice cream. Become your kid's hero.

Labels: Food, Ice Cream, recipes

Every now and then I speak to someone who looks at the lunch I usually bring to work and mentions something about Curry Powder. Now, just to be very clear, I hadn't ever heard of "Curry Powder" in my life. Also I saw Curry Flavored Sausages and other oddities.

Curry can mean two things in India. The more common usage is the gravy or sauce in any dish. So a Chicken Chicken will have sauce in it as opposed to something like Chicken 65, which does not.

The second meaning of curry is the curry leaf, which has nothing to do with the sauce in a dish or curry powder. Yeah, I know this is confusing, but stay with me here. The curry leaf is commonly used in southern Indian cooking with fish and coconut milk dishes.

Back to the rant at hand.

Indian food is rarely, if ever, made with premixed ground spices. Especially home cooked food. All the spices are mixed in the right proportions and then tempered, ground etc. All traditional food is like this, regardless of the region of the world they come from.

So, about 11 years back when I moved to this country I heard of this magical spice powder called "Curry Powder", living in Hillsboro, Oregon, a suburb of Portland. I asked around and found an Indian store in the area. And yes, they had Curry Powder. I bought it for a princely sum of $1.25 and took it home with me.


So, I had no idea what I could make with that powder, so I looked up recipes online. I found this Chicken Curry recipe that only needed garlic, onions and tomatoes besides the curry power. Seemed simple enough. I followed instructions. Cooked for Bhaskar, (my housemate then) and me. We took one spoonful of it and realized this was a part of that unpalatable "Curry" available at roadhouses in England. Tasted a lot like dirt, very earthy. That box of curry powder moved slowly from the front to the back of the spice cabinet. Only to be given looks of disdain every 3-4 months when I'd see it sitting back there. I moved to Portland for a new job and it made it's way to my new apartment. It sat there through the dot com boom it sat there and it sat there when the bubble burst. It sat there though my company turning into dust and people losing jobs left, right and center. Mid 2000 I moved to Sydney, Australia, for work and finally I cleansed my home of that disgusting stuff.

So, what exactly is this spice mixture made of? Well, there is no authentic recipe, so here are the basic spices I've seen listed on the box

- 2 tbsp, Coriander
- 1/4 cup, Turmeric
- 2 tbsp, Cumin
- 2 tbsp, Fenugreek
- 1 tbsp, Black Pepper

I've seen ginger, garlic, cardamom etc in some of the more expensive one. My $1.25 box was probably 90% sawdust and 10% turmeric. Sure tasted like it.

The next thing on my list is Garam Masala. Indians do use Garam Masala a lot and is sold ground in boxes as opposed to whole spices. My mom always put the spice together from scratch, tempered it and ground it. The problem with a ground spice is the same as ground coffee. It must be stored in air tight containers and used in a few days, any longer and it's as flavorful as asphalt.


What does Garam Masala contain? The quantities vary by region, so I've omitted that.

- Cloves
- Cardamom
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
- Black pepper
- Cumin
- Caraway

On the right is what it looks like when we mix it together at home. Ah it's just so fragrant.

Screw it, you should never buy ground spices again, especially that Curry Powder nonsense. But do buy the Magic Bullet, our only purchase off of TV. Haven't regretted it. Grinds just as much spice as we need, dump it in the dish washer and you're done.

Labels: Food, rant, recipes

I've been interested in sugar substitutes for a while now. I really don't care to use chemical substitutes or other zero calorie substitutes, nor have I been very successful at satisfactorily baking with syrups like honey or agave. I've used fructose, but feel that's nearly as refined as sugar and the xyletol I've been using is made from corn (which I don't really feel like supporting the continued over growth of) and can't be used in home made candies, not that I do much of that anyways.

So, anyways, I usually read up on any new 'healthy' sugar (if there is such a thing) I come across. I recently came across a new one called sucanat. After some net reading, I learned that it is more or less the same thing as muscavo sugar, also called gur in India! Yeah, finally a sugar that is healthier and that I am already familiar with and can get easily.

So, how is gur actually healthier? Well, because it is unrefined and still contains minerals such as potassium, calcium and others. It's still sugar, don't get me wrong, but I also don't think it can be called empty calories either!

Here's a simple cookie recipe that I intend to try soon. If you try it before I do, please let me know how it turns out! I found it at: http://recipes.egullet.org/recipes/r2108.html

Labels: Food, recipes

Sounds like a weird combination? I thought so too until I tried it! It is one of my favorite ways to prepare strawberries (when I don't gobble them down whole, that is). The vinegar brings out the best flavors in the strawberry, sweet and tangy at the same time.

Here's how it goes:

1 pint fresh strawberries, washed and quartered
1/4 cup sugar*
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Mix all the ingredients and then let the strawberries sit on the counter for 4 hours. Serve at room temperature. If preparing in advance, mix and store in the fridge overnight, but allow to warm up a bit before serving

*I'm going to try it some time with agave syrup. Should give it a yummy earthy taste.

Labels: balasmic vinegar, dessert, Food, strawberry

A couple of you mentioned you'd like to get my recipes. I'm afraid to share this one because you'll all see just how easy it is. Maybe that's a good thing though, that something so tasty can be so simple.


Last week for our mealswap, I made homemade ravioli with leek and butternut squash filling and collard greens and ricotta filling. I also made pork chops with apple Gorgonzola sauce. The ravioli wasn't anything to write home about, but the pork is always a hit.

1 lbs of boneless pork chops
200 grams Gorgonzola
2 apples
salt and pepper
1 tbsp butter

Saute the apples in the butter (I never use the full amount) on medium high heat till they start to turn brown and are soft. Turn down the heat and add the Gorgonzola and mix till it starts to melt. Add salt and pepper to taste (the cheese is already salty, so go slow and taste often with the salt). At this point I turned off the stove and let the pan sit on the hot burner, covered.

I then put the pork chops on the grill and took them off when they were just done and plated them. Once the pork chops were done, I went back to my Gorgonzola sauce which was perfectly melted. You may want to reheat it a bit, but I didn't find it necessary. Cover the pork chops with the sauce.

Enjoy!

Labels: Apples, Food, gorgonzola, pork

Well, our endeavor to eat local sure is turning into a tasty treat! I love getting up on Saturday morning and perusing the San Mateo Farmer's Market. Since we have been really making an effort to eat in season, and that can be a little more time consuming regarding finding recipes using only in season ingredients, I thought I'd post what we've been doing with our food as well as share a few of the recipes we have tried that turned out really amazing... I also thought I'd share with you some of the yummy treats we have been using our Marin Sun Farms meat for.

Bengali Cabbage
Keema
Kebabs
Collard Greens Pachadi
Chicken iStew (Sounth Indian Style)
Bengali Fingerling Potatoes

Keema

Anupam made a variation of this recipe that just turned out awesome! It happens to be potato season for us, so we used the fingerlings that came in our veggie box. And since potatoes and tomatoes aren't in season at the same time, we used canned tomatoes. Also, it is truly worth the effort of grinding fresh spices. It barely takes any time, but makes a noticeable difference in the outcome of the food. This is a recipe from Curried Favors: Family Recipes from South India by Maya Kaimal MacMillan.

Ingredients


2 cups thinly sliced onion
1-2 tsp oil
2 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp minced ginger
1 1/2 lbs minced beef/lamb (we used beef)
6 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1-2 Thai chillies
2 tsp salt
2 medium boiling potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/4" cubes (optional if using seasonal ingredients)
1 cup chopped tomatoes (canned will due)
1 cup water
1 cup frozen peas
1 tsp fresh lemon juice

Fry the onions in oil over medium high heat until edges are nicely browned. Add the garlic and ginger, fry for 2 minutes before adding the meat. Continue frying till it is completely brown.

Stir in all the ground spices from the ingredient list, the chillies and salt until well blended. Add the potatoes, tomatoes and water. Simmer partially covered for 30 minutes.

Add the peas and cook uncovered until the mixture is neither dry or watery. Add water or continue cooking as necessary.

Finally, stir in lemon juice, remove from heat and taste for salt.

Collard Greens Pachadi

Not only did both of us love it, but I was really pleased with this dish when my 3 year old daughter (who is a fairly selective eater) came to me a day or two after we served this dish and said, "Mama, collard greens are yummy." Need I say more? This is a recipe adapted from Curried Favors: Family Recipes from South India by Maya Kaimal MacMillan.

1/2 cup chopped onion
2 tsp oil
2 bunches of fresh collard greens (spinach or other would be fine too)
1 Thai green chillies
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp water
1 cup plain yogurt (homemade)

1 tsp mustard seeds
2 dried red peppers
10 curry leaves (if you are out, 2 bay leaves make a suitable subsitution)
1 tbsp oil

First, wash, trim and chop your greens. You can either lightly blanch them or cook them in a pressure cooker. Once they are thoroughly drained, chop them finely. You can leave it fresh also, but allow for a bit of extra cooking time. Using a pressure cooker will preserve the vitamins over blanching in hot water.

In a sauce pan fry the onion in oil until lightly browned. Add collard greens, thai chilli, cumin, salt and water. Cook until the greens are soft and almost all the water has evaporated. Remove from heat and stir in the yogurt.

In a separate pan, heat the remaining ingredients in the oil till the mustard seeds begin to pop. Stir the spices into the collard greens, taste for salt and serve warm or at room temperature.

For left overs, eat them cold or reheat them gently. The yogurt will curdle if you re-cook it.

Fresh Bengali Cabbage

2 tsp garlic
2 tsp grated ginger
2 tsp mustard seeds
2 tsp panch phoran
mustard oil
1/2 tsp turmeric
salt

Fry the garlic, ginger in mustard oil till they start to brown. Then add the mustard seeds and panch phoran. When the mustard seeds start popping, add the cabbage. When the cabbage has started to soften, add the turmuric and stir well. Cover the dish for about 5 minutes and add salt to taste. Continue cooking, covered, till the cabbage is very soft. If there is lots of liquid in the bottom of the pan, cook uncovered for the last few minutes to dry it out a bit.

Labels: Food, healthy, organic