Traveling Cookies-Traveling Cookies

I'm a copy cat. I admit it. I can't imagine how productive I'd be if I fell in love with other bloggers but for now one has my heart and she's always in my head! It's hard enough to pretend to be her the very little that I do. She is so prolific and talented. Recently she's published a book that I want to get my sticky fingers on, but alas it's in Australia and I am in the US. Of course I'm talking about:
.
Lorraine from Not Quite Nigella

I had an opened can of sweetened condensed milk from some Vietnamese coffee adventuring (yet another post) when Lorraine's cookie recipe popped up in my email. The recipe called for 4 tablespoons of the condensed milk. I had that plus a one more cup's worth of milk in my fridge! It was fate.

Actually it's kind of funny because you'll find this celebrated food blogger on the other side of the world where they use funny metric measures and products that I've never heard of. I have to do a little detective work and ciphering to make her recipes work for me. Like "custard powder" what's that? Being clever I figured it's a cousin of pudding mix. A few twitches on a search engine my hunch was right.

Is her condensed milk my evaporated? Did she just assume the "sweetened"? I did and that's what I went with.

Now, I'm not really one to bake "close to scratch" where one adds mixes together. But neither is Lorraine and she was recommending this cookie recipe. (If it goes on a blog it's recommended.) I needed to pick up flour and the pudding is close by at the grocery and there was that sweetened condensed milk mocking me...

So I gave it a shot.

My Amuricanized Traveling Cookies

Her lovely metric version

1 cup butter, 2 sticks of butter
4 T. sweetened condensed milk
1.5 cup flour
1.5 tsp. baking powder
1-3.5 packet of vanilla pudding mix
Sugar to roll dough in, I used terbinado.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Fahrenheit.
In a microwavable bowl that's large enough to mix all the ingredients zap the butter and condensed milk for 15 seconds to take the chill off. Mix until smooth.
On top of the the creamy blend add the flour and baking powder. Blend them together lightly. Don't dig down into the creamy blend. Add the pudding mix and toss with just the flour. Now take the mixer to the batter and combine thoroughly.

Scoop into 24 balls and roll in sugar. Place on parchment lined cookie sheets and flatten with the back side of a fork. Bake 12 -15 minutes.

They are tender and taste very butterscotchy which may have a lot to do with the terbinado sugar I rolled mine in.

So do you have a blogger whom you read regularly? What is it that they do that keeps you coming back again? For me with NQN, it's a blend of admiration for her talent in writing, photography and voyeurism at her travels. Plus her pallet aligns with mine; I love her sweets and her savory foods.

Do you find awkward recipes inviting or off putting? You know ones that don't jibe with your regular cooking? I personally like the challenge.

Better than OK Okonomiyaki

I love a pancake.

A savory pancake is better.

A savory pancake with Furikake and mayonnaise is delicious. Furikake is a condiment you sprinkle on rice, generally.

Tasting Table had a Japanese Okonomiyaki recipe today. I surprisingly had the ingredients (or close enough) at home. Below is my variation on a terrific theme. It's a vegetable mixture held together with eggs and normally flour. I used rice flour to make it gluten free.

Okonomiyaki

1/2 head nappa cabbage, cut super thinly
4 carrots grated
3 kale leaves, just regular kale, cut super thinly
4 scallions cut thinly, white and green
1/4 cup rice flour
6 eggs, lightly beaten
pinch of salt
canola oil
furikake
mayonnaise

Combine the vegetables in a bowl, sprinkle with rice flour and toss to coat the vegetables in the flour. Add salt to the beaten eggs then add to the vegetables.
Put a tablespoon of oil in a skillet until it gets hot. Put a quarter of the mixture in the skillet, press it into a circle. When the edges brown flip the cake over and cook longer.

Remove from the skillet sprinkle heavily with the furikake and top with a skinny layer of mayonnaise. Make more pancakes until it is all cooked. Okay so I just plopped mayo on mine and spread it out. I wished I had done the mayo differently so I had a little schmear on each bite.

Also the picture was taken after a I had started to eat it. Not really my best photographic work but certainly yummy!

Soy Mayo

I was avoiding dairy and I wanted something creamy when I came up with this recipe. I'm back on the cow but I'm still making soy mayo, mostly because it's a vehicle for garlic, but also because it's so easy!

The recipe:

1 clove garlic
2 green onions, sliced thinly
1/2 c. soy milk, plain-not vanilla and no added sugar
1/8 teaspoon dried mustard
1 c. oil, like canola or olive if you've got it.
2 T. lemon juice
salt

In a food processor mince the garlic and 3/4 of the green onions. Save some for garnish. Add the soy milk and whirl it a bit. Add the mustard then the oil in a stream while the machine is running. Add lemon and salt to taste. Blend a solid 60 seconds longer

You are done. It will look like traditional mayonnaise.

This stays emulsified for days and is good for dipping the roasted lima beans.

What's your favorite soy item? I'm still exploring but I like many of them.

Red Lentil Zucchini Dahl

 We are just getting warmed up for the month o’ beans and today’s was excellent again.

In an effort not to go too heavy on one regional flavor I thought I’d tap India for today’s delicious bean adventure. Saying you’re tapping India is like tapping America, it’s too vast to claim just one way of doing things, but I being a generalist at the moment.

What’s cool and funky about today’s dish is I used curry leaves for the first time ever. I didn’t know these little darlings even existed until last week. I’ve tasted them before when having gone out to a restaurant for curry. I’ve tried to get that same flavor with the spices in my cabinet but always missed the mark. These darlings are fantastic and if you are like me wondering what was missing, I’ll bet it’s the curry leaf.

 Red Lentil Zucchini Dahl

2c. red lentils, rinsed
3 small zucchini, sliced
3 curry leaves
3 T. oil
1 large onion
1 T. corriander, ground
2 tsp. cumin, ground
1/4tsp. turmeric
2 red chili peppers
5 cloves garlic
1inch ginger, peeled
5 black pepper corns
Salt

Bring the lentils to boil in plenty of unsalted water. After 20 minutes add the zucchini. Cook lentils and zucchini until soft. If it’s too wet simmer longer. Thin with water if too thick. In a small skillet sauté onions in oil on low heat. Make a paste of the spices, garlic and ginger. Once the onions are soft add the spice paste and sizzle in the skillet 3-4 minutes. Add the spices to the lentils. Add salt. Cook 5 minutes longer.

Frankly,  I just ate this straight up without rice or bread, making happy noises all the while.

So do you have a recently discovered ingredient? Or one that you found that you didn't even know you were missing?

Giant Roasted Lima Beans

We read A Bad Case of the Stripes by David Shannon often when Z used to have me read to her. "Camellia Cream loved lima beans. But she never ate them." It's a lovely story about expressing yourself and enjoying your differences...and it's about lima beans, who isn't going to love that book!

You know those giant dried lima beans? They are white and as big as your thumb? They are delicious.
Dried limas are to fresh limas as split peas are to green peas. They're the same thing, just pick at different times. Legumes get to dry on the plant, then are harvested.

Aside from lasting forever or nearly forever, they pack a nutritional punch!

I cooked up a bag with no real intention other than I'm gonna eat them. Then I sought out recipes. This  recipe from the Food Network got my attention.

But I went a different direction with my spices. Mostly because I don't have cayenne pepper in my house. What? I know! I do however have a Penzey's Spice blend called Arizona Dreaming.

I'm not the biggest user of blends because I'm a snot about that kind of thing, but it was in the pantry why not use it. Right?

GIANT ROASTED LIMA BEANS

3/4 cup dried beans, boiled until just soft
drained, rinsed, cooled and dried, about 2 cups cooked
1/4 c. olive oil
1 lime, juiced
kosher salt
Seasoning, any blend or straight up cayenne

Toss the beans in the the mixture, careful not to break them. Spread them out into a single layer on a cookie sheet. Bake in 425 degree oven until brown.

Okay, so they haven't cooled, but they taste terrific right now, warm. I know I love them because they are so starchy, like little tater-tots in their own little skins.

So what's the best book you've read to a 5 year old lately?

28 Days of Beans

I am a food adventurer. I battle my weight too.

There's pretty much not many things I won't attempt to eat and that gets me in trouble. I'll go hunting for noodles and I'll daringly bake things. I work with food for a living and I play by cooking with friends.

But I'm off to do a vegan cleanse with my delightful friends from Vitality, Melissa and Stephanie.

Part of my past work life was as a vegetarian cook at a vegetarian restaurant. Vegan doesn't scare me and I LOVE beans. So I'm looking to cook a different bean dish every day for the duration of this cleanse. It's really 21 days with a week of weaning (this week), so 28 fantastic, fartastic bean recipes!

Monday I made Black Lentil Chili

BLACK LENTIL CHILI

1 cup little black French lentils
15 oz canned tomatoes
1 tsp. oil
2 carrots, diced
1 onion, diced
2 celery ribs, diced
1 clove garlic
1 T. chili powder
1 T. tomato powder
1 T. cumin
red pepper flakes
1/4 cup white wine
water
salt

Clean and pick the lentils. Bring to a boil. Change the water. Boil longer. Add tomatoes and juice.
In a skillet saute onions, carrots, celery in oil. Add garlic. Add the spices toss to coat everything. Add the wine and cook it down. Add some water and salt and simmer till everything is soft. Add to the lentils and cook as long as you can stand it. At least an hour.

This was my dinner on Monday and my lunch on Tuesday.

Now if I can actually post about what I'm making and eating daily that would be a major accomplishment. I would love to capture my recipes and my thinking. It's highly unlikely though.

Tuesday's dinner was tinned vegetarian refried black beans in corn enchiladas with a dark mole. With guacamole. See the recipes below.

I have always been gobsmacked by the verity of beans at the Mexican market and while there today (picking up the mole, corn tortillas, refrieds, etc.) I decided to buy a few different dried beans to adventure with. I will try to cook as many different beans as I can in the next 28 days.

Giant Limas are cooking right now for tomorrow.

GUACAMOLE

1 avocado
1 plum tomato, diced
1 lime, juiced
1 clove garlic
1 green onion, diced
6 cilantro bunches
kosher salt
olive oil

Squish this all together call it guacamole and dance a happy dance when it fills your mouth with joy.

Chicken Chow Fun!

How fun? 
Chow Fun!

I am noodle adventuring these days. Well I have been for a while since me and the Boss Man, who is legitimately my boss-one of three-but the only male, have been on the hunt for the 10 Asian Noodle Dishes One Should Eat. It was a post I read once upon a time and in our uber nerd fashion we made spreadsheets listing what we had already eaten and what we hadn't and where to find the dishes in the Columbus area. It's how we lunch when we can actually get away to catch a meal not at work.

Even while work has an exceptional cafeteria, sometimes you just need to get away.

We've invited other people to join us. We are kind of a club. You know the cool kids. Because cool kids geek out about noodles and spreadsheets.

Anyway as any good foodie person knows you don't just go to restaurants to eat the noodle, you make them at home too and you feed them to your friends and you blog about them, etc.

So enter Chow Fun. They are squishy, slippery noodles that you find in the refrigerated section of an Asian market. The come in a styrofoam packet, one big sheet all folded together. Different from any other noodle I've enjoyed, you microwave it till it's soft about 2 minutes, cut it into strips and add it to you saucy stir-fried deliciousness. Below is the recipe for the dish in the picture.

Chicken Chow Fun

2 T. oil
1 big onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
5 cups fresh bean sprouts, rinsed
2 carrots, shaved
hot sauce or pepper paste
4 oz. chicken, cooked and minced

For the sauce
4 T. rice vinegar
3 T. sugar
4 T. soy sauce
1 T. oyster sauce
4 T. water

14 oz. package chow fun noodles, heated and cut into strips

kosher salt
green onions, if you've got them

Get everything prepped.

Heat oil and cook onions on high heat, once they start to brown add garlic. Drop in the bean sprouts, carrots, hot sauce and chicken. Stir it up until the carrots are hot through. Add the sauce, stir it constantly. When the sauce is bubbly, push the solid mass to one side and drop the noodles into the saucy side a few noodles at a time. Cook a few minute more. Taste for salt and top with green onions.  And there you go.

Do you have a group of lunch friends? Are there rules you follow for getting out and back to work in a timely way?