Awesome Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

I really shouldn't call this a chocolate chip recipe. This is a "got a lot of stuff in it" cookie recipe. I've been working on this recipe for a couple of years, and I'm pretty happy with where it is now. As those of you who follow my business and marketing blog and site, I am also a part of Teri Mason Photography (Google it and see how fantastic she is). While I focus on marketing and biz ops, I find any and every opportunity to utilize my chef skills in some form or fashion. We have, for quiet a number of years now, provide a nice platter of cookies and custom designed water bottles for those clients of Teri's who come in for sales sessions. We've had quite a positive response over the years. Fantastic portraits projected over the big screen, and scrumptious cookies to munch on while watching your loved ones in the slide presentation. Oh yeah, and for the big spenders, we somehow seem to find a nice bottle of wine or two, appetizers, and various sweets.

OK ... on to the Recipe and method:

• 8 oz of real, unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup of dark brown sugar
• 3/4 cup of organic white sugar
• 1/4 cup of organic molasses
• 3 free range eggs
• 1 tsp of good quality vanilla
• 3 cups of organic white flour (great deal on this at Costco)
• 1 cup of rolled oats
• 1/4 cup flaxseed meal
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp kosher or sea salt (using iodized salt gives a chemical taste)
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon (use a good quality)
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp of ground ginger
• 2 cups of dark chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup dark raisins
• 1/2 cup golden raisins
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans, I like both)

Preheat your carefully calibrated oven to 375 degrees.

Sift the dry ingredients of flour, baking soda, baking powder, and spices. After sifting, add the flaxseed meal and rolled oats, then set all the dry stuff aside.

In a mixer, such as a Kitchenaide or Cuisinart, cream the brown sugar, white sugar and butter. Now this is not quite as straight forward as some people think. Start off slowly with the mixer on the lower couple of speeds, and then gradually build up the speed to one of the higher speeds. Stop occasional to scrape the bottom with a spatula. If you have one of those scraping paddles like they make for the Kitchenaide, it is a very big help. When your sugar and butter is ready, it will be a creamy light color with almost no granularity at all. Add one egg, then mix it in thoroughly. Add another, mix. Finally add the third and mix, slowly building up the speed to cream the mixture again. Add the vanilla and molasses and mix, slowly at first, then building up the speed to almost high to get a really good creamy mixture. It is very important that the mixture have the correct consistency before adding the dry ingredients. Now add the dry ingredients about 1/3 at a time, mixing thoroughly before adding the next 1/3. Mix slowly until well combined. Take the bowl off of the mixer and scrape the paddle of all the little goodies that get stuck to it. Add the chocolate chips, raisins, and nuts. Mix well with your spatula. Each scoop should have a bit of everything in it when placed on the baking sheet.

Now using your large cookie sheet covered with a sheet of parchment paper (always, always use parchment paper, which is NOT wax paper), scoop out equal portions, four rows of three scoops, about an 1/8 cup or more per cookie. Bake at 375 for 13-15 minutes or until just getting brown around the edges. Remove from oven and place the entire cookie sheet on the cookie rack to cool. When it has cooled enough and you can hold the cookie sheet with your bare hands, then you can slide the parchment paper with all of the cookies still on it onto the cooling rack.

You should be able to get between 4 or 5 dozen cookies with this recipe, depending on how large your cookies are. The dough will keep in the fridge for a couple of days, but I'd make sure I used it all up in that amount of time, or toss it. Just doesn’t seem as fresh after a few days, so I usually will make fresh rather than use something that’s been around for too long.

Feel free to add things you like to this recipe, or remove things you don't. However, give them a try as it is written before you make any adjustments. They are pretty darn good as they are.

Enjoy!

A kinder, gentler and more bad a** Cuisinart Food Processor

As usual, I've gone far too long without posting anything in my blog. Going to have to change that and get those recipes going. New addition on the house is now built, and while I've got some outside projects to do, such as building a new chicken coop and rebuilding my greenhouse, I should be able to find the time to write a bit more.

One thing to note, and then I'll be on to the review. I'm going to start a companion blog that will focus on different diets with respect to various athletic endeavors, as well as plans for weight loss. What I hope to accomplish is to get folks on track with their current diets and help them to achieve the goals they set. I'll also look at promoting locally raised produce, meats and poultry, as well as the use of naturally raised and organic (and the difference between the two) on both blogs. I know around Central Texas, we have a great resource with our farmers' markets, and would like everyone to experience them and keep their money local.

Onward to the review. My first ... and most recently deceased ... food processor was the venerable Cuisinart Deluxe 11. It served me well for many years and was at the top of its game when I got it. Because of the catering that I do, and the many cheesecakes that I make, it finally gave up the ghost. Without a doubt, the food processor is the greatest tool for making a very dense cheesecake. It thoroughly mixes everything without adding a bunch of air to the batter, such that a mixer would do. However, the Deluxe 11's motor couldn't handle the strain, and the bowl would barely hold the 3 lbs of cream cheese and the other ingredients. So I ended up smoking the motor. Anyone that needs a bowl, cover, and other accessories for a Deluxe 11, give me a ring. I'll let them go really cheap (read:free).

So after a bunch of research, I purchase the Cuisinart DFP-14BCN 14 cup Food Processor. That's a mouthful, I know. I looked at a bunch of different food processors and read the reviews, but for the cost, this one fit the bill. I'd have liked to have purchased a RoboCoup, but that was just a bit too outside my budget (actually a lot outside my budget) for a home based food processor (that can double for catering as well). One thing I found is that too many food processors try to be really sleek and stylish, costing double what the 14 BCN cost, and not having near the wattage or power. The 14 BCN is a workhorse that has 720-watts, ample power for anything you will build at home. There is nothing really sleek about the black and chrome square base, but it is stylish in a sexy, utilitarian kind of way. The 14-cup Lexan work bowl and extra-large feed tube make it very useful for someone who has a need to prepare lots of food quickly. I like the large bowl. With the older food processor, I would make a nice mess when making a cheesecake as the ingredients put it at max capacity. The 14 BCN gave a light sigh, took in all in stride, had lots of extra space, and kind of just told me, "What else you got for me this evening?" Very nice. And when you want the blade to stop, you press stop ... and it stops on a dime.

Something else about this machine. While food processors, by their very nature, are a bit difficult to clean, this one is pretty easy. It has fewer parts than the older one, and the parts just fit together better. They are easy to clean by hand, but also are dishwasher safe (my normal MO). And it's also very quiet. I like to be able to listen to music and actually hear the song while my equipment is running.

Finally, there is the issue with regards to price. I was quite satisfied with the price at most all of the places I looked, both online and off. The department stores had their 50% markup compared to the price directly from Cuisinart, and there were some decent prices on Ebay (one price that seemed too good to be true, was ... and we got our money back, but that is another story). I finally decided on Bed, Bath and Beyond. Their price was exactly the same as Cuisinart's direct order price of $199.00, yet I didn't have to pay for shipping. Other places offered it a bit less, but shipping actually made it more expensive, so I was still doing good with BBB. My lovely wife told me to look online for a coupon (something I rarely do), and I found a 20% off on one item at BBB, printed it out and took it with me. All said and done, I paid under $175.00 which was less than any of the prices I saw online, before shipping.

Needless to say, I'm happy with this purchase. I'd recommend this product to any home cook that plays a lot in the kitchen. It will definitely hold up to most domestic abuse.

I hope this review was helpful to anyone looking for an effective food processor. I plan on doing some other equipment reviews in the future. Let me know if there is something you would like to see reviewed.

It's coming. Stay tuned.

Real Food Rants and Ancho Ketchup

It has been way too long since I last posted a blog entry, so I may put at least two recipes in this one. Teri and I just finished a nice baked chicken with a root veggie gratin that was very basic, but tasted oh so good. This morning, I had a nice bowl of chopped, fresh fruit with yogurt and honey (and I use organic yogurt without all the thickeners and sweeteners that the ugly store bought stuff has). Point being, it really is easy to eat well, and healthy. I’m currently reading a book by Michael Pollan called “In Defense of Food.” I can’t recommend this book highly enough. If anyone wants to see what motivates me to cook real food, read this book. Food should be something that has real ingredients that you can pronounce. Food should be grown by a local farmer or rancher, not shipped in from New Zealand (though I do like NZ lamb, a lot). Of all the states in the US, Texas has an incredible amount of natural and locally grown produce and meats. Buy it, and cook it. Pollan suggests that if your grandmother or great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize it, don’t eat it. I agree with this up to a point, as there are some fabulous fruits and vegetables available that were not always easily available way back when. My wife suggested that jicama wasn’t something one ran down to the store to buy in our grandmothers’ time, (hard to believe in Texas), but it is a wonderfully tasty root vegetable that can be peeled and sliced, and eaten with a squeeze of lime juice. It is very nutritious as well. Even if getting to the farmers’ market isn’t something that is convenient, at least spend most of your shopping time in the fruit and vegetable section and the outside isles of the grocery store. STAY OUT of the middle isles which are nothing but processed foods for the most part. I call them the cancer and heart attack isles. Pollan has a subtitle to his book that I think is very appropriate. “Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly Plants.” While I’m a meat eater, and a hunter and fisherman to boot, we Texans eat entirely too much protein (and I am guilty of it as well). I’m not going to advocate we give up our proteins, but rather make sure we add a lot of the foods our bodies have been nourished by for hundreds of thousands of years (And to quote my friend, Greg Hodges, train, train, train!). I don’t believe our distant ancestors ate too much processed flour and sugar.

That rant out of the way, I think I should add a recipe or two. My wife makes fun of the fact that I’d rather make my own condiments than buy the chemically heavy substances they sell at the store that pass for things like ketchup. So my first recipe will be Ancho Ketchup. Next time you buy ketchup at the grocery store, read the ingredients, understanding that they are listed from most used to least. You will find lots of sugar type substances, such as high fructose corn syrup, which is a very unnatural substance that even in small amounts causes some serious insulin problems within our bodies, regardless of what the idiotic commercial says. I’m going to go to the recipe before I get off on another rant about sweeteners. Use real sugar, unprocessed (organic if possible) for a sweetener, for goodness sakes.

One more note. Many of these spices can be picked up at an Indian Foods Market, where they are quite fresh, and much less costly than at your local grocery.

Ancho Ketchup

4 whole cloves
1 bay leaf
1 stick cinnamon
¼ tsp celery seeds
¼ tsp chile flakes
¼ tsp whole allspice
2 lbs tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 ½ tsp kosher salt
2 tbsp ancho chili powder
½ cup white vinegar
5 tbsp brown sugar (organic if possible)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 anaheim chile, chopped
1 clove garlic (a rather large one if possible)

Create a sachet with the cloves, bay leaf, cinnamon, celery seeds, chile flakes and whole allspice by wrapping them into a nice bundle with cheesecloth and securing it with twine. In a 4 qt or larger saucepan, put the tomatoes, salt, ancho chili powder, vinegar, sugar, onion, anaheim, and garlic (smashed). Cook for approx. 45 minutes on medium-high.

Remove the spice bundle and puree the sauce in a blender until smooth. Strain through a mesh strainer back into the saucepan and continue to cook until the desired thickness, which will be about 30 or more minutes. Add more salt, sugar, vinegar, or ancho to suite your taste profile.

Chill in the refrigerator in a small jar. It will keep for 3 or 4 weeks. I keep my in the fridge door in a ketchup squeeze bottle so that I can grab it as I need it.

Enjoy this recipe. It is fun and easy to make, and your kiddos will be very impressed that you actually made ketchup.

Tomorrow, I’ll blog another recipe. It is bedtime for TOG (the old guy).

Roasted Tomato and Basil Soup

Since it was a soup du jour morning, I had to get something out rather easily, as I had lots of other prep to do today. So after the obligatory walk through the Walk-In (refrigerator), I saw that we had quite a few tomatoes that needed to be used up. Hmmmm. Tomato soup is, without question, one of my favorites, and it is pretty easy to make. So Tomato Soup it is. However, I needed to add some pop to it. After more rummaging around the Walk-In, I found some fresh Basil. After quickly stumbling around the restaurant kitchen, making sure the steam wells had water in them, and the chicken stock (very large pot) was reducing some more, I got to work. This really is an easy soup. This recipe makes a lot, so either halve or quarter it, if need be.

Roasted Tomato and Basil Soup

Ingredients

16 tomatoes (medium size, heirlooms are best, but any will work)
2 medium size onions – large dice
3 large carrots – roughly chopped
6-8 strips of bacon – chopped
2 Tbsp veggie oil (I use 80% Canola/20% Olive)
3 or 4 qts chicken stock
1.5 cups heavy cream
¼ cup lemon juice
2 Tbsp dried Basil
1 Tbsp dried Oregano
1 Tbsp dried Thyme
¼ cup Fresh Basil – rough chop
1 Tbsp – Chipotle chili powder
1 Tbsp – Ancho chili powder
2 Tbsp – Ground Coriander
Kosher salt and white pepper to taste

And for the chef’s super secret recipe – ½ cup ketchup (I know, it just doesn’t sound right, but it works, so why argue the point).

OK. So it looks like a lot of ingredients. Yeah, well, the only necessary ingredients are the tomatoes, onions, fat/oil, and salt and pepper. With that base, you can add anything you want to make a tomato soup (chopped rosemary, for example). So if you don’t have something, don’t despair. Just play with your seasonings and add a few things until it tastes right.

Method

Roast the tomatoes on the grill until they become somewhat soft and have charred grill marks. Heat your soup pot on med-high. When the pot is hot enough, add the veggie oil and bacon and sauté a bit. Add the onion and carrots and continue to sauté for a few minutes. Now add your dried herbs (Basil, Oregano, and Thyme). You can stir these around the pot get them to release their aromas and flavors. Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat a bit and reduce the liquid by almost half. Now at this point, you want to puree the entire mix with the fresh Basil. If you have an immersion blender, you can use that, or you can transfer to a blender by a bit at a time until you have pureed all of it. Once this has been done, add the lemon juice and cream. If using the immersion blender, continue to mix. If you went the blender route, get a whisk and whisk in the cream and lemon juice. Continue to keep the burner on medium through this process. Add the chipotle and ancho chili powders, the ground coriander, and the salt and pepper until the flavors are where you want them.

This is truly a soup where you essentially add the vegetables, cook them down a bit, add the rest of the ingredients and blend them all up. Feel free to play with this recipe and adjust the tastes to your liking. Personally, I’d add more chipotle at home, as I like the added heat. But at the restaurant, I have to be careful that I don’t burn the mouth of some little old lady from Sun City. I think a jalapeno or a Serrano pepper would also be nice added to this as well.

Restaurant Chef Tip: To get the white swirly stuff on top of the soup like in the picture, I reduce about 1 cup of sour cream with ¼ cup of dry sherry to a creamy consistency. Transfer to a squeeze tube (like a ketchup or mustard tube you see at hamburger joints), and slowly squeeze it out while moving your hand in a circle above the soup bowl. To add one more fancy, smancy look to it, you can drag a small paring knife blade in straight lines across the bowl. It makes it look like you know what you are doing.

Have fun and enjoy. Let me know how this works for you.

If you want an immersion blender, they are pretty cost effective. Costco has a Cuisinart immersion blender fro $30.00 that is stainless steel and can be used in a hot soup pot. You can find them at Target, Walmart, and most department stores. They are invaluable in the kitchen and I used them to puree all of my bisque’s and chowders.

Bon Appetit!

Pico de Gallo

Pico de Gallo

Hola’ everyone. I wanted to add a quick recipe that is just perfect for the summer. Pico de Gallo is something most everyone likes, and with the availability of fresh vegetables at the farmer’s market, it is a great way to create a condiment that can go with most every food you put on your plate. The nice thing about this pico recipe is that I use it as a base for most all of my pico’s. Depending on what I’m going to prepare for the meal, I’ll make additions to it that support the meal. For example, and I’ll share how I do it, when I’m cooking fish from the gulf, I like to make a tropical pico. And while it is somewhat of a Mexican or Southwestern style condiment, it can easily be fused into other cuisines as well. Much of my Louisiana style foods get garnished with a nice pico, especially my blackened or sautéed fish. And for the health conscious, there are few things more healthy than a fresh batch of pico de gallo. It is just loaded with vitamin C. I tend to make a large batch of it and keep it handy in the fridge to add to most any meal I’m preparing, breakfast, lunch, dinner or supper. It also works as an appetizer, or an accoutrement to the appetizer, such as seared sesame tuna on a crustini topped with pico. This is a very versatile creation.

Base Pico de Gallo

Ingredients

4 medium tomatoes – fine dice
1 medium onion – fine dice
3 good size cloves garlic – minced
3 jalapeños – very fine dice (add more or remove based on your taste profile)
zest and juice of two limes – very important part of recipe
juice of one lemon

Method

Dice it all up, mix it all up, and enjoy!

OK. What can we do to mix this up a bit? This can be left up to your wildest dreams (careful there, jalapeños can burn). I’ll add a few additional ingredients below.

For a Southwestern/Native American touch add:

The kernels from two ears of fresh corn – boil and cool before removing kernels.
1 Roasted Red Bell - fine dice
Add 1 or 2 hatch chilis and remove the same amount of jalapeños.

I love this over the top of a seared or grilled pork chop (at least 1” thick) that has been seasoned with kosher salt, pepper, Ancho chili powder, garlic powder and onion powder. Serve with a vegetable tamale and you have yourself a very tasty combination.

For a more tropical bent, add:

2 or 3 blood oranges (supreme, or cut it to where you remove only the meat of the orange, not any peel or pith)
1 ½ cup of finely diced pineapple

This works over a sautéed flounder seasoned with kosher or sea salt, white pepper, and a little bit of Ancho chili powder. Serve over a bed of rice with a green vegetable, and again, you have some pretty good eats (not to mention very healthy).

So I think you should be getting the picture. Feel free to experiment with lots of different additions to the base. You will find what goes well together and what does not. What I suggest, if you are not sure about the mix of your ingredients, pull a little of the base aside, and add just a bit of whatever new ingredients you want to, and see if it works. If it does, then add the proper percentage to the remaining ingredients.

Have fun and let me know how some different things you do with it.

Bon Appetit!

Kitchen Confidential and Sauteed Flounder

I just finished "Kitchen Confidential" by Anthony Bourdain. What an entertaining book. Many of the stories definitely ring true for the industry, though some are exaggerated just a bit. There is a lot of truth to the quote, “Don’t eat the fish special on Monday,” though the place I work at does get deliveries over the weekend, so I can offer a fresh fish filet on that day. Without question, this book gives a no holds barred look at the industry, leaving pretty much nothing out. Those that work in professional kitchens are, for the most part, a different breed. However, with most chefs and cooks, it IS all about the food.

If you want an entertaining and quick read, go get “Kitchen Confidential” by Anthony Bourdain. If you are as warped as I sometimes am, you will get a laugh.

On to the food.

Teri and I are very lucky to live next door to a friend that fishes often down in Port Aransas. Really it’s almost like having a seafood market next door. This weekend we were lucky enough to get some fresh flounder filets, and I figured I’d share one of the ways I’ve cooked them. You can use this recipe with most any white fish, such as freshwater bass or even trout. It is, without question, pretty simple.

Sauteed Flounder with Sundried Tomato Buerre Blanc on a bed of squash and onion stir fry.

Flounder:
Ingredients:

4 flounder filets about 5 oz each (or any white fish)
Kosher or Sea Salt
White Pepper
Ancho Chili Powder (or regular chili powder if you can’t get the ancho)
1 oz butter
1 oz vegetable oil (I use an olive/canola oil blend)

Method:

Season both sides of the fish with the salt, pepper and chili powder. Heat skillet on med-high until pretty hot. Add oil and butter to hot skillet. Carefully lay the fish down in the skillet and cook for about 3 or 4 minutes. Flip and cook until done. Set over the bed of squash and onions and top with the buerre blanc.


Squash and Onion Stir Fry:
Indredients:

2 good size squash julienned (long thin strips)
1 onion Frenched (thin wedges)
Kosher or Sea Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
1 oz vegetable oil (olive/canola oil blend)


Method:

Heat skillet to med-high until pretty hot. Add oil to hot skillet. Add onions and sweat them for a bit. Add the squash and cook them with the onions for a few minutes. Salt and pepper to taste, and you are done. (I sometimes add a bit of dried oregano at the same time I add the onions. This is a cook’s choice.)

Sundried Tomato Buerre Blanc:
Indredients:

¼ cup of white wine
2 oz of shallots chopped fine dice (or mild onion if you can’t get any shallots)
4 oz of sun dried tomatoes chopped medium dice
4 oz butter (not margarine, not oleo, not anything else other than REAL butter.)
Kosher or Sea Salt to taste
White Pepper to taste (or black pepper if you don’t have white)

Method:

Add the wine, shallots and sun dried tomatoes to a skillet and turn it to med high. Boil the wine down to au sec, or almost dry (should be just bubbling and almost down to nothing). Add the butter 1 oz at a time, moving the pan around until the butter is incorporated. Add a small bit of salt and pepper to taste. Pour over the fish, making sure to get some shallots and sun dried tomatoes on each filet.

This really is an easy recipe to do. The sauce may be the most difficult of everything to do, but once you do it you will see that there is not much too it. All three of these items take about the same time to cook, so you can start them all in three different skillets on your range top and they should be ready to plate at about the same time.

I took a picture of the finished dish with my iPhone, so the quality is not all that great, but it will give you an idea of the plating.



Let me know what you think and please send me your comments and questions.

Bon Appetit and Enjoy!