Coconut Macaroons

I'm not certain what it is that I like about coconut macaroons.  But I really like them.  I like everything about them.  I might even like them more than I like cookies, which is shocking.  They are sticky, intensely coconut-y and delicious.  I like them chocolate-dipped, with almond extract, and plain.  I like all of them.  I guess most of that can be attributed to the fact that I really love coconut and always have.  I have really only found a few macaroon variations that truly disappointed me enough that I couldn't finish them.  Conversely, I have really only found a few variations that were good enough that I remember them distinctly.  One variation on a macaroon that I love is the macaroon and nutella sandwich cookie that they serve at the Street Sweets truck.  The macaroon at the truck is thin and crispy, almost like a florentine.  And I had never considered the combination of nutella and coconut before, but it was totally delicious.  And I generally like my macaroons a little on the sticky side, but they taste really nice crispy like that.  Joe the Art of Coffee on the UWS also has really nice chocolate-dipped macaroons.  They're not too sweet, not to sticky - a very classic macaroon.

I have never tried a macaroon recipe that uses condensed milk before, but I figured why not give it a try?  The last batch of macaroons I made using a more traditional recipe just weren't quite as good as I was hoping for, so I was looking to try something new and different.  I kept finding blog posts and recipes that used condensed milk, so apparently it's not that uncommon to add it to your macaroons.  Who knew?  As you might expect from macaroons that used condensed milk (or from any baked good that uses condensed milk), these macaroons were a bit on the sticky side.  But that's ok, because I like sticky.  They also spread out and ooze a lot more than your typical macaroon (which is made up of coconut, egg white, vanilla extract and very little else) during the baking process.  The macaroons weren't crispy enough for me to want to make sandwich cookies out of - I think if you're going for that kind of recipe we would need coconut that is more finely ground, a touch of flour to bind the ingredients and give them a more cookie-like texture, and no condensed milk.  The fact that we started out with over a dozen macaroons and now only have one or two left should bear witness to the fact that these macaroons weren't too shabby...

Recipe after the jump!

Homestyle Bean Curd

I have to admit that I am very lucky that Alex will eat just about anything that I throw at him.  Not many people I know would be excited by the idea of tofu.  But Alex loves just about any authentic Chinese dish that I make at home or order in a restaurant (although I'm sure there would be some exceptions if we ever actually make it to China).  This tofu dish was no exception.  After a series of fairly heavy, meaty meals I really wanted something vegetarian for dinner.  This was what I picked.  Well, this with some Sichuan Cucumbers and some white rice.  I'm always saying that we need to use our Fuchsia Dunlop cookbooks more than we do, and when I have the chance to do so I tend to take advantage.  By some random chance we had everything we needed for this recipe in our apartment.  That almost never happens without some degree of advance planning on my part.  Even with some advance planning on my part we are often missing at least one or two key ingredients for any given dish.  So it was pleasantly surprising that we had everything we needed here.  I briefly considered doing a little victory dance, but decided against it.  

Alex said that this dish was his favorite of the proteins that we have made over the Thanksgiving holiday.  I was kind of shocked.  It's tofu and it was competing against a very nice rainbow trout, as well as a lovely lamb chop.  But Alex really enjoyed it.  And I did too.  It was wonderfully flavorful and fairly easy to prepare.  The description of the dish as "homestyle" is well-deserved.  It tastes like something my grandmother would whip up (supposing that she were still alive and she was actually Sichuanese, rather than Cantonese - details, details).  It's not fancy.  It's the type of dish, and combined with the cucumbers and the rice, the type of meal that I expect thousands of people in China eat at home regularly.  And that is huge praise.

Recipe after the jump!

Spaghetti Squash with Moroccan Spices

Every once in awhile I stumble across spaghetti squash recipes that call for substituting spaghetti with spaghetti squash and dousing it with tomato sauce.  As if the kids wouldn't notice that their "spaghetti" is suddenly a completely different texture and has a strange non-pasta aroma to it...  I must admit that I am very skeptical of those recipes, partially because I know that spaghetti squash can be incredibly delicious.  For instance, this spaghetti squash recipe calls for a melted butter and Moroccan spice mixture.  It is amazing.  The spaghetti squash gets richness from the butter, smokiness from the cumin, a hint of spice from the cayenne, and then a blast of freshness from the cilantro.  Now I'm not an expert on what kids will and won't eat, but wouldn't you rather serve them (and yourself) something delicious?

Recipe after the jump!

Charmoula Lamb Chops

When I was younger I had a serious love of lamb and duck.  Chicken and beef were fine and all, but somehow I preferred less common variations on the same theme.  As I have grown older I have re-discovered chicken and beef, particularly when cooking for myself at home (partially because they are so much cheaper than the alternatives).  I would say that we make lamb about once every 3-4 months, and the same with duck.  And when we do make lamb, it tends to be ground lamb - perhaps lamb burgers or lamb kebobs.  In the past year I think we have only made lamb chops once and they were shoulder chops for our Indian Lamb Chops with Curried Cauliflower, rather than loin chops or rib chops.  So I guess in another 3-4 months we will attempt some lamb loin chops.  And after today's experiment I am looking forward to the loin chops!

These Charmoula Lamb Chops were delicious.  Charmoula (or chermoula) is a sort of Middle Eastern variation on chimichurri that is used in Moroccan, Algerian and Tunisian cooking.  In this charmoula I used mint, cilantro and parsley in addition to evoo, garlic, shallot and lemon juice, but I have seen other recipes that are vastly different.  I even found a recipe that called for red bell pepper.  But it is my understanding that the common components to any charmoula are herbs, oil, lemon juice and spices.  I love that this charmoula is fresh and flavorful.  It really makes lamb, which can come off as a little heavy and greasy, taste vibrant and fresh.  The only problem is that the chops could have used a hint more char.  That was partially my fault because I was afraid to really turn the heat up without burning the herbs in the marinade or overcooking the lamb, since I prefer it medium-rare.  But a little more char is definitely in order in the future.  A grill would really help with that, but unfortunately I don't have access to one.  I think this dish would be a really nice dinner party entree.  I actually said the same thing about the Rainbow Trout we made last night, but I think this would be even more ideal.  The dish is elegant and refined, as well as delicious. 

Recipe after the jump!

Buttermilk Biscuits

I have been on the search for the ultimate biscuit recipe for years.  There are a few that I have discovered that I really enjoy, but none of them are plain buttermilk biscuits.  Instead they usually involve the addition of cheese and other herbs or seasonings.  And as much as I love these fancied up biscuits, I am always trying to find the PERFECT biscuit recipe that I can make for any occasion and serve slathered with white sausage gravy, just as easily as in a bread basket with dinner.  Today I stumbled across this recipe and in my neverending hunt for the perfect biscuit I gave it a try.  

So this biscuit recipe falls somewhere between a scone and a sweet biscuit that you would use for making shortcakes.  It's definitely not the savory biscuit that I was planning on when I first started baking.  It's probably my fault for not thinking the recipe through more clearly.  All I saw was a biscuit recipe that was very simple and only included ingredients I already had in the kitchen.  I didn't stop to think about it further.  But had I stepped back and thought about it, I would have realized that any biscuit recipe that contains 1 1/2 tbsp of sugar and 1 tbsp of heavy cream brushed over the top of the biscuits would end up being more scone-like than biscuit-like.  So I might end up having the rest of these biscuits for breakfast slathered with jam and served alongside a cup of tea.  I think they will be delicious that way.  I also think that with a little extra sugar sprinkled on top that they would make a fantastic cobbler topping.  The hunt for the perfect biscuit continues...

Recipe after the jump!

Whole Roasted Rainbow Trout

I have been wanting to cook a whole fish for some time now.  Every time I visit Whole Foods or Fairway I end up staring at the whole brook trout and branzino in the fish case and briefly consider buying them.  Then I usually wimp out and buy some shrimp or other fish fillets because obviously cooking a whole fish is more complicated than cooking up some fillets, right?  Wrong.  Really really wrong.  Because this fish was amazingly easy to cook and it was delicious.  All I had to do was season it a little, stuff it with some lemon, herbs, and shallots and throw it in the oven.  Fifteen minutes later I had two gorgeous rainbow trout sitting on the dining room table in their cute little foil packets.  The entire recipe probably took 20 minutes from start to finish (it would take substantially more than that if you had to clean the fish yourself, so get your fishmonger to do that for you).

I suppose you can use any herb you want with this recipe.  While looking up various recipes for inspiration, I came across recipes that involved fresh tarragon, fresh dill and rosemary.  Alex swears that he saw another recipe that called for sage.  We happened to have parsley, cilantro, thyme, oregano, and rosemary all in the fridge.  Oh and fresh mint.  But I thought the mint and cilantro were obviously not going to work, and Alex isn't a huge fan of fresh parsley, so that left thyme, oregano and rosemary.  Originally I was planning on using both the thyme and the oregano and then I decided to go the simple route and just use rosemary instead.  I actually picked up the rosemary to make an olive oil cake, but I figured it would work here as well.  And boy did it.  I'm sure that the other herbs would have produced an equally lovely trout, but I loved how the trout was lightly perfumed with that woodsy rosemary scent, balanced out with a nice punch of lemon and a hint of sweetness from the shallots.  I briefly contemplated adding garlic, but I am glad I didn't because I think it would have been a little aggressive in this dish, which was very delicate.  I would like to try this recipe (or variations on this recipe) with other whole fish - perhaps a whole brook trout for instance.  I think if I were to make a whole branzino I would go a little more Mediterranean with it, but I think this recipe would work well with branzino too!  Hurray for an experiment that turned out even better than I had hoped for.

Recipe after the jump!

Pan-Roasted Squab, Polenta and Broccolini

What do you do when you're flying solo for Thanksgiving?  Well, I guess Alex and I weren't really flying solo, since we were together, but we were both away from home for our first Thanksgiving together.  And seeing as I didn't get off work until almost 11pm on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, we literally didn't have a clue what we were making.  So Thursday around 1 pm we trudged on down to Fairway to try and figure out a nice Thanksgiving meal for the two of us.  Alex was thinking poultry (although to be honest I wasn't really thinking at all) so we headed to the meat counter and found some cute little squab.  Now I like squab, but it has certainly never occurred to me to buy it and cook it at home.  I would have been more excited about some guinea hens or some duck breasts, but seeing as it was already after 1 pm on Thanksgiving Day, we picked up the squab and ran with it.  After we decided on squab I decided that I wanted to make polenta and some sort of greens to do with it.  So I picked up some red kale, some broccolini and some arugula.  I figured that between the two of us we would figure out some sort of vegetable recipe with those options.  I considered picking up some other vegetables too, but figured there was no point in being over-ambitious, especially seeing as I am going to have to work all weekend again.  So we got home, and started with Google to get some inspiration.  Then I stumbled across a recipe for Barbequed Squab with Porcini Mustard in The Babbo Cookbook and we decided to use that roughly for inspiration with our squab.  As for the polenta and the broccolini, we relied on Epicurious to point us in the right direction there. 

So we essentially used the Batali marinade of honey, balsamic, evoo, thyme and red onion to marinate the squab for about 6 hours before cooking it.  Then we seared both sides in a cast iron pan, before tossing it in the oven to roast.  Beware, because of the honey and balsamic in the marinade the squab skin goes from completely raw to almost burnt very quickly.  So you're going to go to flip over the squab after searing the first side and think that you totally ruined it.  But you didn't.  At first we were totally worried that we had burnt the squab and were going to have to order Chinese takeout or something, but that's just what happens with this marinade.  Although the Batali recipe calls for grilling, and also calls for the breastbones on the squabs to be removed (neither of which we did), we did weight the squab down on the pan as he recommended to give the bird a crisp skin and ensure quicker cooking.  Now cooking and eating squab requires that you get over your fear of serving poultry with the slightest bit of pink inside, because like duck, this squab should be served medium-rare.  We read somewhere that overcooked squab has a flavor and texture similar to liver.  Gross.  So anyway, we were very careful not to overcook the squab.  And the meat was tender and juicy, rather than liver-like.  However, it was almost crying out for some sort of sauce.  The Batali recipe called for a porcini mustard to be served with the squab, but that just didn't do it for me.  I was thinking some sort of agrodolce sauce or a fig mostardo would be phenomenal with the squab.  Something a little sweet, a little sour, and with a hint of black pepper to it would really have elevated the dish to another level.  It was good, but it just needed something.

As with all Thanksgiving feasts, I was way more into the sides than the main course.  The broccolini was delicious - something I definitely plan to make again and again.  The combination of the smoked paprika, garlic, almonds and sherry vinegar was genius.  I loved it.  And then the polenta was totally luscious and decadent - the corn gave it that little something extra, a little sweetness and brightness, that I really enjoyed.  I will definitely be making both the polenta and the broccolini again, although I will have to decide what dishes to serve them with next time as I'm not sure that the squab will be a repeat experiment...

I hope that everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving!

Recipes after the jump!