Reposting something is not what I would normally do, but considering how many times I’ve made this recipe, I think I can repost it again without feeling guilty about new content. I am making these again today because my buddy Jonny from work specifically requested Peanut Butter Cookies. The conversation went something like this:

Jonny: so… I hear you cook?

Me: yes, yes I do.

Jonny: how much do I have to give you for peanut butter cookies?

Me: well, the first batch is free, but the next will cost you, a lot, because these cookies are like crack.

Oh Jonny, you have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into.

Another normal conversation with Jonny goes something like this:

Jonny: So, are you wearing pants today?

Me: Well, that’s kind of a personal question now isn’t it?

Enjoy the cookies Nerdery!! And thank Jonny for the request.

—–

ok to be fair, I’ve never tried crack cocaine, but I imagine it would be similar to these cookies. Stacy made them first and demanded that I make them, so I did.  I even made a double batch the day before thanksgiving, put all the cookies into 3 bags, and they were gone by Sunday.  Every single one.  How is this possible, about 60 cookies, gone in 3 days?  Because they are like crack cocaine.  You eat one, then you hide one in your pocket while eating another one, and after 10 minutes you’ve gained 10 lbs and lost 60 cookies.  My parents came over on Sunday, I wrapped 4 cookies in a plastic baggie for them to take home, my dad starts eating them and next thing I knew, they were all gone.  I go and grab the big bag of cookies I still had left, he eats 4 more, my mom yells at him (and she eats 4 more) and then they went home and took the bag with them.  THEY STOLE MY COOKIES!!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen, copied from Little Blue Hen

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup peanut butter at room temperature (smuckers natural smooth)
3/4 cup sugar plus extra for rolling
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup peanut butter chips (reeses chips)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (ghirardelli)

Directions:
1.) Preheat oven to 350F. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Mix and set aside.

2.) Mix the butter and peanut butter together until fluffy. Add sugars and beat until smooth. Add egg and mix until combined, then add milk and vanilla extract. Add flour mixture and mix until combined. Stir in baking chips.

3.) Place a few tablespoons of sugar in a small bowl. Scoop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls and dip in sugar. Place on an un-greased baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Use a fork to press down gently and make a criss-cross pattern in the top.

4.) Bake 10-12 minutes at 350F. Let cool for one minute on the baking sheet, then remove to a wire rack to finish cooling.

The only thing I would change is use a slightly smaller chocolate chip, the ghirardelli brand, although super delicious, were oversized.  This prevented me from making the cookies any smaller, and I wish mine were smaller so I wouldn’t feel so guilty eating 5 or 10 cookies in 1 sitting.  I already purchased another bottle of smuckers peanut butter… I’m such a crack addict.  I blame this all on Stacy.

Hello friends!  I have finished Angry Birds so now here is the promised pancetta post.  So, Angry Birds, this game is so cool, I have beaten all 8 levels, now I have to get all the achievements. </OCD> I have it for my iPad which is infinitely better than the iPhone version imo, you can actually SEE it.  Man, talking about it makes me want to go back and play some more.  *chirp chirp WHEEEEE*

Oh right, pancetta.  If you know me, you know I love breakfast.  If we had a breakfast eating contest, I will kick your ass.  I can eat a lot of breakfast food, although eating it at breakfast time is so 1980s.  I also have a ton of veggies from my CSA, so a lot of my weekend breakfast dishes have involved potatoes.  This is super easy to make and totally delicious. Not a lot of seasoning is needed due to the saltiness of the pancetta.  I didn’t add any herbs because spring onions are so very tasty and its perfect in it’s simplicity.

Evie’s Breakfast Hash with Homemade Pancetta

Ingredients:

• 4 oz homemade pancetta, cubed
• 4 medium red potatoes, cubed (other potatoes are ok too)
• 1 spring onion, diced (regular onion will work as well)
• 1/2 cup grated pepper jack cheese
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 eggs
• sprig of dill for garnish

Directions:

1. Cut up the pancetta, potatoes, and onions.



2. Heat olive oil over medium heat in a skillet.  Add the pancetta and cook for about 3 minutes, stirring often.



3. Add potatoes, cook for another 5 minutes, stirring often.  Make sure they don’t stick to the bottom.
4. Add the onions, cook for about 8 minutes more until potatoes are soft, onions are translucent.  Salt and pepper to taste, I didn’t use any extra salt, the pancetta had enough saltiness.
5. Meanwhile in a separate pan, fry up some sunny side up eggs.
6. Plate the hash, sprinkle some cheese on top, place the egg, sprinkle more cheese and salt and pepper the eggs.  Garnish with a sprig of dill. Enjoy!!

If you have been paying attention to my twitter or Facebook or life in general, I just got married recently!  And of course, I had to pick up a set of all-clad pans, did you see the pan in the picture above?!  I splurged and got the copper core set and I’m totally loving it.  I did however accidentally cooked hash browns in one… that was not pleasant.  Note to self (and PSA for you readers), use a non stick pan for hash browns!

And to top off the wonderful set of pots and pans, my chef friend Travis got me the hottest knife ever.  It’s the Misono UX10 8″ hollow edge chef’s knife.  After you use Japanese steel, you won’t go back to the German crap.  It’s so incredibly sharp and thin.  That is one of the defining differences between Japanese and German knives.  Travis says the German knives have their uses, like butchering a pig.  Isn’t it so pretty?

One last shot of the pancetta… I am completely out now, I miss you pancetta…. *xoxo*

Like the waiter at Fogo de Chao once said to me, “are you ready for the meat?”

As you may have noticed, I’ve been on a meat kick, thanks to Charcuterie the best book ever written.  I’m pretty sure I’m going to make every single recipe in here, but I can’t until I get a cold smoker… *day dreams about smoking delicious meat*

Can I entice you with some more pictures of meat?

Delicious pinwheel of fatty pork belly that’s been cured for 3 weeks in my meat basement?

How did you make this deliciously nom? Well let me tell you.

Pancetta
Adapted from Charcuterie

Ingredients:

• one 5 lb slab pork belly, skin removed
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 teaspoons pink salt (sodium nitrite)
• 2 oz (1/4 cup) kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons juniper berries, crushed with the bottom of a small pan
• 4 bay leaves, crumbled
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 4 or 5 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper (yes this is written twice, you will see why!)

Directions:

1. Trim the pork belly so its nice and square.
2. Combine all ingredients above except for the last pepper (I over-peppered mine due to not knowing how to read properly… so I separated the peppers just in case you don’t know how to read as well).  Make sure it’s mixed well.  Rub the mixture all over the belly on both sides.
3. Put the belly in a large ziplock bag or a non-reactive (glass) container just large enough to hold it.  Refrigerate for 7 days – flip it over every other day and redistribute the cure by rubbing the outside of the bag.  (Bag is better than glass container because you can do this a lot easier)
4. After 7 days, check for firmness.  At the thickest point it should feel firm.  I had to cure mine for 2 extra days.
5. Remove the pork belly after it’s done curing, rinse it under cold water and dry.  Use the 2 tablespoons of ground pepper and rub it all over on the meat side (not the fatty skin side).
6. Starting from the longest side, roll up the belly tightly, make sure there are no air pockets (that’s how bad mold forms). Tie it up like you would a roast.  You might want to look at this youtube video on the method – it helped me a lot.  My pancetta was tied like a pro. Alternatively, you can also avoid the rolling and wrap the whole thing in cheesecloth and hang it.  Charcuterie has a great series of illustrations on how to do this.
7. Hang the pancetta in a cool humid place to dry for 2 weeks. Charcuterie recommends that it’s between 50-60 degrees F with 60 percent humidity, like a cool basement. Keep it out of the sun.
8. After drying, the pancetta can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated for 3 weeks, or frozen for 4 months.

Charcuterie has a lot more details about the intricacies of hanging meat, I highly recommend reading this book from cover to cover because it’s sooo useful.  What if you were stranded on a deserted island, and you somehow wrestled a boar to the ground and had 80 lbs of delicious pork but no refrigeration?  You need to learn how to cure that damn boar by reading this book.

So now you are asking, what should I make with my 5 lbs of pancetta?  Well, I sliced mine and stored half in the freezer.  The other half went into a spaghetti bolognese, and a breakfast dish I will post later.  I may share the bolognese… but it’s so delicious that I’m afraid of sharing it because it would make the whole world fat from eating it every day.  I also “invented” a “bruschetta” with shaved pancetta.  More to come!!

What’s a Scandihoovian?  I have no idea.  Anyhoo, this is the delicious salmon I made uh, 3 months ago maybe… and just getting around to posting because I kind of suck at this blogging thing.  I’m trying something new tho, I realized that the problem is that I don’t like sitting at my computer desk.  So what ends up happening is, I do all my photo editing on my PC, I get annoyed, then I leave my office and sit on the couch.  Yesterday I collected all 25 backlogged photos and uploaded them to flickr… now that my photos are accessible from the couch on my Macbook, I *should* blog more right?  Right?? …..

This whole curing thing is pretty awesome. I’ve used 3 boxes of kosher salt already!  I used Michael Ruhlman’s Fennel Cured Salmon recipe from Charcuterie except I didn’t have any fennel, pernod, or even lemon zest.  Laziness (do we see a theme here?) dictated that instead of going to the store to get said ingredients, I use what’s in my fridge, so I ended up making a Dill Cured Salmon with *orange zest*.  In hindsight, I think it would have been better with lemon zest, but the orange zest gave it a unique flavor, it was a bit more sweet and every once in a while you tasted the orange.

This is an easy recipe, no crazy chemicals, measuring pH levels, or animal intestines involved.  It’s a great entry recipe to get into the world of curing.  But I do have to warn you, the process of turning the fish over mid-cure is probably one of the grossest culinary experiences you will have – and it’s quite pungent.

Dill Cured Salmon
Adapted from Charcuterie

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup sugar (4 oz)
• 1 cup brown sugar (6 oz)
• 3/4 cup salt (6 oz)
• 1 2-3 pound salmon fillet, skin on, bones removed, no thicker than 1.5 inches and pretty uniform in thickness
• 1 bunch of dill
• 1/2 cup fennel seeds, toasted
• zest of 1 orange
• 2 tablespoons white peppercorns, toasted and cracked

Directions:

1. Mix the sugar, brown sugar, and salt together with a whisk.  Layer the bottom of a non reactive (I used glass) pan just large enough to hold the salmon with half the salt mixture. With all curing, pan size is very important.  Salmon will release a lot of liquid and it’s important for it to stew in its own brine and be covered as much as possible.
2. Sprinkle the salt mixture with half the dill and zest, lay the salmon on top, skin side down.
   
3. Cover the salmon with the rest of the salt mixture. Sprinkle the rest of the dill and zest, and last sprinkle the peppercorns.
   
4. Cover your salmon with saran wrap, then place another pan on top of the salmon and weigh it down with heavy things from your pantry.  (This is where I realized I have a total combined 94 oz of cream of chicken…what are you storing in case of a zombie apocalypse?)
   
5. Refrigerate for 24 hours, and turn the salmon upside down (skin side up). This part is gross.  Like really gross.  But suck it up, this is delicious.
6. Refrigerate for another 24 hours and then check the texture of the salmon, it should be firm to the touch at the thickest part.  If it’s still squishy, cure for another 24 hours.
7. When the salmon is finished curing, rinse under cold water and pat it dry. (This part is kind of gross too, with all the salmon juices… suck it up you hear?!) The Salmon should store in the fridge for 3 weeks.

I sliced up the salmon and served it with a bit of cream cheese on a bagel with some capers and fried salmon skin.

Many thanks to Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn’s book Charcuterie, it’s kind of like my bible at the moment.  Next I will show you the pancetta I made!

Once upon a time, a little gnome warlock and a human priest set out in the land of Azeroth, seeking fame and fortune. Along the way, they met fellow adventurers who became friends that weren’t total murderers and didn’t smell funny IRL. On occasion, these adventuring humans, elves, and even the pesky dorfs would come to the little gnome warlock and the human priest’s house for an all night bender of drinking and playing World of Warcraft until wee hours of the night. In the morning haze – and for some still a drunken stupor – the idea of going to the Highland Grill for some Crab Cake Benedict was always the favorite suggestion for this band of merry fellows. Thus a tradition was born. Although it was a short lived tradition since we kicked our World of Warcraft habit after a few years, the Crab Cake Benedicts stayed with us as one of our favorite breakfast treats, and the not-murderers became our long time friends. This is why I love Crab Cake Benedict.

This crab cake turned out wonderful.  I went on the cheap and used an imitation crab blend of fish and crab claw meat – a little better than normal imitation crab.  I think this could be even better with real crab and better quality raw shrimp.  The original recipe from epicurious is for a spicy crab cake, and many reviews said the saffron taste gets lost.  Since I omitted the adobo sauce, you can really get a sense of the saffron.   The crab cake recipe produced 9 big cakes, we gobbled up 4 for breakfast and I think the rest will be going into crabcake sliders later with perhaps a chipotle sauce.  I am also very embarrassed to say that I am totally out of cayenne pepper.  I had to substitute a cajun spice mix and it ended up kind of ugly. :(  Sean said it was more cakey than crabby – which means I should use 1/3 of the shrimp and crab to make the puree instead of 1/2.  I however thought it was a good ratio, I like my crab cakes more cakey and he likes his crumbly and falling apart.  Since I’m making these, my taste always wins.  :)

Evie’s Saffron infused Shrimp and Crab Cake Benedict
Heavily adapted fromthis and this

Ingredients:

For crab cakes: (this makes 9 1/2 cup patties)

• 1/4 teaspoon crumbled saffron threads
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 cup diced (1/8-inch) onion
• 1/4 cup diced (1/8-inch) carrot
• 1/4 cup diced (1/8-inch) celery
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 stick butter
• 1/3 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 3/4 lb cooked shrimp, shelled
• 3/4 lb crab meat
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped onions
• 1 1/2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic
• 1 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs)

For Hollandaise Sauce: (approx 1 cup)

• 2 large egg yolks
• 2 teaspoons vinegar
• 2 tablespoons creme fraîche
• Salt, cayenne pepper
• 1 stick of butter
• 2 drops lemon juice

For poached eggs:

• 4 super fresh brown eggs

Directions:

Make crab cakes:

1. Sprinkle saffron into water in a 1-quart heavy saucepan and boil over moderately high heat until liquid is reduced to 1 tablespoon, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer to a small bowl, then cool completely.
2. Heat oil (1 tablespoon) in a 10-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat until hot but not smoking, then cook onion, carrot, and celery, stirring occasionally, until pale golden, about 8 minutes. Transfer to a plate to cool.
3. Put oven rack in the middle of oven and preheat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spray with oil.
4. Whisk together 1 egg, melted butter, milk, 1/8 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.
5. Pat shrimp dry and transfer half of shrimp to clean food processor, add half of the crab, then add saffron reduction, minced onions, garlic, and 1/2 cup panko. Purée until smooth, then, with motor running, add egg mixture in a slow stream, blending until just incorporated.
6. Chop remaining shrimp very coarsely (about 1/3-inch pieces) and stir together with remaining 1/2 cup panko, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, and carrot mixture. Lightly beat remaining egg and stir into shrimp/crab and vegetable mixture along with shrimp/crab purée, add the remaining coarsely chopped crab and mix.
7. Loosely fill a 1/2-cup measure with crab mixture and drop onto a lined baking sheet. Make about 8 more cakes in same manner, dropping onto baking sheets about 1 inch apart. Flatten tops gently and bake, move the rack to the top 1/3 of the oven for the last 5 minutes until tops are lightly browned, about 20 minutes total.

Make Hollandaise and poached eggs:

1. While the crab cakes are baking, start the hollandaise and poached egg.  I will omit the poaching directions, hopefully you can figure that part out.
2. Put egg yolks in glass heatproof bowl (or top of double boiler) and beat in the vinegar and creme fraîche. Season with salt and a little cayenne.
3. Stand bowl in pan of hot water (or top of double boiler over hot water) over a slow fire and beat with a small wire whisk until the mixture is as thick as heavy cream. It is important that the water should not boil; add cold water if it gets too hot.
4. Beat in the butter, piece by piece, adding another piece only when the previous one has been absorbed. When all the butter is absorbed, add lemon juice.

Assemble the Deliciousness:

Take a crab cake and put it on a plate.  Top with a poached egg.  Use a saucing spoon, drizzle about 2 tablespoon of hollandaise on top.  Sprinkle with a little cayenne, and top with a sprig of dill.

And the obligatory egg porn shot!

Usually my blog entries are a few days behind (because I’m lazy and/or too busy eating something), but this gem has to be shared right away.  I ate this entire slab of duck prosciutto because it was so delicious and I couldn’t help myself.  Honestly this recipe probably needs a category of it’s own, stupid easy doesn’t really quite describe it, it’s more like stupid stupid easy.   If I would have known making your own prosciutto (and pancetta, or any salt cured meats) was so easy, I would be doing this years ago!  Why am I paying $5.00 for 3oz of cured meat when I can do this myself, why didn’t anybody tell me this!!!  Even though none of my existing “friends” told me about this, my new twitter BFF Michael Ruhlman did via his book Charcuterie.  He is a good friend indeed, if I ever meet him I will buy him a pint and a sausage.  Coming soon will be a post about curing your own salmon.  (p.s. I am running out of salt, and probably ingesting way too much of it.)

Duck Prosciutto
ad-libbed from Charcuterie because this recipe is way too simple to go into the other room to get the book

Using a non reactive pan (glass) that will fit 2 duck breasts snugly, line the bottom with a layer of kosher salt.  On top, place 2 duck breasts.  Then using another cup of kosher salt, cover the duck breasts completely.  Cover with saran wrap, put it in your fridge for 24 hours.

Take it out after 24 hours, wash off the salt, pat dry.  Sprinkle white pepper on both sides.  Wrap it in cheese cloth.  String it up, hang it in your basement for 5-7 days depending on the size of the breast.  Wrap it up in saran wrap if you don’t eat the whole thing and keep it in the fridge.

Thank goodness I made 2, because I can eat the other one tomorrow.

This recipe probably seems a bit on the fancy side, but it is super easy and fast to make.  This is from the April issue of Food and Wine magazine, recipe is by my man Mario Batali.  You know what Mario Batali loves?  Cured salty fatty meat.  You know what I love?  Cured salty fatty meat recipes from charcuterie.  Speaking of which, I am curing duck prosciutto right now and it’s hanging to dry in the basement for the next 5 to 7 days.  Anyhoo, for this recipe, I got the pancetta from Target, and a bag of frozen artichoke hearts from Trader Joe’s – perfect for a quick dinner on a busy night.

Spaghetti with Artichokes and Pancetta

6 servings, adapted from Food & Wine Magazine

Ingredients:

• 1 12 oz bag of artichokes
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 oz diced pancetta
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• kosher salt and pepper to taste
• 1 pound spaghetti
• 1/2 cup freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese

Directions:

1. In a saucepan, heat the oil.  Add the onion, garlic, and pancetta and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until softened, about 10 minutes.  Add the artichokes to the saucepan,  cook over moderately low heat, stirring, for 5 minutes.  Add the white wine, cover and simmer over low heat for another 5 minutes, season with salt and pepper.
2. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the spaghetti until al dente.  Drain the pasta, reserving 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking water.  Add the pasta and the reserved cooking water to the artichokes and toss over moderate heat for 1 minute.  Remove from heat, stir in the 1/4 cup of cheese.  Serve the pasta, with sprinklings of cheese.

Special shout out to Jamie who got me the awesome bowls pictured.  They are supposed to be for ramen, the holes are for your chopsticks you see, but they work for any kind of pasta imo!  Plus they fit great in your hand!

Last weekend, our friends Nate and Tia had a “Party at which there will be Dinner” – which is not to be confused with a “Dinner Party” because those are for old people. I made a deal with Nate, if I provided red velvet cupcake, he must entertain me with Rock Band – specifically with the new Lady Gaga content. I was not disappointed. He even had the lighting system AND the fog machine attachments AND GLOWSTICKS. We were rocking it out, with our clams out.

For the cupcakes, I adapted this adaptation (lol?) of the red velvet cake from “Rose’s Heavenly Cakes,” by Rose Levy Beranbaum.  The book, I do not have, although it is on my amazon wedding registry!  The best part about this was the white chocolate frosting, which I made a double batch of.  I kid you not, I ate the leftover frosting out of my piping bag and licked it clean.  I even used low fat cream cheese, which makes these healthy right?  *shifty eye*  In hindsight, I would have added a little more oil component to make the cake more moist (due to baking it as cupcakes instead of one large cake) and perhaps decreased the amount of food coloring because wow these were RED.

Rose’s Heavenly Red Velvet Cupcake Adaptation

Prep: 30 minutes Bake: 25-35 minutes Makes: 18 cupcakes

Adapted from “Rose’s Heavenly Cakes,” by Rose Levy Beranbaum. For a more distinct chocolate flavor and a much darker red, you can use up to ¼ cup cocoa, sifted before measuring, but you must decrease the flour by the same amount.

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons egg whites, room temperature
• 2 tablespoons red food color
• 1½ teaspoons vanilla
• 2 cups sifted cake (or 1 ¾ cups all-purpose) flour minus 3 tablespoons
• 1 cup superfine sugar
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 3.5 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ cup canola or safflower oil, room temperature
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• ½ cup buttermilk
• White chocolate frosting, see recipe

Directions:

1. Place cupcake paper in the cupcake tin. Set oven rack in the lower third of the oven; heat the oven to 350 degrees. Whisk egg whites, food color and vanilla in a medium bowl until lightly combined. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cocoa and salt in a medium bowl.
2. Mix oil and butter in bowl with electric mixer on medium speed, 1 minute. Add flour mixture and buttermilk; mix on low until dry ingredients are moistened. Raise speed to medium; beat 1 ½ minutes. Lower speed to medium-low; beat in egg mixture in two parts, 30 seconds each. Pour batter into cupcake tin, about 2/3 full.
3. Bake until cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean and cake springs back when pressed lightly in the center, 25-35 minutes. Let cake cool in the pan on a wire rack 10 minutes. Carefully invert the cake onto a greased wire rack. Reinvert the cake so that the top side is up. Cool completely. Frost top with white chocolate frosting.

White chocolate frosting

Ingredients:

• 6 oz white chocolate
• 8 oz cream cheese
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon creme fraiche
• 2 teaspoons almond extract

Directions:

1. Microwave white chocolate  in a bowl on high heat, stirring often, until almost completely melted, about a minute on and off stirring. Remove from microwave; stir until fully melted. Cool until no longer warm to the touch but still fluid.
2. Beat softened cream cheese, softened unsalted butter and creme fraiche until smooth. Add the white chocolate; beat until smooth. Beat in 2 teaspoons almond extract until smooth.

I will leave you with a protip, make sure you have paper towels on hand, for when you accidentally spill any of the red cake mix, or get any of the dye on your fingers.  Paper towels are your friend.

I have this amazing recipe for bangers and mash.  [Sausages and Potatoes for you non-Irish-speaking].   I will have you know, the government contacted me and said “we need to keep this recipe top secret, it’s a matter of national security.”  I replied “no way man, you can’t keep me from sharing this, HACK THE PLANET!  HACK THE PLANET!!” as they dragged me away.  I have escaped with the aid of a paper clip, a mouse pad, and a toothbrush, so are you ready for the best bangers EVER?

Evie’s Top Secret Bangers and Mash Recipe

Step 1: Get in your car.

Step 2: Drive to the nearest Trader Joe’s.

Step 3: Purchase the IRISH BANGERS, in the sausage and meats aisle.

Step 4: Drive home.

Step 5: Follow the rest of this recipe.  Hahaha you thought I was going to make sausages by hand?  Not until I have this I’m afraid.

Evie’s Less Secret Bangers and Mash Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 package of Trader Joe’s Irish bangers
• 1 onion, sliced
• 7 or 8 small red and/or yellow potatoes
• 4 cloves of minced garlic
• sprigs of thyme/rosemary/oregano/dill whatever you have on hand
• salt and pepper
• olive oil

Directions:

1. Boil the potatoes with a pinch of salt until they are tender, 20-30 minutes depending on the size of your potatoes.  Preheat your oven to 450 F.
2. On a cookie sheet, place a potato on top, smash it with a potato masher thingey, you know, one of these.  You can usually arrange all 8 potatoes on one cookie sheet.
3. Brush every potato with liberal amounts of olive oil.  Sprinkle with a decent amount of salt and pepper on each.  Also sprinkle on your herb, and minced garlic.
4. Put them in the oven on the top rack, bake for 15 – 20 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, start off with 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Add the sliced onions and all the bangers.  Brown the bangers on each side, takes about 6 minutes total.
6. Serve the bangers on a bed of onions, with a side of potatoes!

Can I tell you how good they are?  They are SOOOO good.  The potatoes I’ve made a ton as a side, originally founded on the pioneer woman’s blog.  She doesn’t use any garlic on hers which is a shame, because they are sooo much better with garlic.  Traditional bangers and mash are not usually served with caramelized onions, and uses mashed potatoes, but I’m Asian so I don’t follow those silly Irish rules!

I had the urge to bake Macarons again after joining the Macaron facebook fan page. Facebook started showing me ads about delicious and dainty pretty macarons and they won’t stop!! I broke down and made some. Stacy should be happy that they are pink and not blue. :P

I do have to confess, the entire batch did not end up this pretty… there were some quasimodo macarons that came out with half their foot… I’ll maybe attach a picture at the end. O_o

I didn’t really plan ahead for what flavor macaron I’m going to make… I just cracked open some eggs at the beginning of the week to let them age, and bought a bag of almond flour. I could have made saffron and pumpkin macarons… or strawberry and chocolate macarons… well the combinations are endless. I ended up making a very basic macaron with vanilla buttercream filling… SO BORING! Next time I will think ahead, maybe.

I went to the place that helped me make my first successful batch of macarons, tartelette!  She has a very precise recipe that’s measured out in grams.  I used the valentines day macaron recipe, swapped out the pistachios for more almonds (see: not thinking ahead).  Honestly, I have no idea how my macarons even turned out because I completely screwed up the recipe.  I under beat the eggs, they were not as stiff as they should have been, I accidentally mixed the powdered sugar into the egg whites along with the granulated sugar, and I had giant chunks of almonds stuck together and didn’t get incorporated into the batter properly.  I won’t complain tho! :)

See my baking action shot, with my new iPad out with Tartelette’s webpage and the recipe in front of me!  I usually flip the iPad horizontal to read recipes, but the vertical orientation makes a better picture.

Tartelette always has the step of breaking up almonds in the food processor.  You can definitely do this, but I was extra lazy and bought almond flour, which is just almonds, ground up into a powder.

Pretty in Pink Macarons

adapted from Tartelette

For the shells:
90 gr egg whites (about 3)
30 gr granulated sugar
200 gr powdered sugar
110 gr almond flour
12 drops of red food coloring

For the whites: the day before (24hrs), separate your eggs and store the whites at room temperature in a covered container. If you want to use 48hrs (or more) egg whites, you can store them in the fridge. In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites to a foam, gradually add the sugar until you obtain a glossy meringue. Do not overbeat your meringue or it will be too dry. Combine the almond flour with the meringue, give it a quick fold to break some of the air and then fold the mass carefully until you obtain a batter that flows like lava or a thick ribbon. Give quick strokes at first to break the mass and slow down. The whole process should not take more than 50 strokes. Test a small amount on a plate: if the tops flattens on its own you are good to go. If there is a small beak, give the batter a couple of turns.
Divide the batter in half and mix some color to one half to the desired effect. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip (Ateco #807 or #809) with one of the batters and pipe small rounds (1.5 inches in diameter) onto parchment paper lined baking sheets. Use another bag for the second half of the batter.
Preheat the oven to 280F. Let the macarons sit out for 30 minutes to an hour to harden their shells a bit and bake for 20-22 minutes, depending on their size. Let cool. If you have trouble removing the shells, pour a couple of drops of water under the parchment paper while the sheet is still a bit warm and the macarons will lift up more easily do to the moisture. Don’t let them sit there in it too long or they will become soggy. Once baked and if you are not using them right away, store them in an airtight container out of the fridge for a couple of days or in the freezer. To fill: pipe or spoon about 1 big tablespoon in the center of one shell and top with another one.

Somebody bit my macaron!!!  Oh wait that was me.  Yum.

This is the quasimoto macaron… I had some issues with piping… apparently when you fill a piping bag up to the brim, it produces disastrous results such as not being able to squeeze the bag at all!!!  Lets just say it got real messy, there were glopping problems, and I ate about 2 macaron worth of batter off of my hands….