Some meals lend themselves to discussion and critique. Not this meal. There was no time to speak because MG and I never put our utensils down. Once or twice, we might spontaneously erupt with an “Oh!” or even an ” Ohhhhhhh!” accentuated by a dramatic eye-roll or tummy rub, but that was about all we could muster from the time the plates left the kitchen to the point where we were wiping the final morsels from the corners of our lips.
This is comfort food any way you can consider it. It is so completely satisfying that the evening required nothing else – no television, no music. We just sat there, sated and smiling. The chickpeas are nice and crsipy, and soak up the spicy flavor of the chorizo with unadulterated gusto. The spinach and breadcrumbs add texture and color, but if you’re short on time, you could bypass them completely. MG and I were sneaking tastes of just the chickpeas and the chorizo as it cooked together, and it would have been more than enough for us.
Works fantastic as a dinner, a side dish, a late night guilty pleasure, breafast, any time of the day, really. I’m thinking wrapping it up in a pita with some tahini sauce might bring me closer to Jesus.
I’m not running out of things to say here. It was that good! The ingredients are inexpensive. It was incredibly easy to make. It poses beautifully for pictures.
The only one this meal did not do right by was my poor kitty, Z, who could smell something delicious but couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t appearing in his food bowl. Maybe next time, fatty.
2 cups chickpeas, dried (if canned, washed and dried thoroughly between two paper towels)
1 stick chorizo
3/4 – 1 lb fresh spinach leaves
3/4 cup breadcrumbs
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon minced white onion
Warm about 1/4 cup of olive oil in a pan, and once heated toss in your chickpeas and your chorizo. Give it an additional mixing, but beyond that, you don’t want to stir too much. Just occasionally. The chroizo fat will slowly consume the chickpeas, which will turn a gorgoeus regal red and brown. Let cook for about 15 minutes. The chickpeas should turn nice and crispy. I gave it an additional few minutes of cook time, but 15 would have been just fine also.
Remove the chickpeas and chorizo from the pan and leave aside in a bowl. Add a little more olive oil to the pan and toss in the spinach leaves. Turn and stir regularly as they will cook down quite fast. The Minimalist also suggests about a 1/4 cup of sherry here, but I didn’t bother. I had already sampled the chickpeas and chorizo, so I knew I was not in for disappointment.
Add back in your chickpeas and chorizo, along with the onion and garlic. Cover with about 1 cup of bread crumbs
Cook it in the broiler for about 5-8 minutes. I could have gone a little longer. I would have liked the bread crumbs to brown a bit more, but at this point it was close to 10 in the evening and MG and I had been smelling this food cook for about 30 minutes.
The list of things I’m going to try to get done in the next nine days I have away from work is overly-ambitious, so why not start with the little things, like this egg salad recipe I’ve been dreaming about since I discovered it at 80 Breakfasts a little over a week ago.
It’s been raining on and off outside, so it’s very very quiet and this meal is a good match for a quiet day because it’s a quiet meal to prepare. The rumble of boiling water, the tearing of eggshells from the hard-boiled meat, the small amount of chopping and the tink-a-tink of a fork whipping frantically around the contents in a glass bowl. That’s about it. Toast two slices of bread, lay out a few greens on them and cover with this delicious salad – a nice, savory balance of egg, bacon and onion, and watch with your favorite weekend TV fare (my selection – <i>What’s My Line</i> with mystery guest Hermione Gingold).
The problem I have had with making egg salad in the past is my tendency to throw in anything and everything I have on hand. I’m always worried that unless I do, it will end up just tasting like two pieces of bread crammed with egg and mayo. This recipe doesn’t involve a lot of players, but the dill and bacon take it a long way.
A couple of changes I made to the below recipe. I used canola mayonnaise which is lower in fat, leading to less post-meal guilt about the 4 full tablespoons. Also, I added about a tablespoon of chopped white onion because right now I have more onions than I know what to do with. This really is a terrific recipe, and I encourage you to head to 80 Breakfasts for more.
Egg Salad
6 hard boiled eggs
3 slices of bacon
2 tablespoons chopped green onion
1 1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh dill
4 tablespoons mayonnaise
Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
Chop the bacon and fry until crisp and golden. Drain cooked bacon on a plate lined with a paper towel.
Chop the hard boiled eggs into large chunks and place in a bowl. Add onion, dill, bacon and mayo to the bowl.
Sprinkle with salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste. Mix to your desired level of egg size and consistency.
Here I sit on a Thursday night watching the Top 20 on this season’s Stridex Amateur Hour waiting for the pizza to arrive, bourbon and ginger in hand (some of you may know it as a Horse’s Neck – post coming soon). Ah, little Crystal Bowersox couldn’t look more uncomfortable singing along to the Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling” with the forced peppy enthusiasm usually reserved for an Up With People concert or a parade float at Disneyland.
Crystal Bowersox is my new favorite on this season’s American Idol not just because of her singing, but also because I dig her name, even though I can’t remember it. Last night, she performed on the show, which many thought would not happen because of a last-minute trip to the hospital. While noticing MG reading the perfomance results later in the evening on his laptop (we chose the ABC comedy line-up of The Middle and Modern Family over Idol), I leaned over and and, “Hey, does it say anything about how that Kristina Crossbow did?” Close enough, right? In fact, I think I improved on her name. Now she can be an American Idol OR a James Bond hench-woman. You’re welcome, Crystal!
So… I like Crystal and all, and I hope she makes it through tonight, but to be honest, I don’t really care if she wins. I haven’t picked up the phone to vote for Idol in about five seasons. I’d rather spend the time these days making cookies in the kitchen.
And, in fact, there are a lot of cookies coming out of my oven these days. These Martha Stewart milk chocolate cookies are tough to beat if you’re looking for chewy and gooey with a just a hint of salt to offset the sweet and the burst of chocolate chunks in every other bite. These are the cookies you send your kids to school with if you want them to be more popular. These are the cookies you make for people who don’t quite make the cut on your Christmas present list, but that you still want to feel the love. And if you ever end up in a brutal break-up where mutual friends are at stake, meet the cookie that will keep your Scattergories party packed to the gills even after you’re single.
So, some of you who watch daytime soaps may have heard that the cast and crew of All My Children recently re-located from New York to Los Angeles to save production dollars. They have, in fact, moved into the studio space right next to us, and as I write this, I am watching actors on television who we all now see on a regular basis roaming around the lot at work. I have had three Susan Lucci sightings in the last month, and last week the actor who plays Tad almost hit me in the parking lot with his car. Ah, glamorous Hollywood! Soap actors are a very good-looking bunch and have really brightened up the place (it’s not really the most glamorous lot in Los Angeles and I wish I could have seen the look on the faces of all the actors when they drove up for the first day. Seriously, in its worst corners, it looks much like a prison yard).
Over the years, I have checked in on the peeps of Pine Valley. My mom and older sisters watched the entire ABC daytime line-up when it reigned supreme, spearheaded by the Luke and Laura pairing on General Hospital. I remember when Jessie and Jenny ran off to New York. I remember when no one knew Adam Chandler had a mentally challenged brother who was imprisoned within the secret passages of the family mansion. I DON’T remember Erica shouting down the grizzly bear in the middle of the forest after a plane crash, but I DO vaguely remember her going behind her husband’s back and getting on the pill (I remember having no idea what “the pill” was) so she could secretly open her own fabulous disco in the late seventies (early eighties?). And me and about 300 other college students would gather around the big screen tv in the University Center every weekday in the early nineties when evil Natalie threw her virtuous and more elegant twin sister Natalie down a well, assumed her identity, and got impregnated by her sister’s husband.
Anyway, deep down, I have always been a bit of a secret star stalker, and I have been trying to devise ways to cross paths with the cast more so than I have thus far. I know, I know… they are there to work, not to be stared at, and I have to respect that. I wouldn’t want anyone bothering me unnecessarily during the day when there’s work to be done. But finally, there’s a little bit of larger-than-life glamour on the lot and I want to bask in it.
I’m thinking I should start leaving little treats next to the AMC stage doors. Maybe they’ll fall in love with my food and invite me over regularly to sit in on tapings, give my notes on story ideas, or, if I absolutely must, step in as an extra in a hospital scene, hanging out next to a vending machine in the waiting room and voicelessly chatting up a peppy nurse. Well, a guy can dream. It’s not like I’m asking them to put me at the head of a boardroom table and proclaim, “You’re all firrrreeeed!” with a sweeping hand gesture, though if they did I would not refuse.
These anise drop cookies could be my way in. They’re not overwhelming. They’re almost forgettable after the first bite, but then that anise extract kicks in (it’s the licorice-like flavoring you may detect in biscotti), and winds itself around you. You can down three or four before you actually realize how tasty they are – soft on the inside with a hardened shell-like covering on the outside. It strikes a nice balance between the subtle and the striking. It’s the perfect daytime actor’s cookie. Look for me quietly ambling through the halls at Pine Valley Hospital within the next four to five months.
Anise Drop Cookies
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon anise extract
Preheat oven to 350 F. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.
Put eggs in a bowl and whisk until fluffy. Gradually beat in the sugar until incorporated. Mix in the anise extract, then mix in the flour mixture.
Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a coupler or a 1/2-inch plain tip. If you don’t have a pastry bag, simply transfer into a ziploc bag and cut a small hole in the corner and use as a pastry bag.
Pipe 1 3/4 inch rounds onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing about 1/2 inch apart.
Bake cookies, rotating halfway through, until tops crack and cookies are very pale, about 8-10 minutes. Transfer to wire racks and let cool completely.
Before you read any further, I want to warn you that you should IN NO WAY be frightened off by the size of the portions this recipe requires. But you ain’t gonna get away with your standard little Barbie Dream House Brownie Pan if you brave forth and make these babies. I had to haul ass to the local Sur La Table to pick up the mammoth 18 x 13 jelly roll pan required to handle the sheer volume of this recipe.
We are talking about 32 OUNCES OF DARK CHOCOLATE! Do you know what 32 OUNCES OF DARK CHOCOLATE LOOKS LIKE? Well, I’m here to tell you…. it looks really really good! Once you’re done with the rough chopping, you’ll just want to dive into it and roll around. Add to that 6 EGGS, AN ENTIRE CUP OF HEAVY CREAM, 2 STICKS OF BUTTER (a1 cup) and a FULL TABLESPOON OF VANILLA EXTRACT, and you’ve got basically a brownie mattress coming out of the oven.
These brownies are meant to be shared with family, friends, co-workers, the homeless, birds and small forest creatures… and you’ll still have some left over for yourself. Additionally, do not ignore the rule about refrigerating over night. You may be tempted to eat them right out of the oven, but they are so fudgy they will crumble between your fingers. Let them gain some mass in your freezer overnight.
Super-major big pics below. Just click on each to enjoy the high-res richness!
Max Brenner’s Fudge Brownies from Bake or Break
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup heavy cream
32 ounces dark chocolate (approx. 70%), roughly chopped
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
6 large eggs, room temperature
1 & 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour, divided into 3/4 cup and 1/4 cup
1 teaspoon salt
1 & 1/2 cups chopped walnuts (or other nut)
Preheat oven to 350°. Line a 13″x 18″ jelly-roll pan with parchment paper. Butter and flour the paper.
Place chocolate in a large heatproof bowl. Set aside. Place the butter and cream in a saucepan. Over medium, heat bring to a boil. Pour over chocolate and let sit about a minute or until chocolate begins to melt. Stir until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool.
Add vanilla extract to cooled chocolate mixture. Whisk in eggs, one at a time. Whisk in sugar.
Sift 3/4 cup flour and salt. Using a wooden spoon, stir into chocolate mixture until fully combined. Toss nuts with remaining 1/4 cup flour. Stir into batter.
Spread batter in prepared pan. Bake 28-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean. Allow brownies too cool. Wrap and refrigerate overnight.
Meet 32 ounces of roughly chopped dark chocolate
Butter and heavy cream getting along very nicely, thank you
Since I’ve started this culinary quest, certain meals have just been ruined for me forever. Well, they aren’t exactly meals so much as cardboard-packaged frozen food items I used to pick up in the freezer section because I didn’t know how to do much more than boil water and run the microwave at its most basic level.
Nevertheless… Jose Ole, White Castle, CPK, Lean Cuisine and the entire Hot Pocket clan… we had some good times together, didn’t we? And if I had known it was all going to come to such an abrupt end, I would have savored our time together more. Remember as we waited anxiously to see if Ross and Rachel would ever get together? And how you were always there to nurse me through the weeks when 21 Jump Street was about the Vietnamese guy and not Johnny Depp? You stood by me during the Z. Cavarrici phase, the colored hair mousse months, and the George Michael dangling cross earring, and this is the thanks you get… total abandonment!
I rarely even stop in the freezer aisles anymore, which can make things tough when it’s late at night and the hunger hits. No fast fixes in my kitchen anymore. In fact, MG and I didn’t sit down to this meal until after 10 in the evening because it took close to an hour to make it from chopping and combining to searing and simmering, but my god it IS true that good things come to those who wait. These are not just burgers, these are events. Soaked in thick creamy sauce and accompanied by homemade fries right out of the oven. Eating it later only meant going to bed sooner with partying tummies and satisfied grins on our faces.
In honor of the Winter Olympics (Wayne Gretzky waiting for those columns to rise… oh my, the nerves… he looked like someone tied his hands behind his back and dropped a snake down his pants) and in defiance of my complete disdain for all things soup, I present this cold creamy tangy triumph!
Yes, I hate soup. It has always been, as far as I’m concerned, a waste of a good mealtime. And yes, in the face of this, there’s always some die-hard broth-head who has had some kind of crazy soup in their past they swear will convert me. “Oh!” they exclaim, “you’d love a potato leak chowder with sliced almonds and an essence of baby’s breath!” No I wouldn’t.
“Oh!” they ask, “have you ever had a hearty tomato lentil soup with grated salmon tail?” No, I haven’t.
“Oh!” they implore, “you simply must try my Aunt Annie’s plomeek soup with candied celery ribs and vulcan meat.” No, I mustn’t.
Frankly, I’d rather go see that movie that came out last year about the killer orphan who was actually – spoiler alert – a grown woman with hooker dwarf syndrome. – than eat soup as a whole meal. In fact I’d rather have hooker dwarf syndrome than eat soup as a whole meal. Maybe a little tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich when I’m sick with a cold, but THAT IS IT!
So why exactly did I decide to make chilled cucumber soup? It isn’t really in honor of the Winter Olympics, though I’m told we are doing quite well. And it wasn’t because I was trying to wow MG because he was at home making puppets. And I don’t have any British people coming to visit. I guess the only reason I decided to make it was because the picture in the Gordon Ramsay book looked sophisticated and impressive, and I was feeling some sort of inadequacy I needed to overcome, and English cucumbers are cheaper than Paxil.
Where I was waking up at the crack of dawn over the weekend, I’ve been sleeping 10-12 hours a night since then. Maybe it’s the cornbread. Heavy, cheesy and satisfying, this was a fantastic addition not only to the turkey chili I slow-cooked alongside it, but also with breakfasts, lunches and dinners through the following week.
I discovered that cornbread goes well with just about everything. Cornbread goes well with coffee. Cornbread goes well with pork chops, cornbread goes well with reruns of Knots Landing, What’s My Line? and Alias. Cornbread goes well with Smitten Kitchen perusing. Cornbread goes well with watching Qucik Wits live in the booth. Cornbread goes well with watching DIY Network or Gay Porn? with Marc Bartolomeo and Jason Cameron. Cornbread goes good with The Joy Behar Show. Cornbread goes good with an extra slice of cornbread!
What did I do before cornbread? Yet another recipe I originally feared but eventually mastered. Took a bit of the day, but well worth it. By contrast, the turkey chili recipe is pretty minimal, but I just scored a recipe for a more complicated “Cincinnati Chili” from my freind Eric that I hope to tackle this weekend. There’s nothing better for Valentine’s Day that a crock pot full of heartburn! Recipes follow after the jump! Continue Reading…
MG is sick and I’m depressed about it. I know I’m depressed because I’m exhibiting my #1 symptom… I become super-productive on the weekends.
This is an improvement over what I did in my twenties when I was depressed, which was smoke grass, drink martinis and watch television until I either fell asleep or threw up.
Ah, the glamour of the twenties!
So I don’t plan too many structured events on the weekends anymore because they’ve become mostly about me and MG making fattening breakfasts, having coffee at The Big Fixx on Sunset (formerly Abbot’s Habit), watching television together and seeing who can win in the categories of “Snarkiest Comment,” “Best Impression of a Loser Celebrity.” and “Most Accurate Representation of What the Cat in the Cat Food Commercial would Sound Like if It Could Speak Human.”
Then we separate for a few hours in the middle of the day so he can get some work done, I’ll get together everything I need to make the night’s dinner, and we reconvene for more television, snarky comments and cocktails.
But none of that happened this past weekend, and by noon on Saturday I’d done all my grocery shopping, all my laundry, hit the post office and the dry cleaner, worked out, erased said workout by stopping at Carl’s Jr., tried to get my cat to eat a french fry and took a nap.
I had absolutely nothing else on my “to do” list for the entire weekend, so of course I spent it in the kitchen, making this meal, along with some other goodies that are being banked away for later postings. But MG wasn’t there to admire my kitchen technique, or rave about the finished meal after snaring his usual lion-sized portion, so it wasn’t nearly as gratifying and I have WAY TOO MUCH left over.
With each passing kitchen attempt I’m becoming more and more fascinated with perfecting the process than I am with actually feasting on the finished result. I’d much prefer to give the food itself over to someone else for them to enjoy, and just stay in the kitchen and tackle the next recipe on my long long list. Anyone else feel that way?
If I understand every bit of instruction in a recipe the very first time I read it, chances are I’m going to have little or no interest in making it.
This week, I stuck my baby toe into the puff pastry pool and learned two new terms: scoring and docking. As usual, I assumed because these two tasks have been assigned terms all their own, they were going to be much too hard for me to manage, and as usual, I was wrong.
And of course, because I still get kitchen jitters, I bought double the ingredients necessary so that I could first make “rehearsal pastries,” which turned out alright, but not as good as the pictures you see here, which feature Tomato and Goat Cheese Tarts V2.0. The rehearsal pastries came out flakey, tangy, buttery and all-over delicious, but I didn’t like the ratio of pastry to filling dictated by the recipe, so I adjusted it in V2.0
Tomato and Goat Cheese Tarts from Barefoot Contessa
