Chocolate Espresso Cookies

Recently I decided to make cookies for a friend having a rough day, and I found this great site online.

http://www.webterrace.com/cookie/index.htm

It has a lot of annoying pop-up ads, but also some great recipes.

We made two kinds, the Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies, and the Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookies. The latter were a huge hit, so here's the recipe, followed by Epiqueerean's modifications:


Chocolate Chip Espresso Cookies

Ingredients

3 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup butter
3 eggs
1 cup white sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons finely ground espresso beans
3/4 cup all-purpose flour (actually more!)
1/3 teaspoon baking powder (actually more!)
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line them with parchment paper. In the top of a double boiler, melt together the unsweetened chocolate, 1 cup of the chocolate chips and the butter. This can also be done in a microwave oven on low setting. Stir occasionally until melted. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until thick and light, about 3 minutes. Stir in the espresso. Add the chocolate mixture, mix well. Sift together the flour and baking powder, fold into the egg mixture. Carefully fold in the chopped nuts and remaining chocolate chips. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Cookies will have a crackled appearance when done. Cool on baking sheets.

So, here are our modifications:

1. We used Lindt 65% cacao dark chocolate instead of unsweetened chocolate. This was simply because we did not have any unsweetened chocolate and were too lazy to go buy any.

2. We left out the walnuts. (My friend is allergic)

3. Most importantly, we added way more flour and baking powder than the recipe called for. The dough was soupy when we followed the recipe so we added this at the end. Unfortunately I did not measure at the time, so just add more baking powder and more flour until the dough is sticky enough to make balls on the cookie sheet (I'd say we added approx. double what the recipe calls for). It also helps to chill the dough before you put it on the cookie sheet, and it tends to thicken as it cools so don't add too much flour!

So there you go. These cookies got rave reviews and they have a substantial caffeine kick too!

Best Deal in the City: Lunch at Jean-Georges

You know, I went to lunch at Jean-Georges about a month ago and didn't write about it. I think it was just too overwhelming. That right there is honestly the best deal of the century.

They have a menu of about 15 dishes, ranging from smallest/lightest at the top to largest/heaviest at the bottom, and you get to pick two for $28! Some of the dishes are signature items of JG, and cost a heck of a lot more at dinner. You can add a third dish for $12, and dessert for $8. They also give you an amazing trio of amuses bouches, and complimentary petit fours at the end of your meal. To be honest, the two course and the freebies alone, and you're full. And it is seriously exquisite.

I recommend taking a few friends, dressing up, and buying the amazing bottle of savenierres chenin blanc that's around $70. It will be the lunch of your lifetime.

Red Bamboo

So, I went to Red Bamboo for Vday with my lovely girlfriend because she has decided to be vegan for the month of February. (As a foodie, I pray she doesn't make it permanent) Red Bamboo is a vegetarian soul food restaurant.

I had mixed feelings. We ordered a lot of small plates, and I was surprised by the dominance of fake meat on the menu. Aren't there any vegetarian restaurants in new york that serve actual vegetarian dishes? If you are addicted to fake chicken, maybe you shouldn't be vegetarian.

Anyway, my favorite dish was actually the one without the fake meat: beer-battered portabella mushrooms. Yum. It was like high-class bar food. The next dish was their version of buffalo chicken wings... Hmm. The "chicken" was squishy and not chicken-like, and on a stick! And the sauce tasted like sweet and sour. Definite ick. I ate the celery. After that we had their coconut shrimp. The "shrimp" actually tasted like shrimp and had a similar texture. I was both impressed and slightly disturbed (how do you make something vegetarian that tastes like shrimp?). I liked it though. And we ended with their king fish filet. It was a very close approximation to a McDonald's fish filet with tartar sauce. Impressive yet equally unappealing.

I love soul food. I love vegetarian food. But "mock" soul food dishes full of slightly odd fake meat.. not so much. It was good for a restaurant who specializes in fake meat (truly), but bad for a restaurant in general. I'll still take the real thing any day.

Low-Fat Jambalaya

I found this recipe on epicurious a while back, and found that a few simple additions made it a really delicious, hearty meal that was still incredibly low fat. It's great for people who like their food spicy too (like me!).

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/230294
JAMBALAYA


1 tbsp olive oil
 (or any other oil.. vegetable is good)
1 large onion, chopped

2 medium cloves garlic, peeled

1 large green bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped

2 celery stalks, diced

3 tbsp fresh Italian parsley, minced

4 oz extra-lean smoked ham, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
*
5 oz boneless, skinless chicken breast, diced

1 large bay leaf

1 tsp cayenne pepper
*
1 can (28 oz) diced tomatoes

1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce 

3/4 cup brown rice, uncooked

1 1/2 lb medium precooked shrimp chopped into bite-sized pieces


*My modifications: add worcestshire sauce and a little Frank's Hot Sauce when you add the other spices, low-sodium organic chicken broth (instead of or in addition to the water), and shredded deli-slice ham instead of cubed ham. Also, go light on the shrimp.

1. Add oil to a large nonstick saucepan. Over medium heat, sauté onion, garlic, bell pepper and celery until onion is translucent.
2. Add parsley, ham, chicken, bay leaf, cayenne pepper, worcestshire sauce, and Frank's Hot Sauce. Cook, stirring often, 5 to 6 minutes.
3. Add tomatoes (with juice), tomato sauce, and 1 3/4 cups cold water or chicken broth. Gently simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes.
4. Pour rice into the pan and stir well. Bring mixture to a boil.
5. Lower heat and simmer, covered, 45 minutes or until rice is cooked and absorbs most of the liquid.
6. Stir in shrimp and cook 5 minutes more. Remove bay leaf.
7. Season to taste with cayenne pepper and salt.

Sweet Potato Mash

Here is my father's recipe for the best sweet potato mash ever. I think the number one mistake people make when cooking sweet potatoes is making them too sweet. It's a sweet potato! It's already sweet! So use nutmeg to highlight this tater's delicious nature rather than overpowering it.

Ingredients:
Sweet potatoes (any number)
Butter or substitute (I use Smart Balance)
Nutmeg
Salt and Pepper

1. Preheat oven to 375/400.
2. Take the sweet potatoes, wash them and poke them all over with a fork.
3. Place sweet potatoes on tin foil sheet and bake for 40-75 minutes until they feel soft and you can easily insert a fork.
4. Put them on a plate to cool.
5. Cut them in half and scoop the insides into a bowl. (The skin is actually the healthiest part, so I recommend drizziling it with a bit of olive oil and/or a little salt and pepper, and eating it as a snack on its own. If you like you can also cut up some pieces and add them to the mash).
6. Add nutmeg, butter, salt and pepper to taste, and a dash of milk if desired. This recipe is really all about taste, so just go light on the spices at first and add them in until it tastes perfect to you.

Serve this as a part of a meal or keep it in the fridge, and use as a healthy snack. Mmm.