Ginger cookies

My favorite Ironman has a penchant for gingersnaps so I thought I would bake him these. My aim was to get a chewy cookie with a crackly crust.

Ingredients:

2 1/4 C. flour
2 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
3/4 C. butter (1.5 sticks)
1 C packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1/4 C molasses

1/4 C + 1 tsp cinnamon granulated sugar for rolling

Method:

Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix the first 6 dry ingredients together with the room temp butter. Mix until in all resembles brown sugar, then mix in the brown sugar. Blend in the egg and molasses until thoroughly combined.
Roll into Tablespoon balls and coat in granulated sugar.
Place on parchment lined cookie sheet, 2 inches apart.
Bake 10 minutes. This will give a soft inside. Cook an extra minute for a crispy cookie.

Satay rice nodles

So my hippie box got delivered this morning and it was very colourful. I thought a veggie noodle satay would be an appropriate venue to showcase these colours. The satay sauce is really easy to make. The key is to not overcook the rice noodles. they DO NOT cook up like wheat noodles. They require only 2-3 minutes of cooking before turning rapidly into mush.

Satay Sauce:

* Soy sauce
* Crunch peanut butter
* Garlic
* Ginger
* Chilli flakes
* Rice wine vinegar
* Honey

Serve with chopped cilantro and crushed peanuts. OMG Yum!!!

Spicy Potato and Zucchini Tacos

Signing up for a CSA box will make you cook and sometimes the results are suprisingly awesome :) I am getting my next delivery of organic produce in 3 days and I still had to get rid of a bunch of potatos and zucchini. So I thought I would make some vegetarian tacos for my wonderful friend Dottie and I. I don't have a recipe here because I just threw stuff into the potato mixture until it was delicious. It started with onions and lots of garlic sauteing in olive oil. Then I added cubed potatos, cumin, coriander, chilli powder, oregano, salt and pepper. When the potatos are half cooked I added the diced zucchini. Cook until soft and your mouth is watering. Serve with warm corn tortillas and the usual suspects: fresh cilantro, queso fresco (or feta in a pinch), avocado and tomato slices. The avocado and tomatoes are so good this time of year that this makes a perfectly simple and seasonal dinner. Perfect to plan a trip to India over...

Shortcakes

Even though it was a cold and rainy 4th of July I thought it would be fun and appropriate to make strawberry shortcakes for Independence day. This is a foolproof recipe and doesn't require any technical equipment.

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour
3 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
12 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Method:

Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Toss with a fork to combine. Cut the butter into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter or a fork (or fingers if you have cold fingers like me) until the largest pieces of butter are the size of peas. Combine the cream and vanilla in a liquid measure. Make a well in the center of the flour and and pour the cream mixture into the well. Mix with a fork until the dough is evenly moistened and just combined; it should look shaggy and still feel a little dry. Gently knead by hand five or six times to create a loose ball.

Turn the dough out onto a piece of parchment paper and pat it into an 8-inch square, 3/4 to 1 inch thick. Cover with plastic and chill for 20 minutes in the refrigerator. Heat the oven to 425ºF. Remove the dough from refrigerator. Cut the dough into 9 even squares and spread them about 2 inches apart from each other on the baking sheet. Pain with thin layr of cream. Bake until the biscuits are medium golden brown, 16 to 20 minutes.

Makes 9 biscuits.
Serve shortcakes filled with macerated strawberries and vanilla whipped cream. We had some left over biscuits. As these weren't too sweet they might be great the next day with eggs for breakfast or with a good fruit preserve for afternoon tea.

Mum's Broccoli-Hazelnut soup

Having your mum cook for you NEVER gets old. No matter how much I love to cook, nothing beats my mum's cooking. She also happens to be the most creative cook I know. This soup is a great example. We had a a tonne of broccoli and some left over toasted hazelnuts. Voila! Tasty, healthy goodness. I love you mum.

Ingredients:
* 2 heads of broccoli broken into florets
* 1 Tbsp flour
* 3 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
* 1 large Spanish onion, chopped
* 4 cloves of garlic (or more to taste)
* 1 cup 1% milk
* Salt and pepper to taste
* 1/2 tsp garam masala
* 1/2 tsp chilli powder
* Pinch nutmeg
* 2-3 Tbsp ground toasted hazelnuts (We had raw hazelnuts in the shell which we toasted in a 350F oven for 15-20 minutes until aromatic. We then ground them in the blender)

Method:
1. Saute onion and garlic in vegetable oil until transparent
2. Add flour and stir until flour loses its raw flavor
3. Add broccoli and 2-3 cups of water
4. Boil or pressure cook until very soft
5. Blend broccoli mixture with hazelnuts
6. Return to pot and add milk and spices
7. Warm soup and add salt and pepper to taste.

Red Rice Revelation

It's cold in Seattle so something warm and comforting for dinner is in order. To me nothing says comfort food more than rice. Something about growing up in an Indian family I suppose! Tonight I made fried rice with eggs, broccoli, bean sprouts, insane amounts of both ginger and cilantro and RED RICE. This stuff is chewy and nutty and adds great texture to vegetarian meals. This was a fantastic quick Monday night dinner.

$4 well spent!

Oh my gosh, Luke, Tony and I had dinner at the happy hour at Ivar's salmon Bar. I was very skeptical because the only other time I had been to Ivar's it was pretty awful and my memories are of fried blah! But tonight we had great food including an amazing beet, arugula and blue cheese salad for 4 dollars! I had the hummus plate with pickled onions and carrots and olives (also $4...wtf?). Luke had the fish and chips and Tony had the oyster shooters and seafood chowder. Plates were clean fairly quickly. Anyway, I'll be going back very soon...