Flourless Nut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

This past weekend I had a craving for chocolate chip cookies in the evening but I didn’t feel like dragging out the mixer and making a huge mess. I had seen a gluten free cookie recipe in a magazine that week so I was inspired to try to make flourless chocolate chip cookies and came up with the following recipe. You cannot mess this up and it literally takes 5 minutes to put together with minimal mess. Within 20 minutes from start to finish you can be eating hot chocolate chip cookies out of the oven.

To start off you need a cup of your favourite nut butter. Because of the husband’s nut allergies I always end up soy nut butter but feel free to use whatever you want.

I decided to go with chocolate soy nut butter for extra chocolate.

Next you add between 3/4 to 1 cup of brown sugar. If you’re using unsweetened nut butter I would use a cup. Since I was using pre-sweetened soy nut butter I added 3/4 of a cup. If you want add a splash of vanilla extract. As well, you need 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda.

I also added roasted soy nuts.

And oats in addition to chocolate chips.

In total I added around a cup of extras. Feel free to add whatever you want: dried fruit, different nuts etc. I ended up using two eggs to help everything come together. If you want to add more than a cup of extras add a few more tablespoons of nut butter and another egg.

Everything all mixed together.

I then used my trusty mini ice cream scoop to make small cookies. They went in the oven at 350 Celsius for roughly 12 minutes until the edges started to brown.

Be careful not to overcook them since they can get hard very quickly.

 

I was pleasantly surprised by these cookies. They were nice and chewy and in spite of my fears that they wouldn’t come together they had a great texture. There are a lot of gluten intolerant people now and this would be a great recipe to make if you’re baking for someone who can’t have gluten. Most oats can contain traces of gluten so I would leave them out and add something else instead in that case. The fact that this recipe is so fast and easy to make is a huge plus. I’ve been bringing them to work as a snack and even after a few days they are still chewy.

del.icio.us Tags: Chocolate Chip Cookies,Gluten Free

Fried Mozzarella Sticks

While I love the finer things in life I am also an ardent fan of pub food. One of the things The Husband and I love are fried mozzarella sticks and I can confidently say that if you haven’t had one, you haven’t lived. They’re ridiculously easy to make and are an integral part of any sports related junk food menu.

 

First of all, obviously, a block mozzarella cut in finger width pieces. You could use cheddar but mozzarella is the standard for this recipe.

Next you set up your breading line: flour, eggs and bread crumbs.

For this recipe I actually used corn flake crumbs. Usually I am not the biggest fan because they have the faintest sweet flavour but they’re perfect for this since when fried they turn extra crispy. I also added dried parsley, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and paprika.

After breading the sticks I put them in the freezer for half an hour. You cannot skip this step or else you will end up with a puddle of melted cheese when you try to fry them. If you leave them in a little longer and they start to freeze you will still be ok.

I put in half an inch of oil in a pan and quickly fried my mozzarella sticks. They really do not take very long, 30 second tops per side. You have to watch them carefully so they neither melt nor burn.

Usually I make marinara sauce with this but this time we just ate them with chili sauce. These are rich, they are of course, solid cheese and even I can’t eat more than a couple at a time. The Husband, happily inhaled quite a few of these while watching the Superbowl. They are so good, crispy on the outside and gooey and melty on the inside. Best eaten hot soon after they come out of the pan.

del.icio.us Tags: Cheese,mozzarella sticks,superbowl

Pear, Blood Orange and Vanilla Bean Jam

They say that necessity is the mother of invention but sometimes cheapness can also do the trick. There is this artisanal jam that I love, but unfortunately it is super expensive for a teeny tiny jar that lasts for three meals. Given than 3$ dollars worth of jam per occasion is a little beyond my income bracket I decided to do the next best thing and make my own.

I remember my parents making jam after we had gone strawberry picking as a kid but I had always found the idea of sterilizing jars a bit daunting. Since I don’t have any of the equipment to make jam on a large scale I decided to make one jar’s worth and keep it in the fridge so I could skip the whole canning process.

I bought random pears and let them get super ripe then peeled, cored and sliced them. Pretty much any kind of pear will work, although maybe not so much Asian pears since they are less sweet.

I had originally planned to use grapefruit segments but since they had blood oranges at the supermarket, first time they’ve been on sale there, I decided to use them instead. As well I squeezed the juice of two lemons and added that to the pears.

I decided to zest the lemons, grapefruits and blood oranges and chuck that into the pot.

The blood orange segments.

Vanilla Beans.

I split the vanilla beans and scraped out the seeds and added them to the fruit. I also added the pods to the pot.

The sugar. I didn’t bother measuring it. I also added a splash of water.

I stirred the pot and let everything bubble away for half an hour or so. You’ll notice that I didn’t add any pectin. All fruit has pectin, some more than others and I just decided to depend on the pear’s natural pectin to thicken everything up.

My kitchen smelled amazing at this point, like the world’s best scented candle. I came back and stirred the pot every five minutes or so to make sure that nothing was sticking. I also gave it a taste at this point and added a bit more sugar.

I really should not have added that splash of water. The pears threw out more liquid than I had been expecting and after 45 minutes of cooking I was fretting that it was not thickening up enough. The husband suggested that I mash some of the fruit up to see if that would help.

Mashing everything seemed to do the trick. The blood oranges turned everything a nice pinkish-red colour and you can see all the flecks of vanilla seeds throughout the jam.

I cooked the jam until it was getting thick but was still fairly liquid as I knew it would thicken further as it cooled down.

I poured everything into a tall mason jar that I had and put it in the fridge. I decided to leave the pods in there to infuse the jam further.

Now that I know how easy and good making jam from scratch is I might quit buying it from the store. The flavour is excellent with a perfect mix of sweet citrus, mellow pear and fragrant vanilla. I’ve been eating it mixed into Greek yogurt for breakfast and on toast. I’ve had my bottle in the fridge for a couple of weeks and it is still keeping well. One word to all of you low cal people out there, do not try to make this kind of jam and skimp on the sugar as it helps to preserve food and prevent spoilage. Once I’m finished this bottle I am going to try experimenting with different flavour combinations, I’m thinking of trying raspberries and Grand Marnier next.

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Chicken Tikka Masala

I love Indian food. Strangely enough I’ve never actually had it at a restaurant though. I actually started cooking Indian food when I got the Jamie Oliver cookbook “The Ministry of Food” from my mom and I’ve been hooked ever since. While you can always find bottled sauces in the supermarket it is so incredibly easy to make them at home and so worth it, especially if you want to amp up the spices like me.

First of all, garlic and lots of of it.

Next up, chillies. I used jalapenos and red chillies since that is all that they sell at my supermarket. I like heat so I always leave in the seeds.

Didn’t I do a good job prettying up the spices for my photo? From left to right: the chillies, cumin, paprika, garam masala, black mustard seeds, cayenne pepper and garlic.

 

I decided to use boneless, skinless chicken strips to make my life easier. I also chucked in a good amount of Greek yogurt although regular yogurt will also do.

After it was all mixed up together I put it in the fridge for half an hour to marinade.

While that was in the fridge I started preparing the sauce. I melted some butter and sautéed some sliced onions on low heat along with black and yellow mustard seeds. I love black mustard seeds and hoard my little stash since my Mom sent them to me since I was having a hard time finding them here.

For the sauce I also ground up some soy nuts. The original recipe called for cashews but given The Husband’s nut allergies I end up using soy nuts for pretty much everything. In case you’re wondering soy nuts are roasted soy beans, they actually taste pretty nutty though.

You will see that there is chicken broth in the pan. This is because I was cooking two things at the same time and poured the chicken broth in the wrong place. Sometimes my own brilliance astounds even me. It is a very good thing that I wasn’t making dessert at the same time or else things could have turned out rather ugly. Also in the pan are the ground up soy nuts and some tomato puree.

I let that bubble away on the stove for a bit.

While that was going on I cooked my marinated chicken in a pan. I basically just dumped everything in, including all the yogurt.

Here it is all cooked. It’s not the most photogenic thing ever but my kitchen smelled amazing at this point. It drives The Husband nuts when I cook without turning on the kitchen fan but one’s sense of smell is so helpful for knowing if something is cooked or if it needs more seasonings etc.

After the sauce had reduced a bit I added a generous splash of heavy cream.

Then the chicken.

And some chopped cilantro.

All done.

 

This was so good. I loved the mix of the spices and the heat from the chillies balanced with the smoothness of the creamy tomato sauce. I usually make coconut milk based curries but this recipe was amazing. Definitely a repeat.

del.icio.us Tags: Indian Food,Chicken Tikka Masala