These are for you if: (1) you love chocolate, (2) would like to find an excuse to eat it for breakfast, and (3) don’t like baked goods that are too sweet. I definitely like chocolate, and have a fondness for muffins that don’t make my teeth ache from too much sugar, so I thought I’d give these a try. I uploaded the photos before my entire computer crashed, so I have something to blog about!

The pros: a tender crumb, moist, crunchy top, and they freeze well. The cons: I will definitely switch to semisweet chocolate next time (they need it), and double wrap these muffins if you freeze them, or they pick up every flavor in the freezer.

I used Scharffen Berger bittersweet chocolate:

I made a couple of adaptations: I added 1.5 teaspoons of espresso coffee crystals to augment the chocolate flavor, and I sprinkled turbinado sugar on top of the muffins before baking.

Chocolate Chocolate-Chunk Muffins

Adapted from Dorie Greespan’s Baking, From My Home to Yours

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter

4 oz. bittersweet chocolate (next time I’ll use semisweet), coarsely chopped

2 cups all purpose flour

2/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup cocoa powder, sifted (I used Droste brand)

1 1/2 teaspoons espresso coffee crystals

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups buttermilk

1 large egg

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Turbinado sugar for sprinkling

Center a rack in the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Butter or spray a 12- slot muffin pan, or line with muffin liners. Place pan on a baking sheet.

Melt butter and half the chopped chocolate in a bowl over simmering water (or in the microwave). Add the coffee crystals and stir to dissolve. Take off heat and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl, whisk the buttermilk, egg, and vanilla together until well combined.

Pour the buttermilk mixture and the chocolate mixture into the dry ingredients. Mix gently but quickly to blend, but do not over mix as this will toughen the muffins. A few lumps are OK! Stir in the remaining chopped chocolate.

Divide batter among the muffin tins. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a thin skewer inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean. Cool pan on a rack for 5 minutes before removing muffins from pan.

Well, our computer has blown up. Literally. Master Chow “smelled something funny,” then “the whole system shut down,” and he “saw whisps of smoke.”

We’re getting a Mac. If Microsoft were a vampire, I’d drive a stake through it’s cold, cold heart.

I’ve been meaning to post about chimichurri (an Argentine salsa), so I dug through my photos, and here it is.

A recipe for chimichurri is going to vary from family to family, and everyone believes that the variation that they grew up with is the best one out there. I’m no different – I used to sneak in the kitchen and eat this stuff with a spoon while my mom was out back, grilling the steak. There are three “secrets” to good chimichurri, in my opinion: (1) use fresh ingredients, (2) don’t use a food processor, as it makes the whole mixture rather bitter, and (3) loosen up and adjust the ingredients to suit your tastes! So, I present you with my family’s chimichurri recipe, but keep in mind that it is only a guideline, and even I adjust quantities every time I make this.

1 cup loosely packed fresh flat leaf parsley
1/4 cup fresh oregano
4-6 plump garlic cloves
a pinch of dried red hot peppers (unlike Mexican food, Argentine food generally is not “hot”)
kosher salt to taste
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2-3 Tablespoons red wine vinegar

Finely chop the parsley, oregano, and garlic. Combine with all the other ingredients and adjust the amounts until you like how it tastes. You can add more vinegar and olive oil until you get the consistency of a thick soup. This will make enough to marinate the meat, but you won’t have any extra to serve with the meat on the side, so if you want more chimichurri, at least double the recipe.

Rub over the skirt steaks (about 2 pounds) and marinate for a few hours. When ready to grill the meat, clean off the marinade (you don’t want the garlic to burn), and grill quickly, usually only a couple minutes on each side. Serve with more chimichurri.

One of the reasons I love our local Asian market – they carry items like this! Fresh garbanzos are crunchy and sweet, sort of like a fresh pea.

Oh, how I love CPK’s hummus! Creamy, smooth, rich – I couldn’t figure out why I liked their hummus so much more than others. After I happily purchased California Pizza Kitchen Pasta, Salads, Soups, And Sides, I discovered their secret: they use cannellini beans, not garbanzos! Eureka!

I adapted the recipe just a bit. This makes a generous amount of hummus – I would say more than enough as an appetizer for six to eight people.

Hummus Ingredients

5 medium garlic cloves (I use 3 and that’s plenty!)
30 ounces drained and rinsed canned cannellini beans
1/2 cup sesame paste (tahini)
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 cup cold water, if needed

California Pizza Kitchen Checca Ingredients

3 or 4 medium tomatoes, cut into 1/2″ dice
1 tablespoon minced garlic (don’t crush the garlic, as it will make this too bitter)
1 tablespoon minced fresh basil
kosher salt, to taste
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Hummus:

In a food processor, process the beans and pulse the machine a few times to chop them coarsely. Add the garlic clove and process them until finely minced. With the machine running, puree the mixture slowly pouring the sesame paste through the feed tube. Still with the motor running, pour the olive oil, lemon juice, and soy sauce through the feed tube, stopping the processor occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Stop the processor, open the lid, and add the salt, cumin, coriander, and cayenne. Process until thoroughly blended. If the puree seems too thick, pulse in the 1/4 cup cold water (or more, if needed, to reach the consistency that you are looking for). Transfer the puree to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate to chill well before serving.

Checca:

In a bowl, combine the Checca ingredients, mixing them thoroughly. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

About thirty minutes before you plan to serve it, place the chilled hummus in a bowl and arrange the tomato Checca on top. Garnish with the chopped parsley and surround with pita triangles or crackers.

Another tasty bite from what has turned out to be one of my favorite cookbooks, Molly Stevens’ All About Braising. I had one more commercial pie crust to use up, and I’ve had such success with recipes from this book, that I decided to give this one a try. I was not disappointed, and
(gasp!) I am not really a fan of gruyere. Master Chow enjoyed both the goat cheese tart and this one, but preferred the bite and depth of flavor that the gruyere and leeks gave the latter.

I did not alter this recipe, and as I’ve blogged about several dishes in Molly Stevens’ book, I won’t do so again. I urge folks to check it out from the library or buy it for yourselves. (Disclaimer: if you click on Amazon through this website, I get a small percentage of the sale. And I get paid in gift certificates, which I promptly apply to more cookbooks. It is a vicious cycle.).

To summarize, though: I braised the leeks with butter, salt and pepper, garlic, nutmeg, fresh thyme, stock, lemon and thick-cut bacon. I then chopped and combined the leek-bacon mixture with Gruyere, eggs, creme fraiche, half-and-half, fresh thyme, more nutmeg, and salt and pepper. I spread the leaks on the bottom of the pie crust, and poured the egg mixture over it. Popped it in a 375 degree oven for 40 minutes, and then devoured it.

Yum. Next time, though, I might try this with Emmental instead of Gruyere.

Well, I’m back. It has been a busy summer on so many levels, and my blogging has suffered for it. For those of you who read my humble blog, I’ve been working on so many projects (including me), that something had to give, and it turned out to be this blog, not to mention my favorite hobby – cooking.I decided that my body was starting to creak a bit too much, so I did something about it. I started exercising more vigorously, and finally had some injuries looked at; it it appears that I may need some knee and wrist surgery, not to mention physical therapy on a shoulder. On a brighter note, in the past month I adopted a low-sodium, high fruit and veggie approach to eating known as the DASH “diet.” It’s purpose? To lower blood pressure. I must say, mine has plummeted. Diet and exercise never did much for my blood pressure before, but this “diet” has – on medication, my BP was 150/100 a month ago. Now, it is 106/68. I am stunned, and so is my doctor. For an easy-to-read yet thorough explanation of this approach, check out this link (pdf file, so you’ll need Adobe).

But before my summer heated up, I managed to bake a fresh sour cherry pie. I adapted this recipe from one I found in Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Pie and Pastry Bible. I added 1 Tablespoon of fresh lemon juice to the filling, because the sour cherries I had were a bit on the sweet side. And, for a change, I followed Rose’s recipe exactly when I made my favorite crust, her Perfect Flaky & Tender Cream Cheese Pie Crust. The result was the best sour cherry pie I have ever made, and one I plan to repeat this winter because I froze several pounds of berries! If you can find frozen sour cherries, or have some on hand, I encourage you to try this recipe.

Puffy, golden goodness. Mmmm.

Inspired, yet again, by Ina Garten, I decided to try her goat cheese tart. Now, you may wonder at my use of a commercial crust. I make no apologies – they are my yearly Thanksgiving backup, ever since the Jehovah’s Witness Incident of 2004.

What, you ask, was that? Ah, yes. I remember it well. I was furiously baking pies on Thanksgiving day. And it was one of those times when nothing was working quite like I had planned. I had just rolled some pastry into one of the pie pans, when a group of very nice Jehovah’s Witnesses rang my doorbell. I was covered in flour, and my hands were filthy. I set the rolling pin on top of the Pyrex pie plate so that I could wash my hands, and the entire pie plate shattered. Glass everywhere. Pastry ruined.

Well, ever since then, I make sure to buy a couple commercial pie crusts, just in case. Of course, that means if things go well, I have to use up those crusts, which I did here. Quite tasty, I must say.

Even though I prepared the shallots, I forgot to add them to the tart. So I had them on the side. I think the shallots are important, so I would suggest not leaving them out. I also took the liberty of adding some thyme.

Goat Cheese Tart

Adapted from Barefoot in Paris: Easy French Food You Can Make at Home

1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter

3/4 cup chopped shallots (3 to 4 shallots)

10 1/2 ounces garlic-and-herb soft goat cheese (recommended: Montrachet)

1 cup heavy cream (preferably NOT ultra-pasteurized)

3 extra-large eggs

1/4 chopped fresh basil leaves

2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Heat the tablespoon of butter in a small pan and saute the shallots over low heat for 5 minutes, or until tender. Place the goat cheese in the bowl of the food processor and process until crumbly. Add the cream, eggs, basil, thyme, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and the pepper and process until blended.

Scatter the cooked shallots over the bottom of the tart shell. Pour the goat cheese mixture over the shallots to fill the shell (if the shell has shrunk, there may be leftover filling). Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the tart is firm when shaken and the top is lightly browned. Allow to cool for 10 minutes and serve hot or at room temperature.

The tart puffs up beautifully, and yields six generous slices. The perfect accompaniment is a green salad with a light vinaigrette.

Hhhm. I know this picture doesn’t look like much but, trust me, it is chicken braised with hard cider and parsnips. Another Molly Stevens winner from All About Braising; I was tempted to try it because of the Amateur Gourmet’s tantalizing post (he kindly posted the entire recipe, so check out his blog!).

I used the hard cider pictured below. Steven’s notes that different brands will change the flavor of the dish. The recipe calls for bacon: My choice was Niman Ranch unsmoked bacon, which I picked up at the local Whole Foods.

Folks, this is a book that I can recommend without reservation. A five star addition for any cook’s library.