Vanilla Pearl Cookies with Saffron Glaze- Marx Foods Recipe Challenge

Shortly after we first started dating, I made a batch of cookies for Paul. He had been feeling under the weather, and I wanted to do something sweet to cheer him up.

I pulled out my brand-new copy of the Joy of Cooking and paged through the Cookie section until I found a recipe that met the few requirements I had:

• It had to be a cookie that was familiar to me
• I had to have all the ingredients in my very limited pantry
• It had to be easy (I had very little patience for baking back then)

Oatmeal cookies fit the bill perfectly. Paul ate them with enjoyment, and in the many years since, they have become a familiar friend in our home. Where I once had to look up the page number in the back of the book, it now falls open automatically at the right spot. And that page is beautifully marked with speckles of vanilla, flour and sugar.

So when I was notified that I was selected to participate in the Marx Foods Fregola Sarda recipe challenge, this family favorite kept begging me for consideration.

I was skeptic, however. The key ingredient that I had to utilize in a dessert was Fregola Sarda pasta – little toasted balls of pasta. When cooked, they bear a striking resemblance to tapioca pearls. Taste-wise, they are a little chewy with a slight nutty flavor.

Along with the pasta, Marx Foods also provided me with star anise, vanilla beans and saffron. I had to use at least one of these in a dessert recipe.

My thought was that I would simply substitute the Fregola for the oatmeal in the recipe. So I boiled up a bit of the Fregola with half of one of the vanilla beans, and mixed it in to the dough.

That first batch of cookies was – uh – yucky. Apparently the oatmeal provides a lot of bulk to the cookies.

For the second batch I added extra flour. Hot out of the oven, they were pretty good. The pasta added a light, pleasant chew. I thought I had it nailed.

But then they cooled. And the pasta became little balls of gummy rubber. Not good.

At all.

I tried baking them less time, more time, hotter and cooler. Nothing worked. They always reverted to an unpleasant chewiness when they cooled.

By this time, I only had enough Fregola left to try one more time. So I boiled the pasta way beyond any definition of al dente. Where I had originally cooked them about 12-15 minutes, this last time I had them going for 23 minutes. There was no bite left at all.

And I met with resounding success! After cooling, the cookies developed a very slight, and very pleasant chew to them. To finish them off and make them beautiful, I used the saffron to create a beautiful and delicious glaze. Update: Voting is happening now. Please visit Marx Foods Fregola Dessert Recipe Challenge to vote.

I must say, the infusion of the vanilla flavor into the Fregola is amazing! The flavor permeated the pasta, leaving behind a delicious pop of vanilla with every bite. I imagine that the pasta would pick up other flavors just as readily. I intend to get some more and explore it’s savory use as well.

Vanilla Pearl Cookies with Saffron Glaze

• 1/2 cup Fregola Sarda pasta
• 1/2 vanilla bean, split down the middle
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 c butter, room temperature
• 1/2 c firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 c granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp. milk
• 2 c all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Glaze:

• 2 Tbsp. hot water
• 1 pinch saffron threads
• 1 c powdered sugar

Cook Fregola, vanilla bean and salt in boiling water until pasta is very soft – approximately 20-25 minutes. Drain and cool completely. Remove and discard the vanilla bean. Measure 1 cup of Fregola.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cream butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar together.

Mix in egg, vanilla extract and milk. Beat until smooth.

In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir thoroughly into butter/egg mixture. Stir in 1 cup cooked and cooled Fregola pasta.

Drop cookies 2 inches apart onto a cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until light brown.

Remove cookies from pan and cool on cooling rack. When cooled, combine all glaze ingredients and drizzle over cookies.

Yield – about 24 cookies.

Disclaimer (please read really quickly and quietly)- Marx Foods
provided me with the Fregola Sarda, vanilla beans, saffron and
star anise (which I did not use). This recipe was adapted from
the Joy of Cooking Quick Oatmeal Cookies recipe. If this recipe
is selected as a winner in the Marx Foods Fregola Sarda dessert
challenge, I will win a Marx Foods gift certificate.

The Danger of Sharing Recipes

I wonder if there are people who were born with a natural cooking ability. With an intuition for knowing just what a recipe needs. With a knack for adding the perfect amount of seasoning and spice. With the instinctive touch to make the perfect adjustment that elevates the dish from good to amazing.

I wasn’t. I absolutely was not a natural-born cook. I became the cook I am today (which – all modesty aside – is a very good cook) after years of hard work combined with a willingness to accept critique and the generosity of others who shared their knowledge, tips and recipes. And it is this last component which I am addressing today. Those who share.

My go-to cake recipe came from Mom; the recipe for the world’s greatest pizza sauce was given to me by my sister; a previous co-worker generously shared her husband’s secret for an amazing artichoke dip; I learned the secret to homemade fried rice during a brief conversation with a man who cooked at a favorite Chinese restaurant; and the list could go on and on.

But mixed in with all these treasures are recipes that are also missing. I never did get a friend’s mother’s famous apple pie recipe. The only person she would give it to was her own daughter who was sworn to secrecy. And I would dearly love my friend’s dill pickle recipe, but she has considered selling them someday, and wants to keep her recipe a secret just in case.

Personally, I have always been generous with my recipes. If someone asks, I share. To me, it’s an honor to be asked. And only once have I regretted it.

By all accounts, Paul’s grandmother was an amazing cook. Although I never had the privilege of enjoying anything she made herself, I did inherit some of her treasured recipes. Her biscuit recipe is unlike any other I have ever seen, and it is the only recipe I ever use. I used to watch Paul’s Dad make these amazingly light and delicious biscuits many times and saw how important it was to mix the dough and cut the biscuits quickly, flipping them in scorching hot grease in a searingly hot pan and then into a hot, hot oven where they rose perfectly and came out toasty brown and crispy on the outside while staying fluffy on the inside. It’s all in the timing. And if you know the timing and aren’t afraid of heat, they are easy to make.

Since I came into possession of the recipe, I have shared it outside of my immediate family exactly once. A friend of a friend asked me for my recipe and I wrote it down for her along with what I thought were detailed instructions. She was most unkind and vocal in her “review.” Words like “flat” “hard” and “extremely disappointing” were tossed about freely. She seemed to feel that I had done something to sabotage her family’s breakfast. She suggested that I was one of “those” cooks who left out critical information in order to keep the title of world’s greatest biscuit maker for myself. Or something.

I’m sure she over-worked the dough or didn’t completely preheat the oven and the pan or used old baking powder or didn’t hold her mouth right or … I have no idea. I just know that she was unhappy, and that made me sad.

When I share a recipe, its with the hope that they will enjoy it as much as we did. I am afraid to share my biscuit recipe again. I don’t want to disappoint.

What about you? Do you share recipes or do you keep them to yourself?

Chicken Cordon Bleu – Chicken of the Week

Tonight we had a guest for dinner, so I left work 1/2 hour early so that I’d get home early and dinner wouldn’t be too late. But, as happens with so many well thought out plans, this one was thwarted.

Traffic.

It took way more than an hour to travel what normally takes 20 minutes. But even though I spent so much of my time this evening surrounded by brake lights, I still was able to get an amazing (it’s no time to be modest) dinner on the table before 7 p.m.

I know what you’re thinking…Chicken Cordon Bleu? How could something so amazing be done so quickly?

Well, there’s two answers to this question.

First, I did some of the prep work last night. Second, the recipe is nowhere near as challenging as you might expect. And third, I’m just that good. (I know I said two answers, so just pick your two most favorite from the above list.)

So if you want an amazing, yet easy, weeknight dinner, simply:

Take a boneless, skinless chicken breast and cut a pocket in the side. Into this pocket, stuff a piece of ham, cooked bacon or prosciutto (my pork of choice) and a piece of cheese (I used Ementaler, but it could have been Gruyere or Swiss or almost any kind you like.) Use toothpicks to close the chicken. Repeat for the number of servings you want. Place all chicken in a pan, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. (The overnight rest helps it hold together when you cook it.)

The next day…

Heat the oven to 375. Also, heat 1/2″ oil in a skillet.

Set out three pie plates, dishes, pans or other vessels of choice. In the first, put about 1/2 c flour, seasoned with salt and pepper. In the second, mix 1 egg with 1 T water for every 3 chicken breasts you are cooking. In the third pan, dump in some panko breading along with salt and pepper – maybe 1/2 cup panko for every chicken breast you’re making. You probably won’t use all the panko, but it’s easier to have too much than to just have barely enough.

Remove toothpicks from the chicken and, one at a time, dip/dust the chicken in the flour, then dip in the egg wash then finally cover in the panko. Set chicken aside. When all the chicken is breaded, carefully place in the hot skillet. Cook until chicken is golden brown on one side, then turn it over and brown the second side. Place on baking sheet.

When all chicken is browned, place it in the oven for about 15 minutes. It’ll be done when a thermometer reads 160 degrees in the middle of the chicken.

That’s it. If it sounds like hard work, think again.

If it sounds amazingly delicious, just know that you’re right.

Of course, what really makes the meal superb is terrific company. But that’s a story for another time.

I’ll tell you all about it in June.

The Problem with Raising Chickens

“What’s for dinner?”

“Chicken”

“What kind?”

“Cooked.”

Approximately two nights a week, that is the conversation in our house. And most of the time I’m not intentionally being vague, I just don’t know what I want to do for dinner.

I am a little hindered by the fact that I’m almost always cooking a whole bird. Very seldom do I cook a meal of chicken breasts, let alone boneless, skinless chicken breasts. After all, it’s a biological fact that there’s no chickens that are made up entirely of breast meat. And I found out the first year we raised birds that if I part out too many of them, we use the breast meat first and are left with a lot of dark meat as we near the end of our freezer storage.

A lot of dark meat.

So, dinner last night was, you guessed it, chicken. What kind? I didn’t know. One idea was shot down because it was too spicy. Another bit the dust because I didn’t want to fry. “What about…” …nope, don’t have the ingredients.

I googled “chicken for dinner” and eventually came to this recipe that hit the trifecta:

1) It sounded good

2) I had the ingredients, and

3) It would work for a whole chicken.

So last night’s dinner for this chicken-raising family was Orange Hoisin Chicken. It was a good, delicious choice.

Orange Hoisin Chicken

• 1 chicken, cut into parts
• 2 T olive oil
• 1/4 c orange juice concentrate (the frozen stuff in a can)
• 1/2 c honey
• 1/4 c soy sauce
• 1/4 c hoisin sauce
• 2 t dried ginger
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 T sesame oil
• 2 T rice wine vinegar
  

Heat olive oil in frying pan. When hot, add chicken skin down a few pieces at a time. Cook on med-high heat until skin is dark golden brown on both sides. Place skin-side-up in 9″ x 13″ baking pan. Repeat until all the chicken has been browned.

Mix remaining ingredients except rice wine vinegar together and pour over chicken.

Bake at 375 degrees until chicken is cooked through. (Use a thermometer!)

Set chicken on serving platter. Pour sauce into small sauce pan; add rice wine vinegar. Boil to reduce until thickened. The sauce is delicious served over rice.

Enjoy!

Served our family of 7.

Chicken of the Week – Balsamic Shallot Sauce

Four years ago I made an offer to my children. The first one who can facilitate welcoming Chef Jacques Pepin into our home will receive a brand new Ford Mustang.

Why Jacques? Because he’s my go-to chef.

There’s only one recipe of his that I have made that has not been amazing…and that one I blame on lackluster ingredients.

So far, I haven’t had to buy a Mustang. But I haven’t given up hope yet!

This past Thursday, as I was heading home, I was stymied. (Isn’t that the greatest word?) I had no idea what to make for dinner. I had defrosted a potroast the night before, but had been in a rush that morning heading out the door, so I hadn’t put it in the crockpot. The only other option I could think of that I had ingredients for and was quick was tuna casserole.

But I wasn’t in the mood for tuna. Or casserole.

Suddenly, I had an inspiration. Not long ago, as I was looking through Jacques Pepin’s cookbook for the Quick Tenderloin Stew recipe, I saw a picture in his “Fast Food My Way” cookbook (if you don’t have this book, you really should get it…there’s some real treasures in it.) The picture caught my eye. It looked amazing. I remembered the name of the dish was Balsamic something something chicken. Well, I knew I had balsamic vinegar, and of course I had chicken. So I hoped I was good to go.

When I got home and looked at the recipe, I was shocked. It was simple! After browning chicken breasts on the stove, the sauce is simply sauteed shallots (I used some onion too because I didn’t have enough shallots for the recipe) and then add in a surprising amount of balsamic vinegar, a little ketchup and some water. His recipe called for mushrooms also, but I didn’t have any, so mine was mushroom-free. The sauce is fantastic without mushrooms, so I’m almost afraid of how good it would be with mushrooms!

Once the sauce is boiled down and thickened, just pour it over the chicken breast that have been resting in a warm oven, and serve. Everyone…children and grownups at the table loved it.

I suggest you make this and make it very soon.

And if you know Jacques, please invite him to my place for dinner so I can thank him in person for his amazingly inspiring recipes. He makes it all so simple.