Decadent (?) Chocolate Puffy Things

Thanks to Emily and Mom for pointing this recipe out. They both made basically the same thing at the same time without having communicated about it. We were inspired, and we wound up with something about half-way in between their versions. I'm not thrilled with the name, but it's better than the recipe we got it from. Maybe appropriate because we've been eating 2-5 cookies per day since we made them. Anyway, I'm just recording it here to note the minor changes we made so we can do it again the same way next time.

Ingredients

• 1/2 stick (4tbsp) butter
• 4.5 oz bittersweet chocolate chips
• 1.5 oz unsweetened chocolate
• 1/4 c unbleached AP flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 5/8 c sugar (1/2c + 2tbsp)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 c (12 oz) bittersweet chocolate chips

Basically you make this like any other cookies:

Preheat oven to 350. Whip the eggs in a stand-mixer, add the sugar and beat. In a separate pan (or to be honest, probably in the microwave) mix the butter, 4.5oz chips, and 1.5oz unsweetened chocolate and melt, stirring often. We used a double-boiler - probably better than straight on the heat source. When that's melted and cooled, add to the egg/sugar mixture. Add the salt and vanilla. Then add the flour and baking powder. When that's smooth, add the 2 c chocolate chips. Pop the whole thing in the freezer for 20 minutes to stiffen. Then, using a 2" ice cream scoop, spoon the batter onto parchment-lined cookie sheets. Bake for 17-20 minutes, rotating half-way through. Take them out as soon as they're JUST getting done so they don't over-cook. Makes about 2 dozen.

Thoughts: I'm glad we halved this recipe. At the same time, this is awesome. These cookies are pretty amazing. Far and away the best chocolate-chocolate-chip cookies I've ever made. They have the advantage of being not too dry and incredibly powerfully chocolate-y. These are a winner. I think the ONE tough part about the recipe is taking the cookies out early enough. We could possibly have gone 16:00 or 16:30 instead of 17:00 (what we did) and it would have been perfect. But we're at a high altitude, so thinks dry out more quickly.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Artichoke Lamb Stew

This takes a little prep, but I think it's worth it. This was a bit unusual as dishes go, but I think the result was awesome.

Ingredients

• 3 large artichokes (prep instructions below)
• 1 lb ground lamb
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 carrot, chopped (rounds)
• about 1/2 lb cannellini beans (or similar), soaked
• 1.5 tbsp flour
• 2tbsp lemon juice
• oil / fat of your choice (we used leftover bacon fat, but olive oil would work fine)
• rosemary, thyme, basil (we kind of eye-balled it - maybe 1 tsp / .5 tsp / 1 tsp, respectively)

Okay, the artichokes. Pull off the outer layer of roughed-up leaves. Wash the artichokes. Cut off the top inch or so of the artichoke to expose the leaves. As you do all of this, every time you remove a leaf or anything, rub the cut / damaged area with lemon juice. With a paring knife, peel the outer portion of the stem (but leave it attached. Or, if it came detached at some point, just peel it) and, again, coat in lemon juice.

Pop the artichokes in a steamer for 25-45 minutes, until the outer leaves come off pretty easily. Remove and let cool. Then begin removing the leaves. You can eat the ends of the leaves as you go or just save them for later. We saved all the leaves for an up-coming stock we're going to make. Anyway, when you get all the bigger leaves off (the top 5 layers or so) you can usually pull out all the center layers in one go. Then you're left with the heart (and the choke). Scrape out the choke using a spoon. Now chop the heart and the stems into 8 pieces (or so, I don't know - bite sized). ARTICHOKES DONE. If you didn't understand a step, go google it or something.

In a heavy-bottomed soup pot, add the lamb and some oil/fat. Break up the lamb a LITTLE, but not into tiny bits - it's nice to have larger pieces of lamb kicking around. Brown the lamb pretty well. Then add the onion and carrot. Cook until the onion is getting soft. Then add the flour and continue to cook for another minute. Finally, add everything else. Fill with water JUST to cover. Bring to a boil (scraping up the bottom of the pot as you go), then reduce to a simmer. Cover and let simmer for about an hour. Season to taste with salt and additional lemon juice.

Thoughts: The game-y-ness of the lamb was wonderfully balanced by the acidity of the lemon. It was a really nice, hearty winter soup. The artichokes had great flavor the FIRST day, but after sitting in the fridge the flavor diffused a bit so it wasn't as distinct the second day. Since the hearts were already cooked, next time I might not boil them for an hour with everything else, but instead pop them in with about 5 minutes left in the cooking process. If I had stew meat available (rather than ground) I think that would be better, but this was still really good.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Korean Seafood Pancakes

I think these are also called Pajeon or Haemul Pajeon. We totally violated the basic premise of this recipe, but it was good, so I'm blogging it. In the future, we'll do it right.

Ingredients

• 1.75c white AP flour
• .5c rice flour
• 2 eggs
• generous pinches of salt
• water to make a pancake batter
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 daikon radish, grated
• 2c shrimp, chopped

Make the pancake batter. Add the fillings. Put about 1/2 the batter at a time on a non-stick (or highly greased) griddle. Wait for the top to start to look dry, and the bottom to be nicely browned before you attempt to flip this, or you'll have pancake bits everywhere. Cook about 5-8 min on both sides. Serve with a sauce made of 4:1:1:.5:.25 ratios of soy sauce : black or rice wine vinegar : oyster sauce : sugar : chili flakes.

Thoughts: We thought that this turned out a LITTLE on the chewy side, actually - possibly a result of the rice flour? Possibly the daikon. It can get like that. Next time, we're going to replace the onion with scallions (we didn't have any on hand, but that's what you are supposed to use) and up the seafood amount. Claire also wants to put kimchi in it. I cannot disagree completely.

Disaster Index: 1/10