Holiday Baking 2014 Edition

One of the Christmas traditions I most fondly remember of my youth was helping my mom with the annual Christmas baking. We would make tons of cookies, fudge, and divinity to divvy up and pass out to friends and neighbors. It's something I've always done and it was great to do it again after a break last year. I may have gone a little overboard with how much I baked but I had a very eager helper in the form of Zara. Even though I gave a lot of our goodies away, I still have way too much left. 

I normally vary what I make each year but I always ALWAYS make sugar cookies. I don't make them often because how time intensive they are but I think they're my favorite ones to eat. Zara was very excited to help with the sugar cookies, but most of her creations aren't pictured. They were very light on the frosting and very heavy on the sprinkles. I also ran out of red food coloring so my stockings were a light pink rather than Christmas-y red. 

I made two types of fudge. I made this Rocky Road Fudge and Creamy Chocolate Fudge. The rocky road fudge wasn't as creamy or fudgey as I had wanted but the chocolate fudge (one side was plain and the other I topped with toffee bits) was delicious. I'd never made fudge that way before and I was skeptical at first but it did turn out really well. 

I also made angel thumbprint cookies which we used to always make as a kid. They were also more time intensive than I remembered and not as good. I don't know that I'll be making them again next year. 

I rounded out my baking with two new cookie recipes, a chocolate and butterscotch chip cookie and peppermint patty chocolate cookies. I think the peppermint patty cookies were my favorite of all the new recipes I tried this year. I love the combination of chocolate and mint which just feels so perfect for this holiday season. 

I think I'm going to go eat another cookie. I hope your holiday baking was just as successful and enjoyable this year. 

Lunar New Year!

Happy Lunar* New Year, from our Korean baby!
It's the year of the dragon, a very auspicious year. Our Chinese friends predict that many children will be born this year since a lot of parents want dragon children. I guess we'll have to wait and see if that's true.

In honor of the New Year, I made duk mandu gook, a traditional soup that Koreans eat every New Year's Eve. I became a little obsessed with the stuff near the end of our time in Korea and I make it often now. I thought I'd share my recipe because it's super quick and awesomely delicious, especially on a cold night.

I adapted my recipe from this recipe from the New York Times.

Ingredients
12 Mandu/Gyoza/Potstickers
4 cups beef broth, preferably Korean (see note)
1/2 bunch scallions
1 cup frozen Korean rice cakes, sliced (see note)
1 egg, lightly beaten
Black pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
Toasted seaweed (optional), julienned.

1. Place a large pot filled with broth over high heat. Prepare scallions: discard white parts, chop a few inches of green parts into rounds and slice remainder lengthwise. When broth boils, add 3 to 4 dumplings a person, reduce heat to medium and cook 5 to 7 minutes.

2. Add frozen rice cakes and scallion slices and cook until cakes are soft, another two minutes. Add eggs and gently stir. Shut off heat and season with black pepper. Ladle into bowls and garnish with scallion rounds, sesame seeds and seaweed, if using.

Note: For beef broth, dashida powder is sold in bags at Korean markets. Dissolve one teaspoon per cup of boiling water. Korean rice cakes, called duk, are sold in the freezer section of Korean markets; the wide slices are the most traditional. This makes 2-4 servings. It's best eaten right away; it doesn't always reheat well.

The two main ingredients are mandu and duk. Duk is a glutinous cake made from rice flour. When I first tried it, I didn't like it. It's weird and doesn't have much flavor. But it's kinda grown on me. My local Asian market doesn't carry the sliced duk so I just make do with the round kind that is generally used for dukbokki. I have made my mandu from scratch before (Cook's Illustrated has a great recipe), but I typically buy mine. I prefer the pork filled mandu, since that's what they use in Korea, but you could use chicken or beef potstickers too.

You could use regular beef broth but dashida (Korea beef broth) is SO much better and easy to find in any Asian market. This is the broth powder that I brought home with me from Korea. I also sometimes throw in a little anchovies powder because other recipes I saw included it, but it's not essential.

The trick with the egg is to slowly and gently stir your broth with a chopstick while pouring in your beaten egg. I love the egg. And in less than 30 minutes, you have a delicious Korean soup. Mmmm.

After dinner (and the baby had been tucked away in bed), I broke out the box of hotteok I bought before we left Korea. There was a little stand near our apartment in Seoul that sold these delicious cinnamon filled pancakes, which are a popular Korean street food, especially in the winter months. I think they'd be super easy to re-create even without the mix. I think next year, I'll definitely have to find my own recipe.
After letting the dough rise a bit, you fill it with a mixture of sugar, cinnamon, and nuts and then fry them them up.
The insides get all gooey and delicious.
David approved. I don't think I'll be able to eat hotteok without instantly being transported back to a cold winter day in Seoul. Oh, the memories.

Our New Year's was topped off by the first real snowfall of the year. The world is beautiful and wonderful all covered in snow. Hope you all had a wonderful New Year!


Here in the Malone household, we say "Lunar New Year" instead of "Chinese New Year" in deference to all those other Asians who are not, in fact, Chinese. :)

Menu Mates - BBQ Chicken

Whenever I'm planning my meals for the week, I try to plan meals that use similar ingredients. I hate buying special ingredients (not the basic things I always have on hand) and then watching half of it go to waste because I didn't need the whole thing for the one meal I prepared. I also like to prep as much as I can at one time (so, for instance, I'll cut up all the onions I need for all my meals that week) which saves me on prep time each day. Zara is often rather fussy around dinnertime so anything that saves time during mealtime is an all-around good idea.

I'm still trying to perfect this menu planning method, but I thought I might share some of my favorite "menu mates" as I call them.

First up: BBQ chicken.


On Saturday night, it made excellent BBQ chicken tacos.


And on Sunday, it tasted delicious as BBQ chicken pizza.


I got the recipe for the BBQ chicken tacos from this website. Four chicken breasts is enough to last for both meals but I double the BBQ sauce. You could, of course, use store bought BBQ sauce which would probably be cheaper and easier. Since the BBQ sauce in the recipe calls for espresso powder (which I don't use), I modified the recipe. My BBQ sauce recipe looks something like this:

BBQ Sauce:
1 1/2 cup ketchup
1 cup apple cider
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (I don't double the vinegar because it's very strong.)
2 tablespoons brown mustard
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2-3 tablespoons brown sugar

Combine all the ingredients and let simmer in a pot on the stovetop for 7-10 minutes or until it thickens.

For the pizza, I use the pizza dough recipe for my pizza magherita which makes two pizzas. I then top the pizza with BBQ sauce, leftover chicken, mozzarella cheese, diced red onion, and leftover queso fresco or cotija cheese. I bake it at 500 degrees for about 10-12 minutes and then top with chopped cilantro. It makes for two very delicious meals and all my ingredients get used.

Food Candy - Beef and Shrimp Won Tons

I've saved the best food candy for last. This, my friends, is my absolute favorite thing to eat in the whole wide world. At least, it's been at the top of the pack for as long as I can remember. This is the meal that I requested for every birthday dinner growing up (I don't know why my mom would ask what I wanted every year because I always said won tons) and one of the few recipes of my mother's that I still continue to make. (While my mother is an absolutely fantastic cook, the meals we grew up eating are a bit on the heavier side and David and I generally prefer to eat lighter meals.)

Won tons always seemed like a special treat because my mother didn't make them very often because they can be a little time intensive. They certainly aren't hard to make, but stuffing each won ton and then frying them up does take a lot of time, especially if you're making a lot and we always made a lot. Because we ate a lot of them. Seriously. You just can't stop eating them. Here's our cast of characters and the recipe:

Beef and Shrimp Won Tons

1 beaten egg
1 cup finely chopped bok choy or napa cabbage (I actually use closer to 2 cups)
¼ c. finely chopped green onion
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon grated gingerroot ( I find this a little too much and use less)
¼ teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
½ pound ground beef
1 – 4 ½ oz. can of tiny shrimp, drained
40 wonton skins
Oil for deep-fat frying

In large mixing bowl combine egg, bok choy, green onion, soy sauce, gingerroot, sugar, salt, and dash of pepper. Add ground beef and shrimp; mix well. Wrap, about a heaping teaspoon, of meat mixture in a wonton skin. After all of the meat mixture has been wrapped, deep fry a few wontons at a time at 360° or medium high heat until crispy brown. Dip in hot mustard, cocktail sauce, or sweet and sour sauce.

Won ton wrappers can sometimes be tricky to find at some grocery stores but they're often located in the produce section, next to the deli counter, or by the dairy products. They have to be refrigerated, so look for them there. Most packages contain about 40 won ton skins (which is what the recipe calls for) but that will only feed about 3-4 people. Unless I'm just making this for David and myself, I always double the recipe.

Now some of you may remember from my last post that I don't like shrimp. And I still stand by that claim. I don't like shrimp. Not the big kind you spend lots of money on at restaurants. But these are teeny tiny shrimp. You won't even know that they are there. I didn't know there was shrimp in this recipe until I started making it myself. It's just dang tasty and that's all that matters. (The tiny shrimp in a can are found next to the canned tuna.)

So you chop everything up and mix it all together in a bowl. This is before adding the beaten egg, which helps to hold everything together.

Making the meat mixture is the easy part. Now it's time to fold your won tons. I always like to set up a bit of a workshop. I use a plate or cutting board to lay out several wrappers at a time and spoon out the meat onto each wrapper. You also want to have a bowl of water in which to dip your fingers. The water is used to seal the wrappers together so your meat stays nice and snug inside its new home. I also like to keep a towel nearby because your hands will get wet and dirty. You can wrap your won tons any old way you like, but I use three methods.

Method #1: The Envelope

Place your meat in the center of the wrapper and fold one side of the wrapper toward the center of the meat. Dab with water. Fold the opposite side of the wrapper over and seal each corner with water.
Dabbing more water onto the seal, bring another corner of the wrapper to the center. Be careful that there are no gaps in the skin. Seal with more water if necessary.

Finally, bring the fourth corner toward the center. Make sure all ends are properly sealed. (You don't need a lot of water, just a tiny bit to be effective. Using too much water can make the won tons soggy and stick together before frying and are a pain to pick apart.)

Method #2: The Fortune Cookie (okay so I just made that name up....I don't know what else to call it)

This time you want to place your meat closer to one corner than the other. Wet two sides of the wrapper and fold it diagonally to make a triangle.

The wrappers don't make perfect triangles, but just make sure both sides are sealed.

I then bring both ends of the triangle toward the center and seal together with a little dab of water like so. I think these look the best but do take more time than the other two methods. Plus, you have to get just the right amount of meat or they're impossible to seal. The other two methods will allow you to work with a lot or a little meat.

Method #3: Quick and Easy

Dab water over half the won ton wrapper's borders.

Now just fold over and you're done. See? Quick and easy.

Once you've wrapped all your won tons, you're ready to fry them. I layer my won tons on wax paper but you want to be sure to leave room between each won ton because they do tend to stick to each other if they sit for too long and the skins often break or tear as you try to pry two won tons apart.

Heat oil (vegetable or canola) in a large skillet or wok and fry each side for about 1-3 minutes. My mom had an awesome electric wok that you could set to a specific temperature. I've been on the hunt for a good wok myself and despite the fact that I live in Asia, I still haven't found one I like. Go figure.

Getting the temperature right for the oil can be tricky. You don't want it too low or else the won tons will take forever to cook and you'll be there all night. But you also don't want to heat it too high or else the delicate wrappers will brown very fast and the meat won't get completely cooked. I'm constantly adjusting the temperature as I fry the won tons. You'll eventually get a feel for what temperature your stove needs to be on to get nice, golden brown won tons.

Like this. The won ton skin should be golden brown and crispy while the meat inside is thoroughly cooked.

It generally takes me about 15-20 minutes to fry up 40 won tons. I keep them in a warmed oven as I fry up the rest. (You could also boil them, but I love the crispiness of the fried won ton.)

Once they're all fried, serve with sweet and sour sauce (or other dipping sauce of choice) and watch them disappear.

Man, I really want some won tons right now.

Food Candy - Easy Salmon Cakes

I have two more food candy recipes to share. Next up is one of my absolute favorite meals: salmon cakes. Seriously. I'm not lying. I love them. Loooooooove them. And anyone who knows me, knows that I'm not the biggest fan of seafood. Shrimp, lobster, crab, clams, oysters, squid, octopus, and most types of fish are not within my food vocabulary. But a few years ago, I started trying new seafood dishes and have discovered that there are some creatures from the sea that I actually do enjoy like salmon, sea bass, halibut, tuna, and tilapia. I really love this recipe because 1) it's super quick and easy, 2) I almost always have the ingredients on hand, and 3) I find it delightfully delicious.

The recipe I use is from Eating Well's Serves Two cookbook, which is perfect for just David and me. This recipe makes 4 salmons cakes, two apiece. If you want to make 4 servings (or eight salmon cakes), you can use the recipe at EatingWell.com. The ratios are slightly different. So here are our cast of ingredients and the recipe:

Easy Salmon Cakes

3 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/3 cup finely diced celery
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
7 ounces canned salmon, drained
1 egg white
3/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 cup fresh whole-wheat breadcrumbs
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 lemon

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray.
2. Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and celery; cook, stirring, until softened, about 3 minutes. Stir in parsley; remove from the heat.
3. Place salmon in a medium bowl. Flake apart with a fork; remove any bones and skin. Add egg and mustard; mix well. Add the onion mixture, breadcrumbs and pepper; mix well. Shape the mixture into 4 patties, about 2 1/2 inches wide.
4. Heat remaining 1 teaspoon oil in the pan over medium heat. Add 4 patties and cook until the undersides are golden, 2 to 3 minutes. Using a wide spatula, turn them over onto the prepared baking sheet.
5. Bake the salmon cakes until golden on top and heated through, 10 to 15 minutes. Serve salmon cakes with sauce and lemon wedges.

A few notes about the ingredients: I generally use Bumble Bee's 5 ounce can of skinless and boneless pink salmon. The recipe calls for a 7 ounce can but I find the 5 ounce can to be sufficient. Plus, it's so worth your time to buy canned salmon that is already boneless and skinless because it takes forever to pick all the tiny bones out of the other ones. Also, for a cup of fresh breadcrumbs, I generally use two slices of whole-wheat bread. I discard the crusts and pulse the bread in my food processor to get fine breadcrumbs. I know some people complained of the salmon cakes being a little on the dry side and recommend using less than the stated amount of breadcrumbs, but I find the amount to be just right. (But I think I like drier fish than most people.)

After all the ingredients are mixed, you form four salmon cakes on a skillet set at medium heat. After baking just one side, you transfer the salmon cakes to a pan, baked side up, and stick it in the oven for 10 minutes.

Within half an hour, you're ready to eat your salmon cakes. Eating Well says you should serve them with a creamy dill sauce (the recipe is on their website) but we only use fresh lemon juice and I find that that is plenty delicious. I often serve them with rosemary roasted potatoes. Mmmm. So delicious. Even if you don't like seafood or don't know how to cook fish, you should try this recipe. It's very easy and hard to mess up. And I'm not lying when I say it's really good. So good, you'll forget that you're eating salmon.

Food Candy: Pizza Magherita

You can't live in Italy for four months without coming away with an almost sacred reverence for the true Italian pizza with it's delicately thin crust and fresh mozarella. I'd never found a pizza (either homemade or restaurant-produced) that came close to the wonder of a real pizza magherita, until my sister (my recipe provider) sent me Cook's Illustrated's "Italian Favorites" collection. This pizza has quickly become one of David and my favorite meals. So quick, simple, and delicious. Almost, almost as good as the real thing. So it must be shared.

Pizza Dough

1 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
1 cup water, room temperature
1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
2 teaspoons sugar

In a liquid measuring cup, whisk yeast into water to dissolve. In food processor fitted with metal blade, process flours, salt, and sugar until combined, about 5 seconds. With machine running, slowly add liquid through feed tube; continue to process until dough forms satiny, sticky ball that clears sides of workbowl, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. (Add more dough or water as needed.) Divide dough in half and shape into two smooth, tight balls. Place on floured counter or baking sheet, cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

Here's my dough after rising for about 4 hours. I think the mixture of regular flour and cake flour really allows the dough to retain it's delicate silkiness without becoming too heavy.

Pizza Topping

1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes (I prefer Muir Glen organic tomatoes)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 small garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
Table salt
8 ounces fresh mozzarella, cut into 1-inch chunks
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

In clean bowl of food processor, process tomatoes until crushed, 2 or 3 one-second pulses. Transfer tomatoes to a fine-mesh strainer set over bowl and let drain at least 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to release liquids. Just before shaping pizza rounds, combine drained tomatoes, sugar, garlic, some of the basil, and 1/4 teaspoons salt into bowl.

Here are my tomatoes draining into a bowl. Straining the tomatoes helps prevent the topping from becoming too liquidy and making the crust too soggy, especially in the center. Could this topping be any easier? It's awesome.

Okay, so now we're ready to shape the dough and get to cooking. Set your pizza stone in the oven and preheat the oven to 500 degrees. (It takes my oven about 15 minutes to get hot enough.) Dust dough liberally with flour and transfer balls to well-floured work surface. Press one ball into 8-inch disk. Using flattened palms, gently stretch disk into a 12-inch circle, working along outer edge. (I often use a rolling pin as well.) When the oven is hot enough, remove the pizza stone and place the dough onto the stone. (This is made significantly easier if you have a pizza peel, but you can make do without it too.) Spread a thin layer of half of the topping onto the dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Put in the oven and bake for about 5 minutes. Remove the pizza from the oven and top pizza with half of the cheese chunks, spaced evenly apart. Return pizza to the oven and continue cooking for another 4-5 minutes, until the cheese is melted and started to bubble.

Here's all my ingredients getting ready for the pizza making.

When the pizza is done, transfer to a cutting board, sprinkle with fresh basil and 1 teaspoon of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Slice and serve immediately. Repeat with the second pizza.

Doesn't it look fantastic? And it's so quick and easy too, especially if you make the dough in the morning and it's already risen and ready to go when you get home from work.

Here's David all excited for his first bite of pizza. (Excuse his cheesy face....he likes to be silly.) Despite its thin crust, the pizza is quite filling. David and I generally only eat one pizza between the two of us (unless we're feeling especially hungry) and save the second one to make for lunch (or dinner) the next day. Two pizzas is more than adequate to feed 2 adults and some children.

Enjoy!

Food Candy: Chicken Tikka Masala and Naan Bread

I already posted the recipe for chicken tikka masala before but it bears repeating because we love it that much. I just wish it weren't so time consuming, otherwise I'd make it every week.

Doesn't it look absolutely delicious? Yes, yes it does. And it is. It's the best kind of food candy there is. Flavorful, comforting and buttery. It just melts in your mouth.

The best part is the chicken because even though it gets the nice, crispy outer skin, it's still moist and delicious inside. You won't be sorry if you spend the time to make the recipe.

Now, on to the second best part: my sister sent me a naan bread recipe (also from Cook's Illustrated) that beats all the other naan bread recipes I've tried before.

2 ½ cups bread flour, plus extra as needed
¼ cup whole wheat flour, shifted
1 package instant yeast (2 ¼ teaspoons)
2 teaspoons sugar
Salt
1 cup water, at room temperature
¼ cup plain yogurt
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus extra for the bowl
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1. Combine the flours, yeast, sugar, and 1 ½ teaspoons salt in the bowl of a standing mixer and mix with paddle attachment until blended, about 15 seconds. Add the water, yogurt, and olive oil and mix on low speed until a shaggy dough forms, about 30 seconds.
2. Replace the paddle with the dough hook and knead the dough on medium speed until smooth and glossy, about 8 minutes, adding additional flour in 1-tablespoon increments, allowing 20 seconds between each addition as needed for the dough to clear the sides of the bowl, but stick to the very bottom. Transfer the dough to a clean work surface and lightly knead by hand for 1 minute.


3. Shape the dough into a large ball, transfer to a large, lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and place in a draft-free spot until the dough has doubled in size, 45 minutes to 1 hour. (At this point, the dough can be punched down, wrapped tightly in a plastic wrap, and refrigerated for up to 2 days).
4. Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface, cut into 8 equal portions, and roll each portion into a round ball. Set the balls aside on the counter or baking sheet, and let rest for 10 minutes.
5. Working with 1 ball of dough at a time, lay on lightly floured work surface and roll into a 6-inch circle using a rolling pin (sprinkle with flour if dough is sticky). Set the rounds aside on the floured counter or baking sheet.
6. Heat a heavy 12-inch skillet over medium high heat until hot, 5 minutes (if using lighter pan, heat for only 2-3 minutes). Working with one piece of dough at a time, lift the dough and gently stretch about 1 inch larger, and lay it on the skillet. Cook until small bubbles appear the surface of the dough, about 30 seconds. Flip the bread and continue to cook until the bottom is speckled and deep golden brown in spots, about 2 minutes. Flip the bread again and cook until bottom is speckled and deep golden brown in spots, 1-2 minutes longer.


7. Transfer the bread to a wire rack, brush lightly with butter, season with salt and let cool for about 5 minutes. (I usually don’t use the butter and salt unless I am serving it immediately and depending on how I am using it.) Repeat with the remaining dough rounds. Wrap the bread loosely in a clean kitchen towel and serve immediately. (The bread can be kept in an airtight container and stored at room temperature for 2-3 days. Reheat in microwave or in 300 degree oven until warm).

In exchange for teaching my friend how to make chicken tikka masala, she gave me a jar of ghee, which is absolutely delicious on naan bread.

It also makes for great left-overs. Just saying.

Chicken Tikka Masala

About a year ago, I was newly married, living in a new city and really, REALLY craving some good Indian food. D.C. had several excellent Indian restaurants, but I didn't have much hope that Honolulu would have anything near as good. So I decided that it was time to learn how to cook Indian food myself and I started with my favorite Indian dish--chicken tikka masala.

I scoured the internet for different recipes, poring over which recipes seemed the most authentic, had the clearest instructions and the easiest preparation. I finally determined that Cook's Illustrated had the best recipe potential and set off to gather the ingredients to make the dish myself. I didn't know it at the time, since I had easily accessed [and luckily printed off] the recipe, but Cook's Illustrated recipes are generally blocked if you don't have a paid membership to their website and/or magazine.

My first attempt produced admirable results, but over time (and countless preparations of this dish which both David and I LOVE), this has become one of my absolute most foolproof and delicious meals. I've made it for several friends to rave reviews and it always comes out tasting delicious. I've passed this recipe onto several people and I know several others who have expressed interest in it, so I thought I'd put it up here for all the world [okay, all 10 people who read this blog] to see.

Without further ado, the recipe:

Chicken Tikka Masala
by Cook’s Illustrated 9/2007

Serves 4

Chicken Tikka
½ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon ground coriander
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
2 pounds (4 breasts) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger (or ½ teaspoon ground ginger)

Masala Sauce
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium onion, finely diced
2 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
1 fresh Serrano chile, minced with ribs and seeds removed
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon garam masala*
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
2 teaspoons sugar
½ teaspoon salt
2/3 cup heavy cream
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves

1.) For the chicken: Combine cumin, coriander, cayenne, and salt in small bowl. Sprinkle both sides of chicken with spice mixture, pressing gently so mixture adheres. Place chicken on plate, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 to 60 minutes. In large bowl, whisk together yogurt, oil, garlic, and ginger; set aside.

2.) For the sauce: Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat until shimmering. Add onion and cook, stirring frequently, until light golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Add garlic, ginger, tomato paste, and garam masala; cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Add crushed tomatoes, sugar, and salt; bring to boil. Reduce head to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in cream and return to simmer. Remove pan from heat and cover to keep warm.

3.) While sauce simmers, adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat broiler. Using tongs, dip chicken into yogurt mixture and arrange on wire rack set in foil-lined rimmed baking sheet or broiler pan. Discard excess yogurt mixture. Broil chicken until thickest parts register 160 degrees on instant-read thermometer and exterior is lightly charred in spots, 10 to 18 minutes, flipping chicken halfway through cooking.

4.) Let chicken rest 5 minutes, then cut into 1-inch chunks and stir into warm sauce (do not simmer chicken in sauce). Stir in cilantro, adjust seasoning with salt, and serve with basmati rice and naan bread.

* Garam masala is a mixture of various spices. McCormick sells the mixture in the spice aisle. You can make your own mixture by combining 2 teaspoons ground coriander, ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom (which is an expensive spice), ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon, and ½ teaspoon ground black pepper.


A few personal notes:

When making this for more than just David and I, I generally use 5 chicken breasts instead of just four. It does, of course, reduce the amount of sauce overall, but ensures that everyone will get plenty of the delicious chicken. The recipe also recommends the use of whole-milk yogurt, but I always use non-fat (being the only kind I can find) and the meat always comes out tasting moist and delicious. (It also makes for great leftovers as the chicken reheats very nicely.)

Not being a fan of spicy (as in hot) foods, I used to eliminate the serrano chile. But now I always include either a serrano or Anaheim chile (being milder chiles) because I think it adds just a little extra spice and depth of flavor. Just be careful when buying chiles that you don't buy a jalapeno on accident like I did one time. Not only was the masala sauce very spicy but my fingertips burned for days from cutting the jalapeno. (Why must all chiles look alike?)

Be warned that this recipe is very time consuming but VERY much worth all the effort. The actual cooking does not take a great deal of time, but the prep does because you do need to cut and chop a lot of components. I do all my prep work first and then bang out the chicken and sauce in about 30 minutes. (But that is 30 minutes of constant cooking. You can't just leave the pot and come back to it. It's a progressive dance of adding new elements to the sauce, letting it simmer, stirring, and adding more.) Generally, I give myself at least an hour and half to make this dish, including the basmati rice. The naan bread takes longer because you need to let it rise for at least two hours (but of course, you don't have to stand around watching the bread rise).

I have a fairly decent naan bread recipe, but it never meets my expectations of the buttery, mouth-wateringly delicious stuff you can get from a real Indian restaurant. But then again, I don't have a clay oven, so I'll never be able to produce anything near as good. But if anyone has a good naan recipe or any other delicious Indian recipes, I'd love to try them out. While I love chicken tikka masala, I think I'm ready to branch out and try some new Indian recipes.

Because while Honolulu might not have had as good of Indian restaurant as D.C., at least they had some. I can't say the same for Korea.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

In honor of the completion of my root canal procedure (I had my permanent crown fitted and cemented today, hooray!) I bring you the ooey gooey goodness of these chocolate peanut butter cupcakes. Because nothing screams root canal better than a lot of sugar.

I snagged the recipe off of Bakerella's blog. She, in turn, snagged the recipe from another site. (Links to recipes are inside the comments. My computer is acting funky today. Sorry.) It's meant to be a regular two layer cake recipe with a dark chocolate ganache, but I decided to make cupcakes instead.

One thing about this recipe that I really liked was how easy it was. Plus, I liked that it used a regular cake mix as its foundation. I've made a lot of cakes from scratch and I'm still not sure that they're any better than cakes from a box.

But maybe I just haven't found the right cake recipe yet.

One thing I have discovered is that a cake recipe should always include either buttermilk or sour cream. Either of these ingredients will make your cake moist and delicious. And don't worry about buying actual buttermilk. You can make your own by pouring in one tablespoon of lemon juice into a one cup measure and then filling the rest of the cup with whatever milk you have on hand. If you let it sit for 5 minutes, it turns into a very close approximation of buttermilk.

There are a lot of peanut butter cups used in this recipe. Not only did I put chopped peanut butter cups on top of the ganache, but there's also two cups of peanut butter cups in the batter itself. Talk about decadent. Peanut butter and chocolate is such a heavenly combination.

In addition to my 2 dozen cupcakes, I also make this little mini-cake for my friend Gaby whose birthday was last Wednesday. The chocolate ganache did start to melt rather quickly (it's best to throw the cupcakes in the refrigerator for an hour to harden the chocolate) but it still turned out pretty well, if only slightly lopsided. I'm working on the pretty part still.

But they still tasted divine.

The Most Delicious Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever!

I'm feeling rather magnanimous today so I'm going to share my absolute favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe with my loyal blog readers. Only they're not just chocolate chip cookies. They're so much more. And since a good number of you lived at the Enclave during our BYU days, I'm going to let you in on another secret. I got this recipe from none other than the Culter brothers--Quinn and Drew. In fact, I call them Cutler cookies for lack of a better name since "awesome chocolate chip toffee oatmeal cookies" is quite a mouthful and I'd rather that my mouth were full of these delicious morsels.

Another secret? I LOVE cookies. I used to think that cake was my favorite thing ever, but I've recently determined that cookies quite literally take the cake (pun intended.....another sad example of how David has rubbed off on me). So without further ado, here's the recipe:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups oatmeal, powdered
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups flour
12 oz. chocolate chips (See below)

Preheat oven to 400. Cream butter and sugar. Blend eggs. Add powdered oatmeal and mix. Sift together salt, baking powder, soda, vanilla and flour. Add in batches to creamed ingredients. Batter will be very stiff—you might need to use a spoon or your hands. Mix in chips. Place gold-ball sized pieces of dought 2” apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Do not mash flat. Bake 8 minutes

While the sugars, butter, and eggs are blending up in my Kitchenaid mixer, I powder the 2 cups of oatmeal. I use my food processor for this, but you can use a blender if you don't own a food processor. For the record, I love my food processor. It was my Christmas present from David. He felt a little guilty buying me a kitchen appliance as a gift, but I totally loved it. I love kitchen gadgets. Now, I just need a new blender. Anyway, back to the powdered oatmeal. You don't necessarily have to powder the oatmeal, you could just pour it in as is, but I like that the powder makes the oatmeal less obvious (and less chewy) and helps cut down on the need for more flour.

Once all the ingredients have been mixed together, you should have a nice stiff dough. I'll let you in on another secret. I've discovered that any baked good is only as good as the chocolate you put in it. The better the chocolate, the better the cookie--or brownie, or cake or frosting--will taste. You can use regular old chocolate chips and these cookies will still taste just fine, but I prefer to use a special chocolate bar for these cookies. It adds something extra double special.

I use Hersey's Symphony bars with toffee and almonds bits. The tiny bits of toffee and almonds really add something extra to the cookies themselves and the chocolate is very rich and delicious. Far better than some run-of-the-mill semi-sweet chocolate chip. I chop up between one to two Symphony bars (depending on size) or whatever other quality chocolate I have and dump that into the dough, like so.

And because I like toffee so much, I often pour in some extra heapings of Heath's toffee bits.

It adds some more crunch and bite to the cookies. Trust me, it's worth it.

Mix everything up real good.

Now, another word of advice when baking, especially cookies: use parchment paper. The parchment paper prevents the need of using Pam or other sprays to prevent your cookies from sticking to the cookie sheet, it reduces the mess left on the cookie sheet after baking and helps keep your cookie from burning on the bottom. It's an all-around good idea.

I like to put big globs of dough on the cookie sheet because I like my cookies to come out fat and delicious. When the Cutlers made these cookies, they were always big and round and never flattened out. I think they forgot to put in the baking powder/baking soda. I've never figured out why my cookies turn out so differently than the cookies they used to always make for open houses....

....but either way, after 8 minutes, they come out golden and absolutely delicious. I promise. These cookies will ruin all other chocolate chip cookies for you.

They're just that good.