That's no moon... And by moon I mean cookie.

I’m usually a bit picky when it comes to cookies. I think I’ve established this in the past, but that doesn’t make me want to repeat it any less: Chocolate chip is the way to go. I don’t know what odd devil possessed me this time–maybe some kind of herbaceous, vegetable based, more health conscience devil. I had all this rhubarb that I had to use… but I wanted cookies. Clearly the only thing to do was to combine them. Hey, now, you promised not to get mad.

Fortunately, the chunks of nuts, dried cranberries, and bits of rhubarb came together surprisingly well. The nutmeg in the mixture was a pretty good call too, that added some depth that I wasn’t expecting. I’d definitely make these again, but perhaps with a bit of oatmeal. They didn’t quite satisfy my need for regular cookies though. Don’t expect them to replace a chocolate chip cookie in my book. It might be cool like to experiment with turning these into some kind of healthy breakfast cookie. Maybe cut down on the sugar, use whole wheat flour, add that oatmeal…

I sense something; a presence I've not felt since... since I had rhubarb and strawberry jam.

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
2. In a large mixing bowl beat the butter, sugar, eggs, milk, nutmeg, and vanilla until smooth.
3. In another mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt).
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet in thirds and mix well. Stir in rhubarb, cranberries, and nuts.
5. Spoon out 2 tablespoons or less of dough per cookie onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until light golden brown. Allow the cookies to cool on the sheet for a couple of minutes rather than moving them immediately to a cooling rack to encourage chewiness.

Well actually, there are plenty of choices: cage-free, pasteurized, organic, etc. But many people don’t pay attention to what they buy. I’ve been a fan of the free range ones, but I used to just buy whatever was cheap. I recently came into a great source for free range chicken and duck eggs. Someone I know raises chickens and ducks (and turkeys–but not for their eggs). I’m a sucker for trying new things so I had to get my hands on some duck eggs. I will be remaking a few egg recipes with the duck eggs to see how it contrasts with the standard chicken egg. I’ve been told that in baked goods, they rise much better than chicken eggs. I still haven’t baked with them, but I’ll keep you posted.

I like easy dinners.

But for a first trial, I just wanted to try them straight up. Just fried in a pan and covered for a moment to help set the yolk a bit. I made a meal out of it be roasting some asparagus and tomatoes while the eggs cooked.

So how were the duck eggs? They were good. I was somehow expecting a bigger difference though. They were a bit larger than chicken eggs. The taste was very similar, but somehow a bit more, um, eggy. Overall I’d say that they had a richer taste; the white seemed to set up faster when it cooked and the yolk was definitely stronger in flavor.

I’m not sure what to really write about the recipe here as this was more an experiment about trying new eggs, but here is a rough break down of how the cooking took place. The meal itself was great though: simple and straightforward. Roasting vegetables is almost mindlessly easy and it’s always tasty.

I know a guy. He gets me eggs. He is the egg man. I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob g'goo goo g'joob.

Ingredients
No proportions here, just grab what you want to eat and cook it. I had some really good, fresh vegetables, so I didn’t even use spices beyond a bit of salt and pepper.
Asparagus (ends broken off or trimmed)
Tomatoes (cut in half, along the equator)
Onion (Cut into wedges)
Duck eggs (feel free to use chicken)
Olive Oil and/or butter
Salt & Pepper

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Put the asparagus, onions, and tomatoes (cut side up) into a baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil, season lightly with salt and pepper.
3. Bake in oven for 20-25 minutes, until the asparagus is tender.
4. While the vegetables are cooking, heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat until hot. Add a tiny slick of oil or butter then crack as many eggs as you are going to eat into the pan. You may have to use a spatula to keep the eggs from running together. Let them sizzle and cook for a few minutes until it reaches the level of doneness that you enjoy. I covered the skillet for a bit to cook the yolks a bit (this is why they look a bit cloudy).

Sliders are not small burgers. No matter how much you want them to be a cute, miniaturized version of a burger, they are actually very different. Burgers, by their cooking method, ingredients, size, preparation, and taste have very little in common with sliders. Next time you go to a Krystal or White Castle watch how they make their signature sandwiches. Little frozen squares of meat are cooked on a bed of onions. The meat is practically steamed by the onions. The bread is even put on top of the meat while they are still on the griddle to absorb some of that oniony flavor. That. Is. A. Slider.

I know these don't look as awesome as burgers do, but really, have you ever seen a slider that looked awesome?

I won’t hold you to the same methods and low quality of the major chains, but I just want to emphasize that a slider is NOT gourmet. You can’t get all fancy pants with this and still call it a slider. Those “Kobe beef sliders” with French Dijon mustard you see in more upscale restaurants are some damn tasty small burgers–but sliders they are not.

OK. Rant over. Thanks for your patience.

So, how do I suggest we make these? Let’s keep it simple. Ground beef, preferably 80/20. Onions, diced. Salt and pepper. And those little rolls. That’s about all you need.

Stack the bread on top of these and let them cook.

I looked around the internet for some techniques, but didn’t find anything that quite hit the nail on the head. I ended up emulating the same methods used in the fast food restaurants, but on my cast iron skillet because I don’t have a griddle. Most online recipes also omit the five holes in the meat even though it’s very easy to do and allows the patty to cook faster and the steam to rise though it. The chowhound community did have some good advice that I tried to follow.

Ingredients
Makes 8 sliders.
You will also need something to poke some holes in the meat. I have found that a straw or the large end of a chopstick works well.
1 diced onion
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1 pound ground chuck
8 small buns or rolls, no bigger than 3 inches across
about 1 tbsp vegetable oil (for cooking)

Preparation
1. In a large mixing bowl, break apart the ground beef and season with the salt and pepper.
2. On a sheet of parchment paper, use a rolling pin to roll the meat out into a large rectangle, about 4 1/2 inches by 9 inches. Use a knife (or pizza cutter) to cut the meat into four quarters and once down its length. You are aiming for eight 2 1/4 inch patties. Use the thick end of a chopstick to poke 5 holes into the patties (match the 5-pattern on a die). If the meat ever becomes too soft to handle, cover with plastic wrap and freeze on a sheet pan for about 10-15 minutes. I ended up having to do this twice. Freeze the meat until you are ready to cook.

As for the actual cooking technique, it basically came down to this:

1. Put your chopped onions on a griddle or cast iron skillet with a bit of oil over medium to medium-high heat and toss them around once. Spread them in an even layer.
2. Top the chopped onion with the frozen ground beef squares.
3. Top the beef with the bottom half of the bun (cut side on the meat). Then put the top half on top of that (cut side down again). Cook for a few minutes. This assembly is key for the assembly-line origin of the slider.
4. When the meat is cooked, slide the spatula under the entire stack holding the top bun to keep the stack steady. Then take the top half of the bun, place it under the spatula, and slide the spatula out from the now assembled slider. Flip the slider over and you should have the layers perfect: bun, onions, meat, bun.

Congratulations, you just made a slider, not a burger. Go open a beer and eat several.

A lot of Kit Kats, a lot of flavors

Unfortunately, on average, the flavors were, well, “interesting”. Some were pretty good. Even the unusual ones were not awful. But I still wouldn’t really wish the Soy Sauce flavor on many people (unless you are a fan of white chocolate and soy sauce, then don’t let me stop you). It wasn’t that many of these were bad, it’s more that they tasted very sweet–cloyingly sweet, even. I’m a huge fan of dark chocolate, so getting very sweet, very milky chocolate or white chocolate was less than ideal for me. But they were definitely interesting to try.

Frambroise (frambroise) flavored Kit Kats

Some of my friends were apprehensive about the flavors, but eventually they all came around and had some of each. Their reactions–less than enthusiastic. Let’s just say that I don’t think most of these will catch on very well in the US market. The cheesecake and fruit ones were the favorites. (It’s not a worry anyway, in the US, Kit Kats are made by Hershey whereas in the rest of the world Nestlé is the manufacturer. Which is a shame, because the regular Nestlé ones, IMHO, are better.)

Wikipedia has a big list of flavors here.

Wasabit Kit Kats

Soy Sauce Kit Kats

I had the wonderful opportunity to dine at this Michelin rated restaurant courtesy of Tsumori-san. Simply put, this meal was fantastic. ASO is what I’d classify as modern Italian cuisine with its blends of recent advances in food science (stable foams and emulsions) and classically themed dishes to create novel and delicious meals. They are serious about making excellent food, but don’t take themselves so seriously that they aren’t willing to have a bit of fun. The combination of plating foods in interesting ways and involving the diner with the eating experience helps keep the atmosphere convivial and relaxed while still keeping a strong focus on the food.

Rather than detail every course, I’ll go over a few of the fun and interesting parts of the meal. The meal was set as an eight course menu with a wine pairing for each course. The cheese course isn’t listed on the menu.

Menu from Ristorante ASO in Tokyo, Japan.

Admittedly there was more than one instance where the waiter had to explain how the meal was intended to be eaten as the presentation could appear intimidating at first. As the first course was brought out to the table, I knew I was in for a treat and that the chef wanted to set some expectations for the coming meal. The first course was brought out with an inverted shot glass on the plate. On the top (the bottom of the glass, technically) were several tips of asparagus. Underneath the shot glass was a small salad of shaved asparagus. Two of the three promised asparagus preparations were already present, what was the third? I finished the asparagus tips and set my shot glass right-side up to begin the salad. No sooner than my glass was inverted, a waiter filled the glass with a refreshing asparagus soup. Each preparation was simple and straightforward with clear, pleasing flavor. The asparagus was front and center in each iteration, with other more subtle flavors taking minor roles. An exceedingly simple premise that I’m sure took quite a bit of patience and practice to develop and prepare.

Some assembly required.

In the photo above you can see a bit of the involvement needed on the diner’s part that I mentioned earlier. This part of the meal was a pasta dish, but the plate of seafood set in front of me left me perplexed. Notice that insulated glass container in the top right of the photo? That’s the pasta. Each diner who ordered the same dish combined the two together at the table. Involving the diners on a level more than just eating made us experience the food in other ways. How does the food combine? Does the food become more than the sum of the parts once combined? Would they have been appreciated as much separately? Was there a culinary reason as to the separate preparation? As you can see, many thoughts passed through my mind as I enjoyed the meal. Also, notice the foam on the top of the pasta–that dissolved into the dish to become a sauce.

Mini food in the top left, actual portions in the bottom right.

Here is a prime example of the playfulness of the chef. When the meat course was brought to our tables, some of us were presented with miniaturized version of the meal! The staff quickly replaced the plates of tiny food with the full sized portions after the joke became apparent, but it was fun to see the chef keep humor in the meal as well. It makes me appreciate one of my continuing driving forces in cooking: To have a fun time with friends. Food isn’t just eating, it’s the experience of sharing a good meal with good people and enjoying oneself.

I’ll cut to the desserts now so I don’t get too long winded, but I’ll leave you with a few final thoughts at the end.

Orbiting Chocolate Cake

I’m a sucker for chocolate cake, so I had to order it for dessert. After such a meal, I knew that the pastry chef had to have his act together. But I wasn’t expecting this! It looks almost planetary; I expected other bits of chocolate to be orbiting it. I could hardly bring myself to destroy it–OK, after the first bite, I fairly easily destroyed it. It was even more delicious than it was beautifully presented. Different intensities of chocolate played off of each other, from the smooth melting bits of solid chocolate that were the orbits paths, to the gelato that was orbiting the outside, to the cake itself at the center.

Simple and good.

This dessert looked wonderful in its simplicity. I’m a huge fan of the chocolate sculpture I ate, but simplicity is too often overlooked. Not in this dessert. Gelato. On ice. And salt. Three kinds of salt, no less. We were all amused by the presentation of the large block of clear ice but, frankly, what better way to keep ice cream chilled! The salt was there to play off of the sweetness of the dish as it can intensify and enhance flavors.

I’ve often thought that overly complicated presentations are interesting but can quickly become tiring. I’m a big proponent of simple meals that are excellently prepared. I too often have had a poorly cooked steak that would otherwise lack flavors if it had not been slathered in some kind of sauce. It is rare to find an excellently prepared steak with fantastic taste alone (unless you are in Argentina). The chef here kept it light and playful. His skill and uniqueness was not overlooked, but he knew when to indulge and when to keep things minimalistic. This balance of letting good food stand on its own and alternatively be enhanced by the chef’s preparations made for one of the best dining experiences I have had.

A little arrangement brought out to the tables with coffee after the meal.

Final thoughts:

Bacon and Brussels sprouts! Awesome!

You gotta be resourceful in a kitchen this size.

Even while in France, I couldn’t help myself but to make a few meals for some friends. In fact, we were asked to bring food to a couple parties. I couldn’t resist the urge to make a bunch of awesome quesadilla’s to blow some French people’s minds. Tex-Mex food isn’t quite common over there. Needless to say, they were well received. But I was in France, so I definitely did sample the local food (great steak, awesome wine, terrific cheeses).

So, enjoy the food related photos and I’ll see you here again with some recipes next time!

Of course, I had to go to l’as du falafel again.

can I haz falafel

I did have a food revelation thanks to my brother: fromage blanc is amazing. I can’t seem to find it here in Raleigh though, which is unfortunate. It’s such a simple pleasure, it’s not even fancy. Just a mild cheesy, yogurty, curdy goodness. Imagine a cross between Greek yogurt and ricotta. I would just spread it on some fresh baguette and call it breakfast or a mid day snack. I did some research back in the US for the English name for it and they all sound like names of characters in Lord of the Rings or something: Topfen, Quark, Tvorog, or Kaas. Try to tell me that I am wrong.

Dinner in Nantes (top), Le Labo bar in Nantes (bottom left), Breakfast (bottom right).

The meals in France were always stellar. Above you can see a seared goat cheese salad with prosciutto and melon eaten at Millesime 68 in Nantes. Next to it is beef and potatoes gratin. I forget what it was actually called, but the sauce was very rich meaty.

After dinner, I stopped by a bar called Le Labo. Their thing is to play up the whole “laboratory” atomosphere. Their drinks are served in lab flasks or beakers and the drinks list is organized into things like “Cryogenics” and “Erlenmeyers.” If that’s not your thing, they also double as a pretty impressive rum bar with a long and varied list of rums to choose from. (Photo of Menu here, and here.)

Bread is still amazing in France. That last photo was basically my breakfast every morning there. I devoured a baguette and some kind of croissant, pain au chocolat, or pastry. I wish I could still have baguette and fromage blanc here in Raleigh…

Petanque with a group of friends at the canal (top), Poached egg with asparagus (bottom left), English beer in France (bottom center), The Black Lips, an Atlanta, GA band playing in Paris (bottom right).

Other interesting revelations:
-Playing petanque with a group of friends by the canal is a great way to spend an afternoon. Though finding out which brother is winning can be tough.
-Speaking of good meals, the poached egg with asparagus was the appetizer and beginning of a great meal at Café Panique. Unfortunately, I don’t have any other photos, so I’ll just move on.
-Potato chips come in different flavors than over here too. Many were very meat-centric like Rotisserie Chicken or Chorizo.
-I didn’t go out to eat as much this time, so no serious restaurant reviews like last year. I mostly made simple dinners with my brother or bummed around the city. It was good just to relax and not take much seriously for a while.
-I managed to find decent English beer, but it just wasn’t the same in France. It’ll hold me over until I go back to England though.
-Speaking of traveling to one country to see something from another: I saw the Black Lips in Paris. I lived in Atlanta for five years and never saw them in their home town, but I travel to Paris and see them there… go figure. Great show though.

I spent quite a bit of time traveling recently and had the opportunity to sample quite a bit of awesome food. My first major trip found me exploring Japan. Most of the food I had was new and unusual (to me), but all of it was good.

Japan was crazy. Crazy in that great, really interesting, and very fun kind of way. Every experience was amazing and taught me a lot. I did have one small problem: I didn’t speak a word of Japanese. Ordering food wasn’t always the easiest thing to do; I butchered the Japanese language each time I tried to read from my guide book. Fortunately, many Japanese restaurants have models of the food in the front windows. You can just point to a plate and rub your belly while chomping your teeth. They either bring your food or laugh at you.

Unfortunately, the models of the food didn’t always help me really know what I was eating. And when restaurants did have English menus, many were badly translated or had no descriptions. (Apparently one of my desserts was “bean”. I had no idea what to expect, but I got a warm, sweet, bean paste with a single, odd, tiny fruit in it.) I’m an adventurous eater who isn’t picky, so I took it all in stride.

Tempura snack, soda machine, sushi, Suntory time (clockwise)

The top left of the above photo is a great snack of tempura that I had one afternoon. I bought these in the food area of one of the giant department stores in Ginza, Tokyo. It helped keep the hunger at bay until I went to a sushi bar for dinner.

Next to it is one of the many soda machines that were scattered about the city. Boss and Pocari Sweat seemed to be popular drinks. Unfortunately, I can’t report on the taste as I never tried them. I suppose Tommy Lee Jones liked to advertize for Boss. It seemed odd seeing his face plastered around.

Bottom left is a great sushi breakfast I had on my first morning in Tokyo. I woke up pretty early and made my way over to the fish market. After taking in the sights there (lots and lots and lots of seafood, most of which I would have no idea how to cook) I found a little sushi place and did my best to order something tasty. I think I did just fine.

And of course, I couldn’t pass up on a photo of Suntory Whisky–”For relaxing times, make it Suntory time.” All I knew about Suntory was a whisky from Lost in Translation. Apparently Suntory is a huge company. I found their brand on everything from snacks to bottled soft drinks.

Okonomiyaki, uncooked (top left), cooked (top right) and a delicious meal in Japan (bottom)

One fun meal I had was a sort of Japanese pancake called Okonomiyaki. It was served in a kind of DIY restaurant. I was seated at a small table with a griddle in the center and given a menu. I looked through and choose one of the recommended combinations: a mixture including eggs, cabbage, green onion, and bacon, among other things. The menu was whisked away and the griddle turned on as green tea was served. Soon after, a bowl containing the ingredients was brought out and laid in front of me with some spatulas, a jar of oil, and some jars of spices and sauces. I smiled at her. She smiled at me. I smiled again and shrugged.

She quickly understood that I had no clue what I was doing. After some interesting miming, I finally understood that she wanted me to dump all the ingredients onto the skillet. Once I made a mess of dumping everything into a pile, she held up four fingers and said “Four minutes,” then held her hands together horizontally in front of her and made a big deal about turning them over and repeated, “Four minutes.”

I smiled and repeated the gestures. That much I could figure out, so I ordered a beer and patiently waited about four minutes, then flipped the food and waited four more minutes.

Unfortunately, leaving me alone such a long time without assistance may not have been in her best interest. I got confused again and almost botched the whole thing. In my defense, five minutes on your own with nothing to do when you are hungry feels like an eternity. I almost started slathering sauce all over the thing and was ready to awkwardly eat it. I was in the process of holding my chopsticks looking at the mound of food trying to figure out a plan of attack. Do I pick the whole thing up? Do I use the side of my chopstick to break it into smaller pieces?

Fortunately, the waitress must have known I was about to do something silly, as she came by and used the spatula to cut it into four, smashed the quarters down a bit and put some sauce over the top. She let it cook a bit more then cut it into bit sized chunks with the two spatulas (and the whole time I figured I was going to have to do surgery with the chopsticks!). It was pretty awesome though, a great low cost lunch.

Yudofu (boiled tofu) in Kyoto, Night shot of Tokyo, Omikuji (bad luck fortunes, tied and left at the temple) (bottom left), Awamori bar menu (bottom right)

I had a little stay in Kyoto and got to try yudofu, which is basically boiled tofu. It’s actually much better than it sounds. The tofu is boiled/simmered in a pot and presented with various dipping sauces. Admittedly, it wasn’t the most flavor packed meal I had, but it was strangely appealing.

The photo at the bottom right is from the menu of a bar called Awamori in Ginza, Tokyo. This place was actually quite hard to find. Ginza is a fairly well-to-do area and Awamori was basically a dive bar for the area. It was great. All the menus were hand drawn and peiced togeter. Their specialty drinks were awamori, of all things. My father and I were the only gaijin in the bar, but after a few rounds, we seemed right at home. Check out the rest of the photos of the menu on the flickr page. Great stuff.

This could belong to you.

You will need:

• 100g (3/4 of a cup) of shredded Parmesan
• Two eggplants
• A pack of cherry tomatoes
• A soup spoonful of flour
• A small spoonful of sugar
• Olive oil
• Salt
• A small clove of garlic

Now go wash your hands, and let’s begin.

1) First up, the eggplant.  You’ll be using the oven, so preheat it to 350°F (180° C ). Cut the eggplants lengthwise.  Place them fleshy-side up on a cookie sheet or pan.  Here, we are going to dress them up with some salt and oil, but wait, because there is a problem. The oil is just going run off the eggplant and onto the pan.  This is why you’ll take your knife and cut grooves into the eggplant in a grid-like pattern.  Just like in the photo. Now, you put the salt and a generous amount of oil on it.  Good.  Ok, into the oven they go for 35 minutes.  35 minutes later, you will take them out, and scrape out their insides with a spoon into a bowl.  Then you’ll finely mince a clove of garlic, and add it to the eggplant.  Do you have a blender?  If so, dump everything in there and blend slowly.  If not, just mash everything together with a fork in that bowl.

The eggplant 35 minutes from now.

2) Next, the parmesan tiles.  In a bowl, mix the flour and the Parmesan together.  Put a nonstick skillet for on your stove-top, and let it heat up under medium heat.  Take a small handful of your powdery mix and place in the skillet, sprinkling the mix to form a flat disk.  Aim for something that has the same diameter of a small apple.  Let them take some heat until they become golden brown, then take them out of the skillet (with a flat spatula if you like) and place them on a paper towel to cool.  What once was a powdery mix of flour and cheese, has cooked together to form the tiles of our mille-feuille.

Parmesan disks browning in the pan.

3) Finally, we are going to bake these tomatoes.  Cut all of them in half, right through their prime meridian.  On your favorite cookie sheet place them all on their backs, and sprinkle sugar all over them and then hit them each with a dash of oil.  They are ready for the oven (at 350° F / 180° C), but keep on an eye on them, and take them out when they look like they do in photo, let’s say for 10 minutes.

That was easy.

The rest is going to depend on your plating ingenuity.  We went with some eggplant cavier, a Parmasen tile, a layer of tomatoes and another Parmesan tile.  Then we drizzled balsamic vinegar and olive oil on top.  How you do this step is entirely up to you, you can put the tomatoes and eggplant in a bowl and use the tiles as chips if that’s the kind of thing that you’d be in to.  Or break the tiles in halves and them stick out of a layer of eggplant.  You’ll figure it out.

There’s photos of the entire process on Flickr. Bon appetit.

Basic Grilled Cheese, just the fact's ma'am.

Oh, the variations are all splendid. This time though, I wanted something basic. Give me some good cheese and some good bread. Melt that together with some butter to make it all toasty and crispy. That’s what I craved. Nick, over at Macheesmo, has made a few delicious variants, and I’ll undoubtedly eventually post a few variants of my own too. This time I stuck to the essence of bread and cheese–simple comfort food.

You could go with American white bread and a slice of individually wrapped yellow colored cheese. But that would be silly. Don’t be silly. Pick up some good quality sandwich bread–better still, get a good artisan-style loaf, like a French sourdough or an Italian loaf. And get some good cheese. I’d recommend a Gruyère, like Comté or Emmentaler, or a cheddar–please get a good cheddar though, something aged, with some tang and flavor. This time I picked up some Emmentaler. I like the mild grassy, earthy flavors that gruyere style cheese contributes; it pairs very nicely with the sour notes of a French loaf.

Toasty, warm, cheesy goodness.

The best trick to getting an evenly melted cheese is to shred it and pile it on. Don’t buy preshredded though, those are often dusted with a non-stick powder to keep it from clumping. That powder can affect the way the cheese melts and sometimes make it grainy. If you can’t shred it yourself, cut thin slices. The other thing I recommend is to butter and toast both sides of the bread–I love my butter.

Without varying drastically from the essentials, are there any variations you like? A slice of tomato perhaps? Mustard? I wanted to keep this basic this time, but let me know what you suggest!

No nonsense grilled cheese
It really couldn’t be simpler, but here is the “recipe” anyway.
Ingredients
Cheese (I used Emmentaller), shredded
butter, softened
sliced bread

Directions
1. Heat a heavy skilled over medium-high heat until hot. Meanwhile, butter both sides of bread.
2. Put bread into hot skillet (lower heat if needed so it doesn’t burn) and allow to toast for 30-90 seconds (it’s OK to peek under to check, just don’t play with it).
3. Flip one side over, pile cheese on top then put the other slice of bread on top (toasted sides should now be facing the cheese). Occasionally press gently on the sandwich and cook for another 1-2 minutes, flipping half way, until cheese is melted and sandwich is golden brown and toasty.
Cut diagonally and serve while still warm.

I made this a few times and the only variation I allowed myself was to put a thin layer of good Dijon mustard inside once.

Browned Butter, Brown Sugar Cookies

I’ve been thinking about using browned butter in a cookie dough for some time now and thought that making the simpler sugar cookie would be a great way to allow the flavor of the butter to shine. Well, allow the flavor of butter and brown sugar to shine. We’ve used browned butter before as part of a sauce with gnocchi and it contributed a lovely slightly nutty flavor. So making it was nothing terribly new. It’s not difficult to make, but it does require your attention. If you leave the stove unattended for even a moment, it somehow knows and tries it’s hardest to burn, but stand there and baby it for a few minutes and you will succeed every time.

These cookies come out like perfect tender disks of sweet goodness. The browned butter flavor gives this cookies a depth that many other butter cookies lack. Make these and people will comment on how good and tasty they are, I guarantee it.

Fresh out of the oven

My intent was to use a standard sugar cookie recipe and simply brown the butter before using it. As I was looking up various recipes, I saw that Cooks Illustrated had a much better method. They thought this through and combined the browned butter with brown sugar to make their cookies. The recipe below uses their technique.

Ingredients
14 Tbsps unsalted butter
1 3/4 ounces (about 1/4 cup) granulated sugar
14 ounces (about 2 cups) packed dark brown sugar
10.5 ounces (about 2 cups plus 2 Tbsps) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp table salt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 Tbsp vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 350F.
1. In a medium skillet, heat 10 tbsp butter over medium to med-high heat until melted. Once melted, continue to cool while whisking or swirling the pan for about 2 more minutes. You will know when you are done when the butter looks golden brown and smells nutty and fragrant. Transfer the butter to a large bowl and add the remaining 4 tbsp (cut up) to the liquefied butter. Stir once or twice and leave to melt into the butter about 15 minutes.

2. In a shallow bowl mix the granulated sugar (1/4 c) with an equal amount of the brown sugar (1/4 c or 1 3/4 oz). Rub together until it acquires the texture of wet sand. Set aside loosely covered.

3. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and baking powder.

4. To the bowl with the cooling brown butter add the salt and the remaining brown sugar (about 1 3/4 cups). Mix with eggbeaters or in a stand mixer until until no sugar lumps remain. Add the egg, yolk, and vanilla and mix until it all comes together (30-45 seconds). Scrape down bowl. Add the flour mixture from step 3 and mix until combined (about 1 minute). Scrape down and stir with spatula to make sure everything is mixed.

5. Make about 24 individual cookies (about 2 tbsps each). Roll each cookie into a ball with your hands and then toss them into the bowl of sugar to coat. Keeping the cookies lightly covered until you toss them will prevent them from drying out and help the sugar stick.

6. Place them onto parchment lined baking sheets, keeping about 2 inches between each cookie (they will spread). Bake until cookies are browned and slightly puffy, 12 to 14 minutes. Rotating the baking sheet halfway through baking. Be careful not to overbake, it is hard to judge doneness because the color change will be subtle. The best test is to press lightly about halfway between the edge and the center of the cookie. The outer crust will have just begun to set firmly, but you will still very easily be able to make an indentation. Allow the cookies to cool ON THE SHEET for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Cooling on the sheet will keep the cookies slightly chewy, that’s as good thing.