Merry Easter & chewy cranberry chocolate cookies

Aah, the holiday spirit!  Streets covered by a white fluffy blanket, snowflakes dancing playfully in the air, frosty wind biting you in the nose and cheeks, and colorful store window decorations announcing the holiday season.  ♫ It's beginning to look a lot like Christm... ♫ NO, WAIT A MINUTE!  It's not December, but nearly April!  

Spring has officially -- or at least theoretically -- started, and we shouldn't be listening to the jingle bells ring, but rather make sure we have enough chocolate eggs in store.  Nonetheless, somehow I am more inclined to go Christmas tree shopping than to pick up some fresh daffodils to decorate my house for the upcoming celebrations.

I don't remember it ever being so cold during Easter time.  Certainly not in the US, not in Belgium or the Netherlands -- not even in Poland.  Clearly I am not the only one who is surprised by this cold spell, as lately weather is literally the only thing people can talk -- or in fact complain -- about.  

You hear it on the news, read it online, talk about it with your colleagues while getting coffee, or use it as a solid conversation starter during conference calls.  Hell -- even the people you meet in the elevator (that usually seem particularly intrigued by their shoes and keep staring at them -- barely noticing you) become disturbingly chatty and complain about yet another snowfall last night.

I decided to make the most of it by posting this great cranberry chocolate cookies recipe.  Theoretically, these cookies fit better in the Christmas season than Easter, but when you look outside the window it is really hard to tell one from the other.  Besides -- who is to say you can only bake Christmas cookies during Christmas?

Call me eccentric (the more diplomatic word for "nuts"), but I often like to do things that normally would be considered unfitting for the circumstances at hand.  Singing Christmas carols while sunbathing near a pool in mid-August, eating ice-cream during a walk in a snow storm or starting a meal with dessert.  It's not that I don't like singing carols at Christmas time. It's just that I like singing them so-oo much, that I can't wait a whole year before I can do it again.  And why would I?

Similarly -- why would you wait with baking these cookies until next December?

And they are totally worth it!  The cookies are as good as oatmeal cookies can be.  Tangy from the cranberries, sweet and luscious from the milk chocolate, incredibly chewy and finished off with crispy almond flakes.  Let's not forget the cinnamon flavor that will fill your entire house when you're baking these. Mmm - holidays in your kitchen!

So go ahead and have yourself a merry little cookie!

The recipe comes from Dorotus' blog, slightly modified (mainly through the addition of almonds, and increasing the amount of cranberries).

Ingredients:

• 170 g of flour
• 1 tsp of cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp of baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 140 g of oats
• 150 g of butter (soft, at room temperature)
• 150 g of light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 180 g of fresh cranberries, roughly chopped
• 200 g milk chocolate, roughly chopped
• 70 g of almond flakes

For the decoration:

• 70 g of milk chocolate, roughly chopped
• 50 g of almond flakes

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).  Line 2 cookie trays with parchment paper.  
• Whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.  Add the oats and combine.  Set aside.
• Mix the butter with the brown sugar and vanilla extract.  Add the egg and mix again.
• Add the butter mixture to the flower mixture, combine.  Add the chopped cranberries, chocolate and almonds, combine.
• Scoop small amounts of the dough on the baking tray, leaving enough space between the cookies as they will melt and expand.  
• Bake for around 15 minutes, checking often towards the end to see if the cookies don't burn.  Let cool on the tray.
• Melt the chocolate au bain marie (over a pan with boiling water).  Toss the almond in a dry hot frying pan for 30 second or until golden.
• Decorate cookies with the chocolate and sprinkle with almonds.

Bon appetit!

Oh-so-yummy stuffed peppers

Lately the idiom "I could eat a horse" has evolved from a fun expression to a very literal -- yet unfortunate -- prophecy for the European consumer.  Reports of horse meat found pretty much everywhere and in everything have made me think twice even when buying horseradish in a jar.  Seems like greedy food producers are going out of their way to make consumers reach the bitter conclusion that nothing will ever surprise them again.

Rest assured -- this recipe has nothing to do with horse meat.  Nonetheless, the horse idiom is definitely appropriate here, as the dish is great for very hungry people.  After trying this, you will want to change the expression to "I'm so hungry I could eat a stuffed pepper."  Sounds much nicer in view of the recent events.

There is no doubt about this: the peppers are very filling. I was totally stuffed after eating two -- one would have been enough, but they are just soooooo delicious I couldn't resist having the second one.  They are great on their own, but you could also serve them as a side dish -- with some meat, potatoes or salad.  

This dish is very healthy and low in fat or calories.  The peppers are stuffed with red lentils, buckwheat, mushrooms and herbs.  Lentils and buckwheat are an excellent source of fibre, proteins, vitamins and minerals -- they are among the healthiest foods out there.  You won't even notice when you become healthier and happier after eating the peppers (ok, ok: this is not a miracle worker -- just very good for you).

The dish requires almost no preparation and is extremely easy to make.  Vegetarians/vegans will love it.  Meat-eaters won't even notice there is no meat there (or they can have it as a side dish with a steak, if they really must have some meat).  

There is also a lot of room for experimenting: you can add any ingredients you like to the stuffing (tomatoes, minced meat, capers, topped with cheese etc.).  But this combination is a perfect balance of flavors, and goes very well with the sweet, soft, delicately cooked pepper.  

Mmm, I can't wait to make this again!

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 4 red or yellow peppers (firm, fresh, and with thick flesh)
• 100 g of dry buckwheat roasted groats
• 100 g of dry red lentils
• 300 g of mushrooms, finely chopped
• 1 large onion or 2 small ones, finely chopped 
• 400 ml of light vegetable stock (I used bio)
• 3 tsps of herbes de Provence (I used bio)
• olive oil (around 1 tbsp)
• salt & pepper

Directions:

• Sauté the onions with the olive oil until golden.  Add the chopped mushrooms, herbes de Provences, and a little bit of salt and pepper.  Sauté until light brown.
• Chop off the top of the peppers.  Be careful not to make any holes in the lid while doing that.    Cut off the stems if they are too long.  Clean the peppers inside, getting rid of the pips. 
• Mix the dry buckwheat, lentils and mushrooms in a bowl.  Fill the bottom part of the peppers, leaving around 1 cm of space from the edge.
• Pour a bit of hot water in a pan, filling it with a layer of around 3 cm.  Put the peppers in a pan, very tightly next to each other.  They will become very soft and slippery, so they must be arranged really tightly or otherwise they might fall over.  
• Pour the vegetable stock filling each pepper up to the edge.  Cover with the pepper lid.  
• Cover the pan with the lid.  Let simmer over a small heat for around 40 minutes (yellow peppers are softer than the red ones, so monitor them closely to see if they don't fall apart).

Bon appetit!

The chili con carne fairy tale

There is nothing better to write on a food blog than the -- undoubtedly -- magical story behind the presented dish.  What inspired the dedicated blogger to take this particular culinary path? 

Maybe they found the recipe in some old, discolored notebook left as a treasured legacy by their great-grandmother?  Or maybe they had an epiphany and in a flash of culinary genious brought together the perfect combination of flavors and textures?  Surely they couldn't have just chucked random stuff in a pan and on a plate -- serious food bloggers are per definition supposed to do better than that.

Since I've been pretty much writing about random, not necessarily food-related things lately, this post will cater to the needs of all the true-blooded foodies out there, and focus on the dish itself.  Interested?  Well, read-on!

Spice it up!

The recipe for this chili has been in my culinary repertoire for 13-14 years -- which basically means half of my life.  When I first made it, I would never have guessed it would become my family's favorite dish and that I would be making it to this day.  I guess it's just like with all great things in life -- you don't see them coming.  

But enough with the philosophizing (I already see the foodies frowning and rolling their eyes).  Let's talk about the history behind the recipe.

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, lived a teenaged girl.  During the summer, her Mum went away on holidays for a few days, and she decided to prepare dinner for her hard-working Dad.  On the same day, she happened to visit her Grandma in her summer house, deep in the middle of the forest.  I must dissapoint you -- the girl did not wear a red hood nor carry a picnic basket, and the Grandma was not eaten by a bad, scary wolf (or any other wolf, for that matter).  What the girl did find at her Grandma's was a collection of culinary magazines, which she decided to skim for inspiration. 

In one of these magazines (the exact name has long escaped her memory), the girl found a very inviting recipe for chili con carne.  Since she knew her Dad was highly fond of spicy food, she copied the recipe and rushed back home (yep -- through the forest again, and nope -- no wolf).

The teenaged girl prepared the chili and her Dad really liked it.  She later made it for the whole family.  The chili quickly became a family favorite and the girl prepared it several times afterwards -- and still does until this day. 

And they lived happily even after.  

THE END.

Stages of filling the tortilla wrap

The chili is very simple and basic.  No super fancy ingredients, no cocoa, no elaborate side dishes or salsas.  But the great taste is based on this simplicity.  Make sure you use good quality meat -- that's really crucial.

Because it's so good -- side dishes are absolutely not needed.  I served this with great tomato salsa, sour cream and/or guacamole -- all was nothing more than "a nice touch". Even the flour tortilla is not crucial -- you could just serve the chili as it is.  And I guarantee -- it will disappear from the plates in a blink of an eye (it was super hard to take the attached pictures, because people DEMANDED they want to start eating.  NOW!).

To round up -- I didn't give you a wolf.  So let me at least show you the unexpected guest I found in the leek.  Not quite as scary as a wolf, you'd think.  Clearly -- you haven't met me.

Serves 4 (or 3 very hungry men)

Ingredients:

• 1-1.2 kg of ground beef (good quality)
• 2 cans of red kidney beans (I used bio), drained
• 2 cans of peeled tomatoes (good quality -- I used bio & Italian)
• 1 leek 
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 2-4 cloves of garlic (I used 4), minced
• tabasco to taste (I used around 4 "shakes" -- a few drops each)
• chili powder to taste (I used 4 tsp)
• olive oil (around 2 tbsp)
• 2-3 pieces of dark chocolate (70%)
• salt & pepper
• soft flour tortillas

Directions:

• Sauté the onions with the olive oil in a big pan.  Add the meat and fry until it is not red anymore -- around 5-7 minutes.  (Ground meat has a tendency to clump when cooked, so use a fork or spatula to separate the clumps and get the fine, ground texture.  Do this from the beginning -- it gets harder with time). 
• Add the minced garlic to the meat, and season with salt and pepper, tabasco and chili powder.  Stir to combine.  Add the drained red beans and combine.  
• Add the peeled tomatoes, and cut them a bit with your spatula (not a lot since they are soft anyway and fill fall apart -- just in half is fine).  Cover with a lid, and let simmer for 20 minutes.
• Slice the leek in half, lengthwise and wash thoroughly in cold water (get rid of any "visitors", if you find them).  Chop off and discard the roots and the top of the green part (leave some of the green -- the part that looks fresh).  Chop in slices and add to the pan.
• Let simmer for 15 more minutes, until the leek is tender.  If there is too much liquid, leave the lid off.  
• Crumble in the chocolate and let it melt.  Stir.
• Season to taste, if needed.  Serve on it's own or with warm flour tortillas.  Glass of full-bodied red wine highly recommended!

Bon appetit!