Black and white and yummy all over

Chocolate chip cookies are all well and good, but every now and then you need a cookie that grabs you by the short and curlies, you know?

Well, the following recipe, shared on a recent episode of Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa television show, fits that bill and then some.

(BTW, these really should be called triple chocolate almond cookies, as they have cocoa, semisweet chocolate chips and white chocolate chips, but I'll leave the name as is out of respect for Ms. King.)

Kathleen King's Double Chocolate Almond Cookies

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) salted, room-temperature butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup firmly packed dark or light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup almonds, coarsely chopped

After you preheat your oven to 350 degrees, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.

Meanwhile, cream together the butter and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer that's been fitted with the paddle attachment and then add the egg and vanilla. Once those two ingredients have been incorporated, add the flour mixture and continue beating until just combined. Finally, add the chocolate chips and the almonds and mix until combined.

Using a small or medium ice cream scoop, drop the dough about two inches apart on sheet pans that have been lined with parchment paper. (You should be able to get about six cookies on each sheet if you use a medium ice cream scoop.) Bake for about 15 minutes.

Don't worry if the cookies seem a bit soft when they're pulled from the oven; they'll firm up nicely as they cool. Speaking of which, allow the cookies to cool on their cookie sheets for about 10-15 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack.

Yield: Approximately 20 four-inch cookies, if you use a #16 (1/4 cup) ice cream scoop.

A different kind of peanut butter cup

I'm not sure why, but nothing makes me "ooh" and "ahh" like a big spoonful of homemade ice cream. That's especially true when said ice cream is flavored by a bit (or a lot) of peanut butter.

Well, there's been a lot of oohing and aahing in our house as of late thanks to the following recipe, which was pulled from the pages of Isa Chandra Moskowitz's and Terry Hope Romero's Veganomicon.

Peanut Butter Ice Cream

1/2 cup cream of coconut milk**
1 cup soy milk
1 cup sugar
6 ounces silken tofu
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Throw all of the ingredients into a blender (or a food processor) and blitz until smooth. Pour into an ice-cream maker and then follow the machine manufacturer's instructions.

**Place a can of coconut milk in the fridge the night before you're planning to make your ice cream. When it comes time to make it, use the "cream" that has risen to the top of the can. Reserve the rest of the milk for some other use.

Yellow Rice with Corn

Or, as Daisy Martinez, host of PBS' Daisy Cooks!, calls it: Arroz Amarillo con Maiz. That sounds so much more sophisticated--not to mention sexier--than "Yellow Rice with Corn," doesn't it?

Anyway, I made this dish for dinner a few nights ago after watching Daisy cook it on her show on more than a few occasions. I wouldn't say it's the best thing I've ever made--or even close it--but David and I liked it enough that I'll definitely make it again.

One thing I have to note is that the recipe below differs from the original in quite a few ways. For those of you who are sticklers for authenticity (you know who you are), here is how Daisy makes it.  

Yellow Rice with Corn

1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil
1 tablespoon ground turmeric
1 white onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 cups fresh or frozen corn kernels
1/2 cup pimiento-stuffed olives, coarsely chopped
2 to 3 tablespoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 bay leaves
3 cups long grain white rice
4 cups vegetable broth

Heat the oil over medium heat in a large dutch oven or pot. Stir in the turmeric and then the onion, red bell pepper and garlic. Cook until the vegetables have softened a bit. Add the olives, salt, cumin, pepper and bay leaves and stir to combine. When the mixture begins to bubble, add the rice and stir for a minute or two. Add the broth and bring everything to a boil.

When the broth reaches the level of the rice, stir in the corn and then reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 20 minutes. Gently fluff the rice and serve hot--topped with sour cream (or Sour Supreme, if that's your thing).

Chocolate + pistachio = one heck of a birthday cake

I've always loved pistachios, but I didn't love combining those waxy, green nuts with chocolate until earlier this year, when I tried to make a batch of chocolate-pistachio biscotti. 

Somewhere along the way I screwed up the recipe, as the biscotti "loaf" fell apart when I tried to slice it after its first trip to the oven.

I tasted a bit of the crumbly batter before pitching it into the trash can, though, and the flavor nearly knocked me out of my socks.

So, when I went to make myself a birthday cake a few weeks ago, I knew it had to include those same flavors.  Thankfully, an old issue of Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine had just the recipe I was looking for.

Chocolate-Pistachio Torte

For the cake:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces (plus more for pan)
1 cup all-purpose flour (plus more for pan)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/2 cut low-fat buttermilk
1/4 cup shelled unsalted pistachios, coarsely chopped

** Note: If you're like me and you tend to use salted (rather than unsalted) butter, decrease the salt to 1/4 teaspoon, if not less.

For the frosting:

1/2 cup heavy cream
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup shelled unsalted pistachios, coarsely chopped

Start with the cake: Preheat your over to 350 degrees. Butter and flour an 8-inch round cake pan and then line the bottom with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder and set aside.

In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the butter and chocolate, stirring frequently to avoid scorching. Remove from heat and whisk in the sugar and vanilla, then the eggs, buttermilk and pistachios. Fold in the reserved flour mixture just until it's combined.

Pour the resulting batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 60-70 minutes--until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached to it. Let the cake cool in its pan for about 5 minutes and then run a knife around the edge and invert it onto a wire rack. Remove the parchment paper and let the cake cook completely (2-3 hours).

To make the frosting: In a small saucepan, bring the cream to a simmer. Remove from the heat and then add the chocolate. Let stand for about 5 minutes, then whisk until smooth. Cool the mixture until it falls back in ribbons when lifted with a spoon, about 5 minutes more.

Set cake on a serving platter and tuck strips of parchment paper around the edge to prevent the ganache from dripping onto the platter. Pour ganache onto the center of the cake and, using a spatula or even a butter knife, spread it evenly over the top and sides of the cake. (If you push the ganache to the edge of the top of the cake, it will naturally drip down the sides and cover them naturally.)

Let the ganache set for about 30 minutes and then remove the parchment paper from under the cake. Sprinkle the top with the reserved pistachios and serve.

Pesto with a twist

We eat a lot of pesto in our house, but I'm never the one who makes it. At least, that's how it was until last night. 

That's when I found the recipe that follows (in one of our many cookbooks--sorry, I can't remember which one) and made the decision to give it a go--mainly because it required just a few ingredients and it looked interesting. 

The end result was better than David or I could have imagined. It tastes like the traditional basil-and-pine-nut pesto you're used to, but with an intriguing twist.

Almond-Tarragon Pesto

1/2 cup blanched almonds

3 cloves garlic

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups fresh tarragon
pinch of red pepper flakes
1/2 cup oilve oil

Dump the almonds, garlic and salt into the bowl of a food processor and pulse until you have a chunky paste. Add the tarragon and red pepper flakes and pulse a few more times to combine, then stream in the olive oil (while continuing to pulse) until the mixture is the consistency of pesto.

Toss with a pound of cooked pasta and cubes of pan-fried tofu (or the protein of your choice). Top with roasted almonds or pine nuts.