INGREDIENTS

• 1 3/4cups unbleached all-purpose flour (8 3/4 ounces)
• 1/2teaspoon baking soda
• 14tablespoons unsalted butter (1 3/4 sticks)
• 1/2cup granulated sugar (3 1/2 ounces)
• 3/4cups packed dark brown sugar (5 1/4 ounces) (see note)
• 1teaspoon table salt
• 2teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1large egg
• 1large egg yolk
• 1 1/4cups semisweet chocolate chips or chunks (see note)
• 3/4cup chopped pecans or walnuts, toasted (optional)

An alternative that I prefer:

2C+2T flour, 1/2t BP, 12T Butter, 1/2C sugar, 1C packed brown sugar, 2t vanilla, 1Yolk+1, chips to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

1. 1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 large (18- by 12-inch) baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.
2. 2. Heat 10 tablespoons butter in 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until melted, about 2 minutes. Continue cooking, swirling pan constantly until butter is dark golden brown and has nutty aroma, 1 to 3 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and, using heatproof spatula, transfer browned butter to large heatproof bowl. Stir remaining 4 tablespoons butter into hot butter until completely melted.
3. 3. Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla to bowl with butter and whisk until fully incorporated. Add egg and yolk and whisk until mixture is smooth with no sugar lumps remaining, about 30 seconds. Let mixture stand 3 minutes, then whisk for 30 seconds. Repeat process of resting and whisking 2 more times until mixture is thick, smooth, and shiny. Using rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir in flour mixture until just combined, about 1 minute. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts (if using), giving dough final stir to ensure no flour pockets remain.
4. 4. Divide dough into 16 portions, each about 3 tablespoons (or use #24 cookie scoop). Arrange 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets, 8 dough balls per sheet. (Smaller baking sheets can be used, but will require 3 batches.)
5. 5. Bake cookies 1 tray at a time until cookies are golden brown and still puffy, and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, 10 to 14 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack; cool cookies completely before serving.

Linking for now, until I can make more edits: http://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/detail.asp?docid=6115

(note, this took about 45-50 minutes to bake at 375 degrees F.)

In this post, I’d like to share the recipe for the Bruschetta de Flageolets, a very simple and easy appetizer that really took less than 20 minutes to prepare. Flageolets are little greenish beans that are apparently quite tasty; since my market doesn’t carry them, I substituted cannellini beans, which were still delicious.

Ingredients:

• 1 oz butter
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 3½oz canned flageolet beans, rinsed and drained
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
• 3 slices crusty white bread, toasted
• dash olive oil, for drizzling
• fresh chervil, to garnish

Preparation method

Heat the butter in a frying pan, add the garlic and fry over a gentle heat for one minute.

Add the flageolet beans, season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper and warm through over a gentle heat.

Mash with a potato masher and stir in the parsley.

To serve, spread the flageolet bean paste onto the toasted bread and place onto a serving plate. Drizzle with olive oil and garnish with fresh chervil.

This recipe serves 2-4

The recipe for Suprêmes de Volaille À Blanc follows. I’m providing her instructions, but I did find that the chicken took longer to cook than the 6 minutes she suggests. This is so yummy!

Suprêmes de Volaille À Blanc
[Breast of Chicken with Cream]

4 suprêmes (boned breasts)
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
Big pinch white pepper
A heavy, covered, fireproof casserole about 10 inches in diameter
A round of waxed paper 10 inches in diameter and buttered on one side
4 Tb butter

For the sauce:

1/4 cup white or brown stock
1/4 cup port, Madeira, or dry white vermouth
1 cup whipping cream
Salt and pepper
Lemon juice as needed
2 Tb fresh minced parsley

Rub the suprêmes with drops of lemon juice and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. heat the butter in the casserole until it is foaming. Quickly roll the  suprêmes in the butter, lay the buttered paper over them, cover casserole and place in hot oven. After 6 minutes, press top of suprêmes with your finger. If still soft, return to oven for a moment or two. When the meat is springy to the touch it is done. Remove the suprêmes to a warm platter and cover while making the sauce.

The sauce: Pour the stock or bouillon and wine into the casserole with the cooking butter and boil down quickly over high heat until liquid is syrupy. Stir in the cream and boil down again over high heat until cream has thickened slightly. Off heat, taste carefully for seasoning, and add drops of lemon juice to taste. Pour the sauce over the suprêmes, sprinkle with parsley, and serve at once.

Important: if your casserole dish isn’t stovetop safe, then use a separate pan to make the sauce.

There are lots of variations to this dish, but this is simple and amazing. We ate it with salad and asparagus. Yum!

Ingredients
Oil or ghee — 2 tablespoons
Onion, chopped — 1
Garlic, minced — 6 cloves
Gingerroot, minced — 1 tablespoon
Coriander, ground — 2 teaspoons
Turmeric — 1/2 teaspoon
Cayenne pepper (optional) — 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon
Spinach, chopped — 1 pound
Water — 1 cup
Salt — 2 teaspoons
Yogurt — 1 cup
Cream (optional) — 1/4 cup

Method
Heat the oil or ghee in a large pot or saucepan over medium flame. Add the onions and sauté until translucent. Add the garlic, ginger and spices and sauté for another 2-3 minutes.
Stir in the spinach, water and salt and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for another 10-15 minutes.

Remove from heat, allow to cool a bit. Then use a blender or food processor to puree in batches.
Return the puree to the pot. Add a little water if necessary and simmer another 5-10 minutes.
Stir in yogurt and return to brief simmer and immediately remove from heat. Stir in the optional cream, adjust seasoning and serve.

4-6 servings

Variations
Saag, or Palak, Paneer (Spinach with fresh cheese): add 1/2 pound of paneer, cut into cubes, after pureeing the spinach. You may substitute tofu for the paneer if you can’t find paneer. Tofu is not an Indian ingredient, but it has a similar texture and flavor.

Jhinga Saag (Spinach with shrimp): add 1/2 pound peeled and deveined shrimp after pureeing the spinach. Simmer until the shrimp is just cooked through, 3-4 minutes.

Chana Saag (Spinach with chickpeas): add 1/2 pound cooked chickpeas after pureeing the spinach.

Saag Murgh (Spinach with chicken): add 1/2 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into cubes, after pureeing the spinach. Simmer just until the chicken is cooked through.

Saag Aloo (Spinach with potatoes): add 1/2 pound cooked, cubed potatoes after pureeing the spinach.

You may use frozen or fresh spinach. Try substituting mustard or other greens.
A squeeze of lemon added at the end will brighten the flavor of this dish.

Until now.

I’ve used this recipe twice and truly enjoy it. A few tips: Make sure the carrot slices are even, or you’ll get some carrots the perfect texture with others too crunchy.

INGREDIENTS
1 pound medium carrots (about 6), peeled and sliced 1/4-inch thick on the bias
1/2 teaspoon table salt
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 cup low-sodium veggie broth
1 tablespoon unsalted butter , cut into 4 pieces
2 teaspoons lemon juice
Ground black pepper

INSTRUCTIONS
Bring carrots, salt, 1 tablespoon sugar, and broth to boil, covered, in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat; reduce heat to medium and simmer, stirring occasionally, until carrots are almost tender when poked with tip of paring knife, about 5 minutes. (actually, it takes more like 7-8 mins for this) Uncover, increase heat to high, and simmer rapidly, stirring occasionally, until liquid is reduced to about 2 tablespoons, 1 to 2 minutes. Add butter and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar to skillet; toss carrots to coat and cook, stirring frequently, until carrots are completely tender and glaze is light gold, about 3 minutes. Off heat, add lemon juice; toss to coat. Transfer carrots to serving dish, scraping glaze from pan. Season to taste with pepper and serve immediately.

YUM!

(Credit: this recipe is directly from Cooks Illustrated. I highly recommend a subscription to their site, and I’m interested in trying their variations on this recipe.)

While the plants are sleeping and snow covers much of the fields and pastures of our region; while we eat imported food and savor the remnants of last year’s harvest; while we wait in anticipation for that first leafy green…

Now is the time to support local food.

I know, it’s January! And that’s the point. Community Supported Agriculture (or CSA) programs are changing the way local farmers connect with people who eat. CSA’s (and their smaller-scale sister, NSA’s) allow us to pay our farmers directly for the delicious food they grow and raise.

But here’s the deal: for it to work, the farmer must pre-sell shares in the farm. This raises the capital needed to buy seeds, plant them in the spring and pay for the labor it requires to grow our awesome local food.

This puts the economic power into the hands of farmers and the people who love healthy food. Instead of a farmer taking out a bank loan to finance their farming, they raise the cash directly: costing them less and ensuring that more of our resources go into growing healthy food.

Breaking the debt cycle that currently burdens farmers is a vital step to building a resilient local food system. And all of us can participate.

Find a local CSA/NSA program near you at LocalHarvest.org. Here in Denver, I recommend Grant Family Farms and Urbiculture Farms…although there are dozens to choose from. Now’s the time to commit your food dollars to the farmers who grow your food. Don’t be intimidated by the up-front cost: do the math and see how much value you’re getting for your dollar.

Now’s the time to do our part. And here’s a fun little video that talks more about the important relationships between healthy food, the folks who grow it, and those of us who love to eat:

In answer to the question: describe your vision for an ideal global food system.

The optimal global food system would provide for the needs of people without sacrificing the long-term health of our plant, animal, soil and water systems. An ideal food system would acknowledge the inherent value of all of life, and be unwilling to destroy other species through environmental degradation, population loss, over-consumption or poison.

Our current food system has disconnected from its source and has caused us to ignore the consequences of how we grow, raise and eat our daily meals. Almost 75% of the US population is now overweight or obese, while malnutrition contributes to more than half of the world’s cases of child mortality.

In contrast, a better global food system would demonstrate three primary qualities: resilience, relationship and what I’ll call “healthfulness.”

Resilience is the capacity of a system (and its components) to adapt, repair, and build long-term system performance. A resilient food system would have distributed means of production, storage and distribution. Food security would not lie in the hands of a few small food companies or government agencies, but in many small producers. Other hallmarks of resilience include redundancy and diversity. The 2010 flood in Pakistan killed nearly 2,000 individuals, but the long-term impact of losing more than 200,000 head of livestock and 17 million acres of fertile land is yet to be seen. A resilient food system would fulfill the needs created by crop loss due to disease and disaster.

Relationship is about understanding the interdependent connections between all aspects of the system, including its impact on other systems. Mindful production decisions would be made considering the impact of and relationship between pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, water and soil. The crops we select would account for nutrition as well as how their growth fits inside the ecosystem. Effort would be made to thoughtfully determine what, how and where we grow food. Healthy communication would exist between growers, ranchers, distributors and others involved in providing food. Decisions would be made for the greatest good for all involved.

Healthfulness is the inherent ability to contribute to the well-being and health of all participants in the system, including people, plants, animals and the soil, water and air that sustain them. Healthfulness is the expression of vitality, responsibility and contribution of all participants. An ideal global food system would measure the impact of each component, and incorporate healthy feedback loops to help participants at each system level understand what’s best, and modify behaviors that don’t support the healthfulness of the system as a whole. Here’s an example: in our current system, the value of a cow is extracted as the amount of money that can be made from her parts, in the form of milk, meat or hide. But this perspective fails to acknowledge the systems that the cow represents. The extraction of a cow into parts has led to unsafe, unhealthy, and inhumane systems of beef production. A healthy food system will acknowledge and include ALL of the parts of the system that is a cow. If any parts of that system are dysfunctional or unhealthy (such as the waste of the cow polluting the water supply, or the cow itself being unhealthy while alive, or the processing of the cow exposing the butchers to unsafe conditions), then actions would be quickly taken to repair the unhealthy parts and restore them to something more healthy.

A healthy, resilient and connected food system is possible. It will take changing the underlying systems of governance and wealth distribution, and the definitions of profit and ownership. It will mean restoring the ability of all people to participate in the growth, production and control of their food. It will require personal and community responsibility, and the creation, nurturing and sharing of better means of production and governance. We must provide better examples of how food can be provided, and share these means with all involved. Every seed planted and nurtured with long-term health in mind will make a difference, and move us closer to a more just and sustainable world.

2 cups of all-purpose or bread flour (I used bread flour; it is supposed to make the cookies thicker)
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted (melt on lowest power setting in microwave or slowly on stove — do not burn!)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon powder
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 325°F (for pure convection, adjust accordingly; I used 310°F). Grease cookie sheets, or line them with parchment paper or use a Silpat.

Sift the flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon powder and set aside.

Mix the sugars and butter just until thoroughly mixed. Add egg, yolk and vanilla and mix until creamy. Add sifted ingredients and mix until just blended.

Stir in the chocolate chips, then drop dough ¼ cup at a time on cookie sheet about 3 inches apart. Bake for 15-17 minutes. Leave them on the cookie sheet to cool a bit when removed from the oven (they will fall apart otherwise). Once they cool a few minutes, move cookies to a cooling rack to finish cooling. Or, eat them right away with cold milk!