And here we are … Day 6 of 12. We’ve officially reached the halfway mark in this cookie journey. At this point we’ve covered a variety of cookies – a pretty sugar version, a caramel-y pecan bar, one with tea, one with salty toffee and another with spiced sweet potato all from one basic butter cookie dough. So nice. Today we’re using something that was a complete revelation to me not long ago … garam masala.
It’s a spice blend typically used in Indian cooking that can differ but usually contains a combination of coriander, pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, caraway, ginger, cloves and nutmeg. So really, it’s all the traditional baking spices in one handy, if unconventional, mix. I get mine from The Spice House and its lovely – fresh and full of flavor that seems very Christmas. Think of it as a much more interesting pumpkin spice. Add it to the base dough and you have a surprisingly wonderful Christmas-y cookie.
In a standing mixture fitted with the paddle attachment, combine room temperature cookie dough, first measures of sugar, garam masala and salt on medium speed until thoroughly combined.
Press the dough together and roll into a smooth log about 8” long. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill or at least an hour or overnight. The dough log can be frozen, tightly wrapped, up to 3 months. Let soften before attempting to slice.
Preheat the oven to 350°F and line sheet pans with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
In a small bowl, mix the ingredients for the sugar dip. From the dough log, cut ¼” thick slices, rotating the log after each cut to prevent a flat side.
Dip the flat side of each cookie in the sugar mixture and place on the prepared pan, sugar side up.
Bake for 10-12 minutes until the cookies are just baked. Rotate the pans halfway through baking and do not brown.
Shortbread cookies keep pretty well at room temperature for several days if tightly wrapped and the dough will kept frozen for 3 months.
Moving on! We’re getting into some traditional holiday flavors now with this one. A soft, cakey type cookie with a sweet potato-spice vibe and a maple glaze. They remind me of those soft smooshy cookies you find in the grocery bakery section but better because they actually have flavor.
Ok. So one thing to note. I try very hard not to get too fiddley with these recipes but sometimes it happens in the smaller batches and you’ll find yourself doing your best to measure 1/6 of a teaspoon of something or needing ½ egg yolk. For this one, yes there are a few 1/16 teaspoons in the smaller batch recipe, which is really a very big generous pinch. Don’t worry about being terribly precise; more spice isn’t a bad thing. This one also requires roasting a sweet potato first. It’s fairly easy, throw it in the oven for an hour while something else is baking and you’re good to go. Any extra can be thrown in a soup, stirred into oatmeal, those morning pancakes or any baked good or just eaten plain with a little brown sugar and butter. You could also substitute pumpkin puree if you have some extra lying about.
The soft cookies are dipped into a simple powdered sugar/maple syrup glaze and left to set. I like a bit of candied ginger on top or you can give them a sprinkle of cinnamon. Or both. Or neither. It’s the holiday, do what you want.
Preheat oven to 350ºF. On a sheet pan lined with aluminum foil, prick the sweet potato all over with a fork. Bake until tender, 1 hour. Let cool.
Once cooled, remove the skin and mash until smooth. Measure the amount needed. Use any extra puree in soups, pancakes, muffins and other baked goods (or anywhere you would use pumpkin.)
In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the room temperature cookie dough, mashed sweet potato, brown sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and salt until well combined.
Chill the dough at least 30 minutes or overnight.
Preheat the oven to 325°F.
Using a tablespoon sized cookie scoop or a spoon, scoop the dough into tablespoon sized balls and place on a parchment or silicone baking lined sheet pans 1” apart. (the dough can be frozen after rolling for up to 3 months.)
Bake 10-12 minutes until the tops firm to the touch but still soft and haven’t started to brown. Rotate halfway the pans halfway through baking.
Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.
For the glaze: in a medium bowl, whisk the powdered sugar, maple syrup and water together until smooth.
Dip the top of each cookie into the glaze and gently shake off any excess. Return to the sheet pan and top with a pinch of finely diced candied ginger. Let dry until set.
Do ahead: cookie dough can be frozen up to 3 months. Let defrost then scoop and bake as directed.
Butter and salt. Two flavors I adore in a cookie. And brown sugar. Definitely that as well. For the next cookie on the 12 Days list, we have all those things. A little dark brown sugar is added to the base cookie dough to bring out some caramel notes, a good measure of crushed toffee bits are thrown in too with a good pinch of flaky salt on top. Baked just to the point of crispy edges but a soft, chewy center and it’s just about perfect.
For the toffee bits, you can find those in the baking aisle of most grocery stores. The Heath brand, best known for the candy bar, usually has two options – one plain and another with milk chocolate. I prefer the plain one here but if you’d like to try the chocolate, who I am to stop you? If you can’t find the bits, a few Heath or Skor bars crushed up will work too. Freeze them first and they shatter in a way that’s kind of marvelous. Bashing frozen candy this time of year is good for your mental health. Trust me.
In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the room temperature cookie dough, brown sugar, baking soda and toffee bits until well combined.
Roll the dough into tablespoon sized balls. (if not ready to bake, freeze on a sheet pan until firm then transfer to a labeled ziploc bag and freeze up to 3 months).
When ready to bake preheat the oven to 350°F and line sheet pans with parchment paper or silicone baking liners.
Let the dough come to room temperature if cold or frozen, place the balls 1″ apart on the prepared sheet pans. Press to flatten slightly and top with a pinch of flaky salt.
Bake 9-10 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through until tops are set and the edges are just barely golden brown.
Carefully slide the parchment or silicon sheets onto wire racks to cool.
Do ahead: it’s best to make and freeze the dough and bake as needed rather than freeze baked cookies. Frozen dough will keep up to 3 months.
Today we’re starting to build some variety into our 12 cookie collection. With that same basic cookie dough, we started with a simple butter cookie, made pecan bars and now add a sandwich cookie and some chocolate to the mix. Two buttery cookies with a dark chocolate filling makes for something quite lovely. The spin? The little something that makes it just a little bit different and special? Earl Grey tea. My favorite. A hot mug on a cold morning is heavenly. Earl Grey is quintessentially British, a black tea flavored with bergamot orange, a citrus fruit with the flavor somewhere between an orange and a lemon with a little grapefruit thrown in. It’s delightful and makes a particularly good cookie.
For this one, I add the tea right to the base butter cookie dough with a little extra sugar and some orange zest to accent the bergamot flavor. I used Twinings earl grey tea, readily available in grocery stores but any kind will do. If you opt for a loose leaf tea, give it a few buzzes in a spice grinder to break it down a little first. The filling is a simple ganache, just chocolate and cream, with the earl grey steeped into the warm cream first then removed.
Don’t forget my rule for cut out cookies: roll warm, cut cold. As soon as you make the dough, roll it into sheets between 2 pieces of parchment paper or plastic wrap and chill. When firm, cut into neat shapes. You can bake right away or layer between pieces of parchment and freeze for later. The ganache filling can also be frozen and defrosted just fine.
For the cookies: In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the room temperature cookie dough, sugar, and loose tea until well combined.
Divide the dough into 2-4 pieces and roll between sheets of parchment paper or plastic wrap to and even 1/8” thickness.
Transfer to a sheet pan and refrigerate until firm, at least 30 minutes or up to 2 days tightly wrapped. Dough sheets can be frozen up to 2 months, tightly wrapped.
When ready to bake preheat the oven to 350°F and line sheet pans with parchment paper or silicone baking liners.
Cut the chilled dough into neat shapes and transfer to a sheet pan lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat 1” apart.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through, until set on top and just turning golden on the bottoms. Cool completely.
Carefully slide the parchment or silicon sheets onto wire racks to cool.
Do ahead: it’s best to make and freeze the dough and bake as needed rather than freeze baked cookies. Frozen dough will keep up to 3 months.
For the ganache filling: place the chocolate in a medium bowl and set aside.
Bring the cream to a boil and remove from the heat. Add the tea bag and cover the pot with plastic wrap. Let steep for 30 minutes.
Pour the cream over the chocolate, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, give it a little shake/swirl to fully submerge the chocolate. Let sit for 5 minutes. (If using loose leaf tea, pour the cream through a strainer to remove the tea).
Remove the plastic wrap and gently stir until the ganache is smooth. If the chocolate isn’t fully melted at this point, microwave in 30 second bursts at 50% power or place the bowl over a simmering pot of water, stirring until melted and smooth.
Let the ganache cool; it will thicken as it cools. Transfer to a piping bag or a Ziploc bag.
Turn half the cookies over, snip the corner of the piping bag and pipe the filling on top of the wrong sides. Top with another cookie, right side up and press gently to adhere.
Cookies will keep, tightly wrapped, for several days. They’re not great frozen and defrosted so if you want to work ahead, roll/cut/freeze the shapes up to 2 months and bake from frozen. The ganache can also be frozen up to 2 months.
What’s a holiday cookie spread without a pecan thing? It’s pretty much a requirement. I’ve made probably 50 different kinds of pecan bars, tassies, tarts and cookies over the years and this one, based on a recipe in the Washington Post based on a Maida Heatter recipe, caught my interest. A cookie crust topped with a brown-sugar-pecan mixture reminiscent of a New Orleans praline. Oh boy, there is little I love more than brown sugar and butter. It’s the best.
For this one, our butter cookie dough forms a thin, crispy base with pecans gently pushed in a pretty, even pattern. Brown sugar and butter is cooked together, with a little salt and vanilla and a bit of cayenne because I felt it needed a little zhuzhing up. It’s not spicy but adds a really nice depth of flavor, a bit of warming toward the end. Pop into the oven until the crust is golden brown and the topping bubbles up and caramelizes around the nuts in a praline-like fashion. Its sturdy, something to consider if you’re shipping cookies, and its tasty. Cut into little squares its everything a pecan bar should be. And then some.
For the cookie base: Line a pan (with at least 2” sides) with a crisscross of foil, pressing to make as smooth as possible. Parchment will work but foil works better with hot bubbling sugar.
Turn the base cookie dough into the pan and spread to form an even, level layer, pressing down to compact. The easiest way to do this is to crumble the dough into the pan, starting with the corners, and press to form an even layer. Then top the dough with a scrap of parchment and smooth with your fingers.
Cover the base with the whole pecan halves, flat sides down, giving a little push to adhere to the dough.
for the topping: In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, heat the butter, brown sugar, salt and cayenne, stirring with a spatula, until the mixture comes to a hard boil all over the surface.
Continue to stir for 30 more seconds, then remove the pan from the heat and pour the hot mixture over the pecans, tilting the pan as needed to coat the entire surface.
Bake for 20-23 minutes, until the butter and sugar caramelize and start to solidify around the nuts.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Using the foil, ease the bars from the pan, gently tugging as needed. Remove the foil then cut to desired size – thin strips or small squares.
Let the bars to come to room temperature before serving.
Make Ahead: The baked bars can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days or frozen for several months. Separate the layers with wax paper.
Here we go … Day 1 of 12 Days of Cookies, the 2022 Edition. Starting off slow and easy with these pretty, sparkly cookies. After the Thanksgiving crush, gift shopping and the general head spin that precedes December 1st, an easy one is required.
First move: round up some pretty sugars or sprinkles. I particularly like the large grain sugars; they’re extra sparkly. These things are everywhere right now – grocery stores, craft stores, dollar stores, online. The best selection is right now and probably on sale too. You can also make your own colored sugar if the mood strikes. Just put ¼ cup sugar in a plastic bag, add 1-3 drops of gel/paste food coloring and smoosh/shake it to blend. Turn the sugar out into a clean sheet pan and let dry for several hours. Easy.
Once you have your sugars figured out, take the room temperature butter cookie dough, mix in a few simple things then roll it into tablespoon sized balls (or whatever size you like) and give it a good roll in that colored sugar to fully coat. Bake, giving them a gentle press halfway through to flatten. That’s it. Pretty. Easy. Delicious. It’s also a good one to turn to if you have scraps of dough left from an odd sized batch. And if your cookie tin needs a little color and sparkle, this is the one.
Preheat the oven to 350°F, place the rack in the lower third of the oven and line a sheet pan or two with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the room temperature butter cookie dough, baking powder, salt and sugar.
Place the colored sugar or sprinkles of choice in small bowls.
Roll the cookie dough into tablespoon sized balls.
Roll the balls in the colored sugar to fully coat, pressing lightly to help the sugar adhere.
Place on the prepared sheet pan, 1” apart to allow for spreading, and bake for 5 minutes.
Remove from the oven and give each cookie a gentle press to flatten a little. Return to the oven for an additional 5-7 minutes until the cookies are firm to the touch but still soft in the centers and golden brown on the bottoms.
Let cool.
Cookie dough can be rolled into balls and frozen up to 3 months. The colored sugars sticks best if the dough is soft.
So. Here we are. Twelve Days of Cookies. I thought after 48 cookie recipes (linked below) plus 12 for crackers (here) over the years, I was out of ideas. And I was, for a while. This year has been crazy busy and all my creative recipe brain space has been consumed with work projects but somehow, in a corner of my notebook, I’ve been scribbling cookie ideas here and there. Apparently, the idea portion of my brain takes a break and come back strong. So once again, here we are. A brand new set of Twelve Days of Cookies. Buckle up.
If you’ve played along in the past, you know the drill. If you’re new to this game, we start with one good, solid butter cookie dough and divide it into four, maybe eight, maybe only two pieces. Maybe even something in between. Then you add various things to those blocks of dough – brown sugar, cocoa, nuts, chocolate; all kinds of things – then roll, press, fill and cut to turn them into different cookies. Turning one basic dough into several completely different cookies is the solution to alleviating your holiday baking stress. Works remarkably well unless you try and bang out all 12 cookies the Monday before Thanksgiving like me. That brings a certain amount of aggravation into your life but is do-able if you have to. Sometimes you do what you have to do.
I did a recap a few years back on how to think about your selections and getting organized here and below is the basic dough recipe that starts every cookie. Make a batch or two to start and every other day until Christmas, I’ll throw a new cookie recipe at you in a few different batch sizes. There are a few bars this year, that workhorse of easy holiday baking. A filled cookie, some shortbread. Some are easy, some more involved. Plus don’t forget about the archive of years past – 48 other options to peruse. It’s a choose your own cookie adventure.
Vanilla has come down in price from years past (thank god) but if it’s still out of your price range, raid the liquor cabinet. I’ve used bourbon and dark rum as decent substitutions.
1 pound unsalted butter, softened (4 sticks)
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 large egg yolks
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 ¾ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
In a standing mixture fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, sugar and salt until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.
Scrape the bowl and with the mixer running on medium-low, add the yolks one at a time, then the vanilla and beat until incorporated. Scrape the bowl.
With the mixer on low, gradually mix in the flour until combined. Scrape a final time and turn the dough onto a work surface and gently knead to incorporate all remaining flour.
Divide the dough into two, four or eight equal pieces (a scale is ideal here) and use as is for a delicious butter cookie or proceed with one or several of the variations that will follow in the next twelve posts (or the forty-eight posts from year’s past).
Tips:
Dough can be made ahead and refrigerated, tightly wrapped, for 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months. Let return to room temperature before continuing.
If using salted butter rather than unsalted, decrease the salt in the recipe to ¾ teaspoon.
I tend to do a funny thing with excess food that’s taking up too much space. I turn it into something else and then move it from one place to another. From fridge to freezer. From pantry to freezer (um, hello bean stash.) From fruit bowl to pantry. It’s more of a shifting of the problem than eliminating the problem, but whatever. I’m doing something and it’s not going to waste.
Recently I found myself with an excess of fruit. Again. It’s a frequently occurring problem. I’d picked up a bunch of rhubarb with no plan (no plan = frequently occurring problem #2) and it sat in the fridge for a bit. I also had a few containers of raspberries, over purchased for a holiday cake. I often over purchase as I’m a terrible at calculating how much I’ll need and I don’t like to run out midway. It’s less stressful to deal with an excess of fruit later than to run to the store at 2am to buy more. Trust me. So here I was, again, finding a use for excess fruit but this was an easy one. I’ve said before and I’ll happily repeat myself … raspberries + rhubarb is the superior combination. They are meant to be together. So was it to be tarts? Ice cream? How about a small batch of jam? Yes, why not jam?
A small batch moves quickly, which was important because I was short on time, and the method couldn’t be easier. Equal parts fruit to sugar. My raspberries and chopped rhubarb equaled 380g so I tumbled them into a bowl, added an equal amount of sugar and some fresh lemon juice, gave it a stir and popped it in the fridge. Two days later I brought it to a boil, cooked for just over 10 minutes until it gelled and poured the bubbly red mix into 5 little jars. Easy. Sunshine on toast. And the problem has now moved from the fridge to the pantry. Success. Ish.
I read a nice little description in a marmalade recipe by Master Preserver Camilla Wynne on how to tell when you’ve hit the proper gelled/cooked state. On a plate that’s been in the freezer for 10 minutes, place a small spoonful of the jam and pop back in the freezer for 2 minutes. Retrieve the dish, then give the dollop a nudge with your fingertip. If the surface wrinkles like a silk shirt on the floor on Sunday morning, it’s ready. Otherwise, continue cooking for a few minutes before trying again. Doesn’t that conjure up exactly what to look for? Bravo Camilla.
STRESS BAKING THERAPY FACTOR: EASY LIKE A SUNDAY MORNING. I’ve recently started composting and have become hyper aware of my food waste. Had I waited until I had a stretch of time, these lovely fruits would have gone into the bin so I’m pretty damn pleased I turned this into something lovely and delicious 30 minutes before my dentist appointment. I squeezed it in when I could. While my jam shelf is packed, it’s easier to deal with than a full fridge so I’m calling victory. My morning toast appreciates it. Plus I can always gift a jar and people will think I’m wonderful. They don’t need to know the real back story. Victory x 2.
5% the weight of the fruit in fresh lemon juice (this helps the set)
My batch:
165g fresh red raspberries
216g chopped rhubarb
380g sugar
19g fresh lemon juice
In a large bowl, combine the fruit, sugar and lemon juice, Stir to combine at refrigerate 1-3 days. If you remember, give a stir once or twice a day.
When you’re ready to cook the jam, place your jars in a large pan with at least 1” water to cover. Boil for 10 minutes.
Drain and remove the jars from the hot water and turn upside down on a clean kitchen towel. Slide the rings and lids into the hot water and put the lid on the pot.
Placed a small ceramic plate in the freezer.
Meanwhile, in another pot, bring the fruit mixture to a boil of medium high,
Continue boiling the mixture, stirring frequently to prevent scorching, cook until the surface is glossy, the mixture clings to the spatula and the bubbles are large, rhythmic and a little mesmerizing. Test the set as noted above – place a bit of the frozen plate and return to the freezer for 2 minutes. Give the chilled jam a little nudge with your finger and if it wrinkles a bit, it’s ready. If not, boil for another 5 minutes and test again. My small batch was ready in about 12 minutes.
Turn the jars right side up, remove the rings and lids from the hot water and let drain on the kitchen towel.
Fill the jars, leaving ½” headspace. Wipe the jar rims clean with a damp paper towel, place a lid and ring on top and fasten the ring.
At this point, you can water bath process in boiling water for 10 minutes or turn the jars upside down on a wire rack for 2 minutes, then turn upright and let rest at room temperature, undisturbed, for 24 hours. Regardless of method, check the next day to make sure the jars have sealed. Any unsealed jars should be refrigerated and consumed within 2 months. Sealed jars can be kept at room temperature for up to 1 year.
It’s melon season in Southwest France and I’m crying that I’m missing it. They’re incredible – a variety called charentes with a deep orange flesh and a fragrant sweetness that I’ve never experienced anywhere else. So so good. When I visit, I’ll make a point of buying several at the markets and the farmer will carefully select and mark them – 1, 2, 3 – based on what order to eat them. Amazing. My dear friend Bill often makes a simple melon salad with a bit of piment d’esplette, olive oil and sea salt that is so great. I think he once pickled the melon which was also fantastic.
Speaking of melon salads, a friend got married a few weekends ago and the food was outstanding – shout out to Maison Cuisine. There was a salad on the dinner buffet that really tickled my fancy and reminded me of Bill – melon, red onion, cucumber with the delightful addition of candied ginger. I made a quick note in my phone for later (one never knows where you’ll find inspiration), grabbed another cocktail and danced the night away.
I can’t really get great melons like those in France, more’s the pity. Sometimes, for a short week or two, something similar might be at the farmers market but for the most part, it’s rather bland cantaloupes. Sad. My plan was to take one of those mediocre grocery store cantaloupes and see if I could zhuzh it up with some of these flavors, inspired both by Bill and that wedding salad. I bought one and that was the plan but then I did something typical. I forgot about that melon. I overcommitted myself and never quite got to it. But something amazing happened as it sat on the counter. That damn thing ripened to an amazing sweetness. Sure it was just this side of turning but holy hell was it good – sweet and flavorful and wonderful. Better than when I bought it, most certainly!
The combination of sweet melon, cucumber, red onion and those surprise bits of ginger with a bit of lemon juice, mint and a hint of spice was outstanding. Crunchy, cold, refreshingly wonderful, it’s another one for those too hot and too tired to cook kind of days. I had originally thought of adding some honey to bring up the sweetness but my lackadaisical attitude took care of that and I didn’t even need it. If your melon isn’t quite up to par, maybe add a little honey. Or just forget about it on the counter for a week because that apparently works too.
STRESS THERAPY BAKING FACTOR: PROCRASTINATION FOR THE WIN! If you can’t find a good melon, maybe plan ahead for this one. I can’t guarantee that a mediocre melon will turn into a great one after a week on the counter but it can’t hurt to try.
I like a bit of spice in this mix; it goes so well with the sweetness of the melon and the herbal notes from the mint. In the spirit of my French friends, I used piment d’esplette, a mild ground red pepper from the Basque country but can be hard to find. In its place, Aleppo pepper is nice but also may be a challenge to locate. That delightful Mexican spice mix, Tajin, is great or, taking a tip from Cooks Illustrated, use a mix of sweet paprika and cayenne.
1 cantaloupe, peeled, halved, seeded, and cut into 1 ½” chunks (6 cups)
½ red onion, thinly sliced
½ English cucumber, halved lengthwise and sliced thin
1 generous tablespoon candied ginger, sliced into thin batons
I haven’t been cooking much for myself lately. It’s been all work recipes all the time and then scraping something together from the leftovers. I’ve been laying low, depressed and dismayed at where we are as a country with a low simmering, building anger. If one more white CIS males tells me it will be ok, I will punch him. It’s not OK. It just isn’t. I keep thinking back to 2018 when someone dismissed my concern over his presidential choice and lectured me that everything will be fine, there are checks and balances, blah blah blah. I expressed my doubts then, was summarily shot down and lo and behold, I was proven right. My concerns were real and justified. It was a classic deflection to avoid a difficult discussion, a be-quiet-little-lady response meant to make me feel small and ill informed. Except I am neither small nor ill informed. Because here we are. In the last weeks, I’ve lost autonomy of my own body, our country is veering into extreme religious rule, our courts are now politicized and there was a mass shooting 30 minutes from my house. Another one. We can’t go to school, we can’t go to church, go to a concert, watch a parade or grocery shop or go to a movie without a lingering fear we might die. We’ve become numb to it all and I don’t like it one bit.
In the meantime, I write postcards for pro-choice and sensible gun control candidates, I volunteer escort at a women’s clinic when I can and I try to get through the days. And I guess I have to eat. Yes, I am steering this difficult topic to food because as much time as I spend thinking, talking and writing about food, it hasn’t been providing the usual levels of comfort. That’s concerning. I don’t feel like cooking and I don’t feel like eating.
My savior? Much to my great great surprise … bagged salads. And that’s what I choose to talk about today. Bagged salads. Weird topic, definitely, but I it’s about all I can handle right now. In general, I don’t care for lettuce (what’s the point?) and I really don’t care for pre-bagged salads. They always look sad and droopy and the flavor combinations are surprisingly boring. However … I have noticed that Trader Joe’s bucks this trend and carries some really interesting and delicious mixes – not just in the greens but the dressings and crunchy add ins too. There’s texture AND flavor. Bravo TJ’s. It’s about all I can handle these days – bagged salads and frozen appetizers.
These combinations gave me a rare moment of inspiration as I mustered up the energy to make something refreshing and crunchy, with a minimal amount of cooking. Just a lot of chopping. Something about wielding that big knife felt really good. It’s sort of Vietnamese and maybe a little Thai, with a coconut milk based dressing spiked with lime juice, ginger and my favorite, makrut lime. That last one may be tough to find – try a Thai leaning market. I bought a little plant this winter and have been happy to have a supply of fresh leaves nearby but I have a stash in the freezer too just in case. I’ve been eating a lot of shrimp because they defrost and cook quickly and I don’t have the brain space to plan too far out. The vegetables are bright and crunchy and hold up pretty well and sure, it veers into slaw territory, but I really enjoy that crunch. And right now, the goal is just to breathe and get something on the plate. This works.
STRESS THERAPY BAKING FACTOR. BREATHE AND FIGHT LIKE HELL. Maybe chop up a bunch of vegetables – wielding a big knife is therapeutic and makes you feel like a boss. Or just buy an interesting bag of salad but don’t be complacent about what is happening in our world. Don’t. At one point, America was the great experiment. No longer. Get involved. Write for Postcards to Voters. Pay attention. READ. Get your news from trusted news services and read it, don’t watch it. TV News is entertainment – don’t forget that. Read in depth coverage from publications that adhere to ethical standards of reporting and the classic elements of journalism in America. If they’ve won a few Pulitzers, you’re on the right track. And for crissakes VOTE. 25% of the population is holding us hostage by counting on our laziness and disinterest. Don’t stand for it.
When grilling shrimp, I always skewer them. Makes it easy to flip quickly and avoid overcooking. Chasing loose shrimp around the grill is no fun. If you don’t have makrut lime leaf, skip it. Nothing else quite duplicates that flavor and the dressing is still pretty good without it.
for the dressing:
1 cup full fat coconut milk
1 teaspoon honey
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 large makrut lime leaf, finely diced
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon Vietnamese fish sauce
1-2 small fresh red chilies, finely diced or ¼ teaspoon crushed red chili flakes
for the salad:
1 pound large raw shrimp, peeled & deveined (21-25 count)
½ head napa cabbage, thinly sliced crosswise, about 4 cups
½ medium English cucumber, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
½ medium red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and thinly sliced, about ½ cup
1 medium carrot, shredded or sliced into thin batons, about 1 cup
¼ small red onion, thinly sliced, about ½ cup
¼ cup roasted salted cashews or peanuts, roughly chopped
2 Tablespoons torn Thai basil leaves
2 Tablespoons torn mint leaves
The night before: In a medium jar, add the dressing ingredients and shake to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed. Refrigerate overnight to allow the flavors to meld. Shake before using.
Pour about ½ cup of the dressing into heavy Ziploc bag. Add the shrimp; turn to coat and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Thread the marinated shrimp onto metal or wooden skewers and preheat a grill to medium high.
Grill the shrimp until opaque and just cooked through, a few minutes on each side. Alternatively, use a stovetop grill pan or sauté over medium high. If sautéing, add a bit of oil to the hot pan first.
In a large bowl, combine all the vegetables, nuts and most of the basil and mint. Toss with the about ½ cup dressing, just enough to lightly coat, reserving a tablespoon or two to drizzle on top.
Add the grilled shrimp on top, drizzle with the reserved dressing and garnish with some additional basil and mint.
STRESSCAKE 