*Cream of Arraracha - His and Hers*

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Ah, vacation! After the stress of the semester's finals, I can finally kick back and enjoy my kitchen once again.
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In all truth, I first made this cream exactly one month ago. I was fighting off the sniffles, needing something nourishing and filling while I studied, and had some arraracha (known as mandioquinha in Brazil) begging to be used. Arraracha is the Mister's thing, not mine, but I decided to give it a try. A girly, frilly, healthy try.

Cream of Arracacha – One for the ladies
250 gr. Arracacha
2 cups chicken stock (homemade is better)
½ cup sliced leeks
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tbsp silken tofu or soy cream
½ large red onion
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Sauté the leeks and garlic.
Peel and chop the arracacha. Add to the pot with the leeks and garlic, and cover with the chicken stock. Cook for 20 minutes.
Blend with tofu and adjust spice.
Garnish with thinly sliced red onion or shallots and freshly ground pepper.
Makes 2 servings.
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This week I bought the tubers thinking of this cream. It's been cold down here, and awfully gray and rainy. Nothing like comfort food in such weather, eh?

Or as I told the Mister when he got home, dinner was gonna rock his socks off...

Block Rockin’ Cream of Arracacha
500 gr. arracacha
3 ½ cups water
4 cloves garlic
2 tbsp butter
1 cup roughly chopped old Dutch master or other hard cheese
½ cup milk cream
1 tsp nutmeg
salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper
4 or 5 sprigs of green onions
½ cup Paris mushrooms

Mince the garlic finely. In a deep pot, sauté the garlic till golden.
Cut the arracacha in small pieces. Add to pot, salt and cover with 2 cups of water. Let boil for at least 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a separate pan, sauté the mushrooms with 1 tbsp of butter. Thinly slice the green onions. Reserve.
When the arracacha is done, add the remaining butter, water, the nutmeg and milk cream. With an immersion blender or food processor, blend until the mixture has become a smooth cream. Add cheese and blend. Not incorporating the old master completely gives the cream an interesting texture. You could use grated cheese instead, and skip the blending.
Taste and adjust spice.
Serve and garnish with mushrooms, green onions and black pepper.
Makes 4 servings.
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Sure, potatoes would do too... but arraracha has a distinctive strong flavor of its own, definitely worth giving it a try.
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Once again I'm tortured by all the photos of burgers and hot dogs and the description of warm picnic/grilling weather online. So even if the weather ain't right, I'll be making myself a cheeseburger and enjoying the spirit of the day.
Happy 4th of July!
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*go on and be a grown up now!*

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Who said growing up has no perks?
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I mean, you could go and eat yourself sick with candy and no one will punish you (but your bottom may grow).
You also could make a whole chocolate cake and eat it all by yourself (then blame your slowing metabolism for the weight gain).
And stay up all night watching scary movies.
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You know what I'm talking about, don't ya?
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But if you're not doing all that, today is probably as good a day as any other to go thank yo' momma for giving you an ounce of common sense. And that big ass of yours! (Or in my case, my nasty "classy" sense of humor).
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Then squeeze her close like there is no tomorrow.
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And maybe even make her a nice ol' cup of grown up coffee!
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Big bad-ass grown-up coffee:
250 ml strong black coffee
50 ml coconut milk (or regular)
50 ml chocolate liquor
cinnamon

Blend it all together, serve it up and go watch cartoons with the old lady!!!
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*Holiday Envy*

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Yeah, I've got it. Bad. All thanks to a huge RSS feed of food blogs, all chitty chatty about Cinco de Mayo.
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So I made myself a little something...
A friend gave me some salty corn cake he made on the weekend, so I just grilled a couple slices of that with bacon, garlic, half a yellow pepper and some kale, and served it with a side of my guacamole.
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Not too heavy, and not too light. Yum, as in dinner for one!
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*and now...*

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Here, have a cookie.
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I will admit, I'm quite shameless. Although I've been promising people high and low this recipe, I never got around to post it.
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Sure, it's not even originally mine. EVERYONE knows the NY Times Chocolate Chip Cookie. And I kept putting off posting it because my cookies never turn out very photogenic.
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But alas, here it is...
Nom! That's a pistachio chocolate variation sandwiching vanilla and chocolate icecream. And this is why I love this recipe so much...
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It can become almost any other cookie. Last year for Christmas I made an oats, coconut and raisin variation.
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Also, it's worth posting because I took the time to convert ALL the measurements.
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So ladies and gentleman, finally, the...

New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookie
(converted measurements to metric)

482 g flour
1 ¼ tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp coarse salt
2 ½ sticks/1 ¼ cups/300 ml unsalted butter
284 g light brown sugar
227 g granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp natural vanilla extract
567 g bittersweet chocolate chips/chunks
sea salt to taste

- Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside
- Using a mixer, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes.
- Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
- Stir in the vanilla.
- Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix well until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds.
- Drop in chocolate chips and incorporate without breaking.
- Press plastic wrap around dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours (Very important!)
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 180C.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

- Scoop 50 g mounds of dough (you can use an icecream scoop to measure) onto baking sheet,
- Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft – 10 to 12 minutes each batch.
- If necessary, flatten with spatula (but not too much)
- Transfer sheet to wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. No rack? No problem. Use a wooden cutting board, or a grate of some kind. Even a dish rack will do.
- Repeat with remaining dough.
- Dough can be frozen up to 3 months.

Personal Notes:
- The original recipe may be a bit too sweet. Be sure to use bitter chocolate or adjust sugar accordingly.
- The sea salt may seem to be strange, but it does make things more interesting.
- You can use the basic ingredients and substitute the chocolate for other things, like oats and raisins or half nuts half chocolate. Just respect the weight proportion.
- I have always made half the recipe. It’s a lot! You can also double the size of the cookies, but be careful with excessive browning.
- For larger cookies (100g) bake for 14 minutes+.
- Turn baking sheet around in oven through half the baking time. This ensures a more even browning.
- These cookies are chewy on the inside and crispy on the edges.

Makes 40 medium (icecream scoop sized) cookies.

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Just in time for the Easter holiday. Enjoy!

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*creaming*

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Gotta love heart warming creamy foods. Specially when one feels under the weather...
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Ever finished your morning classes craving something hot and nourishing? I started the week with a soup that soothed both my stomach, my appetite and my sore muscles.

Makes 2 portions.

1 large potato, diced
100 g milk cream (I used soy)
1 tbsp butter
1 cup thinly sliced leeks
1 smoked sausage
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the potato in just enough water to cover it, for about 20 minutes.
In a food processor (or blender), mix the potato (with the cooking water) and the cream.
Saute the leeks and sausage in the butter.
Add creamed potato and spice to taste.
Enjoy!

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Anyone else feeling eager for Easter goodies?
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