About Jack & Barbra Donachy

Writers, photographers, food lovers, anglers, travelers and students of poetry

The Yin and Yang of Chocolate Chip Cookies

Posted on September 27, 2015 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Which side is more delicious? The chocolate with white chocolate chips? Or the traditional chocolate chip side?

Life is too short for just one kind of cookie. Combine two cookie doughs that take about the same amount of time to bake and you have a recipe for a cookie which will disappear in the blink of an eye! These cookies were as fun to make as they were to eat… play dough for a baker!

Yin Yang Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

Chocolate Chip Dough

3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

White Chocolate Chip Chocolate Dough

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
10 tbsp dutch processed cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
1 cup white chocolate chips

Directions

Make the chocolate chip dough.
In a large bowl, mix together butter, sugars, egg and vanilla.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.
Thoroughly mix the flour mixture into the butter mixture.
Fold chocolate chips into dough.
Turn dough out onto piece of plastic wrap. Cover tightly and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
Make the white chocolate chip chocolate dough.
In a large bowl, mix together butter, sugars, egg and vanilla.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.
Thoroughly mix the flour mixture into the butter mixture.
Fold white chocolate chips into dough.
Turn dough out onto piece of plastic wrap. Cover tightly and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
Take a tablespoon of the light dough and roll into a ball.
Take a tablespoon of the chocolate dough and roll into a ball.
Cut each ball in half and press the opposite doughs together, so you have a ball of half chocolate chip dough and half white chocolate chip dough.
Press the balls slightly and place on prepared baking sheet. Repeat process until the baking sheet is filled. I fit 20 cookies on a sheet.
Bake cookies for about 10 minutes. I like mine soft, so they will appear slightly underdone at 10 minutes. Bake a couple of minutes longer for a crunchier cookie.
Enjoy warm or at room temperature.

Makes about 60 cookies.

Back on the Water: Upriver Grayling in Mongolia

Posted on September 21, 2015 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

It felt good to finally get out on water. Prospecting for these handsomely marked grayling on a small river in Mongolia took us back to prospecting for trout in small waters in other places.

Nearly as translucent as water and marked like colored glass, the grayling’s dorsal fin…

By mid-September, autumn has come to Mongolia’s steppes and mountains. By the end of September, we’ll have had our first snows.

Sluggish with cold and dark with Autumn, one of the year’s last grasshoppers.

Yellows, golds and browns mixed with the blue-green of evergreens, predominant fall colors across this land. Here and there a touch of crimson.

Feet up. Water pours across the floorboards of the doorless Polaris Ranger. One of several crossings.

Not everyone made it.

Stringing up. Something between rumor and someone’s good authority sent us up to these headwaters, prospecting.

I stuck my camera into the icy water to get a photo of rocks speckled with caddis casings.

We encountered sporadic blue-winged olive mayflies. Rocks we flipped revealed caddis and stoneflies, a few loaches and this dragonfly nymph.

Possible water, but not promising. Larch trees yellowed by frost-laced mornings, pools in shaded feeder streams iced over.

It feels like a lifetime ago that we were on our boat in Alaska, filling coolers with a years’ worth of ocean bright salmon, halibut and rockfish to sustain us through months in the Arctic Bush. Back to roots – a fly rod, a small river, drifting nymphs and dries. Bone satisfying to once again feel the weight of a fish. Could be a rainbow stream in Colorado, cutthroat water in Oregon, a brookie creek in Pennsylvania or a yamame stream in Japan. It all feels like home.

Barbra’s first grayling and her first fish in Mongolia.

We hiked and drove and hiked some more. At last we found the water I’d been looking for – the right depth, the right flow, the right-sized boulders breaking up the bottom at the right intervals. And there in front of us, tens of fish materialized out of nothing – out of water as clear as air – porpoising and splashing across a run maybe 60 feet long and half that width in pursuit of something tiny emerging from the water. Several times these grayling rocketed completely out of the water as they threw themselves at our mayfly patterns. A number of times we were both hooked up, simultaneously.

Eight inches or eighty pounds… It never gets old. The grayling were still feeding when we left, reluctantly, the sun low behind clouds.

A backward look…

Grayling. Grayling water. Mongolia…

The Suffering Bastard – a Toast to the End of Summer and the Beginning of Fall

Posted on August 30, 2015 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

The end of summer, the beginning of autumn – and a little of both in this lovely drink that combines citrus, bourbon, gin and ginger ale.

Sometime during the late 40’s in Cairo, Egypt, a bartender by the name of Joe Scialom thought to combine gin and brandy to remedy his hangover. A bit of lime cordial gave the drink a citrusy zip and a few ounces of ginger ale added fizz. In 1950, Time Magazine reported that it was “Egypt’s favorite drink.” At any rate, the concoction was popular at the original Shepard’s Hotel were Scialom was employed until the hotel burned down in 1952.

These days, Suffering Bastard’s are more commonly made with bourbon than brandy, and although the original called for bitters, we’ve omitted it here. Pick a glass, add ice, pour in the ingredients and give it a stir.

Suffering Bastard

Ingredients

1 ounce bourbon
1 ounce gin
1 ounce lime juice
4 ounces cold ginger ale

Directions

Fill an old fashioned glass with cubed ice.
Pour bourbon, gin, lime juice, and ginger ale over ice.
Give it a quick stir and garnish with a slice of lime.

Our Annual Mongolian Khorkhog

Posted on August 23, 2015 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

exploding khorkhog n

Packed with sheep, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, sizzling hot fist-sized rocks and water, the piping hot contents of this milk can are tender and ready to be served. Let the khorkhog begin!

It’s a a tradition keenly anticipated at the International School of Ulaanbaatar (ISU). With our first week of school behind us, it’s time for faculty, staff and administrators to relax in the style of traditional Mongolia – with a khorkhog. In days past, the animal’s stomach would have served as the cooking pot. These days, it’s more common for khorkhog to be slow roasted with hot rocks, meat and vegetables placed in an old-fashioned milk can. Prepared thus, the meat comes out tender and flavorful, though as the photo suggests, containers are to be opened with caution.

A shovel handle is used to apply pressure to the milk can to slowly let off steam while ISU’s driver turned chef Baatar pulls a roasted potato from another can.

With a faculty, staff and student body representing over 30 nationalities, ISU is truly an international school. But the school’s roots are planted firmly in Mongolia. The site selected for this year’s khorkhog is on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar on the shoulders of Bogd Khan Mountain, a place Mongolians point to with pride as the world’s oldest national park. An easy bike ride from our Ulaanbaatar apartment, we’ve come across signs of deer and wild boar on hikes and rides through the hills, and have encountered fox, sable, marmots and Eurasian red squirrels. We’ve also focused our binoculars on dozens of species of birds including demoiselle cranes, hoopoes, falcons, eagles, hawks, kites and numerous song birds.

Circling high overhead, an imperial eagle checked out our feast.

Song is a rich tradition in Mongolia, and once stomachs were full a guitar and drum came out.

Everyone knew the words to the Beatles’ classics!

Meanwhile, a group found a perfect pitch speckled with wildflowers for a game.

Rounds of tug-of-war were amiable enough…

… but wrestling, one of the Mongolia’s national sports, always has a serious edge to it.

Recent rains have turned the fields and forest lush shades of green, and wildflowers – not to mention abundant wild herbs such as mint, sage and caraway – are everywhere.

Situated at over 1,300 meters (4,300 feet) above sea level and not terribly far south of Siberia, fall comes quickly on the heels of summer in Ulaanbaatar. Already nights are growing cool. In a few weeks time the larch trees where we recently held our khorkhog feast will turn gold with autumn.

Good Morning, Ulaanbaatar! Carrot, Pineapple and More Muffins

Posted on August 23, 2015 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Moist, delicious muffins filled with carrots, pineapple, pecans, and currants.

Sometimes, I wake up and want muffins for breakfast. The beauty of this muffin recipe is two-fold. It’s a quick recipe. Fifteen minutes after they were popped into the oven, they were ready to eat! And the recipe is a great base recipe. So many of the ingredients could be swapped for others to result in another version of a moist, tasty muffin. The carrots could be swapped with grated zucchini or summer squash. The pineapple could be replaced by chopped apple or smashed banana. The pecans and currants could be traded with any kind of nuts and dried fruits. The variations can be as wild as you can imagine. Just check your pantry and make a batch!

Carrot, Pineapple and More Muffins

Ingredients

2 eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup sour cream
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
1 cup grated carrots
1 cup chopped pineapple
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup dried currants

Directions

Grease 12-muffin tin. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
In a medium bowl, whisk together first 5 ingredients.
In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Stir carrots, pineapple, pecans and currants into flour mixture.
Stir egg mixture into flour mixture until just combined.
Divide batter evenly into prepared muffin tin.
Bake for 15 – 20 minutes, until tops are golden brown and spring back to the touch.

Mushroom and Lentil Pâté

Posted on August 10, 2015 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Unbelievably meaty flavor for a delicious vegan pâté. Serve it on crispy bread, crunchy crackers, or a leaf of fresh romaine lettuce as an appetizer to please friends of all eating persuasions.

Jack and I are intrigued with all foods. Confirmed omnivores, we never pass up an opportunity to try something new. A visit to my sister, who is a devout vegan (and gluten free) inspired us to walk in her culinary shoes for a bit.

Growing up in a household flavored with Swiss and Jewish heritage, my sister and I were exposed to world flavors from a very young age. Both of us have fond food memories from this period in our lives. One of our favorites was chopped chicken liver which is a rich pâté featuring the flavors of chicken fat and caramelized onions. We loved this spread on toast or crackers along with a slice of tomato and a sprinkle of salt.

This mushroom and lentil pâté has a surprisingly similar flavor and texture to chopped chicken liver or even duck liver pâté. My sister and I made this recipe together last week and couldn’t stop eating it. For the benefit of her current diet, we served the pâté on crisp pieces of romaine lettuce instead of crackers. A healthy smear of the pâté on the lettuce layered with a slice of heirloom tomato and a dash of salt brought us right back to a childhood favorite.

We made this recipe a second time substituting the agave nectar with honey and substituting two tablespoons of the extra virgin olive oil with unsalted butter for an even richer flavor. These changes take the recipe from vegan status to vegetarian.

Mushroom and Lentil Pâté

Ingredients

2 cups cooked lentils
2 cups chopped mushrooms, shiitake or crimini work well
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, diced
1 cup toasted and ground almonds
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp agave nectar
pinch cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste
extra olive oil, needed

Directions

In a large sauté pan, heat 4 tbsp olive oil over medium heat.
Add onions and sauté until translucent.
Add garlic and sauté for 2 minutes.
Add mushrooms and cook until they are soft and cooked through. Remove from heat and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine almonds, lemon juice, soy sauce, rosemary, thyme, sage, honey, and chipotle.
Stir in mushroom mixture.
Using a stick blender (or food processor), purée the mixture.
Add in cooked lentils.
Purée the mixture.
If the mixture feels too thick, thin it with additional olive oil.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Homemade Ricotta Gnocchi

Posted on July 19, 2015 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Oh so fluffy…pillowy soft and flavorful… that’s how to describe these homemade ricotta gnocchi. We oohed and aahed after every bite.

Every summer, free from the distractions of work, we set goals – projects to push ourselves as we explore passions and interests. This summer we decided to focus on things culinary. With three different Culinary Institute of America courses from The Great Courses waiting for us to dive into, we donned aprons, dusted off the DVD player, and got our notebooks ready for shopping lists, culinary tips and instructions.

Today’s challenge was ricotta gnocchi. We had made roasted squash gnocchi back in Alaska, so the concept of this delicious handmade pasta was not new to us, but this time we were anticipating a more traditional version of this classic dish. We began preparing for this batch of gnocchi a couple of days in advance by making a homemade ricotta-type cheese. You can find that easy-to-prepare recipe here. This surprisingly easy to make cheese is perfect for this gnocchi recipe, or you can use store-bought ricotta. Whether you make your own ricotta or buy it, you’ll want to let it dry out a bit by hanging it in cheesecloth overnight in the refrigerator.

Our CIA instructor, Chef Bill Briwa, began by making the dough and then rolling it out into long logs which he then cut into bite-sized pieces. He gave each piece a decorative pinch between his thumb and forefinger. As an alternative method of giving gnocchi a pleasing shape, I recalled seeing a video in which Italian grandmothers rolled the gnocchi down the back of a long-tined dinner fork to create decorative ridges to hold the sauce. With a lifetime of experience behind them, these women worked with incredible speed! Determined to make the Italian grannies proud, Jack and I quickly (although not as quickly as these women) rolled logs of dough, sliced bite-sized pieces, and rolled our gnocchi down the backs of forks. Given our lack of experience and how quickly and attractively the gnocchi came out, we clearly had good teachers.

And the result? Oh my. We made a light sauce featuring butter, olive oil and garlic, sliced fresh summer squash thin on a mandolin, added a few halved cherry tomatoes, and briefly cooked up the sauce. It was perfect on the pillowy, flavorful gnocchi, as was the chilled bottle of Spanish Chardonnay we served. Fantastico!

Ricotta Gnocchi

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups dry ricotta (if you don’t want to make your own, you could hang store bought ricotta in cheesecloth overnight to reduce extra moisture)
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp fresh grated nutmeg
1 egg plus 1 yolk
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
salt and pepper
semolina flour for dusting

Directions

Mix together ricotta, Parmesan cheese, flour, and nutmeg.
Thoroughly mix in eggs.
Mix in butter.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Sprinkle working surface with semolina. Use a fairly generous amount. This will absorb the excess moisture while the dough rests.
Take 1/4 of the dough and roll it into a long log.
Cut bite-sized pieces and set them aside on a piece of parchment paper.
Repeat with remaining quarters of dough.
Cook gnocchi in salted, simmering water. Gnocchi will float to the top when they are finished cooking.
Gnocchi is more delicate than other pastas. So it’s best to remove it gently with a slotted spoon or similar tool. Serve immediately with a light sauce.

Gnocchi freezes well. Initially freeze while on parchment paper on a tray in order to keep the gnocchi separate, then transfer to a zip top bag.

Common Merganser with Chicks, Tuul River, Ulaanbaatar

Posted on July 18, 2015 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

A healthy family of common mergansers (Mergus merganser) indicates an abundance of small fish in the Tuul River on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

Mergansers are large diving ducks that subsist primarily on fish, although the young also fill up on aquatic insects such a the larva of mayflies and stoneflies. They make their nests in cavities in trees, sometimes a good distance from water. Less frequently, mergansers nest in holes in cliffs or high banks. They can be found on open water throughout the Northern Hemisphere, and are a good indicator of clean water and healthy populations of small fish.

If you look closely, you can make out the serrations on her bill – the perfect adaptation for holding onto fish. In contrast to the females, the drakes’ heads are dark green, their flanks are white and their backs are black. Although common mergansers are usually encountered on freshwater lakes and rivers, they are frequently seen in coastal bays and estuaries as well.

A baleful eye tells us we’ve approached close enough. Undisturbed this family went about their business, dipping their heads underwater in search of food as they paddled along the river’s current breaks.

Homemade Ricotta Cheese – As Easy as 1, 2, Cheese!

Posted on July 17, 2015 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

A beautiful round of “ricotta” cheese made in our very own kitchen. Easy to make and delicious to eat!

When will lived in the small rural village of Point Hope, Alaska, ricotta cheese was nearly impossible to get. The main way to acquire this cheese was by way of a kindly person hand-carrying it in on a flight from Anchorage. The desire to cook with ricotta and the scarcity of this cheese prompted us to learn how to make it. As it turned out, it was simple.

Living in the city of Ulaanbaatar in the dairy-loving country of Mongolia, you would think any cheese we would like would be at our fingertips. Interestingly enough, we have never seen ricotta in any of the grocery stores we frequent. Fortunately, milk as well as vinegar are readily available – all we need to make our own “ricotta.” We place ricotta in quotes to avoid the argument that what we are making is not authentic ricotta. The ricotta we turn out in our kitchen is delicious and works well in any recipe that calls for ricotta cheese.

So, in a few easy steps, you, too, can make your own ricotta cheese. You can use the initial warm ricotta to create delicious savory or sweet spreads. You can also let it dry out a little longer to make terrific pasta fillings or ricotta gnocchi.

Homemade Ricotta Cheese

Ingredients

5 cups milk (I use whole, but 2% fat or more would also work.)
2 tbsp white vinegar

Directions

Heat milk to about 165 degrees F (74 degrees C) over medium heat.
Stir in vinegar. You will notice the milk split into curds and whey. Let cool slightly.
Hang double layer of cheesecloth in a plastic storage container. You can also line a strainer with cheesecloth and place over a bowl for the same purpose.
Pour heated milk into cheesecloth to separate out the whey.
Let drain for at least 30 minutes before using. The longer you drain, the drier the end result will be.

Stovetop Pizza – A Fast, Tasty Option Better than Delivery!

Posted on July 15, 2015 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Twenty minutes from conception to the plate. Delicious stovetop pizza. Yes, we love anchovies. Can you spy those salty little morsels?

Awhile ago, someone shared a recipe for a homemade scratch pizza that could be made from start to finish in one pan on the stovetop. Intriguing. We usually make batches of pizza crusts which we partially bake and keep at the ready in our freezer. Of course, making our traditional crusts from yeasted dough takes time, not to mention space in the freezer. So we tried the stovetop pizza to see if this speedy pizza would cut the mustard.

What we discovered is a terrific method for making pizza in a galley, in a small camper kitchen, or anytime you want to quickly whip up a pizza. Heck, this is faster than ordering a pizza to be delivered!

The fifty dollar question… How’s the crust? No doubt, whether you make it in a wood-fired oven, a regular oven or over a grill, a traditional crust has a fuller flavor and better texture. But this quick homemade crust is quite good. Experiment with the heating till you get it just right, and you’ll end up with a crust that has better taste and texture than just about any ready-made frozen pizza or the soggy stuff delivered to your house. If one person creates the dough while the other whips up a sauce and grates the cheese, you can make one of these in 20 minutes! The crust is nice and crispy and is substantial enough to handle a lot of toppings. Use a non-stick pan such as those made by Scanpan or Swiss Diamond, and you won’t believe how easily the pizza slides out of the pan and onto a cutting board. Magical! And clean-up’s a piece of cake. So, the final verdict is four thumbs up. This is definitely a recipe that will go into our main collection.

20 Minute Stovetop Pizza

Ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp yeast
1 tsp granulated sugar
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup warm water (105 degrees F/41 C)

Directions

Whisk together flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a large pan. Make sure to use a pan with a fitted lid. We use an 11-inch (28 cm) pan.
Stir water into the flour mixture. Mix well.
Evenly spread dough on the bottom of pan using a rubber spatula.
Top with your favorite toppings.
Cover pan with fitted lid. Cook pizza for 5 minutes on heat a little hotter than medium.
Continue cooking pizza for 10 more minutes on medium heat. Either vent the lid during this cooking or wipe out the condensation on lid to avoid a soggy pizza.
Slide the pizza out onto a cutting board and enjoy!