White Chocolate Chip Cherry Pecan Chunk Cookies

Posted on October 31, 2012 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Cookies bursting with chewy cherry chunks, white chocolate chips and delicious pecans are so good straight from the oven and even better a couple of days later… if they make it that long!

It was a cold, overcast afternoon 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle. After two late nights of work in a row, we were rewarded with a two-hour head start on our weekend. All we needed was a cup of hot tea and some warm cookies to go with. What? No cookies? A quick perusal of the pantry revealed a bag of white chocolate chips, dried cherries, and pecan halves. Don’t worry, Jack, fresh warm cookies are on the way!

White Chocolate Chip Cherry Pecan Chunk Cookies

Ingredients

12 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp milk
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup dried cherries, chopped
1 cup white chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Cream together butter and sugars.
Mix in eggs, one at a time.
Mix in vanilla.
Mix in milk.
In a separate bowl, combine flour and baking soda.
Stir flour into butter mixture until just combined.
Use same bowl as flour to mix together nuts, cherries, and chocolate chips.
Stir nut mixture into dough, until just combined.
Drop by tablespoons onto parchment-covered baking sheets.
Bake for 11 minutes.
Let cool on wire racks.

Recipe adapted from food network.com.

Moose and Spinach Cannelloni with Homemade Ricotta and Homemade Pasta

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

New Traditions. Smothered in mozzarella and parmesan and topped with Kalamata olives, 10 individual cannelloni pastas stuffed with homemade ricotta cheese, ground moose, and spinach await dinner guests.

Cooking in bush Alaska requires a certain amount of ingenuity and flexibility. Last year when I made a couple of pans of moose lasagna, with no ricotta cheese on hand I substituted mozzarella and called it lasagna anyway. It was excellent. The hot, stringy mozzarella was reminiscent of a deep dish Margherita pizza.

When a friend gave me a few pounds of moose again this year, Barbra said, “I’ll make you ricotta cheese for your lasagna.” She also made the pasta – 20 five-inch-by five-inch squares, ready to be rolled around ricotta cheese, spinach, sautéed moose burger and tomato sauce. This is not traditional cannelloni, but, like last year’s lasagna, has twin roots in Italy and Alaska.

A serving of two moose, spinach and ricotta cannelloni fresh out of the oven. Each cannelloni (literal translation, “big reed”) is a five-inch-long cylinder of fresh pasta wrapped around ricotta cheese and other ingredients.

Moose and Spinach Cannelloni

Ingredients for one 13 x 9 inch baking dish:

1/2 pound ground moose, sautéed in olive oil till browned
pasta to make ten 5 x 5 inch tubes (cannelloni). (Or substitute store-bought manicotti.)
three 6-oz. cans tomato paste with enough water to thin the sauce to the thickness of marinara sauce
fresh spinach, cut so that the leaves will easily fit into cannelloni tubes (or substitute frozen spinach)
1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
1/4 pound mozzarella cheese grated (about 1 cup)
1/4 cup parmesan cheese grated fine
1 1/2 tablespoons Italian herbs, separated into 2 equal parts
1 tsp ground fennel (optional)
2 or 3 cloves garlic, minced
several grinds of black pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
salt (optional)
additional mozzarella and parmesan cheese to top cannelloni before baking (optional)
Kalamata olives, sliced in half lengthwise (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Place tomato paste, garlic, olive oil, black pepper, half the Italian herbs, fennel (and salt, if desired) in a nonreactive bowl and mix together, adding water to thin till sauce is just pourable.
Cover a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with a layer of tomato sauce. Set aside remaining sauce.
Place ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan into a large bowl. Add remaining Italian seasoning, a few grinds of pepper and mix together well by hand.
Shape a piece of ricotta blend so that it lays end-to-end across one of the pasta squares. Position a few pieces of spinach leaves next to the ricotta. Use a spoon to lay down a thin bed of tomato sauce Add moose meat. Roll the pasta into a tube, pinch/press closed and position the tube seam side down atop the tomato sauce in the baking dish.
Repeat till all the pasta squares have been filled and placed in the baking dish. Cover the cannelloni with the remaining sauce.
(Optional). If desired, sprinkle grated mozzarella and parmesan atop the sauce-covered cannelloni. Top with Kalamata olives.
Cover baking dish with aluminum foil and place on center rack of oven. Bake for 30 minutes.
Remove foil and finish baking for an additional 5 to 10 minutes – to melt and lightly brown the cheese.

Homemade “Ricotta” – A Successful Experiment with Powdered Milk and Powdered Cream

Posted on October 28, 2012 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Simple, delicious cheese you can make at home without any additives or preservatives. What a revelation! Perfect for cannelloni, lasagna, cannoli, ravioli, calzone or the Indian dessert Ras Malai.

A culinary goal for my Arctic kitchen this year was to experiment with cheese-making. I’m all for anything we can make at home in order to reduce our consumption of chemicals, stabilizers, and other weird junk. In addition to the drawbacks of processed foods, our Native Store here in Point Hope isn’t much larger than a typical quick-shop convenience store, and often doesn’t have items we need. Last year, a friend brought up ricotta cheese for us. This year, I decided to make my own.

Our store does not sell cream or whole milk, so my experiment with homemade cheese had one unusual ingredient – dried milk and cream. The only powdered milk I could find during our annual summer shopping in Anchorage was non-fat. Yuck. Thank goodness for the Internet! And especially thank goodness for Amazon’s free shipping. I bought two large cans of powdered whole milk (apparently abundant in Mexico!) and a can of powdered 72% butterfat cream. These would be the main ingredients for my “ricotta.” And by the way, the end product – made with powdered ingredients – was delicious.

The cheese that resulted is not a true ricotta, but is more like an unpressed paneer – with a slightly tangy, lighter taste than ricotta. In any case, it’s going into Jack’s moose cannelloni later today, rolled into homemade cannelloni tubes. Yum!

Homemade “Ricotta” – Perfect for Sweet or Savory Dishes

Ingredients

2 cups whole milk powder
1 cup powdered cream
8 cups of water
4 tbsp distilled white vinegar
1/2 tsp salt

Directions

Place powdered milk and cream into a large pot. Add water. Whisk until incorporated.
Heat mixture until it steams but doesn’t boil (between 165 and 180 degrees F using an instant read or candy thermometer).
Remove from heat.
Slowly stir in vinegar. Milk should curdle.
Stir in salt.
Cover pot with clean cloth and let sit for 2 hours.
Line colander with cheesecloth. I read paper towels or a kitchen towel will also work.
Scoop curds out of pot and into lined colander.
Let whey (watery substance) drain out of curds. I let it drain overnight in the refrigerator because I wanted a less watery product for the lasagna.

Brown Sugar and Butter Plum Upside Down Cake – for Breakfast or Dessert

Posted on October 27, 2012 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Persimmon slices add a splash of fall orange to a breakfast that will get you ready for weekend chores.

For most of the year, we rely on the fresh fruits and vegetables that make their way up to Point Hope by way of the school and the Native Store. This means most of the fresh fruit we get is of the type that travels well – apples, pears and occasionally kiwis. This week, purple plums arrived. They were a bit on the hard side, so instead of gobbling up our coveted fresh fruit right away, Jack and I set them aside to ripen with thoughts of baking something interesting.

The result was this scrumptious upside down plum cake featuring ample amounts of brown sugar and butter. A friend returning to Point Hope from the big city (Anchorage) brought back fresh persimmons, Jack fried eggs seasoned with his special blend of Italian herbs, and breakfast was on. This cake went equally well with homemade extra rich vanilla ice cream for an after dinner dessert.

Brown Sugar and Butter Plum Upside Down Cake

Ingredients

12 tbsp softened unsalted butter
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
5 medium plums, pitted and sliced
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
3 eggs
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup whole milk

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Place 4 tablespoons of butter in an 8-inch square cake pan and heat in oven until butter is melted.
Remove pan from oven and sprinkle brown sugar evenly on bottom of pan.
Arrange plum slices on top of brown sugar and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, cream remaining butter with sugar and lemon juice. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined.
In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
Add about 1/3 of flour mixture to butter mixture along with about 1/3 of the milk. Mix together. Repeat with second 1/3 and third 1/3 of flour and milk.
Pour cake batter over plums. Spread evenly.
Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, about 40 minutes.
Let cool 10 minutes.
Invert onto serving dish. Let cool slightly before serving.

Recipe adapted from the Cake Duchess.

Sunrise, Point Hope, Alaska

Posted on October 21, 2012 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

A mid-morning sunrise backlights the village of Point Hope, Alaska.

Two days after this serene morning dawned on Point Hope, the weather turned more extreme. As I write this, our home is shaking as winds out of the South East gust to 60 miles an hour – the “violent storm” category on the Beaufort scale, just below hurricane force winds.

But our home is snug. Steel cut oats for breakfast, perhaps moose stroganoff for dinner. A good day to get some reading and writing accomplished.

October 21st, 2012: Sunrise: 10:35 AM Sunset 7:08 PM

We’re losing about nine minutes of daylight each day.

The Darker the Syrup… Part 1: Maple-Glazed Salmon or Trout

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Maple-glazed salmon and salmon spuds (home-fried Yukon golds and sweet potatoes) harken back to American culinary traditions predating recorded history. After several goes at a recipe worthy of this syrup, we came up with one that combined a little fire with the sweet for a taste that struck us as just right.

Maple syrup has been part of Northeastern American cooking since before recorded history. There are reports of Native Americans cooking venison in maple sap. Although these days it is perhaps best known as a topping for pancakes, waffles and French toast, its unique flavor is used to enhance smoked and cured meats and to sweeten a variety of desserts. Both maple syrup and maple sugar are the base for a number of tasty candies.

Gathered in early spring, about 40 quarts of maple sap is needed to produce just one quart of syrup, so it’s not surprising that this amber liquid is rather expensive; a bottle of quality, grade A syrup costs as much as decent bottle of bourbon. But once you’ve tasted authentic maple syrup, it’s awfully hard to go back to cheaper, corn-syrup based, artificially-flavored imitations.

Maple syrup from Yeany’s Farm near Marionville, Pennsylvania, just a few miles from where I grew up. Located in Forest County, the Allegheny Mountains there are laced with the small trout streams I cut my teeth on as a young angler, and where, as the bottle suggests, I kicked out many a ruffed grouse on hikes through the woods. Much thanks to our friend and fellow Pennsylvanian Jack Williams for the thoughtful gift of this excellent syrup.

Maple-Glazed Salmon

Ingredients:

2 salmon, charr or trout fillets, 6 ounces each, skin on
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 tsp powdered ginger
2 cloves minced garlic (or use powdered garlic)
1/3 cup water
1/2 tablespoon sea salt
Penzeys Northwoods Fire Seasoning (or make your own blend in a food processor from ingredients such as salt, chipotle pepper, smoked paprika, Tellicherry pepper, garlic powder, oregano, marjoram, thyme, rosemary, cayenne, etc.)
olive oil

Directions:

Mix together soy sauce, water, sea salt, ginger and garlic in a glass baking dish just large enough to hold both fillets side-by-side.
Place fillets in marinade, skin side up. Marinate for 30 minutes or slightly longer.
Meanwhile, place a broiling pan in the oven and preheat on high. (Pan should be positioned near the top of the oven – near the broiling element.)
Place maple syrup in a small pan such as a small frying pan and heat over low heat until the syrup simmers and bubbles. Cook down until syrup is thick. Remove from heat and set aside.
After 30 minutes, remove fillets from from marinade. Pat dry with paper towels and sprinkle with Northwoods Fire Seasoning.
Coat broiling pan with olive oil. When sizzling hot, place fillets skin side down on pan. Broil for approximately 7 minutes.
Spoon maple syrup on top of fillets. (You may have to reheat the syrup if it cools and hardens.) Broil for 3 more minutes. Serve hot.

The heat from the seasoning goes perfectly with the sweetness of the Maple syrup. These fillets are excellent with home-fried potatoes seasoned with soy sauce, Cholula sauce, and a couple shakes of Penzeys Southwest Seasoning or a similar mildly fiery seasoning. Enjoy the meal with a fine bourbon.

Click here for a delicious Maple Walnut Fudge recipe.

The Darker the Syrup… Part II, Maple Walnut Fudge

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

These maple walnut fudge squares were made from an especially rich, dark grade-A syrup.

The fall season and homemade candy seem to go together, and with an unexpected extra half-gallon of maple syrup in our pantry, our thoughts went straight to maple fudge. I love how food can take you home, and the maple candy Barbra created took me all the way to Pennsylvania. (Click here for more on Maple Syrup.)

Maple Walnut Fudge

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups real maple syrup
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

Line an 8 inch square pan with nonstick foil and spray with cooking spray.
Combine syrup, sugar, heavy cream and salt in a medium saucepan, preferably a non stick one; bring to boiling over medium high heat, stirring constantly. Once boiling, cook 7 to 8 minutes or until mixture registers 238 degrees F on a candy thermometer.
Remove pan from heat. With an electric mixer, beat in butter and vanilla.
Continue to beat on high power for 8 to 9 minutes, or until thickened, light in color and fudge loses its glossy finish. Stir in nuts and spread in prepared pan. Let stand until firm about 25 minutes, then cut into squares.

Recipe adapted from food.com.

North of the Arctic Meets the Middle East

Posted on October 16, 2012 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Crispy fried falafel – fragrant with cumin-, freshly baked pita pocket bread, garlicky tzatziki sauce, homemade hummus, honey-orange spritzers and Basbousa cake for dessert made for an eclectic gustatory tour of the Middle East.

Last night’s meal was a self-imposed culinary challenge: Everything was created from scratch (right down to soaking dried garbanzo beans) in our little kitchen 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle. Jack is usually the chef, but on this night I wanted him to relax, sit back and let me take over. A date.

The menu included homemade pita bread stuffed with slices of cucumber, tomato and falafel drizzled with tzatziki sauce. A bowl of garlicky hummus was available to spread on extra pieces of pita. Orange honey spritzers, made with our SodaStream, provided a sweet balance to the spices and garlic. The candlelit meal was capped off with Basbousa cake and mugs of steamy-hot rooibos almond tea.

In preparation for this meal, I soaked two cups of dried garbanzo beans the previous night. The falafel mixture and the tzatziki sauce were made Saturday morning in order to let the flavors meld together.

Following are the recipes made in the order I used.

Falafel

Ingredients

1 cup dried chickpeas
1 tbsp water
1 1/3 tbsp sesame seeds
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp red chili powder
1/2 tsp white sugar
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1 pinch ground fennel powder
vegetable oil for frying

Directions

Place dried chickpeas in a bowl. Fill with water to cover. Soak at least 8 hours or overnight in refrigerator. Drain.
Place soaked and drained chickpeas in a blender or food processor; blend to a paste.
Pour water into chickpea paste and blend until smooth. Scrape down sides of blender with spatula if needed.
Place sesame seeds, cumin, salt, baking powder, coriander, black pepper, red chili powder, sugar, turmeric, and fennel powder in blender with chickpea paste; blend until well mixed. Transfer chickpea mixture to a bowl.
Chill chickpea mixture in refrigerator to allow flavors to blend, at least 1 hour and up to two days.
Cover bottom of skillet with vegetable oil and and heat to 370 degrees F over medium heat (188 degrees C).
Scoop up chickpea mixture by heaping tablespoons and form into balls the size of ping pong balls and flatten slightly.
Fry balls in hot oil until golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes on each side.

Recipe adapted from allrecipes.com

Tzatziki Sauce

Ingredients

1/2 cucumber, seeded, peeled and cut into small cubes
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp dried dill
2 cloves garlic, peeled
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Mix ingredients together.
Blend or food process until well combined.
Chill in refrigerator until you are ready to use.

Pita Bread

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp white sugar
1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

Directions

Place all ingredients in bread pan of your bread machine, select Dough setting and start.
Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Gently roll and stretch dough into a 12 inch rope. With a sharp knife, divide dough into 8 pieces. Roll each into a smooth ball. With a rolling pin, roll each ball into a 6 to 7 inch circle. Set aside on a lightly floured countertop. cover with a towel. Let pitas rise about 30 minutes until slightly puffy.
Preheat oven to 500 degrees F (260 degrees C). Place 2 or 3 pitas on a wire cake rack. Place cake rack directly on oven rack. Bake pitas 4 to 5 minutes until puffed and tops begin to brown. Remove from oven and immediately place pitas in a sealed brown paper bag or cover them with a damp kitchen towel until soft. Once pitas are softened, either cut in half or split top edge for half or whole pitas. They can be stored in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for several days or in the freezer for 1 or 2 months.

Recipe adapted from allrecipes.com.

Click here for our post about basbousa cake.

So, Jack, what did you think about your Middle Eastern feast?

Basbousa Cake

Posted on October 16, 2012 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Semolina flour gives this cake an exotic taste. Soaking the cake in orange-honey syrup satisfies the sweet tooth and thinly sliced almonds pleases the eye. We served slices with sparkling water mixed with the remaining orange-honey syrup.

This sumptuous cake was a fitting dessert for a Middle East dinner we prepared in our home in the Alaska bush.

Middle Eastern Basbousa

Ingredients

For the Syrup:
2 cups plus 3 tbsp white sugar
1½ cups water
2 tbsp orange juice (or lemon juice)
1 tsp honey

For the Cake:
2 cups semolina
1 cup white sugar
1 stick butter, softened
1 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp baking soda
2 medium eggs
Slivered almonds

Directions

Preparing the syrup:

In a medium saucepan, mix the sugar and water. Add the orange juice and bring the mixture to a gentle boil. Add the honey and reduce the heat.
Keep heating for 8-10 minutes until the mixture thickens and has a syrup-like consistency. Set aside to cool.

Preparing the cake:

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease and flour a 9-inch springform pan.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and mix thoroughly.
In a separate medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Slowly add the dry ingredient mixture into the butter and egg mixture. Stir the milk and mix thoroughly until you get an even batter.
Pour into a baking dish. Sprinkle the slivered almonds on top of the mixture.
Using a butter knife, section the batter into small squares or diamonds.
Bake for 25 minutes.
Remove from the oven and drizzle the syrup on top of the cake. Let cool for 20 minutes and serve.

Recipe adapted from amideastfeast.com.

Click here for the rest of the Middle East feast.