White Chocolate Orange Bites

Posted on March 1, 2015 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Soft bite-sized cookies spiked with orange essence and loaded with white chocolate chunks… irresistible!

No matter the weather outside or the latitude where we reside, as soon as the calendar rolls over to March, I think Spring! The thermometer right now is a wicked reminder that it is not time to get the day pack out for hiking just yet. While I patiently wait for the mercury to rise, I decided to bring some spring flavors into the house. The sunny smiles in the room after eating all of these cookies warmed up our day.

Orange White Chocolate Bites: Makes about 40 cookies

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
generous pinch salt
1 tbsp baking powder
1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, melted
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp orange extract
1 large egg
2 tbsp whole milk
2 tbsp Penzeys dried orange peel
1/2 cup good quality white chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
In a large bowl mix together sugar, orange extract, egg, milk, and dried orange peel.
Stir half of flour into sugar mixture. Mix well.
Mix in other half of flour into cookie dough.
Mix in chocolate chips.
Drop tablespoons of dough about an inch apart onto prepared baking sheet. Flatten cookies slightly.
Bake cookies for 10 minutes. They should be beginning to brown. Let baked cookies cool completely on wire rack before serving.

Double Cinnamon Biscotti

Posted on February 15, 2015 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Cinnamon is magical. It should be included in your diet because of all its health benefits, right? Some say cinnamon may cut your risk of heart disease. Other research will tempt you with cinnamon’s high quantity of antioxidants. I say just enjoy the flavor of this spice and the way it adds a layer of sweetness without adding sugar. For me, cinnamon conjures sweet and savory memories, from warm Indian dishes created in our cozy kitchens around the world to sweet baked creations with hot cups of tea on cold days.

The latter memory inspired today’s cookie creation – double cinnamon biscotti. I generally lean toward soft cookies. Biscotti are the crunchy exception. Paired with a hot beverage, the speckles of cinnamon in the cookie and the sweet stripes of cinnamon icing atop the biscotti make for a winning combination.

Double Cinnamon Biscotti

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
2/3 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Drizzle

1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp whole milk

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
Sift together flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt in medium bowl.
In a large bowl, stir together butter and sugar.
Stir in eggs, one at a time.
Mix in vanilla extract.
Thoroughly mix in flour mixture into egg mixture, half at a time.
Divide dough in half.
Shape 1/2 of dough into a long log on baking sheet, about 1 1/2 inches wide and about 9 inches long.
Repeat with other 1/2 of dough. Give logs space in between because dough will spread during baking.
Bake biscotti for about 15 minutes.
Remove from oven and cool for about 15 minutes.
Cut logs into 1/2 slices with a serrated knife.
Place sliced cookies back on baking sheet and bake for 15 additional minutes.
Flip cookies to opposite side and bake for 15 additional minutes.
Cool on wire racks.
Make drizzle by mixing confectioners’ sugar, cinnamon and milk.
Place drizzle in a zip top bag and snip off a tiny piece of bottom corner.
Squeeze drizzle over cooled biscotti. Let drizzle set before serving.
Store leftover cookies in airtight container.

Fire and Ice Needles: Dawn, Hustai National Park, Mongolia

Posted on February 14, 2015 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Stalked a group of stag red deer

up a draw to the top of a rise

where the sun broke fiery and cold

lighting feather grass and ice needles

suspended in the negative something air.

Along the ridge, winter-hard antlers

lit with sunlight

scattered into the dawn.

– Hustai National Park, Mongolia, 2014

Jack Donachy

Mongolia’s Impressive Red Deer

Posted on February 8, 2015 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Red deer stags (Cervus elaphus) in early morning light. Among the world’s largest deer, this species shares an extinct ancestor in common with North American elk: Megaloceros, the massive Irish elk.

Historically, red deer ranged from the British Isles east through Mongolia and other parts of Asia and south into northern Africa. Until about two decades ago, their numbers in Mongolia were strong with some 130,000 individuals taking advantage of forest, steppe and mountain habitat. In recent years, however, poaching has decimated red deer herds in this country as their antlers command increasingly high prices as an ingredient in traditional medicines in China and elsewhere. Even National Football League players in America have been implicated in purchasing these medicines. Elk and red deer grow new antlers each year. When the antlers are growing, they are covered in soft tissue and are said to be “in velvet.” This is when the antlers are valuable.

Here’s the problem for the elk and deer. Some studies indicate there may actually be health benefits gained from using medicinal antler and regardless of the science, a lot of people believe they derive benefit from the antler. The trade is annually running over 1.5 billion U.S. dollars, and it is destroying populations of these magnificent animals. Although no recent population surveys have been conducted, it is believed that there are now fewer than 10,000 red deer in Mongolia.

On a recent trip to Mongolia’s Hustai National Park, we encountered a herd of approximately 100 mature male red deer. Separated by sex during the winter months, females were miles away in a different part of the park. These stags will drop their anglers in early spring.

Among deer, only Alces alces – called moose in North America and Eurasian elk in Europe and Asia, North American elk (wapiti), and sambar deer are larger. Adult male red deer attain weights between 550 – 770 pounds (250 – 345 kg). Some subspecies grow even larger. The extinct Irish elk, Megaloceros, which occupied much of the same range as modern-day red deer, was believed to have attained a weight of 1,500 pounds (700 kg) and had truly massive, moose-like antlers – perhaps contributing to its demise. Because of their value as a food and game species (these are the “harts” and “stags” of European hunting lore), red deer have been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Chili and Argentina.

We stalked these deer stooping and crawling for about half a mile (1 kilometer). Suddenly nearly all of them stood up – 100 animals including the ones outside the frame of this photo -, made nervous by an approaching rider on a horse.

Rutting season occurs in autumn. The rest of the year females and young form distinct groups away from the mature males.

It’s not just poachers that prompt vigilance among red deer. This wolf track spotted near a herd of females and young was fresh.

Some scent on the air kept causing the largest of these three males to look back.

Dozens of stags stream over a break in the hillside. In a land where nomads and their herds have shared the landscape with wild animals for millennia, the countryside would seem empty without the red deer. As Mongolia’s human population continues to grow, it will become increasingly necessary that places such as Hustai National Park are protected if the deer are to continue to thrive.

Takhi – A Success Story in the Land of Chinggis Khan

Posted on February 6, 2015 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Takhi w magpie full n

Magpie and takhi (Przewalski’s horse) – old friends reacquainted in a scene that has played out for many thousands of years but that was sadly interrupted in those decades during which the takhi were extinct in the wild.

In 1967, somewhere on the arid steppe of Mongolia’s Western Gobi Dessert, the last small herd of wild takhi was seen. Two years later, only one horse remained. And then Equus przewalskii vanished completely from the wild. Although closely related to modern domestic horses, takhi were never tamed. This differentiates their status as “truly wild” from the ferrel mustangs of America which are descendants of domestic horses.

In their natural environment, wolves were their main predators, and the dry, harsh, cold conditions of the steppe would invariably claim victims each winter. But the main cause of the demise of the takhi was probably due to its being hunted for meat.

Takhi form small family groups comprised of a lead stallion, two or three mares, and their offspring. These family groups loosely intermingle with other families as well as with bachelor stallions which often travel in pairs or groups of three. Stocky and with zebra-like manes, takhi are comparatively small, standing only about 48 – 56 inches tall at the shoulders. They have 66 chromosomes, two more than any other species of horse.

By 1970, the only living specimens existed in a few zoos and private ranches. Extinct in the wild, it seemed only a matter of time till their official extinction from the planet would be announced.

Then something truly remarkable occurred. In a cooperative venture between the Zoological Society of London and Mongolian biologists, the horses were reintroduced to Mongolia’s Khustai (Hustai) National Park where they’ve been thriving even since.

On a morning bright with ice needles in the air and a fresh dusting of snow on the ground, takhi and female red deer (Cervus elaphus) share a piece of rugged terrain in Mongolia’s Khustai National Park.

takhi stallion pair n

In full winter coats, these wild takhi are as beautiful as they are tough.

We counted ourselves as lucky to have spent a few days in Khustai during some of the coldest stretches of winter. The deeply rutted dirt roads were quiet, wildlife was abundant, and the horses seemed only mildly curious regarding our presence.

Takhi can readily be viewed in summertime as well. We can’t say which season is more beautiful. There are wild horses in this world still. That is beautiful.

A Taste of Spring – Lemon Poppy Seed Drizzle Cake

Posted on February 1, 2015 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Moist and not overly sweet, lemon poppy seed cake is a quick way to brighten up a cold winter day.

This afternoon, the sunshine poured through the living room window, filling our third floor apartment with warmth and the illusion that it wasn’t as cold as it actually is outside. But no mistake, we’re still deep in winter’s grip here in Ulaanbaatar. Today, the temperature soared to a chilly high of 17 degrees F – a bit warmer than it’s been the past several days. Snug inside our apartment, we fantasized about spring while we sat in the sunbeams enjoying warm pieces of moist lemon poppyseed cake with freshly brewed cups of tea.

Lemon Poppy Seed Drizzle Cake

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp poppy seeds
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 tbsp lemon zest
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups plain yogurt
2 tsp almond extract
1/2 cup lemon juice

Drizzle

1/4 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup powdered sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Grease two regular-sized loaf pans.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, poppy seeds, sugar, and lemon zest.
Stir in oil, eggs, yogurt, almond extract, and lemon juice.
Pour batter into prepared pans.
Bake for 50 – 55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.
Mix together drizzle ingredients.
Prick cake many times with tines of a fork while warm.
Brush drizzle on top of cake allowing the drizzle to settle into the cake.

Big, Beautiful Grizz Chillin’ at the Edge of an Alaskan Forest

Posted on January 26, 2015 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

We caught this Alaskan grizzly bear chillin’ on the edge of a forest on a cool, overcast morning in mid-summer. With nails like that, who wouldn’t lie around admiring them? (Six more photos.)

The previous day, I (yours truly, Jack Donachy) managed to drop and break “the big lens.” But this sleepy guy barely paid us any attention as we photographed him from the safety of our Chevy, so the 70-200 mm with a 1.4 teleconverter got us close enough. Hard to say how many cars had driven by this big, blonde-brown hulk without noticing that morning. We stayed with him – and he with us – for about half an hour.

He’d doze off for a bit, wake up, think about whether or not to get up (or maybe he was trying to remember where he’d left his car keys last night), give a little sigh and then drop off to sleep again.

And then he’d wake and take a look around.

Eventually a scent on the air caught his attention…

And he ambled off. Almost looks like he’s posed in a diorama. The overcast morning light really made the colors pop.

Individual Apple Pies (You Don’t Have to Share)

Posted on January 9, 2015 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

All the pleasures of indulging in a whole pie without the downside of consuming a regular-sized pie – these individual apple pies feature sautéed Fuji apples in a brown-sugar-speckled crust topped with gooey caramel dulce de leche sauce.

We love desserts that could, in theory, be shared but are best enjoyed on your own. Click the links to see these delicious ways we’ve end meals with individual serving desserts: pecan persimmon upside down cake, anniversary crème brûlée, fall harvest cakes and, of course, molten lava chocolate cake. Individual miniature desserts are especially enjoyable because you can savor the textures and flavors of the entire pie.

Individual Apple Pies

Ingredients

Crust

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp dark brown sugar
1 cup frozen, unsalted butter
14 tbsp ice cold water

Filling

5 large Fuji apples, peeled, cored and chopped into 1/4 inch cubes (6mm)
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3 tbsp dark brown sugar

Directions

Liberally grease a 12-muffin tin with butter. Set aside.
Make dough. Whisk together flour, salt and dark brown sugar in a medium bowl.
Using a cheese grater, grate frozen butter into flour mixture. Stir so that butter is evenly distributed in flour mixture.
1 tbsp at a time, mix ice water into flour mixture until dough comes together. Knead a few times on a floured surface. Form dough into a flattened disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.
While dough is chilling, make apple filling.
Melt butter over medium heat. Add apples, cinnamon and dark brown sugar.
Sauté apple mixture for about 8 minutes. Apples should be firm but soft enough to pierce with a fork. Set aside to cool slightly.
Place chilled dough on a lightly floured surface and roll it out to about 1/4 inch (6mm) thick.
Cut circles of dough to fit muffin tin cups.
Fill pies to the brim with apple mixture.
Bake for 30 minutes in a 350 degree F (175 C) oven. Crusts should be golden brown when finished.
Let pies cool for 10 minutes before removing them from the tin.
Drizzle dulce de leche on top of pies just before serving.

Dulce de Leche Topping

Ingredients

1 can sweetened condensed milk

Directions

Pour 1 can sweetened condensed milk into top of double-boiler pan; cover. Place over boiling water.
Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 40 to 50 minutes, or until thick and light caramel-colored. Remove from heat. Beat until smooth.

Beef Bourguignon on Rustic Pan Fried Toast

Posted on January 6, 2015 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

It’s the flamed Cognac (not to mention the half bottle of red wine) that gives this savory dish it’s unique, caramelized flavor. When you light the Cognac, stand back! Can you see the horse head in the flames?

Deep in the heart of winter here in Mongolia, we find ourselves craving traditional cold-weather comfort foods. Beef Bourguignon (also known as Beef Burgundy) is a classic stew from France’s Burgundy region. As is true of many stews and chowders, this dish has its origins as peasant fare, but over time was refined into the not-overly-difficult crowd pleaser familiar today. Why not give it a try some cold winter’s night!

As a stew, ingredients can be substituted fairly freely. (The pearl onions this dish traditionally calls for are difficult to find where we live. Coarsely diced regular onions work fine.) It occurs to us that the addition of rutabaga, pumpkin, parsnips or hard squashes would add appropriate flavors to this dish. Also, remember the basic rule for cooking with wine: use one you’re happy to drink. A full-bodied, dry red is best.

The finished beef bourguignon is traditionally served on toast and is a great excuse (if you need one) to pop the cork on a favorite red wine. The better the toast, the better the entrée. See our method, below.

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
4 oz thick-cut bacon, diced into small pieces
1 1/4 pounds beef cut into 1-inch cubes. Tri-tip or chuck work well, as do higher quality cuts.
smoked sea salt (or regular sea salt)
freshly ground pepper
1/2 lb carrots, sliced thick
1 lb onions, chopped coarse
2 cloves garlic, chopped medium coarse
1/4 cup Cognac
2 cups quality dry, full-bodied red wine such as Syrah, Shiraz, Zinfandel, Merlot or Pinot Noir or a blend of similar wines
1 cup beef broth – made from stock, canned or made from bullion
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp thyme
2 tbsp unsalted butter, divided
1 to 2 tbsp all-purpose flour or rice flour
1/2 pound mushrooms, stems removed, sliced into large chunks

Directions

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (120 C) and adjust rack to a low position.
Dry the beef cubes with a paper towel and place them in a bowl. Add smoked sea salt and pepper and mix together. Set aside.
In a large oven-safe pot or sautéing pan with high, straight sides, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook till edges just begin to crisp. Remove bacon to a plate, but reserve the oil and fat in the pan.
Add beef to hot pan to sear. Do not overlap or crowd. Use tongs or a spatula to turn beef so that each side is browned. Remove seared beef to a plate.
Add carrots and onions to the pan. Add additional olive oil, if necessary. Season to taste with salt and pepper and sauté till onions are slightly browned and carrots are just tender – about 10 minutes.
Add the garlic and cook for an additional minute.
Add the Cognac and exercising due caution, light it with a match. This will burn off the alcohol and create a rich, caramelized flavor.
Stir the tomato paste into the beef broth.
Place the beef and bacon in the pan. Add wine and enough beef broth/tomato paste mixture to almost cover all the ingredients. Add the thyme and bring everything to a simmer.
Cover the pan with a lid and place in oven for about an hour and 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat half the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the flour and mix together thoroughly.
Remove pan from oven. Place on stove, stir in the butter and flour mixture and bring to a simmer.
In a skillet over medium heat, sauté the mushrooms in the remaining butter. Add them to the stew. Continue cooking for about 10 minutes. Taste for seasonings.
Serve piping hot on toast (see below).

Pan-Fried Toast – Use any hearty, rustic bread sliced fairly thick.

Heat about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large frying pan over medium to medium low heat. Mince two cloves of garlic (a fine cheese grater works well for this). Spread one side of bread with olive oil and a thin spread of minced garlic. Place bread garlic-side down in pan and fry, being careful not to let the garlic burn. When the garlic is golden brown, flip the bread and fry the other side. The finished bread should be beautifully browned and crisp on the outside.

The Chinggis Khan Equestrian Statue: An Impressive Monument to Mongolia’s Past and Future

Posted on January 5, 2015 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

There is no overstating the importance of Chinggis Khan – ruler of all who live in felt tents – to the Mongolian people. Revered in film and in statues such as this 40 meter (131 feet) tall monument , the founder of the Mongolian Empire is evoked in everything from currency to Ulaanbaatar’s international airport to vodka labels.

Sitting at an altitude of 4,429 feet above sea level, just over one million people live in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital city. Another 1.7 million Mongolians live in the countryside, either in smaller communities or as nomadic herders on the highland steppe or vegetated regions of the desert. In former times, these grasslands and the nomadic herding culture that accompanied them stretched through Kazakhstan as far west as Hungary, so when Chinggis Kahn proclaimed himself ruler of all who live in the circular, felt-covered tents called gers that were the homes of these nomadic people, he was laying claim to the largest contiguous land mass ever to fall under one empire.

Looking east toward the place of his birth, Chinggis still dominates the rugged Mongolian steppe. Two hundred-fifty tons of stainless steel went into this statue which is situated at the location where a young Temüjin (Chinggis’s boyhood name) found a golden whip and took it mean that he was destined to become a great leader.

At his birth in 1162(?), the land of Tumüjin’s childhood was occupied by numerous, often warring nomadic tribes. Part of Chinggis’s legacy includes uniting these tribes under one rule and in the process creating a national identity for the Mongolian people.

The nomadic culture has died out or essentially been extirpated elsewhere such as in Kazakstan and Hungary. Under Stalin, the Soviets waged an unrelenting campaign to wipe out or drive out nomadic herdsmen, in many locales turning former grazing lands into collective farms and bringing about mass starvation in the process.

The name Chinggis Khan means “leader of all who live in felt tents.”

But in Mongolia, a land sufficiently insulated and independent enough from both the Russians and the Chinese, hundreds of thousands of Mongolians still live much as they did in the 13^th century when Chinggis rose to power. As such, they are the last truly nomadic people in the world.

Millennia of equestrian know-how passed down generation to generation is still showcased in annual tournaments where horse-mounted riders traveling at full gallop demonstrate an ability to pierce man-sized targets with arrows shot from simple bows. It is easy to imagine the terror such skilled, mounted warriors would have invoked in territories where horsemanship was all but unknown. In addition to enemy soldiers felled in battle, under the various Khans, Mongolian armies slaughtered tens of millions of civilians in locales where people had refused invitations to surrender.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/MongolEmpire.jpg

At its zenith, the Mongolian Empire stretched from eastern Europe through much of China and Southeast Asia all the way to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Present day Mongolia lies within the bean-shaped boundary partially covered by the map key.

The positive aspects of Chinggis’s legacy include bringing political stability to the Silk Road and thus to regional commerce, establishing religious tolerance, fostering intellectual growth and greater communication throughout the empire, and quelling the region’s history of tribal and clan warfare by introducing meritocracy to government.

This leather boot, located in the museum below the statue, is the same size as the stainless steel boots on Chinggis’s feet. The statue was completed in 2008 and is currently the largest equestrian statue in the world.

Reminiscent of the soldiers who rode with Chinggis, these vigilant horsemen face the rising January sun. The museum is a collection of period weaponry, jewelry, serving ware and other artifacts, as well as portraits of the 36 Khans who succeeded Chinggis and were appointed as heads of various regions of the empire. Chinggis Khan died in August, 1227. He was about 65 years old. Various accounts have him succumbing to an infected battle wound, a hunting accident, a fall from a horse and the dagger of a woman his army captured. Probably as protection from desecration by rivals, the whereabouts of his burial site remain shrouded in mystery as well…

From the end of the 17th century until 1911, Mongolia was under the control of China. Soon after that, they fell under Russian hegemony and in 1924 were declared a satellite state of the Soviet Empire. It wasn’t until 1989 that Russia withdrew it’s troops from Mongolia. In 1992, Mongolia created a new constitution and a multi-party democracy. Mongolia is thus at once a very young country, and a very old one.

A Lincolnesque statue of Chinggis Khan overlooks Ulaanbaatar’s central square from the steps of the Government Building.

Change is happening quickly in this young democracy; just recently the capital city’s central square, Sükhbaatar Square, was officially renamed Chinggis Khan Square. With an abundance of valuable natural resources (gold, copper, uranium and molybdenum among them) and a resilient, well-educated, optimistic populace, Mongolia’s future looks bright.