Chicken Liver Pâté or "French Peanut Butter"

When I was growing up, my family would very frequently go to France for the summer.  It was my birthday, the French independence Day, and my maternal grandparents and maternal aunt and cousin lived in Paris.  My parents and my sister and I would rent a room or two in the apartment building where my grandparents lived, and we spent glorious days together exploring the city and eating good food.  There is still - and always will be - a fond place in my heart for the neighborhood of Marie des Lilas.
There was a butcher shop that sold pâté de foie and jambon and we often got this to eat with a baguette; the perfect breakfast.  (There was also milk and yogurt, jam and nutella, and always my mother's favorite President butter.)  For years, as a child it never occurred to me to think about what pâté was; I just thought it as the French version of peanut butter.  It was creamy, it was savory, it was delicious on bread.  Later on, I learned that it was essentially pureed liver.  Now, my mother had always seasoned and baked the gizzard and liver that came with whole chicken when we bought it, and I had no problem eating them when I knew what they were, so this mystery now solved didn't phase me in the least.  The only thing I learned that day was that I really loved eating liver.
I still have a tremendous fondness for pâté - I can rarely resist ordering it when it appears on restaurant menu - and eating it has a sweet sort of nostalgia for me in that it reminds me of my second home; the place of my childhood summers.
For some reason, it took me years to dare to try making it own my own.  I had some strange belief that it would be difficult, or that I would somehow be terrible at making it.  Instead, I've found it to be ridiculously simple and delicious when made at home.  The hardest thing is finding the chicken livers.


Chicken Liver Pate
1 large shallot
7-8 tablespoons of butter
approximately 1lb chicken livers, preferably organic if you can get them
1/4 teaspoon flaky salt
75ml (or roughly 1/3 cup) sweet white wine
dash of allspice
tiny splash of balsamic
freshly ground black pepper

Heat a knob of butter in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the shallot and saute until caramelized.
Add the remainder of the butter and livers and cook until the livers are just starting to brown on the outside.
Add the wine, salt, allspice, balsamic, and black pepper and lower the heat to simmer lightly until the livers are no longer bloody when pressed.  They should still be pink on the inside.  If you're a little worried about undercooked livers (as I often am), cooking them a little longer doesn't change much.
Tip into a food processor OR use your handy dandy immersion blender to blend the livers.
Optional: (And I'll be honest, I really don't think it's worth the extra time or things to wash because it doesn't change that much of the texture)  Pass through a sieve into a serving dish.
Level out the top of the puree and chill for at least an hour before serving.  Delicious with fig jam or onion compote.

Homemade Masala Chai

"Everyone needs a place. It shouldn’t be inside of someone else." -Richard Siken


The greatest thing that I have learned in these months here in Seattle is how to take care of myself.  I have always been good about what I considered the basic things, like feeding myself, making sure I got enough fruits and vegetables, and dressing appropriately for the weather, but I often assumed that happiness and mental health were things that just happened.  That I should just let the cards fall where they may.  But in the past year, with all the tremendous changes that have happened, I have come to realize how simple and important it is to create joy, to foster a sense of peace and gratitude inside my own heart.

I left a very different life on the East coast and I followed a job.  I moved to Seattle chasing an idea, a hope that this place that I fell in love with years ago at twenty-one might become home, that it might give me something that I hadn't found anywhere else.  In settling down here, I discovered the beauty of gratitude.  I feel lucky to have been fortunate enough to find work among people that I respect and trust, to make friends that care about me and support me, to fall in love again with someone who prioritizes our partnership like it is his second nature.  My gratitude fuels my joy in the simple things.  Being so content enables me to give love wholeheartedly, to my patients, to my friends, to my family, to my partner.

Food is love - I say it now like I've said it so many times before - and as I feed my body, so too have I learned to feed my soul and to care for my heart.  On days when I am stressed or down, I do something about it.  I call the people I love; I drive to the ocean; I build a fire and lie down in front of its glow and read; I drink tea in bed and listen to music.

There's something to be said about the appeal of a hot drink on grey day, whether that grey is coming from the weather or a state of mind.  For those times, I love masala chai.  When I was growing up, my mom used to buy "Chai Tea" bags which she steeped in the microwave and then served to us with vanilla ice cream.  It was one of my favorite treats.  In college, one of my good friends was Indian, and I went home with her one weekend.  Her mother made tea for us on the stove, with real spices.  I loved how the smell of it permeated the house, and the cups, made with generous amounts of honey and milk, were a delicious breakfast treat.

I learned then that "chai" is actually just a word for tea, so "chai tea" is fairly redundant.  Most of the time, what Westerners are referring to is masala chai.  It's easy to make, and I adore having a big pot on the stove and letting the smell of the warm spices fill my apartment.  Though recipes vary, this is one that I love for its spice and heat.

Masala Chai
5 cups water
2-3" fresh ginger
3 inches of cinnamon bark, broken
1/2 teaspoon peppercorns (I generally use black, but I've read that white may be better)
3 star anise, broken
15 cloves (about 1 teaspoon)
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
5 black tea bags (or 5 teaspoons loose black tea)
1/3 cup raw sugar or honey
1 cup milk (I've used skim and 1%, but it's your choice)
optional: additional milk for serving

In a medium pot, bring the water, ginger, cinnamon, peppercorns, star anise, cloves, and cardamom to a boil.
Once boiling, add the tea bags and steep for 10 minutes.
Remove the tea bags.
Bring the mixture to a boil again.  Once boiling, lower the heat.  Add the sugar or honey and 1 cup milk and simmer on low heat for 25-30 minutes.
Strain out the spices.
Serve with more milk if desired.
You can store your chai tea in the fridge for several weeks.  It reheats well.

Plum Torte Cake Buckle Heavenly Thing

Write this recipe down on a little sheet of paper and put it on your fridge.  That's what I did.  After I had already made it twice.  Now, that I've made it five times in the span of about two weeks, I can pat myself on the back and say, smart girl, you are.  This is one for the books.

This recipe - which I didn't even know was famous, but apparently, it is - is worth the hype, even if you didn't know it had any hype.  The plums (or peaches, or nectarines... really this is the easiest recipe ever to alter) bake up into these delicious sweet/tart pockets of jam that perfectly complement the light, fragrant, moist crumb of this cake.  Torte.  Buckle.  Heavenly thing, whatever you want to call it.

I can't say much more about this because I have already rambled on too much, but it's so easy to make, you might as well make two, because you're turning on your oven anyway, and you'll regret it if you don't.  Slice the extra one and store the slices in little ziplock baggies in the freezer.  Pull out anytime you need a snack or want to add an extra treat to someone's (aka your own, if you live alone, like I do) lunch.

Bring this to any birthday party, baby shower, picnic, or dinner party and it'll be a hit.  It's easy, elegant, and requires no additional side servings of whipped cream, coffee, or ice cream to be a hit.  But what the heck, it doesn't hurt to add them if you want.

As if typical of me, I took no pictures of this cake any of the times I made it, and now I am sitting in my apartment without enough eggs to make another cake in order to take a picture of it, so the lovely illustration above was done by yours truly for the benefit of whoever is reading this.  I hope you appreciate my artist representation.  If you want pretty pictures of this torte, go here, which the blog where I actually got the idea to make this recipe.

Heavenly Plum Thing

barely adapted from Marian Burro's recipe

½ cup salted butter, softened

¾ cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional, but why leave it out?)

1 cup unbleached all purpose flour, sifted

1 teaspoon baking powder

Pinch of salt  (not optional)

3-5 large plums or peaches, or 8-12 small plums (really just use your judgement here, this isn't hard)

1-2 teaspoons raw sugar (optional)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 350F.

Cream the sugar and butter in a bowl.

Add the salt, eggs, and vanilla and beat well.  Let it all get very fluffy.

Add the flour and baking powder, and mix well.

Spoon the batter into a spring form of 8 or 9 inches.

Place the plum halves skin side up on top of the batter. Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon and raw sugar.

Bake one hour, approximately.

Remove and cool.

Eat.  Enjoy.

Repeat as many times as necessary.

Zuni Cafe Chicken - an adaptation of the method

I have heard many stories about the Zuni Cafe Chicken: it's the best chicken in the world, it will change your life, you will never think of chicken the same way, etc., etc.  I honestly didn't understand the hype.  I mean, I enjoy chicken, but how amazing can a roast chicken be that it has an almost cult-like following?  Still, since I don't think I'll be traveling to San Francisco anytime soon and the recipe has been shared in the restaurant's cookbook and in the NY Times, I figured I could try it for myself.

Of course, I immediately ran into problems.  The original recipe calls for a small chicken, specifically, one between 2¾ to 3½ pounds.  I looked very hard for one in my grocery store, but the smallest I was able to find was a 4½ pound bird.  That's more than 25% bigger than what the Zuni Cafe recipe calls for.  I did my research, and it seems that the size of the bird is pretty integral to their technique.  A small bird can be roasted at a higher heat because there is a high skin/fat to meat ratio and the meat will also cook through in a shorter period of time.  So you need to do some changes to the recipe if you have a heavy chicken.

As for how things actually turned out?  Well, one of my friends scarfed down his plate in about 5 minutes, if that tells you anything.  In fact, he barely waited for me to finish carving the meat for my plate before he was digging in.  It was understandable though; the delicious smell of the roasting chicken had been permeating through the apartment long before the meal was ready, so we were both salivating.  The skin was blistered and golden; the meat was very moist and succulent; the pan juices were so good, they made me wish I had some bread to mop it all up.  It was a delicious dinner.  I would say this recipe is well worth the trouble.

Some basic tips if you have a large bird:

1. Season for at least 2 days before serving.  I imagine 3 days would be even better, but I honestly wasn't patient enough to do this; I did 48 hours.
2. Take a small knife and carefully, from the inside of the bird, slash the chicken breast on each side at its thickest point.
3. Bring to room temperature before roasting.  This means taking it out of the fridge up to 8 hours in advance.
4. Preheat your pan in the oven so that it gets really hot.
5. Open the oven as little as possible.  Your bird needs all the heat it can get.
6. Roast for about 40-45 minutes before flipping for the first time.  You want to see the top beginning to brown, not just yellow.
7. Roast for about 20-25 minutes before flipping the second time.  You want to see the top really caramelized.
8. Decrease your oven temperature down to 400F to finish cooking the bird, for another 10 minutes or more, as needed.  Use a meat thermometer to check for an internal temperature of 165F or stick a paring knife into the thickest part of the breast to see that the juices run clear.

The original recipe also calls for slashing the bird after it is done roasting to allow all the juices to drip out; these are used to make a sauce / gravy that is served alongside the roast chicken.  Now I like gravy as much as the average person, but I am strongly against draining meat of its juices.  So I didn't do this.  You'll have pan juices as it is, I think those are plenty.

One last recommendation?  Roast some vegetables at the same time as you roast your bird.  I particularly like roasted onions and carrots, which I tossed with some garlic and thyme.  The veggies only need to roast for about 35 minutes, given the high temperature.


Zuni Cafe Chicken
adapted from The New York Times

1 chicken, preferably under 4lbs, but if not, refer to my notes about larger birds
4 sprigs fresh thyme (or rosemary or sage if you prefer)
3 cloves of garlic, minced (my addition)
sea salt (about ¾ tsp per pound)

Remove and discard the lump of fat inside the chicken. Rinse the chicken and pat very dry (a wet chicken will spend too much time steaming before it begins to turn golden brown).
Season the chicken 1 to 3 days before serving.  Slide a finger under the skin of each of the breasts, making 2 little pockets, then use a fingertip to gently loosen a pocket of skin on the outside of the thickest section of each thigh. Push an herb sprig and some garlic into each of the 4 pockets.  Using about 3/4 teaspoon sea salt per pound of chicken, season the chicken liberally all over with salt and the pepper. Sprinkle a little of the salt just inside the cavity and on the backbone. Twist and tuck the wing tips behind the shoulders. Cover loosely and refrigerate.
Take the chicken out of the refrigerator at least 2 hours (but no more than 8 hours) before baking so that it comes to room temperature.

When you’re ready to cook the chicken, heat the oven to 475F.
Choose a shallow flameproof roasting pan or dish barely larger than the chicken, or use a 10-inch skillet with an all-metal handle (I used a skillet). Preheat the pan in the oven.
Wipe the chicken dry and set it breast side up in the pan (I actually set mine breast side down, whoops!). The chicken should sizzle.
Place in the center of the oven and watch for it to start sizzling and browning within 20 minutes. If it doesn’t, raise the temperature progressively until it does. Depending on your oven and the size of your bird, you may need to adjust the heat to as high as 500 degrees or as low as 450 degrees during roasting to brown the chicken properly. I went up to 500F on my gas oven.  Because my pan is only oven safe up to 500F, I did not continue to raise the temperature, even though I didn't really see browning until about 25 minutes.  According to the Zuni Cafe recipe, the skin should blister (this did not happen for me), but if the chicken begins to char, or the fat is smoking, reduce the temperature by 25 degrees.
After about 30 minutes (40 minute if you have a larger bird), turn the bird over; you want to see that the top side has browned and caramelized at least a little.
Roast for another 10 to 25 minutes, depending on size.  (At this point, I began to really see my bird crisping beautifully)
Flip once more to re-crisp the breast skin, another 5 to 10 minutes.  

If your bird is large, decrease the oven temperature to 400F and roast for an additional 10-20 minutes. Use a meat thermometer to check the internal temperature of the bird; it should be around 165F.  Or, use a knife to test the deep part of the breast meat; the juices should run clear.
Allow to rest for at least 10 minutes before cutting into it.  This allow the delicious juices to redistribute.  (It also prevents you from burning your tongue.)

You will still have some pan juices, which I high recommend you serve with the chicken so that you can dip your meat, veggies, bread, etc. into it.  Food this good should not be wasted!

You say Soy Eggs, I say Tea Eggs

I don't remember when I first tried tea eggs, but I must have been about eight or nine years old.  I remember loving the dark flavor and sipping the savory, vaguely sweet sauce as I ate my egg.  Delicious.

Years later, I still enjoy this treat, and I often look for it when I am in Asian markets.  Although these are sometimes sold as "Soy Eggs", I find that the tea part is really key to flavoring the eggs.  After several not-quite-so-satisfying samples, I decided that it was time for me to make my own.

The recipe is actually very easy, and I'm kicking myself for not making these earlier.  I could have been enjoying this treat on my own years ago!  Honestly the only extra ingredient that I needed to buy was star anise.  Being Asian, I always have soy sauce and black tea on hand, and as someone who cooks, I also always have eggs.  And who doesn't keep sugar in their house?  Aliens, that's who.  So now that we've sorted out our ingredients, let's talk technique.

I started this recipe the same way I make my soft boiled eggs.  Most recipes for tea eggs call for hard boiling the eggs first, but I think that when you hard boil the eggs before you add the flavoring, it's like searing a steak before you salt it.  However, you do need to cook the eggs so that you can crack the shell without raw egg going everywhere, so I compromised and soft boiled my eggs before cracking them.  Feel free to hard boil yours though if it makes your life easier!
After I soft boiled my eggs, I crack them gently all around, and then cooked them again in the soy sauce and tea mixture.  Then I strained out the tea and let the eggs sit for several hours (the longer, the better).  You can see that the eggs in the picture at the top soaked for about 8 hours.  The eggs in the picture below soaked for closer to 24 hours.

Now I'm sure that at this point, you're probably asking me one of two questions:

1. Why don't I just do the entire cooking process in the tea mixture?  Because grocery store eggs are covered in a thin layer of wax and who-knows-what-else (e.g. bacteria), so I wanted to get rid of that before cooking up a tea mixture that I would later be eating / drinking.
2. Why don't I just completely peel the eggs and soak them in the tea mixture that way?  Actually, you can absolutely do this.  The only thing is, you won't get a pretty cracked / marbled appearance to your egg, and as we all know, appearance matter.  However, after I snapped these pictures, I actually did peel the eggs completely and let them soak overnight.  They absorbed the flavors beautifully, so if you don't care about aesthetics, this is definitely the way to make delicious tea eggs.

One last comment: you use this recipe to make as many or as few tea eggs as you'd like.  Really, it's all about how many eggs can fit into your pot in one layer (that is the upper limit of how many eggs you should make).  You can store these eggs in the fridge for up to 5 days after making them.  I find that the longer they sit in the tea mixture, the better they get.  After you have eaten all your eggs, you can also reuse the tea mixture.  Just add enough water to mostly cover your eggs.  For every 1 cup of water, add an additional 1-2 teaspoons of soy sauce.


Delicious Tea Eggs Recipe
10 eggs (that's just what fit in my pot)
3 bags of black tea (or 3 tablespoons of loose black tea)
1/4 cup soy sauce (I used Kikkoman)
4-5 pieces of star anise (or 2 whole pieces)
Water
1 teaspoon of sugar (I use raw / turbinado sugar)

To soft boil your eggs: Place them in a pot with just enough tap water to cover them.  Cover the pot with a lid.  Turn on high heat and allow the water to come to a boil.  For me, with a gas stove, this took 7-8 minutes.  As soon as the mixture is at a rolling boil (meaning the most bubbly it's going to get... aka the point when you would normally throw in your pasta), turn off the heat.  Leave the pot alone for 2 minutes.  Do not take it off the stove. Do not touch the lid.  Set a timer and don't touch the pot.
After two minutes, drain the eggs and cover with cold tap water.
Crack the eggs gently using a spoon or your kitchen counter (whatever is convenient).  Remember to be gentle!  These are soft boiled eggs.

To make the tea eggs: Place the soft boiled eggs back into the pot in a single layer.  Add just enough fresh tap water to barely cover the eggs.  Add the tea, soy sauce, star anise, and sugar.  Bring the pot to a boil over medium-high heat (should take about 10-12 minutes).
Once it has started boiling, turn down to low heat.  Remove the tea bags (or strain out the loose tea) and allow the eggs to simmer for roughly 30 minutes.
Turn off the heat.
Tap all the eggs again all over to make sure that they are really cracked.  Allow to soaked for at least 3 hours in the tea/soy mixture.

Note: You should store these cooked eggs in the refrigerator, in the tea mixture.  They will keep for at least 5 days.  I eat these eggs cold, straight from the fridge.  You can remove the eggs about 30 minutes before serving if you prefer them room temperature.

An extra tea liquid will keep in the fridge for about 2 weeks.  It can be reused to make more batches of tea eggs.

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sometimes, I get really carried away with cravings for specific foods.  Prime example: chocolate chip cookies.  Who doesn't like chocolate chip cookies?  And I know that everyone always talks about the "best" chocolate chip cookie, whether it best the New York Time's best chocolate chip cookie recipe, of the "world's best" chocolate chip cookie recipe, or maybe some famous chef's version of the best chocolate chip cookie recipe.  But for me, this one is it.
It's taken some tweaking and some little edits here and there, but this is now my constant go-to recipe, my version of "the best chocolate chip cookies."

A lot of the measurements are by weight, and seriously if you don't have a digital scale, stop reading this sentence right now and go get one.  Okay, are we all good?  Because digital scales will change the way you bake.  First of all, measuring your ingredients by weight is far more accurate and allows for more precision in baking.  One hundred grams of flour will always be one hundred grams.  But one cup of flour on one day might be more than the next day, depending on how well sifted the flour is.  So please, use a digital scale.  Also, less things to wash!  Just place a bowl on your scale, zero it, add one ingredient, zero it, add your next ingredient, and so one.  Easy peasy.

Now about the actual recipe: it has molasses and brown sugar which makes it chewy, it has just enough depth from whole wheat flour (although you can ditch this if you want and just use the all purpose), it has just enough salt, and these cookies taste delicious even when you bake them the same day that you make the dough.  I stopped believing that was true of cookies for a while.  I was making batches and batches of cookies, baking half immediately and half on the next day and all the recipes I tested did not taste as good if you didn't chill the dough.  This recipe though?  These cookies are delicious.  And, these cookies taste good hot.  Because honestly, I've found that most cookies don't taste good hot.  Most cookies are way better after you've let them cool.  These babies are tasty all the time.  Basically, I'm repeating myself over and over again.  This recipe is wonderful and these cookies are delightful.

More importantly, I've included in the recipe below, all of the notes that I put into my recipe when sending it to my sister who has previously messed up break-and-bake chocolate chip cookies.  If you follow all my notes in the recipe, you will be golden.  You will look like a pro.  So be kind to yourself and your loved one: make these.  Bake these.  Eat these.  You will find happiness.

Strawberry Rhubarb Oat Bars / Rustic Tart

I love summer fruit.  I could easily eat several pounds of strawberries for a meal.  In fact, I have.  That's one of my favorite things about going berry picking.  But what this means is that I rarely ever bake berries when I have them because I find the fresh product so tantalizing.  It's hard to save any for a cake or pie.  This year, however, I impulsively bought some rhubarb at the market and I knew they'd go well with some strawberries, and since you don't eat rhubarb raw, one thing lead to another and before I knew it, I was in the kitchen making these bars.

I want to call them oat bars because the name has a healthy sound that seems to justify my eating them for breakfast.  Both times I made this recipe though, I actually used a 9-inch spring form tart pan and I thought it worked beautifully and would be a lovely way to make this for a picnic or dessert when entertaining so hence why I am also calling this a rustic tart.

This recipe is so simple - it honestly takes no more than 10 minutes of prep time, and that includes washing and cutting the fruit.  There are weight measurements for the oat base, which makes it easy to do everything with a kitchen scale, just kitting the "Tare" button as you go.  Then, the ingredients are mixed in whatever pan you'll be baking with, and the fruit is only lightly sweetened, so the natural flavor is really allowed to shine.

I have a feeling that if you make this once, you may find yourself eating it for breakfast, lunch, and dessert, just as I did.


Strawberry Rhubarb Oat Bars
adapted from Smitten Kitchen
yields one 8x8 pan OR one 9 inch tart pan


1 cup (80 grams) rolled oats
3/4 cup (95 grams) all purpose flour
2 tablespoons (15 grams) whole wheat flour (if you don't have this on hand, just use all purpose flour)
1/2 cup (95 grams) light brown sugar
pinch of salt (1-2 grams)
6 tablespoons (85 grams) salted butter, melted
1-2 stalks of rhubarb, diced small
1 cup (1/2 pin) small-diced strawberries
1 tablespoon (15 grams) granulated or raw sugar

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.  Lightly butter an 8x8 baking pan or a 9-inch tart pan.
Combine the oats, all purpose flour, whole wheat flour (if using), brown sugar, and salt in bottom of baking pan and mix.
Pour the melted butter on top and stir until clumps form.   I find it easiest to do this with my hands.
Optional: set aside 1/3 cup of the crumble mixture if you want a topping.
Press the rest of the crumb mixture evenly against the bottom of the pan.
Spread your diced berries and rhubarb evenly over the crust.  Sprinkle with granulated or raw sugar.
Scatter reserved crumbs (if using) over the fruit.
Bake bars on the middle rack of your oven at 375F for 30 to 35 minutes.
Allow to cool in pan before cutting.
Note that bars will crisp up in the fridge if placed there for a few hours after cooling.

Leftovers can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 days (if they last that long!).  Bars do get a little softer on the second day, but they remain just as delicious on day 3 as they are when fresh out of oven.

Fresh Peach and Ginger Beer Cocktail

I am currently sitting in my apartment drinking a cocktail.

I rarely ever drink cocktails because, quite frankly, I don't like the taste of most alcohol.  This is very prohibitive to my drinking.  I love looking at the drink descriptions at bars and speakeasies, but most of the time when I actually taste the drinks, the vodka/tequila/rum/whatever hard liquor it is ends up making me wish I ordered a virgin.  Of course most of the time if you go to a bar and try to do that you'll get weird looks.  So this is why sometimes I find it's nice to just fix myself a drink to enjoy at home, while reading a book on the very comfortable couch that B. and I bought.

Recently I've actually been making a lot of these "mocktails" all thanks to the beauty that is my new hand held blender (also called a stick blender or an immersion blender).  Given all the wonderful fresh fruit that is in season right now, I've taken to making drinks built on various fruit purees.  While it's easy to use sparkling water as a base, I also love using ginger beer.
Ginger beer, generally, is not actually alcoholic, and in my experience, tends to just be synonymous with ginger ale (though I'm sure some experts out there will know be able to explain the difference, I shall not feign knowledge of things when I am truly ignorant).  I find that the slight "bite" and spiciness of ginger beer works as a great addition to all fruit bases.  One of the "mocktails" I've made is a lovely plum, ground cinnamon, honey, and ginger beer drink, which I think would be a great pre-dinner drink in the fall (maybe even before Thanksgiving?).  A summer-flavored mocktail I made had raspberries, lime juice, cane sugar, and ginger beer.  This was lovely, although I did discover an unpleasantly large amount of raspberry seeds in the bottom of my glass, which I did not consume.

This particular cocktail that I am sharing today combines the classic flavors of peach, vanilla, and ginger, which to me are all the things that should be in a good peach pie or cobbler.  It captures the quintessential elements of summer in a glass.  If you are so inclined to add alcohol to this, vanilla rum (aka vanilla extract in the making; see my previous post) also is a delicious addition.

In order to make this, if you don't have an immersion blender, go ahead and pull out the big guns; you can easily double this recipe and make it in a normal blender.  If you don't use all of the fruit puree, you can save it in the fridge for another day; it will keep for at least 3 days.

 Fresh Peach and Ginger Beer Cocktail

makes two martini glasses (easily scaled up as needed)

2 peaches
1-2 teaspoons vanilla sugar or regular granulated sugar
splash of vanilla rum or regular rum (recommended: Bicardi Gold Dark Rum)
1 bottle of ginger beer (recommended: Reed's Extra Ginger Brew)

The ratios here are just suggestions.  I like my cocktails a little fruitier than some.  The amount of sugar you need to use will also depend on how ripe and sweet your peaches are.
For each of my cocktails, I used about 3 tablespoons of peach puree (that's a little less than one peach), 1/2 tsp of vanilla sugar, 1 tsp of rum.  Shake this in a cocktail shaker with some ice and then pour into a martini glass.  Top with ginger beer.

Optional: if you're feeling extra fancy, omit the sugar in the cocktail and instead just rim your cocktail glasses with some sugar.  (If you don't know how, this video is short and great.)


Now that you have this idea though, you can run wild with it!  Combine any fruit purees of your choosing, some ginger beer (or sparkling water), and an alcohol of your choice for a great cocktail.
And, before I go, I'll share one last little trick with you: if you want an easy way to clean your stick blender without risking cutting yourself, just fill a cup with some warm water and a few drops of dish soap and blend for 30 seconds, then rinse.  Presto!
Happy Wednesday!

Homemade Vanilla Extract with Rum

Recently, I decided to make homemade vanilla extract.  Because I enjoy baking, I can easily go through about 5-7 bottles of vanilla extract a year.  Each 2 ounce bottle costs about $3 in the grocery store.  When you think about what you're buying and how easy it is to make, the cost of store-bought extract is actually pretty high.  Also store-bought vanilla extract doesn't always provide as much flavor as I would like.  Sometimes I increase the vanilla in my recipes because I just want a deeper flavor profile.  If anything I just said rings true for you, homemade is the way to go.

So how do you go about making vanilla extract?  The process is fairly simple.  I should have done it a long time ago.  All you need is some vanilla beans, a glass container, and some rum/vodka/bourbon.

I actually decided to make homemade vanilla extract because I found a very nicely priced vanilla bean supplier online who had good ratings.  The company (who is not paying me for this and does not know I am writing this) is called Beanilla.  The are predominantly a vanilla bean supplier, though they also sell other products.  Currently, they are having a sale on Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla beans; you can buy a package of ten for $8.95, which, if you've ever looked at buying beans in stores or online you know is a great deal.  They also have free shipping right now for vanilla beans and they have a coupon code SAVE10, which gives you 10% off your order.  When I saw this, I had to order them.

I got my beans in the mail, vacuum packed, within a few days.  And they even slipped me an extra bean (accidentally, I assume), so that I got 11 vanilla beans for $8.05!  When I opened the package the beans were fragrant, moist, and very plump.  They were the highest quality vanilla beans I'd worked with in a long time.  The last time I bought vanilla beans at a grocery store in France, they were rather dried out when I worked with them.

The "recipe" for vanilla extract is very simple.  You just need to take your beans and split them in half.  Using a knife to scrape the seeds (actually called "caviar") from the pods and then add both vanilla seeds and the scraped out pods to a large glass container.  I used a bottle that I bought from Ikea for $3.99 (I'm listing the price here because again, this is far cheaper than anything you can find online).
 
Now everyone has different ratios that they suggest.  After much reading, I decided that I would use seven vanilla beans (one of which I scraped out the caviar from and used in a cherry compote), and about 4 cups of dark rum.  Many people use a much higher vanilla bean to alcohol ratio, but they also expect their extract to be done in about 6 weeks.  I am fine with letting my extract takes it time to reach maturity.  Also, vanilla beans continue add flavor as long as they are submerged in alcohol, so many people re-use their beans to continue making extract.  I simply started with a more dilute mixture and will wait longer, probably 9 weeks, before testing my solution.  This is what it looks like for now.

One handle of Bicardi Dark Rum (1.75L) cost me $21.39.  I used about half of this, so let's say that was $11.  The 11 pack of vanilla beans cost me $8.05.  I used 7 of them, so that comes to about $5.  The bottle that I bought was $4.  The total cost of making this thus is roughly $20.
That may seem a bit high for now, but again, I can continue to use these beans to make more vanilla extract afterwards.  Also, I used high quality ingredients that will impart far more flavor into my baked goods later on.  I imagine this could also be used to make some pretty amazing mixed drinks.
Hopefully this project turns out well!  I'll give updates as more time passes.

No Bake Matzo Brittle (aka Chocolate Caramel Matzo)

This recipe really speaks for itself.  It's matzo covered in a layer of delicious caramel that snaps satisfyingly, just like a brittle should, and that caramel is covered in a thin layer of chocolate.  There can even be sea salt or chopped almonds sprinkled on top.

This is a fantastic snack, an easy dessert to make without turning the oven on, and it's great for entertaining.  Given that Passover begins this Monday the 25th, I thought it was an appropriate time to share this recipe.  I'm not Jewish, but I grew up with a good number of Jewish friends, so matzo  (note: singular is matzah) is a familiar thing to me.  I've had matzo brownies, matzo chocolate chip cookies, and matzo ball soup (which I love), but this is by far my favorite way of using matzo.  Of course, if you don't have any matzo on hand, you can also make this recipe with saltine crackers.

I feel like I must say, before sharing this recipe, that the photos really don't do this justice.  Melted chocolate and caramel are hard to capture with a digital camera in a way that captures all the beauty of the two.

Mexican Hot Chocolate Brownies

I don't like brownies.  Really.  I don't see the appeal in them.  Most brownies just taste like chocolate and flour, and I don't mean that in a good way.  I find 99% of brownie recipes to be one note. They are dense, and taste of cake-y chocolate with no real character and after about one bite, they get incredibly dull.  If a dessert requires a cup of coffee, a scoop of ice cream, or whipped cream in order to be good, then it is not a good dessert.  Good desserts should be able to stand on their own.

So it goes without saying that I rarely ever make brownies, yet here I am, posting about a brownie recipe.  I like this recipe so much the first time I made it, I had to make a second batch the next day to be sure that it wasn't a fluke.  This is no mistake: this recipe is gold.

The brownies that this recipe turns out are just sweet enough, but not at all cloying.  You don't need coffee or milk or ice cream to make these good.  In fact, I've eaten them for breakfast.  The espresso in the batter heightens the deep flavor of the dark chocolate, and the cinnamon adds a warm background fragrance.  Best of all are the lingering notes of black pepper and cayenne pepper.  They add just enough heat to makes your tastes buds light up, but it isn't at all overwhelming.  In fact, I find the spiciness rather comforting.  Of course, you can adjust this to your liking.  The first time I made this recipe, I omitted the cayenne pepper but used freshly ground black pepper.  It was delicious.  The second time I used both.  Also delicious.  Seriously, I have no complaints about this recipe.

If you're like me and you don't normally make brownies, I beg you to make an exception in this case.  Or if you the type of person who loves brownies, I highly suggest trying these.  The recipe is very easy to make.  I did this in a food processor for easy clean up, but you can also make this with a standard mixer.

Happy Holidays all!

This pictures speaks for itself.  Make these brownies.

Making Caramel

You know why there haven't been recipes lately?  Because this is what I ate for dinner tonight.

And this is what I ate for dinner the other night.

I sautéed up some zucchini in a pan with garlic, cracked an egg, and then threw some rice in at a last minute.  I didn't even get a plate; I ate straight from the skillet.  That's what medical school and living alone is like.

I'm not saying I eat badly, it's just that this is hardly blogging material.  I do, however, have some pictures of caramel making, for all those who might be intimidated by the process, as I used to be.  Sorry, but there are no photos of the finished product because at the end of the process it's hard to stir, add butter, and add milk, and also take pictures at the same time.

I've been making salted caramel sauce a lot lately, mostly to eat with apples.  Apples are in season now, and grocery store apples get tiring to eat, but it's an easy and inexpensive fruit to buy, so I eat a lot of apples.  To make this less dull, I now spread caramel sauce on them.  This makes it a lot less healthy, but oh well.  You win some, you lose some.

It's very simple to make a dry caramel.  Just throw sugar into a pot and let it melt and start to cook.  Stir occasionally (for people who are paranoid: it doesn't matter how often you stir).  Once it has reached your desired level of caramelization, turn off the heat, add in a little bit of salt, a tab of butter, and some warm cream or milk.  Now you have caramel sauce perfect for ice cream, apples, coffee, etc.  If your caramel seizes up, just heat it on low heat for a little while.  Store in a glass jar in the fridge.  It'll keep for about a week.

You can also turn this caramel sauce into a delicious buttercream frosting, to decorate any cakes or cupcakes of your making, the recipe for which can be found here or here.

Kitchen Tricks & What I've been up to

Summer is always busier than I think it will be.  There are always farmer's markets I wish I had the time to visit, recipes I wish I had the ingredients and patience to try, people I mean to meet up with, and chores I ought to be taking care of.

I have a basil plant I've been caring for and, to my absolute glee and excitement, it has been thriving on my window sill.  The farmer's market across the street from me in back in full swing.  In a little bit over a week, my sweet B. will be flying back here to visit.

I have had friends come visit me and explore some fun restaurants and spots in the city.  Navigating New York feels so much more comfortable to me now than it did four years ago when I first ventured there by myself.  I've slowly crossed places off my Must Visit" list.  I have been meaning to share my experiences here, but I simply haven't had the time.

Yesterday was my birthday and one of my oldest friends came up to celebrate with me.  When I was thirteen, he was my first boyfriend; he held my hand, walked me home from the bus stop, and listened to my stories.  We grew up together.  Now, all these years later, he still is my best friend.  He understands my crazy side, my weird side, and my foodie side.

For my birthday, he woke up at 6am and drove over 300 miles to visit me.  He washed my dishes, let me practice eliciting reflexes on him by hitting him repeatedly with my reflex hammer, and then took me out to the city where he treat me to three delicious desserts, one after the other.  I've always believed that dessert is the best part of eating out.  Dessert before dinner is wonderful.  Three desserts of my choice in the middle of the day?  Now there's a good day.

Top left: honey lavender gelato and Turkish fig gelato.
Bottom left: various doughnuts from The Doughnut Plant, including rose, creme brulee, and lavender.
Right: brioche donut filled with nutella

Sometimes it's the simplest things that means the most.


And since this is a blog about food, I thought I might clumsily transition into a few simple tricks to use in the kitchen.  These little tricks and tips are things I've learned from years of cooking and baking in the kitchen and from watching my mom and dad.  I hope this makes up for the lack of recipes and reviews.


  1.  Bake with rum.  Or bourbon.  They both add a very nice fragrance to baked cakes and such.  Just pour a splash into your favorite recipe (cakes, pie fillings, bread pudding, banana bread)

  2.  Add salt.  Seriously.  Even to the sweet stuff.  Add a pinch to hot chocolate, a dash to a fruit smoothie.  Remember salt especially when baking.  But also remember to taste.  A little bit goes a long way.

  3.  Cook with a bit of sugar.  This is especially true with meat and spicy food.  Making ribs or chicken?  Add a teaspoon of sugar to the rub/marinade.  Sprinkle a bit into your beef stew.  You'll be amazed at how sugar can round out your flavors.  This is especially true with homemade tomato sauce.  A little bit of brown sugar works wonders.

  4.  Don't have brown sugar on hand?  Use molasses and white sugar.  Depending on whether you want to make dark or light brown sugar, combine one cup of granulated white sugar which either 1 or 2 tablespoons or unsulfured molasses.

  5.  Don't have buttermilk on hand?  Use milk and lemon/lime juice.  To make one cup, use a scant milk (whole fat is best, but skim work as well) plus the juice from one-quarter of a lime or lemon.  Let this sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes.  Presto!  Instant buttermilk.

  6.  Have lemons, limes, or oranges on hand?  Wash them thoroughly and then zest them and freeze the zest.  Citrus zest is a great way to add flavor to baked goods, salad dressings, and even drinks!  Citrus zest will keep in the freezer in an airtight container for about 2-3months.

  7.  Using vegetables for soup?  Caramelize them first in a pan with some butter; it really brings out their flavors.

  8.  The easiest way to add flavor to something you're baking when you don't have vanilla on hand or you want something to have a little kick of caramel flavor but you don't want to make caramel?  Brown the butter.  Does the recipe not have butter?  Toast the flour.  All it takes is a hot pan and some attentive eyes.

  9.  My absolute favorite baking trick that's also good for your electric bill and the environment?  I turn my oven off about 5 minutes early.  That's right, when my baking is just about done, I turn off the oven and leave the pan in the oven.  Normally I let my baked goods (or even meat, like ribs or chicken) sit in the oven, which is still hot, for about 10 minutes.  Then when everything is perfectly cooked, I smile inwardly about the electricity I just saved.  Also, if you're like me and you're the type of person who normally keeps cookie dough on hand, after baking a chicken or using the oven for some other reason, if you just just turned off an oven that was at about 350-375F, you can pop in a tray of cookies and have them done in about 30-35 minutes while the oven cools (for a recipe that normally bake in 10-15 minutes with the oven on).  How great is that?  Of course, this will vary from oven to oven and with different recipes, but it is a very efficient way of using the heat from the oven that otherwise is just wasted.  You can also toss a garlic head in a ramekin with some olive oil, cover it with foil, and put that in the oven to get some nice oven-roasted garlic in half an hour.

That's all the tips I can think of for now.  I wish I had one more to round out the number to 10, but instead, I leave you with one more dessert.  Life is sweet.

Warm chocolate bread pudding with vanilla sauce

Roasted Vegetable Salad

I love this cold roasted vegetable salad.  I mentioned this in a previous post, but just to say it again: I think this is one of the best things to eat during the summer.  You get all the concentrated flavor of the vegetables from roasting/grilling, but serving this chilled helps fight off the summer heat.  The flavors are also a firework symphony.  This is vibrant, bright, and fun.  You have sweetness, earthiness, creaminess (avocado), mellow warmth, bright acidity (lime juice in the dressing), umami (also from the dressing)... Really, do I need to say more?  This salad goes on the must-make list.

You'll need: 1 medium-sized eggplant, 1-2 ripe tomatoes, 2-3 bell peppers, and 1 ripe avocado.  I like to use red, yellow, and orange bell peppers for the colors they add, but green would work just as well.  If you like the flavor of garlic, you can also throw in 3 cloves of garlic.

1. Slice the eggplant into medallions about a finger's-width in thickness.  Brush the medallions with olive oil on both sides
2. Slice the bell peppers into matchsticks.  Toss with olive oil.  
3. Score the tomatoes on the bottom with an X.
4. Toss the garlic cloves in a healthy dose of olive oil (optional).
5. Arrange the eggplant, bell peppers, tomatoes, an garlic cloves onto a baking sheet.  Bake at 350F for 30 minutes.  Flip the eggplant medallions and toss the bell peppers around a bit and then turn off the oven leaving the vegetables inside for another 20 minutes.

Alternatively, you can grill the eggplant and bell peppers.  You can also roast the tomatoes over the grill by scoring them on the bottom and wrapping them in aluminum foil.

 

After the vegetables have been roasted and cooled, peel the skin off of the tomatoes and garlic cloves (if using).  Slice the eggplant into matchsticks like the bell pepper.  Chop the garlic clove and the tomatoes.  Dice up the avocado (without the skin, obviously).  Combine all the vegetables into a large bowl/container.

Up till this point, this probably sounded like a very boring/normal recipe.  But this part is the most important part: the dressing.

I make a salad dressing out of lime juice that is my go-to for all salads.  It works wonders on romaine, spinach, etc.  Juice one lime (I can often get about 2-3 tablespoons).  Add enough sugar to cut the acid.  I think I probably use 3 tablespoons, if not more, but taste it as you go.  You don't want it to be sweet, but you also don't want to make the oh so sour! face when you try it.  Then I add 3-4 good dashes of Maggi seasoning sauce, maybe a scant quarter teaspoon.  This stuff is the magic ingredient.  I know many people may not keep this in their kitchens, but honestly, it is amazing.  I add this to omelets and fried rice.  I use it to marinate chicken and ribs.  When I was growing up, sometimes for dinner all I wanted was Maggi sauce on white rice.  It is somewhat like soy sauce, except... bolder in taste.  And it isn't actually made from soy.  I really can't describe it any better.  Just go buy it.  You can probably find it in your local grocery store (it is a Nestle brand of seasoning).

Adjust the dressing to your taste.  It should be a good balance of sweet, sour, salty, and umami.  I probably use 4-5 tablespoons of this to dress the vegetable salad.  Toss/stir and then allow the salad to chill in the fridge for at least an hour.  Often, I wait 4-5 hours before serving.  (In a plastic container with a lid, this will keep in the fridge for about 5 days, if it lasts that long.)

The end result is a roasted vegetable salad that is cold, refreshing, and vibrant.  The lime brings a bright flavor that compliments the earthy, warm flavors of the eggplant and bell peppers, while the roasted tomato has a soft acidity to it that works well with the avocado's creaminess.  All of the flavors harmonize with the umami, sweet, sour, and slightly salty dressing.  This salad can be a meal in and of itself, but it also works great as a side to steak, grill chicken, ribs, pork chops, you name it.

My Short List of Recipes for the Summer

Now that it is officially Midsummer's Day, I feel like I can share with you my short list of my favorite recipes for the summer.  Personally, I think the best summer recipes are ones that are light, refreshing, and generally served cool or cold, like carpaccios or fruit salads.  Summer is also the time for grilling and for eating popsicles.

No, this isn't a popsicle, but my popsicles
didn't photograph beautifully and they
tasted too good so I stopped taking
pictures and ate them instead.  So here is a
yogurt and honey parfait. Almost the same thing,
just not frozen.

Let's talk about the popsicles first.  I am a big fan of frozen treats.  I like ice cream, gelato, and sorbets.  (I even enjoy eating frozen peas, but that's probably not universally considered a "frozen treat," so we don't have to focus on that.)  I really enjoy reading recipes on making ice cream or sorbets at home, but I don't have an ice cream maker and I don't think it would be a good idea for me to invest in one simply because I don't want to give myself diabetes.  That said, the idea of making my own ice cream at home is still fun.
Unfortunately, without an ice cream machine you'll have a hard time getting the dreamy, light, and creamy texture of store bought ice cream, but you can get something close to it.  So what is summer recipe #1?  Frozen yogurt and honey popsicles.  These are deliciously easy to make.

1. Get some store bought plain yogurt (normally I buy mine in 32oz plastic containers).  Open it, stir it, close the lid and come back in a few hours, or better yet a day.  The yogurt will probably have separated a little bit, so that there is some water on the top.  Carefully pour that off.  You can do this a few times, or you can move on to the next step.
2. Pour in some honey.  I normally do about 1 teaspoon for every quarter-cup of yogurt.  Blend the yogurt and honey with a hand held mixer, or some vigorous whisking.
3. Pour the yogurt into little plastic/paper cups.  You can add some chopped up peaches or cherries if you'd like.
4. Put a plastic spoon into the middle (this will work as the popsicle stick).  I find that the best popsicle molds are actually individual yogurt cups (e.g. Activia) which have been washed and saved.
5. Freeze for 4-6 hours, depending on the size of the popsicles you are making.  To remove the popsicles from the mold, just quickly run some hot water around the outside of the mold.

Another favorite recipe of mine is roasted eggplant, tomato, bell pepper, and avocado salad.  You grill/roast the vegetables (everything except for the avocado), and then you serve the salad chilled with a deliciously easy dressing.  I eat this salad as a full meal, but it also tastes great with chicken, steak, ribs, you name it.  I also love that you can prep the ingredients in one day, make the salad another day, and eat it two days later and everything still tastes amazing.

My third favorite summer recipe is my mom's zucchini "carpaccio" with avocado, shrimp, and pistachio (recipe and pictures coming soon!).  This recipe just thinned sliced zucchini and avocado dressed with lime juice and olive oil.  Add some grilled/sauteed shrimp and some crushed pistachios, and you have a beautiful harmony or flavors that'll quickly become your go-to summer lunch, especially since this recipe tastes better after some time "marinating" in the lime juice and olive oil.

I have other favorites that include lightly sauteed sweet corn, potato blinis with salmon, and a melon/cantaloupe salad that I've already written about, but we've got the whole summer ahead of us.  For now let's just enjoy the peaches, nectarines, and cherries that the farmer's markets have given us.  There's plenty of time for sharing recipes.

Union Square Farmer's Market & Radishes

I have a weakness for this farmer's market at Union Square.  I love the farmers who go there, I love the location, and I love the produce.  On a stressful day, going to the market is calming; something about all the colors, sounds, and smells comforts me.

The most important lesson my parents may have raised me with is that no matter how busy you are, there is always time for a real meal.  I don't eat pre-made meals or fast food because honestly, it's not that much more convenient than a real, healthy meal made at home with good ingredients and a little TLC.  How long does it take to wash and slice some vegetables?  Sauté up some greens?  Coddle an egg?  Almost as much time as it takes to go out and order a cheeseburger and fries.  But the time you put into making a good meal is rewarded when your body feels good after you eat, and you can smile with the knowledge that what you ate tasted good and was good for you.

I don't think I'm that picky of an eater, but I do have personal preferences, just like anyone else.  And personally, I've never been a huge fan of radishes.  They are spicy in a way that isn't that pleasant to me, and honestly, I don't know what to do with them besides eat them raw.  A quick search on the internet seems to turn up basic recipes of roasted or braised radishes, but whenever I have good, fresh produce, I don't like cooking it, especially vegetables and fruits.  They're better for you when they are raw.  And so, because my mother raised me to eat my vegetables, when I saw these beautiful spring radishes in the market for just $2 a bunch, I had to buy them.  I mean, I really had to.  I was out of vegetables.

Sure, technically now that I grocery shop for myself, I could just buy my favorite foods all the time and eat nothing else, but that's not a practical way to live.  I like asparagus, but I won't buy it when it's $5/lb, and I really enjoy steak, but I'm not going to pay $15/lb to eat it every weak.  When produce looks good and is sold a good price, I buy it.  That is what I mean when I say I like food.  I don't just mean I like certain foods; I mean I like food in general.  I enjoy experiencing flavors, and I respect good produce.  And that means when fresh spring radishes are sold at $2/bunch, I buy them.

So what do you do with radishes?

Well, when I had bought the radishes, the bunch was so fresh and beautiful, I thought it would be a waste to throw away the green tops, but I've never eaten them before, so I asked the farmer what he normally does.  He told me I could make a quick salad with the radish greens and an anchovy vinaigrette.  He also told me I could stir the greens into a soup.  Both ideas seemed interesting but it's been far too warm recently for soup and I don't generally keep anchovy products in my pantry.

In the end, after I brought them home and thoroughly washed them, I sauté-ed the radish greens with some butter and garlic.  That was truly delicious.  It tasted somewhat like mustard greens.

I ate the radishes raw, sliced with some butter and salt.  This is how my mom and my grandmother always ate them when I was growing up, and so this is how I eat them now.  And despite the fact that I have never been that fond of radishes, the hot greens with the cold radishes made a lovely meal.  Such is the power of good produce.

**note: for people who really want to know what else you can do with radishes, I recently stumbled upon a recipe for radish chips, not unlike the idea of kale chips, in which radishes can be baked and dehydrated to form a tasty chip.  Apparently this works in both sweet and savory forms, but I'll have to try it and report back!

Cold Brewed Coffee

I try to keep my life simple.  I like my sleep, and so in the morning I keep my routine to a bare minimum.  I don't wear make up, I don't do much with my hair, I don't spend a lot of time picking out clothes, and I don't drink coffee.  I don't want to have to deal with the issue of coffee grounds, filters, hot water, and cleaning up.  I also don't own an espresso machine, Keurig, coffee maker, French press, or anything like that.

It's not that I don't enjoy coffee -- I actually think it's great when made properly (i.e. not Starbucks) -- I just don't find it to be worth the hassle.  Sometimes though, with my terrible sleep schedule, I feel like I need a cup of joe to start my day.  So one day I gave in, set my alarm 10 minutes earlier, woke up, fumbled with grounds, hot water, and a filter, was annoyed by the process and, ultimately, disappointed by the results.  It was simply awful.  I don't know if it's because I was impatient and didn't give the coffee enough time to "steep" (is that word only acceptable to use with tea?), but it was both weak and bitter.  I bought the exact same coffee my dad drinks at home (classic, French roast) and so I knew the problem wasn't the coffee, but rather my method of making my cup of joe.  But there has to be a better way to make coffee, without going out and spending $50 on a clunky machine.

Then I remembered something I had read once in the New York Times about cold brew coffee.  I googled it for the exact ratios and decided to to try the cold brew coffee method.  I prefer my coffee cold anyhow, so it didn't seem like I had much to lose.  I altered the ratios of coffee grounds to water just a bit and then gave it a go.

The process is very easy.  Simply combine  ⅓ cup coffee grounds with 1 ⅔ cup water.  It doesn't matter if the water is tepid or cold.  Let this sit for about 12 hours (though sometimes I leave it for a day and it doesn't affect things too much) at room temperature or in the fridge.  Strain through two coffee filters.  Refrigerate or drink.  For me, this makes 2 servings of coffee.  The coffee is concentrated enough that you can "dilute" it with ice or milk and it still tastes strong.  In the fridge, covered, it will keep for about 2-3 days before you start to lose the lovely flavor profile.

I know I said I don't normally drink this coffee with
milk, but I thought it made for a nice picture

For each of my cups of coffee, I found I barely needed a teaspoon of sugar to sweeten up a cup (normally I stir in about 4 spoonfuls of sugar) and I didn't need milk.  The cold brew method results in coffee that isn't bitter.  Instead, it is mellow, warm, almost chocolate-y in taste.  I really truly enjoy drinking it; so much so that I now make this every week or so and keep it in a bottle in my fridge so that it is always on hand when I want or need some coffee.  The method is convenient and simple, and it results in great tasting coffee.  Somehow this method of flavor extraction brings out naturally sweeter notes for a very different flavor experience.  The coffee is rounder, fuller on the tongue.  It is smooth.  It is exactly what I want in a cup of coffee.

Enjoy the flavor and the experience of a cup of coffee with none of the hassle.