IKEAOATMEAL CHOCOLATE COOKIES

"IKEA" OATMEAL CHOCOLATE COOKIES

Every­time I go to Ikea, I buy these cook­ies in bulk, they are so yummy! But lately, Ikea being so far away, I’ve had mon­ster crav­ings for these with no time to hike buses boats and train to reach the mecca…ikea.

So… after search­ing all over for a recipe online, here is my shot at it, its soooo easy it hurts! They are as yummy as the Ikea ones, if not bet­ter since they are home­made and fresh

Ingre­di­ents to make the dough (makes about 8 cookies):
  • 1 1/4 cup old fash­ioned oats
  • 1 egg
  • 2/3 cup raw cane sugar
  • 7 tbsp butter
  • 1 tsp bak­ing powder
  • 2 tbsp all pur­pose flour (+ a tad to spread on the bak­ing sheet)
Ingre­di­ents to make the choco­late ganache:
  • 4 1/2 ounces bit­ter­sweet chocolate
  • 1/2 cup (100 ml) heavy whipped cream
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CHILLED ASPARAGUS AND CARROTS

    CHILLED ASPARAGUS AND CARROTS

WITH WALNUT MISO VINAIGRETTE

This is a very fresh and yummy but rich salad that will make won­der­ful spring lunches … the recipe requires quite a bit of ingre­di­ents that can be found in Japan­ese markets.

Ingre­di­ents
  • 10 thin aspara­gus with tough ends removed
  • 4 ounces (120g) of car­rots, peeled and thinly chopped into 1-inch match­sticks
  • 2 tbsp of lemon juice

For the Vinaigrette

  • 2 ounces (60g) walnuts
  • 1 tsp of red miso (or 2 tsp white miso)
  • 2 tbsp mirin
  • 2 tsp soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 tbsp white wine
  • 2 tbsp rice vine­gar (or any white vinegar)
Con­fec­tion

Boil the aspara­gus for about 2 min­utes in salted water, then diag­o­nally cut into 1-inch lengths. Boil the (match­sticks) car­rots for 2 min­utes as well and drain. Sprin­kle the veg­etable with the lemon juice while still hot

Dress­ing: blend all the vinai­grette ingre­di­ents together using a food proces­sor or sim­ply grind the wal­nuts using a mor­tar then stir in all the other stuff

Mix the car­rots and the aspara­gus with the vinai­grette and enjoy!

MIXED HERBS & SALAD

MIXED HERBS & SALAD

Here’s a very refresh­ing piece of  south of France, not just a salad, its THE salad, tak­ing salad mak­ing to an art. Very sim­ply done too.

Ingre­di­ents:
  • 3 let­tuce hearts
  • 1/4 lb aragula
  • 1/4 lb purslane (if you won­der what it is here is an inter­est­ing arti­cle on this edi­ble weed)
  • 1 red endive (chicory)
  • 1/2 bou­quet of chevril
  • 8 strands of flat parsley
  • 20 small basil leaves
  • 8 mint leaves
  • 10 strands of chives
  • 2 tea­spoon aged bal­samic vine­gar (Acetaia Dodi is pure lux­ury but a cou­ple drops can bring a dish to heaven)
  • 4 tbsp fruity olive oil (Sicil­ian is a favorite, try Fran­toia)
  • optional but fan­tas­tic: shaved truf­fles, or shaved parme­san, or a poached egg… depend­ing on the salad’s bud­get I guess.

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CREPES (SWEET OR SALTY)

CREPES (SWEET OR SALTY)

In this chan­deleur sea­son, it’s time for a crepe recipe on Flow­ers of Vice. Here is a very easy and quick one (no wait­ing necessary!).

Ingre­di­ents:

  • 250 g (= 2 cups) white flour
  • 1/2 liter (= 2 cups or 17 oz) milk (tra­di­tion­ally you would use whole milk, but I found that 2% works just as good)
  • 3 eggs
  • salt
  • 50 g (= 3 tbsp) butter
  • 1 tsp orange flower extract (this is optional but it gives a nice sub­tle taste to the crepe dough. You may also add 1 tsp of Rum or vanilla sugar/extract).
  • a small potato and oil (to grease the pan)

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THIT KHO (VIETNAMESE CARAMEL PORK)

THIT KHO (VIETNAMESE CARAMEL PORK)

Wow! I was about to make some thit kho tonight when I real­ized I had lost my favorite recipe dur­ing these numer­ous last moves…argg thank­fully  iphone was here to be my tonight’s hero. Phewww! of course I could kind of remem­ber how to do it…but it’s been a while…and as the best damn caramel pork I’ve ever had, (yes, even bet­ter than mom’s) I wanted to make it right and be ready for the Tết sea­son to begin. I will be post­ing my mom’s recipe here soon though, it’s super extra mag­nif­i­cently good too, and much faster and eas­ier to do so stay tuned!

Note: The coconut water used in this recipe is the clear liq­uid from the heart of the imma­ture coconut. Do not con­fuse it with the white coconut milk (canned and frozen) that is extracted from the grated flesh of the mature coconut. You may pur­chase coconut water frozen; it is usu­ally sold in clear, square or rec­tan­gu­lar plas­tic bags — some­times a few thin slices of coconut meat are included. Pork belly (where bacon comes from) is the desired and tra­di­tional cut for this dish because it has the per­fect bal­ance of lean meat to fat. How­ever, you may sub­sti­tute the leaner Boston butt.

Ingredients:

(Serves 6)

  • 3 table­spoons oil
  • 4 table­spoons sugar
  • 3 gar­lic cloves, slivered
  • 2 shal­lots, slivered
  • 2 table­spoons peeled, sliv­ered fresh ginger
  • 1 1/2 to 2 pounds pork belly or side pork, or Boston butt, cut into 1/2 x 1-inch slices
  • 1/3 to 1/2 cup fish sauce
  • 12 ounces fresh or frozen coconut water (see head note)
  • 4 hard-cooked eggs, quartered

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GREEN BLISS

GREEN BLISS

Bal­anc­ing all this crazy french food is easy. I like to drink a green bliss once in a while in the morn­ings or when­ever I feel I mis­treated my stom­ach guts intestines and all.

Of course if you have a juicer handy that’s best…like that Bre­ville that’s worth every penny. Or you can run to your local juice joint and ask for a custom.

Juic­ing the all time favorite:

  • 2 cucum­bers
  • 1 whole bunch of kale
  • 2 apples (granny smith or fuji for a sweeter taste)

Process in this order so you get all the juice from the kale flow­ing with the apples.

Another win­ner is:

  • 2 cucum­bers
  • bunch of spinach
  • bunch of parsey
  • 1 lemon
  • 1 to 2 apples

These juice will make your skin glow and clean up last night’s crazy mess you made! Heavenly!

GRATIN DAUPHINOIS

GRATIN DAUPHINOIS

Here is a real sim­ple and cheap french meal (who said the french were always sofisti­cated?!), and highly satisfying.

Ingre­di­ents

  • 2–3 pota­toes per per­son sliced thinly, gar­lic, nut­meg, paprika, star anise, but­ter, creme fraiche (heavy whipped cream), milk, salt n pepper.

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SPICE CRUSTED RACK OF LAMB

SPICE CRUSTED RACK OF LAMB

Per­fect for this spe­cial day.

Ingre­di­ents

  • Spices: cumin seeds or pow­der, star anise, tumeric, paprika, rose­mary, pep­per, salt
  • Crushed gar­lic, olive oil (spray is bet­ter), butter
  • A french rack of lamb (with the bones)

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TASTY FETTUCCINI A L’AUREL

TASTY FETTUCCINI A L'AUREL

Here is a sim­ple out of the pantry last minute but tastey meal.

Ingre­di­ents (for one brave taste bud)

  • Have some anchovies, toma­toes, rose­mary and gar­lic ready.
  • Olive oil, gruyere, parme­san and some kind of pasta. Fet­tucini or thick spaghet­tis are my favorite, tagli­atelles or whole wheat large pasta are good too.
  • Should I really spell how to make a batch of pasta?.… read the back of the package…and make them al dente. always.

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BOUILLABAISSEMOMO

BOUILLABAISSE A MOMO

Typ­i­cal meal from the beaches of Mar­seille, revu and cor­rected by Momo.

Ingre­di­ents

  • 1 big yel­low onion, chopped finely
  • 8 to 10 big toma­toes, peeled and deseeded, and roughtly chopped to dices.
  • 1/2 to 1 bot­tle of dry white wine (Pinot gri­gio is good). Adding a tad of pastis will make it even more authentic.
  • 1 to 2 big red potato per per­son, sliced thick ( 5mm will do)
  • Seafood: includes mus­sels, clams, shrimps and rock fish. Add or replace with gam­bas, lan­goustines, lob­ster, filet of soles or what­ever else you find that is alive and from the sea. Make sure you rinse and scrape the shelfishes so they are clean.
  • Spices: lots of gar­lic, parsey, rose­mary, thym, sage, bay leaves, feneil, saf­fron. Make a bou­quet garni.
  • Olive Oil

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