Christmas Fruit Cookies

Was Santa good to you this Christmas? If not, don’t despair – there’s still time to make amends. Here’s a truly delicious Christmas cookie that is sure to chase away any thoughts of Santa’s callousness from your mind. Practice making these now, so that next Christmas, you can leave out a plate of these for St.Nick, and I guarantee that he will not be able to resist making a stop in your kitchen and, naturally, rewarding you for your efforts.

Merry Christmas to you all!

You will need:

• ½ cup confectioners' sugar
• ¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup chopped pistachios or pecans
• ¾ cup mixed dried fruit blend (the kind you use to make fruit cake)

To make cookies:

Beat together the sugar, butter, salt, and vanilla

Add the flour, nuts, and fruit, and stir until combined

Divide the dough in half, and shape each half into a log

Wrap the logs in plastic, then aluminum foil. Freeze for 1 hour or until you need to make the cookies (but preferably not till next Christmas)

Preheat the oven to 300°F. Lightly grease two baking sheets

Unwrap cookie logs, and cut into ¼ inch thick slices

Transfer cookies to the prepared cookie sheet, and bake for 25 minutes. They should start to firm up but not brown much, at all

Cool cookies and enjoy. They can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for at least 2 weeks

Sweet Valentine

What is the most romantic day of the year? An anniversary? A loved one's birthday? February 14^th? If you think the latter, then of course, you are not alone in celebrating this day of love and affection that has taken a strong hold in many countries around the world. Sure, it involves spending horrendous sums of money on mediocre roses; weeks of scouring for the perfect gift; dinner reservations made months in advance -- followed by a dinner had in a supposed aura of romance, but really just in close proximity to dozens of other couples crammed into a dimly-lit restaurant. But, still, it does give you something to look forward to mid-winter, when Christmas festivities are all said and done, and spring is tantalizingly close but not quite here yet.

My first exposure to this Hallmark holiday was when I was 12 years old, after my family had moved from Bombay, India to Kobe, Japan. In the 80's, Valentine's day was still pretty much unheard of in Bombay (and consequently, in all of India), so I was blissfully unaware of the social customs, expectations, and nuances surrounding this day in February. While in the United States, it seems appropriate to given any manner of gift, especially flowers and perfume, on Valentine's day, in Japan, milk or dark chocolate (not white chocolate, we'll get to that in a minute) is pretty much the only gift given. On February 14^th, women are expected to give chocolate gifts to their male acquaintances, including all colleagues! Since this is an obligatory gift, it is sometimes referred to as "girichoco" or "chocolate obligation". (I never quite understood how this custom evolved, but doubtless, Meiji had something to do with it. And speaking of commercializing Hallmark holidays, Japan does it better than just about any one else. Check out this link to see what I mean.) One such V-day, my dad received a chocolate heart from two of his colleagues, who told him that they were giving it to him jointly, as a Valentine's day gift. To this, my dad's response was: "So, it's a half-hearted gift?" Unfortunately, the joke was lost in translation, but that doesn't prevent him from repeating it to us every time the topic of Valentine's day comes up.

Anyhow, getting back to V-day in Japan, on February 14, only men receive chocolates from women. This is then followed, a month later, by White day, when these men have to reciprocate the favor by offering gifts of white chocolate to the women who bought them dark chocolate on V-day. And keeping in line with the commercial nature of these celebrations, this return gift is expected to be three times as expensive as the original gift received! My thoughts on this whole exchange are best kept to myself, lest I convey the impression that I do not enjoy receiving exquisite gifts on Valentine's day or any other day, for that matter.

Anyhow, I think that's quite enough of rambling about Valentine's day. Now onto two recipes that I tried out on my friends recently during the spectacular Packers Superbowl win over the…the other team. The first was some delicate and beautiful chocolate crackle cookies, courtesy of Martha Stewart. The second is a red velvet cupcake with a white-chocolate rose frosting.

These pretty, fluffy sweet treats were just the thing to temper this otherwise nachos and dip-heavy testosterone-laden Superbowl party.

The chocolate crackle cookies were something that I've wanted to try for a long time, since they look oh so pretty. I followed this recipe to a 'T', and the cookies were just perfect. The reward for the slightly greater amount of work that these cookies demand was more than worth it. I think I will try adapting these to make ginger molasses cookies soon to use up a jar of molasses sitting in my fridge since Christmas!

If you wanted to make Red Velvet cake from scratch, I'm sure you can find tons of recipes online. I recently saw this, on the essentials of making a Red Velvet cake from scratch, but busy girl that I am, I decided to just use a cake mix. Using the instructions on the back on the package to make mini and regular cupcake yielded a delicious, moist, hard-to-resist end product. I decided to frost these with a little bit of white chocolate ganache (recipe follows), to which I added a touch of rose water, in keeping with the romance of the upcoming V-day.

So, this Valentine's day, if you find that Cupid has aimed his sugar-tipped arrow at you, I hope that you will try one of these recipes and then drop me a note! Bon appétit!

White Chocolate Rose Ganache Frosting

• 8 ounces white chocolate chips
  
• 1 cup heavy cream
  

1. Heat cream in a heavy-bottomed saucepan until you start to see tiny bubbles around the edges of the liquid; this is called scalding the cream.
   
2. Pour hot cream onto chocolate.
   
3. Mix to melt chocolate and refrigerate until chilled through, about 3 hours or more.
   
4. Remove from refrigerator and add 3T rose water (optional).
   
5. Using an electric mixer, beat on high speed until thick and creamy.
   
6. Use immediately, or keep refrigerated upto 2 days.
   

Sunny Saffron

Winter has been unusually mild here in Portland. Yes, we have had our fair share of rain and gloom, but at the end of January, I'm already hearing birds chirping and seeing buds blooming in the garden. Just this past week, I have been stopped in my tracks by the appearance of our very first crocus, awakening sleepily from its winter's rest.


So I thought it fitting that this first recipe of the New Year have something to do with saffron. Saffron, of course, is the highly aromatic spice that is derived from the stigmas of the Saffron crocus (Crocus sativa). Wikipedia has an excellent entry about Saffron, with the sections on the history of its trade and its chemical properties being particularly interesting. Therefore, instead of boring you with a regurgitation of the facts, I will simply direct you to : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saffron

Since saffron is the world's most expensive spice, worth much more than its weight in gold, it's a good thing that a little bit of it goes a long way. Spanish saffron is often considered to be some of the world's best. However, saffron cultivars grown in the Kashmir region of India, as well as Italian varieties that I have admittedly never tasted, are apparently a lot more potent and sought after for their strong aromas. Saffron can be purchased in specialty grocery stores or Indian grocery stores. Once you get over the sticker shock and actually bring some home, I guarantee that you will be rewarded with a flavor and aroma that will sweetly scent your home and mesmerize your senses.

Now that I've rambled on about how expensive this sweet spice is, I will make you all jealous by telling you that one of my friends recently gave me a whole load of top-quality saffron from her spice cabinet. (This was after I had already cooked my way through a large gift of Spanish saffron from another friend.) What can I say – I guess I'm fortunate to have friends worth way more that their weights in gold!

So, armed with this new reserve of the precious dark maroon filaments, I set out to create a saffron cookie to share with my colleagues at a work meeting this week. I'm glad to say that they turned out just as I had hoped: slightly soft, a pleasant yellow in color, and bursting with saffron flavor. Many of my colleagues had never (knowingly) eaten anything cooked with saffron before, and the cookies were a big hit. I would definitely make these again, especially if having friends over for tea or a fancy brunch. While these cookies are delicious, they are also extremely satisfying, thanks to the incomparable flavor of the saffron. If, like me, you have a bit of a sweet tooth, this satiating quality is definitely desirable in a cookie.

So, without further ado, here's my recipe for Saffron Cashew Cookies. Do leave a comment if you decide to give these a try; I'd love to hear how they turned out for you. Bon appétit!

Saffron Cashew Cookies

To make about 18 cookies, you will need:

1 stick (1/2 C) unsalted butter, slightly softened

1 egg

2 scant cups of unbleached all-purpose flour

¾ C granulated sugar

¼ C packed brown sugar

1 tsp of vanilla extract

1 tsp baking soda

A pinch of salt

3 pods of cardamom*

A (generous) pinch of saffron, crushed and steeped in 3 T of warm milk for a few minutes**

1 C (or more of roasted cashew halves or pieces)

* A note about cardamom: this is another spice highly favored in Indian cuisine and makes a wonderful accompaniment to saffron. I think it helps to really enhance the flavor of saffron, and if you can plan ahead, I highly recommend that you not omit this from the recipe. You can purchase ground cardamom and use 1 tsp in this recipe, but the best flavor will be obtained from actually buying green cardamom pods, and using a mortar and pestle to pound these into a fine powder. After you pound the pods a few times, they should open up. At this point, remove the skins, and continue to powder just the black inner seeds. This sounds like a lot of work, but it really isn't, and the reward will be more than worth the effort!

Beat the sugars and butter together until creamy.

Add the egg and vanilla, along with the 'saffronated' (saffronized?) milk; beat to mix well

Combine the flour, salt, baking soda, and powdered cardamom in a separate bowl

Add flour mixture to egg/butter mixture and mix gently with a rubber spatula until well combined

(**Check to make sure your dough is a pleasant yellow color. If it isn't, you may not have added enough saffron. You can steep a little more in no more than 1 T warm milk at this time, and add it to your cookie dough, if you want).

Add cashews, reserving about 18 for garnish, and mix well to combine

Refrigerate the cookie dough for about an hour

Preheat oven to 350 deg F

Place the dough in mounded tablespoon-fulls on a greased cookie sheet

Flatten slightly with the tines of a fork

Press a cashew half on top as a garnish, if desired

Bake for 12-14 minutes till cookies are an even brown on the bottom

Resist the temptation to pounce on these as soon as they come out of the oven! They will be a lot better (and safer) once they cool slightly.

These cookies store well at room temperature in an air-tight container for upto 5 days. They are great on their own or paired with a hot cuppa chai.