Another Day, Another Challenge

Another challenge! Oh boy oh boy. This one comes from The Post Punk Kitchen: Chopped Vegan. The requirements: create an entree using 4 mystery ingredients (black eyed peas, mint, blueberries, & chocolate) + whatever you have in your pantry.

The ingredients were announced last week, and of course I took my sweet time wondering whether or not I even had the time to create a new dish, let alone go grocery shopping for the mystery ingredients.

Later this week during my bike ride home from work, I stopped at a small grocery store in the Mission. While browsing the aisle for Sriracha (the time had come for a new bottle), I came across dried black eyed peas. I figured, why the hell not? and grabbed them. Finding all of the ingredients would be easy, deciding what to make would be a bit more difficult.

After wandering up and down the produce aisle that offered everything from watercress to dandelion greens to tomatillos, I decided on endive. The recipe forming in my head was more of an appetizer than an entree, but went with it anyway. 

My final answer: endive with black eyed peas, drizzled with a balsamic-chocolate-blueberry sauce topped with mint.

I returned to my house, hauling up a heavy backpack filled with more than enough ingredients required for this project of mine. Wanting to double check the requirements for the Chopped Vegan challenge, I discovered I had missed the deadline.

Oh well. I made the damned appetizer anyway, and it was rather delicious.

Of course I can never fall asleep without thinking about another recipe (does anyone else have this problem, or should I see a doctor?) and this one danced around my head for the rest of the night.

Black eyed pea fritters with a blueberry chocolate sauce for breakfast. And potatoes, of course. God forbid I consume a meal that doesn't have any carbohydrates!

So I awoke the next morning and made these. Because I'm crazy and spend my free time cooking instead of doing laundry or other important things.

Black Eyed Pea Fritters with Blueberry Chocolate Sauce
1 cup black eyed peas, cooked
1/4 cup chopped scallions
2 tbsp ground flax seed
1/3 cup warm water
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 - 2 tbsp flour
salt & pepper

1/4 cup canola or safflower oil for frying

1/2 cup fresh blueberries
2 tsp sugar
2 squares dark chocolate

fresh mint

Chop about 1/2 cup black eyed peas in food processor until fine. Place blended and remaining whole peas in medium sized bowl, stir to combine. Add in scallions.

Add ground flax seed to warm water, mix thoroughly. Add apple cider vinegar and stir, set aside for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, place blueberries in a small saucepan. Smash with a wooden spoon and sprinkle sugar on top. Let sit for a few minutes, so the juice is drawn out from the berries.

Back to the fritters: stir the flax seed mixture to combine, add to peas. Mix to incorporate, until beans are sticking together. Add in flour 1 tbsp at a time, stirring to combine and making sure the mixture will hold. Heat pan with cooking oil over medium low heat. 

Now make the blueberry sauce: turn saucepan with blueberries to medium. Stir frequently, making sure the sauce doesn't burn. Once blueberries have turned into jam-like substance (5-7 min), turn off heat. Add in chocolate squares, stir to combine once chocolate begins melting. Set aside.

Using a soup spoon, scoop out small portions of fritter mixture (golf ball sized). Lightly roll between your palms, then place into warmed pan. Press down slightly to flatten fritters. You can place fritters about 1/2 inch away from one another in the pan. Fry for about 5 minutes, then flip. Cook for another 5 minutes, until golden-brown.

Serve topped with blueberry chocolate sauce and garnish with fresh mint leaves. Add a side of potatoes too, you know you want to. And don't forget the Sriracha.

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

I don't have to tell you that chocolate chip cookies are a classic. Everyone loves them, gets all nostalgic thinking about their childhood cookies, admits to having baked store bought slice-and-bake Tollhouse cookies. They were the first cookies I ever baked, and boy was that a disaster.

They definitely didn't look like this. Nor did they taste as amazing. How could I mess up something as simple as a freaking chocolate chip cookie? I gave up on baking.

Then I began working retail at a cupcake bakery, where my new hobby quickly became asking the bakers every other day why my previous attempts at baking had fallen flat. After scolding me for creating baking "shortcuts", they gave me a few tips:

1. Cream the butter/oil with the sugar first. Do it. Make sure it's nice and incorporated, you don't want buttery streaks in your cookies. Also, don't cheat and nuke the butter when the recipe clearly states: room temperature. It will cause your cookies to spread!
2. Add in the flour last and don't over-mix! Glutens start to set when flour is added to the rest of the ingredients, and over-mixing will give you a dry, tough cookie.
3. Don't open the oven frequently. The heat escapes, causing your cookies to take longer to bake!
4. Be patient. As tempting as it is, don't immediately eat that delectable creation you just pulled out of the oven. Again, with the glutens: they have to set. Patience, young padawan.

Your cookie dough should aspire to look like this! I decided it was time for a cookie lesson post while making chocolate chip cookies at a friend's house; they were expressing dismay over less-than-perfect cookies they had baked a few weeks prior. Admitting they threw all the ingredients together at once, I knew I had to pass on the baking wisdom. And without further ado...

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Isa's recipe
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
2/3 cup canola oil
1/4 cup almond milk
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup rolled oats
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease two large light metal baking sheets.

In a large bowl, mix together sugars and oil. I whisk them with a fork until completely integrated. Add in milk, vanilla and stir to combine well.

Add the flour, the baking soda and salt. Fold with a spatula, making sure to not over-mix. Fold in the chocolate chips, oatmeal and cinnamon. Again, don't over-mix!

Using a tablespoon, scoop the dough and roll into ping pong ball sized balls. Place on a baking sheet and remember they will spread, so don't plop them too close to one another. Bake for about 8 - 9 minutes, until they are just a little browned around the edges. Let cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack. Indulge.