Recipes: March 2009 Archives

Trumpets please! One of us at Hot Knives is getting (ahem... errm) married. Stare at our bouteneirs and suit-pant boners. Cue the cherubs! No presents please, this is just a roundabout way of saying don't expect much posting over the next week. We are gone fishing.

Partly to celebrate the coming nups, our friend Molly made a hot-ass batch of traditional Mexican wedding cookies. Buttered pecan goodness rolled in powdered sugar are, apparently, a sign of sexual prowess and good luck in love. We ate 'em all up and asked for the recipe. Molly, the gracious wedding party lady that she is (did you find a dress yet Mollz?), gave it all away. Guess now we'll never get Hot Knives hate mail about us being gay lovers ever again? Shucks.

Mexican Wedding Cookies
(Makes 25-30 )

1 cup butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar (for mixing)
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
a pinch salt
1 vanilla bean (or 1 tsp. vanilla extract)
1/4 cup lemon or lime curd (for that 'just this side of rotten' taste that we love)
3/4 cup chopped pecans
1 additional cup powdered sugar (for rolling)
1 cup chocolate (for decorating, optional)
1 cup cream (also optional)

1. First, allow the butter to get to room temp, lay it on the kitchen counter on a plate, or nuke it briefly to start it off. You want it to be still solid, not liquid.

2. Combine all ingredients but the powdered sugar, chocolate and nuts by smooshing it all together with hands.

3. Add the nuts, (I like plenty of pecans but you can use almonds, walnuts or probably hazelnuts too).

4. Refrigerate your made dough until cold. While chilling, preheat oven to 350 degrees. If its cold when it goes in the oven, then it will stay in nicer balls and not melt out flat.

5. Roll into 1-inch balls and bake on parchment paper for 15 minutes. They shouldn't look brown except on the bottom. While still hot the cookies might seem hard-tack-y, don't worry, they wont be when they cool. Remember there is no egg or anything. you are just getting the butter sugar and flour to hang out with each other.

6. Once baked, roll while still hot in the extra powdered sugar until coated, and set on a wire rack to cool.

7. While they cool, in a double boiler mix chocolate chips or dark chocolate bars and just enough cream so that it melts smoothly.

8. Dip one half of each cookie in the chocolate and set to cool again. (Tip: Sometimes i like to then dip the wet chocolate into chopped nuts.)

Beverage: Stone's Imperial Chocolate Stout
Soundtrack: Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl"

"Ewwww, look at these baaaee-beeez heeeere."

That's an exclamation the two of us heard in the kitchen for years. Whenever Chef Whalid, our bombastic, Mercedes-driving Afghani chef would parade around the prep kitchen examining produce or partially prepared hors d'oeuvres he would inevitably utter something about "these baaee-beeze." It translates roughly to " beautiful little morsel," or something. Truth be told, Chef Whalid was usually holding something pretty uninspiring, like a piece of frozen chicken, a commercially grown basil leaf or a mini-mango quesadilla with mediocre brie. But that's just a testament to the dudes' character -- perpetual optimist with a love for snacks!

With that attitude in mind, we recently were putzing around the kitchen on a Saturday afternoon (favorite pastime!) and decided to make some snacky nuts to have in a bowl on the kitchen table. We had a bouquet of fresh rosemary in our face, which had just been clipped from the garden and jammed in a vase, so herb nuts became the mission. As luck would have it, pecans were the only nut in the house. We roasted, tossed, served 'em up and exclaimed in our best Whalid impression: "Look at these babies here!"

Rosemary Pecans

2 cups raw pecans
4 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil (good stuff)
3 Tbs. fresh rosemary (about 3 sprigs)
1/2 shallot, minced
Sea salt and black pepper to taste

1. Before toasting your nuts, prepare the rosemary oil. Remove rosemary from its stem, and chop into small pieces. Heat a small saucepan on low heat, add olive oil and rosemary and shallot. Before any sign of a sauté sizzle, turn oil down to simmer. You merely want warmed oil that will soak up the rosemary essence. Let sit on simmer until ready to use. Add fresh cracked black pepper.

2. In a large sauté pan, toast your nuts on high heat for about 8 minutes. Flip or stir every 3 seconds to keep from burning, you don't want any black edges. Salt throughout.

3. In a large mixing bowl, combine nuts and rosemary oil. Let sit for a few minutes before serving.

Beverage: Dogfish Head's Midas Touch
Soundtrack: Spiritualized, "Oh Baby"