A brief introduction: I’m a 21 year old college student at the University of Missouri. I’m an untrained (dangerous, I know) and often confused cook. I like just about all eatable things if they’re put together in the right way—which happens to be the tricky part and what I’m generally interested in finding out.

I love snacks. They’re the practical, any-time-of-day dessert. Moreover, they’re portable and easy to eat. If you can’t eat it out of your hand, it’s not a snack. I mean, desserts are great—it’s hard to beat warm pie after a filling meal—but they’re more ceremonial and require plate and fork. Cookies bring the best of both worlds into something sweet, portable and generally circular.

If I say there are a thousand different cookies, there’s probably a thousand and one. So, universal perfection is really something impossible to achieve—or claim. Really, it’s about individual food preference: if you like cherries, make a cookie with cherries, if you like peanut butter, find a great recipe for a peanut butter cookie. If you like it, you can probably find a way to put it into a cookie.

Here’s what you need, the beer is optional…and for the chef, not the cookies. If you want beer cookies see here.

So, although I’ll never believe in an “ultimate” cookie, I did believe in finding an “ultimate” cookie dough to receive any number of delicious culinary delights (for me, nuts and chocolate). Really, I was trying to find the best chocolate chip cookie recipe; but what you decide to put in the dough doesn’t matter, it’s the dough itself I was concerned with. It seemed simple, but every recipe I found claiming to be the “World’s Greatest Chocolate Chip Cookie” with references to grandmothers or Eastern Europe fell flat. They were too thin, or too puffy—too dense or too light. I’ve probably made 15 different versions of the same cookie.

What follows is the surprisingly simple, combined-from-many-cookies recipe for walnut-chocolate chip cookies. But I’d say throw in whatever you like, or whatever’s in your pantry.

The Perfect Cookie

Recipe combined from several sources. Makes about 32 cookies.

Dry

• 2 1/4 cups AP (all-purpose) flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda

Wet 1

• 2 sticks (1 cup) butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar

Wet 2

• 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
• 2 tbsp milk
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Optional

• A decent amount of chopped walnuts and chocolate chips, or anything else you want to chuck in. I never measure this, I just add until it looks good. Probably about 2 cups combined.

Follow the creaming method. Sift dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Cream butter and sugars together in another bowl. And whisk the second set of wet ingredients together in another small bowl.

Add combined wet ingredients to the large bowl of dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon.

Spoon dough onto parchment-lined cookie sheet (see note below), about 8 cookies per pan.

Bake at 375 (I run mine at 365, do what makes your cookies happiest) for about 12 minutes. Repeat with remaining batches.

Note: Parchment paper is a godsend for cookie making. If you haven’t tried using it, spend the money to buy a roll—it’s totally worth it. It helps prevent burning and sticking and makes cleaning pans 10x easier. Also, if you have trouble with burning cookie bottoms, try stacking your cookie sheet on another pan so a layer of air exists between the two. It’ll help regulate the temperature and cut down on direct heat to the bottom of your cookie sheet.

One last requirement: a cookie jar. It’s the perfect cookie container and in my mind a necessary component of cookie making. I prefer a clear one, but get whatever suits your kitchen. There’s nothing more homely than a full jar of cookies perched on a kitchen counter.

I left my wok in Argentina. And I feel nearly as strong about that as Tony Bennett leaving his heart in San Francisco.

Fine, maybe not that much, but I will miss it.

When my dad came to visit me in Buenos Aires, he was surprised to learn I had bought the wok only two months before. “It looks really well seasoned already,” he said.

Yes, I had put the wok to a lot of use. It was perfect for cooking for one. It cooks things quickly, it’s easy to clean, and it’s shaped so you can make your food do fun flips. For the first month I had it, I didn’t use the oven at all, making everything in the wok instead. Asian-style stir-frys and fried rice, of course, but also my version of Chipotle’s burrito bowl and other one-dish creations like a meal of sausage, potatoes and zapallitos redondos (round squash). Plus, a wok gets really hot quickly, and since I didn’t have a microwave, I used it to reheat pasta or other leftovers.

From what I’ve read, the most important thing to look for in buying a wok is carbon steel. Don’t go for non-stick. Carbon steel conducts more heat and gets that great seasoned effect from food sticking to it. Plus it’s cheap, especially if you can get to a Chinatown. (Mine was U.S. $11.)

Before you use a wok the first time, there’s a bit of a process to go through. I used this and this as a guide. Then you can make all sorts of dishes in it as long as you use an oil with a high smoke point (peanut oil, grapeseed oil or refined oils). It gets more seasoned with each use. (Don’t ever use metal utensils in it or you’ll end up with scratches like I did.)

Part of me wished I could have fit the wok in my luggage, but I guess I’ll have to get a new one and start over.

It’s my version of chimichurri, a common condiment in Argentina but with many variations. Here it’s often parsley-based with oregano and chili flakes, along with garlic, oil and red wine vinegar. In the U.S., it’s often made with cilantro. Where culantro is available, this more pungent herb can be used.

What I’m more excited to talk about is the “why.” Food Network recipe developer Sarah Copeland likened chimichurri to a weapon in her “arsenal of flavor.” It’s not difficult to make a batch of it, then find various uses for it throughout the week. “It’s a smart way of infusing a meal with a lot of flavor,” she told me.

Chimichurri is everywhere in Argentina because of the country’s obsession with meat. The sauce is great with grilled beef and chicken. But like Sarah, I have found myself using it in many more dishes. Soups, for one, have been improved by a spoonful of the garlicky sauce (See here and here). I mix it in with otherwise boring rice and beans. I’ve added it to a tequila-lime marinade, which saved me the steps of adding garlic and chilies separately. I’ve used it in pasta sauce and often use it as a sandwich spread. This afternoon I put a tad on my scrambled eggs.

I have decided that from here on out, there will always be chimichurri or another garlic-herb sauce in my fridge, maybe with basil, maybe cilantro…I’m curious to try Sarah’s sorrel pesto idea too. The point is to have instant flavor, so experiment away starting with a basic formula of herbs + garlic + spice + acid + oil.

If you need more of a recipe, try this:

• 1 cup flat leaf parsley
• 1 tablespoon oregano (I used dried)
• 1 garlic clove
• whole dried chilies or chili flakes (to your taste)
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoon red wine vinegar (or lemon juice)
• salt and pepper to taste

In a small food processor, blend parsley, oregano, garlic and chilies. Stir in oil and vinegar. (You can blend it in the food processor, which will emulsify the liquids and further puree the herbs to create a creamier sauce different from the chimichurri condiment common in Argentina, but no less delicious.) Season with salt and pepper.

I’ve found mine keeps in the refrigerator for about a week or two. The oil might solidify, but after a little while on the counter it goes back to normal.

Serve on meat, fish or poultry. Use in soups, marinades, as a sandwich spread…anywhere really.

I love to flip through cookbooks, but lately I’ve been more interested in food theory — books about ingredients, techniques, flavors, etc. Besides not being able to stick to a recipe to save my life, I prefer to learn the concepts behind cooking. It’s like that saying: Give a gal a fish recipe and she’ll eat for a night. Teach her how to cook it and she’ll eat for a lifetime. Or something.

I found an incredibly interesting book in the university library called The Flavor Principle Cookbook. It discusses the flavor principles and cooking techniques of several cultures, and then offers examples of traditional dishes and unique ways of combining ideas from different regions. This seems progressive for 1973.

I loved reading about the flavor principles from each culture, noticing the overlap and slight differences among them. For instance:

• Olive oil + tomato + garlic = Southern Italian
• Olive oil + tomato + saffron = Spanish, Southern French
• Olive oil + tomato + mixed herbs (thyme, basil, oregano) = Mediterranean, Provencal
• Olive oil + tomato + cinnamon and/or lemon = Greece, Balkans, Middle East

You can almost draw a map and follow the cuisine.

And what about Asian food? (That entire continent and nearby islands are so rarely appreciated as individual cultures.)

• Soy sauce + sake + sugar = Japanese
• Soy sauce + sherry + ginger = Chinese
• Soy sauce + garlic + brown sugar + sesame seeds = Korean
• Soy sauce + garlic + molasses + peanuts = Indonesian

These are still very basic formulas, but they get you to start thinking. After reading this book it was so easy for me to explain to my friend Annabelle why she enjoyed Indian food so much. Annabelle’s parents are Venezuelan and she grew up in Los Angeles. Naturally, she grew up eating Latin food. She hadn’t tried Indian until last month, but she loved it. Well if we consider the flavor principles of both cultures, we find a lot in common. Tomato, garlic, cumin, coriander/cilantro and hot peppers are all basic components of many Indian and Latin dishes.

The Flavor-Principle Cookbook is out of print, but if you can find it, I highly recommend it. I learned a lot, and we had a lot of success with her bulgar-stuffed chicken with a honey-sesame glaze.

The next day Michael had the idea to braise some leftover meat for our tapas-style dinner with friends. Thinking of Spanish flavors, we added tomato sauce, paprika and white wine. We let that simmer for at least 30 minutes. It made another nice tapa. 

Now today there was still some roasted meat in the fridge — enough for one really hungry person. Enter me, who had just worked out. I pulled the meat apart, tossing out some fat, and put it in a small pot. I added a tablespoon or two of tomato paste, black ground pepper, red pepper flakes and a few glugs of red wine. I brought it to a boil then let it simmer as I showered. When I came back, I added a little water since there wasn’t much liquid left. It tasted too acidic from the wine and tomato paste so I sprinkled in some sugar, let the water cook out, and toasted a pita. 

A few minutes later I was enjoying what might have been even better than the goat was a week before. The meat didn’t taste like bbq pulled pork, but it reminded me of it because the it was so succulent and a little sweet. 

This is my new formula for transforming leftover lamb or goat roasts: 

• Pull meat apart into small pieces
• Add herbs and spices (depending what flavor you want to create, coriander, cumin, cinnamon, paprika, red pepper flakes, chili powder, ras el hanout…)
• Add tomato juice or paste (if using paste, mix a little water and sugar  in too)
• Cover with red or white wine
• Bring to a boil, then simmer until alcohol has cooked off and meat is easily pulled apart

Vanilla sugar! 

I pulsed some regular white sugar in the Magic Bullet for a few seconds to get finer grains, then stored it with a broken vanilla bean pod. After a week or two, the whole thing is incredibly fragrant and you can use it any way you’d use plain sugar. I’ve read  that one tablespoon of vanilla sugar has the flavoring power of 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

It’s great for cakes, cookies and frosting. I most often use it sprinkled on berries or in a cup of black tea. Actually, the most common thing I do is open up the container and smell it because it’s basically heaven. 

Make your own by scraping vanilla beans into two cups of sugar (granulated white or caster sugar). Bury the pod in the sugar and keep in a covered container for at least a week for vanilla flavor to infuse itself. It can be stored pretty much indefinitely I think, and you can keep adding sugar as long as the vanilla pods have their fragrance.

You might know this already, but many of your favorite pizza places will sell you just the dough for cheaper than a slice. A large pizza dough from Shakespeare’s is a dollar. A small can of plain tomato sauce is 45 cents or less from the grocery store (and you can cover two pies with one can). Cheese is what, $2 or $3? The whole thing cooks in 10 minutes, and this way you don’t have to tip anyone.

From there you have so many possibilities. I jazz up the sauce with garlic, herbs, red pepper flakes and red wine. We put cornmeal on the bottom of the pan, and brush the crust with olive oil, rosemary and sea salt. We go nuts with toppings. I recently made bacon, artichoke and mushroom.

You can also try different sauces for the base. We’ve done barbecue sauce with chicken and green peppers; hummus with ground lamb and feta; and peanut sauce with chicken, carrots and sprouts.

The dough doesn’t always have to be turned into a pizza. I like to make it into hamburger buns, breadsticks or quick focaccia with olive oil, garlic, rosemary and sea salt. Then there was the time we made a cross between a calzone and Turkish pide, filling the dough with ground beef, vegetables and spices, then twisting it into the traditional pide shape. 

What’s your favorite pizza topping you can’t get delivered?

Fun story about how I acquired my ice cream maker: bored in class one day, I decided to peruse the classified section of the Columbia Missourian, where I work for school. Well just my luck, someone happened to be selling a 4-quart electric ice cream maker for $15. It definitely seemed too good to be true, but I called the woman up, and two days later I had 15 less dollars, but endless homemade ice cream possibilities.

From Scoops in LA: Blueberry Mango, Ginger, and Pistachio Ricotta

The brainstorming began. I thought of Sparky’s, the Columbia ice cream shop with flavors like Carrot Cake and Red Wine with Ghirardelli Chocolate Chips. I thought of Scoops, the Los Angeles shop where I had Strawberry Lemongrass and Banana Oreo. My mind went wild with ideas: Thai iced tea, peanut butter jelly, ginger coconut, Mexican chocolate, mojito sorbet…

I christened my ice cream maker with a 60-percent cocoa Ghirardelli chocolate ice cream. Rich and delicious, but not without some issues. First problem, it took FOR.EVER. to freeze. And then the next day it was rock hard!

Since then we’ve been reading about homemade ice cream and tried several methods. All of the flavors have been good, but the texture has been a lot of trial and a lot of error. A custard base makes the ice cream creamier, but takes awhile to do, then requires another stage of chilling. Lucky for us, our friend Kat loves standing by the stove stirring for extended periods of time.

So far the best ice creams have involved extra cream. We typically use half and half in our base because full cream would mean I’d have to get my butt to the rec center a lot more often than I do, and regular milk just wouldn’t be worth the hours of effort. But berry lemon cheesecake ice cream (with sour cream and cream cheese) and dulce de leche (made from sweetened condensed milk) have been the creamiest and didn’t involve making a custard first.

Another tip we’ve been experimenting with is the addition of alcohol to keep the ice cream from freezing so hard. It took us a while to learn that alcohol should be added late in the process, otherwise you go mad waiting for the base to even begin to freeze. Lesson learned. Now we add a shot after the base has thickened in the ice cream maker, just before we transfer it to a shallower container in the freezer.

If you have a fancier ice cream maker, you don’t have to worry about ice and salt, but to those with the bucket style like we do, these two things are critical. The first few times we didn’t use crushed ice or rock salt. Using crushed ice and de-ice-your-driveway-sized salt crystals has made all the difference because the metal canister can get much colder.

As spring approaches, I’m looking forward to many more experiments with the ice cream maker. We’re still trying to find our favorite base recipe. We haven’t tried sorbets or sherbets yet, but I like the idea of not making custard.

Anyone have any ice cream tips and tricks? I have plenty of flavor ideas.

Sure, this liquid is a little greenish and smells like cheese, but it’s not sour milk. What is it and why is it in my fridge?

It’s whey left from homemade cheese! You use two quarts of milk and a pint of buttermilk to get two cups of cheese, and then you have all this whey still. I couldn’t bear to pour it down the drain so I looked up ideas for using it.

Turns out whey can be substituted for water in baking recipes. I used it last time I made no-knead bread.

I also tried to make homemade ginger ale with it, as I read at An Hour in the Kitchen. The levels seem a little off in that recipe. It was a little watery. Maybe even salty? But I added some more lime juice and some frozen orange concentrate, and now it’s like very gingery juice. I kinda like it, but I love fresh ginger more than other people.

You could also probably use whey in your Persian rice. The recipe calls for a little yogurt to be added to the boiling water, but it also suggests using the water that accumulates in the yogurt container. That’s whey isn’t it?

Another thing you can do is make more cheese. Technically, ricotta is recooked whey left over from previous cheese making. I’m not sure why this didn’t work when I tried it. Maybe it’s because I let the whey sit for too long in the fridge. Or maybe I just didn’t have enough. (I had less than half a gallon.) If anyone has done this successfully before, let me know how you did it.

Anyway, I’m sure there are more ways to avoid wasting whey. Any ideas?

In the Los Angeles Times food section today, editor Russ Parsons (also the author of How to Read a French Fry, which I started reading the other day) discussed the benefits of adding acids like vinegars to a dish.

How many times have you watched Top Chef, or something like it, and heard the judges say, “It needs more acid” and wondered what exactly that meant? “Needs more acid” used to be my go-to phrase for sounding like a food snob in jest. Then I started to read about more about cooking, and suddenly acid is no joke.

Acidity is sourness. As I mentioned the other day, The Flavor Bible talks a lot about balancing flavors, and sourness is one of those. The book says acid is only second to salt in enhancing flavors. There’s a quote from Sharon Hage, a chef at York Street in Dallas, “We have lemon juice right next to the salt when we cook. Acid is the most important aspect of how a dish tastes — whether it is there as subtle punctuation or an exclamation point!”

The LA Times article focuses on vinegars (balsamic, red wine, sherry, apple cider), but I use citrus fruits a lot. Anything Thai or Latin benefits from a squeeze of lime, as something Mediterranean or Middle Eastern will be enhanced with lemon. Oranges are a lot less harsh than their yellow and green cousins, and orange zest adds depth to desserts, like in an apple-cranberry pie.

Wine is great for awakening dishes too. White wine or sherry in a stir-fry marinade or a dry red in tomato sauce are almost critical to me now.

The point is, when something seems sorta blah, a squeeze of citrus or splash of wine or vinegar could be your redemption. The Flavor Bible tells me so.

So to cook a steak without a grill, first lets start with the cut.  My personal favorite is the ribeye cause in addition to all the fatty flavor you get a little piece of tenderloin on the side, its a nice surprise.  Now, I should point out that the fat in ribeye should be marbled.  If you know this already, great, if you don’t, marbling is when fat is equally dispersed throughout the muscle, like little white specks and fibers.  The more of this there is, the more it melts into the fibers of muscle when cooking, enhancing the flavor and mouthfeel (god, i love that word).

But not everyone likes ribeye, I get that.  A NY strip cut also works just fine, maybe more tender, but I feel has less flavor, and if you can’t tell, thats kinda what we’re all about here.  Also, don’t just pick up a pack of meat from the grocery store thats vaccuum sealed, or bright, food-dye red.  You want the meat to look natural, not feel slimy, it should be somewhat tacky, a natural red color (brown means it’s starting to go) and not smell foul in any way.  If you don’t live near a butcher, go to the grocery store deli at least, but I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND the Mizzou Meat Market.  It’s where we buy all our meat. It’s locally raised, locally slaughtered, and hung for 21 days.

Many of you are probably asking why that’s important.  First off, its respectful to cows and the environment to not have to truck the meat across the country, second, it’s promoting local food.  As for the hanging, I’m not going to go into the details, but the longer meat hangs, (preferably two weeks, but three to four is better), the better it tastes, just believe me on that.  I can almost guarantee every piece of meat you’ve bought from the grocery store has not been hung, and if it says aged “for up to” a certain number of days, it probably means aged in the packaging.  The sheer economics of it make it much cheaper to just butcher it up and not waste the time.  Hence, why we love butchers.  If you want to learn much more about all this, I also highly recommend
The River Cottage Meat Bookby Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.  It’s a fantastic read and insight into the world of meat, and where I learned most of this information first.

Anyway, on to the recipe.  This is for cooking indoors, as I find it keeps the flavor of the steak natural, and gives an even distribution of searing, not charring (some people hate the taste of char, and find it bitter).  If you must cook your steak on a grill, the instructions are almost identical, you just won’t use a pan.

(Instructions adapted from Rouxbe Cooking School and  Mark Bittman, though not verbatim).

• Essentially, make sure the meat is fully defrosted, pat it dry and let it sit at room temperature a little while, just so its not fridge temperature when it hits the pan.  The pan you ask?  Yes, you will need a cast iron pan.  A 12 inch pan will hold two ribeyes comfortably, or three strips.
• Preheat the oven to as hot as it can go.  On my old gas oven, that means 550, but there is no broiler, so I just set it on the bottom floor of the oven.  In Brittany’s electric range, she has a broiler on top, so we set the shelf a few inches below that, and crank it up to broil.
• Before you just throw the steaks in, you should heat up the cast iron over medium high heat at least 3-5 minutes.  If you can’t hold your hand 2 inches above the surface for more than 3 seconds, its about hot enough.  Through a couple pinches of sea salt in the pan, pepper your steaks on each side, and as soon as you place them in the hot pan, move it to the oven.
• If they are 1 inch thick or so, i’d give it about 4 mins a side, turning in between.
• When it’s done, take it out, move it to a plate you aren’t eating on, cover with a towel and let it rest for 5 mins.  (This keeps it pretty).  If you’re nervous, cut into the middle of the biggest steak, and if its too pink, throw it back in for a minute or two.

General Notes:

Let me warn you if you do not have a ventilation system, you might wanna get a fan and window open in case it gets smokey. Patting the steaks dry will help this, but don’t freak out if you get lots of smoke, its part of the process, and almost unavoidable. The more steaks you cook, the more smoke there will be.

You can get a Lodge brand cast iron pan for around 15 bucks at Walmart or Target, and its a good investment because that thing will basically last forever.  I personally use Le Creuset, as it’s just unbeatable in quality.  Their stoneware is also phenomenal.  Pricey?  Yes.  Worth it?  I think so.  We’ll save my praise for quality kitchen gear for another day. Enjoy the steaks!  Always classic to serve them with sauteed onions on top, green beans and/or potatoes on side, either mashed, roasted, or french fries.  Don’t forget the wine.  My personal favorite  with steaks is Cabernet Sauvignon.