Crispy Oatmeal Cookies

So this post marks the beginning of my documented adventures outside of pasta cooking...

I made this a couple days ago and the last I checked there is only one left in the kitchen of the shared house I live in, so I thought I should do the cookies justice by writing about them before the last one disappears. The recipe was from The Joy of Cooking.

This is the second time I baked in USA.. The first time was a pear and persimmon pie that I and some of my housemates made. For whatever reason, I misread the ingredients and put in about 2 cups of sugar instead of 2 tbps for the crust. In my opinion, the pie turned out to be sickeningly sweet, though some of my housemates seem to really like it before they realised I put in the wrong quantity of sugar.... taste difference between Americans and Aussies?

Luckily, no such disaster this time around (!) In fact, the cookies turned out to be pretty good (if I may say so myself). I made four batches, averaging, nine cookies per batch, from the recipe. I overcooked the last batch a little, but I didn't mind it at all as I prefer crunchy cookies over soft ones. These are dangerously yummy and I can only reason that there is rolled oats in them, so maybe, just maybe, they would help lower the cholesterol that the butter will surely raise...well, that's my story and I am sticking to it ;-P

Spaghettini Aglio e Olio

I chose this recipe tonight for a couple reasons: 1) I had (still have) a bunch of parsley that I want to use up, and 2) apart from the parsley, I don't have much else at home. The only other ingredients this recipe calls for are dried chili, garlic, olive oil, and salt; I have ~1/4 of a bulb of garlic and I a bunch of Thai chili drying in my kitchen =)

As I was rummaging through my kitchen, I also noticed chanterelles, so I also included this even though it wasn't in the recipe (I know, I know.. I have a tendency to embellish unnecessarily). Since the recipe asked for the ingredients to be chopped finely, I decided to do the same with the chanterelles, which I cooked at the same time as I sauteed the garlic in olive oil. The garlic and mushrooms gave off a good fragrance, though it was nowhere near as enticing as the porcinis of the previous recipe. 

I added the parsley & chili once the moisture from the mushrooms evaporated and the garlic started to brown. It took less than a minute for the parsley to wilt, at which stage I tossed in the spaghetti (I didn't have any spaghettini on hand). 

All in all, the dish was very simple to make. The flavour was also very simple: a good hint of garlic with a good kick from the chili. It is not difficult to see how this would make a great side dish or snack in summer. Unfortunately, it was only a mediocre dish in winter (though it still beats biking to the shops in search of other ingredients in the cold, chilly wind!). 

Strozzapreti ai Porcini e Peperoni

My first endeavor was decided upon by Aaron's (my bf) love of mushrooms, and on this particular day, it was porcinis. There are only three recipes in the book using porcini, and we settled on the one on page 128. I particularly like this recipe because it was really flavorful and because the ingredients list was relatively short (always a plus for me-- a strong believer in simplicity).

Although we could not find any fresh porcinis at the farmers' market we were happy to get some dried ones from the shops. I soaked the mushrooms in quite a bit of water to rehydrate them; this concerned me a little as the recipe asked to cooked the mushrooms with the water it was soaked in (after filtering) until the water completely evaporates. For a while, I was sure the water would never dissipate! But, at last, it did, and the mushrooms did not get over-cooked (probably not possible to overcook porcinis..?).

The treatment of the herbs was a novelty for me. Three herbs were called for: garlic, sage, and rosemary. Aside from slightly crushing the garlic, all should be intact (I should have read the instruction beforehand =P). The idea is to cook the herbs in olive oil until the garlic browns then discard the herbs, leaving the oil with a lovely aroma of infused garlic, sage, and rosemary, to which the porcinis were added. The fragrance remained in my kitchen for a good long time-- it was mouthwatering.

Another novelty from this recipe, for me, was the peeling of the capsicums (that's bell pepper for you yanks). I don't know about others but I have never peeled my capsicums before (the skin will generally come off it I bake/roast them). So, for fellow newbies out there, I would recommend purchasing ones with few ridges and peeling them before coring & de-seeding.

A final comment about the making of this dish is on the amount of seasoning. This dish is really aromatic and flavourful, so I would recommend using the salt and pepper sparingly.

All in all, I think my first endeavour was very successful. So successful that Aaron ordered an 8oz bottle of dried porcini from the internet! I guess we'll be coming back to this dish =)
They arrived a week later ::