My cure for a summer cold…snickerdoodle
It’s not fair…a summer cold is a psycho situation and I’m really not in the mood. Not that I’d ever be in the mood for a psycho situation, but you know…a summer cold sucks. My head feels like a over-ripe cantaloupe…all slooshy and sloppy inside and I really don’t feel like cooking a meal or even eating one. I’ve got a few tasty snack items that I haven’t shared with you yet but it really is too hot to even contemplate making them now so I’ll save them for later.
There is one thing I like to eat when I’m sick and that’s the classic snickerdoodle. Actually I adore snickerdoodles any time. I seriously love my chocolate chip cookies and a Pierre Herme macaron is as close to perfection as it gets, but a snickerdoodle has an old fashioned sweet and cinnamony flavor and a chewy sandy texture and let’s face it…it’s got soul.
It also doesn’t hurt that they are so quick and easy to make that the oven doesn’t really get a chance to heat up the kitchen and my cold-addled brain could manage the simple instructions. The only thing to remember about snickerdoodles is that you should make the dough the day before you want to bake them so it can really chill out.
Snickerdoodles
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Makes 48 cookies
3 cups all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
2 sticks butter (room temp)
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
½ cup sugar
2 teaspoon cinnamon
Using a mixer cream the butter. Add the sugar and mix together well. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until light and fluffy. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Add it the butter and egg mixture and mix until well combined. Refrigerate the dough for at least 3 hours, over night is better.
You can refrigerate it in the bowl and use a cookie scoop to dole it out or you can pile the dough onto a large sheet of saran wrap and create an oblong of dough that is 12” long, 4” wide, and 3” tall. This method allows you to slice the dough into chunks for the cookie portions. I prefer the slicing method.
After the requisite chilling period preheat the oven to 375°. Take the chilled dough oblong and cut 1 inch slices that you then cut into 8 chunks. Roll the chunks lightly in your hands to take the sharp edges off. Put the ½ cup sugar and 2 teaspoons cinnamon in a quart galss jar and shake to combine. Drop 4 chunks into the jar, put the lid on and shake to coat well with the sugar. Remove the chunks from the jar and place on a parchment of silpat covered cookie sheet. Repeat until your sheet is full and then bake for 8 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and let them rest for 5 minutes or so before you move them to a cooling rack.
Repeat the chunking, coating with sugar, baking routine until they’re all baked.
3 Bean Salad
I can’t explain my love of three bean salad. It’s not a discerning love because I’m equally accepting of a jar of S&W 3 bean salad or a pint from the deli. But a freshly made bowl of this odd salad is so fabulous that it’s all I wanted to eat. There are so many recipes out there for this salad and they often include canned beans, bottled dressings, or even worse, homemade dressings that include binders like corn starch or brassy flavorings like mustard. I think the point of this fresh gem is to let the simple, cool flavors stand on their own.
I picked out the most beautiful green beans and yellow beans at the farmers’ market. After I snapped off their little heads I gave them a 2 minute swim in a pot of boiling water and then immediately transferred them to a ice cold bath, then the refrigerator. I soaked the dried red beans in cold water for a few hours then simmered them on a low flame for about 20 minutes until tender. They got an overnight chill in the refrigerator. The only other ingredient is a diced bright red onion. The dressing is my standard simple mix of apple vinegar, canola oil, and a clove of fresh garlic all whirled around in the blender until it’s thick, tangy, and tasty. I tossed the salad, added some salt, tossed again, and let it spend several hours in the refrigerator mingling the flavors.
I served this alongside a flavorful flank steak that I marinated in my usual balsamic bbq sauce. I see a trend this summer and it’s all about the vinegar, which means it’s all about simple flavors. This salad had it for sure. I love the sweet snappy flavor of the green and yellow beans and the red beans had a deeper, richer, almost nutty flavor. The onion and dressing rounded out the picture to perfection. I can’t wait to make this salad again.
Hash Brown Potatoes
Hash brown potatoes turn up in diners and restaurants all over America. They are often served as a side at breakfast and they are well suited to that role. But my favorite place for hash browns is as a side to nice piece of meat. There they shine as the perfect savory foil to the robust beefy flavor of a steak or a slice of brisket, or a tasty, plump pork sausage is perfect too. There are even times, during potato season, that I have served hash browns and that’s it, just hash browns. As a child I remember my mom would often make hash browns in a large electric skillet and she always had the same problem I do, in the end you can never make enough.
I use a cast iron skillet and I always prefer to use boiled potatoes that have been chilled at least overnight. I’ll make hash browns from fresh potatoes but they are never as flavorful and never as good. So ideally you should be thinking ahead and boiling potatoes a day or two in advance.
There are a few other helpful things to know about making hash browns. One is that you must use a lot of butter. It is, after all, one of the main ingredients and there is no way can you get away with a tablespoon of butter..oh no, you’re going to have to start with half of a stick of butter, that’s 2 ounces of good, sweet cream butter. You may need more later if you’re using fresh potatoes, but you probably won’t need more if you’re starting with boiled/chilled potatoes.
The other important tip to remember is leave them alone. Don’t stir them all the time because if you do you’ll never get those fabulous little brown bits of potatoey goodness that are the complete reason for the existence of hash browns in the first place. So just don’t do it. You can scrap them up and flip them every 8 minutes or so. I actually set the timer so I know I can’t touch them until it goes off…that really works well for me. I also suggest you use a semi-sharp, flexible metal spatula for this job because the right tool makes all the difference between perfect hash browns and and just so-so.
For those of you who need it, I’ve included a recipe:
Savory Hash Brown Potatoes
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3 pounds of potatoes, boiled and chilled*
1 large yellow onion, diced
½ stick of butter
salt
pepper
*I almost always leave the peel on my potatoes as it’s less work and more flavor.
Heat a large heavy skillet over a medium flame. Add the butter and swirl the pan to melt the butter while not allowing it to burn. Add the chopped onion and sprinkle it with salt.
Dice the potatoes into chunks not more than one inch square in size. Transfer the potatoes into the skillet. Sprinkle the potatoes with salt. When you start to smell the onions browning it is time to stir/flip the hash browns (usually this is 3 or 4 minutes after I’ve added the potatoes, depending on how long it takes me to dice the potatoes). Slip a thin, sharp, flexible spatula under the onion layer and flip, continue to work your way around the pan until it has all been flipped. Don’t expect it to look tidy or evenly browned or flipped…it will be chaotic looking.
After about 7 or 8 minutes flip again. Resist flipping earlier…resist it! Do the flip thing a total of 3 or 4 times depending on how brown you like your hash browns. Usually start to finish it takes about 30 minutes, maybe a little more.
