Tylor's Cookie Guide

Cookies should always be wonderful, and it always baffles me that they so frequently are not. Their chemistry and our biology should ensure that they are always amazing. What are three of the most important things that we need to make stuff taste good? Sugar, fat and salt. That's essentially cookies right there, with a few things cut in to give them substance and flavor. You don't even need to cook the damn things and they're delicious.

How can you mess that up? Part of the problem is that I think people try to make things too complicated or too cute or healthy. To prevent this, here are my guildelines to guaranteed good cookies, followed by a set of links to failsafe recipes that I use. I've listed my own modifications if you want to be extra naughty:

The Guidelines:

1. NO healthy substitutions are permitted. Be honest with yourself. If you were really concerned about your health or getting rid of that stubborn belly fat, you wouldn't be eating cookies in the first place, so why not actually enjoy them? Applesauce is no more a substitute for butter than gravel is a substitute for chocolate chips. Many of these items are chemically necessary for your cookies to behave properly - this is why you don't cut out milk or eggs from a recipe that calls for both. Frankly you should know better. Avocados for butter? Get out of my kitchen!

2. Remember the key acronym: ATM. No, not that version. Nor the other one. Always Trust the Mormons. The Mormon church, in its cruel wisdom is always attempting to harness the white hot sexual energy surging through its adolescent children and divert it towards aprurient activities. For boys, this means sports and random violence.  For girls, they prefer activities that will ostensibly  help prepare them for marriage. Like baking. Or knitting. Or scrapbooking. Anyways, if you've ever eaten cookies made by a Mormon friend you'd know what I'm talking about. They're glorious.

3. Don't leave the kitchen. Timing and temperature are two additional keys to making your food taste good, so it does you no good if you're dicking around on your computer, not realizing that your oven is actually 20 degrees too hot and your soft oatmeal cookies are now chipboard. Our oven is so terrible that it's actually impossible to predict how hot the interior will be at any given moment, so this is doubly important for me.

4. Use baking paper. It's way easier and more effective than silicon sheets, which don't crisp the bottom properly.

5. Halve the recipes. Most of them are made for large families of doughy, inert children and you'll wind up with more cookies than you can conscionably dispose of.

Here are a few excellent recipes for your run of the mill cookies. I've tried all of these, so if they turn out poorly, it's probably your fault:

Oatmeal Raising Cookies - I added about a teaspoon and a half of cinnamon, a dash of clove, a bit more salt and twice the vanilla.

Lemon Cookies - A contest winner from among Mormon bakers. No bullshit, these are good. No mods needed.

Chocolate Chip Cookies - A good basic recipe that doesn't skimp on the vanilla.

Also Chocolate Chip Cookies - A more advanced recipe that is amazing.

Snickerdoodles - This is a heavyweight among sugar cookies. Always use the butter only recipes, half-crisco has half the flavor. Add some almond extract if you want to blow some minds.

That should do you. Peanut Butter cookies have been left off because I don't make them a lot since peanut butter is pricey and bad here. I also do a great chocolate cookie, but you may as well make brownies.

Cheers. 

Murgh Makhani: Butter Chicken: Pretty Much What it Sounds Like PLUS garam masala recipe

Curry is really not a summer food. It takes a lot of time to get your mise en place in order, which you should be doing anyways, but more importantly, it's terribly hot here in Beirut in the summer. Miserably hot. I'm from Arizona, and I think I'd prefer hell to Beirut in August since I hear it's a dry heat.

But since our friend Dylan made it into town this week, we thought we'd have him over to celebrate his arrival and to obviate the need to go out, which is expensive and terrible and usually not plausible with a 2 year old. The butter chicken, in contrast, was delicious and pretty cheap. Someone calculated the cost of the naan as $.16 a serving, which is reasonable even for a cheapskate such as myself.

For those of you who don't have Dora (a part of town where the domestic workers congregate on Sundays with great Filipino and Sri Lankan food) a mere 10 minute bus ride away, spices may be problematic. Fenugreek leaves are amazing, but good luck finding them. I make my own garam masala because I have a spice grinder and lots of weird whole spices, but you can use generic "curry powder" if you really want. It'll taste different, but that's not always bad. Mine is a Punjabi inspired sort.

Try making the naan, it's well worth it. Otherwise, serve this with basmati and you'll be very happy with the results. It's less "authentic" than some recipes, more authentic than most, but it tastes really freaking good.

Garam Masala Ingredients

5 green cardamoms
6 black cardamoms
4" of cinnamon stick
1/8 cup whole cumin
1/4 cup whole coriander seeds
2 bay leaves (I stem and vein them)
1 tbsp peppercorns
1 tbsp turmeric
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp fenugreek
1 1/2 tsp dry ginger
1/8 tsp nutmeg

Step 1: Put in a spice grinder and blend. Make sure it's a grinder you'll never use for coffee, these tastes will not be coming out of it anytime soon.

Murgh Makhani Ingredients
8 boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 1/2 large onions
5 ripe red tomatoes, skinned, cored and seeded
1/2 cup crushed tomatoes
1/3 cup red bell pepper
2 inch piece of ginger minced finely or turned to paste
6 garlic cloves, minced finely
2 tbsp fresh cilantro/coriander leaves chopped
juice of 1 lemon
5 cashews powdered
2 cups water
1/3 cup cream
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp cooking oil
salt

Spices and herbs:
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tbsp garam masala
2 bay leaves
1/2 tbsp dried fenugreek leaves
1 tsp fenugreek
1/2 tbsp ground coriander
1 tbsp muscovado or other poorly processed sugar

Step 1:
Marinate the chicken in the juice of 1 lemon and some salt for about 30 minutes. While this is going on, prep your vegetables and skin, seed and blend your tomatoes with the crushed tomato.

Step 2:
Heat the oil in a deep pan on medium high until very hot, then put in your chicken thighs. Let them brown violently on both sides, then remove and put on a plate.

Step 3:
Turn down the heat to medium and melt the butter, then add your onions and red peppers. If you're using sriracha, you don't need the peppers, but they add a nice flavor. Sweat the onions until they're clear.

Step 4:
Add the garlic and ginger pastes, stirring frequently

Step 5:
Add your sugar/spice mixture and stir to combine.

Step 6:
Add the tomato mixture and stir to combine, then add salt. Your kitchen should smell glorious by now.

Step 7:
Add the water, then cover and cook on low heat for about 15 minutes. Now might be a good time to get going on your naan and rice.

Step 8:
Remove the bay leaves and blend your chunky curry into a fine paste using a stick blender or a blender/food processor. Add the cashews, return the bay leaves  and the chicken, cover and let simmer on low for another 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning on the bottom of the pan.

Step 9:
when everything is the proper consistency (gravy-like), turn off the heat and add your cilantro and cream, stirring to combine. Cover and let rest for about 5 minutes, then serve next to rice and naan with a cilantro garnish.