Brown Sugar Butterscotch Cookies

Brown Sugar Butterscotch Cookies - made dough March 29, 2014 from Two Peas and Their Pod

I don't bake with butterscotch very often as it can sometimes be too sweet for me, depending on what I bake it in. But every once in awhile, I'll try something with it. It pairs especially well with banana and with brown sugar so this cookie recipe caught my eye as a viable candidate. I've also been busy enough lately that my time to bake has been more limited than usual. When that's the case, cookies are my fallback position. It takes me 10-15 minutes to make the cookie dough and portion them into dough balls to put in the freezer then when I have another 15 minutes on a different day, it's easy to bake off a sheet.

Plus, truthfully, I almost always freeze cookie dough before baking it, no matter what the directions say. Something I often forget to mention when I'm blogging a new cookie recipe. Oftentimes, I'll copy and paste the original recipe as is from wherever I got it and 95% of the time, the standard cookie recipe has you preheating the oven, mixing the cookie dough and baking the cookies right away. 95% of the time, I actually don't do that. I make the dough, portion it, freeze it and bake the cookies from frozen dough. It keeps them thicker and there's nothing more convenient than baking pre-homemade dough whenever you have time and need fresh cookies. So I did modify the directions for these to incorporate the freeze-before-you-bake part.

Mine didn't come out as thick as the ones pictured from Two Peas and Their Pod, probably because I underbaked them and they sank as they cooled. That's a good thing because these came out chewy and moist. I only used a scant cup of butterscotch chips because I really didn't want these to be too sweet with too many butterscotch chips. But they were just fine. The brown sugar flavor went very well with the butterscotch and this was a nice little cookie.

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup butterscotch chips

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cornstarch, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
2. Place the butter and dark brown sugar in the bowl of an electric stand mixer. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Add the egg and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until combined.
3. With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined. Stir in the butterscotch chips.
4. Form dough into tablespoon or golf-size balls. Place in refrigerator or freezer until thoroughly chilled, at least 1 hour or more.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and place cookie dough balls evenly on sheet. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. Do not overbake. Cool on the pan for 2 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Restaurant Review: Red Kwali

Red Kwali - lunch on April 1, 2014, 2.5 stars on yelp

I was going out to lunch with a coworker and another friend and we had originally planned to go to Dish Dash but when we got there, we were told the wait would be 30 minutes for a table. Now, while we might be able to get away for lunch, no way did any of us have time to wait 30 minutes then be able to eat lunch. It was a work day after all. So we decided to go next door and try out Red Kwali. It bills itself as Malaysian Thai food, similar to Banana Leaf just across the street.

The restaurant was a decent size and there were still empty tables so we thought our chances were good at getting in and out fairly quickly. Unfortunately, what we didn't take into account is there seemed to be one hostess and one server for the entire restaurant. Meaning, it took awhile for us to get seated and it took awhile longer for someone to take our orders. Once we ordered, the food took an okay amount of time to come out, not that quick but it didn't seem as long as it took for us to order.

The prices were pretty standard for a restaurant catering to the business crowd. Most entrees were in the $10-15 range and came as rice plates. My friend chose the eggplant dish since she said it's not something she makes herself so she always tries to choose what she doesn't cook when she goes out to eat.

Eggplant

I have the same criteria but in my case, since I don't cook, the world's my oyster when it comes to choosing from a restaurant menu. You'll never hear me say, "Oh, I make Black Pepper Beef all the time so I think I'll go with the Pineapple Chicken today." Instead it's "ooh, pineapple sweet and sour chicken, I'll have that."

Pineapple Sweet and Sour Chicken

I thought the dish was pretty decent. There wasn't too much extra stuff besides the chicken and it was easy for me to pick out what I didn't eat and just stick to the chicken and rice. Rice was just standard, not like Gochi or even Tribu but good enough. And the chicken was flavorful. Overall, I liked the one entree I tried (we didn't have time or room for dessert) but I wasn't impressed with the relatively slow service so next time, if I have to wait for a meal anyway, I'd rather wait at Dish Dash.

Restaurant Review: Tribu Grill

Tribu Grill - lunch on March 30, 2014, 3 stars on yelp

My parents and I go out to lunch every Sunday after church. We usually go to the same handful of restaurants in their town, typically something close to our church or where I need to go afterwards to do my errands (cough*Target*cough). But once in awhile we'll go a bit farther than the norm and such was the case when we go to Tribu Grill.

Tribu opened up a few years ago and it's a Filipino restaurant. We actually don't eat at Filipino restaurants that often, not because we don't want to support them because we do. But my mom is such a good cook that there's seriously no Filipino restaurant as good as her cooking. My dad's side of the family also has some legendary cooks, you know, the kind who never measure anything, just cook by taste and crank out family favorites at the drop of a hat. That's how my mom cooks too and between her, my aunts and my cousins, they've set such a high bar that the rest of the family is spoiled. It's like being raised by people who make the best, most tender, flavorful steaks but when you go out to eat, everyone else serves beef jerky. I don't like beef jerky.

Daing na Bangus (milk fish)

But sometimes, we do take the plunge and Tribu is one of the few places we'll go for Filipino food. Because they're good. Their rice is good and their entrees are good. A lot of Filipino cooking is fried and badly made Filipino food is greasy and can be fatty. Tribu is a notch above that so it is one place my snobby taste buds enjoy. I ordered the Pork BBQ rice plate and the pork was tender and whatever marinade and sauce they used for it was delicious. I even ate more rice than I normally do because most Filipino dishes go really well with rice. Tribu's price points are fairly reasonable with some entrees under $10 and others reaching closer to $15.

BBQ Pork with Rice

The main reason I like to go to Tribu is to get the bibingka for dessert. There are several different kinds of bibingka and the one at Tribu is a cakey butter coconut cake baked in banana leaves, covered with melted butter and sprinkled with sugar, coconut, cheese and salted egg. The cheese and salted egg are traditional additions but I prefer it with just the butter, sugar and coconut. I think Tribu pre-makes their bibingka then just warms it up because it's always served warm yet this time, when we got to the middle, it was still a little cold. Fortunately that didn't detract from the taste. I think they make theirs with wheat flour rather than just rice flour as the texture was cakey more than chewy. Chewy is what you'd get with all rice flour like the other kind of bibingka I've made before. I like this kind too and need to go looking for recipes to duplicate Tribu's.

Bibingka

Inside of the bibingka

When we've gone to Tribu in the past, mostly when they first opened, they served their entrees in the more traditional bamboo servers lined with banana leaves. On our last visit, they seem to have gone mainstream with just regular plates. That's too bad as I liked that "native" feel. Chicken Inasal, below (from a prior visit), is grilled chicken with a special sauce. It's good but when I had it at Tribu, I thought it was a bit greasy. Which is odd, considering it's supposed to be grilled, not fried.

Chicken Inasal

Their Chicken BBQ, however, is delicious. Whatever marinade they use for the chicken is amazing and it's always fork tender. Granted, chicken's typically a safe bet but still, this is delicious. If you're trying to introduce someone to Filipino food, although this is pretty Americanized, it's a good choice.

Chicken BBQ

Pancit is a traditional Filipino noodle dish, as prevalent to Filipinos as chow mein is to the Chinese. I like pancit but rarely order it when we go out because, you guessed it, I love my mom's pancit and am prejudiced against everyone else's.

Pancit Miki Bihon

Quadruple Chocolate Soft Fudgy Pudding Cookies

Quadruple Chocolate Soft Fudgy Pudding Cookies - made dough March 29, 2014 from Averie Cooks

Whenever I search pinterest, when I see a picture of chubby, moist, yummy-looking cookies, even before I see the source site, I always think it's from Averie Cooks and 99% of the time I'm right. I've come to think of it as her baking signature and it's always the kind of cookies I like best: thick, chewy, moist and delicious. And I don't think I've ever been wrong whenever I make one of her cookie recipes. I'm not wrong on this one either.

Pudding cookies, aka cookies with pudding mix in them, are almost always soft in texture and moist, thanks to the pudding mix. Because this one is chocolate, you can add "fudgy" to the description as well. I thought this would pack more of a chocolate punch but it doesn't. Don't get me wrong, it's plenty chocolatey but it's not super, stop-your-molars-in-their-tracks chocolatey. That's not a bad thing because then you can eat more. Oh wait, that's just me. For optimal taste and texture, let these cool almost completely to room temperature. If you eat them when they're too warm, you'll miss out on the fudgy texture and instead just get gooey mush. In which case, just top it off with ice cream and eat like a decadent hot fudge sundae. Oh wait, that's just me again.

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 4-ounce package chocolate instant pudding mix (not sugar-free or cook n serve)
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch salt, optional and to taste
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chunks

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla; beat on medium-high speed until creamed and well combined, about 4 minutes.
2. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the pudding mix and cocoa powder; beat on low speed until just combined, about 1 minute.
3. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the flour, baking soda, and salt if using; beat on low speed until just combined, about 1 minute.
4. Add the chocolate chips and chocolate chunks. Beat on low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds. Reserve a handful of the chips and chunks to add to the last of the dough after you make into dough balls to make sure the chips are evenly distributed.
5. Using a large cookie scoop or a 1/4-cup measure, form dough into golf-ball-size dough balls. Place in refrigerator or freezer until thoroughly chilled, at least 2 hours.
6. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and place dough balls on baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 minutes or until edges have set and tops are just set. Do not overbake. Cookies will firm up as they cool.

Butterscotch Bread Pudding

Butterscotch Bread Pudding - made March 29, 2014 from Kitch Me

I ran a 10K this morning. It was my first race in several years. I used to run a lot more races a few years ago but burned out after my third half marathon so while I kept up with the running (more or less), I stopped with the races. Until earlier this year when, thanks to the enabling efforts of a runner friend plus a temporary loss of sanity, I decided I would sign up for my fourth half marathon. It's on my bucket list to run a half in under 2 hours. The closest I've come to was 2:04 when I did the San Jose Rock n Roll Half Marathon. That was on a mostly flat course and was the first half I'd ever run. I ran two more after that but they were in San Francisco and if you've ever been to SF, you know for the small land mass where they've got to chart 13.1 miles throughout the city, hills are inevitable. The best time I've done on a half in San Francisco was 2:08 because of those damned hills.

So I knew I had to choose a course with flat terrain if I had any hope of a sub-2 half. Which is why I signed up for the Disneyland Half Marathon in August. But since I hadn't run a race in the last 2 years and Disney needs a qualifying time to determine which corral you're put in, I had to run a 10K before June. Hence my 10K this morning. Otherwise I'd be put in the very last corral with the walkers. Erk. No thanks. Race report potentially to follow in a future blog post (I haven't decided yet).

What does all this have to do with Butterscotch Bread Pudding? Um, nothing. The closest connection is probably carbo-loading --> bread --> bread pudding. Except I made this a week ago and didn't eat it for the 10K as fuel nor should I probably advocate it for training. In any case, the main reason I made this is because I had a lot of milk to use up and this called for 4 cups. Which actually turned out to be too much. I've made bread pudding before and this is a lot of liquid for the amount of bread in the recipe. I ended up using over a pound of challah and even then I still had a lot of liquid. Contrary to the directions, I let the bread soak for several hours before I baked it. I don't think I baked it long enough although it had puffed up and the top was getting dry. When I sliced into it after it had cooled, there was still some liquid on the bottom that hadn't baked in yet the top was dry. Not a good combo. The taste was good and the top half of the bread pudding the next day was better since it had softened. But the bottom half was wet. Not moist but wet. To modify this recipe, I would recommend using a pound of bread and only 3/4 of the liquid mixture. Let it soak for several hours or overnight before baking.

10 3/4-oz day-old loaf bread, torn into small pieces (I used over a pound of challah)
4 cups milk
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
3 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup butterscotch chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9 x 13-inch baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine bread, milk, brown sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla and butterscotch chips; mixture should be the consistency of oatmeal. Pour into prepared pan. (I let it soak in the mixture for over 4 hours.)
3. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour, until nearly set. Serve warm or cold.

Restaurant Review: Orenchi Ramen

Orenchi - dinner on March 26, 2014, 4-star rating and 2952 reviews on yelp

Outside Orenchi, 15 minutes before opening

I first went to Orenchi back in July of last year and always meant to write up the review but I couldn't find the pictures I took on my first visit. I finally went back there for dinner last week so I have another shot at it. I've actually been dying to write this review because the Orenchi experience is hysterical. It's funnier if you're not a huge, die-hard, I-live-for-ramen sort of person because then you'll think it's as crazy as I do. If you are a fanatical ramen lover, you'll just roll your eyes at me and tell me I don't get it. Fair enough.

Inside Orenchi, 10 minutes before opening

I met my friend Jenny there for dinner. She arrived 30 minutes before they opened and put our name down on the waiting list that Orenchi keeps in the foyer. We were #9. Still half an hour to go before opening and the waiting list was already 9 lines deep. I got there 15 minutes before opening and noticed people already gathered outside as I parked my car. I didn't think it was too bad but then I got inside and there were a lot more people inside the small foyer. And it got even more crowded with every minute that ticked by. As in, standing room only crowded. For ramen. My coworker, Queen of Cheap Eats, was the one who first told me about Orenchi and she's a seasoned veteran of the place. Her advice is to go before they open, put your name on the waiting list then go do your errands or whatever and just come back at opening time. Sound advice and I 'm glad Jenny got there when she did or we would've had to wait even longer. As it was, once they opened for business, it was very orderly as they called the names in order on the waiting list and started seating people. I don't know what time the #1 signup was there and I'm not sure I want to know. They must love ramen.

Inside Orenchi as they start seating people by the waiting list order

The interesting thing about Orenchi, beyond its wild popularity (check out their reviews on yelp, linked above), is it defies all conventional wisdom about owning, operating and growing a restaurant. First, their location sucks. Truly. It's in a dying strip mall next to a Grocery Outlet Bargain Market. There's not much else there so if you go to this strip mall, you're going there for a specific purpose, probably to go to Orenchi. Second, the place is small. One of the reasons there's always a crowd waiting to get in is they can't seat very many people at any one time. So customers wait. And wait. Third, they're only open a limited number of hours: 2 hours for lunch and 3-4 hours for dinner, depending on the day of the week. They're also closed on Mondays. It's like they don't want that many customers.

But the funny thing is, they get a huge number of customers day in, day out. Conventional wisdom aside, if your success metrics include a cult-like following who don't mind your location, your limited hours and wait times plus large crowds every single hour you're open, then Orenchi is any restaurateur's dream. Do you know of any other ramen place that has almost 3000 reviews that averages to 4 stars? It's mind boggling.

How do they do it? What's the secret sauce? For me, it always starts with the food. For any eating establishment to succeed, you have to serve good food. In Orenchi's case, since they're famous for their ramen, you should expect their ramen to be good. And it is. I took snapshots of parts of their menu so you can see their claim to fame, including boiling their broth for at least 18 hours before serving. For my part, while I'm no ramen expert, I will say their ramen is delicious. The broth is amazing and, unlike other ramen places, it's consistently good throughout the whole bowl, i.e. it doesn't get more salty as you keep eating it. The noodles are a perfect chewy consistency, the soft-boiled egg which so many reviewers rave about is perfectly done and the pork topping is delicious (I ordered it as an extra topping). Considering their popularity, their prices are pretty reasonable  - $9 for a standard bowl - and the portion sizes are decent, i.e. I can't imagine eating more than the serving they give you.

I was less thrilled with the appetizers though. The first time I went to Orenchi last year, I had gotten the Karaage. Too salty. The Chicken Karaage from Kahoo is better. This time around, I got the deep fried shrimp spring roll. Too greasy and I was disappointed that they used little shrimp plus fillers (roughage) for the filling instead of prawns or a mostly shrimp mixture. I wouldn't get either again. Jenny got the Wasabi Octopus as an appetizer. I don't eat raw or octopus so I have no idea what it tasted like and I forgot to ask Jenny if she liked it.

Wasabi Octopus

Service seemed pretty quick. Our ramen took awhile to come out and we wondered if it was because we had ordered appetizers and they were spacing out when they'd bring us the ramen. Otherwise, the wait staff moved quickly and were very nice. We sat at the counter to free up a table for the waiting list below us and could see into the kitchen where they were dishing out bowl after bowl of ramen. Before long, the tables were full yet I could see the same amount of people crowding in the foyer waiting their turn. The crowd didn't dissipate.

Deep Fried Shrimp Spring Roll

When we left, there was a good-sized crowd outside as well waiting to be able to get into the foyer so they could wait some more. From my friends who are regular patrons of Orenchi, this is a daily and nightly occurrence. I'm going to confess that while I thought their ramen was good and I'd certainly go back, I'm not such a ramen lover that I'd be willing to wait 15-30 minutes (or more) to get a table every time. The inconvenience isn't worth it to me but clearly, I'm outnumbered on that sentiment. Kudos to Orenchi for building such a loyal following....even though as a non-ramen fanatic, I think it's just a little bit crazy.

Orenchi Ramen with Pork Topping

Texas Lemon Cake

Texas Lemon Cake - made March 29, 2014 from Food.com

I've done Texas Fudge Cake, Texas Vanilla Cake (several kinds of each), the brownie version of Texas Fudge Cake, and Texas Fudge Cookies. With lemons still to use up, I was delighted to find a lemon version of Texas Cake. Because my one-track baking mind is never far from the Texas Cake incarnations.

Although it wasn't chocolate or vanilla, it has the same hallmarks of a traditional Texas Cake in that the liquid ingredients are brought to a boil, added to the dry ingredients, poured into a sheet pan (or, in my case, a 9 x 13 pan) and baked. The only main difference is you do let the cake cool before pouring the lemon frosting over it rather than letting the frosting melt into the warm cake. Otherwise it was just as easy to make. I thought it had a great cakey texture and the sweetness of the frosting paired well with the flavor of the cake. A lot of the lemon flavor is derived from lemon extract rather than lemon zest or juice so that's probably the only tweak I would make; cut back on the extract and add more zest and juice. You can also give this more of a lemon punch by adding zest to the glaze, mixed into the glaze itself or sprinkled on top.

I reserved a small amount of batter to bake in a taste test ramekin and thought it tasted good. It's also easier to eat warm with the icing melting over it if you bake it in a ramekin in case you ever want to serve slightly warm as a "spoon dessert".

Cake
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup butter
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons lemon rind, grated
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon extract

Icing
6 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup + 2 teaspoons milk
1 teaspoon lemon extract
3 cups powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, sugar, eggs and sour cream. Beat at medium speed until blended.
3. Combine butter, water, lemon rind, lemon juice and lemon extract in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil. Add to flour mixture, stirring well. Pour into a greased and floured 15 x 10 x 1-inch jelly roll pan.
4. Bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes. Alternatively, you can bake in a 9 x 13 pan but adjust for a longer baking time, 25-30 minutes.
5. Icing: Combine butter, milk and lemon extract in a saucepan; bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Gradually add powdered sugar, stirring until mixture is spreading consistency. Spread frosting on top of cake. Let cool completely in pan on a wire rack.