Alizarine

Chocolate Meringue Cookies

 

This week I've acquired two new obsessions: hula hooping and meringue cookies.

The former is thanks to Jeff's daughter Melissa, a fellow hula hoop enthusiast and our regular Thursday night dinner guest. A few Thursdays ago, she brought her hoop--which she had made herself--and we had fun hula hooping out on our deck. "This would be a great gift idea for me, next time you want to get me something," I told her, thinking Christmas or my birthday in January. So I was surprised and delighted when she arrived the following Thursday with an armful of hula hoop ingredients: blue PVC pipe, a connector thingy, and colorful electrical tape. Within minutes I had a giant hula hoop of my own. It's much more substantial than my childhood hoop, and since then it has become part of my daily routine (get up, eat a spoonful of peanut butter, paint, lunch, paint, hula hoop). I like to watch various recorded Bravo offerings while hooping because it eases the guilt that comes with this visual junk food. I am not sure what kind of workout I am getting with this, but it's got to be good for my abs, right? Right? I mean, how could it not be? Anyway, I can keep that thing moving nonstop for the duration of a Bravo show (fast forwarding through commercials via the remote, which I hold while hooping, thus giving my arms one hell of a weight training workout).

The latter obsession, meringues, came about thanks to this recipe by Joy the Baker. I made her lemon meringue cookies and lemon curd earlier this week, and so should you if you want a mostly-guilt-free lemon meringue pie experience. They were fun to make and satisfying, too, because I have been hoarding egg whites in my freezer lately. Jeff and I gobbled them up quickly and I was eager to make more meringues. I love the simplicity of the recipe: whip egg whites and add sugar and possibly some flavorings. THAT'S IT. Egg whites and sugar, and not even very much sugar! Also: excuse to get out the piping bag!

I remembered that Nigella Lawson (pictured above, from the back cover of How to Be a Domestic Goddess) had a jumbo chocolate meringue recipe called "Gooey Chocolate Stack" that my sister and I attempted to make many summers ago. The meringue layers of this sort-of cake failed to crisp up because of the high humidity that day. Apparently we did not get the memo that said you should only make meringues on low humidity days, and our Sloppy Chocolate Stack, while tasty, was nowhere near as pretty as Nigella's.

Today I decided to alter that recipe to make mini meringue sandwich cookies, using Nutella as glue. Total win. The meringues are a light dusky brown that disguises their mighty chocolate heft, and you can't go wrong with Nutella, ever.

Plus: no butter. Plus: crunchy. Plus: CUTE.

Let's look at them again.

INGREDIENTS

• 3 large egg whites
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1.5 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon red wine vinegar

DIRECTIONS

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and preheat oven to 200 degrees.

Whisk (stand mixer) the egg whites until stiff, then add the sugar a spoonful at a time, beating in well after each addition. GO SLOWLY. You'll have a thick, beautiful, glossy meringue.

Sprinkle over the cocoa and vinegar and fold in gently but firmly.

Stuff this into a piping bag fitted with a star tip. Large star is best, but small star (what I have) does the job, too. Pipe approximately 25 stars per baking sheet. I am a total amateur when it comes to piping. Give it your best shot, but don't worry about it too much.

Bake for two hours--yes, two hours--until hardened and no longer sticky.

Let them cool completely, and this will take no time at all. Assemble into sandwich cookies only as needed. The moisture of the Nutella will make the cookies gummy if you do not eat them immediately. Keep the meringues in an airtight container with a jar of Nutella and a knife nearby.

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Unrelated! Please go to this site and click "like" to vote for Dale's Super 400! I'm in a little online art competition. Thank you!

Posole

 

This is simply the best chicken soup I have ever had. You know how it's difficult to get excited about soup? Sure, it's good, but unless you're under the weather, do you ever catch yourself craving chicken soup more than pizza, for example?

No.

But that's what happened to me this weekend. When given the choice between a couple of pieces of solid B-grade pizza and this soup, I wanted the soup.

What's so special about it? I had never eaten posole until Jeff took me to El Charro, a local Mexican grocery store, a week and a half ago. The place doubles as a restaurant, and on weekends they serve posole. We sat down with two you're-never-gonna-eat-all-this-sized bowls along with lime wedges, iceberg lettuce, chopped raw onion, and crispy corn tortillas. I was only mildly impressed until I actually tried it and was treated to an enormous flavor exposion that was comforting, slightly tangy, and quite simply the chickeniest thing I'd ever eaten. "I had no idea I wanted this, but this is exactly what I wanted," I grinned at Jeff, who is always happy when he can introduce me to something new. And I was mentally turning us into weekend El Charro regulars.

Until a few days ago when Jeff discovered a way that we could easily make vats of this soup at home. He found a recipe online, which we monkeyed around with a little until we had what I now consider to be the only chicken soup I will ever want to eat for the rest of my life.

It's ludicrously good, and here's how to make it.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound tomatillos <-- or a 16-ounce jar of salsa verde (our brand pictured above)
• 8 to 9 cups chicken stock
• 2 cups chopped onion
• 3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, each cut into 4-5 pieces (or any other skinless chicken parts you like, on or off the bone)
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 or 2 jalapeño peppers, seeded and chopped
• 1 (30-ounce) can white hominy, drained
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro <--unless you hate it, and we hate it

DIRECTIONS

Discard husks and stems from the tomatillos. Cook whole tomatillos in boiling water 10 minutes or until tender; drain. Place tomatillos in a blender; process until smooth; set aside. Or just open a jar of tomatillo salsa.

Place stock and the next 5 ingredients (stock through hominy) in a large stockpot; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 35 minutes or until chicken is done. Remove chicken from bones (or not, as the case may be); shred. Stir in pureed tomatillos and salt; cook for 5 minutes or until heated. Stir in chicken, and serve with cilantro, sour cream, and lime wedges. We like to crush some tortilla chips into the soup before eating and you should do the same.

COULD THIS POSSIBLY BE EASIER, PEOPLE?

And a word about the chicken: it is fantastically tender. And the soup gets better on days 2, 3, 4, etc.

Dale's Super 400

"Today I'm starting a portrait of my late uncle Dale (Dad's older brother)," I announced on Facebook a few weeks ago. I posted the reference photo below of Dale and asked if my friends or family knew any details about the guitar he's holding. I wanted to find a clearer image online to help me figure out the dark areas.

Within a few hours several of my musician friends had chimed in with plenty of information.

From Jay: It is a classic C/W/Gospel axe! These deep, archtop electrics of a certain age are highly prized! I think Uncle Dale went the extra mile for this guitar: it has a fancy diagonal bar motif (matching the fret markers) on the tuning head... and the ivory inlay around the head are fancy additions. The trim around the guitar itself may be a higher quality than in the link picture but I really can't see it even when the photo is blown up. There is a 'bell shaped' adjustment rod cover between the tuners that even has the diagonal motif. The scatchplate down by the pickups seems to have an ornate pattern or a fancy tortoise shell design too. I also noticed that the diagonal bar inlay on the head and the Gibson name appear to be made of mother of pearl with more natural looking changes in color and contrast to the standard 'keyhole' and Gibson inlays in the link photo. I sure hope your family still has it!

From Jimmy: It is a Gibson Super 400CES with a Florentine cutaway and in flamed maple. Please have it appraised and insured. A very rare guitar.

From Nicole: According to a local guitar shop here it is a Gibson Super 400. He said it's a very rare version with the way the Florentine cutaway is done. Manufactured between 1960-1970.

Later on I heard from my cousin Deanna (Dale's daughter). She was thrilled that I was painting her dad and had this to say:

This Gibson guitar was probably his most prized possession...he called it a "Super 400". It was beautiful and I really can't remember him not having it --so I'm thinking he bought it in the early 60's...sadly, he felt that he had to sell it when he started getting ill. Dad loved music of all kinds but especially gospel (Dale was a pastor at the community church in the tiny Illinois town of Webster--K), and any guitar musician--from Chet Atkins to Eric Clapton.

People complain about Facebook all the time, but I just love when the Hive Mind helps me out like this. Unable to resist the urge to Google this guitar, Jeff and I discovered that similar Gibsons sell for at least $14,000 these days. So Dale is holding a gently used Ford Focus, basically.

No stranger to painting guitars...

(above: it's a long story) ...I devoted an entire day to the preliminary drawing and was especially careful with Dale's beloved Gibson. Guitars have so many tricky components, and most of them make a watercolorist's life difficult, particularly the strings and fretboard, but I decided to put painting them off until after I had finished Dale's face. Because if my Dale didn't look like the real Dale, what was the point of painting his guitar exactly right? Here's Dale after a day of painting.

This section is about six inches tall. I always begin with a lot of wet-into-wet work in order to create convincing, smooth skin tones. Once those are dry, I add darker details and textures. Dale's face was so easy to paint that it almost seemed like he wanted to help me paint him. The glasses, for example, divided his face into two medium-sized sections that were a breeze to manage. Here's the second day's work (it's a bit dark):

As I painted, I was struck by my uncle's Eddington-ness. His eyes, mouth, eyebrows, and the section between his nose and mouth are just like my father's. And I've seen my dad geek out over golf clubs, computers, and even axes in a way that brings to mind Dale's apparent obsession with his special, custom-made guitar. The Eddington clan is populated with many gentle, talented, good people like Dale and Dad. After Grandma Eddington died in 1977, extended family get-togethers pretty much came to an end and some relatives moved away, so I don't know the Eddington side of my family as well as my mother's (the Sharpes). But in my heart I think I've always felt more like an Eddington than a Sharpe, and this portrait gave me plenty of time to appreciate and meditate on my heritage.

Once I was satisfied with Dale's face, I slowly began to work on his guitar, which was so painstaking that I could only tolerate painting chunks of it in the morning, switching to his tie (a hoot) or the floral-patterned couch (double hoot) in the afternoon. I was amused to discover the upside-down cat pillow in the lower-right corner.

I dreaded painting the afghan as much as I loved its down-home unpretentiousness--the hallmark of my Dad's family's style. It took me nearly three days to complete. I had already finished everything below it, and as I began adding those screaming oranges, yellows, and seafoam greens I thought, "What am I doing? This looks horrible!" Once I laid out those flat colors, I created multi-directional yarn textures to mimic the afghan's complex tic-tac-toe pattern. I wasn't satisfied with it until it was completely finished. I secretly hoped that Dale's wife Marilyn was responsible for the afghan. Aunt Marilyn (who is still with us) was always more colorful and exuberant than low-key Dale, and I was thrilled to learn that she had in fact made the afghan and is indirectly part of my painting.

I was able to date the photo to the mid-80s thanks to the small VHS rack on the right side of the picture. The titles of Dale's videos were impossible to make out in the photo except for something called "Rodeo Bloopers," which I couldn't bring myself to paint. Instead I took my cousin Deanna's tip and made up videos by Chet Atkins, Eric Clapton, and Johnny Cash. Dale had reportedly seen one of Johnny's drug-fueled live performances in the Sixties, and one of my Facebook friends had remarked about Dale's resemblance to Johnny.

Dale died of Parkinson's disease over ten years ago. I have always been haunted by the memory of his trembling hands as he held a plate of food at a rare family get-together during the last decade of his life. Those tremors caused him to sell his beautiful guitar, since he couldn't play it anymore. I feel like this portrait, which I painted with a hand so steady it scares me sometimes, returns Dale's Super 400 to its rightful owner.

Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes

I've made plenty of cupcakes in my life, many of them chocolate, but none of them ultimate. My mom passed down a totally serviceable recipe for "wacky cake" cupcakes that I often bake when I'm desperate for some quick-and-dirty chocolate cake action. They look exactly like the photo you see above, but the similarities end there, sorry Mom.

I made this recipe (from The Best of America's Test Kitchen 2011) for the first time last night, and three people--Jeff, his daughter Melissa, and I--experienced the same three-pronged reaction:

1. Alarmed disbelief at total chocolate payoff
2. A sort of wind-knocked-out-of-you doubling over
3. Gleeful eye contact with others while saying "oh my god" through a mouthful of cake and frosting.

And to think that I barely even wanted to make these cupcakes in the first place... Baked Explorations has a phenomenal-looking grasshopper brownie recipe, and I've been looking for any excuse to put it together, but--ack!--Melissa doesn't like mint.

What to do with Jeff and Melissa and their bizarre, irrational tomato-and-mint-hating ways?

I guess you make them these.

I'm going to break this down into sections. Yeah. It's fussy like that. You're going to have to work for these babies.

Note on the chocolate: you will need an entire 11.5-ounce bag of chocolate chips (or three 4-ounce baking bars) for this recipe, and they recommend that you use a high-quality bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, such as Ghirardelli or Callebaut. Since the one-room country shack that masquerades as my local grocery store cannot be bothered to stock anything beyond Nestle's semisweet chips, I went with those. And the cupcakes were still phenomenal.

GANACHE FILLING INGREDIENTS

• 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine <-- or just chips
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon powdered sugar

DIRECTIONS

Place the chocolate, cream, and powdered sugar in a medium/small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave until the mixture is warm to the touch, 20 to 30 seconds. Whisk the mixture until smooth, then refrigerate until just chilled, no longer than 30 minutes.

Note: You're going to drop this onto the tops of the cupcakes right before you bake them. And I'm not sure what goes on during the baking process, but it disappears from the top. I think it sinks down into the cake and becomes a core of richness that is not to be missed. Do not skip this step if you are hardcore. (The recipe says you can omit this step if you want a more traditional cupcake, but if you don't make it out of sheer laziness, I kind of don't want to be friends with you.)

CUPCAKE INGREDIENTS

• 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped <--or chips
• 1/3 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder <--because they mean business
• 3/4 cup hot coffee
• 3/4 cup bread flour <--yes, bread flour; see note
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

DIRECTIONS

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard-size muffin pan (cups have 1/2-cup capacity) with 12 baking cup liners. Place the chocolate and cocoa powder in a medium bowl. Pour the hot coffee over the mixture and whisk until smooth. Refrigerate until completely cool, about 20 minutes. Whisk the flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda together in a medium bowl and set aside.

Whisk the oil, eggs, vinegar, and vanilla into the cooled chocolate-cocoa mixture until smooth. Add the flour mixture and whisk until smooth.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin pan cups. Place one slightly rounded teaspoon of the the ganache filling on top of each cupcake. Bake until the cupcakes are set and just firm to the touch, 17 to 19 minutes. Cool the cupcakes in the muffin pan on a wire rack until cool enough to handle, about 10 minutes. Carefully lift each cupcake from the muffin pan and set on a wire rack. Cool to room temperature before frosting, about I hour.

To frost: mound 2 to 3 tablespoons of the frosting (recipe below) on the center of the cupcake. Use a small icing  spatula or butter knife to ice each cupcake. (The cupcakes can be made up to 24 hours in advance and stored un-frosted in an airtight container.)

Note: I have two different "standard" sizes of muffin pans. If you have a choice too, use the deeper cups. The paper cup should come up to the rim without rising above it--that worked perfectly for me. I'm not sure what the shallower cups would have done.

Note: the recipe calls for bread flour instead of all-purpose because AP isn't strong enough to contain the chocolate, basically. Bread flour is sturdier and your cupcakes will not fall apart the second you bite into them. In fact, it forms a totally appealing, ever-so-slightly crunchy dome over the top of the pre-frosted cupcake. I think that's thanks to the flour, anyway.

CREAMY CHOCOLATE FROSTING INGREDIENTS

• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large egg whites
• pinch salt
• 12 tablespoons (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, softened and cut into 12 pieces
• 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled to between 85 and 100 degrees
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Combine the sugar, egg whites, and salt in the bowl of a standing mixer, then place the bowl over a pan of simmering water. Heat the mixture, whisking gently but constantly, until slightly thickened and foamy and it registers 150 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, 2 to 3 minutes.

Note: I'm not sure why, but this took me more like 5 minutes.

Using the whisk attachment, beat the mixture on medium speed in a standing mixer until it reaches the consistency of shaving cream and is slightly cooled, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the butter, 1 piece at a time, until smooth and creamy. (The frosting may look curdled after half of the butter has been added; it will smooth with additional butter.) Once all the butter is added, add the cooled melted chocolate and the vanilla and mix until combined, about 30 seconds, scraping the beater and sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as necessary. If, after you add the chocolate, the frosting seems too soft, chill it briefly and then re-whip until creamy.

(The frosting can be made up to 24 hours in advance and refrigerated in an airtight container. When ready to frost, place the frosting in a microwave-safe container and microwave briefly until just softened, 5 to 10 seconds. Once warmed, stir until creamy.)

Note: I've never made frosting like this before, and it's beautifully silky and decadent. Thanks to Melissa for helping me frost the cupcakes. :)