It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others. So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and the hunger for it … and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied … and it is all one.
M.F.K. Fisher
And so we cook to avoid our feelings, eat to avoid our problems, and bring casserole over to families suffering from a recent loss. What is hunger? It is the sorry realization that we are alone but that we cannot photosynthesize our own food like plants, nor love like Aphrodite. We dig up what we need to sustain our bodies while we traverse our earth, our cracked and sodden sidewalks, searching for that warm and rich feeling of a four-letter word.
What hunger! And, ineluctably, we face despair and degradation over death or a man dying and perhaps we starve. Perhaps we overeat, though there lay little difference within these states. Because there are no hungers satisfied, no confident consciousness of the nourishment of foods we take down (whether lot or little) when our mind grieves over matters of the heart.
Everybody’s been saying 2009 is the hardest year they’ve ever had to face. I’ve been hearing about miscarriages, divorce, death, way too much death, even kidnapping.
So I made up a list of vital foods*, recipes written by every aching organ inside me, dishes you can all come sample in my home this week as I prepare them for every hunger and heart that needs a little sustenance… Here’s the first
Sea Salt*ed Chocolate* Chip Cookies
adapted from Cooks Illustrated:
1. Adjust the oven rack to the middle of the oven and preheat to 375º. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper 2. In a medium bowl, whisk together one and three quarter cups unbleached all-purpose flour and one half teaspoon baking soda 3. Heat ten tablespoons unsalted butter (I like Kate’s Homeade) in a skillet over medium-high heat until melted. Continue cooking and constantly swirling until butter is dark golden brown. This is one of the secrets that makes this the best cookie recipe to date. Most recipes call for the butter to be room temperature, but melting it produces a delicious toffee-like aroma, and increases the chewiness of the cookie’s center. 4. Transfer hot butter to a large mixing bowl and, once off heat, stir in 4 more tablespoons butter until completely melted. 5. Add one half cup of granulated sugar, three quarters cup packed dark brown sugar (another secret is changing the proportion of white-brown sugar. Most recipes call for a 50/50 ration, but brown sugar helps keep the centers moist and chewy, longer.), one teaspoon table salt and two teaspoons vanilla extract (use Haitian Vanilla if you know where to find it). Whisk until everything is mixed properly. 6. Add one egg and one egg yolk. Keep mixing until all sugar is dissolved and all egg is mixed in. Keep resting the dough for a few minutes and then mixing, resting, mixing… This is very important. 7. Stir in flour mixture and then one and one quarter cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (I use Ghirardelli 60% Cacao bittersweet). Arrange dough (three tablespoon scoops) on the parchment-lined cookie sheets and sprinkle some fleur-de-sel on top. Bake about ten minutes, or until the edges set while the center is soft and puffy. Transfer to a wire rack and cool before serving.with love,
Pascale
