Feral Cooks

Good food shouldn't be tame

Sweets Crunchfest: Crunchy Peanut Butter Cookies & Brown-Butter Rice Krispie Bars

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I’ve been making a lot of sweets lately, which is ultimately showing on the bathroom scale. A couple of pounds be damned, though. These are each delicious in their own way!

The cookie recipe is from Food & Wine, and the crispy bar recipe is from the New York Times.

Enjoy!


What you’ll need for the peanut butter cookies:

  • 1 cup smooth peanut butter 
  • 1 cup sugar 
  • 1t baking soda 
  • 1 extra-large egg, lightly beaten 
  • 2T finely chopped peanuts (optional, and I used them) 
  • 0.25 cups mini chocolate chips (optional, and I used them)

What to do for the peanut butter cookies:

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. 

In a medium bowl, mix the peanut butter, sugar, baking soda and egg. Stir in the peanuts and chocolate chips, if using. 

Roll the dough into about 24 balls–about one tablespoon of dough for each. 

Set the balls on parchment-paper-lined baking sheets, and smoosh each ball with a fork, making a crosshatch pattern.

Bake for 15 minutes, turning the sheet(s) 180 degrees about halfway through. Cook until the cookies are lightly browned.

The cookies will get crispy as they cool on a wire rack.


What you’ll need for the brown-butter rice krispie bars:

  • *8 ounces butter, salted or unsalted, plus extra for the pan
  • *1 10.5-ounce bag marshmallows
  • 1 12-ounce box Rice Krispies cereal

*I found the bars to be a little dry, so it may not be a bad idea to bump up these two ingredients by an ounce or two.

What to do for the rice krispie bars:

Line a rimmed sheet pan or baking dish with parchment paper or wax paper, or butter it well.

In a large pot, melt the butter over medium-low heat. As it heats, it will melt, then foam, then turn golden and finally start to turn brown and smell nutty. Keep an eye on it at this point, and stir it often.

When the butter is evenly browned, add the marshmallows and stir. Melt and cook the marshmallows, stirring often, until the butter-marshmallow mixture turns a pale brown, then stir constantly until lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Don’t let it get dark brown.

Turn off the heat and the add the cereal. Immediately mix it well, preferably with a silicone spoon or a spatula, then scrape the mixture into the prepared pan. Quickly press the mixture into the pan to even it out. Let it cool, and cut into squares or bars.

Sticky Pork Belly and Pineapple

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This is absolutely delicious. Why? It’s pork belly. Hard for it not to be good.

I found the recipe at this UK site, after doing a pork belly recipe search. Like I do, the blog owner likes to work with lot of different cuisines. Nice.

Make sure to use fresh pineapple, not canned. You’ll be glad to did.

Enjoy!

What you’ll need:

  • 400g (14 oz) pork belly
  • 250g (8.75 oz) pineapple
  • 250g (8.75 oz) onion
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 50 ml (1.7 fl oz) Chinkiang vinegar
  • 100 ml (3.4 fl oz) light soy sauce (not dark)
  • 75 g (2.6 oz) honey
  • 1T dried chilli flakes
  • 1T black pepper
  • 2T cooking oil
  • 250 ml (8.5 fl oz) water

What to do:

Cut the pork belly into 1-inch cubes.

Cut the onion in half and then slice into 0.25”-thick half-moon shapes.

Slice the garlic as thinly as you can.

Bring a wide frypan of water to the boil and add the pork. Simmer for 20 minutes, then remove the pork and pat dry.

Wipe out the pan and then add 1T of the cooking oil. Add the sliced onion and pork and sauté  for about 10 minutes on high heat to brown it a little. Now, add the garlic, chili flakes and black pepper, then cook for an additional minute.

Add the water, soy, vinegar and honey to the pan, and bring to a boil. Immediately lower the heat to medium-low, and cover and simmer for about an hour.

After about an hour has passed, cut the pineapple into cubes the same size as the pork belly. 

Add 1T oil to another pan (preferably nonstick) and let it get hot over high heat. Add the pineapple and sear on opposite sides about 4 minutes per side. Add the remaining cooking oil to another pan over a high heat.

When it’s seared, add the pineapple to the pork and cook over low heat for another 10 or so minutes. 

Serve over rice or ramen-style noodles.

Beef Kala Bhuna

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This is a delicious Bangladeshi dish that one of my colleagues recommended, once he heard that I have a food blog.

The ingredient list is long, but there’s nothing too out of the ordinary, except—from my point of view—the mace, which I did not have, and didn’t want to run to Penzey’s for.

Making it is fairly easy, but there are a couple of different methods. My colleague told me that my version looked more “wet” than what he’s seen, so I may try a different recipe and see if I get different results. The recipe that I used was from here.

Either way, it was quite good, and I’ll surely make it again.

What you’ll need for the kala bhuna masala blend:

  • 1t cumin seed
  • 0.25 of a whole nutmeg
  • 2 pieces mace
  • 6 cloves
  • 1t black pepper
  • 6 green cardamom pods
  • 3 pieces cinnamon
  • 1t yellow mustard seeds

What you’ll need for the beef:

  • 2T neutral oil
  • 2 lbs good-quality stew beef
  • Salt, to taste
  • 1t red chilli powder
  • 0.5t turmeric powder
  • 1t coriander
  • 1T garlic-ginger paste
  • 0.5 cup sliced onion
  • Green chilies—number depends on type of Chile used—maybe 3-5
  • 3T mustard oil, divided
  • 2T dark soy sauce
  • 1 piece mace
  • 2 pieces cinnamon
  • 4 cardamoms
  • 6 black peppercorns
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 0.5 cups plain yoghurt
  • 0.5 cups fried onions
  • 1T ghee
  • *0.25 cups onion cubes
  • 1T kala bhuna masala mix

*Check YouTube for the many tutorials on cutting onion cubes.

What to do for the kala bhuna masala mix:

Dry-fry all of the spices in a non-stick pan over medium-high until they’re fragrant. This should take just a few minutes. Be careful: they can go from fragrant to burned very quickly.

Take them off the heat and let them cool.

Once cooled, put them in a spice grinder and grind ‘em up. This batch makes a little more than 2 tablespoons, if I remember correctly.

What to do to make the beef:

Add this stuff to a large fry pan and sauté for 5-10 minutes:

  • oil
  • meat
  • salt
  • red chilli powder
  • turmeric powder
  • coriander
  • garlic-ginger paste
  • sliced onion
  • half of your green chilies
  • 2T mustard oil
  • dark soy sauce
  • mace
  • cinnamon
  • cardamom
  • cloves
  • black pepper
  • bay leaves
  • plain yogurt

Now, add the fried onion and cover it. Cook it for 3 hours over very low heat, or you could put it in a pressure cooker for 20-30 minutes. I cooked this batch on the stove. Once the meat is cooked, keep stirring until all water has evaporated.

In another fry pan, heat the remaining 1T of mustard oil and ghee, then add the onion cubes, and green chilis. Now add the cooked beef, stirring continuously.

Next add the masala mix and mix well.

You’re done! Garnish with fried onion, and serve with steamed rice or paratha or roti.