Heaven in my cereal bowl: Speculoos Granola

Do you ever fly Delta? When they offer you peanuts, pretzels, or cookies, do you choose the cookies? If you choose peanuts and pretzels, is it because you haven't ever had the Delta cookies and thus don't appreciate the transportive culinary experience you are missing when you let that ship sail? Because really. The Biscoff cookies that Delta serves you in-flight are some of the best cookies ever. They are v. European-tasting, and that is because they are indeed European. They're crisp spiced cookies made by the Belgian bakery called Lotus. They are the only thing I like about flying (unless you count eating at the MSP airport's mini-French Meadow Bakery across from Gate F4, which might not count because that isn't really "flying" so much as hanging out at the airport - oh and I know there is also a larger, table-service French Meadow Bakery at the opposite side of the Lindbergh Terminal near the entrance to Gates E, D, and C, but I don't like that one as much).

I'm really lucky that Northwest and Delta merged because before they did I didn't like anything about flying.

So in the foodblogosphere, there's been talk here and there about this European spread called "Speculoos spread". It's sometimes compared to peanut butter. Or, probably more aptly, on account of its decadence, and European-ness, Nutella. Speculoos spread is notably different from peanut butter and even Nutella, however, in that it is entirely lacking in nutritional value. No peanuts. No hazelnuts. Not a lick of protein or fiber in this stuff. That's because it is made of COOKIES. It's cookie spread. Or, as David Lebovitz called it, awkwardly, "gingersnap paste". It's Biscoff cookies, mixed with more oil and more sugar than are already in the cookies to begin with, which you use to spread on your toast or apples. Or cookies. Naturally, I've been wanting to get my hands on this for years. I was waiting for the right time, and that time arrived when my husband and I, during our daily research on how to earn Delta miles (we're going to Italy next year and would like to get a flight or four for free if possible, and I assure you our dedication to the cause is making it seem more and more possible every day), discovered that you can buy Biscoff cookies as well as Biscoff (Speculoos) spread through the Delta Skymiles Shopping website, for several miles per dollar.

It arrived last week. I don't really have to tell you that it's WON-DER-FUL, do I? It's cookie spread, for heaven's sake. Of course it's wonderful.

That said, it's an odd pantry item to incorporate into one's meals, at least if such meals exclude my new favorite bedtime snack: a heaping spoonful of Speculoos spread. I've wanted to bake with it but feel kind of weird making cookies out of something that used to be cookies... so I opted for granola.

Um. DANG. So good. And, you know, kind if redeeming, since the way I combined it with grains and seeds and plan to serve it with plain yogurt and some sliced bananas or roasted apples allows the flavor of Speculoos spread to work its magic while being more than just cookies.

Oh and you don't have to order it online. They had it at the Lunds across the river last week. On sale, no less!

I basically used Mark Bittman's formula/ratio for granola. I think even more Biscoff spread and oil would have been even more delicious, but I was committed to making this as breakfast-worthy as possible. If you are one of those people who can eat anything and remain healthy and thin always, go to town and double both.

Here's what I did.

1. Preheated oven to 300 degrees.

2. Placed following ingredients in a bowl:

3 cups oats

3 cups puffed millet

1 cup King Arthur Flour harvest grains blend

1 cup King Arthur Flour malted wheat flakes

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1/3 cup wheat germ

1/3 cup oat bran

1/3 cup blackstrap molasses

1/3 cup rice bran oil (any oven-proof oil would be fine here)

1 heaping cup Biscoff spread

1 teaspoon coarse salt + cinnamon or other spices (I had Cinnamon Salt. It was perfect.)

3. Mixed it all with my hands. A spoon would work but hands are fun and then you can form big clumps, which I quite like in my granola.

4. Spread mixture on two baking sheets.

5. Placed on racks in oven, put oven on convection bake setting at 300 degrees, tossed granola carefully every ten minutes and rotated pans (both shelves and direction), baked for 30 minutes total, allowed to cool.

6. Put some in a jar for a friend (Hi, Friend!) and the rest in a big IKEA cereal container for my family.

I can't stop eating it. It's salty-sweet addictive breakfast heaven.

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P.S.!!!! Speaking of salty-sweet addictiveness! Christina Toki's Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook is finally out. I am not allowed to buy any more cookbooks this year. But my birthday is in about 60 days.

P.P.S. Biscoff (American) = Speculoos (European). Just to clear up any confusion.

A Seasonal Soup for Wellness: Lemon-Rice Soup with Winter Squash and [You Fill in the Blank]

This weekend my husband took care of me and our under-the-weather family. I was sick and exhausted and needed it so, so much. He did a good job. He's a good carer. He beat himself up on Sunday, however, because he took our toddler with him to the grocery store with a mind to return with chicken noodle soup. He wanted to ease me back into food consumption slowly, healthily. He rightly anticipated that I'd probably overdose on animal crackers once I got my appetite back if there weren't chicken noodle soup available to me as an alternative. He knows me well. (But he forgot to actually buy the chicken noodle soup.)

I'm feeling much better now, despite the absence of chicken noodle soup from our home. But ever since he mentioned it, repeatedly, because he really felt way more terrible about it than he ought to have, I've been thinking about chicken noodle soup. I've heard and read that there is truly something healing about chicken noodle soup. And, you know, whatever, I believe it enough. But as my body was striving to recoup, it wasn't really craving chicken and noodles. It craved broth, for sure. But it wanted ginger and lemon and herbs and rice. It wanted heaps of vegetables, specifically mild, seasonal ones that would be easy on our still-sensitive bellies.

Randomly, annoyingly, I ended up making a huge amount of steak in the midst of our stomach flu, not because we had any desire to eat red meat at the time but because I'd thawed it a few days before and felt it should not stay thawed and uncooked in the refrigerator for too much longer.

So the combination of my body's cravings and the necessity to use up cooked steak resulted in a pot of soup this afternoon. Sadie and I enjoyed it v. much. It was brothy and lemony and it smelled and tasted and felt so nourishing. I'm glad we were out of animal crackers at lunch time because I might not have thrown this delight together otherwise. It's so much better for us than animal crackers. And so much better than chicken noodle soup.

P.S. You'll super like this even if you're not sick.

Lemon-Rice Soup with Winter Squash and [You Fill in the Blank]

From me

Yield: 4-6 servings

2 tablespoons sesame oil or olive oil

1 cup chopped winter squash (I used peeled butternut; a single, unpeeled delicata squash would be great here)

1/2 to 1 cup chopped carrots (about 2 small carrots)

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

2 teaspoons fresh grated ginger

1 teaspoon minced garlic (2 cloves)

2 teaspoons ground cumin (or more)

1 teaspoon dried oregano (or more)

5 cups water or broth or combination (I used 1 cup chicken broth + 4 cups water)

1/2 cup dry white or brown or wild or whatever rice (I used red rice - it's v. pretty)

1 cup chopped, ground, or shredded cooked meat* or beans**

Dashes of the following: Persian limes, sumac, coriander, red pepper flakes (optional)

1/3 cup chopped cilantro

Salt and pepper

Optional: Top with avocado slices and hard-boiled eggs

Heat the oil over low-medium heat in a soup pot. Add the winter squash and carrots, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and saute until softened a bit, about 4 minutes. Add the lemon zest, ginger, garlic, cumin, and oregano and stir for one minute. Add the broth and bring to a boil over medium heat. Add the rice and meat or beans, simmer until rice is cooked through (time will depend on what kind of rice you use - follow package instructions or check after 20 minutes and then again every 5-10 minutes). Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice, cilantro, any other spices you'd like, 1 teaspoon salt, and a lot of freshly ground pepper. Ladle into bowls and eat with a lot of crusty bread to soak up all that fantastic broth.

* Lamb, beef, chicken, turkey, whatever

** Cooked chickpeas or white beans would be good, or uncooked lentils or split peas

Elsewhere (when creativity eludes me)

I swear. We've been cooking and baking (even canning) up a storm here in the Cameron household. The decidedly autumnal turn the weather's taken in the Twin Cities has facilitated a domestic streak.

Wait. Maybe by "domestic streak" I mean homeboundedness (a word, do you think?) and by "decidedly autumnal turn in the weather" I mean stomach flu. Ugh. The least sexy food blog intro ever.

We still get food on the table during these periods of malaise, but that food is at best inspired by someone else's creativity rather than my own, and at worst delivered to our condo in a large cardboard box.

Here are some of the successes we've had relying on the brilliance of others in the foodblogosphere (oh and Ms. Garten, of course). Notwithstanding the commentary below, (you'll see), I believe I'd recommend them all.

White Chocolate Baguette - Maybe if you've vacationed at Club Med you're familiar with this? At any rate, it's even better than it sounds, and I assure you it sounded REALLY good to me. My breadmaker husband adapted the recipe so that it was a 2-day process, there was a soaker/biga/whatever, and the bread ended up much airier than the one in the Love & Olive Oil pictures.

Rori's Potato Chips made with some cute little purple potatoes. I basically used the recipe on p. 77 of Barefoot Contessa Parties, only with half the oil and a lot more spice. They were good.

Not as good but nearly: Kale Chips. I used Joy the Baker's recipe, though there are a million out there. It worked. As evidenced by toddler consumption. I seasoned with cinnamon-salt and a cayenne-tellicherry pepper blend.

Butternut Squash-crusted Quiche - Inspired by my friend Nicole (hey, maybe if I link to her blog she'll blog again?), I made this when we went gluten free for five minutes. I butchered the recipe in a valiant yet misguided effort to be resourceful. I also was trying to be considerate of my husband's preferences, which exclude mushrooms. The recipe is excellent. I am sure it is excellent. What is not excellent is cabbage in a quiche. This is probably why you don't often find cabbage in quiche. I wasn't expecting to create the next big culinary thing here. But still, I was thrown by how strong the cabbage flavor was after such a long time in the oven. Despite its cabbaginess, I (mostly singlemouthedly) ate the whole thing and (mostly) enjoyed it.

Japanese Pizza - This is what I should have done with ALL the cabbage, since Heidi never lets me down. This is delicious. My 2-year-old liked it. I liked it. I want it again. It's like a giant cabbage fritter. But surprisingly delicious, and then even more delicious with 101 Cookbook's Magic Sauce.

Quark Cookies - compromised Cream Cheese Cookies, because I can't leave well enough alone. These were tasty, with quite a tang to them - but then quark is tangier than cream cheese. I feel they got better on days 2 and 3 of their short lives. They ended up quite flat, so not as pretty as in the Food 52 picture, but still lovely.

Godspeed.

Until I get my act together, hopefully soon,

Edith xoxo

Labour of Love. Fit for a Queen. (Begging for Short Cuts.) Coronation Chicken Salad.

When I studied in England, coronation chicken salad was introduced to me as one of the tastiest (albeit occasionally forbidden) sandwich fillings I'd ever tasted. Prior to making its acquaintance, I never really liked chicken salads. Most of them have a mayonnaise base, I dislike mayonnaise intensely, and I don't find chicken a flavorful enough ingredient to mask the mayoness of the mayonnaise saladifying it. (Sometimes I make up words. I'm like Shakespeare that way.) The unequivocal Englishness of something called "coronation chicken", however, was irresistible to me. So I tried it. And I loved it. And thereafter, whenever I happened upon coronation chicken on a menu or in a sandwich case, I would ask if it had nuts (it occasionally did, hence its status as occasionally forbidden) and then promptly devour a hearty portion of it as soon as I was given the go-ahead.

What the heck is coronation chicken salad? Only the best chicken salad ever, invented to be served at Queen Elizabeth's coronation lunch in 1953. According to the Guardian, coronation chicken was first "created by the founder of Le Cordon Bleu cookery school, Rosemary Hume. ... Poulet reine Elizabeth, as it was originally known, was a deliberate and tactful compromise between the luxurious and the thrifty for a country still under the dreary yoke of postwar rationing." It's sort of retro now and a lot of recipes for it floated around the internet around the time of the recent royal wedding.

It's basically like curried chicken salad. Only better, because it is unabashedly, royally sweet, incorporating one or several of the following: apricot preserves, mango chutney, raisins or other dried fruit, and sweet curry powder. And it's bright yellow. Like a mango. Quite pretty really.

I've casually looked for a good coronation chicken salad recipe for the last decade. Some looked like they weren't sweet enough. Others had dauntingly long lists of ingredients (like this one).

Most called for an amount of mayonnaise I just couldn't stomach.

Then I turned 32. And I got a whole bunch of cookbooks for my birthday. Including one of the kitschiest, funkiest cookbooks I've ever seen - Great British Food, an ode to - you'll never guess - Great British Food, written by the owners of London's Canteen restaurants, devoted to bringing great, accessible, affordable (and localsustainableetcetera) British food to the masses. (I'm not going to waste time here countering the passe notion that British food is awful. It's not awful. It's wonderful. But it was misunderstood for a while. Books like Great British Food and restaurants like Canteen are making it sexier than ever though. This pleases me greatly.)

I suspect it will not surprise you, then, to learn that the first recipe I tackled from the Great British Food cookbook was for coronation chicken. I knew the second I laid eyes on the recipe that I had to try it. There were obstacles though, and that's why it took me nine months. First of all, like some of the recipes I'd seen before, the list of ingredients was endless (twenty-six in all). Second, it called for poaching a whole chicken. A bit much for a curried chicken salad, right?

Finally, it called for 300 mL of mayonnaise. That is well over a cup of mayonnaise. The recipe is supposed to serve only 4-6 people as a main course and also calls for butter, heavy whipping cream, and thick Greek yogurt. While I like me some rich food, my memories of coronation chicken sandwiches didn't involve such heft. I had to lighten it up a bit but was nervous to mess with a recipe from such accomplished, brilliant chefs - chefs who are devoted to making Great British food as Great and British as possible. On the other hand, I thought, condiments are a big deal in Britain, and British kitchens have a thing for odd saucy novelties (salad cream, brown sauce, and bread sauce, to name a few), and I hate condiments generally, so maybe a less-saucy version of coronation chicken would better serve my palate.

I was right. But I learned the hard way.

So. Because, ultimately, it was really damn good, I am going to share with you the recipe as I made it, barely altering the original (really I only reduced the amount of mayo, increased the amount of lemon juice, added a few non-nut garnishes, and converted the British measurements to American ones). But because hindsight is 20-20 and because this dish ended up even richer on the tongue and heavier on the stomach than I'd feared, I have a few suggestions at the bottom of the post that you might consider before serving it for lunch. That said, I really do hope you serve it for lunch. It's spectacular.

Coronation Chicken

Barely adapted from Great British Food (found online here)

Yield: 6-8 as a (sort of) light dish or 4-6 as a (generous) main course

For the poached chicken

1 whole free-range chicken (~4 lbs)*

1 inch piece fresh root ginger, sliced (or 1 heaping tablespoon jarred ginger)

1/2 lemon, sliced

1/2 orange, sliced

1 leek, roughly chopped

2 celery sticks, roughly chopped

1 onion, roughly chopped

1 whole bulb garlic, halved horizontally (no need to peel it)

1 star anise

10 whole black peppercorns

Salt and ground black pepper

For the sauce

1/2 small onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tablespoon finely chopped (or jarred) ginger

2 tablespoons butter

1-2 tablespoons sweet curry powder

6 tablespoons flour

1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup currants, raisins, or chopped dried apricots or cherries

3/4 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup mango chutney

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (from 1-2 lemons)

3/4 cup thick Greek yogurt (nonfat is fine)

For serving

Lettuce or bread

Toasted almonds or coconut

Cilantro

Diced apple

1. Season the inside of the chicken with salt and pepper (stuff it with the lemon rinds from your lemon juice if you've already prepped your sauce ingredients). Place it in a huge saucepan. Add the rest of the poaching ingredients and pour in about a quart of water to cover. Put the lid on the pan. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a very gentle simmer. Cook for an hour. Remove from the heat and leave the chicken in the broth until cool enough to handle.

2. Remove the chicken and set aside. Strain the poaching liquid into a clean pan. Bring to a rolling boil and reduce to 2.5 cups. Reserve this reduced stock.**

3. Pull the skin from the chicken and discard. Remove the meat, discarding bones and gristle, and tear into thick strips. Set aside in the fridge while you prepare the sauce.

4. Sweat the onion, garlic, and ginger in the butter on medium heat for 5 minutes, until soft. Add the curry powder and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring, then mix in the flour to make a roux. Add the reduced stock** and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly. Stir in the cream. Pass through a fine sieve, then add the dried fruit and allow to cool.***

5. Using a handheld immersion blender or a regular blender, mix the mayonnaise, mango chutney, lemon juice, and Greek yogurt until well blended. Combine this with the curry sauce base until well mixed.*** Add the cooked chicken, toss to coat, cover, and chill.****

6. Serve the chicken salad on a bed of lettuce with some of the garnishes listed above, or as a sandwich filling on a mild-flavored, sturdy white or wheat bread.

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Okay. Here's the deal:

* I think the chicken could be increased by fifty percent. Next time, I will poach two chickens and use as much of it as needed to make a somewhat lightly-dressed chicken salad. (Note to self: get a pan that will accommodate two whole chickens.) (Super short cut: use 3 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs, poached for 20 minutes instead of an hour.)

**I do not think the reduced poaching liquid is integral to the success of this recipe, particularly because the sauce is so thick. I wouldn't bother reducing the poaching liquid again. I'd simply reserve 2.5 cups of the broth once the chicken has cooled and proceed with the recipe as written.

*** I don't think the onion, garlic, and ginger used in the curry base should be discarded. Next time, I'm going to hold off on adding the dried fruit to the warm curry base; I'll blend the curry base with all the other sauce ingredients and then stir in the dried fruit, right before dressing the chicken.

**** I added some chopped scallions and diced celery with the chicken. I'm American and I like a crunch in my chicken salad.