3M's Orange Macadamia Nut Cookies

I'd like to begin this week's post with a happy belated birthday shout out to two of my favorite people (and they happen to share a birthday!):  D2 and 3M.  I hope they enjoyed their birthday, even if the usual Admissions Day holiday did not give them a long birthday weekend this year.

One awesome thing about working where I do is being able to work with friends from small kid time (okay, "small" might be pushing it, but I mean pre-legal driving days).  Up until this school year, one of my small kid friends worked just around the corner from me.  It was great to have someone I could trust so close by.  I could get a quick answer to a work question or I could count on a sympathetic shoulder to cry on.  This year, 3M has a new work location, and while I'm happy for her, I'm selfishly sorry for myself.  I can't grumble too much because she still takes all my calls, and she promised to have lunch with me when the craziness of beginning a new school year dies down.  I'm still waiting for that day, but we are still less than a month into the school year.

In our younger days, 3M and I shared meals together at restaurants in Hilo and Seattle.  We've even spent Thanksgiving together.  Like me, 3M has a pretty good memory, and we might be the only 2 people I know of who can remember the submitter of recipes from an old 4-H cookbook.  Both of us like cookbooks, and as we get older, many of our conversations focus on what foods we plan to prepare for occasions.  Naturally, we share samples and trade recipes. 

I got this recipe from 3M years ago and finally got around to trying it.  She said her aunt gave her mom the recipe, and this has been a favorite cookie of hers.  And I know why.  3M and I both like hard cookies.  Soft and chewy cookies are not our style.  While I'm more for a snapping-hard cookie, 3M tends to like cookies which are buttery and melt in the mouth.  After years of baking cookies, I'm convinced that the melt in the mouth part comes from powdered sugar and cornstarch.

In addition to being absolutely delicious, this cookie is great for gift-giving.  If you use a disher, you can make cookies of uniform size which stack nicely in a plastic bag.  Pssssttt. . .Christmas will be here in 139 days, so it's never too early to practice!

click on recipe title for printable recipe

3M's Orange Macadamia Nut Cookies

     4 c flour

     2 c powdered sugar, sifted

     1 c cornstarch

     2 c butter

     1 c chopped macadamia nuts

     2 egg yolks

     1 tbsp orange zest

     4 tbsp orange juice

     granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, stir together flour, powdered sugar, and cornstarch.  Cut in butter until coarse crumbs form.  Stir in nuts.  Combine egg yolks, orange zest, and orange juice.  Add to flour mixture, stirring til moistened.  If mixture is too dry, add more orange juice, a teaspoon at a time (up to 2 tablespoons).  Using a #60 disher (about 1 tbsp), scoop dough onto an ungreased baking sheet.  Flatten to 1/4" using a glass which has been dipped in granulated sugar.  Bake 12-15 minutes until golden brown.  Cool completely on a wire rack.

And while I didn't say much about D2 in this post, let me assure you...no need to be feeling too sorry for her.  She is sporting a new macbook air!

Almost Kay's Lunch Center: Fried Sesame Chicken

Perhaps it was blog reader BrendaC who is responsible for my wave of nostalgia.  Perhaps it could have been triggered by Kikukat Dad who said he had dinner at Restaurant Kenichi.  Perhaps I equate the Super Bowl with partying.  I don't know.  But whatever it was, I've been bitten by the nostalgia bug.

If you spent some time in Hilo during the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century, you likely had a meal at Kay's Lunch Center (today the location is occupied by Restaurant Kenichi).  Kay's Lunch Center served local, Japanese, and Korean foods.  They were best known for two things:  fried chicken and blueberry cream cheese pie.

The blueberry cream cheese pie was alright.  I'm really not a fan of that kind of thing.  I am usually put off by the icky gooey goop of canned pie filling.  And the cream cheese layer in a round pie just seemed too thick for the amount of topping.  You can have all the blueberry cream cheese pie you want.  I will pass.

It was the fried chicken that brought me back to Kay's Lunch Center time and time again.  Sometimes I would eat-in, but many times, I did the take-out...chicken in the cardboard box with the pointy lid.  I loved the mild shoyu-sugar flavor and the random sesame seeds strewn on the coating. 

Kay's Lunch Center closed up a few years ago.  As I was watching the Super Bowl yesterday, I couldn't help but think about all the parties missing the cardboard box with Kay's Lunch Center chicken.  I know I was missing it, especially since the Seahawks lost (No, I am not much of a Seahawks fan, but having lived in Seattle, I feel a little guilty if I don't cheer for them if they are not playing a team I like more).  So if you are like me and have a hankering for Kay's Lunch Center fried chicken, you can go ahead and make your own. 

Now I realize there are two divergent methods one might try for making the chicken.  I've seen recipes which call for flouring and frying the chicken and then dipping it into a sauce.  I call that "Korean Chicken", and I will share the recipe in a separate post.  But I never noticed any green onion bits on the Kay's version; I only noticed sesame seeds.  My method for making the Kay's Lunch Center chicken calls for marinating the chicken overnight and then frying it.  It seems to be less messy and more straightforward than the alternate method.

And if you happen to have leftover fried chicken, you can do what Kay's Lunch Center did. . .pull all the meat off the bones and use it to top a salad.   Mmmmmm.  

click on recipe title for printable recipe

Fried Sesame Chicken

     5 lbs chicken wings

     1 c cornstarch

     1/2 c flour

     1/2 c sugar

     1 tsp salt

     6 tbsp shoyu

     2 tsp oyster sauce

     4 eggs

     4 stalks green onion, thinly sliced (optional)

     2 garlic cloves, minced

     4 tbsp sesame seeds

Cut each chicken wing into 3 pieces (tip, flat, drummette).  Discard tips or save for stock.  Combine remaining ingredients and place in a ziploc bag.  Add chicken pieces.  Turn bag to coat evenly.  Allow to marinate overnight.  Deep fry wings until golden brown.