When life is in the chips

To the editor:
    It is one of those small, but noble experiments that make life a little bit interesting here in China. So far I have proven that I can make home-made bread in a wok and real soup in a pot. The latest in this series of culinary expeditions has been to see if I could make chocolate chip cookies.     In China the concept of slow cooking of food is much different from that back home. You can find slow cooked foods. Outside of many restaurants you will see large vessels almost the size of a person and usually having some sort of dragon drawn on them. These are the slow roasters. usually some coals are put in the base and then a few inches higher are the food shelves. I am still working on getting some of my students to help with all the things that these vessels do for the culinary establishment. But the idea of each home having an oven and roasting pans is rare in China.
    Most apartments and homes do not have ovens. They are available but it is rare to see them in a home. Space is at a premium and many of the people do not have a tradition of slow cooked meals. Since their primary starch is rice not wheat, home-made bread is not known of as we think of it. You will not find a crusty loaf of fresh bread waiting for you when you return from work. Even that anathema of tasty mashing, Wonderbread, is not common. Trying to make a simple peanut butter and jelly sandwich can take on heroic motifs of perseverance that will try your patience. Younger people like my students are beginning to understand the utility of things like sandwiches and one-handed eating. This is still a project in its infancy.
    Last spring I was moderately successful with creating a round loaf of bread in a wok. Only a small portion in the very center was undercooked and I think I can fix that problem the next time that I try it. What has eluded me to this point is the chocolate chip cookie. There is something about a batch of freshly made tollhouse chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven that does wonders for cheering up a lousy day at school, work, or play. Do you remember how you would wait until you heard the ding from the timing bell and rush to get the first voluminous whiff of that heavenly air from the oven? The scents alone could draw the rats out of the woodwork. As so many mothers know, this item creates vacuum cleaners out of their kids.
    Over the years I have figured out that if you make a batch of these cookies, do not cook all the dough at once. Save some in ziplock sandwich bags. Freeze it. It will keep this way for two or three weeks maybe longer. For those moments that you need a quick item in the potluck dessert category, Just take out a baggie of dough. Cut it into squares, peel off the plastic and place the dough onto a cookie sheet. Ten minutes in the oven and you have fresh made chocolate chip cookies that wows them at the office. Trust me, I have managed to save many a bleak meeting time with a plate of cookies. Either it is because I can demonstrate cooking capability or the fact that it is so rare to have real home-made goodies to nibble on. I have yet to have to take any cookies back.
    This afternoon I attempted to recreate the CCC. using a frying pan I made my favorite recipe. The first batch burned. Too much heat and butter in the pan. The second batch fared much better and, as I sit here typing, the third batch is cooling on the rack. Yum! I still have some issues about cooking in the center. Will have to see if I can get a better cover for the frying pan. I suspect that it is more of an issue of keeping heat in than it is what you are using for an oven.
    You will not find bags of chocolate chips here. Again, China is not much on individuals cooking things on their own. Aside from managing to throw some rice in a pot and cooking it there is very little home cooking done of the type that I grew up with. But that is what makes it so fun to experiment. So far I have managed to make some chocolate chips by chopping up a large bar of chocolate. I found a restaurant supply store that would sell me a 5-pound block of the stuff. I think I will have to find other uses for the extra chocolate. 2.5 kilograms is a lot of dark goodness. Well, must be going, dishes need to be done.
Orpheus Allison
Shanghai, China