To make four servings you will need salad fixings (video) – I’m using:
For the Taco part of the salad you will need:
Catalina salad dressing is a sweet, tomato based dressing that has a beautiful bright red color.
Start by browning the beef in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. (Check out my video on Browning Ground Beef!)
Then drain off and discard the excess fat.
Return the beef to the pan and sprinkle on the Taco Seasoning mix.
Add the dressing
Fill the empty dressing bottle half full with water, and then add that to the pan as well. Mix everything together.
Bring everything to a boil, and then reduce the heat to simmer.
Simmer for 20-25 minutes.
After 20 minutes it will look like this:
While the beef is simmering, prepare the salad fixings (video):
You can prepare the green salad with whatever salad fixings you like. I like green-leaf lettuce. It’s a beautiful bright green color and does not have a really strong flavor. Click here if you are unsure how to wash lettuce. Once washed, chop the lettuce into bite sized pieces.
You can chop up one large tomato or slice in half some grape or cherry tomatoes.
Pile the salad onto individual serving plates. (Do not add extra dressing to the salad. You won’t need it once the beef and cheese are added!) The warm beef slightly wilts the salad and the cheese gets slightly melted from the warm taco mixture as well. (I added crunchy cucumbers and some sliced purple onion as well!)
Enjoy!
]]>This soup is thick, hearty, full of flavor, and perfect for the beginner cook. It was taught to me by my Dad, who did not cook very often but who had a few specialties that were his “signature dishes.” Cabbage soup was one of his best! He always made it as part of a traditional Polish Christmas Eve celebration dinner. I like making his recipe as soon as the weather turns cold. Be sure to pick up a loaf of (Polish) rye bread at the grocery store – it is perfect with this soup!
You might already have most of the ingredients for this soup in your kitchen. Onion, celery, carrot, olive oil and chicken or vegetable broth are the basic ingredients. Add a bag of dry yellow split peasand a bag of sauerkraut and the list is complete! (Sauerkraut is fermented cabbage.)
One medium onion needs to get peeled and chopped.
(Check out my video for a quick review on How to Chop an Onion)
Dice one stalk of celery. Cut the stalk in half, and then in strips. From there it is really simple to dice the celery.
Do the same for the carrot – cut it in half, then strips, then into a dice. (My Dad never put carrots in his cabbage soup, but I like to start with a combination of carrots, celery and onions for almost all the soups I make.)
Dried split peas that have been mechanically split along a natural seam, so that they cook faster. You can buy either green or yellow split peas. It is not necessary to soak split peas, but they do require rinsing and sorting.
(Note: Do not soak the split peas in water before cooking. Be sure to check out my post How to: Beans, Split Peas and Lentils which is a great primer on “pulses”.)
Now back to the cabbage soup…
Put the dry yellow split peas into a colander and sort them. That just means to look though them to make sure there are no tiny stones that ended up in the peas. Sometimes you will see a green split pea mixed in with the yellow ones – you can leave it in or take it out!
Now rinse the peas under cold running water.
As always, it is really important to get all your ingredients prepared in advance.
Heat the oil in a large (6 quart) pot, on medium heat, until it shimmers.
Add the chopped onions…
…and the diced celery…
…and the diced carrot.
Stir the vegetables.
Then let them cook for about 5 minutes, or until they are soft.
Add the rinsed peas to the soup pot…
…and the broth. You can use either chicken or vegetable broth.
Bring the soup to a boil.
Turn the stove down to simmer and cover the pot.
Simmer the soup for about one hour, giving it an occasional stir.
This soup gets VERY thick. You can add up to 2 cups of water (or even more!) to thin down the soup.
My Dad always used sauerkraut from a bag rather than buying it in a tin can. The sauerkraut from the tin can always tasted a bit “tinny.” You can find bagged sauerkraut in the “refrigerated pre-package deli meat section” of the grocery store.
Put the sauerkraut into a colander. Drain and rinse it under running cold water. Sauerkraut can be very tart. Rinsing it removes some of the tartness. (You can drain it in a bowl and save some of the juice. Then after the soup is cooked you can adjust the flavor by adding some of it back into the soup. This will add a bit of tanginess to the soup.)
Add the sauerkraut to the soup.
Stir everything together. You can see how really thick this soup is. At this point I have already added about 1 and 1/2 cups of water. I think I do need to add a bit more!
Season the soup with some salt…
…and freshly ground black pepper.
Serve the soup with some nice Polish rye bread.
Enjoy!
P.S.
This soup tastes even better a day or two after it is made! When you take the soup out of the refrigerator to reheat it, it will have become very thick. Gently reheat it, stirring it often. You may have to add a bit more liquid to this soup if it has gotten too thick. It also freezes beautifully!
If you are a fan of split-pea soup you might also want to try my Green Split Pea Soup which has chunks of turkey kielbasa in it.
]]>There are many different cuts of lamb available.
These rib chops are have their own little “handle”, which makes them perfect for picking up and eating with your fingers. The nugget of meat in the center will be juicy and tender as long as it is not cooked past “medium.”
A ¾ inch thick chop is the optimum size to buy. Thinner chops tend to get over-cooked very easily. Figure on 2-3 chops per person.
Start by sprinkling some salt and pepper on both sides of each lamb chop.
Preheat your non-stick pan on high heat. To tell if the pan is hot enough, add about 1 Tablespoon of water to the pan. The water should sizzle and evaporate immediately.
Add the chops to the fry pan. You should hear them sizzle! If they are not sizzling, then your pan is not hot enough.
Set the timer to 3 ½ minutes to 4 minutes.
When the timer goes off, flip the lamb chops, using a pair of tongs.
Continuing cooking on the flip side for another 3 ½ to 4 minutes.
Mint sauce is traditional with lamb chops. Some people prefer mint jelly. You get to choose!
.
If you are feeling adventurous you might want to give cooking a Leg of Lamb a try!
Enjoy!
P.S.
All of my recommendations and cooking times are based on meat taken directly from the refrigerator.
According to Joy of Cooking, in their “Meat” section, they say (and I agree): “While many cookbooks and food experts recommend bringing meat to room temperature before cooking, we encourage you to follow the safer practice of keeping meat refrigerated right up to the last minute before cooking. While room-temperature meat will cook more quickly, there is not enough benefit to outweigh the risks of tempting bacteria even for a short time.”
]]>“Chris P. Bacon” watercolor by Kathy Maister
Many people just learning to cook are often a bit hesitant cooking a large piece of meat. It seems so intimidating! Well, it doesn’t need to be, at all. This boneless pork roast is a great place to begin. All that is necessary to cook this roast is to mix some dried spices with olive oil, rub it all over the roast and put it in the oven. That’s it!
Roasting a boneless pork loin roast slowly will guarantee moist, tender meat.
Loin refers to the type of cut.
Put the oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
There is often a thin layer of fat on one side of the roast. Do not trim off this fat. It will help to keep the meat nice and moist.
Always position the pork roast in the pan so that fat side is on the top.
Measure one tablespoon of olive oil in a small dish.
Add 1 Tablespoon of dried spices to the oil. You can use rosemary, sage, thyme, or oregano; or a combination of these that equal 1 tablespoon.
Add ½ teaspoon of salt and ¼ teaspoon of ground black pepper.
Mix this spice rub together and rub it all over the pork roast.
Be sure to rub the spices into the top and bottom.
Place the roast on a rack in a roasting pan, fat side up.
If you don’t have a rack you could coil some tin foil and use that as a rack.
Put the roast in the 450 degree preheated oven. The hot temperature is going to give the roast a nice golden color.
Set the timer for 10 minutes.
When the timer goes off re-set the oven temperature to 250 degrees.
Continue cooking about 50-80 minutes or until the meat registers 145 degrees on a meat thermometer. Some roasts are long and thin and others are short and fat, consequently the cooking times will vary depending on the shape of your roast. The meat thermometer is the best way to judge the right amount of cooking time.
(As of May 24, 2011 the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is updating its recommendation for safely cooking pork. USDA recommends cooking whole cuts of pork to 145 °F as measured with a food thermometer placed in the thickest part of the meat, then allowing the meat to rest for three minutes before carving or consuming. Ground meats, including ground beef, veal, lamb, and pork, which should be cooked to 160 °F and do not require a rest time. The safe cooking temperature for all poultry products, including ground chicken and turkey, remains at 165 °F.)
Remove the roast from the oven and set on a cutting board. Cover the meat with tin foil and let it rest for about 15 minutes before slicing it. The temperature of the roast will continue to rise about another 5 degrees.
You will get at least 6 servings out of this beautiful 3-pound pork roast.
Enjoy!
]]>In 1957, Freda Smith from Gibsonburg, Ohio pressed a Hershey Kiss into a peanut butter cookie and history was made! This cookie did not win the 1957 Pillsbury Bake-Off contest, but it become a huge star in the cookie world!
Peanut Blossom is the official title of this classic cookie but it goes by lots of different names including Peanut Butter Kiss Cookie and Hershey Kiss Cookie to name just a few.
The Chocolate Kiss comes wrapped in silver foil which needs to get removed.
Some of the basic ingredients needed to make the cookie (shown below) may already be in your kitchen –
The “baking specific” ingredients (shown below) are –
(Crisco is a vegetable shortening. Be sure to buy the one with zero “trans fats”).
and put these ingredients in a medium bowl.
Using a whisk, gently whisk these ingredients together and then set the bowl aside for the moment.
Measure out, using dry measuring cups,
Put the shortening and peanut butter into a large mixing bowl and, with an electric hand mixer, mix until well blended.
Add 1/3 cup of granulated sugar and…
…1/3 cup of lightly packed light brown sugar.
Beat these ingredients together until everything is light and fluffy
Use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Crack one egg into a small bowl. Check to see that there are no shell pieces and then add the egg to the mixing bowl.
Add 2 Tablespoons of milk and…
…1 teaspoon of vanilla extract…
…blend everything together…
…really well…
…making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.
Using a 1/2 cup measuring cup, start adding the flour to the mixing bowl.
Beat well after each addition.
The batter will become very stiff.
Now we’re going to roll the batter into balls to make the cookies.
This recipe will make approximately 48 cookies. For the cookies to bake evenly, they all need to be the same size. It helps to put all the batter onto a plate and divide the batter into four parts.
Then divide each part into fours again.
You should now be able to get three cookies from each section.
Roll the cookies into uniform balls…
…and roll the balls into some granulated sugar.
Place the balls on a cookie sheet. (You will have to do this in two batches. The cookie sheet must to totally cool before adding the second batch of cookies.)
Bake the cookies in a pre-heated 375 F. degree oven for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned.
As soon as you remove the tray from the oven, press an unwrapped chocolate kiss into the top of each cookie. The sides of the cookie will crack slightly.
(GREAT TIP from Natalie in the comment section – “While you make the dough and roll them into balls, press a Hershey in each cookie and then remove them so when you bake it there will be no cracks in your cookies.”)
Then with a flat spatula, remove the cookies from the cookie sheet to a cooling rack.
It will take a couple of hours for the chocolate kiss to become totally firm again. Then you can store these cookies in an air-tight tin, between sheets of wax paper, at room temperature. Be sure they are the cookies are totally cooled before storing them. If they do begin to dry out, place a slice of bread on a sheet of waxed paper and put it inside the air tight container. Replace the slice of bread as needed.
Enjoy!
]]>1. Start by making a list of everyone who would really appreciate a decadent and truly delicious home-made gift.
This is not just the “naughty or nice” list. Any hand-made gift will be seen as a gift from the heart just because it shows a bit more effort than a store-bought gift. Let’s face it; some people would be just as happy with a beautifully wrapped jar of olives!
2. Choose the recipe
This is not as difficult as you might think! Have a look at these recipes and decide which one fits your skill level:
Chocolate – Brownie Cupcakes – These would look beautiful individually wrapped with a nice big red bow tied on each one!
Strawberries Dipped in Chocolate
Decide how many cookies or pieces of fudge will make up a gift. Four is a good number to start with for an individual. Many cookie recipes, including my Hershey Kiss Cookie recipe, make 48 cookies. That’s 12 potential gifts right there! (By the way, the cookie jar in the above photo was my Mom’s cookie jar. From the age of about 5 years old, I was always the one who got their hand caught in the cookie jar!)
Of course there may be someone on your list that would prefer savory treat! Chicken Soup anyone?
3. Make up a grocery list
Check your food cupboard for the ingredients you may already have on hand. Be sure your ingredients are still fresh. Things like sugar and vanilla extract have a very long shelf life, but flour and walnuts will eventually go off even if stored properly. (Are those miniscule black dots in my flour actually moving????)
4. Decide on what’s the best way to wrap your food gift
This is a REALLY important step. You want your gift to stay fresh and still look fantastic.
Gift wrapping does not have to break the bank. Discount houses and craft stores sell really inexpensive and festive tin cans that are perfect for keeping home-made cookies fresh. A package of clear, cellophane, gift bags is also an option. You can synch the bags together with some festive yarn which is much less expensive than using ribbon. Your gift will look just like the way the gourmet shops wrap their sweet treats.
5. Startcooking!
All of my recipes are in a video or a photo-tutorial format. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words!
Happy Holidays!
Kathy Maister
]]>After Roasting a chicken or a turkey you often end up with some leftovers that can make for a delicious, easy lunch/dinner for tomorrow. For most recipes, you can interchange cooked chicken for cooked turkey. When making Chicken in Lettuce Cups, Chicken Salad with Wild Rice and Chicken Salad with Grapes, you can substitute the cooked chicken for cooked turkey. Cooked chicken or turkey also stars in recipes for casseroles, enchiladas and lasagna.
Here are just a few more recipe ideas:
Tip: Cooked chicken or turkey shouldn’t stay in the fridge more than two days. It can be frozen, but not for more than a few months.
If you want to use every last bit of a roasted chicken or turkey, make homemade soup stock from the bones. Homemade stock tends to be more flavorful than store-bought, plus you can adjust the salt to your own taste.
]]>Welcome to startcooking’s ultimate (and updated) guide to cooking a turkey!
The thought of cooking your very first Thanksgiving dinner can be a bit intimidating, but with just a bit of advance planning you can definitely pull it off. Roasting a turkey is very similar to roasting a chicken except your oven temperature should be set at 325 degrees and not 400 degrees. Go have a look at that video of mine before you begin. The USDA’s Fact Sheet on Poultry Preparation is also an excellent resource. It includes information on buying, defrosting, cooking, storing, and an emergency hot-line to call for advice as well!
This post will cover the following 10 questions:
Fresh Turkey
If your guests are coming tomorrow, you will need to buy a fresh (not frozen) turkey. If you have time to plan in advance, you can reserve a fresh turkey ahead of time, from your local butcher shop (if you have one!)
Frozen Turkey
Frozen turkies need time to defrost. The fastest way to defrost a frozen turkey is to put it (in its original packaging) in the sink and let it soak in COLD water. Be sure the turkey is completely covered with water. Change the water every half hour. Allow one hour of thawing time per pound of turkey. If you have the time, typically a couple of days, you can thaw your turkey in your refrigerator. Calculate five hours of thawing time per pound.
Whole or Breast of Turkey
That depends on your own personal tastes. One year, I decided to just buy and cook turkey breasts figuring it would be easier to carve and serve. Everyone asked where the legs were! You can buy whole turkeys that are “self-basting”. They are moist and delicious and I would highly recommend them for the beginning cook.
(Note: Don’t be concerned if your turkey does not come out looking like the ones on the cover of all the food magazines. Photographers sometime use shoe polish to make those turkeys have that beautiful coloring!)
Calculate one pound per person. So, for a group of six, a six-pound turkey should suffice. Go for one that’s bigger if you want to have leftovers.
When you remove the turkey from its wrapping you will have to reach into the cavity and remove the bag that’s inside before you cook the turkey.
(I show this in my Roasted Chicken video and — yes — there is an “ick” factor here!) The bag usually contains the neck, liver and various edible innards of the turkey. These parts can be simmered in seasoned water on the stove. They are then strained and the flavored water is used as stock to make the gravy. (Pioneer Woman shows how to do this here.) If this is the first turkey you have ever cooked, I am going to recommend tossing this bag away and using store-bought gravy.
The Pan
A roasting pan with a V-shaped rack is your best bet – but they are expensive. The rack elevates the turkey, allowing the juices and fat to drip into the pan.
A less expensive alternative is to buy a disposable roasting pan from the grocery store.
To give a disposable roasting pan a bit of stability, it is best to place it on a baking sheet with sides.
You can make your own rack by coiling a strip of tin foil.
How long do I cook it?
Read the directions on the package of the turkey and be sure to write down the weight of the turkey. (I even cut out the cooking chart and put it on a plate for reference…just in case!)
Many turkeys come with a single use thermometer that pops up when the turkey is done. You can also use your own meat thermometer or you can buy a single use pop-up thermometer. (I prefer instant read thermometers) I explain more about thermometers here.
If you are using a regular meat thermometer, insert it about 2.5 inches into the deepest part of the turkey, without touching the bone.
The minimum internal temperature should reach 165°F.
“A whole turkey (and turkey parts) is safe to eat when cooked to a minimum internal temperature of 165°F as measured with a food thermometer. Check the internal temperature in the innermost part of the thigh and wing and the thickest part of the breast. For reasons of personal preference, consumers may choose to cook turkey to higher temperatures.”
Prior to 2006, (as per recommendation of the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service) most cookbooks recommended that the internal temperature of a turkey should reach 170 degrees F in the breast or 180 degrees F in the thigh. If you cook your turkey that long it will end up dry and tough.
For a good visual to determine if your turkey is cooked, make a slice by the leg joint to see if the juices run clear. The joint should feel loose.
An unstuffed turkey takes less time to cook than a stuffed turkey. Shady Brook Farms has a great site that will help you to determine the cooking time of your turkey. Plus, they have a TURKEY HOTLINE! Call 1-800-810-6325 for all your questions!
Bread stuffing (with gravy) is one of my favorite parts of this meal. Instant stove-top stuffing is surprisingly tasty. This stuffing uses dried bread croutons and you can add chopped celery and onions if you like. (That’s how my mom used to make stuffing!)
Make the stuffing and bake it in the oven (or on the stove top). You do not have to stuff the turkey. In fact the USFDA advises against this method for food-safety reasons. The unstuffed turkey will take less time to cook.
As I said above, if this is the first turkey you have ever cooked, I am going to recommend using store-bought gravy. Making gravy is not difficult but it can be tricky for a beginner cook. If you are considering making your own gravy from scratch, start by checking out my post on How to Make Gravy. There are several different ways to go about making gravy. Here are some additional links to really good photo tutorials and videos on making various kinds of gravy:
Once the turkey is out of the oven, loosely cover it with tin foil and let it rest at least 20 minutes to 30 minutes. When carving the turkey, make sure you have a sharp knife and be sure to carve it in the kitchen – not at the dinner table. Any spills or mishaps should happen behind closed doors. Garnish the turkey platter with lots of fresh parsley and maybe even some sliced oranges. (By the way, there are about 65,000 videos on Google showing you how to carve a turkey!)
Turkey is a great source of protein but the l-tryptophan can make you sleepy. Or maybe it’s just that you worked so hard preparing your first, utterly fantastic, turkey dinner!
Of course! And there are real people on the other end of the phoneline!
Startcooking.com has tons of appetizers, side dishes and desserts to choose from. Here are just a few suggestions:
Cranberry Sauce with Mandarian Oranges
Gravy (from a jar) or Make Your Own Gravy
And for dessert how about Pecan Pie!
Cooked turkey can be substituted for any recipe that calls for cooked chicken.
Chicken (or turkey) Salad with Wild Rice and Avocados (video) can get made in the morning and dinner will be ready and waiting when you get home from work (or shopping!).
Chicken (or turkey) Noodle Soup is everyone’s favorite. This recipe takes less than 20 minutes to prepare.
Chicken (or turkey) Salad is great made with walnuts and grapes!
Caesar Salad often has cooked chicken add so why not some cooked turkey!
Taste of Home definitely knows what to do with their turkey leftovers. They have a great list of the Top 10 Things to do with Leftover Turkey.
Kate’s Global Kitchen does something really cool called:Turkey 3 Ingredients = Luscious Leftovers
I can’t wait to try this Turkey & Swiss Panini.
Good Luck and Happy Holidays!
]]>When it comes to buying mushrooms, we often go by appearance rather than taste. We stick to those clean-cut white button mushrooms, perhaps a bit intimidated by the wilder characters in the fungus family. But it’s worth getting to know all those odd-looking mushrooms—they can really add taste and sophistication to your cooking.
Most supermarkets sell a few varieties of fresh mushrooms, including portobello, oyster and shiitake, as well as bags of dried mushrooms. But beginner cooks may not be sure how to clean specialty mushrooms, or what to do with them. This post will take the mystery out of buying mushrooms and help figure out what kind to use when.
I have already covered the basics on how to wash and store mushrooms, but the basic idea is to rinse them (never soak them) and use a cloth or paper towel to remove any clingy dirt.
These immature, unopened mushrooms are probably the most common in North American supermarkets. They can be bought either fresh or canned. (I do not recommend using canned mushrooms.) Some grocery stores sell them pre-sliced but, once sliced, these mushrooms spoil quickly; they oxidize after being cut, turning brown and soft once exposed to air. They can be eaten raw or cooked in almost any dish, but their flavor intensifies with cooking. Bigger button mushrooms can be left whole and stuffed, for an appetizer or side dish. Check out startcooking.com’s recipe video for bacon-and-cream cheese Stuffed Mushrooms.
These are a darker, more flavorful version of the white button mushroom. They can be used in all the same ways as the white button mushroom.
These are the grownup versions of the baby bella mushrooms, and can have caps that are six inches in diameter. They may be sliced and sautéed, but are often left whole and roasted. They have a rich taste and meaty texture that’s often likened to steak; some vegetarian recipes use them as a meat substitute. Their tough stems should be removed before cooking. Although the dark brown gills under the mushroom cap are edible, some prefer to remove them. To do this, simply scrape them off with the tip of a knife. Here’s startcooking.com’s recipe for Portobello Mushrooms and Goat Cheese.
These fan-shaped mushrooms grow on the sides of trees, looking kind of like an (you guessed it) oyster. They have a mild taste, and work well in stir-fries, soups, sauces and many other dishes. Cut off the base of the mushroom, then separate its layers before cleaning them.
If you like Asian food, you’ve probably tasted these in miso soup, sushi or in Chinese stir-fries. They have white stems, brown caps and typically sprout off logs. Shiitakes add a deep, smoky flavour and chewy texture to all kinds of dishes. They are available fresh or dried, which is said to have a more intense flavour. In Asia, shiitake mushrooms are associated with longevity and good health.
These long, crisp mushrooms are usually used in soups, but can also go in salads and sandwiches. They can be eaten raw or cooked, and are available fresh and canned. They grow naturally on the hackberry tree (enoki in Japanese). Cut off the roots before using.
Clustering around the base of trees, these feathery fungi are known as the King of Mushrooms in Japan because they can grow very large. Used in China and Japan for medicinal purposes, they have a strong, woodsy flavour and meaty texture. They work well in stir-fries.
Prized in Italian cooking, these large-capped mushrooms typically grow in Europe and North America. They can be bought fresh and, because of their meaty texture, can be grilled and sautéed much like portobellos. They are often available dried in bags, and after being soaked in water, can be added to soups, sauces, stews and risottos. Read on for more about reconstituting dried mushrooms.
It’s nice to have a bag of mixed dried mushrooms (like the ones above) on hand to add “oomf” to all kinds of dishes. Just remember to leave time to reconstitute them. There are various ways to do this, depending on how much time you have. The dried mushrooms can sit in a bowl of cool water overnight, or in warm water for 20 minutes before cooking. They can also be boiled for 10 minutes before cooking. The water that they steep in will have lots of flavor and, if strained through a coffee filter to remove grit, can be used in place of other liquids in recipes.
*******
After I finished photographing all these mushrooms, I sliced them and cooked them in a large frying pan with a small amount of olive oil. They were FANTASTIC!
Cheers!
Kathy
]]>Adding sinfully rich gravy to either mashed potatoes, roasted chicken (or Turkey), pork or beef turns the whole meal into a holiday treat! (And it can also be used without the excuse of a holiday!)
There are many, many different ways to make gravy, using slightly different techniques and ingredients. All gravies, no matter how they are made, should have no lumps, should be smooth as silk and should have no taste of raw flour.
In this post, I am going to show you how to make two different gravies – a classic all-purpose gravy and then a really quick gravy. Then, at the end of this post, there are links to two videos which show how to make gravy with pan drippings, as well as links to three photo-tutorials on other ways to make gravy.
This post includes:
This classic all-purpose gravy is made by first cooking flour and butter together (that’s called a roux – pronounced roo) and then adding cold stock and cooking it until it has thickened and is smooth as silk. This recipe makes four cups of gravy which is great for entertaining.
Ingredients needed:
Cut 1/2 cup (8 Tablespoons) of unsalted butter into chunks and add it to a medium size heavy sauce pan. (Unsalted butter allows you to control the salt in the gravy.)
On low (to medium-low) temperature melt the butter until it is foamy.
Add 1/2 cup of all-purpose white flour to the pan.
Start whisking the flour…
…until well blended.
Keep whisking and cooking (over very low heat) until it smells like a pie is cooking in the oven! That means the flour is cooked and your gravy will not end up having a “pasty” flavor to it.
Brace yourself, as this could take anywhere from 6-to-12 minutes to get cooked!
I will be using chicken stock for this recipe, but you could use vegetable or beef stock or a combination of stocks.
Start by whisking in about 1 cup of stock. (Four cups will eventually get added.)
Keep whisking vigorously until…
…all the stock is absorbed.
Now add a bit more stock…
…whisking until the stock is again absorbed.
Pour in the remaining stock…
…keep whisking!
All of the stock will get absorbed and it will be smooth as silk again! The stove should still be set at low as you continue to cook the gravy.
After 10 minutes, my gravy was still was not quite thick enough. See below how it drips off the spoon.
At about 12 minutes, I added 1/3 cup of cream. This adds such a rich flavor and texture to the final gravy.
Within two minutes of adding the cream, the gravy was perfect!
See below how it now coats the back of the spoon.
Taste the gravy, and add some salt (if you think it needs it) and some white or red pepper.
This is ready to serve!
This quick gravy is great for making small amounts of gravy. It is made with:
In terms of amounts, the general rule of thumb is 2 tablespoons of flour, plus 2 tablespoon of butter to 1 cup of broth. Broth from a can works beautifully for this recipe, although I am using strained stock from a just-cooked beef pot roast. (Waste not, want not!) The excess fat needs to first get skimmed off the top. Canned stock does not have this excess fat.
Pour the stock into the pot. (I’m using the same pot that I cooked my beef pot roast in.) Turn the heat on medium and heat the stock.
Put the flour and butter into a small bowl.
Using your finger tips or a fork, mix the flour and butter together…
…continuing to mix….
…until you have a really smooth paste. This flour-butter paste is called a “beurre manie.”
Add the beurre manie to the hot stock.
Vigorously whisk together the stock and the flour-butter paste.
Turn the heat down to low and …
…cook the gravy until it is thickened. There should be no “pasty-flour” taste to the gravy. This could take up to 10 minutes.
Taste the gravy to see if it is cooked and if it needs salt and pepper.
Enjoy!
Sometimes homemade gravy is just not the color you want it to be, and occasionally the flavor needs a bit of a boost. In the spice section of the grocery store you can buy flavor enhancers for gravy. Names like Bisto, G Washington’s Rich Brown sauce, Gravy Master Seasoning and Browning Sauce, and Kitchen Bouquet Browning & Seasoning Sauce are available at my grocery store. Enhancers are made of a combination of vegetable extracts, caramel coloring, preservatives, salt, etc. Some people have actually added things like soy sauce or coffee granules to darken their gravies!
Many serious cooks look down on the whole idea of using enhancers. That’s their privilege, but I think beginners should be given more latitude to learn a step at a time using convenient ingredients! Even experienced cooks use these products. My mom always had a product called Gravy Master in the cupboard and I must admit I have followed her tradition!
Enhancers pack a powerful punch and should be used sparingly. They not only add flavor but they also add color to the gravy as well. Just a few drops can turn pale gravy into a color darker than dark chocolate! Be sure to read the directions on the back of the particular brand you have purchased just in case they say otherwise.
Homemade “flour-thickened” gravy should be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container and used within two days of making it. When reheating the gravy bring it to a boil, whisking constantly, and then keep at simmer until ready to serve.
(Note: Gravy thickened with corn starch does not freeze well at all, nor does it hold up for prolonged cooking.)
Flour-thickened gravy can be frozen for up to 3 months. Freeze the gravy in manageable portions. I like using zip-lock freezer bags. Be sure to squeeze out all the air and flatten the gravy. It will take up much less space in the freezer this way.
After the gravy has defrosted it may look like it has separated or curdled. Vigorously whisk the gravy as you are re-heating it, in a sauce pan, and it should return to its original texture. You may have to add a few drops of water or stock to the pan as well.
****
There are tons of recipe variations for a Pecan Pie. I’m sticking to a very classic recipe that calls for:
Many people use unsalted butter in their recipes. You actually have more control of the amount of salt in a recipe when you add your own. If you are using unsalted butter, add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to this ingredient list.
Preheat your oven to 350 F. degrees and then get all of your ingredients measured before you begin mixing. In general, pre-measuring before you start to cook is a good habit to get into.
When measuring brown sugar always pack it into a dry measuring cup.
You can mix everything together with a whisk or a fork.
It should look like the photo below when everything is mixed together. Be sure there are no unmixed lumps of brown sugar.
Add the nuts
And give it a stir. The nuts will float to the surface. (Some recipes call for 2-to-3 times more nuts than my recipe.)
Set the frozen pie shell on a baking sheet with sides. Once the pie is cooked it will be MUCH easier to remove from the oven if it is on a baking sheet.
Now pour in the filling.
The pie is ready to go into your preheated oven.
Before you put it in the oven, cover the edges with a tin foil ring.
Normally you would cook a pie for about 15 minutes and then cover the edges. With pecan pie the crust gets too dark that way, so start with the edges covered. (See photo comparison at the bottom of this post.)
For about $4. you can buy reusable pie rings like the one on the pie in my oven.
As the pie cooks, it puffs up. This is normal. It will take about 40-45 minutes for the pie to bake.
To check for “doneness”, slide a small, sharp paring knife into the pie about 2 inches from the crust. It should come out clean. (If you have an “instant read” thermometer the internal temperature of the pie should reach 200 F. degrees.)
As the pie cools, it will slump down and the top will crack a bit.
I love Pecan Pie with vanilla ice-cream!
Enjoy!
P.S.
Below is a photo comparing the pie crusts. For the darker pie on the left, the tin foil went on 15 minutes into the baking time. It is too dark. For the one on the right, I put the tin foil on before putting it in the oven…and it’s perfect!
]]>Sweet Potato Casserole is a vegetable side dish for people who say they hate vegetables. It is sweet enough to be a dessert, but since it really is a vegetable it can be paired perfectly with Roasted Chicken, turkey, and (especially) baked ham. In the USA, it is a traditional dish served with a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner.
This Sweet Potato Casserole recipe can be made with fresh sweet potatoes or with canned sweet potatoes. The canned sweet potatoes are already cooked. The fresh sweet potatoes would need to get cooked first (see below).
Buying canned sweet potatoes may be a bit confusing, as it will say on the label (at least in the USA) both “sweet potato” and “yams”, which may sound like a contradiction of terms as in many parts of the world a yam is not a sweet potato!
In the USA, “yams” are actually sweet potatoes with relatively moist texture and orange flesh. Although, in the USA, the terms are generally used interchangeably, the U.S. Department of Agriculture requires that the label “yam” always be accompanied by “sweet potato”.
The really great thing about using canned sweet potatoes for this recipe is that all the ingredients can be bought well in advance and just happily sit in your food cupboard until you are ready to start cooking!
Sweet Potatoes – Fresh
Just in case you prefer fresh versus canned sweet potatoes, they need to get cooked first, cooled and then added to the casserole. Bake them as you would white potatoes by first scrubbing them clean…
…poke them with a knife…
…and bake them with their skins left on in a 400 F. degree oven for about 1 hour.
Once cooked, cut them in half and scoop out the sweet potato. They are now ready to be mixed with the other ingredients for the casserole. (See below)
Let’s startcooking!
It takes less than 10 minutes to assemble this Sweet Potato Casserole and only 30 minutes to bake.
As always, it is best to get all your ingredients prepared and measured first.
melted butter, brown sugar, chopped pecans, rum, mandarin oranges
Preparing and Measuring the Ingredients
Put four tablespoons of butter in a small microwave safe bowl and melt the butter in the microwave. That should take about 30 seconds. Three tablespoons of butter will get mixed into the sweet potatoes and the remaining tablespoon of butter will be for the pecan topping.
You can use light or dark brown sugar. Three tablespoons will be mixed in with the sweet potatoes and the remaining tablespoon will be mixed with the chopped pecans for the topping.
Roughly chop 1/3 cup of pecans – or a bit more if you love pecans! A serrated edge knife works best for chopping nuts. Rock the knife through the nuts by holding the handle of the knife in one hand and the tip of the blade with the other hand.
The rum adds a nice flavor to this Sweet Potato Casserole, but it is an optional ingredient.
Drain the liquid from the mandarin oranges…
…and GENTLY rinse them under cold water.
Spread them out on a paper towel or clean kitchen cloth.
Drain the sweet potatoes in a colander,
and put them in a large mixing bowl.
Mixing the Ingredients
Add to the sweet potatoes: three tablespoons of the melted butter….
…2 tablespoons of rum…
…3 tablespoons of brown sugar…
…and 1/4 teaspoon of salt…
and some freshly grated black pepper.
With a potato masher…
or an electric hand mixer…
mash/mix everything together.
GENTLY fold in the mandarin oranges. These oranges are very delicate and you do not want them to lose their shape by over-mixing them into the sweet potatoes.
Spoon the sweet potatoes into a 1 quart, oven-safe casserole dish.
Pecan Topping
Add the chopped pecans to the remaining one tablespoons of butter and add the remaining 1 tablespoon of brown sugar as well.
Mix these three ingredients together with a fork.
Sprinkle this pecan topping on the sweet potatoes.
(Many Sweet Potato Casserole recipes call for mini marshmallows to be added to the top as well!)
Bake the sweet potatoes in a pre-heated 375 F. degree oven for 30 minutes and enjoy!
]]>As autumn arrives, grocery stores and markets fill up with winter squash in all shapes and sizes. Acorn, butternut, buttercup, spaghetti … which one is which? And what do you do with them? This post will introduce you to some of the more popular members of the gourd family. Even if you don’t end up cooking with them, you can use them as seasonal decorations!
Winter squash have tough, inedible skins. When buying winter squash, look for ones that are heavy and have smooth, un-dented skins with the stems still on. These are indications that the squash was harvested when ripe and will have more flavor. Winter squash contain lots of healthy nutrients, like Vitamin A, Vitamin C, potassium and fiber. Whole squash can be kept for up to a month, unrefrigerated, in a cool dry location.
Most squash varieties can be baked, boiled, steamed and sautéed, but they each have different tastes and textures. Particular cooking techniques are better suited to some than others – don’t try making butternut squash soup with spaghetti squash!
To prepare squash, start by washing it off and drying it. The next step will depend on how you want to use the squash and whether you have a good, sharp knife.
Option 1. Cut the Squash Before Cooking: Peeling squash is not easy, which is why some people roast squash unpeeled. You can peel the squash with a vegetable peeler (as shown it this video) or with a knife. Then you can cut it in half, scoop out the seeds and cut the flesh into whatever size pieces you need. Or, you can simply cook the two peeled/scooped-out halves in the oven (at 400F for about 40 minutes) or the microwave (calculating two minutes of cooking time per pound of squash).
Option 2. Partially Cook the Squash Before Cutting: If the squash is too hard to cut, try microwaving it for a minute or two, or boiling it for five minutes. You’ll have to let it cool and then try to cut it.
Option 3. Cut the Squash After Cooking: Another way to avoid cutting a raw squash is to bake it whole. Pierce the squash in several places (using a fork or sharp knife) to let air escape, then bake it at 400F for about an hour. (If you do not pierce the squash it may EXPLODE in the oven!) Once it has cooled, you can cut it in half, scoop out the seeds and either cut the skin off or scoop out the flesh. This is a great method to use if the squash is going to be pureed for a side dish or soup.
Option 4. Roasting squash: Once you have cut the squash in half and scooped out the seeds you can roast it. Preheat the oven to 400F and drizzle the squash halves with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Put them cut-side down on a baking sheet, and roast for about 40 minutes.
Now, let’s find out who’s who in the squash family!
Butternut squash is one of the most popular varieties because of its sweet, rich taste and beautiful orange color. These creamy-skinned squashes have a bulb-shaped end that contains the seeds. Butternut squash can be served pureed with apples or as the made into butternut squash soup. Here’s a video that demonstrates maple-glazed butternut squash, a delicious and simple side-dish that calls for a quarter cup of rum. You can also use plain baked butternut squash as a side dish, salad or pasta topping.
Buttercup squashes are round and flat in shape and often have dark green skins. Although their flavor is similar to that of butternut squash, they’re not as sweet and they have a drier texture. They work well in many of the same recipes as butternut squash. Here’s a recipe for Brandy-Laced Squash Soup with Cinnamon and Bay Leaves.
These oval-shaped squash produce stringy flesh that can actually substitute for pasta. (It looks like pasta but tastes like watery summer squash!) The flavor is mild, so you can serve it with a pasta sauce or parmesan cheese, or even just a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Kathy explains how to cook and serve basic spaghetti squash, or try this Mediterranean version.
Shaped like (you guessed it!) acorns, and typically dark green on the outside, this type of squash tastes great baked. Its nutty flesh is a bit drier than that of other squash varieties. You’ll often see recipes for stuffed acorn squash, because an acorn squash half makes an attractive, edible bowl.
These long, cylindrical squash are also known as sweet potato squash because their creamy flesh resembles that of a sweet potato. They can be used in many recipes that call for butternut or buttercup squashes or sweet potato. Here’s a recipe for Delicata Squash and Gruyere Dip.
While these bright orange globes are the most sought after of the squash family, they get carved for Halloween more often than eaten. The size of pumpkins makes them a bit difficult to handle in the kitchen, which is why there’s a marvelous invention called canned pumpkin. Kathy makes use of pumpkin puree in her Pumpkin Soup Without the Fuss and in her Pumpkin Pie for Beginners.
Yellow summer squash (shown above) and green zucchini (shown below) are also part of the gourd family. We have already covered how to prepare zucchini and yellow-skinned summer squash can be prepared in many of the same ways. Here’s a recipe specifically for summer squash.
]]>It was still summer when giant bags of Halloween candy started appearing on store shelves. Then, the bakeries and cafes upped the ante, pushing the fluorescent-orange-frosted cupcakes and cookies. You’re conflicted: the adult in you hates Halloween hype, but the 10-year-old still salivates at the sight of all that sweet stuff. The good news is that you and your kids can enjoy plenty of Halloween goodies without going into sugar shock. Here are some ideas for Halloween treats with a healthy twist.
Fig cookies
Mini boxes of raisins
Individual juice drinks (100% juice)
Single-serve packets of low-fat microwave popcorn
Sugar-free hot chocolate or apple cider packets
Happy Halloween Everyone!
]]>There is an incredible variety of potatoes from around the world – literally thousands of them. Different varieties of potatoes vary in texture. They can be starchy, waxy, or somewhere in-between. Some potatoes are great for mashing while others work best if baked or roasted.
At the grocery store there are usually signs above the potatoes that will tell you which ones are great for baking versus which ones are better for mashing. Some potatoes are described as “all-purpose” which means you can cook them any way you want.
What’s common to all potatoes is that they’re incredibly versatile and nutritious. They contain iron, Vitamin C, potassium and starch. Sweet potatoes – which are actually a very distant relative of regular potatoes – are loaded with Vitamin A, C and B6. In general, potatoes can be boiled, baked, steamed, microwaved, and used in salads, soups and stews.
Starchy Potatoes (aka baking potatoes) are good to use for baking, French fries and mashing. They tend to come apart when cooked, so they’re not great for dishes like Potato Hash.
Some examples: Russet (aka Idaho), Norchip, Goldrush, Norkotah, Long white, Jewel Yam, Japanese Sweet potato, Hannah Sweet Potato
Waxy Potatoes (aka boiling potatoes, round white, round red) keep their shape when cooked, so these are the best options for boiling, roasting or steaming. They’re also the best to use in dishes like potato salad or scalloped potatoes
Some examples: Warba, Rose Finn, Pontiac, Russian Banana, Red Thumb, French Fingerling, LaRette, Austrian Crescent, New potatoes
All-purpose
These potatoes fall somewhere between starchy and waxy, so they work in most recipes.
Some examples: Viking, All blue, Kennebec, Carlton, Yukon Gold, Norland Red, Purple Majesty.
Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes are often referred to as “yams” in the United States. Strictly speaking, they are not the same thing (not even related!). True yams are typically grown in parts of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean – they are often brown or black, and can grow to be several feet long.
Follow the same guidelines for buying and storing sweet potatoes as you would other potatoes.
Sweet potatoes are often baked in their skins, or used to make sweet potato fries. There’s also the Thanksgiving classic, Sweet Potato Casserole (shown below), which is often topped with marshmallows!
Buying and Storing
Wash them under running water, scrubbing the surface of the skin with a brush, or vigorously with your hands. Don’t use soap, though.
Depending on how you’re using potatoes, you may want to peel them. If you want to remove the skin before cooking, simply use a vegetable peeler and peel from one end of the potato to the other.
If you don’t like peeling, you can also remove the skin of a potato after boiling it. In this method, cut a shallow slit around the middle of the uncooked potato, and then boil it. After boiling, dunk the potato in ice water for a few seconds. When it’s cool enough to touch, it will be very easy to pull the skin off. The potato is then ready for mashing or using in a recipe.
Enjoy!
]]>Stuffed peppers are great (and easy) to make for a family meal or casual get-together. My filling for stuffed pepper starts with two simple ingredients – cooked rice and browned ground beef.
You can use leftover cooked rice (from Chinese take-out?) or make your own. Get the rice started first as it usually takes about 20 minutes to cook. Check out my video on “How to Cook White Rice” for a quick review.
While the rice is cooking, get the peppers washed and remove the stem and seeds. Any color bell pepper will do. But remember, the red ones are the sweetest!
Start by slicing off the very top of the peppers.
Then,with a small paring knife, carefully slide the knife around the stem to loosen it. You should then be able to gently pull the stem out.
With a spoon scrape out any remaining seeds and “stem ribs”.
It is important that the bell peppers are able to balance upright on their own. Slice off the tiniest bit off the bottom so that the peppers can stand without rolling over.
Set the cleaned peppers snugly in a baking dish and set this dish aside for just a moment.
In a large frying pan, over medium-high heat, brown the ground beef and drain off any excess fat. For a quick review, check out my video on “How to Brown Beef”.
Add one can of Rotel tomatoes…
…which are diced tomatoes with green chilies.
Using a colander, drain one can of black beans in the sink, rinse, and drain again, and add them to the frying pan as well.
Mix everything together and simmer for about 5 minutes.
At this point you could add 1/2 teaspoon of onion powder and 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder if you wish.
Remove the pan from the heat and add 2 cups of cooked rice…
…and 1 and 1/2 cups of pre-shredded Mexican four-cheese blend. (This is a great time-saving way to buy cheese for cooking. Most grocery stores always carry both a Mexican blend and an Italian blend.)
Stir everything together.
(A note: Many recipes have you blanch the cleaned peppers in a large pot of boiling salted water for about 3 minutes before adding the filling. I prefer the peppers to have a bit of a crunch to them, rather than being really soft. Consequently my recipe does not call for blanching the peppers before filling them.)
With a spoon, fill the peppers with the filling.
They should fit snugly in the baking dish!
Cover the baking dish with tin foil and put them in a 375 F. degree preheated oven.
Bake the covered peppers for about 40 minutes and then remove the tin foil…
…and continue cooking for another 10-15 minutes until tops are slightly browned and pepper skin can be pierced easily with a fork.
I served these beautiful stuffed peppers with butternut squash and they were fantastic!
Enjoy!
]]>The pumpkins shown above are part of my centerpiece arrangement. The pie is actually made with pumpkin from a can.
For the filling you will need:
Description of the Ingredients
Canned pumpkin is already cooked and pureed (mashed) so all you have to do is open the can and it is ready to use. Be sure to buy canned pumpkin and NOT pumpkin pie filling in a can. (In the USA) canned pumpkin is not found in the canned vegetable aisle. It is actually sold with all the baking products – right near the flour, sugar, and baking soda. Who knew?
There is a HUGE difference between sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk. This recipe calls for sweetened condensed milk.
Evaporated milk has no added sugar and is slightly thicker and richer than regular milk. (I used it to make my Pumpkin Soup and my Stove Top Mac and Cheese.) Sweetened condensed milk is very thick and very sweet. They are not interchangeable ingredients.
Evaporated Milk and Sweetened Condensed Milk
Pumpkin Pie Spice is a blend of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice. It is easier and less expensive to buy one small jar of spice blend rather than four separate jars of spices. You can mix the leftover pumpkin pie spice with some sugar and sprinkle it on toast or cottage cheese. Or you could add it to Butternut Squash instead of cinnamon.
Let’s startcooking!
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Be careful — that’s a really HOT oven! It will take about 15 minutes for your oven to get that hot. You are only going to cook your pie for 15 minutes at that temperature. You’ll then turn the oven down to 350 degrees, and continue cooking the pie for about another 30 minutes.
Crack two eggs into a medium bowl. (Check to make sure there are no shells in the bowl!)
Add to the bowl the canned pumpkin, the sweetened condensed milk, the pumpkin pie spice, and the salt.
Whisk everything together. It should get really well combined and look like the picture below when it is ready to all pour into the pie shell.
Set the unbaked, frozen pie shell on a baking sheet with sides. This is going to make it much easier to lift the pie in and out of the oven.
Pour the filling into the frozen pie shell.
The filling is going to come almost to the top edge.
Immediately put the pie into the oven and set the timer for 15 minutes.
When the timer goes off, lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees and reset the timer for 30 minutes.
You will also need to cover the edges of the pie with tin foil. Otherwise they will get way too browned.
You can buy a pie ring or make your own out of tin foil. My post on Pie Crust – Ready Made will show you how.
The way you check to see if the pie is ready to come out of the oven is to stick a knife into the pie about one inch in from the edge of the crust.
If the knife comes out clean, the pie is done. Depending on your oven you may need to continue cooking for an additional 5 minutes. Let the pie cool completely before serving it. It will deflate slightly when cooled.
A great way to serve this pie is with a big dollop of fresh whipped cream, or a nice big squirt of cream from a can!
Enjoy!
]]>For this recipe you will need:
In addition to the canned pumpkin, the only other ingredient you may not be familiar with is evaporated milk. (I have used it in my “Stove-top Macaroni and Cheese” recipe.) Evaporated milk is just slightly thicker than regular milk but it is very rich. It will make this soup really creamy and very rich tasting. A low fat version is available. (Be sure not to confuse evaporated milk with sweetened condensed milk. They are often sold side-by-side.)
You need to chop one medium onion. If you don’t know how to chop an onion, there is a demonstration of it here: How to Mince, Dice and Chop Onions.
Get all of remaining ingredients measured and ready to go. That really only involves measuring the brown sugar, salt and cinnamon. If you are using chicken stock made from a bullion cube you will need to reconstitute the cube in boiling water.
Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a medium pot.
Add the onions and cook them until they are soft, about 7-10 minutes. Give them an occasional stir.
Now add the brown sugar, cinnamon, salt and applesauce and cook everything for about 4 minutes.
After 4 minutes it will look like the picture below.
Add the pumpkin and chicken stock, and stir everything together. It will be pretty thick.
Bring the pot to a boil. Turn the temperature down to simmer and cover the pot.
Set the timer for about 20 minutes. Be sure to give the soup an occasional stir.
Pour in enough evaporated milk until the soup reaches your desired thickness. I like about 8 ounces of evaporated but you may want your soup thinner or thicker.
Be sure to add a few grinds of fresh black pepper.
The really great thing about this soup is that aside from the onion, all the other ingredients needed to make this soup come straight from your food cupboard. Next time you go grocery shopping be sure to add the ingredients for this soup to your list. On a cold evening a delicious pot of pumpkin soup can be ready for dinner in no time!
I have added a special touch to my soup by topping it with some cinnamon croutons!
Enjoy!
]]>When I saw fresh chestnuts at the grocery store, I thought it would be great to roast some at home for startcooking. For comparison sake, I bought a jar of pre-packaged chestnuts as well.
Before I begin, I would like to point out that Water Chestnuts are from an aquatic plant and are a totally different food than the chestnuts (from a tree) that I am about to roast.
To Roast Chestnuts:
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F.
Wipe the chestnuts off with a damp towel and set them on a cutting board, flat side down.
With a small, sharp knife cut an X in each chestnut. (There are special chestnut-X-cutting knives that you can buy – see comments below. I would only recommend buying one of these knives if you roast a TON of chestnuts.) The X allows the steam to escape while they are cooking. (Do not omit this step, otherwise the chestnuts could explode in the oven!) This will also make peeling a lot easier.
For safety sake, you may feel more comfortable cushioning the chestnut on a (clean) dish towel to cut the X.
Put the chestnuts in a baking pan with the X facing up.
It will take 20-30 minutes to roast the chestnuts. When cooked, the shells will burst open, and the chestnut will be golden brown. The tricky part is actually knowing when they are done. If you over-cook OR under-cook them, they will get hard and the inner skin will be very difficult to remove.
Now comes the hard part: peeling them! You need to peel them while they are still warm. Let them cool just enough so that you can touch them, then start peeling. Be very careful not to burn your fingers!
Be sure to buy extra, because once they are open you may well discover that some have actually turned bad and are not edible.
This task is not as easy as David makes it look. My thumb is killing me!
So now comes the test: comparing the fresh chestnuts to the ones from the jar. There are four things to consider:
Freshly Roasted (on the left) Vs. From a Jar
1. Appearance
First let me say that the chestnuts I bought from Whole Foods did not end up looking at all like the magnificent ones from the street vendor. (Of course the 7 or 8 chestnuts from the street vendor that actually end up in your brown bag don’t look like the ones they have on display either!)
The ones from the jar have a preserved look about them.
2. Taste and Texture
They both tasted delicious but the ones from the jar actually had a moister texture.
3. Price
The 17 fresh chestnuts from Whole foods cost $4.67
I ended up with 12 usable ones. (Yes there are only 11 in the above photo because I ate one!) Two I could not get peeled, two disintegrated when I tried to peel them and one was rotten.
The 7.4 ounce jar cost $8.99. 100% were usable.
4. Convenience
When I was a kid, whenever my mom would bake, we would always have to shell the walnuts. (Way back then!) It was significantly cheaper to buy unshelled walnuts. It is a very labor intensive activity. Today, having to shell your own nuts sounds like it is on par with having to go milk the cow to get fresh milk! Peeling your own chestnuts is not an easy task!
Conclusion:
All in all, my first preference is to buy them off the street vendor in NYC. ONLY as a special treat, is it worth the effort to roast the chestnuts yourself. The look, the taste and the aroma is wonderful.
BUT, for use in a recipe, I would probably skip roasting them myself and just buy the jar!
Cheers!
]]>
The ingredients needed to make guacamole are:
When using avocados, planning ahead is essential. If you try to make guacamole with a hard, under-ripe avocado, both the texture and the taste will be all wrong. When buying avocados, buy the ones that yield to gentle pressure but are not soft or mushy. Fortunately, you can speed up the ripening process by placing hard avocados in a brown paper bag for a couple of days. (That’s why you need to plan ahead!)
Check out my previous posts on how to crush garlic, squeeze juice from a lemon or lime and how to clean and cut jalapeno peppers, because they are what we are gong to tackle first.
Be sure to use fresh limes (or lemons) and fresh garlic and fresh jalapenos for this recipe.
Let’s start cooking!
Squeeze 1/2 of a fresh lime; we will need 2 teaspoons of the juice.
Seed 1 jalapeño pepper and dice it into about 1/8 inch bits. (I always wear disposable gloves when cutting hot chili peppers!)
Cut one tomato in half with the stem end to the right of the knife blade. It is not necessary to peel the tomato.
Squeeze out all the seeds.
Chop the tomato into about ¼ inch bits.
Cut two avocados lengthwise (rather than making the cut around the width.)
Separate the two pieces.
Leave the avocado on the cutting board and give the pit a thwack with a big sharp knife.
Give the knife a twist and carefully remove the pit.
Pinch the pit off the knife with your thumb and forefinger and throw it away.
With a spoon, scoop out the avocado.
It’s OK to put the skin down the garbage disposer, but I just throw the pit in the trash. (It’s sort of like throwing a golf ball in the disposer. You just wouldn’t do it!)
For this chunky guacamole, I like to use a fork to mash it. You could also use a potato masher if you like.
Now add the other prepared ingredients to the avocado. Don’t forget the hot pepper sauce!
With a spoon gently blend everything together.
Give it a taste and see if you need to add some salt and pepper.
It’s important to note that, once exposed to air, an avocado discolors very quickly. Adding lime or lemon juice helps to prevent discoloration. It is widely believed that an avocado pit left in guacamole will help to maintain the lush green color. Wrong! Stick with the lemon or lime juice.
By the way, avocados are almost always eaten raw. They actually turn bitter when they are cooked. Who knew?
Enjoy!
]]>Avocados are a fruit, (yes a fruit) that contains (unsaturated) fat. That’s what gives them that wonderfully rich, buttery taste. There are a lot of varieties of avocado but the two that are most readily available here in Boston are the Hass and the Fuerte.
The Fuerte avocado has a smooth thin green skin while the Hass is darker, almost black, with a pebbly textured skin. Many people prefer to use the darker (Hass) ones because they have a richer more pronounced flavor. (Unfortunately, they also have a few more calories than the Fuerte avocado.)
When using avocados, planning ahead is essential. For example, if you try to make guacamole with a hard, under-ripe avocado, neither the texture nor the taste will be very pleasant.
Buy avocados that yield to gentle pressure but are not soft or mushy. Unfortunately, this kind of avocado is difficult to find in many grocery stores since avocados, like bananas, continue to ripen even when they have been taken off the tree. Your supermarket will often buy fresh-picked avocados, so you usually don’t have any choice but to buy a really hard avocado.
Fortunately, you can hasten the ripening process by placing the hard avocados in a brown paper bag for 2-4 days. As with bananas, you can speed up the ripening process by sticking an apple (preferably a green Granny Smith apple) in the bag as well. (It’s the ethylene from the apple that does the trick!)
Begin by cutting two avocados lengthwise rather than making the cut around the width.
(It will be virtually impossible to remove the pit if you slice it in half around the fat part.)
Separate the two pieces. Leave the avocado on the cutting board and (CAREFULLY!) give the pit a thwack with a big sharp knife.
Twist the knife and the pit should pop out.
If you now put the back of the knife against your palm, you should be able to pinch the pit off of the knife with your thumb and fore finger, with no danger of getting cut. (I’m right handed so I would continue to hold the knife in my right hand and put the back of the knife in my left palm to remove the pit from the knife.)
With a spoon…
…scoop out the avocado.
It’s OK to put the skin down the garbage disposer, but I just throw the pit (actually called the stone) in the trash. The stone is about as hard as a golf ball!
It’s important to note that, once exposed to air, avocado discolors very quickly. Adding lime or lemon juice helps to prevent discoloration. It is widely believed that an avocado pit left in guacamole will help to maintain the lush green color. Wrong. Stick with the lemon or lime juice.
Avocados are almost always eaten raw. If your recipe calls for adding the avocado to something hot, do it at the very last minute, just before serving. They actually turn bitter when they are cooked…Who knew?
]]>Real whipped cream has a decadent taste and texture. Whipped cream imposters are convenient, but there is nothing like the real thing!
At the grocery store, there are many different types of milk and cream that are available.
When making your own whipped cream buy whipping cream or heavy cream. The butter fat content of whipping cream allows it it whip and is what gives it that great taste and texture. (My post How to: Milks and Creams will give you a better understanding of many different dairy products.)
It is possible to buy real whipped cream in a can, but even then, you get an airier product that liquefies faster than homemade. So, it’s definitely worth knowing how to whip up the real thing. So let’s get started!
The Ingredients:
Start beating and once the cream begins to thicken (soft peaks). Add 1 Tablespoon of sugar…
…and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
Continue beating…
until the cream reaches desired consistency (do not over beat!).
You can buy a pie crust all ready to use in the frozen food section of the grocery store.
These come in a disposable tin pie dish. You definitely need to set this type of crust on a baking sheet with sides when you put it in the oven.
Pillsbury makes a great pie crust. You can buy this one in the dairy section of the grocery store.
The box contains two rolls of pasty, in case you want to make a “two-crust” pie like an apple pie. One roll would be for the bottom and the other would be for the top.
A one-crust pie, like for a quiche , pumpkin pie (shown below) or a pecan pie, has only a bottom crust.
Freeze the leftover roll. Be sure to use it within about 2 months: after that, it really starts to dry out in the freezer.
When working with this pastry, the trick is to make sure it is almost at room temperature when you unroll it.
If it is too cold, you might tear it. If it is too warm you may stretch it. Unroll it right over your pie dish.
Gently press it into the shape of the pie dish.
If the dough is hanging over the side of the dish, turn the edges under.
You could then press the edges down with the tines of a fork all the way around the edge of the dish.
Or you could crimp the edges with your forefinger of one hand pushed between the forefinger and thumb of your other hand.
You many actually find it easier to use your knuckle instead of your forefinger.
You end up with a lovely decorative edge all the way around the pie.
If your recipe calls for a pre-baked “shell”, this is when you would prick the sides and bottom of the dough with a fork and put it in the oven and bake it according to the directions on the package. Ice cream pies and pudding pies (like chocolate cream pie) usually need a pre-baked crust.
Recipes will often say to put tin foil around the edges of your pie so that the crust does not burn. You could just tear off some strips of tin foil but making them stay in place is often a bit tricky.
Rose Levy Beranbaum, who wrote the The Pie and Pastry Bible, suggests making a foil ring. (By the way this is probably one of the best and most comprehensive books on making pies. There are very few photos and the book is as big as a door stop, but it is excellent!)
Making a foil ring:
Tear off a piece of heavy-duty foil a few inches larger then the diameter to the pie. Cut a circle bigger than your pie dish. (As a guide, use a really large pot lid or a pizza pan). To mark a cutout in the center, use a bowl or a smaller pot lid.
Leave at least a 3-inch border. The hole in the center of the circle will expose the pie’s surface but not the edge of the pie. Use a pair of scissors, to cut out the circle. Shape it so that it will curve over the rim of the pie crust. (Don’t press it down on the pie crust. I should just be sitting on to of the crust.
Cover the edges of the crust after the first 15 minutes of baking. They will continue to brown, though more slowly beneath the foil.
There are some bakers that put the foil on the pie before sticking it in the oven. There are advantages to doing it this way in that you are not trying to fit this tinfoil ring on a very hot pie. Your best bet is to fit the ring on the pie before you put the pie in the oven.
After 15 minutes you can then just slip the tinfoil in place and you should end up with a perfect pie!
You can also buy pre-made cracker crusts…
…or make your own Graham Cracker Pie Crust!
Cheers!
]]>If you are just learning to cook, making a nice hearty pot of soup is a great way to develop confidence in the kitchen and end up with a fantastic dinner as well! Soups are very forgiving. If you don’t have the exact ingredient on hand, you can often make a substitution or two, and it doesn’t matter if your chopping is uneven.
The fresh ingredients you will need for this recipe are onion, baby spinach, garlic, carrot, celery, fresh rosemary, thyme and basil.
I would not advise using dried herbs with this recipe. FRESH thyme, rosemary, and basil make a big difference in the taste of this soup.
From your food cupboard (or the grocery store) you will need three kinds of beans, vegetable or chicken broth, olive oil, and canned diced tomatoes. Either plain or seasoned diced tomatoes will be fine.
(Broth is the strained liquid left from cooking vegetables, meat, or fish in water. It is often used as a synonym for bullion. Stock is basically the same thing but cooked more slowly and has a more intense flavor than broth. Bullion cubes or granules are compressed stock that needs to be dissolved before using.)
As always, get all your ingredients prepared and measured before you turn on the stove!
Preparing the Ingredients:
Carrots – Dice (or chop into small pieces) two carrots, which will yield about 1 cup. It is easier to dice a carrot if you cut the carrot so that it has a flat surface. The picture below shows the stages (left to right) I use to turn a whole carrot into a diced carrot.
Celery – Dice two stalks of celery. As with the carrot, first cutting the celery into strips will make dicing the celery easier.
Onion – 1 large onion will yield approximately 1 and 1/2 to 2 cups of diced onions. For a quick review on how to dice and onion, click here. To make dicing easier, be sure to leave the root end intact.
Garlic – To make two teaspoons of crushed garlic, you will need approximately 2-3 garlic cloves.
The Herbs
Rosemary, thyme and basil leaves need to be removed form their stems and finely chopped. (The pictures below show, from left to right, the stages of preparing the herbs from the way you get them in the store to the way you use them in the recipe.)
Here’s the rosemary:
Now, the thyme.
From left to right below, you can see the fresh thyme, the stems with the leaves removed, the whole leaves and the chopped leaves. (Throw the stems away!)
Finally, the basil. Jon, from the comment section, points out a quick tip for cutting the basil into ribbons. After you have washed the leaves put a pile one on top of another and then roll them up from tip to toe until you have a fat cigar of basil. It’s then easy to slice across the roll getting you nice slice. This is called a “chiffonade”. Again, just throw the stems away.
After you have rinsed and drained all the beans in a colander, all the ingredients will be prepared.
Cooking the Soup
Using a large pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat until it shimmers (about 1 minute.)
Add the onions, celery, carrots, and garlic and cook these vegetables for about 3-to-4 minutes.
Add the can of diced tomatoes. (The tomatoes I used were in a puree but just a can of plain diced tomatoes works fine as well.)
Add the beans…
…and the broth…
…and the herbs.
Give everything a stir…
…and cover the pot.
Bring everything to a boil, and then turn the heat down to simmer. Cook the soup on “simmer” (a very low temperature) for about 10 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.
Add the baby spinach to the top of the soup. (Even “Pre-washed” spinach should get washed before using. You can wash the baby spinach leaves the same way you wash lettuce.)
It will take about one minute for the baby spinach to wilt (go all limp).
This Tuscan Bean Soup is ready to serve!
The flavors in this soup really develop in time. You can make this the day before serving it and it will taste even better by the next day! If you are going to be making the soup in advance, add the baby spinach just before you serve it so that it retains that nice bright green color.
Enjoy!
]]>The ingredient list, may look kind of long at first glance, but chances are you just might have most of the ingredients for the dressing already in your cupboard! (Olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, sugar, salt, garlic, cumin, and black pepper)
That just leaves buying the canned beans and corn, bell peppers, and red onion.
Start by rinsing and draining all the beans and the canned corn in a colander.
Then chop the red and green bell peppers, and mince the red onion. (My Vegetable and Dip video will show you how to cut and clean the peppers. Once they are cut into strips, it is just a matter of then lining them up and chopping them up.
Mix together the beans, corn, chopped peppers, and minced onions in a large bowl.
Now for the dressing:
In a medium bowl, whisk together:
Notice how I used one measuring cup to measure both the oil and vinegar together. Saves on clean-up!
Be sure to use fresh lemon juice.
You will only need about 1 teaspoon of fresh crushed garlic.
The photo below shows all the dressing ingredients whisked together. Feel free to add a few drops of hot sauce if you like.
Now pour the dressing over the bean mixture.
Mix everything together.
Cilantro is another optional ingredient, often found in Tex-Mex dishes. If you like cilantro, add 1/4 cup – minced to the salad. (You can wash and chop it as you would parsley.) Cilantro has a very distinctive flavor and aroma which people either love or hate! 1/4 cup of chopped cilantro is just enough. A great substitution for cilantro is actually a combination of parsley and mint.
You may be thinking there is way too much dressing for this salad.
However, the bean salad needs to marinate in the dressing for a couple of hours (in the refrigerator) for all the flavors to meld together. Be sure to cover this salad with plastic wrap and let it chill completely before serving. If there are any leftovers, drain off the excess dressing and store the bean salad in the refrigerator. It will keep for about two days!
Enjoy!
]]>In restaurants, you are often offered butter, sour cream, and bacon to go with your baked potato, and, of course, you can make them this way at home as a wonderful occasional splurge. But in my household, non-fat plain yogurt is more the norm. You get a similar “mouth sensation” without quite so many calories.
I bake the potato in the microwave, and carefully remove the hot potato from the oven. With a sharp knife, make a shallow slice down the length of the potato and then I give it a bash.
This breaks up the fibers and makes it all easier to spoon out or eat with your fork. (Note: Be sure you put a clean cloth or paper towel between your fist and the hot potato or you will get burnt).
Now give it a squeeze and the potato should be nice and fluffy.
From there, I add a small sprinkle of salt and several twists from the pepper grinder.
Sometimes I then add about 1/3 cup of salsa. If you haven’t tried salsa on your baked potato, you don’t know what you are missing. There are so many really great flavors of salsa; you really can’t go wrong with any of them! It’s not necessary to heat the salsa. The potato is so hot the salsa will actually cool it down to the perfect temperature!
I then top it with about 1/3 cup of plain yogurt. If I have green onions in the house, chop them up and add them too. It looks great, and the flavor is fantastic!
When cutting green onions, remember the white part is much stronger than the green part!
What’s your favorite baked potato topping?
]]>This recipe is from my friend Cristen Jones, a registered dietitian from the Boston area. I’ve adapted the recipe just a bit for the startcooking crowd.
You will need the following ingredients:
The beef, onion and broccoli are the only fresh ingredients you need for this recipe. Buy the rest of the ingredients in advance and just stick them in your food cupboard. Then when you are stuck thinking about what to make for dinner, you can have that “Ah Ha” moment and just pick up some ground beef, broccoli, and an onion!
Get all your ingredients prepared and measured in advance.
1. Rinse and drain the beans
3. Wash and cut the broccoli into bite size pieces also known as florets
4. Measure out the spices
5. Reconstitute the bullion cubes-you will need 2 cups of broth
With the stove set to medium, add the beef and the onions to the pan. (If you froze your ground beef when you got home from the grocery store, you can defrost the beef really quickly in the microwave.)
Brown the meat until the beef is no longer pink-about 6-8 minutes.
Be sure to drain off any excess fat. I used VERY lean beef for this recipe so there really was very little fat to drain off.
Add the rest of the ingredients EXCEPT the broccoli.
Mix everything together.
Cover the pot and turn the heat up to medium high. Bring it to a boil and then turn the heat down to simmer. And cover the pot.
Simmer everything for about 10-12 minutes.
Lay the broccoli on top and re-cover the pot.
In about 3-5 minutes your broccoli will be nice and tender. Be sure not to over cook the broccoli as it will turn a nasty shade of green if you do!
Give it a taste. You may want to add more salt and some freshly ground pepper. You could also add some freshly grated Parmesan cheese if you like.
As this dish sits, almost all of the liquid gets absorbed.
If you are making recipe the day before you plan on eating it, be sure to steam the broccoli just before you serve it.
Enjoy!
]]>There are many varieties of squash available at the grocery store and farm stands. Spaghetti squash, also know as calabash squash or vegetable spaghetti, is really quite unique because when cooked looks like thin translucent strands of thin spaghetti. It has a mild, delicate flavor somewhat like that of yellow summer squash and watery texture.
Spaghetti squash has a rounded shape and can vary in weight and size. The ones I bought weighed almost four pounds and were about 9 inches long.
When you buy spaghetti squash, it should have a nice lemon yellow color. If it is green it means that it is under ripe.
Begin by washing the squash with a vegetable brush under running water.
Dry it well so that it does not slip when you are cutting into the squash.
To cut spaghetti squash you need a big, heavy kitchen knife. Cut the squash in half, lengthwise.
Cutting the squash is the most difficult part of preparing the squash! It is like making that first cut into a melon, which can be tricky if you are not using a knife that can handle the task.
Once open, you can see there are seeds and stringy bits that need to get removed. (Just like with butternut squash or pumpkins.)
Using a spoon, scrape away the seeds and stringy bits….
…until the inside is clean.
I’m going to show you how to roast spaghetti squash in the oven and also how to cook it in the microwave. Normally these two cooking methods provide very different results. Roasting vegetables often makes them crispy and brings out their natural sweetness. Surprisingly enough, there is virtually no difference in the taste or texture when spaghetti squash is cooked in the oven vs. the microwave!
Preheat the oven to 400º F ( = 200º C = gas mark 6-moderately hot.)
Drizzle a small amount of olive oil on cut side of the squash and rub it around with your fingers.
Sprinkle on some salt and pepper.
Place the squash, cut side down in an oven-proof dish.
Depending on the size of your squash, it will take approximately 35-45 minutes to get tender.
Place the squash in a microwave-safe dish…
…cut side down.
Cover the dish with plastic wrap…
…being sure to leave a steam vent.
Cook the squash on high for approximately 7-10 minutes – depending on the size of your squash and how powerful your microwave is. If you do not have an automatic turntable in your microwave, give the dish a turn every 3 minutes to ensure even cooking.
Remove the plastic wrap with a pair of tongs and be very careful of the built up steam.
Note: I do not recommend cooking the squash WHOLE in the microwave. Some recipes have you pierce the whole squash about 20 or 30 times with a knife (so the squash does not explode in the microwave). Then stick it in the microwave whole. It is very difficult to cut and remove the seeds and stringy bits from a steaming hot squash.
Once you have removed the squash from the oven or microwave, check to see if it is cooked by sticking a knife into it. The knife should slide in easily.
If you have over cooked the squash it will taste fine but the texture will be creamy and you will not be able to make the spaghetti like strands.
Flip the squash over with a spatula so that the cut side is facing up. (Be careful as it will be very hot!)
Using a dinner fork, scrape the flesh of the squash….
…moving gently around the shell….
…fluffing up the strands of squash.
Turning the squash into spaghetti strands takes about 10 seconds!
You can then serve the squash as is or remove it to a serving plate. It will be very hot so hold the squash in a dish cloth so you don’t burn your hand.
Decision time! What do I now do with this squash?
You can eat it as is or dress it up with your favorite spaghetti sauce.
I like to add some freshly grated Parmesan cheese, a drizzle of basil infused olive oil, and some salt and pepper!
Enjoy!
P.S. Just for the heck of it, I tried freezing the leftover spaghetti squash. WRONG! It turned into spaghetti squash mush. It tasted fine but the spaghetti texture did not hold up at all!
]]>A huge welcome to Guy Kawasaki who has shared with me his world famous recipe for teriyaki sauce, which I have turned into a video.
This blogpost contains not only the script-recipe of his video but also a description of how to use his sauce to make Teriyaki Grilled Chicken.
Cheers!
Kathy
***
Script of Guy’s video:
Welcome to startcooking.com…I’m Guy Kawasaki here to make my famous teriyaki sauce!
All it takes is six ingredients – pureed in a blender:
Start with half a hand of ginger. You can peel it if you want to, but you don’t have to. Just be sure to give it a rough chop.
Cut two jalapenos in half remove the seeds and chop them up.
Trim the root ends off half a bunch of green onions and chop them up as well.
Peel an orange. But just half is needed for this recipe.
Measure out 1 cup of soy sauce and 1 cup of sugar
Now add everything to the blender. Cover it and let her RIP. Keep blending on high speed until everything is liquefied.
This is a great barbeque marinade for about 2 and 1/2 pounds of beef or chicken.
Oh and it’s got be charcoal. Gas is for wimps!
Enjoy!
***
Thanks Guy, this is a fantastic recipe! Now for the Grilled Chicken!
Guy told me that from this point on, he “boils the chicken in the sauce on top of the stove, for 15 minutes – then finishes cooking it on a charcoal BBQ just to get the BBQ look”.
As many of you know, I live in a condo in the middle of Boston and have never fired up an outdoor barbeque in my life. Consequently, I’m going to show you how to do this indoors! (At the bottom of this post I have listed several links to some really great barbeque sites and recipes!)
Everyone should first take a look at my video on Grilled Chicken Indoors.
I’m going to be following that cooking procedure, but instead of a dry spice rub on the chicken, I’m using Guy Kawasaki’s Famous Teriyaki Sauce to marinate the chicken first.
For the “indoor” version of this Teriyaki Grilled Chicken, I’m using boneless, skinless chicken breasts.
You can marinate your chicken for up to 24 hours in this marinade. Be sure to use a glass or plastic dish or a plastic bag, and not a metal dish for marinating.
Remove the chicken from the marinade…
…and place on a plate. Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel.
Put the remaining marinade in a medium size pan.
Bring the marinade to a boil.
Oops! This pan is way too small! As the marinade comes to a boil it will spill right out of this pan. I’m pouring this into a deeper sauce pan!
That’s much better. The marinade needs to get boiled for 15 minutes to kill off any of the raw chicken bacteria. If it gets too thick, add 2-3 Tablespoons of water and continue cooking.
Strain the marinade through a fine sieve. For those that want a bit more teriyaki sauce on their chicken, this is going to be delicious drizzled on top of the chicken.
Cooking the Chicken:
Non-stick pans are great in that it is not necessary to add any oil to the pan when cooking the chicken.
Be sure to follow my instructions in the Grilled Chicken video on preheating the pan. When grilling or frying you do not want to over-crowd the pan. You may have to cook the chicken in two batches.
The sugar in the marinade is making this chicken develop really lovely grill marks on both sides.
Depending on how thick your chicken breasts are you will need to cook them about 3-5 minutes on each side.
Enjoy!
Here are the links on Barbecue-ing that I promised you:
Emily Chapelle has done a great post here at startcooking.com called A Beginners Guide to Barbeque!
Jennifer Iserloh over at Skinny Chef has a great selection of Skinny Marinades!
Steven Raichlen, is a barbecue guru, with a show, cookbooks, etc. He has a site called Barbecue Bible: http://www.barbecuebible.com/featured/
Ted Reader is a Canadian barbecue guru (also with a show, cookbooks etc). He’s got a nice site with lots of recipe videos at:
www.tedreader.com
Kalyn’s Kitchen has a big recipe section on Grilling:
http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com/2005/04/grilling.html
Here’s a single guy’s blog on “all things barbecue, food and drink”
http://www.barbecuebachelor.com/
Here’s a women-focused site called Girls at the Grill:
http://www.girlsatthegrill.com/thegirls/introduction.asp
V-slicers are used to cut firm fruits and vegetables. The shape of the cut depends on the blade used. You can mince, chop, slice and julienne, which means to cut into strips.
My V-slicer is made of heavy duty plastic. You can buy the stainless steel version for about $150. The more expensive models come with more cutting blades and have legs to stand on. Unless you do a TON of cutting or are a professional chef, my advice is to go with the less expensive version.
The blades are REALLY sharp. Always use the holder when cutting. The holder has spikes on it that hold the fruit or vegetable while cutting.
Jam the fruit or vegetable you are using onto the spike. (I’m using an onion.)
The arrows on the holder indicate which direction you should be slicing. Press down firmly and start slicing.
Here I have made incredibly thin slices of onion.
By adjusting the plate under the blade I can make thicker slices.
My V-slicer came with three blades.
If I wanted to make French fries I would use the center blade shown above.
Chopping or slicing, particularly onions literally takes only seconds with a V-slicer — see the picture below.
You can see a V-slicer “in action” on my French Onion Soup video.
Cheers!
]]>Pour on your favorite vinaigrette dressing, and the meal is complete!
For two servings you will need:
Step # 1 – Cook the eggs
Check out my 30-second Tips and Techniques Video on How to Boil an Egg. You can do this step well in advance, as hard cooked, unpeeled eggs will keep for about a week in the refrigerator.
Step # 2 – Cook the potatoes
Carefully drop some small potatoes (see below) into boiling water, adding some salt. Return the water to a boil and set the timer for about 12 (to 15-18) minutes. Before you remove them from the pan, stick a fork in them to make sure they are tender.
Cut the potatoes into bite-size pieces.
Step # 3 Blanch the green beans
“Blanching” means that you drop the green beans into a pot of boiling, salted water and let them cook for about 2 minutes. Remove them with a pair of tongs and immediately plunge them into a bowl of water with ice.
The ice water will stop the cooking process and keep them a nice bright green.
Step #4: Assembe the salad
(Be sure to wash the lettuce!) Spread the lettuce out on a plate.
Add the rest of the ingredients in clumps. It has a lot more “eye appeal” that way!
I splurged and bought imported tuna from a jar. It was expensive ($7) but worth every bite.
Sprinkle the capers over the salad. In the photo above, those are capers in the white dish shown with the tuna fish. They have a unique, almost peppery-salty taste that works really well in combination with all the other flavors of this salad. Capers are packed in brine and should be rinsed before you add them to the salad.
Once everything is added, serve this wonderful salad with your favorite vinaigrette dressing.
Oops! I almost forgot the black olives!
Enjoy!
]]>
Today’s tomato round-up not only includes How to Peel and Seed a Tomato, but also:
When you pick up a good tomato, it should feel heavy for its size and have a distinct tomato-y smell. It should have a little “give” when you feel it, but not be mushy, and the skin should not be bruised or have blemishes or cracks.
The best place to get tomatoes is in your own backyard vegetable garden or from a local farmer’s market. Tomatoes in the grocery store are often picked before they’re ready, artificially ripened, and not as flavorful as the locally grown fresh varieties. Canned tomatoes can often be better than the tomatoes in the grocery store.
Do not refrigerate tomatoes, because their texture will change; they’ll become mealy. Instead, store them on your counter top in a cool, dry spot, stem side down. Don’t stack them on top of each other, because they’ll tend to make each other mushy. Store them in a single layer.
There are roughly three types of tomatoes generally found at the grocery store.
1. Slicing tomatoes:
One popular kind is the beefsteak tomato.
It is grown for fresh use, and it yields large slices perfect for sandwiches! Look for the sign or the label on the tomato itself.
2. Paste/Canning tomatoes:
These are often smaller and more oblong-shaped than slicing tomatoes. They tend to be meatier and have fewer seeds – perfect for making sauces with creamy texture and lots of flavor, or canning for the long winter! One popular variety is the Roma tomato. These are also known as “plum tomatoes.”
3. Tiny ones:
Cherry tomatoes and grape tomatoes are the most popular. These are great for adding tomato flavor to dishes without any of the moisture associated with the cut fruit — perfect for pasta salads or green salads!
In the summertime, especially at Farmer’s Markets, there are of course, many more varieties of tomatoes available. Here’s a great website with a description and photos of dozens of tomatoes.
Some of you might be thinking – “why do I ever need to peel and seed a tomato?”
It can be a matter of preference but, generally speaking, for recipes with quick cooking times it is best to peel the tomatoes. Recipes that call for a long simmering time usually do not have you peel the tomatoes. In my Guacamole recipe I do not peel the tomato but I do seed it as all those extra seeds (and juice) really throw off the texture and can make it watery.
Start by cutting an X in the bottom of the tomato with a very sharp knife. You want to just pierce the skin.
If you are peeling just one or two (or three!) tomatoes put them in a heat-proof (Pyrex) bowl big enough so that when you add the water they will be totally covered.
Pour BOILING water over the tomato(es.)
Within about 10-15 seconds, the skin will have burst. (There are some who say to leave the tomato in the water for 3-to-4 minutes. WRONG! You do not want the tomato to cook and get mushy.)
Remove the tomato from the water with a pair of tongs.
You can also do this in a pot of boiling water, using tongs to add and remove the tomato from the pot.
Prepare an ice-bath, which is just a bowl of water with ice cubes in it.
Using tongs, drop the tomato into the ice bath.
This cools off the tomato and stops the cooking process. Remove the tomato from the ice bath and the skin now just slips off…
…and the tomato is all peeled.
To remove the seeds, cut the tomato in half with the blade of the knife parallel to the stem.
You can gently squeeze the tomato to remove the seeds, or just ease them out with your finger.
Once tomatoes are peeled and seeded they can get added to salads, dips, sauces, cold soups, etc.
The longest part of the entire process of peeling and seeding a tomato is boiling the water!
If your garden is bursting with fresh tomatoes you can actually freeze raw tomatoes.
The University of Nebraska’s Alice Henneman (MS, RD, UNL Extension in Lancaster County) has described how you would go about freezing raw tomatoes:
“Tomatoes may be frozen whole, sliced, chopped, or puréed. Additionally, you can freeze them raw or cooked, as juice or sauce, or prepared in the recipe of your choice. Thawed raw tomatoes may be used in any cooked-tomato recipe. Do not try to substitute them for fresh tomatoes, however, since freezing causes their texture to become mushy. Tomatoes should be seasoned just before serving rather than before freezing; freezing may either strengthen or weaken seasonings such as garlic, onion, and herbs.
Preparation:
Select firm, ripe tomatoes for freezing. Sort the tomatoes, discarding any that are spoiled. Wash them in clean water. Dry them by blotting with a clean cloth or paper towels.
Freezing whole tomatoes with peels:
Prepare tomatoes as described above. Cut away the stem. Place the uncut tomatoes on cookie sheets and freeze. Tomatoes do not need to be blanched before freezing. Once frozen, transfer the tomatoes from the cookie sheets into freezer bags or other containers. Seal tightly.
To use the frozen tomatoes, remove them from the freezer a few at a time or all at once. To peel, just run a frozen tomato under warm water in the kitchen sink. Its skin will slip off easily.
Freezing peeled tomatoes:
If you prefer to freeze peeled tomatoes, you can wash the tomatoes and then dip them in boiling water for about 1 minute or until the skins split. Peel and then freeze as noted above.
For more information on freezing tomatoes: Check this link to the National Center for Home Food Preservation, hosted by the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service: Freezing Tomatoes
Storage time
To extend the time frozen foods maintain good quality, package foods in material intended for freezing (that means proper freezer bags, not just any bag that’s left over from the produce section of the grocery store). Keep the temperature of the freezer at 0 degrees F or below. It is generally recommended frozen vegetables be eaten within about 8 months for best quality.”
(From this point onward, I need to extend an apology to my world wide audience. The following reviews are based on canned tomatoes available in the United States. I would love it if any of my overseas readers could add in the comment section what canned tomatoes they could recommend from their country of origin. Thanks!)
All canned tomatoes are not the same. One should not dismiss canned tomatoes if the first brand you try does not meet your standards. There are many to choose from. Please keep in mind that some brands may have superior canned whole tomatoes but their “roasted” canned tomatoes are rated inferior. This is one purchase where you really need to read the label carefully!
Chris Kimbal, over at America’s Test Kitchens, provides a useful guide. One of the many wonderful things they do at America’s Test Kitchen is test ingredients.
Here is a quick summary of their recommendations on what canned tomatoes, diced tomatoes, and tomato puree they recommend:
WHOLE CANNED TOMATOES- HIGHLY RECOMMENDED:
DICED TOMATOES- HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
TOMATO PUREE RECOMMENDED
If you would like a more in depth description of America’s Test Kitchen Review, head on over to America’s Test Kitchen and sign in! Thanks ATK!
(Note: America’s Test Kitchen is a fabulous site but not everything is available for free. To have complete access to ATK you will need to pay an annual fee.)
Fresh basil is fragrant and delicious! My Marinara Sauce uses canned tomatoes with a nice big bunch of fresh basil. You can wash fresh basil the same way you wash lettuce.
One of the easiest ways to use tomatoes is in Insalata Caprese, an Italian salad that combines tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cheese, fresh basil and olive oil. It’s that simple!
A basic Tomato Sauce Recipe can be made and frozen for future use.
Home made Tomato Soup is surprising easy to make and it is m-m-m-m good!
When summer is bursting with fresh tomatoes and high temperatures, cold Gazpacho is a filling and refreshing soup.
Pasta Salad is the perfect meal to enjoy all year round. Bow-tie pasta, salami, olives, green onions, feta or goat cheese, and of course tomatoes make this salad a summer favorite!
This one’s got a long name, but it’s so mouth-wateringly delicious-sounding that I have to tell you the whole thing: Tomato and Fresh Basil Crostini (toast) with Feta and Roasted Garlic Cheese Spread…mmm. A great appetizer similar to bruschetta.
Tomato pie in a flaky pastry crust is a classically southern way to enjoy your garden’s abundance of tomatoes. (Emily’s pie used peeled tomatoes and it looks delicious!)
Tomatoes stuffed with rice are an easy and elegant dish to serve your summer dinner party guests. Try adding vegetables, sausage pieces, or ground beef to your rice mixture.
Fried green tomatoes are another classically southern dish. Green tomatoes have a tangier taste than red ones, and when breaded and fried, they make a crispy and fresh appetizer, addition to sandwiches, or side for crab cakes.
Don’t forget about the classic BLT sandwich!
Taboule (shown below) will keep you cool because there’s no cooking involved! Plus, with fresh flavors like tomato, lemon, and mint, you can’t go wrong.
Cheers!
Kathy
]]>This coleslaw is FANTASTIC! I was really skeptical when my friend Mary Sutherland sent me this recipe, since I’ve never in my life bought instant Ramen noodles. But Mary, who is an excellent cook, has been making it for years and said her daughters (who are in college) love it! With a leap of faith, I purchased the ingredients and decided to give it a go.
(First, a note of caution: Instant Ramen noodles are most definitely not on the healthy end of the food chain. On occasion this is a tasty splurge, but I would caution anyone against a regular diet of Ramen noodles.)
Coleslaw is a salad made with either red or white shredded cabbage as its base. You can then add a variety of different vegetables like carrots, celery, onion, etc. A mayonnaise or vinaigrette dressing binds everything together. There are an infinite number of recipes available for every palate.
This is a very versatile recipe, as it can be eaten as a side dish, main dish, or just a snack.
There are five quick steps involved in making this recipe:
Be sure to buy the “Chicken-flavor” Ramen noodles. To make things really simple, I purchased a pre-shredded bag of coleslaw mix (which is available in many supermarkets.)
If you prefer, you can easily shred your own head of cabbage to make the coleslaw. (Buy the white – not the red – cabbage for this recipe!) You will need approximately 6-8 cups of cabbage or coleslaw mix.
For those of you (like me!) who have never purchased Ramen noodles, it is a small “brick” of dried noodles that comes with a flavor packet. These noodles are not going to get cooked, but just broken up into the coleslaw. They add an amazing crunch to this dish.
Make the dressing first. You will need:
You could use a bowl and a whisk to mix everything together, but it is easier to just put everything in jar….
…and give it a good shake. Set it aside until the coleslaw gets made.
You can buy already toasted sesame seeds or toast them yourself.
To toast sesame seeds, put them in a dry fry pan. Set the temperature to medium high and don’t walk away from the stove. Keep the seeds moving in the pan by stirring them with a spoon or by shaking the pan. It takes just a minute or two for the seeds to go from untoasted…
…to toasted…
…to burnt in the blink of an eye! Once you start to smell the seeds toasting, they will only need a few more seconds to get nicely browned.
Toast the almonds the same way.
All toasted!
Wash four green onions and remove the green part. Slice the white part into small circles.
Put the cabbage (or coleslaw) in a large bowl. Add the almonds, green onions and sesame seeds.
With your hands, break up the (uncooked) Ramen noodles on top of the coleslaw. Gently mix everything together.
Just before serving add the dressing…
…and gently toss the salad.
Serve the salad immediately. If there are any leftovers, the Ramen noodles will eventually “soften” and the coleslaw will lose some of that crunchy texture.
This will easily make four large servings or 6 medium size servings.
Enjoy!
P.S.
For those of you interested in a few more elegant ways to cook with Ramen noodles,
Nika at Nikas Culinaria, made a beautiful Mexi-Cali Ramen served in mini-pumpkin bowls.
Elise at Simply Recipes made a more exotic coleslaw called Napa Cabbage Picnic Salad.
]]>Ranier cherries are yellow/pink-ish in color and are sweet and juicy, but don’t have quite the intense flavor of the Bing Cherries
Don’t wash cherries until you are ready to eat them. They should be stored in the refrigerator in a plastic bag. Cherries will keep for about a week in the refrigerator, but it’s better to buy small amounts and eat them within a day or two of purchase.
The best way to serve cherries is simple: rinse them in cool water, put them on a serving dish and dig in!
If you are adding them to a fruit salad, or putting them on top of cereal or ice cream you are going to want to remove the pit. Using a small paring knife cut around the cherry and split it in half. Pick out the pit with your fingers.
There is another way. I am not someone who likes to buy gadgets that are for doing just one thing. Storage space in just about everyone’s kitchen is very valuable, so why waste it on something that can’t perform multiple tasks? However, my cherry pitter breaks that rule!
The pitter, the strange-looking gadget pictured above next to the knife, supposedly can remove the pit from olives as well, but I have never been able to make it work with olives.
But it can remove the pit of a cherry in seconds!
Wash and remove the stem off the cherry. Place the cherry on the curved bit under the spike.
Squeeze the pitter so that the spike goes through the cherry, forcing out the pit.
Just that easy, just that quick!
There are a few things you need to be careful of, however.
If your cherries are really plump and juicy the spike may go around the pit instead of popping it out. Make double sure the pit actually did pop out!
Really juicy cherries sometimes get a bit messy, with juice squirting back at you. Be careful your shirt doesn’t get covered with cherry stains.
When you are through pitting all your cherries, rinse off the pitter and dry it with a dish towel.
There is a little lever on the base of the cherry pitter which will hold it closed and therefore take up less room in your kitchen drawer.
At the cost of about $12, these cherry pitters are not inexpensive, but if you love cherries, I think it’s a great investment. Cheers!
]]>It’s easy to get in a salad rut, turning to the same kind of lettuce every time. Why not go beyond iceberg, romaine, or leaf lettuce and try some more interesting options? Spring is the perfect time to experiment with salad greens, and this post will help you get acquainted with all that leafy stuff at the grocery store.
When you purchase or harvest lettuce, you should wash or rinse it, then store it wrapped in a cloth or paper towel, then in a plastic bag, in the crisper drawer. Store lettuce away from apples, pears and bananas. These fruits release ethylene, a ripening agent which will speed the decay of the lettuce. Because of its high water content, lettuce cannot be frozen or canned for long-term storage. It should always be eaten fresh, within about 10 days of purchase or harvest.
Nutritional content varies among lettuces and greens, though most are filled with Vitamin A and potassium. With the exception of iceberg, most varieties are also a good source of Vitamin C, iron and calcium. Lettuce is also a good source of dietary fiber.
When it comes to making a salad, try creating your own mix by tossing together at least three varieties. Here’s a basic formula:
After your foundation of greens is mixed, you can add other goodies like carrots, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Or you can venture into the more exciting world of salad-toppers, including edamame, beets, hearts of palm, sunflower seeds, toasted pine nuts, artichoke hearts, and more.
But wait a second. How do you tell arugula from endive? Mizuna from mesclun? Here’s a guide to recognizing and using the various greens in the produce section.
Arugula (pictured above)
Also known as: Rocket
Leaves are: Dark green and tender
Taste is: Bitter and peppery, with a slight mustard taste
Try this arugula salad with tomatoes and avocado.
Butterhead (pictured above)
Includes: Bibb and Boston Lettuce
Leaves are: Loosely formed heads of pale “wrinkled” leaves, smooth buttery texture
Taste is: Sweet and mild
Great on summer sandwiches!
Cabbage (pictured above)
Can be: green or red. Red is sometimes known as “purple cabbage”
Leaves are: crisp and crunchy
Taste is: bitter and sharp
Chard (pictured above)
Also known as: Swiss Chard
Leaves are: large, deep green, “wrinkled” leaves are always eaten cooked
Taste is: similar to beets, while the stalks are somewhat like celery
Try it in this Bean and Swiss Chard soup recipe
Dandelion Greens (pictured above)
Leaves are: tender, flat, with jagged edges
Taste is: bitter
Young dandelion leaves may be used in salads, but the larger ones taste best when they’re cooked
Endive (pictured above)
Leaves are: tender and smooth
Taste is: mild and bitter. The lighter the endive, the milder the flavor is.
Their spoon-like shape makes them perfect for dips or try filling them with crab or chicken salad.
Leaves are: wide and frilly
Taste is: mild. This is a good one to add for “fluff” and texture
Frisée (pictured above)
Leaves are: long, wide, and curly. Usually green, but sometimes edged in red
Taste is: slightly peppery or nutty
Try it with blue cheese, walnut, and cranberry on a crostini.
Kale (pictured above)
Leaves are: broad and ruffled, ranging from deep green to a bluish purple
Taste is: very mild, with cabbage undertones
The site Veganyumyum has a delicious-sounding recipe for kale salad with orange-blackberry vinaigrette. Kale is also often served cooked, as in this recipe with cranberries and pine nuts.
Iceberg (pictured above)
Leaves are: tender, crisp, and pale-green
Taste is: mild and crunchy
Perfect for a make-ahead salad with peas
Leaf Lettuce (pictured above)
Leaves are: either red-tipped or dark green, ruffled and tender
Taste is: mild but interesting
Enjoy this lettuce on sandwiches or hamburgers
Mesclun (pictured above)
The term mesclun comes from the French word for a mix of tender young salad greens. You can buy this pre-mixed in bags, or make your own blend.
Leaves are: Varied, as a mesclun could include arugula, frisée, radicchio, dandelion greens, fresh herbs, and other salad greens
Taste is: Depends on the greens included, but is usually “bitter” or peppery
This is good to mix with a milder lettuce or spinach for a great tossed salad!
Try poached eggs with pancetta and tossed mesclun
Radicchio (pictured above)
Leaves are: crisp, deep red and white
Taste is: bitter and peppery
A honey-citrus dressing is the perfect foil for radicchio’s peppery bite
Romaine (pictured above)
Also known as: cos
Leaves are: long green leaves, with a crunchy center vein
Taste is: bitter and succulent
This lettuce is used in a Caesar salad, or great for a taco salad
Spinach (pictured above)
Leaves are: tender, dark green, and sometimes wrinkled, sometimes smooth
Taste is: slightly bitter and somewhat hearty
Tat Soi (pictured above)
Also known as: spoon cabbage or baby bok choy
Leaves are: spoon shaped
Taste is: peppery
Watercress (pictured above)
Leaves are: small and dark-green on long stems
Taste is: strong and peppery
This sounds amazing: avocado and watercress salad with a soy-apple dressing
I first tasted this at the Ivy restaurant in London. They call it Scandinavian Berries; I call it a plate-licking conversation stopper! To make this dessert you will need:
As well as a half-pint each of 3 small berries like
Over in England, there are all sorts of teeny-tiny berries available at the grocery store. However, here in Boston, blueberries are pretty much the smallest berry you can buy.
To make this dessert we need to:
The blackberries will probably be bigger than the other berries, so start by cutting the blackberries in half, making all the pieces of the berries approximately the same size. Then lay a piece of wax paper or parchment paper on a baking sheet with sides. Spread ALL the berries out in a single layer on the baking sheet.
Lay the baking sheet in the freezer. Once the berries are frozen, remove them from the tray and store them in a baggie in the freezer.
Use the absolute best white chocolate that you can afford. (Try to avoid using “white chocolate chips” as they are not really chocolate.) The block of white chocolate that I bought needs to get chopped up into tiny pieces. It will melt much faster when it’s chopped up.
Put the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl that fits on top of a pan that has an inch or two of water on the bottom. (This is the “double-boiler” system.)
We melted dark chocolate in the fudge recipe this way.
You have to make sure that the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. The whole point of a *double boiler* is to melt/cook things very gently by having the steam from the water (not the water itself) heat the upper bowl!
Add the heavy cream and the vanilla to the bowl of chocolate.
Give it an occasional stir until everything is warm, melted, and all blended together.
About 5 minutes before serving, put the berries in a single layer in a flat bowl.
Pour the hot chocolate mixture into a heat-proof jug. At the table, in front of your guests, pour the hot chocolate mixture over the frozen berries.
The chocolate warms up the berries and the berries cool down the chocolate. One bite and you will be hooked on this utterly fantastic dessert!
Enjoy!
]]>Cool summer soups are a great way to beat the heat and can be a nice alternative to eating a salad. They can also be a surprisingly hearty and satisfying meal. Many recipes require little or no cooking. Raw ingredients often just get pureed in a blender and that’s it!
The key to a substantial summer soup is to make sure it includes more than just vegetables and herbs. There are various ways to give it a rich taste and texture:
So are you ready to give cold soups a try? Here are some that will tantalize your palate and soothe your (too hot) soul!
Mangos are great with just about anything. (Chicken, fish, salsa, pancakes, smoothies, on ice cream, fruit salad, etc.) They are low in calories, can be eaten fresh or cooked and are really tasty.
They are in season from May to September. When you buy a mango, it should have a fragrant, fruity aroma and yield slightly to pressure from your thumb. It will ripen sitting on your counter, or you can speed the ripening process by sticking it in a paper bag. Once ripe, put it in the refrigerator. A mango should get eaten within a day or two of being cut.
To cut a mango, start with a serrated edge knife. (That’s the one with the jagged edge that you use to cut a loaf of bread.) Mangos are very slippery and you have to be very careful when peeling a mango that the knife does not slip.
Slice off the fattest part, sometimes called the “cheek”, of both sides of the mango. Notice in the photo below the position of the knife in relationship to the stem. (The stem is next to my left index finger.)
Now score the “cheek”. That means to make shallow cuts with a paring knife. Make each cut about ½ inch apart, and then turn the “cheek” and make perpendicular cuts as well.
Once scored, press the back side of the mango so that all the flesh is standing at attention. You can serve it this way or trim off the flesh from the skin.
Cut around the pit with a small paring knife.
Remove the remaining skin from the flesh.
Trim around the pit to remove the remaining flesh.
The pit is actually quite large as you can see from the photo below.
I was watching Alton Brown on FoodTV demonstrating how to peel and cut a mango. His method actually produced more edible flesh, and was safe and efficient. But you do need a few more pieces of equipment for the Alton Brown method.
In addition to a large kitchen knife, you will need a vegetable peeler and a corn-on-the-cob holder.
Start by peeling the mango with a vegetable peeler
Then slice off the top (stem end) and bottom of the mango.
Insert a corn holder into the mango. This is going to act as a holder while you slice the mango. Notice how the mango can stand by itself!
Holding the corn holder, slice off the cheeks.
And trim the flesh off the pit.
Then slice the mango according to your recipe.
Enjoy!
]]>Whether your Fourth of July celebration is a family affair, a neighborhood gathering or a party with friends, you’ll want to enjoy great food as well. This mix-and-match menu will help you get everything planned for a great party!
Pick one or two options from each section and you’re all set.
Appetizers
Main Courses
Side Dishes
Very Berry Summer Pie, photo courtesy of Kelly Wright, Sass & Veracity blog
Desserts
Drinks
]]>I am going to demonstrate how to do this using asparagus. The same method would work for green beans, yellow beans, broccoli, carrots, and many other vegetables as well.
Wash and trim the asparagus. (This link will also show you how to wash, trim and How to Cook Asparagus.)
I always blanch (and cook) asparagus in a frying pan. The spears fit better and they cook more evenly in a frying pan. Start by boiling a kettle of cold water and then pouring it into the frying pan.
Bring the water in the frying pan to a boil and add about one Tablespoon of salt to the water.
Using a pair of tongs, carefully add the asparagus to the pan.
Set the timer for 2 minutes. It may take a bit more or less time depending on the thickness of your asparagus. After 2 minutes, run one spear under cold water and then taste it to see if it is cooked to your liking. If you cook green vegetable too long they will turn a very “muddy’ green color (YUK!).
Have your “ice bath” (which is just a bowl of icy cold water) and a clean dish towel ready for when the timer goes off.
Using a pair of tongs, lift the asparagus out of the boiling water and put it directly into the ice bath.
This totally stops the cooking process, and the color stays that nice bright green. After a minute or two, lift the asparagus out of the icy water and onto a clean dish towel to drain.
If you are cooking more green vegetables, you can use the same boiling water that you cooked the asparagus in to cook the other vegetables.
Green beans will only take about 1 minute and 30 seconds to blanch.
For a change of pace try blanching some vegetables when you serve your next Vegetable and Dip Platter (video).
Enjoy!
]]>All beginner cooks are terrified of making a pie. If you have zero experience at pie making, a frozen or “no-bake” pie recipe (using a pre-made crust) is a good place to start. (The ten no-bake pies listed below are all perfect recipes for a beginner cook!)
Buying or Making The Crust
Many ice cream pies or no-bake pies call for a graham cracker crust. You can buy a graham cracker pie shell in the baking section of the grocery store or try making a graham cracker crust yourself. (These cracker crusts can also be made with many other sweet cracker/cookies like oreo cookies, ginger snaps, vanilla wafers, etc.)
Or you can buy a ready-made pie shell, usually found in the freezer section of the grocery store.
When making an un-cooked pie (like an ice cream pie), these pie shells will have to get baked and cooled before filling them.
For those of you ready to tackle the pie dough making challenge, our friend Heidi at the Ward Street Bistro has a wonderful pie crust recipe that does not require “rolling out” the dough.
This “Press in the Pan” pie dough recipe looks great for anyone intimated by a rolling pin!
Easy Pie Recipes:
Ice Cream Pie
You can concoct a very simple pie without a recipe. Buy a ready-made pie crust (or make a graham cracker one) and a tub of ice cream or frozen yogurt. Set the ice cream out to soften. Once you can scoop it easily, fill the pie crust, smooth the top and add any toppings you want (nuts, whipped cream, chocolate sauce). Then put it back into the freezer until serving time.
Pudding Pies
Similarly, you can make a custom pie with pudding and fruit. Just buy a box of pudding mix – chocolate, vanilla, or another flavor – follow the directions, and pour it into a ready-made pie crust. Top it with sliced bananas, strawberries, or whatever you like. Refrigerate the pie until you are ready to serve it.
Frozen Lemonade Pie
The folks over at Baked Perfection tried this recipe (from the Food Network show Down Home With the Neely’s) for a Fourth of July party and fell in love with it. Set in a graham cracker crust, its sweet, lemony filling calls for frozen lemonade concentrate, whipped cream and sweetened condensed milk. An easy alternative to a baked lemon meringue pie!
Nutter Butter Frozen Pie
Hello, peanut butter fans? It’s your dream pie calling. This one has a crust made of crushed Nutter Butter cookies (but feel free to substitute a pre-made one) and a frosty peanut butter and cream cheese filling.
Frozen Oreo Pie
The name says it all!
Frozen Blueberry Pie
This pie is not frozen in the sense that it sits in the freezer; it’s a baked blueberry pie that calls for frozen blueberries and a frozen pie crust. I’m including it because summer is the time for blueberries (even frozen) and this is a very easy version of your typical fruit pie that calls for crust made from scratch.
Chocolate Fudge Pie
One bite of this decadent pie and you’ll never look at silken tofu the same way again. It’s one of the keys to this pie’s creamy fudginess.
No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Banana Tofu Pie
Here’s another recipe that involves tofu. This pie uses either a homemade or store-bought graham cracker crust to hold an intense filling. It takes about 15 minutes to make, then goes in the fridge or freezer for a couple of hours.
No-Bake Mango Pie
Anything mango is great in the summer. This one contains mango puree which you can buy in a can or make your own.
No-Bake Key Lime Pie
A can of frozen limeade concentrate is what gives this simple pie its lime flavor.
Easy Coconut Banana Cream Pie takes just 20 minutes to make! This pie will need 4 hours in the refrigerator to set. It’s worth the wait!
My No-Bake Chocolate Cheese Cake Pie (shown above) is a rich chocolaty cheese cake pie that will quickly become a family favorite. It does involves whipping your own heavy cream. (For a quick review on whipping cream, check out my post on How to Make Whipped Cream)
]]>When you are just learning how to cook, one of the hardest things to manage is getting all the food prepared and served at the same time. Anything that can be done ahead of time, particularly if you are entertaining guests, is a huge time saver!
This salad can be served either immediately after making it, or covered and refrigerated for up to 24 hours before serving it. The trick is not to mix in the dressing (or salt) until just before you serve it. (Otherwise it will wilt.)
As is true with most salads, you can vary the ingredients to your taste.
This recipe includes: iceberg lettuce, celery, green onion, hard-cooked eggs, bacon, peas, and Swiss cheese.
(I based this recipe on one given to me by my friend Jean Williams of Salisbury, North Carolina. She does not include the hard-cooked eggs in her version.)
STEP ONE: Preparing the Salad Ingredients
1) Frozen Peas:
Remove a 10-ounce bag (or box) of frozen peas from the freezer. Let them defrost while you prepare the salad. There is no need to cook the peas.
2) Iceberg Lettuce:
Iceberg lettuce is crispy and fresh and great in salads (or shredded and added to Tacos). It is generally the least “sandy” lettuce to buy. To wash iceberg lettuce, remove the core with a paring knife.
Break it apart with your hands. (Some heads of iceberg are much firmer than others!)
I like to put the lettuce in my salad spinner then set the base of it in the sink.
Cover the lettuce with water and swish it around a bit. Lift out the colander portion of the spinner out of the water and drain the lettuce.
Put the lid on the salad spinner and let it whirl! The centrifugal force will pull all the water away from the lettuce leaves. The iceberg lettuce should end up bone dry.
If you do not have a salad spinner, wash the lettuce in a colander and shake out as much water as possible. Let it dry on paper towels or a clean dish cloth while you prepare the remaining ingredients.
Or just buy a bag of pre-washed, ready to use lettuce. The “Lettuce Trio” pictured below includes iceberg, romaine, and green leaf lettuce and would be perfect for this salad!
3) Celery:
Wash and trim the ends off from 3-to-4 stalks of celery. Cut each stalk in half and then each half into strips. Line up the strips and start chopping away.
4) Green Onions:
Wash and trim the ends off 3-to-4 green onions. (The word “scallion” is often used interchangeably with green onion.) Cut them in half and then line them up and start slicing. The white ends have a much stronger flavor than the green part.
5) Bacon:
6 strips of bacon will cook up in less than 6 minutes in the microwave. Once cooked, cut the bacon into very small bits with a large kitchen knife.
6) Hard-Cooked Eggs:
Start by checking out my video for a quick review on How to Boil an Egg. I was having a heck of a time peeling my eggs so I cracked the shell and put them in a bowl of ice water. Once the water seeped in under the shell, peeling them was so much easier! Now just chop up the two cooked eggs.
7) Swiss Cheese:
Shred 3 ounces of Swiss cheese. (Monterey Jack or cheddar would also taste great with this recipe!)
STEP TWO: Layering the Salad:
Now that all the ingredients are prepared, it’s time to start layering!
Tear the lettuce with your hands or cut it into bite size pieces. Put one half of the head of lettuce on the bottom of a salad bowl. Sprinkle on (in turn) one half of the peas, celery, green onion, eggs, bacon, and shredded cheese.
Repeat layering all the ingredients in that order: lettuce, peas, celery, green onion, eggs, bacon, and shredded cheese.
STEP THREE: The Dressing:
In a small bowl mix together 1/2 cup of mayonnaise and 1/2 cup of sour cream. Either “light” or regular full-fat mayonnaise and sour cream will work for this recipe. It’s up to you which one you would prefer.
Cover the entire top of the salad with the mayonnaise-sour cream dressing.
The salad is now ready to serve. Or you can cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for up to 24 hours.
Wait until just before serving the salad to toss the dressing into the salad with salad spoons or two large kitchen spoons.
Add a bit of salt and pepper to your taste, and…
…Enjoy!
P.S. Even “salad-haters” love this salad!
]]>This box mix requires NO cooking.
In addition to the box mix of taboule, you will need:
The box of taboule not only contains the wheat but also a separate spice packet.
Put the wheat and the contents of the spice packet in a large bowl.
Stir in 1 cup of boiling water.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Before chopping the tomato, remove the seeds by first slicing the tomato in half.
(The stem bit should be on the right or left of the knife when you are cutting it in half. If you cut it in half by slicing through the stem you will not be able to remove the seeds.)
Give each half a gentle squeeze or with your fingers poke out the seeds. (Throw away the seeds!)
Now chop the tomato. (Just set it aside for the moment.)
Stack about 7 or 8 mint leaves on top of each other.
Roll the stack into a log…
…and chop the mint into very fine ribbons.
Instead of or in addition to the mint, you could add extra parsley. (In the comments below, many people said they add up to one whole bunch of chopped parsley!)
Now squeeze the juice from ½ of a lemon. Be sure to strain away any seeds.
When the timer goes off, it’s time to remove the bowl of taboule from the refrigerator and add the chopped tomato, mint, lemon juice, AND 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Mix everything together.
Cover up the bowl again and put it back in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
When you are ready to serve the taboule give it a stir and then spoon it onto a bed of lettuce garnished (decorated) with slices of lemon and mint leaves.
Enjoy!
]]>Now that it’s officially summer, it’s time to get outside and grill.
What’s that?
You’re new to grilling?
You’re afraid to light a barbecue?
Well, have no fear. It’s not as complicated as it looks. If you’re thinking about buying a barbecue, we’ll break down the pros and cons of charcoal and gas grills. For those just finding their way around a grill, we’ll follow up with some of the first steps to throwing some food on the barbie. And for those who are already all fired up, we’ve got some recipes ready to go, as well as a slew of barbecue tips and tricks. And even if you’re a city slicker like Kathy, and outdoor grilling isn’t an option, try indoor grilling!
Despite what some fervent grillers say, one isn’t necessarily superior to the other. There are pros and cons to both grilling methods, so it’s really your call! Here’s a rundown of some of the pros and cons:
For more details about the differences between gas and charcoal grills, check out chow.com’s objective and clear breakdown.
Sure, everyone knows steaks and burgers can go on the grill, but did you know that it’s also great for sandwiches and pizza? Here’s a list of recipe ideas to get you started.
There isn’t a single time of day that scrambled eggs don’t taste good! Who knows, this simple meal may become one of YOUR signature dishes.
Here is a list of the equipment you will need to make scrambled eggs:
For 2 servings, or 1 ½ eggs per person the Ingredients are;
When you buy eggs in the grocery store, check that there are no broken eggs in the carton.
In the United States, by USDA requirement, eggs come already washed so you can use them straight away.
Begin by cracking each egg individually into the small cup. Check the egg to see that it looks okay and that there are no shells. Then add the egg to the mixing bowl.
Now add a sprinkle of salt and black pepper (to your taste), and 2 Tablespoons of milk to the eggs. (There is some debate – see comments below – about when to add the salt – before or after cooking.)
Beat this mixture with a fork, or a whisk, in a vigorous elliptical motion until the yolks and the whites are all a nice bright yellow and completely blended together.
(Graydon, in the comments below, likes to skip all these steps and just mix everything up in the pan you are cooking in!)
Put the beaten eggs to one side, and melt 2 teaspoons of butter over medium low heat in a non-stick pan. If you turn the burner up too high the eggs will cook faster, but you will end up with very watery, soggy tasting eggs. So be sure to keep the temperature at medium-low.
(Non-stick pans make cleaning up so much easier! However, Non-stick pans can easily be scratched with metal utensils. You’ll need to buy a silicon spatula or scraper. Caution: if you have an old fashioned rubber spatula and not silicone, it will eventually melt when you cook with it.)
When the butter has melted, add the eggs to the pan. As the eggs begin to cook, GENTLY move them around with the spatula so that they cook evenly.
GENTLY and slowly stir the eggs.
Continue cooking the eggs until they are thickened but still soft.
Some people like really soft scrambled eggs, other people like really dry scrambled eggs. Just keep gently stirring the eggs until they look like what you think the perfect consistency is.
Transfer the eggs to the plate and serve them immediately. (As Jon pointed out in the comments, the eggs continue to cook even when removed from the pan and will get rubbery if left in the pan.)
If you wish, you can add some extra ingredients while the eggs are cooking. For example, try tossing in some chopped ham, sprinkling in slowly as you stir the eggs. Or you might try adding some shredded cheese, or chopped green onion or chives. My favorite addition is chopped parsley.
To find out even more about eggs, be sure to check out my post “How to: Eggs“.
***
Five Second Rule lives!
YIKES! When I was taking the photographs for this blog post I dropped my camera into the egg mixture! I scooped it out and wiped it off. The automatic lens sticks a little but my camera still works! Who knew?
(Although some of the photos do look a bit hazy!)
Enjoy!
]]>What you need to know about lettuce is mostly how to wash it and to make sure that it’s edible and attractive.
If you are unsure what type of lettuce to buy, check out my post “Salad Greens From A to Z”.
The lettuce you buy from the supermarket may or not be packaged in some way, but it came from the ground and you can’t just start eating it, unless you’ve bought the pre-washed kind.
When grocery stores started selling pre-washed lettuce I thought it was brilliant, until I bought a bag. I discovered that if I didn’t use it within a day or two it was history (with a bit of a slimy edge). Granted, when I used it immediately, it was a huge time-saver. But, if you know how, it really only takes about 4 minutes to wash, dry and store lettuce.
Knowing how to wash and store lettuce (and other “salad greens”) is not that big of a mystery, particularly if you have a salad spinner. And I do recommend that you get one. They are relatively cheap and they make washing lettuce a snap.
Salad spinners cost about $25. If you eat a lot of salad it is well worth the investment.
However, let’s begin with the “but I don’t have a salad spinner” approach.
First, cut the head of lettuce away from its root with a knife. (You can also just do this with your hands – the root should break off easily.) Then, separate the leaves.
To wash iceberg lettuce first remove the core with a paring knife.
Then break it apart with your hands. (Some heads of iceberg are much firmer than others!)
Fill a large bowl with cool water and gently place the lettuce leaves in the bowl giving them a gentle swish as you drop them in the bowl.
After about 30 seconds of floating in the water the sand or dirt will sink to the bottom. Gently shake the water off each leaf and place them one at a time on paper towels or a clean dish towel. Blot the lettuce dry with some more paper towels.
OK, that’s the manual way. Now let’s use the salad spinner.
A salad spinner is a great little tool for both washing the lettuce and getting the excess water off. It comes in three parts – the bowl, the colander (the bowl with the holes in it) and the lid.
You begin the same way by cutting off the root and separating the leaves. But now, you place the leaves inside the colander, which is sitting inside the bowl.
Fill the spinner with water. All the sand on the lettuce leaves should sink to the bottom.
Lift the colander (with the lettuce in it) out of the bowl, pour away the water, and then replace the colander in the bowl. Finally, put the lid on.
Now you can spin the lettuce by turning the handle. The spinning action will force the water off the lettuce, and help it to dry.
Storing lettuce
If you’re not going to use the whole head of lettuce, then lay out the washed leaves on paper towels…
… and roll them up and put them in a plastic bag.
To save money, you can use the plastic bags from the produce section of the grocery store.
When lettuce is washed and properly stored, it stays fresh in the refrigerator for about 5 to 6 days. However, note that lettuce that you’ve washed yourself and stored properly will last longer then pre-washed lettuce.
]]>I love baked potatoes, and have already written about how to bake them in the oven. Unfortunately, I often don’t have the time to wait for up to an hour for my baked potato to cook in the oven, even though they definitely taste better that way.
So, like lot of people, I often zap potatoes in the microwave. In less then 10 minutes, they get cooked, covered with sour cream and bacon, and I’m ready to turn on the TV.
Here’s how to cook a potato in the microwave oven.
First, wash the potato under running water (no soap!). You can scrub it with a vegetable brush or just rub it with your hands. Then pat it dry with a paper towel.
Puncture about four holes in the potato, with the tip of a sharp knife or a fork. This is important, as it allows the steam to escape. Otherwise the potato may explode when you cook it. (Seriously! If you don’t puncture it, the potato will go SPLAT all over the inside of you microwave!)
If you are baking potatoes in the oven, you can rub a small amount of oil on them so that the skin gets nice and crispy. It is not necessary to rub oil on potatoes you are cooking in the microwave oven.
Place the potato on a microwave-safe dish. Check the small print on the back of the dish to be sure. Then place it in the microwave oven. (By the way, microwave ovens do not have to be preheated.)
Many microwaves have moisture sensors inside so that all you need to do is press the button that says ‘potato’ and just wait for the microwave to beep at you.
If your microwave doesn’t have a potato button, a general rule is that one 7-to-8 ounce Idaho potato takes about 7 minutes to cook. 2 will take about 11 minutes.
The microwave will often say REST. That means the potato, not you! You need to just let it sit for a couple of minutes, for it to actually finish cooking.
But remember, each microwave oven is different, so you need to stick a knife in the potato to see if it is done. The knife should slide in easily and you should be able to squeeze the potato without too much resistance.
To open a microwave ‘spud’, it needs a bit of a bash first to break the fibers apart.
First, slice the top with a knife.
Then place a folded paper towel over the microwave potato. Using the bottom part of your fist, give it a bash. Be really careful as the potato will be very hot.
Now if you give it a squeeze it should be nice and fluffy.
You can now top it with your favorite topping.
As my Irish grandfather used to say, “I’ve never met a potato I didn’t like!”
Here are a few more startcooking.com potato posts:
How to Choose and Use Potatoes
Enjoy!
Microwave Potatoes Ingredients:
(4 Servings)
The great thing about pasta salad is that you can make it ahead of time and refrigerate it. Then when you get home in the evening your dinner is all ready!
Depending on what you have put in it, pasta salad will usually stay fresh in the refrigerator for about 2 days. Like any salad, add what YOU like and omit what you don’t!
I’ve already shown you how to cook pasta. For this dish, you really can use any shape pasta that you like. I think these bow ties (farfalle) are fun!
So let’s startcooking!
After you have cooked and drained 1 pound of pasta put it into a large mixing bowl.
Cut the rind off about 6 ounces of sliced hard salami, then cut the salami into thin strips. You might see these referred to as julienne strips, but that just means long thin strips like this.
Add the salami to the bow ties. (Wait until the end to mix everything together. Sometimes too much stirring turns a recipe to mush!)
Drain 1 small can of pitted olives and add them to the bow-tie pasta as well. You could use fresh pitted olives instead of the canned ones.
I love olives, but my husband hates them, so I usually skip putting the olives in this salad. It works just fine without them.
3 green onions, sometimes called scallions, need to be sliced.
Cut off the hairy root end, and trim the top as well. The green part has a milder taste than the white part. Cut the green onion into about ¼ inch thick slices…
…and add that to the pasta.
One pint of cherry tomatoes needs to get cut in half. Otherwise they always go flying across the plate when you try to stab them with your fork!
Now add 4-6 ounces of crumbled feta or goat cheese
GENTLY mix everything together. This salad is looking really good! When you are ready to serve this beautiful salad pour 8 ounces of Italian dressing over the pasta.
I like using a rubber spatula for this. You can also use a big spoon. If I had some fresh basil, that would be a nice addition to this salad.
Mixing bowls are great for mixing things but not so great for serving. If you have a nice bowl be sure dig it out of the cupboard and use it. Also fresh parsley always makes a great garnish.
Enjoy!
]]>Let me begin by stressing that all microwaves have different strengths. They range in power from 500 watts to over 1500 watts. Just inside the frame of your microwave door there should be a label indicating the strength of your microwave.
Knowing the strength of your microwave is very important. Otherwise you may be following cooking directions exactly and still end up with burnt popcorn or an under cooked baked potato! I have an 850 watt microwave oven. All of my directions are based on that wattage. (Here is a great microwave wattage conversion chart.)
Hot dogs are already cooked when you buy them. All you need to do is heat them up. Place 1 to 4 hot dogs on a paper plate or a microwave-safe dish with a paper towel. (If you are cooking more than 4 hot dogs, do it in stages.)
With the tip of a sharp knife, pierce the hot dog three times; on one end, in the middle, and on the other end. You only need to break the skin. This allows the steam to escape so they don’t explode!
Cover the hot dogs with another paper towel.
Cook on high for 35 seconds. That should be enough to heat them through, but you may have to add another 10-15 seconds.
Remove the hot dogs from the microwave.
Wrap the bun in a paper towel and zap it for about 15 seconds.
You only want to warm the bun. If you over cook the bun in the microwave it will get very hard and chewy as it cools.
I don’t recommend putting the hot dog in the bun and heating everything at once. The steam from hot dog makes the bun very soggy.
For a real treat try toasting the hot dog bun under the broiler. It will make the bun a bit firmer and able to hold all the extras you’re going to pile on!
I like my hot dogs with ketchup, mustard and relish…hold the onions please!
]]>For dinner at home, with or without company, I like to serve asparagus because fresh asparagus can get cleaned, trimmed and steamed in the microwave in less than 10 minutes. I steam the “spears” just to the point where they are tender but still have a bite to them. Then I just add a sprinkle of salt, pepper, and sometimes a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, and the asparagus is ready to serve.
Buy asparagus that has nice bright green stalks and doesn’t look dry or shriveled. Depending on the season, you can buy asparagus that is pencil thin or stalks that are three times thicker than a pencil! I prefer slightly thicker stalks which I then peel. Many years ago my old friend Roger Bennet (from London, Montreal and St Remy) taught me the peeling trick. (See below.)
Asparagus is sold by the bunch. There are approximately 14-18 spears of asparagus per bunch. Count on about 3 to 5 spears per serving.
Make only what you are going to eat for dinner. Asparagus cooks really fast in the microwave so there is no point in making enough for leftovers.
If you are not going to use it immediately, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and store it in the refrigerator. It should keep about 3-4 days.
Preparation:
Wash one bunch of asparagus under cool running water.
Trim away the bottom 1/3 of the stalk. The tip of the asparagus is very tender, but the farther down you go on the stalk, the tougher it gets.
If you bend the asparagus it will naturally snap at the point where it goes from tender to tough (which is usually about 1/3 of the stalk).
Leslie demonstrates this method in startcooking.com’s post on Roasted Asparagus with Garlic Sauce.
You can now use the new shorter “broken” asparagus as a guide to cut the rest of the bunch.
Peel the stalks so that they are the same width as the tip. This ensures even cooking. Really thin stalks of asparagus do not need peeling.
Lay the asparagus two to three deep in a rectangular dish.
Add one Tablespoon of water.
Cover the dish with plastic wrap. Leave a small vent in the corner for steam to escape. (This also helps the plastic wrap from almost shrink wrapping itself over the asparagus. When that happens it’s a lot harder to remover the plastic wrap. (Be careful not to get burnt from the hot steam!)
Set the microwave on high heat and cook the asparagus about 2 minutes and 30 seconds. If you want your asparagus to be more tender, cook it for another 30 seconds or so.
Be sure not to overcook asparagus. Overcooked asparagus not only turns to mush, but it develops into a very unappealing shade of green.
Asparagus is great served either hot or cold. If you are going to be serving it cold you need to get the cooked spears cooled off quickly or they will loose their bright green color. You can either put the hot spears in a bowl of ice water…
…or in a colander and run cold water over the spears.
For more startcooking.com tips on blanching vegetables check out Keep it Fresh: Learn How to Blanch.
Cheers!
Ingredients:
(Makes 3-4 servings)
You will need the following ingredients to make this Marinara Sauce recipe:
Be sure to get both the onion and garlic chopped before you turn on the stove.
You’ll need about 1 cup of finely chopped onions for this recipe. Two small or one medium onion should do the trick.
Peel and mince 4 cloves of garlic. That’s a lot of garlic, but it does get cooked, so it’s not going to be too strong.
Fresh basil is essential for this recipe. Nowadays, most grocery store carry fresh basil year-round. You can wash it the same way you wash lettuce. Pull the leaves off the stem and throw the stems away.
Put the basil and the canned tomatoes, with their juice, in a blender and puree everything until almost smooth. Set the tomato-basil puree aside.
(As I filled the blender I thought, YIKES, this is way too full! With my hand pressed firmly on the lid of the blender I pressed the puree button. I was very lucky that my kitchen did not end up covered in tomato sauce. Next time I would puree this mixture in two batches!)
Heat ½ cup of olive oil in a large, heavy saucepan over medium heat.
That does sound like a ton of oil, but believe me it works. It gives the sauce a full, rich flavor.
Add the onions and garlic and cook until very tender, about 12 minutes.
The onions should not get browned. This is what they should look like after 12 minutes.
Stir in the tomatoes and basil that you pureed in the blender and 1 teaspoon of oregano plus 1 teaspoon of sugar. (Don’t skip the sugar. It helps balance the acid in the tomatoes.)
Bring the sauce to a simmer over a medium-high heat. Decrease the heat to medium and continue simmering until the sauce thickens slightly, stirring occasionally. This will take about 10 minutes.
Give the sauce a taste. You may need to add about ½ -1 teaspoon of salt and several grinds of fresh pepper.
The sauce can be made 1 day ahead. If you are storing it for future use, cool the sauce, then cover and refrigerate it. Gently re-heat sauce over medium heat before using it.
If you are going to be freezing this sauce, use small containers that would be enough for 1-2 serving.
Be sure to spray your plastic containers with cooking spray first so they don’t get stained by the tomato sauce.
(For more basic pasta sauce recipes, be sure to check out my Tomato Sauce Video or my Turkey Sausage Sauce photo-tutorial.)
Enjoy!
]]>Before you choose the shape and size of pasta you want to cook, you will need to decide if you are going to buy either dry, fresh or frozen pasta.
Dry pasta is the most readily available type and can be found in boxes or bags on the grocery store shelf. It can be stored for up to a year. Some folks think dry pasta is a supermarket invention, but it has actually been preserved and sold this way in Italy for centuries. It takes longer to cook dry pasta (usually 10-12 minutes) than it does to cook fresh pasta. There are many different brands of dry pasta on supermarket shelves, as well as plenty of gourmet dry pastas, in all kinds of shapes and colors.
Fresh pasta is found in the refrigerator section of the grocery store. It can also be found in many specialty shops, nestled in a protective layer of semolina flour. Fresh pasta is in a semi-dry state, but still considered fresh. In many supermarkets, it is common to see fresh pasta in a clear plastic container. Fresh pasta cooks quickly — it usually takes 4-6 minutes to get it al dente. If unopened, a package of fresh pasta can typically be stored in the refrigerator for a few weeks, or in the freezer for a month. (Be sure to check the “sell by” date before buying fresh pasta.) Keep in mind that if frozen, it will require a few extra minutes of cooking.
Frozen pasta has been flash-frozen to lock in the flavor. Gourmet shops usually sell it in small cartons offering exotic flavors like lobster ravioli. But these days you can also find frozen pasta at the supermarket. Bagged frozen pasta meals require about 10 minutes of cooking. Some include chicken or meat, veggies and a sauce, which can make a full-fledged meal in minutes.
No matter which pasta you end up going with, the golden rule is not to overcook it. Fresh pasta turns into a mushy mess when overdone; dry pasta gets gummy if it is undercooked — so be sure to watch your pasta as it boils and follow the directions on the package. Before draining the boiling water, taste your pasta to make sure it is tender and properly cooked.
Be sure to check out startcooking.com’s pasta roundup for some great tips and recipes!
]]>Mother’s Day is traditionally one of the busiest days of the year at restaurants. Why not forget the restaurants this Mother’s Day and try whipping up some home-cooked treats.
Breakfast:
Chocolate chip pancakes are the perfect start to the day. If starting from scratch is a bit daunting, you can always try making pancakes from box mix!
Pop some bacon (video) in the microwave, pour some orange juice and you’ve got a meal fit for a queen!
Lunch:
Salads quickly become a filling and satisfying meal by adding a bit of protein to the salad. Both kids and adults love Taco Salad!
Grilled Chicken is a perfect addition to a Caesar Salad.
You can buy pre-washed lettuce or wash your own lettuce.
If you want to really impress her, make your own Salad Dressing!
Dinner:
Whip up some Pan-Fried Scallops in less than 5 minutes.
Think of how good these would be with steamed asparagus and some rice. Or try steaming salmon in the microwave in the morning so that after a day of fun, dinner will be all ready to just pull out of the refrigerator!
Dessert:
You can’t go wrong with simple, fresh, Apple Crisp. Plus, it’ll make the house smell fantastic.
Frozen Berries with White Chocolate takes minutes to prepare. Just be sure to freeze the small berries ahead of time
Tip: Don’t forget to make the table look special for mother’s special day!
]]>This recipe also calls for macaroons. They are a coconut cookie that is soft and very moist and often sold in a flip top can. Each one measures about 1 ½ inch by 1 ½ inch. You can also buy them fresh at some bakeries.
For this recipe you will need:
Put the macaroons in a medium bowl and with your (clean!) hands crush them with your fingers.
Measure ¼ cup of brown sugar. Be sure to pack it into the measuring cup.
Add it to the macaroons. Add 1 pint of sour cream or yogurt
Fat-free Greek style yogurt is a perfect substitute for sour cream. It is a lot healthier than sour cream, and it is much thicker than regular yogurt.
Mix everything together and cover it with plastic wrap. Put it in the refrigerator for several hours to chill.
You could serve this in a bowl surrounded with fresh fruit, the same way you would a Vegetable Platter with dip.
Or make individual servings. Fresh mint is a perfect garnish for this dessert!
Enjoy!
Fresh Fruit Dip
Makes about 3 cups of dip
Mix together:
In preparing the patties, I have tried all sorts of “add-ins” to mix with the beef – everything from dried onion soup mix, to eggs, to bacon fat, to grated cheese . The absolute best to add is…nothing at all! Why dilute that pure beefy taste?
When making your own hamburgers, start with 1 ¼ pounds of ground beef with 20% fat content. This will be enough for four big patties.
Normally I buy a lesser fat content, but for really tasty burgers, get the 20%.
(Using clean hands!) Divide the beef into four sections. Gently form each section into a round “patty” shape. It’s not necessary to tightly pack the beef into shape. In fact, you should try to handle the beef as little as possible.
Each patty should measure approximately ¾ inches thick and 4 ½ inches across.
Wrap the extra patties in plastic wrap and freeze them for next week’s dinner.
Before you start cooking the hamburgers, toast the cut side of the rolls. (Untoasted rolls get soggy very quickly.) Lay the rolls out on a baking sheet with sides and put them under the broiler.
It will only take a minute or two, so don’t do anything but stand there with pot holder in your hand, ready to remove the rolls from the oven. (They go from beautifully toasted to burnt in the blink of an eye. Then the smoke alarm goes off and ….you know the rest!)
Preheat your fry pan (on medium- high temperature) by putting a few drops of water in the pan. By the time they have evaporated, your pan will be hot.
Make sure the fry pan you are using is large enough to hold your hamburgers without squishing them together.
Cook the hamburgers (on medium-high) on one side then flip them once, and then cook them on the other side.
Cooking times on each side:
If you want to make a cheeseburger, place a slice of cheese on the flip side about 1 minute before the burgers are done cooking. The heat from the hamburgers will melt the cheese.
Serve your hamburgers with sliced tomatoes, lettuce, a dollop of mayonnaise and some salt and pepper.
Add some variation to your hamburger recipes thanks to this Tex-Mex cheeseburger video!
Enjoy!
****
Note:
Rare, medium or well done Hamburgers?
The USDA recommends that you always cook hamburgers so that the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees which is well done.
A friend from Canada describes why:
“…one thing I’ve learned from working in the food service industry (McDonald’s in Canada, in my case) for over 15 years is that the only safe way to cook hamburgers is to make sure they are fully cooked, not rare. This eliminates the possibility of there being any harmful bacteria in the burger – in particular, E. coli.In fact, it is standard practice at McDonald’s in Canada to verify a safe internal temperature with the first run of the products from the grill, before anything gets served to the customers. In my area, the minimum safe temperature for cooked beef patties is 156 degrees F. It may vary in other locations – in some areas, the safe temperature is 160 degrees, for example.”
]]>When I’m making deviled eggs for a buffet table, I sometimes think perhaps they are a bit old-fashioned and outdated. Then, when the party is over, the deviled egg platter is always empty!
To make deviled eggs, in addition to the eggs, you will need mayonnaise, mustard, salt and pepper, and green olives stuffed with pimentos for flavor as well as garnish.
The first step is to hard-cook (what some people call ‘boil‘) six eggs.
If you are unsure of how to boil an egg, check out my 30 second video for a quick review!
If you’ve just cooked the eggs, let them cool to room temperature before peeling them. Actually, cold, hard boiled eggs, just out of the refrigerator, are much easier to peel than just cooked eggs. If you are having trouble peeling the eggs, crack the shell at the ends of each egg and put them in a bowl of ice cold water. Let the eggs sit in the cold water about 10 minutes. This allows the water to seep in and make peeling much easier.
Once all the eggs are peeled, slice them in half lengthwise.
Using a spoon or a fork, gently remove the yolks from the whites and place the all the yolks in a bowl. Set the whites on your serving dish.
I’m using my deviled egg dish which has grooves in it to hold the eggs in place for serving. If you do not have a deviled eggs dish you could put them on a bed of washed parsley so they not only look festive but the parsley will also prevent the eggs from sliding all over the place.
To make the filling, mix together the 6 yolks, add ¼ cup of mayonnaise, 1 ½ Tablespoons of mustard, and a sprinkle of salt and pepper.
(There are many variations to making deviled eggs including skipping the mustard and using horseradish OR curry powder OR even sweet relish.)
With a fork, mix all of this together until it’s smooth. Taste it to make sure it doesn’t need more salt.
Using two small spoons, fill the egg white shells with the yolk mixture. You’ll need one spoon to scoop up some yolk and the other to slide it off the spoon. (Or as Bill suggested in the comments section below, put the mixture into a small Ziploc bag, cut off a corner, and pipe it back into the whites.)
Sliced olives with red pimentos are a traditional garnish for deviled eggs – plus it’s a great flavor combination. A sprinkle of paprika, if you have some in your spice cupboard, is also a lovely garnish on deviled eggs!
Deviled eggs make a great appetizer and a perfect party dish.
Enjoy!
P.S. Once you have mastered making hard boiled eggs you might want to give an egg salad sandwich a try!
]]>Today’s post is a little bit longer than normal, because I’m going to talk about three things – buying, storing, as well as how to boil an egg. If you just want to know about the boiling part, skip ahead.
Eggs are a staple food all over the world. Apparently, the average American eats about 250 eggs per person, per year, and the average hen lays about 250 eggs per year. So somewhere out there, there is one hen whose sole purpose is to provide you with your eggs. Fortunately, the grocery store acts as the middle man.
When buying eggs you get to choose which size and color you want. Size matters, color doesn’t. White, brown, or South American light blue and green eggs are all the same on the inside. Official sizes are Peewee, Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large, and Jumbo. It is rare to see Peewee and Small eggs in grocery stores here in the USA.
Sometimes when you open a box of eggs one or two seem smaller than the rest. The cartons of eggs are actually sold by the total weight of the carton, not each individual egg. Most recipes nowadays use large eggs as the standard size.
Before putting a carton of eggs in your grocery cart, open the carton and make sure there are no cracked eggs. Move each egg slightly to make sure none are stuck to the carton. If any are stuck, choose a different carton.
Always buy eggs before the sell-by date on the carton. If stored properly in the refrigerator they should keep 3-5 weeks from the time you bring them home from the grocery store.
Here’s what to look for when you crack open an egg: If the sticky stuff surrounding the yellow yolk in the center, (known as “the white”), is somewhat cloudy, that means it’s a very fresh egg. A clear white means the egg is ageing, but still fine to use. If the white is pink or “iridescent” then the egg has probably gone off and should be thrown out.
Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, by the time you get home from the grocery store, you end up with a cracked egg. It may have been cracked from the very beginning, and you just didn’t notice when you were checking them in the first place.
For whatever reason, just throw the cracked egg away. There is no point eating an egg that may have an unwelcome history of germs!
The only time it really is OK to eat a cracked egg is if it cracked while you were cooking the egg. That should present no problem.
Refrigerating Eggs:
Although virtually all refrigerators in the USA have egg-holders on the door, that’s not really the best place to store eggs. There is too much temperature fluctuation on the door shelves. Consequently, the best place to store eggs is in the original carton that you bought them in.
Buying and storing eggs is different through-out the world. My post “Born in the USA” explains why.
(Briefly “In the USA, government standards say all eggs must be washed and stored at temperatures no higher than 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Washing the eggs is a good thing but it does leave the eggs without an outer coating and very susceptible to invasion by bacteria. Hence refrigeration of washed eggs is absolutely necessary.” Unwashed eggs do not need to be refrigerated)
Can Eggs be Frozen?
You can freeze eggs BUT it can be a bit more complicated than just popping them in an ice-cube tray. PLUS both the taste and texture will be compromised.
There are several very good sites that describe how to freeze eggs (if you must!) including oChef, the National Center for Home Preservation, What’s Cooking America.
Also the USDA has a great general information page on eggs.
Very few cooks (or cookbooks) agree on how to cook an egg. In fact, the BBC News announced a foolproof way to cook eggs. A temperature-sensitive ink stamped on an egg lets you know if the egg is cooked by changing color as you cook the egg!
I don’t know why everyone uses the term soft boiled or hard boiled eggs. One should never ever boil an egg. In fact, you know when a “cooked” egg is overcooked by that green ring that you sometimes see around the yolk. It is perfectly fine to eat, but it doesn’t look great.
When hard cooking eggs it is best to use eggs that are at least one week old. You will find that they are much easier to peel.
OK, here we go!
Place the eggs tightly in a single layer in a saucepan. (One egg or 10 eggs will all take the same time to cook, as long as they are in a single layer.) Add one Tablespoon of salt to the water. (This will prevent the eggs from cracking.)
Then cover the eggs with water.
Place it on your stovetop on high heat.
Cover the pan.
Bring the water to a boil.
A lot of recipes will ask you to gently place the eggs in boiling water but I don’t like to do it that way. Too often while placing the egg in the water it has slipped, cracked and …well…hello poached egg!
After the water comes to a boil, immediately shut off the stove and let the pot of eggs just sit on the stove, covered, for 15 minutes for large eggs. Some people say to remove the pan from the stove top to avoid over cooking. All pans hold heat differently. Once you make the perfect hard cooked egg, try to use the same pan and timing to make all future hard cooked eggs.
After 3-5 minutes you will have a soft cooked egg.
A hard cooked extra large egg should sit for 18 minutes.
Drain the hot water from the saucepan and let cold water run over the eggs.
It’s best to peel the eggs right before you use them.
I know two ways to make the peeling easier. One is to crack the shell at the ends of each egg and return them to cold water. This allows the water to seep in.
Or after the eggs have cooled just put them in the refrigerator for a few hours. Cold eggs are much easier to peel.
A hard cooked egg should be put in the refrigerator within two hours of cooking and will keep in the refrigerator, unpeeled, about 1 week.
That’s it for eggs!
Cheers!
***
More startcooking.com egg posts:
Tex-Mex Cheeseburgers, Chili, English Muffin Pizzas, and Beef With Bow Ties and Beans are just a few of the recipes here that start with ground beef.
.
The first thing you will notice when you go to the meat section of your grocery store is that there are a wide variety of different packages of what all looks like ground beef, but with different prices. In most cases, the pricing is directly related to different levels of fat content. Generally, the lower the fat content, the higher the cost will be per pound. The fat content is indicated by the numbers on the package.
I usually buy what’s called 85/15, which is the ratio of beef — in this case, 85 percent — to fat, which is 15 percent here. This ratio gives me the taste and texture I like when I’m cooking.
Many people who are watching their fat intake purchase ground beef with a 90/10 fat content ratio. I find that ratio to be a bit dry, but each to his own! My trick is to use the 85/15 beef, but drain off the fat after I have browned the beef. Put a small bowl beneath the colander to catch the fat and then throw it away in the trash. DO NOT PUT THE FAT DOWN THE DRAIN as you may end up clogging your pipes!
.
You should use or freeze ground beef within 2 days of buying it. Remove the beef from the store packaging and double wrap it in plastic wrap / freezer wrap to protect it from “freezer burn.”
Frozen ground beef should be used within three to four months of purchase. After that, I’d definitely recommend throwing it away!. The US Department of Agriculture guidelines say that even properly frozen food can deteriorate in taste and nutritional value if stored too long in the freezer.
If meat (or bread or even ice cream) has been in the freezer too long, the food gets very dried out and develops white edges. It not only looks awful but the taste and texture will be pretty bad as well.
Another “must” before freezing, is to label and date the package. You’d be amazed at how long unmarked packages take up residence in the freezer!
I also flatten and stack frozen foods. They take up less space plus it’s easier to find things this way.
Be sure to check out my video on How to Brown Ground Beef and How to Thaw Ground Beef.
]]>I’m going to show you how to fry onions two ways. First, we’ll fry (or “sauté”) the onions very quickly on a high heat. Second, we’ll “caramelize” the onions, which means frying them very slowly on a very low heat.
Sautéed onions have a slightly crispy outside and a very soft center. Caramelized onions are very soft and very sweet. You don’t need to add anything to make them sweet, since the natural sweetness of the onion develops through the slow cooking process.
This post is going to be a slightly longer than normal, since I am going to be showing you two different techniques.
Both approaches to cooking the onions require the same ingredients to start: – onions, butter, olive oil and salt and pepper.
For 2-to-4 servings of the sautéed onions you will need:
I have already discussed how to peel an onion, as well as how to slice an onion. Because we are slicing so many onions you may want to stick them in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes before you start peeling and slicing them. That way, they won’t bother your eyes as much.
Using a sharp knife, slice the onions into ¼ inch, or smaller, slices.
Melt the olive oil or the olive oil & butter combination, in a very large fry pan over medium high heat. Be careful not to burn the butter! If it starts to smoke, turn down the heat!
Add the onions.
Quickly cook the onions, moving them around the pan with a wooden spoon or spatula. It should take no more than 10 minutes at the most for the onions to get nicely browned.
These onions are great on hamburgers, steaks, mashed potatoes or just as a delicious side dish.
To make caramelized onions you will need time but not a tremendous amount of cooking skill. You will also need:
By the time you finish caramelizing the onions they will have cooked down to about half their size.
Peel and slice the onions.
In a really large fry pan melt the butter and olive oil over really low heat. Add the onions to the pan
Sprinkle on 1 teaspoon of salt.
Cook the onions over the lowest heat possible for about 1 hour. (Yikes! That’s a long time!) Don’t be tempted to increase the heat. You can not speed up this process. Over the course of 1 hour they should not turn brown. Be sure to give them an occasional stir. This is what they will look like after 15 minutes of cooking.
This is after 30 minutes of cooking.
This is after 45 minutes of cooking.
After about one hour increase the heat to medium and cook, stirring constantly, until the onions are well browned. That could take another 25 minutes. There will be a lot of brown bits stuck on the bottom of the pan. Those bits are full of flavor. To get them off the bottom of the pan and incorporated into the onions turn off the stove and pour ½ cup of dry white wine (or water) into the pan.
After the wine is added turn the stove back on. This will ensure the alcohol doesn’t catch fire and flame up.
The wine will dissolve all the bits and make the onions even darker.
Now remove them from the heat. Add salt and ground pepper and even a sprinkle of grated Parmesan cheese.
Caramelized onions are great on their own or can be added to stews and sauces.
Enjoy!
Adapted from: Joy of Cooking
Sauté Onions Ingredients:
(2-4 Servings)
(makes about 4 cups)
]]>If you’re reading a recipe, watch out for whether it calls for “dry” or “fresh” breadcrumbs; the two are not interchangeable! You can buy dry bread crumbs at the grocery store (which I always do) but you have to make your own fresh bread crumbs. You can freeze fresh bread crumbs, just be sure to date the freezer bag and use the crumbs within two months of freezing.
I always have a box of dry breadcrumbs in the cupboard. I particularly like the seasoned variety.
Fresh bread crumbs are really a snap to make! You can use any bread you have in the house.
There are basically three ways to make bread crumbs;
As you would expect, the food processor and the blender make really fine, uniform crumbs that are just perfect. But if you don’t own either of these pieces of equipment, a knife will work just fine.
Fresh bread crumbs made from slices of white bread need the crusts trimmed off first.
With a bread knife, cut the bread up into crumbs. If the bread is really soft just let it sit on the counter to dry out for a bit, and it should then be easy to cut into crumbs. Try to cut the bread as fine as possible.
Approximately 4 slices of bread will make one cup of crumbs.
Onion rolls make great, already seasoned, fresh bread crumbs. One big roll will make about 2 cups of fresh crumbs. A food processor makes perfect fresh bread crumbs in about 30 seconds.
You can also use a blender to make fresh breadcrumbs. While the motor is running add small chunks of the bread through the hole in the cover of the blender. Don’t over-fill the blender!
“Panko” bread crumbs are a Japanese version of dry bread crumbs that were once only available in Asian markets but you can now get them at the grocery store.
These dry bread crumbs are very light and SUPER crunchy. The Whole Foods grocery store in my neighborhood sells spinach flavored ones as well.
You can flavor your own dry or fresh unseasoned bread crumbs with different spices and herbs as well as cheese. The recipe below is one of my favorites that I have used for a topping over baked fish.
Seasoned panko bread crumbs:
Makes 1 1/3 cups
Crumb toppings or coatings can actually be made from a variety of foods. Corn flakes, potato chips, saltines or Ritz crackers can add a crunchy topping to almost any casserole, but that’s another day!
Cheers!
Kathy
Once you have mastered making chicken cutlets, there are just a few extra steps and ingredients needed to make chicken Parmesan.
First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Then make the chicken cutlets according to my video. When the chicken is all cooked take it out of the frying pan.
Set the cooked cutlets in a baking dish big enough to lay them flat in a single layer.
Using a spoon put about 1 cup of your favorite spaghetti sauce around the cutlets. You can make your own spaghetti sauce from scratch or use a jar of spaghetti sauce. I don’t like to drown the cutlets in sauce. You can always add more later if you want.
Top with 8 ounces of shredded mozzarella cheese.
You can buy pre shredded Mozzarella…
Or fresh Mozzarella and shred it yourself.
Sprinkle 1/4 cup of parmesan on the top.
The Chicken Parmesan is now ready to pop it into a 350 degree preheated oven for about 25 minutes.
When the cheese is all melted and bubbly it’s ready to serve with some spaghetti.
Enjoy!
P.S.
Vegetarians might like to try Eggplant Parmesan instead!
Cheers!
Kathy
The final taste is affected by the strength of the coffee, the type of whiskey you use, the way you add the cream, whether or not you use brown or white sugar and, of course, the proportions used of each ingredient.
Another choice when making Irish coffee is the type of glass or mug you will use. The “classic” glass is a 6-ounce stemmed glass. Another familiar glass or mug used is an 8-ounce mug with a handle. This type of mug actually seems a bit more practical for holding a hot cup of liquids.
The basics steps to make Irish coffee are
If you are making several Irish coffees, do one first and taste it to see if you need to adjust the proportions.
Step 1. Warming the Glass
You can run the glass under hot (or warm) water to warm the glass. Leave the hot water in the glass while you are making the coffee and preparing the cream. The thick mug type of glass is usually made of tempered glass so that it will not crack when you use it for hot liquids. If you are using a stemmed glass, you need to be more careful that is doesn’t shatter from the hot water — use water with a lower temperature.
Step 2. Fill the glass 2/3 full of coffee
Make a pot (or French Press) of fresh coffee. This is not the time to use flavored coffee.
Step 3. Add 2 teaspoons of sugar and stir
Don’t skip this step, even if you don’t normally put sugar in your coffee. The sugar actually helps the cream to float above the coffee. You can use either brown or white sugar.
Step 4. Add 1 ounce of whiskey
This amount can be adjusted according to your taste and the size of the glass you use.
Bartenders may pour straight from the bottle but measuring cups are more accurate for the untrained eye.
Step 5. Top with cream
This is the critical step to get the classic look and drinking experience. You must pour heavy cream over the back of a spoon so that about ½ inch of cream floats on top of the coffee. You actually drink the coffee through the cream. You are not meant to blend the two layers together.
As an option, you can thicken the cream by whipping it with a whisk, ever so slightly.
This will help you to keep these layers separate when you are making your Irish coffee. My first pour of the cream was done using heavy cream which I did not whisk. The photo below is what’s not not supposed to happen!
Over in England they sell what’s called “double cream” which is much thicker than our heavy cream and probably doesn’t need to get whisked.
Do not sweeten the cream. You also may be tempted to use a can of whipped cream, but don’t!
Step 6. Assign a designated driver
Of course!
Irish coffee is actually a great drink to serve with dessert or with cookies. There are some who would like to make their Irish coffee look a bit more seasonal by adding a drizzle of green Crème de Menthe over the top. (I cringed when I heard this, then I took a sip of this Irish coffee with Crème de Menthe. It is really delicious!)
A slice of my Mom’s Irish Bread is perfect with this Irish Coffee!
Cheers!
]]>Guinness Stout Beef Stew is rich and hearty and a perfect meal to serve on a cold day. Of course, it’s a must for St Patrick’s Day, which here in Boston is a huge celebration!
You can serve this stew for Sunday lunch and then, late in the day, try some of startcooking.com’s Irish Bread with Irish Coffee.
The fresh ingredients you will need to make this stew are garlic, onion, carrots, stew beef and parsley for the garnish (decoration.) Buy the most tender stew beef you can afford. (Ask the butcher!) This stew takes only 1 and 1/2 hours to cook so you need a tender stew beef-“round” stew beef works well for this recipe. (For stews that take 3-4 hours to cook, it’s OK to use a less tender cut of beef, like beef chuck.)
From the pantry, you will need white flour, oil, beef broth and bay leaves. Remember to remove the bay leaf before serving!
You will also need pitted prunes along with the Guinness Stout.
Before we startcooking, a few words of caution:
First, do not omit the prunes! Without the prunes, the Guinness is going to make the stew taste bitter. The prunes cook down and melt into the stew. If you don’t tell, no one will even be aware that they are in this stew! (Do you see them in the photo below?)
Second, do not replace the “Extra Stout” with “draught” or with those bottles of Guinness with the widgets in them that make the foam. The taste will be all wrong!
****
Begin by getting the carrots, onions, garlic and beef all cut up and ready to cook.
Peel the carrots and cut them into chunky slices about 1/2 inch thick.
(The picture below shows, from left to right, the stages and equipement I use to turn a whole carrot into the slices.)
Chop the onion.
Crush the garlic.
Cut the stew beef into approximately 1 inch chunks.
In a large, heavy, Dutch oven, set on medium high; heat the oil and sauté (fry) the onions for about 3-4 minutes.
Add the garlic and continue cooking for another 30 seconds.
Remove the onions and garlic from the pot.
The meat needs to get “seared” in small batches. It is very tempting to add half the meat thinking “well that fits into a single layer in the pot…so why not?”
The photo below is why not! If you overcrowd the pan the meat will get foamy and bubbly, and not develop a nice rich browned color.
Small batches….
…will guarantee a nicely browned meat.
Remove the meat from the pan….
…and add the next batch.
When all the meat is browned, add it all back to the pot.
Sprinkle on the flour.
Reduce the heat to simmer, stir in the flour until all the meat is coated
Add beef broth……
…and Guinness (Extra Stout only!)
…and stir everything until mixture comes to a simmer.
Now add the onions, garlic, carrots and the bay leaves. (Be sure to remove the bay leaves before you serve the stew. They are there to impart flavor but you do not eat bay leaves.)
Give everything a stir.
The beer/broth should cover all the ingredients. If it does not, you may need to add a bit more broth.
Simmer the stew gently, uncovered, for one hour. (There should only be tiny little bubbles with the occasional waft of steam coming from the stew.) Be sure to give it an occasional stir.
While the stew is simmering, chop the prunes.
Add the prunes….
…and continue cooking the stew for another 1/2 hour.
The prunes will “melt” into the stew and the gravy will develop a wonderful rich flavor and have a nice glossy finish.
Boiled or mashed potatoes garnished with chopped parsley
are perfect to serve with this stew. Don’t forget to remove the bay leaves!
Cheers!
]]>But there’s no shame in going instant, especially if you jazz it up with different flavors.
Just follow the package instructions for making the hot chocolate, and then try one of these 12 twists – topped off with marshmallows or whipped cream, of course.
Voila!
]]>You probably have the basic ingredients — eggs, milk, sugar, butter, and bread – sitting in your kitchen right now. Add maple syrup and vanilla extract to your next shopping list and you’ll be ready to make French toast. (All sorts of different flavored extracts can be found near the spices/baking ingredients at the grocery store.)
Plain white bread is traditional, but you can also try using a braided bread (challah), croissants, whole-wheat and rye bread for French toast.
(For a quick review on measuring, check out my video on How to Measure Food)
The following ingredients are needed to make French toast:
2/3 cup of whole milk
4 large eggs
2 Tablespoons of sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
¼ teaspoon of salt
Using a shallow bowl whisk them together (or blend together with a fork).
The egg mixture should look like this before you start dunking the bread.
Dunk each slice of bread into the egg mixture just before you add the bread to the fry pan.
Make sure both sides are fully covered.
This step could take a little practice. Leave it too long and the bread disintegrates; not long enough, the bread doesn’t get coated.
Melt 1 1/2 Tablespoons of butter in a fry pan over medium heat. Add however many slices of bread fit in the pan without squishing everything together.
Cook the bread until it is golden brown and then flip it, preferably with a spatula. Let the other side cook until golden brown as well.
Serve it immediately with a dusting of powdered sugar or maple syrup.
Enjoy!
***
P.S. I often get asked questions about the “Shelf Life” of foods. The USDA, a trusted source, offers some guidelines:
This general link to Safe Food Handling Fact Sheet from the USDA will lead you to several charts on food preservation including:
Also,
Food Product Dating
which includes things like
A “Sell-By” date tells the store how long to display the product for sale. You should buy the product before the date expires.
A “Best if Used By (or Before)” date is recommended for best flavor or quality. It is not a purchase or safety date.
A “Use-By” date is the last date recommended for the use of the product while at peak quality. The date has been determined by the manufacturer of the product.
Lastly, when in doubt, throw it out!
Cheers,
Kathy
]]>Pancakes are eaten all over the world. Here at startcooking.com I have three different recipes which you can choose from to make pancakes:
If you make crepes or pancakes from “scratch” you will need: flour, baking powder, vanilla sugar, salt, milk, butter, eggs, and vegetable oil. If you are just learning how to cook, all of these ingredients are in fact, an important part of a well stocked cupboard.
BUT, given that this is startcooking.com I’m going to show you how to make pancakes with a box mix.
Before buying the box mix, check the ingredients necessary to make that particular box mix. Some require only water. Some want you to add eggs, milk and sometimes vegetable oil to the box mix. Don’t leave the grocery store until you have read the back of the box of your pancake mix!
This particular mix requires only water. (The directions on the back of the box are usually done very well; often including a picture drawing of what to do!)
Using a medium size bowl, measure out the pancake mix into the bowl; be sure to level off the top of the measuring cup.
Now add the water. Use a glass measuring cup with a spout. It will make measuring and pouring the water easier.
Blend it all together with a whisk or a fork until everything is just combined. (No vigorous beating here!)
Preheat a large fry pan on medium heat for about one minute.
You will know when the pan is hot enough when you drop a few drop of water on the fry pan and they dance and sizzle! (There is a good visual of this in my Stir Fry Video)
Once the pan is hot, add 1 ½ tablespoons of vegetable oil.
You could use butter, but butter burns more quickly than vegetable oil so it can get a bit tricky if your pan gets too hot.
Using a ¼ cup measure, scoop up some batter, hold the cup about 2-3 inches from the surface of the pan, and pour the batter into the pan.
Try and make them nice and rounded. You could mush it around a bit with the back of a spoon to try and get them rounder. It may take a little practice! I like to make about 3 or 4 pancakes at a time.
Tempting as it is to make one giant pancake – I wouldn’t recommend it: it’s really tricky to flip!
There are lots of different topping you could add at this point.
Chocolate chips, coconut, chopped nuts, raspberries, blueberries, bananas, and raisins are some sweet options. For savory pancakes try shredded cheese or cooked bacon.
All you do is sprinkle your extras onto the uncooked side of the pancake. This way, everything gets evenly distributed. (Some recipes will have you add the extras to the batter but I prefer to sprinkle them on the top.)
Let the pancakes cook until you see all little bubbles on the surface of the pancake.
Using a spatula take a peek on the underside to see if they are ready to flip. They should be beautifully browned.
Now cook the flip side until it is nice and brown. The flip side never gets quite as browned or looks quite as good as the top side. The flip side takes only about half the cooking time of the first side.
Don’t keep flipping the pancakes. Flip once and that’s it!
You can keep your pancakes warm in a 200 degree oven until you have finished cooking them all.
There are of course many different types of syrup you can pour over your pancakes, but my favorite is good old fashioned maple syrup!
Enjoy!
Ingredients:
Optionall Ingredients:
I received the following from Natalie MacLean, author of “Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass”.
*****
Hi Start Cooking,
Want to seduce someone this Valentine’s Day? Just share a glass of wine (or three) with your sweetheart. Wine is liquid sensuality: Its heady bouquet stimulates the appetite and its velvet caress soothes that desire. What other drink is described as both ‘voluptuous’ and ‘muscular’? And when you pair wine with the mouth-coating luxury of chocolate, the combination is impossible to resist.
The creamy flavors of chocolate go best with sweet, full-bodied, high-alcohol wines.
My top 10 wine and chocolate matches:
1. Dark Chocolate and Banyuls, France
2. Chocolate-Covered Biscotti and Recioto Della Valpolicella, Italy
3. Chocolate-Orange Cake and Liqueur Muscat, Australia
4. Chocolate with Nuts and Tawny Port, Portugal
5. Milk Chocolate and Tokaji, Hungary
6. Bittersweet Chocolate and Amarone, Italy
7. Chocolate-Dipped Fruit and Icewine, Canada
8. Chocolate Ganache Truffles and Sauternes, France
9. Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake and Framboise, California
10. Chocolate Hearts with Cream Filling and Cream Sherry, Spain
***
Natalie suggests wines to complement 50 chocolate dishes in her online matching tool at www.nataliemaclean.com/matcher. Just click on “desserts” to find pairings for chocolate mud pie to chocolate cheesecake. Her online food-and-wine matcher doesn’t just focus on chocolate. The interactive tool has thousands of wines to pair with any dish: meat, pasta, seafood, vegetarian fare, pizza, eggs, cheese and dessert. You simply choose the food or wine from a drop-down menu to get the pairing suggestions. There are also lots of recipes for those planning a romantic meal. The matcher is updated regularly with new dishes and wines from the 85,000-plus readers who subscribe to Natalie’s free e-newsletter, which offers tips on how to buy, cellar and serve wine.
Natalie has won four James Beard Journalism Awards, including the MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award. Eric Asimov of the New York Times calls Natalie’s approach “a winning formula,” describing her as “the disarming Everywoman … she loves wine, loves drinking.”
Thanks, Natalie for sharing your expertise!
]]>Buy medium size berries – two bites is the prefect size. As beautiful as those giant ones are, they are too hard to eat!
Gently rinse the berries in cool water…
…and then spread them out on a clean dish towel to dry.
Let them dry completely before you start dipping. Not a drop of water should be left on the berries.
In addition to dipping the strawberries in chocolate, you can also dip the edges in coconut, chopped nuts, sprinkles or nonpareils. (Those are those colored candy dots in the photo above.)
Eight ounces of chocolate will cover about 12-14 medium-large strawberries. You can use any type of chocolate you prefer – dark, milk, semi-sweet or white chocolate.
(Note: A block of white chocolate is a lot tastier than “white chocolate chips, which are only “chocolate flavored” and not the real thing!)
If you are using a chocolate bar or a block of chocolate, chop it into small pieces…
…and then put the chocolate in a small microwave safe dish. Melt it, in the microwave, for about 1 minute and 30 seconds on medium. (Don’t cover the dish!)
When melting chocolate chips, they will not really change shape that much until you give it a stir.
The goal is to slowly melt the chocolate, not bring it to a boil. If it still isn’t melted, continue melting in 15 second increments in the microwave. Stir the chocolate. It should be smooth and have no lumps.
Once the chocolate is melted, start dipping.
Try to cover about 2/3 of the strawberry with chocolate. It looks prettier than covering the entire strawberry.
Then gently dip the strawberry into one of your additional toppings.
When you do the dipping, be sure to hold back the green top so that it does not get covered in chocolate.
If you are having difficulty holding the strawberry, skewer it, just under the green bit, with a toothpick.
You are less likely to drop the strawberry if you hold it with a toothpick. (There are all sorts of chocolate dipping tools for sale as well.)
Put the dipped berries on some wax paper to set. They should be stored in the refrigerator, and eaten at room temperature, within 24 hours.
Enjoy!
]]>.
This blogpost is all about learning how to make fudge. Chocolate lovers may also want to check out my post on Chocolate Fondue and…
How to Make Strawberries Dipped in Chocolate.
For the fudge you will need:
.
You may have noticed something weird in that list, and be thinking, why do you use unsalted butter and then add salt to the recipe? The answer is that lots of recipes are written that way, because you have more control over the amount of salt in the recipe with that approach. If you want (or if you have to) you can substitute salted for unsalted butter in this recipe, but your fudge may end up with a noticeably saltier flavor.
There is a HUGE difference between sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk. This recipe calls for sweetened condensed milk.
Evaporated milk has no added sugar and is slightly thicker and richer than regular milk. Sweetened condensed milk is very thick and very sweet. They are not interchangeable ingredients.
Line the bottom of an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper or wax paper. (The original recipe I saw said to line only the bottom of the pan. However, if you cut off a slightly larger sheet of parchment paper and do at least two of the sides as well, it will make it much easier to get the fudge out of the pan after it has hardened.)
You can buy parchment paper right next to the tin foil and the plastic wrap at the grocery store. It’s specially made to be used for cooking.
For the next step, I’ll first give you a quick overview and then provide more detail.
The quick overview is that we’re going to place a metal bowl on top of a pan of barely simmering water, and gently heat all the ingredients, stirring occasionally, until smooth.
.
Now for just a bit more detail about this step!
You can buy pans that are designed to fit into one another, leaving space at the bottom for water. They are called “double-boilers” and can get pretty expensive. Fortunately, you don’t really need one for this recipe. A regular bowl over a normal pan works just fine. However, you have to make sure that the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. The whole point of a *double boiler* is to melt/cook things very gently by having the steam from the water (not the water itself) heat the upper bowl!
Put a couple of inches of water in a sauce pan and bring it to a simmer. (No rapid bubbles, just gentle little bubbles!)
While the water is heating, break up the chocolate into small bits. You could cut it with a knife.
.
Or (and this is the fun version) just slam the wrapped chocolate bar against the counter. When you unwrap it, it should be broken up into bits.
Put the chocolate in a medium bowl. Add the butter, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, and the salt to the bowl.
Set the bowl over the simmering water. Give the chocolate mixture an occasional stir. When everything is smooth, blended, and all melted, pour it into the prepared pan (the one with the parchment paper.)
.
Put it in the refrigerator. DO NOT COVER THE FUDGE! (If you cover it, too much condensation will form and ruin your beautiful fudge!) Let it chill for about 4 hours or until it is totally firm and then cover it with plastic wrap.
To cut the fudge, run a butter knife around edges of pan and invert the fudge onto a cutting board.
.
I do hope you put the parchment up at least two sides of the pan! Otherwise, right about now you are saying: “She’s crazy, I’m never going to get this out of the pan”! If you can get your knife to the edge of the parchment paper, that should be enough to loosen it. If that doesn’t work, after you have run your knife around the edge of the pan, cut out a small corner. Taste it. (Yes, it’s delicious, and no, you can’t just eat it from the pan!) Now slip your knife under the parchment paper and the fudge should come out of the pan. (This is the hardest step of this entire recipe!)
Remove the parchment paper.
.
With a ruler, score the fudge with lines about one inch apart. This way you will get nice even pieces.
.
You can slice your fudge ahead of the time you plan to serve it, but store it in the refrigerator!
.
My kitchen tends to get very warm so I always store fudge in the refrigerator. Store fudge in an airtight tin, with a piece of wax paper between each layer. It should keep on the counter (out of the sun) about 2 weeks, in the refrigerator about 2-3 weeks, and in the freezer about 2-3 months. To keep it really moist, you can store the entire “block” of fudge and only cut it when you are ready to serve it. It’s best eaten at room temperature.
Enjoy!
]]>So what’s on your party menu for watching the big game? We’ve put together the following items, which go beyond bowls of corn chips, pretzels and cheeses. We make no specific claims about their healthiness, so pace yourself! Your final menu choices will depend on how much prep work you feel like doing for your party.
These are the snacks that are easy to put together, and mostly require minimal effort.
If you’re feeling slightly peckish instead of all-out hungry, here are a few suggestions. Most are pretty traditional, like the items above – just lower in calories.
What’s a game party without some sort of sandwiches. Here are a few variations, some possibly unique to this article.
These are for those colder football days, when you feel like something heartier.
Now if none of these look tempting, check out Cooking Light’s list of Football Party Recipes!
]]>To make Lasagna with Meat Sauce, start by reviewing my Spinach Lasagna video below:
Skip adding the spinach!
You could leave it in but there are there are a lot of strong flavors competing with one another!
Mix together the cooked meat with the jar of spaghetti sauce and start assembling your lasagna – just like in the video!
Remember the meat must get cooked completely and the fat drained off before adding it to the sauce.
You can make your sauce from scratch by using my Pasta Sauce with Turkey Italian Sausage (shown below) and use it in place of the store bought jar of spaghetti sauce.
When you are assembling your lasagna, the layering of all the ingredients can get confusing.
Just remember to start with about ¾ cup of sauce on the bottom of the pan. Then the order is:
Enjoy!
]]>Dips are a party delight that everyone seems to love. There are all kinds of dip options to match your taste or diet, and many can be made in advance.
Of course, dip needs something to stick to or sit on, and the choices here are also numerous – chips, crackers, veggies, bread sticks, or toasted pita bread, to give just some of the possibilities.
startcooking.com’s Vegetable and Dip Platter video, is a great starting point to learn how to cut vegetables for a party dip platter.
Keep in mind that dips can be sweet as well as savory. Fruit Dip made with macaroons can be served in a bowl.
Or—for a really spectacular presentation—cut a whole pineapple in half lengthwise, scoop out the fruit and use the shell for your fruit dip!
Another sweet dip option is my Nutella Dip.
If you simply have zero time to make a dip, you still have options. These days, your supermarket has interesting choices that can work in a pinch and still delight your guests. Hummus is popular and comes in interesting flavors — my favorites are red pepper or roasted garlic. You’ll typically find it in the veggie section of the store. Some companies are also making fresh onion dips . But at the end of the day, a simple Mexican salsa with tortilla chips works well, too.
Just be sure to take store-bought dips out of their original packaging and put them in an attractive bowl. Sometimes, presentation is the key to making store-bought taste a bit better.
Heck, you might even fool a few guests, too!
]]>Always keep the blade pointed away from you.
I do not recommend putting large knives in the dishwasher. Small paring knives, with the point down, are fine in the dishwasher, as long as they don’t have a wooden handle. (Wooden handles and dishwashers don’t mix.)
Large knives in the dishwasher are an accident waiting to happen. They could nick or chip dishes and glassware as well as the dishwashing rack itself. (Once the dishwasher rack gets nicked it may well start to rust. Those racks are REALLY expensive to replace.)
If you wash your dishes in a dishpan of soapy water DO NOT toss the dirty knives in as well! Having to retrieve those knives without being able to see where you’re groping is a really scary thought!
Dry off knives with a soft dish towel or paper towel. Remember – with the blade always pointed away from you.
Be sure to check out my video on Three Good Knives!
]]>The photograph below shows minced, diced and chopped onions. Minced (on the left) is the smallest cut. diced (in the middle) is a bit bigger, and chopped (on the right) which is cut, at most, into about ¼ inch chunks.
When it comes to chopping an onion or any vegetables, choose a knife that you are comfortable holding. As long as it’s sharp, it really comes down to what knife you feel you can control well.
So, let me show you how to chop an onion.
This is the root end of an onion.
Leave the root end intact. It will actually help to make cutting the onion easier.
Cut off the top of the onion (the other end.)
Peel off the outside skin (the dry, papery layer.)
Sometimes you end up removing the first layer of onion as well which is ok.
Cut the onion in half from the top end to base. Place the cut side down on the cutting board.
Always hold the onion with bent fingers while slicing and chopping. This allows you to use your knuckles as a guide against the side of the knife and not the tips of your fingers under the knife. It will feel pretty awkward at first but it’s the only safe way to hold the onion!
For chopped onions, with the knife tip pointed towards the root, slice the onion to within 1/2 inch of the base. Make about 1/4 inch parallel cuts.
Now cut perpendicular to the slices you just made.
Oh look! Chopped onions!
“Diced” onions are nothing more than onions cut into smaller pieces. For diced onions do the exact same thing, only with smaller cuts. Minced is even smaller!
If the onions need to be chopped finer you can run your knife through them in a rocking motion. Be sure to hold down the tip of the knife, otherwise the onions are going to go flying around the room.
If cutting onions makes you cry, try putting your onion in the freezer for about 20 minutes before cutting it.
Cheers!
Kathy
]]>At the grocery store, you will notice that there is an incredible variety of potatoes to choose from. There are usually signs above the potatoes that will tell you which ones are great for baking versus which ones are better for mashing. If there are no signs, just ask someone who works in the Produce section for some guidance.
To make 4-6 servings of mashed potatoes you will need approximately:
You can make mashed potatoes in just a few easy steps.
Step 1: Wash the potatoes
Step 2: Peel the potatoes
Step 3: Cut the potatoes into 1 ½ inch chunks
Step 4: Put the potatoes in sauce pan and cover with water
(adding 1 teaspoon of salt to the water is optional)
Step 5: Bring to a boil. Turn down to simmer. Simmer 20 minutes
Step 6: Drain the potatoes
Step 7: Add milk, butter, salt and pepper
Step 8: Start mashing!
Keep mashing until the potatoes are creamy and lump free. You can garnish your mashed potatoes with some chopped parsley if you like.
Aaahhhh! Perfection
The Equipment you’ll need:
Tempted as you might be to try using a blender or a food processor to mash potatoes…DON’T! Believe me, years ago I tried that. You end up with a gluey, uneatable, awful mess. If you are mashing for a crowd, an electric hand mixer will work beautifully!
Here are just a few more ways to cook potatoes from startcooking.com:
Potatoes – Baked Potato with Salsa
Potatoes – Microwave Baked (video)
Potatoes – Sweet Potato Casserole
]]>Caesar Salad is a standard item on a lot of restaurant menus, but can easily be made at home. It can be an appetizer or, by adding some protein such as chicken or shrimp, can be turned into a complete meal.
(Both the origin of Caesar Salad and its original dressing ingredients are debatable, but Romaine lettuce, Parmesan cheese and croutons are always the base of a Caesar Salad. A homemade Caesar Salad dressing historically included lemon juice, olive oil, an egg, Worcestershire sauce OR anchovies and freshly grated black pepper.)
Today, pre-made Caesar Salad dressing is readily available on the grocery store shelves.
For 2 servings of this Caesar Salad you will need:
Romaine Lettuce is the norm for a Caesar Salad. In general, choosing lettuce for a salad can be pretty confusing. Startcooking.com’s post on Salad Green From A to Z describes many of the more common types of greens available at most grocery stores.
Be sure to wash the Romaine lettuce and then chop or tear it into bite-size pieces.
Freshly grate Parmesan Cheese and add it to the lettuce.
Gently toss the salad greens with the Caesar dressing and sprinkle on the shredded cheese. Then top with some croutons.
If you like anchovies, then adding a few on top is always a tasty addition!
Salad’s ready!
Enjoy!
]]>You may think you need to own a special fondue pot, but while it’s fun to have one, it’s not absolutely necessary.
A dedicated fondue pot is really just a warming dish on a stand, with a candle underneath the pot to keep what’s in it warm.
Without a candle, a regular bowl should stay warm for about 20 minutes.
The “special” equipment usually also includes long forks for dipping the fruit into the chocolate, but you can substitute regular forks, bamboo skewers or even long toothpicks.
For this chocolate fondue recipe you will need:
You will also need lots of “goodies” to dip into the chocolate. Choose any of your favorite fruits. Just be sure to cut them up into bite size pieces. Some favorites of mine are; strawberries, raspberries, pineapple (fresh or canned), grapes, bananas, and dried apricots. You can also try pound cake cut into chunks, shortbread cookies, and ruffled potato chips! Chocolate coated potato chips are a real surprise dunker! Everyone is going to love the sweet and salty combination.
You can get all the “dunking bits” prepared in advanced and put on a serving dish. (Keep the cut fruit in the refrigerator, covered, until you are ready to serve the fondue.)
Put the cream, butter and Cognac in a small sauce pan.
Bring everything to a simmer over medium heat. While that is coming to a simmer, chop the chocolate into really tiny pieces.
(For various ways of breaking up the chocolate, see my post on Chocolate Fudge.)
Remove the pan from the heat when everything has begun to simmer, and add the chocolate.
Stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth.
Pour the chocolate mixture into the fondue pot (or serving bowl).
If you leave chocolate fondue over the candle for any length of time, stir it occasionally to avoid scorching.
Cheers!
]]>I’m always on the look-out for quick and tasty ways to cook chicken. Today’s recipe is based on coating boneless chicken breasts with French-fried onions from a can and then the chicken is baked in the oven.
Many of you may well have tried the classic green bean recipe made with these onions. I’m going to use these fried onions to coat boneless, skinless chicken breasts. What I need is some sort of “glue” to make the fried onions stick to the chicken.
For the fun of it, I tested 4 different possible “glues”:
Melted butter, mustard, mayonnaise, and a beaten egg all work beautifully. You get to choose which one to use depending on what you have in your kitchen! (I’ll tell you my preference at the end!)
I put just one chicken breast in each of different “glues”, making sure to coat both sides.
Now for the onion coating. The recipe on the box of fried onions calls for one egg, 4 chicken breasts and 1 1/3 cup of onions. There is no possible way you can cover four chicken breasts with that amount of coating and have it end up looking like the photo! I used 2 cups of crushed onions and that worked just fine.
VERY IMPORTANT NOTE:
Be sure to throw away any leftover “glue”. The egg (or butter, or mayonnaise, or mustard) has been contaminated with bacteria from the raw chicken and cannot be re-used.
The onions do need to get crushed into crumbs. The easiest way to do this is to put them in a baggie, seal it, and then just crush the onions with your hands.
You could then just add the raw chicken breasts to the bag and pat on the coating. Because I used four different “glues” I put the crushed onions in a shallow dish with sides.
From there I patted on the onion crumbs to both sides of the chicken breasts.
Next, I put the chicken into an ungreased baking pan.
Be sure to place the chicken, with what was the shiny side, up. This way looks better once it is cooked.
This is what the chicken will look like when it is ready to go in the oven. No one “glue” looks different from the other. They all look the same at this point.
Bake the chicken in a 400-degree oven for approximately 20 minutes or until it is no longer pink on the inside. (The chicken breasts I used each weighed 5 ½ ounces.)
Oven Baked for 20 Minutes
The mustard-dipped chicken on the far right came out of the oven slightly less browned than the others. That makes sense as there is no fat in mustard to help in the browning process.
Now for the official taste test! (That means my husband and I took a bite of each piece of chicken to see which one we like the best.)
The mustard coating had a really tangy flavor which was our least favorite. The mustard overpowered the flavor of the onion coating.
The remaining three all tasted pretty much the same, but the butter and the mayonnaise coating made the chicken breasts seriously moist.
(But you are adding extra calories with all that added fat!)
The egg coating was good but not quite as moist as the butter and mayonnaise coating.
My conclusion is to use the egg coating but for company try the butter or mayonnaise coating.
Cheers!
P.S.
Chicken Cutlets show below…
and Chicken Parmesan are two more great ways to cook up boneless chicken breasts.
]]>Learning how to make a graham cracker pie crust will open the door to making all sorts of tempting dessert pies including the Chocolate Fudge Pie pictured above.
Most people learning how to cook are totally terrified at the thought of making a pie crust. This graham cracker crust may well change your mind! It is about 1,000 times easier to make than making and rolling out a pie crust made of dough. (For the more adventurous beginner cooks, be sure to check out the bottom of this post for links on making a pie crust made of dough from scratch)
(For my international readers, graham crackers are readily available in the USA. I am not sure what the equivalent ingredient would be elsewhere. If anyone can recommend a plain, sweet cracker that is used in your country for a crumb crust, I would appreciate you adding it to the comments!)
You may be asking, “why should I bother making it myself?” You can buy a pre-made graham cracker pie crust, usually in two different sizes; 9-inch or a package of minis.
The answer is that the taste and texture of a home-made graham cracker crust is far superior to that of the pre-made variety. Plus, it just looks better presenting a dessert in a proper pie dish rather than a tin-foil pan!
Making the crust yourself is not complicated at all. It only takes three ingredients – butter, sugar and graham cracker crumbs.
(An alternative to the butter and sugar would be to use 3 Tablespoons of canola oil and 3 Tablespoons of maple syrup.)
There are usually three packets of crackers each in a box. Each packet contains 9 crackers, and when crushed, will equal 1 and 1/4 cups of cracker crumbs.
To crush the crackers into crumbs, put the crackers in a zip-lock bag and, with a heavy can, start crushing.
Or just buy a box of the crumbs and ….
measure out 1 and 1/4 cups of crumbs.
In the USA, butter comes in sticks.
(One stick has 8 Tablespoons, which equals 1/2 cup or 4 ounces or 113 grams.)
Put 5 Tablespoons of butter into a med-large microwave safe mixing bowl.
Melt the butter. This will take about 1 minute, depending on your microwave.
Add the crumbs to the bowl along with 1/4 cup of sugar.
Using a fork, mix these ingredients together.
It should be all blended, but still crumbly.
Put the crumbs into a 9-inch pie dish and press them in place with your fingers…..
or a one-cup measuring cup.
When making a frozen or refrigerated pie filling, put the crust in the refrigerator to chill while making the filling. The crust should chill for about 10 minutes before adding the filling.
It is not necessary to bake the crust, unless your recipe specifically says to do so. But, baking the crust will give it a wonderful taste and a crispier texture.
To bake a graham cracker pie crust, preheat the oven to 350 degree oven and bake the crust for 8 minutes.
Cool the crust completely before adding the filling.
A tart pan with a removable bottom is also a great option instead of using a pie dish.
If you have never seen a pan with a removable bottom it really does look odd. Press the crumbs into the pan the same way you would a regular pie dish.
When it comes time to serve from a pie made in a tart pan, place the tart on a large can.
The ring drops down…
And the pie is ready to serve!
Cheers!
P.S.
Here are some great pie crust links:
Pie Crusts – Ready Made – tips from startcooking.com
Food Wishes recipe video on Easy Homemade Pie Crust
Pioneer Woman’s Perfect Pie Crust
The Barefoot Contessa – Ina Garten’s video on making a pie crust
Simply Recipes – Lattice Top Pie Crust
]]>Deceptively simple to make, this is the best hot spinach dip you will ever eat!
Ramona Woo and my sister Marie Woolf, both of Greenville, South Carolina, have figured out the perfect balance of ingredients to make this version of spinach dip a real winner!
The only two skills you need to make this dip are cooking bacon and grating cheese.
If you need a quick review, I have a photo-tutorial on cooking bacon in the microwave and one on grating cheese as well.
You will need the following ingredients:
Once cooked, crumble the bacon by chopping it with a knife or just snipping it with a pair of scissors. Divide the bacon into two piles. One third will get mixed in the dip and the remaining two thirds will go on top of the dip.
(You could crumble it a bit finer if you prefer!)
Using a microwave-safe dish, defrost the spinach in the microwave.
Follow the cooking directions on the back of the box but cook it for about 1/2 of the time indicated. You only want to defrost it at this stage, not cook it through.
Squeeze out all excess water from the spinach. You could put it in a colander and press out the water with your fingers but I usually just squeeze it like a sponge.
Using a grater, grate the Monterey Jack and the Swiss cheese. (4 ounces equals about 1 cup of grated cheese.)
In a large mixing bowl, put the spinach, the cheeses, 1/3 of the bacon, 1/4 cup of mayonnaise, 1 cup of sour cream, and 3 Tablespoons of heavy cream.
Mix everything together.
Spread the mixture out in a 10 inch round baking dish. Sprinkle the remaining bacon on the top.
Bake the dip in a 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes or until it’s bubbly around the edges.
Serve this fabulous dip with your favorite tortilla chips.
Thanks Marie and Ramona for sharing this recipe with us at startcooking.com!
Enjoy!
]]>To make chocolate bark — a sweet, tasty snack or dessert – you just melt chocolate, mix in some extra ingredients and spread it out in a pan to harden. It’s simplicity itself, but there’s lots of opportunity to be creative!
I’m making mine with white chocolate chips, Spanish peanuts and dried cranberries. I like the salty sweet combination of the nuts with the cranberries and white chocolate.
You can also use pretzels, chopped apricots, candied ginger, cashews, pecans, and lots of other ingredients. Many, many things go well with melted chocolate! Choose your ingredients to mix up the textures and the colors.
For the chocolate, you can use chocolate chips or a chocolate bar, using white chocolate, milk chocolate, dark chocolate or a swirled combination of all three. If you are using a bar of chocolate, chop it into small pieces so it will melt more evenly.
In a medium size, microwave safe,mixing bowl, slowly melt the chocolate in the microwave. Start melting the chocolate chips on high for about 1 minute and 30 seconds. Then zap them in 15 second increments until the chocolate is melted.
Chocolate chips don’t really change their shape until you mix them with a spoon or spatula. Be sure not to zap them past the melting point. 12 ounces of chocolate chips in my microwave took 2 minutes and 15 seconds to melt.
2 Cups of add-ins to 12 ounces of chocolate is the perfect ratio! I’m actually adding only 2/3 cup of the cranberries into the mixture and the remainder I’m going to be sprinkling on top.
Gently mix everything together.
Now, line a 9 x 13 x 2 inch pan with wax paper or parchment paper.
Spoon the chocolate mixture into the prepared pan and spread it evenly out over the bottom of the pan. (Hang onto the wax paper when you are doing this!)
Sprinkle on the remaining cranberries.
Put the bark in the refrigerator to harden. This should take 1-2 hours.
Once set, lift the bark out of the pan and peel off the wax paper.
You could use a knife to cut it into pieces.
But it’s more fun to break it apart with your hands into uneven chunks.
Serve it as is, or wrap it up to give away as a gift!
If there are any leftovers, store them in the refrigerator.
Enjoy!
]]>However, there’s a world of other interesting grains out there to explore: couscous, quinoa, barley and bulghur, for example. They provide that carbohydrate kick with a twist, and a different texture or flavor is always worth a try. This guide will explain the differences between various grains, and try to inspire you to try something new.
A Middle-Eastern staple and the base of taboule salad, Bulghur refers to wheat kernels that have been boiled, dried and crushed. It is available in fine, medium and coarse grinds.
How to cook it: Put one cup of bulghur in a small pot with one and a half cups of water. Bring to a boil and then cover and turn heat down to a low setting. Cook for 15 minutes.
How to use it: Bulghur is good in salads, pilafs and meat and vegetable dishes.
Native to North African countries, couscous is a grain that’s often served with meat and vegetable stews. Its soft, spongy texture really absorbs sauce or liquid. Couscous granules come from semolina, which is the form of wheat that goes into making pasta. The great thing about couscous is that it takes six minutes to cook. Here’s startcooking.com’s tutorial on How to Make Couscous.
A grain native to the Andes, quinoa grains are actually the seeds of a leafy plant. Quinoa has a distinctive crunchy texture, and a slightly nutty flavor. In terms of nutrition, quinoa is rich in protein and it’s gluten-free. Look for quinoa in health food stores.
How to cook it: Bring one part of quinoa and two parts of liquid to a boil. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes, until the grains are transparent.
How to use it: Quinoa is great as a warm side dish, mixed with seasonings and beans. It’s also good in salads, like this Quinoa and Black Bean Salad. For those looking for a change from oatmeal, here’s a recipe for Quinoa Porridge.
This grain, which comes from the grass family, is well known for its high fiber and health benefits. It’s important to remember to buy whole barley (or hulled barley), as opposed to pearl barley, which has been processed and is not considered to be whole grain. Barley is well-known as an addition to soups and stews, but its chewy texture also makes it a great side dish.
How to Cook it: Use 2.5 to 3 cups of water per cup of hulled barley. Bring the water to a boil, then add the barley, cover the pot, reduce heat to low and cook for about 1.5 hours.
This Beef, Leek and Barley Soup from Smitten Kitchen, delicious!
Grandma’s Grain Recipe, makes a big batch of mixed, cooked grains that you can use to make hot cereal, or as a savory side dish.
Startcooking has tutorials on making white rice, brown rice and fried rice on the stove. It’s also possible to bake rice in the oven, as this recipe for Oven-baked Brown and wild Rice demonstrates. Keep in mind that brown rice is the healthiest choice.
This is actually a kind of seed, rather than a grain. It’s got a hearty, chewy texture and is even healthier than brown rice, containing lots of protein, calcium, iron and potassium.
How to cook it: Cook one cup of wild rice with three cups of water. Bring the water to a boil, cover and simmer over low heat for 35 to 55 minutes (or until the water is absorbed).
How to Use it: Wild rice makes an excellent warm side dish, and is also delicious in cold salads. Pioneer Woman serves up an excellent tutorial for Fresh Corn With Wild Rice – a side dish she recommends for Thanksgiving.
Eating grains in their whole grain form (as opposed to their processed form) has been shown to have a host of health benefits. Studies report that regular consumption of whole grains reduces risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer and obesity. Refining processes typically remove 25 per cent of the typical grain’s protein and many other nutrients are lost.
Enjoy!
]]>To make this chicken salad you will need:
You can roast your own chicken or buy an already-cooked chicken.
I like nice chunks of chicken in my salad. Start by chopping up the chicken into slightly larger than ½ inch chunks. (Not mashed up the way tuna salad ends up looking.) Put the chicken into a medium size mixing bowl.
Rinse the grapes under cool water and let them dry. Cut the grapes in half. It is a lot easier to stab them with a fork if they are cut in half. If you have bought grapes with seeds (pips) you need to pick them out. It’s a very tedious task, so be sure to buy seedless grapes.
Walnuts add a great texture and flavor to this salad. Add ½ cup of to the bowl. It is not necessary to chop them.
About ½ cup of mayonnaise will bind the salad together. Mix that in.
Give it a taste and see if it needs some salt and pepper.
Put the salad in a serving bowl and garnish with some fresh parsley and a small bunch of grapes.
There are tons of variations you can make with chicken salad.
I often mix in ½ teaspoon of curry powder to the mayonnaise before adding it to the salad.
Chopped green onion also works well with the sweetness of the grapes.
If you didn’t have grapes, you could try adding raisins or dried cranberries to the mix.
You could substitute pecans, or cashews or actually any nut for the walnuts.
If you don’t like nuts, try some chopped celery or drained and chopped water chestnuts to give your chicken salad a nice crunch.
What’s your favorite addition to Chicken Salad?
Cheers!
]]>There are three ingredients needed for this recipe: whole-berry cranberry sauce, mandarin oranges and walnuts.
Buy already shelled or chopped walnuts. (The shelled walnuts are generally bigger pieces of walnuts). Be sure to buy the “whole-berry” cranberry sauce.
Until you are ready to make this relish, store the can of the whole-berry cranberry sauce and the can of the mandarin oranges in the refrigerator. They should be really cold when you make this relish.
You need a really nice bowl, big enough to hold the cranberry sauce, oranges and about ½ cup of walnuts. You can make and serve this in the same bowl if the bowl is big enough. Or just use a medium size mixing bowl and transfer the relish into your serving bowl.
Open the can of whole berry cranberry sauce and spoon it into a bowl.
Drain the mandarin oranges in a colander and add them to the cranberries.
Now add about ½ cup of walnuts.
GENTLY stir everything together being careful not to break apart the mandarin oranges.
That’s it!
Enjoy!
]]>Bread Pudding is home cooking at its best! Chances are, you already have on hand almost all the ingredients you will need to make bread pudding: sugar, milk, bread, butter, and eggs.
Add four more ingredients – cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and raisins – and you’ve got the fixings for a wonderful dessert that everyone is going to love!
It takes just a few simple steps to make bread pudding:
Let’s startcooking!
Step 1 – Prepare the Bread
Spray a 1-and-1/2-quart baking (or casserole) dish with non-stick cooking spray. I’m using an 8x8x2 inch square baking dish.
The recipe calls for 6 ounces, in total, of hearty white bread – 4 ounces for the base and 2 ounces for the topping. (That’s about 6-to-8 slices of bread.)
With a knife, cut four ounces of the bread into cubes and put the cubed bread into the prepared dish.
Sprinkle on 1/3 cup of raisins. Set this dish aside for the moment.
Step 2 – Make the Egg Custard
Put in to a large mixing bowl:
*(For a quick review on How to Crack and Separate Eggs – click here.)
Mix everything together.
Step 3 – Combine the Bread and the Egg Custard
Pour the egg custard over the cubed bread.
With the back of a spoon, gently press the bread into the egg custard.
Let the bread pudding rest at room temperature on the counter-top, for 30 minutes. It will look like the picture below after 30 minutes.
Step 4 – Make the Bread Topping
While the pudding is resting, make the bread topping:
There are two ways to prepare the bread topping. One way is with cubed bread…..
…and the other way is with slices of bread.
I will demonstrate both ways, but I personally prefer the topping made with the slices of bread. They both taste the same but I like the crispier texture of the sliced topping. Try both approaches, and then you can decide which you prefer!
For the sliced topping, combine (in a small bowl) 1 Tablespoon of sugar with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.
Spread soft butter on the bread and sprinkle on the cinnamon sugar. Cut the bread into four pieces and….
…place it on top of the pudding.
As it cooks, it develops a nice crispy, toasted top.
*****
If you prefer a cubed topping, cube the remaining 2 ounces of bread and put it in a bowl. Sprinkle on the cinnamon sugar…
…and 1 Tablespoon of the butter, which needs to get melted first!
Toss these ingredients together with a fork.
Add the cubes to the pudding.
As it bakes, the topping develops a lovely golden color.
Step 5 – Bake the Bread Pudding
Bake the Bread Pudding in a preheated 325º F degree oven for 50-to-55 minutes.
(325º F = 165º C = gas mark 3-very moderate)
The custard should be puffed and jiggle when you wiggle the dish.
If you want an even crispier cubed or sliced topping, you could put the cooked bread pudding under the broiler for just a few minutes. (As long as the baking dish you are using is safe to put under the broiler. Pyrex dishes are not broiler safe and could possibly explode from the intense heat of the broiler!)
Let the pudding sit for 20 minutes before serving it. It will not be quite as puffed as when you took it out of the oven, but it won’t burn your mouth either!
Bread pudding should be eaten while still warm. If there are any leftovers, store it in the refrigerator. By the next day the, it will have deflated quite a bit and have developed a much heavier texture – quite different from when you first baked it.
Bread Pudding is perfect plain, but you can add all sorts of toppings – including whipped cream, butterscotch, caramel, chocolate, or bourbon sauce.
Enjoy!
]]>You will need the following ingredients:
There are many different brands of feta cheese. Some are saltier than others. You may have to try a few different brands until you find one that suits your taste! (Feta cheese is the one that is always served on a Greek Salad. I have used it on my Cold Mediterranean Plate.)
Tortillas are a Mexican, round, flat, unleavened, bread made of either corn or flour. For this recipe be sure to buy the flour tortillas. They can be found in the refrigerator section of the grocery store.
Preparation:
The green onions need to be washed. Then cut off the hairy end.
The white part has a stronger onion flavor than the green part. For this recipe I use the whole thing. Cut the green onions into thirds and line them up.
Now dice them into about 1/8 inch slices.
Put the crumbled feta cheese into a large mixing bowl.
Now add the whipped cream cheese.
And the chopped scallions.
Now all the cranberries.
Mix everything together.
Spread the mixture onto a dinner plate. Divide the mixture into four equal size piles. This way you know you have divided the filling equally and each Cranberry Roll-up will have the same amount of filling.
Using a knife spread ¼ of the mixture onto a 10 inch tortilla. If the filling is difficult to spread, dip your knife into water then try spreading the filling. (You can use the leftover flour tortillas to make Quesadillas!)
It is not necessary to spread the filling right to the very side edges. Those edges will get trimmed away later anyways in order to make perfect rounds.
Tightly roll up the tortilla.
Wrap each tortilla in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least one hour. (Or you can make them a day in advance.)
Slice off the ends about 1 inch on each side. (These are the bits that you sample!) Now cut each roll into about 10 slices. (If you cut them too thin they will fall apart.)
Arrange the slices on a serving dish and garnish (decorate) with fresh parsley or leftover green onion. Enjoy!
Source: Taste of Home
]]>Quesadillas are flour tortillas filled with a few savory ingredients. This salmon quesadilla is great for breakfast lunch or dinner!
It also has a bit of elegance and sophistication because of the wonderful combination of ingredients which are:
The one unusual ingredient is capers. They are sold in a jar and are found in the grocery store near all the condiments. They are packed in a salty brine and should be drained and rinsed. They add a tangy flavor to these quesadillas which goes really well with the salmon.
Spread 1 ½ Tablespoon of the herbed cheese on one flour tortilla. You really don’t want to put too much filling in the quesadillas or they will fall apart when you try to eat them.
Lay the tortilla in a non stick fry pan, cheese side up. Chop one ounce of smoked salmon and sprinkle it on top of the cheese.
Sprinkle the capers on top of the salmon and then add the dried dill. (Left over capers are great on a salad.)
Spread 1 ½ Tablespoons of the herbed cheese on the other tortilla.
Place the tortilla, cheese side down, in the pan. It now looks like a sandwich.
Place the pan on the stove and set it to medium heat. It will take about 1 ½ – 2 minutes for the cheese to melt and the tortilla to get lightly toasted. (If you want you can brush a bit of butter or oil on the grilled side of the tortilla to give it a nicely browned and crispy finish. It’s not really necessary)
Using a spatula, flip the quesadilla and cook that side for about another 1 ½ minutes until is it lightly browned.
Slide the whole thing onto a cutting board.
With a big kitchen knife slice it, the way you would a pizza, in half, then quarters, then 1/8s.
Enjoy!
]]>I’ve just completed a video on how to make delicious Chocolate Fudge Brownies from scratch. It is surprisingly uncomplicated and a great recipe to introduce someone to baking.
(Baking means to cook any food in an oven with dry heat – it is also used to generally refer to the art of making breads and cakes, as in baker and bakeries.)
In this post, I’ll use the same recipe to show how to present brownies in a different way, giving them a different visual appeal. The brownies are going to be made in a (12-count) muffin tin instead of using the square pan I used in the video.
Brownie cupcakes made in a muffin tin are great fun to serve at home, or bring to a party. You can buy “special occasion” muffin tins that will make shapes like hearts, flowers, pumpkins, ghosts, or Christmas trees, that can really make cupcakes the centerpiece of a celebration!
If you have never done any baking before, you will need to buy a few ingredients that may not be already standard in your food cupboard. For this recipe, that will include all purpose white flour, unsweetened cocoa powder, (not instant hot chocolate but real unsweetened cocoa powder!) and vanilla extract.
Check the video (and the recipe card above!) for step-by-step instructions on making the brownie batter.
(By the way, when making soups and stews, precise measuring is not essential. However, baked goods like cakes, breads, cookies and brownies do require precise measuring.)
To make brownie cupcakes, line the muffin tin with tinfoil or paper “cupcake liners” and then spray it with non-stick cooking spray.
Just for comparison sake, I decided to also try using a silicone muffin tray as well. You may have seen this colorful, flexible, non-stick bakeware for sale in kitchen shops. They have generally received mixed reviews. I did not line mine with the cupcake liners, but I did give it a spray with the non-stick cooking spray.
Ladle the batter into the muffin pans with a small ladle…
…or a spoon.
Try to make them all the same size. Wipe up any drips or spills on the flat part of the muffin tray. Since the (red) silicone muffin tray is flexible, it is really essential to put it on a baking sheet to bake. Otherwise, lifting it in and out of the oven will be very difficult.
Bake the muffins in a 350-degree preheated oven for approximately 20 minutes. Check to see if they are done by sticking a toothpick into the center of the brownies. When you pull it out, it should have some moist crumbs attached to it.
Be careful not to over bake your brownies!
Remove the brownies from the oven and let them cool on a wire rack.
Use a knife to gently nudge the brownies out of the silicone pan.
The brownies with the cupcake liners just lift right out of the pan.
You can server the brownies with the liner paper or not. It comes off very easily.
Many reviewers of silicone bakeware say that baked products do not brown as nicely as when you use traditional bakeware. For these brownies, there was virtually very little difference, if any, in how they turned out. If you want fun-shaped brownies, I would recommend using the silicone muffin pan, otherwise a traditional muffin tin is just fine!
The really good thing about Chocolate Brownie cupcakes is that no one fights over who has the bigger piece of brownie!
Enjoy!
]]>Some of my favorite toppings include:
Many places around the world refer to a baked potato as a “jacket potato” and use very different toppings then what people in the USA use. For example it is quite common in the UK to use baked beans or tuna salad as a topping.
What’s your favorite topping?
]]>Beer has a wealth of flavors. It is made in (and imported from) all over the world, and there are sophisticated beers from boutique or micro breweries that have developed their own unique flavors with locally-grown ingredients.
Using beer as an ingredient in cooking can add a whole new dimension of flavor to a recipe, just like adding salt or spices can. The beer flavor should not dominate, but enhance the flavors. Common usage of beer in cooking includes beer-can chicken , soups and stews, mussels and bratwurst steamed in beer, beer-battered foods that then get fried in oil, and desserts – particularly made with chocolate and Guinness. (See links below)
For the beginner cook, substitutions are very tricky and certain beers can negatively alter the appearance, as well as the flavor of the recipe. For example, using a stout for beer-battered recipes can turn the batter an unappealing shade of grey. Do be careful with substitutions. If the recipe specifically says what type of beer you should use, then do not substitute it for another beer. (For example, my recipe for Guinness Stout Beef Stew is based on using stout beer not light beer or ale.)
What about the alcohol?
According to our friend Kevin Wagner (a frequent contributor to this blog):
“Alcohol boils at 172 degrees, so any cooking you do with any kind of alcoholic beverage won’t leave any alcohol in the food once it’s done. It all evaporates off early and fast. So, you can serve/use any of these recipes/techniques for the whole family including kids and others who may be sensitive to such things.
Plus, there’s not that much alcohol in beer to begin with; it’s mostly water. The tricks you see in some food presentations where they flambé things (French for “set on fire”) only work if they pour concentrated alcohol (usually brandy) on right at your table and light it immediately, and you’ll notice it goes out very quickly as the fuel is consumed so fast.
The truth is, beer doesn’t have enough alcohol in it to burn. But, it does taste good, so here are some useful things you can do to share the wealth.”
Beer recipes
Beer-Can Chicken is one of those odd inventions that seems to have developed a life of its own. The basic premise is to stand a chicken up on an empty beer can and cook it standing up.
For beginner cooks, I would rate the “Degree of Difficulty” on all Beer-Can Chicken recipes as “med-high,” as most involve firing up a barbecue grill in addition to preparing the chicken.
Crepes of Wrath has a great photo-tutorial on how to make Beer-Can Chicken
If you don’t have a barbecue, you can make beer can chicken in your oven.
Cooking for Engineers shows us how to make Smoked Beer-Can Turkey. This recipe would be a fabulous change of pace for Thanksgiving dinner!
Chocolate and chili sounds unusual but it’s quite a popular flavor combination. Jen has what looks like a fabulous Chocolate Stout Chili photo-tutorial that is also made with jalapenos. If you know how to brown beef, chop an onion, cut jalapenos, and mince garlic, this recipe is for you!
Sausage cooked in beer is easy, quick and delicious.
Baking with Beer
Beer breads are generally described as “quick breads” as they use baking powder or baking soda to rise instead of yeast and take a lot less time to make. I did an Irish Bread video that is also a quick bread. Have a look at that video to see if quick breads are something you are ready to tackle.
The ingredients for beer bread are simple; flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and beer are the basics. You can then add all sorts of herbs/cheese to fit your taste.
Farmgirl Fare has a really good basic recipe called Beyond Easy Beer Bread Recipe: A Warm Crusty Loaf In Under An Hour. She also gives all sorts of variations including adding shredded cheddar cheese and dill, or garlic and herbs, or rosemary and feta cheese, etc.
Epicurious has a really simple recipe using just the basic ingredients as well. They use 3 Tablespoons of sugar whereas Farmgirl uses only 1 Tablespoon of sugar. Neither recipe specifies what kind of beer to use, which is a pity.
As with all baking, measuring must be precise!
My Chocolate Cake For Beginners is made with Guinness.
This moist, rich, dense, chocolate cake is one that you will want to make again and again. (Here is the Metric Recipe.)
Serving Beer
We all know that pairing certain foods with certain wines makes perfect sense. The same is true with beer. The right pairing of beer and food can make a huge difference to the taste of the meal. For example, as the NBWA says; “light ales and lagers go well with spicy Mexican, Indian, and Caribbean cuisine while brown ale beers go well with steak or roast beef. Just as nuts like walnuts and hazelnuts and potatoes roasted with garlic and rosemary go well with stout, dark ale.”
If you have used beer as an ingredient in the meal, you may want to serve that beer at your dinner party as well.
******
I would like to stress that I am not a beer drinker. I do hope that some of my readers that have had experience cooking with beer will jump in and help with any questions or comments.
**I would also like to thank Kevin Wagner for inspiring this post and Jessica Howard for her input!
]]>Sometimes, when you are eating a salad, you just need to throw caution to the wind and add a bit of Fried Goat Cheese to make it a real splurge!
Chevre (which is French for goat’s cheese) is made either from all goat’s milk or a combination of goat’s and cow’s milk. Brands of goat cheese differ by their taste and texture. Some are more tart than others, and the texture can go from moist and creamy to dry and semi-firm. The shape can vary as well. You can buy it in a cylinder, pyramid, cone or disk shape. For today’s recipe, buy the cylinder.
Step one is to cut the cheese into even disks. I am going to cut this 4-ounce cylinder into six disks. Amazingly enough, dental floss works much better than a knife to cut this cheese.
Rip off a piece of floss about 12 inches long.
Slide the dental floss under the cylinder at the half way point.
Criss-cross the strand of floss over the cheese.
Now gently pull the two sides together.
You get a perfect slice every time!
To make cutting it with a knife a bit easier, you could freeze the cylinder of goat cheese for about 15 minutes.
Once the cheese is evenly sliced, it needs to get breaded. (You may recall this process was done in my Chicken Cutlet video as well as my posts on Eggplant Parmesan and Fish Fingers.)
Set out three dishes; one for the flour, one for the egg and one for the bread crumbs.
Add about 1 Tablespoon of water to the egg and – with a fork or a mini whisk – blend together the egg and water.
Dredge the cheese disk in the flour first, being sure to shake off any excess flour.
Now, dunk it in the egg and water mixture.
Then roll the cheese disk in the bread crumbs so that it is totally encased in the breading.
Perfect!
These will take about 4 minutes in total to fry, so get your salad prepared first.
I’m making my salad with some salad greens, cherry tomatoes, and some oil and vinegar dressing. You can use any washed greens you like for this salad.
Preheat a fry pan on medium-high heat. (I’m only making six rounds so I’m using a small frying pan. If you are making this full recipe you will need a 9 inch pan to fit all of the cheese disks in comfortably.)
Let the oil heat up until is looks shimmery and then add the cheese rounds – carefully!
Fry them for about 2 minutes or until they are golden brown. Then gently turn them over either with a pair of tongs or a spatula. Be careful not to burst the breading or the cheese may well ooze out!
Once browned on both sides, place the fried goat cheese on a plate lined with a paper towel so that the excess oil can drain off.
Now top your beautiful salad with the fried goat cheese.
Enjoy!
]]>When buying ground beef, there are many different levels of fat content to choose from. How to Buy and Store Ground Beef (blog post) will help you figure that one out!
I always keep a pound of ground beef in the freezer. It can be easily defrosted and made into many different things including:
Tex-Mex Burgers (video)
Regular Hamburgers (blog post)
Sweet and Sour Meatballs (video)
and Meatloaf! (video)
Once you have browned and drained the ground beef, there are tons of things you can make with the cooked ground beef, including my all time favorite Sante Fe Chili (video).
Or for a much quicker chili recipe, try my 2 Alarm Chili (blog post)
English Muffin Pizzas (video) are a great snack or a meal.
If you are feeling adventurous, try some Lasagna with Meat Sauce (blog post).
To make this, follow the directions in my Lasagna Video but skip the spinach step.
Lastly, Taco Salad (blog post) could easily be my new favorite salad! In the 20 minutes this takes to cook you can be preparing the salad (video). Taco Salad is surprisingly filling and even non-salad lovers are going to love this recipe!
Cheers!
]]>Macaroni and Cheese lovers have many differing opinions on what is the perfect way to make this classic dish. Baked is my favorite. Many other people prefer the Stove-top version, while others stick to a Box-Mix. Different skill levels are needed to make each version, with the Baked generally being the most complicated and time consuming to prepare. But it’s oh so good!
This recipe for Baked Macaroni and Cheese is based on first making a white sauce (in French it’s called béchamel), then adding shredded cheese. There are some simpler “baked recipes” which do not require making a white sauce first, but personally,I have yet to find one I like.
I’ll go over some of the many recipe variations on Baked Macaroni and Cheese at the end of this post.
This version will take approximately 30 minutes to prepare and another 30 minutes to cook.
There are several steps necessary to make Baked Macaroni and Cheese. You will need to be able to:
Be sure to get all the ingredients measured and prepared before turning on the stove!
A complete list of ingredients is in the recipe; here is a photo of what you will need:
Preparing the ingredients
a) Measure out the macaroni: 8 ounces = 2 cups = 1/2 box
b) Shred 12 ounces of sharp cheddar cheese
c) Mince (that means to chop really fine) 1/2 cup of yellow onion
d) Measure (precisely) 3 Tablespoons of flour, 3 Tablespoons of butter, 3 cups of milk, 1 tablespoon of powdered mustard, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1/8 teaspoon of black pepper
The flour, butter and milk must be measured accurately. Those three ingredients are the base of a béchamel (white sauce) to which we will then add the mustard, salt and pepper and the cheese. The ratio of the flour, butter and the milk will affect the outcome of your Mac and Cheese. (Too much milk and it will be runny, too much flour and it will too dry)
Bread Crumb Topping
Make the bread crumb topping by trimming off the crusts of 4 slices of bread, and then cut the bread into crumbs.
Melt 2 Tablespoons of butter.
In a medium bowl, combine the butter and bread crumbs.
Set this aside for now.
Cooking the Macaroni
Follow the directions on the box of the macaroni YOU purchased. Elbow style is traditional, but any small-to-medium size pasta would work as well. To review how to cook pasta, check out my video on How to Cook Pasta.
Putting it all Together
While the pasta is cooking, melt 3 tablespoons of the butter over very low heat in a separate medium size pot.
Whisk in the flour and…
…keep it moving for about one minute, making sure it’s free of lumps.
Whisk in the mustard, salt and pepper, milk…
…and the minced onion.
Simmer for about seven to ten minutes until the mixture is thickened and smooth, stirring often.
The next step-adding an egg- can be a bit tricky. You need to “temper” the egg first. That means to warm it up so that it does not just turn into scrambled eggs when you add it to the thickened, hot, milk mixture (béchamel).
The egg will make the Mac and Cheese smoother and creamier. I have tried this recipe with and without adding the egg and it does affect the texture of the final recipe.
In a medium bowl, beat one egg.
Warm the egg by drizzling in, very slowly, 2-3 Tablespoons of the thickened milk mixture. Continue to wisk the mixture as you drizzle. (You can use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to scoop out the sauce from the pan.)
Now add the egg mixture to the pot. Stir in the cheese.
Fold the cooked and drained macaroni into the mix
Pour everything into a 2-quart casserole dish. (My dish is a Pyrex dish measuring 8 inches square by 2 inches high.) It should be very “soupy” at this point. Don’t worry, it will firm up in the oven.
Top the macaroni with the bread crumbs.
Bake for 30 minutes in a 350 degree preheated oven. Remove from oven and rest for five minutes before serving.
Variations
As I said at the very beginning, there are many variations to this classic dish. Many recipes use a combination of three or four cheeses. Each affects the final taste and texture. (One very famous recipe uses American cheese for a smoother consistency. That recipe was, by far, MY least favorite as I found the American cheese flavor overpowers the entire dish.)
There are also many options on the type of bread crumbs which you can use. I use fresh bread crumbs as it is the most traditional. Japanese-style Panko crumb topping seems to be gaining quite a bit in popularity.
There are many people who like to add extras like: salami, ham, browned ground beef, hot dogs (which I’m told kids love), crumbled cooked bacon, hot sauce, paprika, parsley, chopped canned tomatoes, butternut squash, salsa, etc….
Baked Macaroni is an American Classic. Everyone has a favorite.
What’s yours?
]]>Sweet and Sour Cabbage goes extremely well with Pork Roast, Leg of Lamb, Ham or Roasted Chicken. You can eat it either hot or cold.
Pick up a small head of red cabbage at the grocery store. There are scales in the produce section of most grocery stores for weighing vegetables. This recipe calls for one pound of shredded cabbage. Also get 1 large onion, and a green Granny Smith apple.
You may already have raisins, (brown or white) sugar, caraway seeds, and red wine vinegar in your food cupboard. If not, then pick those ingredients up at the grocery store as well.
Shredding, Slicing and Chopping
The head of cabbage needs to get shredded. If you have never done this before, have a quick look at my post on How to Cut Cabbage.
Slice the onion by cutting it in half, and removing the skin. Then begin slicing from the top to the root end.
Chop the apple by first peeling off the skin then make four cut around the core of the apple. Chop the apple. (My Apple Crisp video shows several ways to peel and core apples.)
Measure out the red wine vinegar, water, caraway seeds, sugar (white or brown) and raisins.
In a large Dutch oven or stainless steel pot, add the vinegar water, caraway seeds, and sugar.
On Medium heat cook these ingredients until the liquid is hot and the sugar is melted.
Add the cabbage, onion, apple and raisins to the pot.
Mix everything together.
Cover the pot. Turn the heat down to simmer. Simmer for 30-40 minutes.
Stir the cabbage. If there is still liquid on the bottom…
…turn the temperature up to high heat and boil the liquid off until the cabbage is dry. That should only take about one minute.
Season the cabbage with salt and freshly ground pepper to your taste, and enjoy!
]]>The photo below shows four of the more common varieties found here in the USA.
The Napa cabbage on the far left is also sometimes known as Chinese cabbage although, technically speaking, Chinese cabbage does have a longer, more cylindrical shape than the Napa cabbage. This cabbage looks somewhat like a head of a Romaine lettuce, with really tightly packed leaves. The two cabbages in the middle are green cabbage (on the top) and Savoy cabbage on the bottom. And finally, on the far right is a red cabbage.
Before cutting cabbage, a few words of caution:
Use a stainless steel knife:
The chemicals naturally occurring in the cabbage will react with metal other than stainless steel, and turn both the knife and the cabbage black.
Stabilize your cutting board:
It can be very dangerous if your cutting board slides around the counter while you are trying to slice something. To stop a slippery board, wet a paper towel and squeeze out the excess moisture. Spread the paper towel out on the countertop and lay your cutting board on top of it.
This will stabilize the cutting board.
****
To cut the Napa (Chinese cabbage), cut the bottom off and then just peel away the cabbage leaves or leave it whole and slice it into shreds.
The Green, Savoy and red cabbage are a different story. When you cut these round, heavy, firm, dense heads of cabbage, you will discover a very thick core that needs to be removed.
First remove any brown or wilted leaves on the very outside of the cabbage.
Then cut the cabbage in half, right through the stem.
This thick stem needs to get removed.
Cut the “half” in half again.
This is now 1/4 of the head of cabbage.
Place the flat side of the cabbage down and cut the core out.
Once the core removed, throw it out. It is too tough and fibrous to eat.
To shred cabbage, place the flat side of the cabbage down on the board and start making long, thin, slices into the cabbage. Be sure to keep your fingers bent when you are doing any slicing.
The core of the Savoy (shown below) and that of the green cabbage is removed the same way I demonstrated with the red cabbage.
Slicing any of the cabbages is much easier if the cabbage is crisp and cold from the refrigerator.
Green cabbage is the base for many coleslaw recipes. It is available pre-shredded at the grocery store. I used the pre-shredded for my Ramen Noodle Crunchy Coleslaw.
Sweet and Sour Cabbage (shown below) is a great side dish to serve with Roasted Pork, Leg of Lamb or Glazed ham.
Cabbage Soup (shown below) is thick, hearty, full of flavor, and perfect for the beginner cook.
Cheers!
]]>When making individual servings, it is really important to have the right size dish. A flat, shallow dish, like a Creme Brulee dish is perfect.
These dishes measure about 4 inches wide by 6 inches long and 1 inch high. Be sure the dish you choose is oven-safe!
To make two servings of Apple Crisp, follow the Apple Crisp Video directions.
For the ingredient you will need:
In the video I mixed the topping either with a pastry blender or two knives. Here I just used my fingers and it worked beautifully!
The topping should end up looking like the photo below.
Peel and core the apples. (The video shows 4 different ways to core an apple!) Then slice the apples and put them in the individual baking dishes.
Sprinkle the topping on the apples. (Yes, I do like lots of topping!)
Many recipes add oatmeal to the topping which does give it a wonderful texture.
Be sure to place the Apple Crisps on a baking sheet before putting it into the oven. Just in case it bubbles over!
It will only take about 30 minutes for the apples to become tender and juicy.
Serve the Apple Crisp right in the individual baking dishes as is or with some vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
Enjoy!
]]>Apples like Granny Smiths and Braeburns are usually available worldwide, but many other varieties are only available locally.
Different kinds of apples vary in taste and texture, which determine what they are used for. Apples are basically divided into three categories:
Many stores have signs telling you how best to use the apples.
If you are unsure which ones to buy ask the Produce Person for help.
When cooking things like apple pie or apple crisp (video) the apples should end up being tender and soft to the bite, but still retain their shape. If you choose to cook with apples that are described just as *eating* apples, the recipe probably won’t come out that great. The apples may turn to a watery mush.
Apples used for cooking versus apples that you eat for a snack, vary considerably in how sweet or tart they are.
Granny Smiths are too tart for me to eat but I love cooking with them. Braeburns are both tart and sweet and crisp and are great for eating and cooking.
Cooking apples, like Bramley, Newton Wonder, and Grenadier (English varieties) are very sour and basically used just for cooking.
(In my Apple Crisp Video I demonstrate all the various ways one can core an apple.)
There are many ways to core an apple. You could slice around the core with a large knife.
Or you could use a melon baler to scoop out the core.
Or you could use an official apple corer. This odd looking utensil gets pushed down into the apple. (Be sure to leave the apple on the cutting board or you might end up coring the palm of your hand!)
Then you just pull out the core.
While people have preferences for different kinds, everybody loves apples!
Cheers!
]]>In the movie Ratatouille, the little chef Remy rejoiced in discovering the pleasures of combining certain foods to maximize their flavors. He would have certainly done his happy dance after trying this Pear and Blue Cheese Salad!
When brought together on one plate, the five simple ingredients used in this recipe create an explosion of taste and texture that put it in my top five list of the best salads ever!
As true with many salads, you can adjust the amounts according to your tastes. To make enough for two people, I’m using:
You can choose your favorite variety of pears, just make sure that it is really (really!) ripe.
I used Stilton blue cheese. There are many varieties of blue cheese available at the grocery store, all with a slightly different flavor; some much stronger than others. The price of blue cheese can vary dramatically depending on where it is from. If in doubt as to which one to buy, ask the person in charge of the cheese counter to explain them. They may even offer you a taste test!
Whole pecans look nice on the plate, but you can use chopped pecans as well.
A simple vinaigrette salad dressing is all you need for this salad. You can make it yourself or buy your favorite brand.
Slice the pear in half and remove the core. I used a small paring knife and a melon baller to remove the core.
Once the core is removed, you can cut the pear into slices or chunks. To add a bit of a fancy touch to the look, I cut the pear into slices, leaving 1/4 inch at the top uncut. You can then fan the pear out on the plate.
Assemble the salad right on the individual serving plate. Start with the lettuce, then add the pears. Crumble the blue cheese and dot it around the plate, then sprinkle on the pecans. Finally, drizzle on some salad dressing.
You can serve this salad with some crusty bread and a glass of wine.
Lunch is ready!
Enjoy!
]]>This rice salad is garnished with mandarin oranges and pecans, and is served with hard cooked eggs, herring (from a jar) or salmon, and rye crackers or bread with butter. It is a fabulous lunch or a light supper.
This dish requires very little cooking, and it can all be done in advance. For 4-6 servings you will need about 3 cups of cooked rice and 4-6 hard cooked eggs.
(You can make your own rice or you can use any leftover plain white rice you might have from an Indian or Chinese take-out meal that you had the day before.)
Make the dressing for the rice first.
Combine:
½ cup plain yogurt (I use Greek yogurt)
2 tablespoons of rice vinegar
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 tablespoon of dried dill
Rice Vinegar has a very mild flavor. You could use plain white vinegar, but I would definitely use less. (Maybe only 2 teaspoons!)
Add the rice to the dressing, then add:
3 tablespoons of chopped parsley
3 tablespoons of chopped green onion
And a sprinkle of salt and pepper
This all can get done in advance.
When you are ready to serve your rice salad, be sure to assemble each plate in the kitchen, and present the plate as a done deal. Don’t put all the separate bits into serving dishes and let everyone help themselves. Each plate should have lots of eye appeal!
Put a spoonful of rice on the plate.
Garnish with some drained, cold, mandarin oranges and some pecans.
Cut the hard cooked egg into wedges and add to the plate.
Drain the herring from the jar and add that too!
Use some of the leftover parsley for extra garnish.
I hope you enjoy this as much as I do!
Cheers!
]]>One of my favorite cold plates is the English “Ploughman’s Lunch.” Many years ago, my English husband introduced me to a this delicious meal along with a “Shandy” (1/2 beer and 1/2 lemonade) to wash it all down.
The great thing about a Ploughman’s lunch is that is takes less than 10 minutes to prepare!
It consists of a bit of mixed salad, crusty bread and butter, a wedge of sharp cheddar cheese, and Branston pickle, which is a sort of relish or chutney. Many Americans have never heard of Branston pickle. But if you look in the international section of the grocery store I’ll bet you’ll find it, nestled between the “mushy peas” and PG Tips tea.
Branston Pickle was first introduced in 1922 by Cross and Blackwell, in England of course. The actual recipe is still a secret! It has this really unique spicy, sweet, tangy flavor, that when combined with cheddar cheese and bread, you have yourself a little bit of heaven. You can vary proportions to your taste. Substitutes are allowed but watch out if you have any English people at your meal!
When I serve this at home, the only difference is that I usually stick to just the lemonade to wash it down. Otherwise, a siesta would be on the menu as well!
Cheers!
P.S.
Be sure to also check out my recipe for Cold Rice Salad Plate. Everyone loves the unique blend of flavors in this recipe!
]]>The mighty pineapple is really easy to slice, as long as you have a big sharp knife.
Start by removing the top
Then the bottom
With the pineapple sitting firmly on the cutting board, start slicing off the outer layer of skin.
Then cut it into slices.
Trim out the very center as it tends to be very tough to chew.
The juicy, sweet, and tangy flavor makes it a great addition to fruit salads or fruit kabobs.
If you are making a gelatin fruit salad (Jell-O!) you have to use canned pineapple. The natural enzymes in fresh (and frozen) pineapple do not allow the gelatin to set.
Be sure to buy pineapples that have crisp green leaves and feels uniformly soft to the touch. Specific soft spots means the pineapple has started to go off.
Pineapples do not continue to ripen, or get any sweeter off the vine. Uncut, kept at room temperature, the acidity levels will decrease.
Be sure to wrap up leftovers tightly in plastic wrap. They should last about 3 days in the refrigerator.
]]>All it takes is just 5 ingredients:
The hardest part is that before you get to dig in, the pie has to set (get firm) in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours before serving it!
***
There are many pre-made crumb pie crusts available at the grocery store, including ones made from graham crackers or from chocolate wafers.
If you are up to making your own crumb pie crust, all the better! I have done a photo-tutorial on How to Make a Graham Cracker Pie Crust. You can choose which crumb crust you would prefer, depending on your cooking skill level.
***
Start by finely chopping 12 ounces of bittersweet chocolate. (A serrated edge knife actually works the best for chopping both chocolate and nuts.) Put the chocolate into a heat-proof glass bowl or a metal bowl.
Now measure out 1/2 cup of the heavy cream (the remaining cup is going to get whipped!) and 1/4 cup (which is 4 tablespoons) of corn syrup.
You can buy either light or dark corn syrup. In this recipe I am using the dark (which has a more robust flavor), but you can use the light if that’s what you have on hand.
For those of you who live in parts of the world where corn syrup is not readily available, there is a fabulous description of liquid sweeteners and the appropriate substitutions at Cooks’ Thesaurus.
Add the cream to the finely chopped chocolate…
…and the corn syrup.
These three ingredients need to get melted together on top of simmering water.
In a medium sauce pan, bring about 2 inches of water to a simmer. (A simmer is when you see small bubbles on the bottom of the pan.)
Set the chocolate mixture on top of the simmering water. The water itself should not be touching the bottom of the bowl that the chocolate mixture is in.
Give the chocolate an occasional stir.
Do not remove it from the stove until the chocolate is totally melted. This will take only a few minutes at most.
Remove the chocolate from the stove and let it cool for about 5-10 minutes.
***
In a another bowl, beat the remaining 1 cup of heavy cream…
…until stiff peaks are formed. (For a quick review on whipping cream, check out my post on How to Make Whipped Cream)
Set the bowl of whipped cream aside for just a moment.
With your electric hand mixer, beat in the softened cream cheese to the cooled melted chocolate mixture.
Using a rubber spatula (not the electric hand mixer!), the whipped cream needs to get folded into the chocolate mixture. This lightens the chocolate mixture resulting in the perfect taste and texture for the final pie.
Folding is a technical cooking term that means to combine generally a lighter ingredient (the whipped cream) into a heavier ingredient (the chocolate mixture) by first placing the lighter mixture on top of the heavier mixture. Then vertically cutting through both ingredients in the center of the bowl, across the bottom and back up the side, across the top and …well that just sounds way more complicated than it is! Check out this video at Expert Village on How to Fold!
By the time you have finished folding all the ingredients will have a uniform look.
The filling is now ready to pour into the prepared pie shell.
This pie will take a good 3-4 hours minimum to set in the refrigerator. Once it does, it will develop a perfect “Cheese Cake” consistency, which no one can resist!
Enjoy!
]]>Start by cooking the rice (video) according to the directions on the box of rice.
It is important that the rice be cold when you mix everything together otherwise the rice will clump together. If you spread the cooked rice out on a plate it will cool down faster.
Next make the dressing by combining:
I have used the same measuring cup for the oil and vinegar and I am going to mix the dressing ingredients together in my measuring cup.
It will look like this (below) when it is all blended together.
Set the dressing aside while you prepare the remaining ingredients.
You will need:
Shred the cheese and the carrot.
Dice a red (or green) pepper by first removing the core and seeds. (There is a wonderful illustration of this in my Vegetable and Dip video). Then cut the pepper into strips and start dicing.
For the apple, remove the core (video) and dice that as well.
Remove the stems from the parsley and chop it up.
Now all the ingredients have been prepared.
Put everything in a large bowl and…
… mix everything together.
Be sure to refrigerate this rice salad until you are ready to eat it. Enjoy!
]]>It happens each year around the same time. Summer heat arrives and then – bam! – a bushel of zucchini lands on your doorstep, courtesy of a neighbor trying to offload their backyard bounty.
Or, maybe zucchini is just one of those vegetables you have no idea how to cook.
Well, the good news is, you don’t even have to cook it; it’s great raw in many dishes. And because it kind of has a split personality, you can use it in everything from stir-fries to cupcakes.
Bright green zucchini squash is part of the gourd family. Along with its yellow cousin, the summer squash, it is considered both a fruit and a vegetable. The fact that zucchini contains seeds makes it a fruit, but it is used as a vegetable in most recipes.
Look for zucchini that’s about 4-6 inches long, and looks firm and shiny with no breaks or cracks. Large, older fruit will be tough and bitter; the best way to use very large zucchini is in zucchini bread.
It can be kept in the fridge for up to one week. When you’re ready to use it, wash the zucchini, then slice both ends off. If the skin of the zucchini has been waxed (to extend its shelf-life), peel the skin, but leave the skin on if it’s unwaxed. Larger zucchini should be peeled first because the skin can be bitter. Golden zucchini blossoms, the flowers on the zucchini plant (pictured below), are also edible. They can be battered and deep-fried, baked, stuffed or used as a garnish for high-class dining!
Zucchini is a great source of vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber. It’s high in water content, has only 20 calories per cup and is low in saturated fat and cholesterol.
One of my favorite vegetables, fresh corn on the cob, is in season in the USA from May to September.
When buying corn, the husks (outer green covering) should be bright green and fit snugly around the ear of corn. The kernels should be in tight rows right to the tip of the ear of corn, and be plump and milky (if you accidently pop one!).
While in the grocery store, it is perfectly acceptable to peel back the outer green husk to check and see if the corn looks OK.
You should peel the husk off the corn just before you cook it. To do so, peel back the husk, hold the peeled ear of corn in one hand, the husk and stalk in the other and then snap off the stalk.
To remove the “silk” (the white hairy threads just under the husk) wet a paper towel and wipe down the corn – from the tip to the stalk end. Be sure to totally remove all the silk as it is really not pleasant to serve corn on the cob with the silky threads still attached.
Once the husk and silk have been removed from the corn, it is officially “shucked”.
I am going to show you three ways to cook corn on the cob:
You can also cook corn in a pressure cooker which is quick and (many people tell me) quite simple to do, but I still have yet to buy a pressure cooker.
Note:
Be sure to have a look in the comment section below as many experienced cooks have added some great suggestions on how they cook corn.
Cooking corn in the microwave is my preferred method. I am not too fond of pots of boiling water heating up my kitchen on a hot summer day.
This method is good when you are cooking only 2 or 3 ears of corn. If you are cooking more, you should choose one of the other cooking methods or do it in batches in the microwave.
Place the corn in a microwave safe dish and add about 2 Tablespoons of water to the dish.
Cover the dish with plastic wrap, making sure to leave a small opening (a steam vent) in the corner to let the steam escape.
Microwave the corn on high for 4-to-6 minutes – depending on the strength of your microwave.
Carefully remove the plastic wrap from the corn. There will be a lot of very hot steam escaping, so you probably should use a pair of tongs to remove the plastic wrap.
Place the shucked corn in a large pot. Cover it with COLD tap water. Cover the pot and set it on the stove. Bring the pot to a boil. Once the pot has reached a boil, the corn is cooked.
Fill a large pot half way with COLD water. There should be enough water in the pot so that when you add the corn, it is covered with water but not overflowing.
Bring the pot of COLD water to a boil. Using a pair of tongs, carefully drop each ear of corn into the pot.
Cover the pot and return the water to a boil.
Boil the corn for 5-7 minutes or until done.
How do I know when it’s cooked?
The cooking times listed above are general cooking times. Some people eat corn raw, and some dunk it in boiling water for 30 seconds to just heat it slightly. The simplest answer is to taste the corn to see if it cooked to your liking. Over-cooked corn does become really tough and it is also pretty rough on the digestive track!
Should I add Salt or Sugar to the cooking water?
Corn is naturally sweet. Some people add 1-2 teaspoons of sugar to the cooking water to sweeten it even more. That’s totally up to you!
Salt, on the other hand, should not be added to the cooking water as it will toughen the corn. Sprinkle it on after the corn is cooked.
Ice Bath:
When blanching vegetables, like asparagus, you plunge the partially cooked asparagus into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process.
If you are cooking the corn for other uses than eating it off the cob, you may be tempted to submerge it in a bowl of icy water to cool it off. Don’t! It will cool the corn off BUT it will also turn your corn very soggy.
Storage:
Cook and eat corn on the cob the same day as you buy it.
To freeze fresh corn on the cob you must remove the corn from the cob first. It can be cooked or uncooked when you remove it from the cob to freeze. To remove the corn from the cob, a serrated knife works best.
Corn can be frozen for up to six months.
Corn Holders:
I really like these things! They do come in all shapes and sizes. You just jam them in either end of the corn cob. If the corn is really hot, they protect your fingers. They also have other uses. I actually used the big ones in the photo below to help peel a mango!
Buttering Corn:
One way to butter corn is to slide the corn in a circular motion over a stick of butter. Alas, the whole family really has to agree to this method!
Or you could butter a piece of bread and roll the corn in the slice of bread.
Or, you can of course just dab a bit of butter on each piece with your dinner knife and then sprinkle on some salt and…
Enjoy!
]]>How Hot Is It?: Startcooking.com’s Chili Chart with video
Jalapenos Stuffed with Sausage
*****
Hot peppers can add a delightful zing to lots of different dishes. There are many varieties available at your grocery store. Not only do they come in different sizes, colors and shape, but they all pack a different punch! Heat index is the official term for judging how hot a chili pepper is.
Today, I’m going to be working with just jalapeño peppers. These are mid-range in the heat index.
The safety precautions I’m going to talk about apply to the handling of all hot peppers.
Jalapeño peppers are (obviously) spelled with a “j”, but pronounced as an “h.” They can be purchased fresh in the produce department, or in cans and jars in the dry goods aisle.
Bottled or canned jalapenos are pickled, which means they are preserved in a vinegar mixture. The added vinegar in the peppers will alter the taste slightly. Nevertheless they are still a great substitute if the fresh ones are not available.
If a recipe calls for a pepper to be seeded, this just means you have to remove the seeds and veins. While it is actually the seeds and the veins that cause all the heat, the oils in the peppers can irritate your skin. Some people (including me!) always wear rubber gloves when seeding and chopping hot peppers.
To remove the seeds and veins, cut the pepper in half with a paring knife. Then just cut away the veins and the seeds.
A very clever way to remove the seeds is with a melon baller. (A melon baller has several other uses in addition to make melon balls. It is also great at removing an apple core! Who knew?
After cutting the chili in half, hold the stem end down, and roll the melon baller from the tip back to the stem end. The veins and seeds all come out in one swift motion.
You can then cut the peppers into thin strips or a fine “dice” (small 1/8 inch bits.)
Or use them to make some Jalapenos Stuffed with Sausage.
When you are finished, always wash your hands well with soap and water. After touching a jalapeno, be careful not to touch or rub your eyes, (or stick your fingers in your mouth or up your nose.) The oils will really burn!
By the way, if you eat a really hot chili and it’s burning the inside of your mouth, don’t gulp down water!!!! The best way to ease the symptoms is to drink milk or eat yogurt. Dairy products contain a substance which disrupts the burning. All water does is to spread the oils around your mouth — which sure isn’t going to help.
Incidentally, red jalapeño peppers are the same as the green ones, except they are left on the vine longer to ripen. They are sweeter but, surprisingly, not hotter than the green ones.
Cheers!
PS
Oops! Almost forgot to mention bell peppers.
These peppers have a wonderful taste and texture but are not hot. They are great eaten raw in salads or on a platter with other cut veggies and some dip.
Cook up some rice, brown some ground beef and in just a few more short steps you can have Stuffed Peppers for dinner tonight!
Enjoy!
]]>
Chicken and Wild Rice Salad (video)
But, alas, your family has to eat. Telling them that salad is on the menu will probably elicit cold stares. The meat-and-potatoes camp will surely mutiny when faced with a pile of rabbit food. That’s why we’re talking about hearty, satisfying (and meaty) meal salads. These make-ahead salads are easy to prepare and will get you out of a steamy kitchen at the hottest time of the day.
Presto, Dinner is Served!
Even without a recipe, you can create your own meal salad by adding some of the following ingredients to a bed of lettuce and other vegetables. Leftover pasta, rice or couscous can also be the basis of a meal salad.
Meal Salad Recipes
The weather is great, and we’re grilling like mad! Once you’ve bought or thawed some ground beef (go for the kind with 20 per cent fat), make up some delicious hamburger patties! Even if you’ve got a super recipe for hamburger patties, it’s nice to go beyond the basic cheeseburger, bacon cheeseburger, or pattie-lettuce-and-tomato combination. Try some of these variations on the classic burger.
Enjoy!
P.S. Did you know that the month of May is National hamburger month?
]]>At its most basic level, vinaigrette is just a combination of oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Adding mustard is the secret ingredient that will help bind (emulsify) everything together.
To make a basic vinaigrette you need to combine:
Mix these four ingredients together and then slowly add:
This will make enough for about 6 servings of salad dressing. As long as you haven’t added any fresh herbs, it should keep for about 3 weeks, stored in a jar in the refrigerator. (You will need to give it a good shake before you use it!)
The Equipment
As a first step, you have to decide how you want to go about blending these ingredients together. You could use a bowl and a whisk, a jar, or a blender.
The (clean!) jar method is probably the simplest. Put the mustard, vinegar, salt and pepper in a jar and just shake it up. Add the oil in 3 stages and shake it well after each addition. This will help it stay blended together.
The blender method is basically the same. Put the mustard, vinegar, salt and pepper in the blender and mix it up really well. Then drizzle in the oil in a slow steady stream. You can remove the inner plug on the blender cover to drizzle in the oil. Some blenders will “spit” back at you when you remove the inner plug. You may have to hold your other hand over the hole leaving just a tiny space open to drizzle in the oil.
If you are making vinaigrette in a bowl with a whisk, you need to make sure the bowl doesn’t slide all over the counter top while you are slowly adding the oil. Unless you have three hands, the solution is to make a collar for the bowl out of a dish towel. Fold a damp dish towel into a log and then into a circle. Sit the bowl on the top of the circle to hold it steady.
Now one hand can hold the whisk while the other hand drizzles in the oil!
The Ingredients
The Mustard: use a nice – preferably French – mustard. A grainy mustard would work just fine as well. (Bright yellow mustard, which is great on Hot Dogs, would work but not taste as good as a French mustard.)
The Vinegar: Red wine vinegar would be the classic choice. You could also try fruit vinegars or herb-infused vinegar. White vinegar would give your vinaigrette too harsh of a flavor. Malt vinegar is never used for a vinaigrette. You can substitute lemon, lime or orange juice for the vinegar.
The Oil: Olive oil would be the preferred choice.
Many people add shallots, dried or fresh herbs, and even poppy seeds to their vinaigrette. Just remember that if you have added shallots or fresh herbs your vinaigrette should be used with in a few days of making it. Cheers!
]]>You should always have a few boxes of pasta in the cupboard. It keeps for a long time, and is always good for an emergency meal when you can’t think of anything else to make!
Stock up on pasta when it goes on sale and buy all different shapes and sizes. Be sure to always have some olive oil on hand as well.
For this recipe you really need to use fresh garlic and fresh lemons and fresh parsley. Garlic powder, dried parsley and lemon juice from a jar just won’t cut it in this recipe.
Start cooking your pasta according to the directions on the package.
While the pasta is cooking you need to do 5 things:
Peel and mince 2 cloves of garlic.
Grate about 1/3 cup of parmesan cheese.
Wash 2 lemons. Before juicing the lemons, we need to remove tiny shreds off the peel of the lemon. This is known as lemon zest. You can use a grater or a knife and just cut the zest into really tiny bits.
Be sure to only use the yellow part of the lemon peel. The white part tastes bitter.
Now juice the lemon. We actually need 4 Tablespoons of lemon juice.
Then chop about 1/2 cup of fresh parsley.
Once the pasta is cooked, remove one cup of the cooking water.
Then drain the pasta.
(After we add the other ingredients, the pasta may be too dry. You can add some of the cooking water to help moisten it.)
Using the pot you cooked the pasta in, heat 3 Tablespoons of olive oil.
Add the garlic to the oil and fry it, until you can smell it cooking, about 15 seconds.
Turn off the heat. Add the lemon juice and zest to the pot.
Then add the pasta to the garlic and oil.
Add the chopped parsley.
With a pair of tongs or two spoons toss everything together. If it seems too dry, pour on some of the reserved pasta water.
Serve with lots of parmesan cheese, salt and freshly ground pepper. And of course, garnish with fresh chopped parsley!
Enjoy!
]]>Stir fry recipes have their own unique set of seasoning ingredients.
Some may be more familiar to you than others. In my Chicken & Broccoli stir fry video, I used soy sauce, oyster sauce, chili paste and sesame oil as the four basic ingredients. Here is a very brief introduction to these ingredients.
Soy Sauce
Soy sauce is a dark, intensely flavored, salty sauce used for flavoring a lot of different foods. Soup, sauces, meat, fish, chicken, vegetables, you name it, and soy sauce works with them all. Different brands may be saltier than others. You often see it as a table condiment at Asian restaurants.
Oyster Sauce
Guess what it’s made from? You’re right! Oysters! Plus a lot of other ingredients (like soy sauce, salt, water, possibly MSG and cornstarch) depending on the brand you buy. It’s dark brown in color and very thick. It will not pour out of the jar – you need a spoon to scoop it out. It has a wonderful rich flavor that is not at all fishy. Oyster sauce helps to thicken the sauce in Stir Fries.
Chili Paste
Chili paste (not to be confused with chili oil, chili powder, or chili sauce), is made with red chilies, fava beans, flour, and (sometimes) garlic. Different brands have different levels of “heat”, so be careful! If you like foods to be hot and spicy, this is the ingredient for you. Add a small amount at a time until you figure out what you like.
Sesame Oil
Sesame oil has a very strong flavor and fragrance. It is often used as a flavor enhancer rather than for frying. You can buy a light colored sesame oil that has a less intense flavor than the dark sesame oil.
Many people consider soy sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil as the basic 3 stir fry ingredients.
Buying these 3 at a minimum, is a wise choice if you plan on doing stir fry.
Cheers!
]]>HOT! HOT! HOT! Well maybe not! You can actually control the amount of heat in this recipe for Jalapeno Peppers Stuffed with Sausage in two ways:
You need just four ingredients needed to make this recipe:
Start by softening the cream cheese. Just take it out of the refrigerator, open the wrapping, and let it sit on the counter while you cook the sausage. It will soften on its own!
I chose HOT Italian sausage to make this recipe. It ended up with quite a kick! Choosing sweet Italian sausage or pork sausage would definitely have decreased the amount of heat. Buy whatever sausage you prefer, depending on YOUR taste or that of the people invited to your party.
***
Let’s startcooking!
With a sharp knife, slice through the casing of the sausage.
Remove the skin and add the sausage to a large frying pan that has been pre-heated on medium-high heat.
The sausage needs to get broken up into bits and cooked completely.
One way to break the sausage apart is with a spatula (shown above), but it does not do a great job at breaking apart the meat as it cooks. You could try using a fork (shown below) which works a bit better…
…or a potato masher (below), which actually works the best!
Once the meat is cooked put it into a bowl lined with paper towels.
Once all the fat has drained from the cooked sausage, which will only take a minute or so, remove the paper towels and throw them away.
Add the softened cream cheese and the grated Parmesan cheese.
This needs to get totally mixed together.
If the cream cheese is not soft it will make mixing quite difficult.
It should end up looking like the photo below.
Now for the peppers!
(Please take a moment to review my photo-tutorial on Handling Hot Peppers.)
Wash the jalapenos and cut them in half with a sharp knife.
OK! We’re now ready for the second way to control the heat of your final dish – cleaning the inside of the peppers.
The outside flesh of the peppers contain a lot of flavor. Most of the “heat” is contained in the internal seeds and the membrane that they are attached to.
So, we’re going to remove the seeds and membrane with a knife …
…or a spoon or melon baler.
Even the slightest bit of that white membrane will give these Sausage Stuffed Jalapenos quite a kick!
Fill each jalapeño half with about 1 to 1 ½ Tablespoons of filling. A small pepper will require less filling.
Some of the filled peppers may tip over in the oven. To prevent this, you can “snuggle” or “nestle” them together on the baking sheet. (Be sure to use a baking sheet with sides!)
Bake them in a pre-heated 425 degrees F (220 degrees C) oven for 20 minutes.
You can see how some of the larger ones sort of toppled over. Next time, I am going to try to get smaller jalapeños and be sure to nestle them together on the baking tray so they will remain upright.
I left the top stem on some of them just for presentation purposes.
However, be warned. You don’t eat the stem! (Warn your guests.)
Enjoy!
]]>I saw this recipe in Gourmet magazine, and thought it would be a perfect startcooking recipe. All you need to make this soup is:
Start by dicing 1/3 of the cucumber and chopping into chunks the remaining 2/3 of the cucumber.
The chunks are going to be put in the blender and the diced cucumber is for the garnish.
The remaining ingredients just need to be chopped up a bit before they get added to the blender.
If you are unsure how to cut avocados check out my blog on Avocados.
Measure 1/2 cup of buttermilk (or yogurt) and 1 1/2 cups of cold water.
Add the water and buttermilk to the blender.
Start by blending everything on a low speed at first, then increase it just a bit. Everything needs to get totally chopped up and then made really smooth. This will take about 2 minutes of blending.
You can chill this soup for up to 3 hours before serving, and then garnish it with the diced cucumbers just before serving.
This soup is a beautiful color and the cucumbers add a wonderful crunch!
* Note:
I discovered one BIG problem with this recipe after I made it. What the heck do I tell a novice cook to do with the leftover buttermilk? In retrospect I should have suggested using yogurt or sour cream instead. Either would work beautifully for this recipe, and there are a lot of things you could do with leftover sour cream/yogurt.
If you are going to use buttermilk, you could always drink the leftovers??? (Has anyone seen “White Christmas”? Isn’t that what they were drinking before singing “Count Your Blessings”?)
Anyhow, I’m asking all my experienced cooks to toss in some EASY suggestions on what to make with leftover buttermilk!
Thanks and I hope you enjoy the soup!
Kathy
This popular recipe takes only about 10 minutes to prepare and, as I say in the video, will feed an army, or just you with lots of leftovers! (My niece Sara has turned this recipe, with just a few modifications, into her signature dish!)
After the preparation, it does take 2 hours to cook, so I decided to add a quick cooking chili to the collection. 2 Alarm Chili packs a punch if you use all the red pepper contained in the spice packet.
It’s a wonderful kit which contains 7 different spices needed to make the chili. If your spice collection is limited, this is definitely the way to go!
It’s not surprising that 7 Layer Dip is one of my most popular videos.
In my video, I walk you through preparing all 7 layers, step by step. Party anyone?
Fresh avocados really add so much life to 7 layer dip. Anyone needing a primer on avocados can check out my very detailed video and post on everything you need to know about handling fresh avocados.
From there making your own guacamole is a breeze.
Be sure to use ripe avocados for your guacamole. You may have to buy them several days ahead and put them in a paper bag to speed up the ripening process.
Some people like an extra bit of “heat” in there guacamole. Fresh jalapeno peppers are a perfect for that.
If you are unsure about handling hot peppers, go take a look at both my post and video for some great tips!
Salsa comes in a ton of different flavors and can be eaten in lots of different ways besides with corn chips. Baked Cod with Salsa takes about 2 minutes to prepare and no time to cook.
This makes a great dinner for you or to serve to company. Add some rice or mashed potato and some steamed asparagus or broccoli and dinner is complete!
Baked potato with salsa is one of my personal favorites. I cook the potato in the microwave and in less than 10 minutes, dinner’s ready.
(Non-fat Greek yogurt has the consistency of sour cream and it tastes great on a baked potato!)
I’ve done two Quesadilla posts: Quesadillas with Tomatoes and Black Olives, and Quesadillas Salmon and Cream Cheese.
Sunday brunch can be very special with these quesadillas that are filled with herbed cream cheese spread and diced salmon.
When planning your next party, why not start with Jalapenos Stuffed with Sausage.
Then serve either Taco Salad …
Or Tex-Mex Cheeseburgers (video)
with a super easy summer Bean Salad Tex-Mex Style
Click on the recipe index at the top to the page to discover even more fabulous recipes!
Cheers,
]]>Did you know that June is National Iced Tea Month?
Well, now you do, and there’s no better beverage to enjoy on a hot summer day!
The way the story goes, Richard Blechynden, a tea plantation owner, attended America’s first World’s Fair in St. Louis. He had planned to give out free samples of his hot tea, but it was such a warm day that no one was interested! So, he threw in some ice and offered his beverage “on the rocks.” The treat was so refreshing, he quickly had a long line of people waiting to taste it.
There are many ways to make iced tea, and countless variations on the basic recipe. If you haven’t tried iced tea before, maybe one of these variations will pique your curiosity. And if you’re not a fan of iced tea, it’s worth trying a new version – there’s probably one out there that suits you.
The basic method for making iced tea is:
Sounds simple (and vague) enough, right?
Right! Anyone can make iced tea and its variations:
Whether you brew for 3 minutes or overnight in the fridge, prefer a simple black tea or a raspberry herbal, enjoy your iced tea this summer!
Tip: You may have heard of “sun tea”, which is made by starting with room-temperature water and tea bags in a jar, then brewing the tea by placing the jar in a sunny spot for a few hours. This method, however is not recommended. Bacteria can develop in the tea and it can become a potential health risk. Sorry!
]]>Forget “Mmm Mmm good”, this Tomato Soup is “Mmm Mmm great”!
There is a surprise ingredient in this recipe which I’ll tell you about in just a second. It makes the soup taste smooth, rich and creamy without adding any cream!
You will need a blender to make this soup, and you will also need to know how to chop an onion and mince garlic.
There are also a few pantry items you will need.
This recipe is made with canned whole tomatoes rather than fresh tomatoes, which makes it great a year round recipe! Winter tomatoes tend to be tasteless and the texture quite mealy. A bay leaf will add great flavor, but remember you don’t actually eat the bay leaf. Olive oil, chicken or vegetable broth, and brown sugar complete the pantry ingredient list.
As always, get all your ingredients prepared before you turn on the stove!
Start by chopping an onion.
If you have difficulty holding the onion while you chop it, there is actually a way to make an onion holder out of the skin of the onion!
Preparing fresh garlic is not as complicated as you might think. When recipes call for 1 clove of fresh garlic it usually means approximately 1 teaspoon of fresh garlic.
I have minced the garlic for this recipe, but you could also have crushed it if you find that easier.
The surprise ingredient is white bread! Yes it does seem like an odd addition but it will cook down and make this soup rich and creamy!
Slice off the crusts of the bread….
…and cut or tear it into 1 inch pieces.
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat until it is shimmering.
Add the onion…
… garlic and bay leaf.
Cook, stirring frequently, until the onion is soft and translucent, about 3 to 5 minutes.
Stir in the tomatoes and their juice.
Using a potato masher, mash the tomatoes until the pieces are no bigger than 2 inches.
Add the sugar…
…and the bread…
…and give everything a stir.
Bring the soup to a boil.
Reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until the bread is completely saturated and starts to break down, about 5 minutes.
********
The soup now needs to get processed in a blender until it is smooth. This needs to be done very carefully as the soup is hot. Set out the blender and have a bowl ready to put the soup into after it is blended.
Remove the bay leaf from the soup and throw it away. It cannot be reused.
Scoop out the soup with a ladle and pour it into the blender. Only fill the blender half way with the soup. This will have to get done in 2 to 3 batches.
DO NOT OVERFILL THE BLENDER. The steam from the hot soup will blow the top right off if you over fill the blender.
Release the steam by leaving open a small crack in the plug on the cover of the blender.
Put a kitchen towel over the lid of the blender to hold it in place.
Now let her rip! Process the soup for 2-3 minutes or until it is smooth.
OOPS! Forgot a step! Add 1 Tablespoon of olive oil to the blender before you start blending
Good olive oil will really enhance both the flavor and the texture of this soup!
Now pour the soup into a bowl and continue processing the remainder of the soup.
Put the soup in the blender and add the oil…
…release the steam…
…cover the lid with a kitchen towel…
…puree until smooth!
The soup has to get added back to the pot to adjust the thickness with some chicken or vegetable stock. Be sure to wash the pot first!
Now pour the soup back into the pot.
Add as much as 2 cups of chicken or vegetable broth until the soup reaches the consistency that suits your taste.
Return the soup to a boil.
Now taste the soup and decide how much salt…
…and pepper the soup needs.
You can garnish this Tomato Soup with chopped basil, green onions, parsley, or croutons.
Want a bite?
Enjoy!
Note:
This recipe was adapted from Cook’s Illustrated
Strawberries, once just a summertime treat, are now available year round. Especially tasty are the locally grown ones that are now showing up at farmers’ markets.
Always choose strawberries that are plump, firm and glossy.
Wash them just before using them.
I always wash my supermarket strawberries, in a colander, under a gentle spray of running water. Or you can swish the strawberries around in a bowl with cool tap water.
(Actually my old friend Roger never washed strawberries. He felt it washed away the flavor. But then again he lived in the south of France and only bought them from the local farmer who grew them organically.)
Once washed, spread the strawberries out on a clean dish towel to dry.
To “hull” a strawberry means to remove the green leafy top and the tiny stalk. If you plan on hulling tons of strawberries, you may want to buy a strawberry huller. But a small paring knife works very well for hulling a quart or two.
Start by grasping the green top…
…and just trim out that tiny stem.
Or you could just slice off the whole top with a small paring knife.
Just pulling off the green leafy top (as shown below) is NOT enough. You need to remove that tiny bit of white, hard stem as well.
To store strawberries, place them in a single layer in a moisture-proof plastic container that has a tight fitting lid.
Lay a paper towel on top of the strawberries and then put the lid on the container. When you put them in the refrigerator, store them with the lid side down in the refrigerator.
Stored this way they should stay fresh for at least 2-3 days.
************
Recipes to die for:
Strawberries dipped in Chocolate from startcooking.com
Strawberries Romanoff –Strawberries soaked in orange juice/curacao/cointreau and served with Whipped Cream
Strawberry Short Cake – a classic that everybody loves!
]]>If you like a bit of sausage in your lasagna, this sauce recipe is perfect!
To make this sauce you will need:
It’s a really good habit to get all your ingredients prepared before you turn on the stove. It makes the cooking process go much more smoothly.
That means you need to:
Now we are ready to start cooking!
Heat 2 Tablespoons of olive oil in a large (10 to 12-inch) skillet or frying pan. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes over medium-low heat, until translucent.
“Until translucent” is a typical term used to describe cooking onions. Raw onions are fairly opaque. As you start to cook them, they slowly reach a point where they become almost see-through. They have not turned brown, and are not supposed to for this recipe.
Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute, or until you can smell the garlic cooking.
Add the sausage to the onions and garlic. I like to use a combination of both hot and sweet sausage. We need to cook it over medium-low heat, breaking it up with a fork, for 8 to 10 minutes, or until no longer pink. This is just like browning ground beef.
Because this Italian turkey sausage has a lower fat content then regular Italian sausage, there will be very little fat to drain off. (If I were using regular sausage, I would definitely drain off the fat before adding the remaining ingredients.)
Now add the remaining ingredients:
Simmer the sauce, uncovered, over medium-low heat, for 15 to 20 minutes, until it has thickened.
This turns into a really thick sauce which is great over any pasta. Enjoy!
]]>With just a sprinkle of salt and two minutes in the microwave, you’ve got a fresh vegetable for dinner. Given they cook so quickly, make only enough for what you are going to eat for dinner tonight.
About 24 (four inch long) green beans will be enough for two servings.
The first thing you have to do is “top and tail” the beans. That’s the official term used to nip the tips off each end of the beans.
You can line them up and with a knife cut the ends off. As long as the beans are young and fresh, they should not be stringy. If they are stringy you will need to nip the ends off, one at a time, with your fingers. This same technique is used when making snow peas as well.
Sort of drag the tip off, pulling any of the stringy bit off as you go.
Rinse the beans in a colander.
Put them in a microwave safe dish. Add about 2 Tablespoons of water.
Cover the beans with plastic wrap leaving a small corner open.
If you seal them completely, the plastic wrap will almost shrink-wrap itself to the beans. This makes it a lot harder to remove the plastic wrap and much more likely you will get burned by the trapped steam.
Some people serve green beans with lashings of butter, or with almonds. I prefer them just with salt and sometimes a squeeze of lemon juice.
Cheers!
]]>All you have to do is create the basic elements:
The nice thing about DIY pizza is that you can have fun personalizing it. You can incorporate your favorite flavors and textures, or whatever happens to be in the fridge. There’s no fixed recipe to follow! Let’s get started.
Ready-made crust: The bread section of the grocery store typically offers several brands of ready-made crusts that you simply top with whatever you like and bake according to the instructions. Some of these crusts even come with a package of tomato sauce! They’re usually sold in rounds that make enough for several people.
In addition to ready-made crusts, there are several different types of “breads” that will work as a pizza crust. In the photo below there a some great choices for a quick pizza crust including focaccia, crumpets, English muffins, pita bread and tortilla wraps. (Keep reading for the recipes using these various breads as a pizza crust!)
.
Tortillas (wraps)
If you like thin-crust pizza, you can’t get thinner than this! It’s a good idea to pre-heat the tortilla in a toaster oven or regular oven at 350F just for a few minutes to make it a bit more solid, then turn the oven up to 450F. Put the wrap(s) on a foil or parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
Then add whatever sauce, cheese and toppings you like. Go easy on toppings so that the whole thing doesn’t get soggy. Put the tortilla in the oven for 10 minutes and check to see when it’s done – the edge of the tortilla should become brown and crispy. Here’s a recipe for Humbecue Tortilla Pizzas, which are made with hummus, barbecue sauce, spinach, ham and feta cheese.
Pita bread
Pita bread is another great option for those who like thin, crispy pizzas. There’s no need to toast the pita before putting on the toppings; follow the same baking directions as with the tortilla pizza.
This Pita Pizza (shown above) topped with Italian sausage, peppers and carrots looks simple and scrumptious.
Focaccia bread
For a more substantial crust, use focaccia bread, which is often sold in big rectangular pieces. When it comes to baking the pizza, preheat the oven to 450F and cook for 10 to 15 minutes.
English Muffins
Here at startcooking.com we have already posted a video on English Muffin Pizzas, which are topped with tomato sauce, ground beef and cheese.
These mini pizzas are irresistible, and if you don’t have any ground beef on hand, you can make them with tuna.
Crumpets:
If you would prefer to substitute crumpets for English muffins, go right ahead, old chap!
Bagels and baguette
A lot of bagel shops now have bagel pizzas.
Making your own is easy as long as you have the necessary ingredients on hand! Buy your bagels ahead of time and store them (sliced!) in the freezer. Bagels freeze beautifully as long as they are wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and then put in a zip lock bag.
Pizza traditionally has a layer of tomato sauce between the crust and the cheese. You can buy ready-made pizza sauce in a can or jar, or use tomato sauce (the kind you would use for pasta). If you don’t have either of these on hand, you could try tomato paste or salsa.
Some pizza lovers prefer their pizzas “white” – with no tomato sauce. White pizzas may be topped with pesto, ricotta or Parmesan cheese and pine nuts. Or with alfredo sauce (which you can buy ready-made) and other toppings.
In this recipe for Spinach, Mushroom and Goat Cheese Pizza , from Cooking By the Seat of my Pants, the sauce is a combination of sour cream and Greek vinaigrette.
If you love basil, try Pioneer Woman’s version of pizza using pesto rather than tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, basil and parmesan.
.
Mild: Most pizza places use mozzarella cheese, which turns nice and gooey when it melts, and has a very mild flavor. Other mild cheeses that can substitute for mozzarella are colby, cheddar, gouda, edam and Monterey jack. You can grate the cheese yourself or buy bags of pre-grated cheese. Ricotta, bocconcini and fresh mozzarella are other mild options that offer a gourmet twist because of their rich, milky textures.
Strong: Try mixing mozzarella with stronger-tasting cheeses, or going for something really distinctive. You’ll find that you can use a smaller amount of cheese if it’s strong-tasting. In our video on English Muffin Pizzas, startcooking.com suggests blue cheese with chopped fresh sage and walnuts. Some other strong cheeses to try are: parmesan, provolone, goat cheese, aged cheddar and gorgonzola.
This is where you can really make a pizza your own. Here’s a list of topping ideas to get you started, as well as some great-tasting combinations.
Tip: Any meat toppings should be cooked before being added to the pizza.
Meat options:
Vegetables
Other toppings:
Combinations:
Good luck with your pizza creations!
]]>I really felt like I had arrived by the time I owned my first dishwasher. Of course, saving quarters for the communal laundry machine in my apartment building went on for many more years to come!
If you have a dishwasher, I don’t need to tell you how wonderful they are!
However, it surprises some people to discover that there is a right and a wrong way to load a dishwasher. Do it wrong and you’ll end up with dishes not getting washed properly and possibly even breaking a few in the process.
Loading a dishwasher is easy as long as you follow a few simple rules:
First, quickly rinse dishes before putting them in the dishwasher in order to remove big chunks of food. Dishwashers can choke up unless you pay attention to this, and paying for a plumbers’ visit to unclog them can be expensive.
No need to fuss too much with this step (let the dishwasher do the washing!) but don’t leave it out.
Next, be sure to put glassware, coffee cups and plastic containers on the top rack, which was designed to hold them. If you have a lot of glasses that need washing, you may be tempted to put them on the bottom rack, but there is a higher probability that they will break there.
Since it’s generally hotter on the bottom than it is on the top, even dishwasher-safe plastic containers may melt on the bottom rack. Proceed with caution.
Plates, bowls, and anything that needs a stronger wash put on the bottom rack. Did you know that the top and bottom racks often have a different amount of water pressure? Who knew? You obviously need to exert less energy washing a water glass than a plate with dried-up tomato sauce on it!
Naturally, silverware and utensils go in the special holder. Some people clump spoons together, forks together, and knives together. Others say, no, “nesting” the utensils means they don’t get cleaned properly — mix them up. Be warned: how one does or does not put silverware in the dishwasher can break up a beautiful friendship or marriage!
It’s important, in my view, to put sharp, pointed things (like knives and forks) pointing downward. (There is nothing worse than being impaled by utensils while loading – or unloading – the dishwasher!)
You should never put your good knives in the dishwasher. Something that big and that sharp just should not go in there — and it’s easy to wash good knives by hand. Small, inexpensive paring knives are often dishwasher-safe.
Always empty the bottom rack first. The glasses and cups on the top rack will often drip as you are unloading them (so many seem to have those little crevices on the bottom that accumulate water.) You won’t get the plates on the bottom all wet if you have already unloaded them first.
Never turn the dishwasher on and then go to bed. You never know when there could be a leak or a problem with your dishwasher! Turn it on after dinner so that it has finished running before you go to bed. (That’s actually a tip from most fire safety experts.)
Many people don’t turn it on until every square inch of space is filled, but I turn the dishwasher on every evening. It’s just too icky (technical term!) to think of dirty dishes hanging out in a sealed box overnight. If it’s not full, I just use the light setting.
Many dishwashers have several settings. The settings on mine include: ‘pots & pans’, normal, light/china, quick/glass, ‘rinse & hold’, sani-rinse, and an ‘energy saver dry’.
The pots and pans cycle is the longest running cycle for really tough jobs.
The sani-rinse is a very hot rinse useful for really killing germs. I use it if someone in the house has a cold or the flu.
‘Energy-saver’ means the heating element to dry the dishes is not activated, and the dishes will take longer to dry on their own.
Inevitably, once you start the dishwasher you always find another glass or plate or spoon that needs to be washed. Generally speaking, in the beginning, while the water is heating, you can open the dishwasher and add that dirty dish. Then re-push the start button. Many dishwashers will have an indicator of some kind to tell you what part of the cycle it’s in. Some even have a pause button. If it’s already in the wash cycle then it’s too late to open the door, and you may flood the kitchen if you do. Alas, you may have to wash that last item by hand!
On a final note, here’s some personal advice if someone you really care about loads the dishwasher for you, but does it incorrectly. The first time, say nothing, thank them and turn out the lights. You want to encourage them to pitch in and help right?
By the third time they do it “not quite the way you think it should be done”, gently offer suggestions — with reasons. No-one likes being criticized, but if you use it as a form of education “By the way, did you know WHY they say you should…….?” You may get away with both your goals: getting it done right and keeping your relationship strong!
Does anyone else have any advice (or questions) about using dishwashers?
]]>Cheese is very often one of the main ingredients. I’m using leftover Monterey Jack shredded cheese with scallions, black olives and sun-dried tomatoes.
Buy the 8 inch flour tortillas. The 12 inch are just too big to handle.
Lay one flour tortilla in a non-stick pan and top with 1/3 cup of cheese.
Wash one scallion (green onion). Cut off the hairy bit on the end. Cut the scallion into quarter-inch slices and sprinkle on the tortilla.
Chop the black olives and sprinkle on top of the scallions
Dice three sun-dried tomatoes and sprinkle them on top of the scallions.
Now sprinkle on the remaining 1/3 cup of cheese
And top with the second tortilla.
Set the pan on the stove top and turn the heat onto medium. (A brush of butter or oil on the tortilla does give it a nicely browned and crispy finish but, on very rare occasions, I do like to try and save a calorie or two!)
After about 1.5 minutes the tortilla should be lightly browned and the cheese is starting to melt. Flip the quesadilla over with a spatula.
Cook for about another minute on the flip side. Peek inside the quesadilla to make sure the cheese is all melted before removing it from the pan. You may need another minute or so. Slide the quesadilla out of the pan and onto a cutting board.
With a large kitchen knife cut the quesadilla into six slices.
Serve this quesadilla with some salad and you’ve got yourself a perfect lunch or light supper!
Enjoy!
]]>You may have seen these in the produce section of the grocery store and thought “NO WAY”! Well guess what? They’re delicious! These fiddlehead ferns are also very nutritious.
What ever you do, don’t just pop one in your mouth raw. They need to get cooked first! Once cooked, you can then eat them hot or cold, alone, or in soups, salads, or stews. Fiddleheads are only available in the springtime and have a very short season. So grab them when you see them and startcooking!
Fill a bowl with cold water and submerge the fiddleheads.
(I stuck them in a colander first and then put the whole colander in the bowl of water.) With your hand, swish the fiddleheads to remove any bits of dirt.
Lift the fiddleheads out of the sink and let them drain.
With a paring knife trim off the end.
DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP. Even though I am going to sauté (fry) the fiddleheads in garlic and olive oil they still need to get boiled first. This not only cooks them but it also removes any bitterness.
Put the fiddleheads in a pot and cover them completely with cold water.
As they come to a boil they will float to the surface.
Boil them for 6-8 minutes. The water ends up looking quite dirty!
Drain the fiddleheads in a colander.
Heat 1 Tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan over medium- high and add one clove of crushed garlic…
…. and the fiddleheads.
Sauté for approximately 1 minute.
Add some fresh cracked black pepper…
…a sprinkle of salt…
…and a squeeze of lemon juice.
Stir is all together..
…and the fiddleheads are ready!
Enjoy!
]]>The ever popular tuna salad sandwich is a standard on almost every sandwich shop menu. Clearly making your own tuna salad is a much more economical option than continuing to support your local deli!
One 6-to-7 oz. can of tuna will give you two good-sized sandwiches. One 6-to-7 oz. can of tuna can cost anywhere from approximately 89 cents to a high of about $3.00 depending on where you shop and the type you buy. Cans that say albacore tend to be more expensive than the ones that just say tuna.
When buying tuna, you are going to have to do some taste-testing to find your favorite tuna. The first thing to decide is do you want it packed in oil or water. Some people say there aren’t that many calories in oil-packed tuna, and they think oil adds to the taste. Others don’t like the taste of oily tuna fish, so they choose water packed tuna. Not all tuna from a can has the same texture. You may want to try different types and brands to find the one you like the best.
When I made my Salad Nicoise I splurged and bought imported tuna in a jar (shown below with some capers). The chunky imported tuna, packed in olive oil, was expensive ($7) but worth every bite.
Plus the imported tuna looked fantastic in my Salad Nicoise! For tuna salad sandwiches, stick to the less expensive tuna from the can.
To make 2 tuna salad sandwiches you will need:
Both the oil and the water packed tuna need to be drained. The safest way is to do this is to put the tuna in a colander.
A second way of draining the tuna is after opening the can, press the lid into the can, so that all the water or oil drains out. You can do this right into the sink. (Be careful of the sharp edges on the lid of the can!)
Using a fork put the tuna in a small mixing bowl. Then break apart the tuna with the fork.
Wash one stalk of celery. Trim off the ends and cut it into thirds. Then cut each third into strips.
Line up the strips and start dicing the celery into 1/8 inch bits. (Dice means to cut into tiny pieces. It is smaller than “chop” and larger than “mince”.) Add the celery to the tuna.
Measure out slightly less than 1/4 cup of mayonnaise and add it to the tuna. The amount of celery and mayonnaise is totally adjustable to your taste. Mix everything together. Taste it and you decide if you want to add a sprinkle of salt and pepper.
Lay two slices of bread on the cutting board. Put 1/2 of the tuna on one slice of bread and maybe even some lettuce if you have some in the refrigerator.
Put the second slice of bread on top.
Using a bread knife (one with a jagged or serrated edge) slice the sandwich in half using a sawing motion. Try adding potato chips and dill pickles on the side. They taste great with tuna salad!
Many different types of bread go well with tuna. Pita pockets are a fun alternative to slices of bread. To fill the pocket first cut the pita round in half.
You could then just stuff the pita with the tuna. I like to put the tuna on a lettuce leaf.
Then slide the tuna filled leaf of lettuce right into the bread.
It comes out picture perfect every time!
Enjoy!
]]>Eggplant Parmesan is a tasty and popular dish found on menus everywhere. Making your own Eggplant Parmesan involves several steps, but it is so worth the effort!
Curiously enough, the eggplant is actually a fruit and not a vegetable. Even though it looks robust, the eggplant is fairly delicate.
Buy one that weighs about 8 ounces, and be sure to use it within a day or two of purchase. As it ages, it gets bitter and the skin gets tough.
Making Eggplant Parmesan is very similar to making Chicken Cutlets except – of course – that we are using eggplant instead of chicken.
There are six steps involved in making Eggplant Parmesan:
1. “Sweating” the Eggplant:
“Sweating” an eggplant means to get out any bitterness that may have developed by making it sweat.
Start by slicing an 8-ounce eggplant in slightly larger than ¼-inch thick slices.
Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of Kosher salt, over all of the slices of eggplant, being sure to salt both sides. Set the salted, sliced eggplant into a colander and let it rest for about 30 minutes.
By then the eggplant should begin to sweat. (Notice the little droplets of moisture being extracted by the salt from the surface of the eggplant.)
Remove the eggplant from the colander, and place the slices on a paper towel. With a second paper towel, blot off all the excess moisture which has formed.
2. Shredding the Cheese:
While the eggplant is resting, get the cheeses grated. The (1/4 cup of) Parmesan should be finely grated.
And the (8 ounces of) mozzarella needs to get shredded.
3. Preparing the Coating fro Breading:
There are many different types of bread crumbs available at the grocery store, or you can make your own. The post script on the bottom of this page will explain which ones work best for this recipe.
Put the flour, egg, and bread crumbs into three separate flat, rimmed dishes.
Add 1 teaspoon of water to the egg and with a fork, beat the egg and water together.
If you set everything up in a row it will be easier to do this next step. Be sure to get a plate out for the breaded eggplant.
4. Breading the Eggplant
Put one slice of eggplant into the flour and coat both side with the flour.
A huge time saver is to put the flour in a plastic bag instead of just dipping it one-by-one in the rimmed dish.
The 10 slices of eggplant can all go into the bag at once. Gently shake the bag so that all the slices are coated with a fine dusting of flour.
Now, one-by-one, shake off the excess flour and place the slice of eggplant in the beaten egg.
Turn it over so that both sides get coated with the egg.
Now put the slice into the crumbs….
…and turn that over too.
Press some of the crumbs into the eggplant making sure it is completely coated. This is where an extra pair of hands would be great!
5. Frying the Eggplant:
Once the eggplant is all breaded, preheat your frying pan on medium high heat. Add 3 Tablespoons of vegetable or olive oil to the pan and let it get hot.
When you add the eggplant to the pan you should hear a serious sizzle! If you don’t, then the pan is not hot enough. Remove that one slice and let the pan heat up some more. Do not over crowd the pan.
Once the eggplant is golden brown, flip them and fry the other side. It will take about 4-5 minutes in total to brown both sides. FLIP THEM ONLY ONCE!
Place the eggplant on a plate that has been lined with a paper towel.
Before frying the second batch, clean the pan out with a paper towel and a pair of tongs.
Add the remaining 3 Tablespoons of oil to the pan and…
…fry the remaining eggplant.
6. Assembling the Eggplant Parmesan:
This recipe requires 12 ounces of spaghetti sauce. You can make your own or buy a jar of your favorite sauce.
Spread the sauce in a baking dish…
…large enough to hold the eggplant in a single layer. (A little bit of overlapping is fine.)
Sprinkle on the mozzarella cheese….
…and the parmesan cheese.
Bake the Eggplant Parmesan in a preheated 425º F ( = 220º C = gas mark 7- hot) oven for 15 minutes or until the cheese is melted and golden and the sauce is bubbly.
Dinner’s ready!
P.S.
I tried several different types of breading for this recipe.
In the photo above, the bottom left shows an attempt to fry the eggplant without first “breading” it. Unbreaded eggplant is like a sponge. It will get very “greasy” done this way.
The top right was breaded with just egg and then flour. The texture, taste and appearance were all wrong on that one as well.
The remaining two were perfect! The bottom right (my favorite) was done with flour, egg and “panko” bread crumbs which made a very crunchy coating. The top left was made with flour, egg, and dry breadcrumbs which made a tasty and very traditional coating on the eggplant.
“Italian” rather than plain-flavor panko or dry crumbs add a nice flavor to the final dish.
]]>Once you try this recipe, you will never buy pre-made Alfredo sauce again! It is totally decadent and off the charts delicious – full of so much flavor and richness that you totally need to spend extra time on the treadmill after eating this Fettuccine Alfredo!
To make Fettuccine Alfredo, you will first have to know how to cook the pasta. For a quick review, check out my “How to Cook Pasta” video.
In addition to the 1 pound (450g.) of dried fettuccine, the only other ingredients needed to make this recipe are:
Follow the directions on the back of the package of pasta that you bought and be sure to add plenty of salt to the cooking water.
While the pasta is cooking, grate the parmesan cheese…
…measure out the heavy cream and cut the butter into tablespoon size chunks (to make it easier to melt.)
When the pasta is cooked, pour it into a colander and let the water drain off.
While the pasta is draining, over low heat, melt the butter in the same pot you cooked the pasta in.
Return the drained pasta to the pot with the melted butter.
Add the cream….
…and the grated parmesan cheese.
Toss everything together over low heat until the pasta is coated with the cream, butter and the cheese.
Add some freshly ground pepper. (You can use white pepper if you have it but black pepper is fine to use as well.)
Give the Fettuccine Alfredo a taste to see if it needs salt. Some brands of Parmesan cheese are saltier than others, so give it a taste before automatically adding in the salt.
That’s it! Time to enjoy!
]]>Cod is a very mild tasting white fish. Salsa, particularly fruit salsas, add the perfect zing this delicate fish. Choose something like pineapple or mango peach. (The pineapple salsa I chose at my supermarket had a bit of a kick to it, whereas the mango peach salsa had a sweeter, more delicate flavor.)
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and, if you’re going to serve your fish with mashed potatoes or rice start cooking them immediately, then prepare the fish.
Rub about 2 teaspoons of butter in a baking dish large enough to hold ¾ pound of cod.
Place the cod in the baking dish.
Spoon 1 cup of your favorite salsa over the fish.
Bake the fish in a 350 degree oven about 25-30 minutes. With a fork, test to see if the fish is cooked; it should be totally white in color in the center of the cod. It is should not be clear (see-through) but opaque.
Serve the cod with rice and broccoli cooked in the microwave. This is an incredibly fast and healthy meal to serve for dinner tonight!
Enjoy!
P.S. For a great New England classic, check out my video on Baked Cod with a buttery bread crumb topping.
]]>I was inspired to roast a leg of lamb after Ioannis Michanetzis (a fan of startcooking.com) sent me his recipe for a marinated, roasted leg of lamb.
Ioannis, an Officer in the Greek Navy, is currently a ship’s captain, with aspirations to have a cooking site specializing in healthy and unique Mediterranean Dishes.
Ioannis’s original recipe was a bit more involved than the recipe I’m doing here, but I would like to thank him for giving me the opportunity (and permission) to adapt one of his specialties for startcooking.com readers.
****
At my grocery store, there were two choices of leg of lamb being offered. Both were from Australia.
I am going to demonstrate how to cook the smaller 5-pound boneless roast shown on the top in the picture above. The larger 9-pound roast on the bottom is a “bone-in” cut. For beginner cooks, the smaller boneless roast is easier to carve. Besides, it just fit into my 15-inch long roasting pan, and my larger roasting pan is not as photogenic!
The steps involved in making this boneless leg of lamb are:
The Marinade
(Marinate is the verb, and marinade is the noun. So, you marinate the lamb with a marinade. Got it? Who’s on first?)
Step 1. First make a spice-rub by measuring out:
Put these ingredients into a small bowl…
…and mix everything together
Now, for the liquid part of the marinade, measure out:
My wine merchant suggested a very reasonably priced Merlot ($8) for the dry red wine.
The Boneless Leg of Lamb
(FYI – It’s just the hind legs that are used for “leg of lamb”)
Rather than working directly on the counter top, I set the lamb down on some paper towels on a baking sheet. This is more sanitary.
Cut the plastic outer wrapping off the lamb, making sure not to cut through the netting as well. (If you bought your lamb at a butcher shop, it may well be hand-tied with string instead of netting.) The netting (or string) holds the lamb together in that nice shape. Do not remove it until after the lamb is roasted.
Step 2. Rub the garlic dry-rub spice mixture all over the lamb.
Step 3. Put the lamb in a large plastic bag and set it on a dish. I used a two gallon sized zip-lock bag. (You need the dish just in case the bag leaks when you put it in your refrigerator. You wouldn’t want the marinade to spill all over the inside of your refrigerator!)
Step 4. Pour the lemon juice, olive oil and red wine over the lamb (in the bag.)
Squeeze out as much of the air as possible from the bag, and seal it closed. As a precaution against the bag leaking, wrap a second bag around the marinating lamb.
Step 5. Set the bag in a dish and let the lamb marinate in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight -up to 24 hours.
Step 6. Roasting the Boneless Leg of Lamb
Remove the lamb from the refrigerator at least 1 hour before cooking it.
Preheat the oven to 450 F. degrees.
( 450º F = 230º C = gas mark 9)
Snip the corner of the bag and squeeze the marinade out into the sink. It will no longer be usable.
Pat the lamb dry with paper towels.
Put 2 teaspoons of salt and 3/4 teaspoons of freshly ground pepper into a dish. Season the entire lamb with the salt and pepper. (You put the salt and pepper into a separate dish first for sanitary reasons. You would not want to be going back and forth between touching the raw lamb and your main salt and pepper holders.)
Place the lamb on a roasting rack in a roasting pan.
Insert an oven-safe meat thermometer into the thickest part of the boneless leg of lamb.
(I strongly recommend using an oven-proof meat thermometer for roasting a leg of lamb. This should allow you to peek through the window of your oven door without opening the door and changing the internal temperature of the oven. Every time you open the oven door, it takes a good ten minutes for the temperature to get back to its original setting)
Set the lamb into the 450-degree oven and roast for 20 minutes.
( 450º F = 230º C = gas mark 9)
After the 20 minutes, lower the temperature to 325º Fdegrees ( 325º F = 165º C = gas mark 3-very moderate) and continue cooking the lamb until the internal temperature is to your liking.
Approximate Roasting Time for a 5-7 pound Boneless Leg of Lamb:
(Source: United State Department of Agriculture)
Lamb Leg, boneless, rolled: |
Roast 325°
(165º C)APPROXIMATE
Roasting
Time
Internal
Temperature
Rare20 to 25 min./lb135 F.
(57.2 C)
Medium-rare25 to 30 min./lb145 F.
(62.8 C)
Medium
(to medium well)
30 to 35min./lb.160 F
(72.0 C)
Well done*35 to 40 min./lb170 F
(77.0 C.)
*Most people avoid cooking lamb to “well done”. It will be tough and dry.
There are several factors that will affect the cooking time:
My 5 pound Leg of Lamb was removed from the oven when the internal temperature of the Lamb reached 140 F. degrees – medium rare.
It took a total of 1 and 1/2 hours to cook, which was considerably less time than what the USDA guidelines had recommended.
This is why a meat thermometer is absolutely essential when you are cooking a roast.
When the meat is cooked, remove it from the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes. The temperature will increase by about 5 degrees while the roast is resting out of the oven.
With a pair of kitchen scissors cut through the netting (or string)….
…..and remove it completely.
Slice the lamb into 1/2 inch thick slices across the grain. (Here and here are very some very good pictures that show how to carve a bone-in Leg of Lamb.)
I roasted some carrots and small red potatoes separately….
….and served them with this Boneless Leg of Lamb.
Enjoy!
Approximate Lamb Cooking Times:
Source: USDA Last modified – May 2007
Cut of Lamb | Size | Cooking Method | Cooking Time | Internal Temperature(Fahrenheit / Celsius-Centigrade)) |
Lamb Leg, bone in | 5 to 7 lbs. | Roast 325°(165º C) | 20 to 25 min./lb. | Medium rare 145°F / 43.5°C |
25 to 30 min./lb. | Medium160°F /56.9°C | |||
30 to 35 min./lb. | Well done170°F / 62.4°C | |||
7 to 9 lbs. | Roast 325° | 15 to 20 min./lb. | Medium rare 145°F / 43.5°C | |
20 to 25 min./lb | Medium160°F / 56.9°C | |||
25 to 30 min./lb. | Well done170°F / 62.4°C | |||
Lamb Leg, boneless, rolled | 4 to 7 lbs. | Roast 325° | 25 to 30 min./lb. | Medium rare 145°F / 43.5°C |
30 to 35 min./lb. | Medium160°F / 56.9°C | |||
35 to 40 min./lb. | Well done 170°F / 62.4°C | |||
Shoulder Roast or Shank Leg Half | 3 to 4 lbs. | Roast 325° | 30 to 35 min./lb. | Medium rare 145°F / 43.5°C |
40 to 45 min./lb. | Medium160°F / 56.9°C | |||
45 to 50 min./lb. | Well done170°F / 62.4°C | |||
Cubes, for Kabobs | 1 to 1½” | Broil/Grill | 8 to 12 minutes | Medium160°F / 56.9°C |
Ground Lamb Patties | 2″ thick | Broil/Grill | 5 to 8 minutes | Medium °160°F / 56.9C |
Chops, Rib, or Loin | 1 to 1½” thick | Broil/Grill | 7 to 11 minutes | Medium rare 145°F / 43.5°C |
15 to 19 minutes | Medium160°F / 56.9°C | |||
Leg Steaks | ¾” thick | Broil/Grill 4″ from heat | 14 to 18 minutes | Medium rare 145°F / 43.5°C Medium160°F / 56.9°C |
Stew Meat, pieces | 1 to 1½” | Cover with liquid; simmer | 1½ to 2 hours | Medium160°F / 56.9°C |
Shanks | ¾ to 1 lb. | |||
Breast, Rolled | 1½ to 2 lb. | *Braise 325° | 1½ to 2 hours | Medium160°F / 56.9°C |
*Braising is roasting or simmering less-tender meats with a small amount of liquid in a tightly covered pan.
]]>If you are going to make egg salad sandwiches, three eggs will be enough for two sandwiches.
Celery and/or green olives are traditional “add-in”s to egg salad.
Be sure to mince the celery (cut it into really small bits) when you are adding it to a salad. Cut the celery length wise into thin strips, and then cut the strips into very small pieces.
Also be sure to slice the olives.
Crispy chopped bacon can add an extra zing to the taste and texture. A dash of curry powder is fantastic when you serve the salad as a dip with crackers and cut up vegetables.
Add a dash of Salt and Pepper
Add about 2 T. of mayonnaise, and give it a stir.
That’s it! The egg salad is all made, now just pick your favorite bread and you’ve got yourself a great sandwich!
Enjoy!
]]>Thanks, Leslie, for a great recipe!
*****
Asparagus (which is high in folic acid, potassium, fiber and vitamin B6) has only 4 calories per spear! With all that going for this delicious vegetable, its no wonder asparagus has landed itself on menus everywhere.
Start by rinsing off a pound of asparagus in a colander.
After a thorough washing, pat the spears dry with paper towels to get off any excess moisture. Now, break one stalk where it is naturally the weakest. This will separate the tender top part of the asparagus from its tough and fibrous stem. You will end up discarding about one third of the stalk. (Kathy shows how to peel asparagus here )
You can now use the new shorter “broken” asparagus as a guide to cut the rest of the bunch.
Spread the spears evenly on a baking sheet. For easy clean up, you can cover the sheet with a layer of tin foil before baking.
Drizzle 2 tablespoons of olive oil over the asparagus. Top with a few turns of freshly cracked pepper, and one half teaspoon of coarse salt.
Bake in a 425-degree preheated oven for about 10 minutes.
While the asparagus are roasting, take a moment to make this simple and delicious dipping sauce. Just two ingredients are needed to make this sauce – garlic and mayonnaise. (The lemon is for garnishing the roasted asparagus.)
Start by peeling and grating one small clove of garlic.
Then add the garlic to 1/3 cup of your favorite mayonnaise. I used low-calorie mayo and didn’t miss a thing!
Stir until well blended and transfer to a decorative serving dish.
After 10 minutes in the oven, check the asparagus to see if it’s done. Look for slightly browned and caramelized stems, and a fresh bright-green color. Don’t overcook the spears, or they will become an unattractive, dull shade of pea-green.
Next, transfer the asparagus to a serving platter and sprinkle it with about a tablespoon of fresh squeezed lemon juice.
Garnish the sauce with a bit of lemon zest (optional). You can serve Roasted Asparagus as an easy and healthy appetizer or finger-friendly side dish.
]]>Buying and cooking big pieces of meat like a roast or even a whole chicken can seem daunting if you have never done it before.
You may also be thinking: “That’s way too much meat for me to cook at once.” But cooking large pieces of meat or a whole chicken can, in the long run, be a huge time saver. Leftovers can be used for tomorrow’s dinner, or you can freeze them for future use.
Flat Cut Brisket
Corned beef brisket, (also known as salt beef if you live in the UK) is great when served with potatoes and your favorite vegetable. (Some people cook everything in the same pot. The beef cooking water gets really fatty and I think it’s better to cook the potatoes and vegetables separtely.) Be sure to buy some rye bread as well, because the leftovers make GREAT sandwiches.
This recipe is REALLY simple. All you need to do to cook a corned beef brisket are three things:
When buying a brisket you can choose between a point cut and a flat (or plank) cut.
The point cut is a rounder, thicker cut with more fat on it then the flat cut.
This photo of the leaner flat cut shows off the grain of the meat beautifully. This is really important when it comes time to cut the brisket. It MUST be cut across the grain or it will be just about impossible to chew!
Briskets come shrink-wrapped. It’s best to cut open the shrink wrap packaging in your (CLEAN!) sink. Although this flat cut brisket had very little juice in it, the point cut package was filled with brine which you don’t want all over your counter tops! Rinse the meat off with cool running water.
The point cut I bought came with its own packet of spices. (It didn’t say what spices, but they did smell really good!)
Since the flat cut didn’t come with its own spices, I decided to add about 10 peppercorns and about 1/8 teaspoon of cloves to the flat cut.
Each of these briskets weighs about 3 pounds. That should be enough to feed about 4-6 people.
When cooking large pieces of meat you have to make sure you are choosing the correct cooking method that is appropriate to the cut of meat.
Corn beef brisket requires long, slow, moist cooking, either on the stove top or in the oven. (How to Cook Like Your Grandmother has an excellent photo-tutorial on cooking corned beef in the oven.) I’ll show you the stove-top version.
Set the brisket in a large heavy pot with a lid.
Cover the brisket with water.
Cover the pot and bring it to a boil.
Then reduce the heat to simmer and let simmer about 4 hours.
By then it should be really tender. The meat will have also shrunk by about a third!
Point Cut – Cooked
Plank/Flat Cut – Cooked
Again, remember that when you are slicing the brisket, be sure to slice the meat across the grain!
If you cook your brisket the day before you are planning on eating it, it will be much easier to cut perfect slices. After slicing your corned beef brisket it will then reheat beautifully in the microwave.
Cutting Point Cut
Cutting Flat Cut
At the grocery store, while buying my corned beef brisket, I met a college student planning to cook a St Patrick’s Day feast for 15 of his friends.
Sean Carr, a 20 year old civil engineering student at Northeastern University, cooks his corn beef brisket in a covered roasting pan with 2 inches of water at 325 degrees for 5-5.5 hours.
If you are cooking several briskets for a party, this is actually a very clever way to do it. I would add that you should lay the meat in the pan with the fattiest side up. Set the pan on middle rack in the oven. Carefully pour boiling water around the briskets and seal the pan with a tin foil cover.
Sean said his briskets “came out tender, juicy and delicious!”! He also said, “Most college students survive on Mac and Cheese and Ramen (noodles), but I do my best to break away from that mold”. Good for you, Sean! Maybe between you and startcooking.com your roommates will learn to cook by the time you all graduate!
Cheers!
P.S.: Looking for more meat recipes? My beef stew is a great stew for beginner cooks to make!
]]>(In Adelaide, Australia they serve green split pea soup with a meat pie floating in it. You buy it from street vendors and, as odd as it sounds, it’s actually delicious!)
Split pea soup, like all soups, has a flexible ingredient list. For this recipe you will need:
Leeks, a tasty vegetable, are a part of the onion family, but have a much milder flavor than their cousins. Trim the ends off and slice them into about ¼ inch slices. Be sure to wash them well!
Heat 2 Tablespoons of olive oil in large pot. Add the dry leeks and cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes.
As the leeks are cooking, “sort” the dried split peas. That means to look through them to make sure no tiny stone ended up in the bag. (Many dry beans need to be soaked for several hours or overnight before you can cook them. YOU DO NOT NEED TO SOAK THE SPLIT PEAS FOR THIS RECIPE, or any recipe for that matter.)
Then rinse them under cool, running water.
Add them to the pot, along with 6 cups of chicken or vegetable stock. You can use the bouillon cubes to make the stock, or buy stock in a can.
Bring the pot to a boil and then turn it down to simmer. Cover the pot and simmer it for about 1 hour, giving it an occasional stir.
The peas are going to get totally soft and mushy, and the leeks are going to cook down completely. The soup is going to get really (really) thick.
Cut the turkey kielbasa into bite size pieces and add it to the pot.
Simmer the soup for about another 10 minutes. The sausage is already cooked so we are mostly just heating it through.
While the soup is simmering, chop the fresh lemon thyme. This has a wonderful, fresh, lemony flavor that adds such a lift to this soup! Pull the tiny leaves off the stem. Discard the stem and chop the leaves up.
I also like to add the juice of one lemon along with the zest.
Turn off the stove and add the lemon zest, juice, and lemon thyme. Give it a taste to see if it needs some salt and pepper. If the soup is too thick, add some more chicken or vegetable stock to thin it down a bit.
The soup is ready to serve!
Enjoy!
]]>Since I began startcooking.com, chocolate cake has been in the “Top 5 List” of the most requested recipes. Finally I have discovered the perfect chocolate cake recipe for beginner cooks. This moist, rich, dense, chocolate cake is one that you will want to make again and again. Many thanks to Nigella Lawson for this perfect recipe!
There are six steps to making this cake
Let’s startcooking!
This cake is baked in a 9-inch wide (and 2 1/2 -3 inches high) “springform” pan. This type of baking pan has a hinge on the side that expands. This allows you to remove the bottom of the pan from the sides, making removing the cake from the pan really easy.
To begin, the (closed!) pan needs to get “greased” (putting a layer of grease or shortening on the bottom of the pan.) You can grease the pan with butter, shortening, or a non-stick spray. (I used the non-stick spray.)
Then you need to line the pan with parchment paper. Cut the parchment paper to match the size of the pan.
Press the parchment paper to the bottom and sides of the pan. The grease will make it stick.
Be sure to get the pan prepared before you begin mixing the ingredients!
Go and pre-heat your oven to 350 F. degrees (or 180C., Gas mark 4)
If your measuring is not exact when you are making soups or stews, it will not totally throw off the recipe. However, with baking, measuring must be really accurate! Get all of your ingredients assembled and measured before you start mixing anything together.
I am making this cake using the standard US measuring techniques, but I am listing the metric amounts as well.
Nine ingredients are needed to make the cake. (Don’t make the frosting until the cake is baked, and stone cold.) Measure all the cake ingredients and set them aside:
First, there’s the surprise ingredient that makes this cake so rich – 8 ounces (250 ml) of Guinness stout beer!! (I promise, there is no beer taste to this cake!)
Second ingredient: 1 stick (250gr) of butter, unsalted and cut into slices
Third ingredient: 3/4 cups (75gr) of unsweetened cocoa powder (this is not the same as instant hot chocolate!)
Fourth ingredient: 2 cups granulated of sugar (400gr caster sugar)
Fifth ingredient: 3/4 cups of sour cream (1 x 142ml pot)
Sixth ingredient: 2 eggs
Seventh ingredient: 1 Tablespoon of vanilla extract (15 ml vanilla essence)
Eighth ingredient: 2 cups of white flour (275gr plain flour)
Finally, the ninth ingredient: 2 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda (12.5 ml bicarbonate of soda)
Part one: the basic chocolate mixture.
Pour the Guinness stout into a 4 quart saucepan…
…add the butter…
…and (over medium heat) stir or whisk until the butter has melted.
Whisk in the cocoa powder…
…and the sugar.
Once the sugar has melted, remove the pan from heat.
Part Two: The egg mixture
Crack the eggs into a small dish, check for shells, and then put the egg into a medium bowl.
Add the vanilla extract…
…and the sour cream.
Whisk these three ingredients together.
Pour the egg mixture into the chocolate.
Whisking until…
…it is well blended.
Part Three: Finishing the Batter
Now add the flour…
…and the baking soda.
Whisk everything together until it is totally blended.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
Be sure to scrape the pan clean with a silicone spatula.
Put the cake into the pre-heated 350 F. degrees (or 180C., Gas mark 4) oven.
Bake the cake for 45-50 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted into the center of the cake…
…comes out clean.
Check the cake after 45 minutes. This should be done while the cake is still in the oven! I did it on the counter top just for demonstration purposes. Even though my cake looks like it is not quite cooked in the very center, the pick came out clean so I know it is cooked.
Set the cake on a wire rack to cool completely. Do not remove the cake from the pan until it is cold!
Don’t even think about making the frosting until the cake is stone cold!! This will take a couple of hours for the cake to cool completely.
To remove the cake from the pan, first pop the hinge.
Then just lift the ring off the cake.
The parchment paper will be stuck to the cake. Gently peel off the parchment paper.
If this were a cheesecake, you would just serve it right on top of the metal base of the pan.
This is such a sturdy, moist cake that the bottom of the pan can easily be removed. First put the cooling rack on top of the cake…
…and the bottom of the pan slides right off.
Remove the paper.
Flip your cake dish so that the right side of the dish is facing the bottom of the cake.
The cake will be sandwiched between the cooling rack and the cake dish. Flip the whole thing!
Remove the rack and the cake is ready to frost!
Once frosted, this cake is supposed to be reminiscent of a pint of stout – a dense, dark bottom with a frothy white top.
The frosting is made with confectioners sugar, heavy cream (or milk), cream cheese, and vanilla.
Cut 8 ounces (300gr) of cream cheese into cubes and set them in a medium mixing bowl.
Soften the cream cheese in the microwave for about 15 seconds. You do not want to melt the cream cheese, just soften it a bit.
Sift 1 cup of confectioners’ sugar (150gr icing sugar) on top of the cream cheese.
Sifting the powdered sugar gets rid of any lumps.
Using an electric mixer, whip the cheese and sugar together until it is fluffy and smooth.
Whip in 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
Add up to 2 Tablespoons of heavy cream (or milk) in small amounts…
…beating after each addition…
…until you have a spreadable consistency.
(NOTE: This is a lot less heavy cream than indicated in the English-metric version of this recipe. English double cream is much thicker than heavy cream and has a consistency of something close to American sour cream.)
Spread the frosting on the top of cake, starting at middle and fanning out to the top edge of the cake.
The sides of the cake do not get frosted.
Although if you love frosting, double the frosting recipe and frost the sides as well! (I wish I had done that!)
WOW! We did it! Want a slice? Or two?
Adapted from:
Feast by Nigella Lawson
Chicken Marsala is the name given to chicken cutlets topped with a gravy made from Marsala wine (which comes from Italy.) This recipe is also chock full of mushrooms! I used a combination of Shitake mushrooms….
…and Baby Bella mushrooms.
For the Marsala Sauce you will need:
To make the chicken cutlets you will need the following ingredients
Wash and slice the mushrooms.
Crush the garlic.
Measure out all remaining ingredients needed for both the chicken cutlets and the Marsala sauce.
Cook the chicken cutlets according to my video on how to make Chicken Cutlets.
As you’ll see on the video, boneless chicken breasts need to be first coated (dredged) in flour, then eggs, then bread crumbs.
Once you have finished coating the chicken, be sure to THROW AWAY any leftover flour, egg, and bread crumbs. Raw chicken is filled with bacteria which makes the leftovers unusable.
When the chicken is cooked, remove it from the pan and put it on a dish. Cover the dish with tin foil to keep the chicken warm.
Melt 1 Tablespoon of butter in the same pan you cooked the chicken in.
Add 1 clove of crushed garlic….
…and the cleaned and sliced mushrooms, and cook for 1 minute over medium heat.
Stir in 2 Tablespoons of flour and cook for another 30 seconds.
Add 3/4 cup of chicken stock…
…and 1/2 cup of Marsala.
Stir until thickened and…
…continue cooking for another 4-5 minutes or until the mushrooms are tender.
Add some salt and pepper to taste and pour the sauce over the cooked chicken.
Enjoy!
]]>A hearty bowl of hot soup is great on a cold, winter’s day. Here is a selection that will satisfy both the hearty and the finicky eaters in your family.
PS.
For those of you lucky enough to be surrounded by sunshine and warm weather, this cold Gazpacho is perfect for dinner tonight.
Choosing what fish to cook for dinner is a lot harder than actually cooking the fish! Here is a quick guide that will help you sort out the different cuts and how to prepare them.
Fish can be subdivided into three groups based on their fat content. The higher the fat content , the richer the taste. (No surprises there!)
Lean fish typically have about 2 per cent fat content. Some examples are: cod, turbot, haddock, halibut, brook trout, red snapper, hake and tile fish.
Medium-fat fish typically has around 6 per cent fat. Some examples are: swordfish, pompano, striped bass and bonito tuna.
The fat content of high fat fish is typically around 12 per cent. Some varieties are: salmon, butterfish, grouper, herring and yellowtail.
When you’re at the fish counter, you’ll see that fish is available in several different forms:
Microwaving Fish
The microwave is a great place to cook fish when you’re in a hurry. Cooking time will depend on the strength of your microwave and on the thickness of the fish. For reference, microwaving 2-inch-thick salmon steaks takes about 5 minutes. It’s better to underestimate than overestimate cooking times. Remember that fish will continue cooking for a few minutes even after it’s come out of the microwave. This demonstration of Cold Salmon with Creamy Mustard Sauce shows that you can get a head start on dinner by zapping the salmon for five minutes in the morning, then refrigerating it to eat later in the day. Salmon is delicious eaten hot or cold.
Baking Fish
This is another simple cooking method that works for almost any kind of fish. The rule of thumb is to cook it four or five minutes per half-inch of thickness, or eight to 10 minutes per inch of thickness. In this demonstration of baked cod with breadcrumbs, the thick fillets take about 25 minutes to cook. The fish can be seasoned, marinated or cooked in a sauce, as startcooking.com demonstrates in this preparation of Baked Cod with Salsa.
Pan Frying Fish
Pan frying works with all kinds of fish, but especially with milder fish. It’s fine to use fish fillets that have a strip of skin on the side. Depending on the kind of fish you’re using, you may want to dredge or coat the fish in flour, for a crispy finish. This will also give a bit more flavor and substance to lean varieties of fish.
But there’s no need to dredge meatier kinds of fish. Startcooking.com’s tutorial on Pan-Fried Fish with Lemon and Parsley shows this simple and quick method. Fans of fish sticks won’t go near the frozen kind after trying our recipe for homemade fish fingers (shown below) – these are so easy and so out of this world!
Broiling Fish
When you set the oven to broil, the heat comes directly from above, browning the top of the fish nicely. Put the fish skin-side down on a broiling pan, or on foil-lined baking sheet four to six inches from the broiler. It can take anywhere from two minutes to 10 minutes to cook, depending on the thickness. If the fish is very thick, it may need to be flipped halfway through.
Poaching Fish
This is a good method for lighter, more delicate kinds of fish. The fish gets GENTLY simmered in liquid in a pan on the stove for a few minutes. The key is not to let the liquid boil because this will cause the fish to come apart. Cooking For Engineers offers a very helpful tutorial on poached fish.
Fish in foil or parchment (en papillote)
Fish en papillote may sound like a fancy cooking method, but it’s actually one of the easiest ways to cook your whole meal all in one go! You simply place your fish, with some chopped vegetables, on foil or parchment paper, then fold the foil/paper over the ingredients and close up the edges so that it’s like a sealed packet. Cook at 400F for 15 to 20 minutes — the steam inside the packet cooks the food.
Grilling Fish
Our post on Grilling Fish 101 covers the basics of cooking fish on an outdoor grill. In short, grilling works best on thicker, fattier fish like salmon, swordfish, mahi mahi and tuna. Although you can grill leaner, flakier fish, you’ll need to use a fish basket or grill it on foil.
If you are still having difficulty choosing fresh fish and seafood, just ask the person at the fish counter for some advice.
Happy fishing!!
]]>Shepherd’s Pie is basically a casserole made of cooked meat with gravy which gets topped with a layer of mashed potatoes and then baked. It is comfort food at it’s best! As with all recipes there are many variations of Shepherd’s Pie, including some with a layer of vegetables as well.
Here in America, Shepherd’s Pie is typically made with beef.
In England, Australia and New Zealand Shepherd’s Pie is made with lamb or mutton, and “Cottage Pie” is made with beef.
To make this (American) version of Shepherd’s Pie all you will need to know is how to:
Many (more advanced) recipes call for various other vegetables, like chopped onions, carrots, garlic, peas or corn to be added to (or layered on) the beef mixture. Still other recipes suggest that you need to know how to make your own gravy.
But if you’re a beginner cook, it’s perfectly OK to use a jar of store bought gravy, which is what I’m going to do here.
At the grocery store buy:
You will also need about 1/3 cup of milk and 4 Tablespoons of butter. I’ll assume that you already have those two ingredients in your refrigerator! (If you don’t, do buy some milk and butter as well!)
Start by getting the potatoes washed, peeled, cooked and mashed. I’ve written a post here on mashed potatoes.
While the potatoes are cooking, brown the beef (video) in a frying pan. Be sure to drain off the excess fat.
Stir in the beef gravy.
If you have any extra spices in your cupboard you can add them as well. Some options are: 1/2 teaspoon of garlic or onion powder or 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce.
Spread the meat mixture over the bottom of a 2-quart casserole dish. I’m using an 8-inch square baking dish.
Now spread the mashed potatoes on top.
Using a fork, fluff the top.
Then cut 1 tablespoon of butter into really tiny bits and dot the bits over the mashed potatoes. This will help to brown the top of the potatoes.
(You could sprinkle on some Parmesan cheese or grated cheddar cheese on the top if you like.)
Bake the casserole in a preheated 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. It will look like the picture below when you take it out of the oven.
Sometime the gravy will bubble up through the potato topping which is just fine.
A WORD OF CAUTION:
You can put the Shepherd’s Pie under the broiler for a few minutes to brown the top a little bit more, BUT NOT IF YOU USED A GLASS BAKING DISH AS I HAVE DONE.
Generally speaking, (Pyrex) glass baking dishes are suitable for baking only. When used under a broiler, the extreme fluctuation in temperature can cause the dish to crack. If you plan on browning YOUR Shepherd’s Pie under the broiler, use a metal baking pan, not a glass one!
Enjoy!
]]>These savory Sausage Balls are great to serve to company! They are a hearty snack or hors d’oeuvre. This is not a light and delicate dish, so you might want to serve them with some fresh-cut vegetables and a healthy dip just to balance out the decadent versus healthy options you provide to your guests!
The original recipe for these savory treats has been around (supposedly) since the mid 1960’s. As a consequence, there are hundreds of variations to the recipe, which I’ll discuss at the end of this post.
For startcooking.com’s version of Sausage Balls you will need:
I recommend using hot sausage because it adds a really nice zing to these sausage balls, but you could use a sweet Italian sausage, or even a spicy breakfast sausage. (Not all sausage meat has the same fat content which in turn does influence the final texture of these sausage balls.)
Be sure to bring the sausage to room temperature – it will make mixing these ingredients a lot easier.
Begin by mixing (with a whisk in a large bowl) the flour, the baking powder and the salt.
Now, remove the casings (the skin) from around the sausage meat and put the sausage meat into the mixing bowl. It is not necessary to pre-cook the sausage meat.
Shred 10 ounces of sharp cheddar cheese. You can use either white or yellow cheddar; just make sure it is “sharp”.
Then dice 1 medium onion. That will make about 1 cup of onions. (I describe how to Chop, Dice and Mince Onions here.)
Add the shredded cheese and the diced onion to the mixing bowl.
With your (clean!) hands mix everything together with both hands. The mixture will feel dry and could take about 4-5 minutes to get everything well mixed.
Spray a baking sheet with sides with non-stick cooking spray.
Scoop out about a tablespoon of the mixture with your fingers, or a measuring spoon. Roll it into a ball about 1 inch in diameter. This recipe will make approximately 5 and 1/2 dozen sausage balls. (This sounds like a lot, but I promise you they will go fast.)
You will have to bake them in two batches.
Set the balls on the baking sheet about 1 and 1/2 inches apart from each other.
Bake them in a 350-degree preheated oven for 15-18 minutes in total. Set the timer for 8 minutes. Remove the tray from the oven and with a spatula or a pair of tongs, turn them over. Return the tray to the oven and continue baking the sausage balls for another 7 minutes.
(They can be a bit delicate to turn. You may need to gently loosen them with a spatula before turning them over.)
Remove the tray from the oven, and if need be, with a spatula, loosen the sausage balls and place them on a plate lined with a paper towel to drain off some of the fat.
The sausage balls are now ready to be served as finger food, warm from the oven.
Preparing in Advance
Once these sausage balls have been made, you can freeze them before you bake them. Roll the mixture into balls as described above, and place them on a baking sheet lined with wax paper.
Cover them with plastic wrap and…
…freeze for several hours until they are hard. Remove them from the baking sheet and put the sausage balls in a freezer bag.
When you are ready to serve them, place them on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Let them defrost for 15 minutes and then bake them according to the instructions above.
Variations
Some sausage-ball recipes recommend adding 1/3 cup of milk or water, or 1 egg.
Other recipes call for garlic powder or fresh garlic, chopped green chilies, rosemary, thyme, oregano, or Tabasco sauce.
Some suggest that you serve the sausage balls with red pepper jam, or a mustard-mayonnaise sauce, or barbeque sauce.
Then there are some recipes that do not ask you to turn the sausage balls over half way through the cooking time. I think that they tend to get a bit over-cooked on the bottom this way.
Instead of the flour, baking powder and salt, 1 and 1/2 cups of Bisquick can actually be used for this recipe. Bisquick is a pre-mixed base for making things like biscuits, pancakes, and other baked goods. If you are new to cooking and do not have flour and baking powder in the cupboard, a small box of Bisquick may be the thing to purchase. You can always make pancakes with the leftovers! (Be sure to buy the “Heart Smart” version as it is free of trans fats).
Many recipes call for 3 cups of Bisquick, 1 pound of sausage, and 12 ounces of cheese. That’s it. I tried making these and found them to very dry and hard.
***
I do hope everyone at your party enjoys startcooking’s version of Savory Sausage Balls!
]]>There are lots of different things you can make for dinner with leftover (cooked) chicken. My favorite, particularly on a cold night, is a hot bowl of Chicken Noodle Soup. This is one of those soups for which you can find really complicated, time-consuming recipes or – just use this quick version for beginners!
All of the ingredients you will need for this recipe are pretty standard food items:
Broth is the strained liquid left from cooking vegetables, meat, or fish in water. It is often used as a synonym for bullion.
Stock is basically the same thing but cooked more slowly and has a more intense flavor than broth.
Bullion cubes or granules are compressed stock that needs to be dissolved before using.
For the broth, I’m using a product called “Better than Bullion.” It needs to get dissolved in hot water before adding it to the soup. A can or box of chicken broth or bullion cubes or granules could be used here as well.
My grocery store sometimes has what they call a “Soup Green Mix”. They bundle together everything you might need to make soup.
This mix included a turnip, an onion, a potato, 3 stalks of celery, 1 GIANT carrot, 1 leek, 1 parsnip, some dill and some parsley.
If you like all the vegetables in one of these “starter packs”, great! But I prefer to pick out my own vegetables.
To make startcooking.com’s Chicken Noodle Soup, start by chopping the onion, and slicing the carrot and celery.
Melt the butter in a big pot, on medium-high heat, and add the onions, carrots and celery.
Cook these three vegetables until lightly browned – about 5 minutes.
Add the chicken broth and bring the pot to a boil.
Turn the soup down to simmer.
Cover the pot and let the soup cook for about 10-15 minutes.
While the soup is cooking, chop the parsley and shred the chicken by just pulling it apart with your fingers. You could cut it into chunks but shredding it gives the soup a nice homemade texture.
(You can buy a roasted chicken at the grocery store or roast one yourself. Click here to review how to carve a chicken.)
Add the noodles to the pot and simmer the soup, uncovered, until the noodles are tender. The amount of time will depend on what size noodle you added to the soup. Check the label on the noodle package for cooking times.
Taste the soup to see if it needs any salt and pepper. (Different chicken broth brands have different levels of salt in them, so a taste test is essential to determine how much salt your soup needs.)
Add the shredded chicken and simmer until chicken is warm.
Mix the parsley in the soup or use it to garnish the top.
Dinner’s ready!
P.S.: If you’re a soup lover, you’ll probably enjoy our French onion soup recipe too!
]]>Today I’m going to show you how to make a Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwich, better know as the BLT!
We’ve already discussed how to cook bacon in the microwave.
We have also solved the mystery of how to actually wash your own lettuce!
We still need to slice a tomato. A really sharp kitchen knife or a serrated edge knife will cut the tomato beautifully. (Serrated edge knives are the ones with the jagged edge.)
Be sure to always use a sawing motion or you may end up squishing the tomato!
Then we’ll add all of this to your favorite bread, which of course should be toasted. A dollop of mayonnaise adds the finishing touch to a perfect BLT!
Spread each slice with about 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise. This is not a sandwich you should be eating if you are counting calories!
Add the lettuce, the bacon and the sliced tomato. (It doesn’t really matter what order you follow.)
All of the amounts are adjustable to your taste. And that’s all there is to a BLT!
To slice the sandwich, (optional) use a serrated-edge bread knife , with a sawing motion (as usual with this knife).
Enjoy!
PS. Did you know that sandwiches are named after an actual person, (you guessed it) the English Earl of Sandwich? Apparently, the Earl of Sandwich had an obsession for gambling. Because he didn’t want to be disturbed long enough to eat a big meal, slices of bread with various fillings were brought to him at the gaming table.
]]>This dip is like a fondue, but everyone gets their own dipping cup. That means “double dipping” is totally allowed!
The only two ingredients needed to make this recipe are Nutella (up to a whole 13 ounce jar, if you like) and heavy cream (1 cup.)
Spoon 8-to-13 ounces of Nutella into a microwave-safe glass measuring cup with a pour spout. (The pour spout will make this dish easier to serve.)
The more Nutella you use, the thicker your dip will be. Heat the Nutella in the microwave for 30 seconds on high.
Remove it from the microwave and set it aside for the moment.
Pour the cream into another microwave-safe glass measuring cup and heat that in the microwave, for approximately 30-45 seconds on high heat, or until very hot but not boiling.
Pour the cream into the Nutella…
…and whisk the two ingredients together
…until it is completely smooth and blended.
Pour the Nutella dessert dip into 8 small espresso cups…
…or mini, individual serving dishes.
Serve with biscotti or shortbread.
Double dipping is allowed!
Enjoy!
]]>Who could resist this appetizer?
My video on Chili Peppers and our How to: Chili Peppers will serve as a great introduction to peppers for the beginner cook.
If you like a hint of “heat” in your food, experiment by adding chili peppers to everyday dishes. Chop up some chili pepper and toss it on scrambled eggs, sandwiches or burgers, stir-fries, soups or stews. Add or subtract chili depending on the level of spice that you like. Be sure to remove the stem and seeds, since that’s where a lot of the really hot heat is stored!
Jalapenos are one of the more recognizable peppers here in the USA, as they are very popular in Tex-Mex cooking. Recipes call for a variety of different forms of jalapenos including fresh, canned, and as a sweet hot pepper jelly.
1. Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno Thingies (shown at the top of the post) have three great ingredients going for them: spicy peppers, cream cheese and bacon. Everyone will just love this flavor combination!
2. Jalapenos Stuffed with Sausage (shown below) pack a real kick, particularly if you use hot sausage! Using sweet sausage may be a safer bet for your next party.
3. If you find jalapeno peppers are too hot to handle, here’s a recipe that cheats, using jalapeno pepper jelly in a glaze for fish, chicken or beef. Crabby Cook modified this glaze (seen on America’s Test Kitchen) and promises that it “won’t burn your mouth up.” This recipe does include cilantro, which sort of looks like flat-leaf parsley, but for many it is an acquired taste.
4. Surprise your company with this easy treat: put an 8 ounce block of cream cheese on a serving plate. Pour a 10 ounce jar of hot pepper jelly over the cheese. Serve with your favorite crackers!
5. Ina Garten’s recipe for Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbreadtakes five minutes to mix the ingredients, which then sit at room temperature for 20 minutes before baking. For this recipe, don’t forget to pick up a box of cornmeal at the grocery store!
6. My video on Tex-Mex Cheeseburgers uses canned jalapenos in the sauce. Try this just once and it will become a family favorite in your house too!
7. Instead of using Tabasco sauce in my Tex-Mex Bean Salad recipe (shown below), try chopping up some fresh jalapenos. This recipe is great to serve on a buffet!
8. Stuffed Poblano Peppers is an easy, improvised recipe that involves five ingredients. The poblano peppers are stuffed with browned ground beef and cooked rice, mixed with ready-made enchilada sauce and canned diced tomatoes.
9. This Food & Wine recipe for Poblano and Portobello Stuffed Mushrooms is one of those “company’s coming” kind of dishes. Or it could make a classy, light vegetarian meal for you and your sweetheart. Poblanos add a lot of flavor but not too much heat!
10. Skinny Chef uses pickled cherry peppers for this great recipe: Cherry Peppers Stuffed with Mozzarella and Basil. Jen will also answer the question on whether or not Chilies Can Help to Control Your Weight!
***
Or for no heat but lots of flavor, check out my photo-tutorial on Stuffed Peppers (shown below)!
]]>This decadently rich chocolate pie recipe has an ingredient that that is going to surprise many of you! When I told my trainer, Mr. Strong…
…about this pie, he was extremely skeptical because that surprise ingredient is “silken tofu”. Having never tried tofu, Mr Strong had no idea what to expect and was very hesitant to give it a try. When he tasted it and then asked how to make it, I knew we had a winning dessert!
Tofu comes in different consistencies. If you have never bought tofu before, it is essential for this recipe to buy the “silken” tofu (which is also used to make delicious smoothies!) Look for the word “silken” on the packaging.
The filling for this pie is all made in a blender. You will need:
You will also need a 9-inch graham cracker pie crust (or 8-10 mini size) which you can make yourself or buy pre-made.
I recommend using semi-sweet chocolate chips, although you could use just about any chocolate you prefer. The chips are more economical than buying a premium chocolate bar. (Use semi-sweet chocolate or a combination of bitter sweet (4 ounces) and semi-sweet (12 ounces).
Put the chocolate bits into a microwave safe bowl.
Microwave the chocolate, for about 1 minute and 30 seconds. Give it a stir. If it’s not smooth and melted, zap it again, in 15 second increments, until it’s completely melted.
Meanwhile, cut out a small corner of the silken tofu container and drain off the excess fluid – only about 2-3 Tablespoons.
Measure out the coffee liqueur (Khalua), honey and the vanilla.
Now, put the tofu, coffee liqueur, vanilla extract and honey into a blender:
Mix this all together on medium speed for about 20 seconds
Add the melted chocolate…
to the blender…
and mix that in as well, on medium, for an additional 30 seconds.
With a silicone spatula, scrape down the insides of the blender.
And give it one more whirl, on medium for about 20 seconds, until everything is totally blended and smooth.
Pour the chocolate mixture into a 9-inch graham cracker crust…
or 8-10 mini crusts.
Put the pie (or mini pies!) in the refrigerator for about 1-to-2 hours to set.
A tart pan with a removable bottom also works beautifully with this recipe.
Pour the filling into the prepared crust.
And refrigerate the tart until it’s firm.
If you have made a nine inch pie using a pre-made or home made crust, then just start slicing. If you used the mini crusts you can gently remove these tarts from the tin. For those that made a crust from scratch and use a tart pan with removable sides, balance the tart on a large can. The rim drops down very easily.
Then just put it on a serving dish and dig in! (You can also top this pie with some whipped cream if like!)
Of course you could always just forget about a crust and pour this fudgy filling straight into a beautiful stemmed glass and eat it as is!
Enjoy!
]]>Ahh, bacon! That crispy, chewy, salty and sinful cut of pork we all love.
Depending on where in the world you live, bacon is cut from the sides, belly, or back of a pig, near the ribs. The most common form of bacon sold in the United States is side bacon. It is very fatty with long layers of fat running parallel to the rind. It’s the fattiness of the meat that makes it so yummy. After the skin is cut away, the meat is cured, smoked, and sliced. It can be cooked in a pan on the stovetop, in the oven, or in the microwave, until it’s perfectly crisp.
1. Make a good old BLT sandwich, of course.
2. Bacon cheeseburgers will make anyone’s mouth water. Meat topped with more meat? Perfection!
3. Bacon-wrapped tater tots would go perfectly with that bacon cheeseburger!
4. Roast a bacon-wrapped turkey breast for Sunday dinner.
5. Make delicious bacon parmesan twists.
6. Add a punch of flavor to your creamed spinach recipe.
7. Make your own hot bacon dressing for a fabulous spinach salad!
8. Entertaining? Whet your guests’ appetites with the bacon-cheese fundido appetizer.
9. Indulge in a bar of dark chocolate infused with the flavor of applewood smoked bacon as a special treat.
10. Maple bacon cupcakes (made from a cake mix) look easy and mouth watering.
11. And if you liked those, try some maple bacon cookie bark.
12. It’s not real, southern cornbread unless there’s bacon grease in it.
13. Bacon lip balm anyone?
14. Join the bacon of the month club to have artisan bacon delivered to your door 12 times a year.
15. A plate full of candied bacon is very hard to resist.
16. A Bacon Martini, (also known as Pig On The Rocks) is made with bacon infused vodka.
17. For a great garnish for drinks, try making a bacon swizzle stick.
18. Whip up a tasty bacon and cheese quiche for dinner.
19. Cook bacon into the shape of cups and fill with lettuce and tomato for a breadless BLT.
20. Stay warm bacon hot chocolate.
21. Bacon salt adds the flavor without the calories.
22. If pork-covered pork appeals to you, you may also enjoy the Grilled Bacon-Wrapped hot dogs.
23. Bacon bandaids bring back smiles.
24. Bacon wrapped Cheesy Stuffed Jalapeños will be a huge hit at your next party.
25. Top your next dinner party with these totally amazing Dark Chocolate Bacon Cupcakes.
26. Impress your guests with Bacon Wrapped Scallops.
27. A bacon-y take on an Asian favorite: bacon and bok choy potstickers.
28. Weave and bake bacon into edible placemats.
29. Then, use the woven bacon to augment your grilled cheese experience.
30. The Bacon Explosion is to die for! (Make only if you are a hardcore bacon lover)
31. Bacon, date and almond appetizers will be the hit of your party.
32. Bacon egg salad croissants put a new spin on an old favourite.
33. Candied Bacon Ice Cream a la David Leibovitz.
34. An actual bacon bandaid clearly helps you heal faster.
35. This bacon alarm clock has been university tested.
36. Romance is in the air with this bacon bouquet.
37. With all this bacon love going on, be sure to NOT put any bacon fat down the drain.
38. Bacon popcorn is a deliciously delicious, crunchy snack!
39. For the experienced cook, try your hand at making your own bacon.
40. Baked Beans with Crispy Bacon, the name says it all.
41. Fancy up your Mac and Cheese with some bacon.
42. Potato soup with bacon sounds like the perfect soup to warm you up!
43. Strawberry bacon spinach salad will make you the star of any potluck.
44. Salty bacon is great inside an egg salad sandwich.
45. Try roasted pears with cheese and bacon.
46. Pears, bacon and cheese can also be made into a great pizza.
47. This is my favorite Bacon Quiche recipe.
48. If you are calorie cutting check out your local grocery store for turkey bacon.
49. Bacon Crack…butter, sugar, bacon and saltines…
50. And finally, a Bacon Fluffernutter!
]]>Salmon actually tastes fantastic when it is served cold. This one-pound piece of salmon will make 4 servings and take about 5 minutes to cook in the microwave.
I’m going to give you a quick review, but do check out my video on Baked Cod and Microwave Salmon.
The salmon will cook more evenly if it gets cut, in advance of cooking, into serving size pieces.
Put the salmon in a microwave-safe dish. Drizzle on some fresh squeezed lemon juice.
Sprinkle on some salt and freshly ground pepper.
Cover the salmon with plastic wrap, leaving a vent for the steam to escape.
I like my salmon cooked completely through, so I am going to microwave this on high for 5 minutes. All microwaves are different. Yours may take a little less or a little more time.
Once it is cooked let it cool.
If the skin is still on the bottom of your salmon, either cut it off or just peel it off with your fingers. The skin doesn’t look or taste that great when you are serving COLD salmon.
Put the salmon on a decorative platter and garnish (decorate) it with lemon and parsley. Cover it with some plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator until you are ready to eat.
For the sauce, mix together:
1/2 cup of sour cream
2 Tablespoons of mustard (Dijon)
2 Tablespoons of honey
2 teaspoons of lime juice
The Dijon mustard adds a really sharp taste to this sauce. You may want to add a bit less if you prefer it less “hot”. Keep in mind that when serving anything cold, you need to season it a bit more heavily.
Rather than using my lemon juicer, I just squeezed two wedges of lime juice into the sauce.
Pour the sauce into a nice serving bowl.
Serve the sauce on the side with some steamed asparagus and fresh tomatoes.
Enjoy!
]]>Hot Artichoke Dip could easily be the BIG hit at your next party! It’s rich, creamy and smooth with just the right amount of tangy zip from the (canned) artichokes.
The only skills needed to make this dip are to be able to:
All of these steps could be done the day before your party!
Click the Recipe Card on the top of the post for the list of ingredients and amounts needed.
You could cook the bacon and the onion in a frying pan but I’m doing it in the microwave. Clean-up is much easier this way!
5 Slices of bacon will take about 5 minutes to cook in the microwave. Once cooled, chop the bacon up into crumbly, small bits.
Dice the onion. One medium onion equals approximately 1/2 cup of diced onion. One clove of garlic needs to get crushed. (That’s about 1 teaspoon of fresh garlic)
Put the onion and the garlic in a small bowl and add 1 teaspoon of butter. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
Microwave the mixture on high for 1 minute to soften (or wilt) the onions. It will look like this:
Shred 8 ounces of Monterey Jack cheese and 1/4 cup of Parmesan Cheese. The Monterey Jack cheese will go into the mixture, and melts into a creamy and smooth consistency. The Parmesan cheese is for sprinkling on the top of the dip.
Parmesan (on the left) and Monterey Jack cheese
In a colander, drain 2 cans (14 ounce each) artichoke hearts and chop them up.
All of the above steps can be done the day before and the ingredients wrapped up and stored in the refrigerator.
The 8 ounces of cream cheese needs to be soft in order to blend it with the other ingredients. You can just let it sit (still wrapped) on the counter for about 2 hours. Or remove it from its packaging and put it on a plate. Then zap it in the microwave for about 30 seconds or until it is soft.
In a large mixing bowl, mix well the softened cream cheese, the shredded Monterey Jack cheese and 1/2 cup of mayonnaise.
It should look like this:
Now mix in the onions and garlic, and the chopped artichokes.
Spread the mixture into a 9-10 inch round baking dish. (The dip is going to be served in this dish as well, so be sure it looks nice!)
Sprinkle on the parmesan cheese…
and the bacon bits.
Now it is ready to go into your 350 degree preheated oven.
It will take about 30 minutes to cook. While it’s in the oven, cut some pita bread into triangles. (Tortilla chips also work really well with this dip.)
The dip is ready to come out of the oven when it is slightly puffed and the edges are just a little browned.
Enjoy!
]]>At startcooking.com I have written and filmed quite a bit about eggs. Here I’m updating “The Incredible Edible Egg” story and will finish with the links to many of my recipes that include eggs.
These categories include:
***
Separating the yolk from the white part of the egg is an important thing to learn, as many recipes call for just the white part of the egg and other recipes have you add extra yolks.
For experienced cooks, cracking an egg is second nature. For new cooks, it can be a bit nerve-wracking. My video on Cracking and Separating Eggs has some great tips that will help the beginner.
Technically speaking, a hard or soft “boiled” egg” should actually be called a (hard or soft) “cooked” egg. However, I intentionally used the term “boiled” since that is the term most beginner cooks will recognize.
Many people wrote in to ask me how to make a “soft-boiled” egg. I was so busy making the hard-boiled, I forgot all about the soft-boiled egg!
To make a soft-boiled egg, follow the directions in the video of How to Boil an Egg BUT after the water boils, turn the heat down to simmer and continue cooking the eggs for between 3-to-5 minutes. The size of your egg and how “runny” you like the yolk will determine the cooking time. You will probably have to do a trial run to see what works for you!
As for Scrambled Eggs, I really keep thinking I should re-do that post. The information is great but, that’s the post where I dropped my camera in the bowl of raw eggs! The photos work but they are a bit hazy. (Plus it is the only post in which I’m wearing red nail polish, which I find it very distracting!)
Buying and storing eggs is different through-out the world.
There is a reason eggs are stored differently in Europe than in the USA. My post “Born in the USA” explains why.
“In the USA, government standards say all eggs must be washed and stored at temperatures no higher than 45 degrees Fahrenheit.
Washing the eggs is a good thing but it does leave the eggs without an outer coating and very susceptible to invasion by bacteria. Hence refrigeration is absolutely necessary.
In Europe eggs are not washed and don’t have to be refrigerated.” Who knew?
My Quiche video and the Sausage and Egg bake video are recipes for dishes that never go out of style. Quiche is my very favorite thing to serve to company, any time of the day. All the different parts can get prepared in advance. Then it is just a matter of assembling it and baking it!
(And of course what’s better than bacon to accompany eggs for breakfast or brunch. Here’s 50 Ways to Cook Bacon.)
Once you know How to Boil an Egg there are all sorts of things you can do with it.
I am always amazed by the popularity of Deviled Eggs. They are perfect for parties and both kids and adults love them! Plus hard cooked eggs are great added to salads!
Raw eggs are often used to bind, or hold together, other ingredients. Sweet and Sour Meatballs and Meatloaf are just two examples of this. When making Chicken Cutlets or Eggplant Parmesan you dip the chicken or eggplant in eggs to make the bread crumbs stick to it.
Eggs act as a leavening agent in baked good. Another words, it makes thing rise.
It’s important to note that most recipes are based on “large” eggs unless otherwise indicated. If you do not use the correct size egg in baking, it can totally throw off the recipe. Egg size is definitely not as important when making savory dishes.
Here is a great Egg Size Equivalent Chart.
Post Script:
What came first, the chicken or the egg?
“Eggs existed long before chickens. These all-in-one reproductive cells, incorporating the nutrients to support life, evolved about a billion years ago. The first eggs were hatched in the ocean. As animal life emerged from the water about 250 million years ago, they began producing an egg with a tough leathery skin to prevent dehydration of its contents on dry land. The chicken evolved only about 5,000 years ago from an Asian bird.”
On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee.
Cheers!
Kathy
The box mix has been around forever and a box will indeed last forever! The intense chemical flavor which allows it sit in your cupboard for generations screams out with every bite.
The stove-top version is made from “real” ingredients and is very tasty. Plus, it’s a snap to prepare.
My favorite is actually the Oven-baked Mac & Cheese made from scratch starting off with a white sauce. It tastes fabulous and, while baking, it develops a crusty top that is to die for. Today we are going to tackle the Stove-Top Version, which as noted above, is a little quicker to prepare.
You will need eight ingredients:
Note:
Evaporated milk should NOT to be confused with sweetened condensed milk (on right in photo below), which comes in similar cans.
Measure out 2 cups of the dry Macaroni
Cook it according to the directions on the package.
Get all your ingredients measured while the macaroni is cooking.
Once the macaroni is cooked, drain it in a colander.
Melt the butter in the same pot you cooked the macaroni in.
Remove the pot from the heat and using a whisk or large spoon, mix in the evaporated milk first.
Now mix in the eggs
And the salt
Dry mustard
and the hot pepper sauce.
Put the pot back on the stove top on low heat and add the pasta to the pot.
And the cheese
Cook over low heat stirring constantly for about 4 minutes,
or until the cheese is melted
and the mac and cheese is thick and creamy.
Serve the mac and cheese immediately and…Enjoy!
]]>Most of us at some point or another have bought a jar of spaghetti sauce and ketchup. These items can be found in almost everyone’s kitchen. Pizza sauce and salsa are fast becoming staples as well.
Pizza sauce has a consistency similar to ketchup, but has a lot more Italian spices added to it. The “squirt bottle” in this photo can be stored after opening, in the refrigerator, for up to four weeks. That’s great if you are making single servings of things like English Muffin Pizzas, and only use a little at a time.
Salsa has chunky bits of vegetables/fruit in it, some varieties being chunkier than others. Salsa can also be purchased with different levels of “heat”. Check the label. It will tell you if it’s mild, medium, or hot.
As wonderful as salsa is with corn chips, there is a lot more you can do with salsa. It’s great on top of a baked potato as well as a topping for fish.
It wasn’t until I started making my own spaghetti sauce that I realized there was a huge difference in taste between home-made and store-bought spaghetti sauce. You really will impress your guests if you make your own. They will be able to tell.
My Marinara Sauce, and my Turkey-Sausage Pasta Sauce, both have canned tomatoes as one of their ingredients.
There are a lot of different canned tomatoes to choose from. Whole tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, and tomato sauce and tomato paste, are just four of the main types of tomatoes you can get in a can.
One more thing…not all brands taste the same! If a particular brand tastes too acidic or too sweet, try another brand! (For a review of different brands of canned tomatoes, click here.)
(Tomato puree is another form of tomatoes you can buy in a can. They are not in the photo because I didn’t have any in the cupboard when I wrote this post!)
All of these different varieties can be purchased with added spices, like garlic, basil and oregano.
Whole tomatoes are just that. You can buy them peeled or unpeeled. They usually come packed in tomato juice. They are used for sauces, chili, soups, and stews.
Crushed tomatoes (or diced tomatoes) are the whole tomato cut up. Sometimes extra juice has been added to the can. They too are used for sauces, soups, and stews. Your recipe will indicate which to buy. The tastes are very similar, it’s the texture that is clearly different.
Turkey Sausage Sauce Ingredients: Including Tomato Paste and Crushed Tomatoes
Tomato puree and tomato sauce have been cooked and strained. Puree is thicker than tomato sauce. I drew my finger through the tomato sauce on the dish in the picture below just to give you a sense of how thick it is. Use this for seasoning, flavor, and/or as a base for other sauces.
Tomato paste is made from tomatoes that have been cooked for several hours and then strained. It is used to intensify the tomato flavor in anything that it is added to.
You can buy it in a can or a tube. This tube says “double concentrate” which means it has an even stronger flavor than regular tomato paste.
The tube of tomato paste can cost at least 3 times more than a can of tomato paste. You can store the tube in the refrigerator for quite some time. That’s the advantage of the added cost.
Personally, I don’t think it’s worth spending the extra money. If you do have leftover tomato paste you can freeze it for future use. You can slide all the leftovers out of the can by opening both ends with a can opener and then pushing the paste through. Wrap it in plastic wrap and freeze the “log” of tomato paste.
It doesn’t freeze rock-solid, so you can just slice off the requisite amount of tomato paste as you need it.
Or, you can put dollops of pre-measured tablespoons of the paste on some plastic wrap.
Once they have frozen, stick the individual tablespoons of paste in a baggie and freeze for your next cooking adventure!
I hope this has helped to demystify at least some of the canned tomatoes and sauces at the grocery store.
Cheers!
]]>I’m just back from having spent an amazing weekend in Napa Valley. Kendall-Jackson Winery invited 12 food bloggers (and Ruth Reichl!) to California for their first annual Sip, Bite & Blog gathering. KJ outdid themselves planning this extraordinary event!
Our first evening was a food and wine tasting, then dinner, at the Kendal Jackson Winery.
We were all totally blown away by this tasting as each wine was paired with the most delectable morsels of food heaven!
The tasting included Fried Green Tomatoes paired with AVANT Chardonnay, Buckwheat Crepe with Prosciutto, Cheese and Apple Butter paired with Vintner’s Reserve Riesling and Smoked Fennel Tomato Soup with Highland Estates Seco Highlands Pinot Noir.
The KJ Chef made us all swoon with the Sweet Tea Brined Niman Ranch Pork Belly Slider that was paired with a Highland Estates Alisos Hills Syrah.
But the most unexpected combination was Caramel Corn paired with late harvest Chardonnay. It was delightfully sinful!
Here is the recipe for Kendall-Jackson’s award winning caramel corn.
Much to our surprise, this tasting and food paring is available on a daily basis to the public!
Day two we headed to Alexander Valley Mountain and Stonestreet Winery.
It was crazy hot that day! About 95 degrees hot!
Our timing was perfect in that we actually got to see the grapes being harvested.
Within just a few hours of being picked, the process of actually making the wine begins.
Kendall-Jackson has a forest of oak trees in France. That is the wood that is used for the barrel-making. The barrels are used just once.
Another tasting and a picnic lunch…
took place on top of Alexander Valley Mountain.
Then we headed to Jackson Park Vineyards/Ranch. This next tasting was seriously educational. Director of Wine Education Gilian Handleman and winemaker Matt Smith’s theme was “Nature’s Blueprint – Pairing Wine and Produce”.
They had us sampling Granny Smith apples, beets, figs, tomatoes, corn, and peaches with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir or Sauvignon Blanc. All of these tastings really were amazing in helping to encourage one’s palate and nose to distinguish flavors and scents. (Be sure to check out Kendall-Jackson’s fabulous Wine and Food Pairing Chart.)
Jackson Park Ranch is breathtakingly beautiful.
In addition to the vineyard, they are actually developing a truffle forest. Hazelnut trees, impregnated with the truffle fungus are planted in-between English oak trees. Eventually the hazelnut trees will get cut down and there will be a forest of oak trees and truffles!
Fields of lavender….
….surround the Matanzas Creek Winery where the Local Artisan Food Purveyor Dinner was being served.
It felt like walking through a Monet painting!
I loved the look of these trees just outside the window of the dining room.
Dinner was a joint effort between the Kendall-Jackson Culinary team and Liberty Ducks, Gourmet Mushrooms, Drake’s Bay Oysters, Whole Vine and Redwood Hill Farm Cheese.
The appetizers were both delicious and educational. I particularly liked the Organic Mushrooms.
Our last day was spent at Arrowood winery.
We worked in teams, photographing a plate we had designed, with advice from a professional food photographer and food stylist.
Our plate of scallops won!
Then onto a walk through the Kendall-Jackson “scratch and sniff” garden with Ruth Reichl.
Ruth’s pre-dinner speech was delightful! She is so charming and gracious. In fact during dinner, she visited with each table and signed books as well.
Needless to say, this dinner, served with amazing wines, was astounding! My favorite course was the Glazed Local Cod with Corn Pudding and Cherry Tomatoes. It was served with Kendall-Jackson Highland Estates Camelot Highlands Chardonnay. It was a combination to die for!
During the past few days I learned a heck of a lot about growing grapes, wine making, wine styles, tasting wines and pairing wines with food. I discovered that Kendall-Jackson really is a family-run business that cares about its people and the environment. I met some extremely talented food bloggers. It was delightful to share the weekend with Grace, Nicole, Rebecca, Maryse, Adam, Marc, Cathy, Adrianna, Jessica and Gina.
Best of all I experienced wine country like everyone should, at least once in your life!
Thanks, Kendall-Jackson!
********
P.S. I was delighted to be Kendall-Jackson’s guest for this amazing event. They paid for my food, lodging and airfare but they neither asked me nor paid me to write about this adventure.
********
For some strange reason, comments can only be made when you enter my site via Firefox.
If you are in Safari the comment section will not open…
I need to work on this!
Cheers,
Kathy
Everyone knows how to make a sandwich! You take a couple slices of bread, and put some kind of filling between them. Dead simple, right?
Then how come some sandwiches taste so much better then others?
Well, it has to do with both the quality of the ingredients that you use as well as the right proportions!
An all time favorite is the good old grilled cheese sandwich.
It’s a perfect balance of toasty grilled bread with just the right amount of cheese.
White bread and American cheese, the kind wrapped in plastic, is the best.
You can use squishy white bread, the kind you used to feed to the ducks, but a firmer, hearty white bread actually holds its shape better after grilling.
You will also need 1 Tablespoon of soft butter for this sandwich. To soften butter either just let it sit on the counter about 10 minutes or VERY CAREFULLY zap it in the microwave in 5 seconds increments.
Softening butter in the microwave is tricky. It goes from a solid to a liquid in the blink of an eye so watch it carefully.
Preparation:
Spread 1.5 teaspoons of softened butter on one side of each slice of bread.
Lay one slice of bread, butter side down, in a non-stick frying pan.
Put two slices of cheese on the bread. You may be tempted to use a lot more cheese but don’t! Too much cheese oozes out as it melts and you end up with all that extra cheese in the bottom of the pan or dripping down your hand as you bite into your sandwich!
Now cover it with the other slice of bread with the buttered side up.
Turn the stove on medium heat and place the pan on the stove.
The grilled cheese sandwich needs to cook until it’s golden brown on the outside. This requires peeking occasionally with a spatula. After about 2-3 minutes it should be ready to flip.
The second side will take a lot less time to turn golden brown because the pan is already heated up.
Lift the sandwich out of the pan with a spatula and set it on a cutting board. It’s easier to cut the sandwich in half on a cutting board.
Normally you would cut bread with a sawing motion and a bread knife. If you did that to a grilled cheese sandwich it would slide apart. To cut a grilled cheese sandwich use a large kitchen knife and with one swift downward motion slice through the sandwich.
You can add extra bits to your grilled cheese sandwich if you want. Tuna salad, sliced ham, sliced tomato, or even crispy bacon would be great!
Enjoy!
]]>55 Knives is a collection of recipes, tips and stories from 55 top food bloggers! Nick from Macheesmo has put together this amazing assortment of recipes, in the form of an e-book.
According to Nick, “The 55 Knives book is a collaborative project from some of the web’s top food bloggers in a simple, easy to download format. The authors included in the project were picked not only because of their expertise in the kitchen but also because of their ability to write well about food.
Each of the 55 bloggers (listed below) has a chapter where they have presented one or two of their favorite recipes.
Some recipes will be simple and some might be more complicated (Individual Beef Wellingtons!). Don’t worry though, the complicated recipes will have crystal clear instructions.
In addition to the recipes, each chapter will have a story explaining why that recipe is important to that author. Some of the recipes have been in families for generations and some are newly created. I think you’ll find the stories to be touching, funny, sincere, and above all else, entertaining!”
I am thrilled to be included in this collection! Drawing from my Irish heritage, I chose my Irish Bread and Irish Coffee recipes to be included in 55 Knives.
.
For more information, click here.
Congratulations Nick!
]]>Jen’s new book, “Secrets of a Skinny Chef” is sure to make this upcoming holiday season a healthy one!
Thanks, Jen, for stopping by and sharing some of your healthy secrets!
Cheers,
Kathy
*****
By Jennifer Iserloh
After a full day of kitchen toiling and noshing, it’s handy to have leftovers that you can rely on for quick meals.
So, I’d like to give you some tempting meal solutions that will not only draw out the holiday cheer, but could very well re-invent the way you look at turkey day leftovers. These three different meals come together quickly and are really tasty! This is so much more creative than just re-heating the same old leftovers. Who knows, maybe you’ll even start some new family traditions!
Turkey enchiladas are a great way to use up leftover turkey. You would never know that there is both spinach and broccoli added to this one-pot meal! This meal is a huge hit with kids as well as grown-ups!
You can make these enchiladas ahead of time. Just be sure to cover the casserole with plastic wrap and pop it into the fridge until you are ready to bake it.
Mix together 1 cup of chopped, cooked turkey with 2 cups of baby spinach or one cup of finely chopped broccoli florets. Stir in one cup of jarred salsa.
Fill eight small whole-wheat or whole-grain tortillas with the turkey mixture. Place the filled tortillas, seam-side down, in an 8 x 12-inch baking dish.
Top the enchiladas with your favorite canned enchilada sauce and then sprinkle on 2 cups of pre-shredded part-skim mozzarella on top.
Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes in a 350°F oven until the cheese is melted and has lightly browned.
Don’t toss out that last scoop of savory mashed potatoes! Make a fast, hearty, shrimp and corn chowder soup by relying on staples that reside in your freezer and pantry. I always have a frozen bag of cooked shrimp on hand as well as a bag of frozen mixed vegetables.
Simply heat a large stockpot over high heat and add a tablespoon of olive oil. Cook one half of a chopped onion with two slices of chopped bacon or ham. Cook until soft but not brown (about 4 to 5 minutes).
Add in a few cups of frozen veggies from your freezer, a cup of frozen shrimp, and two 15-ounce cans of low-sodium chicken broth. Simmer on low, (about 10 minutes) until the veggies and shrimp are soft, and then stir in your mashed potatoes and serve immediately.
If you made a Broccoli Cheese Casserole, you can enjoy all the flavor off the leftovers without all those calories by dividing up the leftovers and making some egg burritos. Be sure to use whole wheat wraps, which are an easy way to add more whole grains to your diet and their soft texture makes them kid-friendly as well!
Start by warming one cup of your leftover broccoli and cheese casserole in the microwave on the low setting. In a small bowl, whisk two egg whites with one whole egg. (Using two egg whites for every one egg, adds tons of protein without the calories as egg whites are only 17 calories a pop!)
Coat a medium sized skillet with cooking spray and place it over medium heat. Add the eggs and cook 1 to 2 minutes stirring once or twice.
Add the warm broccoli casserole and cook for 1more minute.
Divide the egg mixture between two large whole wheat flour tortillas that have been warmed in the microwave for 10 seconds. Serve immediately.
Everyone loves this protein-rich breakfast burrito that also has the rich flavor of broccoli cheese casserole!
*********
Looking for the secret to eating filling comfort meals the fast and healthy way? Check out more recipes and tips on my web site or in my latest cookbook! You can also discover how you can ditch the diets, enjoy life more and eat the food you love.
Grilling a sandwich makes the outside of the bread (or wrap) toasty and crispy, and makes the filling all warm and gooey.
You can grill a sandwich on your stove top, using a frying pan, a cast iron skillet, a cast iron griddle or a grill pan. Other options are the George Forman Grill, a panini grill or a toaster oven. For more information on these indoor grilling options, scroll down below the recipes.
If you have an outdoor barbecue, fire it up, oil the grate and throw (well, not literally) your sandwich or wrap on the grill. Be careful not to let the filling drip through the grates. Grilling a sandwich on an outdoor grill adds a smoky flavor to an otherwise ordinary sandwich.
For safety, the USDA recommends cooking ground pork patties and ground pork mixtures such as meat loaf to 160°F (70°C).
Whole muscle meats such as chops and roasts should be cooked to
For approximate cooking times for use in meal planning, see the attached chart compiled from various resources. Times are based on starting with pork at refrigerator temperature (40 °F – 4.5 °C).
Remember that appliances and outdoor grills can vary in heat. Use a meat thermometer to check for safe cooking and “doneness” of pork.
If fresh pork has reached 160 °F (70°C) throughout, it should be safe, even though it may still be pink in the center. The pink color can be due to the cooking method or added ingredients.
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/Pork_from_Farm_to_Table/index.asp
ROASTING:
Or try Startcooking.com’s photo-tutorial on Pork Roast
Cut | Thickness or Weight | Cooking Time |
---|---|---|
Loin Roast, Bone-in or Boneless | 2 to 5 pounds | 20-30 minutes per pound |
Crown Roast | 4 to 6 pounds | 20-30 minutes per pound |
Leg, (Fresh Ham) Whole, Bone-in | 12 to 16 pounds | 22-26 minutes per pound |
Leg, (Fresh Ham) Half, Bone-in | 5 to 8 pounds | 35-40 minutes per pound |
Boston Butt | 3 to 6 pounds | 45 minutes per pound |
Tenderloin (Roast at 425-450 °F) | ½ to 1½ pounds | 20 to 30 minutes total |
Ribs (Back, Country-style or Spareribs) | 2 to 4 pounds | 1½ to 2 hours (or until fork tender) |
BROILING 4 inches from heat or GRILLING
Cut | Thickness or Weight | Cooking Time |
---|---|---|
Loin Chops, Bone-in or Boneless | ¾-inch or 1½ inches | 6-8 minutes or 12-16 minutes |
Tenderloin | ½ to 1½ pounds | 15 to 25 minutes |
Ribs (indirect heat), all types | 2 to 4 pounds | 1½ to 2 hours |
Ground Pork Patties (direct heat) | ½ inch | 8 to 10 minutes |
IN SKILLET ON STOVE
Cut | Thickness or Weight | Cooking Time |
---|---|---|
Loin Chops or Cutlets | ¼-inch or ¾-inch | 3-4 minutes or 7-8 minutes |
Tenderloin Medallions | ¼ to ½-inch | 4 to 8 minutes |
Ground Pork Patties | ½ inch | 8 to 10 minutes |
BRAISING: Cover and simmer with a liquid.
Cut | Thickness or Weight | Cooking Time |
---|---|---|
Chops, Cutlets, Cubes, Medallions | ¼ to 1-inch | 10 to 25 minutes |
Boston Butt, Boneless | 3 to 6 pounds | 2 to 2½ hours |
Ribs, all types | 2 to 4 pounds | 1½ to 2 hours |
STEWING: Cover pan; simmer, covered with liquid.
Cut | Thickness or Weight | Cooking Time |
---|---|---|
Ribs, all types | 2 to 4 pounds | 2 to 2½ hours, or until tender |
Cubes | 1-inch | 45 to 60 minutes |
NOTE: Cooking times compiled from various resources. Source: USDA Last modified – February 2003
]]>How we cover, wrap and contain our food plays a role in how well it fares in the cupboard, refrigerator or freezer.
Even when properly stored all food does have a diminishing shelf life after opening. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has a very helpful chart on how long to store food in the fridge.
When it comes to food storage, the motto everyone should live by is – when in doubt, throw it out!
.
Refrigerators are not the same temperature throughout. The crisper drawers and the door are warmer than the rest of the fridge. For this reason, it’s not a good idea to store highly perishable foods, like eggs, in the door of the fridge. Keep them on a shelf!
The door shelving is meant for things like drinks and mustard. As a general rule, your fridge should be colder than 4 degrees C (40 F) and your freezer should be colder than minus- 18 degrees C (0 F).
Contact with oxygen damages food, which is why it’s important to keep food in air-tight packaging or containers.
Aluminum Foil:
Wrapping food in aluminum foil protects it from both light and oxygen. Foil is also the best material for keeping moisture out of food, so it’s great for freezing food. But keep in mind that it is reactive, so it can’t be used with acidic foods like tomatoes and berries. If it’s fairly clean after one use, foil can also be re-used after washing (unlike plastic wrap).
Plastic wrap.
Plastic wrap has the advantage of being transparent, so you don’t have to open it to find out what’s inside. Plastic wrap is good for making an air-tight seal on bowls or containers that don’t have a lid. However, plastic wrap typically can’t be re-used.
Resealable Plastic Bags
These bags are very handy for keeping things like cold cuts or cheese fresh in the fridge. Heavier-weight plastic bags are sold for storing food in the freezer. These are particularly suitable for freezing batches of soup or saucy dishes. Try to squeeze as much air as possible out of the bag before sealing it.
Air-tight Containers
Lidded plastic, glass or Pyrex containers are reusable, and hence are better for the environment than disposable wraps like plastic and foil. There are all kinds of clear containers that make it easy to keep track of what you’ve got. Invest in a good set of storage containers and cut down on use of foil and plastic!
Be sure to spray plastic container with cooking spray to prevent foods like tomato sauce from permanently staining the container.
Freezer Paper
This is plastic-coated paper that’s meant for wrapping foods that you want to freeze. The advantage of freezer paper is that it’s easy to write on, so that you’ll know what you’re freezing.
Waxed Paper
Waxed paper was developed as a moisture-proof wrapping material. It’s good to use for putting between layers of cookies or other baked goods in a tin. (I used it in my Crepe video )
Note, however, that it’s NOT meant for use while actually baking, and will smoke if used in the oven. It is, however, useful in the microwave as a splatter cover. Waxed paper will not heat up as much as plastic wrap in the microwave.
Parchment Paper
This multi-purpose paper has been treated to be non-stick and very resistant to heat. It is also often re-usable – the same sheet can be used like a baking sheet several times.
Vacuum sealers
Home cooks can buy an appliance that vacuum packs food, removing all the air from the packaging. These vacuum sealers can be used on foods that are refrigerated, frozen or stored in the cupboard. Vacuum packing can extend the life of stored food, and can eliminate the issue of freezer burn.
Just remember, when in doubt, throw it out!
Cheers!
Kathy
For safety, the USDA recommends cooking hamburgers and ground beef mixtures such as meat loaf to 160°F (70°C) on a meat thermometer. However, “whole muscle” meats such as steaks and roasts may be cooked to approximately
For approximate cooking times for use in meal planning, see the following chart compiled from various resources. Cooking times are based on starting with beef at refrigerator temperature (40 °F). Remember that appliances and outdoor grills can vary in heat. Use a meat thermometer to check for safe cooking and “doneness” of beef.
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/Beef_from_Farm_to_Table/index.asp
Type of Beef | Size | Cooking Method | Cooking Time | Internal Temperature |
---|---|---|---|---|
Rib Roast, bone in | 4 to 6 lbs. | Roast 325° F (165° C) | 23-25 min./lb. | Medium rare 145°F (60°C) |
Rib Roast, boneless rolled | 4 to 6 lbs. | Roast 325°F (165°C) | Add 5-8 min./lb. to times above | Same as above |
Chuck Roast, Brisket | 3 to 4 lbs. | *Braise 325°F (165°C) | *Braise 325°F (165°C) | Medium 160° F (70°C) |
Round or Rump Roast | 2 1/2 to 4 lbs. | Roast 325°F (165°C) | 30-35 min./lb. | Medium rare 145°F (60°C) |
Tenderloin, whole | 4 to 6 lbs. | Roast 425° | 45-60 min. total | Medium rare 145°F (60°C) |
Steaks | 3/4″ thick | Broil/Grill | 4-5 min. per side | Medium rare 145°F (60°C) |
Stew or Shank Cross Cuts | 1 to 1 1/2″ thick | Cover with liquid; simmer | 2 to 3 hours | Medium 160°F (70°C) |
Short Ribs | 4″ long and 2″ thick | *Braise 325°F (165°C) | 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours | Medium 160°F (70°C) |
*Braising is roasting or simmering less-tender meats with a small amount of liquid in a tightly covered pan.
Source: USDA Last modified – February 2003
]]>Here in the USA the following flours are readily available at most grocery stores:
For most North Americans and Europeans, the word “flour” is synonymous with white wheat flour. But in India, chickpea flour is a cooking staple, in Latin America it’s more common to use maize flour, and in Southeast Asia rice flour is used in many foods.
All flour made from wheat contains gluten, which is the binding agent that gives bread its elastic texture. For anyone with gluten allergies, here’s a handy guide to some alternative flours. There are several great gluten-free cooking blogs on the internet. Here are just a few: Gluten Free Girl Karina’s Kitchen Gluten Free Mommy.
Flour can be made from all kinds of grains, and even fruit and vegetables! Ever heard of banana flour or sweet potato flour?
Flour is used to bake bread, cookies and cakes and also to thicken sauce and gravy, and to coat meat before frying.
All-purpose white flour is made from processing wheat, leaving out the nutritious germ and bran. It is sold both bleached and unbleached and can be used interchangeably. It is bleached mostly for aesthetic reasons, as flour has a natural yellowish color. The bleaching process also preserves the flour for a longer period of time. Commercial bakers often use unbleached flour.
White flour is also available in organic versions, meaning that it comes from wheat that hasn’t been exposed to pesticides. If you want to substitute all-purpose flour with a different kind of flour, or a non-wheat flour, take a look at this guide.
In the USA, the law require that all flour not containing wheat germ must have nutrients added back into the flour. Niacin, riboflavin, thiamin and iron are typically added. Some manufacturers also add Vitamins A and D to the flour as well.
Whole-wheat flour is produced from the whole wheat grain, making it more nutritious and fiber-rich than white flour. It also contains more oils than white flour. Consequently, it can go rancid more quickly than white flour. It is best to store whole-wheat flour in the freezer, in a sealed container. Be sure to bring it to room temperature before using it.
You can also buy wholewheat pastry flour at specialty stores or on line. It produces lighter results than regular wholewheat flour, but still not as light as pastries made with white flour.
White wholewheat flour does sound like a contradiction! Nutritionally speaking it is almost the same as whole wheat flour, but lighter-colored and sweeter tasting. Plus you can substitute it for white flour, ounce for ounce and no one would be the wiser.
Bread flour is unbleached flour with a high protein levels and high gluten strength.
Whoa! What does that mean?
Basically when you use it to make bread it gives the bread a better texture than just plain white flour as it reacts really well with yeast.
This variety of white flour was developed as a time-saving product for cooks. It’s flour that already has baking powder and salt added to it, to help baked goods rise. The baking powder will lose its effect the longer the flour is stored. If you don’t have self-rising flour, you can make it by combining one cup of all-purpose flour with 1.5 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/8 teaspoon of salt.
Cake flour is white flour made from soft varieties of wheat and contains very little gluten. This means that it’s well-suited for cakes, producing a light, airy crumb. Cake flour is usually found in the baking department of the grocery store.
There is also pastry flour, which is used for pie crusts, cookies and other baked goods. It’s not as fine as cake flour. Pastry flour may be available at health food stores.
Flour is not one of those ingredients that you should eyeball or approximate. If you’re baking, too much flour will make the finished product tough and dry.
In the USA the most standard method to measure is the “dip and sweep” method.
Using a measuring cup, scoop the flour out of the bag or container and then level it off with the straight, dull edge of a knife. Don’t pack it down.
Measuring by weight and not by volume is a much more precise way to measure. All of the recipes here at startcooking.com are based on the “dip and sweep” method as it is what is standard here in the USA.
The following flour weight chart (from The Pie and Pastry Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum) is a handy reference for baking:
Flour | Ounces/
cup |
Grams/
cup |
|
---|---|---|---|
All Purpose Flour
Bleached |
Sifted
Lightly spooned Dip and Sweep |
4
4.2 5.2 |
114
121 142 |
All Purpose Flour
Unbleached |
Lightly spooned
Dip and Sweep |
4.5
5.2 |
130
148 |
Whole Wheat Flour | Sifted
Lightly spooned Dip and Sweep |
4.2
4.5 5.5 |
121
130 157 |
Bread Flour | Dip and Sweep | 4.5 | 130 |
Cake Flour | Sifted
Lightly spooned Dip and Sweep |
3.5
4 4.5 |
100
114 130 |
Sifting flour incorporates air into the flour and removes any lumps from the flour.
If a recipe says 1 cup of flour, sifted – measure the flour and then sift it.
If a recipe says 1 cup of sifted flour – sift the flour and then measure it.
If flour is stored in its unopened original package, or in an airtight container, it lasts about eight months. Once it’s open, it’s best to keep it in an airtight container or resealable bag. If you store flour in the fridge, it’s even more important to keep it airtight so that it doesn’t absorb moisture or odors from other foods. The shelf life of the flour will depend on its variety; flours made from whole grains always have shorter shelf life than refined flours. If the flour doesn’t look or smell right, don’t take a chance.
If you’d like to try incorporating wholewheat flour into your baking, here are a few recipes to get you started:
Wholewheat Raspberry Almond Thumbprint cookies are those great little cookies that have a blob of jam in the middle. Thanks, Pinch My Salt!
The Way the Cookie Crumbles demonstrates Wheatmeal shortbread cookies, based on a Martha Stewart recipe.
Here’s a recipe for Whole Grain Bran Muffins, from Farm Girl Fare. Farm Girl swears that they don’t come out tasting like sawdust!
Enjoy!
]]>“Cook a whole chicken to a safe minimum internal temperature of 165 °F
(75 °C) as measured using a food thermometer. Check the internal temperature in the innermost part of the thigh and wing and the thickest part of the breast. For reasons of personal preference, consumers may choose to cook poultry to higher temperatures.
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/Chicken_Food_Safety_Focus/index.asp
Type of Chicken | Weight | Roasting 350°F (180 °C) | Simmering | Grilling |
---|---|---|---|---|
Whole broiler fryer+ | 3 to 4 lbs. | 1 1/4 – 1 1/2 hrs. | 60 to 75 min. | 60 to 75 min* |
Whole roasting hen+ | 5 to 7 lbs. | 2 to 2 1/4 hrs. | 1 3/4 to 2 hrs. | 18-25 min/lb* |
Whole capon+ | 4 to 8 lbs. | 2 to 3 hrs | Not suitable | 15-20 min/lb* |
Whole Cornish hens+ | 18-24 oz. | 50 to 60 min. | 35 to 40 min. | 45 to 55 min* |
Breast halves, bone-in | 6 to 8 oz. | 30 to 40 min. | 35 to 45 min. | 10 – 15 min/side |
Breast half, boneless | 4 ounces | 20 to 30 min. | 25 to 30 min. | 6 to 8 min/side |
Legs or thighs | 8 or 4 oz. | 40 to 50 min. | 40 to 50 min. | 10 – 15 min/side |
Drumsticks | 4 ounces | 35 to 45 min. | 40 to 50 min. | 8 to 12 min/side |
Wings or wingettes | 2 to 3 oz. | 30 to 40 min. | 35 to 45 min. | 8 to 12 min/side |
+ Unstuffed. If stuffed, add 15 to 30 minutes additional time.
* Indirect method using drip pan.
Source: USDA Last Modified: April 4, 2006”
]]>Beans, split peas and lentils (often referred to as “pulses”) are the edible seeds of legume plants. They are a great low-fat source of protein and are high in fiber.
This post covers how to cook dried and canned pulses, and provides links to some great recipes.
Some beans go by several different names. For example the cannellini bean is also known as a white kidney bean and roman beans are also called cranberry beans, borlotti beans, shell beans, or Christmas beans. Many popular beans, like black beans, cannellini beans, red beans and chick peas can be bought in cans already cooked.
The way that you cook dried beans is very different from the way you cook split peas and lentils – it’s all about soaking.
Split peas and lentils do not require soaking. They take a short amount of time to cook (about 20 minutes to 1 hour depending on the recipe). Dried beans on the other hand, do require soaking for at least 4 hours. (It is best to soak them overnight. )
These are dried peas that have been mechanically split along a natural seam, so that they cook faster. You can buy either green or yellow split peas. Either color can be used to make split pea soup. There are tons of variations and ways to make split-pea soup your own. (startcooking.com’s Split Pea Soup has chunks of turkey kielbasa in it.)
It is not necessary to soak split peas, but they do require rinsing and sorting.
Split peas take 30 to 45 minutes to cook.
Some of the various kinds of lentils are:
containing three kinds of beans and corn, makes a colorful side that works with many main dishes. No cooking required!
a chunky soup that calls for chickpeas, cannellini beans and kidney beans (or three cans of whatever beans that you like).
Beans are healthy, economical and tasty, but the fact is that they contain complex sugars that our bodies can’t digest. This can result in bloating and flatulence (gas).
“For safety, the USDA recommends cooking lamb patties and ground lamb mixtures such as meat loaf to a safe minimum internal temperature of 160 °F as measured on a food thermometer. However, whole muscle meats such as roasts, steaks, and chops may be cooked to 145 °F (medium rare), 160 °F (medium), or 170 °F (well done). For approximate cooking times for use in meal planning, see the following chart compiled from various resources. Times are based on lamb at refrigerator temperature (40 °F). Remember that appliances and outdoor grills can vary in heat. Use a food thermometer to check for safe cooking and doneness of lamb.”
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/Lamb_from_Farm_to_Table/index.asp
Cut of Lamb | Size | Cooking Method | Cooking Time | Internal Temperature |
---|---|---|---|---|
Lamb Leg, bone in | 5 to 7 lbs. | Roast 325° | 20 to 25 min./lb. | Medium rare 145° |
25 to 30 min./lb. | Medium 160° | |||
30 to 35 min./lb. | Well done 170° | |||
7 to 9 lbs. | Roast 325° | 15 to 20 min./lb. | Medium rare 145° | |
20 to 25 min./lb | Medium 160° | |||
25 to 30 min./lb. | Well done 170° | |||
Lamb Leg, boneless, rolled | 4 to 7 lbs. | Roast 325° | 25 to 30 min./lb. | Medium rare 145° |
30 to 35 min./lb. | Medium 160° | |||
35 to 40 min./lb. | Well done 170° | |||
Shoulder Roast or Shank Leg Half | 3 to 4 lbs. | Roast 325° | 30 to 35 min./lb. | Medium rare 145° |
40 to 45 min./lb. | Medium 160° | |||
45 to 50 min./lb. | Well done 170° | |||
Cubes, for Kabobs | 1 to 1½” | Broil/Grill | 8 to 12 minutes | Medium 160° |
Ground Lamb Patties | 2″ thick | Broil/Grill | 5 to 8 minutes | Medium 160° |
Chops, Rib, or Loin | 1 to 1½” thick | Broil/Grill | 7 to 11 minutes | Medium rare 145° |
15 to 19 minutes | Medium 160° | |||
Leg Steaks | ¾” thick | Broil/Grill 4″ from heat | 14 to 18 minutes | Medium rare 145°Medium 160° |
Stew Meat, pieces | 1 to 1½” | Cover with liquid; simmer | 1½ to 2 hours | Medium 160° |
Shanks | ¾ to 1 lb. | |||
Breast, Rolled | 1½ to 2 lb. | *Braise 325° | 1½ to 2 hours | Medium 160° |
*Braising is roasting or simmering less-tender meats with a small amount of liquid in a tightly covered pan.
Source: USDA Last modified – May 2007
]]>Whenever pomegranates are in season, I like to buy several, remove the tangy sweet seeds…
…and freeze them. (They should keep for several months in the freezer.)
My favorite way of eating the seeds is to add them, still frozen, to plain (usually fat-free Greek) yogurt and then drizzle some honey on top. You can use whatever proportions you like. The seeds, even when frozen are still chewable and they make the honey kind of chewy and gooey.
This is a perfect treat for any time of the day, but I usually save it for dessert after dinner.
Enjoy!
]]>These round, pinkish-red fruits are native to Iran and India. In season from around September to January, pomegranate are chock-full of sweet-tart-tangy seeds that can be eaten out of hand or used to top salads and other dishes.
The seeds are called arils. They’re like little bubbles of juice that burst in your mouth, and have a crunchy center. The arils contain Vitamin C and high levels of antioxidants – even more so than blueberries or red wine. But it takes a bit of work to get at them: they’re tightly packed among sections of white membrane that is quite bitter.
Separating them from the inedible membrane typically causes some of the arils to break and spurt juice, so it’s good to know how to open pomegranates properly.
Keep in mind that pomegranate juice can stain fabric, certain types of counters and wood cutting boards. It’s not a bad idea to wear an apron when cutting a pomegranate, and use a plastic cutting board, being careful that you don’t drip juice on the counter.
According to the California-based Pomegranate Council, the best way to open a pomegranate is to cut off the crown…
…then score the pomegranate into four sections.
Break the pomegranate in half by gently pulling it apart with your fingers.
Then break the half into quarters.
Now place the sections in a bowl of cold water…
…and roll the arils (seeds) out of the membrane with your fingers, letting them sink to the bottom of the bowl.
Doing this in the sink, under water, prevents the seeds from spurting all over you and your kitchen!
Discard the empty membranes and pick out the bits that are floating on the top of the bowl. Then turn the bowl of water over a strainer…
…leaving just the pomegranate seeds.
They’re ready to eat!
I do like to spread them out on a paper towel to air-dry before adding them to a recipe or freezing them.
An average pomegranate weighs about 9 ounces, the edible seeds weigh about 5 1/2 ounces which will yield about one cup of seeds.
Vinegar or lemon juice will help remove juice stains from a cutting board.
If you would like to make pomegranate juice, simply put the arils in a blender…
…and pulse until liquefied.
For a nice silky smooth juice, be sure to press the liquefied seeds through a strainer or some cheesecloth. (Cheesecloth is a long, lightweight, cotton cloth that has a multitude of kitchen uses including straining liquids and forming packets for herbs and spices. It is sold in kitchen shops and at the grocery store.)
Discard the pulp and enjoy some fresh pomegranate juice!
(Note: once the air deflates out of the juice from all that blending, it does turn from a pinkish color to the deep red color similar to the store bought juice.)
Because pomegranates are only picked when ripe, you don’t have to wonder whether they’re ripe when you buy them. Pomegranates have a tough, leathery skin that ranges from pink to red in color. Look for ones that are heavy and don’t have split or cracked skin. At room temperature, they last several days; in the fridge, they’ll last up to three months. Pomegranate seeds can be frozen: spread them on a try or baking sheet in a single layer, then store in plastic bags for several months. (Do not defrost them under warm running water or they will loose all their flavor!)
For safety, USDA recommends cooking ground veal to a safe minimum internal temperature of 160 °F. However, whole muscle meats such as veal steaks, roasts, and chops may be cooked to 145 °F (medium rare), 160 °F (medium), or 170 °F (well done). There are two basic methods of veal cookery: dry or moist heat. Tender cuts including leg, cutlets, veal patties, and rib or loin chops can be prepared by dry heating methods such as roasting, broiling, pan broiling, grilling or stir frying. Moist heat methods such as braising or simmering in liquid can also be used with these cuts. Less tender cuts, such as cross cut shanks, stew meat, round steak and breast of veal, generally require moist heat cooking methods. By marinating and pounding less tender cuts to break down connective tissue, dry heating methods can be used. Refer to the following chart for approximate cooking times
Type of Veal | Size | Cooking Method | Cooking Time | Internal Temperature |
---|---|---|---|---|
Rib Roast | 4 to 5 lbs. | Roast in Oven at 325°F | 25 to 27 min/lb | Medium 160 °F |
29 to 31 min/lb | Well done 170 °F | |||
Loin | 3 to 4 lbs. | Roast in Oven at 325°F | 34 to 36 min/lb | Medium 160 °F |
38 to 40 min/lb | Well done 170 °F | |||
Loin/Rib Chops | 1″ thick or 8 oz. | Broil/Grill | 7 min per side | Medium 160 °F |
8 to 9 min per side | Well done 170 °F | |||
Cutlets | 1/8″ thick | *Pan fry | 3 to 4 min | Medium 160 °F |
1/4″ thick | 5 to 6 min | Medium 160 °F | ||
Arm/Blade Steak | 3/4″ thick 16 oz. | Broil/Grill | 7 min per side | Medium 160 °F |
8 min per side | Well Done 170 °F | |||
Round Steak | 1/4″ thick | **Braise | 30 min | 160 °F |
1/2″ thick | **Braise | 45 min | 160 °F | |
Boneless Breast, stuffed | 2 to 2.5 lbs | **Braise | 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hrs | 160 °F |
4 to 4.5 lbs | **Braise | 2 to 2 1/2 hrs | 160 °F | |
Cross Cut Shanks | 1 1/2″ thick | Cover with liquid; simmer | 1 to 1 1/4 hrs | 160 °F |
Stew Meat | 1 to 1 1/2″ cubes / pieces | Cover with liquid: simmer | 45 to 60 min | 160 °F |
Ground Patties | 1/2″ thick, 4 oz. | Broil / Grill / Pan fry | 6 to 7 min per side | 160 °F |
*Pan Frying, which is often called “sautéing,” is a quick cooking method. Meat is placed in small amount of heated oil and cooked on medium-high heat. ** Braising is roasting or simmering less tender meats with a small amount of liquid in a tightly covered pan.
Source: USDA
Last modified – October 17, 2006
]]>But when it comes to cooking and baking, you really need the right one for the job. Even if you’re just making chocolate chip cookies, using brown sugar (rather than white) will help turn out a tastier and chewier cookie. But what about confectioner’s sugar or muscovado sugar? Do you really need to keep them in the cupboard? Startcooking.com will help you sort out sugars and syrups with the following short and sweet descriptions.
The sugar we know best is made from sugar cane and sugar beets. The refining process removes the natural sugar stored in the raw plant material. The sugar is purified, filtered, concentrated and dried to produce the sweet stuff we put in coffee or in baked goods. The refining process removes the natural color of sugar, and all of the nutrients. White sugar has “empty calories” which do give you an energy rush, but it lacks nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, or amino acids as well as fiber.
Brown sugar is white sugar that has been mixed with molasses. It’s available in both light and dark versions, the dark containing more molasses. Recipes will sometimes specify light or dark brown sugar but, in general, you can use whichever you prefer.
Recipes that call for brown sugar also often say that it be “packed”. This means that when you put it in the measuring cup, you should pack it down using your fingers or a spoon. When you dump it out of the measuring cup, it should keep the shape of the cup.
If you go to use brown sugar in a recipe, but find that your bag has transformed into a solid lump, don’t throw it out. You can save it! Read our post on how to store brown sugar. It’s definitely a good idea to keep brown sugar around to sprinkle on oatmeal, or for that occasional cookie craving. You can make your own brown sugar by mixing one cup of white sugar with two tablespoons of molasses.
A sprinkle of this snow-white powder puts a beautiful finishing touch on French toast and many other treats.
Icing sugar is white sugar that has been ground into powder and mixed with a bit of cornstarch to keep it from clumping. Its smooth texture makes it the perfect sweetener for icing, meringue, candy-making and as a decorative powder on desserts.
This looks like brown sugar, but with bigger granules. Raw sugar is a byproduct of the refining process – it’s what’s left after molasses has been removed from sugar cane to make white sugar. These days, the sugar is not actually “raw”, because it undergoes a process to remove contaminants. There are various other kinds of raw sugar:
Demarara sugar comes from Guyana, has a coarse texture and toffee-ish flavor.
It is often used to sweeten coffee or tea, and used to sprinkle on baked goods because it keeps its crunchy texture. Substitute with light brown sugar, white sugar or turbinado sugar.
Muscovado or Barbados sugar is finer than demarara and moist, with a strong molasses flavor. It’s also added to coffee or tea, and used in fruit cakes, marinades and sauces. Substitute with dark brown sugar.
Turbinado sugar (Plantation sugar, sugar in the raw) is coarse with a light molasses flavor.
It’s used in hot drinks and as a finishing touch on pastries and cookies. Substitute demarara, light brown or raw sugar.
Molasses, a dark coffee-colored syrup, is a byproduct of the sugar refining process. Also known as treacle, molasses is used in baking, yeast and alcohol production.
There are different grades of molasses, including mild, dark and blackstrap. Blackstrap molasses is known as a baking ingredient and a health supplement because of its nutritional value. It contains a high level of iron, calcium, copper and manganese. Molasses is often an ingredient in baked beans, ginger bread and bran muffins.
Bees use flower nectar to produce honey, a favorite sweetener and spread. The flavor and sweetness of honey can really vary, depending on what kind of flower nectar it’s made from. You may be most familiar with orange blossom or clover, but there are many other kinds available as well.
Honey is sweeter than sugar, so you can use less of it for the same result. Liquid honey is what’s used in baking, although you can also buy honey in the comb.
Mixed with hot water and lemon, honey can help soothe a scratchy throat. Honey has traditionally been used for antibacterial and antiseptic purposes, like treating topical wounds and stomach ulcers.
When measuring honey, coat the measuring cup with non-stick cooking spray — it will come out much more easily. Store liquid honey at room temperature, rather than in fridge, where it will crystallize.
This syrup, which is commonly found in many processed foods, comes from a process involving corn starch. Corn syrup also available for home use, in both light and dark versions. It can be used as pancake syrup, as well as for making candy, jam and jelly.
Just about all Pecan Pie recipes call for corn syrup and it is also one of the ingredients used to make startcooking.com’s Chocolate Cheese Cake Pie!
This syrup comes from the sap of maple trees. There’s a big difference in taste between authentic maple syrup and commercial pancake syrup. The woody, sophisticated taste of maple goes way beyond breakfast. Maple syrup is often in used as a glaze for salmon, in marinades and as an ice cream flavoring.
This sweetener has piqued interest because it has a lower glycemic index than other sweeteners, meaning that it doesn’t cause blood-sugar levels to spike in the same way.
Agave nectar comes from a succulent plant that grows in Mexico. The syrup is sweeter and thinner than honey, and is sold in light, amber, dark and raw versions. Although it can be substituted for sugar in baking recipes (use 2/3 cup of agave nectar per cup of sugar), dry ingredients would have to be adjusted to account for the added moisture. If you’re interested in trying agave nectar, use it on pancakes or French toast, or find a recipe that specifically calls for it.
Many of us consume artificial sweeteners because they have very few calories and no effect on blood sugar. Although these sweeteners are widely used, there is debate about their impact on health. Many articles on artificial sweeteners recommend consuming these products in moderation.
At the grocery store, you’ll notice that some of these sweeteners are sold next to the sugar in individual packets, liquids and large bags. Some can be used both as table-top sweeteners and for baking. The choices are:
It is a natural sweetener that is used in countries including Japan and Australia, it has recently been approved for use in the U.S. Stevia can be used in cooking.
Well that’s about enough sweet-talking for one day!
Cheers!
Milk, cream and other related dairy products play important roles in cooking. Light cream often gives soup its rich taste, sour cream and buttermilk give baked goods a sinful texture and evaporated milk tastes great in your morning coffee.
Or, is it sweetened condensed milk that goes in coffee?
Read on to find out the answer to that and many other questions related to using milk and cream.
The “whole” in whole milk refers to the fact that it contains the natural 3.5 per cent fat content of cow’s milk. Most milk bought in shops has been pasteurized – heated and then quickly cooled – to kill bacteria, and homogenized so that the cream (milk fat or butterfat) does not separate and rise to the top.
Whole milk is recommended for babies and young children, whose growing bodies need the full fat content. For those of us who aren’t growing (or don’t want to!) there are three common varieties available that are lower in fat: one that contains two-per-cent fat and another that contains 1 per cent. Skim milk contains less than half a per cent of fat.
Milk is available in several varieties:
Lactose-free: This milk has a reduced amount of lactose (the sugar found in milk) for those who are allergic.
Low-Sodium milk: Milk has a naturally high volume of sodium. This milk is for those who are on sodium-restricted diets.
Dry milk: Powdered milk (skim, whole or buttermilk) can be mixed with water to drink or use in recipes. It doesn’t taste quite like fresh milk, though.
This is the concentrated, fatty layer that rises to the top of un-homogenized milk. There are various terms for cream, based on its fat content:
Half-and-half: This is mainly used for cups of coffee. It contains (surprise, surprise!) one half milk and one-half cream, and 10 to 12 per cent fat.
Whipping Cream: The 30% butterfat in this product allows it to thicken when whipped – but it does not end up as thick as when you whip heavy cream. (This product is mostly known in the USA and unknown elsewhere.)
Light cream: This may be used in recipes for soups and sauces, and contains 18 to 30 per cent fat.
Heavy cream (or double cream): This can be whipped. It doubles in volume when whipped and has 36 to 40 per cent fat.
Sour cream is popular as a topping for baked potato or soups, and as the base for many dips. It is also used in baking recipes, such as Chocolate Cake. Sour cream is made by adding lactic acid to cream. It contains 18 per cent fat, but also comes in low and non-fat (thickened with stabilizers) versions. Plain yogurt can often be used as a substitute for sour cream.
This British invention is integral to the tradition of “afternoon tea,” used as a spread on scones (along with jam.)
Clotted cream is made by heating unpasteurized milk and skimming off the surface layer (which is the clotted cream.)
This French delicacy is a thickened, soured cream that’s often used as a fruit or dessert topping, or as a topping for soup. It has about 28 per cent fat, and is traditionally made with unpasteurized milk. In the U.S., it’s quite expensive.
According to Epicurious, you can make crème fraiche at home by mixing one cup of whipping cream with two tablespoons of buttermilk in a glass container. Let the mixture stand at room temperature for 8 to 24 hours, or until thick. Stir, cover and refrigerate for up to 10 days.
Buttermilk came into use as a byproduct of the butter-churning process: Rather than waste the residual liquid, people began to use it in baked goods, soups, dressings and sauces.
Nowadays, buttermilk is made by adding bacteria to milk (often skim milk) to give it a thicker texture and a tangy, yogurt-like flavor. Despite its rich-sounding name, buttermilk is actually lower in calories and fat than regular milk.
In recipes, it can often be substituted in equal proportions for plain yogurt (and vice versa). It can also be used in startcooking.com’s Avocado Soup. Occasional users of buttermilk may want to buy it in powdered form rather than fresh — that way you won’t end up wasting most of the carton when you only needed a cup.
This is canned milk that has had about 6o per cent of the water removed. Because has a long shelf life, it became popular as a milk substitute before refrigeration. These days, it’s mostly used to add creaminess to desserts. If it’s mixed with an equal proportion of water, it can be used to substitute milk.
Evaporated milk is available in whole, low-fat and skim versions. It can also be used to add creaminess to sauces and soups. In Holland, evaporated milk is widely used as a coffee creamer. We use is here at startcooking.com to make Stove-Top Mac and Cheese.
Evaporated milk is NOT to be confused with sweetened condensed milk (see below), which comes in similar cans.
This sticky, sweet canned concoction is made with a mix of whole milk and sugar. It’s made by heating the milk and sugar together, which causes the water to evaporate. It’s used mainly in pie fillings (Key Lime Pie, for example), cakes and other desserts. In some countries – particulary Vietnam – sweetened condensed milk is used to flavor coffee.
startcooking.com uses sweetened condensed milk for Chocolate Fudge, Holiday Cookies, and Pumpkin Pie for Beginners.
This is a caramel-flavored syrup that can be made by slowly cooking sweetened condensed milk. Native to Argentina and Uruguay, dulce de leche is sold in jars to use as a spread on toast, or a sauce for ice cream and other desserts. If you want to try making it at home, David Lebovitz offers a very simple recipe.
Often sold next to cow’s milk in North American grocery stores, soy milk is made from pressed soy beans and water. It has a slight beany taste. Soy milk is the basis of tofu, and is used widely in Asia for both drinking and cooking. It has a similar nutritional breakdown to cow’s milk, but is typically fortified with calcium. It provides an alternative for anyone with lactose or casein (milk protein) allergies. Soy milk comes in 2 per cent fat, and lower fat varieties, natural, sweetened and flavored.
This one does NOT come from a cow. Coconut “milk” is actually the liquid produced from squeezing grated coconut meat, not the liquid that’s sitting inside the coconut. Coconut milk is often used in Thai or Asian curries and soups, as well as sweets and desserts.
Sold in cans, coconut milk has about 17 per cent fat content. It is available in lower-fat versions, which simply have more water added.
Enjoy!
]]>Today I’m making Salad Wraps and — in less than 5 minutes — lunch will be ready!
Eating salad in a wrap, instead of on a plate with a knife and fork makes for a fun change of pace! I bought a complete salad in a bag and some flour tortilla wraps.
Flour tortilla wraps come in different flavors and in two different sizes. The smaller ones are about 8 inches in diameter and the larger ones are about 10 inches in diameter. I used the larger ones – one bag of salad greens will make three really big Salad Wraps!
Making and eating salad became so much easier when pre-washed salad greens became available at the grocery store. Buying pre-washed is a huge time saver, plus you can buy salad blends which include several types of salad greens all in one bag.
You may have noticed that complete salads are available in your grocer’s produce department. These salads include not only the greens, but can also include the dressing, shredded cheese, croutons, wonton strips or corn chips for crunch, and even dried fruit like raisins or cherries, all in one bag.
I bought a bag of salad that included baby spinach, a savory 3-cheese blend, focaccia bread croutons, and Sweet Dijon vinaigrette.
I put the baby spinach in a large bowl…
…then added the extras.
Using a pair of tongs I gave the salad a quick toss.
To make the wrap, I spread about 1/3 of the salad on a 10-inch wrap.
Folded over the sides…
…then the bottom. (Three hands would be great here!)
Now I’m ready to roll!
Be sure to roll your wrap tightly so that it won’t fall apart.
Keep the seam side down to keep it from unrolling.
You can also make a wrap with the top open. Spread the salad out on the tortilla.
Start by folding up the bottom…
…then fold over one side….
…and start rolling!
This way nothing will fall out the bottom of the wrap.
Lunch is ready!
Wasn’t it easy? It was all in the bag!
]]>Chili Peppers (Video)
How To: Chilies
Jalapenos Stuffed with Sausage
Hot Peppers and How to Handle Them
10 Ways to Use Chili Peppers
When it comes to spicy food, we all have our own threshold. Some like a hint of heat, while others like to set their mouths on fire. Hot food is part of the culture in many tropical countries because of its cooling properties: the spiciness of the food provokes sweating, which cools the body as it evaporates.
The ingredient that gives many hot dishes their kick is chili peppers. These come in all shapes, sizes and intensities. It’s great to experiment with chilies, but you’ve got to know how to handle them. Once you know your way around a pepper, you’re all set to experiment.
Chile peppers are actually ranked according their fire power, which is measured in Scoville Units. ( See: How Hot Is It?: Startcooking.com’s Chili Chart with video) At the lowest level on the Scoville Scale are sweet bell peppers, sweet banana peppers and pimentos; at the highest level (rated 10 out of 10) are Red Savina Habaneros and Indian Tezpurs. They must be pretty hot, considering that jalapenos are rated 4!
As a general rule, larger peppers are typically milder than smaller ones. The smaller ones have a higher concentration of the chemical, capaicin, that makes peppers hot. The only way to decrease a chile’s heat is to remove the seeds and membranes of the chili, even then, the really hot ones are still really hot!
If you eat something too spicy, don’t bother with water. It will spread the capsaicin, which is an oil, around in your mouth. It’s a good idea to keep some milk handy, because the fat in dairy products seems to help put out the fire. That’s why Indian restaurants serve bowls of raita, a cooling combination of yogurt and cucumber. The acid in lemons (or lemonade) and tomato juice are also effective. Another option is to try an absorbent food like bread or rice.
Look for fresh chilies with taut, shiny skins – if they’re blemished and wrinkled, they’ve probably been around too long. Chilies can be stored for up to a week in the refrigerator, or up to a year in the freezer.
These ones are mild enough to be used like bell peppers. They can be used raw on salads and pizza, fried, sautéed or roasted. They’re often pickled, and you’ll see jars of pickled banana peppers near the other pickles at the grocery store.
As the name suggests, these are sweet-tasting peppers that are often used in Italian dishes. They’re typically sauteed first and then added to other dishes, but can also be eaten raw or stuffed.
Also known as hot yellow peppers or hot wax peppers, these ones are pretty mild. They can be used fresh, added to soups and stews or pickled.
These relatively mild peppers look a bit like green bell peppers. That’s why you see lots of recipes for stuffed poblano peppers. These peppers are often used in mole sauces and salsas.
These peppers are most often used in a Mexican specialty called Chiles Rellenos: cheese-stuffed and fried peppers. Also known as California peppers, these are typically eaten when they’re green.
These are one of the most common types of chili found in Mexico (and one of the best known to Americans). The green ones are most often used in cooking and the red ones are typically dried and referred to as chipotle peppers. Jalapenos are available fresh, in jars or canned.
These bright red globes have thick walls that make them good candidates for stuffing and pickling. They rank in the middle of the Scoville heat chart.
Also known as Bird’s Eye Chilies, these little ones pack a lot of heat. They turn from green to red and can be eaten either way. Red is used give dishes more color.
Habaneros are high up on the heat scale, with the Red Savina variety claiming the top spot. These lantern-shaped peppers can turn different colors at maturity, but often go from green to orange. They have a fruity flavor with similarities to papaya and berries, and are often confused with the Scotch Bonnet pepper.
Enjoy!
]]>Or the fun of cracking open peanuts in the shell?
The buttery crunch of nuts can take dishes from ordinary to extraordinary. Cooked green beans, for example, become much more appetizing when sprinkled with a handful of toasted, slivered almonds.
Although they can be addictive, nuts have a number of health benefits (see calorie, fat and protein chart at the bottom of this post), and have been shown to help keep cholesterol in check. There’s no problem with eating them regularly, if you limit your intake to one to two ounces per day and stick to the unsalted kind. As an alternative to eating them straight-up as a snack, nuts add flavor and texture to all kinds of other foods: salad, yogurt, cereal, stir-fries, rice or pasta. It’s a good idea to keep walnuts or pecans on hand for baking; they’re great in chocolate chip cookies and brownies.
From Brazil nuts to pistachios, there are a lot of nuts to choose from. This post will help identify when to use what kind of nuts, as well as how to store, toast and chop them.
Although they may look like a non-perishable food item, nuts can go rancid quickly because of their fat content. Shelled nuts go off faster than those still in their shells, and the packages do have best before dates stamped on them. It’s a good idea to store nuts in the fridge or the freezer. Sources vary on how long nuts keep, but one rule of thumb is:
Nuts should be kept in a non-metal, airtight container. Even a resealable freezer bag will do the trick.
Just like bread, nuts taste better toasted. The heat brings out their sweetness and makes them crunchier. Startcooking.com covers how to toast nuts in the post on pine nuts. If you like sprinkling toasted nuts on various dishes, it’s a good idea to roast a few cups so that you have them on hand to use later.
Although it’s possible to buy nuts already chopped, there are several ways to chop them yourself.
Almonds are packed with all kinds of nutrients, including protein, calcium, fiber, riboflavin and magnesium. Almonds are among the drier, crunchier nuts. Enjoy them whole as a healthy snack, or try them blanched or slivered and sprinkled on salads or cooked vegetables. Cooking For Engineers offers a nice photo-tutorial on Asparagus with Almonds. Ground almonds or almond paste (marzipan) may be called for in dessert recipes.
Here are some of the different forms of almonds and what they’re best suited for:
You can buy peanuts in the shell, unshelled, whole, salted, unsalted, roasted, chopped or chocolate covered! We probably consume peanuts most often in the form of peanut butter. Peanuts can be used in a wide range of sweet and savory recipes, including recipes like Chicken in Lettuce Cups. Like almonds, they make a great topping for all kinds of dishes; chopped peanuts are often used as a topping in Thai dishes and Asian stir fries.
These nuts are higher than any others in terms of their Omega-3 fatty acid content and have been shown to lower bad cholesterol. Chopped walnuts are often called for in cookie, bar and loaf recipes, and are often paired with maple flavor in desserts (such as maple walnut ice cream!). Walnuts can also be used in coatings for fish or meat. As turkey time approaches, keep in mind this recipe for Cranberry Relish with Walnuts and Mandarin Oranges. Walnut oil is an expensive, but elegant, base for a salad dressing.
Their taste is similar to walnuts, but sweeter and richer because of their high fat content. Pecans are great eaten on their own, or when used in salads, like this Pear and Blue Cheese Salad. They can substitute for walnuts in baking recipes and are, of course, the central ingredient in Pecan Pie.
These large, crescent-shaped nuts are mainly exported from Bolivia, rather than Brazil. The seeds of the Brazil nut tree are very high in the antioxidant selenium. They’re not called for in everyday recipes, but often show up in nut mixes or fruit cake.
Somehow, it’s so satisfying to pop a pistachio out of its shell and eat it. And then another. And another. These nuts have really been around the block: they originated in the Middle East, were mentioned in the Bible, and even have an ice cream flavor dedicated to them. Home cooks can use shelled pistachios to top rice or other dishes the same way they would with other nuts. They can also be used instead of pine nuts as the base of pesto and in sweets, like these Pistachio and White Chocolate Chip Cookies. Those that are sick and tired of being thwarted by pistachios whose shells are only open a crack will enjoy this tutorial that shows how to open them.
So buttery and soooooo addictive … we have all probably indulged in a handful (or two) of cashews over cocktails. Cashew lovers can also get their fix at Asian restaurants, where Chicken with Cashews may be on the menu. Try adding cashews to your own stir-fries.
Hazelnuts (aka filberts) are more likely to be used in a dessert than a main dish, although they add an elegant touch to all kinds of foods. The combination of hazelnut and chocolate is widely enjoyed in the form of Nutella. The skins of hazelnuts taste bitter, and many recipes require that the skins be removed.
(The Hazelnut Council has some really great looking recipes with photos on their site.) For a really great treat, try Nutella Crepes (video) or Nutella Dessert Dip – they are amazing!
These nuts have a sweet, creamy crunch, and they’re great to keep on hand to sprinkle on salads or pasta. They’re also a key ingredient in pesto.
Startcooking.com has covered the basics of pine nuts, including a photo tutorial on how to toast them which is a toasting method that can be applied to toasting all nuts.
************
Nutrients in nuts per 1.5 ounces (43 grams)
Calories | Fat (grams) | Protein (grams) | |
---|---|---|---|
Almonds | 254 | 22.5 | 9.4 |
Brazil nuts | 279 | 28.2 | 6.1 |
Cashews | 244 | 19.7 | 6.5 |
Hazelnuts | 275 | 26.5 | 6.4 |
Macadamias | 305 | 32.4 | 3.3 |
Peanuts | 249 | 21.1 | 10.1 |
Pecans | 302 | 31.6 | 4.0 |
Pistachios | 243 | 19.6 | 9.1 |
Walnuts | 278 | 27.7 | 6.5 |
Source: Harvard Medical School 2010
Report of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee
]]>Crepe (the French word for pancake) is a paper-thin pancake which is quite different from the fluffy, American-style pancake shown below!
My videos on making American style Chocolate Chip Pancakes and paper-thin Crepes with a Nutella filling will show you step-by-step instructions for making perfect crepes and pancakes!
In this post I’ll be covering four crepe topics:
A. 10 Tips on Making Great Crepes
B. Crepe Making in Denmark
C. Fillings for Crepes
D. Basic Crepe Recipe
1. The batter should be smooth as silk – a blender works best for mixing the batter.
2. It is essential for a crepe batter to “rest” (in the refrigerator) for at least 2 hours or up to 2 days before you actually start making the crepes. (Otherwise they will be rubbery)
3. When you take it out of the refrigerator, let the batter sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes before starting to make the crepes.
4. If batter is too thick add a bit more milk.
5. A special crepe pan is not essential.
6. A non-stick pan is essential – for beginners.
7. Be sure the pan is sizzling hot before you add the crepe batter.
8. The first couple of crepes you cook will not come out very well- toss them out and I promise you that – by the third crepe – they will be perfect.
9. Crepes can be kept warm in a 200 F. degree oven until ready to serve.
10. Store crepes between pieces of wax paper, then in a zip-lock bag for days in the refrigerator or up to 2 months in the freezer
While traveling this past summer in Denmark, David and I were in the charming town of Ebeltoft when we came across this small café where they were making crepes in their courtyard. This crepe maker has surely perfected the technique:
Pouring the Batter
Swirling the batter with a wooden spreader….
…over the entire surface of this huge, round, griddle type crepe pan.
Once the pancake got flipped (which I totally missed!), bacon and chicken got added…
…then some lettuce. (Notice how they kept their huge jar of Nutella warm on the side of the gill.)
They used a giant crepe spatula to fold up this savory crepe.
Crepes can be made with a sweet or savory filling in “rustic” cafes or by street vendors…
or made by famous chefs in really fancy restaurants…
With a bit of practice you too can make perfect crepes!
Once the crepes are made, what you put into them is entirely up to you! Once the filling is added, the crepes can be rolled or folded as I did in my Nutella Crepe video. Adding some sliced banana or strawberries makes for a great flavor combination to the Nutella.
Spreading Peanut butter instead of Nutella is another option!
Spreading your favorite jam on a crepe is a really easy filling that requires literally no preparation.
Adding a sprinkle of sugar and some lemon juice is another very simple filling that is really delicious.
You can never go wrong with just a drizzle of maple syrup on warm crepes!
Closet Cooking has done quite a few great crepe recipes. Here is a recipe for Strawberry Cheesecake Crepes that looks really tempting. You will have to know how to whip some cream for this recipe.
Kevin’s savory Asparagus Crepes with a Mushroom Dill Sauce might be a bit of a stretch for beginners but certainly looks like it would be worth the effort.
The Food Network has over 200 crepe recipes! Some are clearly much more advanced than others. Their “Difficulty Ratings” are a bit inconsistent so be sure to read the recipe carefully before you begin!
One very famous crepe recipe is Crepe Suzette. It is a crepe that is served with a warm sauce made up of orange and lemon juice and zest, sugar, Grand Marnier (or Contreau or randy) and butter. In fancy restaurants the sauce is usually made right at your table. The last step is the crowd pleaser, that’s when they light the sauce and a huge flame finishes cooking the sauce. (I would not recommend a beginner trying this!)
With an electric hand mixer, blender, or a whisk, mix together 2 Tablespoons of melted butter, the eggs, the milk and the water.
Sift together the dry ingredients (flour, salt and sugar) and add them to the wet mixture. Blend until smooth.
Transfer the batter to a bowl, cover and refrigerate for 2 hours (or up to 2 days).
If the ingredients have separated, gently stir them together again.
Heat a 9-10 inch non-stick fry pan over medium high heat. Melt ½ teaspoon of butter in the pan. Brush the butter over the surface of the pan with a heat resistant brush. (You should hear a sizzle!)
Pour 1/4 cup of batter into the pan with one hand, and with the opposite hand, swirl the pan until the batter coats the bottom of the pan. (For a 6-7 inch pan use 2 1/2 Tablespoons of batter – slightly more than half of 1/4 cup)
Cook the crepe until it is a patchy light brown on the bottom, 30 seconds to one minute.
Loosen the edges of the crepe and flip it to the other side. Cook the second side until it is spotted brown and dry, about another 30 seconds.
Remove the crepe from the pan and continue cooking the remaining batter, adding more butter if necessary.
Stack between squares of wax paper, wrapped in plastic wrap, in the refrigerator for up to three days. The crepes can be frozen for up to two months.
Makes sixteen to twenty 6 to 7 inch crepes or twelve to sixteen 9 to 10 inch crepes
]]>Wow! We did it! Number 1 in Foods at Apple iTunes!
This is a dream come true and I need to thank the people who helped to make this happen.
stresslimitdesign
Justin Evans and Colin Vernon, owners and senior partners of stresslimitdesign are responsible for the design and development of startcooking.com. Without the whole stresslimitdesign team, startcooking.com would not exist. They really know how to design (and manage) a great site!
Atelier Transfert
Christian Martel is the head of video production and the maker of my videos. We have worked side by side to develop the look, feel and design of my videos, then Christian made the magic happen by combining thousands of photos to my voice over and, voila, the recipe comes alive!
Guy Kawasaki
We all know who Guy is! He has brought quite a bit of attention to startcooking.com, by both blogging about us and sharing with us some of his world famous recipes. Alltop, his new site that acts as a Magazine rack to the best of the blog world, has an introductory video by the startcooking.com team. We are thrilled to have been part of this great project.
Subscribers and Fans
Thank you all for the amazing support your have shown me from the start. I am thrilled to have found such an appreciative audience.
David Maister
Positively none of this would have happened without the total support of David Maister, my editor, my supporter, my husband, my “reason to be”. Without David, my world would not exist.
Thank you all for making my dreams come true!!
]]>It does take a little bit of planning ahead, though. If you want to try braising, keep in mind that you’ll have to get that pot on the stove (or in the oven) early in the day. Perhaps you can get the ingredients prepared in the morning and then cook them in the early afternoon so that the dish is ready for dinner. (Word of warning: do not leave your house with food cooking on the stove top or in the oven!)
The recipe you’re using will dictate what kind of pot or cooking vessel to use, but here’s a rundown of some of the terms you may come across.
Startcooking.com offers some recipes that serve as a great introduction to braising. Corned Beef Brisket (shown above) is a good starting point because, although the process involved isn’t technically braising, it demonstrates the benefits of slow cooking. The meat is not browned—all you do is put it in a pot, cover it with water, bring it to a boil, then simmer for 3 to 5 hours. You’ll end up with moist meat that tastes great as a main course or a sandwich filling.
The photo tutorial on Guinness Stout Beef Stew (shown above), illustrates every step of the braising process. This stew is also relatively fast, since it cooks for about 11/2 hours.
If you’ve got more time, and prefer a Guinness-less stew, watch Kathy’s video on Beef Stew, which takes around three hours to make.
Here’s a helpful guide to a cool-weather favourite: Pot Roast. This photo tutorial over at Greg Cooks shows how you transform a slab of roast into a delicious meal. It gets its flavor from wine, garlic and fresh herbs.
Farmgirl Fare offers a tutorial on slow-cooking lamb; it cooks for two to three hours, but the pictures indicate that it’s well worth the wait.
You may be familiar with the French classic Coq au Vin, which is chicken braised in red wine. In this recipe, the chicken doesn’t cook for that long (around half an hour), but you make a sauce at the end.
For those who own a Crock Pot, here’s a Stewed Chicken Curry recipe, explained in a step-by-step photo tutuorial.
Braising doesn’t have to involve meat. Kathy’s Sweet and Sour Cabbage (shown above) demonstrates how slow cooking can be used to make vegetable-based side dishes.
My Vegetable Blog offers Sherry-braised Onions and Apples with Raisins, a dead-easy way to make a dish of soft onions that works well with cheese and baguette.
]]>Cheers!
Kathy
Phyto What?
Phytonutrients: They’re possibly the most important ingredients in your diet, since they help explain why colorful vegetables, fruits, and other unprocessed foods help boost immunity, promote eye health and provide antioxidant protection.
Phytonutrients are naturally-occurring compounds found in real foods – from fruits and vegetables to legumes and nuts. They are lost when foods are processed. Every vegetable and fruit contains thousands of these chemicals that protect plants from harmful effects of the environment, such as heat, bugs and disease. They may also help human cells stay healthy by blocking one or more stages of cancer development, stimulating the immune system, protecting the heart against disease and helping to prevent cataracts … possibly even slowing the aging process.
While scientists have long known that vitamins, minerals, and fiber in fruits and vegetables are beneficial, more recent evidence shows that certain phytonutrients in these unprocessed foods are particularly health-enhancing and disease-preventing.
A common class of phytonutrients is carotenoids. Lutein is a well known phytonutrient within this class and is found in spinach and other richly-colored lettuce and produce. This phytonutrient is an antioxidant and also helps slow the progression of macular degeneration of the eyes, a leading cause of blindness. A mixture of carotenoids, such as lutein, lycopene, and beta carotene, also protect the skin (along with sunscreen!) from sun damage caused by ultra-violet light.
Are you getting enough phytonutrients? Increase your consumption of fruits and vegetables to be sure. The USDA recommends a minimum of 3 servings of veggies and 2 servings of fruit each day.
Below is a sample of phytonutrients and where you can find them:
Carotenoids | Food Source | Flavonoids & Polyphenols | Food Source |
alpha-carotene | carrots | Anthocyanins | Fruits |
beta-carotene | leafy green and yellow vegetables (e.g. broccoli, sweet potato, pumpkin, carrots) | Flavones | Fruits & Vegetables |
lutein | leafy greens such as kale, spinach, turnip greens | Flavonols | Fruits, vegetables, tea and wine |
lycopene | tomato products, pink grapefruit, watermelon, guava | Isoflavones | Soybean |
*Sourced from the United States Department of Agriculture
Many of us grew up on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and continue to love peanut butter as adults.
Although peanut butter is a high-calorie and high fat food, it’s also been found to have many health benefits and is generally recommended as part of a nutritious diet. Peanuts contain mono-unsaturated fat (the heart-healthy kind), as well as Vitamin E, niacin, folate and fiber.
Studies have shown that eating nuts regularly and moderately helps against heart disease, and — here’s the good news — weight gain. So, there’s no need to feel guilty about spreading peanut butter on your morning toast.
Peanut butter fans are typically divided when it comes to the issue of choosing between the crunchy or the smooth variety. Startcooking.com will remain neutral in this heated debate. But the Skippy website tells us that creamy peanut butter is more popular than chunky, and that children and women tend to go for creamy while men like crunchy. (Who knew?) Skippy also reports that East Coasters are more into smooth, and West Coasters go for crunchy. Smooth peanut butter is more often called for in recipes, so perhaps it’s a good idea to keep both kinds on hand.
The healthiest choice in peanut butters is the kind labeled “natural”. These typically don’t contain the hydrogenated oil that most major brands use to stop the peanut butter from separating. Natural peanut butters typically have a layer of oil on top, and have to be stirred before each use. They’re also kept in the refrigerator so that they don’t spoil. They may or may not contain sugar, so take a look at the labels before buying. Some grocery stores or health food stores have a nut-grinding machine that will churn out whatever amount of natural peanut butter you need.
By the way, reduced-fat peanut butters have the same number of calories as regular — there’s less fat, but more sugar and typically more hydrogenated oil than regular kinds.
Anyone looking for an alternative to peanut butter can try a different kind of nut butter, like almond, cashew, hazelnut or pecan. For those in need of a nut-free substitute for peanut butter, there’s Peabutter, made from golden brown peas.
We all know ways to incorporate peanut butter into breakfast and dessert, but it also has a place in savory main dishes. Here are some ways to use peanut butter:
1. Add a spoonful to your morning smoothie for added protein.
2. Peanut butter gets all warm and gooey when spread on something toasted or warm. Try it not just on toast, but on wraps (rolled and warmed up), crumpets (it oozes into all the little holes), English muffins and pancakes.
3. Combine it with fruit: Peanut butter pairs well with apples, pears and is heavenly with bananas.
4. Rather than the same-old PB&J sandwiches, try peanut butter and fruit sushi. Apartment Therapy helps us out with a great photo-tutorial on these inspired sandwiches, which call for dried coconut and raisins.
5. Although the classic sandwich combination is peanut butter and grape jelly, there are many other peanut butter partners: honey, marshmallow fluff, Nutella, raisins, bacon, banana, pickles (event if you’re not pregnant), applesauce or apple butter, potato chips.
6. Peanut butter and vegetables. Carrot and celery sticks sure taste better when they’re dipped in peanut butter! There’s a snack called Ants on a Log: you put peanut butter in a stick of celery and then stick some raisins on top.
7. If you like Asian food, you’ve probably enjoyed peanut sauce. There are many variations on this delicious sauce, which can also be used as a dip or dressing, but here’s a basic one.
8. You can also put peanut butter to use in soups. Emeril has done a great soup video called Peanut African Soup made with chunky peanut butter.
9. Here’s a tutorial on making Peanut Butter Cookies from Cooking With Engineers. Your friends and family will love you for making these. Or how about startcooking.com’s classic Hershey Kiss Cookie
10. Here’s a great idea for a S’mores-like treat that you can make indoors. Pioneer Woman gives a great tutorial (photo below) exlpaining how to make Marguerites: Crackers with peanut butter and a marshmallow on the top, then put under the broiler.
Marguerites are a simple, easy dessert. Photo courtesy of The Pioneer Woman.
]]>Snacking? I recommend it! Especially for kids—they need to be fueled throughout the day. But snacking is important also for busy adults. And when people ask me, a registered dietitian, for “best snack” recommendations, there’s no contest–fresh fruits and veggies top the list.
Here’s why nature’s perfect snacks are such winners:
I want to eat right, and want to make sure my family does too. So when I’m packing lunches or take-along snacks, I reach for convenient, perfectly-portioned Chiquita Bites. They’re super-convenient–nothing to peel or core, just open and enjoy.
These take-with-you, no-mess servings of fruits and veggies are the answer to naturally nutritious fruit and veggie snacks on the go. Kids love the variety, crunch and flavor of these convenient packages of natural fruit and veggies. Snack on!
]]>Making your own sandwiches for lunch saves money and calories. Sandwiches also make a super easy solution for dinner when you’re short on time. We’ll go over the basics and then get inspired with a list of sandwich ideas.There are a few secrets to building a great sandwich, and it doesn’t take a culinary degree to figure them out.
If your workplace has a kitchen, bring the ingredients and store them in the fridge until lunch. Assemble your masterpiece when you’re ready to eat it, and say goodbye to soggy sandwiches. If this isn’t a possibility, use crustier breads, like baguette or ciabatta (rather than sliced bread) and layer ingredients like cheese or cold cuts around wetter ingredients, like tomato or lettuce.
There are so many choices when it comes to breads and sandwich fillings. For example, try a baguette with sharp cheese and mango chutney, or focaccia bread spread with pesto and fresh mozzarella. Instead of ham, try pastrami or corned beef. Rather than cheddar, try Swiss, provolone or brie. When it comes to bread, alternate between pita, wraps, rolls and buns, which can all be stored in the freezer until you’re ready to use them.
Try figuring out what you like about pricey gourmet sandwiches at the local cafe and see if you can copy them.
Toasting will bring out the sweetness in the bread, and will warm up whatever filling you put on. Try toast with spreads like hummus or baba ghanouj. If you are going the ham-and-cheese route, try this twist: lay a few slices of ham and some grated cheese on a wrap; roll it up and microwave it for about 30 seconds. It’s warm, gooey and really good.
Try mixing tuna with a creamy salad dressing instead of mayonnaise; spread the bread with red pepper jelly or barbecue sauce if you like a spicy kick. Go for tangy toppings like pickles and olives.
Leftovers from last night’s dinner can make super sandwich fillings. Meatloaf is a natural for a hearty sandwich; or try pieces of grilled chicken or roast pork in your next wrap.
Rather than adding lettuce and tomato, try sliced cucumber, avocado, shredded carrot, alfalfa sprouts or sundried tomatoes. Roasted vegetables will taste even better the next day as part of a wrap or sandwich filling.
Seasonings aren’t just for the stove top; they really make a difference in sandwiches. Start with good old salt and pepper, and try adding fresh herbs like basil leaves or coriander.
Tell us about your favorite sandwich!
]]>This is the time of year for camping, which is all about enjoying the great outdoors … and S’mores! We have the Girls Scouts to thank for this classic campfire dessert – the first written recipe for S’mores is apparently in a 1927 Scout handbook.
For the uninitiated, these treats traditionally consist of a gooey toasted marshmallow and a piece of chocolate, pressed between two pieces of graham cracker. There are all kinds of variations on this combination; you can make it as gourmet or decadent as you want. There are also some S’more-inspired desserts, which use the same elements (graham cracker, marshmallow and chocolate) in different ways.
Fortunately, you don’t have to plan a camping trip or get the fireplace going to enjoy S’mores. If you’ve got the basic ingredients, and a microwave or toaster oven for toasting the marshmallows, you’re all set. This video provides a nice overview for those who have never made or eaten S’mores.
Happy camping!
]]>There’s something mysteriously alluring about eating meat off a stick, which is why shish kebabs are always a hit. The term “shish kebab” is said to have Turkish and Armenian roots, but the concept of eating skewered meat has fans around the world. From Greece’s souvlaki to Indonesia’s heavenly satay with peanut sauce, there seems to be a version almost anywhere you go.
Some kebabs involve only meat, while others combine meat, vegetables, and even fruit. The meat can be marinated, then cut into bite-size chunks (about one-inch square), or simply seasoned prior to cooking. If the kebab involves only meat, the meat can be cut into a long strip and then threaded on the skewer. Other meat-only kebabs are made with ground meat that’s shaped around the skewer, in a sort of hot dog shape.
Aside from being simple to make, shish kebabs allow you to cook meat and vegetables together in fun, portable format. With a side of rice or couscous, you’ve got a great meal. Another bonus is that you don’t have to follow a recipe. If you’ve got some meat (or shrimps, fish, or tofu), you can marinate it (or not) and thread it on skewers with any combination of vegetables you like. The marinade could be bottled Italian dressing, or Teriyaki Sauce, or something of your own creation. Some meats and vegetables work better than others on a skewer. Look below for a list of kebab-friendly ingredients and basic cooking instructions. Below that, you’ll find some links to a smorgasbord of shish kebab recipes.
Meat: Chicken, beef, lamb or pork (filets or ground), or sausage
Fish: Salmon, tuna or other firm-fleshed fish
Shellfish: Shrimp or scallops
Vegetables:
Chunks of raw onion or whole pearl onions
Mushrooms (whole)
Bell peppers (cut into bite-size pieces)
Cherry tomatoes (whole)
Zucchini (bite-size pieces)
Eggplant (bite-size pieces)
Fuzzy, sweet and fragrant, peaches are one of the most popular members of the fruit family. If you know how to pick a good one, they make for a heavenly, healthy snack. Peaches have also inspired many great summer desserts, including Peach Melba and peach cobbler.
Some of us love the flavor of peaches but aren’t crazy about their fuzzy faces. Keep in mind that most of that comes off when peaches are washed. If you’re still not a convert, you’ll find a similar taste and texture in nectarines, the smooth-skinned cousins of peaches. Try substituting nectarines for peaches in any of the recipes below.
Peaches are on the softer spectrum of fruits, so handle them with care. Ripe ones should be firm, but have some give. Look for ones with a gold skin tone, rather than greenish or red. In terms of shape, a definite cleft is an indication of a mature fruit. Freestone peaches (as the name suggests) have stones that are easier to remove than clingstone peaches.
It’s best to store them at room temperature, and wash them just before you want to eat or use them. They’ll last around four days, maybe a bit longer if you refrigerate them in a plastic bag.
To remove the stone, cut into the peach near the top until the tip of the knife hits the stone, then cut lengthwise around the stone. Gently hold both halves of the peach, twist in opposite directions and pull it apart. Put one side down and then loosen the stone from the peach flesh with a knife or your finger. Fine Cooking offers a great photo tutorial on pitting peaches. If you’re a real peach fan, you can buy a tool specially made for removing peach pits.
Peaches will oxidize when cut and exposed to air, but a squeeze of lemon juice will stop them from turning brown.
The fuzzy skin of peaches becomes tough when cooked, so it’s best to blanch them before cooking. If you don’t like the fuzzy skin of peaches or don’t want to attempt blanching, you can try substituting equal amounts of other stone fruits like nectarines, apricots or mangoes.
You don’t have to wait until dessert to eat peaches. Fresh peaches make a great addition to salads, because of the sweet contrast with the vegetables. You don’t need a recipe; just add them to whatever combination of greens and vegetables you like. Here’s another salad idea for anyone trying to use up slightly under ripe peaches.
Making a batch of peach salsa will perk up any grilled fish or meat.
Peaches are often partnered with pork, as in this Pork Chops with Peaches recipe.
Chicken and Peach Curry calls for canned peaches rather than fresh, but it’s an easy weeknight dinner recipe.
Now, onto dessert! You’ve heard of peaches and cream, but a lesser-known pairing is peaches and wine. Simply soak peeled peaches in wine “for as long as you can stand it”. That’s it!
Here’s a simplified version of peach melba, which is traditionally a cool combination of peaches, raspberry sauce, ice cream and liqueur. This recipe uses raspberry jam as a shortcut to the sauce.
Here’s a classic: Peach cobbler (pictured below). This bourbon-spiked version (modified from a Tyler Florence recipe) has “the tenderest crumb I have ever tasted,” says Mimi at Delectable Tidbits.
Grilling is a popular way to prepare peaches because it brings out their sweetness. Here’s a recipe for Grilled Peaches with Bourbon Vanilla Whipped Cream, which can be done indoors using a grill pan. If you don’t have or don’t like bourbon, stick to plain whipped cream.
These Peaches and Cream muffins provide a way to get peaches into your morning breakfast. There’s actually no cream in the recipe; the muffins get their oomf from low-fat ricotta cheese and skim milk.
With their bright yellow, red, orange and green skins, bell peppers are the sirens of summer produce. We love these capsicums because they bring color, sweetness and texture to our dishes – either raw or cooked. And they’re no slouch in the nutrition department: one cup of chopped, raw red pepper contains more Vitamin C than one cup of orange juice. Peppers are often available year round, but it’s great to get them now, while their flavour is peaking and their prices are dipping.
Red, yellow and orange peppers are sweeter than the green ones, because the green ones are not ripe. When buying bell peppers, look for clear, shiny, intact skins. They should feel firm and heavy for their size. They can be stored in the fridge for about a week.
When it comes to preparing bell peppers, first wash and dry them. Then, remove the stem by cutting around it in a circle. This gets rid of most of the seeds. When you look inside, you’ll see the white “ribs”; slice down the ribs, so that you have three or four pieces of pepper. Check out Vegan Yum Yum’s photo tutorial for great instructions on cutting peppers.
Eat them raw: Enjoy crunchy strips of raw bell peppers in your next vegetable platter, or throw some diced pepper into a chef salad. A whole bell pepper with its stem and seeds removed can serve as the “bowl” for a dip, pasta or rice salad.
Eat them roasted: Cooking peppers really brings out their sweetness, so roasting them under high heat is one of the most popular cooking methods. Here’s how: Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F, and line a baking pan with foil. Cut the pepper into quarters, place on the foil and roast until the skin turns black. Once out of the oven, cover the pieces with a tea towel or put them in a container with a lid. When the pepper has cooled, you can peel the skin off. The soft pieces of roasted pepper can be added to salads or sandwiches, or can be incorporated into other recipes. Try some roasted read pepper with cream or goat cheese on bread. If you’re in a pinch, you can buy roasted red peppers in a jar – but they’ll taste better if you roast them yourself.
Eat them any way you can think of: Peppers are also great in stir-fries, soups and stews.
This Asian Noodle Salad makes a delicious, light summer dinner. Aside from cooking the noodles, the preparation mostly consists of chopping – red and yellow bell peppers are cut into thin strips. The recipe suggests mixing the dressing ingredients and letting it sit for at least an hour – if you haven’t got time for this, simply use a bottled Asian dressing.
If you’ve gone crazy and roasted a bushel of peppers, you can throw them in the blender with a bunch of other ingredients and whip up this Red Pepper, Feta and White Bean Dip.
Penne with Sausage and Peppers: “This sort of dish is perfect on a Monday when I’m tired and dopey from a migraine pill, and just want my food NOW PLEASE AND THANK YOU,” says Alison at This Dessert Life. This meal comes together in about 35 minutes, resulting in full tummies and yummy leftovers.
If you prefer potatoes to pasta, try Kathy’s Roasted Vegetables and Sausage, where your whole dinner gets cooked in one go. You just cut up some peppers and other vegetables and roast them in the oven with chunks of sausage.
Peppers are part of a Tex-Mex mix in Turkey and Pepper Enchiladas. You sauté onions and peppers, brown the ground beef, mix in a little sauce and cheese, then bake for around half an hour.
Stuffed bell peppers: Easy, filling, inexpensive, and look fabulous – need I say more?
A classic Italian summer side dish is Peperonata. The recipe calls for six peppers of different colours, garlic, two onions and a cup of chopped tomatoes (either fresh or canned). This all gets cooked up in a flash, then enjoyed hot out of the pot or cold the next day.
On a day when you’ve got lots of time to chop, try making Ratatouille. This classic vegetable dish calls for eggplant, zucchini, mushrooms and peppers, which all get cooked together. The finished mix tastes great either hot or cold. As Cooking With Engineers suggests, it tastes great on baguette.
]]>Fresh, golden, crunchy corn is here! It’s piled up at markets and at roadside stands. When it’s so plentiful, the temptation is to buy six ears at a time. But then what do you do with it all?
Kathy has already posted a tutorial explaining how to buy, shuck and cook corn on the cob. This is also a great starting point for using corn in all kinds of “off-the-cob” dishes. Once it’s cooked, you can use those fresh kernels on salads, in omelets, stir-fries and soups.
Some of the recipes below call for uncooked fresh corn – just cut off the kernels and you’re ready to start cooking!
Here are 10 Ways to Use Corn:
Let’s see a show of hands: How many of you are afraid to grill fish? Well, you’re missing out if you’ve never tried fish fresh off the barbecue, and this post will cover how to choose it and grill it.
How to Choose the Right Fish for the Right Job
We’ve already covered how to buy fresh fish and seafood, but it’s important to know that some fish work better than others on the grill. Here are some basics on what fish is best suited for the barbecue:
Thick steaks, such as tuna, swordfish, mahi-mahi and salmon fare well on a grill. But don’t discount whole fish like trout, red snapper, striped bass and bluefish. They work well, too, if you can get past the eyes and tail!
Tender fillets like sole, catfish, flounder and tilapia don’t do as well on a grill, because they tend to break up and fall through the grate. You can grill more fragile fish in a foil packet or using a wire fish basket. Otherwise, save these kinds for pan cooking, baking or deep frying.
What if I don’t have an outdoor grill?
The George Forman Electric Grill is a good alternative for those who can’t grill outside. The other option for indoor grillers is to use a grill pan on the stove, as Kathy has demonstrated grilling chicken indoor. They come in round, square and rectangular shapes and either non-stick or cast iron. They’re great for low-fat cooking because they keep whatever you’re grilling up and out of the fat.
Fish Grilling Methods
Grills: Whether using gas, charcoal, electric or grill pans, there’s a secret to grilling fish: Get your grill as hot as you can make it. You want to sear the fish as soon as it hits the grate. This seals in the juices and immediately firms the flesh; it’s less likely to stick to the grate and it’s easier to flip. Fish 4 Fun has some great tips on grilling seafood. They’ll also tell you exactly how to get the grilled diamond pattern you see in restaurants.
Cedar smoking/grilling is a no-fuss way to grill tender fillets, salmon and shrimp. The fish or shrimp are cooked on a wood plank, which gives them a smoky flavor. Just presoak the cedar plank, arrange your fish on top, cover and grill.
Foil Packet Grilling: There will be occasions when you want to cook a more delicate fish, and this is the perfect time to use foil packets. This is also a great way to cook an entire meal, because you can cover the fish (or meat) with vegetables and potatoes. Basically, you lay the fish (and anything else you want to cook) on a piece of foil, then bend the foil over top and seal all the sides by folding them over several times. Cooking this way will also keep the grill clean.
To Marinate Or Not To Marinate
Thick, dry fish steaks (like tuna or swordfish) taste great when marinated. Sometimes, a simple mix of oil, vinegar and spices is all it takes to make a drier kind of fish juicy. One idea is to coat tuna or swordfish steak in mayonnaise, sprinkle with a little salt and pepper and slap it on a hot grill. Let it sear for a few minutes on one side, turn it sideways for those pretty grill marks, then flip it over until it’s done.
Before cooking oily fish like bluefish, scallops and salmon, dry them thoroughly with paper towels. They tend to soak up water and that makes it hard to dry-grill. Sear or grill them in a little bit of flavored butter or oil. Add a sauce or other condiments just before or after the fish comes off the grill.
How do I know When My Fish is Done?
The basic rule is to cook fish 8 minutes per inch of thickness, or 10 minutes per inch if it’s a whole fish. Check it two minutes before you think it should be done, keeping in mind that everything keeps cooking for a few minutes after it leaves the grill. Fish is best when it just starts to flake off with a fork. Helen Rennie has an excellent site devoted to fish and seafood, where she gives 10 tips for grilling fish. Every fish has its own personality and needs to be grilled or cooked accordingly.
Grilled Fish Recipes
If you’re under the impression that the only thing you can do with a melon is make a fruit salad, this post is for you.
Some melons are actually treated as vegetables in the culinary world, while others are sweet and definitely considered fruits.
Did you know that cantaloupes in North America are different than those in Europe? Or that watermelons can have gold-colored flesh? Let’s learn more about melons.
Melons grow on vines and are considered fruits, though some are treated as vegetables in the culinary world. Bitter melon and winter melon are the vegetables of the melon family—they probably won’t be on the dessert menu! Watermelons can be large or small, round or square (shown above), with red, pink, or even orange flesh. The seeds can be black or brown, and seedless varieties may have small white edible seeds. Cantaloupes in North America have netted rinds and orange, sweet flesh, while European cantaloupes have smooth, green ribbed rinds. Honeydews have a creamy yellow-colored rind when ripe, and a light green flesh that’s sweet in flavor.
Most of us are familiar with marinating as a way to infuse meat with flavour before grilling or baking. Another way to flavor meat is to rub it with a mixture of dry ingredients called a spice rub. These rubs typically contain salt or sugar and spices, but can also contain flavorings like coffee grounds, cocoa, sesame seeds and dried chili peppers.
Once you’ve got a spice rub on hand, you can use it to jazz up other dishes, like seamed vegetables or soup. Another use is in salad dressing; simply mix some of the spice mixture with oil and vinegar.
Just sprinkle the rub on the meat, then spread it around with your fingers. A spice rub will act as a seasoning if it’s used just before cooking. It can be put on the meat up to a day in advance for more flavor.
Grocery stores usually sell a variety of spice rubs, but chances are you have the ingredients to make your own. Some spice rub recipes might call for you to buy the whole spice, and then grind it at home using a coffee grinder, blender or mortar and pestle. Grinding the spices yourself will intensify the flavour, but definitely isn’t necessary.
She has been keeping busy doing scrumptious looking photo-tutorials at the Ward Street Bistro. (For example, the Corn Fritter Casserole is a “light” take on a southern classic, and the Market Seafood Chowder is to die for!) I am delighted to welcome Heidi back to startcooking.com!
***
Ah, risotto. Rumors are it requires constant stirring during a 20-minute cooking period. It sounds daunting. But, the fact is, you can make a delicious risotto-style rice dish with no stirring required. I’m going to share with you my mushroom-and-tomato version. It makes a special side dish for a larger meal – or works as the centerpiece for a vegetarian meal.
Here are the ingredients….
…but I want to focus a minute on the rice. Using the right type of rice (Arborio) is important to get the moist texture that characterizes risottos. Arborio is a medium-grained Italian rice that’s high in starch, which results in a creamier texture than long-grained rice.
1) We’ll start with 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes in juice. To concentrate the flavors, drain the tomatoes in a colander (reserving the juice for another use).
2) To pull additional moisture from the tomatoes, sprinkle them with 1 teaspoon of salt.
3) Stir to incorporate the salt evenly. Let this mixture drain while preparing the other ingredients.
4) To prepare 2 cloves of garlic, first peel the cloves. To loosen the skins, I give the them a gentle whack with an old wooden potato masher, but the more conventional method is to press down on the cloves with the side of your knife.
5) Finely mince the garlic…
…and set aside.
6) Measure out 1/2 cup dry white wine (such as Sauvignon Blanc, Chablis, or Chardonnay)…
…1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth…
…and 1 cup Arborio rice.
7) Place a medium saucepan with a heavy bottom over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
8) Add the Arborio rice to the saucepan…
…and stir to evenly coat the grains of rice with the oil. (This will prevent the risotto from becoming mushy.) Saute the rice, stirring, for about 1 minute.
9) Add the garlic…
…the white wine…
…and the broth.
10) Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring once.
11) Cover and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook the rice for about 20 minutes: you want the rice to be tender, but still slightly firm to the bite. While the rice is cooking, prepare the mushrooms.
12) Gently clean by wiping with a damp paper towel 1/2 pound of mushrooms…
…and slice.
13) Heat a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Pour in 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
14) Add the sliced mushrooms…
…and saute until all the moisture has evaporated, about 10 minutes.
15) To the skillet add the drained tomatoes.
16) As soon as the rice is cooked, add it to the skillet.
17) Stir to combine.The texture should be moist and creamy. If necessary, add a bit more broth. Taste and add more salt if desired.
18) Serve immediately garnished with some freshly-grated Parmesan cheese.
This is a basic recipe that can be used with all sorts of ingredient combinations (vegetables, sausage, seafood, herbs…). Rather than garnishing with cheese, you can stir it in at the end. For extra richness, finish the dish with a tablespoon of butter. Risotto makes a great weekday meal and really doesn’t take much more time than making a pasta.
Serves 2 as a entree; 4 as a side-dish.
]]>Mmmm … sausage. Whether it’s Jimmy Dean at Sunday brunch, juicy ballpark franks at the game, or spicy merguez hot off the backyard grill, there’s no denying the delicious-ness of sausages.
Sure, there’s a bit of a “mystery meat” aura about sausages, because they are often made of leftovers, including organ parts and fat. The key to buying good sausage is to go for high meat content (70 per cent or higher) and all-natural varieties (which contain no fillers or artificial ingredients). If you’re buying hot dogs, go for the all-beef varieties.
There’s still the question of what kind of sausage to buy: Some sausages are cooked as part of their preparation, while others are raw, like most Italian sausage. Some are smoked, some are cooked and smoked, like kielbasa. While most sausage comes in a casing, American breakfast sausage is prepared in a patty format. Hey, these days there are even vegetarian and vegan sausages. To help figure out what’s what, here’s a handy guide to sausages from the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council.
The bottom line is, there’s a sausage out there to suit your fancy! And there are many ways to prepare them. This sausage link (pun intended) is from a British sausage site that gives the basic cooking instructions on boiled, fried, baked, barbecued or poached sausage.
Now for some great recipes:
To make a regular American hot dog in the microwave, just follow my simple instructions.
My Sausage and Egg Casserole (video) is great to serve to company. With its make-ahead steps, you can get it ready tonight for tomorrow’s big brunch!
If you want to impress everyone, you can use your homemade turkey sausage in this pasta sauce, then make lasagna with it!
Roasted Vegetables and Sausage is a great way to take advantage of deliciously fresh summer produce. Plus it smells fabulous when it is cooking!
For the heartiest of hearty soups, try this split pea soup with kielbasa in it!
Cheesy sausage balls (show at the very top of this post) would make a great appetizer or snack for game night (whether board games or football) with your friends.
]]>In the spring and summer months, we’ve got a bounty of fresh, cheap vegetables to choose from. Blanching is a quick way to cook them while preserving that peak crunch and taste. It involves partially cooking something by plunging it into boiling water for a short time, then “shocking” it in ice water to stop the cooking. To get started, check out Kathy’s step-by-step guide to blanching, and read on for more tips.
There are numerous good reasons!
Kathy explains the process in her guide to blanching, but here are a few more tips!
The weather is gorgeous, kids are out of school, and you’re looking for a way to carpe diem (you know, seize the day). What better way to do that than to have a picnic? This post will help you plan the menu, whether you’re having a romantic picnic for two, a family affair, or a neighborhood bash.
Whether you’re in the country, on the beach, or in a big city , you can have a great picnic. If it’s raining (or if it’s too hot outside) try a simple spread on the living room floor. The backyard is a perfect place for a close-to-home packed lunch, or try a park, the local playground, a drive-in movie, a pier, or even the rooftop of a tall building. Kathy’s idea of the perfect picnic (pictured below) actually involves no cooking!
For some folks, picnics are elaborate schemes that involve transporting raw meat, a bag of charcoal, condiments, folding tables and chairs, and more to their destination. For others, picnics are simple meals, involving finger foods made from fresh summer produce, a blanket to sit on, and as few plates and utensils as possible. Here are some basic essentials for any style of picnic:
Here are three menu ideas, depending on the kind of outing you want to have.
You’ve got the baking bug and the perfect cookie recipe, but now what? Do your cookies always ooze together as they cook, resulting in a giant cookie blob? Do they come out too crunchy? Do you wrestle with your rolling pin and too-sticky dough for cut cookies? What about the ones that just … taste funny? This post should help you get past these cookie glitches.
First thing’s first: Preheat the oven
Ingredients and Measuring
Rolled and Cut Cookies galore
Drop cookies aplenty
Cooling cookies
Recipe Inspiration
Father’s Day is coming up and what better way to honor the special guy in your life (your own dad or the father of your children) than to create a meal just for him? Round up the kids or your siblings and choose one recipe from each section below, and you’ll soon have a perfect supper for your Super Man.
Whet his Appetite with Serious Starters:
The Main Attraction:
The Starch of the Show:
Even Men Need to Eat their Veggies:
Dad’s Desserts:
If you mix and match using this list, you’re sure to create a man-pleasing meal, whether for Father’s Day, a special guy’s birthday, or a Sunday night football fest!
]]>A trip to your local farmers’ market should be enough to convince you that summer is almost here. Baskets are overflowing with colorful vegetables and salad greens. One of the first spring vegetables to come to market is the snow pea.
Bright green snow peas – often used in Asian stir-fries – are not to be confused with snap peas. Both are part of the legume family of sugar peas and have edible pods. Snow peas are flat with tiny seeds that are barely visible through the pods. Sugar snap pods are plump, with visible peas. Low in calories and high in Vitamins A and C, snow peas are a great addition to a healthy diet.
Look for snow peas up to three inches long that are light green in color with smooth, firm skin. Stay away from peas that are overgrown, cracked, wilted or have small spots of rot. As with any tender garden vegetable, they are best consumed within two days. For longer storage, they can be washed, drained and refrigerated in a perforated bag away from strong odors for up to 1 week.
Very versatile and one of the easiest vegetables to prepare, snow peas can be enjoyed au natural, added to salads, served raw with any kind of dip, or sautéed and buttered. Before cooking or eating them, there are two things to do: rinse them in water, then grab or cut the tip of each snow pea and pull out the tough string that runs along its side.
No matter how you cook them – boiling, steaming, stir-frying or blanching – snow peas need only one to three minutes. Quick cooking will also retain their vibrant color and vitamins.
Buy local. Buy fresh. Find a farmers’ market and look for the bright green snow peas!
]]>If you’re a startcooking.com regular, no doubt you’ve become more comfortable with basic cooking techniques. Now you’re making sweet and sour meatballs, tomato olive quesadillas, and know how to stir fry. Plus, you’re no longer wondering what mesclun is! Maybe you’re even thinking of inviting friends over to show off those new culinary skills.
Part of serving great food is presentation: like the Salad Nicoise pictured above, it should appeal to your mouth, nose and eyes. (Don’t they deserve a feast, too?) You don’t have to be a trained chef to learn the basics of plating, which is the art of presenting food in an attractive way. Don’t worry, it’s not about making butter sculptures or radish animals (yet!). There seven simple ways to present your meals like a pro.
Kathy used a square white plate above for serving this Portobello and Goat Cheese dish, making it stand out on a bed of sauce. Many chefs prefer white dishes, so the food “pops” visually, but you can try another color. Dishes with bold patterns can detract from the food. If you’re serving something hot, pre-heat your plates by placing them in the oven (if they are oven-safe) or on top of the toaster. If you’re serving cold foods, cool your dishes in the fridge or freezer for a bit. You can always make the plate look a little nicer by placing the food on a leaf of Boston lettuce.
This will also help you portion correctly, if you remember that vegetables should cover about half of the plate, starch one fourth, and protein one fourth.
So if you’re serving shrimp or stuffed mushrooms, put five on each plate, rather than six. Don’t worry about counting out peas though!
Just like with centerpieces, it’s good to have a little bit of height, but don’t overdo it or your guests won’t know how to proceed! If you have a mound of mashed potatoes (mid-height), you may want to lean your pork chop against it so that it is standing up (high), with a row of snow peas (low) in front. Or, top some rice (low) with sliced grilled chicken (cut into a few diagonal slices, and fan them out) (mid-height) and cross asparagus over top of it (high).
If you’re serving up a pesto dish, which has a lot of green in it, you might want to pair it with something red (the complementary color) like tomatoes or red peppers. A dish of white fish, water chestnuts, and rice would look really boring, so make sure to punch it up! Similarly, mix up the texture. If you made a smooth vegetable soup, serve it with a carrot stick and a celery stick (maybe an inner one with some of the delicious little greens still attached) across the top of the bowl. If you made a (smooth) steak, top it with some (crumbly) feta cheese or walnuts.
Kathy’s Pear and Blue Cheese Salad (pictured above) is a great example of a mouthwatering mix of textures.
Garnishes, like the cut-up fruit with the fried egg below, are also a great way to add color or texture.
Be sure to add parsley to your weekly shopping list. It not only tastes great, it is also a lovely garnish for just about everything!
]]>Artichokes are big thistle plants that originated in Italy and were brought to the United States by Spanish settlers in the 1600s. Artichokes might look intimidating, but learning to cook them is worth it, because the scales (leaves) and heart are delicious and tender, with a somewhat nutty flavor. With this guide to buying, preparing and cooking artichokes, you’ll be an expert in no time, impressing your taste buds with your new found talent!
When you get home, store the artichokes in a perforated plastic bag in the refrigerator. They will stay fresh this way for 4-5 days.
That’s all you need to do before cooking the artichokes, but if you plan to stuff them, or if you want eating them to be more convenient, you’ll also want to remove the choke from the center. Foodblogga has posted an excellent tutorial including all of these steps (along with photographs). She also shows you how to eat an artichoke (after you cook it, of course) by scraping the leaves against your bottom teeth. Most of the edible portion of the leaves is on the bottom third. After you’ve eaten all of the leaves, the heart is a yummy reward!
Those of us who aren’t up for culinary adventures on weeknights will be happy to learn that artichokes can be steamed in the microwave quite quickly! Just serve them with a dipping sauce like flavored mayonnaise, sour cream, butter or a salad dressing, and enjoy!
Cooking For Engineers has a great recipe for grilled artichokes, including step-by-step photos.
Artichokes with basil mayonnaise is another simple (simply delicious) recipe.
This turkey-stuffed artichoke recipe has an Indian twist, with seasonings like turmeric, chili, and garam masala.
Can you make rice? Then you can make this impressive walnut, bacon, and rice stuffed artichoke. It has a beautiful presentation… just right for having company over!
Did you know that baby artichokes are completely edible? They are fully mature, but since they grow low to the grown in low light, the fuzzy, gross “choke” part never develops in the center. Try this shaved artichoke salad, made with baby artichokes and parmesan cheese, and topped with olive oil and lemon juice.
Kate at GlutenFree Gobsmacked shows us how she made roasted artichokes after a long, tiring day of errands.
You can buy at the grocery store both canned and frozen artichoke hearts that are all ready for use.
The canned ones come either packed in water or marinated and there are many recipes that use these convenient tasty guys.
Check out allrecipes for tons of artichoke recipes, and be sure to look at Kathy’s artichoke dip recipe here on startcooking.com.
]]>What is balsamic vinegar anyway?
First, the grape juice is cooked slowly in a copper cauldron until it is reduced by 35 to 50 per cent. Then, the reduction is placed (along with a bit of already-aged vinegar to get the process started) into oak barrels to age. Each year, some of the vinegar evaporates, and the vinegar is transferred into a smaller barrel made of a different wood (chestnut, cherry, juniper, mulberry, cacia, and ash are commonly used). Each wood used infuses a different flavor into the vinegar, making it more complex and interesting. And as the vinegar ages and becomes concentrated, it becomes thick, sweet and dark.
This process originated in the northern Italian city of Modena. If balsamic vinegar is made following the standards of Modena (which includes each type of wood barrel) and passes a rigorous taste test, it may be deemed Tradizionale di Modena. Reggio-Emilia is another Italian city where traditional balsamic vinegar is made (vinegars made here would be called tradizionale di Reggio-Emilia). These vinegars are expensive and are wonderful for flavoring meat, as a dip for strawberries, and even as a flavoring for a sweet beverage. Some desserts, including panna cotta, crème caramel and zabaglione, may call for this vinegar.
You might be more familiar with a more commercial version of balsamic vinegar, which has a much shorter aging process. Often, some of the traditional barrels are skipped (and in many cases, only oak is used). This vinegar is fantastic for using in salad dressings, marinades, sauces, and pastas. Deborah of Play with Food has it on her list of essential pantry items.
How can I use balsamic vinegar in my cooking?
There are three basic age groups of balsamic vinegar, and each is used differently:
The youngest group, 3 to 5 years, is good for salad dressings, dipping sauces for vegetables and bread, sauces and marinades.
The middle age group, 6 to 11 years, is more viscous and is quite versatile. Use it in sauces (at the end of cooking), in risotto and pasta dishes, in marinades and mixed with mayonnaise or sour cream for a sandwich condiment.
Well-aged balsamic vinegar (12 to 150+ years) is best used after the cooking is finished, and in otherwise mild dishes (nothing spicy or heavily seasoned), so it can shine on its own. Use it to flavor meat like chicken, steak, fish or veal. It is well-suited to fruit and cheese pairings, such as strawberries, peaches and pears, along with ricotta or feta cheese. It may be enjoyed by itself (just a tiny amount) or added to water (or sparkling water) for a refreshing beverage.
OK, it’s on my grocery list. What’s the best kind to get?
If you want the thick, sweet, complex Tradizionale, look for a label that has the phrase Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena, which is a term applied only to the best balsamics. Expect to pay a good amount for this vinegar. You will only use it in drops, so it will last a while. Condimiento vinegars will also be high-quality, as they are made in the same way as the tradizionale, though they may be produced outside Modena.
If you are looking for a more accessible balsamic, check the ingredients to make sure no sugar is added. Often, low-quality vinegar is bitter, and brown sugar may be added to help mask its inferiority. True balsamic vinegar only has one ingredient: must. You may also note the age of the vinegar, if the bottle is labeled with this information. In general, more aged balsamic vinegar is better.
Some markets will have balsamic vinegars that you can buy by filling glass bottles yourself. Often at these shops, you are able to taste the vinegars before buying. This is the best way to make sure the vinegar you are taking home with you agrees with your palate and has a balanced flavor.
It’s in my pantry now. Know any good recipes?
Pork chops and spinach with balsamic reduction is a quick and simple recipe for a weeknight dinner. Don’t be scared off by the term “reduction” – it just means that the balsamic vinegar gets simmered, and thickens into a saucy consistency.
Asparagus, pea, bruschetta pasta uses balsamic vinegar in a different twist on the bruschetta topping.
Chicken and Peppers with Balsamic Vinegar is a colorful dish that would be perfect for a summer potluck.
Grilled Eggplants with Fresh Mint and Balsamic Vinegar sounds like the perfect spring dinner, maybe served with risotto!
Mascarpone Mousse with Balsamic Vinegar Caramel is a light, delicious dessert.
Phantom Gourmet’s Tuscan Sliders are topped with gorgonzola cheese and a balsamic pomegranate reduction.
Strawberry Risotto with Balsamic Vinegar looks and sounds amazing!
And since strawberries and balsamic vinegar seem to be a match made in heaven, you may want to try Strawberry Balsamic Sherbet.
]]>As spring progresses and summer advances, salads are gracing our tables more often. One way to spice things up is to explore different sorts of salad greens; another way to change it up is to create your own dressings. You COULD stock up on all sorts of mass-produced bottled stuff, but that would be expensive, take up a lot of fridge space, and may not be your healthiest option. Instead, make sure your pantry is stocked with the right ingredients, and you can whip up a new dressing every day of the week. You’ll know exactly what is going into your mouth (no nasty additives or corn syrup), and it’ll taste better, too.
One of the most basic (and versatile) types of salad dressings to make is a vinaigrette. The basic recipe is 2 or 3 parts oil to 1 part acid, plus salt (kosher salt or sea salt are the best choices for salads), pepper, and herbs to taste. A bit of Dijon mustard or mayonnaise may also be added to make it a bit creamy and help it emulsify. But if you want to jazz it up, there are easy ways to do that!
Different types of oils will give you different tastes for the foundation of your dressing.
Experimenting with different acids will change your salad dressing completely. There are several great vinegar options. An alternative to vinegars is citrus juice, like lemon, lime, grapefruit or orange juice. Any of these will give your salad lots of zing:
If you like your salad dressing to be creamy, you can also blend in one or more of these ingredients to make it smooth.
Mustard
Once your basic mix is ready, you can add other flavor components like herbs, seasonings, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, nuts, dried fruit, cheese, bacon pieces, or whatever you fancy! The worst that could happen is that it’ll taste awful, and you’ll throw it away and start over. No big deal, so experiment!
]]>Cheers!
Kathy
*****
by Heidi Adkisson
In my cook’s toolkit, I have a storehouse of recipes I can put together on a moment’s notice with items I usually have on hand. The recipes include this Berry Fruit Crisp, which is one of my favorites. I’ve made it at home, when visiting family, and when on vacation. The ingredients are simple and it requires only the most basic tools. And, most importantly, it’s delicious!
Here are the ingredients. The key is using frozen berries that are not thawed before baking–they make assembling the crisp a snap.
1) Begin by preheating the oven to 375°F.
2) Measure out 6 cups of mixed frozen berries (2 12-ounce bags) and transfer to a large bowl. I’m using a combination of blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries, but any berry combination will do.
3) To the berries, add 1/4 cup sugar…
…3 tablespoons of flour…
…and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice.
4) Stir the berry mixture to combine. We’ll let the berries rest while we prepare the topping.
5) Measure out 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats (not quick-cooking or instant) and transfer to a medium bowl.
6) Add 3/4 cup flour…
…2/3 cup firmly-packed golden brown sugar…
…1 teaspoon ground cinnamon…
…and 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger.
7) Next, I’ve used a nutmeg grater to grate about 1/4 teaspoon of fresh nutmeg. If you don’t have a nutmeg grater, no worries, just use 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg you can find at the grocery.
8) Add the nutmeg to the other ingredients…
…along with 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
9) Mix the dry ingredients to combine.
10) Now, we’ll incorporate the butter. Cut in half lengthwise 7 tablespoons of cold unsalted butter.
Give the butter stick a quarter turn and cut in half lengthwise again.
Now, cut the butter crosswise into 1/2″ slices, which will form 1/2″ cubes of butter.
11) Transfer the butter cubes to the bowl with the dry ingredients.
12) Next, is the fun part–and it’s actually quite French. You will work the butter into the dry ingredients using your fingertips. You can also use a pastry blender, but I find working it with your hands (as the French traditionally do in making pastry) gets the job done efficiently. Using just the tips of your fingers help keeps the butter cool.
When the butter is incorporated, the topping will look like this. The texture will be similar to wet sand (forming moist clumps).
13) To assemble the crisp, transfer the berry mixture to a 9″ pie pan.
Sprinkle the topping over the berries.
Don’t worry if the assembled crisp is a bit domed–the frozen berries with shrink down as they cook.
14) Bake in the middle rack of your oven, at 375°F, for about 1 hour. The juices will be bubbly–check the crisp after 40 minutes or so to make sure the juices aren’t bubbling over (if they look like they might, slide a cookie sheet under the pie pan).
15) Cool the crisp for at least 15 minutes before serving.
16) The crisp is delicious warm or at room temperature–plain or with some vanilla ice cream.
]]>Cooking isn’t just a means to an end. Sure, you are (usually) rewarded with something delicious when you’re finished, but the process is part of the fun! Cooking is a fantastic family activity, and there are many ways to get kids involved, no matter how old they are! There is so much more they can do besides, “Shake and Bake! And I helped!”
In the kitchen, children can learn math skills, practice fine-motor coordination, make choices about nutrition, and of course, learn basic cooking techniques. Making foods from different countries is also a superb way to start conversations about other parts of the world.
Teach good health and hygiene by making sure your children pull back long hair and wash their hands properly before participating in any kitchen activities.
Measure and Pour:
Stirring and Combining
Preparing Ingredients
Cleaning up
Setting and Serving
Tips and Notes
By now, startcooking.com subscribers are mastering some basic techniques and recipes. You’ve learned how to make omelets with cheese,
meatloaf and maybe even grilled chicken. But what else are you putting on your plate?
If you’re new to cooking, you might be uncertain about how to balance meals and figure out appropriate portions. It’s difficult to get a handle on what a healthy meal should look like when restaurants are serving mountains of food and then asking if we’d like fries with that. (Hey, who wouldn’t?)
It’s actually very easy to figure out if your meal is balanced: just use your plate as your guide. Ideally, that meatloaf (or other protein serving) should take up about a quarter of the space on your plate, carbohydrates (bread, rice, pasta, etc.) can take up another quarter, and vegetables should fill the other half.
Portion control plates, which have markers dividing the plate into different food groups, have been shown to help people control their weight. They provide an in-your-face reminder of proper portion sizes at each meal. There’s no weighing, measuring or calorie counting to worry about.
Another strategy for keeping meals on track is to switch from using a dinner plate to a smaller salad plate. If you want to eat seconds, just load up on more vegetables.
There are other ways to get a good idea of appropriate portion sizes. Check out the food gallery at the US Department of Agriculture website. It shows, for example, what half a cup of oatmeal – that’s a serving of carbohydrates – looks like in a six-inch bowl.
It’s also helpful to keep in mind the following visuals:
Despite our best intentions, sometimes life gets in the way and it’s not always possible to eat balanced meals. To get some perspective on how a busy person integrates healthy eating into her life, check out the blog Eat Like Me. Registered dietitian Christin Dillon chronicles her daily meals and snacks, photographing them so that you can see exactly what and how much she’s eating. You’ll see that – gasp! – even a dietitian enjoys foods like muffins and popsicle as part of a healthy diet.
More adventurous cooks might find that Bento box-style eating helps control portions. There are tons of ideas for creating homemade lunches for Bento boxes over at the site Just Bento. Bento boxes are compartmentalized meal containers that are traditionally used in Japan. The blog’s author says Bento-style eating helps her maintain a balanced diet and healthy weight. Her mouthwatering photos of bento lunches are certainly persuasive!
]]>Look at the fish carefully:
If you’ve got a local fish market, tap into the knowledge of the fish monger. They can usually give you details about when the fish was caught and when it should be eaten. Though I live near a large city, I have to rely on my supermarket for fish. You want to shop in a place where there is a high turnover of products and lots of activity.
Next, make sure your fish is nestled in crushed ice. Take a peek around and check whether the surrounding area is clean. You shouldn’t see any bits of fish parts, liquids or blood pooling lying about.
Note the smell. A fishy smell indicates that you need to walk away. A faint salty or seaweed aroma is perfectly acceptable. And don’t be afraid to ask the monger for a sniff of the fish if you are unsure about its quality.
It’s pretty easy to tell if lobsters, crab and other living seafood are fresh. Usually if they’re alive, thrashing about actively, and their tank water is clean, they’re fresh. Don’t buy anything that’s listless or dead. Clams, mussels and shellfish can be a bit trickier, however. If the shells aren’t tightly shut, or are slightly open (no more than a 1/8th of an inch) and don’t quickly close when you touch them, they are dead and should be avoided.
Shrimp should have a shiny, wet appearance with tight scales and, as with all other fish, no odor. You’ll need to decide if you want to buy your shrimp that have been previously de-veined (sometimes referred to as EZ peel). I recommend this for the beginner cook. Buying the shrimp whole and cleaning them yourself is more economical, but it’s a huge time-saver to buy pre-cleaned shrimp.
Don’t be afraid to ask your monger lots of questions about the fish. He or she should be able to tell you if it’s fresh or frozen and when it came into the shop. They can confirm whether it’s local or has been shipped. All these factors help gauge the freshness of the fish.
Frozen is not always bad. If you want to eat Chilean Sea Bass, you will almost certainly have to buy it frozen. In some parts of the world, the market must divulge whether a fish you are buying has been previously frozen, is wild-caught or farmed, etc.
If possible, try to eat your fish or seafood the day you bring it home. If you have to put off cooking it for a day, wrap well with plastic wrap and put it in an airtight bag. Make a “bed of ice” for the fish by placing a bag of ice on the bottom of a plastic container and put the fish on top of it. Fish can be frozen for several months in an air-tight container.
]]>However, when you go to the grocery store, you’re likely to have a choice of two: ordinary table salt or kosher salt.
Kosher salt is different in two key ways from table salt: (a) it has larger, irregular crystals with lots of surface area, and (b) it does not contain additives (like iodine) that table salt usually has.
Table Salt and Kosher Salt
Very few recipes specifically call for kosher salt. For those that do, by all means use that. However, you should always use table salt for baking as the recipes require more precise measuring and a substitution would throw the flavor off.
Kosher salt is often recommended by TV chefs because it has a less intense and more pure, salty taste and because it’s easier to pick up the crystals and toss them into the pot!
(By the way, kosher salt is so called because of its role in the process for preparing foods such as meats according to the Jewish tradition. Because it has so much surface area and doesn’t dissolve as quickly as table salt, it can be sprinkled on meat to draw out all extractable blood.)
Kosher salt is great on the rims of margarita glasses. It is the perfect salt to sprinkle on your homemade pretzels or grilled artichokes.
Measuring
If you’d like to use it instead of table salt, keep in mind that (because of the larger grains) measuring kosher salt is a little less precise than measuring table salt. Also, you should note that it takes more of it to reach the same level of saltiness, since the crystals are bigger. Usually, people use a ratio of 1.5:1 or 2:1 for kosher salt to table salt. This can differ between brands, so be sure to check the side of the box!
Storing
It’s best to keep kosher salt in a jar or in a salt pig next to the stove; you’ll find that its crystals are too big for a salt shaker. On the table, just keep some in a small, open container or salt cellar.
]]>There are less drastic measures we can all take to make a difference. In some cases, it’s as simple as a more environmentally friendly choice at the grocery store. In other cases, it involves changing day-to-day habits in the kitchen. It takes time, but eventually it sticks.
I am proud to say that my kitchen has been plastic wrap-free for months. But, on the other hand, I still regularly forget to bring my own grocery bags. I’m working on that.
Here are seven ways we can go greener in the kitchen:
1. Bring your own bags to the grocery store: Let’s address this one right away! You can eliminate the use of hundreds, if not thousands, of bags by bringing your own reusable bags. If, like me, you keep forgetting to bring them, try getting the ultracompact kind, which fold up into a small pouch that fits in your glove compartment, purse, backpack or pocket. You can even get the kids in on remembering these bags; in fact, there’s a new children’s book out called My Bag and Me.
2. Wean yourself off plastic and packaging:
3. Recycle: Your local municipal website typically describes what can be recycled and how to do it. Start by recycling only paper and cardboard just to see how much food packaging doesn’t have to go to waste. You’ll be amazed. It might initially seem annoying to have various trash receptacles, but these days there are recycling bins in all shapes and sizes. Find a system that works in your kitchen space.
4. Greener cleaning: One of the easiest changes to make is to switch from heavy-duty chemical cleaning products to more eco-friendly options.
5. Buy environmentally friendly kitchen gadgets: When replacing kitchen equipment, go for products made of recycled materials. A company called Preserve makes cutting boards and a number of other products from 100 per cent recycled materials.
6. Make it meatless: Here’s another easy one – try eating vegetarian a little more often. Raising livestock has a more significant impact on the environment than cultivating plants and grains. Startcooking.com offers many vegetarian recipe options.
7. Buy local and organic: Next time you’re in the produce section, just notice the tags telling you where all that fresh food comes from. Consider whether you really need to buy Japanese apple pears or South African oranges on a weekly basis. Chances are, you’re buying these things out of habit, and might be just as satisfied with foods from closer to home. When it comes to buying organic, you’ll definitely pay more, but will at least be assured that you’re not getting potentially harmful pesticides in every bite. Here’s a list that will help determine when to splurge on organic.
(We should note that there are some people who debate whether buying local is , in fact, more eco-friendly and what, exactly, organic means! Take a look at the popular book The Ominvore’s Dilemma for arguments on both sides.)
Please share your tips and tricks for going greener in the kitchen!
]]>Granola can be delicious as a breakfast cereal, a topping for yogurt (or ice cream!), a trail mix, or in a snack bar form. It is a mixture of grains, nuts and (usually) dried fruit, sometimes coated with oil and honey, with or without brown sugar. Sometimes, it is called muesli (the German word for “mixture”), but it’s really the same thing.
Making it at home is a simple way to create a high-protein, high-fiber snack. The fats in granola are typically “good fats” from nuts and seeds, and the calories are the type that will give you long-lasting energy for hikes or a hectic day of errands and work.
Despite the simple composition of granola, most people don’t think about making it themselves. Or if they do, they wonder, “What if I do it wrong? What if it doesn’t taste right?
That’s the beauty of granola! There are endless combinations that are all RIGHT! If you’re allergic to tree nuts, try peanuts instead. If you can’t stand peanuts, maybe soy nuts would be better for you. If the texture of too many oats bothers you, or if you are on a gluten-free diet, maybe a version of granola with puffed rice is more your speed.
Granola is typically toasted in the oven. Make sure to stir every few minutes to avoid burning it, and add the dried fruit after the grains are finished toasting.
Here’s a recipe and step-by-step directions (with LOTS of photos) for making your own granola bars. For another twist, try these Earthy, Crunchy Granola Bars or Coconut Almond Granola Bars.
Any way you eat your granola, the key is to enjoy it thoroughly! Now, go forth and mix grains!
]]>Frittata is an Italian twist on the humble omelet. Since there’s no tricky flip to perform, they’re actually easier to make. Fantastico!
Frittatas combine eggs and various combinations of vegetables, meat, cheese and even cooked pasta. The end result looks a bit like a quiche, without the crust.
Frittatas can be served in wedges for breakfast, lunch or dinner, either hot or cold. Fill the rest of the plate with salad, or add a bowl of soup. If you make frittata for dinner, you’ve got a lunchbox-friendly lifesaver for the next day. They work as a quick weeknight dinner, or as a main dish for brunch with friends.
Once you’ve made one frittata, you can make them all – adjust the fillings and flavors based on what’s in the fridge. Frittatas can give new life to leftovers, and they are a great way to get several food groups into a meal. If you’ve got company coming, go for fancier ingredients like olives, asparagus and goat cheese.
Frittatas are usually cooked in a fry pan on the stove first, and then finished in the oven. This means you need to use an oven-safe fry pan. Your pan might be labeled as oven safe on the bottom; if not, try looking for information on the manufacturer’s website. No guessing is allowed- either your pan is oven-save or it is not! While some recipes suggest that you can oven-proof a skillet handle by wrapping it in aluminum foil, startcooking.com does not recommend doing this. (It’s just not worth the risk of having your fry pan handle melt in the oven!) Just remember that the handle will be very hot when you take it out of the oven. Fritattas can be cooked only on the stovetop, but this means they have to be flipped—not easy. Some frittatas can be cooked entirely in the oven.
Here are five recipes that show what you can do with frittatas:
Polenta might sound like some exotic food from a far away land but, simply put, it’s cornmeal porridge. Polenta is popular throughout Europe (especially in Northern Italy, where it even tops pasta) and Mexico.
Polenta is a gluten-free, multi-purpose food that’s a breeze to make – just mix white or yellow cornmeal with a little water on the stove top, and you’ve got the basics. If you don’t want to make it from scratch, there’s an instant version that you can whip up in minutes, much like oatmeal. Polenta is also sold already prepared in tubes – you can slice off rounds, then grill or bake it.
If you make it from scratch, leave it in its sauce-like state and use it to top a steak, or lay a piece of fish on top. Other options are baking or grilling; after an overnight chilling in your fridge, polenta will harden and you can cut it into squares. Next, bake it in the oven or grill it to serve as a side dish that is sort of like a fluffy cornbread. It serves as a wonderful bed for lots of different foods, including mushrooms. Another option is using it as a base for a sausage and cheese casserole. I’ve even eaten this versatile stuff fried, or baked into quiche-style pie.
Readers living in the southern U.S. might find that polenta is starting to sound familiar – it’s very similar to grits. The two have virtually the same flavor and are prepared in pretty much the same way (except grits are made strictly with white corn). My favorite accompaniment for either grits or polenta is cheese. A dash of hot sauce doesn’t hurt, either.
Three tips for cooking polenta:
Give polenta a shot, and let us know what interesting recipes you come up with!
]]>Cheers!
Kathy
*****
Pressure Cookers have gotten a bad rap, and it’s no wonder. I have a distinct childhood memory of my mother making lentil soup in a pressure cooker, when – splat! – the steam cap erupted and the lentils went flying onto the ceiling and walls. These days, pressure cookers are a bit different, and certainly safer and easier to operate. Once you use one, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it!
Pressure cookers look like an ordinary pot with a cover, but they’re actually tightly sealed vessels that can cook food very quickly. So, a soup that takes four hours to make normally, could take as little as 45 minutes in a pressure cooker. Special valves release air slowly so that the pressure doesn’t build to the point that the darned thing pops. It’s a kitchen marvel, really.
Choosing a Pressure Cooker
Buying a pressure cooker is pretty straightforward. The big, stainless steel models can be cost a few hundred dollars, but a decent pot can be had for U.S. $75 or less if you catch a good sale. They range in size from 4 to10 quarts; I would recommend buying one with at least a 6-quart capacity. Also, look for heat-resistant handles.
Please, don’t buy a pressure cooker at a garage sale. These old behemoths do not have the safety features that are in use today. It’s not worth scalding yourself to save a few dollars on a used pot. Buy one manufactured in the last 3 years so that you get the latest technology available. Get a stovetop pot and not an electric one, please.
I highly recommend the Fagor brand of cookers. It’s great value for money, has helpful features and is made of stainless steel rather than aluminum. The pressure valve is not a moving part or a spinning top that could pop off. It’s also really easy to open, which is definitely a consideration, as a pressurized pot can take some serious muscle to open if it’s not well designed.
What To Cook in a Pressure Cooker
Soups, stews and beans are a natural fit for pressure cookers. Pot roasts turn out so tender you’ll kick yourself for not having bought one of these things sooner. Potatoes are a snap, and chili is a no-brainer. You can also steam vegetables in a pressure cooker in just 2-3 minutes. There are all kinds of recipes out there to try.
Keeping track of cooking time is important when it comes to pressure cooking, so use an oven timer to make sure you’re not overdoing things. Vegetables, for example, can turn into a soggy mess if you don’t keep an eye on the time.
Also, don’t use your pot for anything other than pressure cooking. I’ve seen people ruin a perfectly good one trying to fry up chicken wings in it. That’s a no-no, unless your pot instructions specifically say that you can.
So, go get yourself a pressure cooker and you’ll see how easily one of those slow-cooked meals like grandma used to make can be sped onto your dinner table in no time.
]]>My niece Fiona is in graduate school here in
Since she is from
Grits are a grain made from ground corn or “hominy.” When cooked, they have a porridge-like consistency. They are a common food in the Southern portion of the
Plain grits take 2 minutes to prepare and about 40 minutes to cook. Instant grits are available but (quote) “no true Southerner would serve instant grits”. (Does anyone remember the movie “My Cousin Vinny”?)
To make two servings of grits, measure out 1/2 cup of grits….
…and 2 and 1/4 cups of water.
Measure out one Tablespoon of butter and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
(I personally felt that this was too much salt, but that was what the recipe called for.)
Put the grits, butter and salt in a sauce pan and add the water.
Stir everything together.
Set the stove to high and bring the grits to a boil.
Cover the pot and lower the temperature to simmer.
Simmer the grits until all the water is absorbed and the grits develop a smooth and creamy texture – about 40-45 minutes.
There are numerous variations to this basic recipe. Perhaps Fiona (or any of you who wish to join in) will share some with us.
Thanks Fiona!
]]>Some days you might wonder whether cooking is worth all the effort. Sure, you can put a great meal on the table, but your kitchen can end up looking like a cyclone hit it, with a trail dirty dishes, pots and silverware. You might think to yourself – It’s going to take longer to clean up than to eat!
The key to keeping things tidy while cooking is to clean up as you go. Here are some tips:
Use fewer dishes:
Reduce Counter top Clutter
Click here for more tips on keeping a clean and tidy kitchen.
]]>Traditionally, these sandwiches contain roast pork, ham, Swiss cheese, a thinly sliced pickle, a dab of butter and mustard. On a traditional Cuban, there should not be any mayonnaise, tomatoes, onions, peppers or lettuce. They are served pressed and warm (kind of like a panini).
If you don’t have a sandwich press, don’t worry. You can simply warm your sandwich on a pan and press down hard with a spatula or a smaller frying pan. You might also have to improvise with ingredients: If you can’t find fresh roasted pork at your local deli counter, substitute thin pork slices.
The right bread is the key to getting this sandwich right. Crusty or hard breads (such as an Italian bread or baguette) won’t work. Lots of delis and bakeries sell Cuban bread these days, but if you can’t find it, a French bread or a roll is OK. I’ve seen people make a wonderful non-traditional sandwich cubano with whatever they can find. If you are determined on getting authentic bread, you can find it online here.
There are, of course, variations on the time-honored sandwich cubano — like using sliced chicken instead of pork. So, if you don’t mind a mod twist on a sandwich that is already considered by many to be perfect, then, by all means, experiment. After all, you are the one eating it!
Another Havana favorite is the media noche sandwich, which is only a slight variation on the Cuban, in that the bread is slightly sweeter and it’s a bit smaller in size. If you’re interested in wonderful Cuban recipes, including those for sandwich cubano, the website Three Guys from Miami will help gain some insight into this lively Latin cuisine.
]]>Croquettes are savory little treats that are made from any kind of meat or vegetable, generally bound together with a white sauce or potatoes, then breaded and fried.
Different countries around the world have their own version of croquettes. In Holland, kroketten are eaten throughout the day as finger food, or spread on bread. In Spain, these little tapas are called croquetas and are hugely popular. The American fritter is a cousin of the croquette.
First, here is a basic recipe for croquetas, which is the foundation for most variations. For the breading, I prefer to use cracker meal (which can be bought in most local supermarkets) over regular breadcrumbs because they are finer in texture.
Tuna:These are my absolute favorite croquettes. They’re also easy to make because you just open a couple of cans of store-bought tuna. You can make variations with pretty much any fish, including tilapia and salmon.
Ham: This, for most people, is the quintessential croqueta. This recipe calls for a cured ham, but they turned out quite tasty when I made them with regular boiled ham. Again, these little bites are flexible when it comes to stuffings.
Chicken: If you happen to have leftover chicken, here’s a creative way to use it. Adults and kids alike will love these because they’re a twist on chicken fingers.
Potato: This puts a modern twist on the old-fashioned croquette. Sweet potato definitely adds another dimension. if you really have no worries about watching your waistline, here’s a version with bacon and roasted tomato.
]]>When you’re in the mood for a salty snack, a big, shiny bag of potato chips is hard to resist. Tempting as they are, the next time you’re craving a crunchy, handy treat, keep in mind these eight healthier alternatives.
We’re thrilled to say that not only has Guy Kawasaki (one of our favorite bloggers) noticed us and said some very nice things, but that we’ve been included in the food section of his new social media directory alltop.com.
We very happy to be on this page with some of the best food content on the net, and it’s a huge thrill to be included in this directory which is really a guide to all the best content of the day from all subject areas of the internet. There’s something for everyone there – each section of alltop covers the headlines (and blogposts) of the day from many different subject areas ranging from startcooking friendly stuff like moms, health, and photography, to things like news sites and humor sites and even the big “egos” on the internet. Such a fun dinner party!
I’m just thrilled that startcooking got picked! Thanks Guy!
]]>Eggs, eggs and even more on eggs! I have written and filmed quite a bit about eggs. Today there is yet a new addition to the egg story – a video on How to Fry an Egg.
The Egg Round-up
The starting points for a new cook that I have already covered on this site are:
Cracking and Separating and Egg (video)
Buying, Storing and Boiling Eggs post
Egg Origins – Does it Really Matter
Technically speaking, a hard or soft “boiled” egg” should actually be called a (hard or soft) “cooked” egg. However, I intentionally used the term “boiled” since that is the term most beginner cooks will recognize.
Many people wrote in to ask me how to make a “soft-boiled” egg. I was so busy making the hard-boiled, I forgot all about the soft-boiled egg!
Follow the directions in the video of How to Boil an Egg BUT after the water boils, turn the heat down to simmer and continue cooking the eggs for between 3-5 minutes. The size of your egg and how “runny” you like the yolk will determine cooking time. You will probably have to do a trial run to see what works for you!
Separating the yolk from the white part of the egg is an important thing to learn, as many recipes call for just the white part of the egg and other recipes have you add extra yolks.
For experienced cooks, cracking an egg is second nature. For new cooks, it can be a bit nerve-wracking. My video on Cracking and Separating Eggs has some great tips that will help the beginner.
As for Scrambled Eggs, I really keep thinking I should re-do that post. The information is great but, that’s the post where I dropped my camera in the bowl of raw eggs! The photos work but they are a bit hazy.
Deviled Eggs and Egg Salad are both based on making hard-boiled eggs first. I am always amazed by the popularity of Deviled Eggs, but they are perfect for parties and both kids and adults love them!
My Quiche video and the Sausage and Egg bake video are recipes that never go out of style. Quiche is my very favorite thing to serve to company. All the different parts can get prepared in advance. Then it is just a matter of assembling it and baking it!
Cheers,
Kathy
]]>Tired of spending an arm and a leg on store-bought triple mocha cappuccinos? Then consider buying your own espresso maker and whipping them up yourself! If you’re wondering what to look for in an espresso maker, here are some tips:
Manual, Semi-Automatic, Automatic: Personally, I’m a big fan of the espresso-making process, so I like to go through all the motions of making the coffee — grinding my own beans, tamping the grounds into the machine, and then foaming the milk. The whole process doesn’t take more than 10 minutes, and it’s a fun ritual. So, one of the semi-automatic machines suits me just fine. It ends up being faster and cheaper than going to the local coffee shop.
For those of you who are into gadgetry and who have deeper pockets, a fully automatic machine reduces the coffee-making process to the push of a button. That’s all that’s necessary to produce a divine cup of joe. You won’t even need a separate grinder because the machine will do the grinding for you, dump the grounds into the coffee maker and then dump it into the cup waiting below. You can set the timer in the evening and your brew will be ready when you wake up. If money is no object and you just don’t want to get your hands dirty, then go for it.
On the other end of the spectrum is a fully manual machine, which I don’t recommend because you have to know what you’re doing in terms of pulling the lever — doing it too quickly or slowly affects the taste of the coffee. Not worth the trouble.
Price:You can spend anywhere from $75 U.S. to thousands of dollars for a coffee machine, so first establish a budget.
Pods: Just a brief word on these newer pod machines that force you to use coffee cartridges that fit your brand of machine. You’re stuck buying expensive, single-use containers that are not friendly to the environment and you are limited to the coffee flavours the company sells. In my grinder, I can mix up any coffee beans I like and don’t have to commit to one particular vendor for life. Plus, these machines take the fun out of making espresso!
So, What Machine Do I Choose? Ultimately, it’s difficult to recommend a single perfect machine. It all depends on the factors mentioned above, how you like your coffee, and what kind of features you’re looking for. Stick with a machine that’s simple to use, unless you have previous experience using an espresso machine. There are dozens of websites that offer ratings and recommendations, so do your research carefully and you can kiss Starbucks goodbye!
]]>Cruising the tea section of your grocer store can bring on a dizzy spell — there are so many varieties to choose from these days! But that doesn’t mean you’ve got to stick to only those you already know. This primer will try to help you understand (and experiment with) a wider range of this delicious beverage.
Loose or Bagged?
Most people are familiar with bagged tea, which comes in a little pouch, either on a string or without. The bag keeps the leaves contained, while allowing the flavor of the tea to seep into the water. Although bagged tea is the simplest to use, loose teas have come back into style.
To brew loose tea, you need to use something to keep the tea leaves from fluttering about in the mug. There are many types of tea “infusers” in many different price ranges.
Black, Green and More
The most popular teas are:
Green: Green teas have zoomed in popularity because some studies suggest that regular consumption of them can keep heart disease and certain types of cancer at bay. Green tea is processed less than other teas, and remains richer in antioxidants (and has the least amount of caffeine). From a taste perspective, people say it has a “flowery” or “spring” flavor. In China, green tea is the most-consumed beverage — an average of 3 cups per day per person. Drink green tea plain or with just a hint of sugar.
Black: Here’s a tea that has some backbone. The stuff is flavorful, and tea newbies sometimes find it comes on strong. It has a higher concentration of caffeine than other tea varieties, and it is the most popular tea in the U.S. Some examples of black tea are: Orange Pekoe, Earl Grey, English Breakfast and Darjeeling. Researchers are now saying that black tea has health benefits similar to those of green tea. In the cup, it has that familiar reddish-brown color that most folks associate with tea, and most folks drink it with milk and sugar or lemon.
White: This variety is one of the newest to western culture, and it has a very pale yellow color and is quite subtle in flavor. It is the least processed of all teas and is rarer. Adding a little sugar or keeping it plain is the way to go.
Oolong: It’s a funny name for a very pricey kind of tea. Most people think that oolong teas taste something like peaches. The flavor can best be described as a cross between green and black tea — not too strong and not too wimpy. Drink it straight or with a shot of sugar. There’s lot of talk about oolong promoting weight loss, but that’s yet to be proven.
Flavored/Herbals: These are not really true teas, but rather a mixture of flowers, herbs and spices. Herbals are thought to have medicinal properties; for example, Chamomile is often recommended for good digestion. Flavored teas have also gained popularity, and the varieties are endless: peppermint, banana, vanilla and anything else tea-preneurs have invented.
Making Hot Tea:
And just so you know, tea leaves can actually be used to make cookies. Check out this tea cookie recipe.
]]>***
Pressure Cookers – The Original Microwave
by Kevin Wagner.
A very useful tool for beginners to seasoned chefs and all points in between is the venerable pressure cooker. While they’re gaining popularity fast, there’s still some hesitation due to old stories that die hard about the dangers and drawbacks associated with their use. We’ll try to dispel some of those here.
Chef’s Design 9 Quart Pressure Cooker
A brief history
Back in the early part of the last century, pressure cookers were very popular because people didn’t have refrigeration or freezers, so canning was the order of the day if you needed or wanted to store food for any length of time. Pressure cookers were a good way to sterilize jars, as well as cook things thoroughly and in a reasonable length of time while preserving the valuable nutrients, texture, and flavor of the food.
During WWI, the depression, and WWII, shortages and rationing made manufacturing such things impractical, but they were still in high demand so people shared them. Once WWII was over, because demand was still strong, about 80 bajillion manufacturers in the late ’40s – early ’50s jumped into the pressure cooker game. They made a lot of bad units due to inexperience, the need for expediency, and a nation not so litigious as it is today. As you might expect, popularity dropped off. Handy is one thing, dysfunctional and/or lethal is something else. Also, at about that same time, refrigeration and freezing started to become common. Demand for pressure cookers began to drop off.
They’re becoming popular again because of energy concerns, the quality of the food you can make with them, and expediency. It’s nearly as fast as a microwave without all the downsides associated with that. But, liability insurance for making such things is through the roof, and all the safety features and structural overcompensation are expensive, so they’re not for the financially timid. A decent unit will run you anywhere from $45 to over $200, depending on size, features, and construction material (aluminum or stainless steel). On the plus side, all the good things about pressure cookers are still there, while the danger is gone. The pot I recently bought has 4 safeties built into it, so the chances of blowing my head off or burning myself are nearly non-existent. This ain’t your grandma’s pressure cooker.
How they work
So, why were they dangerous then and not now? To answer that, we have to know a little bit about how they work. It’s actually very simple. Water at sea level boils at 212°F. If you lower the pressure, say by going up a mountain or living in a high elevation area, the boiling point drops. It can get to a point where the water is boiling at such a low temperature that you can’t even cook with it.This is true of all liquids.
The opposite situation generally doesn’t occur naturally. That is, getting a higher pressure than at sea level in open air. Enter the pressure cooker. By enclosing and sealing the liquid in a pot, then boiling it, we create steam that raises the pressure in the pot, which at the same time raises the boiling point of the liquid. This phenomena can chase itself until the pressure is so high it forces an opening. Back in the old days, that sometimes meant bursting the pot if the pressure relief valve or regulator wasn’t working for some reason. Since the pots were made of steel or aluminum, it was a pretty violent thing. You not only got an explosion, you got super-heated fluids all over the place. But, generally cookers are limited to 15psi (pounds per square inch) or less, so the temperature stays below about 257°F.
Another thing that used to happen sometimes back then was someone would open the pot before the pressure had dropped down. In that case, you didn’t really get an explosion per se, but there was no telling where that lid was going to land. You also had super-heated steam blow out and catch you in the hands, arms, face, torso, etc. It was fast and it was a contact burn. There was no ducking it or wiping yourself off. You were burned, but good.
Why we aren’t so worried today
So, how do we prevent the pressure from getting explosively high or letting an active pot hurt us and ruin our day? Modern pots have a number of safety features built into them to prevent pressure build-up past safe limits (or at all), release over-pressures before they get dangerous, and mechanical interlocks prevent opening or closing them under the wrong circumstances. They’re very simple, highly effective, and difficult to bypass.
First, if everything isn’t just right, pressure won’t even build up. The sealing gasket has to be good, the safety releases have to be closed, the pressure regulator has to be set in place, and the interlocks have to be locked. Otherwise, it’s just a regular ol’ pot, albeit a little shinier than what the cavemen used.
Second, assuming we’ve done everything right and created some pressure, there’s a pressure regulator that’s designed to keep the pressure at some preset level. That can vary by design, but it’s always below 15psi. As a reference, the air in your car tires is probably around 32psi. If for some reason your regulator doesn’t work, there are other pressure releases. There’s always a valve in the lid set to open if the pressure goes above 15psi. Depending on design, there may be another one in the handle, which is part of the interlock system. There’ll be a similar one on the opposite side for the same reason. Also, the gasket may have a cutout it bears against that will pop open. In any event, you’re not going to build up too much pressure. Something is going to give, and it won’t be the pot or lid itself. You also won’t be able to open it until the pressure is back to atmospheric. So, we’re safe.
Why cook under pressure?
There are number of reasons, all of them good, but top of the list is always speed. You can make country-style pork ribs in 20 minutes flat, where a braise will cost you an hour and a half. Veggies generally only take a few minutes, sometimes even less. Because of the higher temperature and moist environment, you can use less costly cuts of meat and still have them be tender, saving you money. Speaking of saving, you use a lot less energy. Energy dissipation is lower, too, so you’re not going to heat up the whole house making dinner. You keep more of your food’s nutrients by not boiling them off over a long period of time, and what does cook off remains in the pot. The higher temperature also insures that any parasites or bacteria that may be on or in the food get killed off. Many recipes result in a single-pot meal, so there’s less clean up and clutter. The list goes on, but I think you get the idea. Pressure cookers are a Good Thing.
If you don’t have a pressure cooker now, I don’t think you’ll be sorry if you get one. If you currently have one of the older cookers, you may be better off replacing it. It’s not a good idea to give the old one away, either. They’re dangerous. The pot is fine to be used as a pot, but toss the lid so nobody’s tempted to pressurize the thing. Incidentally, there’s a pretty wide difference in price between online suppliers and locals, so shop smart.
]]>Whether you’re a beginner cook or just a busy person, you’ve probably got a roster of dishes that you cook on a regular basis. They’re tried, tested and true. But, boy, do they get boring after a while!
Rather than starting from scratch, try tweaking standard dishes by adding and experimenting with new flavors. There are many healthy, low or no-calorie ways to add a fresh twist to your meals. Here are 7 quick flavor boosters to keep on hand.
1. Fresh herbs: In the produce section of the grocery store, you’ll find bunches of fresh herbs including parsley, basil, mint, cilantro, dill, chives, sage and rosemary. A handful of chopped, fresh herbs gives a huge flavor boost to all kinds of ordinary dishes. Basil livens up pastas and pasta sauces; cilantro gives Asian and Mexican dishes that authentic kick; and mint works well in salads. Fresh parsley adds a tasty twist to something as basic as canned soup or scrambled eggs.
Tips: You can use three times the amount of fresh herbs that you would dried herbs; add fresh herbs to dishes in the last few minutes of cooking. If you don’t want to let leftover fresh herbs go to waste, here’s how to freeze fresh herbs.
2. Seasoning blends, like Lawhorn’s or Mrs. Dash, are a great way to add depth and flavor without adding salt. You can substitute a seasoning blend in any recipe that calls for salt, or sprinkle it on any food that could use some zip: scrambled eggs, soups, sandwiches, salads, cooked meat or fish. You can also make your own seasoning blend. For the basics on spices, read Kathy’s post on Starting a Spice collection.
3. Worcestershire sauce, an aged blend of vinegars and seasonings, can really rev up all kinds of beef dishes. Marinate steaks in it, add it to hamburger patties, meatloaf or meatball recipes; or just sprinkle it on steamed vegetables. Another idea: splash it on some tomato soup.
4. Pickles: Before you bite into that plain old cheese sandwich, why not throw some pickles in there! Whether you like tangy dills or the bread-and-butter variety, sliced pickles make a great addition to sandwiches, burgers and wraps. They can also be chopped and added to tuna, chicken or salmon sandwich filling.
5. Cinnamon. Who doesn’t love this spice? We all know it as the key flavoring in so many desserts and baked goods, but few people think to use it in savory dishes. You can add a cinnamon stick or some ground cinnamon to soups, chilies and stews while they’re cooking. You can also steep a cinnamon stick in water to make cinnamon tea, or add ground cinnamon to coffee grounds before brewing.
6. Mustard: Try spreading mustard, rather than mayonnaise, on sandwiches. It brings lots of fat-free tang to the table, and comes in so many styles: good old ballpark yellow, hot Dijon or old-world grainy. A herbed variety, like tarragon mustard, can quickly elevate a homemade dish to restaurant level.
7. Salsa: A jar of salsa comes the rescue in almost any culinary emergency. Aside from tasting great on the tip of a nacho chip, salsa stands in as a sauce any old time. In Kathy’s Cod with Salsa recipe, for example, you just bake cod with salsa on top, creating a main dish from two ingredients. Try using it as a sauce over sautéed spinach, plain steamed vegetables, or baked potatoes. And you don’t have to stick to tomato-based versions; you can always go for corn, black bean, mango or pineapple salsa.
]]>The hit book The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth by Jonny Bowden is a great resource, because it highlights the health benefits of many everyday foods. This is not a book that sends you off in search of unusual and hard to find stuff — it lists basic, readily available items. Eating healthy is a challenge for busy people, so here’s a list of 12 “superfoods” to keep in mind when preparing meals and snacks.
Homemade fish fingers have a crispy crust and tender, flaky fish on the inside. They are not at all like the compressed fish that gets served in fast food restaurants and school cafeterias!
In just five simple steps, this fish is ready to serve:
This is very similar to how I made Chicken Cutlets (video).
The ingredients needed to make Fish Fingers are cod (or a similar white fish), an egg, heavy cream, salt, pepper, seasoned bread crumbs, flour, vegetable oil, and a lemon. Click on the recipe for the ingredient amounts.
Before you turn on the stove, cut the fish and measure the remaining ingredients. The flour and bread crumbs need to get put in a flat rimmed dish after they are measured.
In a medium bowl, combine the heavy cream, the egg, the salt and the pepper.
Mix that all together and set it aside until the fish gets cut.
Step 1
Cut the fish into strips – approximately 1 inch wide by 3 inches long. (To make cutting the fish easier, you can stick the fillet of fish in the freezer for about 15 minutes to firm it up a bit.)
My fish fingers did not end up all being exactly the same size. By using the entire fish fillet, I ended up with a few “not so perfect” shapes, which is just fine in my book! This is meant to be a family meal, and there is no point in wasting fish!
In order for the fish to have that beautiful crusty coating actually stick to the fish, it is really important to start with the flour then the egg-cream then the bread crumbs-in that order! So, for the next steps, we’re going to set up in a mini “assembly line.” The sequence should be fish – flour – egg – bread crumbs – clean dish!
Step 2
Pick the fish up with your (clean!) fingers and gently coat or dredge the fish in the flour first. It just needs a really light coating.
Step 3 and 4
Using two forks, dip the flour-dredged fish into the egg mixture.
Lift it out…
…and add it to the bread crumbs.
By using the forks for the egg-cream dip, your fingers will stay dry throughout this process. This is important otherwise the flour will get eggy, the egg-cream mixture will get messy and the coat will not stick properly.
Step 5
Heat the fry-pan on medium-high heat for one minute, and then add 1/2 of the oil. Let the oil heat for about another minute.
When you add the fish to the pan, the oil should bubble. If it does not, then the oil is not hot enough. Remove that one piece of fish and let the oil heat up a bit more, otherwise the fish is going to be soggy.
Using a pair of tongs or a spatula add the fish to the pan. Do not overcrowd the fish. You will have to do this in two batches.
Be sure to wipe out the pan with a paper towel before adding the second batch of fish to the pan
It will take approximately two to three minutes on each side for the fish to cook and the coating to develop a nice crispy crust. Put a paper towel on a plate and transfer the fish to the plate. Let the fish drain for a just a bit before serving.
I served these fish fingers with a slice of lemon, cocktail sauce and some frozen vegetables that I steamed in the microwave. Mashed potatoes go really well with fish fingers.
Enjoy!
]]>Shrimp are delicious, with a broad appeal. The next time you have friends over, try serving shrimp cocktail and watch how quickly it disappears! And, as we’ll discuss below, there are many other ways to serve this nutritious food.
Many people love shrimp, love ordering it in restaurants, but don’t love the idea of cooking it at home. They sometimes think it’s complicated, what with all those shells, legs and feelers! But it’s really not so difficult, even for beginners, to create a succulent treat.
Novices should note that it’s possible to buy shrimp already peeled. If you’ve never bought or prepared shrimp before, check out Kathy’s post.
People just love this dish, and it’s way cheaper to make at home than buy at a restaurant.
Consumer Reports did a great story on explaining some of the terminology used to describe an egg’s origin. Much of the terminology here in the USA is regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The definition of these terms may well be different in other parts of the world. Perhaps some of my international readers could let me know, in the comments, if the following descriptions apply to their country.
According to Consumer Reports:
Color comes from the hen’s breed. (Some myths say that the color of the chicken determines the color of the egg – not true!) In general, hens with white feathers and white earlobes lay white eggs, and hens with darker feathers and red earlobes lay brown eggs. There’s no difference in flavor.
Laid by hens whose feed is made with “minimal” use of pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, and commercial fertilizers. The U.S. Department of Agriculture sets the standards. All eggs, organic or not, are free of hormones, and there’s no nutritional edge to organic.
Claim to have higher levels of an omega-3 fatty acid, vitamin E, or lutein because of ingredients added to feed. (Omega-3 content is boosted by adding flax, marine algae, or fish oils.)
Laid by hens raised outdoors (very few are) or with daily access to the outdoors. The USDA requires no specific amount of outside time.
Laid by hens permitted to roam in barns but not outside. The term isn’t regulated by the USDA.
Hens eat feed from pastures but don’t roam free. They’re kept in pens that are moved around pastures.
Eggs are placed in warm water to kill bacteria, then shells are waxed to prevent cross-contamination. Such eggs are sometimes used in hospitals and nursing homes and are suitable for recipes that call for raw eggs.
Note that specialty eggs (organic, omega-3, and such) usually cost more than others. Although large eggs have about 70 calories and 5 grams of fat, nutrients can depend on what hens eat. By the way, eggs are no longer thought to have a significant impact on blood cholesterol.
*****
So what does all this mean in terms of what eggs you should buy at the grocery store?
In part, that may well be determined by your budget. Some types of eggs can cost two to three times more than others. I do know that when I buy the organic eggs, they have a very bright yellow yolk and a much more distinctive flavor than the standard grocery store ones.
It all comes down to what’s your personal preference and how much you can afford.
P.S. For more descriptions of eco-labels click here.
]]>
*****
1. Real Simple Magazine
The March issue of Real Simple magazine has listed startcooking.com as one of the best Food blogs on the internet! I am in great company with:
In addition to the Food category, there are links to amazing sites in eight more categories:
Thanks, Real Simple!
*****
Federated Media is going to be helping us support startcooking.com by connecting us with advertisers. I am so proud to be part of the Federated Media family.
John Battelle, Founder/Chairman/CEO of Federated is one of the all-time great internet geniuses and it is a dream come true to be working with him and his team! They are very serious about the level of quality that should be on the internet. (In fact three other of their authors have been named on Real Simple’s list as well! In Parenting: Cool Mom Picks and ParentHacks. And in Organizing and Personal Productivity: 43Folders.)
They want to find out a little bit about who visits startcooking.com. If you click up in the right corner of this page where it says “Tell us about you”, you will be taken to a very quick survey. Fill out the survey and be sure to leave your e-mail address, which will then qualify you to enter the contest to win a free i-pod! (And of course this i-pod will be pre-loaded with all startcooking videos, so you can use it to startcooking!)
And don’t worry about entering your email! The only reason we’re asking for it is so we can contact the winner. We promise we won’t use it for anything else.
*****
3. New Site Design
We have a new site design to provide all sorts of new bells and whistles for people visiting startcooking.com. I had a ball filming the new banner used in the introduction to the videos and partially shown on the top of the site! (The “o” made out of the avocado and the “g” made from a purple onion are definitely my favorite letters!)
We also have an amazing new index! The alphabetical listing as well as the category listings has been a huge hit so far. We will be adding a new category to Kitchen Basics called “Reference Charts” which will surely be a big help to everyone.
Two more really important aspects yet to be added to the site design are the “Word Search” and “Metric Conversion”. (I’m hoping Federated Media will find us someone who wants to sponsor that development!)
Adding the video to the blog page has helped to integrate the videos and the blog. There are many people who only ever saw the videos and were totally unaware of all the photo-tutorials on the blog side of the site!
I hope you are all enjoying startcooking’s new look!
*****
4. YouTube
This is by far the most unexpected event of all! Startcooking.com videos had already been on a number of video sharing sites (including Veoh, i-tunes, i-Food.tv, metacafe, graspr, mywaves.com and howstuffworks.com).
However, in the past two weeks, Chocolate Fudge Brownies and How to Juice a Lemon shot up to become the number one and two most view videos in the Education category on YouTube this month. They will most likely end up being ranked in the top five of All Time views in Education, ever!
As a result of this, there has been a gigantic spike in the viewings of all my videos. It is quite clear startcooking is filling a need. I would like to thank everyone for the tremendous support shown to startcooking.com. For me, it’s all a dream come true.
Cheers!
Kathy
]]>If you want to treat that special someone to breakfast in bed, here are three delicious ideas.
Make sure that no matter which style you go with, you have some great accompaniments. You can add a wonderful fruit salad, a glass of orange juice or a steaming cup of coffee, and a lovely piece of chocolate for a final treat. Set a single flower on the tray and, voila, breakfast is served.
You don’t need to run out and buy a fancy tray that has legs to serve breakfast in bed! A regular tray or a big platter can work just fine. If it’s too unwieldy to eat in bed, or your darling is crumb-phobic, just serve breakfast at the table. Personally, I’m not picky about where I’m eating when someone else is making breakfast. And don’t forget to include a card or note to tell your love how much you care.
]]>If you are wondering what to cook for dinner tonight, pan-fried fillets of fish take less than 12 minutes to prepare and cook. Add in some steamed vegetables and maybe even some rice or potatoes and a tasty (and healthy) dinner is all ready!
This method of pan frying is great for cooking fish like salmon, tuna, swordfish, mackerel, bluefish, cod, catfish, butterfish, and lots more!
The fish I’m about to prepare is called Kona Kampachi and was sent to me from Kona Blue in Hawaii! (Mahalo!)
(“The Latin name of this fish is Seriola rivoliana. The species is also referred to by various common names around the world including: Kahala, Almaco jack, Songoro amberjack & Medregal”)
In the two years I have been working on startcooking.com I have only ever received a product sample once before. I had never even heard of this fish, so I decided to give it a try.
WOW! It is probably one of the best pieces of fish I’ve ever prepared. It had a rich, mild flavor, a bit sweet almost, and a very firm texture. In order to appreciate the full flavor of this fish, I cooked it in the simplest form possible- with just salt, pepper, lemon and parsley.
The result was extraordinary! If you happen to see this at your local store or fishmonger, give it a try. You won’t be sorry.
***********
I like to buy my fish no more than one day in advance of cooking it. Fish needs to be fresh to be at its best.
If you don’t already have them in your refrigerator, be sure to pick up some fresh parsley and a lemon as well!
Here’s a quick preview of how I prepared this fish:
Be sure to use regular olive oil. Extra virgin or virgin olive oil can burn if they are used to fry food at too high of a temperature. Vegetable or peanut oil would be OK to use as well.
The lemon and parsley need to be prepared before starting to fry the fish.
Let’s startcooking!
Begin by:
These three ingredients for the sauce get set aside for the moment.
By running my (clean!) fingers over the top of the fish I discovered that my fish fillet still had some “pin bones” in it. These bones are sharp and extremely difficult to remove without either a strong pair of tweezers or a pair of pliers.
Strange as it may seem to beginners, I keep a pair of pliers, as well as rulers and a pair of scissors in the kitchen. (For kitchen use only!) They come in very handy.
This nice big one-and-a-half-pound piece of fish is too much for just my husband and me to have for dinner, so I cut it into five pieces. (I cooked two pieces and froze the remaining three.)
In the photo below, each “cut” (or slice) weighs about 4.5 ounces.
The four cuts in a row are all about 1 inch thick. The remaining piece is only about 1/2 inch thick, and will require less cooking time. (BTW, this fish came with the skin already removed.)
Next, I sprinkled some salt and a few grinds of fresh black pepper on each piece of fish.
Many people like to dredge, or lightly coat, the fish in a very small amount of flour to ensure an extra crispy finish.
However, that’s a matter of preference and it’s not absolutely necessary. The fish I’m using, along with fish like salmon, tuna, swordfish and mackerel, has some fat content on their own and browns beautifully without adding the flour coating.
The fish is now ready and the ingredients for the sauce have been prepared.
I preheated my non-stick pan on medium-high heat for about one minute. Then, I added 1 Tablespoon of oil to the pan and heated the oil until it started to shimmer – about 1 minute.
Rather than adding the oil to the pan, I could have brushed the oil onto the fish itself.
When you put the fish in the pan be careful it does not splatter back at you. To avoid getting splattered by the oil, make sure that the side of the fish nearest you is placed on the pan first, and then gently lower the slice so that the side away from you touches the pan last.
If your fish slice has skin, then skin-side down first will ensure a really nice, crispy skin which many people love!
Cooking time on each side depends on the thickness of the fish and how well done you like your fish.
For a 1-inch thick piece of fish (like salmon) it’s necessary to cook it for approximately 4-to-5 minutes on the first side.
Then, you flip the fish over and continue cooking for approximately:
Turn the fish only once.
Knowing how long to cook the fish can be tricky. Several factors will influence the cooking time, such as the temperature of the pan, the density of the fish, the shape of the fish, the thickness, and the starting temperature of the fish.
So how do you know if the fish is cooked? It should turn opaque (non-transparent) in color. Cut it open and have a look to see if it is cooked to your liking. Or gently prod the fish with a small sharp knife to see if it separates into small pieces (flakes).
Overcooked fish will get really dry and tough.
When the fish is cooked, turn off the stove, remove the fish from the pan and place it either on plates or a serving dish.
Now, wipe the pan out with a paper towel and a pair of tongs.
On medium heat, melt 1 Tablespoon of butter in the pan and then turn off the heat.
Add the lemon juice…
And the parsley…
And give the pan a swirl.
For the parsley to stay bright green, immediately pour the sauce over the fish and…dinner’s ready!
P.S. I also served my fish with steamed vegetables, chopped sweet red pepper, and some mashed potatoes.
Enjoy!
]]>Here are five great pasta recipes that don’t require too much effort or know-how. Feel free to substitute any type of pasta for what’s called for. Just make sure to follow the cooking times on the package and you’ll stay on track. If you’ve got some time to spare, try using homemade pasta in any of these recipes. It’s much easier to make than people think.
Kathy’s video for cooking pasta is perfect for anyone that’s ever struggled with cooking pasta properly. Kathy shows us the 6 rules for cooking the perfect pasta. Go check it out.
Is that all there is to it? Sure! But if you want to learn just a bit more about cooking the perfect pasta, here are an additional 7 tips:
If you’ve always thought that the Italians gave birth to pasta, you’d be mistaken. The idea of the noodle is actually a Chinese invention that’s over 4,000 years old. The Romans got hold of the stuff however, and added their own spin by changing the ingredient base from rice flour to semolina flour. Pasta making has changed very little since the early days, except for some automation that was brought about by pasta machines. But don’t worry about that, you can just buy it at the store!
For more tips on easy, impromptu pasta meals, click here. Or check out Kathy’s archive of pasta posts.
]]>My sister, Marie Woolf, just published this fantastic new book called “Tess’s Saving Grace”.
“Tess, a famous rock star, leads a wild and crazy life. Everyone is shocked when she decides to have a baby but refuses to identify the father. Her daughter Grace manages to grow and thrive in the chaos of her mother’s rock ’n’ roll lifestyle. But, as a teenager, she longs for a “normal” life with friends her own age. When she talks her mother into letting her go—under a fictitious name—to an elite boarding school, Grace discovers a number of things about her mom—and herself—that she never expected.” (Available at Amazon.com).
This book is a quick and delightful read that makes you laugh and cry and laugh again!
Cheers!
Kathy
*************
Americans typically measure ingredients by volume, while just about everyone else measures them by weight. Here is a quick summery of some of the basic cooking conversions. At the end of this post there are links to food specific online conversion calculators.
This post contains ratios for
a) US Dry Volume Measurements
b) US Liquid Volume Measurements
c) Converting US Measurements to Metric
d) Converting Metric Measurements to US
e) Oven Temperature Conversions
f) Ratios for selected foods
g) Measures for pans and dishes
US Dry Volume Measurements | |
---|---|
MEASURE | EQUIVALENT |
1/16 teaspoon | dash |
1/8 teaspoon | a pinch |
3 teaspoons | 1 Tablespoon |
1/8 cup | 2 tablespoons (= 1 standard coffee scoop) |
1/4 cup | 4 Tablespoons |
1/3 cup | 5 Tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon |
1/2 cup | 8 Tablespoons |
3/4 cup | 12 Tablespoons |
1 cup | 16 Tablespoons |
1 Pound | 16 ounces |
US liquid volume measurements | |
8 Fluid ounces | 1 Cup |
1 Pint | 2 Cups (= 16 fluid ounces) |
1 Quart | 2 Pints (= 4 cups) |
1 Gallon | 4 Quarts (= 16 cups) |
US to Metric Conversions | |
1/5 teaspoon | 1 ml (ml stands for milliliter, one thousandth of a liter) |
1 teaspoon | 5 ml |
1 tablespoon | 15 ml |
1 fluid oz. | 30 ml |
1/5 cup | 50 ml |
1 cup | 240 ml |
2 cups (1 pint) | 470 ml |
4 cups (1 quart) | .95 liter |
4 quarts (1 gal.) | 3.8 liters |
1 oz. | 28 grams |
1 pound | 454 grams |
Metric to US Conversions | |
1 milliliter | 1/5 teaspoon |
5 ml | 1 teaspoon |
15 ml | 1 tablespoon |
30 ml | 1 fluid oz. |
100 ml | 3.4 fluid oz. |
240 ml | 1 cup |
1 liter | 34 fluid oz. |
1 liter | 4.2 cups |
1 liter | 2.1 pints |
1 liter | 1.06 quarts |
1 liter | .26 gallon |
1 gram | .035 ounce |
100 grams | 3.5 ounces |
500 grams | 1.10 pounds |
1 kilogram | 2.205 pounds |
1 kilogram | 35 oz. |
Pan Size Equivalents | |
9-by-13-inches baking dish | 22-by-33-centimeter baking dish |
8-by-8-inches baking dish | 20-by-20-centimeter baking dish |
9-by-5-inches loaf pan | 23-by-12-centimeter loaf pan (=8 cups or 2 liters in capacity) |
10-inch tart or cake pan | 25-centimeter tart or cake pan |
9-inch cake pan | 22-centimeter cake pan |
Farenheit | Celsius | Gas Mark |
---|---|---|
275º F | 140º C | gas mark 1-cool |
300º F | 150º C | gas mark 2 |
325º F | 165º C | gas mark 3-very moderate |
350º F | 180º C | gas mark 4-moderate |
375º F | 190º C | gas mark 5 |
400º F | 200º C | gas mark 6-moderately hot |
425º F | 220º C | gas mark 7- hot |
450º F | 230º C | gas mark 9 |
475º F | 240º C | gas mark 10- very hot |
Measure | Equivalents | ||
---|---|---|---|
Butter | |||
1 T. 1 stick |
14 grams 4 ounces=113 grams |
1 Tablespoon 8 tablespoons |
½ cup |
4 sticks | 16 ounces=452 grams | 32 tablespoons | 2 cups |
Lemon | |||
1 lemon | 1 to 3 tablespoons juice, 1 to 1½ teaspoons grated zest | ||
4 large lemons | 1 cup juice | ¼ cup grated zest | |
Chocolate | |||
1 ounce | ¼ cup grated 40 grams | ||
6 ounces chips | 1 cup chips 160 grams | ||
cocoa powder | 1 cup 115 grams | ||
Creams | |||
Half and half | ½ milk ½ cream | 10.5 to 18 % butterfat | |
Light cream | 18 % butterfat | ||
Light whipping cream | 26-30 % butterfat | ||
Heavy cream | whipping cream | 36 % or more butterfat | |
Double cream | extra-thick double cream, Clotted or Devonshire |
42 % butterfat |
Inches | Centimeters |
---|---|
9-by-13-inches baking dish | 22-by-33-centimeter baking dish |
8-by-8-inches baking dish | 20-by-20-centimeter baking dish |
9-by-5-inches loaf pan (8 cups in capacity) | 23-by-12-centimeter loaf pan (2 liters in capacity) |
10-inch tart or cake pan | 25-centimeter tart or cake pan |
9-inch cake pan | 22-centimeter cake pan |
BEST FOR COOKING:
Cooking Conversion Online -I use this one all the time. It is an excellent food specific metric converter (as long as you can look past the advertisements!)
Good Basic Calculator:
Worldwide Metric – General conversion chart (not food specific)
Everything Converter:
Ask Numbers – This is a fun one as it includes things like speed, power and shoe size! The cooking calculator is not food specific.
(Not Recommended: Many food sites have a widget on their sites called the Culiverter. This calculator is not food specific which is why I do not recommend using it.
]]>I have just finished a video on How to Measure Food, the American way! Unfortunately there is no single standard way of measuring cooking ingredients that is used around the world.
Even though the three most common systems are Metric, US Standard and Imperial, it’s almost impossible to cover all the differences, since there are an almost infinite number of variations. I’m going to focus in this blogpost on comparing Metric and US Standard.
We’ll look at the Imperial system another time. (British cooks, or Americans trying to use British recipes, can become very confused because the British and American systems used many common measurement names, yet the measurements aren’t always the same!)
There are excellent conversion charts on-line which can help you translate recipes!
It’s important to remember that, in any system, there are measures of both solids (so-called “dry measures”) and liquids.
In the US, volume measurements are usually given for most ingredients, weights are sometimes used for others, and (just to make it even more awkward) amounts are sometimes expressed in both terms. For example, you’ll sometimes see a reference to “one pint (8 ounces) of milk” or “four tablespoons (two ounces) of butter.”
Beware! The liquid “ounces” in the first example (milk) and the solid “ounces” in the second example (butter) have the same name, but reflect two different measurement systems. A liquid ounce is a measurement of volume, and an ounce of butter refers to an ounce by weight. Yes, recipes should always say “liquid ounce” when they refer to a liquid, but it usually gets left out. You have to interpret it using common sense — is the item usually liquid (volume) or solid (weight)?
The Metric system
The most important difference between the US and European (Metric) systems, apart from the terms used, is that the US tends to rely predominantly on volume to measure ingredients, (i.e. when measuring flour Americans tend to use the “dip and sweep” method shown in my video while in Europe they usually measure dry ingredients by weight and only liquid ingredients by volume.
So, you can sometimes see dry ingredients measured by weight (e.g. ounces, pounds, grams, kilograms) or by volume (e.g. tablespoons, cups, milliliters, liters).
If you are using a recipe from one system (US, Metric or Imperial) that is not the one you normally use, I’d strongly recommend converting all of the ingredients into your familiar system before beginning to cook. Otherwise, you could end up with really confused proportions!
I know this all sounds really complicated!! Hopefully some of the other posts that I have written on measuring will help to clarify the topic:
]]>If the temperature is not properly set, freezer burn can change the taste and texture of everything from ice cream to pork chops. The ideal temp for a freezer is 0 Fahrenheit (-18 Celsius) or lower. Items stored in shelves on the door will be more susceptible to temperature changes.
If your freezer isn’t set cold enough, bacteria can grow and potentially cause food poisoning.
Along with getting the temperature right, it’s important to package food well before freezing it. Make sure you use containers that specifically say that they can be used in a freezer. Don’t think that tying a knot on a skimpy supermarket plastic bag does the job! If you were headed into an arctic tundra, would you wear a skimpy sweater? Heck no, so don’t send a pricey steak into your freezer with inadequate cover, either. One of the most common mistakes people make is sticking meat that’s been packaged in a foam tray and cling wrap directly in the freezer. By no means is that enough to protect your food, people! In most cases, fresh meat should be repackaged in tin foil, then over-wrapped.
Make sure there are no holes or rips in the wrap or containers you are using, as air and moisture affect the length of time that food stays good in the freezer. Plastic freezer containers only work if the lid shuts tight; plastic freezer Ziploc bags are another safe option. Date the bag, fill with food, squeeze out the air and then stack the bags in the freezer.
Avoid buying freezer wrap — a thicker version of cling wrap — which, in my opinion, doesn’t keep out air or moisture.
How long something stays in the freezer is also important. Did you know that you can actually keep margarine in there for a whole year, but a baked pie gets that musty taste after just a month or two? I like to mark everything I put into the freezer with the date and what it is. That way I can tell whether it’s still safe to eat.
I’m a big fan of keeping a box of baking soda in both the refrigerator and the freezer to chase away smells — as long as you change the box every 3 months. Of course, if you’ve got a smell in the freezer that doesn’t seem to go away, it’s probably time to clean out the box and make sure that temperatures are still properly set.
Be good to your freezer, and it will be good to your food.
]]>What in the heck is that green stuff called pesto anyway? The Italians have birthright to this savory green sauce that is generally made with bits of basil, garlic, salt, Parmesan cheese, pine nuts (can be omitted if you have a nut allergy) and olive oil. Not only is pesto healthy, but it also has endless uses. Pesto is actually very easy to make, but you can buy it in any grocery store too. If you do make it on your own the great news is that pesto freezes exceptionally well, so you can make a big batch and store it for future use.
A quick word of caution: Don’t overuse pesto — it can be quite overpowering and leave your recipe looking like a St. Paddy’s Day brawl in no time flat. If you’re unfamiliar with where to use it, here’s a slew of ideas to get you going:
Final Thoughts: Pesto can be made in lots of different ways (and comes in plenty of variations as well), so you don’t have to stick to the basil recipe above by any means. You’ll see versions with parsley, sundried tomatoes (often called red pesto), red peppers, spinach and on and on. Let your imagination run wild.
So what are you using pesto for? We’d love to hear your ideas!
]]>“During my interview at Chez Panisse, as I sat across the table from Alice Waters in the main dining room at the restaurant, she asked me, “What do you eat at home?”
Since I’m not exactly convincing when lying, I told her.
“I eat popcorn, mostly.” And continued, “I’m a restaurant cook. I don’t have time to eat at home.”
(Although I did conveniently omit the fact that it was microwave popcorn…)”
I laughed out loud at that one! During the past two years of building startcooking.com, I often found it very difficult to prepare a dinner after cooking and filming all day long! My husband David and I tend to feast on whatever I have prepared and filmed for this web site!
Some dishes, such as Crispy Chicken, Beef with Bow Ties, and Beef Stew were perfect to reheat for dinner. On the other hand, Pecan Pie, Chocolate Bark, Pumpkin Pie and Chocolate Fudge, although delicious, did not quite add up to a well balanced meal!
On occasion, we all need a bit of outside help in preparing meals! For me, that starts at a salad bar. I love my grocery store’s salad bar! Without too much effort, you can assemble a tasty, healthy and visually appealing dish made up of the ingredients you love.
A tip: I always build it backwards, by ending with the lettuce instead of starting with the lettuce. When I get home and flip it onto a dinner plate the salad greens are on the bottom of the plate and not wilted!
There are several “make your own meal for you and your family” bars popping up all over the place. I’ve never tried any of these as they are mostly in suburban locations, and I live in downtown Boston and don’t own a car. It is my understanding that Dream Dinner leans more to the healthier side of cooking. Super Suppers and Let’s Dish are two more worth checking out as well. The concept is generally the same; you go in and put together (with the help of the staff) full meals that can be cooked immediately or frozen for future use. These are time savers for sure!
There are personal chefs all over the country that do this as well, only much more customized. Some prep the meal and you cook it or they just bring the whole meal to you already cooked and you just re-heat it. Others come to your home once a week and do all the cooking for the week.
Clearly there are lots of options, depending on your budget, work schedule and ability to cook.
Here in Boston I’ve actually tried using Nutrition DeliveRD. Once a week (or however frequently you choose) Cristin preps seriously healthy, well balanced meals, and delivers them “ready to be cooked”. The vegetable soup recipe is my favorite!
It includes nine fresh vegetable all chopped and ready to go!
The stir fry Spicy Chicken and Snow Peas took about 10 minutes to prepare, and dinner was ready!
Preparing your own nutritionally balanced meals every night of the week does take effort and advanced planning. Naturally making your own is the preferred, but in a pinch, thankfully, there are helping hands out there for all of us!
Cheers!
Kathy
]]>Setting a table for a romantic dinner for two, or a dinner party, doesn’t have to cost a bundle. And it’s so easy there’s really no excuse not to have a centerpiece of some kind. You don’t need fancy plates or silverware to set a striking table either, just a little bit of creativity. You can incorporate any one of these ideas or even a few together, but try to keep things simple:
Quick Table Setting Tip: If you’ve got no idea whether the knife goes on the left or right of the dish, check here for some helpful advice.
]]>Whether you’re dieting during the holiday season or simply trying not to go overboard, here are 15 low-fat variations on traditional desserts. Go ahead: Treat yourself to a slice of scrumptious sweetness without worrying about your waistline.
David’s US Citizen Celebration Cake
To help you think of some themes, here are three options that fit the winter season:
1. Winter Whimsy Potluck: If you’re on a tight budget, gather a few friends together and have them each bring a menu item for a fun feast. Each person or couple should bring either the appetizer, entrée or dessert course, with a retro Americana theme that spells simple homemade and has foods we love.
2. Slate-n-Snow: Think a 1940’s monochrome movie — like an updated Casablanca — where your guests get to dress up in elegant black and white.
3. Dessert Party: Who says a dinner party has to have a traditional meal? You can just skip the grub and have a post-dinner get together that has a sugary angle. Simply invite friends over and have each bring something sweet. It’s important to have variety and not have everyone bring something too similar.
No matter what you do for your dinner party, just remember — it doesn’t have to be complicated! It’s all about your friends and family, getting together and enjoying each others’ company. So don’t stress, keep it relaxed and enjoy yourself.
]]>A cheese platter can be served as an appetizer or instead of (or before) dessert.
There are several ways to put together and present a cheese platter. Varying the types of cheese you choose is a must. Stay clear of the pre-sliced sandwich cheese – buy a wedge or log or a block of cheese for a cheese platter.
Choose an interesting assortment of cheeses—hard sharp cheeses, soft creamy ones and pungent blue cheeses. Look for an interesting mix of flavors, textures and colors.
We’re aiming for lots of character with cheeses you should be able to find at your local supermarket. Mix and match any 3 to 5 cheeses of these varieties (sorted by milk type) and this should be more than enough to satisfy your guests.
Things to consider:
A wide range of cheese comes from cow’s milk. Set out a soft French brie which will be mild and creamy (no need to remove the rind on this one.) You can consider a fresh mozzarella (which I always sprinkle with a little bit of salt), but make sure it isn’t those little balls that are soaking in oil or the Polly-O packages—it’s gotta be the fresh stuff! Hard Asiago is not just for grating and sprinkling on your pasta, it’s a great choice as a zippy selection to round out a cheese plate. Holland’s cheeky Gouda falls in between these two and has quite an intricate taste.
Lovely and mild Spanish Manchego has become so popular that they even sell it in the big food club stores these days. Roquefort blue cheese on the other hand is bouncing with big tangy flavor and the ubiquitous blue spots of mold. Don’t freak out, this is a healthy bacteria that tastes divine.
This class of cheese is known for sharp and strong flavors that can range from very moist to quite hard. The French are king in this category and you will often see the words “chevre” (goat) on the label. You may find it in your dairy section in the shape of a 6 inch log or in a spreadable form branded Boursin. Either of these would be suitable on a cracker. But there are heaps of other varieties that are firmer, but no less tasty.
If you’re a true blue vegetarian, then you might be aware that many cheeses are made with rennet (a product derived from calf gut that is basically what hardens milk to form cheese). There are many cheeses that do not use rennet, and use a vegetable source to mold the cheese instead. There are plenty of delightful cheddars, provolones and fetas that are readily available to fit the bill if you’re so inclined.
The cheese clerk at your local supermarket will be a wealth of information, and if you’ve got a cheese specialty shop in your neck of the woods you are really in luck!
]]>Oberbreckling sent me this great e-mail that I thought everyone would benefit from:
“Just wanted to say I love your videocasts. I was just looking through some of the blog entries and came across the “how to make hotel room coffee” entry. I noticed that below it was the Nespresso machine you had in Germany. (How fabulous that they set you up with an espresso machine?!)
At any rate, I thought I’d chime in with a couple of tips on making espresso for your next trip to Germany. (I was a shift manager at Starbucks up until about 2 months ago when I resigned to spend more time at home with my 2 year old.) I have an espresso machine at home and have become quite particular about my espresso.
Making Coffee is a true art form. I personally find a lot of comfort in making coffee for others and drinking coffee myself. I can’t really put my finger on just what it is but it’s the one thing that I could do forever. I never get sick of it. Anyone can learn to make a good cup of coffee, with a lot of practice And as far as I’m concerned, everyone deserves a great cup of coffee at least ONCE in a while!
Espresso
When making espresso, there are three parts:
1. The heart-the dark part at the very very bottom
2. The body -the pretty creamy caramelly part in the middle and
4. The crema -the sweet froth on the top
It takes 10 seconds for an espresso shot to “go bad”. That is, for the heart, body and crema to blend together into a big black bitter mess. If you’re drinking espresso straight, it doesn’t matter.
I prefer (personally) to add a little half and half just after I pour my shot of espresso to “save” the shot and keep it sweet. (At home I also pull a long shot which seems to be sweeter and give me more crema…but Starbucks wouldn’t probably encourage that) A shot of espesso should be slightly sweet and caramelly. It should leave hardly any aftertaste. A ruined shot will taste bitter and will taste very “dry” and feel almost like the skin on an almond on your tongue. Blech!
Steaming Milk
ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS steam the milk before pulling your espresso shots. It will stay warm longer than the espresso, and it takes longer to steam the milk and you could jeopardize your espresso shot before you’re done steaming. Especially in a home machine which takes longer than a commercial machine.
For a sweeter milk, aerate or foam the milk to 100 degrees then steam the rest. (www.coffeegeek.com has a great article on it here) That is, replace the steam wand below the surface of the milk. For a latte, expect a 1/3 increase in volume, and double for a cappuccino. NEVER NEVER NEVER steam milk over 170 degrees unless asked (it’s best steamed between 160 and 170). This scalds the milk. Some people like it this way but I personally think it’s totally icky.
http://www.coffeegeek.com has a great website about making coffee. He knows way more than I do, and it’s fun to see someone else who is so passionate about coffee!”
Thanks Marcy!
]]>As Christmas approaches, two kinds of people emerge: those who love fruit cake and those who detest it. While fruitcake lovers rhapsodize about candied fruit and that rich combination of seasonal spices, haters joke about candied fruit and that rich combination of seasonal spices. Rarely has a holiday treat polarized so many people!
As a born-again fruitcake lover, my opinion is that the haters simply haven’t tried good fruitcake. So many different kinds exist that there’s bound to be a style suited to any taste. Many do contain alcohol, but there are some varieties that do not. And there’s even a fruitcake option that doesn’t involve any baking!
Whether you want to buy it or try making it, you really should give fruitcake a try. Here are 10 tips on what to look for in fruitcake:
Whether you were in love with fruitcake before, or wouldn’t touch the stuff, now’s the time to give it a try! You could make it or buy it, stick with a classical variety or go with one of the alternatives, but ultimately, no holiday is complete without it!
]]>You may remember this recipe from last year. These Holiday Cookies were such a treat, I had to make them into a video!
Cornflakes add a really nice crunchto cookies. There are tons of cornflake cookie recipes, some which do not even require baking!
Rice crispy bars are a treat that goes back to nursery school. I remember adding all sorts of food coloring to them as well.
Making dessert/snack bars out of granola seems to fool everyone into thinking that this must be a healthy sweet treat. It may indeed be a bit healthier, because of the added fiber, but it is still dessert.
Oats, as in oatmeal is probably one of the most versatile cereals. In addition to it being used to make cookies and bars, it can be used instead of breadcrumbs when making things like meatloaf.
Generally speaking, I have found that the recipes on the boxes of almost any prepackaged foods to be very good and reliable. They have been tested repeatedly before they make it to the box.
I love reading cereal boxes in particular. There is always a recipe on the box to make bread or cookies or used in some way to make an ordinary dessert, special. An old favorite was with Grape Nuts. You would make individual servings of vanilla pudding, layered with sliced bananas and then a layer of Grape Nuts that were mixed with butter and brown sugar. It was delicious! (I wish I could find that recipe!)
What’s your favorite cereal (cookie!)?
]]>When you’re studying for finals, good nutrition often slides way down on the priority list. It’s easy to get into the habit of glugging coffee and gobbling take-out pizza, because you don’t want to waste time on food preparation. But, actually, good nutrition should be part of your study plan because it’s going to help you ace those tests. The better the fuel your brain gets, the better you’ll study. It’s a…well…no-brainer.
Here are 10 tips for eating right during exams:
Good luck!
]]>
Remember: A microwave cooks things at a very high temperature and very quickly, and not all food items and containers react well to that combination. You don’t want to risk damaging your microwave or getting hurt! So here’s a guide to what you should not put in your microwave:
A microwave is not a toy. So be careful. If you’re not sure whether or not something can be put in the microwave, err on the side of caution and don’t do it. At least that way you eliminate all potential risk. As much as I enjoy fireworks and the occasional lightning storm, I don’t want to see them in your kitchen!
]]>Let’s face it, when you’re racing out the door to get to work, eating a healthy breakfast isn’t a priority. You scarf down whatever is in sight, or hit a Fast Food drive-thru for a fat-filled bacon biscuit.
Breakfast is an important meal because your body hasn’t had any nutrients since dinner the night before. Skipping breakfast is not a good idea, especially for those trying to lose weight.
Here are some breakfast ideas for those days when you’ve got less than 15 minutes to prepare something:
Selecting the right combination of fruit (you can use fresh or frozen) is also part of concocting a good smoothie. Start with a favorite flavor base. You can then experiment with fruit pairings or try some of the following:
Lastly, here’s a more unusual idea that ups the ante on being healthy:
Tips: If you’re being adventurous and concocting your own smoothie recipe, try to keep things simple and choose no more than 2 or 3 fruits at one time. And, if you think what you’ve created is too overpowering in flavor, yogurt is definitely going to cut that heaviness out—so just add a bit more of it in to thin out the flavor.
Twenty Smoothie Tips – How to blend like a pro has even more tips on how to make the perfect smoothie.
]]>Fresh lemon juice can be tangy, tart, sour, crisp, bitter, acidic, mouth-puckering, and totally delicious! Lemons are an incredibly versatile fruit, as long as you combine them with something else. When done in the right balance, it brings everything else alive!
Lemons are a really important ingredient to have on your weekly grocery shopping list. (Try to avoid the stuff in the jar or squeeze bottle. It’s just not the same as fresh!)
I was in Whole Foods yesterday and they are now selling two types of lemons; the regular type (Lisbon or Eureka) we always get and also one called a Myers Lemon.
“The Meyer lemon, actually a cross between a lemon and possibly an orange or a mandarin, was named for Frank N. Meyer who first discovered it in 1908.
Thin-skinned and slightly less acidic than the Lisbon and Eureka lemons, Meyer lemons require more care when shipping and are not widely grown on a commercial basis.”
Unless your recipe specifically calls for a “Myers Lemon”, buy the regular ones. Otherwise whatever you are making may turn out too sweet, tart, tangy or bitter.
Lemons will stay fresh, at room temperature, on your kitchen counter about one week. Be sure to keep them out of direct sunlight. If you put them in the refrigerator they will last about four weeks. Once you cut a lemon, wrap the leftover in plastic wrap or a baggie and store it in the refrigerator. Be sure to use it up within about 2-3 days.
There are a multitude of things your can do with fresh lemon juice.
What’s your favorite way to use lemon juice?
]]>Most of us are creatures of habit when we grocery shop, quickly reaching for the same products every time. When it comes to cheese, which comes in a mind-boggling array of varieties, many shoppers never stray beyond mild cheddar.
Sure, it does the job, but next time consider trying a cheese that’s been around the block once or twice. Cheeses labeled “aged” have a sharp, intense taste that adds punch and sophistication to any dish. You may also find that the strong flavor of aged cheese means that you’re satisfied with less of it.
Cheddar cheese is aged for a minimum of nine months, and up to 5 or 6 years. “Old cheddar” is aged for 12 months, and “extra old” has been aged for 18 months. Stronger still are those aged for 3 years or 5 years — serve them on special occasions. Generally speaking, the older the cheese the more it costs per pound.
Other cheeses that grow old gracefully are Gouda, Swiss, Emmental and Monterrey Jack. Firm cheeses, like Parmesan, asiago and pecorino, have typically been aged at least two years. Their dry, hard texture makes them ideal for grating onto pasta dishes or salads.
Here are some other ideas for incorporating aged cheeses into your repertoire:
So, when it comes to cheese, out with the new and in with the old!
]]>
Butternut Squash is a hearty winter squash, and just like a pumpkin, it is a heavy, dense vegetable with seeds in the bulb part at the bottom.
Surprising, butternut squash works well with a variety of flavors including cinnamon, maple syrup, curry, ginger, coconut and even granny smith apples. Just don’t try adding all of them at the same time!
Preparing Butternut Squash baked with Apples
You might want to consider wearing disposable glove when you’re preparing butternut squash as it will stain your hands orange.
Important Safety Tip:
Do be extra careful when you are puréeing hot soup in the blender. Not only do you need to do it in several small batches but also be sure to open the plug slightly in the cover of the blender to release the steam!!
Cheers!
]]>With startcooking on your side, you can put a fresh meal on the table without too much fuss. Couldn’t we all use some fast (but great!) food once in a while?
]]>The cool thing about stir fry is that it’s one of the most flexible meals you can make. You can pretty much toss in whatever combination of veggies, fish or meat that you have in the fridge and you’re set! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in a bind for dinner, then found that I had enough bits and pieces to make a decent stir fry.
As straightforward as making a stir fry is, here are some additional tips to get you rolling:
For more pointers, watch Kathy’s video demonstration of Chicken and Broccoli Stir Fry. The seasonings Kathy uses in the video are explained in her post on Stir Fry Seasonings. Soy sauce is popular on stir fries, but you might want to avoid it if you have thyroid problems. If you don’t feel like doing much chopping, check out startcooking’s Chicken Stir Fry with Scallions, which has very few ingredients.
Here are a few other links to basic stir fry recipes. If you don’t like one particular ingredient, just substitute something else or eliminate it altogether: Chicken , Veggie Stir Fry , Steak and Shrimp.
]]>“Sir Loin” Watercolor by Kathy Maister 2015*
Three basic ways to cook steak are…
#1…You can fry it.
#2…You can oven roast it the way they do in restaurants.
#3…You can grill it.
Drawing Credit: The Reluctant Gourmet
OK, take a deep breath and start off with a steak that is at least 1-inch thick (strip steak, t-bone, porterhouse, etc.) — anything thinner will likely dry out, and anything thicker makes it difficult to gauge doneness. No matter which cooking style you choose, begin by sprinkling the meat with a good dose of salt and pepper. I also like to take a crushed garlic clove and rub it all over the beef. If you’d like, try marinating the steak, but this isn’t necessary for any of the techniques below.
Now, let’s review our cooking options:
1. Fry:
Simply put, you’re tossing a hunk of beef into a frying pan. Fire up a pan on medium heat, and warm up a teaspoon of oil for a minute, and then lay your steak in the pan. (Make sure you turn on your stovetop fan and keep your pan covered because this tends to be a smoky job.) A 1-inch thick steak should cook for about 4 minutes on each side, depending on how you like it cooked.
2. Oven Roasting:
Restaurants often use this method of cooking steak, but it requires two steps:
If you don’t have an iron skillet, all hope is not lost. Use a regular frying pan to sear the steak, and then transfer it and all the juices to an oven-safe pan to finish the roasting process.
3. Grill:
This tends to be the method of choice for meat-lovers. Make sure your barbecue is piping hot (at least 450 degrees F). Pour a little olive oil on a paper towel or a small brush and rub the grill slats before you lay the steak down. Once it’s on the grill, reduce the heat to medium and keep the lid down (and quit peeking!) After 4-5 minutes, it’s time to turn the steak over and let it go another 4-5 minutes on the other side.
*Watercolor of “Sir Loin” by Kathy Maister was inspired by Jeremy Paul, wildlife artist
]]>When I serve my Chocolate Fudge Pie (shown above) at dinner parties, I never tell my guests that it is made with tofu until after they have finished licking their plates!
The key thing to remember is that tofu is tasteless until it absorbs the flavor of a sauce or seasonings or marinade (or even chocolate!). Best of all, you can eat it raw, which makes it a fantastic addition to salads or smoothies. Or it can be cooked, but even extra firm tofu doesn’t hold up well to long-term heat.
Technically tofu is “produced by curdling soy milk, then pressed to remove much of the liquid. Tofu, also know as soybean curd, is used as a protein source in meals. (Tofu can act as a substitute for meat or fish.) It is available in the refrigerated section of grocery stores or health food stores.”
Tofu has several levels of firmness, each one suitable for different uses. When buying tofu, the firmness is clearly marked on the package.
The beauty of tofu is that it can be prepared in hundreds of different ways.
Tofu isn’t just a food chameleon; it’s also healthy for you.
Beginner cooks should not feel nervous about experimenting with tofu. If you own a blender, making a smoothie with tofu is a great way to get started. Macheesmo has a great photo-tutorial on how to make a Tofu Breakfast Smoothie which looks like a great way to begin your day!
.
]]>Marinades typically consist of an acidic ingredient like vinegar, lemon juice, wine or yogurt, plus oil and spices. The acidic ingredient softens the food, allowing it to absorb the flavors of the sauce. Marinating works on all kinds of meat, as well as fish, tofu and vegetables.
You can either follow recipes or experiment with whatever ingredients you have on hand. A handy formula for creating your own marinades can be found at Cookthink, along with recipes for different styles of marinades.
How long should you marinate? Depends on what you want to marinate! Here are some pointers on poultry, beef and fish.
Marinating is a great way to experiment with new flavors and new recipes. If you have a favorite marinade, please share your recipe with us!
]]>Breasts?
Thighs?
Bone-in?
Order in?
Don’t panic. There’s a lot of choice when it comes to cuts of poultry, so here’s how to decode the labels and figure out what you need.
You get the most bang for your buck by buying a whole chicken and carving it into parts yourself – a process called disjointing. Sounds a bit medieval!
Rather than trying to cut up a raw, whole chicken (the process could get messy!), try roasting it, following startcooking.com’s instructions for roast chicken, then use the step-by-step guide to carving roasted chicken. As easy as roasting a whole chicken might be, most of us rely on the convenience of pre-cut parts, so let’s tackle them one by one.
Skinless, boneless chicken breasts are the workhorse of chicken recipes because they’re versatile, cook relatively quickly and are low-fat.
Chicken breasts work well grilled or baked if you pre-marinate them or baste (brush them with sauce or their own juices) while cooking. They can also be pan-fried. And when cut into strips, they can be stir-fried or threaded on skewers.
Boneless, skinless breasts are available either whole, or pre-cut in half. One whole breast typically makes about 2 cups of cooked chicken (a healthy, hearty amount!).
The index, at the top of this page, lists several recipes using boneless chicken breasts including: Chicken Fajitas, Chicken Cutlets, Crispy Chicken, Grilled Chicken with Teriyaki Sauce (shown at the top of this page) and cooking grilled chicken – indoors.
Chicken legs (otherwise known as drumsticks; although I wouldn’t use them in that capacity) contain dark meat, which is typically fattier than breast cuts. Some people would argue that dark meat is tastier too.
Drumsticks with the bone in the centre are a cheaper option, and are often roasted or deep-fried. Another option is boneless thigh meat, which can sometimes be substituted for breast meat, but is best suited for casseroles and dishes that cook slowly.
Here’s another cheap cut of chicken, but there’s not a lot of meat on them bones! Fortunately, Food Wishes has a great video on how to remove the bones. Well known as a finger-licking appetizer, wings are best cooked on the barbecue, deep-fried or marinated.
What about the rest of the chicken?
Chicken breasts, legs and wings are the most commonly used parts of the chicken. But there’s more to a chicken than that! Other bone-in cuts like breast quarters (the wing, breast and back) or leg quarters (the drumstick and thigh) are available, but take longer to cook than boneless cuts. They are best braised, roasted or pan-fried.
Now you know what it all means, so start cooking.
]]>To make these croutons you will need:
Sliced bread comes in all different sizes. I’m using Pepperidge Farms Bread which I think makes the absolute best croutons or crumb toppings. The slices are somewhat smaller than a lot of other sliced bread. You may have to adjust the amount of sugar and cinnamon depending on the size of your bread.
Start by trimming off the crusts of the bread.
Then slice the bread into logs.
Now slice the logs into cubes. You can decide how big or small you want your croutons to be.
My bread is now cut and I have melted the butter in the microwave. I’ve measured out the cinnamon and sugar and I now need to mix it all together.
You can either mix everything together in a bowl…
or right on the baking sheet itself.
I really like cinnamon, so I’m going to add a bit more to my croutons.
Spread the croutons out onto a non-stick baking sheet.
Bake them in a preheated 375 Degree oven for about 6 minutes. Give them a stir and then continue baking them for about another 3 minutes or until they are golden.
Enjoy!
]]>The whole premise of this book is to get kids to eat healthily, by “hiding” pureed vegetables and fruits in everyday foods that your kids eat. The idea is quite brilliant and not as far-fetched as you might think.
Traditionally, we all have enjoyed carrot cake, pumpkin muffins and zucchini bread. Adding pureed vegetables in small un-noticeable amounts, so as not to change the flavor too much, is indeed a great way to add veggies to a child’s diet.
I must stress though that the recipes in this book are very healthy to begin with. It’s not quite like adding ketchup to your Big Mac and counting that as a vegetable. Mixing in some puree sweet potato or butternut squash to shredded cheese for a grilled cheese sandwich is more the theme here. The brownies made with spinach and carrot puree sound most intriguing! According to Joy Bauer, the resident dietician for this book, the brownies each have 133 calories, and 3 grams of fiber. Forget the kids, I want one of these! (Oops, maybe not-see PS at the bottom of this post!)
My only reservation about this book is how much advanced planning is needed to make these unique and health-conscious recipes. In the very beginning of this book, Jessica says that “no training or kitchen knowledge whatsoever” is necessary to make these recipes. That is true if you have a well stocked kitchen, with both food and equipment, and know your way around the kitchen. Many fans of my site, www.startcooking.com would be hard pressed to figure out how to make all these purees from scratch. I would probably recommend buying a few jars of puree baby food just to get a jump start on some of these recipes.
The BEST part of this book is all the parenting tips. Everyone who has children should buy this book for that reason alone. All of these tips are creatively dispersed throughout the book with quotes from (famous) moms, Jessica’s children and of course Jerry. The format, layout, and design of Deceptively Delicious are totally retro and work brilliantly. I also like that almost all the recipes have photos to match. At startcooking.com I have discovered a picture is worth a thousand words!
****
P.S. I made the brownies and served them to some friends. They were AWFUL! No one ate more than one bite. If you are going to eat brownies, SPLURGE and eat the real thing!
]]>Pasta is on just about everyone’s list of favorite foods! There are endless recipes to choose from. It can be served as a simple supper or part of a grand meal. The best part is that you can buy dried pasta in advance and just reach in the cupboard and dinner is ready…almost!
I am going to be reviewing the following posts:
The reason pasta comes in different shapes is to catch more or less of the sauce thereby changing the taste and texture of each dish.
The thicker and heavier the pasta, the heavier sauce it can hold. Pasta with lots of curls and ridges holds more sauce than flat shaped pasta. Small shaped pastas are fun to eat and are great in soups and salads.
Cooking Pasta is as easy as boiling water. Just be sure to actually bring the water to a boil!
Adding salt to the boiling water is essential for taste.
Adding oil to the water is definitely a no-no. The pasta will not stick together when cooking it BUT the sauce won’t stick to it either.
Having a jar of store-bought spaghetti sauce on hand means dinner can be ready in less than 15 minutes. Making your own sauce does require some pre-planning, but the good thing is that most home-made sauces can be frozen and just pulled out of the freezer, and defrosted in no time!
Pasta Marinara Sauce is a really tasty sauce made with canned tomatoes and fresh basil. You will need a blender for this recipe!
4. Pasta Sauce with Italian Turkey Sausage
Italian Turkey Sausage is full of great flavors, and when using it instead of regular Italian sausage, it makes for a much healthier dinner. Browning sausage meat is just like Browning Ground Beef (video). Be sure to drain off the excess fat!
Home-made, tomato based pasta sauces freeze really well. Be sure to label and date the package before it goes into the freezer!
In this video, I used a large jar of spaghetti sauce to make the spinach lasagna. Home-made Pasta Marina Sauce works beautifully in this recipe. You could always make the sauce the day before and refrigerate it until you are ready to start making the Lasagna. Cooking is not quite as daunting if you spread out the “to-do” list.
6. Lasagna with Italian Turkey Sausage Sauce
This recipe is a variation on the Lasagna with Spinach. I substituted the spinach and ricotta cheese layers with the Turkey Sausage Sauce. The finished lasagna is really tasty!
7. Pasta Salad
Cork screw, bow ties, and ziti are just a few types of pasta that are great for cold pasta salads. These pasta shapes tends to grab and hold a lot of the dressing/sauce in all the squiggles. The great thing about pasta salads is that they generally can be made in advance and feed a TON of people.
8. Stove-top Macaroni and Cheese
There are basically three ways to cook Macaroni and Cheese:
At some point almost everyone has done the box version. Personally I think the box mix tastes like fake food! Stove-top Macaroni and Cheese can be made in less than 15 minutes, using real food.
Stove-top Mac and Cheese is good but there is nothing that compares to oven-baked macaroni and cheese. Oven-baked macaroni and cheese usually starts with a basic white sauce. Cheese is then added and once all the ingredients are combined, it gets baked for about an hour in the oven.
9. Pasta with Lemon and Garlic
Pasta with Lemon and Garlic involves several preparation steps but it is so delicious! Be sure to use fresh ingredients for this recipe. Bottled lemon juice will just not do!
While your pasta is cooking you will need to: chop parsley, juice a lemon, peel and crush garlic, and shred parmesan cheese. Each individual step is not a challenge but they can be time consuming.
We will be doing lots more pasta dishes so…keep in touch!
Cheers!
]]>For the ingredients you will need:
The cilantro and the hoisin sauce are incredibly strong flavors that work really well in this recipe.
Cilantro looks like flat leaf parsley, but tastes totally different. They are often right next to each other in the grocery store, so be sure you grab the right one! (Pinch off one leaf of the cilantro and roll it in your finger tips. The aroma from cilantro is very unique. Ask at the grocery store if you are unsure.)
Hoisin sauce is a sweet, spicy, rich brown sauce sometimes called Peking sauce. It is often a table condiment in Asian restaurants.
Start by chopping up 8 ounces of chicken. That’s about 2 cups. Put the chicken into a medium sized bowl.
The red onion needs to get minced. (That means cut up really fine.)
The cilantro needs to get washed and chopped. (Check out my blog on Chopping Parsley to see how)
Trim the ends off the green onions and slice them up.
Chop the peanuts S-L-O-W-L-Y, or they will go flying around the kitchen.
Put all of these prepared ingredients, and the hoisin sauce, into the bowl with the chopped chicken.
Gently mix everything together.
It will look like this (below) when it’s all mixed together.
There are several different types of lettuce you could use. (I only had green leaf which is really a bit too frilly to roll everything up in, but it does look pretty!) Bibb lettuce or Iceberg works really well. Or you could serve these lettuce cups as an hors d’oeuvres using endive leaves.
Enjoy!
]]>When I first saw this Pea Salad recipe, I was a bit skeptical about the combination of ingredients. But, much to my surprise, it really works!
Combining smokehouse almonds with peas, curry powder and water chestnuts is most unusual. But the source of this recipe always has utterly fantastic, fairly advanced recipes, so I thought I would give this unbelievably simple recipe a try.
With only minor changes to the original recipe, I have adapted this really tasty recipe to suit the startcooking.com crowd. I do hope you enjoy it as much as David and I have.
The original recipe calls for chopped green onions which I have omitted from my version. I wanted a recipe that did not require buying any fresh ingredients from the grocery store. All of the ingredients in this recipe can be bought well in advance and just pulled out of the freezer (the peas), the refrigerator (the mayo), and the cupboard (the water chestnuts, almonds, and curry powder).
Let’s startcooking!
Smokehouse almonds tend to be really salty, so you need to rinse off some (not all!) of the salt. Give it a quick rinse under the water.
Then tip the almonds out onto a paper towel to absorb the excess water.
Roughly chop the almonds. Do this slowly with one hand holding the handle of the knife while the other hand holds down the tip of the knife. Leave the tip in place and just slice through the almonds by moving the handle.
Drain the water chestnuts.
And roughly chop them as well.
Measure the curry powder and the mayonnaise.
According to one commenter at Simply Recipes, if you don’t like curry powder you can substitute it with Garam Masala.
(Garam Masala is a blend of spices which includes cinnamon and nutmeg.)
Put the mayonnaise in a small bowl with the curry powder (or Garam Masala).
Mix these two ingredients together
Put into a large mixing bowl the FROZEN peas, the chopped almonds and the water chestnuts.
Gently mix these three ingredients together.
Add the curried mayonnaise.
Gently mix everything together.
This is what is looks like all mixed. Taste it and see if it needs more salt and a few grinds of fresh pepper.
Store the salad in the refrigerator until you are read to serve it. If you plan on serving this salad immediately, let it sit for about 15 minutes in order for the peas to defrost.
Enjoy!
]]>For those of you unfamiliar with Slashfood it is a web log where you can discover everything that is hot (and not!) in the world of food. It includes recipes, reviews, tips and trivia. I particularly like the way they try to appeal to just about everyone-not just serious cooks! It’s a great resource with tons of terrific links!
Thanks Again Slashfood!
]]>Water chestnuts are from an aquatic plant and retain their crunchy texture when cooked. They work really well in stir-fried dishes and can easily be added to all stir fries including my Chicken and Broccoli Stir Fry (Video). You can also add them to things like Chicken Salad, or perhaps you have even tried them wrapped in bacon.
When you buy the canned variety of water chestnuts they are available whole or sliced. They are packed in water which needs to get drained off before adding them to a recipe.
If you are buying fresh water chestnuts they should be firm, with smooth skin and no soft spots.
To remove the soft outer shell/skin of the water chestnut start by cutting off the top and bottom with a sharp knife.
Then cut around the sides until all the skin is removed.
You can then leave it whole, slice it, or chop it depending on what your recipe calls for.
Once peeled, water chestnuts will keep about a week in the refrigerator, but they must be covered in fresh water. The water must get changed daily.
(One more thing, be sure not to confuse water chestnuts with chestnuts from a tree. Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping…are definitely a totally different food from the water chestnuts!)
]]>The only difference between cooking brown rice and white rice is the water to rice ratio. Because of the outer bran coating, more water and a longer cooking time is needed for brown rice.
My video “Cooking White Rice” uses the 1-2-3 ratio for perfect white rice. (1 cup of rice, 2 cups of water, will make 3 cups of rice.)
This formula does not work for brown rice. Check the back of the package of rice to determine how much water is needed for your particular brand of rice.
Adding butter and salt is optional but it does give the rice a nice flavor. One Tablespoon of butter and 1/2 teaspoon of salt, to 1 cup of rice, is the norm. Because brown rice has so much more flavor than white rice, I do often skip the salt and butter when I’m cooking it. This is totally your choice!
Start by bringing the water to a boil. Add the rice, salt and butter, and give it ONE stir. Cover the pot.
Return the pot to a boil, then turn the stove down to simmer and set the timer. It can take 45-55 minutes to cook brown rice.
When you uncover the rice it may look like all the water is absorbed but…
check to be sure by gently moving the rice to see if there is any water left on the bottom of the pan.
When cooking any and all rice, never stir the rice while it is cooking or you will end up with very mushy rice!
Store brown rice in an air-tight container. It should keep about six months in your cupboard. (White rice will keep almost indefinitely.)
Cheers!
]]>If you don’t know the magazine, it is a great, no-frills, weekly magazine that is chock-full of all sorts of information for the value-conscious woman (or man, for that matter!)
The September 4 issue, with Sally Field on the cover, is a special double issue bursting with coupons, recipes, and great money-saving ideas!
I bought my copy at the grocery store by the check-out, but it’s available just about everywhere.
Thanks Again, Quick & Simple!
]]>There are many gadgets for sale that will hold the onion for you while you chop it. But all you really need is a cutting board and a sharp knife. Today I’m going to show you how to actually make a holder for chopping an onion out of the onion skin itself. Be sure to use a knife that you feel comfortable holding. (Big knives can be a bit scary. With practice, it does get easier!)
Cuisine at Home (August 2007) showed how to make this onion holder in their “tips and techniques” section. You really can only use this method if the onion has pretty thick skin. (You’ll see why as you read on!)
Start by cutting the onion in half from the root to the tip.
Lay the onion cut side down on the cutting board. Trim off a bit of the tip end. Leave the root end intact.
Peel back the skin leaving it attached to the root end. (If the skin is really thin this step will be virtually impossible!)
The skin will now act as a holder as you chop the onion.
Remember to make the first cuts perpendicular to the root end. Then, as you make the parallel cuts the onions will be chopped. (Remember mince is the smallest size, and then dice, then chop is the largest cut of the three.)
Be sure to keep your knuckles bent as you chop. When you get to the end, the skin will act as the holder as you finish chopping.
And as my husband would say, “Bob’s your uncle!” (That’s British for “just that easy, just that quick.”)
Cheers!
]]>“Best Video Podcast“ at the People’s Choice Awards!
Over 335,000 people submitted more than six million nominations and startcooking.com has ended up in the top ten of the “Best Video Podcast” category.
There are 22 different categories — check them out! Anyone may vote, so — please – do go and cast your vote.
It may sound like a cliché but I am truly flattered to be in the company of my fellow nominees. They are:
Ask a Ninja
Diggnation
DL.TV
Doing Indy
Fit Life
French Maid TV
Raider Nation Videocast
The Rest of Everest
Tiki Bar TV
Voting will open at one minute past midnight in the early morning hours of Saturday, July 28th and will be open until one minute before midnight on Saturday, August 11th.
When you go to vote, why not check out the other categories while you are there?
P.S. Click here to vote.
Thanks!
Kathy
For me, it was delightful to be able to actually meet some local bloggers. It’s funny how you immediately feel comfortable with people whose blog posts you have been reading. It was not the occasion to really chat, but a handshake and a “Hi, how are ya” was fun nevertheless!
My fears about hosting this event and speaking in front of a crowd were really not necessary. It was easy, relaxed and fun! (It did help tremendously to have a ton of my friends in the audience!)
Check out Nikas Culinaria for a great review of the movie!
Part of the radio station WMJX Magic 106.7 promotion for “No Reservations” was free tickets and the chance to win a startcooking.com gift basket. There were 6 winners of my gift basket.
I had so much fun making these up! I was hoping to be able to give them out myself, but was told that they will be sent (overnight) to the winners.
Each basket contained the complete fixings to make my Irish Bread. The winners just need to add 1 cup of milk, 5 and 1/2 Tablespoons of melted butter and 2 eggs to the ingredients in the basket and then bake the bread.
I included all the equipment necessary to make the bread and pre-measured the dry ingredients. It should take about 10 minutes to preheat the oven, prepare the pan, mix the ingredients and that’s it! 50 minutes later the bread is ready.
If any of you basket winners are reading this post, please do let me know how the bread turns out!
I would really like to thank Warner Brothers for giving us this special screening of No Reservations. I had a ball!
Cheers!
]]>In celebration of the Boston premier of the movie No Reservations, I was sent all of the recipes featured in the film. Tomorrow night I am going to be hosting a special screening of the movie, which officially opens on Friday, July 27. I’ve never done anything like this before! Wish me luck!
From recipes in the film, I’ve made the Scallops into a video which I’m sure you will enjoy, and this Saffron Sauce accompanies it perfectly.
Let’s startcooking!
If you are at all nervous about making cooked sauces this is the place to begin. This one is on the really easy end on the “degree of difficulty” scale. It’s an incredibly rich sauce which goes well with chicken or fish. Before eating this sauce, plan on doing a few extra minutes on the treadmill tomorrow!
Saffron is a spice which looks like tiny threads. (It is actually the yellow-orange stigmas from the purple crocus flower.) It is used to tint and flavor food.
It is expensive, but you only use a tiny bit.
For this recipe you will need:
As always, get all your ingredients measured and prepared before you turn on the stove.
Shallots are bought loose or in small net bags. They are a cross between onions and garlic.
Peel the shallots and then mince them. (That means to chop them really fine.)
Squeeze fresh lemon juice. Be sure to strain off the seeds.
Cut the butter into about 8 pieces. Then put it back in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it. One trick with this sauce is that the butter has to be really cold when you add it to the pan.
Add the wine and shallots to a small, heavy pot
Turn the temperature to medium-high and bring the wine and shallots to a boil. Continue to boil everything down to about 2 Tablespoons. That should take about 3 minutes.
Turn the heat down to medium low and add the saffron.
Then add the heavy cream.
Now, whisk in the butter. Add the next piece before the last one has completely melted…..Stirring constantly! Don’t allow the mixture to come to a boil.
Add 2 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice.
And some salt and pepper to your taste.
The shallots add a lot of texture to this sauce. If you wanted a really smooth sauce, you could strain the sauce and discard the cooked shallots.
This is a perfect meal to serve to company!
Enjoy!
Adapted from: No Reservations
]]>Warner Brothers recently contacted me at startcooking.com to host a special preview screening of their new film. (This is a first for me and I have to admit it is pretty exciting!)
In return for presenting the event, and filming a recipe from the movie on my video podcast, the producers have offered me some free VIP passes to the event.
I thought it would be great to share the invitations with the local blogging/podcasting community so that we can all enjoy this special sneak preview.
The people from the movie have asked for RSVP’s (ASAP) so they can send you the invitation in the mail. Please reply, with your mailing address to [email protected] no later than Monday July 16th if you would like to join us. If you feel uncomfortable about sending your address, just respond to this email with your full name and we’ll add you to the list at the door.
The screening is being held at the Regal Fenway 13 theater in Boston, July 24th at 8pm. This preview is 3 days before the general theatrical release on July 27th. (There is a chance that the venue could change depending on the response, so if you confirm that you want to go, make sure to check your email just before coming down to make sure that’s still the right place.)
Also, if you know other podcasters or bloggers from the area who would be interested in joining us, please let me know.
Thanks, and I hope to see you there.
Kathy Maister
startcooking.com
You can buy it in bulk at whole foods stores or in a box at regular grocery stores.
Couscous takes 6 minutes to prepare: 1 minute to boil the water and 5 minutes to let it sit and absorb the water. Then it’s ready to eat.
Adding salt and butter or olive oil is optional but it does give it a nice taste.
This entire box of couscous will make 4-6 servings. You don’t have to use the entire box at one time.
There is a chart on the back of the box that tells you what proportion of couscous to water you will need.
Bring the water to a boil and add the butter/oil and salt to the pot.
Whisk in the couscous
Cover the pot and remove it from the stove.
Five minutes later, all the water will be absorbed and you are done!
You can serve couscous “under” chicken, fish, meat, or stew. By placing the meat on top, the couscous will absorb all the juices or sauce.
On the back of the couscous box you will often find suggestions and recipes for different ways of serving couscous. But that’s another day. Cheers!
]]>Tuna fish pizza is not necessarily the norm, but boy is it good!
You can find my video on how to make English Muffin Pizzas here.
You can find my blogpost on how to make Tuna Fish Salad here .
Now all you have to do is just combine the two and add a few more ingredients.
To make four “Chapman Tuna Pizzas” you will need:
You will also need:
Next, you’ll need:
Finally, you’ll be using some shredded Parmesan cheese.
Let’s start cooking!
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
You need to begin by making some tuna salad. Directions for doing this are given here. Add less mayonnaise then you normally would. Don’t forget to add the oregano!
Line the muffins up on a baking sheet with sides.
Spread the tuna on the muffins. (I’m using the large English Muffins that measure about 3 inches across.)
Spread the tomato or pizza sauce on top of the tuna.
Sprinkle on some shredded parmesan cheese. (Use fresh, not the kind in the box!)
Bake for about 15 minutes or until the muffins are crispy!
Thanks C.C. (and a special thanks to your Dad!)
Chapman Tuna Pizzas
Makes 4 Pizzas:
350 degree oven for about 15 Minutes
]]>But once you have learned how to peel these onions, you are going to be very surprised at how easy it is.
And it’s worth the effort, because they really are delicious!
Start by putting the onions in a pan of boiling water and let them boil for about 1 to 2 minutes.
Then, drain them in a colander.
Immediately plunge them into an ice bath. (That’s a bowl of water with ice cubes in it.) This stops the cooking process.
Then cut off the root end of each onion.
If you then squeeze the onion, it will pop right out of its skin!
Once they are all peeled, you can add them to stews or soups.
Or you could sauté (fry) them with some mushrooms and red pepper for a fabulously colorful vegetable to serve with dinner.
Enjoy!
]]>This type of measuring cup is designed for you to look on the outside of the cup to determine the proper measurement. Don’t hold the cup in your hand and try to raise it to eye level — I guarantee it will be imprecise. Instead, leave the cup on a flat surface and bend down so your eye is level with the cup.
If you try to look down to the inside to judge the measurement with this style of cup, you will end up with more liquid than you should have. If you were making soups or stews that wouldn’t be a very big deal, but when making rice or salad dressing or doing any baking, like chocolate cake, you have to be very precise with your measurements.
OXO has designed special measuring cups (shown in the picture below) that do allow you to determine the proper measurement by looking down into the measuring cup.
The big cup shown on the right above measures ounces and 1/4, 1/3, ½, 2/3, ¾, and 1 cup. The small cupon the left measures Tablespoons and ounces.
The OXO measuring cup has a strange shape. Its slanted front and big chunky handle look odd but make it quite easy to use.
I find the Tablespoon measuring cup to be particularly efficient when I am preparing ingredients for things like Stir Fries. Pre-measuring small amount of liquids like soy sauce and oil, in advance of cooking, makes the stir-fry process go along much more smoothly. If you are using a set of measuring spoons, you then need a small cup to put the ingredients into. With small tablespoon measuring “cups” like the one shown below, there is one less dish to wash!
At my kitchen shop, I also discovered a drinking glass that has measurement lines on it. This one you measure from the outside. It was OK, but I prefer the ease of use of the traditional or OXO brand.
My kitchen shop also sold small shot glasses that had tablespoon and ounce measurements as well. A pour spout would make these a lot easier to use.
Other posts on measuring:
Cheers!
]]>Pan size and how much it can hold can be very confusing. If you have an unusual shaped dish, and are unsure about the size/capacity of your dish, measure the number of cups of water it will hold, to check the volume of the dish.
Here is a very helpful list indicating the volume of most baking pans.
3-cup Baking Dish or Pan:
4-cup Baking Dish or Pan:
6-cup Baking dish or Pan:
7-cup Baking dish or Pan:
8-cup Baking dish or Pan:
9-cup Baking Dish or Pan:
10-cup Baking Dish or Pan:
11-cup Baking Dish or Pan:
12-cup Baking Dish or Pan:
15-cup Baking dish or Pan:
16-cup Baking dish or Pan:
18-cup Baking dish or Pan:
One dish I use over and over again in my recipes is a 9x13x2 inch baking dish.
This is a standard size dish that is readily available in kitchen shops and even most grocery stores. It will hold 15 cups of ingredients.
For my Sausage and Egg Casserole (video) you will need a 9 x13x2 inch pan. The amount of filling in that recipe is adjusted for this size pan.
The same is true for making my Lasagna Recipe (video).
Decorative 9x13x2 inch baking dishes are very useful for both baking and serving. Many of these decorative dishes do not quite measure 9x13x2. In the photo below, I am turning Chicken Cutlets (Video) into Chicken Parmesan. I just needed a dish big enough for the cutlets to fit in a single layer. So it wasn’t essential that the dish be exactly 9x13x2 inches.
7 Layer Dip (Video) was also made in a decorative dish measuring approximately 9x13x2. Two round, 8-inch pie dishes would have worked as well.
With my Meatloaf Recipe (Video) (shown below) I made a free-form loaf in a 9x13x2 inch baking dish.
A plain Pyrex dish costs less than $10. I think it is definitely worth the investment. Cheers!
]]>At kitchen shops (or even some grocery stores,) they sell the terracotta clay disks shown above for about $3 each. Their sole purpose is to keep brown sugar from drying out. If you don’t want to buy a terra cotta disk, you can put a slice of bread or a slice of an apple or even a damp paper towel in with the brown sugar to keep it soft. (What is quite amazing is that neither the apple nor the bread gets moldy or rancid. They dry up and become inedible, but they do keep the brown sugar soft.)
Brown sugar always comes in a plastic bag. You can add the disk (or bread or apple) to the bag and re-seal it tight. But I find brown sugar keeps better in an air-tight container rather than in the original bag.
If you have purchased a terra cotta disk, you need to soak it in water for about 15 minutes before adding it to the brown sugar.
Then dry the disk off.
Put the brown sugar in an air-tight container and add the disk to the container.
When I added the disk to the container, my brown sugar was pretty hard. After about 8 hours the disk had softened the brown sugar completely.
If,when you want to use your brown sugar,you discover that you have not stored it properly and it is rock hard, there is still a solution! You can zap it for 1 to 2 minutes in the microwave to soften it. Do it in 30-second increments and keep checking it. You don’t want it to melt! You can also heat it in a 250-degree oven for a few minutes, until it is soft. One word of caution; use that sugar immediately! Once it has been softened this way, it won’t stay soft for very long.
Cheers!
]]>When I was growing up there were always three vinegars in the cupboard: red wine vinegar, white vinegar, and cider vinegar.
These three vinegars, along with two more – balsamic vinegar and rice wine vinegar – are pretty standard in this day and age.
The names of the vinegars give you an idea of what they are made of. There are no regulations saying that all brands are made the same. You may have to try a few different brands to find the one you like.
The red wine vinegar, literally made from red wine, is great for salad dressings.
The cider vinegar has a milder, fruitier flavor and works well with apples (of course!) and tomatoes. It is often used for chutneys, pickling, and in vinaigrettes
The white distilled vinegar (made from a grain-alcohol mixture) has a very harsh taste and is often used for cleaning. Click here for literally 175 different uses of white vinegar, none of which involve food! That’s why you often find white wine vinegar sold in half gallon jugs!
Balsamic vinegars are the Rolls Royce of vinegars. These Italian vinegars vary considerably in taste and price points. Authentic balsamic vinegars are aged in wooden barrels and develop a sweet flavor and thick consistency. They are used on salads, meats, fish, vegetables, and fruit. You can drizzle balsamic vinegar right on a salad without mixing it with oil. Again, not all balsamic vinegars taste the same so you may have to do some taste testing to find the one you like best.
Rice vinegar, made from fermented rice, is used a lot in Asian cooking. Within this category there are many choices including dark, light, sweet or pungent. Be sure to check your recipe to make sure you are using the right one!
Yet One More Kind
As many of you know, my husband is from London, so malt vinegar is standard in our home as well! Malt vinegar is the one that is drizzled over fish and chips in the UK. David loves it, I prefer tartar sauce/ketchup!
There are of course many more vinegars to choose from like: fruit (raspberry, blueberry, etc.) vinegars, champagne vinegar, sherry vinegar, and herb infused vinegar. But that’s another day! Cheers!
]]>The three oils you should buy as good starting points are:
Notice, in the picture above, that the bottle on the left says Extra Virgin for “Dressing and Marinating” and the bottle on the right says Olive Oil for “Sautéing and Grilling”.
The extra virgin olive oil is going to be much more expensive, a darker color and has a more intense olive flavor than the bottle that says just olive oil with no virgin on the label.
Extra virgin olive oil, which is made form the first “cold press” of ripe olives, is not used for cooking, just eating. Use it on salads, dipping onto bread and to drizzle on foods for that extra fruity olive flavor.
Olive oil that just says “olive oil” (no virgin on the label) can be used to cook foods and used in salad dressings.
Now you may be saying, I don’t like olives so I’m not buying olive oil. If that’s the case, don’t buy the Extra Virgin Olive Oil. You can use canola oil for salad dressing instead. BUT, do consider at least trying the Olive Oil (no virgin) for cooking. It does impart a lovely flavor that you may well enjoy!
Both types of olive oil should be stored in a cool dark place and should last up to 6 months. Olive oil can also be stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 year. It will get cloudy and thick in the refrigerator, but once it’s brought to room temperature it will become liquid again.
Olive oil has a pretty distinct flavor, and if you are using it at a really high temperature, it can smoke and burn. Consequently, canola oil is my third choice to add to your food cupboard.
It’s pretty bland tasting. It can be used for cooking and for salad dressings, and it is one of the healthier oils you can choose from the selection of oils at the grocery store. (It has only 6 percent saturated fat, compared with peanut oil which has 18 percent saturated fat!)
Canola oil has a long shelf life and will keep for up to 18 months stored in your food cupboard.
There are of course many more wonderful oils to cook with. These three oils are just a good starting point.
Cheers!
]]>Fresh mushrooms are a pretty common vegetable, found loose or pre-packaged at the grocery store. There are quite a few varieties to choose from – Baby Bella or Button mushrooms are a good place to start, since they are hearty mushrooms that hold up well in stews or for making stuffed mushrooms.
Mushrooms get all sweaty if you store them in a plastic bag or leave them in the pre-packaged container you bought them in. If you are not going to use the mushrooms immediately, they should be stored in the refrigerator in a paper bag. Alternatively, you could put them on a plate with a paper towel both under and on top of them. (The top one should be slightly damp.) They should be used within three days of purchase.
Some mushrooms are really dirty and some only have a small bit of dirt. The button mushrooms shown in the picture below are relatively clean. They only need a quick rub with a paper towel and they are ready to use.
The Baby Bellas on the other hand are really dirty so they need to go into a colander and get quickly rinsed under running water.
Then, with a paper towel, you should wipe off any remaining dirt.
Some people say you should NEVER wash mushrooms as they act like little sponges and absorb too much water. However, as long as you DO NOT SOAK the mushrooms, cleaning them with water and then wiping them is faster and more efficient than wiping each one individually.
Some mushrooms can have very tough and “woody” stems. You can just pop off the stems.
Or you can cut them out using a small paring knife.
Then chop them up and use them in whatever you are cooking!
Cheers!
]]>The ingredients for making these “cheesy toasts” are:
The amounts will vary according to how much bread you have.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. This will take about 10 minutes. While the oven is heating, slice the bread into about ¼ inch thick slices.
Spread the sliced bread out on a baking sheet with sides. Lightly brush the bread with olive oil. You only need to brush one side of the slice of bread.
Sprinkle each slice with some salt and a grind or two of pepper. This is when you could also add a tiny sprinkle of dried oregano if you want.
Shred some fresh cheese, preferably parmesan but actually any hard cheese should work.
You only need a very small amount of cheese on each round of bread.
My Husband likes these really crunchy so I bake them for about 15 minutes. If you like them chewier, take them out of the oven after about 10 minutes.
There are lots of variations you can play with. My favorite Steak House makes these cheesy toasts with big round thin slices made from bread called a “boule” (which is French for ball.) They use all sorts of spices like garlic and oregano as well. Don’t be afraid to experiment!
Enjoy!
P.S. Use these in French Onion Soup!
Cheesy Toasts Ingredients:
Inspiration: Barefoot Contessa
Lentils cook in about 15-25 minutes, are high in fiber, are an inexpensive source of protein, and taste really good! They have a hearty, rich, nutty flavor that holds up to lots of seasoning. Lentils are not only great in soups, but can also be eaten hot or cold, as a hearty main or side dish. They are very popular in French, Middle Eastern and Indian cuisine.
Buying & Storing Lentils
Lentils fall into the category of food called “Pulses”, which includes peas and beans as well. As with the peas and beans, there are many types of lentils. Except for the color variations they all look pretty much the same, although some are a bit smaller than others.
The brown ones (pictured above) are the most common and the least expensive. You can also buy green, red, orange, black, and white lentils. French green lentils, sometimes called Puy, can cost about 3 times more than the brown lentils.
Lentils should be kept in a cool, dark place, (not the refrigerator) and can be stored for up to 12 months. If you have different types of lentils store them separately. They all require slightly different cooking times so you don’t want to jumble everything together.
Once cooked, lentils should be stored in the refrigerator, covered, and should be eaten within 3 days.
Cooking Lentils — The Basic Approach
Lentils do not need to be soaked for any length of time before cooking them.
You can cook lentils by themselves in just water or stock and then eat them as is. Here’s how:
Measure out about 8 ounces (by weight) of lentils, or 1 ¼ cups. We are going to combine that with about 1 ¾ cups of liquid.
But first, sort through the lentils to make sure there are no small stones or bits that should not be there. If need be, you can spread the lentils out on a clean kitchen towel to do the sorting.
Then rinse the lentils under cool water.
Bring 1 ¾ cup of stock or water to a boil. (I’m using vegetable stock.)
Add the lentils to the pot.
Give them a stir
Then bring the lentils back to a boil
Cover the pot and turn the temperature down to simmer and cook for about 20 more minutes or until the lentils are tender.
If you’ve added too much liquid and over cook them, they will get mushy! After 20 minutes most of the liquid will have been absorbed.
There may still be a bit of liquid on the bottom, which is fine.
Taste them. You may want them to be a bit more tender, in which case continue cooking until all the liquid is absorbed. (About 5 more minutes)
These are general cooking directions. Be sure to check the directions on the back of the package of lentils you have bought. Cooking times and amounts of liquid may vary slightly.
Different types of lentils require different cooking times. If you are eating them as a side dish or in a salad be sure not to over-cook them. If they are going in a soup, you may want to cook them a bit longer.
If you need to season the lentils with salt, do not add it until after the lentils are cooked and removed from the heat as it can toughen the lentils if added during the cooking process.
If you choose to add anything acidic (such as tomatoes, lemon juice, or vinegar,) do so after the cooking is completed as well.
Digesting Lentils
Yes, like beans, lentils can cause gas! The more you eat, the more your system gets accustomed to them. But in the mean time, there are a few tips to try. Some say boiling lentils for 1-3 minutes after adding the liquid helps. Others insist that if you boil the liquid and then add the lentils to the boiling stock/water that should solve the problem. I would strongly suggest avoiding serving lentils on a first date!!!
Cheers!
Lentils
Ingredients:
6 Servings
“Fresh” shrimp is just that, straight from the ocean. “Previously frozen” is frozen shrimp that they have already defrosted for you. When you get home from the grocery store you can freeze “fresh” shrimp, but you can not re-freeze “previously frozen” shrimp.
Shrimp, like all fish, should be cooked and eaten within 2 days of buying it.
When shrimp is cooked, it turns a lovely shade a pink/orange. It is just about the easiest snack, hors d’oeuvres, or topper for pasta or salad that you can buy.
Fresh or frozen shrimp is sold by the pound and the number of shrimp per pound indicates the size of the shrimp.
One pound of raw shrimp in their shells equals approximately ½ pound of peeled cooked shrimp.
Peeling your own shrimp is a bit tedious. If you can afford it, I would recommend buying already peeled shrimp.
Here are some excellent photos that show how to peel shrimp. It is not difficult, just time consuming. The steps involved are:
Shrimp cooks in just a few minutes. With just a few ingredients…
…which may already be in your cupboard, you can cook up something very special for dinner.
Shrimp Scampi anyone?
P.S.
If you are planning a trip to Boston you have to include a visit to Legal Seafood restaurant and try their Coconut Shrimp! It’s the best!
]]>To make Liptons Onion Dip you mix together:
Put the dip in the refrigerator for a few hours, so that all the flavors melt into the sour cream. It’s just that simple!
This dip is really good with potato chips!
Sour Cream Substitutions:
Sour cream is rich, creamy, delicious, and full of calories! (Two tablespoons is 60 calories, 50 of which are fat! No wonder it’s so good!)
Some people substitute low-fat or fat-free sour cream for the real thing. If I’m going to make a substitution, I prefer to use yogurt.
Yogurt is a much healthier alternative to sour cream. Fat-free Greek yogurt (Fage) is the best kept secret at the grocery store. (Less than ½ the calories of sour cream and no fat!) It is very thick and rich and is a perfect substitution for the sour cream in the Onion Soup Dip.
Many dips combine both sour cream and mayonnaise for the base of the dip. (Now we are talking serious calories!) This adds both flavor and an even creamier texture to the dip.
Cold Spinach Dip
You can make a basic dip by combining:
Start by defrosting the spinach in the microwave. (That will take about 2-3 minutes)
Drain it in a colander and, with your fingers, press out as much liquid as possible.
Then squeeze out all the extra moisture by putting the spinach in a paper towel and squeezing.
(I show this technique of squeezing the spinach in my Lasagna video.)
If you didn’t squeeze out all the excess moisture from the spinach, your dip would be very watery.
Now just mix everything together.
Then put the spinach dip in a nice serving bowl.
Cover it with plastic wrap and let it chill in the refrigerator for a few hours before serving. You can serve your spinach dip with fresh vegetables, chunks of pita or rye bread, or crackers.
Be sure to check out my video on how to make a fresh vegetable and dip platter.
Enjoy!
PS
For those of you who would prefer a hot spinach dip, I have a recipe for The Best Hot Spinach Dip Ever!
Cheers,
Kathy
]]>Today I’m going to talk about chives, shallots, Spanish onions, more sweet onions, and pearl onions.
The delicate chive is actually an herb. You’ve probably had it diced really fine on a baked potato.
They look like little cousins of the green onion, minus the white hairy end!
They have a very delicate flavor and are often eaten raw on salads or as a garnish. Like scallions (also known as green onions), chives should be stored in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. They should keep for almost a week.
Shallots look like they should belong to the garlic family instead of the onion family. Dry shallots have a thin papery skin and actually cluster together like cloves in a head of garlic.
They can range in color from brown, grey, white, rose and purple. You often find shallots in vinaigrette and sauce recipes. They have a mild onion flavor and, like garlic, they can have a “bite” (or really sharp taste) when eaten raw. When cooking shallots they will turn bitter if you let them get browned!
Chances are, you were eating Spanish onions the last time you had onion rings. They are really big onions with a lovely, caramel colored skin.
Their mild, sweet taste makes them perfect for adding a big, raw slice to a hamburger. Like all dry-skinned onions, they should be stored in a dry, well-ventilated place; not in the refrigerator. (By way of contrast, all onions, once they are cut, should be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and indeed stored in the refrigerator!)
Sweet onions are just that – sweet! They have a high water and sugar content, which means they don’t keep as long as a yellow onion. You really have to look at the signs at the grocery store to know if you are buying a sweet onion. It’s hard to tell which is which, just by looking at them.
Some sweet onion names include: Maui Sweet, OSO Sweet, Vidalia, 1015 SuperSweet, Sweet Imperial, and SpringSweet.
Pearl Onions are the small, sweet, mild onions you often have in a casserole. (I used them in my Beef Stew video)
Frozen pearl onions are a huge time saver and are delicious. They are all peeled and ready to go. You can also find pearl onions in a jar, which are also very good.
You can buy fresh white, yellow, or red pearl onions. They are sweet, crisp, and just absolutely delicious but a bit of a pain to peel. (How to Peel Pearl Onions)
When they plant these onions they pack them in very tightly so they are normally only grow to about one inch in diameter.
Any questions?
]]>We have had an extraordinary week at startcooking.com! I would like to extend a warm welcome to the (overwhelming) numbers of new visitors (and subscribers) from Apple i-Tunes. Your support has boosted me up the i-Tunes Top Podcasts Chart! (I’d especially like to thank the viewers in Canada , who’ve made me the number one food podcast there as you see below) I am thrilled and do hope you continue to enjoy startcooking.com
For those just tuning in to startcooking.com for the first time, you should know this site is dedicated to helping beginning cooks. Everyone is welcome, but I’m here to introduce the novice cook to a whole new world of food.
For both the recipes and the “tips and techniques,” I have gone back to the basics.
Some of the many “basic” posts I have done are: How to Make a Hamburger, Deviled Eggs, Cooking White Rice and, of course, everyone’s favorite: my 7 Layer Dip Video.
I hope you find it easy to navigate around the site and discover new favorite recipes as well as old stand-bys.
So welcome everyone and let’s startcooking!
]]>Pine nuts are really tiny nuts; about ½ inch long (or 1 centimeter, depending on where you live).
You may already have eaten pine nuts without knowing it. One of the main ingredients in pesto sauce is pine nuts!
You can eat them plain or toasted, with or with out salt, on sweet or savory dishes.
Toasting Pine Nuts
They toast up very quickly in a fry pan, which brings out their natural rich flavor.
Start by putting the nuts in a single layer in a frying pan with no oil in the pan.
Toast the nuts on medium-high temperature. Keep moving the nuts around the pan with a wooden spoon or spatula. It will take just a few minutes for them to toast. Pine nuts, like most nuts have a very high fat content. That’s what makes them taste so good! It is also what makes them toast up so quickly.
Do not walk away! Do not take your eyes off the nuts! They can go from beautifully toasted to burnt, in the blink of an eye!
Some stores now sell “already-toasted” pine nuts. They’re OK but nothing like toasting them yourself!
When I topped my portabella mushrooms and goat cheese with pine nuts, they added a wonderful texture and flavor to the dish.
If eaten by the handful, pine nuts are about 200 calories per ¼ cup. (YIKES!) They should be stored in an air tight container and will last about three months in the refrigerator. Six to nine months in the freezer.
Cheers!
]]>I bought these laser dated eggs here in Boston just the other day. Not all eggs are laser dated yet. For now, it’s just certain “brands.”
Chowhound did a great post on laser stamping eggs. It was actually the 26 comments that really told the story. Some who commented loved the idea, some hated it. It is a great way to keep track of your eggs if you put your eggs in the egg holder in the refrigerator. (They say you are NOT supposed to store eggs there, but everyone does!) Once you have taken the eggs out of the original carton, there is no quick way to know how old the egg is.
For those who want to know more about expiration dates on foods, check out the USDA site. As always, the USDA is a great source of information
The little stickers on fruits are the next thing to go. They are going to get replaced by the laser as well. Has anyone seen that yet?
They say that there soon will be advertising on each egg! I can’t imagine what this is all going to mean for dyeing eggs at Easter? Will we buy them pre-dyed?
Cheers!
]]>Well, leeks are part of the onion family and, in fact, look like a giant version of green onions. However, the little green onion has a much stronger onion flavor then the leek. Another difference is that you need to cook leeks before eating them. Unlike an onion, you would not add an uncooked leek to a salad!
Green Onions
Leeks are a very mellow version of an onion and when cut they have a beautiful variation in color. They go from white down by the root, to a yellow center, to a really dark green at the top.
Cut the leek just below the really dark green part. Those really dark, green leaves are very tough and you don’t eat them. Like an onion, the leek has a lot of layers on the inside, except that the leek has a lot more finer layers. Each of these layers has an amazing amount of sandy grit between them. Leeks have to get washed really well to get rid of all that grit.
If you are going to cut the leaks into rings or small strips, do that first, and then put them in a bowl of cool water.
I’m using my salad spinner. The leeks will float to the top and the grit will sink to the bottom of the bowl. You will need to swish everything around a bit to make sure all the layers of leek are separated.
You can then run them through your salad spinner or just lay them out on a towel to dry off.
If you are going to cook the leek whole, you still have to cut it in half to wash it. (Or you could just make a cut half way through and spread open the leaves.) Fan out the layers with your fingers and let the water run through.
In my next post I will be making soup using these lovely leeks instead of onions!
(By the way, the leek is the national symbol of Wales!)
Cheers!
]]>Online Finds
By Bobby Hankinson
FOODiCooking
startcooking.comAll too often the day ends with a frozen dinner or a visit from the delivery man. It’s not that we don’t want to cook, it’s just that we’re not always sure exactly how.
Enter Startcooking.com — the best thing to happen to clueless cooks since the Hot Pocket.
Hosted by Kathy Maister, a Boston-based former home-ec teacher, the site offers up scrumptious recipes with stop-animation videos as well as tips and basic techniques in blog format. Maister is cooking in real time from her Back Bay kitchen, so viewers can see the equipment, materials and finished product. The videos are expertly edited, and at about two or three minutes each, they don’t wear out the attention span.
Maister’s easy-to-follow presentation of her tasty treats, which lean toward comfort food, is simple without being patronizing and friendly without going all Rachel Ray. There are a lot of cooking guides out there, but this is geared specifically to an audience who may have chosen to spend their time learning a second language or computer programming instead of how to crack an egg.
Since launching in December, the site has quickly become a hot destination on the eb. Startcooking.com was featured on iTunes’ “New and Notable” food podcasts, and Nokia has contacted the site to make it available on N series phones — that way the show can assist aspiring chefs right in the kitchen or grocery store. It’s also been nominated for a 2007 weblog Award.
“I’ve never had so much fulfillment in my life as I’ve had doing this,” Maister said.
After checking out the site, we may have found a way to give ourselves some fulfillment without pestering the delivery man.
Thanks, Bobby!
]]>When I wrote a post on *How to Make Caesar Salad* I used parmesan cheese.
Beth Best from Calgary,
Here is what Beth wrote:
“Ross and I first tasted Asiago cheese on top of a great Caesar salad at our local Joey Tomato’s restaurant in Calgary. We love the place because the smell of fresh garlic greets you as you enter and the fresh tomatoes and basil and peppers are all visible when you pass the front pizza ovens. The first time we tasted it – we knew it wasn’t parmesan and we enquired from our server. We got the full story on ASIAGO from him and we’ve purchased it for our home made salads ever since. A little goes a long way and it is very distinctive.
ASIAGO is a semi-hard table cheese, easily shredded into your favorite recipes. Along with a pronounced nut-like flavor, fresh Asiago has a taste that is semi-sweet. Because of this, it is also good when used in a sandwich. It has a sharp flavor that resembles Parmesan and Cheddar cheese combined and, because of this, is also popularly used as an ingredient in omelets and sauces.
Asiago is most commonly used as a grating cheese to serve over pastas, salads, soups, appetizers, and gravies. The longer Asiago has aged, the firmer its texture and the stronger its flavor becomes.
Once you have purchased your Asiago cheese, make sure that you store it properly. You can use cellophane/plastic wrap to repackage the Asiago cheese or place the cheese in a container specifically designed to hold vegetables or cheeses. Make sure, however, that once you have brought home Asiago cheese it remains stored in your refrigerator. I purchase mine at my local supermarket in the imported cheese area, already grated and ready for use.”
Thank you Beth!
I hope everyone found this to be as helpful as I did. For additional info on Asiago cheese click here.
Cheers!
]]>Startcooking.com has been nominated for a “bloggie award” in the 7th annual weblog award competition, as one of the five finalists, for best food blog.
I’ve been doing my “happy dance” ever since I found out.
I am truly honored to be in the same category as my fellow nominees.
Here’s how it happened. From January 1, 2007 until January 11, anyone was able to nominate their favorite weblogs. That Monday, 200 randomly selected voters received an e-mail, listing the weblogs that received the most nominations in ten random categories.
They had until January 21 to privately submit their five favorites for each category. The five receiving the most votes became finalists. (I still can’t believe I was one of them!) On Thursday, January 25, the finalists were announced and voting is open again to choose the winners.
Voting is now open to everyone (yes, that’s you) and will close at 10:00 PM EST on Friday, February 2. The winners will be posted on Monday, March 12.
Go check out all the nominees and, of course, please vote for me!
To vote, scroll down to the food category nominees. Then you click the small circle above the startcooking.com image. Naturally, you can vote in as many of the other categories as you wish. (By the way, this is a really great way to discover some fascinating blogs on other topics.)
At the bottom they will ask you to type in some letters (to prove you are not a machine) and then put in your email address. To finish the process, you must click on the email that will show up in your inbox.
Many Thanks!
Kathy
]]>Sounds like a contradiction in terms, right? But here is a recipe, from Emeril Lagasse, that caught my eye.
Usually fries are made with a vat or pot of oil, which can be messy, quite a production, and have lots of calories. But these fries are coated with seasoned egg whites and baked in a very hot oven. The recipe uses only 2 teaspoons of oil! Nothing can compare to McDonald’s fries but these aren’t bad. (BTW Julia Child was a huge fan of McDonald’s French fries.)
Let’s get started: Preheat your oven to 425 degrees This is a very hot oven and will take about 15 minutes to preheat.
The ingredients needed for this recipe are:
Essence is an Emeril thing. He makes it in huge quantities and uses it as sort of an *add to everything you cook* spice mix. For this recipe use:
When you need to measure out a lot of spices, do it all at once, into a small dish. Line them up in the same order as they are listed in the recipe. After one spice is measured move it to the side, and go onto the next spice. This way you won’t forget anything!
Wash, peel and pat the potatoes dry and slice them lengthwise into 1/2-inch thick slices. Turn each slice flat and slice again lengthwise into even fries, 1/2-inch thick.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the egg white until very light and foamy. Add the spices to the egg whites and make sure they are well blended.
Now add the potatoes and make sure the egg white and spice mixture coat all the potatoes.
Lay a sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet with sides. Smear 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil over the parchment paper.
Spread the coated potatoes on the prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 15 minutes. With a spatula, scrape the potatoes from the baking sheet and turn them over. Hang onto the parchment paper when you are turning the fries, so that it doesn’t slide all over the place!
Continue baking for another 15 minutes or until they are golden. Carefully remove them with a spatula to a serving plate. Serve immediately.
If you don’t have any parchment paper, use a non-stick baking sheet with sides. But believe me, the parchment will save on clean-up time!
Cheers!
]]>There are tons of different chile recipes out there. One of my favorite ways to make chili is with Wick Fowler’s “2 alarm chili kit.” (There are many different “chili making kits” available at the grocery store.)
It contains 7 packets of seasoning mix which you can adjust to your own taste. I like to use this kit because:
For added taste and texture I like to add one can of kidney beans and one can of stewed tomatoes. (Diced tomatoes with green chilies also work really well here!)
Using a large 4 quart pot, brown 2 pounds of ground beef
Then drain the fat off the beef, and put the beef back into the pot.
Now, just add:
(I haven’t forgotten about the kidney beans. Those will get added at the end.)
Be very careful with the RED PEPPER spice packet.
I actually don’t even add it to the chili. It gets too hot for me.!
If you do like your chili HOT, try adding 1/8 teaspoon at a time, but BE CAREFUL!
You can always make it hotter, but once you add the red pepper THERE IS NO TURNING BACK!
Cover the pot and bring the whole thing to a boil then turn the heat way down to simmer. Let the pot simmer covered for 30 minutes.
Rinse and drain the kidney beans.
Put the masa in a small bowl. Add ¼ cup of warm water and mix it together. Add it to the beef along with the drained kidney beans.
Simmer everything for another 15-20 minutes.
THAT’S IT!
If I’ve made a big batch of chili, I often freeze some immediately. Label and date a freezer bag then with the bag balancing over a cup, fill the cuffed bag with the chili and then seal the bag. This way it takes up very little space in the freezer. Plus all of your plastic containers don’t end up in the freezer!
If you are storing the leftover chili in a plastic container, first spray the inside of the plastic container with cooking spray. It will stop the chili from permanently staining your plastic container. Who knew?
Enjoy!
OOPS! Don’t forget the corn chips!
]]>We’ll use a roasted chicken for our example today.
If you believe the commercials on TV, you should be able to carve the chicken right at the table and serve it up. Not a good idea! If this is your first go at cutting up a chicken, do it on the kitchen counter, just in case the chicken slips off the plate. You will be avoiding a potential disaster at the table, and you will have much greater confidence standing up while carving the chicken, rather than sitting down.
When carving the chicken leave it on a plate unless you have a carving board which has grooves in it to catch all the juices. Or place the bird on a cutting board and put the cutting board on a cookie sheet with sides to catch the juices.
Remove the pop-up thermometer, (if there is one) and throw it away. They are not reusable.
The first cut is around the top of the leg.
Then turn the chicken and circle around the bottom of the leg.
Now press the leg in the opposite direction of its natural position to pop the leg out of the joint. You may have to get the tip of your knife into the joint to nudge it out.
The leg should now be off the chicken.
Do the same thing to the other leg.
The wing will slice off with one swift cut with the knife.
To carve the breast you could do those nice thin long slices that you see them do on the magazine covers but that actually takes a bit of practice to get right. A much easier way is to slice through the top of the chicken separating the two breasts.
Slide your knife against one side of the bone separating the breast from the chicken.
Make another cut on the bottom of the breast and the whole breast should come off. Do the same thing with the other breast.
Place the breast on a cutting board skin side up. (There will be some bits of chicken left on the carcass. Pick all the chicken off with your (clean) fingers and either add it to the serving platter or save it for tomorrow and make chicken salad!)
Slice the breasts into nice big chunks.
Serve the chicken on a big platter garnished with parsley.
Enjoy!
]]>Christmas cookies come in all shapes and sizes and everyone has a favorite. This is mine!
I found this recipe on a pull-out card in a magazine while traveling in New Zealand. Typical cookie ingredients like flour, sugar, and eggs are not in this recipe. What you will need is:
Start by preheating your oven to 325 degrees.
Measure ¾ cup of the sweetened condensed milk into a measuring cup with a pour spout.
Sweetened condensed milk is really thick and sticky. If you spray the measuring cup with cooking spray first, the condensed milk will slip right out of the measuring cup.
In a large bowl combine
Mix well.
Line a baking sheet with sides with non-stick tin foil. (This stuff is really fantastic! Nothing sticks to it!) If you only have regular tin foil then you have to “grease” the foil, preferably with shortening. You could spray it with cooking spray or smear butter all over the tin foil.
Place 1/8 of a cup the mixture onto the foil lined oven trays.
They don’t really spread or change shape when they are cooking so they don’t have to be really far apart.
Cut the candied cherries in half
Put ½ a cherry on each cookie. Be sure each cookie stays squished together. You may have to pat the edges with your fingers to keep the edges together.
They are now ready to go into the preheated oven.
Bake 14-15 minutes or until light golden.
Cool slightly before removing from tray, cool on wire rack.
While the cookies are cooling, put about two cups of water in the kettle and bring it to a boil. Put the dark chocolate chips into a small baggie. Pour the water into a medium bowl.
Set the baggie of chocolate chips into the bowl. In about 5 minutes the chocolate will be melted. Snip the corner of the baggie.
Squeeze the chocolate into a funnel shape and squirt the base of each cookie with melted chocolate.
With a knife, spread the chocolate into a thin layer on the bottom of the cookie. (If any cherry has fallen off, use the melted chocolate as glue to reposition the cherry!)
Let the bottom chocolate completely harden before flipping them over. (You can set them in the refrigerator to speed this step up.)
Melt the white chocolate the same way you melted the dark chocolate and drizzle it on the top of each cookie.
Store the cookies in an airtight container in fridge.
Happy Holidays!
(Food bloggers: don’t forget to submit your beautiful baking creations to Sugar High Friday #26: Sugar Art by December 29!)
Source: Nestle
]]>If you plan on cooking any large piece of meat, (like a Leg of Lamb, a Pork Roast, or even Meatloaf) I highly recommend the small “instant read” thermometer. This type is usually sold in kitchen shops and costs about $20. It is a good investment as it is very accurate and should last a long time. You do not leave this type in the oven while the meat is cooking. After the meat is cooked…
…you insert the instant read thermometer and it will give you an instant reading of the internal temperature.
Another type of meat thermometer is the type that you stick into raw meat…
… and then put it in the oven. You leave the thermometer stuck in the meat, in the oven, during the entire cooking process.
The dial indicates what the internal temperature is.
These thermometers will also tell you what the correct temperature should be for doneness of poultry, lamb, and beef. These thermometers are usually sold at the grocery store and cost less then $10.
Many stores sell chickens and turkeys that come with a thermometer already stuck in it. When it pops up, the meat is cooked. You can also buy these little white pop-up thermometers just on there own at the grocery store. They are inexpensive and convenient but they are for one time use only, then you have to throw them away.
All three types work well. Which one you choose to purchase depends on your budget and how much meat you plan on cooking!
]]>I tend to buy the smaller rather than the larger portobellos since the 4-inch is ample for one serving.
Pine nuts give this recipe a very unique crunch. They’re a very tasty nut with a high fat content. However, because of the fat content they can turn rancid very quickly unless stored properly. They should be stored in the refrigerator in an air-tight container (where they will last for up to 3 months) or the freezer (for 9 months).
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
To clean portobellos, wipe the outside of the mushroom with a damp paper towel.
Then, with a small paring knife, trim out the stem. These mushrooms are so big the stems tend to be a bit tough. (Does anyone remember the mushrooms in the movie ‘Journey to the Center of the Earth’?)
With a small spoon, scrape out the dark brown bits fanning out from where the stem was. These bits are actually called the gills of the mushroom. You can eat the gills but for this recipe I like to remove them. (For a vegetable, this food has some pretty strange terms describing it; meaty flavor and gills!)
Go get a baking dish that will hold the four mushrooms in one layer in the dish. Or you can use four individual dishes. Spread 8 ounces of spaghetti sauce in the bottom of baking dish.
Arrange the mushroom caps, gill-side up (or the side where the gills used to be). Divide 4 ounces of goat cheese between the four mushrooms.
Sprinkle on 1/4 teaspoon of oregano on each mushroom.
Top with 1/2 Tablespoon of pine nuts on each mushroom.
If you are using individual dishes, place them on a baking sheet with sides.
Bake the mushrooms for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.
Enjoy!
Inspiration: The South Beach Diet Cookbook
]]>When you’re busy, eating prepared foods or take-out seems easier than cooking (and when you’re hungry, junk foods look far more appealing than healthy foods)!
But eventually all those shortcuts catch up to you as a shrinking wallet and an expanding waistline.
On the other hand, learning just a few kitchen basics can make cooking easy and enjoyable!
Cooking is a skill you can master one step at a time. With even the most basic cooking skills, you can make quick and easy meals that taste great.
For example, browning ground beef is easy once you learn how, and so is chopping an onion. From there you can make a pot of chili in just a few more steps.
Don’t give up if your first attempt doesn’t quite turn out. Think of it as an adventure.
Don’t sabotage yourself. Think small.
Perfect one skill (browning beef), then move on to the next challenge (chopping onions).
You’ll be cooking meals in no time at all.
Once you know your way around the kitchen, food is a great way to make people feel welcome in your home. Even a small effort in the kitchen goes a long way. Your guests will be amazed and impressed when you make something just for them. Whether you’re feeding your family, entertaining friends, or even just cooking for your self, home-made food makes people feel special.
Everyone deserves a good home-cooked meal.
Here’s my Top Ten list of tips to increase your success when you start cooking!
A family favorite winter vegetable has always been butternut squash. There are many different types of squash and many different ways to cook it. It can be simmered on top of the stove, cooked in the microwave or pressure cooker and baked in the oven.
There are also tons of different ways to season squash. My mom used to actually cook it in a pressure cooker and mash it up with butter, salt, pepper, and of course, maple syrup.
Today, I’m going to bake it in the oven and then add a Granny Smith apple instead of the maple syrup. The tartness of the Granny Smith apple gives this dish a real zing! Adding cinnamon and nutmeg complete the flavors.
You can buy squash already peeled and cut at the grocery store. Or just peel it yourself. It will be a bit more expensive if you buy it already ready-peeled.
Butternut squash always stains your hands orange when you are cutting it. I wear disposable gloves when I’m preparing this squash. (Yes, I know it does look odd!)
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Cut top part of the squash from the bulb end.
Then peel it with a knife or…
…with a vegetable peeler.
Cut the bulb end in half
And remove (and discard) all the seeds and stringy bits with a spoon. (Just like when you are making a Jack-o-lantern.)
Chop the squash into one inch pieces. (You need about 3 cups in total)
With a vegetable peeler, peel two Granny Smith apples.
Then remove the core with a small knife.
Keep the apple on the cutting board when you do this step. If you are holding the apple in your hand while trying to remove the core, you could easily slip and cut the palm of you hand!
Now slice the apple
Put ½ of the squash into an 8 inch square baking dish
Layer one of the sliced apples on top
Add the rest of the squash
And now layer the second apple
Sprinkle on 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, and ½ teaspoon of nutmeg.
Cover the dish with tin foil and bake it in the oven for about 45-55 minutes.
When the squash and apples are tender, remove the dish from the oven. Add 3 Tablespoons of butter, ½ teaspoon of salt, and ¼ teaspoon of ground pepper. With your potato masher start mashing. Keep mashing until everything is smooth and well blended.
Enjoy!
P.S.: Watch this video if you’re interested in using butternut squash to make a great soup!
]]>Ginger is a great flavouring and appears in a wide range of cuisines. Its distinctive taste works as an addition in savoury dishes such as stir fries and curries as well as cakes and sweets.
Fresh ginger is a root that is all gnarled and knobbly and covered in a thin skin.
At the supermarket, avoid ginger that looks wrinkled, discolored, or moldy. (Some stores leave ginger in the bins until it’s completely shrivelled. Don’t buy it like this.)
Look for ginger with a thin skin that’s smooth, unblemished, and almost translucent.
If you break off a knob, the texture should be firm, crisp, and not overly fibrous (making it easier to slice). It should have a fresh, spicy fragrance.
Keep in mind that, like many spices, ginger’s flavor fades as it cooks. So for more gingery oomph, add some or all of the ginger at the end of cooking. Ginger can have a very sharp peppery flavor. Biting down on a big chunk could bring tears to your eyes!
To remove the skin from fresh mature ginger, peel with a paring knife.
Or it can be peeled with a vegetable peeler
There are a variety of ways to cut ginger.
Grated Ginger
Sliced Ginger
Minced Ginger
Matchstick strips (julienne) ginger
Storing Ginger
Wrap any uncut ginger tightly in plastic wrap and it should keep about 3 weeks. You can also freeze ginger for up to 6 months.
]]>So, in the meantime, my George Forman is fool-proof!
All you have to do is plug it in and preheat the grill. When the light goes off, the grill is very hot and ready to go to work. The grill plates are sloped so that the fat will drip off as you cook. Before adding your meat, fish, or chicken, be sure the drip dish is in place in front of the grill. (Remember the cover should be closed when preheating and grilling with George!)
I have one of the original grills. The newer versions offer all sorts of bells and whistles which I think are not really necessary. But then again you may want to make your own waffles from scratch some day! Granted the newer versions do have removable grill plates which makes it a bit easier to clean. But the surface is non-stick to begin with so it’s no big deal to wash. Just make sure the grill is stone cold before you start washing it.
Keep the small cookbook that comes with the grill. It has a chart that will tell you how long to cook everything. Because you are cooking both the top and the bottom at the same time, cooking times are very different than if you used a grill pan on top of the stove.
Steak comes in a variety of “cuts” which range a lot in price. If you can afford it, I’ve discovered that a boneless rib eye steak is the absolute best steak to cook at home on my George Forman. Rib eye steaks can cost any where from $16 to $22 per pound here in Boston. Not cheap, but ever so mouth-wateringly delicious!
Tell me what you like to cook with George!
]]>Unlike the former President, I do like broccoli and with a recent stir-fry dish have even begun to convert my husband, so it’s not banned in our household!
When buying broccoli look for firm, compact clusters of small flower buds (florets). The buds should be dark green and may have a purplish tint to the edge.
If the florets are enlarged, opened, yellowish-green or wilted, then the broccoli is not fresh.
Try and buy your broccoli just before you need it. You can store broccoli in the fridge, in an open plastic bag, for up to three days, but the vitamin content will diminish the longer you leave it.
Broccoli can be blanched (boiled in a small amount of water), microwaved (with almost no water), steamed (on a rack above simmering water), or stir-fried.
Make only what you are going to eat for dinner. Given fresh broccoli will cook in just a few minutes there is no point in making enough for leftovers. Also be sure not to overcook broccoli or it will not only turn to mush, but will develop into a very unappealing shade of green.
I use both the stalk and the floret for stir-fry, but only the floret as a vegetable side dish.
For an ordinary dinner at home, I like to microwave broccoli just to the point where it is almost cooked and then add salt and pepper. Sounds simple and it is!
Wash, don’t soak, broccoli in cool running water just before preparing.
Trim off any leaves that are attached to the stalk.
Trim off just the end of each stalk, leaving about 2 inches below the florets.
If you are using the stalk, peel the tough outer layer using a vegetable peeler or a knife.
Cut the stalk in half lengthwise.
Holding the strips together, cut the stalk crosswise to the desired size.
Finish trimming the broccoli by cutting each floret off the head, leaving a little stalk on each cluster. If the individual florets are fairly large, they can be sliced in half lengthwise to make smaller pieces.
Always start with a microwave safe dish. Use a dish that is just big enough to hold the broccoli.
Put the florets in the dish in a single layer.
For ½ pound of broccoli, add 1 Tablespoon of water.
Cover with plastic wrap. Be sure to leave a steam vent in the corner.
Microwave on high about 3-4 minutes
With a fork stab the broccoli to check to see if it is cooked to your liking. Do not overcook. Broccoli will retain its bright green color, crisp tenderness and sweetness if you cook it just until a fork can pierce the stalk.
Sprinkle on some salt and pepper and…Enjoy!
Ingredients for 2 Servings:
P.S.: If you’re a huge broccoli fan, try out chicken and broccoli stir fry recipe!
]]>The only ingredient that may be new to you in this recipe is mirin. It’s a sweet rice cooking wine found on the grocery store shelf, most likely in the international section.
This particular stir fry recipe actually has very few ingredients. Consequently the flavor is very mild. Eventually as you learn to cook, you will start adding more interesting and intense flavors to your stir frys.
One big thing you need to know about stir-fry is that you need to get absolutely all your ingredients ready in advance. Don’t even think of turning on the stove until all the steps are ready to go. You definitely need to start cooking the rice right now! Otherwise it won’t be ready when the chicken is all cooked!
Get the ingredients out and measured for the sauce.
The sauce needs to simmer (in a separate small pan) for 3-4 minutes while the chicken is cooking. (Simmer means to cook gently on low heat; tiny bubbles will just break the surface and a waft of steam will also linger over the surface of the sauce.)
So in a small pan mix:
4 teaspoons of sugar
6 Tablespoons of water with
9 Tablespoons of mirin and
4 ½ Tablespoons of soy sauce
Bring all this to a simmer.
Wash and cut the scallions into 1 inch pieces and set them aside.
Cut up 1 pound of chicken into bite sizes
Put ½ cup of flour in a zip lock bag and then add the bite size pieces of chicken.
Give the bag a good shake to be sure all the chicken pieces are coated with the flour.
Then shake the chicken out in a mesh colander.
Or you could just pick up each piece with your fingers and set it on a plate. You definitely need to throw away the left over flour. Once it has been exposed to raw chicken you can’t re-use it.
Now the chicken is ready for frying. Add 4 Tablespoons of oil (vegetable, corn or peanut) to a wok or large fry pan and heat it up on medium high heat. Then add the chicken.
Quickly brown the chicken in the oil. Keep stirring and moving the chicken around the pan until it is cooked through. That should take about 3-4 minutes.
Pour the simmering sauce over the chicken
and cook it all together until the sauce thickens.
That will take about another 3-4 minutes.
Add the cut scallions and let it continue cooking for another 30 seconds.
Serve the chicken on top of cooked rice.
Enjoy!
Source: Carry-Out Cuisine by Phyllis Meras
P.S.: For another great stir fry recipe check out my Chicken Stir-Fry with Broccoli (video)
]]>Learning how to measure ingredients is essential when you are learning how to cook. The correct balance of ingredients is what makes food taste good. We all know when there is too much salt in something, and can certainly tell when something is too spicy or bitter.
Professional cooks make it look so easy by just throwing in a dash of this or a pinch of that, but they have the experience and the feel for measuring without always having to use the exact measuring tool.
When you are learning how to cook, it is best to try to be precise with all your measurements.
My guest blogger from England, Jon Sacker, taught us how to measure by weight. In the US, we mostly measure by volume.
(Be sure not to confuse the term “fluid ounces” with the term “ounces” that we use when referring to weight. Ounces measure weight, fluid ounces measure volume.)
The three basic tools used to measure ingredients in cooking are:
A basic set of measuring spoons come with 5 spoons:
Recipes are always written with the small t representing teaspoon and the capital T representing tablespoon.
By the way, 3 teaspoons = 1 Tablespoon; Who Knew?
Even though the words are the same, standard measuring spoons are *not* the same as the teaspoons and tablespoons in the drawer that you use to eat with.
It is very important to be exact when measuring things like baking powder and baking soda. (These are leavening agents which means they make things rise.) Always even off the top of the measuring spoon with the straight edge of a knife.
When measuring spices the spoon often doesn’t fit into the mouth of the spice jar. Pour some spice in a small bowl and then measure.
To get the spice back into the jar make a funnel out of paper and it just pour the unused spice back into the jar!
Dry measuring cups are usually made of metal or plastic and have an even rim. You dip the cup into the dry ingredients and level off with the straight edge of a knife. (Again, don’t confuse the word “cup” in a recipe with cups that are used for drinking.)
This is method of measuring is called “dip and sweep”
To measure brown sugar always use dry measuring cups. You need to always pack the brown sugar into the measuring cup. This would be very difficult and not very accurate with a liquid measuring cup.
If you need to measure anything sticky like honey, syrups, or even peanut butter, spray the measuring cup with vegetable spray. This will help the sticky ingredients slip right out of the measure when you’re done.
If you are brewing fresh coffee, one “scoop” measures 1/8 cup or 2 tablespoons of coffee (to 5 ½ ounces of water). I always use two scoops with my French Press coffee maker.
Finally, there are liquid measuring cups, which have a pour spout and a handle which helps when adding the liquid ingredients to your other ingredients. The measurement markings are down from the rim, which helps to prevent spilling. There are 8 fluid ounces per cup.
Tempted as you might be to use your kitchen glasses to measure, do you know how many ounces of liquid your kitchen glasses hold?
When you’re measuring liquids, be sure to look on the outside, not the inside of the cup. Always look at eye level, but don’t hold the cup up to your eye level. I guarantee you will not be able to hold it steady or level and your measuring will be off.
Put the cup on a flat surface, bend down and look at the outside of the cup to get an accurate measurement
There are some liquid measuring cups on the market today, specifically designed to look down into the cup for the proper measurement. For today, we are using only the classic glass measuring cup.
All sticks of butter are made up of 8 Tablespoons, which is also ½ cup of butter.
There are markings on the wrapper indicating Tablespoons. Sometimes the wrapper gets twisted making the two ends a bit wonky. If you want just 1 Tablespoon check the lines.
It’s best not to measure ingredients over your mixing bowl. If you are adding a teaspoon of salt, for example, and are measuring it over a cup of flour, if the box of salt slips, you could ruin your creation!
If a recipe calls for a pinch of something, it is literally what fits between your thumb and forefinger, or about 1/16 teaspoon!
A pinch is smaller than a dash.
So a dash is bigger than 1/16 of a teaspoon but… less than and 1/8 teaspoon of dry ingredients. I know this sounds ridiculous!
Fortunately a pinch and a dash usually refer to salt, and that is according to your own taste!
Scant, on the other hand just means “slightly less than.” For example a scant ½ cup would mean slightly less than ½ cup.
And of course heaping is slightly more, in fact overflowing!
For now…that’s all you need to know about measuring!
Cheers!
Other posts on measuring:
]]>You can follow the exact same recipe with just a few extras!
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
Wash 5-7 small red potatoes. You don’t have to peel them. Cut the potatoes into about 1 inch chunks. Any roasting potato will do as long as you cut them into roughly the same size chunks.
After you chop each ingredient put them all into a large plastic bag as you go. This saves on having to wash a bowl!
This time, instead of garlic powder, why not try some fresh crushed garlic.
Remove the stem and seeds from 1 red pepper and cut it into bite size.
Peel 3 medium carrots and cut into one inch chunks.
Peel and cut 1 medium onion in half, then in quarters, then in 1/8’s.
Pour 4 tablespoons of olive oil over the whole thing and mix it all together inside the bag.
Don’t forget to add a sprinkle of salt, pepper and some dried rosemary.
Gently squish everything together in the bag.
Empty the bag out on to a baking sheet with sides.
Now for the sausage! Remove the casing from 1 pound of sausage and cut into 1 inch chunks.
I like to use many different types of sausages.
Turkey sausage, hot or sweet sausage, they all taste great in this recipe. Just choose your favorite.
Put the dinner in the preheated oven.
Bake it for 15 minutes.
Then with a spatula, give it all a stir
then stick it back in the oven for another 15-20 minutes or until everything is crispy and roasted.
By now your kitchen has a wonderful aroma permeating through it and all of your neighbors will be wishing they were invited to dinner!
Enjoy!
]]>To be done properly, garlic bread should have nice crispy edges, and a warm, soft, buttery center. It’s that combination of textures that makes it special.
Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees
Put one stick of softened butter in a medium size bowl.
Crush one clove of garlic and add it to the butter.
Then add ¼ teaspoon of salt, 1/8 teaspoon of black pepper, ½ teaspoon of oregano and some parsley.
Mix this all together.
Now, using a sharp bread knife we are going to slice this loaf of Italian bread, making each slice about 1 inch wide. Slice the bread almost completely through.
Using an ordinary kitchen knife spread the butter between each slice, and on top of it.
Wrap the bread in the tin foil. Put the bread on a baking sheet with sides. (This will make it much easier to lift the hot bread out of the oven after it is cooked.)
Bake it on the baking sheet in your preheated oven for about 20 minutes.
Enjoy!
Garlic Bread Ingredients:
(4-6 Servings)
The box grater…
…which you can buy for less than $10 offers a different grating option on each of its four sides.
I have taken a wedge of Parmesan cheese…
…and shredded some on each side of the box grater.
It shreds from very fine…
…To slightly bigger…
…to even bigger shreds.
Then to what almost looks like fine slices of Parmesan.
Recipes should tell you if something should be finely grated or coarsely grated. Graters are very sharp and you have to be careful not to shred your knuckles along with the cheese (or vegetable) you are shredding! All you need to do is firmly hold onto the grater and with a downward stroke, start grating.
Flat graters work well and take up only a little space in the drawer. However, they only offer you only one choice for shredding size.
You can buy already-grated cheese in the dairy section of your grocery store. It is usually more expensive than grating your own block of cheese, but is certainly convenient. However, note that store-bought grated cheese dries out very quickly.
Many types of cheese, such as the Gruyere that I use in making my quiche, are not available in a grated format.
Cheers!
]]>Parsley is sold by the bunch. When you buy it make sure it’s bright green and doesn’t look wilted.
Be sure not to confuse flat leaf parsley with cilantro. Cilantro has a very pungent aroma and flavor – most people either love it or hate it!
You can wash and store parsley the same way you wash and store lettuce.
Many recipes call for chopped parsley.
I chop parsley either with a knife or a pair of kitchen shears.
If you are going to use a knife to chop parsley, hold the tip down with your non-dominant hand. (The dominant hand will obviously be holding the handle of the knife!)
Then, holding the tip in place, move your dominant hand up and down, working around the pile of parsley until it is cut to your liking. If you don’t hold the tip down, the parsley will go flying around the room!
Another way to chop parsley is by putting it in a bowl and with kitchen shears, start snipping. Kitchen shears are a great addition to any kitchen. They won’t rust the way regular (desk) scissors would if they got wet.
This is a fast and easy way to chop parsley. Keep snipping until the parsley is all chopped.
I put fresh chopped parsley on almost everything. I love how it looks and how it tastes!
]]>Start off at the deli section of your grocery store. There you will undoubtedly find some great fixings for a picnic.
Some of my favorites are:
and
Enjoy!
]]>Broth is the strained liquid left from cooking vegetables, meat, or fish in water. It is often used as a synonym for bullion.
Stock is basically the same thing but cooked more slowly and has a more intense flavor than broth.
Bouillon cubes or granules are compressed stock that needs to be dissolved before using.
In the olden days, you always had to make your own stock. It is not difficult but it can be time consuming. Food Wishes has an excellent recipe video for making Home Made Chicken Stock. Today, most people buy it in the grocery store.
Store bought stock/broth and bouillon cubes can be VERY salty. Many people cook rice with stock instead of water. You may want to cut back on the salt in your recipe if you are substituting the water for stock.
Reviewers often say the best broth/stock on the market is the Swanson brand name, which comes in liquid form. (The only drawback is that it is heavy to carry home from the grocery store! I have not owned a car for over 20 years!)
A bouillon cube is dehydrated stock formed into a small cube or dried granules. When you want to use one, you just add boiling water.
There are a range of different flavors available. I find the most useful ones are chicken, vegetable, beef and fish. You can get others including lamb, shrimp, duck and tomato.
Do experiment with the different brands of bouillon cubes available in your local stores. There is a real difference in taste and it is well worth finding one you like.
Even before you start adding the stock to your cooking, you might find it handy to make yourself a cup of quick soup by just dissolving a stock cube in hot water.
My cupboard is always stocked with a variety of these cubes!
]]>The separate foods that add up to a great dish are:
Hummus
Hummus is a creamy spread made from chickpeas. Containers can be found in the dairy section of the grocery store. There are a variety of flavors available. Choose what you think sound good!
Pita Bread
This is a round flat bread (also called ‘pocket’ bread) that is available in small and large rounds. If you cut it into wedges it is perfect for dipping in the hummus.
Stuffed Grape Leave
You often see stuffed grape leaves on salad bars. They are literally grape leaves (from a grape vine) stuffed with rice and other ingredients, like mint, raisins and pine nuts. They are great fun to make for the experienced cook, but do take a bit of time! For the moment, I recommend just going with the ones that you can buy in a jar or a can.
Mixed Olives
Most grocery stores have a great fresh selection from which you can choose. Not everyone likes olives so you may want to keep them in a separate serving dish and let your company help themselves.
Feta cheese
This is a fairly salty cheese which is served on a Greek salad. Buy a block and cut it into chunks. Add some fresh tomatoes, fresh ground pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil.
There is no cooking involved here, but your guests will love the variety of tastes and textures this international plate provides.
Enjoy!
P.S. You can vary the proportions to your taste.
]]>Much to my surprise, people tell me they find it hard to prepare rice. Fortunately, it’s not complicated.
Rice comes in many different sizes, shapes and colors. I will focus here on long grain white rice. (The difference between brown and white rice is similar to that between whole wheat bread and white bread. More on brown rice another day!)
In order to cook rice you need to combine rice, water, salt and butter. The salt and butter are optional, so only rice and water are essential.
The proportions are generally two to one: two cups of water to one cup of rice.
The basic steps to cooking rice are:
1. Bring the water to a boil
2. Add the rice, ½ teaspoon of salt and 1 tablespoon of butter, stir once.
3. Cover the pot and return the water to a boil
4. Immediately turn the stove down to simmer and turn the timer on.
The rule is simple: you can tell its done cooking if all the water is absorbed (assuming you have put in the correct proportions of rice and water.)
White rice usually takes about 15 to 20 minutes to cook. Check the rice about 4 minutes before the timer is due to go off. When you take the cover off, the top of the rice may look like it is totally cooked. However, with a spoon, you need to gently move the rice to see if there is still water to be absorbed at the bottom.
Cooking times can differ just because simmer on one stove may not be the same on all stoves.
Don’t over-stir: if you keep stirring the rice while it is cooking it will get very gummy. (Not good!)
If you leave the rice in the pot once you turn the stove off, it will continue to cook. Be careful it doesn’t dry out too much. If it is too dry you can add a couple of tablespoons more of water.
I have actually seen some people cook rice like they do spaghetti, with lots of water which they drain off at the end. I wouldn’t recommend this way. I think it makes the rice very watery when you are serving it. Plus, you are also pouring off a lot of the nutrients.
They do sell so-called “Instant rice” which cooks instantly. You just add boiling water and within a few minutes all the water is absorbed. It sounds like a good plan. But on most brands the texture of the rice is really strange. I’d recommend avoiding it.
Let me know how your rice turns out!
White Rice Ingredients:
(Makes 3 cups of cooked rice)
Lemon juice can be used for multitude of things. It can be part of a salad dressing. It can be added to beverages like water, soda and mixed drinks. It enhances the flavor of chicken and fish. And it can add some vitamin C to your diet.
If you just need a squeeze, then slicing off a wedge of lemon is the way to go. (Wrap what remains in plastic wrap and it should last 4 or 5 days in the refrigerator.)
If you need the juice from a whole lemon, there are a few tricks to make it easier.
Rolling the lemon on the countertop (before you slice it) helps to break down some of the fibers and the juice will flow more freely when you cut it.
You also could zap the lemon in the microwave for 10 seconds. (I did not make that one up — it really works!) This, too, will help the juice to flow.
Some TV chefs cut the lemon in half, and then cup one hand under the lemon as they squeeze the lemon with their other hand. The cupped hand is to catch the seeds. This never works for me. Maybe I have weak hands but I never seem to get enough juice this way and the seeds just go everywhere.
I like to use a juicer. You cut the lemon in half and press it down on the raised bit. The juice collects in the base. You can pick up a juicer for less than $5.
Or there is the “reamer”, which is (also) specifically made for juicing citrus fruit. It’s generally made of wood, and costs about $5 as well.
You cut the lemon in half and press the reamer into the cut side. Then twist and press the reamer at the same time.
This works well, but I like my juicer better.
I then like to pour the juice into a small strainer to capture all those pesky seeds.
They do sell concentrated lemon juice in a bottle. You can also buy it in those little plastic lemons with the green top. I don’t recommend them. If anyone knows a brand that actually tastes like the real thing, I would love to hear about it!
Cheers!
]]>1. A kettle to boil water
Boiling water with an electric kettle is a much better option than using a kettle on the stove top. An electric kettle has an automatic shut off, after the water comes to a boil. So you never have to make a mad dash to get to that screeching kettle.
Prices of an electric kettle can range anywhere from $15.00 to over $100.00. Shop around for the one that fits your budget.
2. Timer
I like the digital ones that screech at you!
3. A Coffee scoop
This measures 1/8 cup or 2 Tablespoons of coffee for every 6 ounces of water. (In this case, as always in cooking, a “cup” is an official measure, not just any old cup!)
4. French Press
There are two pieces to this coffee maker: the glass carafe and the plunger lid. They come in many different sizes, some even with insulated pots.
They too are available in a huge price range depending on how simple or really fancy you want your coffee pot to be. This one costs less than $10. You can pay as much as $60.00 for a really fancy one that is this size!
Buy a package of your favorite ground coffee, preferably “regular or course grind”. Coffee connoisseurs swear that, for a good cup of coffee, you must grind your own beans right before you use them. Maybe, someday – but for now, just buy the ground coffee in your favorite flavor. (I do!)
Here we go!
Step # 1
I use 2 scoops of grounds with my French Press, but you need to experiment a little to figure out how strong you like your coffee.
Step #2
Pour in water that is just off the boil, in other words the kettle has boiled and has been turned off for a few seconds.
Step #3
Stir the coffee with a plastic or wooden spoon (or even a chop stick!) to make sure all the coffee grounds are steeping. (Steep means is let the grounds soak in the water.) Never use a metal spoon to stir the coffee grounds or you may shatter the glass.
Step #4
Put the plunger (also known as the lid) on and press ever so slightly to make sure all the grounds are wet.
Let it steep for about 3 to 4 minutes.
Step #5
Be sure to hold the carafe by the handle then, gently press down the coffee grounds to the bottom of the carafe.
If you press the grounds with too much force, scalding water may shoot out of the spout.
Then just pour into a coffee cup, add cream and sugar to your taste and I’m sure you’ll discover that the preparation time was worth it.
Enjoy!
French Press Coffee Ingredients:
Today I’m going to talk about “conventional” oven settings.
There are many recipes for making fish, chicken, nachos, etc., that will say bake and others that say broil as a method of cooking. Do not confuse them. These are two very different ways to prepare food. With “baking” you always have to start with preheating the oven.
Note from Jon Sacker: A quick translation for your British readers, or American readers of British recipes, broiling (US) = grilling (UK), which should not be confused with grilling (US) = barbequing (UK). Hope that helps :-}
Preheating
Preheating an oven is essential or you will throw off the cooking times. All cooking times are based on a preheated oven unless otherwise stated in the recipe. Luckily, when most (modern) ovens reach their desired temperature, they beep at you, or a light goes on or off. You then know it is OK to put food in the oven and start the timer.
Conventional ovens all have several settings. In addition to preheat, there is bake, broil, self-clean (if you are lucky!) and some ovens even have a ‘warming drawer.’
Before turning the oven on, make sure the oven racks are in the desired position. It’s easier to move the racks in a cold oven; you are less likely to get burned that way! Baking is usually done in the middle of the oven. Broiling (see below) is usually done closer to the top of the oven.
Bake
Baking is used to cook things like chicken, potatoes, fish, stews, cookies and cakes. Food gets cooked from the outside in. (Unlike a microwave which causes food molecules to vibrate, creating friction that heats and cooks the food in all directions at once.) You check for “done-ness” by examining the internal temperatures, for example by sticking an oven thermometer into the food. While your food is baking, try not to open the door too often to check for done-ness. Every time you open the oven door to see if your food is cooked, your oven temperature will drop and extend the cooking time.
Oven Temperature Metric Conversion Chart:
Farenheit | Celsius | Gas Mark |
---|---|---|
275º F | 140º C | gas mark 1-cool |
300º F | 150º C | gas mark 2 |
325º F | 165º C | gas mark 3-very moderate |
350º F | 180º C | gas mark 4-moderate |
375º F | 190º C | gas mark 5 |
400º F | 200º C | gas mark 6-moderately hot |
425º F | 220º C | gas mark 7- hot |
450º F | 230º C | gas mark 9 |
475º F | 240º C | gas mark 10- very hot |
Broil
Broiling means to cook food (like steaks, hamburgers, chicken breasts) under very direct heat. With a gas oven, you actually see a flame. An electric oven has coils directly above the food. My oven insists the door be closed for the broil to work. Some ovens you have to leave the door open. The oven manual should tell you what works with your oven.
Obviously, the closer you are to the heat source – the higher the heat. If you have positioned the racks too close to the broiler, your steak may get burned on the outside and still be raw on the inside. Many recipes will tell you how far away from the broiler you should be.
Do make sure that the baking dish you are using is safe to put under the broiler. Pyrex dishes are NOT broiler safe and could possibly explode from the intense heat of the broiler!
You can also broil things on an outdoor grill over charcoal or some other heat source. I have been to many barbeques but I have never actually done any outdoor grilling myself! We live in a condominium and don’t do outdoors very well!
Warming Drawer
As noted above, your oven may have a warming drawer. If you are having a dinner party, this is a great place to keep the food warm while waiting for your guests to arrive. The food is kept warm at a very low temperature. As I don’t actually use it very often, I store cooking equipment in my warming drawer.
I hope this brief introduction to conventional oven settings was helpful.
Cheers!
Kathy
]]>This “Drip Coffee” maker makes only 4 (5 ounce) cups of coffee; which really means 2 normal size cups of coffee. Drip machines, no matter what size, all work pretty much the same way. Just remember to always begin with the machine turned off.
Step 1
Remove the coffee basket. Rip open that packet of coffee and place the inner sealed packet of coffee in the basket. (Don’t open the inner sealed bag as that acts as a filter for the coffee.) Slide the basket back into the coffee machine.
Step 2
Using COLD water fill the glass carafe and pour the water into the back chamber of the coffee machine. Even though the water needs to heat up, NEVER start with hot water.
Hot water has impurities in it from the pipes so for all cooking start with cold water (even spaghetti water)! Plus these pots are designed to start with cold water.
Coffee afficionados can jump in here about why we should always start with cold water for the sake of the taste of the coffee.
Step 3
Press the on button and let the machine do its thing. Some of them have a pause button so that you can have a few slugs before the whole pot is finished brewing.
Step 4
Coffee’s ready!
***************
We have just arrived in Germany. This is the coffee machine in our hotel room in Berlin…
…can’t wait to give this one a try!
]]>When slicing an onion you first want to stabilize the onion. Sharp knives and rolling onions can be can be a potentially dangerous situation.
Slice a tiny bit off the fattest part of the onion. Now balance the onion on the small flat area you have created with this slice.
This will stop the onion from rolling around on you.
Holding the onion firmly, start making slices from the top end to the root end.
You can make the slices as thin or as thick as you choose!
Sliced onions are great on salads, particularly red ones! Or to perk up your hamburgers, you could fry them in just a bit of olive oil, add some salt and pepper, and you’ve got yourself a real treat!
Even more startcooking.com onion links:
Onions – Chives, Shallots, Spanish and Pearl
]]>When you buy onions, be sure to look for firm onions that are free of cuts and blemishes.
There are two main classifications of onions: the green onion (or scallion) and the dry onion.
Green onions are often eaten raw on salads or used as a garnish.
The dry onions have a juicy flesh and are covered with a dry papery skin. They come in a wide range of sizes, shapes and flavors.
If a recipe just says “chopped onions” buy the “yellow”onions. 88% of all onions eaten are the yellow onion. (It’s not the most original name but it certainly is descriptive!)
Another type of yellow onion is the Vidalia onion which is the sweetest and juiciest of them all.
It looks just like a regular yellow onion, but tastes quite different from the all-purpose onion. Look out for the sign at the grocery store.
Red or purple onions, another example of the dry onion, are often eaten raw or on salads and hamburgers.
They have a vibrant color and tend to be a bit sweeter than the yellow onion.
Onions can last for several weeks (if not months) without compromising their taste or nutritional value. However, you must be sure to store them in a cool, dry, well-ventilated place.
Once you cut an onion, wrap whatever portion you don’t use in plastic wrap, and put it in the refrigerator. It will keep about 4 days.
Some onions make you cry like a baby, others seem to have no effect on your eyes.
Unfortunately, you can’t tell in advance which is which, just from looking at the onion. You just have to cut into it and hope for the best.
A really sharp knife actually makes a difference as well when cutting an onion. Some say “the sharper the knife, the less you cry.”
Peeling the onion under running water can help a little if the onion is really bothering your eyes
You could also try freezing the whole onion for about 20 minutes before you cut into it. That always works for me!
Americans eat on average about 19 pounds of onions per year. Yikes! That’s a lot of onions – but not compared to the onion consumption of many other countries around the world!
As Julia Child once said: “It’s hard to imagine a civilization without onions.”
Here are a few more startcooking.com’s posts on onions:
Onions – Chives, Shallots, Spanish and Pearl
Onions – Frying (Caramelized and Sautéed)
]]>I have one that I use just to cut raw meat, chicken or fish. It’s made of some type of acrylic material that is safe to put in the dishwasher. Keeping a dedicated cutting board just for this purpose means that I don’t have to worry about inadvertently spreading the germs that raw meat, chicken and fish contain.
Wooden boards are fabulous and the best choice to look after your knives. Glass boards look fabulous, but they are nasty to knives — your knives will dull quickly. Most acrylic boards are OK for knives, but wood is best.
Wooden cutting boards should only be washed by hand with hot soapy water and dried immediately. They should never be left to soak in water. Minor stains and odors can be removed with lemon juice and by rubbing the stain with salt.
Every so often you will want to sanitize both wood and plastic cutting boards with a diluted chlorine bleach or vinegar solution consisting of one teaspoon of liquid chlorine bleach in one quart of water or a one to five dilution of vinegar. Flood the surface with a sanitizing solution and allow it to stand for several minutes, then rinse and air dry or pat dry with paper towels.
Occasionally, you need to rub mineral oil on your wooden boards, or else they may dry out and age very quickly.
You can buy mineral oil at some grocery stores, usually in the non-food aisles. Or you could just get some at the hardware store.
Cooking oils, like vegetable, corn, or olive oils are NEVER used to oil wooden cutting boards. These oils will turn rancid in time and ruin your good cutting boards.
Before I use any of my cutting boards I put a wet paper towel under the board.
This stops the cutting board from sliding all over the countertop. (Sharp knives and slippery boards are not a safe combination!)
Cheers!
Kathy
]]>A pound (or ½ kilo) of ground beef is a great item to have on hand. There are tons of things you can make with ground beef; hamburgers, meatloaf, chili, English muffin pizzas, meatballs, lasagna, sloppy Joe’s. Enough said?
I have already talked about buying and storing ground beef. Today I am going to show you how to brown ground beef.
Technically, raw meat should be cooked to 160 degrees to kill off the bacteria. If you don’t have a thermometer, then just be sure there is no pink on the ground beef.
Preheat your fry pan for just a minute or two, on medium setting.
If you put the meat in a cold pan it will most likely stick to the bottom of the pan.
A good way to preheat your pan is to put a few drops of water into the pan. When the drops of water have evaporated, the pan is hot enough!
After the pan is heated add the beef to the pan.
Now, using a wooden spoon or Silicone spatula, mash and stir and twist and turn the meat so that it gets broken up as it cooks.
Keep stirring and mashing until all the pink has disappeared and all the meat has turned brown in color.
This should take about 5 to 7 minutes. After the meat has cooked, I like to strain it in a colander in order to drain off the fat, so that my creations don’t taste greasy or fatty.
That’s all there is to browning ground beef.
What are some of your favorite things to make with browned ground beef?
]]>An ordinary, simple, plain, basic meal can be turned into an occasion by just taking the time to “set” the table. The first year my husband and I were together, we ate in the dining room every single night, by candle light, no matter what I made for dinner. It was wonderful! We don’t do it that way as regularly now, but it’s special when we do.
There are a just few basic rules about setting a table.
First, the plate should be approximately one inch from the edge of the table. The forks go on the left, and the knives go on the right, with the sharp side of the knife pointed towards the plate. Water or wine glasses go just above the knife.
For a more formal setting, the bread plate goes to the left of the fork. If you have a small knife for the bread or rolls, lie it across the bread plate.
Forks and spoons for dessert are placed at a cross ways at the top of the plate.
Most people wait to put coffee cups out until after the main meal is served, but whether you do it before or after, they go to the right of the knife.
To summarize, if you’re sitting down at a formal setting, the bread plate on your left is yours, you reach for the drinking glasses on your right. If there is more than one fork and knife start from the outside and work your way in for each course.
There is nothing better than candlelight to add a bit of ambiance to a meal. Even if you are eating off paper plates with plastic cutlery, you could change the entire tone of the meal by dimming the lights and eating by candlelight. But remember, the dinner table is not the place to use scented candles. You don’t want the scent of the candle to compete with the food.
In fact, watch out for other scents. Make sure the scent from flowers is not overwhelming the room or the food. Perfumes and aftershaves are great as long as you don’t drench yourself before dinner.
Centerpieces (e.g., flower displays) should not be too high as to block the view of another dinner across the table. Talk about a conversation stopper!
Any other tips for improving a simple but elegant table setting?
]]>Potatoes baked in the oven taste much better than potatoes baked in the microwave (video). From the oven they develop a sort of crispy skin with a really fluffy center. Today I am going to talk about the oven version.
The oven needs to be really hot, 400 degrees hot, when you stick the potatoes in it. So before we go any further, go turn the oven on to 400 degrees to preheat. (This could take up to 15 minutes, maybe even longer depending on your oven.)
All potatoes need to get washed first. A vegetable scrub brush works beautifully.
Or you could just use your hands.
With a small sharp knife or a fork, puncture about 4 or 5 holes in the potato. If you don’t the potato may explode from the steam developing inside the potato! (Not a good thing!)
I then rub about 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil all over the potato.
You may be tempted to wrap a potato in tin foil. DON’T! You’ll end up with the potato getting steamed in the foil instead of just baked. You may as well just cook it in the microwave.
Place the potato directly on the oven rack. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, depending upon the size of the potato.
Potatoes are as hard as a brick when they are raw. By the time it’s cooked you’ll be able to squeeze it. Test it to see if it is tender by inserting a knife into the potato. The knife should slide in easily.
Remove the potato from the oven with an oven mitt. (It drives me nuts when people on TV use a dish towel instead of pot holders! If the dish towel is at all wet, you’ll get burned! But, I digress.)
You can just slice the top of an oven baked potato…
and give it a squeeze; it should be nice and fluffy.
Now it’s time to add your favorite topping. In addition to butter, sour cream and bacon, you could try salsa, cottage cheese, baked beans, chili or plain yogurt. What are your favorite toppings?
Enjoy!
Oven Baked Potatoes Ingredients:
(4 Servings)
My Mom used to roast peeled potatoes in the bottom of the pan when she was making a pork roast. The drippings made them really crispy and tasty.
Today, I’m taking a few short cuts – I’m going to cut my washed and unpeeled potatoes into wedges, coat them with oil and spices and roast them in a hot oven until they are really crispy.
Depending on where you are from, these potatoes may be called cottage fries or potato wedges.
The picture below shows the ingredients you need to assemble:
You’ll need:
6 Medium Potatoes ( about 2 lbs.)
4 Tablespoons of Olive oil
2 teaspoons of Dried Rosemary (optional)
1 Tablespoon of Salt
1 teaspoon of Pepper and
A sprinkle of Garlic powder and Onion powder (which are both optional)
The equipment you’ll need is:
A Knife
A Plastic bag
A Vegetable Brush and
A Baking sheet with sides
Position your oven rack is in lower third of the oven. Do this before you pre-heat the oven.
You need to go and preheat the oven to 425 F. (220 C., Gas Mark 7) degrees.
425 degrees is a hot oven, so be careful! It will take about 20 minutes to preheat your oven to this temperature.
Many ovens have several different setting like “bake” or “broil” or “preheat” or “self clean” (if you are lucky!) to name just a few. For roasting potatoes be sure the cooking mode is set for “bake”.
I am not going to peel the potatoes, as the skin will add a really nice texture to the roasted potato.
Wash the potatoes under running water either with a vegetable brush or by rubbing the potatoes vigorously with your hands. Remember….soap is never used to wash fruit or veggies!
Then dry them with a paper towel.
Cut the potatoes in half lengthwise, then into narrow wedges about 1 inch thick. Try to cut them all the same size so that they’ll cook evenly.
Stick all the cut potatoes into a clean plastic bag. I like to use the zip-lock bags to seal them tight.
Now add the spices to the bag.
Pour the olive oil over the potatoes.
Add the dried rosemary to the bag.
Add the salt and pepper.
Add a sprinkle of garlic or onion powder if you like.
Close the bag and gently squish everything together with your hands.
Empty the bag of potatoes onto the baking sheet.
(Always use a baking sheet with sides for roasting vegetables.)
Place the baking sheet in the oven.
Roast the potatoes for about 20 minutes. Then turn them over using a spatula or a pair of tongs.
Roast for an additional 20-30 minutes, depending how browned and crispy you like them. Sometimes I leave them in the oven even longer. Watch it though. There’s a fine line between really crispy and burnt.
They will be very hot! Tempting as they look, let them cool a few minutes before biting into them!
They are fabulous as is, but you could dunk them in sour cream or ketchup. You decide!
Enjoy!
Roasted Potatoes Ingredients:
(4-6 Servings)
Some say chewing parsley helps. I say…plan your social life carefully!
Garlic’s healing powers come from the sulphorous compounds it contains. But those compounds feed the bacteria in your mouth, causing bad breath.
Parsley is the best weapon against garlic breath. That’s why many recipes that include garlic also include parsley. Chewing parsley with your garlicky meal seems to contain the problem to some extent.
But it’s not enough to just sprinkle a little parsley on top of what you’re eating. You need to chew at least one sprig of fresh parsley, ideally more, with your meal. Chop up a sprig of fresh parsley or two and add it to the meal somewhere, or put it on the plate as a garnish.
Basically you can’t get rid of garlic breath. But you can mask it. Toothpaste, mouthwash, strong chewing gum, and commercial remedies for bad breath might camouflage your breath for an hour or two after eating garlic.
Some people say that chewing cardamom seeds work as well as parsley, though it’s hard to work those seeds into the meal. Cardamom seeds pack a powerful punch of flavor, and not everyone likes them, but try them and tell me how they work out!
To remove the scent of garlic from your hands, try rubbing them on your stainless steel sink for 30 seconds! (I’m not kidding!) If you don’t have a stainless steel sink you can actually buy, for about $12, a stainless steel bar of soap.
Blomus makes these bars, whose sole purpose is to remove not just the smell of garlic, but fish odors as well. I have no clue how this works, but I promise you it does. Does anyone know why?
Any body have further questions about (or comments on) garlic?
]]>A small amount of garlic goes a long way.
Crushing or mincing garlic releases more essential oils than just slicing the garlic. The more oil released, the stronger the flavor. Cooked garlic has a much softer and sweeter flavor than raw garlic, which can have a bit of a bite if too much is used.
This is what sliced, minced and crushed garlic looks like.
You need a garlic press to crush garlic. The price of a garlic press can range anywhere from a low of about $4.00 to a high of about $25.00. Mine was $8. Many of the expensive ones have nubs so that when you flip the press back on itself, it helps to clear the garlic out of the little holes. It’s helpful but not essential.
Put the peeled garlic into press.
Close the press.
Squeeze hard until all the garlic is pressed through.
A garlic press isn’t useful for doing much but pressing garlic, but you’ll be surprised at how much you use it. I think it’s worth getting one!
When it comes to mincing or slicing a clove of garlic, first choose a knife you are comfortable using. For some people, it will be a small paring knife like this.
Try to make the slices as thin as possible. (There are some movies where you see people slicing garlic with a razor blade to get the slices really thin!)
Once the garlic is sliced you can then mince it. Use a chopping motion with the knife, holding down the tip.
You will need to carefully brush the garlic off your knife, as it tends to pile up on the knife as you continue to mince.
That’s it! Stay tuned for Curing Garlic Breath!
]]>
My next three posts are going to be about preparing garlic for cooking. We’ll cover:
1. Peeling garlic
2. Slicing, mincing and crushing garlic
3. Getting the garlic smell off your hands and breath
First, peeling.
A fresh bulb of garlic can be found in the produce section of the grocery store. It is very inexpensive. If it is stored in a cool dark place, it should last up to eight weeks.
This is a picture of whole bulbs of garlic.
It is made up of 10-16 cloves, and each clove is covered in a papery like skin.
(Note from Jon Sacker: “It’s worth pointing out to the ‘startcooking’ readers that one can of course simply ease a single clove or two away from the bulb and then top and smash that. It’s not necessary to use the whole bulb”. – thanks Jon!)
There are two very efficient (and fun) ways to remove that papery skin. One way is to first cut off the base of the clove.
Then place the clove on a board, and gently slam it with the flat side of a big knife. Be sure the sharp edge of the knife is pointed away from you.
The skin should burst so that you can then remove it. A very satisfying activity!
Or you can roll the garlic bulb in a special tool—a garlic skin removing tube…
…and the skin magically slips off the clove.
This tube is like a soft silicone canolli pastry shell. They do cost about $8, which is kind of expensive when you could just use the flat of your knife.
The choice is yours!
Next, we’ll talk about slicing, mincing and crushing garlic.
]]>Why anyone would (for example) mix ingredients with their hands, without first removing their rings, is totally beyond me! Your jewellery may be beautiful, but the microscopic germs lurking on and under its surfaces could put you out of action for days!
So before you startcooking, remove the BLING!
It should go without saying, but it’s really essential that the rules of good hygiene must be closely followed in the kitchen.
The germs that can cause food poisoning are usually controlled by heating (cooking) and/or chilling (refrigerating) our food, but given half a chance, they can easily spread around the kitchen — via hands, chopping boards, cloths, knives and other utensils.
Rule 1: Clean kitchen surfaces after every stage of preparing your recipe. Try to ‘clean as you go’. This may sound a little obsessive, but it’s not.
Raw meat, poultry, fish, eggs and many other raw foods are the most common sources of germs, but they can easily cross-contaminate other foods. After handling these foods, always wash your hands, utensils and surfaces thoroughly before you touch anything else.
Rule 2. One important way of stopping cross-infection is to make sure that you always use a different chopping-board for your raw meat and everything else. If you keep one for raw meat and fish, and another for all your other chopping, you will be making a major contribution to your health and kitchen safety.
Rule 3. After use, wash all your dishes and utensils with hot water and dish washing liquid. (Don’t just run them under the water faucet!) Change the water regularly, then rinse in clean, hot water. When possible, leave every thing to drain until dry.
Rule 4. Use paper towels whenever possible, if you can afford to buy them. Dish towels can be a source of cross-contamination so use them sparingly and change them regularly. Be sure to wash them in a hot-wash cycle.
Rule 5: Use the “sani-rinse” cycle on your dishwasher if anyone in your household has a cold or the flu. This is a REALLY hot cycle that totally annihilates germs and bacteria.
This is a good start on Kitchen Hygiene. What’s next on the Kitchen Hygiene list?
]]>
Simply rinsing the tips of fingertips under cold water does NOT count. Here are some reminders:
When to wash your hands
When it comes to good hygeine in the kitchen, it’s always better to be safe than sorry!
]]>Cooking pasta is really very easy, until it goes wrong. And then it’s a disaster!
But if you follow a few simple rules, there is no reason why it need ever be troublesome.
The rules really are very simple:
1. Use a BIG pot
2. Boil lots of water (Cover the pot — the water will boil faster)
3. Add salt when the water comes to the boil
4. Put in your pasta and bring it back to the boil
5. Give the pasta a stir
6. Cook the pasta for no longer than it says on the packet.
1 and 2. Use a BIG Pot and boil lots of water.
The first mistake people make when cooking pasta is the size of their pot. Pasta needs a lot of space to move around in while it cooks. If it doesn’t have this space, then there’s a good chance that the pasta will stick together or to the sides of the pan, with disastrous consequences.
Technically, 1 pound of pasta yields 8 servings, according to what most boxes say. However, in my family it’s usually 4 servings! What can I say…hearty appetites!
To cook 1 pound of pasta, it is recommended that you use 4 quarts of water. That means you will need a 6-quart pot. (In addition to the water, the pasta needs to fit in as well.) If you cook a lot of pasta it is worth investing in a big pot – it’s also really useful for other dishes, especially for making soups.
Even though we are going to be bringing the water to a boil, be sure to start off with cold tap water. Apparently, hot water enables the impurities in the pipes to come through the pipes faster.
3. Add salt to the water when it comes to the boil.
The addition of salt is vitally important to the cooking process, as it ensures even cooking throughout the depth of the pasta. If you don’t add salt the pasta acquires a slimy texture when cooked. But don’t add it too early or it will just make the pot take longer to come to a boil.
You need to add 2 tablespoons of salt to the water when cooking pasta for four, (oops I mean eight.)
Very little of the salt stays with the pasta when it is served. (It stays in the cooking water.) So those on a low salt diet don’t have to worry too much about the amount of salt that goes into the water.
4 and 5. Put in the pasta all at once and bring it back to the boil.
As the pasta comes back to the boil, give it a good stir with a wooden spoon, a pair of long tongs, or a spatula to make sure that none of the pasta is sticking together.
6. Cook the pasta for no longer than it says on the packet.
When the water comes back to the boil start your timing. This is VERY important. (I use a timer that beeps at me after the set timing.)
On the packet will be the cooking time for that particular pasta. Do be aware that different manufacturers’ times are different – even for the same type of pasta.
Once the pasta is getting near the set time it should be ready, lift out a piece of pasta with a fork or a pair of tongs and bite it to see if it is cooked. The pasta is cooked when it is slightly firm to the bite, a condition called al dente.
Repeat the biting test as the pasta nears the point of perfection. As soon as this point is reached, you should stop cooking straight away and drain the pasta through a colander. Don’t overcook pasta!
You don’t want the pasta to sit around once it’s cooked. It will go soggy, so be ready to serve up your pasta and sauce as soon as the pasta is cooked.
Some people recommend that you put oil in the water when you add the salt (step 3). I really don’t recommend adding oil because while it may stop the pasta sticking, pasta that’s cooked in oily water will become oily itself. As a result, the sauce slides off, doesn’t get absorbed, and you have flavorless pasta.
Oh, and by the way: Tossing the strand of spaghetti on the wall to see if it sticks is not my way of checking for tenderness. Let’s just say I have heard it has been done that way.
Enjoy your pasta! Any questions?
Cooking Pasta Ingredients:
(6-8 Servings)
With over 500 different types of pasta available, it is one of the most popular foods in the world today. It is incredibly versatile and can be served in a ton of different ways.
A few packets of dried pasta kept in the cupboard can be the basis for a wide range of easy-to-produce meals. (See links at the bottom of this post)
You can buy pasta dried and in packets from the supermarket. Many supermarkets and specialty stores also sell fresh and frozen pasta. Pasta: Dry, Fresh or Frozen has some great tips on helping you to decide what to buy.
Which pasta with which sauce?
The best thing about pasta is that there are no hard and fast rules, but a few guidelines for matching your sauce to a particular pasta can be helpful.
Long Pastas – like tagliatelle, spaghetti …
…and linguine – needs lots of lubrication, so they work best with olive-oil-based sauces which coat the pasta completely without drowning it.
Thicker strands, like fettuccine and tagliatelle, can stand up to cream sauces and ragùs (also known as bolognaise).
When cutting vegetables or herbs for long pasta, cut them string-like (also called julienne or match stick) rather than in cubes to help them blend better.
Shaped pastas such as fusilli (twists)…
…and conchiglle (shells)…
…go well with all sort of sauces, but especially those with texture (lumps!). If you think about it those lumps of meat, vegetable, or bean are going to get caught up in the crevices and twists. (Which is a GOOD thing!)
Short, tubular pastas like rigatoni, penne…
or cavatappi …
…go well with sauces that are thick or chunky. Keep the size of the ingredients in mind: tiny macaroni won’t hold a chickpea, while rigatoni may feel too large for a simple tomato sauce, where penne would work better. Ridged pastas provide even more texture for sauces to cling to.
There is really only one type of broad, flat pasta used for baking in the oven (al forno) and that is lasagna. These sheets are designed to be baked between layers of sauce in the oven.
Archimedes’ Laboratory has colorful drawings of just about every imaginable shape of pasta.
************
Here are a few more startcooking.com pasta posts:
Pasta – Beef with Bow Ties and Beans
Pasta – Pasta with Lemon and Garlic
Pasta Sauce – Marinara Ingredients
Cheers!
Kathy
I have already started several discussions on stocking your cupboard , stocking your refrigerator , basic utensils , and knives.
Now, let’s talk about kitchen equipment.
Three usually come with most apartments or houses you may rent, share or (if you’re lucky) buy. They are:
1. A Refrigerator
2. A Sink
3. An Oven with a stove top
Typically, you are on your own after these three.
There is one more absolute, non-optional, essential piece of equipment:
4. Pots and Pans
You will need, at a minimum:
(a) One 6-quart pot for making spaghetti,
(b) One 2-to-3 quart pot for making rice, boiling potatoes, etc. and
(c) One 7-to-10 inch skillet or fry pan.
Many of the large discount stores offer “sets” of pots and pans. If you don’t own any, that may be the way to go. If you have time to shop around look for sales and “extra-off” coupons. That will cut the cost considerably.
Buy the best you can afford. Really inexpensive pans do not have the same heat-retention ability as the more expensive ones.
From here on, my list says “optional” but quite honestly most of it is essential.
Option 1: Microwave Oven
Microwave ovens have become incredibly inexpensive over the years. You can now purchase one for less than $40. Many of them now have sensors that take the guess-work out of microwaving potatoes, popcorn, and things like frozen meals.
(Even my husband, who does not know how to cook, knows how to use the microwave!)
Option 2: Cutting boards
You can buy either wood or some kind of plastic or synthetic cutting-boards. Be sure to check out my post on How to Choose and Use Cutting Boards.
Option 3: Baking Sheet with sides
This sheet pan has a multitude of uses including roasting potatoes, making English muffin pizzas, baking cookies (like chocolate chip) and lots more.
Option 4: Mixing Bowls
Get some that could also double as serving bowls for salads, mashed potatoes, etc.
Option 5: Colander
Straining water off spaghetti is impossible with out one. This is also great for washing fruits and vegetables.
Option 6: Coffee Pot/Kettle
If you are on your own, you may want to consider a “French Coffee Press”. (A french coffee press is easy to use when you know how, and you can make a really good, cup of home-brewed coffee with one in less than 5 minutes.) To boil water for coffee or tea, you may want to consider a tea-kettle or electric kettle. If you have a microwave, you could also use that to boil water.
Option 7: Toaster or Toaster Oven
If you like toasted bagels, make sure the mouth of the toaster is large enough to accommodate a sliced bagel. Toaster ovens not only toast breads, but as the names says, it’s a mini oven. It allows you to bake and broil in addition to toasting. I have seen them on sale for as low as $30.
Option 8: Blender
Blenders can be more expensive then a microwave. If you want your blender to crush ice (for smoothies and margaritas), then you will need one with a fairly powerful motor. The more powerful the motor is, the more expensive the blender will be.
So this is my starter list. By popular demand I am adding a vegetable peeler and a garlic press to the utensil list . Make sure you also get some dishtowels and pot holders/oven mitts.
A toaster, a blender, a coffee-pot and a tea-kettle may not be first on YOUR list, but cutting boards, mixing bowls, a baking sheet with sides and a colander really are necessary to start cooking.
Are we ready to startcooking?
]]>I would like to offer a few suggestions about grocery shopping to this very group of people. I have already talked a little bit about stocking both a spice cupboard and a food cupboard. Today let’s talk about the refrigerator!
Fridge Tip #1: Check out expiration dates
The most important thing to remember when stocking a refrigerator is to check the “sell by” dates on ALL perishable items. Surprisingly, there is no law in the US saying that items with expired “sell by” dates MUST be removed from supermarket shelves.
Granted, stores would be nuts not to be very careful to remove these items. But it is up to you to check the date.
The dating jargon can be very confusing. The United Stated Department of Agriculture (USDA) has a fabulous site which answers just about any questions you might have on the subject of dating on food products .
Fridge Tip #2: Storing eggs & dairy products
The three basics in just about everyone’s refrigerator are:
Eggs
Open the carton and check to make sure none of your eggs are broken. It is best to keep eggs stored in their original carton.
Milk
You get to choose between whole milk, 2%, or 1%. The numbers indicate fat content. I like whole milk for my coffee but 1% on my cereal.
Butter
Butter should be kept covered or wrapped, as it does absorb odors. For toast, I like the spreadable kind, which often comes in its own tub.
Fridge Tip #3: Storing other fridge and freezer foods
Some additional (optional) refrigerator staple foods, if you like them, are:
Yogurt
Cottage cheese
Sliced cheese
Parmesan Cheese
Vegetables
A beginning cook can take advantage of the availability of frozen vegetables, many of which are fantastic. Vegetables are often taken at their most ripe and flavorful and fast frozen to preserve taste and color. It is really handy to keep some of your favorites in the freezer. Just remember that frozen vegetable do not last forever. Any foods left too long in the freezer can develop “freezer burn” and become inedible.
Fruits
There are quite a few frozen fruits, like peaches, mango, blueberries and strawberries, available at the grocery store. Fast-frozen fruits work really well in smoothies. Toss some frozen blueberries, and strawberries in a blender with some yogurt or milk and you’ve got yourself a great snack or breakfast!
Bread
Keep a loaf of bread/bagels/English muffins in the freezer. Be sure to use it within about 4-6 weeks. You can put a slice of frozen bread directly into the toaster. It will only take a few extra seconds to toast when it’s frozen.
Many foods from the cupboard, once opened, need to be put in the refrigerator. This applies to mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, relish, and pickles. These sorts of condiments will last several months in the refrigerator.
Fridge Tip #4: Know your cold and warm spots
The inside of your refrigerator does not have the same temperature everywhere . There is usually a separate bin for fruits and vegetables. These bins are generally not as cold as the main part of the refrigerator.
Neither is the storage space on the door. It is really convenient, though, to store things that are used often on the door.
Do remember foods in both the refrigerator and the freezer are (ultimately) perishable and need to be properly wrapped to make them last. My old friend Roger was a great cook, but his refrigerator looked like a chemistry experiment gone wrong. When storing leftovers, they should get wrapped in plastic wrap or tin foil. Most leftovers should be eaten within two to three days or tossed. No point in taking chances!
]]>
Take eggs for example. Over in London, my husband’s family never stored eggs in the refrigerator. In the USA you would never store eggs anywhere but the refrigerator. What’s that all about?
Chris Kimbal’s magazine Cooks Illustrated has solved that mystery. In the USA, government standards say all eggs must be washed and stored at temperatures no higher than 45 degrees Fahrenheit.
Washing the eggs is a good thing but it does leave the eggs without an outer coating and very susceptible to invasion by bacteria. Hence refrigeration is absolutely necessary.
In Europe eggs are not washed and don’t have to be refrigerated. Who knew?
This all leads me to say, that most of my recommendations are based on my American education and habits. Good or bad, right or wrong, that’s what I was taught. I am grateful that my English nephew, Jonathan, is a great cook and can often point out glaring difference in cooking styles.
In the meantime, please, do bring to my attention when I am being too American in my style and instructions. As a reader, please share with the rest of us if you have experience with different cultural interpretations of basic cooking techniques.
Thanks!
]]>Every Tuesday and Friday, as I walk through my local farmer’s market at Copley Square in Boston, I continue to be in awe of how beautiful it is. As the summer progresses, the harvest colors become more and more vibrant and exotic.
Heirloom Tomatoes
Copley Square, right in the heart of downtown Boston, has to be one of the most beautiful locations ever for a farmer’s market. It’s right at the Copley T stop, so there is really no need to drive to this market. (Plus parking would be really hard to find and ridiculously expensive!)
Boston Public Library view from Copley Square
One side of the market is the Boston Public Library.
Built in 1848, it is a beautiful building, a great resource and it has an added bonus – a great coffee shop and restaurant. My friends and I often meet up there.
Trinity Church view from Copley Square
One the other side of the market is the Trinity Church and the tall John Hancock glass tower.
Did you notice the cows in the picture?
The cows are on parade in Boston right now (August 2006)! As previously in other cities, artists create all sorts of fanciful cows which are displayed around town. After an appropriate amount of time, the cows are auctioned off for charity. They even show up at the farmers’ market.
I love the fact that the Copley Square Farmer’s Market not only sells every-day kinds of foods, but also some really exotic stuff that you rarely ever get to see. Many of these beautiful (and tasty!) foods are just not available at the grocery store. At least, not at mine! It’s also a great place to bump into neighbors and tourists alike.
Zucchini Flowers
These are zucchini flowers, which basically have to be bought the same day they were picked. For the startcooking.com crowd, they are probably not a hot item to buy, since they don’t really represent a “basic,” but they are beautiful. Personally, I have never cooked or eaten them. But they keep showing up each week so they must be selling.
Nasturtiums
Edible flowers for salads are always a delight and a surprise! Just remembers not all flowers are edible! Fortunately, the vendors at the farmers’ market give good advice. (And, since they are regulars, they can’t afford to poison their customers.)
The Copley Square Farmer’s Market is made up of all Massachusetts farmers. In addition to produce, they also sell lots of breads and baked good, fresh herbs still in the pot, honey and goat cheese.
Bread and a Bonus Cow
There is always a line of people at this bread stall.
(Can you see the blue cow? Look just through the second shelf from the top!)
The explosion of color at the farmers’ market is what I find extraordinary.
orange tomatoes and blackberries
purple onions
sunflowers
The Copley Square Farmer’s Market runs from May to November, every Tuesday and Friday from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM. I can’t wait until apple and pumpkin season!
By the way, I did finally buy a pot of basil two weeks ago, and I haven’t killed it yet!
Now you know why I love my local farmers’ market: an explosion of colors, an amazing selection of fresh food, and friendly local farmers who are happy to answer questions. (When you come to Boston, make sure to visit Copley Square!) When I want inspiration to make simple, tasty, beautiful meals, the farmer’s market is just a short walk away.
P.S. Here is a list off all of the fabulous local Massachusetts vendors at the Copley Square Farmers’ Market.
This post is an entry in Food Destinations Around the World #2: My Local Greenmarket.
Food Destinations will soon be moving to a new home at extra.justhungry.com.
Tags: food destinations 2, food, markets, Boston, Copely Square
]]>Sir Francis Bacon, who some people think wrote all of Shakespeare’s plays, said that “Friendship doubles joys and cuts grief in half.” I think that’s true of bacon itself. It’s a fun food that (served in a wide variety of ways) does indeed double joy and cut grief in half. For many, it is an occasional indulgence, only eaten at restaurants!
Bacon has a unique smoky, salty, and sometimes sweet flavor all rolled into one strip. The high fat content makes it very crispy when you cook it.
It can be eaten on its own or crumbled up and used as a garnish on lots of different types of savory dishes.
You can cook bacon in the oven, in a fry pan or in the microwave. I recommend the microwave approach, because it’s quick and easy, and there’s virtually no clean up.
To cook bacon in the microwave you will need a microwave safe dish and three paper towels.
It will usually say on the back of the plate, in really small print, if you can use it in a microwave.
So here we go!
Lay 2 paper towels on the plate. Spread the bacon out in a single layer not overlapping on the dish.
Now lay another paper towel over the top.
Depending on your microwave, this amount of bacon should take about 4-6 minutes to get nice and crispy.
Using pot holders, very carefully remove the dish from the microwave.
Be careful! The dish itself will be very hot.
The paper towels will have absorbed all the bacon fat. With some tongs, put the bacon on a serving dish.
Now just throw away the paper towels.
It’s just that simple! Your bacon is nice and crispy and there is very little clean-up!
If you have uncooked bacon left over, the remaining package can be wrapped in plastic wrap and stored for up to one week in the refrigerator. I like to divide the remaining bacon into two packets and wrap it in plastic.
Then you can freeze it. Be sure to date the package. It should be used within two months. Remember food doesn’t last forever in the freezer.
If, later on, you only want one serving of bacon you can take the packet out of the freezer and zap it in the microwave for about one minute. Then, remove it from its packaging and cook it as described above.
Bacon can be used as a topping to salads and baked potatoes, or as a perfect side dish to any breakfast or brunch menu.
Enjoy!
]]>
Here’s a list of the (probably essential) non-perishable foods that will happily sit in your food cupboard (or pantry) until you are ready to use them.
Other
You will want to personalize this list with things like coffee, tea, sodas, etc.
This is a good basic list on which you can build. From these ingredients, you can make dishes like tuna salad sandwiches, chili, spaghetti, and rice. And that’s just the beginning!
I am intentionally leaving out the entire category of baking foods (like flour, brown sugar, confectioner’s sugar, coco powder and so on). You can begin assembling those ingredients when you begin baking from scratch. (Yes, that will happen someday too!)
When stocking up, I strongly recommend bringing a written list of what you need to the grocery store. Otherwise you not only forget what is on the list but you end up spending more than you might with a list!
When given a choice in size, be realistic. I rarely buy “giant family size” of anything, since my household has only two people and it takes a long time for us to get through a small jar of mayonnaise. Granted, the larger size is a better value, but not if it ends up being thrown out because it has passed its “use-by” date. I would rather buy the smaller size and when it runs out, buy a fresh jar.
Anything else YOU would consider a “must have” in your pantry?
]]>Sometimes, when I need to crack open an egg, I will try to do it the way they always do on TV, with one hand. I usually make such a mess after the first one or two that I go back to the tried-and-true, two-handed method of cracking eggs.
This picture shows the ingredients for scrambled eggs, but in this blog post, I’m just going to focus on the egg-cracking step, which will apply whenever you use eggs, not just scrambled eggs.
Do notice something which may seem strange for a beginning cook. In addition to the large bowl in which I’m going to mix my ingredients, I have set out a small bowl (the one shown is called a “custard cup”) just for the purpose of cracking open the egg(s).
You should always first crack open the egg into a second bowl before you add it to the mixing bowl. This allows you to examine the egg and, if it doesn’t look perfect, you don’t ruin the rest of your ingredients.
In addition, if a stray piece of eggshell falls into the bowl, it’s easier to fish out of the small bowl than the one containing the rest of your ingredients.
By the way, to remove a bit of shell, use another (larger) piece of the broken shell. Amazingly, it acts like a magnet. It’s a lot harder (and messier) trying to grab the broken bit with your fingers.
Many people crack open an egg on the side of the mixing bowl. This method pretty much guarantees you will get a bit of shell in the mix.
A better approach is to tap the egg (gently!) on the counter until there’s a small dent (not a large crack!) You can then put your two thumbs in opposite sides of the dent, and be able to gently pull apart the shells.
Drop the egg into the small dish (custard cup) you have set aside for the purpose.
If there are no shells and the egg looks good , you can then add the egg to your mixing bowl.
Ta-da!
P.S.: We made a video about this recently too. Take a look!
]]>The spice section of the grocery store is the ONLY section of the grocery store that is alphabetized. It’s a good thing they are in some sort of order, because there are hundreds to choose from.
If you do not have any dried spices in your cupboard, there are six basic spices you need to begin with:
Eventually you will be buying a lot more spices depending in your own personal tastes. (Some of the more popular spices used today are allspice, cardamom, cloves, ginger, mace, nutmeg, paprika, saffron and turmeric. Also, Spice blends, like curry powder, chili powder, garam masala, pickling spice, cajun seasoning (Bam!), and pumpkin pie spice).
For now, start with these six listed below.
1. Salt
The course of history has been altered by salt. Wars have been fought over it, and many books have been written about it. Once considered an extremely expensive commodity, it is now probably the least expensive spice you can buy.
The grocery stores sell a few different forms of salt. Gourmet specialty shops sell really exotic salts. Buy a box of “Plain Salt”. It usually comes in a cylinder shaped box.
You will use salt in just about everything you choose to make, both sweet and savory.
2. Pepper
White or black pepper is sold either pre-ground or as pepper corns which need grinding. Peppercorns also come in red, pink, and mixed.
Freshly ground pepper corn is great, but it does require investing in a pepper mill. At my local kitchen shop, grinders range in price from $20 to $100. That can be a steep investment for someone just starting out! My advice is…if you can afford it…go for it!
The grocery store does sell inexpensive, non-refillable grinders, but they produce a very course uneven grind of pepper.
If you do not have a pepper mill and do not want to invest in one, buy ground black pepper.
Do keep in mind that fresh ground pepper has a much stronger taste then pre- ground pepper.
3. Oregano
We often associate the herb oregano with Italian foods, but it is also found in Mediterranean and Mexican foods.
You can buy oregano dried or fresh in the produce section of the grocery store.
If you are using fresh herbs instead of dried the ratio is 3 to 1. So if the recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of dried oregano, you would use 3 teaspoons of fresh oregano.
When using dried oregano, crush it between your finger tips as you add it to the recipe. This will help release the aroma and flavor.
Adding a pinch (literally what you can pinch in two fingers) to a jar of store-bought spaghetti sauce makes all the difference in the world to the flavor of the sauce.
Sprinkling a bit onto pizza will give it an extra ‘zing,’ and it’s great on garlic bread.
4. and 5. Garlic Powder and Onion Powder
Garlic and onion are two flavors that occur over and over again in all cooking. Granted, the fresh form is wonderful but the dried powder works brilliantly on things like roasted potatoes and sprinkling on grilled meats and fish. That said, my first preference is to always use the real McCoy!
I have written extensively as well as made videos on fresh onions and garlic. The only way a beginner cook can develop confidence working with onions and garlic is…practice, practice, practice! In due time those skills will develop but until then, a recipe for roasted potatoes (for example) may be far less intimidating to try if the only skill required is for you to wash and cut the potato and measure in some spices.
At the grocery store, be sure to get the garlic powder and onion powder, not the garlic salt, or onion salt. It’s better to add your salt separately.
6. Cinnamon
Nearly everybody likes cinnamon! Mix it with a bit of sugar and have it on your toast in the morning. Sprinkle it on your coffee or hot chocolate, or add it to oatmeal. Once you actually start cooking you will be amazed at how many savory dishes it can be added to. It adds a lot of interest to stews and curries, as well as ground beef.
For now, that’s it. It only takes six different spices to spice up your life!
I would love to hear what my readers, who are experienced cooks, think the next six should be for a beginning chef!
]]>
Jon was 100 percent correct when he pointed out in a previous post on measuring cups and other essential kitchen utensils that not everyone does measuring the way Americans do – by volume. Much of the world uses the metric system and measures by weight. Here Jon explains to us how to measure using a scale.
George Bernard Shaw once described Britain and America as two countries divided by a common language. This is certainly true when it comes to cooking (after all, you broil while I grill) but it gets even more complicated when it comes to translating cooking instructions, because it’s not only the words we use, but the actual way we cook which is different.
One of the biggest differences between British and American cooking is in how quantities are measured. British measures distinguish between weight and volume and the “cup” is little used as a measure. Traditionally the British system used Imperial measures where:
Weight was measured in ounces and pounds (16 oz = 1 lb = 0.4545 kg)
Volume was measured in fluid ounces and pints (20 fl.oz = 1 pt = 568 ml)
These days however in the UK like most of the world, recipes use the metric system of litres (l) and millilitres (ml), grams (g) and kilograms (kg), and degrees Celsius (or Centigrade) (°C).
In addition to these, some measures are often redefined in terms of metric units. Most countries use the following units:
1 teaspoon (t. or tsp.) = 5 millilitres
1 dessertspoon (D) = 2 teaspoons = 10 millilitres
1 tablespoon (T or tbsp.) = 3 teaspoons = 15 millilitres
1 cup (c) = 250 millilitres
However, Australian recipes use a 15 ml dessertspoon and a 20 ml tablespoon. And in New Zealand, at least, a pint may be approximated as 600 ml.
To make matters even more complicated, the pint is different between the UK and the USA. There are 16 fluid ounces to the pint in the US, and 20 in the UK.
So how do we cook here in Britain? As has been mentioned in our earlier discussion on essential kitchen utensils a set of kitchen scales is an essential piece of equipment. Traditionally these were balance or mechanical, though most these days are electronic and are very easy to use.
The most important things to remember when using scales is that the weight must be set to zero.
While this may sound obvious, if you are using a set of scales like mine, which need the addition of a bowl for many items, if you don’t re-zero, you’ll be in all sorts of trouble.
The great things about using scales like these is that, as long as you remember to re-zero, you can just keep on adding different ingredients to your mixing bowl.
Don’t be put off by British recipes, they really are so very simple, after all you don’t have to remember whether you ingredients are levelled or flat – just pour it in until you have the right weight!
Thanks, Jon. That was really helpful.
Other posts on measuring:
]]>There are hundreds of these on the market, most of which you can do without. Over time, like all cooks, you will undoubtedly acquire many, many useless gadgets and utensils that take up space in the cupboard, and rarely if ever get used.
There are, however, seven “essential utensils” (don’t say that too fast) that you need to buy. When you have these, you will have everything you need to startcooking.
The photo below shows you all seven. We’ll discuss them starting with the glass measuring cup at the top of the photo, and move anti-clockwise.
1. One 16ounce (or 2 cup) glass measuring-cup. This is for measuring liquids, and can also be used as a container for mixing ingredients (such as Jello, scrambled eggs, instant pudding mix, salad dressing, and so on .)
2. One set of dry measuring-cups. These are usually made of tin or plastic and there are 4 cups to the set – 1/4 cup, 1/3 cup, ½ cup and 1 cup. You will need these for measuring things like rice, popcorn, flour, sugar, etc.
3. One set of measuring spoons. There are four spoons to the set – ¼ teaspoon, ½ teaspoon, 1 teaspoon, 1 Tablespoon. These spoons are used to measure salt, pepper, spices, etc.
4. One heat-resistant silicone spatula. This multi-purpose tool can be used to mix everything hot or cold. They come in really great colors!
5. One pancake-type spatula. A great tool! It’s used to flip burgers, eggs, pancakes, chicken breasts, and such things. It’s also good for serving food.
6. Tongs. Think of them as asbestos fingers. They are used not only to prepare foods, but also for serving. I also like to use the long tongs to reach for something high in the cupboard when I don’t feel like getting out the step stool, or for reaching up for the window shade when it flips to the very top of the window.
7. A can opener. Of course!
That’s it!
So, everyone, chime in. Does anyone want to nominate one or two additional “essential utensils?”
]]>Today I’m going to begin a Tips and Techniques series here on my blog, starting with some comments on some basic equipment everybody who wants to cook will need.
Stocking a kitchen for the first time can be a very daunting – and expensive – experience. But let’s face it; you can’t cook with out pots pans and utensils!
I strongly recommend that you ask family and friends to help you get started stocking up on the basics. Let them know you are interested in learning to cook. Every experienced cook has too much equipment in their kitchen, and you’d be surprised what people will be willing to pass on to you. And there is no shame in getting started with recycled equipment.
The most important place to start is to be sure that, as an absolute minimum, you obtain three good knives. Just three! Don’t be fooled by those huge sets of knives that come with a “free” butcher block holders. You do not need all those knives! On the other hand, I would be lost if it wasn’t for my three good knives!
You will need one all-purpose chef’s knife with a 7-to-9 inch blade. (The blade is measured from the tip of the blade to the beginning of the handle.) You need to actually hold this knife in your hand in order to pick one that feels comfortable, and well balanced in your hand. A good chef’s knife can get very expensive, but worthwhile. Starting prices for good ones are usually about $50.
You will also need a serrated edge knife. That’s the kind with the saw tooth edge. It’s perfect for bread, cakes, and cutting tomatoes. It is not essential that this knife be top of the line, as you won’t use it as much. There is no reason that all of the knives have to be of the same brand.
One small “paring” knife with a 2-to-4 inch blade is essential for all small tasks in the kitchen. Victorinox makes a perfect one that sell for less than $5. It is incredibly sharp and for that price you can’t go wrong. Most knife shops or small kitchen shops sell these knives.
Many small knife shops sell “reconditioned” knives. These 2nd hand knives are usually available at a real bargain. This is a good way to get a knife you might otherwise not be able to afford.
Buy the best knife you can afford. It will last forever and you won’t be sorry!
Do any of the more experienced cooks out there disagree with this? Are there other kinds of knives a beginner would find useful?
Update I have submitted this post about my favourite cooking knives to the “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours” food blog carnival, and I’d like to offer a special welcome to readers who are joining us from the “I would be lost if it wasn’t for my ______” September edition. If you enjoy your visit here, I invite you to subscribe to The startcooking.com RSS feed or sign up to receive an email whenever there’s something new.
Note Photos in this post updated 2006.07.20
]]>Many people use the terms herbs and spices interchangeably to mean any product of plant origin used primarily for seasoning food.
By definition “a spice is a pungent or aromatic seasoning obtained from the bark, buds, fruit, roots, seeds or stem of various plants and trees.”
Some of the more popular spices used today are allspice, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, mace, nutmeg, paprika, pepper, saffron and turmeric. Spice blends, like curry powder, chili powder, garam masala, pickling spice, cajun seasoning (Bam!), and pumpkin pie spice can be purchased at the grocery store or made at home by combining several dried spices. (Salt, often listed in the spice category, is actually a mineral and not a spice.)
By definition an “herb is the fragrant leaves of any of various annual or perennial plants that grow in temperate zones and do not have woody stems.”
Some commonly available fresh herbs are: basil, bay leaf, cilantro, chervil, coriander, marjoram, mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage, savory, tarragon and thyme.
Adding herbs and spices to your recipes is a great way to add a bit of pizazz to your cooking! (Just a pinch – literally what you can pinch between your thumb and forefinger – of oregano can really liven up a jar of spaghetti sauce.)
Dried, ground spices are usually measured out and added to the recipe at the beginning of the cooking process. (In Indian cooking the dried spices are handled somewhat differently. Indian food recipes usually call for whole spices that are then toasted in the fry pan – and sometimes then ground – before use. The flavors are brighter and more intense then just adding the pre-ground spice from the jar.)
Fresh herbs are usually added at the end of the cooking process. It keeps the flavor of the herb brighter. If you are using fresh herbs instead of dried the ratio is 3 to 1.
So if the recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of dried oregano, you would use 3 teaspoons of fresh oregano.
Knowing what herb/spice works with what foods is all part of the learning process. CNN has an In-Depth Food food and spice chart that will help guide you.
You do want to be careful not to overpower a recipe with too much or too many spices. The University of Delaware has an excellent description on the intensity of herbs and spices:
HerbExpert “is an excellent resource on growing and cooking with herbs in a simple and clear format, with easily accessible language.”
Both fresh herbs and dried spices tend to be expensive. Proper storage of both is really important. A trendy and beautiful spice rack may look fantastic on a kitchen counter but dried spices should NOT get stored on your kitchen counter!
Dried spices should be stored in a cool, dark, dry environment, away from direct sunlight, in air tight containers. Inside a cupboard usually works well. Be sure that the cupboard is away from the heat of the oven/microwave and away from the moisture of the dishwasher. Once your spice collection begins to grow, try to keep them in alphabetical order for easier access.
Many people label their spice jars with the date it was purchased. That is not always the best indicator of how fresh a dried spice is. A much better test is to just smell dried spices before using them. If they have lost their scent, they should get tossed into the trash.
Real Simple has some great tips on storing fresh herbs:
Basil, Parsley, and Cilantro
“A fresh bunch of basil can be treated like a bouquet of flowers: Just trim the ends, place in a glass with an inch or so of water, and place on the counter at room temperature. (The leaves will turn black if refrigerated). The basil will remain fresh for anywhere from a few days to a week. You can also try this with similar long-stemmed herbs like parsley and cilantro.”
Chives, Thyme, and Rosemary
“Other herbs, like chives, thyme, and rosemary, require a slightly different approach. Wrap them loosely in plastic wrap and place them in the warmest part of the refrigerator; one of the compartments in the door works perfectly. Do not wrap the herbs tightly or the trapped moisture may cause them to mold prematurely; many people like to add a crumpled paper towel to the bag as a safeguard. Do not rinse the herbs until just before using.”
Better Homes and Garden has some great tips on freezing herbs. They say that some herbs (like basil, chives, dill, lemongrass, mint, oregano, sage, savory-both winter and summer, sorrel, tarragon, and thyme) will keep their flavor when frozen. Simply clean the leaves, dry them, and put them in sealed plastic bags (remove all the air before sealing).
The farmer’s market near my home has little pots of fresh herbs, and I am very tempted to get a few of these pots for the window sill, but I am really bad at keeping plants alive. Then again, how hard can it be to grow basil?
Does any one have any suggestions?
]]>The cake was fantastic! I ordered it from Party Favors Bakery in Brookline, MA.
I decided to go the traditional route with the menu: hamburgers, hot dogs, pasta salad, baked beans, and of course my mom’s gelatin Waldorf salad. (The last item may not be traditional for every family, but it was in ours.)
For appetizers I served Lipton Onion Soup mix dip with chips and veggies.
The reaction to this dip was amazing! For just about everybody, it sparked memories of childhood which is probably the last time any of us had dip made this way.
Fans of startcooking.com will love this one!
Recipe: Lipton Onion Soup Mix Dip
Mix one envelope of Lipton Onion Soup mix, with 16 ounces of sour cream. That’s it! That’s really ALL there is to it.
Too often, in this day of being health and calorie conscious, the luxury of real sour cream is by-passed for fat-free sour cream or yogurt. These substitutes work – just. But they just don’t have the luxurious taste of real sour cream. I do think this Liptons must have a secret recipe with this soup mix because other brands don’t work as well, in my opinion.
I have also used this mix to make the fantastic meat loaf recipe on the back of the box, but, funnily enough I have never actually made onion soup from this dried mix – which is what it is supposed to be designed for!.
I also served asparagus, carrots and celery sticks with the dip. Much to my amazement all the vegetables got eaten. I really think it was because I blanched them before serving, and it made a huge difference in the taste.
Cooking Tip: How to Blanch Vegetables
To blanch asparagus, wash it, cut off the end, put it in boiling water, with about 1 teaspoon of salt, for about 45 seconds, then, using tongs, put the spears into a bowl of ice water. This stops the cooking and makes them have a beautiful green color. The carrots I peeled, cut into strips and blanched for about 60 seconds.
Serving Tips: Setting Up Perfect-Fit Buffet Tables
When I am doing a buffet table I always get out all my serving bowls and, with post-it notes, label each dish. This way I know everything fits on the table and I am not scurrying at the last minute trying to find that certain serving dish!
We had a great party celebrating David becoming a US citizen!
]]>We have been fortunate enough to visit London about ½ dozen times per year for the past 20 years. Theater is our first love, and traditional English food is our second love. Yes, I know for years England has had a dreadful reputation concerning food. That has all changed.
My favorites are:
Ploughman’s Lunch-generally considered pub fare, consists of salad, cheddar cheese, crusty bread and Branston Pickle.
Shandy-half beer, half lemonade. Perfect with a Ploughman’s Lunch. It does sound strange to combine these two drinks, but it really works!
Chocolate covered biscuts-preferably from Marks & Spencers or the ones made by Cadbury’s. What can I say about butter cookies dipped in rich chocolate, oooh sooo good!
Savory Pies: pork pies, Cornish pasties, steak and kidney pies. Done well, they are fabulous.
Christmas Pudding with Brandy sauce, and mince meat pies; what can I say, I also love fruit cake!
Some of my Favorite Places in London:
Food Shopping at Harrods: I never actually buy very much here, but it is fabulous! (See Photos)
Food Shopping at Marks & Spencers: Superior quality with much more accessible prices. (They advertise their award winning foods with labels like “Tart of the Year”. Don’t you just love it! I actually knew someone who should have won that award!)
Rivoli Bar at the Ritz Hotel: Very, very romantic. Very, very expensive. The Lalique glass panels are breathtakingly beautiful.
Wagamama: Love the name, love the noodles.
The Wolsey Restaurant: Bistro fare, open about 20 hours per day serving every meal imaginable. I seem to always order the Salade Nicoise. It is done particularly well here. Their mushrooms with basil and parmesan are superb.
Prêt à Manger: Sandwiches. They have great selections of normal-size sandwiches. Here in the USA sandwiches are gigantic. What’s that all about?
The Ivy: place to go for my most favorite dessert in the whole world, Scandinavian frozen berries with Hot White-Chocolate Sauce. (Tiny frozen berries are spread out on a dinner plate. At the table the waiter pours a mixture of hot, melted, white chocolate that has been mixed with heavy cream. The berries melt and the white chocolate cools and the dish turns into a glorious masterpiece of flavors and texture. It’s the simplicity of this dessert that makes it so fantastic!)
What are some of your favorite places in London?
]]>As I was watching the filming I started thinking about all the people who are really smart, well educated and clueless about how to cook.
Then it suddenly dawned on me and I said – why not?
I realized that, in spite of the existence of hundreds of TV cooking shows and thousands of cookbooks, there was nothing out there that really helped smart people learn the basics.
I also realized that there was a fresh way to share what I knew. I couldn’t get the iPod cooking idea out of my mind.
You know how something only becomes real once you say it out loud? Well, a few weeks later, as a result of David’s work, we were in, of all places, Estonia, and I told David about my idea.
Immediately, the idea became totally real. I could see it happening.
Once again, the teacher in me came alive!
**********
Here is the interview I did for Fast Recipes Feature about startcooking.com:
“Kathy Maister took her dream of teaching cooking to a world-wide audience. Since 2006, Kathy has been making videos and photo tutorials that train those that are new to cooking, keeping in mind that most readers prefer to learn in a way that is, as Kathy describes it, “short, fast, and fun!” We interviewed Kathy about the site and what inspired her to create it.”
Could you tell us about yourself?
I was trained as a Home Economics teacher, but budget cuts soon meant that my dream of teaching was not to be. My new found freedom (unemployment!) allowed me the opportunity to begin traveling with my husband. His work brought us all over the world to places I never imagined visiting!
Fast forward to 2005, video podcasts were just being thought of, and I suddenly had this brainstorm…
I started thinking about all the people I met that were really bright, well-educated, had traveled the world and yet were clueless about how to cook.
Startcooking.com is perfect for the adult beginner cook to get started. My site has 60 stop-motions videos and over 250 photo-tutorials. I designed the videos specifically for the internet. They are short, fast, and fun!