If you're planning to use any citrus fruit for marmalades, salads, or just plain eating, you're going to want to remove the white pith. Pith is the white spongy later between the fruit and the peel, and it has a very bitter taste. It's quite easy to remove!
A hot new food trend that is generating a lot of buzz - both literally and figuratively - is a tiny, yellow, strawberry-shaped edible flower called a Szechuan button. This food is known not for its nutrition or flavor, but for the unique sensation it gives. What's the deal?
Have you ever snacked on pickled eggs at a bar, washed down with a cold beer? To be honest, neither have I. I only know of one bar that serves pickled eggs, and it's 450 miles away. I was supremely curious about pickled eggs, and I wanted to keep putting up food through the winter even though nothing is in season. So I decided making pickled eggs was the way to go!
Sometimes I go mushroom foraging and pick more mushrooms than I can eat, or I find a greenmarket that is having a sale on mushrooms and I buy a lot. I cook as many fresh ones as I can, and the rest, I dry so I can use them later in soups, risottos, and many other dishes. Drying mushrooms is as easy as 1-2-3 with your oven.
This ubiquitous Middle Eastern spread made with chickpeas, tahini, olive oil, and lemon juice has gotten so mainstream now that I even see tubs of pre-made hummus in gas station convenience stores. But those little tubs are pricey, especially when you're feeding a large family and you're buying hummus with "gourmet" ingredients. Also, some of them have preservatives and other nasty things in them. Fresh, homemade hummus is so easy to make, I'll show you how. Plus, it tastes better, is economical, and you know exactly what is going into it.
Today: five new iPhone/iPod Touch apps for the home cook - apps that can be used on the upcoming iPad! I just love how the Apple developer community keeps making such useful tools for cooking and food shopping. Read on to see a very useful food inventory/shopping list, a way to buy wine from your handheld, and Michael Ruhlman's useful ratio calculator.
One of my favorite winter vegetables is cardoon, the large celery-looking vegetable that tastes like an artichoke. I enjoy cutting cardoon up and frying them, cooking them in a gratin, and braising them. The braising method really brings out the artichoke flavor so well - each bite is rich and earthy.
Mitsuba is a type of Japanese parsley that is a key ingredient in the soup steamed in a teapot called dobin mushi. Light and refreshing, it has a clean, grassy taste.
My mother gave me a salt pig for Christmas. At first I thought it was a silly, unnecessary kitchen gadget, but after giving it a try, I don't see how I lived without one for so long! It's such a great storage container for my artisanal salts.
It's the season for root vegetables, and one of my favorites is the colorful watermelon radish. Green on the outside and pink on the inside, it adds some color to my salads, is pretty to look at, and is yummy!
For Christmas, my boyfriend bought me a Blue Oyster Mushroom kit from Mushroom Adventures, and I had so much fun with it. The kit arrived on December 19th, and the box said "do not open until December 30th." This is because the mycelium is still being prepared. On January 2nd, I opened the box, which contained a clear plastic liner and a black plastic bag with slits cut in it. Following the instructions, I placed it in a well-lit location and sprayed it with water daily, and after seven days, the first mushrooms started emerging through the slits in the black plastic!
Last week I wrote about a delicious Japanese hotpot called sukiyaki, which requires a block of beef suet to oil the pan before cooking the meat and vegetables. Most people understand that suet is beef fat, but what exactly is it, and what do you do with it?
Nabe (cooking pot) mono (things, stuff) is a popular Japanese hot pot dish commonly served in the cold winter months. It is cooked table side and served communally. One thing I like about nabemono (in addition to its deliciousness!) is its versatility. There are so many different ingredients to choose from! During the cooking process, the broth becomes more flavorful. At the end, after all the ingredients are eaten, rice and egg are added to the seasoned broth and a porridge is made.
Oh boy. Out of all the Dungeness crab dishes I've cooked lately, my boyfriend says this one is his favorite. It's made with lots of ginger, some garlic, cilantro, and a little bit of soy sauce, and it's so fragrant. The seasonings pair so well with the delicate, succulent crab. I like to cook some Asian noodles with this and use them to soak up the leftover seasonings.
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