Braising

You’re making a stew, so you pick up a package marked “stew meat” at the store — makes sense, right? Not so fast. There are a few good reasons you might want to put down that stew meat and pick up another cut instead. Packages of pre-cut stew meat are often assembled by the butcher or meat department from the odds and ends from other different cuts. While this might sound like a good thing — viva varieté!

Radishes are so pretty and irresistible, coming in all sorts of colors, shapes, and sizes. And while they’re usually eaten raw — dipped in good butter and flaky salt, or sliced thin onto salads — these jewel-toned vegetables can also be cooked like most other root vegetables. What happens when radishes get cooked? Their characteristic spicy bite mellows out, plus they turn nice and juicy. Here are five delicious ways to cook radishes — give them a try!

At the Filipino restaurant Tito Rad’s Grill & Restaurant, I was taught how to make Kare Kare, a stew with oxtail braised in a peanut butter sauce. Sounds fairly delicious, right? Well, they also taught me a way to make it even better — at the last minute. During the last 10 minutes of the cooking process, a variety of vegetables like greens beans and halved baby bok choy are added to the mix and then steamed until tender, just about 10 minutes.

Today’s Topic: Braising The Goal: 20 lessons, 20 days to become a better cook at home Enter to win The Kitchn Cookbook: Simply share and tag photos of your Kitchn Cooking School progress on Instagram and Twitter with #kitchnschool to enter for a chance to win. We’re giving away one copy for every homework assignment during The Kitchn’s Cooking School. See rules and regulations.

Choosing the right cut can make or break the dish.

When cooked properly, tough cuts of meat like beef shank and pork shoulder transform into fork-tender meat swimming in a rich braising sauce. How does this magic happen — and how long does it take to get there? America’s Test Kitchen ran some tests that make it clear why tough meat tastes best when its braising liquid is full of gelatin.

Duck confit is one of those dishes I figured I would never make at home. Poaching duck legs in fat sounds messy, difficult and expensive — duck fat isn’t cheap. But I learned there is an easier, cheaper way to make duck confit, and now I’m tempted to give this classic cooking and preservation technique a try.In place of pricey, hard-to-find duck fat, regular olive oil can be used to poach duck legs and thighs.

Q: I made a delicious corned beef dinner in my crock pot to hold me through the hurricane, and now have a very nice rich, meaty broth left over. It seems so wasteful to throw this out. Do you have any ideas for making it into another meal?Sent by LouisaEditor: Louisa, I would simmer some root vegetables, cooked beans or chicken thighs in the liquid and serve it over polenta or rice to soak up all the yummy juices.Readers, any ideas for transforming leftover braising liquid into another meal?

On one end of the spectrum of Chinese cuisine, we have the crisp, fresh, quickly-cooked stir-fries with which we’re all familiar. On the other end, we have red cooking. This method of braising in soy sauce and rock sugar produces deeply savory dishes with a rich mahogany hue – a feast for the eyes as well as the mouth.Properly called hong shao, red cooking is a specialty of Shanghai.

Doufeu, noun – A cooking vessel with a concave lid to be filled with ice and promote condensation. French for “gentle heat.”As we get into braising and roasting season, we thought we’d take a look at this particular style of dutch oven. The concave lid is filled with ice to create condensation throughout the cooking process. Dimples on the underside of the lid are designed to distribute the moisture to the food.

Mom always told you to eat your greens. In the cold, dark days of winter, the farmer’s markets are full of baskets of these thick, green leaves in various sizes, shapes, and shades of greens. Braising greens are a mix of greens that include kale, chard, collards, mustard, bok choy, raddichio, and turnip greens. They’re really great because you get several varieties of dark, leafy, chock-full-of-vitamins greens that are so versatile.

We’ve often wondered why so many recipes for beef braises call for lean cuts of meat like bottom round or chuck and whether a more tender cut might work just as well or better. Since lean cuts also tend to be cheaper in the grocery store, are we just being thrifty? Or is there a reason why lean cuts make for better braises? As a steer is wandering around looking for tasty treats, the muscles in its legs, shoulders, and hips get the biggest workout — even in a feedlot.

Braise [BRAYSE] v. To fry food then cook it slowly in liquid in a closed vessel. We’ve got braising on our minds around here, for reasons to be revealed shortly, so we went back to our Harold McGee to read up on all things braising. The word braise originated in the 18th century, coming from the French word for “live coals,” which were piled under and on top of a closed cooking pot.