Food news antipasto

With more of us cooking at home than ever before, I thought it would be a good idea to focus on the basics this week. First up is a guide from The L.A. Times on how to roast vegetables. It provides advice on how to adjust oven temperatures and times for different sizes and densities of vegetables.

Jim Dixon, who runs a food shop in Portland, Oregon specializing in olive oil along with the website Real Good Food, is offering in-depth Twitter threads on how to cook pantry staples like beans, grains, and pasta. This one is about Jim’s preferred method of making rice. He treats it like pasta, cooking it in a larger amount of water and straining it when it hits the perfect texture.

Our third stop is at Saveur, where they are reviewing cookbooks, focusing on recent releases that do the best job of teaching. Among their picks are The Food of Sichuan: A New and Updated Edition of the Classic Land of Plenty by Fuchsia Dunlop, Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African-American Cooking by Toni Tipton-Martin, and Food Artisans of Japan by Nancy Singleton Hachisu.

But since all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, I’m also including a couple of fun items as well. The Culinary Institute of America has documentaries that are both fascinating and educational. One recent offering is a program on understanding the authentic balsamic vinegar of Modena, Italy. And finally, although I am normally not a big fan of kitsch, my spirits were buoyed when I saw GBBO contestant Kim-Joy’s tangzhong pig buns. How could you not love them? The buns are too cute for words, and the recipe looks eminently doable.

Photo of Sheet pan curried tofu with vegetables from Cooking Light Magazine