Five cooking oils that you should be using

June 17, 2015 by
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Ask any cook about his or her pantry staples and olive oil will probably be mentioned. It can add a fruity or peppery zing to many types of dishes. But you should consider other delicious oils to perk up your food, says The Wall Street Journal. The article presents five different, flavorful oils made from nuts, seeds and vegetables. Cooks… read more

When one word sparks a food memory

June 11, 2015 by
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It is amazing how something as simple as one word from a byline to a story can spark a flood of memories. I experienced this phenomenon today when a Guardian Food article caught my eye. Just one word - plachyndy - unleashed a vivid flashback to my grandmother's kitchen. Plachyndy is a Moldovan word used to describe a savory flatbread… read more

Beat the heat (and save time) with no bake desserts

June 4, 2015 by
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Recently we looked at cool stuff to drink when the temperature rises, and today we turn to desserts. Often you'd like to have a little something sweet to end a meal, take to a potluck or picnic, or share with friends along with iced tea on a warm afternoon. The last thing you want to do, however, is turn on the… read more

Banish bland potato salad

May 30, 2015 by
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Summer means having picnics, and having picnics means making potato salad. Sometimes that salad doesn't quite live up to expectations. Luckily Epicurious just took a look at common potato salad problems and how to fix them. The biggest complaint for potato salads is that they can be a bit bland. Epicurious recommends properly seasoning the potato cooking water - and… read more

Celebrate National Wine Day with sangria

May 25, 2015 by
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Today is a national holiday in the US, but this year it also coincides with a "food holiday," National Wine Day (not to be confused with National Drink Wine Day). Many people are attending parades and memorial services today to honor those who have fallen while serving in the military, and in addition are celebrating the long weekend by gathering… read more

Get “yellow fever” for saffron

May 23, 2015 by
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If you haven't cooked with saffron, the world's most expensive spice, you'll definitely want to after reading about the Ottolenghi saffron recipes featured in The Guardian. The name saffron comes from the Arabic word for thread, and the thin stigmas of the crocus flower do quite resemble thin crimson strands. Harvesting saffron is a painstaking process that has so far… read more

Sample two ‘classic recipes for modern people’

May 19, 2015 by
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Max Sussman is the chef de cuisine at Roberta's in Brooklyn. During his tenure at Roberta's, the restaurant has received 2 stars from the New York Times. Eli Sussman is a line cook at Mile End Deli in Brooklyn, which has been featured on several "best of" lists, including Time Out, GQ, and Village Voice. The brothers have joined forces again… read more

A berry good harvest

May 18, 2015 by
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It appears that 2015's strawberry harvest in England is going to be a bumper crop. According to The Telegraph, strawberry yields are expeced to increase by nearly 20 percent this year. The bump is due to "a perfect combination of weather conditions, new growing techniques and more land given over to the crop." Despite a sluggish start to the season with several cold nights in… read more

Rhubarb moves from sweet to savory

May 16, 2015 by
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Rhubarb season is in full swing in the Northern Hemisphere. Usually that means pies, tarts, and crisps, but chefs are taking a look at using rhubarb in savory applications as well. The Washington Post recently devised a contest for three area sous-chefs to come up with a savory spring rhubarb dish, and the results were fabulous. The challenge was to… read more

How to marble like a pro

May 14, 2015 by
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You know those gorgeous marbled tops and spiderwebs on cakes, tarts, and cheesecakes? They're really easy and don't require any fancy equipment, says Alice Medrich (via indexed blog Food52). In addition to the classic marbling technique like the one used on Medrich's Marble cheesecake pictured left, she offers tutorials on how to make a spiderweb design, the chevron often found on Napoleons,… read more

New ways to get your foodie fix

May 12, 2015 by
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Can't find enough online sources to get your foodie fix? While that's an unlikely scenario, both Facebook and Twitter have recently created new feeds that deal exclusively with food. Twitter announced its new feed on April 29.  The site's announcement noted that the obvious:  "There are many thousands of food-related Tweets people send on Twitter each day - Tweets about… read more

Is congee poised to become the next ramen?

May 8, 2015 by
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If you aren't already familiar with congee, the staple porridge of many Asian countries, you should be, according to chefs who are elevating the humble dish to restaurant-worthy status. Congee is being reimagined as gourmet fare by innovative chefs like Mei Lin. Lin's souped-up congee featuring carnitas, scallion puree, hot sauce, peanuts and egg yolk helped earn her the title… read more

Know your chili pastes

May 3, 2015 by
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Don't know the difference between naam prik pao and gochujang? That's okay, because indexed blog Food52 has constructed a primer to help you learn about the many varieties of chili paste.  They begin by dividing chili pastes into five broad categories: hot, fishy, spiced, fermented, and sweet(ish). Examples from various cuisines are provided to illustrate each category. The examples include… read more

All hail king garlic

April 22, 2015 by
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Most cooks today wouldn't want to be caught without garlic in their pantry. But for decades, the "stinking rose" was persona non grata, at least in much of the UK. The Guardian looks at the changes that restored garlic's place among the pantheon of flavorings in British kitchens. For a time in the Victorian era when French food was seen… read more

The ice cream sandwich grows up

April 10, 2015 by
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Ice cream sandwiches are for kids, right? Not according to several innovative chefs, who have elevated the simple treat with high-end ingredients. While the "food gentrification" trend has been building for several years, the latest twists on this perennial childhood favorite push the envelope in tastes and textures. An American invention that dates back over a century, the ice cream… read more

The history of gnocchi

April 4, 2015 by
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Like many foods, gnocchi has several different regions that lay claim to inventing it. While we may not understand exactly where it originated, we do know that various forms of gnocchi have existed for centuries, says Emiko Davies of indexed magazine Saveur. The popular potato version didn't exist until about the seventeenth century,  when Spanish explorers brought the tubers back from South America. Gnocchi… read more

Spring green

March 28, 2015 by
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Spring is here in the Northern Hemisphere, and that means green is popping up all over. It's the perfect time to to add salsa verde to the menu. The beauty of salsa verde is that you can use a myriad of greens to make the sauce, says The L.A. Times. Over the centuries, "salsa verde has been many things to… read more

Cool beans

March 26, 2015 by
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Dried beans are a staple crop for much of the world's population. Increasingly hot growing conditions over the last several years have negatively affected crop yields in many bean-growing regions, but researchers believe they may have a solution to the problem. New varieties of beans that can withstand hotter temperatures are on their way to farmers around the world. While you… read more

Quiche by any other name

March 15, 2015 by
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  Maybe it was the book Real Men Don't Eat Quiche, or maybe it was the healthy eating movement, but whatever the reason, quiche fell out of favor over the last decade or two. Indexed magazine Bon Appetit thinks that despite too many "passed mini-quiches that were always cold and tasted like bitter mushrooms," quiche deserves to be rescued. It… read more

The fruit, the whole fruit, and nothing but the fruit

March 12, 2015 by
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Citrus brightens up many savory and sweet recipes. Usually the recipes call for the zest or the juice (sometimes both), and cooks are instructed to scrupulously avoid the bitter white pith. But using the whole fruit can be a revelation, says Sam Worley of Epicurious (via Yahoo! Food). When properly prepared, whole oranges, lemons and limes can add complex bittersweet… read more

The Southern pantry is both exotic and familiar

March 7, 2015 by
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As we reported in the IACP cookbook award announcement, US Southern cooking is riding a wave of popularity, as Heritage by Sean Brock has been nominated for several IACP awards, and three of the four books in the American category feature Southern cooking (Heritage, Down South and The B.T.C. Old-Fashioned Grocery Cookbook). The Southern pantry includes many unusual ingredients. If… read more

Versatile Madeira makes a comeback

March 6, 2015 by
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Madeira is working its way back into the limelight. Once wildly popular on both sides of the Atlantic, it fell out of favor. However, The Wall Street Journal reports that sales of the Portugese wine have been steadily increasing. According to the Madeira Wine Institute, US sales of the wine "have jumped from $1.23 million to $2.13 million over the last four… read more

Grains of tomorrow

February 27, 2015 by
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The popularity of whole grains continues to grow, and once exotic quinoa and farro have become quite mainstream. Food & Wine magazine highlights three grains that are poised to ride the next wave of popularity.  "I've always felt like I've been a little bit ahead of my time with my interest in health food," says chef Aimee Oxley of Philadelphia's Talula's… read more

Warm up with hearty soups

February 21, 2015 by
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Spring might be right around the corner, but for most of the Northern Hemisphere it seems like it may never arrive. Frigid temperatures, mountains of snow, and harsh winds have dampened spirits and chilled us to the bone. If there is any upside to this weather it's that it is a perfect excuse to make hearty, warming soups. Bloggers and… read more

Red velvet on the rise

February 14, 2015 by
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There's no doubt that on Valentine's Day plenty of red velvet cake will find its way onto dessert plates. The cake, which originated in the Southern US, achieved its peak popularity during the cupcake craze a few years back. But recent signs point to its possible comeback on dessert menus, according to Restaurant Hospitality. Red Velvet Oreos recently hit store… read more
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