The savory side of jams

July 26, 2014 by
 |  5 Comments  |  Leave Comment
For the past few years, home canning and preserving has been growing in popularity. As people master the basics like strawberry and raspberry jam, they look for new challenges. ABC News reports that increasingly, people are finding that outlet in savory jams. These semi-sweet concotions "occupy the space between chunky relishes made of pickled items and smoother spreads and purees"… read more

The good, the bad and the ugly

July 24, 2014 by
 |  2 Comments  |  Leave Comment
Visit any supermarket produce department and you'll see beautifully arranged bins with towering mounds of perfectly formed, glossy fruits and vegetables. There is nary a blemish or mark on the produce. But as any gardener knows, not all cucumbers are straight, sometimes carrots look funny, and apples are frequently lopsided. A great many fruits and vegetables don't conform to the supermarket… read more

Underappreciated summer vegetables

July 20, 2014 by
 |  8 Comments  |  Leave Comment
Summertime brings a plethora of vegetables. Many people eagerly await the first corn, tomatoes, and melons of the season. But as this articles explains, there are other great vegetables that get overlooked in the shadows of these more popular foods. Break out of your routine and try some of these delicious vegetables, starting with kohlrabi. Sometimes thought of as "the… read more

Grain vs. grains

July 15, 2014 by
 |  2 Comments  |  Leave Comment
During the hot days of summer, cool salads feel just right and news feeds buzz with recipes for salads made with grains and grain products. The LA Times sings the praises of grain salads. Meanwhile, the NY Times is promoting cool noodle dishes as perfect summer food. This has all the makings of a classic East Coast/West Coast rivalry, in… read more

Make room in the pantry for ajvar

July 10, 2014 by
 |  5 Comments  |  Leave Comment
Sometimes an ingredient or food product that was once only locally or regionally popular sweeps across the culinary world, like pimentón did a few years back. The Telegraph reports that a British chef is aiming to create a new such craze with a Balkan roasted pepper and aubergine relish called ajvar. Ajvar has been a pantry staple in Macedonia and surrounding areas since the time… read more

Camera cuisine

July 9, 2014 by
 |  2 Comments  |  Leave Comment
We've all heard the phrase "we eat first with our eyes." That has never been more true than in the digital age, when if a meal isn't on Instagram, it didn't really happen. Digital photography not only allows us to share (and perhaps overshare) our meals, it has also changed the way chefs approach their craft, according to Pete Wells… read more

Unripe and ready

July 7, 2014 by
 |  Leave Comment
Everyone awaits the first tomato of summer with eager anticipation. The same holds true for most fruits and vegetables, but toward the end of the season one often encounters a glut of produce that must be harvested before a frost hits or before the heat wilts the plants, even though the fruits may not yet be ready. Over the years,… read more

How sweet it is

July 4, 2014 by
 |  One Comment  |  Leave Comment
While hot tea may be associated with English tradition, iced tea is closely linked to Southern hospitality. In restaurants across the Southern U.S., iced tea (almost always served sweetened) is revered. The importance of the beverage to the South can be summed up by a quote from the movie Steel Magnolias: Dolly Parton's character calls sweet tea "the house wine… read more

Buckle, Betty, and boy bait: learn all about cobbler-like desserts

July 2, 2014 by
 |  Leave Comment
What do grunts, slumps, pandowdys, buckles, and Bettys all have in common? They are all colorful regional names for baked fruit and dough creations, sometimes put in the category of "cobbler-like" desserts. (Not to be confused with cobblers that are drinks.) If you have a hard time telling these various treats apart, indexed blog Serious Eats offers an in-depth guide to these desserts. While… read more

Summer on a stick

July 1, 2014 by
 |  Leave Comment
Something about summer just calls for food on a stick. Maybe it's all of the fairs and festivals that try to outdo each other in novelty foods: deep fried butter on a stick and hot dish on a stick. Or perhaps it's because we spend a lot of time cooking and eating outdoors and want to minimize the use of… read more

The trick to making great sorbet

June 28, 2014 by
 |  One Comment  |  Leave Comment
Sorbets are wonderful: they are simple to make, can meet almost everyone's dietary requirements, and there are hundreds of flavor options available. They can be fickle, however: too much sugar and they become a soupy mess, too little sugar and they will turn out icy and hard. So how can you tell if a recipe has the right amount of… read more

Become a cheese whiz

June 26, 2014 by
 |  Leave Comment
Parmagiano Reggiano. Emmenthaler Swiss. Aged sharp cheddar. All of these delicious treats are hard cheeses, yet they all taste very different from one another. Why is that? Serious Eats has the answers in an article that explains the mysteries of hard cheese flavors. Different processing methods combined with unique aging procedures and times are the keys to each cheese's flavor. There are different… read more

There’s a cure for that

June 19, 2014 by
 |  2 Comments  |  Leave Comment
The recent trends of pickling and home curing have revived interest in old methods and recipes. One of these everything-old-is-new-again methods is a favorite of Sydney chef Ben Sears: curing egg yolks. "It's salty, a little bit sweet, a little bit more complex," he says. Sears shaves cured egg yolks over his bibimbap. "You get a different depth of flavour… read more

A blank canvas

June 18, 2014 by
 |  3 Comments  |  Leave Comment
Spaetzle, the German dish that falls somewhere between noodle and dumpling, is a blank canvas upon which you can add layers of texture and flavor. Portland, Oregon chef Dominique Geulin is a huge fan of this versatile dish. "It's like pizza, you just have to figure out what toppings you want," he says. The Alsatian recipe Guelin uses tilts more… read more

Apricot appreciation

June 14, 2014 by
 |  Leave Comment
Sometimes fruit can be quite a tease. It looks so beautiful sitting on the grocer's shelf, but when you get it home the taste doesn't live up to the good looks. If you feel this way about apricots, you'll want to read what Russ Parsons has to say about this stone fruit. As with many other foods in the supermarket,… read more

A hot topic

June 13, 2014 by
 |  Leave Comment
The warmer weather has everyone's thoughts turned to grilling, and with this weekend being Father's Day, a lot of the grilling is going to involve steak. It's no surprise that steak is popping up everywhere online. Even though cooking meat over a fire is a simple and ancient method, that doesn't mean we can't make improvements. Food Network provides Alton… read more

Delicious tomatoes in the winter: more than just a fantasy?

June 5, 2014 by
 |  2 Comments  |  Leave Comment
Supermarkets teem with produce year-round, with crops shipped from as far away as another hemisphere allowing apples, grapes, peppers, and other foods to be purchased during any season. Greenhouse-grown vegetables also make the seasons less of an issue. But some vegetables defy these methods and the quality difference between an in-season, locally-grown variety and the greenhouse or commercial product is stark. The tomato is… read more

Stalemate – is the fridge bad for bread?

June 3, 2014 by
 |  4 Comments  |  Leave Comment
Freshly baked bread - it's one of the simple pleasures in life. It's also one of the most ephemeral, since the best breads are also the ones that go stale the quickest. Usually we turn to the refrigerator to help keep food fresh, but in this case the go-to appliance turns out to be the no-no one instead, as Serious Eats'… read more

The transformation of the American table

May 25, 2014 by
 |  One Comment  |  Leave Comment
There is no doubt that the way Americans eat was utterly transformed in the last half of the 20th century. This transformation occurred, to a lesser but significant extent, in other postmodern industrial countries following World War II. The Smithsonian's American History Museum in Washington, DC, explores this metamorphosis in its exhibit FOOD: Transforming the American Table 1950-2000. While the… read more

Drink your vegetables

May 22, 2014 by
 |  Leave Comment
Many busy people turn to fruit juice as a time-saving way of getting part of their daily five servings of fruit and vegetables. However, fruit juice can be high in sugars--even higher than some sugary foods like doughnuts! Vegetable juice, on the other hand, is "lower in sugar than fruit, which means freshly made vegetable juice is lower in calories than fruit… read more

The love child of kale and Brussels sprouts

May 19, 2014 by
 |  Leave Comment
What happens when two of the most popular vegetables in the U.S. get together? The answer can be found in Kalette, a new product developed by Tozer Seeds, a British vegetable breeding company. While you may think that Tozer was capitalizing on the current popularity of both brassicas, Kalette has actually been in the works for over 15 years. (It's… read more

Last minute desserts

May 18, 2014 by
 |  Leave Comment
Does this situation sound familiar to any EYB members? You are invited on the spur of the moment to a friend's or neighbor's house for dinner. The host already has the meal planned--except for dessert. Naturally, you volunteer to bring something, but the dinner is only an hour away. Panic sets in as you run through the options in your… read more

Why we love smoke

May 17, 2014 by
 |  Leave Comment
The days are getting longer and the sun is warming up the Northern Hemisphere, which means that it's grilling season. The smell of a backyard barbecue makes our stomachs rumble in anticipation of a burger, steak or even grilled vegetables. But why are we so drawn to this primitive cooking method? Jim Shahin of The Washington Post sets out to… read more

A quick hop to your next meal

May 12, 2014 by
 |  Leave Comment
Since we discussed the ebb and flow of foraging yesterday, it's only logical that we next turn to a meat that was once popular, faded into the background, but is now making a comeback: rabbit. As Noelle Carter of the L.A. Times notes, although rabbit consumption hit a peak in the U.S. during World War II, it nearly disappeared in… read more

No fry zone

May 10, 2014 by
 |  Leave Comment
Fried foods are downright tasty, but sometimes you don't want all the fat, or all the mess, that comes along with the frying process. Getting a crisp texture without frying is not easy, however. Heidi Knapp Rinella of the Las Vegas Review-Journal interviewed several chefs who have developed low-fat techniques that preserve the crunch. Glenn Rolnick, corporate chef of Carmine's, uses… read more
« Older posts
Newer posts »
Seen anything interesting? Let us know & we'll share it!

Categories

Archives