Corn etiquette: how to pick it, store it, and fix a bad choice. I look forward to summer every year for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is the fantastic produce that’s perfect and in season for these few months. There are so many to choose from but one of my absolute favorites is corn! Some of my best food memories are from BBQs that either I attended or threw and there was always fresh corn in one form or another on the menu. In fact, I’m usually teased about how neatly I eat corn off the cob– one row at a time – I can’t help it – it just tastes better that way! The sweetest and freshest corn (no matter the color – white, yellow or bicolor – color is not an indicator of sweetness) is found at your local stand or farmer’s market. But,…
Great way to spread out the goodness of great tasting veggies. I know it’s July, but here in Los Angeles we have finally gotten what we lovingly call ‘June Gloom’. It stays overcast all day and isn’t quite as hot as it’s going to get for summer. That’s not to say it’s actually cool out but, because it’s ‘gloomy’ outside you sort of think that it is. It was the perfect time to hit the market and prep some roasted vegetables for the week. When you slowly roast fresh veggies (any combination that you love) with some aromatics you have the basis for any meal of the day. I always make enough for a couple of days – that way I can use them for breakfast with my eggs, lunch over some baby spinach or as the perfect side for my favorite crispy skin salmon. I have a few rules…
Can’t find a ripe avocado and you need one (or more) to make guacamole tomorrow? You invited friends over tomorrow night for a viewing party of the finale of your favorite TV show and you want to make your famous guacamole. You head to your local market for avocados and every single avocado they have is rock-hard! What do you do besides scream at the produce manager or drive all over town hoping to find ripe avocados? Here is my tip on how to solve your problem and have perfectly ripe avocados in time with no screaming. First, you need to understand a little bit about avocados and how to pick them at the store. Avocados don’t ripen or soften on the tree – this happens after harvest so depending on how those avocados were shipped and stored they might be ripening just in time or still be hard like…
It’s Summer and that means Asparagus in all its glory! Who knew? Some of my most favorite fruits and vegetables are in season right now – beans of all types, eggplant, tomatoes, carrots, stone fruit, berries, grapes, pears – the list is long. And right now, one of my favorites is everywhere – Asparagus! There are many ways to serve asparagus that involve cooking or, at the minimum, blanching. They can be added to pastas, salads, grilled or roasted and used as a simple side dish for your favorite entrée, almost any way you can think. But, one of my favorite ways is to not cook them at all! Raw asparagus can be very chewy and unappetizing. The stalks can be very fibrous and almost impossible to chew. But, ribbons that you make from raw asparagus are the best way to eat those raw spears because they are always tender. …
Often, they’re just a suggestion. Recipe writers can’t always be quite as precise as they’d prefer when they list cooking times in a recipe. So many variables enter into the equation. This Spring, a friend’s daughter was making her first brisket for a dinner party. She had preheated her oven, browned the meat on both sides, added all the ingredients to the roasting pan and then carefully put it in her oven for the listed 2 hours of cooking time. She called me in a panic at the 2-hour mark – she had placed the meat thermometer in the thickest part of the brisket and the temp on the thermometer was correct. But to her horror, the meat still appeared a bit pink (brisket is cooked all the way through) and it wasn’t tender at all! She had eaten brisket many times at other friends’ homes and it was ALWAYS…
How to keep your fruits and vegetables tasting as they should. In a perfect world we’d shop daily and prepare what we purchased for that evening’s meal. But, we all know it’s just not that easy to get to the market every day. So, you go to the market and buy everything on your list making sure that you pick the freshest fruits and vegetables possible. But, then you get home and the indecision sets in. You begin to ask yourself – does this belong in the refrigerator or should it stay on the counter? Will this spoil quicker if I leave it out? Will it taste the same if I refrigerate it as it would if I just left it on the counter? The answer is: some produce needs to be stored in the refrigerator but some do significantly better if left out on the counter! Here are the…
You’ll enjoy more of your asparagus stems by peeling them. I’ve always loved asparagus and artichokes. They remind me that spring is coming. But they also bring back so many great food memories because there are so many ways to enjoy them. And, they also tell beautiful stories about our culinary past – which is great for kicking off dinner party conversations. We’ve been cultivating and eating asparagus since before the ancient Egyptians. A recipe for cooking asparagus was found in a book called the Apicius, a collection of Roman recipes written in the first century AD, which makes it one of the oldest surviving cookbooks in history. Leave it to the Romans to write a cookbook that lasted more than 2,000 years. Now there’s a great bit of trivia for my next dinner. Oddly, when the Roman Empire fell, our appetite for the veggie also fell and it disappeared…
The iron skillet is one of the most valuable tools in your kitchen and probably the one you take most for granted. After a lovely dinner at the home of a friend, a few of us walked into his kitchen to freshen our wine and talk a little shop. One of the dishes that stuck in everyone’s mind was the fabulous gnocchi that he prepared in his favorite cast iron skillet. Read: An easy recipe for gnocchi sausage, tomatoes in a skillet I’ve cooked with skillets before, but this dish – so simple and tasty – was really something else. I was also impressed by the way he so matter-of-factly talked about how skillets were great for cooking anything where an oven and proper distribution of heat was needed. But, of course, some are better suited than others to go from stove top to oven. I’m talking about the good…
White, Red, and Yellow Onions are the three that you need in your kitchen, indeed! A friend of mine told me about this 7-onion soup that she had the other day. She said it was so good and so tasty that she wanted to figure out how she might make it at home. Then she paused and admitted, “I had no idea there were seven onions!” There are a lot more than that and here are my top 11: Ramps – also known as “wild onions” are really great for roasting and in soups. They add a sweet garlic flavor. Cipollini onions are the little fat disc-shaped onions that are fabulous to caramelize or sauté with other veggies. They’re incredibly versatile and mild and will go with just about any dish. Shallots are a member of the allium family (like garlic) and not really onions but are used like them…
Let’s decode the myths and labels around this favorite dairy product. Eggs are the most complete food – nutritious, affordable and can be served in more ways than you can imagine. Personally, I could eat them for any meal – they’re one of my favorite foods. And, they’re really a staple in almost every household – used in everything from meal entrées, to salads, to baking and of course all by themselves as a perfect snack. As easy as they are to use and as important as they are for daily meal planning, there are so many myths and labels to decode. Figuring it all out can make finding the best tasting eggs a bit confusing. First, let’s dispel one bit of egg mythology. The color of the shell means nothing. The color of the shell, although pretty, is just an indication of different breeds. They merely produce different color…
My list of handy ‘next level’ kitchen tools so you’re not caught without “the right tool for the right job.” There’s an old saying about using “the right tool for the right job.” It isn’t just about odd jobs around the house – it’s about EVERY job – the right tool makes whatever the job is so much easier and that includes the tools in your kitchen. When it comes to making sure you have the right tools, there’s no difference between fixing a leaky faucet and cooking up a lovely dinner for guests. This is my list of handy ‘next level’ kitchen tools. None of these ideas are expensive – almost all are under $35. But having these tools around the kitchen could make all the difference between a fun cooking adventure or enduring what could become an unnecessarily difficult kitchen experience. Read: The 10 Essential Tools for Beginner…
Delicious ‘basic recipe’ for vegetables that NEEDS to be in your bag of tricks. Nobody has all the ‘basic recipes’ down. We all have our favorites that we return to again and again but I’ve found that there’s always room for ‘just one more’ to add to my repertoire. And, when that ‘one more’ can be the basis for any number of variations – it’s a good one to add. This is the easiest way to put just about any vegetable on the table – and it’s soo delicious. I’ve tried a number of twists on this one for years, but to be honest, the best idea is to keep it very simple. It’s also such an essential preparation that it can (and is often) adjusted or grouped together with just about any main. Read: How to pick olive oil. This is perfect if you love beautifully caramelized veggies. It…
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