With its vacuum bags and gently whirring baths of water, sous vide cooking is radically different from the skillets and burners we’re used to in conventional methods. So it’s only natural to wonder how the rules of food safety apply. If you’re worried about cooking foods in plastic or scratching your head about what seem like unusually low cooking temperatures, take heart—we have the answers! Is It Safe to Cook in Plastic?...
Cooking pork belly is something that can seem intimidating for the average home cook. It’s a very fatty piece of meat, and if you don’t cook it correctly it can end up with a texture that can be everything from chewy to almost gooey. The traditional way to cook pork belly is to roast it for a long time to render out most of the fat and crisp up the skin, but I prefer cooking my pork belly sous vide to guarantee that it’s cooked exactly the way I want it....
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Ever since Christopher Kimball challenged people to Google broccoli casserole, insisting they would be disappointed with what they found, I’ve been meaning to post a killer easy broccoli casserole. And dear readers, this is it. An Easy Broccoli Casserole That Tastes Amazing The ingredients? Broccoli of course, then bacon, flour, milk, cream, eggs, cheddar cheese, a little Dijon, salt, and lots of freshly cracked black pepper. The tricks to this broccoli cheese casserole are to: Many thanks to the love of my culinary life, Dorie Greenspan, who provided the inspiration and basic structure for this broccoli cheese casserole recipe with a fabulous cauliflower gratin in her cookbook Around My French Table (hint, buy this book for yourself and all your friends, it’s stunning....
Despite my love for making and eating truffles, I don’t really love rolling them into little balls. It’s just one of those kitchen tasks that I try to avoid (we all have them, right?). So instead of making truffle balls, I make my truffles slightly firmer in texture and then slice them into cubes. They lose the roly-poly truffle look, but something about the neat edges feels so festive to me....
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Most of the flavor comes from the chicken and mushrooms themselves, with help from shallots and tarragon. Pro tip: tarragon loves both chicken and mushrooms! You want to add a special note to your chicken dish? Add tarragon. Want a mushroom soup recipe that will have your friends begging for the recipe? Add tarragon. Just don’t add too much. A little is all you’ll need. In this recipe we are browning the chicken thighs skin side down first, then finishing their cooking in the oven....
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While one might stray towards the pre-mixed drinks aisle when prepping drinks for a crowd, I’d like to offer up an alternative to those preservative-laden, electric-hued mixes: make your own Homemade Margarita Mix. Cocktails are not one-size-fits-all when it comes to alcohol content. Here, I’ve created a classic margarita mix: sweet, tart, and flavorful, without the addition of the tequila. The mix, however, does contain some alcohol from the orange liqueur (although I’m offering an alternative for that below), so please remember to designate this classic mix as “adults only” even before the addition of tequila....
What is Neapolitan Pizza? Neapolitan pizza is a style of pizza that originated in Naples, Italy. It is made with tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella cheese, however, not just any tomatoes. The tomatoes must be either San Marzano tomatoes or Pomodori Pelati tomatoes. Both are grown in the rich volcanic soil south of Mount Vesuvius, picked at the peak of ripeness, and then canned within hours to preserve the fresh taste and quality of the tomato....
But if you follow a vegan diet or you’re thinking of transitioning to one, meal planning can be even more of a lifesaver than it is for omnivores. Here are the major reasons why it can be so helpful to meal plan as a vegan. Why It’s So Helpful to Meal Plan As a Vegan Less ego depletion. As a plant-based eater, you may have spent the day abstaining from non-vegan doughnuts in the breakroom and settling for a side salad at a restaurant lunch....
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Traditional recipes call for muddling the mint with sugar. I like using simple syrup because it mixes fully into the bourbon. Really, it’s your choice. What’s a Mint Julep? So much more than the Kentucky Derby mainstay for which it’s known, a great mint julep is a marriage of mint, sugar, bourbon, and the kind of cold that can only come by being poured over a mound of crushed ice....
It is flaky, it is buttery, it is un-fussy, and it needs no difficult-to-clean equipment—just your clean hands and a large bowl. The secret? Sour cream. No added water, instead you add sour cream. I’m not kidding. This method works and it couldn’t be easier. The recipe comes from my friend, former Zuni Cafe chef Kathi Riley, who has been using it as her go-to pastry crust recipe for 25 years and who graciously shared it with me to share with you....
Our favorite book back then was Each Peach Pear Plum, by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. It inspired the combination of fruit in this jam—peaches, pears, and plums. We made it both for immediate consumption and gift-giving throughout the fall and winter. We named it Tom Thumb’s jam based on a character in the book. My holiday gifts were covered, and we feasted on jam and toast in the meantime....
Maybe it was when you found yourself agreeing with Ariel’s dad in The Little Mermaid. (“Young lady, you don’t love that boy. You don’t even know him!”) Or perhaps it was when you realized you actually wanted socks for your birthday because that meant you wouldn’t have to spend your own money on them. For me, it was when I first used the thermostat after getting my first real job after college....
Conditioned for politeness, sometimes they are just not willing to be as critical as I’d like. (You can’t like everything mom!) Tried again tonight, this time with fresh pineapple and very fresh salmon and as expected the salmon skewers were a thousand times better (mom agreed). The trick to great salmon skewers is high heat (charcoal grill better than gas better than broiler), the freshest salmon available, and watching the grill (or broiler) like a hawk....
