Soy sauce is a salty liquid made from fermented soy beans, roasted wheat, water and salt. Packed with umami, soy sauce is used as a condiment and seasoning in Asian cuisines.
Soy sauce comes in many subtle variations, but is generally broken down into dark and light varieties. Light soy sauce is generally saltier and thinner than dark soy and does not stain food while cooking. Chinese black soy has added molasses that colors dishes as it cooks. The whole soy beans used to make quality soy sauce lend it a dark color, but cheaper brands using soy protein may cheat by adding caramel coloring.
The Japanese use soy sauce as a dipping sauce for sashimi or to season tofu, grilled meat and vegetable dishes. The Chinese use soy sauce mainly for marinades. In Indonesia, it is used mostly as a table condiment (called kecap, which comes in sweet and salty variations).
Be warned: though Japanese tamari (a slightly thicker and complex soy sauce made from more soybeans than most) is generally wheat-free, other commercial brands of soy sauce do contain gluten, so if you are trying to cook gluten-free, check the labels carefully.
You can leave basil leaves whole and add them to salads and hot dishes toward the end of cooking, tear them into pieces for more capricious basil flavor, or thinly slice them. To avoid bruising the basil, slide a sharp knife down and across the basil with a deliberate, smooth stroke. A clean cut will darken the leaves less than a pounding cut.
To slice basil, first stack the leaves together.
You can either roll them up like a cigar and slice through them to make a chiffonade, or just slice away at them as they are.
what you should know
This paste of ground up ground nuts is the foundation of brown bag lunches around the world. But it also has many culinary uses outside of the classic PB&J.
The most basic version of peanut butter is easy to make at home: roast the nuts and pulverize them with a touch of oil. To make something resembling the processed version you buy at the grocery store, you'll need to add a variety of stabilizers and sweeteners.
millions of jars on the wall You'd be hard pressed to find an American kitchen without a jar of peanut butter. The average American eats three pounds of the sticky stuff a year. (Arachibutyrophobia is a fear of it sticking to the roof of your mouth.)
not so nutty As George Washington Carver knew, the peanut is not actually a nut. Taxonomically, it's a pea and falls into the legume category, which also includes lentils and beans.
go nuts March is National Peanut Month. Tomorrow, March 28, is also national "Something On A Stick" Day. Sounds like a great time for some peanut-glazed skewers.
what you need
To learn more about the past of this little pea, try Andrew F. Smith's Peanut: The Illustrious History of the Goober Pea.
If your peanut butter needs melting for a sauce or soup, try this 2 1/2-quart saucepan from Calphalon.
If you are really serious about your PB&J construction, you might want to try a serious spreader like this one from OXO.
what you do
The citrusy spark of lemon juice and the bite of minced ginger cut through the sweeter flavors of the peanut butter in these peanut udon noodles.
We love the combination of a creamy peanut dressing with this crunchy kohlrabi, carrot and chive salad.
The hearty beans and zesty lime keep the peanut taste subtle in a African bean and sweet potato soup from Karina's Kitchen.
featured recipe This week's winner of the Root Source Challenge used some of her precious imported peanut butter stash to make Peruvian Peanut Potatoes. Congratulations to Gretchen of Canela & Comino!
When you want the flavor of ginger to permeate a a sauté , stir-fry, sauce or braise, mince it. For the most ginger flavor, mince it finely and add it toward the end of cooking. Cooking ginger longer mellows its flavor.
We usually start with what we call a "thumb" -- a piece of ginger roughly the size and shape of your thumb. To make the thumb easier to peel, start by cutting off any small protruding parts. You can peel and mince these separately.
We like to peel ginger with a spoon. Because a spoon is dull, it easily takes off the soft skin and leaves most of the aromatic flesh behind.
Slice the peeled thumb lengthwise into planks, thick or thin depending on how fine you want your mince to be. After you slice away one or two planks, roll the thumb over on the flat side for more stability.
Stack the planks and slice them lengthwise into matchsticks.
Now just gather the matchsticks together, rotate them 90 degrees, and slice them crosswise to complete the mince. For a finer mince, just run your knife across the pile a few times, chopping as you go.
Tahini is a thick paste made from ground sesame seeds. Common in Middle Eastern cuisine, tahini is what brings that nutty richness to hummus, baba ghanoush and halvah. You can find tahini in a jar or can at most grocery stores. A fresh can usually needs stirring to mix the oil and paste.
Most falafel sandwiches are drizzled with a garlicky tahini sauce that is easy to make at home. Mix 1/4 cup of tahini with two minced garlic cloves, 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper. (Add a little water if the sauce is too thick.)
Tahini is different than the sesame pastes popular in eastern Asia, which are made with unhulled seeds that create a more bitter flavor.
Got no tahini and craving hummus? Brys had success with toasted pine nuts.
Recipe: Soft Boiled Eggs With Miso, Lemon And Cilantro (Cookthink)
Recipe: Sweet And Sour Udon Noodles With Basil (Cookthink)
Reference: Tahini vs. sesame paste (Cookthink)
