Use diced jalapeños when you want their heat and flavor to permeate a dish, rather than show up capriciously in every other bite.To expose the seeds, cut each half in half again lengthwise.To start the dice, cut the pepper in half lengthwise.Next, slice the ribs and seeds out of each each quarter, and discard them. If you want to use the seeds and ribs for their heat, chop them and add them along with the diced flesh.Slice the quarters lengthwise into strips as thin or thick as you like.To finish the dice, slice across the strips crosswise.
what you should know
An ancient, rugged predecessor of broccoli and brussels sprouts, kale loves the icy gloom of winter. Like many hardy greens, it sweetens when exposed to frost.
get it young Kale is a versatile, vitamin-rich antioxidant. Get them young and slender. If you bring home large, coarse kale, be prepared to cook it for a long time (like you would other bitter greens).
kaled over A few months ago, food writer Melissa Clark discovered that not all kales are created equal. ("If a chef dares to offer something as unappealing as, say, a raw kale salad, chances are it's fantastic." This epiphany led Clark to discover the glories of lacinato kale (aka, black kale, Tuscan kale and dinosaur kale).
clean greens Kale's ridges harbor all kinds of dirt and grime. You really have to go at them to get it all out. We prefer to wash and dry our greens before we prep them. But you might try chopping (or slicing) your kale and then washing and draining it. Whatever works.
hooked on kail In Scotland, kale (or kail) was for so long been a hardy staple that the word kail became another way of saying dinner. J.M. Barrie belonged to a group of Scottish writers known as the "Kail-yard school" because of their nostalgic depictions of rural Scotland (where kale fields were common).
what you need
At her Greens Restaurant in San Francisco, Annie Somerville does wonders with kale and other hardy greens. Our favorite of Somerville's books is her Everyday Greens.
We've been dying to try the duck leg stuffed with Tuscan kale in Thomas Keller's Bouchon, the follow-up to his French Laundry Cookbook.
Have you contemplated going vegan but been put off by the thought of getting by on seitan and tofu pups? Veganomicon be the book you've been waiting for.
what you do
Feeling a little worn? Make this invigorating Indian chicken, carrot and kale stew. Garam masala plays off the earthiness of the kale and carrot, and a touch of jalapeno points up all the flavors.
Broiling a steak? Pair it with a comforting, rich bowl of creamed kale. (You could also just skip the steak.)
For a heartier side dish to that steak, try mashing kale with potatoes. The Irish call this dish colcannon. The Dutch have a version called stamppot.
In this dish of chickpeas with merguez and kale, the beans act as a creamy canvas for the spicy lamb sausage and bitter leafy greens.
Get some satisfaction with this marinated beef and kale stew.
Pork, kale and cheese have a obvious affinity for each other. In this bacon and kale gratin, the greens ground what is an otherwise indulgent concoction.
Pork, kale and fish are the less obvious but equally delicious combination that's fuels hogwash's Seattle shellfish stew.
A reminder: if you'd like to wander through cookthink.com, we now have an index of all our recipes. And don't forget about our brand new Cookthinktank.
what you should know
The carrot is the Emmylou Harris of vegetables, best known for backing harmonies but really deserving of more attention for the solo work.
To wit, look up carrot in the index of most cookbooks and you'll find plenty of dishes that have carrot in them. What you won't find a lot of are carrot recipes -- recipes with "carrot" in the title.
Which is a shame: this orange root's sweet, earthy flavor and year-round availability should elevate it well beyond its role as a staple base vegetable. (For what it's worth, the carrot is Britain's third favorite vegetable.)
stick with sticks Unless you're into watery, processed nubs, avoid so-called baby carrots. Get fresh and slender carrots when you can, as they tend to be the tastiest. If you buy larger, older carrots, peel them and cut out their musty, woody core. Got a bunch of carrots that have gone soft? Revive them in an ice bath before using them.
what's up, doc? Carrots are rich in beta carotene, an orange pigment that gives the carrot its color. The body converts carotene to Vitamin A, a nutrient important for vision and bone growth. On the advice of the family doctor, Chip's father-in-law used to eat one carrot a day. After work. Reading the paper. With a martini.
roots Seventy years ago, Dorothea Lange spent time in and around Holtville, California, the "Carrot Capital of the World". Her photos from the area are worth looking at every now and then when you're feeling insufficiently thankful.
what you need
Do you Y peel or swivel?
Do you dump chopped vegetables right from the cutting board into the pan (and, like Chip, end up spilling them all over the stove)? Why not use a pastry scraper to transport them? Or you could use these cool melamine bowls to store the prepped veggies in until you're ready use them.
We're in prime carrot-planting season. If you've got a small patch of earth somewhere -- even a bare spot of the flower garden will do -- pick out some seeds and grow your own. If you're new to gardening, consult either Louise Rotte's Carrots Love Tomatoes or Sally Jean Cunningham's Great Gardening Companions.
Greatest carrot moment in the history of movies? In Gone with the Wind, when Scarlett rips a carrot from the earth and says, "...As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again!"
what you do
Glazed carrots shine in contrast alongside a good steak. They shine as bright on their own. Even as dessert.
Let's say you've got only 20 minutes to prepare something filling for a vegetarian dropping by for an impromptu dinner: consider this citrus-thyme couscous with peas and carrots.
Same situation but it's a carnivore? Try this linguine with andouille, carrot and tarragon.
Carrots add sweetness and texture to black bean burritos with cilantro.
With so many variations, carrot salad never gets old: a basic carrot-mint salad, a grated carrot and celeriac salad, a Thai carrot-cucumber salad.
Could you use a muffin?
What do we mean by shimmering oil?
What do we mean by shimmering oil?
Shimmering oil is hot oil that is nearing its smoke point.
At room temperature, common cooking oils like vegetable and olive oil seem fairly thick. Put them in a pan and heat them though, and they thin out when you swirl the pan. As they get hotter, they tend to "flow" and coat the pan more easily.
In the right light, when you look at oil that's at a good temperature for sautéing -- nice and hot, but not yet smoking -- it shimmers. It forms "tines" like those on a wine glass. It looks colorful, iridescent even.
Shimmering oil is good for sautéing because it increases the chances that the food won't stick. Hot oil immediately seals the bottom of food, creating a natural barrier between it and the bottom of the pan.
You may have a Dutch oven and not even know it.
A Dutch oven is a large pot with an arched lid that offers extra room for cooking something like a pot roast or whole chicken.
Dutch ovens are available in a variety of shapes and materials. We like our enamel-coated cast iron Dutch oven from Le Creuset that is dishwasher-safe and can withstand 800F heat (if only our oven went so high). The heavy cast iron allows for browning a roast on the stove top and popping it in the oven for several hours, all the while evenly distributing the heat and allowing room for braising liquid.
Do you have to have a Dutch oven? No. A 6-quart tight-lidded pot will do. A good-quality Dutch oven is a luxury to use in the kitchen, though, so you might want to put one on your wish list.
Parsley used to be a gross-looking garnish on the side of your plate. Now, we think of it as one of the best go-to herbs to work into your cooking. It adds a bright but relatively neutral herbal flavor to almost any dish.To prep it, first rinse and shake dry the leaves. Hold the bouquet at an angle with the leaves against the cutting board. Run your knife down the side of the bouquet to slice away the leaves. It's fine to remove some of the tender stems along with the leaves.Now just run your knife back and forth across the pile of leaves, chopping them as coarsely or as finely as you need to. The closer to the end of the cooking you plan to add the parsley, the finer you'll want to chop it. But since parsley's so tender it's usually okay to keep the the chop coarse.
Chopping is probably the most common way to prep an onion. Chopped onions show up in anything that needs the basic, earthy pungent flavor that onions give. Chop them larger for longer-cooking dishes like stews and rustic soups, and smaller (call it a dice if you like) for anything from salsas to sauces to ragouts.
To start, cut the onion in half through the root. The root itself will help keep the onion together for chopping
Rotate the onion 90 degrees and cut off the papery end (not the root end). This will make the skin easy to peel away and discard.
Peel back the onion's papery skin. It's often easiest to peel away the first layer of the onion along with the skin.
Make a series of diagonal cuts (roughly 45 degrees) into the side of the onion. Keep more space between the slices for a large chop. Make the cuts closer together for a small chop or a dice.
Now make a series of horizontal cuts to finish shaping the chop or dice.
Finally, rotate the onion again and slice crosswise against the checkerboard pattern you made in the onion. The chopped pieces will fall away from the onion.
