When you want a dish to have quintessential garlic flavor that permeates each bite, mince it. You can mince with a knife, or a garlic press.
Either way, you need to free the individual cloves. To do that, press down on the head with the heel of your palm. Apply firm, even pressure so the cloves don't fly all over the place.
To peel an individual clove, cut of the hard stem end where the clove attached to the bulb. Either stop the cut just short of the skin on the other side and peel the skin around to remove it, or make the cut all the way through and squeeze out the clove. The older the clove, the easier the skin releases.
You can also peel it by setting the side of your knife blade on the clove and pressing down until you feel the skin release, though not hard enough to pulverize it, or the skin will get mixed in with the garlic.
To mince with a knife, smash the peeled clove with the side of the knife. Then just run your knife back and forth across the smashed clove, chopping as you go until it's as fine as you like.
If you don't want individual little pieces of garlic and have a press, just put the whole peeled clove (or cloves, if you can fit them) in the press and squeeze. Use your knife to trim away any clinging garlic.
Sauerkraut is a classic fermented dish popular in Germany, France and all over northern and central Europe that was invented as a way to preserve cabbage over the winter.
Fresh sauerkraut is high in vitamin C and was frequently taken on long sea voyages by European explorers to help prevent scurvy.
The version that is most popular in the U.S. involves very thinly shredded cabbage. It is salted to draw out its juices and then sits in the resulting brine for 4 to 6 weeks as it cures and ferments. The bacteria that ferment the cabbage help to turn the sugars in the leaves to lactic acid, which imparts the distinctive taste.
There are many variations on the sauerkraut theme, including using red cabbage for a bright pink result and adding various spices to the brew. Caraway seeds and juniper berries are traditional additions; black peppercorns and slices of apple are also found in many recipes.
Reference: How to make sauerkraut
What kind of cabbage can I use to make sauerkraut?
What kind of cabbage can I use to make sauerkraut?
You can use any kind of cabbage to make sauerkraut: green, red, savoy, Napa or any other variety and in any combination.
Since different varieties of cabbage have different colors, flavors and textures, the resulting sauerkraut will reflect that. For example, Savoy cabbage is firm, so a sauerkraut made with it will hold together more than a sauerkraut made with Napa cabbage, which is softer. A combination of red and green cabbage will lend your sauerkraut a pink hue.
If you like, you can even toss in vegetables like carrots and Brussels sprouts, and aromatics like onions and garlic for different flavor combinations. The possiblities are endless.
Choose cabbages that look fresh and healthy -- with no wilted or limp leaves, slime, black or brown spots or blemishes.
The leaves of firm green or red cabbages should be compact and tight; the leaves of softer cabbages like Savoy and Napa should look healthy and crisp with well-defined veins in their leaves.
All cabbages should feel heavy for their size.
It's best to store whole cabbages tightly wrapped in plastic in a refrigerator drawer.
Kept this way, firm green and red cabbages will last at least a week, and more tender cabbages like Savoy and Napa will last 4 to 6 days.
Slliced cabbage can be stored the same way, but keep in mind that once cabbage is cut, it starts to lose its vitamin C.
Fermentation is a process where certain so-called "good" or "preferable" microbes living on the surface of plants flourish and feed on those plants, supressing the growth of "bad" bacteria. These microbes also produce substances like lactic acid and alcohol, preserving food's texture and nutrients and enhancing its taste and flavor.
Commonly fermented foods and drinks include wine and bread, where yeast is encouraged to consume sugar. To make olives, preserved lemons, sauerkraut and pickles, vegetables are submerged in brine to create the proper oxygen-free atmosphere for good bacteria to flourish, extending their shelf-life.
Russet or Idaho potatoes have a high starch and low moisture content, meaning they bake well, are fluffy when mashed and make excellent French fries. Because they tend to fall apart when cooked, use a waxy variety when making a potato salad or a gratin.
Potato starch or potato flour, made by grinding cooked, dried potatoes, is a gluten-free thickening agent. Be careful not to boil a preparation once it has been thickened with potato starch. Potato starch is also an approved ingredient for Jewish Passover preparations, because it is not grain-based like cornstarch.
Store potatoes in a cool, dark place. Refrigeration will turn their starch to unwanted sugar, making them grow unpleasantly dark when cooked.
What does "a hill of beans" mean?
What does "a hill of beans" mean?
A "hill of beans" is how much the problems of three little people are worth in this crazy, mixed-up world (or so Bogart computed at the end of Casablanca). In other words, a "hill of beans" amounts to very little or nothing.
The original use of the phrase apparently dates to a farming manual published in 1858. The manual's author, J.J. Thomas, instructed the reader on the cultivation of lima beans: "A strong wire is stretched from the tops of posts placed at a distance from each other; and to this wire two diverging cords from each hill of beans are attached."
Later, as wordsmith Michael Quinion noted, someone (probably a bean farmer) was sufficiently seized by the worthlessness of beans to apply the phrase "figuratively to the illogical idea that if one bean was worthless, a whole hill of them would be even more so."
Reference: More on "hill of beans" at Michael Quinion's World Wide Words.
Recipe: Lima Beans With Yogurt And Basil (Cookthink)
Recipe: White Bean And Escarole Soup (Cookthink)
