How to cut a carrot on the bias
How to cut a carrot on the bias
When you prep carrots and other vegetables for dishes where their form really stands out -- like salads and stir-fries -- it's nice to cut them on the bias. Cutting this way increases the surface area of each slice, makes a thinner cut easier and just looks better.
To cut a carrot on the bias, chop off and discard the the root and stem, then slice the carrot at a sharp angle. Hold it firm against the cutting board for stability with one hand but keep your fingers tucked under and away from the blade.
Recipe: Carrot Mint Salad (Cookthink)
Recipe: Carrot Salad With Ginger Miso Vinaigrette (Cookthink)
what you should know
It's a testament to pita's versatility that you can have it with many prepositions. You can serve food in a pita, on a pita, with a pita, around a pita, beside a pita, and between a pita (though not, as far as we know, during a pita).
the world's flat(bread) This slightly leavened, wheat flatbread is a cousin to similar breads across the globe: naan, chapati, piadina, roti and even pizza, which some consider to be a modern derivative of pita bread.
we picked pockets Though modern pita eaters are used to splitting an arc around the bread's perimeter to form a pouch, traditional pita was used mostly to scoop dips and salads and to wrap loosely compiled sandwiches (like shawarma). The pita pocket is a modern creation.
it's all pita The shape, texture and significance of pita changes according to where you go in the world. The Lebanese pita is more of a rounded rectangle, and the pouchless Turkish pita tends to be softer and chewier.
what you need
To make your own pita, you're best off using a pizza stone. We prefer a rectangular stone to the increasingly popular round stones.
The curved, serrated blade of this KAI-made stainless steel knife easily slices delicate breads without tearing them. That's important when you're filling a pita.
Claudia Roden's The New Book of Middle Eastern Food will inspire you to eat more pita and to learn about the pita-loving regions of the world.
what you do
It's worth the time and work to make your own pita. We love Cook & Eat's pizza stone method.
We like having pita on hand to make sandwiches from leftover salads, meat and vegetable dishes. A pita filled with hogwash's apple-walnut chicken salad or Karina's peanut broccoli and chicken stir-fry makes a fast and filling lunch.
You can't really call it a panini, but that's pretty much what this pressed pita with ham, Brie and apple is.
We've said it before and we'll probably say it again (after this time): pita bread makes an incredibly crispy pizza crust. Try this mozzarella, black olive and basil version.
Pita goes hand-in-hand with lamb kebabs and Middle Eastern condiments like hummus and baba ghanoush.
featured recipe Open a cold beer, get out the caul fat and start rolling meatballs for this delicious Sheftalia In Cyprus Pita. It's the featured recipe of this weeks Root Source Challenge and it comes to us from Ivy and her Athens-based blog Kopiaste.
what you should know
The general makeup of any fresh sausage is ground meat and fat plus seasonings ("not too much of this and just enough of that," as the Joy of Cooking prescribes.)
The basic formula for what we Americans call "Italian sausage" is ground pork + salt/pepper + fennel or anise seed.
hot or sweet From there, Italian sausage diverges into two camps -- hot and sweet. The sweet isn't really (though some do add sugar to the mix), but the hot can be plenty hot depending on how many red pepper flakes you use.
comi ti chiami? Asking for "Italian sausage" in Italy will no doubt solicit this response: "Which one?"
take 2 anise & call me in the AM The Romans used anise as a medicinal herb for digestion -- important if you're eating more than a couple sausages.
play it loose The casing is an integral part of sausage. But you can also make or buy the mixture loose if you're cooking a casserole or sauce for which you have to break up the meat anyway.
my hero Italian sausage is the foundation for many sandwiches, such as this Pittsburgh classic. (Go Steelers!)
what you need
Move beyond just Italian sausage with Home Sausage Making: How-To Techniques for Making and Enjoying 100 Sausages at Home.
For home sausage making, pull out your stand mixer and the meat grinder and sausage stuffer attachments.
While the weather's still cooperating, take your sausages on a picnic and fire them up on a portable grill.
what you do
For a classic sausage sandwich, top the meat with peppers onions, and a dollop of mustard dressing.
Rich and hearty, this sausage, spinach and cheese lasagna is great for potlucks.
Packing for a picnic? You can make a batch of sausage, portobello, and barley pilaf the night before.
For a quick weeknight dinner, try whole wheat penne with Italian sausage, cauliflower and rosemary.
A crispy pita pizza is strong enough to hold up to hefty toppings like sausage, peppers, and carrots.
As the evenings start to cool off, dig in to a white bean soup with sausage and escarole.
This week's Root Source Challenge featured recipe is a Soprano's-inspired dish of Roasted Sausages, Peppers, Potatoes and Onions. Congratulations to Nikki of Nik Snacks!
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.
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.
