What's the point of letting a casserole rest before cutting into it?
What's the point of letting a casserole rest before cutting into it?
If you spend time baking a casserole, be it macaroni and cheese, lasagna, meatloaf or anything else, be sure to let it rest for a few minutes before cutting into it. (Don't worry that it will get cold; it's been sizzling away in a hot oven for quite some time, and there is plenty of heat circulating in the pan to keep it warm.)
Letting a casserole rest for 10 minutes or so means that the proteins and starches will have time to set, making for a more stable mixture before you cut it into portions. If the casserole is too hot, it will be harder to manage, fall apart more easily, and won't taste as good.
A pine nut is the blond, tear-shaped seed of a pine tree. Pine nuts grow inside pine cones. However, before you run out to the backyard to start harvesting your own nuts, you should know that only a few species of pine trees produce pine nuts worth gathering.
In the United States, pine nuts are harvested from piñon pine forests in the mountains of the Southwest. Pine nuts are grown all over Europe, as well, but China produces the bulk of the world's supply. The cones are pulled from trees with a long hook and spread out in the sun to dry. As they dry, the cones open up and the nuts fall out.
Eaten raw or roasted, pine nuts have a sweet, oily flavor to classic dishes like basil pesto and spinach with golden raisins. Toasted pine nuts add depth and richness (and protein and healthy fats) to steamed greens or roasted vegetables. Sprinkle a handful over your next plate of pasta, or try Brys's spicy hummus with pine nuts and lime juice.
Recipe: Creamy Ricotta Tart With Pine Nuts (101 Cookbooks)
Recipe: Italian Rice And Beans (VeganYumYum)
Recipe: Parsley Pesto (Hogwash)
To crimp something -- say, pastry, pizza or pie dough -- is to decoratively fold the edges of it, slightly overlapping the folds to create a rounded border.
Crimping is easy to do and makes the edges of sweet and savory pies, empanadas, dumplings and calzones look more finished. Crimping also seals two pieces of dough tightly to keep the filling ingredients from leaking out during baking.
Aluminum foil or parchment paper is also crimped when used to make a papillote. The sealed package seals in the steam that cooks the meat or fish.
PDO stands for "Protected Designation of Origin," a product label established by European Union law in 1992 to protect the names of regional foods.
The designation is meant to keep producers of regional products safe from unfair competition and rivals who may try to pass off inferior knock-offs using prestigious labels. The notion of PDO is tied to the idea of terroir and the importance of using raw materials and production methods from a certain region as a measure of authenticity.
PDO laws are designed to protect cheeses like Parmigiano-Reggiano and Champagne, the world's most famous sparkling wine. But the laws also extend to hams, olives, sausages, beers, vegetables, and regional breads.
The EU has bilateral agreements with some countries to help enforce these laws. The U.S. is not one of them, which is why you can find generic American-made "parmesan," "champagne," "camembert," "prosciutto," "feta" and other protected products on the market.
Some regional trademark protections do exist in the U.S. for products such as Vidalia onions, which must come from a designated region around Vidalia, Georgia. But keep in mind that brand names don't necessarily indicate where a product is made. Philadelphia Cream Cheese was never made in Philly.
A list of PDO-designated products can be found here.
Whipping cream is another word for heavy cream.
Heavy cream has a high fat content -- between 36 and 40 percent -- that allows it to double in volume when whipped. Whipping cream is used to make whipped cream (or chantilly, which is slightly sweetened whipped cream).
Do not try to whip light cream, as it will not obey, no matter how hard you beat it.
Saffron, the world’s most expensive spice by weight, comes from the stigmas of the purple saffron crocus (a member of the iris family). Each flower contains three stigmas, which are harvested by hand and then dried. One pound of dried saffron requires a minimum of 50,000 flowers to be picked, which helps explain the elevated cost. Native to Asia minor, Iran and Spain now lead the world in saffron production.
Saffron can be purchased ground into a powder or whole as threads. Buying the threads ensures the spice’s purity, since powdered saffron may be watered down with additional spices like turmeric or safflower. The threads tend to have a stronger taste than the ground, and must be steeped in milk or water, or roasted, before being added to a dish to release their flavor.
Saffron has a bitter taste, an earthy, hay-like smell, and a golden-red hue, which gives food a deep yellow color. When cooking with saffron, it must be used sparingly; too much can produce a harsh, medicinal flavor.
Don't be intimidated by this odd-looking vegetable. Prepping celery root (or celeriac) is straightforward and worth the effort, since it makes up for in taste what it lacks in beauty.
Note: Keep in mind that the celery root's flesh discolors when exposed to oxygen -- so mix together a little vinegar or lemon juice and water in a bowl to hold the prepped celery root in as you work.
First, slice the root end off so that the entire bulb has a steady base. Next, hold the stem end of the bulb and slice the skin away, leaving as much of the flesh intact as possible.
Once the tough skin is fully removed, just cut off the top stem end and cut it in half so it is more manageable.
Now the celery root can be prepped for cooking in the same way you would potatoes, turnips, rutabagas and other root vegetables.
When sliced very thin using a mandoline, celery root is perfectly edible raw.
Dress raw celeriac as you would any salad.
Prepping pearl onions requires a bit of effort, but will make a difference in soups and stews or as a side dish when roasted, braised or glazed.
Start by bringing a saucepan of water to a boil (for blanching the onions). Next, prepare an ice bath -- just a large bowl with a quart of water and 1 cup of ice cubes -- that you will use to cool down the onions after blanching.
Cut off the root end of each pearl onion -- don't cut too much off, maybe 1/16 of an inch. Blanching will loosen the skins and they'll slip off easily.
Blanch the pearl onions by boiling them in water for 1 to 2 minutes until their skins look bubbly and translucent.
With a slotted spoon, remove them to the ice bath so that they stop cooking and become cool enough to peel.
Let them cool for 5 minutes in the ice bath, or until they're cool enough to handle.
Now just slip their skins off.
Since you've already removed the root, the skins will be loose and easy to peel off.
How to cure a salmon into gravlax
How to cure a salmon into gravlax
Scandinavian-style cured salmon, or gravlax, is easy to prepare in a day. Salt and sugar draw out the liquid in the fish's flesh, while citrus zest, herbs and spices provide flavor.
The filets are sandwiched around the herb, zest and curing mixture.
After weights are added, the curing mixture starts to liquify and after 6 hours at room temperature, the filets are refrigerated for 24 hours.
The salmon filets are rinsed, dried and sliced thinly on the before serving.
Fennel is a multi-faceted plant that brings a subtle anise flavor to the table in a number of ways.
Technically an herb, it also provides spice in the form of fennel seed. The pollen of fennel flowers is intense and sweet. The tasty bulb can be eaten raw or cooked. And the fronds make an aromatic garnish.
The same compound that flavors aniseed and star anise also flavors fennel, although not as strongly. The slight licorice flavor is frequently found as an ingredient in Italian sausages.
Elixirs and distillations of fennel have been used for centuries as nerve tonics and digestive aids. Its use as a component of gripe water has helped to ease the colic in babies as a homeopathic remedy.
A turnip is a fleshy, white, bulbous root vegetable with a purple top that grows easily around the world and is eaten by man and beast alike.
Turnips are best consumed young and sweet, as like most of us they become bitter and coarse with age. Keep them in a cool place until you're ready to boil, steam, mash, glaze or purée them. Turnips can also be eaten raw.
European in origin, turnips are used frequently in Britain and France in stews and soups, including the traditional French pot-au-feu. Because they can absorb fat easily, they are often served with fatty meats such as duck.
Turnip greens are a soul food staple that may be boiled, sautéed, steamed or stir-fried.
Cooking pork is fraught with pitfalls. Fry a chop too fast or cook it too long and it will petrify. Though the National Pork Board advises serving pork while still pink (about 154F), some home cooks blanch at the very thought of blushing pork, even though its well-done alternative has all the sensual appeal of sawdust.
The problems arise from the nature of pork and the ways that nature is changing. Of all the commonly eaten meats, pork has the densest muscle fiber and the lowest moisture content (about 50 percent as opposed to chicken at 65 percent), which means it has a tendency to dehydrate more during cooking.
In the past pork was always cooked to 170F, or well-done. At that internal temperature the only thing that saved it from being hopelessly dry was the fact that its hefty fat content, which melted into the meat during cooking, made up for its lack of moisture.
But in recent years there has been a concerted and successful push by pork producers to lower the fat levels of pork (the other white meat), with the result that the nutritional numbers on pork look better than ever, but its tendency towards dryness has been laid bare. A growth in interest in heritage breeds of pork, like Berkshire and Yorkshire, that have substantial marbling and flavor, attempts to counteract pork’s march towards desiccation.
When heated, meat protein contracts, forcing any water held in the muscle fiber outward. The hotter the flame, the more the fibers tighten. Traditionally cooking meat means searing the surface at very high temperatures. For moist meats, like beef, which can be served rare, the dried surface and moist interior adds sensory charm, but for pork, the effect is opposite.
Because pork is dense, heat does not pass through it easily. Consequently, when cooking temperatures are very high the surface of the meat gets excessively hot before enough heat can penetrate through to the interior. By the time the meat is fully cooked most of the moisture is gone.
The obvious solution is to slow down the cooking. Pork should be browned briefly, and then the temperature should be lowered to allow the rest of the cooking to take place as gently as possible. Heat transference is helped by adding liquid, which tenderizes meat fibers more efficiently than dry heat while continually adding moisture.
