Bagna càuda means "hot bath" in Italian.
It's the name of a convivial dish from the Piedmont region of Italy that dates back to the 16th century, in which a "bath" of olive oil, butter, mashed garlic and anchovy fillets (plus white truffles if you're in Italy and they are in season) is heated up and used as a fondue-like dip for raw vegetables.
Bagna càuda can include fennel, celery, peppers, cauliflower, cabbage, radishes, artichokes, cardoons and pretty much any other vegetable that strikes your fancy.
Do not merely drop a hunk of butter into a saucepan and wait for it to melt. Instead, cube it first.
This method may seem fussy at first glance, but in the end it makes perfect sense: by taking a second to cut the butter into small, uniform cubes, you allow it to melt evenly in the pan. The butter does not burn and is ready all at once for the next ingredient.
Monterey Jack is a semi-hard, cow's milk cheese. Its mild flavor and gooey-when-melted texture make Monterey Jack an excellent match for sandwiches and spicy Latin American dishes.
Cheese folklore traces Monterey Jack's lineage back to the farmers cheeses that fed Caesar's army. A version of this was brought to California via Spain by the Franciscans.
This cheese was being made around Monterey when a Scot named David Jacks conned his way into ownership of much of the Monterey Peninsula in the middle of the 1800s. According to one version, Jacks later invested in dairy and to make use of milk surpluses he started making a simple cheese based on the one the Franciscans were making. The cheese, which Jacks shipped north to San Francisco, became known as "Jack's Cheese" and, later, "Monterey Jack". (Now, you sometimes see Monterey Jack called Sonoma Jack or California Jack.)
According to another version of the cheese's provenance, a Spanish woman named Dona Joana Cota de Boronda sold cheese door-to-door in Monterey. She used a press, or "jack", to expunge the whey from the cheese and form the bricks of curd. Boronda's property eventually fell into Jacks' hands, which means that a more accurate box stamping would have been "Jack's Jack Cheese" or "Monterey Jack Jack".
Today, you can find Monterey Jack at almost every grocery store. You may also find varieties mixed with herbs or hot peppers. You will have to look a little harder for the aged version, Dry Jack, which is hard like Parmesan and has a tangier, nuttier flavor than young Jack. Order Dry Jack by the wheel from California's Vella Cheese.
Root Soure: Tortilla Chip (Cookthink)
Recipe: Macaroni And Cheese (Cookthink)
Recipe: Black Bean, Cheese And Serrano Quesadillas With Avocado And Lime (Cookthink)
What does it mean to temper chocolate?
What does it mean to temper chocolate?
Tempered chocolate is carefully heated and cooled for the purpose of dipping strawberries or cookies, drizzling on cakes or other baked goods, or molding into festive shapes. Once properly tempered, chocolate is shiny and smooth and will snap when broken.
To temper chocolate, it is chopped, melted over a double boiler to avoid scorching and removed from the heat when it reaches the correct temperature (which varies according to the type of chocolate used, with dark chocolate requiring a slightly higher temperature than either milk or white). It is then cooled by adding more chocolate and stirring until it reaches its final tempered temperature. (Some chocolatiers cool the chocolate by folding it on a marble slab.)
Once cooled to the correct temperature, the chocolate may then be reheated slightly to achieve the desired consistency.
An Italian cow's milk cheese that has been produced in the Alpine Aosta Valley since the 12th century, Fontina is now produced in other parts of Italy (not to mention France, Sweden and Denmark). An Italian Fontina consortium marks the rinds of authentic native cheese with a Matterhorn stamp.
Fontina's 45% fat content gives it a soft texture and creamy, rich flavor. Pale yellow, nutty-tasting young Fontina melts beautifully on pizzas or in grilled cheese sandwiches or gratins. It is also used in Fonduta, an Italian version of fondue made with milk or cream, eggs and cheese (and sometimes topped with white truffles).
Reference: What is a gratin?
Is chocolate really an aphrodisiac?
Is chocolate really an aphrodisiac?
So deeply rooted is our belief in chocolate's romantic properties that it's become a cliché to offer chocolates to a beloved. Blame it on the Aztecs. They may have been the first to push the notion that chocolate put would-be lovers in an amorous mood.
Modern science has looked at the question of whether or not chocolate is really an aphrodisiac, investigating the hope that chemicals found in high-quality chocolate act as mood enhancers that could theoretically increase sexual desire.
But if chocolate contains both tryptophan (a component of the brain chemical serotonin that has an effect on sexual arousal) and phenylethylamine (a stimulant that gets released when we "fall" in love), evidence is scant that the traces found in chocolate can actually increase sexual desire.
While it is said to have done the trick for Casanova and Montezuma, research suggests that women are more susceptible to the mood-altering effects of chocolate. And some recent studies have claimed that the chocolate-lover may get more amorous pleasure out of eating it than actually having sex.
Margarine is the generic term for a butter substitute.
The concept of margarine was invented when Louis III of France offered a prize to the inventor of a butter substitute for the poor and enlisted. A French chemist named Hippolyte Mège-Mouriés came up with oleomargarine (the name has since been shortened) and the rest is history.
Margarine is made from hydrogenated vegetable oils such as canola, safflower and corn oil. Although touted as a non-dairy, no-cholestrol alternative to butter, the trans fats found in most margarines due to the hydrogenation process are cause for concern.
To give margarine a more butter-like look and taste, milk, cream, preservatives, food coloring and other additives are frequently used. Regular margarine must contain 80% fat; fat-free margarine contains gelatin, rice starch, lactose, emulsifiers and a lot of water. There are also many butter-margarine blends on the market.
