Tortilla chips are made by cutting yellow, white, blue or red corn tortillas into triangular wedges and baking or frying them until crisp.
They are considered Mexican snack food, although they were popularized in Los Angeles in the middle of the 20th century -- first conceived as a way to use up irregular tortillas from a tortilla factory before they began being produced as a popular snack food in their own right.
Tortilla chips are eaten before a meal with salsa and/or guacamole. Tortilla chips are the base for chilaquiles and nachos, that Tex-Mex staple in which are baked tortilla chips smothered with cheese and loaded with toppings like beans, meat, sour cream, guacamole and salsa.
Root Source: Tortilla Chip (Cookthink)
What does it mean for bacon to render its fat?
What does it mean for bacon to render its fat?
Bacon renders -- or gives up -- its fat when cooked over low to medium heat. Cooking the bacon melts the fat, which separates from the connective tissue and meat, and becomes what is otherwise known as bacon fat.
Rendering is also used to describe what happens when butter is clarified -- meaning heated until its milk solids separate and can be removed -- as well as the process of turning suet into tallow and pork fat into lard.
Recipe: Braised Mustard Greens With Bacon And Shallots (Cookthink)
Reference: Do I need to blanch bacon before using it in a recipe? (Cookthink)
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.
What exactly is thick-cut bacon?
What exactly is thick-cut bacon?
Sliced American bacon is cut from a side of cured and/or smoked fatty pig belly and sold in packages without its rind.
It comes in three sizes: Thin-sliced bacon has about 35 strips per pound; regular-sliced bacon has 16-20; and thick-cut has just 12-16 strips per pound.
Cumin is the dried seed of an aromatic plant that has a dusty, vaguely bitter taste and a distinctive smell. Cumin seeds can be used whole, fried in oil to release their aroma; or ground into a powder.
Most cumin seeds are light brown in color, but they are also available in white (similar to the brown in flavor) and black (which has a more peppery taste). Cumin seeds look a lot like caraway seeds.
You can find references to cumin in the Bible, where it was cited as a flavor-enhancer for soup and bread. The Romans used it to preserve meat and broil fish and it was popular in the Middle Ages. Today, cumin seeds are used to spice up Munster cheese, to make Indian and Pakistani curries and to add flavor to Tex-Mex chili. Cumin is also popular in many cuisines of the world, including Middle Eastern, Mexican, Eastern European and Mediterranean.
During the Middle Ages, cumin was believed to keep loved ones (and chickens) from straying; likewise, brides and grooms carried cumin seeds during the wedding ceremony as a happy marriage charm.
A cobbler is a baked fruit-based dessert that is a cousin to the crumble and the crisp. Unlike a crumble, which is topped with a dry crumbly streusel topping before baking, the crumble is covered in a batter that often involves eggs and milk.
Americans and Brits both make a habit of cobbler, but American cobblers -- frequently made from fresh apples, peaches, blackberries or cherries -- are more commonly eaten for dessert, with a topping that rises and forms a kind of giant dumpling. In the U.K., a cobbler is typically a savory dish like a lamb casserole, covered with a biscuit or scone topping that is spooned on into individual toppings across the top.
The American cobbler has nicknames like the Betty, Buckle, Sonker, Grunt, and Slump. New Englanders make Slumps and Grunts in a stove-top iron skillet, topping the fruit with dumplings. Buckles are made with yellow batter that's mixed with the filling. Sonkers are deep-dish cobblers from North Carolina. The Brown Betty is made with layers of fruit and bread or graham cracker crumbs, kind of like a fruity bread pudding.
Like bangers and mash, bubble and squeak is British comfort food, a homey dish made from a mixture of mashed potatoes and chopped cooked cabbage that's fried until golden.
Bubble and squeak was traditionally a way to use up leftover meat from the requisite English Sunday roast, with the meat added to the mixture. But now it's usually made without meat. It is similar to the Irish dish Colcannon.
Bubble and squeak's colorful name apparently refers to the sounds it makes as it cooks -- or lands in your stomach.
Many people think that sweetbreads are culinary code for calves' brains.
But the term sweetbreads is actually a benign-sounding pseudonym for the paired thymus glands and pancreas of milk-fed veal or calves. (You can also find inferior pork or lamb sweetbreads if you look hard enough.) The rounder pancreas gland near the heart is more prized than the tubular thymus throat gland. The pancreas gland has a more delicate flavor and smoother texture.
If you're shopping for sweetbreads, be sure that they're still snow white, fleshy and firm to the touch. Rinse them in several changes of acidulated water before using. Once you get them home, don't keep them for more than 24 hours in the refrigerator. Sweetbreads are normally blanched, refreshed in cold water and cooled before being braised, poached, sautéed, fried, broiled or blended into a soufflé, pâté or filling.
