Clever Kitchen Quick Tips from Cook's Illustrated

• Checking Gas Level in Grill Propane Tank

• If your tank doesn't have a gas level gauge, or if you don't trust the gauge, do this:
• Boil a cup of water and pour it over the side of the tank. 
• Then, feel the metal with your hand. 
• The place where the metal switches from warm to cool is the level of propane inside the tank.  (Where the water has heated the metal, there is no propane on the other side. Where the metal is still cool, there is propane on the other side.)  

• Measuring Sticky Ingredients
• Before you pour honey or syrup into a measuring device, spray the measuring cup or spoon with nonstick cooking spray first.  The the goo will just slip out, instead of sticking to the cup. That way, you don't lose any of your measured syrup to being left behind, stuck in the cup. 
• If you are out of spray, you can also line the cup with plastic wrap.

• Steam Clean a Microwave
• If you have dried food particles stuck on your microwave, fill a microwave-safe bowl with water and microwave it for 10 minutes. 
• The steam will loosen the food particles stuck on the microwave, so they can be easily wiped off.

• Keep Berries From Molding
• Make a mild vinegar solution out of 1 part vinegar to 3 parts water.
• Rinse the berries in this solution, and gently dry them.
• Store berries in an airtight container lined with paper towels. 
• (Cook's Illustrated picture shows the berries inside a salad spinner that has been lined with paper towels.)

Nerding Out

If my beloved Alton Brown has taught me anything (and he has), it's that true food nerds love to classify things.  Like Alton, I truly love to bring order out of chaos.  Which, if you think about it, is really what cooking is - taking an array of miscellaneous ingredients and creating a harmonious and ordered whole.  It's like assembling an IKEA bookshelf, only a lot more satisfying. 

At any rate, here is a working classification on fruit desserts because this is the kind of thing that keeps me up at night.

Cobblers, Crisps, Crumbles, Grunts, Slumps, Bettys, Buckles, and Pandowdies

• Cobbler:  fruit topped with a crust and baked.  Think of cobbler like a fruit pot pie.  There are two main styles of cobbler - those with a rolled-out, solid layer of top crust (sometimes much like a one-crust pie, only with the crust on the top instead of the bottom), and those that are topped with "cobbles," or rounds of dough.  This latter style is usually made with a tender, sweet biscuit dough, and these are my favorite.  These rounds can be cut-out circles of rolled dough, but my much-preferred way is to make the cobbles like drop biscuits, randomly scattering small globs of delicious dough at intervals over the fruit.  These will bake into delicious irregular craggy biscuits over your jammy fruit. 
• Crisp:  fruit sprinkled with a streusel; a mixture of butter, sugar (usually brown), flour, and often oatmeal or finely chopped nuts.  This mixture is usually rubbed together with fingertips, or pulsed together in a food processor. (See Crumble).
• Crumble:  Some sources that a crumble is merely the British name for a crisp.  Other sources I've read claim that if the topping involves oats, it's a crisp, but if it's just a traditional streusel mixture (no oats), it's a crumble.  
• Grunt: a form of cobbler in which the fruit is first cooked on the stove top ("stewed"), then cobbles of biscuit dough are dropped over that, and the dish bakes just long enough to bake the crust.  This is the only one in which the fruit is pre-cooked. Supposedly named for the sound it makes when the fruit bubbles up through the crust while it's baking. A Slump is another name for a grunt - I believe grunt is more common in the south, slump in the northeast.
• Brown Betty:  baked fruit like a crisp, except uses buttered chunks of bread or breadcrumbs instead of streusel, which is layered with the fruit rather than being laid on top.
• Buckle: the fruit is folded into a plain yellow cake batter, which is then covered with a streusel topping (no oats).  This cake batter needs to be fairly stiff, almost like a cookie dough. The classic version is Blueberry Buckle. 
• Pandowdy:  a deep-dish cobbler in which the top crust is broken up into an uneven layer (hence "dowdy"), with some bits of crust sunk into the fruit to absorb juices. This 19th century dessert was originally made with apples, and sweetened with molasses or maple syrup.  That top crust can actually be either a rolled pie crust, or a cobbler-style dough, or even a more cake-like batter.  Martha Stewart has a recipe that rolls out a pie crust, cuts it into squares, and lays those raw on top of the fruit, then the whole thing is baked.  Other sources say you bake a solid layer of whichever type of top crust first, then break up the surface to submerge some of the pieces. 
• Sonker: a cobbler containing a high fruit-to-dough ratio, often mixed fruit. This is a very regional Southern dish, indigenous to Mt. Airy, NC according to Alton Brown, though I thought the peach sonker was a Georgia thing.   

Sources: Cook's Illustrated American Classics 2009; Gourmet's Guide to Cobblers, Crisps etc. by Jane Daniels Lear, 08.14.09; I'm Just Here For More Food and Good Eats Volume 2 by Alton Brown; Elle's New England Kitchen (http://www.ellesnewenglandkitchen.com/blog/2010/6/11/mixed-berry-pandowdy.html); MarthaStewart.com.

Squeaky Wheels, and So On

As a post-script to my previous post, I should note that Bon Appetit was gracious enough to reply to my letter to the editor.  I must admit, I almost feel bad for being so snarky. To wit:

Dear Natalie,

Thank you for taking the time to write to us. We value your opinion, and we understand that not all of our readers will agree with every editorial choice we make, including our choice for the June 2011 cover. Gwyneth is someone who cooks for her friends and family, promotes eating healthfully, and has produced a smartly written cookbook. We can get behind that.

We hope that whatever your feelings about Ms. Paltrow you will read the other great stories in June, including a visit to the home of London chef Fergus Henderson, a definitive guide to wild American shrimp, Andrew Knowlton on the Mint Julep, and over 70 great recipes. And while we may put people on the cover occasionally in the future, but it will be an exception, and we're back to delicious food on the cover in July.

Changes are happening at Bon Appetit, but our focus on good food and recipes remains of utmost importance to us, in addition to publishing gorgeous food photography, excellent writing, and useful tips and tricks that inspire and educate our readers. We truly hope that you will continue reading, and that BA can be a part of your morning commute for years to come!

Thank you again for reaching out to share your feedback. We are listening.

—The editors of Bon Appetit 

It's a Scandal! It's an Outrage!

Well, I have been away from this blog for an awfully long time, which is a shame.  However, there have been several recent developments that are bringing me back, with renewed determination.  I will address them all in due time, but let me get to the first - I have a burning need to express how I feel about Bon Appetit's horrifying June cover.  Here is my letter to the editor:   

Et tu, Bon Appetit?  I have been a subscriber for nearly a decade, and I have always looked forward to seeing the enticing food images that grace your covers and set the tone for the issue every month.  I was horrified to discover that June’s cover instead featured the self-satisfied sneer of Gwyneth Paltrow, Hollywood’s most pernicious phony.  If you were going to break ranks from the food magazine industry standard, and replace the usual image of the actual topic at hand – food – with an image of a food personality, why on earth didn’t you choose someone who actually deserves the honor?  With the sharp increase in food journalism and food television in the past few years, there are a wealth of famous faces you could have chosen to celebrate – celebrity chefs, groundbreaking food pioneers, activists, artisans – and instead you go with a movie star who happens to have written a kids’ cookbook?  I feel betrayed.  I really thought Bon Appetit was above this sort of Hollywood pandering.  I ride the subway to work in Washington D.C. every day, and I have always been proud to read Bon Appetit, with its usual mouthwatering cover art, as I did so.  I’ve even received questions from fellow riders about the magazine, based on one particularly delicious-looking cover image or another.  But now that Bon Appetit can’t be distinguished at a glance from a trashy celebrity gossip magazine, I can assure you that the June issue will not be making the commute with me.

Here's hoping that you return to your senses!

Foodnerddc.blogspot.com

Summer Supper Pie

I think that a lot of people, the baking-inclined anyway, get excited about summer in part because it means they can now make pies using fresh summer produce.  Most of these people are probably thinking about berries, cherries or stone fruit when they think of summer pie.  Me though, I'm thinking about tomatoes.  

Tomatoes are a fruit after all - but this is decidedly a savory dinner pie.  Think of it as American quiche, only without any eggs.  That is how the great James Beard once described this dish.  This is supposedly a classic Southern recipe, although I discovered it through magazines, and have found that none of my Southern friends have ever heard of it.  

A note about the tomatoes - the key to this recipe is to use the very best tomatoes you can find.  If you can get heirloom beefsteak tomatoes from a farmer's market, those would be best (you need 4 to 5 large ones).  If the grocery store is all you've got, go with a full container of campari tomatoes.  The ones in my grocery store are from Canada, which makes me unhappy, but the flavor of camparis is pretty great.  You could also try the "vine-ripened" tomatoes at the store, although the quality of these varies a lot.  Just please don't use run-of-the-mill grocery tomatoes, as they are too mealy and don't have enough flavor.  The filling would just turn to mush with that kind of tomato.  And I'm serious when I say that as much as I love this pie, it is reserved for summer only.  Do not try this at home with off-season tomatoes.

As for the pie crust, I recommend Pillsbury "Just Unroll" crusts, which are in the refrigerated section at the grocery store.  There are 2 crusts to a package, so you need 1 package.  For bonus points, you could always make your own crust, but this is something I'm not good at - and as Alton Brown says, better that you make your own pie with store bought crust, than to not make your pie at all. 

And lastly, the mayonnaise - always use regular (i.e. full-fat), not reduced fat and for God's sake, not fat-free.  With so few ingredients, the quality of each one matters, and plus you are going to cook it, so the fat has an important role to play in keeping it together.  I generally use Hellman's, but since this is a Southern recipe, Duke's brand is the most authentic choice, and very tasty (Harris Teeter carries it, amazingly enough). 

Summer Tomato Pie

Adapted from Cook's Country & Southern Living magazines

Ingredients:

• 2 pie dough rounds, 9-inch pie size (such as 1 package Pillsbury "Just Unroll")
• 2-3 pounds tomatoes (see note above)
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt (reduce to 1/2 teaspoon if using regular table salt, or increase to a full teaspoon if using a flaky sea salt)
• 1/4 cup regular mayonnaise
• 4 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese - okay, sometimes I use up to 2 cups
• 4 scallions (or green onions, same thing), very thinly sliced 

Procedure:

1.  Prepare the dough.  If using refrigerated Pillsbury crusts, take them out of the package and let them come to room temperature first, about 15 minutes.   Unroll one crust and press into a 9-inch pie pan, letting any excess hang over the edge.  Cover with a piece of plastic wrap.  Unroll second crust and drape it over the plastic wrap in the pan.  Put the pan into the refrigerator while you complete the other steps.  If using homemade dough, roll 12-inch discs, then place into pie pan and chill as described above.   
2. Drain the tomatoes.  Slice the tomatoes into ¼ inch thick slices.  Discard the tops and cut out any thick cores.  Cover a large baking sheet with paper towels, and arrange your tomato slices in a single layer on top of the paper towels.  Sprinkle the slices liberally with salt.  Let drain 30 minutes, then press tops of tomato slices gently with additional paper towels to get rid of surface moisture. 
3. Heat the oven.  Adjust oven rack to lowest position.  Place an empty baking sheet (a second baking sheet, not the one holding your tomatoes) on the rack.  Heat oven to 450 degrees. 
4. Prepare the filling.  In a bowl, combine the mayo, cornstarch, and most of the shredded cheese (reserve ½ cup of cheese for next step).   Gently mix until well combined. 
5. Assemble the pie.   Retrieve pie plate from refrigerator.  Using the plastic wrap, lift off top crust and set aside.  Line bottom crust with about ½ cup shredded cheese.   Arrange about one-third of the tomato slices over the cheese – you can keep this layer flat, or overlap the slices a bit, depending on how many slices you have to fit in.  Dollop about half the mayo mixture over the tomato layer, then spread it as evenly as you can (it will be a bit thick, so will resist spreading.  Just make sure it has a somewhat even distribution).   Sprinkle with half the sliced scallions.  Layer another third of the tomatoes, then the last half of the mayo mixture, then the last half of the scallions.  Top with the last third of the tomato slices. 
6. Top the pie.  Drape the top crust over your assembled pie.  Press the top crust around the edge of the pie pan, joining together with the overhang from the bottom crust.  Trim any serious excess that extends beyond the edges of the pie plate.   Fold the remaining crust edge under itself to create a double thickness, and crimp it with your fingers so it holds together and looks decorative (if you’re fancy.  Mine usually looks “interpretive” at best).   Use a paring knife to cut three to four oval-shaped vent holes in the top crust, approximately 2 inches long.    
7. Bake.   Place the pie onto the pre-heated baking sheet in the oven.  Bake at 450 for ten minutes, then lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees and bake until the crust is a nice golden brown, about 30 more minutes if using store-bought crust (about 40 for homemade crust).   
8. Cool.  When pie is done, remove from oven and place the pie plate onto a wire cooling rack.  Here is the hard part – allow it to cool to room temperature, about three hours, if you want to be proper about it.  I admit that I sometimes crack into it before the three hours is up, but I do try to give it at least two hours – you don’t want to slice into a hot pie, or the filling won’t set properly.   The original recipe said to serve the pie at room temperature, and it is good that way.  I actually prefer my slices warmed back up (microwave for 30 seconds), but that’s personal preference. 
    

As this is a savory pie, I do not recommend serving with ice cream.  That would be gross.   

Even More Summery Variations:     

• Tomato-Basil Pie:   reduce the number of diced scallions to 3.  Finely mince 3-4 fresh basil leaves and mix those in with the diced scallions.  Proceed with recipe as directed, using this mixture in place of just the scallions.  I really like this variation- the pie ends up with a nice herb flavor somewhat reminiscent of caprese salad.

• Tomato-Corn Pie:   cut the kernels from one ear of fresh corn (I would not recommend frozen or canned corn for this).  There is no need to pre-cook the corn.  Scatter the kernels over the interior tomato layers when building the pie. 

Winter Repertoire

So I suppose it's safe to say that I suck at this consistency thing.  I can't even really blame the job - apparently I'm just lazy at posting stuff, and it generally takes federal snow days to make me do it.  As we enter Day Four of Snowmageddon 2010, it occurs to me that I should really share the recipe for the dinner I made on Friday, as the snow began to really pile up outside.  It's a newer addition to my winter repertoire, but it is really, really comforting, as winter food should be.  Think of it like metaphorically wrapping up in a beefy, sour-creamy duvet.  Or taking a warm bath in salt and egg noodles.  What?  I think those things sound awesome.  Does this dish sound sort of tacky?  Yes.  But it's like all the best things about the 1950s, simmered in one aromatic saucepan.

Hamburger Stroganoff
Adapted from Cooking Light, November 2008

• 8 oz uncooked egg noodles (about half a large package)
• Approx 1 tsp olive oil - use regular, not extra virgin, unless that's all you have
• 1 pound lean ground beef (I use 90% lean)
• 1 largeish white or yellow onion, chopped up
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 (8 oz.) package mushrooms - cremini are best, but you can use white button too, sliced
• 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 cup mushroom broth (we use Better Than Boullion Mushroom Base - 1 teaspoon plus 1 cup boiling water = awesome.  But you can also use 1 cup beef broth)
• 1 tsp kosher salt (approx - salt to your taste)
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper (or to taste - this is fairly peppery, which we like)
• 1/2 cup light sour cream - you could also use full-fat, but you might want to reduce amount to 1/3 cup if so because the fat dulls the other flavors to some extent.  Don't use fat-free, which is just awful.  
• 1 Tbsp sherry - we use cream sherry, which is what we happened to grab at the store, and it works fine, but the original recipe calls for dry sherry, so by all means use that if you've got it.

Procedure:

1. Prep all your ingredients - chop your onion, mince your garlic, slice your mushrooms, prepare your cup of broth (if you are using the kind of base that needs to be constituted in boiling water).
2. Put a large pot of very salty water on to boil for the egg noodles, then continue with the recipe.  Whenever the water finally boils, pause to add the egg noodles to the pot and give it a good stir so they don't stick.  Boil until you like the consistency of the noodles, testing them occasionally.  When they're done, kill the heat, drain in a colander, then return to the pot to wait until you're done with the sauce.
3. For the meat sauce:  Pour a dollop of olive oil into a large skillet or saucepan, ideally one with high sides, and swirl to cover the bottom of the pan. If it's a larger pan, go ahead and use more oil.  Heat the pan over medium-high.
4. Add your ground beef and stir occasionally until it is no longer pink, breaking up chunks as it cooks.  While it is cooking, sprinkle about half the salt over the meat and stir it in.
5. Once the meat is no longer pink, but before it gets at all dry, stir in the chopped onion and garlic, the rest of the salt, and the pepper.  Once that has cooked a minute or two, stir in the sliced mushrooms.
6. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent, the mushrooms are dark and silky, and the liquid it's all given off has started to reduce (approx 6 minutes, depending on your heat).
7. Sprinkle the flour over the pan and stir it in, which should make the mixture look just a bit thicker and more viscous.  If there's still a lot of liquid, you can add a pinch more flour. 
8. After the flour is absorbed, stir in your broth, and bring to a boil.  Then lower the heat slightly and let it simmer another minute or so, until it reduces to a slightly thicker consistency. 
9. Taste the meat mixture at this point and add more salt and pepper if you desire.  Then turn off the heat and sprinkle the sherry over the contents of the pan.  Last, stir in the sour cream.  
10. Serve bowls of egg noodles with the creamy meat sauce ladled over the top. 

Note:  the sherry we use is a bottle of Harvey's Bristol Cream, which is a "cream sherry," but there is nothing "creamy" about it, actually.  It's a fortified wine just like dry sherry, but supposedly "cream" means it's slightly sweeter.  It also works really well in bisques and the like.  You could actually make this recipe without sherry altogether and it will still be really good, the taste will just be slightly less complex.  Me though, I really love that distinctive something that sherry adds.  (I think my palate probably became attuned to the taste of sherry from my vast experience eating lobster bisque, with which I am slightly obsessed).

Morning Is A State of Mind

So, one unfortunate thing about my significant other is that he doesn't generally like breakfast food.  I, on the other hand, could eat breakfast food all the live-long day.  In fact, about the only thing I don't like about breakfast is that it is technically supposed to happen in the morning.  Just ask anyone who has had the misfortune to try to talk to me before my first pot of coffee what I think about the usefulness of mornings.

So, the following recipe is usually made in my home on a weekend afternoon, which still passes for "breakfast" when it's your first meal of the day, if you ask me.  And it is so good that even the ordinarily breakfast-spurning sig other requests it regularly.  We even have it for dinner, sometimes.

Perfect Butterscotch-Chip Pancakes
Adapted from Alton Brown, I'm Just Here For More Food

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour (or 9 1/2 oz or 270g by weight, as is Alton's way)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder (1/8 oz or 3g)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (1/8 oz or 3g)
• 1 teaspoon salt (1/4 oz or 6g)
• 3 tablespoons sugar (1 1/2 oz or 42g)
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups buttermilk, at room temperature (which I usually achieve by zapping for about fifteen seconds in the microwave, right in the measuring cup)
• 4 tablespoons butter (1/2 stick), melted and slightly cooled (about thirty seconds in the microwave)
• Generous handful or two of butterscotch chips.  (Chocolate chips can be substituted, but I really like the buttery-candied flavor the butterscotch chips take on, and they go perfectly with the butter and maple syrup I use as toppings.)
• Extra butter for lubing the griddle.

Process:

1. Combine the dry ingredients:  pulse the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar together with a few quick bursts in the food processor.  Alternately, you can just whisk them together, but the food processor will aerate the flour, much like sifting, which is good for texture. 
2. Combine the wet ingredients:  in a separate bowl, whisk the eggs until the whites and yolks are blended.  Whisk in the melted butter until combined.  Then whisk in the buttermilk. 
3. Combine the wet and dry ingredients (see note, below).  Whisk together until just combined, and no dry streaks remain.  Do NOT attempt to beat out every little lump, or you will over-mix.  
4. Let the batter rest, undisturbed, for five minutes.  Small bubbles should appear. 
5. Heat an electric griddle to 350 degrees.  (You can use a griddle pan on the stovetop, but electric griddles are cheap and awesome, such a snap to use and clean).  Water droplets should dance across when the surface is ready. 
6. Just before dishing out the batter, fold in the butterscotch chips (give them a quick, gentle stir until just mixed in.)  The reason for doing this last is that they will settle to the bottom of the batter bowl otherwise. 
7. Dish the batter onto the griddle surface.  I like to cook four at a time, forming batter pools about four inches across. Let them cook on the first side for approximately 3 minutes.  Bubbles will form across their surface, and the edges should start to look dry.  
8. Flip quickly and carefully with a large spatula, as the top surfaces will still be wet and could splatter.  Let the second side cook for approximately 2 minutes, until they release easily from the griddle surface.
9. Remove the first four, re-butter the grill, and dish out the next four.  Continue until no batter remains.  I generally get about twelve pancakes out of this recipe, or sixteen if I'm dishing each portion a little smaller.  Serve with butter and real maple syrup.  They are best when very fresh, so we usually start eating the first batch as the next one cooks (which admittedly, takes some juggling). 

Notes:

If you are a fan of Alton Brown, you will recognize this as the Muffin Method.  Alton says you should always add the combined wet ingredients into the combined dry ingredients, and not the other way around, because this reduces mess.  But I really don't think it makes any difference.  Especially if you started the dry ingredients in the food processor, and the wet ingredients in a bowl, it makes most sense to just dump the dry into the bowl with the wet, and whisk in there.

Alton also recommends buttering the griddle and then wiping the butter back out before applying batter.  I disagree with this completely - the butter adds golden flavor as well as a crispy exterior to the pancakes, which is also why I think the surface should be re-buttered before each batch.

One thing Alton is right about is that buying a kitchen scale is good for procedure.  It really is incredibly simple to measure out the ingredients by weight once you have one.  You just put the bowl on the scale, punch the "zero" or "tare" button, add the first ingredient until you hit the target weight, hit the zero button again, add the second thing, zero again, etc. Takes the stress out of measuring, and essentially eliminates measuring cups and spoons if you go whole-hog with it. 

I do recommend that you buy buttermilk for this recipe.  I used to be annoyed by the presence of buttermilk in recipes because it wasn't something that I tended to keep around, but then I discovered that you can buy it in very small amounts to reduce waste, or buy a whole half-gallon and it actually keeps for weeks so you can get tons of use out of it.  I like reduced-fat buttermilk better than fat-free or whole.  If you really don't have buttermilk but want pancakes anyway, use clabbered milk instead - measure out just slightly less than 2 cups of regular reduced-fat milk (or whatever you've got) and add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice - bottled is fine for this.  Let this sit for five minutes, and the milk will begin to curdle.  It looks scary, but it does the trick.  It will be slightly thinner and less tangy than real buttermilk, and the texture of your pancake may be somewhat less fluffy. 

This recipe, as with most baked goods, technically calls for unsalted butter.  But I've made this with salted butter and really didn't notice a difference in this application.  It's true that unsalted butter, when cooked, has a slightly "purer" flavor.  However I insist on salted for all table use, including topping these pancakes.