I always wanted to learn to make home fries, but I thought they were probably too complicated for me. (I am not the best cook.) This recipe provided the details I needed to give me the confidence to make them and they turned out great! I have a new potato recipe in my arsenal now (my family is really happy).
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Bearnaise is a rich, buttery, aromatic sauce featuring shallots, tarragon and crushed black peppercorns. Bearnaise is typically served with grilled steak.
The Epicurean line of cutting boards is taking the specialty cookware store by storm. Thin and sleek, these boards promise to be dishwasher safe, environmentally friendly and knife friendly. I decided to give them a test run to see how they measured up to their claims.
I decided to test the largest size (17 by 14 inches) of the recycled line, which is made of a composite of recycled cardboard and resin. The board is only about half an inch thin, which means it's lighter to lift and carry than most wooden boards, and is also easier to store than thicker boards; unfortunately the lightness also means that it can slide on the counter. Anchoring it with a damp dishtowel can solve this problem. The company claims the board is knife-friendly, meaning that the surface has enough "give" to keep a knife from dulling quickly. Wood, of course, is the most forgiving cutting surface for a knife blade. The board felt brittle beneath my knife, loudly clicking under the knife strokes, a sound I associate with cutting on surfaces like plastic. But over the course of a couple of weeks of use, I didn't notice any significant dulling of my cutlery. What's more, the board started showing scratches from the knife. While this detracted from the beauty of the board, it did show me that the surface is softer than I thought, thus good for my knife's blade.
Water seems to bead up on the epicurean board, making it easy to wipe clean between tasks. But best yet, at the end of your cooking session, you can throw the whole thing in the dishwasher.
The company claims that all Epicurean Cutting Surfaces are stain- and heat-resistant. Besides the recycled line, the company has several other product lines that boast everything from juice grooves to storage cups for sauces to gripper corners.
The 17x14 inch Recycled Epicurean Cutting Board sells for around $35.
I made this soup today, I also added extra garlic and sweet potato! it turned out excellent, and my husband loved it. will definately be making it again!!
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Photo: U.S. Department of AgricultureBringing your lunch to work, or preparing lunches for your children to take to school, means food can go unrefrigerated for extended periods of time. This gives bacteria a chance to grow and multiply, thus increasing the risk of food poisoning. Here are some food safety tips to keep in mind when preparing bag lunches.
The very nature of bag lunches makes it nearly impossible to keep food properly refrigerated (storing it at a temperatures of 40°F or colder), particularly while driving to work or taking the bus to school.And even if your school or workplace offers a refrigerator for storing lunches, you're still going to have to do some careful planning to make sure the food you pack for lunch doesn't end up causing a case of foodborne illness.
Soft, insulated lunch bags or boxes are the best choice for keeping lunches cold. Metal or plastic lunch boxes without insulation don't do as good a job, but they're certainly better than paper lunch bags.If you do use paper lunch bags, double bagging creates an additional layer of insulation to help protect the food inside. And remember that insulated lunch totes and lunch boxes should be washed with hot soapy water after each use.
No matter what sort of lunch bag or box you use, you should definitely place some kind of ice pack in it to keep the food inside cold. Small, frozen gel packs are perfect for this task.You can also freeze a juice box or small bottled water and pack it in your bag or lunch box. Not only will this help keep your lunch cold, but by lunchtime your frozen drink will have melted, giving you a cold, refreshing juice or water to enjoy with your lunch.
Perishable foods include cooked meats such as cold cuts and other lunch meats, as well as pre-made tuna salads, chicken salads and egg salads. All of these foods are potential targets for the bacteria that cause food poisoning, and they must be kept refrigerated.And it's not just homemade sandwiches that need refrigeration. Any store-bought, packaged lunch combos containing lunch meats, crackers and cheese need to be kept cold, too.
Remember peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches? This humble sandwich was an ingenious invention from a time before the widespread availability of home refrigeration (to say nothing of frozen gel packs and insulated lunch bags). Because bread, peanut butter and jelly are all non-perishable, peanut butter and jelly makes the perfect sandwich for brown-bag lunches.Other examples of foods that don't need to stay cold include whole fruits, chips, crackers, mustard, pickles, and unopened cans of meat and fish. To learn more, here's an article about what causes food spoilage.
Many people choose to brown-bag it because it's a great way to economize. When we're trying to be frugal, it can be tempting to reuse paper lunch bags, sandwich bags, foil and plastic wrap. Unfortunately, once these items have been used, they can contaminate other food and cause foodborne illness. The safest thing to do is to discard them.If that feels wasteful, you can make up for it practicing portion control. Don't pack more for lunch than can be eaten at lunchtime. Leftovers that are stored for the rest of the day and then brought home might not be safe to eat.
If you do have leftovers and no way to refrigerate them, follow one of the mantras of the foodservice industry: "When in doubt, throw it out."
Homemade ice cream is fresh, delicious and fun to make. What's more, you can customize your flavors or use the best-quality ingredients you can find. But it can be tricky to get ice cream to have that perfect firm, yet creamy consistency that is the trademark of good ice cream. Follow these tips to improve your own ice cream making technique.
Start with the best ingredients.
Ice cream is only as good as the ingredients used to make it. So if you can afford it, buy organic milk and cream and free-range eggs, making sure that everything is as fresh as can be. If you're adding flavorings or ingredients, such as chocolate, vanilla or fruit, spring for high-quality products. For instance, real vanilla, or even actual vanilla beans, makes far better vanilla ice cream than imitation vanilla.
Save fat and calorie cutting for later.
If you're like most people, you try to watch what you eat and buy low-fat versions of cheese, milk and other foods. But ice cream depends on a high fat content to create a creamy texture that won't get icy and gritty in the freezer. Once you get adept at making ice cream, you can experiment with using lower-fat milk products, such as half-and-half instead of heavy cream, but be aware that the texture and flavor won't be nearly as rich and delicious as a full-fat version. On a diet? Make ice cream an occasional treat, and serve yourself a smaller portion.
Know when to add flavorings.
Flavorings, especially extracts or alcohol, should be added when cooked custard has cooled. Don't add them to the custard when it's hot, or the flavors will deteriorate and won't be as pronounced. You could even wait to stir them in until right before you pour the ice cream base into the ice cream maker.
Thoroughly chill the custard.
Many ice cream recipes call for making a cooked custard out of eggs, sugar and milk. After you've made the custard, it's important to chill it in the refrigerator until it's as cold as possible before putting it into your ice cream maker. Some experts even recommend "aging" the mixture overnight in the refrigerator, which will enable the mixture to be aerated as much as possible in the maker, yielding the creamiest, smoothest ice cream.
Freeze the bowl.
Speaking of freezing, if you're using the type of ice cream maker that comes with a freezer bowl, make sure to freeze this bowl for at least 24 hours before making ice cream. If the bowl is not cold enough, chances are your ice cream will never freeze.
Start the motor first.
Particularly when using an ice cream maker with a freezer bowl, it's important to turn on the motor before pouring into the ice cream base. The bowl is so cold that the mixture will freeze immediately upon contact, so you'll want it to already be in motion so that the ice cream won't freeze onto the bowl in a chunk.
Use mix-ins wisely.
Adding candy pieces, nuts or dried or fresh fruit to your ice cream can add a whole new flavor and texture dimension. Mix-ins should be small, around the size of a chocolate chip, so the ice cream maker can incorporate them into the frozen ice cream. Chill them thoroughly before adding them to the ice cream, and only add them when the ice cream is already completely frozen. The ice cream maker won't need more than a minute or two to stir them in.Keep it creamy.
A common complaint about homemade ice cream is that it gets hard and icy when it's stored in the freezer. There are several ways to keep your ice cream from freezing solid in the freezer. David Lebovitz, author of the book, The Perfect Scoop, recommends adding a few tablespoons of alcohol (such as a fruit liqueur to fruit-flavored ice cream, or vodka when you don't want an alcoholic flavor). Sugar, corn syrup or honey, as well as gelatin and commercial stabilizers, can all keep your ice cream at a softer consistency. Ice cream also stays softer when you store it into a shallow container, rather than a deep tub, and cover the surface of the ice cream with plastic wrap to keep ice crystals from forming.
With a little practice and some good recipes (whether it's classic Vanilla or an adventurous flavor like Ovaltine ice cream), you'll be well on your way to making delicious homemade ice cream that will delight your friends and family.
There are two kinds of emulsions, temporary and permanent. An example of a temporary emulsion is a simple vinaigrette. You combine the oil and vinegar in a jar, mix them up and they come together for a short time. Mayonnaise is an example of a permanent emulsion, consisting of egg yolks and oil. Egg yolks and oil would not naturally mix together, but by slowly whisking the oil into the egg yolks, the two liquids form a stable emulsion that won't separate.
Hollandaise sauce is another permanent emulsion, which is made of egg yolks and clarified butter.
Certain substances act as emulsifiers, which means they help the two liquids come together and stay together. In the case of mayonnaise and Hollandaise, it is the lecithin in the egg yolks that acts as the emulsifier. Lecithin, a fatty substance soluble in both fat and water, will readily combine with both the egg yolk and the oil or butter, essentially holding the two liquids together.
In a stable emulsion, what happens is that droplets of one of the liquids become evenly dispersed within the other liquid. The resulting liquid is thicker than the two original liquids were. In the case of salad dressing, oil droplets are suspended within the vinegar.
A fine powder also can help to stabilize an emulsion, and so can a starch. That's why roux is useful in thickening sauces. It's the starch in the flour that joins the butter to the liquid stock. A cornstarch slurry works the same way.
Other less obvious examples of emulsions are chocolate (an emulsion of milk and cocoa butter) and some sausages and forcemeats. Hot dogs are an example of an emulsion sausage where meat, fat and water are combined to form a smooth forcemeat which is then stuffed into a casing.