Category Archives: Kitchen Tips

Turn Scraps into Soup

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On Friday, I wrote about nostalgiancholy being the predominant emotion of the season for me. And that holds true. But as the mornings grow misty and frost etches the windowpanes, I also feel the desire to find abundance in frugality, joy in what we already have. One way to do both, I’ve discovered, is to create a variety of economical stocks from scraps I’ve accumulated that then become the base for soups (and whole grain risottos and sauces and . . . ) all winter long.

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Great ideas to snip and save in the freezer for food-scraps stocks are:

  • Leek trimmings
  • Rinds of hard cheeses
  • Heels of prosciutto, pancetta or salami
  • Shrimp or lobster shells
  • Chicken carcasses and wings
  • Beef or pork bones
  • Mushroom stems

And while you can feel free to raid the produce drawer for anything a bit beyond its prime, the golden rule is not to use anything slimy, moldy or smelly.

Formula for a Scraps Stock

  • Char a halved onion, cut side down, with 1/8 cup of unpeeled aromatics (like garlic, ginger, shallots, lemongrass and the like, depending upon the flavor profile you’re shooting for) in a large stock pot over medium heat until well colored, about 5 minutes.
  • Add a total of 4 cups additional coarsely chopped vegetable scraps (leek tops, celery, carrots, mushrooms stems, etc. in any combination) and shells or carcasses, and cook for 3 minutes, stirring often.
  • Add 10 cups water, herbs (like bay leaves, thyme and rosemary) and 1 tablespoon miso, and bring to a boil. Skim off any foam that rises to the surface.
  • Reduce heat to medium-low and add in any cheese, cured meat scraps or dried mushrooms.
  • Simmer for anywhere from 40 minutes (for vegetable stocks) to overnight (for chicken or beef stocks)

Note that while stocks should be full-flavored, they are intentionally underseasoned (unlike broths) in order to make them super versatile. This gives you freedom later to reduce the stock or use it in a highly seasoned dish without it imparting too much saltiness.

The Basics of Braising

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As the days grow grayer the light inside glows a tad warmer and anything cooked over a slow, mellow heat seems to suffuse our very souls with comfort. These, my friends, are braising days.

How to Braise

Braising is a cooking method that breaks down tough, fibrous meat through the convective action of steam. After an initial browning on the stove top, meat is sealed in a pan with a small amount of liquid and cooked at a low, steady heat—often for several hours. The reward is meltingly tender meat and a savory, complex sauce with surprisingly little hands-on cooking time.

Ironically, tougher cuts of meat yield the most tender and flavorful braises. Shanks, ribs, legs, shoulder, and chuck or round roasts have ample connective tissue which breaks down and tenderizes meat during a long cooking time, while lean cuts like chicken breast or beef tenderloin simply dry out.

When braising, choose a heavy-duty shallow pot or deep, straight sided pan with a secure lid, like a Dutch oven, a doufeu or even a deep-sided oven-proof saute pan. It should be wide enough to accommodate the meat snugly in a single layer and deep enough so the lid fits tightly. You may need to brown in two batches in order to allow air to circulate freely around the food, but during the slow simmer, meat should be nestled as closely together as possible.

There are four basic steps to braising: browning the meat, deglazing the pan, slow cooking and finishing.

1. Brown the meat on the stove top. Heat the Dutch oven over medium-high heat and swirl in a minimum of fat. Then thoroughly brown the meat on all sides. Allow at least 1/2-inch space between the pieces so that air can circulate or the meat will steam rather than sear (brown in batches if necessary). Don’t rush this process; the more developed the crust, the deeper and more concentrated the flavor of the braise will be. Transfer to a plate when done.

2. Add aromatics like garlic, shallots and hardy herbs to the pan and cook until fragrant and golden. Deglaze the pan with wine, scraping up any bits stuck to the bottom. Then add the braising liquid and bring to a vigorous simmer.

3. Add the meat back to the pan, nestling it into a single layer, then cover tightly and move to the oven. Cook at a low to medium heat until meat is fork tender.

4. Remove meat from the pan and cover loosely with foil. Reduce the sauce on the stovetop over medium-high. Lower heat, add meat back to the pan and simmer to heat through.

There are dozens of variations on the basics, leaving the technique open to interpretation and imagination (like the Five Spice Braised and Glazed Beef Short Ribs below). The ultimate hallmark of a braise is the comfort it brings, both while in the oven and at the table.

Demystifying Umami

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Name the five flavors: sweet, salty, bitter, sour and . . . having trouble? The fifth you’re looking for is umami. My mother, who is Japanese, translated the word for me as “good taste.” But umami also connotes a deeper meaning in both Japan and here in the West; savory, delicious, the “something” you can’t put your finger on that just makes a dish.

umami-post How Does Umami Taste?

It’s a sensation as much as it is a flavor. When something feels full in your mouth, like it coats your tongue with “mmmm, that’s umami.” It’s what gives wine mouthfeel and deglazed sauces their richness. It’s why a tomato sauce with mushrooms has so much depth and why a sprinkle of Parmigiano-Reggiano does wonders to just about anything. These are foods and cooking techniques that unleash the power of umami.

What is Umami?

Our tongue is covered with receptors that are designed to perceive certain flavors. The most specialized receptors are those that identify the amino acid called glutamate (the amino acid most plentiful in protein), which creates the basic umami inherent in some foods. Other foods, when combined with ingredients that already have basic umami, activate nucleotides to send messages to the brain amplifying the umami effect in what’s called “synergizing umami.” Certain chemical reactions, too, can exponentially increase the umami sensation by breaking down the proteins of a food into its amino acid building blocks.

How Do I Create Umami?

This can be as simple as choosing foods already rich in basic umami, like ripe tomatoes and late-summer corn. But learning how to use “synergizing umami” techniques and ingredients will help you enhance the umami of almost any dish.

  • Use cooking techniques—Searing, roasting, stewing and braising are all techniques that develop umami; those little browned bits at the bottom of the pan that make the sauce so flavorful are denatured proteins—including glutamate—that our bodies can instantly use, cranking up a food’s umami index. Aging, curing and fermenting are other techniques that break down proteins into “free” amino acids and develops the umami in foods. Think aged cheese and steaks, cured meats, and fermented foods like kimchi and sourdough bread (wine and beer too).
  • Add ingredients—You can also amp up the umami and balance flavors in a dish by adding a dash of a synergizing umami ingredient. Mushrooms are renowned for their ability to enhance umami, which is why even a little bit of minced porcini added to a sauce can make such a grand impact. Darker fin fishes, like anchovies, also add umami; try adding a minced anchovy to a dressing and see how the flavor changes. Small amounts of cured meats can amplify the flavor of foods without making a meal meat-centric. Think of a lentil or pea soup with a bit of ham or bacon; much richer with than without. And if you’ve ever heard of someone’s grandmother adding a Parmigiano-Reggiano rind to a soup, now you know why—it’s for the umami it imparts. A splash of soy sauce, ketchup, fish sauce or Worcestershire sauce are also ways to heighten umami.

jackie-thumbJacqueline Church is an independent writer whose work has appeared in Culture: the Word on Cheese, Edible Santa Barbara, and John Mariani’s Virtual Gourmet. She often writes about gourmet food, sustainability issues and the intersection of the two on her blog Leather District Gourmet. Currently, she’s at work on Pig Tales: a Love Story about heritage breed pigs and the farmers and chefs bringing them from farm to table.

When Life Hands You Zucchini, Make Fritters

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When vegetables are at their peak they’re cheap, scrumptious and abundant, which means that now is a great time to get creative about adding more veggies to your plate.

Here are a few ideas to get you started, along with a recipe for knock-out Zucchini Fritters:

Zucchini and Summer Squash

  • Slow cook slices of zucchini in olive oil with garlic, chile flakes, lemon zest and a squeeze of lemon at the end for a sort of zucchini jam that’s great on crostini, or tucked into chicken breasts.
  • Stir a few cups of grated zucchini into a soup or sauce as a flavorful thickener.
  • Slice a variety of squashes lengthwise on a mandolin, arrange on a platter, drizzle with vinaigrette and sprinkle with herbs and shaved pecorino.

Eggplant

  • Roast whole Italian eggplant and use the flesh in a dip, as the base for a pasta sauce, or even as a stuffing for ravioli.
  • Slow-cook chopped Asian eggplant with garlic, ginger, spices and sugar for an Indian-style marmalade.
  • Grill slices to keep in the fridge for using on sandwiches or adding to salads.

Tomatoes

  • Slow roast plum tomatoes, then freeze in a single layer and transfer to a freezer bag for what I call “tomato candy” all winter long.
  • Chop a variety of heirloom tomatoes and cook over medium heat with onions, garlic, oregano and a drizzle of olive oil for a simple, flavorful (and thinner-than-usual) pasta sauce. Can for keeping if you like.
  • Try taking your favorite tomato dishes into new realms—tuck a Greek salad into pita for a sandwich, or transform your BLT into a main-dish salad.

Sure, we all want to eat more veggies, and there’s no better time than now. This week, expand your boundaries and take advantage of the bumper bounty in new ways.

Get a New Grain: Wheat Berries

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If you’re trying to get acquainted with more whole grains, add wheat berries to your list. Wheat berries are actually whole wheat kernels. It’s the wheat berries that are ground into whole wheat flour; white wheat berries create a lighter, tan-colored flour and red wheat berries yield a darker, tawny tint. (Click here learn more about whole wheat flours.) Left whole, though, wheat berries are a versatile addition to the kitchen.

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What They Look Like: You’ll find both white and red wheat berries, which carry the hues of their name. When cooked, they’re the size of plumped-up rice and have a buttery sheen to them.

What They Taste Like: Soft wheat berries (whether white or red) have a toothsome starchiness. Hard wheat berries retain a firm chewiness no matter how long they boil.

How to Cook Them: Wheat berries in general have a particularly tough bran that takes some time to soften, but cooking time varies significantly between soft and hard varieties. Just as there are different strains of wheat—hard wheat that’s higher in gluten and typically used for bread products and soft wheat with a lower protein content that’s used more for pastries—there are different types of wheat berries too. Soft wheat berries (whether white or red) cook up in just over an hour while hard wheat berries (again, regardless of color) can take hours to cook. You can also presoak them — as you would dried beans — to speed up the cooking time.

Cook soft wheat berries in a 3:1 ratio of liquid to berries. Bring to a boil, lower heat, cover and simmer for 60 to 90 minutes, or until tender (drain off any excess liquid). For hard wheat berries, soak overnight and double (at least . . . keep an eye out to make sure the liquid hasn’t been absorbed or the kernels will scorch) both liquid and cooking time.

How to Use Them: Wheat berries have a sturdy texture and complex, wheaty flavor that make for wonderful salads and stir-fries. Subbing them for rice as a side dish is also a great way to get to know them.

Additional Notes: You’ll find hard red and hard white, and soft red and soft white, wheat berries out there (and wheat flours as well), but don’t let the label lead you into thinking these whole grains are refined. The “white” they’re referring to here is a class of wheat due to the color of the kernel, not a refining process. Confusing, I know, but “white wheat” berries or flour are whole grain products with all three parts of the kernel intact while “white flour” is processed flour with all but the endosperm stripped away.

Get a New Grain: Farro

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Farro has become a bit of culinary darling, turning up on restaurant menus and even in health-food store bulk bins. But what is farro? It’s an ancient strain of emmer wheat (think of it as a wheat varietal, like a chardonnay or pinot noir is to wine) that was originally domesticated in the Near East millennia ago, but has recently become popular on American menus. Here’s how to use it:

farro-postWhat It Looks Like: Farro–specifically “semi-pearled” or “semi-perlato” farro, which has been lightly polished–looks a bit like barley with a dusty coating.

What It Tastes Like: Farro has a lovely, toasted nut flavor and a luscious, meaty chew that makes it one of my favorite whole grains in the kitchen.

How to Cook It: Cook farro in a 1:2 ratio of farro to water. Bring the water (or stock or tomato juice or whatever liquid you choose) to a boil, add the farro and cover. Reduce heat to low and cook for 20 minutes, until kernels are plump and tender and liquid is absorbed.

How to Use It: I like to use farro as a replacement for pasta in cold salads, as a hearty side dish, or—my favorite—as a stand-in for Arborio rice in a farro risotto. It keeps extremely well with minimal clumping when cool, which makes it a great candidate for leftovers. Try it as a base for a salad or an addition to soup.

Additional Notes: While farro used to be peasant food—it was an official ration for Roman legions—nowadays it’s quite pricy. But its texture is so substantial that I find it needs little or no meat to round out a meal. Try thinking of the farro itself as the main focus of the dish, adding meat only for a hit of flavor–like a big mound of shallot-studded farro topped with thin slices of steak or chicken. Of course, you can always beef up the whole plate with tasty seasonal veggies, as with the eggplant stacks below. Combinations like these end up being both healthy and quite economical.

Gotta Get Your Grains

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You’ve probably seen the stickers marking products made with whole grains on supermarket shelves and heard of their many health benefits (a growing body of evidence shows that even one serving a day of whole grains can help reduce the risk of several chronic diseases). But the realm of grains extends far beyond the horizon of whole wheat bread. Ancient grains like quinoa, farro, amaranth and bulgur are making a comeback in today’s kitchens, and those with former hippie appeal like millet and wheat berries are getting a thoroughly modern makeover.

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All hulled grains are made up of three parts—the bran, the germ and the endosperm—and each part performs a particular kernalfunction. The outer bran layer serves to protect the more vulnerable germ and endosperm and is equipped with fiber and antioxidants. The germ has vitamins, minerals, healthy fat and protein to nurture the into sprouting new life, and the endosperm is like the power generator, holding the carbohydrates and protein that fuel growth.

When grains are refined into the white form we’ve come to know, the bran and germ are stripped away along with all of their nutritive value. All that’s left is the protein and starch of the endosperm. But whole grains have all three parts—and the fiber, antioxidants, micronutrients and healthy fats that come with each—intact. It’s a powerful package. Reliable studies have shown that amping up whole grain consumption reduces all sorts of health risks, from type II diabetes to heart disease and even some cancers. So it’s worth it to get your (whole) grains.

As exotic as whole grains may seem, there’s no reason to fear; they’re infinitely easy to prepare. Start your exploration of whole grains with this one on farro . . . and get ready to discover an exciting new world of texture and taste.

Illustration of kernel courtesy ChooseMyPlate.gov.

Start a Conversation About Seafood

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Sometimes, at seafood sustainability conferences, talk can get circular. Buyers from big chains speak about wanting to change but needing demand from the market to do so. Scientists and chefs talk about sustainable fish that most of us can’t find. So how are we individuals supposed to create a demand for something not on the shelves? When I posed this question in back in May at the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s annual Cooking for Solutions Conference, the answer from both sides was unanimous and surprisingly simple: just ask.

start-a-conversation-about-seafoodWhile it’s easy to feel that we alone have no say in what’s available at the fish counter, that’s just not so. When it comes to voicing a desire for more eco-friendly alternatives, now more than ever companies are likely to listen. Here are a few tips to jump-start the conversation:

Know what you want and why. Take shrimp, for example. Rather than asking for “sustainable shrimp” and leaving it to the fishmonger to decide the details, take a moment to browse Seafood Watch before you go (or do it at the store on your iPhone). In about 30 seconds, you’ll see that all imported shrimp are ranked “avoid”and that all US shrimp, whether farmed or wild-caught, are rated “best choice” or “good alternatives”. You could certainly dig deeper to find out why, but just knowing ahead of time what to buy and what to avoid is a great start.

Be bold in both your questions and your answers. So let’s say that you’ve asked for domestic shrimp and the guy behind the counter answers with, “These are from Thailand, I think, or maybe Vietnam. They’re on sale. It’s a great deal.” Hmm. Not exactly on the same page. Now here is where you can clarify exactly what you’re looking for and why. It may sound pushy, but it’s perfectly acceptable to say something like, “You know, Seafood Watch didn’t rate imported shrimp very high on the sustainability scale, which is why I was looking to buy domestic. Do you think you could get me some?” Regardless of whether or not he (or his manager) will actually put in an order, he now knows that the shrimp he’s selling isn’t super eco-friendly and that at least one of his customers would prefer a more sustainable choice.

Be open to hearing and sharing new ideas. Once you’ve established a rapport with your fishmonger, you can start to take it further. If you learn about a fish you hadn’t heard of before but want to try, challenge your purveyor to find it for you. And if he knows you’re interested in sustainable seafood, he might just pick up the mantle and start seeking new sources himself.

The truth is, change is often spurred within the context of a relationship and moving the needle on sustainable seafood is no exception. You don’t have to be a chef or a big corporate buyer to have an impact; all you have to do is ask.

This week, start a conversation with your fishmonger and see where it leads the both of you.

Go for Alaskan Wild Salmon!

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It’s World Oceans Day today. And while there are so very many things I could mention on the subject of the oceans–the overfishing of numerous species, the questionable impact of open water fish-farming, and the emerging international standards and certifications to name a few–I’ve decided to stay simple and give you one (really tasty) thing you can do this week to make the oceans a healthier place: Cook up some Alaskan wild salmon.

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The fact that sustainable seafood is a subject fraught with complexities was driven home recently by an e-mail I received from an organization I admire about a new sustainable seafood guide they were publishing. Fantastic, I thought, I’ll reference it in today’s nibble. But then I saw that one of the tips was “buy wild.” And while wild-caught fish is sometimes a smart choice, there are enough times when it’s not to make me wary about giving the statement an unqualified thumbs-up. (Yes, I did contact them and yes, they were glad I did.)

But there is one case in which “buy wild” is always a sustainable choice, and a green-rated one at that. Alaskan wild salmon. Thanks to an ingenious web of science and tradition, policy and community, regulation and enforcement that ultimately protects both indigenous fish populations and the communities who depend upon them for a living, no species of Alaskan salmon (which, as with all seafood from Alaska, is always wild) is overfished. That’s a big deal when you consider that nearly three-fourths of the wild fish stocks in the world are “fully exploited or overexploited,” according to the United Nations. Alaska is, quite simply, the gold standard when it comes to sustainably managing wild-caught fish.

I could go into the technical details on why, but then I’d be using terms like Total Allowable Catch, escapement and rationalization and would have to include a glossary that would scroll down to your knees. In the end, it comes down to people recognizing that we humans, the environment and what eventually becomes our food are all intertwined and taking action–to the point of including sustainable fisheries language into their constitution back in 1959–to protect the system as a whole.

So cook up some Alaskan wild salmon this week and celebrate fishing done right.