Category Archives: Kitchen Tips

Make Your Dishes Do Double Duty for Better Leftovers

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One of the My Nourish Mentor crew mentioned during a session on meal planning recently that she loved the tips for getting creative with leftovers … especially now that summer’s here. I agree. Whether it’s the heat or just wanting to squeeze every little drop out of these long days, I’m less motivated to start meals from scratch every night of the week. So I look for ways to make the dishes I do cook do double duty.

double-duty-summer-leftoversI mentioned three ideas for getting creative with leftovers at Thanksgiving. Here are three more geared towards summertime:

  • Plan ahead and make extra. While the piece on Thanksgiving leftovers is about using up what you already have, in summertime you have to be a bit more deliberate. Especially if you’re grilling, double the amount so you’ll have leftovers to work with. Alberto’s Marinated Grilled Asparagus, for instance, makes great picnic fare the next day.
  • Think cool. Odds are when you do cook,  you’ll eat your dinner hot off the grill (or out of the sauté pan). But flip the coin, too, and think of how the leftovers would shine when chilled. Like tossing these Spicy Sweet Shrimp in a fresh Glass Noodle Salad the next day.
  • Season boldly. It’s one thing to have leftover steak (yawn). Entirely another to have a Spice Rubbed Skirt Steak to star in South of the Border Steak Salad with Grilled Peppers and Corn Salsa. Boldly flavored foods bring personality to reimagined leftovers later in the week, keeping your meals from being just ho-hum.

What are your favorite “take two” ideas?

Peach Primer: 5 Ways with Fresh Peaches

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I hail from California, which is the top peach-producing state. But it took a detour to Birmingham, Alabama, deep in the heart of Dixie, for me to fully appreciate the versatility of this stone fruit. There, residents take pride in Chilton County peaches, which are abundant, sweet, and fragrant. Come summer, the fruit fills local farmers’ markets and roadside stands. Chefs work them into menus, from salads to barbecue sauce to pies, crumbles, and ice cream.

peach-primer-postChoosing Peaches

Wherever you live, peaches are abundant now, so choose the best you can find. Ripe fruit should be heavy for its size, soft (but not mushy) to the touch, and smell sweet and slightly floral. Peaches fall into two categories: early-season clingstones and later-season freestones. With a clingstone, the flesh clings to the pit for dear life. To remove the pit, halve the fruit, twist the halves apart, and use a paring knife or spoon to loosen the pit so you can pull it out. With a freestone, you can halve the peach and the pit will pull away easily.

Using Peaches

There are lots of ways to use peaches. By June, the weather in Birmingham would be stinkin’ hot and humid, and I found cool refreshment in the peach margaritas poured at the bar at Little Savannah. (The recipe is a closely guarded secret, so if you ever find yourself in Birmingham in summer, you’ll need to make a pilgrimage to get one.) In the meantime, here are five more ways to make the most of your peaches:

  • In a salad: Slice peaches over arugula and toss with balsamic vinaigrette. Sprinkle with a little goat cheese.
  • On the grill: Halve and pit peaches; brush the cut sides with a little vegetable oil. Put them cut-side-down on a hot grill, and cook until tender. Top with honey-sweetened Greek yogurt and chopped, toasted almonds.
  • Baked in dessert: Substitute 4 cups chopped, peeled peaches and 2 cups fresh blueberries for the fresh cherries and cranberries in our Cherry Almond Crumble (omit the dried fruit).
  • To drink: As I discovered in Alabama, peaches do well in libations. Substitute peach for watermelon and mint for basil in our Watermelon-Basil Agua Fresca. Add a splash of tequila if it has been a long week.
  • As a condiment: I got a little homesick when living in Alabama, so salsa was my favorite way to use the annual bumper crop of peaches. A light supper of salad, quesadilla, and fresh peach salsa made me feel a little more at home in Dixie.

MacGyver Moves in the Kitchen

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By Alison Ashton

Remember the TV show “MacGyver,” in which the hero adapted whatever was at hand to save the day like using a paperclip to diffuse a bomb? At NOURISH Evolution, we’re all about making full use of ingredients, and the same goes for equipment. Nothing brings out your culinary MacGyver like working in a professional kitchen, as Jennifer Schaertl, learned as a chef in four-star restaurants, where kitchens typically are cramped, and there never seems to be enough equipment to go around. Many strategies common to the restaurant kitchen can help space-strapped home cooks, too, and Shaertl shares her tips in her new book Gourmet Meals in Crappy Little Kitchens (Health Communications).

macgyver-postShaertl puts a practical, cheerful spin on cooking in “CLKs” (crappy little kitchens), and her strategies can help even if your kitchen isn’t so tight. A well-organized CLK is a remarkably efficient and pleasurable place to cook–everything is close at hand, and you have less crap to clean up at the end.

The key is to pare down your equipment and choose items that can multitask. For example, Schaertl says you only need three knives: A good-quality 6- to 8-inch chef’s knife, a serrated bread knife, and a paring knife. (Though Kurt contends–and I agree–a boning knife is nice, too, but it’s optional.) One of Shaertl’s favorite tools is an easy-to-store stacking 12-quart stockpot with a strainer and steamer basket, which you can use to make stock, cook-and-strain pasta, and steam vegetables. The pot’s steamer basket also can double as a colander.

In the CLK spirit, here are five specialty tools you can easily improvise with items you probably already have:

Microplane/mandolin. A four-sided box grater as a versatile tool that can stand in for both a microplane and a mandolin, says Schaertl. Use it to grate cheese or veggies for slaw, as well as finely grate lemon zest, garlic, ginger, and chocolate, or thinly slice mushrooms. The more often you use it, the more uses you’ll find for it.

Meat mallet. This is one of Shaertl’s space-wasting “CLK Saboteurs.” Instead, pound that veal cutlet for scallopini with the bottom of a heavy skillet or saucepan, and use a fork to tenderize meat.

Panini press. These things are terrible space hogs. If you love panini, make them on the stovetop in a grill pan or regular skillet and weigh down the sandwich with another heavy skillet, saucepan, or Dutch oven.

Sifter. “This thing is the epitome of the one-trick pony,” Shaertl writes. I agree, and use the $5 fine-mesh strainer I bought years ago at Walmart to sift flour, sift powdered sugar over baked goods, and strain sauces.

Double boiler. This is a gizmo in which one pan nests inside another; the larger pan holds simmering water to gently heat whatever is in the top pan. It’s just a fancy version of an old-school bain-marie (water bath) that you can create with any saucepan and heatproof bowl, as we do here with our Kitchen MacGyver Lemon Curd.

Now that I think of it, making better use of fewer tools instead of cluttering the kitchen with lots of random gadgets is the very spirit of sustainability. How do you make your kitchen equipment pull double, triple, or even quadruple duty? Let us know!

Why Frozen Seafood is Sometimes Fresher than “Fresh”

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The word “fresh” has cache to it. Think of a tomato fresh off the vine or fresh-squeezed lemonade. But when it comes to describing seafood, the word doesn’t always mean better quality, and sometimes frozen seafood is the better choice.

Technically, “fresh” seafood has never seen temperatures below minus 1 degree Celsius, whereas “frozen” seafood has. But does that fact alone make fresh better? Geoff Shester, Ph.D., California Program Director for Oceana, says not necessarily so. “The way I think about it is would you rather eat “fresh” seafood that’s been sitting on a boat for seven days unfrozen, or a product that has been frozen in such a way to retain the moisture, flavor and texture indistinguishable from fresh seafood?”

Frozen at Sea

Most people understand that storing a fish below freezing inhibits cellular degradation. But storage is only part of the equation. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the first step to keeping quality high is freezing … fast.

Fish are made largely of water. During the initial stage of freezing, a fish’s temperature drops to just below 0 degrees Celsius. But at that temperature, only a small amount of the water in the fish has actually crystallized into ice. While the rest of the conversion takes place, the temperature levels out between 0 and -1 degree Celsius during a period called “thermal arrest.”

This conversion of water to ice can take hours—or days—and the slower it occurs, the more quality drops. According to the FAO report, this has more to do with the biochemical denaturing of proteins than it does rupturing of cells from ice crystallization. Reducing temperature below -5 degrees Celsius as fast as possible, preferably within a couple of hours of catch, minimizes denaturation and preserves the integrity of the fish.

Consider the Big Picture

There’s something else to be said for frozen fish … they have a smaller carbon footprint (or fin print?) than fresh fish that have been flown in from afar. According to Bon Appetit Management Company, an advocate of fish frozen at sea, shipping fresh fish by air generates 10 times the greenhouse gas as transporting frozen seafood by container ship, and five times more than by truck.

Use Your Senses

So what does this all mean at the fish counter? That frozen seafood options—particularly items like shrimp and smaller fish filets—may actually be fresher than what’s labeled fresh. But without knowing what method was used to freeze the seafood, the best way to evaluate is to use your senses. Avoid anything—fresh or frozen—that:

  • Looks discolored or mushy
  • Feels mushy to the touch
  • Smells “fishy” or like ammonia
  • Tastes “off”

Personally, I take sustainability, quality and locale into consideration in choosing my fish—not whether it’s fresh or frozen. If I see a locally caught sustainable pick that looks delectable … fantastic, whether fresh or frozen. If I have a choice between “fresh” shrimp that are looking a bit peaked and frozen, sustainably raised ones, I’ll choose the frozen.

Fresh tomatoes are one thing, but don’t let “frozen” dissuade you from choosing high-quality seafood.

Super Seven Sustainable Seafood Picks-2010

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It’s World Oceans Day, which spotlights the health of our waters. As a consumer, I know the best thing I can do is make sustainable seafood choices. That’s not always easy, because few foods are as confusing to buy these days as fish. If it’s wild-caught, is it being overfished? If it’s farmed, is it causing environmental problems? You could spend hours at the fish counter, reading labels and grilling the fishmonger, and still walk away bewildered. Many fish go by several names, which adds to the confusion.

sustainable-seafood-picks-2010To make those choices easier, Lia introduced NOURISH Evolution’s Super Sustainable Seafood Picks last year. Those choices still are smart, and we’ve updated the list this year with some new entries. Our criteria are simple: A fish must be raised or caught in an environmentally sound manner, safe to eat, widely available, and easy to identify. We cross-checked our selections with the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s SeafoodWatch, Blue Ocean Institute’s Seafood Guide, and the Environmental Defense Fund’s Seafood Selector.

Tilapia. The ancient Egyptians farmed tilapia and this freshwater fish is still an aquaculture superstar, especially when it’s cultivated in the U.S. in recirculating tanks with minimal risk of pollution or escaped fish. Little fish oil or fishmeal is required for feed, so tilapia is easy on resources, which makes it affordable too.

Farmed Clams, Mussels, Bay Scallops, and Oysters. These bivalve mollusks leave their environment even cleaner than when they arrive because they filter particulates from the water. Even better, farmed versions of these mollusks from anywhere in the world are considered environmentally sound.

Alaskan Pacific Cod. Moist, lean, tender, and mild–if you crave cod these days, make sure it’s from Alaska, which has the most sustainable supply. It’s also marketed as Alaska cod, true cod, gray cod, or simply as “cod” (like its less-sustainable cousin, Atlantic cod).

Sablefish. This omega-3 fatty acid-rich fish is new to home cooks, who relish its velvety, buttery texture. Sablefish is neither cod nor butterfish, though it resembles both and may be labeled black cod, Alaska cod (just like Pacific cod, so be sure to ask the fishmonger if it’s really sablefish) or butterfish. Sablefish from Alaska or British Columbia is the most sustainable choice; wild Alaksan salmon also works well in many recipes calling for sablefish.

Alaskan Wild Salmon. Alaska’s salmon is a model of fishery management, so it’s abundant and widely available (fresh when it’s in season in summer and frozen year-round). We also think wild salmon has superior flavor and texture to its farmed cousins. If you can’t find wild Alaskan salmon, try sablefish.

Herring/Sardines. Sardines are a type of herring, a small, fast-growing fish caught in purse seines with minimal bycatch and habitat damage. You’ll typically find them in cans or jars, often smoked or pickled, although fresh whole sardines are increasingly available, too and are delicious grilled or broiled.

Mahimahi. If you love grouper and red snapper–both turn up on “don’t eat” lists–order domestically caught (including Hawaii) mahi mahi instead. This is a fast-maturing fish that’s lean and firm-textured, yet moist and may be labeled dorado or dolphinfish (although it’s unrelated to dolphins).

The state of the oceans seems daunting right now, but simply making smart seafood choices like those above are a powerful way to help preserve them for years to come. What you eat really does matter.

Alison Ashton thumbnail

A longtime editor, writer, and recipe developer, Alison Ashton is a Cordon Bleu-trained chef and the Editorial Director for NOURISH Evolution. She has worked as a features editor for a national wire service and as senior food editor for a top food magazine. Her work has appeared in Cooking Light, Vegetarian Times, and Natural Health as well as on her blog, Eat Cheap, Eat Well, Eat Up.


How to Use Salt

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The first time I met Mark Bitterman, co-owner of At the Meadow and author of the upcoming book Salted, we were at a restaurant with a bunch of mutual friends. I’d heard about him and his salt passion, but I was still surprised when he pulled a cluster of pouches out of his bag and mounded salts—from delicate pink to rusty red to steel gray to white—right onto the tablecloth.

how-to-use-salt-post“You carry those with you?” I asked.

Mark shrugged, completely unfazed. “I like people to be able to taste how different salts interact with different foods. Here, check this out …” And, just like that, my view of salt changed forever.

Here are Mark’s suggestions for how to use salt.

Be Deliberate

Most of us sprinkle salt—often kosher salt—into foods we’re cooking almost without thinking. But Mark urges us to take a more strategic approach. “The idea is to think about what result you want to achieve and then use the best salt for the job.” In many cases, this will mean sprinkling a certain type of salt on the end dish–more like a condiment than an ingredient. Mark advocates a fundamental shift in our salting technique to use less during cooking and more at the end.

Be Choosy

But Mark’s not talking about shaking on the Morton. He’s talking about the thousands of hand-harvested artisanal salts that come from every corner of the earth. Nutritionally, these salts contain over 12% less sodium chloride than kosher or iodized salt, with the rest of the content being trace minerals. “Those minerals contribute to the roundness of the flavors,” Mark says. “They interact much more gently with the food and have a richer, more balanced taste.”

Mark likes to divide salts into three foundational categories–fleur de sel, sel gris and flake salt–and uses each type different ways.

Fleur de Sel – Fleur de sel and sel gris are what Mark calls “sister salts” in that they’re both types of sea salt formed by salinated water being concentrated down from pond to pond until crystals form within the brine. While the names are French—fleur de sel means “flower of salt” and sel gris means “gray salt”—these types of salt are made all over the world. Fleur de sel are the delicate crystals that blossom on the surface of the pond. “Fleur de sel comingles; it lets a food’s inner light shine forth.” It’s a versatile finishing salt for just about any dish.

Sel Gris – Sel gris are the crystals raked from the brine and the bottom of the pond. It too can be used as a finishing salt; Mark speaks of a “syncopated saltiness” with sel gris where every bite is different. “It’s a very vibrant, lively way to season something.” But Mark also recommends sel gris as an all-purpose cooking salt. “The great thing is that sel gris can be inexpensive, but you’re still using a beautiful hand-harvested artisan product in your daily cooking.”

Flake Salt – Flake salts are salt crystals that have been formed into flakes. “They can be flat, arrowhead shaped or big, fat pyramids.” Where fleur de sel is delicate and dainty, flake salts are “the Lamborghini salts. They’re sort of showy and flashy. They spark and stimulate your palate and then get out of the way and let the food shine through.” Mark finds flake salts exceptional on simple green salads. “There’s a beautiful crisp snap of salt, but then it’s gone and the flavor of the salad shines through; there’s sparkle without it being overpowering.”

Experiment

Salt is made around the world, from Australia to Wales, Bali to Vietnam. But do salts from different places taste different too? “Absolutely,” says Mark. In addition to the terroir element (as in wine, where the elements of the earth and place affect the fruit and, ultimately, what’s in the bottle), there’s also what Mark calls a merroir effect. “The conditions of the ocean affect the salt. French sea salt is minerally and briny, on the Adriatic coast of Italy they’re fruity and sweet. In the Philippines the salts have round, warm flavor.” Play with different types of salt to see which ones you like where (and keep an eye out for Part II of my talk with Mark … an artisanal salt tasting).

Use Salt Mindfully

Aside from the unique flavor and texture that artisanal salts bring to food, and the additional nutritional punch, there’s a soulful aspect too. “When you use these salts—be it a standard sel gris or a rare fleur de sel or flake salt—you’re using a regal ingredient that’s at the core of our culinary traditions. You start to treat it like an important ingredient and use it more mindfully. And in the end, you salt better.”

Mark and his wife, Jennifer, own At The Meadow in Portland, Oregon where they sell artisanal salts, chocolate, wine and flowers. Also add Mark’s book, Salted: A Manifesto on the World’s Most Essential Mineral, to your bookshelf.

Breaking the Plastic Addiction in the Kitchen

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I’ve never been fond of plastic. It’s just got to not be good to have millions of plastic food storage containers piling up every day when they take thousands of years to break down. Take plastic bags alone; over a million are used worldwide every minute for an average of just 12 minutes.

plastic-bpa-free-storage-post

And while I feel a bit better about my stash of reusable GladWare containers after finding that they’re made of safer polypropylene plastic and are BPA-free (note that Tupperware’s reusable containers are made of polycarbonate, which does contain BPA), they’re still plastic and I’d just rather not use them.

But what’s a girl to do with leftovers? Picnic fare? Our daughter’s lunch?

In asking those questions I found a few answers. Here; my guide to breaking the plastic addiction.

Step 1: Do the Math

You’ll probably balk at the prices for reusable containers at first glance (I know I did). But you really need to think of these as an investment—the antithesis of disposable. For instance, I bought three of the sandwich bags down below for about $24 at the beginning of the school year. That’s roughly 200 days of bagged sandwiches and apple slices and crackers that saved 600 plastic baggies and they’ve probably got another two years in them. So let’s make it an even 1,800 plastic bags saved. Given that fold-top baggies are roughly $2.25 per 150 (for a total of $27 for 1,800 bags), the overall price comes out as a wash. You could make similar arguments for storage containers and water bottles, too.

Step 2: Make a Plan

Because of the high up-front cost, I’m a big believer of staging your break from plastics. Let’s say you’ve got a drawerful of GladWare containers; then sandwich bags and a water bottle might be a good place for you to start. If your plastic containers are on their last legs, consider buying a more eco-friendly set made of glass, ceramic or stainless steel. But be deliberate and make a plan.

Step 3: Make a Choice

There are two ways of going about this. You could dabble with a bunch of different options and then make the big investment with your favorite, or you could go whole-hog from the get-go; there are benefits and drawbacks to each approach. Dabbling lets you pick just what you like, but because they’re meant to have (very) long lives, you’ll be stuck with a drawer full of mismatched food storage containers. Going whole-hog will get you uniformity, but it might also get you a drawer full of containers that don’t quite meet your needs.

Whichever approach you choose, here are some of our favorites:

  • Wrap-n-Mat Sandwich Wraps – I love how this works as both a sandwich wrap and a placemat. We used this and the LunchSkins for Noe’s lunches all year.
  • LunchSkins Sandwich Bags – These reuseable bags are great for sandwiches, but I like them even more for apple slices, crackers, nuts, etc.
  • LunchBots – Stainless-steel container sets that work both for fridge and on-the-go.
  • KidsKonserve Nesting Trio – Another stainless-steel choice in a nice variety of sizes that nest to save space.
  • Bormioli Rocco Glass Storage Containers (set of three) – This set reminds me of some glass containers I bought from IKEA years ago and still love.

Do you have other recommendations? I’d love to know your favorites …

The Secrets to True ‘Cue

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By Kurt Michael Friese

No type of cooking inspires as much passion, competition, obsession, and plain old American hometown pride as barbecue. There are local, regional, and national ‘cue contests that bring together hundreds of pathologically devoted cooks and thousands of BBQ-scarfing chowhounds to debate about which wood to use and to lie about their recipes.

barbecue-post

Barbecue may, in fact, be the original way to cook. Historians believe man’s ancestors first ate cooked meat by scavenging in the aftermath of forest fires. More recently, Spanish conquistadors “exploring” tropical islands were fascinated by the aromas coming from the small green-wood grills New World natives called barbacoa. From these origins came the huge variety of barbecue that exists around the world. No other country, though, pursues the ‘cue with such passionate abandon as the United States.

First thing’s first: Barbecuing and grilling are not the same thing. Grilling is done over high, direct heat for a short amount of time, and might even use heat from gas or electricity. Real barbecue requires patience. It’s done over low, indirect heat–usually 200 F to 300 F–and can take from two hours to a couple of days, depending on the size of the meat. True ‘cue also needs smoke from hardwood chunks or chips that have been soaked in water and which impart signature flavor to the meat. This is America’s true slow food.

Because good barbecue needs smoke and an indirect heat source, serious ‘cue aficionados use a smoker to take advantage of an adjacent fire. You can mimic this with a typical backyard grill. For a charcoal grill, pile the coals to one side, add the soaked wood directly to the hot coals, and place the meat on the unheated side. For a gas grill, light a couple of the burners on one side, place soaked hardwood chips in a smoker box or foil pouch over the flames, and set the meat over the unheated side.

While there are many talented barbecue enthusiasts here in Iowa, where I live, it is perhaps a bit surprising that Iowa does not have a rich barbecue tradition all its own. We have all the necessary ingredients: pork and beef, an abundance of hardwoods like oak and hickory, hot summers and hungry people. Still no one particular form is labeled as “Iowa ‘cue,” so we borrow nearly everyone else’s traditions and will barbecue nearly anything that moves and a few things that don’t; any excuse to play in the smoke.

Among the favorites is Texas-style beef brisket. Down there the wood would have to be oak or mesquite, but we have lots of different choices up here and I am especially fond of the fruit and nut woods, which produce sweeter smoke than oak or mesquite. I used cherry and pecan wood to smoke this Barbecued Beef Brisket.

For the beginning ‘cue chef, hardwood chips are sufficient for flavor and ease of use, and used with a smoker box or even a simple foil pouch they can convert any gas grill into a makeshift smoker. Wood chips are available in most grocery stores and anywhere grills are sold. If you want to get serious about your ‘cue, though, Iowa boasts one of the best resources in the country. Check out Hawgeyes BBQ in Ankeny for everything you’ll need and then some.

So here are my secrets to true ‘cue: Low heat, real wood, smoke … and hefty shot of patience.

kurt-thumbKurt Michael Friese is the founding leader of Slow Food Iowa, serves on the Slow Food USANational Board of Directors, and is editor and publisher of the local food magazine Edible Iowa River Valley. He’s also Chef and co-owner of the Iowa City restaurant Devotay, a freelance food writer and photographer, and author of A Cook’s Journey: Slow Food in the Heartland.

Have Your Risotto and Get Your Whole Grains Too

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By Alison Ashton

As long as there’s a jar of arborio rice in the pantry, stock on hand, and a smidgen of leftover wine, I can bust out a hearty, comforting risotto for supper any evening. But because I’m expanding my repertoire of whole grains these days, I’m experimenting with different types of grains so I can have my risotto and eat it, too.

risotto-technique-postThe term “risotto” refers to a method as well as a dish and involves gradually adding hot stock to a grain, which gently coaxes out the starch for a lovely creamy texture. It’s a technique that can be used to cook all kinds of grains, and the Italians have a long tradition of using the risotto method to prepare grains other than arborio rice. Heck, it even works with pasta.

The basic steps of risotto are simple and worth committing to memory so you can improvise:

Soffrito. Heat a little fat–olive oil, butter, lard (if you’re feeling decadent)–in a large, heavy pan (a saucepan, Dutch oven, or saute pan is fine) over medium heat. Add finely chopped aromatics (shallot, onion, carrot, and/or celery), and cook until tender. Add minced garlic, if you’re using it, and cook 30 seconds or until fragrant.

Riso. Add the rice or other grain, and cook it a minute or two, stirring constantly. White rice like arborio or carnaroli will turn translucent; whole grains will get a bit toasty. Arborio and carnaroli are both types of short-grain, starchy rice, which makes for particularly creamy risotto. When using whole grains, you’ll want something similarly plump and starchy, like short- or medium-grain brown rice, farro, barley, or even steel-cut oats. I even made a pretty risotto recently with Madagascar pink rice. Long-grain rice and non-starchy whole grains like quinoa don’t lend themselves to the risotto method. These grains will still cook using the risotto technique, but they won’t become creamy.

Vino. Next, add a generous splash or two of wine, and cook, stirring the grains constantly, until the wine is absorbed. White wine is traditional. In a pinch, I’ll use dry vermouth. Rose, sake, or even sherry or red wine also work.

Brodo. Risotto requires liquid, which can be hot water, stock (chicken, vegetable, beef, our Mushroom Stock, fish), or even milk. Whole-grain risotto requires more liquid than risotto made with white rice. The Whole Grains Council has a general guideline for grain-to-liquid ratios, and you can always supplement with extra water if you need more liquid. Add the hot liquid a little at time, stirring frequently, until it’s absorbed before adding the next ladleful. The risotto is done when the grain becomes creamy and al dente–tender, but not mushy.

Condimento. Risotto is a rich canvas to showcase seasonal ingredients–delicate English peas or asparagus in spring, grilled bell peppers and eggplant in summer, roasted butternut squash, and root veggies come fall. Mushrooms are a classic match for risotto; so is shellfish. A little grating of cheese is a nice finishing touch.

Five easy steps to risotto-style whole grains … great for any season.

alison-thumbA longtime editor, writer, and recipe developer, Alison Ashton is a Cordon Bleu-trained chef and the Editorial Director for NOURISH Evolution. She has worked as a features editor for a national wire service and as senior food editor for a top food magazine. Her work has appeared in Cooking Light, Vegetarian Times, and Natural Health as well as on her blog, Eat Cheap, Eat Well, Eat Up.

Make Flavor with a Pan Sauce

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I remember the first time I learned what fond was. I was in a kitchenware store in New Orleans and Chef Paul Prudhomme stopped by to give an impromptu cooking class. He sautéed some chicken with a spice mix and then picked up the pan and pointed to all the gunk glued to the bottom. “That’s the good stuff,” he chuckled. “That’s where the flavor comes from.” From that day on I stopped fretting when my sautés stuck. But it wasn’t until later, when I was taking a course at the Culinary Institute of America, that I learned the technical name for that gunk was fond, and that it was the essential ingredient for making a quick pan sauce.

make-flavor-with-pan-sauce Just add a splash of liquid—like wine or vinegar, or even broth—scrape up the fond from the pan (called deglazing) and you’ve got the makings of a tasty sauce. Take it off the heat, swirl in a knob of butter or a tablespoon of cream and some minced herbs and you’ve just turned a simple supper into something special.

Here are seven simple steps to making a pan sauce:

1 – Heat your (not nonstick) pan over medium-high heat. Heating the pan before adding fat or food allows the cells of the metal to expand, creating a nearly non-porous surface.

2 – Add your fat and let it get nice and hot. The heated fat—be it oil, butter or duck fat (ahhhh)—creates another barrier; having it hot ensures good browning when the food hits it.

3 – Add the main attraction to the pan … and then leave it be until it’s ready to be turned (be sure to leave enough room in between pieces to allow air to circulate or else the food will steam rather than sear). Be it meat or chicken or fish or tofu, if you move the food around too much, it won’t develop a crust. When it’s cooked through and nice and brown on the outside, remove it to a plate and keep it warm in a 200 degree oven.

4 – Sauté additional ingredients and aromatics. Nudge these around often, letting them get good and caramelized.

5 – Pour in liquid and deglaze. Wine, vinegar and broth are all great deglazing liquids. Use a stiff-edged spatula to scrape up the bits at the bottom of the pan. Here’s a quick video on how that works:

6 – Take pan off the heat and swirl in a bit of richness. Just a tablespoon or two of butter or cream can enrich a sauce dramatically. Be sure the pan is off the heat, though, or they’ll separate and become oily (that’s what it means when a sauce “breaks”).

7 – Adjust for acid and salt. Give the sauce a taste and adjust the seasoning: a squeeze of lemon for brightness, a drizzle of vinegar for punch, a dash of salt, a grind of pepper; add what makes you go “mmmm.”

To get you started, here are three different ideas for three completely different pan-sauces:

  • Sauté minced ginger and garlic before deglazing the pan with a dry white wine like vermouth and swirl in a bit of vegetable or chicken broth, a tablespoon or two of cream, and a pinch each of minced fresh thyme and lemon zest.
  • Sauté minced shallots before deglazing the pan with dry white wine, then swirl in a bit of vegetable or chicken broth and two tablespoons butter with a generous pinch of tarragon.
  • Sauté minced pancetta and onion before deglazing the pan with dry red wine. Add a touch of red wine vinegar, two tablespoons butter and several turns of freshly ground black pepper.

Or keep it simple and make the recipe below. In any case, set your sights on making some flavor this week!