Food recipies

It�s a kind of ironic that the only place many people enjoy top-quality home fries is when they eat out at a diner, but sadly that�s the case. Your average home cook�s home fries look great, and we�ll assume taste amazing, but they usually don�t get that nice crispy crust, like the ones at the local greasy spoon. The reason is simple. There the potatoes are steamed or boiled ahead of time; then cooled, cut, and kept chilled until service. When you pan fry a cold starch, it gets a beautifully crispy surface, which is the secret to the world�s great French fries, polenta sticks, and Korean fried chicken. To expedite this process, we�re going to microwave the potatoes for a few minutes, until just barely tender. This simulates steaming, which I think is the best way, since boiling can make them waterlogged. Once cool, all you have to do is keep cooking until you�re happy with your crustification. I really hope you give this easy home fry technique   a try soon. Enjoy! Ingredients for ...

Calamari is affordable, delicious, and sustainable, yet many cooks shy away from it, since it has a reputation for being tricky to work with. I should�ve said �unfair reputation,� because while it�s true calamari can end up with a rubbery texture if overcooked, there�s a very simple way to avoid this� by really overcooking it. When it comes to calamari, it needs to be cooked in either 45 seconds, or 45 minutes, and nothing in between. If you sear it in a pan, or poach it in a sauce for a very brief time, you should get something nice and tender. However, after just a few extra minutes, the squid gets chewy. Unfortunately, this is how most calamari is served, since it is easy to overcook, even for a professional. But, if we gently simmer for about 45-minutes total, something amazing happens. The calamari loses that rubbery texture, and becomes tender once again. I also think it takes on more a meaty flavor, which I love, especially when using this to sauce pasta. So, if you�ve wanted to...

I bet fava beans would be a lot more popular if people knew how to cook them, or even what they were. For many people, these are just those mysterious, semi-scary, oversized green beans that they�re not sure what to do with. Which is a shame, since they�re not only delicious, and easy to prepare, but also very versatile. Fava beans shine in salads, and pastas, as well as on pizzas.   The also, as I demonstrated the end of the video, make for a wonderful spread. By the way, the ingredient amounts below are pure guesses, since this is not the kind of recipe we're going to measure stuff for. Let your conscience be your guide, but remember w hat we ' re eating is inside that charred pod, so season generously. Fava beans should be readily available this time of year, especially at farmers markets, where they tend to be much cheaper that your high - end grocery stores. Regardless of where you find them, I really do hope you give this great bean, and even better technique a try soon....

That�s right, I did a podcast! Which, come to find out, is a great way to learn what those are. It�s basically like listening to the radio, only more complicated. Anyway, I appeared on Hilah�s Happy Hour , with the lovely and talented Hilah Johnson. As you�ll hear, she does most of the heavy lifting in this free-flowing interview, but you'll also get a few behind-the-scenes tidbits from me, as well. I had a lot of fun doing it, and invite you to follow this link to check it out on her blog , as well as check out her highly entertaining recipe videos. Enjoy! .

I don�t cook Thai food at home often, mostly because there are at least a dozen such restaurants within walking distance, but when I do, there�s nothing I enjoy more than this spicy Thai basil chicken. Thai basil sold separately.   No, I didn�t use the real �Holy� basil, but even with regular basil, this simple recipe is spectacular. Aromatic basil is the perfect herb for pairing with the slightly sweet, sort of salty, and possibly spicy, chopped meat. And yes, you really do want to chop, or grind your own chicken. Even if the worst-case scenario I shared in the video isn�t something you�re grocery store would do, it�s still very nice to know exactly what you�re eating, as well as being able to chop it as coarsely as you want. If you decide to top with an egg, I should mention that they�re usually fried much more aggressively, with the edges getting brown and crispy. I tend to prefer something a little more gently cooked, but either way, or with none at all, I really do hope you gi...

There is no more terrifying experience at culinary school than the French omelette exam. With your classmates rooting you on, and chef instructors watching intently, you head to the stove, with little more than three eggs, and a little butter�okay, a lot of butter�but that�s it. It�s just you and the ingredients, with no way to fake perfection. A French omelette, or omelet, as we Americans call it, is 10% ingredients, and 90% technique. The good news is, the technique is really simple. The bad news is, it takes a little practice to perfect. But, after making a few hundred of these, you could probably do this half asleep, which is how many brunch cooks actually do it. Just be sure to start the folding as soon as the surface is wet, but not runny. Feel free to stuff this with your favorite fillings, before folding up, but if you�ve never had one of these before, I highly recommend making one as shown. You�ll be amazed at just how delicious these few ingredients can be, when elevated usi...

Pretty much all I know about hot cross buns, I learned from the nursery rhyme, but thanks to a recipe I found on Anson Mills , I was still able to make a fairly decent batch. Including real crosses, not to be confused with dinner rolls on which an icing cross has been piped. In addition to its eye-catching appearance, the dough-based �cross� provides an interesting textual contrast, as it gets sort of chewy, and crispy edged. Like I said in the video, any sweet dough will work with this easy technique, especially rich, and fragrant examples, like our Italian Easter Bread dough. Times may vary, but regardless of the dough, simply wait for the dough to double in size, and proceed. If you want to get all your buns the same size, weight your dough in grams before dividing, and then divide by 16. Then, weight each of your dough balls to that exact amount, and boom, your tray of buns will look like the ones you saw on that magazine cover. Or, just eyeball it and take your chances. Either w...

Actually, I don�t think you can live on just clotted cream and fruit preserves either, but regardless, as promised, here�s my preferred method for making strawberry jam. While amazingly delicious, and quite satisfying to make, I�ll have to put this on the same list as homemade ketchup. This is fun to make once in a while, but due to the effort, and time involved, Smuckers has nothing to worry about. This version features a lot less sugar than many recipes, which is kind of crazy, since we use over two cups, as well as a homemade pectin puree, to help tighten-up the texture. Feel free to use pectin powder or liquid instead, but I think I did a pretty good job explaining why I don�t in the video. Strawberries should be sweet, and plentiful this time year, so if you�re looking for a fun project, especially if your last fun project was making clotted cream, I really hope you give this delicious, fresh strawberry jam a try soon. Enjoy! Ingredients for about 3 cups of Strawberry Jam: For th...

If you invented a cream preparation so incredibly delicious that you couldn�t bear the thought of anyone besides you, and the other dairy farmers in the area enjoying it, adding the word �clotted� to the name is a pretty sound strategy. While the name doesn�t exactly make the mouth water, the flavor and texture are the stuff of legends. The long, slow cooking sort of toasts the cream, which imparts a sweet, nuttiness that I don�t think I�ve tasted in any other preparation. Most modern ovens go down as low as 175-180 F., which is ideal for this technique. 200 F. will work, but maybe check after 10 hours, and see how things look. The other huge factor here is the cream. Be sure to get the best you can. It should be from grass-fed cows, and have a fat content of between 36-40%. Avoid anything that says �Ultra-Pasteurized,� since it�s been heat-treated, and you�ll not get the same results. Other than this taking a day or two, the technique could not be easier, and I wasn�t exaggerating wh...