Mom Cooking Tip 133

If you eat a lot of pasta, save time by doubling the amount you normally cook. Swirl the drained leftovers in a tablespoon of olive oil and refrigerate in a covered container.  Reheat in a microwave or add the pasta directly to a pot of sauce.

                                                        See all my Cooking Tips!

So Sick of Turkey

Shrimp Florentine

Whenever I set out to buy a Christmas turkey, I’m an optimist.  Of course I’ll be able to make use of a 16-pounder.  I tell myself, “We’re having 12 people for dinner so there won’t be many leftovers.”

Turns out that was the biggest misstatement of the year.  We’re three nights into turkey leftovers, and I can’t stand the sight of them.  I decided to freeze the rest, but the freezer is so crammed I needed to remove some things first.

That’s how Shrimp Florentine became my go-to dinner.

Question for Mom

Top Bean=No String, Bottom Beans=Strings

Do I have to trim both ends of green beans before cooking them? – Harold G.

The simple answer is no.  Some people don’t bother to trim the stem end, but it’s a little tough. I prefer to snap or cut off about 1/2 inch of that end.  Normally I leave the other end in place. 

But there is one big exception.  If the green beans have tough strings along the edges, it’s a good idea to pull off and discard these strings.  To do that, snap off one end of the bean and carefully pull the string away.  Then snap off the other end and pull the string off the other edge.  

                                                    See all Questions for Mom

Mom Cooking Tip 132

Cheese tastes better at room temperature, so let it sit out for about an hour before serving.

                                                 See all my Cooking Tips!

The Secret of Lamb Chops

I’ve always liked lamb chops.  They’re hard to ruin.  Even inexperienced cooks can grill a lamb chop.  Just don’t cook it too long—3-4 minutes per side--unless you like your meat super-well-done.  If you don’t have a grill or broiler, a frying pan will do.

The biggest obstacle to lamb chops is their cost.  My local grocery store is selling loin chops for $12.99 a pound and shoulder chops (also called blade or arms chops) for $10.99 a pound.  Luckily they’re often on sale for considerably less.  When I spotted shoulder chops for $2.99 per pound, I stocked up.

Mom Cooking Tip 131

To cut slices of Lemon or Chocolate Meringue Pie, first dip the knife blade into a glass of water.  This will prevent the knife from sticking to the meringue.

                                                       See all my Cooking Tips!

Old Cookbooks

I was cleaning out my cookbook collection this morning and stumbled on some very odd recipes in some equally odd cookbooks.  Brussels Sprouts in Cream, White Salad and Pear Macaroon Salad. What on earth was I thinking when I bought these books?

I guess it was my way of avoiding the bland, boring dishes I usually ate when I was growing up.  I had my first Eggs Benedict in college and my first Spaghetti in Garlic Sauce (so exotic to me at the time) a few months after joining the New York working world.  Tabbouleh Salad at my local Lebanese restaurant was an eye-opener.

Question for Mom

Clockwise from left: table salt, kosher salt, sea salt flakes, sea salt

How important is salt in a recipe?  --Jeffrey L.

It’s very important when it comes to flavor.  With most dishes you cook, you can add salt at the last minute or leave it to the eaters to add salt themselves in case they’re on a salt-restricted diet.  With raw meat, it’s better not to sprinkle salt on it before you cook it, because salt will pull the juices out—and that can make the meat tougher.

If you are baking bread, cakes, cookies, pie crusts, muffins—anything with dough—adding the right amount of salt is extremely important.  Make sure you add it when the directions tell you to--during mixing--because it affects the baking process.  Salt strengthens the dough and also affects the taste.  I once forgot to add it when making bread, and the end result was awful.

The biggest problem with salt is adding too much.  There is no effective way to remove salt once it has dissolved.  See this post. 

                                                    See all Questions for Mom

Mom Money-Saving Tip 89

Roast Pork Loin

Roasts provide lots of meals.  Buy them when they’re on sale, cook them and then freeze half the leftovers.  Use the rest for sandwiches, cut up in tortillas or soup or a simple repeat of your original dinner.  I just bought a 4-pound pork loin roast for $10 and used some of the leftovers for Cuban Sandwiches.  

                                                                 See all my Money-Saving Tips!

Chocolate on My Mind

I’m proud to be a chocoholic. I’ve tried weaning myself off this addiction. Once I managed to avoid chocolate for two weeks, but that was a long time ago. Without the invention of chocolate chips, I might have succeeded. 

A 12-ounce bag of chocolate chips is incredibly versatile. Eating a handful now and then is one way to empty the bag. Making Chocolate Chip Cookies is another way. 

Now I’ve come up with a third way: a Triple-Layer Chocolate Cookie.

Mom Cooking Tip 130

When you’re icing a layer cake and don’t have enough icing, use jam between the layers instead of icing.

                                                   See all my Cooking Tips!

Roast Beef and I

London Broil Sliced Against the Grain

Roast beef and I used to have a fine time together.  When I was growing up, going out to dinner with my family and ordering prime rib was a grand tradition.  We didn’t do it often—maybe once a year—so it was memorable.. 

My mother didn’t know how to cook prime rib.  I doubt she ever looked for it in the meat department.  As I grew up and started learning about cooking, I examined various beef cuts, but I was so confused that I mostly bought ground beef and made hamburgers. 

What was the difference between sirloin steak, porterhouse steak, New York strip steak, minute steak, flank steak, round steak and chuck steak?  Before I figured it out, I moved to London, where these cuts of meat had different names.  Luckily the city had lots of small-store butchers who were willing to answer questions.  With their help

Mom Cooking Tip 129

Draft an ice cream scoop to shape meatballs or burgers, keeping your hands out of raw ground meat.

                                                    See all my Cooking Tips!

Mom Money-Saving Tip 88

If you like eating fresh avocados, never freeze them.  Their texture as well as their taste will change for the worse.  I buy only as many as my family can eat before they over-ripen.  Otherwise, I'm wasting my money.

                                                        See all my Money-Saving Tips!

Edamame: What Is It and How Do I Cook It?

For a long time I thought edamame was another name for fava beans because the two look very much alike.  Then I did some research and found that edamame is actually an immature soybean.  The beans grow in pods, which are picked before they have fully ripened.  A popular snack in Japan, edamame is a good source of soy protein.

Fresh edamame may be available in Asian markets.  You are likely to find fresh and cooked edamame in the freezer or refrigerated section of supermarkets.

Question for Mom

Do oven temperatures really matter? –Jesse R.

It depends on what you’re cooking, but usually the answer is yes—especially if you’re baking.  When making a cake, pie, cookies or bread, it’s smart to give your full attention to the recipe and do exactly what it says, including oven time and temperature.  This is an especially good idea if you’re trying out a new recipe.

Mom Cooking Tip 128

Here’s the perfect device to help you get rid of hot turkey fat on Thanksgiving: a specially designed cup with a low spout.  Transfer the liquid at the bottom of the roasting pan into this cup.  The fat will rise to the top, allowing you to pour the remaining fat-free liquid into a pot or bowl for use as needed when making gravy.  Dispose of the leftover fat in an empty can.

                                               See all my Cooking Tips!

When in Doubt, Make Cornbread

Sometimes dinner needs some extra oomph.  Maybe I didn’t buy enough meat, or the vegetables are a little limp.  Or I forgot to cook the baked potatoes.

Hot cornbread, fresh from the oven, served with a jar of honey or a chunk of butter, will make everyone feel much better. It takes 5 minutes to prepare and just 20 minutes to bake.

Decorating Your Food

My first memory of food as a plaything was pressing the tines of a fork down the sides of a cucumber and then slicing the cucumber into rounds.  I was probably about six years old when my mother showed me how to do this, and I was enchanted.  Maybe that was both the beginning and the end of my trying to impress people with the food I prepared.

Yes, the cucumber slices looked cool, and so did the subsequent radishes that I carved into roses and then soaked in cold water for a while so they would open.  The bigger lesson was that despite the way these vegetables now looked, they tasted exactly the same as the plain ones.

Would I grow up to be a people pleaser?  Probably.  But...

Plugra Butter: What Is It and How Do I Use It?

I’ve read that chefs like to use Plugra Butter, especially for baking.  But I never bought any until I noticed it on sale at my local supermarket for $2.99 instead of $5.99 for an 8-ounce block.

Can Plugra be that much better than plain Land O’Lakes, Land O’Lakes’ European Style Super Premium Butter or even the store brand? We’re talking a slightly higher milk fat content, but what does that really mean?  It’s a little creamier.

How to Stock a Pantry

If you really want to cook, you need a pantry.  In “Little House on the Prairie” days, this often meant aroom off the kitchen full of shelves to store fruits and vegetables you canned and jam you made. 

Today you don’t need a whole room to store much-used ingredients, but you do need several shelves or a cabinet, preferably near the fridge and stove..

Then you need basic ingredients like flour, sugar, salt, mustard, ketchup, soy sauce, vinegar, packages of dried pasta, rice and olive or canola oil.  Add some...

How Much Does a Home-Cooked Meal Really Cost?

Crunchy Baked Fish Sandwich

It depends on the menu, how many people you’re feeding and how well stocked your pantry is.  If you’re a minimalist cook, you might have to add into your budget as much as $50 for basics that a long-time cook already has on hand—oil, vinegar, flour, sugar, rice, canned tomatoes, spices, soy sauce.  Also, you might need a frying pan or a big pot or a set of measuring spoons and cups.

And you haven’t even bought the main ingredients yet.

Let’s take the pantry issue out of the equation and concentrate on an easy meal for 4 people:

Mom Cooking Tip 127

Freeze pre-shaped but unbaked chocolate chip cookie dough on a flat sheet or container.  When frozen, remove the cookies and put them in a plastic freezer bag.  Bake them as you need them, adding at least 1 extra minute of baking time or more if they’re too soft.

                                                          See all my Cooking Tips!

Question for Mom

How can you tell when pancakes are ready to be turned over?  --Walter F.

Pin-sized air holes will appear on the uncooked side of the pancake, indicating it’s almost cooked.  Flip the pancake with a spatula and cook for another 10-15 seconds and then serve. 

                                                       See all Questions for Mom

Does Salad Require Lettuce?

After a young life filled with iceberg lettuce, I spent years swearing off salad.  Caesar Salad intrigued me for a few months after I watched my college roommate’s father crack a raw egg into the family salad bowl.  I couldn’t decide if that was Yuck! or the greatest adventure of all time.  Yuck won out in the end.

Mostly, though, I was served tossed salads made of lettuce and tomatoes, and they were boring.  Three-bean salad was pretty good as long as lima beans weren’t included, but the grocery store versions were usually too salty.

A few years ago I began my romance with home-grown tomatoes.  Now my go-to salad is a colorful mixture of tomatoes, cucumber and radishes.  No lettuce is in sight.

                         For easy recipes, order "Help! My Apartment Has a Kitchen!"

Mom Cooking Tip 126

Light Sour Cream (left), Mayonnaise (right)

When making chicken salad or potato salad, substitute light sour cream for most of the mayonnaise.  It’s more for taste than saving calories, although one tablespoon light sour cream has about half the calories of regular mayonnaise.

                                                             See all my Cooking Tips!

Cornstarch: What Is It and How Do I Use It?

In England, cornstarch is called cornflour, and this is a clue to what is actually is—flour made from corn.  It’s sold in the baking section and often comes in a 16-ounce box.  I use it as a thickener for sauces, soups and gravies. 

Cornstarch, which feels silkier than flour, has a tendency to clump in the box.  Always dissolve it in cold water, stirring thoroughly to make sure no lumps remain.  If you add cornstarch directly to a hot liquid, you’ll end up with lots of lumps.

Cooking with Leftovers in Mind

Mom's Paella

If I’m not madly rushing to get dinner on the table with one of my quick entrees, I try to think ahead.  A large chicken, leg of lamb, pork roast or beef pot roast will provide at least 3 or maybe 4 extra meals, especially if there are just 2 or 3 of us eating.  A tray of lasagna should last for a week.

Mom Cooking Tip 125

Add 1/2 teaspoon sugar to homemade tomato sauce to brighten the flavor.

                                      See all my Cooking Tips!

Question for Mom

What is the difference between salted and unsalted butter? – Jack E. 

The salt content.   Unsalted butter has none, which means it doesn’t keep as long.  Salted butter can be stored in the fridge for 3-4 months.  Practically speaking, either one can be used in a recipe and can be substituted for each other.

                                                      See all Questions for Mom

When an Interesting Recipe Is Not Worth Trying

Black Bean Lasagna

What finally prompted me to throw an interesting new recipe into the trash was this sentence: “Refrigerate the dough for 2 hours.”

Question for Mom

Old-Fashioned Tin Flour Sifter 

Why do some recipes call for sifting flour?  Do I have to do it?—Shelley D.  

Years ago flour sometimes was a home for bugs, and sifting it before use allowed you to get rid of them.  Today’s flour does not have this problem.  I stopped sifting flour years ago after making a terrible mess in the kitchen.  I’m told that sifting flour is still recommended if you’re making delicate pastries.  Rather than get my old sifter out, I’d choose to make something else. 

                                                           See all Questions for Mom

Mom Cooking Tip 124

To remove fat from gravy, soup or meat stews, refrigerate the cooked food overnight.  The fat will solidify and rise to the top of the container.  Use a fork or large soup spoon to lift the fat off and discard.  This technique is easier and more effective than trying to spoon away fat while the dish is still cooking.

                                        See all my Cooking Tips!

Another 4 Ways to Use Chocolate Chips

Jaffa Squares

I’ve got to stop eating chocolate chips straight from the package.  I suppose I could cut off my supply, which would mean no longer buying the 72-ounce bags from Costco.  But that seems like an extreme measure.  Surely I will soon need to make one of the many chocolate desserts that I have mastered over the years.

Chocolate chips are incredibly versatile as an ingredient. 

Parsnips: What Are They and How Do I Cook Them?

Carrots (left)  Parsnips (right)

Parsnips look like carrots but are cream-colored instead of orange.  They are a little sweeter than carrots but just as versatile.

I first tasted a parsnip at a dinner party when the hostess served Curried Parsnip Soup.  I was intrigued by the idea of a soup made from a vegetable I’d never heard of.  But I couldn’t fully taste the delicate flavor because of the seasoning.

A few days later I scrubbed and roasted a few parsnips as a side dish.  Everybody liked them.  Now I often add parsnips to a panful of raw vegetables, sprinkle on some olive oil and pop the pan into the oven for 45 minutes at 425 degrees.

Mom Cooking Tip 123

The secret to quickly chopping fresh parsley is not worrying about including a few cut-up stems with the leaves.  After washing and patting dry the amount of parsley you need, chop off and discard as much of the stems as you can with one big cut.  Then finely chop the leaves and remaining stems.

                                               See all my Cooking Tips!

The Healthy Reuben Bagel

There’s nothing like biting into a Reuben Sandwich and having corned beef juice dribbling down your face and sauerkraut falling into your lap.  The Reuben Sandwich of my dreams is so stuffed with these ingredients, plus melted Swiss cheese and Russian dressing on rye bread, that I can barely get it into my mouth.

I happily dealt with that problem for years until I decided that too much fatty meat was not good for me.  So I gave up eating Reuben Sandwiches. But I never forgot the taste.

Then I bought a dozen mixed bagels and discovered a rye bagel in the bag.  “Aha!” I thought.  “Time for a Reuben Sandwich.”

Question for Mom

How much juice can I squeeze out of an orange?  --Ashley A.

A large orange can yield from 1/2 to 2/3 cup juice.  A very large orange might yield as much as 1 cup juice.  Valencia oranges seem to provide more juice than navels, although a lot depends on how thick the skin is.  The thicker the skin, the less juice there is.  Another clue: the heavier the orange, the more juice it has. 

Gumbo and Garlic Bread

Normally I would think twice before recommending a mix.  However, after my whole family loved the soup that was based on a box of Zatarain's Gumbo Mix, I feel comfortable mentioning it.  We even fought over the leftovers, and that is unheard of in our house.

Kosher Salt: What Is It and How Do I Use It?

Table Salt (left) and Kosher Salt (right)

Kosher salt is like the extra-large t-shirt displayed next to mediums.  The flakes are bigger and coarser than regular table salt, but surprisingly these flakes are less salty.  They can be used in almost any recipe calling for salt. 

But be careful.  A teaspoon of table salt is a lot more salty than a teaspoon of kosher salt.  “The Cook’s Bible” says 1 tablespoon kosher salt = 2 teaspoons table salt. 

Not a lot of recipes demand kosher salt, but it is used often enough in cooking that two big companies—Morton’s and Diamond Crystal—package and sell it.  Kosher salt costs more than table salt, but even then the price is low--$1.99 for a 1-pound container at my local supermarket.

Here’s a bit of history:

Mom Cooking Tip 122

Vegetable Quiche

If your quiche mixture seems too runny, add 1/4 cup fresh breadcrumbs before baking to absorb some of the extra liquid.

                                                       See all my Cooking Tips!

Question for Mom

Seafood Pasta

I’ve heard people at restaurants request their pasta cooked ‘al dente.’  What does that mean? 

--Joy H.

“Al dente" is an Italian expression referring to the doneness of cooked noodles.  “Al dente” is the opposite of limp or over-cooked noodles.  "Al dente" noodles are ever so slightly chewy.  Be aware there’s a fine line between "al dente" and not quite cooked.

                                                     See all Questions for Mom

Secrets of the Radish

Radishes never seemed mysterious.  When I was growing up, they sometimes appeared as a side dish along with some slices of cucumber.  It was like an instant salad, both spicy and colorful.  Once in a while my mother put sliced raw radishes and small chunks of cucumber into a bowl of sour cream.  That would be our lunch when she’d run out of everything else.

When I began cooking, I ignored radishes unless a recipe called for them, which was almost never. 

Reinventing a Classic Vegetable

Gugarati Green Beans

Sometimes cooking a traditional vegetable a different way makes me think I’m Christopher Columbus discovering a new world.  It happened a while ago with green beans.

My first memory of green beans involved a tuna casserole.  I’m pretty sure those beans came out of a can.  They must have been overcooked because they were soft and squishy.  But at the time I didn’t know they could taste any different.  I just ate what was put in front of me.

Years later I picked some green beans growing in a friend’s garden and discovered:

Mom Money-Saving Tip 88

Be creative with leftovers.  Six uneaten French fries from last night’s dinner became the basis of today’s lunch.  First I warmed up the fries in the microwave.  Then I heated up a flour tortilla in a frying pan, flipped it over, placed the fries in a rough line down the middle and added some cheddar cheese.  I covered the pan with a lid and continued cooking for about 30 seconds, or until the cheese melted.  Voila!  Cheapest lunch ever.

                                          See all my Money-Saving Tips!

Mortar and Pestle: What Is It and How Do I Use It?

Glass Mortar and Pestle

A mortar and a pestle are actually two stand-alone items that are sold together and work together.  Basically they mash things up, things not really mashable with a fork.  In my case that usually means whole spices.

I bought a mortar and pestle some years ago because I thought it looked cool, but I only started using it when I began liking the taste of Szechuan peppercorns.  They were too expensive to put in a pepper mill, so I ground them up in my mortar and pestle.

Spinach: Fresh vs. Frozen

I couldn’t resist the 40-ounce bag of fresh spinach at Costco yesterday for $3.99.  I’ve been a fan of fresh spinach since my earliest cooking days.  I like putting it in salads, dropping a few handfuls into soup, a stir-fry, a stew or hot pasta.  I’ve recently taken to mixing some fresh spinach into ground turkey recipes, just to provide some novelty.  I also make an excellent Spinach Quiche.   

Frozen spinach just doesn’t provide the same taste experience, especially the chopped version.  Draining a pot of once-frozen, then-cooked chopped spinach is highly unappealing.  I would never serve it as a vegetable.  Whole-leaf frozen spinach is slightly better in principle, but I can’t remember the last time I offered it as a side dish.  As for canned spinach…I don’t want to think about it.

Mom Cooking Tip 121

Don’t rinse cooked pasta.  Fresh water washes away the starch coating that will help the sauce stick to the pasta.

                                                  See all my Cooking Tips!

Oops! I Ran Out of xxx in the Middle of Cooking

How many times have you discovered you were missing an ingredient in the middle of getting dinner ready?  Somehow I can look at a recipe, carefully check the ingredients and still manage to overlook the need for an egg or a cup of milk. 

If the ingredient is something odd—like anchovies or honeydew melon—I make a special point of confirming its existence in the house. But if it’s something so basic, so certain to be in the fridge or the cupboard, then I often don’t bother to check that I actually have it. 

I never buy lemons, for instance, because there’s a lemon tree 20 feet from my front door.  So lemons are always in supply—except when they’re not, as I discovered the other day when I went out to pick one.  The tree was full of mini-green lemons, which should be ripe next month.