Posts filed under 'technique'
Welcome to asparagus season! Are you as excited as I am?
Asparagus is a lovely vegetable, but much like brussels sprouts, it is a vegetable much abused. And also like sprouts, you can start off on the wrong foot even before you get then back to your kitchen.
We all look for ripe berries, unbruised apples, and juicy tomatoes. So don’t buy just any bunch of asparagus you see at the store. You want to look for a few key qualities:
1. Very thin to fairly thin in diameter
2. Tight, compact heads
3. Firm, unwrinkled stalks
Any time a bunch of asparagus fails to meet one of these requirements, it’s a sign that the asparagus is old in one way or another. If you find thick asparagus, it was harvested too late and will be bitter, stringy, and even woody. If the head is loose and spindly - same deal. If the stalks are wrinkly and collapsing, they’ve been on the shelf too long and are starting to decompose. Run away! Run very far away. I hear string beans are nice!
I bet you’re wondering how thick is too thick. My ideal asparagus is the same thickness as a pencil, but these aren’t always available. The same thickness as a regualr Sharpie marker is definitely acceptable. Once you get into magic marker range, or the diameter of an American dime, you’ve gone too far. Pencils and Sharpies. That’s what you’re shooting for. I have a contingency plan for maybe-too-thick asparagus, but more on that later.
Unless you’re going to eat them immediately after you get home, you’re going to need to store your asparagus. You should treat your asparagus like a bouquet of flowers. Chop 1/2 inch off the ends and place the entire bunch in a glass with a little water in the bottom. Take a quart-sized ziplock and invert it over the top and store in the fridge. Your asparagus will stay fresher longer.
When you’re ready to use the asparagus, you need to go through at least one more step, but it’s fun because it involves mystical asparagus magic. The head of the asparagus is the most tender, and as the stalk gets thicker, it gets tougher. There is a magic point somewhere between the tip and the end of the asparagus that separates tasty-tender from icky-tough. You may not know where this point is, but your asparagus does. Observe:
Hold your asparagus with both hands, about two inches from the tip and the end. You can chant softly if you want. Gently bend the asparagus…
…until it snaps. You have reached asparagus enlightenment. You see, it will naturally break at a point of resistance, and that point is where the stem is too tough to be enjoyable. Do this for all your asparagus.
If you bought asparagus that may be a little too thick, or you feel like being super fancy, you can peel your asparagus. It’ll take some of the stringy-ness away, but I’ve seen fancy restaurants do this even with perfectly thin asparagus. Use a vegetable peeler and peel from tip to stem, being careful not to pass over the same spot twice. You can end up with pretty sad looking asparagus if you peel them too much.
Now you’re ready to cook. How? There are a bunch of ways. You can grill, saute, roast, boil, or steam, to name a few. Steaming is one of the more popular ways, but I prefer to boil mine in a shallow pan of water. Asparagus can go from DONE! to WHOA! OVERDONE! fairly quickly, so I like to be able to see it and poke it as much as I want when I’m cooking it - it’s harder to do that in my all-metal steamer. And to be fair, my mother also cooked asparagus in a pan of shallow water, so I’m not surprised that it’s my default method. Experiment and see what works for you.
Below is a simple recipe for asparagus, but there are really so many tasty ways to enjoy this vegetable. If you need a place to start, this is a good one, but definitely explore other ways of cooking it. Roasting and grilling especially. Yum.
Simple Balsamic Asparagus
Makes four small side servings
1 Bunch (1 lb) Asparagus, prepped (detailed above)
1 pinch salt
1 Tbs Earth Balance or Olive Oil
1/2 tsp Balsamic Vinegar
Heat 1/2 inch of water in a large skillet. When it starts to simmer, add asparagus.
When the asparagus turns bright green (see second photo of the two above), drain off all the water, keeping asparagus in the pan. Add earth balance and pinch of salt. Toss to coat. Add vinegar and toss to coat. Serve immediately with a generous amount of black pepper. Asparagus should be tender but still slightly crunchy.
March 26th, 2007
I did this to my unsuspecting pepper on purpose. You should do it too.
Roasting a pepper is easy-peasy if you have a gas stove like me. You can also do it in an oven if you don’t, and instructions for that will be at the bottom of this entry. If you do have a gas stove, the instructions are pretty much “burn the crap out of the pepper, scrape the gross stuff off, eat.” Want a few more details?
1. Put the pepper directly over a high flame. Have some tongs ready.
2. Watch as it starts to char a little. This is good! And fun.
3. Turn the pepper with the tongs as the skin blackens. Don’t grab the pepper by its stem, tempting as it is, because it may break off as the pepper gets tender.
4. Don’t forget the bottom.
5. Make sure every part is charred, but don’t go too crazy. This is as roasted as you can get before actually burning the flesh inside.
6. Wrap in foil and let sit for 15 minutes until cool enough to handle. The steam created in the foil helps the skin slip off easier, so don’t skip this step! You can also put it in a ziplock
7. Use a knife to cut a circle around the the stem. Pull on the stem to remove the seeds. If the pepper is still piping hot at this point, steam will shoot out and burn you!
8. Pour out water that has settled inside the pepper. Use your fingers to slip the skin off. Resist the urge to run it under water. I know it’s messy this way, but it’ll taste better if you simply rub the pepper with your fingers or a paper towel to remove the skin - you want to keep the juices and even a few flecks of char for flavor!
9. Slice the pepper into four slabs.
If you’re doing this in an oven, turn your oven on broil. Brush peppers lightly with a high-heat oil and place under the broiler, watching for the skin to blacken. Turn peppers until fully roasted and then follow instructions from step 6 on.
So what now? Eat it! Roasted peppers are delicious on sandwiches, blended into hummus, tossed onto pizzas, added to soups, mixed into salads, stirred into pasta sauce… I usually roast sweet bell peppers but the spicy ones can also be prepared this way. Go nuts. Eat peppers.
March 18th, 2007
Tomorrow is the second PPK potluck, and this time the theme is orange - flavor or color. I decided to make mini samosas with mango chutney. If a little chutney is good, certainly a lot of chutney is better. I’ve been reading up on home canning recently and decided a high-acid food like mango chutney would be a great introduction to preserving food.
I now have 8 half-pint jars of homemade chutney ready to go, but I fear the samosas will need to be prepared by my husband Stewart. When canning, you should really use the proper equipment. Jar lifters are indispensable. I decided that tongs and a oven mit would be just fine until I got a jar lifter. Oh, how wrong I was! The jar slipped from the tongs and splashed boiling water inside my heat-proof water-proof mit, burning me thoroughly. If you’re going to try home canning, please spend the $5 for a jar lifter. Please.
Despite the whole painful injury thing, home canning is fun. I’ll post a full write up on it once I’m able to complete the process with properly fuctioning limbs. The photo to the left shows my chutney processing in a boiling water bath, which does double duty killing any unwatned bacteria and forming a vacuum seal. Tomorrow I’ll be able to check to make sure my seals are tight, but until then they sit undisturbed in the kitchen.
This chutney, as long as the seals test okay, will keep for at least a year. How exciting! I can’t wait to try more home caning (after my hand heals, of course.)
Tomorrow night I’ll have a full update on the Boston Orange themed potluck, pictures and all. I hear there will be cake and pies galore, root beer floats and even orange pizza. I’m very excited. If my hand is up to it, I might even make some donuts.
March 16th, 2007
There really isn’t a wrong way to cut a pepper, but this way makes it easy to deal with the seeds and the ribs. This method isn’t going to work for you if you want pepper rings, but it’s great for all other types of cuts.
Start by cutting a circle around the top of the pepper, following the top edge all the way around.
Pull the top off by the stem and discard the it. There might be a few seeds left inside the pepper, but the majority of them should be on the top. Look at the inside of your pepper. See the white-ish ribs? That’s where you want to make your cuts.
Slice down the middle of one of those ribs, making sure the point of your knife lands on the bottom-center of the pepper. Continue slicing down each rib, having each slice end at the same point.
Your pepper should be in 3-4 pieces now (depending on how many ribs it had), and the edge of each piece should have part of a white rib on it.
Begin slicing off the ribs from the edges of each piece, starting at the top and slicing in a U-shape all the way around until the rib has been removed. Here is another view. See the piece next to the pepper I’m cutting the rib off of? That’s the finished result.
Had you not sliced down each rib, the ribs would have been in the middle of your pieces instead of at the edges. Since a pepper is curved, it can be had to remove the ribs if they’re in the middle of the pieces. Obviously it’s not a tragedy if this happens, but since it takes no more effort or time to cut them this way, why not do it?
You should now have 3-4 seed-free, rib-free pepper pieces perfect for slicing into strips, chunks, whatever shape you want.
March 14th, 2007
Mangos are fun to slice, because they end up looking like little mango hedgehogs. How can you not like a little mango hedgehog?
Start with a ripe mango. How to you tell if they’re ripe? As tempting as it may be to go after red and yellow ones, color isn’t always your best indicator. The mango should be slightly soft, fragrant, and heavy for its size. You don’t want a mushy mango, but you should be able to dent it with your thumb if you want to. Slightly firmer mangos are good, too, and hold up better in cooking. A mango will ripen on your counter, so don’t be a afraid to get one that’s a little underripe if that’s all that’s available. They’re sort of like avocados in that way.
Inside a mango is a flat, oblong pit. If you go to slice it down the middle you won’t be very happy. Instead, slice off the sides first. If you hit the pit, try to cut a curving arc around it. No biggie.
Now you should have two side slices and a thick center slice containing the pit. Slice off the other two sides, getting as close to the pit as you can withut hitting it. You can use a paring knife to slice off any remaining mango meat on the pit. This is nice to snack on while you’re cutting the rest of the mango.
Now, my favorite part!
With a small paring knife, slice the mango into cubes without cutting through the skin! The size doesn’t matter. I make mine pretty small, but you could do large chunks if you want. The key is not breaking the skin. If you’re careful, you should be able to feel the tip of the knife hit the skin while you’re making your slices.
Using your thumbs, press the mango inside out. Mango hedgehog! You can now break off little pieces with your fingers (or mouth) if you want. You can also use a knife and let the pieces fall into a bowl.
You should be able to slice off the pieces fairly easily. You don’t want to eat the skin, and you definitely don’t want to snack on so much of it there’s nothing left for your dinner/dessert/fruit salad.
You can do the same thing with the other smaller side pieces, they just don’t get quite so hedgehog-like. They’re still good though!
February 25th, 2007
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