Tip of the day:

I was watching one of the offerings on Bon Appetit's prolific YouTube channel and the host visited a Northern Indian restaurant to get inspiration for preparing Indian meals. The restaurant had a spray bottle of lemon juice that they used to "brighten" dishes. Really clever way to add a hint of not-too-overpowering flavor (a lesson I learned recently when adding orange water to a dish - tasted like potpourri).

spinynorman99 wrote:The restaurant had a spray bottle of lemon juice that they used to "brighten" dishes. Really clever way to add a hint of not-too-overpowering flavor (a lesson I learned recently when adding orange water to a dish - tasted like potpourri).

That is very cool. Thanks for sharing.

Reintroducing herbs or citrus right at the end of cooking reinforces the flavors they introduced earlier in the cooking process.
I remember reading this in the cookbook
Simply French Joel Robuchon and I use it every day

Hi,

Cook's Illustrated had an tip today on what to do with leftover pickle juice.

Instead of spritzing lemon juice on your steamed vegetables or your grilled fish or chicken, add a little of the liquid from pickled jalapeños. Note: The vinegar in brine is slightly diluted by water pulled from the vegetables, so you can't substitute it one-for-one with vinegar or lemon juice.

Regards,
Cathy2

Different grinds of the same spice in the same dish.

By using multiple grinds/textures of the same spice you get a longer more developed flavor. Finer grind upfront while coarser grind lingers across the chew.

I started using this technique with black pepper in BBQ rubs a few years ago and have since expanded the idea with other spices/cookery styles. Its not unlike the idea of using multiple types of hot peppers that hit your palate differently, cayenne sharp upfront, guajillo subtle backnote, but with the same flavor/spice.

15 Ways to Use Leftover Pickle Juice

Dill Pickle Challah

Simple Hummus: use brine in place of water or chickpea brine.

Tabbouleh: use brine in place of lemon juice.

Salad dressing: swap brine for vinegar.

Brined Vegetables: you can toss soft veggies, like onions, garlic or canned artichokes, olives or even hard boiled eggs right into the jar, refrigerate, and a few days later they’ll be flavorful and pickled.

Potato salad: add pickle brine for a special zing (in place of vinegar)

Deviled Eggs: add a few teaspoons into the whipped egg yolk filling

Bloody mary or michelada (Serious Eats and Food 52)

Pickle Infused Vodka (Foodie Crush).

Pickle Back Coleslaw (New York Times)

Pickleback (Food 52): a shot of whisky chased with pickle juice

Dill Pickle Roast Beef (Simply Stacy)

Pickle Brined Chicken (Food and Wine)

Polish Sour Pickle Soup (Polskafoods.com)

Dill Pickle Salsa (Food.com)

I'm glad they mention using it in salad dressings. We do a Middle Eastern chicken recipe (NYTs) and I always make a side salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, dill pickles, parsley and feta with a dill pickle/lemon/olive oil dressing. It gives you some of the shawarma elements and is a great accompaniment.

I drizzled a shot of pickle juice over last night's microwave-in-bag Brussels sprouts. Livened them up a lot. Thanks for the idea, Cathy!

I don't know if this tip will be new for anyone else, but it was for me. After only just recently realizing I have been cooking bacon all the wrong ways forever (which is to say, not in the oven), I opened up a larger space in my life (hooray!) and my refrigerator for bacon and finally figured out how to store it.

How I'd been doing it before, which is (for me) the wrong way: cutting open one long side of the package, removing whole strips of bacon, and then shoving the package into a gallon-sized bag that is always just slightly narrower enough than the package to be annoying.

How I do it now: cut the entire package---plastic, paper label, and bacon---in half crosswise with kitchen shears and stand the two ends cut side up in a quart-sized bag, into which they fit perfectly. Subsequent bacon half-slice removal is a breeze. This is also handy for freezing because you can take just one half of a package out of the freezer at a time to defrost (moving it into another quart bag). This way only doesn't work if cooking whole uncut slices is important to you aesthetically, which to me and the dog is not.

A rather mundane tip: I keep a jar of tomato paste in the freezer and scoop out spoonfuls as needed. Frozen tomato paste is somewhat harder than ice cream but I find I can scrape out small amounts. For those with less hand strength, a few seconds of microwaving will soften it somewhat.
In the past, I've frozen opened cans of paste, scooped it into ice cube trays, etc. But the middle eastern jars are cheap and handy. And no moldy bits of leftover tomato paste in the fridge.
If you'd like to try, Shop&Save has Ziyad brand, 700g/25oz, for $1.79 in their Ramadan sale.

I happen to like the tomato paste that comes in a tube. It lasts a lot longer.

The paste in a tube is significantly more expensive -- you can find house brand 6oz for under a buck on sale, but the tubes -- usually imported -- are $3-5 or more for 4oz or 100g or something like that.

I haven't frozen tomato paste, but things like chipotles in adobo (which I use for guacamole), a half can of refried beans, etc., I will spread on parchment paper, fold, and put in a zip-top bag for freezing. It's easy to break a piece off a sheet like that.

JoelF wrote:The paste in a tube is significantly more expensive -- you can find house brand 6oz for under a buck on sale, but the tubes -- usually imported -- are $3-5 or more for 4oz or 100g or something like that.

Whole Foods sells the 5 oz tube of tomato paste for $1.09.

annak wrote:

JoelF wrote:The paste in a tube is significantly more expensive -- you can find house brand 6oz for under a buck on sale, but the tubes -- usually imported -- are $3-5 or more for 4oz or 100g or something like that.

Whole Foods sells the 5 oz tube of tomato paste for $1.09.

Good to know. I seldom shop there, but it might be worth an occasional run.

Today's success story: H-mart fresh tofu cubed and squished, tossed with a little soy and oil, then cornstarch, then a half hour at 400F convection puffed them up nice and crisp, served with a panang curry (paste made fresh)

JoelF wrote:Today's success story: H-mart fresh tofu cubed and squished, tossed with a little soy and oil, then cornstarch, then a half hour at 400F convection puffed them up nice and crisp, served with a panang curry (paste made fresh)

I used some firm tofu last week. It was proposed not to neatly cube, rather it was suggested tear into 1 to 1.5 inch pieces. The idea was the rough texture would take up more spices and cornstarch.

I did not make curry. I made sweet and sour tofu with vegetables. The sauce was leftover from sweet and sour pork.

Regards,
Cathy2

DIY ginger paste