What to Cook This Weekend - The New York Times

Kasper
Home

What to Cook This Weekend - The New York Times

What to Cook This Weekend - The New York Times

Posted: 05 Feb 2021 07:30 AM PST

Good morning. I spend a lot of time looking for silver linings in this awful pandemic, and if there are precious few of them, one is this: Project cooking is easier when you spend so much time at home. Set out a pot of beans to soak one night, and it's no big deal to get it going the next morning and allow it to burble along on the stovetop all day. That's exactly what Samin Nosrat advises in this, her final column for The Times. (She'll still write for us, we hope, just not so regularly.) For many of us, it's not as if we'd be leaving it alone while we're at work. We're already at work, at home. Might as well enjoy some largely unattended cooking.

See also: long-cooked lamb; braised short ribs; slow-roasted duck.

Come the weekend, the projects can become a little more complicated. You could make pasta or a half-size celebration cake. You should, at some point, make trotter gear. (A cup or so of that added to this recipe for deviled chicken legs? Oh, man.) You might try your hand at Bavarian soft pretzels, bread-and-butter pickles, bagels.

And you should definitely make dumplings (above). Genevieve Ko wrote about the process this week, and has three excellent recipes to go along with her article: for homemade dumpling wrappers, for chile crisp dumplings and for tang yuan, a dessert dumpling served in broth to celebrate Lunar New Year or, really, any meal. To talk you through making them, she also made, with our colleague CC Allen, this helpful, charming video. Check that out and bookmark it for Saturday when you're making the things.

The Super Bowl is on Sunday night, and, even if you're not a football fan, the game's a good excuse to cook an exuberant American sports-bar dinner: stuffed jalapeños and chicken wings, chili, nachos, spicy Chex mix, guac. You don't even need to watch football to enjoy it. You could watch Blair play Chuck on "Gossip Girl" instead.

There are thousands more recipes to make this weekend waiting for you on NYT Cooking. (Baked Alfredo pasta with broccoli rabe and lemon! Buttery kimchi shrimp! Freestyle roasted chicken parm!) Browse through them as if you were looking for a bauble at the mall. Then, save the recipes you want to make, and rate the ones you've cooked. You can leave notes on them, too, if the recipe taught you something you want to remember or point out to others.

You do need to be a subscriber to do that, though. Subscriptions support the work of all those who make NYT Cooking possible. I hope, if you haven't done so already, that you will consider subscribing to NYT Cooking today. Thanks.

We in turn are standing by to help, in case anything goes sideways along the way, either in your cooking or our technology. Just write: cookingcare@nytimes.com. Someone will get back to you, I promise.

Now, it's a far cry from gravy boats and tortilla warmers, but I loved our Gia Kourlas's interview with Bijoya Das, the volunteer assistant coach and choreographer of the gymnastics team at the University of California, Los Angeles. Das helped develop Nia Dennis's latest viral floor routine, which if you haven't seen, you have to watch.

Dwight Garner put me on to Chang-rae Lee's new novel, "My Year Abroad," which he calls "among the most obsessive food novels yet written." That's for us, then!

The New York Public Library's extensive menu collection has a not-perfect website that's still incredibly delightful. You can help make it better, or just look around and dream. (Here's the 1990 menu from Air France's Concorde flights.)

Finally, here's Goat Girl to play us off, "The Man." Play that loud and I'll see you on Sunday.

Mary McCartney Dishes on Her New Cooking Show—And Why Dad Paul Was 'So Great to Cook For' in Lockdown - PEOPLE

Posted: 05 Feb 2021 01:58 PM PST

this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines.

5 tools and tips to streamline food preparation and cooking times - LA Daily News

Posted: 05 Feb 2021 08:09 AM PST

Staying safe by socially distancing during these past months means cooking and eating at home more often. In fact, many of us have made more home-cooked meals during the last year than ever before. While home cooking is often healthier and more economical than dining out, it can also be a time-consuming task. There's no better time than the present to rethink your cooking habits to save time and energy preparing food.

While we've missed dining at our favorite restaurants and gathering for large festive meals, many of us have gained new culinary skills, at least partly out of necessity, during the pandemic. However, preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, particularly in larger households, can quickly become a daunting chore. Here are tips, tools and techniques that can help streamline meal preparation and cut back on active cooking time.

Air Fryer

An Air Fryer is a small, freestanding appliance that "fries" food by circulating very hot air quite forcefully within itself. It helps produce crisp, flavorful food without the oil required in traditional frying. While potatoes may be the top food cooked in the Air Fryer, it can be also used to make chicken, fish and an array of vegetables. Many people enjoy the Air Fryer's ease of use, speed and the taste of the food prepared.

Instant-Pot

A multi-functional kitchen appliance, the Instant-Pot can serve as a pressure cooker, slow cooker, rice cooker and more. It's known to be used to make everything from yogurt and hard-boiled eggs to soup and stew. As a pressure cooker, it drastically cuts cooking time by raising the boiling point of water and trapping the steam. The Instant-Pot and similar appliances made by other brands, help with cooking larger amounts of food more quickly, and with fewer pots and pans, making it great for meal prep. Take a look at some Instant-Pot recipes and be sure to read the instruction manual closely before getting started.

Griddling

A griddle is a useful and simple cooking tool. It is a flat cooking surface with an underneath heat source. A griddle can be either non-stick or cast iron. There are three basic types of griddles. The first two can be heated over a burner or built directly into a range. The third type is a piece of electrical equipment, plugged into the wall, which rests on the countertop separate from the stove. Griddles are ideal for cooking foods that need to be flipped, like pancakes. They are also useful for cooking burgers, hot sandwiches and French toast, among other items. An electric griddle is particularly helpful when the goal is to create a cooking station away from the stove.

En Papillote

En Papillote is a French term for the technique of cooking food wrapped in paper. It is a delicate, moist-heat cooking method that allows the ingredients enveloped in parchment paper or even foil to steam while cooking in the oven. This technique works well for fish or chicken sealed in with vegetables, aromatic herbs and spices. The trapped moist air inside the wrapped parcel of ingredients allows for foods to cook relatively quickly and without the need for added fats and oils. Because it's difficult to gauge doneness with en papillote cooking, it's beneficial to use a recipe when trying it out.

Microwave

While the microwave is neither novel nor synonymous with scratch-prepared food, it is a small, practical appliance that can make preparing meals much easier. Microwaves can be used successfully by children and teens who haven't quite gained the cooking skills or for seniors when manual dexterity or oven safety may be a concern. Microwaves are for more than just TV dinners and popcorn. They can be used to heat health-conscious frozen meals, eggs, soups, leftovers, frozen veggies and frozen pizzas, for example.

You can try these cooking tools and techniques to make cooking at home easier and less time-consuming without sacrificing taste and healthfulness.

LeeAnn Weintraub, MPH, RD is a registered dietitian, providing nutrition counseling and consulting to individuals, families and organizations. She can be reached by email at RD@halfacup.com.

17 Cooking Tips Our Food Staff Swears By - The New York Times

Posted: 28 Jan 2021 12:00 AM PST

If a baking recipe specifies room-temperature ingredients, there is a reason: Chemistry! The temperature of your ingredients plays a very big role in the final outcome. I, for one, rarely have the forethought to take my ingredients out of the fridge ahead of time. An easy way to bring your eggs up to temperature is to fill a bowl with lukewarm water and submerge the eggs for about 1 or 2 minutes. VAUGHN VREELAND

When I'm cooking, I keep one large bowl for food scraps nearby. It keeps the prep cleaner and eliminates a back and forth to the trash or compost. KIM GOUGENHEIM

Chopsticks are among the most versatile tools in the kitchen. They're great for turning greens to coat evenly with salad dressing, tossing noodles or pasta with sauce, plucking deep-fried treats out of oil or boiled dumplings out of water, beating eggs for scrambles or omelets, and flipping roasted vegetables on a sheet pan. With baking, they fill the tool gap between whisk and wooden spoon, incorporating wet ingredients into dry without over- or undermixing. GENEVIEVE KO

I wish I could remember who taught me to start garlic in cold oil. Whenever my first step is to fry garlic, I put the garlic and oil into a cold pan and then turn on the heat, so the fry is gentle, slow and even. The garlic and oil heat up together, so the garlic doesn't immediately singe on the edges because the oil got too hot, or start to color too quickly. TEJAL RAO

Always keep a few dish towels on hand, neatly folded, to wipe down the stove as you cook, to help clean off cutting boards, to dry knives you've washed after cutting the chicken, before slicing the ginger. SAM SIFTON

Always place a dish towel under your cutting board. It'll keep the board from slipping as you chop or cut. KRYSTEN CHAMBROT

Store a pizza stone on the bottom rack of your oven. The hot stone works as a buffer between the oven's heat source and the food, which helps regulate the temperature of a fussy or uneven oven. It also helps the oven return to temperature faster when you open and close the door. SCOTT LOITSCH

Meal prep kits make cooking simpler and fun - Santa Clarita Valley Signal

Posted: 05 Feb 2021 12:02 PM PST

By Taylor Villanueva

Signal Staff Writer

The stress of cooking can be overwhelming —traveling to the grocery store, searching the aisles for the correct ingredients, time spent cooking and then there's the cleanup.

Sometimes, there are other challenges like wasted ingredients or hard to follow recipes. These are just a few of the reasons why meal-kit services that get delivered right to your door make the whole process easier and more fun.

Sun Basket, Home Chef and Plated are a few of the many meal kit services people are using today. Not only are there many companies to choose from based on individual taste and dietary restrictions, but each company offers different delivery plans.

"Adults between ages 25 and 44 are twice as likely to use fresh meal-subscription services," according to market research group packagedfacts.com.

A Harris Poll showed that 1-in-4 adults purchased some type of meal kit delivery service in 2016. A third market research group, Statista, reports that revenue for the industry is "expected to grow to over $10 billion in 2020 from one billion in 2015."

There's a number of factors that make the services popular among professionals and young families, and there are also some things you should know if you're thinking about a meal-prep option.

"The meals are delicious," said Ann Sayegh, who's been using Blue Apron on and off for a few years. "With the exception of a few … they were all delicious."

Sayegh explains that her choice to use Blue Apron's services came when she realized the grocery store's portions were too big for her.

"It's much easier than going to the store and less wasteful," she says. "For a single-person home, it makes sense because you don't have to buy regular portions and then end up tossing the stuff that goes bad if you don't use it."

The meals come with all the ingredients to make the food and cooking instructions.

Sayegh says that there are other perks to using the meal subscription.

"They have promos all the time," she said. "For me, it's affordable, but I also don't order it every week.'

The pricing for Blue Apron meals starts at $9.99 per serving with a minimum of two servings per meal.

Sarah Witten has been a fan of the meal kit service HelloFresh since she started using it recently.

"I liked it because it was so simple," Witten said. "Everything was already included and I didn't have to think every night about what I should eat for dinner."

She explains how, for her, HelloFresh was easier than going to the store.

"Especially if it is on auto-ship because it just shows up at your door," she said.

Some of the meals she received were for Southwestern stuffed peppers; chicken with roasted rosemary potatoes, onions and broccolini; and a pork luau burger with a side salad.

"The food was absolutely delicious, too," she added.

One of her favorite meals was the chicken with roasted rosemary potatoes because she says she has "never had crispier chicken skin" in her life.

Despite loving the ease of the service, Witten made the choice to cancel her subscription.

"I ended up canceling my subscription because I'm just one person and it was too much food," she says.

"I think for a family that gets the family box or a couple, it is definitely affordable."

Witten says another drawback to the service is that some of the cooking times were not accurate.

"They always advertise that it's dinner in 30 minutes or less, and it never took me 30 minutes," Witten said. "It always took me 45 minutes to an hour."

She speculates that the cooking might have taken the predicted amount of time if there had been a second person helping her chop and prepare the ingredients.

"Just me alone, it took longer," she said.

HelloFresh is similar to Blue Apron in that customers must order a minimum of two recipes per week. Each recipe serves either two or four people.

Meal kit services provide fresh ingredients and cooking instructions delivered to your door.

HelloFresh provides vegetarian options along with regular protein options. Services start at $8.99 per serving for two people before shipping costs. Family plans start at $7.49 per serving before shipping.

Sun Basket promises organic and sustainable produce. Meal plans for the family menu start at $10.99 per serving, while meals from the classic menu start at $11.99 per serving.

Home Chef provides a personalized food survey to assess which types of meals the customer would enjoy. Home Chef offers meals for $9.95 per serving before shipping. 


from What to Cook https://ift.tt/3rtAZ1e
google-playkhamsatmostaqltradent