What to Cook Today - The New York Times

What to Cook Today - The New York Times
Cooking: A Swiss breakfast staple makes for a good morning - The Mercury News
Intriguing and Flavorful Ingredient Used for Cooking - Southeast AgNet

Posted: 15 Feb 2021 07:30 AM PST

Good morning. Some are calling it Yardi Gras in New Orleans this year, since no one will be parading around on Fat Tuesday, but staying safe in their house floats instead. It might be good fun to join them for dinner tomorrow night, and if you have a day off today, you might use it to prepare a king cake for that meal's dessert.

It's cold where I stay, so I'd like to eat beef stroganoff (above) this evening, or meatloaf stroganoff, or meatballs stroganoff, something with gravy and egg noodles anyway, rich and delightful, with maybe a chocolate whiskey cake for dessert.

You may prefer pasta alla vodka, or winter squash and wild mushroom curry. Either way you ought to start in on the Welsh police drama "Bang" after dinner. It's on Amazon Prime.

Of course, you may want to take things in another direction, and make Taiwanese popcorn chicken instead. The cook and food stylist Sue Li, who developed the recipe, stopped by the NYT Cooking kitchen recently to show us how to make it. The resulting video is a delight.

You might like a seafood chowder, or a big vat of chili. Have you made this tomato rice with crispy Cheddar? Ever stuffed a pepper? Or made a farro broccoli bowl with lemony tahini? I like salted caramel cookies after that.

Many thousands more recipes to cook today and in the future are waiting for you on NYT Cooking. Go browse among them and see what you find. Save the recipes you like and rate the ones you've made. And please leave notes on them, too, if you'd like to remember or share an ingredient substitution or recipe hack.

You do need to be a subscriber to do all that, of course. Subscriptions support our work and allow it to continue. Please, if you like what we're doing here, and if you haven't done so already, I hope you will subscribe to NYT Cooking today.

Either way, we'll be standing by like Michael the policeman in "Make Way for Ducklings," ready to offer assistance if something goes awry while you're cooking or using our site and apps. Just write: cookingcare@nytimes.com. Someone will get back to you.

Now, it's nothing to do with penne or beets, but I did like Emma Carmichael on the marriage of Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe, in GQ.

Cooking: A Swiss breakfast staple makes for a good morning - The Mercury News

Posted: 15 Feb 2021 06:30 AM PST

I had my first bircher muesli in Switzerland, where it's a breakfast staple. I was at a breakfast buffet, and a large bowl of what appeared to be a thick and chunky porridge was presented in the center of the table. At first glance, I was unimpressed, but at the prompting of my Swiss friend, I gave it a try. It was fresh, bright and creamy, chock-full of fruit and nuts and not at all stodgy. Not only did it feel healthy to eat, but it was downright delicious.

Bircher muesli is essentially overnight oats. It's a practical and healthy do-ahead meal, reflecting marvelous Swiss sensibilities. A blend of oats and milk or yogurt are muddled together and refrigerated overnight. The next morning, you thin the mixture with more yogurt or milk and fold in fruit and nuts. The result is a nutritious and tasty breakfast that will energize and propel you through the day — or up an Alpine mountain, depending on where you sit.

Bircher muesli is named for Maximilian Bircher-Benner, a Swiss physician who created this concoction in the early 1900s as a healthy breakfast alternative. The original recipe included oats, grated apple, dried fruit and condensed milk (fresh milk was not easily available at the time). Since then, myriad variations have evolved. The key is to combine a mixture of oats with a liquid ingredient, such as apple juice, dairy (or nondairy) milk, cream or yogurt, and stash in it the refrigerator where it will rehydrate, bloom and develop flavor overnight.

Before serving, additional ingredients such as grated or chopped fruit, nuts, fresh berries, honey or lemon may be added. If you are feeling extra indulgent, a dollop of whipped cream can be folded into the mix. (This is what I call the I-am-on-holiday ingredient.)

As with granolas and oatmeal, you can easily riff on the ingredients, providing you adhere to the oats-to-liquid ratio. This basic recipe includes suggested additions and substitutions.

Bircher Muesli

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

½ cup apple juice

½ cup plain whole milk yogurt, preferably European-style

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 to 2 apples, cored and grated (with skin)

¼ cup raisins, divided

¼ cup chopped almonds, divided

Maple syrup or honey for drizzling (optional)

Shaved unsweetened coconut for garnish

Directions

Mix the oats, apple juice, yogurt and cinnamon in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or overnight. The mixture will become quite thick.

When ready to serve, stir in the grated apple, half the raisins and half the almonds. Thin the muesli with additional yogurt or milk to your desired consistency. (If you are on holiday, this is when you fold in the whipped cream.)

Divide between serving bowls. Drizzle with a little maple syrup, if using, and garnish with the remaining nuts, raisins and the coconut.

Cranberry Orange Option:

Substitute vanilla or honey yogurt for the plain yogurt; orange juice for the apple juice; walnuts for the almonds; dried cranberries for the raisins. Add ¼ teaspoon finely grated orange zest.

Pear Cardamom Option:

Substitute grated pear for the apple; ground cardamom for the cinnamon; golden raisins for the raisins. Add ¼ teaspoon finely grated lemon zest. Garnish with minced crystallized ginger.

Optional Toppings:

Sliced fruit or fresh berries

Pomegranate seeds

Goji berries

Chia seeds

Lynda Balslev is a San Francisco Bay Area cookbook author, food and travel writer and recipe developer.

Intriguing and Flavorful Ingredient Used for Cooking - Southeast AgNet

Posted: 16 Feb 2021 01:00 AM PST

A very intriguing and flavorful ingredient you should be cooking with. That's coming up This Land of Ours.

If you haven't seen it or cooked with it, Black Garlic is gaining popularity. It's as dark as molasses, as soft and spreadable as room-temperature butter, and as earthy and meaty in essence as caramelized mushrooms. Black garlic tastes distinctly sweet and syrupy with hints of balsamic vinegar. The chemical make-up of black garlic has been transformed by an aging process that changes its aroma, so it's not what you would expect.

The best way to eat it? Spread whole cloves of black garlic on toasted sourdough bread. You may want to melt a little ripe, soft cheese over that, under the broiler. Warm peeled black garlic cloves in good butter and drizzle the sauce over a gentle green vegetable, like steamed asparagus. Black garlic also loves pasta, tossed through just before serving, with a little bit of warm cream. And adorn your pizza with some naked black cloves (protect them with some sauce, or leaves, or cheese, because blistering dry heat can kill their special flavor). Or, slip black garlic under the protective skin of a roasting chicken, with a dab of butter.

Listen to Cathy Isom's This Land of Ours program here.

Intriguing and Flavorful Ingredient Used for Cooking

How to Make Balck Garlic

Video by: CookingWithMamaMui

Black garlic. It's basically fresh garlic that is kept around at 140f for 2 weeks. The low temperature causes a chemical reaction that converts the sugar in the garlic and makes it turn black. It has a sweet, savory, soft, chewy, and molasses-like richness.

A study found that it has twice the antioxidant levels than fresh garlic. Which means it's super healthy for you. You can buy black garlic in the grocery, but they are a little bit expensive. So how about making it yourself. It's dead easy. All you need is a rice cooker, garlic, time, and patience. let me show you how.

Ingredients and Equipment:

garlic
rice cooker with tight close lid
paper towels
bamboo mat

Health Wealth

What to Cook Today - The New York Times