Virtual Cooking Show: 2.1 Vegan Nachos | University of Arkansas - University of Arkansas Newswire

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Virtual Cooking Show: 2.1 Vegan Nachos | University of Arkansas - University of Arkansas Newswire

Virtual Cooking Show: 2.1 Vegan Nachos | University of Arkansas - University of Arkansas Newswire

Posted: 22 Mar 2021 10:07 PM PDT

March 23, 2021

Let's get cooking! In collaboration with the Full Circle Food Pantry and the campus dietician, University Programs is hosting a cooking show inspired by the power of plants! RSVP for your cooking kit on Hogsync. Kits will be available for pickup at Brough dining hall on March 23 and 24 during regular dining hours for those students who RSVP. The show will begin at 5 p.m., March 24, on Zoom, where we will walk through the steps to create "Chef's kiss" vegan nachos. The Zoom link will be sent to those who RSVP. During the Zoom meeting, we will also have a Kahoot! where the winner will take home cooking supplies, Snoop Dogg's Cookbook and merch from UP, the Volunteer Action Center and Food on the Hill.

This event is sponsored by University Programs through the Office of Student Activities and is supported by the Student Activities Fee. For questions or for accommodations due to disability please contact the Office of Student Activities, osa@uark.edu or call 479-575-5255. University Programs is a program in the Division of Student Affairs.

About the Division of Student Affairs: The Division of Student Affairs supports students in pursuing knowledge, earning a degree, finding meaningful careers, exploring diversity and connecting with the global community. We provide students housing, dining, health care resources and create innovative programs that educate and inspire. We enhance the University of Arkansas experience and help students succeed, one student at a time.

Island Cooking: Kitchen Gadgets - Island Free Press

Posted: 22 Mar 2021 05:34 AM PDT

Photo by Lynne Foster

Many years ago now, when I first moved to London, I went to work at Divertimenti, a brand new specialty cookware store on Brompton Road, (one-of-a-kind before they became popular.) The owners/buyers carefully curated every single item. Each and every piece was useful, good-looking, well made, and many were new to the market and extremely unique.

We catered to chefs and the burgeoning home cook movement as no one else did. That was a big, big advantage for me. I didn't merely direct someone to a saucepan, but had the time to explore specific needs and the reasons for them. Customers loved to discuss cooking and equipment, and I learned more than I ever could have imagined from them – more than they learned from me!

I quickly got hooked on cookware and implements, and got some amazing tips from both owners and customers. It was my favorite job ever, and I have had some pretty amazing jobs!

If you, like me, are getting tired of being in the kitchen so much, maybe it is time to treat yourself to a new gadget! I never need an excuse, so have some very cool things that I enjoy working with.

Allow me to show you some.

There are some recipes, especially baked goods, that require accurate measurements, which is not normally "my thing." I am more of a sniff and taste cook. But that is why my baking often doesn't turn out well, so, bring on good measuring tools.

Photo by Lynne Foster

In addition to the usual cups and spoons, I often use a kitchen scale. A bonus is that it measures in grams or ounces. Simply place a bowl on top, turn the scales on, and tell it which measurement you want.

I also love the mini-measuring cup that calculates up to four tablespoons and two ounces. It is easier than dipping the normal tablespoon into the flavoring four times, and it eliminates spills with liquid.

When cooking some foods, particularly meat, the best indication of correct doneness is temperature. For beginning cooks who have yet to gain experience and an intuitive sense of when food is properly cooked, thermometers are essential.

I use two types, a digital thermometer that reads from -58F to 572F or-50C to 300C. It is very helpful when I am preparing something from a European cookbook.

Since I have returned to the States, I have become used to American calculations again, and that requires a translation. And, for me, the conversions require a calculator! To go from Celsius to Fahrenheit, double the C figure and add 30. It is not exact, but close enough. Don't even think of converting in the other direction!

Photo by Lynne Foster

For larger pieces in the oven, the thermo probe is ideal. You insert the probe into the meat, and leave the reader that is connected to it with a long-enough wire on the counter. You don't have to open the oven to check the temp, so the heat remains stable. It also has the option to time the cooking and, again, you can select a Fahrenheit or Celsius unit of temperature.

On the stovetop is a flame tamer (heat diffuser) that spreads the burner's heat evenly around the base of the cooking vessel, preventing hot spots and uneven cooking. It is especially useful, even necessary, with clay pots.

I used to have a bulky wooden block to hold my knives until I discovered the lighter and much smaller round, soft-touch holder that keeps the blades separated and sharp. The Sim Prium holds a lot of knives of all sizes, and takes up very little space on the countertop. A Chantry knife sharpener sits nearby, too.

I have a very cool Skeppshult handmade pepper/spice grinder from Sweden. It is made of cast iron and its lid is Swedish walnut. It is a beautiful example of Scan design, and I love using it. I tend to prefer grinding my own spices, so this gets a lot if use. I also use it for Balinese long peppers that don't quite fit into my standard pepper mill. Simply place the whole spices into the larger bowl with the grooved bottom, then insert the small one, flat side down, then twist and grind.

Photo by Lynne Foster

Salt has its special place in the kitchen too. Kosher salt that I use for cooking lives next to the stove in a beautiful North Carolina pottery container. The lovely finishing salt from Hatteras Saltworks is also nearby in a swivel top double wooden box. Both are convenient and ready to use.

A money-saver and a sustainable way to preserve food, especially leftovers, are beeswax wraps. They are available in many designs and sizes, and you can feel you are wrapping your food in art. Art in the kitchen is always a good thing!

Have you ever forgotten to get butter out of the fridge, and you are ready to make a sandwich or the toast has just popped up? There is a tool for that, too! Run it over the hard butter to get slivers of butter that are usable, or butter curls to serve with your homemade dinner rolls. One side of the blade is serrated so you can more easily cut slices or pats.

I use a lot of citrus peels as well, and this little parer produces the daintiest slices that are lovely for garnishing, or thicker slices when more flavor is the point. It's also a little quicker than using a paring knife.

Photo by Lynne Foster

Let us not forget wine! A tool that Divertimenti introduced to the world outside of its native France is one I still cannot do without, and one I have often shared with others. The wonderful Le Creuset corkscrew is foolproof, and the foil cutter makes it even easier to use. A unique quality is its single-direction turning of the screw. Insert the point into the cork and make right (clockwise) turns until it pulls the cork out of the bottle. Et voila!

I have a baking station on an antique cupboard that is the right height for rolling dough, and is lower than a standard counter. On it permanently sits a marble slab that keeps the dough cool while you work it, and I work it with the most beautiful, well-balanced rolling pin ever seen that was made for me by my Hatteras friend, Kal Gancsos.

Oh, the simple things that give me pleasure in the kitchen! This includes some stylish cleaning products from guess where – Swedish dishcloths make washing dishes or cleaning the counters somehow feel glamorous, and they are environmentally sound.

The little scrubber, also Swedish, does not scratch, but does clear off any sticky items, and the washcloth replaces hundreds of paper towels. Both are washable, (not for the dryer though), and reusable time and time again. Plus, they are pretty! They sit here on a very useful plastic coated and over-the-sink rack. It is great for drying, for rinsing produce, and for defrosting, too. I have two, one for each sink, and they get used for one thing or another every single day.

Photo by Lynne Foster

And last is my favorite kitchen hand soap by Method. It is formulated to remove odors from handling garlic and onions, (staples in much of my cooking), and it really does a good job. It has a clean, light fragrance, (I use lemon grass), and has a very well calculated rate of release, which is just enough.

A less expensive alternative, by the way, is to rub your hands over a stainless steel object, (a large serving spoon is ideal), while letting cold water from the faucet run over your hands. It eliminates the odors but doesn't serve to clean your hands, though.

I appreciate that there are excellent cooks everywhere who own a small stove, one or two knives, two or three pots, and a skillet, and they create fabulous meals, but I am not one of them. I depend on my tools and gadgets, and thoroughly enjoy using them!

Another time, we will delve into my collection of clay pot cookware, and why I love them. Here is a hint: a favored, revered cookbook author believes that clay pot cooking is of the earth, comforting, and imparts the flavors of the earth. Metal cookware, in contrast, is of fire, and harsh. Not too sure about this, but it's something worth contemplating, and I know I feel good using my clay. There are definitely some health and flavor benefits.

Photo by Lynne Foster

Slow burn: a fast guide to slow cooking - The Guardian

Posted: 22 Mar 2021 07:18 PM PDT

Like any kitchen device, slow cookers have their quirks, advantages and pitfalls. When you know and understand what your slow cooker can and can't do, you can use it to wondrous effect.

After cooking (a lot) with different cookers new and old, I can confirm that they vary in heat. Older cookers run cooler than their newer counterparts. So, while a vintage slow cooker might look good on your kitchen bench, it will take longer for the food to cook, change the final outcome and consistency of the dish, and it might also sit around the temperatures that you don't want: ones where bacteria and all the funky weird stuff can lurk and grow.

You can buy a slow cooker for $20, but spend a little more if you can. Cheaper cookers have more variability in temperature. They are often more simplistic in construction, so they take longer to heat up and, when they do, the temperature is often too high for that nice low simmer you are looking for. They also take a lot longer to cool if you need to reduce the heat quickly or hold your food on the warm setting.

If you can afford it, try for a cooker with numerous functions, most importantly, the sauté/sear function. This allows you to control the heat, and that pays dividends when you start and finish a dish in the one bowl. But if your slow cooker doesn't have a sauté function, don't panic. When recipes direct you to sauté in the bowl of the slow cooker, you can simply fry those elements in a pan and thoroughly scrape them into your slow cooker.

Like an oven that has temperaments and hot spots, so too does your slow cooker. The more you use your slow cooker, the more you will understand how it behaves. The first few times you cook a recipe in your slow cooker, take note of how long it takes to actually cook compared with the suggested cooking time in the recipe. Note the liquid: was there too much or too little at the end of the specified time? If your cooker runs hot, you may need to reduce the cooking time, and vice versa.

Katrina Meynink with her slow cooker. 'The more you use your slow cooker, the more you will understand how it behaves.'
Katrina Meynink with her slow cooker. 'The more you use your slow cooker, the more you will understand how it behaves.' Photograph: Hardie Grant Books

Flavour rules

The adage of throwing everything in the pot and walking away is not your friend when it comes to flavour. Long, slow cooking mellows flavours and this, combined with the lack of evaporation, means that your food has the potential to be bland.

Slow cooking works by building on a base flavour. The flavours in a dish need to be layered and then heightened by the use of strong spices, herbs and acid.

There are a few golden rules to get maximum flavour out of your slow cooker. Always caramelise onions. It is important that you don't rush this step; onions need time to soften, lose their moisture and break down their fibres so they melt into the dish.

Include freshly ground spices where possible, which tend to be stronger in flavour than the pre-ground versions, and always thoroughly cook a mirepoix (that's the carrot, celery and onion base). If you take an extra 10 minutes to cook down your aromatics, the finished dish will have a deeper flavour and a better texture.

Heat your slow cooker before you start, always use a stock as your liquid base (rarely water) and make sure you sear meat until it has a nice caramelised crust.

The last and crucial pitstop for flavour – herbs, nuts, acids, cooling yoghurts and creams, or mounds of cheese – are not simply garnishes to dress up your dish and add a final flourish, but bona fide components in their own right. Always taste for salt, sour, sweet, fresh and rich before you serve.

Slow cooker convert

You can adapt so many recipes for your slow cooker. The two key things to keep in mind are liquid and time. When converting a recipe for the slow cooker, you will always need to reduce the amount of liquid specified and increase the cooking time. Not all recipes are going to work. Soups, braises, slow-cooked casseroles – these are your slow cooker friends.

Slow cookers gradually come to temperature and then hold that temperature for however long you tell them to. On high, the cooker comes up to temperature quickly, whereas on low, it will heat more slowly. Which setting you use depends on the time available to cook the recipe, but I suggest embracing the slow option, as this gives the flavours a long and luxurious amount of time to meld and intensify.

So, if the original cooking time was one hour, it should take approximately four hours on the high setting and no more than six hours on the low setting. Think pasta casseroles, quicker-style soups, chicken or seafood and veggie-loaded dishes. If the original cooking time was for more than an hour, you'll often find that it does well when cooked for eight hours on low. This is ideal for your meat braises and slower simmered stews, such as beef bourguignon or chilli.

Slow Victories by Katrina Meynink (RRP$35, Hardie Grant Books)

Slow cookers are little insulators, meaning a lot of liquid is created during the cooking process. You will need to take this into account when converting a recipe and reduce the amount of liquid you use, or risk having a runny mess with reduced flavour at the end. A good rule of thumb is to decrease the liquid (wine, stock, water) in a recipe by at least 125–250ml. Add your liquids slowly, and line your lid with a thin tea towel or paper towel to soak up the steam.

Slow cooking is akin to spending too long in the sun at the beach. You might peer inside at the end and things look, well, ugly. But don't panic; when you cook for such long periods of time there are always separated fats, brown edges and weird lumps and bumps. Often I suggest removing portions and using a hand-held blender to give everything a quick whiz right there in the pot. All the bits will get reincorporated and the fats will emulsify, making it all thick and glossy.

Which is exactly what you want.

This is an edited extract from Slow Victories by Katrina Meynink (RRP$35, Hardie Grant Books)

Chefs Are Revealing Their #1 Most Useful Cooking Tip (And I'm Memorizing All Of Them) - BuzzFeed

Posted: 21 Mar 2021 05:15 PM PDT

14. Don't over-flip your food while it's cooking.

"In general, just leave your food alone while it's cooking. Stirring and flipping it a lot might feel like you're doing something but you're only making it take longer. Just walk away and let it do its thing. For example, if your grilling or pan-frying a chicken breast, wait until it's half-way cooked before flipping it to the other side. Flipping it more than once slows the cooking process and you won't get that golden-brown coloring you're looking for. You'll also likely dry out the meat." —u/awwjeah

"The best thing you can do for your meats is leave them alone. After you put it in the pan, on the grill, or whatever, DO NOT TOUCH IT. Do not poke, prob, press, squeeze, lift, turn, or anything else until it is time to flip it. Moving it will cause the juices to leak out and disrupt the cooking process, leaving your meat dry and flavorless." u/farsified

Florence Pugh’s Cooking Show Is Back for 24 Hours Only - Vulture

Posted: 22 Mar 2021 08:41 AM PDT

Host and chef extraordinaire, Florence Pugh. Photo: Bertrand Rindoff Petroff/Getty Images

Feast your eyes: Florence Pugh's Instagram Story cooking show, "Cooking With Flo" is back. Throwing together leftovers from her fridge, the Black Widow star uses her "instincts" to create a "bean-y, crunchy, salad-y kind of thing" with chickpeas and her iconic tzatziki. As always, the secret ingredient is her delightful personality. "If you have any other beans in your pantry, like for example, I have butter beans, I have navy beans, pop them in and make a bean salad," she advises. "That's what I'm going to do. So, it's just gonna be a bean-y fart — Bean-y fart? You will be farting by the end of this salad." See? Most recipes don't come with such a vital warning. Wearing a ruffly yellow apron embroidered with her name, Pugh puts a glam spin on homemaker chic. After dousing the salad in hot sauce, she dances with her bowl, as is tradition. We will be channeling the absolute joy Florence Pugh feels while eating leftovers for every meal going forward. Gobble up, swallow up "Cooking With Flo" on Instagram Stories now.


from What to Cook https://ift.tt/3rdW9Qr
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