food basics

That’s a White Sauce of a Different Flavor!

Nibbles

Up until recently, I thought of white sauce in two ways: Bechamel and Veloute.

This past month, though, I’ve encountered a different sort of white sauce  on two separate occasions and I’m thrilled with this new addition: White Barbecue Sauce.

Unlike traditional white sauces which start with a roux and are thinned by either milk or stock, this white sauce has a totally different base: mayonnaise.

And I adore mayonnaise.

It all seems to have started in Decatur, Alabama, at Big Bob Gibson’s Bar-B-Q and several versions of the recipe are available online. For those who dislike the gloopy, giggly texture of my favorite emulsion, have no fear as this spicy sauce is thinned to the consistency of heavy cream or ranch dressing. And, sure, mayo ins’t the healthiest food ever, but it’s a condiment–a little goes a long way!

To make your own, you’ll spice the mayonnaise of your choice with horseradish, black and cayenne peppers, adding sugar or corn syrup if you prefer a little sweet in your spice, and thinning with vinegar (white or apple cider seems to be the most common) or water to the desired consistency.

I’ve had this, now, on both pork and chicken and it’s been amazing on each. We’re planning to barbecue for this year’s Pumpkin Party and this might need to be available as a topping option!

Have you ever tried White Barbecue Sauce–what did you think of it?

A Big Summer Salad

Nibbles

Last week we wandered down the soup for all seasons path. This week, let’s talk leafy, green, studded-with-savories salads.

While salads are not restricted to any one time of year, have you ever found yourself really craving their crisp, coolness on a hot summer day? When the thought of heavier food just makes you lose your appetite completely?

Greek Salad

our Greek salad to go with last night's Pastitsio

Salads, I think, have a bad reputation among some folks. Either they’re considered rabbit food, “girl” food or, worse, diet food by your traditional carnivores. Not all salads are created equal, though, and one of my favorite salad indulgences is what I call the “Salad Bar” salad.

Inspired, obviously, by the array of options on the standard casual-dining restaurant salad bar, this isn’t a side salad or an opener to a meal, it’s the meal itself!

Here are the basic components:

  • Romaine lettuce (iceberg is almost all water, no substance, at least start with a better foundation)
  • Diced ham or turkey
  • Chopped hard-boiled eggs
  • Shredded cheese
  • Chopped veggies: mushrooms, tomatoes, cucumbers
  • Crumbled bacon
  • Dried fruit like raisins, cranberries or blueberries
  • Nuts or sunflower seeds
  • and, of course, Croutons and the salad dressing of your choice

This isn’t a complicated salad, but it’s great for a quick mid-week supper.

Fool-Proof Soup

Nibbles
Medieval Borscht

Soup for a Seasons

Don’t relegate your soup suppers to late fall and winter, soups make excellent meals year-round, can be made with just about anything and are virtually fool-proof to boot!

Often when you hear someone reference soups in summer it’s cold soups they’re talking about: vichyssoise or fruit soups used as an appetizer light lunch with salad. Frankly, cold soups leave me… cold; they often have odd textures and incomplete flavors. Instead, we have hot soups once a week or so, paired with warm rolls, a salad or sandwiches depending on the soup.

One of the most common reasons for making soup is a what-are-we-going-to-do-with-this vegetable from the farmers’ market. Frequently it’s the quart of field peas or beans that seemed like a good idea until you get home and make your menu. But plenty of other vegetables–fresh, frozen or dried–make excellent soup starters.

I like to make my soups in the slow cooker whenever possible (which is most times)–it’s convenient and doesn’t heat up the kitchen very much, not to mention the great feeling of having dinner ready when you get home from work or wherever you’ve spent your day. Left on high for 8 hours or low for 4 is all it takes.

The other awesome thing about soups is that, really, you don’t need much of any sort of recipe. It’s pretty difficult to screw up a batch of soup, but having some pointers certainly won’t hurt:

  • Start with your primary ingredient: beans, lentils or dried peas, chicken pieces or stew meat are good places to start.
  • Add flavorings: an onion, a couple of garlic cloves (minced), salt, pepper and a bay leaf are my go-to flavor choices for almost all my soups.
  • Finish with enough stock to cover all the ingredients. When setting up your soup the night before and using anything that sucks up liquid (e.g. dried beans, pasta or grains), wait to add your broth or stock until just before starting  the soup.

Now that’s just the basics. You can add any number of additional ingredients that you have on hand. Toss in some diced tomatoes, carrots and green beans. Try hard squashes or potatoes added to your basic soup with a bit of nutmeg or garam masala. Maybe some kale or spinach towards the end of the cooking time, or barley or quinoa. Sliced-up sausage adds amazing flavor, as do some smoked chicken wings or ham hocks–perfect when you want the flavor without meat being the main course.

So go ahead and ignore the “conventional wisdom” of anti-soup summers and toss together a soup for an easy meal this week.

No One-Trick Ponies In Our Kitchens!

Nibbles

I’ve often said that our hands and the best kitchen tools every made. They can do so many things and are always (sorry, I have to) close at hand. They can break items down and combine others together. They can mix, measure and mold. And it is those same hands that guide and utilize all the rest of the tools in our culinary arsenal.

So if hands are the most versatile and we expect so much of them, why should we expect any less of the rest of our tools?

As much as I love kitchen gadgets and little doodads that do specific things in the kitchen, I really love finding multiple uses for those one-trick ponies populating my cupboards and drawers.

Back when I taught cake decorating we’d try to come up with different uses for those shaped cake pans that are very popular for their ease-of-use but, let’s face it, not exactly versatile. If you trace the basic outline of the pan on a spare cake-board or piece of paper you get to see it without all the details. Turn each drawing 90-degrees and you might see something else in the shape that you didn’t see before. Bingo: another use for the same item! Our rule of thumb was trying to get at least 1 use of each tool per dollar spent.

Albondi-subsYears (and years) ago I bought a baguette pan. Great for keeping those lovely loaves rounded instead of flat on the bottom but kind of a pain to store and not exactly made for multi-purposing. But! Making meatball subs with leftover albondigas one night with the aim to toast them/melt the cheese without the stuffed rolls losing all that yummy filling, that baguette pan was the perfect tool to hold the subs just right in the oven. And the other night when I was baking English marrow squash stuffed with seafood, that same baguette pan was, again, perfect for keeping the squash halves perfectly positioned.

This weekend, helping my brother get ready for his housewarming party, he had a watermelon I decided to get a little fancy with. Of course, being a bachelor, a melon-baller wasn’t part of his kitchen. In a pinch, we decided to use an ice cream scoop (the crescent-shaped kind) and it worked great! It made larger-than-usual egg-shaped watermelon pieces which were much more practical for a casual summer party and made cleaning out the watermelon shell a while lot easier than trying to do it with a pairing knife!

What single-use kitchen tools have you found other ways to use?

A Peek In the Pantry

Nibbles

A Peek Inside My PantryNot long ago, a new friend asked me a question that I did not have a ready answer for:

How do you stock a pantry?

The question stumped me because a) I hadn’t (ever?) given the matter much thought–it was just something that we did–and b) it really depends on how you cook.

Still, as the week went on I thought more and more about pantry basics and what tips I could offer her. And if I’m going to answer the question for one person, maybe there are more out there who could benefit from my answers.

Let’s take this group by group, shall we?

Canned Goods

We don’t use a whole lot of canned goods (we prefer frozen veggies to canned, for instance) but there are a few canned items that we keep around for convenience on a regular basis:

  • Beans (kidney, white and black–great for a dip or quick soup or stew when you haven’t had the forethought to soak dried)
  • Artichoke Hearts
  • Coconut Milk
  • Roasted Red Bell Peppers (which we use in place of diced tomatoes or any other tomato products, you might want to keep different types of tomatoes on hand in addition to a jar of pasta sauce if that’s something you’re likely to eat often)
  • Olives
  • Beef and Chicken Stocks
  • Peanut Butter and Jelly (even grown ups get those cravings now and then)
  • Tuna
  • Minced garlic (fresh may be best but we go through so much garlic, it makes more sense to buy it minced in a jar–a big one–than to chop it ourselves practically every night)

Grains, Pasta, etc.

Variety is always good here: grains can easily extend a smaller meal when unexpected guests arrive and are a healthy filler for hungry tummies or when comfort food is desired.

  • At least three shapes of pasta noodles: orzo or couscous, rotini or ziti and spaghetti or fettuccine–each type works with different types of sauces and there are plenty of other options available. Buying what you can find in whole wheat is a healthy alternative to the more processed varieties and something we look for.
  • Rice, both white and brown, along with arborio if you like risotto
  • Barley, quinoa or bulgur wheat (alternatives to rice and great additions to soups)
  • Lentils
  • Dried beans (the same variety as canned or in place of canned)
  • Oatmeal (quick/rolled oats, not instant, for baking OR breakfast; steel cut are also nice if you have the time to prepare them)

Dry Goods

This is a catch-all for whatever doesn’t fit anywhere else, really. Everything from baking supplies to breadcrumbs fall in here.

  • Flour (all-purpose at minimum, whole wheat, rice and gram flours are also nice to have on hand)
  • Sugars (white, brown–light or dark is mostly personal preference, no matter what the recipe says, and powdered will get you through most scenarios)
  • Baking soda
  • Baking powder
  • Salt (iodized is okay for the salt shaker but kosher is better for cooking)
  • Breadcrumbs (buy plain and season them yourself when needed)
  • Cornstarch
  • Cornmeal
  • Sliced bread or large tortillas for sandwiches

Oils, Vinegars, etc.

All fats are not evil, especially when used in moderation. They help keep your food from sticking as well as add and carry flavors. Vinegars and condiments add all sorts of flavor on their own and are worth keeping a decent variety around.

  • Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • Peanut or Canola oil (for frying, mostly, if you deep fry at all)
  • Vinegars (regular is good for dying Easter eggs or cleaning; apple cider, rice, white wine and red wine are all wonderful for cooking with)
  • Soy Sauce (or Teriyaki sauce or both)
  • Mustard (we prefer brown or whole grain to yellow)
  • Mayonnaise
  • Ketchup
  • Relishes and chutneys (whatever sounds good, a couple to have on hand to spice up a basic dish)

Miscellaneous

Having covered most of the basics (at least that I can think of at the moment), there are things we keep on hand because we like them more than being necessities.

  • Raisins and other dried fruit (for topping salads)
  • Sunflower seeds or Pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
  • Croutons
  • Chocolate-filled Oreos (a decided weakness)
  • Doritos (Todd’s snack of choice)
  • Chocolate chips
  • Marshmallows

Beyond the Cabinets

Of course, dry goods, cans and boxes are only part of the picture. A well-stocked kitchen also includes the fridge and wherever you keep your produce.

Fridge Forward

You want to keep some obvious basics around and chilled for any recipe contingency.

  • Butter (unsalted sticks are the most versatile)
  • Milk (fat content or soy-substitutes are up to you)
  • Eggs (large eggs are the most common size called for in recipes)
  • Sour Cream OR Plain Greek-style Yogurt (we like the latter for health reasons and it’s easy to dress up sweet or savory)
  • Cream Cheese

And speaking of cheese, it’s good to have a few types around but which ones and what form to buy? We tend to buy shredded cheddar, mozzarella and grated Parmesan the most often; sliced provolone is Todd’s favorite for sandwiches. Of course, if you own a box grater and a knife you can buy blocks of cheese (which are usually cheaper than the pre-shredded or -sliced) and break them down yourself for greater flexibility.

Fruits and Veggies

Produce is going to depend on seasonality and what you’re cooking. We’re more than happy to buy frozen veggies when fresh isn’t as available, but we love the fresh the best. Fruits we concentrate less on (though Todd has to have his daily banana). Here are some to keep on hand no matter what (fresh or frozen is up to you):

  • Onions (yellow or white, mostly, with the occasional red onion thrown in for variety)
  • Potatoes (mealy and sweet for baking, waxy for boiling and mashing and red for roasting)
  • Bell Peppers, green and red
  • Celery
  • Tomatoes when is season (off-season fresh tomatoes have zero flavor and aren’t worth the money)
  • Lemons and limes
  • Ginger
  • Broccoli
  • Cauliflower
  • Green Beans
  • Green Peas
  • Romaine Hearts
  • Spinach
  • Kale
  • Apples
  • Bananas
  • Avocado

Some things you’ll only buy every now and then, others (like produce) will need constant replenishment. I didn’t even touch on spices because that’s a post all it’s own and a collection you’ll definitely build over time. And I wouldn’t suggest anyone take this list and buy everything on it in one fell swoop (that would be a serious budget-killer) but to build up to this level over time. If you do, you can make many meatless meals as well as transform any fish, shellfish or meat from boring to extraordinary.