smitten kitchen

What’s on your list? You know, the running one you keep in your head, in a series of Post-It notes spread across all surfaces of your life, or if you are particularly scary kooky, on a spreadsheet? Me, I’ve got several lists. There’s the Apartment Want This list, because, oh, how I covet the home furnishings; the Go Here list, which holds my in- and outside NYC destination dreams; the Read This list, which I pretty much avoid, and the Listen to This list with all of the music I would like to download and shake my booty arrhythmically to were I not fascistly opposed to DRM.

A then there is the Cook This list, all 300+ items long. This one neither makes me feel bad about my financial limitations (like the Apartment list), vacation time availability (like the Go Here list), my Web-ruined attention span when it comes to content running more than 500 words (like the Read This list), or what happens when you let a bunch of people in board rooms decide how music should be sold (like the Listen list). Sure, I don’t have time to get to all of the items on the Cook This list, but there’s a “yet” in there and that “yet” and that means everything.

Continued after the jump »

Now that we have the difference between Dutched and regular cocoa down, what do you do if you only have one and you need the other? Because isn’t that always how it happens? If a recipe calls for Dutch-process cocoa and you only have regular, this site says you can add a smidge of baking soda to it–about 1/8 tsp. to 3 tbsp. cocoa powder to substitute. If you only have Dutch-process and you need regular, it suggests that you just leave out any baking soda in the recipe. Now go forth and make some Oreos!

Easily, the most frequently asked recipe-related question I get is ‘What is the difference between Dutch process and regular old cocoa?’ Thus, once and for all: Dutch cocoa (such as Droste and Valrhona) has been alkalized to make it neutral (and more delicate in flavor); it does not react with baking soda. Regular cocoa (such as Hersheys) is non-alkalized, and mildly acidic. Got that? There will be a quiz tomorrow.

Sometimes I cook things even though I have significant doubts that they will be in any way delicious. Why is this, how is this so, you ask? Because I live in a mental place I affectionately call Hope. I wish to be surprised. I aspire to be wrong from time to time (though not, as Alex can but probably will not argue, because he is polite, too often, and certainly not if it would make him right) because if the sum of the parts that together comprise the world as I know it is all there is, I’d be kind of bummed. I’d be kind of bored.

Often enough, things exceed my expectations. There are better-than-Campbell’s Cream of Tomato Soups, there is Fennel Ice Cream and Red Velvet Cake and, loudest as of late, there is brining.

Continued after the jump »

The other kind of thermometer I cannot live without is the deep-fry/candy variety. Typically they range from 50 to 400°F, and are clipped on the side of a pot when cooking items that require their temperature closely monitored. However, recent evidence suggests that mine is not worth the stainless steel it was cast in, and I’m on the hunt for a new one. Have any recommendations?