smitten kitchen

Here’s a tempeh tip from my favorite geeky blogger. “Remember, tempeh is tastier if you cook it twice. First boil it (with or without spices) for 20 minutes, the do what you normally will with it.” This is her favorite tempeh recipe.

Don’t want to sit and watch milk curdle? Who can blame you? Thinning yogurt or sour cream with a little milk works to make buttermilk in a pinch as well.

It has been almost a year since I told you that I don’t like boneless, skinless chicken cutlets, I never had and I never would. Furthermore, I did not understand the American obsession with them (in sandwiches! on pizza! in pasta! on salad! in 54-packs at Costco!). “They have the texture and excitement of pressed sawdust,” I believe were my exact words, and even though I knew I was in a distinct minority on this, I knew I couldn’t rest soundly until I got it off my chest.

But The People wouldn’t let it go. “You must try brining,” they whispered into my inbox, “brining is much better,” they said in the comments, “brining will change you life,” one went as far as to say, at which point I stopped listening entirely. Why should I have to work so hard to make something taste good? Obviously, it is not inherently tasty, or it wouldn’t require all of these extra steps and seasonings. Pressed sawdust, I said; case closed.

Continued after the jump »

In addition to cleaning a wooden cutting board with hot, soapy water immediately after each use, you can get rid of stains by sprinkling the area with table salt and then rubbing it with a lemon wedge; fine sandpaper can remove those that are more set in. After every few washings, polish it lightly with food-safe mineral oil, which creates a nice finish while also fighting cracking.

Flash freezing–the process of spacing items out on a tray, freezing them until they are firm and then storing them in more space-efficient freezer bags–is the single most revolutionizing concept I have adopted into my cooking repertoire, because it allows us to freeze uncooked dumplings, gnocchi, biscuits, scones and even scooped cookies, without them become one doughy mass. It is especially helpful when you want to get a lead time on party planning.