Cook’s Notes

The second to the last time I had a good platter of nachos, I was having Margaritas with two college friends. It was an elaborate layered dish with lots of meat, at least …

It was the first vegetable salad that I truly appreciated. The emulsified dressing the coats the lettuce, the sheer amount of cheese and, in contrast, the crunch of the …

Tajine is an earthenware pot traditionally used in Northern Africa, including Morocco with which it is most often associated. Tajine is also the generic name for any dish …

When we harvest sweet basil, we make pesto. We keep the sauce in a covered jar in the fridge and scoop out what we need for a dish. What is pesto? It’s a sauce made …

I won’t lie. Making empanda by hand is not a skill developed overnight. It took me several attempts to get comfortable with the procedure. And between those attempts, there …

The secret to the best empanada is lard. Not butter, but lard. It will give you the smoothest dough that is soft and pliable but never sticky. And, after cooking, the empanada …

I haven’t met anyone who doesn’t like fried chicken. It’s comfort food, picnic food and even a special occasion dish. But what makes one cook’s fried chicken better than …

We buy it in squeezable bottles and it comes in a variety of flavors. But plain mustard is sour and spicy . It’s lovely to drizzle the sauce over hotdogs and spread it on …

There’s this hype going around that we’ve all been cooking pasta the wrong way — that we should just use a minimal amount of water and keep the heat low etcetera, etcetera. …

In mid-2010, on a blistering summer day, we bought an ice cream maker on a whim. My daughters were ice cream crazy teenagers, and we all agreed that the ice cream maker would …

When making the custard base for ice cream, one of the standards for measuring the thickness of the liquid is whether it “coats the back of a spoon.” The same standard is used …

It might sound simple but many cooks still wonder why home cooked French fries often turn soggy while those served in restaurants are firm and crisp. Salchipapas Some …

No. Despite being considered an American comfort food, mac ‘n’ cheese was brought over from Europe and popularized in America via the cooking of James Hemings, the slave and …

The sun is out, the backyard beckons, so it’s time to learn how to grill perfect burgers. You don’t need a fancy grill — just basic grilling techniques. I’m serious. You don’t …

One of the five mother sauces in French cuisine, tomato sauce is so widely available that we cooks often choose convenience over texture and flavor. The thing is, …

Many recipes, especially recipes for stews, start by browning the meat in oil before adding the aromatics and the liquids. Why brown the meat? Surely, it will cook even if the …

First of all, I have nothing against vegetarianism. My daughter was a vegetarian for several years and I respected her choice. I respected her view that slaughtering animals …

Instead of char grilling, food can be given a smoky flavor by adding liquid smoke to the marinade or seasonings. What is liquid smoke? A long time ago, before we …

During the mid-90s when cable TV was new in this part of the world, there was program on Discovery Channel called Caprial’s Cafe. It was from Caprial Pence, the show’s host, …

I love butter as it is but I love it when flavored too especially with herbs and spices. That sounds weird? It shouldn’t. If you’ve tried and liked garlic bread, then you’ve …

When I make bone broth, I spend around 15 minutes spooning off scum that floats on top of the liquid. Some people say it is unnecessary. Scum, they say, is without flavor and …

Leeks look like big scallions and they taste like onions. They are all related although each has distinct characteristics that sets it apart from the others. Like …

You’ve seen them on supermarket shelves and they cost plenty. Herb-infused olive oil is great for cooking and for salads but, aside from the cost, when you buy the commercial …

You may have heard of truffle as arguably the world’s most expensive mushroom. It comes in several varieties and colors. Truffles mostly grow wild although there have been …

When researches say that microplastics have been found in commercial salt originating from different parts of the world, which are they referring to — sea salt or rock salt? …

It’s sweet, it’s syrupy and we buy them in jars or bottles. Honey is made by honeybees from the nectar of flowers or from honeydew — no, not the fruit but the …

I’m not a fan of store-bought guacamole. I like to make guacamole from scratch. It’s really very easy to make. The hardest part is making sure that the avocados are perfectly …

All are made from dried corn. Cornmeal and cornflour are ground whole corn kernels. Corn starch is made from the endorsperm (starchy center) of the kernel. Yellow Cornmeal …

A crêpe is a thin pancake. A very thin pancake. Almost as thin as spring roll wrappers. A crêpe, like the thicker breakfast pancake, is made of flour, eggs, milk — and sugar …

The fruit of the olive tree has culinary uses other than as a source of oil. You find olives on pizza, pasta, canapes and even in cocktail drinks. They are sour and salty and …

The better way to cook bacon is to arrange the strips on a rack set on a tray, stick in the oven and allow the bacon fat to collect in the tray. The result is non-greasy …

Texture, mouth feel, flavor. And regional origin, of course. Mascarpone is from Italy; cream cheese, from America. Can one be substituted for the other? Not when you’re making …

It’s pasta Alfredo, not carbonara. The bacon is just a little extra for the carnivores in the family. You’re still thinking it’s carbonara? I know, they look so …

Can you imagine life without chicken meals? I can’t. Chicken meals are both comfort food and special occasion fare for us, depending on how elaborate the chicken dish …

Dressed chicken can be bought whole or cut up. Learn the different cuts of chicken. Know too that the weight stated on the label is false because the meat is injected with …

Salmonella and Campylobacter are two bacteria that can be passed on from animal to humans by the ingestion of infected meat, especially chicken. The scientific literature is …

A creamy Italian rice dish, risotto derives its texture from rice starch that gets coaxed by constant stirring during cooking. Risotto is a versatile dish as it can include …

Real corned beef is not some mystery meat that comes out of a can. I discovered that way back in high school. We were staying at my uncle’s house once, my uncle was not a …

Long before we came across the term dulce de leche, my husband and I had been boiling unopened cans of sweetened condensed milk to make thick caramel. We’d spoon the …

It’s simultaneously amusing and annoying how some “old sayings” are still taken as literally true to this day. Take “Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy …

I can be a sucker for “buy one, take one” items in the supermarket, especially when the item is cheese. One time many years ago, it was Arla Food’s apetina cheese. I …

It was the first French anything I ever cooked. I poured Béchamel sauce over pasta and vegetables before baking and my daughters, then little girls, loved the creamy topping …

Alex has made pecan pie several times. She made them in different sizes — large, medium, small. The largest she ever baked we brought to a family get-together. The …

Eruca vesicaria is rocket in some regions but is widely known as arugula in North America. Boldy flavored, peppery with slight bitterness, arugula (rocket) is my favorite …

Among the five mother sauces in French cuisine, Bechamel sauce is most often used in our home cooking. But Hollandaise sauce is my favorite. Drizzling Hollandaise sauce and …

Ahhh, saffron. The first time I wanted to make paella, I went to the grocery in search of saffron, found a small pouch, stared at the price and put it back on the shelf. Too …

A scene from my childhood: My father comes home from his early morning trip to the market with a whole head of pig, cleans it then takes it to the neighborhood bakery where he …

We’ve had our love affair with the stovetop percolator, the electric coffee maker and the French press. But we discovered that the most low tech brewing method yields the best …