How To Make Pasta

March 11, 2008 (Updated March 24, 2014) by
Pasta, Technique ,

(If you think you've seen this before, you're right. It's been updated with a couple more photos.) Making fresh pasta is like renovating the kitchen before selling your house: it always pays off. And like renovating the kitchen, it takes a little work to get to the payoff. The upside is that once you've learned the technique it's so easy to do you'll keep finding excuses to make it again. The simplest version is a basic egg pasta. This is what you'll get in Italian restaurants ... and the … [Read more...]

Pan-fried Chicken in Butter

March 10, 2008 (Updated March 23, 2014) by
Dinner, Fowl , ,

I've been described as something of a "skin freak" when it comes to chicken and turkey. So it always catches me by surprise when someone says that they prefer skinless chicken breasts. Not as a dietary issue -- which is misguided anyway -- but they actually don't like the skin. Baffling. That doesn't mean I can't still do a fabulous skinless chicken breast. Oh, sure, it's cooked in butter. But as long as it's skinless, people seem to be happy. I can work with that. … [Read more...]

Home-made Croûtons

March 3, 2008 (Updated March 24, 2014) by
Bread, Salad ,

When I was growing up, the croûtons you got in a box or bag at the grocery store were tiny little cubes, about the size of dice. Only restaurants had those big "fancy" croûtons. Seeing a marketing opportunity, the manufacturers switched to a large size, which is all you can find in the grocery store now. The problem is that store-bought croûtons have always been pretty crunchy. This wasn't a problem when they were small, but the big ones are getting so they aren't even good on salad any more. … [Read more...]

How To Mince Garlic

March 3, 2008 (Updated March 24, 2014) by
Herbs / Spices, Technique ,

In case you didn't already know, the smaller you chop garlic the stronger the taste will be. When you cut or smash the cell walls, you're releasing the oils that carry the flavor. If you want to go a little milder than you get with smashed or pressed garlic, or if you just hate cleaning the garlic press, you'll need to learn how to mince. As a bonus, this is also a good technique for using cloves that are actually a little past their prime. It's better, of course, to get something perfectly … [Read more...]

White lasagna — an experiment

February 25, 2008 (Updated March 24, 2014) by
Dinner, Pasta ,

This week was going to be ravioli, but I had a lot of mozzarella left after last week's chili-cheese fries. I mentioned to my wife that I'd have to figure out something to put it in, and she suggested I do a lasagna. Now I had already done that once before. But I wasn't thrilled with how the top came out, because I neglected to cover it for the first half-hour. So this would be my chance to fix that. But as we were talking about it, my wife mentioned a white lasagna that she used to make … [Read more...]

← Previous Page
Next Page →