Our favorite dishes are usually nachos, pizza, fried rice, and butter chicken. It all sounds good right now, so why wait for Friday? This week I’m rounding up our favorite takeout dishes that can easily be made at home. Who knows? Maybe we’ll start a new tradition of cooking our favorite take-out meals on Fridays (at least some of the time). New to Meal Planning? Start here! Need More Meal Planning Ideas?...
I finally got around to making this fabulous sandwich, but instead of using preserved lemons (most people don’t have those sitting around), I boiled Meyer lemon slices down in salted water. Very tasty! A great way to use up any smoked salmon left over from a weekend brunch. Let water boil away until it is almost all gone and there is just a thin syrup left in the pan. Do not stir while cooking....
Swordfish is a cornerstone food throughout the Mediterranean, and this Spanish recipe may be one of the finest ways to cook sword anywhere. The meaty fish, smoked paprika, pine nuts, garlic and parsley all meld into a rich, savory dish that takes you right to the sunny shores of the Costa Brava in Catalonia. I know what you’re thinking: Isn’t swordfish endangered? No. Or at least it’s not endangered anywhere around the United States....
Where Does Texas Sheet Cake Come From? The origins of this cake are murky. Some sources say it may have first shown up in a Texas newspaper, which is why it’s called “Texas” sheet cake, while others claim the name comes from the fact that it’s the size of Texas. Regardless of its origins, this cake is truly a crowd-pleaser. I sent one version to my husband’s office and there was a legit line of people waiting to snag a slice....
To simplify the process for you, we not only looked at customer reviews online but also sent some of our top picks to our editors to put the products through their paces at home. Our staff used the dinnerware sets as they normally would—does curry sauce spill easily from the dinner plates? How do the bowls fare when transporting vegetable soup from the microwave to the table? We tested for factors such as durability, flaws in design, shallowness, and ease of cleaning....
If all that doesn’t sound really exciting to you, then you’ll probably want to have a candy thermometer in your kitchen drawer. It will tell you the right temperature for whatever when making candies, marshmallows, jellies and jams, and even deep-fried hot chicken. This is an immense help. There are different types of candy thermometers, but all do the same thing. They just do it in different ways to suit different people....
I like to make my own spice rub because I can control what goes into it and tweak it to my own tastes. Having a pre-made batch of the rub stored in the pantry means dinner is ready fast. What’s in This Spice Blend This chicken rub uses a lot of paprika, along with granulated garlic and onion powder. It also has herbal notes with the addition of oregano and dried thyme....
A portable workhorse that can last for years and years, a good electric skillet can carry a casual cook far. Ideal for situations like holidays, camping, or even in dorm rooms or long stays at hotels, they’re flexible solutions for when you don’t have access to a stove or oven. It also needs to store away easily like our best overall pick the Presto Foldaway Electric Skillet, which has a detachable base....
But what’s the best way to do so? According to Harold McGee’s “On Food and Cooking,” the most direct way to tenderize tougher and leaner cuts of meat is “to fragment the muscle fibers and connective-tissue sheets by pounding, cutting, or grinding”—and the meat tenderizers I picked out work by using the first two methods. While both of these methods tenderize the meat and allow for a marinade to be incorporated, a mallet or pounder-style tenderizer will perform double duty, changing the thickness of the meat....
From a large granite model that offers maximum grind to a rustic wooden model that looks stunning on the table and makes short work of fresh herbs, these are the best mortars and pestle sets. What We Don’t Love: Needs to be seasoned before use, not dishwasher safe There is a lot to love about our top choice. The unpolished granite surface is rough enough to make quick work of any grinding or pureeing job, and the heavy pestle allows you to easily pulverize ingredients to a fine powder without much effort....
“With pizza cutters, you often get what you pay for,” says Myke Olsen, owner of Myke’s Pizza in Mesa, Arizona. “If you’re making pizza a lot at home and you go to the grocery store and find a $5 pizza cutter, you’ll probably replace it in a couple of months.” In other words, pizza cutters don’t need to break the bank, but it’s useful to go to something that will actually work, rather than just rolling listlessly over your pizza without making even a dent in the crust....
Once you’ve decided you need one, there are a few things to consider. Roasting pans come in a variety of materials and finishes. What is most important for your cooking life: easy cleaning, uniform browning, or maybe versatility to go from oven to table? “Most people think only of using roasting pans for meat, but my favorite way to prepare many vegetables is to roast them. I love roasting asparagus—it makes it taste just like candy....
While most top-freezer refrigerators are pretty basic in terms of features, they’re generally way more affordable when compared to other types. They also tend to have a smaller footprint, so you won’t lose track of what’s in there. It definitely doesn’t mean you can’t find a top-freezer refrigerator that will fit enough food to feed your family and meet the rest of your needs. Nowadays, these can come with ice makers, adjustable bins, and ample LED lighting so you don’t have to frequently hunt down tiny bulbs....
The reason for using softened butter is that you want to beat the butter (also called “creaming the butter”), either with sugar or without, and it’s very hard to beat a cold stick of butter. Why beat the butter? To get air bubbles into it which will expand when baking. The best thing to do to soften your butter is to put it out on the kitchen counter for a half hour before you have to use it....
What Are Freeze-Dried Raspberries? The frosting makes this cake shine! It’s a bright, tart, and undeniably-raspberry-flavored frosting made with ground freeze-dried raspberries. Freeze-drying is a method of preserving the raspberries by freezing them and removing water with a low-pressure vacuum. They become light as a feather while preserving their tartness and sweetness. Pulverize whole freeze-fried raspberries in a food processor or spice grinder into a flavorful berry dust. Freeze-dried raspberries can be found at most grocery stores these days, usually in 1- to 2-ounce packages....
Here is a riff that I like to do on Vietnamese “bún” – one of the original meals in a bowl! This is a cold salad of vermicelli rice noodles, chicken, fresh herbs and vegetables, and a tangy rice vinegar dressing. How To Make a Great Noodle Bowl Rice vermicelli noodles are now widely available at most grocery stores, or you can find them online. The two noodles look similar, but mung bean noodles tend to be sticky once cooked and are better suited to other dishes....
Just Go For It Potlucks are the wild west and it is every person for themselves. It’s literally a table crammed with food, out for the taking. No need to pass, just grab. Will you be quick enough to get there first? Or will Uncle Frank swoop in and snag the best piece of turkey? Exciting stuff. That being said, it doesn’t have to be uncivilized. Take your time walking towards the food line, scanning the room for any aggressively hungry individuals, and graciously allow them to get ahead of you....
What’s So Special About Pasta Water? When boiling pasta, you may notice that the water becomes progressively cloudy as it cooks. This is excess starch released by the pasta and it’s the reason you should save some of the water before draining. The starch acts as a binder and, when combined with fat like butter or oil, creates an emulsion. This emulsion pulls all the elements in the sauce together and helps create a creamy sauce that doesn’t get too dry, which better coats the noodles....
Wontons are small dumplings wrapped in thin wheat flour wrappers. They are usually boiled and served in a broth or sauce. For this recipe, I make a chicken broth with garlic, ginger, and scallions. The filling in my wonton is a basic one, aromatic without being overwhelming: ground pork, ginger, garlic, scallions, sesame oil, Shaoxing wine, salt, and black pepper. It’s bound with egg and cornstarch. I consider wontons to be a weekend project, one where you can get Zen with the repetitive motions while chatting with family and friends....
You see, in these sharply understated “unusual times,” more people have taken to their own kitchens instead of ordering or going out. But it takes time to figure out how “family-sized” portions are defined for a household, Overshoppers have contributed to $218 billion worth of wasted food according to Feeding America, and an average American family of four throws out $1,600 a year in produce alone. Individual households are responsible for 43% of the food waste in this country, followed closely by restaurants, grocery stores, and food service companies at 40%....
