This first time I tried to cook cauliflower (see my puréed Indian cauliflower soup) I butchered the cutting of the cauliflower.  I was cutting straight into the florets (the bumpy outside), creating a huge mess of broken pieces and crumbs.  Now this didn’t end up mattering, since the soup was puréed, but still, I looked [...]

Posted in Kitchen Tips, Techniques 1 Comment »

Though pizza is the quintessential take-out food, homemade pizzas are incredibly easy to make.  They’re cheaper, healthier, and often taste better (I think the best restaurant pizza is better than I can do, but I’d rather eat my creation than some of the lower end pizzas).
Oddly, the hardest part of making a pizza is sliding [...]

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A while ago I tried a fairly simple recipe for Spanish Braised Lentils from Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.  The recipe essentially called for sauteing mirepoix, then adding some stock, red wine, the lentils and some Spanish paprika for flavor.  The result wasn’t horrific, but I would not describe the meal as good.
I surmised [...]

Posted in Failures, Kitchen Tips 5 Comments »

Here is a novel way to cool soups or stock.

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My Thanksgiving apple pie required a teaspoon of lemon zest for the filling.  Because I don’t have a zester or a microplane grater, I tried the two smallest sides of my box grater.  Unfortunately, this failed miserably.
The grater was reasonably effective at peeling off some zest, but it got stuck on the outside of the [...]

Posted in Failures, Kitchen Tips 12 Comments »