How to Refresh Canned Seafood

Canned crabmeat and shrimp are shelf stable and widely available. They can be used to add a briny flavor to soups and sauces. Often it has an unwelcome 'tinny' taste but that can be largely overcome with a simple rinse in salty water. This method is adopted from an earlier recipe.

1 qt tap water
1 T kosher salt

Stir the salt into the water to form a brine about equivalent to normal saline for crustaceans. In a sieve, thoroughly drain the packing liquid from a can of crabmeat or shrimp. Gently stir the meat into the brine and let stand about 5 minutes. Thoroughly drain the rinsed seafood and proceed to the recipe.

Broccoli Steamed in Soy-Sesame Sauce

This dish is an adaptation of the same technique first applied with tender vegetables. Simply put, freshly-cut vegetables are seasoned, sauced, and steamed in a one-dish process. From improvised steamer to the table in a few minutes.

8 oz (250 g) broccoli crowns, cut into large florets
2 green onions, cut into 2 inch lengths
1 T soy sauce
1/2 t dark sesame oil
1 t chicken stock concentrate
1 T water
1 t tapioca (or corn) starch

Arrange the vegetables in a flat bowl. top with seasonings, add water, and sprinkle on the starch. Hint: tapioca or corn starch in a shaker jar facilitates this step. Place into an active steamer. After 4 minutes, with tongs, cautiously toss the ingredients together. Continue steaming another 5 minutes or until tender. Toss again and serve. Optional: Garnish with toasted sesame seeds.
 

Cauliflower Steamed in Butter Sauce

Cauliflower Ready to Steam

This recipe, developed along the same lines as an earlier one, yields two servings of tender cauliflower in a smooth, rich sauce in about 15 minutes.

8 oz (250 g) cauliflower, cut into large florets
1 T butter, cut into small dice
1 t chicken or vegetable stock concentrate (Better than Bouillon™ is good)
1 T water
1 t tapioca or corn starch

Prepare an improvised steamer. Put the cauliflower in a shallow bowl, dot with butter, add the stock concentrate, the water, and sprinkle on the starch. Put the bowl in the steamer for 5 minutes. Cautiously, lift the top, and with tongs, toss the ingredients. Steam another 5 minutes or until tender. Toss again and plate. Serves two.

Hint: How to Break Down an Onion

Recorded October 30, 2013. Revised November 25, 2019. Revised May 29, 2021  

This discussion of how to turn an onion into slices and reasonably-uniform dice was adopted from a science of cooking course I teach to older adults at the local university. My hope was to show how understanding onion anatomy helpss to produce the best shape for the dish you are preparing, efficiently, safely, and with a minimum of tears.

An onion is formed of concentric layers made of tightly-packed tubules that transport water from the roots up to the leaves and carry nutrients made in the leaves down to the bulb for storage. These vessels run parallel to each other from root to leaf tip. This means that when you slice in the 'polar' direction, that is, parallel to polar axis from root to stem, you will cause the least cellular damage. Use this cut when you want onion pieces to keep their shape during cooking or perhaps in a salad. On the other hand, the equatorial cut slices through all the vessels, and so causes more cellular injury. Use this cut when you want the onions to break down, such as for caramelized onions.

To form dice, cut the onion in half through the poles. I usually rinse and dry the halves to reduce eye irritation. Retain a portion of the root when peeling. Then slice in the polar direction along the radii following the shallow grooves in the surface, stopping just short of the root. Then, to form dice of about equal thickness, cut across the leaves in the equatorial plane. No need to use the slow, dangerous horizontal cut that is classic.

Injured cells release an irritant chemical, syn-propanethial-S-oxide. Use a sharp knife to produce in fewer tears. Also, cold onions release less irritant because chemistry is slower when it's cold.

Oven-Braised Country-Style Beef Chuck Ribs

Developed January, 2019. This cut, sometimes called 'country-style beef ribs' has recently appeared in local markets. It brings a rich beefy flavor, tenderness, and some connective tissue for unctuous mouthfeel.

1-1/2 lb boneless beef chuck ribs
4 T vegetable oil, divided
flour
salt
2 T tomato paste
4 large carrots, peeled, cut lengthwise, and quartered
2 large parsnips, peeled, cut lengthwise, and quartered
1 medium yellow onion, sliced through poles
6 oz large mushrooms, quartered
1 T minced garlic
1-1/2 lb green cabbage. cut into wedges, or 2 c cauliflower florets
3/4 c dry red wine
2 bay leaves
5 peppercorns
2 allspice berries 
about 2 cups beef stock

Heavily salt the meat strips and dust with flour. [Hint: Flour in a shaker jar is useful for this and related purposes.] Heat half the oil over medium high in a large Dutch oven with a tight-fitting cover until it shimmers. Carefully add the beef strips. Fry, turning as it browns on all sides. Preheat oven to 325 F (160 C). Add the tomato paste, and then the vegetables in stages, adding oil and salt as needed, frying between additions. When all except the cabbage have been added and heated through, stir in the garlic, spices, and wine. Cook until reduced by two-thirds. Add enough stock to half cover the meat. Cover and roast about 90 minutes, turning every 30 minutes, until almost cooked. Add the cabbage or cauliflower, return to the oven, and roast until cabbage is tender, about 30 minutes. Serve in bowls over boiled egg noodles or steamed rice if desired. Alternatively, add 8 ounces of prepared potato gnocchi with the cabbage or cauliflower.

One-Pan Easy Mac and Cheese

Developed September, 2018 from a recipe on America's Test Kitchen TV program on PBS. The method cooks the elbows in milk and water and adds the cheeses after the pasta is cooked al dente. American processed cheese includes 'emulsifying salts' — namely sodium citrate — that yield a smooth melt and prevent the sharp cheddar, there to boost flavor intensity, from oily separation.

2 c milk
3 c water
1 t salt
1 lb elbow macaroni
1/8 t cayenne
2 t Dijon mustard
8 oz American cheese, grated (from deli, not packaged slices)
8 oz sharp cheddar cheese, grated
8 oz sliced ripe tomatoes

Bring milk. water, and salt to a boil in a three-quart saucepan. Be careful to prevent boiling over. Stir in the macaroni, reduce heat to a fast simmer, and cook until pasta is tender and most of the liquid has been absorbed. Off heat, stir in the seasonings and the American cheese until melted. Return to heat and simmer gently 5 minutes. Off heat, stir in the cheddar cheese, top with tomato slices, and cover. Let stand 10 minutes to soften the tomatoes. Stir the tomatoes into the pasta, reheating as necessary. Variation: Replace the tomatoes with 1/2 cup frozen peas. Hint: Freeze the American cheese before grating.

Hint: Freeze Tomato Paste in Recipe-Sized Portions

Tomato paste provides a rich base of umami flavor and healthful nutrients to many dishes. Heated with oil at the start of a sauté, it imparts color and flavor to the pan sauce or soup.The usual dish calls for a tablespoon or two, leaving the problem of how to store the remainder of the can's contents. To handle that problem, we divide the contents into 1 ounce (~30 gram) portions, using a #30 disher ('ice cream scoop'). This size scoop is called a '#30 disher' because it was designed to dish out 30 scoops from a quart of ice cream. They are available online for a few dollars. Each scoop of tomato paste is deposited into the corner of a Z-fold plastic sandwich bag, twisted closed, and individually frozen, then bagged. When needed, just the right amount of tomato paste, easily pops from its bag, ready for cooking. It thaws quickly, as the pan heats.

Hint: Save space when storing eggs

We love hens eggs and eat and use quite a few every week in our home. To save money and for convenience, we buy packs that hold 18 eggs. In our markets, the egg cartons are made of foamed plastic or pulpboard. Our practice is store the eggs in a refrigerator below 40 degrees F to preserve product quality. This puts a premium on the lowest and thus coldest shelf space. To make it easier to store and handle the eggs, we cut the package in half, using a serrated knife. After eggs have been removed, the remaining eggs can be re-arranged to balance the container to make it easier to handle.

Hint: Double Dose Some Herbs

When using herbs in a dish, it's often not clear when they should be added. I find that most herbs are fine to add at the beginning, such as black pepper or dry thyme, some in the middle to bloom them in hot oil, but that some, such as fresh basil, should be added last and not cooked at all. Some benefit from a double dose, added at first but then given a second addition to refresh the flavor shortly before serving. I include dry thyme and dry tarragon among those that respond well to double dosing. This is akin to 'cold hopping' in brewing where an addition of new hops is made to the cold wort before fermenting and aging.

Hint: Use a Tea Ball to Hold Seasonings

Often recipes for soups, braises, sauces, mulled wine, and the like call for potent herbs and spices to be added during cooking, and for their removal before serving. This might include such seasonings as peppercorns, cloves, allspice berries, bay leaves, citrus peel, ginger, etc. A simple way to remove these after cooking is to place them in a tea ball such as the one pictured below. These are available from many sellers online for a modest sum.

Tea Ball (7 cm diameter)

Hint: Keeping Baking Powder Dry

Kitchens are humid, hot environments at times. This is a bad place to store baking powder because moisture in the air quickly kills its leavening power. A simple fix that greatly extends the lifespan of a can of baking powder is to store it along with an open box of baking soda, tightly sealed together in a zip top heavy plastic bag. Excess moisture is absorbed by the baking soda, sparing the baking powder from loss of action. Moisture has no effect on the baking soda, which remains a useful leavening (and alkalizing) agent when combined with the acids in foods such as buttermilk.

Hint: Fewer Crumbs When Making Bread Stuffing

DrDaddy's usual method for making bread stuffing for poultry is to arrange the bread slices on a sheet pan, and to toast the bread in a  hot oven (425 degrees F, 220 C) until the top is browned, and then to invert each slice, and return the pan to the oven to brown the other side. When cool, to stack a few slices, cut off the crusts, and then dice the remainder. This method produces copious bread crumbs that are often discarded, which wastes food.

An alternative method that minimizes waste is to trim and dice the bread when it is fresh. Then, place the cubes in a shallow roasting pan, and brown them in a hot oven for five minutes, tossing with tongs or a spoon, and returning to oven to complete baking.

Hint: Shock the Grounds to Make Better Coffee

Chemex Brewer (Public Domain)

Recorded December 9, 2015. About 50 years ago, DrDaddy and MrsDaddy brewed their morning coffee using a Chemex brewer. This brewer joins a filter holder and a flask into a single piece of Pyrex, with a collar of maple lashed at the neck with a genuine rawhide lace. Both 'green' and cool. Took paper filters, like in the lab. The recipe that was advocated for this manual drip system was to first 'shock' the dry grounds with very hot water and then, after a delay, continue to add hot water to the funnel as the brew passed through the bed of coffee grounds. The method produced a very good product, especially using whole beans purchased at the newly-opened roaster, across the street from the Pike Place Market. We were among the very first customers at Starbucks and we had our own blend. The method is easy to apply using an automatic drip coffeemaker and a microwave.

33 oz (1 L) spring water
6 T ground coffee, drip grind

Measure the water into the carafe. Pour about 6 ounces (ca 1.5 dl) of that into a microwave-safe vessel, such as a plastic measuring cup, and heat to boiling. Transfer the remaining water to the coffeemaker, and after 30 seconds, start the brewing.

Hint: Keeping French bread fresh and [almost] ready to serve

Crusty French loaves such as baguettes add substantial flavor and nourishment to a meal but rapidly go stale. Freezing the whole loaf will preserve much of its freshness but is slow to defrost, which delays its use. A useful workaround is to divide the loaf into serving-size pieces (2 to 4 ounces), return them to plastic bag it was sold in – if suitable, and freeze. If the bag is perforated or made from paper, use a new plastic freezer bag instead. When it's time for a yeasty, crusty side to soup, salad, or spread, just take one and freeze the rest. Defrosts in less than 30 seconds in the µwave. Don't forget to mist and cover before microwaving bread.

Hint: Grating Hard Cheese

Grating a hard cheese such as Parmesan or gruyere for a quiche or similar dish that calls for a goodly amount of cheese can be tiring. To make the task less fatiguing, rotate the box grater so that it lies flat on the work surface with the handle facing you. Grip the handle with one hand and push the cheese away from you and down on the grater. Thus, instead of having to press the block of cheese firmly sideways against the grater, force is applied downwards and away, a much easier task, since it employs more and larger muscles.

Fish and Grits

Fish and Grits for One

Created December, 2014. Inspired by a breakfast dish served in a local's favorite breakfast spot on US-17 in Pawley Island, SC. They presented local fried flounder with a side of grits. This dish adds a sauce usually reserved for shrimp and grits.

1 T (15 ml) butter
1 T (15 ml) olive oil plus additional
1/2 c (125 ml) sliced mushrooms
1/4 c (60 ml) sliced green onions
1 T (15 ml) bacon crumbles, divided
3.5 oz (100 g) catfish filets (or other firm white fish), cut into shrimp-sized pieces
salt and pepper
flour
1/2 t (5 ml) minced garlic
1/2 c (125 ml) chicken or seafood stock
1 T (15 ml) lemon juice
1/4 t (2 ml) Louisiana red pepper sauce

4 oz (125 g) cheese grits or savory grits

Arrange the fish on a plate, season well with salt and pepper, and dust heavily with flour.     [Hint: A shaker jar filled with all-purpose flour is a handy cooking aid.] Mix to cover well, adding more flour until the fish no longer feels moist. Heat the butter and oil in a heavy 10-inch skillet, and saute the mushrooms for 5 minutes over medium-high heat. Add the green onions and half the bacon crumbles. Continue cooking about two minutes, adding more oil as needed. When sizzling hot, add the breaded fish pieces and garlic. Cook on one side for 2 to 3 minutes and turn to cook other side. When browned add the stock, lemon juice, and hot sauce. Heat for another two minutes, tossing gently, until the fish is cooked and the sauce has thickened. Serve over warm grits, garnish with the remaining bacon. Serves one.

Upscale Scrambled Eggs

Developed October, 2014. Refined technique turns a simple dish into a special treat.

2 fresh large eggs (Hint: Choose a package with the most distant ‘Use By’ date.)
1 oz (60 ml) milk or light cream
1 t (5 ml) butter, finely diced
1/8 t (0.5 ml) salt

Crack the eggs into a small bowl, add the dairy, and whisk very well until frothy. Pass the egg mixture into another bowl through a fine sieve, to retain any solids. Stir in salt and butter. Preheat a heavy 8-inch (about 20 cm) non-stick skillet over medium heat until thoroughly heated, filming the pan with a bit of oil or butter. Pour the egg mixture into the skillet and cook undisturbed until it begins to firm up around the edges. Gently pull the eggs from the edges toward the center and tilt the pan so the liquid egg fills that space. Continue until the eggs are softly set but not firm, about 2 minutes. They will continue to cook after plating. Serves one, but easily doubled. Buttered challah toast makes a perfect side; if desired, add a patty of pork sausage or quick and easy home fries on the side.

Hint: Simple Trick to Make Better Coffee

Developed October, 2013. This change in method applies to drip coffee makers that use a paper filter. Simply use two disposable filters nested together rather than one as is customary. This extra layer of filtration removes more fine particles. This addition noticeably improves the clarity and yields a cleaner tasting brew but does not appreciably increase the brewing time or expense. 
Also see, this other hint for better brewing.

F --> C Temperature Conversion Table for Cooks

Temperature Conversion Table
 Fahrenheit   Celsius    C(Approx)
    175          79          80
    200          93          95
    225         107         110
    250         121         120
    275         135         135
    300         149         150
    325         163         165
    350         177         180
    375         191         190
    400         204         205
    425         218         220
    450         232         230
    475         246         245
    500         260         260
    525         274         275
    550         288         290

Chicken Enchiladas

First prepared July, 2012, and many times since. A Family Favorite. Developed from a family friend’s hand-written recipe. The dish is distinguished by using a sour-cream enriched velouté to cover the filled tortillas rather than a sauce based on tomatoes. After baking, it comes to the table as a casserole of hearty flavors and solid nourishment.

Sauce

1/4 c (125 ml) each butter and olive oil
1 c (250 ml) white onion, chopped
2 to 4 jalapeño peppers, ribs and seeds removed, finely diced
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/4 c unbleached all-purpose flour
2 c (500 ml) chicken stock
1 c (250 ml) sour cream
1 T (15 ml) lemon juice
1 t (5 ml) salt

12 corn tortillas  

Filling

8 oz (240 g) cooked boneless chicken, shredded
1/2 c (125 ml) grated queso cotija cheese (or romano)
1/4 c (60 ml) chopped green onions
1/4 c (60 ml) chopped cilantro
1/4 c (60 ml) chopped parsley

6 oz (175 g) shredded Mexican-style cheese blend

Heat oil and butter in a heavy saucepan over moderate heat, add the onion and peppers, and cook about 5 minutes until soft but not browned. Add the garlic, and when fragrant, stir in the flour, and cook for 1 minute. Gradually stir in the chicken stock, and heat with stirring until the sauce boils and thickens. Off heat, stir in sour cream, lemon juice, and salt. Moisten the filling with a 1/2 c (125 ml) of the sauce, and pour half of the remainder into a greased 9x13 inch (23 x 33 cm) glass baking dish. Soften the tortillas in the microwave under a damp paper towel. Place a twelfth of the filling in a tortilla, roll up, and arrange in the baking dish, seam side down. Continue until all the tortillas are filled. Pour remaining sauce over the tortillas. Sprinkle the shredded cheese on top and bake uncovered 25 minutes at 425 degrees F (220 C) until the cheese melts and is lightly browned. Let cool 10 minutes before serving. Garnish each serving with chopped green onions if desired. Serves 4 to 6. Suggested side: slices of ripe tomato and avocado dressed in lime juice, olive oil, salt and cumin.