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YummlyRaspberry Mousse is an elegant dessert, at once decadently rich yet surprisingly airy and light — an edible oxymoron with the pure flavor of fresh raspberries. Lightened with beaten egg whites and whipped cream, then tinted a perfect pink from the raspberry puree, it brings a light ending to a rich meal. It's classic French sophistication that never fails to impress! ## What is mousse? How is it different from pudding? The word “mousse” is from the French, and translates as “foam” or “froth.” Pudding is dense and heavy (and yes, delicious in its own right) and is typically made with whole milk. Mousse contains heavy cream, but by whipping it and using other light ingredients (like fresh berries and beaten egg whites) the resulting dessert is fluffy and sweet with a soft and delicate texture. ## Does mousse need powdered gelatin to hold its shape? Many mousse recipes call for adding an unflavored gelatin mixture to the base to give firmness to the final dessert. However, with both egg whites (beaten until stiff peaks form) as well as whipped cream, this mousse has enough structure to support itself as is. Not using gelatin ensures that vegetarians can enjoy it as well (most gelatin is animal-based). ## I have regular white sugar in the cupboard — do I really need superfine sugar? In short, yes. Using superfine sugar ensures that the texture of this raspberry mousse will be perfectly smooth — with no unpleasant graininess or crunch — because it dissolves much more quickly. However, there’s a simple solution if you can’t get to the store: Blitz your regular white sugar in a food processor for 30 seconds to 1 minute, and voila! Homemade superfine sugar. ## What kind of cream should I use? You can use either heavy cream or whipping cream. Heavy cream has the most milk fat at about 36%, whereas whipping cream typically has around 30%. You may also see "heavy whipping cream," which is the same thing as heavy cream. Just don't substitute light cream, as it doesn't have enough fat to whip up properly. ## Do I really have to strain the raspberry mixture through a sieve? In this recipe, getting all the seeds out of the raspberries makes a huge difference in how we experience the final dessert. A hallmark of mousse is that it's perfectly smooth, with an intense flavor that comes only from the essence of the main ingredient — whether it’s dark chocolate or the best fresh raspberries. ## Could other berries work in this mousse? Yes! If you have sweet strawberries or ripe blackberries, go for it. Foraged fruit can have varying levels of sweetness, though, so be sure the fruit isn't too tart before using it here. Just cook the fruit in a small saucepan as indicated in the first step, give it a quick taste, and adjust the sugar as needed. While fresh is always better, you could use frozen raspberries if needed — just be sure to defrost them first, and drain off the excess liquid. ## What’s the best way to serve mousse? Mousse benefits from a festive serving dish since it doesn’t have a shape of its own. Clear glass is a great way to highlight raspberry mousse’s ballet-slipper pink color. Stemless wine glasses provide stability and offer a pink window into what’s to come, while 4-ounce Mason jars keep it simple yet sweet. This recipe adds an extra twist by topping the traditional mousse with a decorative frozen mousse topper. This adds not only visual appeal but a contrast in textures and temperature that is sure to wow your guests even more. Need more ideas? Use a cute heart-shaped mold for a special Valentine's Day treat, sprinkle with fresh raspberries, or top the mousse with shaved chocolate for that classic chocolate-raspberry flavor. ## What do I do with the leftover egg yolks? Don’t toss those yolks! Put them in the fridge in a small bowl with plastic wrap touching the surface until ready to use. You can use yolks in a classic Caesar Salad, make a homemade aioli sauce, or use for other dessert recipes such as a classic crème brûlée or custard.Food52Ingredient List (Feel free to add your own twist): 20 Oz Glutinous Rice 2 Oz Cured Pork Belly, diced 1 Oz Chinese Sausage, diced 1 Oz Peanuts 1 Oz Dried Scallops, rehydrated and chopped 1 Oz Dried Shrimp, rehydrated and chopped 1 Oz Dried Shiitake Mushrooms, rehydrated and chopped 1 Oz Ginger 2 Oz Green Onion, chopped 1 tablespoons of oyster sauce 1 tablespoon of soy sauce 1/2 tablespoon of dark soy sauce 1 tsp sugar A dash of humor (because cooking should always be fun!) Hey my foodie friends! Welcome back to my cooking channel, where we embark on a culinary journey to excite your taste buds. Among the many videos on YouTube sharing stir-fried glutinous rice, what is the difference between this fried glutinous rice video I shared? Stir-fried glutinous rice is a classic dim sum with a long history in Chinese restaurants. Introduction Traditionally, this cooking method is time-consuming and laborious, similar to how risotto is cooked from raw to cooked. But the videos we often see on YouTube all use a simple and convenient cheat method - first cook the sticky rice and then stir fry it. However, today I devoutly follow the traditional method to share this fried glutinous rice dish, so that everyone can understand the traditional classic raw fried glutinous rice. Of course, at the end of the video, I will also share the simplest and most convenient method with 0 skills, be sure to watch the end. There are many versions of stir-fried glutinous rice recipes on the Internet, and the version we introduce today is chewy glutinous rice with juicy and delicious pork belly, Chinese sausage and surprises that will be discussed later. Glutinous Rice Processing First let's learn the tip of glutinous rice preparation before making traditional stir-fried glutinous rice. Rinse the glutinous rice well and soak it in water for 1 hour. Of course, as usual, we wash the rice three times before soaking. Note that the soaking time of glutinous rice should not be too long, 1-2 hours is the best. After soaking the glutinous rice, use this colander to drain the water. This ensures the rice is plump, happy, and ready to soak up all those delicious flavors later on. This will make it easier to fry glutinous rice. Ingredients Processing Wash the dried shrimp in clean water, and drain. Then, soak the dried shrimp in warm water, which will help them soften up faster than if they were to soak in cold water. Similarly, wash the dried shiitake mushrooms，drain, and then soak in warm water to rehydrate and soften. They should be soft and ready to cut. We'll first cut them into thin slices, then rotate go degrees to dice into small pieces. After prepare dried ingredients, we'll cut cured meats. wait! wait! I still want to remind: do not throw away the water soaking dried ingredients, because it will play an important role in the future. In Guangdong, raw fried glutinous rice is also called La Mei glutinous rice. La Mei is pickled food. Today we use two kinds of preserved meat, lap cheong（chinese sausage）and lap yuk （cured meat）. Curing meat with salt was popular in China hundreds of years ago. Although it was to preserve excess food, or to make food transportation more convenient. Now it is specially made for the unique taste of cured meat. In the eyes of Cantonese, glutinous rice without lap cheong is soulless. Chinese sausage is the main ingredient of glutinous rice. Then we started cutting the cured meat. Cured pork belly is very dense, so it's hard to cut through, even with a sharp or heavy knife. Be careful! Make sure that your non-cutting hand is grasping the meat with a claw-like grip, with fingertips tucked under so they don't get bit by a slipping knife. Cut the cured pork belly into strips, and then dice into small pieces. Make the pieces a similar size and shape to the diced mushrooms. Chop the Chinese sausage the same way: cut into strips, then diced into small pieces. If you want to learn more about Cantonese cuisine, please follow our channel. We will share Cantonese cuisine recipes and related knowledge step by step every week. Of course, if you like our video, please like and leave a message to tell us. If your friends like Cantonese cuisine like you, please share our channel and let us explore the delicacy of Cantonese cuisine together. Stir-Fried Ingredients When the ingredients are done prepare, it's time to start stir-frying everything together! Heat your wok or pan on high. When it's hot, or after about 30 seconds, add oil, and give it a swirl to coat. When the oil ripples, or after 40-50 seconds, add all ingredients. Stir-fry the ingredients on low heat for 1-2 minutes, then add minced ginger. Stir-fry for another 30 seconds, until the ingredients turn golden brown and release the aroma and oil, and then scoop everything out and onto a plate. Glutinous rice is traditionally considered to have the effect of warming the stomach. It's also a must-order for dim sum, but it's also very often made at home. We usually eat glutinous rice during the two traditional Chinese solar terms of "Major Cold" and "Minor Cold" to make our bodies feel warm. Great Cold is the last of the 24 solar terms in traditional China, and it is also the coldest day of the year. So on this day, some areas of Guangdong will have the custom of eating glutinous rice. Although the sticky rice is similar to another classic sticky rice chicken, however, Lo Mai Gai has chicken and salted eggs, and is wrapped in lotus leaves and steamed. It's a bit more labor and time - intensive than this Cantonese Sticky Rice, Lo Mai Fan, recipe. Frying Sticky Rice Now once the ingredients is done cooking, we start frying sticky rice. Drain the glutinous rice. After the ingredients are evenly stir-fried, add the glutinous rice directly, and stir to make the rice be coated with the oil released by the ingredients. Then add water 2 tablespoons at a time and stir fry over medium heat. When the water is almost dry, add more water. Repeat the process of stirring and spreading the rice 3 times, adding 2 tablespoons of water each time. After repeating 3 times, try to spread the glutinous rice in a thin layer and cook it evenly over medium heat. Cover and simmer for 3 minutes. After 3 minutes, add rice wine and 2 tablespoons of water, and simmer for another 5 minutes until the rice is fully cooked. After the rice is cooked, Stir-fry and mix everything for 2.5 minutes. Stir well and add seasoning, remembering to taste for yourself and adjust to personal taste. Finally, turn off the heat, add chopped peanuts and chives, and stir well. Stir-fried glutinous rice is not only scrumptious, but it's also a culinary adventure filled with fun and flavor. So go ahead, make it your own, add your twist, and enjoy the stir-fry shimmy in your kitchen. See you next time ! Wait! Wait! I seem to have forgotten something? correct! I would also like to introduce you to one of the simplest and most convenient 0 skills to live with glutinous rice. Let's find out together! You can use an electric rice cooker to cook the glutinous rice first, then mix the fried ingredients into the rice in the rice cooker, stir well with chopsticks and enjoy the deliciousness. Congratulations to you who watched the video here, because you have mastered two different ways to make sticky rice. Yes, this time is really over, it's really time to say goodbye, let's see you next time! Finally, remember to like, share, comment and subscribe to our channel, let's explore the deliciousness of Cantonese cuisine together. Glutinous Rice: Frequently Searched Questions｜Do You Understand Everything? Is Sticky Rice Ok For Fried Rice? Another good option for fried rice is Japanese-style sushi rice, which is a short-grain sticky rice. When used to make fried rice, it may stir-fry into clumps because it's so starchy; it will also be chewier in texture compared to the drier, crunchier texture of standard takeout fried rice. What Is The Difference Between Sticky Rice And Glutinous Rice? Hailing from southeast and east Asia, sticky rice – also referred to as glutinous rice or sweet rice – is known for its propensity to be more compact. Rice contains two types of starches: amylose and amylopectin. Should Stir Fry Rice Be Sticky? Fried rice is at its most delicious when it's fluffy and not too sticky. It should have distinct, individual grains. Here are tips to help you make fried rice that tastes as good as it does at your favorite restaurant. Should You Soak Glutinous Rice Before Cooking? Tips for Preparing Sticky rice Sticky rice can be a bit tricky for the inexperienced, here are some important things to note: If possible, soak the rice for 1-2 hours. 2 hours is technically the maximum, but if your rice is old, it maybe extra dry and need more time. Wash sticky rice until the water runs almost clear. Can You Cook Sticky Rice The Same As Regular Rice? Trust me, if you could cook it like regular rice the whole nation of Thailand wouldn't do it any other way. Sticky rice can't absorb much water, and it is not forgiving at all if you add even a bit too much - so cooking it in water willy-nilly can result in mushy rice very easily. When Do Cantonese Eat Sticky Rice? Glutinous rice is traditionally considered to have the effect of warming the stomach. It's also a must-order for dim sum, but it's also very often made at home. We usually eat glutinous rice during the two traditional Chinese solar terms of "Major Cold" and "Minor Cold" to make our bodies feel warm. Great Cold is the last of the 24 solar terms in traditional China, and it is also the coldest day of the year. So on this day, some areas of Guangdong will have the custom of eating glutinous rice.Food52Before I began my career as a publicist, I spent the age of 15-21 as a waitress in restaurants which ranged from greasy spoon coffee shops to high end French couture restaurants. All these years later, I still have very fond memories of hanging out in the kitchen watching the chefs and line cooks puff up perfect soufflés, julienne a bucket of some exotic vegetable or sauce up a chicken fried steak. I really enjoyed watching the assembly line of prep and putting together of ingredients to be plated and toted out to the dining room. I learned about wines as my customers ordered bottles and gave me sips to experience along with them. The walk-in was a particularly interesting place, not only to catch my breath for a moment of solitude, but to steal a nibble of something that may have been forbidden for the wait staff to eat. I remember a giant English trifle of which attracted my spoon, dish and I into the refrigerator a few more times than I probably should. Aside from helping my Mom in her kitchen as a kid, these were the places where I was really was bitten by the food bug. Just curious really, I suppose. I learned that my preconceived notions were not foregone conclusions – “you mean there is no chicken in a chicken fried steak?” An aspect of myself which lives on today in my publicity work, I loved to make anything eccentric mainstream; once I learned what a coulibiac actually was, we couldn’t keep it in the kitchen. Many recipes came from those years which I hastily penned down on cocktail napkins and to this day, keep in a notebook, Scotch-taped to a three hole-punched piece of wrinkled paper. My apple tarte tartin is one, for which I am known to make every year for Christmas. And, so, upon you telling me `about your new blog, Amanda, and seeing you have a recipe submission button -- I’m contributing my high-fat, high-heaven apple dish to your community. Congrats on Food52; it’s beautiful. Along with William Safire’s great word soliloquies, I’m sad that you’re no longer at the NYT. I have relished your slightly quirky and always elegant take on the edible for the paper and magazine, but this seems like a wonderful endeavor. And, well, you are irreplaceable, so too bad for them! Alyson’s Apple Tarte Tartin 6 large green apples (in my opinion, the tartness of green is so much better than reds) 14 tablespoons salted butter (don’t listen to cooks who say you must bake with sweet butter – I like the salt) 2/3 cup white sugar 7 tablespoons brown sugar Crust: 2 cups flour (sift it!) 1 teaspoon salt 5 tablespoons lard 7-10 tablespoons ice cold water Or Use Pepperidge Farm’s Filo Dough (mucho easier, faster and perfectly delicious) Glaze: ½ cup white sugar ¼ cup water Condiment: Heavy cream Powdered sugar Cut apples in half. Cut out the cores in a “V” shape. Cut off both ends so they are square. Peel them. Combine butter, brown and white sugar into a thick paste. Divide in half. Using a high-sided iron Dutch oven, smush the butter mixture thickly on the bottom and sides of the iron. Note: you can use other kinds of pans, but the heavier the better and the sides should be a minimum of twice the height of the apples. Believe me, it took me years to figure out the perfection, specifically, of using a Dutch oven for this. If it overflows, the caramelizing procedure will create an incredible mess in your oven and you’ll create such a thick smoke in the house, you’ll smell it for weeks. You might even attract the fire department, which, if you’re single, may not be a bad thing…. Arrange apples with one of the cut, squared sides down, front to back until they are packed together in a petal like fashion around the edges of the Dutch oven. Think of how bodies might be squished together for a photo with people’s back’s pressed against other’s chests. There should be no space between them and tightly packed in. Do the same in a circle inside this row toward the center of the pan, until all apples are packed in on their sides. Take the rest of the butter/sugar paste and crumble over the apples. There should be plenty of paste; be generous with it. For your own dough, sift together flour and salt. Cut in lard and toss with a fork until combined. Add tablespoons (one at a time) of iced cold water and toss to form a loose dough. Gather dough into ball and roll out into ¼” thickness. Cut dough to cover apples (easiest to use the Dutch oven or baking dish cover to measure!). Cover applies with dough, tucking edges between the apples and the side of the pan. Slit dough in center to air to escape. Now, take the batteries out of your smoke alarms and make sure you oven is lined with foil. Preheat oven to 450. Bake, uncovered for 30 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Remove dish from oven and increase heat to 550. Cover dish and return to oven and bake for one hour. To check is tartin is done, tilt dish and liquid should have caramelized and look like dark brown honey. Remove from oven and cool. DO NOT REFRIGERATE, otherwise, you’ll never get it out of the pan. Keep it at room temperate for a couple of hours until pan is cool enough to touch with bare hands. Put a large serving plate over the Dutch oven. Over the sink – flip it. Let it sit until all the apples fall onto the plate. Carefully remove the Dutch oven and pray the apples are still in a nice petal-like pattern. If some are still stuck, carefully scrape out and try to fit into the pattern. If not, no worries, it’ll taste the same. I am famous for my crooked cakes, but also for how amazing they taste! Now you must refrigerate the tartin, which should now be seated on top of the dough. You must get the apples cool enough to grab the glaze and let it harden into a candy like texture. An hour should be enough, just make sure the apples are cool to the touch before adding the glaze. Combine ½ cup white sugar and a bit of water in a heavy small saucepan. Cook on high heat on stove until if caramelized. It should take 5-8 minutes or so, it will slightly smoke and turn color to a dark brown. As it starts to turn from a golden honey to a dark honey color and smoke a bit, turn down the heat and let it transform into a dark brown honey like color. It may appear that it’s burning -- it is actually, but there is a fine line between caramelized and burnt. Pour immediately over the tartin. The coolness of the apples will grab the glaze to harden into a candy like texture and hold the apples together. Place heavy cream into metal or glass bowl (not plastic as it will not firm up). Place hand whipper in at high speed until the cream begins to turn from liquid to a firm whipped cream texture. Add a bit of sugar to taste to the sweetness you like. Go easy on, as the sugar in the apples is intense and so a more plain cream is preferable as a condiment. Serve and repeat the story above. Tell them it was you. They’ll believe it, especially since by dessert time, your guests should have had enough wine to smile at anything you tell them.Food52As much as I love living in Rome, my favorite Italian city is not the home of the Coliseum and Piazza Navona, but rather up North, in the land of tortellini, porticos, and la torre Asinelli* – Bologna, Italy. This may seem surprising. After all, Rome is the capital, the Eternal City, one of the most iconic places in the world. Though Bologna may not boast the history and grandeur of Rome, it holds a great amount of sentimental value for me. I spent my junior year of college there, living in a homestay, attending the Università di Bologna, and took language courses. I perfected my Italian, traveled all over the country, and formed friendships with the many people I met along the way, and quickly adopted Bologna as “my” city. Though I already knew I loved Italy before this, my year in Bologna solidified this for me, and made it clear that my love affair with Italy had only just begun. Friends and language aside, Bologna gave me another great gift – the opportunity to explore, learn about, and enjoy its cuisine. Though food is good wherever you go in Italy (really, you can’t go wrong) some say that Bolognese food is the best in all of Italy, and I would be inclined to agree. The recipe that I am sharing with you today is for lasagne alla bolognese, one of the mainstays of Bolognese cuisine. Everyone has their own recipe for lasagna. In the U.S you’ll find lasagnas made with mozzarella, ricotta, or even cottage cheese, lasagnas with pesto, cream sauce, tomato sauce, vegetables, or chicken. While lasagna certainly lends itself well to interpretation, I wanted to share the more authentic, Bolognese version of lasagna, which I happen to think is the most delicious one there is. The classic lasagne alla bolognese consists of sheets of homemade pasta layered with a meat sauce called ragù,* béchamel, and freshly grated parmesan cheese. Compared to some American recipes I have seen, this is kind of a pared down version of lasagna – the emphasis is not so much on the cheese but rather on the ragù, which is the star of this dish. I first learned how to make this lasagna thanks to a cooking course I enrolled in while living in Bologna. I remember working with my fellow classmates to put together the different components of the dish – chopping the vegetables for the ragù, grating the cheese, rolling out the fresh pasta – and feeling like I had won a culinary gold medal once we put all of the elements of the dish together to make what was the best lasagna I had ever tasted. Though this dish may seem time consuming, fear not – the ragù is just a matter of chopping, mixing, and simmering, the béchamel comes together in a snap, and then all that remains is a little layering and baking. I have used premade noodles here to keep this dish home-cook friendly as well. The hardest part will be waiting for the lasagna to be cool enough to eat. This is a true crowd pleaser (who doesn’t like lasagna?), a good way to combat the cold this time of year, and perfect if you’re feeding a large group (like at Easter)! Enjoy!Yummly## Lettuce wraps: low-carb, keto, gluten-free and delicious. Lettuce wraps (or lettuce cups) have a lot going for them: Fresh, filling and easy to prepare, they’re a great party food and a perfect fit for many specialized diets. With some attention to the ingredients you put in, they are keto, low-carb, and gluten-free. For a weeknight meal, this dinner recipe is hard to beat. Leave out the hummus and they’re even paleo. ## A variation on Asian lettuce wraps These aren’t the P. F. Chang’s-style asian chicken lettuce wraps, with ground chicken, sesame oil, hoisin sauce and soy sauce (though, those are delicious). Instead, this recipe offers a creamy, crunchy variation on a BLT sandwich. This BLTA (bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado) in easy chicken lettuce-wrap form is perfect for an easy dinner or a summer party appetizer, since it is served at room temperature. The mayo-hummus spread adds creamy texture, as well as holding everything together. ## Let’s talk about butter lettuce Butter lettuce works perfectly for this because butter lettuce leaves are thick and luscious (one might even call them buttery), as well as being the perfect size for a hand-held treat. However, if butter lettuce (or bibb lettuce or Boston lettuce, which are nearly indistinguishable from butter lettuce) isn’t available, a romaine or iceberg lettuce leaf is a good substitute. For a nutrition boost, this could even be served on tender cabbage leaves from the inner layers of a head of cabbage. ## Variations on BLTA chicken lettuce wraps This is a very adaptable recipe - ground chicken, ground turkey or ground beef, any of which you can brown in olive oil in a large skillet on the stove over medium-high heat, works well to replace the diced chicken. For an easy variation on the filling, you can add diced bell peppers, red pepper flakes or chopped cucumbers. ## But wait, I want to eat P. F. Chang’s lettuce wraps! Fair enough - try this [highly yummed P. F. Chang’s-style copycat recipe](https://www.yummly.com/recipe/PF-Changs-Chicken-Lettuce-Wraps-596804) that incorporates hoisin sauce, soy sauce, water chestnuts, green onions, and rice wine vinegar into the chicken mixture for Chinese flavors. ## Baking bacon This recipe includes a couple adaptable cooking hacks: The first is baking bacon. Eliminate splatter and the need to stand over a hot stove by cooking strips of bacon in the oven on 375º F for 20 minutes. Set a timer and forget it until your bacon’s ready. Bake the bacon on a wire rack for extra-crispy strips ## Hummus/mayo spread The other kitchen hack found in this recipe is the hummus-mayo mix: It’s a great way to add lots of creamy texture to a lettuce wrap (or a lavash wrap, tortilla wrap, or sandwich!) in a healthy, lower-fat way. The extra fiber and protein in the hummus are just a bonus, this spread is delicious. ## How to serve lettuce wraps, and what to serve them with These wraps are great for a party - wash and dry the lettuce leaves as much as two days in advance and make the filling in bulk (it’s easy to double or triple the amounts). Before serving, lay the lettuce leaves out on your serving tray and assemble them in place. If you’re serving these as a main dish for dinner, you can put the filling and the creamy hummus out in small bowls on the table with a pile of lettuce leaves, and let people assemble their own. Anything that you’d serve with a BLT sandwich is a great side dish to serve with these: potato salad, coleslaw (which allows you to keep it low-carb), fruit salad, sweet potato fries or, yes, bread.YummlyBring a bit of Spain to the lunch or dinner table with this recipe for homemade gazpacho. Made with a mixture of tomatoes, bell peppers, zucchini, cucumber, and spices this soup is full of refreshing flavor that'll keep you cool and satisfied on hot summer days. ## Cold Soup If you've never made authentic Spanish gazpacho, you should know that a good gazpacho recipe is much than just cold soup, it's a no-cook warm-weather essential that takes no time to prep. It originated in Andalusia along Spain's Costa del Sol where it gets searingly hot in the summer, making cold soup a welcome meal. Though some people might call it pureed salad, it's much more delicious than what that description might bring to mind. ## All About The Bread At first glance, it just looks like tomato juice, but gazpacho is exponentially better and has more nuanced summer flavors than a regular ol' tomato soup. Peppers, cucumbers, onion, garlic cloves, and zucchini go into a food processor as whole vegetables and come out a refreshing summer soup, but the secret to making gazpacho a superlative soup is bread. It's used to thicken the tomato puree, but if you use a flavorful crusty baguette (or even sourdough bread), it'll add flavor as well as body. It sounds weird and it's not ideal for low-carb and keto diets, but the flavor and texture the bread lends to the soup really does turn this soup into a bowl full of joy. ## Playing With Flavor This is a basic gazpacho recipe, but that only means there's room to play with flavor. __Olive oil:__ For flavor, this recipe calls for olive oil. If you're a connoisseur, this is a good place to use your favorite extra-virgin olive oil -- because the soup is not heated, the flavor of the oil won't change. __Vegetables:__ Bell peppers and cucumbers make this soup refreshing, but you can use different types of peppers to make the flavor more interesting. Green peppers are slightly bitter but red peppers are subtly sweet and can add vibrancy to the red of the tomatoes. This recipe also calls for fresh basil, which you can easily leave off. __Spices:__ Garlic is a prominent flavor in gazpacho, but you can balance it out with some heat from a sprinkling of cayenne pepper, or make it smoky with a little ground cumin. __Vinegar:__ If all you have on hand is plain white vinegar, you can make a great gazpacho, but other vinegars can elevate this soup. Sherry vinegar adds some sweetness, while a red wine vinegar would add little bit more acidity. ## Get Blending This is an easy, healthy recipe that any level of cook can master. It can easily be made for dinner tonight and tastes even better the next day for lunch. Whenever you decide to make it, it won't be the last time.Food52I should start off by saying that this will be a longish introduction. To read only about the recipe notes, skip to the bottom part. So, she says, indicating that you should get comfortable, the story goes something like this...... There is a list of cooking challenges that I keep on my fridge - my white whales. Paella, soufflé, you get the idea. Parenthetically, if you want to read a funny story about when I battled the giant octopus (and lost), you can find it about 3/4 of the way down the hotline question about foods that polarize: http://www.food52.com/foodpickle/9092-what-are-foods-that-polarize-love-or-hate Anyway, getting back to it. Whole roasted duck has been on that list for a while. I've always been a little intimidated by the gaminess and, well, the price. Not wanting to completely balls up a bird that can cost upwards of $40. About two weeks ago I decided that the time had come to cross that item of the list. I consulted my step-mom who had mentioned this awesome green tea duck she had made about a year and a half ago and I sucked it up and went to Whole Foods and got a duck. And I brined that bird for the better part of three days. Oh and the brine smelled sooooo good. I mean, if there are angels and they are Asian, this is what an Asian angel would smell like. I wanted to take a bath in this stuff. So for three days I am nursing this brine, loving it, occasionally turning the duck over in the pot so that all parts are exposed to the liquid. Then, when the time was right, I reverently removed it from the liquid, brushed off the star anise and the green tea and put it in the oven. I made my mom's Special Rice (I'll post another day). I made edamame. I opened a bottle of wine. My husband was going to remember why I am the best wife in the whole world. The kids were winding down and all was on track to get them in bed before we enjoyed a romantic dinner (which in our house qualifies as a meal, eaten when hot, together). Jameson (the elder son) was upstairs getting his pajamas on. I am basting every ten minutes with lovely duck fat. Jameson starts crying, which I should say is not entirely unusual behavior for a four year old who doesn't want to go to bed. "Oh hush up and get your jammies on," I snap irritably up the stairs while I return to cooing over my bird. The crying continues. I sigh. My husband sighs. Connor (the younger son) starts intoning "bottle bottle bottle bottle!" which indicates incipient melt-down. I sigh again. I bargain with my husband: I'll fix the bottle, you go fix the four year old. The bottle goes in the microwave; the husband goes up the stairs. The duck, a glistening glorious brown crispy version of heaven comes out of the oven smelling exotic and exciting. I place it lovingly on the stovetop to rest. The husband immediately yells down the stairs for a towel. Something about gaping head wounds. Turns out that Jameson, while hiding in our bedroom trying to avoid the inevitable onset of bedtime, stood up too fast and split his head open on our armoire door. Since I took Jameson to the hospital the LAST time he had to get stitches in his noggin, I inform my husband that it is his turn. The whirlwind departs in a flurry of bloody towels and sniffles and a squalling Connor who is quite alarmed by all the commotion. I put Connor to bed. The rice has scorched on the stove. The duck has "rested" into a coma. Quiet descended on the house and I look forlornly at my duck. Shrugging, I carved that sucker up and ate a breast all by myself. Delicious. Wine wasn't bad either. Decided it was THAT kind of night and took a second glass into the living room to keep me company while I watched an episode of The Walking Dead. ****** OK, recipe notes. There are two versions of this. The first is the way I did it and comes, according to my step-mom, from "some Asian Fusion cookbook I seem to have misplaced." Apologies for the suspicious provenance. The second was adapted, by my step-mom, from the first when she didn't have the time to brine for the 2-3 days needed. Even the 'short' version will need 24 hours to sit, so plan accordingly.Food and WineI chased the flavor of a proper Tuscan ribollita for 17 years until I ate the genuine article again, finally, at Leonti, chef-owner Adam Leonti’s swanky new Italian restaurant in New York City. Leonti’s deeply savory version of the Tuscan bread and bean porridge was even better than the one I remember from a small hillside restaurant in Siena, Italy, so many years ago. (And that ribollita, which I ate on my first visit to Italy, was so perfect and nourishing that it made me forget for an hour that I was wearing my girlfriend’s puffy sweater because the airline had lost my luggage.) Leonti learned how to make ribollita from a restaurateur from Lunigiana, a three-hour drive northwest of Siena, paying close attention to the porridge’s humble elements: grassy-green, peppery olive oil; earthy, rustic bread; small, thin-skinned white beans; and most importantly, sofrito, the finely chopped, slow-cooked mixture of carrots, onions, and celery that gives ribollita its extraordinary flavor.At Leonti, sofrito is the foundation of ragù, and of the hot broth served to guests upon arrival—and it’s such a crucial ingredient that his cooks make about 75 quarts of it a week. Leonti used to laboriously chop his sofrito with a knife by using a rocking motion. “Then I watched Eat Drink Man Woman, and the best part is the beginning, with the Chinese chef chopping with big cleavers,” he recalls. “I thought, ‘That’s the move!’”So, Leonti bought some large cleavers in Chinatown and a wood butcher block and set up a sofrito station in the kitchen, where today his cooks rhythmically chop and break down the whole vegetables into rubble using the same kind of chopping technique I saw a barbecue cook use at Skylight Inn BBQ in Ayden, North Carolina, to break down the meat of whole smoked hogs into a fine mince. The size of the mince matters—the smaller the better—Leonti says, because you’re multiplying the surface area of the vegetables by a thousand-fold. More surface area to caramelize in the pan equals more flavor.When I made Leonti’s ribollita at home in my Birmingham, Alabama, kitchen, I tried the double-cleaver technique but quickly switched to an efficient, two-handledmezzaluna after too many stray bits of onion, carrot, and celery fell to the kitchen floor. I followed his advice and sweated the vegetables in olive oil in a Dutch oven, slowly cooking the mixture, stirring almost as often with a wooden spoon as you would with a roux. After 30 or so minutes, I turned up the heat until I heard that rapid sizzle, signaling that the sofrito was beginning to caramelize, creating a massive amount of flavor. When you build flavor from the bottom of the pot like this, the flavors continue to transform, concentrating even further when you add then reduce aromatic liquids— in Leonti’s case, adding crushed tomatoes and white wine, which cook down to a tomato-wine-sofrito jam full of umami. That flavor base then gets rehydrated with water, then cooks down again with the kale, potatoes, and bread—the latter adds tangy flavor and disintegrates into the soup to add texture. Finally, cooked beans—both whole and pureed—go in, thickening and tightening the soup into a porridge.Leonti serves many of his courses in gold-rimmed Richard Ginori china to frame his food in the Tuscan context. His food is big city fine dining meets cucina povera, the Italian cooking tradition born of necessity that elevates humble ingredients into dishes fit for a king. I asked him about the restaurant’s tightrope walk between high and low. “What is luxury? Luxury to a few is foie gras or truffles,” he says. “But the ultimate luxury is time and space. Those are the two most expensive things on the planet. Ribollita is such an expense of time. It’s the ultimate luxury.”Especially when you’ve spent 17 years searching for a proper recipe. —Hunter LewisCook’s note: Decent bread and canned beans work fine here, but if you shop for the best rustic loaf baked with freshly milled flour you can find, and cook your beans in extra sofrito a day ahead—especially white beans sold byRancho Gordo—your ribollita will go from good to great.Food and WineI’m a cook who loves to hover over a pot and observe the transformation of ingredients, but let’s face it, most people just want to get into the eating action. That’s where modern, time-saving appliances like pressure cookers such as the Instant Pot come in. They can’t do everything well, but they’re fabulous for certain things, like dishes that normally require long simmering and slow cooking.This Vietnamese beef stew (bo kho, pronounced “baw caw”) from my book, Vietnamese Food Any Day, is the perfect example. It appeared in the February issue of Food & Wine prepared in a Dutch Oven with a three-hour cook time. This French-inspired stew is a dream simmering on your stovetop with the aromas of lemongrass and star anise wafting through your home. But you can still enjoy the same flavor in about half the time with a little help from your Instant Pot.I quickly discovered that adapting traditional recipes for the pressure cooker isn’t as simple as cutting regular cooking time. Appliances require you to adjust to their functionalities. Here’s a quick rundown of the changes I made to the recipe and why. And don’t worry if you don’t own an Instant Pot; you can get the original Dutch oven version of the recipe here.Pressure cookers extract and meld flavors fast. But there’s a lot of hedging and guessing because once the lid is locked in place, you can’t see what’s going on inside the pot. Cooking happens as pressure builds, during actual pressure cooking, and while the pot depressurizes. From past experiences with pressure cookers, I guesstimated that the beef would require about 40 percent of the normal cook time (1 hour and 15 minutes) for the beef to become tender-chewy. That’s why in the recipe below, the beef is cooked at high pressure for 10 minutes and naturally depressurized for 18 minutes; also factored in is a little cooking time at the front end as the pressure builds.There’s a difference between a regular stovetop pressure cooker that ventilates and whistles while it works and an electric multicooker like the Instant Pot that operates in silence. Whereas some evaporation happens in stovetop models, there’s little to no moisture loss in machines like the Instant Pot. To compensate, I cook with less liquid in a multicooker than in a regular pressure cooker.During the last step, when you’re simmering the beef with the carrots, that’s when things start to slide back into comforting and familiar. The lid is off while things bubble away—you can the verify the meat’s tenderness and witness the cooking first-hand. At the end of the day, the Instant Pot recipe conversion was a success. My home still smelled wonderful—and I had an entire extra hour all to myself. Combining old-school recipe with a modern appliance turned this weekend project into a deliciously doable weeknight ditty.
