The Bachelor's Kitchen

It’s grilling season. But we will never buy that bottled sauce again. Making it yourself is so much better.

Start with 1 cup ketchup in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in 1/4 cup cider vinegar, 1/4 cup reduced sodium Worcestershire sauce, 3 tablespoons brown sugar, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon liquid smoke.
Bring the liquid to a simmer, then lower the heat and cook uncovered for 30 minutes to an hour. Along the way, add in some of your favorite flavorings: a tablespoon of honey, a dash of soy sauce, 1/2 teaspoon each of oregano, dried basil and ground ginger. A few grinds of black pepper and a 1/2 teaspoon of chili powder finish off the sauce. Stir frequently and cook until thickened to your taste.

You can modify this to whatever your taste or type of food you’re making. The right barbecue sauce should have just a little sweetness, a little heat and a little tang.

Posted on May 21st, 2013 by James
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One of the joys of late spring and through the summer is shopping at the local farmers markets. If you haven’t visited these venues, whether large, permanent, year-round markets or the parking lot pop-ups of summer, it’s worth the trip. It’s also a colorful journey into the highest quality ingredients produced by local farmers and growers.

Greens are not necessarily the dominant color as you walk through the market, but it’s an important one. If you haven’t already enjoyed spring asparagus, now’s the time. This incredibly versatile and tasty vegetable can be prepared in so many ways. And not all asparagus is green. It also comes in purple and white varieties.

There are literally hundreds of leafy greens that can go into salads or pots or pans. Look for some types you don’t see every day: dandelions, sorrel, escarole, collards, mustards and kale. Fresh basil is a wonderful green that can go in salads, on pizza and in homemade pesto, which can be frozen for use later. Cucumbers and zucchini will soon be on the scene. And spring peas and green beans are a sweet treat. Green bell peppers are also on the way along with their colorful brothers in red, yellow and orange.

Besides red peppers, radishes, raw or cooked, can add a spike to your salad as well as a splash of color. Strawberries are out now. And soon we’ll see cherries and raspberries on the market, too. And you won’t want to forget about all those homegrown tomatoes making an appearance in high summer. If you’ve been getting by on tasteless supermarket tomatoes, you won’t want to miss all those beauties. Many local growers are specializing in heirloom varieties you don’t see everywhere. Look especially for those.

Purple may not be a color you think of when strolling through the market, but you shouldn’t overlook some of these color choices. One of the most recognizable, if not oddest looking, is the humble eggplant. This can be prepared in many ways and is a staple in lots of Indian dishes. Beets not only have beautiful color, but a sweet flavor. And the tops are great for salads or cooked like any other leafy green. In late summer, watch for the purple splash of blackberries and plums.

Yellow corn is already on the scene and will make another appearance later in the season. This sweet favorite should always be purchased with the husk on, which makes it so much easier to cook in so many ways.

In the orange spectrum, young carrots with the greens attached should draw your eye. These are usually sweeter and more tender than the larger, drier ones we see the rest of the year. And in summer, all kinds of squash will be showing up. It’s a good opportunity to see what else you can do with squash.

What are your favorites at your local farmers market? We really want to know. So, give us your comments.

Posted on May 15th, 2013 by James
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With a well-stocked pantry, you can whip up a meal at any time. But what makes a well-stocked pantry? That’s what we’ve been talking about.

We’re not just talking about the things that go in the cupboard. There are items that need to be kept in other areas of the kitchen. For example, there needs to be a place to store root vegetables.

The well-equipped Bachelor’s Kitchen should have a cool, dark, well-ventilated area that mimics the conditions in an old fashioned root cellar. In there, we need to keep things like potatoes, onions and garlic. Many people think they can store these in the refrigerator. But that environment is too cold and will actually accelerate the deterioration of these hardy ingredients. Light is also an enemy as it causes the roots to sprout or change color.

The typical bachelor fridge is infamous for containing not much more than beer and a container of mustard. Sadly, that’s often not an exaggeration. Part of a well-stocked pantry means a few basic necessities in the refrigerator:

• Eggs
• Milk
• Butter or margarine
• Ketchup
• Mustard (yellow, Dijon, whole grain)
• Mayonnaise
• Parmesan cheese
• Other cheese

The other part of the refrigerator is the freezer. Like the canned goods in the pantry cupboard, these are items you should always keep on hand. Frozen vegetables are usually much better than canned and often much better than fresh, depending on the time of year. Ingredients like corn, spinach and peas are useful for so many dishes from breakfast to dinner. Frozen meats like ground beef and chicken breasts can provide an easy protein for a meal on the fly.

Flavors and ingredients that keep well and are nice to have on hand include:

• Lemons
• Fresh ginger
• Canned chiles
• Prepared horseradish
• Anchovy paste
• Almond extract
• Vanilla extract
• Cooking spray
• Cornstarch
• Honey
• Brown sugar

With these ingredients, and the ones we mentioned earlier, you can make a meal at any time with almost no advanced notice. They are a lifeline when you can’t get to the store or there’s an emergency. Review your pantry to see if you have items you can turn to for a meal in a flash.

Posted on May 14th, 2013 by James
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Dieters rejoice. You have an excuse to go off those restrictions today. It’s Eat What You Want Day! Okay, this is news to lots of us. But why waste an opportunity. So be decadent. Treat yourself today. Then remember to get back on the wagon.

Posted on May 11th, 2013 by James
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Are you as tired as we are of hearing about all that’s wrong with our food? As we pointed out, it seems like every week there’s another recall of food contaminated with something, often deadly bacteria. The news is not improving.

They say “forewarned is forearmed.” Knowing that beasties lurk in your food should encourage you to take appropriate precautions. You should be surprised and repulsed by a recent study from the Translational Genomics Research Institute. They found nearly one-fourth of all the meat and poultry in your supermarket’s meat case is contaminated with drug-resistant bacteria. That means should you get sick, doctors will have a very hard time to get you well and it could put your life in danger. This is a direct result of factory farming and the massive amount of antibiotics being added to animal feed. Because of the overcrowded conditions at these kinds of farms, antibiotics are given not to cure illness, but to prevent it. Those drugs are in the meat and now they’re getting into us.

“‘For the first time, we know how much of our meat and poultry is contaminated with antibiotic-resistant Staph, and it is substantial,’ Lance B. Price, senior author of the study and director of TGen’s Center for Food Microbiology and Environmental Health, said in a statement.”

Cooking does kill the bacteria, but its presence increases the danger of contamination and food poisoning. Not only is staph more widely spread than we thought, but so are e. coli, salmonella, listeria and aureus. That last one is also drug-resistant, but is not part of the government’s inspection program.

So, what can you do? Make sure you know and practice safe food handling guidelines. Cook meat and poultry to a temperature of at least 160º and use a thermometer. Eat less meat and more vegetables. Don’t ignore symptoms of food-based illness. Be extra careful with food for children, the elderly and those with compromised immune systems.

And you can lobby your government representatives to strictly regulate livestock and poultry, which uses 80% of all antibiotics sold in this country. Make sure that there are not only tough rules, but that regulators have the tools to enforce them.

Posted on May 10th, 2013 by James
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It’s hard to make a bad potato soup. At least that’s my opinion. With spring asparagus all over the place, this is a good place to use it. This makes a good size pot even though it’s scaled to six servings. They’re pretty large servings. You can easily modify it to work in a slow cooker or make any changes of your own.

Potato Soup with Asparagus and Bacon

Ingredients

• 4 – 5 thick-cut bacon slices
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 3 cloves of finely minced garlic (can also put through garlic press)
• 1 generous teaspoon salt
• 1 bunch fresh asparagus
• 9 – 10 medium russet or gold potatoes, about 3 pounds, peeled and quartered
• 2 cups low-fat milk
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• Optional: Handful of finely chopped chives or parsley

Directions

1. In a large skillet over medium heat, cook bacon until browned and crisp. Transfer to plate lined with paper towels.
2. Add onion, garlic and half the salt to the pan and cook until onions are soft and garlic is fragrant, about two to three minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
3. Heat a medium pot of water to par-cook the asparagus. Trim the lower part of the stems and throw away or save for stock. Cut the rest into 1-inch long pieces and rinse thoroughly before added to the water. Cook for 5 – 8 minutes until slightly softened but not completely finished. When done, drain and set aside.
4. Also put a large pot with at least four cups of water, the potatoes and a generous pinch of salt on high heat and bring to boil. Lower heat to medium and simmer potatoes until tender and starting to fall apart, about 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from heat and use a potato masher to break up most of the potatoes leaving some chunks.
5. In a microwave-safe bowl, heat the milk in the microwave until hot, about 3 minutes on high. You can also heat in a small saucepan.  When milk is hot, add into the potatoes. Add the onion mixture and crumble the bacon into the pot and return to heat. Simmer for 5 to 15 minutes until it thickens slightly.
6. Finish with chives or parsley and serve.

This goes great with crusty bread and a nice salad. It also works well with a sandwich. You can add more vegetables if you like, along with some chicken stock. To make it thicker, add a half-cup of instant mashed potato flakes.

Posted on May 7th, 2013 by James
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Lots of people and recipes use canned cream soups as an easy ingredient to many home cooked dishes. The problem with those canned soups are that there are many things in there you  might not want. But you can make your own cream soup base which opens a whole world of possibilities, a canvas on which you can paint your taste. Need condensed? Just make it thicker by using half the milk.

In The Bachelor’s Kitchen we used this recipe to use up some quickly deteriorating mushrooms. What can’t you do with Cream of Mushroom soup. Not only is this healthier, but you can make almost any type of cream soup from this simple base.

For our soup, we started with frying some bacon, mostly to get the grease, but also to add flavor to the soup. The cooked rashers go onto a paper towel to drain. We don’t cook these to a crispy state, otherwise they would disintegrate in the soup. But you can do it how you like.

Into the bacon grease, we added our chopped mushrooms and sautéed until slightly brown and flavorful. While this is cooking, crush two chicken bouillon cubes or two teaspoons of granulated bouillon.

Now, for the soup base, melt a whole stick of butter or 1/2 cup of olive oil in a skillet. While stirring constantly, gradually sprinkle in 6 tablespoons of flour and make a paste. Doing it slowly instead of just dumping the flour in gives you a smoother, lumpless roux. Stir in 2 cups of milk and the bouillon, turning the heat down to low. Cook until the mixture thickens. Taste and add salt and pepper to taste if needed. Go easy on the salt because the bacon coming later has salt in it. So does the bouillon. You might not even need salt. But a good amount of pepper will help the flavor a lot.

Depending on the thickness wanted, add more milk as you add your other ingredients. In this case, we added some milk with the mushrooms. We chopped the bacon and put that in, too.

Whatever you add, except cheese or fresh herbs, should be cooked first. Remember that canned products, like tomatoes, are already cooked in the can. That means you can add bacon, chunks or shreds of cheese, leeks, pieces of baked potato, cooked asparagus or steamed broccoli. Your end product will go well by itself or make a great accompaniment to a sandwich or salad.

Posted on May 3rd, 2013 by James
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We live with scientists in The Bachelor’s Kitchen.  As geeks, we like talking about how cooking is a lot like science. A recipe is a protocol. Combining ingredients is mixing components. There are chemical reactions, heat breakdowns and precise measurements.

Of  course, most cooks will tell you that cooking is also an art. It’s a great expression of creativity. But understanding what’s going on beneath the surface of your food can be very helpful in coming up with new ways to prepare it.

According to a new book from America’s Test Kitchen, there are 50 basic concepts the good cook should learn. These are contained in The Science of Good Cooking, a book that contains hundred of recipes covering many dishes ordinary Americans like to eat.

What the book adds to the classic American cuisine is seemingly endless experimentation to determine the best way to carry out each recipe. Each recipe in the book is followed by a section called “Why This Recipe Works.” Included are references to the concept involved. There are also explanations, with nice clear photos, of the experiments done to arrive at the best method for each recipe.

It’s good that this book is an easy read because nuggets of knowledge are scattered throughout the text. And like most science-related topics, varying from the recipe can cause disaster. Many of them are complex and intimidating. But the book is filled with useful information and can lead you to great cooking masterpieces.

Posted on May 2nd, 2013 by James
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Grilling season is here. As we consider putting food on the barbecue, we also think about using marinades to improve the flavor of meats. With the quicker cooking times on the grill, this is a good way to get even more out of your expensive steaks, ribs and even chicken and fish. 

If you buy a prepared marinade from the grocery store, you deserve to lose your money. You can make your own marinade in just a few minutes. Also, you can make it to suit your own tastes and needs.

We were inspired to discuss this issue looking over the rundown for Lynn Rossetto Kasper’sThe Splendid Table radio show from American Public Media. I don’t know if you’ve heard this program, but if not, you should. The hour-long program is also available as a podcast from  APM.

The first thing she points out is that marinade recipes, like most recipes, should be used as just a guideline. After a little practice, you won’t need a recipe. You can make a marinade with ingredients already in your kitchen. And, you can do it for just pennies compared to those fancy store-bought marinades.

Essentially, a marinade uses acid to convey flavors into meat, fish or poultry. It also helps tenderize tough meat by breaking down some of the fiberous connective tissue in the muscle. Some marinades use little or no acid, especially those for more delicate proteins, like fish. Most of us know that chicken and turkey these days often has little flavor. Marinades can help that a great deal. Same for farm-raised fish. The marinade, combined with a cooking method, can make a hug difference in the taste of your dish.

Lynn has this recipe for a basic Italian Balsamic Marinade:

Combine garlic, balsamic, olive oil, black pepper, and dry or fresh basil. A nice trick is that you can make inexpensive balsamic taste more like the pricey stuff by boiling it for 10 minutes with a little sugar… figure 1 to 2 tablespoons sugar per cup of inexpensive balsamic.

You can add more to this with the addition of things like anchovy paste, soy sauce, oregano, rosemary, cumin or other spices and herbs. This can be used for lots of meat and poultry. But Lynn says not to use this method for vegetables.

Don’t marinate vegetables as some will throw off water and become soggy before they ever touch the grill.

That advice applies to other cooking methods besides grilling. I find the best way to add those flavors to your vegetables is to apply the same ingredients during the cooking process, like a seasoning.

Interested in something with a more Asian flavor? Lynn has an idea for that, too.

Puree together equal parts of fresh ginger and garlic with soy sauce. Add sugar and pepper to taste.

As before, you can add things like toasted sesame oil or rice vinegar to increase the dimensions of the flavor.

Want something spicy? Here’s Lynn’s Simplified Hot Jerk Marinade:

Puree together a scotch bonnet or habanero chile (use gloves to handle these searingly hot beauties) and blend with 1/4 cup each of oil and vinegar, half an onion and generous teaspoons each of thyme, allspice, black pepper and cinnamon.

Note the careful handling of those peppers. A little goes a very long, long way. Scotch bonnets are the hottest peppers on the market, so don’t treat it like some plain ol’ jalapeño. The use of gloves is advised because the capsicum oil can get into your eyes or on your skin and create great discomfort, the kind that sends you to an emergency room.

You should also note the use of aromatic spices like cinnamon and allspice. This is common in African and Middle Eastern cooking. Try it. You’d be surprised what spices can do. There’s a reason why the spice trade built empires and fortunes for centuries.

If you’re using a marinade on meat for the grill, Lynn has some more advice.

Marinades and sauces containing sweeteners like sugar, honey, or molasses will burn quicker than those without sweeteners. Watch them closely, and move to indirect heat if they start to burn.

Here’s another tip: don’t leave the protein in the marinade for too little or too much time. Too little and the food won’t pick up much of the flavor you went to all that trouble to build. Too much and it can ruin the texture of the meat and turn it gray. A lot depends on the type of meat and the ingredients of the marinade. The more acid, the less time. The more delicate the meat, the less time. The tougher or more flavorless the meat, the more time.

As a general rule of thumb, fish and seafood should be marinated for only a few minutes, usually in the amount of time it takes to heat up the pan or pull other ingredients together. Ceviche, a sauce made with acid like lime juice, is a common way to prepare delicate fish or seafood in Latin America which involves no heat, just the cooking power of the acid.

Chicken needs at least a half-hour to pick up flavors of a marinade, but can stay in the liquid for up to three hours, again as a rule of thumb. Over-marinating can make the meat, especially breast meat, meally. Turkey is often brined (submerged in a salty solution) overnight. This is actually a form of marinating. In fact, the word marinade comes from the latin for brine, aqua marina (sea water).

For beef, pork or lamb, marinating is often best if allowed to take place several hours, like overnight. This both tenderizes and adds flavor to the meat.

Feel free to experiment in this technique. You can add a lot of flavor with just a few ingredients and a little planning.

Posted on May 1st, 2013 by James
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With all this talk about food safety, it might seem at times like nothing is really safe to eat unless you grow and process it yourself. And even then, there are chances for contamination in your own kitchen if the proper handling safeguards aren’t followed.

Part of learning to cook is learning how to handle the food properly so you don’t make yourself or others sick. Much of it is common sense. But not everyone knows the rules. Here are some tips to help keep you safe in the kitchen.

1. Wash, wash, wash. Wash your hands, wash your utensils, wash your ingredients if that’s reasonable. Use a plain soap and water as hot as you can stand. You might want to keep a pump bottle of soap and another of hand cream nearby. Wash your hands anytime you go from one food to another, especially meat. Only use the hand cream when you are finished.
2. Don’t bother with too many utensils or plastic gloves. Your hands really are the best thing for handling food, as long as it’s not hot. Studies have shown that those plastic gloves are no better in preventing contamination than plain old well-washed hands. Just wash them frequently.
3. Food should be washed as much as you can reach with cold running water then placed on a clean counter, plate or paper towel. Place more paper towels over the top to pat it dry as soon as possible. Water is bacteria’s friend.  Obviously, you can’t do this to ground meat or dry herbs and spices. Even fruits and vegetables from which you will peel the outer layer should be washed so any contaminants on the outside don’t get inside when you cut it open.
4. Cold food can be left out for a while if well covered. It’s not the warmth that causes problems, but the air. If you keep air from getting to the food, you should have at least a couple of hours before you have to stick it back in the fridge.
5. Always remove the commercial wrapping on fresh food, then wash it and re-wrap it for home storage.
6. When finished cooking and cleaning up after the meal, clean the countertops, stove top and sink with a bleach and water solution, either commercially available just for kitchens or you can make your own adding just a few drops of bleach and detergent to a quart of water.
7. Wrap food for storage, whether on the counter or in the refrigerator, as air-tight as possible. This slows spoilage and helps reduce possible contamination at home.

Actual instances of food poisoning is not as common as it sometimes seems with all the constant news about recalls and dangers. Following a few simple steps in the kitchen will help keep you safe. Follow your nose, bad food usually smells bad. Make sure cooked food reaches an internal temperature of 140º. Keep aware of food recalls and information. Know the signs of food poisoning. And keep your immune system as strong as you can.

Most of all, don’t live your life in fear. There are no guarantees in life. Stuff happens. Just be as prepared as you can and do what you can to minimize your risks. Keep cooking.

Posted on April 29th, 2013 by James
Filed under: Cooking, Health & Nutrition, Tips & Advice | No Comments »