In Mexico, every cook has her own tamale recipe, her own sauce, her own masa mix, her own flavours. I didn't get any family secrets from Juantia (who bore holes though me with her icy stare), but Gleacelda galdly gave me a few moments of instruction in how to make tomales in her (pretty darn good) English. I kept up with my extraordinarily bad tourista Spanish/action charades.
As an added Valentine’s Week Bonus Feature. Tossing a little pastry technique your way compliments of Wendy van Velthonven from Thimble Cakes in Ottawa, 'how to make a fondant rose'. Having fun in the kitchen. A home (and YouTube) schooled cook; Wendy began…
Tip #37 from my grandmother's kitchen - how to soften brown sugar when it's become a hard, unusable mass. The brown sugar is neglected for a little while, we lift the lid and it's hard as a rock. All it needs is a bit of moisture to bring back that soft, scoop-able freshness.
When faced with the task of cutting liters of cherry or grape tomatoes in half, it pays to have a time saving trick, or you will be at it a long, long time. Here's a trick from the pro kitchen that can…
Gigantic bags of beets continue to show up in the big, shiny kitchen, and what a pain in the patootie! They stain hands, clothing and kitchen equipment and take hours to cook, but with quick this how-to, peeling beets is a snap…
Summer salad season, time for homemade mayo and Caesar salad, avoid upset tummies with a little food safety know how and a bit of kitchen expertise. Tip 1: how to coddle an egg. As a brief follow up to our Grilled Cesar Salad post, we…
On this (mostly) Wordless Wednesday we shave time off your kitchen prep with a little photo tutorial we call: How to Cut Peppers. Amazing how a little savvy knife work can save you time and deliver a consistent product. This is one…
Fresh corn is only here for a short time, so get it while it's hot then toss it on the grill for a late summer treat. If you've never dabbled in cobs over the coals before here's a few…
With a little food science, you can conjure buttermilk from thin air. Well, kinda'. Learn how to make buttermilk with just milk, lemon, or vinegar as a substitute for buttermilk in almost any recipe, in this edition of Kitchen Basics…
New to sourdough? Completely confused? Are your fingers caked with dough? Did your starter “die”? Does your bread look like a large pancake? Is your dough so stiff you have to call in support? Did your sourdough bread split all…
Classic Tomato Sauce, one of the five Mother Sauces of the classic French kitchen and the starting point for countless dishes. Classic Tomato Sauce, or Sauce de Tomate or Red Sauce is found across many cultures. It's amazingly versatile, as the…
A quick and handy guide to get you cooking like a pro in your own kitchen. How to Blanche Tomatoes in five easy steps. All you need is a pot of boiling water, a wee sharp knife, a slotted spoon,…