kitchen tip – In Good Taste

Kitchen Tip: My Favorite Sea Salt

Maris Callahan — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 17:00:04 +0000

Buying salt at the grocery store is a lot more complicated than it needs to be. Being the kitchen commodity that it is, you would think that you’d go to the store and there would be one shelf devoted to one type of salt made by one brand and you could use this salt for everything: baking, making spice rub for grilled steaks and ribs and adding flavor to your favorite soups, sauces and salad dressings. There are a lot of different salts out there ranging from plain table salt to high end sea salts – one of the most noteworthy being fleur de sel, an artisanal, hand-harvested salt hand-collected by workers in specific regions of France. I learned about fleur de sel when I made Dorie Greenspan’s famous world peace cookies and bought it to use as a once-in-awhile-treat, because it is pricey. After acquiring my first jar of fleur de sel, I thought I had reached the peak of sea salt ownership, until my friend Rachel bought me a set of sea salts and whole peppercorns for my last birthday. While fleur de sel truly is special-occasion salt (nerd alert!), every cook should invest in a high-quality sea […]

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Kitchen Tip: Pantry Basics

Maris Callahan — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 02:23:13 +0000

Stocking your kitchen with pantry basics is not an easy task, especially if you’re still in the apartment rental stage in your life where you move every couple of years. Every time I’ve ever moved into a new apartment, I’ve accompanied the move with a rather pricey grocery shop because I was never properly stocking my kitchen with pantry basics. When you move from one apartment to the other, even if you try hard to take your non-perishables with you, you will still have plenty on your shopping list. If you’re moving into your first place, your list will be even longer. And finally, if you aren’t moving but have decided to do something about the embarrassingly bare cupboards in your kitchen, you will definitely have your work cut out for you. Stock your pantry with the basics first, the extras second. So you might be wondering now: what are pantry basics? Do I mean things like cereal, frozen bagels and Lean Cuisines? Absolutely not. If you don’t like to cook, those might be your pantry basics. But if you don’t like to cook or even want to learn, you probably wouldn’t be reading this in the first place. Pantry basics, […]

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Kitchen Tip: Always Choose Quality Over Quantity

Maris Callahan — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 05:14:41 +0000

When I moved into my first apartment I did what most young adults, on a budget, do when they need to stock their kitchens: I went on a Target shopping spree to stock my kitchen. From dishes to flatware, cookware and bake ware, I got it all on the cheap until, well, things literally started to fall apart. My $19.99 knives began to rust, most of my glassware broke during my last move, despite it’s tight bubble-wrapping and my spoons are bent (maybe that’s from eating ice cream out of the container, so perhaps I’ll let that one slide). So, I’m here to tell you to choose quality over quantity. If I could go back in time I would invest in a few great pieces, slowly, instead of buying up everything that I thought I would need for as cheaply as I possibly could. The moment when I knew that I had made a mistake was when my trusty anodized stock pot began to show signs of decay. It was then that I knew I needed to upgrade to Le Creuset, a popular brand of enameled cast iron cookware known for its versatility, durability and yes, a hefty price tag. […]

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Kitchen Tip: Six Ways to Use Chives

Maris Callahan — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:12:21 +0000

I’ve never been particularly interested in cream cheese (with the exception of pumpkin cream cheese) but lately, I’ve been all about eating half of a whole-wheat bagel with chive cream cheese in the morning. Fine, sometimes I’m all about eating an entire whole-wheat bagel but you know what? There’s no one keeping score here. This morning I was waiting for my bagel to take a spin through the toaster at the Dunkin Donuts in my building and when the barely-English-speaking toaster attendant who handed me a freshly creased paper bag asked me what chives were. I mean, I know what chives are. Dana knows what chives are. The delightfully oblivious toaster master? Did not know what chives were and despite the fact that I eat them, cook with them and most recently, spread them on my bagel, I was stumped at how to answer his question. In my pre-caffeinated state I should have just suggested that he go home and Google it but instead I think I confused him even more and it’s entirely possible that I turned him off chives for life. So, I did what any self-respecting food writer would do: I got back to my desk and immediately looked up the […]

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Kitchen Tip: Add Finishing Touches

Maris Callahan — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0000

In just about any situation in life, the key to knowing what you’re doing is pretending that you know what you’re doing. When you’re behind the wheel of a car trying to impress your new boyfriend with your stellar sense of direction or presenting to a boardroom full of c-level executives, if you hold your head high and speak confidently, you will gain trust. The same rules apply in the kitchen. Kind of. In a perfect world, we’d all have enough time to grind our own spices, chop fresh basil for pesto and crush our own tomatoes for marinara sauce. Fresh food tastes better than food that’s been treated with chemicals and preservatives and studies have shown that it can be better for you, too. But, is this a perfect world? No, not really. It is a world with deadlines, traffic and bus delays. People work long hours, take care of families and occasionally, don’t eat dinner until nine o’clock at night. So sometimes, we do open cans, bottles and boxes when we want to make a meal. By keeping a few key ingredients in your pantry and a few special tips in mind, you can do that and still make […]

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