Quick tips - may-june 1995

1 info

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
To Roast Bell Peppers Easily
To Save \"Broken\" Hollandaise
To Squeeze Water from Cooked Greens
To Remove Spices Easily
To Make Even Layer Cake
To Make the Best Use of Dried Herbs
To Test a Meat Thermometer
To Make Working with Pie Crust Easier
To Pulverize Saffron
To Get Quick, Seedless Lemon Juice
To Store Vidalia Onions

Directions

NO INGREDIENTS

1. Stem, seed and halve the peppers, then lay them on a cookie sheet, skin side up, and put them under the broiler until the skin is well blackened, 5-8 minutes.

2. The blackened skins will peel off easily, and don't have to deal with the mushy seeds and interior.

1. When a hollandaise is heated or mixed improperly, the sauce "breaks" and the butter comes out of the emulsion.

2. Add a couple of tablespoons of ice water with ice to the mixture and whisk it briskly.

3. The sauce will soon have regained the proper smooth consistency.

1. Place the cooked greens of a dinner plate and put a second plate on top of them.

2. Squeeze the plates together over the sink (or a bowl, if you're reserving the liquid) until the greens are dry.

When cooking a soup, stew, or sauce that requires the removal of spices, garlic, or bay leaves at the end of cooking, place the spices in a mesh tea bag for easy removal.

1. Use a serrated knife to make a ⅛-inch cut down the side of the cake, perpendicular to the top. 2. Cut the cake horizontally into the desired number of layers, fill them as desired, then replace the layers realigning the vertical cut.

By putting the layers back in their original orientation to each other, any unevenness in the way you cut them will be concealed.

Before using dried herbs, place them in a mesh sieve and push down on them with your fingertips as you shake the sieve back and forth over a bowl. This process not only breaks the leaves into smaller pieces for easier use, it also helps release their flavor.

1. Hold the stem in boiling water for 15 seconds. Assuming you are at sea level, the thermometer should register 212 degrees.

2. If it does not, twist the small nut beneath the thermometer with pliers until the temperature is correct.

Place your pie plate on a cake stand when placing the pasty in it and fluting the pastry edges. The cake stand makes it easier to turn the pie plate around and keeps you from having to stoop over as you work.

1. Place the saffron threads on a plate over a pot of boiling water until they are dry and brittle, about 10 minutes.

2. Pulverize them with a mortar and pestle.

To juice lemons directly into your work bowl without getting the seeds into the food, squeeze them with a wooden reamer directly over a slotted spoon or strainer. When the lemons have been squeezed, simply lift the spoon or strainer and discard the seeds.

The high sugar content of Vidalia onions, which is what endears them to cooks, also makes them spoil more quickly if they are stored touching each other. Try this: place one onion in the leg of an old but clean pair of panty hose. Tie a knot in the hose just above the onion. Repeat this process up the entire leg of the pantyhose.

Cook's Illustrated May-June 1995 Submitted By DIANE LAZARUS On 06-19-95

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