On a cold winter morning, there is no better breakfast than a bowl of hot, chewy steel cut oatmeal. The problem with steel cut oats is that it can take awhile to cook. The solution is quick and easy…use the overnight method. Heat 1 tsp. of butter in a 2 qt. saucepan, add 1 cup of steel cut oats and fry while stirring for 3 minutes until they smell “toasty”. Add 3 cups of water and a pinch or two of salt, stir and bring to a rolling boil. Then turn off the heat, cover the pan, and let sit covered overnight on the stovetop. When you wake up in the morning, just reheat a portion on the stove or in the microwave and its ready to go. After reheating, you can also add dried cranberries, blueberries, strawberries, bananas, brown sugar or whatever you like for an amazing breakfast. And if you like, you can double the recipe and save the leftover cooked oats in a container in the fridge; they will keep for 4-5 days and all you have to do is reheat in the microwave for a quick healthy, wholesome, delicious breakfast in just a couple of minutes.
Love this video tip…Saveur‘s Executive Food Editor Todd Coleman demonstrates an amazing trick for peeling an entire head of garlic in less than 10 seconds…so simple!
1) Smash the head of garlic with the heel of your hand.
2) Sweep the cloves into one bowl.
3) Invert the second bowl over the top of the first bowl. Hold the bowls together where the rims meet
4) Shake the hell out of them.
Fast, easy, kinda fun to do, no major cleanup and it really works…that’s what I call a great kitchen tip!
Today’s tip is simple…just put Sriracha sauce on everything you eat to make it better. Of course, you have to like heat, but this condiment is so hot right now (see what I did there?) because it puts a kick (and a ton of flavor) into anything you use it on. It’s available just about everywhere and you can even make it yourself…here is a great recipe from Food52. And, if you need some ideas, here are 100 Sriracha recipes from the folks at EndlessSimmer, 25 more from BonAppetit and one for delicious Sriracha Cilantro Scallion Deviled Eggs from The Garden of Eating…that should keep you busy for awhile!
If you chill cheese before grating or shredding, you’ll get much better results. Place hard cheeses in the freezer for about 30-40 minutes and soft cheeses for 20-30 minutes before grating. You should also use a great grater, like the OXO Good Grip, and make sure you always give it a quick spritz with cooking spray (like Pam) so the cheese glides easily and doesn’t stick. This chilling technique also really works well when slicing chicken or any kind of meat for a stir-fry.
The best way to keep bread is at room temperature. After 2-3 days, you should wrap the bread well, put it in a freezer bag and freeze it. Never store any bread in the refrigerator, because the cold temperature (38º-40º) accelerates the crystallization of the starches, causing the bread to stale much faster. When I bake a bread, as soon as it cools completely, I cut it, freeze half immediately and keep the other half cut-side down on a cutting board covered with a clean cloth. When that’s consumed, I take out the frozen half, defrost it at room temperature or wrap it in foil and bake in a 450º oven for 10 minutes and it tastes just as good as the day it was baked.
Awhile back I wrote about how important it is to have a great scale, like the OXO Good Grips Scale, and to weigh ingredients for consistent results. As you’ve probably experienced, Americans seldom give weights in recipes, but in the UK, they almost always do. Well, over at Lifehacker, someone named Jesseg came up with an amazingly simple, yet inciteful, idea…when looking for recipes, search using google.co.uk, rather than google.com and the recipes you find will almost always have weights…just make sure you remember to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit, or your stuff may never get done!
Everyone loves french fries, but deep frying at home is messy and the clean up sucks. These oven baked fries are just as tasty, a little bit healthier and way easier to make and clean up after than the deep-fried variety. The secret is the pre-soak that removes some of the starch and helps the fries to crisp up on the outside while staying tender and moist on the inside. Pair these with my Oven Baked Buffalo Chicken Wings and you have a great finger-licking good, faux deep-fried, quasi-healthy meal that everyone will love.
Please click here for the printable recipe.
I use tomato paste quite often in recipes to thicken up and give great flavor to pasta sauces, chili and soups, but seldom (and by seldom, I mean never) need an entire can at once. Simple solution…take an approx. 8″ square piece of plastic wrap, drop a 1 tablespoon dollop in the center and fold up the sides and twist closed. Stick these in a freezer bag and place in the toaster (just kidding…in the freezer), and, in the future, when a recipe calls for tomato paste, unwrap what you need (each one weighs about 1/2 oz.) and drop them in…it works great and there’s no waste. And, since they look like little hearts, they also make a somewhat disgusting Valentine’s Day gift.
When making cheeseburgers, if you like your cheese really melty, when your burgers are done the way you like them, top them with the cheese of your choice, drop a tablespoon of water into the pan and cover immediately. The resulting steam will melt the cheese in seconds, and you’ll have the perfect super-melty cheeseburger. Just top it with some caramelized onions, and you’ll be in cheeseburger paradise!
Bananas can be refrigerated for several days to slow down the ripening process. Make sure the bananas are ripe before you refrigerate them. The skin will quickly turn black, but the fruit will remain firm and tasty for up to five days. If it starts to get soft, just freeze it, and it will be perfect for making smoothies or, when defrosted, Killer Chocolate Chip Banana Bread.
