Innholdsfortegnelse for June - July 2016 i Cook's Country

HOMETOWN RECIPE  WHEN I GO for barbecue, I typically order my longtime favorite, pulled pork. But when a Tennessee friend recently raved about a local sandwich featuring shreds of juicy turkey breast tossed with a tangy white barbecue sauce, she caught my attention. She spoke of turkey so moist that its juices seeped into the bun, with just enough smokiness to enhance—not overpower—the delicate meat. The rich mayonnaise-based sauce, she said, was an ideal condiment for the lean turkey. I’m a hard sell when it comes to my barbecue routine, but her devotion convinced me to try something new. I found dozens of recipes online and in the test kitchen library and selected a handful to try. Six turkey breasts and a bag of charcoal later, I was disappointed to…

A WHILE BACK, I was invited to a cookout, and I asked what I could bring. The host had all the big stuff handled (ribs, brisket, and his secret chicken recipe), so he requested a side dish. “Maybe beans?” Being a native New Englander, I immediately thought of Boston baked beans. The day before the party, I started my beans soaking. The morning of, I got up at the crack of dawn to get the beans in a low oven to cook for 6 hours. The results were delicious, but I wanted more than just delicious. I wanted showstopping. I wanted a less sweet, more assertively savory dish, one that would complement a full barbecue spread and serve a crowd. I was inspired by a friend of a friend, Daniel…

IT’S THE HEIGHT of summer, and I’m on the lookout for ideas for what to do with the bounty of bell peppers at the market. For years, my go-to recipe has been my grandmother’s meat-and-rice-stuffed peppers. But I wanted something fresher, lighter, and easier. To garner ideas, I gathered five intriguing stuffed pepper recipes and set out a grand tasting for my colleagues. One recipe, from celebrated California chef Alice Waters, featured peppers that were roasted, peeled, and stuffed with crusty bread, creamy sheep’s-milk cheese, fresh herbs, lemon zest, and pine nuts. I liked the bright flavors but wanted to simplify the process and use less-expensive alternatives to the pricey pine nuts and sheep’s-milk cheese. Armed with inspiration, I cut the tops off six peppers and seeded them. I set…

WE JUST DON’T taste the corn,” my tasters said. “Or the poblanos.” I was ready to throw in the towel. I had cooked a dozen batches of corn and poblano chowder using every trick I could think of, but the sweet flavor of the corn and the slightly spicy, earthy taste of the poblano chiles weren’t coming through. I was in search of a creamy, silky soup full of these contrasting flavors, shucking ears of corn to roast until browned alongside poblanos before stirring them into a soup—to lackluster results. No matter what I tried, the vegetables always turned soft, steamy, and flat. I set to tinkering, and my first adjustment was promising: I switched from roasting to broiling. After stripping the corn kernels from the cob, I tossed them…

The massive, peach-shaped water tower looming over Clanton, Alabama, heralds Peach Park, a roadside retail attraction and restaurant that serves as the spiritual center of Alabama’s peach-producing region. Out front, an open-air market sells fresh produce (peaches, mostly) and peach-based pantry products; inside, a long cafeteria case houses meat-and-three fare (preludes, perhaps, to peach ice cream and peach cobbler). Portraits of the reigning Miss Peach and her younger counterparts Junior Miss Peach, Young Miss Peach, and Little Miss Peach honor their regal stone-fruit court. But the best reason to visit Peach Park is the fried peach hand pies. Rumor has it these sweet, warm pies were created as a way to use up overripe peaches, too soft and ugly to sell as is but still full of peach flavor. I’m…

1. MAKE BRINERADE Whisk the oil, water, garlic, sugar, salt, and pepper together in a bowl. WHY? In addition to thoroughly seasoning the meat, the salt helps keep it moist. The sugar helps brown the chicken’s exterior. 2. GIVE IT TIME Place the chicken and brinerade in a zipper-lock bag and refrigerate it for 30 minutes to 12 hours. WHY? The longer the chicken remains in the salt-and-oil mixture, the more flavorful it will be. But don’t let it sit for more than 12 hours, or it will become too salty. 3. PREHEAT GRILL Pour the coals evenly over half the grill. Set the cooking grate in place, cover, and heat the grill for about 5 minutes. WHY? Preheating the grill ensures proper cooking times. Heating the cooking grate also…

Basting Brush Blues I saw a chef on TV basting meat on the grill with a brush made of herb bunches tied to a wooden spoon. It looked cool, but does this actually add flavor? Meg Haber, Lexington, Ky. To test the effectiveness of a homemade herb brush, we put one together by tying bunches of parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme to the handle of a wooden spoon using kitchen twine. We brushed butter onto chicken breasts and flank steaks as we grilled them using both the herb brush and a regular silicone basting brush; we also cooked a third sample of each that we didn’t baste but instead sauced with herb butter when it came off the grill. Most tasters could detect only a slight herb presence in the…

The drive through Texas Hill Country to the town of Llano is desolately beautiful, with long stretches of dusty dirt broken up by patches of electric-green shrubs and stout trees. The weathered roads are wide, though traffic rarely comes. I turn into the parking lot of Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que, a boxy crimson building that’s impossible to miss. I nearly walk right past the line that’s formed at the door before a young man in a camo hat and a soot-blackened apron calls me back to ask what I’ll have. He grabs a plastic lunch tray and lines it with butcher paper as I mull over my choices: barky brisket, slabs of mahogany ribs, giant pork chops. He loads my tray with a slice of this, a link of…

Grill lights are portable, battery-powered LED lamps that latch onto your grill’s handles (or side tables) to illuminate the cooking surface. Looking for the best, we rounded up 14 models, including some designed for camping, to put through their paces. We tested each light’s compatibility with six grills (a mix of gas and charcoal models). Then we took each one into a dark room and used a light meter to measure brightness both in the center of the grill, where each light was aimed, and on the periphery. Finally, we went outside and grilled burgers in the dark, using each of the grill lights as our only illumination. While every model helped cut through the dark, they all had problems, the biggest of which was the ability to evenly illuminate…

HOMETOWN RECIPE WHAT WOULD POSSESS the cooks at Jesse’s Restaurant in Magnolia Springs, Alabama, to marinate perfectly good 16-ounce rib-eye steaks in bourbon whiskey, Worcestershire, and other “secret ingredients”? Aren’t rib-eye steaks good enough on their own? Answer: Yes, rib-eye steaks can be great with just salt. But the Whiskey Steak at Jesse’s, which Cook’s Country executive food editor Bryan Roof tried on a recent trip to Alabama, was something special, with a mild bourbon flavor that enhanced rather than detracted from its essential meatiness and created a lovely char as well. And judging by the fans who return to Jesse’s again and again, he’s hardly alone in his enthusiasm. We’ve developed many recipes in the test kitchen that use a whiskeybased marinade, including a popular recipe for Bourbon Smoked…

FRIED GREEN TOMATOES may be the stuff movies are made of, but red, ripe tomatoes deserve a shot at fame, too. But simply swapping red tomatoes into our existing recipe for Fried Green Tomatoes was a total disaster. The coating barely adhered to the tomato slices, leaving me with a steamy, wet mess. It was time to reengineer this recipe for the sweeter, richer red tomato. I auditioned several varieties of tomatoes: beefsteak, vine-ripened, heirloom, and plum. After many a soggy test, I found that plum tomatoes’ compact size and dense flesh made them the ideal choice, as they stayed relatively firm. But they still had too much moisture. To coax out this excess water, I tried salting them (an old test kitchen trick). It backfired, leaving the tomato flesh…

Whole Peeled Tomatoes CLOSEST TO FRESH We reach for whole peeled tomatoes when making soups, marinara, or Sunday gravy. Their sweet flavor is the closest to that of in-season tomatoes, and they’re peeled, so they’re ultraconvenient. We reach for our taste-test winner, Muir Glen Organic Whole Peeled Tomatoes, when making our Tomato Casserole (CooksCountry.com/tomatocasserole). Canned Diced Tomatoes PANTRY STAPLE Good canned diced tomatoes have a fresh flavor and firm texture that make them one of our top pantry items. Most products are treated with calcium chloride (for a firm texture), salt, and citric acid (for flavor). Try our favorite, Hunt’s Diced Tomatoes, in our recipe for One-Minute Tomato Salsa (CooksCountry.com/oneminutesalsa). Fire-Roasted Tomatoes BRING THE SMOKE Fire-roasted tomatoes have a sweet, smoky flavor (some are actually charred, others simply smokeflavored) that…

SWEET-AND-SOUR CHICKEN IS a mainstay of American Chinese restaurants. It can be great, but often the sauce is cloying and the chicken squishy. I set out to rescue it by creating crispy chicken in a light sauce. I gathered several existing recipes and made five of them to help set my course. Most were awful. But I learned a few things: One, chicken fried at 375 degrees was superior to chicken fried at 350. Two, marinating was unnecessary; any flavor gained was lost once the chicken was sauced. Three, a complex and refined sauce was possible. The trickiest piece of the puzzle was the batter. After many attempts, I settled on a version that uses a mix of flour and cornstarch and, surprisingly, no egg, which I found weighed down…

THE ORIGIN OF Mississippi mud pie is as murky as the depths of the river for which it was (allegedly) named. Close kin to mud pie, a layered dessert of coffee ice cream and chocolate shavings nestled in a chocolate cookie crust that dates back to 1962, Mississippi mud’s name is supposedly derived from the layers’ resemblance to the silty bottom of the Mississippi River. Beyond that, recipes read like a choose-your-own-adventure book: Pick a crust, build a gooey chocolate layer, and then top it with something cool and creamy. But know this: Mississippi mud pie is a project. No way around it. My goal was to divide and conquer, making each component as foolproof and simple as possible. As I began to build my own Mississippi mud pie, I…

CHICKEN PARMESAN IS a study in contrasts: crunchy cutlets, smooth sauce, and oozy mozzarella. All the elements should shine, individually and together. For a quick and easy version to serve two, I chose two 6-ounce breasts. And because chicken breasts are often thick at one end and thin at the other, they can cook unevenly; gently pounding just the thick portion evened things out. I seasoned the cutlets with salt and pepper and let them sit for 20 minutes to allow the salt to penetrate the meat. Usually, there are three steps to coating cutlets for frying. First, the slippery chicken is dredged in flour to create a dry surface. Then, it’s dunked in beaten egg—a sort of edible adhesive. Finally, a mixture of bread crumbs and grated Parmesan is…

WARM, MEATY, RAGU-DRESSED noodles are about as comforting as you can get, and pasta Genovese, a 19th-century dish (brought to the States by immigrants from Naples rather than Genoa, though its name suggests otherwise), is a prime example. The peasant-style sauce simmers for hours until the meat becomes fork-tender and the flavors meld into a beefy pasta blanket. It happens to be especially well suited to the slow-cooker—and to the wallet because, despite its beefy profile, the main ingredient is the inexpensive onion. Besides the rare exception, like French onion soup, onions aren’t usually the star of a recipe, perhaps partly because of the intense, sulfuric aroma they emit when raw. But when onions are cooked slowly and carefully in water, this unpleasant aspect becomes an asset (see “Frugal Flavor-Maker”).…

FROM THE “HOT WATER” sausages of Coney Island to the pineapple-topped “puka dogs” of Kauai, you can find a hot dog in nearly every corner of America. While how you dress your dog varies with regional custom (like your hot dogs with ketchup? Don’t show your face in Chicago), the sausages themselves remain relatively constant across all 50 states—a mixture of meat trimmings, water, salt, and seasonings is stuffed into casings (sometimes natural but usually made from cellulose) and then smoked and cooked. Cellulose casings are stripped off after cooking, so most supermarket hot dogs are skinless. Traditional frankfurters—the kind originally brought over by European immigrants in the mid-1800s—are primarily pork-based and can still be found in supermarkets nationwide. But nearly every hot dog manufacturer we talked to told us…

We’re looking for recipes that you treasure—the ones that have been handed down in your family for a generation or more; that always come out for the holidays; that have earned a place at your table and in your heart, through many years of meals. Send us the recipes that spell home to you. Visit CooksCountry.com/magazines/home (or write to Heirloom Recipes, Cook’s Country, P.O. Box 470739, Brookline, MA 02447); click on Heirloom Recipes and tell us a little about the recipe. Include your name and mailing address. If we print your recipe, you’ll receive a free one-year subscription to Cook’s Country. JOE’S SPECIAL “I enjoyed this dish a long time ago when my parents took me to Original Joe’s in San Francisco. This is my version of what I fondly…

EASY TRICK Quicker Whipper Peggy First, Bethesda, Md. My family loves homemade whipped cream on just about anything, but a full batch is usually too much, and my mixer doesn’t do a good job with small amounts. I discovered that I could easily whip cream with my immersion blender. I put about 1 cup of cream in a 4-cup glass measuring cup (a quart takeout container works well, too), add sugar and vanilla, and blend for 30 to 45 seconds. Perfect whipped cream, every time. TIDY TIP Stuck on You Danny Davis, Raleigh, N.C. To help keep things organized and handy in my kitchen, I glued small magnets to my spice containers. Then I affixed a small metal baking sheet to the inside of my pantry door; I stick all…

STEAMING, SAUTÉING, OR microwaving broccoli is fine, but if you want vivid green florets with flavorful charred accents, you can’t beat the grill. Peeling the stalks with a vegetable peeler is key to avoid toughness. I cut the head into spears with 3- to 4-inchwide florets and ½- to ¾-inch-thick stems: small enough to cook through but large enough to grill easily. But even after carefully cutting it this way, I couldn’t get the broccoli cooked through before it burned. I’d need to precook it. I tried blanching, microwaving, and steaming, and the latter proved best. But could I steam on the grill? Yes, by using foil “hobo packs.” I tossed the spears in an oil mixture, divided them evenly between two sheets of foil, and wrapped them up. Flipping…

IMAGINE CREAMY MASHED potatoes crossed with tangy, chunky potato salad. This style is nothing new if you’re from certain corners of the South, where mashing (or smashing) the potatoes in potato salad is business as usual. But in our Boston-based test kitchen, this was a new approach. Many recipes advocate using unpeeled potatoes to give the salad a rustic look. Cooking times are loose, as is the nomenclature: The line between “smashed” and “mashed” is vaguely defined, but the goal is a salad with a mix of textures—partly chunky, partly smooth. Potato salads that use a ricer, food mill, or stand mixer to more thoroughly break down the potatoes head squarely into mashed potato territory, a region I wanted to avoid; who wants a whole bowl of cold mashed potatoes?…

We use Worcestershire sauce to add salty, punchy kick and depth to all sorts of dishes. This ingredient originated in the English county of Worcester in the early 19th century. As the story goes, a wealthy Brit who had recently returned from India commissioned chemists John Lea and William Perrins to create a sauce reminiscent of those he’d enjoyed abroad. Lea and Perrins made the sauce to his specifications but found it unpalatable, so it sat, forgotten, in a corner of their shop’s basement until someone decided to try it a few years later and discovered that fermentation had transformed it into a sauce with incredible depth. While no manufacturer wants to give up its exact recipe, most Worcestershire sauce today is made with onions, garlic, salt, anchovies, vinegar, spices,…

HOMETOWN RECIPE COCHINITA PIBIL, THE inspiration for our Citrus-Braised Pork Tacos, is a Mexican dish traditionally made by coating a whole suckling pig in the juice from bitter oranges and a blend of warm spices. It marinates overnight before being swaddled in banana leaves and slowly pit-roasted. The banana leaves impart a mild herby flavor while helping insulate the meat and keep it moist. The result is succulent, multifaceted, and richly flavored. But it’s hardly easy to achieve. To make a version suitable for cooking at home, I would have to adjust. A lot. But would I have to compromise? Figuring out what cut of meat to use would be my first task. Suckling pig is incredibly rich in collagen, which, when cooked, yields delicate, tender meat. Extensive research into…

STRAWBERRY JAM ADDS fresh, fruity flavor and color to breakfasts, snacks, and desserts, but too often, store-bought varieties can be sticky and cloyingly sweet, tasting more like sugar or corn syrup than strawberries. I wanted a bright homemade jam that tasted like strawberries and didn’t take all day or require a battery of canning equipment to make. Turning fresh berries into a thick jam involves three key components (besides the berries, of course): pectin, acid (in this case, lemon juice), and sugar. Pectin is a natural substance found in varying amounts in fruits and vegetables; when combined with acid, sugar, and heat, the pectin sets into a gel, suspending the fruit in a spreadable jam. Strawberries have some natural pectin but not quite enough. I did some early tests with…

HOMETOWN RECIPE MANY RESTAURANTS IN the South pride themselves on their peach pies. Some even tout their peach hand pies. But the folks at Peach Park in Clanton, Alabama (see “On the Road”), really have something to crow about: deep-fried peach hand pies. Golden-brown crescents of tender dough filled with bright, sweet peaches, these popular little treats draw crowds from miles around. I wanted to create a recipe so the rest of us could get in on the action. The crust in Peach Park’s hand pies is not quite stiff or sturdy like tart crust, not quite flaky like pie pastry, and not quite bready like fried dough. Instead, it’s somewhere in between—delicate and tender but crumbly, like soft shortbread without the snap. And the filling is pure peach flavor,…

GRILLED BONELESS, SKINLESS CHICKEN BREASTS Serves 4 This chicken can be served with one of our three sauces (recipes follow) alongside a simply prepared vegetable for a light dinner. The chicken can also be used in a sandwich or sliced and tossed with greens for a salad. The chicken takes longer to cook on a gas grill, so begin checking it at the end of the range in step 4. The chicken should be marinated for no less than 30 minutes and no more than 12 hours. 3 tablespoons vegetable oil 3 tablespoons water 3 garlic cloves, minced 1 teaspoon sugar Salt and pepper 4 (6- to 8-ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed 1 (13 by 9-inch) disposable aluminum roasting pan (if using charcoal) 1. Whisk oil, water, garlic, sugar,…

PLAIN STEAMED RICE is enough for some. But for me, the best role rice can play is serving as a solid base for other flavors. As in, for example, rice pilaf. The test kitchen’s basic method for rice pilaf is simple. First, uncooked long-grain rice is sautéed in butter until the grains begin to become translucent around the edges. This step helps develop rich, nutty flavors and also begins to set the starches in the grains, providing extra insurance against clumping. Next comes water, 2¼ cups for 1½ cups of rice. Once the water boils, the lid goes on the saucepan and the heat’s turned down. Twenty minutes of steaming ensue, followed by an off-heat rest of 10 minutes. The result? Flavorful rice that stays in distinct, separate grains. With…

TIMESAVING ONE-PAN SUPPERS can be tricky; all the components need to be cooked evenly and hit the table while they’re still hot. For this seaside-style meal, we wanted perfectly cooked fillets of mild, tender halibut with boldly flavored andouille sausage, crispy red potatoes, and juicy corn. But just tossing everything on a baking sheet and cooking it in one visit to the oven produced a mess of overcooked fish, rubbery andouille, rock-hard potatoes, and unevenly cooked corn. Sorting out this puzzle required first identifying the specific cooking time and temperature for each component. The potatoes needed high heat and the most time to roast. Conveniently, the andouille cooked beautifully along with them in a 500-degree oven, rendering flavorful fat into the pan for the potatoes to soak up. In contrast…

THERE’S NOTHING LIKE a spectacular kitchen failure, replete with leathery meat, disintegrated vegetables, or, worse yet, billowing smoke to drive home the importance of timing in cooking. Most every smartphone, tablet, oven, or microwave has a timer these days, so why use a dedicated kitchen timer? Kitchen timers are more durable and moisture-resistant than other electronics, and they’re more versatile than appliance timers, with extra features like the ability to track multiple things at once, longer ranges, or the capacity to count up once the timer has sounded to track elapsed time. When we last tested digital multievent kitchen timers, the American Innovative Chef’s Quad Timer Professional was the winner. But it’s not perfect (it’s a bit confusing to operate and can’t be set for less than 1 minute), and…

Sweeten up the seventh-inning stretch with this home run of a cake. TO MAKE THIS CAKE, YOU WILL NEED: ½ cup caramel topping ¼ cup peanut butter 1½ quarts vanilla ice cream ½ cup unsalted dry-roasted peanuts, chopped 1 (9-inch) white cake round* 2 (1-ounce) boxes Cracker Jack FOR THE ICE CREAM CORE: Line 3-cup bowl with plastic wrap, letting ends of plastic overhang bowl by several inches. Combine caramel and peanut butter in small bowl; set aside. Scoop 2 cups ice cream into medium bowl and mash with wooden spoon until softened. Stir in peanuts until combined. Add ¼ cup caramel mixture and fold until swirled into ice cream. Scrape into plastic-lined bowl and smooth top. Wrap with plastic and freeze until firm, about 6 hours. TO ASSEMBLE: Line…