Innholdsfortegnelse for February/March 2020 i Cook's Country

IN THE TEST kitchen, we love white chocolate chips in all sorts of sweets. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, white chocolate must contain at least 20 percent cocoa butter. Many products replace some—or all—of that cocoa butter with refined fats; these products can’t legally be called white chocolate. Instead, they’re labeled white baking chips, morsels, or melting wafers. (For simplicity, we’ve chosen to refer to these products as “white chips.”) We gathered two varieties of white chocolate chips and four varieties of white chips and tasted them plain and in bark; then we pitted the white chocolate chips against our highest-ranking white chips in blondies. Surprisingly, we preferred white chips in both flavor and texture. Some tasters described the white chocolate chips as complex, but others noticed…

CUBAN SANDWICHES Serves 4 We strongly prefer to use our Cuban Bread for this recipe. But if you don’t have the time to make it, you can use four 7- to 8-inch soft white Italian-style sub rolls or two 15-inch loaves of soft supermarket Italian or French bread. Do not use a thick-crusted rustic or artisan-style loaf or a baguette. To make slicing the Cuban Roast Pork easier, be sure to chill it thoroughly beforehand. Mojo and mayonnaise aren’t typical ingredients in Tampa-style Cuban sandwiches, but they make nice additions. 1 recipe Cuban Bread (recipe follows)¼ cup mojo from Cuban Roast Pork with Mojo (optional) (recipe follows)¼ cup mayonnaise (optional)12 ounces thinly sliced deli ham10 ounces thinly sliced Cuban roast pork from Cuban Roast Pork with Mojo (2 cups) (recipe…

THERE ARE A lot of things you can do to jazz up a meatloaf. You can, of course, wrap it in sweet, smoky, salty bacon. You can make a gravy. Glazes—whether ketchup, barbecue, or sweet-and-sour—are always good. The test kitchen even has a recipe for Frosted Meatloaf that calls for covering the loaf in mashed potatoes. But I had another idea, born out of a thought that a meatloaf is really just an oversize, loaf-shaped meatball. I wanted to create a meatloaf with flavors inspired by Italian cuisine. So I topped the whole thing with savory tomato sauce and melted cheese to make meatballs and marinara in meatloaf form. My recipe starts with an intensely flavorful meat mixture—ground beef, deeply seasoned sweet Italian sausage (you can use hot sausage if…

Why You Need One FOR GRINDING MEAT You can grind different cuts to customize flavor and fat levels. Partially freeze cubed meat to make processing more efficient and overprocessing less likely. FOR DOUGH Food processors mix and knead bread dough efficiently, and they’re great for making pie and pastry doughs, too. FOR CHOPPING AND GRINDING VEGETABLES, GRAINS, AND NUTS Err on the side of underprocessing—there is no going back! We prefer to use the pulse button rather than continuously run the machine. FOR SLICING AND SHREDDING VEGETABLES AND CHEESE Slicing: Potatoes for a gratin or homemade chips, cucumbers for salads, cabbage for coleslaw or sauerkraut—the slicing disk makes fast and easy work of prepping them all. Shredding: A food processor can shred carrots, potatoes, squash, and even cheese. Chilling foods…

A CROCK OF savory-sweet French onion soup topped with crunchy croutons and bubbly cheese is as comforting as my favorite slippers. But here in the test kitchen, we’re never satisfied with the status quo, so I decided to take another look at this bistro favorite to see if I could create a recipe that cut down on the time needed to caramelize the onions and still produced a great soup. I tried all manner of “innovative” ingredients to achieve this goal. While most iterations of my soup were fine, I was left facing an unavoidable fact: This classic is a classic for a reason, and there’s no beating the understated simplicity of traditional French onion soup. Test after test, tasters preferred slow-cooked onions simmered with just broth, wine, and herbs…

FRESH PASTA Serves 4 to 6 (Makes 1 pound) The longer the dough rests in step 2, the easier it will be to roll out. When rolling out the dough in step 4, be sure to avoid dusting the dough with too much flour; that may result in the dough snapping back into shape as you roll. Cook the noodles within 1 hour of cutting them. 2 cups (10 ounces) all-purpose flour2 large eggs plus 6 large yolks2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil Table salt for cooking pasta 1. Process flour, eggs and yolks, and oil in food processor until mixture forms cohesive dough that feels soft and is barely tacky to touch, about 45 seconds. (If dough sticks to your fingers, add up to ¼ cup flour, 1 tablespoon at…

AMONG THE MANY treasured recipes featured in The Silver Palate Cookbook, which was written by Sheila Lukins and Julee Rosso and first published in 1982, is Chicken Marbella. At first glance, both then and now, the combination of ingredients will surprise some: Chicken parts stewed with prunes, olives, and wine? But Lukins and Rosso’s bold combination is lovely. We set out to create an equally lovely version for the slow cooker. As is common in the test kitchen, our first move was just to put all the ingredients into the slow cooker, turn it on, and walk away—to see what would happen. We chose chicken thighs because their dark meat is well suited to the long, gentle cooking of the slow cooker. After a few hours, we found juicy, tender,…

HEIRLOOM PIZZA DIP Serves 6 For the best results, buy a stick of pepperoni, not packaged presliced pepperoni. Serve with breadsticks, crackers, or toasted baguette slices. 8 ounces cream cheese, cut into 8 pieces¾ cup jarred pizza sauce1 garlic clove, minced½ teaspoon dried oregano¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes4 ounces whole-milk mozzarella cheese, shredded (1 cup)3 ounces pepperoni, cut into ¼-inch pieces1 ounce Parmesan cheese, grated (½ cup)6 tablespoons thinly sliced scallions, divided 1 Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. 2. Microwave cream cheese in large bowl until soft, 20 to 30 seconds. Stir in pizza sauce, garlic, oregano, and pepper flakes until thoroughly combined. Stir in mozzarella, pepperoni, Parmesan, and ¼ cup scallions. 3. Transfer cream cheese mixture to 1-quart casserole dish and smooth…

WHAT’S THE BEST way to infuse steak with garlic flavor? That was the question I asked myself—and my colleagues—when my editor gave me the assignment to develop a recipe for garlicky strip steaks. (Strip steak is a favorite cut in the test kitchen for its combination of tenderness and big flavor.) Was a garlic rub the best path forward? A garlicky oil marinade? A garlic-laden finishing sauce? I headed into the test kitchen to try them all. Early tests proved that while steaks rubbed with garlic powder and granulated garlic tasted OK, they lacked the sharp kick of fresh garlic. So next I tested oil-based marinades with fresh garlic prepped in three different ways: minced, sliced, and smashed whole cloves (we know that garlic’s flavor compounds are oil-soluble, so the…

PARMESAN CHEESE IS a transformative ingredient. The salty, savory shavings can turn even the blandest bunch of vegetables into something special. I set out to test this idea with roasted cauliflower. My first stab was to trim a few heads of cauliflower into florets, toss them with a little oil and grated Parmesan, and roast them. But once the cauliflower started giving up its moisture in the hot oven, the cheese steamed right off. Next, I tried roasting the florets for a bit before adding the cheese, but again the cheese slid off the cauliflower and onto the baking sheet. I needed a binder of some sort to act as a glue between the oiled florets and the grated cheese. Typically, we think of “gluing” agents as wet ingredients such…

A TRADITIONAL HUNGARIAN stew of chicken pieces, onion, peppers, and sour cream, paprikash features the sweet, toasty flavor of paprika as its backbone. But many recipes for this dish seem so loaded with paprika that they end up with a harsh, bitter taste. After visiting Balaton in Cleveland, Ohio (see “Sister Act”), Executive Food Editor Bryan Roof clued me in on why that is: Paprika’s delicate flavor is very sensitive to heat, and unlike other ground spices that benefit from blooming in hot oil, paprika becomes acrid almost instantly when cooked over high heat in hot fat. At Balaton, they avoid this by adding paprika to their paprikash and goulash off the heat. This way, the paprika blooms and develops flavor in the braising liquid rather than in searing-hot oil,…

THIS CARROT SNACK cake is an informal, stir-together affair that will make you wonder why you ever spent more time or effort on complicated layer cake versions. There’s no stacking of layers, no finicky piping, and no meticulously crafted marzipan carrots here. There’s just a simple-to-prepare carrot cake that’s moist, sweet, and perfectly spiced. A few uncommon (but easy) techniques helped me ensure consistently delicious results. Some carrot cakes bake up unpleasantly dry, but my version is perfectly soft and moist. To achieve this, I soaked the still-hot cake in buttermilk syrup. The sweet, mildly tangy buttermilk syrup not only upped the ante texturally but also added a layer of flavor that brightened and balanced the sweetness of the cake while enhancing the tanginess of the cream cheese frosting. A…

IT’S A QUESTION as old as brunch itself: Savory or sweet? Eggs and sausage or pancakes and waffles? I’m firmly settled in the “both” camp. That zone on your plate where the syrup has started to seep over and infiltrate the savory side? That’s where my favorite bites are, and that’s what I wanted my breakfast strata to taste like. I wanted an easy dish for a lazy day that would serve two people, and I wanted to pack it with all the best parts of breakfast. To start, I browned some bulk breakfast sausage, tossed it with torn sandwich bread and shredded cheddar cheese, poured a simple mixture of milk, eggs, and maple syrup over it, and baked it in a small casserole dish until it was puffy and…

A tiny version of this rooster has been hidden in a photo in the pages of this issue. Write to us with its location, and we’ll enter you in a random drawing. The first correct entry drawn will win our favorite inexpensive blender, and each of the next five will receive a free one-year subscription to Cook’s Country. To enter, visit CooksCountry.com/rooster by February 29, 2020, or write to Rooster FM20, Cook’s Country, 21 Drydock Avenue, Suite 210E, Boston, MA 02210. Include your name and address. Pat Vignocchi of Northbrook, Illinois, found the rooster in the October/November 2019 issue on page 9 and won our favorite broiler-safe baking dish. WEB EXTRAS Free for four months online at CooksCountry.com/mar20 Chocolate Layer Cake Rounds Food-Processor Vanilla Frosting READ US ON IPAD Download…

Don’t Waste Those Wipes –Anne Hsu Gibson, Boulder, Colo. I often use cleaning wipes for my kitchen counters, and I’ve noticed that there’s always extra fluid at the bottom of the canister when the wipes run out. Instead of just tossing the whole thing into the recycling bin, I now stick a couple of paper towels into the canister, shake it up, and eke out a few more “cleaning wipes.” Cork It with a Carrot –Benjamin Musher, Houston, Texas My wife and I opened a bottle of sparkling wine. We didn’t finish the bottle, and we couldn’t fit the original cork back into the bottle’s mouth. In a pinch, we stuck a peeled carrot into the bottle opening to use as a substitute cork. The tapered shape of the carrot…

AFTER EXECUTIVE FOOD Editor Bryan Roof returned from the Cuban Sandwich Festival in Tampa, he set a goal for me: Create a home recipe for Cuban sandwiches that would stand up to the prizewinners he’d tasted. The sandwich is familiar on a basic level: Roasted spiced pork, ham, Swiss cheese, dill pickles, and yellow mustard on soft bread that’s pressed and toasted until golden brown. In Tampa, the sandwich also includes Genoa salami. That’s a fantastic combination any way you look at it, so it’s no surprise that there are as many variations of the sandwich as there are fans of it. I wanted to take it back to its Tampa roots: Yes, there’d be salami on it; yes, I’d follow the traditional, particular order of components and amounts of…

DURING THE BLEAK winter months here in the Northeast, nothing’s quite as comforting as a bowl of warm stroganoff—soft noodles, strips of tender and flavorful meat, and a supercreamy sauce. But instead of using expensive beef tenderloin, the cut most frequently called for in recipes for this dish, I wanted to use pork tenderloin, a favorite in my kitchen for its faintly sweet flavor and relatively low price. Traditional? Nope, and that’s OK. I knew that I had to cook the pork relatively quickly so it wouldn’t dry out. I began by cutting the tenderloin in half lengthwise and then sliced each half ¼ inch thick. Next, I dredged the pork in flour to promote browning. I seared the pieces for about 3 minutes and then removed them from the…

AIRY, LIGHT, SWEET, and flavorful—what’s not to like about chocolate mousse? Unfortunately, the answer is often an overcomplicated recipe. Many versions call for some variation on the following rigmarole: Whipping cream, whipping egg whites, melting chocolate (often with egg yolks and butter), folding in the egg whites, and then adding the whipped cream—all without causing the delicate mixture to deflate. I wanted a foolproof recipe for chocolate mousse that streamlined the process. To get started, I made half a dozen recipes from well-known dessert cookbooks. The one that best combined simplicity with good flavor called for whisking egg yolks into a mixture of melted chocolate and butter before folding in sweetened whipped egg whites. Without any whipped cream and with minimal sugar, this mousse had an intense dark chocolate flavor.…

WHEN I WAS growing up, the best part of family birthday celebrations was my Nana’s soy sauce chicken wings. They were so simple—whole wings marinated in soy sauce, vegetable oil, and garlic powder and baked in a dish—but they were intensely seasoned and almost impossibly tender, with a sticky, savory skin that always left us clamoring for more. More than a decade has passed since I’ve tasted Nana’s wings, but after stumbling across an old jotted-down recipe of hers, I have been itching to re-create them. I made a batch for my coworkers, and we agreed that, with just a bit of work, these easy, tasty wings would be a perfect fit for our Cook’s Country readers. I brought my Nana’s recipe into the test kitchen and got to work,…

WHAT’S NOT TO love about grilled meat on a stick? It’s easy to cook (the skewer holds together small pieces that are otherwise hard to manage over the fire), easy to eat (the food is already cut into bite-size pieces), easy to serve (one kebab usually feeds one person), and easy to customize (what you thread onto each skewer is up to you). But do you have to put away the skewers when temperatures are low? I wanted an easy, weeknight-friendly supper of chicken kebabs that tasted of char but could be cooked indoors. And I wanted to cook it all on one pan for easy cleanup. Step one was choosing between chicken breasts and chicken thighs; I went with the breasts because they require less prep and take less…

EVERY RECIPE WE publish in Cook’s Country goes through rigorous testing, not only in our own test kitchens but in dozens of home kitchens across the country. This is, of course, thanks to our dedicated cadre of volunteer home testers (visit the link at the end of the recipe for more information). The feedback we get from our readers—who test our recipes in their home kitchens with their own groceries and pots and pans—is absolutely essential to refining our recipes. Contributing Editor Eva Katz, an experienced cook and a very tough critic, also runs through and assesses each of our recipes in her home kitchen. If there’s a problem with the method or the flavor isn’t perfect, she tells us about it. Not every recipe survives her thoughtful, honest, and…

TO MAKE THIS CAKE, YOU WILL NEED: 1½ teaspoons unflavored gelatin½ cup Kahlúa6 ounces white chocolate, chopped1 cup heavy cream1 pound cream cheese, softened½ cup (3½ ounces) sugar2 (9-inch) Chocolate Layer Cake Rounds*1 recipe Food-Processor Vanilla Frosting*6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled slightly2½ tablespoons (½ ounce) Dutch-processed cocoa powder FOR THE CHEESECAKE: Sprinkle gelatin over Kahlua in small saucepan and let sit until gelatin softens, about 5 minutes. Cook gelatin mixture over low heat until edges are just bubbling. Add white chocolate and continue to cook, stirring constantly, until just melted and smooth, about 2 minutes longer. Set aside and let cool for 15 minutes. Using stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, whip cream on medium-high speed until soft peaks form, 1 to 2 minutes; transfer to medium bowl…