Innholdsfortegnelse for October/November 2020 i Cook's Country

ATK REVIEWS WOODEN SPOONS ARE one of the oldest cooking tools—and home cooks still love them. They’re useful for many tasks, such as mixing cookie dough, browning roux, scraping up fond for stews and sauces, sautéing onions, and breaking up ground beef as it cooks. We bought 13 spoons in innovative and classic styles and prepared vegetable curry, Bolognese sauce, and oatmeal cookies, rating their performance, comfort, and durability and how easy they were to clean. Our top two models were light and easy to maneuver, with scooped heads and thin front edges that helped us scoop and scrape. Their rounded, longer handles felt comfortable and kept our hands far from the heat. Both were easy to keep clean and didn’t break or crack. Our co-winners were the Spootle from…

HER SQUASH CASSEROLE almost made us break up. You see, a man I was dating knew about my disapproval of this side dish and brought me home to try his mother’s rendition. She was a great cook, and when he described her squash casserole—mild summer squash, melted cheese, sour cream, and a crunchy Ritz Cracker topping—it sounded great. But it was not. It was watery and sad. I was young and hadn’t yet learned that there are times when you can be too honest. And one of those times is a face-to-face assessment of a Southern mom’s cooking. I apologized and we got past it. He and I didn’t last in the long run (maybe the squash scars were too deep), but his mom was fighting an uphill battle. Yellow…

A SIMPLE CHEESECAKE IS, in my mind, the ultimate dessert: velvety and smooth, with a crisp, buttery crust and a richness that’s restrained by an underlying tang. But for Thanksgiving this year, I wanted to give the classic an autumnal twist, and sweetening the cheesecake with maple syrup instead of sugar was just the way to get there. But first, the crust. I tried a basic graham cracker crust as well as a few unorthodox variations; we loved the way a handful of pecans added to our tried-and-true graham cracker crust provided a nutty accent to the maple-y filling. To make it, grind up graham crackers and pecans in a food processor until they’re fine crumbs. To this, add sugar, salt, and flour (the flour is the key to the…

Stock versus Broth Technically, stock is made primarily with bones (plus vegetables and seasonings) and is cooked until concentrated, while broth is made primarily with meat (often on the bone) and is lighter-tasting and more diluted. The bones provide stock with gelatin, which gives it a fuller body; it takes on a jellied consistency when chilled. Broth has a thinner consistency. But most commercial producers (and recipe writers) don’t distinguish between the two, so if you’re going the store-bought route, either broth or stock will work in most recipes. Stock Made with bones; rich and full-bodied Broth Made with meat; light and versatile Keeping Stock at the Ready Stock freezes beautifully, so many cooks like to make a big batch to stash in the freezer. We recommend letting stock cool…

PARKER HOUSE ROLLS Makes 24 rolls Estimated Time: 4 to 5 hours, plus 15 minutes cooling 4 cups (20 ounces) all-purpose flour2¼ teaspoons instant or rapid-rise yeast1½ teaspoons table salt1¼ cups (10 ounces) whole milk, room temperature14 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, divided1 large egg, room temperature2 tablespoons sugar 1. Whisk flour, yeast, and salt together in bowl of stand mixer. Whisk milk, 8 tablespoons melted butter, egg, and sugar in 4-cup liquid measuring cup until sugar has dissolved. 2. Fit mixer with dough hook. Slowly add milk mixture to flour mixture on low speed and mix until cohesive dough starts to form and no dry flour remains, about 2 minutes, scraping down bowl as needed. Increase speed to medium-low and knead until dough is smooth and elastic and clears sides…

WHENEVER I HAD a cold as a child, my mom made a massive batch of chicken noodle soup. It was as if the bigger the pot of soup, the better I’d feel. Clearly she is the kindest. As an adult I still crave that same comforting elixir of a soup whenever I’m under the weather. But nowadays, with limited freezer space in my apartment, I want just enough for dinner. My mother’s recipe for chicken noodle soup starts like many recipes do: You make a homemade chicken stock by gently cooking a whole chicken and aromatics (carrot, onion, celery, garlic, herbs, etc.) in water for hours. To mimic this on a weeknight and on a smaller scale, I seared a single bone-in, skin-on split chicken breast before simmering it in…

SOME THANKSGIVING classics are untouchable, right? I wouldn’t dare suggest you upend tradition by replacing the trusty turkey or stuffing, and I’m not about to propose you go without creamy, comforting mashed potatoes either. But maybe there’s room for improvement, especially if it means crossing an item off your to-do list on the big day. Typically, mashed potatoes are made and served right away, which can take up precious time on a high-pressure holiday. But you can assemble a creamy, buttery mashed potato casserole ahead of time, getting most of the work out of the way the day before. While you’re at it, why not up the flavor ante with almost too much cheese and a crispy, buttery topping to boot? Here’s how. To start, slice 4 pounds of Yukon…

GOBI MANCHURIAN IS a beautiful, complex dish with roots in the Chinese community of Kolkata, India. It’s a popular dish in cities across the United States, too, including Asheville, North Carolina, where chef Meherwan Irani serves a version at his restaurant Chai Pani (see “An Asheville Staple”). Gobi Manchurian features cauliflower florets that are battered, fried, and then served with a spicy-sweet sauce. Its powerful mix of textures and flavors makes it a popular vegetarian dish that’s served as a meal or a snack. Gobi Manchurian comes in at least two styles. The “dry” style features fried cauliflower florets with a vibrant dipping sauce on the side, while the “wet” style marries the florets and the sauce in the same dish. The recipe here, inspired by the version served at…

PHO, AN EXTRAORDINARY Vietnamese soup consisting of broth, rice noodles, meat, and herbs, is a favorite around the world. The soup has countless variations; one incredible example is the version served by Hà VL in Portland, Oregon (see “Soup’s on in Portland”). At Hà VL, the pho is built on a deeply spiced, aromatic, savory-sweet broth and boasts slightly chewy noodles and a crown of thinly sliced beef. At the table, an array of vibrant garnishes—Thai basil, scallions, cilantro, and lime—can be mixed and matched to add a range of fresh and bright flavors. It is a wonderfully complex dish. For our version, we found that beef shanks, simmered slowly, added extra richness and body to the broth and that generous measurements of spices were essential. For the beef served…

A GREAT HOLIDAY cranberry sauce offers so much: bright flavor, festive color, and a refreshing sense of balance to an otherwise heavy meal. While straightforward cranberry sauce will always be welcome, we thought that this year we’d add another option to the table—something with a bit more complexity and a little sweetness, too. A great chutney combines sweet fruit, tangy vinegar, and warm spices with a few extra ingredients such as aromatics or sweeteners to even things out; it’s bold but balanced This recipe starts by cooking minced shallot with a little water over medium heat to soften its texture and bring out its sweetness. Next, minced garlic and ground spices (coriander, pepper, and allspice) enter the saucepan and cook just long enough to bloom and amplify their aromas before…

IF THERE WAS ever a dish that was a perfect fit for the slow cooker, it would be pot roast. And while you could certainly just pile your beef roast, vegetables, and broth in the cooker and hit “go,” we found a better path to fuller flavor and better texture. We started with a hefty chuck-eye roast, an affordable cut with lots of marbling and great beefy flavor. This cut has a seam of fat running through the middle, and our move here was to pull the raw roast in two along that seam, clean out the excess fat (if left in, this fat would make the resulting sauce greasy), and then tie the two halves up into separate tidy bundles with kitchen twine. Making two smaller roasts out of…

Make-Ahead Gravy Tip Marie Westblanc of Rapid City, S.D., has a secret for make-ahead gravy: rotisserie chicken. In the weeks leading up to Turkey Day, she freezes the wings and carcasses from rotisserie birds that she uses for weeknight dinners in order to make one “superstrong” batch of stock for gravy, adding plenty of carrots, onions, and celery to the pot. Then she uses the measurements from our recipe for Turkey and Gravy for a Crowd (October/November 2017)—6 cups of broth or stock, ⁄ cup off our, and ½ cup of reserved chicken fat (or oil)—to make gravy in the days before the holiday. Finally, when reheating the gravy the day of, she adds turkey drippings to fortify it with the flavors of roasted turkey. No Cake Stand, No Problem…

PREPARING AND EXECUTING a memorable Thanksgiving meal is hard work, and buying a canned or jarred cranberry sauce is an easy way to streamline things. Prepared cranberry sauces are either “jellied” (smooth and gelatinous) or “whole berry” (with cranberry pieces or whole cranberries mixed in). For this tasting, we purchased 10 sauces (three jellied, seven whole berry) and sampled them plain and with roast turkey breast to evaluate their flavors, textures, and levels of sweetness. The textures of the sauces varied widely within each category. We expected jellied sauces to be firm and jiggly, but some didn’t hold their shape. We were also surprised that one whole-berry sauce was thin and had hardly any berries. Tasters were drawn to jellied sauces with “smooth,” “melt-in-your-mouth” textures. They also liked “jammy” whole-berry…

MEHERWAN IRANI, the owner of popular restaurant Chai Pani in Asheville, North Carolina, entered the restaurant business in 2009. At the time, he felt that the Indian food he grew up eating—his mother’s cooking specifically—was underrepresented in the South. It deserved more fans. The best way to spread the word? Open a restaurant. “I wasn’t trying to be groundbreaking. I was just trying to do what I knew people would love. I was thinking, ‘Wait till they try Indian street food. They’ll lose their minds.’” Owning and operating an Indian street-food restaurant in the South required Meherwan to think deeply about his product and goals as well as his own identity as a Southerner. A turning point came a few years ago when a fellow Indian chef working in the…

A Word on Kale We call for a full pound of kale here (pictured at right), which is a lot. Whether you use curly kale, red kale, or Lacinato (dinosaur) kale, you have to take the leaves off the tough stems before chopping them and adding them to the pot. We’ve found that the easiest way to do this is with your hands. Grasp a leaf by the bottom (fat end) of the stem and run the fingers of your other hand up the side of the stem, pinching as you go; it’s OK to leave a little bit of the thinner, tender stem imbedded toward the top of the leaf. IT’S HARD TO imagine a more comforting supper than a dish of soft, brothy beans; hearty kale; and punchy…

CHOCOLATE CREAM PIE IN A JAR Serves 12 Estimated Time: 35 minutes, plus 1 hour cooling You can either use store-bought whipped cream or whip 1 cup of chilled heavy cream, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, and a pinch of table salt in a stand mixer on medium speed for 1 to 3 minutes, until soft peaks form. You will need twelve 4-ounce wide-mouth Mason jars for this recipe; for larger servings, use eight 6-ounce ramekins. 2½ cups half-and-half1⁄3 cup (21⁄3 ounces) sugar, divided Pinch table salt6 large egg yolks2 tablespoons cornstarch6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces6 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped fine1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, chopped fine1 teaspoon vanilla extract10 Oreo cookies, broken into coarse crumbs, divided2 cups whipped cream 1. Bring half-and-half, 3…