Cooking Tricks

Nebraska Corn

August 2, 2015

Nebraska Corn

Growing up in Nebraska corn was a nightly summer menu item. The corn plant is Native American in origin and Nebraska is corn country. Driving through the state, one will see endless fields of sweet corn, feed corn, and pop corn. Small plot gardeners know that corn takes up a lot of space as it is greedy for soil nutrients, prone to weeds and disease, destroyed by small animals, wind and frost. So then why do we go through all the trouble of growing corn? Because no corn is as fresh and sweet as the corn you grow yourself.

The period of peak freshness for sweet corn is measured in minutes, not hours or days. The best corn is simply the freshest corn. Proper timing for harvest is crucial to the quality of sweet corn. Harvest sweet corn when the ears are full and blunt at the tip. The husks should be tightly folded and green. Using your thumbnail, poke and end kernel. It should squirt a milky white sap. Under ripe corn will contain a watery liquid. Overripe corn will have a tough skinned kernel with doughy interiors. Also look at the silk, which should be turning brown and dry on the end.

Storing sweet corn for long periods of time will destroy it. The sugar quickly turns to starch, losing flavor, quality, and most of all sweetness. If you must store sweet corn, use perforated plastic bags and get it into the refrigerator as soon as possible. Warm temperatures hasten the conversion process. Try to use the corn within 1 to 2 days and DO NOT husk until just prior to cooking.

“Work With What You Got!”

© Victoria Hart Glavin Tiny New York Kitchen © 2015 All Rights Reserved

Making Coffee Ice Cream

July 19, 2015

For those of you who prefer an electric model ice cream machine, there are machines that can be had for under $50 that make a quart. The drum will need to be frozen before starting a batch. Larger machines range from $125 to $300. Cuisinart makes a model that produces two quarts in about 30 minutes, which is the ice cream maker that I used in this video.

Stores such as Williams-Sonoma sell ice cream starters that require a few simple added ingredients put into the machine to create ice cream. Personally, I don’t think that you need these starters.

There are endless combinations of ingredients that can be added to a batch of your homemade ice cream. Have fun experimenting with different flavors and add-ins. Enjoy summer with homemade ice cream that fits your personality.

“Work With What You Got!”

© Victoria Hart Glavin Tiny New York Kitchen © 2015 All Rights Reserved

Stone Fruit

June 29, 2015

5 Ways to Make the Most of Seasonal Stone Fruit

Ripen: Ripen peaches, nectarines and apricots at room temperature. Once ripe, they can be refrigerated for just a few days to help keep them at their best.

Speed Up: Speed up the ripening process by placing fruit in a brown paper bag on the counter, checking a few times each day.

Can: Preserve stone fruits by canning them (make jam, syrup or salsa) to enjoy the taste of summer year-round.

Dry: Bake or grill halves or slices at 200 degrees for about 3 hours, turning every 30 minutes or so, until dehydrated yet still soft. Store in the refrigerator.

Freeze: Lightly poach halved and pitted fruit in water (sugar optional), portion and freeze for later use in smoothies, baking, desserts or fruit sauce for pancakes.

“Work With What You Got!”

© Victoria Hart Glavin Tiny New York Kitchen © 2015 All Rights Reserved

Burgers 101

June 18, 2015

Burgers 101

Whether you’re cooking on a gas or charcoal grill or in a fry pan on the stovetop, here are tips on making the perfect burger that is meaty and satisfying, yet never dense and bricklike. To make the best burgers, use a light touch with the meat.

DON’T FEAR THE FAT For the juiciest beef burgers, use ground chuck (80% lean/20% fat) or sirloin (85% lean/15% fat). Leaner cuts and grass-fed beef will yield a drier burger. When buying chicken or turkey, opt for dark meat. It’s still lower in fat than beef and will result in a much tastier burger than white meat.

FRESH IS BEST Keep in mind that you don’t need to buy ground meat. You can choose any boneless cut and then ask your butcher to grind it for you or grind it yourself. Use a coarser grind to avoid a mushy texture. For a special treat add some freshly ground short ribs, dry-aged steak, brisket or a combination.

MAKE AN IMPRESSION The edges of a burger cook faster than the center, which can cause the burger to puff up into a sphere. To avoid this, when shaping the patty, press your thumb into the center to make a dimple about the size of a quarter.

HOLD THE SALT Wait to add salt until after the patties are formed and just before cooking, and then season generously. Salt inside a patty will start to dissolve the protein strands, which will adversely affect the texture of the burger.

GRILL OR GRIDDLE Burger lovers are divided about the best cooking method. Grilling adds terrific smoky flavor, but some insist that a griddle or fry pan allows the flavorful fat to stay with the burger during cooking. Whichever method you choose, DO NOT press down on the meat with the spatula because it will release the juices and fat. Resist that urge!

DON’T FLIP OUT Flip the burgers only once, and only after they have formed a nice brown seal. Don’t flip too soon, and don’t move the burgers around. When the burgers are ready to be flipped, they should dislodge from the cooking surface easily. If they stick, let them cook for a few moments more.

COOKED TO PERFECTION The surest way to measure a burger’s doneness is to check the internal temperature with an instant-read thermometer. The thickest part of a beef burger should register 130 degrees for medium-rare, 140 degrees for medium, and 150 degrees for well done. Let your burgers rest for a couple of minutes before serving to allow the internal juices to redistribute evenly through the meat.

“Work With What You Got!”

© Victoria Hart Glavin Tiny New York Kitchen © 2015 All Rights Reserved

Certain Produce Shouldn’t Be Stored In The Refrigerator

June 9, 2015

Certain Produce Shouldn’t Be Stored In The Refrigerator

With some fruits and vegetables cold temperatures can lead to unsavory textures and flavors. Let tomatoes sit on the counter at room temperature, and store onions, garlic, and potatoes separately in a cool, dark place in perforated baskets or bins to allow for good airflow. Make sure to keep all fresh produce away from direct sunlight.

Onions & Garlic can lose crispness and become moldy when exposed to the refrigerator’s moisture. They can also impart their flavors on foods stored nearby.

Tomatoes flavor often diminishes when they’re chilled, and the texture can turn mealy as the cold temperature breaks down the membranes inside the fruit.

Potatoes starch content converts to sugar when cold, which leads to an unpleasantly sweet taste and discoloration when they’re cooked.

“Work With What You Got!”

© Victoria Hart Glavin Tiny New York Kitchen All Rights Reserve

Cooking Fish

June 6, 2015

Cooking Fish

Here is the simple secret to cooking fish successfully: Just don’t overcook it. Cook it until the flesh is just opaque throughout, as it will continue to cook after it has been removed from the heat.

Before cooking fillets, especially thick ones, run your fingers over the flesh to feel for any stray bones. Remove them with tweezers set aside for that purpose.

To check fish fillets or steaks for doneness, use the tip of a small knife to separate the flesh in the thickest part. It should be uniformly opaque. To check whole fish, make an incision at the backbone to see if the flesh is opaque or insert and instant-read thermometer in the thickest part near the backbone. The thermometer should read 135 to 140 degrees.

Before cooking clams, mussels, or oysters, scrub the shells well under cold running water to remove any surface sand and grit.

“Work With What You Got!”

© Victoria Hart Glavin Tiny New York Kitchen All Rights Reserve

Basic Seafood Cooking Rules

June 1, 2015

Basic Seafood Cooking Rules

Keep your fish or shellfish in the refrigerator until right before you cook it to keep it as fresh as possible. Don’t leave it siting on the counter while you prepare the rest of the meal.

Don’t work in the same area with raw seafood and cooked seafood. There is too much danger of cross contamination.

Cook seafood with the skin on whenever possible and appropriate. It helps fillets and steaks hold their shape and keeps moisture in whole fish. Make two or three shallow slashes across the skin of the fillet or whole fish to prevent the fish from curling while cooking.

If you are baking fish that is of different thicknesses, as in fillets that taper to very thin ends, fold the thin ends under so they won’t overcook.

Try to turn fish just once, if at all, during the cooking process so there is less risk of it falling apart.

If cooking fish in a coating or batter, use small or thin pieces so both batter and fish cook at the same rate.

“Work With What You Got!”

© Victoria Hart Glavin Tiny New York Kitchen All Rights Reserved

Hard-Boiled Eggs

May 7, 2015

Hard-Boiled Eggs

Banish the greenish ring! This harmless, but unsightly discoloration that sometimes forms around hard-boiled yolks results from a reaction between sulfur in the egg white and iron in the yolk. It occurs when eggs have been cooked for too long or at too high a temperature. The method of cooking eggs in hot, not boiling water, and then cooling immediately, minimizes this from happening.

Food safety precaution: Piercing shells before cooking is NOT recommended. If not sterile, the piercer or needle can introduce bacteria into the egg. Also, piercing creates hairline cracks in the shell, through which bacteria can enter after cooking.

Never microwave eggs in shells. Steam builds up too quickly inside and eggs are likely to explode.

Very fresh eggs can be difficult to peel. To ensure easily peeled eggs, buy and refrigerate them a week to 10 days in advance of cooking. This brief “breather” allows the eggs time to take in air, which helps separate the membranes from the shell.

Hard-boiled eggs are easiest to peel right after cooling. Cooling causes the egg to contract slightly in the shell.

To peel a hard-boiled egg gently tap the egg on your countertop until the shell is finely cracked all over. Roll the egg between hands to loosen the shell. Start peeling at the large end, holding the egg under cold running water to help ease the shell off.

Storage: In the shell, hard-boiled eggs can be refrigerated safely up to one week. Refrigerate in their original carton to prevent odor absorption. Once peeled, eggs should be eaten that day.

High altitude cooking: It’s almost impossible to hard-cook eggs above 10,000 feet.

“Work With What You Got!”

© Victoria Hart Glavin Tiny New York Kitchen All Rights Reserved

Fresh Spinach

April 30, 2015

Fresh Spinach

Spinach is available year round, but is especially sweet and tender in the late spring, when growing conditions are perfect.

Spinach is so versatile; you can eat it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert! In Tuscany, the leaves are baked into a pie with almonds, sugar, and candied lemon peel called torta co’bischeri agli spinaci. Leave it to the Italians to create a spinach dessert.

http://www.npr.org/2013/03/28/175478107/tuscan-pie-a-sweet-springtime-take-on-spinach

When shopping for spinach the leaves should be crisp and free of moisture. Avoid spinach with broken or bruised leaves.

If you purchase bagged greens (yes, I know there is a big controversy on bagged greens) they will most likely last twice as long as the leafy bundles. Bagged spinach is handled less and exposed to less moisture. Make sure to check the “best by” date to use the leaves when they are at their peek. If they are dark or clump together, just pass them by.

Spinach grows in sandy soil, so if you by bundled spinach it most definitely won’t be prewashed. Just give the leaves a generous soak in cold water, changing it out once or twice, until there is no more grit in the bottom of the bowl.

To Prepare Spinach (1 Pound): Wash and drain. Remove stems and tear into pieces (12 cups torn).

Conventional Cooking Directions: Cook, covered, in a small amount of boiling salted water for 3 to 5 minutes or until tender. Begin timing when steam foams. OR steam for 3 to 5 minutes. Microwave cooking is not recommended.

How To Store: Rinse leaves in cold water and thoroughly dry. Place leaves in a storage container with a paper towel and refrigerate for up to 3 days.

Baby Spinach isn’t actually immature flat-leaf spinach, but a different variety entirely.

Flat-Leaf Spinach has large leaves that turn silky once slow cooked. They have an earthy flavor that tastes great in dishes like lasagna or soup.

It takes 8 cups of raw spinach to make just 1 cup of cooked. Make sure that you have enough spinach for your recipe.

Raw spinach has 33 percent more folate and 187 percent more vitamin C than cooked, since those nutrients are vulnerable to heat. On the flip side, cooking spinach deactivates oxalic acid, a compound that prevents the absorption of certain nutrients, so you get 32 percent more iron and nearly 40 percent more calcium than raw. Have a salad today and sauté tomorrow.

“Work With What You Got!”

© Victoria Hart Glavin Tiny New York Kitchen All Rights Reserved

Storing Candy

December 12, 2014

Storing Candy

One of the nice things about homemade candy is that it can be eaten when it is at its freshest. In addition, it contains no chemicals, artificial flavoring, or preservatives, although the lack of preservatives does limit its storage capabilities. Most homemade candy, however, will keep well for several weeks if it is stored properly. The exception is divinity, which gets stale quickly and should be eaten within two days of preparation.

Here are some rules for storing candy successfully.

Sticky and chewy candies, like taffy, nougat, and caramels, and hard candies, like butterscotch, should be individually wrapped in waxed paper, plastic wrap, or foil.

All candy keeps best in an airtight container in a cool, dry place. Some chocolate candies, like truffles, are best stored in the refrigerator. 

Do not store brittle candies in the same container with soft, creamy candies. The moisture from the soft candies may make the hard candies sticky. 

Candy freezes well. Place the candy, individually wrapped if appropriate, in a cardboard box or plastic container. Overwrap the container with freezer paper or foil. To thaw the candy, let it stand for several hours, or overnight, and come to room temperature before opening the container. This will prevent moisture from collecting on the candies because of the temperature change.  

"Work With What You Got!"

© Victoria Hart Glavin Tiny New York Kitchen

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