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Know Your Winter Squash

partysugar — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 16:13:31 -0700

One of the best things about this time of year is the abundance of gorgeous and delicious winter squash. Unlike their summer counterparts, winter squash have thick, hard skin and seeds; the flesh is firm and requires cooking. Some varieties are available year round, but winter squash are best now through winter. When purchasing squash, look for heavy pieces with blemish free skin and deep colored rinds. Winter squash doesn't need to be refrigerated; store in a cool, dark spot for up to a month. When using a recipe that calls for a certain type of winter squash, be sure to refer to the following glossary. To take a look at it, read more

Acorn: Found in most supermarkets, this is a dark green variety with subtle chestnut flavors and edible flesh.

Butternut: Easy to find in grocery stores, this is a beige variety with a taste similar to sweet potatoes.

Buttercup: A member of the turban squash family, this dark green variety has a very hard shell with creamy orange flesh.

Carnival: A beautiful variety with orange and green spots. The meat is delicate and similar to butternut squash.

Hubbard: One of the best keeping winter squashes, these are irregularly shaped with warted skin. It's an excellent source of vitamin A and the flesh is best as a seasoned mash or puree.

Kabocha: This jade green squash is also known as the Japanese pumpkin. It has a rich sweet flavor and dry, flaky flesh.

Pumpkin: The most common and popular of the squash family with a sweet, honey flavor.

Spaghetti: Yellow and watermelon shaped; when cooked the meat separates into spaghetti-like strands. When baked whole, the flesh is easy to remove from the rind.

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Know Your Ingredients: Tomatillos

YumSugar — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:00:19 -0700

If you're a lover of green salsa, then you should get to know tomatillos. A key ingredient in Latin-American cooking, the tomate verde as it's called in Spanish, or "green tomato," is related to tomatoes but has a drastically different flavor.

Tomatillos have a papery, outer husk, a firm, green exterior, and white flesh. They range in size from an inch to two inches in diameter. When overripe, they develop a yellow hue and should not be consumed. When eaten raw, tomatillos add a zippy, refreshing flavor. They can also benefit from blanching, fire-roasting, and other forms of cooking, which soften their consistency while enhancing their flavor.

Because of their tart quality, tomatillos make a great addition to salsa verde, tortilla soup, guacamole, pork posole, or mole sauce. Have you ever cooked with tomatillos? What are your favorite ways to prepare them?

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Know Your Ingredients: Caperberries

YumSugar — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 09:00:18 -0700

If you were surprised to learn where capers came from, it might be helpful to get a primer on a close relative, the caperberry. Do you know the difference between the two?

These oblong, semi-green fruits, which are picked from the same plant as capers, are similar in size to small grapes or olives. The berries have a brined, lemony taste that's reminiscent of capers, but with less salt and intensity. If the immature blossoms of the flowering bush aren't selected to become capers, they flower into a white and violet-colored bloom, and later fruit to produce a berry that, when brined, has a milder, less piquant flavor than a caper.

Caperberries have varied uses from their smaller counterparts; they're often eaten as a snack alongside antipasti or placed in lieu of olives as a garnish in Bloody Marys and martinis. They can also be incorporated into savory salads.

Do you prefer caperberries to capers? What are your favorite ways to consume them?

Know Your Tomatoes

partysugar — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 10:08:39 -0700

Whether they're from your own garden, purchased at the grocery store, or picked from a farmers' market stall, tomatoes are summer's most beloved ~~vegetable~~ fruit. When they are in season, nothing beats enjoying the simple tomato in all its fleshy, red, ripe glory. When choosing tomatoes look for locally grown, fragrant, heavy, tomatoes with skin that yields slightly to pressure. Bright colored ones are best flavored. It's best to store tomatoes at room temperature rather than in the fridge because the harsh coldness will affect the taste of the fruit. When using a recipe that calls for a certain type of tomato refer to this helpful glossary. read more

Beefsteak: The biggest of the tomato family with a meaty texture - good for salads, grilling, and burgers.

Plum: Also known as Roma tomatoes, these babies are oval shaped, good for cooking, and used frequently in both Italian and Mexican cooking.

Cherry: Small, round like a cherry, and bite sized, these are perfect for salads, roasting, and tossed with pastas.

Salad: Also known as vine or round tomatoes, these are excellent for eating raw in salads or sliced and used in quiches or gratins.

Grape: Like the cherry tomato, these are small, oval shaped tomatoes that are super sweet and kid friendly. Use in salads or for snacks.

Green: A tart, yet ripe variety perfect for frying or for adding color to a tomato salad.

Heirloom: A variety that has been grown for over 100 years with the seeds being passed down from generation to generation. There are many different heirloom varieties that come in many different shapes and sizes.

Know another type of tomato? Please fill us in below!

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Know Your Ingredients: Shortening

YumSugar — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:50:13 -0800

While baking apple pie, I enlisted the help of my boyfriend, who took notice of the substantial amount of Crisco that was going into the pie dough. What exactly is shortening? he wanted to know. When I couldn't give him a solid answer (no pun intended), I decided it was time to find out.

The term shortening generically refers to any baking fat that's solid at room temperature, like butter and margarine. But more often, it describes a semi-solid fat made from hydrogenated vegetable oil that's used in baking to achieve a "short," or flaky, texture.

By adding hydrogen gas to vegetable oil at a high pressure and temperature, the flavorless substance goes from being a liquid to a solid at room temperature.

Although shortening has fallen out of favor in recent years because it contains trans fat, the ingredient remains a staple around the world for many reasons. It has a higher smoke point than butter or margarine, meaning it won't burn in a sauté pan. It also requires no refrigeration, and can lengthen the shelf life of baked goods. What do you use shortening for?

Source: Flickr User VirtualErn

A Conversation With P. Diddy

partysugar — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:00:03 -0800

Rapper and mogul P. Diddy was in San Francisco last week promoting Cîroc, his vodka brand. I was lucky enough to sit down with the musician, and we chatted about entertaining. Not surprisingly, he consumes a lot of Cîroc and his signature drink is a Cîroc and lemonade - say it fast and it sounds like a lyric in one of his songs, "ci-rocking lemonade." To find out what the artist formerly known as Puff Daddy had to say, read more.

PartySugar: What’s new with Cîroc?
P.Diddy: The newest thing with Cîroc is our success. Our success and our appeal. The sales went up 1,000% and just the appeal is becoming more recognizable to the consumer.

PS: Aren't you coming out with some new flavors?
PD: Yeah. In the world of Cîroc, one of the biggest differences is the flavors. Red Berry and coconut. Now most flavors, to be honest, in the vodka industry, most flavors just haven’t been done right. They taste like cough syrup. I went down with the innovation team, and I was like, whatever we do I want to make sure that this doesn’t taste like cough syrup.
And then also make something that really tastes like what it says. If it says coconut, let’s make sure it tastes like coconut. If it says red berry, let’s make sure it tastes like red berry.

PS: Do you ever cook?
PD: I cook breakfast.

PS: What music do you recommend for cooking?
PD: Music for cooking? Marvin Gaye’s always good for cooking.

PS: What are your guilty pleasure foods?
PD: I would probably say jello. Strawberry jello.

PS: If you had to drink one type of alcohol for the rest of your life what would it be?
PD: Vodka. Cîroc.

PS: Besides yourself, who are some celebrities that know how to entertain/host a good party?
PD: I never seen anybody do it how I do.

PS: What was the first alcoholic drink you ever drank?
PD: Peach schnapps and orange juice, before I was enabled.

PS: What do you think will be the next big thing in cocktails?
PD: Jello shots.

Stay tuned for Diddy's tips for hosting the ultimate party!

Know Your Ingredients: Liquid Smoke

YumSugar — Wed, 27 May 2009 15:00:46 -0700

With Summer grilling in full force and smoke-tinged cocktails taking the helm at bars nationwide, the food world has been singing the virtues of liquid smoke. But what is this mysterious substance, and how does it obtain its trademark taste?

A concentrated flavoring used to duplicate the essence of smoked wood, liquid smoke is literally the flavor of smoke captured in water. Wood chips or sawdust are burned in a controlled environment, producing tiny smoke particles held in water vapor. Chilled air is introduced, causing the particles to condense into liquid. The liquid is then aged in oak barrels.

Liquid smoke is usually made from smoked hickory, mesquite, pecan, or apple wood, and can be applied to a gas grill to add a charcoal flavor, added to a meat marinade or curing solution, or used on soft cheeses and meatless proteins such as tempeh.

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Know Your Ingredients: Hearts of Palm

YumSugar — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 05:50:57 -0700

You may regularly get hearts of palm as a fixing at the salad bar, but do you know what these vegetables are, exactly?

Hearts of palm - also called palmito or swamp cabbage - are the sweet, tender cores of various palm trees. When harvested, the tree's bark and white fibers are removed, leaving an edible core. Because extracting the palm's inner core destroys single-stemmed coconut, acai, and sabal palm trees, multi-stem palms known as peach palms are cultivated solely for the purpose of harvesting palm hearts.

A staple of Latin American cuisine, hearts of palm are used in spreads, eaten out of hand, tossed into salads, and served with pasta.

The plant has a mild flavor similar to that of an artichoke heart, and is crisp when fresh, though it turns softer when canned. Are you surprised to hear where this salad bar staple comes from? What are some other ingredients you've always wondered about?

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What Do You Know About Beaujolais Nouveau?

YumSugar — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:50:36 -0800

As the French like to proclaim: Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé! Raise your glass, because Beaujolais Nouveau - the first wine of the harvest season in the Northern Hemisphere - has finally arrived. Yesterday was the annual release date for the wine, which is welcomed on what's called "Beaujolais Nouveau Day" with a colossal celebration across France each year.

Since the wine - which certainly isn't for snobs - makes such a splash each year, I thought I would throw out some questions and see if you can, ahem, arrive at the answers. What do you know about Beaujolais Nouveau? Let's find out.

Take the quiz

Know Your Watermelon for Watermelon Day!

YumSugar — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 01:17:31 -0700

Every August 3rd is National Watermelon Day so go out and cut yourself a nice large slice of the dripping juicy fruit! Personally I like mine plain, but you can try skewering them and tossing them on the grill, or mixed into a salsa. If you can't figure out which kind to try, let me help you out. While there are a ton of different varieties - including different inside and outside colors - watermelons can be broken down into four main categories: Picnic, Seedless, Icebox, Yellow/Orange Flesh. To learn about the four types, read more

Picnic
These are your standard types of watermelons and consist of three main types. There's the Allsweet - your standard watermelon - that is long and about 18-30 lbs. Next is Crimson Sweet which is smaller and can be round or oblong, weighing 16-35 lbs. And finally, the Jubilee type which is Oblong and large, weighing 20-45 lbs. Many different heirloom varieties fall in to this common category.

Seedless
Seedless watermelons are the product of cross-breeding plants. Although they are called "seedless" they generally have soft, pale seeds. The color of the flesh can range from pink to yellow.

Icebox
Icebox melons are generally smaller than regular melons and have been bred to be round (to fit in the icebox easily). These come in both red and yellow flesh, and can be seedless too.

Yellow/Orange Flesh
There's not much difference in flavor (depending on the variety and who you ask) between Red and Yellow/Orange/White/Pink flesh watermelons, however the flesh is surprisingly bright in color.

Source: Holiday Insights and Watermelon Promo Board
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