YumSugar

In Season: Long Beans

YumSugar — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 09:00:12 -0700

Yard-long beans, or asparagus beans, are at the peak of their season right now, which runs from late Summer to early Fall, with the exception of places such as California and Mexico where they grow year-round. They've been springing up in local farmers markets, but you can also find them at most Asian grocery stores. Do you know much about these leggy legumes, which are a relative of the black-eyed pea? To find out what to look for, read more.

Choose long, slender, smooth, firm pods that can easily be snapped in half. This indicates that the long beans are young.
Avoid beans that are noticeably bulging, or have too many blemishes. These beans may be overly developed and old.
The pale green bean is meatier and sweeter than darker yard-long bean varieties.
Store refrigerated in a plastic bag for two to five days.

Some preparation ideas:

Stew with tomato sauce.
Boil and drain, then season with lemon juice, oil, and salt and pepper.
Simmer in oil with garlic.
Cut into small cubes and add to stir-fries or omelette scrambles.
Deep-fry the beans and toss with Vietnamese fish sauce, chili sauce, or Chinese fermented black beans.

Have you tried long beans? What is your favorite preparation?

8 Prosperous Chinese Courses

YumSugar — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 05:30:45 -0700

In Mandarin, the number eight, or "ba," sounds similar to the word that means "prosper" or "wealth"; therefore, eight is considered lucky in Chinese culture. Today being 08.08.08 is an incredibly fortuitous day that has me in the mood for Chinese food. Since this Asian civilization has existed for thousands of years, its people are highly attuned to texture, flavor, color, and aroma. Here, I've included a medley of dishes with flavors that are inspired by the various regions of China.

View Slideshow ›

Announcing Our Thanksgiving Recipe Challenge!

partysugar — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:00:34 -0800

Calling all home cooks: Thanksgiving is just around the corner and we want you to share your tried and trusted recipes in the community. Just join the Kitchen Goddess group and go hog wild! Does your giblet gravy get rave reviews? Do people fight over the last of your sweet potato casserole? Is everyone always asking for the secret to your green beans? Now's your chance to show us what you've got. Upload your recipes along with a photo and a brief description of the dish to the Kitchen Goddess group. All month long, we'll be selecting our favorite recipes and featuring them here on YumSugar. Imagine the satisfaction you'll have on Thanksgiving dinner when you sister-in-law says, "this stuffing is the best I've ever tasted," and you coolly reply, "I know. It was featured on YumSugar. I'll send you the link to the recipe." So what are you waiting for? Start typing up those recipes now! To learn how to post recipes, check out this guide.

Would You Drink Kopi Luwak Coffee?

YumSugar — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 03:50:33 -0700

In honor of today being National Coffee Day, I thought I'd ask all you coffee lovers out there how far you'd go for a good brew. At more than $100 a pound, kopi luwak, also known as civet coffee, likely takes the title of the world's most expensive coffee. But it also holds the title of world's only twice-consumed coffee.

Before you've enjoyed it, it's been consumed by the palm civet, a cat-sized mammal native to Southeast Asia. The civet, or luwak, eats fresh coffee berries, which are collected by coffee specialists after they've been excreted. The beans are then washed in spring water and sold as coffee.

According to civet coffee connoisseurs, the animal's digestive enzymes help to mellow out the acidity, causing it to taste mild and smooth. I think I could give it a try - so long as you didn't tell me what it was first. What about you? Have you ever tried civet coffee?

World's Largest Burger Among New Record-Setting Foods

YumSugar — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:00:43 -0700

It's a tale that'll go down in burger history. At an event this week in London, Guinness World Records revealed a host of new record breakers, among them a 185-pound, $499 whopper of a hamburger, which is officially the world's largest. The record belongs to Mallie's Sports Grill and Bar in Southgate, MI. Owner Steve Mallie, who said the bun must be baked for eight hours and the burger for 15 hours, remarked, "Being in the book is the greatest accomplishment we've ever done. I've worked my entire life to build this restaurant and being able to have the notoriety of Guinness makes it just that bit more rewarding."It seems, in today's world, that everything bigger is better. This week alone, Westhoughton, UK, garnered attention for serving the world's most massive English breakfast (10 sausages,10 rashers of bacon, 10 slices of toast, 10 eggs, fives slices of black pudding, and tomatoes, mushrooms, and black beans); Sacramento, CA, made headlines for a 42-foot-long, 1,200-pound tamale; and Valencians in Spain managed to assemble the world's longest restaurant table. At this rate, the next record will need to be for the world's most capable scale. Are these feats, like the Mallie's burger, legendary stuff, or simply gross?

Source

Do You Know What's Cooking This Week?

YumSugar — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:00:46 -0700

Every day that followed the long weekend seemed to feel shorter than usual - yet we still had plenty of time to make basil sangria, toss an Asian chicken salad, and tailgate with seven-layer bean dip.

How will you know if you were around for it all? Only by taking our quiz!

Take the quiz

Do You Know What's Cooking This Week?

YumSugar — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:30:01 -0700

We've spent most of this week mentally preparing (read: getting excited) for the long weekend. We bookmarked Chick-fil-A's holiday giveaway. We learned all sorts of fun facts about the food culture of Labor Day.

Most importantly, we geared up for tailgating season with classic seven-layer bean dip and a spicy, creamy onion dip with Southern flair. Were you paying attention? Use your noodle to find out!

Take the quiz

Monday's Leftovers: Summer Rolls

YumSugar — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 08:00:45 -0700

Following a long weekend of serious overindulgence, turn to a meal that's refreshingly light yet satisfying: Asian-inspired Summer rolls. Leftover ground turkey stands in as protein, while glutinous rice wrappers add a toothsome texture, and vegetables - shiitake mushrooms, mung bean sprouts, and red and green bell peppers - provide an element of much-needed crunch. To make a wholesome dinner (or portable lunch!), read on

Burning Question: What's the Best Way to Store Coffee?

YumSugar — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 06:50:56 -0700

Coffee drinkers all differ in their opinions about the best way to store beans, and insist on doing everything from freezing coffee to storing it whole in glass canisters. So what is truly the best way to preserve the flavor of coffee grounds?

According to the National Coffee Association, coffee's biggest enemies are air, moisture, heat, and light - in that order. Contact with air causes coffee to lose flavor; moisture will make it deteriorate more rapidly; heat will spoil it; and sunlight will cause beans to taste stale.

Transfer coffee grounds to a container with an airtight seal, and store them in a cool, dark, dry place, where they will keep for as long as two weeks. When possible, buy valve-sealed (not vacuum-sealed) whole beans, and grind them right before brewing them.

Generally, coffee shouldn't be frozen - the extreme cold will break down the bean's oils, and the very porous grounds will easily absorb other flavors in the freezer. If you've got a surplus of coffee, however, you can freeze it in a pinch. But know that you shouldn't return it to the freezer after it's been removed - and never place it in the refrigerator.

Got a burning question? Contact us.

Source

Top Chef: May the Best Chef Win (Season 2 Finale Recap)

YumSugar — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 03:29:52 -0800

Well, we reached the end of Top Chef Season 2! We can now stop speculating which chef is better than the other. Was the finale what you expected? Did you have money on the right candidate? Or did you just stop caring after last week?

The episode starts off with Marcel and Ilan frolicking on a beach in Hawaii. They eat fresh sea urchin for breakfast (which, although my opinion of sea urchin is not always high, I was crazy jealous of) and Marcel even gets stung by one and is forced to pee on his hand. At this point I need to stop the recap for a second and say that I have been tastefully avoiding this topic all season long, but really what was the whole Ilan wanting to pee on Marcel, how homo-erotic was that? And have you noticed it all season long?? - Okay back to recap.

The chefs are told they need to make a 5-course dinner for eight. They get to pick up their produce at a local farmer's market. They will then have four hours of prep time before heading to their respective restaurants where they will have one hour to cook. Ilan is cooking at Donatoni's Restaurant and Marcel will cook at Imari.

Full recap with big time spoilers ahead, including the WINNER, so read more

Before heading to the farmer's market, the finalists are greeted with ghosts from their past. Mike, Mia, Betty, Frank, Elia and Sam are there to be sous chefs. Surprisingly, half of them want to work with Ilan and the other half, Marcel. Marcel ends up choosing Sam, who convinces him to pick Mikey (which, no offense to Mikey, but really, you've a lot on the line and you pick the perpetually stoney-sounding Mikey??). Ilan chooses his BFF Elia and then Betty. Frank and Mia once again get sent packing.

Each chef needed to prepare a five course meal, for eight guests.
The guests were:

The three regulars (Padma, Gail and Tom)
Hubert Keller
Michelle Bernstein
Scott Conant
Roy Yamaguchi
Wylie Dufrense

The chefs both end up picking great produce (did you see those rambutans!?!) and built their recipes around what they saw. Ilan was up first and he served:

Overall the judges loved the meal, they thought the appetizer was okay, they LOVED the soup, thought the lobster sauce on the squab was great, wished they could get more from the short ribs, but were crazy for the dessert. From my vantage point, I thought the soup sounded great (I love gazpacho, so a macadamia nut gazpacho sounded even more delicious) and I definitely wanted to try the bay leaf fritter. Talk about a great infusion of sweet and savory!

Next up was Marcel. Now right from the beginning you knew this was going to be a disaster. They had talking head clips of Mikey and Sam talking about a hectic kitchen, and then the Bravo TV cameraman zoomed in on several trays left in the hotel fridge. Like I said, not a good sign. However Marcel still managed to pull out a great looking meal. He served:

Like I mentioned earlier, there were a few snafus. Marcel's ingenious encapsulated vinaigrette teardrops didn't work due to the humidity and the fish for the third dish got left behind (lucky for Marcel, Sam was able to whip up an alternate dish). The judges, however, enjoyed the meal. They liked the texture of the urchin, they thought the salad was a bit weak, loved the balanced flavor of the sea beans, thought his beef was better than Ilan's and thought the blinis were whimsical and clever. From my point of view, I also thought the blinis looked fun, I couldn't figure out why on earth he would tell the judges that he forgot the fish, and I was saddened by the fact that his tear drops didn't work out.

Now for the judge's table. They liked everything and were split on whom to declare the winner, so they got some input from the sous chefs. Elia said Ilan should win because his food was superior (even if she didn't taste or see Marcel's), Mikey and Sam confessed that Marcel's kitchen wasn't run very well. Sam also took credit for the sea beans.

After much deliberation, the judges finally have a winner.
This year's Top Chef is Ilan Hall.
Were you surprised? I wasn't really, although I wouldn't have been surprised if Marcel won either.

Now for a few things to discuss:

Marcel telling the judges he forgot the fish. Why would you do that?
Even though Sam fixed the fish dish, he takes credit for the sea beans, but weren't the sea beans actually Marcel's idea? He said he was going to do fish with palm and sea beans

Elia dissing Marcel - Really did she need to get so petty? I've lost a lot of respect for her.
Were you as weirded out as I was about the whole urchins and peeing scene?
Would you have chosen Mikey as a sous chef?
Was the fish forgotten on purpose?
At the end Marcel says, "I thought it was going to take more than saffron and paprika to beat me." My guy swears he said "f**king saffron." Did you hear it?
Before declaring the winner Tom says, "One of you may go on to be the superior chef, but in the end our decision was based on who we believe to be the best chef right now." Do you think he believes Marcel will be a better chef than Ilan?
Did you think the right person won?

Discuss!

View 10 Photos ›

Source: Bravo TV