YumSugar

Yummy Links: From Tomatoes to Salt

YumSugar — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 10:42:41 PST

A major freeze in Mexico will significantly increase tomato prices. - Wall Street Journal
Also expect to see a rise in the price of cheap beef. - The Consumerist
Learn how to keep salad greens fresh. - The Kitchn
Saveur magazine is now reviewing restaurants. - Eater
Gourmet's Italian Kitchen has hit newsstands. - Gourmet Live
Must make: spinach, provolone, and pepperoni calzone. - Serious Eats
What model Selita Ebanks eats in preparation for Fashion Week. - Grub Street NY
Vote now for the People's Best New Chef. - Eatocracy
An easy way to take your food to the next level? Use good salt. - The Atlantic

Yummy Links: From Cupcakes to Salad Greens

partysugar — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 10:50:06 PDT

Is it time to put the cupcake out to pasture? - Huffington Post Food
A survival guide for San Francisco's many August food festivals. - Grub Street SF
How to make a Spanish tortilla. - Serious Eats
Delicious Italian recipes from the Franks. - Chow
One lady has a meltdown because McDonald's refuses to give her chicken McNuggets. - Eatocracy
The care and drying of salad greens. - The Epi-Log
Behold: New York's first ever Pop-Tart bakery. - Eater NY

Know Your Greens

partysugar — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 13:28:39 PDT

No salad week would be complete without a glossary of greens. The base and heart of any salad, greens are crisp, healthy, and when properly paired and dressed, absolutely delicious. Never store leafy vegetables in a wet plastic bag because they will rot quickly. Vegetables need moisture and air to survive, so store in the fridge in a loosely wrapped paper towel in an open plastic bag. When kept properly, greens should store for about 3-5 days in the fridge. When purchasing greens look for brightly colored, perky looking leaves and steer clear of any with brown spots, yellowed edges, or limpness. If you are unsure of the difference between radicchio and red leaf lettuce, refer to my greens glossary which you will find when you

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Mesclun: A salad mixture of small, young salad greens. It can include lettuce, spinach, arugula, frisée, Swiss chard, mustard greens, endive, dandelion, sorrel. The name mesclun comes from Southern French mescla "to mix." It is also commonly known as mixed salad.
Spinach: With deep, dark green leaves, this vegetable is great mixed with other greens, as a salad, or cooked. It has a slightly bitter taste and wilts down to a much smaller quantity when cooked.
Romaine: A type of lettuce that grows in a long narrow head of leaves. Excellent for salads and sandwiches. Caesar salads made this green tremendously popular.
Red Leaf: A leafy green that grows from a stalk with a decorative frilled red edge. Great on sandwiches or in salads, this lettuce also works well as a decorative garnish to plates of cheese, salumi, and vegetables.
Green Leaf: Another leafy green that is used for salads and in sandwiches. These greens provide a crispy texture and mellow taste.
Iceberg: The least favored salad lettuce is a crisp headed green with light colored leaves that are densely packed. Best served as a wedge with bacon bits and a decadent drizzle of blue cheese dressing.
Arugula: Dark green leaves with a tangy, peppery flavor. Also called rocket, this green belongs to the mustard family, can be used in salads, rice and pasta dishes, and as a topping on pizza.
Bibb: A buttery lettuce with a tapered head and light green leaves. Makes a scrumptious salad.
Radicchio: A bitter green from the chicory family. The leaves have a vibrant burgundy-red color with white ribs. Used in salads and tastes great grilled or roasted. Image Source

Definition: Chicory

partysugar — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 12:01:39 PDT

Chicory
Not to be mistaken for its cousin, endive, chicory is a vegetable with curly bitter tasting leaves that are used as an ingredient in a salad or cooked as greens. The ground, roasted roots are often used as a coffee substitute or added to coffee for more body and aroma.

Image Source

What Type Of Greens Do You Use For Salads?

partysugar — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 09:01:48 PDT

How To Store Salad Greens

FitSugar — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 15:45:00 PDT

The vegetables of summer are amazing, making it so easy to eat healthy.

I love to buy baby lettuce and freshly harvested mesclun from local farmer's markets and vegetable stands. They taste amazing, and they're so crisp, but if you don't eat them within a couple of days, they can turn soggy and slimy.

Here's a great little trick I learned from a farmer friend on storing precious fresh salad greens:

Place greens in a plastic bag, close the top of the bag lightly with your fist, blow into the bag and fill it with air (carbon dioxide). Then seal the bag by twisting the top a few times before closing it firmly with a twisty-tie. Place it in the fridge and your greens are good to go.

Pretty simple, huh? The bag might take up a little bit more room in your fridge, but the loss of space is totally worth it. Your greens will stay bright, crisp and flavorful, so you can enjoy healthy salads all week long.

Fit's Tips: This tip works for all leafy greens - basil, parsley, cilantro, oregano, spinach, kale, and arugula.

Definition: Frisee

partysugar — Wed, 23 May 2007 13:01:18 PDT

Frisee
A green leafy vegetable with pale, delicate, slender leaves that range in color from light yellow-white to yellow-green. The feathery, mildly bitter vegetable is often used in salad mixes. Purchase crisp frisee with no signs of wilting, refrigerate in a plastic bag for up to 5 days and rinse clean just before using.

The Green Salad That Put a Ring on It

Camilla Salem — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:30:52 PST

If you're not into engagement chicken, or if you're looking to double your chances this Valentine's Day, don't miss out on this simple green salad recipe. True story: when my now-husband proposed to me, he managed to sneak in a line about how excited he was that I'd make this salad for him every day for the rest of his life. I've since shared the recipe with friends, whose significant others also go crazy for it, so maybe I'm on to something with this salad.

Regardless, this salad is so easy and satisfying, you could easily enjoy it alongside any meal every night of the week. It goes particularly well with rich, meaty dishes that beg for something crisp and acidic to balance them out. The red leaf lettuce holds the vinaigrette really well, while the avocado adds a bit of creaminess to the dish.

There are a couple of secrets to this recipe. When you wash your lettuce, don't dry it completely. A bit of moisture on the leaves helps water down the dressing a bit, making it incredibly succulent. Secondly, the combination of oils used in this recipe helps make sure the salad is not overpowered by the flavor of olive oil.

For more plus a recipe, keep reading.

6 Things to Do With Scallions

Susannah Chen — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 04:23:26 PST

Ever buy a bunch of herbs for a recipe, only to use a scant stem and find the rest wilted with dehydration a week later? This has admittedly been a long-standing problem in my kitchen, and I've been determined to cultivate a solution for it. This week I'm addressing an aromatic I have a chronic problem forgetting about: scallions.

When they're fresh, green onions have a biting smell and are resilient to the touch, but days later, the exact same stalks will take on a muted brownish hue, made slimy thanks to dehydration, and hunched over in sadness and neglect.

Since they age quickly, the key is to make sure you use them up before they get to such a sorry state! Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to do that; scallions have a mild pungency that's versatile enough to go into just about every savory dish. A few examples:

Slice green onions as thinly as possible, then toss a handful into a garden salad.
Make a four-ingredient ginger scallion sauce to drizzle on eggs, chicken, and fish.

For four more suggestions, keep reading.

A Doctor Dishes: Which "Superfoods" Are Worth the Cost?

LearnVest — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:15:00 PST

We're thrilled to present this smart LearnVest story here on Savvy!

Most people you speak to these days are trying to stretch every dollar as far as possible - even the ones they spend buying apples and oranges.

Food prices are expected to increase yet again this year, and food manufacturers are making portions smaller without reducing prices. Not surprisingly, a recent Rasmussen poll found that 93 percent of adults report paying more for groceries now than they did a year ago.

So how can we supercharge our grocery dollars and get them to do overtime for us?

Yes, some foods are obviously a better nutritional deal than others (think apples vs. potato chips), but there’s another class of foods that blows the rest of the field away in terms of nutrients and health-protecting qualities: superfoods.

Superfoods can help prevent diabetes and heart disease, repair damage to your body’s cells, and more. But before you go piling them into your cart, know that some superfoods are better nutritional bargains than others. As a doctor and a mom, I’ve sleuthed out which ones are worth the extra cost in terms of their long-term health benefits. Below is the scoop on which ones may help you age better, ward off cancer, and more.

What to Know Before Buying Superfoods

Before we dive into what to buy, there are a few important things to remember about consuming these foods:

Eating foods fresh and in their natural state, especially fruits and vegetables (rather than in pill or powder supplement form), usually allows us to absorb the greatest amount of their nutrients. The way a superfood is processed or cooked can significantly lower its antioxidant content.
If the superfood can’t be eaten fresh, look for easy and appetizing recipes containing it. No matter how “super” a superfood may be, if you don’t know how to cook it, you’ll probably let it go to waste.

Are Superfoods "Good Buys" If I’m Shopping on a Budget?

Read on to find out.