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How to Steam Artichokes

Written by James on 17 May 10

I enjoy eating artichokes, and though I’d share the technique for steaming artichokes and making an Aioli dipping sauce. Unfortunately for my Aioli, I didn’t read directions carefully…or, really, at all. Thus, I won’t be writing much about my dipping sauce, which tasted fine but didn’t look right. Aioli is supposed to have a mayonnaise quality to it. Suffice it to say that mine does not.

On the other hand, I have artichokes down! Artichokes are very straightforward to make, though they do take a bit of time to soften up. Once you learn how to properly steam artichokes, you can do many different things with artichoke hearts or bottoms. You can scoop out the artichoke and stuff them. You can eat the leaves and then eat the wedges of the heart. And, you can serve artichokes with many different sauces (Hollandaise, aioli, mayonnaise, or just a wedge of lemon). I love peeling off a leaf, dipping it in the sauce, and scraping off the soft flesh with my teeth!

9 Comments

Posted in : American,French,How- To...,Steam,Vegetarian

The quickest way to peel a clove of garlic

Written by James on 12 January 10

I love cooking with garlic. I use it almost daily, but I also used to dread peeling away the silvery white covering that surrounds each clove. It’s flaky and messy – just an all-around pain. But, a few years back, my foodie friend recommended a new way to take the garlic’s covering off in one fell swoop. Instead of peeling, you can just pull off the entire covering. I’m not sure if it’s a trick that everyone knows, but I thought it was worth sharing with any other home chefs out there. After all, garlic is too good not to use!

3 Comments

Posted in : How- To...,Technique

How to tenderize beef (or other meats)

Written by James on 22 December 09

Meat being tenderized for black pepper steak

When you eat at your local Chinese place and order beef and broccoli or black pepper steak, have you ever wondered how the meat is so amazingly tender? For 7 bucks, they’re definitely not serving fillet. How do they do it? It’s a process called velveting.

6 Comments

Posted in : How- To...,Tenderize Meat

Blanching Broccoli (and other green vegetables)

Written by James on 8 December 09

Anytime you cook a vegetable, you risk losing its great color. For example, if you stir fry and then steam broccoli directly into a dish, you often end up with these brownish green-gray soggy stems that just don’t look or taste that appetizing. By blanching your vegetables first, the vegetables are pre-cooked so all you need is a quick finish.

Blanching vegetables is a common technique that involves dropping the green vegetables into a large pot of boiling water so that the water returns to a boil as quickly as possible, and then cooling the vegetables immediately to halt the cooking process. This combination lets the vegetables cook as quickly as possible while still retaining the crunch and appearance. Blanching can be done with broccoli, green beans or spinach. You can also use this technique to remove smoky flavors from foods (sausages/ bacon).

4 Comments

Posted in : How- To...,Recipes,Technique

Make a Pan Sauce by Deglazing

Written by James on 27 November 09

You cook up a piece of meat or seafood. It sears/ cooks in your pan and when you remove your protein, it leaves behind a few brown, charred pieces. What do you do? Before you decide to clean these little pieces off with your sponge, stop and think about the delicious sauce you could be making with these non-descript pieces of flavor concentrate.

Deglazing a pan is a delicious way to create a sauce for the meat or seafood dish you just made. This will turn your plain steak, dry chicken breast, or vanilla piece of fish into a scrumptious crowd-pleaser. Although “deglazing” may sound intimidating at first, the process is quite simple.

4 Comments

Posted in : How- To...,Technique

Make a REAL burger

Written by James on 13 November 09

Yes, I will say it, all pre-made frozen patties are not real burgers. Thin, fatty, uninteresting… these patties are best used for serving a party of 40. And, on the health side, if you’ve ever read Fast Food Nation, Omnivore’s Dilemma, or are aware of the outbreaks of Hemmorhagic E.Coli (EHEC, for those medically inclined), then you should care what part of the cow your meat really comes from.

On a side note, I read that Costco/ Kirkland Signature is pretty much the only seller who still does quality and safety testing upon receipt of the product from the manufacturer. In other words, their patties are the most safe.

Anyway, if you’ve got the time and the willingness to massage ground beef, then this recipe will enhance your burger experience. There are a lot of variations you can take with this. For instance, I’ve folded in a block of mozzarella cheese, and have made the burgers from pork or turkey instead of beef.

2 Comments

Posted in : American,How- To...,Recipes

Keeping those noodles from sticking… by rinsing!

Written by James on 2 November 09

Ever want to make a noodle soup, and in order to save five minutes you decide to reuse the water you used to cook the noodles? If you’ve tried, as I have, what happens? You end up with a syrupy mess – hope you like your soup thick.

Or, if you are making a noodle stir fry like chow mein or mi fen, you might take your noodles out of the boiling water, drain, and add the noodles to your other ingredients immediately. What happens? The noodles stick together and you can’t get the toppings to mix in properly, leading to uneven flavors in the dish.

Solution: Rinse your noodles before using.

2 Comments

Posted in : How- To...,Technique

Make Pot Stickers like the little old ladies in Shanghai

Written by James on 29 October 09

DSCN6679

One cloudy day in Shanghai, after being jostled by the crowds, I ran into a little old lady on the street making pot stickers. Her equipment consisted of a giant cast iron plate over an open flame (on a busy sidewalk), a steel cover, and a never-ending pile of dumplings stored in a white plastic bag. Delicious fried dumplings with amorphous meat from a street vendor in China – how could anyone resist? I had 5. Maybe 10. Ok, maybe 15…

2 Comments

Posted in : Chinese,How- To...,Pan Fry,Technique

Welcome to the DailyChef Blog - Helping You Make the Food You Love

Category : How- To…

How to Steam Artichokes

The quickest way to peel a clove of garlic

How to tenderize beef (or other meats)

Blanching Broccoli (and other green vegetables)

Make a Pan Sauce by Deglazing

Make a REAL burger

Keeping those noodles from sticking… by rinsing!

Make Pot Stickers like the little old ladies in Shanghai

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