Recipe, interrupted

How to Trim a Pineapple

For the upside down pineapple clafoutis recipe, Mark Bittman’s method for cutting a pineapple in How to Cook Everything works perfectly.

Trim off the top and bottom ends of the pineapple.

 

Cut the pineapple lengthwise into quarters. Remove the hard tip of the pineapple quarters.

Use a grapefruit knife to cut the pineapple flesh away from the skin. Pare away any remaining bits of skin. Cut each quarter into slices. 

Technique: How to Toast Nuts

In my mind, using toasted nuts instead of raw nuts is almost always preferable. Every now and then I like the flavor of raw almonds. But that’s pretty much it. Raw food enthusiasts would clearly disagree with me. But if you happen to cook with heat, see what you think the next time you garnish a salad with nuts. Compare the difference between toasted and untoasted nuts. Hands down, the toasted nuts are crispier in texture, deeper in color and flavor, and just plain nuttier.

Here is a simple guideline for getting beautifully toasted nuts.

Uniform in size and type. If you are toasting whole nuts, they’re already pretty much the same size. But to ensure that chopped nuts are a fairly uniform size, don’t use a food processor. Instead, chop them with a knife on a cutting board. You don’t need to drive yourself crazy trying to get them all exactly the same. Just make sure you aren’t left with any glaringly large chunks. And leave the tiny crumb-sized pieces behind. They’d just burn when you toast them anyway.

Also, make sure you toast one type of nuts at a time. Different nuts toast at different rates.

  not so uniform

more or less uniform in size (no crumbs or whole nuts)

Even heat. You can use an toaster oven, oven (good for larger batches of nuts), or a small pan on the stove. In any case, you want to make sure the heat is distributed evenly for even browning.

Oven-toasting. The lower the temperature (like around 300°-325°F in the oven), the more even and delicate the toasting. You can use a higher heat and the nuts will toast faster (in 3-5 minutes), but you’ll need to shake the pan a few times to prevent scorching and keep a very close eye. Note: If you are toasting finely chopped nuts or sliced almonds, though, stick with a lower heat. 

If you have a convection mode, it will help distribute the heat evenly. Even with convection heat, you will likely need to give the pan an occasional shake.

Toaster oven-toasting. I get perfectly fine results toasting nuts in the toaster oven. It takes a little experimentation and an understanding of your toaster’s idiosyncratic tendencies, but a light-medium toast setting has worked well for me.  You may need to rotate the pan halfway through so that none of the nuts spend too much time in any of the oven’s hot spots.

Pan-toasting. You can toast nuts in a preheated dry pan over medium to medium-high heat. Again, keep the nuts in motion to avoid scorching them. Nuts have delicate oils that should be preserved by not letting them get close to a smoking point.  Toasting nuts in a small pan, like one you’d use for frying an egg or two, also gives you a great opportunity to practice your flipping technique. First, tip the pan so that the nuts slip toward the edge of the pan, away from you. Then give the pan a swift, small jerk up and back towards you. With frequent flipping, you’ll ensure that all the surfaces of the nuts get a turn connecting with the heat of the pan. 

Tilt the pan and let the nuts slide toward one side of the lip of the pan.

Give the nuts a flip in the air.

Close Monitoring. Nuts can go from perfectly toasted to burnt in no time, so keep a vigilant eye on them. You know they are done when they take on a caramel-y color and smell fragrant and toasty. 

Save the best for last. To keep nuts toasty and crunchy, add them to your salad, grain dish, or stir-fry just before serving. If the sit for any length of time in moisture, they’ll start to get soft. You can toast nuts in advance and store them in your fridge for up to a couple of days.

Technique: How to Seed a Tomato

Here's how to get the pulp and seeds out of a tomato easily when all you want is the sweet tomato flesh.

1. If you also want to skin the tomatoes (for a more smoother texture and none of those floating bits of tomato skin in your sauce or soup) do a real tomato concassé. I usually skip this step since I tend to make more rustic, home-style dishes. Score a cross-hatch into the bottom of the tomato and blanch it for 30 seconds or so in boiling water, just long enough to make the skin easier to peel but not long enough to cook the tomato. Then, you’d plunge the tomato into ice water to quickly cool it.
    
2. Core out the base of the stem.
   
3. Cut the tomato in half, cross-wise. (If you are doing plum tomatoes, cut them lengthwise.)
    
4. Squeeze the seeds and pulp out, scooping them out with your fingers to make sure you get them all.
   
5. Dice or crush them according to your recipe.
   

Technique: How to Quickly Trim a Head of Romaine for Salad

Here’s how to prepare a head of lettuce quickly for a salad. With this method, there’s no need for less fresh pre-cut bags of salad.

 

1. Cut of the very top of the lettuce head to remove the somewhat wilted and damaged tips.
   
2. Cut through the length of the lettuce, just above the root end to the top. Rotate 90 degrees and make second, similar cut (so that you’ve cut a ‘+’ into the cross-section of the lettuce.) If the head of lettuce is very thick, you may want to cut into it three times, to make more of a ‘*’ symbol.
   
3. Holding the head of lettuce steady and keeping all the leaves tight, slice the head of lettuce across beginning at the top, at about 1-inch intervals. Short, easy-to-eat sized strips of lettuce should fall away. Stop just short of the root end.
   
4. Wash the cut lettuce well with a salad spinner or colander. 
   

 

Technique: How to Cook Fresh Fava Beans

For their simple, delicate, unassuming appearance and flavor, fava beans sure are a lot of work. It’s not hard work or complicated work, just time-consuming. For me, it helps to think of it as a kind of “ritual of spring” package deal. Enjoying fava beans during their brief season requires slowing down to take each step in their preparation and observing them – maybe even appreciating them if the shelling goes easily – in their original form. Going from whole pod to whole bean to peeled bean is like playing that old birthday party game “Pass the Parcel.” Getting down to the little treasure inside is a good bit of the fun.

Here's how to do it:

Split open the outer shell and remove beans. This can take a while. It’s nice to have an extra set of helping hands.

Steam or boil beans 3-4 minutes over/in salted water, until the skins are slightly shriveled and the beans inside them are tender and bright green.

Shock beans in ice water or run cold water over them to stop the cooking process.

Peel away and discard the outer skin of the beans. Eat the beans as is or use in your favorite springtime fava bean recipe.

A big produce bag full of fava beans in their pods may yield only this scant cup of cooked beans. It's better to start out with more than you think you might need. You're not likely to have leftovers and you may have to wait a year for seconds. 

 

Technique: How to Trim and Wash a Leek

There’s dirt hiding in leeks. Large clumps of it tucked deep in the layers. Rather then ending up with a muddy cutting board of chopped leeks, see how you can easily and neatly get leeks squeaky clean.

Slice off the root end.

Trim away the dark green portion, preserving most of the light green part. This is a little fussy on my part, but I like to trim away the first three or four layers in tiers, each one where the dark green portion begins. That way, I’m not trimming any usable light green parts underneath. After that, I simply chop the rest of the remaining dark end off.

Cut a slit along the length of the leek. This will allow you to open up and expose the inner parts of the leek to water as you wash it.

Wash and squeeze out excess water. Hold the leek under running water and allow the soil and sand to run off. Give the leek the slightest twist and squeeze out excess water. Now you are ready to chop, slice, or stuff your cleaned and trimmed leak. 

 

Technique: How to Make Dashi

This is a recipe for ichiban, or “first,” dashi. Often, the kombu and katsuoboshi are re-used to make a second batch, or niban dashi. Dashi forms the basis of many Japanese soups and simmered and braised dishes, but is not an ingredient I cook with every day or use very much of, so I just make ichiban dashi. If I have extra dashi left over, I’ll freeze it for another day.

Another variation would be to use dried shiitake mushrooms in place of, or along with, the kombu. 

 

Preparation time: 45 minutes

Makes 3 - 3 ½ cups

 

One 6- by 1-inch piece of kombu (dried kelp)

4 cups water

½ cup katsuoboshi (dried bonito flakes)

 

1. Put the water and kombu together in a saucepan and allow the kombu to soak for about 30 minutes.
   
   
2. Heat the water and kombu over medium heat. Just as the water begins to simmer, remove the kombu. Add the katsuoboshi. Simmer for 5 minutes.
   
   
   
3. Strain through a fine chinois or a colander line with paper towels.
   
   

 

Technique: How to Slice an Avocado

This is a very quick and tidy way to get attractive avocado slices. 

 

With a sharp chef’s knife, slice the avocado in half longitudinally, working around the pit.

 

“Thwack” the knife into the exposed pit. Give the pit a little twist with the knife and remove the pit.

 

Holding the knife securely, nudge the pit off of the knife with your thumb.

 

Cut parallel slices lengthwise into each half of the avocado and scoop the slices out from the skin with a large spoon.

 

The avocado is ready to be spread out onto a salad or tucked into a sandwich. 

 

Technique: How to Segment Citrus

This technique comes in handy in preparing citrus garnishes for salads, desserts, and savory sauces. Here's how to separate the fruit of the citrus from its tough membranes and outer peel. 

 

1. Choose a sharp knife with a size appropriate to the fruit (i.e., for a lemon or orange, I use a paring knife, for a medium grapefruit, a small chef’s knife, for a large grapefruit or pomelo, a full-sized chef’s knife).
   
   
   
2. Cut the ends of the citrus peel off, exposing the flesh without cutting too much of it away.
   
   
   
3. If the fruit is small, you can hold it in your hand. With this grapefruit, it’s easier to steady it with a cut-side on a cutting board.
   
   
4. Following the curve of the fruit, run the knife from one end of the fruit to the other, cutting away as much of the pith as possible and exposing the fruit underneath. The knife should be set at a slight angle, about 30 between the fruit and the underside of the knife.
   
   
   
5. Using the membranes separating each citrus segment as a guide, cut along the border of one segment and then along the opposite one to separate the segments from the membranes. You can see I haven't removed all of the white pith. But that's easy enough to do: just trim it away with your knife. 
   
   
6. When all the segments have been cut, squeeze the juice out of the remaining membrane. You can use the juice to add to a sauce or dressing, or simply to sip on as a reward for your work!

 

Well-Stocked: Vanilla Sugar

If you find yourself with the outer hull of a vanilla bean (after having used the inner scrapings for a special holiday recipe), here's a way of stretching out that beautiful vanilla flavor and aroma.

 

How to Make Vanilla Sugar

Dry out one used vanilla bean for a couple of days at room temperature. Have a cup of granulated sugar ready.

 

Food Processor Method

Pulse it in a food processor along with the sugar until the bean is as finely ground as possible. Then sift through a mesh strainer and discard the larger bits of vanilla.

 

Spice Grinder Method (grinds the bean a little finer)

Pulverize it with 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar in a spice grinder. Then sift through a mesh strainer and combine with the remaining sugar.

 

 

Storage

Once you make your vanilla sugar, you can store it in your pantry in a closed container and use it is place of vanilla extract and sugar. It is excellent for flavoring fresh whipped cream and makes a nice sprinkle on top of cookies.

A cone made out of parchment paper or a funnel makes the job neater.