Tipnique of the week, Sept. 20, 2013

 So, tonight I was making Vanilla pudding, which calls for 6, count 'em s-i-x egg yolks
which means separating 6 eggs.
First step (and let's not take this as a given) crack 6 eggs, leaving 6 yolks intact.

Whew.

Now, I could spend 15 minutes looking for where I put one of the separator gadgets, or I could do the toss the egg from shell to shell thing, but lots of meringues (and lots of of minutes spent very deliberately NOT swearing as I chased a streak of yolk around a bowl of otherwise whippable whites)  have led me to what is now my fave technique:

(and there are no tools to hunt for, except the ones at the end of your arms) 

With the egg (or eggs) in a bowl, sneak up behind the yolk with your fingers.

With your hand, scoop the yolk gently,

and lift it from the whites. Feels ookey, but in a fun way, right?

Now that you've got the yolk, (get it? Got the yolk? somebody cue the unrestrained fourth-grade-type snortiggles, okay?) 

Let the white fall through your slightly opened fingers. You may need to gently move your fingers to sort of pinch off the last of the white. Tip the yolk into another bowl, and you're done. Which is too bad, because this is kinda fun, and you'll wish you had a few more eggs to separate.

P.S. The whites freeze beautifully, but more about that in another tipnique.

Don't forget how much I'd love knowing the tips and techniques of your own kitchen- 

send me pics and/or descriptions at menumuse12@gmail.com

Tipnique of the week, September 13,2013

One of my favorite new faves is the sweet/tart/crisp/creamy combo of avocado, mango and cucumber in a summer salad. Whether it's alone, on a bed of salad greens, topped with slivered beef or chicken, it's amazing. Here's one way to do it, a version with a  slightly simpler dressing, and a lemon poppyseed dressing that works wonderfully well.
All these recipes call for diced mangoes- not an easy trick to pull off, mangoes being the slippery, gooey, drippy, delicious things they are. Here's a trick to make it easier:

1. Slice the side of the mango away from the seed.

2. Do the same thing on the other side of the seed. Now you have two mango cheeks ready to go. If you have a mango loving crew, give the seed to them to nibble on, or peel it and slice away the bits of mango around it.

3. score the mango cheek lengthwise and crosswise

 4. Turn the cheek inside out. The cubed mango will fan out beautifully, and you can use it just as it is the next time you find yourself thinking "wow, if only I had a fab garnish, I'd make a fancy fruit platter thingy".

or you can

5. Slice the cubes away from the skin straight into the salad bowl.

Awesome! 

Tipnique of the week, August 30, 2013

Hey everyone,
Last week's  Bobby Flay's shrimp and grits  was a bowlful of warm cheddary grits topped with a mixture of shrimp, onions and, (genius) bacon. I'd never had Shrimp and grits, and I've never heard of bacon being a part of that classic Southern combo, but I have heard of Bobby Flay, and I do love bacon. So that's the recipe we went with.
When a recipe calls for crumbled bacon, I usually take this short cut:

 Slice the raw bacon into strips about a half an inch wide. This is easier if the bacon is cold; if you have time, throw it in the freezer for 20 minutes- it'll be super easy to slice.
You can cook about half of the pound of bacon at a time this way:

The little bits magically separate as they cook, and for some reason, they cook faster and more evenly than  whole bacon strips. Scoop them out with a slotted spoon onto paper towels, and hey presto! Cooked crumbled bacon!

Tipnique of the week, August 23, 2013

Slicing green onions- you're probably better than I am at that job; you probably don't find yourself slicing through the stalk only to find that you haven't quite entirely sliced through the stalk. You probably aren't frustrated by the way the slimey onion layers sort of start uncurling on the cutting board.  I have better luck using scissors for the job, like this:

 Here are my hands, cutting green onions directly into the topping of the  Shrimp and grits. (Note the bonus lack of cutting board mess)  There are about 3 pairs of dollar store scissors in our kitchen for jobs like this- they're easy to throw in the dishwasher, and easy to replace if they're broken or misplaced.  

Tipnique of the week, August 9, 2013

Greetings from Houston, where my son Robert and his excellent fiance Miranda have taught me this week's tip:

If you rarely use more than a handful of green onion bits at a time, bring them home from the shop and pop them in a glass of water or a small pot of soil on a sunny windowsill. The onions will keep growing, so you can scissor off a few green slices whenever you need them.