You’ve seen it spooned on top of poached eggs or over asparagus. It looks like a very light colored melted cheese sauce, but what it really is, however, is the infamous hollandaise sauce! This sauce is one that is fairly intimidating because not only is it French, but how can anything taste so incredible be easy to make?

If done properly, this sauce is smooth, creamy and buttery. It does however require quite a bit of attention while being made in order to not scramble the egg yolks that go into it!

The equipment required is basic items such as a sauce pan, a whisk and a strainer/sieve . In order to control the temperature that the sauce receives, a large heat proof bowl that can sit in the sauce pan without touching the water inside is suggested but not necessary.

As for ingredients, you’ll need per person:

• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tablespoon cold water
• A bit of clarified butter or whole butter
• ¼ teaspoon lemon juice
• Pinch salt and pepper

Keep in mind that when deciding what type of butter to use, that clarified butter will create a thicker sauce like mayonnaise while whole butter, which has water still in it, will create a thinner hollandaise sauce.

Place egg yolk either in a bowl or in a sauce pan with cold water and whisk together very well. If using a bowl on top of the sauce pan, make sure it has an inch or so of water and is heated to medium. Place the bowl over the top, continuing to whisk at a rapid pace.

Continuously whisk the egg mixture for about 45 seconds. The eggs will become “fuller” and frothy.  If it seems that the heat is too much for the eggs, remember the faster you whisk the more the sauce will cool and using a bowl allows you the option to remove it from the heat as you whisk.

Once the eggs start to loose their volume just slightly and you see streaks at the bottom of the pan, remove it from the heat. If there are yellow streaks of yolk, you still have raw egg in the mix and need to continue heating.  If you do not whisk constantly, you run the risk (very high risk) of the egg yolks turning into scrambled eggs. If there are small lumps on the side from where it heated too quickly, this is alright, as you will be straining the sauce before serving.

Continue to whisk as the sauce is removed from the heat for a bit more to help cool it down a bit and keep the sauce from curdling. Whisk in the butter. Do this a little at a time so as not to add too much. You can always add more, but cannot remove it!

To finish off your sauce add in lemon juice and salt and pepper. Be careful not to add too much seasoning, make sure to taste it before you add more. Strain through a sieve to make sure there are no lumps in your sauce.

This goes great on top of artichokes, asparagus,  eggs, some seafood like crab and it’s a good to add a little bit to bitter vegetables to make them more palatable!

Here is a video showing how to make hollandaise sauce from beginning to end.

Photo by little blue hen
Video By TheSeasonedCook

A while back there was a lesson on how to make your own ketchup. Since condiments are something that can be used year round for many different things, mustard was obvious for our next how-to technique!

First off you need to decide if you are going to make your mustard from whole seeds or already ground seeds. If you are doing it from whole seeds you’ll need something to grind them down into a powder such as a pestle and mortar, a spice grinder, or food processor.  Anything that can simulate these tools will work as well.

If choosing to grind your own mustard seeds, let them soak in water for about 2 hours before you turn them into the powder. You don’t want to boil them though, this can take away flavor.

Now you need to choose what liquid you will be using. Vinegar, beer, wine, grape juice or even water to mix the powdery mustard with. Water is best if you want to use the mustard right away and will give it a hot spicy flavor.

Remember you can change up your mustard by adding different spices to the mix! Honey or brown sugar for a sweeter mustard and things such as horseradish, gloves or raw ginger to give it more heat.

Mix it all together well. Add a little bit of the liquid at a time to get the correct consistency and make sure to give it a taste so that you don’t over spice anything. You can always add more spice, but it’s very hard to take it away. After it’s mixed, let sit for about 10 minutes for mustard mixed with water and anywhere from 2 hours to a day before trying the others so they have plenty of time for the flavors to meld. Some do suggest letting mustard sit for a few weeks before serving, in order to have the best flavor. If you do this make sure to use sterilized containers.

Enjoy on hot dogs, hamburgers or in a sauce for some of your favorite foods this summer!

Here is a video that shows one way to make mustard from scratch!

Photo by WordRidden
Video by Howcast

It’s almost summer and that means grills and barbecues. Some of us still don’t know much about what all those kitchen terms means when people talk about out-door cooking. Today’s technique is about barbecue and grilling jargon. These terms are related to how to cook when cooking out doors and some of the equipment used.

Hardwood grilling – This one of the most flavorful ways to grill. The food is cooked over a hot open fire using wood to fuel the fire.

Hybrid grilling - Using a combination of gas and charcoal or wood is called hybrid grilling.

Indirect heat – The food placed on a part of the grill that isn’t directly over the heat source is  this form of cooking. This works best for ribs, roasts and thick cuts of meat or vegetables or when you need to cook for a longer amount of time.

Chimney starter – A steel cylinder used to start a charcoal fire. This is an inexpensive and  efficient way to get coals fired up for grilling.

Briquette – A flammable substance used as fuel for grilling such as charcoal.

Rotisserie - A cooking method used to cook food by rotating the food over a spit or next to a heat source. This type of cooking can cause meat to baste itself in it’s own juices, making for tons of flavor.

Smoke – Preserve meat and fish by slowly drying with smoke from a wood fire.

Photo by  Another Pint Please…

Regular cooking terms can be confusing. Isn’t creaming where you put cream in something? What is blanch? Isn’t that a woman’s name? Isn’t a frond some part of a plant? Well today’s technique is to demystify some of the cooking jargon that many may have no idea what it means!

Creaming/to cream – Yes, the word cream is usually a word meaning a very heavy thick milk with a lot of fat. When you are talking about “creaming” something together, it means to beat an ingredient(s) with a spoon or hand mixer until it become light and fluffy. This is usually in reference to butter, and is most often use in baking recipes.

Blanch – A term meaning to partially cook food, most often referring to fruit or vegetables then place it in an ice water bath. This is done by putting the ingredient into boiling water for a few seconds up to a couple minutes (depending on the tenderness of the food). Immediately placing the cooked food into bowl of ice cold water will cause the food to quit cooking and will keep the color vibrant, texture crisp, and makes it easy to remove thin skins off of fruits.

Frond – In cooking terms this is what the brown bits on the bottom of the pan after cooking food is called. It’s not usual to find the term itself defined, but it’s usually used when talking about deglazing a pan.

Deglaze – This is when you add liquid such as wine, water, milk, beer, is added to a pan after cooking food. Scraping the pan with a spatula after the liquid starts to heat up, will remove the flavorful bits back into the liquid and can be then turned into a sauce, gravy or added to flavor the next food cooked in the dish.

Zest -  Grating the outer, colored portion skin of a citrus fruit will produce what is called the Zest. This portion of the fruit is usually more fragrant and has a stronger taste than the juice alone. This makes it easier to use a small bit of zest to bring up the smell and flavor of a dish with out using the whole fruit.

When looking at recipes, notice how often cooking jargon is used. Just learning what few words mean can make things much easier when learning how to cook! If you have a cooking term that you’d like clarified, please feel free to ask and we’ll cover it in the next post on cooking terms!

Photo by  flit

Cinco De Mayo is this week (tomorrow to be precise) and in the spirit of the Mexican holiday, lets learn how to make homemade tortillas! Tortillas are a flat bread made of either corn or wheat flour that were originally made by the Mesoamerican peoples.  They have been used for many centuries in Mexico and are used in quite a few dishes such as tacos, burritos, enchiladas, and in some Tex-mex cuisine like fajitas.

According to Mayan legend, tortillas were invented by a peasant for his king. The oldest tortilla was made of corn and dates back to 10,000BC. Corn tortillas are traditional, but flour tortillas are a mix of Mexican tradition and Spanish ingredients.

Tortillas are fairly easy to make and are well worth the effort because of the superior taste! When making your own tortillas you need to decide what type you want to make, corn or wheat? The one shown in this article is a flour tortilla, but you can find a great corn tortilla at Simply Recipes.

Serves 16
Time required 45 minutes
Difficulty level 2
Cost of ingredients 6 USD

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon (5ml) salt
• 1 tablespoon (15ml) baking powder
• 1 tablespoon (15ml) oil
• 1 cup (250ml) warm milk
• ½ cup (125ml) warm water

In a bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Using a whisk to stir helps to spread the salt and banking powder evenly through the flour. Add in milk, water, and oil and stir to form a dough.  Knead the dough on a floured surface for about 5 minutes. It will be a little sticky to the touch but will not stick to the surface. Place a warm damp towel on top and allow to rest 15 to 20 minutes.

Cut the dough into 4 even pieces. Cut each quarter into quarters again to make 16 in total. Roll the dough with the palms of your hands to make balls and again let the dough rest about 5 minutes with a warm damp towel on top.

Take one ball at a time and press flat on a floured surface. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough into a circular shape to about 1/8th of an inch thick, or thinner if you like them bigger around. If they don’t come out in perfect circles, don’t worry, they will taste just as great and the more you practice the better they look!

Place the tortilla in a non-stick pan over medium heat. Do not add oil to the pan prior to adding the tortilla or after. It doesn’t need it at all. Watch the tortilla and when you see small bubbles start to form, flip it and allow it to cook. The whole cooking time for each tortilla shouldn’t take more than 2 minutes at the very most.

Place the tortilla on a plate with a warm damp cloth on top, to keep the tortillas from drying out as you make the next ones. If you time it correctly, you should be able to roll out a tortilla or two in the time it takes for one to cook.

Use your tortillas for anything from enchiladas to taco salad bowls to even making tortilla chips by baking them in the oven for about 10 minute at 350F (175C)!

In continuing with the tomato theme, it just seemed right to have a technique today that had to do with tomatoes. Ketchup (catsup) is one of the most used condiments in the United States and also one of the most used forms of tomatoes. If you don’t know the word ketchup you may have heard this sauce referred to as tomato sauce, red sauce, Tommy sauce, Tommy K, or “dead horse” (Australian slang).

A little history lesson in Ketchup shows that the word comes from the Chinese word ke-tsiap, a pickled fish sauce. When it moved to Malaysia it became known as kechap and ketjap in Indonesia. This was more of a soy sauce than what we know today as the tomato based ketchup.

Since in quite a few cases it may be difficult to get people to eat tomatoes, most of those who don’t like them wind up having a thing for ketchup. The technique today is to help you make your own tomato ketchup that has less sodium, less sugar, and can use up all those extra tomatoes from the garden!

Serves 24
Time required 120 minutes
Difficulty level 4
Cost of ingredients 6 USD

• 3 pounds (1.5kg) ripe tomatoes
• 1 large onion
• 3 garlic cloves
• 2 stalks celery
• ¼ cup (60ml) Vinegar
• ½ teaspoon (2ml) red chili powder (optional)
• 1 teaspoons (5ml) salt
• 1/3cups (75ml) brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon (15ml) Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon peppercorns
• 1 stick of cinnamon
• 4 cloves
• 1 bay leaf

In a pot of boiling water add in your whole tomatoes and let boil for one minute, take out and place in an large bowl of water and ice. You can then slide the skins off the tomatoes before cooking them.

Slice the tomatoes into quarters and  remove the seeds by squeezing the tomatoes. This also will remove excess water. Drain the tomatoes with a  strainer and place a bowl below it. This will allow you to save the tomato juice in case you want to use it for something else, like a drink or flavoring when cooking!

Peel and chop the onions, celery and garlic and place in a large pot with the tomatoes. Bring to a boil and allow to cook 10 to 15 minutes. Allow to cool.

Pour the tomatoes, garlic, celery and onions into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Strain by pouring through a strainer and back into the pot. This should get out any extra chunks. If you do not have a blender you can use a pestle and mortar to crush the cooked food or cook it long enough that it’s soft enough to pass through a strainer by using the back of a spoon.

Add in salt, chili powder,  Worcestershire sauce,  sugar and vinegar. Stir thoroughly.  Place peppercorns, cinnamon, cloves and bay leaf in a cheesecloth and tie it up to make a pouch. Place the pouch in the sauce, bring to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer for about 1 hour or until the sauce has reduced by about half.

Remove from the heat and remove the spice bag. Using a ladle, pour it into a sealable container. If you want to can the ketchup for later use please remember to use sterilized jars and to follow the proper procedure. This ketchup will last about 3 weeks in the refrigerator.

Here is a version of ketchup made with canned tomatoes and cooked in a pressure cooker then cooked in the oven.

Photo by HAMACHI!
Video by ideasinfood

Pasta is something that can be very easy to make from scratch and the taste is definitely worth the effort. Most of us don’t make our own though and that will be remedied with today’s technique. Today we learn how to make our own homemade pasta!

When making pasta you need to decide what kind of pasta you want. Do you want an egg pasta or a vegan pasta? One made with gluten-free flour? The ingredients are key when making your own pasta, as they vary from type to type. This pasta we are showing today is your basic egg pasta, one made without a pasta machine and assuming you’ve never made pasta before.

Serves 5
Time required 40 minutes
Difficulty level 2
Cost of ingredients 3 USD

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 4 eggs
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup water

In a large bowl, pour in the flour. With your hand make a well, basically a hole in the middle of flour all the way down to the bottom of the bowl.

In another smaller bowl beat together eggs, olive oil and salt. Pour the egg mixture into the flour well. Mix it with a fork so that all the egg is incorporated into the flour. The dough will be clumpy and damp to the touch. If the flour isn’t sticking together add in the water at about 1 tablespoon at a time until it’s firm but will stick together.

Knead the dough for 10-15 minutes. The dough is much more dry than say a bread dough. It’s also a lot more firm, so it will need more work to get it smooth. Wrap in plastic wrap and allow it to rest about 20 minutes.

Flour a flat surface and place the dough on it. Dust with more flour on top of the dough. Divide the dough into 3 or 4 pieces, making it easier to work with. Roll out the dough very thinly. Remember, you want your dough thinner than how you like the pasta to be when cooked as it will plump up as it cooks.

When your pasta is as thin as you want it, either keep it flat and cut it with a knife or roll it up and using the knife, cut it that way. This makes it easier to have an even shaped pasta.

Using a pot of boiling salted water, add the pasta to it and let it cook 3-6 minutes (give or take depending how thick the pasta is). The best way to make sure your pasta is done, is giving it a taste!

Serve with your favorite sauce.  Once you get the hang of making your own pasta, you can always be more adventurous by adding in different things like spinach, tomato, squid ink, or any other ideas that come to mind!

Here is a video showing how to make your own pasta where only water is used to bind the pasta.

Photo by luvjnx
Video by 1gramm

Preserving foods has been going on for thousands of years in different forms to keep our food from spoiling. One of the main ways is to pickle your food, which not only preserves the food for later use, but can change the taste and texture of it. Pickling is usually done one of two ways, either by using a salt brine or by using vinegar. The salt brine version is usually used on things such as the Korean Kimchi  and the vinegar version is used for kosher cucumber pickles.

Almost anything can be pickled such as cucumbers (pickles), tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, lemons, olives, fish (pickled herring), eggs, watermelon, nuts, beef (corned beef) and chili peppers just to name a few!

When using a recipe for pickling don’t alter the food, water or vinegar. They are those amounts for a reason, so that acidity in the pickling will be to the right amount to keep the minimum level high enough throughout so to keep bad bacteria from growing.

Some basics to live by when pickling is to use a canning or pickling salt to keep your brine from becoming cloudy and your pickles turning dark, but if that doesn‘t matter to you table salt will work if you cannot get pickling salt. An alternative to pickling salt would be kosher salt, but instead of measuring volume (cups or milliliters) measure in weight (grams or ounces). It’s also suggested not to use corn syrup or honey unless a recipe calls for it when pickling. Instead use white or brown sugar. White distilled is usually the type of vinegar you want to use while pickling. This helps keep the veggies and fruits from turning a dark color.

Now on to the fun stuff!

Choose your food and get your ingredients for your recipe. You also will need canning jars with the lids and bands (the part that screws the lids down onto the jar) and a large pot that is deep enough that you can place the jars in and cover them with an inch of water.

Make sure to have either a rack that can be placed in the bottom of the pot for the jars to sit on or a thick towel that can keep your jars from touching the bottom of the pot. This keeps the jars from possibly cracking from too much heat. There are also commercial canning supplies that can be used, but not everyone can afford all the extras.

Make sure everything is washed in hot soapy water and rinsed thoroughly. Keep the jars in hot water until ready to use. The lids should be simmered in hot water until ready to be used. The bands should be dried and put to the side on a clean towel.

Fill the jars (hot) with the pickling food and leave about ½ inch from the top.  Make sure there is no air bubbles in the food by using a flat utensil and running it around the jar sides. Wipe the rim with a clean cloth to remove any excess food from the edge and place the lid on the jar with the sealing compound and screw the band on top but not too tightly.

Place each of the jars into the pot of boiling water one at a time (this is where the processing begins). Be careful not to overcrowd the pot, as the boiling water can cause the jars to clank together and crack or break. Make sure that there is about 1 inch of water above the jars, don’t use cold water when adding extra water, use boiling water. Bring the water up to a boil and then reduce it to a light rolling boil and place a lid on top and allow it to boil for the processing time.

When the canning portion is done gently remove the jars from the pot and let sit for 8 – 10 hours. The lid should be concave (dip in the middle). You can push down on the middle and if it makes a noise or moves down, it’s not sealed properly and should be refrigerated and used in a couple of weeks tops.

This video shows a water bath canning method, which is what was described above.

Photo by Jo Peattie
Video by wolfcrik

Easter is coming up and that means Sunday brunch and meals with eggs. Eggs are usually pretty easy to make, but one way to cook eggs that can be a challenge is poaching. Poaching is done by simmering food in a liquid, usually water, milk, wine or stock.

This is a process for cooking that is usually done on foods like eggs, fish, chicken and fruits that can easily be dried out or fall apart when cooking. Poaching eggs can be easy and inexpensive to start with when learning how to use this kind of technique in the kitchen.

First get some fresh eggs. You can test the freshness of your eggs by simply placing an egg in a cup of cold water, enough to cover the egg and then some. If the egg lies on it’s side on the bottom, this means there is very little air inside and therefore is very fresh. If the egg stands up and bounces lightly along the bottom, this means there is more air and it’s not as fresh. If the egg floats, toss it out, it’s too old to be eaten.

Next, boil some water in a pan that is deep enough to fully submerge the egg.  Once the water is boiling turn it down to just under medium heat and let it cool to a simmer. Add a little bit of vinegar (1 or two tablespoons will work) to the water.

Crack the egg into a bowl. A good way to try and keep from getting shell in the egg is by cracking the egg on a flat surface rather than a sharp one.

Take a spoon and stir the water in the pan, forcing it to make a whirlpool. While the water is still moving pour the raw egg into the center of the pan. Notice that the moving water wraps the white around the yolk and creates a “sack” around the yolk. Allow this to cook just a couple of minutes in the warm water. Don’t turn up the heat, it will cook just fine. If you prefer your yolks to be harder leave it in longer.

Use a slotted spoon to scoop the egg out of the pan, letting the water drain before placing it on your plate. Here is a quick video showing the process!

It’s spring, and although most flowers aren’t blooming yet, why not learn how we can incorporate flowers into food so we are already prepared when it’s time! Crystallized flowers are one way to not only make your decorative flowers look beautiful but also to preserve them.

When choosing flowers to crystallize or turn into candied flowers, you want flowers that are edible. Not all flowers are edible, but there are many places that can tell you which flowers are edible! Here’s a short list of edible flowers:

Anise Hyssop – Sweet anise-like flavor. Tastes like licorice.
Burnet – Very mild flavor, faint cucumber taste.
Carnations – Spicy and peppery, clove like taste.
Cornflower - Sweet to spicy, clove like taste.
Dandelion – Some say young buds taste like mushrooms when fried in butter. On it’s own can be bitter.
Day Lily – Make sure you get the correct lily as many are NOT edible.
Fuchsia – Slightly acidic taste.
Gardenia – Light and sweet flavor
Hibiscus – Makes a nice drink or tea when boiled.
Jasmine – Sweet and delicate flavor.
Lavender - floral and perfumed flavor. Lavender oil may be poisonous.
Lilac – Lemony, floral and strong taste.
Pansy - Sweet to tart flavor.
Rose – Sweet, stronger the fragrance the stronger the flavor. Rose hips are also edible
Snapdragon -  Bland to bitter taste.
Violet – Nectar flavor.

The above flowers and flavors were found on the Edible Flowers Chart on About.com. It’s a short list compared to the one found there! Also only the petals are edible.

Now that you have an idea of which flowers can be crystallized, here is how it is done!

Gently wash your flowers and pat them dry with a paper towel. Make sure the stem is removed from the flowers, some flower stems are not edible.

You’ll need a pasteurized egg white to make the “glue” for the sugar to stick to.  Whisk your room temperature egg white with a few drops of water. Using a food safe fine brush, brush  the flower petals on each side with a thin layer of egg white. Make sure to completely cover the flower.

Sprinkle very fine sugar over the flower or place in a bowl with sugar. Shake off any excess sugar and let the flowers dry completely.  This can take anywhere from 8 – 36 hours. If you want to just use the petals, wait until the flower is dry before removing the petals from the rest of the flower!

These beautiful flowers can be stored in an airtight container until ready to use and can keep as long as one year!

For more on edible flowers please check out the What’s Cooking America Edible Flower List as well as the Edible Flower Chart at About.com.

Photo by distopiandreamgirl.