Party In My Tummy: Peel Garlic with a Bang!

Whew!  I've been non-stop crafting for the past week, finishing up a crochet giraffe for a client and FINALLY completing a project I've been meaning to do for a really long time!  I can't tell you what it is yet, since it's up for the So You Think You're Crafty audition; I'm so excited to be handing it in today.  Cross your fingers and wish me luck!  Or even better, vote for me when the time comes!  Trust me, I'll definitely be letting you know when and where to vote.

On to the cookery!  Something simple today - another easy but oh so useful little tip, and an experiment!  

I remember there was one day, not so very long ago, when I was sitting in my mother's kitchen "helping" her cook, and she asked me to peel some garlic.  (We use lots of garlic in stir fry, know why?  Because it's yum!)  So there I sat, at the kitchen table, meticulously peeling the little flaky papery layers off each clove of garlic.  

mom: WHAT are you DOING?! 

me: huh?

mom: Why are you PEELING the garlic?  Do you seriously do this every time you cook?

Ok, one thing.  This all happened in Chinese, and my memory is a bit sketchy, so it's my best shot at a rough translation.

Well, that was when I learned the following method for taking the skin off the garlic clove: 

Hit it with the side of a knife, 

A chef's knife, a big honkin' chinese cleaver, your pick.  Probably not a paring knife though.

BANG.  

It feels pretty good after a frustrating day at work, way better than getting more and more frustrated peeling sticky garlic skin that refuses to come off all the while getting that long-lasting garlic smell all over your fingers to remind you of your frustration for the next several days.

BANG.  

The skin splits and falls right off.  Works really well with big fat cloves.  Not so well with the itty bitty little cloves at the center of the head, but still works.

A little bang to loosen the skin if you want the clove intact.  A big BANG! if you want to smash it open, release the juices a bit and slice/mince it up.  

The experiment?  I saw a video a while back about a "10 second method to peel a whole head of garlic".  Have you heard about this?  

The theory is that you smash open the head of garlic with the palm of your hand, throw it all in a bowl, cover with another bowl, and shake shake shake for 10 seconds, at which point all the cloves of garlic are now naked.

I gave it a try, and my rate of nekkid-ness was definitely not 100%.  I got 5 bare cloves, and 9 cloves still in skin.  Two of those were easier to peel, but the others looked like they were not at all affected by being thrown around between two metal bowls.

Conclusion:  I like my method better.  Bang.  Lets out a little steam, not as much noise as a dozen cloves rolling around a metal enclosure, and pretty much guaranteed naked cloves.

How do you peel your garlic?  Have you tried the bowl method?  

Party In My Tummy: Mirepoix and Understanding the Holy Trinity

The holy trinity?  No, I'm not getting all religious on you, it's just that good things come in threes, at least for today's discussion.  There's no tip or trick or skill today, unless you count "knowing your aromatics" as a skill.  Aromatics - the good stuff that adds flavor and depth to your dishes.  Feel free to wiki it for a more in-depth explanation, but I like to just think of it as the beginnings of something yummy!

via

Mirepoix is a French term, and it's just the combination of onions, celery and carrots.  It's the base to a lot of good stews, soups, and sauces.  Normally, the ratio of onions to celery and carrots and 2:1:1, so say, 2 cups onions to 1 cup celery to 1 cup carrots, usually diced.  But hey, I don't really measure, remember?  So I just add what I have: "an onion or two, depending on size, some celery stalks, and a couple of carrots".  (That's my kind of measuring).  I also dice according to what I'll be using it for.  For a chicken broth, I'll dice everything to about an inch; for stews, maybe a little bigger so it can handle a longer cooking time.  If I'm making butternut squash soup, I'll dice smaller so the pieces can be blended up easier.  Throw it all in a pot with some butter and salt.  Sweat out the onions and vegetables until soft.  At this point, you can add whatever you want for whatever you're making!

via

In cajun cooking, the carrots get replaced with green peppers.  This gives it a less sweet taste, and adds that distinctive pepper tang.

via

If I'm nice, and lucky, sometimes I get a frozen care package from my Puerto Rican friend's mom - homemade sofrito.  This would be the PR version of the French mirepoix, this time made with garlic, onions, peppers and recao.  Here in the Northeast, I have yet to successfully grow recao, so if I don't make it to the Latino grocery in the slightly sketchy part of town, I'll make my sofrito with cilantro instead.  Again, no measurements for me.  Depending on how much sofrito I want to make, I throw in peeled garlic cloves, some diced green peppers (or ahi peppers if you can find them for authenticity), diced onions, and a bunch of recao/cilantro into a food processor.  Puree the mixture, and to make it easier on yourself when you need it, freeze it in ice cube trays.  Then, the next time you're craving a bit of rice and beans, just pop out a cube or two for some heavenly aromatics.  For me, the ratio is all dependent on taste, just make sure no one ingredient is drowning out the others.

via

Finally, going back to my roots, the Asian trinity is ginger, garlic and scallions.  Have you ever bought that chicken from the asian grocery with the little salty gingery sauce on the side?  Swoon.  And all it is is just a pureed mishmash of ginger, garlic and scallion.  Stir-frying some shrimp?  Making some curry?  Start with some diced/minced garlic, sliced ginger and chopped scallions.  Sometimes I chop my scallions small, other times, in 1 inch chunks, depending on whether I want to be able to pick them out or not.

I'm sure other cultures have their own versions of aromatic beginnings, but these are the ones I use the most. Thai dishes often start with lemongrass and galangal, and I won't even begin to guess at the magic that comes from an Indian chef's spice bag!

What will you be making today with aromatics?

Party In My Tummy: A Tip for Juicing Citrus

Today's installment of Party in My Tummy! isn't really a skill, since all of us are pretty comfortable with a fork, so consider it just a quick tip.

If you're juicing an orange or a lemon or a lime, and don't have a juicer handy, just STICK A FORK IN IT!  Oh, and squeeze too.  The fork breaks up the little juice sacs inside and enables a squeeze to get more juice.  

Be careful not to try to get every single drop out of the lime, as you'll probably be scraping the pith at some point and that will make your juice bitter.

Of course a juicer will be more convenient if you're making margaritas for an army, but this little fork method is perfect for adding a splash of lime to some pad thai or fresh salsa!

Here's what I did with all the limes you saw in the pictures:

I used a fork to squeeze the juice out of about a dozen little limes to make some impromptu fresh limeade!  I'm always concerned about using too much sugar to counteract the acidity of the citrus, which then kind of negates the healthy aspect of a homemade drink, but this ratio of lime juice and simple syrup and water worked out really well!  

Hold on, let's take a step back.  Simple syrup...is super simple.  It's just sugar and water.  You bakers and candy makers are probably very familiar with a nice thick sugar syrup for glazing, but for limeade, I wanted something light.  So, my simple syrup uses a water to sugar ratio of 2:1.

And the overall ratio?  

1 Cup simple syrup

1 Cup lime juice

4 Cups water/seltzer

1. Heat 2 cups water in a saucepan.  Add 1 cup of sugar.  Stir over heat until the sugar is dissolved and the water is once again clear.  Let cool.  Any unused syrup can be stored in the fridge.

2. Take a bunch of limes or lemons, and a fork.  Squeeze out 1 cup of juice.

3.  Add 1 cup of simple syrup, 1 cup of juice and 4 cups of water or seltzer to a jug.  

4.  Add ice and enjoy!

Party In My Tummy: How to Dice Onions

Welcome to Party In My Tummy!, a month-long series of simple cooking tutorials to help you make the best of the bounty of summer!  Click here to see the full schedule.

When I was thinking about topics to post, I thought that maybe "dicing onions" would be a good place to start.  I use onions all the time, for omelets, salsas, mirepoix, stews and soups, and it's become good practice for me to dice onions this way.  A good dice means that each piece is approximately the same size.  This way, the pieces will cook evenly in a pan, or if you are using them in a salsa, like we are today, you won't accidentally end up with a big blob of onion in your bite!

1.  Start with an onion!  I don't peel right away.  The outer layers will come off later.

 2. Cut the onion lengthwise, from end to end.  Work on one half of the onion at a time.

 3. With the cut half down, cut off the top of the onion.  I usually cut off maybe half to 1 inch or so, so I can see the layers of the onion when I'm done.  You might say that's wasting quite a bit of the top, but I compost, so I'm ok with it!  Once the top is cut, you'll find it a lot easier to peel off the onion skin.

 4. Here's the fun part (and the dangerous part).  Without cutting through to the root, make parallel slices lengthwise along the onion with a sharp knife.  Because you are leaving the root intact, the whole onion pretty much stays intact as you make your cuts.  I normally slice to about half an inch from the end.  Do be careful though, as the layers can get slippery and if your knife is a bit dull, it can slip easily and slice off a fingernail (been there, done that)!

 5.  Can you see the dices taking shape?  Now go back and slice the onion perpendicular to your previous cuts.  The little diced pieces will just fall off on their own!

 6.  Continue making slices across the onion.  Make sure these cuts are approximately the same width apart as the lengthwise ones you made in Step 4.  That ensures the dices are nice and square and even.

7. Stop once you're close to the end of the onion, or when you've gotten to the end of your lengthwise cuts.  You should have a pile of beautifully diced onions now!

Since I had these diced red onions laying around, I threw them in a bowl with some diced tomatoes, a handful of chopped cilantro and the juice from one lime.  Season with salt and pepper, mix, and you've got yourself a super fresh, super yummy salsa, all ready for your Memorial Day BBQ!  Kick it up a notch with some finely diced garlic or jalapeno peppers!  (Maybe not the garlic if you intend on being social!)

One trick I've learned is that the salsa tastes better after it's sat in the fridge for a while, so the flavors have had a chance to blend.  The salt will extract some of the liquid from the onions and tomatoes, so you'll see extra liquid at the bottom of the bowl.  If you want a drier salsa, scoop out the tomato seeds and only use the flesh of the tomato in the salsa.

I hope you've enjoyed this first installment of Party In My Tummy!  I'll be hosting a link party on June 20th for you to show off your own tips and tricks, so grab a button and play along! 

If you're new here, Welcome!!  

I invite you to follow me on GFC, Linky Followers or RSS to keep on top of all the tutorials I'll be posting this month!

Party In My Tummy! Starts May 25

Tomorrow's a big day!  I get the day off from work (Yeah!) and it's the first post of my new series, Party in My Tummy!  It's going to be a fabulous month filled with basic cooking tutorials to help you create some wonderful meals this summer!

I'll be the first to admit that I'm pretty terrible when it comes to following directions in a recipe.  The problem I have with recipes is that nothing is ever exact (how big is one eggplant anyways), and oftentimes, the ingredients are hard to find or out of season.  Ever since my family joined the local CSA, we have been much more in tune to what is available in season.  We pick up 10-15 pounds of vegetables every weekend, and it really forces us to be creative and use what we receive, instead of going to the grocery store and buying ingredients for a particular recipe.  What would you do when you're faced with several leeks and a huge ziploc bag full of garlic scapes?  (Is anyone asking what a garlic scape is?)

I don't remember when I learned how to cook.  I definitely went through the ramen and spaghetti phase (haven't outgrown it yet), but after I got married, Drew and I spent a lot of time watching cooking shows and trying different techniques in our own drab-to-fab little kitchen.  I figure if we can do it, so can anyone else.  All it takes are some simple skills and tricks, as well as a basic understanding of flavor combinations.  The rest is just experience and experimentation!

So, this month, I'm going to post a whole collection of little skill tutorials, and occasionally a basic recipe to go with it.  There's going to be a couple of guest posters with tips of their own, and then a link party where you can share your own culinary skills and recipes.  I haven't figured it all out yet, but there will probably be a giveaway too!

Here's the not-set-in-stone schedule for my boot camp.  The dates/order may change if I have problems getting my hands on certain ingredients.

5/25: How to Dice Onion + Fresh Tomato Salsa

5/27 : A Tip for Juicing Citrus + Cool Limeade

5/29 : Understanding Mirepoix and the Holy Trinity

5/31 : Peel Garlic with a Bang

6/2 : Cooking Rice Like an Asian American

6/5 : Guest Post from Shelby at The Bean Sprout Notes 

6/8 : How to Peel and Cut a Pineapple 

6/12 : Guest Post from Joe Turic - Jar Salads

6/15 : How to Clean Those Dirty Little Leeks

6/19 : Guest Post from Justine at Kerr-afty Creations

6/21 : Link Party right here at One Dog Woof to show off your cookery skills and to celebrate the start of summer!

6/27 : Hopefully, I'll have enough participants from the link party to feature my favorites!

I would love for you to display my party button (grab it from the sidebar) and tell your friends.  Write your own posts and join in the fun.  Follow my blog any way you like so you don't miss a single tutorial, and we'll all get together for a big ol' bloggy potluck to welcome in Summer!  To be brutally honest, this is the first time I'm scheduling this many posts, so I'm excited and nervous at the same time!

A Little Zipper Clutch

It's Clutch Week over at Bear Rabbit Bear, and I thought that was a great excuse to force myself to learn how to sew a zipper.  A clutch is small, fairly simple, and would be a good beginner project for someone who has never sewn a zipper before.  I'll admit, I was a bit nervous, and spent an inordinate amount of time on Pinterest trying to choose the right clutch as an inspiration, preferably with an in-depth tutorial to take me through my supposed nightmare scenario of zipper hell where I lose the zipper on the wrong side of the project, and end up with a weird mass of fabric stuck in Mobius purgatory.  (whew.  I hope you got to the end of that stream of consciousness run-on sentence intact!)

Well, I did find the perfect clutch/zipper tutorial, over at Elm Street Life!  Whitney has provided a plethora or super detailed pictures with instructions on every single image, to take you step by baby step through sewing a zipper onto a cute little purse.  Would you believe it, once I had the pieces cut, it only took me 1 hour to end up with a smashing success?  This from the girl who spent 2 hours trying to figure out suspenders (you know, two strips of fabric) and ended up throwing a tantrum at her sewing machine.  So, I'm not very good at sewing, but this was my most painless sewing project EVER, and all thanks to Whitney and her excellent tutorial!

I did change things up a bit, since I didn't have a beautiful mustard linen like hers, and I really should not be allowed to walk into a fabric store anymore.  I used some scraps of Ikea fabric, and added a bit of embroidery to it for a bit of extra color.  THAT little exercise made me realize I want to embroider more, since I've spent years cross-stitching, and apparently, it's pretty much the same thing!  Anyways, enough talk, more pictures.

Washi Tape Clothespins to Display Kids' Art

Happy Friday!  I'm guest posting over at Southern Lovely today as part of Lindsay's "What I Know" series, talking a bit about how I think in 3s to make up a meal.  Take a minute and go check it out!

This month's theme for the Pinspired and Rewired Challenge was to use Washi Tape.  Now, to be honest, I think washi tape is fun and cute, but I wasn't sure how I was going to incorporate it into my house without having it look like I taped tape onto something.  Somehow, slapping colorful pieces of tape on things around the house just didn't excite me as much as it seems to excite a lot of other people.  But that's just me.  If washi tape floats your boat, go for it!  It's awesomely cute and can add just the right oomph to something plain.  Which, in the end, is what I did!

I took a quick look on Pinterest, and got inspired by Cheryl's washi tape clothespin magnets.  We don't have a magnetic fridge, so we are short on magnet space, but clothespins always come in handy.  And what do you know, I have a pile of J's "artwork" gathering dust by the back door, just waiting for a loving mommy to come and acknowledge the genius already!  

So, I have a handful of clothespins, an armful of paper scribbles a collection of priceless works, and some washi tape from Target.  As an added patriotic gesture, I only picked the red and blue washi tape so my display can commemorate Memorial's Day, July 4th (because yes, it's going to stay up for a while), and possibly even Labor Day.

Cutting the tape in half lengthwise fit the clothespins perfectly, and then I just hung up J's art using some baker's twine and the hooks that were already on the wall from my Library Card Advent Calendar.

Speaking of art, how do you display your childrens' creations?  Do you keep them at all?  Swap them out of frames?  Take digital photographs and create a catalog of artwork to rival the collection at the Met?  I'd love to know your thoughts and techniques, because I have a feeling I will be needing some sort of coping mechanism for a long time to come!

Moutarde Maille

Before I start on the food goodness, I just want to announce that it's official (because I say so), I'm going to be hosting "Party in My Tummy: Culinary Boot Camp", a basic cooking skills series, starting Memorial Day weekend!  It will be a month of tutorials for basic kitchen skills, with some guest posters, and a link party to kick of summer and show off your own kitchen tips, tricks and skills.  Make sure you follow me via RSS, GFC or Linky to get in on the fun!

Ok, on to the yummy.

My good friend Joe brought me some French mustard back from his recent trip to Paris and I really just giggle every time I open the fridge door now.  This isn't any old moutarde; this is fresh moutarde ON TAP from the Boutique Maille in place de la Madeleine, Paris.  That's right, mustard on tap!  So good, so fresh, so spicy!  You can get mustard on tap from two stores in the world, in Paris and in Dijon...and now it's in my fridge.  You better believe I'm stocking up on crackers and baguettes, and looking forward to cold cut sandwiches for the next several weeks!

Moutarde au Vin Blanc - spicy, sinus clearing.

Moutarde au Chablis - slightly milder, a little bit sweet.

First course, with crackers.

Dinner: Fresh baguette with ham, moutarde, smelly French Raclette cheese, arugula...

and wine, OF COURSE!