Good for those who haven't figured out how to elegantly dice tomatoes yet
November 08, 2006
I feel like there is something that I was supposed to do today – what was it?
Oh, yes. That's it. I'm choosing a winner for the cooking tip contest. There were so many great entries – I almost feel that it would be an injustice to pick just one. Whoever made up the rules for this game, anyway?
Hmmm. Right. I did. In that case, I'll determine three categories: most appealing recipe, most useful hint and, my personal favorite (is that redundant?), most bizarre tip:
Most Appealing Recipe
Among the 50+ cooking tips (including several adapted straight from Martha Stewart, the Queen of all Cooking Hints) were a few recipe suggestions. We had everything from entrees to sides to desserts, and even though dessert is my favorite type of food, my favorite hint was a tip from Laura on making a healthy substitute for white Arborio rice (when making risotto):
If you cook brown rice with water, it takes on a nutty texture and the grains don't stick to each other. However, if you cook brown rice with vegetable or chicken stock, it takes on a slightly sticky, creamy texture. Stir in a bit of parmesan cheese to the cooked rice and bam! You have a perfect healthy substitution for white Arborio rice when making risotto (which is usually very high in fat).
I chose this recipe because it's likely I'll be using it in the very near future. And if it's as good as it sounds? I'll have a new staple. My husband, Roger, and I both could survive on rice alone. I should have a bumper sticker that reads, "I [heart] rice."
Most Useful
It was especially difficult for me to pick a useful tip, because there were so many useful suggestions. In fact, I personally use may of them already: parchment paper under cookie dough balls (it keeps the bottom of the cookie from scorching!), storing pre-made salad in Ziploc bags (sans the air), and, when in a pinch, snipping the bottom corner of a Ziploc to use as a pastry bag.
My favorite, though, came from Lorie:
To quickly dice tomatoes or onions in relatively uniform pieces: Make evenly-spaced cuts in rows in one direction on the surface, cutting to about halfway through the onion or tomato. Cross those cuts with evenly-spaced rows, cutting to the same depth. Turn the veggie on its side and slice. Once you get to the halfway point, cut your rows again and finish slicing. Presto!
Y'all. Why did this never occur to me before? I cannot tell you the number of times I've sliced my tomatoes in one direction, until I got to that last slice that threatened to shave off half of my thumb. And then I'd dance around the knife with my fingers. But this! This is genius.
Most Bizarre
Believe me: Some of you? Are really bizarre. I have never heard of such things! Putting sugar in your pasta sauce? Won't that make it sweet? Somehow that seems like it is the antithesis of what red pasta sauce should be. And when I test these bizarre tips? I'll know whether you made them up. And if it ruins my food? I won't throw it away. No: I'll mail it directly to you, Internets, with explicit instructions to consume this monstrosity on video. I will watch you. And I will avenge.
Even more bizarre than adding sugar to your pasta sauce, or even adding cinnamon to your pasta sauce, is this suggestion from Nat (a/k/a Marmite Breath), which she credits to another friend:
…when she boils an egg she drops a match in the boiling water. I believe it stops it from cracking.
I must ask: is the match lit when it is dropped it in the water? Or do you just drop an unused match in the pot? Has anyone else heard of this, or is it just me? Because that is bizarre. Unless it works, of course, and then it is just mildly weird, because then it's a proven method.
With all my readers who have been winning prizes lately – prizes that will either showcase or permanently record the human blunder that I like to call My Brain – I better get in gear. I'd like to be able to mail your jackpot winnings before March 2010.
Comments
Hey Jessica! I enjoy reading yours and Katies sites occasionally, and I just wanted to tell you that I add sugar to my pasta sauce and it doesn't make it sweet. i totally am going to try the tomato trick! so fun!
Posted by: Amanda | November 8, 2006 04:35 PM
To keep an egg from cracking during boiling, insert a sterile pin into the fatter end of the egg to make a small hole before cooking. There's a bit of air in the egg that comes out the hole as the egg expands. It relieves the pressure on the shell, and the egg doesn't crack.
Posted by: Shiz | November 8, 2006 05:38 PM
Woohoo! I won one of the categories?
Well if you're going to actually try that recipe, I will add that to jazz it up a bit and turn it into more of a meal than a side dish, the risotto is extremely yummy if you also add steamed asparagus and/or shrimp sauteed in a tiny bit of olive oil (maybe 1 or 2 tbsp). We recently tried it with shrimp cooked in olive oil because we were out of butter, and I was surprised at how different and how good the shrimp tasted.
Posted by: Laura | November 8, 2006 06:42 PM
oh! Yes yes yes on the sugar in the tomato sauce!!! DEF! I can't even eat store bought sauce without adding sugar. The sugar brings out the flavor of the tomatoes. In fact, in ALL vegetable soups/sauces I add sugar. Cream of Brocolli and Cream of Zucinni especially. Try it! Next time you are eating cream of something soup, take a bite, and then add about a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar (maybe more, I don't really know) and stir then try another bite. You will be like "WOW I can totally taste the veggies more!" Trust me!
Posted by: Courtney | November 8, 2006 06:52 PM
Ah! The Onion Trick won most useful? I almost posted that one myself. My husband and I just call it the "Onion Trick" but we use it on onions, tomatoes, and even garlic! Yes, garlic! Just use your pairing knife. It is fun! And it is indeed life-changing, but I think I take it for granted now. One Thanksgiving, my MIL wanted to help, so I asked her to chop the onion for the stuffing. 10 minutes later I look over and the cutting board has exploded with onion bits and she is hacking away. I had to teach her the Onion Trick that very moment.
Posted by: Tartine | November 8, 2006 07:10 PM
please i would like a list of all the tips in one-easy-to-read place....
Posted by: leahpeah | November 9, 2006 12:28 AM
I was not making that up... my Grandmother told me to add sugar to the sauce and she made sauce back in the day when we did not have it premade in a glass jar! :-)
Posted by: Steff | November 9, 2006 08:46 AM
I can't dice a tomato either. But, I got me one of thos fancy Pampered Chef choppers -- they dice tomatoes. : )
Posted by: Ang | November 9, 2006 09:08 AM
I have a Pampered Chef chopper, too, and I love it. BUT, not everyone has one, and I don't always have one available to me wherever I'm cooking (at friend's or family member's houses), so I was especially delighted to learn about this trick. I can't believe it's never occurred to me before. I'm a little dumbfounded by that.
Posted by: jes | November 9, 2006 09:12 AM
Jes, I think we need a diagram to truly understand the tomato cutting trick. Could you do that for us?
Posted by: Heather | November 9, 2006 11:43 AM
I'm loving the tomato trick. I don't like tomatoes, onions or garlic, but that's okay. Since I can't really cook, I can at least pretend to by elegantly, as you put it, chopping my tomatoes. I'll totally fool everyone.
And from now on, I'll always volunteer to make salad at dinners. :) Just don't tell anyone I'm an impostor.
Posted by: my life is brilliant | November 9, 2006 12:37 PM
i've heard of the match in boiling water thing, and i think someone told me it's the sulphur in the match that stops the egg from cracking.
but seeing as i can't remember where or who i heard this from, don't take my word for it.
Posted by: rachel | November 9, 2006 01:27 PM
You can use the onion/tomato trick on potatoes, too. Perfect for potato soup. Or boiled eggs when you're putting them in tuna salad, etc.
Mmmm...potato soup...
Posted by: Lorie | November 9, 2006 02:13 PM
I add sugar to my spaghetti sauce. It takes away some of the acidity of the tomatoes and it causes it to stick to the noodles better. I also toss my noodles in olive oil after I cook them to keep them from sticking together and if I am really feeling like Emeril I grill onions in olive oil and toss them in my spaghetti with the olive oil and then you don't have bland noodles, you have delicious flavorful noodles.
Posted by: eddo | November 9, 2006 03:57 PM
Whether corn on the cob is in season or not, add about 2 tablespoons sugar (or more) to the boiling water to sweeten the corn. Works every time!
Posted by: Jenn | November 10, 2006 10:48 AM