Cook's Country August/September 2020

I AM A LUCKY man. Every day at Cook’s Country I get to learn from talented test cooks, thoughtful writers, skilled designers, sharp-eyed photographers, smart copy editors … and, also, many of you. I’m talking, of course, about the tens of thousands of volunteer home cooks across the country who help test our recipes. You’ve heard about them. Maybe you are one—I hope so! If you’re not, here’s how it works. You sign up online, and then every few weeks you receive an email with a recipe or two to test. If a recipe appeals to you, and you have the time and inclination (there is literally zero obligation), you cook through it, and then you fill out a short survey to let us know what you think. Were the…

Start Me Up I just bought a charcoal chimney starter to light briquettes for the grill. Any tips for how to use it? –Luke Norman, Berwick, Maine Chimney starters safely ignite charcoal without the need for lighter fluid. These simple gadgets consist of a cylindrical body with a handle, plus two stacked chambers inside. The large top chamber is for charcoal, and the smaller bottom chamber is for newspaper. You fill the bottom chamber with newspaper (two gently crumpled sheets should do the trick), load the top chamber with the desired amount of charcoal, and then light the newspaper. Depending on the amount and type of charcoal (and the weather conditions), it can take 20 to 40_minutes for the top layer of charcoal to become covered in a fine layer…

Better Peanut Butter Beater What do you do with a just-opened jar of natural peanut butter (or tahini)? The separated oil on top needs to be stirred back in, but the jar is full. We’ve tried methods such as simply stirring it with a fork (very messy and ineffective) and dumping it all into a bowl and whisking it until it’s smooth (too much work). But we’ve recently found a better way. Grab your handheld electric mixer and attach just one of the beaters. Firmly grasp the jar with one hand, press the beater into the peanut butter until it touches the bottom of the jar, and mix on low speed for about a minute. The oil stays in the jar, your arm isn’t tired from stirring, and the peanut…

IN JAPAN, TERIYAKI sauce is a simple combination of soy sauce, sake, mirin, and sugar; it has a thin consistency and a glossy appearance. It is typically used as finishing sauce, brushed on grilled meat toward the end of cooking to give it a shiny glaze and a sweet, salty flavor. In the United States, most of the bottled teriyaki sauces sold in supermarkets are thicker than typical Japanese sauces and have more flavoring ingredients. To find the best product, we rounded up six supermarket offerings and tasted them plain and in our recipe for Teriyaki Stir-Fried Beef with Green Beans and Shiitakes. We were after a sauce that was thin enough to pour but not runny, with a flavor that balanced teriyaki sauce’s characteristic sweet and salty notes. Some…

AFTER FEASTING ON the deservedly famous chicken and rice at Nong’s Khao Man Gai in Portland, Oregon (see “Old-School Flavors with a Smile”), we came back to the test kitchen to create a recipe for home cooks. Following the lead of the cooks at Nong’s, we began by poaching the chicken whole with garlic and ginger, simultaneously creating perfectly juicy meat and flavorful chicken broth. Then, while the bird rested, we cooked fragrant jasmine rice in the poaching liquid to make a rich, poultry-infused rice to serve alongside the sliced and shredded chicken. The ultracomforting, subtly flavored chicken and rice could stand on their own, but at Nong’s it’s the bright, savory, spicy sauce that wakes it all up and keeps customers coming back for more. The sauce is a…

JUST BEFORE THE lunch rush, Nong Poonsukwattana greets me with an easy smile at her namesake Nong’s Khao Man Gai in downtown Portland, Oregon. Giant pots of whole chickens bubble in the open kitchen, and the aromas of ginger, garlic, and floral pandan leaves fill the air in the tiny restaurant. The focus here is khao man gai, a classic, comforting chicken and rice dish that’s filled with flavor; Nong has been making and selling her version since 2009, when she opened her first food cart in town. Nong comes from a family of cooks in Bangkok, Thailand. She grew up watching her mother work 16-hour days in restaurant kitchens, her arms scarred and blistered from hot cooking grease. “To be honest, I never thought of opening a restaurant,” Nong…