Cuisine at home Jan/Feb 2018

For many of us, the beginning of a New Year is the customary time to take stock of where we’ve been and where we’re going, whether it’s to change some old bad habits or to refresh one’s lifestyle. This goes for Cuisine at home as well. In this issue, you’ll find we’ve made a few updates. Some of the most popular pages of the magazine are those devoted to Tips & Timesavers, which we’ve now expanded from two to four pages. This gives us the opportunity to share with you more reader tips with larger photos, plus space to include some of the staffs’ favorite tips and tools often used in the Cuisine at home Test Kitchen. In addition, we’ve transformed the Cuisine Lite department into what we’re calling Healthy Cuisine. Now,…

Cut & Color I have an easy way to decorate plain sugar cookies. I pour liquid food color in a shallow dish. Then, I dip a cookie cutter into the food coloring, letting the excess drip off, and cut out a cookie. This quick technique leaves a cute border around the cookies. An added bonus — re-rolling the scraps makes adorable “marbled” cookies, too! Betty Foster, Charlottesville, IN PAT DOWN My family loves homemade sausage pizza, but browning sausage on the stove top can be a greasy job. Instead, I pat the sausage out on a baking sheet and roast it in a 400-degree oven until browned. Then I turn the browned sausage out onto paper towels to absorb any grease, break it up into bite-sized pieces, and it’s pizza ready. Shon M. Pirollo, Akron,…

MIX IT UP If you don’t like getting your hands messy when mixing meatloaf, put the ingredients into a large, resealable plastic bag. Close the bag, then “knead” everything together until well mixed. Kids like helping with this too! CUTTING CUTLETS We cook a lot of chicken cutlets in the Test Kitchen. And we have an easy alternative to pounding them. We discovered that by holding the chicken breast on its side with a pair of tongs, we can easily slice the chicken in half horizontally. Be sure to cut away from yourself to avoid knife slips and injuries. CLOSE SHAVE It’s tough (and can be dangerous) to use a knife on a hard block of Parmesan cheese. But this “Y” peeler creates those thin strips you want for a garnish. “Peel” the Parmesan like…

Q: I heard I shouldn’t store onions and potatoes together, is that true? — Beth Pedersen, Paducah, KY Answer: Yes. While onions and potatoes couldn’t taste better together in any number of dishes, you don’t want to store them near one another. Onions, like apples, bananas, and some other fruits and vegetables, emit ethylene gas as they ripen. Ethylene gas is a plant hormone that advances ripening and spoilage in some fruits and vegetables. Thus, you want to be careful how you store all of your produce. A good rule of thumb is not to store fruits and vegetables together. In the case of potatoes, because they’re sensitive to ethylene, don’t store them with onions (or other ethylene producing foods) or it will quicken the sprouting process. Store your onions at room temperature on the…

Phyllo [FEE-loh], also spelled filo or fillo, is an unleavened dough made with flour, water, and a very small amount of oil (which means it’s low in fat). Somewhat similar to strudel dough, phyllo is stretched into sheets as thin as tissue paper, which when layered and baked, become crisp, flaky layers for both sweet and savory applications. Meaning “leaf” in Greek, it’s used extensively in Greek, as well as Near and Middle Eastern cuisines, such as in the Baklava, on page 49. You’ll readily find phyllo dough in the freezer section at the supermarket either as flat sheets or as a roll. In certain areas of the country, you may find fresh dough at specialty Greek markets. And while you can make homemade dough, it takes some skill, patience, and…

Dried plums are rarely used to their culinary potential, but this sauce just might ignite a new-found appreciation for the unassuming fruit. Simply simmer them in a flavorful combination of red wine, earthy rosemary, and a touch of brown sugar. The plums start to break down, adding silky body to the sauce — a perfect partner for seared pork chops. And with just a few staple ingredients, simple roasted carrots make an ideal, healthy, and easy-to-throw-together side dish. This meal delivers so much flavor, no one will believe it’s ready in under an hour. Pork Chops with dried plum sauce Makes 4 servings (1 cup sauce) Total time: 30 minutes HEAT: 1 Tbsp. olive oil4 boneless center-cut pork chops (5 oz. each; 1/2-inch thick), seasoned with salt and black pepper2 Tbsp. minced shallots DEGLAZE: 1 cup dry…