Cooking

It’s the time of year again where those grills are fired up after months of staying dormant. There’s nothing better than delicious charred vegetables, seared steaks or classic BBQ chicken. Most grill recipes will call for a clean, oiled grill. You may think this requires extensive scrubbing and scouring. However, if you’re cleaning your grills more than twice a season, you’re cleaning it too much. You only need to deep clean your grill twice a year, at the beginning and the end of the grilling season. When it’s time to fire up your grill again, it has probably been sitting around for months collecting pollen, leaves, and even small bugs or spiders. Take the time to check all parts of your grill including propane connections, drip pans, heat shields and grates. Wipe down the inside and outside of the grill and make sure all connections are secure. Over time, grill grates will collect stuck-on grease and grime from all the grilling. A paste made of baking soda and soap can work wonders to break down heavy grime. Another option relies on the grease-busting power of an oven cleaner. However, when it comes to ongoing maintenance, you don’t need to bring out the scouring scrub after every session. A sturdy grill brush after each use will easily remove greasy debris. Source: the Kitchn

Grilling pizza might seem a bit confusing at first, but can offer you greater flavor than an oven normally would. The charcoal better mimics the wood fired ovens that pizzas are normally made in. It also leaves the heat outside during a hot summer day, no firing up an oven and making your home hotter than it should be! The dough doesn’t fall through the grates and will form a lightly browned crust if prepared correctly. Servings: 4 to 6 servingsYield: 2 Grilled Pizzas Ingredients: Pizza dough Extra virgin olive oil Pizza toppings: tomato sauce, herbs, mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, or pepperoni All-purpose flour or corn meal to dust the cookie sheet or pizza peel Directions: Make the dough: You can either make pizza dough from scratch or use prepared pizza dough. Both will work. Prep grill and toppings: Prepare the grill for high direct heat. Prepare a small bowl with olive oil for greasing the grill grates and for brushing the pizza. Prepare the toppings so they are ready to go on the pizza—tomato sauce, cheese, and anything else you wish. Stretch and shape the pizza dough: Shape the pizza dough by flattening it with your hands on a lightly floured surface. Either use your fingers to stretch the dough out, or hold up the edges of the dough with your fingers, letting the dough hang and stretch, while working around the edges of the dough.Once you’ve stretched the dough, let it sit for 5 minutes and then push out the edges with your fingers again, until you have a nice round shape, about 12-inches in diameter. Do not make a raised rim, it will interfere with the grilling process.Note that if you are preparing the pizza dough for a party, you can make several pizza dough rounds, stack them separated by parchment paper, and keep them in the refrigerator for up to two hours before cooking. Grill one side of the pizza dough: Once the grill is hot (you can hold your hands an inch over the grates for no more than 2 seconds), dip a tightly folded up paper towel in olive oil and use tongs to wipe the grill grates.Then place a pizza dough round on a lightly floured (or you can use cornmeal) rimless cookie sheet (or pizza peel if you have one).Let the dough slide off the cookie sheet onto the hot grill grates.Close the lid of the grill and let cook for 2 minutes. Check the dough and look for air bubbles: After 2 minutes, open the grill and check underneath the dough to see if it is getting browned. If it is on one side, but not another, use a spatula or tongs to rotate the dough 90 degrees and cook for another minute.If it is not beginning to brown, cover the grill and continue to cook a minute at a time until the bottom has begun to brown.It should only take a couple minutes if you have a hot grill. The top of the pizza dough will start bubbling up with air pockets. Remove grilled dough and flip it over onto a cookie sheet: Once the pizza dough has browned lightly on one side, use your cookie sheet or pizza peel to remove it from the grill. Use a spatula to flip the dough over so that the grilled side is now up. Keep the grill covered so it retains its heat for the next step. Brush with olive oil, add toppings: Paint the grilled surface of the pizza with a little extra virgin olive oil, then cover with 1 ladle of sauce – no more, or you’ll end up with a soggy pizza.Sprinkle on your toppings, ending with Mozzarella cheese (if using), and if using meat, put that over the cheese.Remember to go light on the toppings, or your pizza will be heavy and soggy. Slide the topped pizza back onto the grill: If you are using a gas grill, reduce the heat. If working with a charcoal grill, close the vents on the cover almost all the way. Close the lid and cook for 2-3 minutes more, or until the bottom begins to char and the cheese is bubbly. Pull off the grate with a spatula onto a cutting board or other flat surface and let rest for a couple minutes before cutting into slices. Slice and serve! Source: Simply Recipes

If a salad is lackluster, salad dressing is the one way to take the meal to the next level. Creamy dressings are perfect for chicken and grains, while vinaigrettes boost the flavor of veggies or a pot of beans. While store bought dressings are convenient, homemade dressings can shake up your cooking. There’s one trick to boosting DIY dressings, and that’s vanilla extract. Vanilla extract can improve dressings such as vinaigrettes and savory-leaning dressings. Vanilla lessens the bite of bitterness and tempers acidity while making sweet ingredients taste more like themselves. In baking, vanilla is more a background flavor to other ingredients but makes a difference when absent. The same applies to salad dressings. The sweetness of vanilla enhances the flavor of sweet salad additions like berries or veggies. It tempers pungent flavors like cheeses, garlic and raw red onion. Try it out with your recipes at home by starting with 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract. You can increase it from there to suit your taste. Ramp up the vanilla’s flavor by building a basic vinaigrette and opt for a fruit vinegar like Champagne or raspberry. Pair with olive oil or a robust nut oil. The vanilla addition really ties it all together for the perfect DIY dressing. Source: the Kitchn

If you’ve ever made a smoothie with peanut or almond butter then you’ve probably run into a common issue. After struggling to get the ingredient out of the jar and into a measuring cup, half of it sticks and stays there. You’ll be left with a mess and a slightly-less-than-accurate amount for your recipe. However, there’s an easy trick to avoid this issue altogether. Simply spray the measuring cup with a little oil or cooking spray before using it. Afterwards, the ingredient will slide right out. It works for many other sticky ingredients such as honey and corn syrup. You can apply this same cooking spray trick to other common kitchen hassles. If you ever need to grate cheese, apply some cooking spray to the grater before using it. Spray tupperware before using it to prevent colored stains. Source: the Kitchn

Stock recipes tend to involve simmering bones and/or meat with some aromatics for a few hours, then strained. The technique transforms food scraps into a flavorful ingredient for sauces, soups and stews. You should always watch out to not let it boil, or else the stock could come out cloudy. However, there’s another technique for a clear, clean-tasting broth known as blanching. Blanching is when you drop something in boiling water briefly, usually done with vegetables to pre-cook them. You can apply the same technique to stock, by blanching the bones and meat in water before you add the aromatics and simmer. While it may seem counterintuitive to cook the meat and bones twice, the initial boil is important because it helps the proteins clump together. This will prevent any residue that can cloud the water and give the stock a muddy flavor. It’ll minimize any scum in your final stock. The French Method. This technique involves putting bones in a pot with cold water and bringing it up to a simmer. Afterwards, pour out the water and rinse the bones. The Chinese Method. With this method, you bring the water to a boil, then blanch the bones and meat for 10 to 15 seconds. Then, fish them out and rinse them. Afterwards, the blanched bones and the aromatics are added to fresh, cold water and then simmered to make the final stock. Source: the Kitchn

Pressing out a patty and throwing it on the grill might seem simple enough, but often we end up with burgers that are too crumbly or too small for the buns. The goal is to have a juicy and tender burger that stays together and fits the bun perfectly. Here’s how to get a perfect patty every time. Temperature. Other meats are often brought up to room temperature before cooking, but with patties you want to break this habit. If a patty is warm and further warmed by hands, the fat will melt too quickly on the grill, resulting in a dry burger. Keep the beef refrigerated all the way up until it’s time to season and press the patties. Toss them on the grill immediately after or cover with plastic wrap and put back in the refrigerator until it’s time to grill. Handle with Care. Ground beef consists of two parts, lean meat and fat. The goal is to have these two parts stick together once pressed. If a patty is overworked the burger will be dry and crumbly. Handle the beef as little as possible. Fold the seasonings into the ground beef gently, and don’t spend more than 30-45 seconds mixing. You can test the mixture by scooping a tablespoon and pressing it between your palms. Turn it over and if the meat sticks, then it’s well mixed and ready to be pressed into patties. Four-Inch Rule. A patty will shrink when it’s cooked, so make the patties one inch thick and one inch larger than the bun. Most of the time, buns are around three inches, so a four-inch patty should do the trick. If you’re still unsure about how to press out the patties, trace out the desired sized circles on parchment paper before shaping. Shaping Patties. Here’s how to get a perfectly flat patty every time. Start with a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Wet your hands and then place 5-ounce mounds of beef on the parchment paper. Press each mount in the center gently with the palm of your hand. Use your other hand to cup the beef and help shape it into a circle. You should end up with a patty with a depression, or dimple in the center with a ½ inch lip around the edge. Patties will bloat in the middle and shrink everywhere else during grilling. Source: Simply Recipes

Stocking up on frozen produce is one of the best ways to stick to a budget. There are myths that fresh is always better than frozen, but in fact sometimes the opposite is true! Frozen foods are picked and frozen when they’re ripe, sometimes between eight to 12 hours. This ensures all the valuable nutrients are locked in. Nutrients in fresh produce are lost during harvesting, packaging or while sitting on shelves in a store for weeks at a time. Frozen produce is usually less expensive and will save you money in the long-run. Here are a few must-buy frozen items. Dark Sweet Cherries. Fresh cherries come with a hefty premium price. Frozen cherries are rich in antioxidants, fiber and nutrients making them perfect for smoothies and healthy desserts. Edamame. Edamame is a great source of plant-based protein and fiber. They’re very affordable to buy in frozen form, and make for an easy snack. Let them thaw on the counter before preparing. Broccoli. Without a doubt much easier to prepare when frozen, broccoli is a super-healthy veggie. You’ll only want to opt for fresh broccoli when you’d like to grill it. Green Beans. Frozen green beans are consistently more flavorful and have a better texture. They’re also easier to find! Packed with fiber, vitamin C, and antioxidants, they’re another great source of plant-based protein. Pre-Made Smoothie Packs. We all get busy and pre-made packs are the perfect solution to making smoothies. They have all the healthiest fruits and veggies in perfect portions. You’ll pay a little more upfront but nothing beats the convenience. Mixed Vegetable Blends. This is a no-brainer for essential frozen food purchases. These are a staple in meal prep. Steam them in soups, stews, curries and even casseroles. Change up the varieties you buy and purchase them in bulk to save even more. Source: the Kitchn

Recipes can call for a multitude of ingredients, and with all the different measurements it can be a puzzle to solve just what you need. There are fluid ounces, weight ounces, imperial and metric systems, and liquid and dry measures. When a recipe relies on precise measurements, how you measure these ingredients really matters. First, make sure you’re using the correct measuring cup for an ingredient. Measuring flour with a liquid measuring cup will mess up your recipe. The same goes for measuring liquid with a dry measuring cup. A dry and liquid ingredient will have differing properties, changing how they should be measured. The types of cups you’re using also matters! Sadly, decorative ceramic cups may be designed for looks instead of accuracy. Basic metal cups usually provide the best results. Common Units of Volume Teaspoons: 3 teaspoons equal 1 tablespoon Tablespoons: 1 tablespoon equals 3 teaspoons Cups: 1 cup equals 8 fluid ounces Pints: There are 2 cups in 1 pint Quarts: There are 4 cups in 1 quart Gallons: There are 4 quarts in a gallon Fluid ounces: Fluid ounces are not the same as weight ounces. 1 cup of water is 8 fluid ounces but weighs 8.3 ounces Liters: This is metric measurement, equal to 33.8 ounces Milliliters: There are 1,000 ml in a liter Essentials for Measuring Liquid measuring cups, which are made of clear glass or plastic and have a spout so you can pour from them. Dry measuring cups, which are made of metal or plastic. A basic set includes 1 cup, 1/2 cup, 1/3 cup, and 1/4 cup. Measuring spoons, which are used for amounts of dry and liquid ingredients. The largest measure in the set is a tablespoon. The smallest is usually 1/4 teaspoon, though some sets include 1/8 teaspoon. To measure 3/4 teaspoon, just measure 1/2 teaspoon and 1/4 teaspoon of the ingredient. Tips on Measuring Dry Ingredients How you measure ingredients such as flour, can make the difference between a dense and gluey banana bread versus a light and cakey banana bread. The best method for measuring is the fluff-and-scoop method: Lightly fluff the flour in its container. Scoop or spoon the flour into the measuring cup. Level it off with a flat edge, such as the back of a table knife. Do not pack the flour or tap the cup. If you ever find yourself looking for the most accurate method, try a kitchen scale! Weight will give you better results as it’s an absolute measurement. It’ll eliminate any guesswork. Source: Simply Recipes