Your spatulas have been warned: Achiote is the turmeric or, if you like, the saffron of Cuban and Latin American cuisine and will dye most anything it comes across a vibrant red-orange. It’s worth it though, as I discovered and cooked with this spice.
4.52 / 5 Stars | 22 Reviews
by Jill
“This quick and easy salsa can be made in just a few minutes with a food processor. Green onions instead of white onions give it a nice, mellow flavor to balance the kick of the jalapenos. This recipe also works well with 2-3 habanero peppers instead of the jalapenos. But be sure to remove the seeds and membrane from the habaneros first! Grab a bag of tortilla chips, dip, eat, and enjoy!”
This week we toured the New York kitchen of Ed Cotton, Executive Chef at New York’s Sotto 13 and a Top Chef alum. We saw how he uses his oven and noted a particularly cool feature on his range. We discovered his favorite knife and a few easy ways to work clean (the chef’s mantra!).
Now there’s only one question left before we close off the week: Ed, what’s cooking this weekend?
I’ve been reading all the comments on this post about building a vegetarian and vegan pantry that helps you create healthy, easy meals every day.
So many good additions and suggestions!
Here’s one comment that sums up a lot of the best suggestions.
When I was 15 I got my very first job, working in a bakery. I spent my time after school and weekend mornings selling fresh bread, beautiful pastries and cakes, and warm doughnuts.
Sure, I learned the difference between Italian and semolina bread, how doughnuts are made, and the beauty of fresh pastries. But the best things I took away from that job, though I was too young to realize it at the time, were lessons I’ve carried with me every day since.
There are a lot of great reasons to make your own soda syrup. You can use real sugar, rather than the HFCS devil that lurks in most bottles. You can make flavors that make you happy, from real seasonal ingredients with complexity and intensity, and you can use up excesses of things in your fridge like, say, the time you assumed strawberries being on sale meant that you were going to eat a few pounds of them before they went bad. You can use the syrup as a foundation for cocktails, because it’s Friday and baby, you’ve earned it, and you can package bottles up as gifts for friends, because you’re just that awesome of a person.
And while every one of these crossed my mind when I made this syrup this week (uh, once my kitchen and bathroom were reassembled), I am not sure any of them are the truth. The truth is not practical, logical or even terribly grown-up; it will never make it into a longform think piece about food and culture, thank heavens: I just wanted something pink, tart and pretty in my life, something that fills your kitchen with the smell of cotton candy, sunshine and popsicles as it simmers away on the stove. I wanted spring, and seeing as the weather was not going to provide it for me, I hoped a weeklong dose of ombré green and fuchsia would suffice.
… Read the rest of strawberry rhubarb soda syrup on smittenkitchen.com
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permalink to strawberry rhubarb soda syrup | 2 comments to date | see more: Drinks, Photo, Rhubarb, Spring, Strawberries
4.32 / 5 Stars | 64 Reviews
by Komal
“Tender cooked chickpeas are simmered lightly with tomatoes, lemon juice and onions in a spicy blend of toasted cumin seeds, chili powder and lemon pepper. Served warm, this makes a deliciously fragrant appetizer.”
