Monday, June 12, 2017

What Else Is Your Melon Baller Good For?

This common wisdom rings true: Don’t get a kitchen tool that has only one use. Three uses at minimum is a good standard for taking up space in your drawer. After all, you don’t want to be stuck with one of those most hated, useless kitchen tools. Enter the melon baller, whose name belies its versatility. 

The French tool’s advertised use is to scoop out perfect little balls of cantaloupe, watermelon, and honeydew for fruit salads. But you can justify a melon baller easily. First, you get to say “baller.” That’s enough reason. Then you have the more mature reasons — other food uses.

1. Make cute balls with almost any firm fruit or vegetable — or ice cubes.

Laylita

What a perfect summer drink. You could have just seltzer and fresh mint, and woo-la: a healthy, colorful, breezy beverage that doesn’t get more refreshing. Get the recipe.

2. Hollow out food to stuff it with other food.

FoodieCrush

Loaded twice-baked potatoes can be adorable as well as decadent. Typically a heavy, saturated dish, when you use little red potatoes, not so much. Get the recipe.

3. Core fruit such as apples, pears, and quince.

Lazy Sunday Cooking

Remove not only the seeds and core, but also the flesh from inside the quince in this recipe inspired by Sami Tamimi’s and Yotam Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem cookbook. Get the recipe.

4. Scoop cookie dough from the batter bowl to the baking pan.

Chowhound

For your classic cookies to any kind that call for scooping the batter with a spoon, a melon baller provides a precise measurement that’s sometimes easier to use than a teaspoon. Get our Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe.

5. Remove the icky bits from tomatoes, seeds from cucumbers, and stringy bits from winter squash and artichokes.

Simply Scratch

Salsa and pico de gallo are arguably better when you take out the icky, jelly-like center with all those seeds. Then when you dice them, you don’t end up with swampy mush. Get the recipe.

6. Create cavities in cupcakes for surprise fillings.

Easy Baked

Seriously, this is the coolest thing you can do to a cupcake. Everyone expects the sweet frosting on top. But an extra surprise filling inside? Gasp. Get the recipe.

7. Scoop a palate-cleansing sorbet ball for each dinner guest.

Jenni Kayne

A refreshing tidbit in between courses of a big meal would be perfectly presented using one scoop of a melon baller. You could stick with summer season flavors, like this watermelon-lemonade flavor sorbet. Get the recipe.

8. Make chocolate truffles.

Chowhound

Chocolate truffles almost require a melon baller. When you try to form the chocolatey balls with your hands, your warmth melts the chocolate too much. So the less you touch them the better. Get our Charles Chocolates Bittersweet Chocolate Truffles recipe.

9. Gouge the remaining eye bits of a whole pineapple.

A Lot of Recipes

When you’ve mastered slicing off all the rough parts surrounding that super-sweet golden flesh, there are always those little bits, or eyes, remaining. Gouge out those suckers with a melon baller, and then create something crazy savory-sweet, like this recipe.

— Head photo: Wikihow.

Amy Sowder is the assistant editor at Chowhound in New York City. She loves cheesy things, especially toasties and puns. She’s trying to like mushrooms. Her running habit is the excuse for her gelato passion. Or is it the other way around? Follow her on Instagram, Twitter, and her blog, What Do I Eat Now. Learn more at AmySowder.com.



from Food News – Chowhound http://ift.tt/2sm0G9x
via IFTTT

The Ultimate Chicken Food Safety Guide

There’s a reason why we frequently say “this tastes like chicken.” For carnivores, the mild meat has perhaps the most commonly recognized flavor and texture in the world. In fact, nearly eight billion chickens are consumed each year in the U.S. alone. While this may be bad news for our poultry friends, the protein-packed food isn’t leaving supermarket shelves and restaurant menus any time soon.

Since you’re probably cooking chicken tonight and you may have questions, we’ve created this helpful chicken food safety guide with selection, storage, and cooking tips, as well as a variety of recipes.

How to Select Chicken

If you’re searching for a whole chicken, you’ll first want to ensure that its round breast is pliable to the touch. This indicates that the chicken is young and the meat will be more tender. When purchasing cuts of chicken, the color of its skin has no bearing on freshness or nutritional value. Instead, look at its flesh to ensure it is pink with limited amounts of white striping.

How to Store Chicken

Raw or cooked chicken can be stored in a refrigerator for a few days after its sell-by date, though it’s important to prevent raw chicken juices from leaking and contaminating other foods. Ensure that chicken remains in its original packaging (which should be vacuum-sealed or tightly-wrapped) until it is ready to be cooked.

How to Freeze Chicken 

While freezing will make your chicken less tender and juicy, it is the perfect way to store the family-sized pack you bought at Costco last weekend. Remove the chicken from its original packaging and rewrap it tightly using aluminum foil, plastic wrap, or freezer paper. Double wrap if you are planning to store the chicken for more than two months. Ground chicken can last up to three months in the freezer, while chicken pieces can last up to nine.  

How to Thaw Chicken

You should never thaw chicken at room temperature, as it is highly susceptible to bacteria growth. Frozen chicken should be defrosted in the microwave, refrigerator, or a bowl of cold water (which should be changed every 30 minutes).

How to Cook Chicken

Chicken’s flavor may be one-noted, but it’s a sponge for complex seasonings, marinades, and sauces. We’ve rounded up eight of the most common ways to prepare and cook poultry, along with drool-worthy recipes that deserve spots on your rotating dinner menu.

Fried: Tatsutage Fried Chicken with Spicy Yuzu Mayonnaise

Chowhound

Grilled: Grilled Chicken Breasts with Balsamic Rosemary Marinade

Chowhound

Roasted: Basic Whole Roasted Chicken

Chowhound

Baked: Baked Cracker-Crusted Chicken Fingers

Chowhound

Braised: Braised Tunisian Chicken Thighs

Chowhound

Poached: Poached Chicken and Pomegranate Orzo

Chowhound

Broiled: Easy Broiled Chicken Breasts

Chowhound

Burger: Chicken Cordon Bleu Burger

Chowhound



from Food News – Chowhound http://ift.tt/2rkibXE
via IFTTT

Beef Jerky Sales on the Rise

Beef jerky sales grew by nearly seven% last year, according to Nielsen. Meat snacks are second only to potato chips in the salty snack category, but potato chips posted only 1.7% dollar growth over the same time period. 

from Subscribe to Preparedfoods.com's RSS Feed http://ift.tt/2sUzb3M
via IFTTT

Firmenich Appoints New Leadership

Firmenich appointed of Julien Firmenich as Vice President of Ingredients. In this role, he will lead the Ingredients Business Unit with a focus on breakthrough innovation, creativity and long term value creation.

from Subscribe to Preparedfoods.com's RSS Feed http://ift.tt/2sl5N9R
via IFTTT

Edwards S’mores Crème Pie

Edwards® desserts launched a brand new flavor, S’mores Crème pie, available in multi-serve and 2-pack slices, to help retailers do dessert right this summer. 

from Subscribe to Preparedfoods.com's RSS Feed http://ift.tt/2sUwFuu
via IFTTT

Slow Cooker Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork

Slow Cooker Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork

While I’ve certainly heard of making pulled pork by slowly cooking pork shoulder in sugary soda, it’s always seemed like a novelty and not something I particularly wanted to eat.

But on a recent jaunt to San Francisco, of all places, I had an unexpected opportunity to try it. You can guess what happened next!

Continue reading "Slow Cooker Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork" »



from Simply Recipes http://ift.tt/2rSHXB8
via IFTTT

Ricotta and Summer Berry Parfaits

Ricotta Parfaits

This post is brought to you in partnership with Frigo® Cheese.

Ah, summer. Nothing says it better than a bowl of berries. Unless it’s a bowl of berries layered with Frigo’s sweet ricotta and topped with crunchy pistachios, that is!

These dessert parfaits are so pretty – they look fancier than they have a right to be, considering how easy they are to make. They are also not too sweet and make the perfect finish to a casual summer dinner party.

Continue reading "Ricotta and Summer Berry Parfaits" »



from Simply Recipes http://ift.tt/2su5zgg
via IFTTT

PROVA: Vanilla Solutions

When PROVA was founded in France in 1946, it brought an original extraction technology and soon became known as one of the world’s major vanilla pod processors.

from Subscribe to Preparedfoods.com's RSS Feed http://ift.tt/2sUCdoH
via IFTTT

Comax Flavors: Coffee & Consumers

Comax Flavors has embarked on a new food and beverage primary market research program to better understand consumers’ behavior, usage and attitudes towards a variety of food and beverage market segments. 

from Subscribe to Preparedfoods.com's RSS Feed http://ift.tt/2tdj5BR
via IFTTT

Easy, Summery Zucchini-Basil Soup

Easy, Summery Zucchini-Basil Soup
Because zucchini cooks so quickly, it retains its bright green color nicely in this soup, which takes just six ingredients and 20 minutes to prepare. Get Recipe!


from Serious Eats: Recipes http://ift.tt/2riiNgG
via IFTTT

Tillamook Special Batch Flavors

Since their release in early 2017, these limited edition flavors have become two of Tillamook’s top 10 most productive items.

from Subscribe to Preparedfoods.com's RSS Feed http://ift.tt/2s2tv81
via IFTTT

Jim Beam Bourbon Flavored Coffees

Jim Beam Bourbon Flavored Coffees feature bourbon infused into 100% Arabica coffee

from Subscribe to Preparedfoods.com's RSS Feed http://ift.tt/2sjW83m
via IFTTT