Hidey ho! May is National Strawberry Month (really? do they need a whole month?) so you and i are celebrating soda-style…dig it…
How to Make Strawberry Soda Video – One more CHOW Tip
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Category Archives: recipe
Orange Yogurt Dressing Recipe
Slightly fruitier and lighter in calories than a traditional vinaigrette, this creamy dressing offers a nice tang and is especially great with peppery greens like arugula. The beauty of this and other creamy dressings is that they stay fresh longer and may be used throughout the week. This dressing tastes particularly good when made with homemade orange marmalade, but of course a store-bought version will suffice.
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Soft Pretzels Recipe
While I love a crunchy rod or stick as much as the next gal, soft pretzels are the go-to carb-and-salt snack to make at home—because few things on this earth taste this good. And while they are at their best fresh, they are still delightful the next day—just rub them with a bit of water and re-bake for a few minutes. The most difficult part of this recipe will be waiting to devour them until they are really and truly cool; the flavor and crust just don’t develop
until they have rested for a full 30 minutes. Eat without mustard at your own risk. Oh, and feel free to track down fancy pretzel salt if you wish. Straight-up kosher salt works fine for me.
- 6 cups (1 pound, 13 ounces) all-purpose flour, plus more
as needed - 1 packet (21/2 teaspoons) active dry yeast
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt, plus more for sprinkling
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 8 cups water
- 1/2 cup baking soda
- 1 egg (more…)
Strawberry Black Pepper Syrup Recipe
In truth, this is actually two recipes: it yields a fruit syrup that is a stunning Day-Glo red starter for bubbling cold beverages, and also its by-product—my most favorite strawberry jam to date. Absolutely do not discard the macerated fruit left over from making the syrup; when tossed in a food processor or food mill with a squeeze of orange juice, it’s a jam that can be stored fresh in the refrigerator for a few days or canned for later. (The same is true for the other two syrups in this chapter: they give you syrup AND yummy jam.) Note that if you can this syrup, the flavor will indeed become cooked, though it still makes a good soda.
- About 2 pounds ripe organic strawberries, washed, hulled, and halved (7 cups)
- 3 1/2 cups sugar
- 3 tablespoons orange juice (about 1/2 orange)
- 2 tablespoons crushed black peppercorns
Retro Canning: Sweet Pepper and Corn Relish Recipe
I love, love condiments — particularly the vinegary variety. It’s summer, and the corn has just been rocking off the cob. I offer to you my recipe for Sweet Pepper and Corn Relish, a super old-fashioned relish so self-consciously retro that it’s 
modern again. It’s ready for a place on your Aunt Bitty’s relish tray alongside the three-bean salad and the pickled beets.
Just FYI, I often say to use frozen corn here because, well, forgive my shallowness, but frozen corn is just prettier than anything I’ve ever been able to cut off the cob. And frozen corn retains its starch better, making for a less cloudy brine. But when corn is as good as it is right now, how can you pass on fresh? Out of season, however, you are still a good person if you use frozen nibblets.
Well-Seasoned: Make Your Own Flavored Finishing Salt
OK, so, I love salt. I use kosher salt for pickling, curing and cooking. My little black 
dress tableside is Maldon sea salt, the British salt sensation with its huge, honking flakes of minerally, clean salt flavor and crunchy texture.
For special occasions, I also bust out the finishing salt coiture. I have some awesome smoked salt that I received as a gift, and I use it liberally in chilis and soups or on meats whenever I want a bit of smoky flavor. And for years I have been addicted to Eatwell Farms’ Rosemary Salt, their homegrown rosemary mixed with sal gris. I have such a crush on it that it feels like I’m cheating if I eat eggs or potatoes without it.
New Chow Tips! Video on Horchata/Rice Milk
Thank you, Chow! I love doing videos with you. Here’s my latest and greatest – rice milk and horchata recipe demonstration in 52 seconds – with two more scheduled to roll out soon…
Kitchen Hack Fail: Don’t Dehydrate Fruit in the Clothes Dryer (Oh, and a Recipe for Chewy Dried Orange Slices)
So, like other food preservationists and kitchen tinkerers, I love to dry things – fruit slices, fruit leather, cheese, beef jerky, etc. In the heat of summer the sun does the work for me. But the other ten months of the year in Northern California, however, I usually rely on my oven on a low setting, door slightly ajar to release moisture, to do the job. And while effective, each bite contains the residual taste of enviro-guilt that comes from leaving the oven on and the heat blowing upward for several hours. The results are excellent, but I cannot help but be haunted by the fossil fuel energy loss necessary for a homemade Fruit Roll-Up.
Certainly I could buy a food dehydrator (and I still may), but my gas oven runs therms, plug-in dryers run watts, and I’m not science-geeky enough to know if they are truly more energy efficient. Plus, I thought, I already own a large piece of heating equipment that dries sopping wet clothing in record speed (also fueled by gas), that spins with convection-like capability.
The Newton’s apple (orange?) that struck me with the idea was a perfectly shriveled piece of orange peel found at the bottom of the clean laundry basket. Had I been sitting on (and ignoring) the world’s best food dehydrator next to the washing machine and not taking advantage of its power? Is it possible to more efficiently dry fruit, vegetables, and meat in the high-heat, high-motion clothes dryer in one round of Permanent Press? Sadly, at least in my scientific exploration, the answer is no.
Suck it, Christmas: Homemade Candy Cane Recipe
We’re used to buying cardboard boxloads of factory drone candy canes that are uniform, neatly wrapped, shapely, laden with high fructose corn syrup, and positively soulless. But me – I’m the gal who likes my candy lumpy. If there were 
an Island of Misfit Toys for food, these “special” little guys would surely be inhabitants (along with Dingle Berries Candy and Hot Pockets, most likely).
Making candy canes is a lot of fun, and the sweat equity can’t be beat. The flavor is clean and super minty (with a little creaminess to it, thanks to the vanilla extract), and the yield is ample enough to allow me to hand them out generously. And despite the number of words in the recipe below, the whole thing took under an hour. There is a knack to it, however, as pulling hard candy can be a tricky mistress. A couple of things to keep in mind, particularly if you’ve never made candy before:
Epic Food Market Fail (With a Triumphant Recipe for Celery Soda)
I recently tried (and failed) to sell corned beef sandwiches at the New Taste 
Marketplace food hall. This is a cautionary tale/headnote – one of those “life lessons” to be looked back upon and learned from, laughed at over gin and tonics on the front porch several years from now. Several. The homemade celery soda made to go with it is absolutely delicious, and it will be highly nostalgic for anyone used to Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray. Like my story, it’s both salty and sweet. (more…)