There are a surfeit of cookbooks on the shelves, everything from pretty books that rattle off lists of ingredients whose duplication in the styled photos is next to impossible, to classic tomes that assume a complete apprenticeship to a master chef and years of professional experience.

I own both kinds.

Having cookbooks is a way to explore worldwide cuisine without leaving your reading chair. It mixes the exotic with the familiar and ignites the imagination. Cookbooks, for me, are a way to kick-start my creativity. I process kosher substitution in my head to see whether milk can be reasonably substituted or whether just plain water will do, or if veal or turkey can stand in for pork. It’s well past the point where I flip past a recipe simply because it’s not intrinsically kosher; anything can be kosherized. (more…)

Years ago, nothing would go to waste in the kitchen. Food was either too expensive or too scarce. The food industry changed all that. Now not only can you get everything imaginable in a box or bag, but you can get several varieties from several different companies. And much of it tastes like the bags they come in.

Making your own food from scratch give you an amazing sense of accomplishment. When the smallest preparation results in more than you need, you can either eat it over and over again, share it with friends, or throw it away, which would be a real loss and somewhat de-motivational to continue experimenting in the kitchen.

Alternatively, you can turn your leftovers into something different. By repurposing your leftovers, you can enjoy your handmade creations long after their initial incarnation is gone.

Baking bread is very soul-satisfying, both to make and to eat. After all your hard work – even if you use a mixer – it’s a shame to throw out half a loaf if it goes uneaten after a day or two. Making croûtons is a simple way to reuse your unconsumed bread, while serving as a reminder that salad is good for you, too.

View the recipe

A sourdough starter is one of those things that always seems like a good idea, and recipes that use them sound and look delicious. The problem is you never have one around when you need it, and when you have the time to think about it, it always seems to be too much trouble.

What crap.

You need five things for a starter. Go get them now. Right now.

(more…)

Baking bread during the winter months in a cool, drafty kitchen is a particular challenge. Yeast likes a fairly warm environment to do its thing, and trying to proof dough on countertops that register 50°F are going to result in flat, dense loaves.

Proofing boxes are temperature and humidity-controlled walk in monsters found in professional bakeries. Home bakers need something a little less unwieldy.  As it turns out, a simple incandescent light bulb will do the trick, providing enough heat to proof  a couple of loaves worth of your favorite bread dough.

(more…)