Archive for the 'Articles' Category

©2008 Harry Kenney

In the more than seven months since I put up my cooking blog, I’ve had a lot of time to think about exactly what are my personal “cooking philosophies”, my way of cooking, and more than that, my way of thinking in terms of all things food in general: buying food, cookware purchases, coming up with recipes and of course the actual techniques of cooking.

So in that time I’ve come up with my list, my do’s and don’ts for the home cook. I think all of the advice is practical. Having said that though, it doesn’t mean these are things that are necessarily obvious. That is, I think you’ll get some good tips here, maybe some helpful advice and even some brand new concepts that hadn’t occurred to you before; that’s definitely it’s intention.

Read the rest of this entry »

©2008 Harry Kenney

You should know how this goes by now if you’re a long-time reader. If you’ve just stumbled upon this site then welcome! And here’s the dirty low-down: This is where you the surfer asked questions without actually asking me. You — or, I should say, “they” — placed search terms in the various engines and found themselves at my site. And through my server logs I found what they were searching for.

While most found the answers they were looking for, some did not, and it is to those I do my best to answer their “spoken yet unspoken” question. Besides being, I hope, somewhat helpful, there’s also a bit of “comedy”, namely in the weird searches people will do as well. So first the helpful hints stuff and then — for dessert, so to speak — at bottom are the weird and funny searches (and a snappy rejoinder or two). Enjoy.

Read the rest of this entry »

©2008 Harry Kenney

I first did an article like this back in September. This is about certain foods or items or techniques that keep cropping up — on menus, food challenge shows, recipes shows and cook books — that despite hearing of them over and over you really might not know a whole lot about.

Again, your knowledge and experience may vary and you may know quite a few of these. Seriously, bravo! For the rest of us curious about just what these are, here’s ten of those often-heard, not fully understood foods and food items.

Read the rest of this entry »

©2008 Harry Kenney

It’s definitely not my intent to in any way hide things. Very much the opposite. It’s that sometimes something comes to me and I say, I will make an article out of this. (For my articles just click the category link or the one I just provided for a list of those.) At other times, most times in fact, the topic comes out of doing the specific recipe.

Let me give you a for instance, talking about cooking oils is a big topic in and of itself, so I wrote an article on that. How to get the crispiest skin on poultry while using an oven, that topic however becomes a part of my writing the a recipe on BBQing Chicken Legs in the Oven. It’s not that I am trying to purposely “hide” how to make crispy skin in that recipe, it just went together naturally. And so that’s where the information came out, there where it was the most pertinent.

Read the rest of this entry »

©2007 Harry Kenney

Welcome to the second installment of a continuing series. If you missed the first one, you can find it here: Answers to Your Questions Not Asked. This is where you the surfer asked questions without actually asking me. You — or, I should say, “they” — placed search terms in the various engines and found themselves at my site. And through my server logs I found what they were searching for.

Most found the answers here they were looking for. That’s what search engines supposedly do well. However some of these searches, these questions, were not found on my site, but Google and the others sent them here anyways. It’s to those searches that as a community service, knowing there are folks looking for these answers, that I now direct myself to. And, as before, some searches are truely bizarre, and out there, and for fun, I will at the end of this article have some wise (or is it wise-guy?) answers for those sincerely confused folks.

Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re relatively new to cooking — or not so good at it — you definitely must read this. And even if you’re an experienced pro, you too will no doubt find a few bits of information here that will surprise you. One thing for sure, when it comes to talking about cooking oils there is a surprising amount to say.

Don’t think so? At first glance it seems pretty short and cut and dry. There’s margarine and butter. And then there’s the oil you put in your frying pan, usually called vegetable oil. The end. Right?

Read the rest of this entry »

I wrote before about where cooks get their inspiration, and it comes from a variety of different sources. Sometimes you just look at one simple item and think of it as an ingredient and say what can I do with this that’s different than I’ve done before. I recently did that with London broil. (Yes, I know London broil is actually a method of cooking and not a meat, but the super markets do not know that.) I thought, I can do the broil thing, I can do the mini roast thing … Hmm, it’s a slab of top round, I know, I’ll make braciole.

Often it’s two ingredients: If I were to put this and that together, what other things would highlight those, or in what varying ways can I make things with those. I have mushrooms and I have wild rice. I could make a pilaf, I could stuff the mushrooms, I could add veal or chicken and it becomes something else yet again; and this way of thinking continues until you have more ideas and then finally settle on which one to do that day. (And remember the others for the future.)

Read the rest of this entry »

Although this is allegedly the time of “Web 2.0″ when people are supposedly all into being interactive, communicating and socializing, I notice at least with my little site here, that people rarely communicate or participate. Why? I have no idea. Despite the ease of leaving a comment, seems that other than spammers, you the regular surfer has little or nothing to say or even ask.

… Or do you?

Read the rest of this entry »

Winter (and Summer) Squashes

Before getting into the following illustrated preparation of the butternut squash, let’s take a quick look at exactly what is a winter squash. So which vegetables are winter squashes? And why are they called that in the first place?

Normally we (mistakenly) think this seasonal termiology must refer to when they are harvested. As in, a winter squash might be something harvested in the winter, and therefore we wouldn’t see these in the market until maybe February — that, however, would be a very common and incorrect assumption. Actually it refers to the days before refrigeration and motorized transportation when everything was “local” and capable of quick spoilage and of short storage times.

Read the rest of this entry »

What is sometimes almost indistinguishable to fresh? Canned. What’s better than fresh? Sometimes the answer is frozen. Sometimes the answer is canned. Notice I said “sometimes”. The fact that the answer is even that, as opposed to “never”, is in many ways, a modern wonder.

And I’ll bet for many of you reading this, this is news to you. I’m also guessing that many of you reading this are thinking I’ve really lost it this time. Nope. Actually I’ve found it — and I’m sharing it with you, and if you take it to heart, your cooking will never be quite the same again — in a good way.

Read the rest of this entry »

Do you ever find watching the cooking shows frustrating? And I mean for the single reason that you can’t find the ingredients? Do you start wondering is it where you live is unusual? I mean when chef after chef after cook after cook keep using an ingredient, and you’ve been to one, three, seven different super markets and can’t find it, do you start to wonder is it a television conspiracy or do I live in some backwater?

This happens to me all the time. Now, just so you you know, I live in the fourth largest city in the US, Philadelphia. In an a section of the city known as Northeast Philadelphia that is “regular” average, middle and upper income area. I know therefore I am not supposedly living in the sticks, and yet, I am apparently living in the “culinary boonies”, a “food ghetto”. Either that, or I’m not alone, meaning these cooks keep using things we may never find.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tired of going for that second half of a sandwich the next day in the fridge and finding it soggy and unappealing? How about opening up that bacon and wondering is that just moisture and condensation or has it turned bad? With one easy tip, you’ll find all of that a thing of the past. You’ll be able to keep bread and pasty items, sloppy sandwiches and breakfast meats fresher and longer in ice box. And all with everyday items in your kitchen, just put together in a slightly different way.

People food shop differently. That said, they can be placed in groups. Some folks shop daily and what they pick up from the market on the way home from work is what they’ll be eating in a couple of hours. No need to worry about freezing fish or putting it in the refrigerator with special care for them. Others buy in weekly jaunts. Some, like me, make the “big food run” every six to eight weeks, and supplement the smaller items — milk, eggs, fresh veggies — with a trip to the convenience store or local produce place. For the latter two groups (probably the majority) keeping things as fresh as possible is required.

Read the rest of this entry »