Milk Street Q&A

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Joanne - I think a lot of people (including me!) are in the same boat this year. I've only got four guests - who have both white and dark meat preferences - so I am planning to do turkey parts. A turkey breast alone is also a great choice. If it's just the two of you and you'd like both white and dark meat, why not do a chicken? You could easily make smaller portions of some "Thanksgiving-traditional" sides to make it feel more familiar. We've got several great roast chicken recipes on the website that are easy to adapt to your personal flavor preferences (their current flavor profiles are not terribly Thanksgiving-like). Hope that helps! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi John - We don't have an exact replica, but I would recommend this recipe for the Cannellini Beans with Tomatoes, Basil and Parmesan. You can either soak and pre-cook dried Cannellini beans (instructions are in the introductory note of the recipe) or use canned Cannellini beans. In Step 1, substitute fennel seeds for the fresh fennel and eliminate the sage. Then, if using, add the Parmesan rind when you add the tomatoes and cooked beans in Step 2. You can skip Step 3 (making the sage oil). Then stir in half of the basil and top with shaved Parmesan and the remaining basil. The Simple White Beans with Sage is based off this recipe. Follow the recipe substituting the thyme and rosemary for sage. Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Glover - We get this question a lot and Christopher Kimball and Sara Moulton did a great breakdown on canola and vegetable oil in this link. At the end of the article there is also a link to our testing on high-heat cooking oils with surprising results. Our favorite for high-heat cooking, and the one that consistently had the highest smoke point, was grapeseed oil, which is made from grape seeds, a byproduct of wine-making. Safflower oil—made by extracting oil from the seeds of the safflower, a cousin of the sunflower—was the second-most durable. And the biggest surprise: olive oil. Though extra-virgin olive oil is ill suited for high-heat cooking (we prefer it for off-heat applications such as vinaigrettes and for a finishing drizzle of flavor), we were impressed by how hot we could get refined olive oil. Avocado and refined coconut oil would be fine for a sauté over medium heat, but I wouldn't use them for high-heat searing or sautéing. Safflower, grapeseed, vegetable and canola are all in the same basic category. We like grapeseed or safflower, since they don't produce the "off" (sometimes described as "fishy") flavors that canola and vegetable oil do. Hope that helps! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Daniel - We haven't tried other cuts in our recipe for Ropa Vieja, but pork blade steak or country-style ribs would work here for pork. Pork butt would work too but that would take significantly longer to cook. For lamb, I'd probably go with the shoulder and, to keep it closer to flank for cook time, try to find boneless lamb shoulder chops. It's pretty likely cook times will be different here and, since we haven't tested it, I can't give specifics. Because of this, I would recommend a traditional version of the recipe rather than an Instant Pot version so you have more control over cook times and doneness. Good luck! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Folks - Adam just sent us his recipe. Please find it below. Enjoy! Five C Quarantine Flan (Coconut- Cinnamon- Cardamom Cr.me Caramel.) 1 1/2 cups unsweetened coconut milk 3/4 cup milk 3/4 cup heavy cream Four egg yolks and two whole eggs 1/2 cup sugar One cup sugar One teaspoon of cinnamon 1/4 cup cold water Four to six cardamom pods Approx. 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes Make caramel on stove: dissolve sugar in water and cook until browned and almost burnt. Take off stove and add a teaspoon of cinnamon and stir into the super-hot caramel.. (You can buy pre-made cardamom -cinnamon sugar from Milk Street on line to caramelize, but this will work as well.) Pour the caramel into the bottom of four souffle dishes. (There’s usually enough left over for two mini-souffl. dishes as well. The minis are fun to have for dieting spouses.) Using a whisk, beat the eggs and egg yolks with the sugar— you can use relatively little sugar with the egg yolks, since the coconut milk is naturally sweet. But not for too long -- just until it is a beautiful lemony yellow. Heat the coconut milk, whole milk and heavy cream in a pot. Stir in the husked cardamom pods and the coconut. Make the mixture hot and just steaming-smoking but not truly boiling. Pour the hot milks into the egg mixture ,beating all the while with the whisk to keep the eggs from cooking. Pour the egg and milk mixture, with the coconut and cardamom still in it, into the souffle cups with the cinnamon caramel hardened on the bottom. (If the mixture’s super-frothy, you can strain it through a sieve, which will leave the cardamom and coconut behind…in that case, mix them back in cup by cup. I never find this step—straining -- makes much difference, but some like to do it.) Put the soufflé's cups into a big baking dish with boiling water poured right up so that it comes to about a third of the way up each cup. Bake for approx. thirty minutes, or until set. Refrigerate. Unmold by running a sharp knife around the edge of each creme caramel and inverting onto a pretty plate. Scoop out the residual caramel, there’s always some, with the knife or spoon unto the flan. Serve with pleasure.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Jean - We always store our almond flour in the freezer to keep it fresh too. It will somewhat solidify, but you can usually break it up pretty easily so it's not a solid mass. I always scoop out what I need and let it come to room temperature before proceeding with the recipe. Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Carrie - Most of the recipes in which you're seeing that off-center photo are from our new cookbook, Cookish. For some reason when these photos were transferred over to the website the website cropped the photos in this way rather than our usual format. Our photo and digital teams are working on fixing these photos as we speak! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Carol - I had a chance to check in with Christopher and he based his recipe off this one: https://www.177milkstreet.com/recipes/ethiopian-chicken-stew-doro-wat. You can make the chicken version of the recipe as it was developed or try his simple pork version: "sauté three onions with a bunch of Berbere (1/3 cup or so) and then add 3 lbs boneless cubed pork shoulder, 40 minutes on high pressure, let sit for 15 minutes after cooking and then release steam." Chris didn't specify if he also adds the 3/4 cup water from the recipe, but I would recommend it so you don't get a burn error in the Instant Pot.  Good luck! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Janet - We mentioned asiago fresco in the video, but the recipe itself just calls for asiago. Either will work. Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi John - Browned onions and caramelized onions are two different things. Caramelized onions are generally cooked for a longer time (1/2 hour or so) over lower heat. This yields sweet, soft onions that are great on a burger, pizza, or sandwich. Browned onions are usually quickly cooked and yield crispier, slightly more bitter onions. A couple of key things for properly caramelized onions - make sure to use a large enough pan. If the pan is too small, the moisture released from the onions will not evaporate and the onions won't caramelize. Second, don't overcrowd the pan. Again, if there are too many onions, the moisture won't evaporate and the onions will brown unevenly. For browned onions, we generally cook these over medium or medium-high. Everyone's stovetop is different so our "medium" in a recipe may align more closely with your medium-high. If you find they aren't browning in the time called for in the recipe you can either cook them longer until they start to brown or increase the heat (or both). Hope this helps! Best, Lynn C.