What To Do with My Spice Rack

In my opinion a well stocked spice shelf is a major part of a busy kitchen. There are so many spices available and each has their own use. I would have to say that depending on your nationality and how much you cook would be a determining factor on the amount of spices in your kitchen.there are some basic spices and herbs every kitchen should have. Most of the spices you get in a purchased spice rack are not necessarily the ones you might use most often. I myself do not consider flavored salts or meat rubs to be the most important items on the spice shelf.The three main spices that I believe no kitchen can be without are onions, garlic, and parsley. These three herbs can add flavor and variety to many of your favorite dishes. I use these three herbs just about every time I cook.

Beautiful, fragrant basil is prized throughout the world. It is used especially prominently throughout the Mediterranean, and in Thai and Vietnamese cuisines. It is the key ingredient in Italian pesto, a thick sauce made of basil, garlic, pine nuts, and olive oil, and in the similar French pistou. Basil is a great addition to soups, salads, and tomato sauces. It's also a great addition to fish, chicken, and cheese dishes.

Bay leaves hail from the Mediterranean, and are important in Greek, French, and Italian cookery. They are most readily available in dried form, usually as whole leaves. One or two leaves will add flavor to soups, stews, sauces, gravies, and stocks, and the leaves can be easily removed before serving. Crumbled or ground bay leaves work well in seafood, meat, or poultry dishes, and in bread stuffings.

Pepper is one of the most ubiquitous spices in the world, and black pepper is perhaps the most commonly used variety. Though pepper hails from India, and grows only in hot climates, it was so highly prized by ancient spice traders that it now features in virtually every cuisine. To showcase pepper's pungent bite, try using it to encrust steak, salmon, orgoat cheese, or use it generously in vinaigrettes. For best flavor, skip the pre-ground pepper, and invest in a pepper grinder.

Available in whole pod, seed, and ground forms, cardamom is a highly perfumed spice. Especially important in Indian and Arab cuisines, cardamom has both savory and sweet applications. It is a key ingredient in the Indian spice blend called garam masala. In Arab countries, it is also used to flavor coffee, tea, and pastries. A touch of cardamom is great in carrot dishes, in spice rubs for salmon, and in vanilla or chocolate cakes, cookies, and puddings.

Use dried, ground chiles, chile flakes, or fresh chiles to heat up soups, curries, stews, pasta dishes, vegetables, beans, stir fries, or cheese dishes. Fresh chiles are also great additions to salsa. Take care when handling fresh chiles -- the seeds and inner membranes carry volatile oils that can burn eyes or skin, so avoid touching them, or wear rubber gloves while cutting the chiles.

Warming and fragrant, cinnamon is one of the world's oldest known spices. In the US, its scent is so associated with comfort, that home sellers are advised to bake something with cinnamon during open houses. Americans and Europeans use cinnamon most often in sweets, baked goods, teas, hot cocoa and coffees. But in India, North Africa, the Mediterranean, the Middle East and Caribbean regions, cinnamon is used in savory dishes as well. Experiment with cinnamon in vegetables, stews, soups and rice dishes. 

Strange as it may seem, coriander seeds, which are considered a spice, come from the cilantro plant, which is used as an herb. Stranger still, coriander has a sweet, clean, herbal fragrance that in no way resembles cilantro. Coriander is used in the Indian spice blend called garam masala, and is often used in chutneys and curries. It is also a popular addition to Middle Eastern and certain Asian cuisines. Coriander has a nice affinity for citrus, so try it in dishes that employ orange or lemon juice or zest, such as salads or fish dishes.

Cumin's pungent aroma is instantly recognizable to lovers of Indian, Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern cuisines. Available as whole seeds or ground spice, cumin lends a distinct flavor to curries, hummus, and falafel. Cumin is a good addition to grilled meats, bean dishes, and vegetables.

Curry powder is a blend comprised of spices native to India. In truth, India's vastly varied regional cuisine has given rise to countless such blends, called masalas. But the curry powder (so dubbed by British colonialists) most familiar to Westerners is generally a mix ofturmeric, paprika, fenugreek, coriander, pepper, cumin, ginger, celery seed, cloves, caraway, and red pepper. Curry powder may be most associated with Indian cuisine, but it also has an affinity for Southeast Asian and Caribbean cuisines.

Dill has a fresh, distinctive aroma that is especially prized throughout Europe and the Mediterranean. Its flavor brightens creamy or salt cured foods, such as cheeses or smoked fish. Both the dried seeds and fresh herb are integral in pickling. Try dill in omelets, with potatoes, baked into quick breads or tossed in salads.

Mediterranean in origin, there are hundreds of varieties of mint, which now grow throughout the world. Mint is used widely in Greek, Middle Eastern, North African, Indian, and Thai cuisines, where it's inclusion in savory dishes helps offset spicy notes. Mint's cooling properties are also appreciated in hot climates, both in food and as tea. In Europe and America, mint is more often used in sweet dishes, and as a flavoring for candies and toothpaste, and other breath fresheners. Mint is also valued medicinally for it's stomach soothing and anti-infective properties.

 

 

Did You Know That Kitchen Tips

Chef 'D'Andre with that "I didn't know that look on his face"?
I don't clam to know everything, but what I do know I share with other chefs freely, so that I might have room to receive more knowledge

ØIf a soup or stew is too salty, add raw cut potatoes. Discard them after they have cooked – they will have absorbed the salt.

Ø  If a soup or stew is too sweet, add salt. If a main dish or vegetable is too sweet, add a teaspoon of cider vinegar.

Ø  Can’t remember if an egg is fresh or hard boiled? Just spin the egg. If it wobbles, it’s raw. If it spins easily, it’s hard boiled.

Ø  A fresh egg will sink in water, a stale one will float.

Ø  An egg white is easiest to beat at room temperature. Take the egg out of the refrigerator about 1/2 hour before using.

Ø  For light, fluffy scrambled eggs, add a little water while beating the eggs.

Ø  Add vinegar to the water when boiling eggs. The vinegar helps seal the egg.

Ø  (Michel Roux has useful egg tips in his book Eggs)

Ø  To avoid ‘onion eyes‘ peel under cold water or refrigerate (or freeze) before chopping.

Ø  To perk up soggy lettuce, add lemon juice to a bowl of cold water and soak lettuce for an hour in the refrigerator.

Ø  When cooking carrots, peas, beets or corn, add a small amount of sugar to the water to keep the flavor.

Ø  To keep sweet corn yellow, add one teaspoon of lemon juice to the cooking water just about a minute before taking off the stove. Never salt the water you cook corn in. It will only toughen the corn.

Ø  Store celery and lettuce in paper bags, not plastic. And leave the outside leaves and stalks alone until ready to use.

Ø  Sunlight doesn’t ripen tomatoes, warmth does. Store tomatoes with stems pointed down and they will stay fresher, longer. More on tomatoes

Ø  Meat loaf will not stick if you place a slice of bacon on the bottom of the pan.

Ø  To soften rock-hard brown sugar, simply add a slice of soft bread to the package and close the bag tightly. In a few hours the sugar will be soft again.

Ø  Place green fruits in a perforated plastic bag. The holes will allow air to circulate while retaining the ethylene gas that fruits produce during ripening.

Ø  Remove fat from soups and stews by dropping ice cubes into the pot. The fat will cling to the cubes as you stir. Take out the cubes before they melt. Or you can also wrap the ice cubes in cheesecloth   or paper towel and skim over the top of the pot. Fat also cling to lettuce leaves.

Ø  Poke a hole in the middle of the hamburger patties while shaping them. The burgers will cook faster and the holes will disappear when done.

Ø  For fluffier, whiter rice, add one teaspoon of lemon juice per litre (quart) of water. To add extra flavor and nutrition to rice, cook it in liquid reserved from cooking vegetables.

Ø  Marshmallows won’t dry out when frozen.

Ø  If your stew is slightly burnt, milk will take the burnt taste out.

Ø  The best way to thaw fish is in milk. The milk draws out the frozen taste and gives the fish a fresh flavor.

Ø  Did you know?  The tongue is a muscle with glands, sensory cells, and fatty tissue that helps to moisten food with saliva. You cannot taste food unless it is mixed with saliva. For instance, if salt is placed on a dry tongue, the taste buds will not be able to identify it. As soon as saliva is added, the salt dissolves and the taste sensation takes place. There are 4 basic tastes. The salt and sweet taste buds are at the tip of the tongue, bitter at the base, and sour along the sides.

Learn How To Cook Like The Real Private Chefs

	Braising May just be be my favorite way of cooking Braising is a cooking technique in which the main ingredient is seared, or browned in fat, and then simmered in liquid on low heat in a covered pot. The best equipment to use would be a crock pot, pressure cooker or Dutch oven. LeCrueset makes a range of enameled pots and pans that are good for either the stove or the oven. They work well too. Whether you choose to use the oven or the top of the stove, you will be pleased with the results. Braising is often used as a way to cook less expensive, tough cuts of meat. The end result is tender and flavorful. Other than great taste and economy, there are other reasons to cook this way. After searing the meat, the remainder of the cooking time (until sauce/gravy preparation) does not require much attention. Once the heat is reduced, you can go about cooking other things, do some chores or take a break. This is also a plus when entertaining: you have more time for your guests. Yet another plus of cooking with this method is that the meat tastes great and you also get delicious broth, sauce or gravy. It's one pot cooking at it's finest. There isn't much to cleaning up and anything leftover can be reheated or frozen and reheated for later. This method of cooking is great for tough cuts of meat but also works well with chicken, fish and/or vegetables. You can braise in a crock pot, pressure cooker, large saute pan or the most often used cooking vessel for braises, a Dutch oven. Some popular dishes you may have heard of that use a braising technique are osso buco, pot roast, braised veal & lamb shanks and braised cabbage. You can braise just about any meat, fish or vegetable you want and be as creative as you like with seasoning, but there are some ingredients that are better for braising and some you want to cook using other techniques like grilling or roasting.
	Grilling It's what us guys do best....at least that's what we think For all you guys out there who are already grill masters, read no further. But for the rest of us mere mortal home cooks who would like a few tips about grilling, read on. I have to warn you: when researching the technique of grilling, I found so many differing viewpoints that I decided to provide those tips that were in general consensus or made the most sense to me. From what I learned from reading and experimenting, the right way to grill is what works for you, and the only way to get really good at grilling is practice. I sometimes ask my wife when out for dinner, "How come when I grill fish it isn't perfect like this?" The answer is I may grill a piece of fish once every two weeks and professional chefs grill a lot of fish everyday. I guarantee if you grilled as much fish as one of these pros, your fish would be perfect too. I could do a whole article (and maybe someday I will) on the different cuts of beef which are best for grilling steak. You could write a book about how to use various rubs and marinades to enhance flavors. Also, we often use the terms grilling and barbecuing interchangeably, but they are different. Traditional barbecue is done slowly with low cooking temperatures and a lot of smoke. Grilling depends on a higher temperature to sear what you are cooking to keep the juices in. So here are some tips and ideas for grilling.
	Roasting Who doesn't love a roasted chicken or Sunday roast beef? In the beginning, roasting was done on a turning spit over an open fire and the juices ran over the surface of the meat basting it continuously. Roasting is a dry heat cooking method. A more specific definition includes roasting in an oven, before a fire, or buried in embers or very hot sand. Think about wrapping a potato up in aluminum foil and nestling it in the dying embers of a campfire. Since this is not a frequent scenario, most people consider roasting as cooking large pieces of solid food in an oven. This is a correct definition, as far as it goes, but it is also a very simplistic definition. Dozens of cook books have been written on the art and nuances of roasting: to baste or not to baste, proper roasting temperature, tied or untied, brine or marinate, bone in or bone out—the list goes on and on. Let's take an in depth look at roasting. We'll look at the history of roasting, equipment needed for modern roasting and what foods work well with this cooking method. Then, we'll address some of the age-old debates. At the end of the day, you can decide for yourself what method works best for you. Any way you slice it, though, armed with some know how and the right tools, you'll end up with a roast you can be proud of. A Short History of Roasting The earliest form of cooking was probably direct heat: man drops raw meat into fire. While this cooked the food, most likely the guy ended up with black char on the outside and raw in the middle with a thin margin of "cooked" in between. Next probably came roasting, also by accident: man leaves raw meat by the fire. The indirect heat cooked the meat more gently, albeit only in one direction - the side closest to the fire got cooked. Eventually, somebody thought of putting the meat on a stick and then turning it over the fire, and spit-roasting was born. Spit roasting was the state of the art for hundreds of years. First, there was the boy who turned the spit, and then someone (probably one of those spit-turning boys) came up with a way to turn the spit mechanically - weights and pulleys. For centuries, the heat source was fire that came from one direction - the hearth - and more and more elaborate methods of spit roasting were devised in order to produce an evenly cooked, moist and juicy end product. Eventually, someone came up with a box with walls that would absorb the heat from the fire and then radiate it back at the food from all sides at once. No more spits, no more turning the food constantly over a fire. Oven roasting was born.
	Pan Roasting How professional cooks do it. A little pan searing. A little oven roasting. If I could teach you just one chef's technique that will help you save time in the kitchen and deliver a thick cut of meat to the table with a perfect sear and juicy medium-rare throughout, it would be pan roasting. This is, hands down, one of the best and most efficient cooking methods around. Pan roasting takes advantage of conductive heat from the stove plus radiant and convective heat in the oven to cook thicker cuts perfectly and in short order. You won't find this pan roasting technique in many cookbooks but is a technique taught in every culinary arts school and used by professional chefs every day. Some chefs use this technique as part of their mise en place. They sear the meat during prep time, hold it in a low boy refrigerator and finish the cooking process to order in the oven. Even if the technique is used without any holding time, this cooking method saves time over straight oven roasting and is more practical than pan frying for thicker cuts of meat. Here's what you will need: a heavy pan that will retain heat and is oven safe (cast iron is really ideal for this) a lean cut of meat at cool room temperature canola oil salt and pepper kitchen tongs and oven mitts. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, F. Preheat the pan over medium-high to high heat. Make sure the pan is good and hot. The trick is to have it hold its heat as much as possible once you put the meat in. That's why cast iron is ideal—even though it is not as conductive as some metals, once it heats up, it stays hot for a very long time. Once the pan is very hot, add enough canola oil (or other neutral oil with a high smoke point) to coat the bottom. Wait a minute or two for the oil to get good and hot, season your meat with salt and pepper, and place it in the pan. Make sure there is a lot of pan real estate around the meat. You don't want to crowd the meat and risk steaming rather than searing.
	Poaching A moist heat cooking method for cooking eggs, fish, chicken, meat and fruits & vegetables. Gentle cooking for maintaining moisture & nutrients. Have you ever poached an egg to make Eggs Benedict? Poached pears in wine for dessert? Or delicately cooked a fish covered with water, stock or wine (poaching liquids) in a covered pan to preserve the moistness of the meat? These are examples of poaching you are probably familiar with. It is the method accomplished with the least amount of heat, and, therefore is a gradual, gentle cooking process. Poaching is best for very delicate foods, such as eggs, fish, white meat chicken and fruit. It is a very healthy cooking method, because liquid—not fat—carries the heat into the food. Poaching is ideally done at temperatures between 160°F and 180°F, or well below a simmer. The best way to tell if a poaching liquid is at the correct temperature is with an instant read thermometer. Short of that, look at the liquid in the pan. There should be a slight convective current in the liquid, as the warmer liquid rises to the surface. The liquid should be gently moving, but it should not be bubbling at all. Poaching is Patience Poaching takes patience. Poaching allows the proteins in foods to uncoil, or denature, slowly, without squeezing out moisture. If you were to drop a delicate chicken breast into boiling water, the proteins would seize up so quickly that all the moisture would be squeezed out, and you would end up with a small piece of dry rubber! Poaching Liquids You can poach in water, milk or a flavorful broth. The broth used in poaching is called a court bouillon. It consists of the poaching liquid itself (often broth or stock) an acid (wine, lemon juice, or vinegar), a bouquet garni (a small bundle of aromatics tied up in cheesecloth, or just tied together with kitchen string (bay leaf, parsley, peppercorns, garlic, thyme, etc) and mirepoix (onion, celery and carrot. Traditional proportions for a white mirepoix is two parts onion to one part each celery and carrot). For dessert preparations, fruit is often poached in sweet wine and water with some spices (star anise, clove, cinnamon, etc). Eggs are generally poached in water with a bit of vinegar. The acid in the poaching liquid helps to speed up the protein coagulation on the outside of the food. This helps hold delicate foods together during the poaching process (think eggs).
	Saute learn to saute properly and you will be able to create hundreds of dishes without a recipe. Probably the most important technique I can share with you is how to sauté properly. When you learn how to saute, you can prepare hundreds of meals with this technique. What Is Saute? Saute in French means "to jump" and can be a method of cooking or a way to describe a dish like sauteed chicken breasts. The reason the French called this technique "to jump" is because you are cooking at a very high heat and you don't want it sitting too long in the pan. To be successful, you need to move the ingredients either with a pair of tongs or like they do on TV by tossing it in the air. Saute is a type of frying which is a dry heat method of cooking requiring high heat and some sort of liquid fat to cook with. What Is the Difference Between Sauteing & Pan Frying? Although they are both considered dry heat cooking and use a fat to transfer the heat of the pan to the food, the only real differences is the amount of heat and the size of the ingredient you are cooking. Pan frying uses a little less heat and you cook whole pieces of meat like chicken breasts, steaks or fish fillets. You also don't move the ingredients around in the pan that much except to turn them over occasionally. Also, don't confuse pan fry with shallow fry where you typically use enough oil to reach almost halfway up the ingredient you are cooking. A good example is when you pan-fry eggplant for eggplant parmesan. The Advantages of Sauteing Once learned and in your repertoire, you will be free to be creative and devise your own recipes with whatever ingredients you have around. As a novice, this technique is easy and allows you to prepare meals in a moment's notice. This includes sautéing chicken, fish, vegetables, or meat. That's the beauty of learning a basic technique. Compare it to learning how to read a financial statement. Once you know how, you can effectively read any company's report. sautéing The Formula To A Great Saute Proper Saute = Good Saute Pan + High Heat + A Little Fat + Uniformly Cut Ingredients The Right Pan For The Job Some say the pan the pan should have sloped sides, others say straight. To me it doesn't matter as long as the pan has a dense, heavy bottom that spreads the heat evenly without any hot spots. It has to be big enough to cook your ingredients without crowding so buy accordingly. Non-stick is ok if you don't plan to make pan sauces but you need a little sticking to create the "fond" or the brown bits that stick to your pan that are responsible for those delicious sauces served in your favorite restaurants. I use a non-stick pan for my sauteed spinach and broccoli rabe but prefer metal for everything else. To learn more about what to look for in a good saute pan and how to purchase the best one for you, check out my Choosing A Good Saute Pan.
	Stewing How to stew beef, chicken, fish & vegetables at home All About Stew Nothing hits the spot on a cold, snowy day than a rich and steaming bowl of stew. But what is, stew, exactly? Stew is not only the name of a dish, but it is also a cooking method. Stew, the dish, is loosely defined as meat or fish and vegetables cooked by stewing. Stew, the cooking method, is a moist heat cooking process by which meat and vegetables are slowly simmered in a flavorful liquid. Stews v. Braises I don't know about you, but that pretty much sounds like braising. And it's true; there is really very little difference between braising and stewing. In a stew, the meat is generally cut into chunks while meat is often left whole in a braise. In a stew, the liquid usually covers the meat, and in a braise, the liquid might only come halfway up the sides of the meat. Those are differences of degree, though. For my money, these two cooking methods - and the dishes created using them - are almost identical. A little Stew History Cooking by boiling has occurred for literally tens of thousands of years. This technique has been refined over the years, of course, and references to more modern stews can be found throughout recorded history, from the lentil stew in the Biblical story of Cain and Abel to Hungarian Goulash with paprika in the 1700's to Byron's reference to Irish Stew in 1814. Stews exist all over the world, although they might not be called "stew." Other names you might have heard include Kentucky's burgoo, French Cassoulet, Ratatouille, Beef Bourguignon and Bouillabaisse, India's infinite number of curries, Louisiana's gumbo, Hungary's famed goulash, and Mexican/Tex-Mex Chili con Carne. Furthermore, people all over the world stew every day without a recipe and without calling it a specific name. What to Stew The best cuts of meat for stewing are the toughest cuts - the ones found nearest the "hoof and the horn." Prime stewing candidates include shank, brisket, chuck, oxtail and round. Don't limit your stews to beef, though. Irish stew shines because of lamb or mutton, and carnitas is a fantastic crispy pork stew. And don't forget the chicken. After all, dark meat chicken is the star of Coq au Vin. The best fish to stew are thick, meaty steaks. Since all seafood is relatively lean, you certainly don't want to cook a fish stew for as long as you would a beef or pork stew. Consider cod, halibut, snapper, grouper, shark and sea bass as appropriate candidates for stew. Stewing time may be as short as ten minutes, so be prepared, and make sure you read your recipe carefully. You can also stew vegetables. French Ratatouille is just stewed vegetables, and good individual candidates for stewing include eggplant, tomatoes, celery, celery root, leeks, cabbage, fennel and almost any tough greens, such as collard greens, chard, kale or mustard greens.
	Stir Fry Quick, easy, nutritious, and a lot of fun Every week or so I get a craving for Chinese food. There's something about those crunchy vegetables, tender meats, and incredible flavors that forces me to dig out a menu buried in a kitchen drawer and order from a local restaurant. The Chinese have a way of manipulating food that I wanted to learn about so I dug out the wok that I inherited when I got married and started reading up and experimenting. What I learned about the ancient technique of Stir-Fry is you have to be prepared before you start. Often I talk about prepping ingredients before you start cooking, but this is a must when doing stir-fry. In fact prepping the ingredients will take longer than the actual cooking. Once you get your pan hot…..you can't stop. Stir-frying will also give you some practice with your cutting skills since each ingredient will be bite size (Have you ever seen a knife in a Chinese restaurant?) and have different cuts. Once prepped, I like to put the ingredients in individual bowls separated by cooking times. The technique is to quickly fry the ingredients in a large pan over high heat while constantly stirring to preserve flavor, color and texture of the food and keep the vegetables crisp. Easy enough. Typically one uses a wok; a large deep bowl made of thin metal with gentle curved sides. The heat concentrates at the bottom of the pan and the curved sides allow you to push the ingredients to cooler areas. You can use a typical frying pan, but it won't cook as fast thus keeping your vegetables as crisp as you would want. Other than a few specialty ingredients, you can use whatever you have on hand to make a stir-fry. It's a great way to clean out the vegetable drawer. Because you'll be cooking at very high heat, you want to use a high smoking point oil like peanut, safflower, corn, or canola. Some of the specialty ingredients that you should be able to find at your local supermarket are soy sauce, hoisin sauce, and chili sauce. Short or medium grained rice is best for accompanying your stir-fry. You start by prepping the meat or chicken. Cut the meat into thin bite-size slices and marinate to protect it from overcooking. The marinade can be made with a variety of liquids depending on the flavor you are trying to obtain. Typical marinade ingredients include chicken stock or beef stock, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, chili sauce, corn starch, brown sugar, rice wine or dry sherry. Marinate for a least one hour, longer is better. Prepare an aromatic mixture consisting of finely chopped herbs and spices that will add flavor and aroma to the stir-fry. Typical aromatics include garlic, scallions, red pepper flakes, shallots, and chili peppers to name a few. Next prepare your vegetables by cutting them into small pieces and separating according to their cooking times. Slower cooking vegetables like asparagus and green beans will be added before faster cooking vegetables like pea pods and tomatoes. Now you're ready to stir-fry.

When To Buy The Best For Your Buck

As the Owner of THE REAL PRIVATE CHEFS my clients depends on our knowledge of knowing where to buy the best foods. I share with you how to shop produce like a chef and save big bucks.Most people know a good apple from the rotten one.  But what about a pineapple?  How do you tell when any vegetable is ripe, or when it is so green it will never fully ripen, or when it's just a little too ripe.
Eating produce when it is perfectly ripe dramatically increases succulence, flavor, digestibility, and nutrition.
Fruits ripen naturally on the branch or vine, at some point achieving their optimum levels of sugar, liquid and fiber. Vegetables reach their peak relatively young, usually before the flowering or seed stage.  Your job as a consumer, or as a grower, is to deliver or consume both in their most pristine and voluptuous state.
Too often, fruits are picked very green; ensuring they will not rot in shipment.  Problem is, these will never achieve the optimum chemical and physiological balance for human consumption.
Basic principles:

• Buy produce which is "in" season. ( see chart below)
• Buy locally grown produce whenever possible, but remember that roadside stands are poorly regulated: buy organic or wash well.
• Don't buy more than you'll eat in a week; shop daily if convenient.
• Buy what "looks good;" try not to go to the produce mart with a list.
• Smell is an important ingredient in taste.
• Look for produce which is average in size and shape; humongous or grotesque produce rarely tastes as good as it looks.  That's not to say a fruit must be cosmetically perfect; far from it. Big and beauty do not necessarily equate with great taste.

• If you find fruit that is freaky in size like this strawberry picture taken by(Ms. Adrianne Bilbro) you can rest assure they are not organic. This would be a case of the grower rushing the harvest before the season has begun.

Greens
Hints

• The best heads of lettuce are tightly closed, but relatively firm to the squeeze. An immature head of lettuce feels like a puff of air when squeezed... because it mostly is.
• The best broccoli or cauliflower has tightly packed flower heads, firm stems, and no sign of yellow or brown.
• Cabbage heads start to open up when they are left on the plant too long.  Same for Brussels sprouts.
• Lettuce grows fast and has fewer pests than spinach, mustard-like plants, or cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, etc).  Hence, it needs fewer pesticides.  Romaine is particularly hardy.
• Spinach is among the most pesticide-laden greens.  Buy organic if you can or weash very well.

  

Tree Fruits

For the approximate ripening order of temperate fruits, see the chart below.  If you are looking for grapes, kiwis, berries or melons, see the vine fruit chart.

Hints

• If you can't smell it, you probably won't taste it.  Fruit should smell good.
• Apples and some persimmons are two of the few fruits which are best when eaten very firm.  
• Pears are best when the stem pulls from the fruit with a resounding, wet pop.
• Apricots, peaches and nectarines should be soft, yet supple.
• Cherry season usually lasts only a few weeks, a month at best.
• Citrus can be stored un-refrigerated until the skin is pliable; they are sweetest then.
• Many tree fruits are heavily sprayed. 

Vine fruits and vegetables
Buy organic, or wash well before eating.
Vine fruits are summer fruits.  Very rarely do they appear in spring, unless grown in a greenhouse.
Vines tend to be heavily sprayed with pesticides, buy organic.
Hints:

• If you can't smell it, you won't taste it. 
• Baseball-like hardness generally indicates immaturity
• Ripe melons are pliable around the blossom end (opposite the stem)
• Vine veggies like peas, green beans, cucumbers or squash are best when very young.
• The ideal zucchini squash or cucumber is of moderate, uniform diameter, like a sausage.
• Pumpkins and winter squash left on the vine until the plant is dead and the shell is hard will keep all winter long.
• The sugar content of grapes continues increasing until they are raisins.
• The peas in snow peas, or the beans in green beans, should be barely perceptible, or not visible at all.
• Pear-shaped tomatoes are better for cooking than for eating.
• The walls of chilies and peppers thicken and get sweeter--or hotter--as they get older.
• Green peppers are immature.  Nearly all peppers turn some other color when fully ripe: anything from white to chocolate brown.  Reds, oranges and yellows seem to be the sweetest.
• Pull a few spikes out of the top of a pineapple to see if it is ripe.  If they won't budge, it's still too green.  If the pineapple appears brown or has a lot of sugar crystals on its outside; it may be rotten.
• Strawberries are the most heavily sprayed fruit or vegetable. 
• Avoid washing berries until you are ready to eat them; they mold easily.
• Potatoes should be firm but not green.  Cut off any green portion of a potato.
• Bananas may be eaten year round.  I like mine with no green and lots of brown spots.  The starch in a green banana converts to sugar during ripening.

Roots
Root crops are generally cold weather crops, except for those parts of the world where cold means a foot or more of snow on the ground.  Once germinated, root crops are fairly hard in cold climates.  They bolt (go to seed) quickly when temperatures go up or when watering stops.
The best root vegetables grow fast.  Roots tend to need less pesticides, but because they are in the ground, but are easily contaminated.

• Unlike fruits, roots should be very firm to the touch.
• A very hairy root is generally an overgrown root.
• Overgrown roots tend to have thick, woody skin and dry, styrofoam-like interiors.
• A potato is a tuber, not a root.
• Select onions and garlic with many layers of intact skin.

Creating Your Brand

A carefully built brand is worth more in actual dollars than all the tangible assets put together and is what will reap monetary rewards when you're ready to sell your company. The first thing you have to do is decide how you want people to perceive your business, and then figure out what you have to do to get there.

So what goes into building your brand? My brand has served me well, if your client can't identify you by your branding try to do the following :

• Consistency in advertising. Decide what you can do for your customers that your competitors can't and hammer away at those points in every ad. Create a "sell line" that defines your company in a nutshell and use it.

Customer service. Only employ people who can get on board with your brand, and make sure that each person understands his or her part in building it. Once a customer is ignored at the counter or treated poorly on the phone or on the sales floor, you've lost not only that person but everyone else that hears about the unfortunate experience. Remember that word-of-mouth can help, but it can also hurt. Get rid of employees who won't cooperate--even if they're related to you!

• Public relations. Keep promises you make. See that your customers aren't disappointed with what they find once your advertising gets them through the door. Make it easy for them to make purchases and returns. They should leave smiling. If you tell your local Little League team that you'll provide team T-shirts, follow through. If you commit to a joint venture with another business, school or a group of any kind, keep up your end of the deal. Pay your invoices on time. Be a good citizen. Get involved with community projects where your business can do something positive (and maybe get some free press).

• Your willingness to use the internet. A company with no web presence is archaic. Even if you're only interested in local sales right now, your customers are on the web, and they'll want to see you there, too. Get it done now.

Be vigilant. Every contact with the public will either serve to build your brand or dismantle it, and administering damage control can seem like managing a convoluted maze of tumbling dominos when something happens to threaten the public's perception of your business.

Can We Blame The Food Network?

In an age where chefs are celebrities and a regular TV gig turns the classically trained and mere personalities alike into culinary rock stars, the shortage of chefs of African descent is noteworthy if only by their striking absence."I have often wondered if people ever thought about "Black Chefs" being a true part of the real culinary world. As an Afro-American Chef it's often hard to figure out who's really true blue when asking for help. The Food Network  has made it seem  as if you don't make it here your not  as good as you  may think, that is so not the case. But think about it…the number of black chefs or hosts on the Food Network has been and continues to be really paltry. I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise, but more of a reflection of the situation in the country as a whole. Don't get me wrong I would live my own show I got a script and everything. But your not about to dress me in some hot pink botton down and spike my hair to make me more appealing.

In the skime of thinks I guess we really can't blame The Food Network  all the way,Black families haven’t traditionally viewed the cooking profession as desirable for their young people.  The Culinary Institute of America has seen the numbers of black students rising very slowly. I suppose the real answer to this is education, which will lead to more opportunities for young people. The Careers Through Culinary Arts Program starts with high school students and provides counseling and scholarships for those interested in cooking careers.

There are many fine black cooks in this country. Whether through mentoring or frequenting their restaurants, buying their books or watching them on television, let’s give every ethnicity more of a chance to be called “Chef “.