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When to Use Nonstick and Non Nonstick Pans

First of all, nonstick pans and non nonstick pans are like apples and oranges. The uses of each are almost mutually exclusive. If you wanted to fry an egg or sear a delicate fish, you’d use a nonstick pan. If you want to saute vegetables or whip up a quick stir-fry, you’d use stainless. Why? Because nonstick pans are all about preventing any sort of stick at all. Stainless steel pans–used properly–are all about getting a flavorful crust on the food and just enough to stick to the bottom (that stuff is called a fond) to create a base for easy pan sauces and such.

How to Use Nonstick and Non Nonstick Pans

For any of you who have been scared of stainless, I hope this helps! And if you haven’t yet branched out into the non nonstick realm, check out some of our favorite pans in our Nourish Network Market.

Here are five delicious, seasonal options that you can make at least two to three days ahead and savor throughout the holidays.

1. Apple Pie with Chinese Five Spice and Hazelnut Crumb Topping. Chinese five spice powder adds a surprising, bright note to the cooked caramel-y apple filling while a nutty crumb topping adds crunch. You can make the Toasted Nut Pastry Dough up to a week ahead, pop it in the fridge, and then cook the filling, blind-bake the crust and finish off the pie a couple of days before the holiday. (Pressed for time? Pick up a pre-made whole-wheat pastry crust. We won’t tell.)
2. Spiced Pumpkin Harvest Bundt Cake with Pecans. Linda West Eckhardt created this homey, old-fashioned treat to celebrate Nourish Network’s first birthday. It’s golden and rich with warm spices and a lemony glaze. Leftovers will make delightful snacks all weekend long.
3. Chocolate Angel Food Cake. For some crowds, only chocolate will do, so whip up our angel food cake. Only instead of macerated strawberries, pair it with Grandma Friese’s Whole Cranberries, which are soaked in port. It’s a gorgeous holiday presentation.
4. Small bites. Desserts don’t have to be lavish to end the feast on a high note, and your guests may well appreciate a selection of little treats. (Honestly, I’m tempted to go this route myself this year.) Decorated with dried cranberries and slivered almonds, Crunchy Ruby-Studded Meringue Buttons are light and festively pretty. Our Chocolate Orange Pistachio Biscotti are prefect for dunking in after-dinner coffee, while these Boozy Orange-Pecan Truffles are rich-tasting, impressive and not too heavy. Make extra and freeze ‘em to enjoy throughout the holiday season.
5. Pumpkin Tart with Maple Whipped Cream and Toasted Walnuts. Graham crackers, sugar and butter add up to the world’s easiest crust for this tart. Add a simple, spicy pumpkin filling and you’re good to go. Bake the tart up to two days before the feast and store it in the fridge. You also can whip the cream a day or two in advance and refrigerate it. Toast the nuts a day or two ahead and stash them in an airtight container.

Have a happy–and sweet–holidays!

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Yesteryear’s dusty, dim co-ops have evolved into clean, brightly lit–even chic–health-food supermarkets. Along with everything else in the natural foods market, bulk bins have gone upscale, baby. If you have tended to avoid the bulk bins in the past, here are four good reasons to give them another try:

You’ll save money. That’s the biggest appeal for budget-conscious shoppers. The retailer saves money by purchasing in bulk, so you save too–up to 60%, according to the Bulk is Green Council. For example, quinoa flour–a notoriously pricey ingredient used in gluten-free baking–is $4.99 a pound in the bulk bins vs. $7 (or more) in its packaged form.

You can buy as much–or as little–as you like. This is my favorite feature of the bulk bins. I can load up on the stuff I use frequently–white whole wheat flour and various other grains–and buy less of items I only use occasionally. And it’s a low-risk way to try new-to-you ingredients … including spices for mere pennies.

There’s an amazing variety of stuff! It seems like something new turns up at the bulk bins every time I go to my local health-food store. There are bins of specialty flours (buckwheat, spelt, quinoa, and brown rice, to name a few), fun salts (Peruvian and Himalayan pink!), and groovy rices, like Indonesian Volcano, Madagascar Pink, and Bhutanese Red.

It’s more sustainable. Bulk bins mean less packaging, which translates into lower transportation costs. You can boost the sustainability by bringing reusable fine-mesh produce bags to tote your finds. I’ve used these for grains, like rice and pearled barley, as well as bulkier items like nuts.

In fact, you can save on several of this week’s Nourish Weekly Menus recipes by buying in bulk–lentils, walnuts and pearled barley to name just a few. So browse the bulk bins this week!

And then one day, I honestly don’t remember if I’d read about the technique or was just feeling feisty, I held a big fan of Swiss chard in my fist and just zipped the leaves clean off. It was shocking how quickly it happened, actually. Then I did it again and again and before I knew it the entire bunch was de-stemmed and laying in a neat little pile . . . all in less than 60 seconds.

Technique for “Zipping” Hearty Greens

• Hold the stalk firmly in one hand
• With the thumb and forefinger of the other hand, pinch where the base of the leaves meets the stem and tug gently to separate
• Continue tugging up the line of the stem, zipping the leaves off as you go (you’ll get the hang of how much pressure you need)

Watch the video here:

challenge for Americans to “take back the value meal

So let’s get cooking! You can join a grass roots potluck near you. You can buy this week’s Nourish Weekly Menus (we took the $5 challenge to heart–pricing by non-pantry items–and wrote this post from the strategies we used to save money) for a whole week of delish budget fare. Or you can come up with your own by using our six tips below. If you DO make your own meal, please snap a pic and post it on our Facebook page. I’d love to do a follow-up post with a collage to show everyone how beautiful affordable food can be!

1. Use seasonal produce.  This is like a “free gift with purchase.” It’s a proven fact that the tastiest, most luscious, peak-of-season foods are also the cheapest. It makes sense. Foods that are in season near you have far less distance to travel, which means lower transportation costs (and smaller carbon footprint!).
2. Make use of healthy, cheap “filler” ingredients.  No, I don’t mean the creepy corn products that you can’t pronounce that make up the bulk of processed foods. I mean inexpensive ingredients–like cabbage and bulgur–that bring a natural heft to a dish. For instance, in this week’s menus, we beef up our Corfu Koftas with bulgur and use about 1/2 the beef. And we stuff Spicy Fish Tacos with a tangy slaw so you don’t rely on the fish (a relatively expensive ingredient) to dominate the dish.
3. Venture outside your box.  So many of us have our standard go-to’s … steak, shrimp, salmon, chicken breast, etc. But, ironically, many of America’s traditional go-to’s are the priciest items at the market. All the more reason to explore the unknown. Different cuts of poultry (chicken legs and thighs are my favorite, and about 1/2 the price of breasts), meat (braising cuts are especially affordable) and different types of seafood. Our Curried Mussels, for instance (another dish featured this week), feed four for under $10 and are finger-lickin’ good.
4. Buy in bulk.  Buying from the bulk bins can cut cost by two, three, even five times. Whole Foods, which can be pricey within the aisles, stocks an incredible array in their bulk bins. So explore different types of rice and grains, various flours and nuts, even pasta and dried fruit.
5. Buy whole.  Whether you’re talking a chicken or a head of lettuce, you’re going to save significant dough by buying whole. I recently comparison shopped head lettuce versus pre-washed bagged for a television segment and even I was shocked: the gorgeous, ruffly head of organic, locally grown lettuce was FIVE TIMES cheaper than pre-washed, bagged lettuce ($1.95 for a 1-1/2 pound head versus $4.99/pound for pre-washed).
6. Plan ahead.  There’s no disputing that planning ahead helps you save money. It keeps you from making impulse purchases (which can be expensive). It keeps you from dashing out for extra ingredients. It helps you use what you already have on hand. And it cuts down dramatically on waste (up to 35% of America’s food goes to waste!). Insert shameless promotion here … hmmm, I wonder what kinds of resources are out there for helping you plan your meals ahead? Yep, you got it.

Remember, if you make your own meal–either from this week’s menus or on your own–snap a pic and post it on our Facebook page!

And I have to say: I love it. Now I get to see up close and personal where people trip up in the kitchen and when the ‘a-ha’ comes into their eyes. Here are three of the basics that come up again and again, yet leave the most lasting impact.

• Learn how to dice (click here for videos). One of the biggest hurdles to eating more vegetables is all the darn prep time. But learning how to quickly cut pieces of uniform size makes it go much faster … and makes prep time much more enjoyable.

How to: Cut your vegetable so it has a flat surface to rest on the cutting board. Hold your knife parallel to the cutting board and slice horizontal slices as thick as you want your cubes to be (it’s easiest if you leave a connector area, like the root end of an onion, in tact to hold the slices together). Then pinch those slices together with your left hand and cut lengthwise slices of the same width perpendicular to the cutting board. Continue to hold the pieces together with fingers like a claw and cut cross-wise slices the same width as the other two cuts. The result will be uniform cubes of vegetables—whether onion, sweet potato or zucchini.

• Make mincing garlic easy (click here for video). Those jars of minced garlic may seem like a great convenience, but you’re really not doing yourself any favors. Much of garlic’s pungency comes from the oils released by smashing or cutting the cloves, and their strength dissipates over time. But once you learn how to quickly mince garlic, you’ll see it takes less than a minute to prep 3-5 cloves, which is all you need for most dishes.

How to: One at a time, smash a clove by laying the side of your chef’s knife on top (with the blade parallel to the cutting board) and hitting it hard with your palm. Remove the skin. Smash the skinless cloves once again with the side of your knife, scrape the garlic together and run over it a few times with your knife using a rocking motion; hold your hand flat on top of the tapered end of the blade to keep it still while you rock up and down with the hand holding the knife, moving forward and back over the garlic.

• Make your non nonstick pan nonstick. One of the most frustrating things in the kitchen is when food sticks to a pan. But it’s almost impossible to create a fond for making pan sauces if you’re using a nonstick pan all the time. The secret is to heat your (non nonstick) pan before you add oil (or butter or bacon fat or …). When you add oil to a cold pan, it sinks into the microscopic nooks and crannies in the metal. Heating it first makes the cells expand to create a more uniform surface that, once slicked with oil, becomes virtually nonstick.

How to: Heat your nonstick pan over medium-high heat and wait until it feels like you’re warming your hands over a campfire when you hold your hands over the pan. Then swirl the oil around the pan and wait a few seconds for it to shimmer before adding whatever you’re going to sauté.

I hope these three back to basics tips help you! Now go practice all three (OK, well, two) on this tasty Sautéed Succotash … you can get video tips for prepping just about every ingredient listed in our library of Kitchen Tips Video Clips.

• Get Rid of What Doesn’t Work– When we first put our yard in, Christopher and I were on the lookout for groundcover. We saw one we liked—a euphorbia—and I bought a bunch of seedlings hoping they’d take root and spread. And oh did they spread. That particular type of euphorbia, it turns out, spreads by underground rhizome, and although the tag had promised it would max out at eight inches tall, most of our plants were bushy two foot monsters.

  What had seemed attractive at first ultimately threatened to choke out all the painstakingly placed plants in the yard.There’s a parallel here with our pantries. I used to pack my pantry with pretzels because they seemed attractive as a “low fat” choice. Over time, though, I discovered that I was always at battle with them. I wanted the pretzels to make me slim, but instead I’d feel sluggish and bloated after eating them. Sometimes, we just need to admit that something needs to come out.

• Move Things Around– My mom’s yard is always in flux; in a good way. If a hosta becomes stagnant, she’ll relocate it under another tree. If a clump of lilies becomes too dense, she’ll dig them up and replant them throughout the garden. The lesson I’ve gleaned from my mom’s technique is that location does affect whether or not something “takes.”I think of this every time I open my cupboard and see my grains on the shelf above my head. I say I want to eat more whole grains—both in quantity and variety—and yet they’re essentially out of sight and in a place that takes effort to get to. By moving my grains to a more accessible location (on my project list), they’ll have more of a chance to take root in my family’s daily diet.
• Try Some New Things– Some of my greatest triumphs in the garden have come from experimentation. One year, we became smitten with Padron peppers at a restaurant and decided to give growing them a try. Since then, they’ve been hands-down the most productive plant in the garden every year.Little delights like that can happen in your kitchen too, and you don’t even need to buy anything new. If you bought a jar of cardamom for a coffeecake recipe six months ago, give it a shot in a curry. If you have some dried chiles lingering on a shelf, throw a few in a pot of beans.

This week, seek out ways to relandscape your kitchen so it will better nurture you.

Of course, when it comes to anything about the Deep South, food plays an important role in the movie – especially Minny’s famous caramel cake. And Southern fare has a special place in our hearts at Nourish Network. Lia and I may both be California girls – Lia by choice and me by birth – but we’ve each done a turn in the South that left its mark on our palates. Lia went to college at Tulane in New Orleans, and I spent six years in Alabama.

So, in honor of “The Help,” we’re sharing some of our nourishing tastes of the South:

• Mississippi “Caviar with Cider Vinaigrette. This Southern classic stands on its own as main dish and words as a side with grilled fare. If you’re lucky enough to actually be in South and have access to fresh black-eyed peas, use ‘em here.
• Skillet Corn Bread with Tomatoes and Sage. No Southern cook is without a cast-iron skillet. Use yours to make this corn bread.
• Quick Collards. Traditionally, collard greens are cooked for a good long time. Our version is, well, quick. Try them with our Nourishing Hoppin’ John on New Year’s Day for good luck.
• Tilapia Po’ Boys. These New Orleans-style sandwiches are an easy weeknight supper.
• Crispy Buttermilk Oven-Fried Chicken. When Lia gets a hankering for fried chicken, she makes this oven version instead of the traditional deep-fried bird.
• Kathleen’s Fresh Peach Pie with Toasted Walnut Crust. When we needed a peach pie for Nourish Network, I asked my friend Kathleen, who worked with me at Cooking Light in Alabama, to share her version. Her double-crust pie is a winner!

If “The Help” leaves you craving caramel cake, a uniquely Southern dessert, try this version, created by Jan Moon for Cooking Light. No one make a better cake than Jan, who now runs her own bakery, Dreamcakes, in Homewood, Ala.

Here are seven things I like to keep stocked in my pantry during summer:

• Anchovies — Anchovies are amazing. They add a punch of savory umami–and good-for-you omega-3 fatty acids–to anything from tomato sauce (think pasta putanesca) to salad dressing (yep, hail caesar). I think their flavor pairs especially well with summery foods like zucchini, tomato and pepper. Salted anchovies have the best flavor, but can be hard to come by. I like to keep a jar of good-quality anchovies in my fridge; if you’re intimidated by whole anchovies, you could opt for a tube of anchovy paste instead.
• White Beans — In summer, when we tend to eat lighter and focus more heavily on vegetables, a can of beans can make a main course. Toss them into a fresh garden salad, stir them into a summer stir-fry, or mix them in with your favorite vegetarian pasta. Besides adding a lovely “umph” and flavor to the dish, beans bring a healthy dose of filling fiber and protein.
• Capers — It’s so funny. In winter, I think of capers as a quintessentially cold-weather addition, and in summer I think of them as belonging to that season. They go especially well with tomatoes, and I like them paired with squash too. They also bring a nice zing to grilled summer foods like firm white fish fillets, chicken or steak. I like them best whisked into oil with a copious amount of minced garlic and parsley.
• Good Extra Virgin Olive Oil — Around the stove, I reach for an average Joe bottle of extra virgin olive oil. Those tend to be filtered, which means they stand up better to a bit of heat. But come summer, I want the cloudiest, most unctuous, tongue-tingling extra virgin olive oil I can find because I’m drizzling it fresh over raw veggies. That cloudiness comes from impurities in the oil–little bits of olive paste that were left after the first pressing. That sediment is what makes the oil so incredibly flavorful (and so incredibly healthy … the antioxidants are what make your tongue tingle), but it’s also what burns when heated. So keep your high-quality extra virgin olive oil away from the stove … and use it liberally during summer!
• Whole Grain Pasta — I haven’t yet met a summer vegetable I couldn’t turn into ten or more variations of pasta. If you’ve got a garden, and you’ve got a box of whole grain pasta on the shelf, you’ve got dinner (bonus if you have these other items in your pantry too!).
• Good Salt — Get yourself a perfectly-ripe heirloom tomato. Slice it into think wedges. Get yourself a great bottle of extra virgin olive oil and drizzle a bit on top. Get yourself a box of Maldon Sea Salt (or another flakey sea salt) and sprinkle on a pinch. Take a bite. I rest my case.
• White and Red Wine Vinegar — Yes, I am an advocate of having four or more types of vinegar in your pantry at any given time. But to me, summer is a time for the mellow flavors of white and red wine vinegar. A couple of lemon cucumbers from the garden sprinkled with white wine vinegar and sea salt is often my mid-afternoon snack. And red wine vinegar, to me, makes a lovely, flavorful foil for mixed greens laden with tomatoes and onion.

These are seven things I’m never without come summer. What are yours?

Time was doing most of the work. And there wasn’t even heat involved.

That’s just the way I like it these days. Over the last couple of years I’ve come to appreciate time as a lazy cook’s best friend. If you’re willing to put in a little (often very, very little) effort on the front end and patient enough to wait a bit, you’ll be rewarded with incredible flavor.

Time is a lazy cook’s best friend. If you put in a little (often very, very little) effort on the front end and are patient enough to wait a bit, you’ll be rewarded with incredible flavor.

It’s a different approach to quick-and-easy, dinner-in-15-minutes cooking, but one worth adding to your arsenal. In fact, you can use the take-your-time strategy one day to prepare components for stellar speedy meals another.

That gravlax is a perfect example. I unwrapped it, rinsed off the rub and and thinly sliced the fish. Then I served it alongside a simple butter-lettuce salad and our All-Purpose French Lentils. With a glass of rose Sancerre, it was a fast, light summer supper. The gravlax has since made other lunch and dinner appearances.

As Lia and I developed our new Nourish Weekly Menus (if you haven’t checked them out yet, here’s a taste with our free e-cookbook), we realized that the Sunday cook-ahead is the heart of our strategy. That’s because we often find ourselves taking advantage of a leisurely weekend to  make a dish that takes a bit longer – roasting a chicken, perhaps, or braising a pork shoulder – that yields a fantastic Sunday supper plus great leftovers to spin into fantastic (and fast!) weeknight meals.

Want to give it try? Here are 3 things you can do this weekend:

• Make some dough. Yeast dough is really easy, especially if you let time – and the yeast – do all the hard work. Make a batch of Long-Rise Whole Wheat Pizza Dough. Enjoy some one night and stash the extra in the fridge or freezer so you can make homemade pizza later in the week faster than Domino’s can deliver.
• “Dry braise” a pork shoulder. Lia’s “dry braising” technique is one you’ll want to try. Just rub the meat  with spices, pop it in a covered Dutch oven, and cook at 275 F for several hours. The result: succulent, fork-tender meat and incredible leftovers for other meals. I’ve got some leftover carnitas in my freezer that are scheduled to make a fast-dinner appearance this weekend.
• Cure some fish. If it’s too hot to fire up the oven, give this no-cook Homemade Gravlax with Wild Alaskan Salmon a try this weekend. Start it on Saturday and it will be ready to slice and serve on crackers as a July 4th appetizer. It’s a perfect low-effort/high-reward slow food.

Like this idea? Please share it with your friends!