KitchenCritical

 For a snack, salad topping, or a nutritious alternative to popcorn, you can't beat roasted chickpeas. Here's what you need: Cooked chickpeas, well drained on a colander. They should be as dry as possible. Extra Virgin olive oil. Good Salt  Black pepper, freshly ground. Fresh Lemon Garlic Powder Cumin powder Cayenne powder The Process For the cooked chickpeas, you can cook your own or use canned. For canned chickpeas, dump them in a colander and rinse well, tossing them around in the colander. You want to get that mucoid slime off of them. Grossed out? Good. Cook your own.  For cooked chickpeas, you will cook them less than you do for  hummus.   If using an instant pot, cook unsoaked Chickpeas for 38 minutes on high pressure in salted water. On the stovetop, an overnight soak is recommended. Simmer slowly in salted water until tender but not mushy. It may take a while, depending on how long you soaked them. Whether you use canned or cook your own, you'll want to drain them

 The humble radish is widely available in any grocery store, where it is sometimes sold along with its edible green leaves.  Though it's flavor is described elsewhere as "pungent," that may be an unfair description. It's flavor is like mild watercress. It's texture is firm, crunchy, watery, like raw carrot. As you chew it, you will get a mild, wasabi or horseradish-like aroma but without the eye watering kick. Indeed, they are a related species. And that striking color, which no camera can do justice, is due to anthocyanins, a type of flavonoid which may have several important health benefits. What's not to like about this fresh, colorful member of the mustard family?  At less than one calorie per radish, you'll get these flavonoids along with a modest but broad range of vitamins and minerals in a very inexpensive package. Like most brassicas, they will stay fresh for an extraordinary amount of time in the vegetable drawer of your refrigerator. Here is a s

 Many friends and family over the years have sought my input on cast iron.  There was even a sizeable cast iron facebook group at one point (may still be, for all I know). It seems to exert some mysterious allure to a great many people, who, as far as I can tell, seem to want cast iron because they want it. Inevitably, almost everyone misused their pans and subsequently got over them. There they remain to this day; lonely little iron golems condemned to rust forever in the back of a cabinet or in a landfill for their owner's impulse purchase. The "wet" look of a healthy, twenty year old cast iron skillet. The truth is that although cast iron has its merits, its a niche item, and a heavy gauge steel skillet will do anything a cast iron skillet can do, and more. So why is cast iron praised? The main reasons I have seen is that cast iron is lauded as an excellent heat conductor and heat retainer, its sear, for its durability and long life, and for its natural non-stick surfa

  "Street" is another empty word thrown at you to get you to buy "food" with a connotation that it's somehow a more authentic version of whatever you were having before. Tacos that affect a pedigree are Street Tacos. Roasted and spicy corn on the cob - an old fixture at barbecues, festivals and flea markets wherever Central Americans were present- is now given a hip makeover as Street Corn. Fine eating it is, but it misses a point. In Miami, five "Street Corn" just like this can cost $42 in a casual restaurant.  "Street" labeling is a marketing ploy designed to invoke the beloved, fiesty, ethnic or working class portable meals that one may buy at a roadside stand or at a window. Despite many forms across continents, these dishes seem to have a common pattern: a seductive envelope or core of carbohydrates surrounding or surrounded by something oily or proteinacious: meat, often greasy or aggressively seasoned, cheeses, legumes, cream, chilies,

You can make your own hummus with no special skill, better and healthier than store bought and at a fraction of the cost. You can also apply this same technique with almost any other type of bean. Technique is superior to recipe; see  Reading a Recipe  for clarity.  Ingredients: Dry Chickpeas One clove of fresh garlic, pureed with the side of your knife or a mortar and pestle. Extra Virgin Olive Oil Cumin Powder Fresh lemon Paprika.*  Any good salt**  Optional Ingredients: Chili flakes Tahini Cook the amount of chickpeas you think you'll want for hummus, but be aware that chickpeas will double or even triple in size from their dry state. To cook:       -In an instant pot: Add unsoaked dry peas to pot and cover with enough water to submerge the peas by about an inch. Add more water than you think you need, since you'll be draining it, and add salt (about 1/2 teaspoon per cup of dry peas should be fine). Cook for about 40 minutes on high pressure in an instant pot, letting the st

  Most recipes don't need anything more than general measurements, and in fact relying on measurements can be deleterious to those wishing to learn how to cook. The reasons for this are several.  First, it hinders learning because if you simply follow a formula, you can't learn how things work. It's like assembling Ikea furniture hoping you will learn carpentry. You won't learn cooking technique unless you're truly present, observing, engaging with your food, and using all five senses.  Like painting, cooking is simply the art of understanding not only each ingredient's characteristic but how each ingredient interacts with each other.  There are different shades of color which can all be called "red" but you also know that mixing red and yellow create orange. Its the same with cooking except that the chemistry is more complicated, partly due to the reactions caused by heat: a fascinating energy that can solidify an egg while liquefying a tomato.  Then

  A popular restaurant here in Wynwood Miami sells a wonderful roasted cauliflower for $15. A few years ago, the best you could get in a restaurant was a sad, boiled bit of previously frozen cauliflower as a side. Now there are cauliflower pizza crusts, rice, buffallo wings, steaks, tortillas. Like a mirage, it seems like cauliflower takes the form of anything you want to eat, along with its price. How did we get here? And is a cauliflower that costs as much as a steak such a bad thing? We as a nation have had traditionally unhealthy eating habits, and we now know that our meat industry, one way or another, adds at best questionable if not alarming additives to its products, as well as taking its toll on the environment. Cauliflower, as part of the brassica family, brings a bounty of nutrition thats nearly free of any calories. It is keto and paleo friendly, and its gluten free. Given all this, its rise to fame is perhaps long overdue.  And yet a good idea can have a bad implementation

The three most important tools in your kitchen are the knife, a cooking surface, and a cutting board. This last tool is often overlooked, leading to frustration or even apathy, which is worse.  Plastic cutting boards are cheap and seemingly popular. They also remove leafy-greens.html noy pleasure in chopping and once they get gouged, which will happen faster than you think, there is no way to repair them. I also don't see how slashed up plastic would not lead to small bits of plastics ending up in our food and thus in our bodies. The plastic board would soon be replaced and so it's not really cheap at all.  Glass and marble cutting boards are attractive and about as practical as a brick airplane. Use them for serving hors d'oeuvre and don't let your knife anywhere near them. Wooden cutting boards are sometimes maligned for harboring bacteria. No other nation besides we here in the U. S. A. have such a fixation with bacteria. Raw chicken seems to be regarded as no less d

Smell and taste are the most obvious senses relating to both cooking and eating. Our sight is a factor too, and it is often exploited. It has been demonstrated that the lighting, decor, presentation, and even the shape of the plate influences the perceived flavor of the dish. Restaurateurs are well aware of this phenomenon and its ability to bolster the experience of what would otherwise be a mediocre meal. However, when you cook, you are the commander in your kitchen as well as your own senses. Direct and attune all of them to your task, and you'll find the experience of cooking as enjoyable if not more so than eating. You will cook with greater accuracy and insight than if you had mindlessly followed the steps to the recipe. It is only by being present and attuned that you begin to go from commander to master, and this attunement only occurs when you use all your senses to full effect. Your sight is obviously useful, but once again it can betray you, especially as a novice. Food

  Plaza Seafood Market 3114 NW 17th Ave, Miami, FL 33142 A mighty holdout of Miami's once plentiful bounty of local seafood, Plaza's impeccably fresh fish are arranged whole on crushed ice in a semi-open market. Resembling a small warehouse in a yet to be gentrified working class neighborhood, the rugged nature of it may offend the Whole Foods generation. Ironically, places like this; humble, local businesses selling sustainable local catch with zero pretensions are the empty slogans of the new generation of groceries and their customers. This is the kind of place our grandparents would have been familiar with before chain groceries took over. Like them, a market like this will be missed once it's gone. Tips: If you live in Miami and for some reason can not or will not learn Spanish, the young man that's usually at the register speaks English. Once you've bought your chosen creature, there are formidable but friendly men in aprons lined up along a counter in b

  This is a Pre-Covid review. Many restaurants have changed greatly since the pandemic. Mercato Della Pescheria 412 Española Way Miami Beach, Fl, 33139 Mercato looks like a tourist trap, feels like one, then surprises you. An oasis in ground zero of a culinary wasteland. Set in the affectatious yet charming Española way, Mercato's staff was amiable and efficient. The decor was a handsome mixture of theme park-esque tuscan cottage with modern elements like exposed concrete and airy spaces. A common but not unwelcome staple of most of Miami's Mediterranean menus is the branzini. From the bass family, it indeed is a Mediterranean species and though it is increasingly farmed, a good branzini is unforgettable. Mercato's roasted branzini is served whole, as a good fish should be. Its skin was skillfully crisped into a flat, unbroken sheet of crackling delight. The flesh was cooked with remarkable precision: an alluring tuft of steam wafted forth when one first cut into it. The se

 This is a Pre-Covid review. Many restaurants have changed greatly since the pandemic. Merkado 31 1127 NE 163rd Street Miami Beach, Fl, 33162  The decor is modern but admirably modest: faux concrete tables, pale stone tiles with a bamboo fixture in the center. Warm toned recessed lighting contrasted pleasantly with the gray and tan shades, which only enhanced the vibrant colors of the dishes. The menu offers the usual items for Peruvian food in Miami, though at a lower price point. Three ceviches were tasted: the Clásico, Mixto, and Mercadero. The Mercadero sauce was alluringly described as being made from small, potent red Peruvian chilies. Yet it was the ceviche mixto that bore a vibrant red color. What I presumed to be the Mercadero was in fact a creamy yellow. The Mixto and Mercadero's sauces followed the growing trend of being enriched with cream, serving to temper the acidity of the limes and carry fat soluble flavors. They were pleasant, but indistinguishable in flavor. The

This makes about four thighs, which is enough to fit in a decent sized pot without crowding. For more or less, adjust all elements accordingly. Place an enameled cast-iron or heavy gauge steel pot on medium to medium-high heat. Add enough oil to fully coat the bottom of the pot; extra virgin olive oil will give good results, so long as you don't burn it. Adding the oil before the pot begins to preheat allows you to keep an eye on it and thus prevent burning.  Into the shimmering oil, place bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs which you have dusted with kosher salt, freshly cracked black pepper, and perhaps a bit of all purpose flour.  Brown the thighs on both sides, adding oil to the pot if it looks too dry. As with all proteins to be adequately browned, the thighs must be in a single layer and have about an inch of space between them, hence four thighs. For more than that, work in batches. Remove the chicken, lower the heat by a quarter turn. At this point, many recipes will advise y