The Bitten Word

The 10 Essential Herbs for Cooking at Home

Last week we wrote about the 10 spices we consider essential in our pantry. We got tons of wonderful responses and comments from you guys!  You told us your own must-haves for your spice rack. You commiserated with us about having too many spices on hand.

Mostly, though, you asked: what about herbs? 

It's really interesting, actually. A lot of people think of herbs and spices as interchangable things. And it makes total sense. After all, spices are clearly just dried, powdered plants and herbs.

For whatever reason, though, we just think of herbs and spices and completely different things. Herbs are fresh plants you crush or chop yourself. Spices are dry powders in little jars. What we mean is, if we want to cook with, say, thyme, we'll either purchase fresh sprigs or do without. It just doesn't even usually occur to us to pick up dried thyme in the spice aisle. Shockingly, to us, we don't have any of the major dried herbs on hand. 

Does that make us herb snobs? We hope not! All we're saying is that if we want basil, for example, we're going to find fresh basil or use no basil at all. Perhaps it's a sympton of growing a lot of herbs from spring to fall. 

Anyway, the upshot is that we've been thinking over the past week about the 10 herbs we would consider essential in our kitchen. Now, obviously, since we're talking about fresh herbs, it wouldn't make much sense to keep all of these on hand all the time. They'd go bad.

But we think this list of 10 essential herbs would supply anyone with a great arsenal for cooking at home.

Your Questions: Why Feature a Bad Recipe?

When we shared our post about State Fair Ham Loaf a few weeks ago, we received this very good question from a reader named Mindy:

Guys - I love your site! But why go to the trouble of devoting a column to "eww, this is nasty, but here's the recipe" when there are so many wonderful recipes out there yet to be discovered?  

That, Mindy, is an excellent question.

Your Questions: Picking Just One Magazine Subscription

We recently received a question from a reader who has to make a tough choice when it comes to food magazines. Here's what Laura wrote us to ask: 

Hi boys!

I'm a university student and have a 'back to school poor but not so poor university student' question for you.
 

My iPad is being delivered soon and I'm super excited to start reading magazines and getting subscriptions on it rather than picking them up at the bookstore or having them delivered. The only problem is now that I'm leaving my comfortable family home I don't have the luxury of stealing my mom's magazines from the mail. I, of course, can't afford to subscribe to all the amazing magazines out there but I'm thinking I'll start with one and work my way up! So my question for the two of you is, if you had to pick one food magazine to subscribe to, which one would you choose? 

I'm preferably looking for one that I'd be able to cook from in my well stocked and supplied student kitchen and one that I could actually put to use; I don't have the need to roast a whole turkey or cook a 9x13 of anything. In my kitchen I have more than the basics but don't have access to everything I would in my normal kitchen.
 

Thanks for your help!
 

Laura

Our answer?

Your Questions: Best Recipes For Beginning Cooks

  

Our latest installment of Your Questions comes from Tamara: 

I LOVE your website.  I look at it while I'm work, and drool. In all seriousness, I admire your passion for cooking and the creative recipes you attempt.  I am NOT a cook.  I guess you could say I'm "just getting started" but I have the usual problem one encounters when cooking for one, I waste the fresh ingredients and hardly use the specialty stuff I buy.  If I loved to cook and could figure out how to make use of all the random things I pick up, that would be one thing.  But I don't!  And in all honesty, I don't have the money to buy oyster sauce for one recipe.  Can you guys have a post about some simple-ingredient things to make??  I would love to try to make something flavorful but simple.  I know you have some up already, just hoped I could coax you to dedicate a post to gourmet for beginners.... Thanks for reading!!

What a great question! Both of us have (literally) been there.

Before we recommend some specific recipes, here are three pieces of general advice for getting started in the kitchen: 

1. Only buy fresh ingredients with a plan in mind. It's easy to go to the grocery or the farmers market and buy bags full of pretty things, but it's also so depressing to find that those same ingredients have died a lonely death in the crisper. Prior to going shopping, we try to think through what we want out of the next three to four meals, and we also take stock of what we already have on hand. Of course, if you're like us, impulse buys are still inevitable. But we try to limit them, and when we do go all shopaholic, we commit to exploring new recipes with the ingredients.

2. Know what's in your fridge.  We use a Vegetable Board to make sure we're not wasting produce. It works for us, helping us to focus on what we have on hand when trying to figure out what to cook, but you may find a method that works better for you.  

3. Get a cookbook that can be a go-to resource for simple recipes. We recommend Mark Bittman's excellent How to Cook Everything or Everyday Food's Great Food Fast. In fact, you may want to consider getting a subscription to Everyday Food. It was one of Clay's first food magazine subscriptions and every issue is filled with great, not overly complicated recipes. 

Here are a few recipes we've loved -- they're perfect for beginners and they require few ingredients:  

Your Questions: Where to Find Chiles in Adobo?

Our latest Your Questions comes from reader Irene: 

Hey Guys, 

I keep seeing Chiles in Adobo pop up as ingredients in delicious-looking recipes that I would love to try.  Unfortunately, I can't seem to find them anywhere! Tragedy, I know. Am I walking right past them at the grocery store?  Please help! 

Many thanks,

~Irene

Irene is right. It seems like this ingredient, often listed as either "chipotle peppers in adobo" or "chiles in adobo," is popping up with increasing frequency in recipes.

So where do you find them? We typically find that chiles in adobo are hiding in the International aisle of the supermarket, along with other Latin ingredients. Less frequently, we've found them stocked with canned tomatoes. They usually come in short, 2-inch-tall (or so) cans, similar to the size of most tomato paste cans. 

So what do you do with them?  And if a recipe calls for only one pepper, what do you do with the rest of them?

Your Questions: What's With That Cutting Board?

In the comments of last week's post about canning tomatoes, several readers asked about the "awesome studded cutting board" that was featured in several of the photos.

Well here's the answer!

That specific cutting board is the Epicurean Cutting Surfaces 21-by-15-Inch Carving Series Cutting Board in Slate/Nutmeg. We ordered it from Amazon back in February.

This is actually the second Epicurean cutting board that we own. The first one we purchased was the 15 x 11-inch board in Slate. We love thiat board. It stores easily and fits in our dishwasher with no problem at all. When we reach for a cutting board, this is the one we grab 99 percent of the time.

But one thing we wanted that the 15 x 11board didn't offer was a well to catch juices. When carving a roast chicken or dicing some juicy fruit, we'd always wish for a well to collect the liquid. So we eventually ordered the larger 21x15 inch board, which is the one you saw in those tomato photos (and at right).

We really like the larger board, but we also really wish it fit in our dishwasher (i.e., we're lazy!). But the smaller board makes up for that. Together, they're all the cutting board that we need and we like them better than any we've ever owned.

Do you have a cutting board that you especially like? Let us know in the comments!

 

 

 

Your Questions: Crowd-Pleasers for a Weekend at the Beach

It's time for another edition of Your Questions, in which we attempt to answer readers' queries about recipe ideas, kitchen gadgets and whether Carrie should leave Big for Aiden in Abu Dhabi. As always, if you've got a question for us, email us! 

This week's question comes from Julia in Washington, D.C. -- and it's got us all kinds of excited to ring in the summer cooking season!

Hey Clay and Zach, 

I'll be with 16 of my friend's guy friends and their friends and girlfriends for memorial day weekend - do you have any quick, easy, cheap recipes that would be good for on and/or off the beach (and that can be doubled/tripled/etc as necessary)?!?  I'm hoping to make a good impression on these people and figured I'd go straight to the experts.  Thanks so much for your help!

Cheers, 

Julia

Good question, Julia! 

We've been traveling for the past two weekends -- first to West Virginia and then to Memphis for a wedding -- so we're sad to report that The Bitten Word will be beachless this Memorial Day. We do, however, how some ideas for fun, beach food. Hope you have a great time, and do let us know what you make!

And now, here are our picks for great beach crowd-pleasers.

Your Questions: What to Do With Leftover Easter eggs?

Here's another of our "Your Questions" posts, in which we try to answer readers' queries about recipe ideas, kitchen gadgets and what the deal is with "Lost" (just kidding! [But seriously, our money's on Desmond, who we believe is locked in Widmore's sub, as the candidate to take replace Jacob in the fight against the Man in Black]).

Got a question?  Email us!  We'll be happy to share our thoughts, and we'll do our best to find the answers for you.

Today's question comes from Gina in Northport, Long Island, New York:

I'm tired of the ordinary egg salad. With Easter coming up and the abundance of hard cooked eggs we all get stuck with,  do you have a unique and/or different recipe we could all try? Thanks!

Great question, Gina!  After the jump, we'll share some ideas of what to do with hard-boiled Easter eggs.

But first, we've just got to talk about the amazing Easter eggs in the April issue of Martha Stewart Living.

To be honest, we actually haven't dyed Easter eggs in years. But the gorgeous eggs in the latest issue of Living might convince us to do it this year. Using overlaid decals, cut-outs and electrical tape, Martha has created elegant eggs that are like little works of geometric pop-art.

Amazing, right? You need to pick up the April issue of the magazine to see all the great ideas and get the full how-to. But the whole feature just made us smile!

Now, on to Gina's question!

Your Questions: Looking for Lima Bean Ideas

We're kicking off a new feature today, called "Your Questions." From time to time, people write to us asking for recipe ideas, advice on what to do with a particular ingredient, whether a given kitchen gadget is worth the hype, or what they should name their baby (just kidding! [But seriously, "Cecelia"]).

Got a question?  Email us!  We'll be happy to share our thoughts, and we'll do our best to find the answers for you.

Our first question comes from Katie & Scott in Lexington, Kentucky:

Dear Bitten Word Boys:

 

My husband and I are totally obsessed with lima beans these days.  Although some people might find lima beans repulsive, we personally think their starchy flavor and mushy consistency is delightful.

Anywho, I'm getting a little bored with plain, cooked-from-frozen lima beans every other night.  Any suggestions?  Have you seen any interesting lima bean recipes in your foodie magazines?  Thanks!

We love Limas, too!  After the jump, some of our best Lima bean advice.