Red wine and beef have gone together for ages. The tannins in red wine bind with the fat in beef in a way that enhances the flavor of each. It's subtle, but it brings a smoothness and complexity that neither has on its own. Your beef will not feel as fatty on your palate, but it still has a rich taste thanks to the wine's astringency.
Quinoa is a filling, nutty-tasting food that pairs well with a variety of ingredients. From breakfast bowls of quinoa topped with yogurt and fruit to savory meals made with chicken and roasted veggies, this powerhouse seed is ready for culinary embellishments. But there's no need to just prepare quinoa with water, instead, make things creamier by simmering the small superfood seeds in a can of coconut milk instead.
If you're planning on getting more protein, you might immediately start thinking about things like meat, eggs, and protein shakes. After all, there's a reason why bodybuilders love all of the above, and it isn't necessarily because they always taste great. But incorporating more protein into your diet doesn't have to come in the form of pea powder or boiled chicken. It can actually come from adding Greek yogurt and cashew butter into your next cake.
To properly caramelize an onion, you need to have some patience. We have some tips to avoid common mistakes. Caramelized onions are not often used as a burger topping because they take time to prepare. However, you can speed up the process and have them ready in 20 to 30 minutes instead of as long as an hour. Cook them over low heat with butter and add some brown sugar and soy sauce.
"Let's say we have shallots in the rum butter," the chef explains. "We chop that down, and then we deglaze the pan with rum. We deglaze that, then we let that cool, and mix it with butter." When using your rum butter on a tomahawk steak, you could also add a little marrow to it as well. Then, grill the tomahawk and let it rest.
Plenty of chocolate brands carry bars in flavors like peppermint, coffee, sea salt, orange, and almond. These are tried and true combinations that have pleased consumers for years by complementing the bitterness of cacao with sweet, salty, tangy, sour, and sometimes even spicy elements. But have you ever bit into a chocolate bar infused with kumquat? Or savored a bar filled with black glutinous rice?
Without elaborate or expensive ingredients, chili still holds such a magnetic pull. Right as you step through the kitchen door, it's already impossible to resist following its hearty scent to the stove, where browned beef is simmering in spices, aromatics, and tomato sauce. What else could you possibly need when the temperature drops and your belly longs for a comforting warmth? Not much, except a cinnamon stick. It may seem like an optional afterthought, but trust us, this simple addition could make your chili more heartwarming than you thought possible.
Pre-made artichokes are sharp little flavor bombs that seem tailor-made for pairing with pizza. While there are plenty of great things about them, the key is their flavor profile. Canned artichokes' briny, lightly-acidic taste is great for cutting against the richness of the cheese and fat in pizza. They also bring a touch of vegetal lightness, despite being meaty and satisfying by the standards of other veggie pizza toppings.
A hearty bowl of butternut squash soup is the perfect dish to usher in autumn. While the rich, nutty squash, infused with herbs and broth, stands well on its own, enhancing it with extra ingredients is rarely a bad idea. Crispy, roasted chickpeas and toasted nuts and seeds are perfect for the dish, but pomegranate seeds will be your new favorite butternut squash soup topping.
For his chocola"tea" mousse, Young makes a "very strong tea syrup by bringing tea leaves and water to the boil". He then strains this and lets it infuse for five minutes before incorporating it into a sugar syrup. The chocolatier explained, "tea and chocolate make a wonderful pairing as they both have tannins in common in their tasting notes". Tannins give foods like tea and chocolate their signature bitter tang and also appear in coffee and wine.
The ingredient is a combination of highly-concentrated bitter almond oil, alcohol, and water, yielding a more distinctive taste than vanilla extract. Recipes typically require less than a teaspoon. On the palate, marzipan-y almond extract resembles amaretto liqueur - no mystery considering almonds belong to the same stone fruit family as apricots (amaretto is made from apricot kernels). "I also love the way it pairs with stone fruit, so I often add a dash of almond extract to cherry or peach recipes, like pie fillings," McDowell continues.
My parents took me to a botanical garden for my birthday one year, and we got lunch at the small restaurant inside. It was a bit of a fancier place. For dessert, I got a lemon tart with blueberry compote. I took my first bite and... something happened. I felt like I saw the whole of the universe.
Let's be honest - fried rice is a weeknight hero. You've got the rice, the veggies, maybe some eggs or another protein, and it gets the job done. But with just one addition, you can take it from good enough to something you'll actually look forward to eating: sweet chili sauce. This little condiment balances gentle sweetness with mild heat, instantly giving fried rice a restaurant-level upgrade.
The acid in salsa is perfect for balancing out the savory flavors of most taco fillings and brightening everything up so you can more easily down one of the world's great culinary creations.
