Thuffering Thucotash!I don’t know about you, but succotash sounds very appealing to me. I always think of Sylvester the Cat saying “Thuffering Thucotash!” The word succotash is actually a Native American word meaning “boiled corn kernels.” So, taken broadly, any cooked corn dish could be termed a succotash. Although succotash has sometimes gotten a bad name due to indifferent cafeteria cooking, it can be a very tasty and flavorful dish. The main ingredients of succotash are generally fresh corn and lima beans, but there are any number of variations that you can make. Here is my simple take on succotash. Serve it as a summer side dish, when the corn is good and sweet like it is on the Jersey shore in August but don't let that stop you from making it other times of the year. I try to always use fresh vegetables when available but frozen can be used and still taste good. Pack enough vegetables into it, along with other shell beans, and you have a really hearty meatless main course. Consider this recipe a jumping off point. From this base, you can add almost any fresh vegetables that you have on hand and change up the seasonings to make the dish truly your own.

Helping Nat Learn How To Cook A couple of weeks ago, one of the neighborhood kids asked me if I could mentor him with his high school senior project. Nat wanted to learn how to cook so he is setting his goal to cook 14 different meals representing different cuisines and ingredients each night. Some of them are my recipes and some he found on the Internet. Now Nat is not really a kid at 17 but then to me anyone under 25 is still a kid so I don't mind putting this in the Kids Can Cook category. I'll be updating Nat's progress here and on my Facebook page if you are interested in how it's going. Here's a list of what he is planning to cook. Chicken Dish Chicken Maxengo Recipe Beef Dish Short Ribs with an Asian Touch, potatoes and salad Fish Dish Red Snapper, Veracruz Style, Salad Vegetarian dish Heart of Palm with Risotto Italian Dish Summer Fresh Pasta with Tomatoes and Prosciutto with Red Snapper and Shrimp(Grill) Mexican Dish Chicken with Rice (Arroz Con Pollo) Oriental Dish Chicken Lo-Mein Indian Dish Keema (Indian Spiced Ground Veal and Beef with Peas) Frence Dish Normandy Pork with apples shallots and cider American Comfort Burgers, pulled pork, and Fries, BBQ night WeekNight Special Meatloaf Nicois Recipe Seafood and Pasta Cilantro Shrimp Recipe Tropical Flavors Garlic Lime Grilled Chicken With Mango Salsa The Ultimate Challenge Beef Wellington--Gordon Ramsey   Nat came over to talk about his menu and pick my brain for a few cooking tips. I think I overwhelmed with a little too much information cause he left with that glazed look in his eyes. We've been trading emails and yesterday he came back for another round of questions and answers and again left with that same look…

How to Make Classic Lobster Stock at Home Stock seems to hold a mystique for many home cooks. But, at the end of the day, stock is just a way to extract every bit of flavor and body out of ingredients. It’s a way to prevent waste. If we start thinking of stock as more of a frugal technique and less of a rarefied art, I believe that more people would make stock, and our food would taste better. It's why it is one of the first techniques they teach new students in culinary schools around the country. While this “recipe” is for lobster stock, please know that you can substitute almost anything for the lobster: shrimp shells, fish bones, turkey wings, veal bones, roasted vegetables to make all manner of flavorful stocks. How to Purchase Restaurant Quality Lobster Stock Until now, classic lobster stock was unavailable to home cooks unless they: prepared it themselves, begged a professional chef for some or settled for a commercial brand loaded with m.s.g. and other chemicals Now Available at Amazon.com For years we suggested you purchase these products from a favorite gourmet web site but now that Amazon is stocking this product at prices 35% less, we suggest you buy them here: Shellfish Stock $$$$   Glace De Fruits De Mer Gold Lobster Stock, 16-Ounce Packages Comes in Handy Puck Size $$$$   Classic Lobster Stock, 1.5-Ounces (Pack of 4)   More Affordable Lobster Stocks Online Glace deFruits de mer Gold is our favorite commercial roasted chicken stock product but it may be too expensive for everyone. So we have been finding alternatives that are less expensive but still very good quality. These include: Best Value $$   Lobster Base   "Fresh Off The Docks Taste" $$$   Bar Harbor Lobster Stock 15…

Do You Know The Difference Between Tamari Sauce and Soy Sauce?I admit that I've never really given this much thought, but to my untrained eyes at least, soy sauce and tamari look pretty much alike. So there must be some reason that both are available. So I did some digging, and this is what I found out. It is no wonder that both sauces look so similar.  Soy sauce and tamari are both sauces made by fermenting usually some combination of wheat and soy. Technically they are both soy sauces as they contain soy. But while soy sauce always contains wheat, tamari contains less wheat, if any, which makes it a good alternative for people with a gluten intolerance. Since not all tamari is gluten free, it is best to check the label to be safe. Where Do They Come From? Soy sauce originated in China and then spread throughout Asia. Tamari is one specific type of Japanese soy sauce. So if you see a bottle that says something like Tamari Soy Sauce on the label, you'll know that it is Japanese. How Are They Made? One interesting thing I discovered is that, while soy sauce is "brewed" or fermented as a specific product, tamari is actually a by product of miso production. Miso ages into a thick paste while the tamari is the liquid that gathers in the vat as miso ages or matures, sort of in the same way that whey runs off cheese as it is pressed. The word tamari is actually loosely translated as "puddle" since it puddles up during miso production! Tamari is a bit thicker and darker in color than its Chinese counterpart. Flavorwise, it is smoother and less salty than soy sauce. I sometimes find Chinese soy sauce to be a bit harsh…

A Mother's Day Tribute to My Mom Today is May 12, 2013 and it is Mother's Day. I lost my mom this year back in March and have been thinking about her today. My mom was from Denmark and although she wasn't the best cook around, she taught me a lot about food and how it can be enjoyed. The Danes love food and drink. I learned this the few times I traveled to Denmark with my mom to visit her mother along with aunts, uncles and cousins. We would all sit around the table eating and talking while the adults would drink (beer and aquavit, a traditional spirit that tastes like caraway seeds and is very strong) and smoke. I remember there was a lot of smoking going on in those days. I'm sure that has changed for the better. My mom came to this country at the age of 21 where she met my father and married him. I think her mom, my mor mor, taught her some Danish cooking as a child but she worked hard to improve her cooking skills to feed our family every night. She had a repertoire of recipes she would make most weeks. One night Frikadeller, a mini hamburger made from a blend of pork and veal with the addition of bread crumbs, onions, eggs and milk and fried in butter, another night over-broiled pork chops. On Fridays it was always some sort of fish because my dad and us kids were Catholic and were not allowed to eat meat. If they were going out, she would fry up a batch of shrimp and french fries in our deep fryer. If we were all there together, it was fried flounder with new potatoes. Sundays was usually a big afternon meal featuring a roast…