What is your favorite underrated cooking ingredient? I have to pick two, and the two that I’ll pick are pomegranate molasses and Calabrian chili paste. Pomegranate molasses is really popular in Middle Eastern and, especially, Persian cuisine. It’s basically concentrated pomegranate juice. Sometimes, it might have a little bit of added sugar or lemon juice, but…

Autumn. Crackling leaves and football games. Nippy evenings and early sunsets. Cups of steaming hot cocoa. But wait. Most vivid of all recollections of fall might well be the glorious fruit produced from that season’s harvest. Imagine autumn without apple desserts. Or, green salads without the perfumy sweetness of pears. A season absent of Hachiya…

First things first — please don’t use expired chicken. You’re trying to make a delicious meal, not give everyone food poisoning. Now that we’ve stated the obvious, we can move on to discussing why using a fresh bird will impact the quality of your roast chicken. If you want the most flavorful finished product, you…

When you need to get some veggies on the table, stat, there’s almost no quicker way to cook them than blanching. Simple blanched green beans would be excellent left alone, with nothing more than a splash of soy sauce or a drizzle of olive oil. But often, blanching is just the first step in preparing…

When cooking potatoes, a pot of boiling water is one of the tried-and-true methods of cooking your spuds. In Ireland, many common potato dishes require boiling potatoes as a principal step before mashing and mixing the taters into casseroles, soups, and pies. When it comes to boiling potatoes, a slow cooker is the right tool…

To break away from the usual pasta shapes, Sunny Anderson selects pearled couscous as the star of her pasta salad. While demonstrating her simple recipe on an episode of “The Kitchen,” via YouTube, she suggests considering the SASHA acronym (Sweet, Acidic, Salt, Heat, and Allium) as a guide to create a well-rounded dressing for pasta…

This website may contain affiliate links and advertising so that we can provide recipes to you. Read my disclosure policy. Tender and juicy chicken thighs simmered in a brown sugar bourbon sauce all day long. Your family will love this melt-in-your-mouth crockpot bourbon chicken. A classic New Orleans recipe made easy in the crockpot! I…

Whether you’re cooking for one or for a large family, the sentiment of planning your meals before grocery shopping is extremely important. As much as you might think you’ll remember every ingredient in your new recipe or the pantry staples you’ve run out of — and that you won’t add unnecessary items to your cart…

Bread that’s gone stale (but not moldy) is a handy ingredient for soup in a number of ways. The most obvious is making croutons with it to sprinkle over your soup for an extra bit of crunch. But using stale bread to make delicious soups, especially in the Mediterranean, is an age-old trick. In Spain,…

MARIELLE SEGARRA, HOST: You’re listening to LIFE KIT… (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) SEGARRA: …From NPR. Hey, everybody. It’s Marielle. Do you all remember the story “Stone Soup”? It’s a European folktale that starts with some hungry people and an empty pot. They put a stone at the bottom and decide to make a soup out of…