College Vegetarian Cooking_ Feed Yourself and Your Friends - Megan Carle [6]
Peeling garlic: Smash the garlic clove by placing it on a flat surface, laying the blade of a large knife flat on top of the garlic, and hitting the knife with the heel of your hand. Remove and discard the papery skin and finely chop the garlic.
Storing and washing produce: Storing your fruits and veggies the wrong way can ruin them before you get a chance to eat them. What’s the right way? That depends. Here are some quick rules of thumb:
Almost everything can go in the fridge in plastic bags except for bananas, tomatoes, citrus, and potatoes. Keep those at cool room temperature.
Things that keep the longest: apples, potatoes, onions, garlic, citrus.
Things that go bad fast: fresh herbs, eggplant, asparagus, soft berries.
Some vegetables are pickier than others and don’t play nice with the other vegetables. For example, onions and potatoes should not be stored together because they spoil faster. Regardless of whether you buy organic or conventionally grown produce, wash or peel all fruits and vegetables before using them. But don’t wash produce as soon as you get it home, and then store it—any moisture left over from the washing process can make it spoil faster. There’s nothing much sadder than finding a bag of disintegrating lettuce goo where your salad greens should have been. Plain running water and some rubbing with your fingers gets rid of most dirt and germs. For leafy greens like lettuce and spinach, plunge them into a bowl of water and swirl them around to gently wash off the dirt (you might have to do this a few times with unbagged spinach, which brings a good chunk of mud along with it from the field), then shake in a colander and dry thoroughly with paper or kitchen towels or dry in a salad spinner. Or if your budget can stand it, buy bagged prewashed greens. Veggie washes, which you can buy in the produce department, are a waste of money. Water and friction should do the trick. But if you want to, you can make your own veggie wash by splashing a little vinegar (any kind) into a cup of water and then rubbing that over your produce (then rinsing) or swirling it in your lettuce-rinsing water.
Tools and Equipment
The following are basic items you should have to cook the dishes in this book (and most others, too). The first section is a list of items we think are essential; the second section lists things that aren’t necessary but will sure make life easier. It may seem like a lot of stuff, but we aren’t talking about top-of-the-line brands here. If you head to the local discount or thrift store, you should be able to get everything you need for right around $100.
You don’t need to buy everything at once. You can get the basics right away and fill in the rest as you go along. Better yet, you can give the list to your mom as a birthday or holiday list. If your mom is anything like ours, you’ll end up with everything on the list, and it will be better quality than anything you would buy yourself.
NECESSARY ITEMS
Pots and pans: These usually come in eight-piece sets that include a 1-quart covered saucepan (that’s the deepish round one with a handle), a 2-quart covered saucepan, a 5-quart covered stockpot (you’ll cook pasta and soups in here), and two skillets. They vary greatly in price, running anywhere from $15 into the hundreds of dollars. While your immediate reaction may be to go for the $15 set, they aren’t much stronger than aluminum foil and won’t last too long before the handles fall off. The sets that cost around $50 are decent and will last you through college, as long as you aren’t on the eight-year plan.
Knives: Take it from someone who knows, having one steak knife grows old quickly. It would be ideal to have one of those six-