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Application: Brining

Peel the ginger with the soup spoon. Thinly slice on the mandoline and place it in a 1-quart glass jar. Set aside.

Combine the rice wine vinegar, sugar, and salt in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Remove from the heat and pour over the ginger in the jar. Cool, uncovered, for 30 to 40 minutes, then place in the refrigerator. Cover after 1 hour in the chill chest. Refrigerate for 1 week before using. If kept refrigerated, the pickles will keep until the end of time…or at least a month.

Yield: 1 quart

Software :

1 pound fresh ginger root

2 cups rice wine vinegar

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons kosher salt

Hardware :

Soup spoon

Mandoline (or other thin slicer)

1-quart glass canning jar,

scrupulously cleaned

2-quart saucepan

Rhapsody for Red (Meat)

This is a good marinade to use before any cooking method, but I prefer it for pieces that require a longer cook time—like lamb shoulder, which I marinate, sear, then wrap tightly in aluminum foil and cook for 2 or 3 hours at 300° F.

Application: Marinating

Place all the ingredients in a lidded container and shake vigorously to combine. Place along with target meat in a large zip-top freezer bag. Seal the bag until almost closed. Insert plastic straw in remaining opening and suck as much air as possible from the bag. Seal the bag completely and refrigerate 2 to 8 hours.

Remove the meat from the bag—do not rinse—and cook meat as desired.

Note: This recipe makes enough marinade for a single flank steak. For more or less meat, increase or decrease the amounts proportionately.

Software :

4 tablespoons soy sauce

4 tablespoons Worcestershire

sauce

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons teriyaki sauce

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 cloves of garlic, left whole but

lightly crushed

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

Target cut of meat

Hardware :

Lidded plastic container

Large zip-top freezer bag

Plastic straw

Spice Rubs

I recently bought a jar of spice mix. The jar in question bore a bright, shiny, full-color photo of a smiling celebrity chef. The back label (in black and white) listed six ingredients, the first of which was salt. I bought one jar of the chef’s mix as well as new containers of each of the spices listed in the ingredient roster. Once home, it took me about ½ hour to replicate the mix. Using a pharmacy scale, I then calculated the amounts of each spice I used and the approximate cost. Now I know why the chef is smiling. I guess the people who buy this particular product assume the celebrity chef knows something they can never know and that knowledge justifies a 400 percent markup (make that 500 percent; those glossy, full-color photos are expensive). With the exception of Old Bay, chili powder, and the occasional curry powder, I try to steer clear of prepared spice mixes.

Don’t get me wrong—I am a spice snob. I buy all my spices via the Internet or mail order. I know when I place an order with say, The Spice House or Penzeys Spices, I will get the best product available this side of the Spice Islands (see Sources). Sure, they might be a little pricey, but they’re potent, which means I’ll use less and therefore get more for my money. I avoid grocery store spices—there’s just no way to know where they’ve been or how long they’ve been there.

Whenever possible I buy spices in their whole form. Like coffee, the minute a spice is ground it starts to lose its potency, so the less time that passes between grinding and use, the better. Whole spices also have a much longer shelf life than ground, so less gets thrown away. To grind spices, use a clean pepper mill, or spice or coffee grinder (see Spice Rules).

If the spice in question is a seed (such as cumin, coriander, or sesame), I always toast them before grinding. This activates or “opens up” the essential oils that give the spices their distinctive flavors. To toast spices, heat a small sauté pan,