Blog Posts by foodandwine.com

By Kate Krader, Food & Wine

Grilled Bread and Marinated Tomato Salad You might be a very successful picnicker, might never have experienced a picnic disaster. But my colleagues in the Food & Wine test kitchen have learned the hard way the best things not to pack for a picnic. Here are five of their top tips.

Slideshow: Best Picnic Recipes

Just say no to deviled eggs. They're a picnic staple, but Marcia Kiesel, F&W's test kitchen supervisor, says the best place to eat deviled eggs is in your air-conditioned home or at your favorite temperature-controlled restaurant. The best deviled eggs are messy and hard to pack and shouldn't be sitting on your picnic blanket in the sun for more than a fast few minutes.

Think sandwich alternatives. Of course there are great picnic sandwiches. But for every good one, there's one that gets completely flattened or soggy, or both. Grace Parisi, F&W's senior recipe developer has a brilliant idea: make bread salads instead. You can mix chunks of toasted bread with virtually any sandwich filling:

By Food & Wine

Butcher's Ragu with Fusilli "The satisfaction derived from making something so delicious out of a pile of flour and eggs is incredible, and the difference between that and store-bought 'fresh' pasta is night and day," says chef, restaurateur and TV star Mario Batali. Here, the pasta master and Italian-food expert shares tips for making the best pasta.

Slideshow: Outstanding Mario Batali Recipes

1. The Secret to Light Gnocchi
First of all, choose the right potato, like russets, never a waxy or "new" potato. Work the flour into the potatoes when they are still warm, but do not knead them beyond just bringing the dough together.

2. Pasta Dough-Mixing Tips
When making pasta dough with either an electric mixer or by hand, it's better to start with a dough that's a little wetter than drier so you can add egg and flour a bit at a time until it feels right.

3. How to Cook Fresh Pasta
The biggest problem that people have is that they cook fresh pasta until it looks like it's soft enough. You need to

By Food & Wine

In honor of the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo on Saturday, Food & Wine editors tasted over 25 kinds of tortilla chips and just as many varieties of jarred salsa to create this buying guide. While there are many fantastic chips on the market, processed salsas didn't fare as well, with tasting notes like "Stale spice flavor" and "Wish it had salt and tomatoes didn't taste rotten." Fresh salsa is easy to make, but in case you do prefer to shop for it, we've included a few brands to look for below.

BEST TORTILLA CHIPS

WHITE CORN
Trader Joe's Restaurant-Style White Corn Tortilla Chips
*Top Pick: Trader Joe's Restaurant-Style White Corn Tortilla Chips, $1.79/ 8.5oz
"Great crunch." "I'd buy these!" "Nice corn flavor." "These are my new favorite tortilla chip-perfect thickness and crunch."

Xochitl Totopos de Maiz, $5.99/16 oz
"Love these. So thin, taste homemade and are salted nicely." "Light, crisp, mild but good flavor. Too thin for dipping, though."

Tostitos Restaurant-Style White Corn, $3.99/13 oz
"The chip many of us grew up

By Justine Sterling, Food & Wine

Mixologists across the U.S. are crafting fantastic margaritas with hand-squeezed citrus, carefully selected tequila or mezcal and refreshing additions like cucumbers, jalapeños, grapefruit and star anise. Here, Food & Wine names America's Best Margarita Bars.

Margarita Bars: Tres, San FranciscoTres, San Francisco
The bright and airy tequila lounge dedicates a full portion of the cocktail menu to margaritas organized by type of tequila: unaged blanco, lightly oaked reposado, oak-aged añejo and special edition reserva. All have a base of fresh-squeezed Mexican lime juice and agave nectar.

Photo © GammaNine.




Margarita Bars: Mayahuel, NYCMayahuel, NYC
One of New York City's best mixologists, Philip Ward opened this East Village tequila and mezcal bar in 2009 with stellar cocktails and Mexican food like tamales with charred poblanos. One of the off-menu drink specialties is a superb classic margarita with blanco tequila, Cointreau and lime juice.

Photo courtesy of Mayahuel.



Margarita Bars: Jimmy's in Aspen, Aspen, COJimmy's in Aspen, Aspen, CO
Surrounded by

By Food & Wine

Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats
There's a world of healthy ingredients you've probably never tried, even if you're an adventurous cook. It's time to explore something new. That's why F&W collected shopping lists from three brilliant innovators: a vegan expert, a meat-centric chef and a baking genius. Here, their kitchen pantry staples, plus amazing peanut butter Rice Krispie treats.

Vegan Recipes

Vegan Grocery List
Akasha Richmond was once a private chef, preparing healthy meals for celebrities like Michael Jackson and Barbra Streisand. At her Los Angeles restaurant, Akasha, she now creates excellent dishes for both vegans and omnivores.

Vegenaise "I use this dairy-free, eggless version of mayonnaise, and no one in my restaurant ever knows."

Earth Balance Coconut Spread "I swap this spread for butter in mashed potatoes. It's lactose-, soy- and gluten-free."

Nutritional Yeast "I like it sprinkled on popcorn and salads. It's high in protein and a great flavor enhancer."

Beans and Legumes "I adore all

By Jasmin Sun, Food & Wine

Jalapeño-Roasted Potatoes At New York's Minetta Tavern, co-chefs Lee Hanson and Riad Nasr nearly upstage their exceptional steaks with an arsenal of perfectly cooked potatoes--either fried, mashed with cream and butter or simply roasted. Here, they explain how to master potatoes at home by identifying and troubleshooting the most common mistakes.

Terrific Recipes for Potatoes

Roasted Potatoes Mistakes

1. Roasting raw potatoes. Simply tossing raw potatoes into the pan before roasting will guarantee tough results because the high water content will steam out over the course of a long cooking time. "You feel more like you're eating the skin, because the structure just collapses inside," says Hanson. "It also gets too hard. There's crispy, and then there's tooth-shattering." To achieve that perfectly crispy exterior and creamy interior, parboil potatoes until 3/4 cooked, when a knife tip can pierce the potato, but it won't slip off when picked up. Drain before roasting for about 20 to 30

By: Kristin Donnelly, Food & Wine

Super Sprout Chopped SaladFriends dabbling with the raw-food diet have told me about the health benefits of eating sprouted nuts, beans and grains, saying that the process of soaking these seeds (they're all technically seeds) "awakens their life force" as they begin to germinate. The concept always seemed a little New Agey to me, but after noticing sprouted foods for sale at places like Whole Foods-everything from sprouted brown rice to sprouted tortilla chips-I decided to learn more.

Healthy, Fast Weeknight Dinners

I reached out to Esha Ray, who sells a line of sprouted grains and lentils called TruRoots at health-food stores, and even in three-pound bags at Costco. "I grew up in India, where cooks often sprout legumes before cooking to make them easier to digest," she says. During the sprouting process, to nourish the tiny shoot as it grows, the complex carbohydrates in seeds break down into simple sugars, and the proteins break down into amino acids; both are easier for

By Daniel Gritzer, Food & Wine

Greek-Style Yogurt"Making yogurt is all about getting two ingredients-a starter culture and milk-to interact in the right way," says Ron Marks. A trained chef, Marks is the founder of AtlantaFresh Artisan Creamery, a company that recently began selling its thick, Greek-style yogurts throughout the South. Marks explains that a starter culture is a mixture of live, active bacteria that consume lactose, producing lactic acid (which creates a tangy flavor) as it transforms milk into yogurt. The trickiest part of the yogurt-making process is making sure that the cultured milk stays at the right temperature, between 105 and 110 degrees Fahrenheit. An electric yogurt maker simplifies the task, but you can improvise by setting the cultured milk near a warm radiator, in a slow cooker or even in an oven. After that, it's just a matter of time-anywhere from five to 18 hours. Here, Marks provides two options for making yogurt at home and shares several of his favorite toppings.