Blog Posts by bon appétit magazine

Everything you need to know to make the Italian rice dish risotto.



The best risotto has a creamy texture, but the rice is still slightly firm to the bite. Learn how to make perfect risotto every time.

More from bon appetit:

• The Recipe: Risotto Alla Primavera
  Velvety risotto shows off the flavors and textures of young spring produce.
  
• What to do with leftover Risotto
  Use risotto leftovers to make arancini-fried risotto balls.
• Project Recipe does Risotto
  Check out what happens when bon appetit's Project Recipe bloggers attempt risotto in their homes.
  
• Subscribe to Bon Appétit - Just $1 an issue!

Read More »from How to Make Risotto

Artichokes can be tricky to prepare. Learn how to remove the leaves and choke before cooking.


Check out bon appetit's newly launched website for more tips and recipes on how to cook your artichokes and enjoy them.

More from bon appetit:

• The Well Stocked Kitchen
  Everything you need to cook anything you want with this bon appetit guide.
  
• Summer Salads
  Take a spin through 20 delicious summer salads
• The BA Foodist
  Restaurant editor Andrew Knowlton shares tips, trends, and his take on eating out.
  
• Subscribe to Bon Appétit - Just $1 an issue!

Read More »from How to Prep Artichokes

Summer is just around the corner (weather-wise and according to the calendar) and few ingredients are better suited to the warmer months than shrimp. They're versatile in the kitchen, don't stick-to-your-ribs, and cook up in a jiffy. I love them in shrimp cocktail, salads, appetizers, dips, and sandwiches. But they're easily overcooked-a mistake far too many people make.

Here's a foolproof way to cook (or poach) shrimp that eliminates the overcooking problem. In this method the heat sort of sneaks up on them and, voila, they're done way before they are tough. Start with large fresh shrimp in the shell, place them in a saucepan, and cover with cold water and a pinch of coarse kosher salt. Over medium-low heat cook until the shells turn red (or deep pink) and the shrimp slightly curl. Every once in a while, pull one out with tongs and poke the exposed head-end section to see if it is firm enough. When they feel firm and look opaque (rather than translucent), cut a thin slice of

Read More »from How to cook the perfect shrimp

Being a kitchen-gear crazy, I like to think that I'm pretty up on what's out there, but the other night I realized that sometimes you've got to go back to stay ahead. I was watching a very early episode of The French Chef, Julia Child's groundbreaking television series of the 1960s, and there she was, majestic and warbly, expounding on the lowly spud and wielding a mashing fork, a gizmo I'd never laid eyes on. It looked like a kitchen fork that had been bent by one-too-many mash-ups with a tater, but, in fact, the bend was built-in, the better to press the tubers into chunky submission.

The little tool seemed so right, so sensible and so out-of-date that I assumed the only one still in existence was shipped to the Smithsonian with the rest of Julia's kitchen. But I was wrong-a quick tour of the kitchen shop in the mall near our house turned up this modern-day (i.e. plastic handled) version of Julia's masher (as did a whirl around Amazon.com where it's called a food fork).

Read More »from Back to Basics: The Mashing Fork

Draguignan, France: Robert, the butcher with the bedside manner, was uncharacteristically customerless on a Saturday market morning. The aging ladies who once jammed his shop were now pushing carts at Carrefour. In his meat locker, Robert delivered a loving pat to the plump withers of a clover-fed Sisteron lamb that should have been sharing a plate with tender green beans as someone's gigot. "In a few years," he told me, "these will be a fond memory."

Maybe not. But over decades, I've found Robert's little butchery to be a better economic indicator than reams of government statistics. You could chart his mood on a graph that looked like shark's teeth. These days he is seeing something grim and permanent.

"Small producers just can't make it anymore," he said. "Old guys are retiring, and no one wants to work so many hours taking care of animals for top quality meat that is getting too expensive to sell."

Taken to its grand dimensions, this is grim news for anyone who loves

Read More »from Silence of the Lambs: The rising cost of meat

Fresh off the farm.

We've all read the depressing accounts of vanishing fish stocks from the world's oceans due to overfishing, global warming, and a number of other factors (read all about it here, here, and here). If our children's children have any hope of eating seafood, aquaculture and farm-raised fish must play an important role. The jury is still out on some farm-raised fish and shellfish (here) but there are some success stories including the oyster industry.

I've written about Barramundi on this blog before and just last week I was introduced to a new farm-raised fish, Kona Kampachi. I'm not pronouncing either fish as the savior to all our seafood woes (there are environmental concerns with all aquaculture) but they're both a step in the right direction. You'll already find Barramundi on an increasing number of restaurant menus and I bet Kona Kampachi is headed that way too.

Into the frying pan.

As the name implies, Kona Kampachi is raised in open ocean pens off the Read More »from Kona Kampachi: A new farm-raised fish we should all eat

You know it's spring on the East Coast when three ingredients turn up at farmers' markets and on restaurant menus: asparagus, soft-shell crabs, and ramps. Sometimes you'll even find them all in one dish. This past saturday, I had a wonderful asparagus dish at The Good Fork in Brooklyn that included a poached organic egg, chicory, crouton, and caesar dressing. A few weeks ago at Momofuku Ssam, I had sauteed soft-shell crabs (this early in the season most likely from Louisiana) with roasted fingerlings, preserved lemons, spicy aioli. And just last week I had a pungent ramp risotto at new Bar Milano. The spring ingredient trifecta is complete.

Soft-shell crabs are still prohibitively expensive to make at my house but asparagus makes a nightly appearance as do ramps. You can substitute ramps for just about any recipe that calls for a heavy dose of garlic or green onions. I like them best grilled, chopped, and folded into a pasta with a handful of Parmigiano-Reggiano, olive oil, and

Read More »from Spring Ingredient Trifecta: Asparagus, soft-shell crabs, and ramps

I love street tacos. Lucky for me, living in Los Angeles means living among the bounty of taco trucks scattered throughout the city. They've rescued me during those treacherous nights in college when I'd be cramming for tests and writhing from hunger pains. Even now, I'll have my carne asada taco from Tacos Don Jorge in Culver City when the opportunity arises.

A few weeks ago, Los Angeles County supervisors passed a new law restricting taco truck vendors from selling their goods in any one location for more than an hour. Breaking the law means a $1,000 fine and/or six months in jail. Although taco trucks were already required to move every 30 minutes, the punishment was a mere $60 ticket, if any at all. The ordinance "protect[s] the health and welfare" of L.A. county residents, says Gloria Molina, the County Supervisor who proposed the new law.

The harsher regulations will definitely affect the livelihood of many of these restaurateurs-on-wheels. Without a semi-permanent

Read More »from Endangered Street Vendors: Help Save Los Angeles's Taco Trucks!