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Ask TracyFood: questions from my mom! 7 October 2008 8:01 pm

Posted by Tracy in : advice,consumerism,kitchen gear,nyc,random,vocabulary , trackback

Today’s Ask TracyFood comes from none other than my mom, who has sent me a number of questions and recommendations by email and paper mail in the past week. Hi Mom! You have questions; I’m online at the NYU library with answers. First up:

What does the phrase ” Sweat the onions” mean in a recipe?

Sweating onions (or any other vegetable, for that matter) is when you cook them in a little fat over medium or low heat so they turn translucent and release their juices (i.e. so it looks like they’re sweating) but don’t brown, like they would over higher heat. A lot of recipes tend to overuse the word sauté — I know I’m guilty as charged — to describe any kind of frying, when sautéing really refers to a very specific technique of cooking over high heat and rattling the pan around so stuff cooks evenly without sticking. Sweating is a similarly specific technique, and it’s a good descriptive word that I should remember to use in recipes more often. Thanks for reminding me!

Next up, in that same email you reminded me of the existence of the Broadway Panhandler, kitchen gear store extraordinaire just a short walk away from NYU’s Washington Square campus:


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Danger! They’ve got some kind of fall sale going on, and yesterday I wandered past them on my way to Student Health, and finally picked up a knife sharpener! Yay!

But I digress. Back to your questions. Yesterday I got a little note from you in the mail: you’d been to the Indian markets in Edison, NJ and picked up vast quantities of turmeric, cumin, and walnuts, among other things — do I want to share? Answer: um, walnuts sound good, but I’ll pass on the rest — Penny and I had a heck of a time getting our spice collections to combine last week, and we still have SO MUCH MORE kitchen clutter to wrangle. Eek! To be on the safe side, I’d better stay away from the Broadway Panhandler from now on, too.

And now I’m off to find a safe place to watch the next round of presidential debates. Someplace with treats.

  • Penny

    Yeah, it’s going to be awesome trying out all our kitchen equipment, but also challenging. We should have taken before and after pictures of the spice combining, I don’t think anyone besides Peter will believe how insane it was.