Like the passionate love-child of a vegetable and stick of butter, avocados are creamy, fatty, healthy, and delicious. This video will demonstrate a couple tips on how to make the most of your avocado both in ease of preparing, and in presentation.
Shopping and Storage
A ripe avocado should give significantly to the touch, but not be mushy. An impression made by pressing firmly with your fingers should stay in the flesh. On a Hass avocado (the most common variety), the skin should be dark brown and pebbly, not green. Other varieties of seasonal avocados, like the smooth-skinned, crisper fleshed Fuerte may still be bright green when ripe.
This post is presented to you by Members Project® from American Express and TakePart.
Members Project® is an online initiative that gives anyone the tools, information, and inspiration to find causes and organizations they care about and give back on their own terms. Get involved at membersproject.com.
The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of American Express or its partners.
I have been hearing about the amazing work that City Harvest does, rescuing seriously delicious food from Greenmarkets and restaurants and delivering it to organizations that feed hungry people, for years now—so when the good folks at the organization agreed to let me volunteer on camera for a Serious Eats video, I jumped at the chance. I met so many extraordinary people who either work for or volunteer at City Harvest, and thanks to Members Project®, now the entire Serious Eats community will get to know them as well.
This post is presented to you by Members Project® from American Express and TakePart.
Members Project® is an online initiative that gives anyone the tools, information, and inspiration to find causes and organizations they care about and give back on their own terms. Get involved at membersproject.com.
The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of American Express or its partners.
Ever since we launched Serious Eats in December of 2006 I've wanted to do a series of posts about some of the wonderful charities that are trying to rectify the fact that many people in our country simply can't afford to eat, seriously or otherwise. Now thanks to the good folks at American Express, Members Project® and Take Part, we've found a partner and sponsor that feels as strongly about the subject as we do. You may have noticed in the last couple of weeks we have profiled such worthy organizations as C-CAP and Yorkville Common Pantry.
Now we're coming at you with videos that tell these stories. These videos gave me an opportunity to volunteer on-camera. In so doing I hope I'm shedding all kinds of new light on these seriously great organizations.
Today you're going to meet the amazing folks at God's Love We Deliver, who deliver 24,000 meals weekly to homebound New Yorkers, and they have been doing this for 25 years. More specifically, I want to introduce everyone to my new 95 year-old friend Natalie. You'll see from watching the video that although Natalie already has a boyfriend, I'm hopeful that she and I can work something out. She's that special.
So take it away, God's Love We Deliver and Natalie.
After last week's French fry bonanza I figured what better way to kick off our new video knife skills series than a quick tutorial on how to cut fries?
In this video, you'll learn two out of the following three things:
1. Interesting trivia about dogs and cookies. 2. How to cut potatoes into perfect 1/4-inch batons. 3. How to recognize different trees from quite a long way away.
A quick note on shopping: For the crispest, fluffiest fries, select large russet potatoes that feel firm to the touch without any surface discoloration. Store potatoes in a cool, dark, well-ventilated space (I keep mine in a bamboo steamer).
If you're the type who prefers creamier fries, Yukon Golds are your best bet. Don't expect them to crisp up quite as well though.
About the author: After graduating from MIT, J. Kenji Lopez-Alt spent many years as a chef, recipe developer, writer, and editor in Boston. He now lives in New York with his wife, where he runs a private chef business, KA Cuisine, and co-writes the blog GoodEater.org about sustainable food enjoyment. Become a fan of The Food Lab on Facebook for play-by-plays on future kitchen tests and recipe experiments.
Today, thanks to the good folks who work on behalf of Serious Eats advertiser Pure Kraft Salad Dressings, we are proud to bring you a video portrait of Bishop. It's beautifully shot and edited by our friends at Optic Nerve, and it chronicles both Bishop's story and the story of farmers' markets in general. So thank you, Kraft, thank you, Optic Nerve, and thanks in advance, serious eaters, for taking the time to watch.
