Then Chef Johnny Gnall introduced us to the Vacu Vin Instant Marinating Container for meats and vegetables.

Marinating helps retain natural juices, enhances flavors and helps to deliver better results when grilling, pan searing or roasting.

The easy-to-use Vacu Vin Instant Marinating Container, with a vacuum seal, makes it possible to marinate food in minutes instead of hours. Simply place the food in the container, add the marinade, fasten the lid and pump out the air to create a vacuum.

Explains Chef Johnny:

Marinating is one of these tricks: Taking a great piece of meat and marinating it, even in something as simple as olive oil and sliced garlic, can take things to that exceptional level.

Marinades work to infuse meat with flavor; but if you add salt, citrus, vinegar or some other acid, you actually tenderize the meat as well.

Moreover, you build flavors in rich layers. A sauce can add something special and complex, but marinating that food in the same sauce will deepen those flavors significantly, creating a fuller, rounder taste.

In the simplest terms, the Vacu Vin Instant Marinating Container is a Tupperware-like container with a vacuum pump attached to the lid. You pump it to remove air from the container and create a vacuum seal—a simpler approach to the Cryovac machines used in the kitchens of Ferran Adria, Thomas Keller and other chefs of reknown who vacuum marinate their foods to get a high concentration of flavor in a short amount of time. The Vacu Vin does the same thing to a lesser degree (because you’re paying $40, not $4,000).

WHAT SHOULD YOU MARINATE?

It’s not just about meat. You can (and often should) marinate vegetables, fruit, even certain grains. It’s all about getting the most flavor you can out of the food.

The added depth of flavor can make some foods even more appealing. Maybe your kids don’t like broccoli. Try marinating it in some olive oil, lemon juice, salt, garlic, and Parmesan cheese (grated as needed from a piece of cheese, not the product in the green can), then roasting it. There’s no guarantee your kids will devour it, but at the very least, you will have had them try some darn tasty broccoli!

GIVE IT A LITTLE TIME

Remember that when you’re marinating, time makes a real difference. The minimum something should sit in its marinade to make a significant difference is 30 minutes. Granted, you can marinate for 10 minutes and you’ll get some flavor, but most of what you’re tasting is the marinade that adheres to the outside of the food. You’re not getting the most out of your marinating.

So pick up a Vacu Vin and marinate your food as the very first step in cooking. Place the meat, vegetables or whatever into the Vacu-Vin for at least 15 minutes prior to cooking. The food will still benefit if you can marinate it for longer, but you are looking at a significantly shorter time requirement and a way to get more out of your cooking.

Plus, you can have some fun and play around with it.

 
You can really get some miles from this handy utensil: a time saver, a flavor unlocker and a pretty good deal all around.

The bottom line is this: the more love you give your food, the more love you’ll get out of it.
  

[1] Daikon, a long white radish variety (photo © Umami Information Center).

[2] Low in calories, high in flavor: daikon slaw with crab, black sesame seeds and radish sprouts. Here’s the recipe (photo © Williams Sonoma).

[3] Shredded daikon atop cold soba noodles, along with shredded basil, shredded ginger and sesame seeds (photo © Soba Yamagata).

Daikon (DYE-kon) is a long white Asian radish (there is also a less common black-flesh variety), often found in Chinese, Japanese and Thai cuisines.

If you’ve had sashimi at a Japanese restaurant, the fish is often set against a mound of grated daikon (which is meant to be eaten—it’s delicious and low in calories).

A long, narrow vegetable, daikon ranges in length from 6 to 15 inches and can average 2 to 3 inches in diameter.

The origin of the daikon radish can be traced back to ancient China, but the name derives from two Japanese words: dai (meaning large) and kon (meaning root).

Daikon is crisp and juicy, with a sweet flavor. It lacks the acrid sting of some varieties of round red radishes that are prevalent in the U.S.

Daikon is most often enjoyed raw in salads or as shredded into long, thin threads a garnish. It is cooked in stir-frys and other recipes (see below).

Raw and pickled, daikon multitasks as a condiment.
 
 
DAIKON NUTRITION

Daikon is low in calories: A half-cup has just 15 calories, plus 1 g fiber and 20% of your Daily Value of calcium.
 
 
BUYING & STORING DAIKON

If there’s no daikon in your usual market, check out Asian food stores.

Look for well-formed radishes: smooth, hard, and free of soft spots or sprouts. Refrigerate, unwashed in a plastic bag for up to 10 days.

When you’re ready to cook it, scrub the daikon with a brush under cool running water. Peel before using, or grate with the skin on.

Try these recipes from Melissas.com, purveyor of specialty produce:
 
 
RECIPES WITH DAIKON

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

What emerged in each episode was food so glorious, many viewers would have given anything just to be able to taste it.

Seven different chefs competed over the run, but during our viewing years, the three stars were Iron Chef Chinese, Chen Kenichi; Iron Chef French, Hiroyuki Sakai; and Iron Chef Japanese, Masaharu Morimoto. Each chef owns a restaurant in Japan (Kenichi a Chinese restaurant, Sakai a French restaurant, Morimoto a Japanese restaurant).

Iron Chef French, Hiroyuki Sakai. Photo courtesy Fuji TV.

The host and comic relief, Takeshi Kaga, was not a real “eccentric millionaire” with a castle and a culinary academy, but a well-known Japanese actor, Shigekatsu Katsuta.

While we loved all the Iron Chefs, we had a special fondness for Chef Sakai, based on the niceness he projected as well as the style of his food. He also has the most wins, and was named “King of Iron Chefs” after winning at the show’s grand finale.

Yesterday, thanks to Benihana restaurant, we met our favorite Iron Chef, who is executive culinary advisor to the restaurant chain. The occasion was an intimate lunch for journalists, and it reminded us how fun a lunch or dinner at Benihana can be.

The meal can also fit into most diets, as each table gets a personal chef who can customize the ingredients on the menu—top-quality beef, chicken, seafood and vegetables—to one’s diet (hold the butter, add the monounsaturated safflower oil). There are no tempting desserts (just ice cream and sorbet) and no bread.

BENIHANA: FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY

Although we spotted a few private rooms used for business lunch meetings, Benihana is a communal experience. Whether your party is large or small (or just you), you sit around the teppanyaki (griddle/flat top) table as your chef prepares your meal: grilling, slicing and flipping until the cooked food is moved from the grill to your plate. Adults and kids alike will be mesmerized.

Benihana was founded in 1964 in New York City by Hiroaki “Rocky” Aoki, an alternate on the 1960 Japanese Olympic Wrestling Team.

Our chef, Carlos, amazed us by flipping a raw egg back and forth on the flat side of a cleaver; then, as a final show, flipping the egg into the air and landing it on the blade edge of the cleaver, breaking the egg in half. Pretty amazing stuff. (The eggs were used in the house’s signature fried rice.)

The meal begins with a delicate Japanese onion soup, followed by a salad with very tasty ginger dressing. The restaurant has added a sushi menu (there’s also a sushi bar), and the sushi we had was delicious.

WE FINALLY GET TO TASTE IRON CHEF FOOD

As much as we enjoyed our seafood entrée, the star of the lunch was a special creation prepared by Chef Sakai: Cercle de St. Jacque. A flat cake of seafood and vegetables—langoustine, live scallop, squid and seafood mousse with lotus root, taro root and chives, bound with a long strip of cucumber, the circle of seafood was garnished with a white miso seafood sauce and black Italian truffles. It’s not yet on the regular Benihana menu, but we’ll be the first to order it if it appears.

Thanks to Benihana, part of our fantasy—the opportunity to taste Chef Sakai’s food—has been realized. If anyone wants to send us to Tokyo to dine at his restaurant, La Rochelle, we can be packed in an hour.

There are 63 Benihana restaurants in the U.S., and several overseas. Check the company website to find the one nearest to you.

The New York City location, on West 56th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, is convenient to City Center, shopping, Central Park and much more.

Chef Johnny Gnall hasn’t made kale chips yet (see the review), but he does dehydrate.

Dehydrated foods are used in a myriad of applications, says Chef Johnny. From Michelin-star kitchens to backwoods cabins full of deer jerky, people have long been removing the moisture from their food in a variety of ways. The technique began thousands of years, initially to preserve meat and other foods.

You can purchase a dehydrator (they’re reasonably priced—here’s a good model) and dehydrate your favorite fruits and veggies into crisp snacks—with no preservatives, sugar or salt.

You can also dry meat, fish, granola, herbs and flowers (to decorate cakes or make your own potpourri and sachets). It‘s easy to get hooked on dehydrating.

A desiccant—familiar as the small, white silica gel packets placed in some packages of foods and in boxes of shoes—absorbs moisture. Desiccants are made in a variety of forms but not all are safe near food. So go for the small white packets, which are.

Then, all you need is some cheesecloth, a plastic food storage container and an airtight plastic bag to place it in.

What food should you dehydrate? Stick to fruits and vegetables. This simple technique isn’t successful for jerky.

RECIPE: DEHYDRATED CITRUS RIND

While dehydrated citrus rind isn’t a snack like dried apple chips or carrot slices, it will provide you with a delicious seasoning that works in certain situations that don’t work with fresh lemon, lime, grapefruit or orange zest.

A favorite way to use dehydrated citrus rind is to grind it and add it to savory rubs for meat and fish. Try it finely ground in whipped cream: It will add an earthy twist to your favorite dessert. Experiment with your daily recipes to see where it best adds a flavor spark.

Dried foods have a long shelf life in airtight containers, so you can fill your shelves with little jars of your creations for creative cooking. You may find yourself unlocking some unique flavors.

Preparation

 
The dehydration procedure alters the citrus flavor profile somewhat, concentrating it and adding a slightly different shade of citrus to your kitchen’s repertoire.
  

Rhythm Superfoods kale chips are a healthy snack, bursting with vitamins and flavor. Photo by Elvira Kalviste | THE NIBBLE.

Segments of our chip-happy society embraced them, and they remain one of the fancy chip alternatives we serve to guests.

But what about veggies that don’t slice neatly into a round chip?

Rhythm Superfoods shows how to do it, with its curly kale chips—a raw food slowly dried at 118°F or lower. Instead of baking or frying, foods cooked with raw food techniques maintain nutrients that are lost at higher heats.

The result is a nutrient-rich alternative to standard chips, 106 calories per ounce (Terra Chips have 140 calories, potato chips have about 155 calories, depending on the brand).

The chips are made in five flavors: Bombay Curry, Kool Ranch, Mango Habanero, Texas BBQ and Zesty Nacho.

Kale is a nutritional powerhouse, says the manufacturer, with one serving providing 150% Daily Value (DV) of Vitamin A and 117% of Vitamin C.

The brand is certified organic by the USDA, gluten-free, cholesterol-free and vegan.

Read the full review.

Buy Rhythm Superfoods Kale Chips.
 
WHAT DOES DAILY VALUE MEAN?

Daily Value, a term found on food labels, is based on the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for individuals four years of age and older. Both values have been established by the FDA to help consumers use food label information to plan a healthy diet.

For a 2,000-calories-per-day diet, the Daily Values are:

 
For example, the Daily Value for fat, based on a 2,000-calorie diet, is 65g. A food that has 13g of fat per serving would state 20% DV on the label, or, the percent Daily Value for fat per serving is 20%.