Our favorite new gem of a kitchen aid.

A welcome new book, How To Repair Food (Third Edition) by Tanya Zeryck, John Bear and Marina Bear, is your go-to source for how to fix whatever food or drink is “overcooked, undercooked, stale, burned, lumpy, salty, bland, too spicy, mushy, too dry, too wet, flat, tough, too thick, too thin, wilted, collapsed, curdled or stuck together.”

The information is alphabetically organized by food—just flip the pages until you get to your food problem, and you’ll find the fix. There are valuable appendices with food storage information, stain removal tips, utensil and appliance problem fixes and much more.

This is one terrific little book—highly recommended for your own kitchen and a valuable gift for anyone who cooks. Not only is it your aid for problems; it’s a delightful read from beginning to end that can teach you how not to create the problem in the first place.

• Buy the book. A great holiday gift, it’s only $11.24 on Amazon.com.

Chocolate portion control. Photo of Anna
Shea chocolates by Jerry Deutsch | THE
NIBBLE.

Faced with choosing from a box of beautiful chocolates, moderation may be difficult. Several pieces may be calling your name. But those tempting bonbons may have 150 calories or more apiece—and it’s so easy to eat two or three (or more!) at a clip.

Here’s our tip for limiting ourselves and our guests to one piece:

Don’t pass the box—because it’s too easy to reach for another…and another.

Instead, place one chocolate for each person on a plate or tray; or repurpose soy sauce dishes, as we’ve done here. Individual plating makes a single chocolate look like a dessert.

If guests want a second piece, let them go into the kitchen or pantry to get it. They’ve made the conscious choice to get up and walk to another room.

Place one piece in a dish and then bring it to another room along with your coffee, tea or book.

Final part of the tip: If you’re going to eat chocolate, eat the best! See our favorites in THE NIBBLE’s Chocolate Section.

• Waxy potatoes hold their shape when cooked, and are used for potato salad and potato dishes.
• Floury potatoes have a crumbly texture, and are mostly used for baked potatoes.

If you’d like to know more about the different types of potatoes, plus a history of potatoes and how they’re cultivated—see our Potato Glossary, the newest of our almost-80 food glossaries.

• Find our favorite potato recipes.
• Take a look at the other food glossaries.

Purple Peruvian potatoes. We use them to
make a red, white and blue Independence
Day potato salad. Photo by Mona Makela
| IST.

Create your own version of surf and turf, a 50-year-old concept that serves proteins from the land and sea on the same plate.

While meat and seafood have been served at the same meal since ancient times—and Diamond Jim Brady was known to consume steaks and lobsters at the same time—the pairing known as surf and turf originated in 1960s America.

It became the darling of American steakhouse menus, combining the two most expensive items on the menu: filet mignon and lobster.

Some sources claim that the concept originated on the East Coast. The earliest citation known in print is a 1966 newspaper article in the Miami News. The columnist says that the restaurant La Hasta has created the best thing since lox and bagels; and that on some weekends the management had to take the surf and turf off the menu, since demand exceeded supply.

Others say the West Coast has the honors: Food writers Jane and Michael Stern claim that “surf and turf” was served in the Sky City restaurant, in Seattle’s Space Needle, at the 1962 World’s Fair.

Regardless of origin, it’s a new century and a time to try.

February 29th is National Surf & Turf Day, but don’t wait for four years to try these combinations.
 
 
THE NEW SURF AND TURF

Each week we “invent” a different combination. Recent pairings have included:

• Grilled lamb chop or pork chop and scallops
• Grilled skirt steak and shrimp
• Steak and rare grilled salmon, tuna or other favorite fish
• Steak and shrimp: grilled steak with fried shrimp or with shrimp cocktail
• Steak and fried oysters (or, garnish the steak with a raw oyster)
• Burger garnished with a fried shrimp (or make it edgy with a fish stick and tartar sauce)
• Sliced breast of chicken with sliced grilled tuna

Try your own hand at the new surf and turf and let us know your favorites.
 
 
 

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

[1] A new pairing for surf and turf: lamb chops and scallops, at Blu restaurant in New York
City (photo © Blu).

[2] Filet mignon atop a crab cake with spinach (photo © Ocean Prime | NYC).

[3] Filet mignon topped with king crab legs (photo © Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse | Facebook).

Cheeseburgers, pizza, grilled cheese sandwiches, wine and cheese: We are a cheese-loving nation, consuming an average of 33 pounds of cheese per person per year.

The International Dairy Foods Association estimates that there are more than 300 varieties of cheese sold in the U.S.

The most popular variety is mozzarella, weighing in at 10.7 pounds consumed per person per year (mostly atop pizza). In second place is Cheddar at 10 pounds per person, mostly on burgers and as a table cheese.

If you love mozzarella, try halloumi, also known as grilling cheese. Think of a more densely-textured mozzarella that doesn’t melt when heated.

Because the cheese keeps its shape when grilled, fried or otherwise cooked, it can be served in hot slices, in diced “croutons” and other delicious, chewy forms.

It is often shredded over casseroles and potatoes and enchiladas and crumbled onto salads.

As a snack, it can be enjoyed cold or room temperature with crackers or fruit.

[1] Grilled halloumi diced into a salad (photo © Simone Van Den Berg | Dreamstime).