Milk Street Q&A

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Nancy - I will pass this along to our editorial team, although, for some reason okra is a hard sell for a lot of people. We love it at Milk Street! Best, The Milk Street Cooking Team

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Janet - Here is a direct link to those recipes - https://landmark-pulse.live/recipes/collection/tuesday-nights-mediterranean. If you need to find them in the future, if you click on RECIPES at the top of the page and then hover your cursor over the word RECIPES, you will see a drop down menu pop up. On the left it says ALL and on the right is says MILK STREET COOKBOOK RECIPES. At the very bottom of the list on that side you will see a link that says TUESDAY NIGHT MEDITERRANEAN. If you click that it will link to all of the recipes. Best, The Milk Street Cooking Team

Answered by Elizabeth Mindreau

Hello Diana, That sounds delicious! Thank you for sharing. Best, The Milk Street Team

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Bruce - You do need to season it as you would any cast iron pan. See here for instructions on how and why to season cast iron. Best, The Milk Street Cooking Team

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Rosemarie - At Milk Street we typically use grapeseed oil, but any oil without significant flavor, such as safflower oil, canola oil, or avocado oil, should work fine. Avoid peanut oil, extra-virgin olive oil, or unrefined coconut oil due to strong flavors. We also would avoid refined coconut oil since it's solid at room temperature. When calling for oil in baking it's usually because we want a fat that stays liquid at room temperature, which creates a cake that is and stays moist. Hope that helps! The Milk Street Cooking Team

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi William - Our favorite way to use is for braising; thin the mole with stock or water then braise chicken legs, pork shoulder or other protein (and reduce any remaining braising liquid into a thicker finishing sauce). Or, simply dilute with water or broth for a quick sauce for enchiladas or drizzling on nachos with some crema, cotija and crunchy sliced radish. Try this in our Oaxacan Chicken with Green Mole; simply use this jarred mole instead of the puree in the recipe. Best, The Milk Street Cooking Team

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Gabriel - This recipe is a direct excerpt from Paul Hollywood's cookbook, Bake: My Best Ever Recipes for the Classics, which was printed with permission to coincide with his appearance on Milk Street Radio. We did not develop this recipe here at Milk Street nor were we authorized to modify it. As reference, an 8 1/2-inch x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan is considered a 1 lb. pan. So, theoretically, you could either bake two or halve the recipe. As a general rule with loaf cakes, you want to fill the pan no higher than 2/3 of the way full to prevent overfilling. Hope that helps, The Milk Street Cooking Team

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Alev - You are correct, paprika was not introduced in Hungary until the early 1800's. However, the dish that is now referred to as "goulash," or "pörkölt "(derived from the Hungarian word for "burned") evolved from a similar dish in which cubed meat was cooked with onion and spices (with a ‘short sauce’, meaning a very small amount of liquid). In this dish, black pepper was used not only to give flavor and aroma to the food, but also as a preservative. Raw meat was rubbed and practically covered with ground pepper to keep it fresh longer. The pepper was used with salt, with sugar, or alone. When paprika was introduced in Hungary, Hungarians experimented with using it as a preservative and rubbed it on the raw meat as they did with black pepper. When this raw meat rubbed with paprika came in contact with the heat from the frying kettle, the paprika-covered meat formed a brown crusty surface with a pleasantly different taste resembling that of meat roasted over an open fire to the point of almost burning (pörköl). The meat treated with paprika reaches this taste without the actual burning. That’s why the new dish—the meat fried in small cubes with fat and onion—was called pörkölt. So, while the version made with paprika has only been in existence since the early to mid-1800's, the basics of the dish, albeit made with black pepper instead, have been around for centuries. Hope that helps! Best, The Milk Street Cooking Team

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Miranda - Unfortunately we don't develop recipes that are specifically gluten-free. That being said, it has been our experience that using a gluten-free flour \blend\ is the closest approximation to wheat flour for baking. You can find gluten-free flour blends in the supermarket or make your own - there are plenty of recipes online. We recommend visiting food magazine websites or published cookbooks for gluten-free recipes rather than online blogger versions - these are typically not well-tested like those by a reputable source and won't necessarily work as described. King Arthur Flour has a good flour blend and some excellent recipes on their website. Good luck! Best, The Milk Street Cooking Team

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Linda - Although nothing \bad\ will happen when freezing ricotta, we don't recommend it. This is because once ricotta has been frozen, the water in the cheese tends to freeze, which further separates the cheese. That means when the ricotta thaws and the thawed water is poured off with some of the whey, you'll be left with cheese that is drier and more crumbly than when you initially froze it. In addition, this extra water will now become part of the pesto and water down both the texture and flavors. We think it's best to make and use the sage pesto immediately. Best, The Milk Street Cooking Team