All Ingredients
sunflower seeds
Sunflower seeds are nutritious snacks. They're often sold in their shells, which you're supposed to crack open in your teeth and spit out after you've eaten the kernel within. Shelled sunflower seeds are also available for the more fastidious, and for cooks who want to add the seeds to breads, salads, casseroles, and trail mixes.
Learn moresushi nori
These thin dark sheets are used to make sushi. They're usually a dark purplish-black, but they turn green and acquire a pleasant, nutty flavor when toasted. You can make your own toasted nori sheets by passing nori sheets over a flame a few times. Yaki means cooked in Japanese, so pretoasted nori sheets are labeled yaki-nori or yaki sushi nori. Look for toasted and untoasted sushi nori in the Asian foods section of large supermarkets. The name nori is also used for laver, the plant that sushi nori is made from. Unlike sushi nori, laver should be rehydrated before use. If you can't find sushi nori, one option is to make sushi without a wrapper. It helps to use plastic wrap to shape the roll.
Learn moreSvanetian salt
Svanetian salt is a spice blend that includes salt, coriander, garlic, fenugreek, caraway, pepper and chili.
Learn moresweet Asian basil
This has a pleasant anise flavor, and is the most commonly used basil in Thailand.
Learn moresweet basil
This is widely used throughout the Mediterranean region to make tomato sauces, pesto, and other dishes.
Learn moresweet bean sauce
This brown sauce is made from sweetened fermented soybeans. Taiwanese cooks use it as a marinade or a condiment for meats.
Learn moresweet cherry
These appear in the summer, with the popular and exquisite Bing cherries arriving in June and July. Other varieties have the virtue of arriving before or after the Bings, but they're often not nearly as tasty. Select cherries that are large, deeply colored, and firm.
Learn moresweet chocolate
This is similar to semi-sweet chocolate, only it has a bit more sugar. It can be used interchangeably with bittersweet and semi-sweet chocolate in most recipes. Baker's Chocolate calls its sweet chocolate German chocolate.
Learn moresweet dumpling squash
Sweet dumpling squash are fairly small, so you can cut them in half, bake them, and serve each half as an individual portion. The flesh is sweeter and drier than that of other winter squash, and the peel is soft enough to be eaten.
Learn moresweet gooseberry
These are similar to gooseberries, but they have a red blush and are much sweeter.
Learn moresweet onion
These onions are mild and crisp, so they're the onions of choice for slicing raw on burgers and sandwiches. They can be lightly cooked, too, though they're not as pungent and flavorful as storage onions. There are several different varieties, often named after the region in which they're grown. The most popular include Vidalia, Walla Walla, Sweet Imperial, Texas Spring Sweet, Texas 1015Y, Carzalia Sweet, Oso Sweet, Arizona, Granex, and Maui. They're usually available from March through August, though some producers extend the season by storing them in a low-oxygen environment. Sweet onions are usually larger than storage onions. They also have a higher water content, so they don't keep as well.
Learn moresweet potato
In American supermarkets, sweet potatoes are displayed next to something called "yams," which are moister than sweet potatoes and have darker skins. But according to the rest of the world (and botanists), we have it all wrong. To them, our "yams" are just a variety of sweet potatoes. They use the word yam to describe a completely different vegetable, something we call a tropical yam. Sweet potatoes are quite versatile, but they're most often baked, candied, or made into pies. It's best not to boil them, as they'll lose much of their flavor.
Learn moresweet rice flour
This thickener has the virtue of remaining stable when frozen. It's often used to make Asian desserts. Don't confuse sweet rice flour with ordinary rice flour. Look for it in Asian markets.
Learn moresweet vermouth
This comes as either red vermouth (rosso) or sweet white vermouth (bianco). It's used to make many cocktails, including Manhattans and Negronis. If you're planning to make martinis, you probably want dry vermouth.
Learn moresweetbreads
Sweetbreads are the soft and delectable thymus glands of calves and lambs. Though it's hard to get fussy teenagers to eat them, there are enough knowledgeable gourmets clamoring for sweetbreads to keep the price fairly high. Freshness is very important--you should plan on preparing them the day you buy them or else freezing them. Like other organ meats, sweetbreads are high in cholesterol.
Learn moresweetners, artifical
This includes: Acesulfame K, Advantame, Aspartame, Saccharin and Sucralose.
Learn moresweetsop
This sweet tropical fruit looks a bit like a small cherimoya. It's great for eating of hand or for making shakes. It's available in the fall, but it's hard to find outside of Florida.
Learn moreSwiss chard
Swiss chard is used much like spinach, except that it has an appealing beet-like flavor and a heavier texture, which requires longer cooking. Many cooks simply sauté it in olive oil and serve it as a side dish. Red chard = rhubarb chard = ruby chard, with green leaves and red stalks, is slightly more tender and flavorful than white chard = green chard, with white stalks and green leaves, but the two are interchangeable in most recipes.
Learn moreSwiss cheese
This popular cow's milk cheese is an American knock-off of Switzerland's Emmentaler cheese. This difference is that our domestic version usually has smaller eyes (making it easier to slice) and is made from pasteurized milk. Emmentaler has a richer, nuttier flavor.
Learn moreSyrah
This wine is called Syrah in Europe and America, and Shiraz in Australia. It's a dry red wine that's especially good with barbecued meats, sausages, strong cheeses, and spicy foods. Don't confuse Syrah with Petite Syrah.
Learn moreSzechuan pepper salt
Szechuan pepper salt is a mixture of Szechuan peppercorns and salt ground together to make a fine powder. See the Chinese Salt Recipe posted on RecipeSource.com.
Learn moreSzechwan peppercorn
These aren't true peppercorns, but rather dried flower buds. You're most likely to encounter them as part of a mixture, like the Chinese five-spice powder or the Japanese shichimi togarashi. Toast Szechwan peppercorns briefly in a hot pan before using.
Learn moretaape
This beautiful fish was introduced to Hawaii in 1958, and it multiplied so quickly that it's now crowding out some native species. Buying this fish helps prod fishermen to rid Hawaiian waters of this nuisance. It's a tasty fish, too, though there's concern that some of these fish may carry ciguatera, a toxin that affects certain reef fish.
Learn moretable salt
Varieties include iodized salt, which contains the flavorless additive potassium iodide to prevent goiter (an enlargement of the thyroid gland), and non-iodized salt. Some recipes call for non-iodized salt, since iodine can impart a bitter taste and adversely react with certain foods. For example, iodine darkens pickles and inhibits the bacterial fermentation needed to make sauerkraut. Table salt also contains small amounts of calcium silicate, an anti-caking agent, and dextrose, a stabilizer. The anti-caking agent in both iodized and non-iodized salt doesn't dissolve in water, so if you pickle or can with it, it will turn the liquid cloudy or else settle on the bottom of the jar. The preserved food will taste the same, mind you, but it won't look as appealing. This is more of a problem for pickles, which are immersed in lots of liquid, than for other canned goods. To prevent the cloudiness, use pickling salt, which contains no additives.
Learn moretable wine
Table wines are intended to be served with meals, and they're often classified by color: red, white or rosé.
Learn moretaco shell
These are crunchy corn tortillas that have been loosely folded and deep-fried. You just fill them and serve. Look for boxes of them among the Mexican foods in your supermarket, or make them yourself by deep-frying corn tortillas, forming them into a U-shape, then allowing them to harden into a crispy shell.
Learn moretagliatelle
These long ribbons of pasta are very similar to fettuccine. They go well with a hearty meat sauce.
Learn moreTajín
Tajín is a Mexican dried spice mix with salt, chilis and dehydrated lime juice. It is often sprinkled on fruit. Tajín is also the name of the company. Tajín is its most popular product.
Learn moreTaleggio
This creamy Italian cow's milk cheese is one of the better stinky cheeses--not too tame, not too wild. It's great on crackers or bread, but it's also a good melting cheese and works well in casseroles and even on pizza. The rind is edible, but not to everyone's liking.
Learn moretamari
Tamari is a type of soy sauce made only from soybeans, no wheat. It is less salty and thicker than traditional soy sauce. It is often gluten free.
Learn moretamarillo
This fruit is notable more for its ravishing beauty than its flavor. It's about the size of a oblong plum, with a smooth peel that can be purple, red, orange, or yellow, with the yellow variety tending to be a bit sweeter. Slicing it in half reveals black or orange flesh (the darker the peel, the darker the flesh) surrounding a nest of seeds. It's more acidic than sweet, and tastes a bit like a tomato. It's best if it's peeled and cooked before eating.
Learn moretamarind
The pulp from the tamarind pod is used as a souring agent in Latin America, India, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. To extract the pulp, shell the pods, put them in a saucepan, then add enough water to completely cover the pulp. Simmer for about half an hour, then strain out and discard the seeds. It's a nuisance to do this, so many cooks simply buy the extracted pulp in bricks, jars, cans, powders, or bottles. There's also a sweet tamarind, which looks like the sour variety and is used primarily to make drinks.
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