All Ingredients
white eggplant
This eggplant comes in different shapes and sizes and, except for the exterior color, is interchangeable with their purple cousins, the American eggplant and the Italian eggplant.
Learn morewhite miso
This pale yellow miso is the sweetest and mildest of them all. It's used to make light soups, salad dressings, desserts, and marinades for fish. It's aged only briefly and isn't as salty as other forms of miso.
Learn morewhite mushroom
These are the mushrooms you're most likely to find in supermarkets. They're good raw, but more flavorful if cooked.
Learn morewhite onion
These popular cooking onions are often called for in Hispanic dishes, since they have a cleaner, more tangy flavor than yellow onions. They're slightly more prone to mold than yellow onions, so store them in a dry, well-ventilated place.
Learn morewhite poppy seeds
Indian cooks use these as a thickener in their curries and as a filling in baked goods.
Learn morewhite rice
Most varieties of rice are processed into white rice at the mill, where the grains are scoured to remove the husk, bran, and part of the germ. This processing strips some of the nutrients, but make the rice tender and fast-cooking. Many producers sell enriched white rice, which restores some of the nutrients. If well-sealed, white rice can be stored almost indefinitely in a cool, dry place.
Learn morewhite rice vinegar
This Asian vinegar is milder and sweeter than Western vinegars. It's used in Japan to make sushi rice and salads, and in China to flavor stir-fries and soups. Western cooks often use it to flavor delicate chicken or fish dishes, or to dress salads or vegetables. Japanese brands tend to be milder than Chinese, but they can be used interchangeably.
Learn morewhite rum
This is used to make daiquiris, piña coladas, mai tais, and many other cocktails. The best white rum comes from Puerto Rico, but Trinidad, Barbados, and the Virgin Islands also produce it. Bacardi, Ronrico, and DonQ are popular brands.
Learn morewhite sapote
This tropical fruit has sweet, creamy pulp that's wonderful in fruit salads or shakes. They arrive in the summer. Since they bruise easily when ripe, they're usually sold while they're still hard. Take them home and let them ripen on the counter for a few days until they yield to a gentle squeeze. Remove the peel and seeds before serving.
Learn morewhite vinegar
This cheap vinegar gets all the mundane jobs, like making pickles, cleaning out coffee pots, and washing windows. Distilled from ethyl alcohol, it's a bit too harsh for most recipes, but it does a great job with pickles. Be careful if you're substituting another vinegar in a pickle recipe--to adequately preserve, vinegar should have an acidity level of at least 5%.
Learn morewhite wine
White wines are more delicate than red wines and are always served chilled. Dry (i.e., not sweet) white wines include Chardonnay, Chablis, and Sauvignon Blanc. These are normally served with fish, poultry, veal, blue cheeses, and anything with a cream sauce. Sweeter white wines are often described as "fruity" and include Gewürztraminer, Johannisberg Riesling, and Chenin Blanc. These are good with spicy foods, fruit, and desserts.
Learn morewhite wine vinegar
This is a moderately tangy vinegar that French cooks use to make Hollandaise and Béarnaise sauces, vinaigrettes, soups, and stews. It's also an excellent base for homemade fruit or herb vinegars.
Learn morewhite Zinfandel
This is the most popular blush wine, and it goes well with pork, poultry, and spicy dishes. It's not at all like ordinary Zinfandel, a dry red wine.
Learn morewhole grains
These are grains that are either unprocessed or stripped only of their tough outer hulls. By themselves, whole grains are bland, so it's best to combine them with more assertive ingredients. It also helps to toast the grains before cooking them--this boosts their flavor and speeds up the cooking a bit.
Learn morewhole wheat pasta
Several varieties of pasta are made with whole wheat instead of a more refined flour. This makes the pasta darker but more nutritious.
Learn morewide rice noodles
These thick rice noodles are popular both in Southeast Asia and China. Soak the noodles in hot water until soft, then either boil them or add them along with some broth to your stir-fry.
Learn morewild pecan rice
This chewy, nutty-tasting hybrid contains neither wild rice nor pecans. It's only partially milled, so it retains some of the bran and has a nutty flavor.
Learn morewild rice
This isn't a rice, but rather a grass seed. Compared to rice, it's richer in protein and other nutrients and has a more distinctive, nutty flavor. The downside is that it's more expensive than rice and takes longer to cook. It's especially good with poultry and game. Cultivated wild rice isn't as expensive--nor as flavorful--as "wild" wild rice. Wild rice or manoomin is an important traditional food source for North American Indians. It grows naturally in marshes and the wet margins of lakes but is also grown commercially. There are three main species of the genus Zizania in North America; palustris (northern wild rice), aquatica (annual or southern wild rice) and texana (Texas wild rice).
Learn morewine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented juice of fruit, usually grapes. There are four broad categories: table wines, sparkling wines, fortified wines, and fruit wines. Table wines are the most common, and they're grouped by color--red, white, and blush, which is sometimes called rosé. A red wine should be served at room temperature, and it goes well with hearty, meat-based dishes like steak and spaghetti. White and blush wines should be served chilled, and they go best with lighter fare, like fish and chicken. Many wines, called varietals, are named after the variety of grape used to make them. Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, and Pinot Noir are popular red varietals, while Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, and Johannisberg Riesling are popular white ones. In Europe, some wines, often blends of different varietals, are named after the place where the wine is produced, like Bordeaux, Burgundy, Chablis, Rhine, and Rhône. These European wines are often superb, but American wines that have borrowed these regional names, like California Chablis, are almost always mediocre. If you're buying a domestic wine, it's often better to go with a varietal, like a California Cabernet Sauvigno
Learn morewine ball
These are balls of brewer's yeast that are sold in Asian markets. They're used to make wine.
Learn morewine essence
This is wine that's been reduced to a syrup, which de-alcoholizes it and allows it to be stored for a longer period of time. Professional chefs sometimes make this to use up half-empty bottles of wine that would otherwise go bad in a few days. The syrup can be used in sauces or other dishes that call for wine.
Learn morewine vinegar
Wine vinegars are milder and less acidic than cider or white distilled vinegar, so they're a good choice for salad dressings, sauces, and marinades. There are several varieties, ranging from mild champagne vinegar to the tangy white and red wine vinegars to the dark and assertive balsamic and sherry vinegars. The milder vinegars go best with more delicate dishes, like salads, which stronger ones are best for deglazing pans, marinating meats, and adding tang to sauces. Rice vinegar, though it's sometimes called rice wine vinegar, is made from fermented rice, not rice wine.
Learn morewine yeast
This is used to convert the sugar in fruit juices into alcohol and carbon dioxide. There are different varieties, each best suited to producing a certain wine. Champagne yeast, for example, produces more bubbles than other forms of wine yeast.
Learn moreWinesap
This tart apple is great for eating out of hand or for making cider. It keeps for a relatively long time.
Learn morewinged bean
This pods have deep ridges, and attached leaves that open up like wings. Young ones are best. Don't confuse this with the yard-long bean, which is also sometimes called an asparagus bean.
Learn morewinter melon
This Asian squash-like fruit has a mild flavor similar to a cucumber. It should be peeled, seeded, and cooked before eating. Don't confuse it with sweet melons like Honeydews or cantaloupes, which sometimes also go by the name "winter melons."
Learn morewinter purslane
This resembles ordinary purslane, only the leaves and stems are smaller and more delicate.
Learn morewinter savory
This perennial herb has a stronger flavor than its annual relative, summer savory.
Learn morewinter squash
Winter squash come in many sizes and shapes, but all have hard outer rinds that surround sweet, often orange flesh. Winter squash arrive late in the growing season and they have a long shelf life, so they've long been a staple in winter and spring, when other vegetables are harder to come by. Unlike summer squash, winter squash must be cooked. They're usually baked or steamed, and then sometimes puréed. Select squash that are heavy for their size.
Learn morewonton noodles
These are thin Chinese egg noodles of various widths. They're usually served in soups. They're available both fresh and dried in Asian markets.
Learn morewonton wrappers
Wontons are the Chinese answer to ravioli--small packets of meat encased in a thin noodle wrapper. The wrappers are made of flour, eggs, and water, and, once filled with meat, can be easily folded and pinched into shape. While assembling the wontons, keep the stack of wrappers moist by covering them with a damp towel. You can seal the dumplings with a "glue" made with cornstarch and water. The wrappers come in different thicknesses. The thin ones work best in soups, while the thicker ones are best for frying. Look for stacks of them wrapped in plastic in the refrigerator cases of Asian markets. Store them in the refrigerator or freezer, but let them come to room temperature before using.
Learn morewood ear mushroom
Chinese markets carry fresh or dried pieces of this tree mushroom. You're supposed to soak or simmer the dried chips until they soften, and then rinse them carefully to remove any dirt. They're not very flavorful, but they have an interesting texture and are believed to have medicinal benefits.
Learn moreWorcestershire sauce
Health foods sell a vegetarian version of this. To make your own: See the recipe for Worcestershire Sauce posted on RecipeSource.com.
Learn moreX.O. sauce
Asians pour this sauce over noodles and seafood. It's made from dried anchovies, shrimp, and chiles.
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