Cohen’s Kitchen Know-How
IF YOU DON’T have time to make dumpling dough, you can take
white sandwich bread, cut off the crusts, flatten it with a rolling
pin, stuff it, fold it, pinch it, and cook it the same way. Cohen
learned this trick from a Chinese friend and says it works well
with her carrot filling or any dumpling filling, for that matter.
WHEN MAKING PESTO, you don’t want to bruise the leaves of
the basil, parsley, or whatever herb you’re using, so add them at
the end and blend them just enough.
THIS MAY BE HERESY, but Cohen suggests that vegetarians
should consider sampling meat dishes at restaurants, if only to
broaden their culinary breadth of knowledge. “If I just ate the
vegetable plate at restaurants, I wouldn’t know anything,” says
Cohen. You can translate the flavors in meat dishes into
vegetarian dishes later on (like the way Cohen translates pork
buns into carrot buns).