RACHAEL RAY

If you are growing zucchini in your yard, you will first see the flowers that look like this:

And then you will start seeing the zucchini grow. When you do, you can say, “it’s a girl!”  The girls have the flowers at the end and the boys don’t.  You can absolutely pick the zucchini when they are young and tender and cook them with the flower attached to the end.  Or you can gather the flowers up and cook them separately-yes, they are edible!

To cook zucchini flowers, or blossoms, wash them thoroughly, then dry them and either dip them in batter or flour and fry them in hot olive oil. Sprinkle a little salt and lemon juice or Parmigiano cheese and you’ve got a delicacy to serve!

Brown rice is a good ingredient to use in adding whole grains to your diet, but it isn’t the only game in town. For a detailed list of whole grains and information about them, read this post. One of our favorites is Farro, which is an ancient grain that has literally been around since the Roman Empire! Farro looks alot like barley, another great whole grain. You can cook it the same way you would cook risotto, and it goes especially well with carrots, onions and celery, but it is also a magnificent addition to soups. In fact, you can add Farro to minestrone or vegetable soups instead of pasta (see above). You simply add a handful or two of Farro to the soup and let it cook for about 15 minutes or until it is cooked through. It expands greatly so you may need to add more liquid to your soup as the Farro cooks.

Rachel,

I LOVE YOUR SHOW!  I think you are awesome!  I love the way you cook - you make it look so easy!!  I have one question for you - is it possible for you to make more low carb dishes.  I’m trying to lose weight and the low carb way of eating really helps me but I get so sick of the regular dishes I prepare and you make great stuff like the Inside-Out Turkey Bacon Cheese Burgers.  I was hoping you can make some more low carb dishes such as this one.  Any ideas you can share will be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks,

Nella

Hi Nella,

Here are some great low-carb recipes you can try:

Inside-Out Sausage Chops with Roasted Peppers 

Grilled Chicken and Eggplant Parm 

Chicken Caprese 

Bacon-Wrapped Pork Kebobs 

Portobellos with Rucola and Parmigiano 

Sea Bass with Herb Butter and Frisee Salad

HI I’m a construction worker and I would like somthing better for breakfast than sausage and biscuit from the store in the morning.  I do like cooking but in the morning time is short { I leave at dark o clock} so I need somthjng quick to fix… can you help?-Paul

Hi Paul,

We have tons of breakfast ideas.  Here are a few that are fast and easy:

Good for you:

Smoothies -no cooking involved!

Super Size Healthy Breakfast Sandwiches

Really easy:

Almond Orange Crescent Rolls 

Peanut Butter, Apple and Honey Wafflewich 

Veggies for Breakfast-Bunny Spread 

Egg dishes:

Wild Mushroom Frittata

Ludia’s BLD Toast and Scramble Eggs 

Cowboy Hash and Eggs, Texas Toast and Salsa 

Birds in a Nest with Blankets 

Believe it or not, this is one of the most frequently asked questions we get-what can I cook for a large outdoor party I am having for my kid’s graduation, a wedding, etc. First of all, since you are throwing the party and will want to enjoy the celebration, you have to do as much work as possible in advance so when the party is going on, you won’t be a frantic mess. So while firing up the grill may be fun and outdoorsy, unless you have someone manning it, this will keep you busy all party long. So besides the grill, here are some make ahead dishes that you can serve on a big buffet table that won’t spoil in the outdoors:

Idea #1 Think about making a meat, like a roast beef, a ham, or a beef or pork tenderloin that you can cook ahead, slice and serve cold. If serving roast beef sliced, you can serve small rolls and put out a dish of horseradish and let people help themselves to little sandwiches.

Recipes ideas:

Beef Tenderloin Sammies for a Crowd

Roasted Beef Tenderloin with Roasted Pepper and Black Olive Sauce

Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

Idea #2 It’s a good idea and economical to make a dish that will give you alot of volume like a pasta or potato salad, hold the mayo. You can get really creative with these and mix in all kinds of chopped veggies and olives that will give the dishes, color and flavor and jazz them up a bit from the traditional old mac and spud salads.

Recipe ideas:

Asparagus Pasta Salad

Mac and Jack Salads

Not Potato Salad

Idea # 3 -Make sure to have lots of snackie things people could graze on while they are mingling. These make good side dishes too. Here are some recipes for apps and sides…

Recipe ideas:

Holy Guacamole with chips and salsa but skip the sour cream

Poor Man’s Caviar-Eggplant Spread-serve with pitas and olives for a Medeterranean theme

Cracked Corn and Cheese Squares

Stuffed and Wrapped Figs

Peas and Carrots Spring Salad

Vegetable Antipasto Stuffed Bread -you can do any number of pizza or calzone dishes and cut them up into bite-sized pieces for people to snack on.

Hi, Rachael!!!!

I have to start out by saying that I love you, and I love your shows!

I have a question for you about rice-you used jasmine rice for an orange chicken dish a while back.

Never having tried it, I decided to give it a try.  Well, I’ve not bought another kind of rice since.  It’s fabulous!  Ok, back to the

question…  What makes jasmine rice “jasmine” rice?  Is it infused with something, or is it grown that way?

Thanks so much,

Natalie

Dear Natalie,

Jasmine rice is a kind of long grain rice, similar to Basmati rice and is typically found in Southeast Asian cooking (ie Indian).  It is very fragrant naturally, nothing has been added or infused.

Long grain rice is long and skinny and falls apart easily, while short grain rice is short and sticky.  There are over 7,000 kinds of rice but the main ones are variations on the long and short grain.  Long grain examples would be Basmati or Jasmine while a short grain rice would be Italian Arborio rice or Japanese rice.

Hope that helps!

-The Cooks

Dear cooks,
My friend likes his eggs over medium and I usually cook 3 eggs in a 7 or 8 in. skillet, but the whites are so thin, they are hard to flip and then the yolks break. :(  Also, are eggs over medium the same as poached?

From the Cooks:

It’s hard to flip two eggs, let along three at one time. First make sure your pan is sufficiently oiled with butter, cooking spray or EVOO. I would try doing two at a time because you can crack then in the pan, shake the pan a bit to get the two yolks over to one side and then leverage the weight of the yokes to help you with your flip. Three puts the whole thing off balance. Maybe your friend could have two instead of three at once?

Eggs over, whether it’s over easy, over medium or sunny side up are not the same as poached at all. Poached eggs are raw eggs that are cracked into gently boiling water either loosely or in a poaching dish.

Cooks, how do you cut brownies cleanly so that they do not stick to the knife or crumble?-Jeannine

Dear Jeannine,

You must make sure your brownies are cooked all the way through for starters (check with the old wooden toothpick method and make sure it comes out clean). Most importantly, however,you have to wait for your brownies to cool completely before you cut into them.  Brownies may smell delicious right out of the oven, but they will not cut well until the set and cool.  If you don’t eat the whole pan in one sitting, make sure to wrap them up and put them in the fridge overnight.  They will cut even better once they are cold.

-The Cooks

Ruta writes,

“I have a question about oil for the cooks. Do you add it to boiling water when cooking pasta? Or do you use margarine or butter instead? What’s the difference or significance of doing this step before adding the pasta if you do happen to cook pasta this way? It was just something everyone has done in my family and passed it down through the generations and I’ve wondered why. Thank you for your feedback.”

Dear Ruta,

You don’t need to do this step at all.  You should salt your pasta water, which will add flavor to the pasta and may make the water boil faster, but don’t add oil or butter.  It won’t stick to the pasta and is just a waste.  However, one you drain your pasta, you can add the oil or butter then (we don’t like margarine).

If you are making a skillet sauce for your pasta, you can skip the butter/oil step altogether and once the pasta is drained, throw it in the skillet with the sauce and give it a toss before serving.

If you’ve got a big pot of sauce on the stove, you can drain your pasta and then add a ladle or two of sauce to the pasta, give it a toss and then add it to the serving bowl.  This will take the place of the oil or butter, which is just needed to keep the pasta from sticking or to flavor it if you aren’t going to be adding it to any sauce or any sauce to it.

-The Cooks

Hi there,

Can you please tell me if it is okay to freeze dried fruit?  I know that some foods cannot be frozen because it will compromise the texture and original quality of the food such as cheese.  But what about dried fruit?  Please let me know when you can.

Many Thanks.

Ione LeBlanc

Dear Ione,

Yes, you can absolutely freeze dried fruits!  Just put them a Ziplock baggie or a Tupperware type container.

The Cooks