The March issue of Taunton’s Fine Cooking presents a thorough, easy-to-digest article on slow cookers, with preparation tips, how to adapt regular recipes for slow-cooker use, and buying recommendations. And its story on Asian noodle soups, including a primer on noodles, also is a winner. Cook’s Illustrated also pulled out the slow cooker in its April issue, to make easy chili using supermarket staples; it, too, conducted its own slow-cooker test.
The downside of shopping at warehouse stores, cost-cutting though it is, involves an inordinate amount of time figuring out how to finish off a 3-liter can of olive oil or 20-pound sack of rice. The March issue of Food & Wine comes to the rescue. It sent Ken Oringer, chef of Boston’s Clio, on his first-ever visit to a Costco and asked him to create seven recipes with his finds. That he did and–no surprise–they all yield 12 servings. And in “75 Best Food Buys,” Chicago netted seven entries, including the hot Italian sandwich at Potbelly Sandwich Works for $3.59.
A few magazines are looking ahead to spring, including The Herb Companion’s February-March issue, which points home cooks toward herbs that also flower. And it explores a spicier approach to more exotic herbs and spices in an article on Indian cooking.