(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Today on
"America's Test Kitchen." Keith makes Julia New
England fish chowder. Adam reveals his top
picks for nakiri knives. Lisa shares her favorite tiny tools. And Dan makes Bridget hardy
green salad with chickpeas, pickled cauliflower, and seared halloumi. It's all coming up right here
on "America's Test Kitchen." (upbeat music) - New England fish chowder
began as a humble dinner made by sailors aboard local fishing vessels, where they'd throw a piece of the catch, usually cod or haddock, into a pot with some
water, a little salt pork, and some rustic crackers known as hardtack that just helped thicken things up. Now, over the years, the soup got embellished just a little bit with some potatoes and some dairy, and that's the version that
Keith's gonna make for us today. - Yeah, the problem is
with chowders these days is that they've become too rich. So rich that you can't taste the fish. So today we're gonna make a chowder that kind of goes back to the original, where we have nice, tender, moist fish, and a really clean, fresh tasting broth. - I like it. - And that's where we're
gonna start, with our broth. So I have two tablespoons of butter that I have melting in this
Dutch oven over medium heat. Then we're gonna add two onions that have been cut into half-inch pieces. 3/4 teaspoon of table salt, 1 1/2 teaspoons of thyme, and one single bay leaf. Okay, so the onions are
in our pot and softening. And I'm gonna do one more piece of prep before we get to our fish. So I have a piece of salt pork here. I have a four-ounce piece that I've rinsed to get
the salt off the exterior. You don't want too, too much salt here. And I'm just gonna cut
this rind off the top. We don't need that. And I'm just gonna cut it into two pieces. We'll get a nice kind
of background flavor, that funky pork flavor from the salt pork, but we won't get too much. It won't be too pervasive. So we're just gonna let
those onions soften, and then the salt pork can go
in after those are softened. - [Julia] Okay. - It's been three minutes, and you can see that our
onions don't have any color in there, which is important. And I can add our salt pork to that. And now I'm gonna add five cups of water. So I'm just gonna turn
this up a little bit, and we're gonna let
that come up to a simmer in a couple minutes. Okay, the water has come up to a simmer, and now it's time to make our fish stock. So I'm just gonna take
the fish that we're using in the stew to make that fish stock. I have two pounds of
boneless skinless cod here, and I'm just gonna add our
fish to flavor this liquid. But I'm actually gonna
do this off the heat. - Oh.
- I'm gonna cover it. So the fish is gonna sit in that water and steep the water and
fuse it with flavor, and we get a nice, clean fish flavor. But we don't want to
cook the fish too much, so we're gonna do it off heat. So we're gonna let this
sit for five minutes. We are gonna work on our potatoes. I have 1.5 pounds of Yukon gold potatoes. I'm just gonna cut this
into half-inch slabs. We really like Yukon gold
potatoes for a couple reasons. We like the flavor,
kind of a sweet flavor, but we also like the way that
they hold up in the chowder. They'll soften a little bit, but they won't break
down and become mushy. Okay, so that's our potatoes. And all we have to do is wait for that fish to continue
steeping in there, and we can come back,
and we'll do a flip-flop. We'll take the fish out,
put the potatoes in. - All right. - It's been five minutes, and hopefully our fish
has infused that water with plenty of flavor. - Oh, it smells good. - Smells good.
- Yeah. - Get a hint of that salt
pork too. It's very nice. So I'm just gonna take this out. And the fish is not quite
fully cooked at this point. We want to try to get as much
fish out of there as possible, because we're gonna boil
those potatoes for 20 minutes. And we don't really wanna
leave the fish in there because they'll become overcooked. Okay, so the fish is out. The salt pork we're gonna leave in there. We still want the flavor of the broth. And now our potatoes can go in. - Now you can cook the potatoes without overcooking the fish, and the potatoes will take
on the flavor of the cod. - Fish flavor. - Aha!
- Brilliant. - I love this technique. - Turn this on. I'm gonna
bring this up to a simmer. I'm gonna simmer those
potatoes for about 20 minutes until they're nice and tender. It's been about 20 minutes, and our potatoes should be
nicely cooked right now. Check that with a fork. Oh yeah. That's perfect.
- Nice. - So now for the dairy. We're gonna add two cups of milk here. We're gonna add one more thing to this. I'm gonna have a tablespoon
of cornstarch here. So I'm just gonna whisk a little milk in here to get that cornstarch dissolved. And then I have half teaspoon
of black pepper to that. Have to have black pepper in chowder. - I agree with that. - So I'm just gonna
stir this into our base. So we have the milk in there. And we're just gonna
return this to a simmer so that cornstarch activates
and thickens the broth. Broth has come back up to a simmer, and you can see it's thickened slightly. So now we're gonna
reintroduce the fish to this. And I'm just gonna slide it in with all those nice flavorful juices. And again, we don't want
to overcook the fish here, so I'm gonna shut off
the heat, cover the pot, and let that sit for five minutes. The fish just needs to
cook through just slightly. And it will just warm up,
and it'll be good to go in about five minutes.
- All right. - It's been five minutes, and our fish should be fully
cooked and warmed through. So I'm just gonna take
the salt pork out of here. - Snacks. - For later. (Julie laughs) And there is the bay leaf. Okay. Just wanna taste this and make
sure it's properly seasoned. Add a little bit more salt and, of course, some black pepper. - [Julia] Mm. - Now we wanna stir this gently. We want to break up
that fish a little bit. But we don't wanna break it up so much that you just have these
tiny shards of fish. - Yep. - So I just kind of use the spoon, and you kind of break it up
against the side of the pot. It's time to eat our chowder. - [Julia] All right. - [Keith] And make sure you
get a nice big chunk of fish in there and plenty of potatoes. - [Julia] Good, looking out. - [Keith] Look at that. That's beautiful. - [Julia] That is beautiful. - [Keith] Now, I have
some chopped chives here. Can I garnish your bowl?
- Oh. Yes, please. That's fancy. - [Keith] Chopped chives is nice. Adds a little bit of an allium flavor. But crispy bacon is a good way to go here. Maybe some oyster crackers. - Oh, that's delicious. It has such a clean cod flavor. It doesn't taste like generic seafood. It tastes like cod. - Yeah, and just tasting
the broth by itself. - Mm-hmm. Oh, that's delicious. - [Keith] Not too rich. You
have a nice fish flavor. It's really nicely balanced. I love that. - Mm. Keith, this is delicious. - It is really good.
- Yeah. What a clever cooking method. Thank you. - You're welcome. - If you wanna make this updated version of a New England classic, start by parcooking the fish, thicken the soup with corn starch, and finish cooking the fish off the heat. From "America's Test Kitchen," a terrific recipe for
New England fish chowder. I loved how you cooked the fish first. - It's a wicked good chowder. (Julia laughs) - Take our recipes and
reviews wherever you go with the America's Test
Kitchen mobile app, - [Julia] Fail-proof recipes,
unbiased equipment reviews, how-to videos, and a vibrant community of like-minded home cooks. - [Bridget] With smart
searching and handy tools, you'll have everything you need to create the most amazing meals. - [Julia] Download the
America's Test Kitchen mobile app today. (upbeat music) - There are a few knives, say, a chef's knife, paring
knife, maybe a serrated knife, that'll get you through
almost any kitchen job. But when you wanna start
adding to your knife arsenal, you might wanna consider
something called nakiri. And Adam's here, and
he's gonna tell us all about this wonderful knife. - A nakiri is a Japanese knife
specifically for vegetables. You'll find one in almost
every Japanese home kitchen. You can see the shape. Pretty tall blade. Fairly short, blunt tip, straight edge. For a lot of contact
with the cutting board. - Yes, instead of having a curved belly, which some of them do.
- Right, you're not gonna rock this and dice with it. This is meant for slicing straight and even very precisely, very fine. Now, one thing I wanna mention before I even get into the lineup. In a lot of Western markets, these are mislabeled
as vegetable cleavers. They're not cleavers in the
classic sense of a cleaver. The metal is fairly brittle. It's hard. It's really designed for precise cuts. If you try and get through
like a chicken bone or a super hard squash
or something with this, you can chip it. So don't use it like a cleaver.
It's a vegetable knife. We had a lineup of 12. The price range was $48 to $255. - Oh, okay.
- All of them had a blade length of between
six and seven inches, which is pretty typical. By and large, this was a new
knife for a lot of our testers, and they loved them. They were chopping onions. They did a brunoise of
carrots, the really fine dice. They julienned peppers.
They minced parsley. And they sliced cabbage, delicata squash, which is not super tough, and partially frozen steaks. Testers identified a couple of factors that really contributed
to that feeling of finesse and control and precision. One of them was the
thickness of the blade. And I want you to try this knife. - Okay.
- See how that feels to you with some of that cabbage there. - All right. So let's see what's going
on here with the cabbage. That's not bad.
- Okay. Now I want you to try this
one for comparison's sake. - All right, this one, which feels different, feels lighter. Oh. This one's almost surgical. - There was a big
difference for the testers. The thicker knife blades felt like they were cleaving through food, sort of wedging through food. Whereas you're holding a
thinner one. Look at that. That's such a beautiful slice of cabbage. - That is beautiful.
- All of that precision, all of that control was really aided by having a thinner blade. The first one was 2.6 millimeters
measured at the spine. The second one was 1.7 millimeters.
- Oh, big difference. - What a difference a millimeter makes. - Sure does. - There was a second factor
the tester zeroed in on, and that's the weight of the knife. These ranged from about 10
ounces to about 5 ounces. And you showed that up-and-down motion, which means you're really
using your arm a lot. I want you to try a heavier
knife. Try this one. - All right. It looks heavy, and,
oh boy, it feels heavy. - [Adam] Yeah. - Feels clunky and heavy. - That one was closer to 10 ounces. This one that you used before
was closer to five ounces. And it's really easy to see how you could get more fatigue using that heavier knife, right?
- Absolutely, absolutely. - And in fact, what I'm
holding is the winning nakiri. This is the Masamoto Sohonten Wa-Nakiri. Not an inexpensive knife. $210. But testers loved this one. This is not gonna replace a
chef's Knife or even a santoku, but it will supplement it. And you'll love prepping vegetables. If you want a little bit
less expensive knife, because this is a supplemental knife, this one is the best buy. This is the Masutani VG1 nakiri, 165 millimeters, 70 bucks. So it's a great way to
supplement your knife arsenal. - 70 bucks for that beautiful knife? - I know. I kind of want one too.
- Sold. - I see it in your eyes. - Sold. Yeah. All of these are coming home with me. So if you wanna include one
of these beautiful knives in your knife drawer, our winner is the Masamoto
Sohonten Wa-Nakiri, and it runs about $210. But our best buy is the
Masutani VG1 nakiri, 165 millimeter, and that's only $70. Hey there, fellow fans of cooking. Wanna stay in the know? - [Julia] Visit
americastestkitchen.com and sign up for our free Notes from the
Test Kitchen email newsletter. - Get exclusive tips, seasonal
recipes, product reviews, and more delivered straight to your inbox. - [Julia] Sign up for free
at americastestkitchen.com. (upbeat music) - Maybe you have no space in your kitchen, or you're cooking smaller portions. Today I have tiny kitchen tools. They're not toys. They're just the right
size for certain tasks. First up, mini whisks. We tested six brands making a spice mix, beating eggs, making vinegarette, honey mustard dipping sauce,
and a cornstarch slurry. Don't buy this one with its measly three loops
and this little skinny grip. Or this one that just
trapped all its gunk up the top of the handle. This is our winner, the Tovolo stainless
steel six-inch mini whisk. It aced every test, with a wide head, lots of loops, a comfy handle, and no crevices that are hard to clean. We love it, and we think you will too. Next up, mini bar boards. They're just right for mincing
a little garlic or herbs or slicing a lemon. They're also perfect for
picnics or for serving cheese. We tested nine. Skip this one. It's
just ridiculously tiny. This one kept sliding around.
Here's what we liked best. The OXO Good Grips Prep Board. It has grippy edges that won't slip, and at about 7 by 11 inches, it's the biggest little board we tested. And this plastic material
goes right in the dishwasher. In wood, we like the Teakhaus
Marine board with juice canal. It's reversible, it's heavy
and stable on the countertop, and the natural resins in the
Teak help it stay conditioned and resist stains. Finally, small strainers. These are super useful for
straining citrus juice, tea and cocktails, or
sifting confectioner's sugar or cocoa powder. We tested seven. Don't buy this one from
LiveFresh. Broke during testing. And skip these with their too open mesh that lets everything fall through. Here's what you want. The Rosle stainless steel
fine mesh tea strainer. It's well balanced. This hook sits securely on
all kinds of bowls and cups. Its fine mesh sifted and
strained beautifully, giving us crystal clear lemon juice and really professional-looking
dustings of cocoa powder and confectioner's sugar. Any of our winning tiny tools would be an excellent addition to your kitchen. - At Cook's Illustrated, we're food nerds. That's why every recipe we
develop involves research, cooking science, and rigorous testing by our team of expert test cooks, before being tested by
our dedicated community of 40,000 home cooks. Only the highest rated
recipes are in a place in our award-winning magazine. Every issue features our
latest recipes and discoveries, cooking tips, and equipment
and ingredient reviews. Our step-by-step photos and hand-drawn illustrations
show you exactly how to succeed. What you won't see? Even a single page of advertising. We've worked for home cooks
like you for over 30 years. So are you ready to become
the best cook you know? Subscribe to Cook's Illustrated magazine at cooksillustrated.com today. (upbeat music) - On those days when
it's scorching outside, I don't want to eat a big meal, much less spend a lot of time in a hot kitchen cooking that meal. I like a big salad. Hat
tip to Elaine Benes. And Dan is here, and he's gonna show me a great salad that's packed full of
flavor and vegetables and lots of satisfying protein too. - Yeah, so what we're really gonna do is a salad that actually eats like a meal. So like, chef salad, but like, we're in a whole nother world. - Fabulous.
- Yeah. So it's gonna be really nice. And it all starts with a quick pickle. So I've got a quarter cup
of apple cider vinegar here, and I'm gonna add two teaspoons of honey, a little bit of nice sweetness, and 3/4 of a teaspoon of salt. I'm just gonna whisk this together. So I have two cups of cauliflower florets that I've cut into one-inch pieces. So we're gonna pop those in here. And then we're gonna head to the microwave and cook them for about 1 to 1.5 minutes. Just get things nice and steamy. Beautiful. So we've got
that nice and steamy. Gonna give it a quick stir. But we're actually gonna
do a lot of our softening at this point. So we're gonna cover, let it
sit for about five minutes, while we get into the rest of our prep. - Great. - So now I'm gonna get into
prepping the other components of the salad. And one thing that we
found was really important for a complex, interesting salad was to have two different
kinds of greens in the mix. So we're gonna start
with greenleaf lettuce. This is a small head, but I'm
only gonna use half of it. So I'm gonna start by
just cutting in half. And I'm taking off just the
bottom of the core there. I'm actually gonna tear this into pieces. Okay, so the next green is not even green, but it is one of my
favorite salad vegetables, and it's radicchio. I love the bitterness. You don't want to use too, too much or it kind of overtakes the salad. But a little bit goes a long way and gives much more
complexity to the salad. - All right. - So we're starting with a small head. Again, I'm only gonna use half of this. I don't wanna overwhelm it. So I'm just gonna cut down the center. And we've got this little core
that we want to get rid of. That's really easy to just go in with your knife on both
sides and pop that out. I like to cut it in half. I like to take each side
into slightly smaller pieces, and then we're gonna slice nice and thin. Now we have our nice sliced radicchio. Next up, we have grapes. This is six ounces of red seedless grapes. You're gonna have a
really intense dressing, and we're gonna have bitter radicchio and all these components, and these just add acidity and sweetness. So we're just gonna cut these in half. Protein. We're gonna have protein in a couple of different forms here. And one is one of my absolute
favorite ingredients, not just for salad, but everything
in general, is halloumi. So this is four ounces of halloumi, which is a very special cheese. As you know, it doesn't melt- - It does not.
- which is very weird for a cheese. I'm gonna cut this into four equal pieces. Now, what makes halloumi so special is that you can throw it in a skillet, you can throw it on the grill, and it actually browns up
beautifully, and it doesn't melt. And the reason that's possible is when they press it and
actually get the curds out, they then cook them in the whey. It's a pretty unusual step for cheese. Before we get searing, I want to drain my
cauliflower pickle over there. So it's done a nice job infusing, but it's still crisp, tender, which is what we're looking for. That crunch is gonna be so nice. So what we're gonna do is
actually use a slotted spoon and leave all of that
pickling liquid behind. So we've got the cauliflower out. So we're gonna use this
to build our dressing in a little bit. - All right. - So now it's time to cook our halloumi. So I have a small, little, eight-inch, non-sick skillet here. I have extra virgin olive oil, which I'm gonna heat over medium
high heat until shimmering. And we're gonna pop in our
four slices of halloumi. Get that nice little sizzle.
A little bit of sizzle. So we're gonna cook this for about 60 to 90 seconds per side. Just wait until I flip these. The browning is so beautiful, and the flavor gets really intense. - [Bridget] Great. - So that's been 60
seconds. We'll take a look. - [Bridget] Oh, gorgeous color. - [Dan] Isn't it gorgeous? Oh yeah. - [Bridget] That color means flavor. - All right, another 60 seconds. And we've got lovely browning on the sides.
- Beautiful, beautiful. - So this is done. Take it off the heat and pop a lid on. This is gonna help us
keep it nice and warm. All right, we've done
all of our salad prep. And so now it's a matter
of mixing, seasoning, and then plating really thoughtfully. And that's another aspect
that we wanna focus on so you get different bites all the time and a really complex salad. So I'm gonna start by
taking two tablespoons of our pickling liquid and adding it to two tablespoons of
extra virgin olive oil that I have in this large bowl. - [Bridget] Ah, I see the basis
of a vinegarette happening. - Just gonna whisk this up. It's not gonna really emulsify 'cause it's just a couple ingredients. The honey will help a
little bit with that. Okay, great. Now we're
gonna go in with our greens. So we've got our torn-up greenleaf lettuce and then our thinly sliced radicchio. - [Bridget] Beautiful. - It's so beautiful. I'm just gonna give it a
little toss to combine. And then once it has a nice
little coating of dressing on it, I like to hit it
with salt and pepper. Gives it something for the
salt and pepper to stick to, to make sure that every
leaf is well seasoned. So a little bit of kosher salt and a little fresh black pepper. So as you can see, we're dressing
the greens pretty lightly. We're gonna make another dressing that has a lot more oomph to it. But we want every bite to
have a nice base level. - [Bridget] Okay. - Okay. We have our two salad bowls here. So our first element is gonna be this lovely greens mixture. - [Bridget] Lovely. - Now, some people
would call this a salad, but we're gonna go a lot further. I'm gonna set these aside for a moment, and we're gonna build a
really awesome dressing. So we've got our pickling liquid, which has a little bit of honey and salt, and the flavor from the cauliflower. We're gonna add three
tablespoons of Greek yogurt. This is gonna add a ton
of creaminess and body. Then two tablespoons of tahini. Next, I have one garlic clove minced. And then I have a half
teaspoon of Aleppo pepper. - Gorgeous. - So Aleppo pepper is incredibly fruity. It's moderately spicy, so
you can use a lot of it. And it's kind of rough and
coarse in the way that it's cut. So it's just a really
beautiful chili pepper. And then, finally, a
quarter teaspoon of salt. And I'm just gonna whisk this together. So we'll take a quarter
cup of this dressing and dress the chickpeas with it. So I have 2/3 of a cup
of canned chickpeas. They're really creamy,
really nice, super easy, and they've just been drained and rinsed. - [Bridget] Okay. - And just stir that in. Chickpeas are in good shape. They're gonna come back in just a second. So we've got our two
beautiful salad bases here. And we're just gonna build little piles of these wonderful
ingredients over the top. So I'm gonna start with a little
bit of pickled cauliflower. Okay, so now I'm adding the grapes. I'm gonna put those in a nice
pile next to the cauliflower. And now it's time for our halloumi. We're just gonna go two nice pieces. - [Bridget] Oh, lovely. - All right. Now we're gonna do a nice little drizzle of the remaining dressing
over these three piles. Just make sure everything
gets that nice treatment. Gorgeous chickpeas.
- Oh. - So this really is one of
those salads where you make it, you know, follow the recipe
exactly the first time, and then you kind of fall in love with little different parts of it. Like, the vinegarette you love, and you can use that on different things. You know, pickled cauliflower. And then the halloumi is like, you need a quick protein on any weeknight, it's really, really great too. - There's no way this cannot taste good. I mean, it looks amazing. I got a little bit of the
greens. Beautifully dressed. I'm gonna go in for some cauliflower now. - [Dan] I'll join you. - Mm. It's just softened a little bit, but still has that really briny crunch. Let's tuck into some halloumi here. I love halloumi. I mean, the texture on its
own, it's almost meaty. It's really substantial, but it's a gorgeous, light, salty cheese. Definitely seasoned well. I love that browning. That really deepens the flavor. - It's like, adding
chicken to a salad is fine, you know, but it doesn't
add a ton of flavor. - No.
- It just brings its own flavor. But we do have other variations
that are just as complex and interesting on our website. - Fantastic. Every bite
of this gets better. Thanks, Dan. - You're welcome.
- Appreciate it. Now, if you wanna make this amazing salad, make a quick pickled cauliflower, brown halloumi cheese for lots of flavor, and then dress the salad with a vinegarette and
creamy yogurt dressing. It's the salad that never ends, and you're thankful for that. So from "America's Test Kitchen," hardy green salad with chickpeas, pickled cauliflower, and seared halloumi. You can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with product reviews
and select episodes. And those are all on our website, americastestkitchen.com/tv. Mm. Only problem is the bowl's too small. - We hope you enjoyed this video as much as we enjoyed making it. - Don't forget to hit that like button and subscribe to our channel. - And if you're ready to take your cooking to the next level, head over
to americastestkitchen.com and get a free all-access
trial membership. - While you're there, you can sign up for our
free email newsletters and download our app. - [Narrator] With unlimited
access to over 14,000 of our test kitchen recipes
and 8,000 product reviews, you'll have everything you
need to cook and learn. - So I ask, what are you waiting for? - Let's make something great together.
