Cooking

I’ve been writing this food column for just over four years now, and occasionally I like to share some of the many recipes from readers who have been kind enough to forward them to me.

Some of you even provided me with a sampling of your creation. I must admit I enjoy the occasional break from cooking.

I have also received e-mails asking me for recipes that you had saved and can no longer find or you just need a specific recipe for a special occasion. I hope my responses have been helpful.

This holiday weekend is the beginning of the grilling season for many in the country, and no matter where you live, new equipment, new techniques, new cookbooks, new recipes and ingredients can add to your cooking repertoire.

Gas grills are still the most popular type of barbecue, and some even include a built-in smoker box for smoke cooking. Charcoal grills are still used a lot today.

Everyone at one time or another has been to a restaurant and had a really fantastic meal that you wish you could make at home. And you probably could, if only you knew the exact ingredients, how to prepare the special sauce and how long to cook it. But it always seems there’s an ingredient or two you’ve left out, as it just doesn’t taste quite the same as what you had in the restaurant.

“Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime,” asserts an old Chinese proverb.

Well, not quite. There’s one more step. You also have to teach the man how to cook the fish.

The general rule of thumb for cooking fish is: Lean, white flesh fish is best suited to poaching, sauting, pan frying and deep frying; fatty fish is best with dry cooking methods such as grilling and broiling, and moderately fatty fish is amenable to most cooking methods with the possible exception of deep frying.