Food
Chef José Andrés Invites Us Over for Paella
Choosing a pan
If you are cooking directly over fire, a traditional steel paellera is best. It’s more responsive to temperature changes in the flames, but requires more careful cleaning and drying. For gas rings or stoves, carbon steel or enameled works well, and is easier to maintain. To cook for four to six people, get a 15″ pan. The large circumference allows the rice to cook through while a crispy socarrat forms on the bottom of the pan. Paella is an art, people: Listen to your ingredients, to your heat, to your pan, and you’ll get the best result.
Photo by Travis Rainey, Food Styling by Micah Marie Morton, Prop Styling by Alyssa Sadler
Selecting your rice
Any rice you find that’s grown in Spain and labeled paella rice will work. It might be bomba, a short-grain rice that’s almost round (and widely available), or a handful of other varieties like Bahía or J. Sendra. (Don’t get the variety confused with the Protected Designation of Origin, the PDO, like Calasparra PDO, which simply means the rice comes from the municipality of Calasparra.) Paella rices expand to three times their size as they absorb the stock they’re cooking in, imbuing each grain with maximum flavor.
Water or stock?
Either one can deliver a great result. If you start with water, you’ll essentially be making your own stock in the pan as you cook. Stock—like the wood-fired ones made by El Paeller in Valencia—just gives you a head start on the process. Remember that your pan’s she affects the cooking; the larger and flatter it is, the faster the liquid will evorate.
Photo by Travis Rainey, Food Styling by Micah Marie Morton, Prop Styling by Alyssa Sadler
Food
Chimichurri Grilled Shrimp
These grilled shrimp are the kind of low-effort, high-reward dinner that tastes best eaten outside—you can practically feel the beach breeze in every bite. A confetti-like chimichurri packed with parsley, garlic, lime juice, red wine vinegar, and Fresno chile adds a splash of color and bright, fresh flavor that perfectly complements the charred shellfish.
Jumbo shrimp can go directly on the grate, but if you’re working with smaller ones, thread them onto skewers to keep them from slipping through. Tossing the shrimp with oil before grilling helps prevent sticking (without fussing with the grate) and encourages those smoky, lightly blistered edges everyone wants from grilled shrimp. Serve with grilled bread, steamed rice, a big green salad, or whatever else your cookout heart desires.
Do I need skewers for grilled shrimp?
Jumbo shrimp can go straight on the grill—though skewering them is fine if you prefer it. Smaller shrimp are easier to flip and less likely to fall through the grate when threaded onto skewers.
How do I know when grilled shrimp are done?
Food
Please Stop Buying Pre-Ground Coffee. Get a Coffee Grinder Instead.
The only problem, if you want to call it that, with the ESP is that it has no way to measure a dose of coffee. Getting an exact weight of coffee is incredibly important for pulling good espresso shots. It’s not a huge problem. It’s possible to put single doses in the grinder like you do with the Fellow, thanks to the low grind retention. The Encore ESP consistently had output within .1 or .2 grams of what went in.
Oxo Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder
Oxo Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder
I still like this former top budget pick. Oxo’s original burr grinder has 45 settings (the Compact recommended above only has 29), and it also has time dosing and a hopper that can hold 12 ounces of whole coffee beans. But that dosing mechanism only works so-so. It doesn’t lock in place, so it’s hard to set precisely. It still grinds evenly and has great grind retention, but the Compact can do everything you really need a burr grinder to do with a smaller footprint and a lower price.
With a price tag under $200, KitchenAid’s burr grinder is relatively affordable for everything it offers. It comes with 70 grind settings, which is plenty if you have a house that enjoys both espresso and French press. It uses a digital timer for its dosing and can also grind directly into a portafilter, making it the least expensive option we’ve found with both those features (the Breville Smart Grinder Pro has both, but is a bit more expensive). It’s durable—we’ve used it for years—and think it’s a good choice if you’re looking for a truly budget espresso grinder, but the evenness of the grind and quality of the materials is better on the Baratza Encore ESP.
Baratza Virtuoso+ Conical Burr Coffee Grinder
Baratza makes burr grinders that range in price from what we’d call very affordable (the Encore) to pro-level machines that can top $900. The Virtuoso+ is a step up from the brand’s entry-level machines, but that step is a sizable one. It uses a digital time dosing down to the tenth of a second, which I found to be very consistent. Using setting 18, which Baratza recommends for drip coffee, I repeatedly got exactly 9 grams of coffee in four seconds. Your mileage may vary with different roast levels, but use that as a jumping-off point. It uses Baratza’s M2 burr, which gives a bit more precision than the M3 burr in the Encore and makes this a better bet for brewing methods that need coffee ground at the extreme ends of the spectrum (Turkish, espresso, French press, or cold brew). We’d note, though, that the Encore ESP also uses the M2 burr, and while it doesn’t have digital dosing, it is less expensive.
Eureka Mignon Filtro Coffee Grinder
Eureka is an Italian coffee equipment company that specializes in high-quality (and often expensive) machines, most of which are well outside the price range I considered in these tests. And while the Mignon Filtro is Eureka’s most affordable model, it has the same sort of high-quality construction you’d expect from a much more expensive grinder with features like 50-mm flat burrs. It’s simple and fully manual, but it features stepless adjustment. That means the burrs don’t lock into preset settings, but expand and contract freely, allowing for ultra-precise, fine-tuned control. That kind of versatility is a big plus, but the downside is that it’s impossible to tell how the grinder is set when you look at it for the first time. The adjustment dial is numbered 1–5, but it can make four rotations, so it takes patience and a willingness to do some trial and error. It’s also really only equipped to do middle-of-the-road grinds for methods like drip or pour-over. Despite its relatively low price, it’s definitely a more advanced grinder.
Eureka Mignon Notte Grinder
The espresso-only entry from Eureka functions much like the Filtro, with manual operation and stepless grind adjustments. It’s designed to grind finer and only into a portafilter. The quality of the grind is wonderfully consistent, and the Mignon Notte also features a burr adjustment that makes it easy to clean and reset the burrs. If you are okay without any automatic dosing, you’ll like this grinder. I just think features like time-dosing or single-dosing (like Fellow does) are preferable options for most people.
Breville Smart Grinder Pro
Breville Smart Grinder Pro Coffee Mill
Breville’s Smart Grinder Pro, like many of its espresso makers, provides a quality product at a mid-level price. It uses conical burrs and offers 60 settings—plenty for all brewing methods—and both manual and automatic grind settings. The Smart Grinder Pro doses by time, and selecting a set number of cups correlates with a preset amount of grinding time. You’re going to need to tweak it, though, because while I got a suitable 9.8 grams of coffee on the 1-shot setting, I got 45 grams of coffee on the 2-cup setting, which is way too much. Forty-five grams of ground coffee is enough for four cups. The grinder is easy to adjust, though, produces a consistent grind, and allows for direct grinding into both a 54-mm and 58-mm portafilter, so if you’re willing to do some trial and error on the dosing, I think you’ll be hpy with this one.
Food
Classic Tartar Sauce
This homemade tartar sauce is creamy, bright, and so much better than anything you’ll find in a squeeze packet. It comes together in about 10 minutes, but its flavor improves after a little time in the fridge, once the shallot mellows and the cers, pickles, and herbs have a chance to settle in.
Classic tartar sauce should lean sharp, savory, and herb-forward. Fresh parsley and chives keep things lively, while dill pickles and lemon juice bring the salty, sunny flavor that makes tartar sauce such a natural match for fried seafood.
What kind of pickles are best for tartar sauce?
Truthfully, whatever pickle you like best will work here. Dill pickles give tartar sauce a sharper, more savory flavor, while bread-and-butter pickles make it a little sweeter. Cornichons work nicely too.
Read Epi’s guide to the best shop-bought dills →
Can I sw the herbs or add other ingredients?
Absolutely. Parsley and chives keep this tartar sauce fresh and balanced, but dill, tarragon, or other tender herbs work beautifully too. You can also stir in a little prepared horseradish for extra bite or add a splash of pickle brine if you like things especially tangy—or want a slightly looser sauce.
What do you serve with tartar sauce?
Food
The Best Meat Thermometer Will Stop You From Making One of the Most Common Cooking Mistakes
The probe charges from the base and slides in to store securely, and I liked that the whole thing could find space in a kitchen drawer as one compact unit. Like the Thermoworks RFX, Typhur’s Sync One Pro operates on a sub-1Ghz radio signal, offering you additional range (up to 700 feet from inside a closed grill, or 3,000 feet out in the open) and consistent connection.
What we’d leave: The probe is a bit long, and about two inches of it is not supposed to go inside the meat, meaning it sticks out significantly (and isn’t all that useful on anything slimmer than a ribeye). This could be an issue in tight spaces like small grills or countertop ovens where something like a spatchcocked chicken will need every inch of real estate. The batteries for both the base unit and probe, which charge via USB-C, are rated to last 24 hours on a full charge. This is more than fine for many uses, and I liked that a measly two minute charge of the probe could give it two hours of battery life, but one day of cooking is a little wimpy for long-haul smokers. Typhur makes another Sync One thermometer virtually identical to the Pro, and it can last up to 50 hours, but it lacks the radio signal option, relying on the less energy intensive Bluetooth.
Good to know: Any smart feature is p-reliant. If you know your meats and what temp you like them, then this is an easy-to-use interface for quick setup and cook functionality. If you need some handholding through the process, you’ll need to fire up the p as there are no preset functions on the base station screen itself. The temperature range on this probe should be sufficient for most uses, though the ambient sensor threshold is 752ºF. If you’re just finishing a steak in a pizza oven you probably don’t need a probe in it anymore, but you will need to make sure to remove the Typhur probe before putting it in.
Regarding pricing, while it retails for $120, as of this writing I’ve seen it on sale for as little as $75, as Typhur products frequently go on sale.
How we tested meat thermometers
To find the best meat thermometers, we put a range of leave-in and instant-read models through hands-on testing both in the kitchen and on a grill and smoker. We evaluated accuracy, response time, ease of use, and additional features to determine which tools were the most reliable, intuitive, and helpful for optimal cooking performance. Here’s how we tested:
Food
I Tried 20 Electrolyte Powders and Drinks to Find the Tastiest Ones
If you’d rather consume your electrolytes in gummy form, allow me to introduce you to Plant People’s Wonder Hydrate. These lychee-flavored gummies have a small amount of electrolytes per two gummy serving, so they’re best used as an everyday boost rather than for post-exercise rehydration. Oh, and they taste really good. So good that we’ve taken to passing the bag around at the office when we’re in need of something sweet in the afternoon.
For the coconut water fiend: Coco5
Coco5
Coconut Active Hydration With Electrolytes
Type: Ready-to-drink
Price: $2.50/serving
Sodium: 120mg
Sugar: 14g
Sweetener: Cane sugar and rebiana (a form of stevia)
If you, like me, crave ice-cold coconut water the minute you feel parched, you’ll love Coco5. Made up primarily of coconut water concentrate and filtered water, you can essentially think of this as a coconut water-based sports drink. Coco5 makes use of the electrolytes found naturally in coconut water (like potassium, calcium, and magnesium) and adds salt for an extra hydration boost. Available in six flavors, I thoroughly enjoyed the taste of each one I tried. The passion fruit flavor tasted remarkably of passion fruit for something that doesn’t have, well, real passion fruit in it, and I liked the addition of citric acid for the welcome tartness it brings.
For athletes and intense exercisers: Gatorade
There is a time and place for this OG sports drink. It contains more than triple the amount of added sugar as Liquid I.V., with 34 grams per 20-ounce bottle, but for serious athletes, pro football players, and the like—that is, people who are exercising for hours at a time every day—Grasso says that sugar is absolutely necessary.
A lower-sugar alternative to Gatorade: Gatorlyte
Gatorlyte Rid Rehydration Electrolyte Drink Mix, Variety 18-Pack
Another option from the Gatorade family is Gatorlyte. With far less sugar than traditional Gatorade (12 grams versus 34) and more sodium (490 milligrams versus 270), it’s a great pick for those looking for a widely available, ready-to-drink hydration solution. Do note that the extra sodium does mean Gatorlyte tastes a bit saltier than normal Gatorade.
The best hydration powder for kids: Hiya
Type: Bag/canister or sticks
Price:$1.93/serving
Sodium:85mg
Sugar:2g
Sweetener: Fruit, stevia, monk fruit
