— Cynthia Dudak

I made something yesterday. I was testing a recipe and it had too many onions in it, and I added a little bit of balsamic vinegar to sort of redirect the flavor of the onions. Uh, you can put a potato into the soup and the potato just peel a potato, cut it in half, throw it in the pot, and the potato will, um, uh, absorb some of that oniony flavor, um, that you seem to like. So, uh, either potato while you're cooking, and then at the end, if it still tastes a little too on your knee to you, a little splash of some balsamic vinegar or glaze will do the trick. I think that'll work. Keep practicing. That's good. Uh, this is from Mary g in No Oil saute, is it possible that the pan gets too hot and that it doesn't work? Um, Mary was cooking on Sunday and was having a difficult time, and, uh, she's not sure what went wrong. Well, maybe nothing went wrong. That's the first thing. So if you have a stainless steel pot, doing the mercury water bowl test is sort of like the tribe and true way to measure the heat of your pan. So, uh, I would look at that, and then I would also look at the size of the vegetables that you were using. It's really important to think about vegetables being of the same size so that they can cook evenly and at the same temperature. So you are saying that, um, that it was a difficult time. I would love to know, um, what wasn't right for you? Um, I find the no oil saute, uh, works if you're starting out that recipe that we give you with, um, for the mushrooms, with the shallots and the garlic, et cetera, et cetera. And, you know, another thing that's very helpful is if you are even doing a dry saute, is to listen to the sound of the sizzle. And if the sizzle is too fast and too high pitched, then you want to turn down your flame a little bit. And sometimes you have to regulate that. And I don't know if you're cooking on a gas stove or an electric stove, but, um, listening is another way to, uh, to help you along in that. So keep me posted. Um, shoot me an email at Char@rouxbe.com or send me a photo. I would love to see it, uh, because in a while, uh, no oil sote really becomes second nature to you. And it's kind of like, um, like riding a bicycle when all of a sudden you're like, oh, I have it. So, um, I'm sure they were really good. So thanks for writing.