Serious Eats / Marcus MillanWading through the wide world of espresso at home can be overwhelming. There are coffee scales, espresso grinders, knock boxes, and even water filters to explore as you fine-tune your process. But more important than anything else, you’ll need a good espresso machine. The ideal at-home espresso machine should be user-friendly,...

Serious Eats / Amanda SuarezFrench sauces are a lot like the pantheon of ancient Greek gods. There are the major ones, biggies like bechamel and hollandaise, Zeus and Hera, and below them the hierarchy descends. But that hierarchy doesn't indicate absolute superiority in all senses—I'd rather hang out with Dionysus and Pan over Zeus and Hera any day....

Serious Eats ; Getty Images/Johner ImagesSerious Eats ; Getty Images/Johner ImagesThis website isn’t exactly known for shortcuts, but every now and then, someone on this team offers up a tip in passing that not only makes life (and cooking!) much, much easier, but it also just…makes sense. And while we’re in the business of making great food, we’re...

Serious Eats / Melati CitrawirejaOh, peanut sauce, how do I love thee?  Let me count the ways. In Indonesia, peanut sauce is a staple served alongside many dishes, including satay, gado-gado, and meat- or fish-stuffed vegetables called siomay. Traditionally, cooks prepare peanut sauce by pounding roasted or fried peanuts to a paste using a mortar and...

Serious Eats / Melati CitrawirejaIn Indonesian cuisine, spice pastes called bumbu bumbu—repeating the noun makes it plural— are the cornerstone of many dishes. This white spice paste, known as bumbu dasar putih, is one of several bumbu dasar (basic pastes) that serve as the foundation for many Indonesian dishes. It’s typically made with garlic, shallots,...

Serious Eats / Robby LozanoCheck out my tagline on the homepage of Serious Eats, and you’ll know that I love all vegetables. But what veggie tops my list at any given time has a lot to do with what’s in season in the growing areas near New York City, where I live. And in the spring, I’m all about asparagus. I love it in simple preparations, such as...