@basically

This may look like an unassuming bowl of dough, but it’s full of great potential. Over the next four weeks, Bryan Ford (@artisanbryan) is taking over Basically with 4 different recipes that put this dough to use. (There will be pizza.) Bryan is a bread baker and author of New World Sourdough, so you’ll be in great hands. Bryan’s master dough recipe uses a preferment, in this case the low-maintenance poolish, for great flavor and structure. Click the link in our bio to learn all about it and to familiarize yourself with the recipe. 📷: @chelsielcraig 🍴: @mpearljones

The question of which blender is The Best is not really up for debate. Experts agree: Vitamix reigns supreme. But the question of whether you personally need the best blender, considering how much it’ll cost you? That’s a bit more complicated. We’ll help you figure it out at the link in our bio. 📷: @chelsielcraig 🍴: @mpearljones

Sure, Andrew Spena (@spena) *can* break down a butternut squash safely, but sometimes he wonders WHY? Prepping a squash is only satisfying in that doing so without losing a finger feels like a win. He may not always reach for husked corn or shrink-wrapped broccoli, but after a long day at work, when the butternut soup craving hits, the pre-cut squash works just fine. Click the link in our bio to read more from Andrew. 📷: @yungbludlau

@priyakrishna has spent many afternoons sidled up next to her mom in her kitchen, watching her stir sticks of butter in a pot as they slide from foamy white to clear, golden ghee, filling the room with a butterscotch-y aroma. Ghee is the magnificent result of distilling butter down to just the flavorful butterfat, and it has long been a fixture of a number of cuisines. It’s simple to make at home (though you can find our favorite store-bought brands at the link in our bio), useful to have around, and has a high smoke point and supercharged flavor that lend it well to baking, poaching, frying, and everything in between. Anything you can do with butter, you can probably do better with ghee. Click the link in our bio to learn more about ghee and get @milkandcardamom’s recipe for this chai cake with brown butter ghee streusel. 📷: @laurashoots 🍴: @rebeccajurkevich

“When it comes to Puerto Rican comfort food, arroz con pollo or mofongo are usually the first dishes that come to mind. But I’m here to tell you about piñon,” writes recipe developer Gabriella Vigoreaux (@swamp_senorita). “Like its close cousin pastelón, this cheesy layered casserole is often compared to lasagna, but the flavors couldn’t be more different. Ground beef is simmered with soffritto and tomato, then studded with raisins and olives to make a picadillo. Layered with mozzarella and fried sweet plantains and baked, it makes the ultimate sweet-and-savory mash-up. I’m willing to wager that no two Puerto Rican families make piñon the same way, and this is my family’s version, taught to me by my grandmother Helga and her sister Elsie.” Gabriella omits the canned green beans from her family version, but you can add a few layers into the mix if you’re pro-green bean. Click the link in our bio for Gabriella’s piñon recipe. 📷: @chelsielcraig 🍴: @mpearljones

Writer Amanda Mitchell’s (@lochnessmanda) mom introduced her to the idea of snack boards, which, yes, are simply snacks on the plate or board of your choosing. Everybody’s ideal snack board is different, but all are meant to be composed of whatever's in the fridge and grazed on throughout the day. According to Amanda, a snack board should be easy, which means an Eggo waffle can go on it but homemade pancakes can not. It can be for one person or for five people, containing only candy or all of the almost-bruised fruit in the fridge. Click the link in our bio for more of Amanda Mitchell’s highly-opinionated, somewhat arbitrary Snack Board Rules. 📷: @yungbludlau

There are endless ways to meal prep, and none of them are wrong in our book. For example, @alexandrabeggs has a lone hot dog in a pint container labeled “hot dog”. At the link in our bio we’ll give you a bunch of ways to maximize your time in the kitchen, like roasting 2 chickens instead of 1 so you have leftovers, planning out your meals on paper so you can see what odds and ends ingredients you’ll have later, and getting the busy work out of the way like cleaning and washing your greens when you bring them home from the store! Click the link in our bio for all of these ideas. 🎨: @timlahan

Recently, @alexandrabeggs did an experiment. She wanted to see how long she could stretch 2 bundles of curly kale. Because when you strip the leaves and sauté them, somehow you end up consuming an entire bunch in one meal. So she fried the stems and stuffed them into a burrito, massaged some raw leaves for a salad that lasted 3 days, and turned the rest into chips that got tossed through pasta. Of course, she asked a bunch of friends what they would do too, so at the link in our bio you can find a ton of ways (like @seechaey’s blanch and freeze method pictured above!) to stretch your greens. 📷: @laurashoots 🍴: @susietheodorou

“A classic yakhni pulao is meticulously prepared by simmering basmati rice in an aromatic chicken, lamb, or goat broth,” says recipe developer and food writer Shayma Owaise Saadat (@spicespoon). “Pulao is prepared in a myriad of ways, and goes by a variety of names in countries ranging from Iran to Afghanistan and India to Kazakhstan. I learned to make this dish from my aunt Nilofer, and I borrowed some of her techniques and spices to create my Pakistani-style pulao. In my version, chicken thighs are simmered in a spiced tomato base along with rice and whole spices like cinnamon and bay leaf. As a nod to my Persian ancestry, I added one of my favorite Persian pantry staples, lemon omani (a.k.a. limoo omani), a dried lime with a sour, musky, complex flavor profile.” Click the link in our bio for Shayma’s chicken tomato pulao. 📷: @chelsielcraig 🍴: @mpearljones

When Smita Dolan (@smitapitaa) was learning to cook, the first dish she nailed was veggie pulao. A simpler cousin to biryani, her recipe isn’t really a recipe but more of a framework for whatever veggies she already has in her fridge. Of course there are some non negotiables like deggi mirch, a bright, neon red powder that will add heat and greatly improve your spice cabinet. See how Smita makes her veggie pulao at the link in our bio. 📷: @chelsielcraig 🍴: @mpearljones

Writer Kate Raphael (@kateraphael1) is the self-proclaimed “Queen of Alt Milk”, which is why it was her duty in life to make an at-home version of oat milk sans slime. She blended, strained, and poured *a lot* until she got a product she loved. At the link in our bio, Kate will tell you everything you need (no nut milk bags required) to make the best oat milk. 📷: @chelsielcraig 🍴: @mpearljones

For recipe developer and cookbook author Dzung Lewis (@honeysuckle), weekends growing up were spent eating pho with her family in San Jose. But the best part about these outings was the Vietnamese egg coffee. The drink originated in Hanoi in 1946, when a bartender named Nguyen Van Giang used whisked egg as a substitute for frothy milk, which was hard to come by due to war. The idea stuck. It’s a popular café specialty all over Vietnam now, but, as Dzung demonstrates, it's actually easy to make at home. Click the link in our bio or watch our Instagram Story to see how she does it. 📷: @chelsielcraig 🍴: @mpearljones