"HowCast" news and stories

Remember those beginner knife skills we learned last week? That was just step one, friends.

Now it's time to get a little more crafty with that blade and morph food into edible garnishes that are artistic triumphs. The video above, courtesy of Howcast, details how to turn produce and chocolate into veritable sculptures.

In a "Wallace & Gromit"-style video, we are shown a few of the super-quick, super-easy ways to make things look snazzier -- orange-wrapped cherries skewered with a toothpick for a cocktail, tiny mushroom curls, a quick tomato skin rose and even sinfully delicious curls of chocolate perfect for a bowl of ice cream.

When food art is this easy, how can you resist?

Eggplants. They just hang out in the farmer's market like they own the joint. Big, fat, smug and kingly purple.

And we can't resist them. In an attempt to partake of their charms without heating the heck out of muggy apartments, we were pleased to stumble upon this recipe for Tortang Talong, a traditional Filipino recipe that brings egg and pork into the eggplantian universe.

Yup, egg. No big surprise to see it sneak into the equation, since it's had cross-cultural starring roles in pork-vegetable dishes from Japanese ramen to Korean bibimbap. But watching this video somehow still floored us: "Tortang Talong!" Who doesn't want to brag to her friends that she's whipping that up for dinner? Check it out and let us know if you give it a go.

[Via Howcast]

Summer leaves seafood lovers craving lobster in some incarnation, whether it be tucked into a buttery roll, scattered throughout risotto or luxuriating in the butter-cream bath of lobster Thermidor (thought to have been a favorite of Napoleon).

However you like your lobster, getting to its tender meat can be nightmarish, with spiny claws and juice flying everywhere. Not so in this excellent Howcast video, with a demonstration by chef Marc Murphy of New York City's Landmarc, who knows his way around the leggy critters. Who knew you could either snip open or crush those dastardly knuckles? Or crush the tail under a towel?

The video even ends with a quirky factoid: Boiling lobsters alive in Reggio Emilia, Italy is illegal, with violators facing fines nearing $800. We wonder how many Italians risk it!

[Via Howcast]