British-Style Chips

Most home bartenders strain their drinks using only a Hawthorne strainer (the kind with the metal spring), which lets a lot of extra ice into their drinks. Jennifer Colliau, bartender at San Francisco’s Heaven’s Dog and owner of Small Hand Foods, shows how adding a tea strainer to the equation will keep ice chips out of your drink, ensuring a properly diluted, tasty cocktail.

If a fire escape is the closest you come to a backyard, it shouldn’t stop you from smoking. Former CHOW.com Senior Food Editor Jill Santopietro says that turning your wok into a smoker doesn’t take much effort. All you need is aluminum foil, a round cooling rack, and finely ground wood chips, available online or at hardware stores or some cooking supply stores. If you don’t have wood chips, you can use a 1/2 cup kosher salt, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup rice, and 1/4 cup oolong tea leaves mixed with 2 tablespoons water for more of a tea smoke. Indoor smokers take note: Open your windows and remove your smoke detector (but don’t forget to put it back when you’re done). Find plenty of smoking recipes and other tips here!

Baby back ribs are a cookout classic, and this smoked version is extra delicious. First flavored with a rub of brown sugar and spices like paprika, chili powder, and ground mustard, the ribs get a wonderful smokiness when grilled over applewood chips, and a final boost from barbecue sauce. Yum! Read more.

The microwave is known for its versatility and ubiquity. Eggs happen to share this reputation, and it turns out the two are perfect for each other. In this CHOW Tip, Deborah Lewis of CHOW.com demonstrates the techniques for cooking scrambled, sunny-side up, and poached eggs in the microwave. (And here's how to make a brownie in the microwave, plus crunchy potato chips.)