Chef Sara Moulton Answers Your Cooking Questions

Here are some tips: 1. When you mix your dough, make sure all your ingredients are cold. 2. Don't mix in the butter until it is fully incorporated; you want to see pea-size lumps. 3. Try to add just enough water to hold the dough together and mix it in rather quickly. 4. After you mix the dough, put it in the fridge for at least an hour, which allows the gluten that is all tight after mixing to relax. 5. When you roll out the dough, do it quickly; don't work the dough too much. 6. When you put the rolled-out dough into a pie plate, don't stretch it to fit. Ease it in, fitting it gently into the corners. Stretching it will make it shrink back later when you bake it. 7. Chill it again, for an hour after you roll it out, before you bake it.

All of these things should help!

Cheryl Rasmussen: Hi Sara, I have always wondered what types of fish have eatable skin?

Sara's Answer:

Cheryl,

I realized that I hadn't really thought about this. I did a little research and there was no big list of edible fish skins to be found. However here are the some of the fish skins my fish experts recommended:
salmon
artic char
sea bass
striped bass
snapper
trout

and here are some fish skins they did not recommend
tuna
swordfish
grouper
black fish
sole
flounder

Marje Strickland: Sara, How can I make pesto without nuts? I have an allergy to nuts. Please help me. Love your shows, Marje

Sara's Answer:

Marje,

The nuts are there for flavor, body and mouth feel. If you want to replicate those three things, replace the nuts with either sunflower seeds, sesame seeds or legumes such as white beans. Or, leave the nuts out altogether – you will still have a wonderfully fragrant herb sauce.

For more great recipes from Sara check out her website or follow her on Twitter: @saramoulton