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125: Posie Harwood: A Career Cultivated from Growing Up on a Farm

June 1, 2016 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Posie Harwood of 600 Acres on The Dinner Special podcast featured image.
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Posie Harwood of 600 Acres on The Dinner Special podcast talking about a career cultivated from growing up on a farm.

600 Acres

Posie grew up on a farm that is just over 600 acres where here family had access to the freshest of milk, eggs, and harvests from their well-attended garden. On her blog, 600 Acres, is where she shares some of her memories as well as the new things she is cooking and trying in places far from her home. Posie had worked as a food writer and editor for Tasting Table, Food52, King Arthur Flour and she contributes to Sift Magazine.

I am so pumped to have Posie Harwood of 600 Acres here on the show today.

(*All photos below are Posie’s.)

On Growing Up on a 600 Acre Farm:

Posie Harwood of 600 Acres on The Dinner Special podcast talking about growing up on a 600 acre farm.

I look back and I think how lucky I was because we grew up drinking raw milk and my mom made everything from scratch. We didn’t have chips or any of that stuff. But I never felt like, “Oh man, I feel so deprived.”

When I got older and people started talking about organic food and all that kind of stuff, to me, I always thought, “What else is there?” That’s what I’d always known. Now I realize how lucky that is. Some people have to learn that or seek it out. So, it was a really cool experience. I think it is responsible for what I ended up doing.

On Her Interest in Cooking:

Posie Harwood of 600 Acres on The Dinner Special podcast talking about her interest in cooking.

My mom, she cooked every night and we always had family dinner, but she is an incredible baker. She always made bread for scratch. Just watching her, I learned a lot of the things I’d love to make and cook and bake. And I also think I just watched her have that natural rhythm in a household and picked up on that.

I never went to culinary school. I didn’t start working in food until a little while after college. So, I just always knew that was what I wanted to do. And not even what I wanted to do. I just felt like, “What else is there?” That is just in me. I feel I don’t have a choice. I have to.

On Leaving the Farm:

Posie Harwood of 600 Acres on The Dinner Special podcast talking about leaving the farm.

I’d spend a decent amount of time in spaces away from home. And then, going to college. I went to college in New Jersey actually and then I moved to Manhattan. I think New York took a lot of getting used to for me. I am really not a city person. I love New York. I think it is an amazing place to live and there is lots of food.

But I have always missed open space and fresh air. I know I won’t stay in New York forever. That’s always been a hard thing to just get used to. It is a pro and a con. It is an exciting, huge place. But sometimes I want to speak to no one for the next four hours, but you can’t when you are in New York. It is an adjustment. It is always a little bit of a balance. Now I work for a company in Vermont. So, fortunately, I get to spend a lot of time up there, which is a really nice balance.

On a Dish That’s Special to Her:

I guess I would have to say baking is my one main love. I feel like the first thing that ever really made me excited about food was baking bread. As I said, my mom, we never had store bought bread. She makes everything from scratch. My favorite thing is just white sandwich bread that she makes. It is the most delicious.

When it would come out of the oven we had all my sisters waiting just like rabid animals and she would cut off the loaf, the heel, and give it to one of us and we spread it with butter, which we always would have because we had cows. And she would churn it. So it was this really bright yellow Jersey cow butter and she packed it in these little ramekins. So, she would take a big swipe and put it on the bread and eat that.

That is the ultimate, that is the best thing. Now, every time when I bake bread, which is a lot, I am always making just that white sandwich bread loaf. And I am like, “Ah, this is heaven.” The thing is it is so easy to make. I think a lot of people are intimidated by yeast bread, which I feel like it is the kind of thing if you make yourself do once, it is totally magical and you realize, “Oh, okay, that is actually easier than so many recipes cooking- wise.” I mean, what are there? There’s like three, four ingredients. It just is all a matter of touch and just getting used to what it feels like, bread dough, and how it should feel.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

Top Chef. I’m obsessed with Top Chef. And The Great British Baking Show. Also obsessed.

What are some food blogs or food websites we have to know about?

I love Smitten Kitchen. I love Food52, former employee, I have to say that. I also love The King Arthur Blog where I work now because it is incredibly informative, super good step-by-step baking. If you ever want to learn how to bake, or frost a cake, or make sourdough, check it out.

Who do you follow on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook or Snapchat that make you happy?

I love following Molly Yeh.

Funny, playful, great flavors, love her farm life snap shots.

What is the most unusual or treasured item in your kitchen?

Treasured item probably my stand mixer, I guess I have to say. It is bright red and I love it, and it does so much for me.

Name one ingredient you used to dislike but now you love.

Mushrooms. I used to hate mushrooms and now I eat them all the time. I eat scrambled eggs and mushrooms twice a week for dinner.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Definitely the Joy of Cooking. That is a huge one. Always referencing it. And probably, I have the Cook’s Illustrated Best Baking Cook Book. That is another go to with everything I bake.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I really like cooking to reggae music. I listen to Bob Marley a lot when I cook because it just makes me want to dance around.

On Keeping Posted with Posie:

Posie Harwood of 600 Acres on The Dinner Special podcast talking about keeping posted with her.

Definitely my blog, which is 600acres.com and Instagram. I am always Instagraming twice a day. So you can always check out what I am doing in my kitchen there.

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Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: 600 Acres, Baking, Bob Marley, Bread, Cook's Illustrated, Farm, Food Blog, Food Blogger, Food Photographer, Food Stylist, Food Writer, Food52, Joy of Cooking, King Arthur, Molly Yeh, New York, Posie Harwood, Smitten Kitchen, The Great British Baking Show, Top Chef

122: Aysha Tanya: A Taste of The Malabar Coast

May 11, 2016 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Aysha Tanya of The Malabar Tea Room on The Dinner Special podcast talking about the food of the Malabar Coast.
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Aysha Tanya of The Malabar Tea Room on The Dinner Special podcast talking about a taste of the Malabar Coast.

The Malabar Tea Room

The Malabar Tea Room is a mother/daughter project where Aysha is the writer and photographer, and her mother is the chief recipe tester.

On their blog, they cook up culinary favorites from around the world, using local ingredients, improvisation, and a keen imagination. Aysha is a food writer with a penchant for cookbooks with obscure ingredients, and her writing has appeared in publications such as Vogue, Lucky Peach, and National Geographic Traveler.

I am so excited to have Aysha Tanya of The Malabar Tea Room with me here on the show today.

(*All photos below are Aysha’s.)

On Learning to Cook:

Aysha Tanya of The Malabar Tea Room on The Dinner Special podcast talking about learning how to cook.

Looking back, we always sat in the pantry when my mother was cooking. We’ve always been around her as she cooked. So, there were a lot of things that you just pick up naturally. When I stepped into the kitchen, I didn’t think, “Oh, maybe this is difficult. I won’t be able to do this without help.” It just came out a lot more naturally than I suppose it would have if I hadn’t been watching her all those years.

On Food Along the Malabar Coast:

Aysha Tanya of The Malabar Tea Room on The Dinner Special podcast talking about the food on The Malabar Coast.

Our food is really picked from all these different cultures. We’ve incorporated little pieces of it into our own food. There are a lot of dishes that you would find similarities with in other parts of the world, which is amazing. Most of these dishes, though, they’re in homes only because Malabar food is only beginning to become popular outside. To get most of these delicacies, you would definitely have to go to someone’s home.

On Cooking Involving Improvisation and Imagination:

Aysha Tanya of The Malabar Tea Room on The Dinner Special podcast talking about improvisation and imagination in cooking.

We don’t have access to a lot of ingredients from other cuisines in Kerala. In Kannur, the supermarkets don’t really stock those. So, my mom makes her own noodles. We don’t have access to really great noodles. So, what we started doing is that she just reads these books and she reads a couple of recipes and she just puts something together and makes her own noodles, which I think is really awesome.

On A Dish That’s Special to Her:

One of the dishes that I’m very attached to is a stew. It’s something we call a stew, but it’s nothing like what you know a stew to be. I think what you would refer to as a stew would be much thicker and slow cooked?

Well, this is a really light and thin gravy. The one I’m talking about is a chicken stew. You can have mutton stew, egg stew, different versions of it. It has onions, green chili, black pepper, potatoes, and chicken and ginger, a little bit of ginger.

It’s the most flavorsome, most wholesome, and really nourishing dishes that we have on the Malabar Coast. Actually, you find variations of it in other parts of Kelara as well, so in the south. Malabar is in the northern part of Kelara. In the south, they make it with coconut milk, which is thicker. We leave out the coconut milk most of the time.

I feel sentimental about this dish because it was one of the first things that I learned to make from our food. And I learned it in my aunt’s house with my mother and her standing beside me, and giving directions and me scribbling it down in my notebook and illustrating it. I still have that. I had just started cooking, so I had to draw the pan and I had to say, “You have to listen to the sizzling sound.”

It’s delicious. And I think if anyone wanted to try food from the Malabar Coast, this is a dish that they should start with.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

People ask me this all the time. But, I don’t like watching people cook, I like reading about it. But if I had to pick one, I love watching Nigella’s shows. She’s so fun to watch. She’s so articulate and charming. I love it.

What are some food blogs or food websites we have to know about?

I guess everyone already knows about Orangette… A friend of mine writes a blog called Purple Foodie. Actually, she’s one of the most famous bloggers here in India, and we became friends after that.

Her blog is just amazing. She’s such a talented baker. She started out as a blogger, and she won the James Beard’s scholarship and she studied at Cordon Bleu. Now she’s at the Alain Ducasse School in Paris, and she’s a pastry chef. She’s doing amazing things. She still keeps her blog, and it’s a pretty great blog.

Who do you follow on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook or Snapchat that make you happy?

Instagram, I love following Ann Street Studio.

She’s a photographer. I think she’s primarily a fashion photographer, but she also does food, she does travel. Her photos are just so beautiful. It just makes my day every time she posts.

What is the most unusual or treasured item in your kitchen?

I went to a vintage store recently a few towns away from where I live, and I found this bowl. So, Food 52 has…I’m sure you’re aware of how they have their online store, and they have the most beautiful things on it. But they don’t ship outside the U.S. and Canada.

And there are these bowls on there, these jade bowls. I don’t know if you’ve seen them. They’re green and sort of translucent. They’re mixing bowls. I’ve had my eyes on them forever. And recently, I went to this vintage store, this antique store, and I found this bowl that was so similar to that. And it was awesome. I think it’s my greatest find yet. So, yeah, I would say my green mixing bowl.

Name one ingredient you used to dislike but now you love.

I think I would say garam masala.

It’s a spice blend, basically. And each family has its own version and its own proportions and things like that. And it’s very strong, and you can add only very little to your dishes, otherwise it just overpowers the whole thing. And that was something I was never too fond of, because I feel like my taste buds are super sensitive to cumin. But as I’m growing older, I’ve learned to appreciate it in very, very small doses.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

I buy a lot of cookbooks. I think this might be because, like I said, you know, we live in this small town and we don’t really have access to a lot of ingredients. So when I buy a book, I’m not really telling myself, “So, my next 20 meals are set. I’m going to cook it from this book.” That’s not how it works.

I buy it because I want to see how people cook, I want to read about the thought process that goes into their recipes and so on. So, yeah, I think I mostly pick it up for the writing. And I love the way Nigel Slater writes. I think he’s a fantastic writer. And I love Ripe. I’ve cooked one recipe from it, but it’s my favorite cookbook. I have it by my bedside.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I have a cooking playlist. I think it’s Frank Sinatra’s best hits, and I only listen to it when I’m cooking. I think because I read somewhere that you need to have this one playlist or album or something like that. And so, you only associate only good things with it. I tried that, and it actually works. So, every time I’m in the kitchen by myself. Not with my mother; she gets annoyed when we have music playing. But that’s what I like to listen to.

On Keeping Posted with Aysha:

Aysha Tanya of The Malabar Tea Room on The Dinner Special podcast talking about keeping posted with Aysha.

Instagram. I’m malabartearoom on Instagram, and my Facebook page is also called malabartearoom. So, that’s where I post most of my updates, besides the blog. So, that would be a great way to stay in touch.

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Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Ann Street Studio, Aysha Tanya, Chicken Stew, Food Blog, Food Blogger, Food Writer, Frank Sinatra, garam masala, Kannur, Kerala, Manjula, Mutton Stew, Nigel Slater, Purple Foodie, Ripe, Stew, The Malabar Tea Room

117: Hannah Kirshner: Studying Food Through Work

April 6, 2016 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Hannah Kirshner of Sweets and Bitters on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to keep posted with her.
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Hannah Kirshner of Sweets & Bitters on The Dinner Special podcast talking about studying food through work.

Sweets & Bitters

Hannah is the founder and editor of Sweets & Bitters, a blog and series of printed mini-cookbooks offering a beautiful and practical vision of everyday pleasure. Each volume features fun recipes with helpful tips, and sets the scene with photo essays.

Hannah grew up on a small farm in Washington State, and continued to study food by working her way through a number of varied food roles: from harvesting herbs on an organic farm to developing recipes for publications. She is happiest when her creative and culinary interests overlap.

On A Dish that is Special to Her:

Hannah Kirshner of Sweets and Bitters on The Dinner Special podcast talking about her special dish.

Since I’m just back from my time in Japan, I’m thinking about Japanese food a lot. I had a little apartment there, and I would cook every day. I would go shop. There was a produce market and a butcher right next to my apartment on my street. It was so fun to go each day and get fresh things from them, and try and cook.

But I didn’t get to learn recipes as much as I wanted to. I’d imagined that I would be cooking with grandmas and getting behind the scenes in restaurants. And it took two months just to get to the point where I had those relationships. So maybe next time I go back, I’ll get to do that. But mostly, I was just cooking classic Japanese comfort dishes, or things that I already knew. I definitely had to shift the way that I cooked to suit the type of kitchen ingredients I had there.

One of my favorite things to cook for myself is Oyakodon, which is the rice bowl with chicken and egg. It roughly translates to mother and child bowl, which I just think is delightful.

First of all, let me just describe the whole dish for anybody that doesn’t know. It’s chicken thigh, usually, like the dark meat of chicken, and egg, and some negi, which is the Japanese green onion. It’s like a scallion, in between a scallion and a leek. It’s thicker than a scallion and a little sweeter. But you can easily use scallion too. So you’ve got the chicken, the egg, the negi, and sort of a sweet sauce, with sake, mirin, soy sauce, and dashi, the Japanese kelp and fish stock. And it’s over rice, so it’s just sweet and salty and savory, and it’s over rice. And it’s really easy and fast to make.

I would just crisp the skin of the chicken first, under the broiler, because that was my little change to it, because I love crisp chicken skin. And then, meanwhile make the sauce — dashi, mirin, soy sauce, and sake, and just get the balance of the sauce to taste right. And really, it can be to taste, a little sugar in there too. Then, add the chicken to that, cut it up into little bite-sized pieces, because you’re going to eat it with chopsticks, and then put that in the sauce. And then when it’s almost done, add the negi or a scallion. Then you beat a couple of eggs with a little bit more dashi, and just pour that into the pan, and let it almost cook, and just slide the whole thing onto a big bowl of rice.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I actually don’t watch any, I don’t have television.

What are some food blogs or food websites we have to know about?

As far as blogs, I really love David Lebovitz, he mostly writes about baking, and cooking in his little kitchen in Paris. And he’s so funny, and witty, and his recipes are really, really reliable. Also, the New York Times cooking site I use a lot. I really love the recipes form the New York Times.

Who do you follow on Pinterest, Instagram, or Facebook or Snapchat that make you happy?

Instagram is the only one that I really use. And farm animals, flowers, and food are the only things I want to feed my feed. Saipua, I don’t know if I’m saying their name right either, but it’s a florist from Brooklyn, and they actually moved upstate, and have a farm. I really love following them.

What is the most unusual or treasured item in your kitchen?

Just back from Japan, I actually purchased an iron nabe, big cooking pot, which made my luggage really heavy. But it’s hand hammered iron with a cedar lid, and it makes the kitchen smell like Japan every time I cook in it.

Name one ingredient you used to dislike but now you love.

I think I still dislike all the things I’ve always disliked. There’s only a few. I don’t like peanut butter.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

I really like the classics like, Joy of Cooking and Fannie Farmer. I like, How to Cook Everything. And then again, David Lebovitz, and Dorie Greenspan for baking, they’re two of my favorites.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

There are some funny old jazz song like, Everybody Eats When They Come to my House.

On Keeping Posted with Hannah:

Hannah Kirshner of Sweets and Bitters on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to keep posted with her.

Mostly I use Instagram, though I’m on Twitter and Facebook.

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Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: David Lebovitz, Dorie Greenspan, Fannie Farmer, Food Blog, Food Writer, Hannah Kirshner, How to Cook Everything, Japan, Joy of Cooking, mini-Cookbooks, New York Times cooking, Sweets & Bitters

114: Cathy Erway: Eating In and The Food of Taiwan

March 16, 2016 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Cathy Erway of Not Eating Out in New York on The Dinner Special podcast talking about committing to not eating out in New York.
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Cathy Erway of Not Eating Out in New York on The Dinner Special podcast talking about Eating In and The Food of Taiwan.

Not Eating Out in New York

From 2006 to 2008, Cathy made a commitment to stay away from eating out in restaurants, having street food and take out, so she could explore other avenues of not eating out. She wrote a book about her experience called, The Art of Eating In. More recently, Cathy published a cookbook that looked into her mother’s home cooking roots called, The Food of Taiwan. In addition to her writing, Cathy has been interviewing guests on her weekly podcast, Eat Your Words, on Heritage Radio Network since 2009.

I’m so happy to have Cathy Erway of Not Eating Out in New York with me here on the show today.

(*All photos below are Cathy’s.)

On Committing to Not Eating Out in New York:

Cathy Erway of Not Eating Out in New York on The Dinner Special podcast talking about committing to not eating out in New York.

It was a series of frustrations, like a bad restaurant meal here and there. Who hasn’t had that and then felt like, “Gosh, I could make something much better. Let me just figure out how to get into the habit of it.” I think that’s the hard part, is getting into the habit of it. It’s a routine switch rather than like a food or…I think it’s eating preference for many people. So that happened. And then at the same time I wanted to start a food blog. At this time, 2006, most of the websites and blogs that I saw were all about restaurant gossip, the hottest new chef, this opening, that closing, and all that stuff.

I wanted to do something different because I didn’t think that food has to be about the industry of restaurants necessarily, which is fun, but I also didn’t have the budget for it, too. Who does? When you’re young and you’re into food and you drop $50 plus on a meal. So I decided to make my blog about home cooking. And then I want to give myself a challenge and give the blog something new to talk about.

On Things She Had to Get Used to With This Project:

Well, the social dilemmas of not eating out in New York were actually some of the most fun adventures that I had. But you have to try to bring people together in a communal situation that doesn’t have to do with restaurants. So that meant for me at the time, potlucks, dinner parties. And then I got really into throwing cook-offs and going to them and participating in all sorts of community events. There were supper clubs and all these really fun, amazing, community events to do. So that became my social life, and I met a lot of my friends through those.

On Dumpster Diving:

I wanted to explore all the ins and outs of what not eating out in New York meant. I was interested in foraging in the park. I learned that many people were doing this, gathering dandelion greens for a salad and this and that. I also heard about freeganism. The concept is basically reusing.

So if you have ever picked up some books that you saw on the street or a chair, this is pretty much like that, except its good food that is being wasted by a supermarket or maybe it’s a restaurant or something like that. But for the most part the freegan circles that I ran into and explored and went on walks and trash diving, it was supermarkets and also bakeries, too. Bakeries have so much leftover at the end of the day. If you walk into a nice bakery and you see all those bagels or croissants or something, at the end of day, they’re going into a dumpster.

On Her Book, The Art of Eating In:

I was writing the blog, Not Eating Out In New York, for a couple of years when I got approached by agents. And at that point I didn’t have an idea for a book. Cookbook didn’t seem quite right, but the agent wanted me to write a memoir, but I didn’t really have the story yet. I felt like I was just getting into it, I was just learning about all these interesting communities like a freegan. So, I wasn’t quite there yet. I really sat on the idea for about a year or so until I began writing this book.

It was great. It was definitely written almost in real time too, but it pushed me to explore more folks who were doing really interesting things with food.

On What She Enjoys About Eating In:

Cathy Erway of Not Eating Out in New York on The Dinner Special podcast talking about what she enjoys about eating in.

I think that people have this misconception like it’s really lonely and it’s sad and they have this image of a person in their small insufficient kitchen with their insufficient cookware and so forth. So to get started, I would have a dinner party with a few good friends who you don’t mind just getting a little messy in the kitchen with, and maybe messing up some dishes with.

And you’ll see it’s a lot of fun. And what will happen usually is that it becomes this domino effect and your other friends will want to host the dinner next, and then, you will go from there. You’ll want to also improve upon something that you made last time. So it has an infectious quality to it. I think that’s a fun way to really get into cooking.

The funny thing is that the habit actually is easier once you’re cooking more often because you have not only just more know-how about what works when you’re cooking, but you have all these leftover odds and ends in your fridge. It actually becomes easier to just heat up that rice and then make fried rice with half a head of broccoli and something else rather than order out. So convenience, it can actually happen more often when you’re cooking.

On Her Book, The Food of Taiwan:

Cathy Erway of Not Eating Out in New York on The Dinner Special podcast talking about writing her book, The Food of Taiwan.

It took a long time, a lot longer than I thought. So The Food of Taiwan I think is something that a lot of folks who are interested in food would find super delicious and interesting. All the flavors that go into this wonderful tropical island and all the cultures that have contributed to it is really interesting. It’s where my mother grew up. But growing up and even to this day as a young person in New York, little is talked about with regards to Taiwan and especially Taiwanese food.

When I was shopping this book around originally, this was in 2011. In fact, a lot of awkward conversations would arise when people just didn’t really know what Taiwan was or where it was or why we should talk about the food of Taiwan, like, “How is it different from other Chinese food?” I would hear all the time, and I’m like, well, people are starting to understand a little bit more about the different regions throughout Asia, not just in China, and it’s also catching on in restaurants.

You see people getting into Thai food, you see people getting into Korean food, you see all sorts of niches. So it took a lot of convincing and a lot of patience and perseverance, but finally we made it happen.

On The Hardest Part About Writing The Book:

The hardest part for me was choosing about 100 recipes that I felt would really exemplify Taiwanese food. Because I don’t really have much of a precedent to go on. This is why I was hoping it would be the most comprehensive English language cookbook about Taiwanese food. I have seen some cookbooks in Taiwan, of course, but they tend to be street foods or home style foods, and I wanted to combine both home style and street food to show what is really celebrated on the island right now in food.

That was really difficult for me to whittle it down to 100 recipes and what’s the right one and all that stuff, and then of course, write all the recipes for it. My favorite part, of course, was writing the intro and the culture and the history lessons in it.

On What a Traditional Taiwanese Meal Would Look Like:

Cathy Erway of Not Eating Out in New York on The Dinner Special podcast talking about what a traditional Taiwanese meal would look like.

Taiwanese are actually really seasonal and they take pride in local specialties and seasonal specialties. So it really depends on the time of the year. For instance, people love really fresh, pure and not overly seasoned specialties like fresh bamboo shoots. You wouldn’t want to mess with that with too much sauce or anything like that. You just want to taste that purity of the wonderful ingredient.

Or it could be bitter melon, for instance, something really pure. So I think that to harmonize with the meal, you want one really shining star vegetable like that on the plate. And I would say that you would want a nice rich heavy meat. There’s a lot of pork belly used in Taiwan and they do it very, very well. I would do like a red braised pork belly, nice little dish. You would also typically serve that with something a little sour and piquant, like maybe some pickles, pickled cabbage, for instance, nice little crunch and contrast.

And then I would do maybe a more simmered, braised dish. So three-cup chicken is really great or three-cup squid, which is similar. And this is a clay pot simmered dish with lots of ginger, garlic, and chilies and basil at the end. With those three things, I think you can have a wonderful meal, just right there.

On Some Common Ingredients in Taiwanese Cooking:

I think that one thing they do have a lot of is little fried shallots, which is an excellent garnish. They’re crunchy and they add a little savory topping to anything. It could just be a pile of sauteed greens. Sprinkle those on or some crushed peanuts would do a similar trick. White pepper is pretty widely used in dishes and five-spice powder, but that’s more to marinate things or cook into a stew. Aside from that, there’s really not that many crazy ingredients. This is not a too heavily spiced cuisine, it is not ultra spicy, it is not ultra sweet, you don’t need all these crazy tastes. So it’s pretty accessible.

On Her Podcast:

Cathy Erway of Not Eating Out in New York on The Dinner Special podcast talking about her podcast, Eat Your Words.

Heritage Radio Network is a wonderful nonprofit podcast radio station. At first it was just a really random outgrowth of Heritage Foods USA. And our station was and still is at a little converted shipping container in the backyard of Roberta’s Pizza in Bushwick, Brooklyn. So over the years, that little shipping container has gotten heat and air conditioning. We have also become an actual nonprofit and we have many more shows than what was the case when the station began in 2009. I think there were like five shows.

I happened to be a guest Snacky Tunes with Greg and Darin Bresnitz. And then I had this idea for a show. After one conversation, it just happened and it’s been going since. It’s been really fun. I find it a great way to talk to people.

On Some of Her Favorite Podcast Episodes:

One of my favorite heroes in food Sandor Ellix Katz joined us for an episode. He wrote, The Art of Fermentation and Wild Fermentation. He’s just such an amazing brain. It was so great to get him on air. So definitely check that out. And I really enjoyed interviewing an old female restaurateur legend named Nora Pouillon, and she opened the first certified organic restaurant in the 70s. She was just a real pioneer in the food movement. So it was lovely to have her on air. She talked about her memoir.

In the past, the show has taken so many twists and turns. So nowadays I focus on food and books as the premise. But in the past, I used to focus on food and dating. So if you scroll down throughout the archives, you’ll see some fun ones.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I don’t really watch any. Sorry.

What are some food blogs or food websites we have to know about?

I would say go to No Recipes, Marc Matsumoto is awesome. I’ve always liked Food52, I love Amanda and Merrill. And Chitra Agrawal, the ABCD’s of Cooking is my girl. So definitely check her out.

Who do you follow on Pinterest, Instagram, or Facebook or Snapchat that make you happy?

There are so many Twitter accounts out there and they always make me happy when people are joking about this and that. Lucky Peach has some good posts. I’ll give them that credit for it and they have some great photos too. So let’s say Lucky Peach.

What is the most unusual or treasured item in your kitchen?

Well, I do have these old molds that you’re supposed to put mooncakes in and I love them. I don’t really use them because they’re beautifully hand carved wooden molds with all of these ornate patterns. They would show up on a mooncake on the surface. I actually tried to use them but the dough gets stuck, but I love having them around. I usually put something inside and just leave it there, but yeah, they’re just beautiful old cooking tools.

Name one ingredient you used to dislike but now you love.

For me that would be cheese. I am still trying to like many types of cheese. So the stinkier, the blue cheese, I’m not quite there yet. But since my 20s, I’ve been trying to eat more, trying to like more cheeses. And I know that this is crazy when it comes to most of the foodies that I know. It’s always been my Achilles heel, not really having a taste for cheese growing up. I don’t know why.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

I love Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Italian Cooking. I love Elizabeth Andoh’s Washoku, home style Japanese cooking. I learned so much from these books. They’re so comprehensive and they take such a deep dive into all these classic recipes from a culture that I didn’t grow up eating. I definitely love eating. So those are some really great staples. But on that similar note, I love to collect really great books about fill-in-the-blank regions. I have a really great book about Portugal right now, I have a great book about Senegal, all through the lens of food. So bring it on. Every single country I want to collect a cookbook of.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

Lately, I’ve been listening to lot of Latin Boogaloo, so I will say Joe Bataan’s Riot! right now. It’s just so much fun, it’s groovy, 60s Latin, New York jazz. It’s awesome.

On Keeping Posted with Cathy:

Cathy Erway of Not Eating Out in New York on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to keep posted with her.

Check me out on Twitter. Also go to noteatingoutinny.com.

Eat Your Words on Heritage Radio Network. So it’s heritageradionetwork.org. You just click on the shows, find mine. And check out others, too. They’re awesome.

Subscribe to The Dinner Special podcast

Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: ABCDs of Cooking, Blogger, Cathy Erway, Cookbook Author, Eat Your Words, Elizabeth Andoh, Essentials of Italian Cooking, Food Writer, Food52, Freeganism, Heritage Radio Network, hertiageradionetwork.org, Joe Bataan, Lucky Peach, Marc Matsumoto, Marcella Hazan, No Recipes, Nora Pouillon, Not Eating Out in New York, Podcast, Roberta's Pizza, Sandor Ellix Katz, Snacky Tunes, Taiwan, Taiwanese Cooking, The Art of Eating In, The Art of Fermentation, The Food of Taiwan, Washoku, Wild Fermentation

016: Renee Byrd: Learning to Cook With Food Sensitivities

March 23, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Renee Byrd of Will Frolic for Food on The Dinner Special podcast talking about the idea behind her blog.
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Renee Byrd of Will Frolic For Food on The Dinner Special podcast on Learning to Cook With Food Sensitivities

Will Frolic for Food

Renee is a writer, photographer, recipe developer, and chocolate maker. She eats a wheat-free, dairy-free and vegetarian diet, and her blog is a reflection of this. On Will Frolic for Food, you will find recipes for creative, savory vegetarian dishes and occasionally more healthful versions of something indulgent.

I am so happy to have Renee Byrd of Will Frolic for Food here on the show today.

On The Idea Behind Her Blog:

Renee Byrd of Will Frolic for Food on The Dinner Special podcast talking about the idea behind her blog.

I think the main idea for the blog came from just cooking in my daily life. I am bored very easily so I make a lot of weird, interesting recipes at home, and my now husband, then fiancé, was just really… I would make meals and he would say, “You really need to start a blog about this because people need to know these recipes. You can’t just keep them to yourself. It’s really not fair in a way.”

From my side, I was like, “No, I mean that’s so much work. I don’t want to. I don’t know.” Finally I was just like, “This is probably worth my time to share this with people,” and it totally has been. The community is a major reason I keep going.

I often have recipes that take me over eight hours to do. All in all, like recipe development, making the recipe, photographing the recipe, editing the recipe, post processing, writing; all things that go into it.

It’s so much. I love every second of it, but it’s not easy technically.

On Her Interest in Cooking and Food:

Renee Byrd of Will Frolic for Food on The Dinner Special podcast talking about her interest in cooking and food.

I’ve pretty much always been interested in it. I have a natural affinity towards natural foods and wanting to feel healthy and feel great.

I’ve always associated food with feeling good and being happy. I am sure the majority of that is that my mother is a fantastic cook and taught me how to make a lot of interesting foods and interesting meals out of nothing; out of like, “What’s in the fridge?” “I don’t know. We don’t have anything in fridge. I guess we’re going to make a pizza out of stuff.” She really had a good understanding of flavors and flavor combinations and how to balance meals. From that perspective, I learned all of that from her.

A lot of my inspiration has come from friends who are just passionate about food, from my friends who were basically in this little vegan, raw foods, commune situation in college, because I am just sort of hippy at heart and all my friends are like that. I love the way that they eat.

That was very inspiring to me to be with those people because they were just making these incredible curries, chutneys, and raw date brownies and it just blew my mind; so those people, and of course my mother, who gave me the foundation thankfully. I am very thankful for that.

Beyond that, so much of my inspiration comes from incredible bloggers on Internet who have been doing what they do for so long.

On Her Food Sensitivities:

Renee Byrd of Will Frolic for Food on The Dinner Special podcast talking about her food sensitivities.

I ignored most of it. Well, the dairy thing I ignored. Funnily enough, everyone in my family is allergic to dairy; allergic, not lactose-intolerant. Most of them just kind of ignore it and the wheat thing I developed a sensitivity to in my early 20s in college.

I started getting really painful stomach aches and was having really terrible digestive issues; it just hurt. I didn’t know what it was, didn’t understand it and it turned out to be a combination of sensitivity to peanuts and wheat.

I didn’t get officially diagnosed with those things but I essentially cut both of them out, and then suddenly, “Wow. Eating is fun again and doesn’t hurt me anymore.”

I just decided that I didn’t want to feel sick when I ate, and in my life, and I wasn’t going to compromise about that and I did for a long time. I basically was like, “I’ll eat wheat here and there. I’ll eat dairy here and there,” but then I was just feeling sick. It just got to a point where I was like, “I don’t need these things.”

I do eat goat dairy because it doesn’t have the same sugars and proteins as cow dairy. I am able to digest that fine, so you see a lot of that on my blog. You see a lot of chevre and goat cheese, goat yogurt. I think it’s a wonderful food, personally, so I do feature that relatively often.

On Learning To Cook with Food Sensitivities:

Renee Byrd of Will Frolic for Food on The Dinner Special podcast talking about learning to cook with food sensitivities.

There are tons of resources. There are some books that I really, really love that are really on point for teaching you how to make exact recipes. Inspired Vegan is amazing. I love that book. I think it’s Bryant Terry, and it’s so wonderful. Obviously all of the Ottolenghi books, anything that’s naturally wheat-free in there is incredible.

Getting yourself out there and volunteering to help people cook big meals and for gatherings and things is another great way to learn.

Obviously blogs are fantastic resources. I’ve got a massive blog roll of people who are constantly teaching me with their process and their way.

I just have so many things going through my brain right now. I’m allergic to dairy, so the lactose and the casein that I’m allergic to but I eat Ghee. Ghee is amazing. A lot of people aren’t very familiar with it and a lot of people with sensitivities aren’t very familiar with the fact there is something that’s derived from cow dairy that they can eat.

Ghee is a wonderful clarifying food that is good for the joints, it’s good for the skin and helps support the nervous system. You can actually put it on your skin and it’s very calming and moisturizing. It’s an incredible food. I love it. I eat it a lot. I make it at home so that’s something that I use often that I feel like I am probably preaching about a lot.

Ghee is clarified butter.

To make it at home, I get a really nice organic butter. If I can get it from a farmer that’s local — that’s fantastic as well — that I trust and then I boil it over medium-high heat. I skim all of the froth that comes to the top, all of the lactose and casein off of the top. I discard that.

You just keep doing that until all of that frothy stuff is gone. Then you strain it and you pour it into a heat safe jar and you can use it. Generally a very clean organic butter, you’re going to be able to turn it into ghee relatively quickly and then you have this wonderful food that you can keep on your counter. You don’t even have to refrigerate it. It lasts for years — literally years — and it makes everything taste better.

Tips for Cooking Gluten-Free or Dairy-Free for the First Time:

Renee Byrd of Will Frolic for Food on The Dinner Special podcast talking about gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan cooking for the first time.

Trust simple recipes. Starting with that, if you’re cooking for somebody who has allergies, trying to start out with doing a complicated baking recipe especially if you don’t have all of the ingredients and aren’t willing to follow all of the directions exactly, it’s going to be very frustrating.

I just remember back to when I was first learning how to do gluten-free cooking a couple of years ago how angry I was. These recipes weren’t working for me but I always want to try something that is more complicated because I want to be the best at it right now, but I don’t know what I’m doing.

Trusting simple recipes and finding a recipe developer that you really trust and that you really respect. I feel like I sorted through blogs and authors for years before I found people that I felt like I could trust their recipes. I wish I had a list of bloggers that I think are awesome and that I really trust their recipes. Actually I do have a list of inspiration on my blog of a bunch of different blogs that I love; not all of them are gluten-free but I definitely trust all of them. It’s just under the inspiration tab.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I don’t really watch a lot of cooking shows but I could tell you that I want to watch a really cool cooking show that is all about seasonal eating but it’s fun and there’s traveling involved.

I don’t have anything that I watch regularly. I watch YouTube videos of folks sometimes doing their thing. Green Kitchen Stories has some really cool videos.

What are some food blogs or websites that we have to know about?

Oh my god. Yeah, hundreds of them. That’s a terribly hard question but what pops in my mind, let’s see. Two Red Bowls — super awesome, gorgeous photography; hilarious and just wonderfully inspiring recipes.

Dolly and Oatmeal, I love Lindsey Love’s recipes. They all are gluten-free, they are generally dairy-free, too; very creative and beautiful photography as well. I take a lot of inspiration from her recipes, so I just have to stress that.

Let’s see, so many of them. Obviously, Local Milk. I mean do I even need to say it? She’s the best ever that ever existed. I want to be her.

Eva Kosmas Flores of Adventures in Cooking has the most gorgeous photography in the world ever.

I am trying to think of other gluten-free bloggers here. I am always super in love with My New Roots. Everything is great on My New Roots, and Green Kitchen Stories, and Sprouted Kitchen. If you do not read those, you’re a crazy person. They’re just so good.

Who do you follow on Pinterest, Instagram or Twitter that make you happy?

Also a very hard question. Instagram, I follow a lot of people, a range of folks who do everything from food to really wonderful landscapes and stuff. Again, Eva Kosmas Flores has a wonderful Instagram.

What is something all home cooks should have in their pantry?

Coconut oil, quinoa, always gluten-free pasta is a go-to for sure, and fantastic quality olive oil and sea salt are better than anything. I actually use JQ Dickinson sea salt which is a West Virginia sea salt which is very flaky. It is a little bit lower in sodium and has of mineral quality to it. I love it. When I’m out of it, I cry a little bit.

Olive oil, I use Zoe’s because it’s really affordable in large amounts and it is really good, just delicious. I just feel like with good oil and salts you can make anything taste good.

Name one ingredient you cannot live without?

The JQD sea salt pretty much. I bring it with me everywhere.

Pretty much anytime I say coarse sea salt, I’m talking about that salt.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi, Inspired Vegan, BabyCakes Covers the Classics by Erin McKenna is the foundation of gluten-free desserts in my mind. She is such a genius with gluten-free desserts. I pretty much owe that cookbook everything. My basic understanding of how gluten-free baking works and what you need to make it work. I’ve definitely branched off from that but that’s the foundation for sure.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

Everything by Kishi Bashi. His most recent album, I can’t remember the name of it. Yeah, I just want to dance around my house and cook.

Keep Posted on Renee:

Renee Byrd of Will Frolic for Food on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to keep posted with her.

Other than following my blog, at willfrolicforfood.com, I am always posting on Instagram and Twitter. My handle is @FrolicChocolate. I have a Facebook page, too, but definitely Twitter and Instagram are the best ways.

Have One of Renee’s Delicious Soup Recipes Sent to You Now: 

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    Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Adventures in Cooking, BabyCakes Covers the Classics, Bryant Terry, Casein, chocolate maker, Dairy-Free, Dolly and Oatmeal, Erin McKenna, Eva Kosmas Flores, Food Blog, Food Blogger, Food Photographer, Food Sensitivities, Food Writer, Ghee, Gluten-Free, Green Kitchen Stories, Inspired Vegan, Kishi Bashi, Local Milk, My New Roots, Plenty, Renee Byrd, Sprouted Kitchen, Two Red Bowls, Vegan, Will Frolic for Food, Yotam Ottolenghi, Zoe's Olive Oil

    Hello! I'm Gabriel Soh, home cook, food enthusiast and your host of The Dinner Special podcast.
    Everything here on The Dinner Special is an experiment, just like with cooking. Thank you for listening and being part of the adventure.

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