Julia Child | The Dinner Special podcast

070: Cathy Barrow: Charcuterie and Pantry Building

August 24, 2015 by Gabriel 4 Comments

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Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Kitchen

Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Kitchen was started in 2009, and it’s where Cathy shares her cooking, baking, preserving, and keeping of her practical pantry. Her recipes have been included in the Food52 cookbook. Al Roker made her Thanksgiving stuffing on the Today Show. And she has been featured in the Washington Post. Cathy recently released her first cookbook, Mrs.Wheelbarrow’s Practical Pantry, which won the 2015 IACP Single Subject Cookbook Award.

I am so thrilled to have Cathy Barrow of Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Kitchen here on the show today.

(*All images below are Cathy’s.)

On Starting Her Blog:

I had been a landscape designer for about ten years, and I was really a happy landscape designer. I have a big garden, a flower garden, and many, many clients in my general neighborhood. And in 2008, when we all suffered a little bit from the change in the economy, let’s say, my landscape business dried up, not just a little but sort of completely. And I know all the reasons for it now, but at the time, I couldn’t really see clear. I was pretty depressed. And several friends of mine who had come to my kitchen to eat, who I’d helped learn how to make pie dough, or learn how to cook with different ingredients, they all said, “You should be teaching cooking classes.”

And I said, “Well, that’s just a great idea. How will anybody ever find out about it?” And their response was, “Have you heard of this thing called a blog?” And I had not. I had never read one. I was really not part of that world, so I started doing some research. And one of those friends was a graphic designer and helped me set up the site, taught me a few simple tricks to figure out how to load a photo, and off I went. Nobody was more surprised than I was, that anybody actually read it.

I do feel there’s a very distinct line that you can draw from gardening to cooking, and particularly, the kind of cooking I do that is so seasonally dependent. My knowledge of the garden makes me a better preserver in many ways.

On Learning How to Cook:

I definitely took some cooking classes that were very helpful, and I read a lot of cookbooks. My curiosity led me to want to learn how to make certain things. I remember, maybe even 25 years ago, deciding that I wanted to learn how to make a baguette. And this was long before you could just Google how to make a baguette, or go to YouTube. And what I found, was that maybe the first one wasn’t good, but the second one was better, and the third one was even better than that. I recently read something Sam Sifton wrote in The New York Times, where he said that cooking is like yoga. It’s a practice. It’s not something that you’re born knowing, but the more you practice, the better you get at it. And I’ve been doggedly determined to learn how to make certain things, even in the face of failure.

I think I’ve been developing my own recipes forever, but it never occurred to me that it was something unusual, until I became part of a larger community. I think, for many of us, joining the Internet and starting to share recipes was a revelation. We either thought we were all alone in the world…because my friends, of course, were like, “You’re crazy spending eight weeks trying to figure out how to make a croissant.” And then I find this group of people who do the same thing I do, and it’s so thrilling to me.

So I’ve always gone to restaurants and tasted it, and then come home and tried to recreate things. Or I decided I’m going to study Sichuan cooking, and just cook everything in a book until I felt that I was confident enough that I could take that education, those flavors, and start to refine it a little bit. I definitely started working on my own recipes when I married a vegetarian, because Dennis would prefer not to eat much meat; he does eat a little bit but not much. He’ll eat a little chicken. I was pretty meat-centric when I met him, and now having to learn to take some of my favorite recipes and translate them into something that can become vegetarian, has been a big education for me. It’s a lot of fun.

On Charcutepalooza:

How it came together is really crazy. A friend of mine on Twitter, it happened that it was a late December Sunday morning. The tree was up, the presents were wrapped, the cookies were mailed. It was actually the first Sunday that I wasn’t crazy with things to do. I was hanging out in my kitchen and playing on Twitter, and a friend of mine said, “It’s so cold in my basement, I could hang meat.” And I said, “If you hang a duck breast, you’ll have prosciutto in seven days.” “Really?” was the answer. And I don’t know what kind of divine intervention happened, but I literary saw this whole program layout for me.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what I might do to push my blog up a little bit in terms of recognition, and it became clear to me that my knowledge of how to make charcuterie at home as a home cook could be the basis for an education program. So I got off of Twitter at that very moment and I sketched out a 12-month education program to go each month and learn something about charcuterie, following the guide of Michael Ruhlman’s great book, Charcuterie. And I came back online and said, “Hey, here’s the idea.” And a lot of people said, “We’d love to do that.”

And it became a blogger challenge over the next couple of weeks. After that, I started making random phone calls to see if I could find some sponsors. And one of my dearest friends now, who I didn’t know at all, Kate Hill, offered a week-long charcuterie program at her French retreat in Gascony. And that was gonna be the Grand Prize. So I was trying to establish how you would get the prize and how it would be voted on. Anyway, I worked out those details but I also realized that just offering somebody a week-long thing in France wasn’t enough. You had to get them there.

So then I found a travel agent called Trufflepig. I didn’t know them at all but I just went to their contact form on the web and said, “Hey, you got a great name. I got this crazy idea, would you give me free tickets to France?” And they came back and said, “Sure, and we’ll do train tickets and hotels. And how about a party?” I mean, they were so generous. And so I put this program together and about 400 bloggers around the world participated, and Food52 partnered with us and ran the whole program on their site. And it was just tremendously fun. What I loved is that in September of that year, Kate Hill invited me to her farm in the south of France, so I got to do that same charcuterie training. It was wonderful.

On Making Charcuterie for the First Time:

I always say to start with bacon. You can’t go wrong. Everybody loves bacon. And once you have it, you’ll join that forever club. You’ll never go back. Bacon, simply you get a pork belly, you cure it for a week in the refrigerator and then you roast it very, very low until it comes to a temperature that’s safe. So there’s no hanging it in the closet. There’s nothing dangerous or unsafe about it. It’s going to be refrigerated then it’s going to be cooked. It’ll change your mind about charcuterie right then and there. You’ll never go back.

Salting, and then you could add other flavorings, too. You can do plain salt but I personally have a combination in my book that is maple syrup, bourbon, and coffee. And those three things with some salt makes a really delicious bacon.

I think that the biggest mistake you can make is not buying really good meat. Buying commodity meats makes it more difficult to be precise with charcuterie, mostly because there’s too much water in most commodity meat. And you need to get the water out in order to make safe charcuterie. And sometimes that means that…what we look for, for instance, in most charcuterie, is a 30% weight loss will tell you that that meat is ready, if you’re hanging it. But if you have commodity or commercial pork, for instance, it might have such a high water content that it’ll need to reduce more. So I would say buying the best possible meat from sources that you know is going to guarantee more success.

On Some Good Resources for Learning about Charcuterie:

I think Michael’s book is a really great place to start. And then there’s a new book by Jeffrey Weiss called, Charcuteria, and that’s more Spanish. There’s Jane Grigson’s classic charcuterie book from England. But I really think if you want to learn charcuterie, just start with Michael Ruhlman’s book and work from the front to the back. Or you can get my book, which has this small discreet and very simple chapter on charcuterie.

On Her Book, “Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Practical Pantry”:

I set out to write a book that would really be a primer on all kinds of preserving, because as long as I’ve been doing it and looking for resources, I couldn’t find one book that had everything I needed. So I also wanted to make sure that the book not only would take you through all the steps necessary to learn how to preserve everything, like jams and jellies and pickles, tomatoes, also meats and beans and soups and fish and diary, like cheese. Then I worry that so many people don’t think about what they’re going to do with all those jars they’ve put on the shelf, so I included 35 recipes using what you preserved.

For me, there’s preserving at one level, which is making the jams and jellies and the pickles. And that’s great, but that’s not really sustainable. It’s hobby preserving. I’m very interested in more of that pantry building in this practical sense, and the sustainable nature of preserving and how that means that I can eat locally year-round, that I can keep my food money in my community by purchasing from my local farmers all summer, preserving that food and then eating it all winter long.

It means that I can come home from a long trip and I don’t have to run to the grocery store or call for Chinese take out, but I can just go downstairs into my pantry and find all kinds of things that are right there for me to eat.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I’ll admit that I like the vintage ones best. I like to watch old Julia, especially Julia and Jacques Pepin. Those are great. I do love Sara Moulton. I think she’s just a solid cook. My husband and I used to watch her show a lot when we first got married, and so I always love to watch Sara.

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

I hope you know about Cheryl Sternman Rule. She’s been writing the blog, 5 Second Rule, for a long time, and had a beautiful vegetable book out called Ripe, a while back. But now she has a new book called Yogurt Culture, and a coordinating blog called Team Yogurt. And it’s a marvelous website. I love to follow my friend Mardi who writes the blog, Eat. Live. Travel. Write. And she’s been working with these young chefs, these young boys, in her chef class. It’s so fun to watch what they make. In the preserving area, Food in Jars, Hip Girl’s Guide, those are great resources. Well Preserved out of Canada, love those. I mean, I read a lot. Of course I’m smitten with Smitten Kitchen. She’s genius. David Lebovitz, I love. I guess that’s maybe a start.

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

I follow my friend Kate Spinillo on Facebook and on Instagram, because she raises chickens and pigs. She had polka-dotted pigs earlier this year. And sometimes I just had to go and look at those pigs because they’re so cute. I love following them. I’m passionate about Punk Domestics. I follow everything they do. Sean Timberlake collects all kinds of DIY on preserving information there. So I’m really always following what he’s doing. And I love Food52. Who doesn’t? I mean, they’re brilliant. They do everything wonderful.

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

I have three things that I brought back from the south of France. One is a handmade cassole to make cassoulet. It’s big terracotta and just beautiful. I also have a pepper grinder. It could be a coffee grinder, but I use it for pepper. It’s a little wooden box with a thing that turns on the top and a drawer that pulls out. And the pepper comes out in a large cracked form and it’s perfect to coat pastrami or to put on the outside of pancetta. And then on that same trip, my friend Kate’s sister, Stephanie, found these little (figures). Often, they’re babies that are put in the Mardi Gras cakes. You probably have seen it – if you get the baby it’s going to be your year, but in France, they have them for all the different professions. These tiny little pastries and sugars and confiture, just little ceramic things that sit on my stove and make me happy.

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

Anchovies. I can’t get enough of them. That’s the only one I can think of. I’m pretty much an omnivore, but for a long time, I wasn’t sure at all about anchovies. And now, I can’t get enough.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

I’m really a fan of the old ones. I turn to Marcella Hazan and The Classic Italian Cookbook all the time. It’s just a brilliant book. I love the pairings after every recipe. So if you find one recipe you want to make, you know then what to make with what pasta. It’s really lovely.

Edna Lewis’ book, The Taste of Country Cooking, I read that all the time because her voice is beautiful and the recipes are just intense and organic and natural, like, what you would do if you saw beautiful things growing and brought them back to your kitchen. I like to read Laurie Colwin’s, Home Cooking, and all her recipes. And the Canal House ladies, they were my photographers, Christopher and Melissa. And they can’t do wrong, as far as I’m concerned. Every cookbook they have, you can just open it up, point, and make it, and you’re going to be happy.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I’ll admit. I don’t listen to a lot of music in the kitchen. It’s oddly distracting for me. More likely when things are processing, that I might turn something on and just dance. I’ve been listening to Ellie Goulding a lot lately. I just never know what I want to put on to dance around the kitchen. But while I’m cooking, I’m concentrating and I’m trying to measure ingredients. I find music, because I love it so much, totally distracting.

On Keeping Posted with Cathy:

I’m Mrs. Wheelbarrow everywhere. You’ll find me on Instagram. On Facebook, it’s Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Kitchen. Twitter, it’s Mrs.Wheelbarrow. And I guess at the blog, on my contact form.

064: Katrín Björk: Redefining the Term Housewife

August 3, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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Modern Wifestyle

Katrín is originally from Iceland and has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, since 2002. Her blog Modern Wifestyle is filled with recipes from family style dinners to decadent desserts, but she also wants to focus on reinventing the word “housewife” to recognize that housewives come in all forms and shapes and to bring positivity to the art of being a home maker.

I am so happy to have Katrín Björk, of Modern Wifestyle joining me here today.

(*All images below are Katrín’s.)

On Her Definition of “Housewife”:

Housewife is someone who likes to take care of her family, her house, her home. Someone who likes to build up a life. It doesn’t necessarily mean only cooking and it definitely doesn’t mean someone telling you to cook or telling you to be in the kitchen. And for me to kind of . . . reinventing is a big word, but there’s a lot of negativity linked to the word housewife. I am proud to say that I am a housewife, but I’m also a photographer and I work full-time. And you can be both.

The world is changing and to me, to be a housewife, I’m also focused on to not be the type of a housewife my grandmother was. My grandmother, she worked a little bit but mainly she was taking care of the children, she was cooking, she was cleaning, and she didn’t necessarily like it. Now she’s living by herself after my grandpa passed and she doesn’t cook anymore. She eats take out and has her children to bring food and stuff like that, which I think is great but I also think it’s really sad that she now, at the age of 84, is realizing that you don’t have to cook and you don’t have to like it.

Here in Denmark where I live, Copenhagen, let’s just say that Danish men are really well-raised by their mothers. They all make bread. When I moved here from Iceland I was like, “What is going on?” It was like in a different world, you know, they all bake, they all vacuum and had really nice homes. It was so different and that was really inspiring to me.

On Taking Pride in Being a Homemaker:

Food has never been as popular as right now. Everybody’s cooking. Everybody has opinion on food now and people eat out a lot and I think there’s definitely a food revolution going on. I think the homemaker is within that as well. And then people are interested in cooking and then you get interested in throwing dinner parties. Then all these hostess-type of roles are coming back, which I think is great.

I see it as a hobby. I’m really interested in design, I’m really interested in architecture, and so I see it as a hobby. To create a beautiful space to live in, to create beautiful food for my family. It’s a hobby.

On Her Passion for Photography and Food:

Photography is my profession. That’s what I do for a living, that’s what I study, that’s my number one passion. And then as I said, food and homemaking is my hobby. So my blog is created around the images and it’s just a plus that I can cook and I can style.

Not always but a lot of the time, I do start with an idea of an image or a shape or a form and then I start thinking what type of food would fit into that, what type of food would fit with this table cloth that I really want to use.

When I started the blog I was doing photography and then I started blogging about food. Now it’s all kind of melted together and I’m basically only doing food photography now. I do a little lifestyle – big word – in between, but it’s mainly food and food photography that I do. I get a lot of jobs through the blog. If I create a recipe of pictures for a magazine I would put that in the blog later. So it’s changing a lot.

In the beginning it was all about starting fresh and I didn’t have any clients and I wasn’t really doing food photography. I was learning by doing. So it’s changing a lot now. But from an idea to a finished product, like a finished blog post or a finished article, it can vary. It can be a day. I can wake up in the morning and be like,” Yes, I want to cook a whole fish today,” and then I’ll just go out and get it and cook it and style and then photograph it and boom! It’s there. But other times I’ll go for days and think about, “What do I want to do? Should I do waffles or should I do pancakes? What is better?”

I have read a lot of cookbooks. I’m not a chef, I’m not a baker, I’m not a pastry chef, and I don’t pretend to be. I’m a home cook. So I’ve read a lot of books with technique and then I just practice, and then I figure it out. Now after so many years I’ve nailed down the basic techniques. It’s working out. But I test a lot. My recipes are definitely tested, I promise you that. Because you never know. But often, if I’m watching a cooking show on TV and they’re making something, I’ll go the next day and use what they did and do something similar. And often it turns out to be completely different.

On the Food Culture in Iceland:

The food culture in Iceland is . . . it’s a little old fashioned. They’re getting there definitely, and more and more beautiful restaurants are opening and serving delicious food. Iceland is a country with amazing products and produce. They have the best lamb in the world, they have fresh fish. They have it all, but they’re still preparing it in the old fashioned way.

Luckily I have a lot of readers from Iceland that I can inspire with either Danish food and they’re American inspired too. But yeah, I mean traditionally Icelandic food is pretty gross. I’m pretty sure you would not want to taste that. We’re talking fermented everything. A lot of fermented fish and not really delicious. But they’re definitely getting there.

What I think is most special about Icelandic food is that all lambs are born in late April and May. And then they’re let go freely up to the mountains where they just go. They eat berries and plants and then the farmers will go up to the mountains in September on horses and gather them around again, bring them down from the mountain and then they’re slaughtered right away. So our lamb is super fresh, really young, and spiced from the inside.

On How Danes Approach Food:

Danes are really into food and Danes have a great word that means cozy but it also means gather. It means basically everything that’s good. And they do that a lot with family. So they come together, they eat together for the holidays, every single day. And it doesn’t matter how old you are. If you’re 50 years old, you will still go to your mother’s house and have a feast with your whole family. It’s really impressive. They’re very family-oriented and big feast, big gatherings, they’re all for that.

Danes really love a dish that they call smørrebrød which is an open-faced sandwich that comes with various toppings. And they have rules about what they pair together and what goes on top and such. And these open sandwiches you can get almost everywhere. You can both go to traditional restaurants, both around the cities and in the countrysides, at bed and breakfasts and hotels. And then also in Copenhagen they are doing their modern take on this sandwich.

I think that is definitely something that people visiting Denmark and Copenhagen should try, because they’re delicious. They can have everything on them. Everything from pickled herring with apples, fried fish fillet with remoulade sauce on top and a little lemon and it’s delicious. It definitely contains mayonnaise, butter, and all these delicious things, so it’s not healthy but it’s definitely delicious.

You will definitely have ice cold beer with it, and probably a shot of Danish snaps. They have this snaps that taste a little bit like Caraway seeds. It’s super strong but yummy and kind of cleanses your palate, in between mayonnaise and butter.

This is it. It’s one piece of bread with either a thick layer of mayo or butter and then toppings on top. These can be super tall and they can fill out a whole plate with this one piece of bread. My husband and I will have smørrebrød for dinner on a lazy day. It’s like having a sandwich, just in a little fancier way.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I watch, religiously, MasterChef Australia. Not U.S., not Canada, not UK, Australia. It is amazing!

I think there are five shows, five episodes per week, and it’s all about the food. It’s not about the drama. They’re all super supportive with each other, and they’re cooking amazing food, and there’s a lot of focus on the food and focus on techniques.

I’ll watch an episode of that and then I’m out in my kitchen and trying it.

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

I’m going to say Two Red Bowls. Beautiful, I mean beautiful photography, amazing styling and delicious recipes. And I’m going to say My Name is Yeh, which is equally as amazing. Always with Butter. Chasing Delicious. Yeah, those four.

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

Oh, I follow everybody on Pinterest. I love Pinterest. But I also love Instagram, definitely. On Instagram I follow Nik Sharma. He is so talented and his images are great. So I follow him on Instagram and I’m really inspired by what he’s doing. I follow Molly Yeh from My name is Yeh. And I follow Ashley Marti from the Local Haven. She’s really good. She does a lot of cocktails, which is right up my alley.

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

You know when you open a bottle of wine and then you maybe just have a glass, and then you have to have an extra cork to put in it? Because if you pull out the cork, they don’t always fit in again? I have this cork from my grandfather that has this huge golden horse head on top. I mean it’s so weird and strange and so not in style with my Scandinavian home, but I think that is the greatest thing I have in my kitchen right now.

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

Cheese. I know, it’s so weird. I didn’t eat cheese as a kid. I wouldn’t touch it. I hated it. And when I grew up, it was embarrassing. It was embarrassing to go to parties, go to people’s houses, and be like, “Oh, I don’t eat cheese.” And being the type picking cheese off a pizza. I mean it was so weird. So I made an effort. I just said to myself, “This is a no go. You have to learn how to eat cheese.” So I did.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Definitely The Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, definitely. I mean I’ve read it from one end to another, because it’s basic, but it’s so great, and it teaches you a lot. And then everything by Jamie Oliver. Huge fan of Jamie Oliver.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I listen to a lot of jazz when I cook. Nothing special in particular, just a playlist of jazz. Just go on, Spotify, and just jazz. And then just pick a random playlist and play it.

It sets a good mood you know? It’s different.

If I’m cooking for the blog and working, I might listen to something more upbeat-y and if I’m cooking for a dinner party, it’s definitely slow jazz, because then I’m also having wine, for sure.

On Keeping Posted with Katrín:

Instagram for sure. If you’re interested in more than just food, if you’re interested in more of the homemaking aspect of me, Pinterest, definitely.

059: Samantha Ferraro: How Her Diverse Background Influences Her Food

July 15, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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The Little Ferraro Kitchen

Samantha has a very diverse background. She’s a Brooklyn native, lived in Hawaii for 10 years, is a current California resident, she’s Jewish, and one of her favorite cuisines is Italian. All of this influences the foods she enjoys and shares on her blog, The Little Ferraro Kitchen.

I’m so thrilled to have Samantha Ferraro of The Little Ferraro Kitchen here on the show today.

(*All images below are Samantha’s.)

On How Her Family Background Influenced the Foods She Enjoys:

I grew up as a Jewish girl in Brooklyn, which is very common, but the funny thing about me is I come from a Jewish background that has both Sephardic and Ashkenazi backgrounds, and there’s a difference just in culture.

So my father’s side is Ashkenazi, which means they come from Eastern Europe, so a lot of the foods that I grew up with on my father’s side was like, matzo ball soup, briskets, really kind of stick to your ribs foods, comfort foods. And then my mom is part Turkish, and actually the ancestry comes from Spain, during the Spanish Inquisition they went from Spain to Turkey. So, a lot of the foods I grew up with on my mom’s side was maybe stuffed grape leaves, lots of things with saffron, and olive oil, and lemons. I grew up with something called fasolia, which is a green bean and tomato stew, so a lot of those foods I grew up with, so I kind of incorporate everything as an adult now.

On How Where She’s Lived has Influenced the Foods She Enjoys:

You have this Jewish girl from a big city, and then my mom and I decide, “Oh, let’s move to Hawaii, why not?” So when I was 14, we moved to Hawaii, not knowing anything, and I still had a thick Brooklyn accent. Nobody really knew probably what brisket was. But we just did it, and we embraced it, and what I learned living in Hawaii is the simplicity of food, the beautiful fruits and vegetables, and farmers thanking you with a bag of lettuce, or growing their own avocados. It’s just such a beautiful place, and the Aloha spirit is so true and alive. It’s just so honest, and it’s just such a beautiful place. I’m so happy that I lived there and experienced it.

(Today) I’m a five hour flight from New York and a five hour flight from Hawaii, so I have the best of both worlds, because California is kind of, you know, I live in a small beach town but if I want to go to a big city, I can have that, too. There’s a lot of people that I actually went to high school with in Hawaii that now live in California, and vice versa. People from here move to Hawaii, so, I’m so blessed to be able to go to both places and have an excuse, like, “Oh, I have family in Hawaii,” or, “I have family in New York.”

I live in Southern California, and we have such an awesome food mecca. When I moved here, I had never gone into a Mexican mercado before, a Mexican market. And when I moved here, you know, it was just so amazing that there’s such a huge Mexican culture here. And there’s different Asian markets here. There’s Vietnamese and Thai and Japanese. There’s a Jewish area in LA that I can go to if I really want good challah bread. It’s just such an awesome area. I went to Little Saigon, which is just 10 minutes away from me. I just live in a really cool area.

On a Food that Surprised Her:

I would have to say, living in Hawaii, I didn’t think I would try a lot of things that I did in Hawaii. For example, taro root, or poi, is this really, like, pounded until it’s kind of like gelatinous, kinda, and it doesn’t taste very good, but when paired with a salty lomi salmon, or pork, it’s actually delicious. And there are also some similarities, so, for example, lomi salmon you would find at a luau in Hawaii, which is diced up, cured salmon with tomatoes, which is very similar to a bagel and lox, like that cured salmon. So I saw some similarities there, but I mean, honestly, just the fruits that are grown there are just, nothing like it. Nothing like a mango from Hawaii.

On Foods That She Misses:

I miss New York bagels. When my cousin actually moved here, from New York to here, and I see him often, and whenever he goes back to visit my aunt and uncle, I’m like, “Can you please bring back bagels?” I mean, if you’ve ever had a New York bagel, there’s nothing like it, and they say that it’s because of the water, you know, that East Coast New York water. That’s the excuse. Nothing like it, so he always brings back bagels.

Another thing from Hawaii that I love is something called lilikoi, which is passionfruit. Lilikoi is the Hawaiian name for it, and it grows just everywhere. My mom has a lilikoi tree, and one time my mom sent me a box of lilikoi. She just took this mailing box and stuffed it. It must have been like 10 pounds of lilikoi. And you can’t ship things from Hawaii to . . . like you just can’t do it, it’s agriculture, you can’t do it. And one time it came through and I was like, “Oh my gosh! This is awesome!” The next time it came through, I got an empty box with a nasty letter from Agriculture saying, “Don’t do that!” Such a gorgeous flavor, it really is.

On Her Passion for Cooking:

You know, to be honest, I knew I liked food when I was little. My mom cooked, my grandmother cooked, but I was never mature enough to really ask them about it, or, you know, be mature enough to learn from it. So, it wasn’t until I got older and I was experiencing foods and traveling that really inspired me, and I just wanted a challenge. I love challenging myself in the kitchen. I’ll jump in and make a ramen dish that I’ve never made before, or a soufflé I’ve never done. I think it’s so fun to do that.

My mom cooked all the time when I was little, now she asks me recipe questions. But now that I’m older, I realize that I wish I took notes from my grandmother on my father’s side, I really do. For example, I remember her making a Jewish cookie called rugelach, and I remember it vividly when I was little. You know, she passed away since, but now that I’m older I make my own rugelach, and I think about her, like, “Oh, you know, this is what she would do.” So I think memories inspire me.

On Starting Her Blog:

I was going through a transition, I was changing majors in college, I was kind of confused, I didn’t really know what to do. But my outlet was cooking, that was what my outlet was. I loved it, I mean, it was a stress reliever for me, it was exciting, it was challenging, it was beautiful.

So, I was reading blogs, and I thought, “I can do that!” So, I kinda did. I’m spontaneous, so I said, “Oh, why not?” I just jumped in, and I said, “Oh, let’s see how long this goes.” I was enjoying the challenge, and I was enjoying learning, so I was learning, too, and it was fun, so I just kept doing it. Three years later, here I am.

On Her Culinary Bucket List:

I have a bucket list on my blog that I need to update. I’ve actually crossed off a few that I haven’t put on the blog yet. But, to be honest, the cuisine I’m least familiar with is Asian cuisine, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai. I’m least familiar with that and that is something I would love to learn.

I have the Momofuku cookbook, and I really want to do his ramen broth. I think that it’s a 48 hour broth and you reduce and add, and I just think that’s so awesome. I really, really want to do that.

I made pad thai once, and that came out horrible. So, I want to do that. It’s just a simple dish, but the flavor combination of that sour and sweet, it’s gorgeous. I really want to conquer that.

Cannolis, I’ve done cannolis once. It was okay. I want to give it another shot. Again, here I am, all different cultures.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I’ve been watching a lot of Anthony Bourdain shows, like No Reservations. He has a few of them that are very similar to each other, love him.

I like some of Gordon Ramsay’s shows, like Master Chef, it’s fun and kind of creative what they do.

I love Ina Garten’s show, Barefoot Contessa. It’s really simple and clean, and to the point, I really like that.

And sometimes I watch Julia Child on YouTube.

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

So, well you’ve already talked to Amy. I love her blog What Jew Wanna Eat. She’s awesome, she does all these creative, fun Jewish recipes. Rainbow challah, like what? She has fun with it, and she’s fearless and I respect that.

I think she mentioned another one that I read, one of the first blogs was, she’s formerly known as the Shiksa in the Kitchen, but her name is Tori Avey. She’s really fascinating because she’s a convert to Judaism, and she loves history, so she does a lot of Jewish history and Jewish food, and that’s really fascinating.

One of the first blogs I also read was called Pass the Sushi. She is really interesting, she’s really creative, she designed my blog, and she’s a gorgeous photographer, food and outside of food.

I have a personal friend as well, it’s called Pineapple and Coconut, and her and I have a Hawaii connection. She loves all things Hawaii, so she does a lot of Hawaiian food, Kalua pig, or pineapple this, or coconut that.

Another good resource is called Just One Cookbook. She does a lot of Japanese food, and one time when I was going to a Japanese store, I was messaging her like, “Oh, should I get this?” She’s helped, guiding me, and she’s just awesome, just a wonderful resource for Japanese food.

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

I love dogs, so on Instagram I follow The Dogist, ’cause dogs make me happy and it’s all dog pictures and I love that, it’s awesome.

I follow WhatJewWannaEat on Instagram, ’cause I love her bagel lox photos, it makes me hungry.

TrumericandSaffron has an Instagram and a Facebook, and I think she’s a really great resource for Middle Eastern food, Persian food.

Can I do a YouTube one? I just started watching, it’s called Sweets and Beyond. And she does a lot of Puerto Rican food, which is fabulous, ’cause I’m not too familiar with that food, so I started watching her and that’s really cool.

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

I don’t know if it’s unusual to other people, or maybe not to me, but I have anchovies. Is that unusual? I always have anchovies on hand. When I was trying to learn about Korean food, a friend of mine gave me, I don’t know what it’s called but it’s like that red pepper that makes kimchi. (Gochugaru)

It’s a powder, and I guess you add it to your seasonings and it makes it spicy and red, and it’s a gorgeous color.

I have kind of random ingredients. Fish sauce, different kinds of fish sauces.

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

I would have to say anchovies again. It was horrible, but now, I don’t eat it by itself, but I’ll add it to things, like to sauces.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Well, like I said, The Art of French Cooking, that has just opened my mind, my taste buds, everything. I can’t recommend it enough. It’s old school, it’s to the point, it’s well written. That one is wonderful.

I also just recently got a cookbook called Jerusalem, which has become a very popular cookbook. But just gorgeous, inspiring Middle Eastern flavors, bright flavors, and just gorgeous photography. Those are probably two of my favorite books.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I’m very diverse with my music tastes, I’ll listen to like Rolling Stones, or Bob Marley, or like Beastie Boys. I was in a Beastie Boys, Run DMC mood. Some kind of like hip-hop, like, get you going.

On Keeping Posted with Samantha:

I’m on Facebook as the Little Ferraro Kitchen, and I absolutely love Instagram, as FerraroKitchen. You can find some behind the scenes, some things I put on the blog, other things I’m eating that I want to share.

046: Valentina Solfrini: Olive Oil and Italian Countryside Living

June 8, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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Hortus Cuisine

On her blog, Valentina writes as she explores a more natural form of cooking and food, which is always real and locally harvested. She focuses on unprocessed ingredients from her farm and makes simple traditional Italian meals with a creative, modern twist.

Hortus Cuisine was recognized in the 2014 Saveur Food Blog Awards for Best New Blog Editor’s Choice.

I am so thrilled to have Valentina Solfrini of Hortus Cuisine joining me here on the show today.

On Where She Currently Lives, Writes and Cooks:

I am placed in between two regions in Italy, one is called Marche and the other one is called Romagna, and I’m right on the border.

So each region in Italy is very different but it’s really nice because I get the best of every world. I’m right at the seaside, and I have the woods next to me, and the hills, and the countryside. So I have a little bit of everything and it’s really a great place to live in, in my opinion.

On Moving to New York City:

I wanted to really explore the world and I felt like New York City had it all condensed in one place.

So especially back then, we don’t really have much internationality, so to speak. I really wanted to explore the Asian world and the Mexican world. I wanted to know what everything was all about. I had the chance to do this trip to New York and I fell in love with it.

It was amazing.

I knew that there was a lot that I couldn’t impossibly know about other cultures, about the world and everything, but it was so much and it felt so overwhelming but in a very good way. Every time I went out the door and I walked into the street, everything seemed just so huge and I loved it.

On What Drew Her Back to Countryside Living:

Life here is quieter. The pace is much slower especially compared to New York where everybody is super-fast. Everything here is quite laid back. Nothing is really a big deal for Italians.

So sometimes we help my grandparents tend the garden, the vegetable garden or when winter comes, we go to collect the wood for the fireplace.

I have a desk job but our life really revolves around this little moment when you have to plant a seed or collect some vegetables, or me to go forage for wild herbs and stuff like that. It’s all very, very close to nature.

On Her Interest in Food and Cooking:

Food was one of those things that fell into the realm of the things that I took for granted because it’s something that always happen in my house.

My mom and my grandmother, they were always cooking, always. I’m lucky because I was in one of those families where women can stay at home and take care of us and the kids, and they’d be cooking, making pasta or baking something or anything.

I pretty much always learned to appreciate good food. We never really had anything processed or we didn’t buy snacks or anything even as kids because we felt that we didn’t need them. We never liked candy or anything just because my mom made amazing sweets at home.

I love to look at my mom doing stuff. I wouldn’t always do something but I would always stay there and look or sometimes would maybe shape the cookies or shape the pasta.

I would help or sometimes I would eat when she was cooking or lick the bowls. I was always there watching and eventually it grew on me.

When I went to New York, I was surprised that nobody was cooking. It was, “Are you serious? What, you go and buy salad that’s already been cut?”

On What Natural Cooking Means to Her:

To me, natural cooking means cooking with ingredients that have not been processed too much. Sometimes, if you learn to read the labels, you’ll see that some foods have really unnecessary ingredients.

If you buy a jar of mayonnaise, you’ll find that it has preservatives and maybe food coloring or even sugar.

So to me, natural cooking is cooking with a list of ingredients that doesn’t have a list of ingredients.

On Her Blog:

So that was a very interesting process because when I got back from New York, I realized that I had absorbed so much of other cultures that I was starting to forget about my own.

I realized that Italian cooking is actually quite healthy by itself. It has always been full of legumes and vegetables and there were so many recipes that are Italian and perfectly vegetarian, so I thought it would be interesting to rediscover my own culture with natural food. And I thought of combining those two things and it worked wonders.

I started the blog as a way to explore my own country. I realized that I didn’t understand Italy because I was feeling so good in New York and I didn’t really feel Italian. And then in the process, I rediscovered cooking and I really started to learn about the foods that we used have as kids and to really, really fall in love with it.

On Olive Oil:

Once the olives are at a good ripeness point in November, it’s usually November, you lay huge nets below the trees and you have little rakes and you rake through the branches and the olives fall out. Then you collect those huge nets of olives and these olives are cleaned.

You separate leaves from the olives and this is quite important because if your leaves get into the olives, then the olive oil taste like grass, and that happens a lot. So you have to be careful with that process.

And then we take it to the mill. I call it a mill. It’s just basically this huge stone, you have two grinding stones, pretty much like flour, and that’s why it’s called cold pressed extra virgin olive oil. The very first layer of fat that you get out of this cold pressing, grinding between two stones, then the olive oil just filters out and you get this bright green beautiful thing but it’s actually murky. It’s not as clear.

Olive oil actually gets that golden and that clear when it’s about four or five months old. When it’s super fresh, it’s bright green and quite cloudy. And that’s it, that’s virgin olive oil.

Then you have other kinds of olive oil that are lesser quality. You can obtain by pressing what is left by pressing extra virgin olive oil.

And then you have another press which is regular olive oil.

What I’ve always seen in Italy was extra virgin olive oil. It might be very bad quality extra virgin olive oil, with olives they are not Italian that come from other countries, but we only cook with extra virgin olive oil essentially.

You have great quality extra virgin oil and you have so so quality extra virgin oil and you use the so so for cooking, for stir fries and for stuff like that, and the best quality for dressing.

That’s my experience at least.

I think that the best olive oil, it has to be quite a strong character. It’s really difficult to tell maybe by the color or the smell because it really depends on the kind of olive or on how old the olive oil is.

But usually the green sort of cloudy olive oil is really the best and it’s actually quite difficult to plant and sell because that’s going to be very expensive.

I saw that some supermarkets or some stores had a little sampler with bread that you could try, and at the end of the day, if it’s virgin olive oil, you should just taste it and see if you like it.

You can tell olive oil from extra virgin olive oil because regular olive oil is much clearer and it has a more pale color. So that’s how you tell.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I love to watch Jamie Oliver. Just whatever he does, he puts such passion in it that I just love watching his enthusiasm.

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

There are so many. I love Green Kitchen Stories. They got me inspired to actually start a blog. They were probably the first bloggers that I started to follow seriously.

And then there is another one that’s called In The Making By Belen, which is a healthy food blog. She is a yoga teacher who shares vegetarian recipes. They are really awesome.

And then there is Beth Kirby from Local Milk. She is like pure aesthetics. I love her blog so much.

And then Skye McAlpine’s blog From My Dining Table. She talks about Venice in such a beautiful way.

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

I follow definitely Beth Kirby, again, on Pinterest. She has a well-organized Pinterest account. It’s so so beautiful.

And then I love to follow Japanese photographers on Instagram. I’m not sure about the names right now but just a bunch of Japanese people. I really love the bright style that they have.

My favorites to follow on Facebook are probably everybody who has something to do with healthy food and Mimi Thorisson from Manger, the French blog. She is amazing. She really has quite the sense for aesthetics as well.

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

My Vitamix. It’s unusual for Italy because actually when I bought it, it wasn’t available here and I had to buy it from Germany but I love it so much.

It’s probably the best spent money of my entire life. I use it every day, two times per day. I love it.

Some ingredients are really hard to find in Italy, so I have to make my own like almond milk.

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

That has to be sesame oil or sesame in general.

I wasn’t into sesame probably because it’s not that known in Italian cooking. It’s not an ingredient that we use. But then I started to experiment with Asian cooking and Middle Eastern cooking and, of course, sesame is there.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Actually, the cookbooks I cook from are those old cookbooks made from the 50s or from the 70s that have those very nice recipes that I love to reinterpret in a healthier way.

And then I have my favorite cookbook to look at is probably Isa Does It. It’s a vegan cookbook that is so so full of fun ideas. I don’t think it’s always healthy but it’s amazing.

I also love to read the Julia Child’s cookbook because it’s amazing. Just so well done. It’s my kind of cookbook.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I don’t have a song in particular. I guess all French or Italian songs get me in the mood. There are a bunch of French songs that really getting me in the mood for cooking.

Old French songs, maybe like Edith Piaf. You know these people but maybe the happier kind of songs. Not the super romantic French songs.

On Keeping Posted on Valentina:

You can follow me on Facebook at Hortus Cuisine, Pinterest, then I’m on Instagram, and I love receiving comments of all kinds. I look forward to hearing from people who write in on my blog.

037: Bev Weidner: Getting Back into Cooking as a Parent

May 18, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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Bev Cooks

On Bev Cooks, Bev is extremely open about food and family. She’s a mother of twins, Will and Natalie, who’ve been featured on the blog even before they were born, and she claims to dish out the worst parenting advice you’ll ever hear. Bev’s high energy and wit makes me chuckle more than usual.

I am psyched to have Bev Weidner of Bev Cooks on the show today.

On Leaving Her Job to Pursue Her Passion:

I was stagnant, I was in a stagnant place and not really knowing where to go.

I was working and it was fine, but it took a long time for us to get pregnant and have our kids. So that stress and just not being super happy with my life direction, we got to this point in Aaron’s career where we looked at our life and it was like, “I think I’ll stay home. I just want to garden and hang out. Just kind of breathe and take some of the stress off of myself, and the pressure off of myself.” Once I did, I was like, “Okay, I’m home. I want to start a blog.”

I’m very inspired by other bloggers and stories out there. So it was shortly after I quit that I started, actually bought the domain. I had started posting photos of my dinners on Tumblr and Facebook, but it was right after I quit my job that I bought the Bev Cooks domain and really made it a blog. So I don’t know if you’d call it confidence or stupidity.

I was just getting more and more into the whole thing about food photography and writing. I mean, it was a mess, it was a disaster back in the early days. But time goes on and you hone your craft.

On Her Blog:

I’ve read magazines like everybody. I didn’t really pay attention to the styling of food until I started blogging. I was like, I know this doesn’t look right. This pork looks funny. I don’t know how to do this.

So, like everybody, I would just study magazines like Real Simple because I don’t want a ton of stuff in my photos. I just like it clean and white, and the focus is not a load of good scenery. I think that’s beautiful but I also just want to keep it clean. So I would just study magazines like Real Simple and things like that and kind of maybe rip them off. No, I don’t know. Inspiration, just like literally looking at them going, “Now, this is the way they have this.” “That works. Okay, ding ding.”

On Cooking as a Parent:

I want them to eat everything, and they have been eating… I make them kale omelettes every single morning, I don’t know why. It’s really easy. I mean, it sounds super fancy but it’s not. It’s an egg and kale and a little bit of the tomatoes and done. Cut it up in little squares and they love it.

I just want them to be exposed to everything that I’m making right now so that the hope is that they’re not going to be picky eaters. Now I will say, Will, he’ll touch a third of it and Natalie eats 100%. She does not care, she just eats it all.

But I haven’t really changed that much in my style of cooking because I just want them to eat it too. I cut up everything or separate some things from the others and cut up the pasta, to where it’s tiny. Make it easy for them to eat but I want them to have all the flavors.

During the weekdays, sometimes can be hard. Oftentimes I do simple, simple stuff like peanut butter toast, some torn up deli chicken and a cut up fruit or a tomato. It’s just a hodge podge of things, but I always love to have leftovers from what I’ve made either for dinner or the blog, and then just give them that too.

They need to eat constantly. I’m floating from the kitchen to their high chairs, every two hours, your snacks, here, do you want it over here? Do you want it on the top of the roof? I don’t know. They have mouths.

On Her Column on The FN Dish Blog:

I’m starting a monthly column with the Food Network. On their FN Dish blog which is on their main landing page, but I will be streamlining kids only meals, like the first part of the recipe will be kid friendly, the second part of the recipe will be fit for adults.

So take like a pasta with marinara. Most of the time you’d stop there for the babies, for your kids, and give them the pasta and the marinara and have them go at it. Then for the adults you would add the olives, and the anchovies. So I’ll be starting that.

The favorite dish that’s easiest, I love pasta dishes. If they’re shells, then that makes it easier for them to grab, like shells with shredded chicken in it. I try to avoid giving them too much sauce because the sauce gets everywhere. So I try to remove as much sauce as possible.

What I really like to make for them is just two whole wheat tortillas, and just chop up some chicken and sprinkle in some black beans and a little bit of grated cheese. Pop that in a microwave for 30 seconds, and then just cut it with a pizza cutter. So they’re having little burrito squares.

On Getting Back into Cooking Since Becoming a Parent:

I would say because it is my job I knew I had to do it. It was about four weeks in. I remember four weeks in, and they were a month old. I thought, “I’ve got to start cooking again, or I’m going to go crazy.”

I just got back in, It really wasn’t that hard. In the early stages, what you have going for you with infants, just any infant, two or multiples of one, they sleep all the time. So it’s so easy while they’re napping for their seven hours straight. I’m in there cooking, and then plan it where you know they’re going to be napping and you could go in and cook and do whatever you need to do. If you need to cook it early in the day and warm it up in the evening, great. Do what works. Just do what works.

Now is a different story. They’re down to, most of the time one nap a day, and if I haven’t gotten my work done by the time they’re up and they’re running around… They’re full on toddlers now, and that can get a little bit challenging but we make it work.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

America’s Test Kitchen. Martha’s Cooking School, I do watch that.

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

I love the Sprouted Kitchen with all my heart. I love Sarah and Hugh so much, it’s ridiculous. Of course, I love How Sweet It Is, Jessica’s a dear friend of mine. My New Roots, fantastic beautiful photography, Sarah Britton is just brilliant.

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

Instagram, all the way. Local Milk on Instagram. It’s just crazy, I just want to cry all over. Sunday Suppers, feeds like that. Feeds that have to do not necessarily with food, food could be in it but a slow approach to life, lifestyle.

Beautiful composition and everything has a certain shadowy moody, feel or bright. That’s what I’m drawn to.

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

Well, I have a cutting board that my husband made for me. He’s crazy talented with DIY. He’s a maker as you would maybe call him. He went to a reclaimed lumber place and got a piece of wood, I think it’s elm. I want to say it’s elm. And sanded it way down and made it food friendly, oiled it up and it’s just this rustic dark piece of beauty that I chop carrots, onions, and garlic on every day.

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

I used to hate fennel. I hate black licorice, I absolutely hate it, but for some weird reason, I can dig some fennel.

The licorice-y flavor is definitely there, but it’s masked by its delicateness.

What are a few cookbooks that have made your life better?

Okay, I have this cookbook called The Silver Steam that my mom gave me for Christmas many years ago. I have Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Julia Child. Not that I have made my way through it like Julie and Julia, and don’t ever plan to. But I have cooked a few things from that book, and her approach and her writing – it’s so different than modern cookbooks.

Everyday Food, the Martha publication. They put out a cookbook along, long, long time ago and that’s when I first got into cooking. It was about 10 years ago when this cookbook was released. It opened my eyes to chopping, dicing, sauteing, everything. It was just enlightening.

I used to be really into Jamie Oliver a long time ago, into his early cookbooks. I loved that.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

Well, I love Fleetwood Mac, Rumours. You cannot go wrong with that album. I don’t know if it makes me want to cook, it makes me want to do everything. I love that record. I can just put it on and cook at the same time.

The Bird and the Bee is also another band but just their songs and the production. The approach to their production is very unique. Lots of layered vocals, it’s really beautiful, but cool. It’s poppy, little indie-rock and that just makes me dance in the kitchen.

On Keeping Posted on Bev:

Well, food-wise, I would say Facebook, my Bev Cooks page on Facebook. That’ll have everything. Instagram, I recently just started posting. When I post a recipe, I post the photo and just always photos of the babies on Instagram. If you’re just looking for food specifically, I would just say either subscribe to my blog or Facebook.