Rebel Chef Radio
a show to help inspire confidence and enjoyment in your home kitchen
Rebel Chef Radio
episode two: let's talk knife skills and produce storage
In episode two, I'll share my origin story, realize I've made two soups in one week again, implore you to become comfortable with a knife and give you all my tips for making every produce item last as long as possible. Additionally, I'll encourage you to give blanching a try and give you some simple, actionable tips for elevating your meals. Please enjoy! xoxo
ACKNOWLEGMENTS
Theme music by Paul Neil // @katzulhuproductions
Rebel Chef logos and branding by Dusty Buyck // dusty.buyck@gmail.com
PSA Commercial Music// Hopping Trains by Nathan More free on YouTube
DISCLAIMERS
I am not a medical or psychiatric professional (though I play both on television). Any advice offered is that of a humble human and nothing more.
This show contains colorful, adult language.
LINKS N THINGS
Local Restaurant Menus
Recipes
Minestrone/Vinaigrette/Pan Sauce Framework
Resources
Greetings folks. You've just tuned in to Rebel Chef Radio, a show where I'll demystify the kitchen and help you cook with confidence. Whether you're a total noob or an old pro looking to shake things up, I'll help you cook more often, more boldly and with way less stress. All righty, welcome, welcome, welcome back to Rebel Chef Radio. I am your hostess, rachel Bloom, offering you my apologies in advance. As always, the mission of this show is to create and inspire competence, confidence and, dare I say, enjoyment in your kitchen. If you don't know how to cook, I want to help you learn, and if you don't know how to have fun cooking, I want to help you learn that too. A little bit of housekeeping to get this episode started.
Speaker 1:I have realized that I named the interview portion of the show, the interview series of Rebel Chef Radio, talking Trash. I have not named the monologue series. The monologue series has no name. It needs a name. I would be most grateful for listener participation or recommendations here. Please tell me what to name my show. Rebel Chef Radio is not the name of the show. Rebel Chef Radio is the name of the station, because this is a radio station, not really, but that's what I'm going for. Do you guys get it? Are you sensing the vibe that I'm trying to achieve here? So Rebel Chef Radio is the station that we're broadcasting on.
Speaker 1:I need a title for the monologue series. I think I had one. Originally I think I was planning on calling it Full Boil. I don't know if that has really the fervor I'm going for. I need ideas. If you have any, please send them to me. Some more old business I had two people.
Speaker 1:Let me know that maybe people listening to this show have no context for my background with food and cooking or as a chef, and while I think that notion is perhaps a little preposterous because I've seen the stats on the show, most people listening are directly related to me. But if you're interested in hearing about my background professionally, here it is. I love food. I love eating. I was very fortunate to be born to a family who also loves food and eating. We had fresh, scratch-made, amazing dinners basically every night of my life. Growing up, my mom's parents were Italian. We ate like kings at their house. I've just always been so blessed to enjoy and be surrounded by good food and people who love to cook. I did not realize until I was about 10 or 12 years old and started going to friends' houses for dinner. How good I had it, and I have never lost sight of that since then.
Speaker 1:I started, you know, asking my father and my grandfather for tutelage in the kitchen when I was around 14 or 15. And they both taught me some great basic skills. My dad taught me all about mise en place. He taught me all about how to use a knife, how to cook chicken, how to season things properly, how to make the family gravy, which is red sauce for those of you not in the know. And then my grandfather showed me how to, you know, utilize things that he already had, how to cook from the garden, how to clean as you go. He tried to teach me how to make his famous oatmeal raisin cookies that I have never been able to replicate in all the years that I have tried.
Speaker 1:And I really, really, really took off with cooking and preparing food when I moved out of my parents' house, because I had not considered that that was going to be something I was giving up when I went out on my own in search of independence, that no longer would there be amazingly delicious meals appearing on the table in front of me night after night after night. As I mentioned in the first Talking Trash interview with my friend Carolyn, I have always been very hesitant and averse to things like convenience foods, fast foods, food dyes, food additives. I'm a fairly health conscious person doesn't mean that I don't enjoy very adequate amounts of junk food because I do but it's just something that I knew from a young age. I didn't want to be relying on, day after day after day after day. I wanted to feed myself well, like I had been fed my entire life up until then. So I started teaching myself how to cook in earnest when I was around 19,. Lots of trial and error, lots of failure, lots of burnt things, lots of thrown out things. But I just kept going, I remained diligent, I remained consistent. I didn't, you know, let myself get too discouraged in the face of all of the failures I was experiencing. And I kept going and I kept trying. And, lo and behold, sooner or later I got pretty good. Next thing I knew I was working at Trader Joe's grocery store where my entire life changed. I wish I was joking, but I am not Trader Joe's. I can singularly point to as the point moment in my life where, basically, I got off the track I had been on up until then and got on the track that I've been on since. I met my husband working there and I launched my career as a professional cook chef there as well.
Speaker 1:I started to get really good at cooking, started to have a lot of fun cooking, started to cook things at home and bring them in to share with my fellow workmates, and one day I was approached by one of my coworkers. Him and his wife were celebrating a milestone anniversary I believe it was their 20th wedding anniversary and he wanted to do something a little bit different, a little bit outside the box, to celebrate, not just your average, you know, dinner reservations. And so he asked me if I'd be interested in doing a table side multi-course meal in their home a table side multi-course meal in their home and me, being mean, and at that a much younger version of me, said absolutely, I would love to. So I wish I could remember the meal better. I know I did some kind of red meat. I know I did some kind of rice. I know I made a salad. There was other stuff too. I'm sure it wasn't the most amazing meal of all time, but it was pretty damn good, and I recall everyone having a great time and me finding a renewed, bigger sense of confidence in my abilities and just really enjoying the entire process.
Speaker 1:So from there I kind of launched my first version of my catering business from mine and AJ's first little tiny apartment and took on I mean actually like quite a few little gigs on the side from my time at Trader Joe's, met a lot of new people. Every time I would do an event, other people from that event, would you know, take my information and hire me for something else, and I did quite a wide array of catering work during that time. And then eventually, what happened was I had a woman come to an event that I had catered and really liked the food, and approached me saying that her and her husband were looking for an in-home cook to come to their house a few times a week and prepare meals for them and their four children. So I drove up to this woman's house for an interview. It was on the north shore of Lake Michigan, very affluent area, humongous home, multiple kitchens in the home, huge sprawling garden that I was going to be able to cook from, and I realized, as I was sitting there having the initial conversation interview with her that I was grossly underqualified for the job. But I did what I always do and I feigned confidence and I feigned my abilities and started working for them the following week, worked for them for several years. There were good times, there were bad times. Their family had many different food allergies and severe food intolerances, so it was a big crash course in food allergy education for me. I had a great time cooking from their amazing garden and overall it was a really it was a really positive experience. I not only worked for them in their home multiple times a week but catered to several parties for them and their friends, which led to several other catering parties for their other friends and eventually led to another job with another family in the same area and just a lot of really good on-the-job training for me.
Speaker 1:I really kind of honed my skills during these years. I went back to COD, where I had gone. I went to community college right after high school and I got my associate's degree in business management, which has always been my primary passion. Long before I ever intended to be a professional chef. I wanted to be an entrepreneur, I wanted to be my own boss, I wanted to steer my own ship, so it were. So I wound up back at community college doing the COD culinary program a few years later I didn't do the whole thing. I have not been formally technically trained. I did like two years of the COD culinary program just because I really wanted to kind of sharpen my skills and get a little deeper into things, and it was a really great experience I'm so glad I did Just kind of morphed into more catering, more in-home cooking, did a few stages at a few restaurants, worked for a couple other small catering companies in the process and then, you know, had kids, slowed down, kind of changed my whole tune for a little while, just because my life changed a bunch and I needed to change along with it.
Speaker 1:But even when I was working less and staying home with my girls, I still seemed to find people who wanted me to make food for them everywhere I went. So for several years I just had a couple of individual people in the area that I would just do meal prep for weekly. Many of these people were on specialized diets or on these like high intensity nutrition regimens and just wanted someone to do their you know macro prep for them and stuff like that. But got the job done kind of kept me in the game while I was coming out of the fog of early motherhood and figuring out what I wanted my next step to be.
Speaker 1:And then COVID came and went and I decided it was time to take a little bit bigger of a plunge and really make something happen. So I started the Rebel Chef Neighborhood Meal Club in 2022, where I subletted kitchen space at two different locations and made a menu each week that people could order off of. And I did fully prepared, pre-packaged meals for families and individuals. We did soups, we did salads, we did main courses, we did some breakfast items, we did some baked goods and boy was it fun. I loved every single minute of it. The business grew week by week. Fun I loved every single minute of it. The business grew week by week.
Speaker 1:Dare, I say it was very successful and I took a pretty big, heavy stab at trying to take it to the next level. But about nine different things coincided to make that an impossibility. We lost our kitchen. We couldn't couldn't find the right fit anywhere else to make it work and it just naturally fizzled out. Wasn't meant to be, but it was a really fun couple of years. I made a lot of great new customers and friends in the process. I had so much fun creating the menus and really getting to just totally drive my own train and be creative and just make the food that I wanted to make for a couple years, and it was a really good experience. My next step professionally is going to be putting my apron back on and cooking for my husband at his business that he is opening, and I couldn't be more excited. I couldn't be more proud. Like I said, we met working at Trader Joe's together. We've actually worked together a couple other little places over the years, one of which was a catering company in Downers Grove a long, long time ago, but we have spent the better part of the 14 years that we've known each other trying to scheme how we can be in business together, and it seems like we are readily approaching the starting line of that dream. So I'm really looking forward to feeding each and every person that walks into his pub looking for something to eat. And that's my origin story, the tale of Rachel Bloom, a memoir hitting the shelf late fall 2045. All right, that is all for the old business.
Speaker 1:We're going to dive right into the regular show, the first segment of the Rebel Chef Radio unnamed monologue series is Rebel Chef Home what I Ate. This Week we had a really interesting and unusual week for food. It was AJ's birthday, our one daughter got spacers placed for an expander so couldn't eat basically anything, and we adopted a kitten. So things have been a little off the norm. There's a lot of takeout. I'm looking over this this is now last week that I'm talking about, so I'm looking over the list of stuff that we ate and it's pretty funny. I'm excited to talk about it. Starting with Sunday of last week, it was AJ's birthday. Happy birthday, baby.
Speaker 1:We got takeout for AJ's birthday from Thai Cafe, which is in downtown Downers and has been for many years. It's on North Main and the same strip as our beloved Leffelman's Meat Center as well as the Outpost Taco taco place, which is also pretty good. But we love Thai cafe. They've gone through a couple ownership changes over the years and I have to admit I feel like they've lost a little something in the changeover, but they're still excellent and my absolute favorite place to get Thai food around here. I also really like Thai First on Belmont and Maple, but Thai Cafe is like our original favorite. We've been going there for years and I love it. I am still very sore and taking it very personally that they removed the fresh spring rolls from their menu, because they're all of our favorites and they just stopped making them. But that's OK, I'm learning. I'm learning to cope, I'm moving on.
Speaker 1:We got the Penang curry, which is unbeatable so good. We got the pad kee mao. We got the basil chicken, which we always get, no matter what. We did it all up. It was great, it was super fun and I love eating there and I have nothing but good things to say. I've had literally everything on the menu multiple times. There's not a loser in the bunch, but there is a winner and it's the Penang curry. You should get it. So that was Sunday.
Speaker 1:Monday I did make soup, but it wasn't my normal soup. Monday we were coming off of spring break, so we had been on spring break in Southwest Michigan Side note, just like my favorite place of all time. I hope to be buried there and I brought. We got an Airbnb and I, like, cleared out the fridge of all leftover groceries before we left and brought them up to the Airbnb and cooked with them there. So we came home to no food in the fridge, and then we got takeout night one, and so then on Monday I did shop like normal, but I didn't have a bunch of stuff to use up, so I did make soup, though I made miso soup because AJ was starting to feel a little sick, and so that's what I pretty much always make.
Speaker 1:Whenever anyone in the house is starting to feel a little sick, I make miso soup. A really long time ago, when I was working at Trader Joe's, I had a really good friend, super adorable little old old lady named Maria Maria I love you if you're listening and she told me that miso paste fights colds. I don't know if that's true or not, but I've been acting like it is for 10 years. So whenever anyone starts to get sick, I make miso soup, and pretty basic, straightforward. I don't do. We're going to talk more about this later because, believe it or not, miso came up in conversation at dinner on Wednesday. So a little hook for you there to stay tuned.
Speaker 1:But I just do a super basic, lazy miso soup. I put a pot of water on a boil. I put a ton of miso paste in the water. I can't say that I measure, but I probably do like a quarter cup of miso paste per quart of water, which is probably too much, but that's just how I do it. And then I put in a big splash of soy sauce, a little splash of fish sauce and a big squeeze of lemon, because I just think it's better with lemon, I think everything's better with lemon. And then, once that's all mixed together, I take a little scoop of the dried seaweed wakame, I don't know, but it's dehydrated seaweed. I take a big scoop of that, put it in a coffee mug and ladle some of the hot miso broth on top of it so that it reconstitutes and gets soft. And then to the hot broth I add some just small little chunks of tofu, do the silken tofu, the really soft tofu, and some thinly sliced scallion. And then I put the, the reconstituted seaweed, in and that's it. So we had that, and then for the kids I also made some soba noodles on the side, just because they obviously needed a little more sustenance than a cup of broth. Essentially, aj and I are super happy to eat like a lighter meal at the end of the day more frequently. We both usually try to do like bigger meals earlier in the day, and I just feel really good when I do that, but the kids obviously need a little more to go off of, so they had some noodles with their, with their miso. I'm a good mom, I swear I'm realizing all the stuff I'm saying is probably painting a pretty odd picture, but it's just the truth.
Speaker 1:On Tuesday, I made cauliflower al pastor, which, again, speaking of raising eyebrows, there is a food blogger that I follow and have followed for years. Her handle is Mama Eats Plants. I love her for plant-based and vegetarian recipes. She has a lot of really aesthetically pleasing and just like simple, wonderful content on Instagram, and then I also bought her e-cookbook many years ago and use it all the time. She's actually where I got the base recipe for our Rebel Chef fire cider from and a lot of other great things. So I also I subscribed to her sub stack, in which she sends out a weekly meal plan, which I'm actually thinking about doing myself. I realized that this segment of the show is basically my weekly meal plan, but I think it might be fun to do it in print. Anyways, I digress. She makes these cauliflower al pastor tacos. They come up in her meal plan all the time and I've had them earmarked to try forever and I just haven't. It was finally the time. So the recipe comes from the website, not A Fancy Kitchen, and I will link it in the notes.
Speaker 1:The basis of the recipe was really good. I enjoyed it. I made it according to the recipe the first time, because I usually try to do things according to the recipe the first time. If I'm trying something new, I would definitely make some modifications for my family's tastes the next time around. So the concept is you cut up a head of cauliflower into florets and you chop up a red onion and you saute those down a little bit with just some salt and then you make a blended sauce. The blended sauce is pineapple juice, fresh pineapple, garlic, some chipotle peppers and adobo sauce, some ancho chili powder and maybe one or two other things. Like I said, I'll link the recipe in the notes. You blend all that up and then you pour it over your sauteing cauliflower and red onion and then just let it kind of cook down until it's all soft and blended together nicely and then you just serve that on tortillas with some more fresh pineapple and some thinly sliced red onion, cilantro, whatever. So we did that filling and then some extra fresh pineapple and then pickled red onions because of duh and cilantro, and it was really good. The flavor was really good. The filling was just like too soft and wet for my liking. I think if I made these again, I would do the cauliflower and the red onion either just in the air fryer or on a sheet pan in the oven and just kind of get them like roasted, crispy, seasoned and then just coat them lightly in the sauce or just serve the sauce on the side. But all in all, I thought it was a good meal and I would definitely do it again. I would just tweak it a little bit.
Speaker 1:Going forward, aj and I are also. We've been. We've been like really trying to perfect fresh tortillas. This is one of those times where I'm so frustrated because I feel like I should just easily be able to make great fresh tortillas. I feel like they should be pretty simple, pretty basic. I wonder if I'm overthinking it or if I'm doing something wrong. I don't know. They're fine. I feel like I'm getting the consistency of the dough. Everyone says it's supposed to be like Play-Doh. That's definitely what it's like. We got a tortilla press. We're pressing them out, we're doing them in a dry hot pan. They're good. They're just not great and I want them to be great.
Speaker 1:Every recipe that I read is like your tortilla should be puffing up when it's near the end of cooking time. I've got no puffs. I have zero puffs. The texture is nice. They're like soft and pliable. They're not crumbly, but they're just like they're leaving something to be desired. If anyone listening, just like the time we found out, one of our good friends was a secret undercover puff pastry aficionado, I'm hoping someone listening is a secret undercover fresh tortilla aficionado and wants to help me because I want to learn. I was actually really surprised that they held together. I thought for sure the wetness from this taco filling was going to tear the tortillas apart, but it didn't. They held up really good. It was fine. And then I always have more tortillas than I need left over, so I like to just spray them with a little oil and do them in the air fryer the next day for a quick homemade tortilla chip. It's fun. I want them to be better. Somebody please help. Can someone? Can someone name the monologue series and come give me a fresh tortilla lesson, please, and thank you.
Speaker 1:On Wednesday we went on Wednesday we did Sushi Boat. I love Sushi Boat, our friend Paul, who also made all of the theme music for this show Thank you, paul and who AJ has played in bands with for many years and who's just a beloved friend of the family Silly Paul we call him because he's silly. The kids came up with that when they were like two and it's just really stuck. He comes into town for work every like six to eight weeks and we meet up and go to Chiba, which is on Cass in between 75th and Plainfield, and they do sushi and hibachi and it's great sushi, great hibachi. Cute little spot. Highly recommend going. And we get the sushi party boat, like the big giant wooden boat filled with sushi, and we eat it and it's really fun, it's really good.
Speaker 1:Paul and I shared maybe one too many whiskeys and some sake and got talking about miso soup. I don't know why, but Paul was telling me about how he did it. Right, he makes the dashi stock. You're supposed to make a dashi stock as the base for your miso. I don't do that because I'm lazy and also because I have just a little hint of OCD and the ingredients that I need to purchase to make the dashi stock will languish in my pantry you need to use use kombu, which is a seaweed, and bonito flakes, which are like a dried fish flake, to make this base for the broth, and that's fine. I don't mind getting these things. But you get a huge package of them and you use such a small amount per recipe and I just don't want them in my pantry for six years. But that's wrong. I should be a better, I should be a more dedicated chef than that. I should want to do it correctly. Something's wrong with me. So he convinced me that because we were talking about miso, as I said, and I make miso all the time, and he made me see the light that I need to stop being lazy and not let my fear of a crowded pantry prevent me from having good, real miso soup. So the next time I make miso, I'm getting the kombu, I'm getting the bonito flakes, I'm making the dashi and I will report back here the moment I do. So.
Speaker 1:That was Wednesday night. Thursday night, I did a big salad. I usually do a big salad one night of the week A, just because it's easy and it's nice to have the night off of like cooking, so to speak. And B just to like make sure we're getting enough vegetables, I don't know. So I did a big kale salad. I did torn lacinato kale, massaged it a little bit with a little salt and olive oil.
Speaker 1:Tomato, cucumber, those pickled red onions from the Alpastor tacos, which just make everything so right, a little bit of tanginess, a little bit of crunchiness. I love that like pickled component, so nice. And it takes like four seconds to make a batch of these pickled onions and they stay good in your fridge for months at a time. So I can also link the recipe for those, because I think this is just one of those, one of those homemade condiments that cost pennies, take seconds and can just elevate like anything. I put them on avocado toast, I top soup with them, I top salads with them, they're good. On sandwiches, they're good as just like a snack. They're just so good and they add such a nice color, such a nice crunch, such a nice little little kick to everything. You should make them.
Speaker 1:And so we had the torn kale, tomato, cucumber, the pickled red onions, and then I did some croutons, which I've talked about this before. We always, you know, we have a loaf of bread. The end of the loaf of bread is going stale, so I tear it up into just little chunks and it goes in the freezer and becomes croutons. And when I need to make croutons I literally just take two big handfuls of croutons out of the crouton bag in the freezer, put them on a sheet pan and they go in the oven at 350 until they're croutons, which is not that long. This instance in particular, I had some leftover bacon fat from the morning. I had made some bacon in the morning and so I just saved the fat from the sheet pan and toasted the croutons in it, just for a little extra flavor and fun. Let's be real, they were super good. And then topped that with some barrel-aged sheep's milk feta. Oh, it was so good. I've seen this same feta at Whole Foods for like $12 a brick and I got this in shop and saved for $4.99. So I was a little bit skeptical why it was so inexpensive. Maybe there was something wrong with it, but it sure didn't taste like it. It was delicious.
Speaker 1:And then Thursday was the evening that Flo had gotten her her spacers put in earlier that day and her mouth was really sore and she was just having a hard time eating anything. So I made her her favorite comfort food, which is just boxed mac and cheese. So we had a big beautiful salad and some Aldi brand boxed macaroni and cheese. Nothing but the best over here. And then on Friday night we did homemade pizzas.
Speaker 1:I do keep a sourdough starter that I neglect and abuse pretty terribly, but it is alive. It is hanging on in the fridge. So I knew I wanted to make pizza this week, so I took it out of the fridge on Tuesday or Wednesday and gave it a feed and then on Thursday I made pizza dough. I never I've yet to find a sourdough pizza recipe that I like love. So I always just kind of you know, hit, hit Google and just see what you know, see what's inspiring. It was really good. The crust got too chewy because I overworked the dough and I knew as I was doing it that I was overworking it and you know it was pizza. Like it was delicious.
Speaker 1:We had a great time making pizzas and eating dinner on the floor and watching a movie. We had fun doing the toppings. Aj and I did like fresh basil, garlic and fresh mozzarella. And then we also did a Hawaiian pizza. I had some pineapple leftover from the Al Pastor tacos so we did pineapple ham cheese and then the kids like pepperoni, basil, garlic as well. So those came out great and were really fun. We had a bunch, so we had enough for dinner on Friday and then we had that leftovers for lunch on Saturday and then I did make man. It was another two soup week. I feel like I'm really seeing myself very clearly now that I'm doing this show and saying things out loud.
Speaker 1:I did make soup again. I made minestrone because my mom and I went out for a really nice dinner a couple weeks ago and the first course was supposed to be a minestrone soup and I love minestrone soup and I have to say it was really bad, and I don't say that lightly. The soup itself was like fine it a fine soup, but it was not minestrone soup, and that's not me being pretentious, it's just a fact. It was a clear broth. It didn't it to. Minestrone soup is supposed to have like a tomato-y based broth. It was a clear broth. It had pinto beans in it, which is whack and like bok choy or something similar to bok choy. It just like it was not minestrone soup. And so I've been wanting minestrone soup since. I was taunted with minestrone soup and didn't have it. And I did have some French green beans that were getting a little long in the tooth, so those were primed to become minestrone soup.
Speaker 1:This is my own minestrone recipe that I've been making for years. I actually started making it for one of my meal prep clients from when my girls were young, who was on this like crazy health and exercise regimen and really wanted to up his intake of vegetables without having to eat salad. He was just like salads, too cumbersome. He also worked a lot, so we need something that he could eat quickly, and so I created this like ultra veggie packed minestrone soup for him that he ordered literally every week for like two years and I still make for my family. I'll be happy to include the recipe for that in the show notes, and this week I did.
Speaker 1:I made one addition that won't be on the recipe. I had a little bit of dressing leftover from our salad, our Thursday night salad, when I did the torn kale, tomato, cucumber, bacon, crouton, pickled red onion. I made a sun-dried tomato vinaigrette, because I had a jar of sun-dried tomatoes that had been in the fridge for too long and I was sick of looking at them, and so I hit them with the immersion blender, my secret weapon that I use for everything, and I did like sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, basil, little lemon. They were packed in olive oil, so there was already olive oil in there, and then I just thinned it out with a little bit of water and it was really, really nice. It was lovely on the salad and it had really good flavor. I ended up putting some of it on some avocado toast for breakfast one morning, and then there was still like half a cup left, and so I just added it to the minestrone soup and boy was that a good choice. No regrets there. So that was.
Speaker 1:That was the week of food at our house, a little slightly different from the last time we spoke, but lots of good things. Hopefully a little bit of inspiration in there for you guys. I'll include any recipes from these things that I have, and please let me know if you have any questions about anything at all. And now a quick word from our sponsors. Just kidding, it's me. Oh hi, didn't see you there.
Speaker 1:This is just a friendly PSA to remind you all that it's totally okay to be bad at something before you get good at it, and this especially includes cooking. Not every meal you make has to be a masterpiece. Sometimes, dinner is just that, because being in your kitchen doesn't have to be a chore. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it is something that we all have to do, so we may as well find a little fun in the process. At Rebel Chef Radio, we're all about building competence, confidence and, dare I say, a little bit of enjoyment along the way. So go ahead, burn your roast over, salt your soup, make ugly pancakes just get cooking, alrighty. This brings us to our next segment, entitled Dished Out listeners, ask questions and my original list. Please remember, if you do have a question that you would like discussed on the show, to shoot me a message on Instagram, send me an email, rachel at rebelchefcookingcom, or send me a text, because we're probably friends if you're listening to this show.
Speaker 1:Some of the topics I'm going to cover today are storing different fruits, veggies and herbs for maximum quality, how to prevent things from going bad. We're going to talk about how to organize a shopping list, my favorite go-to family and kid-friendly meals, including high-protein meals, and some basic kitchen fundamentals, starting from the top. Storing fruits, veggies and herbs without them going bad A lot of this stuff, you know. The thing is, there's not just one way to store things. Unfortunately, every different produce item does need to be handled a little bit differently, which can be really frustrating. But once you know, you know and then you never have to wonder or worry about things going bad.
Speaker 1:So, starting at, I just kind of made a long list of all the different types of produce that I buy and store at my house, and I'm sure I'm going to miss something, and if I do, please let me know. So I mean basic things like apples, oranges and bananas. I think are pretty straightforward. Apples and oranges I just store in the refrigerator, in my fruit drawer. Those are the kind of things that we go through really quickly, so I don't usually have them around for too long anyways. But apples will store in your fridge pretty much indefinitely as long as your fruit drawer is at the proper humidity and doesn't get too cold. I know the fruit drawer in my garage refrigerator. I can't put anything in because it freezes a little bit. So you just want to make sure the temperature control is good there, and I also like to layer the bottoms of my fruit and veggie drawers with a clean kitchen towel to absorb excess moisture and humidity, and I do feel like it makes a big difference with the quality of my stored produce. So that might be something that you want to consider and I just swap it out. I probably leave the same towel in there for, you know, two weeks at a time and then take it out, clean out the drawer, put in a fresh towel. Bada bing, bada boom.
Speaker 1:Bananas I store on the counter in just like a dedicated fruit bowl. I don't have a banana hanger. I guess those are probably nice to prevent like brown spots from pressure building up, but I don't really have a problem with that. I leave them on the counter and when they go brown I either bake with them or throw them in the freezer. That's about it.
Speaker 1:Berries and grapes. I like to store berries in the container that they came in in the refrigerator until I'm ready to eat them. I don't like washing berries ahead of time. I feel like as soon as they get rinsed they start losing their luster immediately and going bad right away. So I do not wash them until I'm ready to eat them and until that point I just store them in the container I bought them in in the refrigerator and they usually last for you know, I'll buy two or three containers of berries at the beginning of the week and we'll be eating them all the way and you know, until seven days later when I go shopping again. When I store them that way. Grapes I like to wash as soon as I get them and I like to soak them in cold water for I don't know minutes maybe really plumps them up, really nice and just gives them a little extra life. And then, after I've soaked them in cold water, I lay them out on a clean kitchen towel to dry and then I store them in like a shallow dish and I just layer either a smaller kitchen towel or a couple paper towels in there to absorb any extra moisture so that they don't turn, brown or wilt. But I really do like to soak them. Grapes like to soak grapes in some nice cold water before I give them a rinse to clean them and then I soak in cold water to plump them up and make them extra delicious and then I just store them open air in the fridge on a plate with a layer of moisture absorption as well.
Speaker 1:Herbs we talked about storing herbs during my Talking Trash interview with my friend Carolyn. All herbs, unfortunately, are not created equal, so things like rosemary, thyme, sage and oregano. I just store in the container I purchased them in until I'm ready to use. They usually hold up pretty good on their own. Things that are softer, like parsley, cilantro and mint, I store in a glass of water, so I store them kind of like cut flowers. I do like to wash those soft herbs. When I buy them I wash them in a salad spinner. So I put them in the salad spinner, rinse them in the strainer part a few times until they're really clean, and then I will spin them dry in the salad spinner. And then I will either put them in a bunch like you would a bouquet of flowers and just keep them in a couple inches of fresh water in just a glass in the fridge, and then it's really easy to then just pull off what you need as you need it. You can also refresh those things. So your parsley, cilantro, mint if you're storing it in a glass with water like cut flowers, you can restore them by snipping the stems off. If you notice after a few days they're starting to get a little wilty, you can give them a fresh cut on the stem so that they can absorb a little more water. Change out the water too and it'll breathe a little bit of new life into them.
Speaker 1:And then basil is always tricky because sometimes you buy it and it's refrigerated and sometimes you buy it and it's not. And I know people always say you shouldn't refrigerate basil, but I see it refrigerated at stores all the time. My personal rule for basil is I store it how I buy it. So if I buy it in the refrigerator I just store it in the refrigerator. I try to keep it in the container that it came in and as much as I hate to use it wrapped in plastic wrap is the best way for basil so it doesn't oxidize and turn brown. And then if I bought it and it was out with the dry produce like often you see it with the tomatoes or whatever at the store then I just keep it out at room temperature, try to make sure it's not anywhere where it gets too warm or too moist, so somewhere cool and dry in the kitchen, or too moist, so somewhere cool and dry in the kitchen.
Speaker 1:Another thing to consider when storing herbs is you want to kind of keep an eye on and this goes for all herbs soft herbs, hearty herbs, basil you want to keep an eye on them. If you have big, if they're stored in big bunches, once they start to go, it's pretty quick, unless you can kind of remove the rotted or turning pieces, so like, for example, you know cilantro is a big one I feel like there's always a couple pieces of you know browned or yellowed mushy cilantro in the bunch. You want to get those out, like pretty much right away, and then, if you're trying to keep them around for a while, if you're not going through them super quickly, just take a peek through them every day or two, just kind of run your fingers through the whole bunch. This is true with, like, rosemary and thyme and all of these things. Once you see a sprig or a piece starting to turn, just remove it ASAP and that'll help keep the rest of the surrounding herbs from going bad as well. If you don't want to store your soft herbs, like your parsley, cilantro, mint, if you don't want to store them in a jar or in a glass whatever, like cut flowers like I was talking about, I do recommend washing and spinning them dry, dry, dry, dry, dry, dry, dry, very dry, and then storing them either in a Ziploc or in a Tupperware container with a layer of paper towels. Two absorb moisture. That's really the theme here is you want to be absorbing moisture because the moisture buildup is what makes stuff go bad, so you just want to prevent moisture from building up.
Speaker 1:Moving on to things like your basic veggies carrot, celery, onion, cucumbers, greens, lettuce, potatoes and squash Carrots I just store in the bag with the skins on for as long as I can and I keep those in the refrigerator in the veggie drawer. Those will stay good for a long time. Same rule of thumb I liked if I've had a bag of carrots laying around for like a while, you know a month or more I do like to just kind of peek in there every once in a while if I haven't been using a lot of carrots, and make sure there's not one in there going soft and gross, because then it does spread to the surrounding carrots. But usually carrots will stay fresh in your crisper, just in the bag. The skin on keeps them intact longer. So usually we eat a lot of carrots at home. So like I'll buy a two pound bag of carrots and I'll usually peel you know four or five of them right away and cut up into carrot sticks for snacks and lunches and then I just leave the rest whole, unpeeled, in the bag in the fridge and they last for a long time that way. Just keep your eye out for certain pieces going bad and remove them.
Speaker 1:Celery I like to wash right away. I like to cut it up, cut the root off, cut the tips off, wash them really really good, because celery is actually like really dirty. It's always got a lot of dirt and sand and grit on it. So I wash them really thoroughly and then let them dry, let the individual stalks dry on a clean kitchen towel. And then I kind of do the same thing with the celery. I'll cut up a few stalks into, you know, snacking sticks and put them in the container with the carrots. And then the rest of the cleaned celery I store in a Tupperware or a Ziploc with you guessed it a paper towel to prevent moisture buildup and things going bad.
Speaker 1:You can leave celery whole. You can leave it intact if you're not planning on using it Again. We go through a ton of celery, we snack on it and I cook with celery all the time. Multiple times a week I'm cooking with celery. I love celery, so we go through it pretty quickly. If you don't go through it quickly and you're not snacking on it or using it regularly. You can totally just leave it whole and intact in the package that you bought it in. I've heard people say that wrapping it in foil makes it last longer too, which is probably the case. However, it'll stay in your fridge, it'll stay good for a while and it might look like it's kind of gone bad or gotten crappy, but it's really just lost moisture and kind of dried out a little bit. So you can very easily revive old celery that is less than ideal by cutting off the stem, cutting off the tips, washing and then soaking it in cold water to let it absorb some more moisture and kind of revitalize it and bring it back to life. That's the same thing I do with greens.
Speaker 1:I usually buy greens, lettuces and like dark leafy greens, you know, by the head or by the bunch, and if I'm planning on using them right away, I will wash and dry them in a salad spinner and then use them with romaine. I'll often cut up a bunch of romaine if I'm going to use it for salads, or we have a Russian tortoise who eats a bunch of romaine. So I'll chop up the romaine heads into salad size pieces and I'll store them in the salad spinner and they're usually good in the salad spinner for like two to three days before they start to get that kind of rusty quality to them. But storing heads of lettuce or bunches of greens just as you bought them I'm sorry, I just whacked my. I'm gesturing. I'm always gesturing, even when I'm talking to myself. I'm just sitting in here gesturing. I will store whole heads of lettuce or bunches of greens just however I bought them, sometimes the big bunches of greens, like if I buy a big thing of chard or kale, I'll just wrap the whole bundle in a you guessed it clean kitchen towel until I'm ready to use it. And those can kick around for weeks at a time in your fridge and they might look a little worse for wear or a little wilty, but if you just wash them and soak them in cold water they will snap right back to life. It's pretty miraculous actually.
Speaker 1:Potatoes you want to store at room temperature in a cool, dry, preferably dark place. Potatoes store longer when they're left dirty. So when they still have dirt and dust on them it kind of acts as like a preservative and protects them from spoiling. So best practice is to store them dirty until you're ready to use them. But most importantly, you just want them to be in a cool, dry place with airflow, not on top of your refrigerator, where it's really warm.
Speaker 1:I keep my potatoes in a wire basket in the pantry so they're away from light, they're away from heat and they have airflow. They're not matted together on top of something that's preventing air from circulating. So they stay good for months and even once potatoes start to get the eyes on them, you can still totally eat them. Just remove the eyes. That eyes on potatoes doesn't mean that they're inedible, just like, you know, the sprouting on onions and garlic doesn't mean they're terrible. It means they've gotten older, but they're still perfectly safe to eat and I would argue there's no difference in the taste. You can remove the sprout from the garlic or the onions, just like you can remove the eyes from the potatoes, and potatoes that have gotten really sad and shriveled and you know just sad looking are great for soup or for making mashed potatoes with. The only time you want to actually throw out potatoes is if they've actually gotten, you know, black, soft, mushy, moldy. Just because they look bad doesn't mean they are bad.
Speaker 1:And then that brings me to garlic and onions which I store the same as my potatoes. I have a wire basket in the pantry full of potatoes and then on top of that wire basket I have another wire basket full of garlic and onions, and as long as they are cool, dry and dark, with air circulation, they will stay good for a long, long, long, long, long, long time. You do not want to store onions or garlic anywhere where it's warm or in your refrigerator. They just want to be cool, dry, dark, left alone, airflow, circulation. If they sprout, you can still eat them. You can remove the sprout or you don't have to. You can also eat the sprout. That's fine. I feel like I've covered pretty much everything. Oh yeah, squashes I just store on the counter, on the counter, room temperature. They'd be happy. Where you're storing your potatoes, your onions, your garlic. Avocados, I store with my bananas just in the fruit bowl on the counter while they're unripe and then, as soon as they get ripe enough that I would like to eat them, I move them into the refrigerator and then they'll usually stay fine in the refrigerator as long as you're not bashing into them for several more days. You don't need to panic once your avocados are ripe.
Speaker 1:Spring veggie spotlight asparagus and artichokes two of my favorite vegetables, and these things are, you know, bursting at the stores right now because this is their growing season. Asparagus I like to store like cut flowers. So it's really best to eat these two vegetables asparagus and artichokes like as soon as you buy them, because that's when they're going to be the most delicious and the most enjoyable. But if you buy asparagus and you're not going to use it right away, I recommend just storing them. And that's how you kind of see it at the store, unless they're packaged. When you just see the bundles, you knowles, wrapped up with a rubber band, they're usually on ice or in a little bit of water and that's just how I would store them at home. And artichokes, again, highly recommend. If you're buying artichokes, especially fresh right now in the spring, when they're the most amazing, just cook them and eat them right away, because what a treat.
Speaker 1:I do recommend storing artichokes in the refrigerator, and they do. I feel like they tend to turn pretty quickly and there's not a whole lot, you know, if you decide you want to steam them or roast them or whatever, and they've already gotten kind of sad, I would just trim off a little bit more of the outer leaves before you cook them to get to the really good stuff in the middle. I think that pretty much covers everything. Again, I made a list of all the things that my family eats a lot of. Oh, tomatoes. Tomatoes I store on the counter. I store tomatoes on the counter near the bananas. I think long term, if you have a ton, you got a bumper crop of tomatoes and you're not going to get to them before they go bad, the refrigerator can definitely help extend their shelf life, but I think they're happiest out on the counter at room temperature. If I missed anything or if you have any questions about any other specific produce storing needs, please don't hesitate to let me know.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about how to organize a shopping list. Shopping at the grocery store can be incredibly overwhelming. There's a lot going on, a lot of noise, a lot of traffic, a lot of bad overhead lighting and often poor musical choices. So it's nice to have your shopping list organized in a manner that allows for maximum efficiency and therefore maximum enjoyment. I would argue I don't have any like magical. I don't think this is groundbreaking how to organize a shopping list, but having worked at a grocery store for the better part of my adolescence and, having spent I can't even tell you how many hours grocery shopping, both for work and for my own consumption, I do think that I'm a pretty darn good and efficient shopper. So, basically, at any grocery store you're going to go to, all of the perishables are on the perimeter of the store and all of the shelf stable and frozen goods are more in the center of the store.
Speaker 1:In my perfect world, I organize my shopping list based on the order in which I will be seeing these things at whichever particular store I'm going for or I'm going to. So, like I know exactly the route that I walk when I go into Costco, and I know exactly the route I walk when I go into Costco, and I know exactly the route I walk when I go into Aldi or when I go into Whole Foods, and I think that helps with organizing your shopping too. If you're shopping at the same stores week after week, walk through them the same way every time, and I think that just helps solidify your routine and, like, really familiarize yourself with where everything is, because when you can visualize where these things are while you're making your list, that really helps to maximize your efficiency and make sure nothing gets left behind. I like, if I'm, if I'm going to one of my most commonly shopped stores, I will just write things down. You know, I kind of visualize myself walking through the store and I'll order things in the way that I know I'll be passing them by. And I am the.
Speaker 1:I do walk down every aisle when I go to the store, even even if there's aisles that things aren't on my list, because sometimes you forget things and just walking down the aisle can jog your memory. I don't do this at a leisurely pace because I'm a busy gal and I don't have a lot of time. I just try to be brisk and efficient and I always shop with headphones in because it lets me focus a little more on what I'm doing and make sure that I don't forget stuff. But let's be real, I still forget stuff all the time. And then if I'm going somewhere that I'm not super familiar with and I can't visualize every step of my time in the store, I just do a basic produce in one column, meat and dairy in another column, and pantry or shelf stable goods in a third column, and then occasionally I might have a miscellaneous column if I'm buying things like fresh cut flowers, or if I need to get alcohol, or if I'm getting like a specific, like international item that I know I might forget, because it's not just my basic, like you know, pasta or rice, whatever. But in general I think, just doing produce in one row, meat and dairy in another row, pantry in a third row, you've pretty much got your bases covered. And then, if you can organize within those categories just a little bit more detailed, like you know, you put all your fruits and your produce together, you put all your greens and your produce together, so then you're not bopping back and forth, you know, like a ping pong ball, while you're in the produce section, so on and so forth. So I don't know if that's anything like super groundbreaking for anyone, but it was a question that was asked and I hope my answer was helpful and at the very least, satisfactory to you. Was helpful and at the very least satisfactory to you.
Speaker 1:My go-to family and kid-friendly meals slash high-protein meals. We don't eat a lot of high-protein meals. We eat a lot of vegetarian meals. We eat salad for dinner on like a regular basis. We're not like a super high-protein family, but we definitely consume protein and meat. I worry that I don't have anything again like super groundbreaking to share with you here. As far as my favorite go-to family and kid-friendly meals, you can never go wrong with pasta, meatballs or sausage and a salad. That's like a crowd instant crowd pleaser. Everyone loves it, it's easy to make, it's low overall cost and high enjoyment, and also there's always leftovers, so that just makes it an instant classic in my mind. Yeah, just a box of pasta, some kind of, some kind of meatball or sausage or chicken cutlet, and there's your high protein right there and a really nice salad with a great vinaigrette, some garlic bread. Bada bing, bada, boom and you got. And right there. That's right, two meals off your list for the week.
Speaker 1:I love roasting a whole chicken Again, very simple to do. The actual cooking process takes a little bit of time, but the time from getting the chicken out of the package to having it in the oven, the actual hands-on time, is nothing. You got your high protein there too, and then you can really just pair that with anything and it'll taste good. I love doing a whole roast chicken in a cast iron skillet, of course, over a bed of root vegetables, like you know, potatoes and onions. You could put green beans in there, make it kind of a one skillet, one pan meal with. Then, like I would always, I like a salad on the side of everything.
Speaker 1:So just like some torn and a salad doesn't have to be salad, doesn't have to be a lot of work or a lot of components. When I say a salad on the side, I'm not necessarily saying you have to cut and wash lettuce and chop tomatoes and chop cucumbers and uh, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It can be like sometimes I make a salad and it's just, you know, torn greens with vinaigrette on it. Sometimes I make a salad and it's just thinly sliced cucumber with a little red onion and oil and vinegar on it, like it doesn't have to be, doesn't have to be elaborate, it certainly can be. It doesn't have to be I just think some crisp greens with, like a nice vinaigrette just completes basically every, every meal so nicely so roasted chicken and then, in that same vein, like I love a sheet pan meal, I love doing sausages and veggies all on the same sheet pan with olive oil and whatever seasonings you like, roasted all together, and then you cook a pot of rice or a pot of pasta or you can do potatoes in with the sheet pan meal, but these things are all in the same vein of just being, like, very simple, very customizable to your family's specific tastes, economically friendly, so on and so forth.
Speaker 1:I love a taco night, just a classic Tex-Mex Americana taco night. Your ground beef, your taco seasoning make your own. You don't need to buy the packet, you know just. You have everything that you need for your taco seasoning in your spice cupboard already. It might be expired, but it's there nonetheless. Yeah, and I always like to make double the amount of taco meat that we're actually going to eat and then have the other half either for the freezer or to make nachos with in a couple days, once everyone's forgotten that they just had taco flavors a few moments ago. Those are just the things that jump to my mind most immediately are just the things that jump to my mind most immediately. I'm sure there's lots of other stuff out there, but those are kind of the things that I tend to reach for over and over and over again when I'm feeling generally uninspired but just want to make sure we're eating something that is delicious, nutritious and cost effective.
Speaker 1:We're going to wrap things up with talking about kind of the fundamentals of cooking. So if you are, you know, new to the kitchen or maybe not new to the kitchen, but new to wanting to feel confident and like you are enjoying being in the kitchen these are the things that I think you should really focus on to help you cross the threshold into the land of someone who knows what they're doing and has fun doing it. Knife skills are so important, they're so important and it's like just one of those things that I know no one wants to really deal with, because if you're not comfortable using a knife, it's awkward, it's clunky, it's annoying, you run the risk of hurting yourself. There's a lot of reasons to be, you know, to shy away from getting comfortable with a knife. However, it is just one of those kitchen fundamentals that, if you can get through the being bad at it part and get to the being really good at it part, it's going to make your life so much easier and so much more enjoyable. If you can confidently grab your most used kitchen tool and wield it like you know what you're doing and you can blitz through your prep work with ease and feel confident that you're not going to chop your finger off, your life is going to be so much better. So knife skills start with good knives, and I say this all the time. When I say good knives, I don't mean super expensive, really fancy knives. I mean knives that are in good working shape. Well-maintained, meaning sharp and honed. You do need to hone your knives no one wants to, but you have to and they're clean, they're functional, they're comfortable in your hand. Maybe the knife that you have is not the best knife for you and maybe you need to get yourself you know, treat yourself to a knife that feels more comfortable in your hand or just works a little bit better for you.
Speaker 1:I have Akito knives. I have a lot of different knives at home. We have a set of Globals, we have a set of Akitos and I have one Yoshihiro cleaver-style knife that AJ got me for Christmas a few years ago that I absolutely love chopping vegetables with. But that is not an essential. The Akitos, I think, are actually a really good middle the road price range. But they're just, they're really. They're pretty, they're, they're aesthetically pleasing to the eye, they're well-made, they're very functional, they're easy to maintain. Um, and they I'm actually I'm not sure what they run regularly, but they have a. They have an annual sale I actually think they do one in the one in the summer and one in the winter but you get a whole set for, like I don't know, 150 bucks or something, which is like eight different types of knives. You know, you get the serrated bread knife, you get the meat slicer, you get the boning knife, you get the eight inch chef's knife, the six inch chef's knife, slicing knife, paring knife. I mean, it really is. It's a very good value if you wait for the sale, but there's lots and lots and lots of great knives out there.
Speaker 1:You don't have to spend an arm and a leg. The most important thing, I would argue, is keeping them clean and keeping them sharp. So, as far as sharpening goes, you don't need to sharpen your knives every day. You need to sharpen your knives when they get dull. So if you're using them a lot, you're going to sharpen them more often because they're going to dull quicker. If you're not using them as often, you don't need to sharpen them as often, but you do need to hone them, no matter what. The hone is that long steel rod that comes with your knives and you need to run it back and forth over the blade of the knife, ideally just a few times before, every time you use it, and all the hone does is keeps the little microscopic teeth that are on the blade of your knife in line, and that helps your knives stay sharper longer. But sharpening and honing are not the same things. They shouldn't be used interchangeably and you do need to, regrettably, do both with regularity to keep your knives in good working order.
Speaker 1:When you have sharp, clean, well-maintained knives, it makes knife work much easier, much more enjoyable, much more of a breeze. And if you're not good at cutting, if you're not good at chopping an onion, if you're not good at chopping an onion, if you're not good at chopping garlic, if it's hard for you to get your knife through a potato or a squash, you're not going to enjoy cooking as much, because it's going to be a chore and it's going to be a little bit scary and a little bit uncertain. So you do just have to power through that part and just get your reps in and do it. Don't avoid it, just do it and just like everything else. The more you do it, the better you'll be, the more comfortable you'll be, and then the more competent you'll be, the more confident you'll be, and so on and so forth from there. Everyone knows what I'm saying by now. So don't be afraid of using your knives. Get comfortable with them. Don't put it off If your knives actually just truly suck and they're old and they're bent and they're rusty and they're falling apart and you don't like how they feel in your hand. Anyways, get yourself a good knife that you're inspired to care for.
Speaker 1:I love going to, I love telling people to go to Sur La Table, which I feel like there used to be one in Oakbrook Mall. I don't know if it's there anymore, I haven't been there in so long, but I know there's one around here. That's a great place to go and you can actually hold and use all of the knives that they sell there and see how the different weights of the different handles feel in your hand, how the grip is, and just find the, you know, find the knife that was made for you. You'll be a lot happier and you know more. On the same note, I also want to really encourage people, kind of going back to something I was talking about in the first monologue still unnamed, by the way about people feeling like they have to do everything.
Speaker 1:You know just certain way I about people feeling like they have to do everything, you know, just certain way. Or I feel like it's really easy to look at all these like super cool chefs online and they cut so fast. You don't have to cut like that, like, yes, that's how people who work in restaurants and need to be able to speed through a mountain of cutting in a fraction of the time that we are able to at home yeah, that's how they cut. And certainly if that is a goal of yours in the kitchen to be just like a knife whiz and be able to whip through prep work like an actual pro I applaud you and you should absolutely work towards achieving that goal. But if you're not getting competent with your knives at home because you're like I can't cut the way everyone on TikTok does, there are so many different ways to go about using your knives and different like styles of cutting. There's not one right way. You know I, even as someone who has cooked professionally for a very long time, I still do the rock and chop. It's just way more important to me that I enjoy the process of cooking. That's all to say. There's lots of different ways that you can cut, and as long as you're doing it safely and you're doing it well, I think that's all that matters. I'll link some YouTube videos to different ways that you can go about using your knives, and if anyone listening wants a one-on-one or a group lesson on knife skills and maintenance, please do let me know. Oh, what a good time we could have together Moving on from knife skills just some more basic kitchen fundamentals.
Speaker 1:If you are looking to just generally improve your skills in the kitchen or just start to kind of understand a little bit more about basic cooking concepts, I would encourage you to think about things like proper seasoning, because proper seasoning is like the single easiest and best way to take your food from okay to really good or from not very good to good. Learning how to properly season and season in layers is really important for making your food taste good, and I think a lot of people under season, a lot of people over season, a lot of people aren't seasoning multiple times throughout the cooking process. You don't just salt once. You have to salt many times. But knowing how much salt to add at each addition and when can be confusing and overwhelming, and I know maybe people are sick of hearing me say this by now. But you do just have to kind of start doing some trial and error, do some reading, do some experimentation at home and, for the love of God, please get good salt. That Morton iodized table salt is not what you should be seasoning with. You should be seasoning your food with kosher salt period. I like Diamond Crystal kosher salt, but just regular Morton kosher salt is fine as well.
Speaker 1:I also have another great food blogger that I follow. His website is the Intrepid Gourmet and I'm pretty sure he has some really great articles just on the principles of seasoning and how you go about kind of dialing it into an exact science. So I'll track those down and link them as well. Seasoning is really important knowing how, knowing when tasting as you go let's never forget tasting as we go, because if you taste as you go, you have a lot of opportunities to adjust or fix a dish before it's completed. If you wait until you're serving something to taste it for the first time and it's not very good, there's not a whole lot you're going to be able to do to salvage it. But if you're tasting along the way, each step of the process, you have a lot of opportunities to make adjustments and make your dish even better.
Speaker 1:I think that knowing how to blanch vegetables is really important and I think that's a really basic, simple way to make your vegetables a little more exciting if they're kind of boring. And for those of you who don't know, blanching is cooking food typically vegetables for a short amount of time in a pot of salted boiling water and then shocking them in an ice bath. And the ice bath cuts off that carryover cooking that we talked about before. When you pull, you know, let's say, we're blanching green beans. So you bring a pot of salted water to a boil, you throw your green beans in, you let them boil for a couple of minutes until they get that really nice bright green color and they're just kind of barely cooked through and then you pull them out. And if you were to just pull them out, the steam buildup would continue to cook them and make them perhaps softer than you'd like them to be. So you put them in the ice bath to totally stop the carryover cooking and its tracks, and then it also just kind of shocks the color and makes it really vibrant and beautiful and you know more of a restaurant quality.
Speaker 1:Then, if you want those green beans or that asparagus or your kale or broccoli or whatever could absolutely be ready to eat at that point in time. And that's actually how I like to do veggies for, like a crudité platter or something like that, because it just makes them. I think it's just such a step above raw in so many ways. But then it also just gives that really gorgeous, vibrant color that makes them so much more attractive and so much more appealing, and the texture of them being just barely cooked like that is so nice. You could totally just eat them like that. I recommend seasoning with a little salt and pepper or making some kind of you know dipping sauce to enjoy them with.
Speaker 1:Or if you're serving your blanched veggies as a side dish to a hot meal, you would, after the ice bath shock, towel, dry them or spin them in a salad spinner or something like that, and then you would finish them by sauteing them in a little olive oil, perhaps with some garlic or seasonings of your choosing. But it sounds complicated because it is multiple steps of blanching water, ice, bath shock, and then, if you're sauteing them, you got to dry them and then another pan for sauteing. However, you can be kind of like systematic with stuff like this Like, for example, if you're doing pasta for dinner, you can blanch your vegetables in the same pot of salted water that you boil your pasta in later. So you can get a big pot of water salted on to boil, blanch your veggies, pull them out in the ice bath and while they're in the ice bath you're bringing your big pot of salted water back up to a boil and then you can cook your pasta in that pot of salted water. So it just takes a little bit of forethought and just kind of like thinking ahead and making sure that you're giving yourself time to enjoy in the kitchen, instead of like being flustered and not thinking it through, and so you're actually grabbing three different pans even though you only need to use one. Just you know, take it slow, give yourself time, try out these things on nights, when you have time to enjoy it and experience it, not in a rush.
Speaker 1:And the last fundamental, core skill that I would like to discuss or recommend is knowing how to make any kind of sauce Sauces can be really complex, they can be really involved, they can be really overwhelming, but they also don't have to be and knowing how to whip together a quick sauce, whether it is something simple and uncooked, like a vinaigrette to really liven up a salad or to serve on your blanched vegetables or anything from that to being able to make a pan sauce quickly out of the drippings in the pan that you just cooked a beautiful piece of meat. Those are things that really transform a dish, take it to the next level and also make you feel like you're really a cook and like you're really doing it. Those are the kinds of touches and things that, if you can kind of master, start small. You don't need to make your first sauce that you make a hollandaise or a bolognese. It doesn't need to be something super involved.
Speaker 1:I think, starting with knowing how to slap together a beautiful vinaigrette that, like I said, isn't just for salad, you can pour your vinaigrette over your blanched veggies, you can use it as a dressing on your cooked grains, you can use it as a serving sauce on your roast chicken or pork and then also, in the same breath, right being able to make a pan sauce in the pan that you've just cooked some pork chops or chicken breast or even, you know, just sauteed some green beans in. There's fond, there's flavor built up on the bottom of every pan that anything has been cooked on and you can use that flavor to build a really easy, quick, simple but delicious sauce that will take your dinner from a 7 to a 10. Take your dinner, you know, from a seven to a 10. So that's something that I'm not going to get into the details too much right now because I don't want to bore anyone and I also think that stuff like that is maybe better read than listened to. So I will attach as well I have a lot of attachments on this episode I'll attach my basic vinaigrette recipe as well as an outline, a formula for a pan sauce, all-purpose pan sauce that you can serve on meat, veggies, grains, whatever Eat with a spoon, just because it's good. And I think that those kind of three basic skills are really essential and also fun. Those are the kind of things that make you feel like you're a chef and like you know what you're doing and when you can easily and effortlessly just kind of like, handle your knives, make your vegetables, take your vegetables to a next level or serve your meal with a homemade sauce that only took a couple minutes to make, by the way, it really makes you feel confident and excited and like what you just did was actually fun. At least that's the hope. Right, or I should probably change change trajectories for this show. All right, that wraps up the dished out portion. We're going to wrap up the show right now with what has quickly become my favorite segment sharp and short, super quick tips for kitchen success. All right, guys, I got some super hot tips fresh off the press and just for you this week on the show. Let me know what you think about these.
Speaker 1:When making a soup that contains pasta, for example, a chicken noodle soup, consider cooking your noodles separate and not in the soup. When you cook your noodles in the soup, especially if you're not planning on consuming the entire quantity of soup prepared in the same evening, if you have to store your noodle-based soup in the refrigerator when it sits, the noodles are going to drink up all of the extra broth and therefore flavor in your soup, and they're going to become bloated. So you're going to be left the next day with bloated, soggy noodles and no broth in your soup. I know it's an extra pot, but it makes a really big difference. Cook your noodles separately and serve your soup by spooning a scoop of noodles into the bottom of your soup bowl and then ladling your soup on top when serving, when you're finishing dishes, when you're getting ready to serve something that you've made and I'm sure it's already delicious and tasting pretty good but if you want to chef it up and kick it up just a notch or two, consider very, very simple additions last minute, like a drizzle of olive oil, a splash of lemon juice or any type of vinegar, topping your dish with any kind of fresh herb or a large flaky finishing salt. These are all things that they do in restaurants. These are the kinds of things that make restaurant food taste so much better than food at home. But they're very easy to do at home and it's these little finishing touches that just add that final bit of texture or balance of flavor that take a finished meal from good to great.
Speaker 1:I cooked a lot of bacon this week and it was brought to my attention that not a lot of people know about cooking bacon on a sheet pan. If you're cooking one or two slices of bacon, the stovetop is definitely the way to go. If you're cooking a pound of bacon all at once, it is definitely easier, way less messy and way less time consuming to cook that bacon on a sheet pan in the oven. This way you don't get grease splatter all over your countertop. Your bacon is going to cook much more evenly instead of being burned in places and underdone at other places.
Speaker 1:You do not have to cook your bacon on a rack, on a sheet pan. I know that's how a lot of people online do it and you absolutely can, and it will get even more evenly cooked if you do it on the rack. But, as I've mentioned before, I'm pretty lazy. I don't like cleaning those racks, especially when they're laden with bacon grease. I usually just get out my favorite sheet pan, put down a layer of parchment paper with a little bit hanging over the edges so that the grease doesn't get trapped underneath the pan, between the parchment paper and the pan, thus burning and making a bigger mess for me to clean up. So, sheet pan layered with parchment paper.
Speaker 1:I lay the bacon out in an even row and I put it in a 400 degree oven and it usually takes between, you know, eight and 12 minutes to cook, depending on how thick the bacon is. I do normally rotate my sheet pan about halfway through. I do this when I cook basically everything, just to ensure even cooking. And then, if you do notice that the strips on the end are getting cooked faster than the ones in the middle, you can always give them a little rotate move around with your tongs halfway through the cooking process as well. But this cooks your bacon really quickly. It allows you to cook a bunch at one time. There's almost no mess to clean up because all of the bacon grease accumulates on the parchment paper. So you can either just let it cool and then throw the parchment paper with the solidified bacon grease on it away, or you can just tip off the grease from the parchment paper into a jar and save it for a future use. When the bacon comes out of the oven and everything is still hot and the fat is all melted, I will take the bacon slices off of that pan and lay them onto another sheet pan with paper towels to soak up the extra grease. But this is a really easy, simple way to cook a lot of bacon in half the amount of time with almost no mess.
Speaker 1:When you're building a vinaigrette which has come up a few times in this episode and, like I said, I'm going to link my very, very basic vinaigrette recipe in the show notes consider layering your acid. Samin Nosrat talks about this in her very famous book Salt, fat, acid, heat. I'm sure I said those out of order I always do, but y'all know what I'm talking about. You don't just have to use one type of acid, one type of vinegar or lemon juice or whatever. You can amp up the flavor and really have fun experimenting with layering different acids within a vinaigrette or within a marinade. So just since, if you're going to, if you're usually making a lemon vinaigrette or within a marinade. So just since, if you're going to, if you're usually making a lemon vinaigrette, try making a vinaigrette with equal parts lemon juice and red wine vinegar or white wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar or a splash of wine added to the lemon juice. But layering the acids and using different types of acid within the same recipe really opens up a lot of new flavors and adds a little bit more balance. That's what I got, sharp and short, as promised.
Speaker 1:It's been another great episode. I can't tell you, guys how much fun I have making these. I hope that you're enjoying listening to them and, as always, my door, my proverbial door, is open for any feedback, any constructive criticism, if you have any questions about anything that I've discussed or would like to hear a topic discussed on the show. Please reach out to me, either on Instagram at RebelChefDG, via email, rachel, at RebelChefCookingcom, or, you know, just tell me in person, because I will likely see you soon. Thank you so much for listening. See you next time. Bye-bye, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm.