The Best Panic Piccata Around!

Chef Daniela and Grant take a tour through the kitchen of a busy mom with a picky toddler. Thankfully, she's got a pretty stocked fridge. Grant gets to take the lead on the recipe and comes up with a new twist on how to use that rotisserie chicken you just scored from the store, taking it from plain to piccata!

TIP OF THE EPISODE:

Daniela explains how to properly keep your knives sharp and why a sharp knife is a safe knife, even if that sounds like the opposite of how it should be.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Chop chop chop chop chop chop chop chop chop all right everyone.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Hello, hello. It is so nice to have everyone here with us. I am Daniela Colotta. I am a professional chef, culinary instructor, and owner and founder of Colotta Culinary.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

And I'm Grant Herms. I'm a journalist and a passionate home cook. And this is Panic of the Pantry, where we raid your fridges and your pantries to write recipes, not tragedies. It has been so cold these last few weeks that I've been so much time just huddling over the oven just for the heat, basically.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

I swear it's so cold. Uh this is episode seven of Panic of the Pantry, everyone, and we have reached historic lows here in Michigan. I didn't think it could get lower until it did.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Oh my God. Like the throes of the polar vortex. Whenever this comes out, like that's where we are right now.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

It's so bad.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

The last time I experienced the polar vortex, I really remember it, was when I was living, hold your breath, in Fargo, North Dakota.

SPEAKER_02 1:04

Oh, oh. Oh, like unspeakable.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

In the polar vortex, no polar vortex, there was no joke. So sometimes on days when I'm like, wow, it's really cold, I went, Well, at least you're not in Fargo, North Dakota. So here we are. No offense.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Could be worse.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

It could, yeah. It could a hundred percent be worse. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

I don't know. I've I've spent the last few weeks just making like chilies. I made this uh veggie chili the other week that was like potatoes and uh sweet potatoes and black beans and like a three bean chili for that. It was it was good. It was not my thing though. My wife loves it, but it was too sweet for me. And I had never used a sweet potato in a chili before, and so I thought that was interesting. But I didn't realize how much sweetness it was going to put into this chili.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Yeah, it was really weird. I've never done that either. Uh I've had regular potatoes and chili, but I've never had sweet potato and chili. But I can imagine, and I'm with you, I actually don't like my chili sweet. Some people absolutely like it, but no, I'm but in general, I don't like sweet things, I like savory things, so that's probably not my jam, but you know, each their own. Some people like it, but me too. It's been soups, just soups. That's all I want. Morning, noon, and night. I want soup.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

Yes. I all I made a uh I I should have texted you about this because I thought about you when I was doing it. I made a like sour cream and onion potato leek soup basically, and put put our favorite thing on top. I just put potato chips on top.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

And like I was like, I should, I should call Daniela and be like, look what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Potato chips on top. And what did you say that you were the soup that you were going to make that was uh a take on French onion a couple episodes ago? Do you remember what that was?

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Yes, I make a miso French onion soup and I did make that, and that one it slaps every time. It hits. It's so good and so easy. It just takes a while because I caramelize the onions in the oven, which takes like which takes like an hour to do because it's really low. I'm at like 250 or like 300 if I need to whack it up a little bit. Like, but it's like five pounds of onions that I spread out of two baking sheets, and then the whole house smells like onions for a week and like it's coming out of us. Uh, like thankfully, I work from home, and so like it's just me and only the dog has to smell that. But like my Becca, my wife, like has to go into an office and like I'm sure she just smells like the inside of a Vidalia onion, but like, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

Oh my god. Well, there's I mean, there's no better, why not? There's no better way, I think, to smell personal. Well, no, that's probably not good. That's probably not good at this time of year. Um, closer to uh what is what is the holiday it's not escaping me? Uh Lent, right? Lent, gosh, I haven't been Catholic in a long time. Uh so Lent. So um my family celebrated Lent when I was a kid, and uh something that I loved was smelt. I don't know if you've ever had them fried before. Yeah, yes. So I I adore them, they were so good. And my mom just, you know, had these little little tiny fish, and you can eat them, bones of it taste like a potato chip, honestly, like a fish potato chip. They're delicious. My mom would just put them in a little flour and then fry them. And we would have those on on Fridays when we when we had a fish dinner for Lent. And holy moly, the house smelled so bad. We would have to cook, she would litter them. Not joking, we did this. She would take rags and towels and stuff them under the doors so our clothes wouldn't smell I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

You're it's a fish fry every Friday. The whole place is gonna smell like fish. It it is not. I mean, like I grew up in Minnesota, where it is the land of the Scandinavians, and so for the like Catholic Scandinavians, they would do Ludafisk on Friday. I've had it. I've had it. It is horrendous. It's so bad.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

I didn't like it. No, it is at all.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

It is fish, white fish of any kind, uh, that they then soak in lye until it becomes jelly and then reconstitute itself by some sort of monstrous process, and then you cover it in butter and a little bit of salt, and then that's what they eat. And like it smells and tastes terrible, and it is an acquired taste. I think is just something that you just eat because you've always eaten it and you've never thought twice about it.

SPEAKER_01 5:11

But like, yeah, yeah, it's an unholy, an unholy dish for a very holy holiday, apparently. It's yes, I I had and that's when I had so when I was living in Fargo, which you know it borders Minnesota, so yeah, that I was introduced to a lot of these dishes, and you know, I'll try anything. I'm like, absolutely, and regional, please bring it on. And I was like, Oh, this, oh, I can't do this, and that's rare.

SPEAKER_00 5:35

It's almost like it's mad at you for eating it. Like that's how it feels.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

I was mad at myself for eating it. I didn't, I didn't eat the whole thing. I couldn't, I couldn't do it.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

And like, I'm sorry if that's someone's cold weather comfort food, but like I will stick to my soup and it'd be fine.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Yeah, sorry, guys, about the ludifisk. I'm gonna offend everyone that I once knew in Fargo, who are very sweet people, by the way. But sorry, I can't handle your your fish.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

Lack of taste buds, just okay. Anyway, let's let's move on because we I want to get to to Maddie today, our guest, because it was so much fun. Yeah, and I think she might be a good contender for a repeat guest for us.

SPEAKER_01 6:13

Yeah, she mentioned she mentioned it.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

I know. I it we could have her on in a couple episodes again and do like oops all sauces because her fridge was just full of condiments, uh, which honestly isn't a bad idea for an episode. We all have like half-used jars of something in our fridge that we like, we could use this and should use this for something. Yeah, but like how? I don't know. That's a that's a later date. That's not this episode, but I want to get to the tip of this episode too, because it is literally about the tips of things.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

Yeah, I like it. Hold on, let me just really quick uh take a sip of my water. Um, room temperature because I hate ice. Some good room temperature water. Anyway, everyone, for today's tip, we're gonna be talking about shopening sharpening versus honing. So why I want to talk about this is because they're not the same thing, right? People get them confused all the time. And what I see a lot is people being sold things as sharpeners that are not actual sharpeners. So the honer, just to make every clear to everyone, the honer is that long steel probe that people think is like a jousting sword. It's not, it's called a steel probe or a honer. And a lot of the things that you have on your countertop are also honer. So those things that you run your knife through that say coarse or fine grind, um, those little, they usually look, I wish I could show it, but you know, this is a podcast. Uh, those little red things that you have that you hold in your hand that you can run your knife through, they're all honers. They are not sharpeners. And even the people at very nice stores will sell it to you as sharpeners. When you sharpen your knife, everyone, you physically change the shape of the blade itself, making it sharper. You only really can do this on some sort of whetstone, which Grant's going to talk about in a second because he was kind enough to show me what he's doing now. You can do it at home, you can buy it and make it and do it at home. You can have your own whetstones. I personally don't even do it. The same reason why I don't knit my own socks because I don't want to. So I outsource it. It's so hard. So I outsource it to other people. You can go to places like uh locally, Ace Hardware does a really, really nice job on them and get them sharpened by a professional. So you should do this every, I'd say three to four months, depending on how often you use your knives, because a sharp knife is a safe knife. We talked about this in knife skills class. A honer is different. So every single time you use your knife microscopically, you are bending it a little bit. And so to keep it straight and sharper for a longer period of time, you are going to hone it on those things that I talked about, those countertop things you slide your knife through, the jousting sword, the steel probe back and forth. Uh, there's all sorts of videos, I'm sure, that you can pull up on YouTube, but you should also take my knife skills class because I show everyone how to do it. But that was a shameless plug. So anyway, I digress to keep it's it's I mean, what can we do? What can we do? Uh we can just we can just promote. So to keep your knife sharper for a longer period of time, you want to run it through that probe or on that probe or run it through some sort of honer every single time you use the knife. It's going to really, really stretch out those sharpenings that you have to go to a professional to do or again buy your own whetstones. So next time someone tries to sell you, oh hey, the sharpener that you can just on the counter real quick, it's not a sharpener. Should you get it? Absolutely, because you you should have a honer. Just know they're two different things. And when people are like, I use this all the time and it's been years and my knife is still dull, like, because you have to go get it professionally sharpened.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

Yeah. And it's an interesting idea too. The way that I think about how the knives actually work is how they're made, is they've they're putting pieces of steel together, physically fusing them. And at the very tip of this, you sort of have you don't have a groove because they melt together, but it bends over itself. So every time you're using it, whether you're right-handed or left-handed, it's sort of adding a little bit of a an edge to the wrong side of the knife and dulling that edge. And so the honer is like striking that down and making sure that it stays lined up. But like sharpening is different. You're actually wearing away, taking away some of the knife.

SPEAKER_01 10:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

And like I have tried the whetstone, we talked about this before. We hit record here, but like I have tried everything under the sun that is a sharpener, sharpener. That's like a whetstone that you do. I can never get the angle right for that because it's really specific. I tried the thing that sometimes you'll see in like industrial butchering lines of people where like they'd like swipe it across this thing super fast. It like should work. I can't get it to work. I've got this little thing now that I showed you before. It's like this little tumbler-looking thing that kind of works and is a sharpener, not a honer. Although I've got several honers upstairs in the kitchen right now. But like it's just never quite the same as going to get it sharpened. And some knife companies will let you like ship off your knives to them. I have shun knives, which are fantastic Japanese knives. They're out of Oregon, and so you can just like send your knives to them. Okay. It's hard.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

Wait, I did I have shuns and I wait, wait, wait. I didn't know this.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

Yes, it's hard to do really okay because it's hard to ship a big box of knives, just like loose knives. The postman frowns on that.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

So when the post the post guy's like, Do you have any substances that could whatever they say, like their disclaimer could harm people?

SPEAKER_00 11:23

You're like, oh well, you know, they're not for that, but like don't just stick your hand in the box. Like it, you know, so like it you gotta like get a thing from Shun to do it. I find it easier just to go to an ace hardware and get them to do it there. Uh, if you live in a state where they play hockey, somebody will help you out there. Just you can do it with the skate sharpener. Yeah, I've done that before. Yeah. Uh and like like it's not great for the knives. I'll I'll say that, but like it works. It works. But like take them to a place, get them sharpened. Yeah. It also depends on how often you're using your knives. I like to actually sharpen, sharpen my knives almost once a month. Yeah, I know. But I'm using them so frequently. Yeah, absolutely. So there's there's that. Yeah, every two months. Yeah, exactly. You said something before that I think I really want you to unpack in this tip, and it's almost like a two for tips, but you said a sharp knife is a safe knife. Yeah. And that feels counterintuitive to most people in the kitchen. And I think a lot of people, the average person who maybe doesn't cook the way that you and I do, is a little afraid of their knives already. Um agreed. And just because they're not confident in those skills, but why is a sharp knife a safer knife? Because that feels like that shouldn't be true.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

Yeah. So it's the first thing that I say during my knife skills class, and it really is all joking aside, it's my favorite class to teach because it starts with the fundamentals that people are intimidated by. And I say to them, I want you to repeat that for me. A sharp knife is a safe knife. And there's a couple of reasons for that. Number one, when a knife is dull, you struggle with it. You're struggling to get it through something, you're wiggling it all over the place, you're uh, and that's when you slip, and that's when you hurt yourself. So when it's sharp, it goes through things like butter and you are not struggling. The other reason is that if you do cut yourself, it is a cut cleaner cut that doesn't hurt as much when it is a sharp knife, as opposed to a dull knife that's gonna hurt like hell. I tell everyone, it's for the history nerds out there, and I am one of those history nerds, think of it like the guillotine. What did they do to torture people on the guillotine? It was a dull blade, right? Right. What do they do to be kind to people? It was a sharp blade. It's just the same thing across the map. A sharp knife is going to make a clean cut if it does cut you. Very easy to heal. A dull knife, oof, you just do not want that cut.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

It tears. Like, think of it that way. Yeah, it's like a dull knife actually is dull, not because the edge is rounded, but because they're little microscopic sort of like chunks that have been taken out of the tip of that thing. And it it almost it's not serrated, but like think of it like that.

SPEAKER_01 13:49

Yeah, where you can't.

SPEAKER_00 13:49

And like it's harder to heal. It's yeah, it's it's bad. It's real bad.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

Yeah. So I like I really like to say that and I repeat it again and again in your head. And I and I understand why people have their favorite knives, their serrated knives they use for everything, their parry knives they use for everything, but it really is not safe and it's not efficient. And so once you develop those tools and skills and really learn the right way, I love to see it's my just the reason I live, I swear, is to see those aha moments on people's faces where they'll just go, Oh, I get it now. And once they start practicing, they just have so much more confidence. That's the motto of my company in the first place, cook confident. Um, and yes, I know that's not grammatically correct. It's just a fun play on words. I know. Uh, but really it's true. Gaining that confidence is going to make you a better chef, better cook, better home cook.

SPEAKER_00 14:36

Yeah. And that starts with a sharp knife and knowing how to use that knife. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

Certainly does. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

Okay. Well, why don't we take a quick break and we'll come back and go through this kitchen that was so fully stocked, it was it was almost hard to do what we have to do here.

SPEAKER_01 14:53

Yeah. And we had too many options, but here we are, as usual, Grant. No one's giving us the empty fridge.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

All right, we'll be right back.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

Hi, everyone. I'm Chef Daniela, founder of the Cloud of Culinary Collective. If you're watching Panic at the Pantry, it means you really care about real food, real life, and cooking that actually works. My company, Cloud of Culinary, is all about teaching people how to cook with confidence, not perfection, no fancy kinchins, no intimidation, just no food that looks like just good on the internet. I post hands-on classes at the beautiful park building in downtown Plymouth, Michigan, demo nights, private events, and in-home parties and get-togethers all built around technique, connection, and food that brings people together. Because cooking isn't about showing off. It isn't about perfection, it is about showing up. If you've ever thought, I wish I could cook, I need more classes. This is your sign. Come cook with me. Visit www.caladocolinary.com, follow along, get tickets for classes, and inquire and private events. All right. Hi, Maddie. It's so nice to have you here. Thank you so much for coming on Panic at the Pantry. We are very glad to come raid your fridge, really. Thanks for having me. I'm really excited. Um, it's gonna take one thing uh off of my plate today to figure out what I'm gonna have for dinner tonight. Yeah, you actually said beforehand you're like, okay, this is really falling at a great time because I don't know what to make for dinner. I have no idea. Glad to be of service.

SPEAKER_00 16:22

That's what we're here for. Yeah. Okay, so before we actually like open up your cupboards and everything, Maddie, what is a normal day for you like?

SPEAKER_01 16:30

Okay. Um, so I live with my husband and my almost two-year-old baby. Um, so I feel like a lot recently what I make for dinner has to kind of at least try to involve him in like the things that he eats. He's very picky. It is what it is. We're just trying to get through it. But um, I mean, yeah. So I mean, in the morning, our mornings are kind of crazy. He goes to daycare. So we are up and out of the door within like 30, 40 minutes of being awake, right? So it's like a protein shake in the morning. Wow. Like that's a quick turnaround. Being like, thank you. It's impressive. We're pretty efficient in the morning, but it's kind of crazy. Nice. Um, and then you know, both Brennan and I work all day and then, you know, pick up the kid around probably 5 p.m. and then um get something quick and easy on the meal out on the table for us for dinner. So yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_00 17:29

Because what time is bedtime?

SPEAKER_01 17:30

He goes to bed at seven. So sometimes sometimes he's uninvited from family meals, you know, and he'll eat something quick and what he likes to eat, and then uh, you know, we'll eat dinner like later and we'll start making dinner at like 7 p.m. and probably eat around like eight-ish.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

Okay. Okay. But the so like there generally is some time when you like try to actually make a meal. It's not always just like you're grabbing things and slapping them in a microwave or whatever. Or is that okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

She's she's also shared with me that she uh some of her things that she's made. It looks like you know what you're doing in the kitchen. I don't want you to see. I like to think I do. I think that my um my pantry and my fridge are gonna be. I think I have a good mix of like super easy things that like you see parents of young kids have. You know, like I have a back the box mac and cheese, you know, I have hummus cups, but I also have some like homemade duck broth in the back of my fridge, like stuff like that. So it's it's really kind of one or the other. There's no middle ground.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

Okay. The last thing before we actually like look at that fridge, uh, any like allergies or food allergies or stuff that like people just won't eat in your house?

SPEAKER_01 18:40

Um, so I don't eat cured meats. Um, I have an allergy to um nitrites and nitrates. Um, and then my son doesn't eat meat right now, but don't take it off the table. I mean, like I said, sometimes we just make something different for him just so that we don't have to eat boxed mac and cheese. Is he just going through that that stage right now where he's it's not happening? It's just not happening. I think it's a texture thing, you know. They go through the stage where like they eat everything that's in front of them and it's great. And like you kind of like you have this idea in your head that you're like, wow, I'm the perfect parent because my baby isn't picky, and then all of a sudden they wake up and they humble you. So that's kind of what we're doing right now. Is that's what we're dealing with is being majorly humbled by our toddler.

SPEAKER_00 19:24

Okay, it is what they do. They do. Yeah. Okay, let's start with the fridge then. Okay. Show us around.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

Okay. We have all of our condiments, the many condiments. We have some beer. Holy condiments. We are a condiment household. Um, I like it. I do. Um, some shredded cheese. Let's see. Okay. Um, we'll start down here. Um, I have a rotisserie chicken I just got today. Um great from Costco. Amazing. Yes. Um, hummus cups for my toddler. Um, yogurt squeezies for my toddler. Um, we have some veggies in here. Um, the berries for the toddler. Does he have like certain places that no one else is allowed to touch in the fridge? That it's just his um it's basically like if I I feel like if I eat any of his berries, um he won't have enough berries for the week, and then we might have um a meltdown on our hands. Oh, you have a tiny little terrorist who serves your fridge. Um yes, yeah. We have a domestic terrorist in our household, yes. Um this block of cheddar. Oh, that's a huge block. Oh, that's telamoke cheddar, too. Oh gosh. Is that good? Telemok sponsors. Oh, yeah. Do we like sponsor us, please? We do love that. I got it from Costco. It was only$10 for this whole block. So I thought that was a good deal. Um I have some parm. Um you're not gonna want to see these. These are pre-made things. We're just gonna hide those away. I mean, no, no, no. So let us know because you never know what you can actually jazz up with pre-made, you know, pre-made things. It happens. Um, this is a chicken Caesar wrap that I got for lunch today. Okay. And then these are Costco's stuff puppers.

SPEAKER_02 21:12

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:13

Um, okay, let's see. We have some eggs over here. We have the Kirkland butter. Okay, I want to pause for a second and just let everyone know uh because I I want to make it clear how much I love and adore Costco. Costco and I are BFFs. They know me at the door. Um, I'm there every single day because of the company, and I love everything about them. So the love can't be more for Costco. Continue. Continue. Um some cottage cheese. That is the homemade duck broth that I made. Um so, like I said, I have, you know, squeeze and homemade broth. Um feta cheese, some chimichurry. I never go without chimichurry. I love it. I put it on everything, I think. Have you made it before? I have. I have. Have, but I can't find um because it takes those red peppers, like the little red pepper guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can't find them anywhere. Oh. So the guajilos is that what they're called? I thought they were Fresno. Yeah. Double Fresno's. Yeah. As a distinct Fresno. Well, I use Guaj, I know I use Guajio pepper. Do you use guajil peppers in yours, Grant? In your choice?

SPEAKER_02 22:21

I use Serranos.

SPEAKER_01 22:23

Oh, okay. And where do you guys find those? Because I can't find them. So at the grocery store, honestly, in the international food aisle at the end, they're dried. And you have to reconstitute them.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

You can recast them in like a broth. Or sometimes I'll just get like fresh serranos and fresnos where like they keep the jalapenos, like in the actual fresh upper section. They're just they're just small. They're like small and skinny. They're almost like they're like a the size of like um a Crayola marker, basically.

SPEAKER_01 22:49

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

I need to look like a cayenne, almost look like a cayenne, but fatter.

SPEAKER_00 22:54

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

Um, anyway, continue. Let's see. I have more condiments up here. Don't look at this. This is my son's. I don't eat this. Um what is it?

SPEAKER_00 23:05

What I can't even talk about. Storm like pesto. Oh, well, whatever.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

Okay, that's his condiment of choice. So he doesn't like ketchup, he doesn't like ranch, he likes pesto. I don't know. Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_00 23:16

Your two-year-old's choice of condiment is pesto.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

It is, it is pesto, and another one that we just found out yesterday is this like Korean barbecue sauce that's spicy. But he won't eat a chicken nugget, so there's that. Oh my god, your son is my best friend.

SPEAKER_00 23:36

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 23:37

I love this so much. Okay, okay. Holy call, I'm gonna cry. Okay, we got more condiments, guys. We have all of this Sally. We have okay, so this is the hell that I will die on. This is the best mayonnaise in the world. Oh, okay. Oh, Dukes. I do love Dukes on that. Yeah, it's fantastic. Um, that's my sourdough starter all the way in the back. Um nice. I see. Um, beef bouillon. A large thing of it. Some more cottage cheese that I actually forgot about until now. So maybe this is good that we're going through this together. Yeah. Um, open the cottage cheese. Is it good skill? Um, well, so this one I just got. I don't want to open this on camera. Please don't make me do that. Oh, okay. I would never make you do anything you don't want to do. Open up the cottage cheese. But this one we just got today. So we do have some fresh cottage cheese. I don't know about it. Okay, that's okay. No worries to be honest. Um let's see. Some more jam. There's some preserved lemons in the back as well. Oh, love that. All right. Sunflower seed spread. Um, this is tahini sauce I just made last week for some veggies.

SPEAKER_00 24:48

Yum.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

Um chicken bouillon. Some more jam. Guys, I think that I like jam. I think that you like jam. More jam, jam is your jam. And a two-hearted deer. Dijon. More Dijon.

unknown 25:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

Mango chili jam. And then some pickles in the back.

SPEAKER_00 25:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 25:14

Okay. Is that enough for you guys to work on right now? We go go ahead, Grant.

SPEAKER_00 25:18

I was thinking go back to the veggie drawer and give us a better look around.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

Exactly what I was gonna ask if you have blessings. Yeah. I have, oh, sorry, can you see it like this? Yes. Okay. I have cherry tomatoes, one carrot, some uh romaine lettuce. Okay. Um, I also have a bunch of frozen veggies as well. Okay, what kind of frozen veggies do we have?

SPEAKER_00 25:40

Yeah, let's see the freezer.

SPEAKER_01 25:41

Okay. I have two freezers. Love that for us. Okay. The first freezer. We have some sambuka.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 25:53

I have corn. I do have um show us the frozen veggies. Here's some sambuka. Here's some sambuka. Here's some more important stuff. Um I have broccoli and I do have like a bigger thing of broccoli. Um, like I have more bees in the other freezer. Um, some broccoli littles. They're shaped like dinos.

SPEAKER_00 26:17

And he eats those?

SPEAKER_01 26:18

Yeah, yeah, he'll eat those actually if I put pesto on them, but only if there's pesto on them. And those are tortillas? Uh yeah, I have some tortillas. I love that part. Spanish style rice. Um, okay. Pediolite pops. Are those for you or for him? Both.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

Yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:39

Listen, okay, I did have to have one the other week and it brought me back to life. Okay. That's that's fair. You have the pediolite pops next to the sambuka. That makes total sense. Um, I have these veggies as well. Um it's let's see, it's a mix of red bell pepper, zucchini, squash, red onions, broccoli, and avocado oil. So I like it because it's like fast and easy, and I can literally just like throw this into a pan. Yeah. Um, and I love them. And I have a second bag of this in the other freezer also. Okay. Um cinnamon roll muffins, toaster waffles. I think that this is oh yes, this is a um carcass from a uh rotisserie chicken. Because I was gonna make broth with it. Two thumbs way way up. Absolutely. Yep. Um pizza stars.

SPEAKER_00 27:32

Nice. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

Um this is frozen pasta verdom. Um oh my god, I don't even know what's in here. Yes, guys. I think that is good. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 27:44

Yeah, I think I think we got I also have beef in the other freezer too.

SPEAKER_01 27:48

Ground beef.

SPEAKER_00 27:49

Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 27:50

Okay. Okay. So next, Maddie, take us. Do you want to see something else, Grant?

SPEAKER_00 27:55

Nope. I was gonna say what you're saying. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 27:57

Yeah, take us to the pantry. Let's let's panic a little and look at it. What is that? I also have a snack pantry too, just for Dominic's snacks, but you don't need to see that. The plethora of goldfish. Okay, we actually we actually did someone on an episode their um their husband's snack drawer. So you have you have appropriate kids' snack drawer. There was uh previous episode with their husband's snack.

SPEAKER_00 28:22

Which we did raid his snack cupboard. We did we did use things.

SPEAKER_01 28:25

Listen, if you think that you can use some um Annie's bunnies, like the little the little uh cheddar ones, let me. So I have to tell you, during my during the pandemic, when I was quarantining, my favorite meal that I ever made myself was a martini, a gin martini and Annie's little bunnies. I love it. I love it. That's that sounds like the perfect snack. It wasn't a snack, it was dinner, but continue. Even better, even better. Okay, so let's see. I had coconut milk. Um, I just got this from Costco. So I used to get the chili crunch from Trader Joe's. Yeah, this one is so much better, you guys. Yes, okay, so she's holding up right now a Momo Fuco's chili crunch, which I have the exact same Costco one in my cupboard. I nearly lost my minds. I bought three of them for my family members that use them. It is the best chili crunch on the planet.

SPEAKER_00 29:21

It's so good. It's so good.

SPEAKER_01 29:22

It's so good.

SPEAKER_00 29:23

Yeah. I think we have a little jar of a two right now in the fridge, somewhere in the back.

SPEAKER_01 29:28

They're selling the big ones at Costco. Get all you can. This was only um I think it was$14 for this whole thing. It's fit, yeah, something like that. Okay. That's it. Huge. Um, I have some sun-dried tomatoes.

unknown 29:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 29:42

Um, what's he hemp seeds? So I need to, you know, add some protein to my son's food by sneaking it in. More chili crunch. I really like spicy food. Um jalapeno lime crunch from Trader Joe's. Okay. There's some tahini back here, but it's not the good tahini. I have the better stuff downstairs. So do you have rice? I do. I have parboiled, then I also have jasmine. Beautiful. Um, let me see. Um, okay, so there's some dice tomatoes right here. And then I also just bought a bunch of I have um tomato sauce and um tomato paste also downstairs as well. Okay. We have to keep a bunch of stuff downstairs, like the stuff that we buy in bulk, because um my kitchen is a hallway, it is very small. That's okay. There you are, you're speaking to the average American. Um, yeah. No, normal normal people don't have a dance hall.

SPEAKER_02 30:46

Yep. Right.

SPEAKER_01 30:47

They don't have a what? A dance hall for a kitchen. It just it's normal people just don't. I want a dance hall for a kitchen. My goal is to have my house like 80% kitchen. The rest of it, I don't care. Don't care.

SPEAKER_00 30:58

I'm with you on that. I support that 100%. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 31:01

Um, this is sugar. Um, there's pasta, there's nuts in here, some cereal, this is couscous, more pasta, rice, okay, more cereal, um, pistachios. I have raw and I have salted pistachios.

unknown 31:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 31:20

Um, granola, cheerios, of course, and then pastina, and then this like lemon pasta down there.

SPEAKER_02 31:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 31:29

Um, soy sauce, cookies from Christmas, um, all my salt, the best salt in the world. So she's pulling out diamond crystal kosher salt right now, everyone, which um Grant and I can attest to.

SPEAKER_00 31:45

Yes, it is the better salt.

SPEAKER_01 31:48

The best. Um, let's see. And then some more condiments. You guys, I think I have a condiment problem. Yeah, I think you do too, but it's all right. We're gonna forgive you for that. Just kidding. It's fine.

SPEAKER_00 32:00

Your selections have been like 60% condiments, like you have more condiments than things to put on.

SPEAKER_01 32:05

Like Grant and I are like, Can you please open the veggie fridge? Because I can't give you like condiment dinner. You can't just make me a meal out of condiments. That's so strange, guys.

SPEAKER_00 32:15

Yeah, I feel like it'd be a little lacking if we were just like get a spoon and open a jar and like that was the meal.

SPEAKER_01 32:20

It's called girl dinner and it's really in right now. It really is. Um, and then this is like my baking cupboard and the my spices and stuff. Oh, this is the the good tahini. Oh, yeah, the alkanator. Yeah. Also, wow, you have all the good stuff. The alkanator also for those of all these people need to sponsor us, but the alkanator is also the best, the best tahini.

SPEAKER_00 32:40

It is.

SPEAKER_01 32:41

So, like I said, I have, you know, I might have boxed mac and cheese, microwavable mac and cheese, but I also have you have the good quality stuff. Do you have um canned beans? I have one can of beans right now, which is actually kind of weird for me. I usually have a lot more. I do. Okay. They have hold on. They're like the big guys, the butter beans. I have one can of butter beans. I love them. Okay. Um, and what else was I gonna ask you? Oh, spices. You have do you have just a plethora of spices? You have all the spices. Yeah, what do you want? I'm thinking like paprika, cumin, chili powder, that basic stuff. Yeah, I have smoked paprika. I don't have regular paprika. Good. You shouldn't have regular paprika. I love you. I just shouldn't have regular paper. It doesn't add to the dish, it just adds a color and that's it to me. And like, I don't get it. I'm not a fan of it. Yeah, I agree. I agree.

SPEAKER_00 33:32

The only time I ever use like a regular paprika is like in a paprikache. Right. Like, I need the sauce to be that color. Otherwise, like it doesn't do anything to me.

SPEAKER_01 33:40

It doesn't do it for me, guys.

SPEAKER_00 33:41

And it like loses its potency really fast. Like it's good the first two days after you buy the like McCormick thing of paprika, and then after that, it just like has no flavor, it's just dull enough.

SPEAKER_01 33:51

Yeah, agreed, agreed completely. Okay. Um, I have an idea. I'm listening. No, you can't listen now. I can't wait. You're not gonna let me hold on. You're not gonna tell me what I need to make for dinner tonight. This is surprising. No, actually, we didn't tell you this is just for our viewers, and you're not allowed to know what we put you through. Yeah, yeah. So I opened up my kitchen to you. You saw my mess of a pantry.

SPEAKER_00 34:21

No, we are gonna put you on mute though, while we talk about what you're gonna have for dinner and then we're gonna bring you back.

SPEAKER_01 34:28

She's got a shocked face right now. She's very offended. You can listen. I feel like you told me this and I just wasn't listening. You can listen. We're just gonna put you on mute for a minute. We're gonna discuss to get a solid idea of it. I have a porn button in my freezer too, if you're into that. Thank you. Thank you for that.

SPEAKER_00 34:45

So I don't know what you're thinking, Daniela. I it's almost one of those things where we have the like curse of choice here. It's not just choice of condiments, but like there's so many things that we can do with all the stuff she has. So like I I had to like go with my first instinct here and then kind of ignore like 80% of what else we're saying. Yeah, I I think like some kind of quick chicken picata chicken in there would be really interesting where you crisp up with the skin, so when you she breaks it down, you then sort of like almost not shallow fry, but almost a shallow fry, so you really get that crispy skin. And then we use we make a broth out of and a sauce out of some of the bouillon she has, the preserved lemons, I think, are a really interesting choice in there. And then she has all that pesto. And I like a little bit of a pesto on a chicken picata.

SPEAKER_01 35:36

Um I oh gosh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:38

With maybe some uh with maybe some of those pistachios where you toast them just a little bit and crunch them up, chop them up, and then she's muted, but she is on camera. Uh I'm enjoying the reaction to this.

SPEAKER_01 35:49

That's her face, her face. I can't right now.

SPEAKER_00 35:52

And then, like, like I and then just put it over like chop veg. And if you want, add a little rice, don't. But like I think that's that's an option. But I I think I know where your head is going, and I'm really curious to see what you've got. So, what do you think?

SPEAKER_01 36:06

So, this is you are so right, first of all, because there's like five different meals that I see off the bat. Um, and maybe we even give her two for I don't know, um, because we're nice like that. Um so here's where my head's at. And the only reason my head was here and went here is because I just did it. Um, so I was just on a CBS on her morning show, and I just did a burrito bowl, and she has literally everything to make a dang burrito bowl and make it really well. So she has the rice, she has the um chicken that she can spice up in my same thoughts with the bouillon so she can really break down that chicken, shred it, and then braise it to with spices and then the bouillon um to make it really, really juicy, and put it on top of the rice. She has the lettuce, and then she has all the condiments to make a sauce to drizzle over that. Um, I don't God, I can't make that decision. That's a those are really good choices, and I love facata. I have an idea. Let's ask her what she which one she wants.

SPEAKER_00 37:03

Okay, we'll we'll bring her back in. Um and Maddie, you can you can unmute yourself. I can't unmute you. Okay. So you were definitely listening during those things. So your options here are a burrito bowl with the chicken or a like chicken bacotta-ish.

SPEAKER_01 37:21

Okay, so and D, I love a good burrito bowl. Do not get me wrong. It's easy, it's protein packed. But I gotta say, Grant's idea, I was like dying because there's pistachios. Also, yes, I there's pistachio crunch. I'm gonna agree with you. I can't even go further with that. The pistachio crunch and also using something with the preserved lemon. So I'm gonna grant let Grant take this one because I love working with preserved lemon and I'm just I'm gonna sit back and drool with Maddie.

SPEAKER_00 37:48

Yes, and like feel also feel free to jump in though, because I want your take on some of the the sauce, Daniela, too. Sure. A better idea of how to make the actual picata sauce because I don't make it very often. Uh oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 38:00

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 38:01

Jump in there. But I think the easiest thing to do, Maddie, is break down the chicken, which you know how to do uh because we've seen the carcass in your freezer. Uh so break that down and then try to keep the skin as intact on the meat as possible. Sometimes it can be kind of hard after the chicken steams in the bag for a little bit, sort of loosens and slips off. Um if that's the case, you can just like throw that in like a tablespoon of olive oil so it gets really crispy chicken skinny um and like almost like chip-like. And then you can just you have the the naked meat for that.

SPEAKER_01 38:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 38:33

Okay. Uh, and then you can sear that so you get some color in the pan uh with either the chicken and schmaltz that falls off the chicken itself through the skin or more, a little bit more oil. And then in that same pan, because we love a pan sauce, you can absolutely start making the sauce with the preserved lemons. Uh, chop up maybe I would say like a half cup of those raw pistachios and let them get swimming in there as well. Uh, and use some of that butter because that'll make it really glossy. Uh, and then Daniela, help me out here with the rest of this sauce to bring it together.

SPEAKER_01 39:05

So, to build a sauce, you're really gonna need some sort of liquid. So, after you do what Grant says, where you sear it in the pan, and I want to also make it very clear when you break down this chicken, you're gonna do it in whole pieces, you're not gonna just tear it apart. Um, I have a question. So the chicken's already cooked. How do I make sure that I don't like sear it to a point where I'm like overcooking that chicken? Does that make sense? That's a great question. Yes, absolutely. It's low heat, honestly. It's gonna be low heat. Okay. Excuse me. Like Grant said, um, a fair amount of olive oil is going to help a ton with this. And make sure that you don't put a cover on it or anything like that and let it sizzle a tiny bit, but it's not gonna be like a sear on a raw meat. It is going to be a very, very gentle little sizzle, and you might want to, you know, jiggle it around a little bit, and you have to be a little more patient with it since it is cooked. You don't want it to fall apart.

SPEAKER_00 39:56

Yeah. Makes sense? Be be a little gentle with it. It won't be like a deep caramely sear. It'll be a little more like a golden sear. Okay. Um, if that makes sense. Yes. What you're looking for is just a little bit of extra texture on the outside, just a little bit of extra flavor that's going to get picked up, even though most of that is gonna end up in the pan sauce and the preserved lemon itself. So a lot of that flavor isn't exactly gonna shine through, but it's gonna give the chicken a little bit of like texture structure for the dish. So then you've keep going with the sauce though, Daniela.

SPEAKER_01 40:26

So then after you have the the fond, that's the brown bits that are stuck to the bottom of the fan, uh pan, I would deglaze with just some water because then you can put in a scoop of that bouillon. It's it's the bouillon paste, am I correct? Or a few percent, yeah. So so deglaze with water. Um, I'd say about a good maybe cup to two cups of water, and then you're gonna put in a scoop of that bouillon and go ahead and whisk it together so you have your stock, if you will, in your pan. And then do what Grant said take some of that preserved lemon, chop it up, and put it right in there. Um, so together they are going to combine their flavors. Does that make sense? Yeah.

unknown 41:02

All right.

SPEAKER_00 41:02

And I don't think you need a ton of those either. I mean, depending on how lemony you like, your chicken picada, but like they're preserved, they're really concentrated. So, like I would say at the most a quarter cup of like the chopped lemons. At the most. Yeah, I would totally agree. Like two tablespoons. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:18

Well, because you can always add more. And so I would I would let it break down and taste it. Um, but I would start with less because you can always add more, but you can't take it away. Then I would definitely um smash some garlic. I'm sorry, did you have garlic? Did you oh she's giving me a look like, are you out of your minds? She has garlic. Gosh, your facial expressions, we should have you on more often. She has she's got Costco sized garlic. So takes take some garlic and smash it and put it in as well with your sauce. This is gonna give you an essence of garlic. Chicken picata should not be overly garlicky, it's just not one of those dishes. When do I so I do sorry to interrupt? Do I put it in the garlic with the lemon or before the lemon? Yes, okay. Yes, with right with it is gonna be perfectly fine. Um, and then I would let that reduce down. Um, like Grant said, you can put this in pistachio. I love, I this is not Italian. I love to use a bermognier in this. Um, and you don't have to do that, just I'd put in some butter. Really. I put in some butter and flour mixture um to it to thicken it up, but I would add it, don't bother with that. That's a lot of work, but I would put in a big old pad of butter to really make it very, very silky.

SPEAKER_00 42:27

Yeah, like a full tablespoon of butter, like a whole chunk of it off there. Like I would drop that in and let that stir that around until it gets really silky and smooth. And it will kind of sort of bring the sauce together. It'll hold it and bind it because butter is amazing and it works that way.

SPEAKER_01 42:41

Exactly. Um, and then if you want to add a little bit of spice to it, that's totally up to you. So you can add any of the one million condiments that you have in there that are spicy. I would I would stick away from the chili crunch because that is in oil and that's going to really kind of um separate for you. But if you have any other um, you know, anything that is not really oil-based that's spicy, you can add a little dollop of that in if you want to make it spicier. If you don't, you have a whole, let's say, dried chili. I throw that in too because I like everything spicy. Uh to kind of get happy with those lemons as well. But that's again totally up to you.

SPEAKER_00 43:15

Yeah. Even like a quarter teaspoon of like basic red chili pepper flakes would also work in this. It would good, they would go a long way because the sauce will pull all that out, all the oils that are in those seeds out and like, or those flakes out, and like that'll get into everything.

SPEAKER_01 43:30

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 43:31

So just so you know, a little will go a long way.

SPEAKER_01 43:34

So talk about the veggie on the on the bottom grants, because I think your head is where I'm at.

SPEAKER_00 43:39

Yeah, I mean, like you could absolutely use the one that you have in your freezer, that that primavera mix. Um, it's not bad, it's not my favorite choice for what would go under a picata, but uh it'll work. Um, they're fire roasted, which would make it an interesting set of flavors, but you could absolutely do a basic, like that one carrot you have in there, you could do some of those cherry to. Tomatoes, you roast them in a separate pan until they kind of burst and get also caramely and all that. Um, and you could do that with the carrot too, you can chop that up. And then I would also put some of that broccoli down there too. Um, I think all that works together. But the cherry tomatoes with that would be really, really nice.

SPEAKER_01 44:14

So nice. I agree. And keep in mind, everyone, when you're roasting something like cherry tomatoes, you want to do it in a separate pan if you're roasting other vegetables because they're gonna be done first. And something like a carrot is going to be done way later because it's denser.

SPEAKER_00 44:26

Yes. Yes. You could also roast them in the oven. That just takes a little more monitoring because you have to pull them off sooner. And so then you're kind of in and out of your oven for 25 minutes or whatever. And that's sometimes that sucks. And you got a two-year-old, that might be hard to like keep track of that. And so it's easier to do it in a separate pan until they burst and catch a little color and then take them off, put them on a separate plate, and let the other veggies keep cooking. I love that. And I would say that would take maybe what, Danielle, you think maybe seven minutes for a broccoli to catch a little bit of the color from the pan and maybe nine minutes for the carrot. Yeah, speaky carrot.

SPEAKER_01 44:58

Yeah. But as long as you cut it the right, I mean you can cut it as big or small as you want. So I'd make sure to do and maybe a smaller dice on it. And yeah, it could be done really quickly.

SPEAKER_00 45:06

Yeah. Yeah. Um, and then how does that sound, Eddie?

SPEAKER_01 45:09

I love that. I love I love lemons. I love pistachios. Um I didn't really think about how easy it would be to like take a rotisserie chicken and make it into a meal like that. I genuinely don't. I usually just eat the meat with some like roasted veggies and it's super plain and it's not good tasting. And but you know it's a quick and easy meal. So I love that you took that and made it into something that I actually want to eat. There's so much you can do with a rotisserie chicken, the sky's the limits. And also uh the about the spistachios, too, save some off to the side that you can uh crumble for extra crunch on top as well if I love that crunch.

unknown 45:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:49

And then my favorite thing about this, because it's not like a regular chicken picata that comes in the in the breast or it comes, sometimes you get them breaded too. Um, but because it's a rotisserie chicken, you can shred it really easily and then mix this sauce once it cools down into that chicken, let it sit in the fridge overnight. And then what you have basically is a chicken picata salad that you can put in one of those tortillas and make like a chicken picata wrap out of with more pistachios in there. You can add veg. You can add, I didn't, you can add some of the romaine that you have in there too. And that's lunch for the next couple of days and more condiments for you be for your collection. So there's that.

SPEAKER_01 46:22

So Grant brings up a really good point, everyone, about liquid and chicken. So chicken is dry naturally, it doesn't have a lot of fat to it. So when you're have some sort of liquid, it's the best thing to do is put the chicken back in the liquids. If it either sits over the night or even for a couple minutes, it really benefits from that because they'll soak it back up again. And that's the only way really to make chicken juicy.

SPEAKER_00 46:42

Yes. And that I should say, and we should say too, that for it to be food safe, it should be liquid that's either been fully cooked, that you like maybe cook the chicken in or it was already cooked. Don't reuse a marinade that you had the chicken in overnight that you then haven't cooked. And I wouldn't, I would even venture to say that if you're gonna plan to do that, make two of those marinades, one that the chicken is in when it's raw, and then one that you're gonna use after it's been cooked, just to be really safe.

SPEAKER_01 47:07

We get we get some angry emails to be like, I cooked in chicken juice.

SPEAKER_00 47:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:11

What's wrong with you?

SPEAKER_00 47:13

Yeah.

unknown 47:14

Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 47:15

But it's just a good reminder. It's just a good reminder.

SPEAKER_01 47:17

Absolutely. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 47:19

Then I think we got a meal here, Maddie. I think we're good to go.

SPEAKER_01 47:22

Yeah, thank you guys so much. This has been so great.

SPEAKER_00 47:25

Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 47:27

I love being roasted on all of the condiments that I own. Hey, there's a lot you can do with those condiments, everyone. You know, it's seriously when you have a mayo base and you have all those condiments you can put together. I put two or three condiments together all the time and make a little drizzle on top of everything. So you got you got it going on. There's nothing wrong with listen. If you ever want to have me back on your podcast and we can just do some sauces with all my condiments, I would love that. Just okay, putting that in your mind. The sauce episode. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 47:57

Perfect. Well, thank you, Maddie. We'll talk to you really soon.

SPEAKER_01 47:59

Thanks, guys. Bye.

SPEAKER_00 48:02

Well, that was very fun. And it was just such a like gluttony of choices for us. But thank you for letting me take the lead on the chicken picata. It just seemed fun and a different way, like we said at the very end there, on how to use a rotisserie chicken, which I think is underused in most kitchens.

SPEAKER_01 48:20

Agreed. And it was partly selfish because I have preserved lemons in my fridge. So I also wanted to know where your head was going. I'm like, I want this too, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 48:27

Does that mean you're gonna run to your first love, which is Costco, and get one of the rotisserie chickens and then Costco's my only boyfriend and I just adore them.

SPEAKER_01 48:36

Uh, probably it's five dollars for gosh sakes. I love I love Costco. Um, and you know, something something about that that I want to say, Grants, is that the people at Costco who I talk all the time and I tell about this podcast, again, we're best friends. Um, they say, I want to go on. And we want you to come on the show, everyone. So when you follow us on our social handles for me at that Colada Culinary across all maps, get us, give us a message and let us know if you want to be on the show. We would absolutely love to have you. We'd love to raid your fridge. And I want it to be like, have you seen um friends we take on vacation or friends we're on vacation with? Okay, cutest rom com in the history of all rom coms. I adore it. She opened her fridge, the Poppy, the character of Poppy.

SPEAKER_02 49:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:16

And it was a shriveled lime and like a container of mayo. And I go, Oh, I want Poppy on the show. That's what we're looking for. So if you're one of those and you hear me, let us know. We want you on the show.

SPEAKER_00 49:32

We want, we want those folks. We absolutely do.

SPEAKER_01 49:35

Yeah. Well, thank you guys so much for coming for listening to us. We had so much fun again, and we will see you on the next episode.