The Pro Traveler's Thai Fried Rice

Episode 8 is here, and it might be our most panic-worthy one yet.

This week, Chef Daniela and Grant welcome Michael, a professional traveler and 20-year friend of Daniela's,  to raid his Florida fridge.

What they found? A lot of coffee creamer, a suspicious amount of Cool Whip, jarred pasta sauce, and just enough ingredients to pull off something genuinely delicious.

In this episode:
Daniela goes OFF on pre-minced "jarlic "(and the internet claps back)
The jar sauce confession that nearly ended the episode
A surprisingly genius Thai peanut sauce using fridge scraps
Ground beef thai fried rice with charred peppers & onions — a full spring meal from almost nothing

Tip of the Week: Fresh garlic vs. "jarlic"
There is NO comparison and what to use instead if mincing isn't an option for you.

This week's recipe: Thai Peanut Ground Beef Fried Rice with Charred Peppers & Onions

This episode is sponsored by Aspire Drinks — green tea-based energy drinks with 80mg of natural caffeine, no sugar, no crash. Use code NOPANIC at aspiredrinks.com for 20% off!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Chop chop chop it-y chop chop chop chop it chop Cook it bake cook it.

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Hi, I am Daniela Colada. I'm a professional shot culinary instructor, owner and founder of Colada Culinary.

SPEAKER_05 0:15

And I'm Gren Herms. I'm a journalist and a passion home cook and welcome to Panic at the Pantry where we write recipes, not tragedies. We raid your fridge to hopefully make a meal out of what you have at home. I'm so excited for this episode because this was one of the ones so far. This is episode eight for us that has the most uh panicky, I think.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Yeah, actually, when our guest opened the fridge, I go, oh god, it's stocked as usual. But it turns out that it was just stocked with a lot of things that you can't particularly use, like, you know, vanilla hazelnut coffee creamer. Right. So there were. We had to think outside the box on this one. I liked it.

SPEAKER_05 0:55

We did. I thought it was very fun. Uh it also felt very springtime-y to me. We're kind of moving out of that sort of heavy winter food season, the soups, the stews, the heavy pastas, and into this more fresh season of stuff. Not that the Michigan weather right now has not been, you know, absolutely insane.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

No, it's schizophrenic. I mean, that's that's what it is. For those of you who do not live in Michigan, this is her personality right now. She goes from 28 degrees, and I'm not exaggerating at all. It's goes from 28 degrees, freezing cold, hurricane winds, storms here, and then the next day, 72 degrees, sunny, bird song, light breeze, gorgeous. Yeah. And I'm not I'm not even exaggerating a little bit.

SPEAKER_05 1:35

I mean, I've been in Oklahoma City for the last week, and it was 100 degrees here two days ago. I wasn't ready for that. I left what I was like, 100 degrees? It was a hundred degrees. But I left Detroit. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Uh, and uh so like I was I was thinking like Aperall Spritzes and like I was thinking I was thinking like light pastas, like it was like all summer stuff. Uh I was like like hankered for like a grilled steak or something, and and be like, it's it is March 20th. Like I I have to like be careful.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because when you come home, you're gonna be like, oh no.

SPEAKER_05 2:08

Oh yeah, no, no, no. I I I'm not looking forward to coming back and having it actually still be basically winter, but it is yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

She's a she's a fickle bitch. That's all there is to it. It's her personality is out of control. I am I'm with you though. I'm dreaming of my flowers, I'm dreaming of my garden. I cannot wait to have them back. I I can I can taste it, I can smell it. It's so close.

SPEAKER_05 2:30

Yes. I mean, like, and also I I'm excited for the farmers markets to restart here coming in the spring. I'm I'm excited to be able to go and get those farm fresh veggies uh from the places that I go to get them in and around Michigan, uh, and especially like Eastern Market here in Detroit, which is our sort of like weekly farmers market. I I love doing that on the weekends. So I'm looking forward to that happening again. Uh we just have to get through this little bit right here. Uh, but I do want to ask you about speaking of fresh things, maybe the tip of the week this week, because it's about the things that aren't so fresh. Uh and it's it's a it's it's a spicy one this week.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

Yeah. It is a spicy one because I'm not gonna to lie to you. I got a little angry. And I get a little angry because, you know, people on the internet can be they can be interesting and they won't listen to me, darn it. Um so I talked, I posted a video earlier. I do these small bite videos for those of you who do not follow Collotta Culinary, follow Collotta Culinary, K-A L O T A Culinary, and all my socials, and I post these small bite videos that talk about little tips and tricks like we do here on Panic at the Pantry. So I posted one about pre-minced garlic that is jarred or the low rent cousin in the squeeze bottle, the squarelic, right? Garlic or squarelic.

SPEAKER_05 3:44

Squarlic. Sounds squarelic.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Because it is bad. So what I break down for everyone on the video is that it's not particularly bad for you. It's not going to hurt you, but they have to preserve that pre-minced garlic in some way. They preserve it usually with oil, with water, with citric acid. No big deal. But what happens is it starts to break down the garlic very, very quickly and it changes the flavor complex completely. It is harsh. It doesn't smell as good. It is too bitter. It's just not very good. The squarlic is even worse. They put xanthem gum in there as well to make it very squeezable.

SPEAKER_04 4:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

Yeah, and it is just tastes and smells absolutely nothing like fresh garlic. So I understand that it's a convenience thing. And people talk about this all the time when they come to classes. They ask about the charred garlic, and I get it because a convenience is a convenience. We all have them, we all understand them. But I break down and explain to people no, you don't want to do that. You always want to use fresh garlic because number one, it's cheaper. Number two, it tastes and smells just incredible. There's no replacing it. And it's just a non-negotiable in the kitchen. So I post this, and then I have this person, and I'm looking at it, I will quote them. This person on TikTok says, it's an accessibility tool. I love cooking. I physically can't always mince garlic. I always have a jar of jarlic in my fridge because it does indeed taste very similar to fresh.

SPEAKER_05 5:10

Sure. I understand what they're saying, right? And I I get that too from an accessibility standpoint. Maybe you've got some kind of arthritis that doesn't let you always uh be able to mince garlic every single time you need it. And it's easier if you've got a little thing of garlic or one of the bags of jarlic, barlic, bag, bag lick, and like and and then you scoop that out. And like I I totally understand that. And I I don't think that's the exact thing that you're talking about here. I think you mean for the average person who like might not be experiencing some sort of disability issue or accessibility issue. I think that's different.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

Sure, absolutely. And I didn't know I what you was talking about. I don't know if your arms are chopped off or what's going on here. Or, you know, whatever. Um, but also please, everyone, stop being so eager to be offended by literally everything. Right. And thus my entire video, no, it does not taste anything like fresh. That's why I posted a video about that. So a couple things. Number one, use a garlic press uh if you need to. There's nothing wrong with a garlic press. I think you have a garlic press, right? I do. I do.

SPEAKER_05 6:13

It's a it's a little thing. Um, and like again, if you have like you know arthritis issues in your hand, it might be a little bit more difficult, but there are other kinds of garlic presses that you can use to push down on that do the same thing. It's just a a little mechanical thing that presses the garlic through holes in the bottom of the press that breaks up the cell walls of the garlic, more or less turns it into a almost a paste, basically. Uh it does. You get all the full garlic flavor, you get all those oils and all the the chemical stuff that's in garlic called alum or allison, uh, and that gets released into your dish. Um and it's it that part of it is I think so easy. I use mine all the time. When I because I don't always want to like mess around with with mincing the garlic properly either, unless I need the little actual mince pieces of garlic uh in the in the dish themselves. So I totally think that that's it's a great option as well.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Yeah. And the only reason I don't have one is just because I don't want to wash it. That's literally the only reason that I don't have it.

SPEAKER_05 7:11

They are that great.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

Yeah. Yeah, you know, but that's just me being lazy. So uh, of course, it's a great option. I tell everyone, if you want to learn how to properly mince and chop shameless plug, come see us at a class. Go ahead. Go to claudacolinary.com. That's what we're all we do every single day, all day. And also keep in mind, everyone, that you don't particularly have to mince the garlic. You can smash the garlic and put it in and take it out later. Um, you can kind of slice it a little bit without mincing. There's just a million things you can different do and you can do. But bottom line, fresh garlic is far, far, far superior to the garlic. There is no comparison. Hard stop. Come at me. I don't care.

SPEAKER_05 7:50

No, I like I I completely agree. And I think in a jar, the garlic tends to taste all the same, uh, even if it's the best garlic out there. And there's just so much more complexity in garlic itself that you can get out of slicing in different ways, smashing it, mincing it, chopping it. It you just don't get any of those things and any of those small nuances that garlic has out of a jar of garlic. And like that's just that's just what it is.

SPEAKER_00 8:15

It's facts. Sorry, guys. Sorry, not sorry.

SPEAKER_05 8:17

It's facts. Okay, we are gonna take a quick break. We're gonna be right back with our caller today, who is a professional traveler, which I did not know was a thing, but it sounds like a great gig. Uh it was a wanderlustre extraordinaire, and he's currently down in Florida, which uh for a second there, he plays a cruel joke on us about having access to a lemon that you'll hear it. But he's living with a roommate right now, which I think is perfect for panic at the pantry because not everything in his fridge or his pantry is his. And so we've got to work around things that you know you might open your fridge and see and you don't actually have access to. So I'm really excited uh to get into this episode today.

SPEAKER_00 8:54

I'm perfect. Here's a really weird fact about me. I have an allergic slash adverse reaction to coffee. I know that's a weird one. It's literally the only thing that makes me pretty darn sick. And it's not caffeine, it's coffee. And I discovered it when I was pretty young, about 15 or 16. I really get extremely sick. Uh, this is a cooking show, so we're not going to go into the unappetizing details. But since then, I have really been an avid tea drinker for most of my life. I love tea. Whenever you see me here drinking it on a show, it's tea in my glass. And it's usually green tea. It's how I get my caffeine in the morning, impartial to green tea because it's a natural antioxidant and it's full of health benefits. And it really does truly wake me up. So when I found Aspired Drinks, I was hooked immediately. It's better than an energy drink that really makes me feel horrible after I get all the things that you don't like. I get the crash, I get the jitters, I don't know. I'm sleeping until 2 a.m. like last night. That was fun. So Aspired Drinks is really different. They're green tea based and they have 80 milligrams of natural caffeine, no sugar, no crashes whatsoever. And I swear to you, this really does work. And again, I don't really have a good reaction to these things. So the fact that I had a wonderful reaction means good things. The bubbles are perfect. I have to have bubbles. I love them. There's extra benefits: your vitamin B, your C, your biotin, your ginger, etc. There's six different flavors, and I'm working through all of them. They have less aesthetic stream again kick and more of really a natural boost. Like that tea. I always want to take a tea break. I say to everyone, like in England, they have a tea break. That's what it feels like. So everyone, don't spend a fortune going to the gas station. We all do this. We go to the gas station, we go to the convenience store for a one-off energy drink, and it just costs so much money at the end. Instead, go to aspiredrinks.com. That's A-S-P-I-R-E Drinks.com and use our promo code no panic and get 20% off your order. Of course, we get a share of whatever you spend using our promo code. So if you try it, you try it, you support our work, and you get the benefit of being hooked on our new best friend, Aspire Drinks. So again, go to aspiredrinks.com and use our promo code no panic at checkout and get it straight delivered to your door. So convenient. The links are in the show notes. Everyone, give a warm welcome to Michael. Welcome, Michael, to Panic and the Pantry.

SPEAKER_03 11:14

Super happy to be here. How are you guys? Good. We're good. Thank you for doing this. Oh, I'm I'm stoked.

SPEAKER_05 11:20

This is great. It's gonna be a lot of fun. It will be a lot of fun. Before we dive into your fridge and into like what little pantry you have, give us a quick rundown of like what a nightly dinner is like for you.

SPEAKER_03 11:33

Oh, well, kind of depends. Uh I eat out a lot, mainly because I'm I'm sometimes not around often enough to buy a bunch of stuff that I'm gonna prep for the whole week. And and sometimes when you're just cooking for yourself, uh okay, you're everything's made or all the recipes are like a feed six. It's like okay, well, am I gonna eat this for four days or five days in a row? Probably not, no. Um so uh evening dinners, I do um I do fajitas a decent amount. I'll make some uh Indian food. I sometimes do like a curry chicken or something. Uh I've been doing some salmon salads. Um made some baked, uh made some roasted, not roasted, stuffed peppers recently, which was great. Yeah, I'm I'm really peppers. I'm kind of scared, but I'm glad that she's in another state that that Danielle is going to find out that I actually used like jar sauce for a couple things. But like you you spice it up. Like you just, you know, I added some a friend grew some uh uh grew some cayenne peppers and dried them, and so I like cut those up and put them in there and add some other different little things to like make it a little bit better, but I don't have tomatoes and I don't have time. I mean I guess I don't have to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_00 13:01

Okay, so cat cats out of the bag. So here here's the deal, because we're we're not gonna be able to do this straight. It's not gonna happen. So Michael is basically like my brother. Yeah. Um, and if you see my face contorting into something that he likes to interpret as extreme anger or frustration, it cats out of the bag. We're not we're not gonna be able to test it.

SPEAKER_03 13:21

We know each other well.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

We know we know each other for over 20 years. Um, it's it's just the way it is. So, yes, I am actually very angry that he has jar sauce and he's using jar sauce because he knows better because I've taught him about a million times how to make marinata sauce and how to freeze it. So I am incredibly disappointed.

SPEAKER_03 13:39

I understand the uh the freezer is pretty well taken over with a not a lot of not enough space, and most of it's not mine. Um making sauce from scratch so that I can then turn it into another dish that needs sauce, it it's it fast one out over better. Sure.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

Kind of kind of like opening up a jar and using that jar to make sauce into another dish. What is the dip? Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 14:08

Well, no, then I didn't have to make the sauce.

SPEAKER_00 14:10

The sauce said cancel the episode. We're done.

SPEAKER_03 14:14

I knew she was all stone in the episode. I don't know what you mean. This is the sting.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

This was a bad idea. It was a bad idea. I retract and I don't want to do it anymore.

SPEAKER_03 14:23

Bring my sister back. Don't want to tell you that.

SPEAKER_05 14:28

All right, so um any any food allergies, anything you won't eat that like that is just like not on the table for you.

SPEAKER_03 14:34

I'm not a big fan of things that taste like licorice. So that's like what star and if it's not strong, but yeah, black licorice that people just eat as candy, yeah, I'm out. But you got chicken feet, goat balls, you got weird international stuff that I've that like they eat. I'll try it. I have.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

He doesn't he doesn't like a lot of parsley either. He gets mad when I put too much parsley in things.

SPEAKER_03 14:59

Um well, you just don't need to put an entire stalk of parsley over the top of something, necessarily. It's decorat decorative.

SPEAKER_02 15:12

I I can see that. I disagree, but I understand what you're saying.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

It has it has a lot of flavor. See my last video.

SPEAKER_03 15:21

I just don't use a bunch of it.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 15:24

Fair. Would you like to see my parsley? Apparently that's one of the things that I have in here. I don't know how old it is. It's probably really old, if I had to guess.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

No, you know what you need to do right now? You need to you need to wait, you need to shut up so he can speak and continue on with the episode.

SPEAKER_05 15:39

I was gonna say, let's see your fridge first before we get into what what sounds like a very exciting spice cabinet.

SPEAKER_03 15:46

All right, it's not looking great, but here's where we are.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

I it is stocked. Everyone says that. Everyone says it, it's stocked. All right, let's get into it.

SPEAKER_03 15:57

Hang on a second. You got like three things of Greek yogurt here. It looks like four. Fantastic. It's not mine. I go through a decent amount of Greek yogurt. I don't use any of the that's all like coffee creamer.

SPEAKER_00 16:09

Um, so wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. We're gonna go slow. We're gonna go one at a time. So the yogurt, is it full fat Greek yogurt? Is it what percentage?

SPEAKER_03 16:17

Zero percentage. All non-fats would like to get full fat, but Sam's club doesn't carry it. And this stuff, it's cheap.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Okay, what kind of coffee what kind of coffee paper?

SPEAKER_03 16:30

Oh, it's like I don't know. Caramel.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

So it's all flavored?

SPEAKER_03 16:36

Uh yeah, as far as I know, and I don't know what those are. Oat milk, but not mine, don't use it. Okay, cool. Oh, we're the the fridge is yelling at us.

SPEAKER_00 16:50

Uh that's okay. We can't hear it with your Samsung Galaxy noise cancelling headphones.

SPEAKER_03 16:54

Oh, yeah, that's true. You listen. Pretty amazing how those things work. Um all right, so um I think is there still we can do with this butt cake? Because I'm feeling pretty good about that.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

Yeah, you can eat it. So what's in the next shelf tier down right there?

SPEAKER_03 17:13

25 blueberries. 25 um I don't even know what this is, but it looks like Texas Roadhouse Honey Cinnamon with buttery spread. Also not mine. Don't use it. Uh got some carrot dip chips and like a quarter of a thing of pumice, also not mine. Okay. Uh by the way, these things are delicious. Pickled a gallo. I only tried it once.

SPEAKER_02 17:41

Oh, I have I have had that. It is good. It is good.

SPEAKER_03 17:45

Um I don't know what that is. Uh some stuffed olives. All right, now I've got oh, she's gonna kill me again. You know that like the regular grocery st- I went to three grocery stores that they didn't have like a thing of parmesan that you can grate. Also, I don't have a cheese grater here. So necessity.

SPEAKER_05 18:07

I know I know cheese grater. Like the pre-grated stuff works just fine. You know what I do a lot of?

SPEAKER_03 18:13

I cook a lot of breakfast. I made a breakfast sandwich this morning, and then I end up eating something else later in the evening, and that's often like meeting with friends or things like that. So like I do mostly eggs or yogurt or whatever in the morning. Maybe I'll make some pasta for lunch, uh, and then dinner might be out. But it kind of depends. Sure. Uh okay, so I've got these are from one of this is some chopped up peppers, but I've got a whole somewhere bag of peppers. There we go.

unknown 18:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

And then the mini peppers, Michael?

SPEAKER_03 18:49

I think no, these are the the well, let me look at it. Oh, full of the maxi peppers.

SPEAKER_02 18:53

Full size peppers. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 18:54

Well, okay. Maxi peppers. I have. Oh, I did get this recently. I've got some ground beef. Um because my brother said, don't sleep on the hamburger helper cheeseburger Mac. And I was like, I'll try it. Oh, okay. Uh so I've got I've got some ground beef. I've got some steaks. These are some Sam Club bone uh boneless beef top sirlain steak. And then I've got about four pounds of chicken thighs. Uh whole brew coffee. Oh, I forgot about these.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

Tortillas?

SPEAKER_03 19:41

Got some tortillas. You can see that I have not made. And that looks like that's some cool. Oh, I got an extra package of the cookies. These cookies, Aldi. I'm telling you. This stuff right here, change your life. And Daniela, who would be like, no, you should make everything from scratch, who also loves these. I do like that. There's nothing wrong with that. They're like 50. And they're like sea stuff. Come on. Fresh out of the oven, change your life. Yeah. Don't sleep on that. It's amazing. All right, let's see here. It looks like I've got an obscene amount of cool whip. Um there's a ginger beer, some more pickle chips. Uh we've got like I don't know what you're like. That's an obscenely small amount of cheddar.

SPEAKER_02 20:35

I've got some cheddar cheese.

SPEAKER_03 20:38

Looks like I've got some mozzarella. Um bacon. Breakfast. I've got some salami. Um as you can see, already gotten into one of the packages of cooked out. Um this is a draw I've been meaning to go through. Oh, I've got some pepperjack.

SPEAKER_05 21:03

Pepperjack?

SPEAKER_03 21:04

Uh baby bells. Oh, I've got an onion. I've got two onions. Oh, I've got some garlic. Look at that. Yes. ADHD for the window. I was just hoping for these. Anyway, I guess anything that's in here could be fair game. Or just have to replace. Um, like if you guys really wanted to get into the carrot chips and pickle the guy oh, or if you were really thinking you're gonna make some kind of meal out of caramel macchiato coffee flavoring. Uh don't tempt me with a display. Yeah, all right, so in the drawer drawer, I've got some Chick-fil-A sauce. Also not mine. Sour cream. Ooh, banana peppers. There are there are some frozen pizzas that get made around here. Uh

SPEAKER_05 22:00

Wait, what does that have to do with the banana peppers? Do you put banana peppers on the frozen pizzas?

SPEAKER_03 22:04

Yeah, you have to like spice up the frozen pizzas if you're gonna throw them in the oven. Here's what I'll tell you. I had a couple of people, I was like, look, Jets is far from me. Okay, here. Yeah. They won't deliver to where I am, and I'm not driving 25-30 minutes. And there's another Detroit-style place that opened up, and it's about a 15-minute or so drive. And I went once and it wasn't worth the drive, and I was upset about it. And Jets would be worth the drive, but it's a little farther. And it's like by the time I'm hungry and want a pizza, so what I did is I went to Sam's Club and to Publix, and there's a couple different companies that make a Detroit-style pizza, and it's it's just crap. It's really not that good. I wanted it to be passable. I wanted it to be okay. And if you add extra cheese, you do this and that, and you put some red pepper flakes on it, and you you know, you can put you can't put enough lipstick on that pig. I'm sorry, it's just not that good. I understand.

SPEAKER_02 23:07

You know what I mean? I understand. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_03 23:10

So that's that's the that's that.

SPEAKER_02 23:12

That's the fridge.

SPEAKER_03 23:13

All right, I've got some random checks. Uh I don't think we're gonna use mini eggs, but I've got I've got two avocados, a red onion, a handful of I've got like one slicing tomato for a sandwich. Oh, some more garlic, a few romas, uh banana that needs to get eaten, and all right, so then uh more pantry. Now mind you, I did not buy these bottles of sauce, but you've got some spicy vodka sauce, uh, there's uh uh protein bars, uh some protein pasta. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 23:57

What shape of pasta is that? What kind of pasta is that?

SPEAKER_03 24:00

It is a penny or rotini. I think I used the rotini. It is a grain and legume pasta. Never saw it before. Okay. It was on sale, it was at Sam's.

unknown 24:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:16

Go figure it out. I've had it before.

SPEAKER_05 24:17

I I think those that kind of pasta is really interesting. Yeah, it tastes more or less fine. The the texture is a little bit different, Danielle. I don't know if you've ever had this. Like if what you're looking for is like a regular noodle, it ain't. But it does get the job done if you're like in a pinch for pasta.

SPEAKER_00 24:35

It does. The texture is different, the taste is a little different. It's actually a little, in my in my mind, a little um sweeter as opposed to the nuttiness that you find in Samola. Um, but the thing is, for the purpose of this particular episode, so here's here's the thing. I actually don't want to be haunted by my ancestors. I have too much on my plate and I have too much to do right now.

SPEAKER_02 24:56

To get haunted on top of it.

SPEAKER_00 24:57

I would rather yeah, so I would rather not uh have my grandmother come visit me in the middle of the night and yell at me. So we're going to refrain from that. Oh, there's some canned vegetables.

SPEAKER_03 25:08

We got some peanut butter.

SPEAKER_02 25:11

Uh what are the canned veggies? Hang on a second.

SPEAKER_03 25:16

We're gonna see what we got. All right. Popcorn, peanut butter. Oh, we've got Italian wedding soup. That's not mine. You do not have to.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

I did I did not ever buy that, and nor would I try making to upset me this entire outlet on her.

SPEAKER_03 25:44

I I think her warnings for Daniela. Like, she's gonna be talking to her therapist about this. It's gonna be amazing. Um more than likely you'll owe me. Honey mustard, protein powder, some all-purpose flour. Um I've got, ooh, there's some progresso plain breadcrumbs, it looks like. Okay. Okay. Still good. Uh pitted olives. Oh. How about a pap beer, cheese, potato, and chorizo soup?

unknown 26:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 26:23

This was in my stocking. Honestly. Yes, I got that for Christmas. Okay. I've got, as far as it looks like some canned corn. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 26:37

Uh so question, question about the peanut butter, Michael. Go back to the peanut butter. Is the peanut butter um chunky or smoothie?

SPEAKER_03 26:43

Oh, I don't know. Ooh, I've got I've got some creamy almond butter. Okay. It looks like it's just creamy.

SPEAKER_00 26:55

So the peanut butter's creamy. Okay, another question about um oils. What kind of oils do you have?

SPEAKER_02 27:03

Um Evo. Okay, olive oil, got it.

SPEAKER_03 27:16

And uh Sesame oil, because I do occasionally do some like Asian dishes. Oh, I've got some rice too.

SPEAKER_00 27:31

Oh, fantastic. Um, okay, so another question. Um, in the back in the fridge, do you have things like soy sauce, fish sauce, lime juice? Grant knows where my head's at.

SPEAKER_05 27:43

I know where your head's at.

SPEAKER_03 27:44

I got Caesar dressing, barbecue sauce, ranch. Red hot. Relish. Worcestershire, short, short, shy, shire.

SPEAKER_00 28:02

Worcestershire.

SPEAKER_03 28:03

Worcestershire sauce. Uh oh, I've got some chili garlic. That stuff's good. Oh. I have some all-purpose reduced sodium soy sauce.

SPEAKER_04 28:19

Great.

SPEAKER_03 28:20

Uh uh super. Vegan plant paste had Thai heated in a microwave. I should just throw that away. I didn't buy it, but that's that just doesn't those don't ever rose.

SPEAKER_00 28:37

Is there any fresh citrus in in the house? Is there any lime, lemon, or even um the little squeeze bottle of lime or lemon?

SPEAKER_03 28:48

Citrus. No.

SPEAKER_04 28:55

Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 28:56

I mean, here's the thing. See, we live in Florida. Well, it might be still a little cold there. I'm flip-flops. So let me just see if maybe there's like a uh a live on a vlog on a street. Oh my god. I'm gonna hate him so much. That would be amazing. I really wish that I could do that.

SPEAKER_00 29:18

There you know, I so quick real quickly, in all seriousness, when I lived uh Michael and I lived together in LA um as well for a very long time.

SPEAKER_04 29:27

Together near each other.

SPEAKER_00 29:28

Not near each other, near each other. Thank you. Um, there was a a gentleman, a very sweet gentleman that I was dating a billion years ago, and I was having a rough time, and he made me some tea, and he literally went out and picked a lemon from the tree and brought it in to put in my tea. And I'll never forget that as long as I live, because I I stored it away. I was like, goals.

SPEAKER_03 29:53

Pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. You can't have one of those in Michigan.

SPEAKER_05 29:59

No. Thanks. No, not with the weather we've had lately. No. Okay. Um, I think that's everything, unless there's something in the freezer that you really want to show us. Um, are there any more veggies in the freezer? You are you holding out?

SPEAKER_03 30:15

I've got some. It looks like there's some not really. There's a frozen pizza. There's some Haganda's uh ice cream bars.

SPEAKER_00 30:25

Um so one more question, Michael. No, you know, I can only I love people who are like, I can only eat chicken if it's in dinosaur shape. Um Michael, the carrots that you showed me in the fridge were those whole carrots, baby carrots, shredded carrots. What kind of carrots were those?

SPEAKER_05 30:43

They're carrots. They were like carrot chips.

unknown 30:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:47

Oh, the round, the round ones?

SPEAKER_03 30:49

They look like ruffles, but they're orange. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:53

Yeah, love that for us. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 30:55

Love that for us.

unknown 30:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 30:56

I do.

SPEAKER_03 30:57

Oh, wait a minute. Yes. Well, let me see if the other ones are any good because those were done zo February 27th. That happens. Yeah, we're a little past that.

SPEAKER_00 31:10

Yeah, we're past that, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:11

These are March 6th. They might be okay. They don't they don't feel greasy, slimy.

SPEAKER_00 31:19

Yeah, that'd be fine. Just smell them.

SPEAKER_03 31:21

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:21

We're not going to be able to do that. They're not open yet.

SPEAKER_03 31:23

They might be alright. We're not cooking yet.

SPEAKER_00 31:24

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're not cooking for the masses.

SPEAKER_03 31:27

Oh. You're just cooking to try to hurt me. She holds a grudge.

SPEAKER_02 31:33

Oh, I know. I too.

SPEAKER_05 31:36

Okay. I've got an idea. The old uh last question I have for you, Michael. Were there eggs in the fridge? No, I don't know how many you have. The last two eggs this morning.

SPEAKER_03 31:43

Really, where I was headed when she reminded me of this episode of Panic at the pantry, uh, for which I never got an email outlining when and where and what. Just want to throw that out there. Um, I was headed and I turned around. I was headed to the grocery store, to Sam's Club, to get another dozen eggs and to grab a handful of things that I'm missing to make like some of my normal usual things.

SPEAKER_00 32:12

Great. You should ask, you should ask Michael too how to properly pour a Guinness.

SPEAKER_03 32:17

Well, see, I don't drink Grant, so it doesn't necessarily matter whether I know how to pour a Guinness or not. So uh, but I've had a bunch of them back in the day. And uh I worked at an Irish barn, and the internet is very divided on this part, but it turned out that both Daniela and I were right.

SPEAKER_05 32:36

Both of at the same time.

SPEAKER_03 32:39

There's really no one way or another that's better.

SPEAKER_00 32:43

He got very angry at me. The proper way to pour a Guinness for the Guinness website is actually to tilt the tilt the glass at 45 degrees. And at 45 degree angle, and slowly add the Guinness in and then wait halfway for it to settle and then tilt the glass in and add a restway for the Guinness website. They also mention that a lot of people or showmanship like to turn it upside down completely, but that it's not particularly talking about a regular Guinness.

SPEAKER_03 33:14

You do you do no such thing of a whatever for a uh a draft Guinness. At any rate, I digress. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 33:22

So okay. I've got an idea here. I want to talk through a couple of things with Daniela quick. Uh I'm gonna put you on mute and you're gonna hang out while we make this recipe, and then we're gonna come back and we're gonna walk you through it.

SPEAKER_03 33:35

And how soon are you guys gonna get here to do it for me? Yeah. I mean, you saw the weather. It's great.

SPEAKER_00 33:44

Give us 10 hours and we might have to battle a few non-existent TSA agents. Love it. But we'll be we'll be there. Love that. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:51

Put me on uh uh put put me on hold and uh let me know, and I'll try to find something uh nice to point you at.

SPEAKER_05 34:00

Okay, so Daniela, I had an idea here, but uh it would involve the pasta you don't want to use. Uh so I would I was gonna have him make fresh pasta, but he hasn't any eggs. So there's that's out the window. I was gonna do sort of like a uh almost like a filly cheesesteak pasta with the onions, the peppers, the sirloin steak. Uh yes, it's really good. Um we could and with the mozzarella in there, the the parm and then some of the Greek yogurt, make sort of like a cream sauce out of it, and you could pour that over the penne he's got in there, uh, which I like. It's it's a different approach than I think most people use. It's not quite an Alfredo, but I think your head is Asian right now. I think we're talking we're thinking stir-fry. I think we're thinking something along those lines. So what are you thinking?

SPEAKER_00 34:51

So I was thinking about it. Started going when he was talking about peanut butter. So people don't realize how versatile peanut butter is. Um, so peanut butter can really be made into a very nice sauce. Um, so if you combine peanut butter with soy sauce, a little bit of spice, lime, ginger, garlic, you have this beautiful sauce. And he has ground beef and he has rice, uh, and he has peppers. Um, what I was thinking about doing is he could do anything with the peppers from char them to saute them. He could take that ground beef with the onions and saute that up very nicely until it's nice and crispy. And then he could make that Thai peanut sauce just lit on top, and it could be on a bed of rice. I'm looking for my notes on the other things that he has. I think he has baby portobellas as well.

SPEAKER_05 35:38

Yes, I I think I saw that in there, but like the carrots are great for that.

SPEAKER_00 35:41

Um thank you. That's exactly what I was thinking of.

SPEAKER_05 35:45

Yeah, to add some more veg in there. Um he had some he has some like jarred parsley is what he said, which would be fine in some of that. I don't want to like that doesn't supplant the use of like fresh herbs. I think this kind of dish would be great with like some fresh herbs in it too. If like fresh cilantro, yeah, fresh cilantro in particular. Um maybe not parsley so much. It will kind of do the trick, but not quite.

SPEAKER_04 36:08

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 36:09

I've done I've done it. It's not the same, but it's not the same. Um, it would be nice if he had some citrus uh or another hit of acid, but we might be able to overcome that part of the balance with a little extra heat from that rooster sauce, from that chili sauce.

SPEAKER_00 36:24

And the fact that he does have soy and he does have the worst sauce, um, that's going to add just a teeny bit of acid, that might be nice as well.

SPEAKER_05 36:30

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um and it looked like a pretty lean batch of ground beef. And so it might be good to have some of that sit in the in the soy sauce for a little bit to add some of the flavor because the if there's not enough fat, like if you you're at home and you get like a what is like an 89, you know, 10 or whatever, uh, or 90-10 blend of of ground beef, uh, it's just not a lot of flavor there. So it might be nice to like maybe mix in some of the spices into the ground beef too.

SPEAKER_00 37:01

I totally agree. And that's not that he has that sephony oil as well, which is going to add an extra bunch of flavor onto whatever he's saying. Um, but yeah, absolutely. Let it let it sit there and really, really soak it up.

SPEAKER_05 37:11

Yeah. I like the idea of charring these onions or charring the the onions and charring the peppers. I like the idea of getting a you know a really dark almost almost like you've like you've smoked them in a little way too. Um and that technique is not difficult for people who want to do that at home. Um, certainly if you're gonna like make them into a sauce as well, like it's it adds so much depth of flavor to this.

SPEAKER_00 37:34

It really does.

SPEAKER_05 37:35

Um is it worth trying to put like a Roma tomato in something like this? Because he had some just for the acid, you know?

SPEAKER_00 37:41

Yeah, I it it's exactly thank you. And I have so many notes on here, so I'm glad you reminded me of that. And yes, um he can, I don't even think that he should char it because that will make it really more mellow tasting. But that pop of acid with a fresh one, I think very at the very last minute after he sautes everything, chop up that fresh tomato, let it get a little teeny bit happy, um, and then can add that nice pop of acid for sure.

SPEAKER_05 38:03

Yeah. So are you envisioning this as being the sauce on you know, on one side here in one pot on its own, and then or and drizzled on top? Okay. Drizzled on top. And then like, and then are we making a like a almost like a fried rice situation here? What are you thinking?

SPEAKER_00 38:19

Um, gosh, bro, I didn't even think about that. I was thinking of a layered bowl. You know, my head always supposed to a bowl, but I really like the idea of a fried rice because then you get some color on the rice as well.

SPEAKER_05 38:27

Yeah, and it soaks in that flavor too. You can add the sesame oil in, you can kind of add as you go. Uh, it doesn't take much um to to get into you know how much flavor you can add to a rice rice before it overpowers it, because rice can take a lot. There's a lot of starch in that. Um and he's got the garlic in there, and you can add a fair amount of garlic to that. Um and not the garlic like we talked about before we before we hopped on here with Michael. Um, but like this, it actually, like in practice, from your tip today, this is like a perfect place to have a garlic press, uh, which like I know that I talked about, but like it's it's perfect for this kind of a thing because you can get those oils and the part of all the stuff that we talked about with the garlic itself, like all over the place in a in a stir fry like this or a fried rice. So yeah, I I think it works either as a layered bowl or a fried rice.

SPEAKER_00 39:18

I like the idea of a fried rice. I think I think you're right. I love when we get any sort of color on rice, and that's top of it, you can make a big batch and you can save some if you want fresh rice and then make the other into fried rice. So I love that idea. I think it's gonna add a lot of depth of flavor.

SPEAKER_05 39:33

Yeah, perfect. Well, let's I think we let's bring it back in and bring it back on. Let's work through this.

SPEAKER_00 39:39

Okay, so what we decided to do is go a little Asian route for you. So, what I was talking about before is that for those of you who can't see, this is a podcast, by the way. So for those of you who can't see. We're on video. He is he's juggling right now. Again, to annoy me.

SPEAKER_05 39:56

Juggling his peppers.

SPEAKER_00 39:57

Yes. So we're going to make a Thai peanut sauce. Uh, so many times people don't realize that peanut butter again can be very versatile. So if you take the peanut butter and put it in any sort of food processor or blender and add a couple things. Traditionally, it's soy, lime juice, garlic, ginger. We don't have all of those ingredients, so we're going to make do. We're going to add the peanut butter to, again, to a blender, our garlic, and you can add a fair amount of garlic, as much. I'd say start with about four big cloves. You can add more later if you'd like. We're going to add a little bit of that hot sauce, uh, the one with the rooster on it, the rooster sauce, I call it, is going to be lovely in there. Some of the worst sauce and some of the soy sauce as well. And then I Grant said a little splash of ginger beer. I think that is absolutely perfect. Just start with a little splash, blend it all together to loosen it a little bit, and then taste as you go. Make sure you put salt, pepper, etc., and set that off to the side to get happy. And then, Grant, we decided on charring some of the vegetables, correct?

SPEAKER_05 40:55

Yes. Yeah. So you're going to take uh the onion, you're going to take some of the peppers. I would say probably what, Daniela, two, two of those big peppers. It doesn't really matter which color you, the red or the orange or yellow, it doesn't really matter. Um, and then I would not use the red onion you have. I would use the white onion that you have in the fridge for this. The red onion just or I'm sorry, yellow onion in there. Um I would use that one instead. It'll be a little bit sweeter. They tend to char a little better. Um red onion's great when it's raw and it's got all that punch, but yellow or white onions don't don't necessarily have that in spades all the time. Um so you're gonna quarter those and you're gonna put a little bit of oil on the back of them. Um I would use the olive oil for this and not the sesame oil just because sesame oil's smoke point is a little bit higher and it'll take a little bit longer. But you can broil these in the oven until they get a nice even char on the back of them. And then it's your choice. You can either use them as is when they're charred like that, or you can take them, put them in a bowl, cover them with with like plastic wrap, and leave them for like 10 minutes, and that'll take all the charred skin and let that kind of this is gross, but like slough off the outside of the. I don't have a better word for that. Uh you can be able to remove the skin.

SPEAKER_00 42:07

It feels off. It feels like it just comes right off.

SPEAKER_05 42:09

Um, you retain all that flavor, but you don't get any of the actual like char itself in the dish, which also isn't necessarily bad. I kind of like that sometimes. Um, so there's that. And I would say that would take at most what, Daniela, 10 minutes maybe if you're broiling them like that.

SPEAKER_00 42:25

Well, yeah, I guess if you're broiling, um, to be honest with you, I don't always like to broil because everyone's ovens is a little different. I know my oven and know how to broil it. Um, but at the same time, I'm hesitant to suggest that to other people's because it just really depends on their oven. So I think a safer bet to get the same thing is just gonna take a little longer, is 450 degrees, especially if you have convection roast, top shelf. And if that's gonna take north of a half an hour, uh, but it's a little safer. However, if you're comfortable broiling and you know your broiler, sure. I would say eight minutes, 10 minutes, check it after that.

SPEAKER_05 42:59

Keep an eye on it, but like, yes, if you're uh too nervous to use the broiler, which like is totally fair because they can be tricky anyway. Yeah, a longer roasting time. You also it'll deepen the flavor longer at that heat, like that will change the flavor. And uh yeah, it'd be amazing like that. Uh and then I think I think you keep the carrot chips raw for this. I don't know if you add them into it.

SPEAKER_00 43:21

I think we should so when we're sauteing the beef, don't add them roasting them, but I think it should be when you're sauteing the beef. So after everything is roasted or is charred, the onions and the peppers, set those off to the side. And like Grant said, you can skin them, you can chop them, whatever you'd like. And I would set those off to the side. Then I ground beef, exactly. I would put in your pan some of that sesame oil because it's going to be absolutely lovely for flavor. Add in your ground beef with your salt and your pepper, and you really, really want to get this brown. So, a lot of times, and I say this in class a lot, there's a lot of recipes that say brown your meat and then drain it. Want you to drain it. I want to make sure that it stays in the pan till the water evaporates. This fat is flavor. Thank you. He listens to me.

SPEAKER_03 44:08

I've been to one of these classes. They're amazing.

SPEAKER_00 44:10

He has. And then we are going to be left with that residual fat that we can really make sure to brown that meat in the pan. And then you should, I think you should fold everything together. Those carrots at the very last moment, your charred vegetables, as well as some tomatoes. So you have those Roma tomatoes. I would chop them up at the last minute, fold it together for a little pop of acidity. And then we talked about rice as well. So we talked about making rice and make sure to rinse the rice a lot.

SPEAKER_03 44:42

So it's extra long grain, regular perfect.

SPEAKER_00 44:46

Perfect. So rinse the rice, cold water till the water runs clear. Make as many as much as you want, because I love to have leftover rice. And then you're going to take at least about, I would say a cup, cup and a half, and add it and add it to the beef and then fold it in so you're getting a fry on this rice as well. So you have a fried rice with beef, with tomatoes, with that charred pepper and onion, and then you'll have your Thai peanut sauce and drizzle it on top.

SPEAKER_03 45:11

How does that sound? I mean, just tell me what you want me to do first. I've got some stuff out. I already have the oven is at 343. You said you wanted it or something. I already started the oven.

SPEAKER_00 45:27

Oh my god, the oven.

SPEAKER_03 45:29

Yeah, we're at 350 already, maybe. We're going, we're going to Okay.

SPEAKER_00 45:33

Okay. So it's it's 450, and we will make sure to email you these directions. I will talk you through it as I watch it. We're not doing it live right now. We can't have a show that is an hour at like two hours on.

SPEAKER_05 45:54

I love the I love the like go get it. I thought we were cooking right now.

SPEAKER_03 45:58

I already have the garlic out. I've got the meat. I've got everything out. Like, are you kidding? Like, I thought we're going.

SPEAKER_05 46:04

Like, I thought you were just putting it in front of you. I was watching you do it, and I was like, oh, he's just making sure he's got all of it. He sees all of it. And I was like, it's a visual learner. That's why I thought it's going on.

SPEAKER_01 46:12

Right now. I'm panicking now. Not in a couple hours.

SPEAKER_00 46:20

I don't know what to do besides, you know, just kind of I'll I'll talk you through it, I swear, but we're not going to make people again, it's a podcast, so we're and you have noise canceling headphones, so they can't hear you, sizzle. Oh, they can hear me sizzle.

SPEAKER_03 46:32

I can take the the the ear earbuds out.

SPEAKER_00 46:36

Fair, totally fair.

SPEAKER_03 46:37

Who's our sponsor so I can shout them out of this episode?

SPEAKER_05 46:44

I don't know who's I don't know which ad we're dropping in for this episode yet. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 46:47

We're dropping in this button. Yeah. Um, so we will email you the recipe. I will talk you through the recipe. I will I will get off this call with you and I will personally talk you through it again. No problem at all. But we're not going to make everyone wait a couple hours on this to watch you live.

SPEAKER_04 47:06

Make it.

SPEAKER_00 47:06

But I appreciate your enthusiasm. I love you to peace. I love that you love it. He's now almost at 400.

SPEAKER_05 47:13

Now he's he has then we should wrap up.

SPEAKER_03 47:17

I just can tell you before you do this right now. I'm excited. Now we're just to jet. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 47:23

Yeah, now we're just that is that is a hundred percent it. Uh so I'm going to thank you so much for coming onto the show and for always, always humoring me, but also being such a wonderful friend and listening to me because he really does listen and loves to cut it.

SPEAKER_03 47:37

I do love my first tutors. I've never done that. A peanut tie sauce.

SPEAKER_00 47:44

I'm gonna talk you through it. I I swear step by step.

SPEAKER_03 47:48

Send pictures, let me know how it goes. Yeah, you can put that on the uh I'll I'll plate it really nice. You can throw it on the episode later. Like, look, see, Michael.

SPEAKER_00 48:03

All right, everyone. Thank you so much. That is our show. Thanks for listening this week. Always make sure that you're following and subscribed. It helps us a ton. Make sure that you press that button that says subscribe.

SPEAKER_05 48:12

Yes. Leave a comment and a review wherever you're listening to your podcast. Follow the show on social media. You can tag it at Kalada Culinary, K-A-L-O-T-A. That's on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and then on YouTube. Find us at panic.athepantry on YouTube. I am at Grant Herms on Twitter and Blue Sky and at Grant underscore Herms on everything else. That's where you can find me.

SPEAKER_00 48:35

You can tag me everywhere on Kalada Culinary, again, K-A-L-O-T-A. Check out Kalotta Culinary.com for recipes, tips, more, and of course we can put this episode right on my website. See you next time, everyone.