Panic! At The Pantry
A podcast all about answering the daily question: What am I going to make for dinner?
Chef Daniela Kalota of Kalota Culinary and journalist Grant Hermes dive deep into the refrigerators of their guests to make gourmet meals out of what's lying around, or may have been lying around for a while.
Accompanied by Daniela's 20 years of experience as a chef and culinary instructor, and Grant's passion for home cooking, they bring a special tip to each episode to help level up your cooking game and open up the world of cooking, even if you haven't been to the grocery store.
Panic! At the Pantry where they write recipes, not tragedies.
Panic! At The Pantry
The Chef Gets Panic'd! Raiding Daniela's Pantry | Middle-eastern venison recipe
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Chef Daniela Claude and journalist Grant Hermes are back, and this week, WE raid Daniela's pantry!
It's episode 9 of Panic! At The Pantry, and Spring in Metro Detroit means one thing: Eastern Market Flower Day is almost here. We talk gardening in small spaces, herb growing tips, and why you should NEVER plant before Memorial Day in Michigan.
This week's Tip of the Week is a game-changer for home cooks: ditch the salt shaker and start cooking with salt and pepper bowls. Daniela explains why the tactile experience of cooking with your hands actually makes you a better cook, and why muscle memory matters more than measuring.
Then, we dive into Daniela's real, unfiltered fridge (yes, including some science experiments in the produce drawer) and Grant devises a stunning recipe on the spot:
Middle Eastern-spiced venison tenderloin with homemade hummus, fig jam, and mint chutney, and hand-made naan, a full finger food feast inspired by Dearborn's Lebanese food culture.
Daniela will cook it LIVE on Facebook on May 12 — don't miss it!
We also dive into the history of eating with your hands, how Catherine de Medici brought forks to France, and why Italians really taught the French how to cook.
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Chop chop chop it chop chop chop chop it chop chop chop chop chop hi everyone welcome to panic at the pantry.
SPEAKER_01I am Daniela Clotta, I'm a professional chef, culinary instructor, and owner and founder of Clotta Culinary.
SPEAKER_05And I'm Gren Herms. I'm a journalist and passionate home cook. And this is Panic at the Pantry. We have recipes, not tragedies. We raid your pantries, hopefully, to figure out what you can eat for dinner tonight with what you got. And this is a fun episode, Daniela, we got today. I don't want to give it away too much because spring is finally here, which means a whole bunch of new stuff to cook with, but also your favorite day of the year.
SPEAKER_01My favorite day of the year. It is my Christmas. Yay! It is flower day. Um, you think if anyone's listening to this out of state, they're gonna be like, What?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I know.
SPEAKER_01So it's purely, and even in Michigan, it's purely a Metro Detroit thing. Uh so at the Eastern Market, which by the way is one of the biggest markets in the country. I think I looked it up, but it's top four or something like that. And we have something called Flower Day. It's the Sunday after Mother's Day every single year, and it's more flowers as as far as the eye can see. Think rows of tulips in Holland and lavender fields in France, those kinds of flowers. I mean, flats and flats is flowers, really, as far as the eye can see, for all these outdoor sheds that we have. And my family and I go every single year early. Like, Grant, we wake up at 4 a.m. We are serious about this to be like out the door by 5 a.m., 5:30 a.m. We go downtown and we all come with different cars because we need a lot of SUVs to get all of the flowers in that we buy.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_01So we buy flats of flowers. That's where we buy our little seedlings for our vegetables, everything from our tomatoes to our little uh basil seedlings, etc. So we get all of it there at the best prices, and it's the best day. And then I have a sausage sandwich at like 10 a.m.
SPEAKER_05Where do where's your go-to spot in Easter Market? Because I've got a couple, but like it depends on when I'm there during the day.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. They open at different times. So there's this, I'm so bad because I actually I've been going there since I was I was so little that I don't know the name, I just know it by sight. Yeah, yeah. So bad. So you know the place that it they always have outdoor music and it it runs along on the opposite side of the markets, and they always have the outdoor grill, and they're always doing the sausage grill. Is it Burt? Burts.
SPEAKER_05Yes, yes, that is my favorite place over there. You would know, you would know. No shade to subpoenos that's that's over there, which is the pizza place, which is fantastic. It's great, yeah. Like if I want to pop in there for like a glass of wine or like an Aperol spritz or something, like I will do that on a hot day, but like Burt's is the place to go over there. Oh my god, I love it.
SPEAKER_01I love it because they have it, they have it down, you know how they get you. It's the the smell, they're grilling meat outdoors after you've been up since 5 a.m. They've got us, they have us figured out.
SPEAKER_05Yes, and it's always a good time. They're always playing like like great Motown and like jazz and soul out and RB outside, and like it's it's always kind of a block party out there. We went to Flower Day last year and we stocked up for like our front porch and for our balcony that we have in an apartment out back, and I'm gonna do it again this year for sure. I know we were already talking about it. Uh, I think though, instead of last year we did sort of this like really bright kind of like uh we had these little like I don't know what they're called the little Dr. Seuss looking flowers that look like.
SPEAKER_01Oh, the combs. I saw those. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah at your house. The comb flowers. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05I think though this year we might do like sort of like an Italian uh palazzo kind of look in the back with like the tall, but like short trimmed, kind of like pine-looking trees, the little cypress ones. I wanna, I I badly want to make this little balcony we have on the back look like like the little outcropping of George Pluny's Lake Como. Like that's that's like I desperately want that to happen. I just want to sit out there with like a little like aperitif and like a little like I don't know, a little plate of something, and just and just sit out there, listen to my Italian jazz, an espresso. That's all I want. An affogato in the afternoon. That's what I want.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I respect the shit out of that, honestly. Like mad props. You want a little like Italian oasis out there, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Lightly pants and a sleeveless shirt and a groni. Ugh.
SPEAKER_01Okay, and now now you now you're going into the outfit curating, I think.
SPEAKER_04Yes, yes. I have my whole summer planned that way.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's another level. I love it. We want to we want to hear from listeners too. What do you like to plant? This is my absolute favorite time of the year. I am chomping at the bit. Um, who else out there likes to plant? Who what do you plant? And I especially want to hear like what you just said, Grant. I I have a house, I have pretty large garden beds and uh orb garden beds.
SPEAKER_05Think you can quite the garden bed.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's several greats, but not everyone has that. And you know, I lived in apartments for way more than half my life, and I pretty recently am in a house now, and I want to hear what people plant. Let us know. I I'm very curious about how you do it. If you do it in pots, if you do it as out in your deck out in the front. I'm curious.
SPEAKER_05I know. Last year I did get a whole row of like herbs, and I put them little cups that we had that like hung on the balcony out there, and they just didn't quite take. And I think it was a sun issue, and I was both overwatering some and underwatering some. I usually don't grow fresh herbs. I should, but I don't. And I might try again this year, but I'm a little skittish. So I'm I'm hoping that somebody out there can help me get a handle on this. And if that means I gotta send pictures of like what I'm working with, I am happy to do that because I lack a green thumb. I'm good in the kitchen. I'm not so great with growing the ingredients myself.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I want that's great. I we always love tips on gardening. I that is something that you know, let us know in the comments and any of our social media platforms. But I will tell you, sunlight is is huge. And if you don't have sunlight, it's just not gonna happen, unfortunately. So it's one of those you have to have at least eight hours of sunlight every single day.
SPEAKER_05It's it's a weird spot. I don't want to like it's you get sun in the morning, it's sudden exposure, it's a weird spot. I did burn myself last year. I was sitting out on the balcony, and because of how the sun hits, it was only like one eighth of my body that got sunburned, and it was like just my left arm. And so it was a very fun tan I had for like six weeks or something. But like that, I think that was the problem is like the basil fried and the time didn't get any sun because of where it's at. But like maybe I just skip that this year, and I get one of those fun indoor ones that like has the light. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I have I have the arrow garden actually here in the kitchen too, which is great. I the other thing that people do wrong all the time, and I hold true to this still, is that you cannot plant until Memorial Day in Michigan.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And people get super, I don't want to say greedy about it because I get it. Again, I'm chomping at the bits. They get like, I'm gonna put it in the grounds, you know, right when I get it now or you know, at the beginning of May. Global warming. That's what I always hear. Global warming. It's getting so much warmer so earlier. And it is, but let me tell you, Michigan will throw you a curveball every single time, and she will snow in May. She will a hundred percent snow in May. Don't do it. Yes. You wait until Memorial Day. That's my piece of advice on here. That in sunlight.
SPEAKER_05It's just hard because the those seed packers are just staring at you on your counter or like wherever you keep them, right? And you're like, you know that they want to get planted, but you got to hang on until Memorial Day weekend. Yes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I get it.
SPEAKER_05But before we get into our tip of the week, let's do the socials real quick. Let's get this admin stuff out of the way. Uh, click subscribe wherever you find the podcast, whether it's Spotify, Apple, YouTube comment or review. It really helps boost the show. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok. It's all under Calodic Culinary on YouTube. It is at panic. at the pantry. And if you want to be a caller on the show to have us raid your pantry, because again, we take notes in real time. We're just making this stuff up as we go. There, there's no AI used here. We're not raiding, you know, our recipe books or cookbooks. We were doing this on the fly as we're looking at what you got here. You can DM us or you can email in at the description. We have that below if you want to be a caller. And please, we love it. No matter how little you think you have, it's never as little as you actually think. All right, let's get to our tip of the episode here because this is one that I I don't think about a lot because uh people don't think about this a lot. It's just these are ingredients that are in every recipe. And uh and we just, you know, they're on every table, and we don't think about how we store them very much. So what are we talking about today?
SPEAKER_01So today we're gonna talk about what's you're right in every single thing that we're cooking, salt and pepper. Yeah. Salts of life. So salt and pepper bulls specifically that are sitting by your stove. So people have their salt and pepper in different apparatuses depending on what they like. There's everything from salt shakers to those really cool pepper grinders that you press the button and you know, yeah, yeah. And um, I'm making the thing with my my finger right now. There um, there is all different types of salts, which she's talked about in episodes before. There's sea salt, there's kosher salt, uh, there is salt again in little bowls or salt in big pots, etc. Okay, so this is my advice that I have for everyone. During classes, we always have salt and pepper in little deli containers that are waiting by the stove for people. And what I tell people in classes is I want you to do the same thing at home. I want you to have salt and pepper in small bowls or little containers right by your stove. And the reason for that is that cooking is a very tactile experience. It is not passive. And when you're doing something like using a salt and pepper shaker, it is passive. You don't really understand how much is going in. It's hard to see how much you're using. And I see people do this all the time. I just saw it. I won't name names. I just saw it on social media. Something that I see in classes a lot is when you take the measuring spoon and then you take a the herb, um, like the herb canister, and you don't open it fully and you use the shaker part and you try to shake it into a measuring spoon. Yes. I see this constant.
SPEAKER_05You're looking at me like over like over what you're cooking, they were like shaking that into the yes.
SPEAKER_01There so over what you're cooking, they'll take a measuring spoon, yeah, and they'll take the salt shaker with a shaker or the herb container with the shaker and shake over the teaspoon. Well, that's not gonna work. I love it. You're like, that's not gonna work. No, Grant, it's actually not going to work at all. People do it all the time. And it's it's very, I know it's kind of it was always a moment for me. Like, what made you decide to do that? Like, I want to know your thought process, but they're not really thinking. So, first and foremost, when you're talking about spices, open the container, open it fully so you can dip the measuring spoon into these spices. That's a whole different story with salt. Same thing. If you need to measure it precisely like for baking, you really do need to dip it into your salt. But going back to what I was saying about cooking being tactile, when you have your salt and pepper bowls right by your stove and you're reaching in your hand into those bowls to touch the salt and pepper, you are feeling it. Think of it like riding a bike. When you first rode a bike and you learn how to ride a bike, that muscle memory was inside of you. So, for example, I haven't ridden a bike in years. But I could get back on a bike and my body would remember in 20 seconds or so. It's, you know, a little bit, and then off I went because my muscle memory is that strong. It's the same thing when you're touching food and you're touching things like salt and pepper. You remember pretty much exactly how much you need to grab for the things that you're cooking, especially things that you're repetitively cooking over and over again. You want to use the same salt. We talked about diamond crystal salt and how incredibly important it is to use a good kosher salt throughout your cooking. Um, and different salts are going to have different characteristics. So you might want to take a smaller pinch when you're working with a finishing salt like sea salt, et cetera. But feeling it is going to be the most important thing to really get it into your muscles and get it into your memory.
SPEAKER_05So I do this with salt, right? I've got a little salt well. Mine's a little wooden box, it's got a top on it that like slides open and I like put my fingers in and do that. I don't do this with pepper. I put the grinder right over whatever I'm cooking and I twist and then let that in there. And I have a good idea of how much comes out of that grinder. Yeah. Uh, but you're saying that I should actually grind that into a little bowl first and then use my fingers to take a pinch out like I would with salt.
SPEAKER_01So pepper's a little different. And here's why. Pepper you can actually see a lot easier than salt. Um pretend you're tip putting that pepper over something like chicken. You can easily see how much you're putting on top of it, no problem at all. Um, so I don't think that there's any issue with taking that pepper grinder and doing things like that. However, when you're perhaps building a sauce and it's a little more difficult to see because it's going straight in right away, it might be better for you to actually grab it. So I would say with pepper, it would be both. A pepper grinder is really lovely, especially for a finishing little pepper on top of things like salads. It's so wonderful. Um, however, a nice coarse pepper right by your side when you're building things where you can't see it as easily, or it's not a finishing pepper is definitely essential.
SPEAKER_05I always wondered too about using uh like whether it's like a pepper grinder or let's like a spice shaker or something like that, uh, right over what you're cooking, where there's all that steam, does that get into, you know, let's say the pepper grinder here, does that affect the pepper itself? Like, do I get clumps of pepper and they land in different ways? And will that affect the dish? I'm always worried about that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, I don't, I have to tell you honestly, I don't use one myself. I don't have one of those automatic pepper grinders. Everything's in bowls because I'm again I need to, they need to touch everything. Um, but yes, you can a hundred percent you have to clean those things. That's what people don't realize. And with the salt, it's the exact same thing because it can um, what's the word? Like not coagulate but congeal, but uh what's the word I'm looking for? It clumps up. It clumps up, right? Um, salt's gonna do that, pepper's going to do that. So you really do have to clean those things underneath quite periodically. Um, dump out the pepper, um, put some new pepper corns in it, clean out the bottom, etc. So, yeah, that's definitely gonna be something you want to do on a regular basis.
SPEAKER_05I'm gonna start doing that. I'm gonna start cracking the pepper first into a bowl and then putting it in the dish and then avoiding scratching my nose in between.
SPEAKER_01And I have how many times? Because I also again be touching absolutely and positively everything, and I'll take you know, peppers all the time, and you can see them hanging behind me here for those of you who are watching YouTube. And I'll I'll take them down and I'm I'm cracking them with my hands, and I'm you know splitting them with my hands, and every single time, what do I do? Like I have an itch near my eye.
SPEAKER_05Oh, and then you're just out, and then it's just like you're just every time I'm squinting the entire time. Like every time.
SPEAKER_01Ask me if I've ever learned my lesson. I'm 40 years old. Ask me ever. Never, it's not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_05Okay, I'm gonna try this out. I want to know what when people try this too, if they think this is a better system for them. I like the idea of having this stuff ready to go right next to where I'm cooking too, because then also like I'm not looking for it, I'm not reaching for a grinder every single time. I don't have to reach for where the saw well is every single time. Like, it's just right there, ready to go. And it it's also it adds sort of like I think kind of a fun like little flourish to to what I'm cooking. It's a fun little like little dash of this, a little dash of that. Like it's a little more active in the in the cooking process, which is already like part of that tactile thing. Very fun. I love it. Yeah, I love it. Okay, when we come back, we have a very fun guest today, uh, that I'm I'm not gonna introduce beforehand because um I want it to be a little bit of a surprise.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay. I love surprises.
SPEAKER_05All right, so our guest today is you, Daniela. We're gonna raid. We're gonna raid your pantry, do a little panic uh at on the home front here and and see what you're working with. I I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little nervous to do this. Why? What because I don't, I've never actually have I ever actually cooked for you? Maybe once.
SPEAKER_01Yes, no, you certainly have. You've cooked for Becca and I before. Um, one I think was a little impromptu. We had just drank a little too much. That's right. Um I a hundred percent know you have the skills to do this. And the other reason why I'm so excited to do this, and I'm so excited that you were on board, is that we have now done this for, and this is episode nine, and every single time, and this is this has really gotten to be existential thought for me. That people have said we have nothing, there's nothing. I I haven't stocked, I haven't grocery shop, my fridge is barren, and we open it up and it's this cornucopia of things that you can cook with. Yeah, and we're both like, what are you talking about? There is so much stuff here. And the existential thought is in America, we are so blessed with this much food all the time. That's the opposite problem of I don't have anything is actually I have too much.
SPEAKER_05Yes, it is the the the the curse of choice, honestly, is often our problem.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yes, and just people don't know what to do with the choices they have. So I was excited that you were on board for this, is because I actually keep a fridge that is pretty bare compared to anything that we've seen before. Um, because I shop when I need it and I don't like to waste food. Uh so I I know in my head roughly what I'm going to make or I put things together. So this is this is gonna be the fridge that I think should be the model of, hey guys, this is what we're looking for. Okay.
SPEAKER_05All right, let's let's see it. Uh also there's a very special thing here because when we make when I make this recipe here, you're gonna cook it, but you're gonna cook it live, right?
SPEAKER_01I am. So here's what we're gonna do, everyone. We are going to go Facebook Live with us.
SPEAKER_05May 12th.
SPEAKER_01Where am I? Okay, May 12th. And did I say a time on it?
SPEAKER_03Uh no, you didn't.
SPEAKER_01When is May 12th? Is May 12th? Um, what day is that?
SPEAKER_05Or what day of the week?
SPEAKER_03Day of the week?
SPEAKER_05Maybe it's a Tuesday.
SPEAKER_01Great. Okay, it's gonna be at 6 p.m. Okay. Right. Three, two, one. Okay, so we are gonna go Facebook live with this recipe May 12th at 6 p.m. That is a Tuesday. So May 12th at 6 p.m., we're gonna go on Facebook Live. And you and I, I don't know if we've decided if we're going to FaceTime with this or we're gonna zoom, we're gonna do something with that.
SPEAKER_05We'll do something with it. I'll probably go live. I'll probably go live on on Instagram too at the same time. And so we'll probably FaceTime something here and I'll figure we'll figure that out. But like I want to see this, definitely.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm gonna cook it exactly how you told me. Uh, we're gonna make sure. Well, I'm not gonna take notes because I'll I'll be over here, but you're gonna take notes for it.
SPEAKER_05I'll write it up. Yeah, you'll get the entire recipe, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So you're gonna you're gonna see everyone, and then also something new that we're doing. I don't know why we didn't think I didn't think of this before. We're gonna post every single recipe that we are doing during these episodes on my website. So under the pantry, whatever one that we decided to do when we created on the spot, I'm gonna we always have notes. I'm gonna make sure to write out a recipe so people have it. You can go to the pantry, you can watch this on YouTube, and you can see the recipe that we created. We're gonna do the same thing, and you get to see a Facebook Live. So I'm excited.
SPEAKER_05Super fun. All right, let's do it.
SPEAKER_01Here'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 how 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. 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 of that extreme again tick 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. If 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.
SPEAKER_05Uh oh, your home is so clean right now. Oh, welcome.
SPEAKER_01Well, you know, it's just me and my puppy and my anal retentiveness. So um it's it's it's organized, but you know, the excuse is there's no children and there's no um you know spouse to fucking.
SPEAKER_03But still, I don't know. We're like we're messy and like it's just me and Becca in the house.
SPEAKER_05So like I get it. Uh good. Also, I realized that I I said earlier that I I don't think I've ever cooked for you. That is was 100% a lie. We met in a cooking competition. I was literally cooking for you. Yeah, you were the judge. So what was I talking about? Um and you, I I think I meant like this, like in like in our homes or whatever.
SPEAKER_01Uh but you know, for the Facebook Facebook Live, you could come over too. That would be fun.
SPEAKER_05That would be very fun. I would love to do that. I think I could do that. We I could just be at your kitchen. That's it.
SPEAKER_01And then Becca can just sit and we'll cook for her. She loves that.
SPEAKER_05So which is the norm, which is how this works. Absolutely. Yeah, as is her way. Uh, I love her. This that's the arrangement we have.
SPEAKER_02It's fantastic.
SPEAKER_05Okay, let's let's take a look at the fridge first. I want to see what I'm working with here.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_05So this is the fridge we have been waiting for.
SPEAKER_01This is it. I knew you'd say that.
SPEAKER_05Okay. Uh, folks, there's not a lot in here. I'm seeing a lot of the back wall of this fridge, which is not a thing we get a lot. Uh, let's go uh top to bottom.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_05Um, okay, so we have what's on top there.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so at the top here we have a couple cartons of eggs.
SPEAKER_05Okay.
SPEAKER_01We have um some yogurt. These are just little snacks for myself.
SPEAKER_05Okay, are they all plain or are they flavored or do we get it?
SPEAKER_01They're flavored. They're flavored because they're snacks for myself. This is the plain one, though. I have a Bulgarian yogurt uh that is plain. I have back here a Mexican crema back there, and then I have some duck fat. Okay. As well back there. Um, this is the dairy because yes, I am that anal retentive. We have uh our bread section over here. Yes, friends. We have labeled.
SPEAKER_05She's got label maker labels on him. Yes.
SPEAKER_01I'm obsessed. I have a problem. Again, it's just me. I can do whatever the hell I want. Uh, here's my dad's handmade bread back here and some uh flatbread tortillas, and I make wraps and stuff for myself.
SPEAKER_05Okay. What kind of bread is it? Your dad made?
SPEAKER_01Is it just like he's making a enriched, a regular um leaven loaf? So it's mostly white bread, a teeny bit of wheat flour. Um, great for toasting and sandwiches, etc.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01Then we have cheese drawer. I don't need I actually don't know what's in here. It's been a second. Butter. Um, I have to separate the butter for classes too, because I keep things in here. So butter, okay, uh, pottermigiano, more pot of pigiano. That's it for cheese.
SPEAKER_05Okay.
SPEAKER_01Just pot of pigiano and some butter.
SPEAKER_05How much butter would you say you have?
SPEAKER_00Three pounds.
SPEAKER_05Okay.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, okay, we could do that. All right.
SPEAKER_01I have enough butter.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I think we're sad on that. Okay.
SPEAKER_01We're good on the butter. Um so what do we have? So we have some cherry, uh, some vinegrown little tomatoes back here.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01A little babies. We have some chickpeas. About a half a can of chickpeas.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_01I have some salsa that I did not make, but I love this Westbourne salsa for little snackaroo. And then I have my guilty pleasure, which our last guest, um Michael, introduced me to. The big great cookie.
SPEAKER_05Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I love those. I don't care.
SPEAKER_05I adore them. The big cookie dough trays.
SPEAKER_01Yep. Um, some crushed nuts. We have some stock. Um, I ran out of homemade stuff. I haven't had a chance to make stuff, so I have some chicken stock. Okay. And uh Potter pigiano rinds, a ton of rinds from my last class that I just have to freeze.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Lemons.
SPEAKER_01Lemons. There's a lot of lemons from leftover class, so I had to juice them. So there's a ton of lemons. Um, there's dog food. If you can do anything with that, Grant, I'll be very impressed. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05We could make some chili. Okay. Uh what's what's in don't do that, people. Don't do that. I don't care if it's I don't care if it's farmer's dog, whatever it is. Don't do that. Uh, what's what's in the back? Is that breadcrumbs?
SPEAKER_01Um, we have homemade breadcrumbs back here. These are preserved lemons um that my sister helped me do uh for tensions, etc. This is a chili crisp that I've made. Delicious. I'm gonna give you some. And these are um preserved uh chipotles back there as well.
SPEAKER_05Nice. Uh are they like pickled or are they just preserved?
SPEAKER_00They're preserved to salt, no vinegar. Okay.
SPEAKER_03What is in the drawers?
SPEAKER_01Produce drawers, more lemons. Again, I have to juice them. These are left over from class because we had to zest a ton. So um a, oh, a mmm.
SPEAKER_03Less than ideal yellow pepper. I think we're gonna say no to that one. Go ahead and uh yeah. Bye.
SPEAKER_01Gross. No thanks. I I didn't clean out. I I was true to my word, I did not clean out. This is oh ew. Okay.
SPEAKER_05Peppers not surviving. This is another liquid green pepper. Okay.
SPEAKER_01I didn't clean out. Oh no. Oh goodness, this has mold all over it, too.
SPEAKER_05Oh wow, some sort of mango orange precision. Is it orange? Yeah. Orange.
SPEAKER_01Orange.
SPEAKER_05Recognizable fruit.
SPEAKER_01Scallions.
SPEAKER_05Scallions.
SPEAKER_01English cucumber. More scallions that are on their way out. Some limes and another science experiment.
SPEAKER_05Oh, oh, that thing winked at me. I don't like that. Oh, no, thank you.
SPEAKER_01I don't like that at all. There's something on it.
SPEAKER_05Kill it with fire. No thank. Yeah, get that out of here. Ooh. Yeah, wash your hands.
SPEAKER_00Oh I told you, I told you I wasn't gonna clean it out and I resisted. I'm like, nope, not gonna do it.
SPEAKER_05That drawer might need might need a spray of something after this. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's really gross. There is something alive on there. Okay. Um, we're gonna throw out these these slimes too.
SPEAKER_03Yep, yep.
SPEAKER_00I don't like to waste food proceeds to like, oh, what the hell is I needed? Well, yeah, yeah. It's uh yeah. Um okay.
SPEAKER_01Herbs. Okay. Herbs. We have a lot of herbs because I just got some fresh stuff. Um, so I have some curly um curly parsley. Parsley, because I wanted to make some tiboule. Um mint. So again, I wanted to make some tiboule. I have some washed and fresh uh keol and romaine. Oh no, keel and red leaf in here that I washed. And then we have carrots, celery. Um, that time is not good anymore. And some more um parsley in here. And that's it. And then, of course, I have some condiments on the side over here.
SPEAKER_05All right, what do we work with the condiments here?
SPEAKER_01So at the top here we have these are there's a lot of preserved stuff. This is some pickled um banana peppers from the summer that I pickled. We have some Dijon and two different traditional Dijons, ketchup and mustard. We have the alkanator, um tahini, yep, some mayo, fish sauce, soy sauce, below here, umofuku's uh chili crunch, chili crisp, which we talked, yeah, chili crush, which we talked about last time. Um Calabrian chili spread, sambal, um, a couple different types of hot foft, including sriracha. Um, over here, more Calabrian chili paste, capers, tomato paste, um, some leftover jam, and my uh anchovy.
SPEAKER_03Okay, okay. Um, I'm forming an idea. Okay, okay, okay.
SPEAKER_05Let's uh let's are those cocktail cherries too? Is that what you've got there?
SPEAKER_01Um cocktail cherries for you know my drinks. Um, and then yeah, some more leftover um jams that I have, some yeast and some baking soda up here, not really.
SPEAKER_05What are the jams?
SPEAKER_01Um, the jams I have maribel plum when we made our plum sauce for class a couple weeks ago.
SPEAKER_03Yum. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Um I have a fig spread and I have uh one on cherry.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Oh, oh, okay.
SPEAKER_05I had I just had a fun idea that I want to use, but I don't know how to use it. Okay. Uh all right. I uh we're a little late on protein, so let's see the freezer.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Freezer is where I use I keep my proteins. Um, because like I said, I'll I'll I'll cook. Um since I'm working so much, I'll cook when I need to cook. Right. Um, so I do have some things here that are very available to everything's available for the frost. Tons of paramigano rinds in here.
SPEAKER_05Great.
SPEAKER_01Uh peas.
SPEAKER_05Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01And then a lot of venison. Um, so this is, yeah, this is sirloin tip venison. No, this is beef. I'm sorry. This is beef sirloin tip.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_01Um, this is a pork beef mix, ground. This one isn't the venison jar. This is some sausage, some mild Italian sausage.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_01And then here's the vents. There I'm here. All right, I can get it. So this is your venison round steak. Um, my wonderful and sweet neighbor. Um, and between him and my dad, I am stock venison. I mostly cook with venison uh because it is sustainable and we are in Michigan, and that's what we do.
SPEAKER_03Yes, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01Um, I have some frozen basil from last year. That's a whole nother tip of the week that we're gonna do. Yeah. Frozen parsley stems from last summer. Um, some frozen ground beef down here. This is salmon fillets.
SPEAKER_05Okay.
SPEAKER_01Frozen salmon fillets. So, yeah, lots of lots of protein in here. Like I said, I take it out. My my sweet treat to myself, some hot and daz vanilla beans. Love that. Love that. Um, chicken bones.
SPEAKER_05Got it. Got it. Soup stock stuff.
SPEAKER_01Yep, yep, yep. Uh chicken feet, I think. I think so. Yeah, some broken up chicken feet. And then more venison. Um, tenderloins, venison tenderloins, venison backstrap. Venison um ground beef or ground venison. So lots of venison. Yep.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_01So we can use absolutely anything by um we can use anything in here. I don't have time to defrost by the time we go Facebook Live, so yeah. And then up here, more venison. Ground venison, ground venison, ground venison. I have pesto from last year, frozen, garden ragu, frozen. I do have maseka in here for tortillas.
SPEAKER_03Okay, okay.
SPEAKER_05Um, and then let's uh let's look take a look at the pantry here.
SPEAKER_01Okay. And yes, because I know you're gonna ask, of course. There's Scarlet. I know. Yep, shall it?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah, we're we're gonna. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So uh here's where people who are watching on YouTube are gonna go, oh my god. But this is this is the way that this is an embarrassment of riches in in here.
SPEAKER_05I have seen this before, and it is truly something.
SPEAKER_01It's I'll get this out of the way. Um, this is again my anal retentiveness and and overdrive, but yes, everything is um labeled in categories. It's just the way that I do things.
SPEAKER_05So look, an organized kitchen is an easy kitchen to work in. It's how I operate too, like my spice drawer is like that too. Yes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's the way that it is. Um, so we have lots of things here that are kind of you know um categorized for beans. So I have right here um splits, orange lentils, I have cheek, cheese, um English words spaniella, chickpeas um back there, and then and then kidney beans um that are all dried back there as well. Um, and then I have uh flour, white flour, wheat flour, and sugar here.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01I have sunflower seeds, arboreo rice, and faro back there, um basmati rice, let's see, brown lentils, more faro, popcorn, powdered sugar, oats. I have back there couscous, uh quinoa, and brown sugar. So lots of grains, um, lots of different types of grains.
SPEAKER_05Okay.
SPEAKER_01Um, I'm just gonna say as far as spices, the answer is yes. That's all I can that's just yes.
SPEAKER_05Okay. Um I do I have a couple questions about spices because as I'm thinking here. Um cumin, yes. Um do you have uh do you have sumac?
SPEAKER_01I believe so. Let's see. Under S. Do I have sumac?
SPEAKER_00S. Hold on, hold please. Yes. There we go. Okay. Sumac.
SPEAKER_05Lovely. Okay. Uh if you have everything else. Okay. Um perfect.
SPEAKER_01And then we have an assortment. I mean, it would take me forever to go through this. Um, but I have your you know, acids and and hot sauce here. Um, we have any sweeteners um like honey. We do have more grains here. I have a really fun, you would love us. Um, I have really fun grits from the Carolinas. Um, so this is in from South Carolina. These are stone ground grits. Oh, yeah. Um, and then I have Carolina gold rice, and I just have a little bit left. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_05I mean, I'm not gonna make you use that. Like and I don't know. Oh, I don't care. Are you kidding?
SPEAKER_01That's that's fun.
SPEAKER_05That is, yeah, that is fun. I do think you change my whole idea.
SPEAKER_01Oh, so hey, I had to tell you, I have bulgur, um, I have quinoa, um, an array of different types of flowers, including um semolina. We have some more fats down here. So we have truffle oil, um, more tahini, coconut oil, um, some various nuts and seeds, like head parts. I have more dried beans like pinto beans, panko, um, and then some canned stuff. I do have things like coconut milk. You know, this is a good, this is honestly a really I have jardinella here, um, homemade stuff. This is like this is a really good lesson in the things that you should have in your kitchen.
SPEAKER_05Yes, it's like this is all a really good assortment of like all the kind of building blocks of of what should be the basic ingredients of stuff, which is funny because like as I think about what I have in my pantry right now, when you think about like the food pyramid that we all grew up with, yeah, not the one that's out there right now because it's weird, but like I'll I'll leave it at that. Yeah, it's weird. It's super weird. But like, think about like what those elements are and like what goes into a balanced diet. That kind of is what you need to build a dish. The salt, fat, acid heat of those things, the proteins of those things, the carbohydrates of those things, that all actually comes together to build something that is what we would consider to be a meal. Uh and so like you've got all the building blocks of that there, even if it feels weird to be combining something like, you know, a I don't know, a couscous and a coconut milk, right? Like that's that's your fat and your carb, and then like uh fish. And like, oh, we're kind of nearing Southeast Asian food. Like, yeah, yep, absolutely. Something like that, and which in as far as like how you know Panic at the Pandry works, that's kind of how my brain works. It's like, oh, these are these pieces here, and this is kind of how you get all these pieces of a meal together, and then and then like, oh, this is kind of the flavors and mouthfeels, textures of of what this kind of food is like, and then oh, do we have the other pieces of this? So, in the spirit of that, this is kind of where I'm heading with what I think we can do with what we've got.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_05So I, because we are in in Michigan, we are so close to to Dearborn, I think that it's a very fun idea to do kind of a play on like a Lebanese Middle Eastern steakhouse uh uh meal with the venison tenderloin. Love it. Okay, you're gonna make a a rub out of sumac, cinnamon, uh, cumin, uh, a little bit of allspice, and then I think that you should mix that in there with a little bit of the calabrian chili paste. Okay, and and put that on there, uh, and then salt and pepper. Uh, and uh I'll write down the the amounts of this thing, but like we can figure it out. Yeah, we're gonna figure that out.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05But rub that over there, uh, and then I would more or less make that into a marinade and we're gonna bleed that overnight with I would say two tablespoons to maybe three tablespoons of, which is a core cup, but like of red wine vinegar. Um, and I'll have you poke some holes in the tenderloin so that permeates breaks it down a little bit. Tenderloin doesn't tend to be super tough, but there are certain fibers that run through tenderloin that venison is tough no matter what.
SPEAKER_01It is the way that it is gamier.
SPEAKER_05But I also think that the flavors of uh this specific kind of spices that I'm building are very specific kind of Middle Eastern spices that will play really nice with the gamier flavor. Like sumac has a sort of orangey, woodier flavor. Cinnamon, those things will sort of bring out some of these flavors. Uh, and then let that sit overnight. And then I think you can just roast this. And it's a roasted tenderloin in the same way you would treat like a roasted beef tenderloin or a roasted pork tenderloin.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_05Uh, and cook that to doneess. Uh, that you know, if you're liking, I don't know how you like your tenderloin um or how you like your venison. Um, I like my game meat uh on the medium rare side, um, but that's up to you. I'm open to it.
SPEAKER_01I usually I use what I usually have um, because those are the first time I've actually had tender loins, which I'm really excited to work with. Um, and I want to go with it because I usually have this backstrap and I just braised the living crap out of it because it needs to be braced. It needs to be. Um, so this is yeah, this is this is actually new territory, and I love the idea of trying to roast it. Let's see what happens.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and like you you'll you'll roast at the very end, you'll blast it with the broiler to get a nice crust on the edge of it. Yeah. Uh yeah, and so we'll have that there. And then as as that's baking, uh as that's roasting, basically, we're gonna make a base that is a like hummus uh base with the tahini, with the uh chickpeas you've got, with the lemon juice that you have in there. I also want to use some of the greens that you have, which are the kale and red leaf that are in there. And then I like the idea of more or less making a little chutney with the with some shallots, a little bit of red wine, that fig jam and mint. And putting those together, and then when we plate the tenderloin as it comes out, slice it so that it's fairly thin, finger width, so I don't know, quarter inch, half inch thick. Yeah, yeah. Uh, and then we'll plate that across the the hummus itself, and then put the chutney on top of that, and then I think if you want to go for it, I will have you make some flatbread, some non yeah, just basic, right? Just basic water, butter, flour. Yeah, we can make some and I I wouldn't make a regular listener do this, but it's you, and I know you can do it because I've seen you do it. Uh, and and make that. And so this is a finger food meal. So you take it. Oh, yeah. Let me eat my hands. Yeah, eat it with your hands. As we were talking about being tactile with salt and pepper earlier, I was like, oh, this is kind of a fun idea. And so take the naan, take some of the venison, wipe it through the hummus, and that's your that's your your meal right there.
SPEAKER_01That sounds freaking delicious. And on top of it, I I don't know, even know if you know this or you did it on purpose, but two things. Number one, I have a class that is uh a Middle Eastern fusion class that is literally this, but with ground lamb on top of the hummus where you eat with your hands.
SPEAKER_05I might have, I might have uh known about this beforehand. It might have been on my brain.
SPEAKER_01I love this. So, number one, I love it because you know, again, I'm always into self-promotion. I don't really care. That's where I'm at. And also, I do private in-home events where we learn how to make nuns. So this is just this is just a promote. You're just gassing me up here.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I am a little bit, but also that was unplanned. I like I didn't I knew about those classes uh because every time I see them, they make me hungrier. But uh, and I know that I'm missing out by not being able to go to every single one of them, but uh, this it was unplanned because I like the idea of making this kind of game meat with these spices. I think that's a really interesting idea. I love it. And putting these things together. And I think that adding some of the the the richness that comes with like a a hummus and a heen in that way, we could even make this like a garlic hummus if you wanted to. I think that's a bit much, but we could we could play around with it.
SPEAKER_01I always put a couple garlic cloves in it honestly, but I meant like a real one. Like you could we could all like roasted garlic.
SPEAKER_05We could do a thing and like confie the garlic and in the duck fat you've got up there, right? Like we could like do it uh and like you know make that a deal and like add that extra fat back into the game meat that's in the venison like that that's a lot. Uh and that's a lot of funk right to go with the venison and the duck. But like uh we could we could do it. We could do it. But like we could even mess around with that. But uh like I think that it's it's a fun play on these like textures and where your your fats are coming from where the heat and spice is coming from. You don't normally associate uh things like heat with venison unless it's in like a chili but then that that's coming from somewhere else. It's not a part of the meat itself. So like I think that's fun here. What do we think?
SPEAKER_01I love it. I think it's so fun. And also it's some cool things again that I've never done with tender loin venison tenderloin before um so I'm all in. You know I love a good experiment where I'm I'm there.
SPEAKER_05Okay. Then I I for once I'm gonna write up this recipe and I will send it over to you. Yay Yeah I'm so excited then uh I guess we'll be right back and then we'll wrap up okay okay I I had to record here because we were like talking about and it was too good to not roll on. We have been talking for the last like I don't know seven minutes or whatever about like hand food and like eating with your hands because like I think a lot of people are going to hear this and be like I don't want to eat with my hands and like then I did the nerd thing because I do this once every episode where I'm like actually food and like and like we have silverware that is born out of a history of like not using silverware and it's a lot of things in our history of like not just food things but like lots of things like it was just fashionable because a certain ruler had a picadillo about something salt and pepper comes from one of the Louis I think 14th I don't remember which one they were I like I said they were all Louis they were all Louis for the God's sake like one Charles in there. Yeah right like he didn't like spice but liked salt and pepper because that's flavor and so then everything at some point was just salt and pepper because that's what was fashionable because the king liked it. Forks uh like we had knives and spoons because we had soups and had to cut things and like no one's gonna stick their hand in a hot pot to stir a soup. So we had spoons forever but like forks aren't really a thing. So we're eating with our hands in the Middle Ages and then we get like Catherine de Medici who is the wife of Henry II in like the 1500s who is from Italy the Medici families who brings the fork to France uh and Henry the second is kind of uh let's say a little tactile sensitive we'll call him right like I don't want to make a diagnosis here I'm not a doctor but like he was a freak he doesn't like the way that feels kind of a guy I'll say it for you a freak. They were all in bread it was yeah they were oh my god so in bread so like so he doesn't just use the fork for uh the the the Italian food that Medici brings with her uh but also everything else and then all of a sudden forks become fashionable in the court there later the Germans are like hey this is better if we add another tyne to the middle of this fork and it's not just two prongs but it's three uh and like that's like a couple hundred years so forever people are just using two prong forks which is weird uh but like but that's how we get forks is because technically Henry II was like I don't like my hands getting sticky and like that's why we use utensils but so much of the world still only uses the utensils that we have on the ends of our arms and yeah I like I like that there are plenty of restaurants around where we live that that still serve food that way. If you eat a lot of uh like a specifically East African food um you know I'm from Minnesota so if you go to like a Somali restaurant or an Ethiopian restaurant they still serve you uh without utensils in a lot of places and there it's a different experience it's a way more I think visceral in a good way experience um it connects food in a different way it does um I don't think it's better or worse I think it's just a different experience with the food so it's it's a fun thing to try um in the way that like in the same way that like eating pizza with a fork and knife for a lot of people is weird right you're a psychopath if you do that it's like what what's happening here unless it's like a deep dish or something else that's a different thing. But like like I think that's uh this is a fun dish to sort of like try that out with so I'm really excited to like write this down and then to like have you make this to have you try this thing and like to my sister my sister always says and my brother in law too that pita bread is the perfect vessel.
SPEAKER_01It is the perfect utensil and you know we're gonna and we're gonna make beta and it's gonna be great. But we were we were up north um for New Year's and my brother in law um was it was teaching us he's Lebanese and he was teaching us all to make that perfect cone with with the pita bread which we all failed miserably and he was yelling at us and he's like you're our button and we're like we're doing but we were all we I made it was it was hilarious. But I made shakshuka and I put it you know in us and I'm like we don't we don't need plates. We have this beautiful pita bread so we're all making cones and we're just getting in there as a family and you're right it's a different experience and it's so communal. Yes and I adore that about eating that way.
SPEAKER_05Yes there is something lovely yeah there's something really communal and really lovely about it. And so like I think uh I think that this is one of those dishes in which like I should come over and and be there for it because if we're gonna do this eating with the hands we should I should be there. More hands are better.
SPEAKER_01You should and then we then we can all talk about the French more and how the Italians taught the French how to cook which I told you before offline here I will die on that hill that Caterina di Medici brought over culture food and taught the French how to cook I don't want to hear it anymore that the French invented everything they did not.
SPEAKER_05Look they were just kind of chasing truffle pigs around and chickens around the Normandy forest for a couple hundred years until Medici showed up and then she was like hey we could put this stuff in butter and they were like what and then like the French become like oh everything is SOS and like that's it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah yeah now I've culturally offended a two different people so that's that's probably a good place to wrap up let's wrap this up no more sh I promise okay yeah before a ban from Europe yeah uh this has been so much fun I like I'm very excited to do this uh I will get this recipe to you as soon as possible so that the people can also get this recipe and then go watch you on May 12th yes yay so we'll see you on May 12th everyone that is our show thank you so much for watching as usual please please please tag us um if you have a question if you want to be on the show if you want to show us a picture of your fridge and you're like what can I make we would be more than happy to answer.
SPEAKER_05So tag us and follow us I am everywhere at Colada Culinary that's K-A-L-O-T-A Culinary on Instagram TikTok and Facebook you can find the show at panic dot at the pantry on YouTube and then you can also find me at Grant Herms uh on pretty much everything on Instagram it is grant underscore Herms because Instagram is weird.
SPEAKER_01So again everyone thank you so much uh we look forward to hearing from you and we will see you next time