I Need the Kimchi! Meet Maangchi, YouTube Kitchen Queen

Hey Christopher Kimball here for today's special episode. We're releasing one of our favorites from 2019 Featuring YouTube sensation, Mong-chi. Please give it a listen and look out this Friday for a brand new episode of Milk Street Radio Now, please enjoy the show This is Milk Street Radio from PRX. I'm your host Christopher Kimball Today we're chatting with YouTube powerhouse in Korean American home cook, Mong-chi Like a modern-day Julia child she dives into the from scratch world of Korean cooking with enthusiasm skill and also a hearty appetite She loves Korean cooking so much that she finds French cooking tame by comparison I went to France and the stinky cheese was so delicious, but three days after I got tired of this I couldn't swallow anymore. I Need something spicy. I need the kimchi Also coming up Alex I news wonders if the kitchen of the future will have a 3d printer and we make a savory bread pudding But first it's my interview with archaeologist and anthropologist Geraldine Morrison Geraldine welcome to Milk Street. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. So you're a an expert on Minoan cooking So let's start with Minoan culture. This was you know a couple thousand years BC is that right? That's correct It's it's it was right after the Neolithic period in Crete and so it started around 2000 BC more or less and Ended at about 1500 BC. So about three to five thousand years ago more or less so Let's describe Or have you described what it is you dig up? That's a rather crude way of putting it I guess I think that's correct. So you dig stuff out of the ground And as a result you're able to figure out what people eat and how they cook the food So how do you get from what comes out of the ground to figuring out their culinary past? Okay, well, that's a really great question and that's exactly what we do So what I focus on really is kind of the daily life and like instead of what they would be doing in these amazing administrative Polices I do more like what would be happening and what would be like a home or a building and so we take a lot of different soil samples inside and outside these different structures that we find and It's pretty laborious, but we actually wash the soil and through that process we find carbonized and mineralized seeds and bones and shells and We can look at that. There's various specialists that look at different types of material organic material and They're able to identify it first of all, which is very important and then second of all look at the way It's preserved like if it's a crushed seed for example Like if it's a crushed grape seed then most likely you can make an argument that it was used for wine pressing wine If it's like a burnt bone then you can make the argument for example that it was barbecued rather than chopped up and put into like a Cooking pot for like a stew so transport me back to 1800 BC and Crete and I walk into well the kitchen may have been an outdoor kitchen But I walk into the kitchen. What does the kitchen look like and what are they cooking with you would typically find like some carbonized, you know charcoal made from olive wood or plain tree wood called platanos or What is the other one almond almond tree? We find a lot and then you would find these big belly pots with three legs, which are the iconic Minoan cooking pot that everybody loves to cook in you know that these are terracotta. These are pottery That's correct. They're made out of a local earthenware So each area on the island used local clay to produce cooking pots They also had like circular trays so they could have been baking or sauteing So, you know, we can look at the cooking pots and understand like even in the household level, you know in the outside or the inside They were using different types of cooking techniques. Let's get to the ingredients in the recipe So let's just go through Let's say a dozen items, you know, they were core to their diet the ingredients Okay, so basically we have a lot of grains. So we have like barley and emmer wheat We have brown lentils. A legumes were a big part of the diet. So brown lentils chickpeas Fava broad beans fava We have a lot of sheep and goat a lot of sheep and goat We also have a lot of pork which is surprising to a lot of people and We have a variety of different types of seafood So we have like a lot of medium and small-sized fish like pirate fish mullet Petal either which are limpets, you know, these little shellfish that stick on the side of rocks clams We also have a lot of figs, which I think people are very familiar with figs and almonds Is there one recipe or combination of ingredients particularly stand out to you based upon all this research? Well, everybody loves the lentils at the lentil recipe and I really I like that one as well And I like it because it's such a great teaching tool I mean what the way we cook it is we cook brown lentils We use coriander seeds and then we top it off at the very end with honey and then sea salt and fresh olive oil Do you come to any conclusions or insights about the people themselves based on the cooking? Well, I think that's a great question. I think that they were extremely versatile They looked like they were eating a variety of different types of food, you know, they had this extensive trading network across Crete They were extremely great craftsmen they could build two and three story houses yet They didn't they weren't really concerned about building a kitchen and so I think that they had a very kind of I don't know exactly the right word to use for for their attitude or seemingly attitude But very portable lifestyle about cooking So that says something about like their daily work and attitude towards cooking and eating, you know But I like it they were extremely flexible in that and so it was kind of like, you know Maybe if they were working in this area of the of the fields or if they were working in this area of the house They would like cook there while they were doing their thing for the day or you know They were cooking at their friend's house So everybody grabbed their pots and went over there and cooked it must make you think though as we always think as cultures Progress things get better But cooking the way someone did on Crete in 1500 BC You might start to get the impression that people actually had better diets and better food 35 years ago than they do today, right? I would agree without on many levels Geraldine, thank you so much for being on Milk Street. Thank you very much. It was a pleasure That was Geraldine Morrison, she's an archaeologist anthropologist and potter She's also the founder of Minoan Tace a social enterprise promoting the culinary history of ancient Crete It's time for my co-host Sarah Moulton I to answer your culinary questions Sarah is of course the star of Sarah's weeknight meals on public television. She's also the author of home cooking 101 First I have a question for you Sarah. So we talk about salt all the time, right? This kind of salt sea salt purple salt pink salt What kind of salt do you use diamond kosher? So just a basic in the box for almost everything except occasionally I'll use Moulton as a finishing salt Okay, well, it's good answer. It's the same as me. All right. Let's take a call Welcome to Milk Street. Who's calling? This is Elizabeth from Medford, Massachusetts. Okay. How can we help you? so I like making bacon sometimes on the weekends and I usually make it in my cast iron fillets, but it's usually not a Great success because the center of the bacon ends up cooking very quickly and it's basically burned by the time the outer edges get crispy I've been making it in the cast iron skillet because I heard that cast iron conducts heat the most evenly But that doesn't seem to be happening. So I'm not sure what the problem is Well, I'm gonna sort of go left and tell you what I usually do which is to bake the bacon Do you have cake racks? You don't have to do it on a rack, but it's better if you do You know like this. Yeah, like a cookie rack So I put a cookie rack preferably a square or rectangular one inside of the sheet You know rim sheet pan and then just bake it in the oven at like 350-400 and it will stay flat. It will cook evenly The fat will come off which you can then save for cooking later or do whatever you want with it But it's very consistent. It really to me is the best way. Yeah, it's great Spend 20 minutes heating your oven up and But you don't have to maintain it it doesn't Spatter all over the top, but then you know dove in your shirt But you don't get poked. There's nothing better than coffee bubbling away and a nice pan of bacon And that's all over the room is all over the house seeing you. Yeah, you know smell it in the oven Well to answer your question about cast iron It does hold heat well retains heat well and once it heats up it should heat evenly The problem is the bacon is not touching the bottom of the pan. It curls up It doesn't when you bake it one way flat when you bake it you made your major I didn't say the flat thing Sarah and I are actually not married even though it's So you can add water Yes, yeah, I know Sarah's right total control. It's a good technique I just find heating the oven to make six slices of bacon crazy add a little water to a skillet I use a regular stainless steel skillet if you add water to it with the bacon Then it will evenly cook the bacon and the water will dissipate over time and that actually does a pretty good job Maybe it's a quarter inch, you know eighth inch that way all of the bacon is getting cooked at one time The microwave in between paper towels Does cook the bacon evenly, but it's not crispy I find yeah, which I don't like about like the cast iron skillet feel Yeah, it does cook evenly It's just the bacon starts to curl and that's the problem with that But the oven is the best method if you want to take the time and energy to heat up your oven easy It's so much easier So much less messy, you know, I think we should do a show with two hosts that don't have strong opinions. No, no That would be boring. That would be boring. Anyway, Elizabeth. Thank you. Thank you I'll give that a try for sure. Thank you. Okay. Bye. Bye Welcome to Milk Street. Who's calling? It is David Fain from Mercer Island, Washington. Hi David. How can we help you today? Well, I was listening to one of your recent podcast and you were talking about the benefits of having a Pizza dough rise over multiple days and how that enhances the texture and flavor of the dough and I was curious whether that approach would be applicable to other Dough's whether they're, you know, bread dough's or egg dough's and if so, how would you care for the dough over those days? You're talking about yeast dough, correct? Yes. Yes. I'm gonna let Chris go with this one because he's the bread The answer is sure it'll work with any dough like a bread dough You basically use about half a teaspoon of yeast, you know for a single recipe You mix it and knead it the way you would normally and then put it in a slightly oiled bowl Covered in the refrigerator and you can let it sit for up to three days Then you take it out shape it and let it rise a second time and that works great for pizza But it works for almost any bread and it's similar to you know Poulish right which is a cup of flour a cup of water and some yeast and you let that sit overnight And then finish up the recipe on the next day. So Time allows the dough to hydrate It allows gluten to develop because water and flour Develop gluten on their own and most of all it helps to deliver and build flavor So if you did a pizza dough that's three-day ferment in the fridge It'll be much easier to work with and have much more flavor. It's I just did it last week You have a recipe in the magazine, don't you? Yeah, it's very easy to do is just use less yeast and let it ferment It's a cold ferment in the fridge. Am I right in thinking also it has to be a pretty wet dough No water and flour Like a no-knead bread develops gluten if you give it time, but it works whether or not it's a wet dough or not Okay, my experience has been always with wet dough. So that's why I asked that so absolutely And just throw in the fridge in up to three days and it'll be much easier to shape it and that it'll taste much better as well It'll also give you a better sort of bubble and chew as well David that answer your question. Yeah. Well, thank you very much. Okay. Yeah, take care It did very much so and I appreciate it. Thank you for the call. Yeah, okay. Take care. Bye. Bye. Bye This is Milk Street radio if you have a cooking question, please give us a call 855-426-9843 That number one more time 855-426-9843 or email us at questions at Milk Street radio dot com Welcome to Milk Street. Who's calling you've got Alex on the phone from Lexington, Massachusetts. Okay, how can we help you today? It turns out that my family's favorite dessert now is Pavlova and it's a particular type of Pavlova with a crunchy Exterior shell and a soft kind of marshmallow-y interior. The problem for me is that there are many Pavlova recipes out there and Any type of inside you have would be really appreciated Well, let's start by defining what a Pavlova is so people know it's egg whites and sugar that you beat With some other ingredients added and then you plop it on to a sheet pan and you put a little indentation Usually in the middle and then you bake it and then it becomes crispy on the outside gooey in the inside And you usually pile fruit on top Standard meringue is you start beating the egg whites until they're really frothy and you start beating them slowly Yeah, I had a break next speed and then you increase the speed and slowly add the sugar very slowly over time Are using cream of tartar or lemon juice in the recipe? The acid is white vinegar. That's fine. That was another question Can I use lime juice? Can I use apple cider vinegar? You can use any acid you want. It just will give you a more stable Creamier foam it helps if your egg whites are room temperature Also, so what I would do is make sure they're room temperature and then start beating them slowly Once they get foamy add the cream of tartar then you can increase the speed a little bit till you get to soft peaks And then start adding the sugar British recipes will call for castor sugar Which is finer sugar and you can take regular sugar or super fine sugar, which is bar sugar But you could also take regular sugar and throw it in the food processor and grind it up so it dissolves better You know one thing we haven't talked about is baking. Yeah, let's get there. I've just taken him up to the point I mean glossy peaks the problem is probably in the tempered humidity on the day you did it the temperature and how you bake it Right, I would do the low and slow myself. So like 250. So how do you bake your pavlova? Usually it's 300 or 325 for the first 10 minutes and then I'll drop it down To maybe like 25 or 40 degrees less and then let it finish for an hour I would also make sure your ovens professionally calibrated. It's you know exactly what temperature does I would make sure there's acid in it I would beat the sugar and slowly Would not heat the whites and I would do it low and slow when you do it low and slow I think it's easier to get it crispy on the outside because you sort of dry it out You're evaporating the moisture and make sure it's not a hot humid day when you do it So a dryer day is yeah, you want a cooler dryer day the humidity is gonna be a problem not help out too much Yeah, Alex. Thank you so much. Thanks Alex. Good luck and have lovaville. Yes. Yeah, yummy. Thank you. Okay. Take care. Bye. Bye. Bye You're listening to Milk Street Radio up next we're talking Korean food with YouTube star Mong-chi that and more after this break This is Milk Street Radio I'm your host Christopher Kimble Homecook Emily Kim launched her YouTube channel in 2007 after having been addicted to online video games where she assumed the name of Mong-chi Her YouTube following has grown to three and a half million subscribers and now she's the author of Mong-chi's big book of Korean cooking Mong-chi welcome to Milk Street. Thank you for having me. I love your YouTube channel Yesterday I watched you pull the guts out of the head of a four pound octopus and niece You know you remind me a bit of Julia Child Well, the reason is you have an exuberance and a quiet confidence in what you do So let's go back to something you talked about In 2003 you got divorced your kids were grown up and then you decided that you wanted to play video games so So how many how many hours a day did you play video games and and what was the appeal of all of that? The actually, you know when I was living in Korea if my children did some you know internet game I gave them hard time. Hey study study, you know instead of playing game But when I was living in Toronto, Canada almost three and a half years I was addicted to playing game just once I came home after dinner I studied playing game until maybe 1 a.m and then go to bed and then next day again and Saturday Sunday so all day almost so there was like another world and it was so fun And the term Mong-chi was the the name you used when you played the games. Yes Mong-chi is in Korean hammer So how did you go from playing video games to making YouTube cooking videos My son he asked me mom have you ever heard about YouTube? I said yes He said why don't you share your recipe on there? Probably you know because my son thinks that I'm the best cook in the world, you know Just like other sons to their moms. So my first recipe was Spicy stir-fried squid. I wanted to shock people because when I removed the guts of the Squid the large squid everybody is very surprised You mentioned a blind date picnic with a couple So is this idea of a picnic blind date picnic with other couples a common thing in Korea or is that just happened to you? Yeah, these days. I'm not sure what's going on, you know when I lived in Korea and just so officially I can date from University so first as a freshman that's weird BG meeting boys from other University I was the captain of my department and I kind of organized meeting kind of blind date So we just talked to the other you know the boys school and then we just meet first You know captain by captain. Okay, so let's get together. How many people are you are going to bring? Okay, 10 people I'll bring 10 people so we never know Who my I'm going to meet on that day But just so we okay everybody bring lunchbox and then my grandmother mom side of grandmother was there My mom was there and those guys a big deal So wow my daughter is going to the you know some picnic and then she may meet a nice boy We gotta make it very impressive So my grandmother made all kinds of side dishes she made a pan fried the beef or all kind of stuff And then eventually I put it in my backpack. That's my backpack is almost a fool my grandmother made the chicken and The chicken was a soy kind of soy sauce marinate chicken and then she used the margarine but later You know, so I just change it to butter But really tasty and everybody loved that so so did you think the boys were more are looking for the food or the girls? Actually, they are looking for girls. Yeah, of course, you know, but just check I never I never remember his face Nothing only I remember the chicken my grandmother Well, and that's why you went into cooking because you can't remember the boy you just remember the chicken. That's yeah, yeah That's telling Let's talk about Korean cooking in general. Could you give us a Commercial sales pitch. I mean if you're gonna sell Korean food to America Could you just explain to us why it's something we absolutely should know about? The reason is simple delicious. Yeah, that's a good answer Yeah, really delicious because that you know, I love all food from all around the world I know that why? all Korean tourists From Korea came to America. They still go to a Korean restaurant. Why? Because that's delicious. Some people criticize them. Hey, why don't you taste some American or some French food? but French food I went to francs and I couldn't believe that you know, just So such delicious stinky cheese was so delicious. So I love love that but Three days after I got tired of this. I couldn't swallow anymore anything I need something spicy. I need the kimchi. So you're saying french food's kind of boring, right? No, I cannot say boring. I love it. I love Italian food all japanese food all kinds of food, but I was born in Korea. So without the kimchi I cannot survive What is it about the flavor combinations? Because you said big flavors spiciness kimchi, obviously it's it's it's extremely flavorful What are the basic flavors in Korean cooking? That's another thing I like to emphasize diverse Why Korean food is so popular diverse? So flavor and taste are all texture all different So like people know that all Korean bulgogi is sweet, you know, sweet marinated beef Only they know that but We don't eat only sweet bulgogi. We always mix together with some spicy pungent one or some salty pickles And also we are eating sometimes like a kind of a soft, you know egg plant So actually spicy food and non spicy food, you know all different Let's go back to the octopus I'm sorry. I I I just couldn't stop watching you massage an octopus Thank you So could you just just take us through how you do it and you started by saying all the guts are in the head So so how do you start cleaning an octopus? Okay, I will tell you a funny story My friends a Canadian friends they watched my octopus video and they they said oh my god I'm so afraid of manchi if I make her angry. She may put my head inside out Just like It doesn't occurred to me too I think you were scared. That's why you can mention it Well, I mean you got your hands right in there and just pulled it out. So so how do you do it? Oh, you just you know first Octopus and there's you know the head head inside all intestine inside the guts But you know Koreans are usually just blanching in hot water. That's it But my own way is that I want to make it a little smooth to give them massage Well with what sometimes salt but sometimes flour, you know the wheat flour is very good to clean Not only octopus, but also some intestine, you know pork intestine things You just mix this old massage and then smells all gone. So that's a very good tip So let's talk about two other ingredients Dried sea cucumbers. So what are they and how do you use them? Oh the dried sea cucumber you need to Soak this very well when it gets soft And just slice this and they used to fry with all kinds of you know some other seafood together in really delicious The texture is very kind of a jelly and a little bit chewy and really tasty Well, it goes to show just like sea urchins that something tastes different than it looks because sea cucumbers are pretty ugly I'm sorry. They're just really ugly I know I know I I totally understand that you also did you see the sea squirt? Yes, that that was my next question is what's a sea squirt? I never heard of that I was raised in you know the city of yosu which is a harbor city And this is a full of seafood and the sea squirt is very famous there So around in a springtime in may the sea squirt time coming. Oh my so tasty and sea squirt is look like a green aid You know And also Sometimes people call this sea pineapple, isn't it like a kind of a good name it look like a pineapple That's a good name. Yeah, you just cut it and actually that when I explained this about this creature to for my this cookbook And my editor and Mia all my we exchanged the email so many emails because she wants to make sure what it is Well, you also said to your editor. I love this They wanted to take out some of the the things that they wouldn't think would appeal to american audience And you and what was your answer to that? I always say that you know I'm making 150 recipes. This is only one recipe even though you don't like it What's a big deal? But without this there is no party in korean cuisine, you know, so please put a void this Good for you. Yeah, you're not backing down. That's good. Yeah. Yeah. So because definitely that's my favorite food also Well, that that's exactly what julia child. I'm sure said to her editor at khan off was this is staying in the book. Please Uh, you mentioned I think going to your father's grave in one point And tell us about the tradition of going to an ancestor's grave and talking to them. Yeah um, usually in korea like, you know, the My father's in the death anniversary all get together, you know people visiting the you know his tomb And then we bring always food his favorite food And I visited my father's graveyard a couple of years ago I made the dosirak dosirak is a korean lunch box And I made that all his favorite food like including his injeolmi Sweet chewy rice cake coated soy powder And I just talked to him but just by myself, you know, just naturally father What are you doing? I just came here or I wish I met you Probably you'll be proud of me if you know that I'm a manchi right now, you know You know, even my father was when he was alive He was so proud of me when I spoke english even wow my daughter speak english very well, you know So now just if he knew that I'm a manchi teaching korean cooking many people follow me Probably he'll be, you know, more proud of me Manchi, thank you so much for being on mill street. It's been a real pleasure. Thank you for inviting me That was youtube star manchi her new book is manchi's big book of korean cooking from everyday meals to celebration cuisine I recently watched a youtube video of manchi making bean paste cookies In it she reminisced about looking at korean sweets through a store window as a young child But now she makes them at home and she says what a wonderful life I am living You know, she demonstrates the same exuberance while cleaning a four pound octopus Ripping the guts out of the head and then massaging the tentacles I grew up in an age of physical work hang milking chopping repairing gardening and cooking Today we live in an age of ideas not labor and so I agree with manchi cooking is indeed a wonderful life After all you can't eat an idea It's time to chat with lynn clark about this week's recipe savory bread pudding with mushrooms gruyere and terra ghan Lynn harrio, i'm great chris bread pudding is one of my all-time favorite recipes. There's sort of custody versions, there's rustic chewy ones I like them all And then someone suggested why don't we do a savory bread pudding? This is something that might be served almost as a side at a holiday table And I don't usually like mixing sweet and savory, but here at milk street we do that a lot So we decided to go ahead and actually I now think it's a fabulous recipe So how do we start with a concept of bread pudding and end up with savory bread pudding? We took our inspiration from Carteen, which is a bakery in san francisco They just put out a new cookbook and in it is something that they serve at the bakery a lot which is a savory bread pudding and What she does is takes this base bread pudding and kind of Changes it every day with what she's adding to it. It could be radicchio. It could be spinach It could be any different type of cheese or herb and so we're doing essentially the same thing here We're creating a base and then you can mix in whatever you desire ours has mushrooms terra ghan and gruyere In it we have another variation on the website and you can use basically anything you want Show how smart I am. We're starting with bread. So so we toasting the bread on our brilliant Or we're just throwing the bread into a bowl. So the base of this is is similar to a sweet bread pudding So we're taking our bread cutting it into cubes. This is a white crusty loaf of bread We keep our crusts on we like the chewy crust in here We toss it with this oil and put it in the oven and really toast the bread You want it to be almost like a crouton not just dry it out. We want to get that really golden brown color on the bread So is the rest of it pretty much business as usual just substituting in savory ingredients or is there some other trick to this? It's pretty simple. We're going to cook the mushrooms and the terra ghan And then mix that in with the bread one thing that we're doing here is adding a little bit of oil to the pan It's three tablespoons of oil that goes in the baking pan It seems like a lot but what that does is really get a nice crispy crust on the bottom and sides Of that so you've got that contrast between the crispy with this kind of tender interior of the custardy bread pudding We mix those mushrooms in with the bread put it in there top it with some cheese And then we need our custard obviously so so digging into it a little crispy on the outside A little custardy on the inside and has a lot of bread to it has the texture of the bread Yes, exactly. So we've got the custard which is 10 eggs We're using a cup of heavy cream and three cups of broth. You can use chicken or vegetable broth That makes it creamy but not too rich Sometimes they can be a little cloying this kind of cuts that a little bit but still savory And then that gets poured over the top you cover it and put it in the refrigerator for about an hour Or you can leave it in for 24 hours Which I think is great because then you can bake it ahead and then just pull it out and bake it when you need it Savory bread pudding with mushrooms gruyere and tarragon you successfully took sweet and made it savory not an idea I usually love that this one is absolutely terrific. Thank you, Lynn. You're welcome chris You can get this recipe for savory bread pudding with mushrooms gruyere and tarragon at milk street radio dot com You're listening to milk street radio coming up alex. I news explains why he thinks your next favorite kitchen gadget Might be a 3d printer. We'll be right back This is most your radio. I'm christopher kimball next up sarah multon and I will be taking a few more of your culinary questions Are you ready? I am so ready. Welcome to milk street. Who's calling? This is Gina. Hi Gina. Where are you calling from? I'm here to ask you a question. I'm here to ask you a question. I'm here to ask you a question What is your first question? Welcome to Milk Street. Who's calling? This is Gina. Hi Gina, where are you calling from? I'm calling from Central Georgia. Okay, how can we help you today? Well, recently I made some steamed clams. Mmm, yum. Or a stuffed clam recipe from Martha Stewart. And I had all of this delicious broth left afterwards. And I hated it throw it away. I didn't know what else I could do with it. I hope you didn't throw it away. I didn't. Yay! That is liquid gold. That is the most flavorful broth. What else could I do? Well, you can use it in a pasta dish as your liquid. It's clam juice. And it's much better than the bottled stuff. So you could use an impasta, you could add it to risotto. Or when cooking fish. Or cooking fish, you can make a terrific sauce out of it. You know, like saute up some onions and garlic and then some tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, and then add that broth and then, you know, serve that on, and then some butter to finish it off. Or some olive oil one way or the other. And it would freeze nicely. So, you know, when you just have it on hand. Oh, I didn't even think about freezing it. Oh, yes, absolutely. I mean, when I make steamed clams, I make them as much for the broth as I do for the clams. You know, because I just love that broth. So I make grilled garlic bread. That's the point. It's, you know, we just stick our bread in the broth and get happy. In the classic Italian recipe, you steam the clams and then the juice is the sauce. Yes. Right? Yes. I mean, that's all it is. They don't really add anything else. Maybe a little bit of white wine and some garlic. Yeah. Yeah. I had put some garlic and some white wine in there and it was a delicious recipe and the broth was delicious. I ended up just using it with, I kept some of the clams and just made a small batch of clam chowder for us. Oh, nice. That's all great ideas. Bloody Mary. Yes. Oh, that's even a better idea. Seafood Gospacho. That's the easy one. Seafood Gospacho, but that's more of a summer thing. Yeah. How much do you have left over usually when you do this? I probably had about maybe 12 ounces or so. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Well, that's pretty good. It seems like you're way ahead of us. Yeah, you're making me hungry, Gina. Boy, that sounds good. I love clams. The tomatoes. Oh, yummy. That sounds good. I'm actually trying a Milk Street recipe tonight. Which one? The Southeast Asian Mushroom Omelet. Oh, yeah. It's so interesting around the world. They do open-faced omelets, too, like in the Middle East. And, you know, of course, the French are fussy. Fussy. So fussy. But there's no, you don't have to fold an omelet over. You just have an open-faced omelet. You can, it's the all-purpose, put anything in the egg's dish. Nice. Yeah. Huh. I was trying to get your goat. I didn't. No, you didn't. I'm sorry. Sorry. You didn't rise to the bait when I said the French are fussy. Hey, listen, I never met an egg I didn't like. So I'm happy any which way. Jeannie says like you're a great cook. Yes. Thanks for calling. I tried. Okay. Okay. Don't throw out that clam juice. Oh, I certainly will not. Okay, bye-bye. Thank you for taking my call. Yeah, pleasure. Welcome to Milk Street. Who's calling? Doug Keck. Doug Keck from where? Lakeland, Florida. Okay. How can we help you today? Well, I was looking for a recipe for falafels. I've seen so many different recipes. And some of them call for baking soda. Some call for baking powder. Some call for flour. Some don't call for flour. Some call for chickpea flour. I'm just trying to find a good recipe, but I don't want to use canned chickpea. No, no, you don't. It's really best to start with the dried. And you need to soak them overnight, however. Right. And then you grind them up with the other ingredients. Right. I have a meat grinder. Oh. I tried a couple of different recipes, but I just wasn't satisfied with them. What did you not like about them? They seemed a little bit too dense. You might have ground them too fine. Yeah, I used my medium blade. I have three blades, a large one, but like chili grind. Right. And then I had the medium one and I had the very, very fine one. I used the medium size. Hmm. I'm going to offer a different point of view for a moment. Michael Salamanov, who's written a lot of books about Israeli cooking, like Israeli soul, et cetera, Zahav, I've made his quick falafel recipe. He does use canned chickpeas and it was incredibly simple, like five minutes to throw together the fry them. My feeling is hummus is all about the chickpeas. And so canned chickpeas and hummus is not great, but you're going to fry this and you're going to put a bunch of stuff in it on top of it. And tahini and this and the other thing. So at the end of the day, whether you're using real chickpeas that is, you know, raw or canned, I don't think makes a huge difference because you're frying it and you're adding the other ingredients. So I would strongly suggest you get hold of Salamanov's one of his books. And those recipes are really simple to do. What I was saying is maybe I was adding a little bit too much flour. Probably. How much were you adding? Only a couple tablespoons. The recipe that I was using called for two cups of dried chickpeas. And that recipe didn't call for any flour at all. And was there an onion in there too? Yeah, green onions, parsley and cilantro. So the mixture came out fairly green. And garlic? Yeah, garlic, cumin, coriander, kereway, baking soda, cardamom, ginger, turmeric. Wow. I wonder if you even taste the chickpeas after you're done with that. Yeah, I bet you in a blind tasting you couldn't tell the difference by the time you're done between canned and fresh. I think the texture is different. I really do. Doug, I'm interested why you're adamant about using the dried chickpeas, which is the authentic way to do it, but I'm interested in why you care. Why do you care? Well, for one thing, I have a ton of dried chickpeas at my house. That's an excellent reason. Okay, now we get to the bottom of it. He's got eight bucks of dried chickpeas in his house. He wants to use them up. Okay, that's fine. I went to Amazon. I ordered a pound, but it came in a five pound bag. Okay, well that was a critical piece of data. There we go. Yeah, I just make a ton of hummus. You do soak them overnight, is that correct? Yes, I do, yes. I mix all the ingredients together in a big mixing bowl, and then I put it through the meat grinder after everything's all mixed. Right, and you say it's too dense. It seems to be too dense, yeah. I think a food processor would more finely grind. You add a little water to it, as I remember food processors, which won't use. That'll solve the texture problem. I'm also wondering, I mean, chickpea flour doesn't have gluten and would probably up the chickpea taste and still be a binder. Some recipes don't use any flour at all. I would try that and use a food processor and see what they get to. Okay, yeah. All right, Doug, we're rooting for you. Okay, it's a pleasure talking to you. Okay, bye-bye. Okay, thank you. This is Milk Street Radio. If you have a question, give us a ring 855-426-9843. That's 855-426-9843, or email us at questions at Milk Street Radio dot com. Welcome to Milk Street. Who's calling? Hi, this is Catherine. Hi, Catherine. Where are you calling from? I'm calling from Savannah, Georgia. Oh, beautiful town. Yes. How can we help you today? Well, my favorite Mexican taqueria has a hot sauce that I'm trying to get some assistance in recreating. It's jalapeno-based and it's very creamy, but according to the restaurant, they don't use dairy or avocado. Instead, the jalapenos are cooked in oil and then the whole sauce is pureed. So I'd like some guidance from you all on how to accomplish that myself. It's so creamy, but no dairy whatsoever. Well, that could happen when you puree the chilies with oil if you've cooked them slow. Is there other flavors in there like garlic? There has to be some aromatics. I mean, it's very spicy, it's very pecan, but it's well-balanced. So there has to be some sort of aromatics, maybe even a little acid. For starts with the chilies, I would just put some garlic in there too, maybe whole garlic, whole chilies, cover them with oil, add some salt, and simmer it very slowly until they're very, very soft, about an hour to an hour and a half. And then puree them. It's pretty spicy, you said? It is. So they must leave the seeds and the ribs in. So then puree it with some acid and I don't know what else. You can do this, coffee, garlic in 15 or 20 minutes. I don't think it's an hour and a half. No, but I think you would get it much more tender. Well, I'd check it after half an hour. I might be ready to go. A half an hour? I mean, just see. Because the sauce is green, I'm pretty sure it's jalapenos and there's, could I throw some onion in there or just jalapeno and garlic? And what type of oil would I use? Oh, I'd use a neutral oil, not olive oil. I'd use like great seed oil. A little salt too. And salt, yeah. Definitely. Yeah, and just cook it as long as you need. And keep it in a sort of slow simmer for as long as you need to to really soften the chilies. And the garlic, if you're going to add the garlic, yeah. Yeah, so just oil to cover and then simmer it slowly until they're nice and soft and then stick it in the blender. Yeah, and I would use a blender, not a food processor because blenders get things much smoother. Great. How long will it keep if it's confit like that? Won't it last a little bit longer? No, because unless you put a fair amount of acid in there or some, you know, it needs a certain amount of acid because other than that, you've got a basic vegetable, which is sort of a recipe for disaster without a lot of salt or acid or a significant amount of salt or acid. Yeah. Make sure it's refrigerated and just use it. Yeah. Sarah has this thing about not killing off our listeners. Well, no, this is true. You have to be careful. A woman of great principle. Yes. Because it's delicious. Yeah. That's a good idea though. What? A chili sort of confit chilies. Yeah. It's a great idea. Yeah. Anyway, Katherine, let us know how it goes. Yeah. How it comes out. I do. Thanks a lot. Okay. Thanks for calling. All right. That's right. Take care. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. This is mostate radio. Now it's time for some culinary wisdom from one of our listeners. Hello, this is Jonathan from Vicellia, California. And I have a quick tip on making chocolate chip cookies. Next time you're making your cookies, try browning your butter in a medium saucepan until it starts to turn well brown and add it to your batter. The brown butter will add some nuttiness and some richness. It'll be something new if you're burnt out of making regular chocolate chip cookies. If it's too hot, you can always add a little extra butter, maybe a few tablespoons to cool it back down if you're in a hurry. Otherwise, completely let it cool and add it to your batter and it makes a great difference. Happy baking. If you'd like to share your own cooking tip on Milk Street Radio, please go to 1-77-milkstreet.com slash radio tips. Next up, it's mad French food scientist, Alex Inus. Alex, how are you? I'm good. I'm superb. And the question I have in mind this week is about 3D printers. So it might sound a bit surprising to talk about 3D printers in a kitchen situation, in a cooking situation, but I wanted to ask myself, like legitimately, would a 3D printer have a dedicated spot in our kitchen right now or in the future? So just to give you some context, I have a studio here in Paris. It's mostly a professional kitchen, but it's also a maker space. I've got blenders and power drills, but I've also got jigsaws and 3D printers and ovens and pans, so everything is a bit mixed up. And that 3D printer is standing in the center of all this. And I thought, well, I could use that for cooking purposes. So give me an example of how you use a 3D printer in gastronomy. Yes. A 3D printer, if people are not familiar with it, it's made to print things with volume. So having a printer like this is like having replacement parts available 24-7. So for example, I broke the knob of my oven. That's easy to fix with a 3D printer. I just went online, click, click, click. I found a 3D objects bank and there was an oven knob, downloaded the thing, printed it, and then I installed it back in my oven. I think that's brilliant. What do you think? It's just...no? Well, I... I'm very excited. You don't seem to be as excited as I am. No, I'm waiting to get to the point of the edible of a knob. But yes, I think that is brilliant. I think that's great. I use it mainly as a tool. So for example, I created a stand support for my temperature probe and now it's sitting right above the stove. I made a different shape for my frying pan handle because I thought this wasn't very practical to do stir fry. So I thought of another shape. I 3D printed it and it's working not that bad. I wouldn't call this a success, but it's not that bad. My point is I think it's useful. Like let's say you're working in a bakery. A piece on the oven had just broke. The whole production stops basically, but now you can fix that using that 3D printer in the bakery. Just online, click, click, click, get the new part done. The oven is back in action. In a professional environment, that's priceless. Okay, your 3D printer is going to produce parts that need to be used to fix an appliance. My 3D printer, I'm going to have a button that says Dakwas and I'm going to have a button that says Genoise. And I'll have a button that says cheeseburger and I'm just going to press. No, you will never do that. That's the old sci-fi stuff from the 50s, right? You go to the kitchen, press a button and it just, it prints out your dinner, right? No, you will never do that. I do not believe you a single moment. The first reason, I know your opinion about sous vide cooking, Yeah, that's true. Who are way less geeky than a 3D printer. So you would never, you enjoy cooking way too much, Chris, I think. You see? I know you now. That's not true. You can't use my own words against me. I think I just did. I think you just did. Alex, I know, looking forward to the 3D printer in the kitchen. And again, I want the button for Dakwas. I think it would be fun. Alex, thank you. Thank you so much. That was YouTube host Alex I-News. He's also author of Just a French Guy Cooking. You know, 3D printers have come a long way from just making spare parts. You can make a 3D model of your unborn child. You can make a suit of plate mail to sort worn in medieval Europe to fit Barbie dolls. You can print your own bikini and scientists are working on a project to print meat. Just like my iPhone, I hope the 3D printer goes beyond its original mission. Someday, I hope it will be able to print those lost car keys. That's it for today. If you tune in too late or just want to listen again, you can download and subscribe to Milk Street Radio wherever you find podcasts. To learn more about Milk Street, please go to 1-77-MilkStreet.com. There you can download each week's recipe, watch the new season of our television show, browse our online store, or order our latest cookbook. The new rules, recipes that will change the way you cook. You can also find us on Facebook at Christopher Kimball's Milk Street on Instagram and Twitter at 1-77-Milk Street. We'll be back next week and thanks as always for listening. Music Christopher Kimball's Milk Street Radio is produced by Milk Street, an association with WGBH, executive producer Melissa Baldino, senior audio editor Melissa Allison, producer Annie Sinsabaugh, associate producer Jackie Noack, production assistant Stephanie Cohn, and production help from W. 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