Culinary Sleuthing Part One and Two with Mike Doyle
Episode 10 and 11 Season 2: I took notes so you didn’t have to…. So grab your apron and let's get into it!
Mike has two podcasts, This Was the Scene, a podcast about the late 90’s and early 2000’s punk scene and Your Daily Bred, a super fun comic and podcast. If you want to work with him he does incredible animations for a multitude of platforms, check out his company, Drive80. So check out his amazing work!
So you may have noticed that this season we have had a handful of two parters. I realized, as a consumer of many many podcasts, I love the 30 - 45 mins kind of episodes and every once and awhile an hour episode is great. Anything more than that and I find it hard to make time to actually listen to it. So that got me thinking….I can’t be alone in this so I thought why not shorten my own. BUT THEN I ran into the big issue of…..THERE IS NOTHING I WANT TO CUT FROM THESE CONVERSATIONS!!! Eeeeeeekk!!! What’s a girl to do?! Create a handful of two parters!
In this episode Mike and I answer all of your amazing listener questions. Keep them coming my friends. I love your questions, it helps me deepen my own knowledge and honestly it’s a ton of fun to do this culinary sleuthing on your behalf! Email them, letsgoonafoodadventure@gmail.com or DM me on Instagram.
How to clean a cast iron pan
One way to clean your cast iron is to take kosher salt, this scrub brush, some elbow grease and go to town on it. Usually that will get up most of the stuck on pieces but if you have some stubborn stuff that just won’t come off then you could try some baking soda, water and boil it on the stove for a little bit. Keep an eye on it because you don’t want the water to completely boil away. Let it cool slightly and try that scrub brush again. For more tips you can try this article.
Dried Herbs and Spices vs Fresh
So my thoughts on this is to buy my herbs fresh. So that would be chives, tarragon, basil, oregano, bay leaves, mint, parsley, cilantro, rosemary, thyme…etc….and then I dry them myself. Wash them, put them on a clean tea towel lined sheet pan and leave them in a sunny place in your own for a few days. Even the top of the fridge will do. Check on them every day or two until they are completely dried and place them in an air tight container. I do this myself so I know how old my dried herbs are because the stuff you buy in the store could’ve been dried awhile ago which means it loose flavor and could end up tasting kind of stale or bland. For spices, I really recommend buying single origin, fair trade spices from wonderful companies. Do some research and support companies who treat the farmers with respect and fair pay. Curio Spice, Diaspora Co., Burlap and Barrel are great places to start for sure.
Salts…
There are a few different kinds of salts out there and each are actually a little different. Here’s the breakdown…
Table Salt - Super Fine - most likely this is what you’ll find in many salt shakers around the country. Because this salt is so fine an anti-caking agent is usually added to it as well as iodine. I don’t recommend using this salt but if it’s what you have, then that’s totally fine.
Kosher Salt - Usually fairly coarse - This salt is a mined salt and usually is fairly coarse. This is most chef’s “go to” salt in the kitchen when cooking, salting water, coating etc…some brands are more salty than others. My personal preference is Diamond Kosher Salt
Himalayan Pink Salt - Coarse to Fine - this salt is mined as well. Honestly I know people who cook with this salt but because I think it’s personally it’s a little pricey for a salt I would cook with I love to use it as a finishing salt.
Sea Salts - Coarse to Fine - Sea Salts are what they say…they come from the sea. The salt actually varies in saltiness and flavor depending on where in the world it is made from. I, again, tend to use this as a finishing salt verse cooking with it but don’t get me wrong you can use it in any way you’d like.
Lastly there are many finishing salts in the world. These are flavored salts, smoked salts, black salts and very coarse french salts, like Maldon. These salts are meant to be one of the last touches when plating a dish, on top of a dessert (think sea salt caramel brownies) or that fun crunchy element on top of a dish. Some of these salts pack a lot of flavor as well as saltiness so be careful when using them. A little can go a long way.
Cooking Chicken…..
So I am not going to go into huge detail about how to cook chicken because honestly there are so many food blogs out there who have gone into great detail on how to do it but here’s a few that I think explain it well. If you’re interested in learning how to poach chicken, sauté chicken or grill it. And of course get yourself a meat thermometer and make sure it’s 165F or about 75C.
Recipes:
Beth Fuller is a Boston based Food, Product and Lifestyle Photographer. One of the best ways to support the podcast and Beth is to write a review wherever you listen, like the podcast on your favorite platform and please keep Beth in mind for any photography projects as a gal has got to pay her bills!
If you have a question and want it to be featured on the podcast please email either the question or a voice memo to letsgoonafoodadventure@gmail.com. Are you on instagram? Tag me in your food adventures, @letsgoonafoodadventure. Do you want to work together with food and product photography, drop me a line here! xoxo
Beth
D
