Episode 3: Cod Save America (with Wesley Morris and Dr. Sumesh Hirway)
There’s so much sardine advice packed into this episode. Plus, Pulitzer Prize-winning cultural critic Wesley Morris (@wesley_morris) tells us about the crumb cake he’s already made twice during quarantine, and Hrishi’s dad, a food scientist, weighs in on food safety.
For a transcript of this episode, click here.
Food ideas discussed in this episode:(These are not recipes! The internet abounds with good recipes that can help you flesh out these tidbits.)
Dr. Hirway-approved guide to pandemic food safety from Serious Eats [ link ]
Keema with peas [ link ]
Make with ground turkey or Morning Star crumbles.
Sourdough Bread
Tartine’s Recipe [ link ]
Josey Baker’s Recipe [ link ]
A Very Useful Guide by Claire Saffitz [ link ]
5-ingredient hummus
Soak chickpeas in water with some baking soda. Blend with tahini, garlic, lemon juice, and salt. Here is the classic Ottolenghi recipe Samin uses.
Chocolate chip cookies
The normal way, but with vanilla bean paste, because you are rich.
Sardines on toast
Or a Triscuit!
Sardine and white bean salad
Crumble sardines into bite-sized pieces. Mix with white beans, lightly pickled onions, and fresh herbs like parsley. Toss with olive oil and red wine vinegar. (Or try this, but with sardines)
Sardines with pasta
Make pasta with sardines, tomato sauce, garlic and chili flakes.
Pasta con le sarde
Dice onions. Fry in olive oil, adding some saffron if you have some. Toast pine nuts, either separately or fry them along with the onions. Crumble in sardines (or mackerel). Add currants or raisins (rehydrate first if they are very dry, but squeeze out the water before you add them.) Add fennel seeds and/or chili flakes. Toss with cooked pasta. Add a squeeze of lemon or splash of white wine, plenty of parsley, and maybe even some secret parmesan. As an alternative, use roasted cauliflower instead of pasta.
Fish stew with garlic toast
Start by making broth. Saute onions and celery, with leek or fennel tops if you have them. Add fish bones, or fish bits from the bottom of a bag of frozen fish. (If you don’t have fish bones, add a small amount of gelatin). Add a little white wine, lemon juice or lemon or orange zest. Cover with water and boil for 30-40 minutes until the stock is tasty. Strain. To the stock, add vegetables: tomato, celery, fennel, onion, garlic. Cook until tender. Add frozen fish filets and continue cooking until fish is falling-apart tender. Make toast. Rub the toast with garlic and spread garlic mayonnaise on top; float toast on stew.
Paula Wolfert’s herb jam [ link ]
Eat on Triscuits, or white beans, or potatoes, or a frittata.
Kuku sabzi [ link ]
Mashed turnips
Steam or boil turnips, and mash them with butter. Or use brown butter, which you make by cooking butter until it starts to brown.
Oven roasted vegetables
Do what you don’t want to do, and dirty an extra bowl, so you can get the vegetables well-coated with salt and olive oil. Then spread them out on a baking sheet in a single layer, making sure there is room between them. Roast at 400 or 425, occasionally turning pieces.
Radish pickles
Slice radishes into matchsticks. Soak for 30-40 minutes in a mixture of rice wine vinegar, salt, and sugar. Good on its own or on a sandwich.
Roasted beets
Wash beets, then wrap them in parchment paper and an outside layer of foil, sealing foil as tightly as possible. Place beets in a roasting pan or baking dish and add a quarter inch or centimeter of water. Cook in a hot oven (400-500 degrees) until they can be pierced easily with a knife. Remove foil and paper, and use a paper towel to rub off the peel. Chop. Drizzle with vinegar, salt, and olive oil. Keep in the fridge. Maybe eat them alongside a tuna fish sandwich, with Magic Unicorn Sea Salt.
Make your own mayonnaise [ link ]
The best vinaigrette in the world [ link ]
Melissa Clark’s pantry crumb cake [ link ]
Illustration by Mamie Rheingold