Episode 9: Old Bay Leaves, New Bae Arrives

We’re back for a third batch of episodes! Samin and Hrishi help a listener who is over-encumbered by a number of cucumbers, and Chef Detective fills in the missing pieces from a family recipe for pull-apart bread.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Food ideas discussed in this episode:

Feeding America
Learn more about Feeding America’s mission to feed the hungry and find your local food bank here.

Broccoli chickpea salad
Roast broccoli until caramelized. Heat olive oil in a pan and add tomatoes; cook until saucy. Add cooked chickpeas, garlic, and Calabrian chili paste. Add the roasted broccoli and more oil to taste. Finish with chopped parsley and a squeeze of lemon. Eat over toasted bread.

Seafood boil
Boil a large pot of water with a generous amount of Old Bay seasoning. Boil blue crab, sausage, corn, potatoes until cooked. Eat with cornbread.  Here’s a (Cajun, not Maryland!!) recipe Samin wrote for a column a couple years ago--you can switch out the spices for Old Bay if you like!

Make your own soup lunch
Prepare a variety of ingredients ahead of time: small cut-up veggies, frozen peas, pasta. Heat broth or bouillon. Add whatever ingredients you like. You can also add an egg: poached in the broth, egg-drop style, or stracciatella style where you whisk the egg with Parmesan cheese before adding it to the soup. 

Improve your ramen
Add an egg to the ramen. Melt American cheese on top. Add cooked rice.

Freezer pizza
Make a large sheet pan pizza. Parbake it, then cut it up into pieces and freeze it. Reheat in the toaster oven or microwave for. Or try the amazing King Arthur Crispy Cheesy Pan Pizza. 

Quick lunch pizza
Spread tomato sauce on French bread, English muffin, pita or tortilla. Put cheese on top and heat in the toaster oven. 

Quick lunch rice
In the morning, prepare brown rice in the rice cooker and set to keep warm until lunch time. At lunchtime, add whatever leftovers like: shredded meats, cheeses, beans, or cooked veggies. Flavor with any spices or condiments you think compliment your choices.

Michelle Polzine’s Russian honey cake
If you’re feeling like a masochist and are up for a wonderful weekend project, try making it! 

Michelle Polzine’s cheesecake
Featured in her book, Baking at the 20th Century Cafe

Lori and Nancy’s Sour Cream Glaze
Make your favorite cheesecake, then stir together 2 cups sour cream and ¼ cup sugar.  Let the cake cool for 10 minutes, then evenly spread the topping over the surface.  Return the cake to the oven for 10 to 15 minutes at 425°F to set the glaze.  It will be shiny and perfect and add a delightful tang!

Flo Braker’s buttermilk cake, but make it funfetti
Here’s the best yellow cake ever, according to Samin.  And here are some great tips on making your own funfetti. 

Cucumber sandwiches
Cucumber, cream cheese and dill on buttered white bread (preferably thinly sliced) with the crust cut off.

Hrishi’s Raita
Yogurt, cucumber, tomatoes, red onion, a pinch of ground cumin, and a pinch of salt. 

Mast-o khiar
Yogurt, cucumbers with the seeds removed and water squeezed out, herbs, and extra add-ins like garlic, raisins, toasted walnuts or rose petals. Here’s Samin’s recipe. 

Cucumber lemonade
Save the cucumber water from making mast-o-khiar. Mix with lemon juice and fizzy water; sweeten to taste. Or, try this recipe.

Chilled cucumber yogurt soup
Here’s one version that looks good! And here’s another! 

Cucumber gazpacho
Make gazpacho with cucumbers, then choose a flavor direction. Vietnamese could include rice vinegar and cilantro and chilies. Mexican could have lime, poblano chili and sour cream or queso. Middle Eastern could include tahini. You could also make a traditional gazpacho but increase the ratio of cucumbers to tomatoes. 

Sekanjabin with cucumber
Make sekanjabin, a vinegar sugar syrup. Put a whole bunch of cold grated cucumber in your glass and add sekanjabin, ice, and cold water.

Caramelized onions
Thinly slice at least four onions. Warm a pan and heat a mixture of butter and olive oil in a pan. It should be just hot enough that the butter starts to sizzle and the onions sizzle once they go in the pan. Brown gently for a minimum of 25 minutes, ideally longer, stirring frequently. Add salt early in the process. Once the onions have finished caramelizing, add a very small amount of red wine vinegar and adjust seasoning with salt. Here’s more from Samin on caramelizing onions and making an onion tart. 

Pissaladiere
You can use your caramelized onions to make this Provençal caramelized onion pizza (or tart).  Or, try it with Samin’s focaccia recipe. Or on Samin’s no-fail tart dough (it’s actually her best friend Aaron’s recipe).  

Peanut butter miso cookies
Try Krysten’s cookies! 

Morgan’s grandmother’s pull-apart bread
Here’s the recipe Laurie Ellen reverse engineered from Morgan’s grandma’s recipe card! 

Crushed tortilla topping
Those crumbly bits of chips in the bottom of the bag are good on eggs, and beans, and other things!  Or, try this: Cool Ranch Dorito Baked Tilapia!!! 

Illustration by Mamie Rheingold