Episode 17: Mulberry Me Alive (with Dr. Sumesh Uncle Hirway)
It’s Thanksgiving, and so, like giblets and your racist aunt, this is the only time this year that you’ll have to deal with us. Welcome to the first (and possibly only) installment of our chill era, featuring our favorite retired food scientist, Dr. Sumesh Uncle Hirway.
For a transcript of this episode, click here.
Food ideas discussed in this episode:
Mango Pie Ice Cream
Mom’s Mango Pie ice cream is here just in time for Thanksgiving! Samin wrote about the pie that inspired it in 2019. You can get scoops or pints from Salt & Straw as part of their limited edition Thanksgiving series…or, just mess up your mango pie like Hrishi did and serve it in bowls. If you want to make Kanta Auntie’s original version (with a Keebler crust and Cool Whip) instead of the one Hrishi insists Samin ruined by making it bourg, you can find the recipe here!
Barbara’s Cheese Puffs
Samin has been subsisting almost entirely on Barbara’s Cheese Puffs (baked, Original Flavor, OBVIOUSLY) for the last six months. (Barbara, please call us if you want to give Samin a free lifetime supply!)
If you’re into a particular community’s grocery store:
Go to HMart and find your own Emotional Support Watermelon
Get your sangak fix at Wholesome Choice or House of Bread (Samin’s cousins’ bakery in LA, woot!)
Bourg Ice Cream
When you are done rolling your eyes at Samin’s favorite ice cream flavor, you can read more about noyaux in Samin’s 2018 NYT column, and make your own Apricot-Noyaux jam next summer when apricots are back in season!
There isn’t much on the internet about Chez Panisse’s mulberry ice cream (feel free to continue rolling your eyes at Samin), but this is a pretty sweet article about 10 career-defining dishes of Alice Waters’s life, including the ice cream. If you ever have a chance to taste Persian mulberries (the ONLY mulberries worth tasting, if you ask Samin, go out of your way to do it!!).
Schmaltz
What to do with all the delicious drippings (aka schmaltz) left over in the pan after you roast a chicken?
Here are Samin’s favorite uses:
Replace the oil in your family’s matzo ball recipe
Toss vegetables in it before roasting (potatoes, especially)
Add some to the pot before making rice
Use it as the fat in chicken fried rice for extra chicken-y flavor
Storing Herbs
Store your soft herbs (parsley, cilantro, mint) like a restaurant chef:
Wash the bunch of herbs,
Let it drip dry or spin it in a salad spinner,
Wrap it in a dish towel (these are Samin’s favorites!) and put in a plastic bag,
And store it in the fridge!
Cinnamon Toast Club
Hrishi’s nephew...and Hrishi…and Samin…have really been enjoying Trader Joe’s cinnamon raisin bread lately, toasted with lots of peanut butter (or just regular butter).
Shrimp Undies
Keep an eye on the Home Cooking merch site for a new line of Home Cooking underwear! (Just kidding.)
Illustration by Mamie Rheingold