Episode 19: Cultural Anther-pology (with Sumesh Uncle)
Big News! Samin’s second cookbook, Good Things, will be published this September! You can preorder it here now!
And to celebrate the book release, Samin will be touring across North America this fall for a series of conversations with friends (and occasionally, Hrishi). Get your tickets now for these events, which promise to be full of laughter, connection, and deliciousness (unless Hrishi is moderating, in which case all we can promise is bickering and puns).
In the meantime, here’s a new episode with some questions about eggs, rice, saffron, and specialty condiments — plus a visit from our favorite food influencer, Sumesh Uncle.
For a transcript of this episode, click here.
Food Ideas Discussed in This Episode:
The Creamy Sesame-Ginger Dressing and Crunchy Cabbage Slaw recipes are in the new book and this will take you back to the pre-order page, since the publishers would kill us if we shared them before publication.
Hrishi's Brown Butter Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookie Recipe.
Vega's Auntie Harris wrote this article about her photo's unexpected appearance in Congress.
Eggless, but Protein-full Breakfasts:
Hrishi's weekend deluxe Tofu Scramble sounds a lot like this one
Plant-based Veggie Breakfast Sausages (purchased, not made)
Greek Yogurt or Labneh with a little jam or a green chutney
Samin's variations on a rice and bean bowl with a scoop of yogurt or Labneh
Superiority Burger's veggie burger recipe can be premade, frozen, and heated up in the toaster oven.
Hrishi has been making W. Kamau Bell's Banana Pancake recipe but with this egg replacment and he gussies it up with some almond or peanut butter, plus chopped up apple, blueberries, and coconut.
All of Samin's eggless/dairy-free, aquafaba-based creamy salad dressings will be in Good Things.
Rice dishes made with unwashed (and not gross!) rice:
Please use your old saffron, just add a little more of it if it's begun to oxidize! Sumesh Uncle advises you to buy Kashmiri saffron and not Persian. Samin is still processing this (shocking) information.
To use up your condiments:
Andrea Nguyen's Mapo Tofu recipe
Calabrian chili paste goes on absolutely everything.
Samin's Preserved Meyer Lemon Paste (another Good Things recipe!) makes: salty lemon soda (lemon paste + agave syrup + fizzy water), preserved lemon frozen yogurt, salad dressings, marinades for fish and chicken, or Preserved Lemon and Labne Cake.
Tamarind soda suggestion: tamarind paste + fizzy water + maybe a little mint.
Date and Tamarind Chutney from Niloufer Ichaporia King is in her book, My Bombay Kitchen.
Eric Kim's many recipes using Gochujang and much more can be found here.
And finally, Hrishi recommends Culinary Class Wars, a very entertaining and “slightly stressful” competition show. I got more than slightly stressed out just watching the trailer.