Local Mouthful

Episode 211: Winter Greens, Homemade Hummus, Reverse Engineering Restaurant Dishes

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The latest version of Joy’s homemade hummus

If you are a regular listener, you know we love Melissa Clark’s recipes, both in the NY Times and in her many, many cookbooks. The Cut gave readers the inside scoop on how she makes it happen. (Spoiler alert: she has a dedicated recipe tester.)

Joy has been experimenting with different (read: easier) ways to make the incredible, smooth, creamy, dreamy hummus from the Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking cookbook. Her latest tweak involves the Instant Pot.

As the cold weather descends (which it did very suddenly in Philadelphia), local salad greens typically become a memory. But some local farms are usual greenhouses to produce wonderful, salad friendly produce well into the off season. Joy and Marisa tell you where you can find it at our local markets.

How do you reverse engineer a restaurant dish? Joy and Marisa share their typical process.

In the What We’re Loving segment: Mini whisks.

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Episode 210: The Field Roast Cookbook, A Health Happy Medium, Preground Coffee

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The best cup of coffee? The convenient kind.

In food news this week, more issues in the seafood section. A troubling AP investigation reveals that salmon from China is being processed by North Korean slave laborers.

At her sister’s urging, Joy found herself cooking from the pages of O Magazine … and everyone really liked the mushroom po’ boy sandwiches that resulted.

Field Roast, the grain meat purveyor known for its delicious faux sausages, has a new cookbook. We read it, but we haven’t cooked from it — yet.

It has now been six month since Joy was diagnosed with high cholesterol. And sometimes she gets so angry at healthy food she wants to throw it against the wall. Is there a happy medium that can be heart-healthy?

What are we loving this week? Marisa is all about pre-ground coffee–for some very persuasive reasons.

If you like what you hear, make sure to subscribe! Bonus points if you rate us or leave a review. Follow us on twitter @localmouthful and help us spread the word about the show.

Episode 209: Instant Pot Chicken, What Makes a Meal, Miss Rachel’s Pantry

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What does a meal have to have to count as “dinner”?

This week in food news, we take a look Bloomberg News’ recent story and infographic about how American food preferences have changed over the decades. One interesting tidbit is that coffee consumption peaked in the 1960s and never rebounded. Check the whole thing out right here.

What’s for dinner this week? Whole chicken in the Instant Pot. We love this method that leaves you with juicy flavorful meat (perfect for soups, stews, sandwiches and salads) and, even better, the richest chicken stock we’ve ever made. (If you want more of our Instant Pot tips and tricks check out special episode 172.)

We ask ourselves a big question–what makes something dinner? Is a sandwich dinner? What about sushi? How many elements do you need for something to be dinner? Is dinner for yourself different than what you’d consider dinner to serve to a guest?

Recently Joy and Marisa took a vegan cheese making class at Miss Rachel’s Pantry. We learned how to make dairy-free chevre, mozzarella, and an astonishingly simple (but delicious) ricotta. Not only did we have the chance to learn and practice new cooking skills, we had so much fun at Miss Rachel’s charming cooking and eating space.

What are we loving this week? Tempeh. It featured prominently in the Joy of Cooking recipe Joy made for the recent potluck, and she’s been enamored of it ever since.

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Episode 208: Risotto, Smitten Kitchen Everyday, and Our JoC Potluck

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A few of the delicious treats listeners brought to the potuck

Bad news for conscientious home cooking. Hey, Whole Foods shoppers: That free range chicken may be anything but. Ugh, we have bought so much of this chicken. Perhaps it’s time to buy more of our birds from Primal Supply.

In our What’s for Dinner segment, we sing the praises of homemade risottos. This is Marisa’s favorite recipe. Joy loves Cook’s Illustrated’s butternut squash risotto recipe but it’s behind the paywall. Also recommended: The risotto method/recipe described in Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

We’re totally smitten with a new cookbook: Deb Pearlman’s Smitten Kitchen Everyday. It has us running to the kitchen. Joy has already cooked this recipe twice with plans to make it a third time this week. It’s true that there are hundreds of terrific recipes on the Smitten Kitchen blog, but we are just fools for beautiful cookbooks and this one is pleasure to read for entertainment and info as well as to just plain cook straight out of.

So, we held our second Joy of Cooking potluck and guess what? It was even more fun than our first. A group of you listeners joined us to dig into so many delicious recipes from the book we probably wouldn’t have found on our on. Dishes included chicken cacciatore, savory leek pie, lentils with sausage, roasted cauliflower with golden raisins, curried rice with fruit and nuts, hacked tempeh, and kale with roasted delicata and pomegranate seeds.

We’re doing it again in January, and if you want in, tell us in the comments below to get on the invite list.

This week, we sing a love song to the soda stream. This one tool makes a big difference when it comes to have delicious nonalcoholic drinks at your finger tips.

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Episode 207: Bean Soups, Hardena, Cooking Ahead

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Did you guys know that Oliver Garden does a crazy promotion this time of year? Joy and Marisa discuss the relative merits of the chain restaurant’s “Unlimited Pasta Pass.”

In our What’s for Dinner segment, we’re talking about simple bean soups.

Joy and Marisa have lunch together at the recently refreshed Hardena, a classic Indonesian restaurant in South Philly.

We talk strategies for that all important home cooking habit: Cooking once and eating two or three times.

What we’re loving this week? Muesli.

Bonus link: Funny song parody “My Wife’s on a Healthy Diet.”

Episode 206: One-pot Pasta, When to Splurge, Here Come the Holidays

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This week in food news, an unsettling new study. Only 10% of Americans like to cook.

In our What’s for Dinner segment–the allure of one-pot pastas. (Joy thinks this was the recipe that started the craze.)

So let’s say you are trying to beat your cholesterol into submission by passing on saturated fats. How do you decide when to splurge? This is a hard question.

Yes, it’s still hot outside. But no it is not too soon to start planning for the holiday seasons. In fact, there are things you could start making ahead … right now.

What are we loving this week? Marisa’s marvelous tomato jam.

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Episode 205: Slow Cooking Season, Eating on Repeat, Breaking Bread Breaking Barriers at RTM

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In food news this week: The Baffling Rise of Goop.

What’s for dinner this week? Anything we cook in the slow cooker.

Eating on repeat: Is variety the spice of life or can you eat the same food again and again?

Joy recently wrote about the Breaking Bread, Breaking Barriers dinner series that was held for the past year at Reading Terminal Market.

What we’re loving this week? Edamame.

If you like what you hear, make sure to subscribe! Bonus points if you rate us or leave a review. Follow us on twitter @localmouthful and help us spread the word about the show.

Episode 204: Turkey Soup, Shopping for Spices, and Recipes that Disappoint

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In food news this week, we learned that there is a brand new category of chocolate: ruby chocolate.

What’s for dinner this week? In Marisa’s kitchen, it’s turkey soup.

Joy and Marisa don’t buy all their spices at good gourmet spice purveyors. So where do they shop?

We talk at some length about the heartbreak of well-reviewed recipes that disappoint.

What are we loving this week? Golden raisins, the gateway raisin.

If you like what you hear, make sure to subscribe! Bonus points if you rate us or leave a review. Follow us on twitter @localmouthful and help us spread the word about the show.

Episode 203: Vegan Pizza, Vintage Cookbooks, Mom’s Organic Market

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In food news this week–Joy and Marisa are on WHYY now. Look for our segments between noon and 3 pm on weekdays. Or you can watch them online at whyy.org/yum.

In our what’s for dinner segment we’re talking options for vegan pizza.

We’re also taking a look at our vintage cookbooks and talking about what we learn from them.

Philadelphia has a shiny new grocery store–Mom’s Organic Market. And guess what? We love it.

Another thing we’re loving this week? Aquafaba mayonnaise.

If you like what you hear, make sure to subscribe! Bonus points if you rate us or leave a review. Follow us on twitter @localmouthful and help us spread the word about the show.

Episode 202: Polenta, Punch, and Cooking Inspiration

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We’ve covered it before and this probably won’t be the last time: More details on Amazon’s price drops at Whole Foods.

In our What’s for Dinner segment, we’re dishing on the many splendored thing that is polenta.

Joy’s latest zero-proof beverage crush is old fashioned homemade punch.

We’ve got some deep thoughts on cooking inspiration to share this week. (We’d love you to share your own in the comments here.)

What are we loving this week? The amazing chia seed.

If you like what you hear, make sure to subscribe! Bonus points if you rate us or leave a review. Follow us on twitter @localmouthful and help us spread the word about the show.