January 24th - January 30th
Podcasts have been my preferred form of media for many years now. They have allowed me to take in copious amounts of random information while doing all of the things I need to do. They got me through hours of transporting children during after school Los Angeles traffic, kept me sane while doing tedious errands, organizing, and paperwork, and have kept me company through almost every meal I have made in the last 5 years. I thought about sharing some of the podcasts I listen to on a regular basis but had instant anxiety. You form an intimate relationship with the people you choose to listen to every week. Finding out details of their lives and having them in your ear through day-to-day tasks. The collection of people I spend my days with is just downright weird. I would be embarrassed if people knew who I followed but I can't stop tuning in for more. That's what the whole internet feels like these days.
One covid podcast I listen to three times a week, yes they post three podcasts a week, is How Long Gone. A "bi-coastal elite" podcast filled with sarcastic bro banter and surprisingly good guests. It touches all corners of the map from Lesly Arifn, Alison Roman, the dude from Dashboard Confessional, to writers and editors of major news publications like The New Yorker. It's not for everyone but I get value from it. This week's guest, Emily Segal, said something that stuck with me while discussing her writing process and her book: "We have a really dark relationship with reading and writing in this society because it's so connected to how kids are trained to understand their own worth in school."
I rejected all forms of reading and writing until I was well out of school. In elementary school, we learned that I process words differently making spelling and pronouncing things challenging. I had a tutor who once said "spelling will never be easy for her but she will be fine with spellcheck." She was correct. This also makes it difficult for me to retain information. I would have to reread sentences to fully understand causing me to be a "slow" reader. In a school system based on reading, retaining, and testing I always struggled. I remember the fear I felt all the way through senior year of high school when we would have to read out loud. I would count the people in front of me to know which paragraph was mine, read it in my head as many times as I could before it was my turn, take a deep breath in and pray that I didn't mess up. It's hard to pay attention when you are stressing about a single paragraph. Remember popcorn reading? When you randomly get selected to read next. That was a silent panic attack every time. I got over that fear after working with children for many years. I honed my skills and have been known to turn bedtime stories into musical theater. And now on camping trips, I read stories out loud to Marco to keep practicing. Subconsciously preparing for the next time I am called on to read to the class.
The writing rejection was even worse. Pre-computers, when we did everything with paper and pen, the spelling and grammar mistakes were everywhere. It was defeating to receive something you wrote with red pen corrections top to bottom. Dare I ever try and be creative on a writing assignment?! I did and I remember the exact classroom and teacher who told me it wasn't good enough. Three times. So yes, like many, I have a dark relationship with reading and writing because I was never good enough to write anything or fast enough to enjoy reading. It just "wasn't for me." When I went to culinary school, I finally succeeded in my classes. I received an Associate of Science which required general education classes. For the first time in my life, I got As and was even on the honor roll. Being an art school they approached everything differently. It was more hands-on and deviated from the traditional read, retain, and test. I look back and think I could have learned more and been more comfortable in a different schooling system but there are no changing things now. I have had to teach myself many things and work at writing in my adult years because I genuinely wanted to understand them. Plus I was a little embarrassed.
Spelling and grammar I still struggle with. I miss little things easily and rely on Grammarly for help. Zero shame in that game. I am happy to say I read books! Not as many as I would like but I get through them. I chose an interesting time to become a writer. The things I write privately, poems and short stories, are easy but writing a newsletter weekly through a global pandemic and isolation has proven to be difficult most weeks. It’s hard to pull inspiration from the things around you when the things around you never change. Some days I look at deer and feel inspired but most weeks all I have to say is "I'm still cooking and I miss my family." I'm tired of talking about being sad and lonely because we are all sad and lonely! Even in an isolating pandemic, we have podcasts. We have people talking about things that might even inspire us. Before this week I had no clue who Emily Segal was and now I can thank her for helping me write this week.
I have made a lot of progress on the Raspberry Lemon Loaf since the first oily burnt failed loaf. This cake is a pound cake and is made in the traditional pound cake way. Learn from my mistakes and cream your butter on medium speed, scrape the bowl every 2 minutes, and don't over cream it. Once everything is added, transfer half of the dough to a clean bowl. Flavor half with lemon zest, juice, and poppy seeds if you want. The other half is going to have dehydrated raspberry powder added to it. You can find dehydrated raspberry at the grocery store. I mash mine in a mortar and pestle until it's a fine powder and then sift it through a fine-mesh strainer. Raspberries have little seeds that can be hard and crunchy, I don't like these in my desserts. I tested adding some red food coloring to see if the pink would pop and it was so-so. Throw a few drops in if you want to. If you don't have a mortar and pestle, you can place the dehydrated raspberries in a plastic bag and smash them with the back of your hand.
To create the marble inside, I took a tablespoon of each batter and staggered dollops in the pan. I used a pairing knife to lightly swirl them together. Then I did a second layer making sure to smooth out the top before baking. Too much swirling and they will blend together. Not enough and you may end up with a checkerboard pattern. Play around with it and see what you create.
I iced mine with a simple icing of powdered sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla extract. You can skip the icing but who doesn't love icing? Get creative with how you decorate the top. Use some extra dehydrated raspberries, lemon zest, or raspberry powder. You could even add the powder to the icing and have beautiful pink icing!
This week I popped into Whole Foods to grab cheese for a Cheese + Cured Meat Board Class. The second I spotted littleneck clams at the seafood counter I knew we were having clam pasta for dinner! I threw this together in about 20 minutes total. Anyone can successfully make this dish. Make sure to have all your ingredients prepared and ready to go as it comes together fast. If you don't have Calabrian chilis, use some dried chili flakes instead. But get a jar of Calabrian chilies to have on hand. They are yummy.
Spaghetti with Clams + Chilis.
• 20-30 Littleneck Clams
• 2 Shallots, sliced
• 6 Garlic cloves, smashed
• 3 Calabrian chilis, roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup White wine
• 12 oz Spaghetti
• 2T Butter
• 1 Lemon, zested
• Lemon juice
• Parsley
• Olive oil
1. In a large sauté pan or cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat, add 2T olive oil. Add sliced shallot and garlic and cook until shimmering and fragrant, 1 minute-ish. Add Calabrian chilis.
2. Pour in white wine and add your cleaned littleneck clams. Cover with a lid (a sheet pan works if you don’t have one) and cook for 5 minutes. Give the pan a shake every few minutes. After 5 minutes remove clams that have opened and reserve them in a bowl. Cover and continue to cook unopened clams for 5 more minutes. After 10 minutes discard any unopened clams and transfer the rest of the open clams to your bowl.
**Cook spaghetti in a large pot of salted water while you cook your clams. Cook until a little firmer than al dente and reserve a cup of pasta water.**
3. Add partially cooked pasta to the pan that you cooked your clams in. Add a splash of pasta water and finish cooking your pasta over medium-high heat in the yummy garlic, shallot, chili, and wine sauce. Season with salt and pepper!!
4. When pasta is finished add 2T butter, lemon zest, a squeeze of lemon juice, and the cooked clams. Toss everything to evenly combine and serve with lots of fresh parsley, extra lemons, and a drizzle of olive oil.
I started a new project of a spiced pear brioche pastry?! I'm totally experimenting here. I filled some with cooked pears in a babka style and some with fresh sliced pears and spiced sugar. The sliced raw pears didn't work out that well but the cooked pears were freaking fantastic. More testing to come but I'm thinking of a pull-apart style bread baked in a round cake pan.
Recipes From This Week:
Vegetable Curry (similar)
Chicken and Rice (similar)
Thing Everybody Needs:
Fine mesh strainers for any size project. From sifting sugar to straining broth I use mine weekly.
Animal Cuteness:
She wrapped herself up like this.
Coming Soon:
Lamb Ragu recipe coming next week. I need to test it one more time.
Book I'm Cooking Through This Month:
India: The Cookbook, Pushpesh Pant
Recap + review 2/28
What's your favorite podcast? Send me a message and let me know. I spend a lot of hours in the kitchen and I'm always looking for more.
See you next week,
Marcella
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