Happiness And Food, Our One-Minute Cooking Tip, An Interview with Maya Kaimal, Ice Wine & More!

Bruce: 00:00:01

Hey, I'm Bruce Weinstein and this is the Podcast

Bruce: 00:00:03

Cooking with Bruce and Mark.

Mark: 00:00:04

And I'm Mark Scarborough.

Mark: 00:00:05

And together Bruce and I have written now over three dozen cookbooks.

Mark: 00:00:10

Our latest is the Instant Air Fryer Bible, all about how

Mark: 00:00:15

to cook simple and easy food.

Mark: 00:00:18

In an air fryer, particularly in the ones made by instant brands,

Mark: 00:00:23

the Vortex and the Omni, although you can use it for any air fryer.

Mark: 00:00:27

We're not talking about air fryer in this episode of the podcast.

Mark: 00:00:30

Instead, we're gonna be talking about foods that make us and maybe you happy.

Mark: 00:00:35

We've got our typical one minute cooking tip.

Mark: 00:00:38

Bruce is interviewing Maya Kamal, who we've known.

Mark: 00:00:41

I don't, I don't even know.

Mark: 00:00:43

20 years.

Mark: 00:00:43

20 years.

Mark: 00:00:44

Not a long time.

Mark: 00:00:46

Bruce is interviewing cookbook author and entrepreneur, food entrepreneur,

Mark: 00:00:49

Maya Kaimal, and we wanna talk about what's making us happy in food this week.

Mark: 00:00:53

So let's get started.

Bruce: 00:00:58

We all eat food to make us happy, but there's a difference between eating

Bruce: 00:01:02

food that makes you happy and using.

Bruce: 00:01:05

To block sadness.

Mark: 00:01:06

Yeah, I think this is a big one, and we think about this a lot

Mark: 00:01:10

lately, um, because there's a way in which when you say comfort food,

Mark: 00:01:14

what you mean is food that you shove in your mouth so you don't feel sad.

Mark: 00:01:18

So people think about macaroni and cheese and ice cream and listen, I love macaroni

Mark: 00:01:23

and cheese and I love ice cream, but.

Mark: 00:01:26

Different than a kind of food that can make you happy.

Mark: 00:01:30

It may be momentarily happy, but I don't know about you.

Mark: 00:01:33

But I always feel guilty after I eat, uh, half a pint of ice cream or half.

Bruce: 00:01:38

I was about to say, who eats half a pint?

Bruce: 00:01:39

Well, I try to, if you're eating ice cream or mac and cheese to cover sadness.

Bruce: 00:01:45

In the end, it only leads to more sadness.

Mark: 00:01:47

Yeah.

Mark: 00:01:48

And if you don't know, there's actually a biochemical process that's going on here.

Mark: 00:01:52

Food naturally, especially food that you enjoy naturally causes

Mark: 00:01:55

a dopamine reaction in the brain.

Mark: 00:01:57

That's that pleasure chemical that you release whenever you

Mark: 00:02:00

feel good, when you feel happy.

Mark: 00:02:03

Release doing sex.

Mark: 00:02:05

It's, it's, it's that, it's that very happiness chemical.

Mark: 00:02:08

The thing is, a lot of these foods cause a dopamine rush, although

Mark: 00:02:14

it washes away pretty quickly.

Mark: 00:02:16

Mm-hmm.

Mark: 00:02:17

So that's why you feel really good when you're eating mac and

Mark: 00:02:20

cheese and then 30 minutes later you're like, what did I just do?

Bruce: 00:02:25

Yeah.

Bruce: 00:02:25

But there's another way that food also makes you happy.

Bruce: 00:02:28

Food flavor smells all of.

Bruce: 00:02:31

Brings on senses memory.

Bruce: 00:02:33

Yeah.

Bruce: 00:02:33

And if you're not familiar with senses memory, it's when you smell something

Bruce: 00:02:36

or you taste something and you immediately have this not only memory

Bruce: 00:02:40

of being at the place where you may have first tasted it, whether that's your

Bruce: 00:02:44

grandmother's house or summer camp, but you actually physically have that same

Bruce: 00:02:50

feeling you had when you were there.

Bruce: 00:02:52

You can imagine.

Bruce: 00:02:53

Being there.

Bruce: 00:02:53

It almost like time travel, right?

Bruce: 00:02:55

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mark: 00:02:56

And what we would like to do is we would like to encourage you to connect

Mark: 00:02:59

with the foods that make you happy and foods from your past make you happy.

Mark: 00:03:03

And here's one for me.

Mark: 00:03:04

When I was a kid, I grew up in a very, uh, stereotypical middle

Mark: 00:03:10

class, mid 20th century family, and we didn't have a lot of money.

Mark: 00:03:15

We had all the money we needed, but we didn't have a lot of money.

Mark: 00:03:18

And so we ate out once a week and my parents had this thing.

Mark: 00:03:22

I got to go along with them.

Mark: 00:03:23

Or when my brother came along, 11 years after me, we got to grow with them.

Mark: 00:03:27

But still I got to go out with them for dinner basically

Mark: 00:03:30

whenever they went out to eat.

Mark: 00:03:31

So we would eat at the steakhouse in Dallas, Bavarian, Bavarian with

Mark: 00:03:36

an O, cuz it was a steakhouse.

Mark: 00:03:37

Get it?

Mark: 00:03:38

Bavarian Steakhouse.

Mark: 00:03:39

And we would go to Bavarian Steakhouse.

Mark: 00:03:42

And at the end of the meal, we would always split the apple dumpling.

Mark: 00:03:46

And it was, you know, the, the, the baked apple wrapped in pastry

Mark: 00:03:50

with the whipped cream all over it.

Mark: 00:03:52

And I swear I can, there's something about that, that I just

Mark: 00:03:55

can taste it, feel it, know it.

Mark: 00:03:58

Mm-hmm.

Mark: 00:03:58

When I have apple dumplings, I'm like, ah, you're a kid again.

Mark: 00:04:01

And you're, that's me as a kid and I'm splitting it with my parents and,

Bruce: 00:04:04

and you're a happy place.

Bruce: 00:04:05

That puts you in a really happy place now.

Bruce: 00:04:07

That's true.

Bruce: 00:04:08

Not all sense.

Bruce: 00:04:08

Memories are happy, right?

Bruce: 00:04:09

We can, no, we can eat something or smell something that triggers a bad memory.

Bruce: 00:04:13

But mostly when it comes to food, you're talking about good memories, right?

Bruce: 00:04:18

I mean, mostly, mostly.

Bruce: 00:04:20

I mean, I, I didn't grow up in a house where I was forced.

Bruce: 00:04:23

To eat things.

Bruce: 00:04:24

So if I didn't like something, I didn't have to eat it.

Bruce: 00:04:26

So there are very few bad food memories for me.

Bruce: 00:04:29

Yeah.

Bruce: 00:04:29

It's not like, you know, you're gonna sit here and eat that until it's

Bruce: 00:04:32

gone or, and you sit there for a week cuz you're just not eating it.

Mark: 00:04:35

Yeah.

Mark: 00:04:35

We, we, we, we've talked about this, um, Bruce grew up in, uh, not kosher,

Mark: 00:04:40

but Jewish home in New York City.

Mark: 00:04:43

He has a very different relationship to Bacon than I do.

Mark: 00:04:47

I grew up in a home where Bacon was a twice to three times a week thing.

Mark: 00:04:53

So when Bacon is made, I do not feel the need to eat every piece of bacon and not

Mark: 00:04:58

leave any leftover since I'm like a bacon.

Mark: 00:05:01

But Bruce has a kind of unbelievable overreaction to bacon.

Bruce: 00:05:04

Well, I do.

Bruce: 00:05:05

I love bacon, but when it comes.

Bruce: 00:05:06

TRAYF from pork.

Bruce: 00:05:09

The food that is explain what TRA is.

Bruce: 00:05:11

Tra is forbidden food, right?

Bruce: 00:05:13

So in a kosher home, that would be all pork, that would be all

Bruce: 00:05:17

shellfish, fish that don't have scales and fins, moll, mollus, or traf.

Bruce: 00:05:22

And.

Bruce: 00:05:23

Animals have to be ruminants and they have to have clothing and hooves.

Bruce: 00:05:27

Yep.

Bruce: 00:05:27

So pigs don't fit that category.

Bruce: 00:05:29

So you don't eat pig if you're kosher, but so the glad to know that giraffes do.

Bruce: 00:05:32

It's so good.

Bruce: 00:05:33

So, so there you go.

Bruce: 00:05:34

You can make a giraffe for a Passover.

Bruce: 00:05:36

Excellent.

Bruce: 00:05:37

Excellent.

Bruce: 00:05:39

Go ahead.

Bruce: 00:05:39

Um, so the food that.

Bruce: 00:05:41

I have a sense memory of that is incredible is smoked ham.

Bruce: 00:05:45

And the reason that has a sense memory for me, the first time I ever tasted it,

Bruce: 00:05:51

oh, I was maybe 11 or 12, we were visiting a cousin on Long Island in Stony Brook.

Bruce: 00:05:57

Mm.

Bruce: 00:05:58

And we were there with my grandmother who.

Bruce: 00:06:00

Didn't keep a kosher home because my grandfather liked eat bacon, but her

Bruce: 00:06:05

idea of kosher was a separate pan for the bacon, but she did order all the

Bruce: 00:06:08

rest of her meat from a kosher butcher.

Bruce: 00:06:11

So we go out and it's his family, right?

Bruce: 00:06:13

It's my grandfather's family.

Bruce: 00:06:14

Were visiting.

Bruce: 00:06:14

We walk in the intellectuals from Kyiv.

Bruce: 00:06:17

They were, they were from Kyiv.

Bruce: 00:06:18

They were, they were your rich, educated intellectuals from, from Keefe.

Bruce: 00:06:23

And there was a smoked spiral sliced ham in the middle of the table for the buffet.

Bruce: 00:06:30

Now I was like, what is that?

Bruce: 00:06:32

Now my grandmother like blanched and became horrified and I think

Bruce: 00:06:37

sh in my mind, she had a seizure.

Bruce: 00:06:39

But I know she did.

Bruce: 00:06:40

She did not have a seizure.

Bruce: 00:06:41

No, but she did have a fit.

Bruce: 00:06:42

She threw a temper.

Bruce: 00:06:44

Didn't.

Mark: 00:06:44

Okay.

Mark: 00:06:44

Your grandmother made bacon for your grandfather.

Bruce: 00:06:46

It didn't matter.

Bruce: 00:06:46

It wasn't ham.

Bruce: 00:06:47

Ham is the most Christian of all your animal products.

Bruce: 00:06:51

Well, probably, I don't know.

Bruce: 00:06:53

More than we all ate bacon.

Bruce: 00:06:54

All my friends ate bacon, but nobody ate ham.

Bruce: 00:06:56

Ham was Jesus.

Bruce: 00:06:58

Ham was Easter.

Bruce: 00:06:59

Ham was the resurrection.

Bruce: 00:07:01

Jesus, it is.

Bruce: 00:07:02

Well, yeah, that's true.

Bruce: 00:07:03

If you're eating ham, you might as well put a cross up in your living room.

Bruce: 00:07:06

I mean, it's just,

Mark: 00:07:09

Yes.

Mark: 00:07:09

Well that is all true.

Mark: 00:07:12

That is all very true.

Mark: 00:07:13

So that was my, I don't have this relationship with the ham.

Bruce: 00:07:16

Well, my mother and grandmother were so angry and I went up and I

Bruce: 00:07:20

tasted some of this forbidden meat and oh my God, I was, I was then angry.

Bruce: 00:07:25

I was so angry at my mother and grandmother for not.

Bruce: 00:07:29

Introducing me to smoked ham before this because quite honestly, they didn't

Bruce: 00:07:33

introduce me to smoke brisket either.

Bruce: 00:07:34

I didn't learn that till I met you, mark.

Mark: 00:07:36

Okay, so, uh, now, uh, this is my turn and I'm gonna

Mark: 00:07:39

say something about my childhood.

Mark: 00:07:41

When I was a little kid, I used to be taken over to my grandparents

Mark: 00:07:45

for babysitting with my parents, saying in the Christian Church choir

Mark: 00:07:50

where they were probably serving a AM and bacon during choir practice.

Mark: 00:07:53

So, um, my parents went to choir practice at.

Mark: 00:07:58

And, um, I would be dropped off at my grandparents.

Mark: 00:08:01

It inevitably happened that my grandmother would make a

Mark: 00:08:05

frozen beverage farm turnover.

Mark: 00:08:09

Mm-hmm.

Mark: 00:08:09

And we would sit in front of the TV and these are console TVs with tubes.

Mark: 00:08:15

We would sit in front of the tv.

Mark: 00:08:17

With tray tables and eat, uh, turnovers with ice cream, with vanilla ice

Mark: 00:08:22

cream scooped into the hot centers.

Mark: 00:08:24

And I still, to this day, occasionally I wanna go get a turnover because it's

Mark: 00:08:29

just, it's part of, I don't know, it's, it is woven into my DNA n at this point.

Mark: 00:08:35

Yeah, I want that because it reminds me of being that little kid at my grandparents

Mark: 00:08:39

with a tray table, and I'm sure my feet didn't even touch the floor, and I was

Mark: 00:08:43

so excited to get my turnover and watch.

Mark: 00:08:46

Here's how old I am.

Mark: 00:08:47

Red Skelton.

Mark: 00:08:48

So that's how old I am.

Mark: 00:08:49

So

Bruce: 00:08:49

nobody knows who that is.

Bruce: 00:08:51

No,

Mark: 00:08:51

no one listening to this knows who Red Skelton is.

Bruce: 00:08:53

Well, by the time I was in college, um, my taste had changed

Bruce: 00:08:56

and I, I had made some friends who considered themselves foodies, but I

Bruce: 00:09:01

don't know that we'd still consider them foodies, but they loved to experiment.

Bruce: 00:09:05

And none of us had any money and we used to eat Indian food on East sixth Street

Bruce: 00:09:10

in the East Village in New York, which was like the row of Indian restaurants.

Bruce: 00:09:14

And I'm convinced to this day there was one trough out in the back

Bruce: 00:09:18

that every restaurant went and dug whenever they were serving out of.

Bruce: 00:09:22

Cuz it was the same gloppy, greasy food in every restaurant.

Bruce: 00:09:26

But it was good.

Bruce: 00:09:28

We used to go there and it meant a lot that I had this group

Bruce: 00:09:31

of friends and that we liked.

Bruce: 00:09:32

There you go, to go there, there, there you go.

Bruce: 00:09:34

Every time I eat any kind of Indian food, to me that's a comfort

Bruce: 00:09:39

because it reminds me of that time.

Bruce: 00:09:41

It sends me right back to being 22 years old to going down to the East

Bruce: 00:09:45

Village with my friends to having a great time without much money.

Mark: 00:09:50

Yeah.

Mark: 00:09:50

And we, we will, we wanna encourage.

Mark: 00:09:53

To do this, to think back to moments in your food life, haha.

Mark: 00:09:58

In which you have an unbelievably pleasant memory.

Mark: 00:10:02

And I wanna tell you, so another way that you can find foods that make you

Mark: 00:10:06

happy and this particularly relates to me, maybe more so than Bruce,

Mark: 00:10:11

is I am always searching for the.

Mark: 00:10:14

I am always wanting something new.

Mark: 00:10:15

I, I, I've got a rule of the last 10 years.

Mark: 00:10:19

I don't want to travel to places other than to see my family.

Mark: 00:10:23

I don't want to travel to places I've been before.

Mark: 00:10:25

I always want to go new.

Mark: 00:10:28

I want to see new.

Mark: 00:10:29

Maybe it's part of aging, I don't know, but food traditions are new to me.

Mark: 00:10:35

Are, for example, Curry's, which Bruce just brought up, and I have developed a

Mark: 00:10:40

deep and passionate love of Curry in my late middle age because it's new, because

Mark: 00:10:47

it's not anything I grew up with in Texas.

Mark: 00:10:50

And I didn't know about Raita.

Mark: 00:10:52

I didn't know what that was.

Mark: 00:10:53

I didn't know.

Mark: 00:10:54

I knew Curry powder as like that yellow term turmeric.

Mark: 00:10:59

I knew Curry powder as that yellow, turmeric based stuff that

Mark: 00:11:02

had no flavor cuz it had sat in my mother's pantry for 10 years.

Mark: 00:11:06

I, I, I didn't know anything about curry

Bruce: 00:11:08

that hey, at least your mother had curry powder in the house.

Bruce: 00:11:10

Yeah, well I'm sure we didn't have garam masala.

Bruce: 00:11:12

Yeah.

Bruce: 00:11:13

And the thing is it was there for 10 years cuz she never used it,

Mark: 00:11:15

so.

Mark: 00:11:16

No, no, no we didn't.

Mark: 00:11:17

Occasionally my mother would make something called shrimp curry and as

Mark: 00:11:20

far as I can tell, it was the little, remember those little baby salad

Mark: 00:11:24

shrimp that they used to to sell?

Mark: 00:11:25

Oh yeah.

Mark: 00:11:25

It was the little baby salad shrimp.

Mark: 00:11:27

In a flower, thickened milk gravy with curry powder in it.

Mark: 00:11:34

And then she would pour the bag of little shrimp in it and we would eat that over

Mark: 00:11:37

rice and we called that shrimp curry.

Mark: 00:11:40

That was Well it is.

Bruce: 00:11:41

I mean, ugh, come on.

Bruce: 00:11:42

That is nothing about that.

Bruce: 00:11:44

It was authentic to your family.

Mark: 00:11:45

No, no.

Mark: 00:11:47

It wasn't authentic to anything.

Mark: 00:11:49

So, uh, I think that that also part of finding comfort foods is

Mark: 00:11:54

finding new foods and finding new.

Mark: 00:11:56

To cook and new ways to reinvigorate what you eat, don't you think so?

Bruce: 00:12:00

I do think so.

Bruce: 00:12:00

So share with us the foods that make you happy, whether they bring up

Bruce: 00:12:04

memories from your childhood or from your adulthood or from last week.

Bruce: 00:12:09

Come to our Facebook group, cooking with Bruce and Mark and just.

Bruce: 00:12:12

Share with us.

Bruce: 00:12:13

We're gonna share some more stories and pictures there of foods that

Bruce: 00:12:16

make us happy, and we look forward to seeing what's making you happy.

Mark: 00:12:21

Before we get to our next segment of the podcast, let me tell

Mark: 00:12:23

you that Bruce and I have a newsletter.

Mark: 00:12:25

I will admit to you right now that that newsletter hasn't

Mark: 00:12:29

gone out in a couple weeks.

Mark: 00:12:30

My life got a little crazy with the new book we're publishing

Mark: 00:12:33

this fall, uh, in edits for it.

Mark: 00:12:35

So I wasn't able to.

Mark: 00:12:37

Send out a newsletter, but we do have a newsletter and if you

Mark: 00:12:39

would like to subscribe to that, you can go to our website, Bruce

Mark: 00:12:41

and mark.com on the splash page.

Mark: 00:12:44

When you arrive, just scroll down and there's a way to

Mark: 00:12:47

sign up for the newsletter.

Mark: 00:12:48

And let me just say that I have blocked my knowing what your name or your

Mark: 00:12:54

email address is, so it can't be sold.

Mark: 00:12:57

And I've locked the account with MailChimp, so it can't be sold.

Mark: 00:13:01

So let me just say that if you would like to receive the newsletter,

Mark: 00:13:04

Clear and easy way to do it on the website, Bruce and mark.com.

Mark: 00:13:07

And once you get the newsletters, if you ever want out, you just

Mark: 00:13:11

unsubscribe at the bottom of a newsletter and you're out again.

Mark: 00:13:14

Um, that would be a great way to support our otherwise unsupported Co podcast.

Mark: 00:13:17

Okay, up next, as is Traditional Art second segment, our

Mark: 00:13:21

one minute cooking tip.

Mark: 00:13:25

What is it?

Bruce: 00:13:27

Remember that food continues to cook.

Bruce: 00:13:29

After it leaves the stove.

Bruce: 00:13:31

Oh, so air on the side of Undercook ever so slightly vegetables taste

Bruce: 00:13:38

better with a little crispiness.

Bruce: 00:13:39

Pasta's better when it's all dente.

Bruce: 00:13:41

So pull things off the stove a little ahead of time to avoid mushy vegetables.

Bruce: 00:13:46

Overcook pasta.

Bruce: 00:13:47

Well done Meat or rubbery eggs.

Mark: 00:13:49

And.

Mark: 00:13:50

I think we're back to bacon.

Mark: 00:13:51

Bacon.

Mark: 00:13:52

Bacon is a prime candidate for something that continues to cook off the stove.

Mark: 00:13:55

Any, I don't like it to be shorty.

Mark: 00:13:57

No, I don't either.

Mark: 00:13:58

And but I don't like to be limp either.

Mark: 00:14:00

But when it comes, even when it comes out of the grease and onto a

Mark: 00:14:03

plate or a paper towel drain order, however you do it when it comes there.

Mark: 00:14:07

It's still hot and it's still cooking

Bruce: 00:14:09

a little bit.

Bruce: 00:14:09

It's still frying.

Bruce: 00:14:09

Yep.

Bruce: 00:14:10

It's still sizzling.

Bruce: 00:14:10

If it's still sizzling, it's still cooking.

Mark: 00:14:12

Yeah.

Mark: 00:14:13

It's really important to remember that you take things off just slightly

Mark: 00:14:17

before you think they're done.

Mark: 00:14:20

Up next in our interview segment of the podcast, Bruce

Mark: 00:14:23

interviews are long time Fran.

Mark: 00:14:26

It's hard to believe we've known her that long.

Mark: 00:14:30

Our longtime friend Maya Kamal, she owns, uh, food.

Mark: 00:14:34

Business, but as well is a cookbook author and she's talking about her

Mark: 00:14:38

brand new book, Indian Flavor every day.

Bruce: 00:14:41

Today I am speaking with Indian food expert Maya Kaimal, and I met Maya

Bruce: 00:14:46

20 years ago when she wrote her first book savoring the Spice Coast of India.

Bruce: 00:14:51

Since then, she started her own Indian food company, Maya Kamal Foods,

Bruce: 00:14:56

offering sauces, rices, lentils, and all the products you need to.

Bruce: 00:15:00

Indian food at home easier, and look for her products in your

Bruce: 00:15:03

local supermarket or online.

Bruce: 00:15:04

But we're back today to talk about her new.

Bruce: 00:15:07

Indian flavor every day.

Bruce: 00:15:09

Welcome, Maya.

Bruce: 00:15:10

Thank you so much.

Bruce: 00:15:11

I wanna start with the image of Indian food you claim in the opening of your

Bruce: 00:15:16

new book that you don't think Indian food will ever have a bust out moment,

Bruce: 00:15:21

but that it's moving more mainstream.

Bruce: 00:15:24

In terms of the way Americans are choosing to eat.

Bruce: 00:15:27

Can you talk about that a little bit?

Maya: 00:15:28

I say that because I've been at this for a while and I do hear a

Maya: 00:15:35

lot of people talk about, you know, feeling daunted by the cuisine.

Maya: 00:15:39

And, and it's still happening, you know, after 20 some years of, of

Maya: 00:15:43

trying to sell people Indian food or, or teach people about Indian food.

Maya: 00:15:46

So I, it, so it's, it's real.

Maya: 00:15:48

So I think that that is part of what keeps it from just like,

Maya: 00:15:53

Huge and mainstream for people.

Maya: 00:15:55

There's the intimidation factor and the seasoning is, you know, it's very,

Maya: 00:15:59

it's, it's full and bold and it doesn't have sugar in it like some other

Maya: 00:16:03

Southeast Asian cuisines that makes it a little kind of easier to love.

Maya: 00:16:08

Mm-hmm.

Maya: 00:16:08

It's like Thai food, you know, it's, it's just as spicy, but it's, you know,

Maya: 00:16:12

but there's palm sugar and other, you know, and so it's, it's a little easier,

Maya: 00:16:16

I think, on the Western pallet, so, so Indian food has tons to offer, but

Maya: 00:16:21

it's just, People to see that, that in fact it actually really fits what.

Maya: 00:16:28

People desire right now, which is low sugar, which is plant-based

Maya: 00:16:32

protein, which is flavor exploration.

Maya: 00:16:35

So, you know, so I think it's continues to gain a following

Maya: 00:16:39

more and more all the time.

Maya: 00:16:41

Uh, we know that to be true.

Maya: 00:16:43

We can see it, we can see data about like, you know, household penetration

Maya: 00:16:47

of Indian food growing over, over time.

Maya: 00:16:50

So more people are buying Indian food, which is awesome.

Maya: 00:16:53

So I'm just gonna keep plugging away at trying to help people.

Maya: 00:16:58

Fit it into their lives.

Bruce: 00:16:59

Well, you've been helping bring the flavors of Indian foods to American

Bruce: 00:17:03

tables for years with your line of sauces and your Indian ingredients,

Bruce: 00:17:07

but your new book, Indian Flavor every day is not about shortcuts.

Bruce: 00:17:13

Um, so how do you address the fact that so many people find Indian

Bruce: 00:17:18

cooking to be so intimidating?

Maya: 00:17:21

Yeah, I mean, it's, I get it right.

Maya: 00:17:24

It.

Maya: 00:17:25

It's involved to make Indian food from scratch.

Maya: 00:17:28

There's a spectrum, you know, it can be like super, super complicated or

Maya: 00:17:32

there's, there's kind of a, a slightly simpler end of the range, so I try to

Maya: 00:17:38

focus on that part of the range, right?

Maya: 00:17:41

It's like, you know, maybe you just need a couple of ingredients.

Maya: 00:17:44

Like you only need some turmeric and cayenne in your brussel sprouts

Maya: 00:17:48

with a little bit of ginger.

Maya: 00:17:49

You know, like how do Indians simply do some of.

Maya: 00:17:53

Their dishes, their dolls, their their vegetables.

Maya: 00:17:56

But I also think that breaking it down is important, like where

Maya: 00:18:00

the flavor comes from, right?

Maya: 00:18:02

Like, you know, showing people that you can master a couple of techniques and

Maya: 00:18:08

then you kind of know where you're going.

Maya: 00:18:10

And that's the thing about cooking, right?

Maya: 00:18:11

It's like when you start to cook, you kind of wanna know where you're going.

Maya: 00:18:14

Mm-hmm.

Maya: 00:18:15

And those, that's when you don't need a recipe and you just kind of, you can.

Maya: 00:18:19

Flow and most people can't flow with Indian food.

Maya: 00:18:23

That's what I'm, I'm, I'm attempting to help with is that, you know, if you,

Maya: 00:18:28

if you know that by popping some, you know, mustard Cuban seeds in hot oil,

Maya: 00:18:32

you're going to end up with this really beautifully flavored oil, and then you

Maya: 00:18:35

can build on top of that and, and you've done something simple, but yet like, You

Maya: 00:18:41

know, really additive to your cooking.

Maya: 00:18:43

So that's, that's where I'm going with it, is like get master a few techniques and

Maya: 00:18:48

then it's, it won't feel as intimidating.

Bruce: 00:18:51

Yeah.

Bruce: 00:18:51

We're gonna come back to that technique of popping those, those seeds in the oil, cuz

Bruce: 00:18:57

that is very similar to what happens in European cooking, where you saute onions

Bruce: 00:19:03

and garlic as the base of everything.

Bruce: 00:19:04

And what you're doing here are taking whole spices and

Bruce: 00:19:08

frying them in oil before you.

Maya: 00:19:11

Yeah, exactly.

Maya: 00:19:13

It's, and, and then you start, you know, layering on top of that.

Maya: 00:19:16

But that, that's the beginning point.

Maya: 00:19:18

And, and that's kind of a real trademark of India and cooking that you just,

Maya: 00:19:22

you don't see in many other cuisines.

Maya: 00:19:25

Well,

Bruce: 00:19:26

I'm gonna jump right to that then you, this is something you write

Bruce: 00:19:29

about in the book called Tarka, which involves the spices and the oil.

Bruce: 00:19:33

And you say it can be a first.

Bruce: 00:19:35

A recipe or a last, so tell me in more detail, what is it and how important is

Bruce: 00:19:40

it to creating authentic Indian flavors?

Maya: 00:19:42

It's very important to creating authentic Indian flavors.

Maya: 00:19:47

You know, each region will put.

Maya: 00:19:49

Slightly different things into their tarka.

Maya: 00:19:51

I was raised on a lot of South Indian cooking, so there it's, they'll use

Maya: 00:19:56

like maybe coconut oil or some kind of an oil, and they'll use mustard seeds

Maya: 00:20:00

and curry leaves and dried red chilies.

Maya: 00:20:04

And that's, that's a South Indian tarka.

Maya: 00:20:06

But in the north you might start with gee and use.

Maya: 00:20:08

Uh, human seeds anyway.

Maya: 00:20:10

Um, probably putting a little, uh, maybe some turmeric and some cayenne in

Maya: 00:20:14

at the, or some red chili at the end.

Maya: 00:20:16

So, you know, they could, it, it shifts in flavor, but the point about it being

Maya: 00:20:20

either a first or last is, um, kind of key because the, it's a first step when

Maya: 00:20:26

you're making more of a dry curry, right?

Maya: 00:20:28

So you need to stir fry your ingredients in, in something and.

Maya: 00:20:34

It's a last step when you already have something saucy, right?

Maya: 00:20:38

And so it could be a doll, it could be like a South Indian coconut, milky stew,

Maya: 00:20:45

um, and then you're gonna heat that oil in a separate vessel and then drizzle over,

Maya: 00:20:48

kind of like you would drizzle olive oil and, you know, an Italian food, right?

Maya: 00:20:52

It's just a, it's that finishing touch.

Maya: 00:20:55

And what you've hopefully done is put curry leaves into that oil

Maya: 00:20:59

where they get to just like, Bloom with flavor and, and that just adds

Maya: 00:21:05

an incredible aroma to the dish.

Bruce: 00:21:08

Let's talk about Curry leaves for a second.

Bruce: 00:21:09

Everybody knows ginger, garlic, cilantro, and chilies as being.

Bruce: 00:21:14

Integral to Indian food and they're readily available, but what is a curry

Bruce: 00:21:19

leaf and what can we do if we can't find fresh curry leaves where we live?

Maya: 00:21:23

Yeah.

Maya: 00:21:23

So fresh curry leaves are, they grow on bushes in Southeast Asia and most

Maya: 00:21:29

people in especially the southern part of India, it's more tropical and it's sort

Maya: 00:21:33

of, you know, like green all year round.

Maya: 00:21:35

They, yeah, just kind of go in the backyard and pull some off a

Maya: 00:21:38

bush and, you know, strip 'em off the stem and, and they're amazing.

Maya: 00:21:42

And they're, um, they're part of the citrus family and there is a little

Maya: 00:21:47

bit of a citrus kind of note to them.

Maya: 00:21:50

Kind of a little, I don't know, I think a little bit grape, fruity, or, you

Maya: 00:21:53

know, a little, a little bitter, but, um, herbaceous too, but, and they're rather.

Maya: 00:21:59

They're stiff, but not as stiff as a bay leaf.

Maya: 00:22:02

So the best way to get the flavor from them is to, is this dropping

Maya: 00:22:08

them in oil and letting them, letting that flavor diffuse into the oil.

Maya: 00:22:12

You can use them fresh too, but you.

Maya: 00:22:17

Get more from them when you, when you capture their essence in the oil, it's

Maya: 00:22:21

a very distinctive flavor and, and smell particularly of, of South Indian cooking.

Maya: 00:22:27

And you know what, if you can't get it, it's fine.

Maya: 00:22:29

It, it, it won't taste, it won't have that next layer of flavor.

Maya: 00:22:33

But growing up we never had fresh curry leaves, my father's from South India

Maya: 00:22:37

that he would use bay leaves and you know, like one or two, or not a ton.

Maya: 00:22:42

You know, just for like a little more flavor to the oil.

Maya: 00:22:46

So per, you can make delicious food without them, but it will just be

Maya: 00:22:49

that much more kind of exciting.

Maya: 00:22:52

Mm-hmm.

Maya: 00:22:52

If you can find them and, you know, they're starting to be

Maya: 00:22:56

available in some health food stores, even like specialty stores.

Maya: 00:23:00

We have one here in the Hudson Valley called Adams and they're starting to,

Maya: 00:23:03

you know, it's like an Italian family, you know, I dunno if it's Italian, but

Maya: 00:23:08

it's a, it's like a family kind of chain.

Maya: 00:23:10

Small chain of, of nice up.

Maya: 00:23:12

Markets and they are carrying, carrying curry leaves.

Maya: 00:23:14

So, um, I would say ask your, ask your grocer, you know, if they

Maya: 00:23:20

would stock them and um, and they just might cuz they are available.

Maya: 00:23:24

So

Bruce: 00:23:24

Indian food also has a reputation of being dairy heavy.

Bruce: 00:23:29

Mm-hmm.

Bruce: 00:23:29

And most of the recipes in your book are dairy free or can be easily adjusted.

Bruce: 00:23:35

And do, first of all, do you agree with that statement that indie food is dairy?

Bruce: 00:23:39

Cause you're, you're giving me the shake of the head.

Bruce: 00:23:41

Like, you don't believe that?

Maya: 00:23:42

Well, okay, so here's the thing.

Maya: 00:23:45

This is, this is back to this, uh, there's a real difference between

Maya: 00:23:48

North Indian and South Indian and that that, you know, and those are

Maya: 00:23:51

incredibly broad subject headings, right?

Maya: 00:23:55

Which are so much more nuanced than that.

Maya: 00:23:58

Um, that it's not really fair to just divide the country into two, however,

Maya: 00:24:03

It is true that in the north, like the climate wise and, um, landscape wise,

Maya: 00:24:08

like it's better for raising cattle.

Maya: 00:24:10

Like it's, you've got more open planes and you know, they're ra, they're

Maya: 00:24:14

raising the, as we know, Indians don't.

Maya: 00:24:18

Prefer to eat beef, but they use the, you know, they will use the cow for all the

Maya: 00:24:22

things that the cow can produce for them.

Maya: 00:24:24

You know, it's like getting, you know, GH and obviously milk

Maya: 00:24:28

and cream and yogurt and pane.

Maya: 00:24:32

Like, there's just, so that's very mu very important in North India now in the south.

Maya: 00:24:38

You have, it's just so full of coconut trees that coconut milk tends

Maya: 00:24:43

to be the replacement for dairy.

Maya: 00:24:44

Coconut oil is used instead of gee, right?

Maya: 00:24:47

Coconut meat is G graded and thickens the curries.

Maya: 00:24:50

Um, so it's really a regional difference.

Maya: 00:24:55

And my orientation, as I mentioned, is towards the south.

Maya: 00:24:59

So that's sort of my go-to before I reach for the cream, I

Maya: 00:25:03

reach for the, the coconut milk.

Maya: 00:25:04

So yes, it's true that a lot of Indian food that we.

Maya: 00:25:07

Eat in this country is dairy heavy because most many restaurants are

Maya: 00:25:13

following that kind of formatted menu that happens to Lean North Indian.

Maya: 00:25:18

But if you were, you know, if, if you were to travel around India, you would come

Maya: 00:25:22

across a lot of non-dairy Indian food.

Bruce: 00:25:25

Before we talk more details about some of the

Bruce: 00:25:27

recipes, let's talk about chilies.

Bruce: 00:25:29

And they're burn.

Bruce: 00:25:30

I mean, not all Indian food is fiery, right?

Bruce: 00:25:32

I mean, it has a reputation of being hot food, but it doesn't have to be.

Bruce: 00:25:35

But in the book, you get this great tip for testing out chilies

Bruce: 00:25:39

to see whether they're too hot for you before you cook them.

Bruce: 00:25:42

Why don't you talk about chilies?

Maya: 00:25:44

So I look for like the sort of finger sized

Maya: 00:25:47

chilies in the grocery stores.

Maya: 00:25:49

So serranos are, are generally the, the what, what I'm able to

Maya: 00:25:54

find, um, and the closest to.

Maya: 00:25:58

I, I grew up eating and what my family uses in India.

Maya: 00:26:02

So, um, you know, uh, you can use a jalapeno, it won't be as spicy.

Maya: 00:26:07

Um, you can use a Thai chili, it will be even more spicy.

Maya: 00:26:11

But, um, so you, so I'd give you some tips about how to adjust depending on what you.

Maya: 00:26:17

You can buy, this is what my grandmother and my father would do, is just, um, so

Maya: 00:26:22

all the heat most is concentrated at the top of the chili, the stem end, and it's

Maya: 00:26:27

in that pith, it's in that white part.

Maya: 00:26:29

Now, it's also in the seeds, but it's, but people think the seeds are

Maya: 00:26:32

the hottest part and they're not.

Maya: 00:26:33

It's the pith.

Maya: 00:26:34

So what, what you can do is you can slice off the top end just below the.

Maya: 00:26:41

The stem and expose that white pithy part and the, and the seeds too.

Maya: 00:26:46

And just, just like, swipe your finger across that and t tap it on your tongue.

Maya: 00:26:53

And you can tell like in a nanosecond, like, okay, it's really hot.

Maya: 00:26:58

Or if you don't get it, then you're like, oh wait, is it,

Maya: 00:27:01

you know, did I do that right?

Maya: 00:27:03

Like, you do it again and then, you know, you have a mild one.

Maya: 00:27:04

So it's a, it's, it's one of those ways that you don't have to ignite.

Maya: 00:27:10

Tongue on fire just to find out whether your chili's hot.

Maya: 00:27:13

You can just just get a little sample and you'll know earlier

Bruce: 00:27:16

in this conversation you talked about how you wanted to explore some

Bruce: 00:27:21

of the simpler ways of bringing Indian flavors to an American table to get

Bruce: 00:27:26

people okay with the techniques.

Bruce: 00:27:29

And you have a recipe in the book for garlicy Tarka broccoli.

Bruce: 00:27:33

So we talked about tarka and heating up the oil.

Bruce: 00:27:36

How do you use this technique?

Bruce: 00:27:38

A simple vegetable to turn it into something so memorable.

Bruce: 00:27:41

Tell me more about the.

Maya: 00:27:43

Yeah, well, so this is, you know, we, we, a lot of broccoli in my family.

Maya: 00:27:49

My kids like it, my husband loves it.

Maya: 00:27:51

So, and I just can't bear to do steamed broccoli.

Maya: 00:27:55

I just, you know, I won't do it.

Maya: 00:27:57

I guess.

Maya: 00:27:58

Like, no, we have to get more interesting than that.

Maya: 00:28:02

It just, so, so I'm always.

Maya: 00:28:04

Fiddling around, what can I do?

Maya: 00:28:05

We can roast it and we can fry it and we can do all these things.

Maya: 00:28:07

So this was my, like, this is my Indian riff on it, which

Maya: 00:28:11

is a, which is aster fry.

Maya: 00:28:14

But, but, um, because broccoli can be, you know, kind of thick stemmed and

Maya: 00:28:20

take a while to cook, I found that that.

Maya: 00:28:25

I wanna make it garlicy cause I like garlic and broccoli.

Maya: 00:28:27

But I found that starting with the tar, with the garlic, the garlic would get too

Maya: 00:28:32

brown and burned if, if I did that first and then added the broccoli and cooked it.

Maya: 00:28:36

So I decided, okay, we'll just cook the broccoli and then basically sort of

Maya: 00:28:41

fry and then steam it kind of as the, you know, you would in a Chinese walk.

Maya: 00:28:45

And then once it's tender, Do the tarka step in a separate

Maya: 00:28:50

little frying pan so you can put the mustard seeds, Cuban seeds.

Maya: 00:28:54

I like to add these, um, nigella seeds, these little black, um,

Maya: 00:28:58

slightly bitter but really nice seeds.

Maya: 00:29:00

And then, uh, sliced garlic and fry that till it's, till it's nice

Maya: 00:29:05

of the, and uh, the garlic brown.

Maya: 00:29:07

And then you pour that over.

Maya: 00:29:10

Broccoli.

Maya: 00:29:10

So, and then you toss it all together and, and heat it through.

Maya: 00:29:14

So, super simple idea, just that I kind of in, you know, like

Maya: 00:29:18

reversed the tarka method for stir fry and did it at the end so that

Maya: 00:29:22

everything cooked at the right speed.

Bruce: 00:29:25

It sounds absolutely delicious and easy and other

Bruce: 00:29:28

things that really caught me.

Bruce: 00:29:30

I, I love veggie burgers and I'm always looking for new ways to

Bruce: 00:29:34

do them and you don't disappoint.

Bruce: 00:29:37

Tell me what a potato Banda burger is please.

Maya: 00:29:41

Uh, this, this is one of my favorites.

Maya: 00:29:44

Uh, okay.

Maya: 00:29:45

So Indians have a lot of really great street food snacks that.

Maya: 00:29:49

You know, potato based and very starchy.

Maya: 00:29:52

Right?

Maya: 00:29:52

And Indians have no fear of like carbohydrates, which I love.

Maya: 00:29:57

And so they have different, there are different versions of, um, of potato

Maya: 00:30:02

burgers, alu, tiki burgers, you know, is like basically a fried mashed.

Maya: 00:30:07

You know, potato, deep fried, and then in a burger.

Maya: 00:30:10

So this is, this is the, the like a South Indian spin on that cuz Bunda

Maya: 00:30:15

are a South Indian like potato snack that's a, like a ball of mashed

Maya: 00:30:21

potato that has this great seasoning in it, which is a tarka seasoning.

Maya: 00:30:25

It's got the mustard seeds and onions and um, And cuan seeds in

Maya: 00:30:30

there and it's, and chilies, and you mix that into the mashed potato.

Maya: 00:30:35

And in South India, you would take that ball and you would deep fry it.

Maya: 00:30:38

Um, but I decided to change it up a little bit and just

Maya: 00:30:43

make the potato into a burger.

Maya: 00:30:46

Into a veggie burger.

Maya: 00:30:47

Um, and then, And then just, yeah, just like cook it like

Maya: 00:30:52

you would a burger and a pan.

Maya: 00:30:53

Make it nice and crispy and you don't go have to go through the whole deep frying

Maya: 00:30:57

thing so it's not quite as like heavy.

Maya: 00:31:00

And then, Serve it on a brioche bun with like maybe some cilantro

Maya: 00:31:04

chutney, some pickled red onions.

Maya: 00:31:07

You know, I have recipes for both of those.

Maya: 00:31:08

You could put a spicy ketchup on there, you know, just dress

Maya: 00:31:11

it like you would a burger.

Maya: 00:31:13

But it's got, it's got tons of flavor, so it's, uh, I'm, I'm loving that one.

Bruce: 00:31:19

It sounds fabulous.

Bruce: 00:31:20

And you don't need the french fries.

Bruce: 00:31:21

Because you got don't in there.

Bruce: 00:31:24

No, you don't.

Bruce: 00:31:25

My, I'm not used to seeing pork dishes on Indian menus when I go out to eat, but you

Bruce: 00:31:31

offer up a pork vue that looks amazing.

Bruce: 00:31:34

But first I wanna take one step back and say, is pork.

Bruce: 00:31:38

Eaten much in India.

Maya: 00:31:39

So you find it in, um, places where the Portuguese were colonizers.

Maya: 00:31:45

And Goa is one of those places.

Maya: 00:31:48

And you know, the Portuguese were r really, you know, very active, um, in

Maya: 00:31:53

India, a as you know, for the Spice Trade, Vasco, degama came there in 1498.

Maya: 00:32:00

Goa was their colony.

Maya: 00:32:02

And so they had a, they were.

Maya: 00:32:05

They ate meat and they loved pork and they used, uh, and this, this dish,

Maya: 00:32:11

alou is a, is a very specific goin Portuguese dish, which, um, the, the

Maya: 00:32:20

name means, um, means garlic and vinegar.

Maya: 00:32:24

And those are two really key ingredients in this.

Maya: 00:32:27

So, so having vidoo made with pork is a, is.

Maya: 00:32:32

Quite a typical thing that, um, in, in India, because it has these

Maya: 00:32:37

roots going back to the Portuguese, creating it and, and making it

Maya: 00:32:41

with the things that they like.

Maya: 00:32:42

So they were using some Indian ingredients, but they were,

Maya: 00:32:45

but the main ingredient, you know, pork was what they loved.

Bruce: 00:32:50

And Vindu has a reputation of being really fiery.

Bruce: 00:32:53

Isn't that necessarily?

Maya: 00:32:56

Yeah, hot and sour.

Maya: 00:32:57

Um, the two cuz of the vinegar.

Maya: 00:32:59

It's also like, so not, not.

Maya: 00:33:03

Pure heat, but kind of a complex heat.

Maya: 00:33:06

Um, so yes, lots of chilies, different forms of chilies, fresh chilies,

Maya: 00:33:10

cayenne, dried chilies, black pepper.

Maya: 00:33:13

So you have like a, a really nice layered heat effect from Vlu, but yes, it is.

Maya: 00:33:20

Yeah, I mean, any, it should.

Maya: 00:33:22

In my opinion, the heat should never be out of balance with the other things,

Maya: 00:33:25

but just, um, because you have the sourness, it can take more heat because

Maya: 00:33:30

those play off each other really nicely.

Bruce: 00:33:32

And you have a lot of desserts in your book that are not terribly

Bruce: 00:33:36

traditional Indian sweets, and you discuss that in the book and they're

Bruce: 00:33:39

more effusion of western style desserts with an Indian flavor.

Bruce: 00:33:43

Found them fascinating.

Bruce: 00:33:44

What are your two favorites and.

Maya: 00:33:47

Mm.

Maya: 00:33:48

Yeah.

Maya: 00:33:48

Yeah, this was a fun chapter to work on because I, I mean, I like Indian

Maya: 00:33:52

desserts, but I know they're qu, they're on the sweet side for a lot of Americans,

Maya: 00:33:57

and they're, you know, texturally, you know, different and sort of like

Maya: 00:34:01

sugar syrups and things like that.

Maya: 00:34:03

It's, um, they don't resemble.

Maya: 00:34:06

American desserts.

Maya: 00:34:07

And so, uh, um, which is fine, but I wanted to find some things

Maya: 00:34:11

that played with Indian flavors, but resembled American, you

Maya: 00:34:15

know, more, um, familiar formats.

Maya: 00:34:19

So, um, cuz this is how, this is what I like to serve at, at dinner parties,

Maya: 00:34:22

like something that, you know, yeah.

Maya: 00:34:24

Is a little bit recognizable, but a little bit Indian.

Maya: 00:34:28

One of my favorites is the coffee pot, the creme, the um, south Indian Coffee

Maya: 00:34:34

Pot, the creme, because if you've ever had South Indian coffee, it's really like Del.

Maya: 00:34:40

So delicious.

Maya: 00:34:41

It's very rich.

Maya: 00:34:43

Um, it's.

Maya: 00:34:45

Sweet.

Maya: 00:34:46

And they make the, they put chicory in it too, but it enriches the flavor a lot.

Maya: 00:34:51

It gives it almost like a chocolatey edge that's south in Indian coffee.

Maya: 00:34:54

So you can actually buy Cafe Demond coffee and use that for this recipe to

Maya: 00:34:59

create the, the coffee, um, essence.

Maya: 00:35:02

And then we add a little cardamon two for another Indian.

Maya: 00:35:05

Layer and um, yeah.

Maya: 00:35:08

And then you make, you make a plate Graham, uh, you know, in a typical sort

Maya: 00:35:12

of French way, but it has this, this, this incredible essence of Indian coffee.

Bruce: 00:35:16

Is there another dessert that you're really proud of that you've sort of

Bruce: 00:35:20

taken the flavors of India and made them so familiar with desserts that we know?

Maya: 00:35:24

Um, yeah.

Maya: 00:35:25

There is another one too.

Maya: 00:35:27

There's the, the chocolate tart.

Maya: 00:35:29

The chocolate tart with cashew crust in the crust, which is just a, you

Maya: 00:35:33

know, like a simple butter crust.

Maya: 00:35:35

I put some, some gar masala.

Maya: 00:35:38

Um, it's a thousand Indian style gar masala, so it's got some.

Maya: 00:35:40

Daris in it and fennel.

Maya: 00:35:42

So it's got like a sweet edge and, and cashews as well in the crust.

Maya: 00:35:46

So it's kind of, you know, got that like richness and um, Indian flavor.

Maya: 00:35:51

And then I, I, uh, do a really nice, rich, you know, cream and, and chocolate filling

Maya: 00:35:58

that has more garma salad in it too.

Maya: 00:36:02

So it's, yeah, it just looks like a chocolate tart, but once you

Maya: 00:36:04

get into it, it's got this like, ooh, sweet spice thing happening.

Maya: 00:36:08

Not too heavy handed, but just like, ah, it's there and it sort of intrigues you.

Maya: 00:36:13

So I love that one too.

Bruce: 00:36:15

Wow, that sounds absolutely delicious.

Bruce: 00:36:17

Everything in this book, um, is going to make.

Bruce: 00:36:20

People who read it want to eat more Indian food and you're making it more accessible.

Bruce: 00:36:24

And thank you for that.

Bruce: 00:36:25

Maya Kamal, your new book, Indian Flavor Every Day.

Bruce: 00:36:28

It is just a beautiful book.

Bruce: 00:36:31

Fabulous recipes.

Bruce: 00:36:32

Thank you for spending some time with me talking about it today.

Bruce: 00:36:35

Thank you.

Bruce: 00:36:35

It

Maya: 00:36:35

was such a pleasure.

Mark: 00:36:36

Well, I love.

Mark: 00:36:38

Yeah.

Mark: 00:36:38

I mean, what do I, what do you wanna say about Maya?

Mark: 00:36:40

I don't know.

Mark: 00:36:41

I mean, uh, well, she's articulate, she's entrepreneurial.

Bruce: 00:36:45

I have to have her and her husband over a dinner.

Bruce: 00:36:47

I know she's, I'm not making them Indian too guy.

Mark: 00:36:48

She's kind of the whole package.

Mark: 00:36:50

I mean, she's aggressive, entrepreneurial, businesswoman, cook, pork author.

Mark: 00:36:55

It's kind of amazing.

Mark: 00:36:56

Yeah, it's a great story that she's got.

Mark: 00:36:58

And, um, I love that book.

Mark: 00:36:59

So, Before we get to our last segment of this podcast, let me just say

Mark: 00:37:04

that it would be great if you could rate and subscribe to this podcast.

Mark: 00:37:07

If you rate it, you drop right down on the Apple, Google, um, Spotify menus.

Mark: 00:37:11

You can find out how to give it stars.

Mark: 00:37:14

Well, can I ask for five?

Mark: 00:37:16

Five would be great.

Mark: 00:37:17

And if you drop a comment, that would be fantastic.

Mark: 00:37:19

Even just nice podcast, are really enjoying it.

Mark: 00:37:22

Thank you.

Mark: 00:37:22

It really helps.

Mark: 00:37:23

It's a way to support this otherwise unsupported podcast, as is traditional.

Mark: 00:37:28

Our last segment.

Mark: 00:37:29

What's making us happy in food this week?

Bruce: 00:37:34

Canadian Ice Wine.

Bruce: 00:37:36

Yum.

Bruce: 00:37:36

We had some friends over for dinner.

Bruce: 00:37:38

Uh, that's so specific.

Bruce: 00:37:39

Well, last week we had some friends over for dinner.

Bruce: 00:37:41

Yeah.

Bruce: 00:37:41

And one of our friends, her kids, one of her kids lives in Toronto

Bruce: 00:37:45

and so every time she comes home, they stop at duty free and she

Bruce: 00:37:48

gets all these bottles of ice wine.

Mark: 00:37:50

Wow.

Mark: 00:37:50

Toronto, wait.

Mark: 00:37:52

Love Toronto.

Mark: 00:37:54

Bruce and I spent some time.

Bruce: 00:37:54

Is Toronto making you happy in food this week?

Mark: 00:37:56

Oh gosh, no.

Mark: 00:37:57

But I don wanted to say that Bruce and I spent some time late last year in Toronto

Mark: 00:38:01

and we ate ourselves into oblivion.

Mark: 00:38:04

If you wanna have an excellent food trip, let me recommend Toronto.

Mark: 00:38:08

Okay.

Mark: 00:38:09

So ice wine.

Bruce: 00:38:09

So she brought this bottle of, Inniskillin to have, uh, after dinner

Bruce: 00:38:14

with I had made a prime rib for dinner.

Bruce: 00:38:16

And I made, mark made three pies for dessert.

Bruce: 00:38:19

I did and I opened this Inis K and it was absolutely delicious.

Bruce: 00:38:23

Um, in fact, Passover is coming up and I was making HIIT for Passover

Bruce: 00:38:28

and I put a little splash of this inis kiln that was left into the roast

Bruce: 00:38:31

cuz you have to put some sweet wine.

Bruce: 00:38:32

So, It is a delicious thing and it's making me happy.

Mark: 00:38:35

And you are listening to this.

Mark: 00:38:37

It was recorded before Passover.

Bruce: 00:38:39

Oh yeah.

Bruce: 00:38:40

Passover is done,

Mark: 00:38:40

it's after Passover.

Mark: 00:38:42

But there you are.

Mark: 00:38:42

rosh hashana is coming.

Mark: 00:38:43

That's we record them.

Mark: 00:38:46

What's hap making me happy in food this week is a recipe from Maya Kamal's book.

Mark: 00:38:50

It's a b, it's a recipe that I picked out of the book when Bruce got the

Mark: 00:38:54

book and it's a recipe for ground Turkey and sweet potatoes and peas.

Mark: 00:38:58

And we had it, we actually had it twice this week.

Mark: 00:39:01

Got it.

Mark: 00:39:01

One night and then we had it.

Mark: 00:39:03

Leftovers.

Mark: 00:39:03

And, um, this is, here's a shocker for you.

Mark: 00:39:06

We had it over white rice the first night and brown rice the second night, and I

Mark: 00:39:09

liked it over brown rice Even better.

Mark: 00:39:11

Yeah.

Mark: 00:39:12

Than white rice.

Bruce: 00:39:12

I did too.

Bruce: 00:39:13

Well, I made it over basma rice the first night and Basma rice is delicious.

Bruce: 00:39:16

Mm-hmm.

Bruce: 00:39:17

And it's lovely.

Bruce: 00:39:17

Uh, it's a very dry rice.

Bruce: 00:39:19

It's very long grain.

Bruce: 00:39:20

It's sweet.

Bruce: 00:39:21

You're.

Mark: 00:39:22

Pakistani Bama is, yeah, super long grain.

Bruce: 00:39:25

And then we had it the second night over a medium grain brown

Bruce: 00:39:28

rice, which the texture's not as dry.

Bruce: 00:39:31

It's almost chewy.

Bruce: 00:39:32

Um, and it's really delicious.

Bruce: 00:39:34

Not as sweet.

Bruce: 00:39:35

So the sweetness of the curry balanced so beautifully with the brown rice.

Bruce: 00:39:38

It was, I agree with you.

Bruce: 00:39:39

I liked it better with brown rice.

Mark: 00:39:40

I, I was a delicious dish.

Mark: 00:39:42

It was a little shocking ground.

Mark: 00:39:44

Turkey potatoes, sweet potatoes, uh, peas,

Bruce: 00:39:48

jalapenos,

Mark: 00:39:49

onions in curry, but.

Mark: 00:39:50

And it wasn't a coconut Macy, it wasn't a creamy curry.

Bruce: 00:39:53

It was no coconut.

Bruce: 00:39:53

It was fresh tomatoes.

Bruce: 00:39:55

Yeah.

Bruce: 00:39:55

Yeah.

Bruce: 00:39:56

Hmm.

Bruce: 00:39:57

I no know what else.

Bruce: 00:39:58

There were fresh tomatoes.

Bruce: 00:39:59

And start again.

Bruce: 00:40:01

No, it wasn't cooked.

Bruce: 00:40:03

There were fresh tomatoes in it, which broke down into a bit of a sauce.

Bruce: 00:40:07

Mm-hmm.

Bruce: 00:40:07

And it was almost, I hadn't, I didn't even want to say this, but it sort of like,

Bruce: 00:40:12

was a southern Indian sloppy Joe in a way.

Bruce: 00:40:15

Well,

Mark: 00:40:15

yeah.

Mark: 00:40:15

I kept thinking about it as some kind of weirdly curried stir fry.

Mark: 00:40:20

Yeah.

Mark: 00:40:20

Um, but it.

Mark: 00:40:22

Really delicious.

Mark: 00:40:23

Bruce made a dried apricot and cucumber raita, you know, with yogurt to go on top

Bruce: 00:40:29

of it.

Bruce: 00:40:30

Even Mayas says in the, even, even Maya says in the book that one of the

Bruce: 00:40:34

nice things to do with it is to have it as the base of a shepherd pie.

Bruce: 00:40:37

So you put that in a baking pan and cover it with mashed white potatoes.

Bruce: 00:40:40

And then Reba, it says, lots of things you could do with this.

Bruce: 00:40:42

It's really delicious.

Bruce: 00:40:43

It, it is

Mark: 00:40:44

delicious recipe.

Mark: 00:40:45

So that's, Podcast for this week.

Mark: 00:40:47

Thank you for joining us.

Mark: 00:40:48

Thank you for being on this journey with us.

Mark: 00:40:50

We really appreciate it.

Mark: 00:40:52

We know that the podcast landscape is incredibly crowded with 50,000

Mark: 00:40:56

podcasts coming online every day.

Mark: 00:40:59

We are absolutely honored that you would be part of this

Bruce: 00:41:02

with us, and we hope you will download another episode of Cookie

Bruce: 00:41:05

Bruce and Mark next week and the week after and the week after that.

Bruce: 00:41:08

And we'll see back for another episode, cooking with Brew and Mark.