Hot Stove Society: Quick and Easy Desserts + Vietnamese Crepes

Hot Stove Radio

In this episode of Hot Stove Society, hosts Tom Douglas and Bridget Charters explore a diverse range of culinary delights, from seasonal harvests

Key takeaways

• Julie O'Brien, founder of Firefly Kitchens, discusses the probiotic benefits of lacto-fermented foods like sauerkraut and kimchi.
• Chef Annie Elmore explains that traditional Vietnamese crepes use rice flour, cornstarch, and turmeric for color instead of eggs or wheat.

Main topics

• Cold Sauces
• Fermentation and Probiotics

Notable quotes

You don't win friends with salad.

Conclusion

The episode provides practical culinary inspiration and educational in

Transcript preview

Speaker 8 (0:00) Can't you have some other kind of party? One where you don't serve meat? Speaker 1 (0:03) I'm trying to impress people here, Lisa. You don't win friends with salad. You Speaker 8 (0:06) don't win friends with salad. You don't win friends with salad. You Speaker 2 (0:10) don't win friends with salad. You don't win friends with salad. You don't win friends with salad. You don't win friends with salad. You don't win friends with salad. You don't win friends with salad. You don't win friends Speaker 8 (0:19) with salad. You don't win friends Speaker 2 (0:19) with salad. Speaker 8 (0:20) You don't win friends with salad. Captain Teague and Caesar Salad. Good old Beverly Speaker 3 (0:27) Hills. With every deal that's done, an award is won. You can rent a car, rent a star. Speaker 1 (0:37) Welcome to the Hot Stove Society show on Cairo Radio. Speaker 1 (0:42) I'm Tom Douglas. And I'm Chef Bridget Charters. We've got Becky in the producer chair this morning, Sean on the technical, and we're going to have a big two-hour show for you. Hopefully you're picking some tomatoes right now. It's that time of year. The Speaker 5 (0:55) last of them, right? Got to get Speaker 1 (0:56) them before the rain hits. Yeah. Speaker 5 (0:58) Which Speaker 1 (0:58) is supposed to be this weekend. So I know at the farm when we get a big squall or two, it starts to crack the tomatoes, and we don't like that. Burst. Burst open on. Anyway, we have a two-hour show for you. We're coming to you from the beautiful Hot Stove Society Kitchen Studios in downtown Seattle at the Hotel Andra, which is our host hotel here. It's also where we have Lola Restaurant across the street from Dahlia Bakery and Sirius Pie and Neb. Yum. Speaker 5 (1:27) Neb Speaker 1 (1:28) Italian. Becky? Speaker 5 (1:29) Yes, Tom? Speaker 1 (1:30) What are we having for breakfast this morning? Speaker 5 (1:32) We're having a Spanish tortilla, chorizo sausage. I love how they do the chard. Speaker 1 (1:38) How do they do the chard? They separate Speaker 5 (1:39) the stem that I used to throw away before I knew better. Speaker 1 (1:42) And Speaker 5 (1:42) then they chop everything up small and they do the stems first, then do the leaves. Cook them until Speaker 1 (1:47) they're tender because the leaves go in a minute. Yes. Yeah, so it's very, very much a nose to tail when it comes to chard. Good Speaker 5 (1:55) thing. Speaker 1 (1:55) Yeah. So you can have that delicious breakfast. Go to hotstovesociety.com, buy a ticket and join us like these fine folks in our studio have done. You can also watch us tape or record. Loretta keeps yelling at me when I say tape. Record our show on the YouTube channel. Go to Tom Douglas and Company. Just click on the live Speaker 5 (2:14) button. On Speaker 1 (2:15) the live button. It's better than the dead button. Upcoming classes here. You know, we are a cooking school, both social and we also do corporate events. Masa Masters with Chef Bridget Charters, one of our co-hosts today. On October the 10th. Speaker 5 (2:31) Yay. Speaker 1 (2:32) It's a fun class. We've been running it since the beginning. I know. You've been teaching that class for 11 years now. That's great. Pretty soon you'll get it down. Exactly. We've got a lunch coming up honoring Thierry Rautereau, November the 17th. Becky, what are we going to have on that menu? Speaker 5 (2:47) Well, it's pretty cool. It's a different, his birthday is a little bit earlier because of travel. We're going to celebrate Thierry a little later. And, oh my gosh, Dijon mustard grilled pork steak, pomegranate drizzle. Pomme Anna, ruby chard. Speaker 1 (3:02) Very Frenchy. I don't cook very Frenchy very often, but for the chef and the chapeau, you got to do it. You got Speaker 5 (3:07) to pull it all out. So Speaker 1 (3:08) it's a three-course lunch. It's right after the show on November the 17th. It's $100. All $100 goes right to the IPF, Idiopathic Pulmonary Foundation Research Fund, which is what he passed away from. Yeah, that's nice. Speaker 5 (3:22) This will be the third annual. Third or fourth? Speaker 1 (3:25) Third. Third annual. Great lunch. I miss that man. You can check out all of our classes here at the Hot Stove. Go to hotstovesociety.com. September 20th is National Pepperoni Pizza Day. Did we have Cheeseburger Day yet? Speaker 8 (3:40) No, it is September Speaker 4 (3:41) 18th. I Speaker 8 (3:41) can't keep up. Speaker 5 (3:42) I Speaker 8 (3:42) know. You guys have a lot going on. Well, by the time this airs, yes, we will have Cheeseburger Speaker 1 (3:45) Day. So then we have to celebrate National Pepperoni Pizza Day. Serious Pie is celebrating with three kinds of pepperoni on one pizza. Oh, my God. Wow. Coral pepperoni, Zoe's uncured pepperoni, and Liguria crisp and curl pepperoni. I'm getting a stomachache just thinking about it. It's with serious pies, house tomato sauce, and aged provolone, which to me, of all the serious pie little tricks that we do, because, you know, about how we cook and how we age, all that kind of thing, I think our aged provolone really... Shines. It shines. It really is delicious. Negroni Week. Taylor is joining us on the mic. She's our social media director. Tell us about Negroni Week. Speaker 8 (4:24) So Negroni Week is September 21st through September 27th. A lot of our restaurants are participating in this event. And so we are featuring some really fun spins and different twists on our favorite little drink, the Negroni. Some of our restaurants that are participating is the Carlisle Room, Palace Kitchen, Lola. Neb, where if you haven't been to Neb, we're known for our Negroni. So highly recommend. This is our bread and butter, our specialty. Make sure you go to Neb. Serious Pie downtown in Totem Lake. We already have Negronis there, but we're featuring some extra Negronis. So make sure you check it out. And then Half Shell as well. And Speaker 1 (5:06) I know Half Shell has phony Negronis too. I'm not sure if everyone's going to have phony Negronis during the week. For the non-alcoholic. Yeah. Oh, great. Great. I would imagine each of the restaurants will have an N.A. version of some sort. They Speaker 8 (5:18) do. And actually, I'm really excited for Lola's because their N.A. Negroni is called Get Off Milan. And honestly, I just want to drink it because of the name. Sounds like a Clint Speaker 1 (5:29) Eastwood movie. Speaker 8 (5:31) Yes. So that Negroni is going to have Monday's non-alcoholic gin, Giffard, Aperitif, and then Cabernet Verjus. Sounds fun. And this is a national. It is. Speaker 5 (5:43) Restaurants all around the country are doing this, which raises money for slow food. Yes. Speaker 1 (5:48) Slow food celebrates kind of ancestral, what's the word I want? Begins with an A. Speaker 5 (5:57) It's just a good thing to do. Slow food has Speaker 1 (5:59) been around for a long time, and they celebrate the artistry of cooking and foods, natural foods. Thank you, Taylor. Speaker 5 (6:06) Thank you. Speaker 1 (6:07) Today's show is going to include cold sauces that make the dish. I know my favorite. Speaker 5 (6:13) You're going to tell us now? Speaker 1 (6:14) Peanut sauce. Speaker 5 (6:15) Peanut sauce. Like Speaker 1 (6:15) Chinese-style peanut sauce. Oh, Speaker 6 (6:17) that's a good idea. The Speaker 1 (6:18) Flavor of Fermentation with Julie O'Brien, founder of Firefly Kitchens. Savory Vietnamese Crepes with Chef Annie Elmore. I think we're going to battle a little bit, Annie and I, because I have my favorite. The ones that I buy when I go to a Vietnamese restaurant and how I eat them. So I'm curious. I'm curious it's the same. Back to school with Chef Kim Smith, Culinary Instructor at Seattle Public Schools. Quick and easy desserts. Kevin Morton and David Wildman, co-owners of Flight Wine and Chocolate on the Art of Pairing. Those fine things. And of course, we're going to wrap up the show with food for thought, tasty trivia brought to you by Rub With Love Spice Rubs. Sounds great. Yeah, exactly. So, taste of the week. Do you want to go first or do you want me to go? I'm happy to go. So, we are blessed with so many good bakeries in this town. I love our seed bread at the Dahlia Bakery. I love the garlic cheesy rolls from Macrina. So, we use a lot of Como from Grand Central down in Lola for our toast program. But I've been buying the Seawolf sourdough because the sourdough that we make at home doesn't always come out in the same kind of Speaker 5 (7:29) way. Speaker 1 (7:29) Would Speaker 5 (7:29) Jackie Speaker 1 (7:29) agree? Yeah, Jackie's listening right now. I'm not saying anything she doesn't know. She's been working at it, though. I mean, she's... She just made three loaves this morning at the farm. Oh, wow. Yeah. But anyway, I think what people forget about when you buy fresh bread, whether it's at the market or not, is to take it home, slice it fresh, it's a toast-sized pieces, and then pop it in the freezer. And just keep it in that pristine way. Speaker 4 (7:54) Oh, Speaker 1 (7:54) good idea. And then you just pop it in the toaster, and I have that delicious French salted butter. That bread and a slather. I'm not talking about a little dipsy-do here. I'm talking a slather. Of the French salted butter with the big crystals in it. I love that one. Oh, my God. A little Speaker 5 (8:10) blue and white checks on the coffee. It's just a Speaker 1 (8:11) fabulous way to start the day. That's true. Speaker 6 (8:14) A cup of Speaker 1 (8:14) coffee. Speaker 6 (8:15) Lordy, lordy. Well, and I'd add one thing, which is like fresh apricot preserves from your tree. Like piled on there, too. I Speaker 1 (8:22) just bought some Morello cherry preserves. Anyway, I was out of jam. You? I had guests at house. They asked for some jam for their sourdough toast. And I opened up the jar and it was all moldy. It's been in there a while. Oh. So I was out of jam. But anyway, yeah, exactly. Speaker 6 (8:42) So my taste is one out of your playbook, Tom, except it wasn't cabbage. It was grape leaves. A girlfriend of mine's got some grape vines she let go. And the leaves were green and soft and big and beautiful. So I harvested a bunch and stored them in. paper towels and a Ziploc. And so a couple of nights ago, I blanched them off and set them out on a cookie sheet. And I made a lamb filling, kind of like Lola used to do with rice and lamb and lemon zest. I filled the grape leaves, put a little tomato sauce down in the Pyrex and bake those off. The family was a little alarmed. They're like, should we eat the grape leaves? But I put Swiss chard in and just veggies that I had that were starting to go. And I just chopped and sauteed everything and then baked them for about 45 minutes. Delicious. You Speaker 1 (9:31) do have to bake them a while because those leaves, they don't tenderize very easily. Yeah. Speaker 6 (9:35) Super delicious. But it was just one of those meals where it was like, okay, let's clean up the fridge. Tom's playbook. Well, Speaker 1 (9:43) there's only a certain time of year you can actually harvest those that are good. Like right now it's too late. Well, in my opinion, generally. Normally, yeah. Yeah. What Speaker 5 (9:51) happens to them? They start to dry out. They get tough. Speaker 1 (9:54) They're deciduous like anything else. So they'll start to die and turn color and dry Speaker 5 (9:59) out. Speaker 1 (9:59) So you want the new Speaker 6 (10:00) fresh ones. You want the new growth. I like the Speaker 1 (10:01) fresher ones. Yeah, you want Speaker 6 (10:02) the new growth and they need to be a soft kind of tender green color. And they were huge. It was crazy. Speaker 1 (10:11) You're right. You literally just blanch them in boiling water and you can store them in a brine like a pickle. You don't need any flavorings on them because you're going to add that later. But, yeah, I love dolmas. We have a black currant and pine nut dolma downstairs at Lola. Oh, really? And it's quite delicious. And is Speaker 6 (10:30) that in grape leaves or in zucchini or something? It's in grape leaves, and then Speaker 1 (10:33) we serve it with tzatziki. Speaker 6 (10:35) Sounds good. Which might be Speaker 1 (10:36) my favorite condiment. And the best one that I have found in the marketplace, if you're not going to make yours, there's a brand out of Wisconsin of all places called Odyssey. And their tzatziki in the marketplace is pretty darn good. Where do you get that? Any grocery store, high-end grocery. Cool. Sounds good. They make a whipped feta dip. They make labna, laban. Labna, yeah. Labna, which is a yogurt cheese. Heavily strained. Yeah. And then also the tzatziki. I'm sure they make more than that, but it looks like maybe it's a big company. So I was surprised that it was as good as it was. Yeah. All right, cold sauces that transform a dish. When we come back on Cairo Radio, the Hot Stove Society Show, 97.3 FM. Speaker 8 (11:22) I'm going to go home, and I'm going to eat those grapes. La, la, la, la, grapes. Okay, Speaker 1 (12:11) we're back again. It's the Hot Stove Society Radio Show. Speaker 1 (12:18) We are rattling along here, getting a fast start, shall we? Let's Speaker 5 (12:24) do it. Speaker 1 (12:24) Becky, what brought up cold sausage to you? It's really, we're starting to think about fall here. Speaker 5 (12:29) Right, I thought about this a little while ago. But also, when you're doing any kind of meat or veggie or protein, a cold sauce can really transform a dish. Speaker 1 (12:39) Right. Give me an example that gets you worked up, because I have a couple in my mind. Speaker 5 (12:44) I love doing green sauces, chimichurri, pesto. I mean, we talked about pesto last week. Speaker 1 (12:49) Right. But Speaker 5 (12:49) also a lot of these you can make ahead. You know, me make ahead. Mm-hmm. Tzatziki, another good one. Speaker 1 (12:55) Good cold sauce. I was thinking, you know, I said in the opening about peanut sauce. Speaker 5 (12:59) Yes, I love that. Speaker 1 (13:01) Peanut sauce is so good. It really is good, and you just have to make sure it doesn't separate because it feels oily if it separates. Right. But when I opened the restaurant Cafe Sport as the chef and GM in 1983, 84, I think January, I put cold peanut noodles on the menu because it's something I got in Chinatown all the time and loved it, but nobody... No Caucasian people really knew anything about it. It's like casu cab was the same thing. I put it on. Right. It was my favorite dish at Mikado restaurant down at 5th and Jackson. And you didn't see it on any Caucasian menus. And so I got this funny little reputation for being a Caucasian Asian. Speaker 5 (13:41) Because Speaker 1 (13:41) I really loved the food. I love cooking in the walks and I love bamboo steamers. Were Speaker 5 (13:47) they popular? Speaker 1 (13:48) Super popular. And I did them. I did a big. a lot of them on a plate, and then you got to choose your topping. There was a version of, say, like teriyaki chicken, grilled eggplant, salmon, sake, lees, salmon. It's just things like that right on top of the chilled noodles, and it became our most popular dish. That's wonderful. What's in the Speaker 6 (14:07) peanut sauce? Is it peanut butter? Well, Speaker 1 (14:09) it's peanut butter, mirin, rice vinegar, chili paste. Oh. Soy sauce? You Speaker 6 (14:14) can Speaker 1 (14:14) make it as hot or as cold as you want. Soy sauce. At that point in my life, I didn't know much about fish sauce. And typical Chinese, it's not, doesn't have fish sauce in it, but it's got the rice wine, you know, that red label. Right. Chinese wine. What are the, I don't remember what the name of Speaker 5 (14:30) that is. Speaker 1 (14:30) Shaoxing? Something like that, yeah. And Speaker 5 (14:32) so when you make it, you said it separates. Do you just use a whisk? I Speaker 1 (14:35) use a whisk and I use the touch of warm water. Speaker 5 (14:37) Oh, that's a good trick. Speaker 1 (14:38) Just a touch, because peanut butter sometimes will, kind of like sugar does. Separate, kind of. Or it gets firm. Firm up, yeah. So Speaker 5 (14:48) one thing I do. It's probably cheating, but I like it. I put it in a Ninja, kind of a small blender. I blend it up so much that it's really thick and it stays together. It lasts in the fridge for weeks. Speaker 1 (15:00) Yeah, it's delicious. Of course, there's the Thai one that's got the coconut milk base with peanut butter also. Speaker 6 (15:06) So, Becky, what did you make that made you think of these cold sauces? Were you grilling chicken or something, and you were like, I've got to put something else with this? What made you think of this? Last Speaker 1 (15:15) week we Speaker 5 (15:15) talked about how to use all the herbs, the last of the summer herbs. So we talked about chimichurris and pestos. And, again, I love making sauces and sharing them. Speaker 1 (15:24) And Speaker 5 (15:24) so cold sauces, you know, warm sauce is a whole different subject. That's technique. Where cold sauces is more rendered. Speaker 1 (15:31) Well, Speaker 5 (15:31) it's Speaker 1 (15:31) just different. Speaker 5 (15:32) Easy peasy. Annie Speaker 1 (15:34) makes a delicious nuk cham. Speaker 5 (15:36) Right. And Speaker 1 (15:36) that to me is, that's a lime juice, garlic, gingers, a little green chili sauce, I would say. I often will add maybe a little grapefruit juice for the floral quality. But that on a Thai beef salad, which is a room temperature salad, it's not necessarily chilled cold, but it's Speaker 4 (15:52) a Speaker 1 (15:52) room temperature salad. That is a delicious. Mouth sensation. You and Loretta talked about that on the coleslaw. The Speaker 5 (15:58) lime juice Speaker 1 (15:58) puckers up. Yeah. Yeah, it's just, it's the best. Speaker 5 (16:00) What about you, Bridget? As far as coleslaw? Speaker 6 (16:02) Salsa Verde. When you said chimichurri, I mean, I, for years would do, when I was catering and stuff, I would always do grilled, just whole sides of grilled salmon. I'd make salsa Verde and it was so easy. So what's the Speaker 5 (16:14) process for salsa Verde? Speaker 6 (16:15) Just similar to your herb sauces, I would just fire up the blender and then... Use bunches of parsley, bunches of oregano, whatever I had in the garden or could get a hold of, you know, from the pea patch and anything, basil, name it, rosemary, sage. You know, the harder herbs, you've got to chop them a little bit first, but it's nice in a high speed blender. Herbs go in, olive oil, a little bit of water, lemon juice, capers and their juice. Anchovies. Anchovies and garlic and lemon zest and just high speed. And that stays bright and green and beautiful in the fridge. Right. Yeah. And it's great. Grilled chicken, grilled steak, fish. That sounds great. Speaker 5 (17:04) Do you remember when Brock at summer camp did the big aioli? Speaker 1 (17:08) Sure. Oh, yeah. Grand aioli. Speaker 5 (17:10) Grand aioli. Yes, that was super fun. Aioli Speaker 1 (17:13) works for anything. It does. Essentially. And my favorite thing is when people write on a menu garlic aioli, which of course is a... Speaker 5 (17:21) Redundant. Speaker 1 (17:22) Redundant. It's like saying chai tea. Aioli is garlic mayonnaise. Yeah, it is. Yeah. But anyway, so aioli can go with anything. His grand aioli... It's a classic French dish. It's basically crudités. Everything you've got done crudités style, which is carrot sticks, celery, fennel, you name it. Grilled eggplant skewers, whatever it is. Speaker 5 (17:44) You also had hard-boiled eggs, maybe, and shrimp. You can do anything. Anything. Yeah. Just a cold slice of beef. Almost Speaker 1 (17:51) always, though, grand aioli is just vegetables that I have seen in my time. Radishes. Yeah, you can expand it out to any way you want. Yeah, aioli is a perfect cold sauce. Got to remember, cold sauces are often pre-cooked. So what Speaker 5 (18:07) do you mean? Speaker 1 (18:07) So for example, like a hoisin barbecue sauce. Okay. I take hoisin sauce, which is basically fermented mung bean paste with miso. And I add orange juice, fresh ginger, garlic, orange zest, chili paste. Now I've got my hoisin barbecue sauce. So you know that I could put that, I could drizzle that into my pho. A lot of times you'll see in a pho restaurant, there's always hoisin on the table. Yeah. You could. spread it on your grilled ribs and glaze it onto your ribs. You can use it like ketchup. Hoisin is basically Chinese ketchup. So you could dip your soy sauce chicken from the barbecue window in Chinatown. You could dip it right into a little bit of hoisin sauce. So again, it's just one of those things that you have to think about. A cold sauce isn't necessarily just, say, a yogurt. Like when you were talking about yogurt tzatziki, I was thinking raita with a curried lamb chop. that Indian style curry yogurt, cold. Speaker 5 (19:07) But it goes on a hot lamb chop. It Speaker 1 (19:09) goes Speaker 5 (19:09) on a hot, right. So raita, you said has curry in it, but does it have cucumber as well? Speaker 1 (19:15) I don't, mine doesn't. Yeah, raita doesn't have curry in it. It can have curry, I'll say that. Because it can also, you can just add little things that resemble curry to it. Speaker 6 (19:26) Yeah, it's like the Indian version of Speaker 1 (19:29) tzatziki. Speaker 6 (19:30) Yeah, yeah. But it's cool because if you've got that stuff in the fridge, excuse me, it's easy to just take a scoop, put it with your hard-boiled eggs in the morning. You know, the thing I wanted to go back to the Grand Aioli, the thing that kind of blows my mind, and I didn't really think about it, is that when you look at videos, when they do the Grand Aioli, it has to be done in a mortar and pestle. It has to be done in a mortar and pestle. You mean the garlic? In Speaker 1 (19:56) France. Speaker 6 (19:56) Like, they're like, oh, you know. And they whip it with that, the pestle. And it's amazing how much action they get in that mortar and pestle making that aioli. And it's like garlic. Speaker 5 (20:11) So Terry would be mad at me with the immersion blender. It's just so easy. I Speaker 1 (20:15) think what Bridget's saying is that it gives you a different texture. And it's a little chunkier and more intense. Yeah. When you bite into a little chunk of garlic compared to having it whizzed about a cup or two of olive oil. That's all she's saying, really. Yeah, Speaker 6 (20:29) it's just, yeah, the consistency's different. It's really strong. It's pungent. It's, you know, it's delicious. Speaker 1 (20:37) It's amazing. I used mine yesterday. I was making fresh Prosser Farm tomato sauce. Oh, Speaker 5 (20:43) fun. Yeah. So you got things going and you just put it in the pot? Speaker 1 (20:46) Yeah, I just blanched the tomatoes real quick to get the skins off and then chopped them all up and put them in the pot. They were just left over from a birthday party that we did. I didn't want to throw away the extra sliced tomatoes for the cheese buggers. And so I just put everything, the extra tomatoes and the sliced tomatoes into a pot. Then whizzed it up, cooked it down, and now I have a delicious tomato sauce in my freezer. And Speaker 5 (21:08) how cool is it? That sounds lovely. How cool is it that immersion blenders are now cordless? Speaker 1 (21:12) I love it. Oh, I haven't. I can't wait for Milwaukee tools to come out with a whole line of kitchen sets because I'm a Milwaukee man.