Radio Kitchen

September 16, 2014 - Radio Kitchen - Market Report

Apples are the September specialty crop.

Right about now we are seeing a very detectable transition from summer to autumn, especially in the markets.  On the one hand there is amazing abundance, but on the other some items are going out of season for the year, so you may have to move fast for some of your favorite things.

September 9, 2014 - Radio Kitchen - Cobblers, Crisps and Crumbles

If you're by nature patient and optimistic, this time of the year is the big pay-off.  We all love summer, but that humidity is just a killer.  So when we start to detect those first cool breezes of Autumn, we all indulge in a quiet little smile, take a deep breath and think, "bring it on."  And along with these first cooler days comes the richest season in Maryland for fruit.  And Chef Jerry Pelligrino of Waterfront Kitchen suggests  some very nice ways of enjoying the harvest.

September 2, 2014 - Radio Kitchen - Canning and Pickling the Summer's Best

Well you can't eat it all.  Nope.  This time of year, there is so much good food out there that you need a long term plan to handle it all.  So that's why we invented pickling and canning, and Chef Jerry Pellegrino of Waterfront Kitchen knows all about this stuff.

August 26, 2014 - Radio Kitchen - Eggplant

One of the more eye-catching vegetables you'll see in the market is the eggplant.  These days, local farmers have moved far past the elongated deep purple standard varieties, and they are bringing out an amazing assortment of shapes and colors that are sure to delight you.  And as Chef Jerry Pelligrino of Waterfront Kitchen notes, a backyard chef couldn't help but feel inspired by all these different varieties.

August 19, 2014 - Radio Kitchen - Recipes from Old Arabia

One of the best aspects of Maryland's locally produced food is that it supports a wide variety of cuisines.  Classic French, check; Indian curries, check;  Mexican, check.  And how about the cuisine of Medieval Arabia?  Well, Chef Jerry Pelligrino of Waterfront Kitchen, I happen to have a wonderful little book called Scheherazade’s Feast by Habib Saloum (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013) and friends, and it actually researched ancient cooking ideas from the Middle East and adapted them to the modern kitchen.
 

August 12, 2014 - Radio Kitchen - Grill Mates: Part Two

Last week we talked about working some inspiration into our grilling.   With all the incredible local produce available, it's fun to get creative out on the back deck.  Using Emeril Lagasse's very useful cookbook "Emeril at the Grill" as a guide, we also tapped into the wealth of knowledge that Chef Jerry Pellegrino of Waterfront Kitchen brings to the table.  As we said last week, our fabulous locally grown produce offers nearly infinite possibilities.  So, we are marrying up a featured protein with a dynamite sauce or a killer summer salad.

August 5, 2014 - Radio Kitchen - Grill Mates: Part One

It goes without saying that we are in the middle of grilling season, and our local markets are bursting with fresh, local produce.  Our natural inclination is to blend the two together, but we sometimes need a little inspiration. And between Chef Jerry Pellegrino of Waterfront Kitchen,  and Emeril, we have a lot of inspiration.  

July 29, 2014 - Radio Kitchen - Market Galette

I've has become a big fan of taking vacations in Normandy, France.  There is something about the gentle Norman countryside that really appeals to me, and believe me you do eat well over there.  And one of the most popular items in Normandy threw Jerry a curve ball the first time I ever mentioned it, and that is the galette. 

July 22, 2014 - Radio Kitchen - Heirloom Radishes and Carrots
    
Our national celebration has just past, so it's a good time to consider the great heritage America's farms have bestowed upon us.  During this season of tomatoes, corn and watermelons, it's easy to overlook a pair of bit players in the summer, and that would be radishes and carrots.   But we've now started to see some heirloom varieties of these garden greats.

  July 15, 2014 - Radio Kitchen - Leeks, Green Onions and Garlic Scapes

Summer is a time for some pretty serious salad making and some pretty serious grilling.  Most salads need a little zing, and the various members of the onion family were put on earth to do just that.  And we shouldn't be surprised that a lot of these oniony veggies can serve multiple roles.  Chef Jerry Pelligrino of The Waterfront Kitchen filled us in on some of the things we should look out for.

July 1, 2014 - Radio Kitchen - Traveling Spice Kit

Summer is the time to travel and whether you travel within the state, hit the wide open highways of America or fly abroad, you're going to want to eat.  Of course, dining out is a big part of the fun of travel, but you might want to do a little home cooking too.

June 24, 2014 - Radio Kitchen - Rhubarb 
    
We've tipped into summer and the farms of Maryland are sending all sort of fabulous food to the markets.  One of the more dramatic vegetables you'll find out there this time of year is rhubarb.  The long, bright crimson stalks of rhubarb look incredible, but the problem always is:  what do you do with them?  And there's more to rhubarb than good old rhubarb-strawberry pie.

June 17, 2014 - Radio Kitchen - Spinach

Like a lot of folks of a certain age, I grew up watching Popeye the Sailorman and loving every minute of it.  But something baffled me:  the spinach thing.  If they were talking about the reeking, droopy, plop of who-knows-what that they served in school, it didn't make any sense.   My parents told me Popeye was the creation of the powerful spinach industry, but that may not have been true.  Research reveals that  Popeye was not created to sell spinach, but the cartoon's creators remembered their mothers saying, "Eat your spinach, it will make you strong!"  So it became Popeye's magic elixir.

June 10, 2014 - Radio Kitchen - Greens and Vinaigrettes: Part Two

We're going to be in salad season for quite some time now.  Two weeks ago we talked about the wide variety of greens that are grown here in Maryland.  For the next few months they're going to be available in abundance.  And we could spend a whole show talking about one of the most important components of a salad, and that would be vinegar.

June  3, 2014 - Radio Kitchen - Berries

One of the biggest cravings I have every spring is for fresh, local fruit.  Last year's apples are still available, that's true.  But I'm thinking of something a lot fresher and a lot juicier.  And it's just our luck that nature arranged for two succulent berries to be available this time of year:  strawberries and blueberries.

May 27, 2014 - Radio Kitchen - Greens and Vinaigrettes: Part One

One of the mainstays of the spring marketplace are salad greens.  These crisp, refreshing components of endless salad variations are among the first local items to arrive every year.  And when we start talking about building salads we should also talk about salad dressings, and in particular vinaigrette.

May 20, 2014 - Radio Kitchen - Primavera

I think in some ways this spring of 2014 is all the more welcome because of the severity of our winter.  For the last few weeks we've been enjoying wonderful weather, warm breezes and the miracle of our gardens coming back to life.  And as Chef Jerry Pellegrino of Waterfront Kitchen has observed, this long-awaited season of renewal ought to be celebrated somehow.  

May 13, 2014 - Radio Kitchen - The Herbs of Spring

Since the farmers' markets reopened this spring, one of the easiest things to find has been fresh herbs.  Now, herbs are great because they can be grown under cover, and a little bit of space can yield a lot of product. There are a lot of herbs out there to work with, but we don't always have an idea about what to do with them.

We also don't always have an idea how to preserve them for later use.

April 6, 2014 - Radio Kitchen - Spring Soups

Well, we've been to the market and we've seen what's available, and now it's time to come up with some ideas of what to do with all this Springtime food. And as Chef Jerry Pellegrino of Waterfront Kitchen has observed, there are few better uses than a Springtime soup for all this great produce. Here are a few ideas we've collected:

April 29, 2014 - Radio Kitchen - PICKLING, SALTING, AND BRINING

One of the frustrations of seasonal eating is that we can't always eat as much as we can buy; so the problem is, how can we save it to enjoy it later?  Salting and brining are two ancient techniques of preserving food, but sometimes the flavor changes are so significant that we might do it for the sake of the taste.  Chef Jerry Pelligrino of Waterfront Kitchen has thought a lot about this.

April 22, 2014 - Radio Kitchen - SPRING SALADS AND DRESSINGS

Spring is all about freshness, and the greens and salad fixings we are now seeing in the market are the epitome of that concept.  Salad making is to food what jazz is to music... it's all about inspiration, improvisation and going with the flow.  And so we thought it would be fun to hear a chef riff on this theme, and we invited Chef Ontaria Kirby of Clementine on the show.

April 15, 2014 - Radio Kitchen - MICRO-GREENS

When we dine out these days, there's something happening on the plate at good restaurants everywhere that might be easy to miss.  More and more chefs, and home cooks for that matter, are using something called "micro-greens" as ingredients and garnish. Easily mistaken for alfalfa sprouts, micro-greens are created during the infancy of an edible plant.  They usually have a wispy little stem and several small but flavor-packed leaves.  They are very easy to grow, requiring minimal space, and they come in a wide variety.

  April 8, 2014 - Radio Kitchen - Spring Potatoes

I'm unusually skeptical about the weather this year, and I wish I could feel more confident that spring truly has arrived.  In many ways this is like the beginning of a new year for us, with all of the springtime produce now in the pipeline.  And one thing I can't get off my mind are those lovely little tender white potatoes that we get this time of year.

April 2, 2014 - Radio Kitchen - Welcome, Spring

All right, the calendar page has turned.  It is officially April and it is well past the turn of the seasons, so let's have us some Spring!  The era of root vegetables, God bless 'em, is behind us, and the era of Primavera is at hand.  And as Chef Jerry Pellegrino of Waterfront Kitchen knows, cuisines all over the world know how to celebrate the coming of Spring.

 March 25, 2014 - Radio Kitchen - Creatures of the Deep   

Last week we talked about dishes from Spain that I hoped I would encounter when I go there next October.  This week we're going to cover some of the favorite foods of its neighbor, Portugal.  If you go online and peruse any Porutguese restaurant menu, you will find numerous references to octopus and squid.  And those of you who are veterans of spring break in Florida will remember another creature of the deep: conch.

Here is Jerry's favorite recipe for octopus, plus two other great recipes.

March 18, 2014 - Radio Kitchen -  Spanish Dishes

A little later this year I'm going to be going to Spain and Portugal, and in anticipation I've been looking up some recipes in my big book of Spanish cooking.  And as Chef Jerry Pellegrino of the Waterfront Kitchen knows, there's a lot to like about Spanish cooking.

March 11, 2014 - Radio Kitchen - Chowder with Chris Corbett
    
The question these days, of course, is will winter ever go away?  Right now a lot of us are suffering late winter blues, and we desperately need a cure. Which is exactly why we invited our friend Chris Corbett to join us.  He came by to buck us up with talk of chowder.

Chris is a native of Maine, and he carries his heritage with him wherever he goes.  During the winter months he loves to whip up a steaming bowl of New England style chowder (chow-dah, as he says) to keep body and soul together.

March 4, 2014 - Radio Kitchen - Raw Beef

Our topic this week may be something of a turn-off to some people, and something of interest to others.  Here's the deal:  every now and then, maybe once every two years, I get a hankering for a raw beef sandwich.  It's a taste I inherited directly from my father, so I think it's in my genes.  And Chef Jerry Pellegrino of the Waterfront Kitchen tells me that every time he puts Beef Tartare on the menu, it sells out.

February 25, 2014 - Radio Kitchen - The All-American Casserole

As winter keeps its icy grip on us, more and more often we seek comfort from our family dinners.  Everyone has a short list of favorite dishes that warm the soul as well as the belly.  I love a simple dish my father taught me, cabbage and noodles, and my mother's old standby, tuna noodle casserole.  In fact the All-American casserole is classic comfort food, and Chef Jerry Pellegrino of the Waterfront Kitchen uncovered a few delicious recipes. 

February 18, 2014 - Radio Kitchen - Scalloped Potatoes

There's no denying that this is the season of hearty eating, and along with our big old rib roasts and roasted chickens, there has to be something else on the plate.  And few dishes say "hearty" as well as a nice steaming casserole of scalloped potatoes.