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Simple Dishes w/ Kimberly Hasselbrink

A few basic kitchen gear you need to get started so another thing that could be really intimidating about the kitchen is that you know e feel like you think you need all these crazy, elaborate contraptions to make something good like oh you're new you need a vegetable spiral or like what's that I don't know um but you don't you only need a few simple things to get started and sort of if you when you are starting to get up to speed in the kitchen you know this section is put on the same level as your pantry section but this is sort of ground zero you can always build from here but you know you want to have a solid foundation just so that any given recipe that you do stumble upon you can tackle pretty easily so on that note I'm one solid chef's knife you guys know a chef's knife are so we have one over here I don't see one but they're the fairly large just simple blade they tend to be a curved blades you can rock up and down just one of those it doesn't have to be super expensive a decen...

t one will make you happier for sure but you know you spend fifty bucks and just to get a halfway decent chef's knife it'll really really help you in the kitchen there's nothing worse than that knives when smaller knife from paring knife for ah more delicate things you know for courting a strawberry for instance or peeling an apple one ah one big cutting board and I you know you don't need anything fancy don't need one of those big bamboo ones but just a nice big surface area so you can cut up lots of things big piles of vegetables, vegetables or big and I like to get one that has a little gutter around it so that your juices don't fall into the counter will process yeah ariel do you recommend great question I really enjoy would cutting boards they're a little bit more maintenance you have teo you know scrub them soon as you're done and oil them every once in a while if you don't feel like it's worth it yet just a plastic one is totally fine and the nice thing about the plastic ones is they can go in the dishwasher and you can really sterilize them for meat I almost always use plastic because it's just I don't want any bacteria anything going on there that's just not what I want to mess with me it's good that you can our plastic skin and then you can stick in the dishwasher um you need at least one frying pan I have nothing against nonstick cookware um I think it's much easier to clean and for a new cook I think it's probably the best option you have um I get a lot of questions about this you know, a lot of people I think are nervous about teflon or like the health concerns over a nonstick I am not sure well I really like a brand I found that doesn't use teflon is called scan pan and it's ah, you know, responsibly producing eco friendly and they worked lovely their little more pricey because they aren't tough lawn but I think for when you're just getting started, I think you know, starting with something that's easy to clean is really, really key because I think one of the other things people really hate about cooking as the cleanup and the easier you make that ahead of time again, the easier it'll be to do it I think they're even dishwasher safe great and in one big pot for boiling, you know, making those beans and grains that your pantry is full of and then um and then one latte one big roasting pan to make that cauliflower order uh roasted he meets or other veggies many, many questions and you anything you're wondering about did I not touch on that? The kitchen's talking at this is a basic question, but for the roasting pan, could you also use a cookie sheet or do you need, uh, u s o for the cauliflower? You can definitely it's a cookie sheet I often do if you're cooking though something like a chicken there's going to be a lot of juice and you for your if you're only have going to choose between one or two of one of those I would get the one with higher edges just to prevent spills it was the last thing you wanted to be like with the chicken and like all over the place I was so scared a roasted chicken by the way was one of the scariest things I've ever did you got guys roast chickens regularly yeah you d'oh you don't no no no no he wasn't rushed chickens why is it well some of your vegetarian? Oh, I just I just haven't gotten to it I roasted the turkey but not a chicken for some reason I never thought about it, right? So I kind of felt the same way and it's funny if you read like a foodie blogger or some they're like, oh roasting and chicken is the easiest thing in the world like are you crazy it's like wrong me and it's like big and you need a meat thermometer? I think it was really a scary thing and I was you know, I had been blogging about food for like three or four years before I'd ever tried roasting a chicken and finally I think I read aa book from ruth racial you know her she's like a she has to be a food critic for the new york times, and she had this like, super simple sounding chicken recipe in I was like, you know what? Darn it, I'm going to try and I was it was a little terrifying, but I did it and it turned out so good and I turned out like it actually was pretty easy, you know? It was just he basically just rub it in salton, our oil, salt, pepper, I stick a lemon in it and you're done I mean, I put a little bit of, like, herbs under the skin, but you don't have to do that, and it was delicious and I was like, it was just this moment for me where I was like, why was I said, what was holding me back from trying this when it's such a great way like me and, you know, I mean, my husband will roasted chicken and we had we eat off of it for like, two or three days, you know, you have one dinner and then maybe some lunch and then and then you could even make a soup like a stock out of the bones it's so simple and it's like one of the those things, it it can be really intimidating because it's this big hunk meet but it doesn't have to be, and it is a great thing to try. I would encourage everyone to just give it a try one day it's not that hard and there's the recipes on my site if you wanna check it out this week. Actually, we had a we had a chicken resting recipe, my lovely recipe developer, at least kopecky all right, so upgrading our kitchen style, so, you know, I don't want to I don't want to harp on this stuff too long, but one way to really increase efficiency in the kitchen, and I think this is a you know, when we when we talk about things like it's taking too long and how to build habits and how to really take this stress out of the kitchen batch cooking creaking a large amount of food in one time is a great way to do that. So, for instance, what I recommend is on one day on a weekend, maybe a sunday is a perfect day. Do something like roasted chicken, you know, big something that's going to last a couple days or make a big batch of beans like we're talking about, or a big batch of grains, or something else that you can use as a basis for several more meals throughout the week that takes a huge burden off your shoulder when you are walking in the door like an hour later from work than you normally get home and you're starving and you don't know what tohave you're like well, I already have like a bunch of chicken maybe I could just eat the rest of the chicken breast and then I've got some salad greens in the fridge I'll just throw that together really fast and instead of it being this huge production every night you've already planned ahead and saved yourself for making a really bad decision so batch cooking is really, really smart and actually doesn't take much more time, which is nice for certain types of dishes I talk about all the stuff like in great detail in my book, but if you guys wantto really get into this stuff um something I didn't learn until later in life and I wish somebody had told me earlier tongs are so much better than a spatula because discovered this it's amazing so just make sure you get the kind with the nylon tips they don't scratch your pan using for everything. The only time I ever use a spatula anymore is for eggs pretty much but everything else they're great for tossing salads are great for turning roasts are great for doing vegetables and stir fries I wish I just wish somebody told me that a long time ago like twelve dollars in terms of food storage I just almost everything in tupperware I mean, if you're scared of plastic which you have very much right to be um I don't worry about it too much because it's not I focus on high impact habits and I'm not sure the impact of plastic but if you're worried about that, you're more than welcome to use glass containers jars or pyrex but you know it's I I used to wonder if I should put things in bags or put things in the crisper do that you don't just put everything on top of it makes it so much easier and if you really really, really hate dishes doing dishes and that's, the reason that you're not cooking were often trust art of paper plates it's fine, I'm not going to tell anyone I won't tell your mom just just start with favorite plates even plastic where if you want because that's a barrier that's preventing you from starting to happen and like we've talked about so many times you need to get the habit started and then you can always increase the intensity you could always graduate to real place but I'm but start with paper plates if you have to I won't tell all right and lastly keep it simple um you know, starting its cooking try taking on too much at once is bad, you know it's it's how you fail and so really just focus on simple foods and and you'll win all right, so let's get cooking, shall we? So today we have a very special guest uh kim really hassle brink she has a beautiful food blogger called the year in food and also has a beautiful cook book coming out called vibrantly what she will tell us all about it. Kimberly come join us e o welcome thanks to claiming to be here do you have an amazing story? Actually, we have a ridiculous story but a good one right? Such a good story. So kimberly has a history with creative lives about it well, and the history kind of starts before creative live I used to be a massage therapist and then in the middle of that I went toe art school I was studying furniture design and uh, because I've always kind of wanted to pursue something creative and then in that program I realize that furniture wasn't quite the right fit, so I started my food block at the end of that and uh kept doing that after I graduated and then just from doing massage for too long I ended up having a number of repetitive stress injuries so I had to leave that industry and in that time when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do next, I watched penny delos santos is food photography video on creative lives that it was totally seminal for me, I love to watch that same yeah, jimmy money. She is such a great story. So, um and and also in that time, I you know, I started taking my food log more seriously rebuilt and I made a look pretty. I worked really hard on improving my photography schools and then also found this joy and cooking and being creative with ingredients just kind of like my perfect creative expression. And so that's what I do now, yeah, all started incredibly well. I mean, it started before started. We dated by with part of that. Yeah, it talks about your beautiful book because I was looking at early it's beautiful. Thank you. S so just look at this. Should I maybe open it up? You guys can definitely take a look. Um, so in that process, you know, when I started really focusing on my blawg and my photography um I started this series on my block called the color studies and, um and that kind of reinvigorated my relationship with food cause then I started thinking about color and how to build a beautiful meal around color. And, um, and then I started having conversations with publishers and wrote a book proposal, and then this happened kind of at the same time is my photography career has has developed so yeah so if you aren't familiar with kimberly's blawg, it is one of the most beautiful food bloggers I've ever seen it's got. And, you know, we've been talking so much hereabouts, seasonal cooking and it's the epitome of that. So if you ever need inspiration or, you know, and I recipe ideas or just feel like kind of indulging a little bit and some food porn, this is your lady, so tell us event about what we're going to be cooking tio there are two recipes like here thank you. This one is from my cookbook it's, a summer squash pasta with the green goddess stressing I love using squash instead of pasta for noodles, for like this beautiful summer dish not quite as hardy is pasta but lovely on dh then also ah keen wa tobe lay with a green teresa, so instead of just using that the meant and I guess it's, mint and parsley that usually use into bully I, this is my friend ashley rodriguez. His recipe for a green her recent incorporates those herbs with pepper so it's, kind of spicy and vyron and lovely, and so they're both, I think perfect like almost summer dishes and definitely keeping with the seasonal theme I think summer squash is just coming into season and these air also bring vegetables here I love this so you're actually using the squash as a replacement for the noodle yes, I sure am so amazing especially if you're trying to cut down on process foods I mean this is his whole foods is yet yeah and it's easy and it's fun and that time how do you make him look like that? Um I don't have that up here I just use a vegetable peelers you can use this really great fun little tool called a julian slicer that looks like a vegetable peeler who makes those thin ribbons or if a vegetable peelers all you have anything that these longer ribbons or you can use a mandoline but I like staying away from that because I don't want to lose my fingers yeah and when I get going with one of the yeah yeah, you walk us through it. Okay um why don't we get started with this one and I think everything it smells so good you guys freaking out at the smell it doesn't give you smell it from down there like what smells so good? Um well, yeah I'm herb obsessed so I think there's a lot of herbs going on garlic, lemon juice, vinegar little anchovy um yeah, okay, so fortunately I think things are all jumbled up here sorry, okay, basil stays here, this goes there well, we're going to the squash pasta first, but first I got to make sure I don't put all the ingredients for the teresa in for the dressing here so that goes here ok, sorry. You know what I do want she probably waiting to give a shout out to evan and max rps who helped set everything up today and of course our production designer melissa did a great job. You've also probably seen kate our line producer sneaking on and off the set quite a lot of the last couple days so thanks to all of them who helped kimberly and helped area gets set up today really is appreciated. How are you a cook? Of course you are. Yeah. Do my pastor yes, make it from scratch. Well, ok, calm down. Wait, wait. I love to capacity but don't make it anyway so kimberly shows shows ok? All right, so there are a lot of different ways to do squash pasta but I do it raw and because I do it raw, I salt it first I just toss it with one teaspoon sea salt and then it kind of it weeps this liquid um so sad I know we better nicer way of thinking so I do that just because otherwise you're gonna have a really watery dressing so that's kind of the first step mind how long just like that's it for about twenty minutes but it's flexible so I'd say at least fifteen and you could also set it in the fridge and kind of let it go and do other things and we just went from the last segment that you can get bikini farther self from certain farm is that so? Yeah at this time of year because it's a little bit early for zucchini yet in northern more northern right but more south we're finally getting our first summer squash so excited yeah, I know I am just a little out of the curve here but I've also noticed a thing because we had such a warm dry winter that everything seems to be coming in a lot earlier everything is early okay all right and I'm kind of like a messy cooked with my hands kind of gal so we love that so I'm just going to keep doing what ideo they finger food is great it's way more fun this way and then what? And so you're going to make like a pasta sauce? Yes, I'm gonna make this green goddess stressing which is actually usually uses a salad dressing but this is sort of like a pasta salad hybrid um and usually it also has sour cream but I love using greek yogurt in place of sour cream or manny's wherever I can get away with it it's my favorite um so yeah ok, so that's all set and like I said what's greek yogurt we're gonna throw it all in the food processor on one of those people that's a little bit intimidated by food processes I I used to be oh, I got over it and then I kind of fell in love with it this it was a gift from my step mom and prior to that I never ever use it but she's quite the avid home cook so I think it's the blades like I look at them and I'm like I might die like it kind of looks like a get e it stays in there so it won't it won't turn on unless everything's locked into place okay, good so I don't think there's any chance of flying anywhere you could do anything anything that is true if you can and I know it's great for soups is great for sources it's great for mixing. Yeah contested I think you can do bread dough and this you can do all the cream it's really great pastries well, because then you'll have to stay to the right consistency because your heart fingers don't come into contact with them well that's the only job some science wow all right and then there's two tablespoons of fresh parsley lots of herbs here one quarters cup of basil yes about measuring their spices so well, first off, if it's if the spices chopped like, how little is that that's a good question and I'm really flexible because I think that you can go over a little or under a little and it really won't matter and you can always adjust to taste, but I think with this when I said coarsely chopped so that's just kind of a rough chop where the pieces are a little bit large um, yeah, I'm so loose with that stuff, okay? I think there are certain instances where it might matter a little bit more, but first off like this, it really doesn't matter. Okay? Yeah, um also two tablespoons chives and these are all chopped before I measure them, which I don't think I had said before. Okay, that and then two tablespoons lemon juice, one tablespoon red wine vinegar you guys glad just dr pantry already have all this stuff two tablespoons of olive oil and then one clove of them in scarlet and one minced anchovy. You know, some people are weird about anchovies. That's, totally optional, but yeah, I like big flavors. I love anchovies are so good. That was another one of my discoveries that I made, like, as a grown up cook, I always just thought anchovies were grossly fish that we're in fishy but I always thought too but they're more like a condiment like salt you know and and you adam for flavor and you don't taste fish you just taste amazing cautiousness six like the umami thing right? I'm obsessed with anything you mommy just like that deep, savory, salty flavor my favorite yeah and I'm curious so I mean I'm the type of person when I put her herbs and something I just like whatever I have all through him in and I don't really measure them yes he's a lot do you find that it needs to be super exacting for this or I don't think so I think that the green got distressing is all about this blend of herbs, but I think you know, kind of like in the same line with your question I don't think it's going to matter if you do mint instead or if you have more basil or less parsley I think it's wholly only because I love you the once on hand right? And I think it's so much nicer to be flexible yeah told me I have a garden so I'm sort of at the mercy yeah seasons and what I've killed have been killed half teaspoon of salt thank you for asking and what kind of salty is just kosher so I know I'm actually a big fan of sea salt but um my favor? I love it. I think the thing with sea salt, they say, is that it doesn't absorb into the food as much. You can use less, and it it it tastes salt here, which is great since most of the time, our food has too much salt. Well processed food, not what we're doing. Okay, so this is the loud woman I'm gonna pulse the real quick hearted. We've had allowed a juicing. All right, you just want t o that was easy. Lipsky's c I messy. I'm a messy person in the kitchen. It's hard not to be. I'm always so intrigued by real cooks I consider myself a faith thick, not feeling tricky part then you're like, where do you put the blade? So that's the only time you have to come into contact with bleed, all right? And then I usually start I only we'll start with maybe two thirds, three quarters of the sauce kind of see, because I think every batch is different. Um, mix it up and I'm going to say this probably needs all of it. It's also good, you can't see what's happening. Yeah, it started was two pounds at the store, so after we shave it, probably down to a pound and a half, but again, I think especially the end of summer when there's so much extra squash and people are like what do I do with my garden full of squash? It doesn't matter if you do three pounds, two pounds, one and a half I think I just really love flexible recipes so yeah, a little quick mixing them in and the rest of this it looks so good I'm sorry. Through ah and then final quarter cup of praying that's raw pine nuts which I love I know there were little spending so you could totally use a different not if you wanted and then one quarter cup of shaved parmesan. Yeah, you just, like skyrocketed this dish, tio no right? Having laurie, it was just like, healthy and now it's awesome. Wow! Yeah. So that's that are you using? You keep using the term flexible like it? You're not really maybe one year in the kitchen do you not measure as much? Yeah, if I can get away with not measuring, I definitely don't. And I think there's, that funny kind of baker cook divide and I'm on the cook's side where I definitely prefer to be loose. Um it's just more fun for me anyway and I think sometimes part of what intimidates people about cooking is that need for accuracy, but I don't think it's totally necessary I second that yeah, yeah, I don't like one of the reasons people were asked if they were asking me forever, like we love the way you blogged and we want to do this like we need more recipes and like what I do, I would be like, I can't do that because I don't measure anything you can't just like, I can just tell you what, I make it hard, so I send people to kimberly's blythe the other funny thing, though, is before I started my block, I never measured and I was like, oh, no, now I need to hold myself accountable because if people want to repeat this, I can't just suggest, you know, whatever. So I've become a lot more particular just because this has become what I do, and but I still like flexibility she's saying he doesn't have a food processing. What would you say? Jackie is good question so you could use a blender or an immersion blender? I love those things and they're really little in portable on cheap. I would say either of those and you could even do this by hand. I just think it would take a little bit longer. You just get those herbs really fine and mix them with other stuff. Yeah, yeah from authors want to know how long we are you perfecting your recipes before you showcase the one that's a good question teo for the block because I'm not really getting paid to do it it's usually once and if it tastes great on that first try I go for it if it doesn't taste great, it doesn't get posted and I'll play with it more um that's the honest truth they're not really I mean there for my book everything was tested and had to be like solid but for the block it's a lot more casual yeah, thank you that's that's the recipe testing is so hard it is hard is really tough I love my recipe developer she saves me from having to do that and then I like to garnish things because I like to make things pretty so I'm not doing this kind of behind where you can't see here we go I'm a gardener sure, I feel like we're in a beautiful italian bistro. Yeah, I like that we are and it is a glass of rose a and something I don't know looks great yeah so dish number one all set okay, I can't believe how beautiful that looks with how easy you don't even like he'd anything up that's kind of why I love this recipe for summer and why I thought it might be perfect just as we move into summer because no cooking right on a hot night the last thing you want to d'oh right? And we had someone earlier from online say that they hate cooking because they burn everything right you know, I guess I'm just not impressed maybe they could then they should sort of magic shot like you can't believe you yeah all right what's the approximate prep time on that dish I know we had that that is a good question so if the squash it's sit appealing is kind of what takes the longest so let's say that's somewhere between three and five minutes the squash sits for twenty minutes and while it sits I would make everything else so you might be able to say this is a thirty minute meal might be able to say that great yeah really seems like the slicing is really the only thing that's of any length yeah and then the chomping of but that's why I like to recruit other people I know you're saying something about cooking alone versus it's so great to recruit other people and more fun I think tio yeah, I think I one thing I've tried to do this before and one pro tip I have for when you're trying to peel squash put the squash itself on the cut the board when you do it and don't try to do in the air because you're special break yeah, I've broken a lot of squash and then you're sad because you don't get the pretty ribbons yeah, good tip all right, so the key and want to bully I know this has moved so far away from to believe that I think I can barely call it that but it it hold on to the idea of it which is sort of a green salad usually traditionally with bulger week um but I love king juan and this is kind of in line with my color thing. I used red and white king juan just because it's fun like it all tastes the same. It just looks pretty um and, uh, a bunch of spring veggies and I love these little easter egg and general cut ups you can't really see but these easter egg radishes there just like the pinks and the purples they're so pretty and it's kind of this really easy way of bringing color into the dish, which I think makes the meal more fun and more beautiful and this time of year radishes could be a lot sweeter yes it's I think this is the best timing here for radishes, so I just want to get the spoon here I agree with you, so I think yeah, radishes could be a little off putting sometimes. Yeah, right. Well, this kind of yummy and like, sweet and mild and crunchy and great. So carrots, radishes, asparagus, super springtime. I've been eating asparagus like a maniac because it's only in season for like, six weeks on end when it's here it's it's amazing and then it's gone so I had a last night very little mix up with herbs again. All right, so green teresa is ah it's we have it already main, but just to go through everything for you it's one cup of chopped parsley and one half cup of chopped cilantro, one half cup of chopped mint one or two fresh jalapenos the's were really mild, so I kept the season and it kind of depends on what you would prefer like if you wanted to be super spicy put to have opinions and no problem again with the flexibility thing. Um juice of one half lemon doesn't seem right. I thought it was one third cup of olive oil. Anyway, I think it's one third cup of olive oils and other things, you know, like a tablespoon or two and one clove of minced garlic so I can't reuse this dirty food processors so we made it already is going to mix it all together and I think this one is a little bit more involved than the other one because first you need tio cook the keen law and then if you want to roast the vegetables you condemn roasted or raw but so I would get the keen on going and I love king wrong because it only takes fifteen minutes to cook which is why it's one of my favorite grains get those veggies going roast him for like fifteen minutes at four hundred degrees and then while those two things are going to make the sauce sicilian so other grains and if you're not that familiar with cooking real intact grains keane was definitely one of the fastest rice will take closer twenty eight twenty five seven thirty minutes and something like faro our barley is going to take even longer because it's thicker it depends on the type the rights of its brown or whatever, but keene was definitely the fastest have you guys are you guys familiar with keen law u s o n e for anybody who doesn't know online it's billed q u I and o a but it's pronounced like keene law and it's an ancient I mean it's actually not technically a green I've heard is technically a cereal yeah I don't know what the difference of that is but it's lovely because it's ah cooks up so fast it's super super nutritious come out of protein super protein and it's yummy and crunchy and ninety I'm describing the straight here so we complete it yeah, I want our sex is amazing wow, I can smell them. Wow. Um and then this is another dish that I love because it's kind of a framework you could just start with picking one teresa use whatever vegetables you wanted I would make it a the beginning of the week and you know I would eat it at lunch with like a hard boiled egg you know what, general with little chicken? Um andi it seems like you could sort of her purpose this you know, for with summer vegetables, maybe later in the year definitely. Yeah, we're more traditional like cucumbers and tomatoes or anything roasted eggplant I think would be great. Sounds great. President summers floss roasted peppers? Yeah, how fun with it. Okay. Dish number two should I make that visible? Yeah. Beautiful. Yeah, awesome. So that all of this what we didn't even use any fire I mean, you hated the keen juan, but you boiled meanwhile beforehand. Yeah, but that's, like one of those things is like super super easy boiling water and the only person who can't do that apparently is me e I but I think I could even handle this one yeah, I hope though I think you could and they have inspired our online audience, beginning lots of comments. They're all asking where to get your blog's vagenas, put that into the chat room, but they won't let us know where we can find your block online. Cause. I think you want to go and get these wrestle. That's. Awesome. I love it. The year in food dot com that's the block, yeah.