A Newsletter About Cooking
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The goal with this newsletter is to have a place where I can share things I’m exploring in the world of food and cooking— recipes, products, articles or podcast episodes I come across— anything is fair game.
This is something of a work in progress, so please feel free to respond with questions, feedback, requests for topics to cover, or anything else. I promise I’ll read every response!
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Myles
What I’m Cooking
My obsession lately has been chiles rellenos. No matter where you live, you’re likely to see fresh peppers popping up these days at your farmer’s market. While you can certainly get bell peppers or poblano peppers year-round at almost any grocery store, the flavor difference for the in-season, local varietals is absolutely worth seeking out.
The good news is that you can use literally any type of fresh pepper to make this dish, and you can stuff it with anything you want (I like to use ground sausage and cheese). And while this is easy enough to make on a weeknight, it’s a pretty special dish that will definitely impress.
This recipe from Rick Bayless is a solid place to start, as is this instructional video. Just remember— everything from the type of pepper you use, to the stuffing, to the salsa you make is highly customizable. Have some fun with it!
What I’m Listening To
Dai Due is my favorite restaurant in Austin, and the founder and chef Jesse Griffiths was recently featured on the Joe Rogan Podcast. It’s a fantastic listen— Jesse is a deeply intelligent and thoughtful chef with an encyclopedic knowledge of fishing, hunting, and cooking. He’s a passionate locavore who cares deeply about sourcing and quality of food.
Jesse is working on a new book all about hunting, cooking, and eating wild boar. You can check out the book here. If you’re interested in buying some wild boar to try, the ground boar from my friends at Force of Nature is a great place to start! I love making simple Thai-style laarb lettuce cups with it.
What I’m Drinking
Recently, my mom turned me on to this coffee grown in California. If you’re as into coffee as I am, you might have heard of something called the coffee belt. This is the region 23.5 degrees north and south of the equator where the vast majority (likely upwards of 99%) of the world’s coffee is grown.
California is, notably, not in this region. In fact, coffee isn’t traditionally grown anywhere in North America outside of Mexico. So not only is this company growing coffee where it’s never been grown before, but they’re growing great coffee there. I was blown away by it.
It’s not cheap, but it’s worth trying or buying for someone who is really into coffee.
If you’re looking for some more affordable coffee recommendations, some of my favorites include Levercraft Coffee, Sey Coffee, and Greater Goods.
What I’m Reading
I recently made my way through the book Flavor by Yottam Ottolenghi and Ixta Belfrage.
There are cookbooks that teach you recipes, and then there are cookbooks that teach you the theory behind cooking. I’d put books like Samin Nosrat’s Salt Fat Acid Heat and J. Kenji López-Alt’s The Food Lab in the latter category. These are books that don’t just teach you how to make certain dishes— they teach you the high-level concepts behind them.
Flavor is great because it gives you a bit of both. There are a bunch of super cool, creative recipes in there, but the book spends a lot of time diving into the art and science of building flavor.
One of my favorite things about the book is that they treat chile heat as its own flavor category. This is something Rene Redzepi has talked about after his Noma Mexico pop-up, and I couldn’t agree more. Chiles are so much more than just spice, and they can play a role in a dish on par with fat, acidity, sweetness, or umami.
I also love the way they break down any type of cooking into its most basic elements, via a concept they call the 3 P’s:
product = the ingredient itself
process = what you do to that ingredient
pairing = the combination of ingredients in various levels of sweetness, fat, acidity, and chile heat
This is a fantastic book for anyone looking to deepen their understanding of the fundamental building blocks of cooking. I highly recommend it.
What I’m Loving
My PK Go.
I first heard about PK Grills separately from two chef friends about a year ago. I finally caved and bought my first one six months ago, and I’ve become a huge devotee. It’s hands down the best charcoal grill I’ve ever owned— I don’t think I’ll ever go back to any other brand.
I now own both the PKTX as well as the smaller PK Go. If you’re looking to get into charcoal grilling, the PK Go is a great place to start. It’s compact enough to throw in the back of your car, but it’s built to last and retains heat incredibly well.
I’ve become something of a charcoal grilling nerd, so if you have any questions or want to discuss, feel free to shoot me an email!