Speaker 1: Oh hi, Welcome to the Christy Cast live from the Compound.
Speaker 1: Now let's see what this saucy little wheel has in
Speaker 1: store for us today. Oh yum. Yes, it has landed
Speaker 1: on the foodies, one of my very clear interest areas.
Speaker 1: And how thrilling this is because we have one of
Speaker 1: Australia's greatest foodies of all time and she's been perfectly
Speaker 1: slow cooked at one hundred and twenty degrees for seven hours.
Speaker 1: Karen Martini is a celebrated chef, restaurantur and author who
Speaker 1: started her journey to our very grateful taste buds at
Speaker 1: just fifteen years old. Can you believe it? I was
Speaker 1: still working at Baker's Delight and Wagging School at that age.
Speaker 1: You've loved her on Better Homes and Gardens, You've bought
Speaker 1: all those books, and if you're very lucky, you've eaten
Speaker 1: her tarama and warm salty bagels at hero. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the Christy Cast, Karen Martini.
Speaker 2: What an inturn thank you.
Speaker 1: I'm so thrilled to meet you. We have so much
Speaker 1: to discuss. Let's spin the wheel again and see what
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about first. Oh, it's child's play.
Speaker 1: Fantastic here is a photograph of you as a kid.
Speaker 1: Cute by the way, thank you, and still cute. Who
Speaker 1: was this person and how is she the same as
Speaker 1: you or different to you? Now?
Speaker 2: Well the picture might look cute ha ha. At fifteen,
Speaker 2: I was definitely pushing the boundaries and a bit of
Speaker 2: a bit of a rebel, I suppose, but not necessarily
Speaker 2: wagging school but always late. But I didn't necessarily not
Speaker 2: like school, love school. But I decided to leave early
Speaker 2: because I found my passion what I thought was my passion,
Speaker 2: and believe it or not, it became my passion cooking.
Speaker 1: That is extraordinary to me.
Speaker 2: It is extraordinary because how do you do that at
Speaker 2: such a young age. How I've got two teen daughters
Speaker 2: now and there is no way on earth they'll be
Speaker 2: leaving school at fifteen sixteen or even remotely even thinking
Speaker 2: about it.
Speaker 1: So it shows such agency and ownership of your life.
Speaker 2: I was my parents would probably say stubborn, but I
Speaker 2: was driven, focused. I was in love with the idea
Speaker 2: that that cooking could actually be an amazing career. Back
Speaker 2: then it was a gourmet chef, which makes my skin crawl.
Speaker 1: In the words.
Speaker 2: But back then that was you know that was the thing.
Speaker 2: You did an apprenticeship and you learned to cook, and
Speaker 2: by all means, boy did I do that? And I
Speaker 2: must say though my parents, So I did leave at
Speaker 2: the end of your ten. My parents re enrolled me.
Speaker 1: And we both have children at that exact point. Leo
Speaker 1: has just finished year ten, Your youngest has just finished
Speaker 1: year ten. Do you look at her and go no?
Speaker 2: Way? What?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I do? And I think Amber has mentioned to me
Speaker 2: so because stellar and I've just worked out that really
Speaker 2: I left school at that age and I have done
Speaker 2: so much since. But how could you? Mum?
Speaker 1: What were you thinking? And what were your parents thinking?
Speaker 1: They did they raise you? Did they raise you with
Speaker 1: that kind of open mind? And you are your own person,
Speaker 1: obviously you can make your own decisions and we trust you.
Speaker 2: I was eldest of three daughters. I was very independent,
Speaker 2: very focused, and I just said it in my head
Speaker 2: that I was going to start an apprenticeship. Did you
Speaker 2: have to sell it to them? Yes, but you know what,
Speaker 2: they believed it to a certain extent. Encourage me, indulge
Speaker 2: me if you like. But they re enrolled me in
Speaker 2: your eleven, thinking she'll get sick of this working thing.
Speaker 2: They paid the fees like I was going back into
Speaker 2: school as far as they was concerned. Silently, they didn't
Speaker 2: tell me that. But you know what, I haven't turned back.
Speaker 1: You have not you So let's go back to You're fifteen,
Speaker 1: you finished year ten. You've said, yeah, where I want
Speaker 1: to go? I want to start now. I want to
Speaker 1: get cracking and I'm going to get an apprenticeship. Where
Speaker 1: did you start? And what did that look like?
Speaker 2: Well, the reality of that was I did a work
Speaker 2: experience in a three hat restaurant called Meeta's with Melbourne's
Speaker 2: finest import, Jacques Raymond, and I wanted an apprenticeship from
Speaker 2: Mieta O'Donnell then bless her soul, yes, influencing the Melbourne
Speaker 2: hospitality scene.
Speaker 1: Did you?
Speaker 2: And she said go back to school, little girl. You
Speaker 2: are not getting an apprenticeship here, and I went promptly, well,
Speaker 2: I will get an apprenticeship somewhere else. Anyway. I got
Speaker 2: an apprenticeship at the Austin Hospital.
Speaker 1: It's a little bit.
Speaker 2: Of a step down from a three hat, you know,
Speaker 2: symphony of delicious food cooked at a very high French level.
Speaker 2: I'm talking Austin Hospital. Back then, in the late.
Speaker 1: Eighties, you would have got good at jelly.
Speaker 2: I got good at pealing eggs. I got good at
Speaker 2: reading patients recipe cards on a convey about doing mash
Speaker 2: or pea. Look, it wasn't it wasn't fancy and it
Speaker 2: wasn't romantic, but I had my eye on the prize.
Speaker 2: Went to Miriam Anglis Trade School. I did three years
Speaker 2: of apprenticeship or the proper four year apprenticeship, but did
Speaker 2: manage to tick tack my way into a two hat restaurant,
Speaker 2: three hat restaurant, Tansy's in Carlton, which was an amazing restaurant.
Speaker 1: Which do you te all this up yourself?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: Including the chats with Meeta and Yep.
Speaker 2: I got interviews.
Speaker 1: I for front Byer.
Speaker 2: I wrote letters, no emails back then I had to
Speaker 2: deliver and present. I was more front than Mayer's. I
Speaker 2: think my mother actually used that, yes, but you know
Speaker 2: what she said to me, You know what the world
Speaker 2: is your oyster. You go out and find it girl,
Speaker 2: if you think you can. So that's off to my
Speaker 2: parents for that encouragement. But you know what they always said,
Speaker 2: you can go back like it's no problem if you
Speaker 2: if you have to do a U turn no.
Speaker 1: Problem, go live see if you can.
Speaker 2: And I did work, you know, I was seventeen, working
Speaker 2: fifty to sixty hour weeks, but I was hungry for
Speaker 2: the knowledge of cookery.
Speaker 1: What did you learn in the first years of your
Speaker 1: restaurant apprenticeship.
Speaker 2: We used to get hairs, like whole hair in. That's
Speaker 2: a big wild rabbit.
Speaker 1: It's a big rabbit, hira.
Speaker 2: We got eels in, we got pheasants in.
Speaker 1: They would arrive furry and dead.
Speaker 2: Yes, we'd be plucking and skinning and boning and hanging
Speaker 2: and it was a pretty gruesome sort of to talk
Speaker 2: about it like that. But that was a skill set
Speaker 2: that you just don't learn anywhere else but a three
Speaker 2: restaurant using product.
Speaker 1: And you probably don't learn it now, like.
Speaker 2: If No, it's a very hard thing to get that
Speaker 2: experience these days because things arrive cleaned, plant plucked, thank god.
Speaker 2: Plucking is not much fun. Just imagine there's.
Speaker 1: It sounds like something from the MIDI from the Middle Ages.
Speaker 2: Really, I was just on a you know, a lemonex
Speaker 2: and stainless steel bench out the back in a little
Speaker 2: restaurant in Carlton, dealing with all of those things with
Speaker 2: a prep list as long as your arm. Boxes and
Speaker 2: boxes of broadbeans to pot and artichokes to pull. And
Speaker 2: yabbis were my favorite because they used to come in
Speaker 2: live and we had to disembel them live and then
Speaker 2: cook them. Do you still we play yabbies? Yeah, that's
Speaker 2: still the method of cooking. Abby Yabby's a delicious sweet.
Speaker 2: I don't think I've ever had a yabby Yabby. They're
Speaker 2: in every country, damn pretty much. You can go yabby
Speaker 2: in if you want to.
Speaker 1: Tastes like mud, mud, it's like mud.
Speaker 2: That's a fair call. I suppose they're like a sweet
Speaker 2: prawn with an undertone of earthiness. Wouldly the way I
Speaker 2: describe it.
Speaker 1: Were there any moments in those teen years when you
Speaker 1: were doing what no other teenager was doing that you went,
Speaker 1: I know, if I've done the right thing here? Like,
Speaker 1: what were your friends? Like?
Speaker 2: My friends were still at school? But I guess who
Speaker 2: had the money?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I mean even an apprenticeship, which is famous for
Speaker 1: not having any money, is more than a Saturday shifted delight.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because delight. By the way, my first other job
Speaker 2: was at missus Field's Cookies, and I got the sack
Speaker 2: from eating the cookies. Anyway, that what was your favorite?
Speaker 1: My favorite chip?
Speaker 2: Something with peanuts.
Speaker 1: It was a semi sweet that was my favorite.
Speaker 2: Oh but that was my first job ever. But that
Speaker 2: was when I was pretty young, fourteen or something.
Speaker 1: Did a big shopping center Chatty Greensboro, Greensborough Greensworth Plaza. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: with the sea through lifts. It went up, Yes, my god,
Speaker 1: so fancy. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I had some cash and we'd be doing a
Speaker 2: fair bit of clubbing back then, maybe a little bit
Speaker 2: underage by seventeen eighteen and hanging out. And then I'd
Speaker 2: go first because I have to be at work in
Speaker 2: the morning, so it's sort of it needed a certain
Speaker 2: level of discipline to be focused on your day's work,
Speaker 2: which could be boning hairs and making terraenes and ice
Speaker 2: cream and puff pastry and banacotta's and all those sorts
Speaker 2: of thing.
Speaker 1: And how long did this last? This fifty to sixty
Speaker 1: hours a week?
Speaker 2: Um, I'd say, Christy, the best part of twenty three
Speaker 2: years of my life or more. And like sixty hours
Speaker 2: was a standard week. You do twelve hour days, so
Speaker 2: I know it's a different life.
Speaker 1: It takes a certain person.
Speaker 2: Does It takes a certain mindset and a certain person
Speaker 2: and you're relatively tough. You know, it's a hot, twenty sharp,
Speaker 2: enclosed environment. But the thrill of service and the possibility
Speaker 2: of all this raw produce being turned into something magnificent
Speaker 2: on the plate. Not only looking magnificent, but the flavors.
Speaker 2: Half the flavor it was I was desperate for and
Speaker 2: that is the knowledge and technique. So there were points
Speaker 2: in my career where it's like, gee, I'm I've worked
Speaker 2: so many careers over and over if you look at
Speaker 2: the time gauge, but that's where I honed my skills.
Speaker 1: What was food like in your house in the first
Speaker 1: fifteen years. Well, let's just.
Speaker 2: Say I'm very familiar with you know, the sound of
Speaker 2: burnt toasts being scraped in the morning.
Speaker 1: I love burnt toasts. I got used to it.
Speaker 2: But toast needs to be cooked, Like you don't want
Speaker 2: to fuck an undercooked.
Speaker 1: No, like say whatever you want, camera, I don't mind
Speaker 1: it burnt. And I find the burnt bits and I
Speaker 1: put butter on those.
Speaker 2: Because that's a charminess that it's flavor, burnt bits of flavor. Yeah,
Speaker 2: this was like I've got a glazed ham coming soon.
Speaker 2: It's like, don't ever undercook your baked ham. It needs
Speaker 2: to almost be going dark and crispy, burnt, burnt on
Speaker 2: the edges, to be.
Speaker 1: Done almost supontified, which is a word I used, which
Speaker 1: I learned last week. It's kind of deconstructed to the
Speaker 1: point of soap. I like my lamb shoulders to be almost.
Speaker 2: Si yes, yes, that would be beef cheeks falling off
Speaker 2: the bone. Yeah. No, it's a it's a funny process.
Speaker 2: I suppose if you go back through my childhood, food schnitzels, pepperonata,
Speaker 2: burnt chops, three quarter chops off the barbie, coleslaw, heavily dressed,
Speaker 2: lots of praise, pecorino cheese and fennel and green olives
Speaker 2: woven in there. I was a kid that had the
Speaker 2: lunch box that's stunk. I had, you know, the salami
Speaker 2: and handcut sandwiches, vienna loaf fat now yeah.
Speaker 1: Back then, no friends, No, you just wanted vegimie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, vegimi. I didn't have a hanker for jam or
Speaker 2: hundreds and thousands. That was too sweet for me. Always
Speaker 2: it's been a savory me too. So if I hear
Speaker 2: a party, I'll always be at the chip and dip
Speaker 2: or the cheeses rather than the cupcakes. I love a cupcake,
Speaker 2: don't get me wrong, but yeah, salty savory is my
Speaker 2: is my way.
Speaker 1: I agree. Do you find that because you have more
Speaker 1: knowledge about food than almost anyone else in this country? Oh,
Speaker 1: people are reticent to cook for you.
Speaker 2: Definitely. My husband Michael and I run restaurants. It's our business.
Speaker 2: We love our hospitality through and through and live and
Speaker 2: breathe it. We rarely get an invitation to dinner right
Speaker 2: through from the wine being served to that. You know,
Speaker 2: I am just happy with the most simple chop off
Speaker 2: the barbie or a bowl of Bolonnai's, like I'm not.
Speaker 2: You know, it's about the.
Speaker 1: Comput believe that. I'm sure it's about I.
Speaker 2: Know they never do. It's about the company and just
Speaker 2: the Yeah, they're active coming together at a table and
Speaker 2: sharing a meal, but they never believe I've roast chicken.
Speaker 2: I don't care. So I have very close friends that
Speaker 2: do cook for me, but not many, not many.
Speaker 1: When you are at home, it's a Sunday night, you've
Speaker 1: been working two thousand hours, and you go, oh shit,
Speaker 1: I haven't eaten since breakfast. I'm starving. At six point thirty.
Speaker 1: What do you whip up? What would it be?
Speaker 2: You know, there's this quintessential phone call I normally get
Speaker 2: at four in the afternoon, four point thirty from my
Speaker 2: husband Michael, go, honey, do you want to hand with dinner?
Speaker 2: Can I organize something for dinner?
Speaker 1: Or can I.
Speaker 2: Get you know, can I help out? Every day? It
Speaker 2: doesn't matter what day it is. And sometimes I say, yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm thinking we're going to have, you know, a grilled
Speaker 2: chicken or you know, tie marinate a chicken on the
Speaker 2: barbie and blah blah blah, or a muscle pasta. Can
Speaker 2: you go and pick up the muscle? He's like, oh no,
Speaker 2: I don't want to help that much.
Speaker 1: I was just I'll help you eat it.
Speaker 2: I'm posing the question, so you think about dinner. I've
Speaker 2: worked it out.
Speaker 1: Do you shop fresh every day?
Speaker 2: I'm a shop every couple of days.
Speaker 1: Look.
Speaker 2: Sunday was phenomenal for me because I ended up with
Speaker 2: so much in the fringe. I thought, well, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: have to cook some of this stuff. It was a
Speaker 2: bit tired and I'm feeling a little of color. But
Speaker 2: this is indulgent, so it's like feast or famine. My
Speaker 2: girls will say sometimes there's absolutely nothing and we're having
Speaker 2: the you know, Malaysian takeaway from around the corner, which
Speaker 2: it happens every couple of weeks in our house.
Speaker 1: I love a luxA, I mean the King of Soups.
Speaker 2: Where is it by the way, well, Marpo in Parade,
Speaker 2: Ipo Parade in High Street, Armen. I was just around
Speaker 2: the corner from where I am.
Speaker 1: But I've never been there.
Speaker 2: I don't eat in there. I always get takeaway. But
Speaker 2: the luxe is consistent. It's it's rich, it's a little spiky,
Speaker 2: and there's a gentle heat to it.
Speaker 1: Have you had one? Shinja kurrama nomin? I have to
Speaker 1: go there too, you must, she must. What about those
Speaker 1: little puffy, puffy pillows and they absorb all of the
Speaker 1: flavor of the soup? Yeah, I mean I have been
Speaker 1: known to suck it out and put it back in
Speaker 1: the soup.
Speaker 2: That is a good idea. Yeah, absolutely, it's a yeah. No,
Speaker 2: why not that sponge spoon? Yes? So back to food.
Speaker 2: Yet your your well Sunday.
Speaker 1: Was it go to?
Speaker 2: Is probably a pasta of some type. I have to
Speaker 2: say it's.
Speaker 1: Your favorite PASTA hard question? I know, I had spaghetti
Speaker 1: last night, and it's underrated.
Speaker 2: But my favorite dish is the one I don't have
Speaker 2: to cook it home so often. Then that's what Michael
Speaker 2: made us spread last night from the pantry of tomato salad,
Speaker 2: and we had some domatoes from a tin and some
Speaker 2: betta and some compe and pickles and boiled eggs and
Speaker 2: kip for potatoes. But normal favorite pasta is a prawn taster.
Speaker 1: That's what I had last night on the speedet.
Speaker 2: I love the prawn pasta and I like to buy
Speaker 2: the heads on the prawns and then mash them in
Speaker 2: the pan, and then you put that in the oil
Speaker 2: with some garlic and fennel seeds and chili, and then
Speaker 2: add wine after you fried it in the oil, and
Speaker 2: then add the pasta to that and smash their heads
Speaker 2: up and then take them out and all the flavors there.
Speaker 1: Chrissy, Oh my god, that's not so good.
Speaker 2: Maybe a stain of tomato, but not too much, no,
Speaker 2: not too much tomato can dominate. Then it becomes another pasta.
Speaker 1: Sometimes if I just want to hint of tomato, I
Speaker 1: will use a little tiny bit of tomato paste. Favory confession.
Speaker 2: No crazy, I know, sometimes if I want a little
Speaker 2: hinted tomato, which I would use tomato paste if I
Speaker 2: was at that stage, or if I'm thinking about food earlier,
Speaker 2: because let's face it, I cook like it's the last
Speaker 2: meal I'm going to eat for the rest of my life.
Speaker 2: Every meal is the last meal I'm gonna have, because
Speaker 2: that's how I think about food. I can't help it.
Speaker 1: Right, So when we're talking about you have everything, you
Speaker 1: never just go get this in. Yes, you'll still muster
Speaker 1: up some care, a little bit of.
Speaker 2: Care, like I'll go if I've got Sometimes i have
Speaker 2: the Lemonese pit of bread and I'll smash better in
Speaker 2: it and oil and salt and pepper and maybe some
Speaker 2: zata or whatever I've got spice, and then roll that
Speaker 2: up and that's a snack on the go, I do.
Speaker 2: I don't mind some packets, ziki and like a Crisp
Speaker 2: rice cracker or something. If I'm really got nothing going on. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't know. The snacks. Olives, green olives and a martini.
Speaker 2: Is that a snack?
Speaker 1: Yes, I think that couts. I think that cats liquid lunch.
Speaker 2: I want to know, chunks of regianna. That's a snack.
Speaker 1: So delicious.
Speaker 2: Yeah, anchovy is on toast with butter, cold butter. That's
Speaker 2: the best snack ever.
Speaker 1: I had a memory from when I was a kid
Speaker 1: that I had the best piece of toast in my life,
Speaker 1: white like tip top butter. My grand made it, and
Speaker 1: then she'd made a mix of sardines and white onion.
Speaker 1: Yeah Queenslander. Anyway, people's like pickled white onion or just
Speaker 1: straight raw raw. Yeah, And it just it just came
Speaker 1: to me, you know, like those food memories do.
Speaker 2: It's tabasco on that being legendary.
Speaker 1: I made it and it was wasn't the same gross.
Speaker 1: I needed her to do it, but she's no longer around.
Speaker 1: What is your favorite protein? You can only pick one,
Speaker 1: and it's one of my favorite questions far. We'll give
Speaker 1: the selection for those listening at home and playing along. Beef, chicken.
Speaker 1: I'm going to say prawns, crustaceans, crustaceans, fish is different.
Speaker 1: These are the categories, and I.
Speaker 2: Put fish and crustaceans together and say favorite prodsen.
Speaker 1: Now, look, I love beef and eggs are also.
Speaker 2: I love eggs too. I like all these things for
Speaker 2: different reasons, and I will cook them like they're the
Speaker 2: last dish, I'm ever going.
Speaker 1: To only choose one. I know it's hard. It's like
Speaker 1: sophishs choice, particularly for you. Someone says to you, you
Speaker 1: can only have for the rest of.
Speaker 2: My life, for the rest of your life, different thing. Well,
Speaker 2: then I'd probably go fish because there's so many different
Speaker 2: types that I eat and enjoy.
Speaker 1: It is a very practical and logical choice.
Speaker 2: And most people don't eat enough variety, which comes when
Speaker 2: it comes to fish. They just fish is a problem,
Speaker 2: or it's it's skinless and unidentifiable. But like flatties, they're great,
Speaker 2: flatheads awesome.
Speaker 1: But it's so wise it.
Speaker 2: Is but by by Actually you know what I find
Speaker 2: if you get the opportunity buy the whole fish and
Speaker 2: get them to fill it down, it's cheaper than buying
Speaker 2: the filets.
Speaker 1: That is a great tip. So if I go to
Speaker 1: the fishmonger and say, I'm going to have that hole
Speaker 1: which fish am I getting snapper? Snapper? I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: that whole snapper? Please? Can you fill it it? That's it?
Speaker 2: Yeah, And then you'll find that it's a different price.
Speaker 2: It's generally so I.
Speaker 1: Just find I've got three kids I've got and they
Speaker 1: eat a lot. They eat so much and to get
Speaker 1: enough fish for a meal, you know, I'll get it,
Speaker 1: and it's.
Speaker 2: Then there's nothing.
Speaker 1: Look, there's yeah, And I'm just like, that's not even
Speaker 1: going to fill them up.
Speaker 2: Well, then that's where you have to actually cook a
Speaker 2: little bit more and have a little more whatever it
Speaker 2: might be a seasoned cuss cuss on the table with
Speaker 2: maybe you've got a couple of puttets of cherry tomatoes
Speaker 2: and his rows them in the oven in oil and
Speaker 2: smash garlic with chili flekes and then they come out
Speaker 2: and you've got corse course and you toss that through
Speaker 2: and that's on the table with his fish from that
Speaker 2: big bowl. And then you get some cucumbers and chop
Speaker 2: them up and put heaps of lemon and I reckon.
Speaker 1: I do a whole podcast on you on fish solutions,
Speaker 1: Fish solutions. I would love to eat more fish, but
Speaker 1: I just I just don't know what to do with it.
Speaker 1: And I think most Australians are the same and they
Speaker 1: would love.
Speaker 2: And we should.
Speaker 1: We know when we should. We're an island nation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree. It is very expensive, and that's where
Speaker 2: you need to be able to pair different things with
Speaker 2: it that complement in a way, or the best way
Speaker 2: I suppose would be to get the fish, get the
Speaker 2: bones home that you I know, go figure, but get
Speaker 2: the head of the snapper with the thing, throw it
Speaker 2: in a pot, cover with cold water, and add some
Speaker 2: aromatics to it, like some lemon grass and lime leaves,
Speaker 2: and throw all that in maybe a couple of tablespoons
Speaker 2: of lux of paste Tommy Young, and then bring that
Speaker 2: to the simmer, strain it off and serve that with
Speaker 2: rice noodles and the fish broken up pants.
Speaker 1: A great idea.
Speaker 2: So then that goes a lot further and you've got
Speaker 2: the broth. But you know that says take time and
Speaker 2: a little bit more focused.
Speaker 1: I confidence people would hear that and go, oh my god,
Speaker 1: I can't do that. I can order something on uber Eats, yes,
Speaker 1: I'm capable of doing that.
Speaker 2: But we can't eat u berrets every day.
Speaker 1: No, not good for us. No.
Speaker 2: The amount of stuff I mean, takeaways awesome for reasons,
Speaker 2: and it always tastes good for a reason, but there's
Speaker 2: a lot of stuff in it that you may not
Speaker 2: should be eating every day. Yeah, yeah, it's a yeah,
Speaker 2: it's a funny thing, isn't it. I never do a
Speaker 2: roast chicken without even if we've picked the bones clean,
Speaker 2: that that chicken carcass gets flipped into a pot on
Speaker 2: the back of the stove. I cover it with cold water.
Speaker 2: I'm dead tired whatever. Maybe watching something on TV for
Speaker 2: forty minutes, that pot's come to the simmer. I may
Speaker 2: not have thrown anything else in, and I've strained that
Speaker 2: liquid off and it becomes the you know, base for
Speaker 2: a risotto, or it's a broth that I'm adding other
Speaker 2: things to the next.
Speaker 1: I have a deep freeze. It's changed my life.
Speaker 2: I do have some space, but I must admit it's
Speaker 2: it's packed jam.
Speaker 1: Packed mine too.
Speaker 2: What have you got in your deep freeze?
Speaker 1: That's key? Well, I I bulk, batch cook because also
Speaker 1: I show, I show that I love you by giving
Speaker 1: you a dinner. So I've got for my fiftieth. My
Speaker 1: request was, you know those look who say they're that
Speaker 1: big the pot. So I'm like, I'm holding out, like
Speaker 1: I'm hugging it. It's mass massive, and I will fill
Speaker 1: that with spaghetti bolonnaise, for example. Make it it cooks
Speaker 1: forever and then I divvy it up. I'll put that
Speaker 1: in the freezer. And then and then you can. All
Speaker 1: my friends come over and they're all like, oh, so die,
Speaker 1: I got gog. I've got no idea and I can
Speaker 1: go there you go, yeah, but I've I've got all
Speaker 1: sorts of things in there. I'm mad for a Spanic
Speaker 1: cop but I'm mad for it. So I like that.
Speaker 1: I like that it's got no meat occasionally eat meat
Speaker 1: we don't eat.
Speaker 2: I agree. I think Spanic coopta. I'm yet to try
Speaker 2: the one I've been seeing on Instagram a lot where
Speaker 2: they chop up the philo through the mix, so you
Speaker 2: get the filo pastry, crack eggs, cooked spinach, frozen spinach
Speaker 2: from you want, Yeah, handfuls of feather cheese left in
Speaker 2: the fridge, grate, grate it up, gray it in probably
Speaker 2: not blue and dial or spring onion or parsley mint,
Speaker 2: dried mint in. Mix it all together and pour it
Speaker 2: into a dish and it's like making it frittata, but
Speaker 2: it's a frittata spanicoppata.
Speaker 1: And does it have the crust and the top as well.
Speaker 2: The bits of pastry hanging out the top turn into crispy,
Speaker 2: delicious bits. So yeah, that's on the list for this week.
Speaker 2: At some stage. And there's the kids. I mean, they
Speaker 2: love big big slices of that with yogurt so zieki
Speaker 2: on the side and maybe again salad of something.
Speaker 1: I knew this would happen when we got into the
Speaker 1: same I've not eaten.
Speaker 2: I've had two coffees and a mango smoothie and.
Speaker 1: You are well, okay, we've at released you back into
Speaker 1: the wild. Tag you and release you. What is the
Speaker 1: next thing that is going to pass your lips? Karen Martini?
Speaker 2: Okay, I've got in the fridge at home some of
Speaker 2: the leftover brothy type stuff and official chicken based. It's
Speaker 2: chicken based, and I added I made it Asian flavor
Speaker 2: by Chinese flavor by adding sliced spring onion and ginger.
Speaker 2: I did this the other day on Sunday, and so
Speaker 2: this is and I've added sugar and soy and balanced
Speaker 2: it all out. So that's in there. I'm just going
Speaker 2: to throw in some ood on from the freezer on
Speaker 2: noodles dropped it. I just don't have any of the
Speaker 2: two minute brahmini noodles left at home, but they'll got
Speaker 2: in and then probably there's some roast chicken going to
Speaker 2: say I just ripped some chunks and throw that in
Speaker 2: and maybe a little bit more spring onion or whatever. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that should do me till dinner. And what is dinner
Speaker 2: to I'm out for dinner tonight?
Speaker 1: What do you order when you're out? Oh?
Speaker 2: I don't pre order at a restaurant. I do not
Speaker 2: like it. You're taking the hospitality out of the hospitality.
Speaker 1: All right, I'm going to stop doing that because Karen Miny,
Speaker 1: you just go. I already know.
Speaker 2: I don't want to look at the menu. You do
Speaker 2: not letting the people do what they do for a living,
Speaker 2: so true, don't crush their spirit even if you know.
Speaker 2: But then when you look at it and you go,
Speaker 2: I don't feel like that. Now I feel like this.
Speaker 1: And also I don't know why I do it, because
Speaker 1: often I order from the specials, which are never.
Speaker 2: Now hauling you out. And I'm saying no more pre ordering.
Speaker 1: I will not do it.
Speaker 2: Discover at the in situ is better.
Speaker 1: Yes, I want to say, please enjoy that soup. I
Speaker 1: don't be alarmed if you turn around in your kitchen
Speaker 1: and I'm there for my ball.
Speaker 2: I would be a bit fun at some stand And
Speaker 2: I want to.
Speaker 1: Officially thank you for the bagel and tarifa of my dream.
Speaker 2: I wish I had that in my Fridgeen, How did
Speaker 2: you come.
Speaker 1: Up with that idea? You crazy genius.
Speaker 2: You know when you go to Greece and you see
Speaker 2: those the wheels used to in Athens. Never been to Greece,
Speaker 2: the round bread that forgive me.
Speaker 1: The soft ones, it's like, So that's the Turkish do
Speaker 1: version and the Greeks do version.
Speaker 2: So it's inspired by that and the best Tara mar
Speaker 2: I could get my hands on. But there's the sweetness
Speaker 2: on the outside that's really important. Plays with the saltiness.
Speaker 2: Now I'm hungry. Thank you, any of the best