Interview with The Ardent Epicure, Alisha Randell

Grapefruit and Avocado Oil Vinaigrette; Ginger Lavender Chunky Vegetable Soup and Arugula-Pistachio-Walnut-Sunflower Seed Pesto, Alisha Randell is truly a sommelier for food flavors. A Southern California culinary consultant and co-blogger on The Ardent Epicure with son, Adam, Alisha is big on people cooking with the least processed foods possible, and believes restaurants should be doing it the same way: “cooking naturally with whole foods, every day.”

Alisha Randell: “My mother actually was not much of a cook. She baked though – so we grew up with more natural things than things out of a box, like homemade versions of granola breakfast bars. Dad was an Executive Chef with the Fireside Inn in Los Angeles, and later a caterer, among other things.

When I was young, I have to be honest, I was a food waster. As the only vegetarian in my family, I would hide the food I couldn’t eat and give it to the animals. Mom would find a chicken wing behind the curtains. Or at the beach, I’d hold onto my baloney sandwich until I could bury it!

Still, growing up around a restaurant environment, food waste was something I became responsible about early on. There was a big emphasis on cooking with fresh foods and available foods. If anything, sometimes I’d get too creative and get in trouble for it. For example, high end foods would come home from Dad’s restaurants, like half a case of filet mignon. I might ground up the filet mignon and make Hawaiian burgers with grilled pineapples, ketchup and brown sugar on top – this was before we even had Hawaiian burgers!”

Fruit stock from apple cores and mango skins

“Pretty much no one is a vegetarian at home but me. So I make lots of veggie stocks, but also fruit stocks from odds and ends: de-seeded cores of apples, even skins of mangoes that still have some meat left on them. I will blanch the fruit, depending on what it is and then freeze the fruit trimming. When my freezer bag is full I may make an apple stock or an apple velouté* – traditionally a velvety sauce made for chicken and fish. If you’re doing a grilled fish, you might make a velouté stock from the bones of a white fish, and then pour it over the fish. Only in this case, mine was made with apples!

*pronounced French pronunciation: [və.lu.te], along with Tomato, Hollandaise, Béchamel, and Espagnole, is one of the sauces of French cuisine that were designated the five “mother sauces” by Auguste Escoffier in the 19th century. The ingredients of a velouté are equal parts by mass butter and flour to form the roux. (Wikipedia)

My apple velouté was to go over baked apples stuffed with mascarpone. Basically I took bits and pieces of fresh apples, instead of using apple juice to make the apple “stock”. I used warming seasonings – freshly ground cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg. I typically buy them whole and grind them myself.

Storage tip: Store whole spice airtight in a dark, cool place. It will last months longer than if you grind it yourself. And the essential oils released are so much more intense.”

Spring soups from mixing veggie and fruit stocks

“I’m in Southern California, so our seasons can be much broader than many other areas. That’s why I encourage people to use what’s in season where they live. For spring soups, sometimes I mix veggie and fruit stocks together. One combo I really like is Ginger Lavender Chunky Vegetable Soup (the vegetables could be zucchini, carrots, celery and/or asparagus). I’m the kind of chef that cooks with whatever I can get my hands on at the farmers’ markets. And being of French heritage, it is not surprising that a third of my garden is lavender!

Cooking tip: When preparing soups with herbs or edible flowers, it is best to use more of spring and summer types of vegetables. As an example, I favor summer squashes over winter squashes. You want clean, fresh flavors and winter squash can be just too starchy. It would compromise the flavor of a more subtle herb like lavender.

Seasoning tip: If using lavender, use it lightly. It’s got a wonderful bright fresh flavor and paired with ginger, it’s just beautiful. Just be aware that lavender can end up tasting very soapy and perfume-y if you overdo it (and we all have a tendency to do that just so in order that we notice it’s there). The secret is using clean, clear things in Spring that don’t override the flavors of your accompanying herbs, otherwise it’s a mess for your palate to try and decipher!”

Young carrot or radish tops as salad greens

“When I buy vegetables, I’m frequently asked: “Do you want the tops off of these?” Of course, I always want the tops on. But after I teach a class, there’s usually a large bulk of carrot tops left over, so I’ll put a damp paper towel around them to diminish wilting. If I have no dish to use them in right away –I’ll briefly blanch the tops, dunk them briefly in ice water, pat them dry and freeze them because after a while any part of a leafy green begins to lose nutrients.

A lot of people don’t realize young carrot greens are great in salads. As far as carrot tops go, the younger the carrot, the tastier the tops. For presentation, I like to pull the branches apart into a leafy “v”.

If your carrot tops are from a more mature bunch of carrots, they tend to be more bitter. That’s when I’ll use the tops in a sauté or stir fry where the bitterness will be subdued and go along with the other flavors. I’ll combine them with earthy and deep mushrooms, caramelized using small amounts of avocado oil with a sprinkle of raw (or granulated sugar). Just let the mushrooms sit until they sizzle and brown on high heat, and then move them around quickly to avoid them steaming. It’s always about balancing the bitter with something earthy and then with something sweet. Once the mushrooms, I’ll fold in the carrot greens until wilted.

The greens of young radishes or breakfast radishes (the small and elongated kind that are milder than the round red radish) can be cooked into sautés – use it like any other green. People tend to throw them away but not only are radish greens nutritious but they’re lovely. They have nowhere near the bite of radishes. When vegetables are grown for the leaves, the majority of the flavor is contained in the leaves. But radish greens are grown for the bulb, so that’s where the greatest concentration of flavors is in the plant. Radish greens can be a good replacement for arugula.”

Salad dressings infused with last bits of juice

“I often infuse juice into salad dressings, replacing the vinegar in the vinaigrette with any juice that has a high acidic content. This is a great way to use up that last bit of juice hanging around, or a way to use up citrus that has been used for zesting.

Avocado oil, for instance, goes beautifully with grapefruit juice. Orange and papayas go nicely with olive oil. Mango goes with coconut oil; pineapple juice with coconut water and grapeseed oil. The options are limitless and you can use up whatever you have on hand.

I like to emulsify them in a blender but you can also use an emulsion blender, (the hand held kind). Put in whatever juice you have, then very slowly add your oil to your juice until they’re well blended.”

Pestos made with little bits of nuts

“I adore making pestos with the little bits of leftover nuts you have around which are not enough to use in a full-fledged recipe. I just reserve them all in a single airtight bag for a future use. My favorite is a pesto made from pistachios, walnuts, sunflower seeds and arugula. I also make a lemon balm pesto, with random bits of pistachios and pine nuts.

One day I’d like to experiment and make a dessert pesto. Maybe a pineapple mint pesto with pine nuts? I could even add a mix-in like currants. Trust me: anything can be arranged.”

Tea breads made with over-ripe fruit

“When fruit is about to expire that’s when it’s at its sweetest. “Wait until the last minute,” my Grandma Geraldine used to say. They had in their yard cherry trees and mulberry bushes in Plymouth Michigan, so she did a lot of canning. Similar to making banana bread, I’ll just replace the bananas with any past peak fruit I’ve got around. The weight mass will be approximately the same. But it’s important to consider liquid content. An over-ripe strawberry will have a higher liquid content – so always adjust for this in a recipe.”

Stratas from older bread

“I bake savories on occasion and find several dishes to be a perfect use for day old breads. A strata which alternates layers (or stratas) of day old bread or odds and ends of leftover bread with a filling is one good use. Another use for older bread is pouring beaten eggs over this and a filling and then letting your dish “rest” for about one hour or overnight before baking.”

Enriched dog food with egg yolks or whites

“I have an apricot poodle who doesn’t like dry dog food. So I make dog food with any yolks or whites I have leftover from a recipe. I’ll combine any mixture I have of leftover rice (usually brown, black and jasmine); add some leftover whites from making a sauce; mix in leftover pieces of salmon (or any wild caught and sustainable fish from the fishmonger) with some leftover grizzle scraped off the bone. If she’s lucky, she may get fish, meat and turkey all in the same dish which really is a better balance of nutrients anyway.”

Why Alisha fell for ExpendableEdibles.com:

“As a society it seems that we have become so accustomed to commercial waste, it is no wonder that is has seeped into our homes as well. Children are growing up with the idea that an apple needs to have a few coats of wax and be shiny to be fresh. Or that carrots come nicely trimmed up, snugly housed in plastic bags. So for me the philosophy behind Expendable Edibles is one that is close to my own heart.”

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