Hey, it's Neil Savedra. You're listening to kfi EM six forty the Fore Report on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Not be Saturday to you, it's the Fore Report on Neil Savedra. How do you do? Hattie Man talking to Rob Ariano from Wisconsin Restaurant now here in Los Angeles? Boyd? Did that make me hungry? Holy crud? Just looking at their food and you know they have a happy hour. What is it like four to six on Monday through Friday or something. I was just looking at their menu
again and going through everything. They've got a lot of tequila mm hmmmmm, some mescals, but just wow, they got a lot of mescal. Yeah. I don't just going through. I just such a nice guy and the food is so great. You're running such a beautiful restaurant. I wanted to spend as much time with him as possible. Plus I really want to to be out there broadcasting live. But check that out if you get a chance now on Wilshire Desconso Restaurant la dot com. Really good folks
putting together great food, all right. Air fryars Man, If you don't have one, you're one of the odd people out. We had one that we got rid of it, and then my wife had another experience with one and said, I really like this, let's get it. Sure, let's do it. And now she's fallen in love with it. And according to Neslie, about sixty percent of households in the US
had one by twenty twenty three. So if you're part of that group, some interesting news coming out, and if you're not part of that group, maybe now's the time to jump on that particular bandwagon. A study released in November, a bunch of researchers at the University of Birmingham looked into how different cooking methods affect in or air quality. And that's become more of a concern, right. I know, people there are those environmentalists and the like that are
concerned about using gas stoves. Much of that. You know, I really raise an eyebrow. We've been cooking with live fire in the home, you know, back in the day with wood. Not saying that all those experiences are going to be great for you, but I think we're a solution looking for a problem most times in a lot of this stuff. How that's just my opinion. I'm not
that smart. But different cooking methods are going to change your indoor cooking, your air quality, right, So it's not that big of a surprise to think that air fryers come out on top, at least when it comes to polluting. Now, I think every tool, every cooking tool or vessel, has its purpose. It just does. Even a microwave, for instance. I think microwaves cook vegetables better than the vast majority of techniques. There are ways to do it. I put
carrots in a bowl. You do it with broccoli, with cauliflower. You put it in a bowl, put a little olive oil on there, some salt and pepper, thyme, and it's microwave safe bowl. You put saran wrap on top or your plastic wrap on top. You go in there and you zapp it for you know, fifty seconds or so. See where it's at. A little bit more, a little bit more if you want them a little softer. But they come out steamed and wonderful and easy peasy. So every tool's got its use, right. So this study is
important for some you know, many reasons. One, we spend a lot of time indoors, over eighty percent of our day on average, and cooking contributes to a big chunk of indoor air pollution. The techniques you're using are going to change the air quality, and researchers are finding that things like tiny particles of particulates and gases from cooking can mess with your health. This can cause problems like
heart disease, lung issues, even cancer in some cases. Plus, cooking emissions don't just stay inside, they can make their way outdoors and packs air quality everywhere. I don't know how much of the alarm I'm going to sound on that, but the study tested these things, looking at different methods produced and which ones produced the least population. It tested five ways to cook, and in this first test it was just a chicken breast, simple chicken breast, no seasoning,
just salt and oil or water. Well, I tell you, but seasoning salt is seasoning. They tested deep frying, stir frying, pan frying, boiling, and air frying, keeping everything else constant. Same cookwar, same oil, same chicken. They measured the amount of pollution each method produced and how long it stayed in the air after cooking. The clear winner and an air fryer. After all the tasks, the results were very clear to them. Air frying produced way less pollution than
the others. In fact, air fryers barely moved the needle in terms of air quality. So put that into perspective, you got pan frying releasing the most harmful particulates and gases around ninety three micrograms per cubic meter of air, while air fryler barely made a dent at just zero point six micrograms per cubic meter. Pretty much you know, a night and day experience there. So why is air frying better? Well, just to clean our way of cooking.
It's done with hot air that circulates around. That's what gives it that crispiness of the food. Like frying, similar to frying, frying is a dehydration method. It just happens to be a wet dehydration method, meaning that the oils is such a hot temperature it's boiling the water out of whatever you're making. So in this particular case, you've got less floating around, less burning, less you know, cooking that's going to put particulates into the air. So maybe
that's to you. If that's a big deal, then that's another reason to get yourself one of them. There. Air fryers more to com.
You're listening to The Fork Report with Nils of Adra on demand from KFI a M six forty.
If you're going through something during these times, I'm hoping that that you're thinking about the beauty and the joy and the simplicity it is. And they remind us to take time to think about ourselves as well. And one of the ways to do that is through learning something new, cooking, experimenting, and enjoying. And I hold in my grimy little hands right now a new book, The Prime Ingredient Generations of Flavor, by doctor Laura Pohopian, who's been on the program many
times before. You can find out more about her at the prime Ingredient dot com theprime Ingredient dot com. Doctor p How are you, my friend?
Hi?
It's nice to CEO.
So happy to be back.
You know, I feel like I see you all the time because of social media, and I follow you and enjoy everything you're doing. You and I have been friends for a long time. We keep up with each other, We cheer each other's victories on and things like that, and so it's nice to having you on the show. You're definitely one of our family members and it makes sense to have you on. How are you.
I'm doing well. I'm doing well.
And when Kayla sent me the email, I was like, the heck, I'm going to be there, absolutely absolutely. I just so enjoy being here and when I can be in this and bring you.
All food, Oh yeah, that's the best.
I'm totally in.
We love you, but you know it's all about this. It's the food.
I get it.
You're sweet and lovely and all those things and of you know you Paul and all that, but the food is really where they's.
I understand you.
Come empty handed. We'll be happy to see you. I'm not saying we want, but the stay is going to be short.
I understand the pecking order.
Yeah, okay, great. So the book. Tell us about the book. And now this is not your first though.
This is the second book. And I made this in honor of my mom. She passed away seven years ago. And she's the original chef of the family. And I was the original taster of the family.
What are we doing now?
Mom?
And she would put me in charge of tasting the hummus. Really, I was like the palette of the family.
Yeah, you've got to taste something. Many's the bomb.
Yeah, and there's so many recipes for hummus.
I think wars have been started over all the different recipes for hummus.
And it's not like as far as the ingredients are, like there's a ton of them, there's only a handful of things putting it. But the same you could be said at pizza dough and you want to start a fight. Yeah, you know. So it's exactly technique, it's ratios, it's all of these things.
And ultimately it comes down to what do you want your hummus to taste like? And personally, I don't want it to taste like avocados and at Amammy, I wanted to taste like chick. I know, I wanted to taste like chickpeas and tahini and God forbid.
Yeah. Yeah, so my mom put me in charge of that.
But I think what really started the whole process of the cookbook was to have a conversation with you during COVID and you said, what are you going to do during this COVID season? And I was like, I think I'm gonna write a cookbook. And then I was like, oh no, now I've got to do it.
I said it, darn my mouth yeah, oh yeah, it's lack of control. But you did it.
I did it.
I did it, and I did it with my daughter. She did all of the photography and she's awesome. Yeah, she was going to be with me today, but she has a gig actually in Woodland Hills, so she's photographing out there.
Wow, photography, photographing, So.
She's she's doing her thing over there, and I'm doing my thing over here. But she did all the photography and it was because of her that I actually proceeded and forged on with this project.
Yeah, it doesn't finish if you don't start. You've kind of had a pattern of starting and finishing things though since the doctor part. I mean, yeah, you have to, you have to. You have to, you know, start and then finish. And I've seen you do that through many, many different endeavors. The Prime Ingredient is one of them that started as a passion and continues to grow with your spices and now the book, videos and everything else
again at the prime Ingredient dot Com. Okay, so we'll take a quick news break, get some news here, and then we'll come and we'll taste some of the food. We'll talk about the book itself, the way you organized your recipes, what you chose, and we'll get we'll get deeper into the hummus as well. I actually have not one, but maybe two different recipes for hummus from you, and it is one of those things and I've learned many things about hummus from you, and I've still not perfected
my own. Oh Like, it's one of those things where I've had I've done decent job, but I've had better, you know, from even recipes that I know I've tasted. I said, it's good when they do it, but when I do it, it doesn't taste the same or things like that.
Well, let's talk through the process.
So well, we will talk about that in some of the tips for making hummus, because like I said, it's not a lot of ingredients, but the ratios and the preparation I think can change it. Because when you have a good one that speaks to you, you're like, holy hell.
Box that up started the party.
Yeah, and that's going with us all right. Laura Poopian, doctor Laura Pohoping is with us her new book The Prime Ingredients, Generations of Flavor and Done with her daughter with a nod of love, to her mom and what more could you want in a book? Because everything tastes better with love, right, So we'll be back with more.
You're listening to The Fork Report with Nil Savedra on demand from KFI A six forty.
We talk here at KFI and we just enjoy life. The things that we love is around people and food. Our guest and dear friend, doctor Laura Pohopian, how sweet, comes in with an envelope and then she pops out her Zelmans and goes look, and Kayla said, she said, I can't. I can't do altoids anymore after having Zelmans because they're a disappointment. It's the true. I get that people think that we're blowing smoke up their rear talking about Zelmans and they're like, for real, And I said,
it's for real. You have to experience it and what it does, and it's just different. It's not like, you know, I don't know if I come out here if it was just a mint and say, hey, it's an exceptional mint. It's different. So that's funny. So doctor p had one and she pulled it out of her person, shook it up, and you want to go to Zelman's dot com slash fork and it will automatically give you the fifteen percent off, so check that out. All right, we're talking to doctor
Laura Pohopian about her book Generations of Flavor. This is all through the Prime Ingredient. You can find out more at the prime Ingredient dot com the priman ingredient dot com. And this is you've brought some lovely food talk about. And there's two types of hummus here, oh, one type of just one type. That's why I put my glasses on because I thought this was humus from it right here. Yeah. No, as they brought it closer, I'm like, wait a second, okay,
all right, put by uh put my glass. So I have at Katarina's Club the event we did, I dropped my glasses that are progressives. So these are just like you're blurry. Everything's blurry past about a foot past me right now. And so I bring it to me and I'm like, oh, that's my foot, that's not.
Yeah, yeah, it's There's only one type of hummus and that's mine preferably. And the best way to make hummus, I think, is the way my mom taught me, and that is by getting the food processor out and getting the garbonzo beans.
That is so wonderful, thank you, That is so good.
What makes it good for you?
Texture is huge, yes, and all the nutty components, so you get the nuttiness of the tahini. It's it's subtle but lovely. And the garbonzo bean, to me, has to be the star. It's like having a good steak and then putting a thousand different things on it. It's like, the steak should be meaty, exactly, and this has that lovely garbonzo bean forward, that chickpea forward. Hummus, that just it. It's exactly what I want. That texture is smooth and silky.
I'm assuming you you meticulously get those. You shuck them, get the you know, and but whatever it is, it's just.
You know, no, it's really, it's not really.
The key is to get a food processor. Put those little garbanzo beans from a can. My mom used them from a can. She never done all that. It doesn't come out like that, well you can't. You have to let it work around for a while. You can well worried some more.
You and you're worrying, who's that time to worry that much?
Just worried a little bit more.
But as it's worrying, you put in the uh extra aquafaba, so you'll have to save a little bit of that brine.
From like pasta. Pasta water is liquid gold, exact sac and so you're using it from. Yeah, I've done all that.
Well, I'll come over.
I'm going to put you. I'm gonna put you next to the food process.
There.
You'll find stand right there, getting.
There and then she's a little thing. Man. You'll just sit there and I'll open up. I want some hummus. You'll go. Is it time? It's so bright out here?
Time?
All right, hang out. We're gonna talk to more of This was a really short segment, so you can hang out right absolutely please. We're not gonna let you go. I said that because we can lock the door. Yeah, yeah, exactly, nothing but love here all right, So we'll be back go nowhere. As we talked with doctor Laura Pahopian, of course, you can get her book Generations of Flavor and learn how to make hummus properly. Apparently The Prime Ingredient dot Com.
The Prime Ingredient dot Com a lovely work that we're kind of talking about going through. Many of the things throughout the book are in front of me right now. We'll taste more when we come back. You've been listening to the Fork Report. You can always hear us live on kf I AM six forty two to five pm on Saturday, and any time on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Howdy Howdy Howdy. Thanks for hanging out with us today. I've got my buddy, doctor Laura Pohopian her new book,
Generations of Flavor. The Prime Ingredient is where you can find this The prime Ingredient dot Com, The prime Ingredient dot Com. Laura, what the hell did you do this chicken? That is so tender? And I know this how to travel but oh my god.
Oh yum.
Oh well, we talked about that chicken several months ago, and it is my spice, my prime ingredient spice that.
I absolutely is wonderful. But holy hell, thank you so much.
It's in the cookbook. It's the lemon chicken kebab recipe.
I just love that.
Thanks.
I didn't make it Kebob style. I made it just a breast of chicken. And that's the cool thing about the recipes in there. There are suggestions really, so if you don't want a kebab anything, or you just want to sear it and then throw it in the oven, giving you the tools to just go and do with the recipes as you will.
Sometimes you're just too lazy to kebob, so it is sometimes I don't want to come. I don't want to Bob. I just want to cooked, that's all. And the lovely accompaniment of the pickled veggies and the.
Like is just thank you.
It's so great up against that hummus and the cheese and I mean that fattiness, that wonderfulness is just cleansed with that vinegar and the brine and just the rice is perfect. And this is genuinely the best food you can eat on the planet. It is for your health.
It's the best. It really is the best.
And the let me just tell you that the pickles that you're having with the olives right now are marinated with my prime spice. And the prime spice is what my mom taught me. She used to pull that the little cutting board out of the cabinet tree. Oh yeah, it right, yeah, she used to pull the cutting board out and she just like mix all the spices together on that cutting board.
She just put them a launge.
You know, just a why none of us got COVID because we had under the counter cutting board that had everything on it. It was like, I don't know, it was the same growing up with me too. My mom would pull that thing out, uh huh. And it's like it sits under the sink the whole time.
Ever washed.
No, I mean things were knocked off it into the trash. Yeah yeah, and yeah, that's why we can't get a super bug because yeah, yeah.
But that's that's how I learned to make the spice. And I do make the spice. I do wash though, you do it, yeah yeah, And that spice is what's on the pickles and the olives that you're having.
And it's great. I put it on everything everything if Yeah, it is one of those things that you know, you go through everybody's like four ingredient this or three ingredient this all over the internet. I'm like, it's two ingredients, it's veggies and it's this. And I put your spice on things all the time. And it's very.
Easy, thanks so much.
Yeah, and it should be and those that want to make a Mediterranean diet, really it can be a little daunting, but if you want to achieve the flavors, it really just starts with the basic spice. It just you know, the prime spice is what you need.
And when I come across a good one like yours, and it is the holidays, people and talking about stalking stuffers in the like spices, I think is one of the best things you can give to somebody who loves to cook, because you think, well, no, they're going to mix there, no, there. You learn about culture and people and things by other people's spices and then you can create your own as.
Well, Yeah, for sure.
And speaking of culture, that cookbook starts with the Mediterranean culture and then it blends into my prime ingredient specialties that harken back to what I learned as a child, but it it morphs into my American upbringing as well. Sure, so you know you've got a little bit of all of the culture that I grew up. And I'm one hundred percent Lebanese, well ninety.
Six, Oh my gosh, who slept with who? Who knocked it off of the one on?
Yeah, I don't know.
Someone in Turkey, I think so, Ah, sons of guns.
We have to go way back the way way back.
But that is and Derek just flavor on top of flavor in top of on top of flavor and that culture.
Yeah, yeah, and it's it's really cool to be able to know what the flavors are just through my research, you know, and having the knowledge of being able to talk to my sister who's ten years older than I am.
She actually wrote the ForWord in the She's.
Probably thrilled you just said that. Don't my older sister anyho you probably can't hear this.
No, she's she's not listening at all.
And she you know, she's She and I were really collaborating on what did mom using this and what did.
Dad use in mas.
It's so cool.
It's really just a whole family thing together.
This is great and it's great for the holidays, and I'm glad you're here and it's always lovely to see you. But this is really neat stuff. And I will tell you just this chicken and the hummus alone is worth the book. Oh it really. That chicken is so it almost uh, you familiar with the term velveting when you velvet meat, The Asians do it. Asians velvet their meat.
No, but that sounds so delightful.
It is. It's whenever you go out and have Asian food and you go, how did they cook that like that? How does that? Why is it so tender and soft? And it reminds me of that. It just is very it's I mean, it's just perfectly cooked chicken is what it is.
Well, I instead of velveting, I would like it to be for coating.
Well that sounds sturdy, Yeah, totally, just for coded.
I don't know. Wow, we'll have to make up our own.
Yeah, but that is really lovely. And you know, again we talked about this with chef who came on earlier, is that you can't beat love and food and joy and food. And I've never seen you talk about food or family or the things that we love in life without that brightness shooting out of your eyes and your smile. And that's a definite plus to anybody who prepares food. So this is great. This is really really lovely food.
I just love you, Neil, I'll stop it. You're just the best, best, best best.
Go back at your sister here. I'm proud of you. This is very cool. I mean, you've been in inspiration to me since we met. I've taken your cooking class. I still to this day reference recipes for copycat things that you taught me during the class, and remember taking learning about certain condiments or ingredients that I have put in my kitchen since and I've never looked back. And of course your spice is always in my pantry as
well and used constantly. Microwave people, listen, you microwave veggies. Put them in a microwave safe bowl, a little bit of olive oil, and you don't even need to put any salt or anything on there necessarily. You just go and you put some Sarran ramp over it, and you just hit them for a little bit until they steam in there. And then I get out the prime ingreenent your spice mix and throw that on there and they're done for me. I'll sit and just go sit in front of the TV.
Eat that and my olive oil.
Now you look at you.
I've got three different.
Ones now and my olive tepand I sold out, but we just made a new batch so those are coming out again.
And they can find that at our friends over at the Corner Butcher Corner.
Butcher and the website the prime Ingredient dot Com that's awesome.
That is very very cool.
You know, we're full service now.
I love it. You know, people have been hounding me to come out with spice and ollive oils and stuff, and I'm like, it's got the time. You don't even have the time, and you do it.
Well, you know you can just well, we'll have a Fork Report.
Spice. I just special.
I'll be honest. I just made a little sticker of my face and I put it on your stuff, Okay to hand it out.
Well, that'll that'll work. That'll work. We can work.
It's just the sticker was small and I didn't cover it all up. That's my fault. Well. Always lovely to see you, my dear, and this is wonderful. Happy holidays too, Thank.
You, and happy holidays to you.
Check it out, spend some time on the interwebs. Go to the Prime ingredient dot com. The Prime Ingredient dot com. Lovely human being here doing very wonderful things with food that will make your tummy and your taste buds happy. So do it.
You're listening to the Fork Report with Nil Savedra on demand from kf I AM six forty