"Live" With José Andrés and Mark Bittman!
A touching and funny interview from a recent Chicago Humanities Festival event
A few things from us today, but no Marksisms — Mark has been busily working on Community Kitchen this week, which is super exciting, and today interviewed someone wonderful for the podcast. We’ve got a great recipe for you, though, from José Andrés’ new cookbook, The World Central Kitchen Cookbook: Feeding Humanity, Feeding Hope (note: all author proceeds from this cookbook will be used to support WCK’s emergency response efforts), plus some notes from Mark about his recent interview with José at the Chicago Humanities Festival (which you can listen to here), and some suggestions for a couple more organizations that are worthy of any dollars you feel like parting with (adding on to yesterday’s list). And tomorrow, Kerri is writing about all things microwave! — Kate
Food With Mark Bittman: José Andrés at the Chicago Humanities Festival
What can one say about José Andrés? I’ve known him since somewhere around 1990, and I used to travel to DC fairly regularly and I ate at his restaurants a lot and we’d hang out — memorably, with the late Michel Richard. I also did some work with DC Central Kitchen, an organization that, José notes, changed his life and led to the inception of World Central Kitchen.
I’m ecstatic to see José’s rise in his work for humanity through WCK. He’s a terrific guy; he’s super fun and funny; he’s really a great conversationalist. So I’m very happy that we were able to record my recent conversation with José with the Chicago Humanities Festival in October — thanks to that fantastic team for the recording! It was silly, and poignant, and enriching in many ways, and now you get to listen to it. And keep reading for a recipe from The World Central Kitchen Cookbook — Karla Hoyos’ Creamy Curry Pasta. — Mark
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While we’re on the topic of World Central Kitchen, we somehow left them out of our Giving Tuesday list of deserving organizations to donate to. Let’s remedy that now by saying — donate to World Central Kitchen!
Another organization that deserves mentioning is FoodPrint, which we’ve talked about before:
Your “foodprint” is the result of everything it takes to get food from the farm to your plate, and, of course, many of those processes are invisible to consumers. And FoodPrint, the site, and its accompanying podcast, What You’re Eating, hosted by the talented Jerusha Klemperer, aims to do just that, to make those processes more visible, while keeping our sense of pleasure about food alive. The hope is that with that visibility will come action. It’s hard, at least in our insular food world, to find many more organizations more worthy than that to donate to.
And finally, below is Karla Hoyos’ recipe for Creamy Curry Pasta. — Kate
Karla Hoyos’ Creamy Curry Pasta
Makes: 6 servings
Chef Karla Hoyos developed this recipe while World Central Kitchen was responding to an earthquake in southern Haiti in 2021; it’s the epitome of adaptation. The team had to create recipes that included protein, vegetables, and starch, all cooked together in one paella pan. The result shows no sign of the restrictions placed on its creation, which were: limited cold storage and just three paella pans to prepare 10,000 meals daily. This is an ingenious one-pot dish where the pasta is cooked in the richly spiced broth, so there’s no need to boil it beforehand. The combination of pasta starches and coconut milk makes for an extra creamy sauce, with meatiness from the fish and mussels. Karla only had access to frozen vegetables, which makes the recipe simple to execute, but feel free to chop some fresh carrots, zucchini, and cauliflower.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1 (13.5-ounce) can full-fat coconut milk
2 tablespoons curry powder
12 ounces mixed frozen vegetables
Kosher salt
3/4 cup tomato paste
1 pound penne, rigatoni, farfalle, or fusilli pasta
2 pounds fish fillets (such as snapper, halibut, or grouper), cut into 1-inch cubes
1 pound mussels, scrubbed
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Instructions:
1. In a Dutch oven, combine the olive oil, garlic, ginger, coconut milk, curry powder, and 8 cups water. Bring to a boil over medium heat.
2. Add the frozen vegetables and 1 teaspoon salt and return to a boil. Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring frequently, until dissolved, about 2 minutes. Add the pasta, stirring frequently so it doesn’t stick to the bottom, and cook for 8 minutes.
3. Gently stir in the fish and mussels. Cover and cook until the pasta has absorbed all the liquid, the fish is cooked through and flaky, and the mussels have opened, 5 to 7 minutes. Discard any mussels that haven’t opened. Season with salt to taste and serve sprinkled with cilantro.
— Reprinted with permission from The World Central Kitchen Cookbook: Feeding Humanity, Feeding Hope, by José Andrés and World Central Kitchen with Sam Chapple-Sokol; foreword by Stephen Colbert, copyright © 2023. Published by Clarkson Potter Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
I give every year to WCK and in between for weather or war that WCK sets up to feed people.