​Hello, everyone. Welcome to The Dish. I'm Natasha Ho. And this week I want to talk about pesto.

The other day I was inside the house. I have a little Click to Grow garden and so you can stick different plants in there. I have a basil plant and it's been growing like crazy. And there's so much basil on it. My friend he came over and saw it and he was still like: "Still not enough basil to make pesto," which I thought was hilarious because there's so much but it's so true. Because every time I make a pesto, it's always like, where'd all that basil go.

So I want to talk about that. But I also want to talk even more broadly about sauces in general. So this, I think, is going to be the beginning of a series I'm doing on sauces. And each week, over the next few weeks, I'm going to be talking about some different sauces. We're going to start off by talking about some of those herb-based sauces, like your pestos or a chimichurri.

So with pesto, what is pesto? Pesto is an Italian sauce. Usually the base for it is basil, and then that's mixed together with things like parmesan cheese, some nuts, olive oil, garlic. Those are usually the signature flavors for making a pesto.

The reason I want to talk about this, though, is because one of the things that I learned in the kitchen is being able to convert the different ingredients in your pesto based on what you have in the kitchen. And really using the idea of pesto as the basis for creativity in the kitchen and being able to turn absolutely any kind of herb into a pesto.

So if you are in the kitchen and you're like, I really want to make a sauce, and I really want to elevate what it is that I'm cooking, but I don't have the exact ingredients that you typically use for pesto. Open yourself up to the creativity of other things that you can use in the same kind of equation for pesto.

So if you don't have basil, if you have Mint, you have oregano, you have extra parsley. I always have extra parsley in the kitchen. I've even used the tops of carrots. I've used beet greens before. You can use any kind of leafy soft textured herb that's sitting in your kitchen can be transformed into a basil.

If you don't have pine nuts, you can use walnuts, you could use almonds, you could use macadamia nuts. You could use pistachios. Olive oil. Olive oil works great. But if you have another kind of oil, you can always lean into using a different kind of oil. Parmesan cheese. You could have it in or leave it out. The garlic, obviously a wonderful flavoring. But if you don't like garlic, you could swap that for something else.

So really, it's an equation that you can kind of toss things in and out of to make it work for you. And the kinds of flavors that you like.

The same thing with your chimichurri. Chimichurri is another great one. It originates in South America, very commonly used in Argentine foods, Uruguay, you may even see it sometimes in Brazil or Chile. So that's another one, it's herb based sauce. The more of a vinegary type of flavored sauce, usually red wine vinegar mixed with your parsley and cilantro red onion. With making that sauce again, you can start to swap things in and out based on what it is that you have. The exact same thing I just talked about with what you can do with a pesto. You can take that same idea and apply it to making a chimichurri.

And this is a really great way to use up, when you have extra herbs in the house, use those up by cycling them into a sauce and you can use so much of them and get rid of them really, really quickly. So like my friend was saying, even with all the basil that I have still not enough to make pesto because it goes really, really quickly when you put those into a sauce. If you ever have extra herbs laying around or can't figure out how to use them up, definitely turn them into a sauce.

You can put them on pasta, of course. You can put it on a steak. You can put it on vegetables. You can use that and mix it with mayonnaise and turn it into a spread. You can put it on top of a toast or some type of crostini, so many different ways that you can use it, and it'll be absolutely delicious elevate the flavor of your food.

And, of course, help you make sure that you use up all that produce and none of it goes to waste.

So that is what I wanted to share with you guys today on making sauces. And I'll do back here again next week with more sauce for you. I'll see you soon. Bye.

​Hello and welcome to The Dish. I'm Natasha Ho. This is your two minute tip to help you cook better food. And this week I want to talk about one of my favorite dishes. I actually got to enjoy it just last week, so I'm really excited.

I want to talk about biryani today. This is one that has come up a few times. I actually led an entire course earlier this year on making biryani from start to finish. So this is just like a super quick primer on a couple key things to keep in mind if you're going to make biryani at home and you want to get it right.

3 things to keep in mind for getting great results with your biryani

The first one is the rice. When it comes to the rice, key things to keep in mind, you want to make sure that you use the correct rice: so basmati rice. In order for it to be basmati rice, it needs to come from either India or Pakistan. Get the best quality rice that you possibly can.

And the second piece of that with the rice is don't overcook the rice. It's important that you cook the rice and the meat separately, so those are not going to be cooked together. Cook the rice about half way before it's paired with the other ingredients.

So during that first cooking, you want to make sure that you don't overcook it and then you're going to add the other ingredients and they're all going to finish cooking together. So by the end of the cooking process, your rice will be perfectly cooked when everything else is done. So that's really key. Make sure you use that basmati rice. Don't overcook it when you do the first cooking and then cook the rice and the meat ingredients separately when you start the dish.

The next key thing for making your biryani is that you want to make sure you use great spices. Spices are a key part of adding flavor to any Indian dish, but especially for your biryani. You want to keep in mind that spices are going to be what really elevate that dish. So to get the best result and the most potency from spices, you want to make sure that you use fresh spices, as fresh possible. And using whole spices is usually the best way to go, because you're going to ground those up at home and you'll make sure that you've kept all of those essential oils tucked inside of your spices right before you cook them. So all of that wonderful flavor will get directly into your food, and it won't have dissipated while it was sitting on a shelf somewhere.

So those are the first two things, and the final thing for your biryani is the fried onions. They are signature part of this dish, and they require some patience. So make sure that when you're making those fried onions that you really allow them to cook to caramelize and transform. It takes some time, but it so pays off. It's so, so delicious.

Keep an eye on those onions. I've done it many times overcook those onions. They go from being beautifully golden brown to charred and burnt in no time. If you don't keep your eye on them, so keep a watchful eye on those onions.

And that beautiful, crunchy texture and wonderful flavor will really take your biryani from okay to amazing and absolutely delicious.

So those are the three things to keep in mind when you're making biryani at home to really make sure that you come out with a masterful level dish. I'll see you guys here next time. Bye.

​Hello, everyone. Welcome to The Dish. I'm Natasha Ho, and this is your two minute tip to help you cook better food. And today we're doing another deep dive on an ingredient. We're gonna be talking about fennel.

Fennel was a mystery ingredient to me for a long time. I would see it in the grocery store, and I had no idea what it was or how to cook with it. So I thought it would be a perfect one for our deep dive; to talk about five things you should know about fennel.

So the first thing to understand about fennel is that all of it is edible. So the bulb on the bottom is edible, the stocks as well as the fronds. You can use all of that in your cooking.

Second thing to understand about fennel, it has a wonderful, crunchy texture to it that's very similar to celery. The flavor, though, is very licorice-y, kind of anise-inspired flavor that you'll get. When you cook that, that helps to bring even more of a sweet flavor to it. As those sugars inside of the fennel start to caramelize and will get a more tender texture through the cooking process as well. So if you want to transform from that crunchy, strong licorice flavor, you can cook it and you'll get more of the sweet and tender texture from a fennel.

The third thing to understand about a fennel is if you're going to serve it raw, the best thing to do is to slice it very, very thinly. This will help you to make it easier for it to be integrated into a dish. The same way as when you use onion in a raw state, you want those pieces to be very small, very thin. So the flavor is not overwhelming and that the texture is also something that's easy to integrate into the rest of your dish.

On the other hand, if you're going to cook it, for instance, you want to roast your fennel in the oven. You want to cut those into large, thick slices or wedges, are even better. This will help the bulb of the fennel to hold together much easier. And from there, you can finish it off with some olive oil, salt, pepper. Put that in the oven, it comes out. It's absolutely beautiful. I love to add a little bit of parmesan on that. I serve it as a side dish. It's wonderful with fish. Absolutely love fennel served that way.

And the final thing to understand about fennel is working with those wonderful fronds. The fronds on the fennel do not throw those away. You can use them like an herb in the kitchen, so I like to sprinkle those on top of a dish as a final touch. I've also put those into the blender and turn them into a pesto as well, which we'll be talking more about later on this month. And I'll also turn them into marinades as well for dishes because they have that wonderful licorice- anise flavor that you can allow to permit the rest of the dish.

So that is five things to know about working with fennel. If you have more questions, feel free to shoot those on over, leave them as a comment below. I would love to talk more about fennel with you. I'll see you next time. Bye.

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​Hello, everyone. Welcome to The Dish. I'm Natasha Ho, and this is your two minute tip to help you cook better food. And today we're doing another deep dive on an ingredient. We're gonna be talking about fennel.

Fennel was a mystery ingredient to me for a long time. I would see it in the grocery store, and I had no idea what it was or how to cook with it. So I thought it would be a perfect one for our deep dive; to talk about five things you should know about fennel.

So the first thing to understand about fennel is that all of it is edible. So the bulb on the bottom is edible, the stocks as well as the fronds. You can use all of that in your cooking.

Second thing to understand about fennel, it has a wonderful, crunchy texture to it that's very similar to celery. The flavor, though, is very licorice-y, kind of anise-inspired flavor that you'll get. When you cook that, that helps to bring even more of a sweet flavor to it. As those sugars inside of the fennel start to caramelize and will get a more tender texture through the cooking process as well. So if you want to transform from that crunchy, strong licorice flavor, you can cook it and you'll get more of the sweet and tender texture from a fennel.

The third thing to understand about a fennel is if you're going to serve it raw, the best thing to do is to slice it very, very thinly. This will help you to make it easier for it to be integrated into a dish. The same way as when you use onion in a raw state, you want those pieces to be very small, very thin. So the flavor is not overwhelming and that the texture is also something that's easy to integrate into the rest of your dish.

On the other hand, if you're going to cook it, for instance, you want to roast your fennel in the oven. You want to cut those into large, thick slices or wedges, are even better. This will help the bulb of the fennel to hold together much easier. And from there, you can finish it off with some olive oil, salt, pepper. Put that in the oven, it comes out. It's absolutely beautiful. I love to add a little bit of parmesan on that. I serve it as a side dish. It's wonderful with fish. Absolutely love fennel served that way.

And the final thing to understand about fennel is working with those wonderful fronds. The fronds on the fennel do not throw those away. You can use them like an herb in the kitchen, so I like to sprinkle those on top of a dish as a final touch. I've also put those into the blender and turn them into a pesto as well, which we'll be talking more about later on this month. And I'll also turn them into marinades as well for dishes because they have that wonderful licorice- anise flavor that you can allow to permit the rest of the dish.

So that is five things to know about working with fennel. If you have more questions, feel free to shoot those on over, leave them as a comment below. I would love to talk more about fennel with you. I'll see you next time. Bye.