BORDERLINE SALTY

On this episode, hosts Rick Martinez and Carla Lalli Music dive into the dos and don’ts of grilling sausage, break down the different ways to store your baked goods, and share the kitchen appliances they think are the most underrated. 

And on the latest No, Thank You, Please, Rick and Carla make a very convincing argument for trying eggplant.

This week’s recipe book:

As always, we’d love to hear about your cooking conundrums at 833-433-FOOD (3663). 

Find us on Instagram @borderlinesalty

Find full episode transcripts and more about the podcast on our website borderlinesalty.fm. 

If you can’t get enough of our hosts – we don’t blame you! Subscribe to Carla's newsletters here and find links to her Instagram and YouTube channel at www.carlalallimusic.com. 

You can order Rick’s cookbook “Mi Cocina: Recipes and Rapture from My Kitchen in Mexico here, watch the companion Mi Cocina video series here, and find all of his socials at www.rick-martinez.com

EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION

Rick Martinez: I'm Rick Martinez. I'm a cookbook author, video host. And I love dancing in the rain with my dog, Choco. 

Carla Lalli Music: Cute. I'm Carla Lalli Music. I'm also a cookbook author, video host and I swear by gold bond medicated powder. If you know, you know. 

Rick Martinez: She uses it everywhere folks. And this is Borderline Salty. The show where we take your calls, boost your confidence and make you a better, smarter, happier cook. 

Carla Lalli Music: Today, we'll discuss the dos and don'ts for grilling sausage, the different ways to store freshly baked goods and what to do with that leftover bacon grease. 

Rick Martinez: Yum. 

Carla Lalli Music: You should not be throwing it away. 

Rick Martinez: Never. 

Carla Lalli Music: But before we get into it, I want to share that this week's segment of Tell Me Something Good is brought to you by the Sonos Move, a powerful and portable smart speaker for listening all around your home and beyond. Soundtrack your summer with Sonos. Discover Move plus other speakers and soundbars at Sonos.com. Okay, Rick. Now give me something good. 

Rick Martinez: Okay, Carla. So, have you been to Mexico City? 

Carla Lalli Music: I have. I had a taco there that made me cry. 

Rick Martinez: Okay. I love tacos in Mexico City. And if you're ever in Mexico City, you have got to go to Los Cocuyos to try the tacos campechanos. One of the secrets, I think, or the reason why these tacos are so incredible is because a lot of these taquerias and the little puestos, they have like one giant pot, like a [phonetic] Rondo, that they just put everything, all the meats, all the vegetables that they serve in this one pot early in the morning. They fill it up with a little water. It cooks all day, all that fat renders and eventually starts to fry in its own fat. And it's incredible. This is one of those recipes that you think to yourself, Only a restaurant can do it because of the volume of meat that is in this giant pot. 

Carla Lalli Music: Right. 

Rick Martinez: But I finally decided to take the plunge, and I was like, you know what? I'm going to develop a recipe for 8 to 12 people. This will definitely be a party taco. And it was so incredibly delicious and I was so proud of myself that I actually managed to capture the essence of this taco campechano in the home kitchen version. 

Carla Lalli Music: Yum. You took a leap into the meat pot. 

Rick Martinez: Honey, I live in the meat pot. So, Carla, I'm going to just hang out here in the meat pot, but why don't you tell me something good? 

Carla Lalli Music: So what's been good for me lately is that I started bingeing a new show called The Bear. 

Rick Martinez: Ooh.

Carla Lalli Music: A lot of people are talking about it. The actor who's the star is the guy who played Lipp on Shameless, which was another amazing, bingeable show. And Leo and I have started watching it together, my older son, Leo. So it's a show that takes place in a restaurant and the main character has worked in like super high stakes, fine dining environments, including 11 Madison Park, which I'm like very familiar with because my office, when I worked at Shake Shack, was literally in the wine cellar of 11 Madison Park. I would have to go into the wine room to get into my office. 

Rick Martinez: Oh my God.

Carla Lalli Music: So he was a chef at 11 Madison Park. He worked at Noma. So all these places. And now he's come home to Chicago to kind of like save his family's sandwich shop. Usually I can't watch, like, shows that take place in restaurant kitchens because it just bothers me so much. Like, you know, the casting is really weird. Like, the set dressing is, like, wrong. They're like using, you know, tongs for whatever. I just am like, you would never do that. See what he's doing there? That's not right. Like, but for The Bear, they got really good consulting chefs to work with the actors and to make sure all that stuff feels real. And Leo has his first restaurant job, and we've started like having TV dinner dates to watch The Bear together, and it has been like, so fun. 

Rick Martinez: Aw.

Carla Lalli Music: It's just been a while since we had a TV show that we were both in to at the same time. And people ask me like, Why are they saying like, whatever? Why is he saying 'hands'? What does that mean? I'm like, Well, let me tell you. And yeah, mother son bonding, just nothing like it. 

Rick Martinez: That is the most wholesome story I've heard in a very long time. Carla, es el tiempo para los preguntas, no? 

Carla Lalli Music: Si, claro que si. 

Caller 1: Hi, Rick and Carla, this is [phonetic] Nolan, he/him, calling from a story in Queens in New York City. Given that it's grilling season, I did have a question. On 4th of July, a friend had a cookout, but he did not want to man the grill. So he asked me to do it. I'm a very comfortable cook and I felt fine doing that. However, the more people showed up bringing things to grill, the more I noticed most people were bringing sausages and none of them were cooked [unclear] more like beer boiled or anything like that, so I was a little nervous about possibly under cooking them because we had pork, we had lamb, we had turkey, we had things of different sizes. Is there a way of knowing that a sausage on the grill is done without having to cut it open or poke it with a [unclear] which would run all the juices out of it? If you have any suggestions of a good way of visually seeing if the brat or sausage or whatever it is is done, I would love to hear back from you. Thank you very much, bye bye. 

Rick Martinez: Love me some grilled sausage. 

Carla Lalli Music: Shout out Queens, also. Love Queens.

Rick Martinez: Woo hoo! 

Carla Lalli Music: It took me a really long time to realize cooking a sausage well requires grilling over medium heat. It's kind of that low and slow equivalent of cooking inside, and you just don't have to be, like, jumping all around, dealing with the super high flame and flare ups. [Phonetic] Nolan sounds like experienced and comfortable and confident. We love to see it. And this question to me really is about assessing doneness without having to cut into the sausage, which, as he says, you never want to do. 

Rick Martinez: Yeah. And doneness on a sausage is a little tricky because it's in the casing. But I think there are some visual cues that can really help you out. The first thing is that the sausage itself, when it's done, will shrink in length, but puff up in girth. Ha ha ha. 

Carla Lalli Music: Oh, shrinkage and girthiness. 

Rick Martinez: I know it's like a whole new sausage, but, you know, we all love a little girth here. Like, normally, when I am grilling meats, I try and touch them, and I can usually tell doneness from touching it. 

Carla Lalli Music: Yeah.

Rick Martinez: Sausages are not like that. It's going to puff up because all of the juices on the inside are going to get steamy and they're going to try and burst. And so when a sausage bursts, that means it's now going over temp. So you want to pull it right before it bursts. You're going to see it kind of inflate like a balloon. You might see little bubbles happening underneath the casing. That's your cue that it's ready to go. The other visual cues that I always look for are even browning on all sides. So if you're grilling something like a bratwurst, that has, like, a very light skinned casing. You want to get, like, deep, golden, brown caramelly colors all over on all sides. If you're grilling something like a chorizo that's got a red color to it, you want something deep brick, red color, almost charring. Like, I try not to get too aggressive with my char marks. And, you know, if you are grilling on that beautiful medium heat, then you're not going to get those flare ups or you shouldn't get those flare ups and you shouldn't get, like, really aggressive charring on it. 

Carla Lalli Music: Yeah. And like any other cut of meat, it's really important to let the sausage sit after you take it off the grill and rest, because all of those juices that have been like unleashed, all the fat has rendered inside. You want that stuff to settle down, to like recombine with the ground meat. If you cut right into it, all of the juices are going to come out and you're going to even if you cooked it perfectly well, you're going to end up with a dry dog. 

Rick Martinez: I had this friend well, he's no longer a friend because I watched him grill sausages once. He actually used to cut them in half lengthwise and grill them cut side down until basically it was just like the sole of a shoe. It was so horrible. And I was like, we spent so much money buying, like, these amazing sausages. And you literally just like, killed all of the delicious juices out of them. I was like, No, you are never coming back to my house again. Get out. 

Carla Lalli Music: Yeah. The only time I'll ever cook a sausage like that is if I'm starting with a already pre-cooked sausage. So like a kielbasa or Spanish chorizo, because then you can cut into them, they're fully cooked and just to get like the maximum amount of browning on that flat side. But I also would do that. I would do that in a skillet. I wouldn't I don't think I would do that outside. 

Rick Martinez: Right. 

Carla Lalli Music: So let's get back to the grill. Sausages on the grill. Medium heat, beautiful. Charring, fat bubbling right beneath the surface. Let those dogs rest off heat before you cut into them. And I would like mine with hot mustard, if that could be arranged. Hey, caller, what's on your mind? 

Caller 2: Hi. My name is [phonetic] Mackenzie. My pronouns are he/him. I was wondering, what do you think are your most underrated kitchen utensils or underrated kitchen appliances, something that you feel a lot of people don't have but they should have? And why? 

Carla Lalli Music: I love this question because usually people are asking what the most overrated appliances or tools are, and in That Sounds So Good, there is a section that I called Ten Kitchen Tools You Probably Don't Have, But Definitely Need. And so this is like a dream question. 

Rick Martinez: Love it. Okay, so what was your number one on that list? 

Carla Lalli Music: A mortar and pestle, I got to say, like I use my mortar and pestle for so many more things than just grinding spices. So I have a smooth one and I have the Japanese grooved one called a [phonetic] Suribachi that actually was a present from our good friend [phonetic] Andy Baragane gave that to me many moons ago. And I use them all like almost every day. So yes, I grind spices with them, but I also will mash down garlic and anchovy and can make a whole Caesar dressing in my smooth mortar and pestle. You can like coarsely chop toasted nuts by just dumping them into the mortar and pestle and giving them a few whacks. I take big croutons and turn them into breadcrumbs in the mortar and pestle. I just like love using it. Also, I love those sort of tactile old tools that just feel elemental and essential. 

Rick Martinez: One of my favorite tools that I think more people need to own is a scale. 

Carla Lalli Music: Yep. 

Rick Martinez: I think scales are absolutely essential for baking to get like the most perfect results. The reason why I have like a really tricked out coffee scale which actually measures out to the hundredth of a gram, is because in Mexican cooking, chilies actually are also the thickening agent for a lot of soups and stews. They also come in like so many different sizes. Like if I say use three anchos, my anchos might be really huge. Yours might be a little bit smaller, and therefore, your sauce is going to be a lot thinner than my sauce. So if I give you a gram amount for that, we're going to get the same results. And so that's why I love scales. It's just like you're always going to get as close to the recipe that I developed in my house with the scale. 

Carla Lalli Music: I think I said in the book like, if you never, ever, ever bake and have no desire to, maybe you don't need a scale. But if you even bake one thing, get a scale, you'll use them for so much stuff. 

Rick Martinez: I also really love a good sheet tray, like I might have a stack of about 15 sheet trays in my house. 

Carla Lalli Music: Yeah.

Rick Martinez: I got them primarily because video shoots, because they're just they're really easy when you like, have one dish completely [phonetic] mised out and you put everything for that dish on one tray. Yeah, but I also just love instead of like having a thousand different [phonetic] mise bowls, just put everything on the sheet tray. I use them for spoon rest, I use them for grilling, I use them for my shoots, I use them for just about anything. Also pro tip, the quarter sheet makes a great cake for one. 

Carla Lalli Music: Oh, cakes for one. Of course you would know that. 

Rick Martinez: Because sometimes that's what you need. 

Carla Lalli Music: Yeah, that's true. Another thing that kind of ties back to Leo working in a restaurant for the first time is that I am obsessed with masking tape and sharpies. It just helps you stay efficient, know what you have, not overbuy, not lose track of things, labeling leftovers so that people actually eat them. And I've been made fun of by everybody in the family. Like, really, mom, do you have to label like that those are eggs. Like obviously they're eggs. And then he started working in a restaurant. He came home and he was like, Yeah, the tape and the Sharpie, like, that's real. And I was like, Mmhmm, aren't you glad you grew up in a house where you already know, like, how to label? He was like, Yeah, I kind of do. 

Rick Martinez: Another obsession of mine are these little Oxo quarter cup liquid measuring cups. 

Carla Lalli Music: Oh, can't live without them.

Rick Martinez: Honestly, like they are the best tool because it is so annoying when you are developing a recipe and when you're just cooking in general and you know you want to use three tablespoons of apple cider vinegar or four tablespoons of olive oil and have to use a tablespoon measure for something like that is so annoying. When you have these little liquid measuring cups, you just pour it in there. 

Carla Lalli Music: And they stack really nicely. They're very compact. 

Rick Martinez: I have millions. 

Carla Lalli Music: I could go on and on. But yeah, if you buy these however many things we bought, it will make you likely to promise a better, smarter, more confident cook. 

Rick Martinez: Also happier. Just like us. 

Carla Lalli Music: So happy. 

Rick Martinez: Borderline Salty, what's your question? 

Caller 3: Hi, my name is Olivia and I am 10 years old. My pronouns are she/her. My mom and I love listening to your show. 

Carla Lalli Music: Oh, my God. 

Caller 3: We have a question about storing baked goods. When we are baking, we usually don't eat what we made on the same day we bake it. So our fear is that we are never sure how to store cake, cookies and other baked goods. Are there any rules we should follow to [unclear]? Thank you. 

Rick Martinez: The most adorable caller ever. 

Carla Lalli Music: Are you crying? I'm crying. 

Rick Martinez: Literally, literally tearing up. Oh, my God. 

Carla Lalli Music: Gosh. Wow. Olivia, thank you for calling. That makes us so happy. And also, a baker after your own heart, Rick. She's baking, like, daily. 

Rick Martinez: I know, I know. I mean, I actually. I connect with you quite a lot, Olivia, because I was baking at a very young age. My sweet tooth had the best of me even then. And I actually like this question because it's very thoughtful. For me as a as a young baker, I just ate everything. So, I mean, you know, that's how I store things. I just ate them. But I see that you're a lot more considerate than I was as a child. 

Carla Lalli Music: I think it's also a great question if you're not a baker, but bring things home. Like the other day I had I bought these delicious feta and scallion savory scones and didn't finish them in a day. And that stuff too, like for people who are buying their baked goods, once you get them home, how to keep them like optimized so you can have them the next day. So the way that I break this down is really you want everything to be airtight when you're storing them, especially your baked goods. And so your choices become are you storing it airtight at room temp, airtight in the fridge or airtight freezer? So for example, airtight room temperature, that is what we would recommend for cookies. Cookie dough, you can portion, wrap and keep in the freezer. 

Rick Martinez: Funny that you say that because I always have emergency cookie dough in the freezer at all times. 

Carla Lalli Music: We know about your freezer. 

Rick Martinez: Yep. It's my magical land. Like, one day we will have to do, like, a visual tour of Oz. 

Carla Lalli Music: Yeah. 

Rick Martinez: A.K.A. my freezer. So one of the things that to me, I think fundamentally is most important about baking is that fresh baked goods are always best. If you have that in your mind, then how do you reconstruct those baked goods so they always seem like they're fresh out of the oven. So what I try and do is like, I'll make a dough. So it could be a pie dough. It could be a biscuit dough, it could be a scone dough, it could be a cookie dough. And then you freeze what you're not going to eat that day. So like you portion things out, you make your cookie dough balls. If you're going to bake nine of them, then you put all the other cookie dough balls in the freezer. 

Carla Lalli Music: So you're saying the best way to store a freshly baked good is actually to only bake what you could eat that day? 

Rick Martinez: Yeah, and that way you're always giving your future self a little present. 

Carla Lalli Music: Right. So this is great for, like, things that can be frozen. I do the same thing with pastry dough, so it's really easy to sort of make a double quantity of a tart dough and then freeze half of it. But some things you have to bake whole. Like I'm thinking about layer cakes or quick breads, banana bread, things like that. Those are going to store best in the fridge, but anything you put in the fridge is going to absorb moisture. So that could be actually really great for a layer cake because they could sit in the fridge for a couple of days and they're not going to dry out. But then things like banana bread or zucchini bread or even pound cake could get a little too too much humidity. And so for those, I like to take out a slice and then pop into the toaster to kind of recreate that like freshly baked, you know, warm and delicious. And then you can melt butter or cream cheese into them. So cakes, if you're storing like three quarters of a cake, wrap it. I like to do parchment and then foil, put those in to the fridge or cut it into smaller pieces and put those in the freezer and then just let them thaw. And then you've got fresh cake. 

Rick Martinez: I love fresh cake. Pies, I whenever I make a pie, I usually leave those out overnight. No more than two days. I feel like, you know, you wrap them tightly in plastic wrap. But I think the flavor actually benefits from a room temp overnight hang out. But after that, you definitely want to get them in the refrigerator because especially if you live in a warm climate or humid climate, your crust is going to get soggy and the fruit pies especially are going to start to get a little bit weird and get develop off flavors after 12 to 24 hours. So get it in the fridge after that. 

Carla Lalli Music: Yeah. You know what you can do with leftover pie that maybe the crust is, like, not as crisp and delicious as it was on day one. 

Rick Martinez: What? Tell me. 

Carla Lalli Music: Break it up into pieces and then mix it into ice cream. 

Rick Martinez: Shut up.

Carla Lalli Music: Yes. 

Rick Martinez: Oh, my God. Are you kidding me? 

Carla Lalli Music: Yeah. It was one of the most popular things on the menu at Shake Shack. Was the apple pie concrete, and it was pieces of apple pie just like blended into ice cream. So you could use gelato or let a hard ice cream kind of temper a little bit and then just mix the pie pieces into the ice cream. And it's kind of amazing. It's a blizzard, basically. 

Rick Martinez: Oh, my God. I want a peach pie concrete right now. 

Carla Lalli Music: Hey, babe. Hit that Dairy Queen. 

Rick Martinez: Yeah. 

Carla Lalli Music: We are almost at the end of the show, but I think we have time to take one more. 

Rick Martinez: Rick and Carla here. What is your conundrum? 

Caller 4: Hi, Rick and Carla. My name is [phonetic] Ali. My pronouns are she/her, and one thing that scares me in the kitchen is baking grease. My parents have always saved their bacon grease. I kind of saved my bacon grease. I put it in a jar, but I don't know what to do with it. I don't know how to store it, and I don't know how long it's good for. Thank you. Take care. 

Rick Martinez: Oh, my gosh. My parents did the exact same thing. We had this little crock next to the stove, and it was always full of bacon grease. It was, it never ran out. It would go down a little because my parents actually use it quite often. My father used it a lot for his famous refried beans, but it was just in this constant state of replenishment and use. 

Carla Lalli Music: Yeah, I think that's the really key thing. If you're using it regularly and you know how to use it, then keeping it out by the stove is totally fine because you're going to go through it quickly. If not, I think, you know, oils like that are slow to kind of turn, but I like to put rendered bacon fat and like honestly all kinds of fat. Like I'll save chicken fat. I save the drippings from like a pork roast, anything that I've cooked, even like a really lovely lamb chops that render beautiful lamb fat, I'll pour that off. And in that case, I like to put them in a small jar, preferably glass so you don't get like that plasticky flavor and store them in the fridge, label them and put them in the fridge. But it's really important to things before you store. I like to strain the fat just to get any solids that are in the pan out because that will help it preserve longer. And the other thing is, if there was any smoking or charring or anything that burned like spices in the pan, that fat is going to have kind of an acrid flavor. And it's probably not the one that you want to save. But other than that, like, yes, to animal fats. 

Rick Martinez: Love animal fats. Actually, it's funny that you were saying that because it just reminded me, I used to have several quart containers of duck fat from my duck fat con fit and [unclear] days. And I actually, one of my favorite things to do with it was to make croutons with it, basically, instead of butter, olive oil, you just like throw a bunch of intensely flavored duck fat into a pan and then toast your beautiful [unclear]. 

Carla Lalli Music: That sounds incredible. 

Rick Martinez: Oh, my God. They were so, so good. But you can also do that with bacon grease or pork fat or beef fat or chicken fat or any kind of animal fat. 

Carla Lalli Music: Right. 

Rick Martinez: The thing is, is like it's so incredibly useful. And the thing that you want to think about with any animal fat is that anything that you would use, Crisco or butter or olive oil for, you can pretty much use an animal fat. So I've made pie crust, I've made biscuits, I've made scones. Obviously the croutons, also even just sautéing vegetables like I don't normally like if I'm sorting a vegetable for an animal dish, it adds so much flavor, especially if you can get you know, if you're collecting like Carla, if you collect your animal fat, your pan drippings, you're going to get so much more flavor than if you use like just a regular vegetable oil or even an extra virgin olive oil. 

Carla Lalli Music: Maybe you're going to make an iceberg wedge salad that has hunks of bacon and you're going to use the bacon fat to make the croutons, like Rick just said. And now you're going to have bacon fat croutons and juicy bacon and the iceberg and the thing. And mm, wow, I kind of I haven't eaten today and I like that with blue cheese, but I also like it with ranch. 

Rick Martinez: Oh, my God. Actually, you know what? A warm ranch with a little bit of hot bacon fat. Oh, my God. 

Carla Lalli Music: Did you just say a warm ranch? 

Rick Martinez: Okay, so this was popular, I think, in the eighties. Like, do you remember, like the warm ranch or warm salad dressings? Like there was this whole, like, thing like that, I think it was like a spinach salad with a warm ranch dressing. 

Carla Lalli Music: I mean, the spinach. Yes. But it had warm I mean, I -- spinach salad with like a warm bacon fat infused dressing that kind of wilted the but a a warm and creamy? 

Rick Martinez: Yes. Basically, you make your your bacon, your [unclear] or your bacon crumbles, whatever, you you take the warm bacon fat and you throw your ranch dressing in it and like off heat, so you use a residual heat from the pan to warm it. And then you pour your warm ranch dressing over the top of your salad. 

Carla Lalli Music: Shut the front door. 

Rick Martinez: That is an eighties trend that should come back. Bring that back. [phonetic] Ali, you've got all this bacon grease. You're going to. You're baking. You're going to make your croutons are going to take that pan off heat. You're going to throw in your ranch dressing. You're going to have the most amazing salad. 

Carla Lalli Music: Wow. Next time we hear from [phonetic] Ali, she's going to have like a warm ranch, you know, industry. It's going to be [phonetic] Ali's Warm Ranch restaurants all over the nation. 

Rick Martinez: Is there no end to what we can accomplish? 

Carla Lalli Music: You're never going to get warm. You're Google for days that's going to you're never going to get warm ranch bacon rendering as a result. It's that time again. But before we go, it is time for No, Thank You, Please. This is a segment of the show where we talk about foods that not everybody loves, but everybody should. And today we are talking about one of my favorite foods, eggplants. 

Rick Martinez: Eggplants. They're not just for emojis anymore. Eggplants are so incredibly delicious. But I have to admit something. When I moved to New York in 2001, I was not a huge fan. I didn't actively dislike them. I was fairly neutral to them was, I think, in Texas, at least in the nineties, the eggplants that you got at the grocery store were just they they always just seemed old and kind of shrivelly. And they just didn't look very good. So I never wanted to buy one. And then I moved to New York and I remember my first summer going to the Union Square farmers market and being absolutely mind blown because of all the different varieties of eggplants. Japanese varieties and stripy. Then there was the white ones and the dark purple ones and the big ones. The little ones and the fat ones and the short ones and the blah blah blah blah blah. They were so incredible. And so that's when I really started buying them, not because I liked the flavor, knew what to do with them just because they were so beautiful. And I wanted to learn how to eat them and learn how to cook them. 

Carla Lalli Music: Yeah, I think that is so true for me too. When I realized how many different colors of eggplants there were and sizes like same, I grew up with your standard kind of what we call a globe eggplant, Italian globe. That's what you're going to find in the supermarket. The ones that are really huge are spongy, and they have a giant seed packet in the middle and the flesh has gone just mushy and they can be bitter. So I think that's what a lot of us grew up eating and why things like eggplant parm, where the eggplant is cut like paper thin and then breaded and fried. So you just don't even know that there's eggplant in it anymore is like people's favorite way to eat eggplant in the US and there's just a lot more going on. So this time of year is a great time to go to the market or go to an Asian market and look for the long purple ones that have a very small diameter. Those are amazing just cut in half and brush with olive oil and grilled. And then obviously there are so many foods that are incredible with eggplant like, you know, baba ganoush, moussaka, sabich. Like some of these things are found all throughout the Levant and the Middle East and should be really leaned into and enjoyed. 

Rick Martinez: Like, you can do so many things with it. It's also fun to just experiment because it wants to be with other things. It wants to be with friends and have a good time. It's not really one of those things that you just make and you serve solo by itself. It wants to be like the center of a party and like, you know, and just make everything look and taste better. One other thing that can be a little bit jarring about eggplant is that they suck up a lot of oil. 

Carla Lalli Music: Yes. 

Rick Martinez: Like I remember the first time that I, like, tried to to sear an eggplant. I was like, okay, you're literally drinking up my entire bottle of olive oil. 

Carla Lalli Music: Yes.

Rick Martinez: The thing about eggplant is all at once, it will just, like, suck up all of that oil. But then once it's cooked, it'll release it. And so you'll think, oh my God, this is going to be the greasy thing ever. But then as it cooks, as it browns, as you evaporate off that interior moisture, it will start to release the oil and then like crisp up and get you those nice brown crispy edges that are really, really delicious and flavorful. 

Carla Lalli Music: Exactly.

Rick Martinez: And you'll get that creamy custardy texture without all of that fat. I mean, it's still going to like hold on to some of the fat, you know, if you start out with half a cup of olive oil on that one slice of globe eggplant, it's not going to keep all of it inside. 

Carla Lalli Music: Yeah. And like I always say, we love fat in this house. 

Rick Martinez: We love fat. 

Carla Lalli Music: So what I would say to everyone who has maybe only had that one typical, you know, American type of eggplant is that's kind of like just ever having a red delicious apple and then deciding that, like, you never want to eat another apple again. Lots of varieties, lots of different qualities, lots of textures, lots of colors like expand your horizon. 

Rick Martinez: And I am going to put a couple of my favorite recipes in the show notes, my moussaka [unclear] sabich sandwich, which I really craving now. There are so many foods from this episode that I'm craving, like I want that blueberry concrete plus my sabich. Oh, my God. And a cookie. 

Carla Lalli Music: Always a cookie. 

Rick Martinez: Always a cookie. And that's it for this week's episode of Borderline Salty. 

Carla Lalli Music: You can find recipes and recommendations from this week's episode in our show notes. 

Rick Martinez: If you have a question or a fear you want us to help you through, you can always leave us a voicemail at eight three, three, four, three, three, FOOD. 

Carla Lalli Music: That number is 833-433-3663. 

Rick Martinez: Borderline Salty is an original production by Pineapple Street Studios. We're your host. I'm Rick Martinez. 

Carla Lalli Music: I'm Carla Lalli Music. You can find links to our work in the show notes for this episode. 

Rick Martinez: Natalie Brennan is our lead producer. 

Carla Lalli Music: Janelle Anderson is our producer. 

Rick Martinez: Our managing producer is Agerenesh Ashagre. 

Carla Lalli Music: Our assistant producer is Mari Orozco. 

Rick Martinez: Our head of sound and engineering is Raj Makhija. 

Carla Lalli Music: Mixing and Engineering by Davy Sumner and Jason Richards. 

Rick Martinez: Our assistant engineers are Sharon Bardales and Jade Brooks. 

Carla Lalli Music:  Original music from our very own Raj Makhija. 

Rick Martinez: Additional music from Vincent Vega, Spring Gang and Glovebox courtesy of Epidemic Sound. 

Carla Lalli Music: Legal Services for Pineapple Street are provided by Bianca Grimshaw at Granderson de Rossi. 

Rick Martinez: Our executive producers are Max Linsky and Jenna Weiss-Berman. 

Carla Lalli Music: We appreciate [phonetic] Nolan, McKenzie, Olivia and Ali for calling in this week. 

Rick Martinez: And big thank you to you for listening. We will talk to you next week. 

Carla Lalli Music: Bye bye. 

Rick Martinez: Mwah mwah mwah mwah mwah mwah mwah. Love ya. Eat some sausage and eggplants. 

Carla Lalli Music: Hot ranch forever, love ya. 

Rick Martinez: Slather yourself in bacon grease. 

Carla Lalli Music: Yeah. The next time I see you, I want you slathered in bacon grease. 

Rick Martinez: Let's slip and slide together.