February 10, 2025 • 12 mins
Mark is still recovering from his broken leg . . . so Bruce is in charge of the podcast again. So he's up for telling you about all the cooking he's been doing in the past month as Mark heals.
Bruce has some cooking ideas for helping those healing. He's sharing his tips and secrets.
Here are the segments for this episode of COOKING WITH BRUCE & MARK:
[00:27] One-minute cooking tip: don't break your leg!
[01:21] What I am making mark while he’s recovering
[11:12] What’s making me happy in food this week? Chocolate chip peanut butter biscotti!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hey, I'm Bruce Weinstein, and this isthe podcast, Cooking with Bruce and Mark.
I'm alone, again, because Mark isstill recovering from his broken
leg, so I'm going to take youthrough a one minute cooking tip.
I'm going to talk about what kind offoods to make when you're not feeling
well and when you're recoveringfrom things like broken legs.
And I'm going to tell you what'smaking me happy in food this week.
(00:22):
So let's get started.
Our one minute cookingtip, don't break your leg.
I know it doesn't sound like acooking tip, but as you know,
Mark did break his leg last monthand he's still fairly immobile.
and non weight bearing, andno, he's not been able to cook
anything in all this time.
(00:42):
I even make his tea for him, but ifyou do break your leg, be kind to
the person who does cook for you.
Mark is so nice to me, and in therest of this podcast, I'm going
to tell you what I've been cookingfor him while he's been healing.
Before I get to the next segment, Iwant to ask you to please rate this
podcast, wherever you get your podcast,you can give us a rating, you can leave
(01:06):
a review, just scroll down the page,you'll find a place to leave a review.
We are unsupported, we'dlike to stay that way.
And what really helps isratings and great reviews.
So thanks for that.
When you're sick, you need certain kindsof foods to help you recover faster.
Protein is huge, which is why chickensoup is so good when you're sick.
(01:31):
If you make it yourself from chickens,the soup sets up like jelly in the fridge,
and that gelatin is simply protein.
All the cartilage and skinbreaks down as it boils and
cooks, and it turns into gelatin.
You don't get that jelly from canned orboxed chicken soups or chicken stocks.
(01:52):
You only get that when youmake it yourself from scratch.
So I do that.
And I'm really lucky because I havea local farm Howling Flats Farm in
Litchfield County, not far from us.
And Kelly, who runs it, raises chickens.
And I'm not sure how she sellsthe chicken meat, but she always
gets back from the processor thecarcasses with the legs and thighs
(02:16):
cut off and the breast meat cut off.
But otherwise, it's this fabulous chickencarcass with the back, with the wings.
And she lets me have them in five poundpackages, which come to about three
to four chicken carcasses per package.
And I pile them into the biggeststockpot I have, which is
(02:38):
like a 20 quart lobster pot.
And I add onions and I add carrotsand I add parsley and dill and some
garlic, which I know is controversial,especially in the Jewish chicken
soup world, but I do add garlic.
and I fill it with water and I letthat simmer all day and by the time
(02:59):
I scoop everything out, I have therichest, chickeniest, proteiniest,
rich broth you can imagine.
So that is one of the things I'vebeen putting into all of the soups
and stews I make them as a base,is that homemade chicken soup.
When I was a kid, my grandmotheralways put chicken feet in the soup
(03:19):
because they have a lot of protein, alot of cartilage breaks down, into the
soup, and they becomes even richer.
And while I think that richnessis really great, feet do give
chicken soup a very particulartaste and one or two feet is fine.
I once found a giant bag ofchicken feet at a Chinese market.
(03:41):
And I thought, Oh, wow, this is goingto make the best chicken soup ever.
So the only chicken I put in thissoup was this bag of feet and.
Really it ended up being footsoup and it wasn't anything I
would have served to company.
So if you do find chicken feet or ifyou like putting chicken feet in your
(04:02):
soup, I recommend limiting it to oneor two chicken feet per pot of soup.
Otherwise, not my favorite.
Mark asked for chicken and dumplingsthe other night, and that's a lot
of protein, a lot of dairy and fat,which is also good for healing.
I'll talk about that in a minute.
I had made chicken and dumpling recipesfor our copycat books, like the Instant
(04:23):
Pot copycat book and I know they havechicken and dumplings like at Bob
Evans and we had to come up with a wayto do that and it is sort of like a
creamy, rich chicken stew and in thoserestaurant versions, the dumplings are
usually just almost bits of dough, almostthick pasta kind of dough or even pie
crusty dough that you then cook in thestew, but that's not what Mark wanted.
(04:48):
He wanted it with light fluffy dumplingsthat get dropped on top of the stew
and then they steam when it's coveredand they become really light and they
almost fall apart and thicken the stew.
So here's what I did.
I had a package of those chicken carcassesfrom Howling Flats Farm and I put
them in my big 10 court instant pot.
(05:11):
And I threw in a carrotand an onion and celery.
So here's a trick for usingcelery in stocks when you're going
to throw the vegetables away.
I took a new whole head of celery outand I cut off the bottom, you know, the
part you're going to throw away anyway.
And I threw that in the pot with thechickens and the carrot and some parsley.
And I let that go at high pressure,oh, for about an hour and a half.
(05:35):
It took another hourfor a natural release.
And then when I opened it,I took out the carcasses.
Now, they were falling apart,so I had to be really careful.
And I used one of thosebig Chinese strainers.
They call them spiders.
Well, I used that to pull out all thechicken and I laid it out on a lipped.
baking sheet for it to cool.
(05:55):
And I pulled off all themeat from those carcasses.
I ended up with six cups of chicken meat.
It was incredible.
So now, I put a pot on the stove,and I melted some butter, and
I threw in chopped onions, andcarrots, and garlic, and celery.
And I sauteed that allup for about ten minutes.
(06:17):
I really wanted to get thosevegetables lightly, lightly browned.
Then, I threw in a couple tablespoons offlour, and I tossed that around until the
flour was cooked, then went in six cupsof that delicious chicken soup I had made.
It thickened up a bit in culinaryterms that is now a velouté when
you thicken broth without anydairy, but this is chicken and
(06:41):
dumplings, and it has to have dairy.
And so I opened a can of condensedmilk, not sweetened condensed milk.
It has evaporated milk.
I used the full fat.
I I added some fresh thyme, some freshsage, and I let that simmer for about 15
minutes, threw all the chicken back in,and then I made these amazing dumplings.
(07:04):
Was just flour, and baking powder,and salt, and sour cream, and
melted butter, and it's justa dough that you drop on top.
It's almost like if you're makinga cobbler, it's that kind of dough.
Covered it.
Let it go 20 minutes and thosedumplings rose and became light and
the soup was delicious and rich.
(07:26):
Man, if that didn't heal hisbone, I don't know what would.
But he also asked for another soupand this one Killed me because he
said make me a beef vegetable soup.
Doesn't that usuallyjust come out of a can?
So of course, it's me.
So I had a rack of prime rib bonesin the freezer Of course, who doesn't
and I threw them in the oven and Iroasted them at 400 degrees for an
(07:49):
hour Until they were really well doneThose went into a pot with just water,
green beans, carrots, parsnips, onions.
That cooked for a few hours.
All the cartilage of those bones came off.
All the meat came off.
I chopped up the meat,I threw out the bones.
When that soup was cold,it was so jellified.
It was like head cheese.
(08:10):
I don't know if you've ever had that, butthat's like when you boil a whole head
of an animal and all the meat comes offand the liquid turns into jelly and you
slice it and eat it like charcuterie.
That was basically thisbeef vegetable soup.
But I want to go back totalking about dairy and fat
because I brought it up before.
You know when you break abone, you need more calcium.
And we found out that calcium needs fat tobe absorbed and do its magic in your body.
(08:35):
So, while nonfat dairy has a lotof calcium, it's not as useful
to your body as the calcium infull fat or reduced fat dairy.
So, I switched Mark's morning lattes.
from skim milk to 2 percent milk.
He's gone from nonfat yogurt to 2%,but I will admit I made the mistake
of getting him sweetened vanillaon the last trip to the store.
(08:58):
Whoops, he likes plain, so hejust skipped the honey and still
piles on the blueberries andeverything is fine in the morning.
What else have I made forhim while he's been sick?
Well, we did a goat taginewith figs and olives.
Sort of a riff on a recipe from ourbook, Cooking Know How, which tells
you how to do a whole bunch of dishesstep by step, breaks it down, there's
(09:22):
pictures as you go, and I used thattagine technique using goat stew
meat, also from Howling Flats Farms.
And I used dried figs and green olives.
And that was amazing yesterday for lunch.
Yes, just for lunch.
I made a tray of eggplant parm.
And yeah, pulled out my homemademarinara from the freezer from last
(09:42):
summer from the fresh tomatoes.
Tonight we're having red.
Cooking pork belly, which if youdon't know what that is, it's a
Chinese traditional way of braisingmeats, usually fatty meats, with
soy sauce, which when you braiseit a long time gets on a red hue.
But you also caramelize some sugarand you toss the meat in that.
(10:04):
You add star anise, there's cinnamon.
I'm gonna probably put a piece of
dry tangerine peel in it.
It's gonna get chestnuts and parsnipsand we're gonna serve it with brown
rice normally I think I would makethese steamed buns because then you
could take the pork belly out and Justsandwich it between the steamed buns,
and I would like it better that way, butPainkillers can cause constipation, so
(10:29):
eating high fiber is really important.
So I have a large stash of sumooranges, which we eat a lot of, and
we're eating a lot of brown rice,and I've been baking whole grain
breads to go with all of those.
And the other thing, it's hard becauseI'm trying to balance calories and
comfort, and it's great to have all thesewonderful foods to heal, but Mark's not
(10:52):
exercising right now, he can't reallymove easily, and know he does not want to
gain much weight over these two months.
And I will end this segment bysaying that just this morning, Mark
said that if I ever break my leg,I had better like scrambled eggs,
because that's all I'll be getting.
(11:13):
What's making me happy in food this week?
Peanut butter chocolate chip biscotti.
I have been getting Mark out of the houseevery week to teach his lecture at a local
library on Henry James and Paul Cezanne.
Yes, he is comparing the two of themand what they each do in their art and
(11:34):
it's really an Amazing lecture series.
We get him out into the car.
He has a knee scooter thathelps him get into the library.
There are no steps.
And since I'm going every week, I'mbaking and bringing treats with me.
And these peanut butter chocolatechip biscotti are amazing.
super thick, super double baked,crunchy, crunchy, crunchy.
And even our friend Helen, who comes tothe lectures, sent me an email to tell me
(11:59):
that she thought they were life changing.
So that's our podcast for this week.
Thank you for listening.
Please go to our Facebook group, Cookingwith Bruce and Mark, and tell us there
what's making you happy in food this week.
I know Mark would love to findout what is making you happy.
And if it's really good, maybeI'll make it for him, or we'll talk
(12:20):
about it here on another episodeof Cooking with Bruce and Mark.
Hey, I'm Bruce Weinstein, and this isthe podcast, Cooking with Bruce and Mark.
I'm alone, again, because Mark isstill recovering from his broken
leg, so I'm going to take youthrough a one minute cooking tip.
I'm going to talk about what kind offoods to make when you're not feeling
well and when you're recoveringfrom things like broken legs.
And I'm going to tell you what'smaking me happy in food this week.
(00:22):
So let's get started.
Our one minute cookingtip, don't break your leg.
I know it doesn't sound like acooking tip, but as you know,
Mark did break his leg last monthand he's still fairly immobile.
and non weight bearing, andno, he's not been able to cook
anything in all this time.
(00:42):
I even make his tea for him, but ifyou do break your leg, be kind to
the person who does cook for you.
Mark is so nice to me, and in therest of this podcast, I'm going
to tell you what I've been cookingfor him while he's been healing.
Before I get to the next segment, Iwant to ask you to please rate this
podcast, wherever you get your podcast,you can give us a rating, you can leave
(01:06):
a review, just scroll down the page,you'll find a place to leave a review.
We are unsupported, we'dlike to stay that way.
And what really helps isratings and great reviews.
So thanks for that.
When you're sick, you need certain kindsof foods to help you recover faster.
Protein is huge, which is why chickensoup is so good when you're sick.
(01:31):
If you make it yourself from chickens,the soup sets up like jelly in the fridge,
and that gelatin is simply protein.
All the cartilage and skinbreaks down as it boils and
cooks, and it turns into gelatin.
You don't get that jelly from canned orboxed chicken soups or chicken stocks.
(01:52):
You only get that when youmake it yourself from scratch.
So I do that.
And I'm really lucky because I havea local farm Howling Flats Farm in
Litchfield County, not far from us.
And Kelly, who runs it, raises chickens.
And I'm not sure how she sellsthe chicken meat, but she always
gets back from the processor thecarcasses with the legs and thighs
(02:16):
cut off and the breast meat cut off.
But otherwise, it's this fabulous chickencarcass with the back, with the wings.
And she lets me have them in five poundpackages, which come to about three
to four chicken carcasses per package.
And I pile them into the biggeststockpot I have, which is
(02:38):
like a 20 quart lobster pot.
And I add onions and I add carrotsand I add parsley and dill and some
garlic, which I know is controversial,especially in the Jewish chicken
soup world, but I do add garlic.
and I fill it with water and I letthat simmer all day and by the time
(02:59):
I scoop everything out, I have therichest, chickeniest, proteiniest,
rich broth you can imagine.
So that is one of the things I'vebeen putting into all of the soups
and stews I make them as a base,is that homemade chicken soup.
When I was a kid, my grandmotheralways put chicken feet in the soup
(03:19):
because they have a lot of protein, alot of cartilage breaks down, into the
soup, and they becomes even richer.
And while I think that richnessis really great, feet do give
chicken soup a very particulartaste and one or two feet is fine.
I once found a giant bag ofchicken feet at a Chinese market.
(03:41):
And I thought, Oh, wow, this is goingto make the best chicken soup ever.
So the only chicken I put in thissoup was this bag of feet and.
Really it ended up being footsoup and it wasn't anything I
would have served to company.
So if you do find chicken feet or ifyou like putting chicken feet in your
(04:02):
soup, I recommend limiting it to oneor two chicken feet per pot of soup.
Otherwise, not my favorite.
Mark asked for chicken and dumplingsthe other night, and that's a lot
of protein, a lot of dairy and fat,which is also good for healing.
I'll talk about that in a minute.
I had made chicken and dumpling recipesfor our copycat books, like the Instant
(04:23):
Pot copycat book and I know they havechicken and dumplings like at Bob
Evans and we had to come up with a wayto do that and it is sort of like a
creamy, rich chicken stew and in thoserestaurant versions, the dumplings are
usually just almost bits of dough, almostthick pasta kind of dough or even pie
crusty dough that you then cook in thestew, but that's not what Mark wanted.
(04:48):
He wanted it with light fluffy dumplingsthat get dropped on top of the stew
and then they steam when it's coveredand they become really light and they
almost fall apart and thicken the stew.
So here's what I did.
I had a package of those chicken carcassesfrom Howling Flats Farm and I put
them in my big 10 court instant pot.
(05:11):
And I threw in a carrotand an onion and celery.
So here's a trick for usingcelery in stocks when you're going
to throw the vegetables away.
I took a new whole head of celery outand I cut off the bottom, you know, the
part you're going to throw away anyway.
And I threw that in the pot with thechickens and the carrot and some parsley.
And I let that go at high pressure,oh, for about an hour and a half.
(05:35):
It took another hourfor a natural release.
And then when I opened it,I took out the carcasses.
Now, they were falling apart,so I had to be really careful.
And I used one of thosebig Chinese strainers.
They call them spiders.
Well, I used that to pull out all thechicken and I laid it out on a lipped.
baking sheet for it to cool.
(05:55):
And I pulled off all themeat from those carcasses.
I ended up with six cups of chicken meat.
It was incredible.
So now, I put a pot on the stove,and I melted some butter, and
I threw in chopped onions, andcarrots, and garlic, and celery.
And I sauteed that allup for about ten minutes.
(06:17):
I really wanted to get thosevegetables lightly, lightly browned.
Then, I threw in a couple tablespoons offlour, and I tossed that around until the
flour was cooked, then went in six cupsof that delicious chicken soup I had made.
It thickened up a bit in culinaryterms that is now a velouté when
you thicken broth without anydairy, but this is chicken and
(06:41):
dumplings, and it has to have dairy.
And so I opened a can of condensedmilk, not sweetened condensed milk.
It has evaporated milk.
I used the full fat.
I I added some fresh thyme, some freshsage, and I let that simmer for about 15
minutes, threw all the chicken back in,and then I made these amazing dumplings.
(07:04):
Was just flour, and baking powder,and salt, and sour cream, and
melted butter, and it's justa dough that you drop on top.
It's almost like if you're makinga cobbler, it's that kind of dough.
Covered it.
Let it go 20 minutes and thosedumplings rose and became light and
the soup was delicious and rich.
(07:26):
Man, if that didn't heal hisbone, I don't know what would.
But he also asked for another soupand this one Killed me because he
said make me a beef vegetable soup.
Doesn't that usuallyjust come out of a can?
So of course, it's me.
So I had a rack of prime rib bonesin the freezer Of course, who doesn't
and I threw them in the oven and Iroasted them at 400 degrees for an
(07:49):
hour Until they were really well doneThose went into a pot with just water,
green beans, carrots, parsnips, onions.
That cooked for a few hours.
All the cartilage of those bones came off.
All the meat came off.
I chopped up the meat,I threw out the bones.
When that soup was cold,it was so jellified.
It was like head cheese.
(08:10):
I don't know if you've ever had that, butthat's like when you boil a whole head
of an animal and all the meat comes offand the liquid turns into jelly and you
slice it and eat it like charcuterie.
That was basically thisbeef vegetable soup.
But I want to go back totalking about dairy and fat
because I brought it up before.
You know when you break abone, you need more calcium.
And we found out that calcium needs fat tobe absorbed and do its magic in your body.
(08:35):
So, while nonfat dairy has a lotof calcium, it's not as useful
to your body as the calcium infull fat or reduced fat dairy.
So, I switched Mark's morning lattes.
from skim milk to 2 percent milk.
He's gone from nonfat yogurt to 2%,but I will admit I made the mistake
of getting him sweetened vanillaon the last trip to the store.
(08:58):
Whoops, he likes plain, so hejust skipped the honey and still
piles on the blueberries andeverything is fine in the morning.
What else have I made forhim while he's been sick?
Well, we did a goat taginewith figs and olives.
Sort of a riff on a recipe from ourbook, Cooking Know How, which tells
you how to do a whole bunch of dishesstep by step, breaks it down, there's
(09:22):
pictures as you go, and I used thattagine technique using goat stew
meat, also from Howling Flats Farms.
And I used dried figs and green olives.
And that was amazing yesterday for lunch.
Yes, just for lunch.
I made a tray of eggplant parm.
And yeah, pulled out my homemademarinara from the freezer from last
(09:42):
summer from the fresh tomatoes.
Tonight we're having red.
Cooking pork belly, which if youdon't know what that is, it's a
Chinese traditional way of braisingmeats, usually fatty meats, with
soy sauce, which when you braiseit a long time gets on a red hue.
But you also caramelize some sugarand you toss the meat in that.
(10:04):
You add star anise, there's cinnamon.
I'm gonna probably put a piece of
dry tangerine peel in it.
It's gonna get chestnuts and parsnipsand we're gonna serve it with brown
rice normally I think I would makethese steamed buns because then you
could take the pork belly out and Justsandwich it between the steamed buns,
and I would like it better that way, butPainkillers can cause constipation, so
(10:29):
eating high fiber is really important.
So I have a large stash of sumooranges, which we eat a lot of, and
we're eating a lot of brown rice,and I've been baking whole grain
breads to go with all of those.
And the other thing, it's hard becauseI'm trying to balance calories and
comfort, and it's great to have all thesewonderful foods to heal, but Mark's not
(10:52):
exercising right now, he can't reallymove easily, and know he does not want to
gain much weight over these two months.
And I will end this segment bysaying that just this morning, Mark
said that if I ever break my leg,I had better like scrambled eggs,
because that's all I'll be getting.
(11:13):
What's making me happy in food this week?
Peanut butter chocolate chip biscotti.
I have been getting Mark out of the houseevery week to teach his lecture at a local
library on Henry James and Paul Cezanne.
Yes, he is comparing the two of themand what they each do in their art and
(11:34):
it's really an Amazing lecture series.
We get him out into the car.
He has a knee scooter thathelps him get into the library.
There are no steps.
And since I'm going every week, I'mbaking and bringing treats with me.
And these peanut butter chocolatechip biscotti are amazing.
super thick, super double baked,crunchy, crunchy, crunchy.
And even our friend Helen, who comes tothe lectures, sent me an email to tell me
(11:59):
that she thought they were life changing.
So that's our podcast for this week.
Thank you for listening.
Please go to our Facebook group, Cookingwith Bruce and Mark, and tell us there
what's making you happy in food this week.
I know Mark would love to findout what is making you happy.
And if it's really good, maybeI'll make it for him, or we'll talk
(12:20):
about it here on another episodeof Cooking with Bruce and Mark.
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