@ForkReporter | Hour 1

Technique of the Week: Things You Should Have in Your Kitchen
Guest- Qiana and Ian Mafnas - BBQ Fest

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, it's Neil Savedri. You'relistening to kf I Am six forty the
four Report on demand on the iHeartRadioapp. Follow us on that iHeartRadio app
to get breaking news in the licon your phone. It's a great way
to do it. I've been doingit since day one. Does that make
me better than you? A smidge? But you can change that immediately by

(00:22):
following Happy Saturday to you. I'mthrilled to be with you today. Getting
my energy back from whatever crud mykindergartener brought home. Yep, fun being
an older parent with immune issues.Any who, it is The four Report.
We celebrate food everything dealing with food, beverages and cooking at home,

(00:48):
going out to eat, and everythingin between. We start the program.
First two segments are always technique theweek. Let's start that off. I
wanted to go back to some tipsand tricks. I'll get into a couple
of utensils I think are very importantto have, and then some tricks that
you should know about to make yourlife easier in the kitchen. The first

(01:11):
one that I needed to tell youabout. I know you're gonna say thermometer
because that's usually the first on mylist, I'll say that for later.
The immersion blender also referred to asa stick blender. Now if you see
these, they're a handheld blender.They've got small blades on the bottom and

(01:33):
a little bit of a canopy downat the bottom that covers that from splashing
all around. You can blend ina cup, in a glass container.
You can blend in a pan.So it's great for if I'm making a
sauce and I want to break downthe tomatoes and all of the goodness coming

(01:53):
together, but I don't want achunky style. Then I put the immersion
blender in there, and even whenit's hot, boom, I can get
it going and break down or puraeit into something delicious. The reason why
this is so important is because theavailability of the container you're using is easier

(02:15):
than to pour everything into a blendercontainer, blend it in that container or
into a food processor, and thissaves you a step in the entirety of
the process. It really is oneof those things that I love. A
lot of them come with attachments.Some of them are fine. I mean
it comes with like a whisk.You put that on there and you can

(02:35):
make your whip cream, my guess, is going to be the main thing
you're going to do. If youwere if you're looking to do like a
meringue, I'd probably stick to thedoing that inside your mixer. I think
you're going to control the peaks andall of that a lot easier, so

(02:55):
I would still keep that there.But it's nice to have. And there
are some other things. There's evena little tiny food processor, you know,
maybe it's a three cups maybe,and you can attach that and so
you can process things with little blastsand cut up some of your fresh herbs.

(03:19):
All of that's fine, But thereality is that stick blender or the
immersion blender is awesome. And ifyou ever go to a commercial kitchen,
they have they have immersion blenders thatare the size of a pogo stick if
you remember pogo sticks, and they'rejust but they're massive. I mean,
it's like an outboard motor for aboat. And they use those because it's

(03:45):
just super efficient to do it inthe pot or the pan, the container
that you're cooking everything in. They'renot expensive, but they are one of
those things that I think every houseshould have. Keep them at the ready
and they're good to go. Evenfor like a monk shake. We have
malt shake makers at the house becausethey're just fun. But in the reality

(04:08):
that my boy says, hey,Daddy, can you make me one of
your shakes, it's very easy toput it in a single cup, put
the ice cream in there, themilk in there, the malt powder,
if you're going to do that,and then you know, blend it up
with a stick blender and it's goodto go. Sometimes I just use the
back of the fork if I'm reallyin a hurry. So immersion blender right

(04:30):
up there, big, big,big yes. Now onto the thermometer.
Yes, the thermometer is important.You want an instant read thermometer. That
means you want to put it inwhatever the thing you're checking the temp on,
meet your proteins, whatever it isrice that you're checking. You want

(04:51):
it to come up to temp andshow you the temp very quickly. Otherwise,
if you stick it in and thenyou pull out real quick, you're
like, oh, yeah, wellit wasn't ready yet, and you want
one that's good. Currently, Iuse Thermapin. They're about one hundred bucks.
They are kind of an industry standardfor chefs, and it is an

(05:15):
amazing, amazing thermometer. So Jason, you got one recently. I just
got one this week. It's justinteresting to hear you talk about. This
miname is called insta Probe. It'sfrom typher typhu R. It was at
CES in January and it's it's amazing. It's like way less than a second
before you have everything you need there. The tech is rising. The the

(05:38):
comma that I was going to putafter thermapin is like I said, they've
been the standard for chefs. Yousee them in their pouch all the time,
and it's the one that I've usedand loved forever. However, like
Jason Middleton just said that there issome tech that's coming out, there's one.
I'm not going to tell you aboutit yet because I just bought it

(05:59):
and I want to test it.But I was blown away at the speed
so far, and that the screenthat has the LED display is direction sensitive,
so if you turn it upside down, it will write the temperature.
Because sometimes you're going in at anangle on your grill and then you have

(06:24):
to kind of twist your head tosee and it lights up in a way
that makes it very easy. Andso so far, I'm incredibly impressed,
but before I give you a fullreview, I wanted to spend some more
time with it in my real lifeexperience. You can't go wrong with thermapin
at all. Their like I said, I've been the industry standard for a

(06:46):
long time, but I am curiousabout the new one. Give the one
that you got, Jason again.It's called insta Probe from a company called
typher Type. Huh yeah, soit has It has an equally cool screen
like you said, easy to readon the fly point five degrees fahrenheit,

(07:06):
give or take either way, whichI can live with. I'm not as
good a cook as you are,so but so far I've only used it
a couple of times this week becauseI just came. I'm super impressed.
Nothing will change your cooking game,grilling game more than a good thermometer,
instant read thermometer. Nothing, becausetemperatures are imperative and understanding them and also

(07:30):
learning about residual heat. So whenyou take something off the grill, that
heat is still inside and working itsway to the center of whatever you had
on there, and if it's densemeat, it's going to graze another five
sometimes ten degrees while it's resting.So you want to learn with that thermometer,

(07:57):
take things off between five and tendegrees before it's at the temperature you
want. And those types of thingswill get you perfect chicken breasts that aren't
dry and things like that. Sothat's the you know, because that's the
hardest you tear. The breasts areteardrop shaped and they so one end is
going to be thinner and cook morefast or more quickly rather and in that

(08:22):
process you can get them dry.So good thermometer is always going to be
on the important high end of whatyou have in your kitchen. A strainer
is imperative. You will see manydifferent types of strainers in your average chef's
kitchen. They come in different shapesand sizes. And what I'm talking about

(08:43):
is your standard. It's like abowl, but it's you've got that screen
material almost like you would on yourwindow. It's stainless steel, maybe on
a screen door. It's stainless steel, and it gives that little bulb or
bowl at the bottom. They're superinexpensive. You find them at a grocery

(09:03):
store. They can be used formany things. As a matter of fact,
sometimes when you get lumps in yourgravy. You can throw it through
that, not worry about the lumps, and take the lumps out and your
gravy is still perfect. So peoplego, oh, no, I ruined
it. Nah, sive it outand you're good. But one of the
things that people ask all the timeis how to get that perfect poached egg.

(09:26):
The best thing you can do isput your egg in a sieve.
The thinner albumen, the whites ofthe egg, the thinner part will go
through that, leaving the thickest,best part of it, and then when
you poach it, it's going tobe perfect. It won't have those whispy,
ethereal ghost like twists that come withit. It will be contained and

(09:50):
wonderful. So something to think about. We'll be back with more tips,
tricks and things you need in yourkitchen, not to clutter them up,
but things that you're going to usefor multiple uses. So go know where
you're listening to The Fok Report withNeil Savedra on demand from KFI AMZI forty.
I'm your well Fed host, NeilSavedra. How do you do our

(10:11):
little Saturday soiree into you know,food, cooking, eating at home?
You know. Tony of course ison the ones and twos per usual,
and just played Bad Religion, andit just reminded me. I have a
very vivid memory. I was thirteenin the garage of my first girlfriend.

(10:33):
I mean not the crushes in likegrade school, but my first real girlfriend,
and we were playing Early Man.What's the early Man walks Away?
I'm taking it's from probably eighty maybeeighty two is eighty three is the last?

(10:54):
But can you imagine I'm fifty threeyears old. I'm still listening to
them. Yea, there's still around. They're still putting out music. And
I was covering their songs at thirteenor whatever. Crazy any who. Back
to food, back to Technique ofthe Week in particular, we're talking about

(11:16):
things that you should have in yourkitchen. I know kitchen, especially in
my kitchen. I do not havea big kitchen, and there's limited real
estate, that's the reality, andyou don't want a bunch of things all
over the place. I'm giving yousome of the things I think you should
have, the gadgets and the like, and then how to use them in

(11:37):
some tips and tricks for that forour Technique of the Week. So we
went over one of my favorites,the immersion blender or the stick blender.
That's very important. A small strainer. Use them for eggs to get some
of the looser album in the whitesof the egg out before you cooked them.
Even if you fry them, youknow it were better. But also

(12:01):
if you strain them before poaching them, they work one their flee. You
can also use them this straight outpulp things like that. I've used them.
I remember doing a gravy or somethingand and it started to, you
know, bunch up a little bitthe flower that I was using to as

(12:26):
part of the root to thicken itup. And you know it's like,
well it's lumpy, big deal,sive it out. It still tasted great,
no problem. We all get intothat stuff. Right when you're dealing
with garbage is one of the thingsthat drives me nuts. I like the
process of cooking. Everything else thatcomes with it sometimes not so great.

(12:46):
And that means you're cutting you've gotends that you're not going to use preferably,
you're taking all those vegetable ends,the leafy parts, things like that,
and you're using them to make avegetable broth or a stock in this
case to start, that's great,but some of us don't do that every

(13:09):
single time. And the best thingto do, And I learned this from
Rachel ray Not. I don't knowher personally, but when she was on
TV I don't want to Like,we were hanging out and sat AnyWho,
and she would keep a large bowlon the countertop and put her refuse there.
And I thought that was very smart, especially if you're going to use

(13:31):
it in the process of breaking itdown or using it for fertilizer, or
putting it into the bin that youhave outside your house for that specific I
just love the process. And thetool that you want for this is a
bench scraper. Now, a benchscraper looks kind of like a putty knife.

(13:54):
It's metal, stainless steel, andthen it has a plastic handle.
Usually some times what it works acouple of different ways. One it will
work as a dough cutter. Doughlikes a fatter blade. It works better
than if you were to take likea chef's knife, it gets all gummed
up. It's much easier to usea bench scraper to go and cut that

(14:20):
dough. So if I'm making pizzadough or things like that I use that
and separates it perfectly, but alsofor scraping stuff off into the bowl,
moving stuff from one place to theother, you know, scooping it up,
putting it into your whatever you're makingyour concoction. It works very well.
Two, So those are like thethings that I think about. The

(14:43):
other last thing is if you're goingto defrost meat, have an aluminum tray,
why does that work. The fastestway to thaw something out is to
put it in water, to likehave running water and put it under the
running water. It's got to becool water, not warm water. That's
technically the fastest, not always greatto do it that way, and you're

(15:07):
wasting a lot of water. Thebest way is not putting it on a
stone, not putting it on plastic, not putting it on a wood you
know you're cutting board or anything likethat. You put it on aluminum.
Aluminum is a conductor and it conductsheat very well. And what ends up
happening is the ambient temperature of theroom keeps that warm and will thought about

(15:33):
thirty thirty five more quickly than itwould if it was sitting on something else
in the open air. So ifthat's a good thing and you need like
an aluminum pan or an aluminum grittleor something like that. They do sell
them, those magic thars. Theydo work and that's how they work.
We have one and so I canuse that, but if you don't have

(15:56):
the room for it, go aheadand use something else. So that's just
the hot tips for today. We'dcome back. We got a bunch of
guests today that we want to getthrough. We'll start talking barbecue, So
go know where you're listening to TheFork Report with Neil Savedra on demand from
KFI AMZI forty. I am yourfriendly neighborhood Fork Reporter Neil Savedra. I

(16:18):
have the best job in the world. I get to talk food with great
people, talk about the culture behindit. We shake off the heaviness of
the news and come together and bethankful for food and what it means in
our life, whether you're cooking athome, going out to eat, trying
something new. And I gotta tellyou, having a six year old is
awesome and a pain in the buttat the same time. The cool part

(16:41):
is seeing him try new things.The not so cool part is seeing him
not like new things. But truestory, saw my boy I don't even
know how to say this. Pickingchocolate chips out of a chocolate chip cookie.
Yeah, I know, and hesaid, I just like the how

(17:04):
soft the cookie part is and theokay, no judgment. So anyways,
he's sleeping outside now, A wholeanother story. We'll talk about that later.
Any who, I want to introduceyou to some folks here. That's
what we love doing, is introducingyou to people you need to know in
the food industry doing good food things. And in this particular case, it's

(17:26):
a couple and they love barbecue,and so we're quick friends already. Keana
and Ian Muffnas. Muffnas. What'sthe origin of that name? It's Oh,
you're from Guam. We had,you know, my one of my
best buddies growing up and still friendsto this day. I was from Guam.

(17:48):
I'm like from where? Oh where? It's part of what Uh?
Well, welcome, that's awesome.Nice to meet you, folks. So
so let's talk about Let's talk aboutfirst of all, Axiom and your barbecue
and why why is it the playoffof the world. Why was it self

(18:11):
evident that you needed to open abarbecue joint um with a name like that?
Well as of recently, we reallystarted getting at up on that brother
here we go. Recently we startedgetting a lot of a lot of press
with doing the Tamali Festival and stufflike that, and then recently, um,
we're selling out hard. Like we'renormally a four hour operation. We're

(18:33):
lucky for their three hours now.So you're doing pop ups now or are
they at different locations? Do youhave a brick and mortar or a truck
m We pop up outside of ourshared kitchen. So it's like a permanent
pop up. Oh, that's awesome, right, So we're actually really proud
to have just been Um we're gettingin the process of being approved and getting
our smoke were approved and I thinkwe're going to be one of two in

(18:56):
the city. So we just gotapproved by the City of Long Beach to
be able to do that. Soit's in a shared kitchen. So but
think of I know that people arelistening and they're going what to get.
People don't understand what it takes andwhy you have to love what you do
in the food industry because of theamount of permits and hoops you have to

(19:18):
jump through and the fact that cityHall lives in your ass while you're doing
it. Is I mean, itreally is a huge process. It's a
long process, long process. Willgood on you for sticking to it and
you know, pushing through to dowhat you want to do. Now back
up a little bit. Why thepassion for barbecue? Where'd they come from?

(19:40):
So we recently we got married Octoberof twenty twenty one. We've owned
each other for a real thank you. We've known each other for a really
long time, you know, overeleven years. If anybody has read our
story, they know that when wefirst got together, we were in a
not so great place. Ian andI are both ex addicts. We so
we decided to separate, get ourlives together, which we both did.
We you know, got our liveson track, came back together years later,

(20:03):
got in contact again and found outwe both ended up in human services
somehow, which is pretty cool.We so we know, we kept on
that and kept in contact with eachother. We ended up getting married.
Like I said, in October twentytwenty one, he you know, he
had been talking about how he hadgotten into smoking, you know, smoking
meat years before, and then hefinally cooked it for me after we were

(20:26):
married, and I was like,what are we doing? Why are we
not selling this? Like this isdelicious, Like this is amazing, And
you know, I had worked inthe restaurant industry for pretty much my whole
life before I got into human services. So I was like, look,
why don't we do this. Let'stry to just kind of just throw it
out there. We'll we'll start abusiness, we'll start a restaurant, and
if it works, it works.If it doesn't, it doesn't. You

(20:47):
know, let's just take a chanceand see and we say, give it
six months. We're not doing anythingin six months and we'll completely stop it.
We'll go back to what we weredoing. But after six months it
was like it just took. Wewere like, okay, we can't stop
this now. Wow, right,well, okay, here's the here's the
truth. Sorry, fellas listening.The reality is at a certain age,

(21:11):
all men try to smoke me.Ninety nine point nine percent of us are
not good at it. So it'spretty impressive to get to be able to
take It's like we all try it, you know, and I've learned some
things, but the reality is,you know, it does it takes time

(21:32):
and understanding of that and and howdid you fall into that love. So
this is what happened. I camehome after paroling for a while and someone
introduced me to a piece of smoketri tip and I was like, oh
my god, what is this?Where did you get this? I wish
it was addicted to this first?Yeah, right straight up. So um,

(21:52):
it's part of my story. Istopped smoking myth and I started smoking
me and here I am and likemy price piece. Now it's the brisket.
I've always loved brisket. Mom madebrisket for me growing up, you
know, in the oven with thelifting onion pack and you know, you
raise it like that. And thenI found out you could smoke it,
and I started getting into it.The truth is, Neil, I've burned
more pieces. I'd like to admit. People don't talk about their failures,

(22:15):
but you have to. Yeah,I still ate it. And now that's
the thing with the past. Youdon't waste me. No, you got
to eat it right and and butnow I've got a system down in man.
We're like people come back and they'relike, please tell me you're operating
this week. Please tell me it'savailable. We pre orders are crazy,
like it's it's someone asked me.A good friend of mine he said,

(22:38):
how is it going? That's truthfully, axiom is a monster that if I
do not feed it, it willeat Wow. And that's the truth.
It's it's grown larger than what wecan control. It's taken on the life
of its own. This is whathappens with businesses. We thought it was,
you know, just we were justplaying with him in the beginning.
But a lot of people don't talkabout its Mental Health Awareness Month obviously in

(23:03):
May, and we all got itsomewhere. We all got our different luggage,
but we all got luggage right.And I know that there's sometimes where
it's easy to go. People aren'tgoing to pick themselves up. They're not.
And I want people to hear thatyou have and whatever is in your
person addictive personality, certain part,whatever it is, you've you've taken that

(23:27):
same energy and introduced it to anew beast that is productive. Which is
the key. That's the code,man, that's the code of life.
All we need to do is tofind the right rudder for our motor.
That's it. And we sometimes wefind the wrong ones and they consume us.
So I just want to say,and I know the audience listening.

(23:47):
I'm very proud of you both.That's a massive thing, and you could
be sorry for yourself in all thoseears that were lost. But I'm looking
at you know, two sets ofclear eyes, smiles and focus and I
dig that. So stick around.We're going to talk some more about the
product, maybe give a couple oftips to people grilling and smoking, and
then we'll talk about the festival andwhere people can go enjoy great barbecue coming

(24:14):
up on the thirteenth, so nextweekend, excellent. All right, you're
listening to The Fork Report with NeilSavedra on demand from KFI AMZI forty.
Don't forget to follow us on theiHeartRadio app. And you go, well,
I'm already listening to you on theiHeart. No, there's a little
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(24:37):
well foot fed host, Neil Savedra, and I will confess that I just
did the no no that hosts you'renot supposed to do. I've been in
full conversation the whole time during thebreak with my guests, fascinated by them
and their story. They are nowon my list of people that I will
root for in life just because theyhave an interesting background and they are working

(25:04):
to make it and for positivity andto share love through food and I dig
that. So Keana and Ian arehere. They've got a barbecue fest coming
up. If you want to findmore about them when they do their pop
ups, or how you can gettheir food, which just on the pictures.
We're not eating today, we're justtalking. We'll do that another time.

(25:26):
But looking through all this stuff,check them out at Axiom Kitchen bbq
dot com. That's Axiom Kitchen bbqdot com. You can find out more
about who they are, what they'reabout, and all of that here,
so please check that out. Soyou've got a festival coming up next weekend,

(25:51):
and this is the inaugural event.Correct, sorry, your anniversary.
It's the first barbecue festival hosted byAxiom Kitchen. Okay, so talk to
me. What's what's going to happen, How can people attend? What should
they look forward to? It's goingto be May thirteenth, one to eight
pm at two three three East AnaheimStreet in Long Beach, California, nine

(26:17):
zero eight one three Trademark Brewing TrademarkBrewery's We're gonna be there along with seven
other barbecue vendors. UM. Wehave an eclectic collaboration from Asian to Hispanic
to um California barbecue. What I'dlike to say in traditional Texas barbecue as
well, I believe wow, Andand what's your style? UM, I

(26:40):
would be considered California. Yeah,defined, so I take so when we
talk about barbecue, what makes itTexas style is the method and how you
cook it. It's on an offsetcooker or reverse blow offset. That makes
it Texas. Okay. Traditionally theyuse salt and pepper, or salt and
pepper and garlic. I've taken alittle bit step further and I use eight

(27:00):
different things in my dry ruby thingshit with a dry rub minimum twenty four
hour marinate, take it out.We smoke it on pecan and apple and
white oak wood. The good folksat the out in Orange County, at
the Ocum Woodshed, they're just great, great people over there. They turned

(27:22):
me onto using pecan and I've neverlooked back, I mean seriously, And
I use some of their rubs tooat the house. Religiously. Their California
style is beautiful but really really greatfolks. So when it comes to smoking,
what's your biggest tips for people?I know a lot of I was

(27:42):
teasing about how you know many ofus are bad at it, but the
truth is it takes love and understandingto get it right. So what are
some tips for people that want toget into smoking? Start off with a
big fire about six lugs. Whenyou're starting it, get a nice big
at a charcoal it's nice and hot, and then you manage the temp with

(28:03):
adding sticks to it. From there, either two or four. You want
to put two down or stack fordepending on what you're doing. You want
to high smoke, low smoke.Then you want to stay on it.
Make sure the temp doesn't go overum two fifty to seventy five, keep
in between there if you can,low and slow, low and slow.
Take a pan of water, putit in the top in the hot spot
of your smoker. Everyone's hot spotsdifferent. I don't want to say where

(28:26):
it is, but um, usuallytypically it's the back right for me.
Um. And then spray spray spray, and what's your spray? Are using
water? Using apple juice? Yeah? Yeah, the thought being never add
anything to what you're cooking that doesn'thave add more flavor, right right,
right? So that keeps a moisturein, that keeps a great flavor.

(28:48):
I mean it works for a lotof different cuts, but you know,
pork, it's beautiful with um.What what is your if if someone said,
okay, you can only cook onething from now on, only smoke,
what's what's your jam? What isthe one that you think is your
masterpiece? It's brisket for life?Oh gosh. And there's nothing like it

(29:10):
too. When you see a beautifullycooked brisket, Oh, it's one of
I've had the pleasure of judging acouple of barbecue events and yeah, it
you will never see me more happy. It's it is basically you know,
marriage, my boy, and youknow, going and going and judging barbecue.
It really is an amazing thing.And brisket for the type of meat

(29:34):
it is to get it so flavorfuland tender, right, you have to
be right? Oh man? Okay, So the event is next Saturday.
It is the thirteenth. Go toAxiom Kitchen bbq dot com a X I
O M Kitchen barbecue dot com.Give these folks some love. I love

(29:57):
the story Keana and Ian and uhmathness and I just I just wish you
guys the best. Thank you,thank you, and I want to eat
that food try. I do wantto eat food. And so on a
normal Saturday, would you be cooking? Would it be open? Yeah?
Normal satisode Friday's three to seven andSaturday's one to six or Toby sell out

(30:22):
for one three seven North Sway,Long Beach, California. And I know
it away. You guys have accessto a an internet internet line. Um
yeah, um phone number? No, you give a phone number, But
I just saying if I can getout there and broadcast and eat at the
same time, I want what doeshappen? Where can they call you?

(30:47):
If I six two nine six sixnine two nine two can also find us
on Instagram, Axiom Underscore Kitchen.Awesome. Thanks, it was an honor
to meet you guys. That isawesome. It is the four Report on
Neilsdra. This is KFI and KOSTHDto Los Angeles, Orange County. You're
listening to The Fork Report with NielSavedra on demand from KFI AM six forty