An episode that deconstructs courage to illuminate how we can cultivate it within ourselves to overcome the fears we face in our lives. Together, we explore the things that scare us, holding space for discomfort to stay true to a deeper purpose, as we prepare a delicious Thai food recipe.
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Recipe here.
Feed Your Fire Podcast Episide Transcript:
Hello, and welcome to Feed Your Fire. I'm Kim Baker, founder of Kim Baker Foods. In today's episode, we're gonna talk about courage.
Yeah, that shit scares me too, because we all know that on the other side of courage is something that we had to face, a decision, a circumstance, a heartbreak. But the world is full of uncertainties and hardships, and it's courage that allows us to move through it. So we're gonna devote this episode to understanding what courage requires while we cook something to help us cultivate the confidence to overcome our fears.
In language, we use words like boldness, courage, bravery, daringness, kind of interchangeably. But the truth is that courage is in a league of its own. Most of the time, courage is unsolicited.
We don't want to be courageous, we just sometimes have to be. It's about survival, not sport. And it's about purpose, not pleasure. And that's a huge distinction as we have this conversation. In our minds, courage may look like a lion. But it's often a quiet, even intimate experience.
And what we're fighting might not even be visible to others. We fight for our health, our authenticity, our relationships, our futures, our homes, and our communities. It's not only a choice, it's a discipline. And it's really hard to do alone. The reason all public fights have an audience is not just for spectacle. It's so that you could have people in your corner, feeding you energy, keeping you motivated, and reminding you of your why.
And so to those of you facing an obstacle that requires courage, we're here. We see you in the arena, and we're cheering you on.
Courage is kind of an intermediary to a fear response. It doesn't bypass it. So unfortunately, we've got to go through that fearful experience. We have that physiological stress response. And no matter whether your default setting is fight, flight, freeze, or fawn, courage requires us to get in that fighting posture. And what's interesting about the fight response over the others is that it requires we have at least some semblance of a belief that we can beat what we're fighting. Our body requires that belief, and our bodies know when we're telling the truth. So to stay in fight mode, we need to trip that system. We need to give ourselves the space to believe, to open our mind to the possibility of a positive outcome.
No matter what the probability, that belief forms the backbone of hope. And it could be made from information, resources, community, whatever grounds you in a sense of possibility, or it can be based on faith. And when that spark of hope is paired with your conviction, you, my friend, have just created the alchemy of courage.
One of the most wonderful, liberating things about courage is that it doesn't need to be refined or sophisticated, shiny or polished. It's inherently rough around the edges, and that's what we love about it. It's scrappy.
It's the underdog. And everyone loves the underdog. It's not Jeff Bezos flying into space. It's Rocky Balboa fighting for his family and his dignity. So as I was translating this to the kitchen, I did a little research on what people are afraid of in the kitchen. And as it turns out, unbeknownst to me, there's a ton of stuff that people are afraid of.
Some people are afraid of cheese. That's called turophobia. And apparently one in four Americans are intimidated to cook in their own kitchens. They're afraid of messing up and failing, not having the technical skills to navigate the equipment. And they're afraid of things that are unfamiliar. International food is one that comes up highest on the list.
So that's what we're going to focus on. We're going to make Pad See Ew, which is a sister doodle dish to Pad Thai. And I picked this because its ingredients are more accessible in a regular grocery store.
Now, I am by no means a Thai food authority. In fact, I've messed up many times preparing certain Thai foods, but I've learned a lot along the way. And that's the thing about having a companion.
It's more about having someone you trust than someone who knows everything. And the person that's just one step ahead of you can keep you from falling into pitfalls. So the first thing we're going to do is prepare our noodles. Do not follow the instructions on the package. Asian noodles get soaked, not boiled. This was actually a test question when I was in culinary school.
So grab a big pot of water and bring it up to a simmer, not a boil. You'll know it's simmering when there's steam coming off of it. Now we're going to put in a wide flat rice noodle, or the closest rice noodle that you can find. I'm using about a half a pound of these noodles, which will make three to four servings. While that's soaking, I'm going to marinate my protein. I'm using beef because that's my son's favorite, but you can use chicken, shrimp, tofu, whatever you prefer.
I picked up a small flank steak that I'm just going to slice thinly, and then I'm going to put it into a Ziploc bag with some soy sauce and a little bit of maple syrup. And I'm going to let that marinate until I'm ready.
Now we're going to make the sauce. In a small bowl, I want you to add about a quarter cup of oyster sauce. And then I want you to add about two tablespoons of your regular soy sauce. I learned a lot about soy sauce in the Asian market. There's like an entire aisle devoted to soy sauces of all different kinds from all different countries. And because of that, we're going to add another kind of soy sauce to this mixture. We're going to use a dark soy sauce which is thicker, and “we're going to add in about one and a half tablespoons. Then add in a tablespoon of fish sauce and a tablespoon of maple syrup. Taste it, because this is going to be the base of your entree. It should taste good, but pungent, because it's all concentrated right now, and there's no noodles to soak it up.
By now, your noodles should be tender. So check them. And once they're kind of al dente, you'll want to remove them from that warm water and rinse them under cool water to stop the cooking process.
Lastly, we're going to prep our veggies. I want you to chop up a couple cloves of garlic. And then, Pad See Ew typically uses Chinese broccoli. Since I was at the Asian grocery store, I found this. You will not find this in Kroger or Wegmans or Publix. So feel free to substitute broccolini (baby broccoli), which is kind of a hybrid. And just note that that is different than broccoli rabe. So cut away the stems from the leaves on the Chinese broccoli or the broccolini. You can use the stems, but you'll want to cut them up. I cut them kind of on a diagonal, like “I'm cutting a carrot, and keep them separated so that we can put them in the pan at different times.
Now, making this dish is an exercise in preparedness, because the thing about Pad See Ew is we kind of caramelize the noodles in the pan, and so it's easiest to do this if you cook it in individual portions. So measure out about two tablespoons of that soy sauce mixture that we made, and grab about a nice heaping handful of your noodles and set them aside.
Crack open an egg and place it in a small bowl. Then grab a nice large skillet and put in some avocado oil and let it get really hot. We're going to sear that steak. So add it in to the skillet and let it cook undisturbed for like a minute or two. Then toss it so it can cook through and on the other side. And once it's done, take it out of that skillet and just set it aside.
Wipe down the pan and add in some fresh avocado oil. Add in some of those broccoli stems and the garlic and let that cook up for a minute. Then add in the leaves. Push that all aside. Make sure you have enough oil in the skillet. Add in the egg and quickly, using a spatula or a wooden spoon, blend it up so that it's kind of scrambled.
Push that egg in with the vegetables, and then we're going to add in our noodles. Add in the sauce, mix it up, and then let them caramelize undisturbed. That maple syrup that we put in the soy mixture will provide it with the sugar it needs to do that.
Then add in a portion, about a quarter of that cooked beef. Toss everything together, and then go ahead and plate it. You'll want to rinse out that pan, and then just repeat the process a few times until you've prepared all of your Pad See Ew.
Now, I was a little anxious about preparing this for you today. By making something that I hadn't yet quite mastered, I made myself vulnerable. I was outside of my comfort zone, and I had all of those same feelings that you'll have. I would feel the disappointment of having invested this time and having it not work out. I might even feel a little embarrassed by none of those feelings are the enemy. In fact, in many ways, they're the teacher.
And as my friend often says, we're responsible for the effort and not the outcome. We owe it to ourselves to try. And we all deserve to feel the hope and the promise of that positive outcome.
And with that, my friends, I say so long.
Feed Your Fire, where food nourishes growth.