In this Feed Your Fire podcast episode, we explore the sensual side of food - just in time for Valentine’s Day. Food can influence our emotions and so we’re using that to our advantage by activating sensory cues and physiological responses with a delicious recipe. Enjoy the playfulness by yourself or share it with someone you love.
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Episode Transcript:
Hi, I’m Kim Baker, founder of Kim Baker Foods, and this is Feed Your Fire. It's a bit of a mash up discussion about life topics and food. Sometimes we'll cook, other times we'll just eat. But in each episode, we'll share stories and have a conversation that pushes us further in our relationship with ourselves and other people to us, food is the connective tissue in life, and it's so much fun. Feel free to just listen or cook with us.
Happy early Valentine's Day to all of you guys out there, I am sending you love. This episode is going to be about sharing this kind of spirit of sensuality and love to the people that you care about through food.
When I was thinking about this episode, for some reason, the only thing that came to mind is TLC is Crazy Sexy Cool, except it kept being in my mind, Crazy Sexy Food. And so we're going to make something that makes us feel like our sexy selves, something a little bit sensual that could be something you enjoy by yourself, or you could share it with another.
Food does have this amazing ability to make us feel things. It can create an emotion for us, and so we're tapping into that today, and we're going to make a recipe that hopefully amplifies that for you and gives you a little bit of a sense of fun.
There are these two quotes in our Feed Your Fire journal and guidebook that really hit on what we're talking about today. One is a quote from Richard Branson that says fun is one of the most important and underrated ingredients. And I just love that because, you know, sometimes we can get so focused on these really serious things and forget to counterbalance that with a little bit of spirited goodness. And so this episode kind of acknowledges that and leans into the fun side.
There's also another quote in our guidebook that is from Alan Woltfelt that says food is symbolic of love when words are inadequate. At least for me, words are not my strong suit in expressing how I feel, but action is and to me, that comes alive when I share food or make things for people, because it's really like coming from a very sort of deep, connected place within me and connecting with that person at that level.
So this sexy recipe begins with roasted beets. I know beets don't scream sexiness, but bear with me. We're using ruby red beets, which are so beautiful in color, and the reason we've picked them is because the foods we eat create a sensory experience for us, and color is an important part of that. So these ruby red beets have this bright, beautiful red color that's symbolic of the holiday. And red has an energetic quality that is very positive. It can actually kind of create a sense of passion and excitement, and so these beets are kind of the core of this recipe, for that reason, and also because beets are among the foods that can help trigger a hormonal response in our body.
Naturally, all of the ingredients in this recipe have been picked not just because they pair well, but because of their nutritional profile and the way they can help our body activate things like dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and create a natural sense of well-being. There's a growing field of study called nutritional psychiatry that seeks to understand the emotional impact of the foods we eat and how our intake of certain foods can positively or negatively create emotional responses. And with that in mind, we've crafted this recipe to truly activate systems in our body that make us feel really good.
So the first thing we're going to do is roast our beets. You can do this a day in advance, the beets take some time to cook, but this is not hard. I want you to take whole beets, rinse them off so they're nice and clean, and then put them on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and drizzled with oil, put them in the oven on about 375 degrees for about an hour, the beets will get tender, and when they do, take them out of the oven, let them cool, and then we're going to peel off the skin. I would recommend wearing gloves when you peel the skin off of these beets, because there's nothing very sexy about stained fingernails and beets do have this colorful quality that will create a lasting effect on your skin.
Once you've peeled your beads, we're going to dice them. I prefer a dice because I like that textural element in this salad, but you could also slice them thinly, if that's your preference. We're going to pair that with pickled onions. Pickling red onions is a quick math lesson on ratios and math is sexy, so go ahead and put on those nerdy glasses and bear with me for a minute.
We're going to take red onions, slice them really thin, and then we're going to cover them in a liquid. That liquid is going to be one parts water to one part vinegar. So if you've got a half a cup of water, add a half a cup of vinegar, then we're going to add salt and sugar. It's also going to follow a ratio that is a one to two ratio. So we're going to add in about one teaspoon of salt and two teaspoons of sugar. Our math lesson for the day is done, and you got an A on the assignment. This is a quick pickle. It only takes about an hour, so do it while your beets are in the oven. Store those pickling onions in the refrigerator until you're ready to use them.
We're just getting all the ingredients prepped right now, so don't worry about putting it in a bowl or the presentation we're going to do that last. Strawberries and chocolate have been known to sort of symbolize Valentine's Day, and that's not really coincidence. Strawberries and chocolate are some of the foods that actually can activate our dopamine and serotonin systems, and so the origins of that tradition are rooted in nutritional science. So we'll wash strawberries underwater, get them nice and clean and then thinly slice them.
And believe it or not, this salad is also going to have some melted chocolate. I know chocolate isn't something you usually think of in a salad, but we're here to have fun, and who are we to argue with science?
Before we do that, we're going to do one final thing. We're going to take goat cheese, slice a few small pieces, and coat it in either chopped almonds or crunchy lentils. Guess which one I'm going for? The reason for this is that we want protein. Protein is what activates these hormonal systems in our body, and both almonds and lentils are great for inspiring that physiological response.
We're now ready to start plating. I want you to take those beets and drizzle them with a mixture of olive oil, orange juice and balsamic vinegar and some salt and pepper, and then we're going to start the plating process.
So really take your time with the plating. We want this to be beautiful, because that is part of the sensual experience. I like to put the beets in the center of a white plate, and then use the pickled onions, the strawberry and the coated goat cheese as sort of accent ingredients in an artful way. This combination of ingredients creates this beautiful palette of red and pink hues. Add in a few small pieces of baby arugula or microgreens, if you can find them, this gives the plate some color contrast and a bit of peppery flavor.
Be thoughtful about what you put on your plate, considering color, texture, shape and form that's really what's going to make this plate really beautiful. The last thing we're going to do is take dark chocolate and pop it in the microwave to melt, then, using the back of a spoon, smear it along the outside of the plate, so that when we take our fork and brush it along the plate, we get a bit of all of the flavors, including that pop of chocolate.
I'm not sure this recipe is quite the same as the phrase hot sex on a platter, it does get us as close to that as I think we can do in the studio. So have a great time with it. Enjoy it. We hope that you have a wonderful Valentine's Day. And whether you love or hate this holiday, this recipe, and hopefully this discussion gets you in a positive mood, one that we can all rally around, where we are connecting with ourselves and with others through food. Until our next episode, we say, so long.
Feed Your Fire, where food nourishes growth.