Moveable Feast

ALEX THOMOPOULOS: Coming up on Moveable Feast, we are celebrating all of the cultures that make up coastal Massachusetts.

This region is known for its historic seaports, abundant farmland, and resilient communities, and it has the culinary scene to prove it.

First up, chef Valentine Howell is taking us to New Bedford, the most valuable fishing port in the United States, to source the sweetest scallops I've ever tasted.

Next, I'm headed to Plymouth to Dirty Water Distillery to check out some artisanal spirits made with native plants.

Then we're gathering fresh produce with chef Yahya Noor at the Urban Farming Institute in Mattapan.

We'll then sit down to a feast that honors the deep traditions of this land and its people.

You won't want to miss it.

Join us on a mouthwatering journey that takes us all across America, traveling from coast to coast with America's most creative chefs.

They'll be sharing their favorite recipes... ...and sourcing the finest local ingredients.

And it's all served up at some awe-inspiring locations and parties.

It's a Moveable Feast, with me, your host, Alex Thomopoulos.

And together, we're celebrating ten amazing years.

Major funding provided by... My bucket's leaking.

Hmm?

Look.

Oh, my God, Milo caught a fish!

A fish?

A what?

Back to the lake.

Fast.

(phone camera clicking) Stop taking pictures.

Mom!

("Woo Hoo" by the 5.6.7.8's playing) Mom, what do I do?

Nothing, baby-- all good.

We're a fish ambulance.

We are?

Totally.

Hang in there, kids!

Almost there.

("Woo Hoo" continues) Okay, guys, let's go.

Come on.

Bye, fishy.

Aww.

Bye-bye.

(glasses clink) (singer vocalizing) Kick it, kick it like this I like it when you kick it like, kick it like that (waves crashing) ALEX: Good morning, good morning, everybody.

We are on our way to Foley Fish in New Bedford, Massachusetts, the scallop capital of the world.

We're going there to meet Chef Valentine to source some, what else?

Some scallops.

Hey.

Hey.

ALEX: What's going on?

Hey, nice to meet you.

ALEX: Nice to meet you, too.

Welcome to New Bedford.

ALEX: I'm very excited to be cooking with you today and sourcing some seafood.

Number one, because I hear you've got one of the best restaurants in Boston, and number two, it's a Greek restaurant.

And number two, it's a Greek restaurant.

So, kalimra.

ALEX: Kalimra.

How did you get cooking Greek food?

It was destiny, that's the best way I can describe it.

Paying homage to the respect of where the food's from, but obviously where we are and the abundance of beautiful things that we have here in the Northeast.

ALEX: Well, speaking of fresh, we should probably go meet Anna and Keith.

Yeah, we should-- I think she's waiting for us down here at the end of the pier.

Hey, how are you guys?

ALEX: Alex, very nice to meet you.

Hi!

Look at you!

Welcome to New Bedford.

ALEX: Oh, thank you so much.

Scallop capital of the world.

Yes, it is.

So there's around 300 boats that this is their home port, and then there are about 150 or so other boats that will come in to sell their product.

ALEX: How are you processing all of these scallops that come in?

At Foley's, we're an all-natural 100% dry scallop, so no chemicals, no water added.

We literally send chefs the scallop the way it came out of the water, the way Mother Nature made it.

That's a scallop dredge, and what they'll do is, they'll lower it over, drag it, basically, along the bottom.

Anything that's undersized or smaller will fit through the holes in the net and go back out.

The fishermen then, after they've spent all that labor doing that, spend their time shucking the scallops.

We always try to buy the best, so we call it the top of the catch.

So it's not the first day's catch.

You want the last day's catch, so that you're getting the freshest stuff.

All right, welcome.

Thank you.

ALEX: Thank you.

Wow.

So this is our production facility here.

The fish is brought in on the idea that we're going to go in the building and out of the building pretty much same day or next day.

ALEX: So you're sorting, kind of cleaning up, packing, and straight to everybody's table.

There you go.

Right.

We use these gold tins to, to store our, our fish.

Love the tins.

The Foley tins are classic.

They've been around since the beginning.

ALEX: And that's just to maintain freshness, maintain temperature... Temperature, yep.

Correct.

We put our heart and soul into this business.

We want to get the best product, the best fish, the best seafood into kitchens with chefs like Val, who, who care.

ALEX: All right, let's go taste some scallops.

All right, so Matt, who is a former chef, is going to cook up some scallops for us.

ALEX: Hey, Matt.

Hey, how's it going?

Hey, Matt.

ALEX: I hear we're going to taste some seared scallops and then some fresh crudo.

Exactly.

ALEX: These are gorgeous, and you can really tell the difference.

These are really pink.

That texture... Like butter.

ALEX: It's like butter.

And this is just a little olive oil and salt?

Yeah, it's this great lemon oil, it's Sicilian.

ALEX: Mm.

That is literally the best scallop I've ever had.

You've ruined scallops for me, thanks a lot.

(laughs) ALEX: Do you mind searing some scallops up?

Absolutely.

ALEX: I could just eat that all day.

Me, too.

(sizzling) ALEX: How long do you want to cook these scallops for?

Three to four minutes-- hard sear on one side, flip them over, and let the heat carry through.

ALEX: A little kiss on the other side.

Exactly.

(chuckles) ALEX: I think we're going to take maybe a tin of scallops for tonight's feast.

Sounds great.

Sure.

ALEX: Okay?

Breakfast of champions.

Mm.

(laughs) ALEX: Mm!

That subtle flavor that we were tasting in the crudo has really condensed down and caramelized in those sugars.

Wow, wow, wow, I'm really excited to cook with these.

Well, thank you so much for coming.

Excited to cheers tonight.

ALEX: Yeah, and thanks, Matt.

Absolutely.

ALEX: I'm going to take this with me.

Before we head to our feast at the Urban Farming Institute, we are headed to Dirty Water Distillery to get some really interesting spirits for tonight's feast.

And after that, I'm going to be catching a ride to the Urban Farming Institute to go meet Chef Yahya and president and C.E.O.

Pat Spence.

Hey, Pepi.

Hi.

ALEX: How are you?

Good, how are you doing?

ALEX: I'm great, thank you for having us.

You have quite the reputation for doing some really interesting stuff here, and distilling everything from beers to cocktails to hard seltzers.

We started a little more than ten years ago, wanted to do something different.

ALEX: I'm really unfamiliar with the distilling process.

Would you mind showing me around and how the magic works?

Sure.

Let me introduce you to Dr.

Evil.

ALEX: Hello.

That's our big still.

Mini-Me is... ALEX: Oh, it's warm.

Yeah, it's currently distilling rum.

So rum, typically, you start with molasses and cane products.

ALEX: That's what I'm smelling.

Yeah.

ALEX: It's sweet.

It ferments for about two weeks and then we put it in the still.

You're trying to separate out the different kinds of alcohols.

In distilling, there's three regions that you're interested.

There's heads, there's hearts, and there's tails.

Heads are really what gives you that wicked hangover and headache when you go out for a cheap night of tequila.

ALEX: Yeah.

The hearts are the, the ethanol.

That's the pure ethanol, that's what you're really after.

And then the tails are sort of the heavy alcohols.

Right now, we're collecting heads, if you want to taste it.

ALEX: Yeah.

It's a little bit spicy and a little bit hot.

It's about 85% alcohol, so... ALEX: Whoa.

Whoa!

That is spicy.

If I light a match, I can blow fire with that.

We use it for cleaning.

We also make a single malt whiskey.

ALEX: Wow.

The difference between whiskey and rum is, again, the base ingredient.

Whiskey, you start with grain.

And it's basically the same process.

It should be a very even, uniform... ALEX: Oh, that's nice.

Normally, like, whiskey is usually... (exhales audibly) That's what we talked about with kicking the heads out.

ALEX: Mm-hmm.

The next one I'm going to have you try is technically a malt whiskey.

Night Shift, from up in Everett, that they sent down over 6,000 gallons of beer.

Beer is basically whiskey.

It starts with grain.

Instead of being one continuous note, and it's got a very different flavor profile.

ALEX: Whoa!

You think it's going to start like a whiskey and it finishes like a beer.

Mm-hmm, and that'll take us to the next thing that we're going to taste... ALEX: Yes.

...which is our Pioneer gin.

This one's really pretty straightforward.

It's angelica root and the eastern red cedar.

ALEX: That is really good.

For our cocktail tonight for the feast, I would love to serve a gin cocktail.

Would it be possible to get a bottle to take with me?

Sure-- how about two?

ALEX: I won't say no.

Thank you.

There you go.

ALEX: All right.

Now, who's driving me home?

Chef Yahya.

Hi, Chef, how you doing?

ALEX: Very good.

Nice to meet you.

Likewise.

ALEX: So, we're going to go meet Pat.

Yes.

ALEX: She's going to tell us a little bit about the farm, we're going to get some ingredients for our feast, and then we can cook together.

Great.

ALEX: Does that sound good?

Looking forward, excited.

ALEX: Okay, let's go meet Pat.

All right.

ALEX: This farm is beautiful.

Oh, this is amazing.

ALEX: This old house.

Look at that.

ALEX: Hello, Pat!

Nice to meet you.

Welcome, welcome.

ALEX: Thank you.

Thank you for having us.

Can you tell us a little bit about the Urban Farming Institute?

Because this is, like, in a little oasis here... Here in downtown Mattapan.

(laughs) ALEX (laughing): In downtown Mattapan.

And this is one of six urban farm sites in Dorchester and Mattapan, for the Urban Farming Institute.

Last year, we grew 16,300 pounds of food... Wow.

Distributed about 4,400 pounds of food to elders and families in need.

ALEX: Wow.

Have a wonderful Friday urban farm stand, because the key is local access to fresh food, grown with organic principles.

So that's what we're trying to do.

In the community of Mattapan, this is where you see some of the largest health disparities.

ALEX: Mm-hmm.

So we want to do our part to ensure that people have access to local, fresh food.

And we train folks.

We have a full farmer training program.

We've graduated 285 farmers.

ALEX: Wonderful.

So you're not just learning about farming, then you can come back and actually develop your career in this business.

Food that your family, you grew up eating.

ALEX: Yeah.

That's what we're trying to grow.

You know, there's a lot of cultures here, right?

A lot of cultures.

From Jamaica, from Haiti.

For us, it's, like, we grew up eating okra, and you could buy it from the stores, but an actual growing okras... A lot different, isn't it, too?

It is way different.

It's a lot different.

This is the callaloo.

Coming from Jamaican parents and grandparents, this is the green that, that we love.

Someone might love kale; we grow tons of kale.

Someone like collard greens, but this is what we love, it's callaloo.

These are our tomato plants growing right now.

And you might notice there's basil, and you might see the marigolds.

So we use no pesticides at all.

And you're basically putting in plants that some of the pests don't like.

ALEX: I heard you were selling yesterday some snap peas at your farm stand.

Yeah, and the snap peas are back there.

ALEX: Okay-- I saw some chamomile here, so maybe I'll do a little chamomile... That'll work.

ALEX: ...simple syrup with some local honey.

I'm so excited-- well, thank you so much, Pat, for taking us around the farm.

You're welcome, you're welcome.

ALEX: And for hosting us here today.

Yeah.

ALEX: And I can't wait to feast with you later.

Yum-yum.

I'm hungry now.

(laughs) ALEX: I'm here with Chef Valentine, executive chef of Krasi, here in Boston.

(in accent): The best Greek restaurant.

ALEX (in accent): The best Greek restaurant.

Went to Foley Fish earlier today.

Got some of the best scallops I've ever had, and I'm excited to see what you are going to do with them today.

Excellent-- today, I'm making seared scallops with a vegetable kritharoto, which is orzo, some lovely vegetables from here at the Urban Farming Institute, and a pipri skordalia, which is a pepper skordalia, very ubiquitous dip you find around Greece that I kind of turned into a base sauce for this dish.

And a nice herb emulsion, which will brighten everything up.

ALEX: Yum.

So yes, now we have our pan nice and hot here.

(sizzling) There we go.

ALEX: That's what you want to hear.

That's the sizzle-sizzle right there.

Start caramelizing those natural sugars in there.

Enhance the flavors that are already going on.

ALEX: Chef, what sparked your love of cooking and how did you get started in the industry?

So, I mean, I come from a really big foodie family.

I mean, both sides of my family, everything that we do involves food.

Baby shower, birthday party, christening, somebody lost a tooth, we're doing food.

You know, I went to a tech-voc high school here in Boston, Madison Park Technical Vocational, only vocational high school here in the city, and I did culinary arts there.

It worked out really well, and I believe I'm where I'm supposed to be.

ALEX: And you're cooking some of the best Greek food in Boston.

Okay, so we have our scallops.

Okay, beautiful.

Going to give those a flip.

Got that beautiful caramelization-- golden, brown, delicious.

GBD, people, GBD.

I'm going to pull these now.

Going to let them rest.

ALEX: I'm going to do everything that I can not to eat them.

With the same pan here, we have a lovely scallop fond at the bottom.

You want to cut up some garlic scapes for me?

ALEX: I do.

Because these are going to replace using actual raw garlic.

These are way better.

And again, from the Urban Farming Institute.

ALEX: It's crazy to think that all of this produce is growing in the middle of the city.

And you said you live, like, five minutes from here.

I literally live five minutes from here, and I drive by this every day.

While she's cutting those, I'm going to go in here with a little shallot.

Follow behind with these beautiful garlic scapes.

ALEX: Ooh, it smells good.

Already.

Now we're going to go in here with a little corn.

ALEX: The dish already feels like summer.

Oh, yeah-- some tomatoes, and then the lovely sugar snap peas.

ALEX: This is really a dish you could make with any produce that you have seasonal.

Any seasonal produce, anything that catches your eye at the farmers' market.

We're going to get in there with some salt and pepper, season it up nice and beautiful.

And then we're going to come behind with our pre-cooked orzo.

I could eat orzo a million different ways.

ALEX: So could I.

And we're just going to finish this with a little bit of butter.

And you want to chop up some scallions for me?

ALEX: I do.

Let's plate this dish up.

Yep, so we're just going to finish with some of these lovely scallions, little parsley.

We're going to lay down some of our skordalia.

Toss this right on top.

ALEX: Mm.

Finish with our beautiful Foley scallops.

Some of this beautiful herb emulsion.

ALEX: Mm.

Oh, yeah.

ALEX (exclaiming): Ooh!

Oh, yeah.

ALEX (emphatically): Ooh!

(laughing) ALEX: The smokiness of the red pepper sauce with the butteriness of the orzo, that texture from all those vegetables, and those scallops.

Oh, yeah.

ALEX: Holy moly, that dish is a winner.

It's cool, thank you for having me-- I can't wait.

ALEX: Thanks, Chef.

I'm with Yahya here, of Tawakal restaurant in East Boston.

And Chef, what are we making today?

So we're making a traditional Somali stew, considered to be poor people's food, right?

It's a plant base that has so much nutrients in it, and this is the easiest dish you could ever make.

You don't need to be a chef, you don't need to be a cook.

As long as you can turn that stove on, there's no failing.

If you could, Chef, help me out, cut the garlic scapes.

So what I'm going to do right now is put some olive oil into the pot.

ALEX: How would you describe Somali food to somebody who's not really familiar with it?

It's a fusion of all cultures, from Italy, India, Middle East, Mediterranean.

While you're cutting the garlic, I'm going to throw some of the onions into the pot.

ALEX: Great.

(sizzling) So I'll tell you about measurement-- we don't believe in measurement.

I asked my mom once upon a time, like, "What is the measurement of this?"

She was, like, "God blesses my hand, so if you want measurement, look at my hand."

I'm like my mom, so I don't measure it.

We migrated due to the civil war, to Kenya, and we lived in a refugee camp from the beginning of '90 to the end of '97, before we came to the U.S. ALEX: Oh, wow, seven years.

Seven years, yep.

We had all of these type of herbs on our backyard and made meals that look like this.

ALEX: How did you end up here, in Boston?

We landed in Michigan, Lansing.

We had to move out of Michigan due to the fact that I was almost 15 years old when I arrived here.

Never had an education, but Massachusetts had a, a different schooling system, and we all migrated to Boston, and life has started for us.

Finished middle school, high school, college, and here I am.

We're going to add the spinach into the pot.

ALEX: Okay, this has just been blanched, squeezed out, chopped up.

And what sort of spices are you using today?

We have bay leaves, turmeric, curry, and this is a lemon pepper, and cumin.

ALEX: Mm.

These spices are called xawaash in Somalia.

It's a mixture of all that.

ALEX: Love it.

Yeah.

What I'm going to do right now is add some of those basil.

We have fresh oregano.

ALEX: What does the name Tawakal mean?

Tawakal means to rely on, to trust on.

You know, we rely on people coming into our, our space and they also trust us to cook them a good food.

ALEX: I love that.

And you are a very big proponent of these community gardens.

Yeah, so I'm actually part of an organization called Eastie Farm, so I'm on the board of directors.

What we eat is who we are, so if we don't protect our lands, our Earth, then none of this really matters.

So what we're going to do is add some of the water.

We'll start up with that much, because we're also going to add pured tomatoes.

So, this is the fava beans, uncooked, dry.

We soak them 24 hours and then cook them up for about four hours.

Start with the spices-- again, you can never fail.

Like, you could add the spices as you even saut the onions, right?

And then we'll mix it.

ALEX: It smells so good.

Just perfuming the air.

We'll add the fava beans.

And we're not going to mix it so hard, because the fava beans are already cooked, right?

We're going to be serving with the biryani rice, chapati, hummus.

ALEX: Yum.

And then, on top of that, we have a home-brewed chai that, we've made it from scratch.

Cardamon, cinnamon, cloves.

ALEX: Oh, I am so excited to eat this.

I'm going to let you finish up this stew and then I'll see you at the feast.

Sounds good.

ALEX: I met Glorya Fernandez here at the Urban Farming Institute.

Mm-hmm.

ALEX: And we became best friends, and I just said, "You have to cook with me."

Thank you.

ALEX: We were talking all things food.

Thank you.

ALEX: I'm going to be making a shaved snap pea salad.

All of these peas were grown here at the Urban Farming Institute.

Nice.

ALEX: I'm going to dress it with one of my favorite dressings, it's a roasted pistachio, garlic, and lemon vinaigrette.

(sighs): Mm.

ALEX: So we've got some beautiful flowers and pickled shallots and burrata.

Will you hand me some herbs, speaking of... Absolutely.

ALEX: And then can you chop these pistachios?

How much do you need?

ALEX: About a cup.

Okay.

ALEX: So while we cook, I would love to know how you got involved with the Urban Farming Institute, and the cooking classes you teach here.

I started to notice as I was getting older-- I've been on this Earth for 61 years-- that there was triggers in foods that I was eating that was causing aches and pains.

I just try to encourage people who are my age-- because we really were the guinea pigs for a lot of processed foods.

I'm doing it.

ALEX: You're not only teaching yourself, but you're teaching others.

Yes, yes.

ALEX: And that is the most important part.

Absolutely.

ALEX: I took about a cup of pistachios, a cup of oil.

I brought it up to just a simmer in a pot over medium-low heat.

Just as they turn brown, I'll strain the pistachios off, and I'll save that warm olive oil.

I grated two cloves of garlic and the zest of one lemon.

I'm going to add about a tablespoon of local Massachusetts honey, three-quarters of a cup of vinegar, a little bit of lemon juice in there.

So I'll take the pistachios, and then I'll build another layer.

I like building salads with whole herbs in it.

So we've got basil and we have mint.

ALEX: Mint.

The color is vibrant, the texture beautiful.

And that's what we're bringing here to the community at the Urban Farming Institute.

ALEX: So this is just some burrata cheese, and it's just, it's a little bit creamier, it's a little bit more unctuous.

My goodness, that looks amazing.

ALEX: I'm going to let you put some edible flowers on.

I'm going to build just a little bite so you can taste it.

Okay.

ALEX: Cheers.

Cheers.

ALEX: Thank you for cooking with me.

Do you like it?

You did it.

ALEX: Yeah?

Alex, this is really light, this really tastes good.

ALEX: Thank you very much.

It really does.

ALEX: Thank you, thank you, thank you.

You mind if I go in again?

ALEX: Go for it.

Okay, thank you.

ALEX: While you're doing that, I'm going to make a cocktail.

Here at the Urban Farming Institute, they're growing chamomile, as well.

Mm-hmm.

ALEX: And they were selling dried chamomile at the farm stand.

So I made a chamomile and honey simple syrup.

It is one cup of water, one cup of honey, and then I just infused it with some chamomile leaves.

We'll do about an ounce of lemon juice, one-and-a-half to two ounces of gin.

We'll add a little bit of ice.

I'm just going to top it with a touch of seltzer water.

So just garnish with a little bit of lemon.

And you've got a lemon chamomile gin spritz.

Cheers to new friendship.

Exactly.

ALEX: I'm going to finish up plating this salad and I'll see you at the feast.

All right.

My inspiration for this table today was the garden-- a cabbage leaf and some flowers and peonies.

And I'm truly excited to try the food tonight.

ALEX: Hello, everybody!

Hi!

ALEX: Hi, welcome, welcome to our Boston feast.

(guests exclaiming) Oh!

ALEX: I want to thank everybody for joining us tonight at our Boston-inspired feast.

I've had the pleasure of working with Chef Yahya and Chef Valentine.

Chef Valentine and I started our morning at Foley Fish with Anna and Keith, getting, no joke, some of the best scallops I've ever had in my entire life.

(chuckling) Yes.

Wow.

ALEX: And then Chef Yahya and I spent the afternoon here at the Urban Farming Institute with Pat, and Linda, and our new friend Glorya... (laughing) ALEX: ...who's helped me with our salad for this evening.

Chef Valentine, will you start us off and tell everybody what you made this evening?

Beautiful seared scallops with a vegetable orzo, herb emulsion, and red pepper skordalia.

ALEX (in accent): Skordalia.

(in accent): Skordalia.

ALEX: Chef Yahya.

So what we have for you guys here is a traditional Somali stew.

We have a biryani rice that will go with it, hummus, a chapati, also known as roti, also known as...

I don't know what other languages, I forgot.

ALEX: Delicious bread.

And then a home-brewed chai tea.

ALEX: And for the salad this evening, Glorya and I used the snap peas to make a shaved snap pea salad with a pistachio vinaigrette, some burrata, and fresh herbs grown right here at the Urban Farming Institute.

And how could I forget?

Pepi over at Dirty Water Distillery.

I actually used the gin in tonight's cocktail.

So thank you, Pepi.

It has been an absolute pleasure to be cooking with these two chefs today and getting a taste of Boston.

So please dig in and enjoy.

Cheers!

ALEX: Yeah, cheers!

Here we go.

Come on!

Let's go.

Cheers!

(guests talking in background) Thank you.

(guests talking in background) There are more scallops.

Ah, are you guys going to eat all of this?

Yes.

All right, first person that does gets a free T-shirt.

(laughing) Thank you, thank you.

(laughing) Thank you.

I love this.

ALEX: Good.

Yum-yum.

So good.

I just think it's a great mix.

You, like, basically have all different kinds of foods from our dad's restaurant and Chef Valentine's restaurant.

The scallops, I think, were a really big hit.

Yeah.

I know, the scallops just were so good.

I had two flowers on mine that I accidentally swallowed, but... I know.

(guests talking in background) ALEX: We have had quite the day here in Boston, hanging out and cooking with Chef Valentine and Chef Yahya.

I want to thank Glorya, Anna at Foley Fish, Roxana for this gorgeous tablescape.

Linda and Pat, thank you for the beautiful produce, all of the work that you're doing here in the community, and for hosting our feast this evening.

And Linda, I hear you're a fan of Moveable Feast.

Absolutely, for years, and I feel so honored to be at this table with all of you.

ALEX: I want to thank Pepi at Dirty Water Distillery and to Jack's Abby for the beer.

If you'd like any of these recipes from today's episode, make sure to go to moveablefeast.com.

And who knows?

Maybe next episode we'll be feasting in your urban farm.

Cheers, everybody.

Cheers!

ALEX: For more information about this episode, recipes, and behind-the-scenes fun, make sure you go to moveablefeast.com, follow us on Instagram, and don't forget to like us on Facebook.

We'll see you next time on a Moveable Feast.

Major funding provided by: My bucket's leaking.

Hmm?

Look.

Oh, my God, Milo caught a fish!

A fish?

A what?

Back to the lake.

Fast.

(phone camera clicking) Stop taking pictures.

Mom!

("Woo Hoo" by the 5.6.7.8's playing) Mom, what do I do?

Nothing, baby-- all good.

We're a fish ambulance.

We are?

Totally.

Hang in there, kids!

Almost there.

("Woo Hoo" continues) Okay, guys, let's go.

Come on.

Bye, fishy.

Aww.

Bye-bye.

(glasses clink) (singer vocalizing) Kick it, kick it like this I like it when you kick it like, kick it like that (waves crashing)