The Splendid Table: Conversations & Recipes For Curious Cooks & Eaters · American Public Media

736: Summer Cooking with Carla Lalli Music

·50 min·4 clips

Carla's foolproof method for grilling a whole side of salmon so it never sticks to the grill.

Francis Lam opens by revisiting an older episode with Karla Lally Music and Kush Bouchard. He frames the conversation around a food fixation he has been carrying while working on Karla's next cookbook. The heart of the chat is kohlrabi. The guests work to make the vegetable feel less strange and more usable. They describe it as cabbage-like, but without the leaves getting in the way of the main body. They also note that the leafy branches matter too, especially if you find it at a farmers' market. The vegetable sits in the brassica family, which gives the discussion a clear cooking logic. Raw kohlrabi comes across as crisp and a little sharp. Cooked kohlrabi shifts into a sweeter, softer register. The conversation spends real time on texture. It reaches for comparisons like cauliflower stem, daikon, and turnip so the listener can picture the bite. Butter comes in as another major idea. A butter-braised or clarified-butter-poached preparation is discussed as an indulgent path. But the talk does not stop at richness. Acid, herbs, and spice are introduced as the needed counterweight. A salsa verde with the oil held back is one of the practical suggestions. The guests keep returning to balance rather than excess. Near the end, the mood turns playful, with the kind of line that makes the whole thing feel like summer cooking at its loosest and happiest. The episode wraps with Francis thanking Kush Bouchard, pointing listeners to a royal polluta recipe at splendidtable.org, and signing off with the usual warm APM close.

As heard by us

A kohlrabi and butter conversation that ends on a bright, useful note.

Francis Lam returns to a kohlrabi-centered conversation with Karla Lally Music and Kush Bouchard, and its appeal is in the care taken with the vegetable's texture, brassica family ties, and the way cooking softens its raw, peppery edge into something sweeter and more tender.

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Why you'd press play

When your farmers' market haul needs a bright, butter-friendly plan.

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