December Culinary Corner: Christopher Kimball, Milk Street

Posted by Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism

By: Phyllis M. Cahaly, CMD, Director of Partnership Marketing, Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism

Header Photo Credit: Christopher Kimball, Milk Street, Photo by Channing Johnson

Jump to the recipe for Butter-Roasted Carrots with Za’atar And Pomegranate Molasses

Jump to this Month’s Culinary Events

“Who owns Hummus?” asks Christopher Kimball, American editor, publisher, radio, TV and podcast personality. He’s the creator of Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street, Boston, 177 Milk Street, Boston, and the founder of America’s Test Kitchen Cook’s Country and Cook’s Illustrated. This profound question is one of the many thought-provoking insights into Kimball’s global world of culinary delights.

Christopher Kimball, a New York native who summered in Vermont and a long-time Cambridge resident, is devoted to Milk Street, a food media company dedicated to traveling the world to meet home cooks who teach us bolder, easier ways to cook at home. Milk Street produces the bimonthly Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Magazine, as well as Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Radio, a weekly public radio show and podcast heard on over 230 stations nationwide.

Milk Street offers multiple levels of cookery sources, yet without hesitation, Kimball cites that his podcast, Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Radio, is his favorite aspect of his job. Through the podcast universe, he’s able to travel the world and have diverse, interesting, in-depth conversations that are well beyond the kitchen and speak with people about every aspect and level of food, he feels that is truly Milk Street at its best.

Kimball is also host of public television’s Emmy award-winning Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Television and offers both online and in-person culinary education, including nonprofit work with Big Brothers Big Sisters and Boys & Girls Clubs.

Milk Street Cooking School, Photo by Connie Miller

Milk Street Cooking School, Photo by Connie Miller

Milk Street is particularly proud of their cookbook offerings so if you are looking to add to your cookbook collection or find a unique holiday gift, then you are in luck! You’ll find an outstanding selection of Milk Street Cookbooks like Simple, The World in a Skillet, Milk Street: Tuesday Nights, a James Beard award winner for Best General Cookbook, and their latest publication, Noodles, which reveals secrets to the world’s best noodles, from Fettuccine Alfredo to Pad Thai to Miso Ramen. Kimball is also the author of Fannie’s Last Supper, The Yellow Farmhouse Cookbook, The Cook’s Bible, The Dessert Bible, The Kitchen Detective and Dear Charlie.

Milk Street Simple Cookbook

“Milk Street wasn’t invented to teach you how to cook, it was started and continues with the goal in mind to help you change the way you cook, to help you learn about how to use ingredients,” says Kimball. “If you go to Thailand, Bangkok or Chang Mai, what are you going to learn about changing the way you cook? Are there other ingredients that we might want to use here? Are there flavor combinations that make sense? Are there different styles of cooking you can adapt? It’s about improving your cooking by seeing how other people cook.”

Christopher Kimball travels the world, experiences global cuisines, and learns about regional cooking traditions, and then brings these unique recipes and traditions back to his dedicated followers. His mission? To help you change the way you cook. Milk Street’s offers an online specialty store stocked with sources spices and ingredients from around the world as well as kitchen tools and cookware. These accoutrements will really help you change the way you cook!

Milk Street Online Shopping, Photo by Joe Murphy

“There is no ethnic cooking, it’s a myth,” says Kimball, “it’s just dinner or lunch served somewhere else in the world. The experiences are culinary and not cultural.” Kimball is dedicated to the practice that all cultures share ingredients and history, that there’s a mash-up of ideas that flow from one thing to another.

“At Milk Street, we help you become a better cook, we make the mistakes, so you don’t have to and figure out what works and what doesn’t work. There’s no best way, but there are lots of wrong ways,” says Kimball. It’s not the time, temperature and technique that Kimball trusts, it’s more about putting together different kinds of flavors in different kinds of ways. It’s the spices, the fermented sauces, the chilis and mixed flavor profiles that excites Kimball and propels him to keep discovering new taste sensations.

That’s not to say that when the holidays roll around, family tradition is primary with Kimball. “I’m not here to reinvent my Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner,” says Kimball. “While I might cook the turkey a bit differently, we will still have the mashed potatoes, three pies and Brussel sprouts, everyone has their own family traditions and wants to eat their own food.”

Speaking of traditions, Kimball’s signature bow tie is ever present. In fact, even Milk Street’s logo is a rendering of a pasta bow tie! Kimball has well over 100 bow ties in his collection, which spans the world. He started wearing them around 1982, following his father’s tradition, citing that wearing a knotted, traditional tie in the kitchen is never a good idea!

Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street logo

Some things, like his bow tie, never change and Kimball loves how some things in cooking have stayed the same. He also loves how social media has changed the food industry by opening the world of cooking to people at home. A self-proclaimed hippie of the 60s, Kimball still believes that food is for everybody and brings people together.

Kimball, who loves to hunt and fish in Vermont, also enjoys the wilderness of Western Massachusetts and the serenity and scenery of Great Barrington. On the flip side, Kimball adores family-friendly Boston, its many neighborhoods and architecture. He has lived in the area for more than 30 years, for many years in the South End in an 1859 Victorian home. He loves the vibrancy and activity of Harvard Square and is happy to wait in line at the Harvard Book Store. “When you go to a city or town and the bookstore is crowded, you know you’re in the right place,” cites Kimball.

As such, Kimball has been around the Boston food scene for decades and has watched the culinary landscape explode from coffee shops to white tablecloth restaurants and everything in between. While he admits that he enjoys an Old Fashioned at the Bar at Raffles every now and then, these days Kimball says he really prefers to stay home and cook for his family. When he does venture out for a meal, he is looking for that authentic, really great neighborhood place that’s local and different. He’s looking for an honest and well-prepared meal created by a cook who has a distinct point of view.

“I don’t need the big experience,” says Kimball, “I’m happy to find a little place where the food is well-prepared and thoughtful; where the fare is reflective of the quality of the people who care about the food and experience. You can tell within three seconds of when you walk into a restaurant if they care about the food they are serving and if it will be amazing. I just want to visit a place where the people care.”

Butter-Roasted Carrots with Za’atar And Pomegranate Molasses

Recipe Courtesy of Milk Street Simple by Christopher Kimball

Culinary Corner December Recipe Courtesy of Milk Street Simple by Christopher Kimball Butter-Roasted Carrots with Za’atar And Pomegranate Molasses

Download this recipe

Start to finish: 40 minutes (20 minutes active)
Servings: 6

Carrots roasted in a moderately hot oven for almost an hour become super-sweet and almost meltingly tender. We start them coated with olive oil but drizzle them with melted butter partway through roasting. The milk solids in the butter caramelize in the oven, adding a rich, nutty fragrance and flavor. Za’atar, a Middle Eastern seed and spice blend, and orange zest and juice bring complexity to the dish. Pistachios and sweet-tart pomegranate molasses are ­finishing touches that make this dish special. Bunch carrots—the type sold with their greens attached—are especially good here because they’re slender and fresh. After halving them, if any of the upper portions are especially thick, cut them in half lengthwise.

INGREDIENTS:

2½ pounds long, slender carrots (see headnote), peeled and halved crosswise on a sharp diagonal

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

Kosher salt and ground black pepper

1 orange

4 tablespoons salted butter, melted

2 teaspoons za’atar OR ground coriander OR Aleppo pepper, divided

2 tablespoons raw OR roasted pistachios, finely chopped

2 teaspoons pomegranate molasses

DIRECTIONS:

Heat the oven to 350°F with a rack in the middle position. On a rimmed baking sheet, toss the carrots with the oil, ¾ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper, then distribute evenly. Roast for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, grate 1 teaspoon zest from the orange, then cut the orange into quarters.

Drizzle the carrots with the butter and sprinkle with the za’atar and zest. Toss, then redistribute evenly. Place the orange quarters cut sides up on the baking sheet. Roast until a skewer inserted into the largest carrot meets no resistance, another 15 to 20 minutes, stirring once about halfway through.

Squeeze the juice from 1 orange quarter over the carrots. Using a wide metal spatula, transfer to a platter, scraping up any browned bits. Taste the carrots and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with the pistachios and drizzle with the pomegranate molasses. Serve the remaining orange quarters on the side.

Excerpted from Milk Street Simple by Christopher Kimball. Copyright © 2023 by CPK Media, LLC. Photographs by Erik Bernstein. Used with permission of Voracious, an imprint of Little, Brown and Company. New York, NY. All rights reserved.

December Recipe Sweepstakes Prize Information

Prepare Milk Street’s Butter Roasted Carrots with Za’atar and Pomegranate Molasses recipe, post a photo of your finished dish to social media including the hashtag #MACulinaryCorner by December 18, 2023 and you will be included in the sweepstakes to win this exciting prize below! Winner will be randomly selected and notified via email.

Milk Street Prize Package:

Two engaging cookbooks from Christopher Kimball, founder of Milk Street:

• The Milk Street Simple Cookbook, by Christopher Kimball, offers 200 simple, clever recipes. The world’s greatest culinary ideas, distilled to their essence and simplified for weeknight meals by the James Beard Award-winning team at Milk Street. Retail value: $35
• Milk Street Noodles Cookbook, by Christopher Kimball, features noodles from around the world. Nearly every culture serves some sort of noodle, from fettuccine, ramen and spaetzle to lo mein, gnocchi and udon. Unlock the secrets to preparing the best international noodle dishes. Retail value: $35

Prize package courtesy of Milk Street. Winner of the recipe photo submission of the finished prepared dish of Butter Roasted Carrots with Za’atar and Pomegranate Molasses will be randomly selected; prize package will be sent directly from Milk Street to the winner. Employees of the Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism and Milk Street, and their immediate families, are not eligible to participate.

December Culinary Events

TOPICS: Boston, Culinary Corner, Greater Boston