04-14-2022 Howard Magazine - Flipbook - Page 40
“I just think it’s such
a carrier of culture and
family and tradition.
Basically, any story
a human has to tell
can be told through
their food.”
— Becky Hadeed, Storied Recipe podcast
with photos on her blog. The self-taught
photographer and former math teacher,
describes her approach this way: “It’s really
a matter of looking at photographs that are
better than mine and asking myself: Why are
they better? And on the next shoot trying to
practice that skill.”
In addition to her usual posts, Hadeed
has written about her own strategies for
success, including one she calls “One Big
Uncomfortable Ask A Day,” a habit of pitching
her website to media outlets, educators,
potential sponsors and potential guests that
she began at the start of the pandemic.
Her own efforts to replicate each dish
have changed Hadeed’s approach to food,
particularly when it comes to seasoning.
Cooks from the historic Silk Road, she says,
Northern Africa, the Middle East and India,
“have all taught me to embrace whole spices,
rather than depending solely on powdered
spices, in my cooking,” she wrote in an email.
That’s evident in a recipe for Pakistani
chicken korma, which calls for infusing
cooking oil with whole cardamom pods,
cloves, black peppers and cinnamon sticks.
“When you cook your vegetables and protein
in an oil infused with these flavors, rather
than just adding powders to the sauce at the
end, you end up with a deeper, richer, and
layered flavor,” she said.
Another change in her cooking: “I always
keep ghee in my refrigerator now.” The
clarified butter is more stable than the stick
version found in many American kitchens
and thus used in many warmer climates. It
also doesn’t burn as quickly as butter. Plus:
“It’s just crazy flavorful.”
Every recipe she makes gets eaten by her
husband and their four children, who range in
age from 8 to 17. “They eat it all,” she said. “If
they don’t love it, we don’t make it again.”
Hadeed releases new episodes of The
Storied Recipe Podcast most weeks; look for
them on Apple Podcasts.
40 | SPRING 2022 | howardmagazine.com
Cloves, green cardamom
pods, black pepper and
cinnamon provide the
seasoning for this Pakistani
chicken korma. Hadeed
says that interviewing
cooks from the former Silk
Road and other global
locales has instilled in her
the value of using whole
spices instead of relying on
powders.
BECKY HADEED/THE STORIED RECIPE
PODCAST