The Key Ingredient

Food Series / 3 Seasons

Renowned food writer and cooking teacher Sheri Castle celebrates local ingredients, tracing their journeys from source to kitchen. Sheri introduces us to local farmers, growers, fishermen and chefs and shares approachable home cooking recipes and tips.

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Sheri’s Home Recipes for the Holidays

S3 E309 / 26m 46s / TV-G

Sheri shares easy and delicious holiday recipes that are sure to be a hit at your next seasonal gathering. She whips up her mouthwatering roasted red pepper dip with pomegranate molasses and shares a brunch showstopper: savory bread pudding with ham, cheese and spinach. Sheri also shares her favorite recipe for a fluffy coconut cake and incredible tasty crab cake bites.

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Watermelon Vibes

S3 E308 / 26m 46s / TV-G

Sheri visits an heirloom watermelon patch in Virginia with food historian Debra Freeman and journalist Joshua Fitzwater. She shares her recipe for a watermelon salad and a fascinating way to make watermelon rind pickles and slaw. Rock star chef Cheetie Kumar mixes up a refreshing watermelon and cucumber cooler cocktail, and Sheri demonstrates the most approachable way to cut up a watermelon.

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Warming Up to Hot Peppers

S3 E307 / 26m 46s / TV-G

Sheri Castle spices up your next potluck with recipes for a candied jalapeño cheese ball and a warm stew of roasted green chile, chicken and white beans. She also shares a tip for roasting peppers right in your kitchen. Sheri visits Moore’s Produce in rural NC to see what it takes to grow hot peppers in the South, then cooks along with Emmy Award-winning documentarian and author Von Diaz.

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Mushrooms Are Having a Moment

S3 E303 / 26m 46s / TV-G

Sheri hunts for morels deep in the forests of the Blue Ridge Mountains with foraging experts Natalie Dechiara and Luke Gilbert. She then visits the home of farm-to-table pioneer John Fleer to use the morels (aka merkels) in a savory pie. In the kitchen, Sheri shares recipes for double mushroom soup and buttery sauteed mushrooms on toast, plus a tip for cleaning and keeping store-bought mushrooms.

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Turning Over a New Collard Leaf

S3 E302 / 26m 46s / TV-G

Sheri offers a new take on collards with recipes for green curry and coconut creamed collards as well as collard salad with bacon dressing. She shares how to use every part of the leaf and explores an amazing range of collard varieties with Utopian Seed Project’s Chris Smith. Sheri then meets Glenn and Dorsey Hunt of the Lumbee Tribe at a street festival and makes their famous collard sandwiches.

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We’re Sweet on Sweet Potatoes

S3 E301 / 26m 46s / TV-G

Sheri Castle visits a farmers market to explore sweet potatoes of all shapes, colors and sizes. She then heads to the kitchen to share her favorite recipes for sweet potato casserole and twice-baked sweet potatoes. Asheville-based chef J Chong demonstrates a twist on Cantonese cuisine with her sweet potato and pork dumplings, and Sheri shares how to create the perfect sweet potato puree.

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Everything’s Just Peachy

S3 E206 / 26m 46s / TV-G

Sheri shares peach recipes, including peach sorbet and fresh peach and summer vegetable salad with basil-lemonade dressing. She stops at peach stands on her way to the coast and reunites with Cheryl Day, cookbook author and founder of Southern Restaurants for Racial Justice, who shows how she bakes her prized peach hand pies. Sheri also shares a tip to prevent peeled peaches from turning brown.

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Crabs Galore

S3 E205 / 26m 46s / TV-G

Sheri explores delicious ways to enjoy crab, including deviled crab and warm crab dip with crostini. She then catches crabs off a Charleston river dock with Tia Clark of Casual Crabbing, and Charlotte chefs Oscar Johnson and Daryl Cooper cook one of their favorite crab recipes with her. Sheri also explains the differences between various types of crab meat and their best culinary uses.

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Hey, Honey

S3 E204 / 26m 46s / TV-G

Host Sheri Castle is busy as a bee as she prepares honey-roasted peanut crispy rice treats and honey-glazed chicken thighs, plus offers a tip on reviving the crystallized honey in your pantry. She dons a bee suit with beekeeper Mary Garrison to learn why pollinators are so vital, and then makes a spiced honey cake pie with award-winning baker Camille Cogswell.

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