Sara's Weeknight Meals

The clean eating of the Middle East is on display when Sara visits Israeli-American chef Einat Admony to make her signature casserole, sinaya. Sara also contributes her own baked chicken thighs with artichokes and lemon pickles.

There are cooking clubs and there are book clubs, and this one is both. Every month this Napa, California club picks a cookbook from which to sample recipes at a potluck dinner at a member's house. Sara joins to make two versions - chicken and prunes and shrimp tikka with mango chutney. She also visits a unique men-only cooking club - the Barbecue Pit Boys.

California is farming country, and on this episode Sara visits a young farmer who documents his farming life on the vlog, ricefarmingtv.com. Sara then meets a local sushi chef and learns how to make a California roll, and inside out cucumber rolls, and a totally unique sushi burger. In San Francisco, Sara cooks peppery vegetarian rice with wok specialist Grace Young.

Asian immigrants of all kinds have come to America and adapted their cuisine to ours in fascinating ways. Vietnamese immigrant and Top Chef Winner Hung Huynh is an expert in cooking seafood, and he shows Sara how easy it is to prepare whole branzino. Sara also visits another group of Vietnamese immigrants in Houston, who adapted Cajun foods to their Vietnamese cuisine with fiery results. Back in the kitchen, Sara adapts traditional Korean bimbimbap recipe to create her own Asian grain bowl, using ancient grains instead of rice.

Vegetables and herbs, whether they are harvested or found, are part of a heritage of flavors some feel have been lost in modern farming. Sara visits a professional forager whose unlikely career led her to supply the great restaurants of New York with "found food". After a foraging field trip, she joins Sara to make mugwort soup and asparagus with wildflowers. Sara also meets a college professor from Georgia whose mission is to rescue heritage seeds he claims have a richer flavor than those used in industrial farming.