The season debut of One on One has been fun – getting to know three homegrown guys from the Padres farm system. For Will Venable, as you know from the previous Blog entry, we went to the bay area. Here’s a little background on how we profiled Nick Hundley and Josh Geer.
Nick was between Dallas, where his parents were living, Orange County and San Diego. With the holidays busy for everyone, we coordinated shooting Nick here in San Diego at his fiancée Amy’s apartment in Mission Bay. It was a beautiful mid-week morning. The sun was shining. The sky was blue, and by the time we found the apartment, we also realized we had the lovely sounds of the city public works crew working on the sewage line outside Amy’s apartment. Banging and pounding do not make for good sounds when you’re doing a heart to heart interview. I asked the crew – very nicely and with a bit of desperation in my voice, I’m sure -- if it would be possible to work on something “less noisy” for awhile. Thankfully, they were almost done with one part of the project, and it was lunch time, so we only had to stop taping a few times when the construction was too loud. And in the end, turns out everything I used in Nick’s interview, didn’t have any pounding in it. We got lucky.
The other part of the day was cooking! Nick said he was learning to cook and would be happy to demonstrate. I got in the kitchen with him. He had the ingredients and the prep already done. We chopped veggies and squished salmon to make his brother’s Wasabi Salmon Cakes. The recipe is below.* Turns out his brother Jake tells me he got the recipe from a healthy eating website somewhere, so he can’t take credit for it. But, it sure is good!
His family was wonderful, too. His dad was coaching at SMU so the school production department helped me out by interviewing his parents using my questions. Turns out his dad landed a new job back at UCLA, so now they’re all back in So-Cal again. At spring training, Nick was so accommodating to play a little guitar for us. He’s still working on it, so we just popped a little in to give fans a taste of his many interests.
Josh Geer is near…
Josh was spending the winter near Dallas. I hired someone in Dallas to zip over to their home and do the interview with his parents and shoot Josh and his dad working out at the high school. They usually throw outside, but it was in the 40s that day, so they went inside. I supplied the questions and saw his parents on tape before I had even met Josh!
At spring training, I finally met Josh after talking with him and emailing him. What a great kid! Dan Roper and I went to his apartment one night while we were there at camp. You can just see how enthusiastic and appreciative he is. Super easy-going and confident with a cute sense of humor. Just listen to him talk about his major league debut, and you can’t help but love this guy.
He didn’t make the team out of camp, but he should eventually. He’s a little bummed, but he’ll bounce back. The Padres are confident. He is confident and after you hear about how he was a “troublemaker” as a kid… you’ll see why you want to see this guy pitch in the big leagues, too.
*Wasabi Salmon Cakes
2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 ½ teaspoons wasabi powder
½ teaspoon honey
1 pound salmon fillet, skinned
2 scallions, finely chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
Whisk soy sauce, wasabi powder and honey in a small bowl until smooth. Set aside.
With a large chef's knife, chop salmon using quick, even, straight-up-and-down motions (do not rock the knife through the fish or it will turn mushy). Continue chopping, rotating the knife, until you have a mass of roughly 1/4-inch pieces.
Transfer to a large bowl. Add scallions, egg, ginger and oil; stir to combine. Form the mixture into 4 patties. The mixture will be moist and loose, but holds together nicely once the first side is cooked.
Coat a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium heat for 1 minute. Add the patties and cook for 4 minutes. Turn and continue to cook until firm and fragrant, about 3 minutes. Spoon the reserved wasabi glaze evenly over the burgers and cook for 15 seconds more. Serve immediately.
(Be sure to invite Jane and the crew over to taste!)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment