Girl Meets Farm (2018–…): Season 1, Episode 1 - Girl Meets Farm - full transcript

On a farm,
every day is an early day.

Today, I'm starting off
with a favorite, speedy,

grilled-cheese sandwich
with a bagel twist.

Then, I'm getting ahead
by prepping

our anniversary celebration
feast tomorrow

with crispy, roasted potatoes
with paprika mayo,

a Brussels-sprout
and bacon hash,

and my spice-tomatoey egg dish:
Shakshuka with feta.

And, for a finishing treat,
some cute pocket pastries

with my white-chocolate
and pistachio butter.

♪♪



Oh, yah. Mmm!

Hey!
This is me, Molly Yeh.

I'm a cookbook author
and food blogger.

♪♪

This is my husband, Nick.

And this is our home, our farm,

on the North Dakota/
Minnesota border,

the place where I eat, sleep,

and breathe food.
[ Shutter clicks ]

♪♪

These look like a party.

My food is a delicious mix of my
Chinese and Jewish heritage

and the taste of the Midwest.

♪♪



[ Guitar strums upbeat
country tune ]

Since my husband, Nick, and I

are celebrating
our anniversary this week,

I thought it'd be fun
to make a breakfast version

of one of his favorite foods:

the grilled cheese.

It's a twist
on a favorite treat

from my days in New York City:

the everything bagel.

To start off, I'll add
a nice pat of butter to my pan.

I'll swirl it around.

And then I'm gonna toast
my bread in this.

I have some thick-cut,
seedy bread

and you can use day-old
bread in this

because when you toast
the bread in your skillet,

it's just gonna wake it back up
and infuse more life into it.

Now, as my bread toasts,
let's cut some mozzarella.

Nick grew up with the classic
American grilled cheese,

so I like to think that,
these days,

his life as a grilled-cheese
lover has improved.

My bread is looking
beautifully browned and toasted

and, now, this toasted side
is actually gonna become

the inside
of the grilled cheese.

And the reason that I do that is

because it adds
more crunch to the middle;

it helps the cheese melt faster,
since it's already hot here;

and it also adds
more buttery flavor.

I'll grab my scallion
cream cheese.

This is literally just
some regular cream cheese

that I've mixed with a couple
of finely chopped scallions.

Now, I'm gonna sprinkle on
my everything-bagel topping,

with some poppy seeds;
dried, minced garlic;

sesame seeds;
and some dried, minced onion.

This is a great topping
to have on hand

that you can sprinkle
on scrambled eggs, toast,

any time you want
that bagel flavor,

but don't feel like
flying to New York.

We'll add some mozzarella
so that, when it melts,

you're gonna get those nice,
beautiful cheese pulls.

And, now, some tomatoes

and some beautiful
purple onions,

for some nice color and crunch.

Lastly, we're gonna
add some capers,

which are gonna add
a salty snap.

And I'm gonna place them
on top of the cream cheese,

so that they don't go
flying everywhere.

I love these little guys.

Look at this. Hold on.

[ Tranquil tune plays ]

Let's give it a little smash

and I'm just gonna
place it back.

[ Sizzling ]
If your pan is looking dry,

just add a little bit
more butter.

And you'll know it's done
when the bottom is toasty

and the mozzarella is melted.

I can't believe that our third

wedding anniversary
is coming up.

I remember our wedding
like it was yesterday.

It was beautiful and wintery

and we got married on the farm
and then, late at night --

[gasp]
I just remembered this!

Late at night, we had grilled
cheeses at our wedding.

That's gotta be a sign, right?

So what could be more perfect
than by celebrating

our anniversary
with a grilled cheese?

Oh, that's gorgeous.

Oh, yah!
[laughing]

We'll cut it in half.

Look at that!

That is what I like to see.

We have the cream cheese,
the melted mozzarella,

the bright purple onions,
tomatoes,

and you can even see
a little caper poking out.

Beautiful.
While this is still hot,

I'm gonna wrap it up
and bring it out to Nick.

♪♪

Hi!
-Hey. How's it goin'?

I brought you
a grilled cheese.

-Oh, my gosh.
-I brought one for me, too.

I thought we could eat together.

[ Outro plays ]

Every time you make
a sandwich, I'm thinking,

"This is the best
sandwich you've ever made

and it cannot be topped,"
and then, you show up

-[Laughing]
-mid-morning with another one.

It's our anniversary
tomorrow.

[laughing] Oh, my gosh.
Don't tell my wife.

I almost forgot.
-[Laughs]

♪♪

Nick and I have some family
coming over tomorrow for brunch

to help us celebrate
our anniversary.

So, right now,
I'm just getting ahead

by making my dessert,
which is going to be

a pistachio pocket pastry.

The filling is going to be
a white-chocolate

pistachio butter and,
to make it,

I'm just gonna put some
roasted pistachios.

[ Rattling ]

And use unsalted,
if you can find them,

so that you can
control the salt,

but if you can only find
salted, that's fine,

just add a little bit less salt.

I'll add some
white-chocolate chips here

and I love this recipe
because you don't even

have to melt
the chocolate chips.

As you blend them
in the food processor,

they're gonna melt right down
and get really creamy and nice.

Now, we'll add
a little bit of sugar

and some salt, which is
gonna amp up that sweetness,

Some almond extract,
and some vanilla extract.

Now here's a secret:

If you blend any nut
for long enough,

its oils are gonna come out
and it's gonna make

a beautiful butter, no matter
what kind of nut you're using.

[ Rattling ]

It always becomes kind of
crumbly and chunky, at first,

and that's what you use, if
you're making like a pie crust.

And then, what happens is
the oils in the pistachios

start to kind of
come out a little bit

and it gets more
liquidy and spreadable.

Let's just check on it.

You wanna make sure that
it gets evenly blended.

So if any little bits are stuck
to the sides or the bottom,

just make sure that you go at
it with your rubber spatula

to loosen it back up.

Just a few more minutes.

♪♪

I could stand here
with my nose all day.

Okay, this looks great.

I'm just gonna
transfer this to my jar

and I'm gonna use some of it
to fill my pastry pockets;

and the rest of it,
I just can keep on hand

to spread on toast
or to put on ice cream

or just to eat with a spoon.

♪♪

Mmm, yum.

Coming up...
I go on a journey

to finish off my pastries

with a little help
from Nick's mom.

Then, it's on to the main
courses for brunch:

roasted potatoes
with paprika mayo,

Brussels-sprout and bacon hash,

and my favorite
tomatoey egg dish:

Shakshuka with feta.

♪♪

I'm heading
to my Aunt Elaine's house now

to pick up some of her amazing
homemade jam for my pastries.

I grew up in a city,

but I love living
in the middle of nowhere.

Life is simple here.

It's cozy,
especially in the winter,

and everybody here is just
so sweet and welcoming.

When I first moved to town,
Aunt Elaine was always

teaching me about
recipes of the region

and different berries that
she has growing in her garden,

some of which I had
never even heard of.

So, I figure,
if I'm gonna be using jam,

I might as well be using hers.

♪♪

Hi. How are you?
-Hey! Let me give ya a hug.

And here's the jam.

These look amazing.
Thank you so much.

-Bye-bye.
-Bye.

♪♪

I've got my raspberry jam;

I've got my pistachio butter,
and I've got my baking buddy:

Roxanne, my mother-in-law,
who has made the long trek

across the street to help me
with my pastry pockets.

Can I put you to work?
-Yes, by all means.

Okay, we've got
some pie dough here.

I'm using store-bought,

but, if you wanna use homemade,
go right ahead.

And we're just gonna
cut out little squares.

We're using a cookie cutter,
but you could use a knife

or a pizza cutter.
And we have

some pistachio butter
with white chocolate in it,

and we'll just take two spoons

to get a nice little plop
onto the center of my squares.

Then, just smash it down.
-Okay.

-And I like creating
a little divot

because that'll hold the jam.

So this is kind of like a PB&J,

-Yes!
-like a fancy PB and J, right?

Well, you know,
a little story about Nick.

I shouldn't reveal
this, but,

he was a picky eater,
growing up,

and I wanted him to try
different foods.

Just growing up?

-Oh, he still is?
-[Laughing]

I would make him a peanut-
butter and jelly sandwich

every day, and I
never changed that.

I was hoping that he would
wanna try other things.

Hoping that he would
get sick of it?

He was great with
peanut butter and jelly.

-Okay. Beautiful plops, Roxanne.
-Thank you.

Now that we have all
of our pistachio butter

on our pie-crust squares,
let's just add

a little bit of jam.
-Okay.

♪♪

Now, we're just gonna
give our pastries a nice,

light brush of egg wash
around the edge.

That's gonna stick the two
pieces of pastry together.

We don't wanna add too much;
otherwise, it's not gonna stick.

So just a light brush will do.

I'll try to do my best.

And now I'm gonna come
around and top them

with another square of pastry
that's the same size.

If you're doing this
by yourself, it's important

to just do a few squares
with egg wash, first,

before you top them; otherwise,
your egg wash might dry.

Now, if you're done with that,
do you wanna start

grabbing a fork
and crimping the edges?

This is just gonna help those
pastry pieces stick together

and will lock
that filling in there.

♪♪

These are looking great.

Now, the last step before
we stick them in the oven

is we're just gonna
poke them with our fork

to get a few holes that will
release the steam in the oven.

All right, these are gonna
bake in a 400-degree oven,

for about 20 minutes,

until they're nice
and evenly browned on top,

and then we'll be ready
to glaze.

While the pastries are baking,
we are going to make

a fun, pink glaze
using Elaine's jam.

All I'm gonna do is
take some of her jam

and we're gonna press it
through a fine-mesh sieve,

just to get the seeds out.

And I'm using jam here,
just to add more

of that raspberry flavor.

It also is gonna make it
a beautiful pink.

But if you'd like,
you can just go

with a simple,
powdered-sugar and milk glaze

and add a little food coloring.

And I'm just using
a rubber spatula

to press the jam
through the sieve.

Add a little bit
of powdered sugar.

Okay.

What we're going for
is an opaque glaze

that's kind of like the
consistency of a thicker glue.

We want it to hold its shape
when it goes onto our pockets.

It'll just look cuter that way.

Isn't that a fun pink color?

That is beautiful!

Nature's food coloring
right here.

-Yeah.
-Should we check
on the pastries,

to see if they're ready?
-Sure.

Ohh, they look nice.

Great.

Ugh!
They smell good, too.

Perfect.

They're evenly browned
around the edges.

Let's get glazing.
-Okay.

We'll just spread this
over the top of our pastries

and, before this glaze dries,

why don't you just hit it
with some sprinkles.

-Okay.
-Perfect.

-Ohh.
-My gosh!

Well, they're looking great.

Should we taste one?
-Absolutely.

You almost hate to disrupt
their beautifulness.

Oh, that's what they're
made for. [gasp]

Oh, they're nice and flaky.
-Ohh! Nice!

Ooh, look! Okay, so we have
that beautiful...

-The different layers.
-Yeah, the pistachio layer;

the jam on top;

and of course,
our bright-pink glaze.

Cheers!
-Cheers, Molly! [chuckle]

♪♪

Mm-hmm.

-We did good.
-Mm-hmm.

We rocked it. These are
looking and tasting great.

And a cool thing
is that they'll last

for a couple of days
at room temperature.

So the brunch is tomorrow.

These are gonna be
perfect then.

Coming up...
it's on to tomorrow's

main courses for brunch:

crispy roasted potatoes
with paprika mayo,

a Brussels-sprout
and bacon hash,

and my favorite
tomatoey egg dish:

Shakshuka with feta.

♪♪

♪♪

I got ahead
with dessert yesterday

and I have some family members
coming over later for brunch,

so I'm gonna get started on one

of my favorite dishes
to feed a crowd:

roasted, crispy potatoes
with paprika mayo.

I just have some
potatoes boiling

in some really salty water.

This is gonna help
season the potatoes

and it's also gonna
draw the starch

to the surface of the potato,

which will make it
crispier in the oven.

And I'm using red potatoes,

which are a great
roasting potato.

They stay creamy on the inside
and crispy on the outside.

But you can certainly
use Yukon gold

or russet potatoes as well.

I'll just drain my potatoes
in a strainer

and as these drain, I'll just
get some butter melting.

I'll use about two tablespoons
of unsalted butter.

If you'd like to use olive oil
or another oil, that's fine.

I just love something
about butter in the morning.

Now, as that is melting, I'm
just gonna pat off my potatoes

to get any excess
moisture off of them.

This is also to help them
get crispy.

Anything in the name of helping
my potatoes to get crispy.

I'll just dump them
onto a sheet tray.

I'm gonna add a little bit more
salt and pepper

to the top of these.

Potatoes really like
a lot of salt.

So it's gonna seem like
it's a lot of salt, at first,

when you're boiling them
and seasoning them,

but, once you taste
the potatoes, you'll know.

[Mill squeaking]
It's a squeaky one.

I'll get my butter on here

and then we'll just
give it a little toss

to get these nice and coated

with the butter
and my seasonings.

This is kind of my version
of a potato salad

because I like them to be
really, really crispy;

really salty; and really mayoey.

It's a hot salad, I guess,
but, we tend to bend

the definition of salad
in the Midwest.

Now, I'm gonna pop 'em
in the oven at 450 degrees

for about 45 minutes and I'm
gonna toss them halfway through,

so that they get nice
and brown all over.

♪♪

While these are baking,
I'm gonna whip up my sauce.

I'll grab some mayo here, sugar.

And then I'm just gonna start
with about 1 cup of mayo.

I love mayo so much

and the Midwest is the perfect
place to love mayo.

I'll add some
basic white vinegar

and this will really balance
out the flavors here.

A little bit of heat from some
paprika that we're gonna add,

and then we're also
gonna add a little sugar.

And then I'm gonna chop up

a couple of shallots
to add to this.

This sauce is great
for sandwiches,

great for salad dressings,

so I'm actually making
a double batch of this,

just so that I can have some
extra on hand for later.

I'll just give it a little stir.

♪♪

Taste it.

Mmm, it's great.

While my potatoes are cooking,

I'm moving on to the
next dish for brunch.

♪♪

I'm starting on my
Brussels-sprout and bacon hash,

which is an awesome side dish

because it scales
super-supereasily

and it makes the house
smell like bacon.

So, to begin,
I'm just gonna shred up

my Brussels sprouts
really, really thinly.

I get so excited when I see them

on the stalk like this
at the store

because that means
that they're gonna

stay fresher longer,
they'll be sweeter that way,

and, even though
they look weird,

I promise they're just
the same Brussels sprout

that you would find
in any other form.

And so you just
pop them right off

and I'm gonna use
my sharp knife here

to cut them vertically

and then I'll lay them down

and cut them horizontally,
as thinly as I can.

And you can use
a food processor,

but I find it therapeutic
to do it by hand.

So, now, once I have
these shredded,

I'm gonna have my bacon
crisping up in my pan.

This is thick-cut bacon.

I always make extra
so that I can snack on it.

And I'm just gonna transfer it
to a plate with a paper towel.

Now, in my pan, I have
this bacon fat left over

and I'm actually gonna use that
to cook my Brussels sprouts.

Now I have an onion here and I'm
just gonna cut it in half.

If there's anything better than
the smell of bacon cooking,

it's the smell of an onion
cooking in bacon fat.

Now I'm gonna add
a pinch of salt to this.

Once my onion is starting
to look soft and translucent,

I will add my Brussels sprouts.

I was a Brussels-sprout hater
for a really long time,

but, once I started
having them with bacon,

all of that changed.

So my onions are nice and soft.

I'm gonna add in
my Brussels sprouts.

I'll stir them up to get them
coated evenly with bacon fat.

And what we're looking for,
with these Brussels sprouts,

is a bright, green color
and some brown bits all around.

That's how we'll know
that they're done.

So once my bacon is
cool enough to handle,

I will just give it
a rough chop,

just so that they're
bite-size pieces,

and then we'll add that in.
All right, I'm just gonna add

a little bit more
salt and pepper.

Don't go too crazy
with the salt,

because our bacon is gonna
be quite salty already,

but we will need some
salt to bring out

the flavors in the
Brussels sprouts.

Now, I'll add some
freshly cracked pepper.

[ Mill squeaking ]
Give it a little taste,

to make sure your seasoning
levels are correct.

Perfect.

I'm gonna add juice
of half a lemon.

And I like giving it a little
squeeze to release the juices.

Now, the lemon here is important

because it's just gonna add
the right amount of acidity

to really amp up
the flavor on this dish.

It's gonna bring new life to it;
it's gonna make it brighter.

[ Sizzling ]

[ Sizzling intensifies ]

Beautiful.

Even more sizzles.
I love it.

Now, for the last step,
I'm gonna add some hot sauce

and I'm gonna take it easy
on the hot sauce because,

as I've learned
in the upper Midwest,

not everybody likes things
to be very spicy.

So I'll just add a little,
at this point,

and then I'll let my guests
add more, if they want.

♪♪

This is looking great.

My bacon is crispy.
It smells amazing.

I'm just gonna stick it
into the oven

to keep it warm
until it's time to serve.

Still to come...

I rustle up
my Shakshuka with feta

and then it's brunchtime!

All:
Happy anniversary!

♪♪

♪♪

[ Outro plays ]

Since you can't have
a brunch without an egg dish,

I am making one
of Nick's favorites:

Shakshuka:

spiced, tomatoey eggs

that he cannot get enough of.

So, to begin,
I'm gonna heat some olive oil

and then I'll add
my chopped onions.

This is about 1.5 onions.

[ Sizzling ]

Once my onions are
soft and translucent,

I'll get my spices in here.

I have some cumin, some paprika,
and crushed red pepper.

I'm just gonna start
with the cumin.

Adding these spices at this step

is gonna toast them a little
bit and help wake them up.

I'll add crushed red pepper
and then some paprika.

Now I'm also gonna add some
garlic, lots of garlic.

Smokiness plus garlic
is a match made in heaven.

I love that smell.

And now I'm gonna add harissa,

which is a Moroccan
pepper paste.

Harissa comes
in a paste or a powder

and you can find it
at most supermarkets,

but, if you can't find it,

feel free to sub
any hot sauce you want.

Now, I'm gonna add
some tomato paste.

We'll give that a little stir.

I'm gonna add 1.5 cans
of tomatoes

and we're gonna pour the liquid
from the can in there as well.

So, I'm just gonna let this
sauce simmer for a little bit,

until it starts to thicken.

If I need to make it a little
bit more hearty, you can add

some couscous or some little
pasta in with this.

If you need to let this
simmer on the stove

for a little bit because maybe
you have a farmer husband

who says he's gonna be in
in twenty minutes,

but, an hour later, he's just
bringing the tractor on in,

it's perfect for this.

All right, let's just
have a little taste.

[ Outro plays ]

I'm gonna add
a little bit more salt.

Beautiful. This sauce
is thick and delicious

and it's ready for the eggs.

♪♪

So what I'm gonna do here

is I'll just create
little wells for my eggs.

We're putting them directly
into the sauce.

And I'm making the wells just
so that the egg whites

don't spread all over the top.

♪♪

Now, these eggs are gonna cook
until the whites are firm,

but the yolks are still runny.

I love it when the yolk
mingles with that sauce.

It is so delicious
and creamy and good

and I also like dipping
bread into a runny yolk.

So make sure to keep
a close eye on it

so that you can
stop it from cooking

before the yolks overcook.

Now, I'm nearly there.
I'm just gonna grab

my potatoes out of the oven.

♪♪

They are golden-brown
and crispy,

just the way I like them.

I'll grab my sauce
out of the fridge.

[crunch] Mmm!

And I'm just gonna use
about half of my paprika mayo

and then serve the other half
in little bowls,

for people to add more,
if they'd like.

So I'll pour it
right over the top

and I'll stir it around and get
them nice and evenly coated.

[ Rattling ]
♪♪

And to serve, I'm gonna
chop up some chives,

which will add some nice color
and crunch and flavor.

♪♪

There we go.
These are all ready.

♪♪

My eggs are looking great.

You can jiggle it to see that

the yolks are still runny.
Perfect.

I finish things off with
a little salt and black pepper.

[squeaks]
Oh, that's a squeaky one.

A drizzle of olive oil,

a good sprinkling
of fresh parsley,

and a crumbling of sharp feta.

♪♪

This is ready to serve.

NICK: Time to eat.
Let's do this.

♪♪

-This looks amazing.
-It's gonna be great.

♪♪

-Oh, here it is.
-Yeah!

Looks delicious.

Thank you all so much
for coming today.

We are so honored to celebrate
our anniversary with you.

All of you were in town,
you were in town too,

but you didn't come
to that thing.

I'm so sorry
I missed it.

ROXANNE:
Yeah, how did that happen?

I had to leave early.

Was it Thanksgiving weekend?

That's what dreams are
made of, right there.

-Oh, yeah!
-Wha-a-a-t?!

-Oh, my gosh.
-Cheers.

Mmm!

-Happy anniversary!
-Cheers!

[ Clinking ]

Happy anniversary.

-Happy anniversary.
-[Woman laughs]