Girl Meets Farm (2018–…): Season 1, Episode 3 - Girl Meets Farm - full transcript

MOLLY:
Today, I'm hosting a baby shower
for my sister-in-law...

I'm 5 months today.

MOLLY: ...and I'm making
a dream menu.

My take on the Midwestern
walking taco

with a colorful slaw
and creamy cilantro crema,

my grown-up pigs in a blanket

with two delicious
dipping sauces,

hearty meatball
sliders with a twist,

and for a sweet treat,
baked donuts

with a great trick
for flavorful glazes.

My guests are going to love it.



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.

These look like a party.

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

and the taste of the Midwest.

I'm getting ahead with
my dessert for the party.

Anna loves her donuts,
so I'm going to make her

baked donuts with three
different glazes,



blueberry,
rhubarb and blood orange.

I used to not like baked donuts.

I thought they were fake
because donuts are fried,

but then I got a donut pan,
and I was like, "You know what?

These are actually
really fun to make,"

and the consistency is somewhere
in the middle

of a cupcake and a muffin.

So they're dense,
but not too dense.

I love them.

I would first mix up
my dry ingredients.

I'll grab my flour.

I'm using 1 3/4 cup
of all-purpose flour,

but sometimes I like
to sub out some of that

for whole wheat flour to add
a little bit of nuttiness,

1 cup of sugar, three-quarters
of a teaspoon of salt,

a teaspoon of baking powder and
half a teaspoon of baking soda.

I'll give this a whisk
just to combine,

and now I'll mix up
my wet ingredients.

I've got one large egg here.

This is a really big egg.

My chickens must be
really happy,

or a goose has gotten
into their coop.

A quarter cup of oil,
quarter cup of water,

half a cup of buttermilk.

I love buttermilk
in baked goods.

It adds a slight bit of tang
that's so delicious,

and a teaspoon
of vanilla extract.

Sometimes I like adding a splash
of almond extract to these, too,

but I'm going to keep
these fairly neutral

since the glazes will be
the star of the show.

I'll whisk to combine.

Okay, and then I'll add
my wet ingredients

to my dry ingredients.

This is a really
easy batter to make.

I love that I don't have to wait
for butter to soften.

I don't have to get
my stand mixer out.

This batter comes together
so quickly.

I'm going to mix this up.

I never used to make
donuts from scratch

because when I lived in Chicago,
and I lived in New York,

there was so many donuts around,
that, if I wanted a donut,

I could just throw a stone,
and I'd hit a donut place.

When I moved to the farm,
suddenly,

I was in the middle
of nowhere,

very far from the closest
donut place.

So, these days, I make my own.
My batter is mixed.

I'm going to grab my pans now,

and if you don't have
donut pans,

you could bake this batter
in a muffin pan.

I'm going to grease these,
and then I'll transfer

my batter
to a piping bag,

and then I'm going to fill up
these donut cavities

until they're about
halfway full with the batter.

When this batter bakes,
it will puff up a lot,

so I don't want it
to cover up the hole.

Anna is my husband,
Nick's, little sister.

She's one of those people
who become your best friend

from the moment you meet them.
She's hilarious.

She's silly, and I'm so lucky
to have her as a sister.

These are ready to bake.

I'll stick them
in the oven at 375

for about 12 minutes

until a toothpick
in the center comes out clean,

and that will give me just
enough time to go check up

on Nick, who's doing his own bit
to help prep for the shower.

I gave Nick his first job
as an uncle earlier.

He's going to build a display
board with pegs

to hang all
the different donuts

that'll show off
the beautiful glazes.

I'm going to go see
how he's doing.

Hello.
Hey.

How's it going?
Good, good.

I brought the bagel...
Okay.

...to, you know,
gauge spacing.

Okay, yes, exactly.

What color is
this going to be?

What color do you
want it to be?

Green.
Green.

What about the pegs?

Keep them natural wood.
Okay, yeah.

You're going to be
the best uncle.

Oh, my gosh,
Anna is going to love this.

All right. Thanks.
Do you want this?

Yes.
Bye.

Thanks.

Looks great.

I'm going to leave them
to cool for a bit,

and I'll get on with my glaze.

So the first one I'm going
to do uses blood oranges.

I'll slice these in half.

Wow, look at that bright color.

It's always such a surprise
when I cut

into the first blood orange
of the season,

and I see how bright
the color is.

I'm going to squeeze the juice
into my bowl,

and this is the type of glaze
that you can make

with other types of citrus.

Grapefruit is really nice.

Orange is nice.

Lemon might be a bit too sour,

and then I'll mix
in my powdered sugar.

I want it to be just
the right consistency,

not too thin that it drips
down the sides of my donuts,

but not so thick
that it doesn't stick to them.

About a cup of powdered sugar

for every 2 to 3 tablespoons
of liquid

usually does the trick.

Beautiful.

This one is done.

For my next glaze,
I'm using rhubarb,

which is Anna's favorite.

I'll get this into my pot,

and I'll bring this to a simmer

and let it cook
until the rhubarb is soft.

This is looking good.

I'll pour it into my blender
and blend until smooth.

It looks great.

I'll add my powdered sugar.

How pretty is this color,
and it's all-natural, too?

And for glaze number three,
frozen blueberries,

and I'll heat these up
until they're soft and juicy.

Looking good, and now
I'll strain this through

a mesh sieve
so that I just have my juice.

Oh, it's such a beautiful color.

It's so dark right now,
but it'll lighten up

when I add
the powdered sugar.

Okay.

This one is ready
for a donut.

I'm wiping off
some of the excess here

so that it doesn't drip down
to the bottom

once I turn it over.

Oh, yah.

And then the sprinkles
just make it a party.

So much fun, color and crunch,

these little sprinkle balls
are so cute and festive.

Coming up,
I'm whipping together

some creamy
and tangy taco toppings

and rolling up
some grown-up pigs in a blanket.

That's such a good smell.

Then, it's on
to the meatball sliders,

frying up some local fish
for the tacos,

and then it's party time.

One thing I love about tacos
is that most of the toppings

can be prepped in advance,
and then all I'll need to do

before the party
is fry up my fish.

I'm doing a local variation
today called a walking taco,

which subs out the tortilla
for a bag of chips,

so you can eat them with a fork
while you're on the move.

So, right now, I am making
a cilantro sour cream,

which will be a really
refreshing match

to the hot crispy fish.

I've got some garlic in my bowl,
and now I'll chop up a jalapeño.

I'm only going to use half here,
and I'll remove the seeds

because we are in the Midwest,

and we don't do
a lot of spicy foods here.

I'll grab my sour cream
which will help balance

the heat from the jalapeños,

and I'm going to get
some cilantro in here.

I love cilantro on a taco.

It'll add really nice color.

This is the type of sauce
that you could make in blender

if you want to blend it up
and get it really smooth,

but I like having some texture.

I just choose to finely
chop up my herbs

and all of my other mixings,
and, next,

I'll add the zest
and juice of half a lime,

and I like to add the zest

because that punches up
the lime flavor,

and I'm just zesting to
get off that very top layer.

I don't want to go too deep
down,

otherwise it could taste bitter,

and next I'll add my lime juice
to give it some nice acidity.

I'll season with salt
and pepper,

and then I'll just mix
to combine, and that's it.

These flavors are only going
to get better

if they sit
for a little bit,

so I'll refrigerate it
until it's party time,

and into the refrigerator
it goes.

Next, I'll make
my cabbage slaw.

I'm only using half of my
cabbage, so cut it in half.

And then I'll thinly slice it.

The golden rule whenever
I'm making tacos

is that they've got to have
a topping that's creamy.

They've got to have
something crunchy.

They've got to have a good hit
of acidity and lots of color.

I'll add this to my big bowl,

and then I'll slice up
half an onion.

One thing I love
about taco toppings

is that they're
so beautiful by themselves.

They practically decorate
the table.

For my dressing,
I will combine...

Sorry, that onion
is just now getting to me.

It's a slow burn.

Two teaspoons of sugar,
a teaspoon of salt,

the juice of a whole lime,

the acidity will help break
down the cabbage

and the onion to get softer,

and just a little bit
of olive oil.

I'll drizzle this over
and toss real well to combine.

This is such a good color,

so bright and happy
just like Anna.

Great, easy.

I'll cover this up and stick it
in the refrigerator.

The best parties have pigs
in a blanket, so, for this one,

I'm making a fancy version
with chicken sausages,

so I think, technically,
they're chicks in a blanket,

and I'm using puff pastry,

which I think is
a superior blanket

because it's flaky,
and it's buttery.

I keep it in the freezer
just for tarts,

pastries, all sorts of things,
and now

I'm going to crack some eggs
into my bowl for an egg wash,

which I'll use to brush
the puff pastry.

I'm rolling my puff pastry out
just slightly

so that I have enough to cover
all of my sausages,

and also, that way,
the blanket wont be too thick,

and now I'll cut this into four.

These are precooked sausages.

You can buy raw sausages.

I would recommend cooking them
before rolling them up.

Make sure you let them cool
first after they've cooked

because the heat
from the sausage

could make the puff pastry
difficult to work with.

I'll roll these up, wrapping
the puff pastry

tightly around the sausage.

I am going to brush this
with a little egg wash.

I'll roll it to make sure
that the puff pastry is sealed,

and I'll roll up
the rest of them.

I'm going to slice these
into four pieces

to get bite-sized
pigs in blankets.

I'll transfer these to my pan,
and I'll space them out

evenly to make sure that
they get cooked on all sides.

I always make more pigs
in blankets

than I think I'm going to need

because they're always the
most popular item at a party.

I'm going to brush the tops
with a thin layer of egg wash

which will make them shiny
and golden on top,

and then I'm going to sprinkle
them with some poppy seeds.

I like poppy seeds here
because it kind of reminds me

of a Chicago-style
hot dog bun.

I'll stick these in the oven
at 400 for about 18 minutes

until they're
golden brown on top.

While these bake,
I'm going to whip up

my harissa ketchup
and honey mustard.

Just a spoonful of smoky,

spicy harissa really
jazzes up basic ketchup.

Good.

And some of Anna's
husband's honey stirred through

some Dijon mustard will be
the perfect partner to my pigs.

Time to check on them.

Oh, that's such a good smell.

They're golden.
They're beautiful.

Okay, I think there's enough.

I'm going to taste one.

Mmm.

I love these so much.

They're crunchy on the outside,

meaty on the inside and perfect
with that honey mustard.

I hope these last
until the party.

Up next, I'm planning
a fresh twist on an old classic

with some meatball sliders.

Now I'm moving on
to my meatball sliders,

which are hearty
and flavorful and so good,

but guess what?

They're meatless.

I know, right?

The main ingredients in these
are toasted nuts,

Parmesan and breadcrumbs,

and then I'll flavor them
with some garlic and parsley.

This recipe is super simple.

I just dump a bunch of stuff
in a food processor,

and that's practically it.

I'll add some toasted almonds.

Walnuts will also work,
two cloves of garlic.

I'm serving these
on sliders today,

but they're also great
over spaghetti,

and, sometimes,
I'll put them out at parties

just by themselves and some
red sauce with some toothpicks,

and it's fun because nobody ever
knows that they're meatless.

They're so good.

I'm going to pulse this
to a coarse crumb.

I don't want them to get
too fine,

otherwise the texture
will be too dense,

a few bigger bits
of nuts are okay,

and now I'll add a cup
of grated Parmesan,

a cup of panko breadcrumbs.

And then I'll season this
with some salt,

fresh black pepper

and some parsley,

and dried parsley has
a more intense flavor

than fresh parsley.

I'll pulse to combine,

and now I'm going to bind
this mixture

together with some eggs.

It doesn't look like one
cohesive dough at this point,

but if I grab some
with my hands,

I can roll it into
ping-pong-sized balls.

Just pack it lightly,
so that's what I'm going for,

and the great thing
about this recipe

is that it can
be made in advance.

So I could pop these balls
in the refrigerator

and then fry them up a few hours
or even a day later.

Mmm, I'm getting
a whiff of the smell,

and I can smell that garlic
and the Parmesan.

It's making me hungry.

I have some vegetarian friends

that I make these for a lot,
but another thing is that,

if I have any gluten-free
friends coming over,

I can sub out the breadcrumbs
for more nuts,

and it'll still work.

Okay, these are ready to fry.

I have some canola oil
heating in my pan,

enough to come up about 1/4
of an inch on the balls,

that way, when I turn them,
I can make sure

to get them evenly coated
in that golden crust,

and I'll transfer a few of these
at a time to the oil,

and I'm going to fry these

until they're golden brown
on all sides,

flipping so that I can get
all of the sides cooked,

and this is going to give them
a really nice crispy shell.

On the inside,
they'll be gooey and so good.

I'm going to leave at least
an inch or two

in between each of the balls.

The hardest part about these
is that they trap

in so much heat that,
when they're done cooking,

I have to wait an extra few
minutes to put one in my mouth.

When they're golden brown
on all sides,

I'm going to transfer them
to some red sauce

that I have heating up here,

and I'm just using some of
my favorite jarred sauce here.

You can use any red sauce
you want.

This one is golden and crispy
and perfect, smells amazing.

I'm going to pop this
directly into my sauce,

and I'll hold them there
until they're all finished.

These are the last ones,

and now I'm ready
to assemble my sliders.

When it comes to serving
the sliders,

I lay slices
of smooth mozzarella

on top of some ciabatta buns.

Then I place a couple
of meatballs on top,

some fresh basil,
and then top with the bun.

Yum.

Coming up, I'm breading
and frying up a local fish

for some walking tacos,

and then it's time
to get this baby shower started.

I've got one final thing to
do now before the girls arrive,

and that's fry up my fish.

I've got walleye here,
which is a local whitefish,

and I will season it with some
paprika, cumin and cayenne.

I'll just sprinkle
this right on.

So, typically in a walking taco,
you would find ground beef,

but because I like
using this local fish,

and also kind of as a nod
to fish and chips,

I'm using this walleye and some
salt and vinegar potato chips.

I hear that Anna has been
craving vinegary things

while she's been pregnant,

so I think she's
going to love these.

Some salt and pepper.

And I'll give them a zhuzh
just to coat them evenly.

Now, I'll set up
my breading station.

They're basically shallow bowls,

and they just help
get an even coating.

So, in the middle bowl,

I'll crack in two eggs,

beat them up,

and then
I'll grab a cup of flour

and put that
in the first bowl

and some breadcrumbs
for the third bowl.

I'll season my flour
and breadcrumbs

with salt and pepper.

Now my fish sticks are going
to go in the flour,

and then the egg
and the breadcrumbs.

This is the same way
that I make my schnitzel

or any chicken nugget,

or you could also
bread veggies like this,

a great way to add
extra crunch and flavor,

and I'm going to fry
these in my oil

until they're crispy
and golden brown.

When I'm frying, I like to use
a neutral oil

that has a high smoke point
like canola or vegetable oil.

These literally only take
a few minutes to fry.

These are looking great
and crispy and golden.

I like to go by feel
when I'm seeing

if they're ready to see
if they have a crisp shell.

That's how I know
that they're done frying,

and now I'm placing them
onto a pan lined

with paper towel
to catch any excess oil.

Okay, now that these
are done frying,

I can transfer them
to a wire rack

and keep them warm in the oven
until the party starts.

I'm 5 months today.

Oh!

All: To Anna and the baby.

- Okay, let's eat.
-The pressure is on.

This looks so good.

Oh, my gosh.

What is on this slaw?

MOLLY: Lime juice,
salt and sugar.

- It's so good.
-Do you know what it is?

We're not finding out.

Surprise.

We have names
picked out for both.

Is it Molly and Nick?

Yes.

Do you want a donut?

Yeah, I've been eyeing
the rhubarb since we got here.

To donuts!

--To donuts!

- And baby!
-And babies.