[Molly] Nick and I are having a late-night date night.
One person's gigantic sloppy sandwich,
another person's romantic date.
I'm pulling out the stops
with my juicy steak party sub.
Thick sandwiches loaded with deliciousness.
It's the life of the party... sub.
A scrumptious zhug mayo,
laid in grilled potato salad.
It's true love right there.
And for dessert,
my velvety orange blossom blondie ice-cream...
Look at all those chunks.
...drizzled with a pretty pink white chocolate raspberry shell,
rounds out the meal with a scoop of sweetness.
Look at these beauties.
Hey, this is me, Molly Yeh.
This is my husband, Nick, this is our growing family.
And this our farm
on the North Dakota-Minnesota border,
the place where I eat, sleep and breathe food.
Nick and I are having a late-night grill fest.
Because this time of year, when the sun doesn't go down
until well past nine on the farm,
we've got all the time in the world after the kids go to bed
to... eat meat in the great sunny outdoors.
For a summery sweet,
I am making my orange blossom blondie ice-cream.
It has the ideal amount of ooey, gooey, chewy blondies,
and it gets topped with a home-made
white chocolate raspberry shell.
Think I'm gonna be eating dessert first.
All right, for the blondies, the batter comes together all in one bowl.
I've got an egg,
half a cup of olive oil,
one cup of light brown sugar,
for that signature blondie flavor...
and chewy texture.
Half a teaspoon of Kosher salt,
some orange zest.
It's a great contrast
between the bright orange and that dark moody brown sugar.
A splash of vanilla.
And then the thing that makes these blondies different
from all the other blondies is some orange blossom water,
which is floral and beautiful.
Getting in the mood for a date night.
If you don't have orange blossom water, you can omit it,
you could just bump up the orange zest.
Now I'll whisk this together.
My all-time favorite ice-cream flavor growing up,
was vanilla ice-cream with chunks of blondies in it.
And I spent many a Friday nights, sitting on the couch
just picking out all the blondies.
[whispering] It was so good.
Then they discontinued the flavor, what the freak.
I've been really sad ever since.
So I'm re-creating it,
and I'm making it better by adding more blondies,
and using these fancy orange blossom blondies.
Batter looks smooth.
I'll mix in a cup of flour.
I love how simple these blondies are.
Now for an ingredient
that I don't typically add to my blondies,
if you're making a blondie or a brownie to go into ice-cream
stir in a cup of marshmallow cream to the batter.
That keeps them super soft,
so that when they go into the freezer
within the ice-cream, and then they get frozen,
they actually stay soft and chewy.
If you just add regular blondies to ice-cream,
they could get too hard when they freeze.
Okay, this is done.
Thick, smooth batter,
I've got an eight by eight metal pan
that's lined on the bottom and sides with parchment,
so that the blondies don't stick.
I definitely prefer baking any blondie or brownie in a metal pan.
You just get more even heat distribution that way,
you bake it faster.
I'm smelling that brown sugar and the orange blossom water.
I'll spread this out...
all the way to the corners.
I've got toasted pine nuts here,
and I'll scatter a third of a cup all over the surface.
The buttery texture and flavor of these
goes great with the orange blossom water.
If you're not normally a nut and blondie type of person,
these might change your mind.
And lastly, a pinch of flaky salt will be extra tasty.
And now these will bake at 350 degrees for 22 to 25 minutes,
until the edges are golden, but the center is still soft.
And then I'll get them really cold in the refrigerator.
My blondies are chilled,
I've got my vanilla ice-cream.
I'll just let this soften a bit,
while I chop up the blondies.
These look so good.
You can add as many or as few blondies as you want,
but...
if you go light on the blondies,
I'm probably gonna think you're a serial killer.
Look how gooey that still is on the innards.
So they are fully cooked,
but because of the marshmallow fluff,
they're still extremely soft right now,
which is gonna work to my favor,
when this all gets frozen,
and these don't break a tooth.
Oh, no, that one fell off of the cutting board.
You know what that means.
Oh, yeah.
That's so chewy...
and so sweet,
and nutty, mmm, and floral.
Dang.
Oh, these look good.
I'll dump them all into the bowl.
Kind of... break up the chunks.
This is two pints of vanilla ice-cream.
And get the creamiest vanilla ice-cream you can find,
because when it refreezes...
you lower your chances of it crystallizing.
So this is essentially gonna be
a bunch of blondies held together,
by a little bit of ice-cream.
My ideal ratio.
If you wanna add more ice-cream
so there is more of an even ratio, that's okay.
I'm gonna judge you a little bit, but... you do you.
I'll fold it all together.
How am I gonna wait until dinner?
It's like soft serve at this point.
I'm gonna get like...
multiple blondies in one bite.
Mmm.
Take that, discontinued blondie ice-cream.
This is amazing.
Truly, the hardest part about this recipe
is waiting for the ice-cream to re-freeze.
Look at all those chunks.
Wow, fits perfectly.
I'll get this back in the freezer now
to firm up for about two hours.
That was really fun.
Maybe I should go blondie.
Coming up...
I'm turning a well-known salad
into a mind-blowing party sub.
Steak is involved, mmm.
When the days are this long,
you need am extra filling, extra delicious dinner.
So I am making my steak party sub.
It's slices of juicy New York strip,
olive tapenade
and whole slew of other Nicoise-inspired fillings
in sandwich farm.
It is next-level good.
I'm starting by grilling off the steak.
I've got two New York strips steaks here, which...
I love New York strip as a cut.
It's tender,
it's not too fatty, it's just really flavorful.
I mean, a good steak doesn't need much,
just a good amount of seasoning.
So I've coated one side with Kosher salt and pepper,
I'll turn this,
get the other side generously coated.
And these steaks have come to room temperature,
which is very important when you're cooking steak,
because that way you get an even cook on the meat.
I've got my cast iron oiled and pre-heating.
I'm excited for the sizzle.
[sighs]
I'll cook on medium-high for two to three minutes per side,
until you get that great crust,
and that'll give you a perfect medium rare steak.
So these sandwiches are inspired by pan bagnat,
which is, basically, the ingredients of a Nicoise salad
on a huge, gigantic vinaigrette soaked baguette.
They're fresh and colorful,
but also hearty and filling at the same time.
I'll give these a flip.
Look at those gorgeous char marks.
Typically, with a Nicoise salad, you're serving it with tuna.
In my house, we often do salmon.
Today, I am going forward with the steak, because Nick loves steak.
So do I, especially in a sandwich form.
These are done.
I'll get them off of the grilled pan, on to a rack.
And I'm using a rack as opposed to a plate
so that the bottoms don't get soggy.
We worked so hard to develop that crust,
you want it to stay crisp.
Allow these to rest for about 15 minutes,
which is super important, so that the juices can redistribute.
In that time, I'm gonna make my olive tapenade.
This tapenade is super briny and salty,
it brings life to this party sub.
It's the life of the party... sub.
I'm starting with my olives.
These are pitted olives,
and in an ideal world you have access to Nicoise olives,
which is traditional in a Nicoise salad or a pan bagnat,
but...
in a farm world right here in town,
I only get kalamata olives, because that's all I can find.
Still delicious.
I'll get half a cup into my food processor,
a tablespoon of capers,
which are so briny...
and salty.
Couple of anchovies fillets,
a clove of garlic,
the juice of half a lemon,
and some crushed parsley.
I'll pulse this until it's chunky.
But I'm not adding salt,
because between the anchovies and the olives and the capers,
there is enough salt in this mixture already,
I'll continue to pulse as I drizzle in a couple of tablespoons of oil
to bring everything together,
That looks and smells great.
This would be good on any sandwich...
or just as a dip.
I'm officially done with all of the heavy lifting of the prop for this sandwich,
I'll get the rest of the toppings and get building.
I've got a big baguette,
and all my fixins.
I'm gonna need to bring this party sub to life.
So I'll first open up he baguette,
and now I typically will pose
to scooping out the dough-y innards from bread for making the sandwich.
But even I'll admit that this sandwich eats better when there's...
a slightly different ratio of bread to toppings.
I'll keep this for snacking.
I'm gonna prepare this baguette for all of the fillings,
first by grilling it,
because it'll be so much better when it's a little toasty.
While that grills, I'll slice my steak.
I'll cut against the grain.
You always wanna cut steak against the grain,
so that you don't get those stringy bits.
You don't want them to be too thick,
because there's nothing worst than...
biting into a meaty sandwich and having all the meat come out
and the sandwich structure gets destroyed.
No fun.
That does not a good party sub make.
That's like a drunk party sub.
Okay, the bread is toasty, it's softened a little bit,
and it is ready to receive
all of its colorful toppings.
I'll start with the tapenade,
I'll spoon this on thick.
I like a lot of tapenade.
I'll spread this out evenly.
I'll drizzle on some basic Dijon vinaigrette.
And I love za'atar with my steaks,
so I've sprinkled a teaspoon of za'atar right into the vinaigrette
Za'atar is this great earthy Middle Eastern spice,
that's got thyme in it,
sesame seeds and sumac, which is bright.
A traditional pan bagnat has so much vinaigrette
that it's just soaked and drips down your hands and you're eating it,
it's so good.
All right, I'll lay on these strips of steak.
This is a lot of toppings,
and any time you have a sandwich with a lot of toppings,
you wanna pace yourself and not overload it too much.
All of this meat now needs some veggies.
I have some green beans that I've sliced in half, vertically,
and blanched, so that they've softened a bit.
Some thinly sliced red onion, this will add a little sweetness.
The necessary part of pan bagnat is hard-boiled eggs.
And then I've also submerged them
in some pickled beet brine, because...
I just love the color.
And it's a nod to Nick being a beet farmer.
Don't forget to season the eggs.
I cannot look at a hard-boiled egg
without visible specks of salt and pepper.
And lastly, I'll nestle on some lettuce.
Yay.
And drizzle on more vinaigrette.
And go heavy on the vinaigrette, too,
so that it can soak in to all of these toppings.
Every good sandwich needs a smash,
so that the fillings can mingle all together,
and it'll help you create that perfect bite.
Oh, yeah.
Look at her.
Mmm, ah... Oh, yeah.
Mmm.
It has it all.
That meat is perfectly cooked,
and that brightness from the za'atar and the vinaigrette
gives that perfect special touch.
One person's gigantic sloppy sandwich,
another person's romantic date.
Next...
But hottest potato salad in town
gets a charry grilled transformation.
It's delicious.
Steak's one true love is obviously potatoes.
So for our romantical date night,
I'm giving the steak what it wants, and I'm making potato salad.
But not just any grocery store prepared section potato salad,
even though those are really good, too.
I am making my grilled rainbow potato salad,
with zhug mayo.
It is colorful and creamy and full of charisma.
Honestly, you could stick the word "rainbow" in front of any vegetable,
and I would eat it.
To start,
I've got these gorgeous rainbow fingerlings,
and I've parboiled them
in order to get to innards fully cooked.
And then I'll finish them off on the grill,
so that you get that great grilled flavor.
All right, I'll add these to my big bowl.
And for some added flavor and color,
I'll slice up a red onion.
And I'll make them big thick rings,
so that they hold up
against the heat of the grill.
Toss these in with the potatoes,
and toss with some olive oil.
This will help those char marks develop.
I then season with a generous amount of salt.
Potatoes needs a lot of salt to really be tasty.
And black pepper,
some ground cumin,
some earthy garlic,
and coriander.
We eat a lot of potatoes and meat here.
We live in the heart of meat and potatoes country,
and I'm not mad about it.
I'll give these a toss.
I'm smelling that cumin.
So I'll get these onto my grill,
it's been heating at medium-high.
I'll spread these in one even layer,
and allow them to grill for eight to ten minutes,
turning occasionally
until they get those gorgeous char marks.
I'm smelling that onion already.
So I didn't eat a ton of potato salad before I moved here,
but I quickly learned that, like...
everybody has their own version of potato salad
and it's, sort of, like a...
Everybody's family does it differently,
but everybody's family is the best.
These look beautiful.
I think it's probably a toss up
between who loves potatoes more, me or Nick.
I'll get them off the grill pan,
and back into my bowl.
Veggies are grilled, I'm gonna make some zhug mayo now.
This dressing is so good, you could eat it with a spoon,
it's got a creamy mayo base.
And it gets it's personality from the bright, spices, Yemeni condiment,
that is zhug.
I love zhug.
It is at once herb packed and fresh
but it also has some heat from peppers.
So I'm starting with a big handful of parsley,
and some cilantro,
I've got a couple of jalapenos that I'll slice and add,
'cause I'm spicing things up tonight.
The juice of half a lemon,
a couple of cloves of garlic.
And then I've got some cumin and coriander,
and it echoes the spices that are on the potatoes already.
Salt and pepper.
And then I'll pulse until it's chunky.
I'll continue to pulse and drizzle in some olive oil
to bring it together into a sauce.
That's the zhug.
Ah, it smells so fresh, but...
it's not done yet.
I'm gonna Midwest this up and add some mayo.
[whispering] Oh, yeah.
It's true love right there.
I could be the president of the mayonnaise fan club.
There it is,
the most midwestern zhug there ever was.
Now the exciting part,
where the potatoes get dressed for their date.
[whispering] Oh, yeah.
They're just gonna get bathed in mayo.
I wanna be bathed in mayo.
Yum.
I'll get my serving bowl.
You can still see the colorful potatoes
and the onion poking through.
I'll finish with flaky salt and pepper.
It's very hard to oversalt the potato.
And my remaining fresh herbs.
I'll just pile them on.
This is a fancy potato salad.
True love is understanding that I needed to taste test
the potato salad well before dinner starts.
Mmm.
Mmm-hmm.
Between the creamy potatoes, and the grill marks,
and that zhug mayo,
I'm in love with this potato salad. Sorry, Nick.
Maybe it's time for a throuple.
Still to come...
A shell-shocking topping
taking my dessert over the top.
To make my blondie ice-cream sing with shiny specialness,
I am making a white chocolate raspberry shell
to drizzle on top.
It's so texturally satisfying,
because it hardens as soon as it hits the ice-cream.
And it's also rich, and tart and delicious.
To start, I've got a double boiler set up,
so some simmering water with a heat-safe bowl on top.
And that's just to prevent the chocolate from overheating,
because if chocolate gets too hot,
it will seize up and it won't get shiny and melty.
So I'll dump in six ounces of white chocolate chips,
with three tablespoons of unrefined coconut oil,
which will thin out the chocolate,
so that it's not too thick.
It'll also help it harden.
I'll stir this around and allow it to melt.
When I was little,
we would always get chocolate shell from the store,
and eat it over ice-cream during Friday night TV.
And... for the longest time,
I thought that chocolate shell was some processed store-bought wizardry.
But it's actually not.
It's... basically, essentially, just two ingredients,
chocolate and coconut oil.
And there are so many different things that you can do with it.
You can flavor it with freeze-dried berries like I am,
you could use different chocolates.
It really is magic.
The combination of the coconut
with the white chocolate is...
[sniffs] Giving me some good smells into my nose right now.
Okay, this is smooth and shiny.
I'll add my freeze-dried raspberries now.
This is finely, finely ground freeze-dried raspberries,
so you get that gorgeous pink natural color,
and the tart flavor of the raspberries.
I'll add two tablespoons of this.
I'm obsessed with this natural pink color.
I'll stir this right in.
Look how pretty that it.
This is smooth and combined, I'll get it off of the pot.
Let me get the ice-cream.
My blondie ice-cream has firmed up in the freezer.
And I've got these cute little sundae dishes.
Look at all the blondies.
I'll scoop this up.
Yeah, look at all those chunks.
It's time for the chocolate shell.
I'll have the sprinkles on stand-by,
because the shell hardens quickly.
It actually stays melty
for a while.
So...
you can make a couple of hours in advance of a dinner party,
and just keep it at room temp.
These are so cute.
Tun-tun-da.
Whoo.
Mmm, mmm, mmm.
Mmm-hmm.
Between the chewy blondie,
and the sour raspberry,
and that floral note from the orange blossom,
I think it's true what that say,
blondies have more fun.
[gobbles] Mmm.
[gobbles] Mmm, mmm.