[Molly] It's the beginning of beet harvest.
And for all the non-farmers out there,
I'm hosting a lawn game day filled with food.
[all] Cheers.
[Molly] My hot honey buffalo cauliflower dunked in herby ranch.
I've got enough for me.
I don't know what the other girls are gonna do.
Crispy golden filet-ope-fish sandwiches with ketchup tartar.
These are gonna slap.
And a refreshing watermelon tomato feta salad on the side.
I would eat this with a big hunk of toast.
And for dessert, a potluck staple.
My take on glorified rice.
It's the best parts of a dessert salad and rice pudding, all in one dish.
Yeah, this is totally glorious.
Ready to see me get crushed in a lawn game?
Let's eat.
Look at these beauties.
Hey! This is me, Molly Yeh.
This is my husband, Nick.
This is our growing family.
And this is our farm on the North Dakota-Minnesota border,
the place where I eat, sleep, and breathe food.
[opening theme music playing]
It's the start of beet harvest.
And while the farmers are away,
the non-farmers, we're gonna play.
I'm hosting my sister-in-laws for a day of lawn games and good food.
And for something sweet,
I'm making my spin on glorified rice,
which is creamy and loaded with pineapple chunks and mochi bits.
It's sort of like, rice pudding, but fluffier and served chilled.
You might be nodding along.
You know what I'm talking about,
or you're scratching your head right now
and you're like, "What the heck is this?"
It's one of those classic church potluck staples that are so lovable.
I'm starting with one cup of long grain rice,
which will stay fluffy when it's chilled in the mixture.
Other types of rice, like short grain rice,
tend to clump together and get too gummy.
I'll give this a rinse.
Rinsing rice of any excess starch helps it stay fluffy.
Okay. And then you can cook this up either in a saucepan
with one and half cups of water or in a rice cooker.
I love using my rice cooker any chance I can get.
I finally got a little one like this this year.
And I use it at least once a week.
If you're using a rice cooker, just cook up your rice according to the directions.
Add a good pinch of salt to season the rice.
[imitates victory music]
Hit start. Easy peasy.
I'll let this cook while I make my whipped cream.
So typically with glorified rice,
you would be thawing a frozen thing of store-bought whip topping.
But, whenever I make a desserty salad like this,
I love to use fresh whipped cream.
It just tastes so good, and it's so easy to make.
So I'll combine one and a half cups of cold, heavy cream.
You want it to be cold, which will help it be that fluffy.
With three quarters of a cup of powdered sugar...
and then a teaspoon and a half of vanilla bean paste.
Which is just an easy way to get that pure vanilla bean flavor.
You can also use vanilla extract,
but I'm making it a little fancy for my sister-in-laws.
And I'll use my electric mixer to beat this to stiff peaks.
And then you never wanna over beat whipped cream.
Otherwise you could end up with butter.
Once I can see the tracks of the whisk,
I can check to see if it's ready.
And if it holds a stiff peak like that, I'm good.
So I'm channeling a little bit of Asian energy
with my version of glorified rice.
And since coconut is such a common ingredient in Asian desserts,
I figured it would be delicious
to fold in some coconut cream to the whipped cream.
The coconut cream is just the thick, creamy solids
off of the top of a can of full fat coconut milk.
It was my sister-in-law that introduced me to glorified rice.
It is in the same category as candy bar salads, cookie salads,
other salads that do not contain any vegetables,
but are so much fun and lovable.
Everybody has their own spin on it.
And now I'm doing my spin on it.
So fun.
The whipped cream element is done.
I'll get together my rice mixture.
Half a cup of pineapple juice.
Two tablespoons of sugar.
A little bit of vanilla bean paste.
And a good pinch of salt.
Now whisk this together just to dissolve the sugar.
-[rice cooker beeps] -My rice is ready.
[rice cooker beeps]
Thank you.
Give it a little fluff, so it doesn't all stick together.
And then toss this in.
I don't want the rice to be hot
when I'm folding it in with the whipped cream,
'cause then it'll melt the whipped cream.
The cold pineapple juice will help that along.
I'll toss in the requisite pineapple.
All of the sweet salads seem to have an assigned fruit.
Candy bar salad has apples, cookie salad has mandarin oranges,
glorified rice has pineapple.
And now sometimes when you see glorified rice,
it has those rainbow mini marshmallows in it.
But... I'm using mochi bits. Because I love mochi bits.
These are just chewy pieces of rice dough.
They're slightly sweet.
They're super nostalgic for me
because I would always get them on ice cream in Chinatown.
But you can order them online and find them at an Asian grocery store.
Typically, maraschino cherries are in a glorified rice.
I love Luxardo cherries, though.
They're just like darker.
It's like glorified rice got a little bit fancy.
With all these fun colors.
This is something you would see
on a potluck table next to a popcorn salad. Okay.
I'll finish this off by folding in two thirds of the whip mixture
and then reserve the remainder of it for a topping.
The game that we're playing today is called round net.
And it's sort of like a lawn version of volleyball.
It consists of a round net,
that's low to the ground that you just hit a ball on.
My sister-in-law, Anna, and her sister-in-laws who are coming,
Ana and Kelsey are freakishly good at this game.
I'm not.
When I cause my team to lose,
at least I've brought the glorified rice. So that's my consolation.
It looks so much fun with the colorful mochi bits.
All right. I'm gonna make 'em even cuter now.
Coconut flakes, more mochi, and cherries.
I'm digging in.
Hmm.
Between the creamy coconut and that bright pineapple
and those chewy little mochi bits,
yeah, this is totally glorious.
Coming up, a sweet and spicy side that'll leave your mouth wanting more.
For a side dish that'll crush the competition,
I am making my hot honey buffalo cauliflower.
It's crunchy, deep, fried florets of veggies
tossed in a sweet and spicy sauce that is a one-way ticket to glossyville.
If I'm missing from the game, you'll know where to find me.
And it's standing over the plate of this.
I'm starting with a big two pound head of cauliflower
that I've broken into florets.
This is still a little damp from rinsing it,
which will help the coating stick.
I'll season with a good couple of pinches of salt.
And then I'll toss this all with two tablespoons each
of cornstarch and all-purpose flour.
And that'll help the batter stick.
And that batter is what's gonna fry up to give it that crispy shell.
I think I would eat anything coated in a buffalo situation.
I'll set this aside and make the batter.
Half a cup of all-purpose flour.
Half a cup of cornstarch,
which contributes to nice, airy crispiness to the batter.
Season with a teaspoon of kosher salt.
And then two teaspoons each of garlic and onion powder.
Pretty simple but super flavorful.
I'll grab a beer.
Whisk the dry ingredients together and then drizzle in a cup.
And, of course, the beer will add a great depth of flavor.
And the bubbles kind of help the batter become airy.
This is almost like a tempura batter.
And you get a little beer left over at the bottom of the bottle.
My liquid courage.
That's it for the batter.
I'll just toss in the cauliflower and evenly coat.
Cauliflower is such an awesome canvas for any sort of bold flavors.
Like, I love making shawarma cauliflower.
I add cauliflower to smoothies because you can't taste it,
but you're still getting veggies.
And so it really is a perfect canvas for buffalo sauce.
I'm ready to fry.
I've got a couple of inches of neutral oil
heating up to 350 degrees in my big pot here.
And then I'll use a slotted spoon
to gently lower some of the florets into the oil.
I'll fry these florets in batches now
for five to six minutes until they're golden all over.
I really want to pay attention to the temperature of the oil here.
If the temperature drops and it's not hot enough,
the oil will actually soak into the florets and make them taste greasy.
And if it's too hot, the outside coating will cook
before the inside the cauliflower gets softened.
And so the texture just won't be right.
It'll be too tough in the center.
I love the way the batter falls around the florets.
These are done frying.
I'll transfer them to a wire rack.
I'll fry up the rest, and then I'll make my hot honey buffalo sauce.
This sauce is rich and spicy.
And it has some nice honey bear sweetness, too.
I'm starting with a required ingredient of any buffalo sauce.
Butter. Six tablespoons of it.
I'll let this melt.
What's great about buffalo sauce
is that you have the fatty richness of the butter and then it gets cut
by the sour acidity of tons of hot sauce.
It's a nice balance.
Now that the butter is hot, I'll sizzle in some garlic.
Grating it with my fine zester.
It helps to incorporate nicely.
I got a little pinch of crushed red pepper,
a little bit of paprika for smokiness.
And salt.
Just let this sizzle.
It's already becoming fragrant. Oh, it smells so good.
A splash of vinegar adds that great brightness
that you have in a buffalo wing.
A little bit of Worcestershire sauce for some dark depth.
A third of a cup of honey.
This isn't typical buffalo sauce.
And it's just my own little spin.
It'll balance out the spiciness
and then also make this saucy even glossier.
And then half a cup of buffalo hot sauce.
And I'm using one that's not overly spicy.
I'll give it a little whisk.
I'll bring this to a gentle boil, reduce to low
and just simmer this for about five minutes, until it's thickened.
So my one sister-in-law, Ana,
she recently married a guy from Buffalo.
We went to the wedding. It was so much fun. I made the wedding cakes.
So I feel like she'll really appreciate these.
Now I'm just waiting for my other sister-in-law, Kelsey
to get married so that I can make more wedding cakes.
This has thickened. It's kind of syrupy.
I'll remove it from heat.
I've got my fried cauliflower.
I'll drizzle on the sauce.
Oh, baby.
It's getting real.
Toss, toss, toss.
All right. Let me get a serving bowl.
Also, got to have blue cheese.
They're pretty colors.
Well, I've got enough for me.
I don't know what the other girls are gonna do.
Blue cheese.
Do not pass go.
[chuckles] Yummy.
That cauliflower is soft on the inside.
And that coating just has it all.
I'm loving the sweet with the spiciness.
Chicken who?
Next, the strategy to making
the crispiest, most perfect fried fish sandwiches you've ever tasted.
Spoiler alert, cheese is also involved.
For game day main, that is sure to fill us with energy and excitement,
I'm making my filet-ope-fish sandwiches.
They're flaky, crunchy fried cod,
topped with melty American cheese
and tangy ketchupy tartar sauce.
I just fry out my cod and stack up those sammies.
To start, I've got four pieces of cod that are half inch thick.
And their cut the size of the buns.
It's a flaky, mild fish.
And it's sturdy enough to hold up to a thick coating of breading.
Which is a must have for a good fried fish sandwich.
To build my dredge, I have a couple of eggs here,
and then I'm gonna add a quarter cup of cornstarch,
which helps this batter stick on to the fish.
And it also thickens the batter.
So you get more of a shell coating.
I'll season this with two teaspoons of kosher salt,
two teaspoons each of garlic and onion powder.
This coating is where all the flavor lives.
And then a teaspoon of paprika for that smokiness and a little color.
This is my super heartier, fatty version of the classic fast food fish sandwich.
This batter will fry up thick and crunchy.
You get the best of both worlds.
You get the batter here, but then you're also
gonna be dunking it in the breadcrumbs.
So you don't have to choose if you want a batter fried or bread crumb fried sandwich.
And now I'll take my fish through.
Get it fully coated in the batter.
And then get fully coated in the breadcrumbs.
I'll press the breadcrumbs so that they stick.
I like to use panko breadcrumbs for this,
because they're bigger than traditional breadcrumbs, and so they're crunchier.
You just really wanna take the time
to give a full, even coating of the dredge.
So that you can get a full, crispy shell.
Right. Now bread up the rest.
So I'm calling this my filet-ope-fish.
An ope is a sound that a lot of Midwesterners make.
Like, if you're passing someone,
trying to get to your movie theater seat, then you're sneaking by,
and you kind of have to, like squeeze and do one of these.
You might say ope.
It's sort of like a, "Oh, sorry".
Partway between a sound and an actual word.
So like, if this fish could talk to this fish,
and I needed to find a space for it, right here next to it,
it might say, "Ope."
My fish are fully coated. I'm ready to fry.
I've got an inch of neutral oil here heating in my pan.
And I'll make sure that it's hot enough just by dropping in a breadcrumb.
And if it sizzles immediately like that, I know it's hot enough.
So I'll gently lower in my fish.
Away from me, so that it doesn't splatter.
I'll fry these for a few minutes per side until they're golden brown all over.
So the perfect fish sandwich starts with super-duper crispy fried fish.
And then it's on a super soft bun, like a challah or a brioche bun.
So that doesn't fight with the fish.
And it also puts the emphasis on the crispy coating, too.
There's like a nice contrast there.
Gotta have something creamy, like tartar sauce,
something briny, pickles, something cooly and crunchy, lettuce, and cheese.
I always associate cheese with fish
because at summer camp on Macaroni and Cheese Day,
we would always have fish steaks.
Because it was a Jewish camp and that was kosher.
Oh, yeah.
That's a crispy piece of fish.
Look at that beautiful golden brown shell.
We'll transfer these to a wire rack.
Mmm.
It smells delightful.
While they're still little oily, I'll sprinkle with flaky salt.
And then I'll grab my other toppings and then assemble.
I've got all my fix-ins, some shredded lettuce,
dill pickle chips...
tartar sauce, and American cheese.
I'm gonna immediately get it out of the bag
and put it onto the hot fish so it can get a little melty.
To hate an American cheese is un-American.
I'll get my buns out.
Mmm.
I've got potato challah buns here that I've buttered and toasted.
I'm gonna serve in plate.
It's nice there's toasted soft buns that doesn't get soggy.
Now for the requisite creamy element.
I've got a homemade tartar sauce.
You just whisk together mayo for creaminess,
ketchup for tang and sweetness.
Some chopped pickles, dill and parsley,
Worcestershire for a savory kick,
lemon juice and onion powder to keep it classic.
A little S and P.
And that's it.
If you didn't want to make your own homemade, you could use thousand island.
You've got to go all the way to the end.
Because how sad would that be
to have your first bite of fish sandwich and not get any sauce?
You've got to have it in every bite.
Next, a pile of shredded lettuce.
It has that great cooling crunch.
That's a counterpoint to the hot fried fish.
The fish.
Nestles so nicely onto these buns.
Dill pickles.
Gotta have that great brininess.
Okay.
And then, lastly, the tops of the buns,
which I'll also spread with tartar sauce.
I'm so much more excited for these than I am about that frickin' sports game.
Now, here we go.
We'll smash, pick it up.
You've got to have a squeeze of lemon juice with fried fish.
Oh, yeah. She's a beaut.
Mmm.
That is bonkers.
That crust on the fish is so crunchy
and the sauce is straight out of my fast food dreams.
These slap.
Still to come...
Sweet and savory unite to form
the most refreshing salad you've ever had.
The sister-in-laws are here, and they're playing a warm-up game.
I just need to whip up a quick side before the official game can begin.
I'm making watermelon feta tomato salad,
which is super colorful and refreshing.
It's filled with plump, juicy fruit.
And salty cheese.
It is the ideal game day snack.
I'll start with my dressing. This is super-duper simple.
A couple of tablespoons of olive oil.
Some finely chopped shallots.
I like that the salad holds the line between sweet and savory.
Kosher salt.
Some Calabrian chili paste for a touch of heat.
It just brightens everything up.
We'll give this a quick whisk.
I'll toss in my two pounds of perfectly, uniformly
sized dices of watermelon that is so ripe and juicy.
Some half cherry tomatoes are a nice, unexpected pairing.
I love their acidity with the sweetness of watermelon.
And then I'll chop up some basil and mint.
And this little pop of freshness goes a long way.
I'll add most of it now and then save some for the top.
I'll toss this all together.
I like these vibrant colors.
Ana and Anna and Kelsey, they get very competitive.
They're very good at lawn games.
And I am so extremely not into lawn games.
But I wanted an excuse to make them a great big feast.
So I figured I would bribe them to come to the farm with a day of games.
Okay. That watermelon is glistening as if it's been playing in the sun all day.
Let me get a serving bowl and then toss in my fruits.
I'll sprinkle with a good handful of feta.
Feta is salty and creamy.
I'll drizzle on some balsamic glaze,
which is a syrupy, super reduced balsamic vinegar.
And it gets really sweet that way.
And then my remaining herbs.
And some flaky salt and black pepper.
That is so pretty.
Ready to see me get crushed in a lawn game?
Hello.
Molly, I was gonna pass it to you.
I was ready. I was ready.
Okay. Let's eat.
-All right. Dig in. -[woman] Oh, my gosh. This literally--
-[woman 1] Oh, this looks so good. -Anything with buffalo.
[Molly] Who's winning round net currently?
Kelsey's teaching us all her moves.
We're waiting for you for the real game though.
[all] Cheers.
[woman] Cheers to you.
This glorified rice is so ope.
[all laughs]
That was not intentional.
Comes right out.
[indistinct dialogues]
I was voted "most improved player" of my 7th grade volleyball team.
-Wait, really? -Oh, nice.
Okay. Are you fueled up?
-Yes. Let's go. -I'm ready.
-Molly. -That's nice.
-Nice. -Yes... [indistinct dialogue]
Oh. Anna.
All right. Here we go, Molly,
[laughs and exclaims in excitement]