Girl Meets Farm Season 14 Episode 07
It's wheat harvest time, and Molly Yeh is making a totally tasty wheat truck lunch for two! She has hearty and crispy Fried Chicken Banh Mi Sandwiches, a side of Salt and Vinegar Potato Salad, a savory Miso Broccoli Grain Salad filled with the fruits of her farmer's labors, and a sweet and tart Pickled Plum Crumble for dessert.
Year started: 2018
IMDB rating: 6.5
Categories: Food
Stars: Molly Yeh
It's wheat harvest time, and Molly Yeh is making a totally tasty wheat truck lunch for two! She has hearty and crispy Fried Chicken Banh Mi Sandwiches, a side of Salt and Vinegar Potato Salad, a savory Miso Broccoli Grain Salad filled with the fruits of her farmer's labors, and a sweet and tart Pickled Plum Crumble for dessert.
Year started: 2018
IMDB rating: 6.5
Categories: Food
Stars: Molly Yeh
Category
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FunTranscript
00:00It's Harvest and I'm making a totally tasty wheat truck lunch for two.
00:05Why eat lunch at this roomy counter when you could eat it squished in the cab of a wheat truck?
00:09With my hearty and crispy fried chicken banh mi sandwiches.
00:13I think we have arrived at Crispy Town.
00:15Dripping with sweet and spicy mayo, salt and vinegar potato, wait for it, salad.
00:22This is not your average mayo-soaked potato salad.
00:25A savory miso-broccoli grain side filled with the fruits of my farmer's labors.
00:32And for dessert, my sweet and tart pickled plum crumble is where it's at.
00:36I've plumbed on it again.
00:41Look at these beauties.
00:42Hey, this is me, Molly A.
00:45This is my husband, Nick.
00:46This is our growing family.
00:48And this is our farm on the North Dakota-Minnesota border.
00:51The place where I eat, sleep and breathe food.
00:55Wheat harvest is in full swing.
01:01So I'm making a hearty lunch for Nick and me.
01:04Because why eat lunch at a big roomy counter when you could eat it squished in the cab of a wheat truck?
01:11For dessert, I'm making my pickled plum crumble, which is sweet and sour.
01:16And it's loaded with a brown butter five-spice drussel.
01:20It is so good.
01:21I'm starting with two pounds of beautiful plums here.
01:24Because stone fruit season and wheat harvest season overlap completely.
01:29So we get such great produce this time of year.
01:31I'll toss these with three quarters of a cup of brown sugar.
01:34I love the dark depth that the brown sugar lends to plums.
01:39Plums are moody.
01:40They need a moody sugar.
01:41Three tablespoons of flour will help the juices thicken once they seep out of the fruit when it's baking.
01:48A splash of vanilla extract adds some nice extra flavor.
01:51And then six umeboshi, which are Japanese pickled plums that have been cured in salt and then preserved in vinegar.
01:58So they're super salty and sour.
02:01And I love them.
02:03You typically find them in savory dishes, like in the center of rice balls.
02:08But when they're combined with sweet plums in this dessert crumble, I think they add new life to a classic dish.
02:15They haven't been pitted, so I'll just squeeze out the pits.
02:17And you can find them at an Asian grocery store or order them online.
02:21Ume means plum in Japanese, and boshi is a form of the verb to preserve.
02:27I'll mash these into a paste, which will help them evenly distribute throughout the filling.
02:31So these are providing both salt and acid.
02:34You get two flavors in one.
02:37I'll toss this in with the plums.
02:38Plum on plum action.
02:40And then combine it all together.
02:43Crumbles are just one of the best things to make because it allows you just to celebrate the fruit.
02:48They're so special when they're in season.
02:51And I feel like the umeboshi just takes this in a slightly different direction.
02:57That makes it super unique.
02:59This is just a buttered 10 by 7 baking dish.
03:03I'll pile these in.
03:04They smell so good.
03:06And when they bake up, the sugars will caramelize,
03:09and the flour will thicken the juices and make this all saucy and bubbly and delish.
03:17Might be a little messy eating this in a weight truck,
03:19but it's going to be worth it.
03:22Okay, I'll just set this aside now while I make my crumble topping.
03:26This crumble has beautiful warmth and depth from Chinese Five Spice
03:30and loads of caramelly flavor from browned butter.
03:34This is 10 tablespoons of butter that I just heated over medium low,
03:38and you allow the solids to caramelize.
03:41And then I firmed it up in the fridge so that it's cool to give me those good pebbles of streusel.
03:46Browning butter is actually a really easy way to add more flavor to whatever you're making with butter.
03:52First, I'll come in the dry ingredients from my crumble though.
03:54I've got one cup of all-purpose flour.
03:56I'll add five tablespoons of light brown sugar.
03:59Brown sugar and brown butter complement each other really well.
04:02And a half teaspoon of Chinese Five Spice powder, which has got cinnamon,
04:08which you often see in a plum crumble.
04:10But it's also bringing along clove and fennel and star anise and Sichuan peppercorn.
04:16So it's cinnamon and all of its friends.
04:18Total party.
04:20Half a teaspoon of kosher salt.
04:22Half a teaspoon of almond extract, which is so nice with plums.
04:26I'll give this a little mix.
04:30Streusel is great on pies, coffee cakes, and any kind of fruit crumble.
04:36And then I'll break up my butter into little pieces
04:39and just work it in with the dry ingredients.
04:41So just as if you were starting with a stick of butter that you cut up into little cubes,
04:45getting it into pieces like this helps it incorporate uniformly.
04:48I find making streusel by hand to be one of the most therapeutic jobs in the kitchen.
04:55So I'm just pinching the pieces of butter with some of the dry ingredients
04:59to work it in and get it evenly distributed.
05:02And I love a variety of different sizes of crumbs,
05:05from little pea-sized bits to big honking raspberry-sized bits.
05:10I'm smelling that almond.
05:13There's a lot of good stuff in this crumble.
05:15If you ever come across a crumble that lost all of its crumbles, I was there.
05:21Okay, before I cover the plums in this, I'll toss in half a cup of coarsely chopped toasted almonds
05:27for more almond flavor and great crunchy texture.
05:32And now I'll cover the plums in a snowstorm of crumble.
05:39This is a great crumble to fruit ratio.
05:42This will go in the oven now at 375 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes until the plums are soft
05:51and the juices are bubbling around the edges and the crumble is crisp.
05:58Holy brown butter buckets.
06:00It smells incredible in here.
06:02Let me check on my crumble.
06:03Oh yeah, baby.
06:07Look at how bubbly it is.
06:09Oh my goodness.
06:10It smells so good.
06:12I'll let this rest before I pack it up to bring it out to the tractor for Nick and me.
06:17But first I have to steal a taste.
06:19Perfect bite, mostly crumble, some fruit.
06:23That is freaking heavenly.
06:32Between the almond and the sourness of the umeboshi.
06:37Sheesh, I've plum done it again.
06:44Coming up, a snappy sandwich that'll knock you right out of your tractor.
06:48Metaphorically speaking, of course.
06:50For the star of our wheat truck lunch, I am making my fried chicken banh mi sandwiches.
07:05They are crispy and juicy, loaded with pickled veggies and sweet creamy mayo.
07:12They're also like gigantic, like the size of two of my fists.
07:15I'll start by making my chicken.
07:17I have one large chicken breast here that I've thinly sliced.
07:21So I've just cut it in half horizontally.
07:23And having a thin chicken breast, it cooks faster.
07:26It also gets extra crispy.
07:28Now for my drudge, I'll combine two eggs with a quarter cup of cornstarch,
07:35which creates almost like a batter that adheres to the chicken really well.
07:40I'll season with two teaspoons of kosher salt and a teaspoon of Chinese five spice.
07:44I figure I have it out already from the plum crumble.
07:47It'll also go great with the chicken.
07:49I'll mix this up until it's smooth.
07:51This cornstarch with the egg creates a thicker, crunchier coating.
07:55And you know, sometimes when you get fried chicken, there's an air pocket between the fried
08:00crunchy exterior and the actual meat.
08:02This helps avoid that, okay?
08:05And I'll take the chicken on through.
08:08I'll get it coated in the egg.
08:13Let any excess drip off and then transfer it to panko breadcrumbs.
08:17Love panko breadcrumbs.
08:19They're coarser than classic breadcrumbs and so you get more crunchy bits.
08:22And I've brought these to room temperature, which allows that breading to adhere really well to the chicken.
08:30I'll take this other breast through.
08:32Banh mi sandwiches are Vietnamese sandwiches.
08:35The term banh mi simply means bread.
08:38They're not typically made with fried chicken.
08:40Usually they're made with a variety of meats.
08:42Oftentimes you see pate or pork roll in them, sometimes grilled chicken.
08:47But Nick always seems to lose weight during harvest.
08:50So I'm shoving in the extra calories when I can.
08:54These are fully coated.
08:58I've got about an inch of neutral oil here heating 350 degrees in my skillet.
09:04And I'll lower these in gently away from me so that oil does not splatter.
09:10That's exactly the sizzle you want to hear.
09:12And I'll fry these for one to two minutes per side until they're golden brown and crisp.
09:18It's like a beautiful golden wheat field.
09:21Golden wheat fields are my favorite.
09:23They're so beautiful.
09:24They smell really good, like bread or pizza.
09:27And when they're harvested, they get cut off in such satisfying straight lines and rows.
09:35It's a really cool process to see.
09:38I think we have arrived at Crispy Town.
09:40Look at that beauty.
09:43It's going to be so crunchy.
09:45I'll transfer these to a wire rack so that any excess oil can drip off.
09:49The rack allows for air circulation underneath so that the bottom can stay crisp.
09:54I'll let these drain while I whip up my mayo.
09:56The unsung hero of a banh mi sandwich is the sauce, mayonnaise, hoisin, sriracha.
10:03I'm just going to throw them all together.
10:05I'll start with half a cup of Japanese mayonnaise, which I love for its richness and it's a little bit sweet.
10:13A tablespoon of hoisin sauce, which is super sweet and salty.
10:18And two tablespoons of sriracha for heat.
10:21Fried chicken sandwiches have to have mayo.
10:25It's just a rule of life.
10:26I'll stir this up.
10:27Okay, that's it. Easy peasy.
10:32I'll grab my baguettes.
10:35I've buttered them and gotten them toasty.
10:37I'll get my other fix-ins and then I'll be ready to assemble.
10:40I've got a rainbow of bite toppings here and I'll build.
10:45Start with one half of the baguette, slather it with mayo, crust to crust so that every bite gets some.
10:56Top with chicken.
10:57Now a requirement for a banh mi is a pickled mixture of carrots and daikon radishes
11:04that are crunchy and peppery.
11:05And I've just quick pickled these with some rice vinegar, salt and sugar.
11:09And the combination of this cooling crunch up against the hot fried chicken is what keeps me going back.
11:16Bite after bite.
11:17These colors look great.
11:19I usually see cucumbers on these, but my own little midwest spin is that I'm going to use hamburger dills.
11:28Some thinly sized jalapenos.
11:33I'll finish with a pile of fresh cilantro.
11:36Gotta have cilantro.
11:37These are so pretty.
11:38I almost don't want to cover them up with another piece of baguette.
11:41But how else are you going to eat them on a truck?
11:45More mayo, just a little bit.
11:50And a necessary sandwich assembly step.
11:56Smash.
11:56Drink everything together.
11:58Wrap this up.
11:59I better just make sure that it tastes good right here in the kitchen.
12:11That chicken is so dang crunchy and the pickles with the mayonnaise just soaking down into everything.
12:18Oh, this is one super sandwich.
12:28Next, a broccoli salad that soars to new heights with farm fresh ingredients.
12:33For a fun farm-y side, I'm making my miso broccoli grain salad that's funky and toasty and loaded with chewy wheat berries that come straight from harvest.
12:51And it's filled with energy for Nick's long days on the farm.
12:55I've got my wheat berries here.
12:57They're a hearty chewy grain and I love them so much.
13:00I'll dump these in and salted boiling water here.
13:03Let this go for about an hour until they're chewy and tasty.
13:07You could also use farro or barley or even couscous or orzo with this salad.
13:12Any grainy, carby situation would be delicious.
13:16While this cooks, I'll get my broccoli going.
13:18I've got a pound of broccoli florets that I'll just drizzle with some neutral oil.
13:21It'll help them get extra crispy.
13:24A couple of good pinches of salt.
13:26Toss this all around.
13:27And then I'm cooking this how I cook all of my broccoli these days, which is I stick it under the broiler
13:33and let it get super brown and crispy so that it melts in your mouth and you just eat them almost
13:40like potato chips.
13:41All right, I'm sticking this under my broiler on high and it'll only take about five to ten minutes.
13:46While the broccoli crisps up, I'll just make my dressing.
13:50I'm starting with three tablespoons of white miso paste, which is a total flavor bomb.
13:56It's what makes this salad.
13:58It's fermented soybeans.
14:00It's salty.
14:01It adds umami.
14:02I love this stuff.
14:04And I can find this at my local grocery store.
14:06You can find it at Asian markets and it lasts for a really long time in the fridge.
14:10Two teaspoons of soy sauce.
14:13A quarter cup of rice vinegar for that brightness.
14:20A tablespoon and a half of toasted sesame oil for those delicious toasty nutty notes.
14:26This is just a really great dressing.
14:28You don't have to have it with this grain salad.
14:30You could have it on a green salad too.
14:32Five tablespoons of neutral oil.
14:33A tablespoon of sugar.
14:36You're really getting all the flavors here.
14:38Sweet, salty, umami, sour.
14:40I'll grate in some fresh ginger.
14:42This will add that brightness that I love.
14:45And I like the really little pieces that you get from a fine zester versus finely chopping it.
14:50Makes for a smoother dressing that way.
14:53And it eats smoother as well.
14:58A tablespoon of toasted sesame seeds for a little crunch.
15:02I'll whisk this together.
15:05Just get it nice and smooth.
15:07You don't want to have any chunks of miso paste hanging out in here because that would be very salty.
15:12Mmm, that's good.
15:16Wakes my mouth up.
15:17I'll drain my wheat berries.
15:22Mmm, oh they smell so nutty.
15:25I'll dump these straight into the dressing.
15:27Get my broccoli.
15:31It's nice and crisp.
15:33Toss this in.
15:35You could really use any veggies here.
15:37This is a super versatile salad.
15:40Add in some grated carrots, that fresh bit of sweetness.
15:43Some scallions are nice.
15:45They complement the miso really well.
15:48And lastly, some toasted cashews, which I love for their crunch.
15:51You get some extra protein in here too.
15:55I'll toss this all together and get everything coated in that beautiful dressing.
16:00So whenever I need wheat berries, I call up Nick and I say,
16:03you know where a girl can get some wheat berries around here?
16:06And Nick answers and he says, I think I know a guy.
16:10And then within minutes, he's at my door with a bucket of wheat berries straight from the field
16:16or the huge grain bins right outside our door.
16:22Like a little ball pit of wheat berries.
16:25That dressing is distributed.
16:28I'm digging in.
16:29The chewy texture obsessor within me is so satisfied by this.
16:44And the miso brings it all to life.
16:47I dig this grain salad.
16:52Still to come, imagine if salt and vinegar chips and potato salad had a beautiful baby.
16:59I'm going to make it all together.
17:04For a flavor-packed accompaniment to our meal, I am making my salt and vinegar potato salad.
17:11It's hearty, it's bright, and it's creamy from the potatoes, not from mayo.
17:16This is not your average mayo-soaked potato salad.
17:19And it has chewy bits of Chinese sausage littered throughout.
17:24I love this.
17:25I'm starting with my little golden potatoes that I've boiled in salted water until tender.
17:30I'm just chopping them up into quarters.
17:32And these golden ones are so nice because they're creamy and they're so, so flavorful.
17:37We get really good potatoes in this region.
17:40There's a lot of potato farmers around here.
17:42Nick's grandpa farmed potatoes.
17:45He was the head of the potato growers association.
17:48So I'm basically a potato princess.
17:50I'll toss in some fresh cilantro as well as some scallions and some peas and nice sweetness.
17:58And now my favorite part, Chinese sausage, otherwise known as lap chong, which is super fatty.
18:04It's sweet, it's salty, and it has some fennel in it.
18:08It just explodes with flavor.
18:10It's a dried sausage, but you still got to cook it.
18:13I'm going to stir this around.
18:14It smells so good already.
18:16I need this to get heated through and crisp around the itches.
18:20All the best potato salads have meat.
18:23Around here, a lot of people put ham in their potato salad.
18:26I love it, but I'm upping the ante with Chinese sausage.
18:30And it is little morsels that explode with flavor when you find them in the salad.
18:36I'll be digging through the salad for these.
18:40Seems crispy to me.
18:41I'll just dump it right in, fat and all.
18:43The potatoes will soak it up.
18:46It looks great already, but of course, it still needs its dressing.
18:50For my vinegar element in this salt and vinegar situation, I'm using rice vinegar,
18:55which is a bit more mild than the standard distilled white vinegar flavor that you get with salt and vinegar.
19:01Around here, most of the potato salads are covered in mayo, which nothing against that.
19:07But this one kind of takes a cue from German style potato salad, which is a vinegar based potato salad,
19:13and channels some Asian energy.
19:16A quarter cup of neutral oil, which will emulsify with the vinegar and allow it to thicken.
19:22A tablespoon of mirin, which is a Japanese cooking wine that's sweet and tangy.
19:27A tablespoon of toasted sesame oil, those darker notes.
19:32A couple of teaspoons each of toasted sesame seeds and black sesame seeds.
19:39Some garlic and salt, of course.
19:42I'll whisk this together quite vigorously so that the vinegar and the oil can emulsify.
19:50I'll pour it all over.
19:51There's a lot going on in here.
19:55It's like a party.
19:56Ooh, yeah.
19:58I'm smelling the vinegar.
19:59It's really strong in the best way.
20:01Looks bright and colorful to me.
20:03And for a finishing crunch, some chow mein noodles.
20:07Just for more textural excitement.
20:09I love these crispy little guys.
20:11And some flaky salt.
20:14And taste, obviously.
20:17I'm gonna get like a lot of lap chong and one potato.
20:21Oh yeah, you can't go wrong.
20:27It's bright and salty and the sweetness of the potato just mellows everything out
20:32and allows it all to come together.
20:35Farm to table, more like lunch to truck.
20:39Let's eat.
20:44Yellow.
20:44Hey.
20:45I packed a big ol' lunch.
20:46All right, well, let's unpack that lunch.
20:49You look like you still have a lot to do.
20:51Well, I just ate half of my wheat crop in that plum crumble, so I better keep on going.
20:56Achoo!
20:57The wheat always makes me sneeze.