Molly's mom visits from Chicago to help with some garden planting and to enjoy a campfire supper that includes Hearty Breakfast Tacos, Charred Sweet Corn Salsa, Crispy Smashed Potatoes and Homemade Raspberry Marshmallows. Below are the recipes used in today’s episode: Homemade Raspberry Marshmallows: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/homemade-raspberry-marshmallows-5344017 Hearty Brisket Tacos with Pink Pickled Onions: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/hearty-brisket-tacos-with-pink-pickled-onions-5344007 Crispy Smashed Potatoes with Chimichurri Dressing: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/crispy-smashed-potatoes-with-chimichurri-dressing-5344009 Charred Sweetcorn Salsa: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/charred-sweetcorn-salsa-5344010 Listen to cookbook author, food blogger and Midwest transplant Molly Yeh prepare dishes inspired by her Jewish and Chinese heritage – with a taste of the Midwest – explaining her recipes and tips along the way. Want even more of Molly’s recipes? Stream full episodes of Girl Meets Farm on discovery+. Head to discoveryplus.com/girlmeetsfarm to start your 7-day free trial today. Terms apply.
Molly's mom visits from Chicago to help with some garden planting and to enjoy a campfire supper that includes Hearty Breakfast Tacos, Charred Sweet Corn Salsa, Crispy Smashed Potatoes and Homemade Raspberry Marshmallows.
Below are the recipes used in today’s episode:
Homemade Raspberry Marshmallows: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/homemade-raspberry-marshmallows-5344017
Hearty Brisket Tacos with Pink Pickled Onions: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/hearty-brisket-tacos-with-pink-pickled-onions-5344007
Crispy Smashed Potatoes with Chimichurri Dressing: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/crispy-smashed-potatoes-with-chimichurri-dressing-5344009
Charred Sweetcorn Salsa: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/charred-sweetcorn-salsa-5344010
Listen to cookbook author, food blogger and Midwest transplant Molly Yeh prepare dishes inspired by her Jewish and Chinese heritage – with a taste of the Midwest – explaining her recipes and tips along the way.
Want even more of Molly’s recipes? Stream full episodes of Girl Meets Farm on discovery+. Head to discoveryplus.com/girlmeetsfarm to start your 7-day free trial today. Terms apply.
Find episode transcript here: https://girl-meets-farm.simplecast.com/episodes/mom-comes-to-town
[MUSIC PLAYING] MOLLY YEH: Coming up, my mom's coming to visit, so we're making a special campfire supper.
Yay.
JODY YEH: Oh, delicious.
MOLLY YEH: My hearty brisket tacos with a twist. A charred sweet corn salsa, crispy smashed potatoes with a chimichurri dressing, and for a fun sweet treat around the bonfire, homemade raspberry marshmallows.
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. My food is a delicious mix of my Chinese and Jewish heritage and the taste of the Midwest.
I love this time of year, when the snow thaws and the weather warms up and we can start planting our garden again. My mom's coming in today. Before she arrives, I'm going to get started on some homemade marshmallows that are going to be coated in a freeze-dried raspberry dust. To get started, I'll grab my pan and a bowl. Some light corn syrup. And the secret ingredient here, which is ground freeze-dried berries. They have this amazing natural color. Typically you might find freeze-dried berries in the snack aisle near the nuts.
So first, I'm going to mix up my coating, which will be used to prepare my pan. I'll grab some powdered sugar, some corn starch. And some of my raspberry powder. You can use any berry here. But I love that the sourness from the raspberries will be a great match to the sweetness of the marshmallows. I'll mix this to combine.
[MIXING]
Now in my pan, I'm going to spray it with some cooking spray. This will help the coating stick. And I'll coat it evenly with my dry mixture. I'm only going to use about half of it now, and then I'll tap out any excess. Because we're going to use the rest of this later.
[THUDDING]
I'm going to tap this back into my bowl. This practice is a little messy. Oh my gosh, I'm making a huge mess. OK. In my sauce pan, I'll add some sugar, light corn syrup. Which always likes to stick to the measuring cup, so I have my baby rubber spatula here to help get that out. And some water.
[WATER RUNNING]
And a little bit of salt. And I'll just mix this to combine. And then I'm going to turn my heat on and heat this mixture until the thermometer reaches 240 degrees Fahrenheit. I've clipped my pan with a candy thermometer, which is a really important tool for making marshmallows. But it's the type of thing that you can just pick up at a craft store. And now we wait.
This is the calm before the storm, because the sugar mixture will take a few minutes to heat up. But once it does heat up, it's like, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. Because if you wait around during that time, your marshmallow mixture is going to firm up and it's going to get weird. So while that's going, I'll combine the rest of my mixture into my mixer.
Half a cup of water.
[WATER RUNNING]
Two teaspoons of vanilla extract. And two packets of unflavored gelatin. The magic ingredient. Sprinkled over the top. And you'll see, it'll start to firm up. But it'll loosen once I start to mix it up. Let's check on the sugar mixture. I'm always really tempted to crank my heat up to high for the sugar mixture, because I get impatient waiting for it to get to 240. But don't do it. We want to save the burnt marshmallow for the bonfire.
I'm so excited for my mom to get here. We always have the best time in the kitchen. Everything that I learned in the kitchen, I learned by talking to my mom. So I'm really excited to see what tidbits she has for me today. The last few degrees are always the longest, it seems like. Come on. OK, it's almost there.
OK. It's showtime. And with my mixer on, I'll drizzle in my sugar mixture.
[WHIRRING]
Slow and steady wins the race. So now, over the course of the next seven to 10 minutes, I'm going to gradually increase the speed to high. It'll look very liquidy at first. But eventually, as the mixture cools and gets more air beaten into it, it'll get light and fluffy.
OK. It's lukewarm, pale, and super fluffy. Now at this point, I'm working pretty quickly so that I can scrape my mixture into my pan before it firms up. I love marshmallow fluff. Gorgeous. Using my offset spatula, I'll smooth out the top. Like a sweet, delicious cloud. OK.
Lastly, I'll just sprinkle some of my raspberry mixture over the top. And I want to keep some raspberry coating left over to coat the sides of my marshmallows once I cut them. So these are going to set at room temperature for about an hour until they're firm. And then I'll cut them up, dust them a little bit more, and it'll be perfect for when my mom arrives.
My marshmallow loaf has set. It is firm, and I'm ready to cut them into squares. I'll loosen the sides here with a small offset. And I'll turn it onto my cutting board.
[WHACKING]
I'm going to grab my spray to grease my knife so that the marshmallows don't stick. And I'll cut these into squares. They're so fluffy and jiggly and cute. Marshmallows have the best personality. I'm going to dust the sides of these. So I'll grab my sieve again. And I can also dip into any excess dust that's hanging out on my cutting board here.
Coming up, I make some charred sweet corn salsa and crispy smashed potatoes with an easy chimichurri dressing.
I'm making a charred corn salsa, which is going to add great color to my tacos. It's going to be smoky and sweet for my corn. It'll be loaded with lime juice, and it has a little kick from some jalapeno. All I'm doing here is charring up my corn. And while that's going, I'll grab my jalapeno and some tomatoes. And I'll give these a rough chop.
I'm going to keep the seeds and the juice of my tomatoes in the salsa. That'll just let the whole thing marinate and get really delicious. OK, we'll get my jalapeno in here. Just using half. You'll have a little bit of a kick, but not too much. And I always have to remember not to scratch my eyes after I have chopped a jalapeno. We'll deseed it. The seeds are the really spicy bits. And chop this guy up finely.
I'll check on my corn really quickly. I'll remove it to a plate to let it cool. We'll get some fresh cilantro in here. Got to have cilantro in my salsa. It's so fresh and a little bit sweet and clean. It adds beautiful color. I mean, for me, cilantro is the ideal salsa herb. But parsley would work great. Oregano. Mint might take it in another direction, but it would still be good.
OK. The corn is cool enough to handle. I'll cut the corn kernels off of the cob, getting right as close to the base of the kernels as I can. So sweet. And this charring is-- it's one of my favorite ways to prepare corn, because it's so easy and it adds that amazing smokiness. Yum. OK. I'll add my corn to the bowl. I'm going to give this a stir just to toss everything together.
And I cannot forget my lime. Lime is key to making a great salsa. Since we have the sweetness and the smokiness and the spiciness, this acidity from the lime is going to round everything out. We'll get all the flavors in there. Yum. I'll season it with some salt and pepper.
[TWISTING]
Stir it up. Get it evenly seasoned. It's a total party in this bowl. It smells so good. I'll give it a taste. That's good. Smoky, sweet, bright. Little spicy. It's going to be perfect on my tacos.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I'm making a side for my tacos now. Some crispy smashed potatoes drizzled with a fresh chimichurri dressing. I have some baby Yukon Gold potatoes that I've boiled just for about 10 minutes until they get a little bit soft. And I have my pan here, which I'll drizzle with olive oil. I'll dump my potatoes out onto the pan.
Yukon gold are the best, because they're so buttery on the inside. And these are baby ones, which are really easy to smash. To smash them, I'm going to use the heel of a spatula. You could use a glass or even your hands. And I'm going to smash them down till they're about a half or 3/4 of an inch. I don't want to smash them too thin, otherwise they could fall apart. Smashing them creates these beautiful little edges, which will get golden and crispy in the oven. Just the feeling of smashing down a potato. It fights you a little bit, but it's really satisfying.
I'll drizzle them with a bit more olive oil. The olive oil is so important for getting those crispy bits around the edges. It's also going to help the potatoes not stick on the pan. And they have to be salty. Potatoes always need more salt than I think they're going to need. Let's get some black pepper on here. I like keeping this dish simple, because these potatoes are so buttery and good. And they really don't need anything else to make them better.
These are going to get popped in the oven for about 40 to 45 minutes at 400 until they're golden and crispy. While these are baking, I'll whip up my chimichurri, which is essentially a fresh herb and garlic mixture that can just make this dish burst with flavor. I'll grab a bowl and garlic. I smash a couple cloves of garlic to release it from the peel. A lot of smashing going on in this recipe. Oftentimes, you might make chimichurri in a blender or a food processor. I hate cleaning those, so I just chop everything up really, really finely. And then there's very few dishes involved.
Next, I slice up half a jalapeno. I grab a handful of cilantro and parsley. OK, let's give this some salt. Douse the whole thing in olive oil. And I add the juice from half a lemon. Let's see how that tastes with just half. That is bright. Delicious. Needs a little more salt. Oh, I love that. I'm going to check my potatoes.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Yes. We have reached peak crispiness. These potatoes smell amazing. I'll transfer these to my serving bowl. You can hear how crispy they are. I'll grab my chimichurri and drizzle on just a bit. I'm going to serve it on the side in case anybody wants more, too. And these are ready to go.
Still to come, my mom helps me with my hearty brisket tacos.
JODY YEH: It's like butter.
MOLLY YEH: Ooh, yeah.
And then it's supper time around the bonfire. My favorite.
My mom's on her way over to help make brisket for tonight's campfire dinner. It's such a beautiful day, so I'm just catching some sun and planting some herbs before she gets here.
JODY YEH: Hi, sweetie.
MOLLY YEH: Hi, mom. Welcome. How's it going?
JODY YEH: It's going good.
MOLLY YEH: How was the journey?
JODY YEH: It was very nice.
MOLLY YEH: Are your arms tired? Come on, let's go inside.
JODY YEH: Let's go make brisket.
MOLLY YEH: OK.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Let's get started on the brisket. We're going to get started braising this guy.
JODY YEH: Beautiful.
MOLLY YEH: Do you want to salt and pepper both sides of that?
JODY YEH: OK.
MOLLY YEH: A braised brisket is the sign of a good occasion. Holidays, visits from her.
JODY YEH: Aww.
MOLLY YEH: OK, I'm going to get some oil in the pot.
JODY YEH: What kind of oil are we using?
MOLLY YEH: This is canola oil. Let's get that in there. Got it? Here. Don't drop the brisket.
JODY YEH: I won't--
MOLLY YEH: I'm going to grab our garlic and onion.
JODY YEH: Oh, man. Smells good already.
MOLLY YEH: It's a good sizzle.
JODY YEH: I'm going to put a little more salt to this.
MOLLY YEH: OK, good. Yeah. Oh, do you want to grab the carrots and celery and the tomatoes from the fridge?
JODY YEH: OK.
MOLLY YEH: You'll be the flipper and I'll be the chopper.
JODY YEH: OK.
MOLLY YEH: So this meat is searing, which will give it a beautiful flavor. It's really important to sear the meat before you add the rest of the braising liquid. You want to develop those brown bits at the bottom and then stir them back into the mixture to add more flavor.
JODY YEH: OK, this is ready to turn. OK, ready?
MOLLY YEH: One, two, three. Oh, yeah.
JODY YEH: Oh, yeah.
MOLLY YEH: That's a good step.
The first time that I made brisket by myself, I was in college, and I was on the phone with her the entire time. And she was telling me how the most important thing that you can give brisket is time. It's not thyme like the herb, but time like hours and hours. Because brisket is the type of meat that's going to be very firm for a while until it's ready. And when it's ready, it gets so soft and tender, and it's unreal.
JODY YEH: The process of making it is just as much fun as eating it.
MOLLY YEH: It makes the house smell amazing.
JODY YEH: It does.
MOLLY YEH: And that's how I know it's the holidays, when our house smells--
JODY YEH: When it smells like brisket.
MOLLY YEH: OK, I'm going to add the vegetables to this. Sauteeing some celery, carrot, and onion, and fat from the brisket will add a more rounded hearty flavor. I'm making a mess.
JODY YEH: But a messy kitchen is a happy kitchen.
MOLLY YEH: I set her up for that one.
JODY YEH: No, I can't resist.
MOLLY YEH: OK, you want to give that a stir and some salt. Next, we'll add some coriander seeds. I love the light citrusy taste they add.
JODY YEH: Oh, they're great when they pop in your mouth. When you chew them, there's just citrus and spice all together in a little ball.
MOLLY YEH: Clearly I have learned the love of cooking from this one. OK, let's have the tomatoes now.
JODY YEH: OK.
MOLLY YEH: Give that a stir.
JODY YEH: Give that a zhuzh.
MOLLY YEH: All right, should we add the brisket back?
JODY YEH: Okey-dokey.
MOLLY YEH: And it's going to be fat side up so that when it braises, that fat comes down into that meat. So rich and good. Beautiful.
JODY YEH: I'm going to pour in some beef broth.
MOLLY YEH: And then you want to grab the wine. We'll add about half a cup of that.
[POURING]
OK. You want to grab the orange.
JODY YEH: OK. Orange goes with any kind of beef so well.
MOLLY YEH: And it's orange. Because she's from New York.
JODY YEH: How are you supposed to say it?
MOLLY YEH: It's an O.
JODY YEH: Orange.
MOLLY YEH: Orange. OK, why don't you cover it?
JODY YEH: OK.
MOLLY YEH: So this is going to go in the oven for about three to four hours at 325. Slow and low.
Coming up, hearty brisket tacos around the campfire. With my homemade raspberry marshmallows for dessert. Does life get any tastier?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
It smells so good in here.
JODY YEH: The moment of truth. Ready?
MOLLY YEH: Wait, wait, wait. 1, 2-- 1, 2, 3. Yum. It's so beautiful. Got to transfer it to that board.
JODY YEH: Yes.
MOLLY YEH AND JODY YEH: 1, 2, 3.
MOLLY YEH: Perfect. You know it's ready when it doesn't fight back if you stick a fork in it? Should I slice it?
JODY YEH: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got it, Miss. It's like butter.
MOLLY YEH: Ooh, yeah.
JODY YEH: Yeah. I think we did good.
MOLLY YEH: Get a fork.
JODY YEH: A little bit right there.
MOLLY YEH: OK. OK, ready?
JODY YEH: Oh my god.
MOLLY YEH: It's going to be perfect with the taco.
JODY YEH: It is so juicy and tender.
MOLLY YEH: The flavor just keeps on coming.
JODY YEH: It does. We did good, kid.
MOLLY YEH: So you want to grab the pickled onions from the fridge. I'm setting all my tortillas in a serving pan and adding the brisket first. Then the charred corn salsa.
It's got fresh tomatoes from the garden in it.
JODY YEH: Oh.
MOLLY YEH: Some pickled onions. Crumbles of queso fresco.
JODY YEH: Could this get any better?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
MOLLY YEH: No. Now they're ready for a party.
JODY YEH: Yeah.
MOLLY YEH: Let's add some limes. Here, we can just put these on the side so that when we eat them, we'll--
JODY YEH: We can squeeze.
MOLLY YEH: Yeah.
JODY YEH: OK.
MOLLY YEH: I like the bits that are at the bottom of the pot, the way the brisket in.
JODY YEH: Should I-- let's--
MOLLY YEH: Here, I'll just do this.
JODY YEH: OK.
MOLLY YEH: Add the limes around the tacos.
JODY YEH: OK.
MOLLY YEH: And, yeah. All of these delicious slow-cooked vegetables are in here. They're so flavorful.
JODY YEH: Uh-huh.
MOLLY YEH: And we can just dip in this.
JODY YEH: Perfect.
MOLLY YEH: Here. Do you want to grab the cups and the flasks?
JODY YEH: OK.
MOLLY YEH: And I'll meet you out there.
JODY YEH: Great.
MOLLY YEH: Perfect, we're ready to go.
[CRACKLING]
SPEAKER: Wow, what do you have there?
MOLLY YEH: OK, we have tacos.
SPEAKER: Tacos.
MOLLY YEH: And potatoes and a whole bunch of other good--
JODY YEH: Look at--
MOLLY YEH: --stuff.
SPEAKER: Oh my gosh, this is what you guys have been doing all day.
MOLLY YEH: Yes.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JODY YEH: It was outstanding.
MOLLY YEH: Yay.
JODY YEH: So delicious.
SPEAKER: Oh my gosh.
JODY YEH: My gosh, thank you, sweetie. It's like getting a sweet tart. Isn't that good?
SPEAKER: This is the good stuff right there.
JODY YEH: To great times and great food.