- [Yia] A single ingredient tells a story.

- [Man] This is beautiful.

- [Yia] About a person.

- My dad used to make this.

- [Yia] A place.

- Smells like home.

(laughs) - [Yia] A culture.

- So if we lose this, then we lose everything.

- I'm Chef Yia Vang.

- [Woman] That's awesome.

- I just want to impress my Puerto Rican auntie, you know?

(woman laughs) Step into the kitchen with local chefs.

Oh, my Gosh!

As we relish the cuisines and cultures of our neighbors.

(lively music) In this episode, Jorge Guzman heats things up with Mayan-style grilled pork.

Ann Kim shares family memories tied to the traditional Korean dish kimchi.

And 93-year-old home cook, Frances Olson, shares the story behind her sweet sorghum cookies.

But first, we're learning about the American hazelnut with cookbook author, Beth Dooley.

First, a trip to the farm.

(lively string music) (bell dings) Hey, Beth.

So good to see you.

Tell me a little bit more about this place.

- Oh, I'm so glad you're here, Yia.

This is one of my favorite farms.

They are using regenerative agriculture practices to grow beautiful foods.

And we both know that how food is grown and where it comes from makes a huge difference in flavor which is what we're both interested in.

- I'm so excited.

Let's get started!

- [Beth] All right!

- [Yia] You're very passionate about local ingredients.

Where did that passion start for you?

- [Beth] I had a wonderful grandmother who was a really good cook who had a fabulous garden.

And I grew up in New Jersey.

And so we'd go down to the New Jersey shore and she would stop at every farm stand and talk to every farmer.

And then we get to her backyard and she would harvest those Jersey tomatoes.

And she'd have raspberries growing on canes over her white picket fence.

I mean, it was really idyllic.

And when I came to Minnesota, I found foods that really spoke to me in the same way.

- Julie, I want you to tell us about the work you've done using regenerative agriculture.

It's amazing.

- [Julie] Yeah, well thanks.

The whole notion here is around a perennial farming base.

So moving away from the monocropping of corn and soybeans which was prevalent on this land for almost 25 years.

At the very basic level, we're cover cropping, we've planted perennials, and we re-introducing livestock.

And all of those together result in restoration of a land.

Of course, essential to that are the people who care for it.

- Hey, Josie.

Tell us about these garlic.

- This year, we grew three different varieties.

Well, I think that a lot of people, when they think garlic they just think garlic.

Wait, they're like, "Oh, there are varieties of garlic?"

You're like, "Yeah, man."

- We are really excited to be growing some of these softnecks that store a long time and have a really different flavor profile from the the hardnecks.

- The hardneck is a little shorter lasting, right?

And the flavor's softer?

- [Josie] It's softer.

- [Beth] So it's nice that we can have the choices as a cook.

So yeah, now we're going to meet farmer Wyatt and learn about hazelnuts.

- So we've got American hybrid hazelnuts here.

These are a cross of the native hazelnuts that you'd find all across Minnesota.

They're a much smaller kernel than you'd see in the commercial varieties.

But they've got a ton of flavor and these plants do a ton for the environment.

They're really efficient at taking excess nitrogen out of the soil and they put a ton of carbon back into the ground.

Their roots will go 12 feet down and 12 feet in every direction on either side.

And these are young plants.

These are only about three years old.

- [Yia] How old are they before you guys can start harvesting?

- It depends on your environment.

Some people start to see their first nuts after about three years.

So we have a few plants that are mature enough.

But on average, in that five to seven year range is when these plants will really start producing.

But they will produce nuts for well over 100 years if you maintain the grove properly.

- Awesome.

This is the first time I've seen a hazelnut in this form.

You know, I just see the final product.

- Yep, this is what you'll get out of the field.

These have been dried and partially processed but they still need to be cracked to get that kernel.

If you're going for oil, you can have some of the shell fragments mixed in and you can run it through a press.

For flour, you've got to get the product really clean.

- So this one little plant does so much.

So now, we're going to use hazelnut oil, hazelnut meal or flour, and the hazelnuts themselves in a dish that also uses this beautiful, fresh garlic.

- [Yia] Let's go to the kitchen and start cooking.

- [Beth] All right.

(cheerful string music) - Beth, show me what we're going to be doing.

- All right.

We're going to make a salad using all three hazelnut products.

We're going to start by roasting squash.

This is honeynut squash.

It's growing locally and it is a beautiful squash because it's so incredibly sweet.

And what I like about it is that it's mostly flesh and not a lot of seed.

- Yeah.

- Right?

- [Yia] Farm to table.

It's that trendy term.

Before it became trendy, this is something that you were very passionate about.

What drove that passion for you?

- [Beth] I have to be honest: flavor.

- Yeah.

(Beth laughs) - You know Yia, they gave us some of the most beautiful garlic.

- Yeah, what, maybe two cloves?

- Yeah, that sounds right.

- I'm always, I'm a classic over garlic-er.

(Beth laughs) - And so I got curious about, why does it taste better?

Well, it tastes better because it's grown in really nutritious soil.

Because it's not traveling millions of miles to get to our table.

And because it's in season and it's super fresh.

Combined with the fact that regenerative agriculture, it's capturing carbon, it's filtering water.

So we're keeping nitrates out of the Mississippi River.

I mean, there are all of these benefits but to me, first and foremost, is the fact that the food just really tastes good.

- [Yia] Yeah.

- [Beth] Okay, and we're just going to spread it on the pan.

You want to make sure that nothing's touching so they all get nice and crisp.

- When I see people roasting things, they bunch it up, and then it actually steams it.

It's not really roasting it.

- So, you really want enough space for everything to individually roast.

- Absolutely.

Let's move on to those crackers.

- Awesome.

- Okay.

We're using this beautiful hazelnut meal.

- So just to review, it's the hazelnut after it gets pressed for oil, and then they take the hazelnut and then they grind it up and then get this product out of it.

- Isn't that amazing?

- Genius.

- One night, three products.

- Yup.

- [Beth] So cool.

So I put one egg white in, then I'm going to add some Parmesan cheese, then a little bit of black pepper, fresh rosemary, can you smell that?

- I can, it's beautiful.

Yup.

- Oh, it's great, isn't it?

And this is where the fun begins.

So we're going to use our hands and it takes a couple of minutes for it to come together.

- This is where a little food science comes in, right?

Because if you had gluten, you would overwork it.

- That's right.

- By kneading too much.

But there is no gluten in there.

So you're going to have to work extra hard.

- That's exactly right.

- So it's like almost the opposite way of when you're thinking about working with flour dough.

- That's exactly right.

And if you have a five-year-old at home it's a great project for the-- - You leave them with-- - Yeah, I know.

- You're like, "Mommy's going out to get milk.

"Just don't move until-- (Beth laughing) - Yeah, Mom's going out for dinner.

- This is what the dough is going to look like.

- Yeah.

- And then we're going to put it on parchment paper.

We want this to be really thin, okay?

- So then when it bakes, super crispy.

- Really crispy, almost hard, right?

We talked about how hazelnuts have three products.

Actually, if you buy hazelnut oil, you've got four things.

- You get a roller, free roller.

- A rolling pin.

- That's about right.

Don't worry about the cracks because what we're going to do is take a knife and just trim everything off.

And the pieces that we don't use are going to crisp up and those are going to be a toasty garnish for the salad.

- It seems like that's the philosophy of these hazelnuts, you know?

Nothing goes to waste.

- Exactly.

So, so I know this doesn't look very pretty, but wait till you see it come out of the oven.

(timer dings) - It looks beautiful.

- [Beth] Beautiful.

- [Yia] I love the roasting on it.

Talk me through how we're going to put this salad together.

- All right.

I started the dressing already.

But I'm going to show you what I put in.

I've got a little bit of this really nice mustard in there.

And then this is a local vinegar.

And then we have our nice oil.

- [Yia] Obviously, yup.

- Okay?

And so I'm just going to add a little more oil to this and whisk it in.

And then what we're going to do is dump the roasted squash into the bowl.

And then we're just going to drizzle a little bit of this over.

- Okay.

- Give it a shake.

And then to that, these are region apples.

They're sort of an heirloom variety.

- Oh, cool.

- Yeah.

A few green onions.

A few dried cranberries.

Because we have fresh cranberries in there, that'll add some pop.

A little bit of a chopped up parsley.

And then just a few red onions.

Now, I've soaked those in cold water because that takes the bite out of it.

And then, I'm going to let you do your magic.

We're just going to plate that up and make it pretty.

We have the crackers that are ready to go.

Look at how crisp those are.

- Oh, wow.

- Okay?

Yeah.

- Oh, they're like, kind of hard!

- They are hard!

- I've gotta give it a little pressure.

- Yeah!

Give a little pressure.

- You can really taste that Parmesan in there.

- Isn't that nice?

- There's like a little Parmesan crisp, almost.

- All right, there's our salad.

- It looks delicious and I'm really hungry.

- Yeah, me too.

- Beth, this looks delicious, but not only that, it looks beautiful with all these vibrant colors in here.

First bite here.

So good!

You can totally taste the vinaigrette being absorbed into the squash and the apple.

It's delicious.

- Oh, good.

I'm so glad.

When I'm putting together a plate, I always think of that old trope, "What grows together, goes together", right?

- So the hazelnuts and the apples and the squash and the ginger all came from the same area and they worked together so beautifully.

And they're so vibrant because they've been grown in really good soil.

And that's what this is all about.

- Up next.

You'll find it on every Korean table.

Chef Ann Kim is talking kimchi.

- Kimchi is a staple on every Korean family's table.

I like mine funky, fermented, and hot.

Every Korean family has their own recipe and every family has a different palette.

And they always say, our kimchi is the best.

I think our kimchi is the best.

(laughs) (funky instrumental music) Kimchi basically means pickled, fermented vegetable.

And there's hundreds of varieties of kimchi.

You can pretty much make kimchi out of anything.

Traditional kimchi is fermented Napa cabbage.

The process of making kimchi takes several days.

The first step is to salt each leaf and we're basically brining it and removing some of the excess water.

I learned to make kimchi when I was very, very young.

Our family immigrated to the United States in the late '70s.

My grandmother immigrated with us.

I was at her hip when she was cooking.

Every year, we had a garden that she tended to and I'd help her pick vegetables and plant seeds.

In Minnesota, you couldn't go to the grocery store and buy a jar of kimchi.

If you were going to eat it, you had to make it.

So I have vivid memories of every fall, we would make kimchi by hundreds of pounds.

We would sit with my mother and grandmother in the laundry room and gather around our kiddie pool and we'd have different tasks.

Stuffing each Napa cabbage leaf with chili paste for fermentation and stuffing the jars.

It was a rite of passage for me and we made enough kimchi to last us through the winter.

So that's definitely in my blood.

The kimchi recipes are family recipes that were handed down from my mother and her mother before her.

Our family recipe also includes gochugaru which is a Korean type of chili flake, shrimp paste or shrimp brine, fish sauce, sugar, garlic, and ginger and onion.

And you ferment it and let it sit until all the flavors start to develop.

I've grown to really appreciate the kind of food I grew up with.

And that's really formed my palate today as a chef.

When we first opened up Pizzeria Lola we didn't have any Korean influences on the menu.

I wanted to challenge some of my diners.

So the first pizza that we put on the menu is called The Lady ZaZa.

And we have kimchi on that pizza.

And I think it's funny that a lot of our guests come and tell me that their introduction to kimchi for the first time is on a pizza but they fall in love with it.

And that they feel more inclined to go experience Korean food in a deeper way.

It was never my intention to share Korean food with the community.

That really is a reflection of my history and the food that tastes really good to me.

And if I can introduce them to a new culture and a new cuisine while they're enjoying it, then it's win-win.

(food sizzling) - [Yia] I'm seeing all these different kinds of spices, different kinds of veggies, fruit.

What are we making today?

- [Jorge] So we're going to make a dish that's called Poc Chuc.

- What does that translate to?

- So it's Mayan.

I grew up in a city called Merida.

In the Yucatan, a lot of words are Mayan words.

And the population still speaks the language which is really cool.

"Poc" means toasted and "chuc" means charcoal.

So basically, "cooked over charcoal".

And it's, traditionally, you can do it with anything but a lot of times it's done with pork.

And then you marinate it in a sour orange marinade and mojo de ajo and recado.

If you're familiar with what a jerk is in Jamaica or a marinade here in the States, a recado's similar to that.

Recados can be dry.

They can be a paste.

They can be a spice blend.

And there's an individual one for almost every dish.

So today we're going to make recado de escabeche.

And that's basically a dry spice blend with bay leaf, clove, pepper, allspice, and cumin.

These are all really common ingredients in the Yucatan.

And we just toast them and grind them up.

- The food from that region of Mexico, how's it different from other regions?

'Cause when we talk about Mexican food, everyone just automatically in their mind have that view of nachos, you know, and all that stuff.

- People have the misconception that Mexican food is just burritos or enchiladas.

Mexico has a number of different states.

Each of those states has its own regionality and its own type of cuisine and specialty.

So the food in the Yucatan is super interesting and really different from what you would consider, as an American, what Mexican food is, unless you're really studied up on what that cuisine is.

- Sometimes I feel like Hmong food, we're like this culinary mutt.

- That's kind of how the Yucatan is too.

It's a set cuisine but there's so many influences.

The jungles were so dense in the Yucatan that if you think about where their influence is coming from, it's not coming from the rest of Mexico because of how difficult it was to get there by land.

It would actually come from outside of that, which is, obviously, Spanish influence, there's Danish influence, there's Lebanese influence, there's Caribbean influence.

And then obviously there's the Mayan influence from the indigenous population.

So if you think about how long the Mayans have been on that peninsula, it goes back like 10,000 years.

(pestle echoes against mortar) Let's see.

Ah, you can go a little bit more.

- Yeah, I know.

I'm letting you down.

- You will never let me down, Yia.

- Aww.

I'm letting this 10,000-year-old culture down.

- That's a different story.

(Yia laughs) - I love the smell, dude.

- Yeah.

- Oh man, that's incredible.

- In the Yucatan, sour orange is another really prevalent ingredient.

We're going to use that for two applications.

We're going to use it for the salsa habanero.

We're also going to use it to help marinate the pork.

- Tell me a little bit more, describe a little bit more what a sour orange is.

- It's a fruit that grows in that specific area of the Yucatan and it's usually like a green skin and then you cut it open and it's this really almost vibrant translucent orange.

It's like a cross between a lime, orange, and grapefruit.

- Yeah dude, my mouth is watering.

I love sour oranges.

- Yeah, I mean It's used for everything, you know.

For marinating, for juicing, for all kinds of stuff.

- So if we don't have access to sour oranges, how do we make that flavor?

- So this is what you're going to do.

I like the ratio of two-one-one.

So two parts lime, one part orange, one part grapefruit.

That's a good way to remember it.

And then you just, whatever your preference is, but it does need to be a little bit sweet and sour, is what you're looking for.

- How did you get started in food?

- You know, I like to say that I can always remember food as a memory and they're usually a good memories.

So I always, I think I just gravitated towards cooking.

I can remember my first meal I made for the family was (laughing) nachos.

(Yia laughing) Like sheet-- - Traditional.

- Very traditional Mexican food.

Sheet pan nachos.

And so yeah, that's how I got started.

My parents divorced early.

My dad moved back to Mexico.

And so as kids, my brother and I would always go visit him for the summers.

And I have extremely vivid memories of my grandmother and grandfather's house.

Big dining room table where it's tradition to come home for lunch.

And my uncles would come home.

You'd have, lunch was like eight to 10 people, usually.

So I have a lot of memories of the food that we would eat around that table.

- So what are the next steps?

- So next, we're going to take the pork.

Season it with a bit of the recado that we made.

- Kind of work it in.

It's just like a dry rub, you know.

- Yeah, it's like a little dry rub.

And these need to marinate for like 30 minutes.

No longer.

You can't marinate this overnight because then all that acidity, it's basically going to cook the pork.

What you're looking for is just to get a little bit of that tanginess from the acidity.

And that's what makes this dish super interesting.

So we're going to add a little bit of the mojo.

- [Yia] What's in the mojo?

- Mojo comes from Cuba.

That's kind of the originates.

In this one, it's olive oil, sour orange juice, roasted garlic, a little bit of salt, and black pepper.

And that's it.

So super simple.

The Poc Chuc, it's such a quick dish, but if you think about everything we've done so far, making the mojo takes time.

Making the recado takes time.

And then the accompanying dishes like the salsa, the beans, the other salsa.

It's like, while it's a really quick dish to cook, if you don't have these ingredients ready and available it takes a couple of days to do.

So next, we'll take a little bit of the sour orange juice that we had and we're just kind of pouring it over.

- [Yia] All those sugars in there, it's going to help with that caramelization.

And once it hits that grill.

- Yeah, absolutely.

So we'll just set it off to the side and then we'll get onto our salsas and everything else.

- [Yia] Incredible.

(lively instrumental music) - So we're going to start the chiltomate sauce and also the habanero salsa at the same time.

We'll roast off our tomatoes, our habaneros.

The chiltomate sauce is usually made with one habanero, some tomato, garlic, onions, and then puree it and then refry it in lard.

So it's just a really great condiment.

- That sounds awesome.

- It's pretty tasty.

And then the habanero salsa is just, it's fuego.

It's fire.

In the Yucatan, it's hard to go anywhere out to eat, any table, in any family home that doesn't have salsa habanero on the table.

It's charred habaneros, lime or sour orange juice, and salt.

That's it.

So super spicy.

(blender whirs) It definitely has a punch.

(Jorge sniffs) Whew.

Oh, man.

(Yia laughs) Smells like home.

- Chef, we're getting to my favorite part here.

It's the grilling.

This is what I live for right here.

- This is a lot better over charcoal, obviously.

- Obviously.

While we're here.

- Yeah, oh, there we go.

That aroma.

Perfume.

- [Jorge] I like to get a really good sear and just keep flipping.

- For those who are like, "Hey, do we have this in the grill?

"Can we put it in the oven?"

I'm like, "Man, just do the grill."

It just doesn't, this doesn't work in the oven.

And you really want that caramelization, you know?

'Cause like, all that sugar, and those oranges.

- Agreed.

Yeah, I think that that's what's delicious about it.

We're smoking up the joint, huh?

- I know.

(Yia and Jorge laugh) - Man, this is looking really beautiful, dude.

- Yeah, I'm trying to render that fat down a little bit.

I like getting a good char on my food.

- Me too.

Mexican food, it's like char, get that flavor.

So don't be afraid of fire.

But that's when you got to keep turning it so it doesn't get sooty on you.

- This is the same way that my dad would grill.

- And this is the same way I learned how to grill.

You just keep moving it.

- [Jorge] Keep moving it.

Everything's constantly moving.

- Just let it rest for a second or two.

(meat sizzling) (cheerful Latin music) - Okay, Jorge.

Worked all day.

Now, it's right here, this is the best part.

- So we've got what we call frijoles colados which is just beans cooked, pureed.

We've got the chiltomate sauce and we've got the habanero, we'll call it a condiment, because it's like what you put on everything.

- It's not ketchup.

- It's not ketchup, right.

(Yia laughs) - And then we've got the Poc Chuc.

But the way I would eat it is I'd put your refried beans down first.

You're going to going fancy.

- [Yia] You know, hey, I gotta keep up.

- Pork on top, a little bit of chiltomate sauce, and then just a dab or two of the habanero sauce and go from there.

(lively music) So I'm going to let you take the first bite.

And make sure you get some pickled red onion, some cilantro.

- Yeah.

You just try to create that perfect bite.

- Yep, exactly.

(lively music) - That's so good, man.

That char from the grill.

I mean like, nothing beats that.

- [Jorge] No.

- Nothing beats that.

And I love, just that squeeze of lime.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- At the end, it cuts through all that fattiness.

But man, this black bean is incredible.

- Right?

- It kind of binds everything together.

- Yeah, it's just a staple, you know?

In the Yucatan, we eat a ton of black beans.

I love them.

I'll eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The food from the Yucatan is savory.

It's picante.

It's spicy.

It kind of runs the gamut because of all the influence.

You know, this is something that's really like, dear to me.

It's a cool, cool cuisine.

(cymbal reverberates) - And finally, a sweet story with a sweet lady.

Producer Brittany visits with her beloved grandma making sorghum cookies.

(playful string music) - I grew up in Meeker County, Collingwood Township, Steelsville District on a little farm two miles straight south of Dassel, Minnesota.

We grew a lot of things on our farm and one of the cash crops was sorghum.

Sorghum syrup was used in baking breads, cakes, cookies, syrup on your pancakes.

It was a sweetener.

My mother used a recipe for making these rolled out cookies that I use today.

I've substituted Crisco for lard.

We grew about six acres of sorghum.

Run the mixer a little and blend those two together.

Well, it looks like a corn plant when it comes up out of the ground.

The leaves were finer.

The stock was finer.

But out of the top grew a plume of seeds.

(whisk scrapes) When the seeds on top grew dark brown, that was time to harvest the sorghum.

Two teaspoons of ginger.

First of all, we stripped the plant of all its leaves because that juice was very bitter.

You wouldn't want that to get into your sorghum.

Then we cut down the plant.

The press would press out the sap.

And that sap, it would fall down into a pan and that pan was connected to a faucet connected to a hose.

And just through the force of gravity, it would run down into the pan where mother and dad were cooking sorghum.

Bring our board to the table.

You can pick up your wad of dough.

Now, if it's difficult for you to stand, you pull up a stool and it works just fine.

We had to boil the sap from the sorghum cane to make the syrup.

And it was a matter of progression.

The sap came in on one end and this long pan, I think the pan must've been 10 feet long, and a fire underneath would start cooking.

But all the green stuff, all the sludge, had to be taken off first and that was thrown into a barrel.

Throw it off, throw it off, you know.

And it's finally, it worked its way up until it was at the very end where there was a final cooking.

And my dad always did the finishing.

I'm sprinkling this on because it tastes good.

(playful spring music) We sold a lot of sorghum door-to-door, by word of mouth, just people calling.

And we had sorghum and they always got it all sold.

I don't know of any competition that people that had sorghum to sell like we did.

Whole handful of these and have a glass of milk.

(lively instrumental music) - [Female Crew Member 1] Jorge?

- A little bit more?

(chuckles) All right, that's funny.

- [Female Crew Member 2] More what?

- More energy.

I get told that a lot.

- Yeah.

I've been working with this guy for years.

He's at 110, this is 110.

- Yep.

- [Yia] We're maxed out.

(Yia and Jorge laugh) (electronic, tonal music)