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I'm Amy Thielen,
and I left a career as a chef in New York City
to return to my hometown in rural Minnesota.
Now I grow my own vegetables,
buy my eggs at the beauty salon
and milk from local dairy farmers.
Aah! [ Chuckles ]
Midwestern traditions are at the core of my cooking.
They're simple and honest
and I want to share them with you.
So join me at my heartland table.
-- Captions by VITAC --
Closed Captions provided by Scripps Networks, LLC.
I'm making my regular trip to Fargo, North Dakota,
to restock my pantry and to see my friend Andrea.
That's what so cool about this place --
that there's stuff that I don't know...
I don't know what it is.
Yeah, there's tons of things I don't know.
Then we're headed to her house to make an Icelandic pancake
from her grandmother's recipe book.
Mmm.
I'm also getting ready to grill with Aaron.
I'm making edamame tossed with fresh dill
and a smokey, spice-rubbed lamb with a simple yogurt sauce --
tart relief that's heavy on the herbs.
I think it really tastes better over the wood fire.
It's great!
I've been making the hour-and-a-half trip to Fargo
since I was a kid.
Growing up in a small town in northern Minnesota,
Fargo is the metropolis we visited
when we wanted to go to a concert or see a hot movie
or buy cool jeans.
But today, I'm looking for the ingredients I need
to make a great meal for me and Aaron.
And while I'm here, I'm going to hang out
with my friend Andrea Bombgardener,
a chef who worked in great restaurants
before coming home to roost.
She's kind of a kindred spirit.
People might think of Fargo as mostly Scandinavian,
but this city on the plains has changed.
An A&A Market is proof
that there's a rich cultural mix here,
and it's not unusual to meet home cooks
open to teaching me something
about the food of their homeland.
I love to go to the market called A&A International Market,
and they have one side that's all Korean
and one side that's Vietnamese.
And then you have Chinese ingredients,
and on the other side of the store, you have
Indian stuff and West African spices.
Okay, so I need coriander seed and cumin seed,
oh, and sesame seeds.
I'll get the brown, toasted ones.
ANDREA: Okay.
"Sharollee" -- I don't even know how you pronounce it.
I don't know.
That's what so cool about this place --
that there's stuff that I don't know.
[ Chuckles ] Yeah, there's tons of things I don't know.
Tons of things I don't know,
and always new things that I don't know about,
and so, it's a nice place to come.
Inspired by our shopping trip,
we head to Andrea's house in Fargo to talk food,
and we find ourselves looking through
her grandmother's old recipes.
These are her recipes?
These are. These are my grandmother's.
And then, this is a book with wartime rations in it,
which I think is really sort of fabulous.
Great design on the cover, too.
Totally.
And then Grandma wrote me a note.
"This is a recipe book from World War II days.
Love, Grandma Effie."
Her Grandma Frieda taught her
to love the process of cooking at an early age,
and Andrea's still making
her grandma's most legendary recipes.
What's ponnukokur?
Ponnukokur are Icelandic crepes, or pancakes.
Mm-hmm. So, that's the recipe.
And we can do it.
We can make this.
Want to make them?
Let's do it.
First we need to sift the flour,
the salt, the baking powder,
and the nutmeg.
Okay, that's a lot.
Nice and nutmegy.
Yeah.
We're adding cardamom that we got at the market
because while we both love traditional recipes,
neither of us are afraid
to bend them to suit our cravings.
Then we mix the sugar with the eggs.
So, yes, we're gonna do the eggs and sugar together,
and my grandma says, "Beat until fluffy."
All right, that's what the recipe says.
Whatever "fluffy" means.
My grandmother's recipes --
I figured out how to make them successfully
if I just put in a little bit more of anything fatty
and a little bit less flour
'cause that's how she cooked.
AMY: So, we only need 2 tablespoons of sugar?
That's not very much.
Sugar?
Yeah, let's do it.
And we're gonna go fluffy, whatever...
Yep.
Yeah, so when I was very briefly a pastry chef in New York,
I made a dessert that had a little bit of cardamom in it,
and everybody kind of gave me guff for it.
That seems so strange to me.
Growing up here in this region of the country,
people add a lot of cardamom to desserts.
It seemed very natural to me
because I grew up eating the cardamom bread.
It's so good.
I do.
I'm gonna keep whipping until I break a sweat,
and we'll call that "fluffy."
[ Chuckles ]
Next we add the vanilla to the cream.
Then we add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture.
Now we're adding the milk.
So, it says "scant two cups,"
but I'm going with a cup and a half.
And then, yep, the cream with the vanilla in it
is the last... last thing.
Now it's time to see
how these Icelandic pancakes turn out.
We fire up Andrea's vintage electric stove,
and she brings out her grandma's pancake pan.
I found this, and I'm quite sure
it has to be a ponnukokur pan, right?
Ponnukokur pan, totally. It's a crepe pan, yeah.
I love the wooden handle.
I know, and the aluminum.
Do you think it's aluminum?
I do think it's aluminum.
Yeah, it's totally aluminum.
So...
Well you could preheat it. Maybe it'll get...
We'll try it. We'll see what happens.
We pour roughly a 1/4 cup of batter
into the pan and tilt it to cover the entire surface.
ANDREA: Oh, yeah, it's doing the cute, little bubbles. Perfect.
You're doing it.
AMY: Oh, wow. That's beautiful.
That is beautiful.
This pan of your grandmother's, I think it's...
It really is a ponnukokur pan.
[ Both chuckle ]
We flip and brown the Icelandic pancake.
It takes about 30 seconds on each side.
Oh, that's gorgeous!
So pretty.
Oh, good.
Beautiful. That's perfect.
[ Pan sizzles ]
So, Amy, I'm gonna make the whipped cream
in my approximation of skyr,
which is an Icelandic yogurt --
creamy yogurt, whipped-cream thing.
So, what I do is I use a little bit of Greek yogurt,
a little bit of whipping cream, some powdered sugar,
whip it, and then we could put cardamom in that, too,
if we were really going crazy, but...
we also don't have to.
Kind of softly whipped,
but it will be perfect for our needs.
Me too.
The recipe says you can freeze the ponnukokur
with wax paper in between each
or you can serve them fresh.
We're gonna go with serving them fresh.
Okay, now, there isn't an easy way to eat these when they're not rolled.
I think you just have to let it get all over your face.
Mmm.
Actually, it's really good. I love the sour.
I'm so glad you found your grandma's recipe.
Oh, they're great. They're great.
Next, I'm butterflying a beautiful Icelandic lamb
that I picked up on my trip to Fargo
and rubbing it with a gutsy mix of spices
I bought at the A&A Market.
It's gonna taste amazing.
And I'm cooking it on my beloved
wood-fired backyard grill that we named "The Behemoth."
Lamb and wood -- awesome.
AMY: Scandinavian settlers
brought their rich sheep-breeding history
with them to the Midwest,
and Noreen Thomas of Doubting Thomas Farm,
north of Moorhead, Minnesota, continues that tradition today,
raising hearty, sweet-flavored Icelandic lamb.
With a leg of lamb from Noreen in my possession,
I'm going to bring some other cultures to the table
by whipping up a rub
with spices found at the international market.
So, I want to make a really fun spice crust for the lamb.
I'm gonna start with a tablespoon of coriander seed,
which is really neutral, kind of floral, and lovely,
and then I want to add some of this warm cumin
that I got with Andrea at the spice market --
just about a teaspoon.
I'm gonna toast these over the fire
until they turn a little bit fragrant and smoke.
I know a lot of people
don't make spice rubs with whole spices,
but I'm a little bit addicted to the scent
that they give off in the pan, and also,
it just adds a lot of freshness to the spice rub.
But you can do the same thing using just pre-ground spices.
So, I want to toast these.
Okay, when you can start to smell this, it's done.
Now I'm going to blend this in a spice mill,
which is just a little coffee grinder
that I keep for grinding spices.
2 teaspoons of sesame seed,
a little bit of ground cinnamon, about a teaspoon.
Now I'm going to add one tablespoon of sumac.
It's heavily used in Middle-Eastern and African food.
It has a natural tartness to it, kind of like a lemon pepper,
which is what I would use if I couldn't find sumac.
And then just blend this.
I love this combination. You can smell the cinnamon.
You can smell the kind of lemony sumac
and the cumin definitely.
Okay, now I'm going to prepare the lamb.
It's a leg of lamb, which has been *** out.
The bone had been taken out.
I want to butterfly it
and create as much surface area as possible on the grill.
I like to leave a little bit of the fat on the outside,
so I'm gonna open it up from the other side.
I want to cut away anything that has an iridescence to it.
That iridescence is a sinew. It's a little bit tough.
I'm also gonna open it up as much as I can, so to do that,
I'm gonna do something we call book butterflying.
I'm gonna cut into either side, and just open up the meat.
It's kind of an intuitive thing.
Once you start doing it, you'll see how it goes.
See? Just open that like a book.
The idea being to make this as thin as this.
So, I'm gonna make a diagonal cut...right here.
And then here... just gonna open it up.
See?
Now it's all about the same thickness.
I'm gonna trim a little bit of this fat and sinew.
We can leave a little bit of the fat.
Fat is good. Sinew, you don't want.
Now I going to crosshatch this.
I want to create lots of surface area --
lots of crevices for the spice to get into,
and lots of places for the meat to get dark and caramelized
because I love that.
So, make very shallow cuts into the meat.
Then you do the exact same thing in the other direction.
Now it's time to flip this thing over
and do a little bit of crosshatching
on the other side -- not too much.
I'm gonna leave the fat intact
because I like that to crisp on the grill.
I'm gonna go very shallowly on this side
'cause I don't want to make a mess.
This roast, when you cut it like this,
it's no beauty queen, but it's gonna taste amazing.
Okay.
Now I have about three cloves of grated garlic.
I'm gonna add a little bit of oil to this to make a paste.
I'm gonna rub this garlic all over the lamb,
both sides -- rub it into the crevices.
Garlic is good.
Now I'm going to apply the spice rub,
and you can let that marinate from one hour to overnight.
Actually, it gets better the longer it sits.
The sumac gives it a great tartness
that, actually, a lot of commercial spice rubs have.
They'll often have something tart
like citric acid or lemon-something,
and that's what makes them so addictive and good.
Next, I'll give an Asian staple a midwestern twist...
This is one of the easiest appetizers I know.
...and whip up a sidekick for the spiced lamb.
It's just fresh and light and cooling.
AMY: I didn't get any new jeans in Fargo,
but I did find some great spices
to make my regular weeknight dinner
that much more exciting.
I just came back from Fargo, North Dakota,
and my friend Andrea and I were talking
about how soybeans are actually a North Dakota product.
And we both love them when they're made
in the Asian tradition as edamame,
which means that you take the entire soybean, in its pod,
and boil it in heavily salted water,
drain it, toss it with a little bit more salt,
and just serve it fresh.
I'm going to add some greenery from my garden
and maybe some pea shoots
that I just picked from the garden
for added freshness.
So, it's the simplest appetizer, maybe in the world.
You just boil them.
And I want to salt them.
You want to give the water some flavor
so that the beans have some flavor themselves.
In the Japanese tradition, it's kind of a salty thing,
so don't be afraid of the salt here.
Okay, so these do not need to boil very long.
They just need to cook through, barely.
You want to leave them just hardly cooked --
just like a fresh pea.
They remind me so much of fresh peas.
That's why I want to throw in a little bit of pea shoot.
So, I'm gonna let these sit just for one second
while I chop the dill.
I just picked some fresh dill fronds from the garden --
about 2 tablespoons, or just a small pile.
And then I want to use coarse salt.
For this amount of soybeans... I want 2 teaspoons.
Okay, and then I picked some of these fresh pea shoots.
So then you just add all the coarse salt and the dill.
We'll mix those in first.
You just want to coat the edamame.
This is one of the easiest appetizers I know.
That's beautiful.
Try to get all the dill.
I really love the combination
of the fresh dill and the fresh bean.
And this is how you eat them.
You just kind of slip them in your teeth,
pull out the beans.
Fun. Mmm. And I love the salt.
Yum.
So, I'm making a grilled lamb
rubbed with a really piquant spice paste,
but I want to make a very cooling yogurt sauce
to go with it full of fresh herbs.
I'm gonna start with about a cup of just whole-milk yogurt.
Anything works.
You could actually do this with sour cream, too,
but I like the tartness of the yogurt.
Right now, I happen to have
quite a few things growing in the garden,
so I'm gonna add pretty much all of it.
I also love --
I really love the combination of cilantro and dill.
It's super fresh.
I'm gonna start trimming the cilantro from the stem end.
The stems have a really floral quality,
you should always use them.
Just a big heaping spoon of each of these.
Maybe I'll add a little bit more chive
'cause I like that fresh oniony kick.
Cilantro.
Here's the fresh dill.
Parsley would also be good in this.
Even basil would be good.
And then the chives.
Slice in the middle, turn it around.
And let's go with 2 tablespoons of chives.
Now to this I'm just gonna add salt, pepper...
...lemon...
...and olive oil...
...and then just a shake or two of cayenne to taste.
This is not a complicated thing.
It's just fresh and light and cooling.
Needs just a pinch of salt.
That's it.
The lamb is gonna be kind of strong-flavored,
so this is just really a cooling relief.
Up next, Aaron's going to help me
cook this lamb over a real fire.
Gorgeous.
Smells really good.
To find the recipes from this show,
go to foodnetwork.com/heartland.
AMY: It's time to cook the lamb on our custom-made grill
that we dubbed "The Behemoth."
One night, there was three of us
sitting around our little tiny tripod grill
fantasizing about making a big, giant one,
so the next day we got up and constructed this apparatus,
and we were grilling by the evening.
AMY: He's getting more wood
because I said it wasn't hot enough,
which is what I always say.
It's because I'm usually late coming to the fire,
and then the fire dies down too much.
It's just part of the fun of this grill. It's fun.
Lower it down.
That's good.
Gorgeous.
Smells really good.
Want to get lots of char on it.
This is good. I think the heat is good.
I'm thrilled to have an ingenious husband
who could come up with such a cool grill,
but you really don't need it to cook this.
Any gas or charcoal grill on high heat will do.
Just make sure you don't overcook the lamb.
About five minutes per side should do it.
Okay.
Oh, nice.
That looks good.
Do you think I should lower that down, though?
You think so? No, no.
I think that's good.
Yeah. It's hot enough.
It's hot.
Here, let me steady that for you.
Thank you.
That's a hot spot. That's good.
Just try it.
I love the crust. What do you think?
It's wonderful.
I love the sauce, though.
Mmm.
Yum.
You know, I think it really tastes better
over the wood fire.
Yeah.
It's great.
The behemoth did us proud.
Again.
Maybe we should get some plates.
[ Chuckles ]
Or not.