Cook's Country

-"Cook's Country" is about more than just getting dinner on the table.

We're also fascinated by the people and stories behind the dishes.

We go inside kitchens in every corner of the country to learn how real people cook.

And we look back through time to see how history influences the way we eat today.

We bring that inspiration back to our test kitchen so we can share it with you.

This is "Cook's Country."

-Today on "Cook's Country," we're inspired by the Indigenous pantry.

First, Bryan visits Minneapolis to learn from chef Sean Sherman.

Bryan shows me how to make grilled sweet potatoes with maple chile crisp.

And Morgan and I make cider-braised turkey.

That's all right here on "Cook's Country."

Funding for this program has been provided by the following... Monument Grills Denali 605 Pro, made for the family cookout and weeknight dinner.

With 900 square inches of cooking space, several accessories, and Bluetooth capabilities, it's designed with the host in mind.

Monument Grills, the everybody, everywhere grill.

-Minnesota, the Dakota Sioux word for the river's cloudy water, is home to 11 federally recognized tribal nations.

In the heart of Minneapolis, just off the shore of the Mississippi River, Oglala Lakota Sioux chef Sean Sherman is rewriting the culinary narrative one recipe at a time.

-The restaurant was the stage that we needed to really showcase what we're doing with this philosophy, with these foods and flavors, and give us this playground to be creative and carve a path forward.

-Toni and I met up with Sean and local food writer Mecca Bos at his restaurant, Owamni, to learn about his culinary philosophy.

-We just try to showcase what's possible with modern Indigenous foods.

So basically just identifying our Indigenous pantries, and the philosophy was cutting out colonial ingredients and removing things that were introduced by Europeans.

So no dairy, no wheat flour, no cane sugar, no beef, pork, chicken.

Focusing on a lot of wild games.

-Sean works with Indigenous purveyors across the US to source seasonal ingredients that existed in North America before Europeans arrived.

-I mean, I think everybody's first impression is that something's gonna be taken away from you.

And those of us that have these cultural connections realize that there's just so much more than what we've been conditioned to think of in the standard American diet.

-One thing that comes to mind is sorbet versus ice cream, right?

Like, sorbet, those flavors hit your tongue and it's like a Ferrari, you know?

Because you don't have all that dairy coating your mouth, you know?

-Yeah.

-And when you eliminate all that fat, you really get, like, these alive flavors.

-It's an excellent way to put it.

It's a Ferrari of flavor.

[ Laughter ] The next day, Sean took me into the kitchen to learn more about how he uses his Indigenous pantry for one of my favorite dishes on the menu -- sweet potatoes with maple chile crisp.

-At my house, in my garden, usually at the end of the year, I harvest all of my chiles and just let them dry out, and then I would just make a huge batch of chile oil sweetened with maple.

-I love that.

You know, it's like we all cook from a specific pantry.

But I love how you look at this Indigenous, pre-colonial pantry.

And you start riffing on concepts that, you know -- We all know Chinese chile crisp.

-Yeah, yeah.

-But to me, the flavor there is so deep and complex.

-Yeah.

-Sean's work extends far beyond the kitchen.

He runs a nonprofit called North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems.

-So, we have this market space.

We have our production kitchen.

We have a classroom on the other side to do a lot of education.

But here in the market, it was just to create a place where we can create access to Indigenous food products from Indigenous food producers.

-The organization also maintains an Indigenous teaching garden in south Minneapolis.

-It took us a couple of years to kind of get it all together, 'cause it is an urban space, so it takes a lot of care.

-To help with that care, Sean brought in ethnobotanist Linda Black Elk.

How many different varieties of plants are in here, do you reckon?

-Oh, probably 120 or so.

-And you can identify all of them?

-Every one of them by scientific name, Lakota name, and English name.

-Wow.

[ Both laugh ] What some people might see as weeds, Linda sees as food.

-I think when people come in here, a lot of times they think, "Wow."

They're overwhelmed by all the green, all the growth, and they think a lot of it is weeds.

"Weeds" is such a value-based term, like, among Western cultures, and it implies that something isn't useful, right?

One of the most common, popular weeds is dandelions, which is an amazing food and medicine.

And so we actually grow dandelions in this garden on purpose.

-It's just what we talk about with all the food and just talking about things that are around us and utilizing a lot of these flavors that you would never find on a typical menu.

-It was amazing to spend time with Sean and his impressive team, learning all about Indigenous foodways, culture, and cooking techniques.

Toni and I left Minneapolis with full hearts and bellies and inspired to cook from an Indigenous pantry ourselves.

-So, can I do that at home?

-I'll figure something out for you.

-You're gonna help me figure that out?

[ Laughter ] -You know, Bryan, there were so many amazing, flavor-packed dishes on Sean's menu, but this one was the one that really wowed me.

-Yeah.

I'd say this was the dish of the year for me, you know?

And as a chef, I wish I'd thought of this dish, you know?

And it it's so simple, perfectly executed.

And it all leans on this flavorful chile crisp that we're gonna start off by making.

-Love that.

-For our chile crisp, we have five different varieties of chiles here, all native to the Americas.

To start here on the left, we have arbol chiles, which are not gonna add too much flavor but a little bit of heat, okay?

You can smell.

It doesn't really contribute much by the way of the nose.

-Got it.

-These are chipotle chiles.

These are dried jalapeos that have been smoked, and that's gonna add a nice subtle smokiness to our chile crisp.

-Really nice.

-Now, these two chiles are primarily the ones that are gonna add the heat.

So if you're averse to a little bit of spiciness, we'll remove one of each of those.

-But if I do?

-Then we're gonna leave it in.

We're gonna let it rock!

[ Laughs ] Then we have New Mexico chiles.

Now, these have almost like a grassy and slightly smoky flavor because of the natural drying process that they go through.

-Well, it's very subtle after the chipotle, right?

Which is just such a profound smoky flavor.

-Right.

These are guajillo chiles, which I always think of as kind of like an herbal, oregano-like aroma to them.

It's very familiar, though, isn't it?

-It is very familiar.

It's so familiar that it's like the standard chile powder.

-And these are ancho chiles, which are dried poblano chiles.

[ Sniffs ] These have a very raisiny, almost burnt-coffee-like aroma to them.

-I love that description.

Raisiny.

I totally get that.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

And it's almost kind of sweet.

-So we are gonna toast these in a 400-degree oven for just 3 to 5 minutes.

They can go from toasted to burnt in a matter of seconds, so you want to keep an eye out for them.

And you want to follow your nose on this.

You should start to just barely smell the aroma of chiles coming from the oven.

400-degrees, middle rack.

We'll let it rip.

All right.

Our chiles are out of the oven.

They've been cooling for 10 minutes.

You can see the difference.

They've plumped up.

They've gotten a little bit darker in color.

They're also a lot more brittle.

See?

And that's exactly what we want.

So we're gonna stem and seed all these chiles.

Just kind of shake out all the stems and seeds, and I'll put the chiles back over here and I'll work from one side of the tray.

Now we're gonna start processing them in our spice grinder.

I'm gonna do a handful of chiles at a time.

And, you know, the number of batches you do really depends on the size of your spice grinder.

I like to fill it up just about halfway and do a few more batches, 'cause it's a little bit more efficient for the machine.

So I'm gonna put the cap on and give it six pulses.

And we're looking for pieces that are no bigger than a quarter of an inch.

-Okay.

-And the reason why we pulse rather than just hold the button down is because if we just held the button, they'd all kind of process the same size very quickly, and we want that variation in texture.

Our chiles are all ground up and looking nice.

Over here we have a cup and a half of sunflower oil that we're heating up.

We're looking for it to hit 375 degrees.

And that's gonna be the base for our chile oil.

Sunflower because it has a neutral flavor and a really high smoke point.

So we can talk about our other ingredients for our chile crisp, and those are gonna be a few scallions here.

We have three scallions that we're gonna slice thin.

So we can drop our scallions right into our chile mixture.

And then we're also going to add 2 tablespoons of maple sugar.

All right.

And then we have three garlic cloves that have been minced.

And then 1 1/2 teaspoons of fine sea salt.

As compared to table salt, not only is it a much more natural product, but it's less salty.

So you're less likely to overseason something.

So we're looking for our oil to hit 375 degrees.

And it's right there, so we can kill the heat on that.

And now we're going to carefully add our oil to our chile mixture.

Keep our faces away from this, 'cause it'll steam and you'll get all that chile evaporating in your face.

Nice sizzle.

-I love that.

It's cooking right there in the pan.

It's pretty cool.

-You can smell it already, right?

-Mm-hmm.

-So we need to let this sit for at least 30 minutes to cool to room temperature, and we'll give it the occasional stir as it sits.

And then we're gonna jar it up and let it sit for at least four hours before we start using it, 'cause those flavors need to commingle and meld and hang out together and have fun.

This could really sit in your cupboard for a good month or so, though.

All right.

Let's talk about sweet potatoes.

I have two 12- to 16-ounce white sweet potatoes here.

And we're using white sweet potatoes 'cause they're a little bit more dense, a little drier, a little less sweet.

You could, of course, use orange sweet potatoes.

We're gonna bake these off in a 400-degree oven until they're nice and tender.

But before we throw them in the oven, we want to prick them all over about six times to keep them from exploding while they're in the oven.

This just lets some of the steam escape as they cook.

So I'm gonna throw these into a 400-degree oven.

The oven's set to the middle rack.

Let them cook until they're nice and tender, meaning a paring knife will insert very easily in and out of the potato.

And that takes anywhere between an hour and a quarter and an hour and a half.

All right, Toni.

These potatoes have been cooking for about an hour and a half.

-It smells so good.

-I love the smell of sweet potatoes.

So we'll just take our paring knife and make sure it goes in and out of the potato very easily, and we know they're perfectly done.

Now we're just gonna let these sit and cool at room temperature for at least two hours.

And then after that, we can refrigerate them for as long as two days.

And actually, they're easier to grill once they're nice and cold.

Our potatoes have chilled for several hours in the refrigerator.

So we're gonna take these potatoes and we're just gonna slice them in half lengthwise so we have a nice flat surface to cook.

-Mmm.

Look at that beautiful color.

-So before we put them onto our grill pan here, actually, you could do this outside if you prefer.

But the important step either way is to make sure your grill pan is very well greased and oiled, because, again -- sweet potatoes, sugar, fire -- tends to stick.

So we're gonna brush the cut sides of these potatoes with a little bit of sunflower oil.

Then we'll just sprinkle them with a little bit of salt.

Again, this is fine sea salt.

And then we're gonna throw them right onto our grill pan.

And once we put them on there, we don't want to move them until the char is formed and they can release easily.

And this grill pan has been preheating on medium-high heat for 10 minutes.

And we'll let that go for at least, you know, 3 to 5 minutes.

You should hear that sizzle.

You should see a little bit of smoke coming off this griddle.

All right.

It's been about 3 minutes, and I can smell those sugars caramelizing and I can see along the edge here how the skin is starting to blacken a little bit.

So, using a fish spatula, which is one of my favorite kitchen tools here because it's nice and stiff and it's thin, so we can get underneath and make sure it can lift off.

And because it can, we know the rest of them are ready.

So before we flip them all over, we're gonna brush again with a little bit of sunflower oil.

This is gonna help us get that crispy skin.

Then we'll just sprinkle them with a little bit of salt.

-It really shows the importance of trusting the timing.

-Trust the fire.

Trust the heat.

-Yeah.

You can smell that char beginning to develop.

-So now we can go ahead and flip them over.

See how they release nicely?

-Beautiful.

-That's exactly what we're looking for.

-That is stunning.

-Okay.

It's been about 5 minutes on the skin side.

And we're ready to check those.

You can see we don't have as many grill marks, but the skin is nice and crispy 'cause it's been in such close contact with that heat.

And we're just gonna throw them onto our sheet pan now, and these are ready to go.

All right.

Our potatoes have cooled slightly.

That's the great thing about this dish.

You can cook these way ahead of time.

You can serve them a little bit more warm if you'd like to.

But room temperature is absolutely perfect for this dish.

We're gonna cut our scallion garnish.

And then for this, we're gonna cut the scallion in a little bit more fancy.

Whenever I cut a scallion for garnish, typically I'll do a nice long bias cut just to tell the entire world that I'm fancy.

And now for our potatoes.

We're just gonna split these in half lengthwise first.

-You hear that crisp.

-You hear that crunch.

And then once in half crosswise.

[ Skin crackling ] And then as we cut them, we really just want to arrange them on a platter.

Just kind of randomly, just like they fell out of the sweet potato sky.

We can head over here, and we could douse these with our chile crisp.

-Ooh.

Look at that.

-So we don't have a lot going on here.

We have salted grilled sweet potatoes and this magnificent chile crisp.

And we are going to douse these potatoes with the chile crisp.

For this amount of potatoes, I'd use a good 1/2 cup or so.

Remember, this is the key flavoring agent here.

And I tell you what.

Once you start messing around with this chile crisp, you are gonna find all kinds of amazing uses for it.

Then we're gonna hit it with a little bit of sea salt.

You know, 'cause we have all those cut surfaces of the potatoes that have not had any seasoning.

So don't be cheap with this.

Finally we'll hit it with our beautifully sliced scallions.

-Oh, my goodness.

-Our fancy scallions.

-That is so beautiful.

And it looks just like it did in the restaurant.

-Okay.

Can I serve you up?

-Are we gonna start?

I'm excited.

-We're gonna start.

We're gonna start.

All right.

So let me give you a couple pieces here.

Now, you know, even though there's only two potatoes here, I'd say this easily serves four people, maybe even six people.

-Mmm.

Yum.

-All right.

And just in case, you know... -I was thinking I might need another little spoonful, but I was gonna wait.

-All right.

So, you ready to dig in?

-I have been waiting for this.

-[ Laughs ] I'm sorry it took me so long.

-I want to make sure I get a little of that skin, though.

-Mmm.

-Mmm.

The creaminess of that potato bumps into the char, and you get the layers of flavor here with the chile crisp.

And I want the skin.

-Yeah.

The skin is, like, the best part of this, right?

-It's also such a refreshing change from the classic way of making sweet potatoes, right?

Everybody thinks buttery, cinnamony, the savoriness.

The combination is amazing.

-That is a perfect synopsis of the experience at Owamni.

You know, I was familiar with a lot of the ingredients.

Many of them were new to me.

But it was the way that Sean looked at the ingredients and did different things with them.

-There's a story attached to this recipe.

-Mm-hmm.

-It's really fun to tell.

Thanks for bringing that flavor home for us, Bryan.

-You're very welcome.

-And if you would like to bring the savory, sweet flavors of Sean Sherman's kitchen into your home, toast chiles in the oven until fragrant, precook the sweet potatoes and cool completely, and brush the potatoes with oil to ensure smooth release.

And be sure to top them with that amazing, delicious chile crisp.

From "Cook's Country," grilled sweet potatoes with maple chile crisp.

This was amazing.

-Oh, it's so good.

-Just as stunning as the ones in the restaurant.

I can't wait to make it.

-It's my favorite dish of the year.

-Sean's way of cooking with what grows, roams, and swims near where you live makes perfect sense.

So I asked our staff at "Cook's Country" to cook through his book to become familiar with his tastes and the vibrant flavors.

And Morgan is here.

She's gonna tell us about one of those dishes.

-That's right, Toni.

So I'm making a cider-braised turkey that's inspired by one of his recipes from his book, "The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen."

And so here I have 8 pounds of bone-in turkey pieces.

So I'm using thighs and drumsticks.

And I'm gonna start by patting them dry.

You can use any combination of thighs or drumsticks.

You do want to make sure they're each about a pound.

And now I'm gonna sprinkle them all over with a tablespoon of fine sea salt.

This is gonna help season them throughout.

I'm gonna let this sit on the turkey thighs and drumsticks.

It's gonna actually help them retain their moisture and stay nice and juicy during the braise.

So if you have a large platter, of course you could use that.

I'm just using a sheet pan just because it's what I have that fits these.

I'm gonna cover these with plastic and let them sit in the fridge for 12 to 24 hours, which will really help enhance that flavor and bring out that juiciness while they're braising.

But first, I need to wash my hands.

So, we're actually gonna braise the turkey, so I do want to make a really flavorful base for the braising.

And I'm starting with 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil.

This is another nod to the Indigenous pantry.

Sunflowers are Indigenous to the Americas.

So I added this to a large saucepan.

I'm gonna heat it over medium-high heat until it's just shimmering.

And while that heats, I'm gonna prep some ginger.

So here I have a 3-inch piece of ginger.

You can see it still has its peel on and everything.

And I'm just gonna slice this into thin rounds.

So I'm doing quarter-inch-thick rounds.

And let's just see if this is shimmering.

I think I see some light shimmering going on.

So I'm gonna add this, my ginger.

And then I'm also gonna add a chopped onion and 1 1/2 teaspoons of that fine sea salt again.

I'm just gonna cook these until they're nice and soft, which will take about 3 minutes.

These are looking nice and soft.

I've got 3 cups of apple cider.

I'm gonna add six sprigs of fresh sage.

This is something we borrowed from Sean's recipe.

He uses a lot of sage.

And then I have an ounce of porcini mushrooms that we rinsed and drained.

So these are actually our own addition.

This isn't something we borrowed from his recipe.

But it adds a lot of meaty depth here.

So, I think we're officially at a boil, so I'm gonna add this to my roasting pan.

I have a tendency to splash, so I'm gonna stay away from you.

-I'm gonna stand over here.

-Yeah.

I don't want to accidentally splash you.

This is our turkey.

Of course, it sat 12 hours, so it's got nice and seasoned.

You actually don't have to be super thoughtful in which side goes skin side up or skin side down now.

But later you will.

This turkey is gonna release a lot of juices while it braises.

That's gonna also mix with this apple cider and make a really flavorful sauce.

Okay.

So the turkey's all nestled in there.

Now I'm gonna cover with foil and put it in a 300-degree oven on the middle rack.

We're gonna let it go an hour and a half.

Then I'm actually gonna remove it from the oven, remove that foil, and flip the turkey to keep it nice and even in its cooking.

I'm gonna put it back in the oven for another hour and a half.

And by then, it'll be fork-tender.

Thank you.

-You are welcome.

-Oh, it smells so good.

-It does smell good, doesn't it?

-Mm-hmm.

I'm not quite done, but it does smell delicious, right?

-It does.

-Let's see.

Let's check some.

So -- Oh, yeah.

See how, like, tender that meat is?

-Oh, it looks delectable.

-Yes.

So I'm gonna pull these out.

Now, I do want to strain this liquid into this 8-cup liquid measure.

Here I have these solids, and I'm actually gonna use them to add body to the sauce.

I'm gonna pick out these sage leaves.

But I'm actually gonna use the rest of this to thicken the sauce.

I'm gonna give this a little stir 'cause the fat's settling on top.

So I've got a little over 6 cups in here.

So I'm just gonna add 2 cups into this and blend it just to give it enough liquid to blend with.

[ Machine whirs ] Yeah.

That looks nice and smooth.

-And it smells divine.

-Yeah.

Very nice.

I'm just gonna add this right back into the roasting pan.

Would you mind adding the rest of that braising liquid in here?

-You want this full amount?

-The full amount.

-Okay.

-Now I'm just gonna whisk this all in.

You can see it is taking on this nice body.

The sauce is getting nice and thick.

-And you're also getting a little bit of that fond that's in the bottom of the pan.

-Yeah.

So a few more things.

So here I have 2 tablespoons of whole-grain mustard.

This is our own little spin.

And then I also have 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar as well.

Nice hit of acidity there.

And back in the turkey goes.

This time I do want to be really thoughtful about putting the turkey skin side up, 'cause we're gonna put it back in the oven and get some nice browning on there.

So this time, I'm not gonna cover it.

This time it's going in uncovered.

We bump the oven up to 400 degrees, and it's gonna go in there for another 20 to 25 minutes until that skin is nice and well browned.

-Sounds great.

Oh, my goodness.

Look at that.

-I know.

Isn't it so pretty?

-It's beautiful.

And the skin crisped right up.

-Exactly.

I know.

It looks so pretty now.

I feel like we've got that skin nice and crisp.

That extra 20 minutes just does so much work to make this presentation-worthy and get that skin nice.

-Absolutely.

It's beautiful.

-Okay.

So it is almost time for us to eat.

These do need to rest about 20 minutes, but I am gonna move them over to the serving platter.

Toni, it's time to eat.

Do you want a thigh or a drumstick?

-Oh, I want one of those crispy-looking thighs.

-This one's, like, the prettiest, so I think it's a good Toni one.

Let's see.

There we go.

-Thank you.

-And I add some of the sauce -- some of the braising liquid and that beautiful sauce we built -- to yours.

-It's so beautiful, and it smells so good.

Look at that, the way that it's coating the skin.

-All right.

I'm gonna go in for this little corner.

-Mmm.

Mmm.

-Yeah.

The meat's so tender.

It's got some nice sweetness.

I feel like everything you've ever heard about turkey being bland, it's just, like, gone.

-Out the window.

-Out the window with this.

-It's so moist.

And we know that dark meat is gonna be moist.

But there's something else here.

The sweetness from the apples, it really comes through.

And that little hint of ginger, just the tiniest little bit of a bite.

But you don't quite know what it is, right?

You just know there's something really special about it.

-Yeah.

Just like a little bit of complexity in there.

-Mmm.

I just love that sweetness.

-The skin has a really nice crispness.

It's like, even after braising, you still get really nice, like, texture.

It's not at all soft.

It's just really nice and crisp.

And the sauce, you get so much meatiness from the porcini.

I feel like it was such an interesting thing to get to cook through his recipes and learn from him.

-When the food is this delicious, it helps us think differently about the ingredients, right?

We don't always think about who grew it and what its meaning is to other communities.

And so this idea of the Indigenous pantry really comes through in this dish.

I really love the way that you delivered on this, Morgan.

Thank you.

-Oh, thank you, Toni.

-For ultra-tender turkey with a gravy-like sauce, salt the turkey parts overnight, blend the aromatic vegetables into a sauce and brown the turkey after you braise it.

From "Cook's Country," with thanks to Sean Sherman, cider-braised turkey.

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