I'm visiting a leading marine biologist who cultivates millions of oysters at a natural shellfish farm.

Then, my good buddy Chef Alex joins me as we grill clams two ways.

In the kitchen, it's a perfect celebration menu with my updated recipe for Waldorf salad, and an easy-to-prepare oysters Rockefeller.

Plus, family-friendly techniques on dipping chocolate.

(bright guitar music) Long Island Farm Bureau is a proud presenter of George Hirsch Lifestyle.

Long Island farmers continue their commitment to providing abundant, fresh commodities.

Supporting farmers and the local agriculture community for over 100 years.

I'm visiting one of the most picturesque, preserved farmlands in our region.

This type of farming dates all the way back to ancient Roman times.

The seeds are planted in water and the harvest is meticulously cultivated by a different type of farmer.

Marine biologists like Karen Rivara are carrying on this ancient tradition that keeps the water clean and provides a crop that is desired by many.

Take me through the cycle of an oyster.

So, they start out, they spawn, and they fertilize externally, so they're just sitting on the bay bottom, and all of a sudden they decide that it's time to spawn.

Water's warm, there's plenty of food, so they just spit out eggs and sperm and you can't tell a male from a female until they start spawning.

And you could take that male and say, okay, that's a male.

I'm gonna save him for next year, and next year he'll be a female.

So, they can change their sex depending on environmental conditions, and also, generally the older oysters are females because that gives nature more eggs to work with.

They spawn, the eggs fertilize, and then after 24 hours, they're free-swimming larvae.

They have both of their shells, and they have cilia, so they look like these with eyelashes, and they'll be in that stage for about two weeks.

Then during that time, they develop a foot, and they're getting ready to find a spot to settle for the rest of their lives, so, they're looking for a place to glue themselves to.

So, they've got their foot, their glue gland, and then they just search around until they find that shell or piece of whatever on the bottom, a rock, and they glue themselves to that.

And then once they start doing that, they put on shell and look like an oyster.

They're just mini oysters, so they look the same as the market oyster that you see, but they're just very small.

I grow them in the hatchery until they're about the size of a pinhead, a little bit bigger, and then take them down to the nursery system, so I take 'em to that nursery system that's in the barn where you have tanks and you have containers in the tanks that allow water to flow through the bed of shellfish.

And so it's just bay water circulating through.

And then when they get a little bit bigger, then they go to this system over here, which is called a FLUPSY, and it was developed by Cornell Cooperative Extension.

We're handling them a lot while they're growing, and then in the wintertime, we just give 'em plenty of room.

They hibernate pretty much during the winter.

And then we start the whole process over in the summer.

It takes about two years to get a market oyster.

So, there's another magnificent benefit to oysters beyond them just on the half shell on ice.

Tell us about the process of what happens when they are in our waters.

Well, so, when they're in our waters, what they do is their gills filter the water, and so that pulls out algae, which is what they use for food, and bacteria and other, you know, and sediment, anything detritus, anything that's in the water that they can get nourishment out of, they're pulling out of the water.

They're also sequestering carbon.

When you eat an oyster, you're helping the environment because you're removing nitrogen and carbon, which we have too much of right now in our waters from either atmospheric deposition or climate change.

So, it helps clean the waters in that way.

They get sized and cleaned and screened until you buy them.

Is there any major misnomer about oysters from where you sit?

When they hear that oysters are filter feeders and they're cleaning the bay, they do question whether they're wholesome to eat, and so that's why I explain the whole DEC process of testing the water, so that's one thing.

When you get an oyster in a seafood market or restaurant, it's wholesome to eat.

From a chef's perspective-- From, yeah.

It's keep it simple, keep it natural.

Exactly.

Don't muck it up, because the real character in the flavor is natural.

Well, Karen, I think it's really important to know your oyster, and more important, I'm glad to know you.

I'm glad to know you, too, George.

(bright music) (bright music) A recipe is a great guideline, however, you need to be inspired.

When you go into your grocer or, better yet, your farm stand, you need to speak to your farmer or your grocer.

Talk to them.

Find out what's really the best for today.

Also, use your eyes, use your visuals, use your senses to know what's speaking to you as far as what's available.

If you're looking for pears, but yet, peaches are there, and the peaches look great, make a substitution.

If, for example, you are looking for raspberries, but yet the blueberries are perfect, that works as well, too.

So, speak to your local grocer.

Speak to your farmer.

Find out what's best in your area, and your recipes will come out better than ever.

That's good to know.

(gentle guitar music) When having a celebration, try using one of my favorites, a salad that is a feast not only for the eyes, but also for the senses.

I'm doing a classical Waldorf salad, but I know as I'm doing the recipe, as I'm preparing it, you're going to say, hey, that's not a Waldorf salad, because, well, this is my take of a Waldorf.

Oscar at the Waldorf back in the late 1890s came up with the salad because he had a few basic ingredients.

Apples, celery, greens, mayonnaise.

That was the traditional Waldorf salad.

So, I'm going to get started with my version, and my version, first of all, is gonna start with yogurt.

Just some plain yogurt.

It's unsweetened.

Not only is it good for you, it does give a nice acidic, a nice acidic flavor to it.

Then I'm going to add in some honey.

About one tablespoon of honey.

A little champagne vinegar.

A pinch of salt.

Some fresh ground black pepper.

So, now you have almost the savory and the sweet basis for a dressing.

A few drops of fresh lemon juice for a little bit more tartness.

A little more tartness, just a couple drops.

There we go.

Couple drops.

And now here's where you want to be creative.

Don't be so locked in, but let's just start by adding in a couple of contrasts of a couple different... Yellow grape tomatoes.

Red.

And I am purposefully splitting these grape tomatoes.

You see the water that's inside that?

That's a lot of nice flavor.

That's a lot of nice flavor that you don't want to lose.

So, I'll put a couple more of those in.

Red and yellow.

Not exact, if you want to use five, use five.

If you want to use six, use six.

Maybe a few blueberries, especially if it's summer, and summer fruits are always nice.

A strawberry sliced down.

And the juice from all this fruit is also going to mix in really nice with the dressing and give it its own, its own unique flavor.

That will be a really delicious, delicious dressing.

Now, to kind of finish off the salad, we're gonna use greens, and we're gonna use an assortment of greens.

I have here some beautiful baby watercress.

Now, watercress is very, very, very peppery, very peppery, and not only will it give it a crunch, but it will give it a contrast of the pepper that's inside all those nice tender lettuces.

On top of that as well, the watercress is on top of some nice butter lettuce.

And now I have here a yellow, yellow beet.

A fresh yellow beet, because they were just looking so good today, and I'm going to cut off the tops.

If the tops look good, especially sometimes the inside ones, you can put a couple beet tops in there.

Again, it's a mixture of greens.

We're gonna shave some of the beet.

Look at that yellow beet.

Look at it.

Just want to cut it as thin as we can.

Put some of those yellow beets around the inside, and now we come back to the main part.

The fruit, the apple.

So, this way, Oscar will not be upset.

There is still some apple in this beautiful salad.

And then just shave down the fruit.

We'll leave a couple larger pieces of the apple around the side.

Put the small pieces of apple inside the dressing, and we can do the same with the peach.

(knife slicing) Slice that peach down.

(knife slicing) Lay that in on top, come back to our dressing.

Top it over our greens, our yellow beets.

Another drizzle of olive oil.

Fresh ground black pepper.

Lay the apple on top.

And candied walnuts.

Chive flower.

I know Oscar would be proud.

I certainly am.

Waldorf salad, done my way.

(bright guitar music) Sometimes you have to let Mother Nature be your inspiration when it comes to a dish.

I have here kind of the claim to fame of the Long Island east end, and this is with our oysters, and our oysters are just spectacular from this region, primarily due to the waters, the pristine waters from our region.

Now, oysters are best, of course, eaten directly out of the shell, because you're allowing the juice and the flavor that just says hey, this is a Long Island oyster, as opposed to one maybe from the South, the Northwest.

They are wonderful, too, and every time I travel, I love to enjoy those, but these here today, I'm gonna prepare in a classical manner, oysters Rockefeller, but George-style, because we're not going to do the adulterations.

We're not making rouxs.

We're not making cream sauces.

We're not gonna put chopped bacon on it.

We're going to let Mother Nature tell us what the ingredients are for this recipe.

So, we'll get started with our oysters that have been opened on the half-shell, and the natural juice allowed to still remain within the oyster.

We don't want to lose the juice, because if you're losing the juice, you're losing half the bounty of your dish.

In this case with our oysters, which are the absolute prize, I'm going to put some tops of pea shoots, which are very, very delicate, and as they cook, will just melt on top of the oysters, because, again, I don't want to really disturb the flavor of those oysters.

Now, this was created from down in New Orleans as a celebration of something that was going to be very extravagant, and although oysters are used a lot today in celebrations, they're not really considered as extravagant anymore.

They've made massive comebacks, especially in our region.

Next thing I'm going to do is pour on a couple drops of anise-flavored liqueur.

The anise flavor will just help dress it up, dress it up nicely.

I'll add on one drop of olive oil, just a drop.

Just a drop.

Just a drop.

Just a drop of olive oil.

And now it's going to enrichen it, and which will complement this dish, of course, is a little bit of fresh whole butter.

Now, normally, this would not be done in a traditional, classical Rockefeller, because the butter would already be in the roux.

Next, some panko crumbs, which will give it a little crunch on top and give a little body to the oyster itself.

A few drops of cream.

Again, in a traditional oyster Rockefeller, there would be a roux and a cream sauce made, so we're just lightening it up.

Little fresh ground black pepper.

Now we'll put them in a very hot oven at about 450 degrees or even put 'em under a hot broiler for about 60 seconds.

Now, that was a quick 60 seconds.

Oysters Rockefeller, extravagant?

Absolutely.

Easy?

Sure is.

Oysters Rockefeller done my way, dig right in.

You'll thank me.

(bright guitar music) Dueling banjos?

How 'bout dueling clowns.

(laughs) You up for the challenge?

Yeah, always.

Okay.

Now, we've each selected our own favorite dish.

Yeah.

What's yours?

Baked clam with the flavors of clam chowder.

Right.

But it's perfect for a summer day, because who wants to eat a hot cup of chowder when it's a beach day?

Okay, what's the first thing you're going to do?

The first thing I'm gonna do is throw a couple of clams on the grill.

Okay, and we have here some of our Long Island best... Littlenecks.

Littlenecks.

You want it to be nice and tight, and that shows that you have a fresh, living clam.

It is actually living.

So, first I wanted to flip the clams over, though, and so that'll make sure that they get warm on each side.

So, here we have this breadcrumb topping that I made, and the reason why I say that it's like a clam chowder on a half-shell is because it's basically all the flavors of clam chowder in a breadcrumb topping, and the best part is you can do this ahead.

Do this at the house, put it in a container, take it down to the beach or the campsite with you, and then it's just ready to go on the clams as soon as they open up.

I started with a little bit of leek and a little bit of bacon.

A little bit of garlic.

I used Japanese panko breadcrumbs for this.

Has a main crunch.

Yeah, definitely crunchy.

It holds up a little bit better.

A little bit of butter in there.

Thyme, and parsley.

Wow.

Yeah, I like to add a little bit of butter just at the top 'cause it's kind of, well, obviously, butter makes it better, but it also is going to be like a glue for that topping.

It's just gonna hold it right on there.

Beautiful.

There you go.

What would a clam be without a grill, right?

So, let's take the grill, a clam, and some nice, savory flavorings.

Oh, nice.

And you can see here I have a mixture of a little chorizo for it to give it that clams, that flavor, and the essence from that.

It's very colorful.

It's absolutely, absolutely gorgeous.

And we're just going to set the clams right inside.

Okay.

Okay.

And we'll start out with about six clams.

There's enough mixture here of the onions, the garlic, the chorizo, actually, to cook at least about 18, but just to give an idea of what we're going to do, we started it with a little bit of olive oil, just a little spritz of olive oil, but I just want to fatten it up with just a little bit more butter on there, and I just want to put about a quarter cup of white wine and let it in bathe in there.

It's almost gonna be like a little clam jacuzzi.

Now, these are Portuguese clams, so you could make it all vegetarian if you wanted to, but I like what you said, a little bit of that pork fat, a little bit of the chorizo, a little bit of that paprika, the spiciness of the paprika in the clam.

It just changes up the whole dish.

It'll take about anywhere from maybe four to five minutes.

Of course, the clams, like when you did your dish, you want to make sure that the clams were nice and tight when they go in, and then just put 'em in there, and when they pop open, it's ready.

Simple as that.

(upbeat guitar music) (bright guitar music) Okay, let's get started on our chocolate dessert.

Now, our chocolate discs are a dark chocolate.

Is a coverture that basically whether you're handling discs or chopped chocolate, it's all handled the same way.

We're going to need to temper it.

We need to melt about 80% of the chocolate here only to 118 degrees.

Use a candy thermometer if you're not comfortable with handling and melting chocolate.

That's not too far above body temperature, and it's certainly below a simmer.

The 20% will then go in after, and gently fold it into the chocolate to temper it and not allow it to go to above 90 degrees.

That's gonna give that beautiful chocolate sheen and chocolate shine.

You don't want the oils to separate from the cocoa powders.

So, let's go gently melt the chocolate, and then we'll take a dip.

(upbeat music) Constantly stir the chocolate when melting over a double boiler to avoid scorching on the side of the bowl.

Okay, now it's time to have some fun and take a dip.

You can see that luscious, luscious shine from the chocolate.

That's because it's melted to 118 and then tempered at 90.

So, let's begin with our strawberries.

What's nice is just leave the stem on it.

Just make sure your strawberries are never wet because you don't want water getting mixed into the chocolate.

And then just dip the strawberry in lightly.

It'll take about four to five minutes for it to fully set and harden back up just like it was on the disc.

Put it on a piece of parchment paper.

It'll make it very easy to take it out.

You could put it in the fridge for about four to five minutes, but be careful.

Don't over-refrigerate it because you'll lose that luscious shine.

So, you just keep on repeating it, and what's nice is you can set these up ahead, way before your guests come, but you should ideally use them on the same day you make 'em because the fruit will just begin to deteriorate around the chocolate.

Now, if you want to go a little bit more extravagant.

Maybe just dip it in a little bit of coconut or chopped nuts or even sprinkles.

Be really as creative as you would like.

Let's dip one more strawberry.

And let's go nuts on this one.

You want to go nuts, these are some beautiful toasted almonds.

You can just see how nice that is.

And maybe you're not in the mood for fresh fruit or maybe you don't have fresh fruit in the house but you happen to have had a little chocolate.

So, I have here is a dried apricot which actually makes a wonderful mixture on an assorted dessert platter, because you have your fresh fruit, your dried fruit, and a little cake, and a little cake as well.

And maybe a couple more of the apricot, because maybe somebody with the apricot would like it dipped in coconut.

And then maybe there's another guest that comes along and they say, ah, I wish I had some toasted nuts on mine.

And again, it's just a mixture.

Yes, you can use apples.

I know, you know, it's very, very popular in using fresh fruits that can be dipped seasonally or pears.

And here I have some cake.

And maybe if you don't want it fully dipped, we just want to make a little ribbon of chocolate on top.

We make a little ribbon and dip it.

And we do that a few times.

Put a few pieces of cake.

I have here is a very nice, rich, pound cake.

Used like a, kind of a firm type cake.

(gentle music) And then maybe one more with nuts.

So, after about four to five minutes, let the chocolate harden, and you'll have a beautiful assortment for your celebration.

So, there you have it.

My celebration dishes to complement any occasion.

The refreshing and light Waldorf salad.

Rich and creamy oysters Rockefeller.

Clams two ways, clam chowder on the half-shell and Portuguese clams.

And, the perfect finish.

Chocolate-dipped treats.

(cork popping) So, here's to celebrating you and our time together with our wonderful day, and remember, if I can do it, you can do it.

We'll see you real soon.

For more on recipes, entertaining lifestyle tips, T.V.

series blog, and selected video clips from today's show, join me at chefgeorgehirsch.com.

(upbeat music) To download and own episodes of George Hirsch Lifestyle containing inspiring lifestyle segments, original recipes, and complete how-to, visit amazon.com or chefgeorgehirsch.com.

(upbeat music) (bright instrumental music) Long Island Farm Bureau is a proud presenter of George Hirsch Lifestyle.

Long Island farmers continue their commitment to providing abundant, fresh commodities.

Supporting farmers and the local agriculture community for over 100 years.

(stately jingle) (energetic electronic jingle)