- Today, we're learning about the American hazelnut with cookbook author, Beth Dooley.

First, a trip to the farm.

(jaunty music) 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 food.

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.

- All right.

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

And where did that passion start for you?

- 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'd 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.

Then 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.

- Yeah, well thanks.

The whole notion here is around a perennial farming base.

So moving away from the mono cropping 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 reintroducing livestock.

And all 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.

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

Where 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 hardnecks.

- The hardneck is a little shorter lasting, right?

And the flavor's softer?

- It's softer.

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

So Yia, now we're gonna 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.

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 hazelnut in this form.

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 gotta get the product really clean.

- So this one little plant does so much.

So now we're gonna 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.

- Beth, show me what we're gonna be doing.

- All right, we're gonna make a salad using all three hazelnut products.

We're gonna 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 it's mostly flesh and not a lot of seed, right.

- [Yia] Farm to table.

It's a trendy term.

And before it became trendy this is something that you are very passionate about.

What drove that passion for you?

- I have to be honest, flavor.

You know, Yia, they gave us some of the most beautiful garlic.

- Yeah, what maybe two cloves?

- Yeah, that sounds good.

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

(Beth laughs) - [Beth] 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.

Okay, and we're just gonna spread it on the pan.

We wanna make sure that nothing's touching, so they all get nice and crisp.

- When I see people roasting things, they bunch it up, and 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, 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?

One nut, three products.

So cool.

- Awesome.

- So I put one egg white in.

Then I'm gonna add some Parmesan cheese.

Then a little bit of black pepper.

Fresh rosemary, can you smell that?

- I can, it's beautiful.

- It's great, isn't it?

- Yup.

- And this is where the fun begins.

So we're gonna use our hands.

And it takes a couple 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.

- From kneading too much.

But there is no gluten in there.

so you're gonna have to actually 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 them.

- Something you leave them with.

- Yeah, I know.

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

Just don't move until.

(both laughing) - Mom's going out for dinner.

This is what the dough is gonna look like.

And then we're gonna put it on parchment paper.

We want this to be really thin, okay.

- So then when it bakes, it's super crispy - Really crispy, almost hard, right?

We talked about how hazelnuts have three products.

Actually, if you buy hazelnut oil you get four things.

- Then you get a free roller.

- You get a rolling pin.

That's about right.

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

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

- It seems like that's the philosophy of these hazelnuts, like nothing goes to waste.

- Exactly.

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.

- Beautiful.

- Love the roasting on it.

Talk me through how we're gonna put the salad together.

- All right.

I started the dressing already.

But I'm gonna show you what I put in, okay.

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.

- Obviously.

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

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

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

Give it a shake.

And then to that, these are Regent apples.

They're sort of an heirloom variety.

- Oh cool.

- Yeah.

Few green onions.

A few dried cranberries 'cause we have fresh cranberries in there.

That'll add some pop.

A little bit of 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 them.

And then, Yia, I'm gonna let you do your magic.

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

We have the crackers that are ready to go.

Look at how crisp those are.

- Oh wow.

- Yeah.

- Oh, they're kinda hard.

- They are hard.

Gotta give it a little pressure.

- Yeah, give it 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 vinegarette being absorbed into the squash and the apple.

And 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?

- Definitely.

- So the hazelnuts, and the apples, and the squash, and the ginger all came from the same area.

And they work 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.

Beautiful.

Did they tell you you should have a restaurant or something?

(Beth laughs) - Yeah right.

- There you go.