(birds chirping) (upbeat music) - Welcome back to "The Great Minnesota Recipe".

The competition is finally here.

I hope you're as hungry as I am, because it's time to watch our cooks, Tomorrow, Susie, and Anusha and Kannan create their new exciting take on the most classic Minnesota entree: The hot dish.

Now you might be wondering how we're leveling the playing field for Tomorrow and Susie.

We've given them each the option to bring a sous chef, and you'll get to meet them in just a bit.

But before we get to the cooking, let's take a look back at all the meals we've tasted so far.

- You can be doing something your whole life and you're like, "Oh, this is cool, this is what I do."

And then you fall into something that you actually love, and it is a different feeling.

My name is Tomorrow Tanksley.

I'm the executive chef here at the Blackboard Restaurant in Vergas, Minnesota.

I've been here 13 years, went to culinary school in Moorhead, Minnesota, and been cooking for the last 13 years, fell in love with it here in the state, and yeah, and it's been, I've been off and running ever since.

- My name is Susie Saccoman and I am 50 years old.

I'm from Buhl, Minnesota, right here.

The Italian culture when I grew up, it was like extremely affectionate.

All the strongest influences in my cooking were strong women.

(upbeat music) - We are very excited about sharing our recipes and about talking about our culture, about our home and everything.

- Both me and Anusha grew up in large urban cities, and we never had the chance to, like, literally grow our own food.

Take a spoonful of it or a ladleful of it and just go straight out in the center and just drop it right there.

- Funding for "The Great Minnesota Recipe" is provided by: Daugherty Appliance Sales and Service.

The Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

- I think it's time for a competition, don't you?

But I can't do it without my friend Sharon.

- Well, I've had a wonderful time meeting all these cooks and tasting their amazing dishes.

Ready to meet these chefs?

- Let's do it.

- All right.

- Come on in, cooks.

- Come on in.

- Hi, good to see you.

- Good to see you!

- Love seeing you.

Excellent.

Excellent.

(laughs) Are you ready to meet the judges?

From "Dream of Wild Health" and the Indigenous Food Network, Kateri Tuttle.

(Kateri speaks in foreign language) - Hello my relatives, it's great to see you all.

I greet you all with a warm heart and a handshake.

My name is Kateri Sunshine Tuttle.

I am Dakota from Saint Paul and I am enrolled at Santee in Nebraska.

I'm also a program coordinator at "Dream of Wild Health", and I am a person that works very closely with the Indigenous Food Network at "Dream of Wild Health" as well.

- Hometown hero and Olympic curling gold medalist, John Shuster.

- I'm John Shuster.

I'm a five-time Olympic curler and skip of the team that won the gold for the United States in the 2018 Olympics.

- An award-winning author and Guatemalan chef entrepreneur, Amalia Moreno-Damgaard.

- Hi, I am Amalia Moreno-Damgaard, award-winning author and chef entrepreneur.

- You'll have 90 minutes to create a hot dish inspired by your cultural background.

This must include a protein, a vegetable, and some sort of sauce or soup to bind it all together.

- You've got everything you need to make a winning recipe, so let's get started.

- On your marks-- - Get set-- - Go!

(upbeat music) - I am making a Cajun-inspired wild rice hot dish.

It's gonna have a little bit of my gumbo flavors in there, but it's gonna be definitely Minnesota, so you guys will love it.

It'll be a real party in your mouth, as they like to say.

(Tuesday laughs) I'm gonna start a roux in that pot.

This'll be for rendering our bacon.

- Okay.

- I'm gonna grab-- - And I'm about to cut your bacon so you can render.

- Okay.

Sounds good, honey.

My sous chef is my big sister, Tuesday Tanksley.

Chef Tanksley.

Chef Tuesday, Chef T is what they call her, and it's the best, I get to boss my sister around.

- I am making, it's called We Love Pierogi hot dish, and I was thinking about something that my godmother Tona made that I loved so much, and so I, the hot dish is inspired from Tona's pierogis.

Have you ever made homemade pasta?

- No.

- Really?

- Mh-mh, that's why I was asking you how long-- (laughs) - Yeah, it's really easy.

And it doesn't matter that some gets on the board 'cause we're gonna be using the board.

- To roll it out, you mean?

- Yeah.

My sous chef is a childhood friend.

We have known each other from first through, we went to school first through 12th grade, but we've known each other our whole lives, and he's just, he's just the sweetest, most wonderful friend, and a great guy.

And he lives close to the area, and when he said he would love to help me out, I was so ecstatic 'cause he's just, I think he brings me a little, a little calmness 'cause he's so laid back and just wonderful.

- I'm really excited, because we have been trying out various modifications of this recipe over the last, what, two, three weeks now?

- Yeah.

- And really looking forward to seeing what others think of it.

- Yeah, we have been trying out a lot of Indian flavoring on the traditional tater tot hot dish.

We have been giving to friends and making them try things, and we are really indebted to them for patiently trying out stuff and giving us feedback and everything, and we are really looking forward to it.

- Right, and I'm sure if it eventually works out good, I'm sure a good amount of credit goes to them for actually trying it out and giving us their critique.

(upbeat music) - Okay, now I gotta see what's happening here because there's a lot of color going on here.

It looks delicious already.

- Thank you.

Thank you.

- Oh my gosh.

And between you and one of the other contestants, I don't wanna give anything away-- - Yeah.

- There's a lot of spices involved and I love seeing that.

- Thank you.

- Can you tell me a little bit about your dish?

- So we're gonna make four, like, layers of the dish.

So the bottom base layer is Anusha.

She's making the most important layer.

And then I'm gonna be doing the second and the third.

- Okay.

- And then tater tots of the Indian variant of it will go all the way on top.

(both laugh) - Indian variant of tater tots.

- That's right, it's called samosas.

- Oh my gosh, samosas, I love samosas.

- Yes, that's gonna go on top.

- Oh my gosh, are you making, and you're making samosa right from scratch, the whole deal?

- No, we're gonna use frozen samosas.

- Okay, okay.

For time, time purposes, yeah.

- Yes, exactly.

- That makes sense, 'cause I know they are labor intensive.

- That's right.

Yeah.

- Oh, smell of frying onions, I just love that.

It just kind of like tells you something delicious is on the way.

- Thank you.

- Love that.

Can you tell when husband and wife are cooking in the kitchen?

It's so interesting because usually people have like-- - Their roles, right.

Yep.

Some are the sous chef, some are the director, right?

- My husband cooks with me all the time.

- Does he?

- We have a routine.

- Are you the sous chef or are you the director?

- I am usually the director, but he has learned a lot of techniques.

- Sure.

- Just by doing.

- Yes.

- Nice dice techniques and even fancy techniques.

- Right.

Right.

Well, and of course your utensils are the best-- - Yeah.

- The best-- - Absolutely.

- Way to prepare your food.

- Just, it just needs to rest so that all the gluten can get nice and, I don't know, rested.

(both laugh) Italians need rest.

(laughs) You do me a favor-- - Yeah.

- And just throw a handful of the flour in there?

- Just a pinch of it?

- Yeah.

Perfect.

- More than that?

- One more.

Thanks.

- Right, so tell me a little bit about what's happening here.

I noticed you have somebody who's doing all the potato peeling for you.

- Yes.

- That was my job as a kid.

I've got the scars to prove it right here.

(woman laughs) - I'm trying to stay away from the bandaids here.

- Right, right.

- So, what's happening here?

What are you doing?

- Mike is getting the potatoes ready.

I just made a batch of homemade pasta dough.

- Oh, you just whipped that up.

- Yeah.

- Awesome.

- It's beautiful.

- It is beautiful.

- And we're getting ready to make the We Love Pierogi hot dish.

- What?

- Does your mouth water already?

- Oh, get out, did you say pierogi?

- Oh yeah.

- You said pierogi?

- It's carb on carb.

- Oh my God.

I love pierogi.

- I mean, what else is there?

Carb on carb.

- Oh, I love pierogi.

I was serving pierogi once and I had a gentleman from Eastern Europe say, "Pierogi.

Pierogi."

And he made me repeat it about 100 times till I got it the way he wanted me to say it, so.

- And it's like deer, there's no S on the end.

- Right.

(both laugh) - Pierogi.

- We're just gonna-- - Let it rest.

Let it rest-- - While we move on.

- Have a little nap while you get ready.

- Yes.

(upbeat music) - I think that's the incredible part of, like, hot dish, especially, you know, in Minnesota is people, whether they move to our state or are from here, is knowing that this, you know, nine by 13 dish that goes in is a one, kind of a one dish meal, and taking their own cultural backgrounds and trying to make something that would feel at home if you went to a neighborhood, you know, party where it's a lot of people that maybe are born and raised here.

- Right.

- Well, and we're limited on the vegetables that we can get, right, 'cause our winter is so long, so I'm curious to see what vegetables they actually pick out.

You know, if they're easy to get in Minnesota, I mean, everything looks so fresh, and the ingredients I'm seeing are not really complicated, you know?

I mean, they're, I just wouldn't think of them as a hot dish, so it'll be interesting to see what they come up with.

- So tell me a little bit about what's happening here.

- So I'm gonna render some bacon down.

- Okay.

- And I really just want the fat off of it, the oil from the meat-- - Okay.

- Is what I'm really after.

- So the bacon is not actually gonna go in the dish?

- It might.

A little bacon bae at the end, maybe.

- This is what I'm loving over here, the spice, I saw those yesterday, I saw those spices and I, was like trying to guess what was gonna happen, and so can you tell me a little bit about your inspiration?

- Yeah, so being ADOS, which is a descendant of slaves, we come from all the way from Alabama to Louisiana, right?

- Right.

- So we can pull from every, every culture there, every culture, Mississippi, and so I really, I love the Louisiana culture.

I love the cuisine.

I have cousins there.

I have family there.

- Oh, good eats.

Good eats in Louisiana.

- Oh!

- So good.

- It's so good.

So this is a Cajun-inspired dish.

- Okay.

- I do make an amazing gumbo, guys.

So it's gonna be, it's kind of based on my gumbo.

- Okay.

- But I'm gonna turn it into a Minnesota hot dish.

I'm gonna turn it, I'm gonna use it for my wild rice hot dish.

My, kinda like my gumbo process-- - So here's the question.

- Yes, what's the question?

- Is there okra involved?

- There is not, and I'll tell you why.

Because I took, well, when I was coming up with the dish, I made my first, my first trial run, I had okra everything, right?

- Yeah.

- And I caught, I found myself after it came out I wasn't really happy.

I said, "Well, first of all," I just told my brain, "you're making hot dish.

You're not making gumbo."

So then I rearranged everything, took out ingredients that weren't really Minnesota.

- Okay.

- And I'm just gonna use the technique of a gumbo with my Minnesota ingredients.

- And that's really kind of what it is to be inspired by, right?

- Yeah.

- Is to take those little pieces that you love and bring 'em in, and then, you know, adapt to where you are.

- That's right.

That's right.

So I'll put a Cajun spin on some Minnesota ingredients, how about that?

- Excellent.

- All right.

(laughs) - I think choosing the winning hot dish is gonna come down to, you know, depth of flavor and people's creativity with, you know, combining ingredients, and something that's gonna really pop and stand out from anything maybe I've eaten before.

- I guess what I'm looking for is just something that might taste a little bit different.

I feel like we've seen and gotten to eat a lot of the same hot dishes.

I personally love all of the staples, but what I'm looking for is something a little bit different that highlights different ethnic ingredients.

- I am looking for overall flavor and texture and how they use all the ingredients available to them.

- I'm just, like, coating the butternut squash and the sweet potato with the ghee, which I use, so when it goes in the oven it just has a coating of oil on it.

- We are going to make a traditional tater tot hot dish with an Indian twist.

We are going to making a, we are gonna be making a base layer of an Indian-inspired sauce, tomato, onion, and chickpea-based sauce, and then we are gonna top it with what, Kannan?

- Paneer, which is a type of an Indian cheese.

So it's like crumbled cheese, and that forms the second layer on top.

So this is to saute the onions and the way I'm doing it is, I like to just roast it in dry heat, while I think Anusha likes to do it, how do you like to do it, Anusha?

- I like to roast it in ghee or oil.

- So I just give it a little bit of dry heat just to sort of dehydrate and sweat the onions.

That, I feel, gives it a better taste.

- And then we are going to finish it off with an Indian variant of tater tot, and that's what is going to go in our hot dish.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

(laughs) - I think we are mostly trying to bring the spices and the flavor of Indian cooking, and trying to incorporate this in this traditional Minnesota tater tot hot dish, and seeing how it works out.

- Like why do you-- - It's the sauce, it's the tomato sauce that we are making for the dish for the scratch base layer.

- Good.

Oh, I can keep, is it hot already?

I can put it in it's hot already.

- Okay, start putting it in.

Take time.

- This is gonna go inside the oven now.

Did you try to put the garlic in?

- Ah, no I, just one part should be good.

- Just one.

We're just gonna add some garlic in just for enhanced taste.

Fingers crossed.

- Well, I basically make a homemade pasta dough, and then I get the mashed potatoes ready and I make homemade mashed potatoes with Yukon golds and my little special touches, like some Boursin herb cheese, and make this really nice mashed potato.

And my godmother always serve pierogis, she would make potato and cheese pierogis and then serve with a side of sauerkraut.

So I fold in some really crispy sauerkraut into the cooled mashed potato mixture and some nice chopped onions, sweet onions, 'cause when Tona would bake the pierogies she would bake it with a lot of butter and onion, bake 'em.

So the hot dish is layered with homemade pasta, like, the pierogies on the outside, and then the layers are mashed potatoes with onion and butter, and then I make a homemade beer cheese sauce.

I didn't know about your-- - Oh yeah, beer cheese soup, that's one of my favorites.

- I am so crazy for it.

Tell me.

- Oh!

That's good.

- Okay, so the beauty of this is it's not technically ready until we're ready to build this hot dish.

So I go like this.

There's no heat, and-- - Okay, potatoes are done.

- And about when we're ready to build the hot dish-- - Yep.

- This is gonna even look better than it does now.

And then on the top, I just brush it with a little butter and a little bit more of the cheese sauce.

And then when it's done out of the oven, I plate it with a little pulled porchetta garnish because garnish as a meat, you know, meat as a garnish.

You know, let's break the rules a little.

So the pork and the richness of the pierogi hot dish, it's just, to me it's just quintessential Minnesota, and I can't wait for people to try it.

- Well, I'm gonna take a little bit of our, the holy trinity, I'm just sautein' some vegetables, we got some really fun meat, some spicy sausage, some wonderful chicken, our famous wild rice that we all love here.

I have a beautiful sauce to put with it, and we're gonna layer it like Andrew Zimmerman.

My, (sighs) my guy.

He says a hot dish is layered.

So we will layer, layer, layer, layer, sauce, throw it in the oven.

It's gonna be great.

Traditionally in Cajun cooking, there is a holy trinity, and we are definitely putting the holy trinity in our hot dish.

So the holy trinity is considered onions, bell pepper, and celery.

So yes, yes on the holy trinity, we are doing that.

So that's what my sister is chopping up now.

And I just need a few of those, sissy, so just gimme like a little yellow, a little green, a little red, celery and onion, and we'll get those veggies going.

I'm gonna turn this back on, and I can season right in the pan because we're on a time crunch.

'Cause I'm gonna just grab a little red dye, 'cause I like the color red, it's very pretty.

I do a little red.

Oh, it's sizzling.

Oh, I just like the colors.

Look at those colors.

I'm going in for some green, sissy.

Going in for some green.

And some green.

There we go.

And we'll let her continue to chop, and I'm gonna actually season this up a little bit, guys.

And just don't be afraid to season it, it's Cajun, right?

We love a little seasoning in our food, so.

And you have to always, always, always add salt, okay?

'Cause salt definitely gets, like, water outta your veggies, too, so just a little bit, I didn't put much.

Oh, yes.

Yes.

I know, camera man.

I know.

I know.

But just for the audience, I want them to see how pretty that is.

It's like yellow, and red, and you have the white from our onion.

Oh, it just smells good.

Oh, it's doing its thing.

There we go.

There's the end of that trinity, guys.

- Want more celery, or are you good?

- No, I think this is good.

This is a nice amount.

So as I get these all nice and sauteed up, guys, I'm gonna add just a little Cajun spice to my veg.

And as I saute these up, Tuesday will begin to work on our meat.

- I don't see anything processed.

I don't think, I mean, I love this.

- So I think the original idea behind the hot dish was exactly that, using ingredients that were hardly processed or processed, and just combine them with a few ingredients to create a casserole, hot dish in a matter of minutes, right?

- Yes.

- And that constituted the main meal, and hopefully had a salad right next to it.

- Right, right.

Iceberg lettuce, right?

(laughs) - That's interesting, because I grew up in a culture, speaking of fresh ingredients, where going to the supermarket was an afterthought, having cans available in the house was an afterthought.

Why?

Because they were more expensive.

- Exactly.

- Because ingredients are abundant, fresh ingredients are abundant, and they grow in wonderful weather, tropical weather, fruits and vegetables are vine-ripened, so they, their flavor is superior, right?

And so you don't need, you know, a lot of canned goods.

But because so much grows locally, people go to the markets to buy fresh ingredients.

- Sure.

- And using something canned is, you know, not the thing that comes to mind as a first thought.

- Sure.

- It's an afterthought.

- Right.

I know that cream of mushroom soup is something that is an ingredient that's really well known in wild rice casseroles in Minnesota as well, so whenever we're working in community, we really just try to, like, impart our ingredients, like our wild rice with vinaigrettes.

So just making sure that people understand that things like, traditional foods like wild rice, it didn't come with cream of wild rice.

When it comes to foods that are introduced to, like, native people, our indigenous diet was something that was incredibly important to our health.

So just making sure that we're working with community to impart these different indigenous ingredients and then teaching them how to cook in like a healthy way is incredibly important.

Traditional people in Minnesota used to use a lot of foraged plants, things like bitter flavors were huge in our diet.

So just kind of getting back to forage foods.

I see a couple people here using a lot of our leafy greens.

We have things that grow a lot in Minnesota, things like garlic mustard.

It's an invasive plant, but those are things that you can use, and like, those are the sort of things that we encourage different chefs that we work with to start using, because those are things that have, like, high iron, they have high nutritional value.

And, you know, people see those things as weeds, but plants, all plants have medicine, and none of our plants are technically weeds in traditional culture, so.

(upbeat music) - It's just so great to be here, to be able to cook where we're outside, and there's, you know, there's chickens, and ducks, and the plants, and it just, the whole ambiance, I think, is gonna make for all of the competition to just be so much more fun.

- I think we have been given a special honor, and it's quite a responsibility we are carrying on our shoulders because we are trying to really put two huge things together.

Indian food is a entity by itself, and then you have this traditional, age-old dish that Minnesotans love, and we hope we can make good justice by putting them both together.

So the greenhouse is gonna be quite an exciting, nervous a little bit.

- Yeah, but we are very excited, and we are super happy to be part of it.

- For sure.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- It's kind of surreal a little bit.

It's like, gosh, I'm doing something that I really love to do, and people want me to do it.

It's just, it's just crazy.

I hope everybody gets to experience this in life, just having a passion for something and then having people appreciate your passion, and wanna see you just thrive in it, or just kinda wanna just be a part of it.

This isn't work for me, this is just, this is just what I do.

This is so fun.

I don't even, I don't even have the words for this.

(woman laughs) - Just gonna brush a little cheese sauce.

So that-- - Yep.

- And we're gonna put this in.

- You want it drained or no?

- No.

- Okay.

- It's not super liquidy.

The potatoes will just suck up all that sauerkraut juice.

I'm gonna even do more.

Salt and pepper.

- Porchetta going?

Not till it's together.

- Yeah.

- Okay, that's fine.

- Yep.

I've got salt, pepper, I've tasted every layer, so now we're comin' in with the mashed potato layer.

This has sauerkraut, onion, herbs.

We're gonna gild the lily a couple times in this dish, so can you hand me that butter?

Oh, that, I can smell that beer.

The cheese and, you know, the Gruyere mixed with the-- - Mmhm.

- Anything you make, you shouldn't, like, shouldn't overdo any component.

- Any one component.

- Right.

Okay.

Here's my next baby.

And it doesn't even have to be perfect, just lay it in there.

That way this brush doesn't make any kind of big, huge puddles of sauce.

You can see, you made just the right amount of potatoes.

Actually, there's one layer left, so we do use all this.

Man, you woulda think I wrote out this recipe.

(Mike laughs) - So you're done with this platter?

- Yep.

- Okay.

- These are the Indian variant of tater tot, it's called samosas.

It's a more triangular form baked in like a pie crust.

(both speak in foreign language) (upbeat music) You wanna put (indistinct)?

- Yeah, this good?

- A little bit more.

(Kannan mumbles) Should be good.

- Okay.

- So that's a layer of-- - Cilantro chutney.

- Cilantro chutney.

(Anusha and Kannan mumble) That's right.

(indistinct) Okay, I'll finish up the roses.

(upbeat music) - So we'll start with rice at the bottom.

So she's layering our hot dish with, so we have rice, and that's the andouille sausage and our holy trinity.

I'm gonna taste one of those mushrooms, see what it tastes like.

Mmh, mmh, mmh.

Perfectly seasoned.

That's just gonna toss those right in our sauce.

Perfect.

You can leave.

Oh yeah, thank you.

I just wanna, don't splash yourself.

So we're just gonna go, just start with that, please.

We'll start there.

Mmhm.

Oh yeah.

Just get that rice nice and wet.

Beautiful.

That looks beautiful.

All right, so now it's just gonna go in with some chicken and I'm gonna keep letting our sauce thicken.

- Go ahead.

- So what I'm gonna do at this point, guys, I'm gonna get a little corn starch slurry-- - It's right here.

- And I'm going to thicken my sauce with just a little corn star, just for time's sake.

- So I feel that my work with indigenous foods at "Dream of Wild Health" is something that has qualified me to possibly be a judge for this competition today.

We work a lot with healthy indigenous foods.

We also work with indigenous chefs within the urban Minneapolis community.

So just learning more about indigenous foods and cooking in general is something that I'm always interested in.

As somebody that cooks for myself, tries to prepare healthy foods, tries to stay healthy, it's something that really, really is a passion of mine.

- Well, I love to eat and I am a chef, so this is a natural environment for me.

- I think I'm qualified to do this based on the fact that, you know, I am from right here in Minnesota, but I have traveled the world, and our curling team when we're traveling, you know, tries to get local cuisine everywhere we've been, so I've got a pretty good bead on the cooking scene, kind of, from around the world, and to get a chance to see, you know, what we have here today, I think my palate's now become a little bit more distinguished.

(people chatter) - It's a very colorful hot dish.

Very colorful.

- You need any of these?

- Cooks, you have 30 minutes!

30 minutes to garnish.

- Perfect timing, 'cause 30 minutes is how much time we need for this bake, okay.

So we'll put this in the oven, and we're going in the oven, okay?

Oh, it's creamy, smells delicious, and now it's a'cooking.

- Then a little bit of herbs.

Beautifully cut herbs, my friend.

And then I just, I'm gonna make little slits so that there's some room for the air-- - Okay.

- To go.

And the garnishes-- - The layers.

Ooh.

(smacks lips) Between the cheese and the-- - We're ready to go in the oven.

- Oh, going in!

- Going in.

(upbeat music) - I not only am getting hungry, but I got a taste.

- Oh, I'm so jealous.

- I got a little taste over there, and I'm just saying, it was pretty tasty.

- Was it heavenly?

- It was, it was really good.

(speaks in foreign language) And I had to confess, I had to confess that I actually don't really care for mashed potatoes, which I know is sacrilege in Minnesota.

- It is.

- Everybody's like-- - So wrong!

- I know it's so wrong, but you know, today, today, right, but today Suzie made it right.

Because those are some mashed potatoes that a person can fall in love with, marry, take home with you.

- Nice job, Susie.

- They're just that good.

- They were that good.

- They were that good.

So, now what I have to do is figure out how to get a, sneak a peek from that, or sneak a taste there and sneak a taste there.

- Right.

- Yeah.

- It smells amazing.

- How's it going Susie?

Good.

Awesome.

Yeah.

Yes.

(calm music) Yeah, we've got some tamarind and dates chutney.

- Put it on, put it on, yeah.

- So that's the thing I can add on to it.

- No, I will do it.

(Kannan mumbles) - Oh, so it squeezes and gives it a nice layer and a design when you just put it on top, instead of just dabbing it on, it gives a nice design.

- We're gonna just quickly combine my garnish.

I'll just quickly in this little bowl here, wanna take a few of our bread crumbs, and they're nice and golden.

She's choppin', she's choppin'.

- A nice, fine chop.

- Ready for these?

- Yep.

Can I have a little bit in there?

All right.

You see this guys?

This is what's gonna top our hot dish.

(calm music) - Judges, are we ready?

- Yeah.

- I think so.

- Tomorrow, please bring your dish.

- Hi guys.

- Hi.

- Uh-huh.

Some beautiful, Cajun-- - Thank you.

- Inspired wild rice hot dish.

- Tomorrow, can you tell us a little bit more about your dish?

- Yes, so this is my version of a wild rice hot dish.

It's inspired from my roots in Louisiana, so it's a Cajun-inspired hot dish, and I used my Cajun techniques with a really dark roux and the wonderful spices of the region, and I used Minnesotan ingredients and I brought it all together for one delicious bite.

The rice is a Minnesota housewife's favorite.

It's a canned wild rice.

You just get a can opener and you open it, it's a delicious ingredient, right?

'Cause it takes a long time to make wild rice from scratch and moms need to get hot dish on the table quickly.

So, of course, I used a wonderful canned wild rice.

I used, for the roux, which is a technique that I learned just from that region, darkening your roux, really getting it really dark to give that very distinctive Cajun flavor and taste.

So I hope you guys enjoy it.

Yeah.

- Really appreciate the use of wild rice.

We'll see how the canned goes.

- Yeah, no.

- In our community that I come from we don't really use a lot of canned wild rice, but I am really interested to try it.

- Awesome.

Awesome.

Awesome.

- Well, the flavors definitely go together very, very well.

Get some of that sausage, little crunch on the top with, what did you guys use on the top here for-- - So it's just toasted Panko and a little parsley and America's favorite, bacon, just to kind of bring it all together-- - And toasted kale.

- Toasted, crunchy kale, crispy kale on top, too.

- Can you tell us a little bit more about the sausage that you used and maybe the white cream sauce?

- Sure, so that's a chicken andouille sausage, which is a typical Cajun ingredient.

Very, very popular in Louisiana.

And the garlic cream sauce is my garlic cream sauce.

I added a few Cajun spices to it.

Just sauce and cream and whole garlic.

Yeah.

- And mushrooms.

- And mushrooms.

It pairs really well with wild rice.

It's like a, it soaks it right up.

- Delicious.

- Thank you.

- I detect a little bit of a kick there.

- Yes ma'am.

- Where does that come from?

- That is the Cajun.

(all laugh) That is the Cajun.

- It is delicious.

- Thank you.

- And it's definitely a comfort food for me.

- Thank you.

- Thank you, tomorrow.

- You're welcome, Sharon.

Thank you.

- Okay, Susie, Mike, come on in.

- All right.

Hi judges.

- Hi.

- Here is my We Love Pierogi hot dish.

There you go.

Enjoy.

- Can you tell us a little bit more about your dish?

- Sure.

I grew up born and raised in Buhl, Minnesota, and that's the Iron Range, and pierogis were something really incredibly important to me because my godmother Tona, she made 'em really, really well.

And porchetta is something that we love on the Iron Range, so I decided to garnish the We Love Pierogi hot dish with some local sourced porchetta.

- So pierogi is, they're individual, usually bite-size portions, and so it's very creative to make it into a hot dish-- - Thank you.

- Something unique, and also to marry that with the porchetta, which is something new to me, it is a very creative dish.

How did you get the idea to make hot dish with pierogi?

- Well, I know that there are so many hot dishes that are made, and I was like trying to think of something that I was raised on that I really, really loved.

And of course, I thought of my godmother's pierogis, where they're technically not an Italian dish, which is my family background, but I always thought they were Italian.

But like you said, they're made individually, and so the labor of them takes all day.

We have the pasta and the potato filling, and my godmother used a little cheese, and then she served with a side of sauerkraut.

So when I was thinking of a hot dish, I'm like, "Oh my gosh, I'm gonna make pierogi hot dish."

And I didn't even check to see if anybody's ever done it in the whole world.

So I'm gonna say, it's my idea.

(laughs) - Maybe I should have used a spoon, I was thinking this looked more like a fork.

- There's porchetta, and pasta, and homemade pasta, and potato, beer cheese, and herbs.

- Wait a minute.

You put the beer in here?

- I did put the beer in the cheese.

(laughs) No.

I only used a quarter teaspoon of beer.

(laughs) - Anything special you did to the sauerkraut?

- Just, I also sourced a nice local, crisp sauerkraut.

If I was making this at home, I probably would make my own sauerkraut and my own porchetta.

- I like the texture of soft with the crunchy sauerkraut, but I also detect some, not only vinegar, probably from the sauerkraut, but on the top, some citrus in the porchetta, which is really, really nice, because to me, it cuts on the fat a little bit.

- I'm so glad you-- - But there's another layer of flavor, but I also noticed the spices are very unique as well.

Can you tell us about the spices that go into the porchetta?

- You know, I think only Iron Rangers can tell you that the only way to describe porchetta is to eat it, but it's, the porchetta on the Iron Range is, it's all about the seasonings, and there's fennel, and garlic salt, and salt and pepper, and it's assertive, and so you really coat it and cook it down, and that's why the porchetta has that distinct fennel taste.

- What an unusual combination of what it looks like, pulled pork, with all those spices, but it works.

- And I do, I'm glad you said that.

I do like to finish off of a rich comfort dish with a little citrus, so it's a little lemon juice.

Thanks.

- Thank you very much.

(calm music) - Judges, are you ready for the final dish?

- We are.

- Great.

Anusha, Kannan, please bring your dish.

- Hi, hi.

- Minnesota Madras hot dish.

(calm music) - Okay, Anusha and Kannan, can you tell us about your dish please?

- Yeah, we tried to use a blend of Indian foods and spices into this traditional Minnesota hot dish.

We put almost three to four layers to this dish.

The first layer is-- - The first layer is a curry, curry-based tomato and onion simmered in some cashew nut, fresh ground cashew nut sauce with coconut going in, and lot of spices, cardamom and stuff like that.

So that goes in the base layer.

And the second layer which Kannan worked on is-- - Yeah, I did the paneer bhurji, which is cottage cheese, which is paneer, and that's scrambled.

So that we thought gives it a close to the beef consistency.

And so we tried to make this without any meat, so there's no meat in this.

So we had to recreate it and make it feel the same and taste the same a little bit.

And then the layer on top of that, the third layer is sauteed veggies, and for that we used Minnesota veggies.

We used bell pepper, sweet potato-- - Butternut squash.

- Butternut squash.

- And then to have our Indian-inspired take on tater tots, we added an Indian variant samosa on top of it, and we wrapped it all up with mozzarella cheese.

And then we made some cranberry, fresh cranberry chutney, which is very Minnesotan, with some Indian spices again, fenugreek, we dry roasted some fenugreek and cumin, and pounded, hand pounded, and added it to the cranberry chutney.

So that's, that's the whole-- - Yeah, and this evolved over the last few weeks.

I think we started off with just two, three layers maybe.

And we did have many of our friends try it out, and we took their input.

So it's a blend of, blend of ideas in it.

- Indian, Minnesota.

- Right, and yeah, specific to Minnesota, we wanted to add as much as possible.

- The dish looks beautiful.

- Thank you.

- What is the traditional way of eating the sauces here on the side?

- We just wanted to give a sampler because they were all going inside the dish, if you want, in case you wanted to taste the chutneys, how they taste, so-- - So they're already in the dish?

- Yeah.

- They're already in, but we thought it would be not fair that it's all mixed together so that you can taste what goes in it.

- And I imagine this tastes the best if you just get a big, mixed-- - Right.

Exactly.

Yeah.

- There's a lot going on, it's kind of delicious.

It kind of reminds me of like beans and, can taste the pomegranate and the cranberry right away.

- Yeah.

- The curry tastes really good with the cranberry.

- Definitely an explosion of flavors that continue to explode in your mouth as you continue to eat.

And now I go into the sauces individually, and they're wonderful.

- Thank you.

- Amazing.

- You just wanna send me home with some of this brown sauce.

Just throw some in a jar, I'll take it home.

(all laugh) - Kannan-- - Yes.

- Anusha, thank you very much.

- I think it went well.

- Very well, yeah.

- We were happy that we were able to express our dishes and the flavors in the dish.

- And it was pretty challenging to get things done, and, you know, we had, like, a few hiccups, like trying to figure the oven out and stuff like that.

But overall, it was exciting, and we are happy and we are relieved.

- Right.

We're relieved it's done.

- Ah, it was so much fun.

It was really fun.

We had plenty of time, and I'm excited.

I have no idea who won now.

I was pretty confident, and now I'm like, hmm, 'cause they are such different hot dishes, but I'm just, I'm just so proud of mine, and I'm proud to represent the Iron Range with the pierogi hot dish.

- Those judges have, like, such a huge job.

Every dish was different.

It was just so many flavors going on.

These guys have a big job in front of them.

I don't feel sorry.

I actually felt sorry for them, but no, they got to taste all the food, I don't feel sorry for them.

It'll be fun for 'em.

- All right, judges.

Did any of you have that just immediate, yep, this is the one?

- For me, I think, maybe, but I think the takes on what they all kind of were, I think they all did such an excellent job.

- You know, I think our thinking, our idea of hot dish has changed today because we know that this concept is established in this culture, but there is a way to always refresh a dish, and this is a wonderful way to do it.

- Do you feel like they're all potluck friendly?

- You know, what's really unique about each one of them, not only is that they are potluck friendly, but you can build these dishes further.

You can take ingredients out, or you can build them into bigger dishes, but also you can cut the steps in preparation.

So rather than needing an hour and a half to make the dish, you could actually cut it down to perhaps less than an hour by preparing ingredients ahead of time.

Say, you know you have the time to do it the day before, you know, just dice your peppers, whatever your dish is going to be, and prepare your pasta or the dough that goes in one of the dishes.

But certainly this is a dish that I think people would appreciate in a potluck, party, or gathering.

- What strikes me is that this stuff kind of covers all these different cultures that Minnesota has to offer.

I really appreciate the curries, I really love the use of the wild rice, and then porchetta, I learned a lot about porchetta today from John.

I had no idea it was a whole thing.

I knew very, very little about it.

But I just really love how all these dishes really do represent like how Minnesota is, and I think a lot of people would really appreciate this.

It also reminds me of how, like, food culture is becoming bigger and all these different ingredients are more accepted, and I like the idea that we could bring something like this to a potluck on the Iron Range, and then also maybe go to Minneapolis, and I think that people would really, really appreciate this food.

- So these are very unique creations using a combination of local ingredients.

The interpretation by group is definitely amazing.

This could all be restaurant dishes - It's hard to judge, honestly, because I think they all are such a great representation of what they're supposed to be.

I think, you know, you have a classic, maybe, you know, Northern Minnesota dish here, which, again, is part of our culture.

But actually seeing, you know, people that came to Minnesota not born and raised here and actually trying to put Minnesota ingredients, like Minnesota fresh ingredients and things that we have and knowing the way we are, and some of those twists are just, are both, I mean, very intriguing to me, too.

So, again, it's gonna be really hard to choose.

(calm music) - Judges, (laughs) final thoughts.

- I think all three of you groups did incredible coming up with, like, a hot dish new creation.

For me, there was just one that just was just, went a little bit the extra mile.

- As a Minnesota girl born and raised, I just like to congratulate all of y'all at making this, making it this far, and thank you for all of your hard work.

Just like John said, there's just one that was a little bit above for me as well.

- You already won by being here.

Thank you for being creative.

Thank you for the work you did.

Your dishes are all delicious and amazing.

And I should say (speaks in foreign language) that is good luck.

(speaks in foreign language) - I know for the judges, and after a lot of discussion and deliberation, it's been tough, but based on presentation, creativity, and taste, they have made their decision.

- And it is our absolute pleasure to announce the winners of "The Great Minnesota Recipe", Kannan and Anusha!

- Yes.

(all laugh) (everyone claps) - Congratulations.

- Congratulations, guys.

- We can't even believe that happened.

- We're out of words.

(laughs) - Yeah, it was, it was amazing.

It's pretty humbling.

We feel that the judges felt, among so many nice dishes, that they thought ours was good.

So it is in one word humbling, but we are also very happy.

- Yeah, yeah.

Thanks to everybody.

We are so happy that our marriage or wedding of Indian and Minnesotan recipe went really well with everyone.

Thank you so much.

- Yeah, and I think we owe a lot of thanks to all our friends and Minnesotan who gave in all their input, and it's a truly great dish.

- Yeah, we will definitely dedicate this to all our friends and family here for being with us.

- Absolutely, yeah.

(upbeat music) - There's the fun part.

- It's not casserole, it's a hot dish.

- It's a hot dish.

(laughs) - Casserole is the dish that you put the hot dish in.

- You know, let's break the rules a little.

Let's see.

Oh jeez.

Right on the money.

- I just need to, like, you know, always check with the boss if the size is okay.

- The holy trinity is coming together.

We just need one more little bit of that, and that would be our celery.

- When it's ready, you just know.

- You can tell.

- I was right.

- Really?

- I can feel it already.

You see how I'm not much of a smiler, but now I'm smiling?

- I'm trying to, like, pretend I'm professional.

- Comfort food.

It's comfort food, right?

- It's wonderful.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

And we're going in the oven, okay?

Oh, it's creamy, smells delicious, and now it's a'cooking.

Oh.

- She's a'bubbling.

She's a'bubbling.

- And that's exactly what we wanna see.

- Season Two of "The Great Minnesota Recipe" is right around the corner.

Do you wanna be the first to know about casting for a chance to compete?

Sign up for our casting call mailing list at wdse.org now.

- Funding for "The Great Minnesota Recipe" is provided by: Daugherty Appliance Sales and Service.

The Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

(upbeat music)