[upbeat music] - Coming up on "The Key Ingredient".

Rice is so nice.

From the field to my kitchen, we explore ways this good grain will make your next recipe seen.

The fat coating on this rice will absorb the liquid it's going to simmer in.

There's rice in these hills.

Meet husband and wife farming duo Tou and Chue Lee and learn the unique way they farm Heirloom rice.

What pollinates these?

Is it bees or is it wind?

- Wind.

- [Sheri] Wind.

We are in the kitchen with my dear friend Ricky Moore to make his delicious and comforting rice and summer squash gratin.

- The presentation is everything.

Look, it's a one pot dish.

It's real important that this one pot dish, when it comes out the oven, it looks brilliant.

- That's next.

I'm Sheri Castle, I write cookbooks.

I write for food magazines.

I cook, I teach, and I collect stories.

And my favorite stories are the ones behind our best loved home recipes.

Can you eat just rice like this?

Give it a try.

Here we go.

Oh, that's awesome.

I will go out and explore from the ground up the best ingredients that go into some of our most beloved family recipes.

It's all about the food, the flavors, and finding the key ingredients.

[upbeat music] Chue and Tou Lee wanted to bring a little bit of home to their Lee's One Fortune farm by growing popular Asian fruits and vegetables on their Hmong family farm and selling them at markets.

But when the Lees figured out a way to grow heirloom rice in the foothills of North Carolina, they became a sensation and started out growing and harvesting the rice by hand.

As demand rose, they now use a harvester.

I am so excited to see just how they do it.

Good morning.

- Good morning, Sheri.

- Hi Sheri.

- How are you, friends?

Good to see you.

- Good to meet you.

- Welcome to Lee's One Fortune Farm.

- Lee's One Fortune Farm, I love that, I love that.

So how long have you been here?

- This is our third year on this property.

- So you grow all kinds of things.

Is the rice around here?

- [Chue] The rice will be over that hill, down all the way to the bottom.

- [Sheri] And why is it in the bottom land?

- [Chue] It is a lot of woods, rice spot, and a few little streams.

- Can we walk or is it a ride?

- We prefer to ride because I've always joked about it.

It's a mile down and 10 miles back because it's all uphill.

- Well, definitely I'll meet you down there.

See you down there in just a minute, okay.

- Sounds good, let's do that.

- Sounds good, let's do that.

You got your boots?

- Yeah, mine aren't as cool as yours.

I should have brought my more heavy duty boots.

So, and just looking at this, I mean, if I, if I was out here walking, I would not look out and say, oh, there's a rice field.

Because I think like a lot of people, I'm not sure I ever knew what rice plants looked like.

- So this is the part that make the rice.

- Oh, the little individual grains.

- [Tou] Yes, that's what we harvest.

And this is what we call green rice.

- Because it's not mature.

- Yes, it's not mature.

It's perfect for green rice.

- And that's edible too, but in very small amounts, right?

- Yeah.

- Very, very good rice.

So the window to collect these would be like three days, and right now's the best time.

- Really?

- Yeah.

- Is it a certain moisture level you're looking for?

How do you know when those magic three days come along?

- When they're just like that.

- Okay.

- When they're not, the head is not all the way down.

It's just halfway down, and you see the grain is halfway filled.

That's a perfect time.

We're gonna cut, but we're gonna look at the rice when they're mature like that, that's when we're gonna cut.

- Just cut the mature one.

And I'm gonna go ahead and set up the tarp.

- [Tou] Okay, just like that.

- So you're gonna do as many and with every.

- Yes.

- Like side and down.

- [Tou] Yes.

- All right, okay.

I can't do the whole handfuls, Chue.

I'm gonna have to do mine one at a time.

- You could do one at a time.

- Okay.

- Okay, this is how we tie it.

So that it will stay in one bundle.

- [Sheri] Okay.

- [Tou] And then this is how we lay it on the stock right here for a day.

- [Sheri] To dry.

- To dry.

And then when we gather the bundle to go to the tarp, it'll be ready to thrash.

- So if you're harvesting this whole field, is it one field per season?

Is it sequential planting?

Or is it one and done in a season?

- One and done in the season.

- [Sheri] Okay.

- Yeah.

- [Sheri] Oh, well you weren't kidding about the muck.

- [Chue] Yeah.

- Oh my goodness.

Y'all, I'm going down.

I knew it was happening.

All right, you grab one side.

My boots are stuck.

All right, lesson one in far rice farming.

So you just lay it on the tarp.

Do you wanna spread it out or just put in in little bundles?

What do I need to do here?

- No, we're gonna thresh it today.

- [Sheri] Oh, okay.

- [Chue] It don't really matter.

- [Sheri] Okay.

- But if we're gonna leave it to air dry, yes.

Now you notice the green ones don't come off as easy as the... - Right, because they're not ready to let go.

Like, yeah, okay, all right.

- [Chue] You wanna give it a shot?

- Yeah, I wanna give it a shot.

Oh yes, let's do that one that she so kindly already tied clothes together here.

- [Chue] See how that just comes off so easy?

- [Sheri] There you go.

- [Chue] And the nice is you can beat it as hard as you need to, yep.

- I'm thinking about that mud.

That's what I'm thinking about.

- I'll tell you what, I've lost so many things in the mud pit.

I don't take phone, jewelry, or good clothes into it because of that.

- All right, well friends, I don't know when I've had a more fascinating day.

I mean, it was, it was, I've never seen anything like this.

It is such news.

And y'all understand why it's so special and why you guys are the experts.

I cannot believe we're in the foothills of North Carolina doing your family's farming, both of you.

Thank you, thanks for putting up on me.

- [Chue] Yeah, thank you so much for coming.

- [Tou] Thank you for coming.

- And the mud is clean, so everything else is good too.

- You know what, you can do a spa thing.

Y'all can add a mud bath side hustle to this.

- That's a good idea.

- You got it, you got it.

- That's in the future.

- You can name it for me, the Sheri Boggy Spot.

- That's right.

[everybody laughing] - You know, there are great rice dishes around the world.

These one pot meals that are a little miracle of simple ingredients.

This is one of my favorites.

It's called red rice, which comes from the low country.

What I'm doing here is I am warming up a little bit of delicious bacon fat and butter.

And that's gonna be the first step in building this dish.

This is Carolina Gold Rice.

It too comes from the low country around Charleston and Savannah.

It's a beautiful, delicious, delicate, long grain rice, and I am stirring it into this melted fat.

Now this is an important step that you don't wanna rush because the fat coating on this rice means that it will slowly absorb the liquid it's going to simmer in, and it keeps it from turning mushy.

So once everything is glossy, I'm gonna add this shrimp and tomato broth.

I'm going to start with a little and pour it on.

And as this rice cooks, it is gonna soak up every delicious drop.

There we go.

Add my liquid, give it another good stir, and we're off to the races.

Now, I'm gonna cover this pot and let it simmer gently over very low heat until it absorbs all the liquid.

I know you're curious about this wonderful stuff.

It is easy, aromatic, delicious.

It's the key to good rice.

This mixture is a beautiful shrimp and tomato stock that I use to cook the rice.

I peeled and de-veined the shrimp and set the shells aside.

Heat a few drops of oil in a sauce pan and stir in the shells.

There's fantastic flavor in these shells, as much as in the shrimp themselves, so they're too tasty to toss.

Cook while stirring until the shells turn pink and release their aroma.

Pour in chicken stock and simmer gently until the liquid reduces to two cups.

Strain out and discard the shells.

Keep this shrimp stock warm over very low heat.

In a sauce pan, warm bacon fat and butter.

Stir in the onion, celery, garlic, and salt.

These vegetables, called the aromatics, will add even more flavor, texture, and color to the rice.

I'm going to cook the vegetables until they're very tender, almost jam like.

Next, I'm stirring in tomato posada, a wonderful bottled ingredient that's like a cross between tomato sauce and tomato juice.

It isn't hard to find.

It's near the canned tomatoes in most grocery stores.

Next comes vinegar, salt, pepper, thyme, bay leaves, and red pepper flakes.

And finally, the delicious shrimp stock.

There you go.

Everything in this pan will add flavor to our rice and turn it red.

So I've let this cook for about 25 minutes, long enough for the rice to absorb the amazing flavors out of that shrimp and tomato mixture.

Now when you're making this kind of red rice dish, the resting time is as important as the cooking time.

So now I'm going to brown some smokey delicious sausage.

I'm using Andouille, and the flavor is great.

But you know, that sausage can be so lean that sometimes I put a little bit of butter in the pan to start the browning process.

It's a fully cooked sausage, but this browning is gonna bring all of its delicious flavor up to the surface.

This has been cooking for a little bit, and I've developed some brown.

That brown equals flavor, just ripe to receive this delicious peeled and de-veined fresh shrimp.

And we're gonna cook these only until the shrimp turn opaque.

The secret to this recipe is to make sure everything cooks exactly the right amount of time so that when it all comes together, everything is cooked perfectly.

And by golly, just that quick, just that easy, this is done.

We're ready to assemble this dish.

And oh wow, the aroma when lift that lid.

Everything we've been building has now come into play.

So all I need to do is to add my shrimp and my sausage to my rice.

Put it right on top.

Oh, the heck with it.

Let's just pour in the rest.

There we go, a little more sausage.

Don't wanna miss a one.

And now, with just a gentle folding action, we are going to turn this rice over this sausage to incorporate it.

This is glorious.

This is why you can see they call it red rice.

It's not red when it goes into the pot.

It's red when it comes out of the pot.

I'm gonna serve up a gorgeous portion of this.

Oh, this smells so good.

Let me taste it.

This is a home cooking recipe from the coast of the United States.

But I'm telling you, friends, this is a world class rice dish.

Buy good rice, buy good ingredients.

This is gonna be one of your favorite new dinners.

My friend, Ricky Moore, is always cooking up something extraordinary and with a smile.

He's known for a delicious faire at his saltbox seafood joint.

Today, Ricky goes full comfort food, what he likes to call church lady goodness, with a rice dish that will make everyone happy.

Friend, it's so good to be here today.

Thank you for inviting me over.

We're gonna make a rice dish, right?

- Sheri, it is so good to see you and so good to cook with you.

Absolutely, we gonna make rice today.

- I love how you are doing this rice, because it's like cooking pasta.

- Exactly.

- So what kind of rice are we using here today?

- This is a Basmati rice.

It's light and fluffy and aromatic.

And then also we are cooking it now, and then we're gonna cook it again.

So I feel like the characteristics of this rice is very appropriate for it.

So that's why I chose it.

- So what we got going over here?

- [Ricky] Squash, summer squash.

- [Sheri] Squash.

So this is just looks like zucchini and yellow squash.

- [Ricky] Yes it is, okay.

- [Sheri] We're gonna put this here, and we're gonna put a little salt.

- [Ricky] Perfect Sheri.

- And then we're gonna do another handful, maybe two big handfuls, and a little bit more salt.

And I'm gonna toss this around.

- [Ricky] That's right.

- So everything in my sive, and then it just hangs, right?

It just sits.

- It hangs out because what's gonna happen is that salt's gonna draw up moisture.

- [Sheri] Yeah.

- And we gonna collect that and save that for the final part of the dish.

Right now what we are doing is cooking some onions until they're nice and soft.

Okay, so still sweating these out.

Now, I might go ahead and add a little garlic.

- [Sheri] I love this 'cause I think a lot of people don't realize that 'cause so many recipes say do your onions and garlic at the same time.

- [Ricky] Right.

- No, you want that garlic to just be, it needs just a few seconds to release its aroma, right?

- Absolutely, absolutely, Sheri.

- [Sheri] Oh, look at that.

You can see it coming out.

- Yeah, look at that, this is right here.

Okay, now what I wanna do is kind of use my hands and we're gonna kind of squeeze it out.

It won't escape.

We never throw away flavor, Sheri, never throw away flavor.

- Never throw away flavor.

Is this good in here or should I put this on a towel for a few minutes?

- You should put it on a towel please 'cause we do want it dry.

- [Sheri] All right.

- So we got our zucchini juice and the goal is to have two cups of zucchini juice.

And so we need about two, two cups of liquid all day.

So we're gonna need a little bit of rice water in a few.

- We are using things that people might pour down the drain and we're building our dish with it.

Look at me multitask here.

I'm gonna hand you this so it can be doing its thing while I finished doing my thing.

- [Ricky] Beautiful, okay, this looks beautiful.

That looks beautiful.

So now I'm going to add the zucchini here.

- [Sheri] And that's gonna cook down.

- [Ricky] Yes.

- [Sheri] That's gonna, yeah.

- Right, exactly, exactly.

So we can put as much, because this is a rice is a rice dish with zucchini.

- [Sheri] Right.

- Not zucchini with rice.

- You know what amazes me about this is that because we did that draining step and got all that flavor, we captured it, but we don't have any of that swampiness in here.

All right, so I'm going to use the same strainer since you had the zucchini in it.

- It makes sense.

- And just drain this off.

- And see Sherry, while you doing that, which is fantastically awesome, here's the thing, I also, at this point now I feel confident in caramelizing these onions, this garlic, and the zucchini now.

- [Sheri] Every time you scrape with that, it's coming loose.

- Exactly.

- But you're getting that little bit of brown, that little bit of delicious flavor and stuff.

So when you get that just right, what comes next?

- So now I'm gonna add our beautiful collected zucchini juice and rice broth.

Okay.

- Ooh, look, and that's gonna loosen up that last little bit of that zucchini glaze.

- Right, and now I'm gonna sprinkle in a little bit of flour and by the tablespoon, you know.

'Cause what we want to do is just create a little, a little thickness, sort of like onion zucchini gravy like thing.

I'm turn this heat up and we are gonna cook this down.

Okay, and the goal here is that, you know, you want it to be like I said, sort of a gravy like.

You know, the flour, this binds everything together.

- You can tell that zucchini stuff, we still got our color, but this is transformed this.

We really, this is, I mean you could eat, this is almost good enough to eat as it is.

- Oh, this can go on toast, on buttered toast right now.

Okay, so Sheri, that rice is looking good.

- [Sheri] Yep.

- And I think it's time to incorporate that rice.

Let me turn this heat down just a bit.

Okay, so this is a rice dish.

- [Sheri] Yes.

- So just be clear about this.

- [Sheri] Yep.

- When we add the rice here, we want, we are gonna add it gradually.

I'm gonna slowly incorporate it.

And I think that we have enough rice right now.

- You got it.

- So I'm gonna just kind of fold everything in.

So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna ask you to add a little bit more of the liquid because the reason why is because now we are gonna cook it again in the oven.

I'm just gonna turn this on a bit more.

- Okay.

- Just bring it to a good boil.

But yeah, that's, that's sort of like my standard.

Anytime you make a a baked casserole, vegetable, rice, meat, macaroni and cheese, it needs to start prior to going in custard like.

I'm gonna turn this off a little, turn it down a bit.

This is critical, okay.

Gotta taste it, and then you're tasting for flavor.

- Texture.

- Texture, balance.

That's delicious.

I'm gonna add a little cheese, chop some parsley.

- Are those Ritz crackers?

- These are Ritz crackers.

- Oh, everything sits better on a Ritz.

- Let me tell you why.

I'm gonna break these up in my hand, okay, just like we do in the house.

Okay, and it's gonna sprinkle on top.

That's right, now we gonna put a little lemon zest on because I think we should, okay.

But no, this brightens up the dish.

A little bit of olive oil on top.

- That's beautiful.

- Okay, now we're just gonna bake this in the oven.

[upbeat music] Oh, Sheri, look at that.

- Friend, you did a good job.

I can tell already.

- We're good, let's eat, you know.

- Look at that, it comes out in one beautiful piece.

- And I am so particular, but that is beautiful.

I think, and then obviously from a vegetarian standpoint, this is like superb.

- This is perfect.

Mm, it's sophisticated without being fancy.

- [Ricky] That's right.

- It's about the rice.

You've got the aroma, you've got that lemon.

This is amazing.

- Thank you so much, Sheri.

I had a joy cooking with you.

- Let's do this more often, all right?

- Absolutely.

- All right, here's to rice.

- Here's to rice, something something.

- I am making rice in peas, a simple but delicious dish.

It's the kind of thing I turn to when I'm hungry, but I'm not sure what I'm hungry for.

And somehow this always hits the spot.

I'm gonna start by warming a little oil and a little butter in the pan.

I like using a combination of olive oil and butter because they each bring something to the recipe, their own little richness.

And together they're the perfect cooking fat for this dish.

So as soon as my butter melts, I'm gonna add a little bit of finely chopped shallots.

Whenever I put onions in a pot, I always add a pinch of salt.

And the reason I do that is salt makes food, including these shallots, turn tender and release their own moisture.

It's very simple, but everything we add to the pot is going to give it great flavor.

So I'm gonna let these onions cook until they're fully tender, maybe five to eight minutes.

And the next thing that goes in is a Parmesan broth.

It is so easy, and it's packed with flavor.

Parmesan rinds are the outside edges of a big wheel of Parmesano Reggiano cheese that are too hard to grate.

They're full of flavor, like a meatless soup bone.

I'm using them to make my chicken stock even more delicious before adding it to the rice.

It's easy.

Place the rinds in a sauce pan and add chicken stock and a little water.

You can use vegetable stock if you want to keep this recipe meatless.

Add lots of garlic and a couple of bay leaves.

Simmer until you can taste the Parmesan, about 30 minutes.

Strain the stock, pour it back into the pan.

You could discard the rinds, but I like to nibble on the soft edges as a little cook's treat.

I love the flavor and the aroma of that Parmesan broth.

It's amazing how much flavor we got out of those rinds.

But my next step here is the rice, the star of this recipe.

I am using a short grain rice, a risotto rice, because I want this to turn out creamy and brothy and delicious.

Now, I am ready to start adding my broth.

And I'm gonna do that in stages, about a ladle full at a time.

It's a little bit like making risotto, but this is so much easier.

So I'm down to about my last ladle or so of the broth.

And that means it's time to add the peas.

All right, I'm gonna confess something to you.

I adore frozen little green peas.

I don't think there's any vegetable that turns out better frozen than it is fresh.

And now we can see where this is headed.

I'm only gonna cook it for another minute or so just to give these peas time to heat through.

I've got a couple more things to go in the pot.

The first thing I'm going to add is some good Parmesan.

I actually graded this from the block of cheese that I used for the cheese rinds.

And I've got this really finely ground so that it almost dissolves in this broth and thickens it up.

So right before I serve this, I add a couple of last minute things to add some brightness to lift this up.

My go-to for that is a lemon.

We're gonna start with a little zest.

I'm going to cut this lemon in half and squeeze in the juice.

There we go.

Rice loves pepper.

This recipe loves pepper.

Put that in there.

And one last pat of butter.

Once the butter's melted, we are good to go.

It's time to taste it.

I'm gonna put a couple of big scoops in this, and making sure I get a little bit of that amazing broth.

Make myself a spot here.

I'm gonna add two more drops of lemon.

I'm gonna add a good sprinkle of chives.

And last but not least, one more bit of Parmesan.

And I'm gonna take a vegetable peeler, and I'm just gonna pull some gorgeous big ribbons of that.

And I'm gonna dig in.

Don't you love a dish that tastes like you worked all day when you really didn't?

This is comforting.

It's special, but it's not fussy.

You get the creamy rice, you get that little bit of cheese, you get some garlic.

Makes me happy every time I make it.

[upbeat music] We know that people around the world eat rice.

There are so many kinds.

Some have different colors, some are red, some are black.

But what I have here are my favorite white rices, the ones I keep in my pantry all the time.

First, I have good long grain white rice.

This is the kind of rice that we use when we want a bowl full of fluffy, gorgeous individual grains of rice to go under gravy, to go under stew, or just to enjoy on its own.

The next category of rice is a short grain rice.

You can actually see the difference.

They're almost like little cantaloupe seeds or something.

They're short, they're stubby, they're full of starch.

And that starch is why we picked them for some of our recipes.

This next one is the legendary Carolina gold rice.

It is a gorgeous rice.

And what I loved the most about it is, depending on the recipe and depending on how you cook it, it can act like a long grain or a short grain.

Now this last one is close related to our Carolina Gold, and it's probably something you've never seen before.

These are called rice midlands.

The middle pieces, sometimes known as rice grits.

And what this is, is a byproduct of the processing of the Carolina Gold.

It is not hard to find.

It keeps for a long time.

And I have got to tell you, I think it has become my favorite kind of rice of all.

It's called midlands, they're good for you.

And between these, we're gonna be able to make whatever kind of rice dish we want.

Rice has the nicest way of going with almost anything on the table.

But thanks to its versatility, it could be the key ingredient in your next recipe.

[upbeat music] For all the recipes from the show, visit our website.

It's where you'll find the key ingredient for a perfect time in the kitchen.