[Birds Chirping] - Welcome to "The Great Minnesota Recipe".

I'm Shannon Laing, and I'm excited to host this brand new series, celebrating the unique and diverse culinary experiences of Minnesota, and I can't wait for you to meet these cooks.

We'll travel to Vergas, Buhl, and Duluth, to find out how each cook has had to adapt their recipes over time to thrive within Minnesota's unique resources and climate.

These cooks are diving into their recipe boxes and sharing family favorites that have made the journey to Minnesota from afar.

Then, in the fourth episode, the cooks will go head-to-head in a competition right behind me in this greenhouse, where they'll try to impress the judges with a new and exciting twist on the most classic Minnesotan entree, The Hot Dish.

Today we're meeting Tomorrow Tanksley, a professional chef from Vergas, Minnesota.

She loves taking classic Minnesotan dishes and infusing them with Southern flavors.

My friend Sharon traveled to Vergas to get a taste of Tomorrow's family-inspired dishes.

- Funding for "The Great Minnesota Recipe" is provided by Daugherty Appliance Service and Sales, the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and viewers like you, thank you.

(bright upbeat music) - You can be doing something your whole life, and you be 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 this state and yeah, and I've been off and running ever since.

- Did you ever imagine yourself in culinary school?

- Absolutely not.

- So what drew you into like the world of cooking?

- I'm gonna say this.

I had a job, I got a job at a small bar and I was just, I was actually just applying to be a bartender, waitress, I was always front of the house.

I loved service industry.

I loved the hospitality industry, but they didn't have a position open in the front of the house, but they had a position open in their kitchen.

And the young lady, she offered me a position in the kitchen and I took it.

I said, sure, until something opened up out front.

(calm music) I went back there, it was a whole nother world, it was so awesome (giggles).

I've been in love with the kitchen ever since.

- When did the meaning of food actually change for you a little bit?

Was it when you applied for that job?

- I would say food definitely changed for me then.

I was always very creative, I've always been creative.

I knew I was gonna do something creative, but yeah, when I stepped in that kitchen, it was just a totally different world.

Well today guys, we're gonna make, I'm gonna fry you guys some walleye.

Yeah, but I'm gonna put my own little spin on it.

I'll do a cajun walleye.

- Oh, that sounds delicious.

Now can you do this with any type of fish, this recipe?

- You absolutely can.

You absolutely can.

So I'm gonna do kind of like a version of a po'boy with walleye, with our favorite fish here in Minnesota, walleye.

- Yeah, I love walleye.

- We love our walleye.

So that's what I'm doing, like a walleye po'boy.

- So what do we need to get started?

- I have some beautiful walleye filets.

And it's all about the seasoning, and so I got cayenne, salt, paprika, Hungarian, 'cause my husband's German.

That's the kind he likes.

Granulated garlic, black pepper.

These are the four seasons that I put on the walleye.

- And then what do you use to, what kind of oil are you using for that?

- I'm gonna fry it, a extra virgin olive oil.

We have gone away from the days of Crisco, but I love to fry fish in Crisco.

I do.

- Sure, sure.

- Oh it's wonderful.

But health wise, olive oil, we'll use olive oil today.

My family got to the United States, it was through the slave trade.

We actually did ancestry and traced our ancestors, our whatever, our DNA back to what region, like in Africa we came from or whatever.

And we were Congolese, I thought that was pretty cool.

I guess you can say my grandparents, they came, the great migration north is what it was called when everybody left the south and came north, think they followed that, they did that.

And so that's how we got to the Midwest, and that's... Yeah and they brought all of their cooking traditions and with them and they just passed them down, just passed them down to us girls and from kids to kids.

From generation to generation, I guess I would say, yeah.

I come from a family of cooks, just great cooks.

I didn't even know people who made money cooking, like I never put two and two together.

Like this could be a career, 'cause cooking just comes naturally.

We do a lot of cooking at home and I've always been in the kitchen, always in the kitchen with my sisters, with my grandmother, with my mom and wow, and just to have a career in it is really insane.

Yeah, I didn't even know this existed until it did one day for me.

My mom's dad had like 21 kids, so whatever I go to my grandparents house, I have so many aunts and uncles and so many cousins.

It's so crazy and everybody is great cooks.

That's why I didn't realize that people cook for living because all we do is cook, all we do is cook and eat.

But yeah, food, definitely a big, big deal in my family.

Definitely a big deal.

So Sharon, we are gonna get some oil in our pan.

And if anybody does not have one of these, they need it, 'cause this is a cast iron skillet.

This is the best of the best.

- And is it seasoned?

Has it been seasoned for many years?

- Yes ma'am.

- Talk about that a little bit.

- Yes ma'am.

So when you season your pan, you get some oil on it.

You fire it really hot.

So you want about two inches of oil in this for this fish.

- For this walleye.

- About two inches, about two inches.

Okay, for this walleye, we're gonna get that going.

Yeah, to season your pan, you just season it and what you do, the key to it is you never wash it.

- Right.

- You never put your cast iron in water ever.

Okay?

It ruins.

Well you'll have to re season it.

You don't wanna mess up your cast iron with water.

So what you do, you wipe, you wipe it.

You wipe it clean.

We're gonna get that on high.

That's just high.

We're gonna let that oil heat up and then we're gonna get some fish in our pot.

- Like fry, fry these babies up.

♪ We're gonna fry some fish ♪ ♪ Fry fry some fish ♪ - How do you know when it's ready to fry?

To what amount?.

- So you could use a thermometer if you like, but me, I'm gonna eyeball it and we are just, I'm gonna do this.

- So when you start feeling that it's... - You'll feel that heat rise.

- Okay, 'cause I can see bubbles.

- Yeah, it's getting there.

Not quite, this is a really big pan, so we're gonna let her get nice and hot.

- In your creative side when you're preparing and thinking of dishes, is it just the season you think that drives it a little bit?

Is it just your mood?

Tell me a little bit more about that.

- The season, the seasons, meaning the weather, definitely drives our cooking here, here at the restaurant and just in my home also.

In the winter, we like the hearty, stuff that's gonna stick to your bones.

I'm just gonna call it like it is.

We like potatoes and we like meat (laughs).

Just really hearty.

In the summer we like fresh and light, because we wanna be on the lake, we wanna be riding our bikes, we wanna go hiking.

So you don't want anything heavy, right?

So we cook really light in the summer and we cook really heavy in the winter.

It works for us (chuckles) it works for us, yeah.

My favorite season period is fall, 'cause that's when deer hunt happens.

And so yeah, the boys go out, they catch a buck, they get a nice deer and then we make a sausage, (laughs) which is our favorite thing to do.

Yeah, we make a lot of sausages here.

- So in the fall you love the duck hunting?

- Duck hunting, deer hunting.

- Deer hunting.

- And in the winter we love ice fishing.

And in the summer we just like to boat and pretend we're fishing.

(laughs) and yeah, so and the spring is great too.

It's just so muddy but the spring, spring just gives you this feeling, 'cause it's almost time to plant, honey.

Now that's the, it's almost time to, that's when the gardener and you wakes up, you're just like, "Oh it's almost planting season."

And you have to like refrain because we might get a big snowstorm and ruin your plant.

So you have to have patience.

You have to have patience, you can't plant too soon.

So yeah, spring just reminds me of, it's almost time to garden.

I don't think I could ever live somewhere where there's only like one season or two, it would be so weird.

Like I love the snow, I love the snow in the winter, the mud in the spring, the mosquitoes in the summer.

(laughs) Right?

It's like you look forward to these things, yeah.

- It's the changing, the changing.

- The changing of the season, yap.

- It's like a renewal.

- You get to be renewed every three months, you get every renewal.

Except in the winter, 'cause it lasts a really long time.

(laughs) But we love our winters, we love our winters.

- You stay here long enough, you embrace it, right?

- You do.

And you just don't understand how people could live any other way.

This is truly God's country.

(calm guitar music) So we're gonna put that in the oven just a second, but we're gonna get our fish.

Fingers crossed.

- All right, so I wanna review this.

So you dipped it in buttermilk, you keep going on.

- Buttermilk, yeah.

- And you've added these spices to the corn mill, - To the corn mill flour mixture.

- and flour mixture.

And would you say you just kind of a teaspoon of this, a teaspoon of that or... - Yeah.

- To your liking?

- To your liking.

Just mix just... Yeah, you can do a, - Paprika, cayenne... - pretty much equal, equal parts of everything.

Equal parts of everything.

I was hoping, I was gonna... All of these filets, let's see.

You got your, you need your tong, Sharon.

- Yeah, I got my tongs.

- Your tongs.

I'm gonna scoot that over, just a little bit.

(filet sizzling) so I can get this last filet in that pot.

Very nice.

- Beautiful.

- All the season.

- This is a nice big pan.

- Yeah, these are some beautiful lots.

- They are.

- Aren't they gorgeous.

- So tell me a little bit about Vergas.

- It's this total lake country.

Absolute lake country.

We have so many lakes, we're on beautiful Star Lake right now.

The west arm of Star Lake right now.

Yeah, Vergas is just total lake country.

It's the cutest town ever.

The people are so nice.

I wouldn't live anywhere else.

- Oh, I love that.

- When you talk about Minnesota nice.

You're talking about Vergas Minnesota.

- Now, you know cooking in general is one thing in your home kitchen.

But to be a professional chef is another.

So what is the greatest joy you get out of being a professional chef?

- Teaching my younger staff, just showing 'em and seeing how they get excited when they do something right.

And just teaching them what I know and seeing if they got that same joy, see if they can find that same joy that I get from cooking.

I love to see their faces light up when they, when they make a dish and I let them make a dish, I'll be like, "You know what?

You're gonna make this today."

And they'll be like, "Oh!"

It's just, I love to teach the younger, the younger generation behind me all about food and just educating them about food too, because I went to school and I just learned more about food.

And I'm really trying to teach that to like others too.

Like my cousins and my younger, my generation behind me coming up that the better, eating whole foods, just the better you eat, the better you'll feel.

Being DOS or having that background, that cultural background.

They tended to cook, they cooked what they had.

And they seasoned heavily because the cuts of meat may have not always been the best.

So you wanna season, you wanna make it taste as best as you can.

Now that tradition has definitely followed us, the heavy seasoning and I'm trying to, and I'm teaching the generation behind me.

We don't have to season so heavily because we eat better now this is a really good cut of meat you don't wanna over season that, 'cause you wanna taste it.

Some things that were taught, that you've just been taught by your grandmother, don't always translate to today's world.

So we're starting to eat better because we can eat better because now we have the chance to eat better.

We get to, you know what I'm trying to say.

Like we get to pick our food now.

It's just not given to you.

You get to make, you're more informed so you make better decisions about food.

- You cook a lot for the seasons.

- Yes.

- So you, obviously you fish in the winter.

How about ice fishing?

- Ice fishing.

- [Both] Yes.

- We ice fish in the winter.

Yes.

Very avidly.

The lake's really gross right now because it's right at that verge where it's gonna melt.

It's gonna open up.

But boy, when it freezes first ice, we go out there and we just steal all the fish.

We get the sunnies, we get the crappies.

It's so fun.

Ice fishing is fun.

- Well, it's really feeding your family all winter.

- Yeah, absolutely.

We literally can just, this lake is, (filet sizzling) it's a source of food.

It's our food source.

If you want it to be, it totally can be.

If you don't mind going out there and getting it, you can definitely get it.

We're gonna let that fish cook about two to three minutes on each side just like that.

- Okay, it looks incredible so far.

- Smelling good, smelling good.

All right, let's pop our bread in the oven.

- Sounds good.

- Okay, we're gonna pop it on the broiler.

- Yeah, not forget about it.

- And not forget about it.

When I go to work, it don't feel like work.

It feel like I'm supposed to be here.

I don't wanna leave, when people get upset 'cause they have to go to work, I wanna go to work, 'cause I love, I love it.

If you can find something that takes you out of your own head and find some peace, do it.

Because that's what cooking is for me.

It's totally a mental health thing.

Oh we got... - It looks beautiful.

I can tell you're really happy in the kitchen, Tomorrow.

- Oh God.

Oh my God.

Yes, I suggest anybody finds something that you don't mind doing, and try to make some money doing it.

- Oh, that's a beautiful.

- Oh she's a beaut, let's take her out.

- Oh, that was wonderful.

- It's beautiful.

And sometimes you cook and like your food be so pretty.

You're like, "Oh, you're so beautiful."

That's what I, I talk to my food.

We're gonna try to get this one out without breaking it.

Hold on, go this way.

- Do you want another plate?

- Yeah, let me grab one more.

- Oh, it looks great.

- You don't wanna stack it 'cause then you're just gonna be dripping grease on your fish that's underneath.

- I really like how you use basic Minnesota ingredients and you intertwine them with your family history and your cultural background.

Is it something that you've always wanted to share with people?

And is that how you like share kind of your family history?

- Absolutely.

Absolutely.

I love to, I try to do that too at the restaurant.

Sometimes I'll just create a dish and everybody knows like, oh that's Tomorrow's dish.

'Cause I'll do like a gumbo or something like that.

Or just do something that's like come from my history or some other something.

We love to smother things in the south.

So I do like to put smother pork chops on the menu, people just love it.

So yeah, just I like to show just a little side of me.

This is me, this comes from my grandmother's kitchen.

Try it.

- And sharing that love.

I really appreciate you sharing your grandparents love.

I really do.

I can tell by the way that you cook and the way that you prepare and how things are thought out.

- Yes.

- It very much is sharing your family with others.

Thank you, Tomorrow.

- Yeah, you're welcome.

- Tomorrow, - Yes ma'am.

- we are making the remoulade.

- We're gonna make some remoulade.

- And it's basically... - It's a fancy.

- Fancy term for the tartar sauce.

- I'm gonna say it's a French word for tartar.

- All right.

- Google it, guys.

- Yeah, exactly.

- 'Cause I don't remember, culinary school so long ago, but I love making a remoulade.

I say it's just a fancy French term for tartar sauce.

- Okay, I love how you're not measuring.

- Nope, nope.

We're gonna make, 'cause you know what?

We got four pieces of fish, so we gonna make some remoulade for four.

- Okay.

- Mix it.

- See, it's almost like about a cup.

- Yeah, about a cup.

Okay, so we have a little Dijon.

- Dijon mustard?

- Mm-hmm.

- And really with the remoulade, so all the ingredients you gather them and then you put them together.

You mix them up and you just set 'em in the refrigerator.

- Refrigerator, yes.

- All you have to do.

- Oh Sharon, you know what I'll have you do?

I'll have you mince some garlic.

Do you know how to use a knife?

- Yes I do, if you trust me with your knife.

- I do.

I do trust you.

- And how many cloves would you like?

- Maybe two cloves.

Can you mince that up for me?

Awesome.

Yep, you can use my little piggy.

Here's a little piggy.

Yep, I'll take that.

So I'm gonna put a table spoon.

This is a half a tablespoon.

- Of Dijon?

- Of Dijon mustard.

That should do it.

- You can't have enough garlic?

- No you can't.

And then I'm gonna put a tablespoon of lemon juice.

- I don't see any salt on the table.

So are you choosing Mayo, Dijon?

- You don't need any salt because guess what?

That mayonnaise has plenty of salt in it.

You use lemon juice to brighten up anything, to brighten stuff up, if something's not...

I'm gonna put a tablespoon of lemon juice in this.

Okay, just like that.

Yeah, lemon juice is a breaker, it brightens up anything.

If something tastes dull, add a splash of lemon.

It'll get better, it'll get better real quick.

We're gonna put a teaspoon of, this is Worcestershire sauce (both mumble) - That is the sodium.

- When people say it, here is the sodium.

Yeah, here's the sodium.

It's a little salt.

Yeah, we don't have to add salt 'cause a lot of these things have and we're putting capers in it.

Capers are very salty.

- Very salty.

- Very salty.

So I'm just gonna do that with that.

'cause I don't have to, that's enough.

That's it.

- Yeah, maybe one or two tablespoons, a tablespoon and a half?

- Just a dollar.

Actually, it should be a teaspoon.

That's a teaspoon of Worcestershire.

I'm gonna put a little couple dashes of hot sauce.

- So any type of favorite hot sauce.

- Your favorite hot sauce.

- Yum.

- And you can add that garlic, why don't you put your garlic in there for me.

Thank you.

Capers are very salty guys, so you can rinse them off if you need to.

I'm just gonna add a little handful of capers.

That'll be good.

And they're salted good.

Oh you know what we need?

A pickle.

- Oh yeah.

- Let's add some pickle.

- Do you ever use relish?

- You could use pickle relish for this recipe, absolutely.

- Sure.

- But when you don't have any pickle relish, you just take some pickles and you dice 'em up.

- Dice 'em up, yeah.

- Yeah, I'll do that.

I'm quicker.

(knife chopping) You don't need a lot.

Just a few.

And it'll bring it off, so this could be your sour.

Remember, you were saying something about sour.

- Yes, exactly.

- This could be your sour.

- It's the perfect blend of- - The hot, the sauce, the sour the mayonnaise is sweet.

You see how we hitting all the corners of our mouth here.

- Exactly.

And are you using- - Hitting all our taste buds.

- using kosher dill?

- Yep, kosher dill.

Yep, 'cause you could use a, so if you got like dill relish, you could absolutely put a couple tablespoons of dill relish but I don't have any.

So I'm just gonna chop up a kosher dill pickle and throw it in my remoulade, and it'll serve the same purpose.

- It smells delicious.

I mean that, with the garlic and the pickles and the capers, it really... Well, I never thought to combine the mustard in there.

I think that's what threw me off a little bit.

- Little Dijon?

- Yep little Dijon.

- A little French mustard.

That's that.

(taps bowl) - Looks wonderful.

Smells good.

- Okay, I'm gonna taste that just to make sure I don't need to adjust anything.

(cutlery clicking) (chewing sounds) It's right on.

Oh, it's perfect.

- Is it?

- I'm gonna let it sit and I let those flavors combine.

That's gonna be really good on the fish.

All right, so Sharon, let's build a sandwich, huh?

We'll build a big one.

- This sounds great.

I mean, if I could describe actually the fish right now, it looks amazing, it smells so savory and warm.

- It's gonna have a nice little spice to it.

- Yes.

- I'm grabbing the remoulade.

- You can really smell that cayenne and the paprika.

Oh, here's the- - There's the remoulade that we made earlier.

- Remoulade.

- So we'll get a knife.

- So there's been some butter, we broiled it in the oven.

- Yep, we broiled our bread just to get a little, just to give it a little crunch, get it nice and crunchy.

- Yeah, I was actually very surprised at how the fish did not splatter everywhere.

- No, no.

- When you dip fried it, it was a very clean fry.

It looks delicious.

- That's our taster piece right there.

- Oh, okay.

- That's really good.

It might be a couple bones in it.

That's okay.

- Real fish?

- Mm-hmm.

Real fish has bones guys.

- Yes, real fish has bones.

- I'm such a freak about that too, because you know how sometimes I don't eat chicken unless it has like the, some people are weird like they don't like to eat chicken with a bone.

- With the bone.

Yes.

- I can't eat chicken without a bone 'cause I'm like, "What is this?"

Is this chicken?

- I usually eat chicken with bones.

- Chickens have bones, where's the bones.

- I usually eat chicken with the bones.

- Yeah, I need to see the bone.

It proves that it's the real chicken.

(laughs) So I'm so weird, people are weird like that.

- Look at that remoulade.

Yeah, looks so good with the, with the pickles - That's a little bread.

- in there it looks so good.

- Just do that.

I like a lot of sauce.

Okay, take a piece of lettuce.

- Is our bread upside down?

- I guess, let's do like that.

Put a nice piece of lettuce and the iceberg is typically a good lettuce for a po'boy, because it's so watery and crispy.

That, beautiful.

- So do you normally make this in the summer or do you make this all year round?

- Oh, this is all year round.

This is an all year round thing.

Let's get some pickles.

- Yeah.

I think that would accentuate.

- Hamburger slices.

I should have some in my fridge somewhere.

- So, you know, I think you're right about the walleye.

It is such a versatile fish.

- It's such a versatile great fish for flavoring.

You can do anything with a walleyes.

It doesn't have a strong flavor, So you flavor your walleye.

- So I'm curious for people that freeze their fish over the winter, right?

Let's say they caught a bunch of walleye and they're freezing it.

But you say to freeze it before, do you want it like basically thawed or almost thawed to prep it.

- When you're making this particular... - Right, right.

- So it'll be thawed completely.

And then you put it back in the freezer, just so the breading don't fall off.

You see how we didn't lose any breading in our grease.

- Okay, should we try?

Should we try our bread.

- I'm ready to try it, I was waiting for you to ask me.

- Let's get some napkins.

- There you go my lady.

- Thank you.

- You're welcome.

For you, madam.

- Awesome.

Look at this.

Look at this, with the pickles.

- It's just a way to spruce up your walleye guys.

- Oh my goodness, - The way to go with the Cajun.

- this looks so good.

- It's just a Cajun walleye po'boy.

It's the bones.

Everything altogether.

- So good.

- Everything altogether.

The perfect bite.

- The walleye.

- We need the veggies.

- The veggies really compliment how it's deep fried, it's so good.

- Very nice.

Okay, I'm happy.

- So there's a Cook-off at the end of the episodes.

Are you excited for the Cook-off?

- I am excited for the Cook-off.

It's gonna be really fun.

Yeah, I'm excited for the Cook-off.

- And what would it mean if you won the Cook off?

- Oh my God, you saw my pots.

I need new pots (laughing) I can't, it would be great.

It would just mean that, it would mean a lot to me.

It would just prove that I'm on the right path.

I always already feel that I'm on the right path.

It's just something fun to just kinda showcase, anytime I'm in the kitchen, I'm having a great time.

So it would be great.

It'll be great to win, 'cause I really want those pots, but yeah, it's just gonna be a good time.

And I get to meet some new people and meet some new chefs and I hope we get to exchange some recipes.

- Simple ingredients can become something extraordinary when you have the passion and love for cooking like Tomorrow.

This isn't the last we'll see of Tomorrow either, she'll be back for the competition.

And I know her positivity will light up the Greenhouse, this recipe and all the others from this show will be posted on our website, Sharon and Tomorrow also made a delicious dessert recipe for our companion series "Just A Bite", only on Instagram.

It's posted now so go check it out.

Next time on "The Great Minnesota Recipe" we're headed to Buhl, where we'll learn how to make a classic Italian dish.

Here's a sneak peek.

(smooth guitar music) - Funding for "The great Minnesota Recipe" is provided by Daugherty Appliance Service and Sales, the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and viewers like you.

Thank you.