Ramos: Tonight on "The Great American Recipe"...

This week is all about the festive flavors of the occasions we cherish the most.

This is one of my brunch go-tos now.

Can't take too much time with this.

Ha ha!

"Time with thyme."

I crack myself up.

It's pretty much coming together now.

Oh, my gosh, that looks like a labor of love.

It is.

Relle: Never a good idea to feel too confident.

You have more samples?

No.

Nah.

I'm just kidding.

What?

This actually holds a very special place in my heart, as well.

♪ Ramos: This is "The Great American Recipe," a celebration of foods from across the country to around the globe...

I am making bison short rib.

Bison is a traditional Native American food.

Ramos: steeped in years of tradition.

Abbe, voice-over: Chicken soup is truly Jewish penicillin, will cure anything.

♪ Ramos: This season, our home cooks from regions all across the country get their chance to share their most treasured recipes.

Oh, it tastes like Mom's.

Elliot, voice-over: This shows us what we are all about, "Great American Recipe" highlighting all the diversity.

Who taught you those secrets?

My mom.

I love that.

Our food memories is how we keep it going.

How we're talking about the people we love is so important.

Thanks, guys.

Ramos: After 8 weeks of challenges celebrating the heart of American home cooking... Whoo!

Whoo!

Ramos: one home cook will be named the winner.

Welcome back to "The Great American Recipe."

♪ [Pen scratches] ♪ Leanna: Y'all ready to do this again?

We are ready.

My new home away from home.

Yeah.

You got this.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Hey, everyone.

Good to see you.

Relle, voice-over: So, I won last week, and it was the best thing ever.

Relle and your Manju.

[Cheering and applause] Elliot: You got something that if we saw at the bake sale we'd be fighting over.

Relle, voice-over: I feel a lot more comfortable in the kitchen, but you can't ever feel super confident in things because that's when you'll get smashed.

Leanna, voice-over: Going into a new week, it's been a roller coaster.

The judges would like to share who they felt had the least successful dishes.

Elliot: Leanna.

Derry: There can only be one winner--Leanna.

Yeah.

Which two dishes were least successful this round?

Leanna.

At this point, anytime I'm not in the bottom is a good week.

Welcome back, cooks, to week 5 of "The Great American Recipe."

As always, we're joined by your biggest supporters and judges Graham Elliot... Hi, everybody.

and the lovely Leah Cohen.

Hi, everyone.

Welcome back.

Derry: Unfortunately, Alejandra is feeling under the weather, but that's not gonna slow any of you down because we've still got a lot of cooking ahead, and I promise you, all of the effort will be worth it because one of you will get your most cherished recipe featured right on the cover of "The Great American Recipe Cookbook."

Cohen: Last week, you packed all the rich flavors of your cooking into a grab-and-go meal, and you participated in our first-ever "Great American Recipe" bake sale.

For this week's first round of cooking, we're giving you 60 minutes to present a dish you've previously made for a joyous event in your life.

Your dishes will be judged on taste, presentation, execution, and our theme of cooking a recipe that you made in the past to celebrate a special occasion.

Who's ready to party?

Yeah!

Yeah!

Cohen: Your 60 minutes starts now.

Ha ha ha!

Cohen: So, we're at the halfway point of the competition, and I kind of feel like it's anyone's game, right?

One week, someone's at top.

The next week, they're at the bottom.

It's like a roller coaster here.

Sure.

This is now their time to bring it.

Derry: I'm looking forward to seeing what is your dish that you celebrate with?

What makes you feel good?

See if I can do this in one go.

You got it?

Cool.

I got it.

Ted, voice-over: Last week was the second time I was in the bottom two, and I was disappointed.

Derry: Ted, we felt like you could've added a little more flavor.

Chocolate is one of those ingredients like garlic where if you burn it, you just have to start again.

Ted, voice-over: I definitely want to do better with every dish.

I am making prosciutto-and-egg cups.

I'm gonna do a little hash browns.

I first made this at our new house after we built it.

As an architect, I got to design and build my own house in Chicago, and when we were ready to show off our house, we had a big brunch, had friends and family over, and this was one of those things that I made.

I saute spinach with roasted red peppers and then put it into a strainer with some cheesecloth.

We don't want these to get soggy.

Ted, voice-over: Next, I start assembling the prosciutto cups.

I spoon my spinach and the roast red peppers in each of them.

Now the eggs are gonna go in.

This is one of my brunch go-tos now.

It's one of my favorites.

Got to get this cod in the water.

♪ Salmah: This is whole milk infused with clove.

In Guyanese culture, we always celebrate with sweets.

I am making halwa.

Halwa is like a sweet pudding that we would typically eat in Guyana to commemorate any type of occasion.

Salmah, voice-over: I melt down my sticks of butter.

Once the butter has melted, that's when I add the flour in.

What I'm trying to do is cook out the raw flour, and then I will rehydrate it with my milk syrup that I have here.

Salmah, voice-over: I chose to make this dish because of the memories that it holds for me, especially in relation to the birth of my first daughter.

I was in labor with Hannah for 22 hours.

Hannah was born at 2:40 A.M. By 10 A.M., my mother-in-law made a batch of halwa to mark the occasion and celebrate with the community, announcing the birth of her new grandchild.

Hi, Salmah.

Hello.

How are ya?

What are you doing over here?

I am making halwa, so, it has a puddinglike texture.

OK, and it is hot or cold?

It's warm.

Normally, you get a paper towel in your hand, and it's spooned into your hand, and you just eat it like that.

I love that.

I want to pipe little swirls into cup and kind of elevate my halwa.

And anything not traditional you're gonna add to it?

I will add a pinch of salt because it is a very sweet dish.

And salt is very common in almost every pastry we do, so, that will really help with that balance.

I love it.

Thank you, Salmah.

I can't wait to enjoy it.

Thank you so much.

Ha ha!

♪ Hi-ee-ah!

Ooh!

Relle, voice-over: So, a memorable moment in Hawaii is baby first paina, or luau.

Back in the days, people celebrated when babies made it to one.

Still to today, that's always a big party.

I'm making kalua pig, chicken long rice, and poi.

♪ Relle, voice-over: Kalua means to roast or cook in an underground oven.

For both my son and my daughter's first birthday, we did a traditional way of making kalua pig.

Basically, you dig a big hole, and you place the pig, and then you bury it, and you let it roast overnight.

It always takes a village for this.

Everybody--aunties, uncles, cousins--come, spend all night doing it, get up really early.

We smell like smoke, but it's a great time, and everybody loves it because you know you're getting good food at the end.

So, I dice up the pork butt, place it in the pressure cooker, and I add a liquid smoke so it gives it that smoky flavor.

♪ Then I move to the chicken long rice.

That's chicken that's shredded, tossed in a bean thread noodle.

Elliot: I love chicken long rice.

It's just something that you always have at a luau or party.

It actually has kind of a gingery taste to it.

Relle, voice-over: We have to shred it.

You don't want big chunks of it, so, I'm trying to shed it as fast as I can but kind of rushing more than I'd like to.

45 minutes left, 45 minutes.

[Exhales] ♪ I'm really just trying to get the onions going because that's the base of any good soup.

I'm making fry bread and Three Sisters soup because this is what you have at powwows.

When I think of a celebration or people coming together, I think of a powwow.

It's really just a big social gathering.

There's dancing.

There's artwork.

I actually was asked to run the powwow at the University of Washington when I was in college, and this dish is what I made.

In Three Sisters soup, the Three Sisters are corn, beans, and squash.

I did the beans in the pressure cooker just for time.

Maria, voice-over: I grill up the corn, boil the squash in some chicken broth.

Corn, beans, and squash are all traditional Native foods.

You get some carbs from the corn, you get some protein from the beans, and then you get, you know, just a ton of vitamins from the squash.

Derry: Maria has baking powder and baking soda.

It looks like she's making some dough or something.

Maria, voice-over: You go to any powwow, you're gonna see fry bread.

It's a pretty basic recipe of flour, baking powder, milk, sugar, oil.

Every region has their own style of fry bread, so, I'm making the style we make at Coeur d'Alene.

It's a little thicker, and it's like a little pillow.

I feel pretty confident about this because I've been making fry bread forever.

Yep.

That's what you want to see.

♪ Khela, voice-over: This round, I'm gonna make a play on my favorite brunch dish, so, I roll up puff pastry, and I put it in the muffin tins.

I got to get these in the oven.

Khela, voice-over: I'm making a croque madame mini quiche with my Mornay sauce and a fruit salad.

OK. Eggs.

Khela, voice-over: Last week, I was in the top on a baking challenge.

The first dish that impressed us was Khela and your fuzzy brownies.

Khela, voice-over: I'm going out on a limb here, and I'm gonna try some baking again.

Ha ha ha!

Khela, what do you got?

Hi.

We've got onions.

We've got garlic...

Yes.

ham...

Yes.

and what is this, little, like, puff pastry?

Yeah.

My favorite brunch dish is a croque madame.

OK.

I love that, too.

What's the story behind this dish?

So, this is kind of inspired by my girlfriend Darcy because she's a baker.

I just love all the women in my life, and I want to celebrate them.

Khela: I have a women's winter brunch that we started in my kitchen 22 years ago, and these women, they're so important to me, and I like to celebrate them.

Only thing, just make sure that these get color when they fully bake.

I'm gonna put a little egg wash on top, so, hopefully, that'll help.

I love it.

All right.

Make them beautiful.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

Mm, freaking love cheese.

I think I'm part mouse.

Ha ha ha!

♪ OK. ♪ Brad: I grounded up my own pepper because I like it a little bit coarser when I'm dealing with larger cuts of meat.

I am making rack of lamb with dilled rice and a cherry-tamarind sauce.

So, I chose to make a rack of lamb because I have a twin brother Elliot and lamb kind of symbolizes our bar mitzvah.

When me and my brother were getting bar mitzvahed, you know, my parents were, like, asking all the things about, like, the specifics, and we were both like, "We don't care as long as there's lamb."

A bar mitzvah is a Jewish coming-of-age celebration.

I think the party was more for my parents than it was for us, but, you know, as long as we got our lamb, we were good.

My brother's actually a home cook, as well, so, I'm here to also make him proud.

So, for the rack of lamb, I use rosemary, I use garlic, and a little bit of baharat, which is a Middle Eastern spice blend, and then I stick them in the oven.

♪ I think some sort of, like, tartness would pair well with the lamb, so, I make a sauce with canned cherries, tamarind, allspice, and lemon.

♪ I have some corn starch.

I'm gonna add a little water to make a slurry, hopefully get this a little bit thicker.

♪ Probably give it another 5 minutes and do the first pour-off.

I've got salted cod boiling in water.

It is, like, super, super, super salty, so, I'm gonna have to boil it twice, strain off the water each time, and put in fresh water so that I get the salt down to a level that's acceptable.

I'm going to be making a Bajan fish cake and Bajan pepper sauce.

This is just basically Barbados' version of a fritter.

OK, time for me to pull that fish.

For me, fish cakes is synonymous with celebration.

All right.

First pour is off.

We're gonna do this again.

Growing up, it wasn't a party at our house if there weren't fish cakes.

It didn't matter whether it was a birthday party, anniversary party.

Whatever it was, there was gonna be fish cakes.

This is a dish that I've learned from my mom, and I make them for my family.

It's very herby.

There's a lot of parsley.

I'm cutting up onion, getting the thyme ready.

Can't take too much time with this.

Ha ha!

"Time with thyme."

I crack myself up.

Ha ha ha!

Leanna, voice-over: The flavors, they're really bold.

It's like a party on your palate.

And so, seems like the perfect choice.

Right.

Abbe, voice-over: I love cooking something great for my husband for our anniversary, so, I'm cooking a shrimp creole with jambalaya rice.

This dish represents my husband's background.

His mother grew up right outside of New Orleans.

My husband certainly has vivid memories there, and I love to make Cajun food for our wedding anniversary, of which we were at 41.

Oh, jeez, this year, we'll be at 42.

Ha!

Shrimp creole is shrimp with spicy tomato sauce.

I get crushed tomatoes to a nice simmer.

I add chopped onion, green pepper, Worcestershire, Tabasco.

Shrimp creole is usually just served with steamed rice, but I decided to jazz it up a little bit and serve it with a jambalaya rice.

Jambalaya rice is a Cajun dish.

Add some thyme.

Abbe, voice-over: I saute the rice with some sausage, some veggies.

Then I add chicken broth and clam broth.

Hopefully, we'll amp things up a little bit.

30 minutes.

♪ Love it.

Ted, voice-over: I put my prosciutto egg cups in the oven.

Now I'm gonna make, like, a little hash brown platter for the egg cup to sit on.

This will be perfect for this.

Cohen: Ted, Ted, Ted.

Ooh, those look good.

Yeah, so, I got a bit lower heat... OK. Good.

make sure not, especially with the-- Fat is your friend on that, too, like oil-- Yes.

Yeah.

I got oil and butter.

OK.

I would put it on top here because when you flip it, that-- Before the flip?

Yeah... Love it.

Thank you.

and make sure you season it after it comes off.

Before and after.

OK. Great.

Ted, voice-over: Leah gives me some great advice on the hash browns.

I've got to listen because I definitely don't want to be in the bottom two again.

♪ Relle: Eh, I'm just winging this.

I can taste it.

This is poi, but it needs some help, so, we're gonna fix it up.

Poi is steamed and mashed kalo.

Kalo is taro.

This is really dry, so, we're gonna add some water to it.

It becomes a thick paste consistency.

I love poi.

My kids love poi.

Poi is the ultimate food of Hawaii, and, for me, you don't add anything.

Water is fine, but you don't add any sweetener or salt, no sugar.

My grandma would say, "Don't you ever put anything in your poi.

You eat it straight like this."

Ha ha ha!

Relle, voice-over: And then you bury it, and you let it roast.

♪ Salmah: Oh, this is a good arm workout.

Ha ha ha!

It's pretty much coming together now.

Ted: Oh, my gosh, that looks like a labor of love for certain.

It is.

It really is.

Salmah, voice-over: My halwa was smooth and creamy.

I can go ahead and take the sultanas and the raisins, soaking in a little bit of water just to, you know, reconstitute them, plump it up.

Then I am cutting down maraschino cherries before adding it into my halwa.

♪ [Sighs] ♪ This is what salted cod looks like when it's flaked for fish cake.

Leanna, voice-over: The salted cod is ready.

I'm mixing it with the seasoning, flour, and baking powder, and I'm making sure I have all of the flavors packed in.

♪ Then I get my fish cakes in hot oil until they're golden brown.

Relle, do you want to try?

Is it spicy?

Not too spicy.

The sauce was, but I didn't put any sauce on this.

Ted: What do you got?

Do you have more samples?

No.

Nah.

I'm just kidding.

What?

Here.

Cheers.

Atlanta kitchen.

Oh, cheers, cheers.

Ha ha ha!

Oh, that's really, really good.

Oh, it tastes like Mom's.

♪ Pull these out.

Looking pretty good.

I think they could use a little touch more color, though.

My croque madame mini quiches are baking, so, next, I begin my Mornay sauce.

I make a bechamel.

I add Dijon because I like the bite it gives you and Gruyere because when you add cheese to a bechamel, it becomes a Mornay-- ha ha ha!-- and what's better than a cheese sauce, right?

I'll just make a little bit more.

5 minutes, everybody.

Relle: 5 minutes left, and I still need to finish my plating.

I think I'll be all right, but never a good idea to feel too confident.

♪ Hopefully, we'll get it together here.

♪ Brad, voice-over: The lamb is medium rare on the inside, but I want to get the outside a little bit more crusted, so, I actually take the blowtorch, and I torch the top and the bottom of the lamb just to give it a little bit more color on the outside.

♪ Elliot: One minute left.

♪ Let's not make a mess ♪ OK. Come on, Lee.

Make sure there's, like, equal distribution of all the parts.

We gonna get some toast?

Yes, we are.

Ooh.

Cohen, Elliot, and Derry: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Hands up!

Great job.

Good job.

Whoot whoot!

♪ All right, home cooks.

We gave you 60 minutes to cook a dish prepared for a memorable moment of celebration in your life.

Relle, come join us.

Relle, voice-over: I'm a little nervous about this round because I feel like this is traditional Hawaiian food.

I didn't zhuzh it up, and I didn't change it.

Hopefully, they'll understand what I'm doing.

Today I made for you kalua pig and chicken long rice and poi.

So, this is traditional luau food, so, this definitely reminds me of all the family coming together and celebrating my kid's first birthday and shared that on the plate today.

This is great.

I love the story behind why you prepared it.

Presentationwise, what are you gonna do to poi, right?

I mean, this is what it's always gonna look like, but it's silky.

It's got a great flavor.

You did a really great job.

Mahalo.

Cohen: So, my favorite part of this dish is the kalua pig.

You got it really nice and tender, and you got a lot of that smoke flavor in there.

For the chicken long rice, one thing I would've liked to see is shredding the chicken a little bit smaller because you could kind of get more bites of chicken in each bite of noodles.

Brad.

Today I made a rack of lamb with dilled rice and a cherry-tamarind sauce on the side.

This kind of goes back to my bar mitzvah.

I have a twin brother Elliot, and when it came to our bar mitzvah time, you know, we were just, like, so lamb-crazed, all we wanted was to make sure there was lamb there.

Derry: It's really flavorful and pretty to look at.

The rack of lamb is cooked really nicely.

Elliot: But you could make this same kind of sauce and make it thinner and a little more saucy or cook it a little longer and make it more like a compote, if you will, because now it's, like, in this in-between stage...

The weird in-between.

but delicious flavor.

I could eat this all day.

Thank you.

Elliot: Maria, tell us what you made.

I made fry bread and a Three Sisters soup.

When I think of a celebration, I think of a powwow, so, I made you guys powwow food.

The color on this fry bread is so beautiful, and then you have this beautiful, white, pillowy dough inside, which goes really well with the Three Sisters soup.

The soup itself, it's light.

It's delicious.

The butternut squash, you just boiled it in the soup?

Yes.

I would suggest maybe roasting it a little bit first in the oven and then adding it so you get a nice creaminess to it, also adding in a little more depth of flavor.

Thank you.

Leanna.

So, today I made for you Bajan fish cakes with Bajan pepper sauce.

When I think about special celebrations, I immediately go back to my mom's fish cakes, and it just makes me so happy.

Derry: There's tons of flavor in here.

You have plenty herbs inside of it.

You have some spices coming through.

Techniquewise, it's crispy, crunchy on the outside, but it was overworked to where it's a little dense.

Cohen: Ted.

I made prosciutto egg cups over hash browns.

Not long ago, I actually was able to build my dream home myself, and one of the first parties that we had was brunch at our house, and I made these prosciutto egg cups.

If you invited me over to your house and you presented that, I'd be like, "Damn, what are we celebrating?"

Every component is done perfectly.

The spinach isn't wet and making everything soggy.

Peppers are great.

The egg is beautiful.

And I thought it was really smart and thoughtful that you put the hash brown on the bottom to kind of soak up whatever runny, yolky goodness that the egg had.

Thank you.

Abbe.

Today I made for you shrimp creole with jambalaya rice.

It's special to me because it reminds me of my husband.

I love jambalaya, so, this actually holds a very special place in my heart, as well.

I like that you've added two different dishes together-- shrimp creole and jambalaya.

I really like the flavor.

Thank you.

Elliot: When I think of New Orleans, I think of celebrations and parties, and that's what this dish really brings.

There's lots of flavors going on with the shrimp and the sausage and the veggies and the rice and the sauce, so, really great job on that.

Thank you very much.

Derry: Khela.

I made croque madame quiches and a fruit salad inspired by the women's winter brunch that we host in December.

Elliot: Your croque madame mini quiches have a really wonderful flavor, and I love the sauce.

That's the star here.

The flavor of the sauce is good.

I think that the color on the puff pastry is exactly what you want it to be.

I do wish there was more filling because there is too much puff pastry and the filling is obviously-- I mean, it's cheese and ham.

Who doesn't want more of that?

Thank you.

Cohen: Salmah.

I made halwa.

In Guyanese culture, to commemorate any memorable or auspicious occasion, we make halwa, and it's always made to commemorate from the smallest to the grandest of occasions.

♪ Derry: You know, this dish is very different for me.

I haven't had puddings or anything that has quite this texture.

The flavor of it is very good, and I feel like it's very balanced with sweetness.

I just don't have anything else to measure it against, so, I guess this calls for a celebration because this is the first time we're having it.

Elliot: Yeah, so, just jumping off of what Tiffany said, this is a very unique dish.

I know that you're using flour and-- Yes.

Yeah.

I parched the flour down into melted butter.

That's one thing I was gonna mention, is, cooking it out just a little longer because you still get some of that-- Rawness.

that flour texture.

Salmah, voice-over: Perhaps I needed to cook the flour out just a little bit longer, but I was able to introduce them to a new diversity of sweets, and I'm happy to be that ambassador.

♪ This week is all about the festive flavors of the occasions we cherish the most.

This was indeed a celebration and an opportunity for us to learn more about each of you.

With that being said, Tiffany and Leah, which home cooks would you like to celebrate now?

Cohen: The first home cook we want to give props to is... ♪ Brad.

Your bar mitzvah lamb dish was a party for my palate.

You really showcased the theme, and the lamb was cooked to a nice medium, medium rare.

Great job.

Thank you.

Brad, voice-over: I'm thrilled, and I'm excited.

We're, like, more than halfway before the finale.

So far, I've done a pretty good job.

I've had, like, a few successes, so, I feel pretty good.

Our other top home cook for this round is Ted with your prosciutto egg cups.

Yay.

Yay.

Derry: Oh, Ted, it was glorious.

The fact that you were able to keep the eggs cooked so well, we loved every layer, and it was just a really good dish that we would love to have to celebrate any occasion.

Thank you.

Ted, voice-over: I feel fantastic.

You can bet that next time I serve this up at brunch with family and friends, they're gonna know that this is celebrity-chef-approved.

All of these dishes were worth celebrating.

Excellent job, home cooks.

♪ In the previous round, we asked you to create a dish for a memorable event, but it goes without saying that the most memorable occasions for many of us occur during our favorite holidays throughout the year.

Elliot: I see everyone's eyes lighting up at the mention of holidays.

We want you to cook your most beloved holiday recipe that is inspired by your family's rich heritage and culture.

We're talking about the big dates around the year that we love to celebrate, so, you better pull out all the stops just like you would at home.

For this second round, we're giving you 90 minutes to prep and cook your holiday recipes.

Cohen: You'll be serving your holiday dishes family style for us to enjoy.

Once again, your dishes will be judged on taste, execution, presentation, and the theme-- cooking a holiday recipe that highlights your culture and family traditions.

Are you guys ready?

Yes.

Yes.

We're ready.

Let's go.

Great, because your 90 minutes starts now.

♪ This is not a drill.

Ha ha!

♪ Cohen: The home cooks have 90 minutes to prepare their favorite holiday dish, and it's really gonna be interesting to see.

I like the fact that they are gonna have to plate family style.

That's a whole new challenge we're throwing at them.

Derry: 90 minutes is a good bit of time to get some things done...

Absolutely.

but I think when you're doing sort of the big platters, a lot of times, you need the time to make sure that you have plenty enough food.

♪ Close to boiling.

Ted, voice-over: Going to round two, I feel really, really good.

This challenge is about holidays.

This reminds me of Christmas Day.

We are making pastitsio.

Ted, voice-over: Pastitsio is a Greek baked pasta with meat sauce and a bechamel on top.

It has garlic, onion, cinnamon, nutmeg.

This was our Christmas dinner.

My mom, it was her favorite holiday.

My mom always made pastitsio for Christmas, and even when we had some down times in our lives and my mom was battling cancer, we still made sure that we had it for Christmas because it was one of those traditions, and even now after my mom passed away, it's something that I make on Christmas Day.

All right.

Let's get this bechamel going.

♪ What I'm doing right now is, I'm aerating the milk powder with the addition of cardamom.

I am making barfi.

So, barfi is a sweet that my mom would only make for two of the main holidays in Islam.

For Muslims around the world, there are two major holidays.

Eid al-Fitr is normally what we celebrate to end Ramadan, the month of fasting, and Eid al-Adha commences the end of the pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.

Everyone celebrate Eid with their own special sweets, but barfi was something my mom always made.

So, barfi is a milk powder fudge.

Normally, what we do when I make this at home with my mom, it is in a huge basin, like, a huge, silver bowl, because we make, like, 20 pounds at a time.

It is quite the laborious task.

Salmah, voice-over: To make a good barfi, you have to feel the dough.

I need the melted butter to mix and blend with the milk powder so it becomes a very crumbly texture.

I find that the best way for me to honor my mom is to replicate things that she's taught us.

Salmah, voice-over: I've learned a lot of my culture because of the food that I ate growing up.

My mom predominantly did most of the cooking for us at home, and there's nothing that I look forward to more than my mom's barfi at every holiday table.

Once this has been passed through the sieve and it becomes that powder form, it all comes together with a sugar syrup and some rose water, which is my addition for my mom's recipe.

Salmah, voice-over: I feel that the flavors of rose water and cardamom will mingle well, so, I'm adding in a little bit more.

You should be good to go now.

♪ You got to move.

You got to move.

You got to get this dough in the oven.

Hi, Leanna.

Hey, Chef, how are you?

Good.

What are you making?

So, I am making cinnamon rolls with candied pecan topping.

Wow.

OK, so, tell me the story.

What's the holiday and the reason that you make this on the holiday?

So, my grandma, I refer to her as the hostess with the mostest.

Holidays were her thing.

Leanna, voice-over: Growing up, whenever my grandmother cooked for Christmas, she would put me on cinnamon roll duty, which was always the ones in a can because, you know, I was a kid.

As I got older, it was definitely a tradition that I wanted to carry on with my family, so, I took the time to learn how to make them from scratch, and now it's kind of like a ode to Grandma, and, yeah, I've elevated beyond the cinnamon rolls in a can.

So, are they in the oven right now?

No.

Oh, where are they at?

Right now, the dough is proofing in the oven.

Proofing?

Uh-huh.

I don't have a proofing oven here, so, I put the oven on the lowest setting and then turned it off, Mm-hmm.

and so, now what I'm doing is preparing my candied pecans, and I'm about to do the cream cheese icing.

Make sure there's more than enough frosting.

Absolutely.

OK.

Perfect.

Thanks, Chef.

Leanna, voice-over: Now it's time to work on the icing.

I want the icing to be so good that they feel like they could just eat that by the spoonful.

I take cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, and some vanilla extract and get that whipped up until it's smooth.

Tastes good.

♪ Ah!

Holy cow.

I need to work out more.

Thanksgiving, goes without saying, my favorite holiday.

It's kind of my Super Bowl.

Ha ha ha!

I'm making sweet potatoes with a candied pecan topping.

Usually, I roast my sweet potatoes whole, but it takes way too long.

Khela, voice-over: The most beautiful thing about a roasted sweet potato is the sweetness you get from the slow roast.

I'm hoping that cutting them and putting them face down will get them done in time.

I'm gonna get ready to work on my creme topping.

Khela, voice-over: I chop pecans and add brown sugar and butter.

I love Thanksgiving because I'm feeding everybody I love, and that's how I show people I love them.

I put food in their pieholes--ha ha!-- at Thanksgiving, their literal pieholes.

Khela, voice-over: Thanksgiving is always a huge celebration.

I cook for two days.

I love opening my house to my family, and anybody that doesn't have somewhere to go, they know that they're welcome in my house because I will feed them and we will be together and it's gonna be fun.

I just really like sweet potatoes, and that's why I'm making them.

♪ Stay.

Relle, voice-over: This round I bet people are gonna do a lot of Thanksgiving and Christmas, so, I want to go a different route.

Today I'm making malasadas.

It's a Portuguese fried doughnut.

I'm gonna make malasadas to celebrate Malasada Day in Hawaii, which is also known as Fat Tuesday or the day before the start of Lent.

All right.

Oh.

We don't want that.

None of that, none of that.

Relle, voice-over: When making malasadas, you really want to make sure you get a light and airy dough.

For time constraints, we're just gonna roll it out and let it rise in the shape that it is.

OK. Now filling.

Relle, voice-over: I'm gonna make a plain version and a stuffed version with haupia cream.

Haupia is coconut pudding type of dessert, so, I've mixed coconut milk, sugar, corn starch, and vanilla extract.

♪ I'm of Portuguese descent, so, malasadas is a big thing for us, especially on Malasada Day.

I remember, as a kid, it was a special day that we would either make them or go and get them, and it's definitely something that I'll make with my kids.

It's a great opportunity for me to share my Portuguese heritage, and it's this delicious, sweet treat, so, malasadas is a win.

Oop!

Ha ha ha!

Ha ha!

Just checking that everybody was paying attention.

♪ Maria: This is elk sausage browning up a little bit.

I'm making a wild rice and a quinoa stuffing.

It should be tasting like your traditional stuffing at a Thanksgiving, but this'll be made with Indigenous ingredients instead.

Thanksgiving is probably the biggest holiday at our house.

We have a ton of pies.

Sometimes we have more pies than we have people there.

We do the big Thanksgiving spread, and our last name is Givens, so, we've just started calling it ThanksGivens.

I boiled the wild rice and the quinoa separately.

Maria, voice-over: I'll be using wild rice and quinoa as the base, and once the elk sausage is browned, I take it out and throw in some onions and celery.

One hour left.

[Laughter] That was nice and dramatic.

You know me.

♪ Latkes are traditional for Hanukkah.

It's the Festival of Lights, and it's a great holiday.

Abbe, voice-over: I'm making two different types of latkes-- the traditional Jewish version with russet potato and sweet potato latkes with cranberry sauce and cinnamon apple sauce.

I hope the judges like both of them.

Latkes are a potato pancake.

After I put my potatoes in the food processor with a bit of onion, mix it up with eggs, a little matzo meal.

I drop them into the skillet in some hot oil.

Who doesn't like potatoes fried in oil?

In my house, Hanukkah is always a big celebration with my family.

We light menorahs, we give presents, and we get to eat a lot of fried foods.

That's what Hanukkah's about-- fun and lots of good eating.

First one's for the cook.

Ha!

Mm.

♪ Maria: Looking good, Brad.

It's looking red.

It's looking red.

Brad, voice-over: Think everything I cook is red.

I am making meatballs in a spicy red sauce.

Meatballs have kind of always been, like, a Thanksgiving tradition of ours.

It stemmed from my grandmother Marsha.

My Grandma Marsha, she's awesome.

She grew up in Brooklyn amongst a lot of Italians.

Her cooking style is definitely a lot of Italian influence, and her favorite holiday is Thanksgiving.

You know, whenever she would come for Thanksgiving, like, we'd always host, but she would bring her meatballs.

For the meatballs itself, I like to add a lot of herbs.

There's dill.

There's parsley.

There's cilantro.

Semolina is, like, a really good binder because the semolina absorbs really well and it keeps things moist.

Cohen: Hi, Brad.

Hi, Leah.

How are you?

All right.

What are you making?

So, I'm making meatballs.

And what's in the sauce?

So, the sauce is just paprika, a little bit of onion, dried chilies, and a little bit of cinnamon.

♪ I love the heat.

I love the chilies.

Yum.

Fingers crossed.

Very excited.

Good luck.

All right.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Brad, voice-over: I stick the meatballs inside the broiler because my goal is to get them nice and brown on the outside and then to finish cooking in the sauce.

I really need to finish this.

♪ Ooh.

All right.

That was big.

Just got to fry up the malasadas and fill it.

Relle, voice-over: Because the malasada dough is so fragile, if I were to pick them up with my hands, they would deflate.

So, the trick is, you just toss it right in with the paper, take the paper out, and let it fry.

I think I'm getting a good fry.

I'm getting the nice color that I want.

It looks great...

Into the sugar we go... ♪ Because everything tastes better with sugar ♪ Relle, voice-over: and I start to fill half of them so then the judges can have a chance to try the plain and a filled malasada.

♪ Whoop whoop!

Leanna: How you feeling, Relle?

Feeling good?

You know, mm, I think so, but I don't want to jinx myself.

Girl, you know about my 180 life.

I know exactly what you mean.

You know, I had struggled in prior weeks with my time management, but so far, I'm feeling good about the cinnamon rolls.

My dough is ready, and now this is where the fun starts.

I add lots of brown sugar, lots of cinnamon, and I roll it into a nice, tight spiral...

Roll it tight.

Roll it tight.

Keep it tight.

Leanna, voice-over: and then you've got to cut that spiral after you've rolled it, so, the trick I learned is to use dental floss.

Nice, clean cuts, Lee.

There we go.

Cohen: Leanna, I love your technique of floss.

That is genius.

I always keep some in the kitchen.

Love that.

♪ Ooh, hello there.

Wow.

What holiday is this for?

Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights.

♪ One latke, two latkes ♪ ♪ So on into the night ♪ All right.

We got us a party.

I know.

We're gonna have dance, song, and latkes.

I love it.

Is this the same flavor, just sweet potato?

No.

I put a little smoked paprika in it.

And who taught you how to make latkes?

Every grandma has made latkes.

My grandma didn't make latkes.

No.

Your gran-- Well, I'm gonna let you keep cooking.

I can't wait to try them.

Oh, thanks.

Ha ha ha!

Abbe, voice-over: Making two different types of latkes is tricky.

I'm using two pans, and I want to make sure that they're crispy, they're golden, they're crunchy.

How often do you get to fry foods and not worry about the calories?

♪ All right, moment of truth.

Here we go.

Salmah, voice-over: Finally, the milk powder mixture for my barfi is where I want it to be.

It is now time for me to bind it all together with my sugar cinnamon syrup.

♪ I just got to put it in the freezer to set.

The holidays are starting in 10 minutes, guys.

♪ How's it going, Khela?

Um, they're finally done.

Yay!

Khela, voice-over: My roasted sweet potatoes look good.

I add orange juice, nutmeg, and heavy cream and whip them up.

Can you smell that orange off of them?

Mm.

Khela, voice-over: I get them in a pan, get the pecan topping on, and pop them in the oven.

They're looking good.

♪ This is one of those sauces that, like, it's never exactly the same.

It's kind of, like, just see, like, what you feel like at the moment.

Brad, voice-over: The meatballs just have to sit and simmer, but now I'm worried that maybe, like, the dish doesn't have enough on its own, and I decide to make a garlic bread.

Oil, garlic, Aleppo pepper, and some lemon zest.

5 minutes to go.

Uhh!

♪ Maria, voice-over: Sage is, like, one of my favorite flavors.

It just feels like fall.

I want to make sure the sage flavor is coated throughout this Indigenous stuffing, so, I make a little bit of sage butter, and I pour that into the wild rice and quinoa mixture.

I mean, I'm making a Thanksgiving dish, so, it has to feel like fall.

♪ Elliot: We're down to the final minute before the holidays.

♪ As long as it tastes good, the cook went fine.

Leanna: For 90 minutes, I don't think I did half bad.

Cohen, Elliot, and Derry: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Elliot: Great job.

♪ Elliot: Well, everyone, this week, we asked you to prepare recipes for the special occasions in your lives, and in this round, we asked you to cook a dish that you would proudly serve at a holiday meal.

I mean, the table and the spread is amazing.

It really reminds me of holidays at home with my family, and there are some dishes that look very familiar and some that don't, and that is what's so exciting.

Shall we dig in?

Let's do.

Brad, let's start with you.

Brad, voice-over: It's never a holiday without Grandma Marsha's meatballs, so, hopefully, my meatballs make her proud.

For this round, I made meatballs in a spicy red sauce and garlic bread.

We always, always have meatballs on Thanksgiving that my Grandma Marsha will cook for us.

♪ Grandma Marsha?

She rocks.

Yeah.

This is an amazing recipe.

These meatballs, they're really flavorful and especially moist.

It is delicious, and I love all the herbs that's within the meatballs...

I appreciate that.

but the garlic bread, I think you put a little too much oil on it.

You really want it to be crunchy so that you don't feel like you're eating oil.

Thank you.

Maria.

My favorite Thanksgiving dish is wild rice and quinoa stuffing, and so, I wanted the flavors of stuffing but on these Indigenous ingredients.

Cohen: So, if I were to close my eyes and eat this, I would think that it tasted like Thanksgiving.

Texturally, it's completely different, but the flavors remind me of Thanksgiving with the sage, and, you know, I love that, you know, you're staying true to who you are, and I think you did a really great job with it.

Thank you.

My only thing is, I would say, you could add more of the celery and onion that are in the mixtures and you've got more textures with each bite.

Otherwise, it can be a little more, you know, one-dimensional.

Thank you.

Ted.

I made for you pastitsio.

This is my mom's recipe and my Christmas dish.

♪ The presentation of this is awesome.

You have that really nice, kind of bubbly golden brown from the cheese.

Derry: I like the flavors you have going on here.

As far as execution, you did exactly what it was supposed to be.

Every element of it is cooked well.

Thank you.

Khela, come on up.

Hi.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, so, I made my Thanksgiving sweet potatoes with praline topping.

♪ Elliot: This is a really solid holiday dish.

That candied pecan is giving it great textural contrast but also some of that sweetness.

Cohen: The fact that you knew to roast the sweet potatoes to kind of intensify that flavor, I think that was really smart.

I think you did an excellent job.

Thank you.

Abbe.

Happy holidays.

Today I made a traditional Jewish potato latke.

I also made for you a sweet potato latke.

♪ Cohen: I love the fact that you did two different types of potatoes, and it really changes the dynamic of the dish.

Everything was seasoned really nicely, and it has great depth of flavor.

Thank you.

It just felt like it needed to be cooked on a little bit of a higher temperature so we can get that crisp on the outside and a little bit of that softness on the inside.

OK.

Thank you.

Salmah.

Today I made barfi.

For Muslims, there are two major holidays that we celebrate every year-- Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr.

Eid al-Fitr marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, and Eid al-Adha commemorates the end of the holy pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

Elliot: This is really fun.

This is great.

It's eye-opening for us.

You know, it's an insight into not only your family, but your culture, your background, and thanks...

Thank you.

for sharing it with us.

Thank you.

Thank you for allowing me to share that with you.

I mean, I just feel like you keep hitting me with flavors and things that I have no reference to...

I know.

and love the cardamom, but the rose water is coming out a little bit heavy for me.

OK.

When we use rose water, we want to use it sparingly.

Thank you.

Relle, please come join us.

Today I made for you malasadas.

It's a Portuguese fried doughnut, and I did it two ways-- a traditional and a haupia cream-stuffed malasada.

Something that we celebrate really big in Hawaii is called Malasada Day, otherwise known as Fat Tuesday.

♪ Elliot: Relle, I love a good malasada.

The cook on these is great.

They're light.

They're nice.

They're fluffy.

They're golden, and I love the haupia filling.

Cohen: I mean, it's really light, creamy, but also rich in coconut flavor.

The only issue for me is that I want more of that filling.

Like, I want, like, a whole cup of it.

Ha!

Leanna.

So, today I made for you a cinnamon roll topped with cream cheese icing and candied pecans, and I make this for Christmas morning.

♪ These cinnamon rolls are-- and I'm sorry for my English-- off the chain, OK?

Like, I love the amount of icing that's on there.

The candied pecans created some texture within the cinnamon roll.

It's delicious.

Thank you, Chef.

I would say, if anything, just watch the cook time because on the bottom, it started to get a little darker.

It's not anywhere near burned, but it's, like, a different kind of texture, but it's a beautiful cinnamon roll.

You should be super proud.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chef.

Leanna, voice-over: I definitely have a level of pride in this recipe.

I always wonder, like, what Grandma would say.

She would be so impressed.

I also think that she would totally love my dental floss trick.

♪ What a feast of festive proportions.

It was fantastic.

I mean, we have so much to talk about.

Yes.

Let's talk about our favorites.

Let's talk about Relle.

OK. Yeah.

Let's.

I loved her malasadas.

They were warm and sugary goodness and soft.

The only thing-- I agree with you, Leah-- was, I wanted more of that filling, right, the haupia, the coconut cream.

Cohen: Yeah.

I think what she needed to do was, she needed to hollow out a little bit of that doughnut so it had room to get really filled and plumped up with that delicious custard.

Now let's talk about our other favorite--Brad.

Elliot: Yeah.

Brad's meatballs were amazing.

Derry: I agree.

That meatball was glorious.

Cohen: I mean, the texture on it, the flavor, I love that there was chilies in the sauce, but that garlic bread was just way too greasy.

But I was slightly forgiving him on it just because the meatball was so freaking good.

So, let's talk about Ted and that pastitsio that he made.

What'd you think?

I love how he took the time to layer everything.

It looked beautiful, and he got a nice kind of char on the top from the broiler.

Absolutely.

I completely agree.

I loved it.

You can see putting that on the table and people being like, "OK. Now we can celebrate."

OK. Now into the not-so-fun part-- our least successful dishes.

Cohen: Maria's stuffing, yes, it tasted like Thanksgiving.

Yes, I appreciate that sage flavor, but I just felt like she could've done more.

She could've added more ingredients while still staying true to what she was trying to convey.

I think for Salmah with that barfi, I'd never had it before, but I do know that there were some things that could've been tweaked as far as execution goes.

Cohen: The rose water was kind of overpowering, and, like, all I could taste was just floral.

Derry: Another dish that we really enjoyed but there were some issues with was Abbe's latkes two ways.

Yeah.

I really appreciated the fact that she gave two different types of latkes, right?

She gave sweet potato.

She gave the traditional potato.

But I think, you know, the texture is something I just could not get over.

Derry: Flavors were there, but it just wasn't fried at the proper temperature.

Elliot: Right.

All right, so, this is never easy, especially, you know, during the holidays, right, but I think we have made our decision.

Yeah.

OK. Mm-hmm.

♪ Welcome back, home cooks.

We asked you to cook the dish that you make year after year for your favorite family holiday.

Your dishes really got us in the holiday spirit, but, unfortunately, two of you had dishes that didn't quite live up to the moment.

Abbe, I love the fact that you gave us two different types of latkes.

I think when it comes down to it, it was just the cook on the latkes.

I think if you had a higher temperature, you would've been able to achieve those textures.

Abbe, voice-over: I'm feeling frustrated.

OK. Abbe, voice-over: Maybe frying two different kinds of latkes was a little too much.

Elliot: The other dish that wasn't quite up to the level was Salmah.

We loved the flavor of your barfi, but we thought that it was a little aggressive with rose water.

Salmah, voice-over: I kind of knew that I did add a little bit too much rose water, but at the same time, I'm here introducing them to a new style of cuisine.

I am also educating them about my culture, and I'm so glad for that.

Now we're happy to tell you which two dishes came out on top.

The first dish that wowed us was... ♪ Brad with your meatballs.

Ha ha ha!

Whoo hoo, Brad.

Derry: Honestly, it just melted in your mouth, and it's not often that you have a meatball that can do that.

All right, Brad.

Cohen: And our other favorite dish was Relle and your malasadas.

Yes.

Yay.

Good job, Relle.

Good job.

Elliot: Those were amazing-- Oh, my goodness.

Elliot: soft, fluffy, warm, sugar-crusted.

The only issue that we had was, we wanted more... Mahalo nui.

but one home cook is the winner of this round-- ♪ Relle with your malasadas.

[Cheering and laughter] Cohen: Relle, that's two wins in a row, and clearly we know your baking skills are...on point.

Mahalo.

Relle, voice-over: I'm so happy.

I've got back-to-back wins.

It feels good.

This is probably the most confident I've been.

Congratulations, everyone.

The chances to have one of your dishes featured on the cover of "The Great American Recipe Cookbook" is now in sight.

Derry: We're excited to keep this journey going, and we're excited to see you back here next week for your next "Great American Recipe."

Bye, y'all.

Bye, everybody.

You did it, girl.

Relle, good job.

Ha ha!

Ramos: Next time on "The Great American Recipe"... We are going to have you pass your recipe card to your neighbor because we are doing a recipe swap.

OK.

I see what Leanna's trying to do here.

I've never made either of these.

No pressure.

Is this the way it's supposed to look?

Aloha.

Ha ha ha!

It is a delicious bite.

Cohen: Our top dish was made by... ♪ [Pen scratches]