- Today on George Hirsch Lifestyle.

I visit the Long Island Lettuce King, Bob Nolan, whose family-run farm grows numerous varieties of greens, lettuces and vegetables.

Back in the kitchen, I'm cooking my signature grilled Caesar salad with a no-yolk Caesar dressing and a fresh-from-the-farm grilled baby eggplant with marinara and finished with a creamy rigotte.

For dessert, a new spin for a sweet, an apple pot pie.

(gentle guitar music) - Long Island Farm Bureau is a proud presenter of George Hirsch Lifestyle.

Long Island farmers continue their commitment to providing abundant, fresh commodities, supporting farmers and the local agriculture community for over 100 years.

(gentle music) - My Uncle Henry, very smart, he wanted to be a professor at Cornell.

Family, his father didn't want him to go to Cornell.

No, I couldn't go so now you have to stay on the farm and help me but he was very, very smart, who basically taught me how to farm.

- So how has it changed, principally, from Henry's time to your time right now?

- Well, it used to be, we would grow only four or five different crops, which makes it easier because you don't have to change the equipment, change the seeder.

When you're growing eight or nine crops, fine, now I'm growing like 20 or 25 crops, so that means every time you go to plant, you have to change the seed and that all takes time, five, 10, 15 minutes, all of a sudden, the day is gone but we've had to do that because of the global food market, food comes from everywhere cheaper than it can from Long Island, so what we have to do is diversify and give our customers, the local people, what they want and that's what we're doing and that's kind of how it's changed.

Now, they talk about sustainable agriculture, you're gonna burn the ground out and all this other stuff.

If you don't do the right practices, yes, that'll happen but we use compost here mixed with horse manure, every year, and it builds up the soil fertility and it's never been better.

For my wholesale customers, it's basically just, you know, 18 heads in a box and down the road it goes, 20 bunches in a box, down the road it goes.

The farm stand, some of our products, the beets and red cabbage and all kinds of different things, presto's, basil I grow, all that stuff, is processed and we sell it at the road stand.

People really like a lot of the items, we have the canned items and pickled items, pickled cauliflower and all the presto's and all that stuff.

- Now, I'm sure it's the same with you as a farmer and your stand as a chef, people are more educated today, so it's not just your iceberg and your Boston, now it's multiples.

- Yeah, I grow like eight or nine different varieties of lettuce.

I grow a green oak, the most popular one around here people love is called Buttercrunch.

It's a green Batavian, it's a little sweet, it's got a little iceberg in it, it's got a little green leaf in it.

It can take the heat.

I've never seen a lettuce like that take the heat, it's actually called a summer crisp.

I remember one year we had like 100 degrees for like four or five days and that stuff was just solid right there, it didn't wilt, it didn't do anything, it was amazing.

- Wow, so, that's gotta be one of your, you know, cat in the hat or whatever (chuckles).

- Everybody comes here for the Buttercrunch, we call it, and it's got a big following and it's got a great flavor too.

It's got a nice crunch, a nice little sweetness to it, it's really nice lettuce.

- Where do you see farming going in the future, especially in our region?

- I remember talking to my uncle, back in the '20's there was, I don't know, 70, 80,000 acres of potatoes and now we barely have 2,000 left because of the competition from around the country.

It can come in from anywhere and the cost of production here on Long Island, the cost of taxes, electricity, labor, to get any products to Long Island, you gotta go through New York City and all the tolls and nobody wants to drive and so, the wholesale industry has shrunk and it continues to shrink.

The economics don't work anymore but what has flourished is agri-tourism, all the corn mazes and pick-your-own-pumpkins and the wineries and stuff like that and farmers like myself that used to be more wholesale, I've kinda gone to more retail.

I've had to diversify and grow different crops, grow many more different crops my customers want and that model seems to be working at this point.

There's an old line in farming, next year will be better.

- That's right.

- And every year, we say it, next year will be better.

You're the eternal optimist, you know, next year will be better.

So, this year, hopefully it's better than last year.

We had a lot of rain and right now it's beautiful weather today.

- And you know what, I think I'm gonna top that.

I think tomorrow will be better.

- Good, there you go, very good, thank you.

(gentle music) (gentle music) - As a chef, I prepared my fair share of salads with the widest selections of greens but what makes the best salad?

It's usually using what's in season.

Ask your grocer, ask your local farmer, what's really good today?

Whether it's romaine, frisee or Tuscan kale, either way, a little chop, a little wash and you'll have a great salad.

So, from my kitchen to your kitchen, that's good to know.

(gentle music) Hail Caesar, that's because, everybody loves a good Caesar salad but this Caesar salad takes it up a couple clicks.

Why, it's a no-yolk Caesar dressing and it's amazing how much this salad tastes like a classic or traditional Caesar salad.

So I'm going to start right away with one tablespoon of a good Dijon mustard.

It has to be a good mustard, a really, really good mustard.

In fact, ingredients should always be good, 'cause you deserve the best, right?

Now, let's add in about four or five cloves of caramelized garlic.

Those garlic cloves were very softly and gently cooked in olive oil until they got the beautiful, beautiful caramel color to it.

That just changes all the sugar in the garlic to something that is very, very sweet and not that overly pungent garlic taste, which can be a little bit bitter.

Then I'm going to add in a good tablespoon of chopped anchovy, some good chopped anchovy in a little bit of oil and just mix all these ingredients in together and the best part about this dressing is you probably have almost all ingredients at home.

You probably have ingredients that are in your fridge, if you don't have anchovies or don't like them, of course, omit them but you don't really get a strong anchovy taste out of this, it just adds a little bit of salt.

Next thing I'll add in is about a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar.

Again, a good quality balsamic vinegar.

Now we wanna emulsify it, so we're going to add in some olive oil, good quality olive oil.

Just let it drizzle in and you don't wanna dump all your olive oil in at once because then it'll all separate.

You wanna do it nice and slow so it emulsifies into a creamy dressing and then you just drizzle it in.

See how creamy that is?

Right, it's just like a mayonnaise at this point.

Now it's going to give additional flavor and help with the viscosity or the dripping in it would be about a teaspoon of fresh lemon juice.

Excellent, excellent addition, it gives it a freshness and roundness into a Caesar salad and it's actually looking almost as if you had used a raw egg yolk because that's what a traditional Caesar salad dressing would be made from.

Now, of course, we can always add in a pinch of salt, you don't need too much salt because the anchovies themselves will also have some salt to it, some fresh ground black pepper, you can add in a little cheese now, I prefer sometimes to add the cheese in on top of the greens, especially with a good Parmigiano Reggiano, a good sharp cheese.

You could put a different spin on it, even use like a cave-aged cheddar or something that could be available locally.

Let's go a whole different direction, if we're not using any yolk, I'm not going to take these beautiful romaine heads and just cut 'em up and chop 'em up into nothing.

I want to bring up the flavor of the salad even more so, so, I'm going to split these heads in half.

If the heads were larger, I might even quarter them down and then get four pieces but to bring out the flavor of this, we're going to grill it.

Yes, I've grilled lettuce in so many places all over the country, in many kitchens and there's a certain amount of excitement that begins to happen when you open up the grill or you just sear them on a nice griddle pan.

It just changes the whole dish.

So we'll drizzle a small amount of olive oil on there.

It does not need too much.

Pinch of salt, fresh ground black pepper and then we'll take our crostinis, our little baguette breads, we'll do the same, drizzle a small amount of olive oil.

So you can see the crostinis, which were sliced on a bias, best to use like a day-old bread, it works really good with this.

It freshens it right back up and it actually grills betters.

So let's go back to our grill pan, heated to a medium to high temperature, 'cause we want a quick sear, a quick sear on the lettuce and the crostini.

(gentle music) Beautiful romaine, let's put our greens down and maybe a couple crostinis on the side and our no-yolk Caesar salad dressing, one of my all-time top recipes, really, really good for you, just a little bit on the greens and then some nice fresh grated cheese on top.

I like nice pieces of cheese, I don't like those little shaved things that they come to you at the table with, nice cheese.

Some fresh ground black pepper, a little drizzle of olive oil.

(gentle music) Be proud that it has anchovy in the dressing, a couple nice cloves of caramelized garlic on the side.

So there you have it, my grilled romaine salad with a no-yolk Caesar salad dressing.

Doesn't get any better than that.

(gentle guitar music) Grilling flavorful dishes go way beyond the traditional steak.

We're gonna start off here with some beautiful baby eggplants and I'm going to do a very flavorful grilled eggplant dish but you notice I have nice baby eggplants and the reason why I chose these was to have eggplant that was going to be very tender, very sweet, not bitter at all.

So, when at all possible, try and select eggplants that are very small.

So I'm taking the eggplants and I'm splitting them in half and I'm just going to make one circular motion around the eggplant.

This just makes it easier that after they're grilled, that the inside meat is easier to scoop out when serving and then after they're all cut around, then I'm just going to make a crisscross cut, not going all the way through the skin.

I'll go down about three quarters of the way.

So when they hit the grill or they hit the heat, they cook evenly all through the middle as they do on the outside.

The outside will be nice and charred while the inside is soft and delicate.

Okay, now that they've all been scored, I want to make just a quick little marinade.

Now we're not marinating these eggplants so they become tender, we want to marinade them so they have a little bit of moisture when it hits the grill, moisture and flavor.

So it's purposely just for a flavoring.

So a little salt, a little pepper, a little dried spice herbs, a little time and basil.

Mediterranean flavors and Mediterranean seasoning goes very well with cooking eggplant.

I'm just gonna squeeze a little fresh lemon juice on the bottom and then for the remainder of the lemon, I'm just gonna cut maybe three thick slices and I have a surprise for you in a little bit, what we're gonna do with the lemon that's gonna make it really nice.

So for the eggplant, we just wanna dip 'em one by one, so it covers the whole surface, dip 'em one by one, one by one, the skin side does not matter that much for the seasoning because the outside char on the skin is gonna give it sufficient flavor.

It's just the inside, you want that inside to be well coated.

We'll throw in our lemon.

Now that the eggplant has been prepped and marinated, we'll put them on a medium to high grill.

(gentle music) Grill eggplants four to five minutes on each side, turning only once and for my surprise, grill the lemons on a very high grill, two minutes on each side and press, allowing the lemons to char, turn and cook one minute.

So, let's start plating the baby eggplant.

Look how beautifully grilled it is.

Now we're gonna dress it up in a wonderful Mediterranean style.

I have here a little marinara sauce.

You can use one of your favorite marinara sauces or one that I've cooked with you before and we'll just make kind of a little painting on the bottom and then we'll put two baby eggplants right on the platter.

You can see how gorgeous those eggplants are, maybe a grilled lemon slice off to the side.

We'll serve it with a nice little egg-shaped cornell of fresh rigotte and this is absolutely delicious to serve as a cool summer dish or heated as a fall or winter hardy dish.

We'll dress it on the plate with like a little salad on the side, just with a couple baby tomatoes and maybe a little beautiful fresh basil and a little thyme, fresh ground black pepper, a couple drizzles of olive oil, a couple cloves of caramelized garlic, a little sprinkle of Parmesan.

You have yourself a fabulous baby grilled eggplant.

(gentle guitar music) An apple pie can be a daunting task if you don't have the time.

How 'bout switching it up with something a little bit different, an apple pot pie?

So, to get started right away, I want to core a apple and I use my handy tool here, just zip, zip, zip and I core a apple with just the tip of the paring knife, just the very, very, very tip, pull out the core and then just go deeper and deeper with making the incision.

We're not gonna cut all the way through, we're not gonna cut all the way through the apple.

We just wanna make an incision that as it bakes, all the flavorings and the steam and the heat go inside.

Then what I will do is I'm going to peel only half the apple because I want the bottom of the apple to have the skin on to act kind of like as a nest or a base.

You could peel the whole apple but leave a little bit of a base on the apple.

We'll put that inside and we'll do the same with the second apple.

So when we have our apples peeled and cored, we'll add in some fresh butter on the bottom, one nice pat on the bottom of each and then for the base, we're just gonna put a small amount of graham cracker crumb or you could even use, cake crumb would be really nice.

Just a pinch of brown sugar, that's gonna create a little bit of a syrup on the bottom as it bakes.

Then take your apples, put them back on top and now you can continue and repeat, a little more butter.

I'm using raisins, but if you want to use Craisins or other dried fruit, that would be fine.

I have some fabulous house made granola that I made, a few extra crumbs, a little bit more brown sugar, and you keep repeating the layers, the raisins, the granola, but for the pot pie, the trick is, don't fill it up all the way to the top, leave at least a half inch 'cause you have to allow for the steam, otherwise it could boil over and open up.

A little more brown sugar, to cap it off, a little drizzle of maple syrup and this part is totally optional.

I have here a little bit of Grandpappy's finest, a little bit of house brandy.

If you wanted to omit the brandy, you could always just use apple juice or even an orange juice in the recipe.

All right, now it's time to cap our pastry on top of our pot pies.

Just drape it over lightly, let it hang a little bit on the inside, this is a puff pastry, which, of course, you can always just get for your ease in the store.

Do the same thing on the second one, just drape it over, let it go a little bit on the inside.

Okay, we can build up the outside a little bit more, let it fold over for the handle, same on the second one.

Now we'll just cut it, the excess dough, about a half inch below the top border and again for the second one, same thing.

Now, very important for the dumpling or our apple pot pie is you need to dock it, you need to poke holes in it and that allows all the excess moisture and steam to escape, otherwise it'll blow the top off and that's what's gonna be the prize of this dessert.

Okay, next, one egg, beaten well and very lightly, very, very lightly brush it with the egg to give it that golden color while it bakes.

While I brush up the next one, I'm just going to let you know you need to preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

It's even best to take and put these in the fridge for about 15 to 20 minutes so the pastry is ice cold when it goes in there.

Preheat the oven for 400 degrees and then bake it for about 20 minutes or until it's totally done.

When it's done, I'll show you another tip.

(gentle music) A fabulous apple pot pie, kind of like a covered dumpling.

Now here's the little tip and technique to know when they're done.

When you tap it, it should have a hollow sound and you know that pastry has been perfectly, perfectly cooked.

So there you have it, my dish is made fresh from the farm to your table.

A grilled romaine Caesar salad with no-yolk Caesar dressing.

Light and satisfying grilled eggplant with marinara and rigotte and a comforting apple pot pie.

I'm George Hirsch, remember, if I can do it, you can do it.

We'll see you real soon.

(gentle guitar music) For more on recipes, entertaining lifestyle tips, TV series blog and selected video clips from today's show, join me at chefgeorgehirsch.com.

(gentle guitar music) - To download and own episodes of George Hirsch Lifestyle containing inspiring lifestyle segments, original recipes and complete how-to, visit amazon.com or chefgeorgehirsch.com.

(gentle music) (gentle guitar music) - Long Island Farm Bureau is a proud presenter of George Hirsch Lifestyle.

Long Island farmers continue their commitment to providing abundant, fresh commodities, supporting farmers and the local agriculture community for over 100 years.

(uplifting music)