a family run winery that proves old vines have deep roots, and Alex and I chat and chew, lighting the grill with steak two ways.

In the kitchen, I'm preparing wine-friendly hors d'oeuvres and sweets, a classic, deviled eggs, sweet and spicy, spiced nuts served on a Tuscan board, and everyone's favorite, oatmeal cookies.

(light jazz 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.

(light jazz music) - Paumanok.

- Yeah.

Here at Paumanok, we should really be called The Massoud Family Vineyards, because we're absolutely a family affair.

The name Paumanok, is the old native name for Long Island, and my mother discovered this name reading Walt Whitman.

- My colleagues from IBM, they come and visit now from the old days.

I retired from IBM in '92.

They say, "Charles, do you know what they used to say "about you in '83 when you started doing everything?"

I said, "What did you used to say?"

They said, "Charles went crazy, he's buying a vineyard."

I said, "Well, we used to say the same thing."

(laughing) - My family in Germany would say, "You know, I mean, "it's amazing, but you're crazy.

"Do you know what you're doing?"

- Now that we've been making wine here for just about 30 years, I've realized it's actually the perfect name, because wine is all about place and provenance.

The origin of where their grapes come from is all important.

- What a lot of people don't realize is, although Paumanok wasn't the first, they were certainly one of the leaders, outside of the cork.

- Yeah, we switched from cork to screw cap for most of our production back, starting with our 2007 vintage.

We were the first on Long Island to do so.

It's important to understand that the switch was not about making some radical change for the sake of change, it was all about wine quality.

It guarantees the quality and consistency of the wine in a way that natural cork simply cannot.

- We're still learning.

You would think that when it comes to wine, it's all settled because it's in chapter one in the Bible, when Cain and Abel fought it out, they said there were some grapes running, oozing on the table next to them.

They were drunk, basically, and they fought it out.

From that time to now, you would think that everything has been said about wine and discovered and all that.

In fact, if anything, it's accelerating, because now they're getting at the molecular level, they're doing all sorts of...

When I say I will die learning, it's because we keep discovering new aspects to this.

There is no business in food and drink as complex as wine.

We fuss about it, we talk about it, we create expressions to describe it.

But you know, it's a wonderful thing, because it's a gift of Mother Nature.

When you get a good wine, we take all the credit, but the reality is, it's a gift.

When I try to explain to people the difference between red wine and white wine, I give them the example of rose versus red wine.

The rose that we have upstairs, the dry rose, is made from Cabernet Franc and Merlot, but when you taste it, it's a simple white wine.

It has been colored because we left it on the skin for a while, but it's very, very simple.

Whereas, the Merlot and Cabernet Franc, made as a red wine, is such a completely different thing.

What makes the difference?

The skin.

The skin has to really ripen to the point where it will dissolve literally into the wine, giving it not just color, but body, because the tannin in the skin is what gives the wine its body.

When we say wine is liquid sunshine, that's what we're talking about, because as the skin ripens, it literally dissolves into the wine, and that's what makes the great wine.

It gives color, it gives body, and flavor.

It's a humbling thing when you see it happen, because, like I said, if we knew how to do it like this, we would do it every year.

- It's like art.

You start every year with new elements, and that comes from a higher power.

And Mother Nature, what is your famous quote you always say?

- I say, "We're partners with Mother Nature, "but we are the junior partner."

(laughs) - How true is that?

- How true is that?

- Like all farmers, wine makers work with challenging conditions all around them.

From the flavor of the earth, to the bottled sunshine captured in the essence of each grape skin, every harvest tells a story of the partnership between Mother Nature and the producer making the wine.

(light jazz music) Pairing cheese and wine is easier than you think.

Start off with a multiple selection of cheeses.

You can always ask the cheesemonger, or cheese person in your market or farm stand.

Generally, you want to choose maximum of about five or six cheeses, even three cheeses is perfect.

Next, with cheese, you want to make sure that if you're serving it with knives, or if it's pre-cut, that you're using a different utensil for each, because just something as simple as using one knife and going from cheese to cheese, I call that cheese hopping, is gonna take the taste and the flavor out of that particular cheese.

Next, maybe limit it to a couple of wines.

A white a red, or sparkling and a red.

Talk to your wine merchant, and they can help guide you along the way.

These are just some things to help enliven your next wine and cheese fest.

From my kitchen to yours, that's good to know.

(light guitar music) The all-occasion event calls for the all-occasion hors d'oeuvres, and one that appeals to people of all ages.

Let's get started right away with some deviled eggs.

Principally, they're called deviled because of the filling and the hot sauce that's in the filling.

First thing I want to do is start with splitting my hard boiled eggs.

To do a hard boiled egg, to make a hard boiled egg, simply requires just putting the eggs, starting them in cold water, and then... bringing them up to a boil, and then just simply cap it with a cover, shut the heat off, remove it off the heat... and then wait about 10 or 12 minutes before peeling 'em.

Even better yet, put in some cold water and let the eggs cool down slightly, because as the heat cooks the egg, the heat is pushing the whites out.

As they cool, they have a chance to relax inside.

You'll notice on the platter, there's a bed of greens, or a bed of herbs.

In this case, I'm using horseradish sprouts.

That's to help keep the eggs from sliding around, because you see, it gets a little slippery on the bottom.

These help, actually, give me a little grip.

Now, let's prepare the filling.

Very simply, we want to mash up the yolks, get them into almost a fine powder.

Very easily done with a whisk.

You're not really whipping it, you're just breaking it up, and they'll break up further once we start adding the ingredients.

First thing I'm going to add in is just of Dijon mustard.

Again, it's for the flavor.

We can add in a pinch of sugar... a pinch of salt... some fresh ground black pepper... a little pinch of paprika, deviled, so we want a little hot sauce.

Little bit of hot sauce.

Now, I'll add in about a quarter cup of mayonnaise.

You could change it up.

You could use mayonnaise and sour cream.

You could use sour cream and yogurt.

Your preference, whatever you want to do.

Just want to mash it up a little bit further with the whisk, so it's kind of smooth, getting all the lumps out.

Now I'm just going to add in about a teaspoon of white vinegar.

Again, you could change up your vinegars.

We're kinda going old school here and keeping it simple, so a little white vinegar is fine, just gives it a little tartness.

A lot of the flavoring, besides the filling, is also gonna come in the garnishing and how you top it.

Now, we'll just fill a pastry bag.

You could do it with two teaspoons if you wanted to, that would also work just as well.

If using a pastry bag, and you're making the filling, just try not to make the filling with any lumps, otherwise, you'll have problems getting it out.

Cut out our hole.

You could use a round tip or a star tip.

I'm using a star tip here just to pipe a little crown on each one.

Beautiful creamy yolks.

There's so much you can do with the eggs, from a small amount of maybe smoked paprika on there, if you want that flavor.

Of course, you could put a little hint of fresh ground black pepper, and that would be perfectly fine.

Or, you just raid the icebox.

You raid the icebox and you see what you have.

Let's start here, maybe with some cured salami or some sopressata.

I'll just cut them in little pieces, little triangles.

And again, this is about the all-occasion, all-occasion hors d'ouvre.

There's no rules when it comes to this.

If you have little baby shrimp, you can use that.

If you wanted to roll up little pieces of prosciutto, you can use that.

It doesn't have to be complicated.

You just kind of go with the flow.

If you wanted to change it up, because we did not put any onion inside, but you wanna have a little... a little ring of onion, put a little shallot on there.

A little shallot.

A little shallot.

The marvelous thing is, they all don't have to be identical.

You could dress them up a little bit different.

Make them all a little different.

If you wanted to have a little radish, and do the same thing.

A little ribbon of radish.

Garnish them however you like.

Give consideration to the texture, the flavor, and the colors, and how it all combines with one another.

Here we have our all-occasion hors d'ouvre, or deviled eggs, which makes it the hors d'ouvre for all occasions.

(light guitar music) (light jazz music) Here's a great way of elevating the spice in your next party, and this is with my spiced nuts.

What I have here, is about one pound of walnuts.

For the walnuts, we're going to take one egg white, put it in a bowl, and then mix in a tablespoon of salt.

Four and five is the tablespoon.

A teaspoon of hot sauce... a quarter cup of sugar... a tablespoon of a really good curry mix... and then one tablespoon of water.

Mix all the ingredients until it turns into a paste.

This is an amazingly, simple, simple recipe... that is definitely a do-ahead.

You can make these up, even a week ahead, just put 'em in a tight container after they've cooled, when they come out of the oven.

You could use a variety of nuts, if you like.

Pecans work nice, cashews, but really walnuts is the all around, I think, best favorite.

Next, I'm going to dump my nuts into the mix... and then just coat very well, all the nuts, with the mixture of the sugar, the egg white, the salt.

This is an all-time favorite and often requested recipe.

Every time I have an event, if I bring these along to a picnic or a family event, it really makes a great gift.

Then pour them back into the bowl.

I could use these for, let's say wine and cheese, or on the side of cheese, but they also make great toppings on salads.

Even the contrast of the salt, the spice, and the sugar works really good on an ice cream.

We want to put these in a very low oven, low and slow with the nuts.

We want them to very slowly bake and toast at around 275 degrees, for about 45 to 55 minutes, depending upon your oven, and depending upon what you're baking in it.

Once they come out, we're gonna to let them cool for a minimum of one hour.

The nuts have been chilled for at least one hour, and you can see how the sugar actually turned into like a bit of a candy.

Just break up the nuts into individual pieces.

It's easy as that.

Another way to impress your wine and cheese event.

(light guitar music) (light jazz music) - Here we have the beautiful strip steaks.

- Beautiful strip steaks, and you can see the the marbling that's in that steak, a beautiful, beautiful color.

- They're about an inch and a half thick, gorgeous marbling, about one pound each I would say.

- I'm just gonna separate mine over here, and then put a generous rub on each side.

Gonna borrow a little bit of your oil here, some good olive oil, just a little drizzle of olive oil, give it a little wetness, and to keep it from not sticking on the grill.

Ideally, I start on a very, very, very hot grill.

You keep your hand here.

It's the 'ol 1,000 count, 1,001, 1,002, that's hot.

(laughing) That's really hot, it's good.

Over here, I don't have a bank of coals, because after it has a good sear, then I wanna let it go a little bit slow before pulling it off.

Let me throw mine on.

- You can hear that sizzle.

- You can hear it right away.

We'll put another little drizzle of oil on top.

- Just enough to keep it from sticking.

- That's all.

The most important thing now, is just exercising a small amount of patience.

You're letting the grill kinda do it, do it say-- - Do the work for you.

- Now, is take and put some herbs and the aromatics in the-- - Oh, that's beautiful.

- in the, right in the fire.

You could use thyme, you could use rosemary.

Today, it just happens to be that oregano is flowering.

- Flowering.

- So, it looks pretty, and it's definitely going to also smell pretty.

- You just throw that right in there?

- I wanna throw that right in there.

About four to five minutes, again, it all depends upon the... the temperature.

- Beautiful.

- The steak is definitely to a medium-like consistency.

- Beautiful.

- You can see how gorgeous that is.

What kinda steak you gonna do?

- What I'm doing, it's a little bit different than yours is.

I'm going to cook mine in a cast iron pan.

My reason is, because you can do this inside, outside, really anytime of the year.

I start with a little bit of olive oil.

- There you go.

- That's it.

Just very simple salt, pepper, a little bit of oil.

- Right.

I add in a little bit of butter, and then we just baste it, and let it baste right in the pan.

- Also, the difference between the pan versus direct on the grill.

My drippings are going in there, which is gonna impart smoking flavor backup, and it's gonna be a dryer texture.

Yours is gonna keep some of the moisture.

- We're gonna add some butter, which I'll actually do now, because as the butter browns, it's gonna help give that steak some color.

- Yeah, you're the butter guy, I'm the rub guy.

- Yeah, exactly.

I'm also gonna throw in a few sprigs of thyme, because this is just gonna flavor the butter, and then I'm gonna baste the beef with a spoon.

- Whoa, snack, crackle, pop!

- Now, we're gonna flip it over.

- Ah, the goal!

- You can see really, really nice color.

- The goal.

Sweet.

- You can see how that-- - Oh my gosh, the aroma.

- fat chars up.

- You also have the juice from the meat that's in there as well.

- Yeah, and that just crisps up the steak so nicely.

- Yeah, that's nice.

- Okay, so I think we're good.

- Plate it up.

It's charred up.

- I think we did a pretty good job today.

- Not too bad.

- Yours is nice and moist from all that butter, and the fat and the sear, and mine has that dry heat and the rub.

(light guitar music) - Did somebody say cookies?

Yes!

Here's a great way to bring out the cookie monster in your house.

I'm making an all-time favorite, oatmeal raisin cookies.

Very simply, I'm starting off with a quarter pound of softened butter, and to the softened butter, I'm going to use two types of sugar, a pure cane sugar.

Pure cane sugar is the best sugar to use, because it won't crystallize.

It's not a beet sugar.

We get the regular sugar, melt it in, mixed in and creamed in together with the butter.

Then we're ready for brown sugar.

Pure cane brown sugar, there is such a thing as pure cane, brown sugar.

We do the same with the brown sugar, mix that in really good.

Soon as the sugars have been creamed in together with the butter, now we can take one egg, add that fresh whole egg into the butter and the sugars.

Make sure that yoke is mixed in, blended in perfectly.

You want it evenly mixed throughout.

You can see it turning into a light batter.

Now, we'll add in our leavening, it'll be a half a teaspoon of baking soda... a quarter teaspoon of salt, just to bring out the sweetness.

Next, we'll add in our oats.

We add in our oats now.

You want to add the flour in last.

Add the flour in last, because you don't want to over-beat the flour.

If you over-beat the flour, you'll build up the gluten, and that will make for a tough cookie.

This is going to make it very tender.

I added in the oats.

The oats are rolled oats.

They're not the same type of oats, they're not instant oats.

Don't use instant oats, because it'll make your cookie very mushy.

These oats will actually slowly cook while they're baking in the oven.

We'll add in our vanilla.

About a teaspoon of vanilla.

Mix that in very well.

Quarter cup of raisins.

The cookies almost all ready, there's just one more ingredient that has to go in.

Now that the raisins and the oats are evenly distributed, and that's the flour.

There's no need to sift the flour, you just wanna lightly, lightly mix it.

Now, we just keep folding it in until the flour is blended in.

Now, as soon as the cookie dough has kind of come together, it's good to go.

Don't over mix it, because that makes for a tough cookie.

Now, we'll take a small scoop.

You could use two spoons, but I kinda prefer using a scoop.

In all the cookies that I've made all the years, can make thousands of cookies very quickly by using the scoop.

Don't place them too close together, least about two inches apart.

You can even stagger the cookies... between, so as they bake, they don't stick together.

Just repeat again, until you're finished with all the cookie dough.

A great way to impress some guests, if they're at one of your dinners, is a little trick I used to do.

As soon as the guests were sitting down for the dinner, I would have my cookies early all put in pans, and then put them in the oven.

Just about the time they stopped eating dinner, before dessert.

They smell fresh.

Bake 'em in a 350-degree oven, for about seven to eight minutes.

Once they're done, let them cool.

I know it'll be tough, but let them cool, because they'll actually still bake on the pan for about another minute.

Some great cookies, for the cookie monster in your house.

All you need is a good, cold, glass of milk.

There you have it.

The all-occasion, hors d'oeuvres deviled eggs, and crunchy spice nuts.

Strip-steak two ways: water basted, and dry-rubbed with herb smoke.

Finally, classic oatmeal cookies.

If I can do it, you can do it.

We'll see 'ya real soon.

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

- 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.

(light 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.

(organ music)