- Today on George Hirsch Lifestyle I visit a family-run farm that grows and grinds some spicy roots.

Then my good friend, Alex Goetzfried, chef, journalist, joins me for a waterside tailgate in my hometown where we have a chat and chew about the historic hamlet of Sag Harbor.

In the kitchen, I'm cooking a creamy and zesty farmer's potato salad, and my signature kielbasa with marionberry jam sauce.

Finally, a new spin for a sweet, I'm baking a sour cream coffee cake pie.

(mellow instrumental 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 - Sometimes the ethnic roots of a community can influence the crops that are grown there.

In Riverhead, Long Island, the town that connects the North and South Forks, there's a strong Polish and German heritage.

Schmitt's Farm is a multi-generational family farm.

- We've been making horseradish and growing it forever.

I mean, when I remember first started making was with, in one of the barns down there, you know, just the doors wide open because the smell would take over, but we'd sit there and peel it with me, my grandfather, my dad, a couple of his friends would come down there.

But it would be an afternoon kind of thing, you peel it, you grind it, you make it, made it on the back of a trailer with these hand grinders that clamped on to the trailer.

- Oh, really old school, wow.

- Yeah, you'd turn 'em all, probably been about 10 years now that it's been at the stand, that's pretty much our claim to fame over there at the farms.

- I've cooked with horseradish, you know, my whole career.

Even with fruits, I've even grinded some of my own.

I have never been in a horseradish patch.

(laughing) I've never seen horseradish.

It's really interesting.

How much root is this plant right now?

- That's, we planted this in the end of March, so it's been in the ground about two and half months, I might harvest some of this after Thanksgiving, the end of November.

But these plants, you know, they get big, - They do - By the end of July, they'll be this tall, they really - And that's what most people don't realize, is it's the root that's the prize, that's where the fruit of the plant is is the root.

- We dig the roots out and then the root comes out, it's a big, there's one main root and then it has a bunch of side roots or shoots coming off of it, they don't really grow long, they get, just big.

- Bulk out - Yeah, so this year actually my dad modified the planters so we could plant them deeper, you know, we're trying to get them probably about that, so this way your main root is, you know, a lot longer and hopefully you get better yield out of it.

- Since we're talking about roots, the Schmitt family has very deep roots.

How many generations of farming?

- I mean I guess I, we always say I'm the fourth generation, I mean, for Philip Schmitt's & Son Farm.

I'm fourth generation.

- How did Matt decide, I'm gonna continue in the family tradition and be a farmer?

What was that, what was that moment?

- You just, you gain an appreciation for it, you know, you want to keep it going.

I like it I guess and I always did it so, I don't know any better.

(laughing) - Preservation isn't something that only applies to jarring produce.

It's also important to preserve a way of life that this country was founded on, farming.

(mellow instrumental music) Two types of potatoes for an amazing potato salad.

But that's not what's gonna give it the final kick.

The final kick is going to be our horseradish.

But let's talk a little bit about the potatoes.

I have here a yellow and baby red Yukon, and they're just going to be split in half, they were poached just until tender, and the best way of checking if it's tender is take a knife while it's either being steamed or gently parboiled, and the knife should just slip right on out.

But we'll get back to the potato in a minute because we have to make an amazing dressing.

Now this dressing is a horseradish dressing, and to start off we're gonna use two generous tablespoons of horseradish, some apple cider vinegar, about one good tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, one tablespoon of pure cane sugar, and let that sugar just melt inside the horseradish and the vinegar.

And now we're gonna give it some body with some Dijon mustard.

It's gonna give it body and a really wonderful flavor and mustard really compliments horseradish.

Horseradish is not really that hot if used with vinegar in a dressing.

Now we're gonna add some sweet onion, this is a little sweet onion, about three tablespoons of sweet onion.

And we just want to let that onion just sit inside that vinegarette, that dressing, the horseradish dressing, and those onions will actually soften and the sweetness from the onion will come out.

Next we'll add in a generous amount of dill.

I have here (knife scraping cutting board) about a quarter cup of dill, once it's chopped, and I'm not finely chopping it, I want it rough chopped.

I really just want the dill broken up slightly.

I want it broken up that the oils begin to separate from those little tender leaves.

And dill is just an amazing aromatic herb that adds a little tenderness to the harshness that can come out of the horseradish.

So now we'll begin to cut all our potatoes, and the dressing could actually sit for about 10, 15 minutes, and then I will show you how we're going to finish this great potato salad.

(knife cutting) So now we've allowed the vinegar, the onions and the dill to soften up, bring out the flavor, now add in about four tablespoons of olive oil, and it would be perfectly fine almost to leave the dressing as it is if you did not want a creamy dressing.

However, we're going to make it creamy.

And there's several ways it could be made, today I'm just going to use a beautiful mayonnaise.

With that salt and pepper that's in there.

And you can see the mayonnaise that I've added in now has made the potato salad really creamy.

Now it may look like there's a little extra dressing in the bowl, but the starchiness from the potatoes is actually going to soak up some of it like a sponge, so we'll take and put our split potatoes inside, you can cut them smaller if you want to, I particularly like them on the larger side.

And let them all mix in, coated well with the dressing, it's always best to make it at least an hour or two ahead minimum to allow the dressing to be absorbed by the potatoes.

If you do make it ahead, it's a good idea, of course, to cover it and put it in the fridge until you're ready to serve.

If necessary, you could always drizzle a little bit of olive oil over on top before serving.

So the horseradish, the mustard, the creaminess from the mayonnaise, the fresh dill, fresh dill from the garden, that all just works wonderful.

Plate it on a bed of leafy greens, finishing it off with some fresh chopped chives, and some drizzle of olive oil, little bit more fresh ground black pepper, a horseradish potato salad, try it, I know you're gonna love it.

(mellow instrumental music) The first time I came across this recipe I said no way.

The simplicity for it, it was just, as a chef I didn't think it was possible.

But four ingredients.

25 years ago in my first series, in my first cookbook, a version of this recipe was there.

I've kind of updated it a little bit for you today, but it's still such an easy recipe and absolutely delicious.

I have some natural cured kielbasa.

Now, you could use smoked sausage, that would work just as well.

And to the kielbasa I'm just going to cut off, let's say, four links that I'm going to split.

Just gonna split these four links.

And we will get back to them in a little bit.

But what makes this recipe so special, it was given to me by a very good friend's, very good Polish friends where naturally one of their family's long handed-down recipes was made with kielbasa.

Kielbasa and horseradish.

And there's two wonderful ingredients that naturally go together very well, is kielbasa and horseradish.

The other main ingredient for the sauce and the flavoring for it is a jelly.

Now the updated version is with the marionberry that I'm using today, it's a marionberry jam, you could use boysenberry, you could use raspberry, if you want to, use strawberry, but what makes it updated today is the quality of the ingredients that goes into it.

I'm not using off-the-shelf regular jarred jelly or jam that really has no fruit in it, it's basically just jarred fructose.

So I want the natural fruits to come out in the sauce.

So I'll keep on slicing all of these and then I'm going to show you a trick that we're gonna use for the four links.

(knife slicing) Okay.

Now, a very simple tip I'm going to show you, or technique, is to score the inside of the kielbasa or the sausage, and you can use this with any type of smoked or cured sausage.

You don't cut through the casing, you just cut down into it and you can see they're kind of like little diamonds or squares.

When we put them in a hot pan and start to sear them and get them brown, and then turn them over, you're going to see them curl back, and we'll use that as a presentation on top.

Okay, now that they're all scored, we want to put them in a preheated heavy cast pan, either an iron pan or a porcelain pan, let them get a good glaze on top before turning them over, don't keep flipping.

Don't be a hasty flipper.

Add a few drops of olive oil to a preheated medium high temperature pan.

(mellow music) Sear the large pieces of kielbasa about two minutes each side, turning once.

(mellow music) Remove, then add the slice kielbasa.

Cover for four to five minutes.

Then add the jam, ketchup, and horseradish.

(mellow music) Cover and gently simmer 20 to 25 minutes.

So 25 years and this recipe, I'm telling you, it ages like a fine wine.

(laughing) Kielbasa with the horseradish and the jam, put a couple of the charred links on top, and you have a mighty, mighty fine dish.

My friend, chef and journalist, Alex Goetzfried, is meeting me for a beach tailgate in the place I call home, the seaside hamlet of Sag Harbor.

The bustling beauty of this area has inspired much of the creative work we have done, and continues to inspire whatever comes next.

You know, I'm often asked about the area that I live in, and it really is like this every day.

That's what drew me out to Sag Harbor and this region.

This was the first official port of entry when people immigrating came into this country.

- I was just gonna ask you about that because the fact that it is the first official port of entry, I don't think that people realize that Sag Harbor is actually a melting pot.

- It had it's claim to fame as a whaling port, so back in the early 18th century, just picture the main street area, the captains' row houses, just bustling with bars, saloons, salivars, shops.

- Part of the town is kind of boojie now and you get both sides of this culture where there still is that seafaring feel to Sag Harbor.

- What's really wonderful is it still maintains its kind of community charm.

Your five and ten, your pharmacy, you know, still that old mom and pop that's still holding on amongst, you know, the big box community stores that you find today.

- This is such a great jumping point to get to so many different regions on the East End.

- Sag Harbor is in the heart and you can drive down the street, be on a couple farms on the South Fork, of course the North Fork has much more acreage and farms.

You don't have to preplan your menu, you know?

You just see what's right in the season.

The oysters, the scallops, - It's really one of the places that I've found through all my travels and visiting different people and different cultures and eating different food that you can really live off the land here.

- The land will provide if you let it.

- What keeps you in Sag Harbor?

- My fellow community of chefs and brotherhood and sisterhood of farmers.

We started Grilling back in 1994 was the first series, so it goes back some time.

I think the evolution is people are more educated in food, more knowledgeable in food, want to absolutely know geographically where is that food coming from, and the beauty doesn't hurt.

I think it's time to jump into some brats here.

- Yeah - What do ya think?

- I think so too, they look great.

(waves rolling onto shore) (mellow music) - As a chef I've been baking a very long time.

In fact I won a gold medal from the French government at the age of 14.

Why?

I was taught and trained under some world class master bakers.

And in my process when I was learning, there was one principle that was critically important was stick to the recipe and understand the basics of the ingredients.

Also, measure accurately.

If it says a teaspoon, stick to a teaspoon.

Don't think by adding additional it's going to become that much better.

Thirdly, use world-class ingredients.

Use the best butters, use the best flours, use the best dairy components in the recipe.

All of this together and you could become a great baker yourself.

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

Have you ever thought you needed a break?

A coffee break?

Well, what would go with good coffee but great cake?

And this certainly is, this is a sour cream coffee cake, it is the winner of all cakes.

I've prepared this in many fashions, I've made 'em in loaves, I've made 'em in cake form, I've even made 'em in muffin form.

But today we're gonna make 'em in a pie form.

It's going to be a sour cream coffee cake pie.

So we're going to start with some softened butter and you can see the butter's been sitting out, and the marvelous part about this recipe is that it's easy.

A couple bowls, a couple ingredients, and you're there.

So we'll add in two farm fresh eggs, (eggs cracking) we'll break up the eggs, break up the yolks, just slightly.

(beating eggs) And we started with like one stick of butter, the two eggs, we'll just give a little whip with the sugar, the eggs, (stirring) let them blend in.

(stirring) And believe it or not, you know, sometimes there are some cake recipes that you can prepare and they have to be eaten the same day.

This cake is actually better on the second day, so if you can make even a couple times, and have it and compare it, the next day it's going to be that much better.

So once our sugar and eggs have been mixed together, next we'll add in about an eighth a teaspoon of salt, then I want to add in quarter teaspoon of baking powder, a quarter teaspoon of baking soda, it's the combination of both of them in this recipe that helps give the beautiful leavening.

Some nice fresh vanilla, beautiful vanilla.

And what gives the beautiful texture to this is some fresh plain yogurt, (stirring) and once all the ingredients are all stirred in, then you can go on and add the next layer in, so it's kind of emulsified and blended together, it's not going to separate.

I'll add in half of my sour cream now, it's the same amount of sour cream as it is to yogurt, about a quarter cup.

Blend that in.

And you can see the velvety texture of that batter.

Now I'll start adding in my flour, but I'm going to add my flour in in three stages.

I don't want to add it in all together, otherwise it could wind up lumping.

So just stir the flour in, we'll add in another third of the flour, and you can see the batter starting to thicken up slightly.

And that's why we reserve the rest of the sour cream, that's going to help thin it down slightly.

We'll add in the remainder of the flour, gently fold that in, we don't want to over whip it because we don't want extra air whipped up into the batter.

Now you can see it's nice and thick, but everything is pretty evenly distributed throughout.

We'll add a half a cup of milk in total, but the same process as the sour cream, little by little, little by little, folding it in.

Okay, now we can use our spatula, so we're making sure there's no butter lumps on the bottom or flour lumps.

We'll add the next two stages of the milk, and the last part of the milk.

See how smooth and creamy that batter is?

It's just the way you want it.

I'm going to bake it in a pie-shaped iron pan, it's gonna be just lightly greased with some fresh whole butter.

I like to use the fresh whole butter because you get the milk solids left in and it gives a nicer color to the outside of the cake.

Now we'll pour our batter in, you don't want it more than half full, so we just shake it around, let it even out, to top it you could put nuts on top, oats, or I have here my crumb topping, we've done this many times together.

Just a mixture of flour, oats, sugar and butter.

We'll put that on top.

So now we'll put it in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 25 to 35 minutes.

The amount of time will be dependent upon the vessel that you're baking it in and also your own oven.

You can always check the doneness by the springiness on the cake with your finger, or inserting a very small paring knife inside, make sure it comes out clean.

Once it's baked, we're going to let it sit for one hour before taking it out of the pan.

The sour cream coffee cake has been cooling for about two hours.

It's even going to taste better tomorrow, but I know most of you do not want to wait when it comes to this cake.

And you can see how luscious it is.

The cinnamon, some of the crumbs have fallen down through the bottom, and we'll just put a wedge right on there, serve it with a little side of pureed pears, so sour cream coffee cake made into a pie.

One of my favorites, and I know it will be one of yours.

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

Farmer's Horseradish Potato Salad, a Kielbasa with Marionberry Jam Sauce, the perfect coffee accompaniment, Sour Cream Coffee Cake Pie.

Remember, if I can do it, you can do it.

We'll see you 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.

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

(mellow instrumental 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.