(upbeat music) - [Narrator] This is a production of PBS Charlotte.

(wind whooshing) On this episode of "Dapper Dad's Kitchen," I've got my friend Keisha Hensley with me.

We've got a wonderful recipe lined up for you.

Actually, we've got two recipes lined up for you.

We're gonna be doing some indigenous Southern cooking, and we're gonna finish it off with a wonderful dessert.

(upbeat music) Today, what we're going to do is we're gonna have a little bit of indigenous southern comfort.

We are gonna start off with a pork shoulder stew with hominy.

- Okay.

- Something different, something we haven't done here on the show before, and we'll explain what that variation of corn is here in a minute or the process that makes hominy from corn.

We're also gonna do a wonderful dessert.

Today we've got a blackberry cornmeal cobbler with blackberries fresh from.

- [Keisha] Greenwood Acres.

- [Tim] That is Keisha's farm here in Rock Hill, South Carolina.

So let's go ahead and get started.

- All right.

- I know you've got a culinary background, so you're no stranger to a knife.

So what I'll do is I'll start off with the pork tenderloin.

- Okay.

- We'll go ahead and get the Dutch oven warmed up here and we'll get some olive oil.

- Yeah.

- So what we're gonna do to start off, we're gonna cut the pork into about one inch cubes for the stew.

And then we're gonna go ahead and season them and then brown them before we add some broth to it.

And then we're just gonna add the onions and the garlic and we're gonna let that simmer for a little bit.

And then we'll go ahead and get started on the dessert.

- Sure.

- All right, okay, great.

- With our blackberries.

- I'll let, you can go ahead.

And if you want to go ahead.

- I'll do the onion.

- Chop the onion, we'll do that.

- Sure.

- Let me grab some olive oil.

- Nice little dice?

- Let's go with like a good chop.

It's a stew, so we don't want it too small.

- Okay, yeah, yeah.

- We want a good mouth feel on it.

And whenever I'm working with a stew, kind of like soup, I don't wanna say.

- More chunky.

- A rough chop, but a nice chunky.

- Rustic.

- Rustic, I like that.

- Rustic.

You like that?

Yeah.

- Rustic, that's very good.

I'm gonna reach behind you.

- Okay.

- And grab this pork shoulder.

Now this is pork shoulder that I've cleaned up just a little bit.

It's part of a pork shoulder.

Was a big bone in pork shoulder, Boston butt like we would normally use for barbecuing, pulled pork and things like that.

So that's the thing about this slow and low.

It should be able to just pull apart like we did some barbecue, but we're gonna do it.

- Tender.

- Right here in the pot.

Tender.

- I mean be tender.

- Tender.

Okay.

I'm gonna go ahead and get this cut.

We'll get this set away.

- Okay.

- All right.

So what I've gone ahead and done is I've gone ahead and cleaned it up a little bit.

I've taken a lot of the fat off, especially the fat cap.

Now when we're smoking barbecue, that stuff's great.

It's gonna melt over the several hours over the hot coals and everything.

But you don't want a big chunk of fat when you're having a stew.

And it's not gonna have the same amount of time to render and melt away as it would when we were doing a long smoke on the barbecue.

Okay.

Do you like barbecue?

What's your favorite type of barbecue?

- Oh, my goodness.

I love, we do a nice shoulder.

- Okay.

- So I love it.

Where can I put these ends?

- We'll just set them on the tray right there.

- Okay, perfect.

- And we'll get them in the trash in just a minute.

- Yes.

And so my husband's from Winton-Salem, North Carolina.

- Okay.

- So he's a barbecue snob.

- Okay, he's from North Carolina.

- Yeah, I can't stop him.

(Tim laughing) But I'm telling you, but he wants the Eastern Carolina style barbecue sauce, with ketchup, vinegar based and all that.

- I'm very familiar with the vinegar base, my father's from Eastern North Carolina as well, the Greenville area.

- Okay.

- So that's all I grew up on.

And then living in South Carolina, I learned about the mustard base.

So I don't think.

- Yeah.

- There's anything wrong with either one of them.

But I don't like anything west of the Mississippi because then I just call it ketchup.

- Yeah.

(laughing).

Pretty much, pretty much.

Yeah.

I like the, mustard, it's good if you can do it.

That's not my favorite thing.

But I actually make a sauce myself and we call it barbecue dip.

- Okay.

- Yes, and I like to, actually believe it or not, incorporate it into my salads.

So I do a barbecue dip ranch salad.

So good.

- So I've also made a hybrid.

- Such a good balance.

- Where it's kind of a more vinegary mustard sauce.

- Oh.

- I'm kind of trying to bring both worlds together.

I've done it a couple times.

I like it, but it's not everybody's favorite.

Everybody likes to draw a line here.

- I told you.

- In the Carolinas.

(Tim laughing) - It's barbecue snobs.

I'm telling you.

It's serious.

(laughing) I mean, they're serious about their barbecue.

- Oh, I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

- Yeah.

And then that's what I do.

It's like with having barbecue, that's why I love with my chow chow, we put it into our pork sandwiches and things like that.

Put that on top instead of a slaw or anything.

And just gives it that flavor explosion and boom.

So same thing.

It's like taking something old and to make it a little bit more new and give more versatile reasons to use it.

- Now you mentioned something about slaw.

Now when it comes to barbecue and slaw, what kind of slaw do you like?

- Oh, I like the red slaw.

- Okay.

- So red barbecue slaw.

- [Tim] Okay.

- Yeah, with that tang, cut really, really fine and everything, so mayonnaise based are good, but I love that tang.

- Yeah, so I'm not a fan of the mayonnaise base.

I make a really great vinegar based slaw.

- [Keisha] Yeah, yeah that's what I'm saying.

- Almost like, it's a kind of like crispy slaw.

So it's not so soggy, but it has, like you said, it has that twang to it.

- [Keisha] Yes.

- And that tang, twang, whatever.

(both laughing) And then I think if your barbecue isn't that vinegary, that's gonna add that vinegary flavor to it.

- Yeah, that's right, just add that brightness to it.

- Yeah.

- Because with the fat and the thickness and the fat in the meats.

- I think we've got enough here.

- And everything.

- We're gonna.

- I know, what you got?

- That's a lot.

That's a lot, we're gonna.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- We'll get a little more and then we'll save the rest of this and I could do something with that later.

- [Keisha] Okay, yeah, you were going for it.

Those are the big pieces.

- Yeah.

- But it's gonna fall apart.

(both laughing) - All right.

Our oil is getting warm here.

So what I'm going to gonna do is I'm gonna go ahead and put it in the pot and then I'm gonna season it while it's in there.

And then we'll wait for those.

- Okay.

- We'll do those in just a moment here.

So another thing, when you're browning things in a Dutch oven or in your frying pan, you don't wanna crowd the pot.

So I'm not gonna put all of this in there at once.

I'm gonna put it in there in small batches so that way we can get all sides of it, get a nice browning on it and a little bit of crisp.

So we're just gonna go ahead and put a couple of these in there.

You can hear the sizzle start.

(food sizzling) - Very nice.

It's also building that flavor.

- [Tim] Yes.

- [Keisha] You gotta sear, gotta sear.

So a lot of times people throw it all in.

I constantly, it's season, taste.

Cook, season, taste, gotta taste.

- Yep.

Right here what we have is we have some salt.

I like coarse sea salt as well, as some black pepper, some smoked paprika, and some cumin.

(food sizzling) - [Keisha] Nice.

- We're gonna sprinkle a little bit of that over there.

Go ahead and keep stirring.

Now I.

- Nice.

- I love it when it gets the crusty bits on the bottom on the front, I love that because when we put the broth in there, we're gonna actually scrape that off.

- Of course.

- So that way it's gonna dissolve and it's gonna just make the sauce even more wonderful.

- The flavor.

Flavor, that deglaze.

- All about flavors here.

- Yes, and building.

- So now you do a lot of work on your farm with bringing back vegetables.

- Yes.

- Tell me about that, because we're talking indigenous southern cooking here.

So what are some of those things that are kind of like just because of the supermarkets and the grocery stores that we've kind of forgotten as a southern people?

- So on my farm, Greenwood Acres, because it's on Greenwood Road.

So Greenwood Acres, (Tim laughing) it's a permaculture farm.

So we.

- Okay.

- So basically with permaculture, it's permanent culture.

It's not like monoculture grow growing or whatnot.

It's growing within systems and let nature help establish itself.

- Okay.

- So nobody goes and tends to a forest and it grows lush and the soil health is good and everything.

So before commercial farming, my idea is bring back those things that people probably haven't seen before.

So I have American groundnuts that date back 3,000 years.

- [Tim] Oh, wow.

- It's more nutrient dense than any potato.

- So where do you find these to begin growing them?

I mean, you don't just go to the store And get some regular.

- No, you can't give them at a store.

- Groundnuts.

- No, actually I scour the internet, try to find small seed companies, people who have been carrying down heirlooms and things for years and generations.

And then I like to partner with those companies and then I get them so people don't realize that there's perennial collards, there's perennial kales, there's perennial string beans, like scarlet runner beans.

I'm young now.

(laughing) But forever you wanna basically make it sustainable where it's working for you.

So you're not out there.

- Gotcha.

- Weeding forever.

So you plant ground cover.

- Yeah.

- A ground cover.

So you have tiger nuts, they call it chufa.

- Okay.

- That's what they use.

- I've heard that before.

- Yeah.

- I don't think I' ever used it cooking, but I've heard of chufa before.

- Yeah, that's what they used to make Horchata in South America before they started making rice, before rice came there.

- Okay.

- So I go.

- I love learning stuff.

She's just a wealth of knowledge when it comes to.

- Yeah, and then out here now with commercial farming and everything, everything's annual, collard greens, zucchini, things like that.

But instead of growing zucchini, which I grow because my daughter loves it, but I also grow chiote.

- [Tim] Okay.

- So the green squash and Chayote is perennial and it'll throw off 100 Chayote fruits that you can use just like squash.

Food, it does have different pesticides.

It does have additives and things like that, so it can be more shelf stable.

So it can last longer in the grocery store.

Don't you notice the grocery store is so pretty.

Everything's so pretty in the grocery store.

- It's all perfect.

- But it doesn't grow like that in nature.

But I'm trying to bring people back from that, where you're growing what's in season, being close to your food.

We've gotten so far away from our food.

It's like when I'm teaching with kids, they don't know where a tomato grows.

They don't know what a zucchini plant looks like.

We need to get back to that.

But over at Greenwood, we have habitats.

I don't use any pesticides.

I don't use any chemicals.

I make my own soil blends.

I do everything.

- Okay.

- I make my own compost.

So when I'm making chow chow in my kitchen, so all the end pieces and everything from the chow chow goes into the compost.

- The compost.

- So then I make the compost and it's full circle.

- So very little waste as well.

- Yes, that's what permaculture.

- That's awesome.

- Is about also.

Using what you have and very little waste.

- Great deal, great deal.

- So I upcycle a lot because I hate when the plastic goes to the landfills.

- Yeah.

- So I will turn plastic bottles into planters.

I will upcycle them.

Seed starting trays.

- I like this.

I like this.

I like this.

Okay.

So our meat is getting nice and brown here.

We've got the crust on the bottom there.

A lot of the moisture's leaving, so we want to start to trap that in by putting the lid on it and everything.

All we did was add to this the spices.

Like I said, the salt, the pepper, the smoked paprika, as well as the cumin.

So didn't really add anything else yet.

What we're gonna do now is we're gonna go ahead and add the garlic.

(upbeat music) And I've got some minced garlic here.

It's about three cloves minced.

We're gonna go ahead and throw our onions in there if I can have that board.

- There you are.

- Ma'am, thank you very much.

- Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

- We're gonna throw these in.

I'm gonna go ahead and give this a good stir, kind of get everything.

- [Keisha] Smells good.

- Thank you, thank you.

- Smells really hot.

- Now what we'll do now is I've got four cups, 32 ounces of chicken stock.

Just going to put there, it's a whole container, so we'll put this in there.

I want to just barely cover the top, which I think I've succeeded with there.

So yeah.

- Very good.

- Top that right there.

We're gonna give it a little stir, now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go ahead and scrape the bottom and we're going to get all those kind of, I don't want to really call it burnt, we'll call it cooked on bits.

that are on the bottom.

- It's the flavor.

It's getting the flavor from the bottom of the pot.

- That's it.

And we're gonna scrape that up.

So what's that's gonna do is once that gets in with the broth and everything, it's just gonna kind of dissolve a little bit and get back into the stew.

I've got it on high.

And I'm gonna let it come to a boil, and then we're gonna go ahead and cover it.

And we're gonna let it simmer.

Now, you've mentioned your chow chow.

- Yes, it's delicious.

- I know what that is.

I've learned what that is, but I'm not sure if everybody knows what chow chow is off the top.

- (exhaling) Chow chow.

- Tell me about it.

- So chow chow is part of Southern culture, but actually just part of American culture.

They called it the end of summer relish.

So what you do is take the things that you had, all the vegetables you planted during the season.

It's so you wouldn't waste any.

They would go and they'd chop them up and pickle them.

- Okay.

- Yeah, so down in the south, and then depending where you're at, say Pennsylvania, they have a different way of making chow chow.

Down here in the south, we have a different way.

It's cabbage, onion, green, tomato heavy and whatnot.

So it's basically your vegetables cooked in a sweet and tangy brine, so you're able to have fresh vegetables all through the cold season.

And then before refrigeration, that's what they were doing.

- This also comes back to not wasting anything 'cause you said the ends.

- Yes.

- And stuff like that.

- Oh, yeah.

- Or just the whole.

Is this a recipe people set out to make where they're like, "Man, I've got this stuff."

- Well, yeah.

- Here's what I can do with it?

- Yeah.

Well, that's the thing.

In South Carolina, there used to be over 30,000 canneries.

My dad would tell us.

- Oh, yeah.

- Yes, my father would tell stories about how they would go to the canneries and just everyone knew have your gardens, go to the cannery, you canned your vegetables.

And so depending on what region you we're in, then that kind of depicted what the relish was going to be.

- I do have question here.

You said they would go to the cannery.

So these canneries were open to the public.

- Yes, they were.

- So that everybody didn't just have to boil mason jars and do it at home?

- No, no.

- So when you say canning, there's different types of canning.

There's canning in a can.

- Yes.

(both laughing) Like a can of beans.

- Yeah.

- And then there's canning where it's in a jar.

- Yes, yes in a mason jar, yes.

I mean, and then hot water bath canning all that.

So that was a way for them to preserve food.

So my family, being born in South Carolina, my grandma's, everyone always made it.

It was always around.

And they would use it for their pinto beans, their greens.

- [Tim] Okay.

- Anything, it's the acidity in it brightens up food, and they'd make it hot, but not mine.

I was like, "I'm getting older, I actually care."

My grandmother used to tell me, I'm like, "It's hot."

She's like, "Then don' eat it."

(Tim laughing) 'Cause they loved it so much.

- That's really cool.

- Yeah, and so it's basically just your garden vegetables cooked in a sweet and tangy brine and you use it to enhance the flavor of your food.

And it doesn't take away from it.

And then ours and the thing is about it is that there's people that live in the South 'cause when I go out and I do my pop-ups and my different events and things, I allow people to sample it with some of my cornbread, of course.

And you can tell, it's lost.

If we weren't doing it, you see place fillers in the grocery store.

- Right.

- But from a family that's canning it and doing it, the old school way, there's very few of us.

- One of the other things that you mentioned is if you go up north, there's different versions of it.

And I think each culture has their version.

Maybe it's not good to say chow chow, but their own version of pickled.

One of my other favorites is an Italian style Giardiniera.

- [Keisha] Giardiniera, yes, yes, yes.

- We talked about this.

- Yeah, yeah yes.

And that's all it's big.

- But it's not that has your carrots, your peppers, your celery and your cauliflower.

- Yeah and they're whole and they're more whole.

- Okay.

- With chow chow, it's diced.

And like you said you use on your hot dogs, your hamburgers.

My daughter makes rice bowls with it.

- Okay.

- Yeah, anything.

- That's great.

- Yeah, and then mine, and so basically it was a part of our food culture that was lost.

No one was doing it.

I was like "Why are we in South Carolina" "getting chow chow from Pennsylvania?"

- (laughing) Yeah.

- Nothing against Pennsylvania.

- Yeah, let's make our own, right?

- Not knockin'.

But.

- Yeah.

- And then literally it was serendipitous and it came, and I was like, "if I don't, then who will keep this going?"

- Wow, that's awesome.

- And then, yeah.

And then also to the people that have forgotten about it.

So just like languages, food, get lost over time.

- Can get lost.

- Yes.

- That's one of the things I realize a lot too.

And I think a lot of recipes kind of get lost as people start to cook less at home and more things are readily available.

And I think as a society, we've kind of gotten away from the passing down of recipes and everything, which I think it's important for everybody to have a couple recipes in their back pocket.

- Oh, yeah.

- That came down from memaw or mawmaw or whoever.

- Yes.

(laughing) - We're at a great boil here, so what I'm gonna do now is I'm gonna turn it down to where we get a simmer.

And then we're gonna go ahead and put the top on it.

I like to get it to a good boil like that before we put the lid on it to seal it up.

It's a Dutch oven, so that's a heavy lid.

It's gonna keep everything in there.

But that also decreases some of our time because it's already at that rolling boil and now we're gonna take the temperature down, instead of trying to get everything up to speed from a low boil.

(upbeat music) But it'll continue to simmer like that.

And we're going to let that go.

(wind whooshing) Okay, so for the cobbler we've got our ingredients here and those wonderful blackberries.

going to start off we're going to grease this.

I've just got some good old fashioned grease - some Crisco.

So we're just going to go in and grease the bottom of this pan.

Get that all nice in there.

So this is going to be the base that everything is going to stick to Now what were going to do is go ahead and add the blackberries.

And this quarter cup of sugar.

We're going to get that in the bottom there okay.

So you just add it in here okay.

Sure.

There we go.

Yeah we're good.

There we go.

And we will just smooth these out a little bit here.

Yep yep yep yep yep.

Good Now go ahead and give me a cut on this lemon we got some fresh lemon juice.

So just go ahead and put half of that in there and just squeeze it over there.

And we'll go ahead and get it stirred together with that.

Okay.

Make sure you don't get any seeds.

That's okay.

we'll go ahead and stir this up a little bit.

All right.

We've got the oven preheated to 375.

Now let's go ahead and put our cornmeal batter together.

If you could take that butter.

- Sure.

- Cut it into small cubes.

- Yeah.

- We're gonna go ahead and start putting all this together.

Now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna start off with the dry ingredients.

I've got half a cup of cornmeal, half a cup of all-purpose flour.

I've got just a little more in the quarter cup of sugar, recipe calls for a quarter cup, but I like to put a little more because I like it sweet.

Although we shouldn't have a problem with the natural sweetness from those berries.

- Yes.

- And then we're gonna go ahead and add a teaspoon of baking powder.

Now I'm gonna go ahead, I'm just gonna get these kind of mixed up here together.

- [Keisha] Yep, dry ingredients.

- Dry ingredients.

I'm gonna start putting some of this butter in here.

Starting to get syrup, what we want it to do is we want it to be nice and crumbly.

So that's why it's important that the butter is very cold.

So I'm gonna kind of smoosh these in there.

Keep stirring those up so it's nice and crumbly.

Get the rest of the butter in there.

And what you don't wanna do, which I've done in the past, don't get me wrong, is I throw all the ingredients there together and start stirring it.

And then it's gonna end up really, really soupy.

I don't really know how it affects the outcome because I never made it that far, but I was like, "Wait a minute, something's wrong."

This should be kind of crumbly by the time it's said and done.

So what we're gonna do, we've got the butter in there.

We're getting that chopped up.

- [Keisha] Yeah.

And then just add it in gradually.

- Yep, just add it in gradually.

Little bit at a time.

- Would you like for me to add it for you while you're stirring?

- Yeah, you can go ahead and put a little bit in there.

- Yeah, sure let's do that.

There we go.

- [Tim] That works.

A little bit more.

- There you go.

Yeah.

And see that's what's great about cooking is that.

- That's what I'm looking for.

- Things happen.

There we go.

- Well, it's like I tell my daughter, right?

There's no mistakes.

And the famous Bob Ross used to say, "Just happy little accidents."

- [Keisha] Yeah, I have lots of happy little accidents on the farm.

(laughing) - [Tim] You gotta make the best out of it, right?

- Yeah.

- Like it says overcome and adapt and just change things up.

- That's right.

- All right.

Go ahead.

- [Keisha] Yeah, a little bit more.

- A little bit more.

- There we go.

- [Tim] And then we're almost gonna be there, oh yeah, that's starting to go good.

That's what we're looking for right there.

- [Keisha] You got it.

That's it.

- Go ahead and pour the rest in, we're good.

- Actually, let's stir.

We're gonna slow you (Tim laughing) down a little bit.

Hold on a minute.

(spoon stirring) There you go.

- [Tim] All right.

- It's like a thick batter.

- It's like a thick batter.

- Like a thick cakey batter.

- Yeah, it's the first time I made this, I was like, "I'm not so sure about this," but it's going to be quite awesome.

(tool tapping) - We all win.

(laughing) - So speaking of baking, I got a new toy.

Where did I put them?

I put them right here.

- Oh my gosh, I love food toys.

- I love food toys.

- And garden toys.

- It's not really a food toy.

Like a bowl scraper.

- Oh.

- It's also really good, I like to use it when you're scraping stuff off your cutting board.

You don't want to use the back of your knife.

And they're kind of flexible.

So this is like my new kitchen toy.

I really like it.

And I figure.

- Nice.

- Since its actual real purpose is a bowl scraper for doughs and things like that (tool tapping) and cutter, we're gonna go ahead and incorporate it in here.

Look at there.

- Very nice.

- Get all that stuff in.

- [Keisha] Very nice.

- Okay, I'm going to set this behind us.

We'll go ahead and get this.

Now, what we wanna do is it's kind of, trust me, you gotta trust the process.

You gotta trust the process.

- Yes, trust the process.

- What we're gonna do is, while it's all chunky and everything, we are just going to drop.

- [Keisha] Oh, like dumplings.

- [Tim] Kind of like dumplings.

- [Keisha] Yeah.

And then that butter's gonna melt and make the crust flaky.

- The butter's gonna melt out.

It's gonna flaky.

It's gonna spread out.

The sugar is going to bake and get kind of a syrupy and sweet.

It's gonna make our filling in there.

But yeah, you that's what I learned about this is it's not like a cake.

It's not gonna be completely even.

You're supposed to just drop it in spoonfuls across the top right there.

All right.

- It's gonna be good.

- Okay.

So the reason I do like to clean the edges because this cast iron is gonna get very hot.

And I like to get some of the food bits that have gotten on the edges, especially with sugar and like that because it's gonna caramelize a lot quicker.

- Yeah.

- And it'll start to burn on the edge and it can impart a a not so great flavor on that.

(upbeat music) I'm gonna go ahead and put this into the oven.

(wind whooshing) So let's take a look at our stew.

I think it's coming along just nicely.

- [Keisha] Oh yeah, it's coming together.

- It's gonna simmer down just a little bit more while we're waiting on the cobbler to bake.

And then we're gonna go ahead and add the hominy.

Now for those of you.

- Oh, yes.

- That don't know what hominy is, it is corn where the kernels have been treated with an alkali like lime.

What it does is it causes the corn to puff up, the kernel to puff up and shed its shell.

So it becomes very soft.

It's used in a lot of Southern and indigenous stews.

It can also, yeah, it's.

- For grits.

- For grits, even I've heard that when I grew up out west, people would, we would talk about grits from the Carolinas and from the South and people out there would talk about hominy.

It's very similar.

It's, instead of just grinding the corn, it's grinding the hominy and making grits out of the hominy.

Since these are already kind of soft and tender, so to speak, we don't use soft, we're gonna to add them at the last minute 'cause if we put them in there now.

But the starches from this will also help it thicken up just a little bit.

Okay?

- Yeah.

- Now I have a lot of hominy here 'cause it filled the bowl.

One of the things I like to do if anything comes in a can, which hominy just comes in a can, maybe a jar, is rinse it.

- [Keisha] Yes.

- So I have, it kind of gets rid of that metallic flavor.

You don't have it so much when you're cooking with stews or anything, but if you're just gonna take something out of a can, a vegetable out of a can like corn or green beans or peas to just serve, you can sometimes taste that.

So I always just give them a quick rinse and get that out of there.

So I'm gonna go ahead and open this up.

- And it gets rid of the excess salt.

- Yeah.

Yep.

We've got this.

I think this is coming along nice and, oh yeah, it's breaking down.

- Break it down.

- Oh yeah, look at that.

It broke with the ladle fork.

So it's nice and tender.

(ladle tapping) Now we'll go ahead, I'm gonna add about half of this.

- Okay.

- Try not to splash it on myself here.

Actually, you know what?

We got a lot in there.

Let's go ahead and add some more.

- [Keisha] And it's gonna take on the flavor of the hominy.

- [Tim] Yeah.

- It's like when they do.

- Add a little more.

It's cooking.

- It's like posole.

- Yeah, that's one of the the recipes that this is used in quite often.

Okay, we're gonna give that a couple minutes just so that can soak in some of the flavors and add some of the starchiness to that.

So this, we're just gonna do a quick taste here just to see if we can get a little bit of the flavor out of it.

Oh man, that's got a lot of good flavor.

- Yum, okay.

- Onion, I got a little bit of the chili and the cumin in there.

No too much.

It kind of sneaks up at the end.

It's not too.

- It's great balance.

- Overpowering, yeah.

I think.

- So good.

- Maybe just a little bit of salt.

- Not too much.

But it's good.

- A little bit of salt.

- See, I was ready to eat.

- Oh, we're going to be ready to eat here in just a moment.

And then I'm gonna go ahead (tool grinding) and add some more pepper on top.

(upbeat music) It's a noisy pepper grinder.

- It's so good, I gotta scrape the bottom.

- I'm gonna check and see how it's going in here.

Oh, wow.

Check it out.

It's completely spread out.

We just need it to get nice and golden brown.

That's firming up on the top and everything.

So great.

(wind whooshing) Okay, so.

- Yes.

- Stew is wonderful.

- So good.

- I think we did a good job.

Thank you very much for your help.

But I've got a little something.

- I'm trying.

- I don't know, might.

- Liven it up a little bit?

- Liven it up a little bit.

I've got a little bit of chow chow.

- Add a little brightness.

- So just put a little bit on top there, is that what you like.

- Oh, yeah.

- A little or as much as you want?

- Yeah.

Yeah.

But a little's good.

- We'll start off with a little bit there.

- Yeah.

- And then just kind of mix it in or just let it sit on top?

- [Keisha] No, just mix it in.

- [Tim] Okay.

- Because it's gonna brighten it up.

- The flavors melt.

- It's not just because I make it though.

(Tim laughing) It is pretty.

- That is good.

That adds a little vinegary brightness that just gives it like, kind of breaks through the, I mean, it's not the fattiness, but the richness of it.

- The richness of the fat.

- Because I mean, you can look and you can see where the fat has kind of broken down.

Okay, I think (dish clanking) - It was good before.

- Our, oh my gosh, look at that.

That is perfect.

Oh, perfect.

- [Keisha] There you go.

- I'm gonna go ahead and pull this out and I'm just going to set it right here.

- [Keisha] Here, there you go.

Oh yeah, there we go.

- It is piping hot.

I'm gonna just.

(spoon tapping) - Yeah.

I like to.

I can't do the piping hot.

People would just take the bite straight out of the pan and all that.

I'm like, "I need a minute."

- Okay.

So that brings me to a good point.

I would like to know.

Oh, look at that.

That's awesome.

- Oh, so good.

Look at you.

- [Tim] While we're finishing off and we're closing out the show here.

- [Keisha] Sure.

- What is your dirty little kitchen secret?

What is something that you do in your kitchen at home that you're like, "I can't really let people know" "I do that."

- So what I do is so if I'm in a pinch, I have a freeze dryer because freeze drying is the future.

So I have a freeze dryer.

So I will get, say, rotisserie chickens that you can get at Costco or Sam's, they're $5 or whatnot.

With freeze drying you freeze dry, you can make it shelf stable for years, but then you put an oxygen absorber, rotisserie chicken freeze dried with 25-year shelf life in a Mylar bag.

- 25 years?

- Yes, yes.

So if you freeze dry, you put an oxygen absorber in there and seal it.

It's just like MREs in the military.

And it has a 25-year shelf life.

- Does it lose any of its texture or anything like that?

- No, it doesn't.

No at all.

I mean, sometimes I'll eat it dry, just kind of like a chicken jerky, but chewy.

- Okay.

I'm not gonna lie, my dad was in the military and I've stolen some MREs out of go bag when I was a kid before.

- Chicken Chow Mein was my favorite one when I was in the military.

That was one.

- I like the Tetrazini and the Chili Mac.

- Yeah, yeah.

(Tim laughing) Well, you could also do that with a freeze dryer.

You can actually make full meals.

- Okay.

- With a freeze dryer, you just have to keep the fat content down, lower.

So with freeze drying also, it's more lightweight.

It doesn't lose the integrity of the food.

It keeps 97%.

- Now what about nutrients?

- Oh, it keeps all the nutrients.

So basically, it's like stopping it in time.

And so if it's hot, you reconstitute it with hot water.

So sometimes if I just need some chicken, like if I'm doing a stir fryer or whatnot, it's like, "Oh my gosh, I don't have the chicken."

Just reach up there in my stash and then throw them in there.

(laughing) - Okay, I was like.

- Yeah, so.

- That's not a secret, that's a hack.

But anyways, let's go ahead and try this.

- Well, well.

- Giving away all your secrets.

So let's go ahead give this a try.

- You should try it.

- It is kinda hot, but it's had a chance.

- We're good.

- To cool off.

I like how the crust is kind of, (fork tapping) it's got a little bit.

It's not, but it's crumbly.

It's like a cornbread.

It's crumbly.

Let's see, is it sweet?

- Oh, that's good.

- [Tim] Thank you for those berries.

- Thank you for cooking and inviting me.

- That's really good.

Oh, no, great having you here.

Before I devour this plate in front of everybody.

- Oh, yeah.

- In Charlotte here on the camera.

- Sorry.

- Thank you for help, thank you for the fresh berries.

- Thank you.

- And learning a lot about indigenous foods in our area.

I'm gonna come back down to the farm very soon, but.

- Please.

- Once again, thank you so very much.

- Oh, thank you.

- And we'll catch you all on the next episode of "Dapper Dad's Kitchen."

(upbeat music) (exciting music) - [Narrator] A production of PBS Charlotte.