Molly Yeh's Libyan-Inspired Meat-Stuffed Potatoes | Girl Meets Farm | Food Network

0:00 The beefy side dish of every farmer's dreams.

0:03 Allow me to introduce you to my meaty twice baked potatoes.

0:07 They're hot spuds jam full of spiced fatty ground

0:11 beef and finished with a spicy sweet haresa ketchup.

0:15 They are total dream boats.

0:18 Get it?

0:19 Cuz the potatoes are shaped like boats.

0:22 I'm starting with a few rusted potatoes that I've poked all

0:25 over and roasted till soft at 425 for about an hour.

0:29 Now I'm just hollowing them out to make holsters for essentially big meatballs.

0:36 We get really good potatoes around here because

0:39 in addition to sugar beets and wheat and corn,

0:42 there are lots of potatoes in this region.

0:45 I love potatoes in all forms.

0:47 Before I go on to the filling, I'll season the boats.

0:50 The difference between like a bland dumb potato

0:53 and a really delicious potato is a proper amount of salt.

0:58 And I'll just let these hang out while I whip up my filling.

1:00 So I've got the potato inerts here.

1:03 To this I'll add a pound of ground beef.

1:06 Some yellow onion and garlic that I've just cooked down until soft.

1:10 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of kosher salt.

1:12 And now for my spices.

1:13 A teaspoon each of cumin, coriander, and paprika.

1:18 And these are spices that I use all

1:20 the time when I'm cooking Middle Eastern food.

1:23 These are actually inspired by a Libyan dish

1:26 called mafroom which consists of a potato that you

1:30 essentially stuff with a little meatball and then you

1:32 fry it and braze it in a red sauce.

1:35 It is so comforting and delicious but in a move inspired by a Midwest classic.

1:41 I am doing this in the style of a twice baked potato.

1:44 And then 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon.

1:46 We'll add lovely warmth and then some crushed red pepper for a little more heat.

1:53 I'll toss in some chopped parsley and cilantro and some mint,

1:58 which I just love with meat.

2:00 My mom would make twice baked potatoes all the time when I was little.

2:04 Half the time they were from scratch,

2:06 the other half the time they were from frozen.

2:08 And they were always obviously super duper cheesy.

2:11 I loved them.

2:17 Here I go.

2:18 Mix this all together.

2:20 I don't want to over mix this.

2:21 I just want to make sure everything is evenly distributed.

2:25 Okay, my meat is combined.

2:27 So, I'm going to fill my potatoes.

2:31 Going to overflow it so that it looks voluupsuous.

2:36 These would be a great tractor meal cuz they're handheld and they're potatoes,

2:40 so they hold their heat really well.

2:42 And then you've got your meat right there, too.

2:44 You don't even have to worry about packing extra protein.

2:48 All right, I'll get these in the oven at 425°

2:52 for about 30 minutes until they're fully cooked through.

2:54 And while these cook, I'll get going on the ketchup dipping sauce.

3:01 This sauce is sweet and spicy and tomatoey.

3:04 And stars, the love of my condiment life, ketchup.

3:10 Who do you think loves ketchup more, meat or potatoes or me?

3:16 And then I'll mix in a little bit of haresa.

3:18 Haresa is a Tunisian pepper paste that is smoky and spiced.

3:23 It comes in a range of spiciness levels.

3:26 So you can start off with a little bit

3:27 and then taste and then add more if you want.

3:30 And ketchup go really nice together.

3:32 Just makes like a spicy ketchup with some substance.

3:36 That's it.

3:37 Let me get the potatoes out.

3:40 Can really smell that cinnamon.

3:43 I'll plate them up.

3:47 You can feel how crispy the skin got.

3:54 I'll finish with some parsley for some color and nestle in some lemon wedges.

3:59 That hit of acidity at the end will go a long way.

4:03 All right, squeezing some onto this one.

4:09 I'm going to dunk It's so warming and hearty.

4:23 And that meat is perfectly spiced.

4:26 Dang.

4:27 These may be twice baked, but they are three times as good and really heavy.

4:36 I adore the colorful, fragrant, vibrancy of Middle Eastern cuisine,

4:42 which actually meshes deliciously with Midwest cuisine.

4:45 So, I'm putting together a dinner with some of my favorite combinations.

4:49 For dessert, I'm baking up my take on a bossa, which is a sweet semolina cake,

4:55 and I'm loading it up with juicy, tart, syrupy cherries.

4:59 It's a super great snacking cake because it holds its moisture for so long.

5:03 I'll start by mixing up my dry ingredients.

5:05 I'm starting with semolina flour, which is signature bosbusa cake,

5:09 and it's a coarse flour, which lends a great hearty texture to this crumb.

5:13 2/3 of a cup, and semolina is also what's used to make pasta.

5:16 So, make a basusa one day, then pasta the next day.

5:20 Half a cup of shredded unsweetened coconut,

5:22 which adds really lovely warm flavor to the crumb of the cake.

5:26 And I'm using unsweetened coconut just because I'll also be

5:28 adding some sugar and it's getting sugar in the syrup.

5:31 Half a cup of almond meal, which I've toasted to bring out those nutty notes.

5:36 And I just heated this in a dry skillet

5:38 for a few minutes until I could really start to smell it.

5:41 This is just finely ground almonds.

5:43 You don't always see nuts in a semolina cake, but I love a nutty cake.

5:47 What can I say?

5:48 And then 2/3 of a cup of allpurpose flour.

5:52 2 tsp of baking powder to give the cake lift.

5:55 And then 3/4 of a teaspoon of kosher salt.

5:57 Follow this to combine.

5:59 So, a boss busa is an Egyptian semolina cake and it's soaked with syrup.

6:05 It is so flavorful.

6:06 You can serve it right out of the pan and because it sits in that syrup,

6:10 it stays lively for a really long time.

6:13 So, you can just hang out on your counter and then you

6:16 can have a nibble of cake for absolutely no reason at all.

6:20 To this mixture, I'll drizzle in six tablespoons of olive oil.

6:23 I love an oil-based cake as a snacking cake

6:25 because you don't have to worry about softening butter.

6:28 An olive oil here will add that moisture and richness.

6:32 And of course, just a hint of that olive oil flavor, which is delightful.

6:36 And then 1/4 cup of heavy cream with half a cup of whole milk.

6:40 It's a perfect ratio of cream to whole milk for moisture and richness.

6:44 And I'll whisk this together.

6:46 This is part of my batter.

6:48 I just got a whiff of those almonds.

6:51 I'll set aside this mixture and then whip up my eggs.

6:54 I've got three eggs here.

6:56 I'll plop them into my stand mixer and I'll beat them with 3/4 of a cup of sugar

7:01 as well as a splash of almond extract to enhance

7:03 the almond flavor of the nuts and the dry ingredients.

7:06 I've got my whisk attachment here and I want to whip these up for a good few

7:10 minutes until they're pale and fluffy and airrated

7:12 and that'll add some nice aireriness to the cake.

7:22 When I can see the tracks of the mixer

7:24 and the mixture has lightened, it's ready to go.

7:27 I'll get this off of my mixer and then fold it in with the rest of my batter.

7:31 I'll do this gradually, taking care not to deflate the eggs.

7:35 And whipping the eggs separately and then folding them

7:38 in adds lift and makes for a really fluffy cake.

7:43 Batter looks great.

7:44 I've got a greased 9 by9 square meal pan.

7:48 I haven't lined it since I'm going to be serving the cake right out of the pan.

7:52 Once it's soaked in syrup, you just want to keep it where it is.

7:55 And I will stick this in the oven at 350° until the center is

7:59 springy and a toothpick stuck in comes out with just a couple of crumbs.

8:03 I'll start checking for dness at 28 minutes.

8:06 And while that bakes, I'll whip up my syrupy cherry compost.

8:18 I love the fruity, slightly sour flavor that cherry brings to this party.

8:22 And cherries and almonds go so well together.

8:25 I've got my simple syrup going here already.

8:27 It's just equal parts sugar and water with some

8:31 lemon juice to balance out all the sweetness.

8:33 And I'll pour in some cherries.

8:36 These are just halft and pitted.

8:38 And you can use fresh or frozen.

8:40 I'll stir these around and allow them to cook just so that the cherries soften,

8:43 but I don't want them to completely break down.

8:46 I like seeing the big chunks of cherries on top of the cake.

8:49 One of the things that makes bosus so

8:52 good is that they're soaked in a sugary syrup.

8:54 Makes them sticky and moist.

8:56 It's so delightful.

8:58 I've essentially got a syrup here, but with some cherries tossed in because

9:02 cherries are everywhere here when they're in season.

9:05 All right, this looks great.

9:06 I'll remove it from the heat and then

9:08 I'll flavor it with some vanilla bean paste.

9:11 About a teaspoon.

9:12 You can use vanilla extract too, but vanilla bean paste is thicker and it

9:16 has flexcks of actual vanilla bean pod in them.

9:18 And then a splash of orange blossom water is floral and so unique.

9:25 It's not front and center.

9:27 It's just a very subtle specialness.

9:30 It's really good.

9:31 Let me get my cake out of the oven.

9:37 Almond smell is a smell I could smell all day long.

9:40 It's puffed up.

9:41 It's golden.

9:42 While it's still hot, I'll poke some holes everywhere,

9:45 which will help it absorb the syrup.

9:47 And I like drizzling the syrup on while it's still hot.

9:51 The heat kind of thickens and caramelizes the syrup just a touch,

9:55 and it absorbs better that way, too.

9:58 I'll pour this all over the cake.

10:00 Look at that vibrant cherry color.

10:03 Hello.

10:05 And lastly, some toasted sliced almonds will be really pretty.

10:08 Add crunch and say, "This cake has almonds in it.

10:12 It's ready to eat." That is one of the perks of a bossa

10:15 is that you don't have to wait for it to cool.

10:18 You can just dig in right now, which is exactly what I'm going to do.

10:22 Oh, I love seeing the contrast of the white cake and the pink parts.

10:26 It's almost like tie-dye.

10:32 M.

10:34 It's so flavorful.

10:35 That texture is so awesome.

10:38 It's hearty.

10:39 It's coarse.

10:41 And it's also syrupy and sweet.

10:44 This is one dream cake.