Game Day Goodies

Jade, Jade, go inside, inside! Jade, throw it to me! No, no, no, oh, no! (Giada) Who says football is just for the guys? That was awesome. Well today, it's boys versus girls, and I have a menu that everyone will love. Ooh, I can't wait. This is so good. I love it. Sweet and sticky pork ribs-- a game day favorite, cooked low and slow and brushed with a sweet balsamic glaze. Sweet potato tots with dill dust-- a very elegant spin on classic tater tots. Crispy one biters sprinkled with my homemade dill salt. Strawberry wonton cups with orange mascarpone whipped cream, delicate shells filled with berries and sweet cream. It's a game day winner. Closed Captions Provided by Scripps Networks, LLC So I'm starting with my sweet and sticky pork ribs. These are so good. They're small spare ribs, and we're also gonna make a balsamic barbeque sauce and sort of a slightly wet rub to go on top of it. So what I wanna do first is chop four cloves of garlic. I think there's something very special about, like, sort of garlic-y ribs. These are gonna be garlic-y and slightly sweet and slightly sticky. We're also gonna add some rosemary. And what I love about the rosemary is that, um, ah, it smells like pine. It has a slightly minty-lemony essence to it. It can also stand up to the long cooking, cause we're gonna cook these low and slow for an hour and a half to get them nice and tender. So you want an herb that can kind of stand up to that. Then we're gonna add a tablespoon of dark brown sugar. The brown sugar has molasses in it, so it makes them kind of sticky and sweet. Balsamic vinegar-- so there is gonna be balsamic vinegar in this rub. There is also gonna be balsamic vinegar in the barbeque sauce. So a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar in here. And it's very rich, that sort of sweet and tangy flavor that you want. Salt, and then, some cayenne. Some cayenne pepper, about a half a teaspoon to give it some kick. You want the ribs to have a nice amount of kick and heat, and that's what the cayenne's gonna do--perfect. Then we'll mix it together. Okay, so now... let's grab our baking dish with the spareribs in it, and we've got three pounds of spareribs, and they're pork spareribs. Place some of the rub right on here. There we go. Brush it all over. Just make sure that a little bit of the balsamic and garlic and rosemary spreads everywhere. What we wanna do is grab a half a cup of water, so they can stay nice and moist when they cook. We're gonna pour the water right down here, that way it doesn't get on top of the ribs. We're gonna cover it with some tin foil 'cause we wanna kinda lock in the moisture, 'cause it's that moisture cooking it for an hour and a half at 425 degrees that's gonna create succulent, soft spareribs. All right, so while these guys cook, we're gonna start on the balsamic barbeque sauce. It's time to finish off my balsamic barbeque sauce and what I did is, I reduced down a cup of balsamic vinegar for about 8 minutes until it reduces down by a third. You wanna just intensify that sweet, thick, rich flavor in the balsamic. And to it, we're adding a cup of ketchup. Again, tangy, slightly sweet. It's that perfect combo that makes for a great barbeque sauce. And then a half a cup of apple cider vinegar. I love that smell, it's so light and fresh. So it's a good combo with the richness and the thickness of the balsamic vinegar, it kinda lightens up the barbeque sauce a little bit. Then we're gonna add a quarter cup of honey. And the honey is floral-y, so it creates that nice thickness. And then, 1 tablespoon of molasses. Now molasses is smoky and thick and rich. Then we're gonna add 2 tablespoons of whole grain mustard. It has texture to it cause it has the mustard seeds in it, nice and rich, and it has wine that makes it really elegant. Then, 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of hot sauce. We're gonna make it slightly spicy, not too spicy for the kids but just slightly. And, some Worcestershire sauce. There we go. So we're gonna add 2 teaspoons of Worcestershire. Again a little vinegary and helps create that wonderful balance of flavors. We're also gonna add a little bit of salt. And, over low heat, we're gonna let this thicken and cook down for about 20 minutes. So my balsamic barbeque sauce has cooled, and you can see how nice and thick it is, and it smells so good. I pulled my spare ribs out of the oven, and look at them, they look good too. In fact, they look good just the way they are, but we're gonna make them even better. And what I wanna do is take this brush and just brush them with a bunch of the balsamic barbeque sauce. And what we wanna do is then put it back in the oven, up the temperature of the oven another 25 degrees to 450, and then we just leave it in there for 10 minutes uncovered, so it has a chance for the balsamic barbeque sauce to create a crust on the pork ribs. And you can always serve the barbeque sauce on the side. So now, let's get these babies back in the oven, and up next, I'm gonna get started on my sweet potato tots. It's impossible to eat just one, crunchy one biters dusted with my herb-y homemade salt. So it's time get started on my sweet potato tots. And the first thing I wanna do, before I get started on the sweet potato, is make my dill dust. So fresh dill, salt and then you put it in the oven and let it dry out, and then you sprinkle it over the freshly fried sweet potato tots. So we're putting one bunch of dill that I've kind of chopped up a little bit in the food processor, and to it we're gonna add 1/4 cup of kosher salt. I know that sounds like a lot of salt, but you need the salt to sort of dry out the dill and create that nice salty bite. We're gonna just blend this all together. (food processor whirring) Here we go. Ah, that smells good. And you can do this with lots of different herbs, too-- create like a nice herb dust. Okay, so what we're gonna do is, we're gonna grab this dust, and pour it all out. And I line my baking sheet with this nonstick mat, but you can definitely use parchment paper as well. We're also gonna hold on to this. Put the blade back in 'cause we're gonna use this for the potatoes, as well. So what you wanna do is just spread it out until you get a nice, sort of, even layer and we're gonna pop it in the oven at 250 degrees for about 30 minutes until the dill dries out. All right, let's pop this in the oven. So what I have here is one sweet potato, I peeled it, and what I did is... I put it in boiling water for 5 minutes. What you wanna do is basically slightly, slightly, slightly cook the potato, and leave the inside raw. So that's what you get, you get a little bit of cooked potato on the outside, and the rest of the potato is raw. The reason you wanna do that, is just because you need that tiny bit cooked and a little bit raw, that combination together makes for the perfect texture once you fry it for the tots. So now what we're gonna do is take the sweet potato, cut it up, and we're gonna put it in the food processor and we're gonna blend it all together. And you can definitely do this with regular potatoes, as well. I just love the sweetness of the sweet potato, so I like to use the sweet potatoes instead. Plus, Jade really likes sweet potatoes, so this works really nicely. Okay, so we've got the potatoes, and we're gonna put them directly into the food processor. The food processor comes in really handy for this dish. It does a lot of the work. And we're gonna just blend this all together. (food processor whirring) There we go, a really nice, light texture. So let's grab... our bowl, and we're gonna put the potato mixture into the bowl. Let's get it all in there. I already have my oil heating so that it's nice and hot when I'm ready to add the potatoes. Use 1/3 cup of all purpose flour, and the reason you wanna add the flour, is 'cause it's gonna just dry up the potatoes a little bit, so they're not too wet and you get a nice crispy crust when you fry it. Salt and pepper to flavor them. And now we're just gonna take the spatula and just kinda mix it all together. You want all the potato to get coated with a little bit of flour. So just keep pressing down. Great. Now, I'm gonna use a tablespoon measure, just makes it easier to keep all of the tots the same size and uniform so they all fry up at the same time. Put it in my hand, and press it together. You can see it's a little sticky, but it holds really well, and kind of form like a 2-inch log. I'm just gonna put it in the oil, and I've got 2 cups of safflower oil. You could use any oil you want that's flavorless. Fry them for about 4 to 5 minutes. And you don't wanna do too many at one time, because if you crowd the pan, it brings the temperature down and then they don't fry up beautifully. All right, let's grab our dill dust, it should be ready. Ah, nice. Smells good. Look at that. Isn't that pretty? Let's take a look at my tots and see how they are doing. First one is done. Look at that beautiful color. Put them right on the paper towel. Look how cute those are. They're so much fun. Look at that. Grab a little bit of the dill dust, sprinkle it right on top. I cannot keep my fingers off of these guys. So, they are gonna be hot. Mm, woo, crunchy! Mm, mm, mm, add a little more dill dust right on top. They are crunchy, and they are nice and soft on the inside, and... the dill dust just gives them some freshness. So yummy. All right up next, time for dessert. Some strawberry wontons. A game day winner. Delicate cups filled with berries and a sweet whipped topping. I'm finishing up my wontons for my strawberry wonton cups. And what I'm basically doing is taking these little wontons that you find at the grocery store, and I'm placing them in the little mini muffin cups that I've already sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. And you just kind of place them in and gently with your fingers push them in until you get, like, a little cup. All right, we're gonna pop these in the oven at 350 degrees for about 6 minutes until they're golden and crisp. Let's get started on some homemade whipped cream. So we're gonna make some mascarpone whipped cream. We're gonna start with some mascarpone cheese, and it's really important that you use room temperature mascarpone because it'll mix a lot better with the whipped cream. Next, we are going to add one cup of heavy whipping cream. It's so easy to make your own whipped cream, it really is. There we are. We're gonna start mixing this up a little bit, and then we'll add a little bit of sweetness to it. You wanna start slowly so you're not covered in whipped cream. And as it starts to thicken and you incorporate air into the whipped cream, you can raise the speed. There we go. I think this is gonna be a fun day. (beaters rattling against glass) All right, so now, let's add some sugar. We're gonna add 3 tablespoons of sugar. And the reason I like using powdered sugar when I make whipped cream is cause it's nice and light. And it won't weigh down the whipped cream 'cause it has a little bit of cornstarch in it. So 3 tablespoons of powdered sugar to sweeten it up, and we're gonna add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. The vanilla extract just adds that gourmet sweetness you just can't get from sugar. There we go. And for a little citrus, we're gonna zest an orange right on top. So we're gonna add orange zest to the whipped cream, and then we're gonna add orange juice to the strawberries. And I really like orange and strawberry together, those flavors, I think, work really well together. And it just enhances the whipped cream, makes it slightly sweet and slightly citrusy, which I think works really well. There we go. Get all of that orange zest in there. And now let's mix away until we get nice soft peaks. (beaters rattling glass) It smells so good, that orange zest is yummy. There we go, nice and light but yet rich and creamy. Time for the strawberries. So we're gonna see how easy this is. We're basically gonna take all of the strawberries out. They smell good and sweet. And we're gonna cut the tops off of all the strawberries, and we're just going to cut them in four, and then just go ahead and chop them. You want to make sure that the strawberries are small enough that they'll fit in the wonton cups. Let's get the strawberries in the bowl, and we're going to lightly macerate them. And macerating them just means that you're gonna let them sit in a little bit of liquid just long enough to kind of break them down a little bit and add a little bit of flavor. Just makes them a little bit sweeter. What we're gonna do is cut this orange in half, and just squeeze a little bit of orange juice over them. And the citrus in the orange slowly starts to soften the strawberries, which is what you want. Add 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar. So we're sweetening them up, and adding a little bit of orange to it, and then just mix them all up, and then you just let it sit. So now that I have my whipped cream and my strawberries done, as soon as the wontons are ready, I'm gonna show you how to put it all together. (squealing) (Todd) Gonna get ya! (Jade) Yeah! So I'm just finishing up with my wontons, and I'm just adding the macerated strawberries that we made earlier. Just fill the other one with the strawberries. Look at that. So cute, it's just the cutest little package. And then you dollop a little bit of the mascarpone whipped cream. Yummy, yummy. So my strawberry wonton cups are done. I'm gonna go change, put my jersey on, and go join the fun. (Todd) Good throw, Jade. Hey, nice. (Julian) Yeah! Lulu! (Jade) Auntie Lulu! (Lulu) Here. (Todd) Jade's got the ball. Nice catch Jade! (Giada) Tackle! (laughter) (Todd) Nice! (Giada) Tackle. Yeah, yeah. Jade! Tackle. Touchdown, touchdown! Girls huddle. They're getting close. Go to your own huddle. (whispering) High five, high five, high five! Team Giada, team Giada, all right! (screaming) Yeah, Juju! Julian's a good football player. (Lulu clapping) All right, son! Who's hungry? (all) Me! All right, let's leave the ball, and let's go. We won, we won! Good job, good job. No, we won. No, you did not! So, who wants ribs? I do. I know Julian does--you do? Excellent, okay go for it Lulu. So guys, it's pork ribs, spareribs with a little balsamic barbeque sauce. Jade wants the tots, the sweet potato tots. (Lulu) Did you want some tots? Gotta try them. (Lulu) Yummy, yummy, smells so yummy. Should I put some sauce on top? (Giada) Yeah, yeah, balsamic barbeque sauce. Juju, taste your rib honey. Ooh, I can't wait. There we go, and... (Todd) Tater tots. tater tots-- if you want more salt, I have some dill dust. It's dill salt. I want dill salt. (Lulu) Mm, so good. Who likes the ribs? (Lulu) This is perfect after running around tackling. Did we win or no? No we won, we won. We won. Oh, you won? (Todd) We had two touchdowns what are you talking about? We actually got like seven, you guys got, like, six. (Todd) Yeah, yeah. You guys almost won. (Todd) It was 42 to 36, right? (Julian) Yeah. Cheers to team Giada. Cheers to team Giada. Jadey, team Giada. No, team Todd and Julian. (Giada) Jade's, like, whatever. Do you two want dessert? Grab one, then, Juju. I think the tater tots are the most popular thing right now. (Lulu) Todd, you want some more ribs? Oh, my gosh, you're eating tater tots and the dessert? Julian can't decide-- how's the dessert Juju? You want dessert, honey? Juju can you hand Jadey a dessert honey? Mm, so good. This one? (Giada) Mmhm. I think the ribs are my favorite. (Lulu, whispering) How's the dessert Jade? Yummy. You like it? (Lulu) Can I have one please? (Giada) Jade, can I have a dessert? (Lulu) Thanks, baby. (Giada) Dessert for mommy, mm, juicy. How do you like the dessert? (Lulu) This is so good. I love it. You love it? (Lulu) I think they're good in your lunch. (Giada) Nice job, nice job. (Todd) Good job, Jade.