Cook's Country

-"Cook's Country" is about more than just getting dinner on the table.

We're also fascinated by the people and stories behind the dishes.

We go inside kitchens in every corner of the country to learn how real people cook.

And we look back through time to see how history influences the way we eat today.

We bring that inspiration back to our test kitchen so we can share it with you.

This is "Cook's Country."

-Today on "Cook's Country," Bryan visits Wisconsin and makes Julia his version of supper club chicken cordon bleu, and Christie makes Cornish pasties.

That's all right here on "Cook's Country."

-Funding for this program has been provided by the following.

-Monument Grills, offering innovative technology and design for the grilling enthusiast, with a lineup of gas grills designed with durability in mind, including the Eminence 605 with LED touch panels and side and rear infrared burners.

Learn more at MonumentGrills.com.

-Teakhaus, inspired by a passion for cooking and respect for our planet.

Each board is handcrafted from sustainably sourced wood designed for every step -- from food prep to presentation.

Teakhaus.

-America's dairy state, Wisconsin, is known far and wide for its fried cheese curds, frozen custard, and butter burgers.

But it's also home to some of the most elite slow-dining experiences around.

With over 250 supper clubs across the state, these establishments invite you to step back in time when dining out was about relaxing and enjoying a meal while appreciating the atmosphere, your company, and of course, the food.

One hour north of Madison, Wisconsin, deep in the woods of Mirror Lake State Park, you'll find Ishnala Supper Club, a Wisconsin institution since 1953.

-Cheers!

-[ All cheering ] Bob Prosser started at Ishnala as a busboy when he was just 16 years old.

-Hello.

Welcome.

-20 years later, he became the owner.

Supper clubs started in the post-prohibition era.

They offered a way for patrons to unwind from the stresses of the workweek in a casual atmosphere with a festive evening of drinks, a menu of steakhouse classics, and live entertainment.

Bob and his son Michael are committed to honoring the longstanding tradition of Wisconsin supper clubs.

You've got first timers, people who've been coming here for years, birthdays, anniversaries.

Supper clubs are really all about the community, aren't they?

-Without question.

-While menus vary across establishments, there's one constant across all Wisconsin supper clubs.

And that's the Brandy Old Fashioned.

How many of these you sell a year?

-$108,500.

-You just -- You're ready to go with that.

-Oh, I know the numbers.

-The bars are buzzing and the tables are filling up.

And while the menu at Ishnala hasn't changed in 70 years, the flavors are still exciting.

[ Laughs ] -Look at -- Look at that.

-[ Laughs ] Yeah.

This is, uh... This is -- -It's wow.

-It's very wow.

-24-ounce ribeye.

It's got at least 45 days age, which makes it more tender and flavorful.

And then you got your lobster tails, obviously.

And those are some pretty big boys.

-While Bob continues to preserve a vintage supper club in the woods, a couple in Madison have created a contemporary supper club in the city.

-I think there's a few different aspects of supper clubs that we both really loved -- the sense of generosity, the sense of hospitality.

-Fire [indistinct] for two.

-Joe and Shaina Papach are both native Midwesterners.

The Harvey House is their love letter to the history and magic of Wisconsin supper clubs.

The menu is inspired by old school supper club classics and iconic Wisconsin dishes, but there's a fine dining mentality behind every dish.

Some of their menu offerings include charcoal grilled ribeye steak, dinner plate sized chicken schnitzel, chopped wedge salads, and something I rarely see on menus these days -- chicken cordon bleu.

Popular during the 1960's and '70s, it was a dish often served at banquets.

It was also a common frozen dinner staple.

The best part was cutting into the crispy breaded chicken to reveal the melty, cheesy center.

-We're taking chicken, but we're going to use the leg quarter of the chicken, which has way more flavor to me than the breast does.

We're gonna use a good Wisconsin ham, but we're also going to throw in some prosciutto and then a Grand Cru gruyere that's also from Wisconsin.

-Joe starts by rolling the prosciutto and ham around the gruyere, and then he stuffs it into the partially de-boned chicken leg.

Then he sous vides the chicken until it's fully cooked, guaranteeing moist, tender chicken.

Joe then dredges the chicken in a mixture of egg whites and cornstarch before coating it in panko.

Finally, the chicken is lightly fried until golden brown.

Then the only thing left to do is tuck in.

Wow.

Alright, here it goes.

Good?

Crunchy on the outside.

Get that smoky Wisconsin ham.

And the chicken is cooked absolutely perfectly.

It's super tender.

That egg white, cornstarch slurry, it's just, like, a light, thin coating.

You get some of the bigger chunks of panko along with that fine powder panko.

There's, like, so much going on in here... -Yup.

-...that it's like each bite has got its own identity, its own flavor profile.

-And it's chicken cordon bleu.

-Yeah, like I've never had before.

You know, it's amazing.

Heading to America's heartland to meet the stewards of Wisconsin's culinary landscape, I developed a deeper appreciation for the hospitality and tradition of the Badger State.

Old school, new school, whichever supper club you choose, there's sure to be a Brandy Old Fashioned waiting for you at the bar and a delicious evening to follow.

Oh that's good.

-Huh?

[ Laughter ] -You know, the thing that really struck me about those supper clubs is that there was a sense of community.

-Yeah, supper clubs really are one of the best pieces of dining in Wisconsin, you know.

And the thing that these supper clubs, Ishnala and Harvey House, are both really doing well is bringing back these classic dishes, especially cordon bleu.

We're going to get started with cordon bleu today.

And the best part of a cordon bleu is, of course, that melty, cheesy center.

-Yup.

-So we have a 6-ounce block of gruyere cheese.

We're going to cut that into batons.

-I like it.

-So it's going to be 2 by 1/2 inch batons.

These are 8 batons of gruyere.

So now we're going to make our little ham packets that go inside the cordon bleu.

So we have a nice smoky black forest ham.

Lay that down.

-Mm-hmm.

-Take a nice salty, funky piece of prosciutto here.

So we're going to roll this up almost like a burrito style.

So we're going to fold over once and then go in on the sides.

-Oh, wow.

-And this is going to help keep it from oozing out of the sides.

And we have our hand packets all done.

-Nicely done.

-Now it's time to bone out our chicken thighs.

-Okay.

-So what we're going to do, I'm just going to use a paring knife.

You could use a boning knife if you like, but I'm just going to make some small incisions on either side of the bone.

Okay.

That's just going to give me access underneath the bone.

So just kind of slide my knife right up underneath there.

-Mm-hmm.

-Okay.

And then I'll just kind of use the knife and scrape the bone down, and then pull the bone so you expose that knuckle, and just cut and remove.

And now we'll just go back 'cause, you know, it's not a perfect cut.

Sometimes you have a little bit of cartilage.

So we'll just trim off that cartilage, but we want to take care to not trim away any of this excess skin.

That's going to be our friend here.

Now we're just going to pound these to an even 1/4 inch thickness.

I'll put some plastic wrap over top.

You can see there's some undulation here.

We just want to even it out so when they roll, there's not a lot of big pockets of meat.

So we have a little bit of lemon zest.

We have 2 teaspoons of zest that'll cover all 8 of these.

We'll do a little bit of thyme.

Again, this is 2 teaspoons of thyme.

It'll carry across all 8 of these chicken thighs.

Then a little bit of salt.

We're not going crazy with the amount of salt here because keep in mind that ham is pretty salty, the cheese is pretty salty.

And then finally, a little bit of black pepper.

I'm gonna put a ham and cheese packet right there.

And we'll just give it a quick turn until we get seam side down.

-That looks good.

-And now we're going to want to really tighten these packets up.

And the best way to do that is in some plastic wrap.

-Okay.

-So I have a sheet of plastic wrap here.

We're just going to wrap the plastic wrap around this once and then twist it all the way up.

And you just want to roll it on the counter so you twist the edges nice and tight.

-Wow.

-Like that.

-That is perfection.

-Tuck them underneath themselves.

So we'll just repeat that with the rest of these chicken thighs and all this filling.

And then we'll throw those in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or up to 24 hours.

Now we're going to make our panko crust for the cordon bleu.

And what Joe did at the restaurant I thought was really interesting.

He was using a typical Japanese panko breadcrumb, which is, of course, ultra crunchy breadcrumb.

But he ground half of it to make a fine powder to get in all those nooks and crannies of the chicken, while also maintaining some of the coarse texture.

-Oh, that's clever.

-So we're going to throw 2 cups of panko into the food processor here.

So we're going to process this for 15 seconds till we get it nice and fine.

Okay.

You can see that's nice and fine.

Almost like a coarse sand.

We're adding it to 2 cups of panko straight from the box.

Still coarse.

-Even ratio.

-Yep.

And we're just going to give that a mix.

Alright.

So just nice and even like that.

Okay.

And then we can slide that up here.

We have 3 large egg whites here.

And to that we're going to add 9 tablespoons of cornstarch.

That's about 3 tablespoons per egg white.

-Okay.

-Okay.

We'll just slowly whisk this together.

So look at this.

It's like... -Wow.

-Nice and sticky.

-Look at those perfect pieces of chicken.

-Yeah, so this is our cordon bleu that has been removed from the plastic wrap.

It's been refrigerated for 24 hours, so it's nice and tight and it's holding that shape.

So we're going to dunk them into our egg white mixture.

We'll let the excess drip off and then we'll go right into our panko.

I always use one hand to get dirty, and the other hand I try to keep as clean as possible.

It doesn't always work.

The great thing about using this 9 by 13 pan is you can give it a shake like this, kind of work some of that panko over top of it.

-It's all about the shake.

-Once that's all coated, we'll shake off any excess, and we'll put that right up here, and we'll just repeat, and we'll do this until all of them are coated.

The important thing here is after you've coated them all, you want to put them in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes or up to 2 hours, because that really helps the panko harden.

Now we're finally ready to fry our cordon bleu.

So I have 2 quarts of vegetable oil here that's heated to 350 degrees.

And we're just going to drop our chilled cordon blue packets in there.

-Look how sturdy those are.

-Yeah.

And they're just going to fry for 2 minutes just to get color on the outside.

And then they're going to go into the oven.

Alright.

It's been 2 minutes.

You can see these are nice and golden brown.

That's exactly what we're looking for.

They'll definitely darken up in the oven a little bit.

We're just trying to get that initial bump of color going here and to form that crust.

So we'll just drop them onto a wire rack inside of a sheet pan.

As they bake, the air will circulate around them.

Alright.

So we're back up to 350.

We're going to drop the remaining four cordon bleu into the oil.

Alright, so these are all set and ready for the oven.

So we're going to throw them into 350-degree oven.

The rack is set to the middle position.

We're going to let them go to 30 to 35 minutes until they hit 175 degrees.

We're going to make our sauce for the chicken cordon bleu.

It's called a soubise, which is basically an onion-flavored bechamel.

-Old school.

-Old school stuff.

So we have three tablespoons of butter melted down here over medium low heat.

Into that we're going to add 1/2 cup of finely chopped onion and 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt.

And we're going to throw a lid on this and let it cook for 10 minutes, giving it the occasional stir.

So those look gorgeous, don't they?

Got a little bit more color.

-Oh, yeah.

-So we're looking for 175 degrees.

We want to temp through the side of the cordon bleu and make sure we get the meat and not the cheese close to the center.

176.

That's right where we want to be.

-On point.

-So while that chicken rests for a few minutes, we're going to go ahead and finish up our soubise.

These onions have sweated down nicely.

You can see they're nice and softened.

So we're going to add to that 1 tablespoon of all purpose flour.

This is going to be the base for our roux.

We're just going to whisk that in there and let it cook for a minute just to drive off that raw flour flavor.

Alright, now that's cooked for a minute, we're going to add 1 cup of whole milk.

-Mm-hmm.

-And we'll just whisk that to combine.

So we're going to turn up the heat to medium high because we want to bring this to a quick boil.

Okay, you can see it as the sauce begins to come to a boil right on the edges there is where the pot is the hottest.

You automatically start to see it thicken a little bit.

-Oh, yeah.

-So we want to make sure that boil comes all the way through the sauce so it gets into the center, that way you know the entire sauce is thick and not just the edges.

Just push it into the corners on occasion and make sure none of the flour is sitting there burning.

Okay.

So that is about as thick as it's going to get.

Just whisk it to combine.

And now we're going to finish the sauce off the heat with a little bit of sour cream.

Do you mind adding that sour cream?

-Oh, I'd be happy to.

-So this is 1/4 cup of sour cream.

Just whisk that in.

And then we're going to add a little bit of pepper, a little bit of nutmeg, and a little touch of salt.

-Mm.

-Just whisk that in.

And then our sauce is good to go.

Alright, so the way I like to plate this is by first putting a little bit of sauce on the bottom of the plate, and then we're going to put the cordon bleu on top of it.

And then we'll pick out a really nice cordon bleu for you.

Alright.

And that is it.

We're ready to dig in.

-What a looker.

-I just gave you the appetizer portion.

-[ Laughs ] -Now I'm going to cut in a little bit further in.

-I'm going to go right through the middle because -- -The center for that cheese.

-Yeah.

Oh!

-Yeah.

-It's still juicy.

The cheese is melting, but it's not oozing all over the place.

-Right away I could smell the lemon, too.

-Yeah.

And the thyme.

This first one's a big bite.

Mm.

Mmm.

I mean, it is the ultimate chicken cordon bleu.

The chicken is juicy and flavorful.

That's a good soubise.

I mean, it's modernized with the sour cream.

It sort of gives it a little acidity.

It's rich and it goes perfectly with the cordon bleu.

-You get a little bit of tanginess.

It kind of echoes some of the lemon flavor.

It cuts through the richness of the cheese and the ham and everything.

You know, chicken thighs are already a little bit rich anyway.

-Bryan, this is incredible.

Thank you.

-Thank you so much.

-If you want to make the ultimate cordon bleu, start by boning out chicken thighs.

Then stuff them with ham, prosciutto, and gruyere.

Shape the chicken into tiny cylinders using plastic wrap, then fry them until golden and finish in the oven.

From "Cook's Country," with special thanks to Chef Joe Papach and everyone at the Harvey House, an incredible recipe for supper club chicken cordon bleu.

-Back in the mid 1800's, Michigan's Upper Peninsula went through kind of a copper boom.

Now, immigrants from all over the world came looking for work, including those from Cornwall, England.

And the Cornish brought their huge, meat-filled hand-held pies with them down into the mines.

Now, no hard hat necessary today.

Christie is going to make it a lot easier on us, and we're going to make pasties at home.

-We are.

-Yeah.

-So we're going to start with a really wonderful, rich, supple dough that's just perfect for all kinds of savory tarts and pies.

-Great.

-And the key to that is starting with sour cream.

-Okay.

-So I have 2/3 of a cup of sour cream here.

And I'm going to add 1 large egg.

By mixing the sour cream and the egg together, we have a lot of moisture but not a lot of water.

So it's going to incorporate in the dough a lot more easily, and we're not going to get a tough dough.

-Nice.

-I have 3 cups of all purpose flour.

That's 15 ounces.

And I'm going to add 1 3/4 teaspoons of salt.

-Okay.

-That sounds like a lot, but we want this to be nice and savory to balance the filling.

-Got it.

-We're just going to process this for a few seconds to make sure it's nice and combined.

Now we need to add some butter.

-Okay.

-[ Laughs ] I have 16 tablespoons of unsalted butter.

-[ Whistles ] -I'm going to give this about 10 pulses.

I'm looking for the butter to break down but still be in pea sized pieces.

-Okay.

-So we can still see some pieces in there.

Now we'll add some of our liquid ingredients.

But I'm only going to add about half of this right now.

And we just want to combine this.

So we'll pulse it about 5 times.

-Okay.

-Now we'll add the other half of the sour cream mixture.

Alright.

Now we want this fully combined.

This is going to be about 15 more pulses.

That's great.

So you can see we have some good clumps going on.

I'm going to flour my counter just a little bit and we'll transfer it out.

So we'll just bring this all together.

So we went about a 6-inch disk, which is perfect.

And we'll just wrap this in some plastic wrap.

Alright.

So we did work the gluten.

We want to give it a chance to rest.

So we'll put it in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

Bridget, it's time to start on the filling.

-Great.

-So I have 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter melting in my 10-inch skillet over medium heat.

I'm going to add 1 finely chopped onion.

-Okay.

-I'm going to add 1/4 teaspoon of table salt.

-Okay.

-We'll cook this until the onions have softened.

It'll take about 5 minutes.

So rutabaga is a great root vegetable.

We only need 10 ounces.

So I'm going to cut this in half.

-Okay.

-So we're going to peel this.

Now I want to cut this into 1/2 inch pieces.

Now let's get back to the onions.

Nice and softened.

I turned my heat down a little bit.

So now I'm going to add 1 tablespoon of minced thyme, fresh thyme, and 2 garlic cloves that I've minced.

And we'll just cook these until we can start to smell them.

You know, about 30 seconds.

I think we're good here.

-Okay.

-Now I am going to turn off my heat, and we'll just let this cool for about 5 minutes while we get the rest of our ingredients ready.

-Great.

-So the star of this meat pie is beef.

-Mm-hmm.

-We're actually using skirt steak.

So this is 1 1/4 pounds of skirt steak, which is just gorgeous.

-It sure is.

-And I'm just going to trim it a little bit.

So we're going to cut this also into 1/2 inch pieces.

-Okay.

-Now we're all ready to mix everything together.

We have our skirt steak fully prepped.

We have our cooled onion mixture.

Smells so good.

-It does.

-Now our rutabaga.

And then we have another hearty root vegetable.

We've got some russet potatoes.

So this is 10 ounces of russet potato that I've also peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces.

So I have 2 teaspoons of table salt and 3/4 of a teaspoon of pepper.

-Okay.

-And we'll give this a mix.

So we've got 1/4 cup of all purpose flour.

We'll scatter that over everything.

Alright, so that looks pretty well combined.

I don't see any dry bits of flour.

I'm going to measure kind of heaping cups of the filling.

Now we're portioned, we're going to clean up, and then we can start rolling out our pastry.

-Fabulous.

-Bridget, our dough has been chilling for 30 minutes.

-Nice and firm.

-Yes.

And so it's time to get started working with it.

-Great.

-So I'm going to try to cut this into 6 perfect portions, but we can also pop it on the scale just to double check our math.

So we have about 5 ounces each.

So this is for you.

-Oh, okay.

Great.

-We'll do these one at a time, and I'll keep the rest kind of covered.

Let's move over here.

-Great.

-Now, I like to kind of take my wedge and just kind of smush it a little bit until I have more or less an oval shape.

Now, I'll take some bench flour.

Now we want to roll these into a 10 by 8 inch oval.

-Okay.

-I just like to keep moving it around.

We don't want to go less than 1/8 of an inch thick, because we do need to still pick this up and transport it.

So now that we've got our dough rolled out, we can take a serving of our filling and plop it right in the middle.

-Mm, mm, mm.

-Now we'll take some water.

-Okay.

-And you just -- you can use a brush if you want.

Or you can just use your fingers.

And we're just going to run along the outside.

Alright, now we're going to take the shorter side and we're going to fold it over and meet the other side, and then go ahead and press the dough together.

And you can try to press out any excess air, too.

So then once we have it sealed... -Mm-hmm.

-...we can take your paring knife, or if you have a pizza roller or a pastry cutter, and we're just going to trim it.

Okay.

Now that we have sealed, we're going to crimp.

-Alright.

-A fork is a great crimp.

It's one of the easier crimps to do.

And that's what we're going to do here.

Doesn't it look pretty?

-Looks lovely.

-I have a rimmed baking sheet that I've lined with some parchment paper.

And we're going to very carefully and gently pick up our pasties.

Perfect.

But we're going to scooch it up a little bit.

So we'll have two rows of three when we finish these.

-Okay.

-Look what we did.

-These look positively professional.

-So I'm just going to cut a 1-inch vent on the top of each of the pasties.

-Okay.

-And we're going to add an egg wash.

I have 1 large egg.

And I'm going to add 2 teaspoons of water just to loosen it up and use my favorite tiny little whisk.

And now we brush our happy little meat pies.

The oven's heated to 375 degrees.

And we're going to bake these until they're golden brown and until the filling starts to bubble and come out of the vent a little bit.

That's going to take about 45 minutes, and we're going to rotate them halfway through baking.

They look so good.

You can see that the filling is kind of bubbling in the vents.

That's good.

Alright.

So I'm just going to transfer these to a wire rack because we want them to cool.

-I mean, these looked adorable going into the oven.

They look even better now.

-Now we have to give these 10 minutes to cool and then we can sample.

You've been so patient.

-I've kept watch this entire time over those pasties.

-Well, I'm not even going to ask if I can serve you.

-[ Chuckles ] Thank you.

Alright.

Instructions for how to eat the pasty.

-Well, it is a hand pie.

-Alright.

I want to see what's in there.

So I'm just going to cut it right down the middle so I can really get a good view.

Look at that.

Now, the vegetables inside there are super tender.

It's really holding together.

It's cohesive.

But I got to tell you there's a rich gravy in there.

-[ Chuckles ] -Mm.

The beef is succulent.

Perfectly cooked.

Now, I see this red concoction here.

-So, traditionally, it is sometimes served with ketchup... -Mm-hmm.

-...to add a little pizzazz.

-These are the perfect pasties.

You're the pasty queen.

-Thanks, Bridget.

-Queen of the prom.

-[ Laughs ] -Thank you, Christie.

So you don't need to travel to Michigan to make a fantastic pasty.

It starts at home.

And here's how.

Make a dough with sour cream and butter for an easy, flaky crust, cut skirt steak and vegetables into evenly sized pieces for even cooking, and crimp tightly to seal the pasties and prevent leaking.

So all the way from Cornwall to Michigan, from "Cook's Country" to your kitchen, it's Cornish pasties.

You can get this wonderful recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with select episodes and product reviews, and you'll find them all on our website, cookscountry.com/TV.

Yum, yum, yum.

-Let us help with dinner tonight.

Visit our website anytime for the newest season's rigorously tested recipes, full episodes, ingredient advice, and equipment reviews.

cookscountry.com/TV.

-"The Complete Cook's Country TV Show Cookbook" brings together every recipe, tasting, and test from 18 seasons of the beloved TV show.

With trusted equipment recommendations and insights from the entire cast, this book is your guide to the very best in regional cooking.

The cost is $24.99, $15 off the cover price of $40.

To order, head to our online shop at cookscountry.com/book.

-Funding for this program has been provided by the following.

-Monument Grills, offering innovative technology and design for the grilling enthusiast, with a lineup of gas grills designed with durability in mind, including the Eminence 605 with LED touch panels and side and rear infrared burners.

Learn more at MonumentGrills.com.

-Teakhaus, inspired by a passion for cooking and respect for our planet.

Each board is handcrafted from sustainably sourced wood designed for every step -- from food prep to presentation.

Teakhaus.