Kitchen Curious with Vivian Howard

-We should think about our freezers as the best preservative we have.

At some point, in this country at least, our perception of frozen food changed.

Foie gras?

They've got frozen foie gras?

They've got such a good thing going here.

In the States, we would have, like, a jalapeo popper.

Most people go to Paris and go out to a Michelin Star restaurant, but I have chosen to go shopping at Picard.

Au revoir!

So, this does not look like any TV dinner you've ever had.

Oui, oui.

Ahh!

I'm Vivian -- part chef... This is a match made in heaven.

...part student... What is gluten, anyway?

...full of questions.

What's this?

How cold is it in here?

How do you heat it up?

Welcome to "Kitchen Curious."

-Major funding for "Kitchen Curious with Vivian Howard" is provided by... the ETV Endowment of South Carolina, the proud partner of South Carolina ETV and South Carolina Public Radio.

With the generosity of individuals, corporations, and foundations, the ETV Endowment of South Carolina is committed to sharing entertaining and uplifting stories and series like "Kitchen Curious."

And by... Additional funding provided by... Building community in Florence, South Carolina.

And... -When I was a little girl, my family had a big garden, and when the corn would come off or the butter beans would come off, we would spend the day shucking the corn, blanching it, and then cutting it off the cob and putting it in little freezer bags with the date on it.

And then we would put all of that fresh food in what we called our locker, which was a standing chest freezer that had a lock on it, until the fall, when we didn't have fresh produce to eat.

Because, in my family, frozen food was considered the next best thing to fresh.

So I still do this.

I do not have a lock on my freezer, although I should consider it.

With my kids in the ice cream.

Who am I kidding?

I'm the one who comes in here after they go to bed and get the ice cream.

[ Laughs ] One of the hot-button topics around what we eat these days is ultra-processed foods.

These are foods that we have altered to make them more craveable for us.

They have a longer shelf life.

We, as Americans, we really like this stuff.

I like this stuff.

But the consensus is that it's not that good for us.

And I don't pretend to have a solution to this problem, but I do have an idea.

We should think about our freezers as the best preservative we have.

And I know it is strange that I've got a bunch of Mexican takeout sitting around me right now, but we're gonna make some frozen burritos that are gonna be very convenient, that are gonna allow you not to waste anything that you've already paid for.

Takeout is not always as good the second day.

So, when I made these burritos, I'm trying to, you know, make them more juicy, more flavorful, less dry than they would have been if I just am rolling up all the leftovers in a tortilla shell.

So I'm gonna start with a little bit of sour cream on the bottom of my shell just to give it a little extra lube, if you will.

And then we're gonna go with our beans.

Refried beans.

Can't go wrong with those.

I really love refried beans.

If they're leftover, if they're straight out of this tin container, it doesn't matter.

And I feel good about eating them.

Then we're gonna go with some of this rice.

It took me a while to kind of figure out the proportions of building a burrito.

For, you know, my first 30, they were all way too big, and there was rice and beans and everything falling out the sides.

But less is more in this case.

So, my takeout was specifically chicken and steak fajitas.

They make a great foundation for burritos.

All right.

Now...cheese.

And a good amount of that.

It's gonna safeguard against anybody thinking this is actual leftovers.

I've got some cilantro here to add a little freshness.

And salsa.

So, I get on kicks, things that I am really into for a period of time.

And about two years ago, I was really on a frozen-burrito kick.

In fact, just before Christmas, I spent a weekend making burritos all weekend.

Not from takeout, but from fresh-made ingredients.

But I spent the weekend making burritos to give as Christmas presents.

And I've rarely gotten any feedback on my Christmas gifts for my nieces and nephews.

And this year, they all called me and said this was the best Christmas gift they got that year.

So, you know, there's something to be said for homemade gifts.

So, now, I mean, we could just put these burritos straight in the freezer at this moment, and all would be fine, but my kids really like the fact that I make the burritos crispy on all four sides.

So I'm gonna put four burritos seam-side down in my pan.

Seam-side down because that is gonna seal the burrito closed.

And we need four in here because when we have to stand them up on their sides, they're gonna support one another.

So, at this stage, you really have to stay close to your burritos because you can mess up some perfectly good leftovers by burning the shells.

All right.

See this perfect square?

Rectangle?

Not a square.

That's nice.

Now I'm gonna take some good old aluminum foil and wrap my burritos up.

The foil is gonna keep them safe in the freezer, keep them from becoming, uh, freezer burnt and is gonna actually be the vehicle for heating them up in the oven.

So you can just take the frozen burrito wrapped in foil and put it straight in the oven just like this at 350 for about 20 minutes, and then you've got your kids' lunch!

I mean, doesn't that feel good, just looking at me with these burritos in my hand?

I've got four meals here from something that I was likely going to throw away.

We're gonna go over there.

-Okay.

-Got a little experiment.

Are you one of those people who just pack stuff into their freezer?

-The longer you live in your house, the more stuff you have in your freezer, right?

Frozen vegetables and ice cream and all that kind of thing.

-Take these over here.

Ice cream.

I think everybody's got... -Yeah, everyone has to have ice cream in their freezer.

-You know, growing up, we had a big garden, and so we would put up the corn and the butter beans and the green beans from the garden, and everything went straight in the freezer because we felt like that was the best place for it to be.

You know, frozen was second best to fresh.

But then I feel like at some point, in this country at least, our perception of frozen food changed.

We think all frozen food is this -- like, highly processed, you know, lots of ingredients.

-Sure.

-But, really, you know, this is what I think of when I think of frozen food.

So what I want to do... -Here.

Let me take those from you.

-Thank you.

Thank you.

Is demonstrate this.

So we've got Italian green beans here.

We've got chopped collard greens.

And let's just say black eyed peas.

Okay.

So tell me how much sodium... So what are we looking for?

-In these canned green beans, so, we have about 380 milligrams of sodium.

That's 17%, they say, in a serving of these canned.

-Okay, and so I have -- How many milligrams do you think, Christine?

-Oh.

I'm gonna say 10?

-Zero!

-Ah.

There's just no salt in those at all.

-Right, because what they do is they pick them, they boil them, and then they freeze them, and that's all you've got.

And what I love about this even versus -- You know, I could go buy fresh green beans, but then I've got to wash them, I've got to blanch them, and then I've got to saut them.

And, then, this is ready to go in a hot skillet with some garlic and lemon and butter.

-It's a lot less work.

-A lot less work.

-Yeah.

-Frozen food is not necessarily worse than fresh, so we got it all wrong.

-Yeah, I think that is really cool.

And when we're talking about nutrients, now, I don't think anyone needs to nitpick their fresh vegetables, but, actually, picking them at peak time, like you said, and freezing them right away means that they have the most nutrients that they're ever gonna have, so it's cool that way, too.

-Right.

Right.

Your freezer is really the best preservative that we have.

-Yeah.

-So, in the spirit of the frozen burritos I made with leftover takeout, I'm gonna make some saucy chicken, vegetable, and rice bowls to make mornings less stressful when I'm trying to pack lunch and make evenings less frustrating when I want to eat a complete meal but I don't want to cook.

So we're gonna start by putting a little olive oil in my saut pan.

And I'm gonna add some diced onions and hit them with a little salt... so they start to sweat.

And once they become a little bit translucent, I'm gonna add 2 pounds of ground chicken.

The idea to build a complete meal that I can put in the freezer really started at my local grocery store, you know, looking at the TV dinners, the ready-made meals that have a protein, a starch, and a vegetable.

A lot of folks, this is what we end up eating.

I don't think anybody gets excited about it, but they get more excited about doing that than going home and cooking.

So I wanted to provide an alternative in my own freezer that somebody might get excited about.

All right, so I've got my chicken, my ground chicken, in the pan, and I'm gonna season it with a little bit of salt.

And then I'm gonna leave it alone -- or I'm gonna try to leave it alone.

I have a hard time leaving anything alone, to be honest.

But I'm gonna leave it alone so it will brown and caramelize.

You see how I've kind of pushed my onions to the edge of the pan.

Because I don't want them to brown and caramelize, but I do want them to kind of continue to cook.

At this point, I can also add my diced fresh ginger.

Fresh ginger is, like, one of my favorite ingredients to cook with.

So I think I've got a little caramelization on my chicken.

I'm gonna stir my onions in.

And, you know, for this dish, you could use sliced chicken breast, sliced turkey breast, but I like a ground meat 'cause I think it grabs on to all the flavor better than a sliced piece of meat.

Okay, so, my ground chicken, my onions, and my ginger are in here cooked and all incorporated.

So now I'm gonna start adding my spices.

I've got some minced garlic here.

Cumin.

Q-min.

However you say it.

I clearly like it.

You know, what else I like is the combination of cumin and coriander.

Where one goes, the other also likes to go.

Cayenne for a little heat.

And turmeric.

And I'm adding these spices at this stage where the pan is relatively dry so that they have an opportunity to actually meet heat and become aromatic and bloom.

They're gonna make way more of an impact to this dish if added to a dry pan, versus in the end after I add this broth.

Now I'm gonna add some tamarind.

Pure.

This is gonna make it a little tangy, a little sweet.

If you don't have tamarind, you can certainly leave this out.

I've made this meat mixture many times without it.

Some diced tomatoes with their juice.

They're gonna help all of this come together.

And a little bit of chicken broth.

You could use homemade stock.

You could do what I've done here, which is mix a little bit of bouillon in with water.

It all does the trick.

We're gonna let it all come to a boil.

You want to see the tomatoes kind of start to break down.

And I think we are almost there.

So now for the really fun part, the part that I feel very proud of.

Um, so, you know, as I said, the idea for this is packing my kids' lunch and having a full meal inside a pint container, if you will.

So the way that I do this is I start by putting about 1/2 cup of the meat mixture on the bottom of my pint container.

Make sure you get some juice.

Okay, so I have my chicken mixture on the bottom.

Then I'm gonna take some wilted spinach.

You know, I do this because I am trying to get green vegetables in both my kids' diet and my own.

And then a little edamame that I bought frozen And then just cooked in boiling salted water for about 3 or 4 minutes.

I still want them to have some texture.

Okay, and so now we're gonna top each of these with rice to fill it up.

And what's gonna happen, and why I'm so proud of this, is I'm gonna put some lids on these, put them in the freezer.

And then when it's time to take it out for someone's lunch or someone's dinner, I'm gonna heat it up and then turn it over on a plate, and the rice will be on the bottom, the vegetables will be in the middle, and the saucy chicken will be on top, and it's gonna drape down over all the ingredients and give my kids a lunch that they're proud to say their chef mom made... weeks ago.

[ Chuckles ] All right.

So I'm gonna put my lids on... stack these up... and get ready to head to the freezer.

You can tell by the smile on my face how pleased I am with myself.

[ Laughs ] It doesn't take much.

With my rice bowls tucked into the freezer, I'm heading across the pond to see next-level frozen food good enough for the French.

So, there's a chain of grocery stores in France called Picard.

It's a national obsession.

And everything in it is frozen.

So, because I believe that the French know more about food than we do, I've got to see this grocery store for myself.

Okay, so, I'm shopping for dinner.

Most people go to Paris and go out to a Michelin Star restaurant, but I have chosen to go shopping at Picard.

All right.

We have potato products.

All kinds of fish.

Tuna.

Salmon.

Something else.

Oh, my God!

Okay.

Foie gras?

They've got frozen foie gras?

They've got a whole -- This is like a whole -- So this is sliced foie gras.

I'm gonna get that.

This is crazy.

Okay.

Oh, my gosh!

They have beef carpaccio?

That'll be my little appetizer.

Wow.

Okay.

This is the most exciting section to me so far because they've got this escargot, the snails, stuffed with the butter and everything already.

This is unbelievable.

So, you know, this is like a fancy hors d'oeuvre section.

In the States, we would have, like, uh, pigs in blankets in here, maybe a jalapeo popper.

[ Chuckles ] So, I've got lots of appetizers.

And I need a main meat.

And I... Ooh.

Okay.

Duck confit.

Can't get more French than that.

And this is something that would take someone two days to make.

This is insane.

Oh, my gosh!

Okay.

I do have to get these.

Potatoes "aligote."

I know I'm not saying that right, but these are really hard to make.

They have a lot of cheese, and I'm not sure I've ever actually made them correctly.

And so to be able to have them in a frozen form, it's just kind of mind-boggling to me.

They've got frozen baguette.

I guess I have to get that.

Oh, wow!

Molten cakes.

Macaroons.

Mini eclairs.

Okay.

I'm gonna get the caramel.

Molten.

'Cause I've never seen that before.

And a chocolate mousse.

Oh, my God.

I could spend all day in here.

And the green beans.

Picard is famous for a lot of things, but the thing that has made it stateside are the famous green beans.

Haricots verts...if you will.

This is so overwhelming to me because you have everything from frozen fruit to, uh, like, stuffed quail with foie gras.

-Our freezing technology is one of the... most natural ways to preserve the food.

It preserves the taste, the texture, the nutrients.

You don't have to add additives.

You don't have to have preservatives.

And that's -- -That's perfect.

So you can keep the product quality.

-Yeah.

-Bonjour.

-Bonjour.

Right here?

-Oui.

-[ Chuckles ] This says "Movie Star American popcorn."

[ Laughter ] It's sweet.

-Merci.

Bonjour.

-Yes.

Merci.

-Au revoir.

-Au revoir!

Sometimes when people travel, they like to go to museums... or they like to shop or eat out.

I like to walk.

Hey.

Look.

It's "Vivian" Caf.

[ Laughs ] I got a Sancerre, a French white.

I got the Sancerre 'cause I know how to say it.

Now that I have enough frozen food to feed the French army, I'm heading back to my apartment to feed this army of one.

[ Cork pops ] All righty.

Now I can get down to work.

I'm not gonna make all of this.

I gotta have the escargot and the carpaccio.

I gotta see this foie gras, too.

Okay.

So... Duck confit.

Which potato?

I really kind of want to choose these 'cause I've never made these successfully.

My green beans.

Bread.

And then my desserts.

And I think I should have both of those.

Makes a lot of sense to me.

All right.

So now I need to see how to heat all of this up.

Well, that looks pretty cute and perfect.

All right.

So that's gonna go for ten minutes.

And then my dessert.

This is like a molten caramel salt and chocolate cake.

Apparently this is one of the iconic Picard dishes, these little cakes.

And they go for 10 minutes, too.

Fancy!

Here goes nothin'.

And then these are also 10 minutes.

Look at that technique.

[ Clicking ] There we go.

Potatoes "aligote."

Yeah.

These are gonna be great.

Okay.

So that's for my green beans.

Okay.

Now my foie gras.

[ Clicking ] Okay, so I'm gonna score this foie gras... so it gets, like, some nice little texture when we sear it.

[ Sizzling ] Okay, while that sears, my duck confit is gonna go in the microwave.

If I were to make this for myself in my restaurant or at home, it's literally a multi-day process.

You know, you have to season the legs, let them sit overnight, then they get poached very slowly in duck fat.

Then it needs to sit again overnight.

And then you end up with this luscious, tender, rich, fatty duck leg.

I've done just this same thing with Lean Cuisines.

[ Chuckles ] You got to puncture the top.

That smells so good.

My green beans.

Look how perfect that looks.

Straight from the freezer.

Oh.

I forgot about my carpaccio!

Take this up.

Smack it down.

Voil!

Our "pesto" sauce.

And they suggest that you shave some Parmesan on there.

I'll do that next time.

Gosh, I really wish I knew someone here so I could have a party.

Okay, so, first, I think I should have a little bit of my appetizer.

I think I'll start with the carpaccio.

This is, like, something that you would never, ever do at home because how would you ever slice beef this thinly unless you had a meat slicer?

Mmm!

That is so good!

I would have never expected this to be so tasty and succulent.

Mmm.

Snail time.

It tastes good, although you don't really taste the snail that much.

It's all about the... garlicky herb butter for me.

It's good bread.

Sliver of that.

Mmm!

This is wild.

Okay.

Now I'm gonna plate my main event.

Duck confit.

Potato aligot.

Green beans.

So, this does not look like any TV dinner you've ever had.

I mean, this is insane.

Everything is, like, perfect.

I mean, I really can't believe this.

You know, it's like -- I would never even begin to know how to start making this.

I know how to make this, but it would take days.

They've got such a good thing going here.

The all-frozen grocery store.

Will somebody please do something like this in the States?

Oui, oui.

[ Laughs ] -Major funding for "Kitchen Curious with Vivian Howard" is provided by... the ETV Endowment of South Carolina, the proud partner of South Carolina ETV and South Carolina Public Radio.

With the generosity of individuals, corporations, and foundations, the ETV Endowment of South Carolina is committed to sharing entertaining and uplifting stories and series like "Kitchen Curious."

And by... Additional funding provided by... Building community in Florence, South Carolina.

And...