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," Ashley makes a showstopping blueberry cream pie and I explain why blue foods are so rare.

Adam shares our recommended sporks and travel utensil sets, and Bridget makes Julia sweet tea fried chicken.

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, including the Eminence 605, with an L.E.D.

touch panel and side and rear infrared burners.

Learn more at monumentgrills.com.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -I love blueberry pie, and guess what.

So do you because blueberry pie is ranked annually in the top five pies in America.

But I think we can do better than five.

Let's raise this to number one.

And Ashley's here.

She's got just the right blueberry pie recipe.

-You better believe it.

This pie is all about the blueberries.

And not just any blueberries -- the peak summertime blueberries that you find at the road stands.

-Mm.

-Oh, my gosh, you can't get anything better than that.

-Right.

-So we're going to use a graham cracker crust for this.

This is 12 graham crackers that I've torn into pieces.

But what's more important is the weight.

So this is 6 1/2 ounces total.

Now, different brands have different weights per cracker.

-Okay.

-So...

I'm going to process this for 30 seconds until the graham crackers are finely ground.

Alright.

So this is 2 tablespoons of sugar.

And I've got just a pinch of salt.

And I'm just going to give this three pulses just to combine everything.

-Okay.

-And finally, just to bring it all together, I've got 6 tablespoons of unsalted butter that's been melted.

-Okay.

-I'm going to give this eight pulses.

I'm going to transfer the graham crackers to our 9-inch pie plate.

Alright.

I'm going to use the bottom of this dry 1-cup measure.

And the dry cup measure is going to help to evenly disperse the graham crackers throughout the pie plate.

And then once it gets nice and even on the sides, I'm going to use my thumb just to guide it along.

And I'm packing it pretty firmly.

Alright, Bridget, that is looking pretty good.

And I'm going to actually bake the crust first before we go any further with the blueberry filling.

-Okay.

-I've got an oven preheated to 325 degrees.

And I'm going to bake this for 16 to 18 minutes until the pie crust is beginning to brown.

Now let's move on to the filling while the crust is baking.

I'm going to process 2 cups of these blueberries for about 2 minutes until they are totally smooth.

I think we're in good shape, but let me just go back in.

Yep.

Let's move on down to the stovetop.

So this is 1/2 cup of sugar.

This is 4 teaspoons of cornstarch and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

-Okay.

-I'm just going to whisk this together.

You'll notice that I don't have the heat on at this point.

I'm going to put this strainer right over the saucepan because that's going to help to collect the skins and any of the seeds, so it's going to be a smoother texture.

-Okay.

-Now I'm going to use the whisk to help push the blueberries through the strainer.

So still off heat.

I'm just going to whisk this now just to combine everything before I turn the heat on.

Now I'm going to turn the heat to medium.

And I'm going to bring this filling to a simmer.

-Okay.

-And you want to be sure just to whisk this while the filling is coming up to a simmer.

-Okay.

-We are at one minute and that is looking perfect.

Now, off the heat, I'm going to add a little bit of lemon juice.

That's 1 tablespoon.

Almost done.

I'm going to reserve 2 tablespoons for the topping.

Alright.

So we are done here.

The last thing I need to do is add a few more blueberries.

This is 2 3/4 cups of blueberries.

We're going to have that really amazing velvety soft blueberry filling.

So good.

Alright, so this is done at this stage.

I'm going to go check on the crust.

Then we're going to move on to the topping.

-Sounds great.

-Here is our crust, beautifully baked.

And now it's time to add the filling.

Alright, I'm just going to put this into an even layer here.

We're going to take this to the next level.

We're going to be adding a little bit of cream cheese to the topping.

And it's going to make your brain think that you're eating a blueberry cheesecake.

So this is 8 ounces of softened cream cheese.

And I've got 1/4 cup of sugar and a little bit of vanilla extract -- 1 teaspoon.

And now the first step here is I'm going to whisk this cream cheese for about 2 minutes until it's super smooth.

-Okay.

-Step one... -Alright.

-...is done.

I'm just going to wipe down the bowl one more time.

So with this mixer running, I'm going to add 1 cup of some chilled heavy cream.

I lowered the speed just a little bit just to make sure it didn't splash up at us.

-I really appreciate that.

-You're welcome.

[ Chuckles ] Alright.

Now I'm going to slowly increase it just to medium high.

And I'm going to let this go for about 1 to 3 minutes.

I'm going to be looking for stiff peaks.

-Okay.

-That's a stiff peak if I ever saw one.

-That is stiff peak.

-So I've got a piping bag.

It's with a fitted closed-star tip.

If you don't have a piping bag, no worries.

We've got instructions for how to use a substitute on our website.

-Perfect.

-Now we've got the reserved blueberry mixture from earlier.

Again, that's 2 tablespoons.

Alright, so I folded it over.

Now I'm going to go in and just use a regular table knife.

And going all the way down into the star tip, I'm going to work the filling all the way up.

I'm going to make three stripes in total.

Now, this next part feels a little wrong, but it's right.

I'm going to load up the spatula with the filling here, and I'm going to just flop it on in.

You don't want it to really bring down the streaks of that filling.

-Gotcha.

Just plop it in the middle as best you can.

Gotcha.

-And it's perfect.

I'm using this glass just to kind of collect anything that would have spilled out.

Getting all the air out as much as possible.

I'm going to turn this over right side up and twist, twist, twist.

Okay.

So now we're going to be making some rosettes.

I'm going to go into the center and make three rosettes first.

-Ah!

How pretty!

-Isn't that awesome?

Because of the stripes along the side.

-Oh, how pretty is that?

-Isn't that pretty?

There isn't enough room for me to make more rosettes.

So I've got this beautiful star tip.

I'm going to go in there and just squeeze ever so gently and make some stars.

-Oh, I love it.

-I'm going to put this in the refrigerator for a minimum of 4 hours, but it can hang out in there for up to 24 hours.

-Oh, that's handy.

-Mm-hmm.

♪♪ -Most of the blue we see in nature is a reflection, rather than a pigment inherent to the thing itself.

So while blue is a very common color, it is uncommon in food.

One theory is that this rareness makes blue food unappetizing, something we subconsciously associate with mold or even poison.

But looked at another way, maybe that rarity is exactly what makes blue food special or exciting.

Take, for example, blue raspberry, the electric blue, sweet flavoring found in slushies, popsicles, and candy.

How did blue and raspberry, two things with no connection in nature, become one flavor?

In 1976, the synthetic red dye that was commonly used for raspberry flavoring was officially banned as a carcinogen.

In response to the controversy, the Cincinnati-based carnival supplier Gold Medal decided to stop using the red dye.

Instead, they paired all their raspberry flavoring with blue dye, creating a new blue raspberry flavor for snow cones and cotton candy.

Why, you may ask, didn't they just rebrand the flavor as blueberry?

Well, blueberries weren't as popular back then as they are now.

And if you think about it, even blueberries aren't blue.

They're purple.

Here at "Cook's Country," we're embracing the blue anyway in our beautiful blueberry cream pie.

♪♪ -That was a long four hours.

-It was really long.

-Really long.

-Yeah.

-But it's an important step because you want everything to cool down and it's going to be much easier to slice this way.

-Okay.

Sold.

-Alright.

So I like to use a boning knife.

There we go.

Perfect.

-Mmm.

Alright.

It's spectacular.

Alright.

First bite, got a little bit of everything -- a little bit of crust, a little bit of cream cheese topping, and a lot of blueberry.

Best part -- Where to start, right?

-I know.

-But that jammy filling, you get a pop of fresh blueberry.

-Mm-hmm.

-Gorgeous.

Because that was only in that saucepan just for a minute.

-Yeah.

And you can really taste the lemon juice too.

Not overpowering.

It just gives a little bit of acidity to balance everything out.

-It sure does.

That topping is ethereal.

And I know we kind of bypassed the crust a little bit, but it actually is the perfect pairing here.

-Ashley, this was a masterpiece.

-Mm!

Thank you so much for sharing it with us.

-You're very welcome.

-You got to make this pie.

It is fantastic.

And it starts by cooking fresh blueberries with sugar and cornstarch to make a jammy base.

Add more fresh berries for pops of big flavor and pipe swirls of the blueberry mixture and fluffy cream cheese to top this pie.

So from "Cook's Country," a bold, beautiful, heavenly blueberry cream pie.

♪♪ One of my favorite parts about camping is the gearing up because you need some specialized equipment like a portable stove, some lightweight cookware, and of course, utensils that you can pack on the go, which is what Adam has here today.

And this is beyond the basic old spork.

You've got full sets here.

-We have everything.

You know, these travel utensils and the sporks are kind of making the transition from being just camping or backpacking equipment into purses and briefcases and carry-on bags.

They're a great alternative to those really environmentally unfriendly, disposable, single-use utensils that you get with practically every takeout meal.

-Mm-hmm.

-You can just use these instead.

-Oh, interesting.

-Yeah.

We have 11 different sets.

Some of them, as we said, are three-piece utensil sets.

There's a knife, a fork, and a spoon.

Generally, these will be held together by some means -- a clip or a lanyard -- and/or they come in their own case... -Ooh, I like that.

-...to keep them together and organized.

And then there's the single-use, multi-purpose spork.

More fun to say.

-It is.

And it's, you know, it's one instead of three.

So it's -- it's more efficient.

-It's more efficient.

You can see that there are different materials.

These are stainless steel.

This pretty orange one is anodized aluminum.

Two are in titanium.

-Wow.

-This one in the purple case is wood.

And then these three at the end are plastic.

-Okay.

-And the prices range from about $3.50 up to $33.

-Okay.

-So we had testers try a bunch of different foods with various textures and ingredient sizes with all of these.

There were salads with chunky ingredients and leafy ingredients.

Steak, which they tested the serrations with and the tines.

Chicken soup, brothy chicken soup and hard frozen ice cream.

And they were, of course, testing every function -- the fork, the cutting, the spoon.

So first let's go through the forking function.

Why don't you try this one here?

-Okay.

Alright.

Well, I can get one thing on there pretty good.

Let's see if I want to go for a real mouthful.

[ Laughs ] [ Both laugh ] -Some of our testers actually liken this to shoveling the food.

-I really wanted to go in there, but even that's not great.

-Why don't you try this one?

These tines are a little bit longer and a little bit sharper, and our testers thought that it was easier to grab multiple pieces of salad there.

-Ooh!

Whoa!

You can really chow down with this sucker.

-Not bad.

-[ Laughs ] -The spoons had everything to do with the capacity and the depth.

If they were too small or too shallow, you couldn't get a lot of a saucy thing like Stroganoff or much soup.

In terms of the handles, like any flatware, testers were happier when the handles had a little bit of width to them and nice rounded edges so that they were comfortable to hold.

They didn't dig into the fingers.

Since these are meant to be used on the go and packed up, a small, more compact design is helpful, as is a lightweight.

The three-piece utensil sets usually came with cases that keep them together and neat in transit.

-And clean.

-One of the abuse tests was to put all of these into a backpack and drop the backpack, and in that test, some of these cases opened and the utensils escaped.

-Gotcha.

-So that wasn't ideal.

So there are winners in each of the categories.

First, let's go for these single-use utensil, the spork.

The classic spork.

This is the Light My Fire Spork Titanium.

It's $24.

Spoon on one end, fork on the other, serrations.

-Mm-hmm.

-This was good.

Very compact, very lightweight.

If you are more into the full utensil set, the three-piece utensils, this is the Full Windsor Magware magnetic set, held together by magnets.

-Oh, that's cool.

-Look at that.

The case stayed shut in the abuse test.

This was a great set, the most expensive one here -- a little bit more than $33.

Because of that, the testers also named a Best Buy.

That is this one here.

This is the UCO Switch Spork utensil.

It's actually not a single utensil.

It's two.

-Ah!

-It's two pieces.

So you have a spoon at one end, a knife at the other, a fork at the other end of this, so you can use a knife and fork at once, which is nice, or you can slide them together like so.

And then you have an extra long utensil with a spoon at one end and a fork at the other end.

And our testers thought this was great for digging into those backpacking meals that are in really deep pouches.

And this guy was $8.

-That's great.

Thank you, Adam.

So if you're gearing up for your next hiking trip or just want to save the environment by carrying your own utensils, check out the Light My Fire Spork made of titanium at $24, or, for the full utensil set, try the Full Windsor Magware magnetic set at $33.

♪♪ Brining chicken in buttermilk before frying it is a well-loved trick that not only gives the chicken flavor, but it also helps that meat stay moist.

Now, I've never heard of brining chicken in iced tea or more specifically, sweet tea, but it is all the rage, and I'm eager to try it, Bridget.

-I love this.

This is like the most beautiful collision of two of my favorite things -- sweet tea, fried chicken.

How much better can it get?

And this was developed or really attributed to John Fleer, the chef from the Appalachian area.

He really has brought mountain food to the forefront.

So I love him for that.

And I love this recipe.

You're going to like it too.

So we've got to start off with tea before we get to the chicken.

-Yep.

-I've got a quart of boiling water here.

Just simmering.

I'm going to take it right off the heat.

We got to make some tea.

So a quart of water.

Now, this is 6 family-size tea bags here.

Now, if you didn't have family-size tea bags, each of these is about four regular-size tea bags, single serve.

So that's 24 single-serve tea bags or 6 family-size.

-Wow.

-Alright.

We're just going to put those in there.

You want them to be fully submerged.

So I'm going to leave this be here for about 5 minutes.

On to the chicken.

Chicken thighs.

-Mm-hmm!

-Bone in, skin on.

So this is eight chicken thighs here.

They each weigh between 5 to 7 ounces so that they all cook evenly.

-That makes sense.

-Alright.

So some of these are good to go but some of these have a little extra skin.

You want to kind of cut away any big globules of fat.

But you don't need to do a lot of trimming.

So I'm just going to use a knife.

Alright.

So the rest are done.

Again, 5 minutes on the tea and then we'll move on.

-Okay.

-Alright.

Our concentrated tea mixture is already super dark.

-Mm-hmm.

-Yeah.

Alright, I'm going to strain this right into a big old bowl.

Along with the bags.

And I'll go ahead and press just a little bit just to extract some of that liquid.

Alright, so while this is hot, this is just a tea.

We need to turn this into sweet tea.

So we're going to add 1/2 cup of granulated sugar.

And now we've got to turn the sweet tea into a brine.

-Mm-hmm.

-So this is 1/4 cup of table salt.

I'm also going to add a little bit of flavor here.

This is a tablespoon of grated lemon zest and then 3 tablespoons of lemon juice.

So I'll go ahead and stir this while, again, the tea is nice and hot.

But you do want to make sure that the salt and the sugar is all nice and dissolved.

Now we're going to cool this down because we can't put our chicken in right away.

So now the concentrate becomes actual tea.

This is another quart of ice water this time.

Just going to stir this until the ice is melted.

This is looking good.

The bowl feels nice and chilled.

I'm going to add in our chicken.

Just submerge it.

Alright.

So this looks great.

We're going to cover this with a little bit of plastic wrap.

And then this is going to go into the refrigerator.

Now, you want to give it at least 12 hours.

-Bridget, you shouldn't have.

-[ Both laugh ] -Yeah.

Well, that's what the chicken looks like after you drain it.

It's been 12 hours, so the color -- unfortunate.

We're going to fix that because we're going to cover it with fried chicken coating.

-Mm-hmm.

-We are going to use a little bit of buttermilk to dredge this in first.

So this is a cup of buttermilk.

-Mm-hmm.

-But let's talk a little bit about our dry ingredients.

-Yeah.

-So this is 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour.

-Mm-hmm.

-We want something that's a little crisp and that stays crisp after it's fried.

So this is almost an equal amount of cornstarch.

So, again, 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour and 1 1/4 cups of cornstarch.

-Okay.

-So we're going to use a tablespoon of paprika and a tablespoon of granulated garlic and a tablespoon of black pepper.

-Ooh, dog!

-Yeah.

It's gonna get you right there.

-Oh, I love it.

Mm.

-It's pretty spectacular.

This is 2 teaspoons of baking powder.

That's just going to add a little bit of lift, lighten the coating.

-Mm!

-And 2 teaspoons of table salt and 3/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper.

-Okay.

-Yeah.

Just whisk this together.

Now, you've seen this technique that we've used before.

I love it.

When you dredge chicken into the dry ingredients, it starts to form these little bits, floury bits in the bottom of the bowl.

So we're going to create that from the start with a little bit of water here.

This is 3 tablespoons of water.

I'm just working it with my fingers to create all these little bits here.

Alright.

So we're going to work with one piece of chicken at a time.

So take a thigh, dredge it in the buttermilk.

-Mmm!

-Alright.

And then this goes in.

Boom.

Like that.

And I can use this hand to start coating.

But I also like to shake the bowl... -Me too.

-...and create the little tidal wave to get it going, and then I just kind of cover it.

Just want to get that really well coated.

There we go.

And then we're going to put these skin side up on our wire rack that's set over a rimmed baking sheet.

Now we're going to continue to do the rest of them.

Once they're all breaded, we're going to leave them on this wire rack uncovered.

Put them in the fridge.

You want to leave them in there for a minimum of 30 minutes, maybe up to 2 hours.

Alright, Julia, it's fry time.

-Mm!

-I've got my Dutch oven here.

3 quarts of peanut oil.

You can use vegetable oil, or you can actually use really good lard because they all have that really good high smoke point.

-Mm-hmm.

-Now we're going to fry these four at a time.

-Okay.

-Let me get them into the oil here.

-[ Sizzling ] -Oh, that's a good sound.

-Mm-hmm.

-Get that in there.

So at this point we're going to leave them in there for 10 minutes.

About 5 minutes in, I'm going to flip them over halfway just to make sure that they're browning evenly.

-What's in the oil, Bridget?

-[ Laughs ] -It's murky.

I can't see.

-Ahhh.

It's like the phoenix rising from the ashes.

-Holy cow.

That's gorgeous.

-Isn't that beautiful?

Now I'm going to take this over to a paper-towel-lined rack.

There we go.

We want to let some of that excess oil drip away.

Oh, look at that.

Mm.

Okay, now we do need to let this oil come back up to 325 before we put the remaining four in.

And we're going to cook those exactly the same way -- 10 minutes, flipping over halfway.

In they go.

So these are going to go into a 300-degree oven.

Nice moderate heat, finish cooking them through without coloring the exterior too much.

They're going to stay in there anywhere between 10, maybe up to 14 minutes.

But really what I'm looking for is an internal temperature in the thighs of about 175 degrees.

-Okay.

Oh, goodness!

-[ Laughs ] [ Laughs ] Yeah.

You can see that that moderate oven didn't really color it too much more.

I do need to take the temp.

I took it a couple of times just to gauge.

So if we go right in there.

175.

Looks great.

-That is picture-perfect fried chicken, Bridget.

-Alright.

So I'm going to transfer this to a paper-towel-lined platter.

-Alright.

-10 minutes.

-Alright.

-That's chicken time.

-I've been standing here the whole time waiting.

-Alright.

Here you go.

-Oh, thank you.

-We've got a little bit of lemon there if you'd like to squeeze some over your chicken.

-I like that idea.

-Just to highlight that lemony iced tea flavor.

-Mm-hmm.

We doing fork and knife?

I'm just going to -- So, before I go full animal on this... -[ Laughs ] -...I am going to kind of cut in there.

-Well, I'll just follow your lead.

-Alright.

-Mm-hmm.

-Alright?

-That's good.

It's not too sweet.

-Mnh-mnh.

But the tea just gives it -- -A smoky flavor.

-Mm-hmm.

Just super warm.

Like it tastes like warm spices.

-Mm-hmm.

-But it doesn't taste like any other fried chicken.

-Mnh-mnh.

-And the thighs is always a great choice here.

-Yeah.

-You know?

-Bridget, this is delicious.

Thank you for showing me how to make it.

-You bet.

-There you have it.

If you want to try sweet tea fried chicken, make a potent sweet-tea brine, fry the chicken at a low temperature, and finish cooking it in the oven.

From "Cook's Country," sweet- tea-brined fried chicken thighs.

You can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with select episodes and our product reviews at our website, cookscountry.com/TV.

Oh, man!

-Visit our website where you can sign up for the free "Cook's Country" e-mail newsletter for even more of the recipes and stories you love from the magazine and the TV show -- cookscountry.com/cooks.

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-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, including the Eminence 605, with an L.E.D.

touch panel and side and rear infrared burners.

Learn more at monumentgrills.com.

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