The Dooky Chase Kitchen: Leah's Legacy

-Funding for "The Dooky Chase Kitchen: Leah's Legacy" was provided by the... -Leading the kitchen of Dooky Chase Restaurant for over 60 years was Chef Leah Chase, who transformed the historic Trem neighborhood restaurant into a culinary treasure for the city of New Orleans.

Leah's mother, Hortensia Lange, was an inventive Creole cook who fed her large family in rural Madisonville on a shoestring.

Today, Leah's grandson Dook Chase and great-granddaughter Zoe Chase prepare two Madisonville dishes accompanied by a regionally themed cocktail from granddaughter Eve Marie Haydel.

Hortensia's vegetable soup is loaded with a variety of vegetables that were grown in the Lange family garden.

-We have our great vegetable soup.

So, Zoe, take it away.

-So, what we have in our pot here is our veal shanks.

And we've been having this on a boil for a good 30 minutes.

And why we do this is so that -- You see this delicious bone marrow in here.

That gives that stock a great flavor.

So that's the body of our soup.

And you see -- it just falls off the bone after you let it go for 30 minutes.

So now to the pot, we are going to add our onions.

We're gonna add our carrots.

-The thing I'd like to point out real quick is, as the first vegetable that you cut, you want to cut each vegetable in that same half of inch because you want it to cook that same amount, right?

You don't want your carrots to be too mushy versus your turnips.

So when you're chopping, whichever one you chop first, you have to marry the rest towards that size.

-Now we're gonna add our turnips, and this is gonna cook for about 10 minutes so that they get soft.

And this soup is perfect for when you're feeling sick.

You eat a bowl of this soup, take a two-hour nap, and you're perfect.

-Hortensia Lange was my grandmother's mother, Chef Leah Chase.

So, of course, you know, growing up with a household of 11 and you're trying to feed the masses, right?

This is one of those dishes that she was able to pick in her garden.

And she was so, I guess, efficient that she would break this vegetable soup into two dishes.

She would get that stock and that flavor from that meat and then pull the meat out and serve that meat with potatoes later on as a whole nother dish.

You know, you talk about creativity and ways that they were able to really make a dish last and feed so many people and last for so many days.

That's exactly what Hortensia Lange and the Lange family did in Madisonville.

-Mm-hmm.

Now we're gonna add our diced tomatoes.

And we're gonna add some tomato paste to give it that body, as well, and thicken it up a little bit.

-For us, you know, we use tomato paste.

That's your roux.

We do a lot of saucing and thickening.

You want that velvety taste.

If you're not doing a roux, tomato paste is one, or you can do a slurry, or if you need to finish a little bit more at the end, you can add a little cornstarch if it's not there for you.

You know, you can start to smell those different things.

I can smell a turnip starting to come in there, those carrots.

Certainly when she added those tomatoes and that tomato paste, now you start to sense the flavor profile that you're getting in this soup, right?

It's starting to turn that beef stock into a vegetable stock.

-Now we're going to add a little thyme.

That's gonna give it a great flavor, as well.

And, see, this dish is so perfect.

If you have a garden at home, whatever's in your garden, throw in a pot.

You don't have to use any of the vegetables we're using.

It's an easy, simple dish, and it's delicious.

We'll add a little garlic, as well.

-You can see that pot.

We're not looking for a boil, right?

You don't want to beat those vegetables up.

You want them to maintain their shape.

So you're looking for that simmer just to cook them right in that great stock that we have.

-So, I've added a little salt and pepper.

Now we can add our celery.

You could either do whole corn or corn off the cob.

Doesn't matter.

Some of our potatoes.

-And as you can see, as we add those potatoes, they're coming out of water, right?

When you peel those potatoes, you want to put them in water because when that oxygen hits them without water, they'll start to turn brown.

And we want to maintain that good color of that potato.

-We'll add our lima beans.

Our string beans that we cut.

And you can use frozen vegetables, as well.

Works great.

Some of our peas.

And some of our cabbage.

-And now you just start to see that vegetable soup come to life.

You can smell it come to life.

-Some of our red pepper flakes.

And we'll let this go to a boil for 10 minutes.

We don't want to cook it too long because we still want our nice color on our green vegetables.

-This was a dish that my grandmother would cook if any of her friends or your friends would get sick and we heard about it in the community.

We're making a pot of vegetable soup, and we're sending it out there.

So it's just something that's -- not only makes you feel like home, but it makes you feel good.

-Alright.

Let's give our soup a little taste, see if we're missing anything.

-Let me.

-Mmm!

-I definitely get the kick.

Add a little more salt.

-Oh, yeah.

You're working with something here.

That little salt is just gonna enhance that little flavor profile that we're looking for.

But you certainly get it.

I can taste the crushed red peppers.

I can taste the beef broth.

Then I can start to taste all those different vegetables.

You know, you taste your turnips coming through.

You taste your carrots and all that great flavor.

And a lot of people shy away from turnips because of their distinctive flavor.

But when you put them in this vegetable soup, I mean, it creates a flavor profile that's amazing.

-As your soups begin to boil, you know, I added a little more tomato paste just to, you know, give it some more body.

And then we're gonna add our noodles.

We have some vermicelli noodles, and we're gonna break them up just so that it's easy to eat.

Stir those in.

And those will go for like 10 minutes.

Whatever pasta you like to add to it.

And we like to break it up so when you pull out that scoop you get a perfectly balanced scoop.

-Let's give it one more taste.

-Oh, man.

It's -- I can tell you what.

-It smells great.

-If it tastes as good as it smells, I don't have to taste it.

But I want to taste it because I want to eat some.

-Mmm.

Really good.

Maybe a little more salt.

-Just a pinch.

But, oh, man, you're right on.

I can taste that crushed red pepper.

I can taste every bit of it.

And the beauty about this di-- I mean, look at this color, right?

The reason why we added those green vegetables toward the end.

Look how bright green they still are.

You know, the string beans, the peas.

It's just a beautiful-looking dish, and it tastes superb.

-You don't even need to add the meat sometimes.

If you're a vegan, vegetarian, you can just go straight-up vegetables, and it's still delicious.

You still have that flavor the veggies are bringing out, still have that kick them crushed red peppers are giving.

-You know what'll add great flavor if you're not using that meat?

Mushrooms.

-Mm-hmm.

-You know, even if you wanted to create a mushroom paste and let that be some of your base along with that tomato paste, that'll just add that great flavor profile without even having to add meat in there.

-We're gonna clean up and come back and plate.

-That's smelling wonderful.

-Alright.

Our pasta is cooked.

It looks delicious, smells delicious.

See those beautiful pieces of meat.

Mmm-mmm-mmm.

Get our corn.

-Look how beautiful that is.

All those great colors.

I mean...you talk about a beautiful dish.

This just waking you up.

-Mm-hmm.

-You're in the bed watching movies because you're not feeling well, on a sofa.

And you smell this coming out of the kitchen.

-And we also have some toast points you can serve it with or some saltine crackers.

You know, this is a beautiful bowl of soup fresh out the garden.

A perfect soup to eat on a cold day, a summer day, any day.

-I grew up in a small town.

I grew up in Madisonville.

And the older I get, the more appreciative I am of growing up in a small town, in what you call a country town.

Well, we had 15 acres of strawberries, but at home, Daddy would maybe have about 15, 20 rows of okra.

And that made you gobs of okra.

He had bushels of okra.

So what you had to do with the okra is go around the neighborhood and pass it around with him and always give your best.

-The Tchefuncte River and nearby bayous were a source of both food and recreation for Hortensia, who loved to fish.

-My grandmother and her sister would go fishing every morning at 5:00 in the morning.

It didn't matter who caught the biggest fish at that time.

It used to be a competition thing.

If my Aunt Lucy got a big fish, well, my grandmother wanted to fish till she got a bigger fish.

So this could go on and on for hours.

And it did.

But we finally got home when it was lunchtime because she knew she had to fix the lunch.

-You know, you've got to give them kudos for raising a family that large at that time when it -- No time is it easy, but in particular them.

Yeah, but no.

Wonderful memories of him out in that garden, my grandmother fishing with the pole behind where the school is now.

I love that memory of that and several places going fishing with her back in Madisonville.

-Strawberries grown by Leah's family are the inspiration for strawberry shortcake, with biscuits made from scratch, topped with whipped cream.

-We're still hanging in the Madisonville Garden, and today we're making a dessert that speaks to my grandmother -- strawberry shortcake.

You heard many of the stories of her growing up and working and picking in the strawberry fields.

And I had many great desserts.

But this strawberry shortcake dessert is one of the best.

And it's fairly simple, you know?

We start with these fresh strawberries, and all we're gonna do is just slice it here.

And you want to slice a few.

And what you're doing is, as you slice, when you finish, you're gonna sprinkle with a little sugar and put them in your refrigerator, and that's going to create its own little syrup.

Flavor up that shortcake.

And we like to do a biscuit.

It's a marriage between a biscuit and a shortcake, is what we're looking for.

And this is something that I like to do at home.

My daughter loves to do this.

Something -- As she slices one, my son eats one, dips it in sugar.

And then it takes us about 30 minutes to fill up this bowl because both of their hands are dipping it in the sugar and then eating it.

So hopefully we'll have a little bit left for these strawberry shortcakes that we're going to make.

I got a little bit of my sugar here, and I'm just gonna sprinkle it around.

And as you can see, I just lightly glaze that with sugar.

Depending on how sweet you like it or not, you can add a little more.

And what you want to do is you're gonna take this dish and you're gonna put it in your refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

As you pull it out, you're gonna have that great strawberry syrup at the bottom.

So we'll go ahead on and let this rest in that refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Then we get to the fun stuff -- the biscuits.

Biscuits is a really, really simple recipe, right?

We have our flour.

We have a little sugar just to sweeten it up.

We have baking powder, baking soda.

One thing you might not do that we love to do is add a little sour cream to this biscuit mix.

And, of course, we're gonna add a little bit of milk just to pull it all together.

So we'll go ahead on and get started.

I have 2 cups of all-purpose flour here.

And I'm gonna leave just a little bit behind 'cause I'm gonna have to dust this out when we go to pat out biscuits.

To that, this is 3 tablespoons of sugar.

So, now we're gonna add a little baking powder 'cause that's gonna help that biscuit rise a little bit.

And to that, we're gonna have a little baking soda.

Now, the key about your butter.

It has to be cold.

And what I like is you can see I cubed this butter real small.

So, as I mix, it's gonna help me to mix in.

And each of that biscuit is gonna have those little bitty flaky butter specks in there.

So I'll add in my butter.

And you can never have enough butter in a good biscuit.

And you can see I'm just lightly pressing that flour, that sugar.

I hadn't add the sour cream just yet.

I just wanted to work that butter in just a little bit.

And that's what you're looking for, this texture here.

The butter's not all the way worked in.

It's starting to work, but I still want some of those flakes to be in that biscuit dough when I go to bake it.

I'll wipe my hands a little bit 'cause we're still going right back in to get messy.

I'm gonna add in a little bit of my sour cream.

And I like to start it off with a spoon so you can keep your hands just a little dry while you're not getting too messy.

That sour cream is where it starts to soften it up.

And not only does it add that good little flavor, but it makes it more of a cakey side than a biscuit side, right?

It softens it up just a little bit.

And that's what we're looking for.

This is where I'm looking to get, as you can see on that.

We're gonna put this here, and we're gonna work it just a little bit.

Now, you can see it's not all the way together as we like.

That's why I have this little bit of milk here.

So I'm gonna take this little milk.

And we'll add it in and start to fold it in.

The last thing that I didn't do was I have a pinch of salt.

You just want a pinch of salt.

And what that does is that just enhances all those flavors that you have in here.

And now we got to get back in and work it in.

And what you're looking for is making that dough ball.

And as it starts to pull away from that bowl, you know you had enough milk.

Some recipes call for a rolling pin.

We're not gonna roll it.

My grandmother would always just pad it out with her hands.

Nice and gentle.

And if you're looking like this where it's not all the way there, what that tells you is you'll need just a tad bit more milk.

And I tell you what, one of the things about growing up and eyeballing so much and baking so much -- baking is one thing that you really have to be precise on, right?

But biscuits and peach cobblers and bread puddings you still can eyeball.

That's why I love it.

So this is where we're getting to.

We're starting to form a ball.

You can see that dough is starting to pull away from this bowl, and that's what you're really getting ready to do.

And before I get my hands messy again and form it into a ball, I want to lightly dust our rolling bed.

So I'ma put this right on the side for two seconds, and we're gonna have the remainder of our flour.

And we're just gonna add it here.

Make sure I got all of that out.

I'ma add it here.

And I just like to create a little bed for where we're gonna play with this biscuit dough.

And I'm not making too many.

If you're making a lot, you may need a little bit more space.

I'm looking here.

This recipe will probably make about six nice-sized shortcakes.

Then we're coming right out onto this dough.

Get my hands a little -- okay.

Make sure it's good to go and not sticking.

And like I said, my grandmother...

Some people would get a rolling pin and automatically start rolling.

What she liked to do was just pound it out, pound it out.

And as you can see, if it starts to stick, add a little more flour and pound it out.

Maybe an inch and a half thick is the biscuits that we like.

And I have a three-inch round cutter.

You do not need to grease this pan, right?

There's enough butter, there's enough fat in there to make these biscuits work.

So all you're doing here -- making those rounds, popping him out.

Make sure he's greased on the side.

Making those rounds, popping this guy out.

Rounds.

Popping that out.

Get a little bit here.

Making these rounds.

Popping that out.

You still can have fun with it.

We still can put this dough back together, pat it out, and it doesn't have to be uniform as these, right?

'Cause this is homemade, good old biscuits that you put in a strawberry shortcake.

And what I love about it is you want some of those rough peaks and edges 'cause that keeps that strawberry syrup that you made -- it kind of soaks in all those different crevices and it just marries to that biscuit.

So all you do is put that right here, grab your pan.

One of the things you want to do is start your oven and preheat it.

You're looking at a 400-degree oven.

You're gonna bake these for about 15 minutes.

And now it's time to make our whipping cream and get ready to top these beautiful biscuits that I'm smelling.

So here I've got a little bit of heavy cream, and then we're just gonna get to work.

Put it right in here.

Now, a trick -- as you chill your bowl, that's gonna help you when you're whipping this cream, right?

So a colder bowl will help that come together a little bit faster.

And here what you're doing is you're just beating air in it and you're beating air in it.

And then as it gets a little thicker, that's when you can start to add your sugar.

And when you add -- not all at once, just a little bit -- when you add your sugar, you'll start to have those peaks just stay.

And how you know you're getting there -- when you whisk, you see the peaks, but you also start to see the bottom of that bowl.

And right here is where I can add just a pinch of sugar.

So here you can look.

Beautiful whip.

I'ma put this to the side 'cause I smell those biscuits, and they're calling me to pull them out.

And this is what you're looking for -- that nice golden-brown top.

And right when they're hot, that pan's hot, you got a little bit of your sugar left over, and you're just coming on top.

And that sugar -- that'll melt a little bit, but you'll still just have that sweetness on top.

You want to let these sit for about five minutes, 'cause what you have to do -- they have to be cool enough for you to work with your hand just so you can slice one open.

And I think I'ma try and test it out here.

And you're coming right down the middle creating that bed, and a beautiful thing -- remember I told you about the one that had the crevice and the peaks?

That's what you're looking for.

See that?

That's gonna pick up that strawberry syrup.

It's gonna seep through.

And you got a cake that's just amazing.

Oh, man.

These are just -- they're warm.

I want to bite into one right now, but I'ma finish it for you all.

Now move these to the side.

We'll get our plate ready.

Sprinkle this plate with a little powdered sugar, and the kids will love that 'cause they just love sugar.

Then you come right back.

You put that bottom down here.

Get that good syrup, those strawberries right on in there.

'Course, you got to let some just fly right over.

I'll bring that top right here.

I'ma add a little bit of that glaze right in those crevices, and then we come back to our whipping cream.

Look at that.

And add some on the top.

I like to add a little bit more on this side here.

i fanned out a beautiful strawberry just for our presentation.

We'll put that guy right next to that.

And you're talking about a dish that's beautiful.

And I definitely have to drizzle a little more of that strawberry glaze.

I mean, look at that.

This brings me back to Madisonville, Right?

So I hope you all enjoy.

-Leah's parents, who were resourceful and generous, instilled a sense of purpose in their children.

-When my mother was growing up, Madisonville was a tight-knit community.

They grew up under the household of my grandparents.

They grew up in a very religious household, and so they always had rules and regulations to follow.

And they watched their daughters -- and mostly daughters because the sons came last -- grow up in this community, and they taught them to give and to do whatever they could in the community.

-They weren't brought up to feel you couldn't do anything because you're a female or whatever.

This is what needed to be done around this place, and you're gonna do it.

And like I said about my grandparents, i felt they were serious folks about raising their children to be strong people.

I think they were taught, "this is how we have to work, and you can do it."

-This strawberry spritzer from beverage manager Eve Marie Haydel features the sweet berries that are abundant in the spring on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain.

-I picked this drink because it just makes me think about my grandmother.

She would tell stories of growing up in Madisonville, which is on a north shore, picking strawberries with her father, her mother and her siblings.

Ponchatoula strawberries here in the spring -- you have the Strawberry Fest, and they're just abundant and very sweet and fun to work with.

So Cleo makes this strawberry syrup for us.

So basically it's strawberries boiled down with a little sugar and she'll make a -- like, a strawberry stock.

I don't know all her secrets 'cause she doesn't share them with me, but I just add my little vinegar on the end when she brings it down to the bar for me.

So we're gonna go ahead and start our strawberry Aperol spritz.

So we'll start this one and we'll put about an ounce and a half just at the bottom of this glass and then we'll top it with some ice.

This is a very simple build in the glass.

And then we'll use our Aperol, or aperitivo.

It's an aperitif.

It gets your palate ready for to eat.

So this is a pre-meal drink.

It's topped with prosecco.

And then we're gonna go ahead and put a fresh strawberry on top, like such.

And there's our strawberry Aperol spritz.

-Chef Leah Chase spent a lifetime uplifting the community and building bridges through food.

For more meals that bring people together, Join the Chase family next time on "The Dooky Chase Kitchen: Leah's Legacy."

-Leah Chase's iconic book, "The Dooky Chase Cookbook," has been updated and includes all-new recipes from this series you're watching.

The cookbook is available for $27.95 plus shipping and handling.

To order, please call 1-866-388-0834 or order online at wyes.org.

-My mother was very much a celebratory person, and so was my daddy's side of the family.

We celebrated everything, especially birthdays, baptisms, confirmations.

We would have -- especially baptisms, we would have big parties.

-If we were open for Thanksgiving, we would serve the guests first.

And then right after we would have our family meal, and everybody would come in and we would eat right here in the restaurant.

-If I went to a dance, you know, I would have to stop here to show my grandmother my dress.

Or if it was after any big event, a graduation, if she wasn't able to make 'cause the restaurant was open, we were knocking on the back door -- "Grandmother," you know?

It was like the second ceremony to come see your grandparents.

[ Laughs ] -When you think about a restaurant being around this long, I mean, there are some, but this -- this is not easy, not an easy business.

It can take a toll on families and on, you know, generations to follow.

But they made it work, you know?

-For more information about "The Dooky Chase Kitchen: Leah's Legacy," visit... Funding for "The Dooky Chase Kitchen: Leah's Legacy" was provided by...