Good Gumbo

What up yall?

Im here in Jackson Square in the Heart of the French Quarter, right outside of Cafe Du Monde, known for their fried beignets and powdered sugar, something I grew up on.

Then we are going to talk about the calas, another fried fritter no-one knows about, but it is synonymous with New Orleans.

This is Good Gumbo.

Beignets are pillowy fried dough squares, smothered in powdered sugar and eaten hot with: New Orleans famous caf au lait.

Beignets are tasty - but they have a lesser known cousin with an interesting history... Calas --- made with an even more famous Louisiana ingredient rice...

This is Miss Barbara.

We are standing out here on beautiful Esplanade lined with these old oak trees, right outside of Le Musee... Free People of Color.

Thats right... Les Gens du Colour Libre And we are going to talk about calas.

Belle calas, Tout chaud calas.

The history of New Orleans free people of color has an interesting connection to the calas.

In the early 1800s, Louisianas Free People of Color made up 1/5th of the citys population.

These were people of African descent who were born free, set free, or purchased their own freedom.

Louisianas slavery laws during colonial times, gave slaves the right to own property, and purchase their own freedom and work for money.

Many slaves did this as street vendors, selling coffee and calas.

Women sold these calas on the street, street vendors.

Yes, they were street vendors, merchants, like the Praline Lady, the Peanut Man, Rose Nicaud with her coffee.

And every vendor had a song to bring people out to purchase their goods.

You would say something like, tout chaud calas!

Tout chaud calas, Madame! Come get your calas!

Ill buy all you got.

Calas are the history, the old history of New Orleans.

Why dont you tell me about that?

We had them for religious purposes when we made our first communion, which we call Little Communion.

Little Communion.

Little Communion in the Roman Catholic Church.

And we also had them on Mardi Gras morning.

So we knew when the Indians were coming out, the black Mardi Gras Indians, because it was time to eat calas for breakfast.

The calas is made with rice.

Rice.

And we eat everything with rice here.

Of course, rice did not grow here, but... And so, we can trace that rice all the way back to Africa.

To Africa, definitely.

When I grew up down here in New Orleans, we used to eat calas.

My mom used to make it in the morning.

Yeah, its morning.

But that tradition has kind of subsided a little bit.

A lot of people do not cook it.

They dont know how to cook it.

So you have another generation, two generations, that know nothing about a calas.

Calas is very important to my house.

It is very important to maintaining the culture.

Yeah, the history Yeah The culture... the family dynamic... the old food ways... Yeah.

We got to save the calas.

Oh Yeah You and I need to get together and go cook some calas at Galatoires.

Id like that.

Miss B!

Miss Barbara, how are you doing today?

I am doing good, cher!

Welcome to the kitchen at Galatoires.

Well, Im glad to be here.

So today, were going to make your famous calas.

Great, great!

Belle calas!

Yeah, theres a secret to the madness and it has to do with the rice.

It has to do with the rice, yes, I always use extra-long grain rice and the rice has to be extremely cold and it has to be a day old, so, in the refrigerator, and you keep it in the refrigerator until youre ready to use it.

OK, and all the simple ingredients, right?

So you have rice, flour, sugar, salt, vanilla, baking powder.

Nutmeg, and eggs.

We mix the rice up and then were going to start adding.

What goes in first?

I need 2 cups of the dried rice.

Two cups of this?

Ill tell you what two cups is.

Right here, thats one cup right there.

Thats two cups.

You sure?

Im positive.

Ill put a little extra to be on the safe side.

Put a little lagniappe.

Mom always said put a little extra to be on the safe side.

Put a little extra.

Ok lets, then you need flour.

OK, this is your flour right here.

The heaping teaspoons of the sugar.

OK. And the baking powder and my nutmeg.

Uh huh.

Throw all this together.

This is your nutmeg.

Oh, OK. You can go with the vanilla.

You cant go wrong with vanilla.

So, we need the flour and the eggs.

So, heres the trick about eggs.

You want to tap them on a flat surface.

Thats what I say.

Everybody tends to do this.

I think you need to do that because, you never know when youre going to get a rotten egg (laughs).

We dont want no rotten eggs.

So, we have all of the flour and everything in here, Yes maam.

So you have to mix it in.

It seems very simple.

It is very, very simple, but if you dont follow the right chain of action, itll just fall apart on you.

So, this is technically a beignet.

Well, no, because it has a filling in it.

So, its a fritter.

A beignet is dried and its empty on the inside Its like a levened dough.

I need a little more rice.

Need a little more rice.

Maybe Ill use my small hands today.

So now were ready to put it in.

Yeah, its bubbling nice, huh?

Its going to come up by itself, brown.

That looks at that.

Thats looks good.

Tout chaud, belle calas!

Cest bon!

And then it starts browning and when its browning, youre gonna put it on the paper towels.

My grandmother used to use a brown paper bag.

Do you, you want to brown both sides, right?

Both sides are brown and its important to have a spoon with the slots in it like that, so the grease can fall off.

Its a good idea if you wanna use peanut oil.

Peanut oil is just as good.

See how quick they frying?

Theyre frying very fast.

This is perfect right here..

Here, that color, they fry fast, they bubble up because of the leveling we add with the baking powder.

Just cool slightly And then you powder them with the sugar.

You are doing good.

Youre doing great, Chef!

This is my first time.

Its my first day.

Youll be a calas man.

Its my first day.

Howmy doing?

Youre doing wonderful!

Ooh, Miss Barbara, these things are cooling down a little bit.

I think so.

So, we need to powder them with a little sugar.

You said, you said, generous.

Generously!

Just go all around.

Cause, theres nothing down here in New Orleans that is not generous, I can tell you, between the revelry and the parties.

I mean, you aint gonna see these calas, no more.

H, it;s good.

I think theyre ready.

Thats good, thats enough.

Lets taste one.

You taste one and Ill taste one.

So, this goes back generations and generations.

To the 1800s.

Tout chaud calas.

Its good.

It is a good thing we were doing.

Here in New Orleans, were keeping up the cultural memory of the food and nothing should ever be changed about the calas.

Yeah.

A lot of our food has been turned over into other kinds of things.

you dont even recognize it.

But you cant do this with food thats here.

You have to preserve the history and the narrative.

I mean, because if its that good, why change it?

Right, it goes with people in the stories, the history, everything and the flavor.

You wouldnt wanna sausage calas.

No, I wouldnt to tell you the truth.

Miss Barbara, this has been fun.

This has been real fun.

We got to cook in the kitchen again soon Yes, we do.

OK?

OK. Craving more?

Check out PBS and Eaters new season of No Passport Required. John Chef Marcus Sammuelsson on a journey across the U.S. to celebrate the incredible immigration traditions and cuisine woven into American food and culture.

Tune in or stream the show on the PBS video app.

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