Kevin Belton's Cookin' Louisiana

-Funding for "Kevin Belton's Cookin' Louisiana" was provided by... -Today on "Cookin' Louisiana," we are crossing Lake Pontchartrain to visit the Florida Parishes.

We're going to start with Hungarian stuffed cabbage rolls.

Then a savory terrine.

And finally, North Shore chicken and market vegetable salad with pepper jelly vinaigrette.

So join me for some notable nuggets from the North Shore.

-You're just fine.

You came out perfect.

You're just how I want you to be.

Hi, guys.

Welcome to my "Cookin' Louisiana" kitchen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this tasty tour of this state's best flavors and dishes.

Today, we're visiting the Florida Parishes of Louisiana.

That's eight parishes.

They lie east of the Mississippi River and north of Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain.

The area was part of Spanish West Florida at the end of Louisiana's colonial era.

Now, that's where it got its name, and it was settled by multiple ethnic groups who, of course, contributed to the heritage of the region.

Late 1800s, Hungarian settlers moved into the area into East Livingston Parish.

So to honor the Hungarians of Louisiana, we're going to kick things off with a traditional stuffed cabbage roll.

Here's the thing about cabbage.

You can take the leaves and steam them.

Look at the leaves.

They're nice and pliable.

I want to get going what we're going to put inside the cabbage leaves.

So let's get our pan turned on.

Get it starting to warm up.

A little olive oil.

So let's get our onions in.

We're going to spread that out.

Let's get our garlic in.

And, you know, here I am putting the garlic in early, but that's okay.

I want it that way.

All right?

I'm going to put just a little touch of our Creole seasoning.

We'll save that because we need to put it in something else.

Little touch of salt.

Now, this may look odd to you, but I have long-grain rice.

I'm going to get our rice in.

And I want our rice to start sauting.

So we're just going to periodically give it a little stir.

This heat will wake it up, and it'll help it to cook.

So let's start to take care of some of the things we're going to put inside of our cabbage.

I am going in with some diced tomatoes.

I have some tomato paste.

Now, this tomato paste, I put it in with the tomatoes so I can get it mixed in and moved around.

It's already getting a nice little bit of body to this.

Okay.

Let's get in some sauerkraut.

Let's give our pan a quick stir.

Matter of fact, I'm going to turn this off.

That's off.

That's just going to rest for just a second.

I also have some extra cabbage leaves.

I'm going to just give them a nice little rough chop because we're going to put that in with our sauerkraut.

In with the sauerkraut.

All right.

All right.

Let's get that extra cabbage in.

Let's get this stirred in with the sauerkraut.

Now, I'm not going to put much seasoning in this.

Matter of fact, the only thing I'm going to put in here -- just a little pinch of salt.

Now, here I have some tomato juice.

I'm going to get about a cup of tomato juice in here.

All right.

That's good.

Now we'll give this a nice stir just to make sure everything gets blended and coated.

Now, let's just set this on the side.

Now, let's take care of the meat we're going to use.

What I have, I have some ground pork and a little ground beef.

Okay, now, guys, don't be shy.

Now, I want to make sure I season this really good.

So let's take our Creole seasoning.

Let's take a little salt.

Not too much.

Now, you remember all those ingredients that we sauted?

Remember our onion and the rice and the garlic that we sauted?

Now it's time to get this in here.

Remember I turned the fire off?

I turned the fire off because I wanted this to cool just a bit before going in.

So now, in you go.

All right, guys.

Now let's get this mixed in really good.

So the onions and the rice are evenly distributed throughout the meat.

Let's take our cabbage leaf.

Lay it down.

Now, let's take a little bit.

Put a little stuffing in.

Here's what we want to do.

Now, pull it real tight.

Fold in.

Fold in.

And roll.

So to get these in our pan, let's put a little bit of our mixture down first.

And we just want to spread some of this out... ...for our cabbage to sit on.

See, it's a nice little bedding.

So, now we take our roll and just place it right there.

So let's get another leaf.

And stuff.

You know, I'm not sure -- I don't know how you all feel about this, but, you know, this takes a little work, but there are often things that take a little extra time.

It just tastes so much better.

It just tastes so much better, I guess, because we have to put a little love into it.

It just makes you feel good that knowing somebody is going to really enjoy the fruits of your labor.

There we are.

Now that we're all in the pan, a little more goodness.

Let's spread a little bit of our cabbage and sauerkraut right over the top.

This moisture is going to help that rice cook.

Oh, yes.

And let's not forget, we have our tomato juice.

Now, these don't have to be totally covered, okay?

So don't feel you have to cover them all the way over.

So I'm just going to pour this along the sides... ...because we're going to put a lid on this.

There we go.

And for those of you that know me, I know you all have been saying, "Hey, Chef hasn't had any bacon in a while."

Here it comes.

We're going to lay a little piece of bacon right like that.

We're going to lay this little piece right like that.

This one is going to go right here.

You are exactly right.

These last two pieces are to show the love for the ones that are here on the side.

Now, I have the oven preheating.

350 degrees.

We need the rice to cook.

So this is going to cook for just a couple of hours, because at 350, it's going to take about that much time for our rice to cook.

Now, if you're not sure if it's ready or not, you can always take one, cut it open, taste the rice, see if it's there.

If it's not there, let it cook in the oven a little longer.

So let's go ahead and get this in our oven.

To tell you the truth, I don't want to touch this.

This just looks so good like this.

But, yeah, I'll go ahead and plate it.

Look, I'm just going to take our spatula.

Let's just get this here with that nice little bacon on the top.

Now, I want to take my spoon.

Remember some of that sauerkraut that we had?

Let's just drizzle a little bit of this sauerkraut with the tomato right over the top.

Finish this off with a little parsley and green onion.

Just to give it a little color plus an added little flavor.

Hungarian soul food -- cabbage rolls.

Coming up next, a charcuterie item -- duck and chicken terrine that's going to be bejeweled with cranberries.

Known for their natural beauty and bounty, the eight parishes that make up Louisiana's Florida Parishes have contributed to the growth and multicultural heritage of the state.

The Albany Hungarian Settlement Museum in Livingston Parish celebrates the contributions made by families who settled in the area to work in the lumber industry.

The Hungarians also learned about growing strawberries from their Italian neighbors in Tangipahoa Parish who were prominent in the development of the Louisiana strawberry industry.

Now, we're going to build a terrine.

You've probably seen this and said, "Wow, how did they do that?"

Well, I'm going to show you.

First off, I have a little ground pork.

In our pork, touch of Creole seasoning.

We're going to get a little salt.

We are doing some crack peppercorns.

All right?

Now, let's just kind of get all of this kind of mixed in.

Now, what I have here, I have a little brandy.

Oh, yes.

I have a little heavy cream.

A pinch more salt.

A touch more Creole seasoning.

Let's just get this mixed in right quick.

So look what I've done.

I've taken our pan, and I've put bacon.

Let's take some of our pork.

We're going to put it down in the bottom.

Just go ahead and press it down.

So we're going to take our chicken breast.

We're going to lay one down.

We're going to take our other chicken breast, lay it down.

And notice, I'm just pressing it gently, okay?

Now, I have some parsley.

We're going to do a layer of parsley leaves.

We just want to make sure that they get spread out.

It's like putting a blanket of parsley over our chicken.

Now let's take some of the pistachios.

Just sprinkle them right on the top, with the cranberries Sprinkled right over the top.

All right?

And I'm going to take our duck, lay it.

Just lay it.

All right?

We'll get our remaining pistachios here on top of the duck.

Now let's put on our dried cranberries right here on the top.

So now, let's take the rest of our pork.

You guessed it, it's going right over the top.

So let's put some here.

Let's put some on this side.

And, you know, what's nice about something like this, it doesn't have to be picture perfect.

Just get it spread out.

I have a little more bacon.

Here's what we're going to do.

We're going to fold our bacon in on both sides.

Now I'm going to take this and lay it across and just tuck it.

Yes!

All right.

Let me get this done, and then I'll show you what I'm talking about.

Two pieces of foil because I want to double wrap this, okay?

I have the oven 325 degrees.

Now, I'm going to wrap this up really good.

This is going to cook for an hour.

Because of our bacon and our pork, we're going to get some oil.

After the hour, take it out of the oven.

Be careful.

Let it cool just a bit.

Open it up and just pour off the excess fat, okay?

Pour off that excess fat.

After that, I take a piece of cardboard cut out that will fit right in our pan.

I wrap it in foil.

Put it on top.

Then I weight it down with -- You can use fruit.

You can use a couple of cans.

Put it in the refrigerator.

And that way, that weight presses it down to compress, and it gets nice and firm.

So let's get this in the oven.

Just want to make sure I create a nice seal.

This is a loaf of goodness.

Now, remember, in the refrigerator, we want to weight it down.

So here's an option.

See, here's our cardboard that's wrapped in foil.

If you take another pan and set it on the top, now you could put something in here that's heavy to weight it down -- potatoes, a couple of cans, anything to weight it down.

So we take that off.

We take off our cardboard because that helped compress it.

And look at what we have.

I think I can get it from this end because it's going to come right out.

All right.

Now let's give this a nice little cut.

Look at our layers!

Look at the layers!

Here, I'll make another cut.

Come here.

Just lay right there.

All right?

Now, to serve this, let me show you some options.

We could put some pearl onions around.

We could put some little cornichons around.

We could take a couple of baguettes to place around.

You could do Dijon mustard, or you could do Creole mustard, whatever you like.

That robust terrine would be a perfect starter for a festive dinner party.

Or how about for a great snack?

Next, because of the natural beauty and healthy climate of the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain, it's going to be the inspiration for a salad dressed with pepper jelly vinaigrette.

In the late 1800s, the area of the Florida Parishes bordering Lake Pontchartrain became a health and vacation resort for New Orleanians.

The opening of the Causeway Bridge in 1965 helped strengthen ties to the piney woods and rivers of the north end of Louisiana's largest lake.

St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, and Washington Parishes are known as the North Shore, which is a rich source of seafood as well as produce from area farms.

When you go swimming, you just don't dip just your toe in the pool.

You go all in.

So I decided to go all in and be healthy.

I'm going to air fry our chicken.

I've seasoned it with our Creole seasoning, taken a little all-purpose vegetable spray and misted it.

Now, I have the air fryer set at 350 degrees.

Now, usually on the bone, this will take 20 to 25 minutes, but because it's boneless, this should be done 15 to 20 minutes.

So let's get it in.

All right.

I have some Roma tomatoes that I just halved.

I'm just going to put them right down in the pan, right onto the pan.

Because once they roast, I like to take the skins off.

The other thing I have here is some corn.

Let's just put it on the pan.

We're going to roast this in the oven.

If you wanted to leave it on the cob and roast it on the cob in the oven, that's fine.

I also have a little bit of red onion.

Now, I'm just going to take our onion and just pull those little rings apart.

All right.

Now, also, I've sprayed the pan with a little oil so our vegetables won't stick to our pan.

So that little bit of oil will also help them roast.

So let's get them in the oven.

350 degrees.

They're going to be in there roughly 20 minutes.

They could be in 30 minutes.

Depends on how much of a toasted flavor that you want on them.

So let's go ahead and put our dressing together.

So in our bowl... ...let's start with a little red wine vinegar.

To this, I'm going to add a little vegetable oil.

Now, if you're wondering, "Hey, why did he set that towel around it?"

Because I'm going to whisk as I put the oil in.

Now, I just want about 1/4 cup of oil.

There we go.

That should be good right there.

What do you think?

Yeah, that's good enough.

All right.

Let's go in with a little black pepper.

Let's go in with a little pinch of salt.

Let's get in our Creole mustard.

There we go.

We have our mustard in.

Let's get in our pepper jelly.

There we go.

All right.

All right.

I'm using a whisk to just get this all together.

Now, let's get in a little shallot.

And if you want to put a little green onion or parsley in here, you know, I tell you what, that's fine.

Let me show you what I'm going to do with this, okay?

You come here.

What I have, I have a little bit of romaine.

I have also some arugula.

So let's take some of our dressing, get it onto our lettuces.

Not too much.

And let's give this a toss just to get it coated, okay?

So I'm going to let this sit.

These flavors will blend, and we'll check on our vegetables.

We'll get our chicken out, and I'll show you how we're going to put this together.

Let's take our lettuce that we dressed.

And I just like to just make a nice bed of the lettuce.

All right?

Now, I'm going to take some cucumbers.

This is an English cucumber that I sliced.

Now, I'm going to put our grape tomatoes here, but you could also use cherry tomatoes or any small tomato that you happen to have.

Just cut them in half.

See, they add a wonderful addition.

So now, let's take some of our onion and that corn mixture.

Let's put some onions here.

I'm going to take some of this corn and put our corn on the other side.

Oh, yes.

Now, do you remember our roasted tomatoes?

Here they are.

Let's just get some of those roasted tomatoes, put them next to our corn.

These are the Roma tomatoes that we just cut them in half, took off the skin.

And in the oven, they just have a nice, nice flavor.

Now, I'm going to take our avocado.

I'm going to fan it.

I'll put some avocado here, fan a little bit right across the back.

And now we have to get the star of the show.

Oh!

You smell so good to me Let's put it down.

Now, I'm just going to take our knife.

I'm just going to cut it in slices.

Nice little thin strips.

One more.

There we are.

Look at that chicken.

So now let's just take our chicken, put it right on our salad.

Right on our salad.

Just a little chiffonade of basil all around.

Of course a little bit of green onion just to give a little color.

Very delicate raw onion flavor, all right?

So there we go.

This chicken and market vegetable salad just reminds me so much of the fresh local produce that you find in the farmer's markets on the North Shore.

Thank you so much for joining me on this culinary road trip.

Now, keep that party rolling.

Bring the big flavors of Louisiana to your home.

So, I'll see you next time for more "Cookin' Louisiana."

-The companion cookbook to "Kevin Belton's Cookin' Louisiana" is available for $28 plus shipping and handling.

You can also order an hour-long DVD of favorite dishes from the series for $19.95 plus shipping and handling.

Both the book and favorites DVD are available for $43.95 plus shipping and handling.

To order these items, call 1-866-360-4928 or order online at wyes.org.

-Now, I have a king, I have a queen, I have a jack.

-What the heck?

I don't have anything good!

-But I don't have a 10, a 9, or an 8.

Actually, I am 102 years old, but because I've been cooking so long, look at my face, because the steam, it's the steam.

The steam seasons the face, okay?

It's the steam.

The steam seasons the face.

That's why I'm 102 and look the way I do.

Are you lonely?

Have you not been out in a long time?

Well, I have a date for you.

Come on, baby Let's do the twist Start checking to make sure we have an internal temperature of 100 and -- No, we don't want to come to you.

I didn't want to come to you because we have to go over here to make the sauce.

So I'm going back to the oven because we're going over here because we have to make our glaze.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Keep the receipt.

Oh, wait.

Ooh, ooh, ooh!

Look at that!

Wait, wait.

Don't close the register yet.

-For more information about "Kevin Belton's Cookin' Louisiana," visit wyes.org.

-Funding for "Kevin Belton's "Cookin' Louisiana" was provided by...