Kevin Belton's New Orleans Kitchen

-Funding for "Kevin Belton's New Orleans Kitchen" was provided in part by the L.E. Phillips Family Foundation, Inc. and by the St. Tammany Parish Tourist Commission. Located 40 minutes from New Orleans, the Northshore's Tammany Taste features the chefs and farmers, brewers and bakers of St. Tammany Parish's culinary scene. Learn more at louisiananorthshore.com. -Additional funding was provided by Welbilt -- bringing innovation to the table. -Hi. I'm Kevin Belton. Today in my New Orleans kitchen, my mother was a wonderful cook, but she also loved to go out to eat, so we're going to make some beef tournedos with twice-baked potatoes. We're also going to do some wonderful fried chicken drizzled with a little honey and lemon and baked corn on the cob with a little honey butter. I hope you enjoy these dishes as much as my mom did. Thanks, Mom.

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Hi. Welcome to my New Orleans kitchen. Another great day here in New Orleans. My mother gave me the love of potatoes, so we're going to start off with beef tournedos with twice-baked potatoes. Now, I have some fingerling potatoes. Let's get a little salt on them. Now, I've gone ahead and baked these in the oven, given them a nice little slice. I like the fingerling potatoes because of their flavor. Little bit of vegetable oil just to go in our pan. And just slide that around in the pan. You can take your fingers and just get that moved around, just so it doesn't stick in the pan as this bakes. So, into our potatoes, we're going to go in with a little fresh thyme. We're going to go in with some chives. Chives are just, oh, such a wonderful, wonderful flavor. A little sour cream. We just get that sour cream in. And you notice I didn't put too much seasoning on the potatoes. Okay? I didn't put a lot of salt because we have a special guest coming into our pan. If you know me, you know I love bacon. So, basically, I've taken some bacon, I've cooked it off, and we're going to put that right in, that nice, crispy bacon. Just potatoes and bacon -- they go so well. And you can do this with a red potato. And, you know, Mom was a wonderful cook, but this was one of her favorites when she went out to go eat, steak and potatoes, meat and potatoes. Even though she cooked seafood, even though we have a lot of seafood here, she loved her steak and potatoes. So, on top, a little shredded Parmesan cheese. We could've mixed some inside. Here we're going to put some on the top. And I have our oven preheating, preheating the oven 425 degrees. Now, we're going to put this in the oven. Since our potatoes are already cooked, we just want this to cook long enough to give us a nice crust with this cheese on the top and that sour cream and those chives to get together and give us a great flavor. So, let's get these in the oven. Now, let's take care of our tournedos. You know, if you weren't aware of where tournedo came from, it's that small end of the tenderloin. So, we're going to take -- season them with a little salt. You know, my dad loves steaks, as well. And, you know, as much as my mom cooked at home, this was something that she loved when she went out. Little salt, little pepper. You know, a good piece of meat doesn't need much, okay? Let's turn them over. We always have to season both sides. And, you know, one of the things about a good steak is that -- Most things you cook cold, but with a steak, you might want to take that steak and just let it sit out for about five minutes, just to get that chill off of it. And I just find there something about that steak -- it cooks better once that chill is off of it. Now, in our pan -- I have it heating up -- we're going to go in with a little butter. And we just want to spread this butter around. You know, it's important to have a hot pan. So, you see our pan is hot. Our butter is bubbling. Here -- Hear that sizzle? That means our pan is hot. This is why I love cooking steaks in cast iron. It just holds that heat. And, you know, I think one of the biggest mistakes that we make -- when we put a piece of fish, when we put a piece of meat in a pan, we always put it down and then we try to move it. And then we wonder why it sticks. When you put it down, don't touch it. It creates a natural crust. And then it'll come right up, and it's easy to turn over. Now, with our steaks, we're going to cook them about two to three minutes on each side. Now, let's go ahead and turn our steaks. Look at that nice, crisp sear. That's what we want. When the steaks are thick, as you can see here, this is still a little pink, so it's easily -- Just take your tongs and place it on the side. And now this is ready. Let's turn the fire down. And let's move our meat onto the plate. Now, since we're going to make our sauce right in our pan that we cooked our steaks in, our steaks -- You know, you always hear about letting steaks rest before you cook them. That's what we're going to do. Our steaks are just going to rest here. So, here, into the pan, a little bit of mushroom......a little bit of shallot. And to help deglaze this pan, we're going to put in here a little red wine to help deglaze the pan. Remember that seared goodness we had when we seared off those steaks. This red wine will help get that up off the bottom of the pan. Also into this, just a touch of Creole mustard. Creole mustard is a brown mustard. Little pinch of salt. And you see now this can cook down to reduce. Let's give this just a little... Nice flavor, nice flavor. You can see how we're starting to lose the moisture. The bottom of our pan is totally clean from where we seared our steaks. So what we want to do now is -- To smooth this out, we're going to turn the fire off. And I have butter sitting out at room temperature. This is called creaming out. This butter -- as it melts, it's gonna give our sauce a nice shine. Also, you're going to notice our sauce will start to thicken up. That's because we're adding the butter in off the fire. Let's put a little parsley in this, just a little extra flavor. Our steaks have rested, our sauce is made, and I think our potatoes are done, so let's get ready to plate this beauty up, hopefully with Mom's approval. Many of you all may not like potatoes the way I like potatoes. See, I like that Parmesan cheese on the top to get really crunchy, so I'll take our spoon, and I just made a very thin layer because I'm going to put this on the bottom. I want our potatoes on the bottom. Let's take our steak. Place it on top the potatoes. A little schmear of goat cheese. Let's take our other steak, place it right on the top. Just give it a little press down. And now -- Oh-ho-ho! Look how good that looks. Don't forget we have to put our sauce......just right over the top. Get a little extra sauce on that. We can finish this off with a little parsley to give it a nice little color to it. So, here we have our beef tournedos. I hope Mom is proud. Coming up next, fried chicken with honey. You know, I am a fan of fried chicken. I love fried chicken, especially dark meat. My mother also loved it. So, here, what we're going to do -- I have flour. I'm going to add to our flour a little white pepper. We're going to add in a little black pepper, a little bit of salt. Now, this is the flour that's going to coat our chicken, okay? Little bit of our Creole seasoning and a little more of our Creole seasoning, and now let's just mix this together. Flour doesn't have any flavor to it at all. That's why we want to go ahead and season the flour -- so it has a little flavor to it. And you know what? We're going to do a little extra touch of salt in here. Yes. I remember as a kid going with my mother to eat. And we had a chef here in New Orleans that -- he was known for his fried chicken, and it was absolutely fantastic. And that's -- Every time we went over to eat there, this is what she would get. So, here we're going to season our chicken -- a little salt. We're going to do a little bit of our Creole seasoning. Now, you notice I'm only seasoning the top right now because we're going to spin this baby over. I'm going to show you how to really get this seasoned really well, okay? But we're gonna add a little garlic powder in here. And I'm going to save a little bit. We're going to also do a little onion powder. All right, I'm not putting too much on because -- I'm going to show you. There's a reason why. A little white pepper, a little cayenne pepper. Now, here's what we want to do. I'm going to take this bowl, and I'm going to put our chicken in the bowl. Now, if you want, season your chicken the night before. If you season it the night before, all of these flavors, all of this seasoning is going to get into the chicken. It has time to sit there and just get a wonderful flavor to it. Now we can get in the rest of that garlic powder. We get in the rest of this onion powder, a little more white pepper. Yeah, baby! A little cayenne pepper. Yes, indeed. A little salt. And I know you're saying, "Wow, look at all that salt!" It's okay. It's all right. Just go ahead. Massage it in. Work it in together. Now I have the oil heating up, 365 degrees. And remember -- things fry better when they're cold. I just took this chicken out of the refrigerator because we want it cold when we fry this. What we're going to do -- we're going to take our chicken, dredge it right into our flour, and go right into the fryer with it. So, get the chicken in. Shake off that excess flour and just drop it right into the fryer. Let's get our other thigh. I love dark meat. That's why I'm doing thighs first. Okay? Just give it a little shake right into the fryer. All right. Come on, Mr. Wing. We want to fry this to where if we take a pair of tongs and squeeze that chicken, the juice runs clear. That's when we know chicken is ready. This'll cook for about 12 to 15 minutes. Smaller pieces will be ready in about 10 minutes. So, I always like to make sure I give our baskets a little shake just to make sure our pieces are not sticking together, but look how they're getting a beautiful golden brown. That's why we want to fry cold -- because hot oil will seal it. It seals it, and the juice inside will heat up and cause that chicken to cook. That's how we get that wonderful crispy outside with that nice, moist, moist inside -- because the grease is hot. Fried food should never taste greasy. Look at our chicken -- nice golden brown. Let's just set it on our paper bag for that little bit of excess oil to drain. There we are. Now we can get our next batch of chicken in. Let's get you in. Let's get our leg in. And this little nugget has a home right up top here in the corner. So, while our chicken is cooking, I want to make a little honey with lemon juice just to drizzle on top. This will give us a nice savory with just a hint of sweetness that my mom used to love. Our chicken is almost ready, but last thing we have to do -- Here we have about a 1/2 cup of honey. And we're going to take our lemon, and we're going to put in a little lemon juice into our honey. Lemon always gives a nice flavor, a nice little fresh pop. You know, I think I got the love for sweet and savory from my mother. And I love lemon. All right. Here. Let's set that there. Now let's just give our honey and lemon juice a stir. What's better than these two together? Fried chicken with these two! Yes, that's what it'll be -- really, really good. There we are, so let's check our chicken. Oh, look at that. Those are our little nuggets that we had, that little nugget we had on the side. Look at those drumsticks. This all just looks so wonderful. Now, here, let's get this plated. So, let's take one of the thighs we had earlier. Actually, that's a little piece of breast along with that thigh. Let's take our wing and just put our wing right there on the top. Now, here with our honey and lemon -- depending on how much you like it, just a little drizzle just to give us a little savory with the sweet. And of course, to make it look pretty and to give it a little flavor, just a little fresh parsley right over the top. So, here we have fried chicken with honey that I hope my mom would love. Coming up next, baked corn on the cob with honey butter. You know, we've been doing things all day today that my mother loved to eat when she went out. This was my favorite that she made for me -- corn on the cob. Who doesn't love corn on the cob? Now, what I want to do with our corn -- a little bit of salt and, you know, a little bit of Creole seasoning. And, you know, that seasoning is just going to get right in the grooves of the corn. So, just go ahead and turn your corn over. Give it a little spin so we can get both sides. Get a little turn here, a little turn there, a little more salt, a little more all-purpose seasoning. Can you see how the seasoning -- how it gets right in the grooves? Can you see how that happens? Now, something we're gonna add to this that'll give us a little color, but as well as flavor -- paprika. Paprika is dried, ground red bell pepper, so let's put a little paprika on. Not only does it give us color, but it gives us a nice, mild flavor. Now, if you like a little bit of spice, Hungarian paprika or other dried red peppers, it can be a little spicy. A little bit of parsley on top to add color. But one of the stars of this -- honey butter. I've had this in the refrigerator, and I'm going to show you how to make this. Don't worry. But we're going to take a little bit and just put some on each piece of corn. As this bakes in the oven, our butter will melt, and it'll coat that corn. This is a wonderful butter. You know, some folks like a little herb butter. Some folks like different things in butter. Some folks make a garlic butter. I personally like a little honey butter. Now, what I want to do with this -- I have the oven preheating at 425 degrees. We're going to put this in the oven for about 10 to 12 minutes. About halfway through, I'll take the foil off, and that butter with that little bit of honey in it will glaze our corn. So, let's get this in the oven so I can show you how to make that honey butter. Now, remember -- 375 degrees, 8 to 10 minutes. Take off that foil halfway through or just leave it on the entire way. So, in our mixer, I want to start with some butter. We're going to put in our butter. Now, this is just -- It's cool, at room temperature. Just get that into the -- Oh, come on, butter. Get in there. We're going to use the paddle for this, so let's just get our paddle on. Just put it on slow to get things mixed in. A little bit of vanilla, which will add flavor. Something you may not think about, but a little cayenne pepper. Stop it. Pick it up. Take your spatula just to make sure it gets mixed in. And while I have this up, let's go ahead and also put in our honey. So, let's get our honey in. Now, I had about 1/2 pound of butter here, about 4 tablespoons of honey, just, like, 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper. And we just want this to smooth together. I have a piece of clear wrap, and what we're going to do with our butter -- I'm going to show you how you can put this in the clear wrap, and then we can go ahead and put this in the fridge, put it in the freezer. There we go. You can tell with that honey -- You can tell when it gets mixed in because our butter gets this nice kind of a -- Instead of just being kind of a pale yellow, it gets a little brightness to it. It gets a little golden color to it. So, now let's take this. take out your spatula. Put it onto your clear wrap. But here I'm just going to take this and kind of wrap it over. And I don't know if you've ever made sushi, but just kind of pull it tight, keep it flat, pull it tight to you. Just pull it towards you and just roll. And the thing, like, about clear wrap is now we can take it, spin it. And, you see, we can put this in the refrigerator. We are getting a little glisten on our corn. Now, what I like to do -- I like to take our corn before putting it on the plate and turn it because if you notice, there's some butter down in the bottom of that pan that we want to make sure that we don't lose any of that goodness on there. So, now let's put our corn. Come here. Get a little closer here. Don't move around. Don't fight it. Don't fight it. Get right there. And one last piece to join the club. And you know what? A little extra parsley. So, here we've finished off today with my mom's corn on the cob, with my little twist of honey butter. You know, I really appreciate you spending your time with me. I'm Kevin Belton, and remember -- the absolute best place in the house is sharing your table with your family and friends. So, I'll see you next time. -The companion cookbook to "Kevin Belton's New Orleans Kitchen" is available for $24.99 plus $6 shipping and handling. You can also order an hour-long DVD of favorite dishes from the series, for $19.95 plus $4 shipping and handling. Both the book and "Favorites" DVD are available for $40.95 plus $7 shipping and handling. To order these items, call 1-866-360-4924, or order online at wyes.org. - You're once You're twice You're everything I need You're the dough that I want to make You're the sun, my moon You're my fair cookie You taste so wonderful I'm not gonna share with the crew Because the heat expands, then the cool -- they shrink up. Picture when we jump into a pool of cold water, how we, "Oo-oo-oo-ooh!" All right? That -- Yeah, yeah, yeah. "Oo-oo-oo-ooh!" That's what the shrimp just did. The shrimp went, "Oo-oo-oo-ooh!" We cannot rush a good thing. Do you think I was made instantly? No. I was made -- Over five years it took to make and put me together. Yes. -For more information about "Kevin Belton's New Orleans Kitchen," visit wyes.org. -Funding for "Kevin Belton's New Orleans Kitchen" was provided in part by the L.E. Phillips Family Foundation, Inc. and by the St. Tammany Parish Tourist Commission. A short drive from New Orleans, the Northshore offers epicurean experiences, as well as kayaking, cycling, and tours of the Honey Island Swamp. Learn more about the Tammany Taste at louisiananorthshore.com. -Additional funding was provided by Welbilt -- bringing innovation to the table.