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

Phillips Family Foundation, Inc. -I'm Kevin Belton!

Today on "Cooking Louisiana," we'll salute the rice of Louisiana with a visit to Acadia Parish.

How about waking up with a breakfast paella?

Then, for lunch, Cajun shrimp bowl?

And how about finishing off the day with some chocolate-chocolate buttermilk pie?

Louisiana rice is so very, very nice.

Let's get cooking.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ Speaking Cajun ] How are you doing today?

Welcome to my "Cooking Louisiana" kitchen, and I want to thank you for joining me for this tasty tour of the state's best flavors and dishes.

Now, today, guess where we're going?

Acadia Parish, where life is "rice" and easy.

Yeah, you heard me.

That's right.

This parish on the Cajun prairie is rice country.

Fact, the parish seat Crowley is known as the rice capital of the world.

Now, we're going to have a very "rice" day today, starting with the morning version of a classic Spanish dish -- breakfast paella.

What do you think about that?

That's gonna be good.

So, you notice I have my paella pan.

And, you know, paella is like a cousin of jambalaya.

They're all related because basically the rice is cooking in flavors.

Now, you notice I just turned my pan on, and I'm taking my bacon and spreading it out.

I just want to render the fat out of the bacon a little bit, not to get it crispy, all right?

But, you know, you heard me mention jambalaya.

Where you see us always do jambalaya is in a big cast-iron cauldron or big pots.

Paella's a little different because paella cooks in the oven.

And that's why the paella pans are wide and shallow, but pretty much the same effect, okay, except the rice is spread out as opposed to all being on top of each other.

There's something a little bit different.

So as you see our bacon rendering here, what we're trying to get is some oil to come out of this bacon.

That's what we want.

We're gonna -- you notice I didn't put any oil in the pan because we're gonna get that oil for the pan from the bacon.

That's why I'm just kind of moving it around.

And you can do this low and slow.

But, you know, I have the fire up a little bit 'cause this is gonna be nice, and look -- a little bit Louisiana smoked sausage.

Now, if you using any type sausage at home to do Louisiana cooking, use anything that's firm, use something that's smoked.

All right?

You don't want a fresh sausage that cooks apart, but you want something that's firm that's gonna hold together.

All right, so while this is doing this, let me introduce you to our stock, because I tell you what, we're gonna have a lot of flavor in our stock.

So I have chicken stock, and I have it heating up.

The first thing I'ma put in here is a little cayenne pepper.

All right?

Next thing we're gonna put in -- a little smoked paprika for a nice smoky flavor.

Now, this is what makes paella, paella.

This is saffron.

Now, saffron is something that we all ordinarily don't keep always at home, but it always goes into paella.

And even though it's this little bit, it adds such a flavor.

It's so good.

So let's get our saffron in.

And we're just gonna give this a little quick stir just to get that mixed in, and I have this on a low fire, just simmering, so those flavors -- I had it heated up so those flavors can release.

You know, it's all about flavors.

That's what cooking is all about, is all about those flavors.

And you see, even with our sausage here, it's heated all the way through.

I don't necessarily want it browned off that much.

So in our center of our pan, let me move it a little bit.

Let's get a little oil in here, and let's put in some onions.

Now, I'm gonna let those onions sit there for just a second.

I don't want them to brown off.

We want them to release the flavor.

So that's why I just put them right in the middle, similar to the bacon.

We got that fat rendered out of the bacon.

Here, we want that flavor coming out of the onions.

Not so much to brown it off, but just to spread that flavor throughout.

So let's go with a little bit of our Creole seasoning.

We're gonna go with a little bit of salt.

Oh, we're gonna get this sturdy and right quick.

One of the reasons why the paella pan was designed this way was the fact that, you know, if you're using a Dutch oven, once you do your bacon, you might take it out, do the sausage, then take it out.

Here with the paella pan, if you notice, I am just creating a well right in the middle and adding the ingredients right in the middle.

So we're gonna do some white beans.

We'll get our white beans in there.

And you see, we're putting them right where this heat is and they only need to heat up for just a little bit and then mix them in with everything else.

So you can see how the flavors start off heating up and then they continually heat as we mix them in and spread out.

Oh!

Paella is so good.

If you haven't had a paella, you really ought to try it.

You know, it's like I said, it's a cousin of jambalaya.

Oh, and it is just so good.

Now, here, this is crushed tomatoes, okay?

If you have fresh tomatoes, you want to de-seed them, diced them really good, and mash them.

But if you want to use canned, that's fine.

These are just crushed tomatoes.

I have a friend -- his mom, when she would make her paella, she just took fresh tomatoes and chopped them up, so you saw tomato pieces throughout.

I like using the crushed tomatoes because the flavor is just there.

It's really good.

Let's get a little more seasoning.

And I know you're saying, "Man, it looks like a lot of seasoning," but remember, rice absorbs a lot of flavor.

Now, I'm not saying make it hot, but we want it seasoned to be flavorful.

Now, I'm gonna spread this out.

And for paella uses a short- to medium-grain rice, okay?

Where typically a lot of dishes in Louisiana, we use a long-grain rice, This is a short- to medium-grain rice, and it's grown right here in Louisiana.

So we just want to sprinkle this over kind of evenly over the top.

Oh, come on, there we go.

There we go.

Let me move you out of the way to get a little bit right over here.

And then we're gonna start putting some of our lovely stock in.

All right, hop on in, join your friends.

Now, let's start pouring some of our stock, just right on over our rice.

Oh, yes.

And, you know, I'm just gonna kind of move this around just a little bit to get that rice in there.

So now that our rice is in, and you notice it's coming up to a boil.

Now, this is where everybody does a little bit different.

Some folks will let the stock cook down to where it's even with the rice, about five minutes, then they put it in the oven.

So I just like to just move it around a little bit.

I want you to look at how our stock has cooked down.

It's almost even with the rice.

You know, it's just one of those things that just takes a little patience.

So now we can go ahead, turn our fire off.

I have the oven preheating at 425 degrees, okay?

We're gonna put this in the oven and periodically check it.

In about 15 minutes, if we need a little more stock, if we find it cooking too fast, we can put a little more stock over the top.

That's why I have that extra stock.

So let's get this in the oven.

425 degrees, 15 minutes, We'll check our rice to make sure it's cooked, then we're gonna take it out and let it rest for 15 minutes covered.

I can't wait for you to see this -- how I'm gonna dress it out.

Oh, breakfast paella!

Yeah!

Ta-da!

Look at that.

Oh, doesn't that look good?

And look -- we can see beans, we can see smoked sausage, we can see little pieces of bacon, we can see the onions, we can see everything there, the race and all.

And, you know, typically this isn't stirred.

It's served just like this.

Where sometimes with jambalaya, folks will fluff it up, here, just leave it just like this.

Now, what I have here -- I have roasted red bell peppers.

And if you take the bell peppers, you know, this is something where you can get the kids involved.

No matter what was being served, my mom always had a pot of rice on the stove because that's what we grow.

Okay, let's get this.

Let's take these boiled eggs.

And let's just set those around.

All right?

Oh, yeah, you're starting to look good.

You're starting to look good.

And lastly, you know, I always like to garnish it with some lemon.

So here, let's pop a little piece of lemon right there in the middle, and let's just put some around the edges.

Lemon always brighten things up so well.

All right?

And who would have thought paella for breakfast?

But I tell you what, it eats really, really good.

So how about this?

Our first dish -- an Acadia Parish breakfast paella.

What a delicious way to start any day.

Now, next, two of my favorite foods come together in a Cajun shrimp bowl.

Can you guess what they are?

-We're just outside of Crawley, Louisiana, in Mowata.

I'm here with Michael Hundley, who grows rice, and we're in his brother's place, Kelly's Landing.

Rice -- in Louisiana, we have to have it, don't we?

-Oh, yeah.

It's the staple crop of the state.

You plant a rice crop in the spring, and you normally start harvesting in July, August, September.

-What's your favorite way to eat rice?

-Oh!

Rice and gravy on etoufee.

-Can't beat it.

-Rice, rice, rice, rice, rice!

That's right.

Hey, butter in the pan.

And I'm gonna throw in our rice.

I'm gonna throw in a little garlic.

And I know you're looking at me like, "What is this man doing?"

Well, you know, putting the rice in the pan like this and in butter -- it kind of coats it.

It gets that butter on it really good.

So we've been talking about rice today and we've been talking about long grain, medium grain, short grain.

The shorter the grain, the starchier the rice.

So depending on what we're making, depending on the type of rice that we use.

And in Louisiana, we grow different types of rice.

We grow the long grain, the short, medium, but we also grow jasmine rice.

We also grow wild rice.

Now, wild rice is actually a grain.

It's an aquatic grain, but that's grown as well, because our climate is just primed for that rice.

Our climate is damp and humid, and that rice loves it.

So now, let's get this seasoned.

Let's get a little bit of Creole seasoning in.

And, yeah, I'm putting in a good bit just because of the fact that, remember, rice absorbs a lot of flavor.

We're gonna get a little salt.

Let's give this a stir, and now let's get our stock in.

Little chicken stock.

This is one of the most important things that you can do, gang, is cook with a flavored liquid, all right?

Stock cube, bouillon cube, soup base -- put something in water for flavor.

Never just cook with plain water.

Get in the habit of try cooking with stocks and see how much that changes your flavor in your cooking.

It'll improve it 100%.

So you see, we're getting back to a boil.

Now we want to go ahead and cover this.

And while this is cooking, we're gonna go ahead and take care of our shrimp.

It's boiling!

For our shrimp, remember, I had butter in the pan?

I'm gonna use the rest of that butter to pour right over our shrimp -- that extra butter right over our shrimp that we had from in the pan.

We're gonna do a little bit of salt.

Let's do a little bit of our Creole seasoning -- not too much, just a smidge -- and some green onions.

Now, I'm just gonna give this a little toss, give this a little love.

You know, one of the other advantages of growing rice is the fact that our shrimp are gonna sit here in this little buttery love.

Now it's time.

Let's check on our rice.

Oh, yes.

Now, let's turn the fire down low.

Oh, yes.

Now, all we have to do is get our shrimp in, and our shrimp are only gonna take two or three minutes to cook, so let's get that shrimp and that butter in there with those green onions.

Give this a quick little stir.

Our shrimp will cook in just two to three minutes.

All right?

So we'll cover this up.

Just a little more heat to finish off those shrimp.

Now, I'm gonna serve this in a bowl, and I'm gonna garnish this with a little parsley and green onion, like I always do.

Let's turn our fire off.

Let's get a little spoon.

Oh, yeah.

You know, in south Louisiana, we're always trying different things.

You know, we mentioned earlier about jambalaya?

Well, you know, hey, there's a lot of rice.

We have a lot of seafood.

So why not put those things together?

You know, in south Louisiana, there's a little town called Delcambre.

Oh, man, the shrimp boats come in and out of Delcambre, oh, and look at this.

So here we have our little shrimp and our rice.

Little bit of green onion, little bit of parsley.

And that's a little bit of goodness.

Oh, I am just bowled over by this Cajun shrimp bowl.

Now, some chocolaty goodness to complete our Acadia Parish tour -- an old-fashioned chocolate buttermilk pie.

[ Slurps ] -Now, Michael, everybody knows south Louisiana and thinks of Cajun as Bayou Cajuns.

But there are prairie Cajuns, right?

-Right, right, and you're in the heart of it.

Crawfish was kind of native to the area, and them people would catch them on the ditches, on the side of the roads.

And in the '80s, there was a few farmers in the area that started, "Hey, I'm gonna try this in a rice field."

You know, it really took off.

Rice is our main crop.

But crawfish is starting to be just as important as the rice crop is.

-Now, who does not like chocolate?

Really?

You put your hand up.

Okay, leave the room.

No, you can stay and watch.

Just stay and watch because you can do this with something else if you want, all right?

What I have here is chocolate sandwich cookies that I've just run them in the food processor.

To this, we're gonna add melted butter.

This is going to be for our crust.

Okay, we just put the butter right in.

Just take a fork, get it stirred around.

Basically, this is going to moisten our cookie crumbs.

See, why that butter's important because it'll stick together.

Now, I'm gonna take our pie dish... ...put our crumbled cookies in.

Don't want to lose any of that goodness.

Now, here, I'm just gonna take a little glass bowl.

You can do this with a Mason jar.

Press the bottom.

You know, kind of get it started, but I'm gonna go ahead and use my hands for this.

I was just showing you something that, you know, somebody told me a trick they showed me.

But we're gonna go with our hands and just press it down.

All right.

There we go.

Just around the sides.

This is going to end up in a preheated oven, 350 degrees, just for about 8 minutes.

Oh, we got a little hole there.

Let's get a little bit.

You know, you don't have to come so far up the sides if you don't want to, because the further up the sides we go, the less we have at the bottom.

So now let's go put this baby in our oven for just about 8 minutes.

350 degrees, 8 minutes.

We'll take it out.

We'll let it cool a little bit.

Now let's get to work on our filling.

In our skillet, I've melted some butter.

All right, let's get that fire on.

And this filling is gonna be chocolaty.

And I know, I know, I know.

Remember, if you're not a chocolate fan, do it without a chocolate.

So, butter.

Sugar.

And we're gonna put in some cocoa powder.

Now, those of you that had your hand up that didn't like chocolate, okay, don't put the cocoa powder in.

But we're gonna put the cocoa powder in here and just get this stirred in.

And I'm just gonna leave this on a low fire because we want our sugar to dissolve.

So we just want to get this all incorporated.

I'll tell you what -- this smells pretty darn good.

You know, I've done this pie before.

You know, we did the chocolate sandwich cookies, but I've used a lemon sandwich cookie.

I've used different type cookies -- you know, a shortbread -- to make the crust with.

So try different things.

So while our sugar's dissolving, let's get to work on our eggs and get those whipped up.

So in our bowl, we have our eggs, and I'm not gonna break out the hand mixer for this.

I'm just gonna use a whisk and whip these eggs up to -- basically, we're getting some air into them.

See, we just want to whip this to get some air into our eggs.

Now, our chocolate -- just that quick, our sugar dissolved.

This does not take very long.

So now the fire is out.

We're gonna let this sit here.

Actually, I'm gonna put it on a different burner.

Take it off that burner.

It's off the fire.

Now, let's go back to this custard part.

Now, you know, buttermilk pie is also known as one of those desperation pies, or make-do pies, that just use simple, readily available ingredients that are right there in the pantry.

Now, often they were made when you had nothing left to make them with, okay?

So our eggs are beaten.

Let's get in a little buttermilk.

And we're gonna get in a little flour.. You know, when you make any type of custard pie, you want everything mixed really well, all right?

So our flour, our buttermilk is in there with our eggs.

All right, we're gonna do a little pinch of salt in here right now, just a little bit of salt.

Oh, yeah.

Ooh!

I think our pie crust is done.

Hi.

Come join the party.

See, we just wanted this in the oven just long enough for that to come together.

Now, let's go ahead and finish off our custard.

Make sure this is whipped really, really well and mixed really well together.

This is also giving a second for this to cool.

Now, let's go ahead and just get this right on in.

Oh, yes, yes, yes.

Remember, we just wanted our sugar melted.

And here's the important part.

We have to whisk this in really, really, really well.

And while I'm whisking, I'm gonna add a little vanilla.

Just make sure it's thoroughly mixed.

And I think that's good to go.

Let's put our whisk right here.

We're gonna just take and pour right into our pie shell.

Okay, hold up right there.

Now we have all our goodness in, now this has to bake in our 350-degree oven for at least 45 minutes.

The edges will be firmer than the middle.

So the edges actually might get a little crusty than the middle, but that's okay.

That's when you can tell it's done.

So let's get this in the oven.

All right.

Just take your time with this custard.

Okay, bake pretty!

350 degrees, 45 minutes, it'll be done, we'll clean up.

Oh!

Can't wait to get a spoon in it.

Now, guys, I want you to look at something on our pie.

Remember I was speaking how the edges will cook?

You know, when something cooks, it cooks from the outside toward the center.

And if you look right along here, you can see those little tiny bubbles along the edges.

That's what I was saying, how the outsides will cook a little crustier then the center.

So I'll tell you what -- talk about a desperation pie?

I am desperate for a bite of this.

I'll tell you what -- this chocolate buttermilk pie, I'm sure, is gonna put a smile on your face, just like the smile on my face because you joined me today -- thank you so much for that -- on culinary road trip.

Now, keep that party rolling.

Bring the big flavor 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.

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

The stem seasons the face, okay?

It's the stem.

The stem seasons the face.

That's why I am 102 and the way I do.

[ Normal voice ] 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 don't want to come to you because we have to go over here to make this sauce, so I'm going back to the oven because we're going over here 'cause we have to make our glaze.

All right, thank you very much.

Keep the receipt.

Oh, wait.

Oh, oh, oh, look at that!

Oh, wait, I got -- 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 the L.E.

Phillips Family Foundation, Inc. ♪