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

Today on "Cookin' Louisiana," we're visiting Avoyelles Parish, which is smack dab in the middle of the state.

How about smoked meat gumbo?

Then crispy glazed duck, which is gonna be on stone-ground grits.

And finally, Creole spice mixed nuts.

Ooh, there are a lot of you out there.

I might need some more grits.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Y'all are gonna be so good together.

I can't wait for everybody to meet y'all.

Hi, guys.

Welcome to my "Cookin' Louisiana" kitchen.

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

Now, this time, we're gonna make a stop in [French accent] Avoyelles, [normal voice] or Avoyelles Parish.

Now, this is in central-eastern Louisiana.

Now, the parish actually sits smack-dab in the middle of the state, and it's the crossroads between its northern and southern traditions.

Now, it's named for a Native American tribe who lived in the region.

Avoyelles is the base of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana.

So [French accent] Avoyelles, [normal voice] or Avoyelles, is known for its gumbo.

So that's why I'm starting off with a gumbo starring five -- yes, five -- different smoked meats.

Let me introduce you.

We have a little smoked turkey.

We have some andouille.

We have smoked sausage.

We have tosso.

And we have a smoked ham hock, all smoky, all for our great flavor of the gumbo.

Now, we need to make this roux.

I have my pan heating up.

We're gonna use a little vegetable oil.

The original roux was butter and flour.

Somewhere along the way, somebody decided, "Hey, let's cook it longer to see what happens," and that flour started to change color.

Well, flour and butter can only get to a dark peanut butter color, so they started using oil.

Now, here you notice I had that pan on heating up.

We don't have to get it smoking.

You know, you see that little sizzle in there?

That's good.

So let's get our flour in.

I'm gonna use a paddle just to make sure that we don't scorch.

Equal amounts flour and oil.

We just have to make sure we're stirring the entire bottom of the pan.

So as you look at this change colors, okay, I want you to think of a slice of bread in the toaster.

So the longer it cooks, the more it toasts, the different flavor it has, the deeper flavor it has.

And that's the same thing that happens here.

You notice I'm not stirring this all crazy.

Don't panic.

It's not burning.

And you notice it's also starting to thicken on us.

The thickening is a reaction of the flour.

Flour has gluten in it, and gluten is what makes flour a thickener.

See how this is getting nice and smoky?

Look how this has changed colors.

So to stop our roux from cooking, let's go in with some vegetables.

We're gonna go in with a little onion... ...a little celery, and a little bell pepper.

You all know that as the trinity.

Remember, liquid-based vegetables -- not only do they give us liquid, they give us flavor.

So the moisture from our vegetables help stop this roux from cooking.

Now, let's get some seasoning in here.

Let's show this a little love.

We're gonna do a little bit of salt.

And we're gonna get in some of our Creole seasoning.

Ah, yes!

We're gonna throw in some bay leaves.

Bay laurel trees -- they grow wild in Louisiana.

So we'll throw some bay leaves in.

And leave them whole.

Don't break them up.

And let's get in some of our meats.

Now, I have this ham hock here that is a nice smoky flavor, so I'll set him in the corner.

Let's put our other meats in... ...and just get them stirred in really well.

I used the moisture from the vegetables to stop that roux from cooking.

If you wanted to sauté off your meats to brown them off, brown them off, turn the fire off, put your trinity on top, make your roux in a skillet, then pour it over and stir everything together.

That'll stop that roux from cooking, and you will have browned off your meats.

So let's get in some stock.

Now, I'm using chicken stock.

I'm gonna put a little in.

[ Sizzling ] I'm so sorry.

That sound is just a wonderful sound.

All right, that little bit of liquid got up any little goodies that might have been sticking to the bottom of that pot.

But you know what?

I'm sure I didn't have any goodies stuck there, especially from the roux.

Now, one thing about gumbo -- it has to boil.

It has to boil for two reasons.

One, we want this roux to become smooth.

For the roux of smooth out, it has to boil.

The other thing is for the flavors to blend together.

And gumbo is one of those things where as soon as it comes to a boil, turn it down and let it simmer.

The longer it simmers, the more the flavors blend together.

And finally now that we have some liquid in here, let's get in a little crushed garlic, just a little minced garlic.

Oh, yes.

So, we're gonna get this up to a boil, let it simmer, and, oh.

Now, you all have something to decide, and I'll explain it to you.

Do you want your gumbo with rice or potato salad?

I'll tell you that story.

Let's get cleaned up, and I'm gonna show you how we're gonna serve our gumbo... [whispers] with rice.

[ Normal voice ] Now, here's the thing about gumbo.

Remember I said it had to come to a boil?

As soon as it gets to a boil, I've had friends dig in the pot, okay?

Personally, I try to let it cook longer.

The longer it simmers, the more the flavors blend together.

45 minutes, an hour, two hours.

I have eaten the sandwich for lunch, made a gumbo right after that for dinner, and let it go for three hours, just barely simmering, because I ate so I wouldn't pick at it.

So here, let's finish this off.

A little bit of green onion.

You know, I like to put some in right before serving.

You could put into the entire pot.

A little bit of parsley.

Oh, let's just get that stirred in and get this served over some rice.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, look at you.

You are so pretty.

Oh, you're so pretty.

All right.

Let's finish this off -- little bit of green onion.

Now, I promised I was gonna tell you about that potato salad thing, you know?

My folks come from south Louisiana, and I grew up with Grandmother.

She would serve her gumbo with rice and potato salad.

So you had your choice.

Often folks put a little side of potato salad where they just take it, dip it in the gumbo, and taste it.

But today we served it with rice.

How about that for an incredible smoked meat gumbo?

Now, you've heard of shrimp and grits.

Today I'm making crispy glazed duck on stone-ground grits.

-The Tunica-Biloxi Tribe is an amalgamation of tribes, and when we settled here in Avoyelles in the late 18th century, there was so many cultures represented in Louisiana.

We're bringing back old traditions, the language, and teaching it to our children and to our community.

Our powwow -- it's an opportunity for the Tunica-Biloxi to share our specific cultural heritage with the public.

-Guys, we're gonna do duck, but we're gonna serve it on some stone-ground grits.

Now, if you've never had grits, it's ground corn.

Look at that, okay?

Now, unlike the stone-ground, they're a little coarser, all right?

And we're gonna cook them in stock.

Often, you find these for breakfast.

But I tell you what -- those purists like me, we eat them as well for dinner.

So I have our chicken stock in.

Let's go ahead and get our grits in.

We're gonna stir this really well, but you know what?

I'm also gonna cook them in some milk, so let's get in some milk.

It's important when you first put grits in the pan, stir it.

You can cook them quick, in about 15 minutes.

Sometimes I like to turn the fire real low and let them go low and slow and let them get very, very, very creamy.

So let's get in a little bit of salt.

Not too much.

We'll put in a little bit of our Creole seasoning.

Notice how small amounts I'm putting in?

I controlled myself.

So as this starts to cook, we'll get this up to a boil, but now let's take care of some duck.

Here I have two duck breast, and what I want to do with these duck breasts -- I want to score them.

You know, the skin is very thick on duck, and it's a lot of fat.

So I'm just gonna take our knife.

Come right across.

Come right across.

Give it a turn.

And see, we're just gonna score this on a diamond pattern.

Now, you try not to cut too far, especially down into the meat.

So now that our duck are scored, let's make a marinade.

A little hoisin sauce.

We're also gonna get in a little bit of rice vinegar.

Oh, you see the flavors that we're going with.

All right.

A little bit of five-spice.

Uh, don't mind me.

Remember I told you the worst thing to do is scorch your grits?

Let's give our grits just a stir.

Matter of fact, let's turn our fire kind of low.

Yes, they're cooking so nice.

And what you're gonna see is, as it cooks, it starts to bloop, bloop, bloop.

Yeah, that's what we call grit goodness.

All right.

Now, back to our marinade.

Here, what we have -- garlic and ginger.

And this is why you can go ahead and put this in a blender or a food processor, okay?

But here with the ginger, when you have a fresh piece of ginger, just take a spoon and scrape it.

That's the easiest way to peel ginger.

Now, cut this up, smash it with a knife, and just cut it.

We'll get that in.

And we're gonna get in some garlic.

Okay, okay, we're gonna get in a lot of garlic, all right?

You know I love garlic.

Sorry about that.

You have to tend the grits.

You have to take the time and tend with them.

Okay, but see, that moisture is evaporating, and they're starting to get thick.

See, you can multitask.

All right, let's get this ready.

Come on.

We're gonna marinate our duck breast.

Get this in your little dish.

Just kind of get it spread out.

We're gonna take our meat and set it down just like that.

All right, you don't want the skin side down.

Now, I like to go ahead and let this marinate anywhere from a half hour, couple of hours.

Many times, I do it the night before, and that way, it really has time to get flavor in.

So if you notice here, I have some that are already marinated.

Can you kind of see the difference?

When you take them out of the refrigerator, before you cook them, you want them to sit, not to get quite to room temperature, but you don't want them cold directly out of the refrigerator, because now we're gonna render this fat out of this skin.

So let's get ready for that.

Now, our pain is hot, so let's get the skin side down.

[ Sizzling ] Notice I'm not moving it.

I'm letting it sit there.

We want this to cook like this for about five minutes, because we want to render that fat out of that skin.

So while this is rendering, let's go ahead and take care of our grits.

See how creamy the grits are?

That's one of the important things about cooking grits, is you want to cook them creamy just so they're not gritty.

Let's go ahead and shut them off.

Butter, okay?

This butter is gonna go in.

While our butter melts in here, take a look at our pan with our duck in it.

Notice how much oil is now in this pan, okay?

Now, you know where that's from?

That's right.

That's from rendering that skin.

So let's go ahead, turn this over.

Oh, yes.

[ Sizzling ] You see why I scored the skin, okay?

You see how it pulls away?

That's why we want to make sure we get that skin scored really, really nice.

Into our grits, we're gonna get a little cheese.

Now, this is Gruyère.

I find Gruyère really works well if you're gonna work with a meat to pair it up.

So let's get our cheese in.

Oh, everybody in there.

Let's just give this a stir for this to melt.

Grits will stay hot for a long time.

So let's go ahead.

This is off.

We're gonna turn the fire off of our skillet, because we're gonna get it in the oven.

Now, I have the oven preheating at 425 degrees.

All right.

I'm going to put this skin side back down.

We're gonna put it in the oven.

And in six minutes, I'm gonna go in the oven, turn it back over, and let it go for another six minutes.

So let's get our pan and our duck in the oven.

Our duck has rested.

Remember, I went in, turned it a couple of times.

We ended up with the skin side up.

We've let it rest.

Now let's see what we have.

Now, everyone likes to serve at different temperatures.

I prefer my duck a little rare.

Let's just take it and slice it.

Oh, I tell you what -- even though it's cooked, I can still smell that marinade.

So now let's get our grits to serve this.

Here are our grits.

Now we can just take our duck... ...place it right on top of our grits.

Let's finish -- a little bit of green onion.

Little bit of parsley over the top.

And every once in a while I have to just get a little cute.

That was our quackingly -- quack, quack -- good crispy duck and grits.

Now for something really nutty -- Creole spice mixed nuts.

With abundant wildlife and many waterways, Avoyelles Parish is hunting and fishing paradise.

It has so many marshes and bayous that the area's major mode of transportation used to be canoe and pirogue.

Settled by descendants of immigrants who came directly from France, this central Louisiana parish is known for its multicultural traditions.

Now, guys, you know, in Louisiana we have a lot of pecans.

So kind of like Avoyelles Parish is a mixture of different cultures, I wanted to do this spice nuts that's gonna bring different nuts together.

You get my play on that?

All right.

Look -- in our pan heating up, I'm gonna put a little bacon drippings.

Now, I reserved these bacon drippings.

I don't know how many of you all remember that old coffee can that Grandma kept on the stove?

And any time she cooked bacon, every breakfast, she drained that bacon drippings into that can.

Well, yes, I have a little container on my stove of bacon drippings.

Even though I don't cook it that often, it's there.

So I just wanted this to warm up -- low fire.

I'm also gonna put in a little minced garlic.

Now, I just want this not even for 30 seconds.

I just want this garlic to open up.

Yum!

That smell, that aroma right there.

Little pinch of salt.

We'll get a little salt in here now.

Okay.

And that's it.

You know, if we would keep going, what's gonna happen?

This garlic is gonna burn, all right, and then it'll get crispy.

We already have the crispiness from the nuts that we don't need another crunch.

So basically, we just we want this flavor to release out of that garlic.

And imagine those bacon drippings in there.

Now, if you don't happen to have any bacon drippings, maybe in the refrigerator, you might have a block of lard, maybe.

And if you don't have a little lard, just use a little butter to go ahead and get that garlic sautéed in.

So now let's get the nuts all mixed together.

Now, I told you, we grow a lot of pecans.

You know, Avoyelles Parish sits on the Mississippi River, and a little further down the Mississippi River, we have a lot of pecan orchards, matter of fact, on both sides of the river.

So we have pecans here.

We're also gonna do some almonds.

How about some cashews?

And some peanuts.

We'll get them all in.

Let's just give this a nice little stir.

Now, I'm using nuts that are already salted.

You don't have to.

If you want to use a dry-roasted, that's fine.

We are gonna do a little bit of our Creole seasoning, because this will give us a little spiciness.

And we're gonna do some sugar.

That'll give us a sweetness.

Yes.

So now let's take our little bacon drippings and just pour it right all over.

Let's just give this a nice little toss, a nice little stir.

You notice that that wasn't a lot.

Just a couple of tablespoons of the drippings.

But see how the nuts have taken on that shine?

That shine is showing that that oil is coating them all.

So that's why we just want to make sure we get them stirred really well to where we don't see any dull spots.

I think I'm gonna go with a little more seasoning to help with that sugar -- that sweet and savory flavor.

Now, if you like macadamia nuts, if you like walnuts, you know, whatever nut you like, you can do this with.

Now, take our sheet pan.

We'll spread them out on our sheet pan.

I'm trying to spread them out in a single layer, and I have the oven just 200 degrees.

Now, they're gonna be in there for about 45 minutes, and every 15 minutes, I want to go ahead and give them a nice stir.

So let's get these in the oven.

And you always hear me talk about a Creole seasoning.

This is something that Mom would throw together right quick, and I wanted to share it with you.

So we're gonna start with, of course, some salt, okay?

We have a little onion powder.

A little paprika.

Now, of course, we're gonna go in with a little cayenne pepper.

A little bit of garlic.

How about some white pepper?

That's right.

How about some black pepper?

Let's start giving this a little stir.

Little dry mustard -- a flavor that you may not think about.

And we have some oregano and thyme.

Now, I'm just gonna stir this together.

And you see, you can look at it and adjust it however you like.

I'm gonna do a little more salt into this.

But now... ...if there's something you like more than the others, put more of it in.

But now here's a quick seasoning that you can use on different things, like our nuts.

So we're gonna get all this picked up.

I'm gonna go stir our nuts.

And I can't wait for you to see how they come out all nice, sweet, and savory.

Gang, how is this for a wonderful, wonderful treat?

Creole spice mixed nuts.

Isn't that a perfect snack for our trip to Avoyelles Parish?

[ French accent ] Avoyelles, as we say en français.

[ Normal voice ] Thank y'all so much for joining me on this culinary road trip.

I appreciate it.

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.

-Oh, how are you?

I am so glad you're here.

Thank you for joining me on "Cookin' Louisiana."

No!

Yes.

Of course.

You're gonna come out pretty.

I know you are.

I know you don't want to, but you are.

The people want to see you all purdy.

Tender biscuits, topped with scratch-made sausage gravy.

Now today, I'm gonna make a cheese cake!

[ Laughter ] I'm sorry.

Here we can "saw-de" -- "Saw-de."

Have you ever sauté-- "saw-ded" your vegetables?

It's much better than sautéing.

You should all try to "saw-de."

♪ ♪ If I cook it, they will come.

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

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