-Funding for "Kevin Belton's Cookin' Louisiana" was provided by... -This time on "Cooking Louisiana," three delta delights from northeast Louisiana.

How about a nice, healthy white-bean salad?

And then for comfort, chicken and dumplings, and finally, something my uncle made all the time, some hog head cheese.

Mmm-mmm.

Y'all see where we're going?

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ I'll tell you what -- don't worry.

I'm gonna season you up real good where you're gonna be flavorful, so flavorful.

Hi, guys.

Welcome to my "Cooking Louisiana" kitchen.

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

Now, we're gonna head this time to Louisiana's delta in the northeast area of the state.

The food traditions in this region includes dishes that are typical of Southern cooking, and cooks there have an affinity for vegetable crops like corn, sweet potatoes, peas, beans -- of all kinds of beans.

To kick off our delta delight, we're gonna start with a white-bean salad with minced herbs.

So what I have here, I have a little shallot that I've just diced up.

If you haven't eaten shallots, it's a very mild onion.

You see them in the grocery stores.

They're not as big as regular onions.

They're a little smaller.

Into that, of course, little salt, a little bit of our Creole seasoning.

And I have some white-wine vinegar in.

And now we just want to stir this together.

And we're going to let this sit just so those shallots can absorb some of that vinegar flavor.

Alright.

Oh, yes.

I tell you what, the vinegar smells so wonderful.

If you're vinegar fan, you're gonna love it.

Now, I'm using a white-wine vinegar.

If you want, you could use a red-wine vinegar, if you so choose, okay?

So next up, we're gonna have some herbs to go in this.

So here I have parsley.

And it's just -- I've just minced it up.

We're gonna do cilantro.

Now, this is a little fresh mint that's just diced up.

Okay, so look at these flavors that we have here, and, of course, some green onions.

Really, you know, there's nothing like fresh herbs.

So if you ever can use fresh parsley and fresh cilantro as opposed to dried, use it if you can because it just brightens everything up.

Now, I'm gonna drizzle a little olive oil over this.

And I know most of the time when you think of Louisiana, you always think of red beans.

Everybody always thinks of red beans, but we enjoy so many beans here.

And this is just one of them.

And now let's slowly get in our beans.

Now, you know, there's so many different beans.

These are white beans.

There are cannellini beans, there's pinto beans, there's the red, the black beans, the black eyed peas.

You know, the most important thing, use the bean that you like.

Use the bean that's in your pantry at that particular time.

But this shows just how that northeast part of the state keeps those Southern traditions going with Louisiana ingredients.

Alright.

Now, we've seasoned our onions, but I'm gonna put a little salt here.

A little touch of Creole seasoning.

Ah, yes.

Now, I've had this both ways.

I've had this chilled and I've had it room-temperature, and I tell you, I can't think of which way I like it better.

I probably like it better more at room temperature than chilled.

Because at room temperature, you still get those flavors.

Now, to give this a little bit of a bite... red pepper flakes, okay?

Just some red pepper flakes -- wait, I'm sorry, you want all of them?

Okay, we'll do it.

Remember, always put in what you like.

This is just gonna give us a nice, little bite.

Ah, yes.

This just smells so fresh.

Now, of course, at this point, you could taste it if you want.

If you need to put a little salt, a little more Creole seasoning, you can.

But, you know, this is one of those salads where you could put some greens down, serve it on some greens, but we're just gonna serve it just like it is.

The other nice thing with this, if you want, put this in a refrigerator.

You could put in your refrigerator, put it in the airtight container, and it'll last for a couple of days.

So, look, let's just put some on here.

Oh, man, this looks so good.

This just makes me want to go get a piece of bread.

And just put this on a piece of bread and eat it like a sandwich.

That vinegar is going to add a tangy touch to that white-bean salad.

Now, next, a hearty soup loaded with fluffy dumplings, the Southern classic chicken and dumplings.

The country roads that wind through northeast Louisiana are dotted with restaurants serving Southern staples and downhome fare, but it's the scenic beauty and abundant wildlife of the delta that dish up outdoor adventure in the piney woods.

One gem in the region is Poverty Point, built by indigenous people over 3,000 years ago.

The engineering marvel and archeological park is recognized as a World Heritage Site.

Now, gang, for a classic -- chicken and dumplings.

So in the pot, I have a little olive oil, so let's get in with a little celery.

[ Pot sizzling ] And, you know, these are liquid-based vegetables, that celery, so we're gonna get some moisture coming out of this celery that's going to give our chicken and dumplings a wonderful flavor.

Now, to help sweeten it up, carrots.

Now, traditional cooking, you hear onions, celery, and carrots.

That's the traditional mirepoix, but in Louisiana, you always hear about the trinity, which is onions, celery, and bell pepper.

But we're going a little Southern with this, so that's why we're doing carrots and, of course, a little bit of onion.

Now, I'll show you with the onion, alright?

I put some of the onion in, and I'll put a little in just a moment.

So, of course, a little Creole seasoning, A little salt.

And you see now we have a little moisture in the pan.

We can put in a little garlic, just a little minced garlic.

Let's put in a little white pepper.

In goes our chicken.

Now, I'm using chicken thighs.

I like dark meat.

It's really moist when you cook it.

Now, if you want, you can use chicken breasts.

You can use any part of the chicken you want.

Now, you remember those onions that I did not put in earlier?

Now I can add them.

Remember, the onions we had in earlier have been cooking longer.

This is what we're talking about layering flavors.

It's something as simple as this, that layers can give things a different flavor.

So instead of dumping everything in at once, stagger it sometimes and notice the difference that you get.

You know, one of the things I learned from Mom was to cook by smell.

So imagine -- I want you to just close your eyes and I want you to smell -- close them.

Alright, you smelling that?

See, since we put that chicken in, the flavor is not as strong, so what do we need?

We need a little more seasoning.

It's important not just to use sight and use exactly what the recipe says.

Use that sense of smell to tell when things are ready.

So now let's start putting in some of our liquid.

So we're gonna do milk, and we're gonna do chicken stock.

So first, let's get in our milk.

And we're going to want this to get up to a boil.

Alright.

To help thicken this up, because, you know, chicken and dumplings, it has some body to it.

So what I have here, I have a little slurry.

Basically, this is just water and cornstarch, and as this cooks, this is going to give this a little bit of a body.

We don't need very much.

Just that little bit is going to make a difference.

You're gonna see this start to get a little body, and let's go with a little chicken stock.

Now, depending on how much stock you want, you know, we can use it all.

I'm gonna put about half in right now.

And that's one of the things every time I make this, I do it just a little bit different every time.

So while this comes up to a boil and this cooks, the other thing I'll tell you before we start working on our dumplings, the chicken -- I like to take some of it and shred it a little bit or just kind of pull it apart a little bit.

That way, you won't get a big chunk on a spoon.

It's easier to eat that way, okay?

That's why I like to do that.

But we'll do that once we get this cooked a little bit.

So let's get this up to a boil, and let's get to work on our dumplings.

Flour.

A little bit of salt.

We're gonna do a little baking powder.

And I get this all mixed in right quick.

You notice I have some shortening sitting here.

We're gonna cut in our shortening.

We just want this to get cut in.

See, that's good.

What I want to start doing now is starting to work in our buttermilk, so let's get a little bit of our buttermilk starting to work in.

And what you're gonna find, this is gonna be a very, very sticky dough.

Very, very sticky.

Get all of you out of there.

See, this will come together.

See how that's starting to pull together?

It's getting there.

Oh, yeah.

Now, what I want to do, I want to flour our counter really good.

We want a good bit of flour down.

Don't be shy with your flower.

We're gonna take this.

And we're just gonna... plop it right on down.

Come on, get on here.

Come on, get on, hop on top.

Now, I'm just gonna take my hands, kind of work this together a little bit.

Just to kind of get this together.

See how that's coming together really nice?

Ooh, look, it's boiling.

Wait, let's turn that down just a little bit.

Let's give this a stir.

I don't know if you can tell, but we're starting to get that little thickness and it's starting to get a little body to it.

That's what we want.

So... little flour on a rolling pin.

Now, we want to roll this out about 1/4 of an inch.

And we're gonna cut it.

We're gonna cut them in sections.

Oh, look at that.

Come on.

See, this doesn't have to be exactly any type perfect shape.

I want this about 1/4 of an inch.

Now, I'm gonna take our pastry cutter.

We could take a knife and do this, but I'm gonna just take our pastry cutter.

Clip that off to the side.

Now, I'm gonna do it about an inch wide.

And we're gonna have roughly 2 inches in the middle.

Alright, there we go.

How you like that?

Let's cut these off.

You know, I tell you what, it's just something about playing in flour and dough that just reminds me of Grandma and makes you feel really good.

So I'm gonna get the rest of these cut, then we'll get this cleaned up and I'll get ready to put our dumplings into our soup, where they just take a few minutes to cook.

This is gonna be so good.

Now, let's get in some of these dumplings.

And I know what you're thinking.

You're sitting there looking at me going, "That's not any kind of chicken and dumplings I've ever had."

Well, you know, you're right, because every dumpling is a little different.

Some folks do this with a puff pastry, but I know a lot of you remember growing up with Grandmother.

Grandmother would make those biscuits, and then she'd take, like, that biscuit dough and just put globs of it right on in.

And it would puff up as it cooked.

That's what often you think of as dumplings.

Now, remember, I spoke about the chicken.

I just took it and pulled it apart, alright?

Because you want it to be able to fit on the spoon.

If you don't want to do that, you want to leave it at home, that's fine and dandy.

But I just like to take some out and get it shredded, alright?

And look at the dumplings.

What you're gonna notice here, what's gonna happen, is as they cook, they're just gonna float to the top and puff up.

Let's give this little taste... to see if we need to adjust our seasoning any.

Oh, wow.

Well, if I do say so myself.

You know, one of the first things I tasted?

The carrot.

That carrot gives off such a wonderful flavor.

Now, you can see our dumplings is starting to puff up.

Let's return our chicken in.

See how they are starting to get big?

This is what we want.

This is exactly what we want.

I'll turn our fire out.

Now, let's finish this off.

A little bit of green onion.

Little bit of parsley, and I like to always put some in right before serving.

Oh, look at that.

It adds a pop of color, plus it adds a nice, fresh, herbal flavor to it.

So let's get our bowl.

Oh, yes.

Come on, Mr. Dumpling.

That chicken right there?

Oh, look at that.

Come here, piece of chicken.

I see you right there.

You get right there so everybody can see you.

Ah, yeah.

Ah, yeah.

Look at that.

Look at that.

Okay, a little bit more.

A little bit more parsley, a little sprinkle of green onions.

And now you, too, at home can do the dumpling dance.

♪ Chicken and dumplings ♪ ♪ Chicken and dumplings ♪ Comfort food at its best.

Now, next, we're gonna do a spicy pork appetizer -- gonna blow your mind.

We're making homemade cochon de tête -- hog head cheese, baby!

Along the Mississippi River in Ferriday, Louisiana, is the Delta Music Museum and Hall of Fame.

Located in the town's old post office, the museum highlights the careers of local legends and first cousins Jerry Lee Lewis, Mickey Gilley, and Jimmy Swaggart.

Once a month, the theater hosts the Louisiana Country Music Opry.

Now, that's music to my ears.

Now, this is a dish that I remember my dad, my uncles, all the relatives -- the older relatives, I should say -- just absolutely loved.

Now, what I have in our pressure cooker -- I have pork, I have a foot, and I have the roast, okay, that I've cut in 1-inch cubes.

Basically, we want it to cook really tender and soft.

We want the cartilage to form a gel because this, we're going to put in a loaf pan, and then you can slice it and eat it.

But, oh, it's such a wonderful dish.

But I'm doing it in the pressure cooker because it saves time.

Now, when my uncle made this, he would take this, and this was his project all night long.

He would simmer this on a low fire.

I think it was just a way for him and sometimes Dad to stay up all night visiting and they didn't have to do anything but chitchat, watch TV, and cook all night long.

But it's a great dish.

But let me show you what else will go into this.

In our pan, I have a little oil.

Let's get in some onion.

[ Pot sizzling ] So into our onion, of course, we're gonna get some salt.

We're going to get some Creole seasoning.

Now, what I have here -- I have a little parsley.

I have some celery flakes.

Oh, yes.

See how that just comes all together?

And we're gonna get in some peppers because this should have a little bit of a pop.

You know, this is something that often, you would slice and eat on crackers, and it had that little bit of a bite to it.

So we're gonna go in with a little cayenne pepper.

We're also gonna get in a little black pepper, and we're gonna get in some red pepper flakes, okay?

And I know you're going, "Whoa, this is gonna be spicy."

It's not gonna be as bad as you think it is, okay?

This is just starting to stick, so let's get in just a little bit of stock.

Not too much.

I want that little bit that was on the bottom to come up.

You know, this is what they call deglazing.

That little bit of brown bits that were on the bottom of the pan is now up.

Let's get in.

Green onions.

Look how clean the bottom of that pan is.

Remember where that started to stick?

That's what the glazing does.

It uses a little moisture to get those goodies up off the bottom of the pan.

So let's get into more stock.

Imagine having a huge pot, a big pot -- sometimes, they do this outside on a burner, and all of these goodies would be in there with the pork.

And it would just slow cook.

We're gonna let this simmer, and then we're gonna take our pork.

Once it's cooked, cool it a little bit and shred it, and we're gonna put this together.

And, oh, this is going to be a wonderful dish.

And if you've never had this, you might want to try it.

Our meat has cooled.

Now let's get to processing.

So let's take some of our meat.

This is so tender.

That's why they cooked it all night for so long, but that's why I did it in a pressure cooker since I didn't want to be up all night.

Now, remember the onion that we cooked down with all the spices?

Let's get some of this in.

This is all of that good juice that came out of the pressure cooker that it cooked in.

We're just gonna put a little in.

Now... let's go ahead and process this.

Now, see the meat inside?

See how it's kind of torn apart?

So let's take this off.

Careful with your blade.

We'll just put this right in our bowl.

Now, let's get the rest of our pork.

Everybody in.

Okay, no bone.

No bones.

Alright.

Get the rest of our onions.

A little bit of stock.

I can smell how good it's gonna be.

That's what we want.

That's what we want.

Let's turn you off.

Now, you notice this time, I used a little more liquid.

Careful with removing your blade.

Let me get all of this goodness out.

Now, I am going to put this into a loaf pan, and basically, all I've done, I've taken a piece of parchment paper and I laid it out because as this chills, it'll help me get it out by putting the parchment paper there.

Okay.

So I just want to mix those two together.

And, of course, if at this point you want to give it a taste, that's fine.

Go ahead, taste it if you want.

But I can smell all of those spices, the onions, the herbs.

Let's just get it in our loaf pan.

Oh, yes.

Let's just spread it out.

And now... we're gonna put this in the refrigerator.

Now, normally, I chill it overnight because you need that much time for it to set up, alright?

The longer it sits, the more the flavors are there, so let's go ahead and get this nice and chilled.

I really think you're gonna like this.

Now, the reason why I put the paper hanging over, because it's easier to loosen it.

Now, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna turn this over onto our serving pan.

Take that little piece of parchment right off, and now put some crackers around it.

Oh, I can remember when Uncle Chet would make this.

He'd have crackers.

They would make all kinds of things with this.

Homemade hog's head cheese.

Now, this is easy to make, and the taste is amazing.

Now, serve it on crackers, or you could even make a sandwich.

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

Now, keep that party rolling, bringing up big flavors of Louisiana to your home.

So I'll see you next time for more "Cooking 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.

-And this cream cheese does not want to melt because you know why?

The kitchen staff played a joke on me.

They gave me frozen cream cheese.

This is frozen.

That's why it's not melting.

Look at that.

Is it melting?

No, it's not, because it's frozen.

Audience ready, there's your -- [ Stammers ] Portlock.

[ Trilling ] Tasty bits of fried pork cracklings or what we call gratons.

Why am I on my tiptoes?

Why am I talking about cracking and I got up on my toes?

You see me?

I mean, I was tippy-toeing.

Crackling will do that.

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

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