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

Phillips Family Foundation, Incorporated.

-Bonjour, chers.

Look at all this great seafood I got from my road trip to Lafourche Parish.

I'm Kevin Belton.

Today on "Cookin' Louisiana," it's all about the bounty in the bayou.

We will start with seafood crepes.

Then how about some delicious stuffed crab?

Finally, oyster stew.

Whoo!

Louisiana style!

I can't wait to get started.

So let's head to the kitchen!

Come on in!

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Oh, man!

It is so good to see you all!

Where have you been?

Welcome to my "Cookin' Louisiana" kitchen.

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

Now, we're gonna start our road trip in Lafourche Parish.

Now, the name Lafourche comes from la fourchette, "the fork" in French, and many of the early Cajuns settled along Bayou Lafourche that winds through the region.

My dad's French-speaking grandparents lived in Lafourche Crossing, and many of our family's food traditions came from this area.

So I'm gonna start with seafood crepes, which is a perfect showcase for the bounty of the bayou.

Who doesn't love a good crepe?

So first off, of course, a little flour.

And I know you're saying, "Why is he gonna put crepes and seafood together?"

Because it works.

Because it tastes good.

A little baking powder.

Now we're gonna get in a little butter.

That's right.

We're putting butter in the batter.

If you've made pancakes, you've made crepes, okay?

Growing up, listening to the grandparents speaking French, it's -- it's just -- It was really, really special.

And to be able to trace and find out where your roots came from, that's really special.

A little egg.

A couple of eggs.

Just got those in right quick.

And we're gonna do a little milk.

Now, remember.

Pancakes.

Think of a very thin, thin, thin pancake.

That's basically what a crepe is -- a thin pancake.

So if you can make pancakes, you can make crepes, okay?

As you see, this would normally not be -- It's too thin for a pancake.

All right?

But it's perfect for a crepe.

If you even like it thinner than this, you can always add a little more milk to this, put in a splash of water.

And I know you hardly ever hear me talk about cooking with water, but just a little splash of water will loosen this up.

Now, one of the things I want to do is make sure I heat up my pan properly.

To help keep the crepes from sticking, we put butter in the batter, but we're also gonna put a little butter in the pan, all right?

And if you notice, I'm using a crepe pan.

If you don't have a crepe pan, use a nonstick pan, all right?

Here I'm letting the pan heat up.

Let's put a little bit of butter on the pan.

And when we see this butter start to sizzle, we will know that the pan is hot enough.

The other important thing about crepes -- Take the batter.

Put it in your pan and swirl the pan around.

We want to swirl it around, swirl it around.

Ah, yeah.

There we go.

All right.

And I got a little drip on the side, but that's okay.

The important thing is, when it's on the fire, let it create that little crust on the bottom.

We always want to move things around when we're cooking something.

And it's important to let it sit, let it rest, because it's gonna create a natural little crust that it won't stick.

It'll come right up.

Now, I did add a little butter to the batter to keep it from sticking and added a little butter to the pan.

So you don't have to add butter to the pan all the time.

So, in the meantime, let's get this pan just heating up, just warming up a little bit.

And what you'll notice right on the edges -- You notice they start to get brown.

We flip it.

Look at those nice little brown edges.

And we just want to leave it on just enough for that bottom to dry out, all right?

And, you know, you can always check the side again.

Look.

Perfect.

See that?

Nice and golden.

And it's ready.

So, now let's go ahead and work on our filling.

I have a little butter that -- We're letting this pan heat up.

Now, part of the filling of this -- We're going in with some mushrooms.

All right?

We're also gonna throw in some garlic and some green onions into this.

This is gonna be really, really flavorful.

Now, use whatever mushrooms that you like.

All right?

Each mushroom has a little different flavor.

I love shiitakes or chanterelles.

This -- baby bello mushrooms.

Just little baby portobellos just diced up.

But use a mushroom that's there in the fridge.

All right.

Let's get our little bit of green onion in here.

Oh, yes.

It's coming along really nice.

Now, you see that butter has coated our pan.

So now that the butter has coated the pan, let's go in with a little garlic.

[ Sizzling ] So, you know, it needs a tiny bit of love, so we're gonna get a little bit of Creole seasoning.

Little pinch of salt.

And let's get in our seafood.

Now, we're using a combination.

We have crab meat, we have shrimp, and we have crawfish tails.

That's the bounty of the bayou.

And, of course, when we put our seafood in, again, we need a little seasoning for it.

A little bit of our Creole seasoning.

A little bit of salt.

Ohh.

This smells so good!

Now, this is gonna go in the oven, okay?

That's why I don't need this cooked too long.

Our seafood is already cooked.

All right?

Your crawfish are already cooked.

The shrimp -- I just sautéed them off.

Gave them a rough chop and just sautéed them off.

And the crab meat is already cooked.

So, a little sherry.

A little heavy cream.

Oh, that looks good!

Now, I have some softened cream cheese that we're gonna put in.

I just want this to melt on in, and it'll give our filling some body, all right?

So you kind of see where we're going with this.

Oh, look how good this is.

Now let's turn the fire off.

Little bit of parsley.

Let's just get that parsley stirred in.

This just came together so well.

It has some body to it.

Look how thick it is.

And remember -- no bread crumbs.

That cheese pulled everything together.

So let's get ready to go ahead and fill our crepes.

All right.

Let's take our crepe.

Take a little bit of the filling.

Just wrap it on in.

We fold that side over.

We fold this side over.

Now, I like to put the seam side down.

So just roll it over.

Flip it over.

♪ Roll over, Beethoven ♪ There we go.

Look at that.

Isn't that beautiful?

Get a little more in.

And you can fill these up as much or little as you want.

I don't like to overfill them.

So here.

Let's get a little more.

Fold it, fold it.

Make a little pocket.

Lay that baby over.

And who'd have ever thought you'd have pancakes for dinner?

Well, if you have pancakes for dinner, why not throw some seafood in it?

This was a combination that my grandmother made often with the crab and the shrimp and the crawfish all together.

She would put this combination in stuffed bell peppers.

She would put this combination in all different type things.

So I decided why not take Grandma's combination and do it in crepes?

So there we go.

Look at how that's lined up.

Now I have a little pepper jack cheese.

And you could put any type of cheese that you like or prefer.

There we are.

So, now, oven is preheating.

350 degrees.

Let's get this in the oven because all we need, our cheese to melt, and this will be ooey-gooey goodness.

In the oven -- 350 degrees for 15 minutes -- and it'll be so delicious and bubbly good.

Let's get cleaned up and see how it comes out.

There is nothin' like bubbling cheese.

Look at that.

Look at our -- Ohh!

That looks so good.

Look how the cheese has melted.

A little bit of green onion.

Ohh, I think Grandma's gonna be proud about those seafood crepes.

That is a seafood lover's dream come true.

Now, coming up next, a down-home stuffed crab.

It's gonna have sweet, flaky crab meat.

Mon chers, bienvenue a South Lafourche.

I gotta tell you -- Cajun culture runs deep here in Lafourche Parish just 45 miles south of New Orleans.

Bayou Lafourche actually is the signature waterway of the parish, and it stretches over 100 miles and flows through the communities of Lafourche.

Beltons have been here in Lafourche Crossing since the 1800s.

Maybe that's why I'm so comfortable being around water.

Un, deux, trois.

Oh, we have three crabs, gang.

Look at this.

You know, that's the wonderful thing about blue crabs.

When you boil them, you can take the shells and reuse them.

Because we're gonna use this shell to make our stuffed crabs.

Now, I have them just sitting on a little rock salt so they don't wobble in the oven.

Now, if you can't get the crab shell, you'll see these in the store.

These are just little metal tins, but they're just like the same shape of the crab shell.

So you can use these to make your stuffed crabs with.

So let's go ahead and get these babies ready to get stuffed because we're gonna have a lot of goodness going inside of them.

In our bowl, the first thing we're gonna start with -- a little mayonnaise.

In there!

There you go!

Come on out of there.

See, this mayonnaise, it's just gonna make it nice and creamy and smooth.

We're gonna get a little bit of Worcestershire.

And I know you all can tell I love using Worcestershire because it adds such a little depth of flavor to it.

Egg white.

Now, yes, I'm putting it in early because I want to get this all mixed in because that egg white is gonna also act like a little binder to hold everything together, especially when this goes in the oven, but I put it in now so, that way, everything will get coated with that egg white.

So, a little onion.

A little celery.

And a little bit of bell pepper.

Now, okay.

Here's the pop quiz for today.

What is this called?

You all should know this by now.

That's right.

It's trinity.

The onion, celery, green pepper go in most dishes in Louisiana cooking.

They add flavor.

And in this particular dish, I use the red bell pepper.

All right?

And what would Louisiana cooking be without a little garlic?

Ohh.

There we go.

I remember my dad taking me out to go crabbing.

And I don't know if he learned this from his dad, but he would watch the tides, when the tides would go in and out, and we would go to this bridge.

And he had a long pole on an extension, and we would stand over the bridge, and you'd see the crabs floating right on the top as the current is going out, and we would lower the net and just pick 'em right on up that way.

Oh, so we always had fresh blue crabs right out of Lake Pontchartrain.

Now -- And, you know, you can also get them out of the Gulf of Mexico, too, along the beach.

You see them all the time.

Yeah.

A little bit of Creole seasoning.

And, you know, there are different types of crabs, and our crabs that come from the Gulf and in our area of Louisiana, it's the same strain of crab that's up in Maryland.

All right.

So, let's get in our shrimp.

But before I get the shrimp in, let's get a little bit of herbs.

We have salt.

We're gonna do a little bit of thyme.

Now, I did minced garlic earlier, but I'm also doing a little granulated garlic and, of course, a little cayenne pepper.

All right.

A little bit of heat but a lot of flavor.

But not too much heat.

Now, if you look really close, see how everything is nice and coated?

That's why I went with the mayonnaise.

That's why I went in with the Worcestershire.

Then the egg white.

Because that egg white could spread out, and now everything gets coated.

So let's get our shrimp in.

Give those a nice little stir to get those mixed in.

And next, our crab.

Now, when you go to the store and you see crab, you're gonna see lump crab or claw meat.

Claw meat comes from the claw.

Lump is from the back of the crab.

Matter of fact, the lump crab meat comes from this area right back here, okay?

Now, this is claw meat.

I like to use claw meat often just because of the fact that it's much sweeter, okay?

Lump has a wonderful flavor.

It's great.

But I love the sweetness from the claw meat.

That's why I like to use the claw meat.

Now, let's go ahead and also -- Little bit of Parmesan cheese.

A little bit of breadcrumb.

To give this a little body.

And I'm using a seasoned breadcrumb.

And once this crab is in, especially if you're doing lump crab, don't stir it too much because we don't want the crab to break apart too much, especially if you're gonna use a lump crab.

But look how nice that is.

That's coming together really nice.

And all of those seasonings and all the flavor through.

So now all we have to do now is get our crab stuffed into the shells.

But before we do that, let's do one thing, okay?

We're gonna take the little bit of breadcrumb that was left.

We're gonna put in that little Parmesan cheese that was left, and we're gonna put in a little melted butter.

Now, you're asking, "Kev, what are you gonna do with that?"

Once we stuff our crab, we're gonna put this right on top of our stuffed crab.

Okay?

Because in the oven, this butter will help keep it moist.

And also it'll give us a nice little crust on the top that will brown off really nice.

So let's get these crab stuffed.

I'm just gonna take an ice-cream scoop.

Of course, you can do this with your hand, but I'm just gonna take an ice-cream scoop.

Get it down in there.

Just take your hand and kind of press it down in there.

That's one of the things about the shell, is you just want to press it in to get it nice and firm to make sure it locks down in there.

So, here.

Let's do another one.

Let's get it on.

Now let's just go ahead, press it on in.

See, that's nice.

When you press it, if you notice, there's a little side.

See how I can go right in the sides?

So when you press it down, it goes right down in that pocket right down in there.

So when I press it, you're wondering where it goes.

It just slides on in.

More flavor.

More places for flavors to go.

Come on.

Right on top.

And now we just press it, and it just slides right on in.

Look at that.

And, of course, with this one... ...you just hold it... plop it right on top there.

And you could just do the same thing.

Just take your hand to shape that.

All right?

So, now that this is done, we could take our little breadcrumbs.

And just put our little breadcrumb mixture right on the top.

Now, this butter's gonna melt.

This is gonna brown off right quick.

Our oven is heating at 375 degrees.

These only have to rest in there for 10 to 15 minutes just to get nice and golden brown on the top.

The seafood cooks very quick.

375, 10 to 15 minutes to get brown and crispy on the top.

In the meantime, we'll clean up.

Ohh, the smell.

It's so good.

All right.

All right.

They're a little warm, but that's okay.

Let's put one on a plate here.

Let's grab another one and put you right there.

Now, I have a little hot sauce.

Of course, with crab, you have to have a little fresh lemon.

All right?

That lemon just makes it just absolutely pop.

Lemon and hot sauce?

That's all you need, baby!

And your stuffed crab is good to go.

Coming up, we're gonna do a creamy stew made with fresh Louisiana oysters.

Des Allemands sits right on Bayou des Allemands, and it is the catfish capital of the universe!

-We have a bountiful harvest of tremendous amounts of different types of seafood from shrimp and oysters and crawfish and crabs and everything that you want pretty much right here in the bayous of South Louisiana.

-Looking at this catfish, it is so crispy.

What's that secret?

-A combination of corn flour and cornmeal that gives it that crispiness, but the real key is we drop it in that hot peanut oil, and it comes out perfect.

-Guys, this was one of the dishes that my grandmother made that -- Ohh!

Look at these Louisiana cuties!

There is nothing like a bowl of Louisiana oysters.

I am sorry!

They are so good!

But I guess I better start cooking so we can get them done.

Now, we're gonna make an oyster stew.

So, I've already melted our butter in the pan.

In our pot, I should say.

And, of course, a little bit of onion.

You know, I don't know if you all could see that.

Right along the edge.

I melted the butter first.

And I just got it just to brown off a little.

If you ever hear of browned butter, that's what that is.

It adds a flavor.

The butter solids.

When you see it foam, the little edges brown off.

Now, there's a difference from burning and browning, okay?

The browning adds a little bit of flavor.

So that brown butter, it just makes a deeper flavor.

It's like toast in a toaster.

Do you want a lightly toasted piece or a heavily toasted piece?

So, a little celery.

You know, as a kid, I never realized my heritage and where my grandparents came from down in Lafourche Crossing because my grandmother's aunt would come to visit every other weekend and I couldn't understand a word she said!

Well, it turns out she was speaking French.

That's why I couldn't understand.

I thought she was speaking adult.

And I would learn that as I got older.

A little bit of salt.

A little bit of Creole seasoning.

Now, you know, I like to garnish with green onions, but let's get a little bit of green onion in now.

If you can imagine me at 4 years old, I'm looking at my grandmother, looking at my aunt, looking at my grandmother, looking at my aunt.

Okay, I was a big kid, so I was looking at my grandmother, looking at my aunt, and I couldn't understand a thing they were saying.

Hey, but that's what it was.

So when I got older, I learned it so I could communicate with them, as well.

Now we're gonna put in a little flour.

The flour is going to tighten this up, okay?

You know, so many Louisiana recipes call for a roux -- R-O-U-X.

And all that is, is cooking flour.

Here, we want this flour to cook... not so much to change colors, but it's gonna give that stew some body.

That's what our flour's gonna do here.

Flour has gluten in it, and it's the gluten in the flour that makes it a thickener.

So the longer you cook it, the more the gluten cooks out of it.

So the less time you cook it, the thicker it's gonna be.

And that's what we wanted here to help thicken.

So, we'll get in a little hot sauce.

Ohh, yes.

And notice just that little bit of liquid from the hot sauce, how this started to almost thicken up a little bit.

See that?

So now we're gonna go in with a couple of cups of half-and-half.

Now, once the half-and-half is in, now we have to let it do its own work, okay?

I'll turn the fire up high because we want that flour to thicken.

This is what's gonna give it some body.

So, while this is coming up to get really thick, let's go in with a little bit of parsley.

Now, I'm gonna save a lot of parsley for garnish.

That's like I save some green onions for garnish.

Okay?

Can you see how that's thickening up in there?

And, matter of fact, let's go ahead and take a little taste right now before we get the oysters in.

Oh, wow.

That's good.

Okay.

Just a little bit more of that.

Oh, yeah.

A little bit more salt.

Because we want that with those oysters.

And if you notice, my oysters have the oyster liqueur with them.

Okay?

So let's pop those in.

And one of the biggest things about seafood -- don't overcook your seafood, okay?

Now, the edge of that oyster has, like, a little edge to it that'll ruffle when it's cooked.

They don't take very long to cook.

And you see how thick this is?

So I hope I can get one up to show you just how the edges curl.

Because I tell you what -- the worst thing is an overcooked oyster.

If you overcook an oyster, it turns into, like, a little rubber ball that you're just chewing on forever.

Look at this.

Doesn't this look so great?

And -- Ooh, ooh, ooh.

Right there.

See that?

I'll turn the fire off.

Right there.

See that little curl?

I don't know if you can see that.

That's what I'm talking about.

We just want that little curl for the oysters.

And look at how plump they are.

Okay?

I tell you what.

This is ready.

This is ready to serve.

Because I know you're gonna like this.

Let's get our bowl.

Oh, yes.

Let's get some of those nice little plump oysters.

Right there on the top.

Come on.

Let's get one more in there.

You just lay right there on the top.

And now we can finish this off.

Little bit of parsley.

How about a little bit of green onion?

As Grandma would say... "C'est si bon."

"That's good, yeah."

You know, I thank you so much for being with me on this culinary road trip.

Now you have to keep that party rollin'!

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.

♪ [ Pan clanging rhythmically ] ♪ -This is a breakfast sausage.

♪ Don't be shy.

Come on.

These are nice people.

Say hello.

See?

These are nice people.

Say hello to the people.

♪ If I could place time in a bottle ♪ Let's get our fire on.

[ Clicking ] Because -- I didn't open the butane.

It's not on.

So excuse me one moment while I go down here.

♪ Now let's get our fire on.

We've had crawfish in a burger, so why not do something a little light?

If you notice, I've gotten pretty since y'all last saw me.

No.

All right.

All right.

I'm sorry.

Uh... [ Laughter ] ♪ ♪ -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, Incorporated.