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

Today on "Cookin' Louisiana," we're at the home of the meat pie -- Natchitoches.

Now, we're going to start with another savory pie -- the Creole pot pie.

And then, let's slow it down.

How about a slow-cooked barbecue beef sandwich?

Then, spicy pecan balls.

["pih-con"] Whether you say "pea-cans" or "pih-cons," these are going to be great in that spicy starter.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ You know how much I wanted to get y'all two together and I'm so glad y'all are going to get together today.

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, today, we're going to head to Natchitoches.

That's the way you say it, "Nack-uh-dish."

Now, this was founded in 1714.

Natchitoches happens to be the oldest permanent settlement in the Louisiana Purchase territory, okay?

It started out as a French outpost and its Creole heritage carries on in local dishes, like the famous Natchitoches meat pie.

So, today I'm going to start off with another meat pie.

We're going to do a Creole meat pie.

And guess what.

It's going to start with a roux, so let's get this flour cooking.

We're going to start with a little butter.

Let's get our butter in our pan.

Now, this roux is going to do two things for us.

Remember, when we cook rouxs, it's cooking that flour for a toasted taste, also, for a thickener.

Here, this is going to give us a little body, as well as a little flavor.

So, the butter's in.

Let's get our flour in and make sure -- It's important, when you get that flour in, to stir.

I just want this floury taste to get cooked out of it.

And you see, what's nice, in a cast-iron pan, like this, a nice, heavy pan, I can let it sit for a moment.

When you're making a gumbo roux or you're making a roux for étouffée, which is smothered in a thick gravy; or anything, normally, when you're making a lot of roux, you have to stir it constantly.

But, here, we aren't making a lot of roux.

That's why I can take the opportunity and just let it sit, let it do its own thing.

Let it kind of work in the pan and you see it's already starting to change color, alright?

And this is where, once you do this a couple of times, you can smell the color change, alright?

Because, remember, that flour is toasting.

So let's get in a little onion.

We're going to do a little celery.

Plus, a little bell pepper.

Yes, the trinity.

And, if you wonder why we use these vegetables, they're liquid-based vegetables, so, not only do they give us liquid, they give us flavor, okay?

Now, we tend to use more onion, split the other two in half.

Any combination that you like.

Today I'm using green.

The meat pie.

It's been a popular street food since the 1700s.

It's a deep-fried hand pie filled with savory ground meat and it's one of the official state foods of Louisiana.

We have a little color here.

We're getting a little color on this.

Now, this is where we're going to go kind of quick because I don't want that garlic to burn, alright?

We're going to put in a little bit of potatoes.

[ Sizzling ] We're also going to put in some carrot.

This doesn't have to cook too long because, remember, it's going to cook in the oven.

So let's show a little love with a little bit of Creole seasoning.

Let's get in a little salt.

I'm going to put in a drop of stock.

[ Sizzling intensifies ] That was chicken stock I added.

So, now, we can throw that garlic in, with that little bit of moisture.

Oh.

That has such a great smell.

Now, let's get the rest of our stock in.

[ Sizzling intensifies ] We'll turn the fire down just a bit.

Just a bit.

What you're going to find, that's going to happen -- you see how liquidy this is now, but, all of a sudden, this will start to thicken up.

And you know why it's going to pick it up?

Come on, tell me.

You know.

That's right!

It's because of the roux.

That roux we made is going to help thicken this and give us some body for our filling.

So, now, let's introduce two more flavors.

Andouille sausage.

Andouille, coarsely chopped ham, made into a sausage and smoked.

We'll get our andouille in the pan.

And I have a little shredded chicken.

I tell you, I love to go ahead and baked chicken in the oven.

You can never eat it all, so I always pull it off the bone and keep it around because you can use it in so many dishes.

Oh, doesn't that look good?

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

That's going to add a nice depth of flavor.

And we're going to do a little hot sauce.

I believe.

I believe.

Let's get a little more salt.

Just a little more Creole seasoning.

And I think we're going to be good to go.

So, as this cooks down, let me show you how we're going to serve this because, you know, if you have folks in the house that eat a lot, you know, like those teenagers, you can just take a pie crust and lay it right over the whole pot and stick the whole pot, boom!

Right in the oven.

Stick that pie crust right there, a couple of slits, boom!

Right in the oven and just -- just like put it on the table and run away because you know they're going to eat it all.

But today we're going to do ramekins.

What I have here... See?

We're going to use nice, little ramekins, to make like individual portions.

Now, what I'm going to do, I'm going to just take a little egg wash and brush around the top of the ramekins.

And, instead of doing the typical pie dough, for this, I am going to use puff pastry.

And, if you're wondering, "What's under that paper towel?"

That's what I have.

I have puff pastry and I've just cut it in a square.

So let's turn this off.

Let's get our ramekins filled.

Now, I have a habit and you all know me -- you know me -- I have a habit of always putting in too much, overfilling things, but, that's okay.

Today I'm going to try to control myself and not overfill it too much.

Here, I'll make sure.

Making sure I get a little bit of chicken.

I'm making sure I get a little andouille.

Those potatoes, those carrots.

A little bit of all of that goodness in there.

Alright.

Now, here's what we're going to do.

We could take the puff pastry, fold it around, crimp it around the sides, make it look really cute, but, I just cut it square.

And the reason why we're going to just lay it over square -- Alright, I'll just kind of tuck it in just a little bit.

See these edges?

When they cook and they puff, this gives you a little extra piece that you can break off and dip in and get that wonderful flavor from.

Instead of trimming it round and making it perfectly round, this little square edge will give you a nice, little bit to dip in.

So.

Let's brush the top with egg wash all around the sides.

Come on, let's get you covered.

Let's get you brushed.

Let's get this one.

And, in the oven, we have to create a little slit because that moisture inside of our pot pie can come out.

So I'm just going to take a knife.

Just poke your pastry right in the middle, just so you have a spot for that steam to escape, okay?

Let's get these in the oven.

Alright.

You come here.

Alright, I want you guys to bake all pretty.

I want you to bake nice.

We'll see you in about 30 minutes.

375°, 30 to 35 minutes, we'll have pie goodness.

The only disappointing thing about a pot pie is you have to let it wait.

It has to rest for about five minutes before you can just dig right into it.

But look at our crust.

See what I was saying about those corners, how those corners just puffed up, we got those extra pieces just to break off and pop in?

And look, let's get a little bit of parsley here.

Just a little piece of parsley.

Look, let's just stick that right there, give it a little color.

Okay, we're just going to put this piece right there and then, we have a little color to our pot pie.

So, there you have our Creole pot pie.

That is nothing but pure comfort food and a great way to use leftovers!

Now, coming up next, slow-cooked barbecue beef sandwich.

I'm in Natchitoches and I'm in front of the Kaffie-Frederick old-time general store.

This is the oldest general store in Louisiana!

So, let's go inside and meet Luke Frederick!

-We try to provide service as a general store for a small town.

We're obviously operating a dinosaur in the 21st century, but we've been very fortunate that the people of Natchitoches and our customers are very loyal.

-You know, the only thing about these machines, you have to have exact change.

♪ Look, we have a beef chuck roast.

Show it some love.

We have to get some seasoning on it.

We're going to put our Creole seasoning on it really good on one side and, of course, we're going to put a little salt on here.

Now, two sides.

Remember, everything has two sides.

Let's do this other side as well.

We'll show you a little love.

Now, we're going to make up a jazzed-up barbecue sauce to go with this, okay?

A little granulated garlic.

A little bit of black pepper.

Brown sugar.

♪ Sugar, sugar ♪ ♪ Da da da da da da ♪ ♪ Oh, honey, honey ♪ And, you know, yeah, let's do a little bit of Creole seasoning.

♪ Ah, la la, la, la, la, la ♪ Let's get that on in there like that.

Alright.

Now, let's get in some wet ingredients.

What I have here is a tiny bit of liquid smoke.

If you have never used liquid smoke, do not overdo liquid smoke.

If you use too much liquid smoke, things get bitter, alright?

So just a little bit of liquid smoke.

We're going to do a little bit of Worcestershire, for that nice, little depth of flavor.

I also have, right here, a little bit of mustard.

Now, I'm using a little Dijon.

I often use a Creole mustard.

Whatever mustard you happen to have, that'll work.

And if you don't have a wet mustard, you could put a little dried mustard in this, if you like.

We'll get that little bit of mustard in.

Let's just kind of give this a little whirl around, to get all mixed up.

Now, we have some moisture in there.

So, our last ingredient -- barbecue sauce and ketchup, alright?

Yes, I'm putting in a little already prepared barbecue sauce.

And, see, this is why we're jazzing it up.

And, finally, some ketchup.

Now, I have to tell you all, when I was working on this recipe, my wife, Monica, made a face because she is not the ketchup fan.

So I'm going to have to make it a little different for her.

So, look, here we go.

This is all mixed together really nice!

Now, I'm going to do this in a pressure cooker today.

So I'm going to take our roast.

And I'm going to lower it right into our pressure cooker.

Let's get a little bit of sauce on top of our roast.

So we're just going to put a little more sauce right on top of our roast.

But not all of it, okay?

Not all of it.

Let's get our lid on.

Lock this in place.

There we go.

[ Beep ] It's ready to go.

Now, here, this is going to take about 20 minutes.

If I do this in a slow cooker, I like to let it go low and slow.

I mean, it'll cook for eight to 10 hours because we want it to the point where it shreds, okay?

And I'm going to show you, once this is done, what we're going to do with the rest of our sauce.

It's going to be good!

I told you I was going to show you what I was going to do with that leftover jazzed-up sauce.

It's in the pan.

And, as you can see, I've taken our beef and have shredded it, so let's get it in the pan.

Now, remember, we cooked our roast [ Sizzling ] in some of the sauce, okay?

So it already has some of that sauce for flavor, but I always like to have a little extra.

That's why I saved that little extra.

So, as this continues to heat up, what we really need to do now is go ahead and take care of our buns on our griddle.

I have it heating up.

We're going to put a little butter down.

Aw, yes.

You all know where I'm going with this.

Alright, just gently put that butter.

Oh, yes.

Now, let's take our buns.

You know, I don't know why sandwiches seem to have a different flavor, once those buns are grilled off really nice like that, okay?

Let's give our meat just a quick, little stir.

[ Sizzling intensifies ] I tell you what, this smells absolutely, absolutely delicious!

Turn that fire down.

So, let me show you what else we're going to dress this sandwich with.

Now, what I have here, I have a little onion, I have a little pickle, and I have some jalapeños.

Now, you can do fresh jalapeños or you can do a pickled jalapeño.

Take your pick.

Whatever you decide.

Okay, this is good.

I'm getting impatient because I want to -- Oh, this is so good!

Alright, our meat is ready.

Do you all like a lot of sauce or a little sauce?

Okay, this is fine?

Okay, great, alright?

Let's get ready to make your sandwich.

Fire's off.

Let's take our bottom buns.

See?

We get that little buttery flavor, just around the edges.

Now, I love onion, especially with something like this.

So let's put a layer of onion down.

Let's get some of our beef.

And pop it right on top.

Just put it right -- Oh, c'mere.

Oh, yeah, it's going to fall off and hang over the sides.

Oh, yeah, that's okay.

That's okay.

Alright, you're going to get your turn.

Oh, doesn't that look good?

Now, if you want, we could drizzle a little more sauce right over the top, but, here, let's go with a few pickles.

Alright, come on, pickles.

Hop right there, get there.

Let's spice it up with just a little jalapeño right on the top.

Now, let's get that little extra butter off of here.

Pop our buns, just -- just lay them right on the top like that.

And how about that?

You just can't beat this slow-cooked barbecue beef sandwich, that you're going to eat pretty quick.

Now, next up, we're going to do an iconic Southern hors d'oeuvre -- spicy pecan balls.

The city of Natchitoches is the heart of Natchitoches Parish.

Established as part of French Louisiana, the community retains its European flavor in a 33-block National Historic Landmark district that fronts Cane River Lake.

One-of-a-kind Natchitoches has one of the oldest holiday celebrations in the country -- a six-week Christmas festival of lights that transforms the riverfront into a spectacular winter wonderland.

Spicy pecan ball.

And I tell you what, you know what has to go with it?

Bacon.

That's right.

Now, this might shock you.

I am using a precooked bacon, but you know why?

Because I want this nice and crispy.

It's not going to cook that long.

It crisps up really, really nice.

So, we're going to get our bacon started and we just want to watch this to where it gets crispy.

Let's start putting our pecan ball together.

Softened cream cheese.

Now, the decision was, "Do I want to use a mixer or are we going to use arm power?"

So, I decided to arm power, so bear with me, okay?

This is soft.

It's out at room temperature, okay?

Let it sit out and get soft and just kind of smear it around.

See, the reason I'm smearing it like this, this is for a reason -- because we're going to go with a little bit of seasoning in here, okay?

We're going with a little cumin.

But you notice how I'm spreading it all around.

We're going to go with a little bit of our Creole seasoning.

We're going to go with a little salt.

Let's take care of that bacon right quick.

It really doesn't take too long.

Oh, yes!

So, I'm going to take a little bit of our jalapeños, okay?

And I'm going to spread our jalapeños around.

Not all of them, but most of them.

I'm going to take some of our pecans and also get those kind of spread in, all around like that.

Now, let's start getting this kind of mixed.

And we're also going to do a little garlic, now.

With the garlic, you saw how I just slung it in there.

Because I slung it so it kind of spread out.

And I think it worked.

It spread out.

Okay.

I am going to turn our bacon off, okay?

I think it's where we want it.

Now, let's go ahead and get our bacon just right here on the paper towels to drain.

I didn't get it too, too, too crispy, but just crispy enough.

Alright, let's start just kind of working this, stirring this in.

Alright, let's just fold it in.

This just takes a little armwork.

Just kind of fold it in.

Now you see why I spread everything out.

Let's give in a little Worcestershire.

Worcestershire's going to give us a little bit of liquid and that'll help this to move around a little bit.

See, this is slowly coming together.

Let's get in a little bit of shredded cheese.

Now, this is a pepper Jack cheese.

We're going to get in more cheese with the cheese!

Let's get this worked in.

Now, see how this is slowly coming together?

Something else we have to get in here.

Let's get some of our bacon to put in.

I'm going to save some of our bacon out.

Not going to put it all in.

Let's get our bacon in and get this stirred in.

And then, I'll show you how we're going to shape this into a ball, okay?

And what we're going to do with it.

Now that we have everything worked and mixed in, let me show you what we're going to do.

We're going to take our plate.

We're going to put in the rest of those jalapeños.

On the plate, not off to the side, we're going to put the pecans.

Let's just spread this out.

We're going to take the rest of our bacon.

Put our bacon here.

And you see?

Just kind of spread this out, so it gets all mixed in.

Now, let's take our cheese ball, put it on our plate.

Now, I'm going to take a little bit of green onion, kind of put it right there.

And you notice?

Look, we have all of that goodness all on the plate.

So take your hands and kind of press it in and then turn it, press it, just press it around.

Roll it, press it.

Get it all up on the sides, press it on there.

Now, before you serve this, you are definitely going to want to refrigerate this before you serve it.

So you see how we're getting all the pecans and that bacon all in there with those jalapeños?

So, let's get this chilled and I'll show you what it looks like and how we're going to serve it and present it.

Guys, in the refrigerator, when it firms up, I like to wrap it in clear wrap.

Once it's in clear wrap and it firms up a little bit, you can even shape it a little more, if you like.

But in the refrigerator, just put it in clear wrap.

All we have to do, when we get ready to serve it, is unwrap it.

See?

It's nice and firm.

We can put it on our board.

Now, I like to use a little toast.

You could do crackers.

You know, here, I have a little French bread that I had laying around for that, alright?

You can put nuts.

You can put a little fruit down.

You can practically put down whatever you like on it.

Here's our spicy pecan ball!

The perfect appetizer for a holiday or on a game day.

Now, thank you so much for hanging out with me on this culinary road trip.

Now, you know what you have to do?

You have to keep this party rolling.

Bring the big flavors of Louisiana to your home.

So we'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.

-While our potatoes cook, we're all -- the crew -- we're all going to go fishing.

So we'll be back and we'll see you tomorrow, once our potatoes cook, because we're going fishing right now.

So, y'all watch the pot, alright?

Periodically -- Okay, Susan?

Yeah, Susan, you come up and stir it periodically, alright?

And then -- And then -- Yeah, yeah, Ralph, Lionel, y'all are next up to stir.

So, come on, gang, let's go.

Let's go fishing.

Okay.

So I can lean on.

I can like -- Let me tell y'all a little something.

[ Laughter ] Let me tell you about Baton Rouge.

[ Laughter ] Kind of like that?

Join us tomorrow, when we'll be back to the risotto pot.

Will the risotto be done?

Will the shrimp be overcooked?

♪ Dun dun dun ♪ Will the crew still be awake at their post?

We'll see you soon.

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

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