♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - This week on Milk Street, we take a fresh look at the world of Mediterranean cooking, starting with a Provençal braised chicken.

Then we do a very simple recipe for spiced pork tenderloin, then a Sardinian herb soup with beans, and finally, a Spanish shrimp and chickpea stew.

So please stay tuned for the real cooking of the Mediterranean.

- Funding for this series was provided by the following.

- That meal.

You sautéed, you seared, and you served, cooking with All-Clad, bonded cookware designed, engineered, and assembled in the U.S.A. for over 50 years.

All-Clad-- for all your kitchen adventures.

♪ ♪ - Today, we are going to make a quick Tuesday night recipe, the Provençal braised chicken.

And so, I've got a Dutch oven here.

I'm going to put in about a quarter-cup of oil.

Now, this recipe is kind of similar to a bouillabaisse, but it's got chicken instead of shrimp.

So while my oil is heating up, I'm going to clean some fennel and some onions and toss them into the pot.

To clean my fennel, I'm going to cut it in half... And then I'm going to cut out the core.

And then I'm going to thinly slice it.

And now I'm going to do the same with my red onion.

And I like to rotate it just a bit to give myself a little bit more stable of a surface.

Got my vegetables all thinly sliced, and my oil shimmering, just hot enough.

I'm going to move my vegetables over into the pot.

(sizzling softly) And then I'm also going to add about a half-teaspoon of salt.

Give it a quick stir.

And let it cook for about nine to ten minutes.

So we get some color and some browning.

So it's been a couple of minutes and my veg is wilting up, getting some color to it.

It's time to add some more stuff to the party.

Some tomato paste, some crushed red pepper flake.

Some minced garlic, and then some orange zest.

Now, normally you would see someone using grated orange zest, but I'm using a peeler to get lovely big wide strips to get our citrus flavor all in there.

You want to make sure that you are zesting over the pot.

Otherwise you're missing some oils.

So I'm going to do one.

Two.

Three.

And if you notice, I'm not going super-deep, because I want to make sure to not get a lot of the pith, and the vegetable peeler is the easiest way.

I'm going to take about four or five minutes and cook this down, and I want to get some color out of this tomato paste.

Don't be afraid if it's turning a little bit brown.

Again, browning is flavor.

And we want this to have some really rich flavors before we put our chicken in to braise in the liquid.

Now, all right, so we've got some beautiful color going here.

We have a little bit of the tomato sticking on the bottom and browning.

That's okay, don't worry.

I'm going to use some white wine to deglaze it.

Now, you want to use something that you would actually drink.

You don't want to use, you know, just any white wine here.

Something light, something dry.

And then I'm going to use my spatula here to scrape up all these little brown bits.

And when your wine is almost gone, it's time to add the chicken.

I use chicken thighs for this recipe, sliced crosswise an inch, and I salted and peppered them.

I'm going to work my chicken right into this beautiful base.

Stir it around a bit.

And then I'm going to add my saffron.

You don't need a ton of saffron for flavor.

I promise you it's worth it.

And now it's time for some water and a braise.

Bring it up to a simmer, and then drop it down to about medium-low so it can cook in all these lovely, lovely flavors.

And that's going to take about 15 minutes or so.

My chicken's been braising for about 15 minutes, and I need to pull out these little bitsy orange rinds, because I don't want to eat them.

(stove beeps) I'm going to turn off my heat, and move this off of the heat.

So now that it's all lovely and braised and beautiful, I want to add just a little bit more zing, a little bit more citrus.

I'm going to take half of my zested orange, and... Take about half of my basil.

Save the rest for plating.

And tear it up.

Straight into the pot.

Give it a good stir.

And this is the point where you want to taste and make sure that it's seasoned well.

It's good.

Needs a little bit of salt.

All righty.

Ready to plate it up.

Looking good.

I'm going to tear up the rest of my basil over this for some color and some freshness.

And I'm also going to put in a nice piece of crusty bread to soak up all this amazing broth.

Ready to roll and ready to eat.

Ooh!

Mm.

Oh, man, that's good.

Provençal braised chicken.

Super-easy, super-delicious.

♪ ♪ - So today we're going to make a really wonderful soup.

It's called Sardinian herb soup with fregola and white beans.

It is based on a soup that we learned about in Sardinia that normally is comprised of over 17 different foraged wild herbs.

We're not going to use that many herbs in our soup today.

We pared it down to just three herbs that we felt had the most impact.

So right now I have going some pancetta, which I'm just rendering and browning over medium heat.

While that's cooking, I'm going to go ahead and prep our parsley, which is our first herb, because it adds a wonderful grassiness to the soup.

And we're going to actually use all of the parsley instead of just the leaves.

Traditionally, it's not uncommon to use the stems in, like, a chicken stock, but usually it's the whole stems, and then they're taken out.

But we're going to actually chop these really finely and add them right into our soup.

Now that the stems are done, I'm going to go ahead and just give the leaves a nice rough chop.

And we're going to add these later on.

So I'm just going to set them aside.

I'm going to check our pancetta, and pancetta does add a nice savory element to the soup.

Pancetta looks great.

I'm going to go ahead and add those stems.

And then I'm also going to add a teaspoon and a half of fennel seeds.

They're whole seeds, and we're adding this to mimic the wild fennel that's really popular in Sardinia.

(sizzling) And then I'm going to add also a teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper.

And we don't need to add any salt at this point, because there's a lot of salt from the pancetta.

And now we're adding a half a cup of dry white wine.

(sizzling) Scraping up any brown bits on the bottom of the pan.

I'm going to turn the heat up, and we're just going to let this cook until almost all of the liquid is reduced.

All right, so this is great.

I can see that almost all the liquid has been evaporated, and basically what we have left now in the pan is the fat from the pancetta.

So it's time to add our stock-- two quarts of low-sodium chicken broth and three-quarters of a cup of fregola.

And now, if you haven't heard of fregola, it's a very cool pasta that's from Sardinia.

It's basically just semolina flour that's mixed with water.

They roll it into little balls, they dry it, and then they toast it, which makes it such a wonderful pasta to add to soups because it has a really toothsome quality.

But it's okay-- if you can't find fregola, which can be found in most Italian markets-- you can substitute pearl couscous.

You just want to cook it about half the time, 'cause it cooks a lot quicker.

And our fregola.

We're going to turn this heat way up to high, want to bring this up to a boil.

Once it's at a boil, we want to reduce the heat, bring it to a simmer, and cook it for about ten minutes until the fregola is tender but still has a bite left to it.

♪ ♪ - Okay, so, this has been cooking for ten minutes.

And now we're going to add...

This is a 15-ounce can of butter beans that's been drained and rinsed.

If you can't find those, you can also substitute any other white bean, like cannellini beans.

We're going to add three cloves of minced garlic, some ricotta salata.

This adds really nice body and richness to the soup.

And again, if you can't find the ricotta salata, you can also substitute pecorino romano, but you want to use about half the amount because it's a little saltier.

And lastly, I'm going to add the reserved parsley leaves that we roughly chopped.

Just going to give this a stir.

And then I'm going to let this continue cooking for another ten minutes.

Okay, so it's been another ten minutes.

So our fregola is nice and tender.

I'm going to go ahead and turn off the heat, and now we're going to go ahead and add the other two herbs that I mentioned at the beginning.

We're going to be adding four ounces of arugula that's been roughly chopped.

This adds a really nice pepperiness to the soup.

Last, we're going to add half a cup of chopped tarragon, which adds really nice sweet anise notes, which also plays off of the fennel that we added in the beginning.

Going to go ahead and stir that in.

It is such a wonderful bright green color and a fresh smell.

Really amazing.

Okay, I'm just going to taste it for seasoning here.

That is really, really good.

I'm just going to give it a little pinch of pepper.

And a little bit more salt, but it was really close.

Okay, this looks absolutely fantastic, and I'm ready to serve.

You can see all those beautiful beans in there and little bits of pancetta and all the wonderful bright green herbs.

This looks so great.

This is a complete meal in itself.

All right, I'm just going to garnish it with a little bit more of the ricotta salata.

'Cause I love this cheese so much.

Sprinkle some of that on there.

I'm going to give it a little drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

♪ ♪ All right, I'm ready to eat.

This looks fantastic.

Mm.

This is so wonderful.

It's hearty and rich and yet it has this wonderful brightness from all of the herbs that are in there.

It's delicious.

Mm, so good.

Sardinian herb soup with fregola and white beans.

♪ ♪ - Today we want to talk about an ingredient and then we're going to make a recipe called seared pork tenderloin with smoked paprika and oregano, but it's all about the smoked paprika.

So this is pimentón de la vera.

This comes from Spain, of course, in between Madrid and Portugal in a valley, and it's very different than, let's say, Hungarian paprika, that are dried peppers dried with fans and, and heaters.

This is an area that's actually fairly rainy.

So they do this over a wood fire-- they don't do sun-dried-- and they do it for a week to two weeks.

So it's a very slow process.

They don't want the heat to get over 120 degrees because that'll cook the peppers.

So if you smell this, it's very, very, very smoky.

It's a totally different product.

And it's one of those things that they would use on any dish, you know, migas, which is the scrambled eggs with the ham.

Just put it on top of almost anything.

So it's one of those game-changer ingredients that requires very little work, but just adds a ton of flavor.

So we'll start with some olive oil.

We have dried oregano.

We have the pimentón de la vera, which is the smoked paprika, and a little bit of sugar.

♪ ♪ Now, in lots of cultures, even here at Milk Street, a lot of recipes start by toasting spices in oil or dry-toasting them in a skillet.

Smoked paprika, pimentón, has so much flavor and so much smokiness, you don't really do that.

So we'll be brushing this on right at the end of cooking.

We're not going to start by brushing this on the meat at the beginning.

So this is a pork tenderloin.

We're going to cut it in half.

And then we're going to cut it lengthwise, but not all the way through, so we'll open it up like a book.

♪ ♪ We want to pound it.

And you can use wax paper, or you can use-- I use parchment paper or just a storage bag, plastic bag that's been opened up.

I often use, like, a three-quart or a two-quart saucepan to pound.

But you can also use, obviously, a meat pounder.

It's also helpful when you do this to sort of push away from the center.

You don't overwork it, and you get a nice even thickness.

♪ ♪ So, put about a tablespoon of grapeseed oil or a neutral oil in a pan.

Get that nice and hot.

Just before it smokes, it starts to shimmer, and then we know that pan's up to temperature.

So just a little bit of salt, each side.

Pan is nice and hot.

(sizzling) Two to three minutes on the first side, flip it, one to two minutes on the second side.

(sizzling) ♪ ♪ We're going to brush each side with a little bit of the sauce.

You can really smell that smoked paprika.

Comes right off the pan.

The four halves are cooked and they're on a platter.

We have a little bit of this remaining sauce on top.

And we're just going to let this sit for five minutes.

♪ ♪ So now it's rested.

We have a little bit of fresh oregano.

♪ ♪ Take a piece.

So that looks great.

It's a nice thin piece of pork tenderloin, not overcooked.

Mm.

You know, it's amazing how just a small amount of smoked paprika just flavors an entire dish.

It's delicious.

So this is a great example of what we love best here at Milk Street.

Take a sort of plain thing like pork tenderloin, it cooks very quickly.

But that smoked paprika, which is really the essential ingredient here, just adds so much flavor.

So you transform something common into something extraordinary with just essentially one ingredient.

So seared pork tenderloin with smoked paprika and fresh oregano.

It's a great Tuesday night dinner or any night of the week.

♪ ♪ - So today, I want to show you this bold and flavorful dish from Spain.

It's inspired by the Extremadura region in Western Spain.

This is a shrimp and chickpea stew, and we've pared it down-- not the flavors, but all the work-- for a delicious weeknight meal.

Let's get started.

So I'm going to heat my Dutch oven to medium-high and put some oil in there, get that going.

And while my oil is heating, I'm going to move to my spice mixture.

This dish features pimentón de la vera.

This is smoked paprika, and it adds a beautiful smoky flavor to this dish.

It's a signature taste.

So for this, I'm going to use some smoked paprika, as well as some regular sweet paprika and some black pepper.

I'm going to reserve some of this to use later.

And the rest of it goes into my shrimp.

Give that a good mix.

Okay, my shrimp and spice mix is done, and I'm going to start cooking this.

Now, this is a key step.

Shrimp tends to get overcooked very easily and it tastes rubbery and awful.

So we're using a technique that's going to help mitigate that problem.

I'm going to put the shrimp in, and cook only one side partway through.

(sizzling) So I've arranged my shrimp in a single layer in the Dutch oven, and we've left the tails on, and that's going to help us develop a really flavorful base to the stew.

I'm cooking them for about two minutes, and then I'm going to take them out with a slotted spoon.

(sizzling) So, my shrimp's been there for about two minutes.

Now, they're going to look a little undercooked on the top, and that's what we want.

The bottom has browned, and it's going to develop a nice crust.

I'm going to take them out with a slotted spoon.

And there's our partially cooked shrimp set aside.

So now I'm going to turn my heat down a little bit and we're going to move on to the next step.

I'm going to melt some butter.

Salted, of course.

This is smelling so good already.

That smoked paprika.

I can eat anything with it, but this stew is my favorite.

You can make sure to scrape all those flavorful bits from the bottom of the Dutch oven.

And in go the leeks.

(sizzling) So I'm going to cook my leeks on medium for about four to five minutes until they're softened.

So my leeks have softened down now.

It's been about four to five minutes.

I'm going to add in some garlic and the rest of my spice mixture.

So I'm going to cook the garlic and the remaining spice mixture for about a minute, just until it's fragrant.

All right, so building on this dish, we're going to use canned chickpeas to make it a lot quicker, along with some of the liquid from the canned chickpeas.

That adds some starch and some heft to our dish.

(sizzling) I'm also going to use clam juice, and the clam juice is a great quick substitute.

This adds this lovely shellfish taste to it without any of the work.

And finally, we're going to add the chickpeas.

So I'm just bringing this up to a simmer, and I'm going to lower the heat down, cover this, and cook this for ten minutes.

While that cooks, I'm going to turn my attention to the shrimp.

So this part involves some hand labor, but we're going to peel the tails off the shrimp and then cut them in half.

♪ ♪ And we'll come back and finish the dish.

It's messy work, but it's well worth it.

♪ ♪ Oh, this smells great.

I can smell all of that smoked paprika flavor.

So this has been cooking for ten minutes.

I'm going to turn off the heat now.

(stove beeps) And then I'm going to add the partially cooked shrimp.

So, I've cut the shrimp in half crosswise, that's going to make them easier to eat.

These are going to finish cooking in the residual heat of the stew.

I'm going to cover these and let them finish until they turn opaque.

Two to three minutes.

I think my shrimp are done.

They look opaque.

They're fully cooked and not overcooked.

Let me taste this.

Mm.

That's really good.

I'm going to add a little bit of salt and pepper just to finish.

I love my black pepper.

Great.

And this is ready to eat now.

♪ ♪ I'm going to get some of that broth.

Delicious.

This is looking gorgeous and I wish you could smell it, it smells so good.

That smoked paprika flavor is all over the kitchen right now.

I'm going to finish this with some olive oil and a sprinkling of freshly chopped parsley.

So this is our Spanish shrimp and chickpea stew.

You can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season of Milk Street at MilkStreetTV.com.

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- Funding for this series was provided by the following: - That meal.

You sautéed, you seared, and you served, cooking with All-Clad, bonded cookware designed, engineered, and assembled in the U.S.A. for over 50 years.

All-Clad-- for all your kitchen adventures.

(man speaking Hebrew) - Je présente Chris.

- Bonjour, je m'appelle Chris.

- We call it supa kanja.

It's the word for gumbo.

♪ ♪ - Christopher, you have to make the authentic, original cotoletta alla Bolognese for me.

♪ ♪ - So this is the Eduardo García blender.

- This is the no electricity.

♪ ♪ - Next is dessert.

- That is really good.

♪ ♪ I notice when you cook sometimes, you add a little bit of something, and then you just put the whole bowl in.

- I like to be generous with my food.

Generosity is important in cooking.

- That's true.

♪ ♪ - Can start building bridges, and food is definitely a perfect common ground.

♪ ♪ - This is a generational thing.

It's, it's something that you inherit.

♪ ♪ - Yeah, that was great.

(woman speaking Mandarin) - What was this for?

What did she say?

- You get one more chance.

- Salute.

- How is it?

He's speechless.

- I'm speechless.

That's so good.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪