>> male announcer: Funding for Chef Paul Prudhomme's Always Cooking was provided by: >> Prudhomme: Hi, I'm Chef Paul Prudhomme.

We're always cooking around here, yeah.

Today we're slow-cooking, and we're doing, oh, a wonderful Basile barbecue brisket.

It's wonderful.

western chili and veal shanks with okra and tomatoes: we got it all today.

Yeah, come on down.

[lively Cajun music] ♪ ♪ [laughs] We're doing something from Basile.

Basile is a little, bitty town in central Louisiana, where I was born at.

And Basile, Louisiana, has very, very strong character.

And so we're doing a barbecue brisket, and it's a Basile barbecue brisket.

Man, it's the four Bs.

Yeah, baby.

So we're going to start out.

We got this brisket.

We got an array of ingredients, including honey.

And we got some tomato sauce.

We got onions.

Of course, we got seasoning.

Got celery and bell pepper.

It's Basile; we got to have that.

And we've got some sugar.

We've got bay leafs, and we have a stock, and we have some wonderful apple cider vinegar.

So we're going to start with-- I got a cast-iron skillet.

And this is actually going to end up in the oven, because it's slow cooking, and that's what we're doing now.

So it's a slow cooking.

But I've got some oil in a brush.

And I'm going to put some oil.

Now, it doesn't need a whole lot of oil, because you can see, there's fat on it, especially on this side in the brisket.

But I'm going to put some on it, and then I've got a blend of herbs and spices, and I'm going to start putting it in and just make sure that I cover it real well, because what I'm going to do is, I'm going to take this brisket and I'm going to brown it off, and then I'm going to take it out of the pan, and then I'm going to do some vegetables.

And then I'm going to put it all together and put it in the oven.

So--all right.

So now, when I do that, when I put seasoning on top of something, I like to-- especially when there's oil there--is just to press it down a little bit.

And if you press it down a small amount, it'll stay better, because I'm going to t tn n is over into this pan.

And I don't want it to stick to the cast iron.

And so the more I press it in, the better it's going to adhere to the meat and it's going to stay on it.

And so if it looks like--see, it'sot really working well, and so I'm going to add a little bit more oil to it and just sprinkle it around a little bit.

And I don't need oil to cook it with; I need oil to hold my seasoning on.

And so I think this will probably--yeah, now you can see it's starting to stick.

So I'm going to take this, and this is hot.

I'm going to put it in and let it start cooking.

I'm going to do this side, and I'm going to put oil on it.

And I'm going to put a little bit more than the other side simply because there's-- simply because there's less fat here.

And so I'm going to turn the fire up.

And a cast-iron skillet really holds heat, and so I got it hot.

So it's starting to put out a little bit of smoke already.

And what I'm going to do is take this step-by-step and try to build the best flavors that I can possibly build for this dish.

Now, a brisket, you know, comes from the breast of the animal, and it's sort of, like, by the front leg and-- you know?

And it's--it's normally tough because when an animal walks, it exercises on this brisket.

So it's normally tough.

So it's perfect for slow cooking.

Oh, I can smell it.

It's starting to--I mean, the herbs and spices in it are starting to really kick in over here.

So I'm going to look at it and see what it looks like.

And I like it because I didn't lose any seasoning.

See, that's fresh seasoning that just fell off the other side.

And it's got a great color on it.

I love that color.

I mean, I think that color is an enormous part of taste.

And if you overdo it, you can make it bitter.

I mean, if it gets too dark, it can be bitter.

But when you have oil behind it, like the fat here, it'll get real dark, and the chances of it getting bitter are much, much, much less.

I'm going to make sure that this side is brown also.

And I know it's coming fast, because I can see all the smoke here.

So I want to take a peek at it.

I want to take a peek-- see when you rub it like this?

I do that, and when-- because it attaches the seasoning.

Look-a-there.

Isn't that beautiful?

I mean, it's dark, and it's really beautiful.

So that's going to give me a great start.

These outside flavors are going to be-- some of the best thing about this dish is the outside flavor.

So I'm putting in the onions.

And I'm going to put a little bit of oil with the onions, not a whole lot.

And I'm going to start stirring.

I want to get all the stuff that was there before that came off of the meat-- the seasoning as well as the brown-- off of it.

I want to get that into the onions because I want to keep it, because it's part of the flavor, and it's part of the depth of the flavor.

The more you can get coloring on things--and no matter what it is, what you're cooking, color is flavor.

I mean, color is definitely flavor.

And so you need to be able to put color on it.

As you start out, this is-- I mean, the whole idea of this dish is a slow-cooking dish, and--but you have to start fast to give it the flavors.

It would be good if I didn't do this, if I didn't take it and brown the vegetables off and do all the things that you're seeing me do.

It would still be good, but it wouldn't be as good.

And it wouldn't have the changes that I love and most people love when you're eating something.

You know, one of the things I dislike is if I take a bite-- if I'm at a restaurant or if I'm eating at home, you know, you take a bite; it's real good.

You know what I mean?

It's just-- it's exciting, you know.

You take another bite, and, you know, it sort of just diminishes.

And you take another bite, and it's tasting the same way again.

I don't like that, because, to me, it takes away from the real pleasure of eating.

You need that constant change, just a little bit, just a little bit.

So we're putting bell peppers in.

We're going to use this as a builder for the flavors that's going to come out of this.

All right, I want to taste this because it really-- I mean, the information is in the taste.

That's the most important thing.

Besides that, it's good eating.

Still very crunchy, but the amount of heat that I put on it-- it's got a great taste to it.

And I still don't have any herbs and spices on it, so that's going to be the next thing.

And I'm going to end up with quite a bit of this, so I'm going to put lots of herbs and spices on it.

And with all the flavors and the juices that's going to come out of the-- that's going to come out of the--that's going to come out of the brisket, you need herbs and spices.

I lowered my fire down, and actually, I lowered it just a little bit too much.

And so it's cranking back up again, and as soon as this seasoning's brown, we can start adding other things to it.

Oh, yes, the smell, the smell, the smell.

All right, now it's time for the bay leaf.

I'm going to put it in and put the brown sugar in.

Now, the brown sugar-- the brown sugar is one of the ingredients that, when you put it in without any liquid in, you got to be ready, and you got to be super ready to put some liquid in, because brown sugar and you put it next to heat, and it's going to accelerate.

I mean, it's going to-- the heat, and the things around it will burn real easy with brown sugar.

So you could actually, when you get this recipe-- matter of fact, we're going to give you an option on it that you can first put your stock in.

Actually, we could first put the tomatoes--look at it.

Look at that color that happening from the brown sugar.

We're going to put the tomatoes in.

[sizzling] Oh.

This is a tomato sauce that we've put in.

I'm going to put the apple cider vinegar in.

I've got enough brown sugar, so I'm going to put the stock in.

And I don't need it all, so I'm not going to use it all.

And yep, that'll do it, because I got the prize possession still left to do.

And the prize possession, for me, is this honey, because this is going to change everything about this.

With all the seasoning I've put in it and the browning I've done, that honey is going to caress everything about that and just make it absolutely wonderful, I mean, just wonderful.

I need to put--before I taste, I need to put a little more stock in.

And it's coming back to a boil.

And the smell is just great.

I mean, it really is.

You know, the seasoning, the herbs and spices, the chilies, the dry mustard, the bay leaf, all those things, and the mustard seeds, all those things are just so happy together, you know?

I mean, there's coriander in here.

And of course, when you get the recipe, you'll have all that in it.

The thing you put in last is going to come out first until it comes to a boil and boils for a few minutes.

And then it starts changing; because you want everything to be equal.

You don't want something pushing out really hard, especially vinegar.

You don't want it pushing out really hard.

But what happens is that as this boil comes aboard and it starts doing that, then all the flavors start arranging, and it arranges exactly at this temperature.

It will not change.

That's why I say I want to wait until the boil to taste it, to really make a decision.

And it's because when it comes to a boil, for some reason that I don't know, all the flavors arrange themselves; in other words, one, two, three, four, five in the taste.

And all the flavors do that.

And once they do that boiling, you got to add another ingredient to change it, and I've got another ingredient.

I got honey.

So I'm ready.

Mmm.

Now, the--I mean, just in that short amount of time, the vinegar started sinking.

It just, like, barely there.

It was, like, third or fourth in the taste.

And when I put this honey in, oh, you talk about-- you talk about drooling.

See, you can't look, because I'll be drooling.

Ugh, man, this honey is going to turn this into absolute red gold.

Oh, look-a-there.

Now, I didn't put it all in because I want to be-- I want to taste it.

I want to be sure.

And I can taste it now, because all this is very hot.

But the true taste is going to come, again, when it comes to a boil.

I'm surprised; it thinned out quite a bit, because it would seem-- well, the heat thinned the honey out.

Ho-ho-ho-ho.

Ya-hoo!

Man-- [laughing] I ain't saying anything else.

I mean, I'm droobling all over myself.

This is incredible.

So now the idea is, is to slow-cook this.

And of course, this is raw, and it still has flavors to add because I put the seasoning on and browned it and I got all those colors, and especially those deep brow colors in there.

And so the next step is to take it and to pour this in there.

And I'm going to turn the fire off.

And these are short handles, so I want to be really careful.

They're very short.

Oh, we got it, yeah.

You brown it, and then you put it in the oven at 250 for three hours.

And then you check it, and then you raise it.

When it's starting to get tender-- and it's got to be tender-- you raise it to 375.

And you do that for the last 30 or 40 minutes.

All right, to the oven.

Ahh.

Look at this.

The smell is absolutely spectacular.

Oh, isn't that beautiful?

Look at that sauce.

Look-a-there.

Oh, and of course, it reduced it a little bit, but that's all right.

It's the Basile barbecue brisket, and it's done, and it's ready to eat, so let's eat.

western chili cooked the slow-cooking way.

Yum.

Slo-o-o-o-ow cooking.

I love slow cooking.

It gives you the best flavors, and we're going to do a western chili, and we're going to cook it slow.

We're going to start very fast, because that's important to me.

I like to get the flavors in.

And look-a-there; this pan is-- oh, you talk about a smoking pan?

This is a smoking pan.

And I'm going to brown the meat off first.

I'm going to lower the fire just a little bit.

I've got some herbs and spices here, and I'm just going to take them and put a whole bunch of them in with the meat.

And then I'm going to take a spatula and just mix it up.

The goal here is to-- every piece of meat-- I'm going to have to use my hands.

The goal here is to coat every piece of meat with the seasoning, because that's where the flavor's at.

That's what's going to really-- when I brown this off and with the seasoning on it, I mean, the flavor, because of the seasoning, is going to multiply over and over again because it takes a long time for the-- it takes a while for the meat to get brown, but the seasoning gonna get brown really quick.

And so I want to spread it.

I want to spread it around so I get as much on the bottom of the pan as I possibly can.

Now, I don't need oil, because I'm going to just start shaking this dude out in a minute.

And so--and you can see that there's no more seasoning.

No matter how much I've put in, there's no more seasoning left in this bowl.

And the goal here is just to get some great color on the meat.

And I'm going to turn one over so you can specifically see it.

And that's one--this is one of the ones I've put in right in the beginning.

And you can see the herbs and spices.

I love this, when they start to crystallize like this.

I mean, that, you know-- and the flavors.

I mean, right in my face, the flavors are just spectacular.

This is meat for chili, so it's tough.

It's no doubt very tough.

And so you want to cook-- that's why you want to cook it a long time.

But you need to get these colors on it to really make it deliver the flavor that it can deliver.

And so we just about got them done, just about got them brown.

Now, the next steps are going to be to build flavors to coincide with this.

In other words, I've got onions; I've got three kinds of bell pepper; I've got Anaheim chilies; I've got the seasoning mix; I've got a little bit of cornmeal and stock.

And all those things-- all those things are going to make this western chili hum.

All right, I'm at a good point here.

I'm going to take it out.

Look-a-there.

Isn't that beautiful?

Wow.

Now I'm going to put the onions in, and I'm going to put oil on the onions.

And look at that bottom in this.

See those things that are getting dark?

I'm going to pull them right up and put them in with the onions.

And they're going to be a part of that flavor when this is done.

Oh!

And you know, it's amazing; if you slow-cook things and they get brown or they get dark like what you're seeing in here, if they're slow-cooked, chances are that they're going to be bitter.

But if you've cooked them at a very high temperature, like I've been doing-- and I'm going to turn the fire back up to brown the onions off.

When you take them at a very high temperature, you can have these dark specks in there and it won't be bitter.

It's going to be-- it's going to be flavor.

It's going to be lots of flavor.

Look how quickly this is turning.

I mean, you know this pan is-- this pan is hot when the onions start browning that quickly.

But that's what I need, because flavor-- I mean, chili absolutely needs a huge amount of flavor.

Next I'm going to put the cornmeal on, and the bell peppers I'm not going to worry about.

And I'm going to put the cornmeal here, and I'm going to start-- I'm going to back off the onions just a little bit.

And then I'm going to take the cornmeal--even though it's been roasted a little bit, I want to roast it a little bit more.

We did it in the prep kitchen, and we just should have done it a little bit more.

I want this--I want a little bit more color here, and because that color is taste, and it's the most important part of taste.

If you don't have-- if you got dull colors, you're going to have dull taste; there's no doubt about it.

All right.

I'm going to put the onions back in.

Oh, the smell.

I mean, this is an incredible corn smell.

I mean, it's just really wonderful, just really wonderful.

That corn smell is going to turn into a corn taste that's going to be everywheres, I mean, literally everywheres throughout this dish with the sauce that it makes.

I mean, it's just going to-- going to put the bell peppers in.

Look at the colors in here.

Isn't that beautiful?

I'm going to put the Anaheims in and now the seasoning.

And I'm going to load it up.

I'm going to put it-- because I love chili to have a lot of flavor.

Now, I don't want to overdo it.

I want to be able to taste everything that's in here.

But you need a lot of flavors.

All right, so what I have in here that's going to make this work, of course, is just a good seasoning blend.

And then--and there's herbs and spices in it, and, of course, there's salt.

But we got nutmeg in it, and we got cinnamon in it.

We got coriander in it.

And then we got Anaheim chilies, guajillo chilies, pasilla chilies, and each one of those chilies are different-- the ancho chilies.

Some of them are darker.

Some of them are lighter.

They all come from different peppers, and so, I mean, they're the ones that really, really brings the flavors out.

We want this to bang when you come out-- when it comes out.

I want you to put it in your mouth and recognize that you've got some real chili.

Now, the rest of it is pretty simple.

It's time, and we're going to put the raw meat back in that's been wonderfully browned.

And we're going to take the stock.

I'm sure tempted to put the rest of that seasoning in.

But I don't want to knock out the crew, and I know they're going to want to eat this.

It would be--it would be Paul Prudhomme hot, which is not too hot but just wonderfully hot.

And of course, if you got sissies in the room, you don't want to hurt them.

[laughing] Look at the colors in here.

Isn't that beautiful?

Now, you know that's going to be a good chili.

You bring it to a boil, an hour and a half at a simmer, and then you should taste the meat, because this is a brisket meat, and you want to make sure--it should be tender by then, but you-- the only way you're really going to know if it's tender if you take a little bit of the piece of meat and you make sure it is tender.

Look what I got here.

Ooh-ooh-ooh.

I feel bad it's television... [chuckling] because I can't give you a bite.

But I can take a bite.

Western chili: make some today.

It's a veal shank cut in a osso buco style with okra and tomatoes.

Yes.

[laughs] Well, we're going to do some more cooking, yeah.

We got some osso buco.

Osso buco is that wonderful stuff that really is long-term cooking that's wonderful and it tastes good if you do the right thing to it.

That means put good seasoning on it.

We also got okra and tomatoes to go with it, so here we go.

We got the osso buco here.

The herbs and spices is a mixture, and it has several things in it.

Of course, it has salt, and it has pepper, a little bit of black pepper in it.

It's got ginger in it.

It's got sandalwood, and sandalwood is unusual.

It's one of those ingredients that is probably hard to find, and if you don't find it, it's okay.

You can do without it, but if you put it in, it really gives it an exotic taste, I mean, a really exotic taste.

I'm going to turn these over and do the other side, because you need to season both sides.

That is--I mean that just makes it so much different.

And see, the bottom side, it sets a while.

The bottom side is nice and wet, so it's going to really take in the seasoning.

And so we sprinkle it.

And the sandalwood that-- we got dry chilies in it, and we got several chilies.

We got Anaheims, and we got jalapeños, and we got all kind of good stuff in this.

And so we're putting the seasoning on, and after the seasoning's on-- this is one of my favorite recipes because it's the slow cooking but also because it comes out so great.

I mean, it has such a great flavor to it.

And it's very easy to do at home.

I mean, this is one of the things that, once you set it, you put it in the oven, and you forget it.

And you put it in the oven at 250.

So we've got the sun-dried tomato marinade, and we're going to put that in.

And I'm going to try to put it in a little bit of everywheres, because it don't take a whole lot.

And then we got the okra.

And we're going to put the okra in.

And just kind of spread it around.

I mean, you don't have to be really delicate with that.

And then the tomatoes-- what--I've kind of spread those around too.

And so we've got the dish-- we've got the dish ready to cook.

Now, this is one of the things I like about it, because all I have to do now is cover it with foil, which I'm going to do.

And then you put it in the oven.

And you put it in slow-cooking oven at 250 degrees.

And it's--you know why they call it "osso buco"?

Because it's Italian, and the Italians called it osso buco because of the bone marrow.

And the bone marrow-- now, this one just came out of the oven a few minutes ago.

You can tell it's been a while because I can handle it.

But see the bone marrow in there?

Oh, that's so good.

I mean, that's so wonderful.

So I'm going to take this and put it right here.

Take some of the juices that's on the bottom and just kind of spread them on there, because it really-- I mean, the juices are wonderful.

And so a little bit of okra and tomato in it, with it also.

And you're ready to eat.

And I'm going to just kind of look it up and see what it feels like to take a taste of it.

And so we've got the osso buco ready.

All we got to do is put it in the oven and slow-cook it at 250 degrees until it's tender.

And you'll know when it's tender when you just put a fork in it and it comes right out, or you can use a knife that don't have an edge on it and get it off.

[laughs] I'm not going to eat in front of you, but I'm going to be ready soon as the camera goes off to have something to eat.

And that's good cooking, good eating, good loving.

We love you guys!

>> announcer: A cookbook featuring all the recipes from Chef Paul Prudhomme's Always Cooking is available for $15.95 plus $7.95 shipping and handling.

The cookbook features 97 recipes, color photos, and cooking tips from Chef Paul.

To order a copy of the companion cookbook, call: And pay by credit card.

Or send a check or money order to: Captioning by CaptionMax www.captionmax.com >> Prudhomme: [humming] ♪ Anytime you're ready.

♪ [beep] And so we're going to add some liquid to it, but we're also going to add more ingredients.

And we've got some-- oh, does that smell good.

Wish I knew what it was.

[beep] >> Don't give me that face.

>> Prudhomme: All right, I'll do it.

[muttering] [beep] Hello, y'all.

Pineapple-- [laughing] I'm going to have a hard time with this one.

Pineapple...glaze... fruit...brasket skewers.

[laughter] [beep] Cooking.

Cooking.

Cooking.

Cooking.

Cooking.

Cooking.

Cooking.

[beep] Ah-ah-ah!

Help.

>> announcer: Funding for Chef Paul Prudhomme's Always Cooking was provided by: