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

We've got the top-of-the-stove action going for you today.

I'm Always Cooking!

Coming up: lentil bean soup, skillet bread, and orange magnolia sauce.

Just put it all over you.

It's wonderful.

[lively Cajun music] ♪ ♪ Hello, everybody.

Yeah, we're back.

We're going to do some more cooking for you.

Yeah, that's what I like to do, is to cook.

And today we're starting out with a lentil soup.

Lentil soup is a good soup.

It has a lot of history to it, and we'll try to tell you some about it.

We're going to start the fire and start it cooking, because this is a long recipe.

And so--and anytime you cook lentils or you cook beans and stuff, it's generally a long recipe, and of course television don't give you a lot of time, so we're going to do the essentials.

We're putting some onions in.

And I love to get some flavor on the onions and to do some browning with it, so I had the fire already going on the pot before the camera went on.

As you can see, it's starting to smoke already.

So we just want to do a little bit of this, get some flavor in that, and then we got celery.

You got to have celery, you know, and of course you got to have bell peppers.

I mean, what's a dish of food going to be like, especially, especially, a lentil soup, without onions and bell pepper and celery?

And then to that, we're going to add some bay leaf and a little bit of oil.

Now, the idea of staging ingredients is to get them to a stage of flavor that makes a difference in the dish.

You know, there are so many wonderful things that you can come out with on the top of the stove--I mean, in the oven and everywheres, but on top of the stove, you got more control.

You can see it all the time, and, I mean, right now, I can smell it, and I know what's going on, so...

This is a nice thin pot, and you can see the color of the smoke coming out.

And so we've got some color on the vegetables, and the next step is that we're going to add some seasoning, and that always makes things move quicker.

And I think the reason that herbs and spices--they've got a little bit of oil in them, and so that helps the heating process or helps it-- but when they start browning, they'll take a dish to a very high temperature very quickly.

And if you put herbs and spices in a dish of food and you don't brown it, you're really beating yourself, because it just makes a huge amount of difference to do that, to put the browning in.

And so we've got the seasoning in, and, oh, the smell just changed so dramatically.

I mean, it just is absolutely spectacular.

We're going to add some apple juice to it.

We're going to put that right in, and we're going to add some lentils.

And these are--aren't they beautiful?

I mean, lentils got so many colors.

We're going to put the lentils in, and we're going to put a little stock in, and we're going to let it cook.

It's just amazing, because I didn't put anything brown in the pot, but everything's really brown, and the reason it's brown is because of the herbs and spices and because of browning the onions in the beginning and stuff.

But that's a great flavor, that brown, and it's going to make the lentils just jump out.

So we should take a little break and let this come to a boil, and we'll be back.

We've got the first stage done, and, you know, I think it's always important to taste things.

And I'm going to do that.

Ah.

I mean, it's a little bit over-seasoned, which it should be at this time, but it really tastes good.

I mean, it really has a super flavor.

I'm going to add the next stage of ingredients, and I'm adding more onions.

I'm going to add some garlic.

I'm going to add some more celery and bell pepper and a little bit of carrots.

I'm going to work this stage out.

The moisture has evaporated a lot, and it's going to evaporate more, and that's a great stage, because it's going to start browning on the bottom, so I got to really watch the bottom and keep scraping it.

We got it going.

It's really--I mean, it needs-- it's starting to stick in the bottom, which is great.

We're going to add the parsnips.

We're going to add the tamari.

Oh, that tamari smells great.

And we actually need to add some stock to it, and then we're getting to the last stages.

People in the Far East love lentils, and we visited Israel a couple times, and it's just wonderful there what they can do, because they do it all the time.

They got just tremendous amount of recipes for lentils.

It's an excellent source of protein, it's inexpensive, and it's nutritional, so lentils got really great--and now with all the colors they have, you know?

And so it's absolutely wonderful.

Vegetarians think of this as meat, you know, but I like to add meat to it, and then I don't have to think of it as meat; it is meat.

And so, you know, you put it in a pot, 350 degrees, and you do the stages that we've just been through here, and you're going to get an enormous amount of flavor to it.

Tamari's a great flavor, soy sauce.

All those things work very good with lentils.

And we're going to let this cook awhile, and then we'll be done.

I wish you could smell this.

I mean, it is just spectacular.

And what's neat about it is that the texture is just perfect for a great soup, and we've got some more color to put into it right at the end.

We've got the mushrooms, and we're going to add that to it.

And we're going to add some yellow squash and green squash.

And we've got five more minutes or roughly that to cook, and so the vegetables can just be kind of crunchy.

We're going to put the final part of the stock in.

And, you know, it's really important to use stock, because if you use water, it's going to take away from the flavors that you're building, because that's what water does.

It dilutes flavors.

And when you use a stock, it actually adds flavor, so it's really great.

You know, one of the best experiences I ever had was the 3,000 anniversary of the city of Jerusalem.

And one of these--these peas bring me right back to that.

You know, we had to do the dinner for the 2,000--they had chefs from all around the world, and we were lucky to be invited.

And it was a wonderful experience, and you pick up so many things about a culture when you're dealing with the chefs, because that's where the history's at.

It's with the food and with what people really enjoy and what families get together with.

And--my last clean spoon, so I'm going to give it a taste.

And I'm going to try to tell you--see the color?

I mean, that comes from the cooking.

That comes from the scraping of the bottom of the pot, and that--oh.

I mean, the taste is just-- it just rises right up in your mind, and it says, "Man, that's good."

The last step in this is-- you know, and I don't do this often, and it's probably not a great thing to do, but I like to put the seasonings in in the beginning and the middle and then quarter--but it didn't have quite enough, so I'm going to add some seasoning to it here and let it cook for a minute.

And then we're going to have a just super, wonderful lentil soup, which is good for the heart.

It's good for the tummy too.

Orange magnolia sauce: the simplest sauce you ever made that's so delicious.

I guarantee it.

You know, there's things in life that you do and you--you know, you know why you did it, but it don't make any sense.

Well, this dish--it's a sauce, actually, that goes on anything.

I mean, we can--you know, you can put it on chicken, beef, pork.

You can put it by itself on pasta.

You can--I mean, just literally any--you can put it on bread, you know?

Toast the bread first; it's even better.

But it's called an orange magnolia sauce, and there's no orange in it, and there's no magnolias in it.

But it's a great sauce, okay?

So we're going to start out by putting--this has a small amount of butter in it, as you can tell, right here.

And so we've got the skillet warming up, and I'm going to turn it up.

And I'm going to put butter in it just to--literally just to toast the herbs and spices.

And so I don't want to brown the butter too much.

The pan's really hot, so I'm going to just take it away from the fire and just roll the butter around until I put the seasoning in.

And this is going to move very, very quickly, and it's a really wonderful sauce that--I mean, you can use it on anything, and I'm going to keep saying that the whole time, because it's just that simple.

So I'm going to put the seasoning in.

And you've got to brown the seasoning.

It's very, very important to do that.

And see how quickly it is?

I mean, it just--right now, see the smoke coming up?

The seasoning's done.

I mean, it's brown, so we can go to the next stage.

We're using ketchup in it.

And I'm going to really stir it in quickly so I don't overcook the seasoning, because it's a really important part.

And I just like to put the--I'm going to clean that up a little bit better, but I want to go to the next ingredient.

And we're going to put some cream in here.

And I think the orange magnolia came from the fact that when you put the cream together with the ketchup and with the browning of the onions and with the butter and everything in it--and you'll see it shortly--it becomes a sort of orange sauce.

And the taste of it is absolutely awesome.

And I'm putting the butter in now because I didn't want to brown all the butter, just parts of it.

And so we did that, and now we got butter just to make it taste good and creamy and rich, and then we've also got a little bit of brown sugar.

And that's the entire recipe.

And I'll tell you, if you do this dish, you know, with the herbs and spices and, you know, with everything in it, you're going to be surprised.

See how it's turning that beautiful orange color, you know?

And magnolias, of course, we're famous for that here in New Orleans.

We like magnolias.

I mean, this is great on a meat loaf, which I have here to put some on.

[laughs] I mean, this is one of them that you could taste all day long, but I'm going to give it a-- and it's not really ready to taste yet.

I just--[laughs] I mean, it's delicious, just wonderful.

I tell you, I wish that everything that I would cook would be so simple or that I create would be so simple and so good at the same time.

But it's just amazing.

I mean, I would have not thought a few years ago that I'd be sitting here in front of you and doing a sauce that I would call absolutely wonderful and using ketchup, but that's the way it is.

And when you run into something really good, you just ought to admit it, huh?

Yeah, I think so.

Well, that's basically it.

The fire is going off right this minute, and we're going to put some around this meat loaf.

And it is ready to eat.

And that's orange magnolia sauce.

Ooh, is it yummy.

Skillet bread with garlic butter: good stuff.

Skillet breads and garlic butter, yes, that's what we're going to do.

That's our mission, to show you how to do flatbreads.

It's a fun thing to do.

It's a little bit of work, but it's okay.

So we're going to start out by heating some milk, and we're going to put the milk in the skillet and start the-- One of the things about bread that's always been true and a little frustrating for me, especially as a young cook-- I love to be creative.

I love to change things and make them--and with breads or with baking in general, you have to have a recipe, and it has to be a formula recipe, which means it's got to be precise every time.

We're going to start out by heating some milk, and we don't want it to be really very high, because when you heat milk to put yeast in, you want it to be about 110 degrees.

And so it's right there.

Man, this was fast.

It's there already, so we're going to cut the fire off.

We're going to check it again just to make sure, because if the milk is too hot, it's going to kill the yeast.

And this is a yeast bread, and so it's very important.

It's about at 110, and so I'm happy with that.

The next step is going to be to take the eggs and whisk them.

You want them to be real frothy.

I think that the more frothy the eggs, the better the texture and the better the consistency.

No matter what kind of bread you're making, it's very important to do that.

We got a little bit of salt, and we're going to put it right in with the eggs.

One of the things about salt that you got to be a little bit concerned about is that salt has a tendency to do yeast in, which means to really affect the yeast.

But you put it in with the eggs, and you get a nice whisk on it.

I like for it to get frothy.

See the bubbles that are coming out of that?

You know, I mean, I think that's really important, because it's part of the air that's in there.

It's part of what's going to make this a fluffy piece of bread or bread with texture in it.

And also, if you want bread that's got some crispiness to it, you need to do this also.

So we got the sugar.

We're going to put the sugar in with the milk.

We're going to stir that to make sure that the sugar's dissolved.

We're going to add the yeast to it.

And we're going to put it right in there and just shake it up.

Now, remember, if your milk's too hot and you put the yeast in, what's going to happen is that at about 120 degrees or so, it's going to kill the yeast.

And once the yeast is dead, you won't have any fluffy breads.

I mean, it will not happen.

So we put that in.

We're going to put the eggs in.

That's the basic beginning.

We're going to start the mixer, and mixers have a notoriously-- have a notorious reputation of just taking over sound-wise.

And so we're going to put this flour in here, and we've got to do it slowly.

You can't dump the flour if you're making a good dough.

It's got to go in slowly, so we're going to start with that, and we're going to just-- with the mixer, and we're going to start adding the flour.

And as the flour turns into a dough, then you've got to go with a little more speed to it.

What you're looking for is an elasticity, and we'll try to show you that.

It'll stretch.

And, of course, it'll break if you pull it too long, but it basically will stretch, and it won't break.

And so we're going to pick up the speed, and I'm going to just shut up and finish this.

Now that I've got all the flour in, we're going to pick up the speed a little bit, and I'm going to go silent.

I like to check it and the stickiness of it and how it sticks to your hands.

See, it's sticking much less to my hands, so I'm getting really close to where the dough is going to be set or it's going to be mixed totally.

We've got the dough done, and we're going to show it to you.

You can always tell--at least I feel like you can--if it just comes right off.

And see how this comes off real good?

You know, it just comes right off the dough hook.

And then we take it and-- actually, I like to leave it in the bowl to let it rise.

And of course, you can take it out and put it in another bowl.

But just take something to cover it with, you know, and cover it lightly and then just let it set.

Every once in a while, check it, and it should double in size.

When it doubles in size, it's ready to go.

I'm going to set this aside and make the garlic bread butter.

And that's another one that's very quick to do and very easy to do.

And so we're going to start the fire going, and we've got butter, and we've got, ooh, a little bit of cheese, and it's good cheese-- it's Parmesan-- and some garlic and a little bit of wine vinegar.

And so here we go.

We've got seasoning too, herbs and spices.

Put the butter in.

I've got a whisk out.

The first thing I want to do is get some color on the seasoning, so I'm going to do that first.

What happens with herbs and spices and especially dried herbs and spices: people don't think of them as being raw, and they're absolutely raw.

And so if you don't apply a little bit of heat to them, then it really-- I mean, it really has a different taste and a strong different taste.

So we're going to put the garlic in.

And, oh, this smells great.

Now, this is to brush on the bread.

I've got a little bit more of the garlic in there-- I'm going to put it in-- and a little bit of fromage, or cheese.

We've got some bread that's already rising.

We staged it out, so it's ready to go.

And we're going to--we finished this, actually, and we're going to get the bread out, and we're going to start rolling the bread and getting towards the middle of the recipe.

[chuckles] As you can see, we've shifted areas.

We moved to another area so we can work with the breads.

Now, the bread is--has risen, and it's ready to go.

I'm going to knock it down.

It had a really nice rise to it, and it really has a great flavor.

So now we're going to talk about how to do the flatbreads.

And you take flour, and I would suggest that you probably-- if you do baking, I would do probably a little more flour than normal.

And then you take a piece of this dough, and you want to try to get enough to make about a five-, six-inch flatbread.

And you roll it, and then you put it right into the flour, and then you take a--I'm going to move this over to another table to get it out the way.

And then you take this, and you start rolling it.

Now, this is, to me, one of the things that's really-- I like to just keep turning it; I think it's important.

I really do.

And I want to stretch it, and I want to stretch it evenly.

You know, me and my mother used to do these kind of things and not particularly flatbreads, but we used to do beignets and those kind of things.

But we did bread all the time because, you know, we couldn't go to the grocery store.

We didn't have any money to go to the grocery store and buy stuff, and everything that we did--you know, for those of you who don't know, I was raised on a farm in central Louisiana.

And it was a big family of 13 children, and doing breads was a very important thing, even though the truth is, I've never really liked doing bread doughs and stuff.

But I had to learn because I was helping in the kitchen, and so--and see, you're getting a really good stretch on this.

I mean, it really is a nice stretch.

Now, what we're doing is, we're putting the garlic and the seasoned butter on it.

And we just take this and go right--get a nice what I call mess on it, I mean, just a good spread of stuff, and get all the corners.

You know, just cover it all, because we're going to cook it with this butter on it, with this garlic butter that's got a little cheese in it and got some herbs and spices in it, and it's going to make it wonderful.

And I've got some that-- do both sides, and then let it rise.

And you can see how thin this is.

And this one's starting to show a ridge to it or an outside to it, even though it's a flatbread, and it's because it rose some more.

And so this one's ready.

And I've got a 350-degree skillet here, and we've greased it a little bit with oil, and then we're going to put the dough in it.

And that's--I mean, that's what's going to happen: at 350 degrees, we're going to cook it.

Now, as this is cooking, it's starting to rise, and you're seeing bubbles coming up.

Now, I think that means that the bread is perfect for this.

It really is going to be a wonderful flatbread that's got some-- and the flavor that's coming out of it from the garlic butter, ah, it's just wonderful.

It's got a great taste to it.

I think that the rising of bread and the making of bread is one of the funnest things you can do, even though it's a lot of work.

And it's one of the things that you can do for the family that says, you know, "I worked really hard for you; I did something really special for you."

And no matter how great a bakery you got next door, you know, how great a bakery you got in the neighborhood, it is not going to taste as good as if Mama does it at home.

And I want to turn it probably three, maybe four times as I'm going through this.

And I just want it to be nicely even-cooked and have a great flavor to it.

It's almost totally cooked all the way through, and you can see that one side has got real brown color on it, and the other side, the way it rose, it's like little volcanoes in there.

And it just feels great.

I mean, it really does, and I can't wait to spread something on it and have aite or two.

And I'm going to turn it one more time, and you shouldn't probably do it with your hand like I just did, but, you know, my hands are sort of numb from 50 years of burning them, you know, so the tips don't have a whole lot of sensitivity in them in the sense of the heat.

And I know when to turn it loose, which is very important.

But you should use tongs, and I've got some right here to show a good example, which I won't use, but...

This is the last step, and isn't that beautiful?

I mean, it really is.

And this is a skillet bread, and it's got a wonderful garlic butter on it that's just going to make it absolutely outstanding.

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

We love you guys!

Get the kids together and make a great dough!

>> 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: ♪ Dee, da, ♪ ♪ da-da-da.

♪ ♪ Anytime you're ready.

♪ 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-- ah, does that smell good.

Wish I knew what it was.

>> Don't give me that face.

>> Prudhomme: All right.

I'll do it.

[whining indistinctly] Hello, y'all.

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

[haltingly] Pineapple glaze in fruit basket skewers-- [laughter] Cooking, cooking, cooking, cooking, cooking, cooking, cooking.

[high voice] Ah!

Help.

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