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

Let's wrap it up quickly now.

I know that I'm always cooking, so today we're doing cabbage rolls--oh, they good too-- pickup sticks--I love those-- and Albuquerque burritos.

And that's a wrap.

[lively Cajun music] ♪ ♪ >> Prudhomme: Hi, I'm Chef Paul Prudhomme.

I'm here to cook with you, yeah.

Get your--get your stove going and get your pots and pans whipping, and we going to make magic cabbage rolls.

This is the rock 'n' roll day or the wrap 'n' roll day.

We're going to do some wraps and some rolling, so the first thing, this is going to be staged out.

So we got three stages to go through, and I'm going to try to explain each stage to you and not bore you, yeah.

I don't want to bore you.

I want it to be excited, because I'm excited.

We're going to start with the onions, and we're going to put a little bit of oil in the onions and then stir them up.

And then we got garlic, and we got a little bit of brown sugar, and we got some seasoning, of course.

And we got some stock, and we got some celery.

And so that's going to be the first stage with the tomatoes.

And we're going to make a tomato sauce.

And once the sauce is made, it's going to have to simmer for a while.

So we're going to just take advantage of that and move the-- move it off to the side while we're--while we're doing the next one.

So I'm excited about today.

We got a lot of stuff to talk about.

And so the first thing we're going to talk about is the importance of browning onions or browning anything.

And so when you're doing the onions, if you taste an onion that's raw, it's going to be very strong.

And so if you want that strongness in whatever you're cooking, don't cook it a whole lot.

I've got the fire all the way up, and the onions are just starting to get a little color to it.

And normally I would let them go a little bit longer.

I can smell them.

I mean, the acid is starting to get out.

And the acid--I mean, I can actually smell, like, a strong onion smell like we would think of as a strong onion smell.

And so maybe I'll just let them cook a little bit longer.

We've got the onions.

The smell of them is just absolutely fantastic.

And as you can see, we got some good brown on them.

I mean, that's what really brings out the sweetness.

And then from here on, this is fairly quick to finish to the simmering stage, because you want to simmer it.

When you're doing a tomato sauce, it's really important to simmer it.

We're going to add the celery to it.

We're going to add the garlic.

We're going to put a little bit more--little bit more oil in it, not a whole lot, just to sort of make the celery happy.

And see, by putting the oil-- instead of putting it in the bottom of the pan, by using it economically, you can save a lot of oil.

And it's not the fact that it-- that you need to save the oil for money.

And the money helps, but you can save it for it being in your dish, because you got-- you got lots of ingredients here.

So we're going to put a little bit of sugar in it.

And we're going to put some bay leaves in, and, of course, the herbs and spices.

They're really important.

We're going to put them in.

And then we're going to get this part nice and roasted.

We need to roast the herbs and spices and, you know, get the sugar, some sweet things, and let it start spreading, because the sugar will melt now.

And when it melts, it's already browned.

But you add a little bit more brown to it, and it can't hurt anything.

You don't want to burn it, of course.

But look at the colors, how they're changing.

You know, it's just really wonderful.

I mean, that's--that's what I always look for.

And I know that the taste is going to be awesome.

But in order to really know, you have to taste it.

Oh.

I mean, the sweetness is there from the brown sugar, but the sweetness from the onions is there too.

And it just makes--it just makes such a difference.

And, you know, you think, well, I always think bay leaves, when you put them in, they don't do much.

I can actually taste the bay leaf in this.

I mean, I really-- it's really there.

I mean, it just--now we're going to put the stock in.

We're going to make sure that comes to a boil.

And the reason I want it to come to a boil is, I want to see how much liquid I got, so I know what I'm evaporating in my-- in my skillet.

Put the tomatoes in.

And the rest of it is the-- the rest of it is simmering, and it's going to be--it's going to be a rich, tomato-y sauce with a huge amount of background taste.

I feel like I'm cheating.

I just tasted the sauce, and, man, I mean, it's developing so wonderfully, you know, that I could probably just stick with it and just drink it.

But we got to finish the dish, yeah, because we're doing cabbage rolls.

We're not doing the sauce.

So I got--I got the burner on high, and I've got pork and beef, and so I'm going to put them in and start the process of breaking them up and browning.

And you can put a little oil in there if you want to.

I think there's enough oil in the pork to take care of it, so I'm not going to do that.

And when it's cold, it's kind of hard to break up, but as you apply the heat to it--and you can tell by the sound of this skillet that the skillet's pretty hot.

When you're doing this, it's so important, you know, to give the meat a chance to get that good brown color to it.

And it's just starting to, I mean, just--see, I like-- look at this one.

Look at this one.

I mean, this is great.

See it starting to get that color it?

And one of the things that really helps to do that-- and I'm going to put some in right now--is herbs and spices.

I mean, herbs and spices seriously help things brown.

And so we're going to put the herbs and spices in.

And we're going to-- ahh...

I wish you could smell it with me.

All right, so the next step is going to be to add the rest of the ingredients, and this is-- this is going to be the stuffing.

You see, you got good colors now on the meat.

I'm going to put the--going to put the celery in and put some--put some garlic in.

Gotta have onions, I mean, onions is very important.

Oh, that's a pile of onions.

That's going to be really good.

Now, one of the ways you can mix is the way I'm doing now.

Or if you want to, and, you know, if it's at home, you probably should practice before you do this.

But you just take it, and you just flip it like that, and the bottom comes to the top, and the top goes to the bottom.

And you have a--you have a good mix on, and so that's a great way to do that.

Boy, is this smelling good too.

I'd forgot about the smell.

What I've got left to do is put the rice in and put the stock in, and then we're going to let this one cook.

And I put the rice in, but I want to taste it.

I should have done that earlier, but I'm talking too much.

I'm excited, yeah.

Need all the rest of the seasoning.

Going to put it in.

Oh, I got a crunchy rice.

Rice.

You know, when I was a kid, I lived right across the rice fields.

And, you know, people growing up now, you don't realize what it takes to get the rice out of the fields, to plant it and get rice out of the field and process it.

Now I'm going to add the last step to this and let it simmer.

That was beef stock I added.

I'm going to stir it.

Then we're going to take just a minor step away and we're going to check on everything, and then we're going to go to the third step of this dish.

We're working.

We're working hard.

We got--we've got the cabbage.

We're going to put one in, and I'll show you how to get the cabbage going, how to core it, because that's the next step.

I like to take the big leaves off if there's some like this on the side, because we can't use them and they just get in the way.

And so we're going to take those off, and then we're going to take and--take the core of the cabbage out.

And you simply just--just push on the knife, just put it in, push in the knife, put in, push in the knife, and it's going to get the core out.

It's already starting to act like it's coming out.

Now, once the core's out, the cabbage leaves just ought to peel off.

I mean, you can see them just falling off right here, you know.

And so you just take them and you make sure that you're at good spot in it.

In other words, one is not crossing over on the other one too much.

Now, see how this one is?

Just pull it out, and you got it.

And so that's the way.

Now, I've got one in, and it's in the boiling water.

And normally you would put a whole bunch of them in a big pot at the same time, and so it'd be done immediately.

I mean, as soon as one's done, they'd all be done.

But we're trying to stage it to show you how it works.

And then we got one that I just took out, and it's nice and pliable.

I think I can probably fold it without--without breaking it up, because that's the goal.

And so I've got the meat and the rice that's finished, and it's cooking over here.

The one that I showed you in the beginning, it's not quite done yet.

And then you take this and you just make a roll with it.

And each one's going to probably be a little bit different, and what I mean by that is that they all won't be perfect because you're using imperfect stuff with the cabbage.

But you just spread your leaf out, and you fold it over, and you fold this one over, and then you simply just turn it.

And you got a great-looking roll, okay.

So that's basically the whole thing.

And I'm going to turn this over so--the sauce is simmered.

It's just about done.

The rice is just about done.

The roll is ready to go into the oven, and the next step is to show you how it looks when it comes out of the oven, and we're going to do that in just a second.

I think they're ready.

Oh, they're beautiful, absolutely gorgeous.

Look at this.

Oh, absolutely beautiful.

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Look at the color on these things.

Man, is that beautiful.

Now, what I'm going to do is, see, you got a great flavor there and you got some beautiful taste going, so I'm going to put some more sauce on it.

And just right on top.

And then we're going to have, like, tons of different kinds of flavor.

And what I mean by that is, that, of course, the sauce is gonna taste different because some of it's been extremely brown, and the other one hasn't.

And we're just going to cut into one of them and see what--ah.

The cabbage is just falling apart, and it's just great.

Bake it at 350 degrees until you get to this point or put it under the broiler, and that'll accelerate it.

Either way.

[chuckles] Shanghai pickup sticks next.

Shanghai pickup sticks, and I don't mean the kind that's in the yard.

This is pickup sticks that you can eat, and they're wonderful.

We actually got started because there's a lot of elements to this, and it's really--I mean, the taste is really wonderful, so it's worth all the elements.

We got some onions.

We browned them, as you can see.

I mean, just nice good color on them.

And I got a little bit on a spoon, and it just--you can't imagine, unless you do it and taste it, the difference from when this onion was raw and the way it is now.

So I mean, browning it is essential, it really is.

We got carrots we're going to put in.

And we've got some celery we're going to put in.

And then we're going to put the herbs and spices in, and that's going to really be a good place to make sure that everything gets to the point of that, "Ooh, the herbs and spices are really great," to the point of the flavor that we need.

And so we're going to let the herbs and spices cook a little bit because when you brown the herbs and spices, it just change everything.

You know, there's so many techniques for wraps, and there's so many things now that we just take for granted that when I grew up, we didn't know what a wrap was.

I mean, we didn't--I mean, it just--there was none in existence.

It's so many wraps now, so many kinds of wraps that when we wanted to do this segment, we had to really, you know, pick some out to change--that was different and good.

And it was very hard to do it, because there's just so many.

The spring rolls date back to the Sing dynasty, and I don't know when that is in numbers of years, but it's been at it a long time.

So spring rolls is part of the Asian culture for many, many, many, many, many years.

And so a real spring roll is served at the first day of the year, and so it's all a part of their--you know, when I was in China, it was wonderful to see some of their cultural habits or their cultural things that was important to them in the culture.

And I just put some pork in, and now I'm going to start browning that.

It was--it was a great education.

And I remember we went to a market.

We went to a market, and we had to stand in line to get some, you know, something that was like a wrap.

And it was just spectacular.

I'm going to put some mirin in.

I'm going to put some soy sauce in.

And I got some oyster sauce.

And oyster sauce is really-- is really great stuff.

I'm going to go back to that story, because it was a great story.

It was a wonderful trip.

It really was.

It was interesting to see another culture, and it was one of the first times that I had been in another culture and stayed there for a while.

I got some ginger we're going to put in.

I got some garlic we're going to put in.

All right, now we're going to put the sesame oil in.

And we're getting close to the finish.

Man, this is funny.

It really is.

I mean, I've never gotten-- I've never gotten an ovation in the United States for being a wheelchair.

So I've got some sugar I'm going to add to this.

This is just about done.

And I'm adding shrimp to it.

And--ah, the shrimp is really an important part.

And the reason that I chose to put the shrimp last is that I don't want to overcook them.

I think it's one of the things that we do too much in our culture is, we overcook-- we overcook seafood.

Seafood cooks very, very, very quickly.

And once you start passing the point of it being cooked, it just--you know, it's just not-- it's just not the same.

It just don't have the flavors.

Isn't that beautiful?

Look at that.

I mean, we're going to just fill that into the wrappers, and it's just going to be wonderful.

And I've got green onions and a little bit of--a little bit of flour left to put in.

I'm going to put that in.

And then we're going to let this rest, because I got to cool it down.

I don't want to try to handle it when it's hot like this.

And we're going to let it rest.

And then we're going to set up with the wraps, and we're going to start wrapping.

We're ready.

We got some cooled down, the mixture that we were cooking.

And I'll tell you, there was a battle to see who'd get their spoon into the--into the dish first.

And so--because in the background--you don't know it, but we got--[laughs] we got a bunch of hungry guys here.

They're all New Orleans guys that are very hungry.

Got some egg whites.

I'm going to put the dark and the white sesame seed in here.

The reason for these are, I'm going to roll the egg roll in that just like we did here.

You see all the different colors.

I don't know if you can see the white.

And look how beautiful it is once it's--once it's cooked or deep-fried.

So we've got a wrap here, and I'm going to lay it out and then fill it and wrap it.

And so we're going to-- and the filling, I think, is important in a sense that you don't want to put too much in.

And you want to be able to have room to do the wrap.

And so what I like to do with the wrap is have--be able to fold it over.

Let me move this, and I'll show you what I'm talking about.

So we take this, and then you just kind of pull it back.

You just tighten it.

And at the same time, you try to give it, you know, just same kind of size or the texture to it.

And then you roll this over, and then you roll this over.

You hold--this time, you'd like to have a couple more fingers.

And when you get close to the end, this is egg whites, and we just put the egg whites on, and that should seal it.

You roll it and then seal it.

Now, the next step is, we want to put sesame seeds on them.

And these are white and black sesame seeds, as you see.

So I'm mixing them up, and then we take and put the egg white over this, over the wrap, and then it's going to make them stick.

You can't delay a lot of time because it dries pretty quickly.

But you just roll it in, just simply roll it in, get as much or as little as you want on it.

And then you got a wrap working.

And--isn't that pretty?

Look at that.

And what's going to happen is that as you handle it, it's going to--it's going to fall off of there to an extent.

So this is what--once you handle it a little bit, this is what you got.

And so I'm going to drop these in a deep fryer and cook them and make them brown.

And I'll tell you, I gots lots of eyes.

I got lots of eyes looking at me right now, because I got lots of--it's almost time for lunch, so we got a lot of hungry people.

And we got the sauce.

Ooh, this is the teriyaki sauce.

Oh, is that--ooh, just--I mean, it's almost hot, peppery, but it's not, and it just, I mean, it just fills your mouth with taste.

You got to drain them a little bit.

And you see the oil running off of them there?

That oil is very hot, so you don't want to fool with that.

You want to let it go back into the deep fryer.

And when you get to the next step, you just roll them out.

And there they are.

I mean, they're ready to eat, y'all.

And I can't wait to take one of these sticks and just put those sticks in there and pick them up and eat them, yes!

It's going to be a great ending: Albuquerque burritos.

We're wrapping it up.

Albuquerque burritos, man, we're wrapping them up today.

It's wonderful.

It really is.

This recipe is spectacular.

It takes some time.

And, of course, television, you don't have a lot of time, so I took some leeway here.

We marinated some meat.

Now, that's important.

We marinated some vegetables, okay.

So we marinated onions and bell peppers, and we marinated some meat.

And, I mean, it's just--you do this for like, a couple hours in advance.

And we're putting--we're putting vinegar in it.

We're putting seasoning in it.

We're putting a little acid in it, some citrus in it.

And so this is ready to go.

And so as you can see, I got a hot pan.

So I'm going to travel through this.

This recipe would normally take stops to it, but you don't really have to do that.

And we're going to take--we're going to take and just go to it.

All right, we're going to put a small amount of oil.

And considering all the stuff we got here, it's going to be a small amount of oil.

Now, it's going to make some noise because we're putting liquid in at the same time.

And so when you put liquid and oil that's hot together, see what happens?

It really pops.

But its a very quick way to cook, and I enjoy doing that.

I really do.

I mean, it just--make a flame.

Yeah, baby, go, go, go.

You know, the flavors that you get off of high cooking are so wonderful and awesome, and they're so different from flavors that are slow-cooking.

And this is--the Mexican food, I've been a big fan.

It's my second favorite food in the world.

Louisiana food is mine.

But I started getting Mexican food--probably the first time that I recognized how wonderful it was, I was in Albuquerque and, I mean, San Antone, Texas.

That's where I was at, in San Antone.

And I'm going to put the vegetables in here.

They've been marinated also, and the onions and bell peppers, and I don't want to put too much juice in, so I'm going to just drop them in with this like so.

And I'm going to put a little bit of oil on the vegetables.

And we got it going.

But I'm in Mi Tierra's in Texas and in San Antone, Texas, at Mi Tierra's, and, I mean, it's just a spectacular restaurant, and it's still there.

I mean, it's still alive.

And I went in and would get stuff for the trip.

And they did great Mexican breads and good Mexican food, and it was open 24 hours a day.

So no matter what time that I was in the area driving through, I could get the--I could get the wonderful food.

We've got some flour tortillas, and I'm going to--I got some heat going in the skillet over there, and I'm going to take the flour tortilla.

I like to warm them up.

And so we're going to put-- put them in there and let them do a little puffing.

I'm going to add some seasoning to this.

Let me taste it first.

But I can--I could actually smell that it needs herbs and spices.

Ah, it's getting to be good.

It really is.

With a little more herbs and spices, it's going to work very good.

So you've got sour in it.

You've got acid in it.

You've got, you know, I mean this is going to make a-- oh, I got to turn this.

Look at them.

Look at them puffing in there.

You know, it just really is great.

This is ready.

It's nice and soft.

Now I'm going to take this, and I've got some cooled off.

And I'm going to take the cooled off ones and make us a burrito.

We're ready to wrap 'n' roll.

I mean, we're making a burrito.

We're going to put some meat in it, because I love to have lots of meat in it.

Then we're going to put vegetables in it.

And it's warm.

You know, it's hot, but it's not really hot, hot, hot.

And you could put some guacamole in, which we have next to us.

But I'm not going to do that.

And you just take it and roll that burrito, just pull it back, pull it back, pull it back.

That's very important to the roll.

And just roll it, and you got-- you got a great burrito.

And we're going to put it right there, and we're going to take some of this guacamole and put it right on top it.

I mean, just like that.

And then you got a burrito and guacamole, and we got lots more to do.

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

We love you guys out there.

>> 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: ♪ La-dee-da-da ♪ ♪ da-da.

♪ ♪ Dee-da-da-da-da.

♪ ♪ And it's not near 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--ahh, does that smell good.

Wish I knew what it was.

>> Don't give me that face.

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

>> Okay.

>> Prudhomme: [mumbles] Hello, y'all.

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

[slowly] Pineapple glazed fruit basket skewers.

[laughter] Cooking, cooking, cooking, cooking, cooking, cooking, cooking... Aaah...help me!

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