>> male announcer: Funding for Chef Paul Prudhomme's Always Cooking was provided by: >> Prudhomme: In Louisiana, we say, "lagniappe."

That means "a little something extra."

And we're gonna do that for y'all today, because we got chicken and andouille gumbo.

Oh, andouille's that great sausage.

We got seafood jambalaya and a banana bliss.

And it's just gonna knock you right out of the kitchen.

[lively Cajun music] ♪ ♪ Hello, everybody.

Yeah, we got some gumbo going, and it's chicken and andouille gumbo.

And chicken and andouille gumbo is just fabulous stuff.

Actually, it was the original gumbo from my area of Louisiana and my family.

I mean, it was something I started working with with my mother when I was a kid.

I mean, I'm talking about five years old.

I used to take the cast-iron skillet and put oil in it.

Mother'd put chicken fat or duck fat or pork lard in it.

And we'd put flour in it, and we'd do it real slow, slow, slow, slow.

But that's changed now, so now the best way to do a roux is with a very hot fire.

And I'll show you how to do that.

That's gonna be the first thing, making a roux.

And the colors of the roux are very important to our culture.

And what I mean by that is that we have colors for certain things.

And I have them here in front of me.

And this is the measure of colors that we basically use.

This is the darkest, and that's the lightest and these two in between.

And this is what we like to do for gumbo.

We like a real dark-- when we do andouille and chicken gumbo, I mean, to us, it's the gumbo, and especially to my family.

So we got to heat the oil.

And I'm doing that.

And you want to get the oil to a temperature that really is starting to smoke.

And it won't take long to do that.

I mean, it just-- the fire's hot, and so we're gonna get that going.

In the meantime, I want to talk to you about Louisiana sausage.

When I was a kid, we made everything from scratch.

And you've probably heard me say that before.

But this andouille that I have in front of me today-- and this is what I'm talking about, the andouille sausage that I have in front of me today, I started making-- my family started making probably about 100 years ago, maybe longer, 150.

And it wasn't just my family.

It was the whole area that would make this sausage.

And we put potatoes in it, and we put onions in it.

And it just made a huge difference in the taste of it.

And I think today it's the only sausage on the market-- the one from this area-- that has andouille-- I mean, it has potatoes and onions in it.

And so this is smoked until it has a real honest strong smoked taste.

And that smoked taste really comes across when you cook with it.

And so we do two things like that.

One is called Tasso, which is a ham.

And andouille is the sausage.

You can see the smoke coming out.

I hope you can anyway.

And so I'm gonna put a small amount of flour in to get you going with it, to make you-- to see how quickly it changed.

See that?

The flour's already changing, so I need to get down with it, because this is gonna cook very, very fast.

And you got to scrape the top and the bottom and the sides and all of it, because the skillet's so hot, if you don't do that-- see how the smoke changed?

The skillet's so hot, you don't do that, you know, it's going to overcook.

Now, there's a little secret here.

See the color and the steam that's coming out?

Well, it's just about right, and I'm gonna put onions in it.

And I'm gonna just put them right in here.

Now, that's one way to do a roux.

You put the onions in, and you cook them right with it, but you also--at the same time, you're taking the heat down, and so--and you'll see it.

It'll continue to cook.

It'll continue to heat even though I'm gonna move it off the fire.

I'm gonna add just a little more, 'cause I see some oil in it.

I'm gonna add a little more of the flour.

And now you can see the fire is out.

I could, at this point, just continue to cook in this same skillet and add stuff to, but it's a little confusing if you do that.

So I'm gonna go to the next pan.

And I'm gonna turn the fire on high.

And I'm gonna keep stirring this, because you want to cool it off before you stop stirring it.

I mean, it's gonna continue to get some color on it.

All right, so we're gonna set that aside, because it's cooling down even though it's still bubbling.

And the next thing I want to do is, I want to season and brown the chicken.

And, you know, this can be a very easy thing to do.

Just take it and cover the skin.

You know, and there's a couple of ways to do this.

One is this way.

And the other one is the way that I really prefer doing it.

This is the old way.

I like to take and just, instead of put oil in the pan, just put a little bit of oil right on the chicken.

And I'll show you what to do with this, because I already put some seasoning on it.

But you put the oil on it, and then you just rub it like this with your hands.

And the oil-- I mean, the seasoning sticks to it, and you can see I can pull it out of the pan.

Well, that way, you use much less oil, and the oil is more effective, because one of the things I've found out-- and I've said this in a couple of shows, and I'm gonna continue to repeat it, because I know you don't see every show.

You should, though.

You really should see ev-- You really should see every show.

But the idea is that by doing this, you're not wasting anyil in the bottom of the pan, and you're not overheating the oil, and you're not creating a factor of where there's no meat or no vegetables or no-- that the oil is getting super hot.

So we're gonna start the chicken.

And you can hear the sizzle.

I'm gonna put the andouille in with me.

I want to brown them.

And this is a good opportunity to do two things at one time, to give shortcuts, because both of these need to be brown.

Now, the andouille is gonna stay in, just as-- I mean, from now on.

And it's gonna finish with everything else.

The chicken is not, because I'm gonna take the chicken out, and then I'm gonna start the process of doing the steps of it.

So you got-- look at that brown already.

Isn't that gorgeous?

And that's all I want on the chicken.

I just want it to-- I want the skin to start browning.

I want to build the flavors, add some stuff in the bottom of the pot, make sure the seasoning has a lot of flavor to it.

Once you get the brown on it, you know, we're gonna put it back and let it simmer.

But we're gonna move it over.

And then we're gonna add the bell pepper and the celery, and the green onions, I'm gonna wait.

There's a little bit of bell pepper in here, so I'm gonna let that go.

And we're gonna cook this.

Now, the andouille, it's starting to get specks.

I would let it brown probably even more.

We got to add seasoning.

I'm gonna add stock to it.

I already got the roux.

And I'm gonna add a little bit of stock first before I put the roux in, because the roux's already cooked, so I don't need to cook it any more.

Now, I'm putting quite a bit of seasoning in here because I got some in the roux, and I've got some here.

And, of course, the sausage has seasoning in it.

And I put some on the chicken.

But the flavors of gumbo, they need a good seasoning flavor to really give you turns in your mouth.

And what I mean by that is that when you take a spoonful of gumbo with rice, you should get some flavor and then the second one, get a little different flavor, and the third one, get a little different flavor.

And I just think that's what our cooking is about.

And that's what-- I mean, making a gumbo really works that way.

I'm gonna put the stock in.

I'm doing things in rather small amounts so you get a good picture of it.

When you get the recipe and you decide to cook this, you might want to put it in a big pot, because you got a lot of ingredients.

And you can stage them like I did.

But putting it in a pot is a really good thing.

Now, I'm gonna put the chicken back in.

Well, I'm gonna do the roux first, because with the chicken in there, it's gonna be hard to stir.

So I've got to boil.

I'm gonna take and put some roux in here.

And you just take the whisk and-- Look at the-- look at the flavor, colors that are there, I mean, just immediately.

Soon as you put this in, you'll see-- look-a-there.

Oh, it's just great.

I'm gonna have to add more stock, but I will in a minute.

So we just need to have enough roux in there to give it a lot of flavor.

And we need to have enough stock in here to cover the chicken, because once the chicken's covered, you know-- I mean, we used to make gumbos and, you know, have a party.

And we'd put the gumbo on and let it cook for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours.

Of course, we had a lot more time than we do now.

There's just not that much time in our lives anymore.

But with the family and the gumbo, we'd have a dance, and we'd play accordion and guitar and a fiddle.

And every time Mama was really cooking seriously and people would start stopping by, you know, the musical instruments would come out, and we'd just generally have a great time together.

I mean, it was just wonderful.

And it was all home-done.

I mean, there was no-- it didn't cost money to do it.

We just did it with the motion of the people.

Now, this got to cook about another--at least a half hour but preferably--I don't know-- preferably an hour, an hour and a half.

And I'd bring it to a full boil, turn it down to a simmer, and then let it go.

And look what I got right here.

I mean, I got a rich, thick-- you got to put the rice in it.

I mean, it's very, very important to put rice in it.

I also put potato salad in mine.

I love potato salad in a gumbo.

It just makes it different, and it makes it creamy and rich and absolutely spectacular.

This one doesn't have potato salad in it at this moment, but believe me, before this bowl is empty, it's gonna have potato salad in it.

But you got the rice on the bottom.

You put the gumbo on.

You got chicken.

You got andouille sausage in it.

And all you got to do is-- you know, I've been not tasting on the air.

[laughs] And that's a chicken and andouille sausage gumbo, yeah.

Mmm.

Coming up next, seafood jambalaya.

♪ Jambalay, the crawfish pie, ♪ ♪ the fillet gumbo.

♪ I'm sure you guys have heard that before.

I grew up with it.

And we're down to the jambalaya right now, 'cause we already done the gumbo.

And so jambalaya's next.

We've got the ingredients going.

You know, it's one of my-- I mean, it's one of-- truly, truly one of my favorite dishes, like gumbo is.

And we're gonna try to show it to you.

And the way that you can do it, you'd normally use a big pot.

I mean, you know that.

Jambalaya, you make a lot of it and so on.

But this way, you can see what I'm doing, and it's gonna make more sense to you.

First thing I want to do is, I'm gonna add a little bit of oil to the andouille sausage and the Tasso ham and a little bit to the onions.

And if you've never seen me do this before, I do it so the oil won't be spread all over the place and not get overcooked and have a black smoke coming from the pan that smells of oil.

So these got their-- they got the oil on them, and the oil's not in the pan, so it makes it a lot more economical with oil.

You probably-- if you started doing this with your dishes, you'd probably be-- you'd probably save 50%, 60% of the oil that you use.

I'm gonna put all three of these in here, because they all need to brown.

And the onions are small, so it'll work with the bigger pieces of onion.

And so the onions follow with the Tasso and the andouille.

And so-- I mean, this pan's really hot.

I got it on the hottest burner that I have.

And you can see it's starting to truck.

You know, jambalaya was one of those dishes that we did that was really spectacular because-- you know, where'd the name come from?

I mean, you know, people ask me that often, why you call it jambalaya and, you know, where the song came from and all of that.

Well, the song came from Hank Williams, but the idea of jambalaya was to use rice and ham together and-- I mean, it was-- it just is real simple.

"Jambon," which is ham, and the African word for rice is "aya."

And so it's jambalaya.

Look at this thing going here.

So, I mean, it's really, really working.

And it's not-- I mean, you can see the shine.

There's plenty enough oil.

And you're getting some nice toasted, wonderful flavors.

It's just-- I mean, it's truly a great way to start a dish.

And so we're gonna add the next step to it.

And, of course, you know, this is Louisiana stuff, so you got to have a little celery.

And it's important to have bell pepper.

And we're gonna-- we make the andouille with onions and potatoes.

And the Tasso is made-- which is a ham.

It's basically a ham from us.

And when I was a kid, we would take the Tasso, and we'd roll it in herbs and spices.

And I mean literally just roll it in herbs and spices till it penetrated deep in, because it was like strings of meat.

And it was always the worst meat.

I'm gonna add a little bit of seasoning to this.

And you can see this pan's really hot.

And it was always the meat that was the toughest or the meat that had a lot of strings in it.

And I'm gonna put the bay leaves in.

I'm gonna put the garlic in.

And so we're gonna stir this.

And we'd use the cheapest meat, and we'd take it.

It was the kids' job.

I mean, all my older brothers and sisters and me and the family kids would be lined up, you know, and they'd give us the seasoning and they'd give us the Tasso, and we'd just roll it and roll it and roll it.

I'm gonna add a little bit more seasoning.

The stock we're using is a seafood stock.

And we're gonna add a little bit of stock just to sort of slow things down a little bit.

Oh, yes, look-a-there.

Oh, that's great.

We're gonna add the tomatoes.

We're drawing close to the end of this.

And this takes-- this is a dish that simmers for a long time.

And we're adding the tomato sauce.

You can simmer it on top of the stove with a good cover.

I'm gonna put the rest of the seasoning in at this point.

I like to stage seasonings.

And the reason I like to stage them: I like for them to be dry seasonings or on a dry pan, because once you get a lot of liquid, the seasonings don't cook very well.

But if you-- It's just like anything else in the world.

If it's raw, it's not gonna have its fullest flavor.

And herbs and spices are certainly that way.

All right, so we used to take and we'd roll this big string of pork.

And we'd roll it like this and roll it like this in onions and-- I mean, not onions but herbs and spices.

And, you know, all the kids would do that.

And you had to roll it until it would just literally penetrate through.

And then the family would take it, and we'd put it in the smokehouse.

We'd hang it in the smokehouse and smoke it really slow.

Matter of fact, the fire wasn't underneath like normal smoking is.

The fire was over here, and there was a trench, and there was metal on the trench.

And the smoke would go inside.

And so it was literally not cold smoke, 'cause we didn't have any electricity or refrigeration, but it was room-temperature or outside-temperature smoking.

And it just really worked well.

I mean, it just really gave it a great taste.

I've got some oyster water I'm gonna add to it, 'cause I can see I don't have a whole lot of liquid here.

And the actual next step is to put the rice in.

And I didn't do this yet, and I must do it.

You got to taste it, or you don't know if there's enough seasoning in it, or you don't know the balance of things.

Oh, it's balanced.

Oh, oh.

I mean, the seasoning comes trucking through, and it should, because the rice is gonna absorb a huge amount of the seasoning, and, of course, the liquids do too, but-- I mean, I just got a really big hit of the seasoning.

But I got a big hit of the tomatoes and the onions and the Tasso and the andouille.

I mean, there was just all this happening in here with a little bay leaf.

It's just spectacular.

Let's see what I got-- what I got left is the green onions, and I can put them in now.

That's legal.

And then we've got two of the seafoods.

And we're not gonna do that.

We're gonna put a cover on it, lower the fire, and simmer it until it's done.

And I'm gonna put the cover on it, lower the fire.

This is gonna be great.

All right, we've got a good simmer on it, and it's ready for the seafood.

So we're gonna put the seafood in.

We got the shrimp, and we got the oysters.

Gonna put them in and give them a good stir.

Now, the juice that they're gonna put out is certainly gonna be a great addition to this, but it won't be so much that it's gonna make a difference in the texture of it.

Matter of fact, it's gonna help the texture.

And so-- all right, I'm gonna cover it.

We got the cover right here.

We're gonna take it and just set it right on top here.

And now it's got a good simmer going, and it's ready to finish.

Oh, and I got the real thing right here, the finished dish.

While this one's cooking, I got one to eat.

Look at the shrimp, how gorgeous they are.

Man, the jambalaya, I mean, look at that.

Oh, that is just fantastic.

It's wonderful.

We hope you do some jambalaya real soon and add the gumbo in for the next week, yes.

Coming up next, banana bliss.

If you ever wanted something outstanding, I mean, just outstanding for dessert, banana bliss is it.

Banana bliss is a takeoff from bananas Foster, but we've just gone in the steps beyond, way beyond.

I'm gonna go to the ingredients.

We got roasted pecans.

And that's really important.

You can use the kind of nut you want, but it should be in the realm of pecans, not bitter nuts or stuff.

But I mean, whatever you want.

We got some banana liqueur.

We've got some Irish Bailey's cream.

And we've got some Courvoisier, yes, some cognac.

And we're gonna put those in.

We got a seasoning mix, and it's sweet herbs and spices.

And my fire's getting too hot, so I can see that.

I'm gonna turn it down.

Sweet herbs and spices-- got a little ginger in there, ground ginger.

Got some sesame oil, water, and some sugar, butter, and, of course, bananas.

And so I'm gonna start with the pecans.

I'm gonna put the pecans in.

We're gonna help the pecans by taking some of the butter and adding a little bit of butter to it.

And that's gonna give it-- activate some noise and some feeling.

And I'm gonna turn my fire all the way up to high.

And then the next step is pretty easy.

It's pretty simple.

You know, you can choose whichever one of these you want.

I'm gonna put the seasoning in or the sweet spices in, because I like for them to get bottom flavor.

And then next step is, we're gonna add the water to it.

And we're adding vanilla.

And you can add as much of that as you want in it.

And I got one here that I'm holding off, the cognac.

And so we got brown sugar.

And the sesame oil we're not gonna put in until way at the end, because we want-- I found that if I put sesame oil in something in the beginning or in the middle, what happens is that the sesame oil kind of cooks away.

And so this way, if you put the sesame oil as one of the last things, then it works really well.

I'm gonna put the rest of the butter in.

Oh.

And you can't do it without butter.

If you-- I mean, don't do banana bliss if you're afraid of butter, because it honestly doesn't work very good.

The next thing we got to put in is the bananas.

And we're gonna put those in.

Now, it's really important-- I got this fire all the way up.

It's really important-- I'm gonna switch tools again to do the stirring with.

It's really important to get this at a good boil before you put the cognac in, because you want to flame it.

And if it's not real hot, it won't flame it.

I also like to take a couple of the bananas and just mush them up a little bit, you know, just to get them going.

You should always, always use black bananas, on the outside.

I mean, if you can't get them in the store, ask in the store for the bananas that are real soft or the skin's already getting black.

And then take them home and put them on the window and let them get black, or put them somewheres where you can cover them and let them get black.

Roast the peanuts in advance like I did.

It makes it easier, and this makes it quick.

Now, I've got a good boil to it.

And so we're gonna-- [chuckles] We're gonna put a little bit of this in.

We're not gonna put it all in, you know?

I mean, at the end of the day-- and this is the end of the day-- you know, you would feel like, well, maybe it'd be a good idea just to put the whole thing in.

There you go.

All right.

There's the fire.

There's the fire.

So we're gonna flame this.

It would normally go, like, six feet in the air, but because I'm on television, it just wants to be a little nimble fire.

You can put this on anything.

I think you can, anyway.

I mean, literally, I can't think of anything that it wouldn't go well on.

I got the sesame oil to put in, so let me do that.

And I know it's still cooking.

I wouldn't put the sesame oil until it was finished cooking.

But we're gonna just go on with this and say, "Banana bliss is up and running."

Look at this.

Oh.

I mean, it is nothing but absolutely wonderful.

And then you got some bananas.

Oh, the smell.

I got to taste it.

I just absolutely-- I'm supposed to taste everything, but-- Oh.

Got some ice cream here, and it's really hard ice cream.

I mean, you could bang it.

And it should be, because you're gonna put some wonderful hot banana bliss on top of it with pecans in it and all those things that are in and especially the booze, yeah.

Oh, yes, it's gonna be good.

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

We love you guys out there.

I can't hardly talk 'cause it smells so good.

>> 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-dah, ♪ ♪ dee-dah-dah-dada.

♪ ♪ Dee-dah-dah-dada.

♪ ♪ Anytime you're ready.

♪ And so we're gonna add some liquid to it, but we're also gonna add more ingredients.

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

Wish I knew what it was.

>> Don't give me that face.

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

>> Okay, that's good.

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

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

Pineapple glaze fruit basket skewers.

Cooking, cooking, cooking, cooking, cooking, cooking, cooking.

Ah!

Help.

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