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

When the temperature's at 212, don't step into it, because it's boiling.

And I'm going to do some boiling today: rice with plantains, turkey boil dinner, and a Louisiana seafood boil.

Oh, you're going to love it.

[lively Cajun music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Boiling, boiling, boiling: we're going to boil today, and boil is a great way to cook some things.

It truly is.

We're going to do rice with plantains, and that's a perfect thing for boiling.

So we're going to get started with it.

I've got the pot sort of preheated but not enough.

So I'm going to turn it up all the way, and I'm going to add the oil to the onions.

I've got some onions here.

So we don't want to put the oil in the pan.

I don't like to do that.

And if you've watched the show, you know why, but if you haven't watched it, it saves oil.

And it puts the oil where it needs to be, and there's no oil where there's no ingredients.

In other words, there's no oil just sort of hanging out by itself.

And when the oil hangs out by itself, it just--it's a wasted oil, and it gets a little smoky and the taste changes.

So we've got the onions going.

Now, we've got herbs and spices, and we've got some plantains.

And plantains is--I always think of them as probably the first banana, and I don't know that.

But it's got--you know, it's very much like a banana family.

And I think of it--you know, I've got bananas in my backyard, and they don't look like plantains.

But they look like regular bananas, and--but they're real starchy.

And that's sort of what plantains are.

They're like real starchy, and the flavor's different from bananas.

No doubt about it.

And I just like to take and show you one on the inside, in case you haven't seen one.

And I'm, you know--almost everybody seen plantains, but they do look different on the inside than a banana does.

I love the color.

It's kind of pretty.

You know, it's that--I don't know.

It's that off yellow.

And so I've got to pay attention to my pan.

If you just cut the ends off like I just did, and then you want to peel it.

Makes it real easy, whether it's mushy like this one or really ripe or if it's not.

It makes it really easy to peel.

So, you know, the peeling goes quickly.

I'm going to--I've got some color on my onions, and they're starting to smell.

I love that sweet smell, you know that.

It just--I mean, it just-- sweetness from the onions, it's so great, you know.

It's just really, really good.

I'm going to add herbs and spices to it.

I like to add herbs and spices in stages.

And I don't talk about it a lot, but I do it a lot.

And this recipe is pretty easy, so we're going to talk about it.

When you have herbs and spices, and this one's got California--I mean, it's just salt and pepper and so on.

Then we got "California beauty" chilis, which is a very mild chili.

We got ancho chilis, which has got a little more complexity to it and a little more heat to it.

And then we got cardamom, which is an herb, and it's really a strong herb, and I love to use it in some things.

And it works well with this one.

So that's the basic on the ingredients.

And see how it, when you start browning the ingredients, how it's pretty?

I love that color.

I just think it's really wonderful.

The smell is just awesome.

We're going to put the plantains in.

[laughs] Oh, I never thought I could do that.

There it goes, all right.

We're going to put--we're going to start browning the plantains.

I'm going to add a little more seasoning to it.

I'm in a staging mood today, which means I'm staging the seasonings over and over.

Now, you know it doesn't--it's not going to make a dramatic difference in a dish, but you'd be surprised.

If you've got a complex dish and you're browning and you're building flavors in it, if you stage the herbs and spices, I mean, it's going to get-- it's going to be--just have that little bitty edge better that's going to make the person that's going to eat it just a little bit happier.

And you know, we love to make people happy.

So I've got some garlic to put in, and I've got some rice to put in.

And when I put the rice in, I'm going to--I'm going to put the rest of the seasoning in.

And then I'm going to go through the process.

I've been--I love rice, and I just think rice is--you can do anything with rice, if you understand it.

Well, that's true about everything.

But I like to give rice a little bit of brown color to it.

And it won't absorb as much water as it would, as quickly as it would, if it was-- if you didn't.

But I like to brown them just the slight amount with the herbs and spices.

And the smell is really great, really great.

Now, the next thing I'm going to do is add the stock to it.

And basically, this dish is done.

All we have to do is let it cook.

And I like to cover it when it cooks.

You can actually put it in the oven if you want.

That's okay.

I mean, if you're doing a lot of things, if you're doing, like four or five dishes for the family or, you know, for-- for a party or something, and you want to cook the rice, put in the oven.

It really--and then you don't have to worry about it.

Put a timer on it.

And--but I'm going to just take it and put it right here, and then I'm going to lower the fire.

When you use converted rice, 20 minutes is about the cooking time.

Now we're going to get a taste of it.

Oh, I love plantains and rice, and this is, I mean, this is ready to eat.

See you later.

We're going to make a turkey boil dinner delicious.

We're still boiling, boiling, boiling.

This is a turkey boil dinner.

And what I like about it is that--is that it really delivers a lot of flavor.

And so it--I mean, it's easy to make it tasteful.

There's a couple of things you have to do because you're boiling.

One is, you should have a stock.

But even if you don't have a stock, you got a big chunk of turkey, and you have vegetables, so that works.

And of course, this is low fat and it's high in protein, so that's good.

the first thing we're going to do is, we're going to put the stock in.

And you can hear the skillet, so you know that it's already hot.

And so we're going to get that done.

Now, the next step is, we're going to put in the turkey.

And I'm going to set this on the side here, because that's real high.

I'm going to put in the turkey.

And we season a turkey overnight.

And I know that sometimes you don't like to do my instructions on a recipe, and so that's okay, you know.

But we're using two different seasonings.

And so this one goes on the turkey, and you're going to put it in a stock, or you're going to put it in water, you know, depending on how you feel about things.

I would prefer a stock.

But if you don't season it overnight, then it's just going to float right off when you put it in the stock.

And so it's--this is still going to float off, but the flavors have penetrated overnight.

And so not only will you be flavoring this, but you're going to have some flavor in your turkey breast.

And I should say that--that this particular seasoning blend has onions and garlic and has a little bit of salt.

It has mustard seeds.

It has nutmeg.

It has dill weed.

And then we have a second seasoning blend, and the second seasoning blend, of course, don't go in here.

It goes right directly into the pot.

And that one has peppercorns in it, and it's right here.

It has peppercorns in it.

It has allspice.

You know, it has cardamom.

It has cloves.

It has--it has bay leaves.

Put the bay leaf in.

And so this one, you just put right into the water.

And so you got it going.

Now, the rest of the--I mean, this is really a tough recipe-- the rest of it is, you bring this to a boil.

And I would really like to see it boil before I put anything else in.

But you bring it to a boil, and then you put the rest of the ingredients in.

And then it's done.

You know, it's onions, potatoes; it's carrots, you know.

I mean, just put them in, and it's done.

So it's a very fast recipe.

And it's a fun one to do.

Once you've got it all-- everything in, you just cover it and leave it cook for, you know, whatever amount of time you think it's going to take to be tender.

And I would think this breast will probably be about 30 to 45 minutes, because we're going to start with a--with a-- with a boil, but we're going to turn that boil down to a simmer.

All right, we've got the chicken stock boiling.

We got the seasoning in, got the bay leaf in.

We're going to add the onions.

We're going to add--oh, by the way, when you put the seasoning, the carrots--when you put the seasoning on the--on the-- on the turkey breast and put it overnight, make sure you put it in the refrigerator.

And you can wrap if if you want.

That'll make it even stick better.

So we're going to put the greens in.

We're going to put potatoes in.

And this is good stuff, yeah.

And then the last thing we're going to put in is the turnips.

Oh, I love turnips, especially when they're--they've been boiled.

They're just better when they're boiled in seasoning.

And so, now, we got a boil going, and--I mean, the bok choy is floating, you know.

The greens are there, and the onions are there, and everything else is there.

So what I'm going to do is, I'm going to--I'm going to cover it, and after I cover it, I'm going to lower the fire, because you don't want it to boil that fast for a long time.

And now that it's boiling, it's going to continue to boil, and it's going to cook everything.

And it's going to be delicious.

And I know it's going to be delicious, because I got some right here.

And so there it is.

Isn't that beautiful?

You know you can just dig into that.

And it's going to be wonderful, because it smells good.

Now, if it smells good, it's going to taste good.

And so that's our turkey boil dinner.

Louisiana seafood boil: get the family together and have one.

You'll never forget it.

The kids will never forget it.

It's wderful.

We're still boiling, boiling, boiling, and this is a Louisiana seafood boil.

Now, depending the time of the year, depending what the family is, where you live in Louisiana, this changes.

But we're going to give you one that I grew up with, and it's-- it's--it's simple in a way, but it's also complex.

And so we're going to try to make it reasonable.

We're going to try to make it to where you understand it.

Instead of having gigantic pots with a fire outside like we would do it, we decided to do small amounts of stuff and to be able to talk about it and show you what goes on with-- the most important thing I think that you can do is have fresh things.

I mean, you know, fresh shrimp or fresh crabs or fresh whatever you use to boil with.

That's the key for us.

I mean, it really is.

And we do it in season, when the shrimp are in season or when the crabs are in season.

So keep that in your mind, and think of it outside as, you know, a gigantic pot which you can literally put, you know, 50 pounds of shrimp in it, or you can put 50 pounds of crab in it.

So what we got here is the essential things that we would put into a boil, and the method in which that boil would happen.

In other words, the stages that we would do, okay?

And because it's very specific, and you know, the family was-- it was very important that you followed it.

It was like a ritual.

And if you didn't, you know, they considered you not a very good cook.

So we've got salt and sugar and pepper, and that's the beginning of it.

That's what it--that's what you start with, the salt, the sugar and the pepper.

You want to make sure that it dissolves.

And we'd always let that go for a while, you know, like 15 minutes or, you know, until the boil was really stro and, you know, it was really ripping.

And then we'd start adding things to it.

And it was--it was very important to us to add the seafood last, because we don't like overcooked seafood here.

I mean, especially when the seafood is fresh, because it cooks very, very quickly, very, very quickly.

And so whether you're deep frying it or whether you're boiling or, you know, whether you're putting it in the oven, I mean, don't overcook seafood.

It's one of the sort of, what I consider "sins" of dealing with seafood is that, you know, you put something in and just leave it a long time.

And sometimes that's okay, if you're making a sauce and you need to do that.

But it's--it's just not necessary.

So we've got the onions we're going to put in.

And I sort of precut them to make it easy.

And we want to--this would have probably been, say, 15 minutes gone by.

And we're going to put the-- don't--we don't hesitate to put the peel on also.

And so we just drop it in.

We got the onions in.

We're going to put the garlic in, and same thing with the garlic--no peeling.

No, no, we want to have every part of this that's going to make it good or that's going to really be wonderful with it.

And so, now, the garlic's kind of stuck here, so what I'm going to do is just, I'm going to break the garlic up.

And you simply just take your hand, and you crush it, and then it all comes to pieces.

And you got the skins; you got everything.

Now, at this point, we would-- we would take another break, and we'd put the cover back on.

We'd let it cook 15, 20 minutes, and it would be determined by-- we'd--you know, we'd go into it and say, you know, "That's looks pretty good."

And then you taste it.

I mean, tasting was incredibly important, because you didn't want it to be too peppery; you didn't want it to be to salty.

And the water reduces as you let it boil.

And so all those things are a factor in boiling.

And I mean, if you want it to be really just absolutely wonderful, you gotta be care-- ahh, man, it just like, "Pow."

It just gave a big hit, and it was the pepper.

I mean, the pepper's smoking down there.

It's really good.

But the sugar and the salt and the pepper are three perfect things to put in a lot of water, because it's sweet and salty and hot, and those things are just absolutely great.

So we're going to put the potatoes in.

And of course, they're small red potatoes, and that's what-- because the red potatoes were what we would use, was important to us because of the size, and we could put the sausage in with it.

And then we could put the corn in, and this is fresh corn, as you can see.

It's still got the stems on them.

And you take them, and we would probably break them in half or cut them, and so I got a good sized knife here, and I'm going to cut these.

And so to get the feeling going--ah.

Don't do that at home.

[laughs] Because you might miss.

We'll do the second one just to be sure.

And then you chop those.

You put in--not you put e cover back on.

We're going to let this cook for a few minutes while we gather the rest of the stuff.

We're still cooking with this Louisiana seafood boil.

And I'll tell you, look at this.

Just look at this.

It is absolutely spectacular.

Look at the andouille.

I mean, it's really--you can tell that's ready to go.

I mean, ready to go.

Now we're going to take the andouille out.

Some of the onion will come with it; we're not going to worry about it.

The garlic will come with it.

That's okay.

We got the potatoes, and we've got the corn, and all those are ready to come out.

And then we're going to cover them up and keep them warm.

And that's the tradition that we have in our boils, is to--is to get this part of it ready, because we may have 30 people.

We may have more than that.

And so the idea is, is that you got lots of stuff, so you take this out, and you got this giant pot, and you put, like 50 pounds or 100 pounds of seafood in.

So I've got--I think I've got everything.

I got one more potato.

Potato's out.

Now, the next step is, I'm going to bring it back to a boil.

And this is going to be very quick, because I'm just going to turn the fire up and bring it back to a boil.

And I want to taste this, this broth again, because the changes that happen by putting the corn in and putting the-- ahh, I'm going to cover this.

I'm going to cover this, so it really is a wonderful flavor.

And so what I've got left in here is still just the vegetables, the onions and the garlic.

And then we're going to add the shrimp to it, and whatever seafood you would add.

And again, this would be a huge amount.

Now, the seafood, you notice I took the cover and put it over here, because the seafood is very quick.

And you don't need to--you absolutely don't need cook it a long time.

And actually, the least time you cook it, and cook it all the way, is the best, because I'm going to put it in this pot, and it's got stuff in there that's-- that's warm.

And the pot's warm, and so that's going to keep cooking.

So--but what I'm trying to do is to get--is to get a shrimp to turn.

See the pink now, the color on it?

And it's starting to curl?

As that curl happens, that tells me how cooked it is.

Now, see how that one's already turned?

That's ready; I mean, that one's done.

And so seafood is cooked very, very quickly, and especially if you're going to hold for a while, it even--it even-- it even works faster, so... And look at the steam coming out of that one.

So this is done.

We're going to take it out.

Oh, look at the strings of the-- I'm going to move this over so none of my shrimp--none of my shrimp fall away.

I don't want to waste any, because man, this is good stuff.

We'll get the shrimp out.

Now, you gotta peel them, and so you want to cool them down a bit.

And then you want to take the-- there's a thing that we do in Louisiana that--that most people probably never heard of.

And the reason we do it is because the seafood is fresh.

And I'll show you in just one second.

Let me put one over here.

This is good.

I'm going to turn the fire off, and then I'm going to take this and put it right there.

Then I'm going to go to this shrimp, and then we're going to make a sauce for it, soon as--[laughs] soon as I've gotten some of this shrimp and tasted it.

And it's--it's very hot, but you can handle it.

Yes, I can handle it.

And see, I mean, this is how much it's cooked.

Look at that, that quickly.

I mean, it's falling apart.

It really is.

And so we're going to take the peel off, and then we're going to take some of this.

The smell is great.

I mean, that crab boil--you know what I'm talking about when I say, "Crab boil"--the pepper and the sugar and the--I mean, it's just--ah, it's so wonderful.

Mmm.

Ahh.

I mean, it's juicy.

It's easy to chew.

It has a defined shrimp flavor with no off taste, no taste that's very strong.

It's just a very mild, mild shrimp taste.

It's really great.

So we're going to move over to the table, and we're going to have us a Louisiana seafood boil time.

That's what I call a Louisiana seafood boil.

I mean, isn't that beautiful?

We're going to make a sauce, and the sauce is relatively easy to do.

We got some mayonnaise, and we got some pepper sauce.

We have some horseradish, and we have some ketchup.

We're going to put all the-- all the mayonnaise in.

And we got some lemon.

And so we're going to stir that.

We're going to add some horseradish to it.

And depending on the family, you know, different amounts of horseradish.

Some of the families like a lot.

Mine does.

They kind of like things that are hot.

And we're going to put some-- we're not going to use all the ketchup.

We're not going to use all the Worcestershire either, or the Worcestershire, Worcestershire.

We're going to put some lemon in it, and then the most important thing we're going to do is, we're going to taste it, because that's the only way we'll know how it tastes, if we taste it.

And I got a little whisk here, so it'll make it really, really easy to do.

And we're turning, turning, turning, little pepper sauce.

We gotta have pepper sauce; even though we haven't tasted it yet, we still gotta have pepper sauce.

I mean, pepper sauce is the key to it.

I'm not going to cover it.

Take my spoon out, put it back over here.

I'm going to taste.

Ah.

That's too easy.

That's absolutely too easy.

You know, it's wonderful.

I've been cooking for--for over 50 years, because sometimes you get--when you're making something, you get really lucky.

And this was a lucky one.

I mean, this was--but this is about as balanced of everything in there as you possibly could.

You know, when we did this at home, it was one of the major events for the family.

And it was always--it was always anticipated.

It was anticipated for the crawfish season and the shrimp season, and so on.

And it would take--we always had a lot of people.

That's why you see such a pile of stuff here, because it was-- I never seen it get done for ju three or four people.

It was always a huge family.

And family, some of it lived in New Orleans.

I lived in central Louisiana, the Lafayette area.

And so everybody would come and--and it was really neat, because I was like, maybe 10, 12 years old when that was happening.

And you'd get all the--all your nephews and your nieces.

And I got nephews and nieces that are older than I am.

And so, you know, I mean, it was wonderful to have them there.

And of course, there wasn't enough beds.

And it was springtime when the crawfish were in, and that was always our first seafood boil, was the crawfish.

And so the family'd be all at the house, and everybody was cooking.

I mean, the ladies would just cook mounds of all kind of food.

And then we would anticipate that Saturday night.

And the Saturday night was the time that we would do a boil.

And we'd--we'd--we'd gear it down, gear it down to just before dark.

Everything would be ready.

And we'd have this long table like you see right here in front of me, and it would just be loaded with seafood, just loaded with seafood.

And we had a method--or the dies, the mothers and the grandmas had a method of really--of really doing this.

And they would get and have the kids eat first.

And if there was a lot of people, they'd put a table just for the kids.

But most of the time, the kids would eat first, and then the men would eat.

And then--or we'd do it vice versa sometimes.

The men would eat first, and then the kids would eat.

And then the ladies, I mean, you couldn't get them away from the table for the next two hours, because that was their wonderful gossiping time.

And that's when they told stories, and it was really wonderful to be around the family, because you learned things about the family.

I mean, things that my family, you know--I mean, things that I found out about the family in this atmosphere was, how long we been in Louisiana.

I mean, we got here in 1760.

And so, you know, being together was not only just the boil of the seafood.

It was the camaraderie and the family and everybody together, and it was just wonderful.

It's one of my greatest memories, and it'll always be.

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: ♪ De-da-dee-da ♪ ♪ 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-- ahh, does that smell good.

Wish I knew what it was.

>> Don't give me that face.

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

[mutters] Hello, y'all.

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

Pineapple glaze fruit basket skewers.

[laughter] Cooking, cooking, cooking, cooking, cooking, cooking, cooking... Aahh, help.

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