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

I'm cooking in hot water, and it works really good.

We're doing a Stilton cheese sweet potato pudding-- and it's wonderful-- stuffed bell peppers--oh, yeah-- white chocolate and cheese custard.

Man, we got it going, so come on and join us.

We're gonna have a good time.

[lively Cajun music] ♪ ♪ Oh, I love Stilton cheese.

I love good cheeses that are mild and then--but has a lot of flavor.

And you know me, man, sweet potatoes is one of the things that I love, and this is a Stilton cheese sweet potato pudding.

Don't get any better than that.

It does not.

And so we got a--first thing is that you got to cook the potatoes, and you got to--you got to do them to a good stage, and we got to melt the butter.

So I got the potato there.

I'm gonna show them to you in one second, but first I want to take the butter, and I've gotten a low fire underneath this, and I'm gonna start melting the butter.

I don't want it to be real hot.

I just want it to be liquid, because I'm gonna put them in with the potatoes.

Now, I tell you, there's nothing like a Louisiana yam.

We call them Beauregards.

Beauregards are raised in the Opelousas area where I'm from, and they're just spectacular potatoes.

I mean, they're really... [sniffs] Oh, the smell.

I mean, and you know, it's nice and soft.

I mean, look-a-there.

And you see the steam coming out of it, and that's what we got right here.

We got potatoes ready to go.

We also have a little bit of salt, and we got some brown sugar.

Brown sugar's good.

I mean, brown sugar's outstanding stuff.

We got some eggs.

We got some yogurt.

Yogurt's important.

[laughs] I'm kidding.

Yogurt's really good stuff, and so it's good, and we got the cheese, and of course, the cheese is gonna go in towards the end.

So the first thing I'm gonna do is add the sweet potatoes to it.

And because my apparatus is on the other side, I already got it cranked up, and so we're gonna just put the potatoes in it.

And of course, there isn't a mixer in the world that doesn't make too much noise.

I tell you, if someone created a mixer that didn't make noise... [whirring] [laughs] That didn't make noise-- could make a fortune.

They really could.

So my butter's almost melted.

I'm gonna put the--I'm gonna--this is mashing really fast, and with the butter in, it's gonna-- I'm gonna put the brown sugar in, and we're gonna add salt to it, and then we're gonna do some more whisking, and you know, I mean... [whirring] You don't need to do it that fast, probably; you probably shouldn't do it that fast.

[laughs] I'm gonna put the melted butter in, and I'm gonna give it another pump.

[whirring] [laughs] I got a butter beard now.

We're gonna add the eggs to it.

And the eggs are really an important part, and I'm gonna quit joking around and let this turn real slow for a second.

[whirring] I wish you could see in there, because it really--it's really starting to come together.

It's kind of sticking to the sides.

I'm gonna put the yogurt in it.

And that's part of the world of cooking when it sticks on the side, but it will come off.

We'll beat it up until it comes off.

So I'm gonna give it another little whisk.

[whirring] All right, now, the steps are, I'm gonna take that and put it in the casseroles.

I'm gonna add some water to it, and we're gonna put it in the oven.

And so the water is going to be just a little bit more than halfway of the little ramekins, and so that will give it enough heat and not too much, so we got e water done, and, uh... All right, we got the sweet potatoes rolling.

We're gonna fill these up, and we're gonna put some Stilton cheese on them.

Oooh, don't that look good?

And you can mix it as much as you want.

Right now, this one is a little bit lumpy.

I think the one in the oven is probably not gonna be as lumpy, because we mixed it a little bit longer, but this is still gonna be good this way.

I mean, this is wonderful.

The smell is great.

I mean, I love the smell of sweet potatoes.

Brings me back to Sundays at Mama's, 'cause they always had sweet potatoes.

All right, now, we've got the ramekins filled, and they're in a water bath, and then we've got to put some Stilton cheese on top, and then we'll put it in the oven, and we'll let the water bath do its thing.

And the cheese--just spread it around.

You can put as much or as little as you want.

Try not to bake too many big pieces.

All right, while I'm adding this, I should tell you that we have a water bath, and you seen me pour the water in.

The water should be at least halfway, and the reason is, is if you don't do a water bath, that it's gonna cook--it's gonna dry cook.

And when you dry cook a pudding, it just don't come out, because it's too much heat for it.

So if you got water in between the real heat and the pudding, then that works.

It really does, because it doesn't--it doesn't make it cook hard.

It leaves it nice and moist, and so that's very important.

You bake it in the oven at 350 degrees for approximately 45 minutes, depending on your oven, but you want the cheese to be melted, and you want the pudding to just be starting to congeal, and then it will be perfect.

And then we'll go to the oven now and pull some out and put this one in and eat.

I'll tell you, the smell is just incredible.

It's the blue cheese.

I mean, the Stilton cheese that, you know, that's why it's so important to me to have real quality products when I make something, because there's lots of different cheeses.

There's blue cheeses.

Stilton cheese is really a blue cheese.

It has blue lines in it, and the lines really make a difference.

You know, I mean, but a good Stilton cheese that's from England--it's fantastic.

It really is, you know?

And it made from whole cow's milk, and it ages for four to six months, you know, so it-- and the smell of this is just absolutely great.

And so I'm gonna kind of dig in here.

The texture's perfect; look-a-there.

The spoon came out, and it's just got a little bit of stuff on it.

Look at--oh, man, it's that smell... [sniffs] Sweet potatoes, oh, yum.

And that's Stilton cheese with a wonderful sweet potato pudding, and boy, if you do that, you're gonna make some people happy.

Stuffed bell peppers with an orange magnolia sauce.

Bain-marie cooking, the second dish.

Yeah, we're gonna do some bain-marie cooking with stuffed bell peppers.

The stuffed bell pepper has really gotten to be a classic, and it's really--I mean, I like them.

It's really neat.

Now, one of the things you want to do is, you want to make sure that the bell pepper sits up pretty straight, because some of them are crooked like that one.

And all you got to do is just be careful not to shave it all the way through, because remember, you got liquid in there, so you do a little cut, and you do it, and it will stand up better, hopefully.

This one ain't cooperating at all, but I'll show you how to get the stem out of there and get the seeds out just by turning this and turning it and using a good, clean knife.

And what I mean by clean, that cuts real clean.

And just keep turning it, and when you get to the bottom, you kind of push down and you twist and push down and twist, and it just comes right out.

And then you can clean up the sides.

I like to use a spoon to get what's left in there, and there's not a whole lot left, and I'll show you.

Look, see?

There's not a whole lot left, but it's ready to go now.

All we got to do--and you can trim the top, you know, if it's not quite even, you can take and trim the top, depending how fanatical you are about evenness.

[laughs] And so that's the way you do the peppers.

And we got the little casserole.

We're gonna put a little bit of water in it, and you don't put a lot of water in the peppers.

You put a small amount, and we're gonna show you how to do the stuffing for the pepper.

We got a sauce that we did already on the show, and it's called a magnolia sauce, and this is wonderful.

It's gonna go in--we're actually gonna put it in the bottom and the top.

We're gonna start with browning the meat.

And I'm gonna put--got a little oil here.

Gonna put it right on the meat, and then I'm gonna stir it up so it spreads on the meat.

And then we're gonna--we just want to brown the meat off, because we're gonna take it back out after it's brown.

And this is gonna be a quick one.

Add some seasoning to it.

It's very important.

I'm gonna retain a little bit of this seasoning.

I'm gonna put some on, but I'm gonna keep some on for another stage of the cooking, because sometimes it's good to stage the herbs and spices as well as everything else.

I'm trying to keep this brown and not have it stick anywheres, and of course, it's a nonstick skillet, which helps.

All right, the beef tenderloin is--because you just want to brown it.

You want to get some really good brown on it, and you want to cook the seasoning that we put in, and any of the juices that sort of fall away, that's good.

You want to leave them in the skillet, so when I'm going to rake this out, I'm gonna try to leave some of the juices in, because the next step is, I'm gonna put the onions in.

And I've got a little bit of butter to put in with the onions.

You could put a little oil in it like I did before, but I'm gonna use butter instead.

It gives it a--it's gonna give it a better flavor, and onions brown quickly, especially with a hot skillet.

And we're gonna put the butter in.

Yes, there it goes.

You know, the thing about bell peppers that I really enjoy about is that there's so many things you can stuff it with.

And it truly is a very, very versatile holder for food.

The difference between the bell peppers--the colored bell peppers and the green ones is the texture of them, which is very important.

I mean, I think that the texture, especially if you're gonna do a dish like this, the texture's important.

The yellow ones and the red ones are sweeter, and they don't have the wall in it or the texture in the bell pepper that these do.

These are a lot more sturdier.

And so we've got this brown.

We're gonna go to the next stage, and we're gonna add our red and yellow bell peppers and let them cook for a couple of minutes.

Now, what we've got left to do is, we're gonna add the corn and the tomatoes and the spinach and the stock and then put the meat back in.

And so at this point, I'm gonna put the rest of the seasoning in, and if I'm not following the recipe when you get it, don't worry about it.

Just follow the recipe, and it will be good.

I mean, it will be delicious.

All right, that's looking really good.

I'm starting to see some brown, and I'm gonna put the corn in.

I love corn.

I think corn is one of the really wonderful things in the world.

You know, it's amazing to me that most things that you take and you freeze and, you know, you freeze for any length of time just changes dramatically.

Corn is one of the things that the companies that freeze things really got it to the point where you can get some really good corn year-round out of the freezer, and it still has a great sweetness to it and a good texture to it.

Isn't these colors pretty?

I really love this.

All right, so we're gonna put the tomatoes in, and we're gonna let them cook a while.

All right.

I'm gonna let this cook just a couple of minutes.

We're gonna put the spinach in, and then we're gonna put the stock back in it also, or we're gonna put the stock in it for the first time, I should say.

I always do stock, because it's better than water.

Because if you put water in it, what's gonna happen is that it's gonna take away from the taste, because that's water's job is to dilute things, and so it's gonna take away from the taste.

And I'm gonna put the meat back in--the beef tenderloin back in.

Now, I'm gonna actually turn this off, because the next step is going to be to put rice in it and to start the stuffing.

And all you got to do is just, at home, you know, you just take this, and you just do like this with it, and it will just mix up really--I'm kidding.

I'm kidding.

Don't try that; don't try that unless you're experienced at it.

So we got some rice, and we're gonna add the rice to it, and we're gonna make a stuffing for that bell pepper that's extraordinaire, extraordinaire, I mean, just wderful.

I think I got enough rice in it.

Let me give it a turn or two and see what it looks like.

Yeah.

Look-a-there.

Wow, that's beautiful.

I love those little patches of green and red in there.

I'm gonna take the magnolia sauce for my bell pepper, and I'm gonna move these over and put this right here, and I'm gonna put some magnolia sauce in the bottom.

And you don't need to put a lot: a tablespoon, tablespoon and a half and just right in the bottom.

And then you do it in both, and then you--I'm gonna move this over, yes, and then we'll put some of the stuffing in.

Oh, I wish you was here.

That stuffing smells great, and it's super moist.

I mean, it's super moist.

Just pack it in, I mean really pack it in, because you got all that sauce on the bottom and all that moisture and the meat inside and the top, and just keep, keep putting it in.

Yes.

Great.

All right, so I want to put just a little bit more, 'cause I like a top.

And the reason I want a top is because I'm gonna put some magnolia sauce on the top.

And there's little gaps on the side where the bell pepper curves in there, and so the sauce can go in there too so it will be all over.

Ahh, you don't want it to leak too much, so I'm gonna put this one on the top so if it runs, it's okay.

Now, the next step is to put a little bit of water in.

This one, you don't want to put a lot of water into--into a casserole.

And I'm gonna put about an inch of water in it and then take the bell peppers and just sit them right down in here.

Pop them in the oven, and you bake them at 400 degrees for 35 to 45 minutes, and then you take it out and then go, "Yum."

It's good stuff.

Well, we're gonna take some out of the oven, and so I'll see you at the oven.

Yes.

Ooh, that orange magnolia sauce smells good.

Look-a-here.

That's what I call, "Gorgeous."

Stuffed bell peppers with a magnolia sauce.

Oh, wonderful.

White chocolate and cheese custard with wonderful berries pureed.

Bain-marie cooking again.

Yes, and it's actually--bain-marie is the name for a water bath, and basically that's what it is.

And so we're gonna make a custard, and it's a white chocolate with cheese in it, and we got the ingredients right in front of us.

We got flour, sugar, and we got some milk, a little bit of vanilla, got some eggs, and we got sour cream, and we got two kinds of cheese, and boy, are they good.

And then we got some of them white chocolate pieces, and they are really good.

They're dangerously good.

So I want to start by adding the flour in.

I'm gonna put it right through there.

Let me lower this thing so I make sure that I get all the flour in.

We're gonna put the sugar in.

Now, the vanilla and the milk is gonna go in also, but what I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna put the vanilla in the milk, and I'm gonna start this mixing real slow, and I'm gonna mix the sugar a little bit and the flour.

[whirring] All right, I'm gonna shut it off.

Now I've got the mixture of the--it's really neat, 'cause I can get rid of some of my containers here.

Now, it needs to be turning while I put the milk in it.

It makes it a lot more even, so we're gonna do that.

[whirring] Using a nice, little stream that's consistent and that's not too much really makes it mix a lot, lot easier, a lot better, a lot more thoroughly.

Just about got all the flour incorporated.

[whirring louder] I want to make sure that the flour is--I better lower this to make sure that the flour not sticking anywheres, because it does that sometimes depending on the blender, and it sticking a little bit here, so I'm glad I thought of that.

Look at that.

See how it's kind of thick there?

Well, you just scrape that on the whisk and just go back to it.

[whirring] Now, the next stage is gonna be the eggs and the sour cream, and I'm gonna, again, lower it and put the sour cream in.

I love baking...

Sort of.

[laughs] It's a part of cooking, but it's one of the parts of cooking that I've always had just little bitty problems with, not big ones, but little bitty problems, but I know how to bake.

Yeah.

[whirring] [whirring louder] I don't know if you can see in here, but it's starting to get thick, and it looks good.

[whirring] I don't see any streaks of the egg, so you know, we got the two cheeses to put in.

We got a Montrachet--kind of like Montrachet, and, like, a goat's cheese, a Silver Goat's cheese that's sharp, and the Montrachet is mild.

And so any two cheeses that you like--goat cheeses--that's got some--that got different flavors, one sharp and one's mild, is what you should use.

I like to use really high-quality cheeses, because it really do make a difference.

I mean, it really makes a difference.

Whoa, this one's sticking.

I got it now.

Well, almost.

Got a little bit more left.

I just take it and rake it right on the mixing blade here on this wire thing.

All right.

And I'm gonna start it up again.

[whirring] If you ever got a liquidy substance and you're trying to go quickly, what you do is, you just take it and do this... [whirring] And let her rip.

Now, you got to be careful, because the last thing you want to happen is this end up in your pudding or whatever you're mixing.

You don't want to do that.

Okay, so we've got it mixed, and now we're gonna start to finish the process, and we're gonna add a little bit of liquid water to the casseroles and the ramekins, and we've got that done.

Now we're gonna put--oh, is this good.

I mean, this is white chocolate--white chocolate, and you can just put as much as you want in.

I like to just cover the bottom, and it's gonnaorm a little crust on the bottom, hopefully.

Anyou just put the chocolate in, and then the next ep is, we want to drop this and pull the little whisk out of it and set it aside.

And we're gonna take a ladle and just ladle right out the container.

Yeah.

Just fill it up.

Ooh, doesn't that look good?

With all that wonderful white chocolate in the bottom to bubble up to the top and to form a crust.

That's absolutely gorgeous.

And you don't want to overfill it, and I almost did it that time.

This one, I'm gonna put just a shade less, because when it starts getting hot, and it's not really gonna bubble out, but it's going to--it's just better not to do it, not to make it too full.

Well, I guess I'm kidding, because I did it again, but that's all right.

So we got them in.

Now what we've got to do is put them in the oven, and so I've got some sugar, and I've got some berries.

You can use whatever berries you want, but I use raspberries, and you just whisk it.

I should taste it first.

That's important--make sure how much sugar to put in, 'cause it--ooh, those are wonderful.

They're really, really tart.

Just whisk away, and you want to bake it for about 50 minutes.

I would check it at 30, because it depends on the oven.

And so, you know, just make sure you don't overcook it and you don't brown the bottom.

I don't like to brown the bottom.

And I'm gonna take a spoon here and see if I got enough sugar in it.

And the only way to tell if you got enough sugar is to taste it.

Oh, the tartness and the sweetness is really wonderful.

So we've got the dish here.

We've got the custard, and we're gonna just put this stuff right over it.

I tell you, one of the things that is the best memories of probably almost anybody's childhood is when they do things in the kitchen with sweet things, because, like, cookies or puddings or whatever, and so if you have time to do it, or take the time to do it, why don't you cook with the kids, if you got any, and show them how to make some good stuff?

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 >> Okay, look here.

Don't look at me.

Look at-- >> Prudhomme: I didn't look at you.

Why would I want-- [laughing] Oh, does this smell good.

But I don't know what it is.

>> Soy sauce.

>> Prudhomme: [laughs] Oh, this is wonderful soy sauce.

I got to put them on there, and then they-- [laughs] And then the crash.

We're gonna put the plantains in, and I'm gonna start-- hey, did you see that?

Oh, man, I never thought I could do that.

There it goes, all right.

Put your best ugly face on.

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