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

We're going to make some shrimp brochettes, some fruit basket skewers, and rosemary beef skewers, and you just get the kids out here, because we're going to show 'em how to do it.

You got to soak the skewers in the water first and then just put everything through it.

You're going to love it.

Yeah, it's fun.

[lively Cajun music] ♪ ♪ Shrimp brochettes and a jazzy fried rice.

Fried rice, yeah.

Fried rice is good stuff.

You know, the brochettes are a really kind of neat family-affair thing, and this is one thing that the kids could do.

And, you know, I'd just warn them about the-- you know, about the ends of it, because this is-- and don't let them play, but, you know, let them work at it.

And any arrangements you want to make when you're making a skewer works.

I mean, you can start with whatever part of what's in front of you, and it works.

I mean, this one, I put the mushroom on the end of it, and this is the top end.

And I like to take the mushrooms and just square them off.

I don't know why I like to do that, because it doesn't probably make a whole lot of difference.

But this one I'm going to put in the opposite way, and so I'm going to try to have--I'm going to have one on each end.

One of the things that I think makes a lot of sense is, just use colors the way you-- I mean, any way you want to.

And when you use colors to make things happy, it just really is a good thing.

So while I'm doing this, I'm going to also do the fried rice.

Now, I'll get the fried rice started, because I got to brown things off.

I've got the fire going here, and it has--I can hear the heat in the skillet just starting to--do you know that you can hear the heat in the skillet, because it sort of talks to you?

And I'm going to put a little bit of oil in the onions and start the process doing, because I'm doing a fried rice, and when you do a fried rice, I think it's just huge, huge importance to get real color on the vegetables.

And I mean, if you're using-- for instance, if you had put zucchini and yellow squash in this, you know, then it wouldn't matter too much if you had a huge amount of color, but if you put bell peppers in them and you put those onions in them, that would be important to get the color going.

So I'm going to start browning this, and I've got the fire probably about medium, so I'm going to pay attention to it.

Now, the next thing--I mean, what's neat about this is that the only rule you should have if you're doing it with the kids is how many pieces of meat or how many pieces of shrimp, or, you know, if you put in-- no matter what you're putting on it, you know.

You could be putting anything on it.

And just keep--you know, just make sure that, you know, they do it even.

Teach them about it, because if you hit the center of something--let me show you the shrimp, because, you know, many times, I've watched people do skewers, and things start falling off, you know?

And so the best way to do it is, you get the big part of the shrimp right here, and you really look for the center.

I mean, it's really important.

Now, most people do that, but the other side they don't really pay attention to, and so I like to--I mean, I think this is important, but I think this one's even more important.

And just--I mean, there is a vein in this shrimp, and I don't--this is fresh shrimp, and I don't remove the veins.

Some people do, but I don't.

And just take this and put it right in the vein, I mean right in the middle of that shrimp; then you push it down, and it won't fall off.

I mean, it's going to stay there.

And while I'm doing that, I'm going to shake the onions up.

They're starting to brown really nice, so I'm going to lay my skewer down and start adding some more ingredients.

I'm going to do the bell peppers, and I got yellow, red, and green.

And so we're going to do all three.

And then, again, I'm going to put a small amount of oil, but instead of putting it in the pan, I'm going to put it directly on the vegetables.

And then at home, you should do this, too, if you can, if you want to.

Just take them and just do like that.

I'm kidding.

I mean, if you haven't done that before, that's not easy to do, but you could learn how.

And, you know, learning how to toss things in the air and bring them right back to the skillet, you know, I mean, it's not a huge chore to learn.

Because what you do is, you take a piece of just regular old sliced bread.

Take sliced bread and toast it, and toast it twice.

And then one side, put some butter or oil on it so you can tell the difference on which side you're looking at.

And then you put it in the skillet, and you just simply push forward and pull back, you know.

And it'll fall on the floor, and it'll go in the air.

It'll tumble all over, probably break, you know, and just get another one out.

But once you learn how to do this, it's a lot of fun.

And it's really effective in mixing your ingredients and getting them off the bottom, because you're literally tossing them in the air, and you're bringing them back up, and you're putting them on top.

So it really works.

The next step that I'm going to do is put herbs and spices in here.

So you want to put--I'm using rice, and depending on how seasoned the rice is, is how much herbs and spices I'm going to put in.

And so if the rice--if I taste the rice--and I should have done that, and I'll do that right now.

But if the rice has got a lot of seasoning in it, and sometimes my rice do-- and the rice has got to be cold.

That's really important.

If you take and cook rice and then you try to fry the rice that you've cooked without refrigerating it, well, the starch is on the surface, and the starch is sort of like there, and it's willing to fall off, or it'll come off real easy.

And soon as you start cooking, you know, everything will get gummy.

You know, the rice will fall apart, and it'll get sticky.

So what you do is, you take the rice, you cook it the day before, you put it in the refrigerator, and then you let it get really cold.

And then the next day-- and whether you season it or not doesn't matter, because you can season it here.

The next day, when it's really cold, then when you cook it, it's going to fry the outside.

That starch on the outside is going to be hard, hard, hard, and it's not easy to take off, so even the oil or whatever you're putting in with this is not going to remove that starch, and the rice will truly fry.

I mean, it really-- it's so much better.

Ah.

The rice is seasoned but not a lot, which is unusual for me, because any rice I have around me is usually seasoned.

So I'm going to taste this.

And when you do this, be careful it's not too hot in your mouth.

You know, I'm accustomed to doing it, and the way I do it is, if I get something hot in my mouth, I'll start moving it around.

And it makes--ah, it's good.

But it's not enough seasoning in here to carry the rice, so I'm going to add some to it.

You need some oil in it, and I would prefer to put butter than oil and let the butter fry the rice.

Ooh, and that's going to be really good.

And so... And you could put regular oil on the rice; it's okay.

I wouldn't put a whole lot, and I wouldn't put a lot of oil in the pan, you know.

I mean, a little pat of butter's okay, but if you put a whole lot of butter in there, the rice will just come out greasy, and I hate greasy rice.

I love fried rice, but greasy rice was something we did when I was a kid, and it was genuinely greasy because we'd use chicken fat or we'd use pork lard.

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, I was raised on a farm, and so everything was from scratch, 'cause we didn't have gas or electricity.

Oh, this is going to work really well.

I mean, it really will.

Look there.

It's got a good color.

I mean, you can hear the noise from it.

The rice is frying.

There's no doubt about it.

It's frying.

Now, my skewers, which I'm going to go back to in a couple of seconds, my skewers, you just put them in the way you want to.

See, I've got this one.

Now, what I did was, I took a paintbrush, and then just paint the oil on them.

And then the next step besides painting the oil on them is, you want to season them.

And, you know, I do it this way because I've been using seasoning or handling seasoning for over 50 years.

Isn't that amazing, 50 years?

Don't sound right now.

It's only been 20 years.

No, I can't lie to you.

It's been 50.

But just sprinkle it, and turn it as you sprinkle it, and if you don't want to do it that way or you're scared to, then just take some out, put it in your fingers.

And it's okay that some of it falls on the pan, because we're going to cook them in this pan-- or a pan just like it, because we've actually got some already cooked.

And so you put it in the oven.

It doesn't take a long time.

It takes maybe--oh, I love this.

Smells great.

I mean, it just-- and the crackling is wonderful.

Let's see if I'm getting color yet.

See I'm starting to get color?

Look right there.

I mean, I've got some color, so my fried rice is working.

And there's not a lot of oil on it; you can see that.

You know, it just had one pat of butter, and one pat of butter is all the oil that's going to be on it.

And so put this in the oven, and I've already done it.

I put it in the oven, and I got one right over here.

Look at this skewer.

Oh.

I mean, the shrimp, it's got beautiful color on it.

I mean, you can tell that's really wonderful and cooked and absolutely great.

So we've got shrimp brochette with jazzy, jazzy fried rice.

Put it in the oven at 375 degrees, five to seven minutes.

If you got a fan in the oven and you got it on, I'd watch it real close, because it's very easy to overcook the shrimp.

And you seen me do the rice, and so I'm going to turn the fire off, because it's done.

And the more crackling you get and the more color--that crackling sound of the rice popping and the more color you get on the rice-- the better I like it.

And so get you some skewers and have fun with the kids and make fried rice with Mama, and you'll be in great shape.

Fruit basket skewers with a pineapple glaze.

We're doing fruit basket skewers with a pineapple glaze on it.

And I got a lot of stuff out, but they're all supposed to be here, because the next segment, I'm going to talk to you about reductions of stocks.

And so in order to really make sense out of it, I've got the stocks on.

Now, this is--we started out with the same amount of stock in both of these pans.

And so this one, I have no fire under it, because that's the original stock.

This one I'm reducing.

And so that's the idea that's happening here: we're reducing this stock.

We want to bring it down to a glaze so we can show you what a glaze looks like and we can show you where it came from.

Now, this is fruit-- and any kind of fruit you like.

And we'll put them on a skewer, put a wonderful pineapple glaze on them.

So I'm going to start working on it.

So I'm going to start with the glaze, and I've actually got some done already, but I'm going to take-- I got cornstarch, and I got sugar.

And the pan has started to heat.

And so I've got the bananas in the pineapple, and it's a good way to do the bananas when you're going to skewer them, because pineapple and bananas sort of have an affection for each other.

So I'm going to put a little bit of that in my cornstarch, because I got to stir the cornstarch, and then the rest of it's going to go right in the pan, and we're going to start cooking.

We don't need a banana in it, so I'm going to just take it right out.

And so this is for the skewers, and I'm going to work on the sauce now.

So I've got the fire going.

You heard the sizzle.

And so I'm going to put a little bit of sugar in here, and it's actually quite a bit of sugar, but it's supposed to be sweet, because we're using it as a glaze.

And I want to make sure that the sugar is dissolved.

Well, the pineapple juice is coming to a boil, and it's got the sugar in it, and it's moving really fast 'cause I got a small skillet, and I also preheated the pan.

And when you preheat a pan, it just really makes things work in a-- And this is going to be a glaze, so I'm putting a lot of cornstarch in it.

And we're going to set this aside and whisk, and all you got to do is whisk.

Now, this needs to be cold to be effective or at least room temperature.

So what it's going to come out as is this.

And see, this is my pineapple glaze that I'm going to put on the fruit, on the fruit skewers.

And so it's--now I can turn the fire back up, and it just won't take--just as soon as this comes to a boil, it's going to instantly get thick because I got cornstarch in it.

And cornstarch is better than flour for this because it doesn't muddle it as much.

In other words, it's going to look clear, and it's going to have a little bit of color from the fire.

And that color is literally coming from the pineapple juice sort of turning with the heat.

And you can see now, mine's taking on that color, just like this one.

And so I'm going to just turn the fire off and let that cool down until we need it.

Then we're going to put the skewers on.

Now, the skewers are also-- like in the other show, I mean, you can do anything you want with skewers.

I mean, you can put whatever you wish on them and especially with fruit.

So I'm going to start with some lime.

I'm putting some papaya on.

I'm going to put some grape on it, and now I'm going to put the mango on.

And you can do as much or as little of this as you want.

In other words, it could be all of one thing.

It could be all papaya.

It could be--I wouldn't do all grape but almost anything else that you want to do to it.

I got some--these are bell peppers, and they're the really sweet bell peppers, and so they'll work with the fruit.

And this is some green apple.

You can use any kind of apple you want.

This is a red apple.

And so just make a skewer like we did in the past.

Just put it all together, and you're ready to go.

I've got some made, and so I want to get to cooking.

So what I'm going to do is, I'm going to move this up, and then I'm going to take the glaze and start glazing my skewers.

Because I'm left-handed, I'm going to move it over like this.

All right.

And you can put as much or as little as you want on it.

I like to put quite a bit, because I'm going to season them.

And we don't think of it as being seasoned--and by the way, I didn't season my glaze here, and so you see it's not seasoned there.

So all the seasoning goes right, right on the skewers.

And, you know, the seasoning I'm using has a little bit of citrus in it; it has sugar in it.

And you can put any kind of seasoning blend together you want, because almost any kind would work.

And so... Now is the seasoning.

Just get the seasoning in your hand and just pour it right on and just turn it, and just keep pouring it right on and turning it.

It's a great thing for the kids to do.

We got a grill going there, and the grill is hot.

It's hopefully hot enough to make all kind of sizzles for you.

And so I'm going to put those here, and we're going to do two more.

Oh, yes, I love the seasoning.

I can smell the seasoning already.

It's got--I mean, it's just a great, great seasoning.

I got it all the way u I'm going to put a little bit of oil right underneath it.

I was hoping I didn't have to do that, but I think it'd be good to put a little bit of oil underneath it.

All right, now, I can tell by the color, the steam coming up, but also by the sizzle that we're probably just about there.

I'm going to add some more glaze to it, even though I put some on.

Some of it's leaked on the bottom.

And so as I turn this-- and this side ought to be absolutely beautiful.

That's where most of the smoke's coming from.

Look-a-there.

Isn't that gorgeous?

It's almost too much, almost too much, but it's not.

Because you have so much sweetness there, this brown that you're seeing on there, it's going to be a sweet brown, and it's just going to be spectacular to eat.

Look at that.

Aw.

One of the things that-- one of the things that I probably should have said in the beginning: it's important to soak the skewers, because if you soak the skewers, then they won't catch fire real easy, and, you know, they won't start getting too brittle.

And so it's important just to take your skewers, drop them in water, and then take them out of the water, dry them off, and then go ahead and put whatever you're going to put on it.

All right, I'm going to move this one back over here with the seasoning, and then we'll just take some of these off.

Actually, you don't need the-- you don't need the tongs.

Just put them right on there.

Ah, the smell is just absolutely fantastic.

I need to turn my-- I didn't turn this one over, so let me turn it over.

I need to turn my fire down, and then we're going to put that last skewer on there.

All right.

Pineapple-glazed fruit basket skewers, yes.

Rosemary beef skewers, boy, they're good.

We're still skewering things.

It's what we do today.

Heh-heh.

This is rosemary beef skewers.

And I'm excited about it because it leads me into-- the sauce of it or what I'm going to glaze it with leads me into making stocks, and I just think stocks are absolutely spectacular.

So the first thing I'm going to do is go through stock with you.

Now, what I've done is, I've got this setup going, and so I'm going to go through it.

And first of all, you got to start with bones.

You can put any kind of bones you want into a pot of water.

You can see this water's clear.

There's nothing in it.

So you put the bones in.

I love to put in the bones carrots, onions, celery.

I put almost anything in this except mushrooms and bell peppers, because I don't like the taste of mushroom and bell peppers into a stock, and the bell peppers may make the stock spoil.

It has the possibility of that.

So you see how much water we got.

And this is not hot, so I can pick it up, and we just put all this stuff in it, all the onions and the bones and the meat.

And then you bring it to a boil, and then you let it simmer.

And depending on what you're looking for or what the recipe call for is how long you cook it.

What I mean by that is that-- let me turn the fire back up.

Turn the fire back up so it's going to be on high, because I want to bring it to a boil.

Then I'm going to bring it down to a very low simmer.

Now, you've seen these pots on if you were watching the other segment.

And this pot is cold.

This is a stock.

This is what a stock really looks like.

Now, to get this color out of it, you have to--there's no choice--you have to brown the bones.

You can make a stock, what we call a blond stock, or in French, it's la stock de-- stock de viande, which means there's just meat in it.

Or, you know, you can do all kind of stocks.

But when you make this colored stock, you need to roast the bones, and you need to roast the vegetables.

So that's the first stage.

Maybe that's 8 hours, maybe as much as 15, depending on--and it's got to be done slowly, because if you continue the rippin', rippin' boiling, you won't get near the flavor; it just won't work.

Now, the next step is called a demi-glace, which in French means half a glaze, okay?

And so see the difference?

I mean, it's just amazing, and all that difference is, is the fire.

And the fire just keeps bringing it down, evaporating the water out of it and taking all the moistu--all the flavors that's in those onions that are browned and all the other things that are in there, the meat, the bones, everything.

And so this is called a half of a glaze, and this is called a glaze.

Now, the glaze is literally that.

Now, this is the way I would do a glaze.

Very seldom use it with this kind of thickness to it.

And so all you got to do is just--if I put warm water-- yeah, this is stuck.

I mean, it's hard.

It's literally stuck right here.

Okay, that's very hard.

Now, if I get warm water-- and say two cups of warm water-- and put this in here and just start turning it like this, it's going to all go away.

It's going to go right into the water.

And so, using this, you can come back to this, and you can come back to this.

You can't come back to regular water, but you can take the glaze and make it a half a glaze, or you can take the glaze and make it a stock again.

'Cause you can make a glaze from vegetables.

You can make a glaze from beef.

You can make it from fish.

You can make it from, you know, I mean, anything you want.

If you're just patient, you can make these incredible flavors.

And so I'm going to use the middle one just to put a little extra flavor on my beef skewers.

And so we go to the beef skewers now.

I'm going to make a skewer, and I'm going to use-- instead of using a skewer itself--and you could use one this size, and if you do, you should put them in water and soak them.

Or you can use a smaller one, or you can do, you know, any size you want.

I mean, it's totally up to you.

And so--or you can use a vegetable to do it with or an herb to do it with as long as it has a stick in it.

And so we're going to start by-- we're going to start by putting the mushroom in.

Now, if you have a skewer like this, it's not as sturdy, and it'll break, and so you need to take some of the leaves off, some of the outside off of it right here, and I did that already.

And then I put a hole in whatever I'm going to put it in and leave some on each end.

So when I do this, I've got it tight here on the end, and the rosemary's going to give this a wonderful flavor.

And after this, you can do--just like we talked about earlier, you can put any kind of skewer in here, and you can do whatever you wish with it.

You just keep adding, keep adding.

You can put meat in it.

And each one of these things actually has a hole in it, so I'm not going to break my rosemary skewer.

And so you just keep adding and keep adding, and I'm going to show you what's in the oven in just a minute, and I'm going to put--I'm going to put some of this demi-glace de viande on it, and it's going to drive everybody in the studio crazy.

Yeah.

Ah, we've got all kind of sizes here.

[inhales sharply] Oh.

The one with the rosemary, I can smell it here.

You brown them at 375 but cook them at 325, and once they're cooked, then you brown them.

Then you take some of your demi-glace, which is half-glaze, and you put it over here, and you just put some more on and put as much as you want on.

I'm going to caress them with the-- [laughs] with the demi-glace.

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

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, here, don't look at me.

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

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

But I don't know what it is.

>> It's soy sauce.

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

I got to put them on there, and then the-- [wood clattering] [laughs] Ah, and then the crash.

We're going to put the plantains in, and I'm going to start-- Hey, did you see that?

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

There it goes.

All right.

[laughing] Put your best ugly face on.

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