Yes.

Its ready.

Got it all prepared.

Its finish.

It's stunning.

Yes.

It's great.

It's all so ready.

So just let it all begin.

Welcome to the QED cooks kitchen.

I'm Chris Fennimore, and today we're cooking in the pot.

Hearty recipes that come together in a big pot to feed a big crowd.

Our first guest was no stranger to the QED kitchen.

We called him Commish.

Like the TV character, but he was in fac County Commissioner Jim Salem, a larger than life characte who loved to send in his recipes to all our shows and come o to cook in person when he could.

On this occasion, he sent in his version of a seafood bisque, but Jim had no interest in the traditional French cuisine versio with its butter and flour base.

He went right to the heart of the matter and thickened his bisque with heavy cream.

Let's finish.

There I am, I'm back.

Oh, boy.

Well, you you have a recip that was in our, soup cookbook, and I couldn't resist because it's one of those recipes, you know, that you look at and you go, I gotta have some of that.

It is a, seafood bisque, but it's so easy.

It's compared to other bisque that I've.

That I've had.

So tell me a little bit about it.

Well, Well.

And we should get started.

I was a lobbyist before I was a commission.

Had a lot of fine restaurants I went to, and I got.

I just there's so much flour put into bisque, and I just dove in.

Yeah.

Too much.

There's a restaurant in Georgetown that, became my favorite.

And, the chef came out when I. When I had it for an appetizer.

I had it with my meal and I had it for dessert and I was, I was up on it.

Who's that guy?

Reverse engineering.

Yeah.

All right.

It's, it's, it is simple as can be.

It was in quick and easy cookbook also.

And, right.

Basically, this butter in.

Yeah.

This is, we're having a little trouble with the stove, so I'm hoping that this butte will melt, but we're going to, you know, like TV cooking.

We're going to make believe that this is, actually that, has, is melting.

And then it starts with the butter.

Right.

And then you add garlic.

Okay.

Do you, do you smack that around or how do you, do you want to mention it and smack it.

So you had a little health scare there and, yeah, I, I literally had a sudden cardiac arrest.

Wow.

And, I basically, I only got two stents out of it every one of the hospitals.

Cross River and ended up serving as a commissioner for 12 more years, even though some thought that I didn't have a brain and I knew I had a heart, but they didn't know if I had a brain.

Right.

But you want to get your garlic nice and minced.

We're having a good time today because we got a brand new cutting board from It's alway nice to work with new equipment.

Yeah.

I remember the equipment in 99.

Well it was a little more primitive then, wasn't it?

Yeah, we were, but, Sometimes good equipment doesn't work.

But, the first thing you do now is, and we're going to make sure we simmer the butter and the garlic and the garlic and once the garlic It's starting to turn.

I got to know this over here.

You'll have, the proper.

And then then the next thing you do is add your seafood.

This can be shrimp.

This can be crab.

This could be clams or this can be, of course, the premier lobster.

And I have to tell you something.

Yeah.

It's really funny.

The guy's done one of my clubs back.

Very stingy club too, sometimes, because if it's free, guys eat it.

Yeah.

Basically they said, you know, hey, we're going to watch it, show that you're going to.

And I said, well, listen, the two trustees, Barry and Buzz, if I, you know, there's I said, I'll give you a signal.

There it is.

Oh there it is.

They said they would make, you know, they'd let me make bisque and they'd pay for it.

So yeah, I think we ought to have lobster up there, don't you?

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

Well, if we don't well this is the shrimp.

Well so so what we've got here I'm going to move this around to over here.

Okay.

So what do we add to.

We don't add the the seafood into the seafood goes into the butter.

Okay, well, I cook it.

That's how I cook it in the recipe.

Oh, you put everything in one pot, all right.

Yeah.

You don't want to dirty any other pots.

So you would put the seafood in.

And once we get the that magic heat up.

With shrimp.

With shrimp crab or lobster.

Normally the red tells you and then the opaque brings it and right once, once you're done with your, folks, with your with your seafood being cooked.

And by the way, you could hav if you had a little bit of more of the other, ingredients.

You could have all three.

I make an ireland soup.

It's got that plus mussel and it's, it's just fantastic.

Yeah.

And but anyway the, the whole thing on the bes kind of bisque is a French term.

It's, it's just, it's a, it's a cream soup.

That's done, and done very slowly.

And so this is going to be slower than normal.

This works.

What's good.

This is a little slower than, than we want it to be.

Okay.

Now, so then let's, let's say that this has, actually, sauteed and, and the shrimp are nice and, they've turned their color, and now we have to add some liquid to this.

Right.

The first thing you're going to add is you're going to add, a tomato puree or tomato.

Now, yeah.

We're making a, I think a half recipe.

Yeah.

So you want, want, you just want, Well, actually want one.

Can we have, we have all the ingredients to make, yeah.

To make more.

So we'll make.

Well, it's a number eight can of, tomatoes.

So that's four us.

Okay.

And then we hav to, match that with some water.

Some water, some boiling water.

Okay.

And, yeah this is like one for one here.

It can be, but, that's probably one of the secrets of thickening this soup a little bit.

What I usually do is, I would stop and say one more ladle and put that in.

Okay, so you don't quite.

And then then you can, you could add.

You can always add but you can't subtract when you.

Yeah, when you deal with th ingredients is, you know, right.

So basically that gets oh look at what you have boiled.

If only oh we're fine.

And at some point in time, the next thing that will go in would be the, half and half half and half and half and half is, is a good is a good, you know.

No, if you if you don't want that much cream, you could, could use, you know, whole milk, 2% whatever, whatever you're using.

Have you ever use the no fat half and half?

I've seen obviously in the supermarket, not in, but, you know, I anything that anything that can give you the flavor, what you're looking for is the flavor of this.

Oh, no.

Look at that color.

If yo if anybody can see that color.

There it is.

That's already turned to what it's supposed to be.

Right?

And, now you let that simmer, you don't, the one thing you don't want to do, people don't think.

They think they have to have it on high to boil.

And, it's a funny thing, bu if you leave it on medium low, it'll boil.

Yeah.

Eventually.

Right.

But what you.

That's why I use tried to do no more medium.

Medium.

High to medium period.

Right.

And then watch it.

You gotta watch these soups.

Especially the best.

Once you have cream in it.

Yeah.

You don't want it to curdle at all.

Now I see a big bottle of, sherry over there.

This is a it's called a sherry bisque.

Right?

Or.

No, it's a seafood.

Seafood.

This.

All right.

This is this is a key ingredient to the bisque.

And a lot of people make best and they stop right there and that's okay too.

Yeah.

Cooking sherry.

You could use it for nonalcoholic.

That that is that is what you probably use.

But, I know you.

The last time I was here, you had the, the California one, and I, we did ekos on you.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

But anyway, what you do here is, you're going to have, if, if you're using a, cooking sherry, it's 16oz.

But who's counting?

So.

Right.

We'll just fill this up, okay?

This won' this won't hurt the soup at all.

It actually helps.

Now, the, the last thing, that, of course, salt and pepper, folks.

You do that to your taste?

Yeah, we got there.

Back there.

Okay, Jim, we'll.

Now, you still active in in Armstrong County politics.

Are you somewhere retired?

This is the first election cycle I haven't been in since, 1992, 92.

I'm not in it, and, I, I have a big job now.

I'm, I'm a babysitter.

We just had two babies.

Oh.

That's right.

Daughter.

Remember Katie was on the show?

Yes, yes.

Katie had her first child six weeks ago.

A daughter.

Porter.

Josephine.

Erin.

Two days ago.

I'm a little tired because we've been running around a lot, but Erin had a son.

And, you know, just, had a son.

His name is Hudson.

Thomas.

Jeter.

So we're we're happy we're at doubles like babysitting.

Yeah, yeah, it's a privilege, I hope.

Now, Oh, yeah.

You have one more thing that you're going to do.

Because I was going to say this is there's no way that this is actually going to be ready for us to taste because of the lack of heat that we're experiencing at the moment.

So I can taste and I know it's got the rush.

Been there.

But we're just.

Well.

But they don't want to do that.

No, no, but but there is a technique that you have here, so.

Well, it's it's a surprising little thing because that restaurant in Georgetown, when the chef came out, all cook seemed to instantly hit it off.

And, and I said to him and when he said, you know, I said, well, I can't figure out the last ingredient.

He said, well, we're like everybody else.

We, we we, you know we charge enough for the soup.

It's sometimes you can't do it.

But, basically what we do, we don't use saffron, we crack the egg.

And we, mix it up.

And you end up with the same effect, believe it or not.

You have that chain that Of course, but without the heat we probably have it, but yeah.

And you basically start stirring little hearts to show the technique.

Yeah.

Okay.

Stir real good.

You slowly drizzle it in and it cooks as it goes in, I guess.

Right.

Oh, it instantly cooks.

Yeah.

That would be hot right?

I even do that.

And the you would serve it immediately.

You can know you're good.

You're good as long as yo keep it on low heat.

Low heat.

Okay.

What are you ready to go?

You you serve it.

And if you want a dollop of, you know, a little dollop o cream or something, that's fine.

A little more cream?

Yeah.

Commish, it's always good to see.

It's good to see.

I'm glad you're here to be back.

Yeah, glad to be back here.

It was always fun to b in the kitchen with the commish.

He was a big guy with an even bigger heart and a great sense of humor.

As you can see, we were having troubles with our stove that day and weren't able to sample the soup, but we finally did get it working again, and I can tell yo it was a wonderfully creamy soup and it had a deep seafood flavor.

This recipe makes a big pot and it does serve a crowd.

Yes it's great.

It's always already smelling so good in here.

Yeah.

You know what.

Yeah.

Oh my gosh.

he's got sausage cook.

And this is a soup that, that I started making.

I think from back when we did a show about tailgating and I've been tweaking the recipe and whatnot.

It is basically it's everybody loves hot sausage.

For a ball game, you know, a football game.

And, so I thought, well, gee, why don't you make it into a soup that way?

You don't have all of that stuff, and then you can have buns.

Oh, speaking of buns, we could get Scott to get the bread out of the oven because we got hot bread in the oven.

Oh, yeah.

Now I'm a happy camper.

As if I wasn't already.

So, What I've.

What I've done is I've taken some hot sausage, and I'm just browning it in this pan.

Oh, you know, perfectly, perfectly browned.

Well, it's not cooked all the way through, but, it doesn't have to be, because it's going to cook and it' going to cook in the soup, and, but you just wanted to have that crunchy outer edge.

Yeah.

Rather that wrapping.

So now I'm going to put the, the onion in here to saute.

And I like to mi if you like, all, you know, red then do all red in color if you like.

If you like red and green, you know, whatever.

Why do they put these little paper things on here?

And then they can scan them at this.

Oh my goodness.

Check out, here's my here's my jack pepper pepper thing I love this.

He is the master of technique.

Okay.

You just cut down on one side and then you just go along this side.

Turn it.

Go down, cut past the membrane.

Cut down again.

Yeah.

Oh my goodness.

Pepper seeds.

None.

None of the seeds.

None of this going around.

It's so easy.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

That's that's my hands.

Thats a good one.

He's a master technician.

And, of course, he's worked in some of the most famous kitchens in the world.

Yes, he has.

So.

But then again, so have you.

Small wonder.

Yeah.

Small wonder.

He has the best techniques.

And, you know, he's he's turning 80 years old.

No, this year his birthday is in December of 2015.

And, I had a chance to meet him and wish him happy birthday and all of that.

And, he's just a delightful person and knows more about cooking.

Man, I think it's probably forgotten more about cooking than anybody ever knows.

Just a terrific, terrific guy.

He was there with this.

His daughte Claudine.

Oh, how lucky for you.

Yeah, I've had that experience.

All right, you want to stir this around?

While I could be at that?

Cut the other pepper.

Let's trade places.

Yeah.

And what are we going to start with?

So this this technique of cutting the peppers just, makes it go faster.

I just, I, you know, I, I just think it's a it's a great little.

I was just cutting up four peppers yesterday and, you know doing exactly what you were just demonstrating not to do, you know, trimming off that membrane and cutting out the seeds.

I did that for years.

Now I want to go back and make that recipe again.

So there's nothing finessed about this recipe because it's going to cook as a soup.

Yep.

It's going to cook down.

And I like it sort of like bigger chunks and and little chunks and, you know it's rustic in that sense of it.

What makes this a soup instead of a stew?

Well, you'll see, what is the difference?

Well, you know, it's probably only a matter of degrees.

This has a little bi more liquid than a stew would, but you could call this, a ho sausage stew if you wanted to.

All right.

I'd get those in there.

Yeah.

And I really like.

So you can see what's happening with the onions.

And they're getting sort of caramelized.

That's all for the good.

And now I'm just going to chop these sausages.

Not fully cooked sausages.

Right.

But the casing is into, into little things.

What what do you use the sausage for.

Was to give you the bottom of the pan.

It creates a fond that the onions cooked in.

And there's the peppered word for yes, like the fon at the bottom of the pan.

And, so you all that flavor.

Is this.

The only way you can get i is by getting something brown.

Yeah.

You can't just sprinkle that flavor.

No you can't.

If they could sell fonnd in a in a jar, we wouldn't need this job.

I chefs would go crazy for that.

Okay.

So now you put this.

That's a lot of sausage.

It's not actually.

Well yeah I mean this is this is not for the the faint of heart, this recipe.

So now it has let's say it has cooked.

Okay.

And now I'm going to add a, a 28 ounce can of tomato sauce.

You know, just like just basic tomato one one can the regular size.

And I'm going to add the same amount of water.

I'm going to add a bay leaf 102 leaf two.

Yeah.

And the I'm going to put in some garlic.

But I'm not going to I'm not going to mince it or whatever.

I'm going to put it in whole because some people, they like the flavor of garlic, but they don't want to bite into garlic.

So so you're going to pull that out later while you can just you can take your chances.

It's just going to work.

That's a whole one.

Will will oh the flavor the whole.

Oh yeah.

Two while I'm putting in four cloves.

Oh okay.

Got it So now I know that it'll work.

This is the most subtl way to get flavor from garlic.

The most intense way is to make it a puree.

And you're seriously not.

The plan is not to take them out when we're done.

Well, you see what if somebody bites into it?

Well, that you could see that it's garlic.

No.

Okay.

Right.

I don't know.

I mean, I like garlic a lot, but I don't know if I want to bit into one whole clove in my soup.

All right.

So now that's getting heated up.

I put in I put in two cans of cannellini beans.

And I have kale.

So this is like a combination sausage, beans and greens, Yeah it is.

It's a lot of stuff.

A lot of stuff in this.

This is definitely a meal in itself, right?

The big thing about kale i you've got to make sure you've you've, washed it down very well.

Kale is grown in very sandy soil.

And so you want to make sure that you have washed this thoroughly to get all those little bits and gristle of, you know.

Yeah.

All right.

Now this is going to seriously cook down.

Oh yes.

As greens do it cooks down.

Oh boy.

There and you just got to let that simmer until you have, you know the until it looks like this.

Oh yeah.

That's a good way to put it.

Yes.

I don't know if you want me to send it over a year to come over here.

I'll, I'll I'll get it this way.

Here.

It's a little heavy.

Yeah, like 60 pounds.

So this is what it looks like after it has.

Yeah.

It's a soup, not a stew.

You're right.

Look how it's moving around like that.

So let's ge a little bit of this to taste.

Now, you you can put this in a in a thermos.

You can put it in a, I need a bigger spoon.

Well if I had to have a bigger spoon, I'd have been stirring with it.

There's what we need a ladle.

Oh, yeah.

Sure.

Thank you.

Very.

So this is nice and warm, but look at this.

There you go.

Oh, that is beautiful.

Little sausage.

Some beans, some peppers and the kale.

Make sure I get some beans and sausage in this bite along with the kale.

You can put this in a thermos and bring it to the game.

Or my favorite is on the side table by my, my chair.

That and watching the football game okay.

Oh yeah I don't go outdoors for football.

Oh that's really good.

I'm an indoor football guy.

So this oh now now I'm getting the kick of the sausage.

This was definitely a favorite with the crew and the volunteers.

I love i because it's a one pot wonder.

It's easy to make and it's easy to clean up.

It's a perfect dis for football season or any time you want something hearty and delicious.

Watching this reminds m how much fun Nancy and I have, have in the kitchen and have had for the last 30 years.

I guess time goes by when you're having fun.

And now the time has come, to, to say goodbye to another show.

And as I usually say at the end, we do it for you.

But we can't do it without you.

So keep cooking and keep watch.

So ready.

So just let it all begin.