>> male announcer: Funding for Chef Paul Prudhomme's Always Cooking was provided by: >> Prudhomme: What's my favorite meal?

Eating with the family, oh, that's wonderful.

Roast pork with Opelousas gravy is wonderful.

Candied sweet potatoes--or, as we say in Opelousas, candied yams--dirty rice, potato salad, oh, pecan pralines.

Eat with the family.

Y'all are going to have a great time with this meal.

[lively Cajun music] ♪ ♪ A few of my favorite dishes.

Ah, favorite dishes are wonderful, especially when you got memories with them.

We're doing a roast pork, and we're cooking it for a long time.

It's wonderful.

We got candied yams, or sweet potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, what the rest of the world thinks of them.

We think of them as candied yams, yes, and dirty rice and potato salad.

I mean, those things, when Mother put that on the table, it was a celebration.

It was one of the most wonderful meals that I've ever had in my life, and still today, I think of that as my favorite meal.

I mean, there's no doubt about it.

Slow-roasted pork, oh, it's just great.

I mean, it's just wonderful.

You got incredible sauce with it, and it's just really great.

And so we're going to start out with the candied yams, or the candied sweet potatoes, and I've go the fire on just kind of slow.

So my ingredients are really simple.

They're sweet potatoes, and we got some water.

We got butter.

We got brown sugar, white sugar, and we've got some lemon juice, lemon zest, and a little bit of vanilla, and so that's the ingredients that we're going to start with, and we're going to start with the water, and you can hear the sizzling.

We got the fire on.

So it's working.

Next step is to put the sugar in.

I like to dissolve the sugar, both of them, just a little bit first, just to make sure that they go in right into the water, and the next step is, we're going to add the butter to it.

Now, the butter is, I think, very essential.

I think if you're really going to do candied yams, or candied sweet potatoes, you need to use butter.

I wouldn't use anything else or, you know--well, it's my favorite dish, so what can I say?

I mean, the butter really makes it work.

We're going to bring it to a boil.

Now, I've got three things left.

I've got some lemon zest.

I'm going to put that in and let it sort of go away with the rest of the ingredients in here and just kind of caress those swt potatoes.

Now, I've got vanilla left, and I've got the lemon juice, and I want to put that at the end, because at the end, you need those two things to really kick up.

These became my favorite dishes, because when the family had roast pork and candied yams and potato salad, I mean, it was the thing that just made us incredibly happy, and it's the taste of the sweet potatoes matched with the potato salad, matched with the roast pork, matched with the candied yams.

I mean, it's just a perfect, perfect dish.

I mean, the changes in this are just phenomenal when you cook it for a while.

I'm going to lower the fire so y'all can see it, because of the foam there, and it's time for the lemon and the vanilla, so I'm going to put the juices in.

I'll put the vanilla in, and then the most important part is to make sure that the taste is right, and so I want to get a little bit of that, but it smells great.

It really does.

It smells wonderful.

Ah.

I'm going to just let this simmer for a little bit longer, because I got the end results right here, and it is cooled down a little bit, and look at this sauce.

Look how beautiful it is.

I mean, it's got this beautiful color, and just spread it around on the candied yams, and then put them in your mouth, and, boy, is that good, mm.

Potato salad Opelousas style with a green onion dressing.

Ah, potato salad with a green onion dressing: oh, I mean, this is the real stuff from Opelousas, Louisiana, where I was born.

It's just really great.

Now, I've got a lot of ingredients here.

I'm going to go through them.

I've got some potatoes cooking.

They're not quite cooked yet.

I just want them to sort of break when you put them in your mouth, just by pressing down on them and not chewing, and so they got to go a minute.

We got onions.

We got celery, got bell pepper.

You got to have them all.

Got eggs.

We've got some seasoning, and I'm going to make a green onion mayonnaise.

And So I'm going to start with the mayonnaise, and I'm going to put--well, we got to put the eggs in.

Today is Tuesday.

You never know, on Tuesday, what happens on Wednesday until you get to Wednesday.

So we're going to--whoops--put it this way, and we're going to start the process of... [blender whirring] Now, what I want to do is, I want to whip the eggs real good.

Then I'm going to start slowly putting in the oil, and you can see, we got quite a bit.

And then I'm going to put the rest of the ingredients in, and I'm going to tell you all about it, because this is the real stuff.

[blender whirring] The reason I can put so much oil in is because this particular potato salad dressing called for eight egg yolks and four of the eggs with the whites, but the yolks was what really makes it work, and the taste from it is just incredible.

I'm going to put some Creole mustard on, and you know what Creole mustard is, most of you.

It's this brown stuff which is really great.

We're going to add some seasonings--got to have herbs and spices in it.

I'm going to add a little bit of cane vinegar, and we're going to blend it again, and we're going to get a taste of it and see what it tastes like.

[blender whirring] I'll tell you, it smells wonderful.

And it's cold, but it smells wonderful.

I mean, it's a deep, wonderful, wonderful flavor.

It's got just a little bit of vinegar in it and just sweetness in it, and now we've got to put the onions in, and this is what really tops it off and makes it so incredible.

[blender whirring] You want to really grind the onions up as much as you possible can, and I'm going to give it a taste.

The green onions are, oh, they're just coming in, and they're coming in a little bit late, but as it sets, it's going to get better, and when you mix it in with the potato salad, it's really outstanding, or with the potatoes, rather.

So I've got the potatoes.

I got to check them out and see if they're cooked enough.

And which way you do that?

Well, you take a little piece like this, and I know it's hot, but if you got really good-- ah, it's perfect, absolutely perfect.

The reon I can put hot things like that in my mouth and not burn myself is because I keep moving it.

So I've got this.

I'm going to drain it out.

I really like to drain it out well, because I'm going to hang on to this water, and if I need any of it to make the potato salad a little bit more moist, it's ready there, waiting.

And so the rest of it--drop that in.

We're going to put some of the seasoning in.

I'm going to start with that, and then we won't use it all.

We'll want to taste it first.

We got onions, and we put the onions in raw, the bell pepper in raw and the celery in raw.

We've got these incredible boiled eggs here.

Now, you know, with all these eggs, it's got to be good, with the boiled eggs.

Ah, now, that's way too much, but just put it in.

Don't be too messy.

And then stir.

We need it to be a really moist, moist potato salad.

I mean, that's what we do in Opelousas, Louisiana, where I'm from.

I mean, we make potato salad that we call juicy.

And I'm going to let that set there for a while, and I'm going to show you this, and I got one spoon left so I can get some more of this potato salad, and mmm... it just takes you right home.

Roasted pork with dirty rice and Opelousas gravy, caramelized vegetables and everything-- it's wonderful.

We got the team out, baby, and we're doing three, maybe four, and could be five different things.

It just depends on how we feel about it.

No, actually, we're doing four different things.

Marty's going to start with caramelizing vegetables, because that goes in the pork roast.

Paul Miller's going do the pork roast, and I'm going to just sit here and watch.

[laughing] We're all from Opelousas, so I can do that.

No, then, my job is going to be to make dirty rice, and then Marty's got an incredible Opelousas gravy for you.

So we're going to get started.

Marty, you want to start?

>> I'm ready, Chef.

All right, I'm ready.

Okay, now, start off with a little butter, and this is the seasoning blend that we're going to give to Paul Miller for his pork roast.

I've got some celery in the pan.

I just put some bell pepper.

Now we're going to finish with some onion.

Last, we'll add a little bit of garlic, and then we're going to go ahead and sprinkle a little bit of herbs and spices on that.

>> Prudhomme: Put a lot of those, Marty.

Put a lot of herbs and spices.

Let's go.

>> How's that?

How's that?

>> Prudhomme: Oh, that's great.

>> Start with that?

Yeah, we'll see how that goes, huh?

>> Prudhomme: Yeah, we'll taste it and see what happens.

So in the meantime, while Marty's cooking--he's got the fi all the way up--we're going to go to Paul Miller, and he's going to show you how to stuff a pork roast.

>> Well, this is what it's going to look like when Marty gets through with it.

It's been caramelized down, which means we cook it until the sugars come to the surface.

That's why it looks--you've got that wonderful brown color.

The sweetness is there, the seasonings is there, and this is what we're going to season the pork with.

Now, what we're going to do is make some little holes in it.

We're going to do some little pockets to put the vegetables.

Back home, when we'd go home for holidays, every holiday, we'd have to have roast pork and candied yams and dirty rice, and it's just a--you know, we insist on it, but we always fight over the pockets in the meat.

We want the cut that has the most pockets in it, so we've learned is to really fill it up and make lots and lots of holes.

Now, we're going to fill it up.

I'm going to make the holes.

I want to make sure that I can get in there, going not all the way through to the bottom but just maybe 1/2 inch from the bottom, lots of holes.

Now, you notice I'm doing it, also, fat top.

We want the fat at the top so that when it's cooking, the fat will render.

It'll mix with the seasonings and the vegetables, and it will season the meat.

It'll go through the meat and give it a lot of wonderful flavors.

Once I get that done, I'm going to rub the remaining seasoning that I don't put in the pockets all around the pork, and then we're going to put it in the pan, and I'm going to bake it about three hours at about 275 degrees.

We'll do that for about three hours and then finish it off another 10, 15 minutes at about 425 to really get a nice brown color on the outside.

Now, what I'll do is, I've got a spoon here.

So I'll put a little bit on the spoon, about this much.

Push it into the hole like that.

Just make a wonderful filling there.

Now, it's going to--put as much as you can in there.

I know some people like it a lot more than others, but I tell you, you can't beat the flavor that it gives the pork, and it really gets through all the meat.

Just like that.

It's so wonderful.

The garlic in it is the best part of it.

That's my favorite.

One more pocket, and we've got it.

Okay, now, what I'm going to do is take the rest of it and just kind of massage the meat with it.

Rub it in there.

We've got seasoning, herbs, and spices in the vegetables, so that's going to season the outside of it.

Get it on the sides.

We're going to turn it over, going to do this side as well.

Turn it back over, and put the rest of it right on the top so that it can mix with the rendering fat that'll go right through the meat.

Okay, we'll set it right here in the pan.

We're going to slide it in the oven.

All right, and back to you, Chef.

>> Prudhomme: Thanks, Paul.

Marty's got--and this is the vegetables that Paul's been stuffing.

They just finished cooking right now, so it takes about--it takes a while to do it.

And the smell--you just--I mean, it's just wonderful.

There's nothg like caramelizing, and it's one of the things that makes our food so wonderful.

So we'll put this on the side, and then I'm going to start the dirty rice, or the rice dressing, as it was once called but now is called dirty rice, and I'm going to start that.

I'm going to turn my fire all the way up, and just like we caramelized this, because we're doing our hometown stuff, we did a lot of caramelization.

We love flavors, and so we're going to--I'm going to start caramelizing again, and then Marty's going to take and do a sauce while my base really starts, because I got to get it to this color without any artificial coloring.

So I need lots of brown.

I've put some oil in the onions.

I've got celery and bell pepper, and see, I've got this big skillet, and I like a big skillet, especially for this, because I need to caramelize.

I need to spread the joy, as I call it, with making brown, and so, now, not only do I have to brown the vegetables, but I also have to brown the meat.

And so we're going to start with the vegetables, and, Marty, you can move this pan over.

>> All right, Chef.

>> Prudhomme: And we can take a--we can start with your next dish.

>> The Opelousas gravy.

>> Prudhomme: Opelousas gravy, yes.

>> All right, all right.

>> Prudhomme: While I'm browning, you're gravy-ing.

>> You do that.

I'm going to start off, of course, like all good gravy should, with some butter.

You got have the butter.

>> Prudhomme: You got to have butter.

>> Got to have the butter.

Got to have the butter.

And I'll add a little flour.

So I'm basically going to make a little roux.

>> Prudhomme: That's true.

>> Make a little dark roux, and of course, we've got the drippings that we had, because we cooked a pork roast earlier today.

So we start off with the butter.

Put in a little flour.

We'll get the color on it, and then, of course, we'll add a little bit of herbs and spices, or as you would say, a lot of herbs and spices.

How's that?

How's that?

Yeah, put them in.

Put them in.

Put them in.

All right.

My roux's got a nice, nice color to it, nice color.

We have a nice brown, tan color to it, and that's going to be perfect, and I'm just going to make my gravy, big Opelousas gravy, right in the pan.

>> Prudhomme: Right in the pan, that's a good thing.

>> That's exactly right.

Here we go.

>> Prudhomme: I'm still stirring my vegetables.

>> All right, you've got some good color on those vegetables.

Okay, I'm going to get a little heat to my pan drippings, and then I'm going to whisk in my roux.

>> Prudhomme: Go ahead and whisk in your roux and just--and I'm going to start with my meat.

I'm taking the pork and going to break it up and start browning it, because I need brown with the pork also.

And then I'm going to put the beef right next to it, and then after they brown, we're going to mix them together.

Now, I've got some herbs and spices, and so I want to start seasoning things.

That's going to really help the color, but I needed to get the color on it first before the seasoning.

With the pork and the beef, you know, the color is going to come pretty quickly with the seasoning in it.

And I'm going to add a little bit of butter.

Butter is good.

You can see the steam coming up, and it's got a brown color to the steam, and that's because of the herbs and spices.

As soon as you put them in, I mean, they start heating things up, and it just really--it really gives you a great coloring, and so we've got a little bit of oil I'm going to add to it just to make it go a little bit quicker and get a little more color, and I got some butter too, but I'm going to use the butter a little bit later, and I'm making this thing that we love: dirty rice.

Well, I remember doing this on a cast-iron stove, and the cast-iron stove was a wooden stove, and I mean, you didn't have--you'd put a piece of wood right underneath, where the top of the stove, where, you know, the cover was, and you'd take the cover off, and, boy, you could do this in an instant in a black iron skillet.

I mean, this would really, really, really, charge out.

We got the meat, got a great color to it, and so we're going to start adding a little more of the seasoning, and I'm going to put some more butter in it, and then we're going to start moving towards the finish.

I need to get all the seasoning in, actually, because the next step after the butter, I'm going to put garlic in, and I really don't like to put garlic in until the last few minutes, because I think it really is important.

I don't like browned garlic, because a lot of times--I'm adding some butter to it--a lot of times, when you brown garlic, you could also get a bitter garlic, and I don't like a bitter garlic.

I really don't, and so the ingredients I have now is the rice and the stock and the chicken livers, and the chicken livers I like to put in a little bit further down the line, so I'm going to add the rice to it.

Now, there's something that is unusual that we always did is brown the rice, and it really makes a difference when you brown the rice.

It gives it a different kind of a crunch, and it just really--I mean, it's part of what we call "dirty rice," or what we call--it was actually-- the beginning name of this was called a fard, and a fard is French for "dressing."

When we got an invasion in the '50s of Yankees--of Yankees--and so when the Yankees came, they couldn't say fard, and so they would look at it and say it was dirty rice.

That's a true story.

Some of our little restaurants that, you know, the mama and the papa were running 'em used to do this every day.

You know, they'd do the dirty rice, and so when the customers would come in, they'd ask what it was, and they'd say, "It's fard," and of course, they couldn't say fard, so they called it dirty rice, because it was brown.

And so we got the rice brown.

Now all we got to do now is just let it cook.

Now, I still haven't put the liver in, and I'm going to wait until about 1/3 of the moisture is gone.

Then I'm going to put the liver in, because the liver--I don't like liver that's cooked a long time.

>> Well, Chef, while you were doing that, I got my big old Opelousas gravy going.

>> Prudhomme: Ooh, can I taste your Opelousas gravy?

>> Let's taste it together.

How's that?

>> Prudhomme: All right, let's do it.

>> We're going to taste it, and then I think I've got a little bit of stock that I've reserved, made out of a little of this.

>> Prudhomme: Oh, that's good, Marty.

>> C'est bon?

>> Prudhomme: Ah, c'est beaucoup bon.

>> Uh-huh, oui.

>> Prudhomme: Man, isn't that good?

It really is.

I mean, you know?

I'm going to put the bay leaves in, and I'm going to put the liver in.

This is getting close, and what's going to happen now-- what's going to happen now is that the rice is in there, and the rice is going to start poofing, and so that's going--the rice is going to start expanding, and we're going to have something that looks very, very much like this and tastes like this, and this is--I got-- >> I ran out of clean spoons.

>> Prudhomme: Oh, I got one.

I got one; I got one.

I got one right here.

>> Exactly.

>> Prudhomme: Maybe Paul Miller would like a bite too, huh?

>> Maybe so.

You think we should invite him over?

>> So you guys ready for this roast, or what?

>> Prudhomme: Bring the roast!

Bring the roast!

My dirty rice is not cooked, but we've got some already cooked.

>> All right, you're coming on over.

All right.

>> Prudhomme: Wow, that is great.

>> Man, that looks good.

I tell you what: rice dressing, gravy-- >> It's time for a party now.

>> Exactly.

>> Prudhomme: Dirty rice, it's dirty rice.

I mean, with us, it's dirty rice, man; that's it.

>> Exactly.

>> Prudhomme: Pecan pralines: once you've had one, you're hooked.

Pecan pralines are just great, and they--a lot of people call them "pray-leens," but they're not.

They're "prah-leens."

They were developed in France.

This pan's getting hot.

So they developed in France in the 18th century.

I'm going to start going, because this takes a lot of heat and it takes time, because what you're actually doing is making a caramelization, and that's brown sugar, and of course, that was butter that went in.

Brown sugar, white sugar.

Now, I'm not following the normal recipe, because that's not what I do.

I like to do my own thing, but the idea is to get--I'm going to turn the fire all the way back up.

I'm going to get the butter and the sugar going.

I'm going to put the pecans in and get them to be starting roasting with the sugar.

Oh, man, is this going to be good.

Is this going to be good.

I can't wait.

And then we're going to add the cream and the milk, and the rest of it is just--we've got some vanilla to put in, but I like to--that was whipping cream.

That's wonderful.

I like to put the vanilla in a little bit further down, and so at this point, we got the fire full blast, and what we need to do is just continue to stir, because what makes it a praline is mixing the sugar and the cream and the butter and all that together and then reducing it down.

See, it's starting to get thick already.

I mean, you can see, there's a change in the thickness, and so that's the goal, is to get this to be at a stage where, when you put it down on something and cool it, shouldn't come apart.

But when you put it in your mouth, it just disintegrates, and that's what makes a praline so, so special.

Now, you see how it's starting to move away from the bottom when I whisk around?

Well, it's getting close, so I'm going to put the vanilla in.

Then I'll get Marty and Paul Miller to come back in.

You want to come back in, guys, and help me finish it?

Because once it's done, you got to get it out of there really quick.

And so we got a little ways to go yet, and I've got the fire down low at this point, and I think I'm going to push it up just a little bit and start doing it.

What do y'all think, okay?

>> It's almost ready.

>> Looks good to eat now, huh?

I'm ready.

>> That's right; I know.

>> That spoon will travel.

>> Exactly.

>> Prudhomme: All righ >> We should've brought some vanilla ice cream.

I could wait.

[laughter] >> Prudhomme: I just think it's absolutely spectacular, yeah, the smell, the smell, the smell it's just so wonderful.

To me, that's what makes pralines special is that it takes--I mean, it's got to be so precise.

And I think it's ready.

>> Yep.

>> Prudhomme: I'm turning the fire off.

Go, guys, go, go, go.

Now, you've got to spread them, and you've got to spread them quickly, because if you don't-- and believe me, you do not want to get any of this on your skin, anywhere.

You see what's happening.

It's spreading, but it's stopping.

It's not spreading very far, and to me, that's what it should be doing.

Now, as we do this--and I can feel it--it's, like, getting heavier, and what I mean by that is that it's not going to spread as much, because it's just at a point of overcooking, and we ought to just start eating it, because we ran out of room, but we're going to put it right on the--this is pralines, and this is the representation of our culture, the dishes that we did today.

This is a great finish.

Guys, what do you say?

>> all: Good cooking, good eating, good loving.

We love you guys!

>> 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: [humming] ♪ ♪ ♪ 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-- 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, then.

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

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

Pineapple glaze fruit-brasket skewers.

[laughter] Cooking, cooking, cooking, cooking, cooking, cooking, cooking.

Ah, help!

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