-Funding for "Kevin Belton's Cookin' Louisiana" was provided by... -I'm Kevin Belton.

And today on "Cookin' Louisiana," we're gonna let the good times roll back home in New Orleans.

How about a little boudin-stuffed pork chop with Creole mustard syrup glaze, then lyonnaise potatoes?

Finally, shrimp scampi risotto.

I've been making groceries, so let's get cooking.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ -Boy, I have something that's gonna go inside of you that's gonna taste so good.

Hi, guys.

Welcome to my "Cookin' Louisiana" kitchen.

Thank you for joining me on this tasty tour of the state's best flavors and dishes.

Our last stop, it's where it all began -- New Orleans.

Now, since it was founded by the French in 1718, our port city has been a mecca for people from around the world, who have added layer upon layer of richness to our culture and to our food.

The birthplace of jazz has had many nicknames through the years, including the Creole City.

Now, that's a name that reflects its multicultural French, Spanish, and African influence and honors the Creole chefs who helped develop New Orleans world-famous cuisine.

We're gonna kick off this Crescent City cooking with thick, juicy pork chops stuffed with boudin.

Oh, yeah, baby.

This is gonna be so good.

Now, if you haven't heard of boudin, this is boudin right here.

You know, my family comes from Lafourche Parish.

My grandmother was born down in Lafourche Crossing.

Boudin is a Cajun sausage.

Now, you know, we talk about sausages all the time, where the andouille smoked sausages, where they're ground.

Boudin, what I did with this, I cooked pork.

I took a pork loin and cubed it.

I took a pig liver, pig pork, onions and celery and green onions, put them in a pot, and I boiled them.

I boiled them and cooked them and simmered them for an hour and a half.

Then I ran them in a food processor, seasoned it really good, and mixed it with rice.

That's what boudin is.

When you get out to Cajun country, you're gonna find this in a casing or even rolled up and fried and have boudin balls.

But today our boudin is gonna go into our pork chop.

So let's put an egg in.

Let's go ahead and just get this all mixed up.

This egg is gonna help hold this together inside of that pork chop.

Now, I am using a bone-in pork chop.

Of course, you could do this with a boneless pork chop.

Let's get this seasoned.

Now, what I have -- a little cayenne pepper.

I'm gonna take a little bit of my Creole seasoning, mix in here.

Let's get a little bit of salt.

And we're just gonna mix this all together.

Now, I'm just gonna take this and sprinkle it on my chops.

All right.

We're gonna give that a nice little sprinkle.

Let me show you something.

See?

I cut a pocket on the inside.

I'm gonna season down in that pocket.

All right.

Now, if you were using a pork chop that was boneless, same thing, okay?

Same exact thing.

Now, we have to season both sides.

We can't just season one side.

We have to season both sides.

Now, how much seasoning do you want?

Totally up to you.

Totally up to you.

So now that we have this seasoned, let me get our fire on underneath our skillet because we're gonna sear these off.

That's heating up.

Let's take our boudin and get it inside.

Take your spoon and press it.

Just press it on in.

And you notice how I'm pressing it and I'm folding it over?

That's what we want.

See?

Just pack it on in there really nice and tight.

Let's do our other chop.

Now, if you happen to overfill it and you worry about it coming out, don't worry.

Take a toothpick.

Sear it off with a toothpick.

Okay?

I'm gonna do this in a skillet, and I'm gonna put this in the oven.

But if you want, you could also do this on the grill.

Let's get a little oil in our pan, and let's get ready to sear these off.

Our pan is hot.

Just take your chop.

Lay it down.

Take the other one and just lay it down.

I want this to sear.

Okay?

I want this to sear for a couple of minutes on both sides because what's gonna happen, it's gonna get that pork starting to cook from making contact with the pan.

Now, we're gonna put it in the oven.

The oven won't dry out the pork, so in the oven it'll heat up everything.

It'll get that boudin heated up all the way through.

And as soon as that boudin heats up on the inside, we're good to go.

So let's get these flipped.

All right.

Look at that nice sear that we have.

Now, let's do this other one.

Yes.

Yes.

Now, everything looks good.

This is seared off really well.

Let's go ahead and turn out the fire.

Now, we're gonna put these in the oven.

Remember, 350 degrees.

350 degrees.

They're gonna be in there for about 15 minutes.

I'll check it to make sure it's heated all the way through, and it's gonna be so good.

But let me show you this glaze that we're gonna put on top of this pork chop.

All right.

So what I have here, I have a little cane syrup.

How about a little white pepper?

A little bit of lemon juice.

Let's get this stirred together.

This is gonna be a nice, sweet glaze for that savoriness of the pork chop.

Now, this is a little Creole mustard.

You could use a Dijon, you could use a yellow mustard.

You can even put a little mustard powder in here, if you would like.

See?

Let's take just a pinch of salt in.

There we go.

I can't wait to just brush this over the top of my chops.

And if you want, right before you take them out of the oven, if you want to brush them once then while they're in, that cane syrup will glaze and stick to it.

And, oh, I can't wait for you to see it.

Whoo!

Ca c'est bon, mon cher!

Dang, this looks so good.

So good.

Look at that.

Now, look.

Remember that glaze that we had?

Just put a little bit right on the top.

Oh, just like that.

Just like that.

Let that drizzle all over.

Ooh, yeah!

Now, the reason why I use Creole mustard -- because a lot of times when we eat boudin by itself, oh, baby, some crackers, a little Creole mustard, and that boudin, we take it out the casing.

[ Smooches ] C'est magnifique.

We're gonna put you right there.

You have room for your friend on there?

You have room for your friend?

All right.

All right.

All right.

Yeah, you got room?

Yes, I'm so happy you have room for your friend.

You gonna get that friend right there.

Now, let me clean you off just a little bit.

I got to just wipe you off, and we gonna garnish you with a little bit of parsley and green onion because we want you to look so nice.

Look at that.

How about a little - See?

We get a little fresh parsley on here.

And now we're gonna get a little bit of green onion on here.

Oh, yeah.

Ah, yeah.

I tell you what, that Creole mustard cane syrup glaze is the perfect final touch for this dish.

But you know why I really like this stuffed pork chop?

It gives me one more reason to eat some boudin.

Next, a classic French side dish named after the city of Lyon.

Pommes de lyonnaise, or lyonnaise potatoes.

Today we're at City Park, and I'm visiting with Chris Dunaway with the LSU AgCenter.

-Right here in the middle of the park is the botanical gardens, and it's an amazing oasis of plants from around the world.

We have a ton of different herbs and spices.

We have a nice orchard.

We're planting okra, tomatoes, and peppers.

We can grow so many different kinds of peppers.

You can come here, walk around and see, and get ideas for your home.

-Lyonnaise potatoes.

You know what's great about French cooking?

They keep it so, so simple.

And that's what we're gonna do here.

This is gonna be a nice, simple dish.

I want our cast-iron pan hot.

I'm also heating up our pan here.

Now, look at our potatoes.

You can use any potato that you like.

Basically, I baked them in the oven.

Once I took a knife and poked to see that they were just barely cooked all the way through, I let them cool, cut them in half, and then I cut them in quarter strips.

You know, a little more than a 1/4-inch thick.

All right?

Now, here, I also left the skin on.

You could take the skin off, or you could leave the skin on.

Totally up to you.

Let me get our little butter in the pan first, because our goal is, what we want, we want to brown these off in our skillet to where they get little kind of crunchy pieces on the sides.

We're gonna get them in the butter.

And this is a potato that can be served with so many different things.

I decided to do it with steak.

So let's get these potatoes cooking.

We want to be able to get the potatoes in.

And we want them to pretty much lay flat in the pan.

The whole idea is so that they start to get a little crisp, that they start to brown off.

Here, we have room for a few more.

So if you have to do this in batches, that's okay.

We'll get these going.

Now, my steak -- That pan is getting really, really hot.

This is a strip steak.

All right?

I take it out of the refrigerator at least an hour before I want to cook it.

I want it room temperature.

A little olive oil, a little salt, a little Creole seasoning.

And you see how hot this pan is?

Now, notice the side.

There's a little fat right there.

So I'm gonna take our steak, first start it on that side.

I want that edge to cook because we're gonna finish this in the oven, okay?

So now take our steak.

Just lay it down.

Now, I just like to do this roughly two minutes on each side.

Then I put it in the oven because in the oven, it's gonna finish cooking.

Now, look at our potatoes.

See?

We're starting to get them to brown off some.

That's what we want.

So let's go ahead.

Put in some onion into the potatoes.

We're going to season this with a little salt.

And instead of black pepper, I'm gonna put a little touch of Creole seasoning in them.

Let's flip our steak.

Take a look at this.

With our steak, what we want to do is sear both sides.

Let's turn the fire off, and let's get this into the oven.

Now, I have the oven heating up to 450 degrees.

450 degrees.

Now, depending on how thick your steak is and depending on how you like it cooked, depends on how long it stays in.

Typically, a steak that thick, for a nice medium, is 10 minutes.

Look at our potatoes.

This is exactly what we want.

Look at those crisp edges.

Look at our onions.

All we have to do now -- a little parsley.

And I can't help.

Let's go ahead and knock one more little piece of butter in there.

Fire's off.

This is gonna rest.

I'm gonna go get that steak out of the oven, and I'm gonna show you how we're gonna put this all together.

Nice, simple flavors.

Something I like to do -- When I take this steak out of the oven, I love to take a piece of French bread, stick it down in the pan to absorb those juices.

So let's serve this up.

Let's put our potatoes and onions down.

Oh, look at that nice, crispy bit.

Now let's take our steak.

We're going to just lay it right on the top.

Remember that little piece of butter I saved?

Let's throw that little piece of butter right on the top because it's gonna melt so nice.

And now a little parsley to brighten it up.

One of life's simple pleasures -- pan-fried potatoes, lyonnaise-style.

Last, but not least, two Italian dishes in one -- shrimp scampi risotto.

-We have a nice, long, warm growing season.

There's a lot of different crops that we can grow.

If you teach somebody to garden and they pick it themselves, there's gonna be a huge buy-in.

Especially with children.

They will love to eat the vegetables that they grew themselves.

The bees and butterflies are gonna be already visiting this garden just in time for our spring crops to be flowering and get pollinated.

And we want to make sure we have that insect army to do the work for us.

♪ -Guys, this is a dish that you have to be patient with.

It's gonna be worth it in the long run.

Risotto.

Now, don't be intimidated with risotto.

I'm having our pan heat up.

Olive oil.

Into it, a little shallot.

A little garlic.

Now, let's go ahead and stir this around.

Matter of fact, I'm gonna get a little more olive oil.

And, you know, in Louisiana, we grow so much rice.

And this is one of the rices that we haven't grown.

It's Arborio rice.

At least there's no record of us growing an Arborio rice.

Matter of fact, it's an Italian rice, and it's got its name from the town where it was first grown.

So that's where the name came from.

And you can look at our rice.

This is a very, very short grain rice.

That's what we want because when we cook this, we want it to absorb.

So that's why it's a short, short grain.

So we get our rice in.

We want to stir this.

So now that I've sautéed our rice for just a bit and got it all coated with oil and nice and hot... Oh, and you can smell it.

You can definitely smell when it's time.

A little white wine.

[ Sizzling ] See?

This is why it's important to have that pan nice and hot.

See how that rice has absorbed the wine just that quick?

That's what we're looking for.

So now let's get in a little stock.

And this is where the patience comes in, because we want to stir this.

Remember, our fire is high, and we want to keep this moving until our rice absorbs this stock.

Once it absorbs this stock, guess what.

We're gonna add a little more.

So this is where you have to be patient because we want this to absorb a little at a time and for it to get nice and creamy.

Just that quick, it's starting to absorb.

That's what we want.

So just a little patient.

A little more stock.

Let's give it a nice stir.

Risotto and scampi.

Now, what I have for my scampi is, we're gonna have a little butter, a little red pepper flakes, some garlic, a little onion.

We're gonna season it with that little Creole seasoning and white pepper and lemon juice and a little wine.

But shrimp.

All right?

Our shrimp are right here.

But because risotto cooks longer, that's why I'm waiting to do my scampi last.

Because our shrimp don't take long to cook.

Scampi or lobster-like crustaceans are also called langoustines.

When they came to the United States, Italian cooks adapted the dish to available ingredients, swapping shrimp for scampi.

And I am so happy they did.

Now, our rice has started to grow in size.

The reason it's growing in size?

Exactly.

It's absorbing that flavor.

Now, remember, we did wine.

And if you don't want to use white wine, that's fine.

You could just use stock.

But just don't do this with water.

All right?

Just always use some type of flavored liquid, never plain water.

So it's time.

Let's get a little more stock in.

So now you know when you have risotto in a restaurant where if it's really good risotto, it's made with love.

Oh, look at this.

This is coming together so fine.

Now, let me get my skillet on here.

Just one little touch.

A touch more stock.

That's it, that's it.

Now, by the time this absorbs, this is gonna be so good.

All we have to do is finish this off with our butter and our Parmesan cheese.

So let's start working on our scampi right quick.

Now, what we have here -- a little butter.

We're gonna get this butter going.

So a little butter.

How about some red pepper flakes?

How about a little garlic?

We just want that to open up.

Let's get in a little onion.

And we just want this to start sautéing.

Now, let's just go with a little touch of salt here.

Oh, look at that.

See how that has absorbed, gang?

Let's put a little salt here.

We're gonna do a little bit of Creole seasoning.

And a little white pepper.

Smell this flavor.

Oh, so good.

Now let's get in our shrimp.

And I just want a nice single layer of shrimp to lay down in there so they can cook really nice.

All right, spread out, guys.

Everybody into the pool.

We're gonna show them a little more love.

Now, these won't take long to cook it all.

Okay?

Basically, once they get nice and pink on one side, we'll flip them.

The other side will cook.

Look at our risotto.

Here.

Let's turn the fire off.

Butter.

Yes, indeed.

We're gonna finish this off with some butter to get it nice and creamy.

All that butter's gonna melt in.

How are you doing, shrimp?

You doing all right?

Now, over here, let's go in with a little touch of white wine.

A little touch of lemon juice.

Oh, yeah.

All right.

A little Parmesan.

Ah, yes.

See how creamy this looks?

That's the whole thing about risotto.

You know, I tried to describe it to someone who had never, ever had it, and I told them, "How about savory oatmeal?"

Because doesn't it almost look like an oatmeal texture?

I know it's totally different, but it's just such a great flavor.

You all ready to eat?

Okay.

Oh, yes!

Come here.

You get right there.

You come with me.

Come on.

Let's go get some of this.

Risotto.

Oh.

Look how nice this looks.

A little bit more, a little bit more.

Good right there.

All right.

Now we have to get our scampi.

We want to finish off our scampi.

Just a touch of parsley.

Now, remember, we had a little garlic and white wine here.

We'll have a little more garlic and white wine going in with our scampi.

Here, we can get a little more right there on top.

Got to get a little bit of that sauce.

Just right over the top.

Just a little more.

A little bit of green onion and a little bit of parsley.

There we go.

Oh!

Now, you could serve this shrimp scampi with pasta, but in New Orleans, we love our rice, so I'm sticking with risotto.

Thank you for joining me on this culinary road trip.

Now, keep that party rolling.

Bring the big flavors of Louisiana to your home.

So see you next time for more "Cookin' Louisiana."

The companion cookbook to "Kevin Belton's Cookin' Louisiana" is available for $28, plus shipping and handling.

You can also order an hour-long DVD of favorite dishes from the series for $19.95, plus shipping and handling.

Both the book and favorites DVD are available for $43.95, plus shipping and handling.

To order these items, call 1-866-360-4928 or order online at wyes.org.

And this cream cheese does not want to melt.

Because you know why?

The kitchen staff played a joke on me.

They gave me frozen cream cheese.

This is frozen.

That's why it's not melting.

Look at that.

Is it melting?

No, it's not.

'Cause it's frozen.

Your order is ready.

There's your pork fla-- B-B-B-B.

Pork block.

I'm-a blop!

Blip!

Blip!

Blip!

[ Smacking lips ] [ Swishing ] Whip!

Pow!

Whip!

Pow!

Tasty bits of fried pork cracklings, or what we call gratton.

Why am I on my tiptoes?

Why am I -- I'm talking about crackling, and I even got up on my toes.

You see me?

I mean, I was tippy-toeing.

Crackling will do that.

♪ ♪ -For more information about "Kevin Belton's Cookin' Louisiana," visit wyes.org.

-Funding for "Kevin Belton's "Cookin' Louisiana" was provided by... ♪