-Funding for "Kevin Belton's Cookin' Louisiana" was provided by... -I'm Kevin Belton, today on "Cookin' Louisiana," We're visiting St. Bernard Parish, New Orleans' most historic neighbor.

So how about a little bacon, corn and shrimp chowder?

Then stuffed chayote squash.

And for dessert?

Hummingbird cake.

So as the locals say, let's head to the parish, darlin'!

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Yes.

We're going to put you two together.

Y'all gonna have a good time together, I guarantee you're gonna have a good time.

Hi, guys, welcome to my "Cookin' Louisiana" kitchen.

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

Now, today we're heading to St. Bernard Parish.

Now, it's located on the eastern edge of New Orleans.

The parish is home to the Chalmette Battlefield.

Y-you probably heard of that -- where the Americans defeated the British at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815.

Now, it's also an area of scenic beauty and world-class fishing, and I know this firsthand.

The locals can actually buy shrimp, oysters and crab straight from the fishermen's boats in places like Delacroix and Hopedale.

Now, shrimp are going to star in our first dish, which is going to be a rich and creamy chowder.

That's why I walked in with our shrimp.

Yes, I have bacon.

The first thing we're gonna do is get our bacon start to cooking.

[ Sizzling ] You've got bacon and you've got shrimp.

Well, think about flavors, Louisiana cooking is all about layering flavors, okay?

What's going to happen is this bacon is going to render... All right.

Now, look in the pan.

See how we're starting to get these little goodies on the side of the pan.

Remember: that's flavor.

It's browning, okay?

It's not burning.

I'll tell you what, I'll show you how we can stagger things.

I'm going to take just a little bit of it out, but I'm going to leave a little bit in and I'll show you when I'm going to put this back in.

All right?

Just hang with me.

Now, let's drop in a little butter -- and I know you're going, "Hey, you already had bacon in there.

Why you need butter?"

Because it's flavor, it adds a different type of flavor.

To that, let's go in with some green onions.

Also, some celery -- just a little diced celery.

And now let's get in a little black pepper.

We're going to get in a little cayenne pepper.

Now we're going to put a little salt in this.

We're going to do a little bit of Creole seasoning.

I'm not going to make a roux, but I'm going to put in our garlic.

Yes, get all of that garlic in, and a little bit of flour.

See, I don't need that garlic in too long.

I just want that garlic to heat up really quick.

Now let's sprinkle our flour over everything.

We're just going to stir it in.

Let's get in a little milk.

As this starts to heat up, two things are going to happen.

You're going to see this start to thicken.

At the same time, you're also going to see it starting to deglaze the bottom of the pan -- we'll get those little goodies up off the bottom of the pan.

All right.

All of you in, everybody in.

There we are.

And I'm going to get this really hot.

Now the worst thing you could do with shrimp is overcook it.

That's just the worst thing you can do with any food.

Now, I am going to season this with a little hot sauce.

So here, remember, this was a good bit because of the milk.

Milk has flavor, but it's not seasoned.

This is good.

We're coming up to a boil, so now we can get in our corn.

We're going to get in our creamed corn.

Get down in there.

Oh, yes.

Oh, look, how good that looks.

Yes.

And now let's get in our shrimp.

Okay, we'll get our shrimp in.

And they won't take long to cook it all.

Remember our bacon?

Let's put that back in right now.

Come on, get in.

See how quick our shrimp cook?

See, it got nice and curled.

That's all we need!

That's all we need!

So if you wanted this soup to cook longer for the flavors to blend together, let it cook a while and then put your shrimp in right before you're ready to serve.

So look, we can turn this off.

I'm going to finish this off a little half and half.

Just a little bit of half in half.

And I'm going to put in a little fresh thyme.

See that thyme, by putting it in now, the flavor just opens up -- that little fresh thyme in that heat just opens it up.

So I tell you what, let's serve this because I want you to see this all served in all of its beauty and glory.

Let's get a bowl.

Look at that, look at that, looky, looky, looky!

Ooh, come on, little shrimp and bacon, right there -- you stay right there on the top.

All right?

I have a little bit of green onion, a little bit of parsley.

You know, that always just brightens things up.

Now next, we'll explore St. Bernard's Spanish heritage with stuffed chayote squash.

I'm in St. Bernard Parish at the Los Isleños Museum and Village.

The folks settled from the Spanish Canary Islands in the late 1700s and became a wonderful part of this community.

-These were the people who fed the city of New Orleans in the late 18th century, and then they continued providing the Orleans with seafood, wild game.

The Isleño community founded St. Bernard.

When they were recruited to come here, they were in a paradise.

They became Creole-ized in that they learned how to adapt to this environment.

-Now, I'm starting with butter in the pan.

All right.

We're going to get in our onion.

Little bit of green onion.

Now, a little bit of bell pepper.

Let's get that bell pepper in.

Oh, yes!

This is so good.

Here is our mirliton.

Now some folks call this a vegetable pair.

You know, I refer to it as the tofu of squash because whatever you put with it, that's the flavor it's going to pick up.

So let's get a little bit of our Creole seasoning.

A little touch of salt.

Let's throw our garlic in.

Now I'm going to turn this real low... And let this continue to saute.

Mirlitons show up in markets in the fall, and they're very popular in Louisiana around the holidays.

I mean, I cannot remember a Thanksgiving or Christmas where we didn't have stuffed mirliton.

Now, if you've seen them in the grocery store, this is how they look.

All right?

Now, often we boil them, and make sure you let them cool a little bit before doing anything with them.

Make sure it gets tender.

You can actually take your knife and stick in to see that it's cooked all the way through.

So here, let me show you this.

I'mma cut this one open to show you what the insides look like.

Now, I don't know if you can see it right there.

There is a little seed.

And we want to make sure we get that out.

See that?

We want to get that little seed out.

That's what we want to get rid of.

So, I'm going to take my spoon, And you just take your spoon and work around.

Try not to tear the skin underneath, but I tell you what, it happens all the time.

So now I'm just going to take our mirliton, and I'll cut it up once I get it in here -- just break it up, and we'll stuff it right back in.

So you see, we're going to stuff the shells today.

There we go.

So let's get in a little basil, a little thyme... A little bit of hot sauce.

Now, ham.

We'll get in some ham.

Let's get some shrimp on in here.

Now, if you want, you can cut your shrimp up, you know, depending on the size of your shrimp; you can use a smaller shrimp.

Now we're going to hit this with a little bit of breadcrumb.

And you can see how our shrimp are already starting to curl.

All right, this will help tighten this up.

Now I'm going to turn the fire out.

Our fire's out.

Little more breadcrumb.

I have an egg that I want to go ahead and stir this egg in.

Now, I'mma just whip this egg a little bit.

There we go.

We'll pour this egg in... and get it stirred in... Because this little bit of egg is it going to also act like a little binder.

It's going to cook a little bit, but the fire is off.

Tell you what, we are ready to get stuffed.

I am going to use an ice cream scoop for this.

You could use a spoon, you can use an ice cream scoop.

And you see, like, I use the ice cream scoop because when you scoop it, you want to make sure you get a little bit of everything.

You want to make sure you get a piece of shrimp.

You want to make sure you get a piece of ham.

And look, let's just set it right here in our pan.

This looks so good, doesn't it?

But this was something that I can't imagine one holiday without Mom making this.

Grandmothers would make it; when you went to friends houses, their grandmothers and moms made it.

Yes, indeed.

Here, you get like that.

You get right there.

Come on, fit in.

You see what I'm saying about the size of our shrimp?

How we could do a smaller shrimp, okay?

Or if we have big shrimp, go ahead and give them a cut.

But you can leave them whole just like this.

Now, let's get this finished off -- we're going to take a little bit more of the breadcrumb.

This will give us a nice, crunchy top.

Now, remember, everything here is pretty much cooked.

All right?

And this was something I asked Mom -- I said, "Mom, why the breadcrumbs?"

And she's like, "Little different texture."

And that's when I started learning about taste and textures.

Now, you know, we're doing just a little bit of butter on the top because as this melts in the oven, those bread crumbs are going to get nice and toasty.

All right.

So this is going to go in the oven.

It could go in 5 minutes, it could go in 10 minutes, it could go in 15 minutes, because we just want that butter to melt.

We want our breadcrumbs to get nice and golden and crispy.

And I tell you what, it's going to be so good.

Oh, yeah!

So let's get these plated.

Come here.

We'll get you right there.

We'll get you right here.

There we go.

Come on.

You come and go right there.

Oh, yes.

Come here.

I see that little flake there.

We always like to just put a little green on the plate, put a little green, just makes it look good.

Plus, it tastes good.

Little bit of green onion.

All right -- this was something, you know, I know they do in restaurants, but this is something Mom did at home.

So at home, we got garnished plates, and she said, "Hey, it adds a flavor."

Whether you call it a chayote, "meleton," mirliton, this stuffed squash is some good eating.

Next, a pineapple-banana spice cake that's become a southern: favorite hummingbird cake.

-We're 17 miles below the foot of Canal Street and the Mississippi River.

So this place was strategically critical to the defense of New Orleans.

The history of Louisiana is the diversity -- all of these influences come together to make us who we are today.

And Isleños are a part of that mosaic.

-Hummingbird cake!

Now, the first thing I want to do is start toasting my pecans.

So in our flour, we're going to get in some sugar.

We have a little cinnamon... and a little nutmeg.

You notice I put them right on top of the sugar.

I always try to blend them into the sugar.

All right?

And I have a little baking soda.

So let's get our baking soda in.

Now we're just going to get this stirred together right quick just to get it mixed in.

All right.

What I'm going to start with in our bowl, I have three eggs, okay?

And I had two eggs out, they were at room temperature.

Okay.

Let's get these startin' to get beaten -- startin' -- startin' to get whisk.

Y'all can't hear this, but I can hear the pecans talking to me -- that little bit of sizzle and you hear a little "clink" every once in a while.

That's that nut -- because it's hot, it just moves.

That's what that is, all right?

So now that this pan is warm, these are going to be done fairly quick.

Okay, so, in our egg, let's get a little vanilla.

A little oil.

And remember, oils in cakes keep them nice and moist, okay?

All right.

So let's go ahead and get our brown sugar in.

We'll get this whisked in, and I tell you what, I'm going to turn off our pecans.

So now let's get in our banana.

This is such a great way to use bananas.

Notice the theme with all the ingredients that's going in.

All right.

Can you imagine where this all kind of started from?

Hummingbird cake was created in Jamaica, and it was named after the national bird of the Caribbean island.

There you go.

Now that we have this whisked, let's go ahead and get our pineapple in.

Take our whisk, just move it around.

Now the goal is to work this into our flour.

So I'll just take about half of this.

Now, let's start getting this worked in.

And, you know, whenever you're doing something like this, I have my spatula at the ready to make sure I get the sides really good.

Now let's go ahead and get the rest of this in.

All right, everybody out.

Now you can see that this cake is just loaded with flavor.

All right, now, let's get some of those pecans that we toasted.

Let's get these right in.

Now, we're going to save some, you know, we're going to save a few for the outside.

Oh, yes, look at that.

When you take a bite of this, close your eyes, you'll think you're down in the Caribbean.

So our pans, there's a little piece of parchment on the bottom.

And I have sprayed them.

Now, so, here -- one big scoop here.

Let's get one right here.

Let's do one here.

What do you think, gang?

Here, let me do this first.

I'll set you there.

All right.

Let's shake them out.

Remember, doing that, make sure there's no bubbles in the batter.

I have the oven preheating at 350 degrees.

We're going to put them in the oven, and I like to start checking them at 25 minutes, okay?

Typically, that's what a cake is going to cook at, at 25 minutes, but of course, take a knife or toothpick, when you come out clean, you know it's done.

All right?

Sometimes with a cake like this, what I tend to do halfway through, after about 12 minutes, I tend to turn my pans, okay?

Sometimes ovens have a hot spot; just to make sure.

But let's get these in the oven.

You go right there.

Come on.

All right, join your other relatives.

There you go.

[ Whirring ] It's time -- let's make frosting!

Cream cheese, room temperature.

We'll get some butter in, that was also room temperature.

Now that we have this creamed some, let's go ahead and get in a little powdered sugar.

Okay, now besides our powdered sugar, I also have a little milk and a little vanilla.

So I'll get in some vanilla right now.

And let's just -- now, be careful.

Start it slow.

Just to start it getting worked in.

Now, let's get in a little more sugar.

Come on in.

This time, I'm going to get a little milk in.

And let's get this just workin' real slow.

Now we have all of our sugar in.

And this is just about to where we want it.

I'm going to pop our beaters out.

So now, what I've done, I've put paper around because this way when we frost our plate stays clean.

So I'm going to take some of our frosting.

Oh, yes.

And just plop it right down.

And just, here, I'm just going to hold it with my thumb as we spread it out.

Let's spread it around.

Make sure we get it to the edges.

I don't know, gang -- what do you think?

Let's go with our next one.

All right.

Right on top.

All right.

Yes.

Same thing -- spread it.

Just spread it.

And if it falls down the sides, it's okay.

This is like therapy.

You know, if we take some...

Hold it on the side like this, and just bring it down.

Bring it around.

All right, we're almost there, just a little bit more on this side.

Oh!

Let's go with our last layer on top.

Oh, look, how pretty.

Oh, you just get all the way up there.

Pile everybody on.

So here... Aw, there is nothing like a thick top layer on a hummingbird cake.

And see, we just bring it down around the sides just like we were.

Oh, yes... just a little bit more.

All right.

Gang, I think we just have this one little spot.

All right, let's get our pecans.

Now... We can throw them on top.

Some folks like to put him on the sides.

It's totally up to you, whether you want him on the top and on the sides.

But I tell you what, that icing is just kind of looking really good on the side, so if some of them fall down on the sides, guess what -- it's all right.

It's all right.

What do you think, gang?

How are we looking?

See, now we take our paper, slide the paper out.

I tell you what, I think it looks pretty darn good.

As we say goodbye to St. Bernard Parish, that hummingbird cake has me simply hum-m-ming for joy!

Thank you so much for joining me on this culinary road trip.

Now, keep that party rolling, bring the big flavors of Louisiana to your home.

So I'll 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... ♪ Or order online at wyes.org.

♪ [ Clanging ] [ Clanging rhythmically ] -This is a breakfast sausage.

Don't be shy.

Come on, these are nice people, say hello.

See, these are nice people.

Say hello to the people.

♪ If I could place time in a bubble ♪ Let's get our fire on... because I didn't open the butane, it's not on.

So excuse me one moment while I go down here.

♪ Now, let's get our fire on.

We've had crawfish in a burger, so why not do something a little light?

You notice I've gotten pretty since y'all last saw me!

All right.

I'm sorry.

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

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