-Funding for "Kevin Belton's Cookin' Louisiana" was provided by... -I'm Kevin Belton, in Fishermen's Paradise with the "Cookin' Louisiana" catch of the day.

Oh, how about a little Crab au Gratin?

And then, oh, yes, Redfish Mornay.

And finally, Seafood Corn Casserole.

I'm not fishing for compliments, but these really are some great seafood dishes.

I've got something.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ I tell you what -- I hope you taste so good because you were a lot of work to pick, but I have a feeling you're gonna be really good.

Welcome to my "Cookin' Louisiana" kitchen.

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

Now, did you realize about 18% of Louisiana is made up of water?

That's more than 9,000 square miles of rivers, lakes, and bayous.

And it's not even to mention the Southern Gulf Coast.

With the perfect environment for hundreds of species of fish and shellfish, Louisiana is the second largest seafood supplier in the nation.

So in honor of this fisherman's paradise, today, we're gonna cast our net for a trio of seafood dishes, starting with the classic Crab au Gratin.

That's right.

That's why my fingers are sore from picking all this crabmeat.

But it's so worth it.

So what I have -- evaporated milk and an egg.

Let me get my pan starting to heat up.

[ Clicking ] We talk about sportsmen's paradise.

We talk about fishing.

We fish whenever we have the opportunity.

So what I did -- I just dropped our egg into our evaporated milk, and I just want to get this whipped together.

Now, we're gonna use this a little later on.

So let's just sit that right here.

This will be fine.

And let's go to our pan, because, of course, we have a little onion that we need to start sautéing And yes, there is butter.

You know me.

So in our pan, let's get a little butter.

Okay, it's more than a little, all right?

But this is one of those dishes where it's gonna be worth it because we want this rich and creamy.

You know, I can remember going crabbing with my dad, and there was a bridge where Lake Pontchartrain goes into the Industrial Canal.

And I remember standing on this bridge.

My dad had rigged this long pole.

And when the tide was going out, you could see the crabs floating right on the top of the water.

And we'd stand on the bridge, and he'd just take the pole -- whoop!

-- and pick it right on up, and there would be the crab, all right?

So that way, you didn't have to use nets and wait for it.

You could see them floating right on top.

So let's get in some onion.

[ Sizzling ] Let's get in a little celery.

Now, I'm gonna do a little bit of green onion.

So let's get some green onion in here.

And of course, we have to start showing it a little bit of love.

Little a bit of salt, not too much.

Little bit of our Creole seasoning.

Now, this is something that's gonna go into the oven, all right?

You can sauté your vegetables for a long time, or you can leave them a little firm.

As you can see, our onions are starting to already get a little translucent.

So let's go with a little garlic now that we have some moisture in.

Don't put garlic into a dry pan.

Always have a little moisture in it.

You don't want little dry chunks.

Now I'm gonna put in a little flour because what we want -- we want this to tighten up a little bit.

So let's get in some flour.

Once we get this flour stirred in and mixed in, you're gonna see it's gonna tighten this up.

See how that kind of clumped up on us?

All right.

Turn our fire down just a smidge.

Now we're gonna get our egg-and-milk mixture in.

I'm gonna save up just a smidge.

Our goal is to get our flour to smooth out, to make this nice and thick.

That egg is also going to help thicken this.

Now, if it gets too thick, that's why I saved out a little bit of the evaporated milk, because we can always add a little more milk to it.

But see how that's got nice and thick.

All right?

That's what we want.

We're looking for that texture.

So with the fire low, let's go in with a little lemon juice and some lemon zest -- two things that are gonna brighten this up.

Also, how about a little hot sauce?

How about a little Worcestershire?

Oh, yes.

Ah, look at this.

See how this is getting thick?

See what I was saying?

Now, because of that evaporated milk, you know, whenever you use milk or cream, you want to overseason it just a slight bit.

So we're gonna go in with a little cayenne pepper and a little white pepper.

So now let's take our cheeses.

We're gonna use two cheeses -- Fontina and Gruyère.

Eh, a little bit of cheese here.

Come on, get in there.

We're gonna put in a little more.

Right here.

And let's turn our fire off.

Okay, this is ready.

Let's get our crabmeat.

Now, a lot of times you get individual portions in the ramekins.

You could do it that way.

You could do it in a baking dish.

Here, I'm going to do it in cast iron, all right?

Let's get our crabmeat in.

Now, without breaking it up too much -- and I'm using a lump crabmeat -- just take your time and spread it out.

Down in Louisiana, we get blue crabs.

So that's what this is.

This is blue crabs.

So now we want to get our cheese sauce on top of this, and we're just going to -- to pour this right on over.

Now, depending on how much you like, depending on how much you put on.

Don't worry.

See this?

I'll have another use for this.

But now let's take the rest of our Fontina and our Gruyère and put on top.

Come on, just spread out.

Just spread out.

There you go.

Eh, a little bit left in there.

Little bit left here.

Oh, yes.

The oven is preheating -- 350 degrees.

Now, I'm gonna put it in the oven only for about 15 minutes, okay?

This is pretty hot.

We just want our crab to heat up.

We want the cheese to melt.

Now, if you like a brown top, after that 15 minutes in the oven, you could always stick it under the broiler for five minutes and it'll get nice and brown on the top.

All I want right now is for this to get bubbly and our cheese to melt on the top.

So let's get it in the oven.

350 degrees, 15 minutes, and we will be eating crab au gratin.

Doesn't this look just so delicious?

Now, let's just take it.

Ohh!

Just put it right here.

Oh, yes.

See, we could put some where we can see that crabmeat.

Oh, doesn't that look good?

Oh, we've got some cheese.

We've got some crab.

How about we put that there?

Little bit of green onion.

Little bit of parsley.

Let me tell you, cher, you can serve this crab au gratin as a main dish, or wouldn't it be great as an appetizer on game day?

Next, we're gonna go drop a line and get some Redfish Mornay.

-You get unbelievable amount of birds that migrate through and into the Atchafalaya Basin, and the beautiful landscape that you see with the beautiful cypress trees and all of the moss, I mean, it's something that's unique to the whole world.

-What are some of the different fish species here in the basin?

-Bass, You have the garfish, the alligator gar, the needlenose garfish, barfish, the bream, catfish.

Just about every species of fish known to North America, it comes into the basin you know?

You know, from saltwater to fresh, Louisiana -- it's an angling hotspot.

There are fishermen that come from all over just to the state of Louisiana to catch one particular fish.

And guess what that is?

That's the redfish.

It's also called red drum or just reds.

I mean, goodness gracious.

I tell you, they are so good.

I love going fishing for redfish because they taste good.

Plus, they give you a nice little fight when you're out fishing.

I want to take our fish, get it seasoned with a little Creole seasoning.

Oh, yeah.

So in the pan, I'm getting a little butter going right quick.

Let's take a little salt.

Get a little salt on it.

Remember, always get that pan heated up.

Get that pan hot, and when you put things down, Try not to move them.

So let's go ahead and get our redfish in the pan.

Oh, this is starting to look good.

Come on, butter.

See how we're getting that bubble on in the pan where the butter is starting to sizzle.

That means our pan is heating up.

And that's exactly what we want.

Let's put our first one in.

I put it there.

Hear that sizzle?

Hear that little si-- that's what we want.

Let's get the next one here.

[ Sizzling ] Let's -- come on.

You get there.

We'll put you right there.

I put one across the top.

But you notice narrow to wide, wide to narrow, narrow to wide.

It's almost like putting a puzzle together.

So think of it that way.

So now let's go ahead and season our second side.

Oh, yes.

And I might just put -- let's put a little pinch of salt on them.

Now, this is gonna go in the oven.

So remember, don't overcook your seafood.

So what I have here -- I have a little stock.

Into our stock is a little ground nutmeg, a little mustard.

A little bit of white pepper.

And let's get in a little salt.

Oh, hang on.

Let's turn our fish.

Yes.

Try not to splatter on myself.

Redfish.

Oh, it's such a great fish, and it could be prepared in many different ways.

Our fish are turned.

Let me stir this up.

You guys remember Chef Paul Prudhomme, because back in the 1980s, he put Cajun cooking on the map with his blackened redfish.

I mean, look, this was such a national sensation that the redfish population was threatened.

Can you believe it?

They actually had restrictions on commercial and recreational harvests.

But the redfish, they rebounded.

How do I know?

'Cause I like to go out and catch them, all right?

Let's take our fish out.

So let's go ahead and take our fish... stick it right in our pan.

Come on out.

Uh, yes, you get right there.

You get right there.

Last but not least, I saved room for you.

Come on, come on.

Come on, come on.

We're gonna turn you around so you can fit.

There we go.

There we are.

So now that that's in, okay, let me turn our fire down just a little bit.

Now, you see I have some goodies down in here.

I'm gonna put just a little more butter.

Just a little bit more butter.

Now let's get into some flour.

Okay, you all should know what this is called, right?

That's it -- a roux.

We're making a roux.

Now, remember, a Béchamel sauce is just basically the butter and the flour with the milk in.

But we're gonna put in other seasonings.

That's why we put the seasoning in the chicken stock.

So let's get our milk in.

This is going to thicken.

You're gonna see it.

It's going to thicken, and it will get smooth.

At the same time, we're getting these little goodies up off the bottom of the pan.

Any little pieces of redfish that were there, they're coming right on up.

Now you see how thick that is?

That's what we're looking for.

Now let's get our stock in.

And remember, we had flavor in here.

All right?

I'm just adding a little at a time so it can heat up and smooth itself together.

But that's why I put the flavors into the stock.

Now, I could have seasoned them in the pan, but you know, as they go into this hot pan in that stock, that flavor is gonna be released, and they're gonna be just fine.

They're gonna be just fine.

All right, smooth yourself on out.

Let's see if we need to make any kind of little adjustment on this.

It's pretty good.

It's real good if I say so myself.

Oh, yes.

Okay, here's what we're gonna do.

See, that's all we want.

Now turn it off.

I'm using cheddar cheese.

A lot of time, this is done with parmesan, all right?

But I'm using a little cheddar in here.

So we're gonna get some in, all right?

And we're just gonna stir this in.

Just to kind of get it melted.

Now we want to get this over our fish.

All right?

So, gang, let's just pour this right over... our fish.

All right, let's just spread this out a little bit.

All right, here's what we're gonna do now.

Now, I have a little bit of cheese left and I have some breadcrumbs.

Let's kind of get these mixed in, mixed together.

All right?

Get a little more breadcrumb in this.

So we're gonna do some breadcrumbs.

Then we're gonna do a little breadcrumb with some cheese in it.

I cooked the fish where it was barely cooked all the way through, because we want this in the oven just for about 15 minutes, okay?

So you don't want to really overcook your fish and dry it out.

So let's go ahead and get this in the oven at 350.

350 degrees, 15 minutes.

If it takes 20 because your oven is a little cooler, that's okay.

But it's gonna be nice and toasty and cheesy and bubbly.

Can't wait to show it to you.

Come here.

Come see, everyone.

Look how good this looks.

Oh, yes.

Now, let's get this served up.

Okay.

Let's get this baby up.

Oh, yes.

You get right here.

Next, you come right here.

And, of course, we have to get some of this sauce.

We've got to get some of this sauce right on top.

All right?

A little parsley, a little green onion.

Redfish Mornay.

What a great catch.

Coming up next, we're gonna make a casserole starring two of my favorite crustaceans -- Seafood Corn Casserole.

-And we got lakes all over central Louisiana.

We've got Larto, Saline Lake.

We've got the Indian Creek.

We got Kincaid Lake, Cotile Lake.

Got lots of lakes, just have to get out there and fish them.

-I got to tell you, I caught my first bass just two weeks ago.

I'm reeling in, all of a sudden, it just like, "Whoa, this is fun."

-It is.

It's awesome.

-Being out on the water when that sun is coming up, it's gorgeous.

-Yeah, absolutely.

-Especially when you've got a fish on the line.

-Absolutely, yeah.

-That's even better.

Look, gang, two of my favorites, crabmeat and shrimp.

And we're gonna put them together.

But first, how about a little Creole seasoning on both?

And, you know, I could have put them in the same bowl, but I just wanted you to see them all separate, all looking good.

All right, we're just gonna give them a little toss, just to get that seasoning all over.

It's a nice little toss.

Now, this is lump crabmeat.

You know, a lot of times in soups, I use claw meat because it's sweet.

So let's go ahead and put this together.

So in our bowl, I have whole kernel corn.

We're gonna put in a little creamed corn.

I'm sure this might be one of those recipes that you might have made at home, or grandmother made.

Usually someone made this -- an aunt, a grandmother.

All right, let's get in a little sour cream.

Kind of get that all worked in.

Now, you know, let's show this a little love as well.

Little bit of seasoning in.

Just a little pinch of salt.

Okay.

Now, I have a little cornmeal here that I've put in some baking powder, and now basically it's like what I would make cornbread out of.

So let's get this in.

Just stir this all together.

Doesn't that look good?

But wait.

It's gonna get better.

But wait, there's more!

Butter.

Yes, butter.

Now let's get in our shrimp and our crabmeat.

Let's get our shrimp in.

Look at that little one trying to stay in, doesn't want to come out.

Now, you see, I can mix this fairly good.

The crabmeat I try not to break up too much.

So I treat it a little more gently to just try to fold that crabmeat in.

So I just want to kind of just poke it down in there, not move it too much so it doesn't break up too much.

Now, I've taken our pan, and I've just sprayed it with an all-purpose spray.

The oven -- 350 degrees.

Okay.

So -- no, I didn't forget this.

I'm gonna tell you what this is for.

Don't worry.

All right.

Let's get this in.

All right, spread out, spread out.

Spread to the four corners.

I'll tell you what -- I got my love for seafood probably from my mom and my dad -- as often as dad went fishing and crabbing and as much as my mom liked to cook.

Anything he brought home, she prepared.

Yes, doesn't this look fantastic?

All right.

There we go.

Now, see what I have right here?

I have a little white cheddar cheese.

I'm gonna get this in the oven for 45 minutes.

After 45 minutes, I'm gonna take it out, put our cheese on, stick it back in just for about five minutes.

So let's go ahead and get this in the oven.

350 degrees, 45 minutes.

Take it out, put on your white cheddar, put it back in just for a few minutes till it melts.

Then you have some casserole goodness.

I think we're melted!

Oh, yes!

Oh, yes.

Now, do you like a center or a corner?

Corner?

Okay.

Let's just make a little slice like that.

Make a little slice right here.

Work it away from the side.

Just get it right on up here.

Stay right there, baby.

You want two pieces?

Okay.

I'll give you another little piece.

Look, we get that little shrimp.

I'll put that little shrimp right there on top where you can see it.

Now, you know, you knew it was coming.

Little bit of green onion.

Little bit of parsley.

You know, I just like to brighten up that little flavor right before you eat it.

Seafood Corn Casserole -- it's such a simple, delicious dish.

You got to try it.

Thank you for hanging out with me on this culinary road trip.

Now, you got to 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 1-866-360-4928 or order online at wyes.org.

[ Metal clanging ] [ Rhythmic clanging ] 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.

[ Clicking ] 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 prettier since y'all last saw me.

No, all right.

I'm sorry.

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

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