-Funding for "The Dooky Chase Kitchen: Leah's Legacy" was provided by the... -At Dooky Chase's, the Chase family observed Christmas traditions that revolved around the restaurant, their hub for all holidays.
The younger Chase generations now pay homage to the past while creating new ways to embrace Christmas.
Today, chefs Dook Chase and Cleo Robinson prepare two dishes that capture the spirit of the season.
Then Chef Dook and Eve Marie Haydel join forces on a traditional holiday drink.
♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Stuffed mirlitons are a festive preparation of the iconic squash that appears in New Orleans markets in time for Christmas.
-It's holiday time, and you know that by the joy that people are feeling, but I also know it when I see this at the grocery store.
This is a mirliton, also can be known as a chayote squash, alligator pear.
But they come in season right in time for the holidays.
So I know when Christmas coming up, my grocery stores are full of this.
And how we start these off -- these are quite simple.
What you do is you just want to take it, cut it in half, and you're going to find the seed, right?
This is what you're looking for.
You're going to scoop that seed out, discard it.
♪♪ And these you'll boil in a pot of water.
And what you're looking for is just to get it as tender as this right here.
You want that inside to be tender, 'cause you'll still have to scoop it out, and this is -- you're making your room for your stuffing, you're creating that shell, and you're also getting your mirliton for your stuffing.
You know you're in the holiday season...
Goes on sale at your local grocery stores -- there's just an abundance of them.
I have my skillet.
It's on a low to medium heat.
We'll add some butter.
Of course, I'm not going to add all the butter.
I'm-a save some here.
We'll add in some onions.
♪♪ And to that, I'll add in some chopped ham.
And you'll see it can mix well, and then part of that stuffing, every bite, I want you to get a piece of ham, right?
We'll let that sauté just a little bit here.
Soften up those onions.
While that's going, I'll add in some garlic.
♪♪ Let that sweat down.
I have a little fresh thyme.
If you don't have fresh thyme, certainly, dry thyme works.
And you can already -- just sitting here, I'm smelling that ham working with those onions.
As we make stuffings, you always want it to be a little wet, right?
That's why I didn't put all my butter in.
I want to gauge how wet I want it to be.
If I need to add more to it, I will.
At this point, we'll add in our shrimp.
♪♪ And that's a rough chop on that shrimp, right?
I just wanted to make sure you're going to have shrimp all throughout that stuffing.
That's what I'm looking for.
And now I'll start to season it up.
I have a little salt.
♪♪ A little white pepper.
♪♪ I have a little paprika for a little color here.
♪♪ And now is the perfect time to add in our mirliton back.
♪♪ And you're just working in that mirliton, soften up just a little bit more as it cooks.
And you'll just keep folding it in.
You can look here -- I'm dry, I'm not as wet as I want to be, so that's why I have this butter here that I'd add to it.
And this part is where you let it cook for about five minutes.
You're really looking for that mirliton to soften up where you can start to mix it all around evenly.
Every holiday, especially Christmastime, you are going to have stuffed mirlitons.
Each Christmas Eve, I throw a pajama party.
I invite the whole family.
It's my way of doing our Réveillon meal, but just kind of come as you are, put on your pajamas.
You're going to hang out till 2:00, 3:00 in the morning.
The kids can fall asleep, wake up, and go.
And it's a potluck, right?
I certainly provide some dishes, but everybody will bring a dish.
And I'm-a cook stuffed mirlitons, and you better believe two other people will show up with stuffed mirlitons.
That's just how -- this dish, it just speaks Christmas.
It's that -- It's that seasonal dish.
And you can see how that mirliton has started to break up, right?
And just starting to coat all -- you can see, also, it started -- as it broke up, it started to release that water that's in it, and you see this juice.
Well, I'll give it about another two minutes to soften that mirliton up just a little bit more.
So this is what we're looking for.
You can see that mirliton has softened up.
And you look at it -- it's evenly dispersed, right?
You see mirliton.
You see shrimp.
You see ham.
You still got a little liquid floating around in here, and that's great.
That's where we capture all that flavor that we'll spread around.
This is why we have some breadcrumbs, and the breadcrumbs will just pull this stuffing all together for us.
♪♪ [ Metal scraping lightly ] ♪♪ Now put this thyme on the side.
♪♪ Get a few more breadcrumbs.
I like to add my breadcrumbs a little bit at a time, right?
I don't want it too bready -- I want it just enough that it pulls together my stuffing.
So this is looking perfect.
There's one more thing that I have to add to this dish.
And I like to add them towards the end because green onions not only have a great flavor, they have a little great crunch to me that I love, so... and a great color that I love to keep.
So I added in our green onions.
Before I stuff these shells, I want to give it a taste.
♪♪ Mmm!
You can taste it.
You can taste that ham.
You can taste that shrimp.
You taste that mirliton coming through.
I mean, the onions and the garlic, the white pepper, you can get a hint of that.
These are perfect.
We're ready to stuff our shells now.
♪♪ And it's -- Oh, man, just smell that.
♪♪ ♪♪ So I want you to look at the pot because the amount that you make to stuff these mirlitons is the amount of halves that you have, right?
So I have two.
You can see I'm coming towards the end of my pot.
So if you're looking to count out how many people and how many mirlitons that you need, certainly, you're not going to make more stuffing than the mirlitons that you have, right?
So that's exactly what you need.
And that shows you that you'll have a good consistency of mirliton, of shrimp, of ham, of onions, of all that great stuff.
So I'm-a move these from this plate 'cause I have an oven that's been pre-heating for 375.
These go into the oven for 15 minutes, so what I'll do is I'll take some off of here.
♪♪ I'm taking my time here 'cause I want to -- I want you to see the beautiful shrimp that I have in here, so I'm making sure you got shrimp on top, and when you're doing this at home, showcase your beautiful ingredients, right?
If you're doing this with mushrooms, make sure there's mushrooms on top.
If you're doing this with crabmeat, make sure there's enough crabmeat on top.
I want people to see the time you took to help them celebrate.
We top this with a little bread crumbs.
♪♪ Then we're just going to do a little bit of butter.
And you know what I'm doing here, I'm toasting these bread crumbs so you get that added texture.
When you bite in, you get a little texture to your crunch.
♪♪ This is going to go into a 375-degree oven for 15 minutes.
♪♪ You see that golden crisp toast that I have on those bread crumbs?
That's exactly the texture that we're looking for.
And we just... plate these guys up here.
I can squeeze one more in the back.
Add a little beautiful sprig of fresh thyme in there.
♪♪ Here you have it -- our beautiful stuffed mirlitons.
You know when you see this dish, Christmas -- it's on its way.
-During the holidays, many fond Christmas memories were made when the younger Chases gathered at the restaurant.
The huge multigenerational celebration included a Réveillon-style Creole meal.
-You know, in the country, what we had, we always had gumbo.
You always had gumbo at festive meals.
Gumbo.
Coming home after mass, after midnight mass, and that's when we had what we called the Réveillon.
And our Réveillon would be to come home to stewed chicken and baked macaroni and some wine and sit up all night.
We didn't go to bed on Christmas.
Adults didn't go to bed on Christmas Eve.
They just had -- so we had Réveillons all night long.
-Christmas Day, it was more of a nighttime celebration for us because the restaurant was open.
So we would wait -- we would celebrate with the other side of the family for the first half of the day, and then anxiously wait for the Chases to come.
Growing up, Christmas was held at  my  home and -- well, at my  parents'  home.
And so we would wait for the restaurant to close, and here comes Grandmother and Grandy, and let the celebrations begin.
And that was a wonderful, wonderful day.
-Next, poached redfish, a Réveillon dinner item featuring the firm-fleshed delectable game fish.
-Another dish that brings to mind Christmas and the holidays is our poached redfish.
You know, this dish has been just on our Réveillon menu, and it's the start of every Christmas season that comes around.
And I was just wrapping up our poaching liquid here.
I was going to quarter up the rest of this onion and add to it.
And in this liquid that I have on the stove, you just have your onions, I have celery in there, I have garlic cloves, I have a little black peppercorn and also some crab boil.
If you can't find crab boil at your local store, you certainly can add cayenne pepper, a little red pepper flakes.
What we're trying to do is just add a little heat to this liquid here.
And I got this going on a simmer.
That's all I want to do is just have this simmer and be our poaching liquid for the redfish.
And Cleo will dress this fish up for us and get it ready for poaching.
-We got a fish that we got from the fish market, and it has no scales, no bones.
So we're going to put lemon in there and then we have our dill.
We're going to put some of that.
I'm going to put it all in there.
A little bit of salt, a little bit of pepper.
-This is why this fish is dressed for poaching, right?
So now that you have it here, I'm going to show you one thing that you need to put in this pan that we do.
It's a bottom to lay that fish on.
What you want to do is slide that under your ingredients.
And I'll get those guys back in.
And this redfish is going right in.
You don't have to tie it, just be gentle with it.
And that's why you don't want this to be a rolling boil.
You want this to be at just a simmer.
You'll poach this fish -- depending on the size of your redfish -- this one's going to take about 20 to 25 minutes.
If you have a smaller one, you can go about 15 to 20 minutes.
This here is about a 2 1/2-pound redfish.
We'll cover that.
We'll let this simmer for 20 minutes, and then we'll show you how we dress this redfish when it's done.
So now that our redfish is done poaching, we let it chill for about 15 minutes.
It was cool enough for that skin just to peel on back.
And what we'll do is I'll start to unstuff that cavity where we had the lemons and the dill, and we'll get ready to add our beautiful stuffing, which is this good old shrimp salad that we have right here.
And I'll hold that open for Cleo to stuff right on in there.
-This is a shrimp salad that's made with shrimp and mayonnaise, and that's it.
-So you have a little shrimp salad, mayonnaise and all that seasoning in here.
And that takes the place of that lemon and that dill.
And then we come on top of that with our dill mayo.
And that's going to go right on top of this beautiful fish here.
So as you can see that, what we have done -- and when we say dressing that fish, the layers that we pulled off, right, the skin -- now we're putting this beautiful dill mayo on.
We took out the cavity that had the lemon and the dill, and we stuffed it with a beautiful shrimp salad.
♪♪ -Now... -We always like to have that texture, right?
So now we have some... little sliced celery.
-So now... -After that, we have a little boiled egg that we'll finish this off with.
♪♪ -This is one of the dishes that she had from Madisonville that came over, and we plated it up, and we went to parties.
-The last thing that we'll do is we'll just have a little bit of our lemon circles that we have here.
And you talk about something that's just beautiful.
You know, this is one of those dishes that just come to your table... and you know that redfish is dressed perfect.
What we love to do here in New Orleans is called family style.
We bring the buffet to the table, and we pass those dishes around, and this certainly starts us off.
-The younger Chase generations have re-imagined the family's holiday bash with a Christmas Eve pajama party that features treasured family dishes.
-Christmas has always been a huge celebration for us, you know, and really going way back in the day when they were growing up, everybody would cook for Christmas Eve.
You talk about these Réveillon meals and all that, but we always had one as a family, and now I'm fortunate enough to continue that on at my house for Christmas Eve.
And now we do it as a pajama party so the kids can have fun as well as the adults.
Everybody comes over in their pajamas, and we're cooking all this meal, and we're sitting down and just really having a good time and getting ready for Christmas Day.
We have such a big family, and we love to gather each other.
People say, "How do y'all do it," right?
We work together, we leave work, and our kids are playing same sports together.
We go on the weekends, and we gather together and picnic.
And I think that's really from early on, you know, that is just their way of keeping this family together, that we continue on.
We grew up together, played together, went to school together, and we continue that on.
So my favorite Christmas memory is just making sure we're all together, you know, and we find a way to do it.
-To round out this Christmas celebration, Dook and Eve Marie whip up spiked eggnog, the perfect capper to a holiday meal.
-The perfect ending to our Christmas tradition is always a wonderful sip of eggnog, so I'm going to show you how we make that eggnog.
Really simple -- you can see the ingredients here.
I just have milk and evaporated milk, six eggs, some sugar, vanilla, and nutmeg.
And we'll get started by separating these eggs.
♪♪ ♪♪ So now that we have our egg whites separated from our yolks, we'll move this guy.
We'll turn our stove on to a low heat.
And you're adding your milk and your evaporated milk.
♪♪ You want this to come just to a simmer at all times.
You don't want it ever to boil.
You just want it to be a simmer.
So while that we have our egg whites separated, we're going to start to beat this.
♪♪ What I like to do is start on low and then I kick it up to about medium.
And as that whisks, we'll look at it and start to add in sugar later.
To our yolks that we have here, we're going to add in a little sugar.
♪♪ And we'll just give this a whisk.
♪♪ I have a little vanilla.
♪♪ And this is going to thicken that eggnog.
This is -- we're going to add that to that milk mixture, and that's what's going to start to create that custard thickness that you would -- if you were making ice cream or anything else, this is what you're going for.
Turn my egg whites up.
[ Whirring ] So as you start to create those peaks, this is the perfect time to start to add in your sugar, and not all at once.
[ Whirring ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Whirring stops ] ♪♪ And this is what we're looking for.
So now that our egg whites are stiff, we're ready to get back to our milk, and you can see the milk has started to simmer.
It's warmed up.
And this is where you just don't add in the eggs first -- you got to temper it, right?
So we'll take a little bit of that hot milk, pour it right in here, and just whisk this in and temper those eggs.
So when we do add it in, we don't get scrambled yolks.
♪♪ I'll add just a little more, and temper these.
♪♪ And now we can add them.
♪♪ Just going to lightly add in and stir.
♪♪ ♪♪ You're going to want to let this simmer for about three minutes.
What we'll do as that simmers is we'll taste it to make sure we have enough sugar.
[ Slurps ] ♪♪ We'll add a little bit more to that.
Every Christmas Eve, we have -- we host a party at the house, and this is the kids' favorite, not only thing to drink, but to make, right?
You can see how simple it is.
It's no more than five ingredients.
A bunch of sugar, you're warming the milk, it's a simmer, and they just love it, and it really fills the room.
Everybody has a cup and sipping eggnog, and some of the adults are sipping spiked eggnog, but we all are having a good time together.
You do want to taste that vanilla that you added.
You do want to taste that sweetness of the sugar.
So now it's been cooking for three minutes.
It's still at that simmer.
It's now time to add our egg whites to it.
And not all at once.
Just go right on top and keep those beautiful egg whites airy.
Look like beautiful clouds just sitting on top of that wonderful... custard that we have here.
♪♪ And I like to cover the top.
You want that egg white just to cook from the bottom up, and that'll stiffen it up just a little bit more for you.
You're going to let this simmer for another five minutes, and after that, you're going to have a wonderful eggnog for the family to bring in the holiday season.
You're just going to top it with a little nutmeg.
♪♪ And now we're ready to taste some beautiful eggnog.
♪♪ I like to get me a little nog on the top.
♪♪ This is a wonderful eggnog for the kids, and now we'll bring it to the bar to add a little something extra for the adults.
Happy holidays.
-Heeey, merry Christmas!
-Got a little eggnog from the back.
I want to see if you can make it how I like to taste it.
-Well, usually we'd be at your house on Christmas Eve, drinking eggnog, and the kids are running around, so they're drinking their normal eggnog, but, you know, we got a wide variety of flavors and palates in our family.
So some people like to spike their eggnog with rum or whiskey.
I like to spike mine with brandy because it's a good in-between.
It's sweet, and it's not as hearty as a whiskey.
So we're going to base our glasses first with the brandy.
Probably about...
I did a free pour.
-Free pours are always good for me.
-[ Chuckles ] Some people like 'em -- some people like consistency.
But there you are, about two ounces.
Then we're going to go ahead and pour this beautiful eggnog from the kitchen.
I'm spoiled so much.
The kitchen really makes me look good.
[ Glass taps lightly ] That's lovely, and then we're going to top it with... our topper there.
There.
All right.
And we're going to top it with a little fresh cinnamon to give you that fall, cinnamon, Christmas-y flavor.
Just grind, just sitting right on top.
All right.
-And when you talk about a holiday drink, walking around, enjoying your family, spiked eggnog -- Eve knows exactly how I love it.
-Cheers.
Merry Christmas.
-Cheers.
♪♪ -Oh, that's just spot-on, Eve.
-Oh.
-This is bringing me back.
-Yes.
-Chef Leah Chase spent a lifetime uplifting the community and building bridges through food.
For more meals that bring people together, join the Chase family next time on "The Dooky Chase Kitchen: Leah's Legacy."
-Leah Chase's iconic book, "The Dooky Chase Cookbook," has been updated and includes all-new recipes from the series you're watching.
The cookbook is available for $27.95, plus shipping and handling.
To order, please call 1-866-388-0834 or order online at wyes.org.
-It's big shoes to fill.
You know, our grandparents reached a lot of people, and it was just their genuine nature to do that, is to serve.
And so it's like we know that importance, and it takes a lot of us to fill those four shoes, right?
-So for us, carrying on the legacy and the tradition that my grandparents have put in place is everything.
And so it's with great gratitude and appreciation that we work together.
It's a blessing.
-Their love for the community, their love for social justice, their love for doing what was right is what made this restaurant what it is today.
-Faith and family has always been the guiding principles for this family.
It has gotten us this far.
It's going to continue on and get us through each and every thing that we face.
So, you know, we always have those higher powers up there.
You know, now my great-grandparents, my grandparents, and my aunt are looking down, making sure we're getting it right.
♪♪ -For more information about "The Dooky Chase Kitchen: Leah's Legacy," visit... Funding for "The Dooky Chase Kitchen: Leah's Legacy" was provided by the... ♪♪