-Funding for "The Dooky Chase Kitchen: Leah's Legacy" was provided by the Melvin S. Cohen Foundation, Inc. -January 6th is King's Day, the traditional start of Carnival.
But at Dooky Chase, the date is celebrated as Queen's Day, in honor of chef Leah Chase, who was born that day.
The legacy of the Queen of Creole Cuisine lives on in the younger generations of the Chase family on staff at the Treme restaurant.
In 2021, a Queen's Day gathering introduced the newest family member in the kitchen, Leah's great-granddaughter Zoe Chase.
Today, Zoe and Leah's grandson, Dook Chase, make three dishes from the event, and granddaughter Eve Marie Haydel presents a cocktail created for Zoe.
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Zoe's seafood stew, a fan favorite on Queen's Day, begins with a robust seafood stock.
-So Chef Zoe, this is your day.
Let's go.
-So today, we're going to make a seafood stew.
So we have our pot heating up right here.
We're going to add a little oil.
We're going to add our large diced onion.
We're going to add our celery.
And what we're doing here is we're going to make a stock.
[ Sizzling ] Going to add a little thyme, fresh thyme.
So what I'm adding next is some tomato paste.
We'll let that cook for about two minutes, as well.
So now we're going to add our shrimp shells.
So now I'm going to add some lemon.
And we're going to keep them all in there so it really picks up the flavor while it's boiling.
And I added bay leaves, as well.
Next, we're going to add some white wine.
And some clam juice.
Also some crushed garlic.
Seafood is my favorite, so that's why I picked the seafood stew, 'cause, you know, we grew up eating seafood.
-When you're starting a celebration, whether it's gumbo, whether it's a seafood stew, we're going to start you with that first course of just a great soup.
-Now I'm adding some Creole seafood seasoning, a little bit of cayenne, and then we're going to add our water.
So we're going to let this come up to a boil.
And then we're going to add our clams, which we have soaking here in saltwater to clean them off.
While our stock is simmering, we're going to cook off our head-on shrimp and our cod.
So we're going to season it with some Creole seasoning.
♪ And some salt.
Now we'll add our cod first because that takes longer to cook.
Cod is a great fish to do in a stew because it won't break on you when you put it in the stew while the stew is boiling.
We'll cook our cod for like 10 to 12 minutes.
We're just looking for a nice sear on each piece of fish.
And we don't have to take it too far because we'll still incorporate it in our stew at the end.
-When you're cooking that fish and sautéing it and even when you're pan-frying, you know, you start to see that line rise, right, that white rise up to it.
And that's what you're looking for.
You don't want it to go all the way.
All right.
Now we'll cook off our head-on shrimp.
♪ -Man, if you're sitting here smelling both pots...
I mean, I got the stock going here, I got the shrimp and the cod being browned.
I'm just getting a whiff of just seafood greatness.
-And our shrimp will take six to eight minutes.
We'll add a little bit more Creole season.
And a little bit more butter.
We'll add our clams now to our stock, and those will take like six to eight minutes, as well.
-So when you add those clams, that's your last step to your stock, right, to building that great flavor.
And what you want to do, you want those clams to cook long enough just to open up, right?
They got to open up, seep in some of that great flavor, let some of their great flavor out, and then they're ready to roll.
-Now we'll add a little more butter.
And we're going to add our onion.
We're going to let our onion cook for about five minutes.
What that onion is going to do is it's going to pick up all that great fond that the shrimp and the cod left.
And that's just going to give extra, extra flavor to our stock.
Now we're going to add our garlic.
[ Sizzling ] Some parsley.
And a little Creole seasoning.
-And this is the part where I transition back to -- to looking and learning under my grandmother.
Now I get the great pleasure of looking and learning under my niece, Chef Zoe.
-Now we're going to take our clams out.
All right.
And, sous-chef, you could pick through and pick my clams out.
Now we're going to get a little tomato paste.
Let that tomato paste cook for like two minutes.
And you could do this, too, with lobster, redfish, really make it your own.
All right.
Now we're going to add our diced tomatoes.
[ Sizzling ] And then we're going to ladle some of our delicious stock into our soup.
-And at this point, you have cut the fire to that stock.
-And we'll let this come up to simmer, and we'll let it simmer for about 10 minutes.
Now our stew has come to a boil, so we'll add our shrimps, and we'll turn it down so we don't overcook any of our fish or our shrimp.
And we'll save two shrimps for plating.
We'll add our cod.
A little bit more Creole season.
Now that our stew is boiling, we'll turn it down, and we'll add in our clams.
It just looks so beautiful with all of this seafood, and it smells so great.
And, really, it's finished, so now we're going to plate.
♪ ♪ And then we'll get our presentation shrimp.
Put that one on the top.
And then I have some dehydrated okras that I just cooked off with some Creole season and some chili powder.
Dust it off with a little parsley.
And then we have our Parmesan garlic toast.
Just like my grandmother loves seafood, she passed on that tradition, and I love seafood so much.
And this is a perfect seafood stew that you can make at home, and it's delicious.
-The 2021 Queen's Day celebration was a formal introduction of Zoe that showcased a menu she planned and executed.
The jubilant event took place when citywide mask mandates were in place.
-This was her night, her graduation.
All that hard work she put in, she wanted to put it on full display.
And that was really important, not only for her, but for this restaurant, to show that evolution, to show that next generation that we have that continuity coming in.
-Fish cakes with citrus beurre blanc are Zoe's take on crab cakes, featuring redfish.
-Now our second recipe, we're going to do a fish cake with a chive citrus beurre blanc.
We have our grilled redfish here that I baked off with some Creole seasoning, some salt, a little bit of butter, and a little bit of lemon juice.
We are going to get a little messy, so be prepared for that.
We're going to break up our fish.
Really get in there with your hands.
Then we're going to add our green onion.
We're going to do a little parsley.
We're going to go in with some mayonnaise.
Some Creole mustard.
Two eggs.
And this dish is great.
It's just like a regular crab cake, just without the crab.
Instead, we're using fish.
We're going to go in with some more Creole seasoning.
And, of course, two pinches of salt.
And our bread crumbs.
That's what's going to thicken up and give us our mixture.
So we still want it to be just a little wet, not too stiff.
We have our scoop here.
And what we're going to do is we're going to form our fish cake into, like, a patty.
♪ Now we're going to do our egg wash. One hand is for egg wash. One hand is for breading.
♪ And now we're forming it again, keeping our shape.
All right, now we have our perfect fish cake.
We'll do that again.
♪ Egg wash.
Bread crumbs.
♪ All right, now that we have our fish cakes formed, we'll start to heat up our oil in our pan.
We're going to cook our fish cakes in here.
While that's getting hot, we're going to start on our citrus chive beurre blanc sauce.
So to that, we're going to add some shallots.
Some white wine.
And this could be on medium heat.
We're going to add some lemon juice.
This sauce is great.
You could put this on fish.
It could go on chicken.
You could do it with parsley instead of chives, cilantro, any herbs that you like.
So we'll let this reduce.
A good trick to check if our pan is hot, we'll get a little bit of the bread crumbs.
It's hot.
We'll add our fish cakes.
Let those cook for about six to eight minutes.
Our sauce has reduced, so we're going to add some heavy cream.
And we just want our heavy cream to get hot so that we could fold in our butter.
Little peppercorn.
Have that on a medium heat.
Let that heavy cream get hot.
Check on our fish cakes.
All right, time to flip.
Beautiful!
That's what you want, that golden-brown color.
All right.
Now that our heavy cream is hot, we're going to take it off the heat, and we're going to fold in some butter.
Got our little whisk.
We're just going to whisk.
We're going to strain this.
All right.
Now that it's all strained, we'll add our chives.
And our lemon zest.
And we'll whisk that.
And you have a beautiful citrus chive beurre blanc sauce.
Now that our fish cakes are done, we're going to plate.
To serve, we're going to ladle our beurre blanc sauce in the middle of the plate.
Give it a good little swirl.
Now we're going to get our fish cake.
Plop that right on top.
We're going to go with our pickled radish.
That's equal parts vinegar, water, salt, and sugar.
Then we're going to go with some microgreen.
And voilà!
Now we have our fish cake.
Easy dish.
If you don't like crab, you could do this.
And it's perfect for our Queen's Day meal.
-Zoe follows in a tradition of talented women in the Dooky Chase kitchen that began with her great-great-grandmother, Emily Chase, who opened the restaurant in 1941.
-Inside was a simple, modest bar and table service.
And my great-grandmother prepared the best of what she knew.
In addition to the po'boys, of course, then you got something hot and hearty.
-She felt like she had a talent, pretty much like women started feeling a while ago -- "I have another place.
I don't just belong in the home.
I have a talent.
I want to use it."
So, therefore, the restaurant came about.
Started with the po'boy stand.
And it was her idea.
-King cakes are traditionally served on January 6th, but this queen's cake is a bread pudding version for Leah's birthday.
-You know January 6th is known as King's Day, right?
And that's the beginning of Mardi Gras here in New Orleans.
And that's when the king cake comes out.
But more importantly, it's Leah Chase's birthday, and that's why we call it the Queen's Day.
So, certainly, we had to put our take on that king cake and do a queen's cake.
We're going to start off with about two or three eggs.
♪ Going to whisk that in.
♪ To that we're going to add a little sugar.
♪ ♪ To that mixture, we're going to bring in our cream.
And the reason why we add the eggs and sugar first is you want to dissolve it.
You want to make sure that egg is really mixed in well.
If you add the cream, it's going to be a little bit harder to mix, so do that ahead of time.
Now we'll add our cream, mix that guy in.
And this dish is a perfect dish to get the kids involved in.
They're going to love it.
It's got a lot of sugar.
It's really, really simple.
We have our great pecans that we love here in Louisiana.
Throwing in some of that.
We also have here coconut flakes.
If you have any allergies, this is one that you can leave out.
You don't have to add coconut flakes.
We love that flavor.
Right here, we're going to add just a pinch of our vanilla.
And this is really what you're looking for, this custardy mix right here.
You're going to stop whisking.
Put that guy aside.
And that's when you have stale French bread, right?
If you don't have a stale French bread, what you can do is buy a fresh one, toast it in your oven for about five minutes, pull it out.
Here we have about a one-inch-cubed French bread.
And you can see it crunches.
That's what you're looking for.
You're going to want to hear that little crunch.
You're pushing this in here.
And this is what my kids love to do, right?
They love to get their hands dirty, and they love to get it going.
And they're getting that great vanilla and that sugar.
But what you want to do after that mixes up real well, you're going to let that sit.
You want that mixture to soak in that bread, right?
So I'm going to let that sit a little while.
I'm gonna go ahead and get my hands clean, and we'll move to the oven.
This is what you're looking for, right?
You're looking for that bread to soak up most of that moisture.
Not all of it, right?
You still want some custard floating around in the bowl, but majority of that you wanted that bread to soak up.
Going to get your bowl.
You can do a circle pie pan.
We have a dome-shaped bowl here, and I'll show you why.
It's just part of our Creole cake.
We like to make the crown.
The queen needs her crown every day of the week, so we do it in a dome-shaped bowl.
You want to spray it really well.
When it's done, after it cools for about five minutes, you're able to flip it right on over onto a plate and let it roll.
You're going right in.
Make sure it's all over.
So on top of that, we're just going to spread a little butter around here.
And it can be soft.
If it's right out the cooler, that's fine, too.
So we're going to let this go into this 350-degree oven for about 25, 30 minutes.
And that's it.
That's oven ready.
While that's in the oven, of course, you got to create your color in your sugar, right?
We have purple, we have green, and we have gold.
And this is where my kids love to do this dessert.
Different food colors.
I'll show you one for the green.
This is very simple.
Of course, they have the yellow food coloring for the gold.
To make purple, you're going to mix in the blue and the red food coloring.
So it's equal parts.
You're going to get a dot of red, dot of blue on top.
Let them run around the house and just shake, shake, shake, shake, shake.
And the deeper you want it, the more colors you add.
So you want it a deeper green, add two more drops and keep going.
The last thing that we'll have to work on is our glaze.
Here we have our powdered sugar.
Start to break that down and work that in.
And then we just have our heavy whipping cream.
And you don't want to pour it all at once because you want this to be a thick glaze, right?
You don't want it to run off.
You just want to make sure it's a smooth consistency, no more lumps with that sugar.
When we celebrate my grandmother's birthday, we have queen's cakes, we have king's cakes.
We have all the dishes that she loved.
We have the whole community coming out to sing "Happy Birthday" to Miss Chase.
Queen's Day, happy birthday, Grandmother.
This cake is for you.
And I have a little crown to put on top.
But this is really the consistency that you're looking for, right?
You think it's thick, it's right where you want it, because it's going to spread right on that bread pudding.
Right now, you're looking at about five minutes left.
We're getting ready to pull that bread pudding out.
We have everything in order to dress it up, and we're ready to go.
So we're out of the oven, and we're cooled.
We flipped it onto our plate.
And now we're getting ready to put our finishing touches on it.
This is that glaze that we had.
This is all you're doing -- just like a cinnamon roll, putting that glaze right on top.
And you can put as much as this as you like, right?
If you want to just go a little bit on the top, or if you want to cover that whole thing, go for it.
And this is where we get going with our color of the sugar, right?
You can put in your purple.
♪ Give a little gold here.
A little green.
Going to come back around with a little gold on this side.
And why not top it with our beautiful queen's crown right here?
And get a little bit of that sugar on the side.
♪ And there you have it, our Queen's Day cake at Dooky Chase, celebration of our queen, the Queen of Creole Cuisine, Chef Leah Chase.
-♪ Chef Zoe ♪ -♪ Chef Zoe ♪ -♪ Chef Zoe ♪ -♪ Chef Zoe ♪ -♪ Chef Zoe ♪ -♪ Chef Zoe ♪ -♪ And we got friends coming on out tonight ♪ ♪ To celebrate Chef Zoe tonight ♪ >> Eve Marie crafted Zoe's dream as a welcome for her inaugural dinner.
-And Chef Zoe loves it spicy.
So here we're gonna make a Zoe's Dream.
We have jalapeño-infused tequila.
We have some fresh lemon juice.
We have some honey syrup.
And we're going to wash our glass with a little mescal to balance out the spicy, but it'll be a little smoky.
So we'll go ahead and do that.
So you just do a little dab in there, maybe 1/2 ounce in there.
And swish it around.
We'll let it sit in this glass while we build and shake our cocktail.
So we're going to go ahead and do 3/4 ounce of lemon juice.
We're going to do a whole ounce of honey syrup because it's -- it's spicy.
But we got to balance off that spice with a little sweetener.
And here's our spicy tequila, our jalapeño-infused tequila.
I did 2 ounces.
And it's very simple.
We're going to shake.
[ Ice rattling ] Shake that together.
We're gonna let that sit there, and we'll dump the rest of the mescal out.
So now we have a nice, smoky flavor in our glass.
I'm going to shake it just a couple -- few more times to open our jalapeño up.
And now we're going to pour over the ice right into our glass.
We're going to leave a little room to top it off with some club soda.
All right.
Add a little sparkle into that glass.
And now we have some sliced jalapeños dipped in some Tajín we'll add as our garnish.
And there's Zoe's Dream.
Cheers to you, Chef Zoe, and the fifth generation.
>> 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 this 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.
-Whatever my mother decided to do, she wanted to be the best at it.
And so, therefore, she would never give up.
She would read books.
She would associate herself with people who knew about the culinary world and how you can make different dishes.
And that's what she did.
She was a lifetime learner.
-I don't care where I would take her or where any of us would take her.
She'd come back and try to put her twist on it.
And she was definitely a natural -- a natural cook, right?
-My grandmother was a student of food.
She read magazines.
She studied people's cultures.
She went out and tasted different cuisines.
And she loved to dig in and put her spin on those cuisines.
-She would love to hear of people that traveled from Australia and what was the latest cooking trends wherever people were coming from.
She thrived off of that.
And then you would see her creative juices going and go, "Okay, she's going to try this.
It's coming soon.
So let's just brace ourselves for it."
♪ -For more information about "The Dooky Chase Kitchen: Leah's Legacy," visit wyes.org.
Funding for "The Dooky Chase Kitchen: Leah's Legacy" was provided by the Melvin S. Cohen Foundation, Inc.