Bistro Brunch

Y'all, we just standing up here talking about our romantical trip to Paris

Today, y'all, Michael and I are going to put a spin on some of our favorite Parisian dishes

Oh, my goodness. My pick, a croque madame casserole. It's nothing but a ham and cheese sandwich, y'all

And let me tell y'all how to make the perfect french fry

And I'm going to be serving it up with a creamy mayonnaise dip

And my boys show up just in time for dessert. It's a chocolate creme brulee

Y'all get the picture, don't you? Thank you so much. We had a great time, didn't we

Let's do it again. Okay, let's do it. Well, I can't do it today, but why don't we do it through the food

Let's do it. You want to? What, we could? How does chocolate creme brulee sound to y'all

Yum. custardy and creamy and warm and coated with a melted sugar topping

Enough. Let's do it. Yes. So I've got eight eggs that I need to separate, y'all

and I just need the yolks. And now you've got cream. Mm-hmm

Three cups of heavy cream. How long has it been since we made that trip

That's been a few years, I think. Maybe four years where we married

Mm-hmm. You know, in a way, it seems like it's been forever. I know

Instead of just three or four years. Well, we've packed a lot into our short marriage

We have. We had to make up for lost time, didn't we

In Michael's pot now, he's got a one-ounce square of unsweetened chocolate that he's chopped

Just watching Michael in Paris, y'all. Looking in all those door windows with all the chocolate and the pastries and the breads

Michael was literally in hog heaven. All right, now tell everybody what you're doing, Michael

I'll put two and a half tablespoons of liqueur. A wonderful chocolate liqueur

We're going to put three-fourths a cup of sugar, y'all. One tablespoon and one and a half teaspoons of cocoa

So you've got almost two tablespoons of cocoa, y'all. Three teaspoons make a tablespoon

So we're just a little shy of two tablespoons. So you could always, if you didn't want to fool with getting that precise

you could always just put in a couple of tablespoons, because a little bit more chocolate ain't going to hurt, is it

Okay, now. All right. We'll add our vanilla last, people. Okay, wait

Because we don't, yeah, we don't want our vanilla flavoring to cook out

Right. And then I'm just going to beat these eggs up. And after this gets warm, we're going to temper our eggs and put it back in here

So tell me, what was your favorite, favorite thing apparently? The chocolate shop, Maison de Chocolat

It was Maison de Chocolat. But it was an incredible place. It had all kind of chocolates, and I could have been locked up there overnight

That's a fantasy. You want to know what my favorite was? Can't remember the name of the restaurant, but y'all, it was fabulous

The one that the roof opened? Real fancy. They hit this button, and this ceiling folded back

You were sitting here in this formal dining room, and then all of a sudden you were eating under the stars

It was fabulous. It had a moon roof. It did. The restaurant had a moon roof

Right for the vanilla? Put that vanilla in there before you have a baby

Okay, one and a half teaspoons of vanilla. I want you to hold off on it, but you go ahead and put it

Okay. All right, now, Michael, I just want to see what this feels like

Mmm! Oh, my goodness. That coffee liqueur. I put that vanilla extract in at the perfect time

I mean perfect timing. Michael's always right, y'all. You can say that again

Michael's always right, y'all. All right, so this is warm enough, Michael

Okay. So what I want you to do is just pour me a little bit

Because we want to temper that. And tempering just means slowly bringing up the heat

Because we don't want our brulee to wind up like chocolate scrambled eggs

You want some more? Yes. Okay. All right, so now we're just going to transfer this back to the pot

Okay. And we're going to finish mixing it all together. All right, now pour it over in here, Mikey

All right, now, Michael. Yes. I had my strainer up here just in case that lumped up on us, but it didn't lump

This is really beautiful. Now, we're going to cook these in a water bath

And what I want you to do Michael is get your boiling water and we going to fill up our baking dish y about halfway We do this first Yes go ahead

And then that way I won't have to worry about you dumping hot water in my creme brulee

About halfway, you said? Perfect! Can't get better than perfect. No, you can't

All right. I'm just going to fill up all these ramekins. Look at that

And I'm going to have almost, Michael, six completely full cups. Mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm. Good

Mmm, mmm. We're going to cook it in a slow oven, y'all, 300 degrees for about 30 to 45 minutes

Good, I'm planning to eat. I'm planning to eat 45 minutes. Okay. Dessert first

Dessert, always dessert first. Life is short. I know. Eat dessert first

That's right. All right, let's go. In the oven that goes, and we'll see y'all right back here

Coming up, I've got the perfect brunch recipe, y'all. Yes, madame. You ready

Oh, I love it when you talk that way to me. And later, when I've got homemade french fries on the menu

the Dean boys are not far behind. Homemade french fries cooked only the way that your mama can cook them

Y'all, thanks so much for joining us today. I've got the captain in the kitchen, and you know what

We're reminiscing about the trip that we took to Paris. So we can't go, but we're recreating our memories with today's recipes

And next, we're fixing to make a croque madame casserole. It's nothing but a ham and cheese sandwich, y'all

Now Michael's already started grating a cup and a half of Gruyere cheese

Now I'm going to make a wonderful bechamel sauce, and I am going to start with six tablespoons of butter

So in the pan that goes. Now to my butter, I'm going to add a fourth of a cup of flour

And a bachamel sauce, y'all, is really nothing but a white sauce with butter, flour, and milk

You ready with that milk, aren't you? I'm ready when you're ready. Aren't you, mister? Yes, madame

You ready? Oh, I love it when you talk that way to me. Say it one more time

Madame. I love it. All right, so, Michael, now, if you would slowly pour the two cups of milk

Okay. Yes, I don't want it all at one time. Okay. All right, I want to incorporate that

You know, the French really love their sauces. Okay, mister, I would love some more

That looks good. Okay, now you can go ahead and pour it all in, Mikey

Okie dokie. This is going to be so delicious. All right. Now I'm going to add two tablespoons of Dijon mustard

And this is going to give it just a little twang. And Michael, you might want to just keep that whisk handy

Okie dokie. And just keep stirring that for me. I'll do it

I don't want it to lump up. I'm going to add about three-fourths of a teaspoon of salt

About a half a teaspoon of pepper. All right, now I'll take over this

If you would grate me about a half a teaspoon of fresh nutmeg right over my pan, please

Okay, you tell me when. Okay. A little nutmeg goes a long way, y'all

So you don't want to put too much. It's real strong. It's real strong

So I think that's about enough, peeps. Okay. Okay. Perfect. Okay, Michael

Now, if you don't like the pepper showing, you could always use a white pepper

But I love the little specks of black pepper swimming around in there

So I'm just going to turn this temperature up and let it come to a good little ball

And we're going to take our casserole dish. In fact, Michael, if you'll get our casserole dish

Okay. Let me spray it. Please give that a spray. And bring it over here

and we're going to start layering our ingredients. And we're going to make two layers, y'all

using just a plain old white bread. Y'all get the picture, don't you

All right, we're going to start with a little bachamel. Let me just spread that out

And now we'll cover our sauce with six slices of bread. If it don't fit, force it

That's what I do. Now, we're using a very, very thin deli ham

I wouldn suggest using a thick ham And I probably got maybe three quarters of a pound Okay that a bad yeah just do that one little piece because all right Michael

That cheese? About half that cheese. Okay, that's what I was thinking

And then... More sauce. A little bit more sauce, and another layer of bread, and a little bit more ham. Mm-hmm

All right, so if you'd put the rest of that cheese, and then I'm going to finish up with our bechamel

Yum. Okay, Michael. Uh-huh. Put that in this oven, please. I'll do it

400 degrees, y'all, for 30 minutes. When that comes out of the oven

we're gonna turn this into a croque madame. Up next! Oh, look at that, y'all

Yum. Our croque madame gets some finishing touches. And one of my all-time favorites, y'all

french fries. And later, my boys stopped by for a truly magical dessert

Now you see it. Now you don't. Welcome back, y'all. Michael and I are reminiscing about our trip to Paris

Ooh, look at that, y'all. Our croque madame casserole. Now, we bake that at 400 degrees for 30 minutes

and let me tell you something else. It's one of my favorite French foods

French fries. I just love them. It's my favorite. And let me tell y'all how to make the perfect french fry

You slice them up early in the day, put them in water. When it's time to cook them, you drain off the water

And up to four hours before you want to serve your french fry

Yes, you heard me right. Up to four hours, y'all. I will come in here and I will fry my french fries for about two minutes

And then I spread them out on a cookie sheet, let them drain real good

Then right before the meal, I'm going to drop them again, let them cook for about a minute and a half

then take them up, let them sit for a minute, re-drop them until they're golden brown

and you're talking about the perfect French fry. So while Michael's slicing up two pounds of russet potatoes, y'all

I'm going to start the next step of our croque madame casserole

I'm going to fry up my eggs, and for that size dish

I think six will be enough. And Michael likes his eggs over light, y'all

So I'm going to cook them over medium. Because that's the way I like them

Ready? Drop them. Now we've got our peanut oil preheated to 350 degrees

All right, shake those taters, Michael. Okay, I'll do that. Shake those taters

All right, I'm fixing to turn our eggs and then just right into our casserole

and I'll get the next two started. All right, now we're going to take those out

Let them rest. Let them rest for a second. All right. Can we make some sauce

Yes, if you'd make the sauce, please. Now we're going to make a mayonnaise sauce, y'all, for our french fries

Now, Michael, we're going to use almost equal parts of Dijon mustard and mayonnaise

A little heavier, actually, on the mayonnaise, okay? All right. Now what I want you to do now is I want you to take your French fries

Fry them again? Mm-hmm. Yes. We're going in for the second drop, y'all

So this is our last two eggs, Michael. All right, so now we're going to pull them back out

Michael, grate up a little cheese on top of that. That would be great, wouldn't it

And I'm, in the meantime, going to cut this on brawl and let you just stick it back in the oven

I'm fixing to drop the french fries for the last time, and I'm going to fry these for about a minute and a half, y'all

And all total, these french fries will probably cook about six minutes, y'all

All right, look-a-there, y'all. Just that quick, we have got the perfect french fry

Y'all. And I'm going to let them drain in a second. Now sprinkle this on

Yes. And then throw it back in the oven just for a second. All right, now, Michael, we got that on roll, so don't shut it all the way

And you have to stand right there and watch it. And in the meantime..

Piss me down. In the meantime I taking our french fries up Yes salt them while they still hot and wet

Okay, there we go. I know. And we're just going to serve them in these little jars that's been lined with parchment paper

That looks good. Oh, Michael. Doesn't that look perfect? See, it needed that extra cheese, didn't it

It sure did. That is a fancy ham and cheese, huh? Yes, it is

You ready to eat? I am. My favorite thing in the house is French fries

Listen, this is like deja vu. I remember y'all doing this to me in Paris

I didn't know y'all were coming. Madame, monsieur. Bonjour, y'all. When we went to Paris, it's probably the most talked about show

People love us coming and surprising y'all. I know. Gosh, perfect french fries, aren't they, son

They're my food vice. Y'all got some more? Bobby orders a salad and french fries

Is this all of them? Let me. Let's eat, guys. Yum. Gracious

Mmm. Se bon. Se bon. What does that mean? Se bon. I think that's good

Thank you, Bobby. Se bon. For a big man, you're pretty quick

Perfect, yeah. I'm fast on my feet. I got so excited with this wonderful dish

I forgot I've got creme brulee. Chocolate creme brulee. Would y'all like some

Sure. You better hurry. I'm filling up fast. Oh, you talk me into it

Coming up. So are y'all ready for the grand finale? A dessert so delicious, the only thing to say is..

Wee wee. So are y'all ready for the grand finale? All right

I'm going to finish up our chocolate brulee, and I'm just going to sprinkle a little sugar on these, y'all

and then I'm going to fire them. That fire is going to make that sugar just melt all on top of these

Now, I've chilled these brulees in the refrigerator so they're nice and cold, y'all

Look, I'm making a mess with the sugar, and I don't care. That's absolutely fine

because I want to get it evenly over it. Alright, so here we go. Y'all ready

Hope the hairspray doesn't explode. Who's scared? That's why I'm going to stand behind you

Here we go. I love doing this. You just want to be careful

that you don't scorch. That you don't catch this on fire. Yes, that's one of the things you have to be careful of

Jamie, as I get these done, would you curl me some chocolate

And I'm going to put a little bit more sugar. See, I like sugar all around those edges

I want a lot of crystal. That looks really, really good. Doesn't it look really, really good

It does look really, really good. I'm just waiting on something to catch fire. And it'll probably be my hair

I hope not, because I'm really close to your hair. Alright, now Jamie's curling us some chocolate

Whoa. Wow. And it won't take the sugar, y'all. Whoa! It won't take it but just a second to harden up

And when we go to eat this, it's going to crack. All right, aren't these beautiful, though

They look great. I love the bananas. All right, there you go, Bobby

Ow! Then you grab it again. So you grab it. Well, see, it's cold on the bottom because they've been refrigerated

Yeah. It's just, no, I've got my own, but thank you, love button. All right

Love button? Look at that. Mmm. Whoops! I lost my vegetable. Vegetable

Would you like a bite? Mmm. Oh, my gosh. Look at that

It's so great. No, it's so good. It's so good. I love it. It's one of my favorite things to... Look, y'all

See that caramelized sugar? Mmm. Now you see it. Now you don't

This has been so much fun recreating our trip to Paris. And you know what, guys

I want to thank y'all for loving me. Thank you for loving us

You're very welcome, people. You're damn lucky. You can say that again

You're damn lucky. Thank you for loving me. And thank you for loving me

I love you. And thank you for loving me. Thanks, Mom. Until next time, y'all

We wish you love and best dishes from our kitchen to yours

Bye, y'all