Cocoa Creations

Y'all here at Best Dishes today, Paula's a happy old girl

cause I got my boy Cren in here with me today. Stan Strickland Savannah's Candyman

We're cooking all things chocolatey. Y'all, I ain't the least bit tired

Starting with a chocolate flank steak and pineapple salsa. Biscuits with ooey gooey chocolate gravy

It is out of this world. I can't believe it. Seafood with a sweet twist

shrimp, and chocolate tortilla soup. Oh, finally, Stan shares his recipe for Raylene brownies

This is all about chocolate today, and I'm in here in best dishes with the Chocolate King

Y'all, Stan is just one of those Savannah treasures. He has Savannah Candy Kitchen on River Street here in town

and has the best goodies you have ever put in your mouth

Well, I've got a few surprises for you today. I'm going to make you a chocolate flank steak

Okay, I like flank steak and I like chocolate, but I don't think that will go together

You know what? I'm going to prove you wrong, baby. Bring it. Bring it. So you're dicing that pineapple for our salsa that we're going to go along beside it

because we're going to marinate this in chili powder and cumin, so we need just a little something sweet to go along with it

And that sweet pineapple salsa is going to be very good with it

I'm going to spray our griddle just a little bit. And we're going to get this marinade made up for our flank steak, y'all

And if you'll stop chopping just for a second and hold my bag for me

I'll hold your bag. Okay. You used to be the bag lady. Come on. I used to be the bag lady. I'm still the bag lady, kind of

I'm going to start with four tablespoons of wine vinegar. And we're going to add two tablespoons of olive oil

You can use a vegetable oil. It's fine. And then I'm going to use two tablespoons of brown sugar

Plop. Plop. And then to the chocolate. And I'm using just an unsweetened cocoa powder

So two tablespoons of that. Must have been heaping spoons. Well, it was kind of heaping

And then two teaspoons of chili powder. And one tablespoon of cumin

A little bit of salt. A little bit of cracked black pepper

You want me to close the bag up? Well, I'll squish it for you. You hold it, and I'll squish. How's that

All right, so we're going to use about a two-pound flank steak stand

And we're just going to put him down in there. And let's just press the air out of it and seal it up

And we're going to let him marinate for an hour or two

You know, if you want the flavor stronger, we can even let him marinate overnight

Let's put this marinated steak on the grill while we finish our salsa

Look at that. There she goes. Woo

I like that. It's going to be good, isn't it? Yeah, that's going to be really good

And y'all, our salsa is going to give us about two cups of fresh pineapple, and then we're

going to add an avocado, about a fourth of a cup of chopped onion, about a tablespoon

of fresh lime juice, and a handful of cilantro. All right, now look at here, Stan

I'm gonna show you how to cut this avocado. You just go around like that

and you know there's a big seed in there. We're just gonna take our knife and pop him like that

and pop him right on out. You got some tricks. Yeah, we full of tricks around here

All right, now look here, Stan. I'm gonna do my dicing of this avocado

right there in its skin. Just like that. And then in he goes

How simple is that? That's great. Let's squeeze a tablespoon of fresh lime juice onto our avocado

And I'm just going to toss that avocado around in that lime

And that's going to keep it from turning dark on us. You know, we think of salsa as like a Mexican, south of the border

with the tomatoes, the garlic, and the onions. Well, this is gonna be a sweet salsa

It's gonna be so good along with the spices that we've got on our flank steak

You know, the cumin and the chili powder. Is it gonna be hot, hot? You know, it'll have a little bite to it, but not much

Look at here, Stan. Now, I'm hoping that I'm gonna cook this flank steak like medium rare

So we're gonna try not to overcook this, but just sear it off real good

Oh you did great You know I just love being in the kitchen with you Stan I love being eaten with you too All right now we need one last thing for our salsa

We're going to need about a quarter of a cup of cilantro, and our salsa is together

But I understand you have the most biggest party. I do have

Every Thanksgiving. How many people come to that? On Thanksgiving Day, we have about 100 people for Thanksgiving

These are the people that don't have homes, like our bartenders, our people

I mean, all the people that really don't have a way to go. Yeah, people that have to work and don't have time to go to Pennsylvania

And then we're open on Thanksgiving Day, so we make Thanksgiving dinner for them, and then we take it to everybody that's working from my house

And who delivers all this food? I do. Then on Friday. This is the best thing

Thank you, Paula. After you chop the cilantro, we'll just add it in and mix it all around

When we come back, I got another surprise for you. Biscuits and chocolate gravy

I'm in. I knew you would be. Next, we are going to be making a chocolate gravy to die for

I wouldn't lead you wrong. It wouldn't. Then seafood with a sweet twist

That's smelling good. And later, Stan's going to make a sweet treat. you're not gonna believe

This one's gonna blow you away. So, y'all, I am here in the kitchen today

with my buddy Stan Strickland. I am making him something chocolate, y'all

that he has never had. I am gonna be making us chocolate gravy, y'all

All right, now you bust those open and just put a little butter on for us, okay

Now, Stan, this chocolate gravy is so easy to make. It's as easy as

like our brown gravy. This is me. I make a big chunk. That's yours

All right, now I've got our skillet going. I'm going to start with about a third

of a stick of butter, and now we need two-thirds of a cup of sugar

And then we're going to throw a couple of tablespoons of flour to make

our gravy thick. We weren't brought up with chocolate gravy, y'all. I think that this is more of a Tennessee, Kentucky thing

And they eat this for breakfast like we do biscuits and sawmill gravy down here, white gravy

I'll need a third of a cup of cocoa stew, and that'll be about five tablespoons

You want me to go on in? Yeah, just go on in, honey. Great. Great

All right, that's three, four, five. That's going to be really chocolatey

It's going to be really chocolatey. Okay, and we're just going to blend all those together

And if you'd measure us out now, two cups of whole milk. And start pouring half of the milk into the skillet for me

Okay, stop, please. Now I'm moving to my whisk because I don't want our gravy lumpy

And now you can go ahead. I think it's safe to finish putting the rest of our milk in there

There we go. All of it? Yeah, all of it. Look at that, Stan

That looks good. Doesn't that look good? Stan, why don't you take over this, honey

And I'm going to move on down, and I think I'm going to make one other thing that you've never tasted before

I'd be willing to bet. Want to bet? I do. I needed $5

It is a shrimp and chocolate tortilla soup. Can you say that fast

Shrimp and chocolate tortilla soup. You're good. I'm going to start by dicing up a red bell pepper, y'all

This is thickening. Yeah, it is. I don't want to scorch it. I don't want you to scorch it either, because if you do, I'm going to take my wooden spoon and I'm going to beat you with it

Now, y'all, I put a couple of tablespoons of butter over here in my pot

Now I'm going to dice up an onion. All right, I'm going to put the onion in here

Now I'm going to start adding our seasonings. And you know what one of the ingredients is going in here

Butter. Well, I done got the butter. Coco! You want me to stir it up while you get the other one

Please, please. And now I'm going to add one and a half tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder

So you just keep a stirring, honey. Who in the heck would ever think of putting cocoa with onions

The next thing I'm going to add is a tablespoon of cumin. These flavors are going to kind of match our flank steak

Next, a teaspoon of coriander. Paula. What? I can't see. I don't want that to mess up

Y'all, I ain't the least bit tired. I guess not You look like a three circus About a fourth of a teaspoon of red pepper It going to have a wee little bit of bite to it One can of diced tomatoes

I'm using a 14.5-ounce can. And then I'm going to add two cups of frozen..

What's that? That's smelling good. It is? Yeah. Thank you. Two cups of whole kernel corn

Now the last thing I'm going to add this moment is two boxes of chicken broth

There we go. So we're just going to put the lid on there. But you know what

Listen. What am I hearing? I'm hearing chocolate gravy and biscuits saying

Paula, Paula. No. I'm ready to eat them both. Let's come on down here

That's mine. Go ahead. Did I pick up your... All right, go ahead

I know you're about to die to taste it. All right. I'm going to come down here

and I'm going to fix this up a little plate. It's pretty, too, huh

It's pretty! All you folks in Tennessee and Kentucky that have enjoyed this biscuits and chocolate gravy

for all these years, I appreciate y'all sharing this recipe with me

I can't believe it. I never guessed it. I was thinking, oh, how's this going to be

It's going to be good. It is out of this world. I can't believe it

I wouldn't lead you wrong. You wouldn't. Not ever. Y'all don't go anywhere because it's all about chocolate today

and I'm in here in best dishes with my buddy Stan. Next, Stan's Praline Brownies will knock your socks off

The brownie is fabulous. Later, we're putting the finishing touches on our soup

and then at last, tasting our chocolate flank steak. I've never tasted anything like it. It's good

Y'all, I'm in here in the kitchen with Stan Strickland. And honey, I'm just dying for you to show me your Praline Brownie recipe

We're going to start off with a quarter pound of butter. A quarter of a pound. Let's see, that's one stick

Yep. We're going to bring this butter to a boil. Then we're going to add this quarter of a cup of water

Okay. We're going to bring it back to a boil. And then we're going to add the sugar and bring it back to a boil

So we're going to boil it three times before we put the chocolate chunks in

Okay, while we're letting this boil, we could go ahead and sift the flour. Now, what kind of flour is this

That is pastry flour. This doesn't have any of that gluten in it. And it needs to be sifted

Just put it in there. And on top of that, I want you to add an eighth of a teaspoon of bacon powder

Okay. Now you can sift it all together. That's really boiling. We're going to put the water in now, and that's a quarter of a cup

And we want to bring it back to another boil. Okay. What else do I need over here, Stan

I need three eggs. I like those cold, too. I like to keep them in the refrigerator before we do this

It'll give us a little better shine. Cacmuth 3, then break the yolk. And then two teaspoons of vanilla

Two teaspoons of vanilla flavoring. There you go. Into our three eggs we go

Go ahead and break those yolks, Paula. Okay. And I'm ready for your sugar, too

I need one and a quarter cups of sugar. One and a quarter. There we go

This is our last bowl. Once we get it. Last bowl. We're going to come in here with the chocolate chumps of meat

That's semi-sweet, by the way. Okay. And as soon as we do that, we're going straight to the mixing bowl

All right, bring it on. Okay. How much chocolate was that now

A cup and a half. All right. That butter and sugar and water was so hot, it started melting that chocolate like immediately

All right, let's start mixing that. We're going to get this first. We've got our eggs. Isn't it shiny

I'm telling you what, it looks so pretty. This should make about two and a half pounds of brownies, so it's a good bit

Let's go ahead and put them in there. I think we're cool enough. We wanted that cool where you didn't scramble your eggs

I believe we're safe. Yeah, it doesn't look like they're scrambling. No

Let's bring the flour on in. Okay. All at once? Yeah. Do that while I scrape the side, would you? Okay

Two heads and two sets of hands is better than one, ain't it

Yeah, it is. I think that's good, too. I think that's good, too. Let's put the nuts in

How much nuts? One cup of nuts and one cup of chocolate. Okay, I love nutty brownies

So a cup of pralines and a cup of chocolate chips. All right, so we're ready to pour this into our bacon dish now

And then just spread it all around. Oh, God, I am so loving that

So we're gonna put this in the oven, bake it at what temperature? 325 for about 25 minutes

Just watch the edge and as it pulling away from the edge you can tell then if it ready Our shrimp and chocolate tortilla soup is almost complete

Stan, let's get this finished up using our little hand blender. So we kind of just want to puree that, and while you're doing that, I'm going to crush up our tortilla chips

and we're going to throw those in the pot along with our shrimp. How's that look

It's looking good. Just kind of lift it up, turn it on

It's kind of like a boat motor. I got you. Okay. I'm going to pour in two cups of crushed tortilla chips

Now we're just going to add a pound of peeled and deveined wild Georgia shrimp

That's it? Yeah, we're just going to let that continue to cook for a few minutes

let those shrimp get nice and pink and done. I'm going to start dipping you up some stuff to eat

I've been waiting on that. I'll add a dollop of sour cream for you

I love sour cream. I do, too. Can't put too much in it. Go ahead and be tasting that

Just don't burn yourself now, because I want you to be able to taste this steak

You're going to like that. Good. Do you taste the chocolate? I've never tasted anything like it

It's good. Oh, you cooked that perfect. Oh, good. Mm. All right, and this good old pineapple salsa

So you do like it? Oh, I love it, yeah. Oh, I'm so glad. I'm going to wait on you

Oh, don't wait, honey. Thank you. Go. Okay. Mm-mm-mm. I taste the sweet, and I taste the..

You do? ...several different tastes. How do you like the salsa? The salsa's unbelievable

You can use this on several different things. Mm-hmm. Mm. This is great, but we got the best yet to come

We got to make the topping for the brownies. Y'all won't believe this finished praline brownie

Stan, I'm so glad that you liked everything I fixed for you today

But I tell you what, I'm ready for some praline brownies. Let's go ahead and make the poppings

And let's start with three cups of light brown sugar. That sounds like a mighty fine start

Paula, this is something that you cannot leave. You've got to constantly stir it

Okay. I see you got your candy at the moment out here. That's all it's about

It's about temperature. Temperature, yes. You've got to be within a half a degree or you're going to mess up

Look at all these things of butter up here. We're not using, are you kidding

This is a big pot here. It ain't that big, Stan. Two of those

Great time of day. This is pure sinful. And we need a can of evaporated milk

That's 12 to 14 ounces. The main thing is, you just got to be patient here

You cannot not stir this. Okay. How long will it take a stand

I think you need to stand right here 20 minutes. Because we're going to cook it to 200

224. And 24. Once you get close to that soft boil stage, it gets around that 218

Uh-huh. You better be ready because it's going to jump. You better be ready. How many of these do you sell a year

We can cut 9,000 brownies in one day. And I could probably eat 2,999 of those myself

Ooh, Stan, just all of a sudden. It did jump, didn't it

It's there, isn't it? All right, let's get that heat off. Okay. Let's get two cups of pecans

Okay. Okay. There we are. Oh, that's going to be fine. See that

As it cools out. All right, we're going to sit this off the burner and let it cool for at least 30 minutes

Gosh, I can't wait. I'm going to glob it on there and you spread it, okay? Okie doke

And it needs to be cool because if you put it on hot, you'll tear up that brownie

The brownie needs to be cool and the topping needs to be cool. This is some sweet, sweet stuff

See how pretty that is? That is beautiful. And the good thing about this, this stuff is okay to stick in the fridge and just keep and you can use it the next time

Really? So it won't get hard like our praline? No. We didn't cook it hot enough to do that

Oh, look at that. y'all. That first piece, you know, that you always take out, it comes out a little messy

I like it messy. But me too. Let's try this. See, that one's perfect. Oh my God. Give me that

You don't need to be eating all this. How much did we have today? You can see it has

no effect on me. Oh, that's good. We got it right. Stan. We got it right

The brownie is fabulous. Oh, I've had a good time today, Stan

We've had some good stuff. And you know what? All of it has been

an honor of this man right here. Stan and I both always send y'all

our love along with our best dishes. You're right about that, Paul. See y'all next time

Thanks again. I love you