Comfort Zone

I've got two of the cutest twin girls here in the kitchen with me

Today, y'all, we're entering the comfort zone with dishes guaranteed to warm the soul

Yes, I want it all, honey. Starting with Zoe and Emma's unstuffed cabbage soup

I can't wait to taste all these flavors. And then it's on to my succulent beef brisket with sweet Fidelia onions and Brussels sprouts

Yum, yum. And for dessert, it's a heavenly burnt orange bread pudding that's topped with a delicious caramel sauce

Fabulous! This is Zoe

This is Emma. Aren't they precious? They live in New York. She works in a restaurant in the city

You do food styling. Yep. So I can't wait to see what these two girls bring to the kitchen

Paula, we can't wait to show you. And y'all are making an unstuffed cabbage soup

Am I going to have any cat fights today? Maybe one, but we both have two lives

And I'm in the center, aren't I, lucky chick today? Well, you're tough

This is based on a recipe that our grandmother taught us years ago. It was a stuffed cabbage, but it was too difficult to make all the time

because you had to actually stuff cabbage leaves. Yeah, which isn't a lot of work

That dish isn't a lot of work. So Zoe actually adapted it into a soup

so it's much easier now. It's just a soup, and it's a lot more fun. This sounds so interesting, y'all

so I can't wait to see what our end result is. I've turned on our pot

I've put a little oil in it because the first thing we're going to do

is saute our onions and garlic. So this is about three garlic cloves

We're going to mince them really finely. Okey-doke. And we're going to throw it in the pot. I'll do the garlic

You do the garlic, Paul. If you want to start the carrots. Okay. And you want this garlic fairly fine

Yes, please, Paul. Okay. Well, it's strange that you girls both wound up in the culinary world

I think it's strange also. Now, who was the first one to become interested

Well, me. We both were. About the same time. In our own special ways, yeah

So did y'all cook in the kitchen a lot with your mother? All of the time

My mother is the most passionate person in our family about food. Is she? Now we got our onions and our garlic going, girls

Yeah, so now we can just chuck in our crushed tomatoes. 128-ounce can of crushed tomatoes

Next, we're going to add one and a half cups of water. And we can just reuse the can and get the rest of the crushed tomato out of it

Get all the goody out of that can. This is so thick

And then we put all of our carrots in and cook it until they're soft. Okey-doke

Because we're going to blend the whole thing to make a sauce. And these are nice and thin, so they won't take long

Fast. So as you can see, I'm mincing the other half of this onion really fine

because it's going to go into the meatballs that are going in here. So we can go in with our tomato paste and our ketchup now as well

Okay. And just get everything in the pot, because you want to put it all in up front

This is going to be a real, real tomatoey soup. Fantastic. So this is a half a cup of ketchup

Okay, I'm going to add a cup of tomato paste. Which is going to make this so rich and thick

y'all. It does look delicious, girls. I can't wait to taste all these flavors

So now I'm going to cut nice flat slices that you can rib in and throw right into the cabbage soup

Okay. I love cabbage. So this is a half cup of brown sugar right there. Okie doke

A little salt and pepper, girls. Sounds good. Sounds good. Okie doke

Okay, so I am coring the cabbage. I'm going to take the middle part out

We can save this and use it for coleslaw or something else later. But what we really want is these nice outside parts

and then you just cut it into nice thick ribbons because you don't want them to be too skinny

How about if I help you? Please do. Emma, you want to help too? Me too. Throw me some over here

And we're going to cut it real thin. We're going to cut it thin the short way. While we're waiting for the carrots to cook

why don't you guys go down there and make the meatballs that we're going to toss into the soup

That sounds great. All right, Paula. That does. That sounds good. You want the lid for your soup, Zoe

Yes, please. Let's put the lid on the way. Let's go. All right. So here are the rest of the onions

Now I've chopped these up finely. So while you guys are making meatballs, I'm going to puree the soup and then add the cabbage so it can braise

Okay. Because the meatballs are going to go right into the soup once the sauce is ready

So you want your cabbage good and done. Good and done before you add your meatballs

So we're going to get this going. Okay. So, Paul, this is two pounds of ground beef

But, of course, you can use any combination of beef and pork

Two pounds of ground beef. Right here. And you got some cumin

Got a quarter teaspoon of cumin right here. Then we're going to season it with salt and pepper

And then we're adding rice here. This is three quarters of a cup of rice

Now, this is an instant rice because it's going to cook in there with the meat

So it going to puff up a lot Now while we doing this I see Zoe down there pureeing our soup and getting our cabbage in Exactly

All right, meatballs. So, we're just gonna form this into meatballs. Yeah

And how big do you want your balls? About walnut size. Sound good to you

Sounds good to me. Great. Beautiful. We've got a bucket full of meatballs, Zoe

Balls in! Let's go. And meatballs this size, y'all, should only take about 20 to 25 minutes to cook

I can't wait to eat this. This is one of my favorites. I can't either. Balls in

All into the pool. Yum. Looks delicious. And we added every one of those meatballs, y'all

Yum. Y'all don't go anywhere. Come back and see what else these twins are cooking up for us

All right, thanks, Paul. Coming up, the girls add a few surprise ingredients that's going to top off our soup

Those are going to be the most wonderful burst of sweetness. And then I'm starting up my beef brisket and Brussels sprouts

This smells so good. Doesn't it smell good? And for dessert, a divine burnt orange bread pudding with caramel sauce

Fabulous. Hey, y'all

Welcome back. I'm in here with two cute little twins. Can't hardly wait to taste this unstuffed cabbage soup

Oh, it looks so good right now. It looks delicious and smells delicious

Now, y'all got a couple of more things to add to it, right? Yeah, we have a half a cup of lemon juice to add to it and some yellow raisins

and then we're just going to stir it up and serve it. And while they're doing that, I'm going to prepare them a beef brisket with sweet Vidalia onions

Ooh, that sounds good. So I'm going to get my prep work done while y'all finish that, because I can't hardly wait to taste it

And I don't want to slow y'all down. You're not slowing us down, Paula

I have a brisket competition coming up. Oh, you do? I do. Don't let her steal your recipe, Paula

Believe me. I've been whooping a lot of people at some competitions recently, so... Good

But girl... I can't lose this one. I need all the tips I can get

I would love to help give you some ideas. Now, all I've done is taken my salt and pepper and rubbed that into this

I've got a little olive oil in my hot dish. So, in we go

That's a beautiful piece of brisket right there. Isn't it beautiful? It's probably two and a half or three pounds, y'all

So, we're adding a half a cup of yellow raisins to this now just to finish it off

I was so surprised about the raisins, y'all. Those are going to be the most wonderful burst of sweetness

Sounds delicious. I'm so ready for a bowl. That's your spoon now

Hold on. This is ready to go. Now, I've used probably three tablespoons of olive oil

to sear off my beef. Oh, pass my bowl, please. Okay. Okay, wait, wait, wait

Uh-uh, uh-uh, not yet, not yet. Yes. You need the finishing touch. Yes

Nothing's wearing our house without sour cream. Yes, I want it all, honey. Okay, there you go

Looks beautiful. Look at this, guys. Is that not gorgeous? It's so hearty looking

It really is. You know, it just warms the soul in the middle of the winter when you can have a bowl of soup like this

It's just so nice. This is my favorite winter soup. Can you taste that lemon again

This is so delicious, girls. You know, I'm so impressed. Thank you

I think this would make our grandmother proud. So proud. All right, girls

All right. That looks good. Oh, look at that. Our brisket is ready to flip over

Y'all can come down here because I'm going to need your help. Ready to help you. Yes, I'm going to need your help on those onions

All right. I need three Vidalia onions. I am your woman. Get to chopping them

And I'll stand here and continue to eat this fabulous soup. Sounds great

My day in Georgia is probably about an hour and a half down the road

And there's something about the soil in that county that grows the most incredible sweet onions

And if you would slice them fairly thin, ladies. Okay, so we're cutting these into little petals over here. Yes

Great. All right, girls, this pan's good and hot. So, onion time

Put them in there. And we're going to need a couple of tablespoons of fresh rosemary chopped up

And Zoe, jump into those Brussels sprouts. I've already got a bunch that I started for you

Okay. So, we'll have those ready to go into our oven. So, I've got my espresso chopped

All right, just toss those real good. Okay. I just going to sweat out those onions A little olive oil a little salt and pepper Uh With your hands just scoop them up and toss them Get them good All right so I think our onions have sweated down enough Oh great

so we can add the wine and tomatoes. Yes, two cups of wine, and we'll just eyeball it. Great

And we'll dump in our diced tomatoes, and that's one 28-ounce cayenne. Anything that tells me to

add a half bottle of wine, I like because, you know what? I know exactly where the other half

while the wine is going. What can I do with these? Okay, doll baby, put those in the oven over there. Okay

And it's set at 450. Okay. For about 15 to 18 minutes

I'm going to drop a couple of bay leaves in. Emma, if you'd pass me the salt and pepper

Absolutely. And then our rosemary. So how much of this rosemary do you want

We're going to need a couple of tablespoons of fresh rosemary chopped up

All right. So here we go. So we're just gonna grab a towel, put our meat back on top of our onions

We're gonna put the lid on it, and in the oven it goes

325 for three hours. Brisket has to cook a little bit. All right

So get it in the oven. Off it goes. And the Brussels sprouts are in, and when we come back

The girls are going to make us a brioche bread pudding. Coming up, we put the final flavorful touches on our beef brisket and Brussels sprouts

And then we're getting started on the most wonderful bread pudding that you're ever going to eat

That is gorgeous. Hey, y'all, welcome back

I'm in here with the cooking twins. I've got Zoe, Emma. Hey, Paula

Hi. We're pulling out what we have just cooked a few minutes ago

which is our beef brisket with sweet onions, our Brussels sprouts. So now we're going to just tighten up that gravy

So let's put a couple of tablespoons of flour into our bowl

and then we're going to take some of our juice and just make a slurry

and then I'm going to just bring out some of this liquid

So this is like making a roux after you make the sauce. Yeah, yeah. That's amazing

I've never done it this way. Yep, and while we're doing this, Emma is zesting some lemons for us

to serve over our Brussels sprouts. And these are some really beautiful lemons

Aren't they beautiful in color? You get really good produce down here. Yes, we do

A lot of wonderful vegetables. I think I gave you enough liquid, didn't I

That looks good, yeah. Good. Oh, this smells so delicious. Doesn't it smell good

Oh, I can't wait to try it. All right, so in it goes, yeah, just pour it in there

Oh, this smells so good. Doesn't it smell good? I hope y'all like this half as much as I loved your cabbage soup

Oh, I'm sure we will. My grandmother used to make brisket with jewel yams and prunes

She loved sweet and savory foods. Ooh. That looks great. And if you would start slicing our brisket, please

All right, whose serving is this? That's my serving. That's how she stays so thin

That's why she looks like that and I look like this. I'm looking over here at these buns

All I want to, exactly, all I want to do is put it. For the bread pudding. Mm-hmm. I would love to, like, kind of do this. Exactly

That's for my bread pudding. Oh, it is? Well, it's okay. Now it's for our brisket

Now it's for my beef brisket. Oh, this is good. This is good here. Anybody want this

Look at this. The rosemary and the tomatoes in this. Oh. Mmm

It's yummy, girls. It's super awesome. It is so delicious. And it was fun to make

So, Paul, are you ready for dessert? I am so ready for that bread pudding

Bread pudding is, like, one of my favorites. Oh, this is a fast, easy bread pudding recipe

We call this the burnt orange bread pudding. Burnt orange. Let's cut the tops off of this bread and the bottoms

You want to make a little space so that you can get all the custard soaked into the bread

Because if you just leave them whole like this, you're not getting much to happen. Yeah, it has troubles kind of sinking in

Exactly. You want to make the bread nice and soft so you can get everything out of there

So just like that, Paula. I've got you. I understand. And over here we've got Emma, and she's going to crack all these eggs into a bowl

Okay. That's six eggs. How many eggs is that? Six? Six eggs. Yes. So just crack your eggs in there

You're going to put three quarters of a cup of sugar, and you're going to scramble the heck out of it

Because if you don't scramble it, you'll end up with scrambled eggs in the oven when it cooks

So this step is key, the sugar and the eggs. Okay. Let's zest our two oranges

A lime and lemon? That's right. And I over here going to cut this up You got that three quarters of a cup of sugar Exactly This is going to give it a real fresh flavor Exactly it makes it nice and bright and citrusy Yes I love that flavor of burnt orange it so good

So now that that's scrambled up really well, you can add four cups of milk to it, just regular milk

This is whole milk. And I'm gonna just throw in a half a teaspoon of salt. Mm-key-do

Okay, so I'm gonna add one and a half teaspoons of vanilla to this right now. And then once that's all done

And we can just put our bread that we removed the tops from into our baking dish

And we can just stack it however we want. I like to squeeze them up against each other really close

Okay, so you're going to do it just like you would a whole hamburger bun

And you know what? Exactly. And you know what ends up happening? Is they end up being their own individual servings. Okey-doke

I'm coming to get you. I'm about through. These oranges were huge

I can hardly hold on to them. Those are the biggest maple oranges I've ever seen. I know

That's perfect. So look at that. They're nice and crammed in there. Yes. Okay

And how many did you use? You didn't use but like five or six, did you? We used five, but we were meant to use six, but I ate them all

I ate the sixth one. So let's go ahead and we can just pour the custard over

And it smells so citrusy and great. Smells so good. So pour as much as it will take, and then the bread's going to absorb all that custard

Oh, that looks so good. So let's cover this in foil. Put it in the oven at 350 for 30 to 45 minutes

You just want it to be golden. You don't want to brown it so much. Okay. This is so simple, y'all

This is a good one for the day after a picnic where you have leftover hamburger buns

Did I hear you say something about a caramel sauce? Yes, let's make some caramel sauce for it

It's delicious and easy. It's a deal, Lucille. Coming up, we're making a quick, delicious, and beautiful caramel sauce, y'all

This is so pretty. Hey, y'all

I'm back with the twins, and they are cooking up a brioche bread pudding

And now they're fixing to make the caramel sauce for us. Okay

And I can't wait to show you what they're going to garnish this bread pudding with

Oh. Look at that. That looks great. Oh, oh, oh. That is gorgeous

Now, over here, we've got some heavy cream heating up. One and a third cups of heavy cream

And what are you doing in here, Zoe? I just put two and a half cups of sugar, four tablespoons of corn syrup, just a tiny bit of salt

I'm going to add a half a teaspoon of salt. Okay. And this is the easiest caramel recipe you're ever going to make because it's just going to soften up immediately and stay soft

So we're just going to whisk this to get it started, and then don't touch it once you have everything in there

And you're just going to let it cook until it's amber colored, and then we're going to add this in a little while

And that'll probably take about 10 minutes. Exactly. All right, so show me how you present it

Now, to make it really a burnt orange brioche bed pudding

we've taken these pieces of oranges as a garnish and to give it a little burnt orange flavor

I love this, y'all. These were beautiful navel oranges that we just cut into little wedges

dust them in sugar onto the grill or under the broiler. And to me, this is so pretty

All right, so the sugar looks really great, and it's time to add this warmed-up cream

So it's on a low heat. You can take it off the heat and then slowly add the cream

because if you add the cream too quickly, the whole thing will bubble up. So you just want to add this slowly and stir it right in

This looks wonderful. See, look at that. That's a great color. Isn't that beautiful

Yeah. And then we're just going to whisk it in until it makes this nice caramel sauce

It's going to stay nice and runny. This is the easiest caramel. So now we're just going to whisk in one and a half teaspoons of lemon juice

And then here's the vanilla extract. We're going to use one teaspoon. There we go

So now we're just going to whisk in eight tablespoons of butter. Okay. And you're going to whisk

I'll whisk you. Exactly. You cut and dump. I kind of wanted it

Almost there. Okay. It's getting so thick and silky. This smells so good

Almost there, guys. Fabulous. Fabulous. Okay, hit it. Fabulous. A little whipped cream and of course, some vanilla ice cream

What a way to end a meal. Oh. Mmm. Isn't it tender and fluffy

And that little bit of burnt flavor just makes it, gives it something special. Mmm. Mmm. fabulous

I'm so happy. Well, I enjoyed having y'all so much. Thank you so much. This is a dream

Oh, listen. Y'all are welcome back to my kitchen anytime. Tell everybody goodbye out there

Bye out there. And, uh... Bye. See you soon. We send them love and best dishes

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