Day at the Races

Hi, I'm Paula Deen. Now y'all hold on to your horses and your appetite because today we're putting together a meal fit for the sport of kings

You know, no day at the races would be complete without a mint julep or two

So we're headed to Churchill Downs where making a mint julep is no long shot

So after I'd sprig them in, we're going to leave with a bottle of bourbon and go back to my kitchen where it's going to be sweet

Cola-basted ham and biscuits. And then there's my pineapple casserole. And if that don't make your mouth water, my bourbon pecan pie is a sure thing

So whether you win or place, you just got to show up

I'm so excited about what we're going to do today

You know, there's really one day that everybody looks at the South

and that's when the Kentucky Derby horse race is going on. You know, I can't believe I'm 56 years old, and I've never been to a horse race

nor have I had a mint julep. So we're going to go to Louisville, Kentucky, to the Kentucky Derby race

and have us a toddy and check out the horses. So y'all come on. We're off to the races

Hey, Paula

Hey, Chris, how are you? Fine, thank you. You all ready for Derby Day

Always ready, always ready. Well, listen, I need to talk to you today about bourbon

Yes. I'm going to have a party, and I'm going to make a bourbon pecan pie

Wonderful. And I'm also in search of the perfect mint julep. Here's where it is

Can you do it for me? Yes, yes. We're going to take a julep cup and coat the bottom with some confectionary sugar because it melts so quick

And we're going to put four or five mint leaves in there and a little Woodford Reserve to help moisten that sugar

And we're going to muddle, and that makes a simple syrup. Right. Then we're going to add some ice into the cup

Two ounces of Woodford Reserve, 1,000, 2,000. because it is a bourbon cocktail

Then we're going to put more ice in. Pack it in there nice and tight

And right next to that straw, we're going to put a nice sprig of mint

so when you sip your julep, you get the aroma of the mint in every sipful

My goodness, this is just delicious. That sugar down in there tastes so wonderful with it

It does. Well, Paula, thank you so much for spending some time with us this week

Oh, well, I've had a ball. And good luck with the races. So you're going to give me this for my pie

That's for your pie. Well, I'm going to hopefully catch a couple of races

Can I take my julep with me? Yes, you can. Thanks. Thank you. Have a great day. Bye-bye

What a great party that was, y'all. I can't tell you, standing down there next to that dirt track

and hearing those horses' hooves just pounding to that dirt was exhilarating

If you ever get a chance to go to a derby, go. So we're gonna be using this bad boy later on

and I'm gonna stick it right here. And we're gonna move on to the very first item

on today's menu, and that's ham. We're gonna start with just an ordinary smoked or cured ham

All we're gonna do is cover this ham with a little cola

You can use your favorite brand. It really doesn't matter. And this is gonna make our ham very, very sweet

Now, to give it a little color, I'm gonna add a pineapple to it, and it's gonna be so pretty

And I'm gonna do just a few in there. And then I'm gonna come in here, and I'm gonna do the same thing

with some cherries and some cloves. And before I add the cherries, I'm gonna take just a little brown sugar

and pat on that pineapple, and that'll make it just a little bit sweeter

plus it'll help the pineapple brown. All right, we're gonna just secure our cherry

Isn't he looking pretty? Kinda looks really old-fashioned and old-timey, doesn't it

Now we're gonna take just a few cloves, stick those into our pineapple

And how simple. That's all we're gonna do to the ham. And we're gonna just put him in the oven

Gonna kind of cover him loosely. Not not real real tight So this one ready to go in the oven Gonna slip him in

All right, so that's in the oven. But you know what? We cannot have ham without biscuits

So that's what we're gonna make next. So we're gonna start with two cups of self-rising flour

about a tablespoon of sugar. to make them just a little sweet

And now we're going to add a cup and a half of heavy cream

You know, I don't think you can mess this biscuit up. A lot of people say, oh, I can't make a biscuit, I can't make a biscuit

But it's one of those things that you can have fun learning to make. I'm going to dust the counter with a little flour

I'm just going to gather this dough up. Bring it, isn't that pretty dough

Now I'm gonna knead that just a few times. Look at that pretty, pretty dough

I'm gonna roll this out to, gosh, about a half an inch

Which, that looks about like a half an inch. I'm gonna take our biscuit cutter

but we wanna make sure that we dredge that and flour good. And then we're gonna come over to our dough

press and kind of jiggle. Then we're gonna take our fingers and just pull him out

Look how pretty that is. Now I've sprayed our pan so that our biscuits won't stick

And every time I cut a biscuit, I'm gonna go back to that flour. These are gonna be nice, fat biscuits

I think maybe one will almost fill even me up. All right, so we're putting these in a 500-degree oven

for about 10 minutes, and they're just gonna be the perfect, perfect biscuit

to eat along with this scrumptious ham. In fact, let's take a look at that ham

and see if it's about ready. Oh, look. I came in and took the tinfoil off

about halfway through the cooking so that the skin and the pineapples and cherries could brown

But how delicious does this sweet ham look? It's amazing what that sweet pineapple does to it

Can't hardly wait to slice it and taste it. And you'll want to be careful

You want to make sure you've got a good sharp knife, not use a dull one that might slip on you

Oh, look how good. Let's see if the biscuits are ready. It's got me swallowing hard

Oh, look at our biscuits! Oh. Oh

So light and fluffy, and I smell that whipping cream. You know, I'm only gonna let myself have one biscuit

so it's hard to make up my mind how I want to eat that one biscuit

biscuit. So I think I'm gonna eat a loaded biscuit. I'm gonna put butter on it

All right, let's see. I think my favorite piece of ham is that piece that comes

like right out of there or right out of there. So I'm getting it

That is so good to my pie hole. I got something really, really good coming up next

A pineapple casserole to go with this wonderful ham and biscuits. So y'all stick around

Hey, I told y'all before we went on break that I was going to be making a pineapple casserole

My family just loves when I make this. So if you hadn't ever had this one, you're going to want to try it

Super simple to make. I need about two cups of cheese, so that looks about right

We're going to start with a cup of sugar, and then we're going to stir in six tablespoons of flour

And that's gonna make it kind of thick and like stick all together

So we just stir that together. And then we're gonna take our pineapple

Now you don't want to throw away your pineapple juice. It's good for lots of things

It good for sauteing or salad dressing Your family can even have them a glass of pineapple juice for breakfast So you don want to throw that away Now we just going to toss it together like that

and make sure it coats all of our pineapple. And then we're going to add our cheese

And like I said, I think I've got about two cups, but, you know, things like this

it really doesn't matter if you go over it a little bit, does it? Can you get too much cheese

and that's exactly two cups. So we're right on the money with that

I just love this sweet dish along with the saltiness of the ham

You know, it's really the best of both worlds. And now we're gonna just pour this

into our casserole dish. Now I'm using like an eight by eight square pan

So we're just gonna put that over in here. All right, so all we're gonna do to that now

is give it a nice crust, and we're gonna get that crust by using one of my favorite crackers

You can take them, and they'll just crush up real nice. And we're gonna measure out one cup of crumbs

and we're gonna pour these crumbs into a stick of melted butter and toss those around and get them nice and buttery

All right, we've got our crackers and our butter, And now we're gonna take some of this pineapple juice

We're gonna take about six tablespoons and mix in with our crumbs

Five, six. All right, so we're just gonna put those crumbs on top

and it's gonna give it a nice little sweet, salty crust. It's gonna be so good with that ham

with that ham. And then that cheese is gonna string all out

Gonna be so yummy. All right, now we're gonna put this in a 350 degree oven

So this one will be ready in a few minutes, maybe about 25 minutes, but it doesn't take very long

But I've got another one ready over here. That just smells delicious

Let me plate up some. I want to give it a little taste. You know, I always want to make sure it's good enough for my family and my guests

It looks so good. and you see how that flour almost made it

almost like a pineapple and cheese cobbler. Mmm, mmm, mmm

This is just the perfect southern side dish for the perfect southern ham

for the perfect southern race. Stick around, we've got bourbon pecan pie coming up

Today's dessert that I've selected is a bourbon pecan pie, And I'm going to be using this wonderful Kentucky bourbon to go in this pie

Now we're going to start with one cup of sugar. And we've got three tablespoons of melted butter that we're going to mix with that sugar

I got this recipe from Douglas Boyce. He's a friend of mine from Charleston, South Carolina

He is actually an architect, and we became friends. And I used to live downtown in Savannah, right on the parade route

So Douglas would come over and celebrate St. Patrick's with us. And he made the best margaritas

And I'm not a big drinker, but one time he actually got me tipsy on these yummy, yummy margaritas

So we've got our sugar mixed up. And we're going to beat up three eggs

And we don't have to beat them, beat them, beat them. We're just going to fluff them

And add that to our sugar and butter. But I love this because it is so simple

So we're going to take our pecan halves. Now you can chop your pecans

or you can leave them whole halves like I've done here. I personally think this makes a prettier pie

So we're just gonna dump our pecans right into our shell. So just put those there

We've got our sugar, our butter, and our eggs in here. And we gonna put about a half a cup of dark corn syrup Or if you got cane syrup it would be perfectly all right to use a cane syrup

Just give that a few quick stirs and see how that's turning that brown

and gonna give us that warm, creamy center to our pie. And now for the best part

Oh my goodness. We're gonna use two tablespoons of bourbon. My family are big bourbon drinkers

They like to drink it straight, and I can remember their little glasses of water

sitting off the side. They kick that bourbon back and then sip on that water

And you know, I also remember my mother doing that, which I can't drink it like that

but they would love this bourbon because it would be so smooth to drink it straight

Now we're just gonna pour our filling over the pecans and run this into a 375 degree preheated oven

for 10 minutes. And then we're gonna lower the temperature to 350

and bake it for another 25 minutes and before you know it, it's pie. Now this one's had a nice little breeze today coming into the kitchen that's cooled it right off

Now I don't know how y'all like to eat your pecan pie, but I like mine with fresh whipped

The only thing is, when you use the whole pecan halves, might make it a little harder to cut through those nuts

This looks just delicious. You know, that first piece of pie is the hardest to get out

That's why I think I should always have the first piece of pie

because if it comes out ugly, I can get rid of it before the guests know it

it. And a little dollop of fresh whipped cream and a little sprig of mint. You can't get

any better or simpler than pecan pie. See all your nice filling, how light brown caramelly

bourbon-y color it is. I don't know

if that bourbon is better in that mint julep or in this pecan pie

Coming up next, I'm going to give you some tips that will make your cooking even better

Okay, I promised y'all a few great tips. Here's the first one. Ham butter

What could be any better? Slice your ham, put it in the fridge, let it get cold

beat it in a Cuisinart until it's kind of creamy, add softened butter, stuff it into your biscuits

and your cocktail party will be complete. If you want to, you can even add a little chopped fresh parsley to it

Now, on your ham, talking about cooking it with colas, it's great with an orange soda or a ginger ale

And on your pie crust, this is a refrigerated pie crust. You put it in your pan, tuck in any uneven edges under your crust

take your extra crust, making a rope of dough, and placing it around the edge of your pie crust

and that gives you plenty of edge to work with. And then you can use your knife or your fingers to flute your edge

giving you a beautiful homemade pie crust look. For those of you that have never been to a derby race

I really want you to make an effort to go. But if you never get there, stay at home and have your own party

Whistle in for your friends and serve them the pineapple casserole and Douglas' bourbon pecan pie

or the cream biscuits with butter and honey or the baked ham

Can't have a party without a pig. He's my man for this one

So until next time, America, I wish you best dishes from my race day to yours