Deli Delights

Hey, how are you

I'm good, sir. Today, y'all, my friend Alan Noel is going to be joining me in the kitchen

and he's going to help me make some delicious deli recipes. We're going to watch to see your technique, baby

First, Alan is going to show me how to make a classic jumbo lump crab cake sandwich

And the view is so nice. Oh, it's so sweet. Then we're going to be whipping up

two of my favorite deli salads, lemon basil chicken, and a new potato and green bean salad

Bodine just said, give me some, in case you don't speak dog

I think I can understand that. We're going to top it all off with my easy and delicious

cheesecake parfaits. Give Mama a kiss, honey. I'm glad to. How did my girlfriend

be watching? We don't care. How are you

How are you? It's so good for you to be here with me today. Happy to be here. I'll just give y'all a little bit of history about Alan

He was the executive chef with a place called Eli's Deli. It was over on Habersham Street

Savannah and so loved, loved your food. So come on in here

What we're going to make today is a jumbo lump crab cake sandwich with a little tomato remoulade

The sauce we're going to make, what we're going to start with first, is an oven-roasted tomato remoulade

It's a mayonnaise-based sauce with a lot of good ingredients in it, so you can't really go wrong

So you're going to start with sun-dried tomatoes? Well, actually, these are oven-roasted tomatoes. What we do is you take beautiful Roman tomatoes, and you actually take them and cut them in half

cut side up on a sheet pan, and you drizzle them in a little olive oil and salt pepper

and you put them in the oven overnight, about 200 degrees. And what it does is it actually concentrates the flavor and makes the tomatoes a little bit sweeter

Get me to working, honey. Tell me what you want me to do. Well, what we're going to do first is we're going to start off with a cup of mayonnaise

Okay. I'm the mayonnaise queen. I know that. I did know that, actually

I adore mayonnaise. Right here in this bowl. Yes, ma'am. Go ahead and put about a cup of mayonnaise in there

Please don't say yes, ma'am, to me. Sorry, I can't help it. It's my nature. You make me feel old, baby

And is it all right if I just kind of eyeball this? Sure, that's perfect. As much mayonnaise as I've touched in my life, I feel like I can figure out what a cup is

Say, I bet you do. I bet you do. All right, and you're dicing up our tomatoes

Yeah, I'm going to go ahead and dice these tomatoes up for you. Okay. Paul, we're also going to add a tablespoon of Dijon mustard

That looks about a tablespoon. About a tablespoon in a Worcestershire sauce. We're going to also add a little bit of sweet pickle relish

We're going to put a little salt in it, too, with the capers. So that's one of the reasons I like to kind of use a sweet pepper

Kind of gives a little bit more flavor to it. So put about a tablespoon in there. Paul, we're also going to add sriracha chili sauce

This is something that you used to find a lot of just only in Asian special stores

Now you see it everywhere, though. It's real popular. Is this, like, real hot

Like I said, you have to kind of taste it. It's hot, but it's not overly hot

It kind of bends in when you make it a little, when you mix through everything. It's not too, too bad

We're also going to have a little bit of it. Maybe some hot stuff, Alan. Well, I'm sorry

Hopefully it's not too bad. We're going to add a little bit of chives and a little bit of parsley. You can go ahead and just start mixing that up. Okay

This is beautiful. And like I said, it's a nice, simple recipe

Stir that all together. And we are done. Get the rest of these tomatoes in there as well

Yeah, throw them in, baby. And the last thing we're going to put in there, Paula, is we're going to put a little bit of lemon zest and a little bit of lemon juice

All right, how much? About a half of the lemon. I always like to use lemon zest because I feel like a lot of times people waste it

All right, you want to cut that in, too, and squeeze. You've got to have lemon if you're doing seafood, don't you

You have to have lemon, exactly. Well, that is really, really pretty

Love the color. Mmm. Is it too spicy for you? No, it's not

Stick your finger in. No, it's not too hot at all. Mmm

And we're actually going to put a little bit in the crab cake recipe that we're doing also. Oh, we are? I use it just about everything I cook with, so it just takes a place of red peppers

I can't wait to see how you put your crab cakes together. Well, we're going to start with mayonnaise, which is always a good food to do

Mayonnaise? Yes, ma'am. A cup of mayonnaise. I'm just going to chop some green onions that are going, going in there

Then we're going to add the egg to it. Okay. One egg. And I see you're using lump meat

Well, you can use anything you want, but jumbo lump is just a little bit more of a texture to it, too

And once you see these, this crab cake is actually kind of a wet crab cake recipe. Oh, it is

So it's actually kind of, it's a lot of crab meat and a little bit of filler to it, so you get the good flavors out of it

We're going to add about a tablespoon of Dijon mustard. Okay. As much as that as you want this time

Now, how much would you do? Probably about a teaspoon in there. You can always adjust it later

Yeah. It's a big teaspoon, but that'll work. I'm going to have the green onions in here for you

Michael would just love these. I see that you put some salt and pepper down here

so I going to go ahead and add a little of that if I may You sure can And you are chopping up some fresh dill Fresh dill Which is so so good with crab y

All right, I'm going to add a little bit of the dill in there, and that's about a tablespoon. Okey-doke

And then we're going to also add about a tablespoon of chopped parsley in here. I'll go ahead and start on that

Yeah, the green always just makes it look so poitty, doesn't it

If you want to add about a half a cup of those breadcrumbs. Okey-doke. I always find that good quality bread comes to make a big difference

About a half a cup of diced bell pepper, either red or green, all the things you like. A little lemon zest and lemon juice

Okay. How much is this? About a half. Okie doke, how's that

We work well together. Yes, we do. And the view is so nice

Oh, you're too sweet. You got me confused already. I don't even know what I'm doing. I got me flustered

All right, a little bit of lemon juice. Don't let me fluster you, baby

I can't help it. Okay, we're going to mix all that together

Okay, fold in our crab meat now. And then fold in the crab meat. And you want to be kind of gentle with your crab meat

You don't want to tear it all up. After all, we have gone to the expense of using a lump meat, and we want it to remain lump

Exactly. It looks a little bit on the wet side. It is. It's very wet. But that one egg that's in there in that mayonnaise is actually going to bind this together

As soon as the heat hits, it's going to actually give more crab and less filler, which we won't

Well, listen, Alan said that there's a technique that he has for frying up these crab cakes

Don't go anywhere. When we come back, we're going to watch and wait anxiously to see the technique, baby

Coming up, a delicious lemon basil chicken salad. Really good. Some good chicken, honey

And later, it's a new potato and green bean salad. Delicious. And we're going to top it all off with my easy cheesecake parfaits

I don't think I could resist that, Molly. Hey, y'all, welcome back

I'm in here in the kitchen with Alan, the executive chef from the Eli's Deli that was here in Savannah

Great chef. And he is fixing to show us his technique, y'all

for frying up these lump crab cakes. So I'm all eyes, honey

What we want to do is we want to start with a little bit of oil and I like to use peanut oil, but it doesn't matter

Okay. That's all I keep in my fryers is peanut oil. It gives the food a much better taste for sure

Gives food great flavor. So what we want to do, you want to make these with me? Sure

Get a good old scoop. Add them down. And you want to just take it and dust it with a little bit of flour

Yeah, and that flour will help them hold together. It sure will

But you kind of have to be a little gentle. They're a little tricky. You have to handle this

Treat this like a woman, don't you? You do indeed. With a very gentle hand

If you don't, you'll know it. So you want to have your heat up good and hot

because what you want to do is... That'll help bind it quickly. It'll help bind it on that side, and it really makes a big difference, too

It'll actually just hold all together very well. Well, while you're working on that

I'm going to start working on the next dish. A deli is not a deli

unless it has a good chicken salad. I'm going to mince up one rib of celery

All right, now I have put one rib of celery. into some chicken that I've gotten started

And while you're waiting on your crab cakes, you want to help start dicing up the chicken

Absolutely. Now, I have gone to the grocery store and picked up one of those roasted chickens

That is, like, one of the greatest convenience things. You can come home and take that chicken so many different ways

It'll save you about an hour's time, too, and as busy as everybody is today. It's a great way to get a meal on the table

And I need about four cups, Alan. I don't want you to burn your crab cakes now

I think I'm actually probably just about ready to flip them. If you look here, probably you can see they have kind of broken down just a little bit

but they're actually going to be seared on the other side, so it's actually going to be..

Let's take it gently, flip it. Oh, oh, oh! There we go

Oh. While those are cooking on that side, Alan, I'm going to need about two more cups, I think, of chicken meat

Okay. And to our chicken and our celery, I'm going to do equal parts of mayonnaise and sour cream

And for this, too, I'm going to use just a little bit of lemon juice

About a half a cup of sour cream. and a half a cup of mayonnaise

You can always come back and add some more if you need it But this is a very very simple chicken salad I love nuts in chicken salad It gives a little crunch to it too doesn it It gives it some crunch I going to add about a fourth of a cup of slivered almonds

So, just that quickly, I have our chicken salad together. Now, there is just one more thing I'm going to add to it

and that's just a little fresh basil, about a fourth of a cup

Love basil. So how's your cakes? You got them ready? I got them ready, Paula

They are good to go. They look so good, and I'm so hungry

I made these little focaccia rolls last night. You made those? Oh, my goodness

They're beautiful. Now, is these hard to make? No, actually, it's kind of like a pizza dough

Oh, really? It's real simple, but you just take them and you add a little bit of herbs and salt, a little bit of cheese on top

and just a little bit of tomato or red onion on there, and it works out well. Oh, my goodness. They're beautiful. Okay, Paul, I'm going to go ahead and put a little bit of our oven-roasted tomato

Yes. Creamy lade here for them. All right, I got our basil in the chicken salad

All right, I'm going to go ahead and put our... We'll just slide them right off of there. Okay, Paul, there's one last thing I like to put on there

and this just gives it a little bit of crunch to it and a little bit of salt in it

This is pancetta. Pancetta is basically the same as bacon, or you can use bacon

It doesn't matter either way. But it doesn't have the smoke flavor to it. It's Italian bacon

It's actually the belly of it. And that looks so beautiful. And you just need a little bit on there for it

So there you go. Gosh. What are you doing right here? Thank you, Alan

I hope you enjoy it. I'm like just starving. You ready, Alan? I'm ready

Here's to you. Huh? I thought you wanted me to bite it

You better not put your lips on my sandwich. Mmm. Mmm. A little messy, but it makes it good

Mmm. Mmm, mmm, mmm. You get to taste a little bit of the panchata in there, too

It gives a little flavor to it. Mmm, mmm. Coming up, we're going to be mixing up a yummy new potato

and green bean salad, y'all. Must be pretty good the way Bodine's carrying on

And later, we're finishing up with my easy cheesecake parfaits. I'm gonna fill this sucker up, honey

Hey, y'all. Today here in my kitchen, we're celebrating deli foods. And I'm in here with Alan

And a young man that was the executive chef of a deli called Eli's, they had fabulous food

The next recipe that we're going to make is from a magazine

And it's new potato. Bodine just said, give me some in case you don't speak dog

I think I can understand that. But we're going to make a fresh red new potato and green bean salad

Sounds good. And this is really a different twist to a potato salad

So I have taken my red potatoes. I have got us three pounds

I've quartered them. I've boiled them in salty water. So all we have to do now is get the green beans to the pot

We're going to let those cook for about two minutes. And we're using about a pound of green beans

And while you're finishing that, I'm going to make the Dijon vinaigrette to go on top of this

And this is real simple to make. I'm going to use about a third of a cup of olive oil

I hear you, Bodine. Okay, in my bowl that goes. And then I'm going to add two and a half tablespoons of a white wine vinegar

I'm going to put in about a fourth of a teaspoon of dill

Now, I'm using a dried dill. Now, you could use a fresh dill

You just need to increase the quantity of that because dried herbs are much stronger than the fresh ones

The last thing I'm going to add, a tablespoon of Dijon mustard

Mmm. Boy, Heidi, that's good and sharp. I love Dijon. And about a half a teaspoon of salt and black pepper

so there we go all right if you'll throw those beans in kiddoke and we'll let those cook for

about two minutes and while those are cooking can i entice you to come down honey to the other end

of the counter and taste my chicken salad i don't think i could resist that maula i've got

some wonderful boston leaf lettuce that i just love it's like you know uh-oh

Made a mess. That's Boudin. Yeah. It's like velvet on your tongue

Just love it Now try that and tell me what you think Mmm that good

Mmm. Can't beat it, can you? I don't think I can. Mmm-mm

The crunch of the almond and the fresh basil. Mmm. No wonder Bodine was clawing on my leg saying chicken, chicken

Chicken, chicken. All right, well, our beans should be ready. You mean drain those all for you? Mm-hmm

Just pour those in the colander, Alan. Okay. Oh, great

That's perfect, Alan. And when they drain, we can just toss them right in this bowl

Aren't they pretty? Very, very pretty. And like I said, just different from what we think of as our normal potato salad

I'm going to add just a little bit more cracked black pepper to those

Because it just makes it pretty. And then I'm going to just pour our vinaigrette over it

And you can serve this either at room temperature or chilled. I was about to say, either way, I'm sure it'll be good

How do you like your potatoes? I like them in front of me

In front of you? I do, too. But I would serve this at room temperature

But like I said, it's very, very good. Served real cold. Coming up, delicious cheesecake parfaits

Mm, for goodness. I know, and it sure is. You know, I'm sorry our time is almost up today

I've really had fun in here in the kitchen with you. Now, our new potato and our bean salad has chilled, so I want you to taste that

It does look good. And see what you think. It's very not typical of what you think of potato salad, is it

I like the finaigrette on it. It was really nice. It's good, isn't it

Delicious. Well, speaking of delicious, I can't let you leave my kitchen without a dessert

Okay. And y'all, everybody knows that cheesecake is the one dessert that you think of when you go into a deli, isn't it

Oh, yeah. Well, we're going to do a little twist to that cheesecake

We're going to turn our cheesecake into a parfait today. I'm going to use two three-ounce packages of instant cheesecake pudding

If you would measure out two cups of the heavy cream and a cup of milk

Mmm, that smells good. I can smell it. I was just thinking the same thing

It sure does. While you're doing that, I'm going to measure out two cups of sour cream

I know y'all had a good cheesecake at Eli's. We did about three or four different flavors of cheesecakes

What was y'all's number one? Number one cheesecake was a pecan cheesecake, or pecan cheesecake, I should say

Yeah, I'm guilty. I call them pecans. And everybody, every time I say that, they say, no, no, no, that's what the truck drivers keep in their truck

Well, you're from Albany, and they ain't the one way to say it. They ain't the one way to say it in Albany

That's right, pecans. All right. Now, if you'll take that mixer and just mix that up for me until it starts getting thick

It looks good. Tastes just like cheesecake. It smells like cheesecake. All right

I just about got it there. That looks good, Alan. Okay. We can throw that in the refrigerator

All right. Now grab our parfait glasses, and we can start putting them together

I've got your fresh raspberries, vanilla wafers, and fresh cream. Now you just put this together any way you want to. Okay

What? That looks pretty good, doesn't it? It sure does. All right, let's dig in. Okay

Mmm. Mmm. Pretty good, isn't it? I know, and it sure is

Mmm. Mmm. Well, Alan, I've had a great time with you. I have to

Give Mama a kiss, honey. I have to. How did my girlfriend be watching? We don't care

Thanks, and you come back, okay? Anytime. Anytime. And as always, you know, we send you love and best dishes

from our little corner of the world to yours. Till next time, y'all