Living Off The Land

Today, y'all, Ireland's own chef, Gavin Murphy, drops by to show me how to live off the land

It's not bad! First, I'm making him my take on a classic Irish stew

That is dynamite. Then, y'all, it's Gavin's turn to cook. You're gonna cook instead of me

I'm gonna cook for you. And he's making me an Irish favorite, called Cannon

And last but not least, y'all, we're having braised greens from my garden

topped off with a fried egg from my chicken coop. It is outrageously good

Y'all don't want to miss it when Southern Cooking meets Irish cuisine. Hola

Hola, where are you, sweetheart? Y'all, Gavin Murphy takes real traditional Irish recipes

and kind of brings, he kind of updates them. And today he's stopping by to show me his lighter take on some Irish classics

Paula Deen. Yes. How are you, sweetheart? I'm great. Come see me

What are you up to? I'm just talking to my girls. How are you, my darling? Nice to see you

I'm great. I'm con-bearing gifts, ma'am. You're so pretty. I am very pretty for nourishment

I love a bald-headed man. For some reason, I can't keep my hands off of a bald head

You've got an Irish accent. I have, and I'm bringing you some Irish bread. This is some soda bread that I made

Irish soda bread. Isn't that good stuff? Look at that. Oh. Freshly baked

Gavin. Just like Mama Murphy used to make. This is full of good stuff, you know

This is an old Irish recipe. Mm, this is delicious. It's good, yeah

We have a nice cup of tea and some bread. And it's called soda bread. Brown soda bread. So now you get the eggs from these guys, right

Yes, yes. Do we have some we can look at? Yes, we do. So come on in here

All right. All right, they're funny. they'll usually lay their eggs just on one level

So let's see. Right, Dan, here we got some. Yeah, just reach on in and grab you those eggs, Gavin

So, you know, we did pretty good this morning, two, four, six eggs

You know what this would be nice with, and this is a very Irish thing, is we toast some of my soda bread

and make a little fried egg on top of it with a cup of tea. There is nothing better than a dip egg

where the whites are done and the yellows are runny and you take your bread and you dunk it in

With salt and pepper, It's like no other. Fabulous. Okey-doke. All right

Oh, Gavin. No, my darling. What are we going to do? I'm going to hang those eggs right there

I'm going to... The first dish I'm going to make for you, okay? Yeah

And you know what? I'm probably an idiot for doing this. I doubt it

What's up? What are you making? I'm going to make the Irish man Irish stew

What I would like for you to do for me is chop up the onions, the celery, and the leek

All right. And then when you get through with that, I need this... Cabbage

Fine. A fine slice on it? Yes, a fine shred on it. Okay

So you want these just kind of like a large dice? Not real large, but kind of large, yeah

So we got lamb, right? We've got lamb. Okay, good. Because I realize you have to have lamb in it

It's already been cubed. Now, I'm just going to season our lamb with salt and pepper

Okay. Now, let me just wash my hands real good, okay? Okay

I'm just going to add a tablespoon of vegetable oil and sear off our lamb

Well, we have done well today, haven't we, Gavin? We got the fresh eggs from the hen house

I'm excited about the eggs. We got the soda bread from you that you baked up fresh

Did you go to culinary school? I went to cookery school in Ireland

Oh, you went in Ireland? In Ireland, yeah. And I went to the school called Ballymaloo Cookery School

which is in South Ballymaloo Cookery School. Cookery. School. School. So I went to Ballymaloo, which is basically a cooking school

that is in the middle of a 100-acre farm. Uh-huh. And right now the farm is 50, 50 acres of that are now organic

And the way I learned to cook is we would go out to the farm every day, we'd pick our vegetables, the eggs from the chickens

we'd go out and pick the carrots, whatever they were growing. All the meat and fish came from the local purveyors

and that's how I learned how to cook. Well, hopefully I brought back memories for you today

This is fabulous. This is just like, you know, I go back in my mother's kitchen right now in Ireland

with the lamb stew, the potatoes, the soda bread, all I'm sure is the pint of Guinness. Hint, hint

I understand that you have a healthier lifestyle in the kitchen as far as..

You know what I trying to do with food is I trying to make people just show people that eating healthy is not boring it not bland it not eating your boiled carrots Just give people little hints here and there where they can make their recipes a little bit healthier

Listen, I have no problem eating something that's not going to be great for me on a special occasion

I'm not going to do it every day. You can't. You can't do it every day. People think I eat fried chicken biscuits and gravy every day

I don't. I wish I could. Of course. Honey, we got to saute all those vegetables off

All right. So, do you have a restaurant, Guy

I don't. I work as a personal chef for a lot of clients in L.A. where I live with my beautiful wife, Christy

Do you do celebrities or...? I have been known to do a few celebrities in my day

Would you throw that cabbage in, please? Yes, darling. Thank you so much

All right, I'm going to put a half a teaspoon of thyme. a half a teaspoon of coriander

and an eight-ounce can of diced tomatoes. And I'm just going to put this lamb right into our pot

So I've got a couple of cups of beef broth. Right, straight in

Is it going to go in the oven? Yes. For how long is it going for? For two hours, yes

And we're going to put that lid on there so all those juices won't get out of there

So we'll put it in this oven at 350 degrees, and in two hours, we'll have us a delicious meal

Coming up next, Gavin makes me an Irish classic called Cannon. It is outrageously good, isn't it

Kind of simple. And later, we take a trip to my garden

and pick us up some fresh greens. All right, wait now, you got to taste

Just chew on that. So, sweetheart, I'm going to make you a traditional potato

You're going to cook instead of me? I'm going to cook for you this dish, because we have the Irish stew that you made

So I'm going to make you a potato dish. It's called cold cannon. It means white-headed cabbage in Gaelic

It's a very old traditional recipe. I've never heard of that. I cannot wait to learn a new way to prepare my favorite food

All right, so let's peel some potatoes. Okay. And I'm going to tell you a little bit about this dish

So I learned this dish from my mother, who learned it from her mother. So traditionally, this dish was made for Halloween, as a Halloween dish

Halloween? Now, why is that? What men would do is they would hide little trinkets in there

and if any woman found it, the guy would marry her. Oh, my God

And that's where that tradition comes from, way back when. You'd have to be very careful where you put your trinket

You would want to be very careful to clean your mashed potatoes. Have you ever gone out and dug for potatoes

I have. I grew up in a farming area in Ireland, so I'm very familiar with that

You know what? Some of my very favourite memories, Gavin. My grandmother, Paul, who basically spent the most time with me in the kitchen

and she had her own garden. I would go out there to grandma's and help her dig her potatoes

and I adored it. It was like going on an Easter egg hunt

All right, so speaking of potatoes, let's see how many potato dishes we can come up with. Shoot

You go first. You're my guest. Mashed potatoes. French fries. Baked potatoes

Roasted potatoes. Paul Cannon. You should have said that one first, didn't you

Country fried. Sweet potato fries. Yes. We ain't said nothing about no sweet potato

Okay, so a pot of water, some salt, please. Okay. Just a nice little handful of salt in there

It needs salt, because otherwise you're going to have bland potatoes. It gets the flavor into it

Yes. So we're just going to boil these. You're not saying when you boil any potatoes. And we're just going to make nash

Until they're tender. Correct. Lay down there and forget about it. Okay, forget about it

Forget about it. So what we're going to do now is just saute some cabbage. Okay

Very simple. So a little bit of olive oil, please. There you go

Perfect. So all I have here is some... Shredded cabbage. Okay. Just some white cabbage

We got cabbage in two dishes so far. It's very good for you, though

Yes, it's very good for you. Low date in nutrients. Okay, let's put some fresh thyme in here

I like it. And a very, very simple dish. And this is something, again, that I would have grown up eating all the time

Yes. Because, you know, traditionally, we Irish would have had potatoes with every single meal

Even me growing up. What do you think? You probably don't want that brown, do you

No, I just want that white. So we can put the heat down. Okay. And put some nice fresh thyme in there, just give it a nice earthy flavor

Yes. So let's check our spuds and see how we're looking. Okay

Careful of the steam. Yes. Booyah in business. Beautiful. Look at that All right So I going to drain these off Okay And then we go back in the pot Perfect Back down the heat And we hear that sizzling in a minute

Let me just check my cabbage. Uh-oh, do I need to turn that down or is it okay

No, no, we're golden. This is great. Okay. You can turn it off actually right now. So just a nice mash on these

Okay. They don't have to be too smooth because, you know, they're homemade

I don't want them, like, too buttery. You want to taste a clump of potato. Of course you do

Now, here's the way that I make my mashed potatoes. A little bit cleaner, a little healthier

Okay. I heard that you're not a big butter fan. So I'm going to just respect that today

and I'm going to use my chicken stock to add a little bit of moisture. No, no. You know what

I'm in your house. I must do that. So that's what we're doing. No butter today

We're having a butter-free mashed potato. And as an Irishman, that can hurt. I'm calling your mama, boy

Five, five, five. Season salt and pepper. And watch this. Cabbage goes straight in

Okay. Straight in. This could not be any easier. And, of course, you have the flavor of the chicken broth, which is delicious

Gavin, look out there. Would you? I see some dolphins out of here

You know what? You can put some on yours. This is staying butter free. How about that? How about that

That's a compromise, okay? Why didn't you look at that dolphin out there? Because I'm no dummy

Now, and that's it. This is cold cannon. You keep it very rustic

Yum. Doesn't that look good? It looks so unpretentious. But you can see, this is peasant food

It looks so honest. This is like a true Irish peasant dish

I love honest food. No frills. Oh, look. Look at the sunset

What was that? A little cream cheese? I didn't say anything. Bon appétit, darling

Bon appétit, darling. Thank you, sweetheart. The first thing you'll taste, you'll taste the thyme

and your little crunch on the cabbage. And you can still taste the enormous mashed potatoes

so it's actually a real potato. It is delicious. I could eat a whole bowl of this

It is outrageously good. Thank you, dear. You're welcome, sweetheart. Gavin. Yes, babe

I have to say this has inspired me. Good. How about a little trip to my special place that I go to

Special place? Yes. I'm game. Let's go. All right, let's go. Oh, my gosh

I don't want to leave you. Coming up next, we pick up some greens and braise them up good

Beautiful. Oh, yeah. And then later, y'all, I'm serving up our delicious Irish stew

So, sláinte. Cheers. Sláinte. To your health. Sláinte. To your health. All right, so what have we got

Look at this. Well, we've got flowers and we've got, you know, different greens

Paula has a fantastic vegetable garden, So we're out and we're gonna pick some fresh vegetables today. We're gonna cook them some collards and some kale some Swiss chard

We're gonna have a good time And I'm gonna need about two and a half pounds

All right, that's a lot of college all right, let's get us some rainbow chard all right

I think we've got enough, baby

Yeah. All right, babe. You know, we've got our organic fresh eggs. Yeah

We've got our fresh vegetables. We're in good shape. And I've got our fresh Irish man

Yeah, you do. I'm in heaven. Tell you what, man, your garden is awesome

Thank you. Awesome, really pretty, and we have some fabulous greens for today. Yes. Yes

What is the plan, Stan? You know what? Typically down south, we cook our collards with ham hock and a lot of seasoning

But what I've got planned for these is let's just braise them

Love it. All right, so we're going to need to wash them. Okay. Oh, my garden's clean

But anyway, just in case. But it does have dirt in it. Just in case. Yes

And we have a lot here, right? This is a big recipe. But, of course, by braising, it's all going to shrink down to hardly anything, right

It's going to shrink down. Gavin, I'm going to show you how we prep them at the restaurant

I cannot abide a collard stem. You don't like them? No. So I'm just going to take that out just like that

All right, so see, we stack them up like that. Okay. We roll them

Oh, I didn't see what you're doing. So you're going to do like a chiffonade. Yes. Sort of like if you were chopping basil or something like that

But not that thin. Gotcha. And now these collards are loaded in nutrients

All right, so if you want to finish those collards, I will dice up this onion

and I gonna get our pot to heating So basically so we saute the onion Do we put any herbs in there or any spices or anything What you talking about herb Herb

Herb? Yeah. Tree herbs. Herb? Ah, no. No, herb ain't getting near my pot for these

Just some salt and pepper. We're on the pig's back, as we say in Ireland

On the pig's back? On the pig's back. What does that mean? That means we're doing good

We're flying high right now. On the pig's back, I like it. I will be using that

Use that. All right, so. And now we've also got to get on the Swiss chard

Now, the Swiss chard, I mean, I reckon we could eat the stalks of that because they're so tender, right? What do you think

I don't know. I'm just not a stalky person. You're not a stalky. We'll have a look and see what it looks like

All right, let's see. Now, do we cook both of these at the same time

All right. I'll trust you. Whoa! You know what it tastes like

What's it taste like? Tastes just like a beet. So beady. I adore beets

Beets are good. All right, Gavin, let's get our collards and Swiss chard into the pot

All right. Okay, so we just rotate this for a few minutes? Yeah, I'm saying a little bit more olive oil

Okay. Because that was a pretty big pot, Gavin. So what goes in now

We put the stock in? You're gonna put the stock in. Say, so a couple of cups or something

that would you say? Yeah, something like that. Then we're gonna put the lid on there

and we're gonna let them cook for about 20 minutes. Lovely. So, just two cups of chicken stock

Beautiful. Oh, yeah. How's that? This is gonna be delicious. Look how much that's already shrunk down

Uh-huh, I know. Oh, this is awesome. I'm very excited. So, there you go, 20 minutes. Fabulous

Coming up next, our Irish stew is ready to taste. Holy camole

And then we're going to be frying up some fresh eggs to top off these braised greens

So should we check the stew? I'm in. Let's go. Holy moly

Holy camoly. There's nothing wrong with that. No. Look at that. Watch yourself

Look at that. That looks dynamite. Yes. So this looks fabulous. This looks dynamite

So I'll tell you what we'll do. Okay. I'm going to toast some of my soda bread. Get a nice crispiness

You fry an egg. And let's chow. If you would, dip us up some greens

Okay, got it. So that those will be ready when we fry our eggs

There's yours. Now, I'm going to cook mine just a wee bit longer

All right, how's our toast? Oh, look at that. We got our stew. Oh, yeah, boy

Oh, looks yummy. Now, you know what I'm going to do for our Irish stew

I would love just a little of the potato on the bottom. Oh, that's what I have. Oh, okay. Absolutely

Is that enough potato? That's good enough to start with. Perfect. A little bit of stew

Can I dish up for you? Please. I got it. This smells unbelievable

Oh, that's a plenty. Look at that. So, Gavin. So, this is your sweetheart

I've got a little paprika right there. This is for? You know, just for color, just to bump it up a little bit

Yes, look how pretty. A little smoky flavor on there. Yes, and we've got room for our soda bread

Yeah, but... Now, the beauty about toasting like this is that we have a nice thick slice

which means it's crispy on the outside, but it's soft. A nice tick slice. A tick one, yeah. A tick one

T-I-C-K, tick. All right, my egg's almost ready. All right

What are we going to do? Which one do we start with? I said we start with the egg. I'm going to start with the egg and just bust that little egg

That is gorgeous. That is so nice. Let's taste this. Now, as we say in Ireland, sláinte

To your health. Sláinte. To your health. Yes, darling. That is dynamite

So delicious. I'm so glad you like it. Unbelievable. That is so good. I would love for you to come back and see me

I would love to, my darling. I've had an absolute blast today. I toast you, my darling, a marvellous day and some fantastic food

You are so sweet. My pleasure. Sláinte. Sláinte. Sláinte to your health

Sláinte back at you. Cheers. Sláinte