Spice of Life

Y'all, in my kitchen, sometimes I am guilty of not being brave enough to experiment with different spices

Well, today I'm cooking with a couple of y'all that really knows how to spice up their dishes

Oh my gosh, no, it's delicious. We're going to start with the Harissa Spice Green Beans

Next, y'all, it's going to be their savory Marrakesh Spiced Chicken with Preserved Lemons and Artichokes

This is when you wish you had scratch-and-sniffed TV. Then we're going to give my couscous salad just a little kick

Mmm, this is so very good, y'all. And I'm going to finish the meal off with my sugar-and-spice pecans

How delicious is that? This kitchen is so spiced up today with this cute couple, Janet

Oh, excuse me. This is Mike. This is Janet. I definitely know you're not a Janet

Janet and Mike, y'all, are the owners of the Savory Spice Shop out in Denver, Colorado

They sell spices from all over the world, including 140 original blends

Mike has fixed them to make a green bean salad, but what's the actual name

We are doing a harissa spiced green bean salad. Harissa. What in the hell is harissa

But harissa is a Moroccan condiment. You generally find it at most tables

It's a spicy, chili-based condiment. And we're going to use it to heat these vegetables up

That's right. Give it a spice. So the first thing I'm going to do, though, is I'm going to bland these garbanzo beans

It's just a... Just a can of garbanzo beans, you know? All right, may I borrow your knife, Janet, if you're done

You want me to dice this whole cucumber? We're going to need a cup of those

And we're going to do three cups of green beans, and we're going to do one and a half cups of carrots

Now, you know green beans, y'all, are very, very popular down here in the South

But we cook our green beans mainly the old southern way, and that's in ham hock and cooked down

and you almost sweat them in the pot so that they get real limp

We're doing the opposite. We're going to blanch these and keep them real bright and crispy. Okey-doke

So pass me that harusa. Let me see this. Kind of the color of paprika, y'all

And there's paprika in it. Absolutely. All right, let's see. We got a little..

Japanese peppers. That's right. Hapone. Hapone. That's exactly what that means. How do you pronounce it

Hapone. And you say this is kind of like a condiment. Yeah, it's like a hot sauce

In the mid-East. You got it. And it's so easy to make. And what we're going to do..

You know, it smells like chili powder, Mike. Well, it's got a lot of the japonais chili in there, and that's going to be the cumin added to that

Those two flavors are going to make it smell like a chili powder

Ooh, yum. Okay, so we're going to blanch these beans. I'm going to toss in a cup of carrots as well

Or keep the cucumbers on the side. So the harissa that we're making, normally you'd make it into a thicker paste, right, and use it as a condiment

Since we're making this green bean salad, we're going to make it a little thinner, because we're going to use it as a dressing for the salad

Okay, well, show me. I'm real interested. And the husks are coming off

Do you want me to pull off the husk while you're making your dressing

This is what I love doing. Uh-huh. Whoa. Let's see if I can do that

Hey. We could get in a chicken contest. All right, well, you girls are having fun over there

I'm going to tell you what's in this harissa dressing. We're going to use four teaspoons of harissa

We're hanging on to everyone that you're saying, Mike. I believe it. Keep talking, baby. A quarter cup of lemon juice

quarter cup of white wine vinegar, and a quarter cup of aloe vera. Really simple

So I'm going to go ahead and get the lemon in there. Oh, I love it! Isn't that funny

If you felt it was too spicy, you could back off on the harissa a little bit

and not have overly spicy. You know, after smelling it, I don't think it's going to be too strong for me

Well, you like things spicy, don't you? A little bit. I don't like to be hurt

Got it. Got it. Yeah, either do we. You know, we have the world's hottest chilies at our place

Oh, you do? Yeah, they call them ghost chilies. Because they're so hot when you eat them

Supposedly, you're supposed to feel like you're not there. What dish would you be making if you wanted that extreme heat

And what would you do if you accidentally got too much in your mouth

What's the first aid on it? Okay, the first aid would be yogurt, milk, something on those lines

That's going to cool your mouth. Water is going to do the opposite. It's just going to swirl it around

It makes it hotter, I've heard. Would it be an Asian dish

Would it be a Mexican dish? It's going to be like an Indian dish. Those chilies are from Indian dish

We're going to want an extremely hot. You could use it in a curry. Let's get these vegetables out and get them in a nice bath here

And that water bath is going to stop that cooking process in them, y'all

And it going to help retain that beautiful orange color and that beautiful bright green You guys toss those in the bowl and I get these cucumbers in there

Okay. A couple of those. Great. Let's get this over to you so we can get this tossed

Are we done with this now? We're done with that. Let me get that out of your welcome

Let me get it out of your way. I'm going to be finding peace for days in this kitchen

And Janet and I was having a peep contest. I got a bunch of obedient words

Seeing how far we could pee. We're just going to mix this up, and that's all there is to this

That's it? You can serve this warm. You can serve it cold. We like it at room temperature

Yeah. Well, I've got your bowl down there. All right. So you can just toss it right in there, Mike

I found a few more cucumbers over there. Get them in there

All right. Now, Janet, pull you up a chair, darling. Thank you. Mike can stand over so he can wait on us

Yes. I deserve. There's our forks, napkins if we need it. It's all up

Thank you. Sure is pretty. All right. All right. Here's to... A little heat

A little heat. Here we go. Here's to two spicy folks. Mmm

Mike and Janet are cooking up their mouth-watering Moroccan spiced chicken. That smells so good, y'all

A little adventurous, too. Then they're going to get spicy with my couscous salad

And I have a few spice tricks of my own with my sugar and spice pecans

Oh, my God. Good smelling. Smells like Christmastime to me. Y'all, this is Mike and this is Janet Johnston

They're hot as a $3 pistol with all these spices, y'all. They are going to teach me today and you about the different uses of spices

Tell me, honey, it looks like to me that you're cutting kind of a rotten lemon

So tell us what you're cutting. Paul, these are preserved lemons. Oh, that's why they're..

Lemons in the prime. That's why they're mushy. A little bit mushy, yeah. We're going to use both the pulp inside

Oh, my goodness. You know, this is when you wish you had scratch and sniff TV

Yeah. Tell us all what you're going to be making for us today. Well, we're going to be making a wonderfully aromatic and big-flavored Marrakesh chicken

It is made from our spice, which we call Marrakesh Moroccan spice

I'm going to get these onions chopped. We need to get those lemons peeled

and we need to get the pot going so we can get this chicken into the pot. Okay

Now, you tell me to get the pot going. You tell me how you want me to get it going

Put it over a medium-high heat, and we're going to put in a tablespoon of olive oil

and in honor of you, a tablespoon of butter. I like him, y'all

I might have been absent that day in math when they were teaching me measurements

That looked like a nice-sized table. That's a tablespoon? Okay. I preheated your oven for you, but it looks like an airplane

Oh, okay. No. I don't want to blow something up. No, it's really, really easy

Perfect. 400. Okay. If you could go ahead and get some of these chicken pieces cut down to tender sizes, about

four per breast. Okay. That'd be great. I can handle that. I'm going to tell you a little bit about the spice

So this is what we're working with. So it's not like one spice, y'all. It's a combination of different spices

You got it. About 17. Here's our final product. But what it takes is all of this to get ground down and sift it out

Ginger, lavender, oris fruit. This is actually what we start with. We're not starting with powdered stuff

So we're going to grind each of these. While you're talking, I'm going to wash the chicken off my hands, okay? Go for it

But keep telling me. So we're going to take all these things, mix them together

You've got this down to a formula. Exactly how much of each spice

Absolutely. We're going to get a consistent product. What we need to do next is convert this Marrakesh spice into a paste so we can mix it in with the chicken

Marrakesh paste is real simple because it's the same amount of all three ingredients. Two tablespoons of the Marrakesh spice, two tablespoons of olive oil, and two tablespoons of water

I have got a little whiskey thing, too. Perfect. Thank you. So how's our pan looking over there

I think it's pretty good, Mike. Okay, what we need to do is get that chicken kind of bathed in our spice, and then we're going to put that in and brown it

Is that going to be enough for all this chicken? Yeah, because we'll get it in with the juices and the butter here, too

And it doesn't need to look pretty right now because we're going to pour the rest of this all over the top

We just want to get it going. Okay. Paula, let me help you out there

I'll go ahead and put this in. I would feel better if you take this over. I can do that

And I'm going to get rid of this because raw chicken doesn't work

We don't want that. I'm just gonna finish turning these to brown them on the other side

and I'm gonna need the chicken stock, quarter cup of that, and then I just need a quarter cup of the red onion Then we need to toss on the parsley 10 15 steps Just toss it right on top Oh I love it No chopping y

No chopping on this one. We're just trying to bring a little bit of that parsley flavor. So now we're just going to cover it and put it in the oven

This is like covering a crypt. It's like... I know it. That cast iron is heavy for such a tiny girl

All right, there's a rag there, Mike. Yep. And another rag. So if you'll open the oven for him. Okay

He can just slip that right in. 400 degrees. Okay. About 20 minutes

About 20 minutes. Now, I'm fixing to put y'all to work. All right. I had a feeling that y'all were going to be doing a Moroccan strong flavor dish, so I chose to make couscous

So if y'all would just grab everything right there that we're going to need

I've got one and a half cups of water boiled, and I'm going to add one cup of couscous

Tiniest pasta in the world. The tiniest pasta in the world. So I'm just going to give that a stir, cut off my fire, and it'll be ready in what

A minute and a half, two minutes. Isn't that easy? So we're going to just crumble up our feta

All right. And Mike, if you would quarter the tomatoes for me

We'll need about a cup of cherry tomatoes. All right. We've got some calamara olives, and we can just slice those up

And we'll need about five tablespoons of those. So, Mike, tell me what we can do to literally spice up this dish

We can use an organic Ceylon cinnamon. It comes from the little piece that Janet broke up earlier

And it's going to have a really spicy cinnamon flavor and a little bit of citrusy undertones

I think that's enough tomatoes. Would you chop us some parsley, please

Great, I can do that. Okay. and if you would toss in about four ounces of feta

Okay. And then we can make the little dressing. I'm gonna measure out a couple of tablespoons of olive oil

and two tablespoons of lemon juice. I think I got this all mixed up nice for you

How's that look? Okay, that looks great. Now, I'm just gonna pour in our dressing

And if you would toss that around. Got it. Beautiful. Some tomatoes

A little color. Now I'm going to add the cinnamon. Is that enough flavor

A little more? It should be good. Oh, man, that smells nice. How's that look

Pretty color. Why don't you put it in that beautiful little yellow bowl? It's not bad

It's pretty. And what a beautiful salad to go with this hot couple's Moroccan dish

We're going to be adding the finishing touches to our Moroccan spiced chicken

That looks delicious, Mike. And I'm going to add a little sweetness to our spicy dishes with my sugar and spice pecans

Doesn't that smell good? Oh, yeah. Cooking with Paula Deen. Y'all, I've got the cutest couple here in the kitchen with me today

They're so knowledgeable about spices. In case you just flipped the channel, this is Janet

This is Mike from Denver, Colorado. They have brought a lot of their spices

We're going to be finishing up their Marrakesh Spiced Chicken with preserved lemons and artichokes

They're trying to teach me how to take their spices and be a little bit more adventurous

Look in there at that fabulous chicken. So we need to remove the parsley

And then what we want to do is we want to get this chicken into a baking dish

Reduce that oven down to 200, just so we can keep it warm in there. Okay. And then what we're going to do is create all this great juice that we have into a sauce with some artichokes and our preserved lemons

Oh, gosh. I love artichokes. Now, how long did you bake that off for in the oven

20 to 25 minutes. 20 to 25 minutes. Yep. So I'm draining these artichoke hearts, and I'm just going to have them here

Can I go ahead now with the lemon juice? You can put that right in here. So about two teaspoons of lemon

One. That's perfect. Okay. I'm going to pop this back in the oven

If you could put that on a simmer, then we can get the artichokes in there

Okay, I'm almost ready with those. We can do that. We also want to put this, that preserved lemon pulp in

Uh-huh. Right here. And that's about two tablespoons. We did one, we're going to use one preserved lemon, the rind of one preserved lemon

And this is the pulp of about half of it. Okay. Great. Okay

Now we're going to put the artichoke hearts in. Okay. And you can just drain them and then stick them in here

All we're trying to do is just heat them through. Okay. So this is only going to take four to five minutes

Okay. The rind goes in. When we turn it down, it's the last thing. Why is that

Is it because these are soft? They've been marinated. We want to keep that texture, and they just are going to add just a bit of freshness

When do we put these in? About now, or are we? Sure. I like to cut these nice and small so you can get them almost in every bite

Are we going to tighten this, Mike, or let it reduce? What are we going to do

Really all we trying to do with this is just it gonna be a sauce that gonna go over the top of the chicken Oh okay And we plate it Okay And if we get a little bit of chopped parsley going You just want enough parsley Just a little bit to top it We looking for a little presentation

here. Okay. For purdiness. Purdy. Oh you talk like me honey. Okay. Just take the artichoke with it

You're going to pour that around? Oh, this is nice. I'm going to pour this over the top and just get the rest of this on top of the chicken

and then we'll be ready to go with parsley. Oh, that looks so good

Mix it all together. That's beautiful. That's a happy little plant. Now, here's just some parsley

All right. You might have the perfect man, Janet. I think I do

Don't tell anyone, though. I worked hard for him. Competence. All right, so a little couscous for everyone

Uh-huh. Excuse my left hand. Oh, that's all right. And look, I'm going to gather that little couscous that was trying to goose goose its way off my plate

This is all so different from what I'm used to eating and serving out of my kitchen

All right. Mm-mm. Couscous is lovely. And the cinnamon, y'all are right

Yeah. The cinnamon is... It's going to add a little bit to it

Really nice. On the Marrakesh chicken, you're tasting the preserved lemon tab

Uh-huh. It's not real lemony, though. Right. It's got a little more depth to it

Mmm. Mmm. This is so very good, y'all. Stir it, honey. Don't be afraid of that pie

All right. Get in there. I've got something sweet and spicy that I'm going to share with Mike and Janet

I want to tell you kids about a nut that we're nuts over down here in the south

I'm from Albany, Georgia, the pecan capital of the world. We love them

And every Christmas we always do spice pecans. And lots of times we'll package them up and give them as gifts

and people just love them. Well, I want to make those for y'all

And I'm going to need for you, Mike, to measure me out three-fourths of a cup of a white syrup

Okay. I'm going to need for you to measure for me, darling, four and a half cups of sugar right into here

Okay. Y'all can see that I've got a candy thermometer hooked up to here

We're going to cook this to 242 degrees. Okay. You want me to show you a tip, Mike

Yeah, I'll take any tips. I don't do a lot of baking. Before you do that, if you'll spray

anytime you're measuring honey or syrup or anything like that, you know how it's hard to get out of the glass

Yeah. So just spray it a little bit, and it'll just fold right out. That's a great idea

So four and a half cups of sugar. That's three. That's four

Okay, and there's your half. Perfect, yeah, okay. We took you out of your comfort zone

and now you're taking us out of our... Oh, listen, this is so comfortable. You're going to say, this is so easy

How come that lady's got her a cooking show? When cooking is this easy

Okay, a cup of water. Now just pour it around down in there

Okay. I'm going to stir it all in, and it's going to become a syrup

All right. I'm going to turn this on medium high. And it's just that simple

After this comes to the temperature of 242, it's going to be somewhere around a soft doll

We're going to add two teaspoons of Mike and Janet's cinnamon. Now, we're just going to stir this until our syrup quits bubbling

Okay. It's looking like it's there. Oh, that's awesome. Back it up

Back it up. Don't, honey, and you stir. We're going to add two pounds of pecan

Here, let me get you another rag, Mike. Okay. Now, just pick that up. Pass me that spoon, please, Janet

I was going to lick it. Oh, you know what? You might remove a little skin if you do that

Just let me help Mike get this out of the pot. And then we're just going to spread those out

And those pecans will actually crystallize and separate. So there we go

That's it. We're just going to let that sugar finish cooling. And I'm going to break them up

And I'm going to put them in a box so that you'll have these to take back to Colorado

Did I tell you? That's the best cinnamon I've ever eaten. Well, thank you very much

These are terrific. Yeah, these are amazing. Thank you. It's been great having y'all

Y'all are precious. If you're in Denver, Colorado, I've got a computer

Just go to foodnetwork.com to check out Mike and Janet's shop and more of their fabulous recipes

Best dishes, y'all, from our kitchen to yours