Surf and Surf

Yo, I am so excited about the friend I've got in the kitchen with me today

It's TV host and cookbook author David Venable. And y'all, today we'll cook up a few of our favorite dishes

So easy, easy peasy. Like my cornmeal dusted tilapia with a lemon tartar sauce

You like it hot, don't you, Mama? Yes, I like it hot. Then I make the perfect side dish, y'all

Roasted Parmesan lemon broccoli. And David sells me on his white bean and sun-dried tomato dip

Delicious. This sweet man needs one of my sweetest desserts, y'all. My grandma's iced Georgia cookie squares

Here we go, y'all. All of y'all that watch QVC, and there's a lot of y'all, a lot of y'all, y'all think David hung the moon, and I'm with you

Oh, you're kind. I think he hung the moon, too. Your first cookbook sold out in six minutes

I know you remember that. Yes, yes, y'all. And those were back in the days before most of us knew who you were

No one knew who I was. And here you are. I think it was my first national TV appearance, John

I think you're right about that. And no, nobody knew me from Adam's house cat

But I'm telling you, David can sell anything to anybody. In fact, I've got a challenge for you, David

What you got? Okay. I've got a nice cold glass of ice

Would you sell that, please? I've got to sell ice to an Eskimo today

Oh, my goodness. And we only have two minutes, and I hope you sell out

Well, I know wherever you may live, it's got to be warm, and you are looking for a little refreshment

And what could be nicer than an ice-cold glass full of ice cubes that are going to feel so good when they hit your tongue

and as you swallow them, they cool you down all the way to your toes

It's item number 12345, and it can be yours on two easy payments today

What do you think? Isn't it great, y'all? What are we making today, Ms. Paula

We are going to start out with just a simple dessert. If you would get over here and sift together a cup of all-purpose flour

Yes, ma'am. A half a teaspoon of baking soda. One teaspoon of..

Cream tartar. Okay, you got it. Sure. Okay, level that thing out pretty, baby

Here we go. There we go. I got it. You got this fancy measuring spoon, don't you

All right, here we go. All right, now in my bowl, I'm going to beat together a half a cup of butter

Mm-hmm. and a quarter of a cup of sugar, and I'm just going to beat this up, David

while you're sifting that. I got it on. Now, David, how many years have you been with QVC

I've been with QVC almost 20 years now. Shut up! Yes! And you're just 22

You know what? I was a child prodigy. I was indeed. How did you get there

I was reading the newspaper, and they did a big feature article on QVC that day

about how quickly they were growing. So I sent them a tape, and they invited me to do an audition

and then about two weeks later, I came for interviews, and then they offered me a contract and 20 years later, here we are cooking

No. How about it? Now, did you have to do a cold sale for them? I had to do something much like the ice you just handed me

Uh-oh, what was it? Well, no, it was a little Christmas figurine. And when I was there, they also gave me a piece of jewelry

And I was completely intimidated. I said, I didn't know anything about jewelry. What am I going to do about this? And at one point, I looked in the camera and said

nothing says I love you like a gift of 14-karat gold. I was like, who said that? Who said that

Where did I come from? And you know what? And it just came so naturally to me

You are a genius. You want to add that to this, please

Any way you do it. Now, David, how is your cookbook doing

The cookbook has been extraordinary. And you wrote the forward for my book. I wrote the forward for your cookbook, and it was such a great pleasure for me to do that

All right, let's see, David. Now, we're going to cook it for about 10 to 15 minutes, y'all

Okay, sugar. At 350 degrees. So if you'll just spray that. Yes, ma'am

And then we're just going to take this and put that in there and pat it out

Yes, ma'am. And I'll kind of bring everybody up to speed. Yes, ma'am

All right, so I used a fourth of a cup of sugar with one stick of butter and one egg

I beat that, and then I added David's mixture of one cup of all-purpose flour

half a teaspoon of baking soda, and one teaspoon of prima tarda and a pinch of salt

Dip your fingers, David, in the flour. Yes, ma'am. Yes, so it won't stick to you

So, Paula, you remember the day that we met back in 19, I guess it was 98 or 99

Yeah. And I remember walking into the studio that night and getting my paperwork for the show

And I saw Savannah Country Cookbook by Paula Deen. And I remember saying out loud, who's Paula Deen

And they were like, I was saying the same thing. And I said, who's Paula Deen

And they said, she's back in the prep kitchen making her food. And, oh, hello. You lick your fingers and I'll finish

And so I walked in there and I didn't see anybody I knew. So I just said, is there a Paula Deen here

You popped up from behind a table, covered in flour from your head to your elbows. And you walked up and said are you David And I said yes ma I am And she said do you understand Southern food I said I from North Carolina I know grits and biscuits She hugged me We were both covered in flour and we went on the air that night You remain in my heart as like a piece of history

All right, let's get that in the oven, y'all. Okay, sure. 350 degrees for about 10 or 15 minutes. Okay

And David, you know, the thing that I have been trying to do, y'all, is all about moderation, David

Sure. So what we're going to make is a roasted broccoli. We're going to take our broccoli and just rip off the florets

and I'm going to need you to get started on the garlic. Now, do you want the whole clone garlic

I want it smashed and minced. So we'll probably need about half a cup of olive oil

and we're going to add that garlic to the olive oil. All right, so let's put that in the microwave for about 30 seconds

How about that? Sure, sure. I'm going to be grating this up. Some fresh Parmesan cheese

And then we're going to sprinkle this over our broccoli. Ooh, that'll be nice

I think I heard your olive oil. Ooh, this smells great. And all that's left, David, is the juice of one lemon

Ooh, it's a nice, juicy lemon. It is, and it smells great, too. All right

All righty. So I'm going to add to that about one and a half teaspoons of seasoned salt

This smells delicious. So we're just gonna pour and toss. Yes, ma'am

All right, so we're just gonna sprinkle this with that Parmesan cheese

and we're just gonna roast this in the oven at 425 for about 20 minutes

Y'all don't go anywhere because I'm in the kitchen today with my beautiful friend

David Venable, who is the master of the master. You sweet. Coming up, one bite of my tilapia will have us doing..

Happy dance. This way. Happy dance. Happy dance. Then. Well, let me just relax and tell you a little bit about my being in depth

Thank y'all for coming back in the kitchen with me and David

I'm going to fix us a piece of tilapia. So if you would just salt and pepper this tilapia for us, David

Happy to. And we've got cornmeal over here. We've got flour. Why don't we mix, like, three tablespoons of flour to, like, a half a cup of the cornmeal

Cornmeal. And then I've got a little cayenne because... Ooh, a little heat. Yes

Because you like it hot, don't you, Mama? Yes, I like it hot. Ha-ha! All right

Like you. Yes. And we've got oregano, and we've got some smoked paprika

I'll get busy on all that. You know, mix those with our dry ingredients

Absolutely. We're going to fry up our fish and a little vegetable oil, David

David, when I'm in here with Best Dishes and when I did Paula's Home Cooking, usually I was by myself on that show

Sure. So I did a lot of talking into that camera. Mm-hmm

And I always pictured one of my friends' faces. Sure. When you look down the barrel of that camera, who does David Venable see

Well, you know what? I think of my family and my friends who watch the show, but I also think about who our customer is

Our viewer is not just someone that stays home all day. Our viewer is someone that watches us on their iPad

All right, baby, that's cayenne. Did you know you put that much cayenne? I think I put a little bit too much cayenne

I knowed you was hot, David. That was supposed to be a pinch, wasn't it? Well, why don't I just take some of it out

There we go. Now, that should be about right, shouldn't it? All right, perfect. You hot little devil

Always a little bit hot. All right, we'll get a little oregano in here. Okay

And then just a little smoked paprika. Yes. One thing that I found to be really amazing was one day I was out pumping gas in my car

And a great big pickup truck came rumbling into the gas station

This big rough and tumble guy gets out of it. And he starts walking toward me and I'm thinking, uh-oh

What have you done? What is this all about? He walks up and he says, David, my wife and I love your show

We never miss it. So just when you think you know who our customer is. You were supposed to get your butt beat because his client had bought too much stuff

Did I cut him off on the way into the gas pump? I didn't know. So you're lightly dredging on the air

I guess I'm just going to kind of dredge it, and you notice that we're not putting anything wet on this fish to, you know, really make a thick batter

Right, so that way you're going to get a little light dusting. Yes, we're really going to get the flavor of cayenne and fish

A little extra cayenne. No, the one thing that I love about tilapia is it's super high in protein, so that's the first and obvious benefit

It's also really high in omega-3 oils, which is heart healthy. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa

Time out, time out here. Do we have tilapia to sell today

I want you to tell me what you just did there. I just poofed a little cornmeal in flour to see if our grease was hot enough

because, you know, you want to cook fish pretty high heat. Because you do a flash fry and you get it out of there

Yes, because you don't want to overcook fish. Right. So, David, when I'm cooking fish, I like to only put three in the pan at a time

That's a big rule you taught me once upon a time when I'm frying chicken. You should never overcrowd the pan because it cools the oil too quickly. Right

Yeah It really does All right David Yes ma Why don we move down and start on our tartar sauce Okay what do you need me to do And remember y we got our broccoli roasting in the oven It smells great It gonna be so good

I know, doesn't it? Yes. Okay. All right, so let's use about a half a cup of mayonnaise

I'm gonna put in about a fourth of a teaspoon of sugar. And honey, I'm also gonna need you to zest some lemon

I wanna ask you this. Please. Have you ever had like a big snafu

I remember one time I was selling some bottle stoppers that keep the fizz in a carbonated bottle

Right, right, I've seen them. And they clip onto the top of the bottle. And so I remember putting it on top of the bottle and aiming it right at camera and saying

look at how nicely this holds all of the fizz inside. Well, I didn't have it completely clipped on

It shot off the end and this great big river of brown liquid went right for the camera

And the four camera operator got drenched and everybody was all over the floor. And I said, well, and it only malfunctions when you do it wrong

We all have things that go well and things that don't go well. Absolutely. What's next

Yes. All right, let's put some juice, baby. Okay. And we've got some fresh parsley and fresh dill

All right. If you would mince up that shallot real good. Yes, ma'am, I can do that for you. All right, David, I'm taking our fish up

Yes, ma'am. You probably want to cook that three or four minutes per side

So let's put the shallots, the dill, and the fresh parsley into our tartar sauce

Yes, ma'am. I'm going to get our broccoli out, and I hope, David, that you're going to do the happy dance

You know, I always do the happy dance when I taste good food, and how could I not when I'm in your kitchen, right

I hope, I hope. Look at this broccoli, David. Nice. Okay. All right, here, pumpkin head

All right. I'm going to get you this nice piece of hot fish that I just pulled out

Okay. What a treat for that lemon. A little dollop of this? Yes. Hit me

Hit me with your best shot. Beautiful. So bon appetit, baby. It looks and smells delicious, sweet pea

Get some of that good tartar on there. All right, here we go. Mmm

Mmm. All right, hands up, ready? Happy dance, this way, happy dance, happy dance

happy dance. Happy dance. You can cook me any time, love. Now I want to taste that tartar sauce

Mmm, wonderful roasted broccoli, a little crunchy Parmesan cheese on top there

just enough to give it some salt and some flavor. Mmm. Everybody wins on this

Mmm. Coming up, here we go, y'all. Oh, how the tides have turned

And later, David gets started on the frosting a little early. All righty, David

Venable, y'all, in the kitchen with David. So what are you going to make me, honey

White bean and sun-dried tomato dip with some garlic in it and we're going to serve it with toasted pita

This is a super easy recipe. It's one I affectionately like to call a dump and stir

because what you're going to do is put all your ingredients inside the food processor. And my friends out there love them, too

because a lot of them have young children and jobs and all that. Right

We're going to begin with a can of cannellini beans. Now, these are white kidney beans

So what we're going to do is open these up, and we're going to rinse and drain these. Okay

You just want this maybe like cut and triangle for dipping. Please. That would be perfect

Now, I'm going to rinse these off. They're usually packed in water, and they've got just a little bit of that film on them

And get these right into the food processor. Hey, and you know what else you put in here to add a little pop of color and some flavors

Some sun-dried tomatoes. These are packed in olive oil. All right, now I'm separating this, Peter

What we're going to do is take this and actually turn these out on some paper towels and pat them dry

Okay. Because remember, the food processor is going to do all the heavy lifting. David, I know that you're used to anywhere from a two-minute to an eight-minute sales segment

But I can slow down a little bit. But we have a little bit more time than this. Well, let me just relax and tell you a little bit about my bean dip

All right, so we've got our cannellini beans all rinsed and popped inside

We've got our sun-dried tomatoes, but I need some garlic there, my friend. Oh, you do

Can you help me out? Oh, my gosh, yeah. Yeah, so we just, now these will be whole, so we just peel those off

We can pop those right inside. If you can chop me some fresh rosemary

Okay, how much? Rosemary is my favorite, favorite herb. Is it? We're just, I'm just a little bunch there

You know, I keep rosemary growing in my yard. They make the most beautiful bushes

And they go with so much. I'm going to borrow your jar, David

Yes, ma'am. And I'm going to pour... Eyeball some olive oil? Yes, just in here so I can brush it on

Because what we want to do with the pita chips is just brush those lightly with some olive oil. Uh-oh, I thought that jar had a bigger mouth

You know what? I think you and I both take care of the big mouth department. I know

You're going to have to find me a bigger mouth. One thing I'm going to do is add a little lemon juice to my dip

I'm going to add just a little tiny pinch of cayenne. Now, a little bit of onion powder

Put that in as well. So, we've got just about everything all taken care of

Oh, a little salt and pepper. Thank you, ma'am. Appreciate that. All right, now, I'm going to get these in the oven, and we're going to toast them probably for about 10 minutes, David, on 350

Until they're brown and crispy. Just until they're crispy, y'all. Perfect. And we'll get this going

Do you need any chives for anything You know what You can put some chives in there for some color Well I was thinking I would just kind of put it on our platter Mm And you know what We add some olive oil here

I was thinking, my goodness, that is not nearly as creamy as it ought to be. I'm a jolly ball

It's got about a quarter cup. And look at that. Love the color

Mm-hmm. And let's see. Ready? Let me help you there. There we are

You can put this in the refrigerator a day or two in advance. It'll just keep marinating in all those flavors

How's that? So good. How about if I try to sell this

Well, you have put me on the spot today. I think it's your turn. Here we go, y'all

I have a fabulous healthy bean dip with sun-dried tomatoes. It's item number 502

Oh, I see the numbers. They're turning, they're turning. We're down to two jars

So do call in for your white cantaloni bean and sun-dried tomatoes

Full of garlic and good magnesium. And iron. And iron. And folate

And folate. What is folate? I don't know. I don't either. And guess what

Sold out. You know what? Anytime you need a second job, you call us

We'll put you on the air. You know what? A little lemon on there? I'm going to squirt a little, little

lemon juice. Okay, our chips should be ready. You want to get those out of the oven

Sure. And I want to sample this bean dip from David's cookbook. And if you want to

dress these pita chips up a little bit, you can do that as well. Sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on these

Okay. And they look really pretty, and when you do little triangles like this, it just gives you

a chance to hold the short end and use the other like a big scoop. That's right

What do you think, Chupa? Delicious. Well, listen, we got a Georgia Granny Square, we got a taste

With my name on it? I can hardly wait. Paula Deen's baking for me

All right. Your name's all over, baby. Coming up, Granny's ice squares are finger licking good

Y'all, I can't believe this recipe is bringing it home. I know we're almost done

Where's the time go? Well, it just went way too quick because you're a real professional

Well, you are a sweetheart. I love cooking with you. It's such fun. What are we going to make now? We are going to make the icing for granny squares, the Georgia granny squares. Okay

So I need for you to give me about a cup of maybe a heaping cup

Heaping cup of powdered sugar? Of powdered sugar. All right. I'm going to sift it a little bit

Right. And we're going to add a little bit of almond extract. And a little bit of this goes a long way

A little bit goes a long way. Because it's powerful. Yes. It's like you

It's very powerful. Well, it's robust. And a little vanilla and a couple of drops of milk

Okay. That's a plenty. Does that look like a couple of drops? Yes

All right. All right, now, if you'll take that spatula and just kind of run around that bowl for me

Yes, ma'am. Do some scraping for you. See if you can catch that little bit of sugar. Come on, get it

I never like to miss the sugar. No. I'm going to sling that off because we're going to have a drop of that

And I'll do another scrape for you? Yes. There we go. And then you just plop it on top of our squares

Okay. And we're ready to go. All right. There you go. It's just a thin layer of icing

I got another little drop here. Oh, thank you. Another little dollop. Waste not, won't not

But you know what? I like that it's a little smoother, a little thinner because it spreads more evenly

Right. Look at that. And you know what? That looks too good to pass up. I'm going to throw a little taste

Is it good? I'm sorry. Did you say something? No, I didn't

I'm over here busy licking the nut. And that almond is so nice

It just gives you a little bit of extra. See, I just love, love, love almond extract

Now I'm going to cut us just some small squares. Okay. Look at that

Perfect. Just a little bite of something sweet for the sweet. Nothing I like more than a little sweet

Dig in. Okay, here we go. Tell me how you like it

It looks just like a little cake, doesn't it? Mmm. Good. Delightful

Just a nice little bite of something sweet at the end of a meal. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm

Wait, you dropped, though. Oh, did I? Mm-hmm. Oh. Hang on, sugar

Hang on. Gotcha. Thank you. I'm good. Just a little bit. Just a little bit

But isn't that nice? It's wonderful. Honey, I have to say, David is, he's the bomb, y'all

Well, you are my angel. I adore you. And you're giving them 20 years of a lot of pleasure

Well, thank you so much. It's a pleasure being here with you. Oh, listen. I know you feel the same way that I do, David

We just want to send love and best dishes out there to all of our friends

As always, and as I like to say on In the Kitchen with David, keep it flavorful each and every bite

There you go. Thank you