Tropical Paradise

Y'all, Bobby's Tickle Box is turned over

We've been standing up here talking about our St. Lucia vacation. So today, we're going to be starting off with a spicy jerk chicken

And just wait till you taste my son Bobby's recipe for a golden coconut fried shrimp

And for dessert, cool key lime pie topped with meringue. And you're going to feel like your own vacation too when you take a sip of Bobby's Pina Colada smoothie

So y'all grab your sandals and your sunscreen, because we're cruising to a tropical paradise

This dish is really inspired by that fabulous vacation that we took

I'm going to make you some jerk chicken. I've never, ever cooked jerk, so I'm really excited that you're going to show me how to do it

Yeah, I mean, this is so easy. I've put in a tablespoon of brown sugar, son

I've put in about four or five cloves of garlic. And as soon as you just rough dice that onion, I'm going to toss it in

Now I'm going to put in a teaspoon of dried ginger. I'm going to put in a half a teaspoon

Allspice? No, this is nutmeg. Half a teaspoon of that. Is that cut well enough

That's perfect. Just toss it in, son. How much of the onion is? Well, a whole onion

We're going to use a whole onion. And I'm going to use about a teaspoon of salt, just like that

There we go. I'm going to use about a teaspoon of black pepper

All right, son, over here I've got some allspice and I've got some thyme. If you would toss in about two teaspoons of each of those

You want to measure it in your hand? That'll be fine. Is that one

Yeah. That's about two? Yeah. Tell me your favorite. You can use that

I'll tell you my favorite thing about the St. Lucia trip. I so enjoyed watching you reel in that fish

But I also liked zip lining with some of you. Oh, my goodness

Zip lining through the jungle. Yeah. Two habaneros, y'all. Seed and all

Two entire habaneros? Yes. That is going to be hot. But the whole thing, I mean, St. Lucia was so beautiful

The people were so nice. Oh, my gosh. It was so, so wonderful seeing you guys diving off that sailboat and swimming and playing like you were little boys again

So we're just going to process this all, Bobby, until it's like a fine seasoning

So I'm going to put in a couple of tablespoons of just vegetable oil

Okay, so Bobby, just that easy. Okay. Now, I've got us a chicken, and I had the butcher cut it up

Nice. So if you'll open that, I'm going to just give it a quick wash over here

All right. Just dump it in there. Okay, that's great. Thanks. Just going to toss it around

You always want to wash your chicken. So there we go, Bobby

We got that washed. So, Mama, what was your favorite part of this

Of the St. Lucian trip. Yeah. And have you forgiven us yet for the fishing trip

Y'all, just for those of you that may not have caught our St. Lucian vacation, our family vacation

the boys kind of pulled a trick on me. All right. One cup of lime juice. Yes

One cup of lime juice. Just pour that over. And I want to wash my hands real good

Anyway, y'all, we went to St. Lucia on vacation, and the boys wanted the three of us to go deep sea fishing

So I thought that was just great. Well, I was kind of tired

You know, vacation is hard work. So I fell asleep, and all of a sudden, the boys woke me up screaming, fish, we got a fish

Well, I jump up out of this sleeping stupor, and they put me in the fighting chair

Half asleep. Half asleep. They put me in the fighting chair, y'all

And I'm working, and I'm struggling to get that fish in, and I probably..

All right, Bobby, we're going to just pour. All of it? No. All right, we're going to save some. Okay

A little bit. We're going to save just a little bit to, like, marinate

Okay. to brush it after we've marinated it. All right, so... So I work, and I work, y'all

to get that fish reeled in. Yeah. He was fighting you, too

My son of a sucker was frozen. Jamie and Bobby, while I was sleeping

there was a fish left over from the catch earlier. Earlier didn have anything to do with us And they had frozen it So they put that frozen fish on the line Threw him out Threw him out there let me work to get that sap sucker in

My first thought was that fish must have been living way down deep where it's real cold

Because it was frozen solid. It was so good. So cold. Here, sonny boy

You gonna pour that over it? Yeah, let's pour that over it, too. Have you got some, uh, have you got some wrap

Yes, some plastic wrap. Yes, right here. But anyway, son, just get that wrapped and put it in the refrigerator

And we're going to let it marinate, y'all, for four hours overnight. Okay, so the chicken's done marinating

Okay, good. Now all we have to do, Bobby, is just take that wrap off, put it in the oven

I've preheated the oven to 350 degrees. Okay, I got it. And look over here at my new little trick

Look at this squirrel, y'all. All right, look-a-here. For hot ovens, you pull him just like that

So just put it in. And look, then you take his neck and push him in

Like a charm. Yeah. So our chicken's in the oven. Okay, I'm gonna get clean

I want to show you one of my favorite recipes. It's a fried coconut shrimp with a really nice dip in sauce

and later the best key lime pie you ever put in your mouth

Okay, Bobby. You going to start the dipping sauce? Pull out the chicken, yeah. Got it. We're making Bobby's coconut shrimp, y'all

and I'm going to start making the dipping sauce while Bobby is getting the chicken out of the oven

And I'm using, per Bobby's instructions, a half a cup. That's not something you hear every day

I know, I know. Y'all listen good, because I might not be repeating that

Alright, a half a cup of orange marmalade. This is inspired by a trip

that Jamie and I took down to Key West. Oh, really? Half a teaspoon of red pepper flakes

It's also very good on fish. About four teaspoons of rice wine vinegar

Can I? I'm going to put something. I'm going to try this. Yeah, I want you to try it

And I've got you some grilled vegetables. Chicken looks beautiful. And this looks beautiful

I love the way that orange marmalade looks with the red pepper flakes

It looks very, very good. Got some pretty colors going on in this little pot

All right, now taste your chicken. See if I heated you up too much

I'm going to turn that off so it won't get... Is it hot

I cut you some milk there just in case. It's very good

Is it hot? It's hot from coming out of the oven, but the spice isn't that bad. What do you think

That's great. It's good. But I don't want to save my appetite because I want some shrimp

I do too. That chicken is very, very good. If you've got a man or a lady in your life that likes hot dishes

they'll love the jerk chicken. All right, you want to just make a batter for the coconut shrimp

Sure, yes. We're going to start off with some flour. Okay. About half a cup

Half a cup. Yeah, level that off. Level that off here, son

There you go. And then two-thirds cup of water. Okay, I'll stir while you add your ingredients

All right. Okie doke. A little water. A little bit of salt just to season

And when you're making a batter like this, you want to let that batter rest after you make it

because it's going to give you a much better crust on your shrimp. Half a teaspoon of bacon powder

Bacon powder, okay. That's going to make it puff. Yeah. Okey-doke. So what did you say, let this rest for about 15 minutes

But I got one that's already rested. Oh, good. Okay, so that's easy enough, y'all

Okay. All right, I'm going to go ahead and pour. our dipping sauce right over in there

so I can get rid of that little pot. Here's our batter for the shrimp

Okay. I'm going to take this one out of the way and let that one rest, and maybe we can use it a little bit later on

Okay. That sounds great. Got some big, beautiful shrimp here. And you like using big shrimp, don't you

Well, for two reasons. Number one, because we have access to them. You know, being here in Savannah

I can, I hate to tell you all this, but I can go out in my backyard and I can catch these myself

So that's the number one reason. Second reason is they're easier to handle when you're doing this

when you're dredging through a batter and, you know, with the coconut and all that stuff. All right, so you ready

Let's go ahead and start battering these. So you got your shrimp and you have peeled and deveined them

They're ready to go. Uh-huh. And we've got our wet. Mm-hmm. And then I'll just mix up our coconut

And our half a cup of breadcrumbs. Just kind of toss them together

We got our deep fryer 325 Yeah I going to bump it up now just a little bit So we just going to mix that up good

So you run them through there, drop them into the dry side. And then into the dry

I'll dredge them in your coconut. I think you've got enough

Go ahead, yep. So I'm just going to kind of drop these in the deep fryer

Now, I always find peanut oil that has a high resistance to burning

And you want to put your shrimp pretty quickly in at the same time

because shrimp cook very, very fast, y'all. You don't want to overcook them

So you want to get in a batch just as quickly as you can

and then take them out at the same time. And get them here as quick as you can. And get them here as quick as you can

That's exactly right. Okay, those aren't going to take long. No, maybe two minutes

Here, you want to put the ones that I've got ready on our platter

Look at that. Look at that, y'all. Ooh-wee. Ooh, it's so hot

What you want to do, Nat? Little Bobby. Mmm. Next, I want to eat another shrimp

Mmm. Ow! Get out of this world. When we come back, buddy

guess what we're gonna be making? What? You know what we're gonna be making

You know, we're enjoying all these tropical dishes. We're gonna make a key lime pie for y'all

with a meringue topping. And later, it's a taste of the tropics, y'all

Pina colada smoothies. All right, for those of you out there in front of the TV

Bobby and I are fixing a mix-up. Probably one of the most popular desserts

and that's key lime pie. But this one is a little different. We're just going to use a prepared graham cracker crust

Okay. Bobby, this one is so, so easy. I never have made a key lime pie

I got to tell you, I don't have much of a sweet tooth. I know you're not real wild about sweets. But if I'm eating a dessert, it would be a key lime pie

I love them. All right, so why don't you use... So show me how to make it. How can I help you? Yeah. So we're using three egg yolks

All right, now I'm going to add a can of sweetened condensed milk

Okay. Which this stuff is so good I could eat it straight out of the can

All right, now I'm going to put in a half a cup of lime juice

and you just keep stirring that on up. Okay. There we go

So this is going to be nice and tart. Yes, it is. But this is one of those things that you think about when you think of Key West or the tropics

All right, now I'm going to put in a half a cup of heavy cream

All right, now I'm going to add the zest of one lime

Just gives it that extra little kick. There we go. Okay. All right, yep

Now, pour this into your pie shell. I've got our oven preheated to 350 degrees, y'all

And we're going to bake this for 30 minutes. Just pour it on in, son

All the way. All right, so, Bobby, in the oven that goes 30 minutes

Now, I've already got a pie that I've baked off and cooled

Okay. So you want to bring that over here because we're going to make a meringue

You know, at both of the restaurants, we serve a fresh sweetened whipped cream on top of our pies

But today, we're going to do something a little different. We're going to make a meringue

And here I have my egg whites. And this is four egg whites that have been beaten to a stiff peak

If you'll put me six tablespoons of sugar in there, Bobby. And that's six

Okay. And we've got some cornstarch right here. Okay. Half a teaspoon of that

And just a pinch of salt. Okay. All right, now I'm going to start adding our dry ingredients

And this is going to make our meringue have a little bit more substance

Now, there's a few tips that you need to know when you're making meringues

The first thing you don't want to do is make it on a day that it's raining

Just use a sweetened whipped cream because it just won't work with all the humidity

And you want to make sure that your egg whites are at room temperature. And that will usually produce you a real good meringue Okay All right so let bring our pie down here Now I know that you probably thinking now Mama every pie I ever seen you make with meringue is

brown. Yeah, I am thinking that. I know you're thinking. I can hear you

thinking. But then I was able to draw my own conclusions. Yeah, we're gonna

look at that meringue. It's beautiful. What a beauty. Then I'm just gonna

take the spoon and bring that meringue to the edge of the pie

Turn on our torch, Bobby. Okay. Three, two, one, fire! You know, if you don't have a torch now, y'all

you just put this back in the oven and just bake it off

Oh, I love it. I love it. I love it. Perfect. And I'm going to just slice us a piece out of there

Now, I want to show you. You know, the first piece of pie can be horrendous getting out of a pie shell

So if you're using an aluminum pan, all you have to do is take your scissors and nip it exactly where you cut your pie

That's a pretty cool idea. And you just slip that down. That's a great idea. There you go

Mmm. Look at that. Beautiful. I'm going to just grate a little more zest over our pie

How about some mint and some lime? Oh, yes. We need a little twist of lime

That's perfect. We'll tuck that in right there. Look how beautiful. And you have a delicious key lime pie

And you know what? Fairly easy. Yes, it's easy. This is so great

You know what would go really well with this? What? A pina colada smoothie

How about that, y'all? Oh, my gosh. That sounds perfectly heavenly to have along with our key lime pie

And it will be. I feel you. When we come back. Welcome back, y'all

Mama, you ready to make a delicious pina colada smoothie? I am so ready

This is going to be very good, very simple, and pretty good for you

There really is nothing to this. We're going to use fresh pineapple, about a cup of it

We're going to use unsweetened coconut milk. Okay. We're going to use honey and about a quarter cup of ice

Okay, that looks like that. That's a little more than a quarter cup. And how much coconut milk

You're going to use the whole thing. Uh-huh. About a cup of it. And a banana

One banana. Okie doke. It's got all the flavors that a pina colada has

Yeah, exactly, except for the one missing ingredient. All right, so in goes my banana

And you've got some honey sitting up here. A little bit of honey. And that's just to sweeten it a little bit

Exactly, because the coconut milk is unsweetened. How much? About two tablespoons

Okay. Great. and ice. You've already gotten your ice in there, don't you

I put my ice in first. Okay. These bananas are nice and ripe

This is simple enough. I think mine's already ready. Yeah, but mine's going to be better

Why? I don't know. You're messing with your mama. All right. Oh, that looks good

And I see you've even got us some umbrellas up here. Yeah. Absolutely

All right. If I'm in a tropical paradise, I'm going to have a drink with an umbrella in it

Look at how wonderful it is. Oh, it looks delicious. Yeah. Gosh, I'm swallowing

I have had so much fun hanging out with you today. You know, I just..

All you mamas out there, you know what I'm talking about. When I say there's nothing like fun quality time spent with your children, is it

I have had so much fun being with you, Bobby. I have too, Mama. I love you

I love you too. Mm-hmm. Cheers. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. And I love your pina colada

Mmm. Fresh pineapples and bananas. That is so delicious. It tastes nutty

Mmm. Mmm. This is great. Y'all must try some of the recipes that Bobby shared with me today

Thanks for tuning in today. We've had a great time with y'all. And as always, we send you love and best dishes from our kitchen to yours. Mmm-hmm

Bye, y'all. Mmm-hmm