♪ ♪ P.A.

Bennett> Hi, welcome to "Connections."

I'm P.A.

Bennett.

It's all about good, old Southern food on this edition of "Connections."

How about some yummy shrimp and grits, or maybe something a bit different, a collard green sandwich?

We'll be cooking and tasting those dishes and more as we travel to the Low country to meet Alluette at Alluette's Cafe.

And here in the studio with us is Chef Fatback.

Chef Fatback, thank you so much for being with us today.

Fatback> Thank you for having me.

P.A.> This is gonna be fun.

I love shrimp and grits, number one, and that's what we're gonna be starting off with today.

Let's talk about the shrimp and grits.

Actually, you use grits that are a little different, that the common person may not use.

Fatback> These are stone-ground yellow grits.

The common person may be used to the white hominy grits that they would eat for breakfast.

I use pretty much the same thing, but these grits are stone ground right here in Columbia at Adluh Flour.

We use their grits because, to me, it's a little hardier, a little coarser for dinner.

P.A.> Will it take the same length of time to cook these grits, or about how long will take?

Fatback> It only takes about 30, 40 minutes to boil the water and then add the grits, stir it up.

But the longer you cook these grits, the softer they get, P.A.> Okay.

>> and that's one of the things about these stone-ground grits.

It's not gonna be as soft as quick as the white grits.

But at the same time, these grits are just heartier.

And they're not cheese grits.

They are yellow, but they are not cheese grits.

P.A.> Okay.

Fatback> The traditional shrimp and grits call for the andouille sausage, which is a very spicy sausage.

It's very expensive too, but it's a very spicy sausage, a little more chunkier meat pieces in those things, and you can use that, but I've found that these sausages are more consistent than what I like to have.

P.A.> So the smoked sausage, the onions-- Fatback> Spicy smoked sausage.

P.A.> Spicy smoked sausage, the onions, and we'll talk about the other ingredients too.

Fatback> This is something that really is very, very easy to do, and we cook it in our restaurant all the time.

It's one of our signature dishes.

We tend to really like to show off this dish because we don't make it with a creamy gravy.

We have a more brown gravy, a brown roux that we use for this instead of the traditional creamier gravy that some people use.

P.A.> How much of the sausage are you gonna use?

Fatback> Not much.

We're gonna Let's cut those for you.

We're going to cut about ten pieces or so.

P.A.> Are we talking about a half a pound or a quarter pound or what?

Fatback> Probably a quarter pound.

I didn't weigh it out.

You know, you get to a point in your life when you just kind of know how much to put in stuff, like Mom did.

I bet your mom didn't weigh out half the stuff she did, or measure out.

She just knew to put that much in there.

This is gonna be enough for us, just the two of us.

P.A.> So we've got the sausage.

We've got the onions cut up.

Now we're going with the bell pepper.

Does it matter if it's a green, red, or yellow bell pepper?

Fatback> Again, this is the decision-making part.

Some people think that peppers are hot, and these are not.

This is just regular pepper, green peppers.

They're very, very mild.

There's no heat to this at all.

I like the color of the red pepper and the green pepper, so I'm gonna do a little bit of both.

I like the consistency and the color of both of those to be contrasted in my shrimp and grits.

P.A.> They always say it's about presentation as well, and while it tastes good, you want it to look good too.

Fatback> Yeah, and I want to get to the end result, which is eating, quickly, so I don't want to get into-- you know, some people have yellow.

Some people have red, and I've got a little bit of red here.

P.A.> So you have about a quarter pound of the sausage, about half of a large onion, and what is that, about half of that bell pepper?

Fatback> About half of that bell pepper.

P.A.> And then another half of the red bell pepper, as well.

Fatback> Exactly.

P.A.> So those are the primary ingredients.

We're gonna get out of your way so you can get to cooking here.

Fatback> Wait a minute!

I need your help though.

I know you like to cook.

P.A.> You know I love to cook.

Yeah, right.

Fatback> I need your help though.

You can help me.

P.A.> What do you need me to do?

Fatback> You ever see- Disney had a show on called, um... this has been- P.A.> Now, what's that?

Fatback>...a little bit of oil.

P.A.> That's oil?

Fatback> Yeah, it's peanut oil, and it's been reserved a little bit, and it's what I use to just bind everything together.

P.A.> Why do you use peanut oil as opposed to another kind of oil?

Fatback> That's a good question.

Sometimes people use olive oil, which is fine for this dish.

Sometimes people use vegetable oil.

Sometimes we use Crisco.

Sometimes we use peanut oil.

And it's just what you like to have.

P.A.> So you can use any kind of oil.

Fatback> Any kind of oil.

We're just using a little bit of oil so this stuff can cook and it doesn't stick to the pan, and I probably put just about as much as I need to put in.

When I put the raw vegetables in there, they can saute a little bit.

This is called Cajun spice.

It has...

I can't give you everything it has in it, but you can buy this at any grocery store.

It's called Cajun seasoning.

But I know it has salt, pepper, and some cayenne pepper.

Now we're gonna start with our vegetables...right in here.

[sizzling] Ah, yes, you hear that sizzle?

P.A.> Yeah.

Fatback> We're gonna put our onions and our peppers.

I like to just kind of throw all that stuff in there together, and my sausage.

And now we're gonna saute these together.

P.A.> How long should that take?

Fatback>...till everything is soft and everything is cooked a little translucent and a little softer.

And I want you to do me a favor.

If you would take this tong-- P.A.> Uh-oh!

Fatback> This is very easy.

Hold this pan with this other hand.

Just kind of keep mixing them together.

While you do that, I'll get ready to put the shrimp in there, because that's what it is, shrimp and grits.

P.A.> Yeah, yeah.

Fatback> I got these large Atlantic coast shrimp that's been peeled and de-veined.

P.A.> Let me ask you, 'cause I've always wondered about that de-veining thing, should you always de-vein your shrimp?

Fatback> Well, shrimp, if you don't de-vein it, you're eating what the shrimp ate for dinner before he died, and that's just something you ought to be concerned about.

[laughing] P.A.> But you know something?

I heard somebody ask that same question on another show one time, and the guy said, "Well, that's where the flavor is.

"I was like, Flavor?

Fatback> It's true.

It's true.

If you're really a connoisseur of good shrimp, you know that's what the shrimp had for dinner.

P.A.> Yum.

Fatback> You're eating the shrimp.

Believe it or not, the shell has a lot of flavor, the shells and stuff.

You shouldn't throw that away because you can make a nice roux from the shrimp shells, or a gravy from the shrimp shells, by boiling those and getting their flavor out.

P.A.> You boil 'em, and of course you still throw the shells away?

You don't leave 'em in the roux.

Fatback> Yeah.

You'll cook 'em down, and then you'll have a nice sauce from that shell.

P.A.> How am I doing here, Chef?

Fatback> You're doing great.

Just keep stirring.

You're doing great.

Now, if you're getting tired of doing that, we can do this, we can cover this up.

We can cover that up, and the heat and the moisture will do some more cooking for you.

We'll put this down here.

We're gonna add the shrimp on the end because the shrimp doesn't take that long to cook.

You can overcook shrimp very easily.

So I'm gonna add that at the end, and I'm gonna add my spices at the end.

Well, actually, I can do it now.

This is making it.

Now, this is... your flavor point.

A lot of people have, I would say, flavor points about right here.

My flavor point's up here.

P.A.> I'm probably a hair less than you are.

Fatback> A hair less than mine?

Okay, that's good, because there's one thing about food with me.

If it tastes bland, I won't eat it.

I just can't do it.

P.A.> Yeah, it's not any fun.

Fatback> That's why I go to a Mexican restaurant or I go to an Indian restaurant and just have a ball because of all the flavor explosions that's going on in that place.

I walk into the place.

I smell it.

Oh, I get hungry.

I want some vindaloo, and come to find out, the vindaloo is probably one of the hottest dishes they serve, with that curry.

Oh, my goodness!

P.A.> There's a lot going on here, so we want to get moving, and get this...

Okay, we're good here?

How long is this... What do we need more to do here?

Fatback> We just want to soften 'em up.

You can... P.A.> Oh, that looks good.

That looks real good.

So we can throw the shrimp in?

Fatback> Yep, you ready for that part?

P.A.> Yeah, yeah.

We're gonna throw the shrimp in.

Now, with the shrimp and grits, do we just take the grits and layer them on a platter and then put the other stuff on top?

P.A.> So let's go on and put the shrimp in.

Fatback> You ready for that?

P.A.> Yes, uh-huh.

Fatback> We already put the seasoning in, so now we're gonna add the shrimp to it.

P.A.> And you said something about a roux.

Do we need to do that to?

Fatback> The roux's already been done.

That's over there.

That's what we're gonna add.

P.A.> Okay, so the roux's already been done, and we'll get these ingredients up for folk because we know we're going through this relatively quickly here.

So the shrimp shouldn't take but how long?

Fatback> Not more than a minute or two at the most.

And so now here's my roux.

P.A.> Oh, so you actually put the roux in with that?

Okay.

And tell people what roux is again.

Fatback> Roux is a fancy way to say "gravy. "

This is a brown gravy that we're using, and we made that ahead of time.

It's just flour and water and some beef stock, you know, whatever seasoning we wanted to put in that, and then either beef stock or chicken stock, whatever we're using that day, we make a roux from that.

But now that's done.

That's ready to go now.

Now we're ready to let it do its thing.

While this is doing its thing-- oh, this is perfect.

You're gonna let that shrimp cook.

P.A.> Oh, that looks delicious.

Fatback> Okay.

We'll go ahead and plate our grits up.

P.A.> Okay.

And so now, when they come into your restaurant, Chef Fatback, they get a nice, big, hearty serving, and this is a dinner item.

Fatback> This is absolutely a dinner item.

This is not a lunch item at all.

We've got some hot grits.

P.A.> Okay, we've got our yellow grits, stone-ground.

Stone-ground yellow grits, not cheese grits.

Stone-ground grits, and they're actually yellow.

And so you've got your presentation ready to go here.

You've got your grits there.

Fatback> Let's check and see how the shrimp is doing.

They're coming along, not quite right yet.

P.A.> How can you tell when the shrimp are ready to go?

Fatback> You know how they were raw when we put 'em in there?

You could almost see through 'em, and they were a little grayish in some areas.

We're gonna wait till they all turn a pinkish white.

P.A.> So this is a favorite in your restaurant in downtown Columbia.

Fatback> It is.

It's one of our signature dishes.

In fact, we are the only restaurant, I think, in the area that uses the brown roux/gravy as opposed to the white gravy and the cream grits and stuff like that.

P.A.> You're sort of this Renaissance man here.

Fatback> I'm a Renaissance man?

Thank you so much!

I didn't know that.

P.A.> Because you're a musician as well, and you have a CD out that you have to play.

Fatback> That's right.

We have a cookbook and a CD called the "Mac's on Main Cooking Guide. "

And when you're making this particular dish, there's certain songs you need to play off of our CD to go along with this dish, and I hope they're playing it in the background.

If they're not, we'll have to get it to y'all.

But that's how we do it, and it makes it real good.

And if you come to the restaurant, we'll have the band doing it live.

The band will be playing live while we're preparing these dishes, so you're good to go.

P.A.> Presentation, ambience, the whole nine.

Fatback> Well, I want to control as much of your senses as I can when you walk through the door at Mac's on Main.

I want to control your sight, your sound, your smell, your feel.

You know, the waitresses have to look pretty.

P.A.> So let's see how this looks with the grits here.

Fatback> Oh, yes, there we go.

See the shrimp?

See how the shrimp have turned a little pinkish there?

That's done.

That's ready to go.

P.A.> And it smells good too.

It smells as good as it looks.

So we're gonna dish it up on the grits here?

Fatback> Now, see, I told you, you can cook.

P.A.> I can cook, guys.

I can really cook.

I may need a little help doing it.

I may need a chef standing right beside me.

But I can cook.

Oh, that looks great!

Ooh, that looks good.

Fatback> This is it, Mac's on Main shrimp and grits, with our yellow, stone-ground grits and the veggies.

P.A.> Let's go over those ingredients one more time for folks.

So, they'll know.

We have the stone-ground grits.

Fatback> You have the stone-ground yellow grits, and I take for granted you know how to make grits.

There's nothing secret about that.

The same way you've always made grits, we do it that way.

Then the shrimp, the spicy smoked sausage, onions, the red pepper and green pepper, and of course, our gravy or roux that we used.

P.A.> And those delicious spices.

Go with us now to the Low country to Alluette's Cafe, where the emphasis is on locally grown and organic ingredients and cooking with conscious.

♪ Alluette's Cafe is a small eatery tucked away on a Charleston side street, and though small in size, its owner has a big mission.

Alluette promotes consciousness in cooking.

>> I am totally aware and hands-on with my food.

That's my consciousness: to deal with the foods in season, to connect with Joseph to see what he's growing, to go out there periodically and see how he does it.

That's my consciousness, and being conscious in terms of prepping it: not overcooking it, not over seasoning it, not using chemicals on it, just bringing it to you as natural as I can bring it to you.

P.A.> Alluette believes when it comes to our food and its preparation, we need to go back for a better future.

>> We have to go back to the basics.

We grew up on whole foods.

Everyone did.

We grew up basically from field to table.

Our grandparents and our parents had small gardens, and they grew seasonal foods in the garden, and they chose to cook those seasonal foods for their family.

We got away from it.

P.A.> Whole foods like these beautiful locally and organically grown collards, and it is these collards that brought us to Alluette's Cafe for her famous collard green sandwich.

Yes, collard green sandwich.

Alluette> It's a whole-grain, organic wheat bread.

I like using their breads because it tastes clean and fresh.

And of course from what I've been told by my farmer, Joseph Fields of Johns Island, the leaves change because of the temperature.

When the really first frost hits the collards, it changes its color.

♪ So I'm gonna take them off the stem.

♪ And I just rip 'em off the stem.

♪ Now I'm gonna transfer these collards to the pot.

♪ And I'm gonna saute them down.

♪ Okay, now I'm gonna make the sandwich.

♪ P.A.> And I know you have your special sauce.

Alluette> I put my special Geechie Girl Sauce that I make, which I'm sorry to say I can't tell you what's in it.

I'm gonna let the water drain out of this a little bit 'cause I don't want it wet on the sandwich.

P.A.> Ah, okay.

Alluette> I don't want a soggy sandwich.

I want a delectable, dry sandwich.

♪ And of course.

.. the fresh tomato.

♪ Don't that look pretty.

♪ And this is the finished product of the collard green sandwich.

♪ P.A.> Ah, this looks delicious.

Wow!

♪ Mm, mm.

Oh, that's good.

That's real good.

>>> Well, I'll bet a lot of you will be making that collard green sandwich.

It's really very good.

Now we're back in the studio with Chef Fatback, and we are ready to eat and enjoy our last dish, which was one of your signature dishes, the shrimp and grits.

Mm...Chef, that is really, really delicious.

Fatback> Are you just telling me that cause I want to hear it?

P.A.> No, I wouldn't lie to you, Chef.

That's really good.

I'm going to enjoy all of that later on.

Now we're gonna go to another dish that is truly designed for folk who are on the go and need a hearty dish.

Fatback> Oh, absolutely.

When I went away to college, my mom said, "Here, son"-- you know, she couldn't give me a thousand dollars a week.

She said, "Here, son, here's a Crock-Pot. "

Here's the Crock-Pot she gave me 30 years ago.

So, "Here's a Crock-Pot"-- P.A.> Take care of yourself, son!

Fatback> "Good luck.

Hope you don't starve!

"At the time, I didn't understand what the Crock-Pot was all about.

But when I got to college, I figured I could make stuff and start it off in the morning when I left for class, and when I got back, I had the whole dorm humming.

All my dorm mates would knock on the door, "What you got cooking in there? "

This was a Crock-Pot.

But this is such a cool thing because a Crock-Pot, I know everybody has got to have one somewhere in their house.

P.A.> I do.

Fatback> Tucked away.

You're probably not using it.

P.A.> Exactly.

Fatback> Well, I'm gonna show you a really easy dish.

It's homemade chili, and this chili is not your normal, everyday, "get hung up on the ingredients" chili.

This is a really simple chili, and this is how you do it.

Now... P.A.> For me, you got the ground turkey, but most people use hamburger.

Fatback> Hamburger or deer meat or ground pork, anything, any kind of meat.

And in my cookbook, I think I use a combination of... of ground pork and some hamburger, and I think you can use any kind of meat.

But we got some ground turkey because I know you love ground turkey.

P.A.> I do.

I do.

I love ground turkey.

Fatback> This is such a cool thing 'cause you can buy ground turkey just like you buy hamburger now.

So here we are with about a pound or so.

P.A.> What is that, a pound, pound and a half?

Fatback> It says 1.3 pounds ground turkey.

Put it right in a pot.

P.A.> Throw it in the Crock-Pot.

We're doing this first thing in the morning.

Fatback> First thing in the morning when you get up, before you leave for work, put the ground turkey in the pot, and you're gonna put your onions in there.

And if you like green peppers, put your green peppers in there, and red peppers, 'cause I like peppers.

I like all that stuff.

I'm putting all this stuff in the pot.

P.A.> And all this stuff is good for you.

Fatback> All this stuff is good for you.

I haven't put anything in it you don't like yet.

And then this is about 2 ounces of minced garlic.

I'll put that in there too.

Here goes the chili flavor.

I have about 6 ounces of ground cumin.

P.A.> Ground cumin.

Fatback>Now I'm gonna add almost 2 pounds of crushed tomatoes, P.A.> 2 pounds.

Fatback> or diced tomatoes.

P.A.> Do you just use the canned, or what do you use?

Fatback> Yeah, I use the canned tomatoes.

I don't want to get hung up on the ingredients right now.

We're putting everything together.

We're assembling our chili.

Now, notice, I haven't done anything yet.

I've just put everything in the chili.

I'm mixing all this stuff up.

Okay.

And now, here's the decision you have to make: with beans or without beans.

That's a big debate for a lot of people.

Some people say chili shouldn't be made with beans.

In my house, we add beans 'cause I like a lot of heartiness to it.

We have two kinds of kidney beans.

We have the dark red kidney beans, and we have the light red kidney beans.

We're putting the juice and everything from those kidney beans right in that chili.

And the light red kidney beans.

P.A.> So you use both?

Fatback> Yeah.

That way, nobody has to fight over it.

P.A.> Okay, light red and the dark red kidney beans.

This is gonna be a really hearty chili.

Fatback> Yes, and see, all we do is cut your-- that's it.

Your chili is done, with the juice and everything.

I haven't added any extra water.

I turn my Crock-Pot on medium, and then I'm off to work.

And when I come home, this is gonna be the best chili you ever made your family.

P.A.> So you can actually cook this-- do you cook it on low?

Fatback> This is on medium.

On my Crock-Pot, it's on Number 3, which is medium heat, which means it's gonna cook relatively slow, but evenly all day.

P.A.> And eight, ten hours.

Fatback> Yeah, about eight to ten hours, however long it takes you to get home.

P.A.> Okay, so that's ready to go, and when you come home from work, you're ready for a good hearty meal.

Fatback> If you have some rice, or you have something else.

Some people like rice with their chili.

You put that in the bottom and then add that on top.

P.A.> I noticed you didn't put the hot stuff over there.

Fatback> And I didn't do that because I don't know what your flavor point is.

If your flavor point is here, leave it out.

If your flavor point is about here, add a little touch of this.

P.A.> Is that just cayenne?

Fatback> This is straight cayenne.

P.A.> Wow!

Fatback> Straight cayenne.

If your flavor point's like mine, up here, you add the whole thing.

P.A.> Just dump it in there.

Fatback> But we don't have to add this yet.

We can do that at the end after you taste the chili.

P.A.> Okay, so you can kind of gauge where it is.

Fatback> Right.

After you taste it and see how the chili is, you want to add a little more kick to it, add that little bit of cayenne to the end.

This is about 2 ounces of cayenne, but I'm not gonna use all of that, just what you think you would need to bring that flavor point up a little bit.

P.A.> This is a lot of chili.

How many people do you think you can serve out of that?

Fatback> What I just made today, you can easily get about ten bowls of chili out of this, ten normal servings.

Now, if you're in my household, that would probably be about four people.

But it's about ten 8-ounce servings.

P.A.> Okay, about ten servings.

About ten 8-ounce servings.

>>> And through the magic of television, our chili has been cooking for eight to ten hours, and we are ready to taste this delicious stuff here.

Fatback> But before you taste it, there's a couple more things we need to do now.

We need to figure out... Ooh, look at that.

Smell that.

Can you smell that?

P.A.> I can.

It smells really good.

Fatback> Can you smell that back at home?

This is some good stuff.

Now, we need to decide how hot do you want to make it, how much flavor do you want to put in there.

I know you like the spicy stuff, so I'm just gonna sprinkle a little bit in there, about a teaspoonful.

At the end, it doesn't have anything in there, but it's gonna have a little kick now.

So just try this here.

We'll put a little bit in the bowl for you, and you just taste that out Miss P.A.

P.A.> I get to try the chili, ha-ha, before anybody else does.

And this is turkey chili, my favorite.

Mm, that's good.

Fatback> It tastes like chili?

P.A.> Mm-hmm.

It tastes like real good chili.

Fatback> With the red beans.

P.A.> Mm-hmm.

I like it; I like it.

Now I'm beginning to feel the heat, right down here.

Fatback> It didn't slap you in the beginning.

It just kind of like snuck up on you.

That's what it'll do.

P.A.> Chef, thank you so much.

It's been so much fun.

All your food is so delicious.

I need to ask you to go over those ingredients for folk again.

Fatback> It's very easy.

Ground turkey or whatever kind of meat you want: ground turkey, ground beef, ground ham, ground pork, deer, whatever you have.

We have about a pound and a half of that.

We have onions, green and red peppers, minced garlic.

You can do it yourself or buy it already minced.

The cumin, the cayenne, and a little bit of my seasoning from Mac's on Main, that Moncks Corner Meat Seasoning.

P.A.> And of course we really want to hear from you.

Our mailing address is.... Our email address is... And for more information about how you can participate .. That's our show.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Remember, stay connected.

I'm P.A.

Bennett, and I'll see you next time, right here on "Connections.

(music starts) Fatback> This chili actually tastes better tomorrow.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪