MATT LAUER, co-host:
This morning on
TODAY'S KITCHEN STEP-BY-STEP
, cooking with global flair. Chef
Todd English
is out with his first cookbook in over a decade, sharing 150 recipes using flavors from
all around the world
. It's called "
Cooking
in
Everyday English:
The
ABC
's of
Great Flavor
at Home."
Todd
, welcome back. Good to see you.
Mr. TODD ENGLISH (Author, "Cooking in Everyday English"):
Great. No pun intended,
Matt.
LAUER:
Exactly.
Mr. ENGLISH:
We might as use the name, right?
LAUER:
First cookbook in 10 years.
Mr. ENGLISH:
Yes.
LAUER:
Were you burned out on that side of your career or were you just looking for inspiration?
Mr. ENGLISH:
You know, it's amazing how fast 10 years goes by. But, yeah, it's just inspiration. You know, and I have this show on
PBS
called "
Food Trip
."
LAUER:
Right.
Mr. ENGLISH:
And I
've traveled
all over the world
extensively and my first cookbooks are sort of based on my Mediterranean and Italian life, and now back with, you know, this more international flavors. And, plus, you know, what's really happening in
America right
now, which is...
LAUER:
And the -- go ahead, I'm sorry.
Mr. ENGLISH:
No, no. I'm just saying just from the standpoint, you know, we want to eat lower fat and we want to have, you know, but we want to have food that, you know, pops on our palate. You know, so?
LAUER:
This pops on the palate.
Mr. ENGLISH:
Pops on your palate.
LAUER:
I mean, the first thing you do is you have a spice blend.
Mr. ENGLISH:
Yeah.
LAUER:
Tell me what's in it.
Mr. ENGLISH:
Well, this is ancho chiles, this is
red chili
pepper, coriander and cumin seed.
And I
want you guys to learn. Like make your own spice blends. Buy the spices whole and then grind them in a coffee grinder.
LAUER:
That takes a lot of confidence, though, that you're going to get it in the right -- in the right, you know.
Mr. ENGLISH:
A lot of -- right, right. But the book has it in the right proportions and this is just a simple dish that I'm using this -- this is my Mexican
chili
spice. We've got
Anaheim
peppers, I've got onions, I've got -- this is a
prime rib
chili
. So we have chunks of prime -- again, you don't want to
prime rib
we can use chicken, we can use ground meat, whatever it is. But chiles again, it's -- I added garlic, I added some
chili
spice, onions and the
Anaheim
. And, you know, I'm really -- if you make
chili
you understand that, you know, there's lot of ways to do it. Everybody's got their own
chili
recipe. But the idea is that, you know, it's about using those spices, letting them bloom in there.
Mr. ENGLISH:
And, you know, and this is something good. Look, it's football season, something that can be around.
LAUER:
Oh, I love
chili
.
Mr. ENGLISH:
You know? Chicken broth.
LAUER:
Is it possible to overcook the meat while you're browning it?
Mr. ENGLISH:
No.
LAUER:
No.
Mr. ENGLISH:
No, just get it nice and -- nice and caramel. Let all those spices cook in there, let it go long enough...
LAUER:
OK.
Mr. ENGLISH:
...that it actually does get into something like this.
LAUER:
All right.
Mr. ENGLISH:
Then, at the end, let's just get this, you see how beautiful the color is.
LAUER:
Starts to thicken up.
Mr. ENGLISH:
And you can smell -- yeah, absolutely. The tomatoes thicken up. And then I add a bunch of different beans. I got black, kidney,
red beans
, pintos and white beans and, again, these -- you know, it's fine to open up a can. Make cooking -- canned beans are really nice and they make cooking simple, you know.
LAUER:
And, by the way,
chili
gets better when it's there like in the fridge for two or three days.
Mr. ENGLISH:
It's better the next -- it's better the next day.
LAUER:
You keep eating it up. You serve it with -- in
little
-- like
little
crocks?
Mr. ENGLISH:
Little
crocks, you know, or just a bowl. It's not that big. But if you have these it's really nice. Just garnish it with a
little
bit of cheese, scallions, a
little
sour cream. Leave that all on the side.
LAUER:
All right.
Mr. ENGLISH:
Now...
LAUER:
Another thing you want to help us make is...
Mr. ENGLISH:
Right.
LAUER:
...something called compound butter.
Mr. ENGLISH:
Compound butter. Now...
LAUER:
What exactly is that?
Mr. ENGLISH:
This may -- you know, this may freak a lot of people out. Oh, butter, you can add a lot of calories. Very simple, OK? This is something that is easy, you can keep it in the freezer like this. I have it wrapped up. This is a blue cheese
almond butter
with a
little
bit of panko. You just mix these up together like this, very simply, and a
little
salt and pepper. And you can keep this in the freezer.
LAUER:
But in what way -- how are we going to use this?
Mr. ENGLISH:
Basically, I'm going to put this on top of -- you can put it on top of pork chops, chicken, finish a pasta with it, or all that, right?
Mr. ENGLISH:
What I have here is, as you can see, I just did the lamb chops here that were cooking on the grill.
LAUER:
Right.
Mr. ENGLISH:
Just simply, you know, cut a piece of -- cup -- cut a dollop like this, you know, or you can put it on toast points and serve it garnished...
LAUER:
How long can you keep it in the freezer?
Mr. ENGLISH:
It can go for at least, you know, three months, easily.
LAUER:
Wow. It's good stuff.
Mr. ENGLISH:
So put it on top of there. And you can grill it, and you can see how the finished
chili
is and how gorgeous that is.
LAUER:
It's all about the flavor.
Mr. ENGLISH:
Got spoons there for you,
Matt
, just in case.
LAUER:
OK.
Mr. ENGLISH:
It's all about flavor, that's what I am, and I want you guys to cook at home and, you know, enjoy cooking and enjoy not having to spend hours in the kitchen.
LAUER:
We're going to dig into this on just a second.
Mr. ENGLISH:
That's what
it's about.
LAUER:
Todd English
. Always good to have you here,
Todd
.
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