-Funding for "Louisiana Coastal Cooking" was provided by the Melvin S. Cohen Foundation, Inc., and by the Plaquemines Parish Tourism Commission.

A short drive from New Orleans, Plaquemines Parish offers a diverse variety of fishing, fresh seafood, rich history, and environmental activities in Louisiana's Delta Country.

Learn more at visitplaqueminesparish.com.

[ Birds chirping ] -Today, on "Louisiana Coastal Cooking," we travel to Thibodaux, the Queen City of Lafourche Parish.

The history of this former trading post on Bayou Lafourche is reflected in its vibrant community.

Nestled in the heart of the Louisiana Bayou region is the John Folse Culinary Institute at Nicholls State University, where aspiring chefs are immersed in the state's rich culinary and cultural heritage.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ The founder of the culinary program in Thibodaux is Chef John Folse.

Dubbed Louisiana's Ambassador to the World by the Louisiana Legislature, the celebrated chef attributes much of his success to his humble roots.

-There were no grocery stores where I grew up in St. James Parish on Lac des Allemands, Lake of the Germans.

Everything we ate either came out of the Mississippi River in fishing traps, deer hunting, smoking raccoon, selling the furs for money.

Everything was just this, uh -- this unbelievable world of plenty.

-The collaboration between Nicholls State and the globetrotting Louisiana chef came out of a conversation with the head of the university over dinner at Folse's Lafitte's Landing Restaurant in Donaldsonville.

-Nicholls State University was -- was really a great gift to me, as well, because Dr. Donald Ayo, who was president of the school at that time, just happened to be a friend of mine.

He said, "Why aren't we doing that at Nicholls State?

You got chefs coming from around the world to your restaurant to study Louisiana cooking.

Let's do that at Nicholls."

We're surrounded by the seven nations that founded Louisiana, all great culinary cultures.

Second of all, the richness of our seasons and our raw ingredients, but much more so the passion of our people.

-Louisiana's only four-year culinary arts program moved into its own state-of-the-art building in 2015.

The space includes Bistro Ruth, a student-run restaurant where future chefs perfect their skills.

The final Bistro Ruth seating of the academic year is a Russian service, an elegant seven-course menu with choreographed table service.

For 30 years, the culinary school has served as the training ground for many of Louisiana's most acclaimed chefs.

One of those chefs is Jana Billiot, a 2007 graduate of the program who later became chef de cuisine of John Folse's Restaurant R'evolution in New Orleans.

Now she serves as an instructor at the culinary institute, where she also leads the back-of-the-house team for Bistro Ruth.

A native of Johnson Bayou near the Texas border in Cameron Parish, Chef Jana grew up on the bounty of the bayou and the Gulf Coast.

She draws on these experiences for her classes.

-I teach a class here in Louisiana seafood at the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute, and one of the topics is ditch foods.

And when I talk about ditch foods, I'm talking about kind of not only trash fish, but when you think about types of seafood that sort of come from the mud -- crawfish, catfish, turtle, alligator, alligator garfish, frogs.

-In a Nicholls kitchen classroom, Chef Jana prepares a family favorite -- alligator gar-ball stew, starring garfish caught by her father in Johnson Bayou.

-Today we're going to be making alligator garfish-ball stew.

And so here I have a small alligator garfish that my father actually caught for me this Saturday.

In fact, he caught all the garfish we'll be using in this segment today.

These alligator garfish have come from Deep Bayou in Johnson Bayou, Louisiana, where my father caught them.

I believe he caught these with a rod and reel, too.

These were not caught with a jug line.

Now I'm going to go ahead and grind my garfish.

And what I've got is alligator gar that I've cubed with trinity that's just been chunked up -- some green onion, parsley, celery and regular old white onion.

So you want to do a really nice fine grind on this.

[ Grinder whirring ] So once you have your ground garfish with your trinity, we're then going to add some butter crackers or bread crumbs, whatever type of cracker you might like to use for this, saltiness, as well, and some whole egg.

And for about one quart of garfish meat, I normally add about one to two sleeves of crackers and about six eggs.

It really just depends on the moisture content of your meat once you grind it.

So once I have this all mixed up with my eggs and my cracker crumbs, I'm going to season it rather heavily with some salt, black pepper, onion powder, granulated garlic, cayenne.

And then you end up with this beautiful farce.

Rolled it into balls here, as you can see.

And we're going to go ahead and sear these up.

Oftentimes, my family will just deep fry these.

And I know that in Italian families, they do a similar thing with their meatballs when they make their red sauce and meatballs and gravy.

So we're going to just get a nice sear on these on all sides.

So, farce is like just a ground meat.

It could be ground poultry.

It could be ground pork, ground beef, veal.

Today our farce is going to be made with some ground garfish.

You don't have to be concerned about cooking these all the way through because they're going into a stew and they're going to finish cooking in the gravy itself.

We're really doing this because the farce is -- it's soft, so we're trying to kind of make that harder barrier on the outside so that they hold together when we put them in the stew.

And we're just going to brown these on all sides.

And you can see I have some that are finished here.

I'm going to start my roux here in my black iron pot.

We're going to make a nice, beautiful dark roux.

And my oil is smoking.

I'm going to go ahead and start adding my flour all at once.

I like to use a whisk.

Some people like to use a roux spoon.

But I find a whisk really helps me work it quickly.

We're going to constantly whisk here.

Okay, so right now we're kind of at a peanut butter.

We're going well past this at this point.

We're going to let this continue to cook.

Okay, and here we are.

Got the color we're looking for before we add our trinity.

And in goes the trinity.

You can smell the caramelization process happening on these onions and bell peppers.

You can smell, like, that sweetness, that roast that's happening.

So you would want to add your stock gradually.

So, we're adding just enough stock to have like a stew.

Slightly thick liquid here.

We're not -- We're not doing a gumbo.

It's not going to be soupy.

We're making a stew.

So think gravy.

We will season now at this point.

We're using salt, granulated garlic, granulated onion, some cayenne pepper.

You can put a little hot sauce in there if you'd like.

You could also throw in any herbs that you might like -- some oregano, some thyme, a little dried basil, even.

That would be quite lovely.

I've used granulated onion, granulated garlic, salt, black pepper, and cayenne.

This has been simmering for about 35, 40 minutes.

Now I'm going to go ahead and add my garfish.

I'd let these finish cooking for about 10 minutes.

I'm going to go ahead and throw in my crab claw meat.

Crab claw meat just has this beautiful sweetness to it.

So we're going to go ahead and we're going to throw that in.

At this point, I could kill the fire.

I really just want to heat this up thoroughly.

The crab meat is cooked itself, and we don't really want to break it up too much.

We just want to kind of gently fold it in.

I'm going to finish this with a little hot sauce.

Some chopped parsley.

A little green onion.

Just kind of fold all of that in.

You can serve this stew with pasta, potatoes.

Smothered potatoes would be delicious.

Today we're going to serve it with some steamed white rice.

♪♪ ♪♪ This is a very hearty Cajun bayou-type dish that we eat at home from where I'm from in Cameron Parish.

And I hope you all enjoy this recipe and show the garfish a little more respect, 'cause it's delicious and everybody needs to get on board.

They don't get enough appreciation.

Garfish is definitely an underutilized species, and I'm hoping to work more closely with the biology department here, who are seeking out different ways to use them, and that we can come up with some more interesting methods and recipes for others to use.

-Next, we head to a gem of a home in the historic downtown district of Thibodaux for a Cajun version of the signature dish of Veracruz, Mexico.

Redfish Veracruzana is prepared by Dr. Allyse Ferrara, a biological sciences professor at Nicholls State University.

-So, Veracruzana is a type of dish that's made in Veracruz, Mexico, that -- typically with tomatoes, onions, peppers, sometimes the addition of the olives, capers, maybe sliced almonds, but it's a shorter cook.

The sauce will simmer for a short while, and then the fish goes in.

This is cooked more like what a lot of the Cajun and Creole tomato-based dishes, where the sauce is simmered for a while and then the fish goes in later.

Plus, there's a few other extra things that are added, taking some from the Veracruzana and then some just additional things.

-The aromatic sauce for the dish starts with melted butter.

-The butter's melted, and it's starting to bubble a little bit.

So now I'm going to add the onions.

And I've got just some chopped-up yellow onions and the ends of the green onions that are going to be used to garnish.

And once the onions start to get translucent, going to go ahead and add the peppers.

I've got some cut-up poblanos and an orange bell pepper.

I've got a diced-up habanero and jalapeño that we'll throw in, too.

-With her husband, Dr. Quenton Fontenot, a Nicholls biologist who manages the university's environmental education farm, Allyse conducts research on coastal restoration.

She's also an expert on garfish, a prehistoric-looking fish that can get up to eight feet long and weigh over 300 pounds.

While the vegetables soften and begin to brown, the biologist talks about the significance of this adaptable fish.

-They're cool.

[ Laughs ] They're big.

They're toothy.

They're slimy.

Actually, where they sit evolutionarily is very important.

It used to be that, you know, gar were looked at as trash fish, you know, that nobody cared about them.

But now we know the ecological value.

We know their value in terms of genetic research, evolutionary research.

And so in that way, they're more similar genetically to us than all the other fishes that may be used in laboratory work.

But they've evolved, you know, maybe 160 million years ago, not the exact same species that we have here, but the very similar characteristics evolved very long time ago.

And we describe them as persistent.

You know, they got it right a long time ago and have stuck with it.

They're, I think, an excellent sentinel species for Louisiana because we still have a very large population in our coastal habitats.

But as we continue to lose these coastal marshes, we're going to be decreasing the amount of habitat that's available for them and are going to see a decrease in their numbers.

Not too many people want to work with gar or had not wanted to work with gar in the past, but, um, I think we're starting to show that they're a really cool animal to have in the lab.

So I'm starting to get a little bit of browning on the bottom.

So I'm going to add a little bit of liquid, in this case some dry vermouth.

You can add any type of dry white wine.

And then I'm going to add the little peppers, or the fine dice on the hot peppers.

So this is a habanero from the backyard and diced-up -- finely diced jalapeño.

And I like the habanero because of the smoky flavor.

It's a real fruity and smoky pepper that adds a lot to the dish.

And I'm going to add the garlic and brown it.

And I'm gonna add a little bit of olive oil and throw in the tomato paste.

So a couple tablespoons.

The color of the tomato paste will go from this nice bright red to a little kind of browner, richer color.

And then that's when you know it's ready to stir in the fresh tomatoes.

And so I'm going to add the crushed tomatoes.

You can use any combination of fresh and canned tomatoes, whatever you've got on hand.

And then some fresh diced-up tomatoes.

And I'm going to throw the bay leaves in.

Add some of the Mexican oregano.

And I've got cayenne, crushed red pepper, black pepper, and cumin in here.

So now we're just going to let this simmer for about a half-hour or so to let a lot of the liquid reduce to help thicken the sauce.

So we're at a good point here where most of the chunks of the tomato are broken down.

You still see some of them.

A lot of the liquid has reduced.

And so I'm going to start adding some of the other ingredients.

So I've got some raisins here.

These are both the dark and light.

The raisins add sweetness rather than just adding sugar.

And then I've got some capers.

These are just drained, but they add a nice little pop and a briny flavor in the sauce.

Got some olives.

These are some olives we got out of the deli, both the black and green.

But you want good-quality olives.

Don't use anything out of a can.

And then I'm going to add a little bit of cane syrup.

And you can use any kind of sweetener.

And I've got some chopped-up, quartered marinated artichoke hearts.

This just adds another flavor into the sauce.

I have some cinnamon and clove.

This, again, adds some more sweetness, some more warmth.

So once all this is added, we'd let this simmer for about another 15 minutes.

And the thing to remember is that you're going to get a lot of water coming out of the fish and the shrimp.

So you want to make sure that you've cooked the sauce down so that it's pretty thick.

So I'm gonna add a little bit of lemon zest.

And a little bit of lemon juice.

Try not to get the seeds in there.

That's good.

I wanted to add the toasted almonds.

I'll leave a few left at the end to put on top when we serve it.

But this will add another texture and some more flavor because they are toasted.

This is Louisiana redfish, so I seasoned them a little bit with some salt and pepper.

If you use something smaller and flakier, it'll fall apart, so you'll have to adjust your cooking time.

Just some fresh parsley added in.

Add the shrimp.

And so these were very big shrimp.

So I cut them in half just straight down the back because I wanted them to cook quickly and to be able to kind of distribute them throughout the sauce.

These are probably 10/12s, 10/15s.

So they're pretty big.

If you get a smaller sized shrimp, then you can throw it in.

They're going to cook very quickly, just a couple of minutes.

And you don't have to add the shrimp to the sauce.

But more seafood's always better.

Now we're gonna add our fish and shrimp and sauce.

So I've got a bed of jasmine rice.

Fish is starting to break apart a little bit, so we know it's done.

♪♪ Try to remember to pick out the bay leaves or warn your guests.

♪♪ -The dish is garnished with fresh parsley, cilantro, green onions, lemon slices, and additional toasted almonds.

-This is a south Louisiana version of redfish Veracruzana with shrimp.

-I think I had the greatest life as a young child to become a chef to the world, because I came to understand very early on that the swamp floor gave us everything we needed seasonally, from our food to our medicine.

I realized how important it is that not only we continue to preserve that, but that we continue to teach the importance of our rich history, our rich culture, our rich music, our cuisine, all the things that make us uniquely Louisiana, to the world.

-Our final stop is Restaurant R'evolution in New Orleans' French Quarter for baked goose Holly Beach, prepared by Executive Chef John Folse and Chef de Cuisine Chris Anderson.

The dish was first cooked for Chef Folse by Louisiana wildlife expert and hunting guide Sammie Faulk in Holly Beach, a Cameron Parish coastal community known as the Cajun Riviera.

-You know, I'll never forget the day I learned to cook goose.

I had my goose cooked by Sammie Faulk, just a great hunter, a great guide.

He was an expert at goose hunting.

And I thought I was a pretty good goose hunter myself.

But I found out I didn't know a doggone thing about hunting goose or cooking it until the great Sammie Faulk walked me through it.

And today we have a great goose from Holly Beach in Cameron Parish on the Gulf Coast.

First of all, look at this -- look at this beautiful baby here, huh?

Just absolutely gorgeous.

That's about 10, 12 pounds right here.

-It ain't light.

-Now, it don't come seasoned.

Look, you have a lot of options.

Let's begin with that onion right there.

Come on, let's go.

-Yeah, yeah.

You want to dump in the bowl, or you want to dump straight in?

-We're gonna dump right in the goose.

-Alright, Chef.

-Goose ain't going nowhere.

Okay.

Let's go.

So we have onion, celery, bell pepper, the trinity.

Dump that in there, boy.

Come on, dump it in there.

Give me some of that color, huh?

-There you go, Chef.

-Onion, celery, bell pepper.

All of that matters.

Of course -- Yes.

Oh, yeah, good, apples, pears, peaches, all of that good stuff.

Mushrooms -- wild mushrooms will give that good earthy flavor to it.

Just really beautiful.

There you go.

-Some carrots.

-Some carrots in there.

And even olives, grapes, whatever you want to put in.

There you go.

Get some of that, as well.

So we've got all that great seasoning down in there.

Just, I mean, it's -- We're not playing around.

I mean, this is serious seasoning down in here.

Now we're going to go ahead and season the outside.

Salt, pepper, granulated garlic.

-Yeah, you want to put a little bit of oil, Chef?

-Yeah, you can put a little bit on there.

Why not, huh?

The goose doesn't mind.

-I don't think so.

-Okay.

Uh, salt.

And remember, there's a big fat layer on here, so you want to make sure that you put a lot of salt, because it's going to -- it's going to cook off.

Needless to say, it's going to cook off of there.

And, Chef, wipe that down good with your hands.

-Yeah.

-Rub it in there.

You want to rub those seasonings in.

Little garlic.

-That's right.

-Granulated garlic is good for this, as well.

Rub -- Rub it in there.

Give it some love.

-I'm trying, I'm trying.

-Yeah, give it a massage.

Give it a massage in there, huh?

-Is this what he taught you out in the woods, Chef?

-You better believe it, huh?

That's called loving a goose right there.

-That's right, that's right.

-That's loving a goose.

-Looks good.

-Okay.

So all of the seasonings inside.

Of course, all of those beautiful fruit flavors are going to cook really right into it.

And then I'm going to go into a roasting pan like this into a 350-degree oven.

And long and slow is really what I want to do here.

Seasoned well, fully stuffed.

And, yeah, put additional seasonings around the edge.

-So everything that we stuffed the goose with, we're just kind of adding the same exact products just kind of in and around the goose, as well.

And then we're going to finish with a little bit of hot sauce.

-Yeah, just drizzle on top of the bird, as well.

Uh-huh, there you go.

Flavor's just going to pop in that dish.

And now this is going to go into that 350-, 375-degree oven.

Let it go slow cooking.

It's going to take a couple of hours.

And, of course, this is what it's going to look like when it's all said and done.

Beautiful presentation.

Nice and tender.

Nothing like a roasted goose, y'all, at Holly Beach.

As my grandmother used to say, lock the screen door, y'all.

They coming.

Lock the screen door.

[ Both laugh ] -In Thibodaux, concerned chefs and scientists are on the front line of the state's land-loss crisis, working to protect Louisiana's coast and its culture.

-We're in Louisiana.

We're at Nicholls State.

And we're teaching students the history of really the richest and most unique culture on the globe, as far as I'm concerned.

-My biggest concerns for the future of sustainability and seafood in particular is mostly for the fishermen, the local families, the community.

You know, crawfish boils, shrimp boils, that's a part of our culture, and I think that it's all linked together.

If we lose that industry, then we lose a piece of who we are as Southern Louisianas and Cajuns and Creoles.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -You can find recipes for all of the dishes in this series, chef profiles, and more information about "Louisiana Coastal Cooking" by visiting wyes.org.

Funding for "Louisiana Coastal Cooking" was provided by the Melvin S. Cohen Foundation, Inc., and by the Plaquemines Parish Tourism Commission.

Nature, tradition, and culture come together in Plaquemines Parish, where the Mississippi River and the Gulf meet in Louisiana's Delta Country.

Learn more at visitplaqueminesparish.com.

[ Birds chirping ]