(upbeat music) And welcome to our kitchen.

It's the Arkansas Taste Kitchen.

Oh, I'm so glad you joined us today.

Even though we are the Arkansas Taste Kitchen, we're going to get a little exotic today.

From what I've been told by my two new best friends, this is Alyssa Frisby, who is our expert dietitian and our world renowned chef, Robert Hall, ladies and gentlemen.

Okay.

They tell me that we're going to get exotic.

Prove it.

So we're going to go to Brazil.

But I want to teach you some French.

Are you ready for French?

So we've got Portuguese, French.

This show does so much for you.

Mise on place, mise en place.

You say that?

Plus mise en place.

For short, we just say mise in a commercial and a professional kitchen.

Your mise is, or mise en place, is getting everything ready before you start cooking.

So our very good professional rule that anyone can apply in the kitchen to make their cooking easier, cut everything, prep everything before you cook anything.

Okay.

Get it all out there.

Kind of like what we've done.

It really reduces the time that you spend in the kitchen.

I know it sounds like it's a lot of work, but if you have everything ready to go, you don't have to worry about forgetting something or not having something.

And you can just bam, bam, bam like Chef Robert is going to show us.

And yeah, onion is a little bit smelly.

But buying the onion from the store and doing this yourself is so, so inexpensive, so easy.

We're just making some cuts.

And then we're going to turn the onion over or turn the onion around like this.

And it's, well, the more you do this the less you cry.

Actually onions, they give off the spray that you really can't see.

And so there is some truth to if you cry at onions, put your onion in the refrigerator for about a half hour, 45 minutes before you cut it.

And that's perfect.

Now we have onion done ready to go.

Okay.

We're going to put it in our magical bowl that everyone at home has their magical bowls that just set off to the side.

Now notice something.

I have the same knife, the same cutting board.

And one of the secret ingredients for this dish is bacon.

So I'm going to get out my bacon.

Same hands, same board.

I would not do the bacon and then do the onion after that.

We contaminate things and you can get really sick.

All right, Miss Nutrition.

Bacon.

Bacon sets off alarm bells.

Is this going to compromise the healthy benefits of what we're about to cook?

It will not.

So while bacon does add sodium and extra fat, it's also going to add flavor to our Brazilian black beans.

So using just a little bit goes a long way.

We're going to saute that later.

And it's really going to help enhance the flavor of our beans.

We're making nutritious delicious.

Oh it's not the last time you're going to hear that when you watch this show.

I'm glad you said that.

Mister Delicious, Miss Nutritious.

Right into the pan that we preheated.

Hear that sizzle?

Oh, yeah.

That is delicious happening right there.

I know I'm going to step away with a dirty board and a knife and wash my hands and be back.

Absolutely.

Safety and sanitation is key when you're working with raw animal protein.

You are a proponent of black beans.

I am, so there's a buzzword right now and it is longevity.

And people are using that when they're talking about beans because they are so magical for our health.

Longevity.

In what way?

You get a lot of great health benefits from eating something like beans.

So they are a complex carbohydrate.

They take longer to digest.

So that helps control blood sugar.

They have fiber, which is really great for lowering blood pressure, lowering cholesterol.

They taste great.

They're versatile and they're incredibly affordable.

You're selling me.

So beans are kind of multitasking.

Really they are.

Yeah.

They're carbohydrate.

They're protein, energy, and stuff.

Both things you need obviously.

Right.

You definitely need a good balance of protein and carbohydrates.

You do need fat in your diet.

So we're getting some of that from our bacon.

And you can use canned.

You can use.

Well that is my next question.

We've got a can on the table.

Explain.

Will this work?

This will definitely work.

This will save you some time also because the beans are already cooked.

So they're cooked before they're put in the can.

Because you heat seal and use pressure to can the beans, you're going to cook them a second time.

They're going to be incredibly soft even before they simmer.

Now is that going to cut down on the nutritional value?

It doesn't.

But one thing to look out for, because these are preserved beans, is they often have salt added.

So they're going to increase the sodium content of the beans.

So you do want to make sure you drain and rinse in a lot of cases.

Rinse off some of that sodium.

Something you've heard me say Craig, over and over.

I think that speaks to one of the reasons why we want you to cook one meal at home from scratch a week more than you do now.

When you cook at home, even with this, even with higher sodium, you are still in control of the amount of salt that you use.

And so we have some salt measured for this dish.

Because we're using canned beans even though they're rinsed, I won't use all of the salt that the recipe calls for because flavor is already there.

Some salts coming from the bacon as well, some salts coming from the smoked pork.

Something important to mention is you don't have to use pork at all.

If you want to make a delicious tasting bean dish, you can use something like smoked paprika that's going to impart that smoky flavor in the dish, and you don't even have to use the pork.

So that's why these recipes are so valuable.

And versatile.

And versatile.

You could make this entirely vegetarian.

You can have bell peppers that will impart incredible flavor instead of all the bacon and the pork.

You might use a little bit of oil, but vegetarian or pork friendly, we're going to add a little garlic.

I'm fighting salivating on camera right now.

And we're going to add our.

Smells so good right now.

You you've got the magical smells in the kitchen.

It really goes to show how you can use beans in a variety of ways and get all of those nutritional benefits.

So this this brings up Brazil.

Brazilian beans, can we really achieve this in Arkansas?

Brazilian beans.

We can because there's not really a Brazilian bean.

We didn't import these black beans.

We bought these black beans in the can from the local central Little Rock grocery store.

Right.

It's the story behind these particular beans and the use of the pork.

While beans are versatile, hundreds of years ago on coffee plantations in Brazil, the the plantation owner would slaughter the pigs and the plantation kept the hams and the chops and the prized cuts of meat of the pig, and everyone else.

Got what was left.

Well, they learned smoke all of that stuff.

And in a big cauldron, black beans and smoked pork parts like our neck bones.

Yeah.

Add them to our cauldron.

Did you smoke those?

I think I think smoking the neck bones was an adventure earlier.

Right.

You can buy smoked bones.

We add to this the beans.

We're adding our black beans.

We're going to add stock.

You can buy already prepared stock.

It doesn't have to say stock.

It can say broth.

That's perfectly fine.

We're just going to barely cover the beans.

Put a lid on.

And when we come back in a little bit we're going to have some delicious beans ready to go.

Wow.

And there you are.

We are in, we've gone to Brazil without ever having to go to an airport.

Amazing.

And we got a story to go along with it and our story will continue.

Stay with us.

(upbeat music) So we're going to soak beans.

We have some black beans in a bowl.

Water.

Now why do we do this?

Some would say if you're using a pressure cooker you don't need to do this.

But soaking beans, you're going to remove duds.

Right when the water goes in, you're going to have little pieces of bean that float up here to the top.

Soaking the beans pre hydrates them so they cook faster.

They're creamier.

They're more tender.

There are some sugars in beans that cause gas and bloating.

When we soak the beans we remove a lot of that oligosaccharides.

It's a big word.

Those are the sugars that give us gas.

Soaking the beans speeds up the cooking time and the process.

I highly recommend soaking beans.

And welcome back.

While we've got our Brazilian beans simmering, we're going to change directions a little bit.

And and are my eyes deceiving me, you all, or is that pork?

We're going to make a pork chop.

Oh.

Now that's familiar.

Easy, easy, easy pork chop.

Pork chop.

Pork chop.

Easy, easy.

I'm sorry.

That's a cheer from the 1960s.

Forgive me, but this is going to be easy.

You promise?

Promise.

So easy.

Nice lean cut of pork.

Super healthy.

So this particular chop comes from the sirloin of the pig, which is kind of behind the ribs and back a little bit.

Listen, I'm familiar with looking for beef and staying away from the marble white.

Same thing with pork?

So pork is going to look a little bit different than your cuts of beef.

And like Chef Robert mentioned, we're going a little bit further back.

So we're not going to see a lot of fat marbled in.

We're going to have more fat along the outside that's been trimmed.

We're going to salt and pepper this.

And that is all.

Really?

We're going to develop amazing flavor that is the flavor of the pork.

We want, we're going to get a little golden brown crust on both sides.

And that golden brown crust is the amazing flavor.

And you're not going to doctor it except for the very basics.

And it's a little salt and pepper.

It's not, it's not loaded.

Are you endorsing this?

I endorse this.

We are really going to let the natural flavor, the natural juices of the pork shine in this dish.

Just a little bit of oil, which is enough to help your your pork not stick to the pan.

But we're not frying it.

And that looks hot.

So what kind of oil did you use?

So this is canola oil okay.

It's not going to impart any additional flavor.

Olive oil for a really hot pan will burn.

So you want to be careful, you don't use olive oil all the time Yeah that's, There's your sizzle.

That sizzle is flavor.

That's not escaping flavor?

No, you're creating it.

You're creating flavor.

Yeah.

Wow.

From a nutrition value, How much of a source of protein is pork?

It's got to be, just looking at it, it's got to be a huge.

Right, that looks like a great source of protein.

And because we're focused on a lean cut, we really are getting the most bang for our buck as far as having a high amount in grams of protein with a lower amount of fat.

What does protein do?

Protein is an essential part of a healthy diet.

Protein helps build and protect lean muscle mass.

There are essential amino acids in protein.

We look at those as being precursors to hormones.

So when you're thinking about overall health, protein is really important for a lot of your everyday body functions.

See I tend to think of protein as energy, right.

So your body doesn't really like to break protein down for energy It prefers carbs first and then fat.

Protein is really about protection.

So you're going to be able to quote this show to your family.

Lookie there.

Look at that.

A little bit more.

But I just wanted to show you that brown, that golden is golden flavor.

It's really gold.

This is, this is gold.

Because I've tasted pork chops that have gotten dry.

Especially, that's fairly dense.

I would assume that would be a problem getting dry.

There's a method to to learn, to know, to understand where you can feel the pork chop, you can feel the chicken breast, you can feel the steak and know what degree of doneness it is.

Now there was a, there was a chef that told me that if you took your hand, oh, it was you.

Yeah.

The rule of thumb.

Right.

Because we're starting with our thumb.

That muscle just below your thumb, feel that.

If your hand is relaxed, that's what rare feels like.

And we probably want to stay away from rare pork.

Okay.

Touch your index finger and your thumb.

Not a hard pinch.

Just touch it.

Feel that muscle again.

That's medium rare.

Rare.

Your middle finger.

This is medium.

All right.

Before we go further, what's our safe?

We want to cook the pork, cook it to at least this.

Okay.

So at least middle finger.

Middle finger pork.

Okay.

Let's turn ours.

Your ring finger.

That's medium well.

And your pinky is well done.

Oh there it is.

People that are, you know, in the restaurant world, people come in, they order well done and kind of get a bad rap.

You know, they're all well done.

You're eating shoe leather and not really so, if you used the rule of thumbs, if you use this method, you don't have to cut the meat open and you lose all the juice inside is flavor, right?

I use my tongs.

Your tongs become your fingers.

Right?

Okay.

But I've done this for 30 years.

Okay.

You can see pink on the on the inside.

Right in here you can see some pink.

Medium rare, that's where we're headed.

If it's really, really thick, you can remove it from the pan and finish it off in the oven which is going to slow down the cooking a little bit.

And you still keep that kind of crispy crust on top.

Keeps it, yeah.

And so we're going to take this off.

Let it rest a little bit.

We might finish these in the oven.

But in exactly the same pan, we're going to do the vegetables.

One pan dish.

Is it me, or are those frozen vegetables?

Frozen vegetables.

What?

Alyssa, people watching are going oh, they're going to tell me I need to go to a farmer's market, or I need to go to the boundary of the store.

Right, the perimeter of the grocery store.

We're using frozen vegetables?

We're using fresh garlic, a little oil, some garlic we'll saute that and then in goes the vegetables.

Yeah.

Get a head start on the garlic.

Now don't be afraid of frozen vegetables.

While you're going to find your freshest vegetables at your local farmers market or at the perimeter of the grocery store, frozen is picked when it's fresh.

Oftentimes it's flash frozen.

So it's still is incredibly nutritious, minimally processed, and it's really handy to keep in your freezer and use as much as you need whenever you need it.

Go ahead, pinch of salt.

A little bit more salt.

And a pinch of pepper.

If you're wondering about the cost, we will give you the cost of this meal at the end of the show today because yes, that is a factor, is it not?

It absolutely is.

This is incredibly affordable.

And the great thing about this particular recipe is chef is making two pork chops and about three cups of veggies.

If you wanted to make this for just one person, you can pull one pork chop out of the refrigerator, one cup of veggies you wanted to feed a whole family, cook the whole pack of pork chops and your whole bag of veggies.

And we've got mixed vegetables.

You've got corn in there.

That's that's a carbohydrate.

It is.

Corn is also a whole grain.

It is an essential part of a healthy diet to incorporate whole grains.

So you don't have to be afraid of corn.

It's going to have fiber, complex carbohydrates.

That's health promoting benefits We can also, here's a little time saver.

Our pork isn't completely done yet.

We can add that now to the same pan.

Not only did we cook this in the same pan, we can finish the pork now in the same pan with the vegetables and a little bit of juice from the pork is going to add some additional flavor to the to the vegetables.

Yeah.

So you don't even have to add anything extra.

You're using what you already have from this cooking process to make this taste really good.

This just looks like it might just qualify is about the easiest meal to make that we've shown so far.

I don't know how to make it any easier.

And it's so healthy.

Got your protein.

You've got your vegetables which are full of fiber.

It's a very well rounded meal.

Now when it comes to serving, do you cut up the pork then or?

I guess it depends on how hungry you are.

Depends.

You could you can put it on your plate at home restaurant style and just make nice little slices.

And we call it fanning.

You just put a fan of the pork on the plate.

It gets really fancy.

You can just take the pork, put it on the plate.

Let everyone else do the work.

Fork and knife.

Yeah.

Happy days.

Heard of pork and beans?

This is pork and veggies.

Like, it's just so simple and so perfect nutritionally.

Golly, this is wonderful.

I love this show.

It's great for a busy weeknight in a busy household.

If they gave Emmys for the best smelling television show, here we are.

You know.

But does it pass the taste test?

Because we've got two taste tests coming up.

We've got the Brazilian beans, we've got this incredible dish.

We'll find out when we come back.

(upbeat music) And now the fun part of Arkansas Taste Kitchen.

We actually taste what has been prepared.

I guess we'll start with, Chef Robert, we're going to start with the Brazilian beans?

Well we're going to we're going to portion.

And maybe Alyssa is a little better equipped to talk about portion sizes.

But while you and I might want to eat this amount of pork.

Yeah, that's me.

That's got my name on it.

What do you think, Alyssa?

Is this good enough for one person to eat?

So portions size is my second favorite word, serving is my first.

We want to be mindful of what ends up on our plate versus the serving size and what's recommended.

So I think for that, let's go ahead and cut it in half.

What is the rule there?

Playing cards.

Deck of cards is your protein.

Yeah that's a great reference.

So we want to make sure that our serving size, the suggestion is about the size of a deck of cards with our protein.

And I'm just trying to be fancy for the plate and cut it on the bias or cut it at an angle.

You can cut it any way you want to cut it.

Cut it on the bias.

Looky there.

Presentation is important.

That was my next question.

How big is presentation for a chef or a dietitian?

Eight foot tall.

Eight foot tall.

That's how big it is.

I'm sorry.

That's how tall it is.

I'm with you.

Okay.

You want to plate the beans?

Yeah.

Let's go with our Brazilian black beans first.

My mouth is watering.

Again to review.

Yes, it's Brazilian black beans, but the beans were in a can bought in an Arkansas store.

And what made them Brazilian, Robert?

Brazilian style.

They're Brazilian esque.

The ingredients.

The way we are put together.

It's a Brazilian style.

So we're going to put the pork and the veggies with the Brazilian beans on the same plate.

I'm going to add some veggies.

Let's go veggies last because, you know it's the most important part of this plate right?

Yeah.

And so my problem would be I fill up the plate with the meat and then I don't have room for the veggies.

Oh that's an excellent excuse isn't it.

That's my excuse anyways.

Now my wife loves this show, but she never gets to taste this.

And she's also criticized because we never really show get a good shot of the plate.

So if y'all don't mind, I'm going to take a picture of the plate and text it to Jane.

Well, let's go restaurant style then.

Wait just a minute.

So let's clean the edges.

You don't have to clean the edges at home.

It's so pretty.

But if you're going to take pictures, we're going to clean the edges off just a little bit.

Don't you just love color, Alyssa?

Don't you just love a beautiful color?

That's the best part.

You're going to get that color from your fruits and veggies, so it's important to have them on every plate.

So we can sit back and we can look at how colorful and how artistic and beautiful the plate is.

Or we can dig in.

Now in case you didn't know, at Arkansas Taste Kitchen we have a grading system.

Yummies.

If it gets four yummies Robert and Alyssa keep their jobs.

So four yummies, here we go.

What would you start with, Alyssa?

I would dig into the pork chop first.

Honestly.

For the meat-atarians, meat-atarians unite.

Veggies have a lot of flavor from that pork as well without a lot of added fat.

I'm going veggies before I go.

I'm going beans.

Because the bean had a nice big piece of bacon.

Okay, don't take this wrong, but veggies are veggies, so I'm going to give it a three.

Hey.

I didn't cook it, Chef Hall did.

Ok, you're taking it personally, I'll give it a four.

So I have the beans and you're going to give that a five so it balances out to our four.

I haven't been to Brazil, so I'm going to have to take your word for it.

Ten high five.

We done good?

Great job and so easy.

That made this show worth it.

Brilliant.

Thank you for watching.

Remember, if it's easy, if it's nutritious, if it's delicious, if it's affordable, it's Arkansas Taste Kitchen.

Thank you for joining us.

Additional funding provided by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

(upbeat music)