- [Announcer] This is a production of PBS Charlotte.
- [Narrator] The following episode of Charlotte Cooks
is brought to you by Central Piedmont Community College
and viewers like you, thank you.
- On this episode of Charlotte Cooks,
we have chef Chris Coleman joining us from Stoke.
He's making a farmers market vegetable ragout.
(upbeat folk music)
Hi there, welcome to this episode of Charlotte Cooks
and look who we have here, chef Chris Coleman.
Welcome to the set, Chris, how are you?
- Thank you, I'm well, thanks for having me.
- Good, I'm glad you're here, so tell us about this
wonderful farmers market vegetable ragout you're making.
- Sure, so, what we're gonna demonstrate today
is just really the beauty of vegetables.
I love vegetables, vegetarian cuisine is getting hotter
and hotter every year, - Big time.
- And farm-to-fork cooking is also all the rage.
It's been the rage for the last five years or so,
but I think that more and more people
are getting tuned into it.
- You really hear about that
a lot with restaurants - Right.
- Being a farm-to-fork restaurant.
What really does that mean?
- For me, farm-to-fork and sourcing locally
is all about just creating relationships,
and having relationships with farmers markets,
different farms, and really getting to know
the people who grow your food.
Did you know we have over 300 registered small farms in the
Charlotte surrounding area? - Oh, that's great.
- So there's no reason why you can't
go to your local farmers - Right
- market and get anything you need, really.
- And there's farmers markets everywhere.
- Right. - I mean, just about
every street corner now, you've got a farmers market,
so there's something there. - Right.
Sure. - It's great.
- Yeah, so-- - You even find some of
our big retail stores and our grocery stores
are starting to carry some of the
farmers market produce, too.
- Yeah, they really are. - Which is kind of exciting.
Yeah, that's very exciting.
So, carry on. - Yep.
(Pamela laughs)
So, what we're doing today is just some vegetables
that we have at the market right now, so there's tomatoes,
there's some crowder peas, corn, peppers.
So we're gonna start with just caramelizing some mirepoix.
Mirepoix is a classic French combination,
it's really the basis of all French cooking.
It's onions, carrots, celery.
(oil sizzles)
- And you wanna hear that sizzle
when that stuff hits the pan. - Right.
Now it's two part onion,
to one part carrot and one part celery.
- Now is that ratio really hardcore?
Can they do something a little bit more
lenient than that if they wanted?
- It's not super hardcore, - Okay.
- That's just the classic. - Alright.
- Whenever we're sauteing anything,
you always wanna add a little salt.
And salt really helps to bring out the sugars,
- And cook out some of the moisture.
We're gonna let this saute and sweat.
- Now what does sweat mean, Chris?
- Sure, so sweating-- - Besides, I know what sweat
means for me. (Chris laughs)
- But what does it mean
when you're cooking? - Well, if you worked in a
professional kitchen, you definitely
know what sweating is. - You know what sweat means.
(both laugh) - But sweating,
it's kinda slowly cooking out the vegetables,
until all of the moisture has been released.
You're gonna see the carrots and the celery kinda soften,
and the onions will actually turn a little translucent,
where you can see-- - Okay
- Straight through them.
Now, I like to start over a higher heat,
and then turn it down
over a low heat. - Okay.
- To really let the vegetables have some time.
- Right. - You know?
There's a lot of things in our lives
where we kinda rush, but cooking should be
something where you just take your time,
have some fun. - Right,
and the flavors develop - Sure.
- When you take your time. - Sure.
We'll let this sweat for about five to ten minutes or so,
and then what we end up with
are these really beautiful caramelized vegetables.
Again, you can see the onions are translucent,
the carrot, the celery has softened a bit,
- It looks lovely.
- We're gonna bring these guys up to heat,
and then, the next step.
So, a lot of stewing or
creating a ragout
is just building flavor. - Yes.
- And developing flavor, and again,
it goes back to not rushing things.
- Right.
- So, the next step, there's multiple steps in this recipe,
but they're all fairly easy, anyone can do this,
we grabbed some tomato paste.
I love tomato paste, it has this really rich,
kinda concentrated, deep, tomatoey flavor,
and really you can do it all year-round,
it adds a little bit of freshness, acidity,
and sweetness to any kind of recipe.
But I like to toast the tomato paste first.
- So that's what you're doing in the saute pan with it now?
- Sure. So you mix it into the veggies,
- Okay.
And this also helps caramelize some of the sugars in the
tomatoes too, doesn't it? - Right.
- So we're adding another complexity
layer of flavor to this.
- Right, so we really wanna let this sit for
about a minute or so, and then we're gonna deglaze.
- And what does deglaze mean?
- Sure, so, as you're caramelizing,
all these sugars and things get built up
on the bottom of your pan.
Deglazing is simply adding some kind of liquid that helps to
loosen those brown, burnt-on bits from
the bottom of the pan, and that's where your flavor is.
- That is. All those brown, burnt-on bits are,
that's flavor folks.
And when you add the liquid to deglaze it,
it puts all that flavor back into those vegetables.
And so, don't ignore that step.
Oh, that looks great. - You can see we're starting
to stick there on the bottom,
- And that's what you wanna see,
'cause that's where your
complexity of your sugar flavor is gonna come from.
- So, we're gonna use cider vinegar
to deglaze. - Huh.
- I love cider vinegar, it has a natural
sweetness to it, because of the apples
that are used in the distilling process.
You can certainly use a rice wine vinegar,
or even a balsamic vinegar if you want
something a little stronger-flavored.
- If you were using a rice wine vinegar,
would you use the seasoned one, or the unseasoned one?
- I like unseasoned. - Okay.
- Just because I like to control the seasonings.
- And it's sharp. (Chris laughs)
yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly.
The seasoned rice wine vinegar has sugar and salt
added to it already. - Sure.
- But you can add that any time you want.
- So, whenever we deglaze, liquid goes in,
(pan sizzling)
and you really wanna be right on it.
- Yep.
- To scrape up all that burnt-on, brown bits there.
- Mmmmmmm
And you can smell that vinegar too.
- Yeah.
And then actually, deglazing with vinegar adds
some brightness to it. - Yes, absolutely.
- It adds acidity, and it just kinda livens up the flavors.
- Yeah, so you need that.
You need that. - Right, so we're gonna
turn this down to low.
The ragout's starting to take some form here,
you can see that-- - Oh yeah!
- All of our vegetables are coated in
tomato, - Yeah.
- Vinegar is cooked down to what we call au sec,
- Yes.
- Which means, basically almost dry
- Yeah.
It's not soupy on the bottom.
- Right, we're using a lot of French cooking terms today.
(Chris laughs) - We are!
But you know, we are classically French trained,
- Right. (laughs) - So we can't help ourselves.
- So, next we're adding three more vegetables.
So we have some bell peppers, - Okay.
- We have a little bit of shucked sweet corn,
- Okay. - And we have these
beautiful purple beans, that have just started to bronze
a little bit on the outside. - Ooh, yeah.
- Now, obviously, you can use
a regular green bean. - Right.
- If you want, or a flat Italian
green bean, or, - Right.
- Really anything.
That's the beauty of this particular recipe is,
it's a jumping-off point.
Feel free to use anything that you have
seasonally around,
sweet potatoes would be great in the fall and winter,
beets, when they start to come in in early summer.
- Ooo, it would be delicious with beets,
wouldn't it? - Yeah.
It's really just a, again, this is just a basic.
So once you get here, to this point,
with your mirepoix, your tomato paste,
your cider vinegar deglaze,
you can go from there with any vegetables you like.
- Okay.
- So these are all things that we
picked up at our local market.
- Are those gonna stay purple when they cook?
- I wish they would.
- Awww. - That'd be pretty,
wouldn't it? - Oh, it would be!
- No, purple veggies tend to kinda cook out green,
- Awww. - Purple asparagus,
purple beans and things, - But it looks good while
it's cooking! - Right. (laughs)
- And it'll look good when it's done, too.
- So then we add our corn next,
- Okay, and this is just fresh corn you shucked?
- It's fresh corn that we shucked, and then,
got all the silk out,
and then we use the cob
to make a really beautiful corn cob stock.
And we'll get to that
in just a second. - Okay, yeah.
- Got some sweet bell peppers here as well.
- Now they can use any color pepper,
if they like yellow peppers, - Sure.
- Or orange peppers, couldn't they?
- Sure. - Okay.
- I love the red, especially against the
- Yes. - The corn,
and the squash that we're gonna add in in a minute.
- And they're beautiful colors.
That's so colorful. - They're really.
This has all started to come together.
- Yeah.
- We can turn our heat
back up a smidge. - I'd like a bowl of that
just all on it's own,
it looks delicious! (Chris laughs)
- Then this is that corn cob stock that I mentioned
a second ago. - Okay!
And so how would you make that corn cob stock?
- Yeah, so, after you shuck the corn,
you take the cobs,
toss them in just a smidge of oil, on a sheet tray,
high heat, about 450 or so, in an oven at home,
and let them roast until they're nice and brown all the way.
- Okay. - On the outside.
Put 'em into a large pot, onions, celery, carrot,
I like thyme, black peppercorn, and bay for my aromatics.
- Nice - It really kind of
rounds it out, you can add a pinch of sugar if you want.
- Okay.
- Cover it with water, and then let it simmer for about
45 minutes to an hour, so you got a beautiful corn stock.
The ratio of the corn cobs
to the vegetables should be fairly high,
- Okay. - It should be ten to one
corn, if you want that - Okay.
- Corn flavor to come through.
- So you get a really rich corn flavor
from this? - You get a really nice
corn flavor. - Nice.
And you don't have to use corn stock,
you can use a vegetable stock.
- Of course. - You can use chicken stock?
- You can use chicken stock if you like,
I would just suggest
a lighter-flavored stock.
- Okay. - You wouldn't wanna
go to the store, or make your own veal stock
to put in this. - Right, it's too heavy.
- This is great with vegetables, obviously,
if we're going vegetarian.
Great with chicken,
a light chicken. - Right.
I wouldn't go a roasted chicken.
- Right.
- And then, even a fumet, or a fish stock,
would be fantastic. - Okay.
- You just want something that's going to
add and not take away-- - Okay.
- From the flavor of
your vegetables. - Right.
- Again, this is such a simple dish,
- Right. - That when you have something
this simple, you want the flavors of those ingredients
to really come through. - To really shine.
Yes, absolutely.
- You wanna taste the corn,
you wanna taste the beans and the peas and everything.
- 'Cause that's what it's all about.
- Right.
- That's why it's called a farmers market vegetable ragout!
- Farmers markets, while this is
simmering down-- - Okay.
- Again, as you alluded to, they're on
every street corner now. - Yep.
- Especially when it's warmer months outside.
But you can find great local produce
at your grocery store year-round,
a lot of our local places have started carrying it,
and even have put stickers on it so it's easy to find.
- Yeah, yeah, that's right. - Yeah.
My favorites are the Charlotte Regional
Farmers Market, - Okay.
- And then also the Davidson Market,
I think is great, but-- - Okay.
- If you live in Matthews, if you live in Concord,
if you live in Mount Holly, or Gastonia,
there's farmers markets
all around you, yeah. - They're all over the place.
And if you don't know what you're looking at,
the people at the farmers market will help you and tell you.
They really want you to know about what you're seeing.
And especially if you see something unusual, ask about it.
Ask how you cook it, ask what it is, ask how you grow it.
Just ask all kinds of questions.
'Cause that way you start forming a relationship
with the people that grow your food.
- Right. - Which is kind of fun.
- It is fun.
And it's good for you, and it good for
our planet-- - It's good for everybody.
- It's good for everybody, everybody wins.
- That's right.
And your food's not coming from halfway across the world.
- Sure. (laughs)
- That way you know it's fresh.
- So these are my favorite thing to eat in the world,
is the field peas!
- Yeah? - And these are a mix of
pink-eyes and crowders.
- Okay, yeah. - They were fresh.
These are only available
for a month or so during the year.
So you can substitute canned, or even dried beans
if you like. - Okay, so you could.
- But these were fresh, they were just cooked in
a little bit of this corn stock.
Trick to cooking fresh field peas,
or even dry field peas that you've soaked,
is no salt. - Right.
- Anywhere near it. - Right.
- Or the pea'll seize up and really not cook through.
- They won't get soft, yeah.
- So these were just cooked in some corn stock,
after they're turned off, after they're
cooked through and creamy, turn 'em off,
then add salt to the water, - Yes, okay.
and the peas will draw in the salt
and be perfectly seasoned all the way through.
- I gotta tell you, I was-- - Lemme try one too.
- Preppin' for this segment last night,
and cooked off these peas,
- Oh, nice.
- And I ate a bowl about this big
with a little raw onion - You would, wouldn't you?
- And hot sauce as soon - Yeah, yeah.
as they came out of the pot. - Oh, that's delicious, yeah.
That'd make a great salad all on its own, too,
wouldnt' it? - Right.
But these are ingredients that I hated as a kid.
My family's from Mississippi, so
field peas are kind of
a big thing. - Yeah.
- And they would cook 'em two or three times a week
and I'd absolutely despise them and now,
(Pamela laughs) I can't get enough.
You know, it's funny how something that you hate
when you're younger, as you get older, you know?
- I was that way with green peas, I couldn't stand them
when I was growing up. - Yeah.
- And now I love 'em. (Chris laughs)
Just love 'em.
- So we put our peas in there, and let that cook down,
we have two more vegetable ingredients
that we're gonna add in, but we're gonna add
right at the end. - Okay.
- Because they're really delicate.
We have some yellow squash, some summer squash,
and some beautiful heirloom tomatoes here.
- Okay. - The squash has been sliced
really thinly, - Okay.
- Because I like it
for some contrast. - Right.
- Everything else has been pretty uniform.
Our onions, our celery, our carrot, our peas, our corn,
all about the same size. - Okay.
The squash is a little different,
because it's sliced so thinly,
it kinda folds through like ribbons,
which is fun. - Okay.
And then the tomatoes we don't really wanna cook,
we just wanna warm 'em through - Right.
- So they keep their nice delicate
freshness and brightness. - Now do you have to seed
and peel the tomatoes, or do you just chop them?
- I don't. - Okay.
- You could, if you wanted to go to some extra work,
- Right.
- I don't, these are just - Okay.
chopped up. - Okay.
- I find a lot of flavor in tomatoes are in the skin,
so I hate to throw that away.
- And the tomatoes this year were so delicious,
especially those - Right, they were
- big heirlooms, - really really nice.
- Oh my goodness.
That's what I had for dinner last night, was a
great big, one of those - Just a big
heirloom tomato? - One of those Cherokee
tomatoes, you know? - Yep.
- The big brown ones?
Oh, they were so good.
- And then we're gonna finish the whole thing
with a little bit of butter,
some lemon juice to brighten it.
- All the purple on the beans is gone.
- The purple's gone.
- It's all gone now.
- Sad face. (laughs) - Awww.
- This dish is fantastic as a side dish,
I love just eating a big bowl for myself
for dinner, again. - I would, yep.
- Trying to be a little healthier now,
(Pamela laughs)
I'm 35, I've got two kids,
- I was gonna say, you got a couple kids, yeah?
- And I'm trying to eat a little healthier when I can,
- Yep. - So I've been eating
more vegetarian lately. - Yep.
- It's fantastic as a side dish for your
favorite grilled protein. - Okay.
- At the restaurant we serve it with pan-seared
sea scallops, - Oh, nice.
- And a little corn sauvignon,
which is kind of like a hollandaise.
It's great with chicken, it's great with shrimp,
really anything, it's just, again,
fresh vegetables, not done too much to them.
Obviously, we're just adding - Right.
- Them into the pot and
building layers of flavor. - Right.
- But this is cooking that anyone can do.
This is cooking that you
can do. - This is easy, it's one pot!
- Right.
- And so, if someone made this much, and like,
say they only had themselves and
maybe one other family member,
- Sure.
- How long would this last in the refrigerator,
and would it get better with age?
- Sure, so safe cooking is seven days.
Including the day you made it.
- Right, right. - Right? You wanna get rid
of anything that's been sitting around for
longer than seven days.
This gets better every single day.
- It's kinda like pasta sauce, right?
- Right. (Pamela laughs)
So I love making something
that's in a larger batch like this,
and just scooping a little bit out every day.
It's fantastic. - So one day you could
have it as lunch, - Right.
- Then you could put it with the chicken,
you could put it with some fish,
- Right. - You could put it
with the scallops, - Once it's cold,
in the fridge, you can pull it right out and
toss it with some lettuce and some
vinaigrette, - Have a cold salad.
- It's a fantastic cold salad. - Yeah.
So it's quite versatile.
- It really is.
So now the squash. - So now we're gonna
turn the heat off,
and the reason we're doing that, again,
the squash is so thinly sliced.
We really don't want it to cook,
we just kinda want it to wilt - Right.
- From the heat of the stew.
And some tomatoes.
This is a beautiful striped variety.
- It looks gorgeous, look at it.
And so, the heat is off, now you're just folding it in,
- Right. - And the residual heat
from the product itself is actually
gonna cook the rest of that.
Oh, it looks yummy!
Doesn't that look good? (Chris laughs)
- So it's kind of like Southern ratatouille, you know?
- Yeah! - Everyone's familiar with
ratatouille, from, - Yeah.
- You know, obviously, the movie.
- And real traditional French ratatouille takes hours
to make. - Right. (chuckles)
- And this, obviously
was not hours. - This is like a
30-minute meal here. - Yeah, exactly.
Exactly. - We're gonna add
a smidge of butter, - Okay.
- Just a smidge. (laughs) A smidge of butter.
That just adds a little bit of fat.
- It's gonna round out the flavors.
- Exactly. - It's gonna give you a
nice mouthfeel. - It brings, pulls
everything together. - Yes.
- You know, fat coats your palate.
It coats your tongue when you eat it.
- And if you didn't want to do dairy,
you could leave it out couldn't you?
- Of course, you could
totally leave it out. - Yeah.
- When I'm cooking with butter, dairy,
I do like to always add a little acid
at the end. - Okay.
- Not so that it cooks out, but just so it stays there.
And it's really bright - Okay.
- And fresh, it kind of pulls everything together.
- And that's a good trick to do,
if you're ever making a dish,
like any kind of lentils,
or any kind of a vegetable dish,
and it seems kind of flat when you're tasting it,
just give it a splash of some kind of acid,
whether it's lemon juice, like Chris is doing here,
or a little splash of vinegar to it,
it really will brighten up and make all those flavors
just sing, instead of just being flat on your palate.
- So we're gonna finish with some salt as well.
Salt and acid.
If you go down to Stoke, which is inside the
Marriott City Center, my cooks will tell you that
my mantra is salt and acid.
Everything salt and acid. - Salt and acid.
"Hi, I'm Chris 'Salt and Acid'
"Coleman." (laughs) - Salt and acid, right.
And there we go.
And again, this is
a perfect little companion dish,
- Oh, look at that! - A perfect,
you know, it's almost soupy, so you could eat this
if it was kind of a cold, rainy day,
tucking into a bowl of this would be fantastic.
- Be great with a piece of grilled chicken, too,
because you got all that - Sure.
- Wonderful sauce, are you ready to plate up?
- Let's plate up.
- Nice big bowl, ooh, yum.
- So we're gonna go veggies right in.
- Okay.
Here's another bowl.
- And then I like to get some of that juice.
- Yes, put some of that juice in there.
- Acts as a nice sauce for whatever meat
you wanna serve it with, or, again,
a little bit of bread to soak it up.
- Now, do you need to put any herbs in here?
It looks like it's really full of flavor,
it already is. - It's pretty full of flavor.
- Right. - You could certainly
finish this off with
- Okay.
- Some parsley, I love a mixture of parsley,
tarragon and chives.
- Ooh, that would be lovely. - So that's kind of my go-to
soft herb mix.
- Especially if you're serving it
all by itself, right? - Right.
Again, I think there's so much flavor in these vegetables,
- Especially when you get them
fresh from the market, oh, yes.
This looks great, doesn't it?
Alright, here we go.
Look at our farmers market vegetable ragout.
Doesn't that look delicious?
You guys can get these recipes on our website at
pbscharlotte.org.
(upbeat folk music)
Boy, this looks delicious.
- Thank you.
- Doesn't it look great?
Oh my goodness, I can't wait to try it.
So, farmers market summer vegetable ragout.
Mmm, yum.
I'm gonna try these beans and peas together.
And the toma, oh, you gotta get everything in the bite.
- There's so much flavor and texture.
- And it all stands out, wow!
It's wonderful.
Mmm, yummy. - Thank you very much.
- So Chris, tell me, what do you think is happening
with Charlotte's food scene right now?
- I think Charlotte is exploding right now, honestly.
- Food and Wine just said that 2018 was Charlotte's
year for, breakout year for food.
- Okay. - So, I think there's a lot
of chefs in town, there's a lot of
instructors who are really kind of helping
to put Charlotte on the map,
and what I find so exciting is the sense of
we're all in it together. - Yeah.
- Whether we were born here, like me,
or we moved here,
we want Charlotte to succeed. - We do.
- And we're all proud of our little city
here in North Carolina. - We are.
We are.
One thing, I moved here probably, maybe 12 years ago.
And Charlotte was still fledgling
and trying to identify itself
as a food scene. - Right.
- And I really think it's grown up now,
and it's really, truly identifying.
So, it's not just Southern food anymore.
It's not just fried, it's not just comfort,
it's not just country food.
- Right.
- It's really gotten quite sophisticated.
- Yeah, there was this, kind of, sense of
Charlotte was a banking town,
so it was meat and potatoes, - Right.
- Or it was that meat and three, like you
just kind of touched on. - Right, the meat and three,
yes, yes, yes, yes. - Which, I love a
meat and three, - Yeah, right.
- Don't get me wrong, but
Charlotte's really growing up as
kind of a new Southern city. - It is.
- And that's what our cuisine is.
It's new Southern, or modern Southern, as I call it.
- It is, yeah.
- So it's taking steak and potatoes,
and meat and three, and it's adding all these
awesome cultures that are - Yeah.
- moving to Charlotte and making it home.
So we have fantastic, obviously,
European influences, but then, African
and East Asian and West Asian and
South American and African cuisine and it's
just fantastic. - You can find it all here.
- Yeah, it's fantastic. - You can find it all here.
And all you have to do is decide what you want to eat,
but even then that's the hard part.
I encourage everybody to go out and try these
new restaurants that are opening because
all the chefs that are there are doing a marvelous job.
- Right, we're all just - Marvelous job.
- Working our butts off to make sure that we look good.
(laughs) And that Charlotte - Absolutely.
- looks good. - Absolutely.
So, Chris, how did you get started in cooking?
- I've always loved food, since I was a kid.
I came from a family that loved food and appreciated food
and appreciated sitting around a meal table together
like we're doing right now.
After high school, I decided to go to culinary school.
Looked at several options, but settled on CPCC
because It has a great track record of putting out
some fantastic chefs and has really established itself
in the city as a leader. - It has.
- So I graduated from CP in 2005,
got a job at McNinch House Restaurant,
- Okay.
- Which is right uptown in Charlotte's
Fourth Ward area. - It is.
- I was named Executive Chef there when I was 21.
- Nice
- So, I mean, a little bit of luck, a little bit of talent,
But, right place at the - A lot of talent.
right times. (Pamela laughs)
- And was given the chance there to kind of figure out
who I was as a chef. - Yeah.
- I worked there for nine years.
- Oh good. - Under Ellen Davis
and she let me just kinda decide what my path was
and who I was as a chef.
Left there in 2014 to open up The Asbury.
- Okay. - At the Dunhill Hotel.
And then just most recently, out at the Marriott City Center
- Okay. - Where we opened up Stoke.
- They're not letting you out of Uptown, are they? (laughs)
- No, I can't get out of the 277 loop, I keep trying.
(both laugh)
- Oh, wow, alright.
Well, once, again, I really really do appreciate
you coming and sharing this beautiful dish with us.
And I really hope people come into
the restaurant and try it.
Especially with your scallops and your
corn sauvignon that goes with it.
Oh, geez, that has just gotta be outrageous.
(Chris laughs)
And I really thank everything you do for our students,
because I know our students are bugging you like crazy
to get jobs over there with you.
(Chris laughs)
But I really appreciate everything you do for us.
And hopefully we'll get you back on the show again.
- Sounds good. - Okay? Alright.
Sounds real good, alright?
So, let's enjoy this. Okay? - Sure.
(upbeat folk music)
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