- Hey, I'm Drew.
And this is Thanksgiving in four different ways.
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- If I have Thanksgiving with my family,
and just Nigerians in general, it's just the turkey
that's like the American Thanksgiving staple.
And then it's just traditional Nigerian food.
I was gonna go and buy some moi moi,
so I could have the authentic Nigerian food experience
for our friends-giving, that didn't work out.
This is the main thing, this is the black eyed peas.
I have it soaking in water.
the directions say to soak it in water for an hour,
and essentially I am soaking them
so that the skin-shell thing will come off.
So you soak it, and then you like rub it together
to help it come off, and then you blend it.
All righty, so I have defrosted the shrimp.
I have the peppers, and I have this onion.
This is the hard boiled eggs.
I'm gonna chop all of these up,
and hopefully the beans will be ready after that.
All righty, so this is the shrimp.
I already put a little bit of allspice.
I think I'll do some black pepper, and a little garlic salt.
Aah! (beep)
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Now I'm gonna take all of these,
I'm gonna peel them, and I'm gonna chop these up.
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So I have been chopping for 10 years,
and it's time to start thought sauteing
the onions and the shrimp.
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This part takes forever.
I have to make these pouches, because the concoction
goes into the pouches, and then you fold it up,
and then you put it in the oven.
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So I'm actually making the moi moi now,
and I've been soaking the beans,
but now I need to wash the beans.
Do you have any advice?
- [Viv's Mom] Okay, use a cup, get some,
and put it in the blender.
- Oh, okay, so instead of doing it by hand,
I can do it in the blender?
- Of course, it's faster.
- This is not the typical type of blender
that you use to make moi moi,
but we're gonna make it- it's gonna work.
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This is not working for me,
this whole blending part, to wash it.
What I know is getting in here with my hands.
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All righty, so I have my sieve,
and I'm gonna try and sieve through some of this.
Okay, I am starting to feel like
I'm actually doing this right.
Look at all of that!
The washing of the beans is actually working.
This is looking like moi moi.
So now I'm gonna add seasoning.
The main one that I see everywhere from moi moi
is Maggi Bullion Cube.
My mind would say, "Add the eggs now,"
but the recipe that I watched, and also after
talking to my mom, this goes in
when it's right about to be cooked.
What I will put in is the onions,
the shrimp, and the leftover oil.
I have some packets in this tiny little pot.
I think this is what's really gonna work out.
I'm basically making it like a pie.
I'm gonna bake it in the oven.
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- Thanksgiving looks different all around the world,
but in a Haitian household,
you'll definitely see legume there, that's like a necessity.
Literally just like a vegetable stew.
There's eggplant, there's watercress, there's cabbage,
there's spinach, peppers, onions, beef.
Sometimes they can do crab.
I can't do nothing without calling Mom first.
So let me give her a call,
see what she's gonna tell me to do.
Jasmine is here, we're cooking, we're gonna hang out, too,
so it's gonna be awesome.
For the seasoning mix, it's called epis.
Now eight pieces of cornerstone,
of like, all Haitian-household.
So we're gonna start with water,
and that water is gonna have our scallion,
garlic, green pepper, onion puree in there.
What do you think?
- Mm. (happy chime)
- [Drew] So this is all the beef,
we have this seasoned and marinated.
I just did some Lawry's seasoned salt on this,
and mixed in some lime juice.
And I'm just kind of letting it marinate a little bit
while we get the vegetables and the epis done.
Then after that, we're gonna put in the beef cubes
to get that good boil and stew going.
Okay, so we have everything chopped up for the legume.
Now we're gonna get to the actual legume part.
I have the oil laid down,
we're going do a layer of eggplant,
then we're gonna do carrots,
then we're gonna throw in some beef.
I'm gonna do a layer of watercress and cabbage.
- [Drew's Mom] Put in a little Prego sauce.
- [Drew] All right, and then we wait
until it boils for, what, an hour?
- [Drew's Mom] Yeah, it's gonna boil soon,
about half-an-hour, 40 minutes.
And then you're gonna turn it down, to medium heat.
- [Drew] Oh, we got action.
Jasmine, what do you think it smells like?
- It smells like heaven.
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- [Drew] Last looks of the legume.
This looks amazing.
So we laid everything out with the legume,
and we mashed it up.
You have to wait after 30 minutes,
that's when all the water evaporates.
And that's when it kind of creates that like,
stewy-chili, like thickness of it.
So pour this over rice, and boom,
that's the perfect side dish for your Haitian Thanksgiving.
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- When it comes to a Black and Puerto Rican household,
you will definitely find a pernil,
which is a heavily marinated, slower roasted, pork shoulder.
It's just the star of the show.
When you buy this pork shoulder,
make sure that it has that layer of skin and fat at the top.
You're gonna crisp that skin up later
in the cooking process.
And it's gonna be like a big chicharrone,
that's what people fight over.
We'll see how it comes out, but I'm super excited
to take on one of the family traditions,
and make a video for the first time.
So to make this pernil,
you're gonna want to start with the marinade.
I'm gonna combine some seasonings, some adobo,
some black pepper, some garlic powder,
and some dried oregano,
and mix that in with some vegetable oil.
So after I make the marinade,
you're gonna take that pork shoulder,
and you're just gonna stab it,
make as many holes as you want.
More holes is more flavor.
We're going to pour that marinade over,
and fill all of those holes with that marinade.
I take some thinly sliced garlic,
and stuff it into all of those holes.
Honestly, that's pretty much all you do
to prepare the pork shoulder, it's fairly simple.
Time is probably like the biggest factor
when it comes to a pernil, you want to let this thing
marinate for at least overnight,
but ideally, two to three days.
Unfortunately, I didn't plan that far ahead,
so all I have is overnight.
Once that pernil has marinated,
we're gonna start to cook it, and mind you,
I have a really small one.
This is like a three-pound pork shoulder,
so it's gonna cook way quicker
than the 10, 12 pound ones I'm used to.
What my mama told me to do is pour some water
on the bottom of the baking dish you're using,
which is gonna help, you know,
keep that pernil moist, as well as help create
like a delicious gravy for the pernil
that you can baste it with.
Throw it in your oven at a low temperature.
Usually between like 325 and 375 works pretty well.
We're gonna throw that in for like two hours.
And during those two hours,
I'm going to baste it every like 30 minutes or so.
So after the two hours is up,
you're gonna wanna take off the top and bake it,
maybe like another 30 minutes.
Once that part is done, you're gonna crank up the heat,
and now we're getting ready to crisp that skin up.
So I had to prop it up with some aluminum foil
just to make sure that the skin is getting crispy.
Once that skin is crunchy, and, you know,
hard to the touch, take it out,
let it rest for like 25 minutes, and then it should be
so tender, that it literally,
just kind of like comes off the bone.
I like to take the crispy skin off in one piece,
and just kind of lay it next to the meat.
That's pretty much how you make it.
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- What's up everyone, I'm Bre.
And today I am making my grandma's greens
and honey butter cornbread.
When my grandma lost her sight,
I wanted to take over, and kind of help learn the recipe,
so that they could still be dishes
on our table for our family.
Since the greens take the longest,
that is what we'll start with.
And while our greens are going,
we'll start our corn bread.
For today, I'm doing a mix of collards and mustards,
and no turnips today, sorry y'all.
And we always use smoke pork mix, all right?
That is how you make your pot-licker.
You can't throw your greens in until it's just right.
I like to warm up my pork neck
before I just throw it in the pot.
I like to get it hot, and activate those flavors.
A tablespoon of chopped garlic, a quarter of an onion.
A yellow sweet onion. (pot sizzles)
All right, so it's been about three minutes.
This looks great, we're about to cover it with water,
and let it reduce down into a delicious sap.
All right, so I'm gonna put my clean, washed,
and dried greens to the side, while this liquor reduces down
and gets all nice and yummy.
And I start gathering our cornbread ingredients
to make our honey butter cornbread.
We are starting with three quarters cup
of all purpose flour, one and a quarter cup of cornmeal.
One tablespoon of baking powder,
half a teaspoon of baking soda,
one and a half teaspoons of Kosher salt.
This is my honey butter cornbread.
I'm only using a quarter cup of sugar.
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All right, our dry is all mixed,
so I'm gonna set that bowl aside,
and get started mixing our wet ingredients together.
To this cup, I added three quarters cup of buttermilk.
I'm also adding half a cup of sour cream.
We have about two or three tablespoons
of honey in here, as well now.
And lastly, we have one egg to add.
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This is the only way I will ever make cornbread,
is in a cast iron skillet.
The ancestors will not let me make it any other way.
Half a stick of butter goes in here,
while I've finished mixing this.
And when the butter is nice and like bubbling,
but not browned, that's when I know it's ready.
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You don't want to over mix, I know that's one thing
Grandma always told me.
In goes our cornbread mix.
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When it comes out the oven,
we're gonna put a little honey butter on top.
The cornbread is in the oven,
our pork necks are in the pot, cooking,
and getting all yummy, yummy, yummy.
I'm gonna check on everything in about 20 minutes.
She is looking delicious.
Grandma would be so proud of me right now,
who wouldn't want this on their table for Thanksgiving?
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Literally, could not be happier
with how the honey butter cornbread came out.
We can see that there's a liquid, it's a different color.
I see some of the meat has come off the bone,
and it's floating around.
It is time to add in our greens.
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45 minutes, I let the greens just do their thing in here.
I hear angels singing.
That's the money shot right there.
All right, I'm gonna package this up to go
for everyone to give it a taste.
Now, look at this beautiful pot o' greens.
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- We've got a great spread out here.
We have so much amazing food, I got my friends.
- [Bre] This, look at this skin, c'mon, crispy skin, yes!
- [Vivian] Everything smells so good.
Like I just can't wait to put my whole face in it.
- Thanksgiving might look different where we're from,
but as long as you with your family,
it's a great Thanksgiving, so happy holidays, guys.
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