Yes, this is a stable of the New Orleans holidays! This was the first dish I ever made when I was 16 years old. Of course I had to call my mama at work a dozen times. I’m inspired to cook this next week… I was going to make eggplant casserole, but now I’m making both. Thanks Charlie!
Yes this is a must for holidays my daughter made this for the first time for her boys instead of ham she put crawfish shrimp and lump crabmeat she always loved this my father grew this thanks I love watching you ❤❤❤❤
Charlie this was great to see. I'm going to try it this way. Quick question from your fellow New Orleans native, could the mirliton could have been boiled first, then cur n remove seed? Also could a little water be put in base of pan, covered? Thanks so much.
I can't wait to make this. I'm from Oakland the Bay Area & Now life in San Francisco the Bay Area just minutes away. I can not find that Chef Paul magic & Seafood season
Because I was missing half the ingredients, I improvised by boiling the mirlitons in spicy improvised broth, but the process was the same and they came out pretty much as good as I remembered from growing up in New Orleans! I’ll come back to this video again for the recipe, and also just to hear Charlie’s New Orleans accent. 😊
It's going to be difficult to find because it's a regional vegetable and it's also available mostly during the fall and winter months. If you ever find it and try the recipe, let me know how it turns out. Thanks!
Hi Charlie! Being from New Orleans I grew up eating this.. my mom use to cook this, now I cook them for my California family. Good job!! First time writing.
Around this time of year, your videos start popping up more frequently. Some of them are older ones and some are newer ones and some (like this one) are brand new. I’m always glad to see the ones I’ll make again, and even more excited to see the ones I have never seen before, like this one. I was so glad to hear you say that the ham was optional, because I didn’t really think it sounded like I would like it in there. You just single-handedly upped the sales of that squash that a lot of us didn’t know what to do with….LOL Happy Thanksgiving to you and your whole family Charlie!❤
Yes, that's right. My channel was always a holiday channel. Yes, the ham is optional as some people don't add it into their dressing. I know right. lol Happy Thanksgiving to you as well.
HEY YOUNG MAN!!! SORRY TO SAY, I NEVER HEARD OF A MIRLITON BEFORE BUT IT LOOKS LIKE A PEAR AND I LOVE PEARS!!! IT LOOKS DELICIOUS!! I WILL GIVE IT A TRY BECAUSE YOU MAKE IT LOOK SCRUMPIOUS!!! THANKING YOU FOR ANOTHER GREAT RECIPE!! I LOVE YOU! HAVE A FANTASTIC THANKSGIVING ,CHARLIE!!!
Hey there! That's understandable. That's awesome. Let me know how it turns out. You're welcome, not a problem. Have a great Thanksgiving as well. Thanks!
This looks soooo good I love how you give history on the recipes too! That’s so important so we can have an understanding of why the seasonings being used are being incorporated!
Hello Charlie!! Greetings from Michigan! I havnt commented in a while. I just love your accent! Your personality is so bubbly! This recipe I've enjoyed watching. VERY different. I must try. You have a blessed day Charlie!
Hello there! I appreciate the compliments. Yes, absolutely. Mirlitons are regional and it can be difficult to find it. If you ever decide to try the recipe, let me know the results when you're done. Thanks. Have a blessed day as well.
Just made it y’all and my husband LOVED IT! He is a Nola native so that tells you everything you need to know about his taste in food lol! The one change I made was using store brought beef stock because I purchased my shrimp already peeled and deveined.
I am happy to hear that the stuffed mirlitons were successful and that you all enjoyed it. Nice work with using whatever you have to make the recipe work. Thanks for leaving feedback!
Well live & learn I've purchased & tossed out this veggie about 3 times over the years I just didn't know what to do bake, fry who knew I thought it was a Cuba vegetable. Thank you, you've just taught an old dog a new trick I've wanted to learn for years, thank you Chef. This I can try, no sugar yes, a diabetic dream❤🎉😊
I show up time to time to see Charlie’s wonderful recipes, give support to our cuisine and to give a bit of Louisiana food history. Here’s the history on this one: Stuffed mirlitons have their origin from the Isleños of Louisiana (Louisiana descendants of Spaniards from the Canary Islands of Spain). In isleño Spanish they are called Chayotas rellenas (also said as chayotes rellenos). The term mirliton is a French term and the name passed into French as mirliton farcis (stuffed mirlitons) once the food dish entered into general New Orleans cuisine during the time when New Orleans was still majority French speaking. Them mirlitons look delicious, Charlie. I might have to make some soon.
@@CharlieTheCookAndrews Hey thanks, Charlie! That’s what I do, I research the history of our cuisine and culture to bring these lesser known facts to locals and tourists alike that never knew them. Your channel is on my top 5 list of food channels, we cook so much alike and I recommend your channel to folks ⚜️
I had to come back to this comment for a food history edit, which I rarely ever do because I’m always on point. So I have a lot to report, so this will be very long, like an article, so I ask you bear with me and read until the end because it’s filled with surprising information. So I recently found out while deep researching that yes, the first instances of stuffed mirlitons in Louisiana were with isleños (Spaniards from the Canary Islands of Spain) as I first commented here. But they were not in the most common style we know most in south Louisiana which is the seafood style here. The early isleños stuffed them with ground meat, spices and topped them cheese. I found early recipes from Louisiana in this type and they are old and they later replaced the cheese topping with breadcrumbs in Louisiana. We have a version of this recipe in south Louisiana today that combines ground meat (beef and/or pork), spices, shrimp and stuffed in mirliton then the top breaded with breadcrumbs, which this type of stuffed mirliton is the direct isleño-derived stuffed mirliton descendant. When reviewing the ingredients and cooking techniques of the most common type of stuffed mirlitons in south Louisiana which are seafood ones with breading like in this video, I noticed that the stuffing is very reminiscent of French cuisine. I researched French cuisine and found a near carbon copy stuffing of the dressing stuffed mirliton are made with. It’s a gratin called gratin de crevettes and sometimes has the addition of ham. In old Louisiana recipes for stuffed mirlitons, and something I learned also from my grandmother that is the old time way to make them, is instead of using all breadcrumbs, the old way is to use French bread soaked in milk then squeezed of its milk and that creates the stuffing binder. It’s called a panade in both Louisiana french and France. Breadcrumbs would be added if needed to tighten it and breadcrumbs would be added to the top to bake in a process in France called gratiné and it’s used for a French gratin. This technique is very French. Well the plot thickens substantially from there. It turns out, mirlitons themselves were a staple vegetable of the Aztec Indians in México and upon coming into contact with them in the Middle Ages, the Spaniards adopted the mirliton vegetable which they called chayota/chayote. Spain has a millenia-long history of stuffed vegetables in the Spanish cuisine, namely stuffed bell peppers, stuffed eggplant, stuffed zucchini and stuffed tomatoes. When the Spaniards adopted the mirliton, they stuffed it like they did other vegetables. So the Spaniards invented the stuffed mirliton and introduced versions of stuffed mirlitons to Latin America and the Caribbean. Then the plot gets even more crazy. Fast forward a few hundred years and by that time, versions of stuffed mirlitons were found all over the Caribbean and Latin America. In the Caribbean, there was a French colony called St. Domingue, which is present day Haiti. Well unlike present day Haiti which is an all black nation born of a slave uprising, St. Domingue was a multicultural colony much like Louisiana that had a white population of French descent, a mixed race population of French and West African descent, and a black population of West African descent. I found that Haiti’s cuisine today is a continuation of its colonial roots and is a mixture of French, Spanish, West African and Taino Indian culinary influences as both Spain and France owned St. Domingue and Taino Indians, Spanish, French and West Africans all lived there at one point and together. Tainos being the indigenous population. The other ethnic groups being the créole population. The next plot twist is that St. Domingue had a giant slave uprising event called the Haitian Revolution, in which blacks which had by that time outnumbered whites and caused an exodus of whites from the island due to mass violence. Many of those whites came to Louisiana in the early start of the Haitian Revolution. But a large number of whites, mixed race people and blacks that were all friendly to each other, moved in large numbers to Cuba, escaping the Haitian Revolution before St. Domingue became called Haiti. Well after a while in Cuba, Spain, who owned Cuba at the time, had some troubles with France and because of that, expelled the French speaking St. Domingans from Cuba. And you never guess where they went? That’s right, all of them to south Louisiana. They arrived as 10,000 people in which 1/3 of them were whites, 1/3 of them were mixed race people and 1/3 of them were black people. And with them, they brought a common St. Domingue style of stuffed mirliton, similar in style to our common style of stuffed mirlitons. It was called mirliton farci, just as it is in Louisiana French. The only two places where mirliton is used for this particular vegetable, was St. Domingue (and now in Haiti) and Louisiana. It’s used in France and is a French word, but not for the mirliton vegetable, it’s used for a certain type of squash, which I found is the origin of its name in St. Domingue/Haiti and Louisiana as mirliton is a type of squash. So this type of St. Domingue stuffed mirliton known as mirliton farci, very similar to ours in south Louisiana, was brought with the St. Domingue refugees to Louisiana between 1791-1810 and it was a mirliton stuffed with shrimp, ham and tomatoes, along with a panade of French bread soaked in milk and squeezed and mixed with the middle portions of the mirlitons that was scooped out and the stuffing put in the mirliton and topped with breadcrumbs and baked. The stuffing is in the style from France , which I found is of the French heritage side of St.Domingan/Haitian cuisine. We can see that in south Louisiana, we added crabmeat to it as well often or sometimes make it all seafood and leave out the ham, some families do that. Stuffed mirliton casserole by the way is a south Louisiana invention. So there you have it, our stuffed mirliton has its initial origins in Spanish and Aztec food collaboration as Spaniards invented stuffed mirliron and Spaniard from the Canary Islands of Spain introduced Louisiana to stuffed mirliton. But our most common style of stuffed mirliton, evolved with French techniques, style of stuffing and ingredients in a style of stuffed mirliton that came together in St. Domingue and was brought to Louisiana from the French Caribbean by St. Domingans. (I don’t say it came from Haiti because the St. Domingue refugees left before it was called Haiti and never identified as Haitian, they were fleeing what was to become Haiti. In fact there are old 19th century newspaper clippings of St. Domingue refugees in Louisiana denying the identification of Haitian and they make clear in the report that they are St. Domingan, not Haitian). So there it is! Our stuffed mirlitons have a Spanish origin and was introduced to Louisiana by Spaniards from the Canary Islands of Spain. And our most common style of stuffed mirlitons have a French and St. Domingan heritage. But it’s all south Louisiana now and part of our local cuisine. It’s as part of us as any one of our food dishes. Thanks for reading this tiring article lol 🙂
as a new orleans native, these videos inspire me so much to get back to cooking! your personality is fantastic and i appreciate how you carefully explain each detail! all the best to you!
I am happy to hear that my videos inspire you to get back to cooking. I also appreciate the compliments and well wishes. Thanks, my fellow New Orleans native!
Oh Mr. Andrews; these look so delicious. I love your channel, your care in explaining and your cooking wisdom. With your help I fell as though I could cook anything. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours…
Definitely a staple of New Orleans such great warm memories I luv luv mirlitons you cooked them the exact way my mom taught me…. also my pronunciation is close to yours ⚜️⚜️🥰
In making these now. As indictated in this recipe, I'm draining the cooked pulp now. Wow, they are full of water. I started this recipe early this morning after making a roux for gumbo, which took a hour to get to copper penny color. Knowing that, I sat on a stool at the stove stirring my roux. Gumbo on low now with andoullie sausage, chicken, shrimp, smoked oysters and lump crab meat. Dirty rice will be made tomorrow morning. I subscribed to this channel for the wonderful LA (southern) dishes like I also have on deck (cornbread dressing, mac n cheese, greens, field peas, candied yams) my turkey breast and half o hen been dry brining in my frig for 2 days so I'll roast those tonight. Thanks again for these classic recipes.
ohweee man! Can’t wait to be in the city next week to eat some good NOLA food. Which I can make it my self, but something about that New Orleans seafood🤤🤤🤤🤤
I remember my mother making these during the holidays! Even though it was a pain to clean the shrimp, it was worth it! Btw: I watched your past video making these the other day!
A perfect wow 10 never saw that squash like that. Looked like between pear and avocado. What does it taste like. I think I would love love all seafood and all squash and veggies. Has to be hit
My grandma used to make these! They were so good! Glad you posted this, Charlie. Now I don’t have to guess trying to make Grandma’s Mirlitons. She used to have them growing in her back yard in SoCal. And yes, she pronounced it just like you do; “Melitons” Thank you Charlie!
I remember yr older recipe as I thought what are mirltons lol, but here in Australia we know them as Choko 😃 this is a differ version looks delicious, all yr recipes are spectacular n very very delicious...I've made lots of yr recipes and they have never disappointed...Thanks 4 sharing Charlie yr the best 👍👍👍👍🙏🏻😃
Wow, they must have several different names according to the region. I'm happy to hear that all of the recipes you've tried were successful. You're welcome, not a problem. I appreciate the compliments. Thanks!
I've said me-li-ton soft n my whole life, live in New Orleans. That's how my grandmother says it. Someone tried to correct me today, I pulled up your video to show them it's a local dialect, and I wasn't just mispronouncing it wrong. Thanks for the backup 😅
Yes, absolutely. Only people from New Orleans that knows how to say it the way we say it. You said it correctly!! Me-li-ton. lol You're welcome, not a problem.
One of my favorite holiday sides 😍😍😍 baby this, some dirty rice, baked spaghetti, and seafood dressing is all i want for thanksgiving and Christmas oh and some sweet potatoes lol
I am happy to hear that you enjoy my videos. I sure will keep the recipe videos coming. I hope the stuffed mirlitons were successful. Happy Thanksgiving to you as well. Thanks!
My people cook stuffed green bell pepper and everything you used except ham and mirliton. They eat it with rice, potato salad and peas and fried chicken and with a fork lol. Mirliton and Eggplant are both dishes prepared with shrimp and its eaten with rice @ my area of Louisiana
Had never heard of stufging chayote, Charlie! By the way, love the recycling--first cooking channel I've seen where the ingredients are added from the plastic dishes--we've all got those around! Totally unpretentious, and I love it! You must be into baking you pies soon! Happy Thanksgiving, Charlie! Stay blessed!
Heyyyy Charlie 🖐🖐🖐 That looks so delicious ‼️🔥😋😋😋😋 Definitely something I've never had before, and I love ❤️ to try new things.... On my way to pick up one of those ..just set mine to the side.😊
So glad you did a recipe around Thanksgiving! Glad for this one as I have not had this but it sounds so good. I will like to try this in peppers. I don't know where to find a meleton.
Yes, absolutely. This is the video for you if you can't find the mirlitons. The link is below. Thanks! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MyfvKgZqZ3Q.htmlsi=Olk6C3VPIA-FSsQ-
Hi Charlie me & my family love your videos! If you haven’t already, could you try to make a sweet potato cheesecake, I’d love to see how you’d make it!
Hey there! I am happy to hear that you all enjoy my videos. Yes, I'll work on a sweet potato cheesecake video in the near future. Thanks for the request!
Well done chef Charlie 👍🏾 but to be honest I never had them before, are they a vegetable? Any way its the taste test for me seeing your reaction makes me want to try it out but I know I don't have the patience to make it but thank you for sharing. May you have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and stay safe God bless you.
I made stuffed peppers before... But never had Mirlitons before... I definitely need to make these bro🔥🔥🔥... Well without the ham since I don't eat pork... But I'm sure they will be still be good😎
That's cool bro! Hopefully you'll be able to find the mirlitons in your area. lol If you ever decide to try the recipe, let me know how it turns out. Thanks!!
