Yes.

Its ready.

Got it all prepared.

Its finished It's stunning.

Yes.

It's great.

It's all so ready.

So just let it all begin.

Hi, I'm Chris Fennimore, an welcome back to the QED kitchen.

Today we're cooking for a crowd.

Recipes that you can use for a large family, a big potluck dinner, sharing with friends.

Or as we learn in the first segment, feeding a bunch of hungry firefighters.

We've actually done two shows with firefighters because they're a treasure trove of simple and simply delicious, no nonsense recipes.

In our first segment, we have Steve Grenesko, and Brandon Hathaway fro the number four house in Uptown.

With this recipe they introduced me to the magic of pressure cooking.

And this was at least a decad before instant pot made their wa into all of our kitchens.

So you can make this old school like Steve, or pull that instant pot out of the clos and put it to work.

So here is Stephen Brando with a recipe for a very basic chicken stew that is sure to please any gang of hearty eaters, so just let it all begin.

Well, the recipe that you sent in I was fascinated with because it uses a pressure cooker, whic I have resisted up to this time, but your recipe looked so inviting and I'm going to lower this down.

And so inviting and so easy that I may go out and get a pressure cooker just to make this recipe that will change your life.

Chris.

Yeah.

I told, Deputy Chief Dan Hennessy is one to turn me on to a pressure cooker.

And I told him I would mention him, say hello.

He cooks quite often in one.

And, I found out that, and they kind of make fun of me because I always cook in one.

But you can make some really good meals.

Really fast.

And, one thing that's important for us, we might have to go on a run in the middle of cooking.

I can turn that off, and it'll still continue to cook.

And, we come back in and we're ready.

Wow.

Kind of makes it, even fireman proof.

So, well, let's get started.

Show me how you make this, this recipe.

Well, we're going to start by peeling some carrots.

Put some vegetables in there, Yeah, we put some, very simple recipe.

Very, very few ingredients.

We have carrots celery, potatoes, chicken, stock And then we thicken it up a little bit.

So I like to just leave the carrots nice and big.

Chunky nice and chunky.

Everybody gets a nice big piece.

Well, that's the thing about the pressure cookers I guess it cooks things really through.

It does it makes, meat comes out.

The most tender meat you've ever eaten will come out of a pressure cooker.

I'm gonna chop up a little celery.

And, Brandon, you're you'r chopping those potatoes, leaving skin on you.

Leave the skin on, okay?

It takes way too much time to be peeling potatoes.

I don't have time for that.

I always tell the story about cooking with with the the guys that, number four, and we we're going to be making a baked mashed potato thing.

So we were we was sittin at the table peeling potatoes.

And a lot of guys will do that.

Yeah.

So I'm not in.

We're sitting there with chatting whatnot.

And I look down and I look up and I'm all by myself.

They'd gone on a run, They had gone on a run but I never even heard an alarm or whatever.

And the next thing I know, a truck is pulling out and I'm in the firehouse completely by myself.

So, sort of interesting.

When we have visitors, we tend to forget who's around and get a little tunnel vision on what we're doing and go to work.

And then when we come back, we pick up right where we left off, whether it's in the middle of cooking something or in the middle eating something, you just pick your fork up and go back to eating well.

One of the things they told me is that what'll happen is you guys will go out on a run and you might be there for a while, and the food is already ready, and the next shift comes on and they'll eat your food.

That's right I've done that to a guy.

That's some guys.

We're making chili up in Oakland.

And there was a fire, just a block from that firehouse.

No, we had been shifted there to cover their firehouse.

So we were kind of watching, looking down the block and eating their chili.

Well, next thing you know, the pots empty, and we had to hurry up and leave for the company, and they come back hungry.

That's not a good thing.

You want to stick this in the park.

Yeah, yeah.

So you just just put it in Chuck it in there.

Okay.

Nice big chunks.

Looks like you've made life easy for me.

You've already cut the chicken up.

Yeah.

Now, you were talking abou getting those, frozen chicken, breasts, cutlets.

Right.

That you can you can buy in a in a in a in the freezer department.

It's.

And you do you put them in frozen.

I put them in whole frozen.

Defrosting, cutting up all that takes too long.

It takes even longer than peeling potatoes.

So I just throw them in there frozen.

And in 15 minutes, it's all done.

Now, when I leave, put them in their frozen.

They have to take them out to chop them up.

And that's when I'll stick in the sauce and then throw the chicken back in.

So.

But, any order will work.

This.

You can't mess this u like I said, it's fireman proof.

Really forgiving.

Yeah, yeah we were to put the chicken in.

No, you're all right.

Yeah.

All I did was, to fly out some of that chicken and cut it into pieces.

So that we wouldn't have to, sure.

You know, take it ou sort of halfway and and whatnot.

Brandon, you're working on, on the those.

Yeah.

That's getting these ready.

Yeah.

Okay.

Never fails righ about now is when I run.

Okay?

Yeah, that's what it's just when you're getting it ready.

How many calls you, folks have every day?

Where we're at, anywhere between 1 and 20 closer to the ten side.

But there are a lot of times we have closer to 20.

Really?

The first shift that I'd gone back as a lieutenant, I had 27 runs.

And I thought to myself, what?

What myself.

But then I kind of slap myself hey, you wanted this, you know?

Suck it up, Sally.

Go back to work.

So.

But yeah, sometime, anywhere between 1 and 20, closer to the ten side most of the time But a lot of times there's 20.

We go over, maybe 3000, 3500 runs a year.

So that seems like an awful lot.

Yeah.

Well, and one of the reasons wh this cooking tradition started is the way that, I kno the Pittsburgh bureau, works is, you work on strange shifts you're on 24 hour shifts, right?

And you work, how does that work?

You.

Somebody should explain this to me.

You're like two 24 hour shifts or what?

Two 12 hours or two 12 hours.

And we show up at about 7:00 in the morning.

The shift officially starts at eight.

It's from 8 a.m.

until 8 a.m.

the next day.

So the day shift runs from eight until six in the evening, and then the night shift is from six in the evening till eight the next morning.

Now it's split in hal because you may take a vacation or a sick day for half the day, or for whatever reason.

And fellows that are, brought in for overtime, they'll only work a half a shift.

They won't call you in for 24 hours of overtime.

Then you're looking at just, you know, beating people up a little.

Too bad.

Yeah.

So.

So you spend 24 hours.

Lot of time.

So.

So you've got to find some way to, make food.

You wouldn't even have time necessary to go out and get food.

So.

Yeah, we.

Well, we try to, Yeah.

I've often tried to shop prior to.

And then I get there and find out, you know, maybe six out of the eight guys are there, can't eat or won't eat whatever we brought in, so.

Oh, but what I mean i you can't all go out for dinner.

No, no, no dinner break.

No no no, the crew that's there.

No no no no it's not like we can say at 6:00 we're sitting at a dinner and punch out.

So the nature of the job requires you to live together as a community there for some of 12 hours at a time.

Yep.

And just like, regular, you know, siblings, there's, all the same stuff.

You kind of get in each other's hair a little bit, or, you know, you know, but, you know, you're going home in the morning, so you could do anything for 24 hours.

Yeah, yeah.

All right.

So we we put some of the stock in.

So you use some, chicken stock, And if I don't buy the I like to buy these, quart size ones because I don' really have to think about it.

I could just dump it in, or I can just use water, and, my wife likes bullion cubes, but I've kind of gotten her away from that, because then you're peeling the yellow, those foil paper off a thousand boiling cubes.

Well, and the other thing is that the bouillon cubes hav a heavy, sodium, concentration, whereas you can get this low sodium and low fat, and it to, cut back on some of that.

How about that question?

Brandon, healthy cooking.

Our guy's more conscious of that now.

Or, not everyone not as conscious as we should be.

Usually guys that go to the firehouse to, get a good meal and, a well-fed fireman is a happy fireman.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So, so you don't want to lay in short, but, you know, whatever it is that you make, but but, but again, you're also getting a a quite a workout, so.

Oh, yeah.

You're not.

You're talking about, peopl who can use up a lot of calories and then need a lot to replace them.

Yep.

I saw you cutting Brandon.

You.

You've got some real knife skills.

Where did you learn what you learned?

All that.

I learned that, being a sous chef with, guy, I used to work with Brian Metz.

He.

He did most of the cooking, and I just did most of the prepping, so I, Well, he taught you, right?

I learned not to cut my finger off.

Well, I don't know about you, but we all we all have ha accidents here in the kitchen.

These things, they just happen.

You're working with sharp things.

Hot things.

You know, and and so on.

So, that that's that that stuff happens.

So now, okay, so now here's the process.

You've got all this stuff in here you haven't done anything else.

What?

Okay, now turn it on.

Okay.

And you put it on high.

Put it on high okay.

Good.

Locks on.

There's very simple arrows.

The line up.

Okay.

And my particular pressure cooker has a gauge on it and also has a pet cork.

And when you bring this up, the temperature, you turn it on high.

You'll watch the gauge go up when it gets to around 15 pounds of pressure.

And you can see how the pet corks jiggling, because it'll let off a little steam.

Right?

Kind of stabilize it.

I leave it at 15 pounds of pressure for 15 minutes.

So you do that by by adjusting the temperature, but correct by adjusting the flame on the stove.

Okay.

So and, you might need to move i a little bit here or there, but, 15 minutes and you're done.

So what about if it doesn't have one of these, how do you know it's 15?

Well, you say just by watching the speed of the pet coc jiggling, letting off the steam.

If it's really going crazy, it's too high.

And if it's not moving, it's a little too low.

So it's just going to be as it starts, a gentle a gentle rocking motion.

Okay.

It usually does it.

See, my memory is that my mom had a pressure cooker, but there was no gauges and dials and whatnot, an it had to look like a radiator.

Thing, you know, and it would suck on.

And she would go, okay, that's it, you know?

So yeah, from what I understand, the, the they make them very safe.

This particular mode has a small valve here that long before you have any explosions or anything that will blow, blow out and release steam.

Yeah.

Very safe, very easy.

I also use this for canning.

So, and that's what I originally bought it for until the deputy chief taught me how to cook it.

And then I pulled it out of the basement.

I use it all the time.

Yeah.

All right.

We have a finished batch.

But it's at the point wher it would have come out of the, pressure cooker.

Okay but it's not thickened yet, so.

So that's what we're going to do.

So we got a bowl with some water in it and you can thicken it.

You said in your recipe with either flour or corn flour or corn starch.

And I like corn starch.

My wife likes flour.

So either one works.

I don't measure anything that takes way too long.

Just kind of stir it up a little bit too.

All the corn starch is dissolved.

Hopefully this will be enough.

Sometimes it takes a little more.

You do it in cold water, right?

To the corn starch.

Correct.

Yeah.

So that it sort of th dissolves, it dissolves better.

It seems to get clumpy if you use warm water.

Right.

So let's see if it' all thickened it up enough.

So.

It's kind of poured in.

And which one Or you could use that to stir.

That's.

Well, and I like to sti as I'm adding the corn starch.

It lets me know if it's thickened enough.

So we can see it's thickening up a little bit.

I could probably use another batch or two of corn starch and water but this would be just fine.

Yeah.

I would serve it like this or a little thicker.

Either way is fine.

Okay.

So we call it soup.

So that's done.

That's ready to eat.

All right.

Well let's put some in a bow and see what that tastes like.

I'm going to put this to the side.

All right.

Do we have a ladle handy.

Yes I do I want to serve up right.

So.

Okay.

So thank you.

And again just as we're ready to eat we usually have a run.

Come in.

Nobody ring the bell.

So we have two rings at our firehouse.

And usually it's the, the engine that'll ru in the truck gets to stay behind and they get to eat the food nice and fresh and hot and kind of laugh at us is we'r going to work for we get to eat.

Well, this again has all of the attributes that I would ascribe to my concept of firehouse cooking i and that is that it's wholesome.

There's plenty of it, you know, and it's it's like hearty food.

I'm usually when I do this for the guys, I'll have two pressure cookers going at one time.

Really.

We, we feed nine guys.

Okay.

Well yeah I got to have got to get in here.

Yeah.

Get in.

And we also have to feed the deputy chief of the bureau for that day.

So.

Oh boy.

That's fantastic.

I can't believe how tender that chicken is.

And it really tastes like chicken.

There's something concentrated about that.

Maybe it's all the chicken stock and, and whatnot.

But you also get that great vegetable flavor back background.

That's really a terrific recipe.

This is the kind of recipe that you can make even for 1 or 2 people.

And then you just store the leftover in Ziploc bags for the freezer.

Or you can share them with friends.

File firefighters never make small batches of anything because they never want to, as they say, lay.

In short, a firefighter's, expression for not having enough hose on board to reach the flames.

Stephen Brandon also submitted a recipe for a simple desser that you can make for your gang.

Yes, I'm here in the kitchen, back in the kitchen with Steve Grenesko.

Nice to have you here.

And Brandon Hathaway from number four, which is in the Uptown section o of of Our Town.

And you're part of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire, right.

So you're a city firefighters.

Right.

And, they submitted a recipe that meant maybe other people have seen because I think it's one of those recipes that people find.

And, it looks so easy that they can't resist.

And so So tell us what the recipe is.

Well, one thing I've learned, if you're going to do some firehouse cooking, you better have dessert.

Yeah, we've got a deputy chief on our line, Frank Lodge.

If we don't have dessert, he'll let us know about it.

All right.

Oh, I'm not real good at baking real cakes.

And, I can't make ice cream or anything like that, but I found this dump cak recipe online, and it's called that because you're simply just dumping crap into a pan and baking it, and you're eating.

So it's, not terribly complicated.

We use cherry pie filling, crushed pineapples, a bag of yellow cake mix in some butter so not even I could mess that up.

It's pretty.

Pretty simple.

See, now there's there's instructions that you will never hear Jack paper give.

You know, you you dump a bunch of crap in a pan.

But but, basically, again, it fulfills that, that, requirement for firehouse cooking.

If first of all, it's going to be delicious.

Second, it's easy.

It's sort of, a no brainer.

And then, you know, it feeds a lot of people.

So, you know, we got your we would we would do it.

We were doing, chicken before in a pressure cooker.

And, and I'd never see a pressure cooker work, so it's, it's it'll be coming up to, pressure as soon as we see that thing working.

Okay.

So so let's, you know, let's start dumping as they, as they say.

What's the.

Okay, so one can of, cherry pie filling.

Okay.

Just dump it in the pan, and it does.

It's the that's the sort of standard pie filling.

Right.

Brandon, don't get ahead of us here.

Right, right about this.

But we're going to we're going to do a whole section on on cutting butter here.

So, so just, And you didn't prepare the pan, did you?

Nope.

Okay.

You just just dump it in there and it won't stick, we think.

No.

Oh, well, I've never had a problem with it.

I use just a regular, you know, transparent glass baking dishes.

So you just dump pineapples right on top of that.

And again, that's the larger can.

They have smaller cans of the crushed pineapple, but just.

And it's just enough filling t fill up the bottom of the pan.

So.

And I like to mix it up real good.

So.

I noticed, you'd had on that you'd, you'd already made.

And, man, there's wa prettier than the ones I make.

But I'm sure they they taste the same.

And the ones that I make don't sit around long enough for anybody to really spend any time looking at.

So they're usually gone when a couple of minutes.

Now, do you put this out as a at the end of a meal, or is this just something for people to snack on?

Yeah, I try to time it.

So as soon as we're done eating, I'm pulling this out of the oven.

Okay.

So while we're sitting dow eating, it's just finishing up.

Wow.

So you guys just kind of spread it out real nice.

So it gives you a nice, level top to sprinkle your cake mix on.

Right.

So, Brandon, one of the things that you happen.

I'm not Brandon.

Steve, I'm sorry, that you mentioned was that you had, been in the services.

Yeah, the prior to being a firefighter, and.

That's correct.

That's something that I, I ran into talking to so many firefighters.

Is that they had come out of the service and that this was a field that they went into.

So they've been in service to the country an now in service to the community.

It seems to be a good match.

What what was your field?

Well, I, I did almost 25 years combined military service.

I did eight years in the Army, and then the remainde was in the Air National Guard.

I just retired myself, but, almost two years ago, I find a lot of guys are still in the National Guard or the the reserves.

They did their active duty time.

And, being military helps you get the job.

You get a couple extra points when you're applying for civil service.

So that's why w a lot of veterans wind up there.

And then, a lot of us stay in because we like it.

I know I was actually out of the military for about two years.

I kind of missed it.

So I went back i and joined the National Guard.

And that' what led me to being a fireman.

So I didn't have both simultaneously for for a period of years.

And there's a lot of guys that still do that.

Wow.

Yeah.

That's terrific.

And so a lot of guys in your in your house as well.

Yeah.

We just had a one fella.

He just got back from a tour of where was Lu Kuwait, I believe he did, 8 or 9 months in Kuwait, fellow named Lu Wilson.

And, he just got back about maybe three weeks ago.

Yeah.

So there's a lot of us that are, getting deployed, you know, then you come right back to the firehouse, and it's like you never left.

You could still hang in there and your your helmets right where you left it.

Usually, unless somebody borrowed.

Okay.

So next step, we've dumped, the, Okay.

Now, this is just your standard boxed yellow cake mix.

I didn't have to mix any flour, sugar or sift anything.

None of that stuff.

All the way to complicated.

That's even harder than peeling potatoes.

So I like to keep everything real simple.

And you just sprinkle it all over the to and spread it out nice and even so, it makes a nice crust on top.

I would imagine it bubbles pretty pretty much up through that too, The the moisture in the pie filling and the butter that we're going to put on top is going to allow it to, to cook the way a cake should cook without a whole bunch of mixing and work.

But there's no egg in this.

No, no.

And no.

Okay.

Yeah.

That's what you usually put eggs and oil, right?

Yeah.

You don't need any of that because this won't get as big as a regular cake.

Right.

But it'll it'll taste good.

Now, Brandon, you from around this?

Are you from Pittsburgh?

Yeah.

I grew up in the South Hills.

Okay.

Where abouts?

West Mifflin area.

I, I used to be a volunteer firefighter.

That's my fun.

And, took the test for the city and got on.

So now.

Yeah, I get paid to do what I used to do for a hobby, so.

Yeah, I can't complain.

Yeah.

There are so many people in volunteer companies and they, they're so dedicated.

You know, it's not like other hobbies, like, you know, model trains or something like that.

The model trains won't kill you.

Oh, yeah.

That's right.

There's very little danger in model trains.

You.

But it's sort of I don' know that there's anything else like that in our communities where people are willing to.

Well, you, maybe another type of a different person to spread it out with.

Yeah there's a spoon in this bottle.

We got one.

Okay.

That'll be perfect.

I want to make it nic and even show that we don't have a, you know kind of have a uniform thickness anyway so you don't get big, bulges or so it all cooks all the way through.

Actually, the first time I us a slotted spoon for this, it's working out real good.

It is.

It's, it's just gonna do that next time.

Just like, grading, you know, doing gravel work.

Spreader.

Yeah.

We got brand new cutting off the butter.

And we might need to cut that a little thinner, because we want to get parts that cover the whole top of the cake.

Yeah, I'm gonna slide out of your way, Browning.

Yeah.

Try.

Come on.

Yeah.

That one.

Okay.

This is up at, we got a pressure cooker.

Steve going at, 15 pounds, so I lowered the temp.

Well, let's see, we're 15, all right.

And once it gets going and see if it keeps rising, it may settle there.

So.

But that's where the the petcoke is moving.

That's about the nice gentle rocking that you want.

I'll show you.

You're at about 15.

So if you don't have a a pressure cooker with the gauge on it, you can tell by looking at it where you're at.

So great.

So this is the, this topping is really just, slices, pats of butter.

So.

Good.

Cut into little.

Yeah.

Just so you got enough to cover the whole tops.

Piece it in there.

Okay, well, that wasn't a bad idea.

Cutting them long ways.

I might try that next time to.

Wow.

I would imagine as soon as you put it in the oven, it's going to.

They're all melt down anyway and spread out.

About what temperature do you cook this?

375 and we leave it in there for about 45 minutes.

Okay, so it gets nice and crunchy.

Yeah, I'll bet you I bet you.

And that's it.

That's it.

Oh, boy.

So now we throw it in the oven or leave it in there for about 45 minutes.

Put this in the oven and when you're done it comes out like what you got one there, Steve, like I said, this one looks a lot prettier than the ones I made.

It looks fantastic.

Oh, it's still still warm.

Yeah, that's how I like to eat it.

And then, it'd be real good with a scoop of vanilla ice cream right on top.

So now you're telling me to bring these?

You know, I needed you guys to bring something.

Why don't you get me a plate, Steve, and, serve me up a, a little portion so I get a taste of what this is like.

Now, I find, I'm sort of a corner guy.

Okay.

Look at that.

You know, I have to admit that, I've heard of this recipe before, I have never.

Yeah, I didn't invent it.

I have never tasted, this stuff.

We're going to let Brandon try.

When I tried this, the stew brand is going to try.

Okay.

I can get it off the spoon.

There.

There we are.

Well, let's give Chris a fork.

There you are.

All right.

So now, here's my other question.

Since you're not that far from the station, what time do you usually serve dinner?

Yeah, I wish I could give you an exact time.

I like to bring it in somewher between 5 and 6 because, I get I get pretty hungry by then.

Okay.

Other, other lines are eaten at 730 at night.

I can't wait that long.

I'll get your schedule.

And no.

Very good.

Very good.

That's amazing to think that that's just, four things in there.

You know folks this is an amazing cake.

And you're right with a scoop of ice cream we would have.

Yeah we woul right up there.

Right up there.

This is really terrific.

I really loved both shows that we did with the firefighters.

These are our community heroes.

They're putting their lives on the line every day to keep us safe.

And here they are sharing their secrets, of their firehouse cuisine.

Steve and Brandon could not have been nicer or more fun to cook with.

Our thanks go out to all of the emergency responders and their families for their dedication and sacrifice.

And that's it for today.

And as you know, we do it for you.

But we can't do it without you.

So keep watching and keep cooking.

Yes.

Oh, all so ready.

So just let it all begin.