-Funding for "Louisiana Coastal Cooking" was provided by... and by the Plaquemines Parish Tourism Commission.

A short drive from New Orleans, Plaquemines Parish offers a diverse variety of fishing, fresh seafood, rich history and environmental activities in Louisiana's Delta Country.

Learn more at visitplaqueminesparish.com.

-This time on "Louisiana Coastal Cooking," we're considering conservation efforts that nurture wild habitats while benefiting communities impacted by the loss of South Louisiana's wetlands.

We'll visit a tree-planting restoration project that will strengthen New Orleans' line of defense against damaging hurricanes.

Then we'll sample two dishes that bring the bounty of Louisiana wildlife to the table.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ We head to the Violet Canal in St. Bernard Parish to visit the headquarters of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, known as CRCL.

Native Plants Program Coordinator Andrew Ferris prepares for a checkup on cypress trees planted by the organization in the marshes of the Central Wetlands Unit.

Joining the cypress-tree-growth monitoring session is Jacqueline Richard, program manager of coastal studies at Nunez Community College.

Jacqueline was honored with the CRCL Coastal Stewardship Award for her work in shaping the next generation of coastal stewards.

-So, these are two students at Nunez Community College.

Kylie Miller is in the associates program and finishing up her first year, and Arlo just graduated with a certificate in GIS technology.

These are great opportunities for students, though, to really understand what's going on with the system and to kind of get a closer look.

-The Central Wetlands Unit butts up right against New Orleans East, as well as the Ninth Ward and other parts of St. Bernard Parish.

And it was heavily logged in the 1900s for the purpose of lumber.

That was kind of, like, what started the degradation of the area, and then the creation of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet really was the final nail in the coffin.

It let in massive amounts of saltwater and killed off all of the trees in the area.

They closed MR-GO.

Now the area is finally fresh enough again that it's suitable for reforestation, and so when we are planting the trees, we tag and measure baseline information on about 10% of them to get a sense of the overall growth and survival rates of the planting site.

-Back at CRCL, we learn more about the Native Plants Program, founded in 2000.

Since its creation, it has restored more than 4,500 acres of Louisiana coastal wetlands.

-Our Native Plants Program plants thousands of trees a year.

This is all done through volunteer events.

The idea is that, as these trees grow up, they will put out strong root systems that will help stabilize the land around them and trap future sediment.

And they'll even build land around them.

Reforesting parts of South Louisiana is essential because those forests provide such protection for our communities.

South Louisiana has been losing land at a massive rate ever since we levied the Mississippi in the 1930s.

And those lands that are being lost are our wetlands, and those wetlands are essential for a number of reasons.

They provide protection for inland communities from storms and from flooding.

They provide essential habitat for fish and wildlife that we rely on for our economies and for our livelihoods and also for recreation.

The idea is that, in 20 or 30 years, the Central Wetlands Unit will look a lot more like what it looked like 100 years ago.

-CRCL engages the community in boots-on-the-ground coastal-restoration efforts.

-I bring a lot of students out into the marsh, especially with CRCL.

Hands-on learning is by far the most important.

I remember when I was a student, learning all the geology and being wowed by it, but it doesn't really make sense until you're out in the field.

And this is really the same thing.

You know, we want to make sure that students not just know the information from the textbook, but they can apply it, because every marsh is going to look different, right?

Every square inch of every marsh is a little different.

And so learning those, you know, deductive reasonings, those problem-solving skills is really important.

And really, truly just learning how to collect data, usable data, is really, really important.

So it's really vital that we map these places, so that way, we understand where we've done restoration.

We can understand the efficacy of it.

We can map salinities as they change, temperatures as they change.

So that way, we know where to plant materials.

Getting out with some of these agencies and planting trees, planting some dune grass, just learning about that environment, and getting immersed in some of these issues.

You know, every hurricane that comes through can knock off, you know, 30 miles of floating marsh.

And so you don't realize how fragile it is until it's gone.

-Slowing wetland loss and creating a variety of habitats is a high priority in areas where large numbers of wading birds, shorebirds, and waterfowl can be found.

The Delta National Wildlife Refuge, located along the Mississippi River in Plaquemines Parish, is a breeding ground and sanctuary for migratory birds, waterfowl, and other wildlife.

The parish serves as an avian welcome center during the Mississippi Flyway, an annual migration for millions of birds that stretches over 2,000 miles from the Gulf to the Great Lakes.

Samantha Carter is the outreach manager for the National Wildlife Federation Gulf program.

-The Mississippi River Delta is one of the most productive estuaries in the world, and that's because of the Mississippi River.

That's all the freshwater coming down from kind of that middle third of the United States and hitting the Gulf of Mexico and mixing with that saltwater.

And because of that, we have a huge diversity of different habitats.

And with that comes this wide array of different species.

And those species are things that we like to hunt and fish and eat and are part of the reason that make this place so special.

Birds from, you know, all over spend part of their life cycle here.

Whether that's, you know, waterfowl that are using the Mississippi River Flyway every year or migratory songbirds that are crossing the Gulf of Mexico, there are thousands of birds that come through here every year, in addition to the birds that are residents here year round.

Everyone from, you know, faith leaders to business owners to environmental orgs to sports-men and -women all have a voice and a reason to care and fight for the coast.

-Next, we head to Restaurant R'evolution in New Orleans' French Quarter.

This contemporary Cajun-Creole dining spot reflects the rich bayou upbringing of executive chef John Folse and his advocacy for the culinary contribution of the original seven nations that came together in the state.

Today, Chef Folse and Chef de Cuisine Chris Anderson prepare a dish featuring a popular Louisiana game bird -- roasted quail with figs and garlic sauce.

-What a great dish we have for you today.

What are we doing, Chef?

-We're doing stuffed quails with some figs and roasted-garlic sauce.

-Beautiful quail, too.

-Yeah.

-Now, that's a great dish that we use in the restaurant quite often, right?

-I think so.

I think it's good to kind of have especially for fall time or even hunting season, you know, have quails, ducks, geese, things like that on the menu.

We're going to take the rice here.

We're going to kind of dump it into the bowl and we're going to kind of stuff these quails.

These quails are actually semi-boneless.

So, what we have here today actually in the bowl is a little bit of white rice.

We season it with salt, pepper, granulated garlic.

And then we also have some confit garlic and some fresh figs.

And we're just going to kind of mix this together and take this mixture and we're going to stuff it inside of the quail.

-They don't come seasoned, you know?

-No, they don't come pre-seasoned.

-Inside and out.

We've just picked these beautiful, beautiful figs.

And, of course, in Louisiana... -That's right -...I mean, just flourishing with great, great figs.

What I would do would be to pull the stem off of this, and we're going to go right into the body of that quail.

-Mm-hmm.

-You ready to do this?

-Yeah.

-You got a little rice going in there?

-I do.

-You ready for this, huh?

-Yeah.

Stuff it on in there, Chef.

-Absolutely.

Put another little bunch of it in there.

This is a fig stuffing, so we're going to put a lot of that, right?

Okay.

-Stuff it with figs and rice.

And I kind of just crisscross the legs.

Holds all the nice, good filling for the rice and the figs and the garlic, so that way, nothing comes out during your roasting.

Once you have one of these kind of stuffed up, obviously, you can kind of line your pan up, because it's going to go in the oven at 350.

Season it with salt and pepper.

And Chef's going to show you the completion of the sauce that goes on top after it comes out.

-No, absolutely.

And this is a beautiful fig sauce.

And, of course, we're beginning with a little bit of butter.

You see this?

-I see that.

A little bit, Chef?

-[ Laughs ] A little bit.

-Just a little bit.

-Yeah.

And the figs are just so full of sugar.

Just really beautiful, in season.

So, we go right into the butter with it.

And you wouldn't normally think of garlic or, you know, onions or things like that going into this sweet dish, but garlic is really the one ingredient that's going to make this thing pop in the dish.

-I agree.

-So, move that around nicely.

I'm going to put some onions down in there, as well.

Just a beautiful sauce.

A little bourbon's going to go into this, as well.

There you go.

Nice flame there.

And the figs are actually going to just cook in that bourbon-butter sauce right here.

Garlic is going to give it that great flavor.

And how are you coming over there?

-Good, Chef.

Just kind of stuffing some more birds, getting ready for that gorgeous-looking sauce.

-Okay, great.

So, got this looking really nice.

And it's going to reduce down beautifully right here.

And you can imagine the flavor of that garlic and the figs marrying well.

-And confit garlic has a nice sweetness to it anyway, so it kind of, I think, complements the figs.

-The smell, the flavor of those figs.

Okay, now, that's going to go into... -A 350 oven.

-This will reduce down nicely, and we'll put it together in a minute.

-While the quails roast, the fig sauce reduces and caramelizes.

-Alright, Chef, this beautiful sauce of figs and roasted garlic -- just beautiful, beautiful.

How's the quail?

-That does look good.

They take about 25 to 30 minutes to cook, so we kind of have these ready to go.

We're going to plate some up for y'all.

-And the presentation is really nice.

And of course, that beautiful fig sauce right on top.

It's absolutely beautiful.

-Mm-hmm.

That looks gorgeous, Chef.

-Oh, absolutely.

-Can't have enough sauce.

-One more.

-That's right.

-Okay.

And that's it right there.

That's what it looks like when it's done.

Put a couple fresh -- -Couple fresh figs on there.

And you're looking good, and everything is ready to go, ready to eat.

-And that's what it looks like when it's all said and done.

-That's right.

I think we can write some pretty good recipes.

-I think so.

-[ Both laugh ] I think one of the greatest things about being a chef is the fact that I come from a background that really depended on the wilds, on the swamplands for our food.

There were no grocery stores where I grew up, in St. James Parish, on Lac des Allemands, Lake of the Germans.

Everything we ate either came out of the Mississippi River, in fishing traps, deer hunting, smoking raccoon, selling the furs for money.

Everything was just this unbelievable world of plenty.

Every season of the year when I was growing up as a young child brought a different species of game and fish and everything into our world.

I mean, we never doubted that we would constantly have a world of food around us.

We never, ever had a thought about not having the richness of the wilds of Louisiana on our table.

It just wouldn't happen.

It would always be there.

Today, we need to be a little bit more respectful of the fact that that's not so.

-Our final destination is Metairie in Jefferson Parish for a stop at Drago's.

Established in 1969 by Croatian immigrants Drago and Klara Cvitanovich, the family restaurant, now helmed by their son Tommy, is known for its oysters and other seafood specialty items, including alligator.

Historically harvested for their hides, a market has developed for both wild-caught and farm-raised alligator.

In Louisiana, the mild white meat of the large reptile is considered seafood.

Today, Tommy prepares two dishes that showcase alligator, starting with a winning combination -- blackened gator mac and cheese.

-Today, we're blessed with farm-raised alligator, and the meat is a lot cleaner.

The alligator lives a much more stress-free life.

It's a lot easier, so -- And the meat is -- You know, instead of being a gray color, it's now a white color.

And when we cook it, it looks like chicken.

When you eat it, it's got that same chicken texture, a little bit different on taste, but not much.

And we tease people all the time, say, "Come on, try the chicken," and it ends up being alligator.

When you get the meat -- When we get it, it's like little pieces of fillet.

You can see the white from the skin.

And then what we do is, we literally just cut it in little pieces.

And then, when there's sections where you still have some of the skin, we just cut that away.

And now you just have a really nice piece of fresh, beautiful alligator that tastes great.

In a lot of grocery stores, you can get farm-raised alligator, you can get wild-caught alligator.

Personally, I prefer and I recommend the farm-raised.

It's just a cleaner, nicer, easier eating, nice-tasting alligator.

You can get it at most fish markets.

You can get it in a lot of your grocery stores.

In their delis, when they have specialty seafood delis, especially where they have a little bit more, they'll always have alligator there, and it's real good and real easy.

So, what we're going to do right now is, I'm going to blacken some alligator and I'm going to use that on two different dishes.

I'm going to use it on our alligator tacos.

We've got tacos down here in Louisiana.

We do gator tacos.

Never mind the fish, never mind the chicken and meat.

We do alligator tacos, and I'm telling you, they are delicious.

We put that Cajun love to it.

It's done.

So, basically, what we do is, we have the alligator that's already been tenderized.

It's already been cut.

And what we'll do is, we're going to put it in a skillet and just put a little bit of nonstick.

We have our housemade butter-garlic sauce that we use.

Basically, it's a little bit of liquid margarine, butter, chopped garlic, and some Italian seasoning.

So, we put that in here.

We take the alligator, put it in the skillet.

Remember, we're going to blacken this, so it's got to be hot.

We have an in-house blackening seafood seasoning that we're very, very generous with.

You can -- I mean, you can smell this, all the seasoning cooking right now.

It doesn't -- Alligator is one of those dishes, too.

Like most other seafood, you do not want to overcook the alligator.

I'm going to put a little bit more seasoning in here just to cover the meat a little bit more.

We have a salt-and-pepper blend, which has just a little bit of onion, granulated onion, with it that we have, and put that on here.

I think I'm gonna put a little bit more gator.

It's like cooking little chicken bites, chicken nuggets.

Right now, I'm waiting for it to cook.

I'm looking at the color of the meat.

So, half of it is kind of cooked.

It's real white when it's cooked.

It can be -- Right now, the raw part -- it's still a little bit of that pink, kind of translucent look.

Because, remember, the alligator that we're going to do with the mac and cheese -- it's going to cook some more in the oven, so I don't want to overcook this.

And alligator is one of those things like seafood, where you don't want to overcook it a little bit.

So, like, even just a little bit where it's still a little bit on the raw side, it's got a good taste, you got the flavor to it.

Man, is that good.

We're gonna get this good and hot.

We're gonna put a little bit of char on it.

Probably, this is about halfway cooked right now.

The cool things about this alligator -- you know, we take the whole thing, we kind of oil it down, we put a little bit of margarine on it, and then we have to leave the mouth of the alligator open.

So we wedge a big, colossal onion in there, and so that keeps the thing open.

And then we take that onion and kind of make the tongue look like it's, you know, that decorative part of the mouth of the alligator.

And it's really, really cool.

All of the meat all back in here, all the way around here.

Here's your filet mignon of the alligator.

This is your best part of the tail right here.

But what we do is, we'll have people and they'll have tongs and they literally pick the meat out of the alligator and they serve it.

When we serve the alligator mac and cheese or if we serve it with an alligator pasta or alligator tacos, however we serve it, we have the regular main course and then we have the off-the-bone alligator.

I'm just like everybody else.

I grew up on boxed macaroni and cheese.

You know, you take it, you mix it, you open the envelope, you dump it, a little bit of milk, a little bit of butter, you toss it, and you eat a big old bowl of that before you go to bed.

I lived off of macaroni and cheese.

Love it, still do.

And -- But now people want the gourmet version, the stepped-up, the boutique version of mac and cheese.

So now you have people putting, you know, barbecue pork.

They have chicken in it.

They have shrimp, crabmeat.

Well, you know what?

We do alligator mac and cheese here.

And you can almost do any type of recipe you want.

You know, we use a couple different cheeses.

We use a cheddar cheese.

We use Parmesan.

We use Romano.

Yes, we use a little bit of the American cheese.

And we toss it.

We put a little bit of seasoning in ours to kind of bring up that flavor and enhance it a little bit.

And then, basically what you do is, you take the alligator.

You can tell this is all done.

This is ready to go.

This is actually good to be a little bit undercooked, because, yeah, we're going to cook it a little bit more when it goes in the oven.

And this is something -- you want to put a lot of alligator in it, you want to put a little bit of alligator in it.

You want to put a lot of alligator in it and tell your kids it's chicken mac and cheese, it's awesome.

I'm good.

I'm good with that.

So, with this, you have the macaroni, you got all the cheeses in there, a little bit of seasoning.

So now you need a little bit of milk or cream to kind of bind everything.

We have this sauce that we use in our restaurant.

It's a cream sauce.

It's kicked up.

It's got a little bit of zucchini in it.

It's got onions.

It's got garlic.

I like to get it just a little bit soupy.

Literally, you just mix it.

If you don't have the seafood sauce that we use, any type of store-bought Alfredo sauce, any type of sauce that you make at home on a regular basis when you make a cream sauce for pasta.

All of it works.

You can put a little bit of milk in there and be good with just the milk and season it up with salt and pepper.

Real easy.

We take a greased oven pan.

Dump the mac and cheese with the alligator in it.

I'm going to spread it out just a little bit.

And, of course, put a little bit more on top.

We're going to put a little bit of cheese.

Maybe a lot of cheese.

Mac and cheese, right?

Gotta have the cheese for mac and cheese.

And we're going to take this.

We're going to put it in an oven.

We're going to bake it probably for about 30 minutes at about 350, 375, and it's going to come out.

It's going to be delicious.

Everybody talks about Southern hospitality.

In New Orleans and South Louisiana, we take that to the whole next level.

They don't even have a name for it, it's so good and so much fun.

Nobody does it like we do in Louisiana.

And I love being a part of that person that's able to spread that word.

-Next, Tommy puts together a specialty of the house with a taste of the Bayou -- blackened gator tacos.

-So, alligator meat is versatile.

It's like chicken, where you can do so many different things with it.

Obviously, we just did the alligator mac and cheese, which I love, and I can't wait for it to come out the oven.

You know, we can do -- We can flour it and batter it and fry it and serve it with rémoulade sauce.

You can do that.

You can actually stew it a little bit with, you know, a sauce piquante.

You know, I'm surprised the Asians haven't really taken into it and do a stir-fry with it, because it works so good and so fast and so easy.

Well, we're going to do tacos with it, as well.

And it's a dish we serve in the restaurant.

It's real easy.

You take the meat.

So, we have an aioli that we make in-house.

It's just a little bit of mayo.

It's got a little bit of honey in it.

We put a little bit of hot sauce.

We put finely sliced green onions and parsley and chopped up and mix everything.

Put it in the bottle, and it is delicious.

The sauce is a little bit sweet and a little bit spicy.

And, so, we put a little bit on the bottom.

I like to use arugula.

Arugula other than a regular lettuce.

It's got a little bit more spice, a little bit of bite to it.

It's a great, great lettuce to work with because it's got a lot of flavor.

It doesn't have that water taste that a lot of lettuces have.

We take just a regular pico and put a little bit of pico in each taco.

Obviously, this is peppers, tomatoes, onions.

I'm going to take a little bit of lime and squeeze just a little bit of lime beforehand.

And then we just take the alligator meat and right on top of the taco.

And this is really nice and fresh.

It's got that Cajun flavor and New Orleans-style flavoring to it.

Kind of load it up.

I like filling stuff up.

Delicious.

Ready to go.

And I'm going to take just a little bit more aioli and just literally just drizzle it right on top.

So you kind of layer all those flavors so when you get that bite, it's got everything in it.

It's got your pico, your arugula, the Cajun aioli.

It's just saying, "Come and get me.

I am delicious."

And this is my Latin version from the Bayou.

-Throughout Southeast Louisiana, nature is getting critical help from people working in conservation and restoration who have faith that human ingenuity can correct past mistakes.

-You live here long enough, you can see bayous widen, marsh wash away, places you used to walk to, now you can boat to.

But it's better to focus on the change that we can make.

You know, there's so many people along the coast doing really incredible work, meaningful community work, meaningful education, and that's what's going to make us survive.

And so that's where I definitely find my hope.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -You can find recipes for all of the dishes in this series, chef profiles, and more information about "Louisiana Coastal Cooking" by visiting wyes.org.

Funding for "Louisiana Coastal Cooking" was provided by... and by the Plaquemines Parish Tourism Commission.

Nature, tradition, and culture come together in Plaquemines Parish, where the Mississippi River and the Gulf meet in Louisiana's Delta Country.

Learn more at visitplaqueminesparish.com.