Monthly Archives: December 2006

Recipes

Shrimp Etouffee Recipe

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From Nola Cuisine Images – (reedited)

The smell of Etouffee, be it Crawfish (my Crawfish Etouffee Recipe) or Shrimp, is one of the most heavenly aromas that I know, along with the smell of Shrimp a la Creole. The word Etouffee (Ay-2-FAY) translates roughly to smothered , stewed, or braised. To me it simply translates to happy taste buds. Shrimp Etouffee is always my favorite to cook for family and friends.

From Nola Cuisine Images – (reedited)

I always buy shell on shrimp, why? For the same reason I buy bone in cuts of meat. Stock. The amount of shrimp you’re using for this recipe will produce just enough Shrimp Stock, plus a little extra (recipe below). Shrimp stock only needs to cook for about 45 minutes to 1 hour.

From Nola Cuisine

Shrimp Stock Recipe

The Shells and tails from 2 lb. of Shrimp
1/2 Cup chopped Onion
1/4 Cup chopped Celery
2 Garlic Cloves
1 Lemon sliced
2 Fresh Bay Leaves
3 Sprigs Fresh Thyme
1 tsp. Black Peppercorns

Add all ingredients to a 2 qt. saucepan. Cover this with cold water, it should be about 6-8 Cups Cups. You’ll need 1 1/2 Cups for the Etouffee. Bring almost to a boil, reduce the heat to a low simmer. Simmer for about 45 minutes to an hour. Strain.

Tip: When adding fresh Thyme to a simmered dish like this, I always bundle the Thyme tightly with butchers twine. The leaves will remove themselves while cooking, and you will get all of the flavor from the stems. When ready to serve just remove the bundle of stems along with your bay leaves.

The recipe:

Shrimp Etouffee Recipe

2 Tbsp Creole Seasoning
4 Tbsp Unsalted Butter
1/2 Cup Onion, Finely Chopped
1/4 Cup Celery, Finely Chopped
1/4 Cup Bell Pepper, Finely Chopped
1/4 Cup Flour
3/4 Cup fresh Tomatoes, diced
1 1/2 Cups Shrimp Stock
2 Tbsp Minced Garlic
I bundle of Fresh Thyme
2 tsp Homemade Worcestershire Sauce
1 tsp Hot Sauce (I like Crystal or Louisiana Gold)
1/2 Cup Green Onions, thinly sliced
3 Tbsp minced Italian Parsley
2 lb Good Quality Shrimp, Peeled and Deveined, Save shells for the stock
3 Tbsp Unsalted Butter
Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt & Freshly Ground Black Pepper to taste
1 Recipe Creole Boiled Rice

Season the shrimp with 1 Tbsp of the Creole Seasoning.
Melt the butter in a large cast iron skillet, add the onions, bell pepper, and celery, saute until translucent. Whisk in the flour to make a blonde roux, stirring constantly, about 3-5 minutes. Stir in the remaining Creole Seasoning. Add a small amount of the shrimp stock, stir well to form a paste, add the remaining stock gradually, whisking constantly. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. You may need a little more stock, but the end result should be the consistency of a gravy, not too thick, not too thin.
Add the tomatoes, garlic, Thyme, Worcestershire, and hot sauce, a little salt, black pepper, and Cayenne. Simmer for 20-30 minutes.
Add the shrimp, green onions, and parsley, simmer for 10 minutes more or until the shrimp are cooked through. Stir in the 3 Tbsp butter, and adjust the seasonings to taste.

Serve over Creole Boiled Rice.

Serves 4 as an Appetizer or 2 as a Large Entree.

Be sure and check out my ever growing Index of Creole & Cajun Recipes, which links to all of the recipes featured on this site!

Related Posts:

Crawfish Etouffee Recipe
Shrimp Creole Recipe
Creole Stuffed Peppers (Austin Leslie Style)
Redfish Courtbouillon Recipe
Shrimp Stock Recipe
Shrimp Stuffed Mirlitons
Shrimp Stuffed Savory Crepes with Tasso Cream Sauce


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Recipes

Filet with Fried Oysters and Bearnaise Sauce

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Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you and yours have a fantastic holiday season filled with good food and family. We’re certainly enjoying this holiday, it’s our baby’s first Christmas, I feel like a kid again myself. On to the food…

Last night I made Filet topped with Fried Oysters and Bearnaise sauce, because hey, who’s counting calories, right? It’s Christmas time! By the way, if you’re looking for low cal, or even reasonably healthy cooking, you came to the wrong food blog. 🙂

Merry Christmas!

The recipe:

For the Filet

2 8-9 oz. Filets (I marinated mine for 3 hours in Olive Oil with a little Dijon mustard, black pepper, Fresh Rosemary, Fresh Garlic.)
Kosher Salt and Black Pepper
1 recipe Bearnaise Sauce
Asparagus – blanched, shocked in an ice bath, then sauteed in whole butter with minced fresh Garlic.
1 dozen Fried Oysters recipe below

Remove the filets from the marinade, wipe off with paper towels, removing any garlic, herbs etc. Season very liberally, all over with Kosher salt and black pepper.

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees.
Heat a cast iron skillet until very hot, add a little bit of oil, sear the steaks on all sides until deep brown. Finish in a 350 degree oven until cooked to the desired doneness, I prefer Medium Rare.

Place on a bed of Asparagus, then top with 6 fried Oysters, then a generous helping of Bearnaise Sauce.

Serve immediately.

For the Oysters:

12 Oysters, shucked
3/4 Cup Corn Flour
pinch of salt, omit if your Oysters are very salty
1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper
4 turns of black pepper
Vegetable Oil for frying

Heat 3-4 inches of Vegetable oil in a saucepan, being sure that the oil doesn’t come higher than half way up the side of the pan.

Coat the Oysters well with the seasoned corn flour. Let stand for 10 minutes before frying.

Fry the Oysters in batches until golden brown and crispy, do not overcook. They should take 2-3 minutes. Drain onto a paper towel lined plate.

Enjoy!

Here’s a little Lagniappe from a proud Pappa on Christmas:

Merry Christmas! I hope yours is as much fun as mine this year!

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Recipes

Southern Fried Chicken Recipe

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From Nola Cuisine

I had a taste for Southern Fried Chicken last night, so that is what I made. Sometimes you need to scratch your own itch, and boy did I do some scratchin’ last night, this was the best batch of Fried Chicken that I’ve made to date. Perfectly seasoned, crispy as heck, tender and juicy on the inside. Hey sometimes we need to pat ourselves on the back too. 🙂

This recipe is a combination of Austin Leslie’s Fried Chicken recipe and my Mom’s. My Mom really taught me how to fry chicken well, she showed me how to turn it often to prevent over browning, and how to know when it’s done. She makes it so well that I often get cravings for it, like the one I had last night, and Dad says that it would be his last meal request if ever facing the firing squad.

Here is my version of what I’ve learned so far about Fried Chicken:

Southern Fried Chicken Recipe

3-4 lbs Chicken parts, I like legs because that’s what Mom always made, plus it’s hard to dislike food with it’s own handle.
Water, enough to cover the chicken
Kosher salt, enough to make the water taste salty (obviously tasted before adding the raw chicken.)

Peanut Oil for frying, enough to fill a large cast iron skillet about half way

3/4 Cup Flour
4 Tbsp Kosher Salt
2 tsp Freshly ground Black Pepper
1 tsp Cayenne

Combine the water with the salt, submerge the chicken and let sit in the refrigerator for 6-8 hours. This will help make the chicken more tender and add flavor.

After the time has passed drain the chicken and pat dry with paper towels.

Place the flour, salt, black pepper, and cayenne in a paper lunch bag. Mix well. Add the chicken two pieces at a time, shaking to coat well with the seasoned flour, shake off the excess. When all chicken is floured, set aside for twenty minutes before frying. This step will help make the finished product more crisp.

Heat the peanut oil to 360 degrees F. Fry the chicken in batches, turning often (about every ten minutes) so that it cooks evenly, and doesn’t get too brown too fast. Try to fry equal sized pieces in the same batch. When the chicken looks close to being done hold it with tongs and pierce (be careful; the oil will sputter) with a carving fork, then squeeze to let the blood out (a la Austin Leslie). Cook until done. If you’re not sure if it’s done, dig into one piece with your tongs, down to the bone to see if it is cooked through. It should take about 15-20 minutes per batch. Drain on paper towels or a wire rack.

More info on Fried Chicken:

Buttermilk Fried Chicken Recipe at American Gourmand
Austin Leslie Bio
Austin Leslie’s Fried Chicken Recipe

Be sure and check out my ever growing Index of Creole & Cajun Recipes! Visit my other blog American Gourmand!

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Recipes

Natchitoches Meat Pies Recipe

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From Nola Cuisine Images – (reedited)

These tasty turnovers, along with the Festival of Lights, are native to Natchitoches (pronounced NACK-uh-dish), Louisiana and are traditionally served on Christmas Eve. They’re usually made bigger, more of a hand pie, but I like them as an Hors d’oeurve for holiday parties. I served these tonight with a Creole Mustard Aioli for dipping. The recipe:

Natchitoches Meat Pies Recipe

For the Filling

2 Tbsp Butter
1/2 lb Ground Beef
1/2 lb Ground Pork
1/2 Cup Spanish Onion, finely diced
1/2 Cup Red Bell Pepper, finely diced
1/4 Cup Celery, finely diced
1/2 Cup Green Onions
3 Garlic Cloves, minced
2 Tbsp Homemade Worcestershire Sauce
1 Tbsp Crystal Hot Sauce
Kosher salt, black pepper, and Cayenne to taste.
1/2 Cup Beef Stock
1/8 Cup All Purpose Flour

Melt the butter in a large cast iron skillet over medium high heat, when hot add the ground meats, cook until browned and cooked through. Add the onions, celery, bell pepper, and green onions, cook until the vegetables are wilted. Add the garlic, Worcestershire, hot sauce, and seasonings, cook for 2 minutes more. Make a slurry of the stock and flour, add to the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and cook for about 5 minutes stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and adjust the seasonings if necessary. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

For the dough:

4 Cups All Purpose Flour
2 tsp Iodized Salt
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Cup Lard
1 Egg
1 Cup Milk

Combine the dry ingredients in the mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, with the speed on low add the lard to the dry ingredients and let the mixer cut it in until the fat is broken up into pea sized pieces. Beat the egg and combine with the milk. Add the wet to the dry with the mixer on low, in a slow steady stream. Mix until the dough just comes together. The key is to not overwork the dough.
Cut the dough in half then roll it out to 1/8 inch thickness on a floured counter. Cut into either the more traditional 5 inch circles or as I did about 3 circles, I used an empty French Market Coffee can.

To assemble and cook:

Place 1 heaping Tablespoon (doubled for the larger size) of the cooled mixture to each circle. With your finger wet the edge with a little water, fold over and crimp with a fork. Set aside on a floured surface until ready to fry.

Heat 4 inches of oil in a dutch oven to 360 degrees. Fry the meat pies in small batches until golden brown on each side.

Be sure and check out my ever growing Index of Creole & Cajun Recipes!

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