This cook was inspired in October 2018 by the recipe on page 65 of my copy of Rick Bragg’s book The Best Cook in the World. That recipe was provided by his mother; a.k.a. The Best Cook. We liked them much better than the usual salt-and-a-little-black-pepper lightly seasoned dish. The pepper levels made it a bit spicy. Skip down to the Our 2020 recipe as that is how we regularly make grits to have with fried eggs for breakfast.
Continue readingBought a head of cabbage with dark green heavy outer leaves at Sessions. Chopped it into 1/4″-1/2 ” squares and add the following as computed using the spreadsheet in DropBox. Note I messed up the measurements but decided to leave it and see how it is.
| grams | |
| Cabbage | 1744.0 |
| 0.2% caraway seed = | |
| 0.5% yellow mustard = | |
| 0.7% juniper berries = | |
| 1.4% canning salt = | 24.4 |
10/2/2018 – Fried about 15 12-15 count shrimp using Zatarain’s Seasoned Shrimp Fry mix in a cast iron Chicken Fryer using 3/4″ of Canola oil. Followed the directions on the box to make the batter plus added Kit’s Creole Seasoning to the batter and dry mix.
Did not worry with the thermometer for oil temp. The oil seemed hot enough so dropped in one battered shrimp and it only simmered. Turned up the burner on the Monogram (our first “deep” fry with the new stove) and it got the shrimp to frying quickly. Added three more and cooked the rest in batches.
Mary swirled them around to keep them cooking evenly and they turned out great. Looked like the ones in the restaurants and tasted better.
After several meals while preparing to move from Houston to the farm on September 17, 2018, the movers unloaded our boxes and furniture and the relocation was complete…and the unboxing began.
This first time ever to cook in new oven was a reverse sear of a Choice T-bone Steak. Put the cold steak seasoned with cracked black pepper into the small oven preheated to 250 convection bake with the oven’s probe set to 125.
Preheated grill to 400 degrees starting at the time the steak was put into the convection oven.
After about 20 minutes it moved beyond the 100-degree point. Probe shut down oven at 125.
Moved it to the preheated griddle that had been oiled with bacon fat. Seared quickly so flipped it after about 5 minutes. Then flipped it back after 6-7 min. Flipped a third time and left it on for 3-4 minutes.
Served a rare steak that was well cooked and tasted great.
Next Time – Dry brine the steak. The 125 probe setting was a little low or else the griddle needed to be preheated longer so it was actually at 400. It did not seem that hot.
8/18/2018 – This was an impromptu cook as we had been packing all day getting ready for the move to the farm and our next trip next week. I made the second trip to Home Depot and stopped by Hong Kong on the way home and bought a catfish that they cleaned and filleted. As the cast iron is all packed we cooked them in the large flat Calphalon skillet with the glass lid and that worked well.
The Filets
- Melted about 4 Tbs of butter with maybe 1/2 cup of olive oil in the skillet.
- Shook on both sides liberally our “Blackening inspired by Paul Prudhomme“
- Let them saute in the rather deep butter/oil with the temp not to a frying level but hot so they sizzled slowly. Turned several times and, when flaking was easy to see in the centers, we took them out.
The Grits
- Prepared 3-minute grits with some salt and 2T butter.
- When they were done, we shook on a layer of grated pepper jack cheese, stirred it in gently, then a second layer and stirred it in.
Served the filet next to the grits with a drizzle of the dark, spicy butter/oil from the skillet on the grits. The meal was very good, rich but not heavy, and not very spicy. The grits did a nice job of dampening what heat remained after the hot butter/oil.
8/15/2018 – This second effort at a Mexican flavored meatloaf included our first try at Chaurice; the Creole version of Chorizo. With 3.5 lbs of ground meat, this was a very large loaf of meat. We needed to use the frozen meats to empty the freezers before we move to the farm in 4 weeks. Also wanted leftovers to take with us to the farm next week. The Chaurice to beef was only 40% of the previous Chorizo to beef so this turned out a bit bland. Continue reading
8/12/2018 — Baby Limas with Ham inspired by the recipe at Camellia Brand. We liked the simple lima bean style that is heavy on the ham. The recipe below is kicked up a lot from the one at Camellia byway of the Creole Seasoning we used although we left out the dash of cayenne and the tiny bit of black pepper as the small amounts are clearly in the blend. Continue reading
8/12/2018 – Removed silver skin then rubbed heavy with Stubb’s Hot Pork Rub 30 minutes before the cook.
Put on the hot gas grill and seared for about 30 minutes total. There were black spots on the shiner areas. Throw oak wood chips onto the brickets several times to add the smokey flavor, hopefully.
When it had a good color I cut the rack in half, wrapped in foil with ACV and mopped on Stubb’s Spicy BBQ Sauce on the meat side. Put it into the convection oven set at 275 and the ChefWorks set to alarm at 205.
Inspired by Treebeards and Mary’s Crawfish Etouffee.
1 cup butter – 2 sticks
2-2/3 cups chopped celery (1/2-inch pieces)
2 medium onions, chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
2 small bell peppers, chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
1-1/4 teaspoons salt
1/8 rounded teaspoon cayenne pepper
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon ground thyme
2 cups shrimp stock made by boiling, for an hour or so, the shrimp shells with a celery, onion, bay leaves and pepper corns.
1/2 teaspoon Chrystal hot pepper sauce
4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups chopped green onions (including tops)
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley – did not have any
4 teaspoons tomato paste
1 lb. vac pack frozen headless shrimp and 1 lb. chaurice (our homemade version).
The Process
- Before any chopping – shell the shrimp and start the shrimp stock simmering in a medium covered pot.
- In the blue enamel cast-iron dutch oven, with a couple tablespoons of bacon grease, saute until browned the thawed, home-made, loose vac-packed, chaurice. Removed the meat leaving the drippings.
- Add the butter to the drippings and stir until melted and hot.
- Add celery, onion and bell pepper. Cook slowly, stirring occasionally until onions are translucent and celery is still almost crunchy.
- When onions are translucent, add flour to simmering vegetables. Simmer, stirring occasionally, 2 minutes.
- Remove the shrimp hulls and combine spices, shrimp stock, hot sauce, and Worcestershire sauce over low heat until almost hot.
- Pour into the veggies the seasoned hot stock and cook until pot bubbles. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes.
- Stir in green onions, parsley, and tomato paste and simmer until vegetables are tender. Cover and let sit until 30 minutes.
- Add shrimp and the browned chaurice cooking only until the shrimp are done.
- Serve over rice.