Creole Chicken & Sausage on the Carport

Posted on by June 19, 2018

6/18/2018 – Made gumbo on the two-burner propane stove on the carport as we were staying in the TT while the house was being remodeled. Somewhat followed the recipe in Poppy Tooker’s Tujaques’ cookbook for Chicken Creole on page 113 of our personalized copy. Despite a lot of improvising it turned out good and made us realize the true simplicity of creole cooking despite what appears to be complex recipes. Continue reading →

Sauerkraut test for Mary

Posted on by August 19, 2018

6/7/2018 – As Mary has faithfully begun eating the last Kraut I made I must make a large batch to ferment while we are on one of our last trips to Mobile before moving there. The recipe is:

2 white cabbages from Hong Kong Market that weighted 6.02 lbs. Discarded the outer leaves and used everything else. Forgot to weight the SS bowl so decided to base salt etal on 6 lbs. or 2,721 gm that was a little less than the store weight.

6 gm caraway seed – 0.2%
15 gm yellow mustard – 0.5%
25 juniper berries that weighted 2 gm – 0.07%
38.7 gm canning salt or 1.4%

Ground the seeds in the coffee grinder to avoid the medical problem of diverticulitis.

7/3/2018 – We have enjoyed this ferment for the past weeks and today divided what was left in the 1/2 gallon jar into a full quart jar (that went into the refer) and a partial quart jar and both went into the refer. When the last is done of those jars I want to compare it to that 2nd 1/2 gallon.

8/12/2018 – This was a good recipe that we have enjoyed almost daily.

8/19/2018 – Made a second batch to have enough to last through the move and until a new batch has fermented in late September.  The large cabbage from Hong Kong Market, when the outer leaves were removed, weighted 1797 gm. So, weights of the spices and salt were in the table below created in Excel with the file in DropBox/Cooking.

Cabbage 1797
0.2% caraway seed = 3.6
0.5% yellow mustard = 9.0
0.7% juniper berries = 1.3
1.4% canning salt = 25.158

Brisket Flat & Beef Roast Smoked

Posted on by June 5, 2018

6/3/2018, Sunday – Both pieces of meat turned out good. The meat was moist likely due to the long dry brining. The combo rub of Jeff’s Texas Rub and 5POGS–different on each–added good flavor. Added more Jeff’s between the smoke and the braising in the oven. This system has now worked well several times on beef. Continue reading →

Shrimp Creole ToTry

Posted on by June 2, 2018

Shrimp Creole like JUSTIN DEVILLIER inspired by his recipe here.

Ingredients
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 medium yellow onions, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 rib celery, diced
1/2 jalapeno, minced
1 C white wine
Kosher salt
ground white pepper
3 C tomato purée
2 lb American wild shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 lemon
3 Tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped
2 Tbsp Chives, minced
Cooked long-grain white rice, to serve

  1. In a large, heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions and garlic and sweat until tender and very aromatic, about 5 minutes.
  2. Add to the pot the red pepper, celery, and jalapeño and continue to cook until tender. As soon as you notice the vegetables starting to caramelize, add white wine to deglaze. Lightly season with salt and white pepper. Reduce the white wine until it has almost completely evaporated; then add the tomato purée and stir to combine.
  3. Lower the temperature as much as you can, and add the shrimp. Keeping the heat on low, continue gently stirring to poach the shrimp in the sauce, scraping the sides of the pot to keep them clean. (The low-and-slow cooking will keep them tender.)
  4. Once the shrimp are cooked through and opaque, add the juice of one lemon, chives, and parsley; stir to combine. Season to taste with more salt and white pepper and serve over hot rice.

5/1/2018 – I chopped and Mary cooked. She saute the veggies per the recipe and they had some crunch where served and event the next morning cold from the refer. We made changes as follows due to lack of ingredients.

  1. only put in one pound of shrimp along with one large pattie of Chorizo and a handful of chopped ham.
  2. used diced canned tomatoes rather than puree.
  3. Instead of a jalapeno, we added 1/2 of a fresh serrano without the seeds. Those serranos were very hot but it was not even noticeable.

It was good but since the tomatoes were in small chunks and not a sauce it did not have the overall red color and the tomato taste was not the same.

Crawfish Étouffee ToTry

Posted on by May 30, 2018

Inspired by the recipe here. Note it uses the three peppers and the trinity.

Ingredients

2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. freshly ground white pepper
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp. dried basil
1?2 tsp. dried thyme
3?4 cup canola oil
3?4 cup flour, sifted
1?4 cup finely chopped onion
1?4 cup finely chopped celery
1?4 cup finely chopped green bell pepper
3 cups seafood or chicken broth
12 tbsp. unsalted butter, cubed
2 lb. peeled crawfish tails or peeled medium shrimp
1 cup finely chopped scallions
Cooked white or yellow rice, for serving
Instructions
In a small bowl, combine salt, cayenne, white pepper, black pepper, basil, and thyme; set spice mixture aside. In a 4-qt. heavy-bottomed pot, heat oil over high heat until it just begins to smoke. Sprinkle in flour, whisking constantly, and cook for 30 seconds. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, whisking constantly, until roux is the color of dark chocolate, about 30 minutes. Add onions and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until onions soften, about 5 more minutes. Remove pot from heat and stir in 1 tbsp. reserved spice mixture, along with celery and bell peppers. Continue stirring until roux has cooled and darkened slightly, about 5 minutes; set aside.
In a 2-qt. saucepan over medium-high heat, bring 2 cups broth to a boil. Gradually add roux and whisk until incorporated. Reduce heat to low and cook for 2 minutes more. Remove pan from heat; set broth mixture aside.
In a 4-qt. saucepan, melt 8 tbsp. butter over medium-high heat. Stir in crawfish tails and scallions and cook, about 1 minute. Add remaining spice mixture and reserved broth mixture, along with remaining broth and butter, and stir the pan to combine until glossy. Remove pan from heat and serve etouffee with rice.

2-Bone Prime Rib Roast

Posted on by May 30, 2018

5/29/2018 – We had put a vac-packed frozen, 2-bone Prime Rib Roast in the refer to thaw two days ago. Removed it this morning and salted with Kosher salt and let set out in the vacuum bag for about an hour to thaw more. About 2 PM, seasoned it with cracked black pepper and inserted garlic slices into slits in the top of the roast. Mary read and followed Bobby Flay’s recipe. It was good and the simple prep was nice. Continue reading →

Savory Beignets and Egg Yolk Mouse ToTry

Posted on by May 29, 2018

From the video by Chefs Kristen Essig and Michael Stoltzfus of Coquette here.

2C water
2C milk
18 tbsp firm, not hard, butter
S&P to taste
————–
14 eggs in a bowl
————–
4 potatoes, riced*

Combine all in a saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Mix with a wooden spoon until blended and dough comes together and the thin layer on the bottom of the pan forms a crust. Add to a stand mixer with a paddle blade on medium low and blend until smooth and cooler…comfortable to touch with your bare hand.

As the mixer turns on medium-low pour in one egg yolk and white at a time as the previous one blends in.

While still warm fold the riced potato mixture into the dough that is still warm.

Using a small scope drop scopes of the dough into 2″-3″ of 350-degree canola oil.

Fry 2-3 minutes per side, remove and S&P to taste.

Serve on a pool of Egg Yolk Mousse.  Pair with Gumbo as the entre.

Egg Yolk Mousse
12 egg yolks from hard-boiled eggs. Mashed in the food processor with all the following until smooth.
1/2 C mayo
1/2 C Sour Cream
a few splashes of hot sauce
juice of 1 lemon
S&P to taste

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* From gnocchi with a grater is the following extract with a way to rice potatoes without a ricer.

  1. Preheat your oven to 400°F. Prick the potatoes all over with a fork, and bake them on a baking sheet for 45 minutes to one hour, or until they are fork-tender. For best results, turn the potatoes over halfway through the baking time. Let the potatoes cool slightly.
  2. Peel the potatoes, and then pass them through a potato ricer, food mill or grate them over the large holes of a box grater into a large bowl.

Grits with Chaurice and Shrimp

Posted on by June 5, 2018

This was an experiment by using the Chaurice we made and liked in place of our Chorizo that is typically used. The chaurice had been frozen in a vac pack so looked like the small piece of fresh we had left over. Having been through the grinder only once with the 1/4″ die meant it was chunky when browned. A lot of grease from the high-fat sausage was soaked up by the paper towels but it still made the dish greasy and did not impart much spicy tones. We also preseasoned the shrimp with creole seasoning but that also did not kick it up. The difference in this cook and the past one was the onion and garlic in the chaurice and in the creole seasoning. The original recipe did not call for them. Peeled one pound of headless shrimp and shook on Kit’s Creole seasoning, covered with plastic and let marinate in the refer for an hour.

Continue reading →