Spicy Cider Decongestant and Expectorant

Posted on by March 8, 2014

– ½ teaspoon of cayenne pepper
– ½ teaspoon of powdered ginger
– 3 tablespoons of all natural organic honey
– 1/4 cup of lemon juice
– 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar

Directions

Pour ¼ cup of lemon juice and ¼ cup of apple cider vinegar in pot and bring to a gentle simmer. Stir in 2-3 tablespoons of raw organic honey and ¼-½ teaspoon of cayenne pepper and powdered ginger each (the latter amount makes it quite strong.) Store in a jar in a cool, dark, place indefinitely. Adults take 1-2 tablespoons daily as needed. Shake well before using, as the powder doesn’t dissolve in the most pristine way. I find it pleasant sometimes to warm the mixture before taking it.

Extract from Everyday Roots on 3/8/2014.

Tom’s Shrimp Pasta with Andouille Sausage

Posted on by February 24, 2014

First made on January, 25, 2001

Brown 8 oz cajun andouille sausage in 2T bacon grease in a 10” skillet with temperature high enough to cause edges to fry creating bits of crunchy sausage in the grease but not high enough to harden the sausage.

While sausage is browning, shell shrimp and rub with Emeril’s Rustic Rub. A.k.a. Emeril’s Rustic Rub a.k.a. Emeril’s Essense.

Slice five 1-2” diameter fresh mushroom into ¼” thick slices and add to pan. Add 2 large cloves of chopped garlic.

Add at least 1 rounded tablespoon of red pepper flakes and a good shake of fresh, course ground black pepper. If you want the final red-tinted brown sauce to look less “common” then use white pepper corns. Turn heat down a little.

Gently sauté until mushrooms turn brown and begin to soften. Keep the heat low enough that the garlic does not turn brown and harden.

Add 2T butter. When butter has melted add 10-12 medium shrimp (pealed and headed). Turn heat up a little.

As shrimp turn pink add 1C of average, inexpensive Chardonnay that is not sweet. Skillet must be hot enough to make wine begin to simmer and evaporate.

When shrimp are almost done (not more than 5 minutes) drizzle about ½C of Half-and-Half around the edges of the pan. The H&H should come to temperature quickly and begin to simmer. Stir to combine into a light brown sauce with the red pepper and black pepper flakes floating among the dark red sausage and pink shrimp.

Serve quickly over linguine or angel hair pasta.  Or just mop up with French or Italian loaf bread torn by hand from the loaf. Total time from shrimp hitting the pan to arriving in your mouth should not exceed 6-7 minutes. If they are “crunchy” (not in a fried way) then they are perfect. If they are firm and chewy then they were in the pan too long.

Rosemary Garlic Rub

Posted on by February 24, 2014

Derived from recipe by Christopher Anderson at AllRecipes.com for chicken or pork.  First made 2/23/14.

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon fresh ground black pepper
1 tablespoon kosher salt
3 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon rounded ground rosemary,
8 cloves garlic, diced via press
1/3 cup olive oil

Use only ~25% of the salt and no olive oil and it will taste exactly like the relish-like small spoon full that Carrabbas puts on a small platter and pours on olive oil to make a bread dip.

 

Yorkshire Pudding as of 1904

Posted on by September 28, 2015

From Cooking In Old Créole Days. La Cuisine Créole À L’Usage Des Petits Ménages. By Célestine Eustis. Published 1904.

YORKSHIRE PUDDING TO SERVE WITH HOT ROAST BEEF

One and a half pints of milk, six large tablespoonfuls of flour, three eggs, one small spoonful of salt. Put the flour into a basin with the salt, and stir into it gradually enough milk to make a stiff batter. When perfectly smooth, add the rest of the milk, and the eggs well beaten. Beat the mixture for a few moments and pour it into a shallow tin, which has previously been well rubbed with beef drippings. Put the pudding into the oven and bake for one hour, then for half an hour place it under the beef, to catch a little of the gravy. Cut the pudding into small square pieces. Put them on a hot dish and serve. If the meat is baked, the pudding may at once be placed under it, resting the meat on a small three-cornered stand.–KATIE SEABROOK, Pres. McKinley’s Cook.

 

Okra Gumbo in 1904

Posted on by September 28, 2015

From Cooking In Old Créole Days. La Cuisine Créole À L’Usage Des Petits Ménages. By Célestine Eustis. Published 1904.

OKRA GUMBO

Put into a saucepan a spoonful of pure lard and one of flour. Stir it well until it is of a light brown. Chop an onion into small pieces and throw them in. Cut up a fat capon or chicken into small pieces and put it into the saucepan with the flour and lard. Stir it all the while until the chicken is nearly done. When the whole is well browned, add a slice of ham cut up small. Throw in two or three pods of red pepper, and salt to your taste. Then add a quart of boiling water, and leave it on the fire for two hours and a half. During that time you take either a can of okra or the fresh okra, and chop it up a bit. Put it in a saucepan with a little water and let it simmer a quarter of an hour, stirring it all the time. Then add to it either six fresh tomatoes, or half a can of tomatoes, and let it cook on a slow fire for an hour, uncovered. When your gumbo has been on the fire the two hours and a half, you take it off to cool, and skim all the grease off. Then you put it back in the saucepan and add your okra and tomatoes and let it simmer slowly for an hour or until the okra is thoroughly cooked. Serve hot, and eat it with dry rice served in a separate dish.–MME. EUSTIS, MÃRE.

Jumballaya in 1904

Posted on by December 20, 2014

JUMBALLAYA

From Cooking In Old Créole Days. La Cuisine Créole À L’Usage Des Petits Ménages. By Célestine Eustis. Published 1904.

  1. Take a good sized chicken. Cut it as for fried chicken, season it with salt and pepper, and fry in a spoonful of lard.
  2. Cut up half a pound of ham in pieces an inch long, and fry in the same pan.
  3. When that is fried, take out and in the same lard fry a spoonful of onions cut very fine.
  4. Slice up three large tomatoes, or two spoonfuls of canned tomatoes, and fry them in the same pan.
  5. Cut up a little parsley and add when everything is fried. Put back your ham and chicken and add two and a half cupfuls of water. Let it come to a boil, and then add a cupful of well washed rice. Put it again on a quick fire.
  6. When the rice is cooked, and the steam begins to rise, put it on a slow fire and add a teaspoonful of butter. If you fear it may burn at the bottom of the pot, use a fork, not a spoon, as the latter makes the rice soggy. Let it soak or dry thoroughly. If it does not dry fast enough, put for a moment in the oven.  LYDIA EUSTIS.

Numbering added for this post.

 

Rémoulade Sauce like Ina’s

Posted on by June 7, 2024

This recipe is a combination of the one in Southern Living’s, All-Time Favorites on page 33, and Ina Garten’s The Barefoot Contessa, page 45.  First made on February 8, 2014.  After melding for 3+ days it was really good.

1C    Hellmans Mayo
3T   sweet pickle relish–press out most of the liquid
2T   creole mustard course
2     garlic cloves, large, pressed
1T   Italian parsley chopped fine
1/4 teaspoon Cayenne pepper
1T  champagne vinegar

2/15/2014 – Made a double batch.

Below is from Cook’s Illustrated website for comparison purposes. Not made yet.
A great rémoulade recipe is simple to make, with the right combination of capers, mustard, garlic, relish, and mayonnaise.

Makes about 1/2 cup. 

Ingredients

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon capers, drained and rinsed
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 small clove garlic, chopped coarse
1 1/2 teaspoons sweet pickle relish
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon minced fresh parsley leaves
Salt and pepper

Instructions

Pulse all ingredients except salt and pepper in food processor until well combined but not smooth, about ten 1-second pulses. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer to serving bowl.

3/22/14 – Made a double batch and added (single batch measures):
1t drained mashed capers;1-1/2 finely chopped green onions
1T chopped parsley
2″ squirt additional cajun mustard

Go to http://rouxbdoo.blogspot.com/2015/08/remoulade-blanc.html for white remouldade.

Shrimp, Sausage and Tasso Gumbo

Posted on by August 15, 2017

This recipe was derived on January 4, 2014 from Paula Deen’s “Savannah Seafood Gumbo” that was found here. Changes made since then have been included and are cited in the chronological notes following the recipe.

Ingredients

1/4 cup olive oil to dilute the 3 heaping soup spoons of Savoie’s Dark Roux. Bought at Don’s Cajun Meat Market in Lafayette LA.
1 large onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
5 celery ribs plus one center small rib with leaves, chopped
6 garlic cloves, diced
4 cups chicken broth, Ina Garten’s recipe
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried basil (did  not have but will next time)
1/3 cup dried parsley
1 teaspoon lemon pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes
2-12″ long Best Stop’s Cajun-style beef and pork smokes sausage bought in Lafayette, LA.
4 cups cut okra-frozen
1/2 pound fresh peeled shrimp. Shrimp hulls were boiled for about an hour then the broth added to the pot after straining through a fine SS strainer.
File powder

Directions

  1. In a No. 9 Wagner Dutch Oven add ~1/4C olive oil and three heaping soup spoons of Savoie’s Dark Roux. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until the roux has blended with the oil to a smooth consistency.
  2. Add onion, pepper, celery and garlic. Saute for about 5 minutes, stirring almost constantly.
  3. Slowly add chicken broth, stirring as you go.
  4. Add bay leaves, thyme, basil (we did not have this but would have added it), dried parsley, lemon pepper, cayenne pepper, Worchestshire sauce and tomatoes.
  5. Add Taso from Best Stop Meat Market in Lafayette LA and two links of beef and pork smoked sausage, also from Best Stop. Cut sausage into 1/4-inch pieces.
  6. Simmered for 30 minutes then added the okra.
  7. Covered pot and simmered for 30 minutes then added what looked like about 3C of the shrimp broth.
  8. Simmered for about 2 hours on low without the lid as it was too thin and the DO was within 1/2″ of the top.
  9. Added shrimp. Simmer for an additional ___ minutes.

Served over hot rice. Sprinkle with file powder on top of bowl and stir in.

Paula’s Tip: Add file powder after putting gumbo into individual serving bowls. Adding file into the pot will make the gumbo too thick as File powder acts as a thickening agent.

Initial Comments on 1/4/14: Toward the end, even before the shrimp was added, it tasted great. It was a bit spicy for the kids but great for us. Then I decided to add two talapia fish fillets thawed and cut into ~1″ squares. The brew then simmered for another hour before we ate it over short grain white rice. The taste was off, as though there was a spice missing. We tried the file we had but believe it was old as there was not the usual intense smell. But, I believe that either the talipia added an odd taste or the fact that they were not preseasoned meant the overall brew was under seasoned. Also seemed like it could have used more dark roux.