A New Orleans foodie and a product of hurricane Katrina, I'm living in
South Tampa - exploring a new city and it's culture and always on the prowl for a good meal. A natural disaster changed
my state of residence and you can take me out of New Orleans, but you can't take the New Orleans out of me.
This is my resource for all things New Orleans: food recipes, culture and history. In addition,
you can find my original recipes and a log of my cooking adventures. My writing here is unedited and uncut...
I don't outline or plan what I type on the page.... consider it a diary of dining and cooking.
For writing about dining in Tampa, check out TampaBayEats, creating excitement about food in Tampa Bay... one meal at a time.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Happy Valentine's Day! What Are You Cooking?
Valentine's day is the most over-commercialized excuse for a holiday in
existence and I despise it. Regardless, I will be doing something special tonight. I have rules against dining
out on Valentine's day, so cooking it will be. At the request of my fiancee (wife in about 6 weeks), I will be cooking:
Pan-Roasted Pork Tenderloin, with Brandy-Mushroom
Cream Sauce, Herbed Polenta and Fresh Wilted Spinach
paired with Pinot Noir
Let me know if you'd like the recipe, it's easy and it is dyn-o-mite!
What will you be creating tonight?
I was reading a local Tampa food blog this morning and came across a request
by the author for suggestions about books to help him increase his food knowledge. Unfortunately, I believe food knowlege
is something that can't be learned instantly, but rather over a period of time that includes reading, cooking, tasting and
experiencing.
That being said, I believe there are five books for every beginner that
are essential to help build a solid foundation. Sure, there are plenty of cookbooks and how-to books out there, but
in my short time I have found that these five are easy to read and contain relevant information without all of the fluff.
But don't take my word for it, check them out yourself.
Kevin's list of essential books about food and cooking (in no particular
order):
- Culinary Artistry, by Dornenburg and Page
- I'm Just Here For the Food, by Alton Brown
- How To Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman
- Cooking For Dummies
- What To Drink With What You Eat, by Dornenburg and Page
When cooked properly, the duck, the chicken and the turkey are all fantastic
on their own. If you put them all together, you'll end up with a Turducken.
I've never really been one for food fads. I am not a fan of molecular
gastronomy, avocado foam or oxygen bars, so I've always done my best to avoid a Louisiana food "creation" called the turducken.
If you've never heard of it before, you're probably living in a cave, but I'll explain. It's a turkey, stuffed with a chicken,
stuffed with a duck, stuffed with, well... stuffing. The coolest part of the whole creation is that each of the birds
is de-boned!
Just a couple of weeks ago I gathered a few friends to act as my ginea
pigs for my first turducken. Although there are recipes out there and "how-to" videos on making a turducken, I took
the easy (and intelligent) way out and procured mine already prepared from CajunGrocer.com. It showed up frozen solid, in a foam ice chest packed with dry ice, though all of the dry ice had evaporated by the
time mine arrived. I have to admit, the toughest part of the process is conquering the unknown. Since I had never
cooked one before, I had no idea what to expect. The defrosting process was the most daunting, but I did so by leaving
it on the counter for a full day, then placing it back in the refrigerator for another day. By day three, the bird(s)
were ready to be cooked. I wasn't sure how many people it would take to eat a single turducken. Although
the total weight was around 16 pounds, there were no bones to weigh it down. I'll tell you right now, 16 pounds of meat
is a LOT!
Even though it was my first time, the cooking part was easy enough for
a third-grader. I cut it open, placed it in a roasting pan, covered with aluminum foil and put it in the oven for four
hours. Then I uncovered it and cooked it for an additional hour. Yep. That's it. Believe me, it is
really that easy. Carving the finished product was also a brease, since there were no bones to interefere with my slicing.
The finished product was a real treat. Though they are
available with several different varieties of stuffing, ours was filled with a spicy Cajun sausage. The fat from
the sausage and duck really added great flavor and a little kick to the chicken and turkey. To complement the spicy
Cajun flavor, we paired the turducken with several side dishes, like my almost famous mac-n-cheese, dirty rice and a
cold salad.
On the two year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, I found it necessary
to drink a couple of bottles of Abita Restoration Ale. Of course, I also cooked my famous jambalaya. I think that's
all I have to say about that.
Last night I enjoyed one of my favorite “ethnic-style” dishes in the weekday
gourmet category: Spicy Thai Shrimp and Noodles. It’s an easy way to spice up the middle of the workweek
with a dish that’s easy to prepare, takes only minutes to cook and is packed with flavor. I call it “Thai” because of
the inclusion of a respectable amount of spicy Thai chili sauce, but I don’t expect you to believe the dish is actually Thai
in pedigree (no more than the addition of Cayenne pepper makes a dish Cajun).
Although I sometimes make this dish with chicken, my favorite is with shrimp.
And since they were on sale yesterday at the local supermarket, I picked up about six ounces of shrimp for my dinner for less
than three bucks. With the addition of just a few more ingredients, the whole dish took me ten minutes
to prep, ten minutes to cook and only cost around $3.50 for one serving.
To complement the spicy chili sauce, I paired the dish with a German Riesling,
2006 Petals. The wine was a bit sweet for me to enjoy by itself, but putting it with the food was a match made in heaven.
Spicy pink shrimp, Thai chili sauce and a nice sweet wine sure did make for an enjoyable Tuesday evening. Try it yourself!
Click here for the recipe.
Weekday Gourmet: Flatiron Steak with Cabernet-Shallot Reduction and Roasted Fingerling Potatoes
My friend Lisa owns a store called Weekday Gourmet that lets people come
in, choose their meals and prepare them for an easy way to have great food on weeknights without all of the work.
It's a cool concept, but its not for me; I love to cook my own food and create my own menus. However, I love the moniker
"weekday gourmet" and feel it describes my weeknight cooking style to a tee. To me, the term "weekday gourmet"
means cooking gourmet style food in a reasonable amount of time, on a budget. If you weren't on a
budget, you could easily get comparable food by dining out at a French bistro or upscale steakhouse.
Since I enjoy great gourmet food but can't afford to dine out every night,
I find creative ways to eat well, regardless of the day of the week. Just this evening, I enjoyed an 8oz. flatiron
steak, grilled to medium rare with a cabernet-shallot reduction and served with roasted fingerling potatoes and a blue cheese
chopped salad. It was fairly easy to prepare and didn't cost a fortune, but still allowed me to dine on cuisine
that most people would reserve for a special occasion. Life is a journey; every day should be a special occasion!
To keep you in the loop, I'll post a couple of meals each week that I would
consider "Weekday Gourmet" selections. Some you will like, some you will not, but I hope to get you in the mindset of
turning off the television, relaxing each night with a glass of wine and enjoying a great meal.
Check out the recipe for my grilled Flatiron Steak with Cabernet-Shallot Reduction. The flatiron cut of steak is sometimes tough to find in a supermarket, but my local Publix regularly stocks
them. It's an inexpensive cut of meat but is tender, flavorful and easy to cook. It's one of my favorite
cuts, but please keep that quiet, since the popularity could create a demand and increase the prices. (Let's just keep
it between us.) Bon Appétit!
Yes, I know Father's day was last month, but I've been a little busy lately
cooking, eating, working and traveling. However, this year I made a kick-ass Father's day dinner for my fiancee and
my soon-to-be in-laws (including my future father-in-law) and figured it was too good not to share. If you are here
looking for photos, you won't find any; the food went too quick.
Choosing a menu was the tough part. Between the four of us, our tastes varied
too much for me to settle on any one dish, so the solution was tapas! It allowed us to cook a variety of dishes
simultaneously and also pleased everyone. I won't go into any more details and the recipes are all coming
soon, but here's the menu.
For any dinner party with a mix of people, consider doing it tapas
style. The choices don't have to be Spanish in style, but can revolve around just about any cuisine: Mexican, Japanese,
Italian or even Cajun!
Yes, it is finished. I began in October and finished on time in December,
only to realize I wasn't 100% happy with the results. My favorite part about the family cookbook is the stories and
comments made from all of the contributors. You can get a recipe anywhere and cookbooks filled with recipes are a dime
a dozen. But our family cookbook is special. Check it out online here and download a copy, if you wish.
For the first time in my life tonight I had a glass of Cabernet
Sauvignon with my Red Beans and Rice. It wasn't the first time I drank the wine and it certainly wasn't
the first time I had the dish; it's a New Orleans classic that I grew up eating. My usual drink of choice for
red beans and rice is beer, preferably an Abita Amber or Turbodog, but for some reason I wasn't in the mood. Instead
I tried the red wine and I actually enjoyed it. Now I sit and wonder - are my tastes changing?
I've always believed that cold beer was the best accompaniment for red
beans and rice was beer. The dish has a smoky and spicy flavor, so what could be better than a cold beverage like beer
to wash it down? In New Orleans, red beans are traditionally served on Mondays in restaurants, lunch joints and bars
across town. When I lived Uptown, my room mate and I would walk over to The Columns for happy hour on Monday nights to have a couple Abita Amber drafts and complimentary red beans. Drinking wine would
have been a preposterous idea! But alas, here I am with a hot bowl of red beans and a glass of Cabernet.
I do remember another turning point in my drink of choice for the hamburger,
another perfect "beer food." I was sitting at The Columns (see a trend here) having a burger on a Tuesday night along
with an Amber draft, when I suddenly realized that a glass of red wine would taste a lot better. And it did!
Ok, so none of this is really prolific, but I felt that drinking a glass
of red wine with red beans was a life-changing event worthy of a few minutes of writing. Just because I did it once
doesn't mean I'll do it again, though I really did enjoy the combination. Perhaps next time I can venture to the other
end of the spectrum and have pinot grigio. Sure, tastes change with every new flavor combination we experience.
Sometimes for the good and sometimes for the bad; fortunately this was a good one. Don't worry; things have not changed
for good. I'll still keep a cold six-pack in my fridge on Mondays, just in case I am in the mood to drink it with my
classic Creole cooking. Now, if you catch me sneaking wine into a crawfish boil, I think you may need to start planning
the intervention.
Heard In Public: Galatoire's Food Likened to Holiday Inn???
I saw this on a food message board and felt compelled to respond.
Check out the full message on the Chowhound New Orleans board, or read the passage here:
-------------------------- "Galatoire's
first it was not our first choice but some of group had to dine. 8:45 on Sunday night. Busy but the food ... Holiday inn at
best. sorry but the reputation can not make up for mundane food." --------------------------
Is this Alan Richman from GQ? Your likening the food at Galatoire's to that of a Holiday Inn is a bit disconcerting. Either you've had really good food
at a Holiday Inn, or you just ordered a plain chicken breast and veggies while at Galatoire's. Or, you just may hate classic
New Orleans cuisine. Pick any one.
I wish you wouldn't have had such a bad meal, because I consider Galatoire's
to be one of the best old-line classic New Orleans restaurants in the city. They've got an unbelievably good fried soft shell
crab, a fantastic trout amandine and an outstanding stuffed eggplant dish. The appetizers? I can't leave New Orleans without
having a dose of the shrimp or crabmeat maison; some of the freshest boiled shrimp or crabmeat, lightly coated with a well
seasoned mayo based sauce. It's on my list as one of the best appetizers in the city.
Before her first experience there, my girlfriend suspected that it was
a high end, fancy-pants type of complex cuisine. In reality, the food is all very simple. How can you not enjoy a piece of
fresh speckled trout, dusted with flour and pan fried golden brown in butter, then topped with fresh jumbo lump crabmeat?
It's good, fresh, simple food at its best. Classic New Orleans food is just that; simple and good. While many criticize the
city for its lack of sophistication and progression in the food world, I don't mind a bit. For some reason, I can't get excited
about avocado foam or herb "infused" gelatin. But a soft shell crab... now that puts a smile on my face.
