Same recipe as last year… but I used sanding sugar from a party supply store instead of attempting to make the colors myself. We have a gas oven this year and it seems that the even distribution of heat prevented the yeast from turning the cake into a huge donut. It looks far more authentic and tastes so good!
Technorati Tags: Creole, Food, New Orleans, recipe
This isn’t exactly a New Orleanian recipe, but it ought to be as it tastes exactly like a cherry sno-ball. Agua de Jamaica (ha-ma-IKE-uh) is a brilliant crimson drink made from the dried flowers of a hibiscus plant (Hibiscus sabdariffa) and is very popular in Mexico, Central America, Texas, California, Egypt, and Latvia (of all places). Here in California you can find bottled Jamaica in most stores along with powdered mixes.
Agua de Jamaica
2 ounces flor de jamaica (dried jamaica flowers)
3/4 cup granulated sugar (or to taste)
6 cups cold waterBring 6 cups of water to a boil. Add the flowers and the sugar and stir while the mixture boils for one minute. Pour into a glass bowl (or other non-corrosive bowl) and steep for at least 2 hours like you would tea. The flowers stain, so be sure to use a non-staining bowl if you don’t use glass. Strain the mixture through a sieve pressing on the flowers to extract as much liquid as possible. Taste for strength and sweetness. If it’s too strong, add bit of water or if it’s too tart then add more sugar.
Cover and refrigerate until time to serve. Serve over cracked ice.
BBQ time…
This would be good paired with the Creole Potato Salad from last summer.
Creole-style Baked Beans
2-16 oz. cans of Pork & Beans or White beans
1 large red bell pepper, grated
1 large yellow onion, grated
2 toes garlic, minced fine
1/2 lb. smoked sausage or chaurice, sliced on bias
1 small can tomato sauce
2 tablespoons creole seasoning
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1/4 lb. dark brown sugar
3 strips of baconSet aside brown sugar and bacon. Brown sausage. Add bell pepper and onion and sauté until most of water is gone. Add garlic and tomato sauce. Add sausage/vegetable mixture to all other ingredients, mix well, and place in a lightly greased casserole dish. Lay bacon over the beans and sprinkle top with rest of the brown sugar. Bake in a 325º oven for a full hour. Remove from oven and allow beans to rest for 15 minutes. Serves 10.
Technorati Tags: BBQ, Creole, Food, New Orleans, recipe, Side Dish
School’s out for summer and we’ve moved. Now that I have more time to cook, I thought I’d try to make mirliton casserole again. I realized as I was gathering my ingredients that I didn’t have any mushrooms, but I did have a can of pickled carrots (zanahorias en escabeche) from our local Latino grocer. I love these. If you’ve never had them, they are carrots pickled with jalapeños and onions. The vinegar adds a nice edge to the dish I didn’t know it needed.
Latino Mirliton Casserole
3 medium mirlitons, boiled, peeled, and diced
1/4 cup olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
3 toes garlic, minced
1 lb. chicken thighs, deboned and diced
1 lb. smoked sausage, sliced on bias
1-14 oz. can diced tomato or Ro-tel (canned tomato and jalapeño)
1 small can pickled carrots (zanahorias en escabeche)
1 tablespoon parsley, minced
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon salt
black pepper to taste
2-2 1/2 cups seasoned bread crumbsoptional:
1 can chicken broth
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheeseHalve the mirlitons and boil them in lightly salted water until you can pierce them all the way through without using excessive pressure. Then remove them from the pot and set them aside to cool.
In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium heat and sauté the chicken until browned. Add sausage and brown. Add onion and bell pepper, sauté until wilted. Add garlic and sauté until everything is soft and tender. Add carrots, tomato, and spices. Scoop the cooked mirliton meat into a bowl and mash or dice well.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Add to the the mirliton meat to the mixture and cook until the sauce forms a paste-like consistency (15 minutes).
Begin working in bread crumbs into the casserole mixture (this is best done a little at a time). When all the crumbs are added, you should end up with a somewhat dry paste that sticks to the spoon. If it is still too moist, add a few extra bread crumbs, if the mixture it too wet it will run during the baking process. If your stuffing mix turns out too dry, moisten it with a little canned chicken broth.
Transfer the mixture to a large casserole dish. Put the dish into the oven on the center rack, and bake it uncovered for about 25 to 30 minutes or until the topping turns a toasty brown. For a little extra, liberally sprinkle the casserole with shredded Parmesan cheese when it has 10 minutes left to bake in the oven. This will form a nice crusty topping on the dish.
Technorati Tags: Creole, Food, Main Dish, New Orleans, recipe
As you probably all know by now, I am a direct descendant of the Canarian immigrants (Canary Islanders-Los Isleños) who settled in SE Louisiana in the late 1700’s. No, that doesn’t make me latino (not that there’s anything wrong with it!). But according to the newest US demographic questionnaires (the ones you have to fill out for colleges, financial aid, and census information), it does make me “Hispanic-Other”. Those silly bureaucrats. Although, that “Other” bit makes me and my brother laugh. If you know us personally, you know why.
I am about a month late posting the following links since the Los Isleños Fiesta occurred on March 23 and March 24. I like to make a late entrance.
Canary Islanders Heritage Society
Un favor, por favor. If any of you gentle readers happens to go to any of these various events in the future, piense de mí and kindly get me a shirt?
Now for a traditional Canarian recipe: Papas Arrugadas con Mojo Verde. This is similar to mainland Spain’s papas bravas except the papas in the former recipe are boiled and then steamed rather than pan-fried. This is a great substitute for hash browned potatoes at a brunch.
Papas Arrugadas con Mojo Verde
4 1/2 lbs. small or new potatoes
5 tablespoons Kosher salt (plus enough to make the water as salty as sea water)Wash the potatoes well. Put salt into large pot—start with a few tablespoons, you can add more to the water later. Add water—it is best if you add enough water to cover the potatoes so that you know you have added enough salt—the potatoes will float when the water is perfect. Add the potatoes to the pot of salted water. Bring to a boil then simmer for 20 minutes. Drain most of the water from the pot and sprinkle the potatoes with the 5 tablespoons of salt. Turn down the heat and gently shake the pot so that salt crystalizes on the potatoes. Finally, turn off the heat and cover the pot with a tea-towel for 5 minutes and the potatoes should now be arrugadas (wrinkled). The old school way of covering the potatoes was done with cabbage leaves in lieu of a tea-towel. Maybe for taste?
Mojo Verde:
1 teaspoon cumin
1 head of garlic
4 fresh jalapeño peppers
Italian parsley, fresh and chopped
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup white vinegar
1 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt (fleur de sel)You will need a mortar and pestle or a good food processor to make this. Take the cumin, garlic, and salt and combine them with your mortar and pestle or food processor until they create a paste. Clean out the peppers of all seeds and veins, dice and then add diced peppers and parsley to your mash. Blend well. Combine mash, vinegar. and olive oil and mix thoroughly. This can either be a dipping sauce (preferred) or poured over the potatoes.
This semester has been taxing for me, so I apologize for the lack of updates. Please bear with me and enjoy the past posts, there are plenty of recipes in the archive from which to drool. Now that our re-location plans are in order (we are moving locally) and school seems to be getting better I am hoping to post more regularly.
Thanks again,
Tim
In honor of carnival season and crab season, this is a stuffed shrimp recipe—New Orleans style. This dish has all the hallmarks of good creole cooking… butter, wine, and seafood! Unfortunately for me, I had to use prawns in this recipe because jumbo gulf shrimp are unheard of out here. Prawns have a much blander taste than gulf shrimp do (it’s due to their diet), so I compensated by seasoning each shrimp. I didn’t include this step in the recipe because some folks are lucky enough to have access to real shrimp. If you use prawns, sprinkle each raw prawn with Old Bay before topping.
Carnival Shrimp
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup flour
1 cup water
1 medium bell pepper, diced
1 lb. lump crab meat
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 Tablespoon Creole seasoning
1/4 cup dry white wine (optional)
2 lbs. large shrimp (or prawns)
Italian bread crumbsPreheat oven to 350º. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add diced onion and cook until the onion glistens. Add flour and make a quick roux. Add water and thin out the roux. Add bell pepper, salt, Creole seasoning and stir until everything is incorporated. Add wine. Cook mixture for 2 minutes (5 minutes if wine was added) until bell pepper is soft. Fold in crab meat and try to keep pieces as whole as possible. Set mixture aside while you clean and peel shrimp. Butterfly the cleaned and peeled shrimp and lay each shrimp on a greased baking sheet. Take a tablespoon and top each butterflied shrimp with a tablespoonful of the crab meat mixture. Sprinkle enough bread crumbs over each shrimp to just cover. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Serves 6.
Technorati Tags: Creole, New Orleans, recipe, Seafood
It’s that time again. Today is the eve of King’s Day/Feast of the Epiphany/Twelfth Night/Little Christmas AKA the last day of Christmas. Tomorrow is when we take the Christmas trees and lights down and put up the Mardi Gras decorations. This year Mardi Gras is somewhat early (February 20th) so Carnival season is short and there’s less time to eat King cake. The following recipe is for a traditional King cake which is more like a sweet brioche than cake. I am no fan of the modern King cake which is at best treated like a glorified coffee cake. A few years back, we bought a king cake without knowing it was filled with cherry. Normally, I would have liked cherry coffee cake, but it was a bit like taking a drink of soda thinking it’s coke only to find out it’s root beer. I like root beer, but not when I want coke. When I was growing up, we always had the McKenzie’s or Schweggman’s King Cake which were made in the traditional style; I guess my mind is stuck on those cakes.
Traditionally the cake was baked on Epiphany Eve and served the following afternoon to family and friends. Nowadays the cake is made throughout Carnival season and served until Mardi Gras. By the Middle Ages, veneration of the three wise men had spread throughout Europe and Epiphany became known as The Feast of the Three Holy Kings. The cake was baked in honor of the Magi. According to Wikipedia, related culinary traditions are the tortell of Catalonia, the gâteau des Rois in Provence or the galette des Rois in the northern half of France. Latin Americans, like New Orleanians, place a figure representing the Christ child inside the cake. In other cultures, the king cake might contain a coin, bean, pecan or pea. In New Orleans, the person who receives the piece of cake containing a “baby” must provide the king cake for the next gathering of the season.
King Cake
1/2 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees)
2 packages dry yeast
2 teaspoons sugar
4 to 5 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1/2 cup warm milk (105 to 115 degrees)
1/2 cup melted unsalted butter, cooled
5 egg yolks
1/2 cup finely chopped candied citron
1 pecan half, uncooked dried bean or King Cake BabyGlaze:
2 cups sifted powdered sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons water
Purple, green and gold sugar crystalsCombine the warm water, yeast and 2 teaspoons sugar in a small bowl. Mix well and set aside to a warm place for about 10 minutes.
Combine the 4 cups of flour, 1/2 cup sugar, salt, nutmeg, lemon rind and add warm milk, melted butter, egg yolks and yeast mixture. Beat until smooth. Turn dough out on a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough remaining flour until the dough is no longer sticky. Continue kneading until the dough is smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes). Place the dough in a well-greased bowl. Turn once so greased surface is on top. Cover the dough and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk (about 1 1/2 hours).
Preheat the oven 350 degrees. Punch the dough down and place on a lightly floured surface. Sprinkle with the citron and knead until the citron is evenly distributed. Shape the dough into a log, about 30 inches long. Place the dough on a buttered baking sheet. Shape into a ring, pinching ends together to seal. Place a well-greased 2-pound coffee can or shortening can in the center of the ring to maintain shape during baking. Press the King Cake Baby, pecan half or dried bean into the ring from the bottom so that it is completely hidden by the dough. Cover the ring with a towel, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes.
Bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove the coffee can immediately. Allow the cake to cool. For the glaze: Combine the ingredients and beat until smooth. To assemble, drizzle cake with the glaze. Sprinkle with sugar crystals, alternating colors.
Warn your friends that there is a potential baby/bean inside so there are no broken teeth.
Technorati Tags: Cake, Creole, Dessert, French, New Orleans, recipe
Daube is a larded pot roast slowly braised in wine. The word has the same root as the spanish adobo, which is braising meats in wine or acid. The acids in the simmering liquid help to break down all the sinews and tendons in the meat, which release collagen and make a rich sauce. The larding step helps make the final gravy much richer and it adds flavor to the roast. Rather than dicing the garlic, my grandmother would add entire cloves into the larding slits. She probably went through an entire head of garlic doing this. You can do it that way, but crushing the garlic releases more of the garlic flavor, in my opinion. We used to have this most Sunday afternoons when I was a kid… yum!
Daube
1/4 lb. salt pork fat
1 shoulder roast (~5 lbs.)
1 yellow onion, peeled and quartered
2 toes of garlic, diced
4 whole bay leaves, ground
1/2 tsp. clove
1/2 tsp. thyme
4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. black pepper
1-2 tablespoons of flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
5 carrots, peeled, and cut into 1/2 chunks
1 tablespoon fresh parsley
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 cup dry red wine
1-2 quarts boiling water (depends on size of pot, see below)
2 tablespoons dark rouxFirst, slice the salt pork into 1/4 inch thick strips. Make incisions about 3 inches long and 1 1/2 inches deep every couple of inches across the surface of the roast. Insert the slices of salt pork into each slit. This is called larding. Finely dice 1 quarter of the onion (about 1 cup) and the garlic. Combine this with the ground bay leaves, clove, thyme, 1/4 tsp. of the salt and 1/4 tsp. of the black pepper. Mix this thoroughly. Insert some of this mash into each slit, pressing it into the salt pork. Dust the outside surface of your roast with flour. Next, in a heavy 8-quart pot heat the olive oil. Brown the roast well on all sides. By following this all important step, you are both searing the meat, and you are starting your gravy for later. Add carrots, onion, parsley and remaining seasonings and cook until everything is well browned. Add red wine and just enough boiling water to cover the roast. Cover the pot and simmer over low heat for 3-4 hours or until beef is fork tender.
When roast is done, lift it out of the pot with a long fork and allow the juices to drain back into the pot. Set meat aside and allow it to rest for 15 minutes. Remove your vegetables and set aside. Strain the gravy into a large sauce pan and add roux to the saucepan to make a gravy for your roast. Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat to a strong simmer and allow some of the excess liquid to boil off. Stir constantly. After about 10 minutes of this, you should have a velvety, rich gravy. Slice meat into 1/4 thick slices, serve with vegetables, add some gravy and enjoy.
You may add diced tomatoes to the pot before simmering to increase the dish’s acid content. I added quartered yukon gold potatoes to the pot about 2 hours into cooking (they’ll be over cooked if you add them any sooner).
If you can get real French bread (vietnamese bakeries often have it if you don’t live in New Orleans) you will want to use the leftovers for po’ boys—especially the gravy. Some folks serve daube with spaghetti noodles—either by topping the noodles with the meat and then gravy or by using red gravy in lieu of the daube’s gravy.
Po’ Boy made from leftover daube.
Technorati Tags: Creole, French, Main Dish, New Orleans, recipe
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