AWOL (Absent WithOut Leave)

Hard to believe that I've been gone so long...don't really know why and can't say I didn't have the time...I just never set aside the time.

 

I'll catch you up on the kids later but, believe me, they are growing like weeds!

 

I've been in a cooking funk because husband would rather eat out...when I do cook...well...

 

Today I cooked my first Dutch baby. Have no idea where the name came from...haven't tried looking it up.

This is what it looks like straight out of the oven...can't really see it, but the middle is puffed up...that settles flat.

Dutch Baby

3 tablespoons butter

4 eggs

1 cup milk

1 cup all purpose flour

 

Oven 425 degrees.

Put butter in a 10" cast iron skillet. Put in oven.

In blender, blend eggs on high for one minute. Slowing blend in milk then flour blending 30 seconds.

Pour into hot skillet.

Put in oven for about 20 minutes.

 

I dusted with powdered sugar then drizzled my slice with maple syrup.

 

OH MY!!! This was like eating custard. Soooo gooood.

 

Husband didn't get up and out of bedroom until after 9 at which point he wasn't sure if eating a Dutch baby sounded good at all. LOL

 

Since he normally doesn't eat breakfast, I didn't worry about lunch at noon. When I did get up, I got out my #8 Griswold Dutch oven that I paid a whopping $18 for at a thrift shop in Delta Colorado while on vacation a couple of years ago.

 

First you start with a roux.

 

Husband walked into the kitchen, looked in the pot then at his boots and pronounced that the roux was almost ready since it was almost the color of his boots. 

 

He was so excited that he even chopped the vegetables. This is an unusual occurrence which happens only a couple of times a year. The last time I asked for help...this time he volunteered. I definitely thanked him!

 

Look quick before the lid (Griswold - matched the Dutch oven and cost considerably more than $18!!) goes on.

 

FINISHED!

 

A bit of rice in the bottom of the bowl...a sprinkling of Gumbo filet on top to help thicken.

 

DELICIOUS even if I do say so myself.

Cooking

Looks like chocolate doesn't it?! But it's not! It's roux! How does a Cajun make chili? First he starts with a roux.
This is going to be gumbo though. I cheated with the roux. When Drew down in Freeport/Lake Jackson told me that he used jarred roux...well, if it was good enough for a real life Cajun, then it's good enough for me. Besides, it saves an hour! I forgot to look for andouille, so just put some bacon grease in the bottom of my soup pot; added a cup of roux and a tablespoon of Penzey's seafood soup base. When it got hot, I whisked in a quart of water. The added chopped celery, bell pepper, and onion; along with some minced garlic. Don't forget the salt, pepper, and some kind of fire...I use a seasoning mix Sam's sister Linda makes. What else...Oh! Two bay leaves.
I added a couple of cooked chicken breasts that were hiding out in the freezer. Chopped them and threw them in the pot. Let that simmer an hour or so before adding the shrimp and sliced okra.
If you are not an okra fan, omit it. If you liked tomatoes, add some diced. A recipe is a guideline, not rocket science! Did you pay any attention to the shrimp in the above photo? It's Tony Chachere's...wild shrimp caught off the coast of Louisiana. Try very, very hard not to purchase Chinese shrimp.I made a pan of rice, then we sat down and ate...didn't get a photo of it 'plated.' This is going into the refrigerator for tomorrow's lunch. (I'm not cooking a big meal until Saturday when John and Brook may come in. I also put a couple of 1 quart freezer containers aside in the freezer for future meals.
While the gumbo was cooking, I did some more baking. Another of my New York style cheesecakes. I was excited to try my new glass-bottom springform pan. (More about that later.) The crust is a sweet pastry. Set aside 2/3 cup in the refrigerator and pat the remainder in the bottom of the pan.
Bake it, cool, spread the remaining dough around the sides.
Pour in the filling and bake.
Cool a bit, run a thin-blade knife around the perimeter and try to release the latch. Well, the latch released but the damn pan didn't. Sam had to help me get it open. Then I had to take a long blade knife to cut the cheesecake from the bottom. It stuck. This is the springform pan from hell! As good an idea as I thought the smooth glass bottom was...I won't be using this again. I was so ticked off that I forgot to take a photo. Tomorrow...

My other metal pan was (1) Made in Germany and (2) was a thicker metal. This pan was (1) Made in Taiwan and (2) was so thin I thought it would bend when we were trying to get it to slide open enough to release the bottom. This is Norpro. Pass it by!
Faked you out with the chocolate look-a-like earlier, so here's the real thing. FUDGE!! Waiting on it to cool.
All cooled and sliced and missing a piece or two. whistle whistle whistle
The recipe can't be simpler. It came out of this cookbook.
The best recipes are the desserts, of course! German Sweet Chocolate Cake, Original Banana Pudding...

Happy Mardi Gras Y'all

Yesterday was Mardi Gras, (French for Fat Tuesday). Okay. You ask, "What's Fat Tuesday?" It is the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. It is the last day of 'decadence' before Lent begins. This link can explain it better than I can.

http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/MardiGras/

I am not Catholic, but with Louisiana so close, one can not help but be caught up in a little of the celebration. So...I made gumbo yesterday and served it with rice and cornbread. Carol and Elton came over and she brought a delicious pan of lemon bars. They were to die for! Just melt in your mouth good.

At my last full-time job down near the Texas Gulf Coast, I met some wonderful people. I actually know three Cajuns. I worked with one of the men. His last name is Lancon. We Anglos pronounce it like it's spelled. However, the correct pronunciation in south Louisiana is 'la san' - or that's the way it sounded to me. Jerry said that he didn't learn English until he was five years old. He introduced me to one of the cookbooks he has at home. I "devoured" it and through some information found in the back was able to find where to order it and its companion cookbook.

Sam's best friend, Ben, was born in southern Louisiana. Even though he is not of French Canadian or Cajun decent, he still grew up with the influence of the people and the food. His mother (step-mother actually) gave me a couple of the cookbooks she'd acquired over the years. She had reached the stage where she didn't do much cooking any more preferring to eat out.

I have sticky notes everywhere in these books. I've cooked Gumbo, Crawfish Etouffee, Cajun Shrimp Sauce Piquante, Court Bouillion or Coubion, Stuffed Mushrooms. The list goes on and on. I have a recipe for Natchitoches meat pies that I just have tried yet although I have eaten the real thing in Natchitoches.

The thing about much of the Cajun cooking is that you take a recipe. Then you make it yours. Gumbo for instance. Even though you may start out with a recipe, you change it depending on what you have in your refrigerator. Or what the men bring in from a day of hunting and fishing - if you lived in the marsh land of the Louisiana coast.

This is my basic Gumbo recipe:

1 cup roux

2 quarts water

2 large onions, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 cup green onion, chopped

1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped

1 cup celery, chopped

2 bay leaves

salt to taste

pepper to taste

a bit of cayenne pepper if desired

meat and/or chicken, pork, sausage

seafood consisting of shrimp, oysters, whatever you desire

1 package sliced okra, if desired

Put 1 cup of roux in a big pot. Bring heat up to medium. Add remaining ingredients including meat (excluding shrimp and/or oysters). Cook for about 2 hours or until meat is tender and gumbo has thickened. In the last 15 to 20 minutes, add shrimp
and/or oysters along with the okra. You do not want to overcook your seafood or the okra. Seafood toughens, okra cooks away. You can even add a can of diced tomatoes if desired. After all, its YOUR Gumbo.

Let's talk Roux. Roux is a basis for many gravies. Its purpose is the deciding factor on how dark to cook it. A Roux is simple. It is merely equal parts of a fat (lard, bacon grease, vegetable oil, or butter) and flour. For white gravy, you cook it just a minute or two before pouring in your milk. For Cajun cooking, the time to cook your Roux may be an hour or two or sometimes three...with constant stirring. If you burn your Roux, you have to toss it and start all over.

I picked the brain of a Cajun restaurant owner in Freeport one evening and actually have in my possession his Crawfish Etouffee recipe ;o) . Imagine my amazement when he told me that he used store-bought Roux?! I was flabbergasted. He gave me the names of two or three store-bought Roux's (LOL what is the plural of Roux?!) The one that I can find in northeast Texas is Bootsie's. Look for it in a glass pint jar. The store here stocks it near the ketchup/catsup bottles. Um...I suggest looking for a product of Louisiana...I'm not certain I would want to cook Cajun with something in a bottle from overseas.

If you want to make your own roux, do a search. If you find Emeril Lagasse's name, you can bet he know what he's talking about!

Laizze le bon ton roule!