New Recipe Bananas Foster

New Recipe Bananas Foster
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New Recipe Marinated Crab Claws

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Blog Moved

I just wanted to let my followers know that I have moved my blog to my website
creolecajunchef.com

Pralines

In France and everywhere else, a praline is a generic term for any candy made with nuts. In New Orleans, a praline is a candy made with Louisiana pecans and cream.  Throughout the French Quarter, pralines can be seen being made in open kitchens in some shops. There are the perfect souvenirs to bring home from New Orleans. The good thing is that they are easy to make at home. 

2/3 cup Sugar

2/3 cup light Brown Sugar

½ cup Evaporated Milk

3 tablespoons Vanilla Extract

½ stick (4 tablespoons) of Butter cut into 1-tablespoon pieces

1 cup chopped Pecan pieces

Add both sugars and milk in a saucepan over medium high heat. Heat and stir about 15 to 18 minutes, to a softball stage*. Cook 3-4 minutes longer. Take off heat. Add butter and vanilla. Let the butter melt then add pecans slowly and mix well. Spoon out on wax paper to cool.

* A softball stage is 235-240 degree. At this temperature, the sugar mixture dropped into cold water will form a soft, flexible ball. If you remove the ball from the water, it will flatten like a pancake after a few minutes in your hand.

Enjoy!!!

As crawfish season comes to an end, we had our last crawfish boil Saturday, it is time for one last crawfish recipe. This is a variation of one of my last post. This is not something you would find on a breakfast table. But it is great as a beginning dish for any meal.

Crawfish Beignets

6 ounces Crawfish tails cleaned

2 Eggs

1 teaspoon Creole Seasoning

¼ cup Green Bell Pepper finely chopped

¼ cup Green Onions finely chopped

1 tablespoon Garlic minced

1 teaspoon Baking Powder

1½ cups Flour

½ cup Milk

Creole Seasoning

Heat deep fryer to 365 degrees. Mix the eggs in a large bowl until they are foamy. Add the crawfish to the eggs in the bowl. Sprinkle with Creole seasoning. Stir in the bell pepper, green onions, garlic, baking powder, flour, and milk with the egg mixture. This should be stirred to a thick consistency.

Drop 1 tablespoon of the mixture into fryer, one at a time, not crowding the oil. Let them fry for about 3 minutes, turning to ensure browning on both sides. Remove the beignets and drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with Creole seasoning while hot.

Enjoy!!!

Turtle Soup suggested by Mike Centola

I had a wonderful dinner with my brother and his family while on vacation. I am amazed at the foods that my two nephews, Andrew and Evan, eat. My brother called to ask me if I had a recipe for Turtle Soup. He had been listening to Tom Fitzmorris on the radio. Tom's radio program is all about food. Only in New Orleans will you find a 3 hour radio show, from 4-7pm, talking about food. On this particular show, he was talking about people using alligator meat in place of turtle meat in turtle soup. My brother called me asking if I had a turtle soup recipe (I had been listening to the show). He said that he had alligator meat in the freezer and the boys would eat the soup with alligator but not with turtle. I will copy the entire page from my upcoming cookbook to show that I made the same comment.

Turtle Soup

This wonderful soup is not offered in restaurants as much as it used to be. Turtle meat is not always available. Some people use alligator meat in place of the turtle. Turtle does not taste like chicken, which is not a good substitute. I think the most important part of this soup is the sherry. In New Orleans restaurants, a bottle of sherry is often brought to the table to enhance the dish.

1½ pound Turtle Meat

2 ¾ teaspoons Salt

¾ teaspoon Cayenne Pepper

6 cups Water

1 stick Butter

½ cup Flour

11/2 cups Onions chopped

¼ cup Green bell Pepper chopped

¼ cup Celery chopped

2 Bay leaves

½ teaspoon Thyme dry

1½ tablespoons Garlic

1 cup Tomatoes chopped

½ cup Worcestershire Sauce

3 tablespoons Lemon Juice

½ cup Dry Sherry

¼ cup fresh Parsley chopped

½ cup Green onions chopped

Place the turtle meat in a large saucepan with 1 teaspoon of salt, ¼ teaspoon cayenne and the water. Bring to a boil. Skim off any foam that rises to the top. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 20 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer the meat to a platter. Cut the meat into ½ inch dice and reserve the liquid. In another large saucepan, combine the butter and flour over medium heat, stirring constantly for 6-8 minutes to make a dark roux. Add the onions, bell peppers and celery. Stir occasionally and cook 2-3 minutes until the vegetables are slightly tender. Add the bay leave, thyme and garlic. Cook for 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and the turtle meat. Cook for 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the Worcestershire sauce, the remaining salt and cayenne, the turtle stock, lemon juice, and sherry. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the parsley and the green onions and simmer for 45 minutes.

Enjoy!

Looking back at my New Orleans posts, I thought I would post a couple of recipes of the items I ate. The first one in Beignets. For those of you who have never been to New Orleans, and you really have not been to New Orleans if you have not eaten Beignets, Beignets are New Orleans version of a donut. These dough squares are fried until they puff, then you top them with powdered sugar. If you don't want to make them by scratch, you can always get a box of Cafe du Monde Beignet mix. You can find them in some stores or you can order it on-line.

Beignets

1½ cups Lukewarm Water

½ cup Granulated Sugar

1 envelope Active Dry Yeast

2 Eggs, slightly beaten

1-¼ teaspoons Salt

1 cup Evaporated Milk

7 cups Bread Flour

¼ cup shortening, soften

Peanut Oil for frying

Powdered Sugar

Mix water, sugar and yeast in a large bowl and let sit for 10 minutes. In another bowl, beat the eggs, salt and evaporated milk together. Mix the egg mixture to the yeast mixture. Add 3 cups of the flour to the mixture and stir to combine. Add the shortening and continue to stir while adding the remaining flour. Remove the dough from the bowl, place on a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Spray a large bowl with nonstick spray. Put dough in bowl and cover with a towel. Let rise in a warm place for at least 2 hours. Preheat peanut oil in a deep fryer to 350 degrees F. Roll the dough out to about ¼ inch thickness and cut into 1-inch squares. Deep-Fry, flipping constantly, until they become a golden color. When Beignets are done, quickly drain on paper towels, and then sprinkle with powdered sugar. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

New Orleans Day 7 Back at home

You may have thought that yesterday's post would be my last from my trip to New Orleans. I had to include tonight's dinner that I cooked after the 8 hour drive. While we were buying shrimp and crabmeat to restock the freezer, my wife bought 2 pounds of U-12 shrimp. These are the largest shrimp you can find. U-12 means that there are 12 or under shrimp per pound. With shrimp this size, I knew exactly how my wife wanted them cooked, BBQ Shrimp. In New Orleans, BBQ Shrimp are not shrimp that come from a grill with a tomato based sauce on top. They are shrimp cooked in butter and Olive oil with plenty of Italian type seasonings. This was one of the first recipes that I posted. The key to this dish is to have large head-on shrimp. You can do them without, but the flavor will not be the same.

New Orleans Day 6 Last Day

Last day in New Orleans. Ate lunch at Acme Oyster Bar in Metairie. Had half a shrimp poboy and a cup of chicken & andouille gumbo. For dinner, we went back to the restaurant we started the week in, Cafe 615 home of DaWabbit. I had the blackened tuna. And for the second night in a row, we had a Stacey serve us. I knew we were going to have great service as this Stacey used to work with me. I could not think of any other way to end this trip.

New Orleans Day 5

For lunch, my wife wanted to go to her favorite Chinese restaurant, China Doll in Harvey on the West Bank. I had Sweet and Sour Chicken. It was good but I am not a big Chinese fan. For dinner, my wife's family went to Zydeco's, in Gretna on the West Bank. We were celebrating my mother-in-laws birthday. We had the all you can eat special; fried shrimp, oysters and fish. The food was OK. It was very salty. We did have a great waitress, Stacy. She did a wonderful job. If you go to Zydeco's, ask for her.