Recipes from Cooking with Doyle Moore on Focus 580

February 5, 2008:  New Orleans Cooking

In honor of Mardi Gras!  New Orleans had the first big regional American style of cooking.  Most people know the names of more important restaurants in New Orleans than of anywhere else.  The people there are fans of going to fine restaurants to eat.  You heard about the chefs there long before you heard about chefs elsewhere, men like Paul Prudhomme and more recently Emeril.  New Orleans cooking is American Fusion cooking right from the start: European, African, Afro-Caribbean, Native American influences, and don’t forget the Acadian influence.

What sets this food apart?  The mixtures are in two different sets, Creole and Cajun, which today have also fused together, but were originally distinct.  Creole cooking was originally classic Spanish and classic French inspired, while Cajun cooking was that of the Arcadians who did not live in metropolitan areas, and was influenced by Black and Indian culture.  The sassafras that you use to make filet filet and add to your gumbo to thicken it up is an Indian product.  The most basic way to discern the differences between the two styles is that Cajun cooking is one-pot cooking, a little more rural, albeit a very elaborate one-pot dish that you eat with other things but not another primary food.  For example, jambalaya: you don’t have a meat dish and a vegetable dish in the French and Spanish style, but everything in one pot, cooked for a long time on the back of the stove.

The one thing you think of most in relation to New Orleans cooking is gumbo.   Gumbo is an African import, the word means “okra,” which was brought to this country by Africans.  Anything with okra in it is a gumbo. 

RED BEANS AND RICE

David is seeking a good recipe for red beans and rice.  Its preparation is a mystery.  Doyle offers a clue:  it is eaten on Monday, which used to be laundry day.  You put it on the stove and left it while you did other things.

Traditionally the dish is made on Monday with Sunday’s leftover ham.  Do not put salt in the water to cook the beans. 

• kidney beans

• butter

• chopped scallions

• chopped onions

• celery

• fine chopped garlic

• hambone

• pepperoni or smoked sausage

• salt

• bay leaf

• red pepper

• cumin (optional)

Boil the beans for ten minutes, turn off and let soak for an hour.    Cook the scallions, onions, celery, and garlic in butter in a casserole; then stir in the beans and the liquid and the hambone.  Bring it all to a boil and reduce it a bit.  Cover and cook for three hours.  If the beans seem dry, add boiling water, only a few tablespoons at a time.  (It’s important not to allow the temperature to drop suddenly, because the beans will get tough in their skins.)  Don’t put salt in because that will also affect the beans badly. 

Doyle did not mention when to add the rice!

BREAKFAST AT BRENNAN’S

Doyle recalls many years ago having breakfast at Brennan’s restaurant in New Orleans.  There were many variations on eggs Benedict, including Eggs Sardou, and Florentine eggs with spinach; and there was a drink made with milk and bourbon.

EGGS BENEDICT VARIATIONS

A caller from Brazil, Indiana asked about the different varieties of eggs Benedict which Doyle mentioned having in Brennan’s restaurant.  The basic eggs Benedict consists of an English muffin, toasted or grilled; you place a slice of Canadian bacon on it, and then top it with a poached egg and cover with hollandaise sauce.  There are three variations that Doyle knows of:

Eggs Hussar:  Make a marchand du vin sauce from mushrooms, green onions, minced onions, butter, ham, some flour and stock and wine.  Place a slice of Canadian bacon on the muffin, pour on the marchand du vin sauce, then top with a poached egg and hollandaise sauce, and garnish with paprika and parsley.

Eggs Sardou:  Start with 2 artichoke bottoms instead of an English muffin.  Fill with creamed spinach (chopped frozen spinach, butter, chopped onion, flour, 2 cups milk, 3 egg yolks, 1 cup cream, and ¼ cup parmesan cheese), put the poached eggs on top and pour Hollandaise sauce over it. 

Eggs Nouvelle Orléans:  Place crabmeat in ramekins. Add a brandied cream sauce made of onions, flour, milk, brandy, lemon juice, and cayenne.  Place a poached egg on top and sprinkle with some paprika.

BOURBON MILK PUNCH

• 2 ounces of good quality Bourbon (e.g., Maker’s Mark)

• ½ ounce vanilla extract

• ½ ounce simple syrup

• 1 ounce heavy cream

• 2 ounces whole milk

• ¼ of one egg white

Add the contents to a cocktail shaker with plenty of ice.  Shake until it’s good and frothy.  Serve in a frosted old fashioned glass, garnish with freshly grated nutmeg.

From the web page http://neworleanscuisine.blogspot.com/2005/04/bourbon-milk-punch.html

SAUSAGE JAMBALAYA

Doyle learned this at a cooking school in New Orleans.  It’s light and easy. 

• ½ pound hot sausage (chorizo or hot Italian sausage)

• ½ pound andouille (or Polish sausage)

• 1 large onion, chopped

• 1 bell pepper, chopped

• 4 stalks celery, chopped

• garlic

• can of diced tomatoes

• 2 cups rice, long-grained

• 3 cups chicken stock

• 2 cups smoked ham, diced

• 4 green onions

• ¼ cup parsley

• Tabasco

Sauté the meats for several minutes; add the onions, then the bell pepper and the celery.  Add the rice and coat with the fat from the meats.  The rice will turn translucent.  Add the other ingredients.  Bring to a boil and simmer for about 20 minutes until the rice is done.  Serve with French bread and a green salad. 

You could also make a shrimp jambalaya, put the shrimp in at the end, but use a fish stock or clam juice instead of chicken stock. 

In French cooking you start many dishes with a basic preparation of onions, carrots and celery (“mirepoix”).  In New Orleans cooking, you start with “the trinity” of onions, green bell pepper, and celery. 

SHRIMP REMOULADE

• ¼ cup mustard (Creole mustard or good spicy brown French mustard)

• 2 Tbsps paprika (smoked paprika from Spain is wonderful)

• 1 tsp ground hot red pepper (esp. from Chimayo)

• 4 tsps salt

• ½ cup tarragon vinegar

• 1¾ cups olive oil (or half olive oil, half vegetable oil)

• 1½ cups coarsely chopped scallions

• ½ cup finely chopped celery

• ½ cup coarsely chopped fresh parsley

Mix all together; put in blender and zip it for a moment.  The sauce will have a nice red color.  The mustard and oil emulsify and become thicker. 

Chop up some iceberg lettuce into really fine shreds.  Put shrimp on top of the lettuce and top with the remoulade sauce.

David wants to endorse smoked paprika.  You may need to seek it out at one of the specialty stores.  It is Spanish and produces a wonderful flavor.  Put it in chili and lots of other recipes where you use paprika.  It reminds him of chipotle chilies. 

MARDI GRAS SALAD

Wash one head of lettuce well.  Dry and tear it into pieces.  Slice one yellow bell pepper and wash a head of purple cabbage.  Slice it into long thin pieces.  Mix a Creole mustard dressing (Creole mustard, red wine, sherry vinegar, one small onion, salt, pepper, and oil).  Arrange the lettuce at the bottom of the bowl and place the purple cabbage and yellow pepper on top, so you have the three colors of Mardi Gras.  Pour the dressing over it.