In the continuing week of non-holiday holidays (lunar new year, valentines)-- today is Mardi Gras! Laissez les bons temps rouler!!
Between meetings today, I found myself with memories of sweltering summer days instead of the snow, ice pellets, freezing rain to rain transitions outside the door -- memories of New Orleans. This place is known for s two of my favourite things -- food and music. Since (for those of you who don't know) my motto is "Food is My Life [TM]" I chose to talk about my food memories today. There are many so I've tried to winnow it down to the highlights -- not an easy task. <smile> One of the first meals we had on the first trip there was red beans and rice. I've worked to develop a reasonable facsimile that I make at home regularly. I was introduced to fried catfish with an amazing spicy red dipping sauce, heated with horseradish and creole mustard. Yum. Shrimp etouffe had a more delicate sauce heightened by a healthy dose of black pepper. For this one, the Cajun trinity really shone through -- onions, green pepper and celery. My fave of all was chicken and andouille gumbo. The best I tasted was made with alligator andouille sausage with a wonderful spicy note to the sauce. I've played with this one, though andouille of any sort isn't to be found in my neck of the woods. I have use other sausage or added shrimp to the chicken. The key to this lies in the roux. I will admit to balking at the amount of butter and oil in a roux. From a New Orleans gumbo cookbook, I have mastered the dry roux. This takes a lot of fortitude. It requires the flour to be browned in a cast iron pan until almost copper toned like a penny. It gets darker when water is added to make it the consistency of peanut butter. It does the job of adding the amazing colour of a true gumbo. If making etouffe, the flour should be lighter in colour to provide a creamier colour sauce. The trick is not to burn the flour. It means constont stirring and waiting to see puffs of smoke rise from the pan. Flour cooked this way will not do a good job of thickening since the starch strands have been broken into much shorter strands by the heating -- called dextrins. Hence the browning process is s form of dextrinization (your word for the day <smile>). Now dessert could be the ubiquitous bread pudding (even the phone book had a recipe), pecan pie, or <my fave) sweet potato pie. I so need to go back there just to eat and listen to the music.
The song for today is about the city by a native son. Stay safe. Enjoy!
Oh, My Nola -- Harry Connick, Jr.
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