Tag-Archive for » New Orleans Classics «

Blackened Chicken Sliders with Bacon and Avocado-Basil Cream

Earlier today, I was scrolling through my Facebook feed when I came across a funny comment that my dear friend, Cindy, had posted. It read, “Here ye Here ye Casa Sanders is no longer taking reservations until September 2016!!!! Peace Out!” I laugh every time I read it because I know all too well where she’s coming from. You see, last year, Cindy and her family moved from the piney woods of Mandeville (a New Orleans suburb) to the Windy City. Since this is their first full summer in Chicago, their home has been nothing short [ ... ]

Stuffed Artichoke Soup

If you spend anytime at all on social media, you’re probably familiar with the trend where someone takes a popular main course and transforms it into a soup. On any given day, you can find the likes of Cabbage Roll Soup, Cheeseburger Soup, Chicken Potpie Soup and even Lasagna Soup flooding Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram feeds. The pictures are drool-worthy and they all sound deliciously inviting. But they pale in comparison to my recent discovery of a local obsession of the same kind—Stuffed Artichoke Soup. As the name implies, this soup brings together all the garlicky, [ ... ]

Stuffed Peppers

People always joke that when you visit New Orleans your vegetable intake will be limited to the curly parsley decorating your plate or the pickled okra bobbing about in your Bloody Mary. Depending on how you choose to spend your time here, that could very well be true. But as the locals can tell you, there are plenty of beautiful, fresh vegetables to be had in these parts all year long. That’s one of the many fringe benefits of living in a subtropical environment. And because we have a great variety of veggies with extended growing seasons, [ ... ]

Creole-Italian Baked Cucuzza

“Hey googootz!” If you grew up in New Orleans, chances are you’ve heard that phrase or have been the recipient of that term of endearment. I’m not sure how much it’s used these days, but when I was little it was expressed often and usually by older women addressing relatives or close friends. Oh, and you may also recognize the word if you were a Sopranos fan. I never watched the show, but have learned that Tony occasionally called his son A.J. “Googootz.” The word stems from cucuzza (pronounced “ku koo za”), an edible Italian [ ... ]

Grilled Chicken Wings with White Rémoulade Sauce

The inspiration behind this unlikely duo hails from North Alabama of all places. Are you familiar with Alabama White Barbecue Sauce? I wasn’t until a couple of months ago when my social media feeds starting buzzing about it. Because I’m a sauce girl, my curiosity was piqued. So I did a little digging and learned that this unique sauce was created back in 1925 by Big Bob Gibson of Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q in Decatur, Alabama. He used it primarily to “baptize” smoked chickens. Since then, Big Bob’s signature white barbecue sauce, along with [ ... ]

Shrimp Etouffée

When most people hear the word etouffée, their minds immediately jump to crawfish. That’s fair, considering this method of cooking is made most frequently with crawfish. But other shellfish, poultry and wild game can also be cooked successfully in this fashion. After all, etouffée is nothing more than a fancy word for smothered. Well, smothered South Louisiana-style. And by now you all know what that means–cooked in a deeply flavored sauce that’s made with a roux, the Holy Trinity, a small amount of homemade stock and a delectable combination of spices. When broken down this [ ... ]

Deep-Fried Turkey

Larry and I have been deep frying turkeys for as long as we’ve been together and we take great pride in sharing this family tradition with others. Over the past 19 years, we’ve converted many of our Atlanta friends (who hail from all different parts of the country) from roast turkey to fried. And we delight in the fact that several have mastered this Cajun custom and adopted it as their own. The process is not complicated, but it can be risky if you don’t plan ahead and take the necessary precautions. Unfortunately, most of what [ ... ]

Boiled Shrimp

A seafood boil is a culinary tradition we carry out every chance we get. It’s a casual outdoor cooking event where we boil mass quantities of fresh seafood, sausage and vegetables in huge pots of highly seasoned water. When the cooking’s done, we usually spread everything out on a large table lined with newspaper and invite everyone to roll up their sleeves, grab a cold beer and dig in. We plan seafood boils for everything from christenings and birthdays to graduations and wedding rehearsal dinners. We also have boils to celebrate holidays and cheer on our [ ... ]

Oysters Rockefeller

Oysters Rockefeller is one of those legendary New Orleans French-Creole dishes that has wowed locals and visitors alike since 1899. The dish was created back then by chef and restaurateur Jules Alciatore of Antoine’s Restaurant to replace and somewhat mimic the restaurant’s popular Escargots a la Bourguignonne due to a shortage of French snails. The dish was named after the affluent John D. Rockefeller because of its profoundly rich sauce. Although Antoine’s has never divulged its secret recipe, fifth-generation proprietor Roy Guste, Jr. devised a variation of the same to include in his cookbook, The 100 [ ... ]

Rémoulade Sauce

Time to share one of my warm weather entertaining essentials, Rémoulade Sauce. For you curious non-New Orleanians out there, Rémoulade Sauce originated in France and found its way across the pond to New Orleans via our early French inhabitants. That French version consisted of a cold white sauce of mayonnaise spiked with the likes of mustard, gherkins, capers, anchovies, hard-boiled eggs and chopped herbs. The sauce was used primarily as an accompaniment to cold meat, fish and shellfish. It was unique and tasty but, over time, was enhanced by local ingredients and emerging cooking styles. [ ... ]