Tag-Archive for » New Orleans Cooking «

Gumbo: Turkey Bone Gumbo

Hey! Got a few minutes to talk about Black Friday? Not shopping. Cooking. I know you’re busy finishing up your Thanksgiving menu, planning that inevitable last minute grocery run and cooking make-ahead sides and sauces. And the last thing on your mind is what’s for dinner on Friday. But this is important, especially if your Turkey Day celebration extends through the weekend like ours does. If you need to plan additional meals for visiting family and want to make the most of leftovers, then save that turkey carcass (or beg the hostess for it) [ ... ]

Baked Ham with Chipotle Cherry Glaze

Growing up, Easter dinner always revolved around my mom’s perfectly baked Chisesi’s ham.  (Chisesi’s Pride makes some of the finest smoked meats in New Orleans.)  She bathe it in a sweet and savory mixture of brown sugar, coca-cola and yellow mustard.  Then she studded the top with canned pineapple rings and marashino cherries.  It was and still is one of the best baked hams I’ve ever tasted.  Unfortunately, we can’t get Chisesi hams here in Atlanta (although the company recently expanded and is looking to make their fine pork products available nationwide–yay!). Even worse, I won’t be able to [ ... ]

Chicken Sauce Piquant

I wanted to let you all know that last week I was invited to do a guest post on my friend Shea’s blog, Dixie Chik Cooks. Shea is “a Southern Belle” (Birmingham to be exact) “who thinks about what’s for dinner while eating lunch.” Sounds like a native New Orleanian, doesn’t she? I’d love for you to hop on over to her site and check out my recipe for Chicken Sauce Piquant.  Once there, I hope you’ll stay awhile and get to know Shea through all her wonderful stories and recipes.  Happy Tuesday! Genêt //

Finger Food Friday: Creole Fried Eggplant

Back when I was sporting my 19-year-old metabolism, fried vegetables were my go-to finger food.  Almost every weekend, I’d prepare a batch of deep fried cauliflower, mushrooms or eggplant.  I’d make them in much the same way I would panee (New Orleans lingo for battered and pan fried) veal or pork chops–soaked in an egg wash, rolled in Italian bread crumbs and submerged in hot oil.  I could easily get an entire week’s worth of vegetable servings in one sitting with those crispy hunks of Deep South love.  Now that I’m a little older and question whether I still have [ ... ]

Jazzy Crawfish Pasta

In case you missed my tweets yesterday, the 2012 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival daily schedules have been posted.  The lineup is crazy good this year.  Almost as crazy good as this Jazzy Crawfish Pasta–my take on Crawfish Monica.  Crawfish Monica has been a festival-goer favorite for some 30 years now.  It consists of a mesmerizing bowl of rotini pasta drenched in a deliciously spicy crawfish cream sauce.  This dish became so popular at Jazz Fest that back in 2009, its creator Chef Pierre Hilzim (who named the seafood specialty after his wife Monica) trademarked the name and began [ ... ]

Finger Food Friday: Spinach-Stuffed Artichoke Bottoms with Creole Bechamel

Since today is not only Finger Food Friday but New Year’s Eve Eve, I thought I’d make something that could transition nicely between a casual Happy Hour and a fancy New Year’s Eve bash. These stuffed artichoke bottoms do just that. The filling consists of a humble combination of greens and pork, in this instance spinach and pancetta, that get dressed up with a rich-tasting (I avoid the calorie bomb here by using skim milk) Creole Bechamel thickened with Parmesan cheese. The artichoke bottoms? Yet another fun vehicle to transport all that creamy filling to your [ ... ]

Finger Food Friday: Miniature Oyster Patties

‘Tis the season to share another one of my favorite holiday recipes with you, Miniature Oyster Patties.  These savory little bite-size pastries have been making the rounds at New Orleans Christmas parties and weddings for as long as I can remember.  And once you taste them, you’ll understand why they’re so popular.  Now when you read through the ingredient list, you’ll probably notice similarities to my family’s Oyster Dressing recipe.  The two are actually so close that I had to call my mom prior to making the Oyster Dressing for Thanksgiving to help me figure out which one was which.  [ ... ]

Spinach Madeleine

One of the best way to experience regional home cooking is to prepare recipes from community cookbooks.  These cookbooks represent an organization’s best efforts to support various social causes while preserving local flavors, cultures, traditions, cooking styles and trends.  What’s more, they’re all bound together by strong values and plenty of wisdom.  One of my favorites is the original River Road Recipes by the Junior League of Baton Rouge.  The series (there are now four books and an interactive edition of the first) is a true reflection of generational Creole, Cajun and Deep South cooking from home kitchens all over [ ... ]

Corn and Zucchini Saute

This jalapeno-spiked vegetable medley is one of my summer essentials.  But I can’t wait another four months to enjoy it, especially when Kroger’s zucchini and peppers are looking so good.  So I’m sharing it with you now.  I just hope you don’t forget about it when the warmer months roll around. For this quick saute I borrowed some delicious ideas from the good old, all-American chopped salad and our local butcher shop that sells a similar side dish in its prepared foods section.  The key here is uniformity.  Cut all the vegetables the same size.  I use the corn kernel as [ ... ]
Category: Side Dishes, Vegetables  Tags:  Comments off

Spinach, Crabmeat and Brie Soup

Just the other day, I was flipping through an old cookbook when out fell a recipe from the food section of the Times-Picayune, New Orleans’ daily newspaper.  The clipping, which obviously had a few years on it, was a recipe for Crabmeat & Brie Soup from The Dakota, a suburban New Orleans restaurant.  I had a vague recollection of that recipe and a similar one involving brie from Flagons A Wine & Bar Bistro.  (Flagons was another great New Orleans restaurant that closed many years ago.)  I remember wanting to borrow a couple of ideas from these two recipes to [ ... ]