25
Jan 2012

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 [ ... ]
23
Dec 2011

‘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. [ ... ]
Category: Appetizers, Christmas, Finger Food Fridays, New Orleans Classics, Roux, Seafood
Tags: Appetizers, Finger Food Fridays, New Orleans Cooking, New Orleans Recipes, Roux, Seafood, White Roux
21
Dec 2011

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 [ ... ]
30
Jun 2011

If you want to add some sizzle to your summertime side dishes, serve this
Bourbon Creamed Corn at your next cookout. Sure beats the canned “cream style sweet corn” we’re all too familiar with. It’s also a pleasant change from the grilled or boiled corn on the cob that frequents most backyard bashes.
This recipe is my best attempt at recreating a restaurant side I ate many years ago. I had to make it a couple of times before I got the cream-to-bourbon ratio just right. But I think I’ve finally nailed it. I also faced the challenge of balancing out [ ... ]
17
Mar 2011

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all my Irish kith and kin and to all of you out there pretending to be Irish for a day (you’re in good company)! I don’t need to pretend, although you’d never guess I was Irish by my first name. Genêt is obviously French. But I’m at least fifty-percent Irish by blood and fifty-percent Irish by marriage. More importantly, green is my favorite color, I can down several pints of Guinness with the best of them and I have pointy ears (okay, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration–depends on who you ask). Regardless of [ ... ]
12
Feb 2011

My mom cooked
Seven Steaks in Brown Gravy quite often when we were growing up. But no one in my family, including her, prepares them anymore. The dish would have been all but forgotten had I not undertaken a family cookbook project several months back (more on that in future posts). Through the process of collecting recipes for the book, I’ve reacquainted myself with this and a bunch of other almost forgotten family favorites. I called mom to share my excitement and we got to talking about how much we enjoyed seven steaks and how sad it was that this [ ... ]
15
Jan 2011

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 [ ... ]
Category: Crab, Main Dishes, New Orleans Classics, Roux, Seafood, Soups
Tags: Crabmeat, Home Cooking, New Orleans Cooking, New Orleans Recipes, Recipe, Roux
01
Jan 2011
Smothered cabbage is a common New Orleans side dish. We were all force-fed some version of it when we were little. And while most of my friends gagged at the mere thought of it, I was one of those weird kids who loved it. Cabbage, especially when pan-fried by my mom or cooked down with pickle meat by my great-grandmother, ranked high on my list of favorite veggies. So in honor of my childhood and with ritualistic promises of health and wealth, I’m ushering in 2011 with an unusual twist on Grandma Kirn’s homey, belly-warming meal. It’s not fancy [ ... ]
06
Dec 2010

I’ve never liked
Shrimp Creole. Maybe it’s because my mom never cooked it or because the few restaurant versions that I’ve tried were disappointing. But oddly enough, it has always been a dish that I wanted to like.
I hadn’t thought much about my dysfunctional relationship with Shrimp Creole until recently while reading through a bunch of recipes and stories on roux-based dishes. Every time a Shrimp Creole reference crossed my desk, my mouth watered. They all sounded so rich, comforting and tasty, but my food memories recalled otherwise. I had never eaten a bowl of Shrimp Creole that was rich, [ ... ]
Category: Main Dishes, New Orleans Classics, Roux, Seafood, Shrimp, Stock
Tags: Creole Cooking, French Bread, New Orleans Recipes, Rice, Roux, Seafood, Shrimp Creole, Shrimp Recipes
01
Dec 2010

It’s unseasonably and unwelcomely cold outside today, but that suits my mood just fine because I have no intentions of leaving the house. All I want to do today is cook, in my own kitchen, all by myself. I tend to get cranky like this when I’ve been away from home for too long. Don’t get me wrong, I love the holidays and I’m very grateful that we were able to spend Thanksgiving week in New Orleans with our family. But after eight days on the road and three days of laundry and other wifely chores, I simply need [ ... ]