What's Cooking?

[jdmidwest]

Although I like to try to do things 'authentically', I don't get too hung up on it. It's gotta taste good, take a reasonable amount of time and not break the bank.

Rice with a spicy, savory sauce/gravy and some meat, fish or fowl is a great combination. I've got a pretty easy étouffée recipe that's much less of a production. Probably more like your gumbolaya. Disclaimer: autocorrect added them fancy accents to étouffée. Look, it did it again!

Post up that Etoufee recipe. The one I have used in the past costs a fortune and takes forever. That oven based roux would be a good recipe too.

[rps]

Tonight my beautiful wife and I put together an old favorite. Wieners, sauerkraut, and potatoes casserole. We love it, but this is not a picture dish.

[ness]

Post up that Etoufee recipe. The one I have used in the past costs a fortune and takes forever. That oven based roux would be a good recipe too.

Here's the étouffée recipe. It looks way harder than it is. Most of the ingredients are the spices. It's my twist on this one: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chef-johns-shrimp-etouffee/

Shrimp Étouffée

Ingredients

Spice Blend:

3/4 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon ground thyme

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon white pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

The Rest:

1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined with shells retained

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 Cups water

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

3 tablespoons butter

1 medium onion, diced

2 stalks celery, diced

1 poblano pepper, quartered and ribs removed

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 cups water

2 teaspoons chicken base

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 dash hot sauce, or more to taste

salt to taste

2 cups cooked rice

Directions

1. Whisk ingredients for spice blend together in a small bowl. Dry shrimp thoroughly and season with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon of the spice blend. Toss to coat shrimp with spice blend.

2. Place shells in 2 cups water and bring to a boil. Simmer for five minutes and strain shells, retaining the stock.

3. Add oil and butter to a large skillet over medium heat. Saute onion, celery, and pepper in hot butter until softened, about 5 minutes.

4. Sprinkle flour and remaining spice blend into mixture and saute until well combined and slightly browned, approximately 3 minutes.

5. Stir in tomato paste and cook until tomato paste begins to brown on bottom of pan, about 3 minutes.

6. Whisk stock into vegetable mixture, add chicken base and stir until smooth. Bring to a simmer and cook until slightly thickened and reduced to a gravy consistency, about 10 minutes.

7. Stir in Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce. Season with salt to taste.

8. Stir shrimp into sauce; let simmer until shrimp are cooked all the way through.

The roux is just half flour half vegetable oil baked in a 9x13 pan for 2 hours at 350. Stir it a few times while it cooks. I did one cup each which made enough for 2 plus batches of gumbo. It'll store ok in the fridge for a while.

[Flysmallie]

Tonight my beautiful wife and I put together an old favorite. Wieners, sauerkraut, and potatoes casserole. We love it, but this is not a picture dish.

My mom used to fix that when I was a kid. I loved it.

[rps]

My mom used to fix that when I was a kid. I loved it.

It is a classic, Kraft style, meal. I can almost see the television show commercials. Hot dogs, mayonnaise, processed cheese, Campbell cream of mushroom soup, caraway seed, and canned kraut. All we need is a good jingle.

[ness]

Pot stickers tonight. Frozen kind. Not too shabby.

[ness]

Recent weekend breakfasts. Ham and cheese omelette with sourdough french toast

Eggs Benedict -- I had a packet of Knorr's hollandaise mix on hand.

Ham and Swiss omelette with homemade black raspberry jam on English muffins.

[BilletHead]

Looking good there Ness. Homemade granola cereal most days for us. Breakfast rut I suppose. Did have fresh fish and chips with some white bass caught Thursday,

BilletHead

[ness]

Who doesn't love St. Patrick's Day? I always fix an Irish thing or two -- one of our favorites is Beef and Guinness Stew. And, away we go:

Chuck roast, potato, onion, parsnip, carrot, garlic, crushed rosemary, thyme, bay leaf beef base, tomato paste and Guinness.

You know the drill -- cut the beef into bite-sized pieces, add a little vegetable oil to a Dutch oven and brown in batches over medium-high heat. Set aside.

That right there is what the French call fond. It tastes good.

Add the onion and stir. I usually add a little water to help loosen the fond. Then in goes the tomato paste. (I buy a can, partially freeze it, remove both ends, push it out, cut into ½-inch slices and freeze. One slice is about right for this). Add the garlic right before the end of this step:

Add the spices, beef base, bay leaves, Guinness and water. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce to a simmer.

Find something to do for the next hour.

After an hour, cut the veggies into chunks and add to the stew. Cover and simmer another 30-45 minutes -- until the veggies are cooked to your liking. Hit it with some parsley and eat it.

A couple things I also do, but they aren't mandatory: Dissolve one packet of gelatin in a ¼ cup of water. Add it to the stew, and simmer another minute or two. Taste for seasoning -- sometimes I'll add a little brown sugar.

Now go watch The Quiet Man!choose files... Click to choose files

[fishinwrench]

Man! You're a cooking fool. I bet that's some good stuff.