December 2006 Archives
After all the weeks I've been away from home, one of the first things I did was make something uniquely New Orleans for dinner last Friday night. A lot of local places do a variant on crawfish pasta with a cream sauce, and I'm constantly experimenting with my own version. I told daysinger
The Basic Ingredients
In the photo, you see a pound of frozen crawfish tails, 1 cup heavy cream, Manda tasso, some pre-cut "Holy Trinity," and bow-tie pasta.
Getting Started
The "Holy Trinity" of Creole cooking is, of course, onions, green pepper, and celery. I cheated for this dinner and bought pre-chopped veggies. Now they're sauteeing in about 3tbsp of olive oil. Some folks use butter here, but I'm trying to be responsible. Of course, that's like drinking a diet coke with a big mac, given the cream sauce.
Tasso!
Tasso is smoked, spicy pork loin. It's VERY spicy, to the point that you really don't need a lot of additional pepper in a dish that includes tasso. Usually I'd sprinkle some creole seasoning on the sauteeing veggies, but here I just added a cup or so of diced tasso.
Making the sauce
When the onions get transparent, sprinkle 3tbsp of white flour over the top. This is the quick-and-dirty way to thicken a sauce. Since we're not looking for a dark roux here, we can get away with doing things more-or-less in reverse. When the veggie-tasso-oil-flour mix gets all thick and starts to ball up, add 1/2 cup of chicken (or fish) stock (I used chicken), and 1/2 cup of wine, stirring constantly. Continue to add stock and/or wine to thin the sauce out a bit more if necessary. To this, add the 1 cup of heavy cream, again stirring constantly. Simmer on low heat.
Shrooms...
Just to be a bit different this time, I added about a cup of sliced "baby bella" mushrooms.
Crawfish...
The crawfish are already cooked, so they go in last. Continue to simmer and cook the pasta.
Dinner!
When the pasta is al dente, drain and toss with the sauce. Serve with lots of french bread, and some dry white wine.
There are two things I usually don't make at home, gumbo and doberge cakes. My reasons are simple--I can easily go down the street to Zuppardo's grocery and buy wonderful versions of either one. (Well, there are more reasons for gumbo. Our restaurants do a wonderful chicken-andouille gumbo, and I just don't have the patience needed to do a decent roux. It's a real struggle for me. But this post isn't supposed to be about gumbo...) For those of you who are either more adventurous than me, or don't have a fantastic supermarket a mile away, here's a recipe.
The classic New Orleans doberge cake consists of alternating layers of cake and the pudding-like filling that makes the cake so delicious. Essentially, you bake a single layer cake and slice it into four or six very thin layers. The cake is assembled by laying down the base, then a thin layer of filling, then another cake layer, then filling, etc.
Chuck Taggart has a great recipe at the Gumbo Pages that unfortunately involves baking the cake and slicing it up into the component doberge layers. There's no way I'd be able to evenly slice a classic single-layer cake so I'm offering here a recipe for baking individual thin layers, the chocolate filling from Chuck's site, then a lemon filling as well.
STAGE 1 - the cake layers
Rather than cook an entire single-layer, 9" cake and slicing it up, let's bake the thin layers separately.
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter
1 cup milk
4 eggs, separated
Pinch of salt
3 level teaspoons baking powder
Cream sugar and butter; add beaten egg yolks. Then alternately add flour, to which 2 teaspoons baking powder has been added and the milk. Fold in beaten egg whites, to which 1 teaspoon baking powder has been added. Add extract. Bake in 9 inch pans allowing 6 tablespoons of the cake batter for each layer. Bake at 350 degrees F. for approximately 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from pans and let cool slightly before adding filling.
STAGE 2 - the filling.
Doberge cakes are usually chocolate, lemon, caramel, or strawberry. One of the more popular cakes made by Gambino's Bakery or Zuppardo's Supermarket is the half-chocolate, half-lemon version. If you feel that adventurous, when spreading the filling between the layers, do half of each!
Chocolate
2-1/2 cups evaporated milk
2 (1-ounce) squares semi-sweet chocolate
1-1/4 cups sugar
5 Tablespoons flour
4 egg yolks
2 tablespoons butter
1-1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
Put milk and chocolate in a saucepan and heat until chocolate is melted. In a bowl, combine sugar and flour. Make a paste by adding hot milk chocolate by Tablespoons to the sugar and flour, then return to saucepan. Stir over medium heat until thick. Add 4 egg yolks all at once and stir rapidly to completely blend. Cook 2 or 3 minutes more. Remove from heat, and add butter, vanilla, and almond extract. Cool and spread on cake, layering as you go. Do not spread on top layer.
Lemon
4 lemons
4 tablespoons butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
Pinch of salt
Measure sugar and add grated rind and juice of lemons (fresh) and stir. Add beaten eggs, butter and salt. Cook until thick. Cool filling and spread between the cake layers.
STAGE 3 - the icing
Some homemade doberge cake recipes will say you don't need to bother with frosting, and to just spread the filling on the sides and top of the cake. That's no fun! One of the best parts of the doberge cake experience is the sugar orgy. Make a hard-shell icing and do it right!
chocolate icing
1-1/4 pounds sugar (about 3 cups)
1 cup evaporated milk
2 ounces bittersweet or unsweetened chocolate
4 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
Combine sugar and milk in a heavy saucepan, and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and simmer for 6 minutes without stirring. Remove from heat and blend in chocolate. Add butter and vanilla and return to medium-low heat, cooking 1 or 2 minutes. Place in refrigerator to cool. Beat well, then spread on top and the sides of the cake.
lemon icing
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons heavy cream
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
in the large bowl of the electric mixer, using the paddle attachment or beaters, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy, about 30 seconds. Gradually beat in the confectioners' sugar on low speed. Add the cream, lemon juice, vanilla, and lemon zest. Increase the speed to medium-high, and beat for about 3 minutes, or until the frosting is light and fluffy.
10. To assemble the cake, place 1 cake layer on a serving plate. Pile the lemon filling onto the center using a small offset metal spatula, and spread it into an even layer, leaving a 1-inch border around the edge of the cake layer. Top with the second cake layer. Frost the top and sides of the cake with the lemon frosting. (If some of the filling oozes out from the middle, just blend it with the frosting around the sides of the cake.) Serve the cake immediately, or refrigerate and bring to room temperature before serving.
