March 2008 Archives

NOTE: This post got trashed in the switch to MT4.1, so reposting... The Brother Martin - St. Augustine football game was this afternoon. We stopped at the grocery on the way home, and I saw some great portobello caps in the produce section. I thought, instead of using a soufflee' ramekin for the crabmeat au gratin, what if I spooned it into a 'shroom? And off we go... Da Stuff: 1lb lump crabmeat 1/2 pint heavy cream 1 cup white wine 3tbsp flour yellow onion green onion garlic creole seasoning white pepper salt olive oil or butter for sauteeing cheddar cheese Usually a recipe such as this would call for the "holy trinity" of onion, celery, green pepper, but I made some veal with the trinity earlier in the week, so I went with just onion and green onion tonight. Told ya, these portabello caps were nice! I sliced off the stems, chopped them, and tossed them into the mix. Sautee the onions, green onion, and mushroom in a bit of olive oil. You can use butter here, but my contriubtion to limiting my development of clogged arteries is to go with olive oil. Add a bit more butter or olive oil, then sprinkle the flour on top of the translucent onion. This is a quick-and-dirty roux, because we don't need the flour to brown since the finished product is essentially a white sauce. While making the white sauce, I tossed the 'shrooms under the broiler for a couple of minutes Add the wine and heavy cream to the onion/flour mixture, then fold in the crabmeat. Remove from the heat. Taste the finished crabmeat filling for heat content. Add salt, creole seasoning, and white pepper to taste. Be careful with commercial creole seasoning--both Zatarain's and Tony Cachere's are high in salt. If you're sensitive to salt, make your own, or work with the components directly. spoon the filling into the ramekins, or, in this case, the 'shroom cap. cover 'em with cheese! Now, this is why the people who work with my wife don't like me. I spooned some of the filling into a microwavable dish and then topped it with the cheese, which is what I did with the mushroom and the ramekin. Now she's got lunch for a day next week. Bake in a 350F oven for 10 minutes to melt the cheese and re-heat the filling. Wife didn't want the other 'shroom, so I chopped it up and sauteed it in some white wine. Add an ear of white corn and a Binder's pistolette, and eat! The wine was a bit unusual for this dinner, a Moselle Riesling. It worked.

Since my son placed first in World Geography at the Greater New Orleans District Rally, I agreed to get up and go buy Krispy Kreme donuts this morning.  I was mulling over whether or not to buy a cup of the mediocre KK coffee, when I looked up and saw a familiar logo:  Community Coffee.  So, I'm now sipping my "New Orleans Blend" coffee-with-chicory. 

I love it when a chain place figures out it's best to play by the local rules.

CC's Community Coffee House on Esplanade Avenue in FSJ

I know, picking on Greta from Kiss My Gumbo is like shooting fish in a barrel. Still, shooting fish in a barrel can be fun on occasion. Greta's currently in Boston, and musing about coffee, discussing the comparative virtues of CC's and Dunkin Donuts:

OK CC's, listen up!!! Time to get real! You need to copy the DD drive-thru model, hence sticking one about every 10 feet in Louisiana. Maybe join with a local pastry shop or better yet, a healthful snack company (can't think of one off the top of my head) and plow forward with the dream of making the world CC's addicts. I am not a Starbuck's fan (Bucky's) as the bitter after-taste is yuck. I think you can do it CC's - come on, worth a team try!!! If nothing else, do it in LA and beat DD to the punch!

OK, a quick check of Teh Google shows there are four CC's Coffee House locations in Mandeville/Covington, and one in Slidell, so even a north shore person like Greta has access to the chain. That's what makes me wonder how she's missed the fact that there's a case full of John Folse pastries in every CC's. They even sell king cake by the slice during Carnival season. When the kiddo got home from his trip to see The Mouse on Monday morning, I took him to PJ's to get a cinnamon roll (and so I could caffeinate), and he announced that he prefers CC's cinnamon rolls. They also do a brisk bagel business, which is the stock-in-trade of most DD shops in Greater Boston. Up there, they really should change the name of the chain to "Dunkin Bagels." There was one time when the DD right across the street from Park Street Station by Boston Common was actually out of glazed donuts at 9am, but still had trays full of bagels.

But I digress from the business at hand. Back to this quote. I guess Greta doesn't get to Metairie much, so she's never seen the drive-thru line at the CC's on Vets before. Other than that location, though, I'm OK with CC's not having drive-up windows. After all, where the heck would you put one at the Esplanade location? Or on Rue Royale, for that matter?

Then there's the coffee itself. One of the reasons that New Orleanians often don't like to travel is because of the coffee. CC's "New Orleans Blend" is red-bag Community Coffee with chicory. I should be able to stop there, since Greta considers herself a "southern transplant" while she's up in Boston, but it looks like she doesn't understand the distinction. Coffee-with-chicory blends like CDM, French Market, and Community, while common in New Orleans, are all but non-existent in other parts of the country. Yankee coffee tastes funny to a Yat because we grew up on chicory. Even Anne Rice gets that in her writing.

Not that DD coffee is bad, mind you, for what it is. I've bought many an extra-large French Vanilla at the DD right off exit #13 on the pike in Natick, MA.

I'm reading an extremely humorous blog this morning, Stuff White People Like, and the writer suggests using this line at a bar on St. Patrick's day to look cool. While the context here is snark squared, there's something to the spirit of the statement.

One of New Orleans food critic Tom Fitzmorris' cardinal rules is that diners should "eat it where it lives." Eat Maine lobstah in Maine, for example, gulf shrimp on the gulf coast, you get the idea. Sure, we can flash-freeze and overnight ship just about anything these days, but it's just not the same as eating whatever it is locally. The influx of Asian seafood on the market, even here in New Orleans, is a good example of this. We've discussed the bland lack-of-flavor to flash-frozen Asian shrimp or crawfish previously. Once shellfish are cooked, you can put flavor on them, but you can't put it in them. Crab boil is concentrated to the point of borderline toxic so that all those spices and flavors seep through the shells while shrimp are boiling. No way mass-market producers are going to use the stuff.

Location and atmosphere often go a long way in terms of making mediocre food seem like the best meals we've ever had in our lives. Let's face it, classic English fish and chips is a boring meal. Eat it in a pub near Hyde Park and it becomes a memory. That's one of the reasons I never argue with visitors to New Orleans when they told me they had such a fantastic meal at a place where I'd never spend my own money. There's just no value in trying to shoot down the memory.

If you think meals can create memories, booze is makes the memory even fonder. A common theme among travelers who go to France or Italy is that they will remember a fantastic red table wine in a bistro in Paris, Florence, or Naples. It was part of a fantastic al fresco meal, one of the most wonderful evenings of their lives. They come back to New Orleans and go to Martin Wine Cellar in search of the wine that made them feel so good. They find it, get it home, grill up some steaks, open the bottle, and take a sip. Unfortunately, a bottle of mid-tier house wine doesn't engage a Star Trek-style holodeck, and they're not transported to their bistro. The wine is what it is, a mid-tier table wine. It gave them a great buzz at the time, though, and that's what the memory is all about. Now, have a martini or three before those steaks, and odds are that the wine will taste just as good to the dulled senses.

So, yeah, Guinness does taste better in Ireland. Or so they say, I've never been. But I can attest that Bavaria tastes so much better sitting outside at a pub in Utrecht. Jug-quality Riesling is fantastic with lunch at small restaurants in Koblenz.

Feel free to share your own "tastes better" memories in comments!

2 pices, all white, spicy, with cole slaw and a small onion rings from Popeyes Famous Fried Chicken.

I did this week's Feature Photo on CitiesOfTheDead (dot net) on the Copeland Family tomb, since that's where he'll be buried next Monday.  While that was more about Metairie Cemetery than Copeland and his food, it's appropriate we talk about fried chicken to honor his memory.

Any memory of how New Orleanians ate fried chicken before the mid-1970s has been relegated to a single line in Benny Grunch's song, "Ain't Dere No More," when he says, "Don't cook tonight, call Chicken Delight."  Chicken Delight was a local chain that delivered fried chicken by the bucket.  Other than  Chicken Delight, a local's choices for fried chicken were twofold:  cook it yourself, or go out to a full-service restaurant. 

Cooking dinner was something a New Orleans housewife wasn't afraid of, mind you, but proper fried chicken meant deep-frying, and that's more of a pain than many other things in the Creole cook's repertoire. That meant you were more likely to get  baked or  stewed chicken at home, and fried chicken only when you went out. 

Many restaurants did (and some still do) great fried chicken, such as Buster Holmes', Dooky Chase, Maylie's, and a number of other neighborhood places.  The one place where fried chicken was a specialty, though, was Jim's, on S. Carrollton Ave.  If the family was going to Jim's, they were going for fried chicken.

All that changed in the mid-1970s.  The Golden Arches and Burger King had already infiltrated the eating habits of New Orleanians, and the Colonel was not too far behind.  While the rest of the country fell for Kentucky Fried Chicken's recipe, it didn't strike a resounding chord with locals.  When Copeland opened his first chicken place in Arabi in 1971, there was only one KFC, and that was out in the 'burbs. 

Copeland struggled at first to find a market for his product, but when he switched from cooking mild chicken to his now-famous spicy recipe, sales took off.  I don't know the exact pattern of growth of the restaurants when he expanded out past Arabi in 1977, but I do remember that the store on Elysian Fields and N. Robertson was one of the first.  We'd make the trek down there from UNO regularly, until they finally opened a Popeyes closer to the university.  Popeye's buried the Colonel, to the point where there are only nine KFCs in Orleans and Jefferson parishes, three on the west bank, three on the east bank side of the city, two in Kenner, and only one in Metairie.  Of those locations, several are these combo stores that double as Taco Bells and KFCs.  Popeyes, on the other hand, is everywhere.

Popeyes re-defined the fast food experience in New Orleans.  While people in other cities were eating Whoppers and Big Macs, Yats were digging into 2-piece and 3-piece spicy chicken dinners, featuring side items such as fries, cole slaw, onion rings, and dirty rice. The chicken was spicy, to the point where sometimes you'd peel back the breading and skin and the meat on a breast piece would be red.  Not the red you see when chicken is undercooked, but the red of cayenne pepper.  Yeahyourite.

Copeland wasn't just about the chicken recipe, though.  He surrounded himself with good people who grew the business.  His marketing was excellent.  The best marketing decision Popeyes ever made was to hire Mac Rebennack to sing a jingle for commercials.  New Orleanians love Dr. John as much as they "love dat chicken from Popeyes."

After a few years, Copeland took a bold step by offering red beans and rice as a side order as well.  This dish was a resounding success, and remains one of the most popular menu items. 

New Orleans' religious traditions also became part of Popeyes, when the stores were re-tooled to fry up seafood as well as chicken.  The menu expanded to include fried shrimp, catfish, and crawfish.  The chain made a brief foray into the breakfast market, selling its tasty biscuits as the backbone of the "Cajun Eye-Popper," a sausage/egg/cheese biscuit sandwich so full of cholesterol that, would be a death sentence to the frequent eater.  To my knowledge, the only place that still sells it is Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta. 

All that chicken, shrimp, and catfish made Copeland his fortune.  While I didn't know Copeland personally, we've lived near his Metairie home long enough to hear and see all the controversies.  From the massive light display at Christmastime, and the subsequent lawsuit from an unhappy neighbor to his request of the ACOE for permission to build a helipad on the levee behind his home on Transcontinental Blvd. and the lake, Copeland was always in the news. 

His 1987 attempt to corner the chicken business by acquiring Church's Fried Chicken via the use of "junk" bonds was a disaster of a magnitude that only Copeland could engineer.  He lost control of Popeyes to the consortium of banks that held the junk paper he used for financing.  No fool, Copeland, though, his contract with Popeyes stipulated that he personally owned the chicken recipe, and another Copeland holding, Diversified Foods, made the seasoning and breading mixes for all Popeyes stores.  So, personally, he emerged from the corporate bankruptcy in a fairly solid position.

That's when Copeland put his focus on his signature restaurant chain bearing his last name.  He was able to do something nobody had accomplished up to that point, franchise New Orleans food.  Copeland's restaurants began to open in other cities, under his watchful eye.  New Orleanians will deride the quality and decor of the local Copeland's restaurants, but they're an oasis of civilization in the chain-infested exurbs of Alpharetta, GA or Plano, TX.

So, Bright Blessings attend you, Mr. Copeland.  May Summerland be filled with fast boats, helicopters, and big motorcycles.

In Roma, and most other big catlick cities all over the world, popes, cardinals, bishops, priests, brothers, nuns, and lay people are walking the Stations of the Cross. Even here in New Orleans, the tradition of walking the "Nine Churches" is still pretty strong. But only in New Orleans would a brewery sponsor a Good Friday Celebration:

Good Friday Celebration this Friday at Ernst Cafe! March 21, 2008 Receive a free tray of crawfish with every Abita Beer purchase this Friday from 4pm-8pm at Ernst Cafe! Ernst Cafe 600 S Peters St New Orleans, LA 70130

The most somber day of the Christian year, and we're drinking Abita. I so love my town. :-)

NPR' s "All Things Considered" did a piece yesterday on the struggling recovery of Louisiana's shrimp industry post-storm.  It's interesting that this ran the day after I made quickie Shrimp Caesar Salad:



The story explains that Louisiana shrimpers are still struggling because not only do they have to contend with the issues of storm recovery, but also depressed prices because of foreign shrimp imports.  Imported shrimp are everywhere, even in my favorite suburban New Orleans grocery store.



They may be imported from Thailand, but that pound of shrimp was convenient.  They weren't cheap, though, at $10/pound.  The Caesar salad package is also a quickie item.  I don't like the dressings that are usually included with these ready-to-serve salad packages, so I picked up some local Caesar dressing.




Sal and Judy's is a very popular restaurant on the Northshore, and they've branched out into their own line of products.  Given the numerous Caesar dressings on the grocery shelf, I punted and went local.



The shrimp were pre-cooked, and that's one of the big issues the local shrimpers have with the imports.  The shrimp are farm-raised, then peeled, steamed, and packaged.  Unlike New Orleans boiled shrimp, these look good, but they're bland and boring.




This is what makes the difference between bland-and-boring and the shrimp we know and love down here, Crab Boil.  It says right on the bottle that Zatarain's Crab Boil is "concentrated,"  but that's an understatement.  When boiling shrimp, the bottle says to use one tablespoon for five pounds of raw shrimp.  That's one tablespoon for five pounds of head-on, unpeeled shrimp.  In other words, if you spill this stuff, call for a hazmat cleanup.

The Thai shrimp were frozen, so I defrosted them for a few minutes in the microwave.  I added two drops of Crab Boil to the water in the container, mixed it all up a bit, and microwaved them on high for a couple of minutes.  Boiling the water in the dish generated a good bit of crab-boil steam, which helped improve the flavor.



With the shrimp as done as they'd ever be, it was time to make the salad.  The easiest way to make sure you don't put too much dressing on the salad is to pour it in first.  Coat the bottom of a mixing bowl with the dressing, then add the lettuce to it.



Add some croutons and toss it all together. 



In spite of the crab boil, the shrimp were missing some of the magic, so I sprinkled some creole seasoning over them and the salad.  It did give them a bit of a kick as well as adding some more color to the plate. 

Total time to fix and serve this is about fifteen minutes. 

The bottom line on the shrimp is simple:  the imports are boring.  In the future, I'll buy raw shrimp and boil or saute them myself.  The ease with which these pre-cooked shrimp can be served up makes them tempting, but they're just not the same!

This cookbook is an oldie-but-goodie, but it's nonetheless a great book of basic techniques along with some challenging recipes.

The late Jeff Smith, the "Frugal Gourmet"  had an interesting career, filled with both success and scandal.  This was his second or third book, and was published at a time when he was at the top of his game on his public-television show. 

I was initially drawn to this book because of the title.  New Orleans cooking is about sauces, and many sauces include wine.  Using wine in cooking is a great way to reduce the amount of oil and salt in various dishes.  Smith explains various techniques and presents a wide range of recipes, including a New Orleans chapter.