patti

Will it be a sinful thing to use lamb chops in my lamb curry? My choices were limited, although later I found one small package of lamb shanks at another meat market. Could I combine them in the same lamb curry? This will be new ground for me.

Since joining eGullet, I've made several tweaks that have really made a difference to me. First, I needed to utilize my space more efficiently because I bought many new spices and herbs and other ingredients that take up lots of space. I got rid of a few unecessary items and made a new spice cabinet. Inside the cabinet, I put an expandable step shelf, which is hidden under all the spices: I also put in a small turntable: The pantry door was being underused, so we put in two on-the-door units (um, ignore the laundry on the floor of the laundry room behind the open pantry door, please): There was some dead space on the wall of the pantry, so a unit similar to the two on the door was put in place: And on two of the big shelves inside the pantry, we added small chrome shelf expanders (you can't see the one on the top shelf as it's full of stuff): Inspired by the talk of metro shelving in DavetheCook's kitchen remodel thread, I added similar type shelving in the laundry room for some of my pots. This unit is fairly new and not as well organized as it could be. Looking at this picture allowed me to see that this needs more tweaking: EDIT: Ack! I should've hidden all the things on the shelves I don't want eGulleters to see!

I'm so happy you're blogging! I was disappointed when the biography forum was deleted because I was enjoying reading your thread about cooking for your girls. This is a nice bonus.

Thank you so much for offering us a glimpse into a window of your life in a fascinating city. Great pictures, interesting info, and a thoroughly enjoyable peek.

Someone's mention of rice krispies coated fried chicken in another thread reminded me of one of Mom's cooking disasters. She ordinarily made great crispy fried chicken, but decided to try a recipe calling for pancake batter as the coating. Ew. Pas bon! We couldn't even fake it to save her feelings.

I tried Tom Kha Gai again. We had some leftover boiled crawfish, so I peeled a few tails and added them to the soup. Does that change the name? Anyway, I used the same recipe that I used the first time, with a few tweaks. I used about twice as much fish sauce and lime juice as the recipe called for, and still added a bit more to my individual serving after tasting. Excellent! There's no butter or oil added to the recipe, so I'm guessing that's crawfish fat on the surface of the soup? Oh, duh. I guess it could be from the chicken pieces, although they were skinless, so I didn't figure they'd give up much fat.

My mother's roux was thick like that. I wish she were alive so I could ask her about it.

My mom and grandmothers were all decent cooks, so no horror stories there (that I can currently recall), but I do have a bad memory of something made by a babysitter. She decided to make us what she said was supposed to be cake without frosting, but turned out to be a vile green horror. She used green food coloring on something that resembled cornbread but tasted like nothing I've ever tasted before or since. I'm pretty sure I threw up, and Mom never hired her as a babysitter again.

Your gumbo looks absolutely perfect! Impressive first pot.

Sure, the basis for Cajun cooking is to use what you have on hand, but it doesn't mean it all has to be turned into gumbo!

No! No! A thousand times no! <runs screaming into the night> (But yes to jarred roux.)

John Folse's frozen soups can be quite nice. I usually doctor them up by adding more shrimp (to the shrimp and asparagus soup) or crabmeat (to the crawfish and potato soup). They're good on their own, but sometimes I like to fiddle.

Happy Valentine's Day to me! My Encyclopedia of Cajun and Creole Cuisine arrived today. I've only given it a brief perusal, but it looks fabulous. Can't wait to dig into all of its juicy goodness.

Woohoo! Add 1 more for me. My autographed copy of John Folse's Encyclopedia of Cajun and Creole Cuisine arrived today. Boy, is it ever purty.

I've heard of guinea (hen, not pig) gumbo, blackbird (!), rabbit, dove, quail, duck, venison, and almost anything but cow and pig, except as smoked sausage. My husband and son are not adventurous, so my gumbos are pretty tame.

Smithy, it looks like mighty good gumbo to me, and I'd bet that something like this can be found at a few hunting camps around south Louisiana.

Seafood gumbo with shrimp, crab fingers, and oysters. No pictures of the mis en place or roux making as this gumbo came from the freezer, except for freshly added seafood. There were six measly oysters in the whole pot of gumbo because that's all that was available in the store! (Edited to change crab claws to crab fingers. I wasn't thinking.)

Did it taste as good as it looks? That picture is making me hungry!

I recall being repulsed by the shredded carrot with raisins salad served in the school cafeteria. I never even gave it a chance because it looked so bad. However, I adore broccoli salad with raisins and bacon (and red onion) as an adult, so I'm thinking maybe carrots and raisins probably aren't so bad. Still haven't tasted it yet, though. And Sister Delia can't make me!

Steven, will it be a no-no to have one pot that is larger than the others? My only piece of Le Creuset is 7.25 quarts, while the non-stick Calphalon saucier and the Magnalite dutch oven are 5 quarts, and the Corning Ware is 5 liter (I also have 3 liter, if that would be better). Also (and this one might belong in the stupid questions thread in the other forums) I made stock per the eGCI instructions, but I'm not sure about the proper amount to use. I started off in a 22 quart pot with 11 pounds of chicken and bones (later transferred to a 16 quart pot), and after the reduction, ended up with 4 quarts of stock. In what proportion should I use it?

It's beautiful, Fifi! C'est bon!

I have some vague memory of my mother and father having a heated discussion about smoked sausage vs. fresh sausage in gumbo. Mom didn't grow up with Cajun cooking and she was more willing to break the rules, so to speak, and used fresh sausage a time or two. My father considered it heresy. I just remember eating it and liking it. It's all good.

I'd say amooz boosh, but I could be wrong. And then there's the fact that I've never said it out loud.

Beautiful, beautiful job on the gumbo Dim Sim . Re getting real Cajun or Nawlins food outside Louisiana, I'm an expat Texan and now live about 20 miles outside DC, and you can buy just about anything you can pay for around here, probably second only to NYC area. There is a lot of stuff being sold that is called andouille, but it doesn't resemble very closely the sausage I get from Jacob's in LaPlace. Some of it isn't even smoked, and I doubt the folks making it ever tasted the real thing. Brooks put me on to Jacob's, and it is very, very good, and very coarsely ground. I have a shipment of andouille and tasso due in from them today, and I'm going to post a picture of the andouille uncased to answer a question that came up earlier in this thread. So I guess the short answer is "no", at least not around here. I'm guessing you probably can get the real thing in NYC, but don't really know. Again, great job on the gumbo (but I'll leave the happy dance to Fifi ). THW ← Eighteen (or so) years ago, my parents moved from Louisiana to Washington state at about the same time Paul Prudhomme was making Cajun food renowned and restaurants were trying to cash in on the Cajun craze. One restaurant claimed to have "authentic" Cajun boudin, and my father wanted to try some. The owner stopped by to talk to him, bragging about how good his boudin was, even better than Cajun, because Cajuns used a lot of rice as filler. Needless to say, my father "filled" him in on just how authentic his boudin was. The picture I first used as an avatar here was a picture of my father taking a bite from a steaming platter of boiled crawfish, with a look of sublime happiness on his face. A friend had told him of a place in Oregon where he could get live crawfish and he was having his first taste of them. The crawfish are a different variety than you get in Louisiana, but they certainly did the trick for a man who was missing his home and the food he grew up on. DimSim, your gumbo looks awesome!

Here's a helpful site: Audio Guide to French Culinary Terms I only wish it were more comprehensive.