Jump to content

shellfishfiend

participating member
  • Posts

    277
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by shellfishfiend

  1. Crawfish Crop Looking Good For 2007

    Louisiana's crawfish harvest is finally bouncing back after two bad years following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

    Story

    Looks like great news!! Now, I have a confession to make. I have never eaten a crawfish. One and only time I was in NO was a culinary train wreck, I spent most of the trip with my head wrapped around a Hurricane and can't remember much else after that.

    Brooks, TA, someone, educate me, please.

    As a first timer, how do I want to eat them? What are your top 3 ways? Do you think I can find them locally in GA or should I mail order? Could you recommend a mail order farm?

    Thanks!

    -Mike

    Mike,

    There are lots of great crawfish recipes. However, during the season (when you can get them live) the only way to have them is boiled. You also need to keep in mind that unlike shrimp, the yield from whole crawfish is tiny. We eat 5-7 lbs. per person and that is with corn and potatoes.

    The idea Brooks had about driving down is a good one. Crawfish will do fine on a road trip if the proper precautions are taken. When we lived in Little Rock, AR, we often had to travel several hours to get our crawfish for our annual boil.

    When you buy them, make sure you have someone explain how to purge the crawfish. This makes the differnce between great crawfish and crappy (literally) crawfish.

    We are planning a boil in a couple of weeks for my birthday/Mardi Gras. With limited tables available in my back yard, we don't always use the "newspaper on the table." Instead, we go to the liquor store and get the cardboard flats that six-packs of beer come on. Put a few sheets of newspaper in the bottom to catch the juices and you can sit in a lawn chair with your beer in hand and your "plate" in your lap. Abita Purple Haze is great with crawfish. Well, any Abita beer is great with crawfish.

    Be sure and let us know how it turns out if you try crawfish. And you should try them-they are fantastic!

  2. Thank you. Thank you.

    I knew I would get lots of great recipes and ideas. I can't wait to forward these to my sister.

    I will probably try out a few of these myself. I imagine they store well in the fridge and my sister is coming down for Mardi Gras.

    She loves this sauce so much she will probably eat it with her crawfish. :shock:

    Thank you all again.

  3. I hope this is the right place to post this. I did a search and did not come up with anythhing. (Probably used the wrong words.)

    I was talking to my sister on the phone today and she metioned how much she loves the bright red sweet and sour sauce she gets from her local Chinese resturants. She said she saves the extra and dips bread in it until it is gone.

    Now, these are restaruants in a small Arkansas town and I know this sauce is probably not at all authentic. But, I think eveyone knows what sauce I am talking about. She said she has tried buying versions at the grocery store and they are not right.

    She said there is a light sediment left at the bottom of the containers when she gets the sauce from resturants. I asked if it was chili flakes and she said no, it is finer—like a spice.

    So, if someone has a recipe for this sauce, I would really appreciate it. My sister does not like to cook so the fact she is interested in food/ccoking in any way has me really excited.

    Can someone help me with a recipe for this "not really Chinese" sweet and sour sauce?

    Can someone please fix my terrible typing in the topic line? Sorry-brain works faster than fingers.

  4. When I was really starting to cook, I used Julia's The Way To Cook a lot.  Now I will pick a recipe occasionally from the 2 Batali books I have and some others, including all the Frugal Gourmet books.  I have too many according to my wife...as if that's possible!  :biggrin:

    But I am always just grabbing different books off the shelf to browse even when I'm not cooking.  I think cookbooks have helped me cook without them if that makes any sense.

    I know exactly what you mean about them helping you cook without them.

    The more cookbooks I read, and I do read them all, the more familiar I become with what aspects of a recipe can be changed and what aspects are never changed. After seeing a recipe for say, pan fried fish with a lemon sauce, in five different cookbooks, I can then close all the cookbooks and have a good understanding of the basics of the recipe. If I understand the basics of the recipe, it helps me feel more confidnet in experimenting.

  5. Menon1971,

    So glad you tried it. It looks really good. I am saving the recipe as I think it would be a great party dish.

    If you try it again with the seafood, let us know about it.

    Thanks.

  6. I love the serving size for ice cream: 1/2 cup. :raz:

    I have never in my life sat down with a serving of ice cream and had only a 1/2 cup in the bowl. I try not to look at the calories per serving because I would rather not know.

    I do think it is important to understand about servign size/portion control. I just choose to ignore it when it comes to ice cream.

    And yes, I do think companies do that so their numbers look better.

  7. I have always eaten oysters with just a kiss of lemon and maybe a half dash of hot sauce (louisana brand). If my only option was cocktail sauce, I would just eat them straight. And yes, I chew my oysters.

    When we were at Acme a few months ago, they did not have Louisiana hot sauce, but did have Chipotle Tabasco. Wow. The hint of smokiness in the chipotle tabasco reminded me of charbroiled oysters. A bottle now resides in my frig.

  8. I recently grilled hamburgers using ground venison. I would imagine that the fat content of the venison was similar to your ground beef. I placed a pat of butter and a slice of cheese in the middle of the burgers. They turned out extra moist. however, I did only cook them to medium rare.

  9. Penzey's does not have a specific recommendation for peppercorns and nutmeg. However, they do state that whole spices should last two years without losing much (if properly stored), as opposed to ground spices, which only last one year.

    Their catalog says the govenment guidline is 4 years for whole and 2 years for ground. I think that is a bit too long.

  10. I was mentioning this topic to my husband this morning (we both love greens). He asked me if I had posted about our secret for good greens. I confessed that I had forgotten about it.

    The secret: add a little bit (about 2 tsp.) of soy sauce to the pot about 10 min. before greens come off the heat. It adds a real depth of flavor. Make sure you pay attention to your salt use, as the soy will provide alot.

  11. You daughter sounds like a very smart young lady. I bet her report turns out great.

    Do try the pimento cheese melted.

    Years ago at small coffee shop where I worked, one of our most popular lunch items was a croissant, cut in half and spread with our pimento cheese, sprinked with garlic powder and run under the broiler until the cheese was melted and just browning. it was a twist on an old southern classic.

  12. I use this Nigella Lawson recipe all of the time. My husband thinks it is one of the best chicken recipes ever. Plus, your house will smell delightful. The recipe is from her Forever Summer book. I have changed it up a little so I can post it.

    Slow-Roasted Garlic and Lemon Chicken

    4 lbs. of chicken on bone and with skin (whole breasts and leg quarters work well)

    1 head of garlic, cloves separated but unpeeled

    2 lemons cut into chunks (I usually use four since they are small around here)

    fresh or dried thyme to taste

    3 Tbsp. olive oil

    10 Tbsp. wine (we aren't big wine drinkers, so I usually use water or mirin)

    salt and black pepper

    Preheat oven to 300 F. Throw everything in a big raosting pan and mix it up. Make sure chicken is skin side up. Cover the pan with foil and roast for 2 hours.

    Remove foil and raise oven temp to 400 F. Cook for another 30-45 min. The lemons and the garlic get all golden and carmelized. It smells like summer.

  13. Not a cookbook exactly, but....

    I just got a free copy of Anthony Bourdain's The Nasty Bits in the mail.

    My sister gave me this book for Christmas and I have already read (and loved) it.

    So, I have this extra free copy.

    First person to pm me gets it.

    The book has been claimed.

  14. Not a cookbook exactly, but....

    I just got a free copy of Anthony Bourdain's The Nasty Bits in the mail.

    My sister gave me this book for Christmas and I have already read (and loved) it.

    So, I have this extra free copy.

    First person to pm me gets it.

  15. I am really a very lucky woman. My husband happily eats eveything I cook for him. We both love to cook and he would cook more often if his schedule permitted. He is pretty good about cleaning up the kitchen after he cooks and is great about helping me clean after I cook.

    That said, the one thing he does that drives me up the wall is put food into the refrigerator uncovered. This includes food from casseroles to pizza to roasted chicken. Sometimes, he won't even make an attempt to cover it (leftovers thrown on a plate and tossed in) and somtimes he will pull the saran wrap or foil off of somthing and then just half-ass lay it on top of the dish and put it back in the frig. I don't know why this bothers me so much. Maybe I am a little anal about it.

  16. I don't cook greens for myself.  The smell of the cooking greens actually is offensive to my nose - but that is my problem.  However, I have occasion to cook greens for some vegans.  Because they are served to people I don't actually have contact with I have no idea if they even find what I've done acceptable.

    The reason I'm posting in this thread is to find out if anyone ever uses balsamic vinegar for flavoring without adding butter or meat.  I would be willing to try this so that I could try and taste the greens before serving.  Using the current method of just sauteing them (which the head of the kitchen - a volunteer effort - asked for) I can't bring myself to taste them at all - but I am concerned.  I don't want to serve inedible food and without any feedback (because of the lack of contact with those who do eat it) I have no clue if it gets eaten or just tossed.

    Thanks for any light you can shed on this.

    Porthos Potwatcher

    The Unrelenting Carnivore

    A touch of vinegar does wonderful things for greens. In the South, we love pepper vinegar on our greens. With greens that are a bit bitter, a little sweetness will help balance that. Balsamic, with its sweet flavor, will really enhance your greens.

  17. Yes, I grew up eating salmon croquettes. My mom's recipe included cracker crumbs and minced onions. I think she dusted hers with a little flour before pan frying. She always used canned salmon (we ate alot of canned tuna, too).

    I am not sure why they were popular in the South. I think my mother served them because it was a dish that stretched the food budget dollar. Croquettes were usually served with mac and cheese (yes, the boxed version).

    Thanks for bringing this up. I haven't had croquettes in ages and just might have to go and buy a can of salmon.

  18. The thyme and tangerine sounds good, as does the tellichery black pepper and berry.

    I already eat melon with lots of fresh cracked black pepper. Looks like I will have to palce a Penzey's order for tellicherry pepper.

    Clove and green apple is something I would stay away from.

  19. When I graze it starts with salty(sourdough pretzels or dill pickles) and then moves on to salty/spicy (rice with soy and sriachi or soy and wasabi). I have also been known to eat almost an entire loaf of Boudin's sourdaough bread by myself (as a snack). Yes, i feel like crap afterwards, but it is so good, especially the heels.

  20. James Peterson's Fish and Shellfish. Full of information and variations. I often randomly pick sections to read for inspiration.

    Commander's Palace cookbook. Lots of neat, trivia like bits of information about the dishes and the restaurant.

    I just got Les Halles for Christmas and I am loving it. Sometimes I like a cookbook author to cuss at me. :raz:

  21. When I was a kid, i thought my mom was a genius for inventing a bagel turkey sandwich.

    You toast the bagel halves, smear on lots of cream chees, pile on sliced cajun spiced turkey breast, a big slice of tomato and lots of black pepper. Smoosh it together and run back under the broiler just long enough for the edges of the turkey to get crispy.

  22. Please stop kicking your ass.

    I understand exactly what you were asking with your origianl post and think it brings about a great discussion.

    We all have things that we love to eat that perhpas others would trash. I love broccoli stalks and I think the skin of a baked potatoe is the best part. iIget every bit of goodness I can from asparagus ana hate throwing away any part of a mushroom.

    One of my gramdmother's favorite phrases when I was growign up was "Waste not, want not."

    Thanks for starting this discussion.

×
×
  • Create New...