eG FoodBlog: Mayhaw Man - I eat more than Okra

[bloviatrix]

Can you please explain for this Yank why they're called bugs?

[zennenn]

I'm loving this blog! The crawfish boil reminds me of the crab boils I grew up with. Can't wait to see what you eat/cook next!

[Mayhaw Man]

Can you please explain for this Yank why they're called bugs?

Mudbugs! Mudbugs, crawfish, crayfish-call em what you want, but they are still fine eating by any name.

I am making a peach pound cake tonight using peaches that were canned last summer (two months too early for Ruston Peaches). It is not quite the same, but if a little bit of the preserved ones are pureed and added to the batter it makes for a very moist and flavorful cake that smells awesome while it is baking.

[Pan]

Thanks for the pictures. I wish I coulda been there, too!!!

One question about the artichokes: Are they thrown in whole?

[snowangel]

One question about the artichokes: Are they thrown in whole?

Second question about the artichokes. If they are so popular, why only throw in a couple of them?

[fifi]

Ah... The great artichoke wars. You put just enough in to supply the very fringe of the serious eaters. Then, when they come out you quarter them to extend the supply. Then, you sit back and watch the war. That is part of the tradition. At least it was where I had crawfish boils. Same for shrimp.

Actually, to keep down general mayhem and bodily injury, we would often dump in a whole basket full of just artichokes after the first boil just to keep the peace.

[bleudauvergne]

Looks like it was an excellent party.

This is a great blog, thanks!

[Mayhaw Man]

One question about the artichokes: Are they thrown in whole?

Second question about the artichokes. If they are so popular, why only throw in a couple of them?

They are really bulky and they take up alot of room is the reason for not so many per pot.

They are trimmed, but basically thrown in whole.

[Mayhaw Man]

Breakfast this morning consisted of lots of coffee (Community Dark Roast made in a French Press) and a scone from an excellent local bakery, Zoe's.

Lunch will be a rib meat sandwich, sliced tomato with pepper and salt, and some delicious Elmers Chee Wees (a superior cheesy poof made in New Orleans). A Heavenly Hash egg will be my afternoon treat (a gift from a co worker).

[Pan]

One question about the artichokes: Are they thrown in whole?

Second question about the artichokes. If they are so popular, why only throw in a couple of them?

They are really bulky and they take up alot of room is the reason for not so many per pot.

They are trimmed, but basically thrown in whole.

Do you trim off the thorns?

[Mayhaw Man]

Do you trim off the thorns?

No-I give those to people I don't like

Yes. The thorns are trimmed and the top is cut off of the artichoke.

[phaelon56]

I really enjoyed Community Coffee when I visted NO. Can't say the Cafe du Monde stuff did much for me but I'm not a big chicory fan. Wish we could get fresh crawfish up here - they'd be a good fit for salt potatoes. Cool blog - keep it comin'!

[Pan]

Do you trim off the thorns?

No-I give those to people I don't like

As my grandmother said "You ask a silly question, you get a silly answer."

[alacarte]

Great blog, Mayhaw. I love the conceit of starting and ending with a crawfish boil!

A Heavenly Hash egg

what's this, please?

[FistFullaRoux]

Great blog, Mayhaw. I love the conceit of starting and ending with a crawfish boil!

A Heavenly Hash egg

what's this, please?

From the Elmer's Candies website

Heavenly Hash

New Orleans is renowned throughout the world as a city of good things to eat. Second only to the world-famous pecan praline is Heavenly Hash, a "heavenly" combination of double-rich milk chocolate, tender marshmallow and fresh roasted almonds.

Heavenly Hash became a southern favorite 100 years ago, and for a decade it could be bought at a tiny New Orleans confectionery shop which specialized in homemade candies. In 1823 Elmer's acquired the well-guarded secret recipe, along with the copyrighted name.

Great blog, Mayhaw. I love the conceit of starting and ending with a crawfish boil!

A Freudian slip, perhaps?

Edited April 5, 2004 by FistFullaRoux (log)

[Mayhaw Man]

I really enjoyed Community Coffee when I visted NO.  Can't say the Cafe du Monde stuff did much for me but I'm not a big chicory fan.  Wish we could get fresh crawfish up here - they'd be a good fit for salt potatoes. Cool blog - keep it comin'!

Community has a chain of shops in South Louisiana that are really my preferred shop. CC's (as the shop is known) pull a decent shot of espresso and the beans are reasonably fresh. The CC's on Royal St. in the French Quarter is right down from my wife's apt. and is one of my favorite early morning spots when we are in the city. It is quiet and far enough in the back of the Quarter that the tourists don't find it. The pastries are also quite good and come from a couple of different sources.

And I'm with you on the chicory thing. As my father once said on this subject, " If I wanted to put boiled acorns in my coffee I would do it myself".

CC's

[Mayhaw Man]

Great blog, Mayhaw. I love the conceit of starting and ending with a crawfish boil!

Like the man said:

It ain't bragging if you can do it.

[Mayhaw Man]

Dinner tonight was not exactly what I had planned, but it turned out pretty swell anyway.

I got home from work and we had some extra kids (apparently I have one of them for a couple of days so tommorrow night will be big pot of gumbo (chicken and andouille) night for the week) and everybody was going to starve by the time I got ettouffee ready for a crowd, so plan B ruled. I had some pork loins that Robin had picked up at Sam's yesterday (bargain price, never miss, I love em) I salted and peppered them and browned them in evoo (seriously searing them, hot as hell pan turning just once per side, 4 turns total). Ran them into the oven in the same pan for about twenty minutes @375F. Pulled them out to rest and deglazed the pan with some PORK STOCK that I had thawed out for that purpose. Sliced into medallions and ladled on a little of the rich pan juice.

This was served with baked potatoes (which we almost never have, we eat rice four or five days a week), and purple hull peas that were put up last July at the height of the pea season (we did two bushels and will be out before we get more in early to mid summer-we eat alot of peas around here). The peas were cooked with a hunk of sliced tasso, garlic cloves, a tabasco pepper (out of the plant on my porch) and a little crushed black pepper. At serving they were topped with green tomato relish (running out of that too, can't wait for summer to get here). Sliced and salted and peppered tomato straight outta the garden (not mine, a neighbor who starts them in December in a hothouse and transplants them in the spring, but boy are they good). Ripe, juicy, kinda tart. Man oh man- it beats the grocery store any day of the week any time of year!

Salad was mixed baby greens (the bag kind, they were pretty good-we eat alot more salad in the winter thanks to that packaging miracle. I used to hate fooling with salads for an average meal) with mandarins and artichoke hearts. Dressing was a balsamic vinagarette my wife made (the vinegar is awesome, but of undetermined origin as my sister in law (Mrs. Gotbucks) hauled it back from Italy and repackaged it for me (she's good like that, I got pretty lucky in general with the inlaw situation). It was apparently hideously expensive but as far as I am concerned totally worth it, rich, kinda thick, slightly spicy, delicious. It was also free hence my insane use of it in salad dressings.

Oh yeah, peach pound cake for dessert. No pictures though. Trust me -it looks like pound cake with peaches in it. The recipe is in recipe gullet somewhere. It's really good and you can do it ok with frozen peaches, but in the middle of the summer with fresh ones it is sublime. I made a nice thick peach glaze to go on top and BAMMED it with some powdered sugar. COme to think of it, I will go take a picture and insert it. It looked pretty cool.

[Mayhaw Man]

As I was standing in a dining room chair to take the photos of tonight's meal, a couple of the boys walked through and just stopped and stared slackjawed at me for a couple of seconds. They then proceeded to start telling my oldest son Miles what a weirdo his Dad was.

"Does he always stand in chairs and take pictures of his meals?"

" He must really love pork and peas."

Also, I found myself wishing for Jason and his "ring of fire" camera tonight as I was doing this. Making a plate look interesting for a camera is harder than it looks, have we ever had a food photographer on egullet for a q and a? There are a couple of really good ones in New Orleans (Toby Armstrong comes to mind) that might be interested. I would think that might make for some interesting conversation.

[hillvalley]

You're playing pretty dirty MM. First the crawfish and now those tomotos!!!

You have only yourself to blame if random eg'ers show up at your front door demanding mudbugs and tomatos. Do you know how cold it is up here? It's snowing in some places. And you're eating tomatos!!! That look like that!!!!

I laughed out loud after reading your relay of tonight's shooting. I used to get those looks all the time from my students. That's when you know you are doing something right

[Mayhaw Man]

It snowed here twice in the last twenty years. Once the year after we got married (I wanna say just before Christmas in 84, but some New Orleanian may have to step in and correct me-and once in 95 or so really late in the spring, I remember this because it killed all of the azalea blooms. Snowed all night and was gone by lunch).

In North Louisiana up in the Delta where I grew up it actually snows for real every once in a while when that jet stream thing dips down low enough. There is something extremely forlorn and lonely about dead cotton stalks sticking up out of the snow. It just never looked right. The only hill around (and I mean the only hill-the Mississippi Delta is one of the flattest places on the face of the Earth) was the levee at the river. That's where we had to go if we wanted to slide. The highest point in the whole state is only 535 ft. and that is all the way on the other side of the state. There are not many champion mountain climbers from Louisiana, but we have some great swim teams.

[phaelon56]

This was the scene in my front yard this very morning. I couldn't find a gol darn crawfish anywhere - I guess they don't like the cold. Or maybe Mayhaw Man swiped 'em all for his boil?

[Mayhaw Man]

And in contrast to my caffeinated friend up North, here is the scene on the way out of my back door heading towards the gate. That is a very, very old climbing type of rose (single layered pink blooms) on the left and a cherry in bloom hanging over the top of the photo. That is a large mimosa by the gate that will soon be dripping it's messy flowers everywhere. I like the tree, but it is hell on car paint. Those flowers stick like glue balls to the paint on cars.

And on another note, not really food related. I am a reader. I read everything I can get my hands on that interests me in any way (books, periodicals, newspapers, cereal boxes, billboards, eGullet, Jinmyo-anything) and I mow through books like Sherman through Georgia (he could have gone a little lighter on the burning thing, but that's a battle for another day ). I just finished one that I loved. I am a reader of information and rarely get sucked up in the emotional side of things, but I highly reccomend this to anyone looking for a good read. It's one of those things that just makes the whole thing seem better (whatever that means). Google on the book, the reviews sound just as dumb as my explanation, but the general consensus is that there is "something about this book". If you like Tom Robbins and you like Larry McMurtry and ever wondered what a combo of the two might be like, this is probably it. Anyway, if you order it through the nice folks at Amazon with this link Fat Guy and Jason can continue to keep this thing operating.

The Blue Moon Circus

[fifi]

Oh man... You are killing me with those purple hulls. Good Grief, Charlie Brown! I have got to have some peas. Canned peas need not apply. I want fresh shelled peas.

AND I WANT THEM NOW!

[snowangel]

I grow more than weak at the knees at the sight of a tomato not looking like styrofoam, and looking like the kind of tomatoes we won't see until August. We won't even talk about that color green. The only green here is on my oh-so-ugly walls.

Be still my beating heart.