Camping, Princess Style

[ElsieD]

@Smithy  Is your smoked  picnic ham what we call smoked picnic shoulder?

[Porthos]

You left the Spatten on the shelf. That is indeed sad.

 

I am really enjoying your reporting of your latest travels.

[Smithy]

15 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

@Smithy  Is your smoked  picnic ham what we call smoked picnic shoulder?

 

It's from the same general area, but probably lower: the shank end of that cut.  It usually is tapered because it includes part of the shank.  You can see it in this image, near the upper left, labeled as "smoked ham shank portion". It has a fair amount of bone and fat and skin relative to the meat.  It smokes beautifully and is readily cut into chunks that go well into sandwiches or stews.  When roasted, it provides entirely too much fat and skin to be healthy - which (according to our butcher) may be why the cut is falling out of favor - but oh, it's good in soups and stews.

[Shelby]

Woooo hooo!!!!! Collards, catfish AND OKRA!!!!  

[ElsieD]

16 minutes ago, Smithy said:

 

It's from the same general area, but probably lower: the shank end of that cut.  It usually is tapered because it includes part of the shank.  You can see it in this image, near the upper left, labeled as "smoked ham shank portion". It has a fair amount of bone and fat and skin relative to the meat.  It smokes beautifully and is readily cut into chunks that go well into sandwiches or stews.  When roasted, it provides entirely too much fat and skin to be healthy - which (according to our butcher) may be why the cut is falling out of favor - but oh, it's good in soups and stews.

 

Thank you.  I think I have seen the cut but the one we buy is the smoked picnic shoulder.  They were recently on sale for 99 cents a pound and I asked John to pick up 2 of them,  one to eat right away and one for the freezer.  He came back with 6 of the suckers, and now 5 of them are taking up way too much space in my freezer.

[chileheadmike]

I've never heard of (or thought about) okra in collard greens. I may have to give that a shot.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Well?... okra boiled with collards is something I've not heard of, and I've lived in the South most of my life.

 

This experiment will be very interesting.

 

Thanks for sharing your travels with us all, @Smithy.

[kayb]

You may have my share of all the collards in the world.

 

Please don't ruin the okra by boiling it. Cut it up, dust it in cornmeal, and fry it!

 

[Smithy]

18 hours ago, chileheadmike said:

I've never heard of (or thought about) okra in collard greens. I may have to give that a shot.

 

8 hours ago, Thanks for the Crepes said:

Well?... okra boiled with collards is something I've not heard of, and I've lived in the South most of my life.

 

This experiment will be very interesting.

 

Thanks for sharing your travels with us all, @Smithy.

 

I'll keep y'all posted as to the results, but since I'm a novice at collards it may not be a fair test.   The woman at the checkout line was very clear that collards get wrecked by too much water.  The way she described it, it sounded more like a minimal-water braise than a boil.  She hadn't heard of okra in collards either, but she used smoked turkey necks.  They might add a bit of thickening as well as flavor.  I'm planning to use some of the seasoning meat in it.

 

41 minutes ago, kayb said:

You may have my share of all the collards in the world.

 

Please don't ruin the okra by boiling it. Cut it up, dust it in cornmeal, and fry it!

 

 

Rest assured, I got the smallest package of okra I could find and still had far more than I plan to use with the collards.  I'll fry the rest per these instructions.

[Smithy]

Our last dinner in Gautier was at the Tiki Restaurant, Lounge and Marina.  

 

This waterfront place is slightly inland from Huck's Cove and seems always to have expensive boats in its marina slips.  I don't know whether the slips are for transient boat traffic or residents.  Probably a bit of both.

 

The Tiki was washed away in some storm or other - earlier than Katrina, I think - but has been rebuilt beautifully.  Photos and memorabilia document the original and celebrate the rebuilt version.

 

 

This photo doesn't do justice to the intricate knotwork in this commemorative piece.  I used to do macramé.  I have an idea of just how much loving care went into making it.

 

 

The atmosphere is quieter and more genteel, I'd say, than at Huck's Cove.  There's a bar and deck downstairs; maybe that's where the rowdy folks go.  We wandered in, unaware that it was "all you can eat snow crab" night until we saw huge platters of crab legs being delivered to nearby tables.  After marveling for a time I went to one table of 8 and asked whether I could take a picture of the spread.  They obliged cheerfully, all being careful to lean back out of the picture.  (I hadn't asked them to do that, but they apparently didn't want to be documented with the extensive spread. ) 

 

I like crab well enough, but didn't consider it when I spied Oysters Rockefeller on the menu.  I ordered a half dozen as an appetizer, then discovered that my darling wouldn't touch them.  Oysters don't turn his crank, and cooked spinach didn't help make the case for him.

 

 

Nope, he wouldn't try even one.

Too bad!  More for me!

 

We drank our beers, ate salads and slaw and, in my case, oysters, and marveled at the steady train of crab being delivered to the party table.  Here's another helping being delivered.

 

 

I didn't count, but I suspect each diner put away two platters' worth.  Not bad, for $25/person.

 

I'm in no position to cry 'gluttony' at them, however.  The oysters would have been plenty for me, but there was grouper.  I considered trying catfish again, but I love well-fried grouper. In a nod to healthful choices, I chose grilled vegetables.  The vegetables and the fish were excellent.

 

 

His favorite: fried shrimp. I gave him my hushpuppy.  He liked it all.

 

 

The proprieter, a lovely and elegantly dressed woman, came by to see how we were doing.  Through her we learned about the crab deal - a regular Tuesday special.  She is a member of the family that built the business, and apparently the sole owner now.  She cares about how well the business does, cares about her customers, and was pleased that I wanted to write about the place and post photos.  But no, she didn't want her photo to be here.  I realized much later that she was in the background of the "additional crab serving" picture above.  It's a good picture of her, but a deal's a deal.  Let's hear it for photo editing programs that can fade out the background.

 

We groaned our way out the door, admired the table of 8 who were still going strong, admired the moon, and made our way back to the Princessmobile.

 

[kayb]

@Smithy -- even as I cook all week for Thanksgiving, you make me hungry. I do dearly love the Redneck Riviera and the seafood. And while I love crab legs, well, the grouper.....there just ain't much better'n grouper.

 

I just wish one could successfully freeze it and bring it back to flyover country. I've tried. You can't, or at least I can't.

 

No matter. I'll retire down there someday.

 

[Smithy]

I want to report on collard greens, okra and adventures in frying.

 

I more or less followed the instructions of my two advisors from Jerry Lee's grocery store to cook those collard greens.  I washed the leaves, drained them but didn't shake them dry, and put the damp leaves in a pan filmed with olive oil.  To that I added a few okra (saving most for other purposes), some chunks of the seasoning meat that I'd rinsed but not soaked, and a touch of salt and pepper.  I cooked it all over gentle heat, letting the greens wilt and soften.  There may have been a touch of vinegar added, but I can't remember for sure.  

 

 

We liked the greens and would do them again.  Without the okra.  The okra wasn't slimy as I'd expected, but didn't really add anything either.  The seasoning meat was good in the greens, but I'll have to work to find something else to do with it: on its own, it had a very strong, not very good flavor.  Maybe I need to soak it, per @rotuts' instructions, rather than a simple rinse.

 

As for frying: well, I've written before about how much I hate doing it.  I work myself into a tizzy even at the idea, but my darling loves fried shrimp beyond almost any other food.  There was also okra to be fried, per @kayb's suggestion.  I steeled myself to the ordeal.  

 

I discovered that okra, dusted with cornmeal, is quite pretty: prettier, I think, than before it's coated or after it's fried.

 

 

Here's just one of many work-in-progress photos.  Most of us have seen food being fried, but I like the geometry of this picture.

 

 

Despite the colossal mess, the dinner was good enough that I did it again a few nights later.  (I now know that it's the *underside* of the cabinets that gets the worst of the spatter.)  With okra again, to finish the last of my purchase.

 

I don't know that we'd go out of our way for okra, but we'd certainly eat it again. It's a bit like cucumber, a bit like green pepper, a bit like its own personality, and we may don't even know if this was good-quality okra.  It isn't at all like the nasty, slimy stuff called "bamya" that we've eaten in Egypt. I never did get around to telling my darling that yes, he'd had okra before.  He wouldn't have touched it.  

 

 

Thanks for the tips, folks.  Our horizons and waistlines are expanding.

 

 

 

[Shelby]

Good job, Smithy!  

 

If you slice the okra in like 1/2" rounds or maybe a little smaller, they cornmeal coats all and makes it so crunchy and good.  That also allows the "slime" to come out and help the cornmeal stick.  

[Okanagancook]

My latest fun thing to do with okra is stuff them.  When I first saw this recipe I thought seeing I would need to buy big okra they would be tough.  Well, I was wrong.  I got four to five inch okra....as non-woody-looking as I could.  Made a slit and stuffed in the East Indian spice mix called for in the recipe.  Then you fry them in a bit of oil, so they sizzle, over medium low heat until they get soft and almost done then crank the heat adding a little more oil to get them crispy.  Delicious.  The one grocery store that carries okra doesn't always get nice small ones so this is a great way to use the larger ones.

[Smithy]

2 hours ago, Okanagancook said:

My latest fun thing to do with okra is stuff them.  When I first saw this recipe I thought seeing I would need to buy big okra they would be tough.  Well, I was wrong.  I got four to five inch okra....as non-woody-looking as I could.  Made a slit and stuffed in the East Indian spice mix called for in the recipe.  Then you fry them in a bit of oil, so they sizzle, over medium low heat until they get soft and almost done then crank the heat adding a little more oil to get them crispy.  Delicious.  The one grocery store that carries okra doesn't always get nice small ones so this is a great way to use the larger ones.

 

Do you have a link to the recipe in question? This sounds like something I'd like to try.

Edited November 26, 2016 by Smithy
Inserted a missing pronoun (log)

[Smithy]

Thanksgiving Dinner yesterday was the kitchen challenge I'd been expecting.  Just as last year, I baked 2 different types of bread (soft dinner rolls, and sourdough rosemary loaf and rolls).  They occupied the dining table during the rise.  For the first time, I trotted out the new heavy-duty double pan I'd bought on a whim from Sur La Table last summer.  See it in the lower right of that cabinet?  

 

 

See how much has to be moved to get to it?  But get it out we did.  It was the perfect size for what I needed.

 

 

There aren't many pictures.  I was too busy working out where to put things, stepping around things, stepping around animals, and making or receiving telephone greetings.  The dinner was scalloped corn, prime rib with roasted potatoes, green beans with bacon, and the above-mentioned bread. I took @Anna N's advice about final formation, as well as watching and testing more carefully for the final rise.  The advice was very helpful.

 

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving (wishing it a day late), everyone.

 

[Anna N]

So much better than turkey. 

[PattyO]

Happy Thanksgiving, a day late, to you as well, Nancy!  I am grateful that you are sharing your adventures and am so impressed with your cooking and meals!

[Shelby]

100% agree.  I'm totally jealous of your prime rib.  How nice it must have been....all your furry babies around, your sweet husband and some great food.  Happy Thanksgiving to you and thanks again for taking us along.  I love every time you update us

 

 

[Smithy]

We're hunkered down in a wind and dust storm right now; it's a good time to backtrack to an earlier stop.

 

Palmetto Island State Park, in the heart of Louisiana's Cajun country, is a nice new state park set up for RV's as well as tent-camping and backpacking folks.  There are paths through the (very dense) palmettos with signs to help one learn how to distinguish poison ivy from Virginia creeper.  They have a Dutch Oven cooking festival every month that we still haven't managed to hit, but someday we may make it.

 

We walked into the registration station.  "How many nights?" asked the registrar.  We answered as one voice:

"One," said my darling.  

"Three," said I.  

We looked at each other.  Apparently he hadn't registered my discussion about a side trip I wanted to make.  We compromised at two.  

 

We set out the next day, our destination only 10 or 15 miles as the crow flies but 30 miles away by road due to the low land, rivers and channels that jigsaw the land.  Our GPS took us around Robin Hood's barn, supposedly by the most direct route - which then required considerable backtracking due to road closures.  The benefit was that we saw interesting scenery along the way: sugar cane fields in every possible stage of cultivation or harvest,

 

 

and a lot of water.  Shallow waters abounded with herons and egrets.  

 

45 road miles later we arrived at our destination.

 

 

The factory tours are self-guided.  You walk at your own pace, see what you want to see for as long as you want to look, and snap as many photos as you wish.  (You can pay for a guided tour with a docent, but we chose not to.)  The tour begins with a museum that gives the history of the company and the McIlhenny family.  It also gives an overview of process, from cultivation through the bottling. I did not know before this trip that the peppers in question are grown in multiple countries on small farms.  The company states that they work with their farmers to ensure sustainable practices and fair prices.

 

 

In the bottom image above, the worker is holding a red stick that is used as the ripeness gauge for the tabasco peppers.  We saw that color a lot - even in a room with one wall painted that particular red.

 

TABASCO^TM  sauce has 3 ingredients as shown here: salt, vinegar, and pepper mash.  Time, the process and the equipment take care of the rest.

 

 

In addition to family information and artifacts, they had amusing cultural displays.

 

 

The next stop is the greenhouse, where more information is given about the peppers that they cultivate for their sauces.  One distinguishing characteristic of the tabasco pepper is that the fruits grow upward...or so the sign said.  It looked to us as though some drooped slightly, but they didn't hang down the way the habañeros and jalapeños did.

 

 

The cooperage had a fascinating short video with one of their coopers explaining his work, and with a number of barrels on display.  I've forgotten the source of their white oak barrels, but the barrels are disassembled, scraped inside, and then rebanded with stainless steel rings instead of the original metal (zinc? tin?) bands before being put to use for the TABASCO^TM process.

 

 

The peppers are mashed.  (I think salt is added at this point, but I may be misremembering.) The mash is put in barrels to ferment - for 3 years, for the basic sauce.  The barrel tops are covered with a couple of inches of salt to keep out impurities, and the barrels are stored by lot in a fermentation building.  The building is closed with a grate that allows air to pass through freely while keeping out unauthorized visitors.  I think the powerful odor would keep out most visitors, but the local bears might find it appealing.

 

 

After the necessary aging, and after quality control tests, the fermented mash is strained and added to mixing vats with vinegar and perhaps salt.  The vat batches are checked for quality, and the mix sits and brews for some weeks before being bottled.  This was the stage at which the operation became clearly quite high-tech: with speed control and temperature control and very careful sanitation control.  As someone who used to work in industrial process control I loved being able to see so much, at my leisure. This is the view of the vats from the ground floor.  From upstairs, you can see the open vats with controllers, piping, and workers going about their business along catwalks. You can also press a button to turn on a fan so you can smell the room.  The aroma is much more mellow than in the fermentation area.

 

 

The bottling plant looks efficient and well-controlled.  There were 4 lines running 4 different sauce products.  Machines did the bottling and process monitoring, and humans monitored the equipment.  At one point some bottles went awry - it wasn't clear to us what happened - and a worker rounded them up off the belt for, we were told, rebottling the sauce in question.  (I don't know whether I believe that, but it's the answer we were given.) The monitoring and quality control were impressive.  

 

 

 

I was just as impressed by the company's apparent interest in worker safety and esprit de corp.  Those workers were kept informed about what they were making, how well they were making it, and where the product was going.  In addition, safety notices abounded.  My former employer had a motto: "Whatever you do, do it safely. Someone expects you home tonight."  This plant had that feel.  If it was all only PR, they made a convincing show of it.

 

The last stage of quality control is a tasting panel that convenes every few weeks and samples the product.   I'm trying to imagine doing that, year in and year out: first, whether my taste buds could survive and second, keeping a taste-standard in mind.  It would be like perfect pitch for the taste buds.  I couldn't do that.  Apparently some people can.

 

This post is already long.  I'll finish in another installment.

Edited December 3, 2016 by Smithy
Niggling word selections (log)

[Smithy]

On we went, through a larger display of TABASCO^TM in popular culture.  They had recipes from celebrity chefs, and a large mural of chefs who've been involved in the promotion of the sauce. I'd intended to include a picture of it to see how well the rest of you did at identifying them, but the picture didn't come out.  We got a kick out of this poster:

 

 

By this time we'd completed the tour and worked up a powerful appetite.  Of course there was a restaurant to help us with that problem.  

 

The menu inside:

 

 

 

We had had a preview of the menu from this chicken-wire menu outside the door.  So many! I've included closeups of our final dish choices.

 

Pirogue sampler for me, red beans and sausage for him.  Note the sampler of the bottled products at every table.  We had a fine time sampling and comparing them.

 

 

Of course there's a gift shop.  OF COURSE I had to add to my condiment creep and trailer overload.  Thanks to the lunch sampler, I knew what I wanted.  To my surprise, he didn't even want a bottle of those that he'd preferred. That's all right.  I bought these, my favorites, and a package of seeds for a gardening friend:

 

 

The special reserve sauce is fermented 8 years instead of 3.  I thought it had a more complex and slightly mellower flavor.

 

As I paid, the checkout clerk announced that folks who make a purchase get a lagniappe, and she added to our bag. 

 

 

We rolled home by a route almost as circuitous as the original, stopping to buy more shrimp at a place I spotted along the way,

 

 

and stopping at a grocery store for a few things.  We admired far more groceries than we bought. 

 

 

This is the first time I've seen rabbit for sale at a grocery store.  I didn't buy any.  There was still no room in the refrigerator.

 

 

 

[snowangel]

Nancy, I had no idea you were on-the-roading life!  This is our dream, and when Heidi finally gets into a groul home, it might happen.  We've always said that if the cabin disappears from our life, it would be an RV or travel trailer.  Do you do any portion of the year in Duluth?  Make it to the Twin Cities at all?  Color me jealous.

[Okanagancook]

On 11/25/2016 at 4:28 PM, Smithy said:

 

Do you have a link to the recipe in question? This sounds like something I'd like to try.

 

Sorry for the delay.  I did not see your question.  This is an East Indian recipe.

 

685 grams okra, washed, dried.  Make a cut for the stuffing from the head to the tail.

 

Mix together: ( I usually toast the seeds separately in a dry pan before hand)

2 T coarsely crushed coriander seeds

1 T coarsely crushed cumin seeds

2 t fennel seeds

1/2 t freshly ground pepper

1 T garam masala

1/4 t cayenne pepper or paprika

1/4t turmeric

1 T ground almonds

1/2 t amchoor powder or 1/2 T lemon juice

1 1/2 t salt

 

Use this mix to stuff the okra.  Use your thumb to open up the slit that you have made in the okra.

 

Use a heavy bottomed 12 inch frying pan over moderately high heat.  Add 5 T ghee or oil ( you can reduce this...I usually do) and heat to hot but not smoking.   Add in the okra in one layer.  Cover and reduce heat to moderate and cook for about 5 minutes.  Remove the lid and turn okra.  Keep frying for 20 to 25 minutes turning frequently to ensure even browning, until the okra is tender, golden brown and crisp. Transfer to paper towels before serving.

 

Hope you like them!

[Smithy]

8 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

Sorry for the delay.  I did not see your question.  This is an East Indian recipe.

 

<snip for brevity>

 

Hope you like them!

 

Thank you, Okanagancook!  I'm glad to see that recipe.  I suspect I'll have access to okra again in the next few months.  This sounds very good.

 

1 hour ago, snowangel said:

Nancy, I had no idea you were on-the-roading life!  This is our dream, and when Heidi finally gets into a groul home, it might happen.  We've always said that if the cabin disappears from our life, it would be an RV or travel trailer.  Do you do any portion of the year in Duluth?  Make it to the Twin Cities at all?  Color me jealous.

 

Susan, how nice to see you here!  I have often wondered - and I am not the only one - how you're doing and whether The Cabin is still in your lives.  (I know I speak for more than just myself when I say I'd love to see cabin updates again - hint, hint.  ) Yes, I'm retired from my full-time job and we spend the winters on the road...but still live in Duluth during the summer months.  We have generally gone home for a month in the winter as well - without the trailer - but haven't decided whether we'll do that this year.

[snowangel]

9 hours ago, Smithy said:

 

Susan, how nice to see you here!  I have often wondered - and I am not the only one - how you're doing and whether The Cabin is still in your lives.  (I know I speak for more than just myself when I say I'd love to see cabin updates again - hint, hint.  ) Yes, I'm retired from my full-time job and we spend the winters on the road...but still live in Duluth during the summer months.  We have generally gone home for a month in the winter as well - without the trailer - but haven't decided whether we'll do that this year.

 

Yes, the cabin is still part of our lives, and although we won't be up again until next spring, I will start reporting again.  Of note this past season, was a fairly comfortable swim on October 2, if you can believe it!  You'll also see a report from me next year from Madagascar!  I am able to take summers off from my newish job.