Blackened Mahi Mahi And Cajun Slaw

A while back, Kroger’s had Mahi Mahi fillets on sale so I bought a couple of them. They weighed about 2½ pounds and were at least two feet long, so I invited the sis-in-law and daughter down for blackened fish. For sides we decided on baked potato and garlic onions on the grill and Cajun slaw. For the taters, I just wrapped them in foil and baked them over low heat on the gasser and turned them every 10 minutes until done. For the onions, I used a Bobby Flay creation as best I could remember it – I cut the onion in half, smeared a clove of minced garlic on it, added a half tablespoon of butter, and S&P to each half and wrapped in foil cut side up. I put it on the grill over indirect heat and it was nice and soft when the potatoes were done.

Bev came up with the idea of putting the fish on a bed of slaw and dispatched me to find a Cajun slaw recipe on line. We had a pretty big head of cabbage and made a half recipe of everything, but only a quarter head of the cabbage. We decided to have the veggies in a more course state and therefore hand chopped them all.

Full Recipe

5 tb Mayonnaise, (heaping)
1 ts Louisiana hot sauce
2 tb Yellow mustard (heaping)
2 tb Ketchup
2 tb Olive oil
1 tb Wine vinegar
1 ts Garlic salt
1 tb Lea & Perrins
1 ea Juice of mediums size lemon
3 ts Salt (to taste)
4 ea Bell peppers, sliced
2 ea Onions, medium, shredded
1 ea Large cabbage, shredded

Put mayonnaise and mustard in a bowl large enough to hold complete
mixture, but shaped so that the mixture can be beaten with a fork.
Beat mayonnaise and mustard until combined. Add olive oil slowly,
beating all the time. Beat until mixture has returned to the
thickness of original mayonnaise. Add Louisiana hot sauce, continuing
to beat. Add ketchup and keep beating. Add salt and garlic salt,
beating all the time. Add wine vinegar (this will thin the sauce
down). Beat this thoroughly, adding the lemon juice as you do so.
Taste for salt and pepper. Place shredded cabbage, peppers, and
onions in a large salad bowl. pour sauce over and toss well. This
should be done about an hour before serving. This cole slaw tastes even better the next day! (It might work fine to dump everything in and use an immersion blender).


For the fish, I used Emeril’s Essence for the spice and the following blackening process and it worked perfect. I used our 12” cast iron skillet on the grill side burner so I could cook it outside and use the grill for the other items.

· Heat a large, cast iron skillet over high heat for at least 10 minute(yes,it will get really hot!).
· In a separate pot, heat up the butter until it melts.
· Dip a piece of fish into the melted butter.
· Sprinkle your seasonings onto both sides of the fish.
· Place the piece of fish into the hot skillet.
· Pour a teaspoon of melted butter on the fish in the skillet.
· Cook for about two minutes and then turn it over.
· Place another teaspoon of melted butter onto this side of the fish.
· Cook this side for another two minutes.
· Repeat this process for each fillet.
· Before serving, add another teaspoon of melted butter on top of each fillet.

I didn’t take many pictures of the process as I’ve seen several on the blogs I read with some excellent pictures. I did take one of my plate and had to use the flash as we were eating in dim light.


We all thought this was my best blackening effort so far and that it was a dinner guest quality dish - the blackening process worked great the slaw was excellent with it. Next time I need to remember to make up two batches of Essence – mild & hot. I thought the onion was just ok, needing more flavors.

We finished it off with a piece of frozen strawberry delight dessert.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry

Grilled Chicken And Veggies

We’ve seen too much grilled chicken in blogs and on TV lately to not want to cook up a batch. I decided to go with a whole chicken because the packaged breasts pieces I find lately look like they came from an elephant chicken – I like them for smoked pulled chicken but not for grilling. Since it was to be a whole chicken, the next question is butcher it or spatchcock it – spatchcocking is quicker, supposedly cooks pretty evenly and only provides one piece to deal with. While I love the term spatchcocking, I actually halved the bird as I think the two pieces give me a little more flexibility on the grill.

After splitting, I rubbed the chicken with olive oil and seasoned it with some Billy Bones Original rub, including under the skin of the breasts. Here it is ready for the grill.


I used the charcoal grill, which I’m not very competent with, and started it skin side up, then flipped and got the skin crisp, then moved to indirect heat until the breast internal temp reached 160*. I brushed the bone side with Tennessee River Cranberry Delight and put it back over direct heat and sauced the skin side. I flipped it when the sauce began to char (Bev claims to not care for much black on hers) and gave the skin side the same treatment - I still got a little char on them.

Larry Wolfe over at the Wolfe Pit grills lots of veggies and recently posted a grilled vegetable sandwich that looked outstanding especially with the feta cheese addition. We decided to do the same thing but use the veggies as a side with the chicken rather than a sandwich. I used the same marinade ingredients as Larry and thru in some parsley we had leftover, then grilled them, but I sprinkled on some feta prior to removing them from the grill.

Here’s a couple of shots of the cooking process.



The finished platter.


Here’s my plate with a piece of garlic bread I tossed on the grill at the end.


The chicken turned out really good, but could have used another coat of sauce - Bev said “you know, I think I like the caramelization on it.” I’ve been trying for years to convince her that it’s the best part of the chicken. We both thought the veggies were great and will do them this way again. Nothing special or fancy just a darned good meal.

Have a great day and thanks for visiting.

Larry

Leftover Pork Tenderloin – Final Version

I promise this is the last one as the leftover tenderloin is all gone. Anytime Bev boils potatoes, she cooks extras for other uses – usually home fries – and a recent beans and taters dinner was no exception. I decided an omelet was in order for the final meal, stuffed with the pork, potatoes, onion, cheese and a slice of cooked bacon I discovered in the meat drawer. Here are the ingredients ready to chop. After dicing the meat, I realized that unless I wanted to make a bigger omelet, I had too much stuff, so I put one of the potatoes back and only used about two thirds of the pork.


I started with a sauté of the onion and potatoes in a little olive oil, then added the pork and when it was warm, tossed in the bacon – it was already cooked crisp.

I removed the stuffing from the pan and added two eggs beaten with a little cream and used the typical cooking method of tilting the skillet and lifting the edges to allow the uncooked egg to run underneath. When the eggs were set, I added the stuffing to one side, cheese to both sides, folded it over and slipped it onto my plate.


I also still had some leftover gravy and about three fourths of a biscuit which I believed had to be included with the omelet.



Not a bad way to finish off these leftovers but I had to skip lunch again.

A&W Drive-in For Lunch

The above meal was actually from a couple of days ago and the following is from yesterday. A&W has been a tradition around these parts for a long, long time and there is an old timey drive-in version down the road a few miles in Madisonville. In a bid to recapture my youth, I've been wanting to go there for lunch for months, but I never seem to remember it. Yesterday I had to go about half way there, Bev was available, and I remembered it, so in spite of the 90* temp, off we went. Bev just had a cheeseburger, but I wanted the full experience and ordered a footlong hotdog with chili, mustard and onion, an order on onion rings (to share) and a rootbeer.

Well I can mark that off my list of wants now. The hotdog looked good, but the chili tasted an awful lot like what I remember Hormel from a can tasting like. The onion rings had a nice crunch but not much flavor and the rootbeer came in a paper cup rather than the frosty mug I was expecting. Like many things, it wasn't as good as I remembered so either they've changed, I've changed, we've both changed or we just remember things better than they actually were. I had the same experience the last time I tried Sonic about 5 years ago. Oh well, guess I'll just have to suffer and eat our own cooking.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry

Coconut Shrimp And Other Good Stuff

This is the third shrimp meal in six days – guess we’re trying to get our fill while we can. Bev and her sister both love coconut shrimp and I think they're just okay – I’m more of a savory guy but have been more willing lately to try sweeter dishes. But before I get into shrimp details, the whole meal consisted of deep fried asparagus, orange salad, and shrimp, eaten as a three-course meal. This allowed all of the deep frying to be done in the same pot on the grill side burner and use the grill as a warmer, made it easier on the cook, and allowed the whole thing to go at a more leisurely pace.

The asparagus was served as the appetizer and I’m still working on improving mine – this is version 3 or 4. I used the same Paula Deen recipe as a base but last time decided we wanted more flour so I used 1 cup of flour and ½ cup cornmeal in the final coating. Click link for more details from the last cook including pics (I didn’t take any this time as it looked about the same). We used some dipping sauce Bev had brought home from Puleo’s Grill – their asparagus is the standard I’m shooting for. We liked the more floury coating better, now I need to get the spicing to where it’s where we like it.

For the salad. it was our first stab at Sam Hoffer’s orange salad. She brought it to the blogger party and has a photo on her blog - I was anxious to try and make it as well as eat some more of it. Her recipe isn’t very specific, cause she knows what she’s doing, but for 6 people, we used 4 small naval oranges and a whole vinaigrette recipe. We sliced the oranges about ¼” thick and made the dressing per her directions:

3 Tbsp EVOO
1 Tbsp Red wine vinegar
Finely chopped garlic (we ran 1 clove thru the garlic press)
Dash Hungarian paprika
S&P to taste (we did about 4 grinds of pepper and a pinch of salt)

Per Sam’s instructions, we gently tossed the oranges with the dressing then laid them on a plate. We then topped with 3/4 tbsp of chopped rosemary, 1 tbsp of chopped parsley, 3 thin slices of red onion – halved, and 8 kalamata olives (quartered long ways). Bev liked the idea of serving it on some greens, so after removing the oranges, we tossed some romain lettuce in the remaining sauce. To serve, we passed the greens first, for those who wanted them, then the orange salad.


My salad plate.


It was just as good as I remembered and a definite keeper recipe – thanks Sam.

I’d found this coconut shrimp recipe a while back at CDKitchen and had been wanting to give it a try. We had six diners and cooked 2# of 15 count shrimp, but since I just single dipped them, this recipe for the breading was plenty.

Ingredients –

1 1/2 cup corn starch - divided
2 cups plain bread crumbs (we used Panko and had a great crunch)
2 cups sweetened coconut flakes
1 1/2 cup liquid pina colada drink mix - divided
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/3 cup spiced rum
1 pound raw jumbo shrimp - peeled, deveined, butterflied
1/3 cup sour cream
1/3 cup canned crushed pineapple – drained

Directions:

Place 1 cup corn starch in a bowl; set aside. Combine bread crumbs, 1/2 cup corn starch, and coconut flakes in a separate bowl; set aside. Combine 1 cup pina colada drink mix, powdered sugar, and rum in a separate bowl; set aside.

Coat shrimp in corn starch, then dip in pina colada mixture, then in coconut mixture, back into pina colada mixture, and back into coconut mixture.

Carefully drop each coated shrimp into 375 degree F oil, fry until golden brown; drain on brown paper bags.

To make sauce, combine 1/2 cup pina colada drink mix, sour cream, and pineapple (I made a double recipe). Dip fried shrimp in sauce.

Serves 4

I peeled and butterflied the shrimp then set them on a rack over a jelly roll pan in frig to dry some. I single dipped them and it was way plenty unless you like a little shrimp with your breading. In spite of my best effort, nearly everyone of them had the tail fold back over the body and attach when I dropped them in the pot, so they don’t have the classic shrimp look to them.


My plate - all we had were the shrimp and some garlic bread.


Bev oohed and aahed and said they were better than those from the restaurant in Sint Maarten. She even used very little of the dipping sauce. Actually she oohed and aahed over everything. The photos don't do them justice but if you like coconut shrimp with a sweet sauce, I can’t believe you wouldn’t love these. Even I thought they were really good and the pups loved the tails.

When using new recipes, we are occasionally disappointed when it doesn't live up to our hopes, but all parts of this meal met or exceeded them. Cooking the meal this way worked great but it took a while as we started eating at 6:45 and finished about 8:15 so it was more like a dining event. The nice part was the cook wasn’t stressed out, got to eat every course with the others, and we visited between courses. All in all a keeper event.

We finished the evening watching “It’s Complicated” and found it to be a cute light movie - Meryl Streep is such a great actress.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry

Leftover Pork Tenderloin Version 3

You’re in luck, I’m about out of the tenderloin, so maybe only one more post. This morning, I pared it with some of the leftover cheesy potatoes from dinner the other night for one of my favorite breakfast – potatoes with an egg on top. Normally it’s potatoes without the cheese and I cook the egg with a running yolk to mix with the potatoes. Fortunately, today I had the cheese on them cause I broke the d#&* yolk when I cracked the egg into the pan. It was going to be a pretty sunny side up egg on the taters, but I ended up flipping it for a few seconds instead – I probably don’t break the yolk more than a couple of times a year and it had to happen for this picture. I could have fried up another I guess, but I’m too cheap for that and the other stuff was hot and ready to go – guess you know my priority.


It was still delicious especially, beside the tenderloin and gravy – this will have to be another no lunch day.

Bev visited the farmers the other day and for supper it was just peanut beans (pink runners) and parsley new potatoes. See, we eat sensibly on occasion.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry

Our Morning Stroll

I took the camera on part of our morning walk today and shot several pictures along the way they're better if you click on them for a blow up. This is the rock in the middle of the drive - it was found during house excavation.


It wasn't too long ago that Black Pearl ornamental peppers were a buck a seed and now we have them as weeds that must be thinned out.


Bev loves these suncatchers and drove 3 hours to the Cornbread Festival to buy them for Christmas presents.


Bev used to have little stuffed bears climbing on the tree stump but after several years they failed.


One of her many lilies, the day lilies aren't quite open yet.


The Calla Lily is bright yellow even in the morning shade.


A few shots of Bevs garden, the sun was in the wrong place but still looks pretty good.






I think it's about time to redo the wildflowers - they look pretty weak this year.


A regular morning stop is the volunteer black raspberry patch - note Bevs hand to the right.


Cody has to make a tour of the cow pasture every morning.


I put up some new bird houses in December and didn't have the tools to get the old one out of this post. The bluebirds moved in the new one anyhow.


Blueberries are about to happen. This is three different varieties with the last one the closest to being ripe.




These are my bushes with one more you can't see. They are all different varieties that fruit at different times. Before planting I got a soil test and acidified the soil as needed and I mulch them with pine to keep it acid. As a result I have healthy productive plants -although they need to be pruned.


Here's the result of not doing it right. These blueberries were planted, by my neighbors, the year before mine without proper soil preparation and while it took them a few years they are dead or about to be. The green ones were planted last year and the same fate awaits them if nothing is done. I've given them my advise - we'll see if they take it. Blueberries are easy to grow but give them a pH in the 4 - 5 (4.6 ideal) range or face this. They also have a hard to kill nut grass problem.


We may have ripe maters by Independence Day.



It's nice to live out where we have a nice place to walk without having to get on a high traffic road.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

Shrimp Salad Ala Lea Ann

We would probably be classified more as meat n taters eaters and this would be more of a gourmet meal around here, but I’ve been wanting to try it since Lea Ann over at Mangos, Chili and Z posted her Avocado and Shrimp Salad with Mango Dressing recipe, and especially after the way she described it.

I decided to invite Bev’s sister over and have it for lunch, and make it just as Lea Ann had, down to the naan bread, which I’d never heard of but Bev came home with from Walmart. I cooked the shrimp the evening before and made the dressing about an hour before serving. I also made the same bread as hers for Bev and I but with a cheese blend for Pat.

I had 1¼ pound of shrimp (recipe calls for 2#) and I might not have gotten all the ingredients just right trying to figure a little over half a recipe convertion in my head on the fly – I know better – but it still tasted very good. I’ve never diced a slippery eel, but dicing mango has to be similar. This is my plate.




At the risk of giving Lea Ann the big head, this meal was just as she described it in her blog as - “This is just flat-out moan and groan, roll your eyes delicious.” I don’t know about moan and groan, but there was definitely some oohs and aahs and I forgot to look for rolling eyes. Not only was the salad delicious but to my great pleasure so was the bread – blue cheese, grapes and rosemary are not something I would have ever come up with – I missed seeing the chives in the recipe. And on top of the great taste, it was a beautiful plate I scattered around the extra mango I had chopped. The one thing I’ll do different next time (and there will be a next time) is remove the shrimp tails – I’d left them on as I thought it made a better picture. Also, we thought the dressing could be used in a variety of other ways – on greens and other fish for example. Check out Lea Ann’s blog for more (and better) pics and the recipe, and by all means try this dish.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry