Crawfish Michaela

Rhett is trying to cram in as many stateside things as he can in his 6 months here, before heading off to Afghanistan for a year. One of those things was to attend Tennessee’s Homecoming game Saturday, so they came in for the weekend. He and wife Beth went to the game, Bev, her sister, and the three kids headed off to town, and I stayed home to watch the six dogs, catch a little football on TV, and cook dinner. Tennessee won their game.

Every since returning from NOLA with some frozen crawfish tails, I’ve been wanting to make this dish. It’s a Cajun dish but with pasta rather than rice and a cream sauce – how could it not be great. I used the recipe from Katherine over at Smoky Mountain Café – check out her site for excellent step-by-step pictures and instructions. I just brought the ingredients and instructions together from her site:

Crawfish Michaela Ala Chef John Folse
Courtesy of Katherine Aucoin at Smoky Mountain Café

1lb Crawfish tails
1 stick Butter
1 tbsp Garlic, chopped
¼ cup Green onion, Crawfish Michaela chopped
¼ cup Mushrooms, sliced
½ cup Andouille, diced
1 tbsp Flour
1 oz Dry white wine
1 tbsp Lemon juice
8 oz Tomato sauce
2 cups Heavy cream
¼ cup Red sweet pepper, diced
1 tbsp Chopped parsley
1 tsp Chopped basil
1 tsp Chopped tarragon
¼ tsp Cayenne
S&P To taste
4 cups Rotini pasta, cooked

Melt butter over med-high heat in a 2 quart pot and add the garlic, onion, mushrooms, sausage, and sauté for 5-7 minutes (until veggies are wilted).
Sprinkle in flour and thoroughly blend with veggies.
Stir in half the crawfish and deglaze with the wine and lemon juice.
Lower heat to medium and stir in tomato sauce.
Add cream and stir constantly until thick sauce develops.
Stir in sweet pepper and herbs.
Add remaining crawfish tails.
Fold in pasta and serve.

I followed it as closely as I could, except, I’d used all of my andouille, so I used kielbassa for the sausage, I used all dried herbs at 1/3 the recipe amount and I used a whole pound of pasta – for which there was plenty of sauce. Since Katherine made such great step-by-step photos on her blog, I didn’t bother, but here’s my plate. We sided it with a salad and some homemade rolls topped with garlic butter.

Daughter-in-law Beth’s comment was “there is a party going on in my mouth” and I think everyone agreed. This dish was absolutely outstanding and worthy of company anytime. I’ll have to try it with shrimp and I’m glad we had leftovers.  Thanks Katherine for a great meal.

Earlier in the day, Bev and the girls had made pretzels from part of the days bread dough – they were tasty.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry

A Late Fall Cruise

We’ve been trying for several weeks now to arrange our schedules and the weather such that we could go for a boat ride with our friends Laurie and David (Big Daddy Dave) and we finally made it on Nov 12. Before the cruise, we wanted to treat them to a special lunch of Colasessano’s pepperoni buns, which they’d never had. We bought them with this in mind, so we bought at least one with no peppers, which Dave doesn’t like. I’ve posted about these before and about our homemade ones and for today, I let them come to room temperature, nuked them for about a minute to warm the inside, then popped them in a 450* oven for a few minutes to crisp the bread crust.  I got them a little too brown but they were still okay.

Bev and I both like year round boat rides and take advantage of our clear plastic enclosure, which acts like a green house and keeps it very comfortable inside as long as it’s sunny. Here I have the front panels rolled up and the front cover pulled back for today’s 70* ride.

Here we are heading out of our cove toward the main channel.  The dogs love to go for a boatride.

Many of the leaves were still hanging on but mostly justbrown at this point.

This is a golf hole at Tellico Village.

And I liked this dock because of the covers and the party areas - I didn't care for the hundreds of stairs from dock to the house.

This is one of the nice places along the lake.

And this is my neighbors house, which is one of the premier locations on the lake.

This day was as good as it gets for this time of year – warm, sunny, dead calm water, no other boats making wakes, little wind, good company. Life is good.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry

Margherita Pizza – Italian Flavor

The last time we had these, Bev made the dough and we cooked them on the grill, but this time we decided to go the easier way and use pre-made crust. It’s called “Thin Pizza Crust – Napoli Style” and since it’s in the same packaging as the naan bread we usually buy, I assumed it was just a larger version of naan. But after studying the label, it actually has different ingredients, but I suspect the taste to be very similar.

Since the weather is cool and we don’t mind adding heat to the house, we cooked it in the oven as the grill would likely have overcooked the bread bottom. For this one, it was built as follows - brushed on olive oil, finely diced garlic, shredded mozzerella and asiago cheeses, sliced tomatoes, thin red onion, sliced olives and sliced fresh basil. After baking in a 400* oven until the cheese melted, it was removed and topped with grated parmesan. It’s not a great shot on the foil, but it was right tasty.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry

Surprise Delicious

First let me say thanks to all of you vets out there and to those still in uniform.  I appreciate what you do for us.

Bev and I discussed several possible meals for dinner, but neither of us wanted to do any serious cooking, so she took the reins and decided on salad and chicken thighs. The chicken was one of the few things I’d cooked for us during this past weekends BBQ session - she just reheated it in the toaster oven. Bev, who likes meat on salad, fixed hers that way, but while I like that on occasion, I’m really more of a keep-them-separate kinda guy. So for me, it was one of her super salads with Greek flavors and the reheated thighs on the side and as simple as it was, it was absolutely delicious, and hours slaving in the kitchen could not have resulted in much better of a meal. It’s amazing how sometimes the unplanned meals, events, trips, get togethers, etc. turn out to be some of the best.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry

Garden Breakfast

We cleaned out our garden the other day to beat the freeze and have quite a few sweet peppers, jalapenos and green tomatoes. We’ve already frozen most of the sweet peppers but kept out several to eat on. For breakfast this morning, Bev whipped up a modified Alabama scramble substituting peppers for okra and she included a couple of jalapenos – so it was potatoes, onions, peppers, green tomatoes, and jalapenos and rolled in cornmeal and fried in vegetable oil. It turned out delicious and, I'd first decided no, but couldn’t resist topping mine with an over very easy egg.

I've got to get out the book and learn to shoot close ups with this camera as my shots are the pits.
This meal should give me a good start for the final clearing and tilling of the garden, pulling up the last plants, storing the tomato cages, spreading compost and tilling it in.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry

Cuban Sandwich Ala Big Dude

Let me first say that Bev pressure steamed the tough smoked bison ribs from the last post and they were delicious.

Several years ago while traveling thru South Miami, we stumbled into a little deli and ordered our first ever Cuban sandwich – had never heard of them before that. Over the years, we had them at various restaurants and always liked them a lot, especially at the little hole-in-the-wall place in Maryville.

With the recent discovery of Cuban bread at Kroger’s, we were now ready to make them at home. So we bought the bread along with some ham and Swiss cheese and we were ready to go. The traditional sandwich uses sliced roast pork, but on the day after BBQ day, we have some really good pulled smoked pork available.

Bev made up some Cuban mojo sauce from the following recipe, courtesy of tasteofcuba.com. She used half regular OJ and lime juice.

1/3 cup olive oil
6 to 8 cloves garlic, thinly sliced or minced
2/3 cup sour orange juice or lime juice
(or equal portions orange juice and lime juice)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Heat the olive oil in a deep saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant and lightly toasted. Don't let it brown or it will be acrid tasting, just about 30 seconds should do it.

Add the sour orange juice, cumin and salt and pepper. STAND BACK; the sauce may sputter. Bring to a rolling boil. Taste and correct seasoning, if needed.

Cool before serving. Mojo is best when served within a couple of hours of making, but it will keep for several days, well capped in a jar or bottle, in the refrigerator.

I used a half-pound each of cheese and ham a nice layer of pork, dill slices, and spicy brown mustard. Here’s a couple of shots of the assembly - the ladies wanted less pickle on theirs – I put a double cheese layer on the bottom and single on top.

For cooking, I used the 12” cast iron skillet with the 10” one on top for a weight – I sprayed the bread with cooking spray – would like to have had some spray butter.

Here’s the finished sandwich.

I thought the sandwich was as good as any I’ve eaten and so did Bev and her sister, but I like the sauce they make at the Maryville restaurant much better. I will surely make these again in the near future.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry

November’s Barbecue Day

My normal BBQ day for November was to be Wednesday the 3rd, but because we were at Ft. Knox, I postponed until Saturday. I ended up trading a 64* day for a 40* one – which is fine except I couldn't wear shorts.

I had a pretty big load and ended up running both smokers. I ran the Stumps overnight to cook the big meat at 225* (2 pork butts & 1 brisket), then moved them to the Klose offset at the same temp, while I cooked 9 slabs of baby backs, 6 chubs of breakfast sausage, and pork tenderloins on the Stumps. When the big meat was done, I cooked a whole turkey and 2 slabs of beef ribs and a couple pounds of bison short ribs on the Klose during the afternoon. And then I cooked wings, thighs, cornish hens, and an 8# prime rib on the Stumps when the pork ribs were done in early afternoon.

But before I could cook anything, I had to make up a few things. I cooked the beef and bison ribs per Chris’s procedure over at Nibble Me This, which required some pre-make, I used my special (given to me) recipe for prime rib rub & Wolfe Citrus on the turkey and cornish hens, both of which I was out of.

The finished products looked like they have in the past so I didn't take shots of anything but the bison ribs, but here's a shot of everything wrapped and ready, except 3 rib slabs, a butt, a brisket, and the 6 chubs of breakfast sausage, which had been picked up or were already in the fridge.  The big one in the middle is the turkey and to it's right is the rib roast.

It was definitely a busy day – maybe the most I’ve cooked at one time, plus cooking with wood in the Klose requires regular attention to the fire, especially on a cold windy day.  When I got done I was achy and stiff, so I'm going to have to make some changes in my future gameplan, as this was not a fun day.

I pretty well took the next day off to recover.

Since we had a late lunch of pulled pork and slaw, and Bev baked bread that we had to sample, we didn't really eat an official meal but just grazed.  I had a bison short rib to test it, but after fooling with meat all day, all I wanted was a salad.

The bison rib had a good flavor but was tough as I feared it might be.  I thought if I cooked them any longer, they would just dry out, so the bottom line is I should have braised them as originally planned, but I had to try and smoke them - they just don't have enough fat for smoking.  Don't know if they are salvagable at this point - maybe a little steaming in the pressure cooker.

There must be something going on with the alignment of the stars and not just our time change - Bev came wandering out of the bedroom this morning, fully dressed at 5:10am - even on DST, this is more than 2 hours early for her.

Have a good day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry