I had forgotten about having this in my recipe folder. This one is courtesy of our old friend John Conley.
John Conley's sweet white beans:
soak white beans overnight and slow cook them with a 1/2 cup of maple syrup, 2 tblspoons of cider vinegar, 1/2 cup ketchup, 1/4 cup of mustard and 1/2 cup molasses, 1/3 pound cut up pork belly and a chopped onion, Boil for 40 minutes, rinise, add ingredients and chicken stock and simmer in a Dutch oven for 7 hours on a wood stove.
Danny, my man. Don't just say you cooked your gumbo, give us your secret recipe dude!! I'll whip that up in a heartbeat.
For years we did a gig at the Long Beach Marina for a superior court judge who's from Louisiana. He would fly in all the stuff including about 50 pounds of crayfish and he'd put on a true Louisiana feast for 30-40 people. I noticed he had a big boiler like 20 gallons maybe and all the spices and potatos were in some bags hanging in the water with the crayfish. He had all kinds of stuff, greens, cornbread, gumbo, chicken the whole thing including a couple of good ole boys who knew how to cook it.
One thing missing was shrimp etouffee. I never heard of that until I visited Nawleans some years ago. It seems everybody had their own version of that and I loved them all.
Do you have a personal recipe for that?
Bob
That sounds like a crab, shrimp or in this case a crayfish boil. Yeah man that stuff that boils with the main course soaks up all the spices and flavor and very tasty indeed.
Look they are quite a few fool proof gumbo mixes on the market now that make it pretty easy for anyone to cook a pretty good gumbo. I will chase down some links and post them over the weekend.
Everyone knows how to fry fish but here is a little secret a few old Cajuns showed me many years ago. Very simple as follows:
#1. Filet your catch, or if you are a city dude, the ones you bought from the market.
#2. Take a few cans of beer from a six pack pour into a large bowl and marinate the fish for 30 minutes or so.
#3. While they are soaking drink the remaining beer from the six pack, some may want to use a twelve pack as your mileage may vary.
#4. Here come a da trick . . . take the filets from the beer and while they are wet rub them down with yellow mustard.
#5. Cover them with some cornmeal or Louisiana fish fry either will do. Also this is a good time to send someone back to the store for more beer.
#7. Have that oil (peanut is the best) rolling but not boiling, in a deep fryer, now drop in they fish, not too many at a time as you want them to separate and not stick together.
#8. Very important . . . when they float they are ready!
Made some shrimp and grits the other day. I use some country ham to make the gravy then saute the swimps with some butter and onions. Add to the country ham bits in the gravy and away we go.For breakfast add a couple of eggs over easy and biscuits Wyndham
My wife was never interested in cooking so I had to develop the necessary skills to do all weekend cooking for my family ! I was smart enough to take some courses (classes) in cooking as it was obvious that receipes seldom tell the whole story ! There are tricks you just have to learn and what better way than to go courses ? I have some specialities that I like to cook for my guests and for other special occasions as f.i. my own apple pie receipe with home made vanilla sauce !
If anybody would be interested I could try and translate !:))
After being married the first time, I figured that if I was ever going to enjoy food like my Grandma's good cookin', I'd better learn how to cook it myself.
Perhaps I should let the late great Jerry Reed explain:
another tip......When making a cheese sauce, always grate a little fresh nutmeg into it. Got this from Celeb chef Gordon Ramsay. It really does work. The nutmeg seems to bring out the flavour of the cheese beautifully. Don't be tempted to use dried, doesn't work the same.
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