With over 35 years of cooking experience, 21 years of them in the restaurant industry, and now 9 years of experience in information technology and away from the production side of the biz my focus now is to document and record in digital format the vast knowledge base that has accumulated over the years. Several boxes of manuals, binders, notebooks, recipes, etc, and with 350+ cookbooks and reference material in my library, my current focus is transforming this personal hard copy document collection into digital format.
While I still offer the occasional cooking demonstration at local specialty and gourmet shops, my cooking is primarily at home. However, in addition to my current focus of writing about food and cooking (Cajun Chef Ryan Blog), I am also working on developing a line of artisan spice mixes, sauces, and dressings for future marketing and mass production.
It is my hope to inspire others who want to pursue a career in culinary arts, restaurants, and the food service industry. I am also brainstorming about the possibility of opening up a cooking school and going back to my true love of all things culinary.
Culinarily yours,
Ryan Boudreaux
Cajun Chef Ryan
=8~)
If you enjoy the recipes and like reading Cajun Chef Ryan please consider making a contribution to support my efforts through Pay Pal. The amount you give is entirely up to you. Thanks!
I want to be in that number…and sure enough, we are definitely in that number baby! Who Dat? We Dat! Geaux Saints! We are so proud of our New Orleans Saints and the city is filled with excitement and joy like never before. The City of New Orleans is exploding with the biggest Mardi Gras celebration ever in its history.
We have Drew Brees, Shaun Payton, Tracy Porter, Darren Sharper, Jeremy Shockey, Marques Colston, Devery Henderson, Pierre Thomas, Reggie Bush, Garret Hartley, Courtney Roby, Lance Moore, Robert Meachem, Randall Gay, Mike Bell, Malcolm Jenkins, Usuama Young, Jabari Greer, Chris Reis, Jonathan Vilma, Scott Fujita, Scott Shanle, Zach Strief, Jahri Evans, Jermon Bushrod, Jonathan Goodwin, Carl Nicks, Jon Stinchcomb, Darnell Dinkins, Will Smith, Remi Adoyle, and Sedrick Ellis and the entire Saints 2009 roster for the wonderful year and for winning our first ever Super Bowl Victory!
One of New Orleans’ most famous crooner and trumpet player…
Louis Armstrong – When The Saints Go Marching In
Not only possibly the largest television audience in Super Bowl history with over 100 million viewers, but also the food consumed yesterday may hit record numbers also.
Did you know now much food is consumed on Super Bowl Sunday? Here are the Super Bowl food facts…by the numbers!
How much food was consumed?
8 million: Total pounds of popcorn consumed on Super Bowl Sunday.
28 million: Pounds of potato chips consumed.
53.5 million: Pounds of avocados consumed.
222,792: Number of football field’s worth of farmland to grow all that corn, potatoes, and avocados.
11.8: Depth, in feet, of guacamole consumed if it were spread across the football field.
293,000: Number of miles of potato chips, laid end to end, consumed during the game.
1 billion: Number of chicken wings consumed on Super Bowl Sunday.
325.5 million: Gallons of beer drank by Americans that day.
493: Number of Olympic-sized swimming pools that could be filled with all that beer.
20%: Increase in ant-acid sales the Monday after the game.
7 million: Number of employees who will not show up to work Monday.
Wow! That is a lot of food dude!
If you followed my post from Friday (Feb. 5, 2010) on Super Bowl Sunday Means Super Eating then you are already aware of our food filled event. So…it turns out..
…we were in the food numbers too!
…here are a few photos from the food ate yesterday.
With the Saints, “Who Dat!” and Colts in the Super Bowl this Sunday, many folks are getting their last minute super eating menus in order, so I thought it would be appropriate to share with you my Super Saints Super Bowl Super Eating Menu.
Geaux Saints!
In New Orleans, details indicate that grocery stores are seeing an invasion of shoppers who are putting together their Super Bowl parties, as David Blake tells from WWL Radio AM 870 in his report Super Bowl means super eating.
So, you may be wondering what a Cajun like me is doing with all of this southwest and Mexican inspired food while rooting for the Saints in the Super Bowl?
Tradition, and luck!
Every Sunday for the past five months we have prepared and eaten either my taco dip and/or salsa and chips while watching the Saints on TV. So, in keeping with our sports rituals and superstitions, we are preparing the same food for Super Bowl Sunday. And wearing our same Saints apparel, jerseys, etc…
Monique chose this recipe from the Weight Watchers magazine “Five Ingredient, Fifteen Minute recipes” and found on page 35, this is an amazing preparation. This was our first time cooking and eating flat iron steak, and I have to say it is a very good cut of beef. Similar in shape to flank steak, but a whole other texture and flavor, this flat iron steak is also an interesting cut. It is rated by the North American Meat Purveyors (NAMP) as the second tenderest cut of beef, ranked just under tenderloin. In addition, I have to concur with the NAMP; this is not only a very flavorful steak, but very tender and juicy when grilled to medium-well doneness.
Back in the day, or around 1983 when I was taking the requisite butchering class at the apprenticeship there was no such cut of beef known as the flat iron steak. Of course, the section that the flat iron originates has always been there, it actually is derived from the #1114D Beef Shoulder, Top Blade Steak, as listed in the NAMP meat buyers.
We first tired to find some of this flat iron steak at Super Target, after our inquiry, the meat guy said they do not carry it, but that the cut was developed by researchers at the University of Nebraska and the University of Florida. This piqued my curiosity to say the least. We did find some packaged flat iron steak at Lowe’s Supermarket and scooped up two one-pound average pieces of this very interesting cut.
According to the Animal and Veterinary Sciences College of Agriculture, Meat Science and Processing Facility lab web site on Flat-Iron Steak, this cut of beef was developed with research funding by the National Cattleman’s Beef Association. The link to the flat iron steak also will give you a short history on how it has come to been named “Flat Iron” steak.
We modified this recipe by doubling the quantities so we could have some leftovers, and the only other change from the original is that we had some canned pineapple rings on hand and used those instead of fresh. The original recipe has a Weight Watcher Points value of 5, each 1-pound flat iron steak yields 4 servings, or 3 ounces of cooked meat, and ¼ cup of the pineapple salsa. Calories 236, Fat 8.2g, Protein 24.4g, Carbohydrates 13.9g, Fiber 0.8g, Cholesterol 40mg, Sodium 287mg, Calcium 45mg.
Sprinkle pineapple chunks with the brown sugar. Sprinkle the steak with the salt and pepper on both sides.
3.
Grill pineapple chunks on grill and cook on each side until browned and tender, or about 4 to 6 minutes. Combine the pineapple with the salsa and set aside.
4.
Spray the grill with the cooking spray. Grill the flat iron steak for 4 minutes per side or to desired doneness. Four minutes will be just at around medium-rare, depending on the grill heat. Add the green onions and grill for just a few minutes on each side. Chop the green onions and add them to the salsa.
5.
Remove the steak from the grill and allow it to rest for at least 5 minutes. Slice the steak against the grain in thin pieces. Serve with the pineapple salsa.
This wonderful pasta dish uses sun-dried tomatoes which are packed in olive oil, multi-grain penne pasta, specifically, the Barilla Plus brand, and a packaged light Alfredo sauce by Buitoni brand to produce this calorie reduced dish, another Weight Watchers favorite. Coming in at only 298 calories, this flavorful dish, while containing a few store brand specific items is actually very good and good for you too! In the Weight Watchers Magazine, you can find the original recipe on page 47 of the “Five Ingredient 15 Minute Meals” cookbook. Remember, the “five ingredients” exclude cooking spray, salt, pepper, water, and optional ingredients.
Ingredients
8
Ounces
Penne, multigrain, Barilla Plus
1
Package
Alfredo sauce, Buitoni (10-ounces)*
½
Cup
Sun-dried tomatoes, julienne
10
Slices
Bacon, crumbled
¼
Cup
Basil, fresh, chopped
1
Tsp
Black pepper, freshly ground
Procedure Steps
1.
Cook pasta according to package direction, omitting any salt and fat; drain and keep warm.
2.
While the pasta is cooking, combine the Alfredo sauce with the sun-dried tomatoes in a saucepan and heat over a medium-low setting for a few minutes.
3.
In a large bowl or pot combine the pasta with the sauce and stir well, then transfer to a serving bowl.
4.
Top with the crumbled bacon, chopped basil and cracked black pepper
*I could have made a “light” Alfredo sauce on my own using skim milk thickened with a cornstarch slurry, but we wanted to stick with the original recipe this time, however, for a cost saver, 10 ounces of homemade light Alfredo would work just as well. Indeed, for 1 ¼ cups of skim milk warmed with about ¼ cup of shredded Parmesan cheese, and thickened with 2 Tbsp of cornstarch slurry would do the trick to replace the Buitoni brand sauce. We actually doubled the recipe when we made it, but here is the original recipe, which yields 5 servings, each account for 6 Weight Watchers points, and has 298 calories, 9 grams fat, 16 grams protein, 38.5 grams carbohydrates, 4 grams fiber, 29 mg cholesterol, and 624 mg sodium.
In our preparation of this dish, I kept the garnishes from step 4 out of the large serving bowl and opted instead to individually garnish each serving portion instead. With leftovers, this enabled us to heat up individual portions of the pasta/sauce and then add the bacon, basil and cracked black pepper to each of our liking.
This is a three-part post! First, the Spirit of New Orleans is highlighted in the embedded video entitled The Soul of New Orleans, then I present my Chicken, Sausage, and Shrimp Gumbo, a perfect treat for Mardi Gras parade watching, and then finally more Mardi Gras history and current events in and around New Orleans.
Follow along with Drick Perry and his “Drick’s Rambling Cafe” with his post today entitled The Food We Eat, sharing the Mobile, AL Mardi Gras traditions with his Gulf Coast Seafood Gumbo, while I share the New Orleans side of the carnival festivities.
The Mardi Gras Series
Previous posts in our Mardi Gras series include Drick’s:
The Soul of New Orleans is a wonderful short video narrated by Wright Thompson, and highlights the current elation that the city is feeling now. With Mardi Gras in full swing and parades rolling on weekend days and weekday nights, and with the New Orleans Saints in the Super Bowl for the first time this Sunday (02/07/2010), the city is alive more than ever before since Katrina. This Spirit of Louisiana and The Soul of New Orleans is especially represented with this fantastic video.
I have copied the narration from the video and highlighted with hyperlinks to the various people, food, places and events as they relate to this video and blog post.
The Soul of New Orleans
Narrated by Wright Thompson
The soul of New Orleans is in a trumpet and a low ceilinged bar
It’s in the ubiquitous fleur de lis found everywhere from the Saints helmet to the chest of beloved horn man Kermit Ruffins
Kermit Ruffins: “The Saints is the soul of New Orleans baby”
The soul of New Orleans is in every streetcar, every oyster, every drink, from Sazeracs in thick-bottomed glasses, to those 72-ounce Bourbon Street beers
These are strange and beautiful days in New Orleans
The Saints are in the Super Bowl, and the love affair between the town and this team is deep, and it is strong, and it is everywhere
Children heard singing: “Who Dat, who dat, who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints?”
Chris Rose, Pulitzer Prize Winning Author: They are probably the best ambassadors of the recovery we’ve got. They carry a message from New Orleans that we’re alive, we’re energetic, were unified, and damit, were tired of feeling like losers.
The soul of New Orleans is on the left hand of Jesus, his thumb and forefinger are missing. People see the work of God in those missing digits.
When Katrina approached Louisiana it down graded and turned, avoiding a direct hit, Jesus you’ll hear, flicked the storm away.
Archbishop Gregory Aymond: “I am glad that we have decided not to put the fingers back on the statue, it’s a sign that God is using us to rebuild, and it’s also a reminder of God’s fidelity during a very difficult time for our city.”
The soul of New Orleans is in the things that returned, from the restaurants to the football team
This city inspires an irrational love for traditions and places
People mourn the ones who didn’t come back after Hurricane Katrina, and became even more fierce about the ones that did
The storm changed New Orleans, but not only for the worst, a new generation of leaders from Brees to Chef John Besh are determined to make the new New Orleans the best New Orleans
Chef John Besh, Owner/Executive Chef, Restaurant August: “I don’t think New Orleans has a place for people that are lukewarm. I think, you’re either with us or you’re against us. You have a city here made of people that want to be here, and that makes all the difference in the world.”
The soul of New Orleans is in its defiant beating heart, look at the roster, you’ll find cast offs, undrafted free agents, at late round flyers.
People see themselves as triumphant underdogs too! They love the Saints and not because the team provides distraction from their fall, but because the team is a reflection of their rise.
Nothing is more miss-understood about post Katrina New Orleans than this; the Saints are not a symbol of rebuilding, but of what has been rebuilt.
Rita LeBlanc, Owner/Executive V.P., New Orleans Saints: “When you come to New Orleans you see a community rebuilding itself! Every person you’ll encounter talks about it, they talk about the rebuilding of this team, and how much hard work we’ve put into our team, and also our city.”
The soul of New Orleans is a Monday night three years ago, thirteen months after a doctor stored dead bodies in a catering freezer, the Super Dome reopened.
The game began, and less than two minutes in the Saints blocked a punt and recovered for a touchdown, people say they’d never heard a stadium sound like that.
For 37 seconds the announcer stayed quiet, the only noise coming from a screaming frothing crowd.
Dress Brees, Saints Quarterback: “I know there is a direct correlation between our success, and the belief that our city has in us, and I want to win a championship for our city.”
The soul of New Orleans is in a city reborn, and in a football team and the people who love it. The New Orleans Saints are in the Super Bowl; yes, these are strange and beautiful days.
Kermit Ruffins: “Who dat?”
Chicken, Sausage and Shrimp Gumbo
One of the best ways to host a Mardi Gras parade watching party, especially when it falls early in the year, and to stay warm, is to have a large pot of gumbo ready for your parading guests. There must be about as many variations as there are the folks who make their own gumbo. I typically will make a gumbo on a weekend afternoon and as usual, it was a little different this time around. Some of the various gumbos out there include Filé Gumbo, Okra Gumbo, Seafood Gumbo, Gumbo Z’Herbes, Chicken Gumbo, Duck Gumbo, and on an on.
This time around, I made a chicken, sausage, shrimp, filé and okra gumbo, and it has a roux in it too! At home, I will make at least 2 to 3 gumbos a year, mostly at request of the family and typically for Benjamin’s birthday every year. He wanted a seafood gumbo, but I could not get the blue gumbo crabs so I opted for the chicken variety, it is also not as expensive as the full-blown seafood gumbo with crab, shrimp and oysters.
If you can get a hold of gumbo crabs, they really do add a spectacular flavor to a seafood gumbo. Gumbo crabs are the ones that are too small to eat boiled and are usually sold frozen in bags of 6 or a dozen, and typically just need to be rinsed and cleaned a bit. I add them to my seafood gumbo in the middle of the preparation and there is nothing like it to adding that extra background flavor. When serving a seafood gumbo to guests I like to include one of the crab halves in every bowl, eating that gumbo soaked crabmeat is a real treat.
The gumbo recipe here is the one I made awhile back and it also has some Tasso in it, which is a highly seasoned pork shoulder meat. It is highly seasoned with a Cajun spice rub and then smoked with hickory, oak, or pecan wood in a cool smoker until dried. You can order it from various Cajun meat purveyors or it can be omitted, however, it imparts extra smoky and spicy flavoring to any gumbo or Cajun dish. ( )
Yield: 3 gallons
Ingredients
½
Lb
Butter
½
Lb.
Flour
3
Cups
Onions, large dice
3
Cups
Celery, large dice
3
Cups
Green bell pepper, large dice
¼
Cup
Garlic, minced
1
Each
Whole chicken, 4 lb. average
To cover
Cool water, with 2 Tbsp chicken base or cool chicken stock
2
Lb.
Andouille sausage, sliced ¼” thick
½
Lb.
Tasso, diced
2
Cans
Stewed tomatoes, (14-ounce each)
2
Lbs.
Okra, sliced
1
Tbsp
Italian Seasoning mix
1
Tbsp
Worcestershire sauce
1
Each
Bay leaf
1
Tbsp
Hot Sauce (Crystal brand preferred)
2
Tbsp
Filé
2
Lb.
Shrimp, 21-30 count, peeled and deveined (P&D)
1
Bunch
Green onions, chopped
To taste
Salt and white pepper
Procedure Steps
1.
First, you make a roux. In a large cast iron skillet or sauté pan melt the butter then whisk in the flour until dissolved. Then over a medium heat stir the mixture with a wooden spoon until the very dark stage, it will start to take on a nutty smell like toasted almonds. Remove from the heat and continue to stir for a few minutes and allow to cool.
2.
Clean the chicken, remove any excess fat, and rinse well in cool tap water. Place the whole chicken into a large stockpot and cover up to an inch above it with the chicken stock. Alternatively, cover with cool tap water and add 2 tablespoons of chicken base. Place the stockpot on the stove over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about an hour, or until the chicken starts falling off the bone. Once the chicken meat is cooked, remove it from the stock and place into a large bowl to cool.
3
While the chicken is simmering, prepare the onions, celery, bell peppers (Trinity) and garlic and have them ready. Open the two cans of stewed tomatoes.
4.
After the chicken is removed from the stock turn up the heat to high, add the Andouille sausage and the Tasso to the stockpot, and stir well. Then add the Trinity and the garlic and stir well. Then add the two cans of stewed tomatoes, Italian seasoning, bay leaf, Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce and stir well. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer.
5.
Once the chicken is cooled, remove the skin and discard it, then pull the chicken meat from the bones and cut larger pieces of meat into bite-sized pieces and reserve the meat until later.
6.
In the stockpot add the okra, stir well and bring back to a simmer until the okra is cooked.
7.
In a medium mixing bowl add the filé and about a ½ cup cool tap water. Then whisk the file into a slurry until all the dry powder is dissolved. Fold in the slurry into the gumbo. Simmer for a few more minutes until well incorporated into the gumbo.
8.
Gently fold in the reserved chicken meat the shrimp and chopped green onions into the gumbo.
9.
Allow to simmer until the shrimp are pink and heated through.
10.
Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Mardi Gras 2010 Current Events
This year Mardi Gras seems extra special for New Orleans with the Saints going to the Super Bowl on the first of two big weekends before the Fat Tuesday climax. Therefore, to help celebrate Mardi Gras I am listing some links here of noteworthy importance with respect to Mardi Gras in New Orleans in 2010:
Monique chose this recipe from the Weight Watchers magazine “Five Ingredient, Fifteen Minute recipes” and found on page 35, this is an amazing preparation. This was our first time cooking and eating flat iron steak, and I have to say it is a very good cut of beef. Similar in shape to flank steak, but a whole other texture and flavor, this flat iron steak is also an interesting cut. It is rated by the North American Meat Purveyors (NAMP) as the second tenderest cut of beef, ranked just under tenderloin. In addition, I have to concur with the NAMP; this is not only a very flavorful steak, but very tender and juicy when grilled to medium-well doneness.
Back in the day, or around 1983 when I was taking the requisite butchering class at the apprenticeship there was no such cut of beef known as the flat iron steak. Of course, the section that the flat iron originates has always been there, it actually is derived from the #1114D Beef Shoulder, Top Blade Steak, as listed in the NAMP meat buyers.
