One of the preparations that I learned form Chef Chris Canan during his stint at the Columns Hotel on Saint Charles Avenue in the mid-1980’s was this buffet preparation that became a guest favorite and one of mine too. Using fresh oysters this recipe features options for both buffet and a la carte service and can be served with rice or pasta as this recipe suggests.

Oysters Bayou Teche

Yield: 1 ½ gallon approximate

Ingredients:

2          lb.        Bacon, diced

2          cups     Onions, diced

2          each     Red bell peppers, julienne

1          Tbsp    Shallots, minced

¼         cup       Garlic, minced

1          lb.        All purpose flour

1          quart    White wine

1          quart    Oyster liquor

2          cups     Chicken stock

2          Tbsp    Worcestershire Sauce

1          Tbsp    Sage, fresh, chopped

1          lb.        Spinach leaves, fresh, and coarse chopped

½         gallon   Oysters

To taste            Salt and white pepper

½         cup       Chives, chopped

Procedure:

1. Cook bacon until crisp and remove to paper towel lined sheet pan.
2. Sauté the onions, red peppers, shallots and garlic in the bacon grease until translucent.
3. Add the flour to make a roux and cook until blond stage.
4. Whip in the white wine and then the oyster liquor.
5. Add the chicken stock if sauce is too thick, then bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer.
6. Add the Worcestershire Sauce and fresh chopped sage, then the fried bacon and the chopped fresh spinach leaves and stir well. Continue to simmer until the spinach has wilted into the sauce.
7. Gently fold in the oysters and simmer until just cooked through.
8. Season to taste with salt and white pepper and garnish with the fresh chopped chives.

Notes:

1. A la Carte Service: This sauce can be served over angel pasta for an a la carte menu item. Remember to prepare the complete sauce without the oysters and chives. On command heat 8 ounces of sauce to order and add 6 oysters to cook through and then garnish with the fresh chives. For variations you can add this sauce as an accompaniment to other seafood items such as grilled swordfish or tuna.
2. For buffet service prepare the full recipe and have in it’s own chaffing dish or mixed in with angel hair or other pasta, then garnish with the fresh chopped chives.

Yesterday was Father’s Day and Monique treated me to a home cooked meal, one of my favorites that she makes, and it is Smothered Pork Chops with Yellow Rice and Petit Pois Peas.

For the pork chop dish, first she takes about 3 large yellow or Vidalia onions and then cooks down the julienne slices in some olive oil until soft adding a little salt and pepper too. Then she will push the onions to one side of the skillet and start browning the seasoned pork chops on both sides then pushing onions on top as she continues with browning the chops until all of them are added to the pan. Then the cover is added and the heat turned down, the onions and pork chops are slowly simmered down for a couple hours until tender and falling off the bone. She also will add some sliced mushrooms towards the end. All the while a broth is made from the onions and chops and this adds to the flavor too.

Meanwhile she will prepare the yellow rice and peas in separate pots per the package directions. Typically the peas are just out of the can and seasoned a bit, maybe some butter added too and heated through.

Monique also made a Key Lime Pie and some Kahula Brownies, both were great desserts.  So, all you dads out there, do you have a favorite Father’s Day meal?

Smothered Pork Chops

Ingredients

3          large     Onions, julienne

2          lbs.       Center cut thin, bone-in, pork chops, seasoned with salt and black pepper

1          Tbsp    Olive oil

½         lb.        Mushrooms, sliced

To taste            Salt and black pepper

Procedure

1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet or sauté pan and sweat the onions until soft.
2. Move the onions to one side of the pan to continue cooking and then add a few of the seasoned pork chops to brown on each side, then move them over to continue browning all the chops.
3. Cover and allow to simmer on low heat for 1 hour.
4. Add the mushrooms and cover again and allow to simmer for another hour or until the meat is just about falling off the bones.

 Serve with your favorite side dish such as rice and peas.

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there and to those who made them fathers!

Mirepoix is one of the classic French preparation ingredients found in many classic dishes and still used today. The traditional mirepoix contains onions, celery and carrots, and in a ratio of 2 parts onions, 1 part celery and 1 part carrots, and it is used in the making of stocks, soups, sauces, and stews.  Onions, celery and carrots in this combination are aromatic vegetables and also known as the Holy Trinity of French cooking since they are the cornerstone ingredients of the cuisine.  

This combination of vegetables was first known to have been used in the late 1690’s by the Chef de Cuisine of the Frenchman Charles-Pierre-Gaston-François de Lévis, duc de Lévis-Mirepoix. Now that is a mouthful of a name. The story goes that the chef was credited with creating the sautéed combination of the three vegetables and served as a basis for his particular culinary talents. Many French culinary preparations derive their name from the patron of the chef who established the culinary significance of the ingredient, combination of flavors, cooking procedure or technique.

The Holy Trinity of Cajun and Creole cooking consists of onions, celery and green bell peppers. The amount of onions is not as much as the classic French Mirepoix, but in Cajun preparations typically it is an equal portion of each ingredient in a 1:1:1 ratio. Just like the ole saying “First you start with a roux….” the same is true with the Holy Trinity, most Cajun preparations use a trio of onions, celery and green bell peppers as the base vegetable seasoning aromatic ingredient. The Cajun Holy Trinity can be found in recipes for most gumbos, etouffees, jambalaya’s, sauce piquants, shrimp stews, crab soup, oyster artichoke  soup, red beans and rice, and the list goes on.

Here is a typical recipe that contains the Cajun Holy Trinity of onions, celery and green bell peppers. It is a Creole Sauce from the Hyatt Regency Hotel New Orleans, 1984. It is another sauce that I made on a weekly basis or as needed while in the Saucier position in the main kitchen.

Creole Sauce – Hyatt Regency Hotel New Orleans

Ingredients

2          lb         Margarine

8          oz         Garlic, minced

1 sheet pan       Green bell peppers, diced         (1 full sheet pan, 4” tall)

1 sheet pan       Onion, diced

1 sheet pan       Celery, diced

10        oz         Flour

5          gal        Beef stock

1          case     Mushrooms, sliced (10 lbs)

6          cans     Tomatoes, diced (#10 cans)

3          cans     Tomato puree (#10 cans)

3          cans     Chili sauce (#10 cans)

3          oz         Thyme

5          each     Bay leaves

1          oz         Cayenne pepper

To taste            Salt and white pepper

8          oz         Worcestershire sauce

Procedure

1.  Melt margarine or bacon fat until hot and add garlic to sauté.
2. Add onion, celery, bell peppers, and mushrooms and sweat until soft.
3. Add flour to absorb liquid and grease.
4. Add stock and mix well.
5. Add tomato products and chili sauce and stir well.
6. Add herbs and spices and stir well, bring to a boil and simmer for 1 hour.
7. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Roux (pronounced somewhat like the English word “rue”)  is a mixture of flour and fat which is typically butter, margarine, or vegetable oil and is used as a thickening agent in sauces, stews, gravies, soups, and other culinary preparations. In some cases the fat used in making a roux can be in the form of lard or bacon fat.  There are also some non-fat non-traditional versions where a roux is made from browning flour in the oven. This form of roux omits the fat, but also lacks in flavor and thickening power. Roux is another one of those basic preparations that is required for many Cajun dishes such as gumbos, etouffees, sauce piquant, and other thickened soups too.

The classic roux has it’s origins in French cuisine and can range from a very light roux which is cooked for a short period of time to a very dark roux which is cooked for a very long time period. Two things happen to a roux as it continues to cook on the stove top; 1. the intensity of the flavor increases and strengthens, and 2. the thickening power decreases. For preparations where thickening is more of a requirement than flavor then a lighter roux is utilized, and for preparations where flavor and color is more important a darker roux is required. The varying stages of roux can be described as starting with the least cooked light roux, and then moving to the medium-light roux, medium roux, medium dark roux, dark roux, and very dark roux. To recap, the longer a roux cooks the darker it gets with a stronger flavor profile and the thickening power is reduced. In classic French preparations a roux is the basis preparation for velouté, béchamel, and espagnole sauce preparations.

I found a very nice progression of roux images on Flikr by plakidas who demonstrated making a gumbo in the photostream.

Ingredients and proportions 

A typical roux consists of 1 part flour to 1 part fat either by weight or volume, for example, 1 cup flour and 1 cup butter. However on occasion I find myself adding a bit more flour than fat, but this still is a good starting point for making any roux.

Preparation

Start with heating the fat in a large sauce pan or in a large cast iron skillet as the Cajun traditional method and put it over a medium high heat on the stove top. Once the fat is hot gradually incorporate the flour and use a wire whip to get it into the fat. Once the flour is dissolved and smoothed into the fat switch to a wooden spoon and stir constantly to keep the roux from burning. As you cook the roux longer it will get darker and you will smell a nutty aroma the darker it gets. Making a very dark roux can take up to 30-45 minutes to make depending on the amount you have and how dark you want it, stirring constantly requires patience, attention to detail and switching arms often. Ambidexterity comes in handy with a dark roux.

Notes

• Typically the amount of light roux needed to thicken a velouté or béchamel sauce is 3/4 pound roux per gallon of liquid stock or dairy product. And the amount needed to thicken a cream based soup is about 1/2 pound roux per gallon of liquid. Of course these proportions are somewhat of my personal taste, and it depends on the ultimate preparation, but for the most part sauces are thicker than soups.
• When adding a roux to a liquid be sure that the roux has cooled and that the liquid is not boiling, incorporating these two very hot items at once will result in a lot of splattering similar to a volcano spewing hot molten lava. Not a perty sight or safe procedure in any kitchen. And a wire whisk comes in handy again for incorporating the roux to the liquid.
• Roux can be made ahead and stored for up to a week. Make sure it is covered well and refrigerated if it was made with butter or margarine, a roux prepared with vegetable oils or lard can be stored at room temperature if covered well.
• Darker roux’s are typically used for darker sauces such as the espagnole which is a brown sauce, gumbos, and sauce piquant.

Variations

• I mentioned earlier that some folks prepare a non-fat roux and it is typically done in the oven, but some do prepare it on the stove top too. For the oven method take your flour and spread it out on a cookie sheet or sheet pan and bake it in a 375° F oven, and about every 10-15 minutes open the oven and stir the flour well with a spoon or metal spatula. Do this until you have the desired “toasted” flour you require. For the stove top method place the flour in the sauce pan or cast iron skillet over a medium high heat and stir the flour until the desired color is achieved. While these two methods offer lower fat options the flavor profile is missing and typically serves only as a thickening agent for the preparation.
• In some soup and sauce recipes the light roux is made with the addition of seasonings and vegetable ingredients. For example, my typical etoufee recipe starts with sauteing the onions, celery, bell peppers (Trinity) and garlic in fat until soft and then adding the flour to make a roux-like paste that includes the vegetables. This method also absorbes the liquid from the vegetables and becomes the thickening agent for the sauce.

This is the etoufee sauce recipe from the Hyatt Regency Hotel in New Orleans from 1984 that I used to prepare on a weekly basis while holding the Saucier position. The yield on this recipe was enough to prepare about 120 – 8 ounce portions of sauce. When I prepare an etoufee at home it is something that I just throw together and have yet to write up a home version of this recipe, the next time I will document it for the scaled back version.

Etoufee Sauce – Hyatt Regency Hotel New Orleans

Ingredients

2          each     Tomatoes diced (#10 cans)

1          lb         Margarine

8          oz         Garlic, minced

6          lb         Onions, small dice (1/3 full sheet pan 4” tall)

6          lb         Celery, small dice (1/3 full sheet pan 4” tall)

6          lb         Bell pepper, small dice (1/3 full sheet pan 4” tall)

1          lb         Flour

4          gal        Brown sauce

4          bunch   Green onions, diced

2          bunch   Parsley, chopped

2          cups     Red wine

2          cups     White wine

1          Tbsp    Thyme

1          Pinch    Oregano

4          each     Bay leaves

Procedure

1.  Melt margarine and sauté garlic with ½ the green onions and ½ the parsley.

2. Add the onion, celery and bell pepper and sauté until soft

3. Add the flour to absorb the liquid.

4. Add the herbs and cook another 5 minutes.

5. Add the two wines and the diced tomatoes and stir well.

6. Add the brown sauce and stir well, and bring to a boil and then simmer for 15-20 minutes.

7. Add the remaining green onions and parsley for garnish.

  Add shrimp or crawfish depending on the menu item being served.