April 2nd, 2013 · Comments Off on Tujague’s Restaurant Up For Grabs
Tujague’s Restaurant
Once the news of Steven Ladder’s passing hit the streets of New Orleans, in particular the French Quarter, the future and fate of Tujague’s Restaurant (pronounced TOO-jacks) starting flying around like sparks out of a Mississippi Levee bonfire on Christmas Eve. Except for the fact that Ladder, the then owner of the restaurant passed away in his sleep on February 18, 2013, and this is not the giving season! So what would become of the coveted gem of a restaurant that has stood for over 150 years as a beacon of culinary refuge holding up some of the best old school New Orleans traditional recipes and menus on the corner at 823 Decatur Street in the French Quarter?
Turns out John Besh is making an effort to claim a stake in buying the property from Steven’s brother Stanford who currently owns the property that the restaurant resides. The rumor mill has expectations of Stanford selling the location to a local T-shirt shop merchant Mike Motwani who runs several of the apparel shops in the French Quarter. As if the area needs another T-Shirt shop!!! The other fly in the ointment is other brother Mark Latter owns the restaurant business, while Stanford owns the building.
Reservations and inquiry at the restaurant are at an all time high since news of it’s possible closure, many New Orleanians are making possibly their last efforts to get plates of Shrimp Remoulade, Beef Brisket with Creole Sauce, or the ubiquitous Sazerac Cocktail from the bar.
One thing is certain, should Tujague’s shutter and not survive into the next generation of the family business, it will be a sad day for New Orleans and a sadder day for those who cherish one of the places that has made New Orleans what it is today.
It’s that time of year again when we start harvesting our peppers, and did we have a load of them this year. With our buckets in hand Monique and I took several hours on Sunday afternoon and harvested all the peppers from twenty-four plants within the far west side raised bed.
The pepper plants included:
4 Sweet Bell Peppers
6 Jalapeno
4 Ancho Chili
4 Hungarian Wax
2 Cayenne
2 Anaheim
The harvested peppers filled up 17 gallons full from three 5-gallon buckets and a little over half of a 3-gallon bucket. Once the peppers were washed we started the sorting process, as you can see many of them in the three large stainless steel bowls on our kitchen prep table.
Picked peppers Sorted on the prep table
These peppers all started out from seeds in March and then transplanted the seedlings to the raised bed plot back around June.
Pepper plot spring 2012
You might ask, what are we going to do with all these peppers? Good question!
I’ve already made a batch of Chipotle peppers with the red jalapeno peppers, and will soon post a recipe on that process!
I am in the process of making a Chili Ristra with all the red chili peppers, another post on that as soon as the Ristra is completed.
We enjoy viewing food television shows and have ardently kept up with the Master Chef (US Season 3) series this past season which completed the finale on September 10, 2012 with Christine Ha The Blind Cook winning with her unbridled passion for cooking.
On episode 17 which aired on Tuesday, August 21, 2012, the Elimination Challenge 8 dish was selected by contestant Josh who won the advantage from the previous Mystery Box Challenge on the same segment, Josh chose Obama’s Sashimi, one of Chef Graham Elliot’s famous dishes. This dish looked wonderful on television, and both Monique and I got excited to try out this exquisitely plated dish.
I found the “Obama’s Sashimi” recipe on the Master Chef web site, the full recipe was available at the time I searched several weeks ago, but now I find they are only offering the first ingredient and first preparation step, trying to get you to purchase their book, “Master Chef: The Ultimate Cookbook”. This is Fox’s polite marketing ploy to get you to spend more of your money for all the recipes from the show. Amazon has a better price for the print or Kindle edition.
A little research…
For those who wish to recreate the dish, I have found several variations on the Internet, some with a passion fruit sorbet, some with cilantro sprouts, and some that call the avocado preparation a puree, whip, or mousse as in the original recipe from the Fox recipe web site.
Here are a few of the search results that intrigued my interest:
Sushi grade tuna, cut 2- x 1 1/2- x 1/4-inches (1 ½ pounds)
24
Slices
Cucumber, cut thin into semi-circles
4
Sprigs
Garlic chives, bias cut into ¼-inch pieces
2
Each
Passion fruits, ripe (wrinkled)
2
Tbsp
Cocoa Nibs, organic raw
For the avocado mousse
1
Medium
Avocado peeled, pitted, and cut into chunks
2
Tbsp
Fresh squeezed lime juice (1 medium lime)
½
Tsp
Kosher Salt or sea salt
1
Tbsp
Extra virgin olive oil
For the fried plaintain chips
2
Cups
Canola oil
1
Medium
Plantain, peeled and cut thinly on a bias
Kosher salt
Procedure Steps:
To make avocado mousse
1.
Combine the avocado, lime juice, and 1/2 teaspoon of the kosher salt in a small food processor and blend until smooth.
2.
With the machine running, blend in the oil. Season to taste with more salt if needed.
3.
Transfer the mousse to a pastry bag fitted with a small, star tip, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold.
To make plaintain chips
1.
Heat ½ inch of oil in a heavy medium saucepan over medium heat to 375 degrees F.
2.
Peel the plantain then cut it lengthwise in half.
3.
Cut one half of the plantain on a sharp bias into 24 paper-thin slices.
4.
Working in batches, fry the plantains until they are golden brown, about 3-4 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the plantain chips to paper towels to drain the excess oil. Season the hot chips with kosher salt.
To assemble the plates
1.
Place six cucumber slices on the plate into a semi-circle shape in one corner.
2.
Pipe a small mound of the avocado mousse overlapping half of the cucumber slices. Garnish the avocado mousse and cucumbers with the garlic chives.
3.
Place four of the fried plantain chips on the corner of the plate opposite the cucumber slices.
4.
Lay six tuna slices on the center of each plate, forming a semi-circle.
5.
Cut the passion fruits in half and mix up the pulp, juice, and seeds with a spoon then pour it evenly over the tuna.
6.
Sprinkle the tuna with the cocoa nibs and some kosher salt and serve immediately.
Stumbled upon a distance education series on the local education channel last night, it was Professor Will Hooker of NC State University giving a field trip lecture on permaculture. In this particular session he gave a tour of his property, and along with his wife they described the plants, chickens, fruit, flowers, herbs, a clay oven, and how he has leveraged the land to his advantage.
Today I ran a Google search for “permaculture NC State” and found the link to the entire lecture series provided by the NC State Distance Education series, this one is tagged as HS 432 HS 590.
So I viewed (attended) a recording of the introductory lecture and found it quite interesting, this is what I have been looking for with respect to modeling our landscape into a sustainable environment.
So excited to learn more as I progress through the educational series, in fact one of the assignments is to view the video on YouTube featuring the founder of the permaculture movement and methods, Australian Bill Mollison, in the film entitled “In Grave Danger of Falling Food”, where he describes the effort taken to reclaim the land and turn landscapes back into living environments, including lawns and cities. Narrated by James Dibble, and edited by Amanda Robson, this sometimes campy and fun film even has a rap song to boot, I’ve embedded the video here for your viewing pleasure. Total viewing time is just under 56 minutes.
