Mardi Gras 2015

The newly fallen snow has not stopped me from daydreaming about Mardi Gras.  Mardi Gras , the date often associated with parties and celebrations. Mardi, the date traditionally associated with eating richer foods before beginning the Lenten season with Ash Wednesday.

I was raised in a Protestant household, but was keenly aware of Lenten traditions, because many of my classmates were Catholic. The small New England City were I spent most of my childhood didn't host Mardi Gras parades, balls or other fanfare.  However, my parents were both from Louisiana and shared their knowledge and love of dishes from their home state at the dinner table often.

My parents prepared gumbo frequently and related stories of eating hot po'boy sandwiches (oyster is my mother's favorite). An early formed dislike for okra resulted in me being banned from eating the gumbo because I would attempt to ladle out bit of gumbo without okra and my mother disliked having her food wasted. Despite this preference I still assisted my mother with  preparing this dish - cutting up chicken and sausage, preparing deveining the shrimp or preparing crabs as needed. As result I learned that not all gumbo is alike and that flavors and appearance of gumbo will vary by cook and the ingredients used. Even today when my mother visits  family in Louisiana she makes an effort to purchase an oyster po'boy from a local shop.

 
It's probably fortuitous that my parents didn't introduce beignets to my sister and me when were small children.  I would've asked from them often, much too often.  I finally learned how to make beignets in a cooking class about a year ago.  Here 's the recipe we used:

3/4 c whole milk
1 1/2 c buttermilk
4 tsp active dry yeast (you can use instant yeast as well)
2 1/2 tbsp. sugar
3 1/2 cup bread flour plus extra for flouring work surface
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
peanut or vegetable oil for frying
confectioners' sugar for serving

Heat the milk in a small sauce pan over medium-high heat until small bubbles from at the surface. Remove from the heat, add buttermilk, and then pour into mixer bowl.  Let the mixture sit in the bowl for a minute or two. Whisk in the yeast and the sugar, set aside for 5 minutes. Ass the flour, baking soda, and salt, and mix on low speed, using a dough hook, until the dry ingredients are moistened, 3 to 4 minutes. Increase the mixer speed to medium and continue mixing until the dough forms a loose ball and is still quite wet and tacky, 1 to 2 minutes longer. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set the dough aside in a draft free spot for 1 hour.

Pour enough oil into a large pot to fill it to a depth of 3 inches and bring the oil to a temperature of 375 or medium heat. Line a plate with paper towels and set aside.

Lightly flour the work surface and turn the dough out on it. Sprinkle the top of the dough with flour; gently press to flatten, fold it in half, and gently tuck the ends under to create a rough shaped round. Dust again and roll the dough out into a 1/2 inch thick circle. Let the dough rest for 1 minute before using a pizza cutter, chef's knife or pastry cutter to cut the dough into 1 1/2 inch squares (this recipe yields about 48 squares).


Gently stretch a beignet lengthwise and carefully drop it into the oil. Add a few beignet and fry until puffed and golden brown, turning them often with a slotted spoon, for 2 to 3 minutes.

Transfer to the prepared plate to drain while you cook the rest. Sprinkle confectioners' sugar generous over the warm beignets and serve.

Alas, my daydream is broken by the sound of snowplows. I better clear the walkway before the next round of snow arrives!

Do you have fond memories of Mardi Gras or dishes associated with Mardi Gras? Share your comments below. 


Be well,
Technicolor girl

Fat Tuesday Favorites: A cooking class featuring New Orleans Mardi Gras favorites

Beignets anyone?

Chef Danielle Turner's Fat Tuesday Favorites class syllabus on the L'Academie de Cuisine website piqued my curiosity. I was born in Louisiana as were my parents. My parents cooked some popular dishes associated with New Orleans/ Cajun dining when I was a child. I even helped my mother prep the vegetables she would use in many of her dishes. Yes, I was the kid whose hands reeked of onion, celery and bell pepper (aka the holy trinity of Cajun cooking or the mirepoix of Louisiana Creole cooking). Would this class teach me how to make the oft talked about beignets or oyster po'boy that my mother talked about eating as a young woman?

A snowstorm passed through the DC metro area the day before class and many areas were still clearing roadways and walkways the day of the class. Instead of 10 participants, there were 5 participants.

On the class menu:

Barbecued Shrimp

Chicken & Sausage Gumbo;

Fried Oyster Po' Boys

Beignets

Our first task was blending the ingredients for the beignet dough and then set it aside to allow the dough additional time to rise and expand.

We  moved on to the chicken and sausage gumbo. I scanned the recipe to see if okra was a listed ingredient (it's one of the few vegetables I'm not fond of. I remember once trying to extract the okra from bowl of gumbo  and my mother saw me - BIG mistake. I was told not to eat the gumbo unless I was willing to eat whatever was  placed in my bowl). I found no okra listed in the ingredients for class- whew!

We used red pepper instead of green pepper in our gumbo. Chef Turner recommended using chicken thighs and seasoning the meat well because they will absorb the flavors of the dish. Chicken stock, tomatoes, and a small bit of tomato paste were added to the cooked  peppers, cooked chicken and cooked sausage.

gumbo simmering



gumbo is served

Once the gumbo ingredients were simmering we began preparing the barbecue shrimp. It was simple, easy and quick to prepare - a winning a combination in my book. The word barbecue refers to using a 'low and slow' heat to cook the shrimp once the sauce is prepared. As my classmate and I discovered using a  high heat to create the sauce burns the sauce quickly. Fortunately, the shrimp had not been added to the pan and  one of the class assistants brought another set of ingredients to us to re-create the sauce. When the sauce is mixed well the shrimp are added to the pan and the flame is lowered. When the shrimp were  done we were shown two ways to plate the dish: arrange slices of bread on a plate, arrange shrimp on the bread slices, pour the sauce over the shrimp and bread OR place shrimp in bowl, pour sauce over shrimp and garnish with bread slices. I decided to serve the dish by arranging the shrimp atop the bread slices.



barbecue shrimp

After enjoying the barbecue shrimp Chef Turner demonstrated how to preprare the oysters for frying. The oysters were marinading in their own jucies with a liberal amount of Tabasco added.  We used one (1) beaten egg, flour, and cornmeal. We dipped the oyster in the beaten egg first then the flour, followed by the cornmeal. It's a messy process, but the end result is so worth it - oysters with a crispy exterior and a tender, somewhat spicy interior. We were given sliced baguette bread, lettuce, tomato, red onion and remoulade one of Chef Turner's volunteer assistants prepared for the class using the recipe provided in the course syllabus.


fried oysters

po'boy prep

Before tonight's class I had never made beignets.  After setting the beignet dough aside so it could rise and expand we rolled the dough out about 1/4 inch thick and then cut the dough into similarly sized pieces. The pieces of cut dough were deep fried and when done (the dough must be flipped over) were liberally dusted with powdered sugar. Delicious and addictive! Overall, the process reminded me of what I had done in another cooking class to make donuts, excluding placing the dough in a proofer to encourage the dough to rise more.

frying beignets

Chef Turner discovered that a recipe for bananas foster had mistakenly been included in the class syllabus she submitted for printing. She prepared the dish as a bonus for us.

I enjoyed the class and learned new techniques as Chef Turner's presentation style makes it easy to repeat the steps she demonstrates. She also encourages students to ask questions.

Merci!