EdHart.meAs I’ve said in the past, Red Beans & Rice is always fun for me to cook because I change the recipe everytime I make it. This one was probabaly the best batch I’ve made in years, so I’ll honor it with a side of Louis Armstrong singing and playing Basin Street Blues, because Red Beans & Rice just don’t seem right without Louis Armstrong.
The kind of rice I enjoy with Gumbos, Red Beans, Étouffée, etc., a lot of NoLA Cuisine dishes, is Creole Boiled Rice. I like it because the grains stay separate from one another, essentially, they let the main dish be the dish. Not that the rice is second fiddle, in fact, if your rice is terrible, it will ruin the whole dish. When I have a pot of Red Beans on the stove, my Rice is as important as my Beans, which means, Very important! I take Red Beans & Rice very seriously. Well, not too seriously, nothing should be too serious, but let’s just say I hold them in high esteem (more on Red Beans later). Anyway, this is a great, simple, Accompaniment Rice. Not great because it’s simple, just great!
My go-to website for cajun recipes, nolacuisine.com, has gone defunct. I’ll leave the link active here in case it ends up being a temporary issue, but in the meantime, here’s a copy of the chicken and andouille sausage recipe.
Grilled lamb chops are the perfect date night dinner, especially when it’s been a busy day and you don’t have a ton of prep time. Where I live, Trader Joe’s is always a sure bet to have New Zealand Lamb racks in stock. I can occasionally find them at Sprouts, but that’s about it. I like to make a simple herb marinade with thyme, rosemary & Italian parsley and then grill them. The presentation is elegant and they’re delicious when paired with a spicy red wine like a Malbec or Cabernet Sauvignon. So good!
A few weeks ago I discovered galettes. For those of you who don’t know, a galette is like an open faced pie. They’re generally made, as best as I can tell, with fruit fillings which is what I’ve been doing. But you can also make them with more savory fare, which I plan to do soon. The awesome thing about galettes is that they’re made to look rustic, so you almost can’t mess them up.
Tonight we were in the mood for something on the lighter side. I considered my other roasted cauliflower recipe, but wanted a bit of a different flavor profile, and I like the idea of a more steak-like presentation. I had a great blackened rub in the spice cabinet, so decided to go with a basic pan-seared cauliflower steak with some caramelized onions. I used butter in the skillet to sear the cauliflower since I figured that the whole thing was already pretty economical on the calories, so a butter flavor bomb with the blackened seasoning would be totally fine. It was really good!
This is a refreshing citrus vinaigrette with just a hint of sweetness.
This evening was a particularly nice spring evening and we kicked off the date night dinner with an appetizer of fried oysters, followed by a wine walk around the neighborhood (so we would’t feel guilty!) before settling in for the main course. The nice thing about this menu is that all the work is up front on the appetizer. The main course requires very little prep, just timing. Main thing is to cut up the potatoes before even starting on the appetizer and pre-heating the oven while making the oysters. I’m all about efficiency, particularly on a date night, so we can maximize the enjoyment part and minimize the food prep part.
This is a classic quiche recipe that I got from the Spring 2018 issue Magnolia Journal and one that I use as a base for lots of quiche experimentation. It’s eggs, cream and bacon in a pie shell so how can it be anything other than delicious?
Get ready for a flavor bomb mushroom soup recipe. Compared with so many of the recipes found online, this looks deceptively simple and basic, but it’s actually amazing. The proportions in this recipe really serves 2 with maybe a little left over if this is a main course. If you’re serving tiny cups of soup you could get away with 4, but it’s so good you probably won’t want to. So the recipe can easily be doubled. Also, if you like a more creamy consistency (not so many mushrooms), you can either use an immersion blender to incorporate some of the mushrooms or take a cup or more and puree it in a blender and then add back to the soup. Either way, this is a really awesome and hearty mushroom soup recipe.