Creole or Cajun

Quarantine cooking is challenging. Thank goodness I have had experience cooking in San Miguel before we had grocery stores like La Comer or Soriana. It wasn't unusual to change up a recipe because we couldn't find the ingredients or sometimes dinner party menus were made as you walked through a market and saw what was available. You learn to substitute and improvise.

One day last week I was digging through the freezer and found one frozen chicken thigh. I could maybe make a little pot of chicken vegetable soup. Then I remembered that I had bought a small package of smoked sausage and that reminded me that I had frozen some okra because too much came in a package when I made okra and tomatoes about three weeks ago. I had the holy trinity, green pepper, onion, and celery. Now things were starting to get interesting. This was adding up to something Creole or Cajun. But what is the difference between the two?

Good ole Google found some good references including The Spruce Eats. Both Creole and Cajun can include roux but the Creole will be made with butter and flour while the Cajun will be made with lard or oil and flour. Creole dishes, even if a gumbo, will have a tomato base and is soupier. The Cajun gumbo usually has a dark roux base and is more like a stew. 

I didn't want to take the time to make a roux so I decided to use my ingredients along with some tomatoes and make soup and I would pour it over rice. When I put the pot on the stove for making rice, the thought ran through my mind that I would have two pots to wash after dinner. Mmm... Why not just throw some rice in my no-name creole recipe and I would only have one pot to wash. It turned out to be a pretty tasty dinner.

BTW, I looked up whether I should capitalize Creole and Cajun. It was a little muddled from different sources but I like the one that said "In some contexts, Creole is used as an adjective, and in some, it is a noun. (We capitalize it in New Orleans, however, so that is how you will encounter it here.)" I'm going with the New Orleans crowd. 

A Crab Feast

Lucky me! My son Mike, brought me a 16-ounce container of crab meat. He knows how much I love crab. I've been known to sit at the table picking and eating crab and drinking a bit of wine for hours. I could be by myself but it is even better if I am sitting with some other people just picking, eating, drinking, and talking. A crab feast was something Ned and I loved to do when we could find nice fat gulf coast crabs. Although I've seen crabs in markets in San Miguel, they weren't lively. I did not buy them. Now that I have crab, I wanted to savor it so I spread it out over three dinners.

The first night was a salad with crispy, icy-cold hearts of romaine lettuce with Cesar dressing topped with crabmeat. The second night I made a cream of corn and roasted poblano soup topped with crab meat. I had to improvise on the soup. Back in San Miguel, I have a recipe from a cooking class that Ned had gone to. I looked online but none of the recipes seemed exactly right so I took a bit of this one and a bit of that one. It was good but it wasn't as wonderful as Ned's recipe.

For the last bit of my crab, I wanted to replicate the sauce that Goode Company Seafood uses in one of my favorite things on their menu, the Campechana Extra shrimp and crab cocktail. No recipe but that did not stop me. I roasted tomato, green pepper, and onion and then I chopped it up in the blender. Added some catsup, lime juice, jalapeno, salt and pepper, and a little tabasco. It was too thick so the recipe needs some more tweeking. The crab meat was tossed with the sauce and topped with fresh avocado. 

I cleaned my plate. All. Three. Nights. 

Sicilian Cooking

While I was in Sicily I had some good meals but overall I thought that there was more potential in the dish than the preparation presented. In the restaurants where I ate, I never had the feeling that there was a chef who was taking the traditional recipes and ingredients and re-interpreting them for today's taste such as we see with some of the innovative chef's in Mexico. 

Sicily is an island so you would think lots of fresh seafood but just about every menu was limited to swordfish, tuna, octopus, squid and prawns. I was surprised because when we were in fish markets there was a wide variety of fish, most of which I didn't recognize from the Italian name nor from the look but certainly more varied than the menus reflected. There was always a dish prepared with squid ink. I tried a risotto in squid ink garnished with a marvelous Sicilian ricotta cheese. It was delicious but so filling that I probably only ate one-third of it.

Another thing about Sicily is that the country has been occupied by so many other countries that I expected more Middle Eastern  and African dishes. There were some items on the menus that included meats with fruits and nuts and if there were others they have been incorporated into our international cuisine to such an extent that I didn't recognize them as different.  

Always on the menu were two salads. One was mostly lettuce with grated carrots, maybe tomatoes and olives. The other might include arugula and romaine lettuce with grated carrots, tomatoes, olives, corn and maybe another vegetable or two. The corn in the salad kind of suprised me but it was good. One day in a Sicilian restaurant in San Miguel I had a salad with oranges and olives and I don't remember what else but when I found an orange salad in Sicily, I ordered it. I was disappointed. It had slices of orange not wedges of orange and lots of olive oil but not a dressing.

I kept thinking about the orange salad and when I went to the Saturday organic market last week and I saw fennel and arugula I knew that I was going to make an orange salad. When I got home I looked up recipes for fennel, arugula and orange salads and found several. So the picture is my version of the salad with a dressing of orange and lemon juice, olive oil, a bit of diced garlic, a 1/4 teaspoon of mustard over fennel, arugala, onion, olive and orange wedges. It was good.    

I'd like to have a Sicilian cookbook and I've been to Amazon to look for one. There are a lot of them but before I buy one I want to be able to at least look at the Table of Contents so see what is going to be included. 

Does anyone have a recommendation for a Sicilian Cookbook?

Mercer Christmas Tradition - Jalapeño Quiche

A reader requested the recipe for Jalapeño Quiche so here it is. Of course I make a few changes. I do make it in a pie plate most of the time.  I use 1 cup shredded Monterrey Jack cheese and ½ cup of swiss cheese.  I put in ½ of the jalapeño peppers and leave the rest for the pepper heads to put on top. I don't measure the onions and probably use between ¼ to ½ cup. I slice the tomatoes very thin or use Roma tomatoes seeded and chopped.  I double the recipe but use three pie shells. If you do this then you need to make enough onion and tomato for three quiches. This quiche is usually a Christmas morning tradition but this year since we were all together it shifted to a Thanksgiving morning tradition.

Jalapeno Quiche

Quiche pastry – enough for a 10” quiche pan or a frozen 9 ½ inch pastry shell

1 ½ cups shredded Monterrey Jack cheese

¼ cup chopped onions

1 tablespoons butter

1 cup cream

5 eggs

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

¼ cup chopped jalapeno peppers

1 sliced tomato

Place well-greased ring on greased quiche pan.  Roll out quiche dough and gently lay into pan.  Line dough with foil.  Fill foil with pie weights and bake shell at 350 for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile saute onions in butter until golden.  Evenly distribute sauteed onions and tomato slices on bottom of shell.

Beat eggs and cream together, stir in salt, pepper and cheese.  If you are feeling brave and like “hot” food mix in your jalapenos now.  If not, save for a garnish.

Pour mixture into shell, bake at 375 for 30 minutes.  Cool for 15 minutes.  Gently remove ring and serve warm.

Cooking Quinoa

In keeping with my goals for 2014, I made this salad for dinner. I want to explore more grains, seeds and nuts in my diet this year. The salad has spinach, roasted tomatoes, roasted beets, toasted walnuts, blue cheese, green onions, quinoa and a olive oil/raspberry balsamic vinaigrette. I was going to use Kale for the green but the only kale I found looked past its prime and the spinach looked like it came out of the ground this morning. I would have perferred a feta cheese but I have some blue cheese that needs to be used up.

Now about the Quinoa...this is the first time I have cooked it or eaten it and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I know it is suppose to be the super food of 2013 and I don't doubt that it is nutritional. Every cooking magazine seems to have a recipe or a whole article about quinoa. I think it is kind of like bulgar wheat or couscous or pasta. It is a mop for the other flavors you put with it.

You may be surprised that I found quinoa in San Miguel. Bonanza had it. Boxes of red or black of quinoa for $189 pesos and a couple of varieties of flavored packets for about $65 pesos. I forgot to look but I think the boxes held 12 or 16 ounces.

If you have cooked quinoa, tell me what you think of it and how you use it. What is your favorite recipe with quinoa? And someone, please tell me what you have to pay for quinoa in Central Market or Whole Foods in the USA.

The Lost Recipe

The first cheesecake I ever made was back in about 1979. I made it from a recipe that I got at a kitchen store in Houston named Drummond's. Drummond's has been gone for a long time but back in 1979 it was my Williams Sonoma store of all exotic cooking things. I picked up the recipe in the store and bought the pan to go with it. The cheesecake turned out fabulously, are least I thought so at that time, so that Christmas I gave my Sister-in-law, Betty, the cheesecake pan and the recipe. Somewhere along the way, I lost my recipe and I didn't remember that I'd given Betty the pan and recipe. Since the Internet came along I've even done a few google searches for the Drummond's cheesecake recipe but no luck.

I was at Betty's for Christmas dinner this year and she pulls out this faded recipe with splatters and the edges of it are disintegrating. She wanted me to help with the glaze for the cheesecake she had made. She had my recipe! Well, not MY recipe but a copy of the recipe. I made a copy of her faded recipe and as soon as I got back to San Miguel I retyped it. I wanted to try it out to see if it was still as good as I remembered it so I made it for a New Year's Eve Party at the home of some friends.

As usual in Mexico, you have to make a few adjustments. I didn't have Graham crackers so I used the Maria cookies for the crumb crust. Cream cheese packages in Mexico are not 8 ounces but 190 gr. or 6.5 ounces. Another problem I had was I have a 9 inch cheesecake pan and it would have cooked better in a 10 inch pan like the recipe calls for.  Although the recipe says to use a food processor, you need a large bowl food processor because the cheese and sugar filled my processor bowl and I had to transfer the mixture to my stand mixer to add the eggs and other stuff. The cheesecake is rich and it will serve 12 to 14 not 8 to 10 unless they are eight teenage boys.


DRUMMOND’S CHEESE CAKE
September, 1979

Crust
1 package graham crackers (I used Maria’s cookies, Need about 1-1/4 cups of crumbs)
1/4 cup sugar
6 T melted butter
½ cup pecans or walnut pieces
Use steel knife. Turn on Food Processor.
Drop Graham crackers through the feeder tube.
Add Sugar. Pour in melted butter.
Add nuts.
Process 5 more seconds.
Stop!
Press mixture into bottom of the lightly greased 10" cheese cake pan. Refrigerate while mixing filling. (Cooked mine in 9" pan because that was all I had. 10" would be much better.

Filling
5 packages (8 oz. Each) cream cheese (Mexican Philadelphia cream cheese is only 6.5 ounces so you need more than 5 packages)
1-3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
2 egg yolks
5 eggs
peel of 1 lemon (I used the peel of a lime because I didn’t have a lemon)
1/4 cup heavy cream
Use steel knife. Turn on Processor and alternately add 2" chunks of cream cheese and 2 T sugar until all cream cheese and sugar are in work bowl.
Add Lemon Peel. (Don’t worry about grating it. The steel knife will do the work!)
(This is the point that I had to transfer the mixture to the stand mixer.)
With the processor still on. Drop egg yolks and then eggs, one by one into work bowl. (Stop at least once and scrape down sides.)
Add the flour immediately followed by the cream. Process 5 more seconds. Pour mixture into cheese-cake pan.
Bake at 475 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 250 degrees continue baking for 1 hour 15 minutes. Turn oven off. Open door and let cheesecake set in open oven for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature.
Decorate top with concentric circles of fresh strawberries and or sliced peaches.

Topping
1/3 cup strawberry jam or peach jam (I only had Strawberry Preserves)
3 T Cointreau or brandy (I used Presidente Brandy)
1 T cornstarch
Heat in small saucepan. Pour over fruit. Refrigerate at least 6 hours prior to serving! 8 to 10 servings.

Brussel Sprout and Carrot Slaw

A comment I made on Facebook about making a slaw brought a lot of comments. So, I thought I would try to give my readers a recipe....well, you know MY recipes are more like guidelines because I'm not too good at actually doing exact proportions. With a lot of stuff, that is good enough but it wouldn't be so good with baking. Slaw? I don't think 'mas o menos' amounts is a problem with slaw. I made the slaw one night to go with a chicken breast and I had leftovers so the next day I combined it for a sandwich. It was good both ways but I'll definitely make it again to go on chicken or pork tenderloin sandwiches.

I'm going to give the amounts I used which I think would serve two for dinner or make 4-6 sandwiches.

4 nice firm green brussel spouts
2 medium carrots
1 or 2 tablespoons diced red onion that has been soaked in cold water and drained
dried cranberries
seasoned rice wine vinegar
drizzle of roasted walnut oil or a good premium olive oil
Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Dice about 2 tablespoons of red onion in a small dice and put in cold water with a pinch of salt to soak for about 15 minutes. drain and pat dry with a paper towel. Add about half the diced onion and wait until the slaw is put together to taste. Add the remainder if you want a stronger onion flavor.

Cut off the bottom stem end of the brussel sprout and split it lengthwise, Slice each half into thin strips. You can use a mandolin if you have one. I don't, so I slice.

Peel the carrots and grate on a coarse setting. Mix in with the brussel sprouts and onion.

Dried cranberries? I think I added about a handful but you make the judgement on how much you want. They are pretty in the salad but they also add a nice punch of sweet that is really good.

Again I didn't measure how much seasoned rice wine vinegar but it was enough to season but not enough to make the mixture drippy. The same with the oil. It was a drizzle but not a lot. You can always add more if you think you need it after it sits for a while.

Salt and pepper to taste. I usually add a little at this point and then when I take it out of the fridge before serving and after the flavors have had time to meld, I taste again and see if I need to add more.

If you make this slaw, let me know what you think....even if you didn't like it. Also let me know how you would adjust the recipe the next time you make it.

If I served this with sandwiches, I would use a sliced rustic loaf or a baguette and spread a mixture of Dijon and mayo or a garlicy mayo on the bread.

Colorful Cooking

Don't these colors look luscious? Good old Summertime bounty. I'm eating well this weekend. Left to right: Roasted poblanos, chunky gazpacho and bottom right is roasted tomatoes.

I do love gazpacho plain, well maybe with a crusty slice of bread and a bit of avocado garnish. I also love it when I have some boiled shrimp to add to it....along with the crusty slice of bread. This one is fairly simple to make because I use canned diced tomatoes. Then I finely dice cucumber, yellow pepper, onion, serrano pepper, cilantro and a bit of garlic. I add tomato juice or if I have it, I like to split between tomato juice and Bloody Mary mix. I don't know why I can't find Bloody Mary mix in Mexico anymore but I can't. Haven't found any in two or three years. Then of course, I add salt and pepper to taste and sometimes some more serrano if it doesn't have enough kick. I know if you are a gazpacho purist you are covering your eyes and saying derogatory things about my recipe. But that is okay. I understand. You have your standards and I have my gazpacho.

Roasted tomatoes have become one of my very favorite things this year. I keep some roasted tomatoes in the refrigerator most of the time. They make a great snack. Put them on another slice of that crusty bread either plain or with a smear of goat cheese and some arugula and you have a great open-face sandwich. You can add one or two tomatoes to scrambled eggs for breakfast or a light dinner. Of course, you can always cook up a bit of pasta. Saute some onion and garlic, add the tomatoes just to heat through and top  the pasta. A sprinkle of grated Parmesan and you have another quick dinner.

Oh, the way I roast the tomatoes is I cut them in half length-wise. I use a spoon to scoop out the seeds. I toss them with some balsamic vinegar and good olive oil. Put them on a foil lined baking sheet for easy cleanup.  Add about one diced garlic clove for every eight or so tomatoes. Add a few drops of the oil and vinegar mixture that you tossed the tomatoes in to each tomato. A light sprinkling of sugar  and salt. A few grinds of pepper.  Into a 325 degree oven for about 25 minutes. Most of the time before I store them in the refrigerator I slip the skin off.

Another staple that I try to keep in the freezer is roasted poblanos. That means I buy eight or so  of them and roast them over the flame of the gas stove, peel them, scoop out the insides and wrap each separately in plastic wrap. Put them in a freezer bag and they are ready to use one or two or four at a time when I need them. I love poblano mashed potatoes. I have a great creamy corn, poblano and rice casserole recipe. This week I had some left over roasted chicken. I made a quick tomatillo sauce. Then I took out a poblano or two, cut it up and sauteed it with some onion. Added the chicken long enough to heat through. Topped it with the tomatillo sauce and grated some Swiss cheese on top. I know Swiss cheese doesn't sound like it goes with tomatillo sauce but you use what you have on hand.

Some people have told that they miss my blog entries about cooking. I'm not sure what to write. I seldom try a really new book-kind of recipe. I'm just working with what I see in the mercado when I go. What I cook these days is just a little of this and a little of that. I went to the organic market today. So tomorrow for comida I'm having roasted butternut squash, thin roasted slices of beets, sauteed broccoli  with garlic and an arugula salad sprinkled with blue cheese. That sounds like a colorful comida, doesn't it?