Mussel Memory

There are several people throughout my lifetime that have played a part in how I feel about food and cooking . One person that has made a huge impression on my taste buds is my sister Jessica. Considering the fact that she is my older sister, she went through the typical life experiences first. Because of this benefit, she has encouraged me and guided me in so many aspects of life. She helped me get my first "real" job, she has let me tag along on several of her travels, and she teaches me things everyday about being a mom that I know I will put to good use one day. In addition to these very important occasions, she also has played a big part in how I feel about food. Because she normally experienced things in life first, she had the luxury of tasting several different foods before I ever did. She shares my passion for food and she is willing to try anything. Almost every thing I eat and love today that isn't a "typical" food was introduced to me by my sister. I can remember trying several of my favorite foods for the first time with her: goat cheese, sushi and lamb to name a few. Now you may think that these things are not very strange food items, but they weren't things that we grew up eating. We ate incredibly delicious cuisine during our childhood, but we rarely strayed away from chicken, beef, and your New Orleans type seafood. I have thousands of things to be thankful to my sister for, but I am also very thankful for the fact that she has opened my eyes to so many delicious things. If it weren't for her, I may not have known how much I could love great food. Another atypical dish that I remember my sister introducing me to is mussels. Today, mussels are the only thing I ever get when I go to a French restaurant (I am sure it also has something to do with the fact that they are normally served with Pommes Frites).

I love mussels, but I have never attempted to cook them at home. I recently came across a recipe in one of my cookbooks that I was looking forward to undertaking. And right in step with the cookbook discovery, I noticed that Whole Foods sold fresh mussels at their seafood counter. This dish was so easy to prepare and a great deal of fun! I like to have new experiences in the kitchen, and this one was very enjoyable. If you like mussels and can find fresh ones at a seafood market or your local grocery, I strongly suggest you make this recipe in your own home. Once I started the cooking portion of this recipe, I was amazed at how quickly it all came together. I have cooked so many recipes in my life (so this next statement is a bold one), and this is one of the best! This dish was one that when I was eating it I wanted to open a restaurant that serves only that dish in order to share it with others. It was awesome! It tasted just like something that would be served at a very nice dining establishment and was so succulent. Next time I will serve this over whole-wheat pasta in order to have something to soak up more of the sauce.

Spicy Mussels with Herbs and Feta Cheese
The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen by Paula Wolfert

3 pounds small mussels
Sea Salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cinnamon stick, 2 inches long
2/3 cup dry white wine
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Juice of 1/2 of lemon
1/4 cup of slivered fresh basil
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 long dried red chile pepper, about 3 inches long ( I substituted 1/4 teaspoon of dried red pepper flakes)
2 teaspoons tomato paste
2 teaspoons chopped garlic
3 ounces cow's milk feta
Garlic toasts

1. Scrub mussels, pull off beards, and rinse in several changes of water. Place the mussels in a bowl of lightly salted cool water and let stand for at least 1 hour so they purge themselves of sand. (Farmed mussels do not need soaking; if soaked, they lose all their flavor.) Drain mussels


2. Heat a large nonreactive shallow pan until hot, add 1 tablespoon of the butter, and allow to sizzle. Add the cinnamon stick, mussels, and wine all at once, cover, and cook over high heat until the mussels open, about 2 minutes. If the shells are just beginning to open, leave them 1 minute longer, but do not overcook. Transfer the mussels to a bowl in order to catch their juices. Strain the cooking liquid through a fine sieve and reserve. Discard the cinnamon stick. Shell the mussels and season them with the black pepper and the lemon juice.

3. Wipe out the pan, add another tablespoon of the butter, and set over medium heat. Add half the basil, half the parsley, and the chile pepper and cook for 1 minute, stirring. Add the tomato paste, reserved mussel cooking liquid, and garlic, quickly bring to a boil. Cook over medium heat for 2 minutes, or until the liquid has reduced to about 1 cup. Remove from heat, add the mussels, and set aside to cool.


4. Cut the feta into small slices. Dice remaining 2 tablespoons butter. Scatter the feta and butter over the mussels. Slowly cook until almost boiling. Swirl to allow the butter and cheese to thicken the sauce. Correct the seasoning of the sauce with salt, pepper, and lemon. Garnish with the remaining basil and parsley and serve at once with the garlic toasts.

When I was reading this recipe I thought that feta cheese sounded like an odd thing to pair with mussels, but the saltiness of the cheese worked wonderfully with the seafood and the creaminess of the cheese was the perfect compliment to the sauce.

FYI - I do also have two brothers that I love and adore very much, but because they aren't very adventurous eaters and don't bake cupcakes on rainy days I haven't given them much love on my blog. So I just wanted to say a quick hello to Trey and Kent!

Tres de Mayo

A common misconception in the United States is that Cinco de Mayo is Mexico's Independence Day; Mexico's Independence day is actually September 16. Cinco de Mayo commemorates an initial victory of Mexican forces over French forces in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862 (thanks Wikipedia). Cinco de Mayo is celebrated with more hoopla in the United States than it is in Mexico. Americans use the holiday as a time to celebrate all that is Mexican culture like their food and their alcohol. Well in my case, if Party City sells a mix CD for the particular holiday I like to have a party to match the soundtrack! So several weeks ago Forrest and I decided to have a Cinco de Mayo party for some of our friends. I knew we would have too many people for a dinner party so I decided to have a "Cinco" themed party since we wouldn't actually have the party on Cinco de Mayo because it fell on a Monday. I proceeded to put together a menu of five different flavored salsas and five different flavored margaritas. Thanks to Martha Stewart (who always urges you to keep your entertaining simple) I was feeling good about sticking to the "easy" menu I had prepared. I started assembling the salsas on Friday night with Forrest as my resident official taster. I don't eat salsa and it was very interesting to prepare recipes that I wasn't willing to taste when several of them instructed me to "salt and pepper to taste". Those of you who know him, know that Forrest is never one to turn down a meal preview so he happily stepped up to the plate in this situation. Several of the recipes took longer than expected because the vegetables required roasting, but other than that they were relatively easy to prepare. Since I can't personally attest to it, I have to rely on the word of my guests, but the general consensus was that they were very all very good. Some were more popular than others as I will indicate below in each recipe.

Roasted Tomatillo & Mango Salsa
Cooking Light



Salsa:
1 1/2 pounds fresh tomatillos
1 large jalapeño pepper
1 large onion, peeled and quartered
4 unpeeled garlic cloves
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups finely diced peeled mango (about 2 large)

Preparation

Preheat broiler.

To prepare salsa, discard the husks and stems from tomatillos. Remove stem from jalapeño. Place tomatillos, jalapeño, onion, and garlic on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray. Broil 8 minutes or until the tomatillos and onions are lightly charred (about 8 minutes), turning once; cool.

Peel garlic. Place garlic, tomatillos, jalapeño, onion, cilantro, lime juice, and 1 teaspoon salt in a food processor; pulse 10 times or until ingredients are coarsely chopped. Place tomatillo mixture in a large bowl; stir in mango. Serve with chips.

This certinley was the least popular salsa of the night. Hardly any of it was eaten. I think the onion flavor was too over-powering.

Hot & Spicy Tomato Salsa
www.food.com



2 fresh jalapenos
1 bunch fresh cilantro leaves
1 clove garlic
1 banana pepper
1 lime, juice ( I juiced all my limes at one time since I needed lime juice for several of my salsas and all of my margaritas)


1 teaspoon House Seasoning, recipe follows
1 can diced tomatoes Put everything but the tomatoes in a food processor. Chop until diced. Add the tomatoes. Serve with chips.

Cook's Note: This recipe can be very hot. And can be made without the jalapeno seeds and veins to make it less hot.

House Seasoning:
1 cup salt
1/4 cup black pepper
1/4 cup garlic powder

Mix ingredients together and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months.

Tomatillo, Cilantro, and Avacado Salsa
Nueva Salsa by Rafael Palomino


4 roasted tomatillos, each quartered
2 ripe Hass avacoados, peeled, pitted, and coarsley chopped
1 red onion, diced
1 1/2 roasted pablano chiles, peeled, seeded, and diced
1/3 cup white balsamic vinegar
Juice of 1/2 lime
1 tablespoon olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
2 tablespoons mince fresh cilantro

In a large glass or ceramic bowl, combine the tomatillos and avocados. Gently stir in the red onion, chiles, vinegar, lime juice, oil, salt, and pepper (don't overdo it or the avocados will get mushy). Let sit for about 20 minutes, then stir in the cilantro and serve. Or, cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days. Return to room temperature and stir in the cilantro just before serving

This guacamole like salsa was definitely the party favorite. It disappeared off the table very rapidly. If I were to do it again, I would make a double batch of this one.

Roasted Corn and Black Bean Salsa
Nueva Salsa by Rafael Palomino


30 ounces canned beans, drained and rinsed
Kernels cut from 8 ears of roasted corn
1 pound plum tomatoes, diced
2 teaspoons aji amarillo or chipotle puree
1/3 cup white balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
Juice of 1/2 lime
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 avacado, peeled, pitted and diced
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro

In a large bowl, combine the black beans, corn kernels, and tomatoes. Stir in all the remaining ingredients except the avocados and cilantro. Let sit for about 20 minutes, then gently stir in the avocado and cilantro and serve. (I made labels for each salsa so my guest knew what they were eating- see below)

People seemed to love the Roasted Corn and Black Bean Salsa. The only problem with this salsa is that several people dropped the black beans under the table during the party and after a tequila infused night I thought they were cockroaches!

Roasted Jalapeño and Tomato Salsa
Nueva Salsa by Rafael Palomino



3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 plum tomatoes, diced
8 roasted cloves of garlic
1 red onion, diced
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar
2 roasted jalapeño chiles, peeled, seeded, and diced (see pic below of how I roasted mine)


2 teaspoons chopped fresh cilantro

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil. Saute the tomatoes and garlic for about 2 minutes or until the tomatoes soften slightly. Scrape into a medium bowl.

In the same pan, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon oil. Add the onion, salt, and pepper. Saute for about 2 minutes, or until softened. Add to the tomato mixture. Let cool to room temperature.

Stir in the vinegar and chiles. Let sit for about 20 minutes, then stir in the cilantro and serve.

Margaritas

Below is a picture of the Margarita menu I made and placed on the bar. If you would like any of the recipes, just shoot me an email at elizabethsedibleexperience@gmail.com and I will be happy to share them with you.

Panini Perfection

By far, our new kitchen appliance that we have put the most miles on in our few short weeks of marriage is our Panini Press. There is just something magical about a machine that toast bread, melts cheese, and warms the inner ingredients all in one step. In my opinion, a panini is certainly not just another sandwich. Sure, before it goes onto the Panini press it is in actuality just a sandwich, but the transformation that occurs in those 4-6 minutes on the press is amazing. Lucky for us, there are a ton of really creative panini recipes available. We have tried several over the last couple of weeks and although this isn't our favorite - it is the only one we have made since I started blogging. This recipe is really good if you are a mushroom lover. And of course, you have to like goat cheese as well (which we both love, love, love it). I have to admit however that I didn't pick out this recipe because it contained goat cheese or mushrooms. The reason I decided to make this particular panini is because it called for truffle oil. And as some of you may know, truffle oil is ridiculously expensive. I had foolishly purchased it for a recipe a couple of months back and have been trying to find a reason to use it again to justify the cost. Ladies, this is the culinary equivalent of buying a really expensive outlandish pair of shoes that match absolutely nothing in your closet and having to go out and purchase outfits that will go with them (now are you with me?). So I figured this sandwich was a good shot at using more of that truffle oil that has been sitting untouched in my pantry for months.

Don't disregard this recipe if you dont' have a panini maker, I have read about several other ways to make a panini if you don't have an actual panini press (losers - just kidding). So I have listed them below:

• Use a grill pan and place a brick wrapped in foil (or another pan) on the top of the sandwich to press it.

• Use a griddle and the same brick technique above (you won't get grill marks on your bread this way , but you will still get the pressed effect)

• And although I have never read of this technique - before I had a panini machine I used to use my George Foreman grill to prepare panini recipes. This approach usually smooshes the inards of the sandwich out - so it isn't as pretty, but desperate times call for desperate measures. (And if a girl wants a melty gooey sandwich, she will find a way to get it!)

Mushroom, Goat Cheese And Truffle Oil Panini
Recipe courtesy Tyler Florence

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 tablespoons fresh thyme, chopped
1 pound mixed mushrooms, such as button, cremini, shiitake or oyster
1/2 pound fresh goat cheese, or other soft fresh cheese
2 tablespoons truffle oil*, optional
1 small focaccia loaf
1 small bunch arugula
*Can be found at gourmet and specialty food shops.

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and 2 tablespoons thyme and cook for 1 minute. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, until they are browned and soft, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and let them cool for about 15 minutes. Put the mushrooms into a food processor and pulse a few times until they are finely chopped. (Alternately, you can chop them on a board with a knife.) Scrape them into a bowl. Crumble in the goat cheese and add the remaining thyme. Pour in the truffle oil, if using, and mix well to combine.

Cut the focaccia into 4 pieces, slice them horizontally, and drizzle with some olive oil. On the bottoms place 1/4 of the mushroom mixture and top with some arugula. Put the tops on and gently press each sandwich to flatten it slightly. Drizzle some more olive oil over the tops. (Picture below is before it is placed on the press and it is still "just a sandwich")

Place each sandwich on a preheated panini press and grill until the bread is toasted and the cheese begins to melt, about 5 minutes. Serve immediately.

FYI - I decided after this recipe that I don't even really like Truffle Oil, so I am chalking up that $12 as a loss and I won't be making any more recipes that require the modern culinary ingredient.

Chicken Vesuvio

Tonight I made a recipe I saw on Giada's DeLaurentiis' Every Day Italian cooking show several months back. I wasn't able to make it when I first watched the show because I didn't have a dutch oven that could withstand the heat of a 450 degree oven. But now I do! So I went to my recipe box on the Food Network's website and printed out the recipe I have been waiting to try. It incorporates another one of my favorite foods (artichokes) so I knew it would be a hit. It also reminded me of when I was younger and my mom would bake chicken with potatoes in the same pot. It is a really easy recipe to make and actually very cheap since it calls for dried herbs instead of fresh and has only a few ingredients. This chicken dish is one that you could turn to in a fix because chances are that you have all the ingredients you need at any given time.

Chicken Vesuvio

3 tablespoons olive oil
4 chicken thighs with skin and bones
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 pounds small red-skinned potatoes, halved
4 large garlic cloves, minced
3/4 cup dry white wine
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried thyme
8 ounces frozen artichoke hearts or 1 cup frozen lima beans, thawed
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Heat the oil in large ovenproof pot over high heat. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper. Working in 2 batches if necessary, cook the chicken in the pot until golden brown on all sides, about 10 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a bowl. Carefully add the potatoes to the same pot and cook until they are golden brown, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute. Add the wine and stir to scrape up any brown bits on the bottom of the pot. Add the broth, oregano, and thyme. Return the chicken to the pot. Stir to combine. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.

Cover and bake in the oven until the chicken is cooked through, about 20 minutes. (Picture below is after the chicken baked in the oven.)

Transfer the chicken to a platter. Arrange the potatoes around chicken.

Add the artichoke hearts to the sauce in the pot. Cover and simmer over high heat until the artichokes are tender, stirring often, about 4 minutes.

Turn heat to low. Stir in the butter. Pour the sauce over chicken and potatoes, and serve.

I took the skins off of our chicken thighs before serving and used Benecol (low cholesterol butter for those of you who have the pleasure of not knowing what it is) where it called for butter in order to bring this recipe closer to our healthy recipe standards. After reading the reviews of the recipe on the Food Network's website and discovering that there were a few people who felt that the dish was bland, I generously added fresh ground pepper to the sauce after warming the artichokes for added flavor. The chicken was very tender and the potatoes were perfectly cooked.

"My" Sunday Brunch

When I first moved to DC about a year and a half ago I had the fortune of making a really good friend early upon my arrival to our new city. One of the first interactions I ever had with Sarah was one in which I asked her about good brunch places in the city. She told me about mysundaybrunch.com, which is an awesome website that sorts DC brunch places by cuisine, neighborhood, and cost. After she showed me this very helpful website, we decided we would go to brunch together in order to get to know one another better. Ironically enough, we have never made it to brunch in the last 18 months. We have had tons of other very interesting and memorable experiences (even some we tried to remember but couldn't) over the last several months. We have traveled together, worked together and definitely partied together. But none of these experiences have included mimosas, jazz music, or that coveted meal in between breakfast and lunch that normally accompanies these things. I decided this week that our Bruch date was way overdue so I made the decision to cook brunch for my friend who has been so wonderful to me since I moved here.

I wanted to do a little different twist on Brunch and stray from the traditional breakfast type dishes that are often associated with Brunch. Inspired by a recipe sent to me by a friend (thanks Tim!), I decided to make a Crabmeat Cheesecake and serve it with a simple salad. In New Orleans there is a family of restaurateurs named the Brennans. Amongst them they own undoubtedly several of the cities most famous and delicious restaurants. One of their gems is the Palace Cafe on Canal Street (if you ever make it to NOLA try to have at least one meal here - trust me). They serve their Crabmeat Cheesecake as an appetizer on their menu and I planned on having it as my main course. Armed with my new rolling pin, silicon mat, and pastry blender I got to work. This was yet another very involved recipe, but it was perfect for a Sunday since I had the time to devote to getting it right. This savory take on an otherwise sweet classic was lucious and fit the bill perfectly for a brunch entree.

Palace Cafe Crabmeat Cheesecake
Recipe courtesy The Palace Cafe: The Flavor of New Orleans by Dickie Brennan

Pecan Crust:
2 cups pecans
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons fine salt
5 tablespoons butter, cold
3 tablespoons ice water

Filling:
1 cup diced onion
1 tablespoon butter
4 ounces crabmeat
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup Creole cream cheese or sour cream
2 eggs
1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce (recommended: Crystal brand hot sauce)
Kosher salt and white pepper

Meuniere Sauce:
1 lemon, peeled and quartered
1 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 cup hot pepper sauce
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 pound butter, cold, cut into small cubes, and divided
Kosher salt and white pepper

Garnish:
2 cups sliced mixed wild mushrooms
3 tablespoons butter, softened
24 crab claw fingers
Kosher salt and cracked black pepper

Preparing the Pecan Crust:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Finely grind pecans in a food processor. Add flour and salt. Mix well. Transfer to a large mixing bowl and cut in butter, working butter into flour with 2 knives until dough is in crumbs the size of small peas. Add ice water and evenly incorporate into the mixture, which should remain fairly crumbly. Roll out dough to a 1/8-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface. Press dough into a lightly greased 9-inch tart pan, starting with the sides and then the bottom. Bake crust for 20 minutes, or until golden.

Note: Dough can be made ahead of time. If doing so, wrap dough tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate. Allow dough to come to room temperature before rolling out.

Preparing the Filling:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

In a skillet, saute onion in butter until translucent. Add crabmeat and cook just until heated through, then remove from heat. Blend cream cheese until smooth in a mixer fitted with a paddle, or by hand using a wooden spoon. Add Creole cream cheese and mix well. Mix in eggs 1 at a time. Gently fold in the crabmeat mixture. Stir in hot sauce and season, to taste, with salt and white pepper. Spoon filling into prepared crust. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until firm to the touch.

Preparing the Meuniere Sauce and Garnish:

Combine lemon, Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce in a heavy saucepot. Reduce over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wire whisk until mixture becomes thick and syrupy. Whisk in heavy whipping cream. Reduce heat to low and slowly blend in butter, 1 cube at a time, adding additional butter only after each cube has been completely incorporated into the sauce. This process is called "mounting the butter." Remove from heat and continue to stir. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Strain through a fine strainer and keep warm.

Saute mushrooms in 2 tablespoons butter until tender and all moisture has cooked off. Excess water from the mushrooms may break your sauce if it isn't cooked off. Stir mushrooms into Meuniere sauce. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a saute pan and warm crab fingers over low heat. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

To serve:
Slice cheesecake and top each piece with warm Meuniere sauce and 3 crab claws.

As you can see, I didn't garnish with crab claws. I wasn't able to find them at the supermarket. I also felt that I didn't roll the dough out thin enough because it seemed it was too thick in the final product. I had trouble when I was making the dough because it was very dry and crumbly (as the recipe says it should be) which made it very difficult to work with.

First Honorary Guest Blogger

I decided to have guest bloggers in order to keep my readers excited and to give them a break from me (not that anyone has made that specific request - yet!) My first honorary blogger is my older sister, Jessica. While I was out at the shooting range with my husband and our friends (not our typical Saturday in case you were wondering), my sister treated me to a pleasant surprise by creating the following blog entry that chronicled her morning with her son. Enjoy:


All week we had promised our son that if he behaved in school, we would go to the Audobon Zoo's Annual "Zoo-To-Do" on Friday and the Local Art Market on Saturday. We patiently marked off the days that he had no troubles in school with a sticker and counted down until Friday. The Zoo-To-Do went so well, and we retired for the night speaking of the wagon pull to the Art Market when we arose. It was such a disappointment when the day dawned, dreary and rainy. Scout was moody and unhappy about having to spend the entire day inside. Even before noon, his father had put him in time out for the second time when he began screaming in a high pitched scream when his little sister came near his collection of coveted super heroes. I was trying to think of how we could spend the day. I wasn’t excited about him sitting in front of the TV all day watching his “kid movies.” I looked over at him and noticed he had his nose pressed against the window staring out into the rain. "What are you doing, buddy?" I asked him. "I'm looking outside hoping to see a rainbow so we can go to the festival," he replied. I knew I couldn't produce that rainbow outside, but I was inspired by Bizzy's blog to have Scout and I bake one inside. I had remembered seeing a recipe for Rainbow Cupcakes in my baking cook book for kids that my sister had given me. Since “baby girl” was sleeping, and we could not make a trip to the grocery, I was hoping to have all the necessary ingredients for our project. I had all of the ingredients except M&Ms. So, I modified the recipe as follows and yielded 18 of my own Rainbow Cupcake creations. Scout LOVES sweets, and the dreary disappointing day turned into a fun filled morning of tasty goodness. He really liked using the food coloring and pouring sprinkles on the icing. Hope you enjoy!

Rainbow Cupcakes

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large egg whites
Assorted food colorings
1 container (16 ounces) white frosting
Rainbow sprinkles

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 24 (2 ¾ inch) muffin cups with paper or foil liners; set aside. In large bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Blend sugar, butter, milk and vanilla; beat about 2 minutes. Add egg whites; beat 2 minutes. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Place 1 drop desired food coloring into each muffin cup. Swirl gently with knife.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean. Cool completely on wire rack. Spread frosting over cupcakes; decorate with rainbow sprinkles.

Do you know what it means?

I spent two weeks at home in New Orleans before my wedding and it wasn't easy to leave my family and my hometown to head back to D.C. I think I must be homesick, because all I can think about is New Orleans food. During the two weeks I was home, I ate my fair share of jambalaya, fried seafood po-boys, boiled crabs and crawfish. So in an effort to recreate a little hometown feel in my own town I decided to cook a traditional New Orleans treat for my husband and I. Luckily for me, Cooking Light magazine gives several "shout-outs" to New Orleans cuisine. Well "shout-out" may be a little street for a healthy cooking magazine, but you get the point - they feature several recipes from New Orleans. So tonight I whipped up a very classic cajun dish with a twist - New Orleans Shrimp Remoulade Po'boys. The twist part of this meal is that Remoulade is a condiment that is usually served cold with boiled shrimp on top of iceberg lettuce as a salad. This recipe calls for the same type of sauce (with a healthy angle, of course) served over grilled shrimp on a po'boy. It was delicious! Forrest mentioned that it was in the top five. He didn't specify top five what (top five best things he has ever eaten, top five shrimp remoulade sauces, top five po'boys, or top five things I have ever cooked), but no matter which am still sure it was a compliment. It was just what I have been craving, a taste of home. So even though New Orleans is where I left my heart, it is comforting to know that I can bring a little piece of it to our home in D.C. through my cooking.

Shrimp Rémoulade Po'boys
Cooking Light July 2007

Ingredients

Rémoulade sauce:
1/3 cup reduced-fat mayonnaise
2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
2 tablespoons finely chopped celery
2 tablespoons finely chopped green bell pepper
1 tablespoon prepared horseradish
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 teaspoon minced fresh basil
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 small garlic clove, minced

Remaining ingredients:
24 large shrimp, peeled and deveined
Cooking spray
4 (3-ounce) French bread loaves, sliced horizontally
1 cup chopped iceberg lettuce
1 cup chopped tomato

Preparation

To prepare sauce, combine first 11 ingredients in a medium bowl. Chill.

Prepare grill.

Thread shrimp onto 4 (10-inch) skewers. Place skewers on grill rack coated with cooking spray; grill 2 minutes on each side or until shrimp are done.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Hollow out bread halves, leaving a 1-inch-thick shell. Place bread on a baking sheet; bake at 350° for 5 minutes. Place 1/4 cup lettuce, 1/4 cup tomato, and 6 shrimp in bottom half of each loaf. Spoon 1/4 cup sauce over each sandwich. Cover with top bread halves.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 sandwich)

Nutritional Information

CALORIES 290(17% from fat); FAT 5.4g (sat 1.3g,mono 1.5g,poly 2.2g); PROTEIN 14.1g; CHOLESTEROL 64mg; CALCIUM 91mg; SODIUM 799mg; FIBER 3.2g; IRON 3.5mg; CARBOHYDRATE 46.5g


This dish was super easy to create and so worth it! Even if you don't miss New Orleans - I highly suggest trying it out. I grilled the shrimp using my new Cuisinart Panini maker (a grill pan would work just as well) and I combined the ingredients for the remoulade sauce in my mini food processor in order to get the onions and bell peppers small enough to achieve the right consistency. If you are on a no carb diet or just think bread is the devil like my Daddy does, then you could serve the grilled shrimp and remoulade sauce over iceberg lettuce New Orlean's style.