Catfish Po’ Boys

So Dinner Divas had this as a recipe idea… and well there are no rules, right? so I just made my own catfish po boy without relying on this recipe… which I guess still counts as it is the same idea…

I mean I had a recipe in the Moosewood (Simple Suppers I think) that I’d wanted to try so I figured I’d make that, but then I couldn’t find the cookbook so I’m making something up (if I get stuck I’ll just channel dead relatives, I can’t tell you how much fried catfish goes on in my family surely I’ve learned a thing or two from osmosis)… “Fish, fried fish at that, on a weeknight?” some of you might be wondering what made me so brave all of a sudden… but I’ll confess, the truth is we have a meeting at the bluejay’s school this afternoon so hubby planned to just take off and so he could be on hand for backup/rescue…

taken after frying... I should have taken another in sandwich form but I didnt...

Catfish Po’ Boys
4 7-oz catfish fillets
1 c flour
buttermilk
1 T ea: garlic pwd, onion pwd
2 tsp ea: salt and blk pepper
1 tsp hot pepper sauce (typical red one)
cornmeal

Season the fish, dip in batter and dredge in cornmeal… Drop fish into deep oil at 375, fry until golden and floating…

Served on 4 Hoagie Rolls with cole slaw (1/2 a head worth, plus grated carrots dressed w/o the dreaded mayo) and Rémoulade for me and the Hubs… pretty good stuff. But I couldn’t fry the fish, and only one turned out nice (seen to the right)… the process was minorly exasperating so I forgot to take more pictures… [JP: Yes, I used the cole slaw and on the rémoulade on the sandwich not the side… I’d wanted to use cheese too but was too exhausted to slice some, and just wanted to eat…]

Squash Hushpuppies

This is a huge favorite here… and was even a hit with the not-so veggie interested in-laws one Thanksgiving. Family, guests, the kidlets everyone who’s eaten them seems to like them… of course maybe it’s just shock that there’s squash in there, I dunno.

Silence those puppies...with squash! LOL

At any rate, I love them and figured as long as we are frying and he’s home I’d get the Hubs the help me make these. I premixed them and let him have at it after the meeting, while I sat with the homework king… This is the orginal recipe, as again it’d be hard to get your hands on… I tend to add salt and onion/garlic powder, and pre-cook the diced onions–but mainly do it pretty close to as is, so there’s no need for both versions… (oh and the italics are mine to make sure you don’t overlook this as it is commonly overlooked, and it does matter so add leavening if yours is plain)

Squash Hushpuppies (by D. Holmes, from the Tylertown Cooking with Friends cookbook, p 93)
2 c cooked squash, drained and mashed
3/4 c self-rising cornmeal
1 egg
1 med onion, finely chopped
1/2 c buttermilk

Mix well an drop in hot oil. Keeps well. May be frozen and reheated in the microwave.

My Creole Rémoulade

So if you know about rémoulade, you’d probably think first of a mayo based sauce probably with some diced pickle… well if you know me, then you know I eat neither. But what you may not realize is that not all creole rémoulades are even mayo based in the first place so I’m not even being that quirky by dropping it and second of all if you like my food then shut your mouth about my weirdness, whether merely percieved or genuinely validated…

may not look like much.... but try it, you will like it... (besides, you know mayo is useless... try something with flavor!)

My Creole Rémoulade
1/4 c olive oil (I used chili olive oil because I had it leftover from not making the rest of the bananas)
1 T ea: creole mustard, tarragon vinegar (or 1 T white vinegar and 1/2 tsp dried tarragon warmed together), ketchup
1/2 T ea: horseradish, worchestershire
1/2-3/4 tsp ea: smoked paprika, hot pepper sauce (I used Seasons in the Sun yellow sauce… firgured it’d go well with the mustard and it’s a little milder to balance back the chili oil)
1/4 tsp ea: salt, pepper, minced fresh garlic
2 T ea: chives (about the green tops of one chive), celery, bell pepper
s/p to taste, adj if needed

Mix everything together and chill for 4+ hrs, then taste for any s/p adjustments before using.

[And you can of course make a bigger batch if you do desire…]

“Potato Cookies” (aka. PW’s Crash Potatoes)

maybe not so cute, but a HUGE hit with the kids...

So the the oldest saw these and about exploded with enthusiasm… He was dying to try these “potato cookies” as he renamed them… Mine aren’t as cute as hers (why I can’t make cute food is beyond me) but they were tasty and if I can master the smashing of them they might make some frequent appearances…

Potato Cookies (pretty much exactly PW’s Crash Hot Potatoes, just a smaller batch)
8 red skin potatoes
olive oil
salt, pepper, oregano

scrub your potatoes and put them in a pot… cover with cold water, and boil until fork tender… preheat oven to 450, and drizzle oil all over cookie sheet… remove potatoes with a slotted spoon and place on oiled sheet… smash and drizzle tops with oil, sprinkling with the seasonings and bake until golden, about 23 min…

Meatball Sandwiches

Ok so I really didn’t want to make meatballs as getting the oldest to finish homework was draining so I skimped, you might as well bother making a regular meatball… but if you share my exhaustion these worked alright…

I served 4 meatballs per hoagie roll and topped with parm...

Meatball Sandwiches
1 lb ground beef (happened to be aged angus, probably how I got away with cutting corners as it started with good flavor)
1 T mrs dash tomato basil
1/2 T ea: s/p, garlic pwd, onion pwd
1/4 onion diced and sauteed with 2 cloves garlic
11 oz tomato puree (leftover from making tomato pie)
1 T: oregano
1/2 T: garlic pwd and onion pwd

mix first four, shape (I made 16, to use on 4 hoagie rolls) and brown on all sides… mix last three with 1/4 c water and pour over meatballs and allow to simmer until meatballs are cooked and sauce rethickened…

[PS. that’s these potatoes in the pic with it…]

Hoagie Rolls (from bought dough)

So, I’m not really a baker… I cheat on all my bread (and particularly favor biscuits and quick breads) but today I decided to make the bread from bought yeast dough rather than just a pop can… so this is a step up for me. Lots of shaping involved though, so I did a bunch of pics. Sorry if this is slow to load… I promise not to do it often, I just thought it’d be less confusing than trying to describe the shaping…

Hoagie Rolls
2 1-lb frozen logs of yeast bread dough
some butter or oil from greasing/handling

grease pan and dough and let thaw and rise, simultaneously, until fills a loaf pan (about 2 hrs)… split each loaf in half lengthwise and shape, then let rise 1 hr… punch down and split in half again and let rise another hr… preheat oven to 350… then (w/o punching) tighten up surface of dough by pinching and tucking under the bottom until it looks taut on top and sort of oval shaped… (I then spread out on two trays for more baking space betwixt and between) brush tops of the dough with melted butter (or oil) and bake for around 15-20 mins or until golden brown and done… [NB: during all the risings I covered the dough with a warm damp towel]

the visuals for the first few steps...

the visuals for the wrapping up...

Meals/Week in Review: 8/18-24

* Pasta w/Bacon, Butternut Squash, chicken and parm… (I promise I will not be lured again by the appearance of winter squash in the grocery before season and will wait patiently for a more appropriate harvesting as this had a strange young, almost grassy flavor that completely took the wind from my sails) and buttered snow peas

* The belated and modified caribbean meal: caribbean pork roast and rice, sweet potatoes with pineapple, chili fried bananas….

* the no cook, out too late at home depot on scout day fast food run: burger king take home (see I told you I don’t make everything from scratch, everyone has those ‘gotta eat’ moments)

* Leftover Warhol Lentil Soup (which I billed as chicken and bean stew with the kids and it passed with flying colors), and French Tomato Pie

* A neighborly day for a neighbor: breaded chicken, cut into nuggets for the littles; blender puffy mac and cheese ; leftover french tomato pie; french bread; lemon cake and cherry ‘bread’ pudding and vanilla ice cream

* French meal w/GTG’s dessert: French onion soup; steak au poivre w/sauce; roasted parsnips, mushrooms, and green beans; and triple chocolate mousse

* Pork and Veggie Stew made from the caribbean meal leftovers…

Bonus:
Joelen’s White Wine Picnic Challenge, Saturday’s dessert: Sparkling peach melba-ish gelatin

Not Quites:
* Apple Wine Glazed Apple Cupcakes – was going to make this for the scout bake sale at the church but get this, couldn’t find anyone selling boone’s farm, LOL  soooo, helf a dozen stores and a couple of phone calls later we gave up for now, but I will totally be making this as soon as we locate some BF apple wine…
* Road friendly fare for the drive to Chicago, hybrid combo with the 2 yo’s pick: Mandarin Chicken Salad Wraps and sweet potato fries — I’ll make this in the coming week…

Peach Melba-ish Gelatin (alcoholic)

Yes, if you noticed it looks sort of lumpy it is... I forgot about it and let it set up too much before adding the fruit.

see, it is set and will slice up... it just looks sad because it overset, before I proceeded... so pay attention.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So this was for Joelen’s White Wine Picnic Challenge, except I really slacked off getting things posted so this is sort of an unoffical entry but I sent it to her for inclusion in the wrap up. And I did for the record make it before the deadline (on Sat though), I just am slow wrapping the end of last week’s recipes. I took a lot of pictures and had a lot of recipes to type up so I probably would have fallen a bit behind even if the 2 yo hadn’t gotten sick… but I’m now on top of it and here’s the belated beauty.

So I’m a dessert person and jello seemed something that would travel easy (see I’m not a picnic-er so I didn’t really know what’d be good on a picnic–thus I was at a bit of a loss this go around) so I deemed this picnic worthy… You might not, or you might want to make it more like cubes/jigglers by doubling the gelatin–which could only serve to make it more picnic friendly, right? (not to mention it’d up the protein, and a higher protein dessert must be a healthier one, no?!?) Now granted this will not taste exactly lke Peach Melba, but if you are fond of PM you will absolutely taste the nod and if you fear you or your spouse may need a little hair of the dog to repair the previous night’s damage (drink water people)…then all the better. So go get to making it!

Soaking the berries (before obsessiveness took over)...

Peach Melba-ish Gelatin
1 bottle sparkling peach wine, seperated
2 pouches unflavored gelatine (4 if you want little finger cubes)
1/2 c sugar (flexible, you might use less to taste based on your wine)
1 pkg raspberries
1/4 c creme de cassis

Chill half the wine and use to blossom the gelatin. Heat the other half to boiling (I did in microwave because I’m impatient, took about 2.5 min on HIGH) with 1/2 c sugar. Mix the two together and chill to partially set (I seperated into two smaller batches so it’d cool faster, ). Meanwhile, soak the raspberries in the liqueur–I tilted this regularly this way and that trying to make sure they looked like they were all getting attention without roughing up the berries (and finally in a moment of complete and utter obsessiveness, stood the berries up and poured the liqueur into each of their little hollows)… Stir the drained berries (reserve the cassis for drinks or other later use in the fridge) into the partially set gelatin. And leave to finish setting up.

***Someone already asked me–before I could even post this–how alcoholic this is, and I dunno… but there’s a 750 ml of 6.5 proof wine and the berries are soaked in 1/4 c of 15% creme de cassis and when drained there was a 1/4 c (combo of raspberry juice and cassis), if you want to set about figuring it out… But I say this’d probably be best for a “walk to” picnic rather than a “drive to” one, just to keep it on the safe side… nonetheless, if you consume enough of this to feel tipsy then perhaps you should rather be looking at your dessert consumption a little more.

*** Another question, this time regarding soaking… yes you can soak the berries longer, overnight if you’d like… the longer they soak the more of the cassis flavor they will pick up… I had a really delicate peach wine and didn’t want to overpower it, but if you have a nice strong fruity one or just want the berries more dominant then go for it!! It’ll hurt nothing and will be tasty, under different circumstances I would have myself…

Leftover Magic: Pork and Veggie Stew

Ok, so it’s not magic. It’s completely common place to plop leftovers in a stew… but an emailer has requested a leftover showcase. So while I use random leftovers all the time, when something is strategically made from leftovers I shall deem it such from now on… So dear e-friend hope this soothes your rerun fever… : )

I think this shows a little of everything...

Pork and Veggie Stew
leftover meat, peppers, onions, and rice from here **
leftover potatoes and pineapples from here
2 cans tomatoes
1/4 c white rum
1.5 c frozen lima beans
4-5 bay leaves
1 leftover bell pepper top
a dozen cloves (studded in pepper top)
1 T ea: allspice, ginger
1/2 head of garlic, roasted (leftover from the caribbean meal too really, in a preheated 400 oven the roasting took about as long as the limas)
juice of 3-4 limes (about 1/4 c juice)

Preheat the oven to 400. Chop the roast as you’d wish to spoon it and dump everything but the garlic and limes in the pot to boil with 1.5 qt water and a bit of salt (the limas need it). Drizzle the garlic w/olive oil (or whatever oil) and roast around 25-30 mins or until limas are tender. Remove the pepper/cloves and bay. Squeeze in garlic and lime juice (roll limes under your palm a bit and nuke for 30 sec to amplify the flow of juice) and serve.

** Now, technically I left the ginger slices in mostly because I forgot I packed them away, but I’d either chop them finer or fish them out.

Also, be careful how you stud the pepper piece as those piercing the flesh and no skin came out into the stew and you don’t want to hunt for tiny cloves amongst huge chunks. Alternatively, I suppose you could just cram them in some cheesecloth… Plus if you were less lazy you could zest the limes before juicing I’d recommend it as I think I’d be very good with that addition…

Steak Au Poivre

Yep, you guessed it another hubby training wife night… but while I’m sure Mr. Chefypants would wax on about what level of doneness is ideal for this dish or some such. I want all my proteins well-done (except maybe nuts, I guess) so I wouldn’t have cared if he’d tried… but this time he really didn’t try to pitch me a hard and fast rule. I wonder what that means… I know I’m not in the doghouse so it’s not just freezing me out, but maybe he just knew this one was futile. (Recipe details contributed by the man o’ the house)

Oh and you can so do this, he “taught” me in between continually popping upstairs to hermit on the PC and phone for the fantasy draft…and yet it still got done. Despite me drinking and not knowing what I was really doing…so I feel it successfully demystified the whole thing for me (and I haven’t decided if I’m sad about that or not yet) as it’s really not as involved as it seemed.

Steak Au Poivre
2 Well marbled steaks, no more than 1 inch thick. (Strips are best)
2 Tbl peppercorns (you can mix colors) **
2 Tbl olive oil
3 Tbl Butter
3 Tbl red wine (I used a South African Cab that my wifey adores, but you can also use cognac for a more traditional flavor)
Salt to taste

Take the peppercorns and roughly crush then, either with a mortar and pestle or as I did, put them in a plastic bag and pound them with a meat mallet, (fun little stress reducer). Heat 1 Tbl of the olive oil in a saute pan. Salt both sides to taste. Place crushed peppercorns in a dish and coat the steaks on both sides pressing the peppercorns into the meat. Once oil is hot, add the steaks and cook on both sides approximately 4 minutes each for medium rare, longer for more well done (we used a thermometer for the well done one until it reached temp). Once done to your liking, remove steaks from pan and tent to keep warm. Add the wine to the pan and scrape the bits off the bottom of the pan and add the remaining oil and butter. Cook, stirring often until it reduces to a nice sauce. When sauce is done place steaks on a plate and drizzle sauce over top and serve.

** So yes I took pictures but they were sad, so I’m not posting them. And my only complaint was I think you should go ahead crush up more peppercorns, I felt a little chitnzy trying to spread them out… but once you are in the middle of things you and have a hot pan of oil you really don’t want to go back to the crushing so you chintz, it’s just what you do.