Posted by Leila Wells

CAST IRON REQUIRED

• Cast Iron Skillet
  

One of my family’s favorite side dishes is fried okra. This underestimated vegetable of African origins is definitely a southern staple. Unfortunately, the most common method of serving okra is with a heavy breading. While it can still be tasty, the potential of the okra is wasted inside such doughy coatings. Cooking okra at home produces far more satisfying results than ordering it at the restaurant, but you’ll need a few simple pointers to fry okra up exactly right. (Incidentally, okra can add wonderful flavor to soups and can make an excellent combination with stewed tomatoes, but we’ll focus on fried okra today.)

Finding fresh okra is your first step. Typically, okra is in season year round in the south and from May through October in other areas. If, however, you are unable to get your hands on any fresh okra, pick up a bag of fresh frozen okra in the frozen food section of your local grocery.

Next, you will need cornmeal and oil. Typically, I use yellow cornmeal because I like the grainy texture. However, other forms of cornmeal will fry up nicely. I generally use vegetable oil, but canola oil will serve the purpose as well.

Once you’ve assembled your ingredients, you can begin. The amount of cornmeal you need will depend on how much okra you are cooking. You will need enough cornmeal in a bowl to coat the okra. If you have found fresh okra, you’ll want to make sure it is free of dirt. I recommend wiping the okra off carefully with a paper towel or an old towel. Running okra under water tends to make it slimy. Cutting the okra will also be a little slimy, so if you have allergies, you may want to wear gloves while cutting it. When the okra is clean, cut the ends off of the pieces and then slice the okra into small pieces of approximately 1/4 inch each. As you cut the okra, drop the pieces into the cornmeal. (If you are using precut, frozen okra, simply drop it into the cornmeal.) Run your fingers through the cornmeal and mix the okra into the meal until the okra is coated.

Pour enough oil into your skillet to cover the bottom. Heat the oil on medium-high heat. Heating the oil will take approximately 5 minutes. After a few minutes, test the oil by sprinkling a dash of water over the oil. If it pops or sizzles, you’ll know the oil is ready for the okra. Turn your heat down to medium. Using a long-handled spoon, carefully drop the breaded okra into the pan in a single layer. Do not “stack” the okra. Allow the okra to cook approximately 5-10 minutes (if it was fresh, longer if it was frozen) before stirring for the first time. Stir the okra slowly and periodically until it fries to a nice golden color. Once the okra is done, drop it onto a place covered by a couple of paper towels (to absorb excess oil). Salt and pepper the okra liberally. Continue cooking if you have more okra. You may have to add oil to the pan as you finish your okra. You may also need to scoop out the breading that has fallen in the pan as it can burn while you are cooking a second round of okra.

If you are not completely satisfied with your first effort at frying okra, please don’t give up! The most common mistakes when frying okra typically come from having your heat up too high or cooking the okra too long. You want to remove it from the heat when it has just become crunchy.

While okra makes an excellent side dish to most any meat, my favorite pairings are with grilled chicken, pork chops, or barbecued ribs. If you happen to be a vegetarian, you might especially enjoy fried okra with corn on the cob and stewed tomatoes.

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Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below, or you can contact Leila directly at leila@cookingincastiron.com.

Tags: Leila

Posted by Rick Mansfield

If I had to pick my favorite Louisiana dish, it might just be étouffée. Like gumbo, étouffée can be made with crawfish, shrimp, crab or chicken. My favorite is crawfish which I believe have much more flavor than shrimp, but I once even tried a ground meat étoufée, which I found to be a bit unusual. Like many Louisiana dishes, étouffée is served over rice. I usually don’t put andouille or smoked sausage in mine, but I’ve seen others include it. I don’t know if I’ve ever actually tried an étouffée I didn’t like, although some are definitely better than others.

This past week I discovered a new kind of étouffé when I visited a local Cajun restaurant, J. Gumbo’s and tried their vegetarian chili cheese étouffée. I always taste before I add Tabasco, but in my sample taste of this new kind, I didn’t get one of the jalapeño peppers the dish, so after I doctored it up with the hot sauce, it was EXTRA hot!

Yesterday, I reviewed MacGourmet Deluxe (see post here). However, I’ve been using the software, a recipe database program (and so much more), since early July learning the ends and outs of it. For the week of July 4, we visited friends and family in Louisiana and had a shrimp boil on the holiday. Afterwards we had a good bit of shrimp leftover, and I suggested we use some of it for an étouffée.

Wanting to try out my newly acquired copy of MacGourmet Deluxe, I looked for an étouffée recipe. When I had installed the software, it asked if I wanted to include some sample recipes, some of which were from the website, Real Cajun Recipes, including the étouffée recipe seen below.

Now, there are two distinctions in the étouffée recipe below. First, to make it lite/diet, it forms its base from canned soup instead of a traditional roux. This is not wholly unusual, and I’ve found a couple of really good étouffée recipes that use cream of mushroom soup before, but if you’ve never had the dish, realize that what is below is not necessarily standard fare. I also feel the need to point that this is a Creole dish, not a Cajun one. At the most elementary level, what makes this Creole is the inclusion of tomatoes. My favorite étouffée dishes are the ones without tomatoes, but this one is good nonetheless (for a dozen different recipes for étouffée from Real Cajun Recipes, go here). This recipe also calls for 4 tablespoons of ketchup, which although I found to be unusual, included for the sake of trying the recipe as close as possible to its original directions.

Below is my mildly adapted version of the original. The accompanying pictures in this post show shrimp, rather than crawfish.

CAST IRON REQUIRED

• Dutch oven (4 or 5 quart recommended)

(above: sautéing the onions, bell pepper, and celery)

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound crawfish tails or shrimp
• 1 onion chopped
• 1 bell pepper chopped
• 2 stalks celery (chopped fine)
• 2 tbsp butter or canola oil
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup (reduced calorie)
• 1 can cream of celery soup (reduced calorie)
• 1 can Rotel tomatoes original or spicy
• 2 cans water
• ½ cup parsley
• ½ cup green onions (onion tops)
• 4 tbsp catsup (large dollop)
• 1 pod of garlic (optional)
• black pepper - to taste

DIRECTIONS
In smaller Dutch oven over medium heat, sauté onion, bell pepper, celery and garlic (optional) until onions have wilted. Add the Rotel tomatoes and stir until tomatoes are heated.

Add the cans of cream of mushroom and cream of celery. Stir and then add enough water to dilute the mixture to form a thick gravy. Remember, your crawfish or shrimp will give off water in the final steps of the cooking. Lower the heat and cook until mixture is heated, stirring as needed to prevent scorching. Add black pepper if desired. Note that the soup provides enough salt for this dish. Easy on the salt if you do decide to use it.

Rinse the crawfish in a colander to remove the crawfish fat that they were packed in. Drain well. Add crawfish to the mixture along with the parsley and green onions. Cook no more than 10 minutes. In the last couple of minutes of cooking, add a large dollop of catsup mainly for coloring but does give a nice taste to your dish. Serve over rice.

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^{MacGourmet users, click image to download recipe (or simply drag image to your MacGourmet recipe box).}


Feel free to leave your thoughts or ask questions in the comments below, or you can contact Rick directly at rick@cookingincastiron.com.

Tags: Rick

In his post, “Memories Born Out of Simplicity,” JT McCubbin described his multi-generational Saturday monring family breakfast tradition. In this post, he shares with us his recipe for the pancakes he prepares every weekend.

CAST IRON REQUIRED:

• Griddle or skillet
• Melting Pot

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup unbleached flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 Tbs sunflower oil
• 1 Tbs honey
• 1 egg, brown of course
• 1/2 tsp vanilla, or 1/4 tsp almond extract
  

DIRECTIONS
Combine dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, combine milk, oil, honey, egg and vanilla (or Almond).

(Hint 1: measure the oil first, then the honey in the same measuring spoon. The honey slips right out yielding the entire tablespoon with no sticking).

(Hint 2: warm the milk in the microwave for 45 seconds. The honey will dissolve more readily, and the pancakes will cook more evenly because the batter isn’t cold)

Mix the liquids into the dry with a spoon or wisk, it’s okay to leave a few small lumps of batter rather than over mix.

Pour the batter (1/4 to 1/2 cup amounts depending on desired size) onto an oiled, cast iron griddle or skillet. I use low heat, because the cast iron conducts efficiently, and I don’t want the cooking process to begin until I have finished the pour. When bubbles start to rise to the top, check the bottom surface and flip when the right amount of golden brown is apparent. Serve right off the griddle and top with real maple syrup from the melting/warming pot.

Variation:
Immediately after pouring the batter, drop chocolate chips or blueberries on top and tap in with the spatula. This works much better than trying to mix them into the batter bowl, and it gives you the option to arrange them in fun designs.

Rule:
Never, which means not ever, use a pancake mix. This isn’t complicated. You can do it, and you and your kids will appreciate it.

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^{MacGourmet users, click image to download recipe (or simply drag image to your MacGourmet recipe box).}


Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below, or you can contact JT directily at ironman@cookingincastiron.com.

Tags: JT