how you doin? and WHO DAT?
the veal bones problem still lingers . . . a trip to jackson, ms for more is in my near future. a very special dinner party similar to my dad’s birthday menu sent me scrambling to my beloved demi glace and madeira sauce version once again. since i already made it with duxelles, i felt it made sense to experiment the cia’s version. after all i had my 8 lbs of veal bones in my freezer. so, i roasted my bones in the oven and simmered then for hours only to produce half of the veal stock that i needed. maybe i simmered a little too long. hmmmm. with the party so soon, back to the duxelles . . . for these beef wellingtons. the menu changed slightly from creme brulee to individual molten lava cakes and from creamed spinach to haricot verts. my brother was in from austin and this party happened to be for very special mutual friends of ours, so mitch, jesse, and i had a blast serving these guys. the guests were celebrating their parents 55th wedding anniversary over a very comfortable, intimate, beautifully set table. huge wine connossieurs all of them- they had paired very nice wines to be served with each course. jesse did an awesome job as a server and kept up with whose wines were whose.
veal bones where art thou? part two of who knows?
half of the veal stock that i needed
so, i recently had my hair done and instead of going for a pedicure as planned afterwards, i went and bought a large fish. a huge red snapper. i looked in the fish cabinet and he was like, “how you doin?” and i said “you’re coming with me!” the guy behind the counter was like, “you want the whole fish?” “yes, the whole thing!!” so anyway, he and i came on back to rayville, where i rubbed him inside and out with kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper and placed him on a “rack” of thick orange slices and rosemary sprigs. next, i poured white wine and fresh orange juice in the pan and sprinkled garlic, orange zest, kalamata olives all around him. he baked and came out wonderful and delicious. it really was a beautiful presentation. my parents were over along with my sister and her girls. aside from my roof leaking this night and some dog drama, it was a fun night for us.
"how you doin?"
red snapper
out of the oven
the same weekend that i brought home the snapper, jesse and a friend came into town from austin with two beautiful whole flounder and a gallon bag of freshly shucked oysters. bite yourself. i have been wanting to make a seafood stuffed flounder for quite some time and recently was given a copy of john besh’s new book with an awesome recipe for it. the original recipe had crabmeat and shrimp, however, the freeze prevented shipments of crabmeat so i substituted crawfish tails. the oysters were “rescued” so to speak before the recent hard freeze that we suffered through here in louisiana. those unexpected oysters gave me an opportunity to make the oyster chowder that i learned from frank brigsten last year in nola. this chowder is so awesome. we also baked some of the oysters mosca style, and still had oysters on hand.
flounder stuffed with shrimp and crawfish
and last but not least, mitch and i got bored one night and tackled homeade chinese dumpling from scratch. i found the recipe in last month’s fine cooking magazine. it was a wonderful article with great pictures and step-by-step instructions. i prepared the dough, while mitch made the shrimp and pork stuffing. we had three kinds of sauce, one spicy, one for the kids, and a ginger sauce. these were soooooo good and there were none left for sure.
napa cabbage
the dough made of only water and flour
stuffed with napa cabbage, pork and shrimp
very good
and i would be holding out on y’all if i didn’t tell you about how we watched the saints championship win. we were returning from a trip to utah and watched the first half in the houston airport, jumped a plane to monroe, jumped out of the plane when it was tied 21-21, ran into the airport watched a little there and had to decide whether to hang there with strangers or speed home. speed home. heard interception at rayville exit and got home to watch the last two mintutes!!!! WHO DAT SAY GONE BEAT DEM SAINTS? WHO DAT? WHO DAT?
here is mitch’s famous venison feta meatball sub . . . got to love a man who comes home from church and eats this for lunch with his miller high life and watches football!!!
mitch's venison feta meatball sub and miller high life
bye y’all. WHO DAT?
