Posts Tagged ‘Louisiana’
Posted by Warren Rojas / Tuesday, April 26th, 2011
Chef Bryan Crosswhite wants everyone to fall as hard for his beloved Cajun cuisine as he has:
(Image: The Cajun Experience)
What began as a passion project housed in a ramshackle hut in Leesburg has grown into a personal quest for world domination. Crosswhite’s latest ambitions include opening additional locations in D.C. (Capitol Hill) as well as outposts both near (NYC, Boston) and far (Europe, Middle East).
WR: Salt. Pepper. What other spices/herbs could you not live without?
BC: Cayenne pepper, garlic powder, onion powder
WR: What’s the very first dish you ever mastered? How long did it take? Do you still make it today?
BC: Crawfish etouffee. It took me about a week to perfect it and then about 45 minutes to cook. We currently have it on all our menu’s at our restaurants. It is the top seller for 2011.
WR: What seasonal ingredient(s) get your creative juices flowing?
BC: Live crawfish! We boil them, pinch the tails and suck the heads.
WR: My latest cookbook obsession is …
BC: Chef John Folse – The Encyclopedia of Cajun and Creole Cuisine
WR: What’s the most challenging dish you’ve ever attempted? Would you make it again?
BC: Maqluba from Iraq. It was tough because I couldn’t read Arabic. Yes I will cook [it] again.
WR: If I could the spend the day working alongside any local chef, I’d love to collaborate with …
BC: Michel Richard
WR: What’s the easiest/quickest–but still wholly satisfying–meal you make for yourself?
BC: French toast stuffed with chocolate and strawberries.
10 1-inch slices French bread
6 to 8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
6 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups milk
2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
Pinch of salt
1/3 cup melted butter
6 to 8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
6 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups milk
2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
Pinch of salt
1/3 cup melted butter
Cut a pocket in the center of each slice of bread and stuff 2-3 tablespoons of chips into the created pocket.
Place slices into a buttered 9X13 pan.
Whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla, cinnamon and salt.
Pour the mixture over the top of the sandwiches.
After about 20 minutes, turn the slices over, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the liquid is absorbed, at least 2 hours, or overnight.
Remove the dish from the refrigerator about 30 minutes before baking.
Drizzle melted butter over the tops of the slices and bake in a preheated 425° oven until golden brown and set, about 30 minutes.
WR: In the next six months you won’t want to miss my …
BC: Vermilion Parish Filet: filet blackened with peppercorn crust, topped with fresh crabmeat with etouffee sauce on top.
WR: It’s quitting time. I’m pouring myself …
BC: Water (trying to lose weight)
————————————————————————————————————————————————
Your stuffed French toast sounds amazing, chef. But the etouffee-topped, blackened filet has this hired mouth craving dinner more than breakfast.
Come back next Tuesday for another helping of Red Meat.
–Warren
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, March 19th, 2009
By Warren Rojas
“Cooking Up a Storm: Recipes Lost and Found from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans.” Edited by Marcelle Bienvenu and Judy Walker. Chronicle Books, 400 pgs., $24.95
Hurricane Katrina didn’t just upend buildings and flood streets across the Crescent City. It swept away generations of culinary tradition by permanently displacing scores of lifelong residents, shuttered historic restaurants (Commander’s Palace, Galatoire’s; both have since reopened) and destabilized the fragile economy by scaring tourists away for months after.
The food desk of The Times-Picayune reached out to evacuees who returned to their ravaged homeland, working to rebuild a society short on basic necessities and starved for a taste of normalcy.
“Cooking Up a Storm” was born of this shared frustration, chronicling a battered people’s attempt to fill in the gaps of their communal cooking memory one misplaced recipe at a time (“In New Orleans, food is culture. Food is family. Food is life”).
Rather than focus on any one style of cooking or specific ingredients, the commemorative cookbook tracks the dishes T-P readers hungrily sought out. Noteworthy contributions include: homemade cheddar and Creole mayonnaise spread, a pre-Civil War specialty known as calas (rice fritters), crawfish braid, Natchitoches meat pies, muffaletta pasta and, of course, all manner of gumbo creations.
View from the Bayou
Most Louisiana natives seem to cherish memories of meals past. We asked some now-locals to share a few of theirs.
David Guas
Pastry chef/N’awlins native
• What single dish most reminds you of home? Beignets.
• Do you still celebrate Mardi Gras? If so, what are some of the festive plates you can’t live without? King cake (of course), doberge cake (half chocolate, half lemon). The day before Mardi Gras, I always make red beans and rice with smoked sausage.
• What local restaurants do you visit to get your fill of Cajun and/or Creole cooking? If I had to go outside of my own kitchen, I would go to Acadiana (which I helped open in Sept. 2005) and order the gumbo, a po’boy, the duck, a muffaletta and a frosty frozen mug of Abita root beer!
Heather Kenney
A Louisiana transplant so enamored with the Big Easy, she named her daughter Nola
• What single dish most reminds you of home? A roast beef po’boy on good French bread with lots of gravy—which is next to impossible to find outside of the Pelican State.
• Do you still celebrate Mardi Gras? If so, what are some of the festive plates you can’t live without? Cream cheese-filled king cake and Abita beer.
• What local restaurants do you visit to get your fill of Cajun and/or Creole cooking? RT’s in Del Ray is my favorite and most like my mom’s home cooking. I’d rather go there or to Popeye’s than go to Acadiana in D.C.
(March 2009)
