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So, not only do I love New Orleans and it’s cuisine, and my kids live there, and one of my favorite Chefs (Anne Kearney) won her James Beard award for her restaurant there, BUT my neighbors Carrie and Joe (Nora’s parents) are also fans! They got married in NOLA and have spent every anniversary there since then – and of course, were planning to do so this year. Enter COVID-19 – not gonna happen.
Knowing that I love to cook (and being frequent recipients of shared food) and that I have traveled widely and like to cook international themed dinners (and hoped to turn that into a bit of a biz with workshops and cooking for others in their homes) – AND that Joe LOVES my jambalaya, Carrie asked me a couple of weeks ago if I would be willing to cook a NOLA themed anniversary dinner for them as a surprise gift from her to Joe.
Well, being in possession of Chef Wiley’s famous Shrimp & Grits recipe (signature brunch plate) – I said of course! Carrie doesn’t really like seafood much but said that was one of Joe’s faves and it was a definite.
For her, I said I’d keep the seafood out of the soup – and while I was at it, decided to make it a gumbo instead of Jambalaya (as I love my shrimp and crab in the latter!). Boy did I have some research to do and some things to learn! That roux that makes gumbo gumbo is not as easy as it looks (read: I did not succeed the first 2 times – and the first one was BEAUTIFUL after cooking and stirring an hour with leftover bacon grease – ’til I turned my back for 2 minutes and scorched it!). But succeed we did and I even used green pepper (which I don’t like) in deference to authenticity.
Meanwhile my kids had gotten me a King Cake Mix for Christmas (complete with baby), so dessert was settled as well.
That left my favorite course – appetizers! what to make? so I did lots of research, came up with lots of ideas and actually made several of them in tiny batches for tasking. Keepers (ok, way too many, but it was fun!). Carrie got a paper plate of tastes and pronounced “you are really good at this!”
Muffuletta – made the spread for the first time (yum!) and then cut small loaves into “sliders”
Chicken and waffle bites – yup! frozen mini waffles, I fried up nuggets, added Crystal (per my daughter) and a drizzle of bourbon barrel aged maple syrup
Andouille bites – neither of us could decide between the Andouille hush puppies (I added japs the 2nd time around) or the Cajun Sausage Puffs with Bourbon honey mustard – so I made both
Shrimp Remoulade Deviled Eggs – out of 3 experiments, this was surprisingly Carrie’s fave!
I also made my Creole remoulade sauce for dipping along with the aforementioned mustard sauce (heard this was a hit). all served in shot glass solo cups 🙂
meanwhile there was another appetizer that included Jalapeño cornbread, so I made that to go with the gumbo.
whew! a lot of work, but a fun project and I delivered a big bag to their front porch last night! now, you know why I’ve been a little quiet this week!
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