Cooking the Book – My New Orleans – Whole Roast Gulf Coast Lamb

Yes, it’s time for more Besh! This time I’m was looking to tackle one of the few lamb dishes in “My New Orleans”, whole roast gulf coast lamb. To begin, it’s a misleading title. There isn’t any whole lamb on a spit, slowly roasting in my front yard; although that does sound like a very good idea

The general gist of this recipe is to braise a few of the tougher cuts of lamb and then stuff them inside a boned, butterflied leg of lamb.

First was the shoulder of lamb.

After that was a few pounds of lamb bone in lamb chops. Both the shoulder and chops were seasoned on both sides with salt, pepper, and 1 teaspoon each dried thyme and dried chili flakes.

2 tablespoons of olive oil were added to my dutch oven on high heat. Both the shoulder and chops were placed in the pot.

I was looking for a good sear on each side of the meat. Now it looks like the shoulder got a little too much heat, oh well.

Once everything was browned, I added one diced onion to the pot, reduced the heat to medium, and cooked it all for about 10 minutes or just until the onions were brown.

They looked brown enough to me.

Next into the pot came 3 cloves of sliced garlic, 2 peeled and diced tomatoes and 1 sprig of rosemary.

Last in was 2 cups of Besh’s Basic Chicken Stock. From that point, everything was brought to a boil on medium-high. Once the pot reached a boil, it was set to low, covered and left to simmer for 1.5 hours or fork tender.

Now it was time to move onto the leg of lamb.

The first step was to remove the bone from this piece of Flying M Farm lamb.

So far, so good

Here was bone, and I was more than a little surprised.

My first effort to bone and butterfly a leg of lamb had mixed results.

Of course everything was seasoned liberally with salt and pepper.

With the lamb leg boned and butterflied, it was time to return to the braising lamb.

In a little less than 1.5 hours, I had lamb that was fork tender.

It took a little work with a knife and fork, but I soon had all the meat ready for the next step.

Once the braised meat had cooled, I arranged it in the middle of the lamb leg. After rolling the leg and liberal use of cooking twine, I had something like this.

Don’t forget the small cuts! They need slices of garlic and small sprigs of rosemary stuffed inside them. I’ll admit, it’s not too photogenic, but it’s the taste that matters most.

After 30 or so minutes in a 400 degree oven, the lamb was looking fantastic. However, you can’t forget about the braising liquid.

Cranking the heat to medium-high, I cooked the braising liquid until it was reduced by half and then strained.

Now, after 10 minutes of resting the lamb, it was time to see if my work had paid off.

Without the flash

Even with the flash, I think it looks pretty spectacular.

Drizzled with some of the reduced sauce, this was an ethereal lamb dish. Yes, like every other Besh dish, this one had been more than a little time consuming, but the results were well worth the effort. However, for as rich and lengthy as this recipe is, I think I’ll have to save it for holidays and other special occasions. Regardless, kudos again to John Besh.

Cooking the Book – My New Orleans – Jalapeno Cheese Grits & Slow-Cooked Veal Grillades

Ok, so there’s a disturbing Besh trend going on as of late. In the past few months, I’ve been to three of his restaurants and now I seem to be attacking his new cookbook, “My New Orleans”. What can I say? The man is a great chef. Now that I have that out of the way, it’s time for Grillades and grits.

However, it’s not as simple as it sounds. Remember, this is a Besh recipe, there are rules and protocol to follow, and that means making a special stock, veal stock to be exact.

Besh’s veal stock is essentially the same as his other stock recipes, except 1 pound of veal bones are rubbed with oil and roasted for 45 minutes in a 400 degree oven.

The portions of vegetables are the same as the others, except three tablespoons of tomato paste are added with the celery, carrots, leeks, and garlic.

To make the stock even richer, a bottle of red wine is added along with the standard 3 quarts of water.

Two hours and a little bit of straining later, I end up with 2 quarts of rich, dark veal stock. Annoyingly there aren’t too many recipes that call for veal stock. So make sure you have room in your freezer.

I’m going to bend the timeline a little bit and skip right to the jalapeno cheese grits.

Since I waited a week to get gulf coast shrimp, I felt like I should only use the best grits. So stone ground grits are used for this recipe, Logan Turnpike Mill specifically.

If you don’t know how to make grits, don’t worry, it’s an easy process. I slowly poured 1 cup of grits into 4 cups of boiling water, making sure to whisk constantly. After that, it’s just reduce the heat to low, cover and cook till done.

In the meantime, I dry roasted a jalapeno until it was nice and dark on the outside.

The skin and seeds were removed and the pepper minced.

What was left of the pepper was added to the pot of grits.

Once the grits were done, the pot was taken off the heat and I was ready to add the rest of the ingredients.

3 tablespoons of butter, 2 tablespoons of mascarpone cheese and ¼ cup grated Edam cheese were folded in.

In just a few turns

I had a pot of delicious jalapeno cheese grits.

Now that I’ve covered both the grits and the veal stock, I can finally move on to the Grillades.

As interesting as it was, I’ll spare everyone the various stages of breaking the veal shoulder into thin cutlets.

The cutlets were then dredged in a mixture of 2 cups flour & 2 tablespoons Basic Creole Spices. From there, I fried them in batches in a Dutch oven on high heat with a good ¼ of bacon grease.

I did everything in small batches, just to ensure that each cutlet was getting a near crust and not stewing.

After the cutlets were browned, the heat was reduced to medium-high and 1 diced onion was added to the pot.

Besh seems to be very big on caramelizing the onions. The recipe calls for the onions to be cooked to a mahogany color.

When that color was achieved, I added in the ½ bell pepper diced, 1 celery stalk diced, and 2 cloves of minced garlic.

5 or so minutes later, the veggies looked ready for the next stage.

1 tablespoon of the spiced flour is next in the pot.

With the heat set back on high, 2 cups of canned tomatoes (drained, seeded, and diced) and 2 cups of the veal stock are added to the pot.

Once the pot was back to a boil, it was reduced to medium and it was time for more ingredients. The leaves from 1 sprig of thyme, 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, 1 bay leaf, and 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce round out the bulk of the recipe.

However, I couldn’t forget the veal. I did my best to make sure every cutlet was submerged.

45 minutes later, I had a pot of tender veal Grillades that resisted all attempts to be photographed.

I couldn’t wait to taste the fruits of my labor.

Was it worth all the waiting, time, and effort? Yes, the veal really was sublime and the jalapeno cheese grits have quickly become a house favorite. A really interesting thing in the introduction to this recipe is that Besh says this is a recipe for cheaper cuts of meat. He even goes as far as saying Boston Butts would be a fair substitute. Maybe I’ll try that later on. In the meantime, I’ll be trying to decide which Besh recipe to try next.

Bon Ami - Jackson

There really is a lack of French cuisine in the Jackson area. Sure there are a few touches of French cuisine here and there. Shapley’s has escargot, and there is the occasional French onion soup on a menu, but for the most part, there’s nothing. With a name like Bon Ami, one would think that could be the epicenter of French cuisine in the Jackson metro area. However, you’d be quite wrong. In fact, I decided to have lunch at Bon Ami for a decidedly non-French reason; I was there to try a burger.

With a lunch menu featuring a plethora of salads and paninis, the Bon Ami cheese burger does seem a little out of place. Coincidentally, I felt just as out of place. The lunch crowd at Bon Ami really does skew more towards the fairer sex, and the guy looking for a burger sticks out a little bit.

Regardless of the crowd, the service at Bon Ami is not too shabby and in no time at all, I had my order in and a cup of soup at my table.

The French onion soup at Bon Ami has a very rich taste to it, but I was surprised at the lack of onions. Another odd feature of the soup was the lack of melted gruyere. Sure the melted mozzarella is a decent choice, but I’ve grown accustomed to gruyere on my French onion soup. So, this is a good example but far from great.

I had been warned it would take a while to prepare the burger, but it seemed like a seamless transition from soup to burger.

The first thing I noticed is the simple, but pleasant presentation, especially the sliced & fried potatoes.

In reality there wasn’t much to the potatoes at all. It really seemed like they were simply sliced, fried, and put on the plate. They weren’t especially crispy, and they were in dire need of seasonings, salt in particular.

Moving on to the burger, the caramelized onions on top are an immediate plus. However the patty was a little overcooked and just lacking in general. When I bite into a simple burger, I expect the simple beefiness to shine through, there just wasn’t any beef flavor in the Bon Ami burger. Sure, with ketchup, salt, pepper, and mustard, you have plenty to mask the lack of flavor, but they’re all bandaids on a bullet hole. Sure it helps a little, but you’re still in a dire situation.

It may sound like I’m damning Bon Ami for their lackluster burger, but I’m really not too surprised. It really seems to be an odd man out on their menu. There aren’t many options lunch options that are grilled. In fact the burger is the only dish that even features beef. The only reason I came to try the burger is that it came so highly recommended by my friend Nick, but in retrospect it was a bit like going to a Chinese restaurant and judging it solely on the French fries from the buffet. So, I’ll give Bon Ami another try and next time I’ll give them a fair shot.

Cooking the Book – My New Orleans – Besh Barbecue Shrimp

After the mixed results of the crawfish étouffee, I was ready to try a recipe that I knew would be a roaring success. Conveniently, Paul Anthony’s found some head on gulf shrimp for me, so I knew it was time to try Besh Barbecue shrimp.

This recipe wouldn’t be worth its salt without quality shrimp.

It’s not often you see shrimp with that much fat in them.

A major difference between these barbecue shrimp and the ones my mother made is that these shrimp are shelled.

The recipe calls for 2 pounds of medium peeled shrimp. Of course Besh recommends using Louisiana or wild American shrimp.

Instead of throwing away all the shells, the recipe calls for 2 cups of shrimp shells and heads. With the shrimp peeled and deveined, I was ready to start on the next step of the recipe.

Like most Cajun and/or Creole cookbooks, “My New Orleans” has a spice mixture.

Besh calls his “Basic Creole Spices” and it’s a simple mixture of 2 tbs celery salt, 1 tbl sweet paprika, 1 tbs coarse sea salt, 1 tbs black pepper, 1 tbs garlic powder, 1 tbs onion powder, 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper, and ½ tsp ground allspice. It didn’t take long to grind and measure everything, and in no time I was ready to start cooking.

I soon had all my ingredients together

and I was ready to start cooking.

First into the pan were the 2 cups of shrimp heads and shells.

With a tablespoon of olive oil over high heat, I cooked the shrimp shells for 5 or so minutes.

You can see how much fat cooked out of the shrimp.

Now it was time to add the dry spices.

2 tablespoons of black pepper, 2 tablespoons of Basic Creole Spices, ½ teaspoon of whole cloves, and two bay leaves

All those dry spices went into the pan along with ½ cup of Worcestershire sauce, 2 cups of water and the juice of one lemon.

After everything came to a boil, I lowered the heat to medium and cooked until it was reduced by half.

I’d say that’s about half.

The mixture was strained and now it was time to cook the shrimp.

There’s a very distinct trend in John Besh’s “My New Orleans”, everything is delicious and everything is insanely rich. The next three ingredients are perfect evidence.

1 cup of the sauce base, 1 cup of heavy cream, and 1 cup of butter are ready for the pan.

The shrimp were lightly salted and heavily peppered and added to the pan.

It gets crowded.

Besh says to boil for 5 minutes, but my shrimp were ready in about 3 ½ minutes.

I fished them out of the mixture and don’t they look delicious.

The sauce was turned to a rolling boil until it reduced by half and to a mocha color.

Something like that.

From here it’s simple.

Pour the reduced sauce over the shrimp.

I couldn’t help but admire the delicious looking shrimp.

Eat the aforementioned shrimp and sop the sauce liberally with toasted French bread.

Even with help from two people, the shrimp were simply too rich, too filling, and too delicious. I think it’s safe to say that this recipe was a rousing success. Any doubts I had in Besh and his cookbook have been completely erased.

Omonia Deli & Bakery - Jackson

You know things are changing in Jackson when you can get two different tripe tacos within a mile of each other. Whether you appreciate that or not, there’s a new face for Latino cuisine in Jackson and it comes in the form of a Mexican and Columbian bakery & deli named Omonia on County Line Road.

I do my best to give credit where credit is due; I’ve driven past Omonia for a number of weeks and never noticed it was there. It took a new Jackson blogger, Carpe Jackson, to point it out. I’m not sure who’s behind Carpe Jackson, but they are doing their best to find what’s different in Jackson.

After reading about their impressions of Omonia

http://carpejackson.com/2009/11/03/omonia-deli-bakery/

I decided to go see for myself. If you’re like me, you’re really hung up on the name Omonia. Maybe I’m mispronouncing it, but it just sounds so much like ammonia, not the best mental image when you’re trying something new.

Word similarities aside, there’s no doubt that Omonia’s shop was once a Quizno’s. There’s still a Quizno’s counter, wallpaper and sign. However, the pastries are distinctly non-Quizno’s.

More on that later.

Initially I was disappointed in the menu. It seemed like you could only order 3 tacos as a time, but after a few quick questions, I put in an order for one of every taco. Initially that meant a steak taco, chicken, pork loin, brisket, marinated pork, ox tripe, and tongue. No matter how you slice it, that’s a lot of tacos. Unfortunately, they were out of tongue that day.

While I was waiting for each taco to be made to order, I enjoyed a delicious beverage.

I first had this at Taqueria la Guadalupe, and the name is still a little ridiculous, but it’s addictive.

Soon enough my first batch of tacos arrived.

The first three were the simple tacos: beef, chicken, and pork tenderloin. I realize they all look alike from the picture, but every taco came dressed with lettuce, onions, cilantro, and a fresh slice of avocado.

Working from right to left, the steak taco was first.

This was a great taco, especially since it was fresh off the griddle. The grilled onions really complimented the steak. By itself, the steak had a very beefy flavor. Don’t laugh, I’ve often found that low quality steak has no real beef flavor.

Chicken was up next, and on its own, the meat was very plain. Even when I added the house salsa, it was still a bland and underwhelming taco.

The last taco from the first batch was the pork tenderloin and there was a good porky flavor to this one. After adding some house salsa, I noticed just how well the salsa and cilantro worked with the pork.

Before I could finish the first trio of tacos, the second one was on the way.

Apparently I have a hard time taking good pictures of tacos, but from left to right, there is a marinated pork taco, tripe, and lastly, brisket.

Again, working from right to left, I started with the brisket taco.

By itself, the brisket is tender but a little on the dry side. There is a nice saltiness to the beef, but even with salsa, this makes for a dry but beefy taco.

The tripe taco is always an interesting option. On its own, the tripe is peppery at first, but has a very odd, floury finish. It has that great chewiness balanced with an initial crispiness. Tripe is a very nice taco option.

Lastly was the marinated pork taco. Solo, the marinated pork is much better than the already good pork tenderloin taco. I couldn’t help but think that the pork tasted like it was marinated in Worcestershire sauce, but the man behind the counter told me it had been marinated in pineapple. I wasn’t a fan of the few raw onions on this taco, but this was by far my favorite.

After eating far too many tacos, I went to pay for my tab. I asked what happened to the tongue taco, and was quickly informed they were out of fresh tongue. I’m glad to see they try to use fresh ingredients, but I was very intrigued when they told me there would soon be brain tacos. Of course, I couldn’t leave without taking a few pastries with me.

The empanadas at the top left were very doughy, but there was a nice pineapple filling. My favorite was the fried custard on the bottom right. There are proper names to these pastries, but I have no idea what they are. Either way, it was a pretty favorable first trip to Omonia. I’m still not sure what part of their menu is representative of Columbian cuisine, but I’m sure I’ll find out soon enough.

Aladdin Mediterranean Grill - Jackson

I think it was my freshman year of college. I was home for either Thanksgiving or Christmas and my buddy Michael and I were looking for something to do. I had been told there was a new 24 hour Mediterranean place in Fondren. Seeing as anything that’s open 24 hours a day and isn’t a Waffle House is a novelty, Michael and I went to investigate.

Inside was a counter in front of the kitchen and a few tables and chairs. Calling it sparsely decorated might be an understatement. I really don’t remember much about the gyro from that night, but I couldn’t help but think a 24 hour gyro stand wouldn’t work in Jackson. Fast forward a few years and the Aladdin I first knew has undergone a significant transformation. Now there are more than just a few haphazardly placed tables and chairs, waiters take your order, and there’s more to the interior than just whitewashed walls.

While a restaurant’s appearance is all well and good, the food is where it really counts.

I’ve been told the hummus at Aladdin is homemade, but for me, Aladdin’s hummus is too bland. I prefer a more garlicky hummus, but I’m pretty sure that’s far from authentic.

One thing I always order from Aladdin is their falafel.

Granted, there are few things that don’t benefit from deep frying but the falafel at Aladdin are pretty damn good. There’s a nice touch of herbs and garlic with each bite. Unfortunately, I’ve always found the dipping sauce to be too watery. As a result, I skip the sauce and just enjoy the falafel.

Another one of my favorite Mediterranean dishes is fried haloumi cheese

This dish really has a rich flavor, mainly because it’s nothing but cheese and garlic that has been fried in olive oil.

Even though this is a pretty solid example of the dish, it still leaves me wanting, especially when it comes to garlic. Another odd thing about this particular haloumi dish is that is has an odd texture, sort of a plastic grating effect on your teeth.

When it comes to Mediterranean food, the hardest thing is choosing what sort of kabob. There are lamb, beef, chicken, and the subsequent kofte kabobs.

Luckily, Aladdin has the combo kabob with shish beef kabob, chicken kabob chunks, and lamb lula.

Like most things that try to be all things to all people, this dish seems to fall a little short with each kabob. The lamb is overcooked, a little tough, and has too much of a smoky flavor for the subtle lamb. The chicken is well seasoned with a fair amount of sumac but it is still overcooked. Lastly, the beef kofte kabob is like all the others, overcooked.

Overall, Aladdin is a pretty solid choice for Mediterranean in Jackson. Sure Jackson isn’t known for it’s wealth of quality Mediterranean food, and Aladdin reflects that. In a larger market, Aladdin would quickly fall to the bottom rung of the ladder, but in Jackson, Aladdin seems to be held in high regard and it’s still my first choice for Mediterranean.

Cooking the Book – My New Orleans – Crawfish Étouffée

Picking out a favorite New Orleans chef is an arduous task. You have so many hometown favorites like Paul Prudhomme and Frank Brigsten or transplants like Emeril Lagasse. I could never pin it down to one person, but one of my favorites is John Besh. Of course when I read he was coming out with a book, I was ecstatic and knew I had to have a copy.

I nearly threw out my back when I get my hands on this behemoth. I’ve read “My New Orleans” weighs in at over 5 lbs. I’m not sure the average cookbook weighs, but this one seems to be on the heavy side. All weight aside, this book is a masterpiece. Not only do the recipes and pictures look amazing, with each chapter having its own theme and captivating introduction, it’s actually a pleasant book to read.

After reading through most of the recipes, I had my heart set on making veal grillades and bbq shrimp, but when Paul Anthony’s was out of veal shoulder and gulf shrimp, I went for the equally impressive crawfish étouffée.

Besh is known for his locally sourced Creole dishes and this recipes is one of his “master recipes”. I suppose this is a master recipe because the crawfish can be easily replaced with shrimp or crab. Anyway, the recipe looks simple enough, but I first need to make a quart of “basic shellfish stock”.

Like any good stock, this one starts with a lot of vegetables.

1 onion, 1 carrot peeled, 1 leek (white part only) all roughly chopped and 4 cloves of crushed garlic.

It’s into a pot with ¼ cup of canola oil over medium heat. The idea is just to soften the vegetables not brown them. Once softened, 3 quarts of water, 1 bay leaf, 1 sprig of fresh thyme, and 1 teaspoon of black peppercorns were added to the pot. Now it’s time to the shellfish of the shellfish stock.

Shellfish stock seems to be a pretty open ended recipe. I could use 1 pound of shrimp shells, blue crab, crawfish, or lobster. I decided to use a few frozen blue crab shells that I had picked up at Paul Anthonys.

Bring everything to a boil and then back it down to a simmer.

2 hours later, I had a good looking stock.

After straining through cheesecloth, I had 2 quarts of shellfish stock.

You think I could now get back to the étouffée but no, I need 3 cups cooked “Basic Louisiana white rice”. Of course even that is deceptive. The recipe for Besh’s “Basic Louisiana white rice” calls for 1 tablespoon butter, 1 small onion minced, 1 ½ cups Louisiana long grain rice, 1 bay leaf, 1-2 pinches of salt and 3 cups of basic chicken stock.

Basic chicken stock is the exact same as the shell fish stock. I just used 1 pound of chicken bones instead of 1 pound of crab shells.

That’s a much darker stock than I was expecting, but now I’m ready to get the rice going.

I love the my rice cooker, so I was convinced I could use it to make this recipe.

First the fat is added to a medium saucepan and the onions are sweated until translucent. Besh says it takes five minutes, and damn if that man isn’t right.

Next all the rice is added and cooked for 2 minutes.

Instead of pouring in the stock and slapping on a lid, I poured the rice into my rice cooker.

Added the bay leaf, stock and salt, and pressed the button to start the cooker.

When the cooker clicked off, I was surprised to see a much moister rice than I was expecting.

Even after fluffing it with a fork, this was a very moist, rich rice.

With both stocks and the rice made, I can finally start on the étouffée

Just so I won’t be scrambling around the kitchen, I’ve got my mise en place ready.

First comes the roux. 3 tbs of canola oil is heated over medium high and then 3 tbs of flour is whisked in.

The whole process is supposed to take 15 or so minutes. After reducing the heat to medium and constantly whisking I had a nice peanut butter color.

Soon the roux got darker.

After more time and much, much more whisking I had the dark brown I was looking for.

In went 1 small, diced onion. Besh devotes a fair amount of time to describing the perfect roux and how you add the onions first and allow them to caramelize.

If you add all the vegetables at once, you won’t get the great dark, shiny roux you see above.

Here it is right before I add the rest of the vegetables.

Now the rest of the produce is added.

1 stalk celery diced, half a red bell pepper diced, 2 minced cloves of garlic, the leaves from 2 fresh thyme sprigs, ¼ tsp cayenne pepper, and 1 tsp of smoked paprika.

The colors quickly changed from light.

Five minutes later that dark color was back.

Here’s where my time begins to pay off.

One quart of shellfish stock and 1 small tomato concasse are next in the pot.

The pot is turned to high, brought to a boil and then reduced to a moderate simmer.

After 5-7 minutes, I can’t tell much difference, but it’s now time for the butter.

3 tablespoons of butter were next.

No one ever said creole food was healthy.

Then the 1 pound of peeled Louisiana crawfish tails

Finally the 2 chopped green onions are thrown in the pot.

After seasoning with 2 dashes of Worcestershire, 2 dashes of Tabasco, and salt and pepper, here is my pot of crawfish étouffée

All I need now is the rice

Ok, so I don’t have the presentation skills perfected yet.

When I actually tried the étouffée, I was surprised at how much the crab from the shellfish stock shone through. I was also amazed at how soupy it seemed to be. I thought I did something wrong, but looking at the pictures from Besh’s book, the étouffée seems like it’s supposed to be that soupy.

Maybe it’s me, but I prefer a slightly thicker étouffée. Also, this dish needed a bit more cayenne. With a little more spice thrown in, the étouffée was more to my liking. Even with the soupy setback, I’m not discouraged; I’m going to be spending a lot more time cooking from John Besh’s “My New Orleans”.

Cooking the Book – Real Cajun – Chicken Sauce Piquant

Anyone who’s a fan of New Orleans and its cuisine knows the name Donald Link. James Beard award winner, owner of Cochon, Herbsaint, and Cochon Butcher, Link has made quite a name for himself. It so happens the last time I was in Cochon Butcher, I noticed they had copies of his book, “Real Cajun – Rustic Home Cooking from Donald Link’s Louisiana”. I can never turn down a good cookbook, so I immediately bought myself a signed copy.

Once I got a chance to look through the book, I set out to make a list of all the recipes I’d like to try. However, that method had a snag for this book. It was much simpler to make a list of recipes I don’t want to try. Still, with a glut of chickens in my freezer, I decided to start with the a one pot dish called Chicken Sauce Piquant.

First I got my dry spices together. Here it’s 2 tsps black pepper, ½ tsp white pepper, 1 ½ tsp salt, 2 tsps cayenne pepper, 1 tsp paprika, and 2 tsps chili powder.

I was very surprised at the chili powder; I can’t think of the last time I saw chili powder in a Cajun recipe. Whisked together, it looked like any other Cajun spice mix.

Now the recipe calls for a 3-4 lb chicken to be boned and cut into 1 inch cubes.

My last poulet rouge was soon transformed.

All the chicken was tossed with the spice mixture and set aside. Link isn’t specific about how long the chicken needs to sit, but I figure it won’t hurt to sit too long.

In the recipe description, Link write how “piquant” means spicy, but in his style of cooking it also means a style of preparation using pan frying and making a roux.

So, here’s the chicken, after being tossed in flour, being fried in ¾ cup of vegetable oil over medium high

After several small batches, I had all my chicken nicely fried. Of course, I needed to sample my hard work, and I was immediately a fan of the spicy, moist chicken. I really need to fry one of these poulet rouge chickens.

The next step, making the roux, is a tricky one. Taking what’s left of the 1 cup of flour I used to coat the chicken, I added that to the oil I had used to fry the chicken.

After about 4 minutes of constant stirring on medium, I had a nice peanut butter colored roux.

With the roux done, I added 1 small diced onion, 1 small diced and seed poblano, 3 diced celery stalks, and 1 tbs of chopped garlic.

5 minutes of cooking turned everything a lovely color.

Everything else was added to the pot. By everything, I mean the fried chicken, 5 diced plum tomatoes, 2 cups of canned tomatoes, 5 cups of chicken broth, 1 tbs dried thyme, 4 bay leaves, and 4 dashes of hot sauce. The only real confusing part of this recipe was the tomatoes. Link calls for both diced plum tomatoes and canned tomatoes, but what sort of canned tomatoes? I erred on the side of caution and used whole, peeled tomatoes.

After simmering on low for 45 minutes, the chicken had slightly thickened.

It was just as link described it: “a light gravy and the chicken is tender enough to shred with a fork.” Like any good Cajun dish, chicken sauce piquant is meant to be served over rice.

Link’s recipe for perfect steamed rice is like any other, but with a few subtle twists. Instead of just water and rice, H calls for 2 bay leaves and a pinch of salt added to the rice. After the rice cooker did its work, everything turned out great.

In hindsight, I forgot the scallions for garnish, but this is a dish to warm the cockles of your heart. While the gravy itself is nicely spicy, each bite of chicken reveals a good punch of that spice mixture from the beginning of the recipe.

Sure chicken sauce piquant is simple food that involves one little chicken, but its comfort food and it really is delicious. I love an auspicious beginning to a cookbook.

Cooking the Web – Homesick Texan – Tacos & Uncle Richard’s Salsa

Outside of Texas, a good taco is hard to find. Even growing up, my family’s version of tacos involved a bag of taco mix bought at the Kroger. Needless to say, I was never a fan. However, since I started reading the goldmine that is The Homesick Texan, I’ve been meaning to try her recipe for tacos.

http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/2007/06/good-bad-and-puffy.html

In addition to a recipe for taco meat, the Homesick Texan even tells you how to make your own puffy taco shells. While that sounds delicious, I’ll save that for another time, after I buy my own tortilla press. For now, I decided to give her taco recipe a try.

Everything on the ingredient list seems pretty straightforward. There are the usual suspects of ground beef, onion, garlic, cumin, chili powder, but I’m a little surprised to see that the recipe calls for “½ cup of your favorite salsa.” Knowing that much salsa could make or break the tacos, it seemed fitting to use one of the Homesick Texan’s salsa recipes.

http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/2006/09/when-life-gives-you-tomatoes.html

Uncle Richard’s Salsa couldn’t be easier.

¼ cup of diced onion and 2 minced cloves are garlic are first in the food processor.

Next is a cup of cilantro leaves and then the peppers. The recipe calls for 2 serranos or 2 jalapenos.

Figuring that 3 is almost always better than 2, I diced up 3 jalapenos and threw them in the processor.

The main ingredient to the salsa came next, one 28 ounce can of tomatoes

After that it was 2 tbs of chili powder, salt to taste, a dash of sugar and the juice of ½ lime.

This looks awfully familiar. After tasting, it needed a little more salt, some pepper and the juice of the other half of lime.

With my jar of salsa ready, I could move on to the tacos.

In no time at all, I had everything ready to go.

Clockwise from the bottom, I had ½ onion chopped with 3 chopped jalapenos, 3 cloves of garlic minced, 2 tbs of fresh cilantro, and 1 tbs chili powder, 1 tbs cumin, 1 tbs Mexican oregano, and ½ tsp of cayenne pepper.

First in the pan with ¼ cup of oil was the onions and peppers.

It took 10 minutes on medium before I was ready for the next step.

The garlic was next in the pan and then 2 more minutes of cooking.

Now it was time for almost everything else to join the fun.

I couldn’t forget the ½ cup of salsa. With everything added, I lowered the heat to a simmer for 20 minutes.

Once I added the final tablespoon of lime juice

I had a pan full of delicious taco meat.

Of course I only had crappy premade taco shells on hand, but with a little lettuce, cheese, and salsa, I had a good looking taco. Once again, the Homesick Texan comes through. I’m honestly wondering if there’s a bad dish on her site.

Wraps - Jackson

Location is a hugely important part of a successful business. There are always those loud, proud restaurants that dominate the scenery and everyone knows. However, how many times have you heard someone gush about a hole in the wall restaurant or one that was off the beaten path? Wraps definitely falls into the latter category. Located behind a Subway and nestled in Maywood Mart, most people could pass Wraps a thousand times and be none the wiser. It’s been a few years since I’ve eaten there, so I decided to stop back in.

Once inside, you can’t help but notice all the Greek kitsch on the walls. As nice as the touches of Greece are, I was more interested in the menu. There’s your standard gyro, but after that, Wraps seems to have every conceivable filling. There’s a pork tenderloin, tilapia, vegetable, chicken, flat iron steak, and shrimp, not to mention all the specialty gyros. With an equally large selection of salads, my only complaint with the menu was almost all the specialty gyros needed further explanation

I decided to get a baseline and ordered an authentic Greek gyro and a pita melt.

The pita melt and the gyro came at the same time, but with a combination of feta and mozzarella, I thought it best to eat the pita melt first.

The herbs inside the wrap were a nice touch as this was a deceptively simple, yet delicious appetizer.

That thick layer of mozzarella really conceals the feta and basil making each bite a nice surprise. The only downside to this dish is that it’s best hot and fresh; once it cools, it loses a fair amount of its charm.

Moving on to the main attraction, I turned towards my gyro.

You can’t help but notice those large chunks of salt on each fry.

In addition to selling gryos and salads, Wraps sells “authentic Greek sea salt.” I think this is their way of pitching the hard good and it’s a good sell. There’s nothing exceptional about the fries, they are just well salted and very well fried. That simplicity is more than captivating and it’s damn hard to resist.

Unwrapping the gyro, it has an inherently messy, but home styled appearance. Regardless, there was a rich, creamy tzatiki sauce that went perfectly with the tender lamb.

The chopped meat and sauce reminded me more of a cheese steak than a gyro, but I’m not complaining. It may come as a bit of a shock, but I’ll go out on a limb and say that Wraps has Keifer’s beat when it comes to gyros. Sure Keifer’s has a better location and a fine atmosphere, but the homemade and slightly messy approach to Wraps make it that much more charming and satisfying.

Even though the pita melt and gyro were more than filling, I couldn’t stop myself from trying the baklava. I was sure that like everything else, this house made dessert would be fantastic.

Each serving of baklava comes this way, wrapped in cling wrap.

It looks all very promising.

Unfortunately, the baklava is literally swimming in syrup and that delightful crunch of the phyllo dough is lost. While good syrup is often welcome, this time it muddles the flavor and texture of the entire dish.

Outside of the baklava, I enjoyed my lunch at Wraps so much that I got take out for lunch the next week. I decided to give two of the specialty gyros a try. First up was the souvlaki.

Yes, the messiness of the gyros was not lost during take out.

With all the extra sauce and a very thick pita, this gyro was incredibly difficult to eat. The lamb was also a little more scarce than I had hoped. However, what lamb was there was very well complimented by the huge chunks of feta and excellent sauce. While the souvlaki wasn’t everything I had hoped for, it was a very rewarding specialty gyro.

In addition to the souvlaki, I decided to try one of the locally named specialties, Yanni’s special.

To begin, I can’t accuse Wraps of shorting me on the lamb or chunks of chicken.

You can see underneath the meat, there is a layer of toasted mozzarella. Like all of their gyros, the Yanni’s special was incredibly difficult to eat without ruining your shirt. However, once you take a bite of that tender lamb, moist chicken and delicious tzatiki sauce, all faults are forgiven.

I know it’s a foregone conclusion; Wraps will never replace Keifer’s as the place in Jackson to get gyros. However, if people would take the time to look in Maywood Mart, behind that Subway, they would find a small Greek restaurant with a charming interior, a welcoming owner, and a damn fine gyro. I only recommend that you bring a steady hand or a bib.