Mama Mulate's Shrimp and Mirliton Casserole

Though mirlitons, also called Chayotes, are originally from Mexico and Central America, they have found a home in Mama Mulate’s backyard. Mama teaches English literature at Tulane University in New Orleans. She’s also a practicing voodoo mambo, business partner and confidante to Wyatt Thomas, the French Quarter’s favorite private investigator. Mama and Wyatt come alive in Eric Wilder’s French Quarter Mystery series. Fictional maybe, but this is one of Mama’s favorite mirliton recipes.

Ingredients

• 4 medium mirlitons
• 4 tbsp. butter
• 1 lb. shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 cup green onions, chopped
• 1 onion, large, finely chopped
• ¼ cup parsley, chopped
• ½ cup celery, chopped
• ½ bell pepper, medium, chopped
• Salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste
• ½ cup breadcrumbs

Directions

Boil mirlitons in salty water until tender. Peel and cube the pulp. In a skillet, using butter, sauté green onions, onions, bell pepper, celery, and parsley. Add shrimp and cook 10 minutes. Add mirliton, garlic powder, salt, and pepper to taste, and then mix well. Pour into large casserole dish, sprinkle with breadcrumbs. In an oven preheated to 350 degrees, bake the ingredients 30 minutes, or until top is golden brown. Enjoy!

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Mama Mulate is a recurring character in Eric Wilder's French Quarter Mystery Series set in New Orleans. Please check his Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iBook author pages.

Old Creole Winter Okra Soup - a weekend recipe

In Black Magic Woman,  my French Quarter Mystery No. 4, Wyatt Thomas, and Mama Mulate's latest squeeze Jason Fasempaur travel back to old New Orleans, circa 1845 to implore voodoo high priestess Madam Marie Laveau to help them lift a curse that is plaguing Wyatt. While there, they visit a haunted plantation on River Road and a townhouse in New Orleans. Wyatt also fights a duel with a French sword master. When Jason visits the rustic kitchen of the New Orleans’ townhouse, he enjoys a bowl of cook Sarah's delectable soup that he declares ‘a taste of heaven.’ Here is Sarah’s recipe. Try it, and I think you’ll agree with Jason.

Old Creole Winter Okra Soup

Ingredients

      ·         3 pints Okra

·         6 tomatoes, fresh

·         2 onions

·         2 T butter

·         2 dozen oysters

·         3 T rice

·         1 red pepper pod, deseeded

Directions

Wash and stem the okra, and then slice it very fine. Chop the tomatoes finely and preserve the juice. Chop the onions finely, and then fry them in the butter, in a large pot. Wash the rice well. Slow stew the onions, tomatoes and juice, and pepper in about three quarts of water and one pint of oyster juice for three hours, stirring frequently. Don’t add the okra and rice until ten minutes before serving, then let it come to a boil. Drop in the oysters, boil up once, and serve.

Note: South Louisiana usually has a long growing season, but the Creoles of New Orleans didn’t have fresh okra and tomatoes during the winter. They resolved this problem by canning fruits and vegetables during the months they were plentiful. To follow the original recipe, use one can (jar) of okra, and one can (jar) of tomatoes instead of fresh okra and tomatoes. Either way, it's wonderful.

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Born near Black Bayou in the little Louisiana town of Vivian, Eric Wilder grew up listening to his grandmother’s tales of politics, corruption, and ghosts that haunt the night. He now lives in Oklahoma where he continues to pen mysteries and short stories with a southern accent. He is the author of the French Quarter Mystery Series set in New Orleans and the Paranormal Cowboy Series. Please check it out on his Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iBook author pages. You might also like to check out his website.

Bertram's Tailgate Oysters - a weekend recipe

Louisiana is football crazy. People in New Orleans like the Saints and everyone in Louisiana like L.S.U. Bertram Picou is no exception. He’d like to tailgate along with all the other Louisiana football fanatics except he has no help at his eclectic French Quarter bar. When the Saints or the Bengal Tigers are playing, he’s always working.

Through the years, he’s devised ways to keep his bar open while watching the big games and doing his own version of tailgating. He used to have a little TV set under the bar. Now, he has a big screen mounted on the wall and makes even more money than before from the lucky fans that wander in off the street. Lucky, you say? Bertram has an open grill in his tiny kitchen.

During big games, he always cooks up some tailgating fare, Louisiana style, and serves it free to his customers. Here is one of his and his customers, favorite tailgating fare:

Ingredients 

·         Oysters, large and fat

·         Bacon, thin strips

·         Butter

·         Parsley, minced

·         Lemons, sliced

·         Olives, sliced

Directions

Place a thin strip of bacon on a skewer, alternating with the oysters until the skewer is full. Broil over a medium flame. When the edges begin to ruffle, the oysters are ready. While you are doing this, prepare drawn butter by placing a cup near the flame so that it will melt. When it does, mix in the minced parsley.

Alternate the oysters and bacon on a hot plate and pour the drawn butter and parsley over them. Garnish with olives and lemon slices and you have the perfect, Louisiana tailgating snack, even if you are in a bar watching the game on a big screen TV.

Born near Black Bayou in the little Louisiana town of Vivian, Eric Wilder grew up listening to his grandmother’s tales of politics, corruption, and ghosts that haunt the night. He now lives in Oklahoma where he continues to pen mysteries and short stories with a southern accent. He is the author of the French Quarter Mystery Series set in New Orleans and the Paranormal Cowboy Series. Please check it out on his Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iBook author pages. You might also like to check out his website.

Bertram's Spicy Tomato Sauce - a weekend recipe

Except for occasional help from his on again, off again girlfriend Shirley, Bertram Picou relies mostly on himself to manage his French Quarter bar. Every now and then, he grows tired of tourists and locals, and shuts the doors for some R and R, usually cooking something just for himself. Sometimes, his friend Wyatt Thomas becomes the lucky recipient of his cooking prowess.

Bertram might lug his charcoal grill upstairs to Wyatt’s room, grilling on the balcony overlooking Chartres as they listen to the sounds of boats on the river, and cacophony on Bourbon Street. When Wyatt gets very lucky, Bertram, drinking shots of Cuervo as he cooks, will grill up his Andouille Fired Oysters, topping them with his spicy tomato sauce.

Here’s the recipe for Bertram’s own spicy tomato sauce. It’s a great sweet and sour sauce that goes perfectly with broiled and baked fish, and, oh yes, Andouille Fired Oysters. Stay tuned for Bertram’s Andouille Fired Oyster recipe. Meantime, here’s the recipe for his spicy tomato sauce.

Bertram’s Spicy Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

·         1 onion, thinly sliced

·         2 Tbs. butter

·         2 tomatoes, fresh, finely chopped

·         2 lemons, juiced

·         1 ½ Tbs. sugar

·         ½ tsp. mustard, dry

·         salt, to taste 

Directions 

Sauté onion in butter and then stir in tomatoes. Add lemon juice, salt, and mustard, and then simmer for a few minutes.

 

Check out more of Bertram and Wyatt in the French Quarter mysteries Big Easy, City of Spirits, and Primal Creatures.

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Eric Wilder Announces Publication of New Cookbook

A character in Eric Wilder’s French Quarter Mystery Series, Mama Mulate is the business partner of sleuth Wyatt Thomas. New Orleans’ favorite voodoo mambo can cook as well as she casts spells and mixes secret potions. Here are twenty-two of her favorite Creole recipes, along with the bonus short story Conjure Man.

Check out Mama Mulate’s Little Cajun Cookbook and let it cast a spell on your taste buds. In addition to his French Quarter mysteries Big Easy and City of Spirits, Eric Wilder is also the author of Lily’s Little Cajun Cookbook, Big Billy’s Little Texas Cookbook, and bestselling Southern Comfort Food Cookbook.

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Five New Orleans Po-boys You Meet in Heaven

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